The Spread of Opium to Iraq

One of the well known consequences of the invasion of Afghanistan had been the dramatic increase of opium production over the last few years.  As much of the traditional economy is ruined as a result of fighting and warfare in country, farmers are often forced to turn to growing opium poppies.  It’s no longer just an Afghan issue now.  Farmers in Iraq, with assistance from Afghan opium growers, are now producing opium in the Diyala province. Not surprisingly, it’s Patrick Cockburn who is reporting on the story in the Independent.  Farmers have become involved in opium production since it’s one of the few ways to earn money:

The agency cites a local agricultural engineer identified as M S
al-Azawi as saying that local farmers got no support from the
government and could not compete with cheap imports of fruit and
vegetables. The price of fertiliser and fuel has also risen sharply. Mr
Azawi says: “The cultivation of opium is the likely solution [to these
problems].”

The worrisome part of this trend is that “Al-Qa’ida is in control of many of the newly established opium farms and has sometimes taken the land of farmers it has killed.”  You have to applaud George Bush.  Not only has he completely failed in capturing Osama bin Ladin, but now he has also provided his organization with the financial means to continue fighting in Iraq. 

Technorati Tags: opium, middle-east, iraq, al-qaeda

America’s oil addiction is not OPEC’s problem

I know it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged, but I’ve been busy with school.  I was also in Barcelona for a week.  But now I’m back….

In today’s New York Times, there is an article about President Bush pointing out to the Saudis and OPEC countries “the toll that high oil prices are having on the American economy.”  It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines that Bush’s “observation” is an American recommendation about how the Saudis might thank the  US for yesterday’s announcement that we are selling them 900 missiles.  The recommendation is a thinly veiled threat about the costs of being in an alliance with the US.  Now you have Bush pointing out “his concern about the economy in
some of his starkest language yet, saying that rising oil and gasoline
prices are causing hardship for American families.”  While it’s true that the rising cost of oil will hurt many American families, this problem is not a Saudi one.  It’s an American problem.  We consume more oil per capita than any other country.  It’s our government failure to provide adequate public transportation to discourage America’s obsession with the automobile.

And to make matter worse, Bush said, “the demand for oil, especially from expanding markets in China
and India, as well as from the United States, was rising faster than
supplies.”  The main problem with oil supplies is not the rising demand from China and India.  While I would prefer that more people not begin to consume more oil, China and India still consume far less oil per capita than the United States.  The problem is squarely that we are an oil junkie, and someone else is preventing us from getting our fix.  It’s time for Bush to own up that America needs an oil detox and stop blaming other countries around the world.

Technorati Tags: us, oil, saudi-arabia, china, india, bush

Not another president who knows nothing about the world, please.

It’s been bad enough that we have had a president for nearly eight years who still can’t pronounce the name of the country he invaded or its neighbor.  We now have Mike Huckabee running for president, and doing scarily well in the Republican polls, who thinks that we should build a fence along the Mexican border to keep out Pakistanis!  I don’t know what’s worse: the idea that a fence is a good thing or the unbelievable racism in Huckabee’s comment against Pakistanis.  Check out this comment:

“When I say single them out I am making the observation that we have
more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other
nationalities except those immediately south of the border,” he told
reporters in Pella. “And in light of what is happening in Pakistan it
ought to give us pause as to why are so many illegals coming across
these borders.”

This man is an idiot and a racist.  Please don’t let him become President.

Technorati Tags: pakistan, huckabee

Manchester United vs. Mecca

In describing the crowds at Mecca during the Hajj, one British Muslim had this to say:

My family gave me good advice but you can’t convey the enormity of
being here. The largest crowd I’ve seen is 70,000 at Old Trafford.

I wonder if there could be songs about the players at the mosque in Mecca.

Technorati Tags: middle-east, hajj, mecca, manchester-united

Pictures can say so much

Here is a photo of the police who have surrounded Benazir Bhutto’s residence in Islamabad.

The “Anti Terrorist Squad” on the officer’s shirt sums up perfectly the recent actions by Musharraf.  He says he is imposing martial law because of the threat of terrorism, and then he turns the police on Pakistan’s own political leaders. 

Technorati Tags: pakistan, bhutto, musharaff

Democracy is a long forgotten ideal

Everyone knows that the Bush administration doesn’t really care about democracy. They have taken away people’s rights in the United States (wiretapping, imprisonment, and the lack of habeas corpus to name a few). They abandoned any hope for democracy in Egypt a few years ago. The US supports the Saudi authoritarian monarchy and sells it plenty of weapons. But now the US has reached a new low. Within days of Pakistani President Musharraf’s crackdown on the courts and human rights advocates (what is essentially a second coup), the US has agreed to continue funding Pakistan to the tune of billions. There is no need to read between the lines in this article:

In Islamabad, aides to General Musharraf — who had dismissed pleas
on Friday from Ms. Rice and Adm. William J. Fallon, the senior military
commander in the Middle East, to avoid the state-of-emergency
declaration — said they had anticipated that there would be few real
consequences. They called the American reaction “muted,” saying
General Musharraf had not received phone calls of protest from Mr. Bush
or other senior American officials. In unusually candid terms, they
said American officials supported stability over democracy. “They
would rather have a stable Pakistan — albeit with some restrictive
norms — than have more democracy prone to fall in the hands of
extremists,” said Tariq Azim Khan, the minister of state for
information. “Given the choice, I know what our friends would choose.”

And:

Mr. Gates said the United States had begun “reviewing all of our
assistance programs” to Pakistan. But, he noted, “We are mindful not to
do anything that would undermine ongoing counter-terrorism efforts.”

The Bush administration might as well just put a sign out in front of the White House that “Free Money as long as you say you fight terrorism. No other requirements necessary.”

Technorati Tags: pakistan, bush, terrorism, democracy

Have you facebooked Emile Lahoud?

When I was in Lebanon this summer and talking to young people, they often asked if I was on Facebook. I knew that the social networking site that was once the exclusive domain of students from Ivy League schools had grown into a global phenomenon. I even knew that Facebook allowed people like Caroline Giuliani, Rudy G’s daughter, to show her support for Obama for President. But now everyone in Lebanon is on Facebook – even Emile Lahoud. For those who don’t know Lahoud – he’s the current President of Lebanon.

There can be no further proof that social networking is no longer something that only college and high school students do. Anyone looking for a new friend on Facebook?

Technorati Tags: middle-east, lebanon, facebook, lahoud

Reading the News Made Easy

One of the tricky things about the internet is how to make sense of so much information without wasting lots of time. Scholastici.us is a “student productivity” blog that looks at how technology can make students’ lives easier. Today he had a post about using RSS feeds and RSS readers to quickly sort through the news. For those of you who are interested in how to use RSS feeds (or what they are), check out the post. It will make following the news much easier. All the blogs for my classes also use RSS feeds.

Technorati Tags: productivity, rss

Wasn’t worth my time (or money)

A few days ago I asked the question if The Kingdom was worth your time. Well, this morning I woke up with a cold, so I was in no shape to start grading essays. Instead I headed over to the movies. Before continuing on, there are a few spoiler alerts.

The movie does begin with some archival footage of the earliest days of Saudi Arabia that shows Ibn Saud establishing the state through conquest and the forging of the relationship with the United States based on oil. Other than this brief moment, there is absolutely no context for why the Americans are in Saudi Arabia. No one bothers to explain why the Pasadena-esque suburb with Americans playing baseball is sitting in the middle of Saudi Arabia or why there are American FBI agents permanently stationed in Saudi Arabia. It’s as if those things are just normal.
The movie begins quickly with a violent terrorist attack against an American housing compound with lots of explosions. The extent of the terrorist attack in the movie is far more extensive than any other terrorist attack that has occurred within Saudi Arabia. Fahad Nazer commented on this exaggeration of the terrorist attack on the housing compounds in his review of the movie. It’s not just that the terrorist attack is big for Saudi Arabia, it’s as if Peter Berg, the director, was trying to make this attack out to be as big as 9/11.
After the initial terrorist attack, this supposed action movie lacks any action for the next hour or so. I don’t ever recall seeing an action movie with so little action. The absence of action means that we’re forced to watch Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner try to act, which is painful. During this period, there are lots of Arabs shown on the screen who have no idea what to do. They do not know how to interrogate a prisoner. They do not know how to investigate a crime scene. They do not know how to assign the right people to do a job. In each case, it’s Jamie Foxx and team to the rescue to show the Arabs how to do things right. Even Chris Cooper’s character, who is a country hick who “buys his ties and carburetors at the same place” masquerading as a bomb expert, is smarter than the Arabs. The only Arab who is shown to be competent and intelligent is Ashraf Barhom’s character, and he is smart only after he starts listening to Jamie Foxx’s advice.
After an hour or so of stumbling and bumbling Arabs, the movie reaches its climax in a twenty minute action packed terrorist attack and shootout in the streets of Riyadh. The second terrorist attack occurs on a highway, when Arabs attack a high security convoy. In the first place, the attack is unlike anything that has ever occurred and suggests that the terrorists have capabilities far beyond what they are actually capable of doing. There is also no sense that any planning was involved in what would have to be a carefully planned attack. The attack suggests that terrorists can attack at any time without any planning, which is completely misleading. After the highly unlikely terrorist attack, there is a shootout in the streets of Riyadh, which is made to seem like the most dangerous place on the planet. Despite the incredible amount of violence, four Americans and one Arab are somehow able to overwhelm an entire army of masked terrorists with automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and grenades without ever getting shot or wounded. In the end, Jennifer Garner even stabs one of the terrorists in the crotch, an attack which is designed to make her stand out as the strong Western women who refuses to be like the submissive and covered Arab women. In the end, the good guys win and head back home.
If you want to see Hollywood perpetuating stereotypes, the Kingdom is worth your time. If you want to see a movie that actually tries to make sense of the complexities of the American relationship with the Middle East, find another movie.

Technorati Tags: the-kingdom, jamie-foxx, jennifer-garner, chris-cooper, movies, saudi-arabia, terrorism

Busy with school; busy with the news

It always seem to happen in the fall.  School begins, and I ease up on my blogging.  Part of the reason is that I spend so much time blogging in my classes.  All my classes that I am teaching right now are using blogs.  It’s difficult keeping up with four different blogs and trying to follow so much news.  At the same time, I like it a lot.  I just came across an article in the NY Times about the commodification of Che Guevara.  The Che t-shirts are nothing new, but it is amazing that such a symbol of communism has become so closely connected to global capitalism.  Even in Cuba itself, stores sell Che t-shirts.  But probably the strangest of all Che items has to be the Che bikini worn Gisele Bündchen at a fashion show.

Technorati Tags: blogs, che