*D'Arcy hired geologist George Bernard Reynolds to do the prospecting in the Iranian desert. Conditions were extremely harsh: "small pox raged, bandits and warlords ruled, water was all but unavailable, and temperatures often soared past 50°C".[3] After several years of prospecting, D'Arcy's fortune dwindled away and he was forced to sell most of his rights to a Glasgow-based syndicate, the Burmah Oil Company.*

So let me see, Poirot. The Brits go out and take all the risks,
reach a 60 year agreement with Iran if perchance they should find
oil and find nothing for years. Eventually they do and develop the
industry, only to have the Iranians throw out the agreement.

Sorry, but if Iran agreed to the deal, they should stick by it.
Otherwise it is quite reasonable to try and overthrow the Govt
who breaks it.

Csteele,

"You have been more than happy swanning about this thread pouring buckets over Muslims and Islam"

No, just that as practiced in the Middle East. This strain has reached Malaysia. Being harsh, it has not increased the happiness of the Muslims there. Many Indonesians are concerned about its influence occurring in their country. Are they wrong?

You do not hesitate to screech about perceived wrongs elsewhere. Why the silence about Islam of the Middle East, specifically in Arab states? Many would have noticed such a glaring bias.

You condemn executions (generally); why not the raft of horrors committed in Islam's name in the Middle East? Your silence is deafening about this. Do you think that the majority of Muslims in our country applaud these; or do you think that they have come here to escape them?

Years ago I undertook the subject Feminist Studies at university. On raising the issue of FGM was told it couldn't be discussed (let alone condemned) due to cultural sensitivities. Horse feathers! This is the most basic human rights abuse.

To wilfully ignore such abuse, and others, as you do so, is to be complicit in such practices. Also something about ... "evil occurs... when good people do nothing".

I respect Islamic intellectuals who openly condemn such atrocities committed in Islam's name. They believe that changes could be achieved ... BUT for the PC crowd in the West.

You appear urbane, sophisticated and educated. Is this more apparent than real? I increasingly feel so.

You state you believe in freedom of speech. Again I ask, how does this sit with being PC ... your stated position?

Danielle,

Thank you for your breath of fresh air.

i wonder if Feminist Studies, and feminism generally, hit a wall early on when it had to confront notions of culture, while simultaneously at universities, it was being touted that 'all cultures were equal', and so they buckled.

Instead, perhaps students should have had the courage to confront the possibility that 'culture' was almost invariably male-dominated, -centred, even male-written - and had been for millenia. After all, 'culture' reflects and justifies - 'normalises' - social relations, and these have generally (maybe always) been male-dominated (at least, since Wicca).

Perhaps yes, we could say that all 'cultures' were equally compromised, but perhaps not - maybe some 'cultures' are more male-dominated than others, more hidebound, more reactionary. Certainly Islamic societies tend to be structured along those lines, with particularly reactionary cultural practices vis-a-vis women.

But Cultural Studies couldn't reflect this, that would be ethnocentric, neo-colonial. So the sub-set of Feminist Studies, Women's Studies, had to soft-pedal the place of women in other 'cultures', for fear of offending, and committing the sin of ethnocentrism. Hence something which was central to societies, (and surely to Women's Studies ?) had to be ignored. Hence relativism doomed Women's Studies to irrelevance.

Just a thought :)

Cheers,

Joe

jays jab/quote..""If I did have a link would anyone her looked at it.""

your missing what the majority is here to do
not look for info..ok maybe a few..but whats a link..i prefer an actual quote..that highlights what you think

everyone else is just here watching or getting paid
not to click on dangerous info..in links

""Not going by my last lot of link postings
as they have been completely ignored, by everybody, which is quite frustrating""

yeah it is..but if the link stays up..you wil be surpised how many click on it...in time/lotta people got ready written articles just in the post replies

but most importantly..its not what 'they' do
but what we chose to do....so saying i share my link..for the week

http://whatreallyhappened.com/

its what we do
or reject doing..that builds or destroys our souls

Well, of course, Yabby, yours are the ethics of imperialism : )

Note that the workers lived in humpies fashioned from flattened oil drums - no doubt quite a fitting metaphor for the whole operation.

There's nothing like slowly roasting alive inside a tin box on 50 cents a day during an Iranian summer to make you realise how lucky your country is to gain 16 percent of the royalties on your own resources.

Loudmouth,

You have made very interesting observations.

When I was studying, it was the 'white male' who was the enemy. One of the more amiable students had a tattoo on her arm of two testicles hanging from a sickle. Ironically, many of these students emulated the worst aspects of male behavior, which they were condemning.

So anti-white-males were these women, that many feminists, notably in the US and Britain, were deliberately 'exploiting' coloured men (using them for sex). I imagine that many of these men would have been deeply hurt, believing that they were in genuine relationships.

Incidentally, I was looked upon with grave suspicion as I was married with children.