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Serious satire
"Humor is a funny way of being serious"
-Thomas Edison
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Copyright© 2001-2010, Renato Obeid
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"Top blog/Renato Obeid's World/Today's pick: This rambling weblog is worth reading not so much for its satirical posts but more for its insight into the minutiae of life in Lebanon, including the etiquette of road accidents and how to hire a taxi.”
-Jane Perrone, The Guardian
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Monday, June 28, 2004
The most relived man in the world today would have to be America's equivalent of Chris Patten*, L Paul Bremmer, who handed over power to the Iraqi's today, and flew out, two days ahead of schedule (he couldn’t wait).
Except in superficial appearance this is no different than the scrambled frantic evacuations by helicopter from the roof of the besieged American Embassy in Saigon as the city feel to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
The Americans are on the run and are now effectively absentee landlords ("just send us the money").
The ahead of schedule handover of Iraqi "sovereignty" reminds me of my own handover of sovereignty.
In 1988 when I was in Year Twelve, school authorities called us in to an assembly two days before the official last day of school break-up and told us that, as of now, our school careers were over.
This was done to forestall the high jinks that invariably occur on such occasions.
Was new Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi busy preparing flour-bombs for Wednesday's designated handover, was President Ghazi al Yawar going to pour a bag if sugar into Principal Bremmer's petrol tank?
To this day I still regret the abrupt termination of my schooling – apart from the fact that I would have been two days smarter, the sudden handover was anti-climactic.
Your last day of school is different and enjoyable when you know that it's your last day of school – it's not the same if it's just sprung on you.
I'd give anything for those lost two days, I don't think that the Iraqi's would though.
*Although there's a big difference between the Hong Kong handover and the Iraqi handover – Hong Kong was built by the Brits and handed over ,still in its box, to the Chinese to ruin whereas the Americans ruined Iraq and handed over the pieces to the Iraqi's to fix.
8:37 am
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