Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 10:15:35 -0800 tcmay wrote:
While I won't get started again here, understand that my views are much more than just "justifiable apathy" about the people of the world.
Justifiable? I dunno bout that. (Sorry couldn't resist.)
My point? I feel more strongly about the death of one of my pets than I do about hearing that some natural catastrophe in Bangla Desh has killed 100,000. And I think all honest persons will admit that this is a natural reaction. The "Hamming distance" matters, and people I have never met on the opposite side of the earth simply are _abstract numbers_ to me, as I am to them. Natural.
"Natural" is a dangerous word to use. I hadn't met any of the people involved in the Oklahoma bombing, nor had most of the world, yet there was worldwide condemnation of the event. I hadn't met any of Hitler's concentration camp victims but I'm still outraged at these events. There are tangents and there are skew lines. Oh yeah why people think I'm making an attack on Tim's character, his looks, or whatever I don't understand, all I'm doing is criticising something he wrote. Where Walter Wriston/Third World debt is concerned the events are not natural, we'r not talking about a flood, which is a "natural" event but the actions of a man, or if you prefer an organisation. There is nothing "natural" about these. A country in debt to the IMF/World Bank or Citibank must accept "Stabilisation Policies" : "stabilisation policies are often viewed as measures designed primarily to maintain poverty and dependency of Third World nations while preserving the global market structure for the industrialised nations." - "Economics for a Developing World", M P Todaro. this is also known as "debt slavery". Not so good eh? Zaid