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.
2006/12/09
Response to Hesham
At his blog, Hesham posted again about his Democracy 2.0 idea and invited comments. So I did, pointing out what I think his statements about Al Jazeera English not being available in the US on cable. He responded with a lengthy and rambling comment. I submitted an even longer response that responded by pointing out the numerous factual errors in his response. As of this time, he has chosen not to publish that comment. That is fine, it is his blog, he can set any rules he wants. As a point of personal privledge, I have posted it on my Al Ain Issues blog. If you want to read it, it is there. If these sort of blog p*ssing matches don't interest you, please ignore that link.
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6 comments:
Expect more red herrings. That's the way a discussion is conducted around here.
You either see it their way (through a one-way glass) or not at all. Always agree with them, always accept that they are right and the other party (the one they are blaming for whatever it is) is wrong.
This the only way to have a "useful" discussion.
I should know. I've lived here 17 years (I'm not a Westerner, by the way).
I remember last year when I traveled in Saudi Arabia; one of our group (who happened to be a high school debate coach) always tried to have head-to-head discussions with our Saudi hosts, and never failed to offend. I adopted the following strategy, which seemed to work well:
Saudi: I believe X.
Me: That's an excellent point. But what about [insert opposite of X here]?
Saudi: That's an excellent point. I agree with you. But [Y, very similar to X].
Me: Very interesting. I think we agree on many things. But I also think [opposite of Y].
Saudi: Very good! However [X, Y, and Z]...
...and so on, and the whole thing was very cordial...
"You either see it their way (through a one-way glass) or not at all." by you saying that you are just doing the same. Brn has a different view or opinion than Hesham. We can agree or we can disagree, but when we don't agree to disagree doesn't mean that "it's our way or not at all".
what a shallow outlook on life albux.
And anon...maybe you were hanging out with stupid Saudi's who you might be a tiny bit smarter than them.
when will you stop making false generalizations.
thanks for your comments everyone.
Whatever you think about generalizations and stereotypes (and I think that they are fascinating), this particular case is just between hesham and myself, and not between all Americans and all Emiratis.
One thing that I have learned about hesham in reading his post and comments and that I admire is his sense of certainty. That can be a great asset. There are numerous examples of people in history who set their course and refused to change even when all the rest of the world told them that they were wrong. What is really interesting is that this seems to be a characteristic that he shares with President Bush.
Obviously I think that hesham doesn't understand America as well as he thinks he does. I think that in this case I proved this by showing that several of the "facts" that he cited were wrong.
Anyway, that is what I think. Your mileage may vary. Since my comments don't seem to be welcome there, I wish hesham the best and will try to carry on somehow.
hl&h: i'm glad you think i was smarter than them...but i don't think they were stupid. these were people who work fairly high up in Aramco (doesn't mean they're smart, but no doubt Aramco gets the cream of the Saudi crop)
you commet was caught by spam bots or somethingn and was awaiting my approval which I did a few days ago...
Nothig really to get excited about eithrway....
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