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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: broadstbull who wrote (8703)	4/6/2003 9:11:07 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

>>don't you think repressive rule stifles innovation and productivity?<< It can work both ways. Take a look at the restrictions put on music in Russia under Stalin and tell me how, despite or because of those restrictions, composers like Shostakovich and Prokofiev managed to write such great stuff. Look at China during the Sung and Ming dynasties, which were very repressive, and tell me how it was possible for the Chinese to create such great porcelain and other works of art. We think that freedom leads to great innovation, but that's not always the case. As Pablo Casals, who exiled himself from Spain because of the repressive nature of the Franco regime once stated in a master class for the cello, "You cannot have freedom without order." Your question does not have a simple answer. To the rather small number of Muslim countries trying to implement parliamentary democracy, I would also add Tunisa and Bangladesh. Indonesia is still a long way off, mainly because of the concentration of wealth and corruption in the hands of a small power elite. But one cannot generalize about the entire population of any of these countries. Some people are very concerned about democracy and practice it within the confines of their particular jurisdiction. This is true in certain parts of Indonesia, including west Sumatra, around Padang. The variation in almost all of these countries is so wide that what may be true in one area is false in another. Art