Vanity!

And now he thinks he is Moses. “Let my people go,” he roars. Some just adore Chalabi here. (and his buddy Francis Brooke.) VIP treatment and all. What is it with those Chicago boys? I once ran into an old sticker that read, “Cold War is over and Chicago won”! No simple vanity, I suppose! But Moses? Who knows, though? We have all been wrong about identities/potentials in the past, haven’t we? .

Take that waiter, for instance, in the last restaurant you had a meal in. The one you refused to tip because you thought him clueless, dumb, and incompetent! Imagine the shock of seeing him as you are about to clinch a deal for a lucrative contract, and he just so happens to be the man in the position to make or break you. Far fetched you say? Take this amusing revelation in Cockburn’s exposé on Chalabi:

Finance minister Kamil Gailani, formerly a waiter in the Sinjan restaurant in downtown Amman, is viewed as another Chalabi acolyte, as is the head of the central bank and the bosses of the two leading commercial banks.

So do yourselves a favor and be nice to that "insignificant little peon" making life tolerable for you everyday. You never know how things might turn out.

This brings me to the little row over the new Airport and the politics of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. The experts, true to form, can’t decide how to call what they see:

Given the opaque nature of Iran’s political system, it is difficult to determine the attitude of the country’s conservative religious hierarchy towards the guards’ rising political profile. Some observers suggest the guards’ efforts to become more politically active are simply a reflection of changing geopolitical conditions that have rewritten the rules governing domestic Iranian politics. Others believe the Revolutionary Guard commanders may be overplaying their hand, and thus could soon be subject to action designed to curb their political ambitions.

Leave it to the non-experts then: expect soon the news of the impending integration of the Army and the Guards...just a hunch.

And incase you were looking for something to do: find any Krzysztof Kieslowski movie and experience delight. Don’t fret the pronunciation. Our learned Polish Blogger was good enough to provide guidance:

"I just thought that it might be nice if I tell you how in Polish
we would pronounce Krzysztof Kielowski. As a matter of fact he
is not that vowel-less as he appears. In English transcription it
could be Kzhyshtof Kyeshlovsky. However, English transliteration
is probably one of the worst among the possible ones […] when it comes to Polish:


"rz" like "j" in French (but while speaking faster "rz" sounds
similar to "sz");

"y" sounds as Turkish "i", just like "ih" pronounced from the
throat, which makes it sound less soft;

"sz" is identical to "shin";

"ie" same as "ye";

"" is problematic; it is a very soft "sh", as in word "Shiva"
when uttered in Hindi way;

and "w" like "v".

I hope you will find this name pronounceable.
By the way, Kielowski was an excellent Game Boy player."