Syria also facing protests

[Xavier_Onassis]

The people of the Scandinavian countries have almost no corruption. Norway is the ONLY oil rich country that is never indicted with corruption. If everyone has good health care, then that lowers your car insurance, because there are not a bunch of ambulance-chasing lawyers in cahoots with doctors to sue for millions over a stiff neck for three days as they do here. State-supported education through university means no one has to save to send their kids to school. State subsidized housing means that real estate prices are not jacked up by house flippers and other flim flam artists. There are much better consumer protection laws and they are enforced nationally: they do not have credit card companies registering a national organization in a state with lax laws and poor enforcement, as they do in the states.

The key is not how much you spend, but how much you have left over after you have paid for everything you need.
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The original meaning of "liberal" by the way, referred to freedom of thought: schools should be non sectarian, there should be no established religion, inheritance was based on the deceased wishes (not excluding illegitimate children or those from a later marriage, as the Conservatives dictated). Classic Liberalism was promoted by the Freemasons and opposed the Roman Catholic Church. Liberals in England were Whigs and Roundheads, while Conservatives were Tories and Cavaliers and strict adherents of the Church of England.
 

Syria is not a "liberal" country by any standard. It is a dictatorship that in good years resembles Franco's Spain: they used to say that Franco did not rule with an iron hand so much as he covered the country like a wet blanket. The same is true of Assad. Some Syrians are Sunnis, others are Shia, but Assad, like his father, is neither, belonging to a tiny sect called the Alawites. The Shias split off from the Sunni over who would succeed Mohammad. The Alawites split off from the Shias over mostly ethnic issues. Like the Druses, the Alawite religion is veiled in secrecy.

The idea that a person could be a freethinker, an agnostic, an atheist or simply a believer and not a member of some specific sect is pretty much alien to most of the Muslim world, except perhaps Turkey and Muslims in Albania and what used to be Yugoslavia.

 

[Kramer]

The people of the Scandinavian countries have almost no corruption. Norway is the ONLY oil rich country that is never indicted with corruption. If everyone has good health care, then that lowers your car insurance, because there are not a bunch of ambulance-chasing lawyers in cahoots with doctors to sue for millions over a stiff neck for three days as they do here. State-supported education through university means no one has to save to send their kids to school. State subsidized housing means that real estate prices are not jacked up by house flippers and other flim flam artists. There are much better consumer protection laws and they are enforced nationally: they do not have credit card companies registering a national organization in a state with lax laws and poor enforcement, as they do in the states.

The key is not how much you spend, but how much you have left over after you have paid for everything you need.
==================================
The original meaning of "liberal" by the way, referred to freedom of thought: schools should be non sectarian, there should be no established religion, inheritance was based on the deceased wishes (not excluding illegitimate children or those from a later marriage, as the Conservatives dictated). Classic Liberalism was promoted by the Freemasons and opposed the Roman Catholic Church. Liberals in England were Whigs and Roundheads, while Conservatives were Tories and Cavaliers and strict adherents of the Church of England.
 

Syria is not a "liberal" country by any standard. It is a dictatorship that in good years resembles Franco's Spain: they used to say that Franco did not rule with an iron hand so much as he covered the country like a wet blanket. The same is true of Assad. Some Syrians are Sunnis, others are Shia, but Assad, like his father, is neither, belonging to a tiny sect called the Alawites. The Shias split off from the Sunni over who would succeed Mohammad. The Alawites split off from the Shias over mostly ethnic issues. Like the Druses, the Alawite religion is veiled in secrecy.

The idea that a person could be a freethinker, an agnostic, an atheist or simply a believer and not a member of some specific sect is pretty much alien to most of the Muslim world, except perhaps Turkey and Muslims in Albania and what used to be Yugoslavia.

I remember 5 years ago when you, Mr Dumb-ass, thought France was the cats meow. Well look at that cesspool now. You know nothing!

[Xavier_Onassis]

France is hardly a bad place to live. I find the French to be logical and intelligent. If they have any French as wacko apesnot insane as Kramer, perhaps they lock them up. At least I met no one nearly as annoying there. Of course, France is an even more excellent place to live if one is French.

 

[Christians4LessGvt]

The people of the Scandinavian countries have almost no corruption.

is that implied racism?

[Kramer]

The people of the Scandinavian countries have almost no corruption.

is that implied racism?

Clearly he's a racist.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Scandinavian is not a race, it is a group of related cultures.

[Kramer]

Scandinavian is not a race, it is a group of related cultures.

You are a racist for many reasons, the least of which is your support for Affirmative Action, which was created by people like you because you think that blacks, Hispanics & women are inferior to white men.

[Plane]

   I understand that Syria has a very strong secret police.

   Is Syria the least likely place for peacefull reform at the demand of the people?

   Democracy in Iraq should already be in the hands of the people , the Corruption that Henny mentioned flaws it pretty badly. I hope that the struggle within the parlement there bears better fruit in the future.

     Revolution doesn't necessacerily destroy corruption , but the people can't be wanting corruption, I hope that democracy takes hold and makes corruption hard to maintain.

     Kudos especially to Al Jezerra , the highest standard of reporting in the modern world, who would have thought it?

[Henny]

   I understand that Syria has a very strong secret police.

   Is Syria the least likely place for peacefull reform at the demand of the people?

 

Yes, but I think it was way worse in Egypt. BUT the difference there was that the eyes of the world were watching minute by minute, with the US government breathing down their necks... so they didn't do their worst. I fear it won't go so well in Syria.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Egypt has a huge population for the available resources. Syria has fewer people and a higher standard of living. Syria exports tobacco and some other agricultural products, and seems to have all the oil it needs for domestic use. Syria, like Egypt, gets revenue from tourism, as there are some marvelous Alexandrine, Roman and other buildings in the area, but Egypt's pyramids and other antiquities are unique and a much bigger draw for tourists.

Egypt was a lot more susceptible to public criticism because Cairo is a much more open city than is Damascus. The Egyptians could not afford to massacre dozens of people in public as Syria has done previously and even recently without shutting down tourism for a long time.

I would say that the country with the least likelihood of serious reform would be Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy is much less likely to change than the leadership of Assad, who is an eye doctor turned dictator, not a hereditary monarch.
Iran is also more oppressive than Syria, it seems to me.

[Henny]

Egypt has a huge population for the available resources. Syria has fewer people and a higher standard of living. Syria exports tobacco and some other agricultural products, and seems to have all the oil it needs for domestic use. Syria, like Egypt, gets revenue from tourism, as there are some marvelous Alexandrine, Roman and other buildings in the area, but Egypt's pyramids and other antiquities are unique and a much bigger draw for tourists.

Egypt was a lot more susceptible to public criticism because Cairo is a much more open city than is Damascus. The Egyptians could not afford to massacre dozens of people in public as Syria has done previously and even recently without shutting down tourism for a long time.

I would say that the country with the least likelihood of serious reform would be Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy is much less likely to change than the leadership of Assad, who is an eye doctor turned dictator, not a hereditary monarch.
Iran is also more oppressive than Syria, it seems to me.

Good points. I mentally cross out Saudi when I think about countries having revolutions and consider Iran something else entirely, so I didn't even take them into consideration.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Eventually, I think that Saudi Arabia will either overthrow the Sauds or make them politically weak, like the King of Spain, perhaps. The monarchy tends to simply throw money at each and every problem, and that seems to work.It works in Kuwait, where there is more money per capita. If Fuad, Jr. decides to become a revolutionary, the Emir just gives him a scholarship to the Riviera or somewhere else with fast cars, fast women and cheap booze. In the long run it is cheaper to buy the lad a secondhand Porsche and a place where he can get drunk and jaded and perhaps meet up with one of those famous Plane trees the French like to decorate their highways with at 150 kph than it is to put down an armed insurrection five years later. All you have to do is identify the proper potential revolutionary.