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- From: pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis)
- Newsgroups: talk.environment
- Subject: Re: "Keep Your Pollution!" (Article)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul29.184512.13509@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Date: 29 Jul 92 18:45:12 GMT
- References: <3595@execu.execu.com> <1992Jul28.211303.1784@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <3596@execu.execu.com>
- Sender: news@beaver.cs.washington.edu (USENET News System)
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
- Lines: 71
-
- In article <3596@execu.execu.com> mike@execu.execu.com (Mike McCants) writes:
- >In article <1992Jul28.211303.1784@beaver.cs.washington.edu> pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:
- >>In article <3595@execu.execu.com> mike@execu.execu.com (Mike McCants) writes:
- >>>Wow, what a neat proposal. Let's have a UN body that is responsible
- >>>to no electorate (but to the "votes" of the "East"?) make our
- >>>economic and political decisions. Not much point in having a
- >>>presidential election, is there?
- >>
- >>Welcome to the Third World Mr. McCants. I would hope your sense of
- >>empathy for the lives of many citizens of most of the world would be
- >>heightened by sharing in the experience of powerlessness. In case its
- >>not obvious, substitute "East" with "West" in the above, and position
- >>yourself in India or elsewhere. Yeah, its a gross simplification, but
- >>it carries a subtle truth.
- >>
- >
- >I can't make much sense out of what I think you said.
-
- >I don't expect to "share in their experience of powerlessness" until
- >Clinton takes office in January. Are you claiming that the UN responds
- >to the wishes of the West?
-
- The UN has been in existence for about 40 years. For most of its
- existence, it has been dominated by a handful of countries, notably
- those that gave themselves a seat on its Security Council. In the last
- decade, many small countries have come up with some moderately
- successful strategies to combat this domination. It may or may not be
- coincidental that over the same period, the interest of the previously
- dominant nations in the role of the UN has diminished.
-
- I disagree. Let's have a vote to shut down
- >the UN and see who really wants to keep it. Let's see if those who
- >benefit from its programs want to keep it and those who pay are willing
- >to abolish it.
-
- Lets hold that vote in 1955, and see who wants to keep it then.
-
- >I don't see any subtle truths here.
-
- Perhaps your sense of history is as weak as your parochialism is
- strong. Perhaps my writing is as muddy as my ideas.
-
- >If they are powerless, is it because they voluntarily gave up
- >their power?
-
- If I were from a country like Panama, Nicaragua, Vietnam,
- Cambodia, the Phillipines or Puerto Rico, I would personally attend to
- your assassination.
-
- However, since I originate from a nation that did the same thing to
- India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, most of Africa and parts of the middle
- East, I'll just admit my complicity in it all.
-
- "Voluntarily gave up their power" - are you deliberately insulting, or
- have you never met anyone from a country screwed over by the west ?
-
- > The UN will soon give
- >us $4/gal gasoline. Then I will no longer pay more in insurance
- >than I do for fuel.
-
- What a tragedy. Maybe the rest of your life will start to reflect the
- actual cost of supporting it, too. I lived happily in a country where
- gasoline cost $4/gal (or its time-adjusted equivalent)for most of my
- life. Only the advent of Thatcher and her fellow stooges, coupled with
- a longing for some real wilderness close by, forced me out. Let me
- assure you that $4/gal is not the end of the world, and on the
- contrary, could be the start of the real one.
-
- -- paul
- --
- "Fun" is a word invented by advertising executives to sell soft drinks.
-