Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Ikhtalat al Habel bil Nabel (Situation is a mess)

"MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.

The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week."

Without a hint of sarcasm, The Times article, published on the 18th of March, concludes with a quote from Margarett Becket, “There is no widespread violence in the four southern provinces and the fact that the picture is more complex than the stereotype usually portrayed is reflected in today’s poll,” .

I guess that means we can all relax and go home, it's not as bad as we thought.

PS. Does anybody know what an accurate translaton of Ikhtalat al Habel bil Nabel would be? The winner gets a bowl of Hummus.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

No Wassim, we should never relax and I quote John Zoghby from last night's lecture: "I won't shut up"!!

Given the fact that yesterday I have listened to an Arab poller, I got into some key points one should bare on in mind when reading a polll's results.

1- who is the poller?
2- What is his political views?
3- What did he ask?
4- When did he ask?
5- Whom did he ask?


In order to get a wider picture of the psychological state of mind of those been asked, and were the questions very general? Or manipulative?
Have you read Gred's comment on the article? He has a good point:

"Greg,

You are mistaken. The USA Today, ABC, BBC, and ARD poll was NOT just of people in the Baghdad area. The poll surveyed 2,200 Iraqis, of whom only 429 were residents of Baghdad."

So why should I belive those who want to justify their psycho mition in one of an Arab country? A fucken poll would never change the fact that a million Iraqi flee iraq to Syria and half of them to Jordan! Life is getting better??
How dare they fool us with THEIR academy?

But we won't shut up!

(am gonna post my review on Zogby's lecture soon enough)

Maysaloon said...

Hi Sham,
You're absolutely right it is ridiculous. I trust you noticed the hint of sarcasm in my comments :-)