Amber Listserv / open letter

[David Lamb]

             Dear John,

 

                              Now that I am less angry about you insulting
Canada I would like to address what you said in detail. I make it a point
never to discuss political issues on the amber list-server but I feel I have
to address the issues you raise so nobody forms any misconceptions. I am
troubled by the inaccuracy of some of your statements. To begin with Canada
has recently changed its' laws and the import of burmite has ended. This was
reported to the list-server by Ron Buckley several weeks ago, in your email
you claim the opposite. You accuse me of telling the entire list-serve
community to "kiss my ass". Again this is inaccurate, about 2 years ago I
told I told a selected group to "bite me". Several weeks ago when I sent
pics of a piece of root amber you questioned whether such a sub-type even
existed.. This rare sub-type is covered in Dr. Rice's excellent book "Amber
- Golden Gem of the Ages". Concerning the situation in Burma....... as with
Iraq after the first Gulf War sanctions have been an utter failure. The only
effect has been to impoverish a lot of already poor people and drive the
military regime into further isolationism. Geopolitically speaking the real
players in Burma are China, India and Thailand, until they want things to
change in Burma nothing will happen. Because of the sanctions those
countries, which border Burma are making a fortune dealing in the rich
natural resources. Why would they want anything to change? I think a much
more prudent policy would be for the West to engage Burma especially
economically. At some point in the future I think historians will say the
Western powers made a big mistake when they judged their best weapons to be
military might and sanctions. Their real best weapon is their own economic
system which was what really ended the cold war. The entire world aspires to
have the economic lifestyle of Middle America. The Libyan and North Korean
crises have been solved without firing a shot and we see burgeoning middle
classes in both Russia and China. Except in the rare case, sanctions don't
work!!!!! Lastly I would like to address the question of Canada. For you to
call into question Canada's human rights record is ridiculous. A Canadian
wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Canada has always been a
world leader in this field. I was especially saddened to hear such comments
from someone who is so proud of their Polish ancestry. In September 1939,
when Hitler's blitzkrieg rolled into Poland, Canada was one of the first
countries in the world to declare war on Nazi Germany. This John, was over
two years before your adopted country did the same. I hope this answers your
points and I apologize to the other members for this digression into
politics. I hope in the future John you will keep the politics out of it and
only contribute when you have something positive to say.

 

 
David Lamb.

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