Subject:
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A (not overly serious) parable on US foreign policy
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 23 May 2003 17:46:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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87 times
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A few years ago I had a professor who told this tale, which I recount now as
close to verbatim as I am able to recall. Any distortion is due to my poor
recollection and shouldn't reflect upon the original story.
During grad school my future professor was touring a number of Eastern
European countries by train, which was filled with a colorful assortment of
people from the region, as well as a number of other tourists, including a
tall US Army soldier in full dress.
At one station, my professor reports, three men boarded "looking like they'd
just stepped out of a Dostoevsky novel" and climbed into seats not far from
my prof. The train pulled from the station and resumed its journey.
My professor had to transfer to a different train, so he disembarked several
stops later, as did the three men. Crossing the platform, one of the three
suffered some kind of seizure, collapsing to the boards and spasming. To my
professor's surprise, no one did anything to help the guy, including his two
companions. Therefore my professor knelt to try to offer assistance, but he
had no first aid training and had no idea where to begin.
"Put your wallet in his mouth," boomed a voice from nearby. My prof took
out his wallet, but in the heat of the moment didn't know what to do. Then
the big Army soldier jerked my prof to his feet and shoved him out of the
way. Kneeling, the soldier straddled the helpless victim and, in a single,
powerful motion, thrust the bulging wallet into his mouth.
So that was my professor's first-hand encounter with US foreign aid in
action; watching dumbstruck while a big US soldier jammed a fat, capitalist
wallet into the mouth of a helpless Eastern European citizen.
Of course, it could have been *any* helpless citizen... 8^)
Dave!
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