On 10/26/06, Mark Lause <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yoshie has defined the West as including Japan.
Yes, some of the elements that I have discussed in my criticisms of the predominant Western leftist tendency toward the rest of the world, I used to have, and others I still have. For one thing, say, 10 years ago, I said just about the same thing about Iran as Doug and left it at that, but since then I have done quite a bit of readings on Iran, and over time my view of the country has changed greatly. Learning about facts can open some minds, provided minds are open. For another thing, I also get rather excited whenever folks in countries whose governments I do not favor muster some numbers in the streets, with prominent participation of workers, calling for an end to corruption, highlighting grievances of workers let go due to economic liberalization, and so forth. For instance, in February this year in the midst of a protest movement against the Thaksin government in Thailand, I received and published this article: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/daeng140206.html>. Now, it's a decent article, but in light of subsequent development (a royal-military coup!) and information (the Thaksin government apparently less corrupt than protesters alleged), I rather think that the article was a little too optimistic about the protests, should have gone more in detail to clarify the mixed-bag nature of the protest movement, should have provided a more balanced assessment of the Thaksin government, and probably should have included an analysis of the Thai military's view of the Thaksin government and the protest movement, so the reader could consider the possibility of a coup. Not that such a change in this article would have made a difference to Thais in this case, but the tale serves as a cautionary one. Be careful about wishing for a good shaking up of other peoples' governments, especially ones that Washington is trying to shake up anyhow (which is the case in Iran, though probably it wasn't the case in Thailand). -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
