Recent Writing

[taoistshredder]

I just wrote this for journalism,
figured I'd toss it out here, too.




When Deborah Amos and Rick Davis spent the week of Feb. 13 in *******, North Carolina, to guest lecture at ******** University, they wanted to expose students and locals alike to realities that are not normally covered on the evening news. Their gripping depiction of the Middle East captivated many different audiences throughout the week.

The couple, together over 20 years, sparred with scholars about the depiction of the Middle East in mainstream media, discussing problems in both the media and international conflicts individually as well as how they relate. “We’re playing a game of chicken in the Middle East right now,” said Amos to a group of journalist students during a guest lecture, talking about how much of the conflict Americans are unaware of, specifically the religious, political, and ethnic conflicts in the region.

They said the most frustrating thing about being a journalist was that they felt they were doing no good, coming back to a country that didn’t know where they had been or care what went on there. The people of the United States have gained a shorter attention span over the years, and regardless of the reason, Americans must reevaluate themselves and the world and relearn much of a history forgotten. Rick said that as long as he could have the illusion that his words were having an impact on someone and informing them of something, it was enough to keep him going though all the carnage he has seen.

Amos explained how originally the Middle East was made up of tribal governments, either Semitic or Indo-European. The Semitics break into two groups, Jews and Arabs; the Indo-Europeans, however, have many different tribes that are still scattered throughout the Middle east to this day. Davis added that one tribe called Persians established one of the first empires in history, falling as all empires do, remaining now in what was the original capital of the Persian Empire, Iran. Other Indo-European tribes such as Kurds and Armenians settled north of Iran after the fall while Arab tribes, including the Berbers, Fellahin, Druze, Bedouin, and Nubians, came north from Africa and fought over what was left of the Middle East.

After Islam’s inception in the beginning of the sixth century, the Arab world joined together under one religion and took over the region. While there was some internal religious conflict, most of the religious conflict that is prevalent today started around 1800 between the two main groups of Islam, Shi’a and Sunni. Up until around 1800, when the Sa’ud family made Sunni the official religion of the Arab world, most Islamic people followed the Shi’a doctrine, Sunni being scattered to the southern outskirts of the Middle East. The Shi’a believe that after the Prophet Muhammad’s death, his hereditary lineage continued through Caliphs, though the hereditary link has faded from Islam. Davis explained that as this heredity faded; new leaders stepped up, eventually becoming the Mullahs and Ayatollahs of Iran, and the leaders of the Shi’a Islamic world. Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini was exiled in the 1960s and bounced around a few countries until he gained enough Shi’a support in Iraq to start a revolution in neighboring Iran. As soon as the revolution was coming to a close, Iraq, under the newly-acquired rule of Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran in hopes that the Iranians would not unite under Khomeini; the Shi’a Persians did unite and a decade-long war ensued between the two nations. Davis had a gruesome experience with Ayatollah Khomeini during the beginning of the 1979-81 U.S. Embassy crisis when the Iranian leader paraded through the streets of Tehran swinging a rotten leg found severed from one of eight American rescuers killed in a helicopter crash near Tabas.

The couple explained how political systems in the Middle East operate. While Iran is dealing with “failed religious revolution,” as Davis calls it, “Saddam is still very popular in Jordan,” says Amos. Saddam’s Ba’th party is actually secular; this party had previously controlled Iraq and still controls Syria, officially calling themselves the “Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party.” Davis said most nations practice almost exclusively Islam, almost all people being Sunni; there are so many political parties that in most counties parties don’t even make up percentages, so when a party gains only a small amount of support they can gain power in a region or even a country. Governments have come and gone, but the original tribalism still exists, placing a nation of Kurds in what is now southern Syria and northern Iran and Iraq; all tribes have remained as scattered as they originally were, some members splitting off to create new groups or deciding to join another society, be it a government or a revolution.

Once the history is properly covered, one can begin discussing how to fix the problems that exist, from the countries of the region damming up rivers to secure resources for themselves and deny their neighbors to the jihad spanning from mosques in Tehran to skyscrapers in New York City. “You [Americans] no longer have the luxury of ignoring the rest of the world,” said Amos, adding that she believed many in the United States desperately cling to that luxury. This article barely scratches the surface of the issues surrounding the Middle East - the situation that is occurring there is much older and much more complex than almost anyone can realize; Deborah Amos and Rick Davis showed the people of ******** that one must first understand the whole context of a situation before offering opinion on it.

[Hippie3]

you know,
i've been wondering,
when did reporters
become experts on all subjects ?
what makes a reporter qualified
to tell others what is right plan ?

[Hippie3]

After Islam’s inception in the beginning of the sixth century, the Arab world joined together under one religion and took over the region

LOL
nice side-step
of the bloody wars
of conquest waged
by the mohammedeans
against all their neighbors.
they just
'joined together',
did they ?
LOL

[taoistshredder]

Well of course they just joined together; everything is perfectly lovely in the Middle East thanks to it now, I plan to buy a summer home there. lol The article had to be less than a thousand words, alright?!!! lmao But, yes, truth be told while the Sunni was a fairly "outskirt" religion until 1800 there was still intra-Shi'a conflict on top of the random shit that happened between the sects. Not to mention the fucking tribal shit. And new governments. The whole thing's a pretty big mess, which was really the point of the article, that coupled with this thing I saw in the back of an AdBusters that said "ignoring the world's problems is perhaps the only way to have fun anymore," showing two typical consumer-driven teen girls driving around in a car, real flashy and propagandist. But it made me think - my generation sucks so much ass at history and writing, hell, Americans in general do, so I got to wondering how many people even understood the differences in Islam. Or that Persians and Arabs aren't even close to the same - saw someone online wrote "equating Iran and Iraq because they're both Shi'a is like saying Italy and Mexico are the same because they're both Catholic" or something to that effect. An interesting statement filled with rhetoric, you can see. But I learned a lot of random crap about the whole situation through this, mainly that the M.E. is a mess and that it's unlikely that we can force any change within their society. The good news is that it seems they've actually been getting better compared to what they once were. U.S. oil money can do a lot for a secular government that digs on money. That was the other thing - I learned about dealings we had with the Shah with oil in the 50s that set Khumeini off to try to riot - so the biggest bummer, as stated in another thread, is that every single person in the Middle East knows this war (a war on a tactic of war) is about oil, but there are people in this country who still think this war is about freedom. People will start noticing that we're always trying to negotiate with Korea but we're blowing holes in the desert; I'm really hoping when the future writes this portion of world history we don't end up looking like genocidal lunatics.

[Hippie3]

the big diff with korea
is that several millions people are
directly in the line of fire,
no empty desert there for tanks and bombs

[Hippie3]

it's unlikely that we can force any change within their society

how can event
that has happened
is happening
be 'unlikely' ?
seems a certainty to my eyes...
we have changed them,
we are changing them,
and that will continue.

[taoistshredder]

WE are not changing anything.
The way you talk sounds like we're taking these people and brainwashing them.
I'd like to think that a variety of people in the ME are actually waking up;
Syria is run by the Baath Party and is mosty a secular state, Jordan is going that same route.
Like we say, people in Iran are pissed, and while it has to do with America,
while it may damn well be caused by us,
it isn't being FORCED by us.
You can force people into this shit, it doesn't work, you end up getting this
guilded society where it looks fine on the news but we can't get two miles out
of the capital city without getting shot at.
I'm saying that a bunch of people who were told in 1800
"We have to live exactly like Muhummad did to be moral"
are realizing that's not exactly the score.
However, at the same time, they do not want to be us.
I had Amos tell me about a woman she talked to about democracy,
how she said she didn't like how the U.S. is changing policy there,
like not letting men beat their wives.
"Just because we think it's bad, it's bad, and sorry if that's your religion or custom,
but we're here now and you'll do what we say."
That's not how you sucessfully change a society -
that's how you perpetuate civil strife.
And that sure as fuck isn't democracy.
"American Democracy is a dirty word in Syria." - Deborah Amos
We've got a lot of communicating to do;
we need to start understanding our Arab and Persian brothers and sisters
and realize that fighting isn't helping either of us.
Neither side can deal with the idea of the other living their lives the way they want.
We bomb them to try and restructure their governments,
they use terrorism to try and facilitate a change within the system itself,
it's the same damned thing, both sides so bent on being right that they forgot
that's not what war's about.
So what is this war really about?
Is my president really leading some looney crusade? No.
But it's hard to convince the ME that, because thet's their mindset - jihad.
In reality, most know that this is just like it was fifty years ago with the Shah,
it's about the shiny black stuff.
The propaganda is pretty nasty on both sides, we know this.
But it's interesting - Amos said more Iraqis are turning off Al-Jazeera,
which is something I find AMAZING.
Because you don't see Americans turning off Fox News in force.
So I agree with you - they are starting to wake up.
Now it's our turn.

[Hippie3]

ha.
never happen.
as i already explained in another thread
democracy is not an absolute,
people cannot 'vote' certain practices
like wife beating
into law.
the days are over
where a nation was an island unto itself,
international law takes precedence over
local voters and/or their traditions.
human rights under the UN
are guaranteed to every one
no matter what the majority of voters in iraq
might want.
they can't have slaves either.
that's just the way it is,
they will be taught and they will learn
basic norms
of acceptable behavior in a civilized secular world
or it will be imposed upon them by any means necessary.
rogue societies are just as bad
as rogue individuals.
when they act out and disrupt and threaten
they must be disciplined into conformity.
they only hurt their own interests by resisting,
something it appears that the palestinians are
beginning to grasp.

[taoistshredder]

"they will be taught and they will learn"

Effective education is the key - if we do this right we can fix this within a couple of generations - case-in-point, look at how fast Khomeni brainwashed Iranians to hate America through the Koran by drilling it and only it to students in schools. We do the same in our schools - I was taught bullshit about the constitution and rights and how this shit is supposed to work, and then I came into the real world and realized most of what I was taught was crap. Not only crap, but crap that "they" wanted me to learn. Like I say, we all need to wake up, and it's never going to happen. I guess I'll just have to focus on waking myself up.

[Hippie3]

most of what I was taught was crap.

it's that same realization by young iranians
that spells certain doom for the theocrats.
i'm just waiting for the
chinese to wake up...
they will wake the entire world.

[taoistshredder]

I could handle being Chinese. Shit, I'm a Taoist anyway, as long as they don't give me any of that commie bullshit about non-religion I should be fine. If I had the option of living as a Taoist monk in China, I think I'd do it. Have you seen "Hero" with Jet Li?

[Hippie3]

no,
and i think the chinese communists must fall as well,
at least as far as being
a one-party state.

[taoistshredder]

You should check it out, it was cool.
Oppression never lasts,
eventually The People remember that they're people,
and so are their fearless leaders,
and then the fun starts.
Communism really sucks.
lol
I can't advocate capitalism because I think competition is bad
because it inherantly is a "win/lose" system.
I would like to think there is a win-win system out there,
communism getting close but coming up very very short in the long run,
as once again we find the human factor rearing its ugly head.
It's like Plato says, dude, the ones who should be running shit are the philosopher kings,
but they never do, because they don't want to: they know it's fucked anyway.
Good old Plato...

[Hippie3]

competition is bad

disagree.
competition is good,
it fuels evolution and technology.

[taoistshredder]

I think it would be good if you could eliminate the loser in the situation but the fact is unless competition is regulated (thereby no longer being real competition) one company eventually becomes a monopoly. Each copany's goal is to do that, really, make a product/service so good everyone wants/needs it. And it is the competition that drives the invention of this. But in doing so, you destroy other companies and lives; it would be nice to devlop a system of competition without the sacrifice of defeat. However, it could be argued that that potential of defeat is what drives the competitive market. But I still say there's a better system than win-lose - it may work, but there's better stuff. Better theory, at least, communism is great theory. Capitalism is great theory. It's once you add humans in that you get problems! lol