Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 28, 2012 0:51:20 GMT -5
There are 72 separatist secessionist movements in continental Europe. They range from the extreme which have already gained such an elevated measure of autonomy where they issue their own currency (Scotland), and which have come within a hair’s breadth of actually breaking up their nation (Belgium), all the way down to Italy’s Southern Action League whose patriarch is in the clink for Mafia crimes – Global Union: The End Of Nations
August 19, 2010
Lal Qila World without borders Leave a comment
By some official counts, there are 72 separatist secessionist movements in continental Europe. They range from the extreme which have already gained such an elevated measure of autonomy where they issue their own currency (Scotland), and which have come within a hair’s breadth of actually breaking up their nation (Belgium), all the way down to comical and pathetic attempts such as Italy’s Southern Action League which essentially is a family owned and run party whose patriarch is in the clink for Mafia crimes and whose separatist movement seems to only include a few blocks in the City of Taranto.
As the recent Greek financial crisis has shown, there is a will in the European Union to uphold federalism, and although the European Union came perilously close to immolation a couple of months back due to wanton fiscal irresponsibility by the PIIGS (yeah, I know… that’s a frowned upon acronym), the majority of Europeans are coming to the realization that the way out of the economic morass is more centrism and less reliance on self-serving narrow-minded national politics.
However, and much to the chagrin of the World Government Conspiracy Theorists, when we weren’t looking the European Union took steps to expand its form of loose federalism to a global level. The European Union already has established footholds all over the world that are termed as associated Overseas Territories:
Mayotte; Saint-Pierre and Miquelon; French Polynesia; Wallis and Futuna; Saint Barthelemy; Turks and Caicos; Montserrat; Falklands; Caymans; British Virgins; Anguilla; Aruba; the soon to be broken up Netherlands Antilles; and special cases like Greenland, New Caledonia, and Bermuda.
These associated territories are like the USA’s Guam or Puerto Rico: They’re part of the overall nation, but do not hold official state status.
How many people are aware that just 300 miles due east of Maine you can be on European Union ground at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon? Yes, these fully French islands are about an hour’s flight from Boston! And how many people are actually aware that as of a couple of months from now, there will be a total of six places in the Western Hemisphere that aren’t just “associated” but actual integral provinces of Europe (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique)! These places are administratively part of European nations, and when you’re walking around on them, you are as much in “actual political” Europe as you would be if you were strolling down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, or Dam Square in Amsterdam! To stretch the USA comparison, these places no longer have the political status of Guam, as they are Hawaii. These European Union “interior provinces” are even present in the Indian Ocean, where Reunion is as much a part of European Union / France as Lyon!
The European Union’s global aspirations seem to extend much further than placid Caribbean backwaters. Now that rampant, insane, and vicious American xenophobia has slammed the door on the logical and way overdue union with Canada (which the Bush Administration was heading towards… until 9/11 and the myth of terrorists crossing the Canadian border), the coming European Union-Canada Free Trade Agreement seems to lay the building blocks for an European Union which is no longer European at all, but planetary.
Canada is in a Free Trade Agreement with not just the USA and Mexico, but Chile and Peru as well. The ground is being set for a Chilean grape, a Mexican jalapeno, or a bottle of Canadian maple syrup to be easily and freely placed on grocers’ shelves from Inverness to Palermo. With freedom of trade comes freedom of people moving from one area to the next, and before you know it, the “national boundaries” soon fade away.
The jingoistically independent United States of America aside, Free Trade is almost always a precursor to political unity. Given that philosophy it would then follow that Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru (and soon others) should be in serious consideration of not just joining the European Union, but changing it to a Global Union.
This Global Union should not be just a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels handing out boiler plate policy, but a new form of government, one that has not existed since the Roman Empire. At one point in human history, parts of what is now Northern England, Armenia, Sudan and Morocco, as well as everything in between were under one main Roman administration.
The Roman administration was based on the repressive power of the Legions and dictated by greedy (and lead-ingestion mad) Caesars and Senators. However, the Global Union is not to be a dictatorship at all, but a strong international administration which controls all foreign affairs, currency, legislation, and standards, while staying completely out of the strictly political engagements of individual nations.
That brings us to the concept of nations themselves: An idea whose time has come… and gone. Nations within the European Union / Global Union are totally pointless and outdated. Let’s take a look at my own native Italy that I know so well. Can anyone point to anything that the Italian governments over the past 30 years have actually done, other than run for re-election or prepare to run for re-election? The head of Italy’s commercial union (and Chairman of Ferrari) Luca Montezemolo’s famous quote that Italy has been on autopilot for decades is completely true. For all intents and purposes the country has only the European Union as its government as even my long-supported Silvio Berlusconi seems to be in power only to keep himself out of jail from convictions on his shady financial dealings.
The measures of control that the European Union has had to exercise on Greece further prove the point. The Greek government can now effectively legislate all it wants except on anything that costs money… which is everything. The European Union runs Greece and any Greek who thinks that they still have a national government has been dipping too much into the Ouzo.
Since nations no longer exist within an European Union / Global Union framework, why not stop pretending that they still do? Countries like the United Kingdom and Spain are already nations in name only. Both of those present countries are so riddled with “autonomous” regions that they nearly outnumber the areas which are not secessionist! Thus in the European Union / Global Union world, why need they exist? The UK can easily become standalone Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Islands, and… oh yes… England with no one noticing except the historians! Yes, it might surprise some people who live outside the UK, but England itself wants out of Britain! Incredible but true!
What needs to be done is expand the current concept of provinces to all of these regions, not just in the European Union but the Global Union.
Kosovo has nothing to do with Serbia other than still be listed in its maps. Frisia is neither Dutch nor French, as Basque is neither French nor Spanish. Busingen am Hochrhein and Campione are within and completely surrounded by Switzerland but they’re politically German and Italian territory respectively! Similarly, Spain has Llivia inside France; Belgium has Baarle-Hertog inside the Netherlands; and Russia has Sankovo-Medvezhye in Belarus. Istria, Ticino, Savoy and Corsica have been Italian for centuries and they remain so today (Ajaccio, Bastia, Fiume, Lugano, Nizza, Pola, and Zara, are all clearly Italian cities). Garibaldi was born in Italian Nizza so what is it now doing in France? Similarly, what are Austrian cities like Bozen and Meran doing in Italy? And what is Spain doing in what by all rights should be the Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla? Even Poland and Germany have huge swaths of each other’s territories.
These separatist ambitions are not only limited to Europe: The secessionist Wallonia and Flanders which are on the verge of ripping Belgium in half have way more in common with each other than Quebec has with Ontario across the pond! So why not let the totally different French and English Canadians go their merry way? Similarly, what is the point of Ottawa holding onto an Alberta which already believes it is far more closely aligned with Montana than Ontario? Like any other country, Canada should allow the lands which want to leave Confederation to get out, and the ones who want to join come in: The Turks and Caicos Islands even passed a referendum landslide to be annexed to Canada! So what’s the holdup? Each area of any size should be able to pass a referendum on whether to stay with its current national affiliation or not, naturally always within the Global Union framework. The concept of keeping people together or apart against their will does not belong in the 21st century!
There are ample secessionist factions within the Western Hemisphere’s European Union / Global Union territories with very reasons ranging between the silly and the serious as to why they should be effectively autonomous from their current outdated administrations:
Canada
Alberta
British Columbia (+ Pacific Northwestern US: Cascadia)
Quebec
Nunavut
Chile
Mapuche
Denmark
Greenland
France
Martinique
Mexico
Chiapas
Netherlands
Most of the Netherlands Antilles
Peru
Aymara
Arequipa
United Kingdom
Bermuda
Montserrat
Turks and Caicos Islands
The same applies to the nation / states within Europe:
Albania
Northern Epirus
Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh
Talysh-Mughan
Belgium
Brussels
Flanders
Wallonia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Herceg Bosna
Republika Srpska
Croatia
Dalmatia
Istria
Serbian Krajina
Cyprus
Northern Cyprus
Czech Republic
Moravia
Denmark
Faroe Islands
Finland
Aland
Sami
France
Brittagne
Catalune
Corsica
Euskala / Euskara
Francia
Lorraine / Elsass
Nourmand
Occitania
Savoie
Georgia
Abkhazia
Samtskhe-Javakheti
South Ossetia
Germany
Bavaria
Frisia
Greece
Chameria
Italy
Aosta Valley
Emilia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Insubria
Liguria
Lombardy
Marche
Padania
Piedmont
Romagna
Sardinia
Sicily
South Tyrol
Southern Italy
Trentino
Tuscany
Umbria
Veneto
Lithuania
Samogitia
Macedonia
Illyrida
Moldova
Gagauz Yeri
Transnistria
Netherlands
Frisia
Norway
Sami
Poland
Upper Silesia
Romania
Székler
Russia
Adygea
Chechnya
Circassia
Dagestan
Ingushetia
Kabardino-Balkaria
Kalmykia
Karachay-Cherkessia
Northern Ossetia
Tatarstan
Udmurtia
Serbia
Kosovo
Vojvodina
Spain
Andalusia
Aragon
Asturias
Basque
Canary Islands
Cantabria
Castile
Catalonia
Galicia
León
Sweden
Sami
Switzerland
Geneva
Jura
Ticino
Ukraine
Carpathian Ruthenia
Crimea
United Kingdom
Cornwall
England
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Shetland
Wales
Wessex
The European Union / Global Union countries would all use the (renamed) Euro, all have the same economic and legislative regulations, and all have the same foreign and internal policies. So since they’re countries in name only what is the point of adhering to centuries old boundaries which have no relevance to today? Let Corsica, Ticino, and Istria be as Italian as they want! Let the Mapuche have their chunk of Chile! You’d be hard-pressed to find a single Chechen who wants anything to do with Russia! Why keep forcing Cyprus together? If Brittany wants to be as English as it was in the past, why not let it? After all, it’s the original Britain! Let the European Union / Global Union have 100 or even 200 member states, based on the desire of their populations to stick together! Forced marriages such as Wallonia / Flanders, Istria / Croatia, Chechnya / Russia, Catalonia / Spain, Basque / Spain, Corsica / France, North / South Cyprus, and Quebec / Ontario were doomed from their misbegotten historical foundations! Nations are meaningless in the 21st century’s Global Union!
lalqila.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/there-are-72-separatist-secessionist-movements-in-continental-europe-they-range-from-the-extreme-which-have-already-gained-such-an-elevated-measure-of-autonomy-where-they-issue-their-own-currency-sc/
August 19, 2010
Lal Qila World without borders Leave a comment
By some official counts, there are 72 separatist secessionist movements in continental Europe. They range from the extreme which have already gained such an elevated measure of autonomy where they issue their own currency (Scotland), and which have come within a hair’s breadth of actually breaking up their nation (Belgium), all the way down to comical and pathetic attempts such as Italy’s Southern Action League which essentially is a family owned and run party whose patriarch is in the clink for Mafia crimes and whose separatist movement seems to only include a few blocks in the City of Taranto.
As the recent Greek financial crisis has shown, there is a will in the European Union to uphold federalism, and although the European Union came perilously close to immolation a couple of months back due to wanton fiscal irresponsibility by the PIIGS (yeah, I know… that’s a frowned upon acronym), the majority of Europeans are coming to the realization that the way out of the economic morass is more centrism and less reliance on self-serving narrow-minded national politics.
However, and much to the chagrin of the World Government Conspiracy Theorists, when we weren’t looking the European Union took steps to expand its form of loose federalism to a global level. The European Union already has established footholds all over the world that are termed as associated Overseas Territories:
Mayotte; Saint-Pierre and Miquelon; French Polynesia; Wallis and Futuna; Saint Barthelemy; Turks and Caicos; Montserrat; Falklands; Caymans; British Virgins; Anguilla; Aruba; the soon to be broken up Netherlands Antilles; and special cases like Greenland, New Caledonia, and Bermuda.
These associated territories are like the USA’s Guam or Puerto Rico: They’re part of the overall nation, but do not hold official state status.
How many people are aware that just 300 miles due east of Maine you can be on European Union ground at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon? Yes, these fully French islands are about an hour’s flight from Boston! And how many people are actually aware that as of a couple of months from now, there will be a total of six places in the Western Hemisphere that aren’t just “associated” but actual integral provinces of Europe (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique)! These places are administratively part of European nations, and when you’re walking around on them, you are as much in “actual political” Europe as you would be if you were strolling down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, or Dam Square in Amsterdam! To stretch the USA comparison, these places no longer have the political status of Guam, as they are Hawaii. These European Union “interior provinces” are even present in the Indian Ocean, where Reunion is as much a part of European Union / France as Lyon!
The European Union’s global aspirations seem to extend much further than placid Caribbean backwaters. Now that rampant, insane, and vicious American xenophobia has slammed the door on the logical and way overdue union with Canada (which the Bush Administration was heading towards… until 9/11 and the myth of terrorists crossing the Canadian border), the coming European Union-Canada Free Trade Agreement seems to lay the building blocks for an European Union which is no longer European at all, but planetary.
Canada is in a Free Trade Agreement with not just the USA and Mexico, but Chile and Peru as well. The ground is being set for a Chilean grape, a Mexican jalapeno, or a bottle of Canadian maple syrup to be easily and freely placed on grocers’ shelves from Inverness to Palermo. With freedom of trade comes freedom of people moving from one area to the next, and before you know it, the “national boundaries” soon fade away.
The jingoistically independent United States of America aside, Free Trade is almost always a precursor to political unity. Given that philosophy it would then follow that Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru (and soon others) should be in serious consideration of not just joining the European Union, but changing it to a Global Union.
This Global Union should not be just a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels handing out boiler plate policy, but a new form of government, one that has not existed since the Roman Empire. At one point in human history, parts of what is now Northern England, Armenia, Sudan and Morocco, as well as everything in between were under one main Roman administration.
The Roman administration was based on the repressive power of the Legions and dictated by greedy (and lead-ingestion mad) Caesars and Senators. However, the Global Union is not to be a dictatorship at all, but a strong international administration which controls all foreign affairs, currency, legislation, and standards, while staying completely out of the strictly political engagements of individual nations.
That brings us to the concept of nations themselves: An idea whose time has come… and gone. Nations within the European Union / Global Union are totally pointless and outdated. Let’s take a look at my own native Italy that I know so well. Can anyone point to anything that the Italian governments over the past 30 years have actually done, other than run for re-election or prepare to run for re-election? The head of Italy’s commercial union (and Chairman of Ferrari) Luca Montezemolo’s famous quote that Italy has been on autopilot for decades is completely true. For all intents and purposes the country has only the European Union as its government as even my long-supported Silvio Berlusconi seems to be in power only to keep himself out of jail from convictions on his shady financial dealings.
The measures of control that the European Union has had to exercise on Greece further prove the point. The Greek government can now effectively legislate all it wants except on anything that costs money… which is everything. The European Union runs Greece and any Greek who thinks that they still have a national government has been dipping too much into the Ouzo.
Since nations no longer exist within an European Union / Global Union framework, why not stop pretending that they still do? Countries like the United Kingdom and Spain are already nations in name only. Both of those present countries are so riddled with “autonomous” regions that they nearly outnumber the areas which are not secessionist! Thus in the European Union / Global Union world, why need they exist? The UK can easily become standalone Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Islands, and… oh yes… England with no one noticing except the historians! Yes, it might surprise some people who live outside the UK, but England itself wants out of Britain! Incredible but true!
What needs to be done is expand the current concept of provinces to all of these regions, not just in the European Union but the Global Union.
Kosovo has nothing to do with Serbia other than still be listed in its maps. Frisia is neither Dutch nor French, as Basque is neither French nor Spanish. Busingen am Hochrhein and Campione are within and completely surrounded by Switzerland but they’re politically German and Italian territory respectively! Similarly, Spain has Llivia inside France; Belgium has Baarle-Hertog inside the Netherlands; and Russia has Sankovo-Medvezhye in Belarus. Istria, Ticino, Savoy and Corsica have been Italian for centuries and they remain so today (Ajaccio, Bastia, Fiume, Lugano, Nizza, Pola, and Zara, are all clearly Italian cities). Garibaldi was born in Italian Nizza so what is it now doing in France? Similarly, what are Austrian cities like Bozen and Meran doing in Italy? And what is Spain doing in what by all rights should be the Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla? Even Poland and Germany have huge swaths of each other’s territories.
These separatist ambitions are not only limited to Europe: The secessionist Wallonia and Flanders which are on the verge of ripping Belgium in half have way more in common with each other than Quebec has with Ontario across the pond! So why not let the totally different French and English Canadians go their merry way? Similarly, what is the point of Ottawa holding onto an Alberta which already believes it is far more closely aligned with Montana than Ontario? Like any other country, Canada should allow the lands which want to leave Confederation to get out, and the ones who want to join come in: The Turks and Caicos Islands even passed a referendum landslide to be annexed to Canada! So what’s the holdup? Each area of any size should be able to pass a referendum on whether to stay with its current national affiliation or not, naturally always within the Global Union framework. The concept of keeping people together or apart against their will does not belong in the 21st century!
There are ample secessionist factions within the Western Hemisphere’s European Union / Global Union territories with very reasons ranging between the silly and the serious as to why they should be effectively autonomous from their current outdated administrations:
Canada
Alberta
British Columbia (+ Pacific Northwestern US: Cascadia)
Quebec
Nunavut
Chile
Mapuche
Denmark
Greenland
France
Martinique
Mexico
Chiapas
Netherlands
Most of the Netherlands Antilles
Peru
Aymara
Arequipa
United Kingdom
Bermuda
Montserrat
Turks and Caicos Islands
The same applies to the nation / states within Europe:
Albania
Northern Epirus
Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh
Talysh-Mughan
Belgium
Brussels
Flanders
Wallonia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Herceg Bosna
Republika Srpska
Croatia
Dalmatia
Istria
Serbian Krajina
Cyprus
Northern Cyprus
Czech Republic
Moravia
Denmark
Faroe Islands
Finland
Aland
Sami
France
Brittagne
Catalune
Corsica
Euskala / Euskara
Francia
Lorraine / Elsass
Nourmand
Occitania
Savoie
Georgia
Abkhazia
Samtskhe-Javakheti
South Ossetia
Germany
Bavaria
Frisia
Greece
Chameria
Italy
Aosta Valley
Emilia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Insubria
Liguria
Lombardy
Marche
Padania
Piedmont
Romagna
Sardinia
Sicily
South Tyrol
Southern Italy
Trentino
Tuscany
Umbria
Veneto
Lithuania
Samogitia
Macedonia
Illyrida
Moldova
Gagauz Yeri
Transnistria
Netherlands
Frisia
Norway
Sami
Poland
Upper Silesia
Romania
Székler
Russia
Adygea
Chechnya
Circassia
Dagestan
Ingushetia
Kabardino-Balkaria
Kalmykia
Karachay-Cherkessia
Northern Ossetia
Tatarstan
Udmurtia
Serbia
Kosovo
Vojvodina
Spain
Andalusia
Aragon
Asturias
Basque
Canary Islands
Cantabria
Castile
Catalonia
Galicia
León
Sweden
Sami
Switzerland
Geneva
Jura
Ticino
Ukraine
Carpathian Ruthenia
Crimea
United Kingdom
Cornwall
England
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Shetland
Wales
Wessex
The European Union / Global Union countries would all use the (renamed) Euro, all have the same economic and legislative regulations, and all have the same foreign and internal policies. So since they’re countries in name only what is the point of adhering to centuries old boundaries which have no relevance to today? Let Corsica, Ticino, and Istria be as Italian as they want! Let the Mapuche have their chunk of Chile! You’d be hard-pressed to find a single Chechen who wants anything to do with Russia! Why keep forcing Cyprus together? If Brittany wants to be as English as it was in the past, why not let it? After all, it’s the original Britain! Let the European Union / Global Union have 100 or even 200 member states, based on the desire of their populations to stick together! Forced marriages such as Wallonia / Flanders, Istria / Croatia, Chechnya / Russia, Catalonia / Spain, Basque / Spain, Corsica / France, North / South Cyprus, and Quebec / Ontario were doomed from their misbegotten historical foundations! Nations are meaningless in the 21st century’s Global Union!
lalqila.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/there-are-72-separatist-secessionist-movements-in-continental-europe-they-range-from-the-extreme-which-have-already-gained-such-an-elevated-measure-of-autonomy-where-they-issue-their-own-currency-sc/