Saturday, February 19, 2005
Riverbend on the elections
I disagree with a lot of what Riverbend has to say, obviously. But she certainly reflects the views of a lot of secular Sunni. And so any serious western follower of Iraq ought to check her out regularly.She doesn't post as often as I'd like to see (there's still a lot of electricity problems where she lives), but you can read up on her take on the elections here.
Basically, she's a little alarmed at the Shia dominance of the electoral results, and is nervous at the prospect of deliberalization of women's rights.
Iraq had been a relatively forward-thinking Arab country when it came to women's rights, at least since the 1950s - the sadistic nightmare of the Saddam regime notwithstanding, I guess. Though it's hard to imagine a nightmare of over two decades and hundreds of thousands of deaths to be "notwithstanding."
But again, her family apparently prospered under Saddam. She certainly received an excellent education - her command of the English language is better than many English speakers.
She reminds me, though, of a character in a Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller play -- I can't recall which one -- in which the scion of a wealthy family comes to the realization that his family fortune is based on corruption and fraud. The family owned a factory, and made a lot of faulty cylinders for aircraft engines during WWII.
Men died as a result of the cracked cylinders. But the father of the family told his son something like "Don't you understand? I did all this, and I built all this for YOU!!!! And you reaped the BENEFITS of it!"
The son has nothing to do with it. "Men's lives were hanging in the air by those cylinders!"
Riverbend seems not to have made the connection, though.
News flash, Riv:
The people of Iraq never had their country in the first place.
Splash, out
Jason
Basically, she's a little alarmed at the Shia dominance of the electoral results, and is nervous at the prospect of deliberalization of women's rights.
Iraq had been a relatively forward-thinking Arab country when it came to women's rights, at least since the 1950s - the sadistic nightmare of the Saddam regime notwithstanding, I guess. Though it's hard to imagine a nightmare of over two decades and hundreds of thousands of deaths to be "notwithstanding."
But again, her family apparently prospered under Saddam. She certainly received an excellent education - her command of the English language is better than many English speakers.
She reminds me, though, of a character in a Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller play -- I can't recall which one -- in which the scion of a wealthy family comes to the realization that his family fortune is based on corruption and fraud. The family owned a factory, and made a lot of faulty cylinders for aircraft engines during WWII.
Men died as a result of the cracked cylinders. But the father of the family told his son something like "Don't you understand? I did all this, and I built all this for YOU!!!! And you reaped the BENEFITS of it!"
The son has nothing to do with it. "Men's lives were hanging in the air by those cylinders!"
Riverbend seems not to have made the connection, though.
The results won’t really matter when so many people boycotted the elections. No matter what the number say, the reality of the situation is that there are millions of Iraqis who will refuse to submit to an occupation government. After almost two years of occupation, and miserable living conditions, we want our country back.
News flash, Riv:
The people of Iraq never had their country in the first place.
Splash, out
Jason
Comments:
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Jason,
Arthur Miller play, I think. "All My Sons." Good post, by the way. It's important to read, for example, the blogs of Riverbend, leftists, and so on, just as it is important to read your blog. It's not like anyone is intentionally trying to deceive, but how else can you come to the truth about what's going in Iraq -- if you can't see it with your own eyes -- than to compare and contrast the different perspectives of others?
Of course, one thing I've always liked about your blog is that you already do a pretty good job of fairly presenting the different sides regarding the issues you discuss. With all the talk from the mainstream media about how blogs only present extreme viewpoints, what I enjoy about the Blogosphere is finding genuine moderate voices: not the wishy washy, afraid-to-offend moderation that mediocre politicians or newspapers try to cultivate, but the cool, reflective attitude of the critical thinker, who is unwilling to allow others, or even his own capricious emotions, do his thinking for him.
Terrence W.
Arthur Miller play, I think. "All My Sons." Good post, by the way. It's important to read, for example, the blogs of Riverbend, leftists, and so on, just as it is important to read your blog. It's not like anyone is intentionally trying to deceive, but how else can you come to the truth about what's going in Iraq -- if you can't see it with your own eyes -- than to compare and contrast the different perspectives of others?
Of course, one thing I've always liked about your blog is that you already do a pretty good job of fairly presenting the different sides regarding the issues you discuss. With all the talk from the mainstream media about how blogs only present extreme viewpoints, what I enjoy about the Blogosphere is finding genuine moderate voices: not the wishy washy, afraid-to-offend moderation that mediocre politicians or newspapers try to cultivate, but the cool, reflective attitude of the critical thinker, who is unwilling to allow others, or even his own capricious emotions, do his thinking for him.
Terrence W.
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