Wait.. What? Millions for "muslim technology"

[SteamWake]

Now Im all for helping out developing nations and all but this just seems bizzare to me at this point in time with record deficits and all that.

Besides alot of the 'muslim nations' are not exactly emerging natitons.

'Buying' friendship?

The White House Friday highlighted a new multi-million-dollar technology fund for Muslim nations, following a pledge made by President Barack Obama in his landmark speech to the Islamic world.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

[conus00]

That's ridiculous!!!
There is saying:"The charity starts at home". Why is he attempting to spend millions outside of the country while so many Americans are struggling is beyond me...?

[CaptainHaplo]

Liberal Answer - "We have done it for years with other nations, your just a bigot because its going to nations with a different religion than yours."

Real Answer - Its a lack of understanding the culture. The Administration is on an international version of "Can't we all just get along"? They think that if they show they are friendly, then other people will be their friend. They lack the comprehension that these cultures see such things as opportunities to smile, take your money, then use it to buy the knife they will stab in your back. Your now seeing the Foreign Policy inexperience.

[Skybird]

Doomed to fail, that is 110% certain.

Meanwhile, Quatar, Saudi-Arabia and other Arab nations are spending money like crazy to

- buy shares in Western companies, often shares big enough to get veto rights,
- form two of the four financially most powerful investement fonds in the world,
- built artificial islands in the Gulf to construct fantasy ressorts and hotels on them,
- raise Sharia-compatible banking in the West,
- boost financial funds for mosque-building throughout Europe.

What Obama now pays them for, they could very well pay for themselves. It's just that they have made the intentional decision not to do so.

Very, very naive. Good will is one thing. Distorting reality for it is a very different. But it is very much en vogue today.

[Shearwater]

What about the Arab League? What about the OPEC states? China? They are already getting enough money from the West that buys their oil.

[Platapus]

First of all, OPIC is not giving any money to any foreign country. That is not what OPIC does.

OPIC provides loans
OPIC also provides insurance for American investors to help counter any political risk in the investments
OPIC provides investment funds to Americans to invest in overseas industries (AKA outsourcing). These funds are also in the form of loans that have to be paid back.
OPIC has been operating in the majority of the countries of the world since 1971.

The White House said the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) had issued a call for proposals for the fund, which will provide financing of between 25 and 150 million dollars for selected projects and funds.

There is no change from what Bush had for the Global Technology and Innovative Fund of the OPIC. Same amount of money, open to the same countries. The White House does this every year since 1971.


Every country/industry whether Muslim or not, has to go through the same application process as every other country/industry. No special treatment.


All spelled out on http://www.opic.gov/


Really, nothing to see here folks. Business as usual.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Shearwater

What about the Arab League? What about the OPEC states? China? They are already getting enough money from the West that buys their oil.

China still gets official developement aid from Germany that even is labelled that in the bilance. Meanwhile the Chinese economy in parts is already strangling us, and sets up more and mor epressure. Thanks to help from machines made in Germany.

And Israel recently demanded from Germany (oh how allergic I am to that tone and style) to be delivered two German stealth corvettes. The fascinating Israeli idea is that although it should be a regular "trade", the Germans should pay themselves for the corvettes, and Israel should pay NOTHING (in the past they payed at least some part of the costs for boats and submarines they "bought" in Germany). German federal leaders already said Germany should do that, for it helps to support German jobs in the suffering German shipyards.

It seems that logic can suffer cancer, too. If you are unemployed, get your own contractor, do your job and pay yourself. That way you are no longer unemployed and even have an income!

Ein dreifaches Hip-Hip-Hurra auf unsere die Welt rettenden GUTMENSCHEN!

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Doomed to fail, that is 110% certain.

Meanwhile, Quatar, Saudi-Arabia and other Arab nations are spending money like crazy to

- buy shares in Western companies, often shares big enough to get veto rights,
- form two of the four financially most powerful investement fonds in the world,
- built artificial islands in the Gulf to construct fantasy ressorts and hotels on them,
- raise Sharia-compatible banking in the West,
- boost financial funds for mosque-building throughout Europe.

What Obama now pays them for, they could very well pay for themselves. It's just that they have made the intentional decision not to do so.

Very, very naive. Good will is one thing. Distorting reality for it is a very different. But it is very much en vogue today.

Those guys are pikers compared to the Chinese.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Doomed to fail, that is 110% certain.

Meanwhile, Quatar, Saudi-Arabia and other Arab nations are spending money like crazy to

- buy shares in Western companies, often shares big enough to get veto rights,
- form two of the four financially most powerful investement fonds in the world,
- built artificial islands in the Gulf to construct fantasy ressorts and hotels on them,
- raise Sharia-compatible banking in the West,
- boost financial funds for mosque-building throughout Europe.

What Obama now pays them for, they could very well pay for themselves. It's just that they have made the intentional decision not to do so.

Very, very naive. Good will is one thing. Distorting reality for it is a very different. But it is very much en vogue today.

your tax dollars at work.
Is it 2012 yet?

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

your tax dollars at work.

Earning a good interest rate from the loans, while at the same time helping American businesses grow? Yeah, a good use of our tax dollars actually.

[TLAM Strike]

Giving them more Technolgy! It was bad enupgh when we gave them firearms 300 years ago!

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Giving them more Technolgy! It was bad enupgh when we gave them firearms 300 years ago!

Contrary to the popular myth you're stating, they actually created the first firearms. Hand cannons originated in the Middle East (in Southeastern Arabia) by members of the Islamic faith, hundreds of years before the Europeans even discovered gunpowder or knew anything about China and India. They were also the first to actually use them, successfully, might I add, against the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut.

Islamic inventions also include to name a few:


*explosive gunpowder

*multi-barreled/rapid-firing guns

*torpedoes (from Hasan al-Rammah, circa 1275)

*gunpowder cartridges

*matchlock muskets (Ottoman Empire was using them long before the Europeans got their hands on them, as early as the 1430s; the Janissary Corps was anyway).

*rocket artillery

*the compass rose

*compass dials (Abu al-Shatir, 1320s)

*Xebec and Polacca sailing vessels (those things that made the Barbary Corsairs so successful, that were used from the 1500s to the 1800s by nations the world over)

*programmable analog computers (from 1206, by Al-Jazari)

*thermometers (Avicenna)

*magnifying glasses (al-Haytham, 1021)

*modern optics (really, this entire field was pioneered by Islamic scientists; al-Haytham again was responsible for contributing the most to it)

*celestial globes (Ali Kashmiri, 1589)

*mechanical astronomical clocks (1559, Taqi al-Din)

*pigeon airmail system (al-Aziz, 975)

*the modern scientific method and experimental science (al-Haytham again; was really the first scientist because he required that his students provide empirical evidence for their scientific claims, and defined qualitative and quantitative observations)

*graph paper and mathematical grids (900s AD; originally used for mapping out the positions of the stars and planets)

*principle of bookbinding (from the 1100s; originated in Morocco that was controlled by the Moors)

*cryptanalysis (800s AD, al-Kindi)

*surgery instruments and methods that we still use today (most of which came from Abu al-Zahrawi)

*petrol (from crude oil extracts)

*distilled and purified water (Ahmad Hassan wrote in the 8th century how to also distill salt water and purify it so that one might drink it without suffering the typical effects of dehydration)

*a vaccination against smallpox (hundreds of years before Jenner's "discovery" in Europe, Saeid-Alhazred of the Ottoman Empire gave children in what is now Syria and parts of Turkey cowpox to protect them against the disease)

*modern coffee (they imported it from India, which they then passed along to Mediterranean crusaders)

*kerosene lamps (from the 800s AD, by Muhammad al-Razi)

*sweet and potent toothpaste (a change from the bitter ones all other civilizations had produced before; by a fellow known only as "Ziryab")

*deodorants and the perfume industry (again, thank Ziryab for this)

*public hospitals and mental institutions

*quarantines for times of widespread infectious diseases

*pharmacies (and apothecaries)

*the on/off switch (for the running water geared mechanisms which they had during the 900s AD)

*the steam turbine (from the mid 16th century, which was the first that could actually be used for practical applications)

*cancer therapy and anti-cancer medications (see The Cannon of Medicine, from 1205, by Avicenna)

*cough medicine

*adhesive bandages

*alcohol used to clean injuries of infection

[Schroeder]

I thought artillery rockets were a Chinese invention.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

I thought artillery rockets were a Chinese invention.

Yes and no, I guess. Wiki has this:

The use of rockets as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Firearrows were used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. Fire arrows were also used in Korea, in devices such as the hwacha or the Singijeon. The use of medieval rocket artillery was picked up by the invading Mongols and spread to the Ottoman Turks who in turn used them on the European battlefield.
Metal-cylinder Rocket Artillery

The first iron-cased metal-cylinder rocket artillery were developed by Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali, in the 1780s. He successfully used these metal-cylinder rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Mysore rockets of this period were much more advanced than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.[1]

[Schroeder]

Thanks for clearing that.