抓取时间:2014年11月13日 16:57:55
网址:http://northcentralplains.org/
标题:Europe's North Central Plains
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Welcome to northcentralplains.eu
What are Europe’s North Central Plains?
It is roughly the area between the Elbe River in the West, the Neman (Memel / Niemen) River in the East, the Baltic Sea in the North and various mountain ranges in the South. 
Source of original map: Wikimedia Commons
Why is this area so important to give it a new name?
History repeats itself.  If one country takes territory away from another country in a war, sooner or later there will be another war, and the lost territory will be taken back again …  then the cycle begins anew.  
Germany lost one third of its territory mostly to Poland during both world wars.  If we have learned anything from history at all, at one point in time Germany will want its lost land back.  And after that, Poland will want it back, etc., etc., etc. 
Source: Wikimedia Commons
To break this cycle is not easy.  But since nobody is thinking seriously about starting a war with Poland, we right now have an extraordinary opportunity to lay the foundation for history not to repeat itself again.  Perhaps we have a 100 year window.  
European unification after World War II has greatly contributed to making war in North Western Europe unthinkable for the moment.  We are on the right track.  The tighter countries are willing to integrate themselves, the lower the chance of a military conflict.  Scarcely a Californian will be willing to risk his or her life to conquer Las Vegas for California.   
Europe faces the additional hurdle of language barriers which delineate cultures from each other.  A step one can take to meet another country half way is to introduce multi-lingual signs, just as in airports.  Officially bi-lingual locales have so far only been created out of necessity.  Brussels is a good example.  But there is no reason why this cannot be done voluntarily.  If you see your own language in a foreign country, you immediately feel welcomed.  
But there certainly also has to be a third neutral language which everybody has in common.  The obvious choice is English.  It is neutral, because it is in no way connected to any Polish-German conflict.  
And, it would be nice to have some territorial identity.  The Elbe River to the West, the Neman (Memel / Niemen) River to the East, the Baltic Sea in the North, and various mountain ranges in the South outline Europe’s North Central Plains.  Eventually, we would want people living in this area to think of themselves not only as Germans or Poles, but to answer a question like, ‘where are you from?’ with: “I am from the North Central Plains.”  
How do you create a territorial identity like that?  
First of all through radio stations.  They could be called Northcentral 1, Northcentral 2, and Northcentral 3.  They would broadcast strictly in English, and from a “neutral” location, like a “no-man’s-island” in the middle of the Oder River.  
It would only work if these radio stations were outrageously successful, and if they kept promoting the idea of a common geogr