Politicians, please make sure your country turns out nice and linear. Historians will thank you for it.

To SEA: your (or our?) histories are marked by anti-colonialism with little solidarity beyond it. Your ethnic tensions admit of various degrees of internal colonialism. Your politic are either very undemocratic or embody the worst form of anarchism imaginable (laying siege on an airport!? YOUR airport?? What will that do). Please be rational, inclusive, respectful of peoples' autonomy and identity, and don't get carried away by nationalist fervour - which tends to turn awry in times of peace of prosperity.

P.s. I know capitalism brings many ills along with its blessings, but recognise that it is human nature that's to blame, not the system or a particular class. Go ahead with socialist economics - indeed you should - but work within the laws of economics. We only conquer nature by obeying it.

As a history student, I am at times inspired by SEA, sometimes aghast at its atrocities. I do not believe in nationalism, only fraternity, collective necessity, and compassion. Truly, the heroism of humanity arise from its horrors, and I would rather not have the former if that means having to suffer the latter. No, don't bring God into the picture - men make gods devils - we'll probably end up with blood on the streets. Keep the monks and priests out of politics, for unholy tragedy has often followed their holy footsteps.