french sense of humour ;)

Well, au, the first article, albeit faulty in some ways, was at least readable. This second one is unfounded, based on the:" and you didn't do this, and you didn't do that, thus you're all useless" kind of a logic, which is futile and proves nothing. As a former New York Times foreign reporter Mr. May should be able to produce something of a higher quality. Plus I dislike when somebody just twists things around, such as this quote:"The newly freed nations of East Europe understand in their bones why Americans say no to appeasing tyrants". What on Earth is that supposed to mean? For if he is asserting we (Eastern Europe) are with the U.S. and not with the U.N., he is not correct. Governments officially are, public opinion far from it.

Dagmaraka, please keep us up to date on your proposal and the progress of your writing. Historical memory is responsible for so much devastation and long lasting wars. Fascinating.

gee thanks, diane. i better start writing then! so far i only have a few old articles or chapters written here and there and there is a gigantic quantitative research ahead. will be doing research this summer, will post the results.

dagmaraka
As you may have noted the second article came from a right wing publication and is written with that bias.

Boycott of American Goods Over Iraq War Gains
2 hours, 41 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - No more Coca-Cola or Budweiser, no Marlboro, no American whiskey or even American Express cards -- a growing number of restaurants in Germany are taking everything American off their menus to protest the war in Iraq (news - web sites).

Although the protests are mainly symbolic, waiters in dozens of bars and restaurants in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Bonn and other German cities are telling patrons, "Sorry, Coca-Cola is not available any more due to the current political situation."

The boycotts appear to be part of a nascent worldwide movement. One Web site, www.consumers-against-war.de, calls for boycotts of 27 top American firms from Microsoft to Kodak while another, www.adbusters.org, urges the "millions of people against the war" to "Boycott Brand America."

I think the Germans are mistaking us for someone who actually gives a sheit.

yeah buy Chrysler

Sorry, I prefer BMW's. Have no issue whatsoever in buying one either. The Germans should be more afraid of Saddam or the U.S. dropping a giant Twinkie Bomb as we return from Iraq.

What is so interesting about this boycot of American products is that Germany will suffer more than the US. Their economy is already in the dumps, and their boycott of American products will only exacerbate their economic problems. Think of all the Mercedes, Volkswagons and BMW's that will not sell if Americans took on the same childish attitude. Like shooting oneself in the foot. c.i.

c.i. i think its america that started this sillyness, as its all rather symbolic to begin with the economies are all quite global.

It is ironic Germany with it's history should be boycotting anyone for what they think is an unjust war. This they notice the gas chambers and crematoriums went unnoticed.

Or the fact that Iraq's Olympic training center also includes a torture chamber.

The U.S. had slavery in place for quite some time. Should they not also perform some moral restraint then, on the basis of this knowledge?
The German government today is a very different animal from what it was before the war and has apologized publicly to the victims and put reparations in place. The U.S. government did not do any even symbolic gesture as far as I know (did it?). But in the end I don't think this will lead us far, for every country has something nasty in its past.

Dagmarka, I would think the blood of the Yankee soldiers who died freeing the slaves should be enough reparation. A civil war is not the same as a world war launched by an aggressive megalomaniac.

dagmaraka
I should remind you that we fought a civil war to rid ourselves of slavery. Many thousands of Americans died in that cause. You have said before that Germany is different now and that they paid reparations. How does one pay for the killing of millions of innocents and untold numbers of unborn? I hate getting into this but as far as I am concerned Germany got a pass for their misdeeds. I know this may not be PC but there is no forgiveness in my heart for Germans. I avoided commenting when you mentioned it before since it is to me a very emotional subject. As for slavery, that still exists in the third world and seems to go completely unnoticed by the UN.

Wow, that sounds very interesting indeed. Would appreciate very much seeing any reflection of your research here on A2K.

(I finished my Masters in Russia and Eastern Europe Studies myself, in 2000, with a thesis on the political mobilisation of minorities in the postcommunist era. I'm afraid it ended up much more than what was needed for a Masters ... <grins>. I focused on case studies of Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania, but added a theoretical consideration on 'identity, minority, power and democracy' - that was perhaps even the most interesting part.

I took a lot from Brubakers' concept of nationness as "a contingent, conjuncturally fluctuating, and precarious frame of vision and basis for individual and collective action, rather than as a relatively stable product of deep developmental trends in economy, polity or culture" - and of nations as the "political fields" that induce the momentary crystallisation of such frames of vision and action. Too radical a theory perhaps to systematically apply in analyses of current nationalisms, but very thought-provoking. Anyway ... so as to finally close this bracket ...)

Also, to be honest - without meaning to sound too much like a teenybopper - I'm kinda excited to meet an ex-collaborator of the Slovak Helsinki Committee, the daughter of a founding member of Charta 77 even, here on this forum ! Enchanté.

my goodness, nimh! i am sooo excited, you must tell me more! Mr. Brubaker resides right by my bedside, well, his book anyway. Along with all the 'political mobilisationalists' or whatarethey. Theory will be a large part of the final product, and it will be precisely on identity, minority, power and democracy ;-) Albeit with the bit of a twist by focusing on memory and elites. Have you got an article or abstract or anything share-able online, I would be awfully exceedingly interested!

<groans>

thats the thing ... i wrote it in dutch.

worse ... <blushes> ... afterwards, i sent a copy to a professor at Ercomer (where i'd done an internship) to read it, too, and he invited me over after he finished it, and suggested the social sciences dept might publish it. he gave me the contact info for the lady who'd decide, telling me he'd recommend publication, and added: thats if you wouldnt mind translating it into english for it - and (here it comes) - being, to be honest, momentarily wholly fed up with the whole thing, having only just finished it after several months of hard work and quite a few more in preparation - i never followed up on it. and by now, of course, many parts are too outdated (not to mention some having been contradicted by subsequent events) for me to even think of making up for the lost opportunity ...

shame on me ...

so no english version. but its never too late to start translating, huh ;-))

i got a paper on "perceptions of gender and ethnic identity, and their use in nationalist and balkanist discourse in the context of the war in the former yugoslavia" in english though ...
<grinning widely at feeling like ice-t: "i'm your pusher-man ...">

cj - au, how about we discuss what euros did to the natives who lived here before we got here.....? And, then what americans did continuing that grand tradition.

<nimh, i checked out the ercomer web, it looks very interesting. would you mind posting a link to your article? i would love to look at it.>