is it just me?

[magicicada]

has anyone else had these questions? or better still any answers?

1. so, how do the sunnis and shi'ites tell each other apart? are there major racial differences? is it just clothing?

followup:
if it is just a matter of clothing, why not carry a second 'hat' or ID in order to switch off and get through checkpoints.

if this is a religious thing, is the idea of conversion unheard of or unacceptable?


2. Accepting that a switch to ethanol based on corn may raise food prices significantly, is it possible that there is a 'sweet spot' where price supports on sugar are dropped and corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are removed from foods in favor of their old school counterpart?

followup:
if you believe that high fructose corn syrup is responsible for much of the obesity in the U.S., is it possible that a drop in obesity might result - leading to lower medical costs, which would put back into the economy the money that the higher food prices have removed.


----

these might be dumb questions and that is why i'm not hearing anyone ask them, but i'm getting tired of debating them inside my own head. question 1 is something i've never heard addressed anywhere, as if it is not even a matter to be questioned, but why? haven't enemies always tried to sneak into one another's camps? how do you know one side from another?

question 2 is because i have heard vast amounts of discussion on the economics of ethanol, the health effects of high fructose corn syrup, and the economics of obesity and i'm wondering if there is a good logical reason why no one has put all these together.

p.s. i'm also really sick of doing french journals.

Comments

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

On question 2: Oddly enough, you can make ethanol out of sugar cane, too -- and the process is cheaper than it is for corn. (There was an article in the paper about it this morning, coinciding with the Prez's visit to South America -- Brazil makes ethanol out of sugar cane.)

I have read that, at the moment, ethanol costs more petroleum to produce than the amount it replaces. Farming corn is a very petroleum-dense process.

On question 1, which I'm in no way qualified to answer: I don't know about visual differences, but I do know that deeply held traditions of that sort (A) won't be given up easily and (B) will become more deeply entrenched if persecution/attack is part of the mix. Having an "other" to point to is one easy way for a group to define itself: "Look, we aren't THEM!" You can see the same thing play out in the neoconservative Christian right in the United States; they ring the "we're persecuted" chimes all the time, because it gets the faithful to stick with them.

[gardenwaltz.livejournal.com]

i hear you on the persecution/other mentality, but all i hear from interviews with people in the region is a desperation to be left alone.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Well, I was answering more of the "conversion" question than anything else. :)

There are several examples of, for example, Sunni and Shi'a married to each other -- these people have had to leave the country, pretty much. Because even if many say they want to be left alone, it's clear that the rest of the country isn't going to play along. *sigh*