[Grovenet] The New Mainstream

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

While we citizens of the USA remain mired, conflicted and concerned about
the Iraqi mess, our dwindling standard of living and a shaky economy,
something is going on around us. 

One if the most popular upscale resort locations in the world is now only a
little way down the Persian Gulf from Iraq: Dubai

http://tinyurl.com/2jjk5d

It's a peaceful, beautiful resort city that specifically caters to
non-Muslim as well as Muslim guests. Americans and other Europeans are
welcome there. 

Then there's the United Arab Emirates who now host such "western" events as
the popular red bull air racing at their beautiful port facility in the
capital city of Abu Dhabi.

http://tinyurl.com/2873hl

>From what I read, countries like Dubai know only too well that they will run
out of oil to sell us power-hungry westerners, and they want to convert that
natural wealth they found under their sands into the basis of a lasting,
stable economy that provides for all of their people. 

Such a concept! Perhaps we should consider that in the USA? One way to do
that is through education. The UAE has one of the highest literacy rates in
the world, and women exceed men! 

So much for the myth of the ignorant submissive Muslim female...

And speaking of that, if you missed Opus this week, poor Steve Dallas tries
to get his Muslim friend to wear a little yellow polka-dot bikini to the
beach and, being a modern Muslim woman, she jumps at the chance to enjoy the
beach, but appears instead in a "Burqini" that covers her from head to toe
in modern Muslim fashion. The Burqini is not a joke:

http://www.ahiida.com/

Note that it's an Australian company making and selling them for the
athletic, outdoors-oriented Muslim women! Perhaps the amount of skin a woman
displays or the amount of iron she can be pierced with is not the most
important part of her character or value in the world after all. Imagine...

Perhaps it's right and proper for we citizens of the USA to focus on the
mess in Iraq. It's our mess, after all. We created it decades ago as we
interfered with their internal affairs, finally putting Saddam in power as
our favorite "puppet" dictator, until he rebelled and we threw him out, then
hanged him for being too independent! Was it any accident that when we
invaded Iraq we immediately posted military guards around the oil ministry
but left the museums, schools and banks open for looters? I think it
reflected our priorities. 

Now we have a huge mess there with every Muslim, Christian and non-religious
crazy showing up trying to get a piece of the pie, while the century-old
unresolved religious differences we created there are now boiling over
without Saddam to keep a lid on it by force. And at home our economy
staggers under the huge cost of that involvement while too many people don't
have the basic education needed to make decent choices about how to spend
their money and handle credit, much less do something more meaningful for
their country and the world. America seems to be staggering under a
top-heavy burden of ignorance. Ignorance of the basic tools of modern life.
Ignorance of the world. 

But that's a view from the USA. From the standpoint of the rest of the
world, the view seems to be much different, both about who we "Americans"
are and who the Muslims are. 

Perhaps it's time for us to seek a different perspective. 

Ron D'Eau Claire