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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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 Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:44 am Post subject: |
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| All this talk about Western/liberal democracy, as though there really is such a thing. Tsk tsk! |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Sashadroogie wrote: |
| All this talk about Western/liberal democracy, as though there really is such a thing. Tsk tsk! |
Good point! |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 4:05 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| steki47 wrote: |
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
Yes I know but that does not mean she hates democracy. In fact she says she likes it (a big fan) but thinks it can be dangerous in some places, like in Wimar Germany which led to Hitler being voted in...
It sounds like she is a big fan, but she just warns about people thinking it can happen easily. She sounds liek a smart lady.  |
Yes, I read World on Fire. One of her big concerns is that democracy in the Philippines will allow the locals to further express their hatred of the market-dominant ethnic outsider Chinese. (Her aunt was murdered by a Filpino servant and the local police did very little to investigate.)
I am fan of her work as well.
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Also, Francis Fukuyama is Japanese and he was a big supporter of democracy |
He is Japanese-American! Sorry, buddy, can you please maintain some consistency?
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
Anyway, my point is that there is no reason to think Asians can't do democracy. Mayeb the ones you picked Lee Kwang Yu and Mohammed Mahatir are just autocrats like Hitler and Mussolini and Mahatir has said some really horrible thinks about the Chinese and the Jews so I think it is not fair to think of him as some regular Aisan person.  |
I never said that democracy would be impossible in Asia. However, it does seem that many Asian nations/leaders/thinkers view democracy as "un-Asian" or perhaps undesirable. I mentioned India as a strong exception, but there are others.
Yes, Lee and Mahathir called themselves "soft authoritarians". And both countries experienced massive growth in economic and quality of life standards.
Mahathir said horrible things about Chinese and Jews? Anti-Chinese sentiment is not rare in SE Asia. (Not defending it, per se.) Mahathir made strong protests against Israel, Zioinism and the treatment of the Palestinian people.
Given you started with linking my statement with "racism", not surprising you wrapped up with more smearing accusations of other people. Nice work, you a journalist?  |
Ha ha!  No Im not a journalist, but thanks!
I am a teacher
<<<<=====
But Mahatir said some pretty crazy things. Look at this. His racist remarks:
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/55082
And this he said about the Jews:
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| “The Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole Governments to ransom...Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, [Jews] survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world...The Holocaust failed as a final solution.” |
That's well bad!
Crazy even!
Anyway, the other point about Asian and Japanese Americans is that they are not born anti-democraccy, it depends on culture and sometimes I think it depends on economics. Liek I think America went wrong trying to put Iraq into democracy after teh war because many people just wanted a living and a home and a job at the time. Being given a vote was secondary.
Anyway, this is a good chat. Thanks. |
Cool Teacher,
By polluting threads with smiley face icons, it takes away some of the pleasure of skimming through discussions. |
Sorry.  |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:46 am Post subject: |
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| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Sorry. |
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:26 am Post subject: |
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I reading this online this morning about an Economics Professor in Tokyo who hosted a Japan Radio 1 talk show. He quit after the management tried to censor him by instructing him not to mention anything about the Fukushima disaster.
Straight News: Japanese Radio Commentator Quits as a Result of Censorship Order
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A commentator on Japan's Radio 1 has quit after he was instructed not to discuss the nuclear accident until after a gubernatorial election.
And this commentator, Toru Nakakita, is an economics professor at the University of Toyo in Tokyo.
Nakakita quit as a result of the censorship order.
Nuclear energy is reportedly a major issue in the election. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:28 am Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Sorry. |
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious. |
Yeah, he just gave me (us?) the his middle finger.
I've mentioned it to the moderators. |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:25 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Pitarou wrote: |
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Sorry. |
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious. |
Yeah, he just gave me (us?) the his middle finger.
I've mentioned it to the moderators. |
I'm shocked!
Why are there smillies if I cannot use them? Where is it in the ruels that I cannot use them? Why woudl the morederators be against that? 
I think complaining abot it is like telling someone they use too many adjectives or too much puntuation. I like to use smillies to make my posts brighter and friendlier. |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Sorry. |
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious. |
Why did Solar Strength quote a whole load of smillies if they doesn't like them anyway?
ETA: Why don't you just scroll through with the mouse? I usually scroll through a lot of posts everyday and I don't tell people to stop posting to make it quicker for me to scan the threads. I think it is unfair if the moderators are against my posts because I am always polite and civil when I post. And anyway isn't it a bit ironic to say you are for democracy and then be against my freedom of expression?  |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:25 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
Cool Teacher,
By polluting threads with smiley face icons, it takes away some of the pleasure of skimming through discussions. |
Maybe for you. I don't mind them at all. I think they are quite useful as they give another dimension to a post, and enhance what is conveyed using text.
Time to  move on, and get back to the topic at hand.
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| rtm wrote: |
| Solar Strength wrote: |
Cool Teacher,
By polluting threads with smiley face icons, it takes away some of the pleasure of skimming through discussions. |
Maybe for you. I don't mind them at all. I think they are quite useful as they give another dimension to a post, and enhance what is conveyed using text.
Time to move on, and get back to the topic at hand.
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Thanx!
IOU1! |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Cool Teacher wrote: |
| Why don't you just scroll through with the mouse? I usually scroll through a lot of posts everyday and I don't tell people to stop posting to make it quicker for me to scan the threads. |
I think there's a real issue here, but I don't want you to feel that Solar Strength and I are picking a fight with you. I'll send you a private message. |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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| Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:13 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Pitarou wrote:
Cool Teacher wrote:
Sorry.
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious.
Yeah, he just gave me (us?) the his middle finger.
I've mentioned it to the moderators. |
I don't like your smiley faces, I'm telling on you! 
Pathetic! |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 7:08 am Post subject: |
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| nightsintodreams wrote: |
| Quote: |
Pitarou wrote:
Cool Teacher wrote:
Sorry.
Oh, FFS. This is getting a beyond a joke. I know you're just kidding, but reposting 557 words just to add one more is pretty obnoxious.
Yeah, he just gave me (us?) the his middle finger.
I've mentioned it to the moderators. |
I don't like your smiley faces, I'm telling on you!
Pathetic! |
Hey, be careful with your quoting! You make it look like it was me who complained to the mods.
For the record: the smilies are not an issue for me. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
When they have the power, what do they intend to do with it?... do they have other plans that they'd rather not discuss now?
... given sufficient power, the unthinkable suddenly becomes all too possible. Things like nuclear armament (for peaceful research purposes, of course) |
That was pure speculation at the time, but look what just turned up in The Diplomat: Japan's Plutonium Problem - Japan’s stockpile of plutonium is causing concerns regionally and globally.
Japan is building a nuclear reprocessing plant capable of producing material for thousands of nukes a year, and has several years' worth of feedstock on hand. People are asking hard questions about why Japan is doing this when all their reactors are shut down.
This is how India became a nuclear state—it started off with nuclear reprocessing. And the world has been tying itself into diplomatic knots over Iran's attempts to build a similar processing plant. I reckon Japan has the technical means to build a nuclear bomb in a year-or-two.
Oh, and Japan also has launch vehicles. JAXA invested big bucks in solid-fuel rockets. Solid-fuel isn't the best choice if you want a big space program, but it's perfect for military needs. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:54 am Post subject: |
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Wow man. That is very real and very possible.
I think japan may need to be nuclear armed in order to stand up to China and possibly NK. Don't really like it, but i see the need |
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