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spikegifted - Random thoughts |
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| Yasser Arafat? |
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November 04, 2004 Yasser Arafat is severly ill. He was flown to a hospital in Paris. You can read some details about the situation here. My question is this: Who would replace him if he died? --- November 08, 2004 quote: quote: taken from World on Fire (How Exporting Free-Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred & Global Instability), Amy Chua, 2003. --- November 20, 2004 quote: There are more and more people going to and graduating from universities in the UK, but having a degree doesn't necessarily guarantee 'intelligence'... There are many undergrad degrees being offered that don't worth the paper they're written on. I just picked an university near where I live and work and went to see what undergraduate courses they offered. Now, I'm not trying to picky, I just chose a random alphabet and see what they offered: C: quote: Chemical Engineering (IEng accreditation applied for) BSc/BSc (Hons) Citizenship Studies BA (Hons) (What?) Citizenship Studies (combined honours route) BA (Hons) City & Guilds 1204 NVQ in Craft Baking Level 2 City & Guilds 1205 Craft Baking (Technical Operations) Level 3 Centra 711 Basic and Advanced Pastrycooks and Patissiers RIPHH First Certificate in Food Hygiene CIEH Intermediate Hygiene Cert Ed City & Guilds 1205 NVQ Craft Baking (Technical Operations) Centra 138 Wired Sugar Flowers (Basic and Stage 2) Centra 139 Introductory and Immediate Cake Decorating Centra 711 Basic and Advanced Pastrycooks and Patissiers CIEH Intermediate Civil Engineering BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering BSc (Hons) Commercial Management (Quantity Surveying) BSc (Hons) Computer Aided Design BSc (Hons) Computer Aided Engineering BSc (Hons) Computer Aided Engineering (HND top-up) BSc (Hons) Computer Systems & Networks BEng (Hons) Computing BSc (Hons) Computing (combined honours route) BSc(Hons) Computing Studies (HND top-up) BSc (Hons) Construction Management BSc (Hons) Contemporary Theatre Studies (combined honours route) BA( Hons) Creative Writing (subject to validation) BA (Hons) Criminology BSc(Hons) Criminology
(combined honours route) You're free to make up your mind. --- November 21, 2004 quote: [spike tries to stop laughing and type...] That's like saying "Iraq has/had WMD." [spike gives up typing and carries on laughing...] --- November 21, 2004 quote: I know that the cold fusion fuss was about - I was watching the development of all of that with a large degree of interest. I just thought it was rather like what happened prior to the invasion of Iraq: - someone said something that seem to be nearly true, with supporting 'evidence'. - some other people got very excited about that something and tried very hard to convince others that something is a good thing (TM). - but others thought this something is a red herring / white elephant / pile of lies (delete as appropriate) and said it was just so. - in the end, after all the hu-blah, it turned out that something was nothing and the reputations of those who originally proposed the something and those who supported the something suffered. See the parallel? --- November 21, 2004 quote: I'm sorry, I must have missed something in the past couple decades... My mom keeps telling me that living in a cave really doesn't do my general knowledge any good. With that in mind, can you kindly point out some useful articles you can find to help me understand what Saddam was up to that you would consider genocide and ethnic cleansing. --- November 21, 2004 rmn is a lot faster on the trigger on this one than I'm... As he's kindly mentioned, Saddam was very 'democratic' about the abuse he dished out - basically anyone he didn't like. Some international organizations are/were keen to point out the injustices against the Kurds (which was true) and the marsh Arabs (they're still Arabs), which I think has heighten your attention. However, others (such as Amnesty International, which the US isn't that keen on) have been publishing article after article about Saddam's atrocity. The attacks dished out against those he didn't like spread evenly among all population groups: Shi'a & Sunni Muslims/Arabs, Christians, Kurds, Armenians and other minorities. I can accept the claim of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but genocide (the critical element is the presence of an "intent to destroy", which can be either "in whole or in part", groups defined in terms of nationality, ethnicity, race or religion) is a little too precise. He just didn't like anyone who dare to offend him. Simple. [Note: I see the US is very keen not to address the injustices against the Native Americans carried out all those years ago...] --- November 22, 2004 quote: Well, may be I just have wild imagination (and I'm kinda like imagining things, anyway), but I find it rather appropriate to link the plight of the Palestinians and those of the Native Americans: - They've both been driven off their ancestral homeland by outsiders (OK the Zionist can claim that their ancestors once lived there...) - Both people have been denied their 'rights' (different interpretations of 'rights' in these cases) - The perpetrators of these 'crimes' have consistently denied they've done anything wrong. It is a bit like what Iris Chang's famous description of the 'Rape of Nanking': the 'first rape' was when the original injustice was carried out and 'second rape' is when people choose to turn a blind eye on the injustice and refuse to do anything about it. --- November 22, 2004 quote: First of all, I believe rmn has forwarded a very detailed answer that I have little need to add to. As he has kindly pointed out, on the whole, what European colonials did was to ‘promote’ trade. While I strongly disagree with colonialism, it did not result in genocide. Subjugation and exploitation, yes to both - those were what colonialism eventually boiled down to. I would be the first person to admit that a lot of things Europeans did to natives, wherever they were, were not nice (and I were a white European, I think I’d be ashamed of it). However, there was no systematic campaign to kill the natives or to drive them out of their lands. They were largely ‘employed’ or enslaved by the Europeans. --- November 22, 2004 quote: The trail of tears, ever hear of it? The U.S. employed a tacic the Brittish used earlier. 1) They made the indians women and children march from the south east to oklahoma in the winter with hardly any food or supplies 2) On the way they gave them wool blankets to keep warm. 3) Before they gave them the wool blankets the army exposed the blankets to small pox. 4) thousands died. By the way the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to move the Indians but the president did it anyway. Worcester v. Georgia So the supreme
court seemed to think it was wrong assh*le. I've just three points: 1) I'm just curious which part of my post that you quoted indicated that I'm insane. 2) I've heard of Trail of Tears. Can you enlighten me in which part of my post would lead you to link European colonists/imperialists (British in particular, as you have kindly pointed out) with that particular sorry affair? And since when does the Supreme Court dictated or prevented the genocidal practices? 3) Yes, I have one and am using it regularly and I hope you have and you do too. |