> > Please remember that the ANC made the decision to > > forgive, but not to forget. Ergo the Truth > Commission > > etc. They wanted to find out what really happened, > at > > the expense of persecution and jailing people. > > Haven't read up on this (like I said, my priorities > lie closer to the > British in India
Indeed. Actually, so are mine, but I find much of what the British did in India fairly confusing. I live in India part of the time. than the issue with ANC and > america. But what made the > decision to forgive not forget easy here, but not in > Germany? Was it a > majority performing the acts (america), vs. minority > controlling the acts > (germany?) that caused this to be viewed > differently? An interesting question, but I think that it has a lot to do with Germany at the time and up to very recently seeing itself as an ethnically homogenous country. So it wasn't only Germany and German's being blamed collectively for what happened, but also that many Germans accepting collective responsibility. In the course of time, the III. Reich was analysed from an organizational and cultural point of view; reconstructing the distribution of responsibilities led to a more subtle view of things. So, it is clear that many Germans actively participated and many took decisions to kill millions. This also lead to a kind of rejection of what German/central European culture stood for. Which is sad, but probably unavoidable. I don't yet see this kind of discourse happening in the UK with regard to colonialism. I believe there are many reasons for this, most of which are too complicated to go into here. But some of it actually has to do with Germany: Nazi Germany is often pointed to by British politicians and intellectuals as a terrible example of a genocidal regime, thereby making the British public feel good about themselves, including colonialism etc. And even the soul searching going on in Germany after WW2 is often regarded as an example of a nation weakening itself and there is this residual sentiment in the UK (not often ackowledged) that any attempt at dealing with the colonial past, slavery etc. would lead to collective national depression. And noone in the UK is willing to face up to either the past or the possibility of national depression... > > > I am afraid you misunderstand. > > I didn't. Because ... > > > Jews were not regarded > > as whites by the likes of Hitler and his political > > descendants. And the descendants I am aware of > will > > not regard Jews as whites/Europeans to this day. > Plus > > the very same characters are directing their fire > > against Muslims now. Oh boy. > > I'm not saying how jews were regarded by hitler ... > Rather what category > jews fall into today ... They are considered white. I completely disagree. I suppose that my take on this is rather different, since I have listened to enough anti-jewish bias to last me a lifetime. Perhaps in the UK they are considered honorary whites, but neither in France, Germany, Italy nor in Spain are Jews considered white. The ugly truth is that because I am German, I am often assumed to be sympathetic to anti-Jewish etc. views. So people let go of their inhibitions at times. > The fact that anti-semitism is a bigger deal because > today, the american and > european society is still white majority ... And so > they publicize/take > issue with the jews vs. hitler more than they take > issue with usa/S. Africa > and apartheid. I dont really agree. I dont take blogland and the rightwing nonsense in the US as representative of what is happening in Europe anyway. > > If you tell me that the current idea of directing > fire against Muslims is > solely propagated by the old enemy (neo-nazis) vs. > the new enemy (idiot > america [1] , some of its allies, et al.) then I'll > stop listening ... Cos > it's very untrue. I didnt say that they were the only ones, but Hitler's children are alive and well. > > > BTW, thanks for the pointers on Truth Commission, > etc. Good reading. I never had the time to dive into it. Must do that some day. -Frank > > > - Vinit > > [1] "Esquire" Lays the Smackdown on Creationism > http://templeofpolemic.proboards42.com/index.cgi?board=theo&action=print&thr > ead=1130126466 > > > ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Model Search 2005 - Find the next catwalk superstars - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hot/model-search/
