Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Honduras and Xinjiang

The administration should have stayed out of the Honduras business. If the President still respects the Nation-State paradigm, as his recent weapon shipment to Somalia suggests, then he should leave that whole business up to the governmentS of Honduras, let them fight it out.

And if he subscribes to the reality-based non-state actor paradigm I discussed earlier, then he still should stay out of Honduras. At this time, the situation in Honduras is too chaotic. Slate's article on Honduras said that there hasn't been a poll in Honduras for almost a month, so we have no idea which faction has the people's will right now. In addition, Michelletti promised to hold the presidential election as scheduled. It's best to just wait and see.

Of course, as Machiavelli has said, nobody likes a fence straddler. It's best to pick a side and stick with it. Of course, Machiavelli also advised us to always support the weaker side, since they will appreciate the help more. If we're officially supporting Zelaya's return to power, that will definitely include a military component, leading to a Honduran casus belli against us.

Obama should have sat this one out.

As regards to the current mess in Xinjiang: Protesting is ok, but rioting is not. Destruction of property is a waste of resources, and should only be done when militarily necessary. Hurting or killing bystanders is an even bigger sin. Neither the Uighurs nor the local Hans do their causes any good by running through the streets as they have been doing.

Uighurs should fight any discrimination they face in China, but only through civil disobedience campaigns (that minimize property damage).

Edited for tags and removal of signature.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mr Mohist, do you remember the discussion we had at the fag end of last year about the impact of economic downturn on India ??

just called to say that my predictions have been borne out, Indian economy grew at 6.5 % !

cheers !

Jimmy said...

Anon,

yes, I do remember and appreciate our discussion last year. Please drop by more often!

It is great that India's economy grew 2008 at 6.5%, greater than its population growth rate of 1.5%. That it pulled out a 3.7% GDP per capita growth in 2008 is significant and credit to your vibrant economy.

At the same time, India is feeling the effects of the global downturn. In 2007, the GDP growth rate in total was 9%, with GDP per capita growth at 8%.

I hope India stays ahead of the global economic crunch and its people gainfully employed. The social effects of a depression is something I do not wish upon anyone.

The above numbers accounted for inflation.

Anonymous said...

well noone is insulated from global economic downturn in the modern world but in India's case part of the story was that our growth is primarily domestic demand driven.

what's your opinion on the US economy itself ? when is it going to recover ?

btw, I'm quite interested in military matters too, so would appreciate if you write on that more often.
regards.

Jimmy said...

anon,

more military articles, as requested!

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot, I've commented on one.
regards.