re Infrastructure Finance Feb/Mar 9 (r)

[tomfox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: re Infrastructure Finance Feb/Mar 9

On 16 Mar 1996 tmyint@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> From: TUN MYINT <tmyint@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: re Infrastructure Finance Feb/Mar 9 (fwd)
> 
> 
> On Date: 14 Mar 1996 13:42:49
> dawn star <cd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Free Burma Readers, =20
> 
> =20
> >re  TROUBLING PROJECTS
> >Myanmar's Yadana gas field raises the question: =20
> >Should companies do business with regimes that violate basic human=20
> >rights?
> =20
> >By Gregory Millman  (pp. 17-19)
> 
> >Lets see closer, as =91Prof =92 Donaldson says :
> 
> >Professor Tom Donaldson of Georgetown University, author of The Ethics of
> >International Business, says, "In Burma the human rights violations have
> >been systemic, widespread, and involve violations of the most fundamental
> >and central
> >human rights accepted by both liberals and conservatives."
> 
> >Donaldson is no knee-jerk bleeding heart.  (what does that mean? ed. Dawn=
> =20
>               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~=20
> >Star.

In the American context, knee-jerk (as in an automatic reaction of 
nerves when the 
doctor bounces a rubber hammer on the area below your knee-cap and your 
leg jerks up) conservatives used to refer to anyone "left" of themselves 
as a knee-jerk bleeding heart liberal. The 
bleeding-heart part means they take up any cause of suffering on the part 
of social underclasses no matter what the cost. 

In this context, saying he is no (not a) knee-jerk bleeding heart is 
positive for the Burma cause, as it means he did not adopt a pro-Burmese 
people, anti-Slorc position as a matter of political doctrine. He is a 
conservative who analyzed the situation and found that it would not be 
beneficial for business people to support the Slorc. 
It is the writer's shorthand to say that means Donaldson is not 
someone who would support the human rights position as a matter of 
course, without analysing a broader conception of interests.

It means that those not normally first concerned with human rights, such 
as business people, should sit up and take notice. 
   Hope this helps, tom

> 
> I understand it as Donaldson is not sympathetic (although the writer of
> this article or the reader might have expected as sympathetic) toward
> those people who claim doing business with SLORC is empowering/ignoring
> SLORC's human rights violations..=20
> 
> 
> Tun Myint
>