Pat Oliphant for January 06, 2010

Seeing as how the massive building projects in Dubai were aimed at creating a top tier destination for Western tourists, I’m sure Dubai will wind up on Al Qaeda’s hit list sooner or later.

Yeah, stay friendly so they won’t target your tower for destruction.

The area we call “the middle east” Is socialy primitive.

Yeah, the Terrorists have a hard-on for Dubai’s hard-on!!!

What’s really weird is Dubai is basically a site for trade and money laundering, ain’t got no oil to speak of.

Alright, this is one of Oliphant’s cartoons I’m not sure I agree with. Yes, the wealthy in Dubai sure do love to show off their wealth (and poking some fun at that is okay), but calling them “7th century people” seems a bit wrong to me. Same with Ivan calling them “primitive.” You don’t understand their culture because it’s different from yours, so you assume they’re stupid and backwards. And, in my opinion, that kind of thought is exactly why some groups in their culture hate our “Western” culture so much. It works both ways, there is hate because we don’t take the time to learn and understand each others’ ways. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not standing up and defending terrorism (because I know someone’s going to make the ridiculous leap and try to accuse me of that), or really defending anyone. There are definitely aspects of arab and/or islamic culture that I don’t agree with. But there are also aspects of Chinese culture I don’t agree with. And there are even aspects of American culture I don’t agree with. But it’s not my place to tell people how to live. I’ll do things my way, and you do it yours, and as long as we’re all cool with that we’ll get along fine. I guess what I’m saying is don’t judge a book by its cover. We’re all humans here, and we have a lot more in common than we realize, because we’re too worried about the differences.

{\rant}

Sigh…now to brace for getting flamed…

Backtrack much, hintzy?

BASE JUMPING SITE!

I find the tower fascinating because here is one of the world’s most expensive buildings paid for by a country with no natural resources and whose economy is basically built on handling other people’s money. It is a very tall house of cards.

That said, the folks of Dubai are at least far more advanced culturally than their neighbors. One of my favorite images of Dubai shows two Arab women happily chatting on a beach. One is wearing the full gear, showing only her face, while the other woman wears only a bikini bottom.

Unfortunately it is that happy nearly-naked woman who represents what will finally attract the lethal attention of Dubai’s 7th Century neighbors.

Spain did the same, ahab, a few years ago, and India embraced its conservative values after Mumbai.

Ok, here it comes, phallic crack of the day; The guy who decided to do that certainly had a weakness to compensate…maybe he was PO’ed because he didn’t have as many wives as the guy next door…

Sooky Rottweiler says; Dogs with docked tails act the exact same way. They need to have the biggest territory and bark all the time. Same with chihuahuas in general. ( ì )

By the way, want to know how I met that niphead Buzz? Go check my toon on comicssherpa!

That was a crack at me…Blazin’ Barkley. I will not be insulted by a rottweiller…who are known to be…let’s say; under-endowed, both upstairs and downstairs. :©þ

Sooky Rottweiler says; I didn’t mean you, I meant the desert-tower fellows. It couls be worse, NoFearPup, you could have been born a chihuahua or even a cat.

Sooky rottweiler says; And why are you calling me Blazin’ Barkley anyways?

Seventh-century people ? Mr Oliphant seems to have missed that between the 7th and 16th centuries, Muslim science was world class, and far ahead of its (Christian) European counterpart. A great cartoonist, but rather set in his ways, and never one to let historical accuracy get in the way of his prejudices….

Henir

Sooky…I would only bother to explain this to you:

“I” am me. NoFearPup was my dog who died in ‘06. Blazin’ Barkley is my new dog with a short tail; the red-haired fellow in my recent avatars.

Sooky Rottweiler says; Okay! Now I get it. He’s to you what I am ti CorosiveFrog. Okay, his tail is just sort, it was not docked, so I guess it doesn’t count.