I really appreciate our mail list that started 10 yrs or so ago has become
so world-wide. So I'd like to ask two questions which the US press ignores
or misunderstands, and to which my only other regular source, the Economist,
may have a bias.
They are:
- Multiculturalism (MC).
- Euro monitory union without political union.
As I understand it, MC is based on "separate but equal", a horrid phrase
used here during the segregation era, but within europe may simply be a
welcoming phrase meaning "come, and you do not have to change abruptly to
local cultural values". The US has eschewed MC for "integration", which has
its own problems and forces a generation-long battle with local bigotry.
But as difficult as integration is, it seems to ultimately be successful
and avoids the horrid anomaly I read of: A muslim husband was pardoned by a
judge for beating his wife because MC allows breadth of law to include
muslim practice. All of which I suspect was completely misunderstood from
start to finish!
The euro strikes closer to home, and as I mentioned earlier, I fear is the
real financial problem we face. But I feel doomed by the euro debt problem
simply because it's half an economy! I don't understand how an economic
union can exist, at the scale of the EU, without political unity as well. I
know of large trade pacts that work to some degree, but they can
always dissolve, and have power over their fiscal policy.
So the questions are how can either MC or a non-political euro work? But
broader, I'd like any (sane, reasoned, non-violent, non slashdot, non snarky
[sorry Doug]) insight you may have.
-- Owen
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