Miles wrote:
> Michael Price wrote:
> [ Content respectfully edited --Miles ]
>>> The more you read about the UAE port security scandal, the
>>> more it becomes patently obvious this is about far more than
>>> just one deal with one company or one country. [...]
>>
>> Yeah, it's about trying to do business with one of the most
>> liberal Arab regimes. [...]
>
> While I don't disagree with the gist of this posting, I have to say
> that it is quite a stretch to call the UAE a "liberal Arab regime."
You can drink, smoke, practice usury, and generally have a very
unislamic good time in the UAE. It's liberal by Arab standards.
> You
> know how women couldn't vote in Kuwait (until very recently)? Well,
> they can't vote in the UAE either. But then, neither can the men: there
> are *no* political elections in the UAE.
Which is why it's liberal by Arab standards.
> I lived there for several years, and I can't think of any sense at all in
> which it is more liberal than any of the other Arab countries I've visited
> or lived in (e.g. Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Oman). The only way
> you can call the UAE "liberal" is if you distort the meaning of the word
> to mean "allied with the US".
>
Well I mean "liberal" to mean "you can basically do what you want,
which unless I'm very much mistaken you can't in Syria.
> Miles
>
> Thank you for reading my little posting.
The pleasure was all mine.
