On this episode, your hosts:

• Patrick Beja from France (notpatrick on Twitter)
• Turki from Saudi Arabia (saudi on Twitter)
• Jen from the US
• Kerwin from the UK

Talk about:

• Swine Flu
• 9/11 and the Afghan War
• The G20 in Pittsburg
• Carbon Taxes
• Saudi Universities and Terrorists
• Noynoy Aquino
• The 9/12 March

And more…

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Episode 15 is a slightly different show; the original idea was to have a long part of the first, “internationnal” segment as a discussion about China and how we see it in our future, and then move on the the local stories… But as the flow of the show went seamlessly the other way around, we decided to keep it going like the natural, fun conversation we like to have every month. As we said during the show, the Phileas Club is a planet wide coffee table where friends of different backgrounds come together and chat for a while.

So for the month of July, Turki, Scott and Patrick talk about health care, Walter Cronkite, Iranian planes, swine flu pandemic, Barrack Obama, French workers blowing up factories, as well as the issue of sex toys on Saudi TV and the future of our Chinese overlords.

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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…

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Roger from East Meets West (and from San Francisco) and Mohammed “the kid” from Qatar join me in this episode as we wait for that guy from Saudi Arabia to remember he’s due for our panel. Yes, Turki forgot about us a second time (and he’ll never hear the end of it). He does end up joining us though, and we tackle a number of issues, some very serious and some really not… Petty much as usual.

Some of the topics we talk about include: police violence at the G20, Talibans resurgence, Ahmadinejad at the Durban II conference, Obama and south America and the EU elections.

Enjoy!

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It’s seems I’m unable to keep the show to a reasonable length… No matter, with guests like Tom (from the US), Julio (from Argentina/Netherlands/Space) and Turki (from Saudi Arabia), anything less would seem like a waste.

This time we focus around serious and controversial topics like the Australian fires, the Isreali election, the terrorist attacks in Cairo, Hugo Chavez’s referendum and the right to be a revisionist, as well as more light hearted topics like the Oscars and the oil companies’ secret death rays from space.

We hope you enjoy the show, and if you want to hear more great podcasting content you can make your way to Tom’s website where you will find links to great like East Meets West, Buzz Out Loud and many more.

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[Edit: important correction about the Israeli elections]
In this episode we noted that Kadima was a split faction from Havoda, the left wing Israeli party. This was  of course a mistake: Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party originated in the right wing Likoud party (and was created by Ariel Sharon in 2005, you’d think we’d remember that). Although more moderate, Kadima still stands to the right of the political spectrum (center-right). This explains further the comments about the left wing dramatically losing relevance after this election. It also gives hope that the Likoud and Kadima might find common ground form a viable government without needing to call on the the far right factions. Sincere apologies for the mistake.

[Jose's Email from Venezuela]
Jose sent me this great email, mostly giving his impressions of the Chavez story. I don’t usually do this since people can post comments on the blog but this was too lengthy for that and interesting enough that I figured it warranted an exception. So here it is (cut off the intro and conclusion):

[...]
I must disagree with Julio on his view that most of the people that have migrated away from Venezuela are from a wealthy family. Actually, it is the professional, middle class population who are moving out of the country, mostly because of low wages, housing shortage, and unbelievably high crime rates. There is also a great deal of political discrimination, since only those who are openly active towards the government are able to apply or exercise public positions, even in the lower levels of administration. This has created great unrest, and those who feel that they do not have the chance to opt for a position in the public service choose to migrate.
The common view in our country is not that the election was rigged (as in being a fraud) but that the government used a lot of public resources (money, state-run media, coercing public employees to vote for Chavez) to its own advantage, hence creating a decisive leverage. Therefore, even though the elections were “clean” there is the concern that this leverage will be implemented in future elections which would guarantee Chavez’s indefinite re-elections.
This situation will probably continue because the separation of powers is not effective in our country, with the executive power having a great deal of control over the judicial and legislative powers. The executive power also has a great influence on the electoral power, holding 4 of its 5 seats, therefore deciding the terms in which elections are made.
And one must not forget that the matter in question (continuous re-election) had already been rejected in the public referendum of 12/2/2007, as it was included in a broader constitutional reform. So this was the second time this matter came to public election.
I have to disagree with you regarding the lack of freedom of speech. We have a free press, with newspapers and television stations that are openly against the government. However, there are severe pressures on these medias, in the shape of greater tax control, censorship and harassment. I know this might sound a bit contradictory, because in a way one could say that this pressure conflicts with freedom of speech (which is true) but I just wanted to make clear that the media is not as controlled as in other countries (i.e. China).
I disagree with Turki on his view that the economic interests of the United States are in danger, since Chavez’s government (despite of his constant anti-american rambling) has had a most prolific economic relationship with the United States. We import a great deal of goods from the US and we sell the majority of our oil to that country too. The US government knows this and that is the reason why the have not intervened (“as long as the oil keeps coming, let the man say whatever he wants to”).
The majority of the population supports Chavez, not because the quality of life has improved in a dramatic way (it hasn’t), but because he has given them a feeling of belonging, importance and a voice to express their unrest like no other government before. His is a very populist government, with a great public expenditure, but plagued with corruption and embezzlement. One must admit his government has taken action in matters of social interest that are quite beneficial for the population. However, it is my opinion that these initiatives have failed to improve our way of life in a significant way, since the crime rates are higher then ever, public expenditure is increased and the social unrest is growing. With our economy being too dependant on oil prices and with the current economic recession there is the fear that Chavez won’t be able to keep delivering to the people and this will put him in a very difficult situation. Of course, these are but my brief, personal views on the matter, and I am sure you could get another Venezuelan who would give you a different opinion. Our country is going thru a very difficult and controversial process and that is why I would like to recommend you a biography of Hugo Chavez that you might find interesting. I consider it to be one of the most unbiased ones (and it is also translated to the English language). I am sending you the Amazon link for your consideration.Here or here.
[...]

Thanks so much for the email and feedback Jose, it’s very much appreciated.

Do you ever get tired of thinking in stereotypes and inaccuracies? I know I do, and my knowledge of Islam certainly is vague… but here’s an idea: how about sitting down with a Muslim and asking him all sorts of candid questions? Simple enough, right? But maybe you don’t have a Muslim right next door to ask him yourself. Well, fear not! The Phileas Club is here to help.

We asked Turki (our resident Saudi panelist) to take us on a tour of the Muslim faith. I also asked Scott (from Utah) to join the discussion and help us ask the best questions we could.
And to make this show even more special we enlisted the help of twitterers around the world, too! Thanks go out to all of those who were kind enough to answer the “instant questions” I asked.

So we hope you’ll learn a thing or two about Islam in this episode (or at least that you’ll have fun listening to Scott and I make fools of ourselves) and we’ll try to bring you more “for dummies” specials in the future.

(And by the way, if you enjoy comics that are made by a dummy, you should go check out Scott’s website.)

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Happy new year! Alright, we went through that part last month already…

2009 does get an awesome start though, with a wonderful Phileas cast:
Turki (Saudi Arabia), Randy (Texas / Canada), Mohammed (Qatar) join me on the show to talk about Gaza, Obama and the religious police, as well as the Dell / Putine incident, ad-sponsored adultery and more!

We all hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as we do recording it, and if you do, please consider leaving a comment on iTunes, which will help give us more visibility.
And if you want to hear more from Randy, you can go to the Warcraft show he hosts.

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Have a great month of february, talk to you in a few weeks.

For the last show of the year we thought we’d do something special, and something special we did! Five hosts spaning twelve time zones for two hours Phileasic goodness. We cover India / Pakistan from India, Isreal / Gaza from Tel Aviv and Ryad, Shoe throwing from all over, and we take a look back at what made 2008 memorable as well as making bold predictive hopes for 2009. So turn off the TV and pour yourself a drink as we close off this year the international way!

I’d like to thank Gita, Randy, Turki, Eyal, and Gita’s 80 year old auntie (the lovely Visalakshi) again for making this show so enjoyable. If you want to hear more of Randy and are into video games, please go to The Instance, and if you want to read about Turki’s life in Saudi Arabia please visit his blog.

So again, we wish all of you a wonderful new year, and we’ll talk again in 2009.

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NB: An update on what was probably the least important topic we discussed: as I publish this show I have the official number of burnt cars in France for New Year’s eve: the grand total is 1.147…

In October we get a US centric episode. With the election dominating the news, Brian Hess from Las Vegas joins Turki from Saudi Arabia and myself to try and get a balanced picture of what is going on in the last weeks of the race.
We also talk about the economic crisis, annulled marriages, terrorist being prosecuted, misconduct at the top of the IMF, president voodoo dolls and even clever cops.

And remember, no matter where you live, on of the most important things you can do in life is to get up and vote, no matter who you vote for. Don’t listen to the nay sayers, it does really matter.

Well, that’s it for October, see you next month!

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