Thanks to Tim Romano for his detailed response to my questions on this topic. You said, <<Now, let me ask you something. Do you associate poverty with a lack of respectability?>> I had written: [<< "So what you might consider to be an attempt to enforce "political correctness," on the part of a Pakistani delegate, may in fact be an insistence on accuracy, and a demand that such words as "poor" not be applied to a respectable culture and civilization." [WEI] The two are often associated. Poverty is an indignity, and as such is not a repectable state of being, in the eyes of many people. When I made use of the phrase "a respectable culture and civilization," I was thinking of the struggle of many Indians and Pakistanis to have the West recognize that they too (like Europeans) come out of a long history of great acheivements in literature, art, music, theology, metaphysics, ethics, and mathematics. Yet they are all too often tarnished with the brush of having come from a "poor" country. There is something which seems, to many non-Americans (and non-Europeans, a bit condescending, and a bit paternal in refering to certain nations as "poor." As you say, it is not a very precise category. Nevertheless, I admit to you some of my questions were a bit INFERnal, and I understand that you were certainly making your best effort to play the role you had been given at that conference. You say you were just a student at the time, and (in my view) that should have been taken into account by the speaker who objected to your words. I apologize for any offense I may have given you in my remarks; we all have our special points of interest, and one of mine is trans-cultural discourse. Most of the time misunderstanding comes not from assertions of political correctness on the part of disputants, but simply from a gap in the cultural perceptions of those who are arguing about, or discussing an issue. I greatly treasure your comments, especially your clear and careful efforts to look at different perspectives sympathetically, and your talent in making known to me many aspects of Pound's thought processes as you understand them. Friendly Greetings, Wei ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com