If you haven’t visited BloggingHeads.tv you’re really missing a great site. What started as an effort to turn “two not-very-telegenic people into video pundits” in 2005 has evolved into a series of thought provoking, respectful, conversations, or “diavlogs.” Huffington Post described “BHtv” in 2007 in this way: “What started as two charmingly wonky fellows having a semi-stiff conversation about the issues of the day via broadband quickly expanded into, er, a lot of charmingly wonky people having all sorts of lively, policy-diatribe-infused discussions about the issues of the day..”
In this “diavlog” from April 2008, Robert Wright, BHtv editor in chief and Senior Research Fellow at the New American Foundation, reports from a Riyadh (Kingdom Tower) hotel room on his travels in Saudi Arabia, in a video tele-conversation with Mickey Kaus, journalist and BHtv cofounder, joining from New York.
Wright and Kaus talk about the Saudi government’s war on terrorism and promotion of moderate Islam; rehabilitation of terrorists; the road to modernity; and regional security issues among other topics.
Wright appears to have taken a fresh view of Saudi Arabia’s image based on his experiences in the Kingdom — “they’re committed to modernization .. there’s plenty of pressure on them to liberalize .. to lecture them and imposing sanctions and stuff is just to get people mad at us..” — to which Kaus reacts with “Bob, you’ve gone completely native..” [Around minute 18:00 or so.]
An insightful display of observations from people who have been to Saudi Arabia and those who have not.
Recorded April 9, 2008. Run Time: 38:56.
[...] Bob of Arabia – Bloggingheads in KSA – Feb 18 [...]