From: bosch@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Gerhard Bosch)
Subject: Is there any need for that struggle(Re: Irish Rejects Associated (IRA))
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 07:30:08 GMT

Hi guys out there,

I looking at that problem since a long time and I' like to ask you a few 
questions about "real life". I think the same questions could be also asked
in Jugoslavia, they are the questions of people not envolved into such a
struggle. Usually if you are involved you don't question "Why", you are
using an argumentation " Because they did this, I do that ".

I assume that the people are not very religious, the protestants and the
catholics. Just go the a service on Sunday morning a you will see in most
countries empty churches. I guess that a century ago, there was still trouble
having the wrong religion, but today the people should be more tolerant. 
Already the Pope started talking with the protestants. I don't think these
differences in Religion are very relevant. 

On the other hand is my life much different, if I'm a citizen of Ireland or 
a citizen of the UK ? I can't make out any differences. I usually assume
that the common people just want to have peace, because they are only 
influenced by an unemployment program of the goverment, but not by a
global goal of the goverment.

Just a few examples from the continent. They might be similar. I was born in
the southern part of Germany, that ugly big thing in the center. We are
forced in school to learn the language of the northern parts of Germany, 
so that the people from the north are able to understand us. That results
usually in the difficulty to write the ideal german language. Sometimes I have
to ask me collegue from the north, which might be the correct formulation
of a sentence, because in the south the sentences are structured in a different
way. But it's possible to life with that restriction.

On the other hand I'm living since 10 years close to the French border.
I really enjoy going over there, the country side is very nice and the
small villages look beautiful. I'm able to talk to the French people in their
dialect, although I don't understand them if they are talking French. I guess
that they don't understand the so called "high German" ( the written language),
but I know that they understand my dialect. I have the impression that we need
to drop these boundaries created either in this century or in the last 
centuries. This sounds like Maastrich. So countries are afraid of the big
ugly Germany in the center ( or at the east).  But then the goverments should
also give away some of their power. I myself see a stronger binding with the
people of the countries bordering the southern parts of Germany ( French, Swiss
Austrian and Cechoslovacia ( sorry for the misspelling I couldn't find it in
my dictionary ). So in that final Europe the people should not be fixed to
a country, they had bee citizen up till then. 

Coming back to the beginning, I such a stage of development I hope the problem
of North Ireland is solved by itself, because there should be a border between
the people up there. At that state there is no need to have Nationalists and
Unionists.


Mark at the end: I'm myself sceptical if that united Europe is a very stable
collection of people. It's a very fast process especially if there is a gap
in the income between parts of a country. That fast process very often results
into segregation of parts. Just look on the situation of Jugoslavia and compare
with the stable country I've seen maybe 3 years ago. Another example is
the difference between the German Democratic and the Federal Republic just now.

I hope to be able to start a new discussion.