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This forum is not one of predominantly libertarian hackers. I have been here a long time and have not found any predominant political leaning of this forum othe

by hristov 14y ago

This forum is not one of predominantly libertarian hackers. I have been here a long time and have not found any predominant political leaning of this forum other than on specific issues related to technology law, intellectual property and privacy. So that statement is presumptive and wrong. Regarding the rest of your post, it will take me all day to point out all the various misconceptions and racisms there. But I should say that in my old country we had a 50 year experiment called communism forced upon us by a more powerful foreign country and it was no fun at all. That experiment also came highly recommended from the best minds in academia. That's why the whole idea of powerful countries doing experiments on weaker ones seems incredibly wrong and offensive to me. And no this is not "importing institutions from succesful countries." There is not a single successful country that has anything similar to this -- i.e., an autonomous region that is ruled by some economics professor and is not subject to the country's laws or democratic institutions. In fact if any politician even suggests this for America, their career is doomed. How about we don't experiment on poorer nations. How about we let them decide for themselves. This way if they do something wrong it will be their own fault. And if they want to pass laws that favor foreign investment they can pass those laws using their lawfully elected parliament and they can take their own responsibility for them. The current president of Honduras is the result of a military coup and very dodgy elections held by that same military after many arrests and disappearances. If this deal goes through it will not be considered by ordinary people in Honduras as something they chose. It will be considered as something dictated from the U.S. I am not sure how much that is true, but it is obvious that this is what the Hondurans will believe. The coup is already being blamed on the US.

TheCowboy 14y ago
The best minds in academia also advocated the "shock therapy" approach to post-communist countries, which was also forced upon these countries if they wanted loans and aid from the IMF, World Bank, and the west in general. Things didn't turn out well. What actually worked best was a more gradualist approach dictated from within. Which is not to say that external advice was disregarded, but was taken selectively. To root this more for HN viewers, imagine if VCs or Harvard MBAs dictated to your startup everything, such as your strategy, what to build, etc. It's best when solutions are grown from within coupled with advice and support. Relevant reading material for this view: economist Frederic Mishkin's The Next Great Globalization: How Disadvantaged Nations Can Harness Their Financial Systems to Get Rich (don't let the title turn you off) and nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz has a number of books on this topic
webXL 14y ago
Only a coup if you say it is: "Still, many people in Honduras, including most of the country's official institutions, claim that there was a constitutional succession of power. In a statement to a subcomittee of the U.S. House Committee on International Affairs, former Honduran Supreme Court Justice, Foreign Affairs minister, and law professor Guillermo Prez-Cadalso said that all major governmental institutions agreed that Zelaya was violating the law." Prepared Statement of the Hon. Guillermo Perez-Cadalso Before the U.S. House Committee on International Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere". U.S. House Committee on International Affairs. 10 July 2009. Archived from the original on 16 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta... Linked from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_constitutional_crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_constitutional_cr..., which was the first hit from searching "Honduras coup" on Google. To your other points, I have sympathy that communists forced their views on your country, but if a country or groups within a country want to peacefully solicit me in order to perform "an experiment", and convince me that I will benefit in return, then why should anybody have the power to deny me or them that right? A friggin' border? A line on a god damn map??
jpsierens 14y ago
I'm Honduran. Zelaya was going against the constitution when he decided to be re-elected on a third consecutive term, without the vote of the people. As stated somewhere else, he was bringing over rigged votes from Venezuela. The current president is not the result of a military coup. After Zelaya was overthrown (without violence), the military set up an interim government with a temporary president. He was president until democratic elections took place. We all voted and chose our current president (at least the majority). I really pity how the rest of the world views this as a coup and say that our current government is not a valid one. Thanks CNN.
- rsanchez1 14y ago
  Too bad Zelaya didn't have the brilliant idea of packing the Supreme Court wit sympathizers like Ortega did down south, so that when he announced he was going to seek an illegal term the sympathizers in the court would give him legitimacy. Now, inexplicably Nicaragua has yet another Ortega term. Guess Chavez's oil money works better in Nicaragua than it does in Honduras.

by hristov 14y ago

TheCowboy 14y ago

The best minds in academia also advocated the "shock therapy" approach to post-communist countries, which was also forced upon these countries if they wanted loans and aid from the IMF, World Bank, and the west in general. Things didn't turn out well. What actually worked best was a more gradualist approach dictated from within. Which is not to say that external advice was disregarded, but was taken selectively. To root this more for HN viewers, imagine if VCs or Harvard MBAs dictated to your startup everything, such as your strategy, what to build, etc. It's best when solutions are grown from within coupled with advice and support. Relevant reading material for this view: economist Frederic Mishkin's The Next Great Globalization: How Disadvantaged Nations Can Harness Their Financial Systems to Get Rich (don't let the title turn you off) and nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz has a number of books on this topic

webXL 14y ago

Only a coup if you say it is: "Still, many people in Honduras, including most of the country's official institutions, claim that there was a constitutional succession of power. In a statement to a subcomittee of the U.S. House Committee on International Affairs, former Honduran Supreme Court Justice, Foreign Affairs minister, and law professor Guillermo Prez-Cadalso said that all major governmental institutions agreed that Zelaya was violating the law." Prepared Statement of the Hon. Guillermo Perez-Cadalso Before the U.S. House Committee on International Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere". U.S. House Committee on International Affairs. 10 July 2009. Archived from the original on 16 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta... Linked from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_constitutional_crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_constitutional_cr..., which was the first hit from searching "Honduras coup" on Google. To your other points, I have sympathy that communists forced their views on your country, but if a country or groups within a country want to peacefully solicit me in order to perform "an experiment", and convince me that I will benefit in return, then why should anybody have the power to deny me or them that right? A friggin' border? A line on a god damn map??

jpsierens 14y ago

I'm Honduran. Zelaya was going against the constitution when he decided to be re-elected on a third consecutive term, without the vote of the people. As stated somewhere else, he was bringing over rigged votes from Venezuela. The current president is not the result of a military coup. After Zelaya was overthrown (without violence), the military set up an interim government with a temporary president. He was president until democratic elections took place. We all voted and chose our current president (at least the majority). I really pity how the rest of the world views this as a coup and say that our current government is not a valid one. Thanks CNN.

rsanchez1 14y ago
Too bad Zelaya didn't have the brilliant idea of packing the Supreme Court wit sympathizers like Ortega did down south, so that when he announced he was going to seek an illegal term the sympathizers in the court would give him legitimacy. Now, inexplicably Nicaragua has yet another Ortega term. Guess Chavez's oil money works better in Nicaragua than it does in Honduras.