#647 Some Blogs I Read

I've been very unhappy with the "news" reported in our local newspapers and on TV. There's nothing there. Even "Nightline" and the PBS information programs seem to have been watered down, or gotten awfully parochial. We don't know, and don't seem to want to know, what the rest of the world is doing or thinking. We hear of nothing but the sensational, and no one seems to think about what even that means. I guess partly because of that frustration, I've become addicted to blogs.

When I started my first journal on AOL, I started reading other AOL journals, mostly American. Interesting, but not particularly illuminating. Maybe, like me, most people avoid controversial topics because they don't want to deal with the fallout. The few blogs I visited that did express strong opinions tended to be rather vicious. Zealots, I guess.

From the American blogs I expanded to British bloggers. More interesting because so much of the day-to-day lifestyle and concerns are so different, yet the people were the same. I learned some stuff I didn't know. Like that although the British medical system is inexpensive for the people, it is very difficult to get timely and thorough care. It seems like you don't get a test unless you will die without that test. You have to be practically dying to get an appointment with a doctor. Otherwise, you get better on your own, or you get closer to dying. And the judgment on who is "worth" saving is more harsh.

I didn't get this from someone ranting about the system. I got it from ordinary people writing about their medical problems. They seem to accept the difficulty in getting care as perfectly normal.

I've been spreading out. There's the journalist in India I mentioned a few entries back, and now I'm fascinated by bloggers in the middle east. Some that I've been reading:

• Rantings of a Sandmonkey - http://www.sandmonkey.org/ - excellent analysis of what's happening in Egypt and more generally in the middle east. For some great photos that you probably wouldn't see anywhere else, scroll down to the April 17 entry, "Doing the Media's Job". Entries above and below explain.
  
• The Big Pharaoh - http://www.bigpharaoh.com/ - Egyptian blogger, moderate Muslim, news and commentary.
• Mindbleed - http://www.mindbleed.com/ - Egyptian. Commentary, and the discussions in the comments are especially good.
• And Far Away... - http://andfaraway.blogspot.com/ - a woman in Jordan - not very political, but a woman's view of life.
• Saudi Jeans - http://saudijeans.blogspot.com/ - Saudi Arabia, young man's view, good links to other blogs and news reports.
  

I'd love to find a Saudi woman, and a student in Iraq. The last issue of "The Sun" had several pages of Irani bloggers, and when I have some time I'd like to check them out.

I don't like to comment or offer opinions on things I don't know a lot about, so I'll give you the links and let you form your own opinions. But one thing that impressed me is that there seems to be a very wide gulf between the moderate Muslims and the fanatics (of course!), and - the big thing - that there are a lot more moderates than we might have been led to believe. The fanatics are a minority, but they are in power, for various reasons. Throughout the middle east the moderates are chafing. It's an explosive situation. Weirdly, I see a parallel to the US. We have our own "religious police", and they're getting more powerful. How do you fight that?

So, anyway, this addiction is one reason the house clearing is moving slowly. That, and a very VERY slow dialup link.