What is my problem with Arab governments?

A former Saudi-based Indian journalist replies to my tweet: "I really don't understand what is your problem with Arab governments? Why don't you focus on Muslim issues in India first?"

I can't answer that in 140 characters on Twitter so here is my public note.

I often criticize and ridicule Arab governments for their policies, mostly it is about their foreign relations and activities but some criticism is also directed at their internal decisions that are in blatant violation of universal human rights.

To me, Arab governments and officials are not special. I also slam Israeli policies in Palestine, Zionist groups, Iranian extremism, Pentagon-backed weapons trade, European colonial tendencies, Uncle Sam's genocidal wars, etc.

During the Balkan wars, I found Slobodan Milosevic's policy of ethnic cleansing utterly disgusting. Also revolting was the hypocrisy of London and Washington on the issue of apartheid in South Africa.

I do not follow Indian politics too closely so I avoid commenting on it in social media.

There are many reasons why I talk about Arab issues and feel strongly about them: My favorite subject during Master's was "Politics in West Asia (Middle East)"; I spent 14 years in the Gulf as a journalist and know a few things about the region.

Why do I criticize Arab governments?

For their hypocrisy on matters ranging from recreation to religion, a lack of transparency on policies, control-freakism without limits, torture chambers, their investments in tools of repression.

Arab governments should not expect that their targeting of journalists and dissenters is going to endear them to people.

Not only do they carry out such things within their borders they also try to grow their repressive arms overseas.

Even minor Gulf Arab officials are so spoilt that they demand royal treatment abroad, especially when they are in Asia and Africa.

I know journalists who have been victimized by the UAE and Saudi governments.

We can all see how pitiless crackdowns on dissent are being organized by the Arab League states ever so fearful of their people.

This note will become too long if I describe my own brush with authoritarianism.

Egypt's coup masters are smiling at their lemmings

What a relief it was when Egypt got rid of Hosni Mubarak and his nasty henchmen -- Omar Suleiman, Habib Al Adly and others in 2011. M.H. Mubarak operated like a colonial administrator, dividing and exploiting Egyptians while serving his foreign benefactors.

At the same time, the dictator tried to promote the notion of Egyptian leadership of the Arab world, again exploiting the cultural, historical and religious greatness of Egypt.

He faced competition from fellow dictators Hafez Assad and Saddam Hussein who also vied for the "leadership" of the Arab world. Saddam had two major advantages -- military strength and oil money -- and didn't really take Mubarak or his Gulf buddies seriously.

Not being a confrontationist like Saddam, Mubarak was liked by the petrocrats of Arabia. The Arab League politics never ceased to be useless when Mubarak ruled Cairo. It was  occasionally entertaining though. It has become rather boring as most Arab dictatorships are grappling with people's rising expectations and anger since the 2011 uprisings.

Egypt as the most populous Arab nation (its population of 82 million is more than three times the total number of citizens in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain), is hugely important to the region for a number of reasons.

Al Azhar in Egypt is the most respected seat of Islamic learning, which is not in agreement with the Saudi ideology. And don't forget the 'peace treaty' under which the Egyptian military needs Israel's permission for internal movement. Egypt's reward is commensurate with how much woes it can inflict on Palestinians.

No one can afford to ignore what happens in Egypt and how Egyptians think about Arab issues. But not all those interested in Egypt are its friends. The US, Israel, Gulf petrocrats (Saudi Arabia and UAE more than others) are heavily involved in Egypt. They are so self-absorbed that no trick is too dirty to play if it serves their interest.
It helps unscrupulous people if Egyptians are subjugated by a mukhabarat police state run by ruthless men. If it can't be a pure Mubarakist dictatorship, let it be a coup-on-demand system. The next elected  government (one day!) must dismantle the repressive mukhabarat machine of the Interior Ministry and create a modern law-abiding police force.

Egypt's potential is being wasted. A dictatorship will produce misery, not manufacture exportable goods. Mubarak was great for tourism because he could invite war criminal Tony Blair to enjoy Sharm El Sheikh's beaches. No problem if there are more belly dancers -- already there is one for every 3,000 of population. No problem also if there are more jobs as managers and makeup artists for belly dancers but fewer as teachers, petrochemical engineers, doctors.

The so-called liberals in Egypt have no shame in suppressing other Egyptians as long as their Mubarak-era privileges continue.

The new coup masters in Cairo are smiling at their lemmings.

Turkey's subversive protesters

The protests in Turkey have once again exposed certain opportunistic elements - radical groups, bigoted opposition and those who make money by manufacturing trouble.

The ruling party is still carrying out reforms, which are absolutely needed to shake off the brutal legacy of decades-old authoritarianism represented by the likes of CHP (by the way, they are Assad lovers).

Also, there is an intellectual elite so bigoted that it will overlook the wider interests for its selfish aims.

We also have some so-called democracies in Europe that are visceral haters of Turkey, but they try to hide their malice in high-sounding political slogans.

Protesters in Turkey seem bent on holding an endless festival of hooliganism, and they have defiled places with their subversive presence.

These are not peaceful activists with grievances. Otherwise, is there an avenue that is closed for debate and discussion in Turkey? It's a real parliamentary democracy.

Turkish intellectual scene has been vibrant for centuries -- before Kemalism and before AK Party. You have to be an ahmak to compare the situation in Turkey with what happens in most Arab countries.

It's no secret that there are many radical groups in Turkey and they are not interested in democracy or political debates. Just look at the havoc they are causing by burning, looting, attacking women, drinking beer in mosques.

Imagine the response of authorities if a mob had burned police cars in an Arab country or the USA!

All said and done, a subversive league shouldn't be able to dictate national policies through acts of arson.

USA behaving like the nation of Neolandia

The reports of mass online and phone surveillance in the USA should not shock us. When you have unscrupulous people with Orwellian mindsets, this is what you get. Over the years, the US government and mainstream media have been successful in feeding misleading versions of world events to a gullible public. Defending the dangerous program, Barack Obama tried to reassure the public: "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls."

They say the program is not directed at Americans and people living in the USA (only a defunct computer mouse will believe it). Even if that is true, who gave these people the permission to target citizens of other countries?

This article talks about the scary nature of the project.

It's arrogant for the US to act like a world government.

The USA is increasingly behaving like Neolandia, an imaginary nation in my novel The Merchant King.

Here I quote a few lines from the novel to better illustrate my point: "Bally's work at Neolandia's Science Agency included developing fast Internet service and creating a database on people who used any form of satellite-supported communication throughout the world. Neolandia wanted all sorts of details on people – credit card numbers, shopping habits, travel data, sex relationships, bank transactions, medical records. Bally's great scientific brain helped them."

But what Neolandia was trying to do looks benign compared to what the USA is doing.

United (or not) Arab Emirates

United (or not) Arab Emirates, an Arab and not-so-Arab state bordering Saudi Arabia and the sultanate of Oman, makes heavy investments in creating a light international image of a prosperous, peaceful and thriving place.

Non-citizen migrant workers, the serving class, make up the overwhelming majority of its estimated 8 million population.

Dubai, one of seven sheikhdoms that make up the Emirates, is restlessly ambitious and will try any gimmick to grab the headlines.

People have a sense of a humor that will grate on your decency.

Those living in the Emirates are constantly fed so much glossy propaganda that they suffer withdrawal symptoms the moment the make-believe reality machines go low on productivity.

Below are a few links to present a more realistic picture of the Emirates (E.nglish M.anaged I.ndian R.un A.nd (local) A.rabs T.aking E.normous S.alaries).

A UAE Royal Family member, Sheikh Issa, tortures an Afghan businessman in this video

Tuesday 7 April 2009, The Independent newspaper published 'The dark side of Dubai' by Johann Hari

Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging.

'This cruel game has to stop, if the Arab kings love this sport that much then they should put their own children on the camels and then race them.' Child camel jockeys

Fly Emirates, land in jail: Emirates’ Laws Trap a Doctor Just Passing Through

The world is our hunting ground: In a remote corner of northern Tanzania, Boeing 747 planes land on a private airstrip, trucks with United Arab Emirates (UAE) number plates drive across the plains, and anyone with a cell phone receives an unlikely text message: "Dear guest, welcome to UAE."

If Turkey can take action in Iraq, why not in Syria?

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's comments over the weekend that Turkey would be justified in intervening in Syria reminded me of something similar President Abdullah Gul said when I interviewed him briefly in Kuala Lumpur in 2003 (Gul was foreign minister then).

Drawing comparisons with the US occupation of Iraq (Turkey opposed George Bush's misadventure more than a decade ago but the invasion was backed by most Arab regimes), Erdogan said on Saturday: "If the ones coming from tens of thousands of miles away and entering Iraq could be seen as right, we could not remain as though our hands are tied regarding Syria, with whom we share a 910-kilometer-long border. We could not just be spectators. We have to do what is needed, and we will do it."

Read Gul's October 2003 comments, which expressed similar sentiments at that time. Iraq was a burning issue at the OIC meeting and I insisted on asking Mr Gul a few questions when I spotted him chatting with a group of Turkish journalists. (Accompanying him was Ambassador Namik Tan, based at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara at that time.)

I had a pretty good story, and it was exclusive.

The tone of Gul's response was as much remarkable as his words. One could see how frustrated he was with OIC members talking uselessly while the situation in Iraq demanded a clear, strong response.

In Syria today, you can see unspeakable death and destruction and countries located thousands of kilometers away want this macabre Assad show to continue.

As the dire humanitarian situation gets worse, some countries -- both within the region and in faraway locations -- are busy playing their usual nonsense politics.

And the Arab states that are supposed to help the anti-Assad forces seem to be listening more to their patron-manipulators like the US and France than doing what is right for regional peace.

Such ambiguous behavior from these countries doesn't help Turkey, which is willing to take decisive steps to end the misery of apocalyptic proportions in Syria.

UAE-Dubai extends pincers of control abroad

In recent days, I have been making some comments on Twitter about UAE-Dubai's meddling in my matters outside the UAE. Since I don't live in the Emirates, I do not accept their authority over me. It doesn't matter whether it is cash-starved Dubai or oil-surplus Abu Dhabi that believes in dictating to citizens of other nations how they should live their lives, what careers they should pursue, what opinions they can have and with whom they can have relationships.
Let UAE-Dubai authorities deny that they didn't try to extend their illegitimate authority overseas.
As a journalist based in India, I find it extremely worrisome that authorities anywhere would use underhand tricks to control my views or curtail my movements.
In March 2011, I quit my job as an editor at Yahoo! in Dubai after things became too difficult there and the system of checks and balances at this United States corporation failed to provide a healthy working environment for me. On different occasions I had raised my concerns with senior management about this. Yahoo! Middle East operates out of a so-called free zone where the pincers of dictatorial control are as strong as anywhere else.
It is important that I talk about these issues publicly. Journalists must be able to operate without being subjected to bullying, intimidation and unscrupulous control methods.
Inside the UAE, you can't say a critical word about the powers that be. But, yes, public criticism is allowed and reported by the local media in full honesty if the object of criticism is, for example, a cat, an ATM, a sand dune, a beach pebble, a low-paid worker... Ok, you get the picture.
UAE-Dubai panics at the mere mention of the P word (Politics). Is it on a mission to depoliticize the world and spread its fake ways of life? Does it think it can manipulate anything and anyone using money and PR?
UAE-Dubai's megalomanic audacity knows no bounds.