Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Dubai Ports Takeover - My Take

"One of Two Possible Evils" - this is how people are reacting to the U.S. port takeover story.

1) The "anything George Bush does must be wrong" response. Or
2) The "anything remotely connected to Islam must be terrorist" response.

The first reaction is not really fair to the president. (In fact, only MOST of the things he does are wrong - not all.) I mean, the guy is a businessman, surrounded by other businessmen. Of course he would see this only as a business transaction with no greater implications than the bottom line of Dubai Ports, the company in question. It is what we should expect of him, considering where he has come from.

The second reaction is an ugly blend of racism, anti-Islamism, and ignorance. The prejudicial reasoning is, since the leaders of the country in which Dubai Ports is based are Islamic, the chance of terrorism in our ports is elevated. In reality, our global economy and postmodern pluralism has rendered this kind of prejudice nonsensical. It is a world in which Japanese companies build cars in the United States, service calls for U.S. companies are answered in India, and Walt Disney basically runs everything.

I don't know enough about the deal to make an informed assessment of it's merits or problems. But I can at least have a good chuckle at the tizzy everyone is in!

1 comment:

Vinny said...

Don't forget the McDonalds drive through in Cape Girardeau being answered by someone in Colorado!