Dear L,

funny you should mention Parisian service. I must be the only one who - during one month of residence - NEVER had bad and/or grumpy customer service.

Hmmm ...

--MSK

Just posting to say greetings and apologies for the absence. Recently sucked into the world of private equity and work life balance dispatched down the toilet.

I must be the only one who - during one month of residence - NEVER had bad and/or grumpy customer service.

Funny, during about the same (cumulative) amount of time in Paris, the only person who was ever rude to me was the attendant at the information booth at the Gare d'Austerlitz. His job was supposedly to be helpful, true, but then public sector workers probably belong in a different category.

(Well, of course one would also have to leave aside the tear-gassing episode, but then demonstrators and cops trying to stave off Molotov cocktails are hardly in the customer service business. And for that matter, the cops were perfectly polite, if completely useless for my purposes.)

Sorry for having been largely absent myself - I've collected materials for a half-dozen different posts over the past 2 - 3 months, but haven't quite been able to collect my thoughts on any of them. Maybe over the weekend.

Incidentally Eerie, I sent you an email on your aqoul account asking for the publishing link but assume it got lost in the ether. My laptop was smashed on a flight and took with it half my life.. Would you mind re-sending? Cheers.

Just got this wierd idea of Ben Laden dressed like ZZ Top and singing Iron Maiden's Afraid to shoot strangers...

Couldn't drop the idea, after a comment on the Lounsbury blog. Thus, I now proudly present, after careful testing in accordance with the most advanced scientific methods: the Which Arab Leader Are You? test, courtesy of SelectSmart

It seems pretty accurate, because clicking no alternatives at all correctly turns up Abdelaziz Bouteflika as the blandest and most unremarkable Arab dictator of all time. (Though Ali Abdullah Saleh is not in the test. I ran out of slots moving from Maghreb to Mashreq.)

Hahaha, I am M6 of Morocco.

Umm, I think the scoring system needs work - I ended up as Mahmud Abbas?

i got M6, too. at least i drive a motorcycle

Ha, I'm King Abdullah II of Jordan.

That test is GOOD.

Alle, did you design it? We should spread the word ...

--MSK

while we're on the topics of quizzes and memes, the CIA is in the online quiz business now. i scored "impressive mastermind." https://www.cia.gov/careers/CIAMyths.html

(yes, it's real.)

MSK - Yes, I made it, very simple editor. Feel free to do what you want with it.

(Me, I get Habib Bourgiba. Could be a lot worse.)

I was Habib B., while my son was Bashar Al Assad.

No way can I be Mahmoud Abbas - harumph.

I got Hosni Mubarak, but I was shooting for King Playstation (Abdullah) II.

Hmm, am I the only person who wound with a totally unknown Ali Abdullah Saleh (outside of Yemen, at any rate)?

Actually I got the Yemani bastard as well. Puzzled the hell out of me, but then I had a hard time responding to most questions.

Whine, whine, whine, not my fault. I added him because I felt guilty for leaving out the Gulf/Peninsula people. And dull, pro-Western cleptocrats (a.k.a. moderate reformers) are probably the closest one will ever get to genuine liberals when restricted to chosing from the existing Arab world leadership.

Besides, you should feel honoured. Just look at his list of achievements.

Alle, what's specific to Qabus (besides being gay, which I'm not)...?

Dear alle,

that list is BRILLIANT! I think it's the best I've ever seen. Not even Comrade Mu'ammar or the Pharao have such a list ...

I think you just earned the "Aqoulite of the Month" prize.

--MSK

MSK - Thanks for the kind words, but I'm sure we both agree that Brother Leader Muammar doesn't need to list his achievements: the great contemporary art installation we know as Libya is right there for all to see...

Shaheen - He wears magnificient turbans and was couped into power by the British to replace his medieval father, of unknown turban tastes. Apart from that I know little, which probably means he is a good and pliable ruler by regional standards. What, you're disappointed you didn't get to be Saleh too?

Saleh, Bouteflika, or something like that, and then Abbas.
Hideously unChristian names, every one. At least I've heard of the third guy.

I feel blessed to have gotten Col. Green Book himself. Joke socialism was my Guide to success.

Speaking of the Yemeni bastard though, I'm going to be in Sana'a for a couple months this spring and would love to hear any definite do's/don'ts or other advice from people who've been there.

Anyone catch Ayaan Hirsi Ali on BBC's Hardtalk?
If only it was Tim Sebastian.

My friend showed me her book the other day; it's called Infidel. I almost had a conniption, right there in the store.

If on her shoulder it's chipped
You must connipt.

-- Johnny Cochran

I come out as King Abdullah II of Jordan. Very nice test.

Elsewhere in the news:

Nice Guardian article on the $12 billion of Iraqi funds disbursed by the CPA as bundles of $100 bills, often in duffel bags delivered to a ministry.

Also a furious intellectual wankfight about Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ian Buruma's book Murder in Amsterdam at sign and sight, a site once dedicated to abstracting German newspaper articles in English and now given over more to presenting caricatures of European intellectualism with a straight face. Entertaining in part, especially since dwarf throwing is now illegal. It does make me want to read Mr Buruma's book, as he comes off quite sane, level-headed and snarky as Hell.

Very interesting articles, Antiquated Tory - thanks for the links. Ian Buruma is an interesting chap, I really liked his Occidentalism book.

now given over more to presenting caricatures of European intellectualism with a straight face.

From my years at university, this caricature is quite real. Not quite nutpicking, but not mainstream either. Human Rights is Western Imperialism, don't you know?

Oy my God I got Hosni Mubarek...

$12 billion of Iraqi funds disbursed by the CPA as bundles of $100 bills, often in duffel bags delivered to a ministry.

Heard Paul Bremer speak here on his book tour some months ago - he actually spoke of that insanity as one of his prouder moments at the time, on the theory that there was really no good way to get money moving in that situation, with a dysfunctional economy and no normal banking services, so he just made the best of a bad situation. I wonder how much he's changing his tune now?

Klaus,
There's also the Right intellectual wanking based on this, that "Anyone who doesn't push for Muslim immigrants to adopt secular middle-class values is arguing that Human Rights is Western imperialism," regardless of what they're actually saying. Buruma vs. his critics illustrates this marvellously. The 'debate' is framed to divide people into supporters of Mark Steyn and supporters of the Respect Coalition, whereas most of us would just as soon drown them together.
Forgive me if I've mentioned this before, but a Dutch friend of mine also thinks that couching immigrant issues in terms of the 'Moslemness' of the immigrants is a nice way to avoid class and economic issues. He says that the white Dutch proletariat are not exactly standard bearers of nonviolence, tolerance etc, and that they share with the immigrants a lot of frustrations about opportunity, but all this gets swept under the carpet in the debates about cultural otherness...

Heard Paul Bremer speak here ... he actually spoke of that insanity as one of his prouder moments at the time, on the theory that there was really no good way to get money moving in that situation, with a dysfunctional economy and no normal banking services, so he just made the best of a bad situation. I wonder how much he's changing his tune now?

I am not often a defender of Bremer, but in fact he had a point.

Of course as with many things at CPA, the poor staffing quality, lack of knowledge, etc. led to an incomptently executed move. However, knowing the banking system, he was in many ways correct in the basic analysis.

a Dutch friend of mine also thinks that couching immigrant issues in terms of the 'Moslemness' of the immigrants is a nice way to avoid class and economic issues.

oh yes oh yes. There's the rub. 'Faces at the bottom of the well' by some black US geezer: How poor whites at least can look down at even poorer blacks to feel good about themselves. Same thing. I think that skin colour differences, and visible differences generally, make it easy to maintain social barriers along cultural and/or colour lines. As in: If Poles moved in numbers to, say, Britain, they would be assimilated Borg-style in one or two generations, since no visible differences would set apart the newbs from the natives. I think that's the greatest social danger: that the different looking people become a permanent underclass, like blacks in USA with all that entails.

hm. Tasteless joke: Maybe integration should be outsourced to the Borg.

eva and L,
Yeah, I had thought myself that some kind of New Deal WPA type thing, or anything that involved handing out cash in something resembling employment to otherwise unemployed men, would probably be a good idea. And I hadn't thought of the problem of public sectors workers not getting their pay. But they seem to have taken that $12 billion ($12 billion!) and not actually fix or even alleviate many problems with it.

Since this is still the New Month Open Thread, I hereby take the occasion to introduce the distinguished readership of `Aqoul to a blog I just started, as a bit of an experiment ("will I bother to continue?"). It will be dealing mostly or only with the Western Sahara question, since someone has to keep an eye on that too. It's appropriately and unimaginatively named Western Sahara Info, and you're all very welcome to have a look, if you're into nomads, nitpicking UN resolutions and stalemated wars.

We should have given you a spot here for that, actually, but good work.

Re Antiq. Tory: Indeed, the idea, even the cash injection in cash was not necessarily idiotic or corrupt - if one was realistic about the problems - but typical of CPA they utterly bollixed it up to the point they own goaled the whole goddamned thing.

Ah. Western Sahara. Reminds me of that moron who keeps plaguing wikipedia about with his incredible groupie POVs about it. An american idiotic kid, totally removed from the reality on the ground, who had the opportunity to speak for the polisario once on I-don't-know-which obscure event at the UN, and who since, decided to take it upon himself to split Morocco, or as he'd rather have it, "liberate Western Sahara".

Indeed, but that is how you came to know Aqoul.

But the whole interaction with him was another confirmation of the bankruptcy of "activism" for me.

Oh, I remember that. I was also involved in that little skirmish, and it was how I too came to know of `Aqoul. Think you're being to hard on the guy, it's not as if the other people who were editing articles on the Maghreb were leaving much room for compromise. It was me and one million Moroccan on a mission, who with few charming exceptions came off as nationalists of the soccer hooligan variety.

Indeed, but that is how you came to know Aqoul.

Ha, right. That's the good side of it. Or the bad side for my time resources.

More seriously, re activism. I don't mind it, I don't think it's bankrupt. If it serves interests I share.

Ah, you're the Alle there, eh? Well, I wasn't around for the 1 million Moroccans. I only stumbled on the idiocy when that Justin character, some droolinglingly pious little idiot of a mid-Western American student activist twit was railing on irrationally. Still is I am sure. (Actually just going back it strikes me some improvements have been made although I see the claims about 'liberalism' among the Sahraouine are still made - amusing given how conservative Sahraouine actually are, but I guess little American student activists have to dress up their ethnic heroes in the right clothes).

Activism, I still hold it in contempt. Bloody whankers in "activist" circles do more harm than good.

Wanted to tell you all that I had a recent visit by an old friend, lifelong Republican, supporter of Administration policies and analyst in the American security bureaucracy. We had a long conversation over some Budvar (fresh in the brewery restaurant in Budweis) over why the US had done what it did in Iraq and what is likely to happen with Iran. It was pretty interesting and surprisingly rational, if you accept the starting assumptions. I have some notes and can put the gist up in the March open thread if you'd be interested.

Sounds interesting.

Send it.

If I could do some shameless info-grubbing for a moment - has anyone among the cosmopolitan crowd here lived in Berlin, what's the Middle East studies scene like there, and what about the cost of living relative to NYC (one br apt, that sort of thing)?

I haven't lived there, but have friends who have, and apartments are ridiculously cheap compared to just about anywhere with tap water. There's like 100K empty apartments, thanks to the DDR (no jobs = no one moves there). Only now are we beginning to see the benefits of Communism...

As for MENA schools, no clue. I'm sure they're good. I spent just two weeks with my friends in Berlin, and fell in love with the city. I've even decided to learn German some day just to be able to live there. So go!

Dear SP,

on Berlin & all your questions, just e-mail me offline (msk.email@gmail.com).

--MSK

SP,
Looks like you're sorted on the Berlin front. I'm just down the road so to speak, have friends there and have visited a number of times, but again you look sorted. By German urban standards it is cheap, certainly cheaper than NYC. You'll enjoy it more if you like doner kebab, though.

Dear AT,

ANY place is cheaper than NYC ... ;)

As for Döner Kebab ... there's plenty other food, and as affordable.

Looks like we could hold a rival Aqoul meeting in Berlin. Any thoughts?

--MSK

what's this about an Aqoul meeting?

Thanks y'all - was asking for someone who got a postdoc there and is trying to figure out the rather low pay vs. prestige balance, and it's a place that none of us is familiar with at all. But we're all fans of kebab! Certainly hope the Turks have managed to spread good food to Germany. I can't say I was impressed by the, er, cuisine when I visited there as a teenager. Though the desserts were divine.

I find that one's appreciation of Doner Kebab is very much enhanced when one is pissed out of one's head, something I have yet to experience I'm afraid.

If we're holding an Olympics style beauty pageant for an Aqoul meeting, I'm proposing London.

Not cheap, but you get what you pay for...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali watch: Anne Appelbaum fails to get it.

Dear SP,

as someone who lives in Berlin & is connected to the (albeit somewhat questionable) Mid-East studies scene, I cannot do more here on this thread than offer you my e-mail address ... which I have.

Döner Kebab is vastly superior to any shawarma. And as for "London ... not cheap but you get what you pay for" - in many cities on the continent you get more than what you pay for. (Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, and ... yes ... Berlin come to mind.) London is overpriced in any regard - food, lodgin, transportation.

--MSK

Thanks MSK! Will pass on your email add to the person in question.

Doug: seeing as how there are going to soon be four Aqoul contributors (well three contributors plus me, who's contributed precisely one side-link so far this year) living in DC, there's a proposal for a Memorial Day DC-area get-together.

Yeah, I'm assuming that date is pretty much nailed down, as I am one of those people who is paranoid about airline ticket availability - so if nothing else, I'll be wandering around D.C. aimlessly. Hopefully some of the rest of you can be strong-armed into joining me.

Tom & Eva: wish i could join in on the Aqoul fun but i'll be getting ready to defend and publish on memorial day weekend.

so what do Aqoulites do for fun when they get together?

I don't know, but I guess we are about to find out. This, if we manage to pull it off, will be the largest such gathering to date - the largest until now that I'm aware of being Andalucia Reconquista 2005.

Aqoul authors' meeting sounds tempting but for the fact that (a) I've contributed sweet fuck all this year and (b)am rather loathe to put a mortal face on intellects that I would like to envisage as sublime and looming in greatness above the pettiness of this mortal coil.

Klaus asked:

so what do Aqoulites do for fun when they get together?

Hmmm ... burn effigies of Michael Totten?

Maybe we actually SHOULD do a rival meeting and then find out?

--MSK

Ahem:
But we're all fans of kebab

Not me.