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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KipferlMeister who wrote (15044)	8/5/2002 10:17:47 AM
From: Alan Whirlwind	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82354

I used to post regularly on Kitco. But it gradually became apparent that it was as much a bastion of anti-American opinion as an avenue for serious metals commentary. For example there is a poster there from SA who claims to have lived in the US and has great difficulty getting through a morning without an insulting potshot or two against the US. A few others, probably from Canada and Australia, echo similar anti-American sentiment. You can just see them flipping the bird between the lines. This Kitco penchant for critical bs seemed to me rather surreal since it would never occur to me to post insulting diatribe against other people's countries and leaders. I eventually had enough and left the forum. Compared to such Kitco posters though, Searle hardly even registers. At least he is cordial about his misgivings and has qualified many of them. I tend to be suspicious myself about government things anyway. I still watch the old SIGHTINGS reruns.

To: KipferlMeister who wrote (15044)	8/5/2002 10:50:32 AM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82354

M Veit, although you have refused me the opportunity to do so, I will nevertheless say a few words in response to your tirade against me. Some of the points which you have made are self-evident such as I am 5000 miles away, that I'm an armchair critic and, most likely even if I came to visit the US, I probably wouldn't learn much more about it than I already know. However, other points which you have made are incorrect. I do know a great deal about the US from BBC, CNN and CNBC news services and also from my daily readings in the newspapers and on the internet. In fact, I probably know more about how the world sees America, how America sees the world, and maybe even how America feels about itself than people who live in the US. Living in a place is not the only way one gets to know about it. Let me also say that, growing up in South Africa as I have, my whole life has been exposed to American culture, thinking, technology and ideas, not directly but indirectly. Indeed, South Africa could be considered as a member of the American "empire". If it means anything, let me tell you that to this day I am mad about jazz which is probably the only art-form which is truly American. I am not responsible for the demise of this thread. In fact, if anyone is responsible for keeping it going after Bill Murphy left, it is I. Over the past few years my contributions here have probably been as much as all the other contributors put together. Although it is clear that you don't like what I have to say --- I remember you previously made a sharp remark about my believing Mossad was behind 911 --- others do and have told me as much. I am not a bigot. Anything but. It is precisely because I live in SA amongst people of all races and religions that I feel I am in a position to speak on contentious subjects which involve different races and religions. Indeed, although I am not a AK47-carrying-revolutionary nor a member of the ANC, during the previous apartheid regime I did as much as I could to bring about social and political change in this country. For your information, most of my professional life as a medic was spent in a hospital catering predominately to black patients. Although I am not religious, I am friendly with people of all religious denominations and have helped people of various religions in their lives. I accept that you disagree with my sweeping statement about the US made from a long way away but you might remember that often the things which are hardest to see are those which are right before one's very eyes. BTW, I'm not anti-American. I'm against those guys who are running America to suit their own vested interests.

To: KipferlMeister who wrote (15044)	8/6/2002 1:10:40 AM
From: marcos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82354

Read back a ways, M, and you'll find Searle savages the republic of his residence [and of his birth? - dunno] as well, when he feels it appropriate .... most of us do the same, i don't think you'll find anybody pumping illusions of utopia in any patria here, never mind where we're 'from', after a while you're an SIer and that's the nationality that counts here ..... as for the US, well as the eight thousand pound gorilla on the block of course it is going to be feared and loathed [not much point in worrying about the foreign policy of Andorra or the Cook Islands, eh], that goes with the territory of empire, all that military might, 'wars and rumours of wars' it says in some book they say .... Uncle Sam - the mythic essence of that Cradle of Liberty, the continuation of old english yeoman independence that was itself derived from germanic and celtic and indian tribal attitudes - is to all of us on this planet a friend, always has been our friend, always will be .... however, the bozos du jour running the nation he is supposed to personify are another matter, sometimes .... i agree with Searle's statement the way you have pasted it in, pretty much .... i smell another Viet Nam coming, something stupider and bloodier and more evil than the war against the vietnamese even, if such a thing is possible ...... and you know, it is