Follow Up: An hour ago, six days later Globes salute, Mubarrak resigns and leaves Cairo. This Globes people are clairvoyant.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Globes turns against Mubarrak
Follow Up: An hour ago, six days later Globes salute, Mubarrak resigns and leaves Cairo. This Globes people are clairvoyant.
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7 comments:
I never understood what (other than pure greed) that inspires dictators to steal so much. No matter how lavish his lifestyle, he and his children and his children's children could not spend $70 BILLION in ten lifetimes. $70 MILLION I could understand or even $700 million, but what on earth can you do with $70 BILLION?
Why not add another two zeroes and make it 7000 billion. The MiddleEast is prone to exaggerate.
Ivan, 70 billion is reasonable for 30 years of service as dictator.
It may be reasonable for Sheikh Al Sabah since he has oil. The figure for non-Opec 3rd world countries should be around 4-5 billion. Seventy billion will put Mubarak proportionately in the Mobutu class which I doubt, as we should have heard much more about it before.
I have no access to Mubarrak's bank statements, and presumably, the journalists just threw a number into the air. It is less that two billion per year, a subsistence level salary for any selfrespecting despot.
I used to have the foolish idea that journalists were supposed to print the truth and that they were supposed to have substantial backup for what they were printing. Now I realize that journalists print whatever suits their ideological (usually leftist) bias and that they require little or no evidence. You call up the "source" and ask them "would it be out of the question for Mubarrak to have a $70 billion fortune?", the source says no and you go with the story as if it were fact. Or if the opposite fits your narrative you print that Mubarrak is a wise and selfless man who lives modestly like a hermit.
K
Mubarrak's secret fortune is - secret. Journalism as such cannot exist, because (1) it has to be bought by the paying public, that is, the people has to be willing to pay for it. In general, people does not buy science books but romantic novels, the most improbable the better. (2) journalism, as all enterprise and organization in this modern state, depends on bureaucratic permits, which can be retired anytime. There are clear rules what a journalist can say to show himself as a courageous fighter and what cannot, which would really undermine the system.
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