a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

what country has improved most since 2001 morbs?

I haven't lived in em, how do I know? Since '89-91, maybe Germany and South Africa.

suzy, if we have an expertise test for posting, movie threads will disappear I hope.

uh oh, my friends been told to pack 2 days of food & water & make for the border (which they are quite near luckily)
shit must be scary

I haven't lived in em, how do I know? Since '89-91, maybe Germany and South Africa.

you should read some articles about standard of living changes in the third world over the last three decades. it'll blow ur mind.

start with this: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/trends/

i don't know if it'll make you more optimistic about the world, but it'll maybe keep you from saying stuff like germany + south africa are the most improved places over the last few decades (which is basically the wrongest answer you can give to that question)

yeah I have read some, snd fuck fuck fuck you

and u know, my reading those articles didnt change anything for good or ill.

u do know that despite being 'things white ppl like' germany + sa are terrible answers to that question? sa is doing worse than libya in terms of human development despite the end of apartheid + germany has had high development since the 50s and doesn't answer the question adequately at all.

i certainly don't mind your cynicism, but recently (w/ this and your all middle east participants look the same comments) you've been coming off less as cynical and more as ignorant

old man yells at human development index

fine, i don't know anything. YOU ALL WIN

/thread

i certainly don't mind your cynicism,

of course not, it's why we get on so well!

incredible increases in life expectancy just mean we get to live longer under oppressive heel of western military-industrial corporate plutocracy.

your all middle east participants look the same comments

Lying: as popular as ever 'round here

Egypt is by far the most influential Arab country when it comes to music, TV and movies.

Really? Maybe only since Iran started throwing filmmakers in jail.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 11, 2011 7:29 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or maybe cause iran isn't an arab country

― iatee, Friday, February 11, 2011 7:31 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Lolololololol

― Mordy, Friday, February 11, 2011 7:33 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

close enough

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 11, 2011 7:34 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m588/portmanteau_nail/GIFS/mjpopcorn.gif

sob

Mordy, maybe if you removed that Phillie pennant from your ass, humor would get through to you.

I also nearly posted above "be sure to paste some of my posts out of context, you fairy."

i asked that question because i was interested in morbs enters politics debate in good faith, not because the answer is important. lol me.

I'm glad all my posts are so important to Mordy, as long as he isn't jacking to them

yes, i know it was humor morbz. you got called out for being ignorant and went to a super ignorant line as some kind of thread judo. doesn't mean you weren't just talking out of your ass.

I thought Morbs was specifically talking about improvement in political climate rather than "human development" and yeah in that context South Africa and (East) Germany aren't as stupid an answer as you're making them out to be.

http://i.imgur.com/rcPGl.jpg

itp: morbs, his adversaries

Jesus:

A Libyan man, Soula al-Balaazi, who said he was an opposition activist, told the network by telephone that Libyan air force war planes had bombed "some locations in Tripoli".

He said he was talking from a suburb of Tripoli.

No independent verification of the report was immediately available.

An analyst for London-based consultancy Control Risks said the use of military aircraft on his own people indicated the end was approaching for Muammar Gaddafi.

"These really seem to be last, desperate acts. If you're bombing your own capital, it's really hard to see how you can survive," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, Control Risks' Middle East analyst.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/21/arab-and-middle-east-protests-middleeast

Gawd, Zimbabwe in that HDI graph - sad.

xposts

The speed of events in Libya are just dazzling.

Wow.

this is all i have to contribute

http://i56.tinypic.com/72gkeq.gif

amid all this i have to wonder if the CIA and other spy agencies are cranking up the machinery on rainy-day plans to fuck shit up / assassinate people / whatever that they've been waiting like a moment like this to pull the trigger on

Rumors have Qaddafi already out and heading to Venezuela.

Two air force colonels flew their fighter jets to Malta to defect. They refused to attack their own people.

Libya nblowing my mind esp in contrast to how it looked last night. But differences between this sitch and Egypt kind of scary. Nation of intense tribal loyalties etc... hope Libya does not become like pre-Taliban Afghanistan.

But damn these past weeks the main thing i'm feeling is just awe.

5:54pm: The London School of Economics - where Saif al-Islam Gaddafi attended university - says it is reviewing its links with Libya. The university says it has previously "delivered executive education programmes to Libyan officials, principally from the Economic Development Board". It has also received funding for scholarships in return for "advice given to the Libyan Investment Authority in London".

It is not expecting any further funds, the school says, but "intends to continue its work on democratisation in North Africa funded from other sources unrelated to the Libyan authorities".

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/17/live-blog-libya

It's been strange today seeing coverage where nobody really knows what's happening to a much greater degree than usual. If/when this kicks off in Saudi it'll be even more of a blankout I think.

libyan embassy in london has taken down its flag and replaced it with that of the protesters.

shit is moving so fast. i'm not sure i believe that gaddafi's gone anywhere, esp as military aircraft are even now bombing protesters in libya.

jesus christ

@sultanalqassemi on twitter if you're not already, btw

part of the confusion is b/c no western news agencies have actual reporters in tripoli except the BBC

can't find any mention of zimbabwe....where are you guys seeing this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/cricket/statistics/scorecards/2011/02/86109/html/scorecard.stm

But damn these past weeks the main thing i'm feeling is just awe.

― sewing wild OTTs (Jon Lewis), Monday, February 21, 2011 1:17 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for real

i wonder if anyone in the western govts that helped prop up these regimes, politically & practically, feels any shame whatsoever? don't expect anyone to express any, of course.

not like they didn't know what they were getting into so probably not

Realpolitik innit.

#BBC
1933: More details on the call by Libya's diplomats at the United Nations for international intervention to end the crisis. The deputy ambassador, Ibrahim Omar Al Dabashi, told BBC World that Col Gaddafi's government was carrying out a genocide. "It is a real genocide whether it is in the eastern cities of Libya or whether what is going now in Tripoli," he said. "The information that we are receiving from the people in Tripoli is the regime is killing whoever goes out to the streets... He has his mercenaries everywhere in the streets and whenever any demonstrator appears they just kill them. At least they shoot them, whether they kill them or not, but they are shooting them."

Ghadafi prob would have been near to last on the neocon to-topple list, right?

xpost o_O

I bet the Scottish Justice Secretary is wishing this had all happened a couple of years ago.

http://twitter.com/meralhece/status/39784630559318016

Reports that Gaddafi has fled to Venezuela probably exaggerated, as he apparently has fear of flying over water #Libya
18 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

http://twitter.com/meralhece/status/39786478686961664

@thesuzannemoore Not much I suppose. He has fascinating phobias, eg. sleeping on upper floors, and lives in his tent in desert
12 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® in reply to thesuzannemoore