Saturday, January 17, 2004
FUN-WRITTEN NEWS REVIEWS There's always enough dry analysis out there on issues of politics so it's good to see something genuinely fun to read. The first piece I'd recommend is by Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post. It's on Paul O'Neill whom I mentioned a few posts below in connection with some "revelation" that Bush apparently was in favour of regime change in Iraq before 9/11. The piece concludes:
As described by Paul O'Neill, life inside the Bush administration is like life itself (according to Macbeth): "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The only solid punch he lands on President Bush is unintentional: What kind of idiot would hire this idiot as secretary of the Treasury?
Hmm, something to think about. The other gem concerns Iraq and our efforts to rebuild the country, in the current issue of the Speccie by Ross Clark, who
wonders whether Iraqis would prefer clean water and electricity or Britain's taxpayer-funded 'gender advisers'
Well, at the risk of sounding imperialist, colonialist, insensitive, etc. I'll take the liberty to answer instead of the Iraqis with a clear statement that Iraq needs water, energy, jobs and security far more than gender balancing on a level, that would go much further than in any Western country. Conclusion:
It is hard to imagine anything more calculated to send oppressed women in the Arab world diving back inside their burkas. Never mind the joys of liberal democracy; if Iraqi women were given a straight choice between Saddam and a ruling class of sisters-with-attitude parading through the streets on inflatable vaginas, I'm not entirely sure that they wouldn't choose the former.
Ouch.
As described by Paul O'Neill, life inside the Bush administration is like life itself (according to Macbeth): "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The only solid punch he lands on President Bush is unintentional: What kind of idiot would hire this idiot as secretary of the Treasury?
Hmm, something to think about. The other gem concerns Iraq and our efforts to rebuild the country, in the current issue of the Speccie by Ross Clark, who
wonders whether Iraqis would prefer clean water and electricity or Britain's taxpayer-funded 'gender advisers'
Well, at the risk of sounding imperialist, colonialist, insensitive, etc. I'll take the liberty to answer instead of the Iraqis with a clear statement that Iraq needs water, energy, jobs and security far more than gender balancing on a level, that would go much further than in any Western country. Conclusion:
It is hard to imagine anything more calculated to send oppressed women in the Arab world diving back inside their burkas. Never mind the joys of liberal democracy; if Iraqi women were given a straight choice between Saddam and a ruling class of sisters-with-attitude parading through the streets on inflatable vaginas, I'm not entirely sure that they wouldn't choose the former.
Ouch.
