From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/3509 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Gabor Lukacs Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Response to "Elsevier and weapons trade" Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 19:46:42 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241019349 9055 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 15:35:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:35:49 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: rrosebru@mta.ca Fri Dec 8 09:37:29 2006 -0400 Return-path: Envelope-to: categories-list@mta.ca Delivery-date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:37:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1GsfmP-0003lK-7e for categories-list@mta.ca; Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:28:45 -0400 Original-Sender: cat-dist@mta.ca Precedence: bulk X-Keywords: X-UID: 10 Original-Lines: 43 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:3509 Archived-At: [Note from moderator: as the poster points out, categories is not a forum for political discussion. Consequently, further messages on this topic received before Monday will be digested and posted then, closing the discussion.] Dear Colleagues, I am responding to the posting of Marco Grandis. I would like to express my heartfelt admiration to all those who raised their voice against Elsevier's involvement in the arms trade. I find it so noble that many scientists found time to express their outrage and protest. At the same time, I cannot help saying that I find the whole initiative childishly naive, and even somewhat hypocritical. Naive, because apparently, they believe that wars are because of the arms trade -- in other words, they seem to mistake the cause with the result. (If there were no wars, would there be any point in manufacturing weapons? Let me ask it clearer: Would it bring *profit* to manufacture arms in that case??) And I said hypocritical, because I do wonder where the same good souls were at the time of the invasion of Iraq, during the war in the Balkan, or what do they think about what is happening in Israel. I wonder if the same worried scientists who propose to boycott Reed-Elsevier have already signed the academic boycott against Israel, and would participate in a similar action against the US as a protest against its foreign policy. I am raising these issues not in order to generate a political discussion on a categories forum (which is definitely not the appropriate place for such a discussion), but rather to illuminate the disproportional nature of the suggestion action. It appears to me an overreaction, and directed against the wrong entity. With best wishes, Gabor Lukacs