Re: If the Poles......you know the plumber Poles that you see on billboards.........were to start moving into Belgium en masse illegally, you would be cool when they propose to change the national language to Polish? You wouldn't object? Is that right?
In Europe, languages don't offset each other, they add up... For that matter, I don't think Latinos want to "change" the US official language, they merely want to keep Spanish in their day-to-day business --in addition to English.
Re: In fact, Gustave, we have so many cultures floating around that it would make your head spin......
To start with, I wouldn't call it "cultures", let's say you've got a lot of "folkloric heritages"....
Re: We have Chinatowns, Japantowns, Little Italys; Germantowns, Japantowns, Greektowns, Korean towns, Little Indias.......the list goes on and on.
LOL... I know! But your problem is that Hispanic immigration has become so massive that soon it's YOU gringos who'll end up in "Little Honky Towns"... LOL...
Well, I am glad you got a laugh out of it.
Better a laugh than a pang, eh?
Re: And that's precisely my point: the EU is indeed made up of 25 different monocultures!
Yes, Europe is becoming more like the US.
Not so fast. As I once put it, Europe is a compartmentalized, firewalled complex where you can't spread hatred or any other ideological spin like wildfire --precisely because monocultures are like firewalls to each other.... Could you imagine, for instance, that, on the eve of the Iraq war, back in March 2003, some "blue states" had officially refused to send "their" troops to Iraq? Could it be possible for, say, Oregon to tell the US President, "No, we don't approve of your Iraqi crusade, no Oregonian will fight in Iraq!"? Remember: Italy, Britain, Spain, a.o., did send troops whereas France, Germany, Belgium didn't.
Re: (*) Immigrants asked to speak Dutch in Netherlands
You go on and on about how accepting Europeans are of multiculturalism but then you post this article on the Dutch wanting only Dutch spoken in public. Is this all a game to you?
Europe, somehow, is the mirror image of the US predicament: so long as you are lily-white, it doesn't matter whether you're religious or atheist, whether you speak French or Dutch (except in Belgium, of course...), whether your drink beer or wine, whether you're Communist or Conservative, or even whether you converted to Islam --you're European. If, on the other hand, you happen to be black, Arab, Asian, whatever non-white complexion, then, no matter how hard you try to fit in, you'll never be considered as a true, genuine member of the European family... Mosques, couscous, grigris, Arabic, lingala, saris, sheesh-kebab and cheap textiles made in China, don't belong to Europe --period.
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