Habib Battah
@habib_b
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Journalist, founder @BeirutReport Words: @ThePublicSource @NovaraMedia @NiemanReports @The_NewArab @Jacobin @Guardian @FortuneMagazine @ArchReview @AJEnglish
Beirut / New York
Joined September 2010
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A brief history of US embassies in Beirut: what do they do and what have they done? I tried to answer in my latest piece for
@meriponline
NEW in MERO: "Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy" from
@habib_b
. An in-depth look at the construction and political economy of the US Embassy in the Beirut suburb of Awkar.
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Imagine if Hamas bombed residential Tel Aviv to kill an Israeli general at home. Would journalists report it as an “assassination” or a terrorist attack?
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As smoke clears, port of Beirut devastated- added to casualties- billons of $ in imports including national wheat silos-seem to have been eviscerated. Homes shattered for miles. Damages will be massive and could not come at worse time when everyone is broke and hungry
#Beirut
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I've seen a few things in my life, but the horrific blood-soaked carpet on my
@airfrance
plane yesterday was another level! An hour into the transatlantic flight from Paris to Toronto, I kept smelling something gross and couldn't figure it out. Until I got up and looked down...(1
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.
@AirFrance
told CNN blood and feces I sat in was a “low to nonexistent” risk. Doctors disagree. “In a hospital setting this would’ve been treated as contamination and a biohazard…The plane should have been taken out of service until properly cleaned”
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I just kept wondering what happened to this poor passenger that lost this much blood and how did it happen. One
@airfrance
staff member mentioned internal bleeding and infection. What if it was a disease-would I or any other passengers be exposed?
@BEA_Aero
@TSBCanada
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I really hope
@airfrance
@iata
takes this seriously and can tell us if we were exposed to any hazardous medical/bio waste. Chief attendant filed a report, noting sick passenger traveled Thursday from Paris to Boston, so 1 other flight exposed passengers to blood before ours. (6
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@airfrance
Thanks for getting back to me
@airfrance
but this is not a customer service issue- it’s a BIOHAZARD. There is fresh human blood on your aircraft. You may have exposed me and other passengers to infectious disease. We need to know the condition of the sick passenger ASAP.
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Have you heard of Paris? They say it’s the Beirut of Europe!
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Here I am trying to get the blood off my luggage that it absorbed from the airplane carpet. The
@airfrance
staff crowded around, shocked because they claimed a cleaning crew had removed the seats after the sick passenger incident, but apparently not cleaned the floor. (4
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I took out my backpack from under the seat and the strap was soaked in blood too. I got on my hands and knees and cleaned for half an hour. The
@airfrance
staff gave me gloves and more wipes. Then they casually noted a passenger had hemorrhaged on a flight before ours. (3
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Being an independent journalist is tough but even more disheartening when major corporate media like
@VICE
steal your work. My photo for a piece I wrote on Lebanon’s Jewish community in 2010 for
@AJEnglish
was used with no permission, compensation or attribution.
#plagiarism
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I noticed a big stain across the whole carpet of the seats. It was wet to touch. At first the
@airfrance
attendant shrugged and gave me some wipes. In my broken French told her it smelled like merde (shit). Then the wipes came up blood red. I used over a dozen of them... (2
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One difference: protestors voices not heard much, coverage dominated by wide shots, narrarated by pundits, show hosts. Whereas in Lebanon, reporters passed mic around to crowd for hrs, allowing them to speak for themselves, uncensored
#atlantaprotest
#SanJos
é
#Minneapolis
#Floyd
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@LauraMiers
I asked the airline if there were any protocols for dealing with biohazard spills and they didn’t know. They said the captain merely spoke to the cleaning crew. Apparently no one follows up on their work and plane hygiene in general. Could be an industry-wide problem.
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Dr.
@RichardMDawood
says that cleaning diarrhea without disinfecting it – as Battah ended up doing in the (
@airfrance
) galley, near the food preparation area – can “aerosolize” its particles.
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Woman voice shaking says she was hit by men that destroyed protest camps, begins crying: “It’s not their fault-they have no schools, no opportunities, they are raised to follow their leader, we have no good public schools in this country”
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Last week I witnessed a street vendor running panicked toward me on the corniche. He was pushing his cart so fast the wheels were rattling. Then he ditched the cart, jumped, somersaulted onto the pavement at my feet, cried in agony then got up and bolted into oncoming traffic 1/3
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“There lots of things passengers do on planes that involve eating and using their hands, and it’s not very easy to wash hands on a plane, it’s crowded, and it’s very easy for people to contaminate surfaces.” In fact, the diarrhea may have been more hazardous than the blood.
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…because he “broke the law.” A fisherman shouted back: “The law is only applied on the poor.” Indeed the corniche is full of illegally built luxury hotels that pay no tax. In that moment I remembered something
@vijayprashad
often says: “There is no war but class war.” 3/3
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“This is a very unhygienic situation, and we don’t know what the passenger was suffering from or whether it was infective,” said Dr. Richard Dawood. “There are lots of blood-borne viral infections – hepatitis B, C, HIV…
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Stuff they don’t teach in journalism school: Hundreds of American journalists have worked for the CIA, which often subsidizes major media. Funny how western journalists often make fun of Arabs for being suspicious of them. Source: Understanding Global News by Jaap van Ginneken
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Lebanese news opens with special coverage of rescue dog. “This Chilean dog did your job for you,” says news anchor, in clear reference to politicians. “We should never use the word “dog” as an insult again.
@LBCI_NEWS
#Beirut
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This video appears to be shot near Lebanon’s electricity company, already barely functional and now probably completely shattered. The cost of this explosion will devastate us in so many ways
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LBC cuts live speech of independent candidate
@JHaddadOfficial
to carry live speech of incumbent
@MichelPharaon
who lost. Even in failure, rich old men still get more attention than new voices. Media power is political power.
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An air strike on a densely populated capital city is not “an assassination” it is an act of war on an entire country. It is not a “targeted killing” it is a crime against a neighborhood, a brutal terrorizing of tens of thousands of civilians who live there.
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Was just asked on Australian news radio if Lebanon will “disappear” or not. It’s shocking to live in a country that is so dehumanized that this can be a serious question.
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2 World Bank reports only a few yrs apart. In 2022, the Bank draws a cartoonish image of Lebanon as a state of liars. Yet in 2018, just before the collapse, it painted the country as fertile soil for investment. On what basis does World Bank consider itself an arbiter of ethics?
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Tilerson says he hopes Iran elections bring free speech and democracy to its people. Saudi foreign minister looks uncomfortable.
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Don’t remember this announcement for Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis. Maybe I missed it.
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Discovered a beautiful hotel and restaurant in old Batroun, a stone’s throw from Mediterranean beaches. Great for walking and biking. Come visit us and bring some much-needed dollars! Rate was $50 a night, now a fraction of that with hyperinflation.
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3 police chased after him, faces shaking. Then I heard a scream. The man had fallen into a ditch in the median. Police yanked him out as he begged, cuffed him, his corn and cotton candy scattered everywhere. Pedestrians stood in shock. A well dressed man said he deserved it… 2/3
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Netanyahu: "Israel the only place in Middle East Christians can celebrate Christmas.." What an utter lie. Here's what Beirut looks like:
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3 weeks after online registration, my dad along with hundreds of other octogenarians got their covid vaccines in a smooth, orderly fashion in a bombed-out Beirut hospital. Everyone waited their turn, no one skipped the line. Many arrived on stretchers.
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Lebanon may be far outgunned by Saudi Arabia but the Saudis stand no chance against Lebanese memes.
#SaudiPurge
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For over 3 decades, the small group of men who rule Lebanon have made billions in real estate yet failed to build sewage treatment, all our toilets flush to the sea, one of the most polluted. Environmental justice is one reason why people are on the streets.
#LebanonRevolts
Good morning
#Lebanon
Our failed government -as always- failed at separating sewage water from clear water and it all ended up (as the video shows) in the sea ..
#lebanonprotests
#environment
#Beirut
#pollution
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Speech is not free. In rich countries, you can lose your job; in poor ones, your life. Either way, speech isn’t free. It has a cost. Speech is only free when you don’t upset anyone who has direct power over you. How free is that?
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The Bisri river valley was saved by environment activists- only to be trampled upon by the 1 percent that can afford off-road luxury cars.
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@suenauthoo
@airfrance
Seems nothing. I asked them if they had any protocols for biohazard and the company rep that called me didn’t know.
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Western media provide an abundance critical coverage of sectarian or sham electoral systems in the Arab world: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, etc. But how often do we hear them comment on elections (or total absence of them) in oil-rich Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE? 🧵
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Covid doesn’t just attack those it infects- it attacks anyone who needs a hospital, because there are no beds left. All we can do for my father, who suffers from vascular disease, severe infection and potential for fatal ischemia, is hang an IV at home and pray for the best.
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Reuters falsely reporting the blockade of Gaza began last month, not over 16 years ago. So the world’s largest news organization can’t use Wikipedia?
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Massive lines for Lebanon’s first walk-in day for
#AstraZeneca
jab, including 100s of migrant workers employed by the US embassy in Beirut. You’d think the world’s richest country could secure its own doses for imperial projects rather than take from very limited local supply
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@Bob_cart124
@AlexScott
Yes did BBC ever refuse to air opening ceremony in Russia, human rights capital?
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Lebanon is like a fig tree: stubbornly keeps growing in the most hostile environment, whether you like it or not. I see them all over, often in abandoned buildings.
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Head of PCR testing at a hospital not only refused to wear a mask but mocked those waiting in line for a test, saying they are wasting their time and he hopes everyone gets Coronavirus “to be done with it.” He shouted like a militiaman when asked to wear a mask: “This is my lab”!
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Around 7 years ago when the explosives were heading to Beirut, I was being assaulted for documenting ruins that would be destroyed for a real estate project. Now the ruins are gone but today protestors took over the project
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Thousands forming
#humanchain
in the middle of the highway from north to south
#Lebanon
, a show of force from ordinary people. #السلسلة_البشرية #الثورة_مستمرة #القوة_للناس #ثورة_شعب
#LebanonRevolts
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Even when CNN finally gets into Gaza, the reporter legitimates Israel’s actions calling it “modern warfare” not collective punishment, not barbaric war crimes, not terrorism, not mass killing or genocide. Never once does she note these atrocities are funded by her government.
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@Hoya_Hoo
@airfrance
@GovCanHealth
@CPHO_Canada
No. The bloody/shitty plane made at least 4 flights it seems
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Many young pundits proclaim Lebanon’s economic collapse is the result of corrupt local parties fighting over power, but how many remember when the debt economy began, a time when one man was in charge with the backing of the US and international community
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When I'm not sniffing out blood on airplanes, I'm sniffing out ancient history destroyed by corporate greed. It was great to work with the stellar investigative team
@ThePublicSource
on this one.
#Archaeology
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It's just like rebuilding Berlin, except we didn't bother with public services like electricity, water, garbage collection, sewage treatment or public spaces. But the buildings are nice, right?
#AngelaMerkel
#Beirut
#Solidere
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First morning pictures of the damages from last night’s explosion- the port of Beirut is largely destroyed.
#Beirut
#انفجار_المرفأ via
@LBCI_NEWS
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Lebanon gets massive global media attention during a shootout or explosion. We just had one of the most competitive elections on earth, dozens of parties competed: armed groups, professors, billionaires journalists, foreign embassies and tiktok stars. No one died yet.
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People ask me if Lebanon is democratic- well where else can every business choose their own time zone?
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While Trump retweets racists, CNN’s
@jaketapper
retweets religious fundamentalism used to justify ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
#liberals
Jake Tapper really doesn’t seem to like that Rashida Tlaib is Palestinian.
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All week CNN reports the ferocious bombardment of Gaza from the side that is bombing it, from Israel. (See cannons behind reporter). How can you objectively report war from the firing side, NOT the receiving end? Not only is the war asymmetrical, so is the reporting of it
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In many broke countries, consultants like McKinsey show up and are hailed as truth-speaking technocrats to fight corruption. But what do they actually do?
@LalehKhalili
unravels the dirty details of management consultants' past, present and future
@LRB
1/2
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A soldier in the army is making less than $40 per month. Gas stations are closed. No water or electricity coming from the bankrupt government. And yet the 1 percent in Lebanon is renting chalets for $6000 per month. Funny how liberals tend to blame religion, not capitalism.
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Ex-minister Ghassan Hasbani tells CNN’s
@camanpour
he was part of “a small opposition party” fighting corruption. In fact, the Lebanese Forces is one of the most powerful parties in Lebanon, a massive militia during the civil war-led by the same men for decades
#LebanonProtests
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In this together? Somehow. How many candles would it take to remember every US-made bomb dropped on Lebanon?
#SelectiveGrieving
On this day, we remember the lives that were lost and the devastation that rocked
#Beirut
.
#InThisTogether
#BeirutBlast
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#SheikhJarrah
just got 30 seconds of coverage on CNN, “mosque disturbance” faulted.
#Palestine
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After Nasrallah accused protestors of being funded by “foreign forces” reporter interviews woman making free sandwiches, asks who’s paying: “We are. Someone brought cucumbers, someone brought cheese, someone brought bread. We’re spending from our own pockets.”
#LebanonRevolts
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Journalism means questioning every invading army, every violent regime- but that’s the opposite of this “report” -We may see civilians suffer, but the ending: “The IDF says it’s doing its best…it has no choice” This is justification, not reporting. 🧵 👇
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Last night after my father’s passing, I heard these jets buzz over our home. He used to curse every flyover with gusto. Born in 1938, my dad saw many wars in Lebanon over his lifetime-and many militias come and go. But one force remained constant until his last hours: Israel.
Jets buzzing over Beirut, most likely Israel. What more do they want from this collapsing land?
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The global media are documenting Putin’s war crimes while treating NATO like a book club.
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The 1st result of the “peace deal” between Israel/UAE seems to be the literal erasure of Palestine in a news report by UAE-owned
@skynewsarabia
franchise of UK’s
@SkyNews
The channel apparently doctored artwork behind a guest to replace “Visit Palestine” with “Visit Lebanon”
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It’s amazing how many foreign correspondents think their opinion matters or that they have a right to preach and infantilize the “naive local” Lebanon is not your brand, your stepping stone or armchair- it’s a place people live, suffer and fight to survive.
#OrientalismNeverDies
Do they know they are being regarded as not more than easy prey by the militiamen who could wipe the places in 15 minutes? Or do they really think they had a chance once people behind the scenes have finished their battle plans? Blue-eyed revolution.
#LebaneseRevolution
#Beirut
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Arriving in downtown Beirut… Once awake at all hours, now barely a light on at 10pm.
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To expect one of the world's most dysfunctional, war-torn collapsing, unlivable states to be able to properly handle one of the biggest bombs in the world is ludicrous. The Lebanese government cannot even pick up the trash.
#Beirut
#expectations
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Candlelit held vigils all across Lebanon for
#AlaaAbouFakher
- even though he is Muslim/Druze, Christians create Virgin Mary shrine in Nahar el Kalb. Defying sectarian divisions has been a hallmark of protests.
#LebanonRevolts
#لبنان_ينتفض #نهر_الكلب #لبنان_اكبر_من_حزبك
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“Quite peaceful”? Israel decimated Lebanon’s budding aviation industry in 1968, destroying 14 civilian aircraft. At the time Lebanon had one of the region’s biggest fleets-could have been a world leader in air travel. Israel has attacked civilian infrastructure here for decades
Israel and Lebanon had quiet peaceful relations until 1970 when Jordan expelled the Palestinian PLO to Lebanon (Black September أيلول الأسود). The PLO destroyed Southern Lebanon just like it tried to destroy Jordan.
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Lebanon is a state on paper only. Stamps, letterhead, offices, little else.
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For
@nytimes
dead Palestinians don't have names
http://t.co/zxWITApGfi
CC
@MaxBlumenthal
@AliAbunimah
@YousefMunayyer
http://t.co/h7qS5UIEUu
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CNN avoids the verb ‘kill’ or ‘assassinate’ using only “death” - as if by natural causes! Amazing how quickly US media mobilize to justify Israeli extrajudicial violence. Do they immediately call Hamas to justify attacks on Israel as “a message” or part of a “hit list for yrs”
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After years of resistance by
@savebisri
and other activists,
@WorldBank
finally cancels environmentaly destructive Bisri dam project. Activism in
#Lebanon
(or anywhere) seems to be most effective when it is focused on a clearly-defined and attainable goal.
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Israel didn't target a Hezbollah site, but a generator company that supplies power to households, according to its owner, interviewed on the scene. Most news outlets-even Arab ones-used the term "military target" without qualifying this claim comes from a state on trial for lies.
The owner of the Infinite Power company - one of the locations hit in Ghaziyeh- states that the company makes power generators & denies HA links. He is also open for an inspection to refute ISR claims.
ISR has a history of attacking infrastructure based on false pretences
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By reducing a missile launch on the heart of Beirut as “a (single) killing,” news outlets across the world normalize Israeli military aggression on foreign capitals as expected, legitimate battlegrounds.
@AP
even immediately justifies such an attack as part of “Israel’s hit list”
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.
@FareedZakaria
says 50 million Iranians have smart phones "from which they can learn about the world" supposedly making revolution possible. Did smart phones make Americans learn about the world?
#Orientalism
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