Nationalities

[Jürgen Hubert]

German. I originally came from Nuremberg, but now I'm living in Aachen, the westernmost city of Germany (and the only German to be occupied by the Allies in 1944).

[Scholar]

Fraconian errr... german, too. Currently living in Würzburg (which was bombed flat, to carry on with the WWII memories).

[Kindling]

Heh, I find it funny the way here in the UK we have this massive cultural memory of the blitz and how terrible it was, and the majority of people forget that afterwards we did the exact same thing to Germany, only probably worse.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Heh, I find it funny the way here in the UK we have this massive cultural memory of the blitz and how terrible it was, and the majority of people forget that afterwards we did the exact same thing to Germany, only probably worse.

There's some anecdote about an Allied commander wanting to drive into Aachen some time after the battle. His driver keeps on driving through a ruined landscape of broken stones. He asks his driver: "When to we get to Aachen?" His driver replies: "Sir, we've entered the city limits half an hour ago..."

Nuremberg was also fairly flattened. My actual home town of Erlangen was lucky - the American forces wanted to capture it intact because they wanted the infrastructure for their field hospitals, so the city was spared.

On the other hand, my mother's home town of Siegen was a major mining center with an important railroad, so it got bombed fairly often. My grandmother also witnessed a strafing run by an Allied fighter, which was a fairly harrowing experience.

[Scholar]

Heh, I find it funny the way here in the UK we have this massive cultural memory of the blitz and how terrible it was, and the majority of people forget that afterwards we did the exact same thing to Germany, only probably worse.

ironic, it was a british bomber wing that wiped out 90% of the city center in a single raid. my grandparents lived over forty kilometers away and they could see the fireglow and hear the explosions. i'm actually pretty happy of the time i live in, when i think of that... especially seeing as würzburg has always been a university town with zero heavy industry. never saw it coming.

[Kindling]

And I'm from Lincolnshire, nicknamed "bomber county".... they probably flew from round the corner from where I used to live....

[Loch Belthadd]

Where I live is where the American army got many of it's uniforms and clothing. My town also manufactured breach casings for 20mm anti-air cannons.

[Stargate525]

When you're people are officially declared to no longer exist how will you feel about it wasicu boy? The broken treaties still exist - and are still violated. This is not ancient history, it is current policy.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's as a political entity that you no longer exist.

And I might be wrong, but usually when a treaty is broken it doesn't stick around to be waved about, except in the case of the Indians.

[Wensleydale]

Whoa, calm down. The things that happened to the native americans were awful, but it wasn't these guys, here, now, that did them. So both of you, peace out! Whew.

Welsh, myself. I was for a while under the impression that my family came (from a few generations ago) from England and Ireland, but I have now discovered that I'm in the paternal line a descendant of a fluent, home-Welsh speaker, whose name was (apparently) Black-Eyes Jimmy. Fascinating fact, eh?

It's also funny how in Britain, we make such an immense issue out of nationalities. Scotland wants to go independent, Ireland (with the exception of parts of Ulster) DID go independent, Wales has its own hardline independence party - even Cornwall has Kerno. We have this immense thing about nationalities up to the point where in any debate we'll automatically side with anyone who's British and not English - up until the point where an American, Frenchman, or practically ANYONE else from another country comes along, at which point we'll all gang up together.

[Elemental_Elf]

It's also funny how in Britain, we make such an immense issue out of nationalities. Scotland wants to go independent, Ireland (with the exception of parts of Ulster) DID go independent, Wales has its own hardline independence party - even Cornwall has Kerno. We have this immense thing about nationalities up to the point where in any debate we'll automatically side with anyone who's British and not English - up until the point where an American, Frenchman, or practically ANYONE else from another country comes along, at which point we'll all gang up together.

You guys should just become a 4 state (at minimum) federation and get it over with. Ya'll have been dragging your feet on this issue, IMO. Better to be a federation than 4 independent nations all under the thumb of the EU.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

You guys should just become a 4 state (at minimum) federation and get it over with. Ya'll have been dragging your feet on this issue, IMO. Better to be a federation than 4 independent nations all under the thumb of the EU.

Nothing precludes them from being a federation under the thumb of the EU.

[Elemental_Elf]

You guys should just become a 4 state (at minimum) federation and get it over with. Ya'll have been dragging your feet on this issue, IMO. Better to be a federation than 4 independent nations all under the thumb of the EU.

Nothing precludes them from being a federation under the thumb of the EU.

Very true but they will have more gravitas as a united federation compared 4 independent nations. England will always have that gravitas, so I suppose it is, in my opinion, in the best interest of Scotland/North Ireland/Wales to play Remora and latch themselves onto the shark that is England while pushing for greater and greater domestic control until Federation is achieved.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Guys (Wenslydale, EE, et al) - no I don't hold anyone *here* as responsible for the things I'm talking about, but as for *now* - I am trying to correct the common error that these are simply matters of ugly history. As I said, they aren't (just) history - they're current policy (in practice as I sit here typing). It should not be difficult to understand why I would take offense at being told to "get over" something which is going on right now. For one of many intro's to relevant current issues see - particularly if you're wondering what the hell I called SG (in Lakota). As for being civil - I'm trying very hard to keep my temper here and will point out that I did not use the word among my (biological) father's people which basically translates as "rabid beast" even though I am, if not quite that pissed, certainly that disgusted.

SG, yes you are mistaken - you are making it ever more clear that you have no inkling of the issue(s) which I initially raised. This is actually true of vast majority of U.S. citizens. The complete absence of any mention of Native issues in recent (and virtually all previous) elections/campaigns in the U.S. might seem to demonstrate that these things have ceased to have any meaning; until you contrast this with Canadian politics in which First Nations issues are an explicit (and absolutely necessary) part of any candidate's platform. The implication your last statement carries with it would be like saying that the Irish people didn't exist while Ireland was ruled by England, that Jews did not exist until Israel was (re)founded or that the Tibetan people do not exist now. You may well have intended to provide clarity and actually (consciously) avoid such an absurd declaration, yet for nearly 90% of the original nations of this land this has been made true - they are extinct. Only a tiny handful of the Forgotten Nations (like the K'Ar) remain, though unrecognized. The remaining, roughly 10%, constitute those Native Nations which are recognized, but whether or not (or more precisely, how) they constitute political entities is an extraordinarily tangled matter as touched upon below.

As for broken treaties sticking around - treaty enforcement is one of the functions of the UN - except in the case of Native Americans, broken treaties *do* stick around - and are held as "treaties in force" by the international community which seeks (with highly varying degrees of success) through various means (e.g., "economic sanctions") to get the violating party(ies) to honor the contract. However, treaties with American Indians (for a partial list see) do not stick around - you will find none of those treaties listed if you search the U.S. Department of State's Treaties in Force. The whole matter of legal cases regarding the (current) honoring and enforcement of treaty terms (often Tribal Hunting and Fishing Rights cases) gets very strange and complicated - because here we are looking at entities which the US Gov't does acknowledge as Sovereign States when it suits them. That's not a facetious statement, Tribal Sovereignty under US policy exists primarily on paper outside of a relatively few specific court rulings enforcing it.

[Cheomesh]

American :(

M.

[Gamer Printshop]

American born, Japanese American, my mom is full blooded Japanese, dad was a sailor...

Thus my mother, as a child, was about 70 miles from Hiroshima when they faced American wrath, which was on the other side of a mountain range, thankfully.

My dad's side is mostly Irish, though my grandmother is of Scottish descent, also got some Amish in the blood, from about 5 generations back, so a tiny bit of German in me too.

Other than a very slight Mongolian fold, no one would guess me for oriental blood.

GP