robaus Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 The West's chooks are coming home to roost. Time is running out for Israel to make peace with the corrupt Arab regimes who are propped up by the west, before they have to deal with the Arab people's choice of governments. But history is littered with examples of intransigence and too little too late. There's another war brewing. Buy gold.... preferably Aussie gold :-) Interesting article.. in the Independent "Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt ... the arc of popular discontent continues to grow. But it is the tumultuous scenes from Egypt this week, culminating in the running battles in many cities yesterday after Friday prayers, that highlight the volatility of the situation – and the dilemma for the United States and the rest of the Western world. That such a dilemma exists at all, of course, is largely of our own making. We have long observed a double standard in relations with most Arab countries. We turned a blind eye to internal repression and stagnation, so long as the appearance of internal stability was preserved and the oil routes remained secure. The consequence was a chain of undemocratic regimes from North Africa to the Gulf, which enjoyed Western, primarily US and British, patronage. When, as in Iran, popular anger led to the overthrow of the pro-Western regime, we called foul and were surprised to be shunned. Leaving aside our differently lamentable treatment of Iraq, this is the state of affairs that persists pretty much to this day" ...more here... Western hypocrisy towards the Arab world stands exposed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous God Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 From a technology point of view this is very interesting, in Tunisia the Government with the ISP's hacked all the countries facebook accounts using a ISP level key logger. Facebook staff discovered and took immediate action. Note in Egypt and Tunisia, the telcos worked with, perhaps under pointy end of gun, with the governments. For Egypt they just turned off all the ISP's bar one small one that was connected to the stock exchange. If you note, you'll see people videoing events and uploading as they do so, this is what the government tried to stop. Vodafone Egypt remains silent as access goes down ahead of Friday protests TechCrunch This is confirmed by CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman, on the ground in Cairo. Now, coincidentally or not, this has come literally within the hour after AP TV ... Egypt Internet Goes Down, According To Reports Huffington Post CNN reporter Ben Wedeman confirmed Internet is down in Cairo and writes, "No internet, no SMS, what is next? Mobile phones and land lines? ... In Tunisia The Inside Story of How Facebook Responded to Tunisian Hacks. It was on Christmas Day that Facebook's Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan first noticed strange things going on in Tunisia. Reports started to trickle in that political-protest pages were being hacked. "We were getting anecdotal reports saying, 'It looks like someone logged into my account and deleted it,'" Sullivan said. For Tunisians, it was another run-in with Ammar, the nickname they've given to the authorities that censor the country's Internet. They'd come to expect it. http://tinyurl.com/62mvmgd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Its always been my understanding that the Mubarak regime adn that's what it is (why is he called President?) is about as pro America and Israeli neutral as we can expect. If this is so, then why would America support his being ousted? In the name of the will of the people okay, in an idealistic world but we do not oeprate in a world that is idealistic. We look after our own self interest almost always even if its against the will of the people. Its almost a certainty that any one or group that replaces the present regime will be less Pro America, even anti America won't be a surprise and will be anti Israel and be less neutral. Obama is an idealist to some extent but I have to believe he's a realist and if not before, he is now accepting of realpolitik situations. Northern Africa has a strong fundamental element and I wouldn't be surprised if eventually they all go down that route. Israel has reason to fear but I don't think any would be silly enough to be too aggressive towards Israel. Israel won't hesitate to strike and strike hard. It may be a surprise but the country that is probably also worried are the Saudis. They are pretty good at squelching dissent but there is a lot of disconent bubbling there. Iran would love to take advantage of that unrest. They've not been quiet about their view that the House of Saud are not proper guardians of the holy cities. The Saudis fear Iran possibly more than the Israelis do. Getting back to Egypt, so much trade comes through that Canal and I wonder if they would try and restrict movement through there against us and other countries as a way of checking us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Egypt is not the only country in turmoil. Even Russia has had her problems. It should be interesting to see if such mundane things will lead to WWIII. Just out of interest' date=' whom will be fighting whom? [/quote'] Muslim south against Christian north ? BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozpharlap Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Christian north as in Africa or Europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acockasian Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 What about the Palestinians who are Christian? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 They get crapped on by both sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Its always been my understanding that the Mubarak regime adn that's what it is (why is he called President?) is about as pro America and Israeli neutral as we can expect. If this is so, then why would America support his being ousted? He's getting ousted anyway and the Americans want their hands in the pockets of the new guys... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozpharlap Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Nigeria could be a melting pot. Based on a 2009 World Religious survey (Mapping out the Global Muslim Population) 50.4% of Nigeria's population were Muslims,[95] 48.2% were Christian (15% Protestant, 13.7% Catholic, and 19.6% other Christian), and followers of other religions were 1.4%.[96] The core north is largely Muslim, there are large numbers of both Muslims and Christians in the Middle Belt, including the Federal Capital Territory. In the southwest, Christians and Muslims reside unequally, southern regions are predominantly Christian with widespread traditional beliefs, in the east, Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists are the majority with few traditional beliefs, while the Niger Delta region is mainly Christian. Personally, I think this so called Jasmine revolution will dissipate within a few months, but don't take my word on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acockasian Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 The stupid thing was to involve his son in a political dynasty with a future role in Egyptian politics - that only works for the US, Singapore and North Korea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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