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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 07:47am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5023 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Integration

integration

... inclusion or incorporation of a migrant into the host country’s society.

Integration means equal participation and at the same time preservation of one’s own identity, religion and culture.

The will to integrate on part of the immigrant and receptiveness on part of the receiving society are essential for integration.

Integration includes an agreement on common values and is fundamental for the coherence and the stability of a society.

Nationality can be one "objective" criteria for integration; the "subjective" sensation of integration though can differ significantly from that.

(from above http://www.reintegration.net/europa/glossar_engl.htm )

Host Country - one that is not your own.

lchic - 07:51am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5024 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Many people feel 'unwelcome' within their own country.

Their nation of birth may not be functioning to include them.

This may happen where a country is run by dominant groups who degrade minority cultures.

The current call for nations to be based on 'religion' rather than CIVIC-CIVIL values may be good for prejudice and retoric - BUT - no country can run via religion .... because all countries tend to have people from 'everywhere' within them.

lchic - 07:54am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5025 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

When people 'look back' to another age, another time, back into 'supposed' history ....

The reality is they live in the NOW!

Their interpretation of past history may be a fossilised-frozen past, or, an imagined past.

People always live in the NOW

They can't return to the past

Which raises the point

WHY AREN'T THEY DEALING WITH THE NOW ???

What's so 'unpleasant' about the NOW that they can't handle it?

lchic - 07:59am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5026 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Those looking away from the NOW

think they can gain an advantage

over others - by doing so

They may assume they had a greater wealth or power base - in the then, a then that they can't interpret nor understand.

A point about people is they may feel comfortable about the past .... it's gone ... you don't have to handle it, to deal with it.

The past can be painted up and selectively remembered.

The past can be re-invented.

The past is a conservative thinking pattern - in which some security or preferences may be 'assumed' (even if they were never there).

Everybody can play with 'the past'

The danger to the world is the failure of leaders to recognise and contend with 'the now'.

lchic - 08:03am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5027 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

International law should look to all societies and nation states being 'civil' ...

If people want to contemplate spiritutality in a specific way - then they should be FREE (not told) to do so.

The churn of refugees and migrants represents people who are often being trapped in the misinterpretation of 'the NOW'.

This churn involves increasing numbers.

There has to be failure in many many situations to allow people to live and prosper in the NOW.

lchic - 08:04am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5028 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

International bodies should look towards all people 'feeling comfortable' and 'wanted' within their own cultures and societies.

lchic - 08:08am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5029 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

People are the most magnificent versitile machines - ever.

To reconstruct a person - you can't!

Each person is 'invaluable'!

And yet, because there is no 'price' on a person, no attributed value - there is often a failure to acknowledge

Human CAPITAL

Human potential

Human contribution

Human value

Sometimes people just don't figure on national balance sheets as a plus!

(18 following messages)

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