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- GOVERNMENT VIOLENCE -
World press reports this week that the Chinese government has suppressed Falun Gong with violence. By torture and persecution, the Chinese government has made membership of that organization so unattractive that membership is diminishing. Potential Chinese dissidents (who knows whether that is 10% of the Chinese people or 90% of the Chinese people) have observed the lesson. They know that unless the Chinese government provokes a war with the USA by (for instance) invading Taiwan, there is no hope of salvation.
The Chinese are a pragmatic people, and they have been shown that internal dissent will not be tolerated.
Neither the liberals nor the conservatives of the Western Democracies world openly condone government violence. The "liberals" are more likely to tolerate it. They believe that "social engineering" by legislated violence is acceptable. (e.g. the bombing of Serbia.)
The state of Israel will no doubt have their sociologists working full time on the Chinese data. The successful suppression of Falun Gong is vindication for their hard line approach against the various Palestinian organizations. Now it is no longer a question of "whether", but of "how much" deliberate, state sponsored murder must be committed to cause the Palestinian people to turn from terrorism. The Israeli government would know (unlike the average Palestinian) that most arab and Muslim nations will not intervene in the conflict militarily, no matter how provocative the suppression of Palestinians becomes.
Most Arab nations will not intervene. They will see through the pretend "jihad" of the Palestinian warlords. They will offer pro forma support but will make it clear that they do not wish to start a war with a nuclear power (Israel). They might even suggest to those warlords that if they were so devoted to a jihad, perhaps they should "suicide bomb" on their own behalf, & not send children.
In public the USA and Europe will continue to condemn Israeli government murder of Palestinians. In private they will supply materiel to the Israelis and prevent intervention by Arab or Muslim governments. They know that there are only two exits from the situation. Either the Palestinians must submit, or Israel must die.
With the Chinese data, Israeli sociologists will be able to calculate the optimum rate to murder Palestinian terrorists to bring about Palestinian submission with a minimum loss of Israeli lives.
The Israelis will no doubt offer
many thanks to the Chinese government for provision of the raw data on
how many deaths by torture were required to produce the required change
in the souls of the tortured population.
- INDONESIA -
Gus Dur took the ethical path. He has bowed to an impeachment of questionable legality for a crime he did not commit and he did not call his supporters to war in the streets, confirming thereby his suitability for the position he lost.
In any event, corruption has now made the state of Indonesia ungovernable.
At the very least Megawati appears to be finding it so. It seems that she is having difficulty appointing a cabinet. In the meantime, Suharto and cronies are laughing and murdering in the streets of Jakarta those who were persecuting them while Gus Dur ruled.
It will be interesting to see the results of the Indonesian
election of 2004 (or is it 2005?). Even with 200 of the 700 electoral
college votes chosen by the military, Spin believes that Gus Dur will be
a force to be reckoned with. The integrity of the electoral system
appears to still be largely intact. This is demonstrated by the stratagems
that Suharto resorted to in an effort to prevent Megawati from being elected
to leadership of her father's political organization. Of course that
integrity is not guaranteed...