RES: Reasons to support war on Iraq

Alexandre Fenelon afenelon at zaz.com.br
Wed Feb 12 16:40:54 PST 2003


It needs to be explained why the failure of secular nationalism did not contribute to the growth of the Left. Why fundamentalism?

-Good question. Maybe the left in ME WAS secular nationalism? It´s said -that Egyptian communists supported Nasser from their jails....

China has yet to cross many hurdles. How long the CP can survive as a ruling party?

-I think the CP still can survive as ruling party as far the economy is growing -and social tensions don´t rise too much. I would say social tensions are -the worse threat to CP rule, since layoffs in SOE´s will led the Chinese -welfare system to collapse. I´m uncertain on how many time China will be -able to sustain its 7% annual growth.

Depends on what you mean by poverty. How do you measure poverty in Brazil? What kind of benchmarks you use?

-Per capita less than US$60,00 PPP adjusted. We have 30% of our people -living in poverty by that measurement.This value is still too low, I -think. I would use at least US$150,00 (empirically I feel this would -be a better value)

India's 10th five year plan (2002-07) targets 8% annual GDP growth. But that is not likely to be achieved.

-Maybe 5-6%?

Btw, what are the prospects of Brazil emerging as a superpower?

-Forget this....economy stagnated in the last 20 years, new worker´s party -government implementing the same neoliberal policies of the former right -wing government..huge budget costs to allow a surplus of 4,2% of GDP while -we spend 8% of GDP with interest payments, so the public debt won´t -decrease even with those rigid fiscal policies....not to mention that -we signed the non proliferation treaty (how to be a superpower withouth -A-bombs?)

Alexanre Fenelon

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