Posted on 08/27/2011 11:28:45 AM PDT by Paladins Prayer
It is 1991, and Yugoslavia, born of the ashes of WWI, is starting to break up. It is a violent affair that will be long, painful, bloody, and complex. Numerous wars in the multi-ethnic region will be fought, with Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia declaring independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia and, in turn, Serb minorities seeking independence from the last two regions. Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians (virtually all Muslim), and Albanians (largely Muslim) will battle Serbs. Croats and Bosnians will unite to battle them then fight each other as well then unite again; and Albanians will take up the sword against Macedonians. Muslims will burn churches, and minority populations will be purged from many of these regions. They are the first conflicts since WWII to be formerly deemed genocidal, and these wars will introduce English-speakers to a new term: ethnic cleansing.
None of this was any surprise. Ethnic and cultural ties ultimately trump citizenship status just as family ties do. This is why East and West Germany were reunited two decades ago: Their peoples were both German and shared the same culture, making their separation artificial and, therefore, temporary. Yet artificial unity tends to be no less temporary; it teaches us that, sometimes, the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole. And while Yugoslavia may be the current poster boy for this phenomenon, many other states are similarly diverse and, to varying degrees, struggle with ethnic/sectarian turmoil. Some, such as Iraq and Rwanda, are still making history; others, such as the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, are history. And then there are yet other nations. These are not places conceived in the ashes of war or the minds of colonial masters....
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
True dat.
Well its common sense,this country is Diverse,E Pluribus Unum,Out of many one. The Problem arose when we started emphacizing the Differences in our Cultures and Not the dominant Culture that everyone was supposed to adopt,American Culture. That Never Meant you had to forgo your Ethinic Culture in your family but when you went out in public you were and should be American First, Period.
The 1965 imigration reform destroyed that when quotas for more immigration from European countries,where people of our culture originated,was lowered for More immigration from Latin,African and asian countries was allowed,THAT was the beginning of the end. Justb Google that and read the Statements of our learned Leaders on how that would NOT alter the demographics of the Country and the counter arguments. Very Interesting,as Usual the Freakin Communists in the Democrat party to blame
Aided and abetted by the communists in the Republican party.
Bump for later.
Response: Multiculturalism is a symptom, not a cause. The cause is the loss of identity as a People resulting in an inability to exclude and to excrete.
That refers to the Union of the States, not the cross section of ethnic backgrounds of the citizenry.
The author addresses deeper issues at the end of the essay. It’s really a very thoughtful work.
BFLR
Who occupies the States? Robots?
Linguistically the Serbs, Croats and Bosnian languages are mutually intelligible. They are truly dialects of each other. Their cuisines are similar, their cultures are slightly different, but still very similar. They differ in religion
Albanians are a different ethnicity from those 3 Slavic peoples and from Macedonians (another Slavic people)
Ethnic and cultural ties do NOT "ultimately trump citizenship status" and I can give you a number of examples to the contrary:
Ethnic and cultural ties do NOT trump citizenship or how would we explain the 1800s war between the US and England?
The case of West and East Germany tries to simplify the matters by saying "they were both German", when it neglects the fact that people from Eastern Germany can be culturally quite different from those from Swabia or Bavaria -- and their dialects are not very understandable to each other (ok, it's mainly the accents and where one puts the accents on words)
and if one says "both were Germans", then why are the people of northern Switzerland, of Austria, of Liechtenstein, of Luxembourg etc. not clamouring to join Germany?
Then it points out that the Soviet Union is history neglecting the fact that modern day Russia has lots and lots of different ethnicities AND races.
Finally, the author does not understand the difference between Yugoslavia and the USA. the Croats and Serbs were separated by 1000 years of hostilities, then the Turks ruled that area for 500 years adding in more hostility with the Albanians and Bosnians added to the mix. All of this predates the US by a lot. There are centuries of bad blood there. The US is not to be compared to these.
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