Ordinary People

Well, Jimmy is now in the Middle East, in the town of Sharm el-Sheikh, from what I gather, and he is pontificating about that region's problems. There are two possible reasons for this: 1) he can't seem to resolve his own websites' problems, so he figures he'll tackle something a bit easier, or 2) he went scuba diving, and has a bad case of nitrogen narcosis.

You see, in a press event, Jimmy gave his views of the Middle East's problems: "We're going to start hearing from ordinary people." Whatever you say, Jimmy. "I think that ordinary people are far more moderate and far more ordinary than the unfortunately polarised views of extremes you see coming out." Of course, his own experience with Wikipedia would hardly indicate that, given all the fighting that has gone on over Middle East pages from time immemorial (and boy was that a fight). Most recently, CAMERA, an Israeli advocacy group, that has has "apparently organized more than fifty editors via a mailing list to correct what it sees as bias against Israel," is up before the Arbitration Committee, in what may be one of the most egregious abuses of Wikipedia's open editing policy. To be fair, all sides in the many disputes that make up the Middle East have been gaming WIkipedia to promote their agendas. In fact, the only question I have is this: What contact has Jimmy ever had with the "ordinary people" of the Middle East? If memory serves me correctly, European royalty has not counted as ordinary people in the region since the Crusades.

My only hope is that Jimmy actually learns one thing from his experience in the Middle East. Since I know he reads this blog, I will post it here, and he can ask his hosts what it means: 'Amal kheir wa-ilqahu fi-il bahr. It's a lesson he stands to learn. And the sea is so beautiful in Sharm ...