Golf and Hotels

Trump resort under development in Bali, Indonesia. The largest population of Muslims in the world lives in Indonesia, and of course most of them are not affiliated with terrorism. They are more likely to be victims than perpetrators -- just like Christians in the U.S. But some Islamist terrorism does originate in the country, leading one to wonder how it has escaped the president's travel ban. Image source: DJ Trump.

Here are some of the countries with the largest Muslim populations in the world (Muslim populations shown). As of today, some are welcome in the nation formerly known as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
The distinction between the naughty and nice lists is not related to terrorism -- the 9/11 attacks were brought to us by people on the WELCOME LIST, and no attacks on U.S. soil have originated in the NOT WELCOME countries for at least 40 years. (According to Cato Institute.) So what distinguishes the two lists? Golf and hotels. If you are going to be a terrorist, be sure you are from a country with Trump realty connections. NOT WELCOME Iran 74,819,000 Iraq 31,108,000 Libya 6,325,000 Somalia 9,231,000 Sudan 39,027,950 Syria 20,895,000 Yemen 24,023,000 WELCOME Saudi Arabia 25,493,000 UAE 3,577,000 Egypt 73,800,000 Azerbaijan 8,795,000 Turkey 74,660,000 Indonesia 204,847,000 For more details, see Sprawling Business Empire in the NY Daily News.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balún: Sleep While Dancing

Image
Photo by way of PopGun I had not heard of the Puerto Rico-Brooklyn band until yesterday, when I caught this interview on the NPR program Studio 360 (which gave credit to Latino USA for the original story). The interview centers on the construction of the band's signature "dreambow" rhythms, particularly in the band's new song El Espanta . Angélica Negrón describes what she sees as the therapeutic value of this approach. I found it both enjoyable and instructive to listened to that song a few times before returning to the interview. The video of Balún's La Nueva Ciudad is an example of what the artists mean by dreambow, and is a perfect example of Negrón's expression "sleep while dancing." The lyrics describe a progressively more complicated metaphorical connection between the narrator and the stars, as her head, throat, and legs represent a telescope. The chorus laments a growing distance from a human subject. The longer video "Full Episode&q
Read more

Shanay-timpishka

Image
I started my Sunday with this discussion between journalist Guy Raz and volcanologist Andrés Ruzo, whose childhood conversations at home led him to an amazing discovery in the Amazon Basin of Peru. (Because it contains have of the basin, Brazil is the best-known of the Amazon countries, but several upstream neighbors also have vast tracts of the basin and its forests.) I recommend listening to the audio and then watching Dr. Ruzo's full TED Talk , given in 2014 in Rio de Janeiro. His story begins with curiosity, legend, and history. It provides insight into indigenous knowledge, geothermal science, ecology, and the concept of ecotourism. It even touches on coffee! And from the TED Radio summary, I learn of Dr. Ruzo's coffee connection. In addition to growing up in Peru, part of his childhood was near volcanoes in Nicaragua, which means he is not far removed from coffeelands. Andrés Ruzo has written his story in The Boiling River
Read more

Before the Flood

Image
I really did not want to see Before the Flood , even though I teach several courses that relate directly to it. I pictured myself viewing it like a kid (or me) at a scary movie, watching through little gaps between my fingers as I try to shield my eyes from the screen. I have watched An Inconvenient Truth  and its sequel a few times, and even with Al Gore's dry presentation, I found it nervous-making, at least. Melting Arctic ice. Some parts of the film actually are pretty frightening. So when I heard that a real film-maker had produced something very convincing about climate change, I knew that I had to see it and would want to avoid it, at the same time. Given the dramatic potential of climate change, I feared being sucked into an experience that would manipulate audience emotions with dramatic music and images of peril. Thankfully, this film does none of that, and I managed to watch it three times in a ten-day period, without being scarred. DiCaprio documents his travels as the
Read more