IN TRANSIT THROUGH DUBAI AIRPORT

 In September 2022, I flew with my wife from Tbilisi to Bangkok via Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. We flew to Abu Dhabi on a Dubai Air plane.

At the airport in Dubai I ended up having an altercation with one of the members of airport security, who vehemently and impolitely insisted on forcing me to take off my shoes.

 Since  9/11 2001, travelers have completely forgotten how they were normally being treated at airports before the Saudi attack on the World Trade Center in NY. Since then, we have all been treated as potential terrorists, forced to take our shoes off,  left without a belt, humiliated in every way by security teams lacking basic common sense.

In the altercation in Dubai, I told the boss of the agent who insisted on making me  take my shoes off that it was an abuse to mistreat elderly people such as myself, hailing from European countries,  who have no history  of terrorist activities. Moreover, I drew the attention of the chief that most, if not almost all, of today's terrorists come precisely from or around the absolutist states of the Gulf, a fact that the people coordinated by him knew only too well. After I was given to sign a declaration that I would never pass through Dubai again - which I did with great pleasure - I was allowed to board the plane...

I remembered this episode yesterday, when I learned about the attack of the Saudi psychiatrist in Magdeburg. Both he and Osama Bin Laden had problems in Saudi Arabia with the royal family there and took revenge outside of it, against the ordinary Americans - and now on the Germans - for the alleged Western support of their governments for the Riyadh monarchy. In both cases, the main issue was not really about the Islamic faith. In fact, the issue  was an internal political conflict opposing 2 Saudi dissidents to  the Saudi royals' rule,  for which unfortunately the residents of New York or  now Magdeburg paid the ultimate price.

Because of the actions of such individuals, we continue to be mistreated or abused at  airports around the world for the past 23 years. The terrorist threat is actively being used since then as a pretext to generate more security jobs, leading to the formation of over-sized, over-zealous and unprofessional teams ,which are needlessly harassing international travellers. Is there no end in sight to this veritable nightmare?

The Geopolitical Stakes of the 2024 Romanian Presidential Elections

 The unexpected results of the first round of the Romanian presidential elections have greatly alarmed Washington, Brussels and Bucharest woke elites, who demanded and obtained the cancellation of the election process just before the second round on December 6.

https://florianpantazi.substack.com/p/the-geopolitical-stakes-of-the-2024

Civic vs Ethnic Nations

 "  In fact the differences between the two models of nationalism have been grossly exaggerated and are simply not real. Western nations were also based on a dominant national group that until very recently did not provide places for minorities in public life. We tend to forget today that in the 1930s an immigration country like the US had extremely restrictive immigration policies meant to retain “Anglo-Saxon” ethnic dominance, and that with very few exceptions, “over the last three centuries the building of all modern nation states required one ethnic group dominating and assimilating others”. " 

https://florianpantazi.substack.com/p/civic-v-ethnic-nations

The Danubian Democracies

 Accordingly, there is an obvious need for a more accurate geopolitical concept covering former Soviet satellite-states, subsequently lumped together into “New” Europe. The latter has proved to be an inadequate reflection of realities on the ground. 

Taking  commonalities and shared political agendas into account, one such grouping could be called  the Danubian democracies.

https://florianpantazi.substack.com/p/the-danubian-democracies

The US and the Polish Honey Trap

 " Following the law of unintended consequences, the pursuit of America’s global hegemony agenda has given rise in Warsaw to hopes that Poland could somehow benefit from NATO’s expansion in order to resurrect the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a confederation that at its zenith in the 17th century covered a million square kilometres and encompassed the territories of today’s Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. 

https://florianpantazi.substack.com/p/the-us-and-the-polish-honey-trap

IT'S TIME FOR AN AMERICAN GORBACHEV ?

 This at least is the opinion shared by the foreign news editor of Cotidianul daily from Romania

I think however that a much more appropriate analogy for the current situation the US finds itself in is not with the USSR in its last decade, but with Yeltsin's Russia.

Consider  this . By 1999, Boris Yeltsin was to ill to fulfill his duties as president, same as Biden is now. Both Yeltsin and  Biden  worked for decades as high-ranking officials in their parties, Yeltsin for the CPSU, Biden for the Democratic party. They were both elected presidents at the end of their careers, when they proved unable to adapt to a rapidly changing international environment. 

Moreover, the two were accused of allowing their children to profit from their positions in the state by taking bribes from foreign business people. And finally, given their medical condition , they were both unable in the end  to work for more than a few hours daily and we're eased out of their positions by their political allies and / or family.

Women as Political Leaders

 

[…]

What are the reasons for putting a woman in charge at the very top ?

More often than not, the choice of a women as heads of government in the West is a clear indication of the dysfunctional political system or of a party, one that is experiencing great difficulty in managing the state’s affairs or its internal dynamics.   This  political innovation was imported by Western democracies from the Third World :

This  post is on Substack, to continue reading click here. 

https://substack.com/@florianpantazi?utm_source=about-page