Middle East going West?

[Smellyoldgit]

Harrrummph - so, what do you folks reckon.

The goings on over the last year or so stirred up the shit of in the Middle East with hopes of semi-rational democracies emerging to lead the way to better things (whatever that means). In reality, semi-dormant islamists groups seem to be crawling out of the sandwork and faring well, countries seem polarised more than ever with little appearance of secular arrangements and Syria (if our meeja is to be believed) appears to be railroading towards full-blown civil war.

Moi, I’d suggest the dwellers of the sandboxes have moved from the camel to the Cadillac too fast for their societal structures to deal with and we can expect a lot more explosive shit over many decades before any level of stability appears.
Perhaps I should sign up for pessimism classes.

[Eternal]

I think maybe you should be running your own pessimism class.

I must agree though, I can't see anything in the immediate future but further unrest, and all these groups that are popular at the moment are just tomorrows failing governments.

[lostsheep]

Smellyoldgit wrote

Harrrummph - so, what do you folks reckon.

The goings on over the last year or so stirred up the shit of in the Middle East with hopes of semi-rational democracies emerging to lead the way to better things (whatever that means). In reality, semi-dormant islamists groups seem to be crawling out of the sandwork and faring well, countries seem polarised more than ever with little appearance of secular arrangements and Syria (if our meeja is to be believed) appears to be railroading towards full-blown civil war.

Moi, I’d suggest the dwellers of the sandboxes have moved from the camel to the Cadillac too fast for their societal structures to deal with and we can expect a lot more explosive shit over many decades before any level of stability appears.
Perhaps I should sign up for pessimism classes.

Eternal wrote

I must agree though, I can't see anything in the immediate future but further unrest, and all these groups that are popular at the moment are just tomorrows failing governments.

Agree with these sad sentiments: no hope for such societies, and I will up you Smelly on the pessimism: I could start my own university. I am leaning toward the opinion that human beings will never outgrow their need for a skydaddy/tyrant.

[Davin]

I'm a little bit optomistic, I think that as communications technology gets better and more difficult for the governments to subvert, then it will be easier for people to gain their freedoms.

[Smellyoldgit]

[Smellyoldgit]

The recent goings on in Egypt & Libya convince me that we can expect growing volumes of pure shit flowing from the Middle East.

The murder of US ambassador Christopher Stevens proves the Arab Spring was never what it seemed.
Bloody violence in Libya and protests in Egypt should dispel any notion that these revolutions were a vote in favour of Western ideals.

I’ll have to hike up my pessimism class registration fee – I could be onto my early retirement fund.

[ILOVEJESUS]

Isn't it funny. Britain spent many millions "liberating" Libya, so the Jizzlamist militants could come and fill the vaccum. We saw cheers for the Arab spring as a whole, even talk of helping the Syrians topple their leader. Ali Quaida must be hoping that the West moves in and does the work for him so that that whole shit whole of an area can comfortably hate anything non Islammy.

[Smellyoldgit]

The loonies are trying to drag Egypt back a few more centuries.
Back Sharia or go to Hell.

Voters in Egypt will go to hell if they back a new constitution that fails to set in stone fundamentalist Islamic law, a top politician has claimed. Adel Afifi, the leader of the Al-Asala party, delivered the warning on his Facebook page ahead of a referendum expected before the end of the year.

"Support God and reject the constitution," announced Afifi. He claimed that voting in favour of the draft constitution was committing a sin, for which voters would be "casting themselves into hell". Failing to support sharia law in Egypt would make a citizen an apostate, insisted Afifi.

The place is doomed I tells ya - dooomed!

[Smellyoldgit]

This rather surprised me somewhat.

Amid rising tensions in one of the world's most volatile regions, an audacious project to use science for diplomacy is taking shape in the heart of the Middle East.
In this land of ancient hatreds, a highly sophisticated scientific installation is being built in Jordan.
It has support from countries that are usually openly hostile to each other

Can't wait to see what the bible, the quran and Nostradamus have to say about it.

[Stargazer]

It's a start. Let's hope it is contagious.

[Kate]

Uh, like a biomedical research facility leak?

[Stargazer]

Not exactly what I was thinking of. Peace or at least cooperation in the Middle East?

[Smellyoldgit]

Not a fucking hope - more like science banging Jesus, Mo's & Abrahams' dense skulls together.
.... but what did Nostradamus say?

[Smellyoldgit]

It looks like Egypt is giving itself a severe dose of self inflicted shagging.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has claimed that the Islamist-backed constitution has passed with a 64% "yes" vote, the day after the final voting in a two-round referendum that deeply divided the country.

I'll give it five years before civil war and possible partition.