Hi Mike,


>I did not put my point in about the Russians to offend them but my point is true. As long as there is Communism, you will have low motivation and graft. The Egyptians threw the Communists out in 1971 and they still are quite lazy and operate in a crooked manner as a result of their experience with Communism.

Fine. Then I would say that the communist idealogy encourages low Russian that is the cause. I would agree with that.


>The key thing is that if you are going in to work with a country to help them with a problem, someone should first learn about their culture and thought processes. You cannot impose North American political and business values on these people simply by telling them about it. If you are going to help them say with oil production, you have to come up with ways that fit in with their culture. Like the bidding process will not be American. You have to accept this or you will not be effective. I also think taking them into your home and you visiting in their home is really important as well. The human relationships are as important as the technical relationships. If you can get involved in enough of this stuff, I can assure you that they will stop hating you.

I agree with you on all of this.


>Now on the point about families, I was trying to make the point that we are all the same, I did not say they were better at loving their children than we are. We are really all the same and I feel blessed that I have been able to see trhis form myself. Including South Africa. (We visited Johannesburg, Capetown, Queensland? and Zululand. The cities and the game preserves.)

I agree. Having lived and visisted in many countries around the world, including a lot in the middle east, people are people no matter where go. We all want the same things, happy families, healthy children. Look me up when you're out this way again :)


>I don't think the World Wars could have been avoided because Hitler could not be negotiated with. I also agree that we had to invade Iraq in the first Gulf War because Saddam would not negotiate. But I think the situation is different with the terrorists.

I agree on all of this again Mike. I would add, though, that terrorists don't just appear one day. They are the result of underlying and often long-standing problems. And often these problems are created at least partially by our own hand. The problems in the middle east, Iraq, Iran, PLO, etc, are complex and we, the west, are not innocent bystanders and victims. We may not be 100% guilty but niether are we 100% innocent.