european reply

Submitted by Grizelda (Germany), Sep 15, 2008 at 15:34

True, the U.S.A. (and that's as far as I know only a part of north America, not America itself) has helped to establish a working democracy in Germany after WWII (together with France and the UK). We remeber and appreciate that. True, the U.S.A. is the leading Superpower on our beautiful globe.

BUT European Culture is the root of todays Americas culture - the few surviving native (american) Indians excluded. Our history is part of the history of the former colonies as well - including the U.S.A. - we learned a lot about cooperation of nations and diplomacy between and including WWII and the end of the Cold War. That's maybe the cause for Europe and the European Union to look slightly like a tiger made of paper.

Resentment for the U.S.A.? Well, it's definetely there - many of us just can't see an attack of muslims cause we lived with so many of them in our communities and they are perfectly normal people doing perfectly normal work. Therefor a "Crusade", by the way a word which got a quite negative conotation around here, against terror or anything else seems rather fanatic to us. Also we somehow can't believe in the effort of the U.S.A. to make the world a more democratic and better place - we do remember U.S.-politics concerning perfectly democratic countries in south and middle america during cold war times - protecting not the democracy in these lands but the interests of u.s.-enterprises like United Fruits.

Therefore we were not surprised when the first notes from iraq came after the war declaring which american oil companies got the rights to pump off the black gold. The matter of nuclear weapons: It seems like the U.S.A. liked to keep the majority of worlds nuclear power to its own - but this seems like a threat if the president of this state is a person like G.W. Bush - although I guess pictures about Bush holding a picture book upside down in front of a schoolclass at 9/11 which were seen quite often at the time might not be the proper sign to judge a person, president or not.

We reproduce slower, maybe thats the case because abortion IS legal here and women can choose to have their baby or not. And we have a lot of welcomed immigration - from Turkey and former COMECON-countries - so we just continue to be the place where cultures exchange and combine - like we've been for plenty of years. Unemployment is a vital factor - at least the social security in the EU keeps every single one of them from spending their life on the street.

The ENIMGA - as far as I know the U.S.-Navy got it from the British before claiming to have got it themselves - but that case can't help at all - everyone wants credit, nobody wants to give it to the other - and therefor we (the people who were not around when the machine was captured) should remain silent about the matter. A United Nations of Europe? Great idea, but I fear our politicians care (like all politicians tand to) too much for their lobbys and the national interests - therefor we have nearly no legislative power in the european council up to now - bow we keep hoping ;) Reffering to this theme I found a nice page in the web [ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17726 ]

Well so long and have a nice day Grizelda (Germany/Hessen)

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