Month: November 2003

Yesterday, as i was looking around for any interesting magazines to buy, i came across hi, the Arabic-language American-backed magazine targeted at the Arab youth mainly and Arab brains generally in an effort by the American government to brainwash us and promote the US to us.

Anyway, the first thing that struck me was how cheap it was, it only costs 1 Tunisian Dinar (70 US cents), which kind of makes it the cheapest magazine i know of, but the paper is high quality thick glossy paper, the kind of paper other people usually use for just the cover. It’s also got a good amount of content, so it’s quite a thick magazine.
So i’m thinking that they’re actually losing money making this magazine, and that they never planned on making money out of it, it’s more of a long term investment, in which the final revenue is a generation of brainwashed Arabs.

Anyway, i bought it out of curiosity to know what’s in it and how the content is formulated.

And well, it covers a lot of stuff from music to fashion to sports to technology to anything that would interest their target readers. And in between all that, and in the articles themselves, and at the bottoms of the pages, and in their replies to their readers’ messages, it’s basically a bunch of US promoting messages and ideas making the US sound like a one big happy perfect tender loving country.

The one thing that seems to escape these people’s minds is that nowadays there’s a television or at least a radio in every home, and that by simply turning it on and listening to the news their whole effort will get flushed away by news of the US and it’s tyranny throughout the world.

I think Arab readers should buy the magazine anyway, as it’s dirt cheap and has some nice content, but they should be careful about the messages they’re getting out of it.
In short, here’s my prescription: Read it, then make sure you listen to the news just after finishing it 😛

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the “greatest threat to life on this planet that we’ve most probably ever seen”.

Now that’s one good way of putting it 😛

You can read the full article here.

So 15,000 police are deployed in London as part of an unprecedented security operation surrounding U.S. President George W. Bush’s four-day state visit as massive protests are planned.
On 20th Nov, demonstrators even plan to topple a statue of George Bush from a pedestal in Trafalgar Square.

And we’ve all heard about how the US asked for special permission to use mini-guns against the protestors, which are guns that are fired from a tank and can kill dozens of people at a time.

But, come on, isn’t that a bit weird though ? Tanks, Guns, Blocked streets, and a massive security force ?
Aren’t the US & UK supposed to be 2 friendly allied nations who have a very special relationship ?
And aren’t they supposed to be democratic countries, meaning that whatever they do or did must have been by the approval of the people of both countries ?
So, why are the people so mad about the war ? and why are they so against Bush ?
Obviously because they were lied to, and because they were thrown into a war they didn’t want to fight.
Not only that, but these so-called leaders still go on lying to the people, putting more lives in danger, throwing more tax-payers’ money away.

Just like the UK, i think the US people should stand up too. After all, it’s mostly their money and their children who are being thrown away.

In fact, i think that everyone in the world should stand up and “Stop Bush !”.
Because this is not just a US internal affair, it’s far more dangerous.
The US is the one and only power in this world, and the choice of it’s president not only affects the US but the whole world too, and the lives of each and every one of us.