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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Inflammatory Movies

18 Aug

Just back from seeing the Bourne Ultimatum, excellent. Incredible scenes of Tangier, great action, Matt Damon amazing – as always.

However, there was a trailer for a movie coming out this Fall called “The Kingdom.” Here’s a brief plot synopsis:

“When a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) quickly assembles an elite team (Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman) and negotiates a secret five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing.

Upon landing in the desert kingdom, however, Fleury and his team discover Saudi authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol—and with the clock ticking on their five days—the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust of their Saudi counterparts, who want to locate the terrorist in their homeland on their own terms. Fleury’s crew finds a like-minded partner in Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhoum), who helps them navigate royal politics and unlock the secrets of the crime scene and the workings of an extremist cell bent on further destruction.

With these unlikely allies sharing a propulsive commitment to crack the case, the team is led to the killer’s front door in a blistering do-or-die confrontation. Now in a fight for their own lives, strangers united by one mission won’t stop until justice is found in The Kingdom.”

This is all interspersed with plenty of terrorists with sneaky dark eyes peering out from burqas, wide angle shots of the faithful praying at a mosque (gasp!), and lots of surly looking brown men. One of the commenters on IMDb said it best – “To me it looks like another brown-guys-are-bad, white-and-black-guys-come-in-and-save-the-day sort of movie. I am so sick of the juxtaposition of scenes of Islamic holy rituals with those of a man firing an RPG at Americans/American soldiers/Middle Easterns wreaking havoc.”

As you all know, I’m not a huge fan of Saudis (mainly because of their habits in Morocco) but sheesh, come ON. I know it’s just a movie, but given the comments that have been thrown about lately, even by such liberals as Obama (about invading Pakistan), it all seems like more propoganda to get the American people to think favorably about us going in and “saving the day” in other countries.

Small things : One of the characters has my (somewhat uncommon) last name, grrr. And I’ll just bet the dialects aren’t even close to being accurate.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Blogroll, Film, Politics

 

University Protests

27 May

Oujda

Contre les agressions sauvage makhzenienne et arabistes partout dans les universités contre le MCA, les arrestations arbitraires , les condamnations injustifiés et les procès bidon qui ont visé les militants du MCA a Agadir Imteghren et Meknes, les militants et sympathisant du MCA d’Oujda ainsi que les défenseurs de la cause amazighe ont décidé d’organiser une série d’action de protestation et de dénonciation. Ainsi un débat élargi a été fait pour expliquer les circonstances de la détention et de l’agression des militants du MCA dans plusieurs universités .dans la soirée du lundi jusqu’à une heure du matin une grande manifestation de protestation. les manifestant ont scanné des slogans qui dénoncent la politique makhzenienne destructrice a l’égard du MCA ainsi que des slogans pour la cause amazighe. une grande banderole devancée la manifestation où était écrit “Libérez nos militants”dans la perspectives d’autres actions le MCA d’Oujda assure que”si les ennemis peuvent arracher quelques fleurs ils ne pourront jamais arrêter l’élan du printemps surtout si ce printemps est amazigh”

– from Taghya

Additional info – post from Morocco Report.

 
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Posted in Amazigh, Blogroll, Politics

 

Playing Telephone

23 Jan

We spend a lot of time on Moroccan blogs talking about recent developments concerning the press, but how well informed are Moroccans about the same issue? Those that don’t live in one of the big cities may be completely unaware, or worse, misinformed and passing along bad information.

An example:

While talking with my husband last night, I asked him if he’d heard about the verdict. He said no, and quizzed the other Moroccans in the room with him. One said he’d heard about it, and insisted that the two editors of Nichane were going to jail for three years, he knew that for a fact. I tried to explain “suspended sentence” using my poor husband as a middleman, but the so-called expert was having none of it – he seemed pleased to say they were going to be thrown in jail. I’ve run into that a lot there – it always seems there’s one guy who likes to “hold court,” and has an opinion on every topic under the sun – normally a load of b.s., but the other guys just sit with him and nod sagely at his comments, like they agree with everything he says. My brother-in-law is like this [alert, alert, I'm talking about the family], and they actually call him “La radio” – if you start him talking, he won’t switch off. He’s the sort of guy who repeats hooey about how all the Jews were warned about 9/11 in advance, and what’s worse, people believe him. He used to spout off about America, a country he’d never been to, until my husband finally got a chance to come here. Now that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on in that topic, he’s moved on to other useless and ill-informed political and social commentary.

I think I’ll fax them a French version of the Nichane verdict article tomorrow, that ought to fix them. The funny part about all this is that my father-in-law really respects my outspoken and decidedly non-traditional behavior, which surprised me. I think he sensed that we’re a lot alike, or, as he says “Maroc! Kulshi kassoul! Ana wa ntia, la.” I love that old guy.

 
7 Comments

Posted in Blogroll, Personal, Politics

 

Do Not Vote for the PJD!

16 Jan

“The Justice and Development Party, Morocco’s increasingly popular Islamist political party, has led the charge against “Marock,” claiming that it breaks a Moroccan law forbidding offense to Islam. The party plans to press the government on whether it has fully upheld the law.

“It’s a mockery of Moroccan spiritual life,” said Abdelkader Amara, a member of the PJD’s general secretariat. “It presents Moroccans as if they don’t adhere to their religion. But that’s not true.”

O RLY, Mr. Amara – you have intimate knowledge of how every Moroccan practices their religion? Somehow I doubt that.

“The most revolting scene, according to attackers of the film, is that Leila Marrakchi preferred to make her heroes discuss religious issues in bed, which is considered an unforgivable offence to Moroccans’ feelings.”

So, the next time my husband and I are having a discussion in bed, I should remind him that we can’t discuss religion because it will hurt his feelings? He should have a good laugh about that.

Rest of the story here.

 
14 Comments

Posted in Politics, Religion

 

Logical Fallacies

18 Dec

Lately, I’ve been embroiled in several heated online discussions. I’m not the protagonist or antagonist, just a bystander who observes people ganging up on a poster with an unpopular opinion. I strongly object to name-calling, unfair characterization, and logical fallacies. For example, any mention of Iran gets people in an uproar. The way I see it, for any difference of opinion, there are three options:

    - “Sea Change” – where one side changes its viewpoint, and now they agree (very rare)
    - compromise, both sides recognize validity of the other side’s points (rare)
    - agreeing to disagree, where both sides remain steadfast, but respectful (more common)

Note that none of the above includes calling the other person “liberal,” “moonbat,” or “USA hater.” Nor does it include “warmonger,” “whiny victim,” or “elitist.”

However, I am still optimistic where it comes to online discussion – I still believe that people can have a reasonable dialogue. To that end, please please PLEASE stop committing these logical fallacies in your “arguments.”

Straw Man – “based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position”
Ignoratio elenchi – “presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but which proves or supports a different proposition than the one it is purporting to prove or support”
Begging the question – circular reasoning
Package-deal fallacy – “assuming that things often grouped together by tradition or culture must always be grouped that way. It is particularly common in political arguments.”

For example, if I pointed out that the U.S. could be accused of exactly the same things that Iran is, namely, “”blowing up innocent people, instigating and funding wars with criminal activities and blood money, oppressing human rights and freedoms, imposing cruelty on minorities,” could you then assume that I’m “against US policies,” implying all of them? You may want to for the sake of making your argument, but it’s an illogical conclusion.

 
4 Comments

Posted in Politics

 
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