Re: French ruling party having a riot on the Internet

["David Lodge" <dave () cirt net>]

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 16:10:29 -0000, David LaPorte  
<david_laporte () harvard edu> wrote:
> Maybe it's my own misconception, but citizenship in continental Europe  
> seems tied more tightly to historical and ethnic identity than in  
> America.  America is the cliched "nation of immigrants" - you'd be hard  
> pressed to find someone with pre-revolutionary roots, while Europe has  
> hundreds of years of legacy (baggage?).

This may have been so, until about 50 years; there was this little scrap  
which started when some mad Austrian illustrator with a dopey hairstyle, a  
dodgy 'tasche and a hankering for scatophilia decided to turn Poland into  
his own personal extension and ended with the Russians flying their flag  
on top of the Reichstag.

Afterwards the various governments in Europe said to themselves: "Bugger!  
Our population is down to 15 people and a dog called Alfred, how can we  
get cheap labour to rebuild our flattened countries especially as we  
barely have enough money to bay a packet of tabs[*]. I know; we can import  
cheap labour from the near and far east and Africa."

And thus, was Europe restored with a massive immigrant population. This  
was further impounded, when in the late 40's most of the European  
countries (especially the UK) realised that having an Empire was so passé  
nowadays and thus broke them up and allowed immigrants from their (now  
ex-) colonies in...

End result: 50 years later, most of the European countries have a large  
mix of racial types enrichening their cultures and integrating well. As an  
example, I live in the city of Leicester in the UK, it currently has a  
60:40 ratio of caucasian:non-caucasian population; it is expected by 2012  
that this ratio will pass the 50:50 mark. Have we had any riots? No. Can  
we get a good Curry? You bet!

Most of the European cities I've been in seem to have a similar mix, yet  
you will never hear a story of "Today, several thousand people of mixed  
racial types got along perfectly, there was no fighting and much Curry was  
eaten". No, that's not good news, so instead you get told of all the race  
riots in places like Paris, Los Angeles, Bradford. These are an exception  
and rare, but they make 'good television' and so are reported.

> My guess is that since US citizenship is based on an "idea" vs some  
> historical identity, it is more likely to accept outsiders as long as  
> they are believers.  Can someone who's lived in the US and on the  
> continent comment?

<sarcasm>
Our (the UK) joyful libertarian government that believes in freedom for  
all and not having to worry about being arrested for what or who you are  
are trying to introduce a similar thing at the moment. Thus we have the  
excellent idea of a 'citizenship exam' and several theories that  
immigrants should be able to receit the national dirge^W anthem upon  
entry. What a superb way to prevent terrorism, if we'd done that with  
Northern Ireland 35 years ago we'd never have had a problem with the IRA.
</sarcasm>

On this point I'll end with a quote from Bill Hicks:
"I hate patriotism man. [snip] It was a round world the last time I  
checked. That's how we can stop patriotism, instead of putting Stars and  
Stripes on our flags we should pictures of our parents fucking."

I've said too much... Can I go back to extracting the urine out of Oracle  
now?

dave

[*] Northern English slang term for cigarettes.
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.