2/9 "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of
the consequences of exercising the right of free expression,"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060209/wl_nm/religion_cartoons_eu_dc
\_ The guy in the photo looks like Inspector Closeau pondering the
crime.
\_ Man, that's really disappointing and frustrating. -mice
\_ This sounds a lot like the Comics Code of the 50s. Sigh.
\_ What can I say, I'm disgusted. -John
\_ Well, it's looking like that whole Iraq War has spread stability
and democracy throughout the Muslim World! Yes, it sure is going
well, yessiree Bob!
\_ Yes, it's all because of this. Give me a fucking break. The
Iraq war was wrong, and it hasn't helped, but what you're seeing
is as much of a symptom of a generally pathetically broken
"culture" as a reaction to just one factor. -John
\_ The Arab press published the cartoons Oct 17:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48746
\_ "Arab press"... For a better researched examination of press
accounts, see the juancole link from yesterday. worldnetdaily
is shit. Wow. They quote the astute observations from "an
anonymous poster on FFE's blog". There's a news source to
trust.
\_ juancole's url is weak. all he shows is that egypt used
the issue, when one could also show that iran and syria
used the issue also. he also shows that people got pissed off
when they first heard about the cartoons, which has been an
obvious fact and not in dispute. the two unanswered questions
are, did saudi arabia use it too, and which entity(ies)'s
using this caused this to become as serious as it did?
\_ How come the major western media or the Danish govt didn't pick
up on this?
\_ Because major western media is not concerned with such petty
issues as demagoguery, mudflinging and..uh..nevermind. -John
\_ This is just being realistic. Demographically, the number of
people who believe that images of the prophet should result in
being stoned, or punished, or whatever, is going to overwhelm
the number of people in Europe who believe the right of free
speech trumps any religious concerns. In the coming decades
Europe is going to become a lot more like the Middle East
than he Middle East is going to become like Europe (freedom
wise that is). The massively exploding populations of the Middle
East and shrinking populations of native Europeans pretty much
seal that. And plenty of them, coming to Europe, think Sharia
law is a good idea. This is not to say Sharia law will become the
law of the land anytime soon, but eventually the concerns of the
Muslims are going to filter into European governments, especially
since it's unlikely they would go for any kind of Apartheid system
that doesn't give Muslims an equal say in government. Actual
discrimination is another issue (see France).
\_ Not if European countries start shutting their borders to
immigrants. Then the massively exploding populations will
discover the downside to massively exploding populations.
\_ As long as economies are based on fractional banking and
require endless growth, they will need an influx of labor.
For example, in Spain the fertility rate is like 1 baby
per woman, which means every generation the new population
is cut in half ... Witness what happens in America. It's
the huge desire for cheap labor that draws in the
immigrants.
\_ What's "fractional banking"? --ignorant
\_ It allows banks to create money out of thin air
and lend it out. These loans have to be paid back
with interest. This requires more economic
activity, hence growth. See wikipedia.
\_ The ones already in Europe are exploding quite well on their
own, immigrants or no immigrants they will be a large
political force.
\_ Interestingly, in the countries that have historically
been very open to immigration (UK, France), there seem to
be far more second/third generation "foreigners" that
acclimatize poorly than in traditionally more homogenous
countries (Germany, Scandinavia)--but then again that
could be because there are just more immigrants. -John
\_ Cf. ghettoization of immigrants vs. bringing them into
the economy. In the US, depsite the existence of
extensive "foreign" cultural centers (e.g., Chinatown),
immigrants have become a part of mainstream economy
and thus have less to lose by acclimating or
assimilating.
\_ I wouldn't credit this too much as a reason; any
large German or Austrian city, for example, is
very likely to have a big Turkish "ghetto". -John
\_ I wonder why European countries (specially Spain and
Portugal) don't import more workers from Latin American
countries instead. The cultural 'incompatibility' wouldn't
be as much of an issue in that case. Most Latin American
countries have terrible unemployment and underemployment
rates even among their college graduates. This would be a
win-win situation for Europe and Latin American countries.
\_ Guessing: price. Employers don't care who they hire as
long as they're cheap. Transport from LA is too pricey
for cheap labor when you can hire the people who are
already right there in country. |