First I would like to thank those in OZ for
providing sharper perspectives and analyses
for all of us. I have long supported an end to
military aid by the US to Indonesia and have supported independence for
East Timor. But I must say that I am
watching these recent developments very warily. Do we
really know what is going on?
In any case, in light of that and the thread on
geezers in academia, I thought I would throw something
out about teaching and all this, at least my teaching. I
teach in a pretty conservative school and regularly teach
Principles of Economics. Needless to say it is a constant
effort to try to shake these people up and make them think
etc etc etc. A lot of them are business majors who don't
even want to be in there and resent the hell out of me.
Aware of this on the first day of the semester I always
give a "pep talk" on why studying economics is important
even if someone finds it boring or hard. I usually give a
speech about how many world events are driven from
behind the scenes by economic motives, even if these do
not determine everything, and usually give some provocative
examples. During most of this decade I have been stuck
on providing a particular contrast, namely that between US
policy in Kuwait and the Persian Gulf and that in East Timor.
It usually is not hard to get students to recognize that the
reason the US fought the PG war was because of oil and
not particularly because of all the highblown rhetoric about
defending poor little Kuwait against an allegedly evil invader.
But then I would point out that the legal situation has been
almost the same with East Timor, invaded in 1975 by a much
larger and more powerful neighbor illegally, an invasion
condemned by the UN. But nobody was doing anything about
it. Why not?
Of course this became a lesson in other things
as well, since, hey, we are supposed to be teaching students
about "global awareness" as well as "critical thinking" (or at
least we used to be supposed to be doing that before the
latest round of dumbing down the curriculum really got going).
I would ask, "Can anyone tell us where East Timor is and
who its powerful invading neighbor is?" Sometimes I would
actually get somebody who would know. But more often
nobody could answer either question. I would then give hints,
such as that the invading neighbor has the fourth largest
population in the world (this would allow for asking who has
the first, second, and third largest populations, which seems
to be easier to get out of them), and that it has the largest
Muslim population of any nation in the world. If this did not
draw forth an answer (sometimes by now it was guessed) I
would start asking them where in the world we are talking
about? Usually by the time it got pinned down to Southeast
Asia somebody would finally get it.
Anyway, it has proven to be useful exercise in political
economy. I shall not mourn if it disappears as an example
due to East Timor finally achieving its independence, although
I suppose none of us should hold our breaths too long over
what form that might take.
Barkley Rosser
