thanks for forwarding this. i began to watch, but 39 minutes is too daunting to me. do you have an opinion on the upshot of this debate?
i would like to say that every political situation in the world can be examined and discussed in two ways.
i can give an example with one i know intimately, the situation in rwanda. the apologists for the regime will laud its accomplishments. the opponents will decry its oppressiveness.
we can summarize these views on broad political lines, rhetorical lines if you will--often on broad ideological lines.
we all do this: i hate this regime, i love that regime, etc.
or we can parse the details, examine them, try to see the different sides. not shy away from judgments, but try to assess things openly, to evaluate the charges on grounds that are pretty well made on solid evidence.
for me, the fact that a given govt supports or opposes a regime won't change the realities of what is actually happening there. the fact that amnesty international, say, is viewed as western centered doesn't effect the reports on which it founds its positions. i mention amnesty only because i know some of the people who have been researchers for it, and because i am affiliated with it as a country specialist. when the reports are turned into campaigns, the carefully parsing of evidence becomes reduced to broad claims.
all this to say, eritrea might be an awful dictatorial state: when it is examined in close details, we might be better able to formulate informed judgments that are expressed less in broad terms.
i agree that a debate on conflicting views can be valuable. often it turns into regime apologists against human rights experts, and turns more ad hominem than informative.
what were your views of this al jazeera report in the end? did you feel more certain about your views? what were they? (i know last time you said you preferred to have us watch the whole thing, but your summary of the voa report was very helpful)
ken
On 6/19/15 8:55 PM, kwame zulu shabazz wrote:
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