Bertrand Russell
Source: http://duford.com/2009/09/29/bertrand-russell/
Right now I’m reading a wonderful essay by Bertrand Russell entitled “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”. It talks about all the irrational thinking and myth making and authoritarian following tendencies of men. It’s a gold mine of quotable material. Here’s one that is very relevant to today, despite having been written during WWII:
“No one can deny, in face of the evidence, that it is easy, given military power, to produce a population of fanatical lunatics. It would be equally easy to produce a population of sane and reasonable people, but many governments do not wish to do so, since such people would fail to admire the politicians who are at the head of these governments.”
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Labels: Living in Panama
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<a href=”Panama“>Panama agrees to host two U.S. naval bases
Source: http://duford.com/2009/09/29/<a href=”Panama“>Panama-agrees-to-host-two-u-s-naval-bases/
I have mixed feelings about this:
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MEXICO: <a href=”Panama“>Panama will sign before October 2009 a treaty with the United States on the opening of two U.S. naval bases on its territory, a senior <a href=”Panama“>Panamanian government official said on Sunday.
According to <a href=”Panama“>Panama’s La Prensa newspaper, a preliminary agreement was reached between <a href=”Panama“>Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent talks in New York.
“The U.S. and <a href=”Panama“>Panama will sign before October 30 an agreement on the deployment of two naval bases on the Pacific coast of our country to fight international drug-trafficking,” said Minister of Government and Justice Jose Raul Mulino.
“One of the bases will be located in Bahia Pina…450 kilometers [280 miles] east of the capital, <a href=”Panama“>Panama City, and another one – in Punta Coca about 350 km [217 miles] west of the capital,” Mulino added.
The U.S. government will also allocate additional $7 million to <a href=”Panama“>Panama this year for the fight against organized crime and illicit drug trade.
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While <a href=”Panama“>Panama certainly needs help with the war on drugs, this is a very dangerous way to go about it. When the USA signs a treaty with another country to put troops on its territory, it ALWAYS includes a clause that grants US soldiers complete immunity from the host country’s laws. This constitutes an attack on the host country’s dignity and sovereignty and it results in countless problems and conflicts. Take Japan for example, where the continued US “occupation” is viewed as an insult by most Japanese citizens, and where dozens of US soldiers have raped Japanese girls and gotten away with it. Once the US has a foot in the door, they also invariably use the threat of withholding their help and money to dictate the behaviour of the local government.
In the end, this “help” only serves the USA’s imperialistic purposes and becomes a huge problem for the host government. I sure hope President Martinelli knows what he’s getting into…
<a href=”http://duford.com/2009/09/29/<a href=”Panama“>Panama-agrees-to-host-two-u-s-naval-bases/” target=”_blank”>Link to article
Labels: Living in Panama
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