Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 19:56:59 +0800
From: Joel Ng <jngkj-AT-mbox2.singnet.com.sg>
Subject: Re: Aaron likes butchers


blumson-AT-email.com wrote:

> None of us who are many kilometers away from the event have any clear idea of what is going on in kosovo and most of us dont care either but are content to wallow in self-righteousness by critiscising every party involved (even when they deserve it). But if we really cared about what was going on in kosovo we would go there and try to solve it ourselves. i do not hold any illusions that this would acomplish anymore than nato has but i do believe that this is what anyone who genuinly believed intervention to be nescasary should do as was done in the spanish civil war or as is done by thousands of NGO's.

Listen bub, everyone as a *human being*, cares to a certain degree everytime there are conflicts and human suffering.  But we sure aren't going to commit ourselves every time we see a dead body on the front pages of our newspaper.  Using carp's "bully" analogy - we all pick our own fights.  And in general we fight for those things near and dear to us.  Just because something is wrong in the world doesn't mean we don't condemn it because we are far away from the situation.  Throwing around ideas is also not wrong, whether with forceful posts or in more diplomatic terms.  I certainly don't think one can place himself or his concerns in Somalia, East Timor, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Kosovo or Chiapas all at once.

> Anyone who saids that NATO should intervene in yugoslavia without having been themselves is simply passing off their guilt to a third party becasue they dont care about it themselves. The reason we dont live in an anarchic society is because people are always prepared to pass up their responsibilities to deal with cirme, to create infrustructure, of education and a multitude more to government. NATO intervention is supported by small minded people who feel guilty about watching these things happen but are too afraid to act themselves and so pass the problem on to governments. In the same way serbs put their own racial prejudices into the hands of the army because they done want to deal with them themselves. If you truly feel that peace should come to kosovo then go there yourself and dont try to salve your conseince by allowing what is basicaly imperialism.

What you're saying is that because *you're* not in Kosovo, you don't "truly feel that peace should come to kosovo"?  That is bullshit.  I want peace to come to Kosovo whether or bloody not I want to go there.  I want peace in Chiapas, East Timor, Indonesia, Somalia and all, but I'm not going to every damn country.

> Two people i know of who have done this (and are from a non-Nato country) are in jail for spying despite the fact that they are humanitarian workers. They have been courageous enough to play their own part in the crisis and not allowed themselves to be misrepresented by half hearted incompetent governments who want nothing more than a quick fix.
> Otherwise you have no right to be condoning the bombing of millions for the sake of peace. A bully is often after a little sympathy or feels a lack of confidance. though an effective short term solution violence doesn't solve the cause
> yours in hypocrisy

Get of your high horse asshole.  Some of us people on this list (obviously unlike you) are wage slaves, government slaves and just slaves in general.  Not every damn one of us has the *chance* to be where we want to be.  You know, if I could go to Ethiopia, now, and do whatever I could to alleviate some of their problems, I would.  But you see, asshole, I'm stuck where I am because I don't exactly fancy not ever being able to come back to S'pore again.  So in the mean time, I've no problems arguing with a-listers about whatever is wrong in the world.

Asshole.