I have yet to meet an American who has had any personal contact with the UAE that had any doubts about the deal. I came to this country prepared to see the occasional American behave like an ignorant boorish lout while here; I never expected the vast majority decide to do it collectively at home. Seeing the Dubai port deal collapse because of the ignorance of the American people, the misinformation of the American news media, and the demogogery of the American Congress has been like watching a beloved relative get drunk and make a fool of himself in public.
I know from personal experience how ignorant Americans are about this country from the discussions that I had before I came. I wish that I had a dollar for every person who believed that I would be murdered over here or told me how brave I was for coming here. And I know how little I knew before I started to investigate the country.
One of the satellite channels that we get shows the NBC and ABC evening news, so I have gotten to see just a little of the coverage, and when the news was breaking about this deal, it was universally awful. One story I saw made three glaring errors of fact in the first 10 seconds of the story. In most of the stories, if hadn't know that they were talking about the UAE, I wouldn't have been able to recognize the country that they were talking about.
But for me the worst of all has been the reaction of Congress. I know that Americans are largely ignorant about the rest of the world. I expect reporters to be lazy and inaccurate. But the political leaders have voluntary taken on the responsiblity for watching over the nation's interests.
I leave you with some comments about Congress by Samuel Clemmons (Mark Twain):
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
This blog began as a description of our life in Al Ain, UAE (United Arab Emirates). Brn worked at the UAE University Libraries Deanship for three years and Bss homeschooled our four children, D, B, P, and O. After returning to the the USA for five years, we are living in Abu Dhabi now.
6 comments:
You said nothing to support the Dubai Port Deal, and unfortunately, you are missing the point! Do more research and try to empathize with what happened "at home" during 911. When you are dealing with human emotions, it does not matter who was at fault......where there is smoke, there is fire.
I don't need to empathize with what happened at home, I was still there at the time. I understand that people feel burned by Muslims and Arabs after what happened.
But you seem to be arguing that it is right to punish an entire group of people because of the actions of a few.
Anonymous,
I am at HOME and the amount of ignorance about the deal was staggering. The ignorance did not start with the UAE, but with basic deal details. I heard countless times about how "Arabs were going to be doing port security". That is deceit.
Then another one was coming up with a Monolithic Arab. Heck, the Arabs in Buraimi just across and imaginary line from brn's city of Al-Ain are already markedly different from the Al-Ain local.
I co-blog and am buddies with a guy that does internation business and has an idea of how ports work. He knows the deal was not that big of a deal.
THe DP Ports World stupidity is an act that will pay us back in misery for years to come. I am so ahsamed at the lack of vision by my people you have no idea.
Your whole take on our Congress is absolutely right on the money. Every day I wish (if I could not stop 911 from happening) that the third plane would have hit the Senate instead of the Pentagon.
The world would be a better place without people like Hitlery, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Dick Durbin, and Russ(ama) Find Gold(in) - my pocket!!
The 911 report did mention that two of the attackers were from the UAE. I agree with the deal not going through. Yes, it does smell of racism but I guess what goes around comes around.
Lets see if the UAE would allow its borders to be operated my a Indian/Iranian/Paki security company.I doubt it my FRIEND.
Hurricane
Anonymous,
Virtually all of the 9/11-19 were radicalized in Germany. Marwan Al-Shehi had he never left RAK would probably be doing whatever it is they do in RAK.
Yes, I agree that the UAE would not let its ports be run by a foreign firm. The UAE does have some protectionist trade and business policies I don't agree with, hardly makes it right for another nation.
You also continue to peddle the myth of the deal was security based. It wasn't, security was/is still in the hands of the Coast Guard, the DHS, and Customs; that was not going to be any different. DPW was just going to operate some terminals.
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