It was not only an airliner that was shut down in Ukraine, but the last vestige of the post-Cold War global order, and the popular myth regarding the containability of “local” conflicts. In today’s hyper-connected world, conflict anywhere is a conflict everywhere, for spillovers are unavoidable and containability a myth.
It is not that there are more tragedies happening around us today than there were during the height of the Cold War, in fact, there are arguably less tragedies today than there were then. It’s our awareness of what’s happening around us that has changed. Through social media, satellite technology and around-the-clock news coverage, we have been deprived of the ability to ignore the world and feign ignorance.
Obama approval high with Muslims – Jonathan Topaz – POLITICO.com.
Neither Arabs nor Muslims have ever constituted an Ummah, nor will they. In itself, that’s not a bad thing. It’s our inability to accept this reality and our insistence on believing in the illusion of Ummah-hood that is the essence of the problem. We desperately need new thinking. Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim majority states and communities will always different priorities that reflect the local socioeconomic realities with which they have to contend, and the political ideologies they espouse. We are not One. We never were. We will never be. Perish the illusion.
Quarantine the Middle East – NYTimes.com.
What a fucking brilliant idea! Give this man a Nobel. Heavens know it’s reserved for good intentions these days. Let’s indeed quarantine the Middle East. This is sooooo doable. All we have to do is forget that it exists, then, let the TSA increase security inspection in our airports, because we don’t have enough of them already, and the overall economic impact of the delays on global economy is still negligible: just a few billion dollars a year.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 