In previous parts were framed culture & communications (Part I), stratification of society (Part II), migrating populations (Part III), inclusivity as seen in the Global South and North (Part IV), and further asymmetries in newscasting among Global North & South (Part V). Let's see how tribal mores based on merit still exist in the West that's otherwise based on objective facts and common law.
Update 1: see next post, Part VII here.
Update 2: added a Synoptic View at bottom.
Update: go to Part II, blog after next, for more musings on culture and communications.
This follows on my previous post: Migrants and refugees: As I was employed by a local distributor, I had a contract written in Arabic. I met a Liverpudlian converted to Islam c/w new name, Emirati wife and two young children, who kindly translated it for me... He warned me however that contract wasn't worth the paper it was printed on! Why? Arabic is a symbolic language, and words can have various meanings depending on circumstances. Arabic culture is still based on desert heritage and tribal leaders, they have majlis (not to be confused with masjids root of mosque) or men's councils... and the Kuwaiti parliament cancelled itself last 2010, as all it was doing was rubber-stamp princes' decrees!
Update: follow Part VIII here.
I recapped in my previous post (here) the first five parts ending w how tribal mores persist today. Having mentioned im/migration in Part III (here), my stay in the family home led to discuss how we relate to our parents. Note that I was born on the way out so to speak - born in Vienna en route from Budapest to Paris as my parents fled the Hungarian Uprising on New Years Eve 1957 - whereas my sibs were born 15 yrs later in Pau, SW FR, where my parents settled - that time interval isn't germane here - but it helps explain the generation gap. Here is what I said in French:
... We skipped a generation as privileged immigrants: in fact I was the 1st transit generation, and [my sibs ] were the 2nd landed generation. Mom and Dad were "entre deux eaux" [1], in between waterflows and never found their feet on the ground...
Update 1: see a story at this time that took me 20 yrs to tell, Model United Nations 2004 Bahrain.
Update 2: see a later follow-on post here.
Update 3: ref. 2026 current affairs, see here “the doctrine of velayat‑e faqih (“guardianship of the jurist”) that structures Iran’s political system, then compares it with two other religion‑state models—Saudi Arabia’s Islamic monarchy and the Vatican’s papal theocracy—and with Jewish tradition, which develops a rich legal‑religious system (halakha) but does not instantiate a modern, centralized theocratic state. The aim is to clarify how different traditions conceive the relationship between religious authority and political sovereignty, especially as Iran faces a succession crisis around its new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei”.
Picking up where the previous post left of, on a possible origin of migrant worker patterns, let's rewind a few years to Bahrain a decade prior. While I had been to the Middle East in Oman five years prior, the ten days I spent in Bahrain made me fall in love with the region. Previous business visits where we were fêted and in group sessions, contrasted with attending a week-long industry show, solo, bracketed by two weekends. Our local fixer visited me and took me on a business daytrip to Qatar, but that was it. He appeared fidgety and uneasy, I was to learn why...
"Levant" comes from old French for "terres au-delà du soleil levant" or lands beyond the rising sun, the Middle East in the European Middle Ages. This blog will chronicle memories of a little over a year spent in Kuwait City from October 2010 to January 2012. This came at a hiatus in my career between a failed online oil venture called oilelefant.com and before my last gainful employment in the oil patch with a global integrator.
Part VII caps the economic, ethnic and social aspects of the gradual transition from earlier tribal merit-based to later rational principles-based systems, with older aspects still lingering today. Having lived and worked on three continents, and spent three decades recovering my identities of origin and now my spirituality — largely via rc.org summarised in an excellent précis here (private use only) no small thanks to my ex— let me share some pointers in my very personal experience of all of the above. Follow on Part IX here.
In previous posts we framed culture & communications (Part I), stratification of society (Part II) and migrating populations (Part III). Further to Medium posts on post-colonialism (ending here) and benign patriarchy (ending here), let's address issues of inclusivity, esp. as LGBTQIA+ are seen in the Global South and North. The conclusion is that embracing sexual inclinations is not being permissive but rather being inclusive as humility to think more clearly. Follow on Part V.
The last of this series, blog continues here.
Ten is a good place to stop as I quit social media and cancelled online subscriptions - incl. a decade or so of map data I could no longer afford to keep online, tho I kept some on my dev channel (top right here). This is a winter view from where I moved to, for now, in Pau SW FR where I enjoy the mountains up close&personal, say, here.
In previous parts were framed culture & communications (Part I), stratification of society (Part II), migrating populations (Part III), and issues of inclusivity as seen in the Global South and North (Part IV). Let's look now at further asymmetry of newscast among Global North & South. Follow on Part VI.
Note: I find the Middle East intriguing, at the intersection / boundary of Global North & South.
Ever since Kuwait I read Al Jazeera English, and I found this the best reporting (among many) written by a Cambridge University English professor famous for outing post-colonial disparities: Ms. Gopal contrasts the fascination around the Titan accident offshore Newfoundland and the shrug-off of the migrant disaster in the Eastern Mediterranean... 5 vs. 500 people, high tech vs dilapidated vessel, the contrast couldn't be starker. She concludes with:
Update 1: see a follow-on post here.
Update 2: in Andrew Zolnai Private Blog, two mid-2026 posts on Middle-Eastern religious regimes compared here, and Climate Change and the Old Testament here.
To continue the tenor of this blog, let me relate a last example of contrasting cultures. This follows my second-from-previous post here.
Watched it on ABC News Live, here are my notes. This is a rare show of genuine journalistic ambition in the post-truth era. It slots in with previous posts on Language & Mores here.