<x-rich>I bet I can think of a "diamond-shaped" society before the present day America.
Apartheid-era South Africa! All they had to do was define anybody not of European descent as a non-citizen. Presto! So, in this era of a global economy, we can talk of the "diamond-shaped" economic structure by ignoring the rest of the planet. I got to thinking about this when reading <fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger><bigger>http://www.harpers.org/online/c ool_war/?pg=1</bigger></bigger></fontfamily> , which features the provocative subtitle "<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger><bigger>Economic sanctions as a weapon of mass destruction</bigger></bigger></fontfamily>." Here's a tidbit from it: "<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger><bigger>In the late 1980s the mortality rate for Iraqi children under five years old was about fifty per thousand. By 1994 it had nearly doubled, to just under ninety. By 1999 it had increased again, this time to nearly 130; that is, 13 percent of all Iraqi children were dead before their fifth birthday. For the most part, they die as a direct or indirect result of contaminated water. "The United States anticipated the collapse of the Iraqi water system early on. In January 1991, shortly before the Persian Gulf War began and six months into the sanctions, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency projected that, under the embargo, Iraq's ability to provide clean drinking water would collapse within six months.</bigger></bigger></fontfamily> ..." Now, if we're messing with a place to such an extent -- to prevent operations of, say, sewage treatment plants -- don't the people of that place have to count when we're bragging about "diamond-shaped" economic structures?</x-rich> --- * [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://just-john.com/cn/rfe.shtml * _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
