December 02, 2007

I Should be Shocked

....yet I am merely disgusted and angry...

Colleen Doran posts on two recent events that put both many things into perspective.

I had been well aware of the teacher who after going all the way to the Sudan to help the Sudanese was rewarded with prioson and death threats for having students with the temerity to name a Teddy Bear "Mohammed". This story has been all over the internet. I've been remiss in not mentioning it. There is interesting action in the comments as well.

Note that the Muhammed Teddy Bear has been taken off E-Bay....as "offensive". How it was more offensive than the actual story is unexplained.

The main thrust of Colleen's post regards this horrific story that I had not heard before. A young french boy raped raped by Arab men (one of them HIV positive) in Dubai and the difficulty of finding justice, in part because (as one of her commenters put it) pitching is not a crime but catching is. More here.

From the ADS comments section.

....I would like to mention the other boy in the story, whose first name I know, but will not use, as the boy is still living in Dubai, and asked that his name not be used. Probably rightly, most of the focus has been on Alex, but this other boy must have been as traumatized as Alex by the events of that night. And the boy must be as brave as Alex, if not a little bit braver, because while Alex had to leave the country for his own protection, this boy, for whatever reason, still lives in Dubai, and still wanted to testify at the trial of his alleged attackers....

One gutsy kid.

Quote was exerpted from a comment by one Elmer Sackman who may be affiliated with this site advocating the boycott of Dubai.

This is just awful to say, but I'm not sure that is a good idea...

Keep in mind that the United Arab Emirates is widely regarded as one of the most modern of the Arab nations. Now, that is truly damming with faint praise. However, they have been very helpful against Islamic extremists (who take a murderously dim view of their modest social advancements)and from what I've been able to find out they ARE the least oppresive Arab state in the region aside, perhaps from Bahrain.

A boycott of the such a comparitavely modernized nation would send the message that "We're dammned if we do dammned if we don't...so why stand up to the people who will behead us when everyone else will pull the rug out from under us."

Carrots are as important in bringing about change as sticks.

On a national level there are pretty much a selection of bad choices. Let it slide...or push them into the arms of the Wahabi monster consuming so much of Islam in the area...

Terrible...Worse

That doesn't mean that citizens can't sign petitions and make their voices heard. Indeed this might be the best course of action and, indeed, a better one than any options that governments have available.

I'm going to vomit.

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