--- Steve Vertigum utilitymuffinresearch2@yahoo.com wrote:
I think the point of the argument against is that statistics from an apartheid state (regardless of how much the US happens to sanction it currently) must be treated as suspect. UN statistics should be better--ie, more NPOV--even if they are not as "complete."
The same could in many ways be said for the US as well-- the US until very recently was more or less an apartheid state, and still has lingering aspects of this left over, in terms of its sociological/financial barriers. Etc. If this was the case today in the US--as it was 1950--there would be every justification for Wikipedians to look upon statistics coming out of such a country's official machinery as smelly. We should trust more open neutral statistics than those of any state agency. The CIA factbook for example is only usable is because its extremely short descriptions belie any attempt at pov.
To deal with the basic concept--what people forget is that "racism" and the apartheid that was synonymous with it, (which came first?) in the US was, (as it is everywhere) simply a way to keep people separated--firstly for imperialist/corporate control reasons. The US began as an English corporate venture into tobacco, youll remember. Whatever the reason, ''[[the hand that rocks the cradle]] is the hand that rules the world'', and we would be remiss to not challenge such statistics, that ask us to overlook some glaring inconsistencies.
Apply these fundamental metaphors for understanding humanity as you like. ~S~ Between any two disparate points of view is a buffer zone, which makes for a nice way for tricksters to get around. --戴眩
The Israel is an apartheid state? Hardly. And even if it were true, it shouldn't be on this list. Israel's statistics are perfectly valid, as are pre-1950 US statistics. Even at the beginning of the US's history, African American slaves were counted in the US Census for purposes of the size of the electoral college, albeit only as 2/3 of a person. If you have actual proof that Israel is messing up its statistics, please post it here.
Where do you think the UN gets its statistics from? They don't conduct their own census. In New York State, there was a small controversey over Census and old people going to florida while they recieved the Census in the mail in their official New York residence and missed the deadline. But there were no UN statistics to back this up. The UN could care less about this obscure data. <rant> The only data I could find from the UN on Israel (aside from useless rural vs. urban data) was that there were about 6 million inhabitants in 2000. But Israel, evil apartheid Israel, said that there were 6.5 million in 2002! Oh no! We can't use their data because the obviously fabricated an other half a million Jews for their evil plan. </rant> LDan
Note: If you want to respond to my out-of-place political statements, do it offlist.
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