Monday, April 18, 2011

Arab Spring(loaded)



Just, you know, a cascade of indigenous protests, self-generated and un-suspect, curiously fluent in English, oddly ready to give interviews to public radio personalities, but totally grassroots, unrelated to foreign intervention, just a lotta peoples yearning to be free.

Posted by IOZ at 10:09 AM | email »
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26 comments:

Lysander said...

Don't know what to make of it. Yes, we all know that the PWTB hated the protesters in pro-western, Israel-accommodating Tunisia/Egypt/Bahrain. But they like them in anti-Israel Syria (which is the Syrian government's only saving grace.)

My guess is the PWTB are trying to make the best of a bad situation, fanning the flames coming towards them into another direction. If so, they are playing with fire. If the Syrian government can fall, so can the Saudis.

And that is the dune of sand that forms the foundation of the empire.

10:25 AM
Anonymous said...

of course they speak english. how else will the tom friedmans or the US understand them>

11:22 AM
IOZ said...

Lingonberry Pancakes.

11:28 AM
Inkberrow said...

Naturally there's CIA versions of Lawrence of Arabia leading subversive revolts in the desert! Stay away from Deraa, though....

12:00 PM
LP Steve said...

Friedman speaks Arabic, which makes his insularity even less excusable.

12:03 PM
Happy Jack said...

of course they speak english. how else will the tom friedmans or the US understand them>

Neoliberal economics is the universal language, just ask the Libyan rebels. They had a central bank waiting in the wings. The US understands them better than some Egyptian protester.

12:06 PM
LA Confidential Pantload said...

They were hasbara, Dude?

12:12 PM
anne said...

oH, pan cakes ,.,shhe,not he ,,perkeD UP ,., Ohh sad face ,.questioning mind ,.are they gluten free ?

12:54 PM
anne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
12:58 PM
Anonymous said...

No one noticing how convenient it is that a bunch of telegenic revolutionaries are twittering in English rather than revolutioning has been pretty lulzy. No doubt, though, that when the great uprising happens in Chicago I will be twittering in German so that Helmut Sullivein can provide real time coverage by having his minions use control c and control v a lot and turning his blawg red white and blue.

1:27 PM
IOZ said...

Die Demokratie, der Whisky, sexy.

1:36 PM
Anonymous said...

IOZ -- You must've done something to piss off the Turks, because your blog is inaccessible from Istanbul. The Greeks are OK with you, though...

Other than the anarchist rant drought, Istanbul is cosmic. Beyond description. Oh, and the local, organically-grown agricultural commodities (ahem) are easy to obtain. Don't have any news about the sodomy market, though. Sorry.
-- sglover

2:08 PM
PR said...

The Greeks are OK with you????

2:13 PM
IOZ said...

Istanbul is a city I have an intense desire to visit. Airfare from the American provinces is a weeeeeee bit pricy, though.

2:23 PM
Anonymous said...

Ah, maybe. <800 USD from DC, though. And -- get off the Metro at the Aksaray stop, and you can get a hotel room in a non-tourist district for about >150 USD for a WEEK. No shit.
-- sglover

3:23 PM
Anonymous said...

oops.... make that <150 U.SD... Turkish keyboard... The keyboard I can work with, it's motherfucking Windows 7 that makes this machine a hassle
-- sglover

3:25 PM
davidly said...

Ach, du scheisse! Koks ist alle! Die Türken sind schuld!

3:40 PM
Nutterbutter said...

Telegenic revolutionaries (including the CIA's own Wael Ghonim) get a spread in Vanity Fair, right next to VF Oscar Party pix.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/05/egypt-revolutionaries-201105#slide=1

5:25 PM
passencore said...

Joey, hiç bir Türk hapishanesinde olmuştur?

5:49 PM
clothing said...

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.Any way Ill be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

9:32 PM
Soj said...

Istanbul or Constantinople?

11:00 PM
Gertrude Stein said...

I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace ... By suppressing Jews ... he was ending struggle in Germany (New York Times Magazine, May 6, 1934).

11:45 PM
anne said...

,i'm still feeling ukulele summer of ioz ,. she said as she licked her coco jesus,. .. .

2:03 AM
Anonymous said...

STAMBOL! 'To the city'. Though the Turkish word for 'City at the Center of the World' would be best.
-- sglover

4:15 AM
LA Confidential Pantload said...

Monsieur, you would definitely enjoy Istanbul. Great city with an ass-load of history, Turks are pretty cool people, great food, etc., etc. My only problem was that when I visited they still had a military government, so the main form of amusement for police seemed to be entrapping foreigners into drug deals. Unpleasant, but I'd go back in a hot minute - I think they've got their shit together.

8:15 AM
Anonymous said...

I've seen a lot of cops, but nothing like any entrapment ploys. The, er, agricultural enthusiasts I got acquainted with -- pure chance, that, I'm not much of an agronomist myself -- told me that it was generally winked at, as long as you weren't blatant. Contrast with Athens, where the first greeting I got coming off the Metro was, 'Hashish? Hashish?' (A kid, though, probably not a cop, but very possibly a scamster.)

I wandered into an immigrant workers quarter the other day. Talk about crossroads of the world... The phone stores were offering rates to Jordan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Somalia, Egypt.... Anyway, a couple of times I approached black guys, thinking that'd be my best shot at finding English speakers -- Kenyans, Ghanaians, something like that. Unfortunately I think all I did was spook them. Each time they just started walking faster, and they were looking over their shoulders as they went. So maybe they had me pegged as Polis -- though nobody else takes me for a Turk. They don't have me slotted as an American right away, but definitely non-Turk. Anyway, that neighborhood seemed pretty relaxed, too -- as far as I could tell from a stroll.

But there is some kind of internet censorship. IOZ's site isn't accessible, but I could get to 'Naked Capitalism' and the Stiftung. Go figure.
-- sglover

12:58 PM

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