From the first link, it is worth noting:
Freedom from Corruption - 18% Corruption is perceived as rampant. Haiti ranks 163rd out of 163 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2006. Haiti's reputation as one of the world's most corrupt countries is a major impediment to doing business. Customs officers often demand bribes to clear shipments. Smuggling is a major problem, and contraband accounts for a large percentage of the manufactured consumables market.
Corruption is perceived as rampant. Haiti ranks 163rd out of 163 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2006. Haiti's reputation as one of the world's most corrupt countries is a major impediment to doing business. Customs officers often demand bribes to clear shipments. Smuggling is a major problem, and contraband accounts for a large percentage of the manufactured consumables market.
Bangladesh, El Salvidor, Mexico, South Africa, Ukraine, Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Senegal.... do a quick search on your favorite search engine and check out the number of countries that have had food price riots or protests in the past 6 months.
It's global.
Currently, Denmark is producing 25 million pigs each year. In a country with 5-point-something million people. Those pigs are being fed perfectly good grain that is completely suitable for human consumption. Suppose we stopped doing that?
Further suppose we started growing food crops instead of cash crops. How many people can you feed with the fields that are currently being used to grow tobacco? Coffee?
And then there's the utter insanity of cutting down tropical rainforest in order to graze cattle - with the predictable result that the ground becomes utterly barren in a few years and even at peak production, the calories yield is lower than what you can harvest sustainably in the forest in the first place.
I am not sure that we can support 6.5 bn people on this planet. But I am not sure we can't either.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
As far as pigs, I know from experience they can eat just about anything. When grain prices rise, this should rise the price of pig products and increase demand for alternative feed-stocks for the pigs. I do know they love our garbage (food waste products). Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
But you should check this out yourself rast to how your list compares on economic freedoms. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
As an aside, the Freedom House list is a sad joke. To take just a couple of striking examples, Liberia is listed as being more free than Lebanon, Columbia is listed as more free than Venezuela, Afghanistan is listed as more free than Russia and Iraq is listed as more free than Cuba. I call bullshit.
Also note that there is a high correlation between economic freedoms and over freedom including political freedom. You somehow confuse anarchy with economic freedom. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
I'll freely admit that death squads pro capita is a rather blunt metric for political freedom, but if you can't speak your mind without getting gunned down by goons then you can't very well have a free and open society, can you?
If you want to use that gage as the amount of freedom, then so be it. But most use a wide variety of measurements to get the number.
And if you can't check out any book that you want at the library? Or even start your own book club for local residents-what does that mean?
I once met a group that traveled around Cuba for a while, and yes it was very enlightening for myself. But once they questions from the audience, I asked them if they had visited any libraries even if at universities. Well no they had not. They felt that was a trivial thing to explore and was not where true freedoms are measured.
From my experiences, I saw that any philosopher I wanted to read about was there. Orwell, to Marx to Hitler... Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
Maybe you know of other information but those areas not controlled by AQ or any other extremist groups then CDs, DVDs and yes books freely flow and are exchanged.
First, it should be noted that there is no Al Qaeda presence in Vietraq. There are various domestic partisan groups that like to style themselves "Al Qaeda in Iraq" but there is not a shred of indication that they have anything to do with what is usually understood as "Al Qaeda."
That being said, "in areas not controlled by partisans" is a pretty big qualifier. The Americans can barely keep the various Green Zones secure. And when it comes to that, I am pretty sure that you can't just walk into a bookstore in the Green Zone and pick up a book by Sayyid Qutb or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad... One person's anti-government propaganda is another person's terrorist tract and all that.
Notice I did not say partisans in that quote, it was extremists. How would you characterize Kurdistan? But maybe you have some information about what is accepted or not accepted in various parts of the country, no? Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
And of course you said "extremists." But you were talking about partisan organisations. And while I have not studied the matter extensively, I think it is fair to assume that it will be hard to find the complete works of Kemal Atatürk in the Kurdish territories. So no, I don't buy the assertion that you can pick up any book you like in Vietraq. Not even if you exclude the parts of Vietraq where people are shooting at each other on a regular basis. Which in any case makes any comparison apples-to-oranges...
I can't imagine that we really want to see what their markets have and judge it by that, but if you want to pursue looking at any laws that prevents such books as you mentioned from being distributed, let me know. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
They may or may not have contacts with each other and may or may not be on friendly terms, but it is patent nonsense to claim that they are "the same group of extremists" when their organisational structure, political goals, strategies, tactics and membership are unrelated, evolved separately and will likely continue to evolve separately. Simply saying "here be commies" is not an argument.
I would also ask that you pay attention. Notice I did not say the Marxists in Vietnam and Cambodia were the same, I said China and Vietnam had the same goals and desires.
Now of course you could be right that they separate their ways, we have seen a lot of groups separate and go their ways. And from I read their was already some falling out during the control of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
Again, I am saying if they recognize each other and abide by the same philosophies and ideologies even to supporting each other in resources then they are the same.
And none of your examples do. FFS, half of the partisans in Vietraq that are being labeled "Al Qaeda" are Shia Muslims. Calling them Al Qaeda is like accusing an Ted Haggard of being a member of the Opus Dei.
And besides, the Marxists in Cambodia (or Viet Nam, if you prefer) manifestly didn't have the same goals and desires as Marxists in China. Both wanted to kick the US out of Indochina and both groups were (more or less) Marxist, but if that's criteria for likeness, then the Pope and the American fundagelicals are the same brand of extremists - both are Christian of some description and both want to kick gays out of America.
Finally, you are begging the question when you argue that there has been "a falling out" - if there was no collusion in the first place, then a falling out is not really the proper description.
So can we please end this detour?
