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From: lkk@teddy.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Re: Experimentation and Danger
Message-ID: <1822@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Dec-85 12:59:12 EST
Article-I.D.: teddy.1822
Posted: Mon Dec 16 12:59:12 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Dec-85 19:16:01 EST
References: <344@pedsgd.UUCP> <28200281@inmet.UUCP> <817@mmintl.UUCP> <1772@teddy.UUCP> <878@mmintl.UUCP>
Reply-To: lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 54

In article <878@mmintl.UUCP> franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes:

[Talking about the inherent susceptability of small countries to
	domination by currupt or violent cliques.]


>In my book, 8 million is not a small country.  Medium-sized, rather.  I
>had in mind the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, West Germany.
>India wouldn't make my top ten, but it wouldn't make the bottom ten, either.
>For truly awful governments, besides the Horrible Communist Monsters, look at
>Cambodia, Albania, most of Africa.
>
>The disadvantage of small governments is that they are more vulnerable to
>being taken over by a small group.  Also, in a mostly homogeneous population,
>what minorities there are are more vulnerable to exploitation by the
>majority.

Still don't buy it.  There are many African countries that are larger
than Sweden and are still quite bad.  Zaire, one of the largest
countries in Africa, is also among the most brutal and corrupt (and a
U.S. ally, BTW).

The reason why AFRICAN countries tend to be so bad is because in
Africa, countries do not, for the most part, correspond to nations.
They tend to be arbitrary areas, carved up by the colonial powers.
They tend to encompass several mutually hostile tribal groups.  When a
member of one of these groups takes power, his group prospers at the
expense of the others, hostility ensues.

A very relevant example of this is the current situation in Angola,
where Jonas Savimbi's UNITA guerrillas are fighting the Marxist
government.  In recent months, there has been growing support in the US 
for aiding UNITA, in the name of stopping Communism in Africa.

None of the people who write in support of Savimbi mention that he is
a democrat, or what his politics are at all.  This is because Mr.
Savimbi really has no political viewpoint.  He has taken arms from the
Chinese and the South Africans, as well as the CIA.  Currently, he
finds it convenient to spout an anti-Communist line, so he does.

But don't be deceived, UNITA is not *FOR* anything, they are merely
*AGAINST* the current government of Angola, which happens to be
Marxist.  They are not against it *BECAUSE* it is Marxist, but rather
because the leaders are of a different tribal group.

What Jack Kemp and others who support aiding UNITA are asking us to do
is get the United States involved in a tribal conflict that is
certainly none of our business.  But I digress...
-- 
Sport Death,       (USENET) ...{decvax | ihnp4!mit-eddie}!genrad!panda!lkk
Larry Kolodney     (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa
--------
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
- Helen Keller