June 19, 2006
THERE IS NO SPAIN:
Catalan Voters Endorse Greater Autonomy (John Ward Anderson, June 19, 2006, Washington Post)
Voters in northeastern Spain overwhelmingly approved a referendum Sunday giving their region, Catalonia, broad new autonomous powers, according to nearly complete preliminary returns. Many analysts see the autonomy measure as a model that could help promote peace talks between Spain's government and separatists in the Basque part of the country.About 74 percent of the voters who cast ballots in Catalonia, a region of about 7 million people centered on the cosmopolitan Mediterranean city of Barcelona, approved the autonomy measure, according to a tally of almost 99 percent of the vote that was posted on the Internet by the region's government. About 21 percent voted no.
Dreams of a unified Europe were never going to withstand the reality of continental nationalism. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 19, 2006 7:03 AM
More likely voters want to restore some of their influence over the political process. Just copying one of the strengths of the American model.
Posted by: Daran at June 19, 2006 9:19 AMThere are no ethnically based US states and no such thing as nationalism in America. American Nationalism isn't even nationalist.
Posted by: oj at June 19, 2006 9:26 AMThere are two required parts: 1> relatively autonomous zones able to set their own policies, 2> population willing to move to the zone that best meets their needs. The East-Europeans, Turks and other immigrants are fullfilling the second requirement.
Sure there are ethnically based regions in the USA. They are called reservations. Everything else was taken over by the white guys, who only fairly recently agreed to sharing with non-WASPs.
Posted by: Daran at June 19, 2006 9:46 AMWe don't let them have states.
Posted by: oj at June 19, 2006 9:49 AMNo need to, because you already have them. However, in many areas of Europe, if the locals feel they can do better than the central government they first must create their own region. If the population of this region is homogeneous due to historical circumstances, so be it.
Posted by: Daran at June 19, 2006 10:09 AMThe region is always ethnically homogenous, that's why it seeks independence.
Posted by: oj at June 19, 2006 12:01 PMIf there's no Spain (and I'm not suggesting there is), then there's also no Germany, Italy, France ... forget the Balkans, in fact, no Europe ... no Turkey, no Iraq ... there's only the Anglosphere, minus India, of course.
Is this a good thing or not?
There's Judeo-Christianity, Islam and nationalism. Two are universal and one particular.
Posted by: oj at June 19, 2006 4:18 PMWhat about Hawaii?
Posted by: erp at June 20, 2006 6:10 AMOne would think Hawaii and Alaska, among others, would choose independence eventually.
Posted by: oj at June 20, 2006 7:04 AM