Re: [OT] Software Engineering at 14

[Markus Mottl <mottl@miss.wu-wien.ac.at>]

In comp.lang.functional Karel Th�nissen <thoenissen@hello.nl> wrote:
> This minister was fired within a week, so the similarity with many of
> the countries mentioned earlier is rather weak: they did as they
> preached.

So what? Our president refused the appointments of two ministers and
this "only", because they had made statements with a racist touch -
something which is not too uncommon among foreign politicians of even
"politically correct" parties either. Other ministers were fired out of
different reasons, none of them being related to racist or extremist
activities. I think that our democratic institutions still work fine
(which doesn't mean that I am happy about our current government).

> Bollocks. The minister of foreign affairs was the federal minister. The
> person that you call minister of internal affairs was not a federal
> minister: he was minister of internal affairs for Flanders. Note that
> he did not survive the political debate within the Flemish parliament.

Right, but this just makes the situation even more interesting: how comes
that a country (Belgium) that attempts to stand as one has different
governments for, ahem, different ethnic groups (regions)? Does the
term "Vlaams Blok" ring a bell (and Sauwens isn't even member of this
extreme-right party so better don't ask how extremist those are!)? Have
you ever heard of ethnic clashes in Austria with Slovenian or Hungarian
minorities? I haven't. Just to make sure, I am not bashing Belgium
as a whole.  It's only double moral if people of a country that has
sufficient problems with the extreme right point with a finger and say
"All of you ...".

In any case, it doesn't make things any better that Sauwens does not
represent the whole of Belgium. Even if it was "only" Flanders, he still
had enough representative power to be internationally known (e.g. I
remember that he once visited Austria to establish economic connections).

Again: what is so bad about Austria (or so good about other countries)
that even some people of technically oriented newgroups can't resist the
temptation of bashing it as a whole (rather than specific aspects)? I
have never given my vote to any right-winged party so how do I deserve
reading criticism that is general enough to cover even me? Don't you
realize that this kind of generalizing, simple-minded criticism is
exactly what right-winged politicians need to gain votes?

Regards,
Markus Mottl

-- 
Markus Mottl, mottl@miss.wu-wien.ac.at, http://miss.wu-wien.ac.at/~mottl