Xenophobia and sticking to the point

["Stephen Cole" <sjcole@iinet.net.au>]

On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Roberto Gaetano wrote:
>
>> I'm not a lawyer, I don't argue on the legal matter.
>> I'm not a historian either, so I'll ask confirmation, but I seem to
>> remember that Switzerland was a Democracy since its birth (thirteenth
>> century, I believe).
>> Only males had the right to vote, but this is a minor problem when you
.
Then Heather Islip replied:
.
>A minor problem for males, of course.  Would you care to remind
>your audience of precisely when women in this wonderful example
>of "democracy" were condescendingly awarded the vote?  Five years
>ago?  Ten maybe?
>And is it still the case that only women over 30 years old are
>considered mature enough to vote?
>Somehow this description of Switzerland as Utopia is less than
>convincing.
And then Bob had the insight to write:
"American and Canadian problems will
be ignored in far away Switzerland..."
.
Far away? Far away? Far away from whom? This is the kind of xenophobic
jingoism that gives Americans a bad rep. I didn't know Canadians saw
themselves as at the centre of the civilised world too. Perhaps a vicarious
centre.
.
And Jim Dixon refers to moving
"the .com registry from the West
Coast to the East Coast, to a location much closer to the demographic
center of the US."
.
Is this the problem? Is it that Switzerland is even further from "the
demographic centre of the US" than Virginia?
.
I know they (most of them) speak 2 or 3 foreign tongues (including usually
our own), which makes them a bit disconcerting for us Anglophones. But apart
from that I hear "The Swiss" (as a sort of broad class, as the "other") are
much like the British and North Americans.
.
Do you think, with billions of Asians, Europeans, Africans, etc in this
world that the US will dominate the numbers online for ever?
.
All this rubbish about how hard it is for North Americans to deal with
anything beyond their shores is gormless twaddle. How does an African or a
Tasmanian take action against a US body?
.
Do you think it's easy for them? Of course not. But you think that the
current situation, which you argue is to the advantage of North Americans,
should continue as it is.
.
Frankly, I think it's commendable that CORE is setting up in a state that
symbolises (rightly or wrongly, it *does*) internationalism for the handful
of unfortunates that don't live in North America.
.
And I'm sorry  that women got the vote so recently in Sw. In fact, to their
shame, I think there's still a canton or two where women are deemed not to
have to bother with all that. But I guess it's been a while since they had a
lynching. I s'pose they haven't recently slaughtered 200,000 Iraqi civilians
in an effort to protect their supply lines. And probably they haven't
inflicted anything like Oprah on the world. Shall we go on? Would you like
to counter with some more Swiss crimes? Perhaps chuck in a few Aussie and
British transgressions as well?
.
Alternatively, we could just stick to the issues. This argument has
degenerated to the question: Are "The Swiss" worthy stewards of the TLDs? It
might surprise some to find that there are those who worry about "The
Americans" having control. You're *never* going to answer this. Stick to the
point.
.
Stephen Cole
BIBLIOS PTY LTD
Western Australia
sjcole@iinet.net.au
Here be dragons