Patrick, I am a taker for your perspective.I have been to China, Mongolia and North India, to Lebanon and Armenia, that's the nearest I ever got to the places you talk about. Let's hear more about what it was like to live and work there.
On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 11:27 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > (All beatles puns intended) > In. late January, briefly after my return from 5 years in the UAE, during > which time I engaged in tactical media in Central Asia and the Caucasus, > started a VR center in Abu Dhabi, and married my life partner, Negin > Ehtesabian, who was my collaborator in any number of US/Iran projects > through Morehshin Allahyari, who is awaiting the USCIS's call in. Tehran, > which is extended by the inequities of the Trump Administration, and > separated by the COVID crisis. These are not easy times. > > Regardless, Brian wanted my snapshot from afar, which will likely be given > in more detail in an in-process book which is similar to Baudrillard's > "America" about my time in the UAE, as I feel that the UAE is almost the > New America. > > The problem is that the situation morphed from 2015 to 2021. I went from > someone spending my summers in Canada, to remaining in Asia, digging deep > into West and Central Asia, which are (not widely visited by westerners > [areas vary]) and paradigmatically radically different than the West, over > what I call the EuroHegemonic postcolonial sphere. > > I think I will just make indexical comments then unpack them. > When Trump got into office, I began habitually checking CNN, in case there > was a sudden nuclear exchange with North Korea or Iran. I did eat at the > North Korean restaurant in Dubai on occasion. > > Upon Trump's entry into office, it just seemed that much of the world > prepared for American Exceprionalism to turn to hegemonic solipsism. Russia > took the Crimea, launched cyberattacks, and lavrov began his flavor of what > Vamos calls Confusionism. China took the South China ea and began > colonizing Central, Asia, mining Bitcoins in Iran, took over the Port of > Djbouti and colonizing Africa. What Geert and I foresaw came to pass - a > global order breaking into spheres of control, balkanizing the world and > vying for control. And my Ugandan taxi driver in Abu Dhabi loved Trump > because he said he "spoke his heart", but then this guy liked Mugabe, he > said,l for the same reasons. > > The standard of living was amazing, and I spent a great deal of time > watching the Dubai Future Foundation and their projects. Of course, > Westerners can criticise the labor practices (I contextually agree) But > there is the outsourcing paradigm to abusive agencies that often give, > believe it or not , futures that are better than Nepal or the Subcontinent. > The Louvre Abu Dhabi was built while I was there, and it is truly a very > real place. > > And, since my family is now half Iranian, I see inside the Axis of Evil > for what it is; a construct. > > Let's talk. I'll give you my biased opinion which is definitely > non-Western, but not radical. > > Maybe my ideas on why the Arab Spring was just a horr9ble idea. > > All my Best. > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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