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For about 100 years (see Churchill's World Crisis and the decision by the British Navy to fire their boilers with oil) an underlying question has affected the distribution of power and oil in the mid-east: how does a tribal system of agronomial peoples benefit from the sale of the oil that lies underneath them?
The question can be seen in the mind's eye quite graphically- the tribal or clan system is a horizontal system spread on the crust of the earth, about six feet thick, the extraction and export of the oil is a vertical system, a needle-like structure thousands of feet high (beginning deep in the earth) that pierces the horizontal system of the clans.
From the persistence of this 'contradiction' a multitude of questions and answers flow. Readers who have acquired a basic competence in the history and sociology of the region will have no trouble in extending in their minds these questions; those who haven't may well light up the bong and relax, secure in the knowledge that even if they knew more, none of the policy makers or highly paid mercenaries will be asking their opinion. Ca sera, sera.
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2 comments:
I think you write well, and your comments on Marginal Revolution re: Home Ownership Etc...were good.
When I came to your blog though, I was quibbled as to your direction and point.
Quibble: a common plot device, used to fulfill the exact verbal conditions of an agreement in order to avoid the intended meaning.
Correct?
http://variableinterest.typepad.com/
Uh, actually, it was meant to be a wordplay on 'cat kibbles'.
I had originally intended to blog on many subjects at some length, but posting with blogger counsels an economy of verbiage, a paucity of links, until I learn some of the tricks of the trade.
Thus, enigmatic brevity.
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