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Re: Re: impressionistic ramble
On 9/13/01 1:29 AM, quoth the effervescent petert at interchange_ubc.ca at
petert at interchange_ubc.ca:
>> They're isolated and insular, and the mass of people there know only
>> what their government tells them. If they're told we're evil, raised to
>> think we're evil, then of course they're happy when we suffer. We know
>> far more about them, I'd be willing to bet, than they do about us. And
>> that's not saying much.
>
>I dunno, this sounds almost racist to me. The assumption seems to be that
>Arabs never think for themselves, never doubt their government, never
>question what they've been told
That's neither what I said not what I meant. The Taliban has, for
example, "banned the use of the Internet in the war-torn country to stop
access to vulgar, immoral and anti-Islamic material," according to an
Afghan news service quoted on CNN.com. There's no freedom of the press,
and television is, I believe, all state-run. These people are raised
having Anti-American propaganda shoved down their throats with no way of
getting better information. This is why I'm not surprised that average
Joe in the street there hates us.
Remember, this is a completely different world. Something neither you nor
I have ever had to experience. I'm not talking about individuals, I'm
talking about the systematic policies of a country that hates us.
Obviously there are Afghanis capable of thinking for themselves. On the
whole, however, they're dealing with strictly controlled information.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/08/24/shah/index.html
http://navigation.helper.realnames.com/framer/1/0/default.asp?realname=Amne
sty+International&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eamnesty%2Eorg%2F&frameid=1&provide
rid=0&uid=30003491
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