Dear Louis, Yglesias's opinion is particularly awful not only because of its "moral" view but also because of bad journalism.
First, he appears not to know that there are already existing building standards in Bangladesh appropriate to the soil and geo-physical conditions of the country and for the metro area. It is fairly clear that site owners failed to follow the standards because of trying to cut costs and pocket more profits. Yes, different countries and regions should have different standards, but not for the reasons that he think because it is warranted by standard engineering and scientific knowledge and assessment of the type of vulnerability. Second, he holds the notion that the life of a Bangaldeshi has less intrinsic valuable that of a Western person. This is the old imperialist and racist view, not different from those propagated by the worst regimes of history and often the basis of great atrocities. Clearly even a "liberal" like Matt Yglesias has not learnt anything. That's a shame. I am shocked but not surprised, frankly, at this form of crude and vulgar thinking, which presumably Western liberals had shunned after the civil rights movement in the U.S. and other such efforts in the capitalist countries. Is he back to the view that just because a person is of different nationality, he or she does not feel pain or suffering? How low can one sink? Has Yglesias lost any sense of decency? Tanweer _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
