I take exception to the UK funding and facilitating training Saudi police given the death penalty there, but I don't really know how that's working.
Is it better that we share ethical policing techniques that may reduce the incidence of people being dragged away from peaceful protest, tortured and executed, regardless of minor, or disability status?
Are there other ways of doing things? Is it more functional to diffuse conflict, rather than create it with further hostility?
Sanctions and boycotts have a hostile element and hostility breeds hostility. Perhaps we should be mindful of that.
I read somewhere that when Nelson Mandela was asked if sanctions against South Africa helped, he said, "Probably not."
In comparison to the actions of and consequences for the the South African people themselves, is there a certain colonialism and arrogance in thinking that Westerners not eating apples somehow saved the day?
If we refuse to engage with and support a certain system shouldn't we recognise that we do it for the benefit of our own integrity, rather than as an act of saviour?
There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn Nobody's right if everybody's wrong Young people speaking their minds Getting so much resistance from behind
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat A thousand people in the street Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you're always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, now, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
RE: Are boycotts a legitimate form of protest?
In simple terms, perhaps, but human psychology and interaction are rarely simple.Missionaries and Magdeleine laundries. Just sayin'.