MENA Book Club

[Jenn! 918]

I enjoyed L’Étranger by Albert Camus. Don't know if it would be considered an MENA book, but it was set in Algeria.

[sandinista! 1,816]

thomas friedman is so cool!? has his thumb on the pulse of MENA politics? (retches)

[Thomas Friedman is]...regularly denigrating Arabs for their qualities of emotionalism, unreason, and hostility to democracy and modernization. His classic remark, in the same interview in which he lauds the proxy terrorism model, was that we mustn’t go too far in forcing Palestinian concessions because, “I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.”

As Noam Chomsky has noted, the NYT refused to publish a word about Arafat’s offer, but there can be no question that Friedman knew the facts (even if the NYT suppressed this information for its readers) and that he ignored them in favor of the oft-repeated lie of the time (and Times), that Israel couldn’t find a negotiating partner (see Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions and Pirates and Emperors for more on this case and on Friedman’s bias).--Edward S. Herman

“There were three great bubbles in the 1990s: the Nasdaq bubble, the Enron bubble…and the terrorism bubble.” The terrorism bubble is illustrated by the 9/11 event and “blowing up Israelis in pizza-parlors”—not the “sanctions of mass destruction” or Sharon’s policies that were killing three Palestinians for each dead Israeli. Lots of Arabs believed in this bubble and, “We need to go into the heart of their world and beat their brains out, in order to burst this bubble.” We’ve done that with the invasion of Iraq and “the people in the neighborhood got it, all right.”

--Thomas Friedman

gross. i'll take edward said or chomsky (pirates and emperors, old and new is still fantastic despite its age) over that bigot friedman any day of the week.

[sandinista! 1,816]

I enjoyed L’Étranger by Albert Camus. Don't know if it would be considered an MENA book, but it was set in Algeria.

albert 'no, I am not an existentialist' camus counts. he was born and raised there. there's an old cure song that references this book too

[allousa 1]

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion and each of our tastes are quite different...I do think it's worth saying that YOU SHOULD be respectful. Jeez, it's just a book club thread.

[mybackpages 0]

I enjoyed L'Étranger by Albert Camus. Don't know if it would be considered an MENA book, but it was set in Algeria.

I adore this book! Camus ROCKS!

[sara535 15]

thomas friedman is so cool!? has his thumb on the pulse of MENA politics? (retches)

[Thomas Friedman is]...regularly denigrating Arabs for their qualities of emotionalism, unreason, and hostility to democracy and modernization. His classic remark, in the same interview in which he lauds the proxy terrorism model, was that we mustn’t go too far in forcing Palestinian concessions because, “I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.â€

As Noam Chomsky has noted, the NYT refused to publish a word about Arafat’s offer, but there can be no question that Friedman knew the facts (even if the NYT suppressed this information for its readers) and that he ignored them in favor of the oft-repeated lie of the time (and Times), that Israel couldn’t find a negotiating partner (see Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions and Pirates and Emperors for more on this case and on Friedman’s bias).--Edward S. Herman

“There were three great bubbles in the 1990s: the Nasdaq bubble, the Enron bubble…and the terrorism bubble.†The terrorism bubble is illustrated by the 9/11 event and “blowing up Israelis in pizza-parlors‗not the “sanctions of mass destruction†or Sharon’s policies that were killing three Palestinians for each dead Israeli. Lots of Arabs believed in this bubble and, “We need to go into the heart of their world and beat their brains out, in order to burst this bubble.†We’ve done that with the invasion of Iraq and “the people in the neighborhood got it, all right.â€

--Thomas Friedman

gross. i'll take edward said or chomsky (pirates and emperors, old and new is still fantastic despite its age) over that bigot friedman any day of the week.

wow once again you only show up to bash other people's opinions! its weird how you never manage to participate in any of the 'good luck' or 'congratulation' threads....

have you ever read any Tom Friedman?

Just curious. I;ve never seen any of those crititiques of his works but I HAVE read most of the books he's written and the reason WHY I like him is because he is (in my opinion) one of the few mainstream western journalists who has a balanced if not pro-Arab view of the current situation in the ME. I am surprised to see those opinions of his work, obviously thats not the message I took away from his writings.

In any case I am not here to defend Tom Friedman nor my reading choices, I thought we were all just sharing some ideas of books we liked about the region...

Edited September 6, 2007 by sara535

[allousa 1]

[mybackpages 0]

thomas friedman is so cool!? has his thumb on the pulse of MENA politics? (retches)

[Thomas Friedman is]...regularly denigrating Arabs for their qualities of emotionalism, unreason, and hostility to democracy and modernization. His classic remark, in the same interview in which he lauds the proxy terrorism model, was that we mustn't go too far in forcing Palestinian concessions because, “I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.â€

As Noam Chomsky has noted, the NYT refused to publish a word about Arafat's offer, but there can be no question that Friedman knew the facts (even if the NYT suppressed this information for its readers) and that he ignored them in favor of the oft-repeated lie of the time (and Times), that Israel couldn't find a negotiating partner (see Chomsky's Necessary Illusions and Pirates and Emperors for more on this case and on Friedman's bias).--Edward S. Herman

“There were three great bubbles in the 1990s: the Nasdaq bubble, the Enron bubble…and the terrorism bubble.†The terrorism bubble is illustrated by the 9/11 event and “blowing up Israelis in pizza-parlors‗not the “sanctions of mass destruction†or Sharon's policies that were killing three Palestinians for each dead Israeli. Lots of Arabs believed in this bubble and, “We need to go into the heart of their world and beat their brains out, in order to burst this bubble.†We've done that with the invasion of Iraq and “the people in the neighborhood got it, all right.â€

--Thomas Friedman

gross. i'll take edward said or chomsky (pirates and emperors, old and new is still fantastic despite its age) over that bigot friedman any day of the week.

wow once again you only show up to bash other people's opinions! its weird how you never manage to participate in any of the 'good luck' or 'congratulation' threads....

have you ever read any Tom Friedman?

Just curious. I;ve never seen any of those crititiques of his works but I HAVE read most of the books he's written and the reason WHY I like him is because he is (in my opinion) one of the few mainstream western journalists who has a balanced if not pro-Arab view of the current situation in the ME. I am surprised to see those opinions of his work, obviously thats not the message I took away from his writings.

In any case I am not here to defend Tom Friedman nor my reading choices, I thought we were all just sharing some ideas of books we liked about the region...

Thomas Friedman lost any credibility he had when he gave his reasons for supporting the Iraq war. And I am not sure where you got the idea that he is generally proArab- he has more often than not had a very disparging view towards Arabs.

[sandinista! 1,816]

what exactly is the context for this?

[peezey 0]

Thomas Friedman is a nasty anti-muslim, anti-arab pseudo journalist who hasn't even been to the region for any amount of time for nearly 15 years.

[peezey 0]

p.s. What is wrong with having a difference of opinion? No one "shows up" to argue, it's a discussion about books, and not everyone thinks every author is a good one. For instance, Paul Bowles can only be described as an exploitative opportunist, in my opinion.

[mybackpages 0]

Thomas Friedman is a nasty anti-muslim, anti-arab pseudo journalist who hasn't even been to the region for any amount of time for nearly 15 years.

The best thing I can say about him is he is a popular editorialist. thats it.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Wow. Not sure what to think of the Thomas Friedman bashing.

But hey... I'm objective to both sides of the story. Instead of Thomas Friedman then what would you all suggest that is fair and balanced and having the thumb on the pulse of MENA politics?

[mybackpages 0]

p.s. What is wrong with having a difference of opinion? No one "shows up" to argue, it's a discussion about books, and not everyone thinks every author is a good one. For instance, Paul Bowles can only be described as an exploitative opportunist, in my opinion.

well at least for Bowles he had talent for writing and we can excuse his depitction of North Africans as being part of the world imperialistic world he lived in. There is no excuse for Friedman

[mybackpages 0]

Wow. Not sure what to think of the Thomas Friedman bashing.

But hey... I'm objective to both sides of the story. Instead of Thomas Friedman then what would you all suggest that is fair and balanced and having the thumb on the pulse of MENA politics?

If you want a really good academic discussion os Islam and Middle Est Politics I would suggest John Esposito. For a non-muslim he writes farily and eloquently about Muslims and their politics