Posts by Christiaan
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Such a shame not to have TOP in this parliament 👎🏼
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Can't see em. Are these Flash only?
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Labour's address reminded me of this from Monbiot:
http://www.monbiot.com/2010/10/11/the-values-of-everything/So we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see.
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Hard News: Libya, in reply to Steve Parks,
I don’t think anyone is suggesting otherwise. Which side do you support, Christiaan?
Well I certainly don't support the likes of the U.S., Britain and France having anything to do with it; they have a miserable record in the region. But why do you think it's even my business to support one side or the other in Libya? What matters is what the people of Libya want, which is clearly a problem when you have a civil war on your hands.
I don't particularly have any answers to all this. I just find it disappointing that so many liberals seem to go to great lengths to convince themselves that a concern for ordinary people is the driving force behind these things.
It's not. The leaders of U.S., Britain and France don't give a shit about the people of Benghazi. Just as they don't give a shit about the 1400 people massacred by Israel in 2009.
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Libya is a civil war. Like it or not Gaddafi has support.
I understand why liberal interventionists are always so keen that "we do something" but why do they kid themselves that our powerful and power hungry Western leaders care about people in Benghazi. Our leaders couldn't care less. What they care about—and what the history of Western intervention in the Middle East has borne out—is their own narrow economic interests. And every time there's a new intervention the liberal interventionists are rolled out to explain how "we have a chance for a clean slate and it's going to be different this time," and "if it's the right thing to do, then who cares?"
Liberal interventionists ignore the real reasons and are then either surprised by the consequences or jump in bed with conservatives who are jumping through hoops to re-write history (such as Kosovo, where we're told that the NATO intervention stopped ethnic cleansing instead of intensifying it).
If liberal interventionists actually have principles beyond whatever intervention seems fashionable then why not intervention in Gaza? 2009 massacre of 1400 people anybody? <crickets>
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It's not exactly NZ at it's finest hour is it.
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Good piece by Pankaj Mishra with a good spattering of history:
The tyrant has gone. Now the real struggle begins for Egypt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/12/mubarak-egypt-roots-of-despotism -
Phew, sleep in tomorrow!
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So it seems the time for "orderly transition" has passed.
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Full interview and transcript here.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/07/live-blog-feb-8-egypt-protestsHis FB page currently getting about 50 likes a second:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/afwd-wayl-ghnym-llthdth-basm-thwar-msr/199691716707528sorry, will stop spamming now.