Like how adorable my Persian teacher is?
On 11/15/06, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> > However, it's one thing to say that it is wrong for the Iranian
> > government to use death penalty, especially wrong in cases other than
> > aggravated murders, and it's another thing to say that "Iran executed
> > another person for same-sex relationship." The former is true,
> > whereas the latter isn't. Truth matters.
>
> How many outrageous acts by how many governments were committed
> yesterday? Some of those acts undoubtedly resulted in the ruin of
> countless lives. Others tortured only one person. Others killed a man or
> woman under the label of "death penalty." On what grounds do we select
> from these countless acts of outrage the one or two or three that shall
> figure prominently in lbo-posts on a given day? What are the political
> and/or intellectual implications of such choices of topic to write on?
> What political goal is served by choosing one out of the many executions
> around the world to discuss?
As soon as Washington reconciles itself with Tehran (if it does, that is), Iran will disappear from the mass media, and from the consciousness of most leftists in the West as well.
That said, the Iranian government ought to abolish death penalty, for its own good and the good of its people. Any costs of abolition of death penalty -- if there are any -- will be far outweighed by many benefits of it, imho. I say this because Iran is just about the most important country in the world at this moment. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>