Phileas #13 – Two’s company
June 1, 2009 by Patrick
Filed under - The Phileas Club, .Episodes
Turki and I tackle all things middle eastern and European in this “two person panel”(tm) episode. Financial Crisis, EU elections, Israel, Three Strikes law, comments on last episode and more…
Listen to the show:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Just listened, another good one. Nice to hear from Turki, even though he was offended. I’ll make sure that I don’t post another story to get CJ all fired up. The comment about Catholics having sex with boys was very offensive. I am Catholic and we all have our vices. We have the boys, and Muslims have……. well…… beheading American contractors on youtube. What was with the match dot com profile at the end of the podcast? In fact, I found this on Turki’s http://www.match.com profile:
“As you can see I’m good looking , 32 years old and if your in the Riyadh let me know. I enjoy long walks on the beach, bashing the Bush administration, and generally hatein’ on America and France because of how awesome it is.”
Turki you have got to explain yourself here guy……..
Hey Patrick and Turki,
First let me say that the top half of the show was a little slow and flat for my taste, maybe because of the lack of (usually present) other panelists. Once the story about the listener CJ came on the air though, clearly the pace caught some speed and my interest rose from that moment forward.
. Now, let me praise both Patrick and Turki for their efforts at trying to adopt a multi-cultural approach to news podcasting. It’s refreshing and unique. However, the show would greatly benefit from developing the background of the news reported, specially local ones. As Turki said, our (multi-cultural listeners) reference points are diverse and we may not possess the understanding necessary to fully appreciate the content/report of the news. Just a thought 
I do not necessarily agree with Turki on all of his points even though some were fair, mainly due to the shortcuts used to express his views. I believe this could be due to a cultural difference that is too vast for us occidentals
I can not wait to hear what Turki will say about Barrack Obama’s eloquent speach today in Cairo and how it resonated in the Arab world. Should be great material for next episode!
Wow, did I actually cause some controversy on the latest podcast? I’ll have to listen to it tonight.
I had a chance to listen to the latest podcast. First off, Turki, let me once again apologize for offending you. It was not my intent. We’ve had some tweets going back and forth and I think we’ve come to some common ground. Besides, you like my dog, so you are definitely a good person. I love listening to the Phileas Club and I especially like to hear Turki’s viewpoint, because he is honest, intelligent, rational and he likes a good argument.
Secondly, I disagree with you about not being able to condemn an action in another society. I think Patrick did a good job on the podcast making my point that at there are limits to moral and cultural relativism. Patrick, you are definitely my most favorite Frenchman since Lafayette. There are some things that are so baseless and wrong that they should be condemned as a violation of basic human rights. I consider marrying off an eight year old girl to anyone a violation of her basic human rights. Marriage is a contract and minors have no capacity to enter into a contract nor do I believe her family can consent to marrying her off. The whole sexual abuse connotation to the concept is also wrong. I condemn this act just as I would condemn the Mormon offshoots marrying off young girls as well. An example where I would accept moral and cultural relativism is Korea: Koreans, we all know, like to eat dogs. To me, that is revolting. But, I can accept that in their society, it is morally and culturally acceptable. The one difference that I can see between the Mormon offshoots and the Saudi eight year old girl is that, in the United States, it is illegal for such things to occur and, in fact, the man you mentioned on the podcast is now behind bars, where he belongs. I can only assume that the Saudi who married the eight year old is enjoying his freedom and is moving on with his life.
Thirdly, if you read all my comments on the last podcast, you can see that I did acknowledge the Saudi Justice Minister condemning this action. Also, when this incident was reported, I did do my own research into the issue to see what the response had been from Saudi society and the Saudi government. I checked multiple media sources, including Al Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, the BBC, the New York times as well as a Google search and the only mention I found condemning the act was the aforementioned Saudi Justice Minister, which I posted in my comment to be fair.
One question lingers in my mind: Was this something that was a public relations “cover your ass” comment from the Saudi Justice Minister or is this going to be impetus for real change in Saudi Arabia. I hope Turki can keep us updated on the story as it seems to have struck a chord with all of us.
Lastly, I think the actions of an individual do reflect on the group they represent, but I do agree that it is dangerous to generalize or stereotype based on those actions. You have to take the bad with the good. For instance, in the United States in the past week, there have been two very prominent stories about Muslims. One is the unfortunate incident in Arkansas in which a Muslim radical allegedly murdered one US Army recruiter and wounded another–apparently he is American born but was “radicalized” in Yemen (a country you mentioned, coincidentally, on the last podcast). The other was about a Muslim grocery store owner in New York who was the victim of an attempted robbery of his store, which was caught on tape. A man walked into his store with a baseball bat demanding money. The owner pulled out a shotgun, which caused the robber to get on his knees, beg for his life and say that he was committing the crime because he needed to feed his family. The owner put the shotgun down, took $40 out of his cash register and gave it to the robber and then told him to help himself to milk and bread for his family. The robber then fled.
Those two examples show the best and worst of Muslims. Like I’ve said before, we have many Muslims in my community here and they are good people. They own businesses, go to school, don’t bother anyone and generally work to make the community a better place. It’s the radicals on all sides–Muslim, Christian, Jew, ultra-Nationalists–which cause 95% of the problems.
So, I think that the Phileas Club has succeeded in sharing viewpoints from around the world and bridging some divides. Keep up the good work, Patrick, and keep the shows coming because I find them informative and entertaining.
I think we can come to an agreement of principle here, even if we don’t agree on the applications. Is there a better feeling than when you have a discussion with someone your disagree with and *not* ending it with screams and shouts and gun shooting?
Actually, Patrick, that’s how we settle things here in New Mexico.
Good points CJ, and like you I wish they would do more than one show every month or so. But, I suppose we all have other things that require our attention.
If I could, I would do one podcast a day…