Lawrence of Arabia

Camels at Palmyra
Originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We just watched the Oscar winning fil of Lawrence of Arabia, filmed in 1962. Could have bought the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom to accompay our trip to Wadi Rum in Jordan, but it looked to be very long with a difficult typeface.

Amazing to think that the film which is now 44 years old, was also made just 44 years after the events in the film took place.

Also, a good reminder that things have not always been the way they are now in the Middle East and that just 88 years ago the region was mainly populated by various nomadic tribes, albeit under loose Turkish rule, which they unwittingly exchanged for British/French rule, before gaining independence without democracy about 50 years ago.

It seems to be the case that the authorities in Syria did not do much to stop the recent riots and may have even encouraged them by handing out ammunition and the like. A sad state of affairs for the people of Syria and for the Muslims everywhere who, through the media, are being associated with the mobs who provided such interesting news footage for the TV screens.