The news on BBC radio this morning is that India and Pakistan are now
poised right on the edge of war and that Pakistan is appealing for
international help in calming the conflict. It is difficult for us in the
west (at least, it is difficult for me) to appreciate the intensity of the
tensions that have existed between these countries for many years, but it
seems very serious at the moment. (And, even if the present tensions die
away somewhat, the animosity between them will continue for many years
longer.)
As many longer-standing FWers will know, I am an opponent of the sort of
nation-state government that probably came to a climax in the first half of
the last century leading to two World Wars. However, I am not an opponent
of government per se. What I've been trying to suggest for some time now is
we need all manner of different sorts of government wit different spans of
responsibility according to different functions -- for purposes of
freshwater control, pollution, trade, and so on.
And, in the case of this conflict, we really need a major military power
that has the capability to order both India and Pakistan to desist from
further sabre-rattling, and to insist on negotiations between them until
the conflict is sorted out permanently (my own guess being that Kashmir
should be given independence). Also, there are many other examples around
the world where minorities are cruelly persecuted and need to be rescued
from oppression.
The problem is that America is the only power that would be able to do
this. Unfortunately America is still a nation-state. Even if it acted
responsibility and objectively in one conflict or another, its own
interests would come foremost in many others.
Anyway, that's enough on that. It sounds a serious situation just at the
moment.
Keith Hudson
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�Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in
order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow
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Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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