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An Antidote to Corporate Media
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i know a few indians who say the whole place is mired in corruption, and no-one can do meaningful business as a result. to call places 'democracies', and see them all as strategic allies when in fact they have their own self-interested agendas would be a grave geopolitical mistake. for instance, india needs oil to industrialise, and guess where the nearest source is?
i haveen't even got wordpress working... is that the secret? should just get good quality forum software : (
i wouldn't fight 'em... they feud to the death, even the ones who've emigrated to australia... and there's lots of them... iran is 4 times the population of iraq and 4 times the area - and indonesia has 250 million muslims....
if they have depleting oil, then i guess international interest in those regions will go down, and there will be less tension and conflict between east and west... borders mean that populations cannot shift far, so if they cannot support the populations after peak oil, i don't know what happens...
i don't know about pax americana, i think that's an overstatement - the view here is that the US has corruptly meddled in too many other countries in the last 50 or 60 years, and causes a lot of the world's strife and mischief by appropriating an unfair share of resources through economic imperialism, covert activity and gunboat diplomacy...
funnily enough, the romans were always looking for pretexts to invade. they used to trigger wars of conquest by saying that the people in a new territory had offended one of their 'friends' in a neighbouring territory and that they therefore had to intercede. sometimes they even fabricated allies in neighbouring territories to do it. but they had a big 'discourse' about how they were civilising the world, etc, as they expanded, but they were ultimately warlike and unpopular, causing the germanic tribes to turn back on them eventually.... the equivalent militarisation may well be the truman doctrine...
hmm, maybe there is a perfect storm of peace, economic co-operation and sustainable development, on the other hand...
just hum the words to Imagine...
I think it's a shame that this thread peaked at only 299 comments. If only someone would come by and make it an even 300. Oh, well... :-(
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Interesting... The Communist central government of China finds the GSEs too socialistic for its taste. The mortgage securities market of what is arguably the most advanced and successful capitalist nation in human history being indirectly critiqued by Communist apparatchiks for not being free market enough.
Wow... what to make of that?
What's next: Sudan criticizing our record on human rights? Saudi Arabia lecturing us on religious tolerance? Should I feel amused or embarrassed? Has Hell truly frozen over?*
Discuss, enjoy...
HARM
*Disclaimer: THOUGH I DISLIKE THE GSEs, IN NO WAY DO I FEEL THAT RED CHINA WITH ALL ITS ANTI-COMPETITIVE, ANTI-FREE MARKET CORRUPTION, GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIES, PROTECTIONISM, LACK OF RESPECT FOR HUMAN AND PROPERTY RIGHTS, ETC., ETC. IS IN ANY POSITION TO BE CRITICIZING THE U.S. NOR AM I ADVOCATING MODELING OUR HOUSING OR FINANCIAL MARKETS AFTER CHINA’S. I FOUND THEIR IMPLICIT CRITICISM TO BE HUGELY IRONIC, AND THEREFORE FUNNY AND WORTHY OF NOTICE.
#housing