Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
----------
From: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Thomas Lunde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Destruction of Albania (Part I)
Date: Fri, May 14, 1999, 6:08 PM
Hi Thomas,
Nice to know you are alive. I don't see how my comments are irrelevant today. Ireland is part of Europe, and continues to be in a state of war or rebellion or whatever. Russia is part of Europe, and is a powder keg when it comes to inter-ethnic relations. When I was there four years ago, the Chechyn war got all the publicity, but there were others going on at the same time. The Balkans are part of Europe, and you know what is going on there.
There are strong right-wing, meaning fascist movements in France and Germany. Just because the latter has behaved like a model democracy for the past few decades does not mean that the old Prussian model of superiority couldn't emerge again. German skinheads are causing all kinds of problems for non-German immigrants -- they can no longer go after the Jews because most of them have cleared out to Israel, but they are ever alert for new victims.
Europeans have been notorious for getting along when times are good, but let them turn bad and all of the old hatreds emerge. Those hatreds are still there, latent for the moment, but by no means dead.
What got me about Reuss's comments was their sheer smugness. The Swiss have been peaceful and stable for the past few centuries, but, as a safe haven for money, have gained from everybodies else's problems. They've held themselves nuetral and have got very very rich by turning a blind eye to whether the wealth that poured in for safe keeping came from the mouths of Jews killed in the gas chambers or some other vile source.
Best regards,
Ed
Dear Ed:-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Lunde <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >
To: Ed Weick <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >
Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: Destruction of Albania (Part I)
It's a good argument Ed but the first comment is current time and your comment is relevant 50 years ago. I'm inclined to give the Europeans the benefit of doubt and grant that many countries have been trying to address some of the social problems that our neighbour to the South ignores and which spills over into our culture.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
----------
From: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "List Futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Destruction of Albania (Part I)
Date: Fri, May 14, 1999, 12:32 PM
>Funny, but here in Europe we don't have an army that has bombed 21
countries
>during the last 50 years (without having been attacked once). We also
don't
>have the high rates of murder and prisoners that your peaceful country has.
>Nor do we need metal detectors in our schools to protect the kids from
>each other, or security guards on our campus to prevent the kids from
>massacrating their peers on Hitler's birthday. We also don't have
>militia-men who kill dozens of civilians by blowing up a gov't building.
>Geez, we don't even have racial riots in large cities after some state
>officers have beaten up a citizen for his race.
>
>But I'm sure we'll have all that pretty soon if we follow the lead of your
>peace-loving and tolerant country, Ray.
How beautifully smug! I understand that your bankers made quite a lot of
money from the gold and jewelry that the Nazis took from death-camp victims.
Europe, if you read its history, was a cesspool of wars, repressions and
mass exterminations. And it was Europeans who brought diseases and
enslavement to the Americas, accounting for the destruction of civilizations
and the deaths of perhaps 100 million people. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to
get into this one, but on reading the above self-congratulatory puffery, I
just couldn't help it. But perhaps I misunderstood. Perhaps you intent was
some form of comic irony.
Ed Weick
