Path: utzoo!yunexus!spectrix!lsuc!hcr!jimr
From: jimr@hcr.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Clark's speech to CIC; frontline states
Message-ID: <3173@hcr.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 88 15:44:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: hcr.3173
Posted: Mon Mar 21 10:44:51 1988
References: <560@auvax.UUCP> <2367@unicus.UUCP> <573@myrias.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimr@hcr.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 32

In article <573@myrias.UUCP> sjl@myrias.UUCP writes:
>
>So what are my conclusions? We should continue to support the frontline states
>to a high level, while at the same time realizing that South Africa is only
>one of their problems, and that South Africa is often used as an excuse by
>these countries for their own ineptitude. Our support should attempt to reduce
>the effects of South Africa's pressure against them, and we should encourage
>these countries to develop their own economies.
>

Would it be too much to ask that continued financial support be tied to
democratic reform? For example, President Kaunda has been known to
imprison and kill political dissidents (I guess that's what happens
when you outlaw opposition parties); so the question that begs to be
asked is should we be supporting such an administration? Turning back
to the double standard that Dave Sherman correctly identified, it is
indeed ironic to note that Dictator-for-life Kaunda gets a warm welcome
from Ottawa whereas former Dictators-for-life Marcos and Duvalier were
condemned as the rotten eggs that they were. The US has the nasty habit
of supporting any regime as long as it's anti-communist. Canada, on the
other hand, supports any "government" as long as it's not right-wing;
and democratic justice be damned. Six of one and a half dozen of the
other.

It's beginning to look like there is an economic law which states that
a nation's economy will only flourish in the long run under a
democratic system of government. Hungary was a counter-example but even
that country is now experiencing problems. So, as for encouraging the
frontline states with their one party rule and dictators-for-life to 
develop their own economies, I can only say good luck.

J.B. Robinson