Phileas #10 – Usans

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.

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Yoda thinks Bin Laden is winning

This article is cloaked under a semi-funny title, but it is actually a pretty serious topic… Just a warning.

I want to talk about what makes us who we are for a minute. I will try to keep it to the point. Here is the premise: we have a few fundamental values that define us, as western societies. Freedom, equality, fairness… These are the ideas that world defining documents like the French “Human Rights Declaration” and the American Bill of Rights were written to protect. And the moment we start losing them, we start losing our soul. We start turning to “the dark side”.

Here comes the sadly funny part: millions of us have watched the Star Wars movies, and we’ve all heard the wise reflexion of the old green little Jedi master guy.

“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”

Everyone knows that line. Yet no one seems to understand how it relates to the attacks of September 11th 2001. Are you afraid? Are you sacrificing what they attacked you for? Then you are giving “them” what they wanted in the first place.

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