The Middle East, Democracy, and Free Speech - a few things, a random few things

Any individual who perceives himself to be sophisticated needs to know about the 'Middle-East' and have an opinion about the things that happen there. A lot happens there but usually they are on only a few themes. If it is not Islamic radicals, terrorism/ suicide-bombing, war - Gulf (involving many countries) or civil (still involving many countries, but restricted to one geographically), oil or abused women, it is very likely not about the Middle East. The Sharjah cricket matches used to be an exception, but with all those sub-continental expats in the crowd, it looked like ... well ... the sub-continent.

Now, the Mid-East is back to its prime spot as the top-news maker in all broadsheets and not-so-broad ones. That despite all the optimism from the number two news maker, India, shows how people like bad news and gloom-mongering.

Iraq seems bloody messy - on the one hand, it feels like a superb way of saying 'Screw you America! Particularly Mr. Bush!' but it is not fair to the Iraqis. Iran is actually SAYING 'Screw you America, Europe and all you Zionist lackeys!' and despite supporting Iran in the NTU-Model UN, I am increasingly of the opinion that Iran is a loose-cannon with no immediate hopes of reform.

Economist notes that it is not a good time to be a ruler in the Mid-East - many monarchs, emirs and presidents there have died, but mostly of old-age! Considering the average Arab dies early, and the politicians are targetted the most by violent types, thats a surprising statistic! Plus, there are elections. Quite a few in fact. It could actually be an accidental mistake that America suddenly decide to promote democracy there.

Bush might rue the day he decided to explain 'Iraq' with non-obvious reasons. He entered, realised there were no WMDs (he was confident he would find a small dirty bomb which he could use to justify the war) and he changed the tack to 'democratising the Mid-East'. To show consistency, he persuaded Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to introduce some degree of democracy there too. He helped Lebanon throw out the Syrian troops and have an election.
But what a shock! Iran's free-est (still quite a farce!) polls elected a hard-liner - his only credibility was clean hands, and an ordinary background. An extremely smart Muslim Brotherhood got a lot of seats in Egypt without getting in Hosni Mubarak's way. Lebanon voted Hezbollah into the ruling co-alition. Now, Hamas!

Luckily, not only are these organisations not the mental case refuge that al Qaeda Inc. is, they also seem to have a lot of well-educated technocrats. They are all known well for relatively clean hands and a strong social policy. But, they are all also anti-US and hence, might help end American meddling in the Mid-East in the long run. And just a wee bit chauvinist and crazy!

'Munich' convinces me that anyone with reasonable ambition and intelligence in the Mid-East, particularly Palestine, can be excused for enrolling in a terrorist group (maybe not al-Qaeda). It is reasonable to want a state and hate the Jews and make it your life's mission. It is of course sad that the Arabs are no match for the brilliance of the Jews - they have no good leaders, many bad feudal values and a lot of loose mouths and corrupt hands.

Hamas has to do a lot to negate the degeneration that set in thanks to Yasser and his cronies. I hope and almost feel that they will. Hopefully, the West will let it do something - it does support the Pesh Margas of the Kurds, the Badr Brigade of SCIRI in Iraq, and the war-lord rich parliament in Afghanistan. If it was convenient not to make a fuss about these equally 'militant' players in those countries, then Hamas is OK too. Most of their municipal counsellors are technocrats - some educated at Oxford. And with time, they are likely to be pragmatic and 'let Israel live'.

It all seems wise if only the bloody Arabs start getting jobs! How many of them protest and riot and how often! The cartoon controversy was the most interesting story to involve the Mid-East in a long time. I say that with apologies to all those who died, lost property or jobs because of it. But some of the most interesting articles I have read - largely for content and counter-analysis - were on this topic. The issue itself seems trivial though.

If you are a decent Hindu, have you heard of the story of Vinayaka Beer and Durga Whisky? The latter is still sold in Germany as its owner stubbornly refuses to remove the Goddess from his marketing - the twelve hands all holding his product. Cases of Krishna on panties have been fought in courts while Rama on nose-blowing tissues (whats the bloody point, you European asses? whats your business plan?) is still at large.

Hindus did protest - a few, legally. But too many of them had day-jobs to want to gather in large numbers for days together to sit and burn embassies and tape them on camera. The number of prints of Mohammed (whose image shall not be depicted!) multiplied exactly because of these protests and mostly because Islamic clerics wanted to take copies to streets as far as those in Indonesia to Somalia. Some even made up imaginary cartoons depicting Mohammed as a pig, just to incite larger protests!

Equally funny is the reprinting of these cartoons because 'free speech' was in jeopardy. Jylands-Posten, the Danish paper that first posted these pictures, had refused Christ cartoons because the editorial team thought it was insensitive. They of course never expected their magazine to reach out to the World!

An intelligent opinion article tried to get the problem with the cartoon across to Europe by suggesting it was the equivalent of 'Christ with a crown of TNT sticks standing near a bombed-out abortion clinic'. Europeans claiming that they still make Jew jokes and hence, have a culture of poking fun, must remember that some of these anti-Jew insinuations got out of hand and lead to the gassing of a few million Jews.

But, I must concede - the one with Muhammed saying 'We are out of virgins!' was funny and has a political value! The stupid protesters must start realizing that the world is not out to get them, and even if many in the world hate them (as is claimed), then you are not helping your cause by burning embassies and cutting people's heads off in front of cameras.

The Middle East, Democracy, and Free Speech - a few things, a random few things

Any individual who perceives himself to be sophisticated needs to know about the 'Middle-East' and have an opinion about the things that happen there. A lot happens there but usually they are on only a few themes. If it is not Islamic radicals, terrorism/ suicide-bombing, war - Gulf (involving many countries) or civil (still involving many countries, but restricted to one geographically), oil or abused women, it is very likely not about the Middle East. The Sharjah cricket matches used to be an exception, but with all those sub-continental expats in the crowd, it looked like ... well ... the sub-continent.

Now, the Mid-East is back to its prime spot as the top-news maker in all broadsheets and not-so-broad ones. That despite all the optimism from the number two news maker, India, shows how people like bad news and gloom-mongering.

Iraq seems bloody messy - on the one hand, it feels like a superb way of saying 'Screw you America! Particularly Mr. Bush!' but it is not fair to the Iraqis. Iran is actually SAYING 'Screw you America, Europe and all you Zionist lackeys!' and despite supporting Iran in the NTU-Model UN, I am increasingly of the opinion that Iran is a loose-cannon with no immediate hopes of reform.

Economist notes that it is not a good time to be a ruler in the Mid-East - many monarchs, emirs and presidents there have died, but mostly of old-age! Considering the average Arab dies early, and the politicians are targetted the most by violent types, thats a surprising statistic! Plus, there are elections. Quite a few in fact. It could actually be an accidental mistake that America suddenly decide to promote democracy there.

Bush might rue the day he decided to explain 'Iraq' with non-obvious reasons. He entered, realised there were no WMDs (he was confident he would find a small dirty bomb which he could use to justify the war) and he changed the tack to 'democratising the Mid-East'. To show consistency, he persuaded Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to introduce some degree of democracy there too. He helped Lebanon throw out the Syrian troops and have an election.
But what a shock! Iran's free-est (still quite a farce!) polls elected a hard-liner - his only credibility was clean hands, and an ordinary background. An extremely smart Muslim Brotherhood got a lot of seats in Egypt without getting in Hosni Mubarak's way. Lebanon voted Hezbollah into the ruling co-alition. Now, Hamas!

Luckily, not only are these organisations not the mental case refuge that al Qaeda Inc. is, they also seem to have a lot of well-educated technocrats. They are all known well for relatively clean hands and a strong social policy. But, they are all also anti-US and hence, might help end American meddling in the Mid-East in the long run. And just a wee bit chauvinist and crazy!

'Munich' convinces me that anyone with reasonable ambition and intelligence in the Mid-East, particularly Palestine, can be excused for enrolling in a terrorist group (maybe not al-Qaeda). It is reasonable to want a state and hate the Jews and make it your life's mission. It is of course sad that the Arabs are no match for the brilliance of the Jews - they have no good leaders, many bad feudal values and a lot of loose mouths and corrupt hands.

Hamas has to do a lot to negate the degeneration that set in thanks to Yasser and his cronies. I hope and almost feel that they will. Hopefully, the West will let it do something - it does support the Pesh Margas of the Kurds, the Badr Brigade of SCIRI in Iraq, and the war-lord rich parliament in Afghanistan. If it was convenient not to make a fuss about these equally 'militant' players in those countries, then Hamas is OK too. Most of their municipal counsellors are technocrats - some educated at Oxford. And with time, they are likely to be pragmatic and 'let Israel live'.

It all seems wise if only the bloody Arabs start getting jobs! How many of them protest and riot and how often! The cartoon controversy was the most interesting story to involve the Mid-East in a long time. I say that with apologies to all those who died, lost property or jobs because of it. But some of the most interesting articles I have read - largely for content and counter-analysis - were on this topic. The issue itself seems trivial though.

If you are a decent Hindu, have you heard of the story of Vinayaka Beer and Durga Whisky? The latter is still sold in Germany as its owner stubbornly refuses to remove the Goddess from his marketing - the twelve hands all holding his product. Cases of Krishna on panties have been fought in courts while Rama on nose-blowing tissues (whats the bloody point, you European asses? whats your business plan?) is still at large.

Hindus did protest - a few, legally. But too many of them had day-jobs to want to gather in large numbers for days together to sit and burn embassies and tape them on camera. The number of prints of Mohammed (whose image shall not be depicted!) multiplied exactly because of these protests and mostly because Islamic clerics wanted to take copies to streets as far as those in Indonesia to Somalia. Some even made up imaginary cartoons depicting Mohammed as a pig, just to incite larger protests!

Equally funny is the reprinting of these cartoons because 'free speech' was in jeopardy. Jylands-Posten, the Danish paper that first posted these pictures, had refused Christ cartoons because the editorial team thought it was insensitive. They of course never expected their magazine to reach out to the World!

An intelligent opinion article tried to get the problem with the cartoon across to Europe by suggesting it was the equivalent of 'Christ with a crown of TNT sticks standing near a bombed-out abortion clinic'. Europeans claiming that they still make Jew jokes and hence, have a culture of poking fun, must remember that some of these anti-Jew insinuations got out of hand and lead to the gassing of a few million Jews.

But, I must concede - the one with Muhammed saying 'We are out of virgins!' was funny and has a political value! The stupid protesters must start realizing that the world is not out to get them, and even if many in the world hate them (as is claimed), then you are not helping your cause by burning embassies and cutting people's heads off in front of cameras.