|
Eye on the
Press
February 20, 2002
This rapid-fire tour of the
press begins and ends with Middle Eastern men in trouble in the US --
in between we look at everything under the sun, from rap to cloning to
sex on campus and the dumbing down of a nation.
In
brief
The plot thickens
Does an apparent car bombing in Tennessee have anything to do with the
World Trade Center disaster? If there are "Middle
Eastern men" involved, you can probably bet the press
thinks it does.
Commentary
Clean up your act
Pakistani President
Musharaff is harsh on the Muslim world, echoing sentiments
presented earlier by Egyptian commentators like Abdel-Moneim Said in Why
Afghanistan Doesn't Make Rolexes. The Arab League conference on Dialogue
not Clash also addressed similar issues.
Music
Stop pimpin!
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke strongly about the need
for rap artists to teach positive messages in their songs, at a rap music
conference currently being held in Los Angeles.
"All the children, they can't read 'Dick and Jane,' but they can
recite your raps," Farrakhan said. "They are 3 years old, and
they start quoting you. ... Suppose you started teaching children in
your raps knowledge that the children need to know (in order) to fight
in a racist society?
"Pimpin', all that kind of stuff, keeps you on a level where
you can be dealt with," he said. "They
arrest whores; they arrest pimps."
Farrakhan also urged record executives to do their part. "Don't have my brothers and sisters singing this crap when
you don't accept it yourself," he said.
It remains to be seen whether Farrakhan's word will be taken seriously
by the rappers.
Strange
global news
First McFelafel, now McKosher
According to this brief item in The Jerusalem Post, religious
authorities want fast food giant McDonald's to rename their kosher
restaurants in Israel
McKosher. Only then will they get the rabbinical seal of
approval.
Commentary
Farrakhan strikes again
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan keeps making the headlines. Just
a few days after he was widely quoted while trying to talk some sense
into West Coast rappers, Farrakhan made press again with his comments
about how unjust the US war on terrorism really is. "I'm
a Jew, I'm a Christian, and I'm a Muslim," Farrakhan said
-- deflecting much of the criticism he has received in the past about
being anti-Semitic. Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Shaquille O'Neal
was among the attendees. According to AP, Farrakhan said "that true
patriots should speak out against bad policies. "I cannot allow them to
use the American solider, black, brown and poor white, to fight a war
that is unjust and wrong," he said.
Strange
global news
Sex on campus
Strip club visits and orgies
on the curriculum? Things seem to be getting a bit steamy at
this Berkeley class
Miscellaneous
To the rescue
A couple of Scottish
MPs are on their way to Egypt, to help out a young Scottish
woman who claims her husband, an Egyptian policeman, won't allow her to
see her children. The estranged couple have been battling it out for a
while now.
Shrinking
globe
The shift is happening
The following two stories
reflect a continuing trend. The globe is shrinking in more ways than
one. When Americans begin to support their kids'
cheating on tests and to fall back into an unnecessary
patriotism, you have a situation where old world values are
permeating the modern society in ways no one could have imagined.
Commentary
Dumbing down of a nation
This very interesting
article by Neal Shafer also captures much of the same mood of ultra-patriotism
without any discernible purpose in the Topps Baseball cards that have
been put out to commemorate the war on terror.
"It is as impossible to "fight terrorism" as it is to
"hate freedom." Terrorism, like freedom and evil, is an
abstraction. It is a methodology, a style of fighting, that is employed
across the world by various groups to various ends. If we are fighting
terrorism, do we intend to invade Northern Ireland? The Basque region?
Or perhaps to bomb the CIA headquarters?" he writes.
Earlier, he scathes about it being "obvious that the biggest threat
to our freedom comes not from afar but from John Ashcroft. Here is a man
who, by raping
the Fourth Amendment and virtually repealing the Freedom of
Information Act, has done more to strip Americans of their benchmark
freedoms than bin Laden ever could, or likely ever wanted to."
New
developments
Just like the old days
A cult leader claims that human cloning will be completed within 24 months,
according to this story in Reuters. Claud Vorilhon, now known as cult
chief Rael, said "The process is going well... A baby will be born 12 to 24 months from now."
"Life expectancy is now 90 years, at the beginning of the century
is was 40 years...once we have applied this technology human beings will
soon live at 700
years," he said.
The experiments are taking place in an undisclosed location because of
controversy over the cloning process of humans in the US.
Crime
Dubious circumstances
The Egyptian who -- for some
unknown reason -- tried to enter the United States with a fake pilot's
license and other oddities, has been sentenced to six months jail time.
Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk, 21, was given the
maximum penalty for lying to the FBI about why he was coming to
the US. His entry lie took place on September 19, just a week after the
attack on the trade center and pentagon.
News agencies report that he came into JFK carrying a homemade pilot's shirt, two posters of the
inside of a 747 cockpit, a fake Turkish passport, and forgeries of a
pilot's medical certificate and student identification from a Florida
flight school.
Investigators still don't know for sure whether Kishk has any links to
terrorism, the story says.
Meanwhile, The New York Times tells the sad tale of an
Egyptian cab driver, and many others in the US, who have been
incarcerated on visa charges in the wake of September 11.
That's all for
now, folks...
Previous Eye on the
Press
The
panic button The Western press is finally talking about
civilian casualties, plus: the anti-Valentine's Day parent, Naomi
Campbell's diplomatic passport, and
more great news links from around the web (February 14, 2002)
"Crackpots
on soap-boxes?":
A US paper is exceedingly harsh
on the Egyptian public and press. (February 8, 2002)
Soccer roundup: Gohari and Co.'s
home-coming inspires the press (February 7, 2002)
"Allah
versus the Almighty Dollah?": American writer Norman Mailer
mixes it up on today's news links (February 6, 2002)
Symbolic
strike ignored:
Top Marlboro man born
in Egypt, Al-Azhar sheikh
in London, and more great
links (January 31, 2002)
The
"lion" of Egypt?:
Links galore, starring Ashcroft
in Saudi-mode, mosques in the spotlight, the
Egyptian-American running for Congress, and cross-cultural Hobeika media. (January
30, 2002)
Osama's
debut...Rapping
pharaohs, smelly daddies, and Rumsfeld's Sinai wavering...Don't miss today's
news links (January
23, 2002)
When
common sense seems radical:
Tales
of media bias and radical cartoonists; plus, learn how the multiplexes took over
(January 20, 2002)
The
problems with big media, and an examination of bin Laden as an
architecture critic...
(January 3, 2002)
Browse
our complete coverage of the attacks on the US and the war on
Afghanistan
Disclaimer
and Terms of Use
© Copyright 1996-2005 cairolive.com. All Rights Reserved
|
