Op woensdag 16-06-2010 om 01:42 uur [tijdzone +0300], schreef Tor Lillqvist: > But if one avoids vague generic terms like "Freedom" or loaded words > like "Liberation", what about specific concepts like freedom of the > press, freedom to criticize your government and advocating its > *peaceful* change, freedom to form independent labour unions, freely > elected parliaments; Are such freedoms also just cultural imperialism > in your opinion?
Some people consider parliaments & elections as implemented in most "Western" countries to be undemocratic too; think about how almost all elections contain several filters to "weed out" small or unknown or party-independent or financially-weak candidates before and/or after the elections take place... Now, it seems like the Vietnamese government doesn't like to hear from people who disagree with them, and doesn't treat people who voice such dissident opinions very well. OTOH it also seems like that has somewhat improved during recent years, at least partially because of economic reasons and the related international political influences. More international contact seems to help levelling differences between countries (and that works both ways, to some degree), so maybe we can indirectly help people in Vietnam (and other countries) by not isolating them from the rest of the world, but by helping to open the world for them? -- Jan Claeys _______________________________________________ CREATE mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/create
