Sarah Palins of the Middle East and the Power Pyramid. Political 'Cling-Free' in Arabia
No Arab leader ever announces his resignation. No Arab leader ever resigns, announced or otherwise. In fact, no Arab official, no matter how high or low, potentate or retainer, ever resigns voluntarily. (Well, some do; a very few). They always cling to the office or to power until the next potentate, whether friend, foe, or kin, overthrows them. There are ministers in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf region, that have been in office for a quarter century or more. Imagine: Don Rumsfeld in office for 25 years. Sometimes they are recycled into new portfolios, but that is rare. Mostly they can’t be removed, the potentates, except by two things: promotion and death, and promotion at the top is hard because of the geometry of a pyramid. Death is the best tool of renewal and rejuvenation, if the process can be called that.
They have to be carried out kicking. Or until they expire like stale food or bad medicine. Death can’t be all that bad now, can it? Usually when death intervenes, they say in official and censured media that Allah has taken him to a better place as a reward. Maybe, but I always say: God, what took you so long?
The governor has proven, probably not for the first time, that she is, as Arabs like to say, more manly than most men- or is it more womanly than most men. You should try to take this last statement as a compliment, perhaps a back-handed one but a compliment in a twisted Middle Eastern context.
Well, more manly (more womanly even) than most Arab leaders and not just because they use more L’Oreal to darken their aging tresses while they cling to power. (A couple of witty but foolish local observers have sworn to me that the potentates and dictators prefer to use black Kiwi shoe polish).
Cheers
mhg
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