****************** CALL FOR ACTION ****************

Priority:     normal

Background:
  Hungary's position in the Danube lawsuit at the International Court
of Justice in The Hague is very promising. However, even if the court
rules in favour for the environment it is possible that the Slovak
government does not accept the verdict.
  It is important that influential politicians of USA support our
position, since in this case Slovakia probably does not dare to reject
the decision of the court.

What to do:
  Please help to persuade Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to
make a statement in favor of the Danube. Feel free to use the attached
form letter.
   IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALBRIGHT FINDS THOUSANDS OF LETTERS IN HER
MAILBOX.
  PLEASE ACT!! Please SEND EVEN SNAIL MAILS. These are more effective.
FURTHERMORE SEND COPIES OF YOUR LETTER TO:
    Executive Assistant, Maura Harty
    Special Assistant, Carlene Ackerman
    Senior Advisor, Robert O. Boorstin (Room 7246)
    Assistant Secretary for Oceans, & International Environmental and
Scientific Affairs Bureau, Eileen B. Claussen (Room 7831)

address:
United States Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC  20520

e-mail address of Madeleine Albright:


*************************************************************

<date>

The Honorable Madeleine Albright
United States Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
( E-Mail:  )

RE: First Environmental Lawsuit (Danube) in The Hague

Dear Madame Secretary,

Please accept my congratulations on your well-deserved appointment. I
do hope that your leadership will contribute to progress and stability
in Central Europe.

Madame Secretary, you now have a great opportunity to set a new tone
for American policy in connection with international environmental
standards in general and with the Danube lawsuit in particular, which
is in progress at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
This new tone would be consistent with the US policy of expanding
Western structures to Eastern and Central Europe. It would also engage
the US more actively in helping resolve emerging inter-country
conflicts in the Region (i) by urging your West European partners to
assist more pro-actively, and (ii) by calling on both parties (Hungary
and Slovakia) to accept the Compromise Plan prepared by the
environmental NGOs and thereby cooperate in the quest for a solution
that can set an example for the future.

Your help in resolving the Danube problem would also be consistent
with the present US policy based on a global approach to environmental
issues and based on seeking to mobilize all relevant political
(multilateral, international, non-governmental, and civic society)
forces to assist in avoiding environmental catastrophes caused by
bilateral agreements that have been drawn up by non-representative
governments under a regional policy framework which was imposed by
Moscow.

This, the first international environmental lawsuit in human
history, also involves the United States, because it was the Paris
Peace Treaty which set the border between Czechoslovakia and Hungary,
and it was that Treaty which named the Great Powers as the guarantors
of the integrity of the two nations' territories. The Treaty also
stated that the two nations DO NOT have the right to change their
border, unless the Great Powers first approve of the change. Yet in
1977, under Soviet direction, the two nations signed a contract to
move the Danube, previously their border river, into an artificial
canal on Slovak territory. By so doing, they did not ask  nor did they
receive, the approval of the Great Powers. Therefore, the Moscow
initiated 1977 Contract was and is INHERENTLY INVALID, and the Danube
must be returned into its riverbed.

Madame Secretary. There is little question, that in the fall, the
International Court of Justice will order Slovakia to return the
Danube into its natural riverbed and will also order the restoration
of the Szigetkoz wetlands. But, as you know, the ICJ has no powers to
enforce its rulings. Therefore, it will be up to the international
community to force Slovakia to obey the ruling. Since this is the
first international environmental lawsuit before the ICJ, the outcome
will establish an important precedent. It must be understood that
there is a price to be paid for being admitted into the European
Community or into NATO. That price must include respect for
international law. A statement by you, would guarantee that the
parties understand this. Please make that statement.

Respectfully yours,

<Your name, address, title>

At 09:31 PM 5/12/97 +0200, Miklos Hoffmann wrote:

<snip>
>There is no point discussing this "contribution".
>It is comforting, there is someone out there in the possession of THE
>TRUTH and free from bias in the position of judging other people4s being
>biased, Uncle Joe, the Wise.:-)))
>MKH

Get off your high horse, Miklos.  I made a statement of fact and you twist
it by saying that I'm in possession of "THE TRUTH".  What nonsense!  Your
childish response gives credibility to Freud's comment that religion is
"the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity," arising, "like the
obsessional neuroses of children . . . out of the Oedipus complex".

And I never said I was free of bias.  In fact I've been quite clear about
my biases.  On the other hand, you, with your boring Brezhnevian
blandishments, have been judging list members since your arrival.  I just
challenge their ideas.

Joe Szalai

The preponderance of pain over pleasure is the cause of our fictitious
morality and religion.
             -- Nietzsche

>
> My personal belief is that organized religion is sort of a crutch.
> However, I agree with Janos Zsargo in that you more you study nature the
> less you know about it.  And it doesn't matter how you call the Master of
> the Universe or Mother Nature or The Force - it is there to keep order in
> the unvierse.
>
> Agnes

The more we study, the more we discover - including stuff that we
had no idea that we could get to know. Eg. since due to science now we
are aware of sub-atomic particles and suprenova, we want to know more
about them. Our approximations to reality are getting better and better.

Order in the universe? What order? Sorry, but the universe is
not there to please a wierd life-form on a miniscule galaxis.
We are not that important. But lucky to be around for a short
period. Enjoy yourselves, might as well try to know reality as you have
the capacity, try to make it a pleasant innings for everybody else.
There is no need for a Higher Order, thank you very much.


E. Durant

Dear Colleagues,

The OP-ED article in today's NYTimes by president Vaclav Havel, dealing with
NATO and larger issues is both a "must reading" and an opportunity to express
our views and concerns. Please read it.

Best regards: Bela Liptak

> The OP-ED article in today's NYTimes by president Vaclav Havel, dealing with
> NATO and larger issues is both a "must reading" and an opportunity to express
> our views and concerns. Please read it.

Oh, yes, I will just drop in to my local newsagent and buy a copy.

But seriously, why doesn't it occur to people living in the US that not
everybody lives in the US ?  If there were a relevant article in today's
Australian, I would offer some summary of it, rather than calling on the
wide world to read it.

George Antony

At 08:27 AM 5/14/97 +1000, George Antony wrote:
>> The OP-ED article in today's NYTimes by president Vaclav Havel, dealing with
>> NATO and larger issues is both a "must reading" and an opportunity to expres
s
>> our views and concerns. Please read it.
>
>Oh, yes, I will just drop in to my local newsagent and buy a copy.
>
>But seriously, why doesn't it occur to people living in the US that not
>everybody lives in the US ?  If there were a relevant article in today's
>Australian, I would offer some summary of it, rather than calling on the
>wide world to read it.

        You are right, of course: people who live in the United States think
that it is the center of the universe. On the other hand, the New York Times
is an important paper which is available in many countries and most
importantly, there is an easy access to it on the internet. I recommend to
bookmark the site: www.nytimes.com. ESB

S or G Farkas wrote:
>
> At 01:43 PM 5/12/97 +0200, Milos Hoffmann wrote:
>
> >Having "enjoyed"
> >religious education, you may ( I dare say, probably ) happily grow to
> >a tolerant liberal. Else, you probably end up in bare, often aggressive,
> >rejection. My humble statistics point in that direction...I do admit,
> >you may end up as a bigot, as well...independently of the denomination,
> >even as a convinced atheist.
>
> I am a living example contesting your "humble statistics". My parents
> brought me up without any religion whatsoever and so did my wife and myself
> with our son. This does not make any of us an aggressive rejectionist or a
> bigoted atheist. Maybe a little envious though:-)).
>
> Gabor D. Farkas

Mind you, I never said you will definitly end up, brother!
I only said, probably...so you are not contesting my humble statistics.
( Just watch the contributions on the list alone! ).

Envious of what?
MKH

>Dear Colleagues,
>
>The OP-ED article in today's NYTimes by president Vaclav Havel, dealing with
>NATO and larger issues is both a "must reading" and an opportunity to express
>our views and concerns. Please read it.
>
>Best regards: Bela Liptak
>

I have read the article. It expresses what many of us had been thinking. I
think it would be (or would have been) useful to slightly retread NATO and
change its name. To the communists (who still have many adherents in Russia)
as well as to Russin nationalists the term NATO is a pejorative: "the
enemy". On this side of the ocean many think with no more cold war, we don't
need NATO. While these are superficial views, unfortunately there are many
who don't read past the headlines. Let's hope for the best...  Andy

Haliho, Miklos!

At 01:43 PM 5/12/97 +0200, you wrote:
>Johanne L. Tournier wrote:
>>
>> Hi, Agnes et al!
>>
>> At 10:28 PM 5/11/97 GMT, you wrote:
>
>> BTW, I've been enjoying some of your comments and Eva Balogh's as well. It
>> seems to me your situation is one of honest perplexity about what would
>> have been best for your kids. Maybe the problem is aggravated because of
>> the distinctiveness of the Jewish culture from Christian
>
>Oooops? "Christian culture" as culivated by the church(es) over
>2000 years ROOTS in Jewish culture, whether they (I mean both sides)
>like it or not!

Of course I realize that the roots of Christian culture are in Judaism -
but that does not alter the fact that, as I see it, the traditions of
Judaism are quite different from those of the Christian churches. In other
words, I think there is less of a distinction between Roman Catholicism and
most Protestant churches - especially ones like the Anglican or Lutheran -
than there is between those churches and Judaism. I am suggesting that it
is more difficult for parents of the Jewish faith and most Christian
denominations to find a compromise which allows the children to follow the
beliefs of both parents, whereas this is a definite option among most of
the Christian faiths. To say this is not to cast any aspersions on either
Judaism or Christianity, to my way of thinking.

<snip my stuff>
>IMHO, your parents might have been not quite wrong. Having "enjoyed"
>religious education, you may ( I dare say, probably ) happily grow to
>a tolerant liberal. Else, you probably end up in bare, often aggressive,
>rejection. My humble statistics point in that direction...I do admit,
>you may end up as a bigot, as well...independently of the denomination,
>even as a convinced atheist.

It may be that the Presbyterian faith is so antiseptic and intellectual
that it doesn't offer much nourishment for the soul, but I think the
experience of going to church would have been much more rewarding if I had
been there with my parents.

TTFN :-))

Johanne/Janka

Johanne L. Tournier
e-mail - 

>MKH
>

In article >, jeliko
> writes:

>
>I have some 900 references on the subject. I am extracting some which may
be
>of interest to your friend.
>
>

Thanks, Jeliko. I'm printing off your post and will deliver it to Levin
this week. I'm looking forward to talking with him to find out if he flew
any missions over Hungary. He did recently receive a letter from a town in
the Czech Republic which is building a museum dedicated to a large air
battle nearby between the USAAF and the Luftwaffe.
Sam Stowe

"That boy, Frank -- he lives inside
his own heart. That's an awful big
place to live in..."
-- Karl Childers