Mideast Mumblings

[digitaldiscipline]

On the one hand, it sucks that so many people are getting hurt over political and religious crap; on the other hand, things have been in such a tense, unnatural, and generally fucked-up state over there for so long that it might be better in the long run that all the crap gets addressed. I don't think a lot of killing is necessarily the way to go about it, but if the powers that be would stop acting selfishly and let the people do what they want (which I see as being sectarian states, not the arbitrary national boundaries that were imposed after WWII and during subsequent folderol by outside parties). *shrug*

It's eastern Europe all over again, and after the initial turmoil, things are relatively stable there now. But it gets a lot more attention and outside influence because of the oil.

If I have any family over there, it's at a fairly substantial remove (I think my dad's grandfather and his family were the ones who came over; I'm not sure if the whole clan did, or just that branch of it), and they're unknown to me. My nearest tie over there is through angel_sil, who lived in Israel for a few years after college, and she knows folks over there.

ETA:
- Salon's take on the tensions
- cedarseed, who lives in Beirut and is chronicling what's going on (link courtesy of ikilled007, who knows something about blogging from the middle of the suck)

Comments

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

I also lived in Egypt so I've seen both sides. Suffice it to say my opinions on the issue are not concise or politically correct.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

True, but they're actually informed.