Obaid AlZaabi

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Obaid AlZaabi

Obaid AlZaabi

@Obaidsview

Emirati Thinker and Doer

أبوظبي, الامارات العربية المتح Katılım Aralık 2024
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
@engineer_oily Haha I dont want to be controversial but Chinese hair may be easier to cut because its so straight
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
Wizardry abounds in Africa it seems
Sizwe SikaMusi@SizweLo

Ever notice how when some men suddenly come into large amounts of money, they start pretending to have a money snake, aka ubhululu/umamlambo/inyoka yemali? Even when they don’t start such rumours, they allow them to fester because this generates fear, which keeps people from asking questions. They do this because this ambiguity helps to explain away sudden wealth in unequal communities, discourages scrutiny, especially when the money is ill-got, but even when it’s not, it also creates mystique and fear and it protects secrecy around actual income sources. Another reason is that in the townships and rural areas, unexplained prosperity attracts pressure with relatives asking for help, neighbours demanding to be plugged, witchcraft, jealousy and criminal targeting. So a rumour about occult wealth becomes useful because if people think “Don’t ask too many questions, that guy has something dark behind him”, they stop probing. What you then get is that the new money mogul never explicitly says, “I have a money snake.” He just doesn’t deny the accusation; instead, he acts mysteriously, avoids explaining business operations and usually cultivates fear intentionally. That opacity protects him from accountability. It’s harder to ask “What exactly do you do?” “Where did the tender money come from?” “Why are there no visible businesses?” “How did you suddenly buy twelve taxis and a Ferrari?” because the conversation shifts from economics to the supernatural, and most people simply don’t want that smoke. This is not new; Khotso Sethuntsa perfected this technique decades ago. (x.com/i/status/16590…) Oral histories are full of him boasting about supernatural powers, yet he also had documented political ties to Afrikaner elites and the Apartheid Nationalist Party. Sethuntsa ran shebeens, transport, and property, but the myth of the seven snakes in jars under his bed made people afraid to ask how a Black man in Apartheid South Africa could own so much. He just claimed his wealth came from a deal with a White sangoma in the sea, and that was it. Sethuntsa understood that the snake mystique protected the real sources of his influence and money. Decades later, people still whisper about his snakes rather than his actual economic networks. Now, the money snake is almost always associated with men in these narratives. Women who accumulate wealth suddenly are more often accused of prostitution, ukuthwala, or being izangoma, selling sex for money. But the idea is the same. In a 1999 paper titled Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction, Jean and John Comaroff note how South Africa has seen a “dramatic rise in occult economies: in the deployment, real or imagined, of magical means for material ends”. The Comaroffs referred to this as “the occult economy”, which they linked to the deployment of supernatural explanations to handle the baffling realities of postcolonial capitalism and argued that postcolonial capitalism, especially after Apartheid ended in 1994, feels deeply mysterious to everyday people, because in the “New South Africa”, people were promised that freedom would bring wealth, yet severe structural inequality remained. So, when sudden, massive wealth appears without a clear trail of hard labour, as is often the case with winning a tender, pyramid schemes, or sudden investments, it looks and feels like magic. The Comaroffs call this “the enchantment of capitalism”. They make the point that under global financial capitalism, money flows are highly abstract, with electronic transfers, shares, bonds, offshore accounts, and government tenders. So if a community cannot see the physical factory or the sweat of a man’s brow, the wealth becomes “abstract” and mysterious. It is notable that for White people, wealth was never seen as magical; it has always been seen as merit, inheritance, hard work, or good business sense. The same abstraction of offshore accounts, share portfolios, and trust funds that looks opaque to Black eyes is culturally coherent to White middle-class investors. So, for Black people, the snake myth fills a gap: a way to narrate wealth that has no visible labour, but in a context where the official explanations are themselves unavailable or implausible to poor observers. To this end, the authors argue that because (Black) people cannot trace the real economic roots of the wealth displayed in front of them, they try to make it concrete by using the language of the supernatural. Meanwhile, by letting the paranormal rumour flourish, the new money moguls use this as a shield. They replace a potentially dangerous legal/political question with a terrifying supernatural one. The Comaroffs describe this as a symptom of South Africa as a postcolony where the lines between legitimate business and magical speculation have completely blurred, at least for most Black people and that an occult economy is born out of “the appeal to mystical mechanisms for producing wealth ... mechanisms that defy standard economic laws”. This is because under Apartheid, Black wealth was systematically blocked; after 1994, sudden accumulation by a few looks doubly suspicious. In this sense, we can say the occult economy is not “irrational” but a rational response to a violent, racially stratified transition to neoliberalism. Now, this is where it gets tragic: The myth is not harmless. As the Comaroffs warn, the belief that money has to be coming from mystic sources becomes self-fulfilling, as eventually people go out and seek magical means through ritual murders, tokoloshes, etc., when real accumulation fails. We have all heard of how desperate people, seeing no structural way out of poverty through hard labour, attempt to replicate the myth. So the “strategic” silence often spills over into actual occult practices, further entrenching the link between inequality and supernatural belief, which incentivises real ritual murder. Now, I keep making the point that allowing the rumour to flourish cultivates fear; however, when someone does push through the fear, like a disgruntled relative, a journalist, or an ex-associate, the snake narrative may collapse into violence when the rich man kills the questioner, which is then interpreted as being done to “feed the snake”. This protects the mogul from being viewed as a mobster or a corrupt actor; instead, he remains a terrifying, untouchable mystical figure. That’s why you often see such men also cultivating political patronage, just like Sethuntsa before them, because the snake rumour shields them from the poor, while they keep politicians to protect them from institutional investigation by SARS, the Hawks, SIU, etc. In summation, we can say that what looks like mythology is, at its core, a governance mechanism that protects big money from scrutiny while leaving communities to explain their own dispossession through the only way made available to them: ancient folklore. If you like reading this sort of heterodox thought on a variety of topics, I’d appreciate your support. Please feel free to subscribe to my Patreon for exclusive essays that don’t make it to the public feed. Your subscription keeps this work going. Link in bio. Thank you for reading.

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Salma
Salma@lallathurayya·
Ah yes let’s turn marriage into basically exploiting young people’s dysfunctional desires and relationship with their bodies so we have young married couples who internalize shame, have no healthy perspective of sex, most likely experience marital rape and emotional abuse and make divorce and mental issues skyrocket within the Muslim community
عيسىٰ@ZuhdApprentice

The average healthy, well-adjusted teenager can scarcely go a few hours without thinking of sex or the opposite gender. Marry your children as soon as they get sexual urges if you don't want them to be repressed or become whores and porn addicts.

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Ubernizer 🪐
Ubernizer 🪐@Ubernizer_·
Travis fimmel and Katheryn winnick both known for their legendary roles as “Ragnar lothbrok” and “lagertha” in the tv show named “VIKINGS” are both getting married. Katheryn mentioned in an interview that they’ve privately been together immediately after the first season of “VIKINGS” in 2013 and they can’t keep living in the shadows anymore and have decided to let the world know. She mentioned that her role as his wife in the show made her develop feelings for him but because she wasn’t sure how he’d react to that she kept the feeling to herself until she started noticing the feeling is mutual with how he constantly looked out for her and some random unplanned dates, so when it became official they both decided to keep it private until they were sure where the relationship would lead and now it’s officially leading to marriage and I think they’re going to make a power couple like they did in VIKINGS 👑👸🏻
Ubernizer 🪐 tweet mediaUbernizer 🪐 tweet mediaUbernizer 🪐 tweet media
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
@MAGAFarmAnimals @MaitreyaBhakal I have read accounts of Thailand from hundreds of years ago from the Chinese perspective, and the situation of women dominance and overly engaged in prostitution is mentioned Tourists went to Thailand because they are open to prostitution
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MAGA Farm Animals
MAGA Farm Animals@MAGAFarmAnimals·
@MaitreyaBhakal You are stupid, white tourists literally ruined Thai society, turned it into a self hating whorehouse. Its hilarous how deluded eIndians are, anything to sht on themselves and glrofiy whitey
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Maitreya Bhakal
Maitreya Bhakal@MaitreyaBhakal·
For decades, Thailand faced white tourists - and survived, mostly unscathed. Then, Thailand faced Chinese tourists - and also survived, largely intact. But now, Thailand faces its toughest challenge yet: Indian tourists.
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Sunrise Pepe
Sunrise Pepe@thltd_·
@tardwife4life Here is an essay I was writing for Telegram but TL;DR: English marriage practices limited birth rates in times of economic hardship, overpopulation, or resource scarcity by forcing delayed marriage or permanent (involuntary) celibacy on the peasant classes.
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John Ʌ Konrad V
John Ʌ Konrad V@johnkonrad·
A friend of mine went through this. The dude is an awesome dad. Early 40’s. Tall, handsome guy. Made good money. Graduated a top college. He restored an old house himself. Always was talking up his wife. Kids lacrosse coach. Kept in shape just incase he needed to defend his family. No major vices. She wants out. He insists on counseling. Counselor says he’s right. She flips out says he picked a biased counselor. So she asks all her girlfriends for a wife friendly female counselor who will “understand me”. They go. The counselor apparently lost her mind. Starts yelling at the wife. “Listen to him. I’m happily married and I’m jealous of you. All he keeps saying is how much he loves you. How he prays every night for your happiness. And he is HOT!” The whole thing boiled down to he refused to go to woke wine tastings, art shows, wedding receptions for people they barely know and baby showers with her. Girl stuff. And he claims he didn’t even refuse, he just said they had to take separate cars so he could jet after 30 minutes. That was his only request in life. Bonkers. Bonkers!
Richard Cooper@Rich_Cooper

Divorced her husband, two years later crying about the decision. I have no sympathy for people that play the victim in the chaos they create. Do you?

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Just Another Pod Guy
Just Another Pod Guy@TMTLongShort·
When I was like 19 I fell down the rabbit hole of PUA and would obsessively read books and forums by Mystery, Nason and Paul Janka who was apparently a fellow hedge fund guy. I would hit on every girl walking past in soho or the Abercrombie on 5th. Thought it was a complete waste of time for a while but conditioned me to the point where a year later when I got into Provocateur/Avenue for the first time with my ID Chief fake I had no shame and would hit on every model within a fifty foot radius. And that’s how I fell into being a promoter at night while working sellside during the day. Fascinating to see these forums wax and wane.
nomadgeist@nomadgeist

The whole hardcoreness of the dating community has been kind of killed off. I once hung out with this little clique of PUA enthusiasts in Australia, and this was their standard routine for a night out: 7pm: Meetup at an isolated park on outskirts of the city to do bioenergetic exercises which included jumping up an down, stomping (grounding), stretches, screaming to open throat etc 7:45pm: Motivational pep talk by one of the more experienced guys 8:30pm: walk to club, warm up sets on the street with passing groups of girls 9:00pm: Hit club queue, hit on girls in the line to try and connect with them later in the bar 9:30pm: Enter bar, nonstop sets, try to create a little hub/large group somewhere in the club 11:30pm: If not going great move to club 2, hit on girls on street + the line of club 2 2:30am: If no pull, spill out onto the street, hit on girls outside bar or smoking area 3am: These guys would then literally work the cab rank, try to invite themselves into cabs with groups of girls leaving until 4am for "afterparty" (the more skilled guys would very often pull this off, and end up in a cab heading to some chicks house or the pad of one of the guys who had good logistics) If that didn't succeed, guys would head to a 24hour pancake joint in the city at 5am for a chat and debrief on what went wrong etc. This is the kind of hardcore extreme energy that a lot guys getting into the game now can't conceive of

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Shawn Gorham
Shawn Gorham@shawngorham·
I started wearing Western work wear - cause why not change at 48 But here is the real change: 1. I am more recognizable (as a self employed extrovert this is good) 2. I get approached in more random conversations 3. I am more memorable (the guy in the cowboy hat...) 4. I find people let their guard down faster in conversations. 5. It seems to build trust faster 6. I feel very comfortable in it 7. and my wife LOVES it... she just loves it Win all around in my opinion. Wish I would have done it sooner.
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
I said this to a Qatari who was complaining about the colonial mindset of viewing Bedouin aravs as lazy and stupid I told him, this is more common from non-westerners, specially from under developed countries, because of jealousy Westerners have a strange fascination with the Noble Savage archetype, and so, there is a surprising amount of interest and admiration from them
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VB Knives
VB Knives@Empty_America·
Yes the Bedouin in particular exerted a very deep fascination over Anglo elites. I've read a lot of this material and they generally had contempt for the town-Arab, while idolizing the Bedu.
Jonas@my_nm_is_jns

@Empty_America My theory as of about 30 seconds ago: Especially in the colonial era, Arab elites were refined in ways the British recognized and wild in ways the British coveted.

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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
Imagine being Clavicular in Ancient Arabia and Omar ibn AlKhattab decides to personally end your career I cant believe this story yet, it makes perfect sense
⛰️⛓️🐺@Chach1Warma

The caliphate of 'Umar ibn Al-Khattaab رضي الله عنه was a period of great expansion for the Muslim Nation. Accordingly, in Madeenah men were, if not scarce, then at least not present in abundant numbers - since many of Madeenah's male inhabitants were abroad serving on military tours. Consequently, 'Umar was like a guardian to the wives of absent soldiers: He had to make sure they were safe, were adequately provided for, and were remaining chaste. Therefore, he was greatly disturbed when, during one of his night patrols of the city's streets, he heard a woman reciting an indecent poem, one in which she described her longing for alcohol and for the company of a handsome young man whose name was Nasr ibn Hajjaaj. “Is there any way to get to alcohol, so that I can drink it, Is there any wav to gain the company of Nasr ibn Hajjaaj.” If the woman was truly longing to gain what she mentioned in her poem. then she certainly deserved to be chastised. But even if she was reciting meaningless love poetry simply to pass away the time, her behavior could not be condoned. Whatever the case, Umar to was upset; but rather than confront the woman, 'Umar decided to search out for the source of the problem, a young man named Nasr in Haijaaj, whom he did not personally know. So in the morning, Umar searched out for Nasr, and upon meeting him, 'Umar immediately was taken aback by the young man's handsomeness. Here, Umar surely thought, was a young man who was a source of temptation to many women whose husbands were away on military tours. Nasr had a very handsome face, and his hair was beautiful as well. 'Umar ordered Nasr to shave his head, but after Nasr did so, he looked even more handsome than before. 'Umar then ordered him to wear a turban, but to no avail, for he looked even better with a turban on his head. Finally, 'Umar felt that he was left with little recourse, and so he banished Nasr from Madeenah and ordered him to go and live in Al-Basrah. Again, Umar did this in order to protect the honor of soldiers whose wives were alone, lonely, and susceptible to temptation.

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Keren Bobker
Keren Bobker@FinancialUAE·
I will never understand the obsession & weird hype of Primark in Dubai. Another store opening & people are queueing hours ahead. Are they that bored? Are they being given some free nylon/plastic tat to do so? The cheap landfill they sell doesn't seem terribly "Dubai".
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Jesús Fernández-Villaverde
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde@JesusFerna7026·
Replacement fertility in one chart: Even if 90% of women have children and average 2.2 each, we still fall short. Why? The fertility rate of a population equals the product of the proportion of women who have children and the average number of children per mother. That is, if 90% of women have children and the average number of children per mother is 2.2, the fertility rate of this population is 1.98. This simple formula gives us the relationship between the proportion of mothers in a population and the average number of children per mother required to reach the replacement rate. As I explained two days ago (check my feed if you missed it), this replacement rate is 2.1 in Western countries, where sex selection and infant mortality are low. The figure plots the result (if you are technical, this is called the iso-replacement curve). Obviously, if 100% of women become mothers, the average number of children per mother required to reach replacement is 2.1. If we move to 90%, this average rises to 2.33. Notice that if we fall to 80%, the average increases substantially to 2.6. I selected 80% because it implies that one in five women never becomes a mother, close to what we now see in Japan and parts of Southern Europe. The current young cohorts in advanced economies seem to be on track to be well below 80%, but we will not know for sure for another 20 years or so. Having an average of 2.6 children per mother requires many very large families. And modern societies are not organized for this to happen.
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
@magicinthealps You describe them as being different sure, but with the exception of freedom of speech, pretty much everything else is the same
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Obaid AlZaabi
Obaid AlZaabi@Obaidsview·
The UAE and GCC markets are some of the most valuable in the world As a consequence, we can demand treatment that other developing countries cannot. google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc…
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