Re: Imposing the US Dollar on Canada

["Alan G. Isaac" <aisaac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Lawrence Boland wrote:
> Alan, I notice that you avoided answering my 2nd question and you ignored my
> limiting it to the last 10 years.

I meant to be responding when I said:
``do you really mean to imply that I should hesitate to condemn
the Tiananmen massacre by the People's `Liberation' Army because I
wasn't there?''  No I have not visited, as I presumed the context
of my post made clear.  As I said, I also have not visited Afghanistan
or Ohio.  I still hope you will give a more precise response to
*my* questions.  I did not realize you had carefully selected a ten
year horizon to rule out reference to Tiananmen.  Apparently Henry
likes ruling out things beyond this horizon, because despite his
interest in history he is not willing to consider Tiananmen recent.

> Tiananmen was almost 12 years ago. Things have
> changed a lot since then. Had you been to mainland China and talked to the
> intellectuals, you would find there are many who are critical of the central
> government's actions yet they also object to the so-called "liberals" who promote
> American style economic policies.

If you reread the exchanges between Henry and me, you will find that
I have not been promoting ``American style'' economic policies. I have
been challenging Henry to admit that notions of ``freedom''
and ``democracy'' circulate within China and are not simply Western
impositions, contrary to the tenor of his apologetics.  I have
also invited him to unambiguously condemn the Tiananmen massacre, which
he has refused to do.  I notice you did not answer any of the
questions I asked in my post about i. what points of mine you intended
to be responding and, more importantly ii. what exactly you intended
to imply by your question.  I therefore ask you again:  do you agree
that it is not necessary to visit China, Afghanistan, or Ohio to
condemn the Tiananmen massacre, the Taliban treatment of women, and
the Kent State killings?

> I suggest that you take a look at the interview
> of Wang Hui in the Nov/Dec 2000 issue of the New Left Review. Wang is the editor
> of the leading intellectual monthly (Dushu) and interestingly, was interviewed by
> CNN last week.

I'd be happy to take a look at this.  But of course the Tiananmen
Papers suggest that such critical views are not at all new, and when
push came to shove we saw what happened.

Alan