On 23 Feb 01, at 14:28, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> John wrote:
>
> << The other problem is that Russia really isn't part of the Western
> intellectual tradition just yet. Democracy is a rather new-fangled
> thing and not totally trusted. As far as treatment of indigenous
> ethnic minorities (i.e. Chechens) they are about where we were 100
> years ago. >>
>
> So there is a unofficial appartied, minorities are dienfranchised,
> and regularly hunted down and lynched by mobs?
>
Well, yes. Don't get me wrong, some terrible things have
happened to African-Americans in the United States. Even to this
day, if I, with my Anglo-Saxon/Spanish heritage and skin color
walk into a bar with one of my black friends, I have an odd
tendency to be served *first*. On the other hand, it would be wrong
to assume that the state of affairs couldn't and isn't worse in other
parts of the world.
The Russian war in Chechnia definately has some factors
contributing to it *other* than a simple desire to hold onto territory.
Does anyone honestly think that what has happened there would
have happened to a predominately Russian Orthodox region of the
country? Is is sheer coincidence that these people are Muslim? I
think not.
Denying rights to public busing is one thing. Hitting said bus with
an artilliary barrage is quite another.
-Brian
