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Just one question for all…why is this discussion taking place in the context of living “harmoniously” with the native population of Costa Rica? My guess is if you could afford it, you’d be on the Rive Gauche sipping espressos and wondering why you weren’t alive in the 20’s. DaDa lives!
Do you really believe that choosing to live in harmony within Costa Rica somehow requires that you first disconnect all of your neural synapses and turn into a babbling idiot? Or is that the pre-requisite you’re assuming for those that live in the lap of luxury? Which can describe many people I know in CR, in the US and for all I know, it may describe some in this Forum, but certainly does not assure a high level of intelligence by any measure I’ve read about. In either case, the economic status or location of an individual has nothing to do with the level of intelligence anyone can possess or express…People just aren’t that simple Edlreed….I have certainly had the honor of reading incredibly intelligent and insightful thoughts on this site–even among other thoughts that differ from mine, but differing opinions need to be read with an open mind. By the way, what is a well documented sign of intelligence is an open mind…
And how much of the problem in Darfur is related to oil? Don’t have to dig too deeply to find out the answer to that question. The only worthy causes we engage in are those that will benefit certain people and corporations. We’re just not that altruistic to do something that would benefit the people of the country we are destroying in the name of greed.
Did you know that private contributions from US citizens are so large that they’re actually considered by many along with formal government aid given to other countries? The American public has shown to be genuinely generous to others in times of need over and over again, BUT the gov’t (with our tax dollars) and corporations (with our consumer support) are another issue altogether—with them, there will NEVER be a “free lunch” and just as it didn’t matter when women were being hung and tortured on the soccer fields of Afghanistan by the Taliban BUT suddenly became a newsworthy item to add to the legitimacy of the US intervention-(and I’m not even discussing the legitimacy factor of that war or whether we should intervene anywhere for that matter) just about having the strength of character to denounce something when that’s what’s called for before having the gall to begin a “holy war” from a secular state by declaring others as evil. Now we see the official rhetoric on Darfur and I actually hope something is done to stop this genecide(which many private citizens around the world have been trying to stop for a long time). I’m sure the US will now figure some “worthy cause” in Iran where we will be “freeing them” from something or other–most probably freeing those “poor Iranian people” from their current sociopathic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad–because I guess Ayatollah Khamenei in the 80s was not enough of a lunatic!!! I agree with Maravilla (read other thread “First Time Out”). What needs to be addressed is the illegitimacy of only standing up and saying that torture, rapes, killings and mutilations based on someone’s gender, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or ethnicity is abhorrent ONLY –when and if– companies in the US have an economic gain to be had and not before then when these actions are being committed for all to see. This is not only self serving—it’s unethical and collusional behavior because of the obvious political, economic and military power the US yields–at least for now….
Edited on Nov 12, 2007 08:37
Darfur IS about oil. Just look at the heavy presence of the Chinese who are busy drilling away, with help from the US. If people would pay attention to world events, instead of watching mind-numbing reality shows, and thinking they are getting real news from the networks or fascist-owned Fox News and Murdoch’s other rag papers, then there might really be some outrage at the state of the world and it’s unquenchable thirst for oil and the millions of people who have to die so we can have it to fill up our Bummers and all those other gas hogs that Americans are addicted to. Ah, but the hand of power is choking the Fourth Estate so unless folks actually dig deep for the truth, they haven’t a clue what’s going on anywhere in the world, much less their own country.
Of course it is Maravilla…unfortunately, real people are stuck in the struggle and their pain is just as real whether the underlying cause is oil or not. Just like going into Afghanistan had nothing to do with helping those tortured women or how now relieving the Iranian people and the rest of the world of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not be the real reason to attack Iran…
Edited on Nov 12, 2007 09:08
The people of the US do need to pay attention to the civil liberties that our forefathers fought and died for and that this administration is striipin away all under the guise of “fighting terrorism”! What a crock! The only terrorists we have to fear are those running the “show” all for their own greed and profit! Look at the profits of all the big oil companies; the profits of the former employer of both Bush and Cheney; the list goes on and on! Nobody is willing to even think that the US is capable of destroying the WTC all as a ruse to drum up support for invading Iraq which presented us with no threat! We knew exactly what arms they had as we sold them to them when they were fighting Iran. Now we are beating the war drums for invading Iran because they have the balls to stand up to the US and tell us to go pound sand! How dare they! we’ll show them…round up the Marines and then we’ll pound them into oblivion! People in the US are way too preoccupied with their own pathetic little sniveling lives to care about the important issues and get these clowns out of office and restore this country to the once great country it once was! Vote Liberation and get “Big Brother” out of your lives and enjoy the principles guaranteed to us by the founding fathers! Throw off those shackes and rejoice in your new found FREEDOMS!!! Stand up and make a difference!!! what do you have to lose? A home which is mortgaged to the hilt, so that you can afford a new Hummer, and your Starbucks every morning? Is that what is keeping you compliant with this Administration and the money mongers? If so than these words will have no affect on you as you’re already a lost soul!
I will not speak for Maravilla, she’s certainly very capable of speaking for herself, but that’s not what I came away with from her posting and it wasn’t what I was proposing either. I don’t recall the US ever invading South Africa to stop Apartheid and yet the goal was accomplished because the nations of this world spoke out and put their money where there mouths were. Nations and people around the globe stopped investing in and stopped consuming from companies that did business with the South African government which upheld the Apartheid philosophy and seemed to think that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. After the monetary loss not only to So. Africa, but to transnational corps doing business there, change followed. We can’t sit here and expect to stop the genocide in Darfur while still investing in Sudan or any company that does business with Sudan–no matter how many military interventions the US or the UN make…When governments and big business care only about money (and it isn’t always this way nor does it have to be to be for a company to be profitable), then that’s the variable you need to manipulate in order for them to listen and change their actions–It’s worked before and it’s not based on the loss of life–I would think that this option needs to be fully exhausted before ever considering any other …
The Founding Fathers invaded Tripoli to fight terrorism… if you think the US destroyed the World Trade Center, you are the lost soul.
Tripoli (Libya) has been invaded by many armies throughout the ages, but the United States Founding Fathers most certainly did NOT invade it, but this administration just might before this whole disgraceful period is over. I happen to think very highly of much of what the Founding Fathers did and thought.You might be interested to know that under the definition of terrorist, England might have thought just that of our Founding Fathers (Make no mistake, ours was a REVOLUTION in every sense of the word not just in name and we did not have the military capacity of the British at the time so we had to make due in many ways)–good thing for us we weren’t so caught up in semantics at the time and well, we had home advantage! And it wasn’t that the word terrorism wasn’t part of the vernacular used during those times since it was employed during the French Revolution often (which was in many ways an inspiration to our very own….)– it was that we didn’t engrave that name on anyone that was different from us. One of the criteria for nominating something part of terrorism or not has been whether that use of force was LEGITIMATE (a point I have been trying to make all along); however, we also must remember that history is first written by the victors and then if we’re lucky, more disclosure may be achieved by those that dare to question it. Whether State sponsored or group sponsored, killing civilians to make others submit to your will and ideology is incredibly wrong–heck, don’t we call that nonchalantly “casualties of war”? That’s why it’s so important to try EVERY other recourse before taking up arms and risking one single life…
Wikipedia is certainly not the most in depth source on the subject, but it should do just in case you want to read the official definition of terrorism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism#Official_definitions
Edited on Nov 12, 2007 13:53
Edited on Nov 12, 2007 14:07
Sorry about that, I was reading something on Syria and wrote that instead of Libya where Tripoli is the capital city. Tripoli has also been used to refer to Lebanon, but in any case, the Founding Fathers of the US never invaded the Middle East–not that it wasn’t done before them and certainly after them by others….
Edited on Nov 12, 2007 14:06
The Nazis burned the Reichstag to implement many of the same oppressive rules we now live under. History DOES repeat itself and if you think governments don’t stage events to further their own agenda, then you’ve been watching waaaaay too many episodes of Dancing with the Stars.
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