On Fri, 18 Aug 2006, Hatunen wrote:

To confuse matters even more, each of us Americans are citizens of the
state in which we reside, as well as citizens of the United States of
America. In the EU each person is a citizen of the his or her state
(to use the more general meaning) as well as a citizen of the EU.

I believe we Europeans fail to see US "states" (or even brazilian or
mexican "states") to be of the same rank as European states. Canadians
call similar entities "provinces" which is more up to our feeling.

So what now constitutes a "country"?

And a "nation" ?

And let's not even get into the question of Flnders v Wallonia or
England v Scotland. Or maybe we should.

The impression is that for us a state or nation has something to do
first with a language, then with the "rule" or "rulers" (in the past I'd
said with "a king", now I say "either a republican ordering or a king"),
and perhaps with religion (remember also the "cuius regio eius
religio").

Where the 3 things do not coincide, it is likely there are troubles (or
there have been at some time in history).

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
is a newsreading account used by more persons to
avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected.
Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so.