I vote for TIBET.

Horta



> >> ... can no longer provide moral guidance to the rest of  the world
> >> ...
>
> >> OK.  Fair enough, I suppose.  But then, I got to wondering -- so,
> >> then,
> >> who is?  England?  Surely not --  they also have  the Iraq stain.
>
> I don't consider the "Iraq stain" is of such major consequence
> compared to all else that happens in the world that it would
> disqualify the US. No country is perfect. While the US's actions in
> Iraq would be seen by the vast majority of humanity as having fallen
> short of the ideal, those who see the US as irrevocably stained by
> Iraq tend tend to have very selective vision re the US's good points.
>
> In recent decades Yugoslavia stage 1 (dissolution), Yugoslavia stage 2
> (Kosovo), Cambodia, China, Ruwanda, China, various ex Soviet
> republics, China and many more come to mind as fit examples when
> seeking to make moral comparisons. The fact that China tends to do
> things overtly mainly within its borders with the exception of one
> small neighbour doesn't make things any better. (I'm not referring to
> Taiwan - that's an internal dispute that will probably sort itself
> peacefully in the next 50 years or so).
>
> >> China?  No.
>
> Indeed.
>
> >> Russia?  No.
>
> Not yet.
>
> >> No. Germany?  Of course not.
>
> A far better candidate than many.
> The sins of the past still weigh heavily on their national conscience
> * and they are quite possibly in a far better position to provide
> moral guidance than most.  (* As well as that being my perception from
> "at a disatnce" input, it's also strongly reinforced with examples
> given to me by a family member who lived there for a while). Anyone
> who did anything they can reasonably be held morally accountable for
> in Hitler's Germany is now over 70 years old (ie at least 12 years old
> in 1945) and most still alive with any moral responsibility are far
> older than that. The current German nation nowadays has no moral
> responsibility for the wrongs of that era.
>
> >> France? Well, perhaps . . .
>
> Hopefully that's in jest. If I ignored the fact that I'm a resident of
> the South Pacific and that I live about 7 miles from where terrorists
> (literally) sent by the French president sank the Rainbow Warrior,
> then I'd rate them at very best as no better than their peers.
>
> >> except that once one begins to examine the skeletons in
> >> their closet from the Algerian revolution it seems awfully hard.
>
> To balance some of that, and regardless of possible vested interest
> etc, whe people were dying in their literally hundreds of thousand in
> Ruwanda *ONLY* the French got into action and did something while the
> whole of the rest of the world di nothing for weeks w\and weeks and
> weeks. That did a lot to redress old memories.
>
> >> Japan?  No, they got carried away during WW II.
>
> And they have learned much from it. Albeit not enough yet.
>
> >> Switzerland?  No, too
> >> many shady deals made with Nazi Germany.
>
> Alas, the dealings of the Swiss is one of the great sorrows - those
> who looked so 'squeaky clean' and indeed had the opportunities to be
> the white knoghts that they appeared to be, turned out to have
> conspired at murder and theft on a scale beyond reasonable belief. But
> also, that generation is gone.
>
> So, how does Belgium stand as a candidate? I have warm mental fizzies
> for their heroism as a nation at various times past. Including 1914
> and 1939. And as the batleground of Western Europe where the 'great
> powers' came to play, they have much to think about. Visit Ypres/Ieper
> on ANY day at 8pm.
> Go to the Mennen gate.
>
>         http://public.fotki.com/russellmc/atw/atw_ypres_mennengate/
> *
>
> Watch the ceremony (conducted there at 8pm every day since 1929). Cry,
> perhaps, as I did.  I don't know how they would stand up against
> iceland in a point by point comparison. But I think the Vikings still
> have a lot to answer for :-)
>
>
>
>         RM
>
> * There will be a lot more of our 25 country tour photo on the superb
> Fotki site in due course. For now it's mainly other stuff.
> Click thumbnails for larger view. Click larger view for next photo.
> Under each of these is a ""Get original uploaded photo" link. These
> are typically 500kB - 1MB so choose with care.
>
>
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