Danding, (Hypothetical, not personal)
Look at it this way: Assume that you are a farmer in Indiana with 100 acres to farm. One Sunday morning, after coming home from church, one of your farm hands reports to you that one of your neighbors has sent tractors to pull up some fences with a view to pushing your fences back so that your neighbor will now allegedly own 20 of your acres, reducing the size of your farm to 80 acres. The 20 acres your neighbor has appropriated for himself happens to be where you suspect there are diamonds scattered in the soil not 15 feet beneath the surface. What would you do? a) Go to your neighbor's house, sink to your knees and beg your neighbor to put the fences back to where they were last week; b) Convince your son to marry the neighbor's daughter so that the two families will now own the combined farms (your neighbor's and yours); c) Invite your neighbor to lunch at Denny's and talk about how the Cleveland Cavaliers made history by coming from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA championship and then surprise your neighbor by asking him why he took 20 acres of your farmland without your permission; d) Your neighbor visits you at your house, accompanied by twenty bodyguards, fifty tanks and a platoon of special forces and then suggests that you should sit down and discuss the terms of your participation in the business of harvesting the diamonds in what used to be your property; e) Go to the courthouse on Monday and file a complaint that alleges your neighbor has stolen 20 acres of your farmland. If you pick any of the top four, you are the biggest idiot in Indiana. C PS I admire your intelligence from afar, Danding, but on the question of the Spratlys it seems you have lost your marbles. You have allowed the profit motive to cloud your judgment. I don't know what Encomienda's motives are, so I can't comment on him. On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 2:57 AM, Eduardo Gimenez <[email protected]> wrote: > Emily > > > > I'm in China right now working on selling them a new and better tool for > oil exploration that my little company has developed. One that will make > sure that when an oil company drills, there is a near 100% certainty of > striking oil. It's amazing how these guys (Chinese oil monopoly) operate > in terms of the rapidity of their decision-making process. > > > > In any event let me tell you what I think about Alberto Encomienda. I > looked him up in the web and he seems to have very strong credentials and > has been saying more or less the same thing from way back. There is > probably at least some fact in what he has been saying given his central > position in those earlier talks with the Chinese. > > > > Danding > > > > *From:* Emily Abrera [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, July 1, 2016 3:08 AM > *To:* Eduardo Gimenez <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: Philippines hindered efforts to talk, former diplomat says > > > > This guy sounds like he wants to be in the good graces of Duterte. > > 😖 > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Jul 1, 2016, at 1:41 PM, Eduardo Gimenez <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Philippines hindered efforts to talk, former diplomat says > > The Philippines government has been behind the intensifying tensions in > the South China Sea, a former diplomat for the country said on Wednesday. > > "China has been for the negotiations all along, but from the beginning we > are not," said Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of the Maritime > and Ocean Affairs Center of the Philippines' Foreign Affairs Department. > > Although the Foreign Affairs Department has said it conducted more than 50 > consultations and negotiations with China from 1995 to 2012, those did not > happen, said the diplomat, who was then in charge of the negotiations. > > Encomienda said China "has been sending quiet feelers to improve > relations". > > "Prior to 2005's APEC (summit), China sent two delegations to the > Philippines, and invited delegations from the House of Representatives to > Beijing. We never gave this much attention. After the summit, China sent > feelers to the Philippines again. We never responded," he said. > > Encomienda also said that China should not be demonized over the South > China Sea issue, since it was the Philippines that first engaged in > reclamation activities in the sea, building airstrips on China's Zhongye > Island. > > He said the airfield on Zhongye Island "was built on top of live coral > reefs". > > Encomienda also lashed out at the United States for its military presence > in the South China Sea and what he described as its purpose to set the > Philippines against China on the issue. > > After President Benigno Aquino III's first state visit to the United > States in 2010, "everything that came up as the Philippines' South China > Sea position has something to do with 'rule-based' and 'legal framework'. > But these are a rule basis determined by the US," said Encomienda. > > The former diplomat said the Philippines "is in urgent need of an > independent foreign policy". > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Center for Good Governance" group. 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