European Union Forums

[Troll]

As fare as the story from the Swedish paper goes, it has been confirmed and Israel has admitted it.

Then,an advice to you: You can be certain that people better speaks for themselves, including what they "care" about. Grow up, hit the ball - and follow the rules.

[55° N - 13° E]

Troll. Have you ever wondered why it is that your boyfriend always wears ear plugs? Maybe it is because you often change the subject and go on and on and go on and on and go on and on and go on and on and go on and on - about something you don´t even understand.

[Troll]

Is 55° N - 13° E so pathetically desperate for arguments that s/he goes for personal harassment

[55° N - 13° E]

Is 55° N - 13° E so pathetically desperate for arguments that s/he goes for personal harassment

[Troll]

55° N - 13° E seams to have some problems with "little misses" (i.e. whatever he belies might be females). I thought this was a problem from the older age...

In the meantime, Israel is also harassing Norway and trying to dictate what Norwegians should mean about this and that. And other countries. This is not a specific Swedish problem (Malmø's problems are well known...)

The free press is important and any attempt to suggest censorship of freedom of speech should be shut down.

But some normal etiquette and politeness is of course welcome, even from bewildered boys from Malmø.

[Michael Folkesson]

Even though it has gone some time since the OP I would like to address those two issues.

• Regarding Belarus, there are two approaches that can be made. The classic one is the diplomatic and economic one with sanctions and isolation. This is not very effective and often proves to reinforce the regime that is target of criticism.

In these days we've seen it in North Korea, Iraq and Iran. This leads to becoming a convention, war and invasion or releasing sanctions. All of which hurts the people of the country in question and not the regime. A democracy can be treated like that with success, a dictatorship often strengthen. We can't decide the politics for people in other countries, but we must support their efforts to change.

I agree that a full relationship with Belarus without criticism and support for democratic movement is just legitimizing the regime. It is a delicate path to tread, but one must remember that using a sledgehammer against a regime always miss and hits the people you are trying to help. It is arrogant, short sighted and let's people who propone it feel that they are fighting for good and doing something constructive. It is asking people to be grateful at the same time as they die or live in misery, to thank you for refusing them access to western produce, and it's actually turning them away from you rather than the opposite. There must be a better way to support people.

A closer relationship with Belarus doesn't mean acceptance of the regime. It is the last dictatorship in Europe - depending on what one wants to call the travesty of Russian democracy - and it must be dismantled for the good of all. But we can't force democracy and we cannot teach it. From my experience one of the big problems in sub-Saharan Africa is that people understand the mechanics of democracy but not the ideas, the essentials but only from a power aspect. It must be built from the people, as democracy is a culture rather than just a system. We have to let time and the people of Belarus make that change. That might take some time, and while we wait we must not punish the people of Belarus. Remember how long it took us to reach our levels of democracy. It's not enough to bring down a wall and say "just do like we do". Democracy might seem easy and logical to us that has grown up in one, but democracy is not the most common system in history as one might notice. It is a complex system and it needs constant vigilance to defend it as there are many threats against it every day. The best possible system we can imagine is the one of the benevolent dictator. In Churchill's words, democracy is not a good system, but it is the least bad one of a collection of bad systems.

With this I am still not defending Lukashenko or the regime. I am saying that the Swedish proposal is in the interest of Europe and a combination of increased relations with a country that needs both support and criticism. Using methods that's always failed in the past is not constructive.

• Regarding the Swedish newspaper articles suggesting that Israel is harvesting organs of Palestinians there are two things to say. For one it is official statements from the government. I am sure you have heard of freedom of the press, and how little understanding of that created the controversial schism pertaining the Mohammed cartoons in Denmark. It was an article in a newspaper, and if you are not upset over the Danish cartoons I think you should ask yourself why.

Moreover and maybe more pertinent, Yehuda Hiss was guilty of those charges of organ removal from Israeli soldiers and others without consent. The gain here is that procedures and regulations will likely prevent it from happening again. The article regarding this wasn't a blatant lie and not out of the blue. It let Palestinians speak about the issue. If it was the whole truth or not, we will never know, but as many journalist articles there are errors and more and less fact based. Organ theft occurs in many place of the world. It has happened in India, South America and elsewhere even if it seems to be blown out of proportions many times. I think you should ask yourself if the people in Israel can't faulter from time to time like people in every other state, and if they should be hold above suspicion without investigation because of political reasons. There are likely dubious and criminal people in Israel just as there are in Sweden. Criticizing events in Israel doesn't make one anti-Semite. Using that argument is cheap, and unconstructive.

http://mesotheliomaattorneysinfo.info/p ... -Hiss.html