Ron,
Agreed! But allow me to rephrase your last words:
That is why I believe the European people's hands are not clean in this. They live too close to the problem, not thousands of miles away. They meet those who have dealt with the cleansing, whether perpetrated by Serbs, Bosnians, or Croatians.
It simply doesn't take a genius to realize that much of what has transpired in Europe has been the result of Milo's oppressive, rather than inclusive, policies. His have been the politics of fear and brutality, not those of a true leader deserving to govern Yugoslavia.
Got the picture, Ron? As I told you in my previous posts, Milo's ethnic-minded politics is appealing to the European populace at large. Your American idealistic mindset fonded of equal opportunities and ethnic-blind rationale doesn't fit in smoothly with Europe's classist and stratum-aware social fabric... That's the underlying, unspoken culture clash at stake in the Kosovo crisis. And that's the stumbling block preventing the whole of NATO from engaging resolutely in a lethal blow against Serbia. Do you remember these scraps of Vlaams Blok politics I brought you a few weeks ago? So, you must be aware of Europe's nationalist breakaway. In the US, after one or two generations, immigrants from Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, whatever, end up all in the same cultural mould and, to a lesser extent, even colored people are offered some social outlets --depending on their respective ethnic background. For instance, Chinese-born Charles Wang (Computer Assoc. CEO) would have never made it in the US military (ie reaching a field officer level) but the high-tech/corporate avenue laid wide open for his self fulfillment.
Such a multicultural melting pot doesn't work that way in Europe: people over here go on labelling you with your ethnic/class background regardless of your personal achievements. Although even in the US people talk of ''invisible ceilings and walls'' impeding individuals in their sociological endeavours, in Europe, everybody is somewhat a ''blocked ascendant'' in a class-conscious society. Obviously, the danger thickens ominously as these class biases coincide with ethnic biases... Here's a clear example: in the US, neoconservative folks will blame black people individually, claiming that this Black man or that Black woman didn't make it because he or she was lazy. Contrariwise, in Belgium, for instance, Flemings will blame Walloons in a general way, claiming that Wallonia at large is inapt and, in the end, they might tend to associate the Walloon ethnicity with laziness. Indeed, Europe's not out of the woods yet!
Regards,
Gustave. |
