🚀 go-pugleaf

Great theory.  Here's mine:  There are a number of thugs on both sides who enjoy
the power of their guns.
Like the KKK they impose their attitudes on lots of people who would normally
like to be peaceable.  They are not interested in solutions


In article <7cffa2b0.0109071326.108b52ce@posting.google.com>, Fabrikant says...

>There are a number of conflicts between various nations around the
>world.  People are killing each other in the name of something, which
>exists only in their imagination - God.  In Ireland it is even
>stranger than that: they believe in the same God.  I asked several
>Irish about the difference between the Catholic and Protestant faiths,
>and they did not really know.
>
>This is how the conflict is perceived by an outsider.  About 300 years
>ago, ancestors of the Protestants beat up the ancestors of Catholics. 
>In every normal society, this would have been long forgotten, but not
>in Ireland.  Every summer, the Protestants need to march through
>catholic areas and the Catholics do not like it a bit.  These marches
>lead to violence.  One might think that a reasonable Protestant in
>this situation would say: "We do not need those marched, since they
>lead to violence".  A reasonable Catholic in this situation might say:
>"There exists freedom of expression, and this means freedom of a
>repugnant expression.  Protestants have the right to march peacefully
>on any public street, so I shall just ignore these marches".  Not in
>Northern Ireland,
>
>There are both Protestant and Catholic Irish in America, and nobody is
>marching, except for St-Patrick's parade.  If this peaceful
>coexistence can be achieved outside Northern Ireland, why can not it
>be achieved inside?  Imagine, what would happen, if Germans decide to
>march through Cote-St-Luc in Montreal, celebrating Nazi extermination
>of Jews?  Imagine Turks marching through Armenian quarters celebrating
>1915 massacre.  Imagine English marching through French quarters
>reminding certain defeats of the past.  We are lucky that none of them
>is doing any of the above.
>
>Here is my suggestion as to what to do in this case.  First, one has
>to try to explain to Protestants, that every nation has in its past
>certain violent incidents, which is better to be forgotten, if you
>want to be in good relations with your neighbours, second, one may try
>to explain to Catholics, that there exists such a thing as freedom of
>a repugnant speech, and the best reaction is to ignore it.  I doubt
>this will work.  If it does not, then one have to use some arithmetic.
> Compute the amount of money spent in the last 50 years of conflict on
>weapons, on medical care of wounded, on the restoration of destroyed
>property, etc.  Divide this number by the number of Protestants and
>Catholics in Northern Ireland.  I am sure the number will be at least
>f 100,000 per person.  Offer this amount to every Irish to be paid in
>exchange for voluntary relocation in separate parts of Northern
>Ireland, and I am sure, the conflict will be solved once and for all. 
>The same idea can be used in Israel.  Israel gets at least $10 billion
>every year from US, and at least $5 billion are spent on weapons. 
>Offer these $5 billion multiplied by the number of years they were
>spent to Arabs to pay for a voluntary relocation and separation.  You
>might have a good chance for a settlement of the conflict.
>
>Fabrikant