I mean seriously.... would the arabs let us control their ports?
I mean seriously.... would the arabs let us control their ports?
Question: Is Dubai run by G.W.B? :-)Originally Posted by Squirt
Was America behind the Danish Muslim cartoons?
<joke>Was America behind the Danish Muslim cartoons?
Yeah, yeah, the Danish-People... Next time around we will eradicate that filthy strip of land</joke>
but where will I get all that lovely cheese, made with mind controlling milk.
Honey, like we usually do: you eat it off my body
Honey, like we usually do: you eat it off my body
Do you know what happens to dehrty dehtry boyz? :whip:
Well I'm sure if the Danish, and the rest of the European world, continue to publish new, even more insulting cartoons, maybe they'll riot and continue to kill eachother off and torch their cities.
War by cartoon... I love it :bush: Death by humor, who knew?
It is a global economy. If the United States expects to be able to invest in countries the world over and pursue economic opportunity abroad, we can only expect the same in reverse.
DP World is an extremely successful, prosperous, company that runs port operations all over the globe - Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, South Korea, Latin America, the Middle East. It is a prime example of the complete and total antithesis of what Islamic fundamentalists like. It's a capitalist company driven by the desire to make more money by dealing with and incorporating with the West. If anything, DP World is the kind of thing Islamic terrorists target, not employ.
Just because a company is based in the UAE doesn't mean it's some primitive tribal clan of America-haters at the helm of it, as some would like to believe. Many of DP World's top executives are British, American, Canadian and Australian. It's a global company with a global presence and a global executive board and global employee make up, which happens to be based in the UAE. The company's Chief Operations Officer is a Westerner, in fact.
I think it rather unsettling that just because a company is identified as being based in the Middle East, its history of achievements and accomplishments and successes are totally ignored and the only detail people choose to pay attention to is that it's a Middle Eastern company. That reeks of racism, and these politicians shameless, ignorantly raising a fuss while ignoring everything but the fact that DP World is based in the UAE are so prime an example of shiftless opportunists wanting nothing more than to feed upon unfounded fears to score votes, be they Dem or Rep.
CorbinFisher's Amateur College Men
Squirt: Yes that tirade was for DEVELISH :noddy:
I understand your concern about Arabs buying the ports. But I also know that closing your local business to foreign competition is a bad thing. So for me, those Governors really have to make a pretty heavy case to show they need protection.
The main reason I supported the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism is because I do find the fundamentalist Islam ideology a significant threat... a threat to me personally as a gay man, because there is no greater articulated idea against my identity than from them.
And I like the concept..... I know many don't.... of confronting those people. Because I know from personal experience that when you confront people about the prejudices regarding homosexuality, it gets them thinking and learning. Maybe going in there and changing the regime in Iraq, as well as talking openly about Western ideas (freedom of speech via cartoons) is the only route.
Despite this, I don't think we should close our business off to Arabs... the businesses could be from Saudi Arabia, the Emerites, or even Turkey. What are they going to do? If an arabic company bought America West out of bankruptcy, do you think they would just start filling their Boeing jets with bombs? I think they would more likely try running it as a business for a profit to the shareholders.
As an illustration of my economic liberalism, I think allowing Turkey in the EU would be a great way to anchor that country to the West.... although I'm sure the idea of letting Muslim Turkey into the EU would be very unpopular in Europe right now.
Steve
Along with strengthened economic ties to the Middle East. American troops aren't the biggest threat to Islamic fundamentalists. Capitalist, Westernized Muslims are the biggest threat to Islamic fundamentalists.As an illustration of my economic liberalism, I think allowing Turkey in the EU would be a great way to anchor that country to the West....
A Middle East and Islamic world at large incorporated with Western capitalism and the global market will snuff out fundamentalism. We should encourage Middle Eastern entrepeneurs to whom we can export our ideals and who would in turn spread them to and integrate them in to their own countries, not alienate and seek to isolate ourselves from them just because they are Middle Eastern and/or Arab and/or Muslim.
CorbinFisher's Amateur College Men
I totally agree.
I usually don't have a problem with societies who want to enslave their women, kill homosexuals, and cut the limbs off liars and thieves.
When I do have a problem is when they declare war (oops I mean Jehad) on our country and kill innocent people on my land, that's when it's my problem.
This is a war of ideals that we are forced to fight now because of current, and previous, political mistakes of U.S. administrations.
No matter what Bush says, he has put us in this situation for religious reasons, pure and simple, by rushing to Iraq, by taking religious photo opts at churches with the heads of state ( Australia for example ), etc. etc.
The current sociopolitical environement does NOT call for us to do business with that region to the extent of port management. When things settle down in a few years, yes, but not now. We do business with Russia, Germany, everyone else as time heals past wouds but this port situation is adding salt to the wounds. IMHO
Wow! What a fucking shame that the main reason you supported the war in Iraq was because of it's fundamentalist Islam ideology because it wasn't fundamentalist until AFTER we invaded. Remember, it was a Ba'thist government? And the Ba'th Party is secular not fundamentalist!
WHAT?! Changing the Middle East's beliefs about homosexuality is a good reason to declare War on them?? Do you really think that Bush and his boys discussed that when they were planning this war? I think everyone would agree that Bush is decidely AGAINST civil liberties for gay people. And do you honestly believe that these Muslims will completely abandon their fundamentalist religious beliefs because we invaded them and suddenly embrace liberal attitudes about homosexuality???? HAHAHA. :wacko:
Well, ok... first of all, all "Arabs" are not a collective hive mind.
So what if a company based in Dubai owns a port in the United States? Maybe these companies operate ports in numerous countries and they know what they are doing. There is no difference in that than with any other private company offering itself to run a service.
And you can always fire a company when it doesn't perform. The alternative: Think you can 'fire' the New York Port Authority or the New Orleans Levee Control Board if things stop operating? No.
This is just like the private companies who run Heathrow / Gatwick, or, dare I mention... Halliburton/KBR which is a company that offers services to military government agencies less expensively than if the US Army or Air Force did it themselves.
The reason I am skeptical of this effort by governors to prevent foreign ownership is because so often people just make companies they dislike "sinister" and "evil" ... on a purely emotional basis.
Countries nationalize their oil for the same xenophobic reasons. Mexico does not let foreigners own "their oil", as if Juan, Pepe and Maria over in Nuevo Laredo really are owners in Pemex. That's a cheat for people who simply want to keep control over their turf.
But that doesn't mean we should disallow Mexicans from buying stock in Exxon Mobil, or allow them to engage in business in the United States.
Steve
Steve United ARAB Emerits (UAE) is what we're talking about... the UNITED Arabs... a COLLECTIVE of Arabs.. for all intensive purposes a HIVE he he
That's a suprisingly naive comment comming from one as knowledgeable as yourself of politics and business.
We can't even patrol our own borders yet we'll trust the UAE with our ports?
Living abroad I've seen how American business has weaseled it's way into every facet of most countries I've visited so far. Through food, technology, entertainment etc. Port control with the UAE is like letting a Texas whore loose on a stud farm.
Asia is extremely powerful, yet difficult to do business with in most ways, yet we open our doors to them and now we're paying the price with the grip China is slowly taking hold on the U.S. financially. Letting the UAE, or any other power player, get a hold on us is asking for trouble.
What are your thoughts?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks