Sunday, January 22, 2006
Sunday afternoon international blogjam
I'm sitting in the Newark Continental Airlines club scrolling through my foreign blogs list, and I'm seeing lots of interesting stuff. To wit:
Per Regime Change Iran, what happens if Tehran succeeds in its plan to reprice oil in Euros? This is of a piece with a broader (and at least partly successful) effort to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe:
The concern, of course, is that the repricing of oil in Euros will undermine the status of the U.S. dollar as the leading reserve currency, which will, in turn, weaken our ability to sell our own debt. Fortunately, they'll still need it to pay ransoms to terrorists, so that's something.
Subzero Blue, from Tunisia, rejoices in the coming release of an Arabic iPod. What he does not say, but which I wonder, is whether the broader distribution of the iPod in that region will promote Arabic podcasting. If so, may I suggest to our loyal servants in the State Department that they start translating and podcasting our side of the story? If you're going to have a bunch of Arabists around, you might as well put them to good use.
Rezwan, from Bangladesh, discusses the deaths there from a recent "cold snap." How could did it get? Ten degrees Celsius, which is roughly 50 Farenheit. Sounds like Bangladesh could use a little global warming, but Rezwan blames poverty, rather than the weather.
Haitham Sabbah is making progress with his previously announced campaign to allow Palestinians to declare themselves in blogging software nationality menus.
The Afghan Warrior has a thing or two to say about Pakistan's whining over last week's air strike.
Gotta get to the gate.
Per Regime Change Iran, what happens if Tehran succeeds in its plan to reprice oil in Euros? This is of a piece with a broader (and at least partly successful) effort to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe:
Mohammad Javad Asemipour, the technocrat and former deputy petroleum minister who has been charged with launching the bourse, has made a number of discreet scouting trips to London, Frankfurt, Moscow and Paris. Just after Christmas, he was quoted by the Iran Labor News Agency saying "transparency in oil transactions would be one of the advantages of having such an establishment " (the bourse), and adding that this would "allow dealers access to related information and promote equal trade opportunities."
Asemipour is an elusive type, but one who seems convinced that Iran can play off the European against the Americans, the euro against the dollar. Just over a year ago, he was quoted in the quasi-official Iran Daily saying that the Europeans have played "a beautiful game" with the United States during the years of sanctions, when they actively participated in economic projects, particularly in the energy sector, across Iran.
"In this game, the Europeans have pretended to be siding with America, whereas they got involved in business here and developed a sort of competition with the Americans," he said. "But in practice, they (the Europeans) have pursued their own interests."
The concern, of course, is that the repricing of oil in Euros will undermine the status of the U.S. dollar as the leading reserve currency, which will, in turn, weaken our ability to sell our own debt. Fortunately, they'll still need it to pay ransoms to terrorists, so that's something.
Subzero Blue, from Tunisia, rejoices in the coming release of an Arabic iPod. What he does not say, but which I wonder, is whether the broader distribution of the iPod in that region will promote Arabic podcasting. If so, may I suggest to our loyal servants in the State Department that they start translating and podcasting our side of the story? If you're going to have a bunch of Arabists around, you might as well put them to good use.
Rezwan, from Bangladesh, discusses the deaths there from a recent "cold snap." How could did it get? Ten degrees Celsius, which is roughly 50 Farenheit. Sounds like Bangladesh could use a little global warming, but Rezwan blames poverty, rather than the weather.
Haitham Sabbah is making progress with his previously announced campaign to allow Palestinians to declare themselves in blogging software nationality menus.
The Afghan Warrior has a thing or two to say about Pakistan's whining over last week's air strike.
Gotta get to the gate.
1 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Jan 23, 10:22:00 AM:
Would the State Department Arabists want to broadcast the official position of the US government?
Would you need interpreters to review what they said?
