From: alami@McRCIM.McGill.EDU (Wassim Alami)
Subject: Re: slaves.gif: INFO
Originator: alami@monet.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
Organization: McGill Research Centre for  Intelligent Machines
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 20:21:43 GMT


In article <1992Jul26.021955.14741@njitgw.njit.edu>, elie@sensors.njit.edu (Elie I. Mourad) writes:
|> In article <Jul24.192445.1766@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> bh437292@lance.colostate.edu writes:
|> >>
|> >> "Negroes of Hejaz Outside their Miserable Home Built of Dirty Rags and 
|> >>  Ropes"
|> >> 
|> ...
|> >
|> >"Idiots of s.c.l. Inside their Miserable Minds Built of Dirty Cheap Shots and
|> >Hate"
|> >
|> >Mediterranean coast.  When we compare these idiots' mind, so confused,
|> >so dark and airy within, with the lofty substantial American minds around,
|> >which act rather modern, we understand how low the degree of culture to which
|> ...
|> 
|> (I'd reconsider your last statement given the fact that the photos and
|> captions are taken/written by the same people you are praising)
|> 

I understand from your statement that you look down at those
Americans responsible for the photos and captions.

You said in a previous posting:

|> It is not my theory. All photos and captions come verbatim from and old book
|> I acquired which probably represents how the USA viewed the world just
|> after world war II and a bit before. 

|> Any comments direct them to: (if any are still alive :-))

|> Lands and Peoples
|> The world in color
|> Volume III: The near and middle east
|> The Grolier society

|> Editor-in-chief
|> Gladys D. Clewell, B.A.

|> Editor-in-chief (1929-1940)
|> Holland Thompson, PhD LLD

|> Introduction by:
|> Isaiah Bowman, PhD
|> (President of Johns Hopkins University
|> Former director of the American Geographical Society of New York)

|> Foreword by:
|> H. R. Ekins
|> Author and Lecturer
|> War Correspondent in the Far East and Ethiopia

Then you come back and say:

|> I repeat one more time.
|> The INFOs are not necessarily my views nor are they my words.
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^
|> They reflect how the West (in particular the USA) viewed the Middle
|> East in the 1930s. 
|> 

Are you shying away now?
Do the quotations about arabs and moslems represent your beliefs or not? 
Don't hide behind the famous "they are not necessarily my views". If they 
are yours why don't you be responsible for once and say, "this is what I believe,
and that's why I'm posting it, for all people on the net to know"?

From your answer to Basil, it seems that you don't respect the 
authors of the books from which you got the images and the lines.
In this case and since most probably the authors haven't presented
any scientific ground to their writing, a person with a correct mind like
you is not supposed to believe the given information, needless
to say spread it all over the world, without doing any further research
on the issue.

Let's assume ,as you're trying to hint, that you don't believe the quotations. 
Though you insist on giving the information (or misinformation) a boost on the net.
You don't believe that lebanese are arabs, but you flood the soc.culture.lebanon 
with images and information about arabs, a place where they don't belong 
according to your beliefs.

What is it with you? Why don't you stop contradicting yourself, give this 
case a rest, and try to open a soc.culture.stereotypes newsgroup that can
satisfy your needs. I'm not asking you to stop because people's feelings 
are hurt. Believe me, you wont do any harm to the arabic culture or other 
people's beliefs, because you are simply misinformed and you have a difficulty 
supporting any of your claims.


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Wassim T. Alami                                                           |
|                                                                             |
|   McGill Research Centre             email: alami@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu   |
|   for Intelligent Machines           phone:   (514)398-7357                 |
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