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From: donh@netcom.com (Don HARLOW)
Subject: Re: talk & travel
Message-ID: <donhD46qKt.HA2@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <elnaD3oBsD.IE7@netcom.com> <3hmv97$h6g@fido.asd.sgi.com> <3htih2$6m4@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> <3i0plp$2md@fido.asd.sgi.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 07:38:53 GMT
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livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) skribis en lastatempa afisxo <3i0plp$2md@fido.asd.sgi.com>:
>
>I think I'd like to hear a clearer statement about European
>democracy.   We seem to hear a lot about European elections
>not being free, or having only single candidates. from Esperanto 
>fans, and I've seen more than one comparison between the EC 
>and the old Soviet Union.
>
>Is it a commonly held position among Esperanto fans that the
>EC countries are in fact *not* democracies?
>
(1) Mr. Livesey persists in the strange belief that Esperanto speakers 
share their positions on every subject under the sun.

(2) Mr. Livesey also seems to think that the EU is somehow identically 
consitituted with the individual countries that make it up (and which 
themselves are not identical with each other). However democratic 
those individual countries may be, it is my understanding (and perhaps 
someone in Europe may wish to correct me on this) that the fundamental 
decisions about the EU are made by appointed commissioners in Brussels, 
not by elected parliamentarians in Strasbourg. If this is the case, 
I at least would not consider the EU particularly "democratic". Whether 
the UK, France, Finland or the Netherlands is a democratic country or 
not is another question.

(3) None of which has much to do with language, and if anyone wishes 
to carry on this thread in public, I'd suggest trimming at least 
sci.lang from the list of newsgroups.



-- 
Don HARLOW			donh@netcom.com
Esperanto League for N.A.       elna@netcom.com (800) 828-5944
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/el/elna/elna.html         Esperanto
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/do/donh/donh.html 
