In closing
: Koppel's closing words last night, thanks to Lost Remote.
Again, I take Koppel at his word that he is not trying to make a political statement.
But he cannot just ignore the history and meaning of the device he used; it is political. Whatever his intention, the act is political and a closing statement (especially a closing statement, rather than an introduction) doesn't change that.
: To put this another way: The device presents those listed as victims. That is how the device has been used in print with the dead in Vietnam, from AIDS, from urban crime, 9/11 and other acts of terrorism, and so on. Victims.
And where there are victims, there is a wrong done to them -- by man or nature.
But these are not victims. They are soldiers who went to do a job and did so valiently. But that is not how I saw them presented last night on Nightline. I did not see a tribute. I saw victims. And that is the problem I have with using that device now.
: UPDATE:" Jay Rosen says, of course, Koppel was making a political statement -- and so what?
I agree with that... except.
Koppel says he wasn't making a political statement. That's what's dishonest about it. He was making a political statement and that would be OK if he'd level with us about it.
He's trying to be "political" and "objective" at the same time and that doesn't work. It's an on-off switch and he's trying to put the switch in the middle. And it's arcing.
Saudi feelings
: I pointed to what I thought was the first and only Saudi blogger, Religious Policeman, blogger Pernille Rudlin makes a very good point, finding others at Live Journal.
Most of them are teens and, well, they sound like teens -- which is just what teens should sound like, except it doesn't add a lot to the political discussion. Take, for example, this one:
Mutual understanding is a great thing. :)
I hope all humans could understand each other someday! ...
I hate Bin Laden, and I hate Bush as much if not more. At least we Saudis (Who are blamed for Bin Laden) did not choose him as a president or whatever. He is disowned from his nationality. On the other hand, almost 50% (Well, I know it's slightly less, but still!) chose Bush. You people should be ashamed.
I hope you do understand that supporting the American army in anyway is just like supporting terrorism, just at a larger scale. Just stop it, please stop it, and the world may forgive you for all that one day.
Or
this one:
Another f****** bomb went off yesturday. Car bomb near a government building trashed the building and injured alot of people in a school near-by....
To top that off I've gotten detention for a week.
And starting saturday I'll be offline studying for my S.a.ts. Until May first that is.
What a f***** world.
They lack, well, perspective.
: Meanwhile, Religous Policeman, which is filled with sophisticated posts, is signing off for fear that the religious policeman are approaching.
Folks, maybe it's a result of that last terrorist attack, maybe it's just me being paranoid, but i'm seeing a lot more "unusual activity" both out in the town and in the neighborhood. I'm going to lie low. The blog and my email contacts will hibernate for a while. Better safe than sorry.
Damn.
He has a disturbing and eloquent post about
Saudi women:
The story of women in Saudi Arabia is one of unending tragedy. They are our mothers, our wives, our daughters, yet on the whole we treat them like our cattle. It's a story that needs to change.
And there is this on
censorship, which would be funny if it weren't real and tragic (and close to home with our own FCC acting similarly these days):
One of the few pleasures in life is to go to the larger bookstores here and buy a copy of an English-language newspaper. Usually it’s one of the British papers, occasionally the IHT or USA Today. They come on that very thin airmail paper. And invariably, they’ll contain apparently random splotches of black. Closer inspection reveals that a young western lady was showing some leg or shoulder, but has been “Magic Marker’d” vigorously, and of course it soaks thru the thin paper to obliterate the other side as well. My wife gets especially annoyed because her copy of Good Housekeeping suffers even worse; all those adverts for showers and “ladies’ things”, you can imagine.
So who’s responsible for poring thru the tens of thousands of magazines and papers that come into the country? Well, in the north of Riyadh there is a certain college of theology, the The Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University....
So how do the students make a few Riyals in their spare time? Not serving in Fudruckers or a coffee shop, not real work, that’s for sure. You guessed it, they are our censors! Yes, these wheezy-chested, acne-pitted, dentally-challenged, long-bearded apologies for manhood are the ones who decide what I may or may not see.... All their spare time is obviously taken up with poring thru the world’s press, drooling into their beards, shuddering with delight at the sight of Mrs. Bush’s ankle, and then obliterating it with a scribble of the Magic Marker.
Damn again. I do not want the Religious Policeman to disappear (or live in fear). We need hundreds more just like him.
...
