Message-ID: <199705210432.BAA02540@bud.peinet.pe.ca> Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 01:32:49 -0300 From: Stan Sandler <mailto:sandler@CYCOR.CA> Subject: Re: Boring To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Hi Max: You wrote (in part):>I'd say the average U.S. citizen doesn't think too much about the Third
>World, except when a situation there is an obvious humanitarian
>disaster, a threat to "our" interests (whether they're strategic or
>economic), or -- most of all -- when the "our boys" in the military are
>deployed and are put at risk. Obviously, these perceptions are
>susceptible to spin by government officials, corporations, humanitarian
>organizations, unions, advocacy groups, the big media themselves, and
>other interested parties. When the U.S. intervenes or exerts influence
>abroad, I'd say that people usually see it as a justified defense of our
>interests, a demonstration of traditional U.S. charity, or an attempt to
>promote "democracy" and "free-market economies" (or occasionally human
>rights) -- reasons against which it's difficult to argue.
I am pretty much in agreement and think that it is curious and sad that governments of developed countries do not look upon the planet and our environment with the same attention that they give economic and "political" matters. Altruism is not common in people and is almost non existent in governments. But one would think that governments would wake up to the fact that air, water, pollutants... do not recognize national boundaries. In this I think that the "average U.S. citizen" is ahead of his/her government and I think that Rio and the alternate conference demonstrated this.
Regards, Stan