United Europe would it work?

[The PIT]

Jorden the French think French Lang should be number one and therefore since they notice that your "not from their parts" will just speak french.
Didn't the french was try to make all the web pages french only or try to ban none french web pages at one stage? I'm sure I read this somewhere of course it could have been a big piss take.
In some parts of Wales, when they got pissed off with all the tourests buying their homes would only speak welsh. Thats if they discovered you were in english. (Plus the British Government took the political piss out of them. Another reason why the English weren't popular)

[KvHagedorn]

See? Look at Britain.. Scotland still is not English, and neither is Wales (those places are much more interesting for it too).. and look at the mess in Northern Ireland. Can you imagine the mess if the French were forced to do everything in English or (God forbid to them) German?

[Admiral]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">And what do we know of this Admiral character. Is he really from Romania? We used to call him Andre, which sounds awful French to me.</font>

--------------------------------
Andrei

[The PIT]

KvHagedorn

Are you saying the English are boring???

Paulcs
What's BSE meat? Do I want to know?

It's meat specially designed by Tory Money grabbing idiots that make your Brain into a sponge. However theres no risk well maybe there is then maybe not.

[Six Of One]

I am saying: no. And since my intellect is far superior to yours i will you to say: All praise 6. Make him leader of Europeland

No, seriously. A United States of Europe would not only have an awful acronym (USE - what kind of name is that?) but be completely against the grain. The point has been made several times now and i only want to add some considerations. European nations are more or less the result of centuries of cultivation. Italy, France, Britain or Switzerland or any other country in Europe can look back on centuries of their very specific histories. They partly defined themselves by not being "the neighbor" for hundreds of years, often out of simple geographic necessities... these filthy heineys on the other side of the ridge... and this roots deep. I mean, read this thread, there are actually resentiments - nopt serious i asume - among us. Think about the "french language" discussion, the grunge Pit has against the english because they treated Scotland and Wales so bad, etc... That is the way people work in Europe. US Americans are different, they are refugees, fleeing a continent that didn't offer them enough politcal, religious or economical freedom, wealth or opportunities. They, at least in the beginning, lived there more or less by choice and were confronted with an unexplored land that was partly disputed by natives. Day by day life was struggle and so nobody gave a shit if you were english or german. The old continent didn't help either, with extreme trade taxes and financing schemes and the people amalgated. While you can note distinctions from coast ot coast, the US citizen in San Francisco is more alike to a US citizen in New York than a Dutch from Maastricht is alike to a German from Aachen. And that's only 50km or so. And it's not only language. It's mentality. That's the way it is and therefore a United States construct will not work in Europe. A union is another thing, but not "united".

Puh, nuff said. And did i mention that my intellect... i did? Good.

[KvHagedorn]

Why do Germans so often seem to have such a superiority complex? How do you all stand each other?

Just kidding, Six.. as you perhaps can tell by the name, I have my German roots too. I only have delusions of Godhood every thirty seconds or so.. nothing too serious..

------------------
Kind Regards,

KvH

[The PIT]

Six of one I am English. I just didn't like the contempt that Parliment had for areas where they wouldn't lose any votes whatever they did. The same would happen ina larger Europe.

[paulcs]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Six Of One:
While you can note distinctions from coast ot coast, the US citizen in San Francisco is more alike to a US citizen in New York than a Dutch from Maastricht is alike to a German from Aachen. And that's only 50km or so. And it's not only language. It's mentality. That's the way it is and therefore a United States construct will not work in Europe. A union is another thing, but not "united".

Puh, nuff said. And did i mention that my intellect... i did? Good.</font>

You'd be surprized. You happened to pick two places that are similiar in many respects. However, I can pick out counties in California that might as well be on different planets, they're so different.

When I was in New York, I became friends with a number of people from London. We had much in common. At the same time, I've to some places here where I've felt a bit lost and without cultural reference.

It's a big country.

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net

[Six Of One]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by KvHagedorn:
Why do Germans so often seem to have such a superiority complex? How do you all stand each other?
</font>

Simple answer: we don't. But we try to get the best out of it

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Just kidding, Six.. as you perhaps can tell by the name, I have my German roots too. I only have delusions of Godhood every thirty seconds or so.. nothing too serious..

</font>

Only every 30 seconds? I envy you. And since my intellect is far superior to yours i will you to have delusions every 10 seconds. Argh!

[Six Of One]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by paulcs:
You'd be surprized. You happened to pick two places that are similiar in many respects. However, I can pick out counties in California that might as well be on different planets, they're so different.

When I was in New York, I became friends with a number of people from London. We had much in common. At the same time, I've to some places here where I've felt a bit lost and without cultural reference.

It's a big country.
</font>

Absolutely, Paul. I left out the midwest out of purpose. Got a point to drive home, eh?

[paulcs]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Six Of One:
Absolutely, Paul. I left out the midwest out of purpose. Got a point to drive home, eh?

</font>

Ouch! You know, they hate it when you do that.

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net

[Jorden]

It's not an easy choice for us, so what do you think the EU has to choose?

Barbarella, to start with you: Question, why does France store it's nuclear waste in Nothern Germany? Is it a kind of payback for WW2? It would almost be like America storing it's waste in Canada... if something ever went wrong with the waste disposal, we can take over all the land covered by the disaster

Okay... Six of One... German is never nooit niet nergens in the neighborhood of German, so will you please stop spreading those thoughts? No matter what your IQ is, you will never be able to pronounce a good Dutch sentence

Do I want Dutch to be a language standard? Well, we might be able to get rid of the shit, fvck and bitch that the American English brought up on us. I see the German language has jobs, daddies and other English/American acronyms, which are probably easier to use than their German counterparts.

In every country in the world we use 'at' as the @ in our email address. Although we Dutch sometimes call it 'apenstaartje' as it is in the Dutch dictionary.
You'll find www dot something dot com in every language as well...

So English has already found it's place in Europa. I hope the other language will be deep down Swizz ... which is better than French anyway

Jord.



[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 31 March 2001).]

[paulcs]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jorden:
Do I want Dutch to be a language standard? Well, we might be able to get rid of the shit, fvck and bitch that the American English brought up on us. I see the German language has jobs, daddies and other English/American acronyms, which are probably easier to use than their German counterparts.
[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 31 March 2001).]</font>

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Those words all have Northern European roots. I can trace two of them back to the Old English. They existed centuries before the Declaration of Independence and have absolutely nothing to do with a specifically American idiom. But not even the English or Germans can take credit for the most vulgar of profanities.

Pronunciation: 'f&k
Function: verb
Etymology: akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dialect fokka to copulate
Date: 1503


Don't blame us for your potty-mouths!

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 31 March 2001).]

[Barbarella]

jorden,

well if it is truth i don't know, but i know a guy that know why. Write him

http://www.elysee.fr/ang/ecrire/index.htm

Ok, i don't understand what you're trying to do by asking me about France's nuclear power.

Yes we have it
Yes it's dangerous
Yes it will be better if we could have something better (i mean less, less dangerous)

If you want to make a listing of all what France has done wrong, it's your right. But don't ask me to answer !

If you believe Eu shoud be build without France. just say it !

About "Is it a kind of payback for WW2?" I have some troubles to find the words to express my feeling ... You have offense me !



[This message has been edited by Barbarella (edited 01 April 2001).]

[Joel]

Ok Ok enough is enough. Things are being said and people are getting offended. As Ant has mentioned in another thread this is really not the place for this kind of discussion.

Joel