Two bloggers on either side of the Arab world are mulling over the condition of Arabs, from the ocean to the gulf. One asks how long we will sit back for while other countries continue to build up and develop their arsenals and weapon stocks – and another wonders why Saudi Arabia doesn't have its own space programme.
Algerian blogger Bilad Talisman [Ar] wonders why Arabs are bystanders in the current “missiles” war:
العرب قاعدون من المحيط إلى الخليج لدرجة أن استثماراتهم في الجزائر أو في أي بلد من بلدان العالم لاتخرج عن دائرة الكباريهات .العرب يتفرجون هذه الأيام على معركة الصواريخ الكورية تماما مثلما جلسوا يتفرجون على الجزيرة وهي تنقل حرب الصواريخ افسرائيلية على غزة وجلسوا قبلها وهم يراقبون مدى الصواريخ الإسرائيلية على لبنان في صيف 2006 ويسخرون من صواريخ حزب الله على إسراائيل. العرب سيجلسون أمام الجزيرة ذات يوم لمتابعة أخبار سقوط الصواريخ الإيرانية على الكويت والرياض وعمان وغيرها . هكذا هم العرب يتابعون مثل أي مشاهد مهذب باهتمام حرب الصواريخ دون حركة.
The Arabs are sitting from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf, investing their money in cabarets, in Algeria and other countries around the world. Nowadays, Arabs are watching the Korean missiles war, just like they sat back, watching on Al Jazeera the Israeli missiles war on Gaza and just like they sat, before that, watching the range of Israeli missiles falling on Lebanon in the summer of 2006. They mocked Hizbulla's rockets falling on Israel. The Arabs will also sit one day in front of Al Jazeera, following the news of Iranian missiles hitting Kuwait, Riyadh, Oman and others. This is how the Arabs are. They sit, like any well-mannered spectator, closely watching the missiles war, without moving.
From Saudi Arabia, American Bedu, an American married to a Saudi, asks why Saudi Arabia hasn't embarked on its own space programme:
I am curious why a rich country like Saudi Arabia has not chosen to have its own indigenous space program, instead depending on reliance and collaboration with allies? To date only one Saudi national has made it into space, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud.
[…]
So why do you think Saudi Arabia with its resources and abilities has chosen not to have an indigenous space program of its own? I asked one Saudi for his take on this subject. His response was “Saudis can’t drive on the roads yet so how do you expect them to navigate space?” (of course that was said in jest but does make one wonder…
2 comments
I usually post about Islam and its relationship to the West and human rights. Let me change the subject this time.
Mr Talisman is right. I find it strange that so few people comment on the relationship between most Arab nations and Iran. Let me say that an Iran with nuclear weapons should bother Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries much more than it bothers Israel and the West. The Irainians will not attack Israel. They will, however, use their weapons or the threat of those weapons to decide the Sunni-Shia debate once and for all. They have not forgotten Karbala.
The hate that flies between Sunni and Shia websites is unbelievable. No words are too cruel, no insults too vile. The House of Saud, most of all, is in for trouble if and when Teheran gets the bomb. The Shia have no use for them, in case you don’t know Islamic history. The Saudis royals are very good at playing two sides off against each other, but I don’t think this will work with the Ayatollahs.
Should be interesting.
kactuz
Why does Saudi Arabia not have its own space programme, you wonder? We don’t need to think so much to know it. That’s because the Arab countries in general do not have and CAN not have technology which is based on knowledge and science. Does the richest Arab country in the Arab World have a single big and well-equiped university to lead reseaches and create technology tools for such tremendous programmes? Of course no; the Arabs, instead, invest big mony in buying villas, castles, sport clubs ans stadiums and so on. Am I not right?