Saturday, January 26, 2019

238 Name Calling

John Balneaves (9/1) quoted Martin Van Beijnen on some of his political views with regards Chinese and Russian political systems, which amounted to nothing else but cheap name calling. Name calling is always bad journalism and is precisely what leads to identity politics, which Van Beijnen so fervently condemns in his article (eg I am wrongly identified as 'anti American',  because of my political views) .During his next holiday I suggest that Martin catches up with studying Capitalism, especially in relation to the emergence of the military industrial complex (MIC), the death and destruction it has caused in Korea and Indo China and in the aftermath of 9/11, which has run into the many millions of innocent people. Communist China on the other hand has since 1949 lifted many millions out of the most inhuman and dire poverty and still continues to do so at an unprecedented record in world history.
Tom van Meurs
9 January 2019

PS Martin Van Beijnen is a staff member of the Christchurch Press, a leading news outlet in the South Island of New Zealand. He writes a weekly article in the Saturday issue in one of the paper's supplements. I very often agree with his views and he is a good analyst on several issues of great public interest. His analysis of the David Bain murder trial I think was sublime.