For those who aren’t from the uk a C-list celeb branded Arabs “suicide bombers, limb amputators and women repressors” and questioned whether Arab nations had contributed anything to recent civilisation.
But it did get me thinking, the figures which he quoted were very interesting, the ideas too. They export next to nothing apart from Oil, virtually every single one of their governments are horrible little corrupt things that should shrivel and die, they export terror and fear throughout the world.
But he must be wrong, surely? So I’m wondering, what have the Arabs done in the last 50 years worth writing home about? Or should Kilroy feel vindicated in writing such an article?
I think that Kilory is being ignorant, but what is even worse it that the Daily Express is backing up his story. The Arab world has a very bad press at the moment; weather this is right or wrong i am not debating. But the fact that he used such ignorant arguments, while resorting to simple stereotypical acusations was unnecessary from a former MP. There are obviously things that the Arab world can be criticised for, lack of democracy being high on my personal list. But to simply say that nothing good at all has come out of the Arab world except oil is simply stupid.
For me the worst thing is that it will only increase anti-Muslim feelings already rife within some parts of England. What is needed is an acceptance that the Arabs exist; that, rather than thinking that they are all ignorant fundamentalists intent on taking over the western world, they in fact make a very valuable and welcome contribution to British society, and the world.
He’s not exactly wrong, though. He IS generalizing, and in that respect, is doing the Arab world a great disservice. However, really…nothing major is being contributed.
The fact is, though, contribution to the world affairs are not a perfunctory part of being a nation. The Swiss get crap for this all the time. Besides, cheese, the greatest accomplishment they have had is tax free bank accounts that are used to launder illegal funds. (I choose them for obvious reasons).
Africa is a whole god damn continent whose accomplishments pale in comparison to the western world.
A nation is not a creative structure. A people or race or religion is not a means in which to advance all of society. It’s about survival. These people are having a hard time surviving, for reasons most of us cannot understand. So of course they’re not developing new kinds of plastics, or building space stations on the moon, or manufacturing nuclear weapons. They’re too busy trying to make sure they can eat, they can sleep at night, that they aren’t invaded or embargoed.
It’s not completely racist or biast to state this.
It is if you judge the Arab people’s for it.
Personally, I’m glad that Western Culture contributes so much…it keeps us alive.
Africa probably would contribute more, if it wasn’t so impoverished. Bear in mind, that Africans living in the first-world (African-Americans, Anglo-Africans etc.) tend to contribute more when they actually can get through the day without worrying about starving to death.
Yes! Our historical sense has deteriorated into hysterical sense. (feel free to nominate this for an ILP tshirt). Kahlil Gibran, although not falling within the arbitrary 50 yr mark was from the Middle East. I’m sure that when Islam was all-powerful from 750-1258 ACE that they totally deplored the worthlessness of the lackeys who served them.
matt! what the hell is this? anything valuable come out of the middle east?
well, take a look at them. notice how they are independent? yeah, that right there is a huge improvement from defeating a certain empire that carved up the region like a turkey at christmas. honestly! post-colonialism is a process that is difficult to overcome and the region is obviosly still struggling with the effects.
and when the hell did being a nation demand contributing something to the world community, ‘worth writing home about’? last time i checked, the only thing englad did was send out cornation street, hardly worth a post-script.
Whoever this man is, he probably has some self-esteem issues. He’s clearly taking the accomplishments of others to justify his own crappy existence.
From the mere fact that William Shakespeare was a great writer, you might say that Westerners are great, that Englishmen are great, or that humanity is great. None of which is a valid conclusion from that premise. The only thing that can be said is that William Shakespeare is a great writer. Genius is pretty much an individual phenomenon; nations and groups of people aren’t geniuses, individuals are. The fact that this guy happens to belong to the same country that produced Shakespeare says nothing.
On the other side of the coin, from the fact that Osama bin Laden hails from the mideast doesn’t make them all lawless savages.
In conclusion, I leave you with this unintentionally hilarious article from the Ayn Rand institute:
Another way to look at this is, “What will the Middle East give us over the next 50 years.” Does their current tendencies and social structure look like it will be of any benefit to them (the general populace) and will it have any knock on effect for the rest of the world, in a positive way?
Smithigan’s wake hit the proverbial nail with veritable weapons of mass destruction. You can’t judge an entire country from a 50 yr period, the stupidities of one leader, or any other arbitrary aspect. In addition there are other mitigating factors like geography, terrain, natural resources, the undermining influence of an invading power. You’re reasoning from a part to a whole, Matt, and it’s fallacious. You have to try to see the whole picture at once, it’s not easy, but right thinking rarely is.
Islam in the Middle East is like Christianity during the Middle Ages, a thinly veiled game of power and control over the people. I would say part of the policy of the separation of Church and State is because of this. Keep the religious men out of power as they have their own agenda, which might not be what’s best for the country. God is always first, this is true for all religions not just Islam, look at Bush and Christianity. I reckon he thinks he’s on a mission from god to make sure all the heathen Muslims are converted to the one true faith.
These animals, and I mean no offense and disrespect to animals because I’m an environmentalist and I like animals, are civilization destroyers. They contribute nothing (except bloodshed); they are parasites.
“Where do you find people who are so dumb? No, I mean seriously, where do you get people who have hundreds of billions, trillians of dollars, in oil money and can’t drill a single oil well? I mean they are the dumbest people - you can’t imagine how dumb they are. They’ve had oil since the 1920s. They are supplying half the worlds oil supplies. Without the American companies which they hate they can’t drill a single oil well by themselves. Where do you get a people that are so stupid? With all their money you think they’d learn how to accomplish something. Instead they sit around in air-conditioned tents and smoke dope all day.” – Chaim Ben Pesach
My first thought in all this is freedom of speech … is there a difference between saying you’re an idiot and saying i think you’re an idiot?
Secondly, yeah! what have they contributed to anyone else other than misery and pain and terror? We could wax lyrical about the grand old days of islam, but the people are scared, poor and uneducated, despite having the single biggest source of income in the world.
And then the only thing they do believe fanatically about is the right to kill anybody who opposes them, and their right to kill each other.
At the end of the day, it is the americans who were able to send relief to Iran, they could not even look after their own people …
Not that i am right, and i am no fan of the americans, but calling a spade a single-user-excavation-instrument changes nothing, and Kilroy said no more than what he, and i for that matter, see on TV news every day.
Political-correctness is insideous, and can undermine the very values it claims to uphold, we could do with a lot more bluntness in the political arena, maybe it could shatter some of those fake crystal idols that we hold so high.
I was just wondering what other people think, I didn’t comment one way or the other whether I thought Kilroy was right.
For what it is worth the Arabs were far more civilised than we were for a long period of time and I realise that elightenment blossoms and fades in every civilisation.
I think my question was twofold, one was it right for the BBC to act in such a manner (which I believe they were as per Shoogledoogle’s post) and the underlying question was, it is still acceptable to use mass ignorance as an excuse for corrupt/evil states in the modern world? I thinkthe answer to the latter is probably yes too.
Ok, seriously, thank you. I’m glad to see there’s another hate-sympathetic individual here besides me. You’re not going to believe it, but I have been arguing the same thing for the past week or two…and it’s good to hear that coming from someone else. Now, to work on avoiding getting in a conflict with you…
