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Fine John Hawkins interview with Mark Steyn. Extract:
Hawkins: Since we invaded Iraq, Qaddafi has given up his WMD’s, Syria has left Lebanon which is having elections, the Egyptians are going to have their first multi-party elections although Mubarak is expected to win, women are being allowed to vote in Kuwait, and now Syria is even talking about implementing some democratic reforms. Are we seeing a reverse domino effect in the Middle-East caused by the invasion in Iraq?
Steyn: Yes. The key moment in the Iraqi situation was a couple of hours into the Arab networks’ election day coverage: they ran out of snide cracks to make about the American occupation, the stooge politicians, etc, and suddenly fell silent as images of four generations of Iraqi families walking to the polls to vote filled the screens. Those images had a profound impact throughout the region. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer and I’m certainly not in favor of that trick many African dictators have learned to master, of holding an election just good enough to get the stamp of approval of Jimmy Carter and the other western patsies. There’ll be a lot of two-steps-forward-one-step-back but what’s happening is real and the momentum is all going Bush’s way.
That’s because the Arab Street is now the Champs Elysees…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 06 29 at 09:37 AM • permalinkEven SBS tv occasionally runs an Iraq good news story, though they don’t realize it. Last night’s bulletin had a syndicated (CBS?) piece which contained the following jaw-dropping fact about the reasons for electricity shortages:
The family has a computer, which their teenage daughter uses to chat online, and satellite TV, which the family often gathers around - two things they were not allowed to own under Saddam. But in three out of four Iraqi homes the electricity is unreliable. The power went out during our interview. In fact, more electricity is being generated than before the war but with the purchase of so many appliances, TVs and airconditioners, demand far outstrips the supply of electricity.
The next time SBS want to film somebody so deprived that he doesn’t even have satellite television...they can come to my place.
Mark Steyn is by far my favorite columnist. I have also wondered why his columns are not more widely published in American newspapers.
In the interview with John Hawkins, he has explained that this is partly due the fact that sydicating does not generate a large enough fee to make it worth his while. That might very well be the case.
However, I do recall that maybe 10 years back the Wall Street Journal announced that Mark would be writing a regular column and later said that Mark changed his mind.
A few years ago Mark mentioned on his web site that the New York Times had called with interest in making him a columnist. He simply told his aide to politely decline the offer.
In an email exchange I had with a writer who wrote an article on Mark, I mentioned his popularity and wondered why Mark backed out of the WSJ assignment and declined writing for the NYT. The writer opined that he thought Mark simply did not want any editorial interference in his columns and the newspapers he currently publishes in allows him unfettered writing privileges.
That might very well be true. But I do wish that someone of Mark’s abilities would take advantage of larger circulations than that offered by the Richmond News-SomethingorOther.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 06 30 at 04:40 PM • permalink
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Mc Geough and others have become quiet about the feeling on ‘Arab Street’ for some reason.