Is It Goodbye Ahmadinejad. Iran & Lebanon Elections: the Obama Factor? Ministers of the Uncultured and Misinformed
I hope the writer is right. I am sure many Iranians also hope it happens next weekend. The question is: will enough of those bother to vote?
“Lebanon's pro-Western bloc will retain its control of the country's government despite a strong challenge from a Hezbollah-dominated alliance, according to official election results released Monday…”CNN
Not sure about the “control of the country” bit. In Lebanon you “control” the area you “control”. If you get my drift.
This will give Obama two ‘foreign victories’. But I would not describe Lebanon as a victory. First, Christian swing voters voted more for the ruling March 14 group (Hariri) than for Hezbullah ally Michel Aoun. That was because they spent more money, spent hundreds of millions more on bringing back Lebanese-Canadians to vote. I guess Hezbullah brought fewer: it was too cheap. We can say that Saudi money beat Iranian money: Sunni (Wahhabi) fundamentalist money beat Shi’a fundamentalist money. Second: not much has really changed on the ground in Lebanon. Most likely it is back to Doha.
“Ahamadinejd debates Rizai and defends his economic policy…” al-alam Iran TV
Actually these debates between Nejads and his rivals are unprecedented in the Middle East. Not clear what the average person in an Arab country thinks of such un-Arab activity as an election debate. Any Arab leader thinks he has a mandate from Allah to rule, and to have to run in an election is considered demeaning. Sacre bleue!
“US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US is studying the possibility of re-listing North Korea among countries supporting terrorism…” al-Alam (official Iranian TV), which did not deign to comment on Iran’s place on that list.
“Saudi minister of culture and information holds a dialog with Facebook readers: Under the title ‘There is no ceiling for freedom’.…” alarabiya
‘No Ceiling for freedom’ indeed: this is news to me, and to everybody in his country- almost everybody in his country. Minister of culture and “Information”. The Middle East is full of little “Culture and Information” ministers. There job is to stifle culture and censure information.
Cheers
mhg
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