File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1998/postcolonial.9805, message 134


Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 17:29:02 +0300
From: Deniz Daser <ddaser-AT-ku.edu.tr>
Subject: Re: silence on India's tests


Hey everyone!
It's not that no one is taking a stand (see below). Some people just
don't find it necessary to take a stand on this list. But I'll throw in
some of my ideas.
What Liam says below is true. India's tests is yet another example of
the hypocrisy of politics and diplomacy. Yes, the tests may be
deplorable to some, wonderful to others, but should this surprise us or
not? I'm not surprised that this happened. I am against nuclear armament
in general, so I have to be cynical about every single country that has
armed themselves, or is planning to (as is Turkey, where I live), thus
it's not an issue of which players are wrong or not, every country is
susceptible to armament. Once you're against it you're against it, and
any type of political dealings shouldn't surprise you. That's my
opinion. What's interesting and productive is trying to find out why
leaders do it, the effects of it (it seems easy to tell but it really
isn't, I think), and how civil society reacts, thus how you can react.
 There is a realpolitik aspect to this (strategic interests) and there
is a cultural aspect to this (nationalism for example). I think it's
hard to separate the two, it's a multi-faceted issue. And it's even
harder to know how civil society feels about it.
However it is important in such an issue to take a stand (either for or
against) in this issue, because there really is no "in the middle" when
one is talking about nuclear armament. And I do think that this is an
issue that people are relatively well mobilized about, in comparison to
other environmental or social issues. Or so we hope...
Deniz

Liam Connell wrote:

> As someone from Britain who used to be very active in the Campaign
> for Nuclear Disarmament, I find it deeply revealling and
> vindicating that India's stated aim was to join the "Club of Five".
> All the moral posturing from Britain and America can hardly
> disguise the fact that they both possess nuclear capability.  Nor
> than Japan's trading links with France were barely dented by French
> testing in the Pacific in 1995 - remember that?
>
> Seems like a text-book case of globalisation to me.
>
> Liam Connell
>
> On Mon, 18 May 1998 01:03:59 -0700 (PDT) ed hopi wrote:
>
> > From: ed hopi <edgaho-AT-yahoo.com>
> > Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 01:03:59 -0700 (PDT)
> > Subject: silence on India's tests
> > To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >
> >
> > I find the silence in the list concerning India's nuclear tests
> > deafening. Doesn't anybody have a stand? While I deplore it as a
> > domestic political stunt (no doubt, with grave repercussions on
> the
> > region) we also need to recognise that the tests ironically come
> in
> > the wake of the pressure to sign the unfair CTBT.
> >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________
> > DO YOU YAHOO!?
> > Get your free -AT-yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
> >
> >
> >
> >      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
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