Europeans Against Multiculturalism
One of the many signs of the rightward creep of Western European politics is the recent unison of voices denouncing multiculturalism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel led off last October by claiming that multiculturalism “has failed and failed utterly.” She was echoed in February by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron. All three were late to the game, though: for years, the Dutch far right has been bashing supposedly multicultural policies.
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.4/john_r_bowen_european_multiculturalism_islam.php
Europe's Libyan Connection
For decades, the Arab world has settled for corrupt, ignorant, treacherous despots as their leaders. For a generation, and in some cases two, Arabs lived in constant fear of expressing dissent, a fear so crippling it deemed them useless, incompetent and ultimately irrelevant . But the region has now been revived by its youth who have shown in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Libya that they know no fear, that they would rather die standing than live on their knees.
Still, the West fails to understand that they can not continue to do business with dictators and still say it is "friends of the people." The EU buys 79% of Libya's oil. US companies have practically taken over parts of Libya in recent years as the "free world" began to flirt with Gaddafi in the most scandalous of relationships. How can Europe put pressure on the Libyan government to immediately stop the butchering of innocent civilians when 10% of Europe's oil originates in Libya?
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/21/what-next-mad-dog-libya
Standard Left Explanatory System
The left's thinking is governed by the "Standard Left Explanatory System" -- an intellectual construct that gained popularity in Europe and the US in the 1960s after the demise of European colonialism. The basic principle is simple: Always support the underdog, particularly when non-Western, and always accuse Western powers, preferably the US and its allies, for what the underdog does. Anything aggressive or destructive a non-Western group says or does must be explained by Western dominance or oppression. The system assumes that if you are nice to people, all conflicts will disappear. It disregards the human desire for dominance, power, and a belief system that gives them self-respect. The system, under the guise of humanitarianism, assumes that non-Western groups do not have a will of their own; that all they do, feel, or want is reactive to the West. It is devoid of respect for non-Western groups: It assumes that they are not responsible for their deeds, and that all they do must be explained by Western victimization.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/why-israel-s-left-has-disappeared-1.282015
United Statian
A United Statian (or Statian for short) is a person from the United States of America. An American, on the other hand, is any person in the western hemisphere: Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, and United Statians are all Americans. Similarly, Russians are Europeans just like the Germans or the French, even though Russians are not citizens of the European Union. Which leads me to the question: how do you call EU residents, then? Eurotrash? http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t5829.htmStop respectable fascism now
I have long studied the rise of "respectable" fascism across Europe. From my youth, I have opposed totalitarianism, and especially the religious persecution that is often a part of it. In July 2009, I stood and won against a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski, for the post of vice-president of the European Parliament, because he symbolised the rise of disguised extremism in Europe.It was not my principle, it was a higher one: to oppose a menacing political movement at a key moment in Europe's politics. Ambivalence about totalitarianism has no place in today's Europe. It has now been disclosed that Kaminski has had fascist links: he was a member of Poland's notorious fascist National Revival Party (NOP) and tried, as its MP, to cover up anti-Jewish atrocities.The rise of "respectable fascism" must be stopped.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/31/conservative-fascism-kaminski-europe/
Twilight of the West
Demographer Peter McDonald calculates that with current fertility levels, Italy will lose 86% of its population by the end of the century, falling to 8 million compared with today's 56 million. Spain will lose 85%, Germany 83%, and Greece 74%. Population historian David Reher told in 2006 that, "As population and tax revenues decline in Europe, urban areas could well be filled with empty buildings surrounded by areas which look more like some science-fiction movies." The future is already here: Hoyerswerda, a town near Dresden close to the Polish border, has lost half its population in the last 20 years. It is an ageing ghost town. "Hoy Woy" seems a town without a purpose, in a corner of Europe without a future.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/01/population-crash-fred-pearce
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