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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (108454)	7/27/2003 10:47:08 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 281500

Vietnam does indeed do a lot of its business through multinational companies -- so what? Global companies have marketing expertise that all countries need, and Vietnam is a relatively small, export-oriented economy. Do you think NIKE is calling the shots in Hanoi -- the people at NIKE would get a good laugh at that one. As for corruption, it is a serious problem to be sure in Vietnam and throughout the region. It is a serious problem in Japan and China. It is rampant in the Philippines. Of course in Washington there is no corruption -- heavens no, we call it "fund raising" and "non-bid contracts" (what was the name of that little company where Cheney worked for awhile -- you know the one with the billion dollar, no-bid secret contract?). But whatever you call it, the financing of elections puts our political process right in the pockets of big business -- or did you not know that? Of course you might choose to believe that billions of dollars are donated into our election process with no thought whatsoever in my mind of personal gain -- perish the thought! You might hate the thought, but Vietnam is free. Iraq is not.