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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Worswick who wrote (2776)	3/28/1998 6:39:00 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

WOW, WWIII just started and it looks like I may be out numbered. Fortunately, I have ASIAN VALUES (would some ASIAN tell me what that is? may be Holbrooke can tell me). Worswick, first of all, let me see if I can point out the stupidity of Holbrook's statement on Asian values. To lump Asians together is about as racial and ignorant as they come. I am of Chinese origin (but really more westernized now). To put the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Malaysians, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Thais etc together and call them Asians with one set of Asian values is about as stupid as putting the Russians, the French, the Germans and the Jews toghether and say they have one set of European values. Take a step back and look at the modern history of Asia. Japan was destroyed after WWII and is still in denial that they did anything bad to cause the evil empire to drop the bombs on innocent citizens. China was not only destroyed after WWII, then there was the civil war, followed by ill-conceived "great leaps forwards (right into the frying pan)" and topped off with the cultural revolution. What did the western world do when millions of Chinese were dying from starvation? They pushed the cold war to the limit to show those commies how stupid they were. So what if a few million of "those people" perish, there are far too many anyway. The new China really didn't even exist until Mao's death around 1976(?), just a short 20 years ago. Indonesian was raped by the Dutch until a couple of dictators managed to seize control. Now the IMF came up with conditions that they might as well tell Suharto to skip town. Suharto is a corrupt leader but Indonesian would explode if he just walks away with no infrastructure to replace his government. Take a look at whats happening to the old USSR. Vietnam was first under Chinese, then French, then Japanese, then US and finally have a country that they can call their own. Western history is going to remember the fifty some thousand US soldiers who died but not the 1.5 million Vietnamese who gallantly defended their country against overwhelming odds. I assume you all know that we dropped more bombs in Vietnam than all the countries during WWII combined. Korea is technically still at war with an unknown number starving to death as we debate in the comforts of our respective homes. I can go on and on but I think you got the message. Almost all the Asian countries and rich in culture but are in the infancy stage in the new world. Holbrooke's type of judgement is totally unfair, with no regards of where these countries had been and where they are heading. "For almost as long as Holbrook has been in public service I have been doing deals in Asia. I can't tell you the crap that one has to put up: the plain bad faith: the broken promises: the hall of mirrors you walk into where the corrupt always win. Asia 1960-1997 was not a level playing field. Really, if you don't know this: if you don't know still to this day, that European/American firms can't do lots of financial service deals in Asia in the same way Asian firms do business in our markets then you shoulld learn about this. " Think about the above statement you made again and you will realize the one sidedness. What you are saying is that we developed countries had a chance to straighten out our act through time and we expect you all to play by our rules immediately. You may not see the racial overtones but let me give you an example. Do you think California wine makers have no barriers importing wine to France? Do you think congress will revoke the French MFN status because they decide to test nukes in some island thousands of miles away from France with no regards for the environmental impact to the area? You are frustrated by "bad faith and broken promises". The US is the master of "broken promises". Decendents of this deceit are still living in reservations all over the country. I wonder what it was like to do business with the Rockefellers and the JP Morgans, the fathers of US business ethics. As a US citizen, I really wish our government would keep quiet about other countries' labor practice, afraid that someone would bring up how our richness is at least partially derived from the import of very inexpensive labor from Africa. Don't take me for some bitter maniac? I have totally accepted the fact the world will never be at total equilibrium at any given time. Ideally, we all want business conditions that we are comfortable with but there has to be a practical side. Individuals like Holbrooke (or may be even Worswick) who believe that one set of rules, their rule of course, should apply to all are living in a dream world. I am in no way defending some of the Asia business practices, nor would I defend the practices of the biggest predator in the world today (some nerd in a Northwestern state who has a monolopy on an over-priced inferior product that crashes all the time). All I am trying to point out is the arrogant attitude that is completely counter productive. There has to be a more pragmatic approach. Unfortunately, Bush was not re-elected, otherwise, we would all be living in a kinder and gentler nation by now. Ramsey