🚀 go-pugleaf

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