26th October 06
archives for October, 2006
23rd October 06
I read earlier that the Chinese government wants to regulate the content of blogs by implementing a system whereby a user would have to register his/her real name when creating a blog, which could then be placed under a pseudonym.
I was just curious, if your government required such regulations would it change anything you wrote about?
21st October 06
Last night I had to give a 15 minute speech for the Palestinian Night discussing the conflict and my experience there. Although at first I really didn’t want to do it because I knew a lot of people would be there, I finally accepted and now I’m glad that I went through with it. It turned out very well and I made a lot of new friends as a result.
Photo with Palestinian friends: Eman, Hoor & Me
18th October 06
Today was a depressing seminar where guest lecturers discussed Iran, Ahmadinejad and the Bush Doctrine. As I walked out a woman kept eerily repeating in a sing-song manner “The war is coming… the war is coming”.
I was surprised to hear from all four Iranian Studies professors (from universities across Europe and the U.S.) that there was a general consensus in academia that U.S. military air strikes across Iran is the most likely outcome and might occur around this time next year as a response to the opening of the Russian-made Bushehr power plant. Obviously once the fuel is delivered in March, 2007 strikes on the plant itself cannot occur without fallout similar in size to Chernobyl, so strikes would hit other targets to get the message across. However, this is a zero-sum game because Iran would certainly respond, their first tactic would likely be blocking oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz (where 90% of Gulf oil shipments pass through) causing global prices to soar.
If I were Iran I think I’d feel quite surrounded too. This isn’t even close to a complete map of all the U.S. strategic bases that are close to Iran.
I wish instead of making threats to one another the two countries could have real discussions and debates. Diplomacy can’t work if you aren’t even contact with each other.
17th October 06
My flat and classes are alternate worlds – a glimpse at the possibility of what peaceful coexistence could look like. My flat is made up of: an Egyptian Coptic Muslim, an Iranian Muslim, a Russian Jew, a non-religious Brit, an agnostic German and me, an American Christian.
My classes are even more diverse, my Political Economy of Development in the Middle East course could be a model UN. Out of 19 people the following countries are represented: Cyprus, Syria, England, France, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Palestine, China, Italy, Pakistan, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Singapore and the United States. Every major religion is represented – the guy from Pakistan is even an Imam, and the Syrian is a foreign diplomat for his country.
There are two of us representing the US and the other one is a guy from the East Coast. I think he thought he was going to impress everyone because he introduced himself as “a graduate of GW – that’s George Washington University in D.C., and yes, that’s Washington D.C.” (italics denote his emphases) *giggles*
The Syrian guy in my class asked an interesting question in our Human Rights course. “Why is it that the U.S. is able to criticize Syria when it condemns people to death if the U.S. also practices capital punishment?” Any answers? My guess was perhaps it is a question of due process.
Speaking of – I watched a documentary about a 16 year old girl Atefah who was publicly hanged in Iran for “crimes against chastity”. She was the victim of rape and abuse yet she was the one executed. The man (who was older than her father) only received 95 lashes. Rape is almost impossible to prove since the age of sexual consent is only 9 years old in Iran.
NINE YEARS OLD
The injustice makes me want to scream.
