This is the letter I sent to the NG forum. I sent a copy to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Han Name: Han Maenen E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: January 7, 2002 12:40 PM There is no reason why a more united Europe should not keep its rich diversity of cultures and customs. I am glad about the euro. A lot of anti-euro people on this forum are Americans. What are they afraid of? Why shouldn't we have a measure of unity in Europe? BTW, Jim Frysinger is absolutely right about the reason why Thoburn was convicted and I want to thank him here for the correction of the story in the article. Some years ago no-one came to the defense of a real Metric Martyr, a British publican who sold beer in 0.5 L glasses. He was fined more than 3000 pounds, but the silence was deafening. BTW, the article refers to '186 mph' trains in France and '110 mph' speeds on German highways. Wrong! The French HST's cruise at 300 km/h and on the German highways motorists are free to drive 180 km/h and even more. Someone complained about the metric system on this forum (REM.: in horrible English). I can see no wrong in metric as the global language of measurement and English as the global language of communication. Here is that message and the other messages from members of the USMA list: Name: michael E-mail: [email protected] Date/Time: January 1, 2002 1:38 PM Unified Euro system that will control are way of life and the metric system i think should not be the issued unite a one world system that will cause a world peace thats a lie they will never be peace i notice the euro has already been stolen that dient solve the crime rate yet has it. Name: John E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: January 7, 2002 11:16 PM The anti-European attitude spewed here is nothing more than arrogant American jealosy of a new nation destined to be America's rival. The euro represents a challenge to the dollar as the world's reserve currency, something Americans can't stand. Here is my answer to the questions asked: It all depends on how much Europeans want to adjust to a melting of cultures. No culture is static anyway. There is always change. Even today American culture to some extent dominates in Europe. American music is the norm, yet no one is complaining of the loss of national songs. Traditional costums are only seen at festivals. Everyone in Europe dresses in standard western clothes. And it is even possible to find any cuisine in any country in Europe. You can find Italian, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, etc. restaurants in Germany, yet the Germans are still Germans. All this nonsense about culture is just an excuse to keep Europe from rising up and becoming a rival to the USA. Long Live the European Union. Name: Carleton M E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: January 7, 2002 10:14 PM Sorry, make that "spewing the POISON of the National Alliance ..." Name: Carleton M E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: January 7, 2002 9:37 PM Some of these postings are unreal. One person is spewing the poising of the National Alliance, a white supremacist group; another, unidentified, is claiming we are not following God's Law (funny, the Taliban said that too), and a third is proclaiming some kind of nut-job "Illuminati" scheme. I thought the National Geographic was something halfway serious, or maybe it's just that forums tend to self-select only certain viewpoints and hence definitely do not reflect the population as a whole. Personally I do not think economic union is going to also bring cultural union; it hasn't in the USA and Canada, and won't here. What I DO hope is that the combined economic strength of Europe will finally get the USA (and National Geographic) out of its anti-metric stubbornness. Name: Stephen Davis. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: January 7, 2002 8:33 PM There was one man who visualised the coming together of the European countries and it's people in harmony together!! Yes, that great Communist thinker and despot Winston Churchill!! Many right wingers in Britain are vehemently against the EU. They conveniently forget it was the tories themselves that took us into what was then known as the EEC!! We had tried on other occasions to join, but Charles De Gaulle blocked our path!! A referendum was held in 1975 asking if we wanted to stay within the EEC; the answer was a resounding yes!! British manufacturing industry has been crippled because of our interest rates on the pound!! This is one of the best opportunities yet to rejuvinate our manufacturing base!! It would be incredibly sad if this oportunity was blown through the prejudices of a few little Englanders, wouldn't it?? Ignore the doubters and embrace Europe!! Regards, Steve. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Name: James R. Frysinger E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date/Time: December 31, 2001 10:55 PM The article on Europe in the January 2002 issue of National Geographic magazine presents erroneous and dangerously incomplete information regarding the EU and Steve Thoburn, the "metric martyr" of England. Mr. T.R. Reid hand his editors must have forgotten an important principle of journalism -- checking the stated facts. First the erroneous matter. Thoburn was charged with operating non-certified scales, not for selling bananas by the pound. The reason for his scales lacking certification was his refusal to use scales that met the specifications of British law. Scales are supposed to be able to weigh food items in kilograms, though auxiliary readings in pounds and ounces are allowed. Standards officials no longer carry non-metric weights to check scales. Customers may ask for a desired number of pounds of produce, but the official weight and receipt must be in metric units under British law. This law was enacted to support standards harmonious with ED 80/181/EEC but that was not the basis for the charges brought against Thoburn, whose scales lacked a metric readout. The law that Thoburn thumbed his nose at was Britain's, not Brussels'. Now, the dangerously incomplete matter. The European Directive cited (80/181/EEC) requires all goods sold in the EU to be labeled only in metric units and to be devoid of all other units. This applies to packaging, product labels, instruction sheets, and advertisements. The original deadline for this requirement to be met was Dec 31, 1984. It was then delayed to the end of 1989, then to the end of 1999, then again to the end of 2009. These delays were provided to give the United States time for producers to prepare and for our government to revise the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) to allow metric only labeling in the U.S. This third delay may well be our last. Japan and the Republic of Korea have already passed similar laws, which are now in effect. We in the U.S. now have metric-only labeling allowed for goods sold under regulations and laws modeled on the Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulation (UPLR) and over half the states allow this metric-only labeling on UPLR goods. The FPLA is next to be revised. Educational magazines in the U.S. are, for the most part, meeting Jeffersonian principles for journalism by using metric units, sometimes alone and sometimes in parallel with non-metric units, in order to "provide for an educated public". A handful of diehard, conservative editors are preventing their magazines from living up to these responsibilities. It is past time for the National Geographic magazine and the Smithsonian magazine to quit living like the spurned spinster in Dickens' "Great Expectations". They need to open their windows to realize that Americans comfortably watched the 2000 Olympic games broadcast almost entirely in metric units and to see that Americans, except for these dusty editors, are seeing metric units with increasing frequency in the marketplace. James R. Frysinger
