Hola,
Una vegada mes, un article dels estats units que te un punt de vista
una mica espanyolista.
El que em molesta mes es quan diu l'esciptor "Nor are the Catalans
the only regional nationalist movement pressing centuries-old
linguistic, ethnic and historical claims on the forward-looking
government in Madrid" com si els Catalans i Bascs fossin uns
neandertals sense visio moderna.
Alex
Why Kosovo Divides Europe
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 By JEFF ISRAELY
Time/CNN
Don't make the mistake, when in Barcelona, of assuming you're in
Spain: The locals in the enchanting Mediterranean coastal city, and
the triangle-shaped territory around it, cite Catalan as their
national identity. In conversations across the spectrum — young and
old, leftist and right-wing, gay and straight, a retired couple near
Tarragona and a Moroccan immigrant in Vic — the upcoming Spanish
elections are discussed as if they're taking place in a foreign
country. "For Catalonia, it is better if…" was how the typical
response began. Here, road signs and restaurant menus are written in
Catalan. It's also the language of public education, in schools where
the national history of Catalonia is central to the curriculum, while
Spanish is taught for two hours a week as a foreign language. The
region, officially called an "autonomous community," has broad leeway
in establishing political and social policy. But polls show that some
35% want full independence from Madrid.
Nor are the Catalans the only regional nationalist movement pressing
centuries-old linguistic, ethnic and historical claims on the forward-
looking government in Madrid. In the Basque country, also endowed
with extensive autonomy in the post-Franco era, separatist political
sentiment remains ubiquitous, and terrorist actions by ETA continue.
And it's such long-standing fissures that pop up across the
continent — many of whose modern nation states folded in diverse
kingdoms and peoples — that shape Europe's responses to Kosovo's
historic, and potentially precedent-setting, declaration of
independence. Europe is divided over whether to recognize the new
would-be nation on territory that has until now been recognized as
part of sovereign Serbia. These divisions forced the European Union
to leave it up to each member state to decide whether to recognize
Kosovo's independence.
"The government of Spain will not recognize the unilateral act
proclaimed yesterday by the assembly of Kosovo," Spanish Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos promptly told reporters. "This does
not respect international law." Similar opposition has been voiced
from a list of smaller European countries that face internal
independence movements of their own, or are longstanding allies of
Serbia — or both: Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia have
rejected Kosovo's independence. It's not hard to find motivation for
their stance: The Republic of Cyprus, for example, fears that Kosovo
independence will give weight to Turkish Cypriot claims for dividing
up the island into two separate nation states. The Foreign Minister
of Slovakia, which fears unrest from its large Hungarian minority,
said it "does not see a way" to recognize a Kosovar nation state.
But Europe's major powers — Britain, France and Germany — have, like
the United States, encouraged Kosovo's drive for independence, citing
the unique circumstances of its breakaway from Serbia. Nearly 1
million ethnic Albanians were forced to flee Serb ruler Slobodan
Milosevic's attempt to "cleanse" them from the Serbian province in
which they constituted more than 80% of the population. In the wake
of the U.S.-led war that expelled Milosevic's troops from Kosovo, the
Serbs have refused to negotiate on the future status of the
territory, which the international community acknowledged remained
legally part of Serbia even when it was under NATO protection and
U.N. administration.
For those who support Kosovo's claims for independence, it is largely
a question of giving greater weight to the "on-the-ground" reality
over the claims of Serbia to Kosovo as a cradle of their national
identity. To opponents, however, the question is one of international
law, national sovereignty and precedent. China, for example, reacted
much like the Spanish and Slovaks, worried that Taiwan could be
spurred to declare independence. Russia is invested on the Serbian
side both for strategic and fraternal reasons. Wary of national
claims in the Caucasus and elsewhere, Russian President Putin has
loudly defended Serbia, which shares the same Orthodox Christian
roots as Russia. Moscow also sees Kosovo as another case of NATO
encroachment into traditional spheres of Russian influence, and will
likely work with China to ensure that the new state is denied
recognition at the United Nations.
But the issue is most volatile in in Europe, where the collapse of
Yugoslavia reignited conflicts that date from the Crusades and the
Ottoman advance into Europe — conflicts in which European leaders
appeared incapable of intervening to stop repeated crimes against
humanity. Last November, I went to Kosovo to visit Ramadan Ilazi, who
was 14 when I'd met him during the war in a refugee camp in
Macedonia. He supported Kosovo's independence for historical reasons,
but mostly because he thought it was the best bet for a peaceful
future. "I want the path with the least amount of conflict and
violence, and independence is that way," said Ilazi, now 22. "There
is no perfect solution. But the Balkans should work to strengthen
Europe, not be a problem for Europe." The initial responses to
Kosovo's independence, however, suggest that the Balkans will remain
a problem for Europe for the foreseeable future.
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/catalonia-europa/1-Aquest és un grup sobiranista català i federalista europeu, d'esquerres, antipatriarcal i antireligiós. Es una iniciativa espontània, espontaneïsta i deslligada de cap entitat organitzada. Aquest grup no admet continguts: 1-comercials, 2-que facin apologia de la religió o que justifiquin postures diferents de l'ateisme, 3-que atemptin contra els principis ideològics de l'esquerra europea i catalana.
2-ATENCIÓ!!!!: Per a evitar virus i atacs aquest grup NO ACCEPTA missatges
amb arxius adjunts. Si el contingut de l'adjunt que voleu enviar és un
escrit, podeu copiar-lo dins el cos del missatge en format de text.
Altres tipus de documents podeu carregar-los directament dins la web.
Aquest grup TAMPOC no accepta missatges amb format HTML.
3-Si no vols rebre els missatges d'algú en particular, no cal donar-se de baixa del grup, és més fàcil filtrar aquest algú.
4-Els missatges d'aquest grup es pobliquen també al blog:
http://catalunya-lliure-free-europa.blogspot.com/€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€
