dawn.com
Clinton opposes religious groups
By Our Correspondent
NEW YORK, Oct 12: The US President, Bill Clinton, observed that if every ethnic
and religious group seeking separation the world over won independence "there would
be 800 countries in the world" and it would be difficult to have a functioning world
economy." Speaking in Ottawa (Canada) on Friday he stunned the Independence
seeking Quebec nationalists by making a passionate appeal for national unity and
federation.
Some observers here believe that Mr Clinton's statement was a policy statement on
state of affairs in the world vis a vis breakaway ethnic movements. Clinton said "If
every major racial and ethnic and religious group" won independence, "we might have
800 countries in the world and have a very difficult time having a functioning
economy." Addressing a forum on federalism In Canada, he said "Maybe we would
have 8,000 - how low can you go? The great irony of the turning of the millennium is
that we have more modern options for technology and economic advance than ever
before, but our major threat is the most primitive human failing - the fear of the other."
He said: "We must think of how we will live after the shooting stops, after the smoke
clears, over the long run."
National independence, he warned, is often "a questionable assertion in a global
economy where cooperation pays greater benefits in every area than destructive
competition." American leaders traditionally sidestep the hornet's nest of the separatist
aspirations of many Quebecers, the central political quandary of Canada for the last
three decades. In turn, Canadians put extraordinary weight on the words of the
President of the United States, the nation that dominates Canada's foreign trade and
investment. |
