Colombia to Limit Import of Chinese Textile Products

ws244 says on Sep 20, 2005, 13:24:

china Actually what is really going on is the Chinese are using Colombia as a staging area to re-export more Chinese textiles to the U.S. In this way they bypass the WTO export limits directly from China.
Once again the States are being used and abused right on down the gravy train. All the more reason for the U.S. to cut off 3 billion aid to Colombia, bring the troops home, spend the 3 billion instead on the mexican border to stop the drugs, and let the Colombians kill each other off rather than blaming the gringos for all their ills as the rest of South America does.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

ws244 says on Sep 21, 2005, 13:48:

food Really disappointing as i am a La Choy anglo myself, yet only been able to find Kikkoman soy sauce.

Another gripe is not finding sweet relish (they only have sour relish) for my weiners, so i have to import.

Of course my really big gripe is no buttered popcorn in the cinema.

I think we may win in the end however, as at the rate the Colombians are immigrating here and Canada there won't be any left there, so then we can do things the good old imperialistic american way with mom and buttered popcorn.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

protocol13 says on Sep 22, 2005, 16:13:

ws244 Just because some of the Colombian members in BPH flood it with anti-US propaganda, does not mean that everybody else is anti-US. If you check the postings on the Yahoo news regarding Mexico or blacks, one will think that Americans are racists and that is not case. It is a few of those that have a lot of time in their hands, that post all this hatred.
Although most of my family is Colombian by birth most of of us are now US citizens. We are part of that silent mayority that does not go into BPH or other similar groups to let our views be known. We do
love the US and believe this nation and in the mayority of cases have tried to do a lot more good than bad (unlike Russia or China or Germany or ...).

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Sep 22, 2005, 18:09:

ws244, protocol13 is right. People should also mention all the good things the USA has done in the world. All the foreign aid given with no thought of controlling other countries. All the food aid given just because the USA is a good country without any thought of profit or interest. As you say, in the majority of cases the USA has tried to do a lot more good than bad. All that stuff about oil (Halliburton), bananas (United Fruit), and copper (Anaconda) are not good reasons to criticize the USA.

I wonder why people all over the world hate the USA. They must be jealous of how well USA citizens are treated, especially blacks. Those critics are just hateful USA bashers. Don't pay any attention to them. If the USA helps to kill Colombians (like those bad FARC guys), well, they are bad people and deserved to die.

I can't understand why those people are so angry and ungrateful for all the USA has done.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

juancegomez says on Sep 23, 2005, 09:00:

While it's true that the U.S. government usually acts mostly due to its own interests, that doesn't mean that's true in every single action and in every single moment, nor regarding every single U.S. citizen even.

And for what it's worth, the FARC itself also kills Colombians without the need of any U.S. help (though they do get some token help from other parties, on an individual level), because, surprise, the FARC also thinks that its victims are bad people that deserve to die for the sake of the glorious revolution...not much different, you know.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Sep 24, 2005, 10:51:

You know what, Platano, they ARE bad people and they DO deserve to die. People who stick remote controlled bombs on innocent animals and children get no sympathy from me. I'd kill them just the way I killed my dog who was destroying my neighbor's lambs.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Sep 24, 2005, 15:36:

UTC, before you made the decision to kill your dog.... Had the dog formed a political party, won elections, only to see 3,000 of its members murdered in a pre-meditated campaign of political assassinations.

Ever heard of the saying, "I will not judge a man till I have walked a mile in his moccasins" Maybe because I had an opportunity (also called a kidnapping) to walk with them it is easier for me to understand their aims. I have never condoned their methods as I have said many times here.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

juancegomez says on Sep 24, 2005, 19:26:

platano.... ...then what would you say if that dog was engaging in pre-meditated pissing of your leg and biting of your fingers both before, during and after those elections were won and even before any widespread assassinations existed?

Guess that (which admittedly is just as incomplete a description of what happened as what you've written) makes your little analogy a bit less squeaky clean.

I don't agree with UTC on this, but neither can I sincerely and fully agree with that part of your position and its consequences, clearly.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Sep 24, 2005, 20:53:

juancegomez, You are in a safe harbor because I don't know what I am talking about. (My head is not filled with facts and knowledge, most I'm just offering different perspectives based on my personal experience and trying to learn new things.)

I think we do have a difference of opinion about "even before any widespread assassinations existed" if by that you are referring to post-Marquetalia. Assassinations existed all throughout La Violencia. As I have written elsewhere the paramilitary violence was a FARC precursor, long before FARC existed, long before the ganaderos organized a paramilitary response to FARC. The creation of FARC was a response to paramilitary assassinations.

With Uribe being so "alcahueta" with AUC Colombia will have FARC around for a while longer.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

juancegomez says on Sep 26, 2005, 16:39:

Unfortunately I don't agree with your use of the word "paramlitary violence" in the time of Marquetalia, since that implies that such violence would theoretically be directly connected to modern paramilitarism and the AUC, which implies a huge generalizing leap in your argumentation.

However, while this is not your intention, if you're instead speaking about the term "paramilitary" as referring to the nature of the armed bands and groups created by all sides during La Violencia, then that's another matter. In that sense, the "pajaros" were paramilitaries, but so were their Libera and the Communist equivalents, and even the FARC themselves. They were groups of civilians organized in a military fashion, which is the original sense of the word paramilitary.

It's true that many assassinations did happen during that period. But they affected all sides. To indirectly attribute them to the government or to a rough "proto-AUC" mass is definitely misleading, since even "Clean" Liberals killed "Common" Liberals and Communists, and vice versa.

So, to say that the creation of the FARC was simply a response to "paramilitary assassinations" overlooks quite a large part of that, and brushes aside that the FARC themselves were only created after the military (not paramilitary) attack on Marquetalia, and that even before that attack, the proto-FARC had not laid down its arms and even continued to raid and kidnap people even if in a minuscule scale. Not to mention the ideological discourse that the Communist Party already had in the 1960s, after the Cuban Revolution.

FYI, I was originally speaking about widespread assassinations against the UP in particular.

As for your parting comment...I don't make prophecies nor do I believe in them except in moments of weakness, so I can't judge yours.

0 funny, 0 helpful.