Political Post about Qatar

Qatar is an unusual country -- kept alive by its tribal pride and its stunning oil&gas wealth. Since its indepdendence in 1971, when it refused to join the other Arab Emirates as part of their Union, Qatar has charted an independent course. Its neighbors were always a bit suspicious, and often jealous, of Qatar's independence. This was reflected in several diplomatic spats over the years, and an abortive coup attempt in 1996. It flared up suddenly last June when the neighbors clamped an embargo.
When we lived in Saudi Arabia in 2011, we witnessed the patent takeover of tiny neighboring Bahrain by Saudi military forces. Qatar is determined to avoid that fate, and Bahrain is determined to bring cousin Qatar into its same orbit, along with the UAE.

We have never heard the Qatari Emir speak, until a recent interview with Charlie Rose, for CBS' 60 Minutes program. This is quite a PR benefit for Qatar, as the video paints the picture very favorably, with only softball questions from Charlie Rose, and only one short negative reference -- to imported laborers in the hot sun. We agree fully with Qatar's innocence and moral superiority in the embargo issue. But the history is certainly more nuanced than can be presented in 15 minutes.
Watch the video. The Emir speaks very well, and the video is an excellent overview, for a US audience, of both the country and the recent embargo.

Comments

Review: Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World

Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World by James Carroll My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fascinating comprehensive worldview, with Jesuitical logic in a broad sweep that links religion in a circular way to violence and the solution to violence. The author shows a great command of history and religion, with extensive endnotes to support or expand upon most of his claims; however, some sweeping indictments will certainly be resisted by the more fundamentalist People Of The Book (that is, the Abrahamic religions). A core symbolic thread is Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac on Mt.Moriah, the supposed site later called Jerusalem -- the author deftly cites that scene throughout the many centuries since the original event, demonstrating the human tendency to misinterpret that near-sacrifice in order to rationalize our own tendency to violence and scapegoating. I started the book in audio form, but found it unlistenable -- the author's c...

Kite Runner is with us again

Six or so years ago, I taught The Kite Runner to three successive sets of tenth-graders, and marveled at the effect the novel had on me and on these adolescents. That age is a marvelous time for a humanities teacher, as we see callous children grow out of their self-centered cocoons and flex their world-empathic feelers. They grow into the world outside them and realize they truly have agency -- or will have agency and responsibility for human actions. Amir, the main protagonist of Kite Runner is so identifiable with those adolescents learning to take responsibility for their callous actions. And of course we think of Kite Runner now that Afghanistan once again plunges into Taliban rule -- we particularly worry about the fate of the Hazara (news stories already cite random executions of Hazara men). We can only wring hands and pray that the Taliban will have to adapt and tolerate more than they did before -- but I am not optimistic. ...

Related Reviews: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race then Attack Surface

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth My rating: 5 of 5 stars And the hits just keep on coming! This excellent book details an unrelenting onslaught of cyberattacks, and outlines the author's own gradual realization of the dangers of internet warfare. It is a lengthy but worthwhile read -- actually, I lost the book for a while because I did not want to read it at bedtime, for fear of nightmares or disrupted sleep! Indeed the book is changing my stance toward online security -- multi-factor authentication, definitely! As with most of us, the author first downplayed the fear tactics promoted by sellers of security packages; but after years of research she has come to wonder that more disaster has not happened yet. She briefly but baldly calls out the recent presidentical administration for wreaking havoc on US defense, by eliminating a cybersecurity department, incensing the Iranian and Chinese gover...

Thomas Education

Search This Blog