The Big Middle Eastern Thread

[Stan]

The sheer obliteration of some buildings is so sad to see

 

The death toll is gonna be huge from this no doubt. Terrible stuff

 

 

[Azeem]

31 minutes ago, nudge said:

2750 tonnes... 

 

Their PM has officially called out Hezbollah for ' putting ' the the explosives there 

[Azeem]

Trump has called it an attack, case closed

[Stan]

6 minutes ago, Azeem said:

Their PM has officially called out Hezbollah for ' putting ' the the explosives there 

'left unsecured for 6 years' 

I couldn't even tell you what ammonium nitrate is but how is something like that that can cause an explosion like this being left alone for so long... 

 

[Stan]

42 minutes ago, nudge said:

2750 tonnes... 

This helps me greatly with context 

[Azeem]

10 minutes ago, Azeem said:

Trump has called it an attack, case closed

JUST IN: Trump says generals told him Beirut explosion was likely due to a 'bomb of some kind'

[Eco]

7 minutes ago, Stan said:

This helps me greatly with context 

That's insane...

The aftermath photos are awful...

[Michael]

Even the priest feels the effect. 

[Eco]

7 minutes ago, Michael said:

Even the priest feels the effect. 

That's scary as shit.

[Michael]

1 minute ago, Eco said:

That's scary as shit.

Yes, I can't think of a more damaging blast/explosion in history, outside of a war situation. It is all very worrying and Lebanon is in a real mess. The future looks very bleak for Lebanon right now, it's a real shame.

[nudge]

20 minutes ago, Stan said:

This helps me greatly with context 

It's also a fertilizer. But yeah, seems highly irresponsible to store such amount of potentially dangerous substance without extra precautions. 

[Eco]

1 hour ago, nudge said:

It's also a fertilizer. But yeah, seems highly irresponsible to store such amount of potentially dangerous substance without extra precautions. 

Yeah - I'm worried about the final body count, as I could imagine that this will go on for over a week. 

I saw certain European countries, including France, have sent over emergency help, so maybe they will be able to get back on their feet sooner rather than later. 

I have a good buddy from Lebanon, thankfully his family aren't in Beirut and are safe, but still, scary scary shit. 

[Spike]

Ah imagine a world without rampant imperialism, no wars, religious unrest, and men were allowed to beat their five wives in peace without the USA dropping a multi-million dollar bomb on their mud hovel. A man can dream.

[Eco]

8 hours ago, Spike said:

Ah imagine a world without rampant imperialism, no wars, religious unrest, and men were allowed to beat their five wives in peace without the USA dropping a multi-million dollar bomb on their mud hovel. A man can dream.

Sometimes I seriously wonder what is wrong with you.

[Michael]

13 hours ago, Eco said:

Yeah - I'm worried about the final body count, as I could imagine that this will go on for over a week. 

I saw certain European countries, including France, have sent over emergency help, so maybe they will be able to get back on their feet sooner rather than later. 

I have a good buddy from Lebanon, thankfully his family aren't in Beirut and are safe, but still, scary scary shit. 

Yeah, they are saying that at least 100 dead now, but that figure is bound to continue to increase. So many people will have died from a huge blast like that in the middle of the city centre. It's a real tragedy and heads will inevitably have to roll for this.

[Michael]

 

[Mel81x+]

Was on call with a colleague who works in Lebanon and she said initially it was just shock now there's so much going wrong with medical services that people are dying just because they can't get any medical aid. The story i was told is that a family had their house blasted due to being closer to the actual blast and the wife got injured, so they rushed her to the hospital as a priority but she had to wait for medical attention and she died while her family was making its way there. Scary stuff going on out there and all because of something stored for years with no proper security around it. 

The governments can all point fingers and lay blame all they want but the real issue is that Lebanon was going through so much before this bomb-blast and I really don't think the economic issues that were rampant there will ever get resolved due to this catastrophe now. 

[Spike]

 

3 hours ago, Eco said:

Sometimes I seriously wonder what is wrong with you.

Something wrong with me!? So you are telling me there isn’t rampant domestic violence in parts of the middle east, brutal poverty, and the USA doesn’t drop expensive military equipment on innocent people, murdering them for no reason but for existing? And you think there is something fucken wrong with me when this all happens and I choose to lament it? Fuck you Eco, you condescending prick, say there something wrong with me for fucks sake. Don’t you dare think this is about Beirut because if it were, I would have made that clear

Edited August 5, 2020 by Spike

[Eco]

50 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Was on call with a colleague who works in Lebanon and she said initially it was just shock now there's so much going wrong with medical services that people are dying just because they can't get any medical aid. The story i was told is that a family had their house blasted due to being closer to the actual blast and the wife got injured, so they rushed her to the hospital as a priority but she had to wait for medical attention and she died while her family was making its way there. Scary stuff going on out there and all because of something stored for years with no proper security around it. 

The governments can all point fingers and lay blame all they want but the real issue is that Lebanon was going through so much before this bomb-blast and I really don't think the economic issues that were rampant there will ever get resolved due to this catastrophe now. 

Yeah - well I'm glad your colleague and family are safe. 

On Al Jazeera, they were broadcasting live outside of the main hospital in Beirut and you could tell that they were not only at a capacity, but that the structure itself looked like just another hazard. 

[Eco]

34 minutes ago, Spike said:

Something wrong with me!? So you are telling me there isn’t rampant domestic violence in parts of the middle east, brutal poverty, and the USA doesn’t drop expensive military equipment on innocent people, murdering them for no reason but for existing? And you think there is something fucken wrong with me when this all happens and I choose to lament it? Fuck you Eco, you condescending prick, say there something wrong with me for fucks sake. Don’t you dare think this is about Beirut because if it were, I would have made that clear

When a country is experiencing a tragedy like this, as well as all the other economic issues that they are dealing with, it certainly could be construed that you were referring to Beirut. 

I'll move past the personal insults, and say that I completely agree with you on the Domestic Violence, and the US's role in the killing of innocents (ie Nawar al-Awlaki). I often struggle with this country and their agenda of saying they are trying to bring 'peace to the middle east', but will bomb cities that are convenient, armed organizations that ultimately become terrorist cells, and make decision based on oil and Israel, without really thinking about the long term effects or the innocents that can and are usually harmed. 

I didn't mean to be condescending, not at all, but we've known one another for awhile now, and have had a few run-ins because of a misinterpretation. I would say that this is obviously another example. I have always had an interest in the Middle East, and so when something like this happens, which appears to have no terrorists ties whatsoever, I can understand my overreaction in thinking that you were implying differently. We also live in a world where people 'spout' truths which are in no way based on facts, and so I obviously jumped to an early conclusion that this is what you were doing. 

This is an awful thing for Lebanon, and I just can't stop feeling like there so many moment throughout the day where our lives are unknowingly at risks. Car accidents, heart attacks, and ports catching fire and causing a massive amount of explosives to explode.  I'd love to have an open dialogue to discuss ME politics with the issues you raised, I just don't think it needs to be today's discussion. This had nothing to do with U.S. dropping bombs, or men beating their wives, this was an already fragile country getting hit with an unforeseen event which has the potential to cripple them for years. 

[Eco]

@Mel81x - I'd like to get your thoughts on the story making headlines in India, and that's of PM Modi laying the foundation for the new Hindu temple on the same grounds where once stood the Babri mosque which was destroyed by Hindu mobs back in 1992?

I don't think you and I have ever personally discussed religion, but obviously there are a lot of Hindu and Muslim tension in India so it's likely that if you identify with one of them, you probably see this event different than if you were on the other side of it.  

[Mel81x+]

 

1 hour ago, Eco said:

@Mel81x - I'd like to get your thoughts on the story making headlines in India, and that's of PM Modi laying the foundation for the new Hindu temple on the same grounds where once stood the Babri mosque which was destroyed by Hindu mobs back in 1992?

I don't think you and I have ever personally discussed religion, but obviously there are a lot of Hindu and Muslim tension in India so it's likely that if you identify with one of them, you probably see this event different than if you were on the other side of it.  

I don't think we've ever really conversed about religion either but let me preface it with this, I was raised Catholic and my parents really never pushed us into religion but made sure we understood what it was. My parents are super religious but having spent many years away from home and having to work in a largely Muslim populated country I suppose had some effect on the way we were allowed to discuss religious things at the dinner table (we still got whacked for misbehaving but open questioning wasn't really reprimanded unless we were being disrespectful in some way).

I personally identify as Catholic but would I shun someone away if I found out they supported something that the larger catholic community was against? Not really. I'm more curious why people do the things they do. In most cases it all boils down to time and the experiences that culminate in that moment and over the years I have learned that if you discount something just because someone tells it to you or feeds it to you as dogma you're really doing yourself a dis-service in the longer run.

Why this long answer? To answer the question about our PM and the going on's with the building of a temple on a place once held by a mosque is a nothing event to me honestly. For years people have talked about the riots and what one community should have done and why the other just sat silently. The bigger issue to me was how the justice system woke up and decided to do this at a time when we as a country are facing some of the most polarizing viewpoints on how Muslims and Hindus are being treated/viewed. 

I think this is the start of something new that we won't be fully equipped to deal with as our numbers rise due to COVID cases and I'd like someone to put that to bed first before we go about doing the things that are going on right now. We have a fractured society and while it may not impact me as much as someone who finds the time to go to protests or causes disturbances like we've seen in the last year I would like my country to get to a point where we can put this kind of shit behind us and actually start moving forward. 

[nudge]

 

Whoa...

[Michael]

Meanwhile, also in the Middle East, there was a huge fire at a market in Ajman, in the UAE.

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Michael

[Dr. Gonzo]

With the Beirut explosion, it’s now being confirmed as one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever. Similar incidents took a lot more lives, and this would have been more devastating if it were normal times. Covid saved lives here, weirdly. The port was less packed than normal and as a result some buildings that were empty or almost empty and that saved their lives. Obviously still very tragic for everyone who died as a result of the explosion. And with thousands injured, it clearly was still very devasting.