i want to respond with a little bit of detail about the military question,
as i think the current thinking on it remains a bit muddled, in my opinion.
my main observations on this would be:
i want to offer another short example, and i know people will see this as a
personal attack, but be that as it may here goes.
a few yrs ago Geoff Lawton was working on another effort in Jordan. In this
case a USAID funded effort that required, in order to get the funding, that
it be an effort that included israeli participation. (the project as i
understood it was something to do with "plant quarantine" and i suspect the
Israeli and US interest was in access to genetic material from arab
countries traditional drought resistant varieties for israeli GMO
programs) it turned out that Geoff at al were not able to persuade very many
Jordanian NGO's to partner in the effort, something that should have been
obvious to him as first glance at the proposal, yet it was something he
didn't seem to want to think about. he just seemed to want to remain blind
to the social ecology involved, much less the potential consequences to the
PC movement for being identified in the minds of jordanian and arab folks on
the ground as being aligned with a project like this.
so, for me, this question of "ethics" it is about effectiveness in the
movement. if an average arab, afghan, US, any person anywhere has their very
first exposure to PC being a press release from the Pentagon about their new
green PC intiative to 'help' the people of afghanistan, (or whatever the
latest military effort is) do you believe this is going to advance, or
setback the movement of PC ideas into these communities?
That's enough for now. I realize this is somewhat challenging stuff.
I don't believe tho that any of what i have written should be characterized
as personal attack. i do not want to engage in personal attacks, flame
wars, or online abuse., nor do i want to suffer it myself. i do believe
these are legitimate and needed conversations for everyone involved in PC if
we are to grow in our effectiveness.
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