July 27, 2007
Crowd-sourcing and Pakistan
Well, I think the experiment in crowd-sourcing (otherwise known as picking the brains of readers of this blog) has been a great success. It would be invidious to pick out particular contributions. But I was struck by how interesting and rational most of the posts were - so unlike the forums in other newspapers. I mention no names. I think I’ll definitely repeat the experiment, after the summer break.
In the end I’ve decided to do the conspiracy theories column. In the course of the research I came across two particularly striking conspiracy websites. (There are zillions of them) The editor of Conspiracy Planet sent a rather aggressive letter to the editor, accusing me of being a "shill" for the establishment. Fortunately, he is based in Montana - so I doubt I’ll ever have to argue this one out in person. Then there is the Lobster site, which has long had a devoted following in Britain.
Meanwhile, out in the real world - things still look bad in Pakistan, with a resurgence of violence at the Red Mosque.
Interestingly - and perhaps predictably - a clash between the government and violent Islamist forces seems to have swung opinion in America back behind President Musharraf.
A few months ago, there were signs of a real debate in Washington about the need to put pressure on Musharraf to restore democracy. This was fuelled partly by frustration at his unwillingness to take on al-Qaeda. There are still people arguing for a more forceful American attitude to the Pakistani government. But the usually well-informed Swoop website argues - convincingly I think - that the Bush administration is now rallying behind the Pakistani president.
I am flying to Jerusalem tomorrow and will blog from Israel and the Palestinian territories next week.
Welcome to Israel, Gideon. Suggestion: avoid the coastal plain as much as possible. The heat is unbearable - 35 deg Celsius and at least 80% humidity. Jerusalem is hot too, but not humid - which makes all the difference. So avoid Gaza!
Posted by: PL | July 27th, 2007 at 8:53 pm | Report this commentGaza or Hamas ?
Posted by: Hans Suter | July 30th, 2007 at 7:41 am | Report this commentDear Mr. Rachman,
I wish you a safe journey to the Occupied Palestine although the conspiracy-theorist in me tells me that they will try and brain wash you and send you back to the UK as an upmarket version of Simon Tisdall and Jonathan Freedland of the Gruniad.
As for the US support for Gen. Musharraf, this is entirely consistent with the US support for all the other corrupt bullies in the neighbourhood (Saudi princes, the Bahraini, Egyptian, Jordanian and Moroccan governments, not to speak of the almost hereditary presidency in Azerbaijan and a crop of former KGB thugs who lord it over Central Asia.)
It is also consistent with the West’s abhorrence of the democratically expressed will of the region’s people in electing Hamas in Palestine, the Shia parties in Iraq and Bahrain, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Western supported coup against the Islamists in Algeria. We await the moves by Turkish generals with concern. They are no doubt consulting their handlers in Washington as we speak.
The Pakistani situation is simply another nail in the coffin of Western pretences to support for democracy.
Pacifist
Posted by: Pacifist | July 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am | Report this comment