Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Arab Revival or Managed Project?

It is perhaps the organic Arab revival to overcome Colonial and Cold War manipulation along with people getting to the point now to demand prosperity and accountability from their leaders that is in works. Bur one thing s clear and that is there are lots of other external players of various size and means that are injecting themselves in the process. West, China, and Russia are all out there seeking an orderly (defined differently in various capitals) transition that does not disrupt OIL this extremely addictive product. The Israel factor in this environment is irrelevant and has no baring on the outcome. That is how it should be when you talk about a movement involving 500M people vs 6M Israelites.

It is clear that those players care less about Arabs or North African people and care more about their own survival and prosperity. We have seen how they have used human rights, freedom, and rule of law to further their objectives, even if at times the call is Genuine. Just few years ago they were calling the same people (by all account majority of the Arabs) Muslin extremists, terrorists, and violent people. The people of that region will be tossed around in the prevailing wind until they get their sails in order.

The movement will in my opinion pass the test and with lots of up and downs bring civil society based on Arab culture to the forefront. They will then be demanding a fair and equitable place at the global table. Until then we will witness pain, injustice, interference, manipulation, out right lies and deception locally and externally. The news media will be fed crap to report. Aljazira will try to Americanize the movement but there are so many sources of news that Arabs will quickly learn how to navigate through psych-ops, half baked news and real news. At the end they can quickly see if the change is producing results, that is "will they better off then or not". Same thing that actor from Hollywood asked Americans back in 1979 and became president.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

US Budget Drama Its unbearable to see what US political system has de-evolved to. The fight over the budget on about $36B even though abortion and clean water act were involved when country is in such a deep doo doo makes rational reasonable people puke. But I guess we are running out of those people. The oil based economy, fiscal whoring, total waste of resources, drunkenness with consumption and lack of moral compass are the source of the issues but meanwhile politicians conduct politics like its 1970's. I don't think they realize cold war has ended and business as usual is no more. Iraq is still occupied - no war crimes trials yet Afghanistan is a mess with no end in sight Several hindered PEOPLE are illegally kept in Guantanamo Our friendly ARAB dictators are nice and keep buying our arms Israel continues to occupy Palestine Mexico is a mess South America is not America! Canadians don't like us