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Keith said:
>Not exactly. But the government had been convince prior to that by
>demonstrations of firepower or wealth that the western world's ways
>were worth teaching and to some degree or another, displacing the
>tribal ways.
I agree. And not just the government either; the people in the
village with their radios and plastic shoes were convinced too. But
then I don't agree with the prime directive anymore. The decision of
what to adopt or not adopt should be up to the people doing the
adopting.
What got me fired up is the USAID project which spent several million
dollars helping develop the national curriculum *including the social
studies curriculum* which they edited *heavily* - with references to
failures of the Russian economy (this was when there was still a
USSR) but no mention of homelessness, drugs, pollution, etc here in
the US. To me that counts as withholding information from people who
need it in order to make wise decisions for their country.
USAID basically positioned itself to control the memetic content of
the education of the generation to come. And if the gov't didn't
like it, they risked losing all that money/infrastructure. So they
dragged their feet and delayed publication....African style....while
USAID built the buildings and brought in computers and taught people
how to use them. I never heard what happened after I left.
>Is the 1850s cattle killing still alive for people in that part of the world?
>
>Keith
What cattle killing? Do you mean the range wars in the American West?
Cattle were *the* measure of wealth there - and were "hoarded".
Overgrazing and desertification were major issues facing the country.
Before AIDS came along, that is.
frankie
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