Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 13:43:40 -0500
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Went to a Tarik Ali talk...



Glen wrote:


> Howdy all,
>
> I went to a Tarik Ali talk this evening, and for the most part it was
> worthwhile. The questions after the talk were on the whole utterly
> stupid - more people were worried about getting up and using it as an
> open mike, even hand one fool who was a politician for the Socialist
> Alliance party trying to drum up support - there was one good question
> by someone who asked about the option of splitting Iraq into ethnic 3
> enclaves. Ali replied by saying it was a classic imperialist move that
> will not work as Iraqies have a sense of the national imaginary. His
> talk was fun, maybe a bit too populist (in a social democratic kind of
> way), he did make one good point. If the US alliance actually did
> believe Iraq had WMDs they would not have invaded ala Korea situation.

An interesting idea, and very practical.

What ever happened to the idea of "Self-determination" of ethnic enclaves
was the answer to hundreds of years of conflict?  Why shouldn't the Kurds or
the Basques become a small nation?

In smallest communities, i.e. families, the social imaginary usually allows
members to drop out and go there own way. although there are still enough
exceptions to fill
the media with grisly murders.

regards,
Hugh




> --
> PhD Candidate, Centre for Cultural Research
> University of Western Sydney
>