Yeah and that's why they invite that "infidel" Tiger Woods to play golf there.
Posted on 03/12/2006 2:59:23 AM PST by PrinceOfCups
DP World will not manage six ports in the US as initially agreed, but the aborted deal has achieved for Dubai an outstanding triumph by any yardstick.
First, and as Ghassan Tahboub, media manager in the executive office of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said, it is an invaluable lesson. "It was an exercise you have to live with, win and then learn from. This was America. There are lobbies, politics and interest groups, and Dubai found itself in the middle of a jungle. In the end I have to thank everybody there for this lesson," he said.
Then, Dubai has gained the greatest international publicity possible and people anywhere can now name the emirate that has laid bare an obstinate mindset of racial discrimination and ethnic prejudice that no public relations gloss will ever cover.
It has also shown beyond any doubt that its amazing success story has never been a cheat and that the geographically small emirate could now compete with the most advanced economies of the world.
Cairo in the 1950s and Beirut in the 1960s succeeded to define trends, but it was mainly on political issues. Dubai in the 2000s thanks to its pro-globalisation trends is showing values that promote success and prowesses that indicate leadership and triumph.
Dubai has demonstrated that while it is moving vibrantly ahead with globalisation, other countries that have always championed free trade are now shackled by a xenophobic tsunami and are likely to feed a global backlash against globalisation.
It has shown the world that the US economic anxieties are being senselessly fuelled by nationalist sentiments that seem to be inexorably on the rise.
The port deal debacle has also proven that Dubai possesses a broader mind than the US when it comes to welcoming and promoting investments and that its openness is genuine and not decided by race or creed.
Last week, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez told Gulf News in Manama that the decision against DP World was not racially motivated. Either he was not aware of the strong anti-Arab powers within his own country or he did not wish to hurt our feelings.
Either way, the truth is here for everyone to see and contemplate: Dubai is an economic power that is re-writing books and all those who opposed the port deal should think in that direction and should appreciate that it too can cancel deals.
US economists were quick to bandwagon the belief that the flap over the ports acquisition is unlikely to make a consequential dent in foreign investment flows into their country. But Arab analysts predict that this unwarranted hostility will certainly affect Arab investments in the US and will make US assets less attractive to Arab buyers.
Economically, DP World's takeover was never a special case: a state-owned company from the Middle East is buying an American asset already managed by a non-American entity. Suddenly, ethnicity, tainted by hostility and envy, and not a proven success record, became the guidelines to assess the deal.
America has always been comfortable with most multinationals that invested in the United States because they came from Western countries and are unlikely to be subject to such scrutiny. However, the United States is obviously becoming a less welcoming place for investment from Arab countries.
The port deal opponents should appreciate that their public statements might secure them some political benefits, but will most certainly have grave economic consequences.
LOL!
Oh, the irony!
I wouldn't count your chickens so quickly.
There are millions of good, mainstream Republicans (like maybe about 80-perent of them, in fact) who are still steamed at the President Bush and some Republicans for even defending this deal, and are thinking twice about offering support this Nov.06.
I understand that you see everything through your perspective, but considering that an unheard of 60-80 percent of the American public hated this deal, do you really think Prez GWB and the GOP are gonna gain?
I agree with you regarding all the Astroturfing here. It has been interesting.
Yeah and that's why they invite that "infidel" Tiger Woods to play golf there.
Same goes for any form of marketing. With product reviews and discussion forums out there, if you could spare a few bucks to have even just one or two people getting your message out, you'd probably want to do it. So I just assume some here, I am sure a tiny minority, are paid. Nice gig if you can get it.
Aw hell, I got this far before I realized you weren't talking about the Democrats in Congress..
People who spout "free trade" as an excuse for this ports deal really crack me up!!!
Consider this, my friend: IT IS ILLEGAL FOR AN AMERICAN TO OWN A BUSINESS IN DUBAI/UAE (outside the very small free trade zone).
It clearly states so on the UAE website. NO foreigners may own more than 49-percent of any business or company, and all companies must be owned and operated by an UAE citizen national.
So much for your vaunted "free trade."
I wish that every congressman who fought this deal would be forced to read this editorial. Thanks for posting it. Last week I heard James Carafano (Dr. James Carafano Senior Research Fellow, Defense and Homeland Security, Heritage Foundation) say that he was asked to testify before the congressional committee that stampeded this deal. He said that only the chairman was in the room when he and two others who were in favor of DPW started their presentations, so they were asked to submit their reports for the Congressional Record, and no questions were asked of them.
I did not have a very high opinion of congressmen in general, but after this debacle I am just sick, thinking about them.
I believe that they truly have no knowledge of international shipping at all. Now they are talking like they are going to set up something like our lovely airport security in our ports. They don't even see that airport security happens at the loading end, not the offloading end.
"The United States Constitution divides foreign policy powers between the President and the Congress so that both share in the making of foreign policy."
from State Department web site
http://fpc.state.gov/6172.htm
I'm not sure if the Dubai deal falls under the category of foreign policy, but it seems congress can stick itself wherever it wants to. *look of dismay* :-(
Uh the saudi's kicked us out while the UAE has been very helpful. Ask Gens. Tommy Franks and Peter Pace, and now the US Congress have slapped them in the face.
Don't feel bad for him, others are even worse off. Take me, for instance. Why, I'm reduced to having to enter my posts in raw ASCII, using a telegraph key! That's after I've toggled in a bootstrap loader into the front panel of my S-100 8080 computer, which runs a pared-down copy of KA9Q, allowing me to SLIP onto a low-rent backalley entrance to the Internet.
My monitor is a burned-in green phosphor NTSC (RCA plug composite video) that won't give legible text unless I use it in 32 column mode!
And, after I've decoded the HTML in my head (you don't seriously think there's a web browser for an 8-bit CPU with 8KB RAM and no disc drive, do you?), I have to buffer my copy to a cassette drive, using an ancient "Tarbell" interface!
Oh, the humanity!
So, don't feel sorry for him -- and, don't even feel sorry for me! The guy next-door has to access the Internet using a paper cup and string! He has to decode Bell 103 modem tones in his head!
You know all these things are true, because I -- a collection of black dots on white background -- tell you they're true. And forget all that crap about how, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" -- that's all propaganda, propaganda, I tell you -- from D.U.! And say, wouldn't YOU feel better there, anyway?
<end_sarc>
since some Congressmen have taken on the role of Secretary of State...
####
I saw a brief snippet of Senators quizzing Secretary of State Rice last week. They would probably have been embarassed to talk to their maid the way some of them (Kerry and Boxer/Finestein) spoke to Dr Rice.
Saudi Arabi also demanded that we leave. Thats why we are in the other gulf states.
They aren't acting childish, they played by the rules in their business takeover of P&O, but become a scapegoat to ignornat knee jerking.
Well anyway you can believe people who think they kill terrorists from behind a radio microphone(weiner(savage) or from behind a laptop(malkin).
I'll believe Generals who have actually fought the WOT and beleive them when they say the UAE is an ally on the WOT.
How are they acting childish? These folks are money people. Business do merge. They want to invest and make sure the rules are not changed in the middle of the game. The UAE folks just are not interested in owning Taco stands here. Plus there is an element of Pride. Thats to be expected.
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