Post by pieter on Oct 5, 2015 15:24:49 GMT -7
Dear Karl,
I think about Stevin's Law in the sense of Communicating vessels. The mess in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libiya, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Muslim countries have partly Western roots. The modern Syrian state was established after World War I as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence as a parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945 when Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate – although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–71. Between 1958–61, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by 1961 Syrian coup d'état. The Arab Republic of Syria came into being in late 1961 after December 1 constitutional referendum, and was increasingly unstable until the Ba'athist coup d'état, after which the Ba'ath Party has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.
The centuries old christian anti-semitism and later in the 20th century the race biological anti-semitism lead to progroms in Czarist Russia and Ukraine, and eventually lead to the Holocaust (Shoa). The murder of the Slavic Europeans, Jews and Gypsies disturbed Europe, and the Stalinist oppression of the jews in the SovjetUnion lead to a wave of Russian Refusniks (Russian jews) to the USA and Israel. Zionism is partly created due to the aversion towards and fierce racism against jews in Europe, called anti-semitism. In the 19th century and early 20th century many Polish, Baltic, Russian and Ukrainian jews went on Alyiah (Jewish immigration) to Palestine, where they became active as new settlers, farmers and new citizens of first Ottoman Palestine, later British Palestine and again later Israel. In the same time authoritarian colonial European rule governed the Middle-east and Northern-Africa. The vicious Italian rule in Libiya lefts it's mark, just like the French colonial rule in Algeria. Colonialism disturbed societies and drew new borders, which created new conflicts between nations, tribes and clans. The Ba'ath party in the Arab world looked at totalitarian European ideologies like autoritarian socialism, nationalism and fascism. In it's Pan-Arab, Arab socialist and Arab nationalist nature it saw the Arab culture and Arab people superior above other peoples in the region. Arab superiority could also felt in Saoudi Arabia, the heartland of Islam, where Shia Muslims sometimes were treated as inferior muslims.
Ba'ath Party
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي Ḥizb Al-Ba‘ath Al-‘Arabī Al-Ishtirākī) was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism (from Arabic: البعث Al-Ba'ath or Ba'ath meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"), which is an ideology mixing Arab nationalist, pan-Arabism, Arab socialist and anti-imperialist interests. Ba'athism calls for unification of the Arab world into a single state. Its motto, "Unity, Liberty, Socialism", refers to Arab unity, and freedom from non-Arab control and interference.
Ba'athism
Ba'athism (Arabic: البعث al-ba‘ath meaning "renaissance"/"resurrection") is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Zaki al-Arsuzi (according to the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement), Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar.
A Ba'athist society seeks enlightenment, renaissance of Arab culture, values and society. It supports the creation of single-party states, and rejects political pluralism in an unspecified length of time – the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an enlightened Arabic society. Ba'athism is based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, Arab socialism, as well as social progress. It is a secular ideology. A Ba'athist state supports socialist economics to a varying degree, and supports public ownership over the heights of the economy but opposes the confiscation of private property. Socialism in Ba'athist ideology does not mean state socialism or economic equality, but modernisation; Ba'athists believe that socialism is the only way to develop an Arab society which is truly free and united.
The two Ba'athist states which have existed (Iraq and Syria) forbade criticism of their ideology through authoritarian governance. These governments have been labelled as neo-Ba'athist, because the form of Ba'athism developed in Iraq and Syria was very different from the Ba'athism of Aflaq and al-Bitar; for example, none of the ruling Ba'ath parties actually pursued or pursues a policy of unifying the Arab world.
Assadism
From 1970, when Hafez al-Assad took power, Syria has been under the control of the al-Assad family. Assad's government was a personal government; meaning a government that is based upon and revolves around the leader. The term Assadism was coined to explain how Assad's leadership dominates Syrian politics. The authorities have tried to portray the wisdom of Assad as "beyond the comprehension of the average citizen".
Assadism and neo-Ba'athist government which currently runs Syria are based upon nepotism and ethnic favoritism – it was Assad who began the Alawitisation of the party and the military, and began building a government based on loyalty to the leader's family. Jamal al-Atassi, a former co-founder of Zaki al-Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party and later Syrian dissident, claimed that "Assadism is a false nationalism. It's the domination of a minority, and I'm not talking just of the Alawites, who control the society's nervous system. I include also the army and the mukhabarat. [...] And despite its socialist slogans, the state is run by a class who has made a fortune without contributing–a nouvelle bourgeoisie parasitaire."
Despite this, Assadism is not an ideology – it's a cult of personality, but it's the closest thing Syria comes to an all-encompassing belief system, since both Ba'athist and Arab nationalist beliefs have been watered down to such an extent as to not hurt the government's populist credentials.
I think about Stevin's Law in the sense of Communicating vessels. The mess in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libiya, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Muslim countries have partly Western roots. The modern Syrian state was established after World War I as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence as a parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945 when Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate – although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–71. Between 1958–61, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by 1961 Syrian coup d'état. The Arab Republic of Syria came into being in late 1961 after December 1 constitutional referendum, and was increasingly unstable until the Ba'athist coup d'état, after which the Ba'ath Party has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.
The centuries old christian anti-semitism and later in the 20th century the race biological anti-semitism lead to progroms in Czarist Russia and Ukraine, and eventually lead to the Holocaust (Shoa). The murder of the Slavic Europeans, Jews and Gypsies disturbed Europe, and the Stalinist oppression of the jews in the SovjetUnion lead to a wave of Russian Refusniks (Russian jews) to the USA and Israel. Zionism is partly created due to the aversion towards and fierce racism against jews in Europe, called anti-semitism. In the 19th century and early 20th century many Polish, Baltic, Russian and Ukrainian jews went on Alyiah (Jewish immigration) to Palestine, where they became active as new settlers, farmers and new citizens of first Ottoman Palestine, later British Palestine and again later Israel. In the same time authoritarian colonial European rule governed the Middle-east and Northern-Africa. The vicious Italian rule in Libiya lefts it's mark, just like the French colonial rule in Algeria. Colonialism disturbed societies and drew new borders, which created new conflicts between nations, tribes and clans. The Ba'ath party in the Arab world looked at totalitarian European ideologies like autoritarian socialism, nationalism and fascism. In it's Pan-Arab, Arab socialist and Arab nationalist nature it saw the Arab culture and Arab people superior above other peoples in the region. Arab superiority could also felt in Saoudi Arabia, the heartland of Islam, where Shia Muslims sometimes were treated as inferior muslims.
Ba'ath Party
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي Ḥizb Al-Ba‘ath Al-‘Arabī Al-Ishtirākī) was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism (from Arabic: البعث Al-Ba'ath or Ba'ath meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"), which is an ideology mixing Arab nationalist, pan-Arabism, Arab socialist and anti-imperialist interests. Ba'athism calls for unification of the Arab world into a single state. Its motto, "Unity, Liberty, Socialism", refers to Arab unity, and freedom from non-Arab control and interference.
Ba'athism
Ba'athism (Arabic: البعث al-ba‘ath meaning "renaissance"/"resurrection") is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Zaki al-Arsuzi (according to the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement), Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar.
A Ba'athist society seeks enlightenment, renaissance of Arab culture, values and society. It supports the creation of single-party states, and rejects political pluralism in an unspecified length of time – the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an enlightened Arabic society. Ba'athism is based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, Arab socialism, as well as social progress. It is a secular ideology. A Ba'athist state supports socialist economics to a varying degree, and supports public ownership over the heights of the economy but opposes the confiscation of private property. Socialism in Ba'athist ideology does not mean state socialism or economic equality, but modernisation; Ba'athists believe that socialism is the only way to develop an Arab society which is truly free and united.
The two Ba'athist states which have existed (Iraq and Syria) forbade criticism of their ideology through authoritarian governance. These governments have been labelled as neo-Ba'athist, because the form of Ba'athism developed in Iraq and Syria was very different from the Ba'athism of Aflaq and al-Bitar; for example, none of the ruling Ba'ath parties actually pursued or pursues a policy of unifying the Arab world.
Assadism
From 1970, when Hafez al-Assad took power, Syria has been under the control of the al-Assad family. Assad's government was a personal government; meaning a government that is based upon and revolves around the leader. The term Assadism was coined to explain how Assad's leadership dominates Syrian politics. The authorities have tried to portray the wisdom of Assad as "beyond the comprehension of the average citizen".
Assadism and neo-Ba'athist government which currently runs Syria are based upon nepotism and ethnic favoritism – it was Assad who began the Alawitisation of the party and the military, and began building a government based on loyalty to the leader's family. Jamal al-Atassi, a former co-founder of Zaki al-Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party and later Syrian dissident, claimed that "Assadism is a false nationalism. It's the domination of a minority, and I'm not talking just of the Alawites, who control the society's nervous system. I include also the army and the mukhabarat. [...] And despite its socialist slogans, the state is run by a class who has made a fortune without contributing–a nouvelle bourgeoisie parasitaire."
Despite this, Assadism is not an ideology – it's a cult of personality, but it's the closest thing Syria comes to an all-encompassing belief system, since both Ba'athist and Arab nationalist beliefs have been watered down to such an extent as to not hurt the government's populist credentials.