I keep reading these ridiculous headlines - Deng Xiaoping the reformer - and I feel like gagging. What "reformer"? With deplorable human rights, working conditions, and environmental protections and extremely low MEDIAN incomes along with genocidal conduct towards potential dissidents, I find the "reformer" label hard to swallow. It is pretty hard to make a case for the "reforms" vis a vis the regular forms of communism employed in embargoed countries like Cuba. In fact there is more citizen input in Cuba than in China. In fact the only "good" thing about these "reforms" is that foreign companies can now share the profitability of the types of political exploitation common in autocratic hellholes - which is why our commercial media feel inclined to laud him as a "reformer". I have been calling for economic sanctions and/or a consumer boycott for years. I feel prone to paraphrase Nobel prize winner Nelson Mandela "help us win our freedom; don't just make our chains seem lighter".
2/21/97