The Economist - Racist Much?
Just read an article in the latest Economist that made me see red. In the edit piece about Egypt's revolution and how the West mustn't fear the consequences thereafter, since even the Muslim Brotherhood is unlikely to be able to carry out its more fundamentalist agenda since they will need to go through a democratic process and enjoy only about 20% popularity, it ends by saying that the West can't now fear the aftermath of Egypt espousing 'Western' values like freedom and self-determination.
Hello, are we speaking about the same West that colonized much of the world until recently and refused to get out until they were booted out? The same West that props up dictatorships world over from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Latin America, for reasons that have more to do with economic or political expdiency and less to d with principle? The same West whose President once famously stated about a dictator that "he may be a son of a bitch but he's our son of a bitch"? The West that finds it easier to ally with a Pakistan harbouring terrorists and run by military despots than a democratic India? That pays people like Osama to fight their wars for them and then complains when they become powerful in their own right?
Oh, I get it. By Western values, they meant applicable to Western people, so now Egypt should consider itself suitably westernized! Shades of White Man's Burden all over again!
Hello, are we speaking about the same West that colonized much of the world until recently and refused to get out until they were booted out? The same West that props up dictatorships world over from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Latin America, for reasons that have more to do with economic or political expdiency and less to d with principle? The same West whose President once famously stated about a dictator that "he may be a son of a bitch but he's our son of a bitch"? The West that finds it easier to ally with a Pakistan harbouring terrorists and run by military despots than a democratic India? That pays people like Osama to fight their wars for them and then complains when they become powerful in their own right?
Oh, I get it. By Western values, they meant applicable to Western people, so now Egypt should consider itself suitably westernized! Shades of White Man's Burden all over again!
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