I can’t follow. Why those negative reactions? I mean, she accomplished something, why can’t she be proud of it? She didn’t say she was going to create world peace or so :rolleyes: I more people would try to realise their dreams this way, instead of having to join terrorist groups or bombing countries on the other side of the planet, it would be a great world!

Europe will become Islam? :rolleyes: Gee, never heard about the Enlightment?

And what do you mean by “traditional” people? :confused: :confused: We are living in the 21st century for christ’s sake. In Post-Modern Europe there are not traditional people. Myself, I am a Roman Catholic, and I am not ashamed for that. But it’s not like my religion has a monopoly. Please define traditional people.

:confused: :confused: :confused: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

happy birthday!!

I got something to celebrate too! Exams are finished, last one went extremely well. 😀
1. Moroccan dispute
2. Opium War and gunboat diplomacy
Man, I could almost cry seeing those questions. It was oral and thanks to my paper I could add extra information. Sometimes, your luck doesn’t end. Now lets hope i don’t get hit by a car today 🙂

But I’m really sleepy now.

I haven’t seen his movie, not planning to actually. I don’t like filmmakers who get into politics. And their movies suck anyway (except panzerkruiser potempkin). I didn’t say his life was not valuable. Every individual has the right to live according to me. But he’s no martyr. The only thing he wanted to do is destabilize the society, badmouth Muslims. I heard some of his expressions months before he died: “goatf#ckers” was actually still reasonable to other things he said. :rolleyes:

Human rights is not something which can be achieved through military actions. At least not on a unilateral basis. To start with, Belgium tries to focus on central Africa. We can’t change the whole world, but we are doing efforts to stabilize that region, together with South Africa. We support elections, help negotiating with peace talks. Ohh, we made huge mistakes in the past, I’m not denying that, but at least, we try to keep Congo in the spotlights.

The few elitists. Sure. Look, it is not a decission of the Dutch gov’t but from the Rotterdam Film Festival. AFAIK they are still an independent organisation (unless the Netherlands have become totalitarian during the last month) and they chose not to show that movie. Why? Because it could provoke unnecessairy violence. Gangs in the streets, between Muslims and Skinheads. I don’t think people like to see rocks and bricks being thrown into their windows or some neo-nazi’s or muslims destroying your car. Get your facts straight on Theo Van Gogh. It was not Ghandi or Nelson Mandela that was killed. It shouldn’t have happened, agree, but to say I’m in shock. Gee, there must be other things to worry about …

Cuba being one for example. I’m not here to defend the EU. First of all the foreign policy is something decided, not by Brussels but by the ministers of foreign affairs (The Council of the EU, not the Commission). I wasn’t there on that meeting between the 25 ministers. But I doubt what you said, the EU is overall more concerned on Human Rights than the US. We are against capital punishment. So it would really suprise me that the EU gave Fidel a carte blanche to sweep out dissidents. And yes, there are embassies in Havana. Just because there’s a diplomatic quarrel between US and EU doesn’t mean Cubans should be left alone.

Anyway I do like the paradox between the “weenie EU” and the “evil EU”. I opt for the second.

Ok All,

1 Get involved with Iraq both Finiacally and Personal
2 Hold Memeber Countrys who are know to have been part of the UN Money for Oil Scandle accountable.
3 Take over Peace Keeping in the Great Macidonia Region
4 Give the US a clear statement if you want us to stay in Europe or do you want us to close all are base.
5 Lift all Trade Subsides if you want to compete within the US market then we must be able to compete in yours
6 Take a stronger stand on the Middle East
7 Crackdown on the Muslim Extremist now before its to late

RER

Well, first of all, the EU is not a “country”. It does not have a military arm at this moment. I hope it will have one, but not likely. This is “our” fault, ie. most nations don’t want to give up their souvereign military capabilities. Not only the UK, but also France, Spain, even the Netherlands. The EU never said it wanted to become “World Leader”. This is not our goal. The first goal was to create peace between France and Germany (a fortiori Europa) and a trade union. So far, this succeeded quite well. I am EU-enthousiast, but at this stage the EU simply is not capable to do all the things you summed up.

More in detail.

1. Iraq. EU is divided on this. Look, it’s not like France/Germany didn’t warn the US. Unfortunatelly for Washington, Iraq is not a democracy yet. You may find this selfish, but why should we risk “our” money and lives for something you caused. And please, don’t come with WWII (we saved your ass), because situation is different. It’s not like US was in danger. If US would have been attacked by for example Cuba, than we should join the coalition, according to the NATO-treaty.

2. EU again, does not have a “legal status” yet. It does not have a seat in the UN, because it doesn’t exist. Try to see the difference between the EU and individual nations. I hope one day EU will become a federal state, but as for now, that’s still utopia (for others a nightmare :D). But that’s not the point here, don’t let this evolve into a anti-EU bashing. I respect British criticism and I also believe EU should change from a burocratic organisation to a well-oiled machine. The reason why it is so burocratic is because eurocritics don’t want it to get too much grip on foreign policies. The same people who blame the EU to be burocratic and slow, are the ones who want it to remain like this. paradox

3. Macedonia. Agree 100%. Again, we will need to focus on military structure. It’s a shame Europe was not able to solve the crisis in the Balkans in the 90s on its own.

4. Close bases. However, you will simply move them to new Europe anyway.

5. Agree, but has to come from both sides. The economic war between EU-US is really the fault of both parties. However, economic quarrels never actually dominated Atlantic Relations. Has always exist and will always exist. What’s the use of the Adam Smith system if you can’t compete.

6. Well, we have relationships with the whole ME. EU supports Israeli-Pal peace talks. We are not anti-Israel. There’s still a shame-culture in Europe for holocaust.

7. All extremists, please. We have muslims extremists, Bask seperatists, all kinds of neo-nazi terrorists. Theo Van Gogh was not an innocent victim, he called the muslims several times “goatf#ckers’. You should get informed on the situation in the Netherlands though. It’s a mass-hysteria. There have been two political muders the past two years. The first one, a rightwing gay named Pim Fortuyn wanted to get all muslims out of the Netherlands. Guess who killed him? Osama bin Ladin? Nope, a tree-hugging veggie boy. 😎

Try to understand that national gov’ts in Europe like to bash the EU. If they mess up themselves, they can blame it to Brussels. Every country does it, not only the UK. Unpopular decissions are caused by Brussels, eventhough they would have been taken anyway trough bilateral agreements (for example fishing rights, farming …). The EU is often used by national politicians during elections. However, don’t fall into this trap.

rolleyes.

Sauran, are you unemployed? Why do you have so much time looking out for EU-UN (which are two very similar institutions :rolleyes: again) conspiracy theories.

It makes no sence.

If you would understand only 1% of the situation in holland, you wouldn’t make such stupid remarks. The netherlands are indeed in a crisis. Theo van Gogh was not an innocent man though. It was a barbaric act to kill him, but that doesn’t mean he was a saint. He helped to create a situation in the netherlands, and it worked. De gov’t in den hague is now over-acting with all kinds of measures. It would not anger Local Muslims only, it could have an affect upon the whole dutch population. It’s a wise dicission not to show that movie at this time. [sarcasm]I’m sure you would enjoy watching the outbreak of a civil war in the netherlands so you could bomb the hague to release all captured american soldiers over there :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: [/sarcasm]

I’m sure arthur can tell you more on that, but in the meanwhile, please: if you are pissed off for some kind of reason, have a walk outside, instead of trying to provoke another flame war.

Gee I hope I don’t get affected by this. Got an exam international relations tmrw. My last one. I like your method though. It makes int rel so much easier. Just blame it all on the UN-EU! Never knew it could be that fun!! However, apart from risking a zero, I wouldn’t like the prof to get heart attack.

Middle Earth I guess 🙂 Belgium, a country inhabited by dwarfs, giants, lepracorns, pixies, walloons 😉 …