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El Blog!, Touppi's Super Eleet Blog.
Tuomas Toivonen
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Sun, 30 Sep 2007
Watched Syriana today with a bunch of friends. First saw it in the theaters and had wanted to see it again. And, yes, it was as good as I remembered. Extremely dispiriting, but very true. Everybody loses, except some of the bad guys and, of course, the American consumer. (Not that I wouldn't share some of the blame having done 40 km at something like 13 litres per 100 km to drive to the friend's place and back to see the movie.)
If you haven't seen Syriana yet, do so. As a movie it doesn't for me rate as highly as Traffic (some of the same people, similar approach, different theme), but having spent my time in the Middle East, I can relate to Syriana more easily. Especially, it always makes me want to visit Beirut again, and for some reason, to travel to Iran.
Doesn't surprise me at all that some of the scenes in Syriana were sensored before it was shown in, e.g. Dubai. If that doesn't surprise you, then read "Fear and Money in Dubai" by Mike Davis (New Left Review 41, Sept-Oct 2006). Not that I've ever been to Dubai, but Doha, Qatar comes close enough, and somehow the anonymous Persian Gulf emirate portrayed in Syriana kept making me think of Qatar (though they're not running out of hydrocarbons anytime soon).
So, الحمد لله, we have our forests (carbon) and lakes (hydrogen) here in Finland. Hydrocarbons, anyone? Oil and gas? No thanks. (Russian imports? Oh yeah, yes please.)
P.S. The Norwegians though seem to be doing fine with their hydrocarbons, and, um, fish. Highest GDP per capita in Scandinavia, and the least hours worked per week. Need to work overtime? No problem: free whale steak for dinner at company expense! ;-)