Washington Post (August 18)
“Just as Afghanistan refuted the Soviet delusion that communism was the future, it has rebutted the American fantasy that there is a functional liberal democracy inside every theocracy or dictatorship, just waiting for us to let it out. Ethnicity, culture and religion are fundamental elements of human nature that have to be acknowledged, not engineering problems that can be solved.”
Tags: Acknowledged, Afghanistan, Communism, Culture, Delusion, Dictatorship, Ethnicity, Fantasy, Future, Human nature, Liberal democracy, Rebutted, Refuted, Religion, Soviet, Theocracy, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (August 13)
“China’s adolescent angst” is to be expected. Apparent wealth and strength aside, “it’s helpful to keep some perspective on a place that was impoverished and practically irrelevant 35 years ago. Despite its size, the Chinese economy is still an underdeveloped work in progress, fumbling through the transition from closed communism to some form of market-driven capitalism.”
Tags: Adolescent, Angst, Capitalism, China, Communism, Economy, Fumbling, Impoverished, Transition, Underdeveloped
Financial Times (August 18)
With the momentum of the Solidarity movement, Poland broke free of the Soviet Union on August 24, 1989. “Twenty-five years on, a generation of Poles has grown up with no personal experience of communism. Poland is a sovereign democracy, an increasingly prosperous market economy and a proud member of Nato and the EU— a nation transformed from the dreadful era of one-party rule, dismal living standards and subservience to Moscow. Poland, you could say, has never had it so good.”
Tags: Communism, Democracy, EU, Market economy, Momentum, Moscow, Nato, Poland, Solidarity, Soviet Union
