Monday, April 14, 2003 :::
 
Not so fast. Calmer reports tell us that most of the looting in Baghdad was directed at sites obviously associated with Hussein, and that most private property and businesses were left alone. Perhaps the crowd was not insane with desperation but was acting with fully conscious and entirely reasonable aims. Which makes the unique exception of the Antiquities Museum even more interesting. (See previous post, on the looting.) We will see when we find out if there is strong opposition to rebuilding the museum...

Critics who say that the necessary government organization for rebuilding is now missing are themselves missing the lessons of the fall of European Communism and of other such gruesome regimes. The Ministry of Transportation may house some experts in roadbuilding, but it is also yet another instrument for monitoring and controlling every aspect of the lives of individuals. Think of the "hospitals" that the US was criticized for attacking: inside they had military equipment, and in the basements they had torture chambers. I doubt seriously much healing went on. Rebuilding to provide the same level of service may prove easier than initial reactions, because the level was so low to begin with.

And the US military is now going house to house trying to reclaim some of the stuff.

Speaking of doctors in totalitarian societies. The SARS epidemic seems to be growing out of all proportion to the initially reported numbers. This is because it has been going on for months in China, which refused until very recently to release any information about the number of cases. We have no idea what the initial numbers really were. The ever-reliable Wall Street Journal reported shortly after SARS broke out in Hong Kong that the official Chinese reticence may have nothing to do with Communist secrecy, but a lot to do with Communist history: in the 1950's, the government stopped one epidemic by simply killing anyone who came in for treatment, so many Chinese are reluctant to go see doctors.

Which raises this question... Why do people say Communism fell between 1989-1991? That was European Communism. It is thriving elsewhere.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 4:48 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.