We have this brand of rolling papers called "Rizla" we also have this colloquialism "teetfh" meaning thief. Therefore the BBC London TV presenter RizLateefh is officially the woman who stole everyone's rolling papers.
Anyway it's 22:55 on May 30th and I'm here on the big bad Internet.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
More On Mladic
Fortunately it's one of the easier Slavic names to spell.
Pretty much as I was writing my previous post on the subject a Serbian court ruled on Ratko Mladic's appeal against his extradition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. As he was appealing on the grounds of his fitness to stand trial rather then the courts fitness to hold that trial his appeal was rejected. Shortly afterwards the Serbian Ministry of Justice signed his extradition papers and he began his journey to the Netherlands at around 15:30 GMT. This decision meant that Mladic is no longer Serbia's problem.
I can only say that's a good thing because Britain have been trying to complicate the matter by comparing the Mladic case to my case against the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT). America have also joined in trying to compare the Mladic case to the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad case which has been formally put before a special military tribunal while Mladic was in transit. All this is only going to cause confusion because the Maldic case is a civilian criminal case, the NHHT case is a civilian civil case and the Sheikh Mohamed case is a military case. The differences between the three are so vast it would be quicker to list the similarities. The most important difference though comes in something called the burden of proof. In a military tribunal the prosecutor merely needs to say that the person is guilty and they are convicted (1% proof). In a criminal case the prosecutor needs to convince a Jury / panel of Judges that the person is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt for them to be convicted (99% proof). In a civil case the prosecutor merely needs to convince a Jury / panel of Judges that it is more likely then not that the person is guilty (51% proof). So I suppose in some cases a civil case could be a lot like a military case provided that the Americans can keep their nerve.
So it's 19:25 on May 31st and I'm back from the pub so may the descent into drunken insanity begin.
Pretty much as I was writing my previous post on the subject a Serbian court ruled on Ratko Mladic's appeal against his extradition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. As he was appealing on the grounds of his fitness to stand trial rather then the courts fitness to hold that trial his appeal was rejected. Shortly afterwards the Serbian Ministry of Justice signed his extradition papers and he began his journey to the Netherlands at around 15:30 GMT. This decision meant that Mladic is no longer Serbia's problem.
I can only say that's a good thing because Britain have been trying to complicate the matter by comparing the Mladic case to my case against the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT). America have also joined in trying to compare the Mladic case to the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad case which has been formally put before a special military tribunal while Mladic was in transit. All this is only going to cause confusion because the Maldic case is a civilian criminal case, the NHHT case is a civilian civil case and the Sheikh Mohamed case is a military case. The differences between the three are so vast it would be quicker to list the similarities. The most important difference though comes in something called the burden of proof. In a military tribunal the prosecutor merely needs to say that the person is guilty and they are convicted (1% proof). In a criminal case the prosecutor needs to convince a Jury / panel of Judges that the person is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt for them to be convicted (99% proof). In a civil case the prosecutor merely needs to convince a Jury / panel of Judges that it is more likely then not that the person is guilty (51% proof). So I suppose in some cases a civil case could be a lot like a military case provided that the Americans can keep their nerve.
So it's 19:25 on May 31st and I'm back from the pub so may the descent into drunken insanity begin.
What a Nuisance
Having being informed that legal proceedings have been begun against them the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT) set a representative to bang on my door at around 15:00 BST. Apart from annoying me the obvious purpose was gather intelligence over what will happen to them in the case. If I'm honest I became bored of the conversation before it started but it went along the lines of the woman apologising over the incident. Me asking if they've got an action plan to avoid a repeat. Them saying no. Me informing them that the matter is now before the court before I just walked away.
Ratko Mladic Extradtion.
Since his dramatic arrest on Thursday (26/5/11) alleged Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic has had his identity verified and appeared in front of a Serbian court which has authorised his extradition to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. However his lawyer has lodged an appeal against the extradition. I have to say that he's actually got a point.
Although the ICC is meant to be an independent, international body like the United Nations it is still based in the Netherlands. That means that all the people involved in the trail will have to stay in Dutch hotels or apartments, eat their meals in Dutch restaurants, travel to and from the court on Dutch roads patrolled by the Dutch police and get their visas from the Dutch customs authorities. This gives the Dutch state far too much influence over the proceedings and means that Mladic will not receive a fair trial. This is because there are many people, not all of them Serbs, who think that senior members of the Dutch state should be on trial alongside Mladic as an accessory to his alleged war crimes. Not only did heavily armed Dutch soldiers stand by and watch as Bosnian-Serb forces massacred 8000 prisoners at Srebrenica there were also numerous incidents were Dutch soldiers all too easily allowed themselves and their weapons to be captured by Bosnian-Serb forces. Many of those weapons went on to be used in other crimes against humanity. Mladic is actually charged with one of these incidents which took place in May 1995. So with the eyes of their European neighbours and possibly the world upon them there is a very real possibility that the Dutch will try to hide their own guilt by vilifying Mladic and he will be convicted regardless of what the evidence says.
Not only that but the idea of holding Mladic's trial in the Netherlands goes against the principle of localisation on which all war crimes tribunals are based. Basically the idea is that justice is best served by holding any trial as close as possible to where the crime was committed. This principle is shared by most legal systems in the developed world including Britain's and America's and is why the Nazi trials were held in Nuremberg, the Khmer Rouge trials were held in Cambodia and the Charles Taylor trial is currently being held in Sierra Leone. So the Mladic trial should really be held in Bosnia & Herzegovina although even I can see why that might pose a security problem. However there is no reason why the trial can't be held in Hungary, Romania or Macedonia. Like the former Yugoslavia these countries were all part of the Soviet bloc and therefore will be more familiar with the problems faced during Soviet occupation and the years that followed the collapse of the USSR. Alternatively the trial could be held in Greece because they really need the money.
Oh and I should point out that if you squint really, really hard I suppose that Ratko Mladic might look a bit like one of my neighbours known to the Americans as Joe the Plumber. While it's not my place to put his business up on the Internet I think I'm commenting on rumours that are already circulating when I confirm that he is experiencing some legal problems that could force him to sell his house below market value. If that happens can you guess which company will be sweeping in to make an offer?
Although the ICC is meant to be an independent, international body like the United Nations it is still based in the Netherlands. That means that all the people involved in the trail will have to stay in Dutch hotels or apartments, eat their meals in Dutch restaurants, travel to and from the court on Dutch roads patrolled by the Dutch police and get their visas from the Dutch customs authorities. This gives the Dutch state far too much influence over the proceedings and means that Mladic will not receive a fair trial. This is because there are many people, not all of them Serbs, who think that senior members of the Dutch state should be on trial alongside Mladic as an accessory to his alleged war crimes. Not only did heavily armed Dutch soldiers stand by and watch as Bosnian-Serb forces massacred 8000 prisoners at Srebrenica there were also numerous incidents were Dutch soldiers all too easily allowed themselves and their weapons to be captured by Bosnian-Serb forces. Many of those weapons went on to be used in other crimes against humanity. Mladic is actually charged with one of these incidents which took place in May 1995. So with the eyes of their European neighbours and possibly the world upon them there is a very real possibility that the Dutch will try to hide their own guilt by vilifying Mladic and he will be convicted regardless of what the evidence says.
Not only that but the idea of holding Mladic's trial in the Netherlands goes against the principle of localisation on which all war crimes tribunals are based. Basically the idea is that justice is best served by holding any trial as close as possible to where the crime was committed. This principle is shared by most legal systems in the developed world including Britain's and America's and is why the Nazi trials were held in Nuremberg, the Khmer Rouge trials were held in Cambodia and the Charles Taylor trial is currently being held in Sierra Leone. So the Mladic trial should really be held in Bosnia & Herzegovina although even I can see why that might pose a security problem. However there is no reason why the trial can't be held in Hungary, Romania or Macedonia. Like the former Yugoslavia these countries were all part of the Soviet bloc and therefore will be more familiar with the problems faced during Soviet occupation and the years that followed the collapse of the USSR. Alternatively the trial could be held in Greece because they really need the money.
Oh and I should point out that if you squint really, really hard I suppose that Ratko Mladic might look a bit like one of my neighbours known to the Americans as Joe the Plumber. While it's not my place to put his business up on the Internet I think I'm commenting on rumours that are already circulating when I confirm that he is experiencing some legal problems that could force him to sell his house below market value. If that happens can you guess which company will be sweeping in to make an offer?
Oh Yeah
The Pakistani Taliban don't exist. Well obviously they physically exist because their recent attack on the Pakistani naval academy provided a tense back drop to an already very tense BAFTA awards and was only forced off American prime time by the Joplin tornado. However ideologically they're been driven by Britain's MI6 rather then Islam. The idea is to destabilise Pakistan in what can only be an effort to make sure that Islamic extremists get nuclear weapons and speed China's advance through India. The Americans are going along with it because the Brits have convinced them that an increase in Taliban branded attacks in Pakistan will discourage Pakistanis from funding the Taliban in Pakistan. The only small flaw in this plan is that Pakistan is relatively poor and the Afghan Taliban are funded globally.
So remind me was it last week Obama was in London to sign a deal that will see closer intelligence sharing between MI6 and the CIA?
So remind me was it last week Obama was in London to sign a deal that will see closer intelligence sharing between MI6 and the CIA?
Monday, 30 May 2011
Osama bin Dead
For about a month now. It's been four weeks since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden and I've been trying to avoid making that joke ever since. The fact that bin Laden is dead is not in dispute with the kill being confirmed by the various American senators, Saudi intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, NATO, the leaders of the G8 nations, the Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qadea and the Afghan Taliban. In fact just like JFK's assassination, the moon landings and September 11th itself they say that you will always remember what you were doing when you heard the news. Being me I can go one better then that and remember what I was doing at the time bin Laden was killed but to explain it I first have to go off on a bit of a tangent.
Back in the early 2000's there was this American sci-fi show called "Firefly." Unfortunately the people who normally like sci-fi hated it so it was quickly cancelled. Then through word of mouth and DVD sales it's popularity grew as it reached a wider audience so they turned it into a proper feature film called "Serenity." After that the project forked with some of the people involved going off to make another TV show called "Dollhouse" and some of the people involved going off to make a TV show called "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" which was based on the "Terminator" films. Without knowing any of this back story I sort of half-watched the Sarah Connor Chronicles (SCC), mentioned it to someone and all hell broke loose. Ever since I've had the opportunity to catch up by watching Firefly etc I've had this nagging feeling I should probably re-watch the SCC again. This feeling has not been helped by the fact it was recently April 29th 2011 which is an important date in the plot, rumours of a fifth Terminator film being made and the BBC TV Show "Dr Who"'s seemingly endless obsession with Firefly.
So on the evening of May 1st 2011, while a little bit drunk I decided to re-watch the SCC. I think the specific trigger was an actor from Firefly turning up in an episode of Dr Who but I still can't fathom why I decided to start re-watching the whole two seasons with the final episode of season one and the first episode of season two. If you've not seen it season one ends with and FBI SWAT team going to arrest the Terminator without knowing that he's an indestructible killing machine. So at around the time real life US special forces were killing Osama bin Laden I was watching TV US special forces getting slaughtered to the strains of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around." So like I said, a little bit weird.
Funnily enough though my desire to re-watch the SCC has suddenly dissipated because I swear that damn show is cursed.
Back in the early 2000's there was this American sci-fi show called "Firefly." Unfortunately the people who normally like sci-fi hated it so it was quickly cancelled. Then through word of mouth and DVD sales it's popularity grew as it reached a wider audience so they turned it into a proper feature film called "Serenity." After that the project forked with some of the people involved going off to make another TV show called "Dollhouse" and some of the people involved going off to make a TV show called "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" which was based on the "Terminator" films. Without knowing any of this back story I sort of half-watched the Sarah Connor Chronicles (SCC), mentioned it to someone and all hell broke loose. Ever since I've had the opportunity to catch up by watching Firefly etc I've had this nagging feeling I should probably re-watch the SCC again. This feeling has not been helped by the fact it was recently April 29th 2011 which is an important date in the plot, rumours of a fifth Terminator film being made and the BBC TV Show "Dr Who"'s seemingly endless obsession with Firefly.
So on the evening of May 1st 2011, while a little bit drunk I decided to re-watch the SCC. I think the specific trigger was an actor from Firefly turning up in an episode of Dr Who but I still can't fathom why I decided to start re-watching the whole two seasons with the final episode of season one and the first episode of season two. If you've not seen it season one ends with and FBI SWAT team going to arrest the Terminator without knowing that he's an indestructible killing machine. So at around the time real life US special forces were killing Osama bin Laden I was watching TV US special forces getting slaughtered to the strains of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around." So like I said, a little bit weird.
Funnily enough though my desire to re-watch the SCC has suddenly dissipated because I swear that damn show is cursed.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
G8 Communique 2011
I've finally got hold of a copy of the 2011 G8 communique and it was hardly worth the wait. The idea of the G8 releasing a communique is a relatively new concept and it's normally just two or three vague paragraphs describing what was discussed along with the now traditional call to re-start the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. The 2011 communique is an epic running to twenty pages not counting the eight annexes and began circulating amongst the press the day before the summit began. So basically the French hosts have put an awful lot of work making sure that the public have no idea what was really discussed at the summit
For example the communique makes no reference whatsoever of the big issue of the summit - the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the wake of the Ratko Mladic arrest. This is actually a hugely important and pressing global issue at the moment. About a month ago the ICC convicted two Croat generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac of war crimes committed during the break up of the former Yugoslavia. Specifically a sample charge of killing 150 Serb civilians and ethnically cleansing 200,000 more from the Krajina region of Croatia during operation Storm which was planned in conjunction with NATO and carried out with NATO air support. The convictions shocked many Croats because up until then the assumption was that the ICC was nothing more then a political tool to persecute the enemies of NATO. So because they'd only been killing Serbs lots of people thought the ICC would let Gotovina and Markac get away with it. The fact that the ICC did convict was seen as a large step towards turning the ICC into a credible international body capable of enforcing international law. Then, with less the six hours of debate, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to declare war on Libya and the ICC went straight back to being a joke.
The only part of the communique that has any real relevance is section 7 paragraph 64 which talks about Libya. It ends with the words; "Qaddafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy. He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go." Apart from the inclusion of the word "democratic" alongside the more traditional "free Libya" this is interesting because Russia have put their name to it. Russia abstained from the UNSC vote and have previously likened NATO's campaign against Libya to a medieval crusade. This change in position does not mean that Russia have suddenly become convinced by the case against Qaddafi or support the NATO operation. It simply means that they've accepted that the overthrow of Qaddafi will significantly damage the geo-political strategy of their old enemy, the United States. So they decided to sign up in order to take retaliation for planned US military bases in Poland.
Of course the war in Libya will drag on over the summer and will possibly be joined by a much larger Israeli war (the deportation part of the plan is now in place). Then we get to do this all over again when the G20 Summit returns to France in November. This split of the G8 and the G20 actually raises an important question about the future of the G8 specifically and political globalisation generally. The G8 is meant to be the Group of 8 richest world economies. However the 8 richest world economies are;
1. USA,
2. China,
3. Japan,
4. India,
5. Germany,
6. France,
7. Britain,
8. Brazil.
While the members of the G8 are; the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Italy, Russia. So only five of the G8 are actually amongst the 8 richest world economies. That means we can keep expanding the grouping through the G20, the G77, the G200 etc until every country in the world is a member and we'll end up with a group just as large and unwieldy as the UN General Assembly which will inevitably be the precursor to a one world government. Alternatively we can just ask nations to leave the club when then fail to meet the membership criteria.
For example the communique makes no reference whatsoever of the big issue of the summit - the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the wake of the Ratko Mladic arrest. This is actually a hugely important and pressing global issue at the moment. About a month ago the ICC convicted two Croat generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac of war crimes committed during the break up of the former Yugoslavia. Specifically a sample charge of killing 150 Serb civilians and ethnically cleansing 200,000 more from the Krajina region of Croatia during operation Storm which was planned in conjunction with NATO and carried out with NATO air support. The convictions shocked many Croats because up until then the assumption was that the ICC was nothing more then a political tool to persecute the enemies of NATO. So because they'd only been killing Serbs lots of people thought the ICC would let Gotovina and Markac get away with it. The fact that the ICC did convict was seen as a large step towards turning the ICC into a credible international body capable of enforcing international law. Then, with less the six hours of debate, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to declare war on Libya and the ICC went straight back to being a joke.
The only part of the communique that has any real relevance is section 7 paragraph 64 which talks about Libya. It ends with the words; "Qaddafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy. He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go." Apart from the inclusion of the word "democratic" alongside the more traditional "free Libya" this is interesting because Russia have put their name to it. Russia abstained from the UNSC vote and have previously likened NATO's campaign against Libya to a medieval crusade. This change in position does not mean that Russia have suddenly become convinced by the case against Qaddafi or support the NATO operation. It simply means that they've accepted that the overthrow of Qaddafi will significantly damage the geo-political strategy of their old enemy, the United States. So they decided to sign up in order to take retaliation for planned US military bases in Poland.
Of course the war in Libya will drag on over the summer and will possibly be joined by a much larger Israeli war (the deportation part of the plan is now in place). Then we get to do this all over again when the G20 Summit returns to France in November. This split of the G8 and the G20 actually raises an important question about the future of the G8 specifically and political globalisation generally. The G8 is meant to be the Group of 8 richest world economies. However the 8 richest world economies are;
1. USA,
2. China,
3. Japan,
4. India,
5. Germany,
6. France,
7. Britain,
8. Brazil.
While the members of the G8 are; the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Italy, Russia. So only five of the G8 are actually amongst the 8 richest world economies. That means we can keep expanding the grouping through the G20, the G77, the G200 etc until every country in the world is a member and we'll end up with a group just as large and unwieldy as the UN General Assembly which will inevitably be the precursor to a one world government. Alternatively we can just ask nations to leave the club when then fail to meet the membership criteria.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Obama's Odyssey's over.
The US President is finally returning to the United States after a mammoth European tour that has taken in the Republic of Ireland, The United Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Poland.
Now Americans I know that while your President has been off gallivanting a Christian Preacher declared the rapture but AIPAC still managed to hold their conference and the worst tornadoes for a generation wrought havoc across the mid-west killing hundred all while there's a looming debt crisis that will make the last three years of cutbacks and sacrifice look like the good old days. But when Obama gets back can you leave him in peace for a couple of days because for the sake of your country that's a man who needs to have a long hard think about what he's done. After all he planned his scenes of contrition in Poland even before he'd made the mistake.
Now Americans I know that while your President has been off gallivanting a Christian Preacher declared the rapture but AIPAC still managed to hold their conference and the worst tornadoes for a generation wrought havoc across the mid-west killing hundred all while there's a looming debt crisis that will make the last three years of cutbacks and sacrifice look like the good old days. But when Obama gets back can you leave him in peace for a couple of days because for the sake of your country that's a man who needs to have a long hard think about what he's done. After all he planned his scenes of contrition in Poland even before he'd made the mistake.
It's Champions League Final Time.
I know I'm excited too. Chelsea should be able to win it 2/3-0. Unfortunately the Brits insisted they had to be knocked out in the semi-finals to make way for the anointed ones.
So remind me what's the Spanish for Ryan Giggs is a joke?
So remind me what's the Spanish for Ryan Giggs is a joke?
Friday, 27 May 2011
The Bad News Is...
That my cheap (I'm trying not to say piece of sh*t) tablet is still failing to pick up the Internet meaning that I'm still lacking a pdf from the G8. That's quite annoying because the G8 communique is meant to be a 24 page epic that will be quite the job for me to deal with tomorrow (28/5/11) morning.
In the meantime though in Britain the Baby P/Sharon Shoesmith verdict has turned into something of a hate campaign against Labour MP Ed Balls. As you may remember Ed Balls was the man who - as a minister in the last government - woke up one morning to discover that the Baby P case had landed on his desk. At that moment he quite rightly decided that it was time to go to war. So you can understand why his political career couldn't go on for much longer. I mean just imagine if he'd been allowed to become the leader of the political opposition?! Then there would have been a daily reminder of the pure and unadulterated evil that the British Crown considers to be "normal behaviour"
Or to put it another way: @ 21:59 on 28/5/11 I've had another little cry.
In the meantime though in Britain the Baby P/Sharon Shoesmith verdict has turned into something of a hate campaign against Labour MP Ed Balls. As you may remember Ed Balls was the man who - as a minister in the last government - woke up one morning to discover that the Baby P case had landed on his desk. At that moment he quite rightly decided that it was time to go to war. So you can understand why his political career couldn't go on for much longer. I mean just imagine if he'd been allowed to become the leader of the political opposition?! Then there would have been a daily reminder of the pure and unadulterated evil that the British Crown considers to be "normal behaviour"
Or to put it another way: @ 21:59 on 28/5/11 I've had another little cry.
Now That's Not a Good Omen.
While I was enjoying my new hobby of chain smoking in the garden this afternoon (27/5/11) a little sparrow started flying around. Then all of a sudden it dropped dead and fell out of the sky right in front of me. I would have liked to have posted a picture to prove my point but sadly the lack of working USB ports on my computer has left me unable to do that. Besides it didn't take long before one of the neighbourhood cats sauntered past and decided what it was going to have for dinner.
I am currently trying to get my cheap tablet PC working in preparation for the release of the G8 Communique which should be released later this evening.
I am currently trying to get my cheap tablet PC working in preparation for the release of the G8 Communique which should be released later this evening.
I'm Up.
A little later the usual but that's by design. Judging by the tone of this years G8 by the time it ends I think there's going to be more fallout then a Japanese power station on a bad day. So I apologise if I'm the one forcing these items onto the agenda.
The Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) are claiming that Yemen is on the brink of civil war. It's not. This is just the GCC causing trouble. In the code Yemen is Britain and either I or the Queen are the illegitimate head of state that needs to stand down. I guess that makes the real question; who thought it was a good idea to wake up the GCC?
Elsewhere America is circulating this website http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya/ which is claiming to be representing ordinary Libyans who want the NATO bombing to stop and Qaddafi to stay. Sadly it's fake created by the Americans. On one level it is being circulated to increase the pressure on Qaddafi by creating the belief that he is now getting desperate and could step down at any moment. As this is both untrue and highly unlikely to work the second purpose is to promote discussion over Britain's use of the Internet to disseminate so called "black propaganda" in order to deceive the UNSC into passing resolution 1973(2011). So despite what they're saying in public in private the Americans are using the G8 to lobby for greater controls on the Internet.
Also Britain is trying to further inflame the situation. Today (27/5/11) the British Appeal Court has ruled that Sharon Shoesmith who was the head of children's services in Haringey during the Baby P scandal was unfairly dismissed from her job and will have to be compensated. Although the details of the Baby P case should be burned into the memories of anyone who had the misfortune of hearing them I wouldn't get too excited about today's news. Part of the reason why the British state systematically abused, tortured and ultimately killed a 17 month old infant was to force Ms Shoesmith out of her job and destroy her reputation because of a long running feud between them.
The Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) are claiming that Yemen is on the brink of civil war. It's not. This is just the GCC causing trouble. In the code Yemen is Britain and either I or the Queen are the illegitimate head of state that needs to stand down. I guess that makes the real question; who thought it was a good idea to wake up the GCC?
Elsewhere America is circulating this website http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya/ which is claiming to be representing ordinary Libyans who want the NATO bombing to stop and Qaddafi to stay. Sadly it's fake created by the Americans. On one level it is being circulated to increase the pressure on Qaddafi by creating the belief that he is now getting desperate and could step down at any moment. As this is both untrue and highly unlikely to work the second purpose is to promote discussion over Britain's use of the Internet to disseminate so called "black propaganda" in order to deceive the UNSC into passing resolution 1973(2011). So despite what they're saying in public in private the Americans are using the G8 to lobby for greater controls on the Internet.
Also Britain is trying to further inflame the situation. Today (27/5/11) the British Appeal Court has ruled that Sharon Shoesmith who was the head of children's services in Haringey during the Baby P scandal was unfairly dismissed from her job and will have to be compensated. Although the details of the Baby P case should be burned into the memories of anyone who had the misfortune of hearing them I wouldn't get too excited about today's news. Part of the reason why the British state systematically abused, tortured and ultimately killed a 17 month old infant was to force Ms Shoesmith out of her job and destroy her reputation because of a long running feud between them.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
I'm Here
Or am I?
The first day of the G8 Summit opened today (26/5/11) in France with a discussion about nuclear safety in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. This was followed by the shock announcement that Ratko Mladic had been arrested before a working lunch and an afternoon session to decide how best to control the Internet in the wake of the Arab Spring. So by my reckoning the summit got on to metaphysics by about 2pm on day one. This does not bode well for day two.
Apart from that I've discovered the root of some parts of western Europe's pure hatred for Ratko Mladic. In 1995 Bosnian-Serb forces detained 7,500 Bosnian-Muslim men and boys at prison camp near Srebrenica. Mladic personally attended the scene and assured the prisoners, the assembled media and the commanders of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission that the prisoners would be both protected and cared for. After Mladic had left the scene the UN peacekeepers from the largely Protestant Netherlands claim that they were forced to stand back and do nothing as the Bosnian-Serb forces massacred the Muslim prisoners. Therefore it is my opinion that Mladic can never receive a fair trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) while it is based in the Hague in the Netherlands.
In other news British MP's have authorised the use of Apache attack helicopters in Libya. However the British Prime Minister, David Cameron has yet to sign off on the idea as the argument between Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama continues. On paper this should be the worlds shortest argument because UK Apache helicopters are operated by the Army Air Corp and are therefore classified as a ground force. The use of ground forces in Libya is specifically prohibited by UNSC resolution 1973(2011) at the request of it's British and French authors. Mind you Britain, France and Qatar have already so extensively defiled 1973(2011) that they may as well have wiped their arses on it. So remind me is it next week a crooked Qatari will try and overthrow Sepp Blatter as the head of FIFA.
The first day of the G8 Summit opened today (26/5/11) in France with a discussion about nuclear safety in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. This was followed by the shock announcement that Ratko Mladic had been arrested before a working lunch and an afternoon session to decide how best to control the Internet in the wake of the Arab Spring. So by my reckoning the summit got on to metaphysics by about 2pm on day one. This does not bode well for day two.
Apart from that I've discovered the root of some parts of western Europe's pure hatred for Ratko Mladic. In 1995 Bosnian-Serb forces detained 7,500 Bosnian-Muslim men and boys at prison camp near Srebrenica. Mladic personally attended the scene and assured the prisoners, the assembled media and the commanders of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission that the prisoners would be both protected and cared for. After Mladic had left the scene the UN peacekeepers from the largely Protestant Netherlands claim that they were forced to stand back and do nothing as the Bosnian-Serb forces massacred the Muslim prisoners. Therefore it is my opinion that Mladic can never receive a fair trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) while it is based in the Hague in the Netherlands.
In other news British MP's have authorised the use of Apache attack helicopters in Libya. However the British Prime Minister, David Cameron has yet to sign off on the idea as the argument between Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama continues. On paper this should be the worlds shortest argument because UK Apache helicopters are operated by the Army Air Corp and are therefore classified as a ground force. The use of ground forces in Libya is specifically prohibited by UNSC resolution 1973(2011) at the request of it's British and French authors. Mind you Britain, France and Qatar have already so extensively defiled 1973(2011) that they may as well have wiped their arses on it. So remind me is it next week a crooked Qatari will try and overthrow Sepp Blatter as the head of FIFA.
Ratko Mladic Arrested.
The 2011 G8 Summit being held in France opened to the dramatic news that Serbia have arrested Ratko Mladic on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant relating to various alleged war crimes committed during the break up of Yugoslavia. As I was about twelve during that time I really can't comment on the specifics. However Ratko Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian-Serb forces who most certainly did commit war crimes during a very dirty war in which all sides committed war crimes.
The Spanish President of the European Union (EU), Jose Manuel Barroso who is attending the G8 Summit is claiming the credit for getting the Serb government to finally execute the ICC warrant. Apparently on a recent visit to the country Mr Barroso told the Serb government that their current bid to join the EU would most certainly fail unless Mr Mladic was arrested.
Although the arrest of Mladic is undoubtedly a good thing the timing is a little bit worrying. Since around October 2010 political tensions in the former Yugoslav state of Bosnia & Herzegovina have been running high with the Bosniaks and the Bosnian-Serbs unable to agree on the formation of a new government. The arrest of Mladic, who is seen as a heroic saviour by many Bosnian-Serbs is unlikely to calm the situation down any and the Bosniaks are going to be less then happy with the news that Serbia could soon be joining the EU. Therefore Barroso intends to use the tension generated by the arrest to bring up the long running argument over the ICC's lack of impartiality in order to expand but not necessarily reform the ICC's remit.
The Spanish President of the European Union (EU), Jose Manuel Barroso who is attending the G8 Summit is claiming the credit for getting the Serb government to finally execute the ICC warrant. Apparently on a recent visit to the country Mr Barroso told the Serb government that their current bid to join the EU would most certainly fail unless Mr Mladic was arrested.
Although the arrest of Mladic is undoubtedly a good thing the timing is a little bit worrying. Since around October 2010 political tensions in the former Yugoslav state of Bosnia & Herzegovina have been running high with the Bosniaks and the Bosnian-Serbs unable to agree on the formation of a new government. The arrest of Mladic, who is seen as a heroic saviour by many Bosnian-Serbs is unlikely to calm the situation down any and the Bosniaks are going to be less then happy with the news that Serbia could soon be joining the EU. Therefore Barroso intends to use the tension generated by the arrest to bring up the long running argument over the ICC's lack of impartiality in order to expand but not necessarily reform the ICC's remit.
Court Stuff Filed.
Today (26/5/11) I have just filed the paperwork for this statutory nuisance matter with Croydon Magistrate Court. As before I have sought the maximum penalty permissible by law (£20,000), full costs, full compensation and a closure order that will decommission the property and be regulated by an verification and inspection agreement. The case itself is exactly the same as it was the last time only with the following two paragraphs added to bring it up to date;
"The matter was brought before Croydon Magistrates Court on October 12th 2010 but was dismissed for reasons that have yet to be specified (exhibit A.) The disturbances from number 50 continued specifically the use of a universal remote control to turn on and off and change channels on a television set in number 51. As a consequence the television in question broke. This caused me to serve another notice of intention to prosecute on both the property and the property owners on November 4th 2010 (exhibits B&C.) The occupiers of the property left voluntarily shortly afterwards and the nuisance was temporarily abated.
Then at around 07:00 on Friday May 20th 2011 I was woken up by a loud hammering on the common wall between number 50 and my bedroom. It became apparent that the owners of the property had instructed builders to carry out construction work on the property at around 06:00. This work continued throughout the day causing me a great deal of stress so another notice of intention to prosecute was served (exhibit D.) There was no disturbance on Saturday May 21st 2011 but the disturbance resumed at around 07:30 on Sunday May 22nd 2011 and continued on May 23rd and 24th 2011. The property owners and their agents have yet to contact me over the matter." Where the exhibits are paperwork supporting those statements.
As for the timing in order to qualify for a fees/cost exemption I need to provide a certificate from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that is valid for one month. I have one of those but it expires on June 1st 2011. It's a three day bank holiday weekend this weekend so realistically I could either file today or tomorrow. It don't see why I should apologise though because if the other members of the G8 are happy from Britain to try and use me as a weapon against them then they've only got themselves to blame.
As to what happens now is that the court will send a summons and set a court date. This shouldn't be much of a problem because as the Rome statute states if the court is unwilling or unable to prosecute it will have to pass the case to a court that is.
"The matter was brought before Croydon Magistrates Court on October 12th 2010 but was dismissed for reasons that have yet to be specified (exhibit A.) The disturbances from number 50 continued specifically the use of a universal remote control to turn on and off and change channels on a television set in number 51. As a consequence the television in question broke. This caused me to serve another notice of intention to prosecute on both the property and the property owners on November 4th 2010 (exhibits B&C.) The occupiers of the property left voluntarily shortly afterwards and the nuisance was temporarily abated.
Then at around 07:00 on Friday May 20th 2011 I was woken up by a loud hammering on the common wall between number 50 and my bedroom. It became apparent that the owners of the property had instructed builders to carry out construction work on the property at around 06:00. This work continued throughout the day causing me a great deal of stress so another notice of intention to prosecute was served (exhibit D.) There was no disturbance on Saturday May 21st 2011 but the disturbance resumed at around 07:30 on Sunday May 22nd 2011 and continued on May 23rd and 24th 2011. The property owners and their agents have yet to contact me over the matter." Where the exhibits are paperwork supporting those statements.
As for the timing in order to qualify for a fees/cost exemption I need to provide a certificate from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that is valid for one month. I have one of those but it expires on June 1st 2011. It's a three day bank holiday weekend this weekend so realistically I could either file today or tomorrow. It don't see why I should apologise though because if the other members of the G8 are happy from Britain to try and use me as a weapon against them then they've only got themselves to blame.
As to what happens now is that the court will send a summons and set a court date. This shouldn't be much of a problem because as the Rome statute states if the court is unwilling or unable to prosecute it will have to pass the case to a court that is.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Now That is Inconvient.
On the eve of the G8 Summit to be held in France the French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde has today (25/5/11) formally entered the race to become the next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Unfortunately due to the restrictions placed on me by the Brits I can't go into much detail. However if Ms Lagarde were to be successful in this endeavor you can kiss goodbye the middle east peace process and a 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan even if Lola and the State department haven't worked it out yet.
Besides Dominique Strauss-Kahn was French so clearly placed in the cycle has passed.
Besides Dominique Strauss-Kahn was French so clearly placed in the cycle has passed.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Right It's 00:15 25/05/11
Since I last posted I've been listening to;
Johnny Cash - American V
Johnny Cash - American Recording's 1993
Ls Fredrikson & the Bastard.
I've go the Clash for tommorrow so I'm going to bed now 00:20
Johnny Cash - American V
Johnny Cash - American Recording's 1993
Ls Fredrikson & the Bastard.
I've go the Clash for tommorrow so I'm going to bed now 00:20
So Rihanna
can join the f*cking queue because it turns out it's 21:46 GMT on May 24th 2011 and Ryan....Air were telling the truth because the latest Icelandic Ash Could is nothing to worry about so I've I've got to take a few moments to do something mysterious.
So it's now 21:59 and I've been on the Kronenbourg. Two cans before the pub followed by a little bit Guiness and then 8 more cans from the off licence but nothing more then the cigarettes I promise your honour. But you know this PC Simon Harwood well on June 20th 2011 at 08:00 (but not before the custody cases) he will be appearing before Westminister Central Magistrate Court to decide if the charge of Manslaugther can be tried before a Magistrate or needs to be passed up to a Crown court. Well it turns out he lives in Caulsdon so if he really wanted he could asked for the case to be transfered to Croydon Magistrates Court so I could look his family in the eye and the locals could be wamred up for the evening.
It's now 22:10 Johnny Cash has come up on the stereo so I may need to join you later.
So it's now 21:59 and I've been on the Kronenbourg. Two cans before the pub followed by a little bit Guiness and then 8 more cans from the off licence but nothing more then the cigarettes I promise your honour. But you know this PC Simon Harwood well on June 20th 2011 at 08:00 (but not before the custody cases) he will be appearing before Westminister Central Magistrate Court to decide if the charge of Manslaugther can be tried before a Magistrate or needs to be passed up to a Crown court. Well it turns out he lives in Caulsdon so if he really wanted he could asked for the case to be transfered to Croydon Magistrates Court so I could look his family in the eye and the locals could be wamred up for the evening.
It's now 22:10 Johnny Cash has come up on the stereo so I may need to join you later.
Hello It's Tuesday Night.
Specifically Tuesday May 24th at around 20:02 BST and I've been to the pub. I've also been to the supermarket. Although the breach of the peace is still in effect and I've taken up chain smoking I'm OK.
I wish the same could be said for Barack Obama because my god he walked straight into that one didn't he. Even his fu*king car thought he should have stayed in Ireland.
I wish the same could be said for Barack Obama because my god he walked straight into that one didn't he. Even his fu*king car thought he should have stayed in Ireland.
Violence. Britain's Only Language.
On April 1st 2009 a man, Ian Tomlinson died after being struck by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood at the anti-G20 protests in London. From that moment on the British state has done everything in it's power to make sure that the police officer would never face lawful punishment. This included getting a dodgy pathologist to preform a fraudulent autopsy, smearing the victim and his family in the press, banning the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from bringing charges, preventing the General Medical Council (GMC) from striking the pathologist off the medical register and even staging a high profile and premature Coroner's Inquest to prejudice any evidence that could possibly be used in a criminal trial.
However in the same time period Britain saw the student protests which became some of the most violent rioting see on the UK mainland since the miners strike in the 1980's. At these protests the police themselves were very much the focus of the demonstrators anger including a high profile incident in which a metal fire extinguisher was thrown at police officers from the roof of a building. Along with other less widely reported incidents this violence quickly destroyed the police's desire to protect their brother officer and today (24/5/11) the CPS finally announced that PC Simon Harwood would face manslaughter charges with his first court appearance coming on June 20th 2011.
However in the same time period Britain saw the student protests which became some of the most violent rioting see on the UK mainland since the miners strike in the 1980's. At these protests the police themselves were very much the focus of the demonstrators anger including a high profile incident in which a metal fire extinguisher was thrown at police officers from the roof of a building. Along with other less widely reported incidents this violence quickly destroyed the police's desire to protect their brother officer and today (24/5/11) the CPS finally announced that PC Simon Harwood would face manslaughter charges with his first court appearance coming on June 20th 2011.
Operation Oil Theft: Month 3, Week 2, Day 5.
On May 23rd (23/5/11) France announced that NATO will be deploying attack helicopters to support Libyan rebel forces against Libyan government forces. What actually happened was that France parked the Tonnerre aircraft carrier equipped with 12 Tiger and Gazelle attack helicopters off the coast of Libya in an attempt to force NATO into giving them permission to deploy them.
In Libya itself the situation remains rather constant with rebel and government forces exchanging fire around Misrata and Ajdabiya with little progress being made. However on the night of May 23rd British and French aircraft carried out the most intense series of air raids of the entire conflict. In the space of 30 minutes wave after wave of aircraft attacked 20 targets in the capital Tripoli killing at least 3 civilians and wounding at least 150 more. Similar air raids were also carried out at/near Zintan, Misrata and Ajdabiya. If all the media reports are correct then NATO dropped a day and a half worth of bombs in the space of 30 minutes. No wonder foreign correspondents are describing the raids as NATO trying to send a message.
Of course this night of shock and awe comes on the day that US President, Barack Obama arrives in Britain for a state visit that will see him also visit France on Thursday and Friday. So I can't see how Britain and France can even pretend that these raids had anything to do with Libya.
In Libya itself the situation remains rather constant with rebel and government forces exchanging fire around Misrata and Ajdabiya with little progress being made. However on the night of May 23rd British and French aircraft carried out the most intense series of air raids of the entire conflict. In the space of 30 minutes wave after wave of aircraft attacked 20 targets in the capital Tripoli killing at least 3 civilians and wounding at least 150 more. Similar air raids were also carried out at/near Zintan, Misrata and Ajdabiya. If all the media reports are correct then NATO dropped a day and a half worth of bombs in the space of 30 minutes. No wonder foreign correspondents are describing the raids as NATO trying to send a message.
Of course this night of shock and awe comes on the day that US President, Barack Obama arrives in Britain for a state visit that will see him also visit France on Thursday and Friday. So I can't see how Britain and France can even pretend that these raids had anything to do with Libya.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Finally I've Fixed My Printer.
OK technically it was at the first attempt. It turns out that the problem was that someone had remotely accessed the operating system and diverted the file manager to a printer that doesn't exist. Eventually I managed to delete that printer and get data flowing to a printer that does exist. All I have to do know is hope that no-one hacks back in and changes it back.
While I was doing that I couldn't help but think that the US Secret Service should seriously consider the pre-emptive arrest idea. Quite apart from the fact that host nations have an obligation to protect visiting heads of state the idea is completely in line with British law and customs and was used extensively during the Royal Wedding. Beyond that it's a good idea for two reasons;
1. If the Americans really want information on NHHT and the wider situation as they've been claiming for years then arresting them and interviewing them while seizing their mobile phones, computers and paper work would be a really quick and easy way to do that.
2. The Habeas Corpus element would force the local Magistrate to hear the case as quickly as possible and possibly even be leapfrogged entirely meaning that the whole matter would be done and dusted save for a costs hearing before the start of the G8.
Of course Britain would use the incident to brief against America but they've been doing that quite effectively with Guantanamo Bay for years. Plus the people who actually do remember the Bush years would probably find it quite funny.
While I was doing that I couldn't help but think that the US Secret Service should seriously consider the pre-emptive arrest idea. Quite apart from the fact that host nations have an obligation to protect visiting heads of state the idea is completely in line with British law and customs and was used extensively during the Royal Wedding. Beyond that it's a good idea for two reasons;
1. If the Americans really want information on NHHT and the wider situation as they've been claiming for years then arresting them and interviewing them while seizing their mobile phones, computers and paper work would be a really quick and easy way to do that.
2. The Habeas Corpus element would force the local Magistrate to hear the case as quickly as possible and possibly even be leapfrogged entirely meaning that the whole matter would be done and dusted save for a costs hearing before the start of the G8.
Of course Britain would use the incident to brief against America but they've been doing that quite effectively with Guantanamo Bay for years. Plus the people who actually do remember the Bush years would probably find it quite funny.
There Still At It.
Banging and hammering from #50 which is both observable and audible from the public highway. Considering that the US President, a foriegn head of state, is making an official state visit to the UK tomorrow (24/5/11) now would be a perfect time for the US Secret Service to insist that the Metropolitan Police arrest these people to prevent a breach of the peace and hold them until such a time as the threat of the breach of the peace has passed.
Either way I know as fact that Croydon Borough Police monitor this blog so they should consider themselves informed that a breach of the peace is occurring within a dispersal area. Therefore they should deploy units to end it.
Either way I know as fact that Croydon Borough Police monitor this blog so they should consider themselves informed that a breach of the peace is occurring within a dispersal area. Therefore they should deploy units to end it.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
If You Remember Nothing Else From This Evening
Then Remember that Sir Trevor McDonald was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship award. As the first Black reporter on British television news he was rightly decorated with a Knighthood 1999. Much more importantly then that his grandson once played in a rugby match against my little brother. Although my father remembered to get and autograph no-one else in the family can remember a thing about it. So really this is just my cunning way of announcing that dinner went well.
Now as we all know that Ryan Giggs is a c*nt for not playing against Blackpool I think it's time for me to go to bed even if bed means crying softly in a corner of the floor.
Now as we all know that Ryan Giggs is a c*nt for not playing against Blackpool I think it's time for me to go to bed even if bed means crying softly in a corner of the floor.
The UK Football Season Has Ended.
Unfortunately due to a High Court injunction I can't tell you who won the Premership. Likewise next Saturday's UEFA Champions League Final will have to be played behind closed doors.
It is also the British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) Television Awards taking place live in London tonight. Considering that at least four of the people attending are facing up to two years in prison for re-tweeting which footballer had an affair with a Welsh reality TV star I would say it's best behaviour all round even if you have been drinking since 16:00.
It is also the British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) Television Awards taking place live in London tonight. Considering that at least four of the people attending are facing up to two years in prison for re-tweeting which footballer had an affair with a Welsh reality TV star I would say it's best behaviour all round even if you have been drinking since 16:00.
Is F1 Ever Coming Back?
Because I do sort of miss it.
As a life long Formula 1 Racing (F1) fan I've always accepted that it can be really boring at times but like with cricket the ebb and flow of that boredom is part of the charm. Unfortunately back in 2009 F1 boss and disgraced British business man, Max Mosley decided to make the sport even more boring by banning in race re-fuelling probably by spinning some line about the sport needing to show it's green credentials.
The effect was immediate because after the first race of the 2010 season everyone took one look and decided that Sebastian Vettel would win the drivers title and his team, Red Bull would win the constructors title. Nine tedious months later everybody was proved right. Even though Mosley has since been forced out of F1 the in race re-fuelling ban continued into the 2011 season. However the organisers decided to introduce a series of gimmicks in an attempt to disguise how dull the sport had become. These include the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and tires that are fragile they disintegrate the moment any driver attempts to use them to race. The early races to the 2011 were a farce as the teams and drivers had to learn how to use these gimmicks but now that's been done races have returned to being tedious endurance events that are about 22 hours too short.
That's really a shame because with the current crop of talent the sport should really be enjoying a golden age but instead I'm trying to decide if I can be bothered to actively boycott it.
As a life long Formula 1 Racing (F1) fan I've always accepted that it can be really boring at times but like with cricket the ebb and flow of that boredom is part of the charm. Unfortunately back in 2009 F1 boss and disgraced British business man, Max Mosley decided to make the sport even more boring by banning in race re-fuelling probably by spinning some line about the sport needing to show it's green credentials.
The effect was immediate because after the first race of the 2010 season everyone took one look and decided that Sebastian Vettel would win the drivers title and his team, Red Bull would win the constructors title. Nine tedious months later everybody was proved right. Even though Mosley has since been forced out of F1 the in race re-fuelling ban continued into the 2011 season. However the organisers decided to introduce a series of gimmicks in an attempt to disguise how dull the sport had become. These include the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and tires that are fragile they disintegrate the moment any driver attempts to use them to race. The early races to the 2011 were a farce as the teams and drivers had to learn how to use these gimmicks but now that's been done races have returned to being tedious endurance events that are about 22 hours too short.
That's really a shame because with the current crop of talent the sport should really be enjoying a golden age but instead I'm trying to decide if I can be bothered to actively boycott it.
NHHT Are at It Again.
At around 08:30 today, Sunday May 22nd I was again woken up by loud banging and other noise from #50 Beechwood Avenue which is owned and operated by the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT). This comes two full days after the notification that they were creating a statutory nuisance contrary to Section 79(1)(g) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 was published in what both Senior Judge Denzil Lush and UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve deem to be a public place.
So seeing as I've got the time. As you don't know this Premership footballer who is suing Twitter over these super injunctions well you'll never guess which club he plays for. Well I suppose something had to be done to avenge Ben Ali an Mubarak.
So seeing as I've got the time. As you don't know this Premership footballer who is suing Twitter over these super injunctions well you'll never guess which club he plays for. Well I suppose something had to be done to avenge Ben Ali an Mubarak.
Saturday, 21 May 2011
So Here's What I Should Have Done Yesterday.
On Saturday May 14th Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) the French head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was arrested in New York for allegedly attempting to rape, sexually assaulting and kidnapping a chamber maid who was trying to clean his hotel room. Obviously this is a very difficult subject to talk about because while there is clearly a case to answer Mr Strauss-Kahn still has the right to a fair trial. Given the politically charged nature of his job even this will be a near impossible task for New York's state Supreme Court.
The IMF is essentially the regulator for the global economy making it's head one of the most important people in the world. All of the worlds major financial issues like the reconstruction of Haiti, the stability of the Egyptian economy, the Eurozone bailouts and even the US budget argument cross their desk at some point and they attend all the major international summits such as the G8 and the World Economic Forum. Although Strauss-Kahn was intending to leave the job at the end of the year anyway his arrest has left the IMF leaderless and plunged discussions over the second bailout for the Greek economy into chaos as the USA, the EU and the BRIC nations argue over who should replace him. In itself this isn't actually much of a problem because DSK displayed a problematic attitude during the negotiations over the Irish bailout and the first Greek bailout which he was an architect of can hardly be described as a success. Also with the IMF out of the game much of the European debate over the Greek bailout has now focused on the European Central Bank (ECB) which has obstinately been blocking the some form of debt restructuring that Greece clearly needs. The only real worry is that DSK's departure has opened the door to failed British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to replace him and Brown's politics really make him an inappropriate person to head an international economic body. Likewise Christine Lagarde would be the wrong person for this job at this time.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest will be most keenly felt in his home country though because it has prevented him standing as the Socialist Party but really centre ground candidate in the 2012 French Presidential election. As a result that election will now become a two way fight between the aggressively right wing Nicholas Sarkozy and the French National Front who like the British National Front are just out and out fascists. As there is just no way that Socialist Party votes will transfer to the National Front this pretty much guarantees that Sarkozy will be re-elected as President.
So great is the political impact of Strauss-Kahn's arrest that it has led to a huge number of conspiracy theories that it was a political sting by the Americans to remove him from the head of the IMF. At first this seems totally ridiculous because the IMF is a very US dominated organisation so if America wanted to remove Strauss-Kahn they wouldn't need to go to these lengths. However the wider impacts that the arrest have had on the Eurozone and the French election do make me suspicious. Although I can think of no good reason why the Americans would want to sabotage the Eurozone or want to keep an increasingly hostile Sarkozy as President of France I am aware that the Americans, especially the Republicans, are still overly reliant on Britain for information. In the past this has led to America making a series of self damaging choices on issues such as Libya and quantitative easing. So the question I'll need to have answered before I completely rule out conspiracy is whether or not the Americans have realised it's time to cut Britain loose.
As to what has happened after the arrest the way that the New York State Court has handled the case has given many people the impression that the prosecution is politically motivated which has in turn increased pressure on the American President and Federal Government ahead of the Obama / Netanyahu Summit and Obama's European tour. In part the way the Court has handled the case has been influenced by the scandal over the British Lord Chief Justice, Ken Clarke's comments on rape on May 18th. Conversely some people in France have been blaming the whole thing on the Russians. This either shows Israeli influence after the fact or shows that the French are trying to make it look like Israeli influence. At this point I am genuinely not sure either way because I think we can all agree that yesterday did not go well.
The IMF is essentially the regulator for the global economy making it's head one of the most important people in the world. All of the worlds major financial issues like the reconstruction of Haiti, the stability of the Egyptian economy, the Eurozone bailouts and even the US budget argument cross their desk at some point and they attend all the major international summits such as the G8 and the World Economic Forum. Although Strauss-Kahn was intending to leave the job at the end of the year anyway his arrest has left the IMF leaderless and plunged discussions over the second bailout for the Greek economy into chaos as the USA, the EU and the BRIC nations argue over who should replace him. In itself this isn't actually much of a problem because DSK displayed a problematic attitude during the negotiations over the Irish bailout and the first Greek bailout which he was an architect of can hardly be described as a success. Also with the IMF out of the game much of the European debate over the Greek bailout has now focused on the European Central Bank (ECB) which has obstinately been blocking the some form of debt restructuring that Greece clearly needs. The only real worry is that DSK's departure has opened the door to failed British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to replace him and Brown's politics really make him an inappropriate person to head an international economic body. Likewise Christine Lagarde would be the wrong person for this job at this time.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest will be most keenly felt in his home country though because it has prevented him standing as the Socialist Party but really centre ground candidate in the 2012 French Presidential election. As a result that election will now become a two way fight between the aggressively right wing Nicholas Sarkozy and the French National Front who like the British National Front are just out and out fascists. As there is just no way that Socialist Party votes will transfer to the National Front this pretty much guarantees that Sarkozy will be re-elected as President.
So great is the political impact of Strauss-Kahn's arrest that it has led to a huge number of conspiracy theories that it was a political sting by the Americans to remove him from the head of the IMF. At first this seems totally ridiculous because the IMF is a very US dominated organisation so if America wanted to remove Strauss-Kahn they wouldn't need to go to these lengths. However the wider impacts that the arrest have had on the Eurozone and the French election do make me suspicious. Although I can think of no good reason why the Americans would want to sabotage the Eurozone or want to keep an increasingly hostile Sarkozy as President of France I am aware that the Americans, especially the Republicans, are still overly reliant on Britain for information. In the past this has led to America making a series of self damaging choices on issues such as Libya and quantitative easing. So the question I'll need to have answered before I completely rule out conspiracy is whether or not the Americans have realised it's time to cut Britain loose.
As to what has happened after the arrest the way that the New York State Court has handled the case has given many people the impression that the prosecution is politically motivated which has in turn increased pressure on the American President and Federal Government ahead of the Obama / Netanyahu Summit and Obama's European tour. In part the way the Court has handled the case has been influenced by the scandal over the British Lord Chief Justice, Ken Clarke's comments on rape on May 18th. Conversely some people in France have been blaming the whole thing on the Russians. This either shows Israeli influence after the fact or shows that the French are trying to make it look like Israeli influence. At this point I am genuinely not sure either way because I think we can all agree that yesterday did not go well.
Friday, 20 May 2011
I Blame...
RizLateefh. This BBC London Newsreader in absolutely no way stole my cigarette papers. So at around 23:56 I loaded Imelda May to find out if Johnny got a boom boom but it didn't work. It is now 01:09 and I will be turning off my computer and trying to get to sleep.
Oi BBC Viewers.
Are you may be aware that at around zero something time today (22:41 BST) I took a mysterious substance known as cocaine.
More importantly then that at around 11:00 the Royal Air Force (RAF) was forced to give a press conference explaining it's actions in Libya. On the back of that we've decided that Syria can kill every last woman, man and child in that country for as long as the protests continue. Apart from that on Tuesday/Wednesday I killed I big field mouse. In my defence I would say that some other bugg*r poisoned it first.
Ooh nasty edit at 22:47: I forgot my point. In the Dominque Strauss-Kahn (DSK) case I think that there is certainly a case to answer in front of the New York State Supreme Court even if it's not a Federal Case.
More importantly then that at around 11:00 the Royal Air Force (RAF) was forced to give a press conference explaining it's actions in Libya. On the back of that we've decided that Syria can kill every last woman, man and child in that country for as long as the protests continue. Apart from that on Tuesday/Wednesday I killed I big field mouse. In my defence I would say that some other bugg*r poisoned it first.
Ooh nasty edit at 22:47: I forgot my point. In the Dominque Strauss-Kahn (DSK) case I think that there is certainly a case to answer in front of the New York State Supreme Court even if it's not a Federal Case.
And Here We Go Again.
At around 06:50 this morning (20/5/11) I was woken up by loud banging from #50 Beechwood. So I have again served the Notting Hill Housing Association (NHHA) with a section 82 notification of intent to prosecute them for a statutory (noise) nuisance contrary to Section 79 (1)(g) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
I suspect this probably will come up it court so I will try and keep you informed of the court date as this is probably going to co-incide with Israel attacking Iran so realistically were looking at late August/early September
That actually raises an interesting point for the G8 because I clearly operate transnationally. So does a threat to me constitute a threat to regional instability? If it does then as a signatory of the International Criminal Court (ICC) if Britain is unwilling or unable to prosecute then the surely ICC is obligated to prosecute Britain with or without a request from the United Nations Security Council.
I suspect this probably will come up it court so I will try and keep you informed of the court date as this is probably going to co-incide with Israel attacking Iran so realistically were looking at late August/early September
That actually raises an interesting point for the G8 because I clearly operate transnationally. So does a threat to me constitute a threat to regional instability? If it does then as a signatory of the International Criminal Court (ICC) if Britain is unwilling or unable to prosecute then the surely ICC is obligated to prosecute Britain with or without a request from the United Nations Security Council.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Operation Oil Theft: Month 3, Week 2, Day 1.
While I've been overcome by laziness it has been an eventful week in Libya. On or around May 13th NATO aircraft again carried out sustained attacks against Libyan government buildings in Tripoli including the Qaddafi residential compound in a thinly veiled attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi. During one of these attacks Muammar Qaddafi was either injured or forced so far into hiding that he had to be replaced as the de-facto head of the Libyan government by his son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi.
This was the natural and peaceful progression of Libyan politics that was being brought about by 8 years of diplomacy before the insurgency and the foreign intervention prevented it at the cost of almost 10,000 lives. The effect of the change in personalities was almost instant. On May 15th Libyan government forces stopped shelling the city of Misrata and withdrew to defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately the rebels interpreted this change in tactics as a result of their military action and on May 17th used the opportunity to mount fresh attacks on government forces bringing to an end two days of relative peace in the city.
The resumption of fighting in Misrata pleased the British. Over the weekend Britain had been lobbying NATO for permission to intensify attacks against Libyan civilian infrastructure and operating on the edges of NATO command they proceeded to do just that with the first naval bombardment of the Libyan cost by HMS Liverpool. On May 18th this prompted Muammar Qaddafi's wife and his daughter, Aisha Qaddafi to seek refuge in Tunisia as it became apparent that there is nothing in its power the Libyan government can do bring about an end to NATO attacks that are driven by a desire to do as much damage as possible to Libya in order to seize control of it's oil reserves rather then any humanitarian concern.
Away from Libya on May 16th the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Chief Prosecutor asked judges to consider issuing arrest warrants against Muammar Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and Abdullah Sanussi, the head of the Libyan intelligence service. At present the exact details of the alleged offences are being kept so secret that not even the accused have been informed of what they're accused of. However at his press conference on the matter the ICC's Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampa stated that the offences related to "the use of imprecise weaponry such as cluster munitions, multiple rocket launchers and mortars and other forms of heavy weaponry in crowded areas particularly Misrata." That would indicate that the allegations relate to events that occurred after the NATO intervention. This raises two important issues;
1.By focusing on events in the west of the country following the NATO intervention the ICC has neatly avoided asking why those who carried out atrocities in the east of the country that both helped fuel the insurgency and the calls for international intervention in the early part of the conflict now make up the bulk of the rebel forces?
2. As these events only occurred after the NATO intervention you have to ask if they are in fact a consequence of the NATO intervention?
This was the natural and peaceful progression of Libyan politics that was being brought about by 8 years of diplomacy before the insurgency and the foreign intervention prevented it at the cost of almost 10,000 lives. The effect of the change in personalities was almost instant. On May 15th Libyan government forces stopped shelling the city of Misrata and withdrew to defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately the rebels interpreted this change in tactics as a result of their military action and on May 17th used the opportunity to mount fresh attacks on government forces bringing to an end two days of relative peace in the city.
The resumption of fighting in Misrata pleased the British. Over the weekend Britain had been lobbying NATO for permission to intensify attacks against Libyan civilian infrastructure and operating on the edges of NATO command they proceeded to do just that with the first naval bombardment of the Libyan cost by HMS Liverpool. On May 18th this prompted Muammar Qaddafi's wife and his daughter, Aisha Qaddafi to seek refuge in Tunisia as it became apparent that there is nothing in its power the Libyan government can do bring about an end to NATO attacks that are driven by a desire to do as much damage as possible to Libya in order to seize control of it's oil reserves rather then any humanitarian concern.
Away from Libya on May 16th the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Chief Prosecutor asked judges to consider issuing arrest warrants against Muammar Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and Abdullah Sanussi, the head of the Libyan intelligence service. At present the exact details of the alleged offences are being kept so secret that not even the accused have been informed of what they're accused of. However at his press conference on the matter the ICC's Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampa stated that the offences related to "the use of imprecise weaponry such as cluster munitions, multiple rocket launchers and mortars and other forms of heavy weaponry in crowded areas particularly Misrata." That would indicate that the allegations relate to events that occurred after the NATO intervention. This raises two important issues;
1.By focusing on events in the west of the country following the NATO intervention the ICC has neatly avoided asking why those who carried out atrocities in the east of the country that both helped fuel the insurgency and the calls for international intervention in the early part of the conflict now make up the bulk of the rebel forces?
2. As these events only occurred after the NATO intervention you have to ask if they are in fact a consequence of the NATO intervention?
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Cheeky Two-Faced B*tch.
The Queen of England is currently on a four day visit to Ireland. The first such visit since the Irish fought off British colonial rule. So far the Queen has celebrated the Croke Park massacre and honoured those Irishmen who stopped bothering with this independence nonsense and fought for Britain during the second world war.
At her only public speech of the visit made tonight (18/5/11) the Queen praised the Northern Irish peace process and congratulated those involved. Meanwhile in Northern Ireland's recent elections both Sinn Fein (Republicans) and the Democratic Unionist Party (Unionists) both increased their share of the vote at the expense of more everyday political parties like Labour and the Alliance. This represents a hardening of sectarian divisions as a direct consequence of Britain spending the last two years trying to break apart the peace process.
Anyway the Queen was invited to Ireland by Mary McAleese the Irish President who presided over the countries economic collapse and the EU bailout which Britain tried to block.
At her only public speech of the visit made tonight (18/5/11) the Queen praised the Northern Irish peace process and congratulated those involved. Meanwhile in Northern Ireland's recent elections both Sinn Fein (Republicans) and the Democratic Unionist Party (Unionists) both increased their share of the vote at the expense of more everyday political parties like Labour and the Alliance. This represents a hardening of sectarian divisions as a direct consequence of Britain spending the last two years trying to break apart the peace process.
Anyway the Queen was invited to Ireland by Mary McAleese the Irish President who presided over the countries economic collapse and the EU bailout which Britain tried to block.
I Guess Fates Been Tempted.
Remember I was complaining about the broken shed door at #50 Beechwood Avenue. Well in the end I just wired it shut. Today (18/5/11) Roe from #49 removed that wire so the doors back blowing in the wind. Roe's actually quite a funny story but basically the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT) have tricked him into acting as an unpaid care taker for #50 by letting him think that one day he'll be able to add the property to his own portfolio which currently contains his house and #47.
The whole thing does bring up the matter of the statutory nuisance proceeding I took out against NHHT. As you may remember this was thrown out on two grounds; That a Supreme Court ruling absolved NHHT of any responsibility and that the notice I served on NHHT was incorrect. It's already been long established that no such Supreme Court ruling ever existed so by claiming that one did NHHT's barrister lied to the court and committed perjury. I've also since checked and a notification need only contain the offenders details, the date of the offence, the location of the offence and details of the offence as they appear in statute. The notice I served contained all of these things so by dismissing the case on those grounds the Magistrate was making a decision with no basis in law. By not informing him of that fact the Clerk of the Court was perverting the course of justice.
Sadly both perjury and perverting the course of justice are both criminal offences that I cannot prosecute. Therefore it is the sole responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to bring proceedings. Given the level of public interest in the case they should also hold press conferences to explain how the prosecutions are going in order to meet the inspection and verification criteria.
As for this Denzil Lush character because he's a judge the only person who can authorise an investigation and remove him from post is the Queen. So the fact that he is still in post means that rather then simply overseeing a dirty shop the Queen is actively participating in the criminal conspiracy. Perhaps that's something the International Criminal Court might want to look into once they've stopped playing politics in Libya.
The whole thing does bring up the matter of the statutory nuisance proceeding I took out against NHHT. As you may remember this was thrown out on two grounds; That a Supreme Court ruling absolved NHHT of any responsibility and that the notice I served on NHHT was incorrect. It's already been long established that no such Supreme Court ruling ever existed so by claiming that one did NHHT's barrister lied to the court and committed perjury. I've also since checked and a notification need only contain the offenders details, the date of the offence, the location of the offence and details of the offence as they appear in statute. The notice I served contained all of these things so by dismissing the case on those grounds the Magistrate was making a decision with no basis in law. By not informing him of that fact the Clerk of the Court was perverting the course of justice.
Sadly both perjury and perverting the course of justice are both criminal offences that I cannot prosecute. Therefore it is the sole responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to bring proceedings. Given the level of public interest in the case they should also hold press conferences to explain how the prosecutions are going in order to meet the inspection and verification criteria.
As for this Denzil Lush character because he's a judge the only person who can authorise an investigation and remove him from post is the Queen. So the fact that he is still in post means that rather then simply overseeing a dirty shop the Queen is actively participating in the criminal conspiracy. Perhaps that's something the International Criminal Court might want to look into once they've stopped playing politics in Libya.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
So What's Happening With Me Then.
Apart from a painfully slow Internet connection not a lot. I know this may come as a disappointment to some people because all through the winter the Brits have been saying; "We'll wait until the summer time then we'll get him while he's at his weakest."
Well summer time's here and, at the risk of tempting fate, nothings happened. This is because as everybody who's been allowed to read the details knows the Brits lost this game back in November 2009. All we're waiting for now is them to accept and acknowledge that result.
One thing that would help that cause would be if the Yanks dropped their covert support for the situation rather then hoping that my forcing me to stay they could cunningly get me to work for them for free.
Well summer time's here and, at the risk of tempting fate, nothings happened. This is because as everybody who's been allowed to read the details knows the Brits lost this game back in November 2009. All we're waiting for now is them to accept and acknowledge that result.
One thing that would help that cause would be if the Yanks dropped their covert support for the situation rather then hoping that my forcing me to stay they could cunningly get me to work for them for free.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Song 8, Estonia.
That's how far I got into the 2011 Eurovision song contest final before uttering the immortal phrase; "I need a drink."
I needn't have bothered though because the standard of this years contest was actually quite high. As always with Eurovision most of it was sugary pop but this year even the sugary pop was very polished and there was precious little politics. France even went with a bit of opera. Fair point it was opera-lite but it certainly raised the cultural standard of the evening. I'm surprised that Lena didn't do better for Germany and I think the entries from Iceland and Georgia could actually get played on the radio here in the UK with a little bit of work.
The politics came thundering back in the voting though as Azerbaijan ran away with it and will host the contest in 2012. The first thing they've got going for them is that they are Europe's doorway to Iran and the second thing is that they've basically got the same flag design as the Libyan rebels only with slightly different colours. So the political panels were voting for Azerbaijan in order to show their support for the Libyan rebels.
In a similar vein Manchester City today beat Stoke in the English FA Cup final. Stoke apparently had a terrible preparation for the game with a road accident outside their hotel meaning they only arrived at the ground 45 minutes before kick off.
I needn't have bothered though because the standard of this years contest was actually quite high. As always with Eurovision most of it was sugary pop but this year even the sugary pop was very polished and there was precious little politics. France even went with a bit of opera. Fair point it was opera-lite but it certainly raised the cultural standard of the evening. I'm surprised that Lena didn't do better for Germany and I think the entries from Iceland and Georgia could actually get played on the radio here in the UK with a little bit of work.
The politics came thundering back in the voting though as Azerbaijan ran away with it and will host the contest in 2012. The first thing they've got going for them is that they are Europe's doorway to Iran and the second thing is that they've basically got the same flag design as the Libyan rebels only with slightly different colours. So the political panels were voting for Azerbaijan in order to show their support for the Libyan rebels.
In a similar vein Manchester City today beat Stoke in the English FA Cup final. Stoke apparently had a terrible preparation for the game with a road accident outside their hotel meaning they only arrived at the ground 45 minutes before kick off.
It's Eurovision Time !
Back in the 1950's the idea of being able to beam the same live TV pictures across western Europe at the same time was nothing short of revolutionary. So the European winners of world war two pooled their resources to make that dream a reality which is why Israel is considered part of Europe in this instance. The Eurovision project as it became known poured huge amounts of money into Information Communication Technology (ICT) research and staged many Euro-wide galas to show off their new toys. The most successful and long running of these is the Eurovision Song Contest which holds it's 54th final in Germany tonight (14/5/11).
Throughout the cold war the songs and the voting became a way for highly political, secret voting panels in the European countries to send coded messages to each other. So much so that Portugal's 1974 entry was actually the command instruction for the Carnation Revolution which overthrew Portugal's fascist dictatorship. Portugal's 2011 entry is acutely aware of this fact but was sadly knocked out in the semi-final. At the end of the cold war the newly liberated eastern-European nations were allowed to join the contest forcing the creation of the qualifying system and introducing public (telephone) voting which created the terrifying prospect that ordinary members of the public might vote for songs they actually like listening too.
Britain desperately wants to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 as a way to start their Olympic summer. So in order to win in 2011 they've dusted down a boyband from the 1990's in the hope of winning votes from single women (and let's be honest, men) in their late twenties/early thirties. With their song - "I Can" the band "Blue" (the colour of the Conservative Party) also hope to energise the supporters of northern-European euro-sceptic parties in places like Finland, Denmark and Norway to help Britain smash apart the euro-zone. Incidentally Norway's entry was spectacularly racist but again was knocked out in the semi-final. Disguised as an attempt to stop women from sub-Saharan Africa being tricked into the sex trade it was really a complaint about black migration into the predominately white northern Europe. The fact that the singer was a lookalike of Makosi Musambasi, the Zimbabwean made famous by UK Big Brother means that it was also a little bit of a dig at Britain over the north sea oil tax.
Personally I think that Britain should have entered Jessie J. Apart from the obvious joke she's currently the best Britain's got at this sort of thing. Although Jessie J's main claim to fame is that she's written songs for big US pop stars like Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus she also suffered a stroke at a time when strokes were very hot in UK/US bilaterals. Her first single - Do it Like a Dude - was an ode to all those young women who have been turning up at protest black blocs recently. The message was simply that if they dropped the attitude and tried wearing a dress once in a while they'd stand a much better chance of finding themselves a husband. Her second single - Price Tag - was both and attempt to convince the world that now Britain's broke it doesn't care about money and send the message to the Israelis that Britain doesn't have a problem with Jewish settlers "pricetagging" Palestinians. Her third single - Nobody's Perfect- was a general apology with the video making specific reference to both the Royal Family and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It's a shame then that the Americans have already released their response in the form of Aloe Blacc. Instead of playing Eurovision Jessie J will this weekend be playing BBC Radio 1's one big weekend in Cumbria.
Oh and I think Moldova have already won the annual Eurovision WTF! award which in a year when Ireland's Jedward are also appearing is quite the achievement.
Throughout the cold war the songs and the voting became a way for highly political, secret voting panels in the European countries to send coded messages to each other. So much so that Portugal's 1974 entry was actually the command instruction for the Carnation Revolution which overthrew Portugal's fascist dictatorship. Portugal's 2011 entry is acutely aware of this fact but was sadly knocked out in the semi-final. At the end of the cold war the newly liberated eastern-European nations were allowed to join the contest forcing the creation of the qualifying system and introducing public (telephone) voting which created the terrifying prospect that ordinary members of the public might vote for songs they actually like listening too.
Britain desperately wants to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 as a way to start their Olympic summer. So in order to win in 2011 they've dusted down a boyband from the 1990's in the hope of winning votes from single women (and let's be honest, men) in their late twenties/early thirties. With their song - "I Can" the band "Blue" (the colour of the Conservative Party) also hope to energise the supporters of northern-European euro-sceptic parties in places like Finland, Denmark and Norway to help Britain smash apart the euro-zone. Incidentally Norway's entry was spectacularly racist but again was knocked out in the semi-final. Disguised as an attempt to stop women from sub-Saharan Africa being tricked into the sex trade it was really a complaint about black migration into the predominately white northern Europe. The fact that the singer was a lookalike of Makosi Musambasi, the Zimbabwean made famous by UK Big Brother means that it was also a little bit of a dig at Britain over the north sea oil tax.
Personally I think that Britain should have entered Jessie J. Apart from the obvious joke she's currently the best Britain's got at this sort of thing. Although Jessie J's main claim to fame is that she's written songs for big US pop stars like Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus she also suffered a stroke at a time when strokes were very hot in UK/US bilaterals. Her first single - Do it Like a Dude - was an ode to all those young women who have been turning up at protest black blocs recently. The message was simply that if they dropped the attitude and tried wearing a dress once in a while they'd stand a much better chance of finding themselves a husband. Her second single - Price Tag - was both and attempt to convince the world that now Britain's broke it doesn't care about money and send the message to the Israelis that Britain doesn't have a problem with Jewish settlers "pricetagging" Palestinians. Her third single - Nobody's Perfect- was a general apology with the video making specific reference to both the Royal Family and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It's a shame then that the Americans have already released their response in the form of Aloe Blacc. Instead of playing Eurovision Jessie J will this weekend be playing BBC Radio 1's one big weekend in Cumbria.
Oh and I think Moldova have already won the annual Eurovision WTF! award which in a year when Ireland's Jedward are also appearing is quite the achievement.
Friday, 13 May 2011
It's Going to be an Early G8 This Year.
Traditionally the Group of 8 (G8) Summit is held in late-July/early-August when most Parliaments/Senates are in recess. This year though it is to be held early in Deauville, France on May 26th-27th.
As always with with G8/G20 Summits there is no real fixed agenda. However the big unavoidables this year will include;
US President Barack Obama has decided to turn the Summit into something of a European tour also making visits to Britain and the Republic of Ireland. However I'm not sure what else he's got planned for his long and eventful journey.
As always with with G8/G20 Summits there is no real fixed agenda. However the big unavoidables this year will include;
- The world economic recovery especially the Eurozone bailouts of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and possibly Greece again.
- The wave of revolutions/unrest that have swept the middle east and have become annoyingly known as "The Arab Spring."
- The war in Afghanistan and America's killing of Osama bin Laden.
- The war in Libya.
- The Internet.
US President Barack Obama has decided to turn the Summit into something of a European tour also making visits to Britain and the Republic of Ireland. However I'm not sure what else he's got planned for his long and eventful journey.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Operation Oil Theft: Month 3, Week 1, Day 1.
On May 10th Abdul Fattah Younis, the commander of the Libya rebel forces promised that that the next few days would bring a surprise victory for the rebels that would dramatically shorten the war. So far no such victory has materialised making the announcement look like a false promise designed to reassure people that the conflict won't be dragging on until September at the earliest. In the east the rebels only real option is to re-take Brega and even if they are able to achieve this they will still have to re-take around 400km of desert road before they come up against the strategically important defensive line at Sirte.
In the west the rebels did claim a victory on May 11th by re-taking Misrata airport. Although this means that the rebels have taken control of a part of the city they didn't control before it's hard to see how it's given them much of an advantage. The no-fly zone has rendered Misrata airport, along with all of Libya's airports, inoperable for the last three months so by taking control of it the rebels have not prevented Libyan government forces from using it. It is possible that the airport could be used to bring in humanitarian supplies but it is still in a combat zone making it difficult for planes to land and the international community has so far not expressed any interest in using it to deliver supplies. That is unlikely to change unless the United Nations is prepared to breach it's impartiality and start using humanitarian aid as a weapon of war by only supplying it to rebel held areas.
NATO has confirmed that they have carried out over 6000 bombing missions against Libya. In a worrying diplomatic development it was today (12/5/11) announced that NATO had bombed the North Korean Embassy in Tripoli. North Korea has been a vocal critic of the NATO operation. This is a problem because the North Korean Embassy remains North Korean sovereign territory so if it was deliberately targeted then NATO have not only breached it's UN mandate by undermining Libyan sovereignty it has also violated North Korean sovereignty.
Away from Libya the NATO operation is causing deep divisions in the European Union (EU). Since the start of the conflict some 26,000 Libyans have, quite reasonably, sought asylum on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Never a fan of immigrants at the best of times the Italian government has dealt with this problem by giving the migrants temporary EU residency status and then transporting them on mass to France. Currently in the grips of the political rise of the fascist National Front France has responded by refusing to accept the refugees and closing it's border with Italy. This breaches the Schengen agreement that guarantees the free movement of EU residents between EU countries and the ensuing argument is threatening to undermine one of the central principles of the European Union.
Since the migration argument ignited there has been a worrying increase in the number of refugee boats from Libya being lost at sea with some 600 refugees drowned in the last week. Things have got so bad that NATO generally and France and Italy specifically have been forced to deny that they are purposefully allowing refugees from Libya to drown rather then grant them asylum.
In the west the rebels did claim a victory on May 11th by re-taking Misrata airport. Although this means that the rebels have taken control of a part of the city they didn't control before it's hard to see how it's given them much of an advantage. The no-fly zone has rendered Misrata airport, along with all of Libya's airports, inoperable for the last three months so by taking control of it the rebels have not prevented Libyan government forces from using it. It is possible that the airport could be used to bring in humanitarian supplies but it is still in a combat zone making it difficult for planes to land and the international community has so far not expressed any interest in using it to deliver supplies. That is unlikely to change unless the United Nations is prepared to breach it's impartiality and start using humanitarian aid as a weapon of war by only supplying it to rebel held areas.
NATO has confirmed that they have carried out over 6000 bombing missions against Libya. In a worrying diplomatic development it was today (12/5/11) announced that NATO had bombed the North Korean Embassy in Tripoli. North Korea has been a vocal critic of the NATO operation. This is a problem because the North Korean Embassy remains North Korean sovereign territory so if it was deliberately targeted then NATO have not only breached it's UN mandate by undermining Libyan sovereignty it has also violated North Korean sovereignty.
Away from Libya the NATO operation is causing deep divisions in the European Union (EU). Since the start of the conflict some 26,000 Libyans have, quite reasonably, sought asylum on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Never a fan of immigrants at the best of times the Italian government has dealt with this problem by giving the migrants temporary EU residency status and then transporting them on mass to France. Currently in the grips of the political rise of the fascist National Front France has responded by refusing to accept the refugees and closing it's border with Italy. This breaches the Schengen agreement that guarantees the free movement of EU residents between EU countries and the ensuing argument is threatening to undermine one of the central principles of the European Union.
Since the migration argument ignited there has been a worrying increase in the number of refugee boats from Libya being lost at sea with some 600 refugees drowned in the last week. Things have got so bad that NATO generally and France and Italy specifically have been forced to deny that they are purposefully allowing refugees from Libya to drown rather then grant them asylum.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Operation Oil Theft: Month 2, Week 4, Day 1.
On May 5th 2011 the international contact group on Libya held its second meeting in Rome. Coming just three days after America sensationally announced that it had killed Osama bin Laden the meeting, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended, was rather overshadowed and there was very little media coverage. This has led to Russia and China to call for more transparency in the way the contact group operates amid very serious concerns that it has massively overstepped it's United Nations mandate.
What we do know is that the contact group has given encouragement to the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) by throwing it's full support behind the TNC's rather vague road map for democracy in a post-Qaddafi Libya. It has also pledged US$250million in free money to keep the TNC solvent during the conflict. This figure includes the US$150million already pledged by Kuwait.
Since the meeting it has emerged that the rebels received their first payment for oil sales. This totals US$100million and was paid via a Qatari bank. More worryingly the rebels are also in the process of applying for around US$4billion in international loans which will garuntee Libya will be in debt for a long time should the rebels ever take power.
Within Libya the fighting continues pretty much as it has before with around two dozen fighters of both sides being killed each day as rebel and government forces clash on the outskirts of Ajdabiya in east and in the city of Misrata in the west. On Sunday (8/5/11) rebels in Misrata claimed that they only had one month of supplies left after government forces destroyed a fuel depot however this seems to be an attempt to gain more international support then a legitimate assessment of their situation. NATO claim to have destroyed around 70% of Libyan government forces but are still carrying out around 60 bombing missions per day and are talking about expanding the list of potential targets to include Libya's civilian infrastructure.
This seems to be NATO's mission in Libya now. In the 6-9 months it will take the rebels to raise their US trained army NATO bombing missions will try and do as much damage as possible to the country. This will ensure that regardless of their government the Libyan people will be totally dependent on western nations while they try and repair all the war damage. Turkey now fully support the NATO mission after being brought off with promises of receiving the majority of the reconstruction contracts.
This nihilistic approach has today (10/5/11) Baroness Amos, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs to call for all sides to temporarily halt the fighting. I would go further and say that the NATO mission against Libya needs to cease immediately. It's a shame then that Baroness Amos, a Brit, is only making this call to make it look like Britain and the UN actually care about the Libya people while knowing it won't change a damn thing.
What we do know is that the contact group has given encouragement to the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) by throwing it's full support behind the TNC's rather vague road map for democracy in a post-Qaddafi Libya. It has also pledged US$250million in free money to keep the TNC solvent during the conflict. This figure includes the US$150million already pledged by Kuwait.
Since the meeting it has emerged that the rebels received their first payment for oil sales. This totals US$100million and was paid via a Qatari bank. More worryingly the rebels are also in the process of applying for around US$4billion in international loans which will garuntee Libya will be in debt for a long time should the rebels ever take power.
Within Libya the fighting continues pretty much as it has before with around two dozen fighters of both sides being killed each day as rebel and government forces clash on the outskirts of Ajdabiya in east and in the city of Misrata in the west. On Sunday (8/5/11) rebels in Misrata claimed that they only had one month of supplies left after government forces destroyed a fuel depot however this seems to be an attempt to gain more international support then a legitimate assessment of their situation. NATO claim to have destroyed around 70% of Libyan government forces but are still carrying out around 60 bombing missions per day and are talking about expanding the list of potential targets to include Libya's civilian infrastructure.
This seems to be NATO's mission in Libya now. In the 6-9 months it will take the rebels to raise their US trained army NATO bombing missions will try and do as much damage as possible to the country. This will ensure that regardless of their government the Libyan people will be totally dependent on western nations while they try and repair all the war damage. Turkey now fully support the NATO mission after being brought off with promises of receiving the majority of the reconstruction contracts.
This nihilistic approach has today (10/5/11) Baroness Amos, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs to call for all sides to temporarily halt the fighting. I would go further and say that the NATO mission against Libya needs to cease immediately. It's a shame then that Baroness Amos, a Brit, is only making this call to make it look like Britain and the UN actually care about the Libya people while knowing it won't change a damn thing.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Haiti Update.
Following delays caused by disputes over local and mayoral elections that I'm not going to get involved in the official, final results to Haiti's election were released on April 20th 2011. They confirmed Michel Martelly as Haiti's next President and he will take up office on May 14th 2011.
When he is sworn in the problems that Martelly will face are too numerous to list here. However three of the most immediate ones are that 16 months after the earthquake 80% of the rubble from damaged buildings has still not been cleared, 600,000 people are still homeless and there are high levels of unemployment that leave a lot of people with nothing better to do then riot and generally get themselves into trouble. For these problems I think I've found something that could possibly offer at least a partial solution - bricks. More specifically Concrete Masonry Units (CMU'S).
Breeze or cinder blocks, as they're more commonly known, are used in construction the world over because they're cheap, strong and versatile. They should be ideal for construction in Haiti because they can be used to build lots of simple, hurricane-proof homes very quickly. Although these buildings will probably just be bare-brick, single room structures with a tin roof they will certainly be a step up from a tent. The other advantage of building with CMU's is that they're easy make so can be manufactured locally.
Although you can add all sorts of extras like waterproofing agents and everybody's got their own special recipe the basic ingredients of CMU's are just 10% cement, 85% aggregate and 5% water. Aggregate is just crushed up rubble. Once the rubble's been crushed up in a crushing machine to make aggregate it is added, along with the cement and water into a mixing machine. The mixture is then poured into moulds to make the brick shape and the bricks are then fired in a kiln to cure them. The whole process takes about 18 hours. Obviously how much these machines cost depends on which ones you buy and where you buy them from but I think it should be possible to get all four, second hand for a total of US$500,000.
So, if it hasn't already been suggested, I think what the Haitian government should consider doing is setting up three or possibly four CMU manufacturing plants in the areas worst affected by rubble. If other machines like conveyor belts and fork-lift trucks aren't used CMU manufacture can be a very labour intensive process so these plants can employ semi-skilled and un-skilled local people to work as labourers. Then the plant can offer a cash in hand payment of say $0.25/kg to anyone bringing rubble to the plant. That way the rubble gets cleared, people get some money in their pockets and even if the CMU's aren't used in rebuilding locally they're certainly much easier to store then just rubble and could even be sold on to help recover some of the costs.
Obviously I'm not a construction engineer so I don't know the specifics of manufacturing CMU's such as energy use nor do I even know if the rubble in Haiti is suitable to use as aggregate. So rather then saying this is something the Haitian government should definitely do and turn it into a sort campaign slogan I'm saying it's something the Haitian government and the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF) should certainly look at and carry out a feasibility study to see if it's a viable idea.
Even getting that far could be problematic because along with the Haitian government the HRF had given the Americans responsibility for clearing the rubble. The idea of turning smashed up buildings into new bricks was really perfected by Hamas after Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. There the idea has been so successful that the main problem now is people going round smashing up undamaged buildings in order to sell the rubble and the only thing stopping rebuilding is the Israeli blockade. America might find it difficult to admit that the main reason why Israel objects to Hamas is because they've got what it takes to turn Palestine into a viable state.
When he is sworn in the problems that Martelly will face are too numerous to list here. However three of the most immediate ones are that 16 months after the earthquake 80% of the rubble from damaged buildings has still not been cleared, 600,000 people are still homeless and there are high levels of unemployment that leave a lot of people with nothing better to do then riot and generally get themselves into trouble. For these problems I think I've found something that could possibly offer at least a partial solution - bricks. More specifically Concrete Masonry Units (CMU'S).
Breeze or cinder blocks, as they're more commonly known, are used in construction the world over because they're cheap, strong and versatile. They should be ideal for construction in Haiti because they can be used to build lots of simple, hurricane-proof homes very quickly. Although these buildings will probably just be bare-brick, single room structures with a tin roof they will certainly be a step up from a tent. The other advantage of building with CMU's is that they're easy make so can be manufactured locally.
Although you can add all sorts of extras like waterproofing agents and everybody's got their own special recipe the basic ingredients of CMU's are just 10% cement, 85% aggregate and 5% water. Aggregate is just crushed up rubble. Once the rubble's been crushed up in a crushing machine to make aggregate it is added, along with the cement and water into a mixing machine. The mixture is then poured into moulds to make the brick shape and the bricks are then fired in a kiln to cure them. The whole process takes about 18 hours. Obviously how much these machines cost depends on which ones you buy and where you buy them from but I think it should be possible to get all four, second hand for a total of US$500,000.
So, if it hasn't already been suggested, I think what the Haitian government should consider doing is setting up three or possibly four CMU manufacturing plants in the areas worst affected by rubble. If other machines like conveyor belts and fork-lift trucks aren't used CMU manufacture can be a very labour intensive process so these plants can employ semi-skilled and un-skilled local people to work as labourers. Then the plant can offer a cash in hand payment of say $0.25/kg to anyone bringing rubble to the plant. That way the rubble gets cleared, people get some money in their pockets and even if the CMU's aren't used in rebuilding locally they're certainly much easier to store then just rubble and could even be sold on to help recover some of the costs.
Obviously I'm not a construction engineer so I don't know the specifics of manufacturing CMU's such as energy use nor do I even know if the rubble in Haiti is suitable to use as aggregate. So rather then saying this is something the Haitian government should definitely do and turn it into a sort campaign slogan I'm saying it's something the Haitian government and the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF) should certainly look at and carry out a feasibility study to see if it's a viable idea.
Even getting that far could be problematic because along with the Haitian government the HRF had given the Americans responsibility for clearing the rubble. The idea of turning smashed up buildings into new bricks was really perfected by Hamas after Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. There the idea has been so successful that the main problem now is people going round smashing up undamaged buildings in order to sell the rubble and the only thing stopping rebuilding is the Israeli blockade. America might find it difficult to admit that the main reason why Israel objects to Hamas is because they've got what it takes to turn Palestine into a viable state.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Violence In Egypt.
For the last couple of days rumours have been circulating in Cairo that a young woman was being held prisoner in the Saint Mena Church in order to prevent her converting the Islam. Matters came to a head yesterday (7/5/11) night when a group of Salafist Muslims protested outside the Church calling for her release. As it appears that the woman didn't exist the Church was unable to release her but this didn't stop the Salafists attacking the Church in an attempt to free her. This prompted a night of rioting which saw the Church burnt and 186 people injured plus 10 killed as firearms were used. Eventually the Egyptian military who currently govern and police the country regained control arresting 190 people in the process. In the post-revolutionary absence of a civilian legal system those arrested will have to be tried by military tribunal.
Given Egypt's recent history and the fact the violence appears to have been started by an entirely false rumour there are lots of conspiracy theories circulating as to who started the rumour. Some people say that it was remnants of the Mubarak regime trying to get back into power. Others say that it was the military trying to delay handing over power to a civilian government. I would like to add to those that it could possibly have been the Americans trying to kill bin Laden's ideology now that they've killed bin Laden himself or possibly the Israelis in an attempt to prove that their Egyptian neighbours can't be trusted with democracy. Most probably though it was exactly what it looked like. That is a group of Salafist Muslims attacked and burnt down a Church because they don't like Christians.
Salafism is a very extreme branch of Islam. Basically Salafists believe that there is no other political or religious ideology other then Islam and Islam should only be practiced in the way it was in the time of the Prophet Mohamed. Ideologically this puts them close to both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and their extreme methods have actually been causing Hamas problems in Gaza. Therefore the death of bin Laden and the signing of the Hamas/Fatah reconciliation deal would be enough to make them angry enough to lash out and attack a Church. On the plus side the unsophisticated nature of the violence indicates that at present they lack the support and ability to carry out proper terrorist attacks.
The attack though does put pressure on both Egypt's Muslims and Christians. It puts pressure on the Muslims to isolate the Salafists and it puts pressure on the Christians to remember that Salafism is a very small and extreme branch of Islam. All Egyptians should also be prepared to give the military a bit of a break. Not only have they been given the task of keeping the civilian peace while building the Egyptian political and legal systems from scratch - tasks they're totally untrained for - they've also been forced right into the middle of the Libya situation which is probably the worst thing the international community could have done to them.
Given Egypt's recent history and the fact the violence appears to have been started by an entirely false rumour there are lots of conspiracy theories circulating as to who started the rumour. Some people say that it was remnants of the Mubarak regime trying to get back into power. Others say that it was the military trying to delay handing over power to a civilian government. I would like to add to those that it could possibly have been the Americans trying to kill bin Laden's ideology now that they've killed bin Laden himself or possibly the Israelis in an attempt to prove that their Egyptian neighbours can't be trusted with democracy. Most probably though it was exactly what it looked like. That is a group of Salafist Muslims attacked and burnt down a Church because they don't like Christians.
Salafism is a very extreme branch of Islam. Basically Salafists believe that there is no other political or religious ideology other then Islam and Islam should only be practiced in the way it was in the time of the Prophet Mohamed. Ideologically this puts them close to both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and their extreme methods have actually been causing Hamas problems in Gaza. Therefore the death of bin Laden and the signing of the Hamas/Fatah reconciliation deal would be enough to make them angry enough to lash out and attack a Church. On the plus side the unsophisticated nature of the violence indicates that at present they lack the support and ability to carry out proper terrorist attacks.
The attack though does put pressure on both Egypt's Muslims and Christians. It puts pressure on the Muslims to isolate the Salafists and it puts pressure on the Christians to remember that Salafism is a very small and extreme branch of Islam. All Egyptians should also be prepared to give the military a bit of a break. Not only have they been given the task of keeping the civilian peace while building the Egyptian political and legal systems from scratch - tasks they're totally untrained for - they've also been forced right into the middle of the Libya situation which is probably the worst thing the international community could have done to them.
Friday, 6 May 2011
UK Election: Part 2.
I should start by apologising to UK voters. The actual turn out was around 40% of registered voters which is double the 20% I earlier predicted. However this still means that 60% of British people who had the chance to have a say in how their country is run chose not to bother.
The big story of the election has been the Scottish Nationalist Party's (SNP) success in the Scottish Parliament. In a land where the Conservative Party fear to tread the SNP took a lot of votes off the Liberal Democrats (LibDem) and more surprisingly the Labour Party in order to win a Parliamentary majority for the first time in the history of both the party and the Parliament. This has prompted lots of excited talk about Scotland holding a referendum on breaking away from the United Kingdom and the start of negotiations between the leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron over the Scotland Bill that it is currently making it's way through the Westminster (British) Parliament. Although these negotiations are still very much active they will be tempered by the fact that the SNP campaigned on the premise that a vote for the SNP was not automatically a vote for Scottish independence.
Nationally the LibDems did even worse then earlier predictions losing 702 of their 1800 seats. Although they were worst hit in England where they lost 689 seats to both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party the loss will be most noticeable in Wales. Here, along with Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists), they lost seats to both the Conservatives and Labour who were left with 30 seats of the 60 seat Assembly - 1 short of an overall majority. Labour are currently trying to decide whether to form a coalition with one of the independents or just go it alone. Incidentally now that the Welsh Assembly has gained law making powers surely it should be upgraded to a Parliament?
In Northern Ireland it is still very much more of a peace process then a democratic process. That means the first thing they do is lock the ballot boxes up until every thing's calmed down a bit. Then the next morning they start counting the votes using a form of Proportional Representation (PR) in a nod to the Irish Republic. As a consequence a result won't be announced until Saturday (7/5/11) or possibly Sunday (8/5/11). Whatever that result will be power in the Northern Ireland Assembly will be shared between the largest Unionist party (probably the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP) and the largest Republican Party (probably Sinn Fein).
In the national referendum on adopting the Alternative Vote (AV) system the answer has been an overwhelming and resounding "No." Although the official results have yet to be certified and released the provisional results show that 31% of 19.1 million voters voted "Yes" while 69% voted "No." In fact it appears that in only 7 constituencies the "Yes" vote won and both I and the Electoral Commission will have to look at those results in more detail later because they've come in Boroughs where the dead tend to not only walk but use postal votes on election day.
Overall though that result's a bit of a surprise because with the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron fronting the "No" campaign in his usual repellent style and the "Yes" campaign being fronted by the Labour Party leader, Ed Milliband you would have expected all the anger at the cuts to be translated into support for AV. Then once most voters were too confused to understand the voting system and too stressed out with a mixture of work and poverty Britain would have been free to become the totalitarian dictatorship some people so desperately want it to be.
The big story of the election has been the Scottish Nationalist Party's (SNP) success in the Scottish Parliament. In a land where the Conservative Party fear to tread the SNP took a lot of votes off the Liberal Democrats (LibDem) and more surprisingly the Labour Party in order to win a Parliamentary majority for the first time in the history of both the party and the Parliament. This has prompted lots of excited talk about Scotland holding a referendum on breaking away from the United Kingdom and the start of negotiations between the leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron over the Scotland Bill that it is currently making it's way through the Westminster (British) Parliament. Although these negotiations are still very much active they will be tempered by the fact that the SNP campaigned on the premise that a vote for the SNP was not automatically a vote for Scottish independence.
Nationally the LibDems did even worse then earlier predictions losing 702 of their 1800 seats. Although they were worst hit in England where they lost 689 seats to both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party the loss will be most noticeable in Wales. Here, along with Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists), they lost seats to both the Conservatives and Labour who were left with 30 seats of the 60 seat Assembly - 1 short of an overall majority. Labour are currently trying to decide whether to form a coalition with one of the independents or just go it alone. Incidentally now that the Welsh Assembly has gained law making powers surely it should be upgraded to a Parliament?
In Northern Ireland it is still very much more of a peace process then a democratic process. That means the first thing they do is lock the ballot boxes up until every thing's calmed down a bit. Then the next morning they start counting the votes using a form of Proportional Representation (PR) in a nod to the Irish Republic. As a consequence a result won't be announced until Saturday (7/5/11) or possibly Sunday (8/5/11). Whatever that result will be power in the Northern Ireland Assembly will be shared between the largest Unionist party (probably the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP) and the largest Republican Party (probably Sinn Fein).
In the national referendum on adopting the Alternative Vote (AV) system the answer has been an overwhelming and resounding "No." Although the official results have yet to be certified and released the provisional results show that 31% of 19.1 million voters voted "Yes" while 69% voted "No." In fact it appears that in only 7 constituencies the "Yes" vote won and both I and the Electoral Commission will have to look at those results in more detail later because they've come in Boroughs where the dead tend to not only walk but use postal votes on election day.
Overall though that result's a bit of a surprise because with the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron fronting the "No" campaign in his usual repellent style and the "Yes" campaign being fronted by the Labour Party leader, Ed Milliband you would have expected all the anger at the cuts to be translated into support for AV. Then once most voters were too confused to understand the voting system and too stressed out with a mixture of work and poverty Britain would have been free to become the totalitarian dictatorship some people so desperately want it to be.
7/7 Inquest Verdict.
On July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) al-Qeada simultaneously bombed three subway trains and a bus in London killing 52 people and injuring more then 700. Today (6/5/11) - to the surprise of absolutely no-one - the Coroner's Inquest ruled that all 52 of these people were unlawfully killed.
But that was never the point because as always the purpose of a Coroner's Inquest is to examine the circumstances of the deaths to establish what happened and if improvements can be made rather then apportioning blame. In this case the two main questions were whether or not the security services could have done more to prevent the bombings and if the emergency services could have saved more lives following the bombings. So apart from handing down the unlawful killing verdict the Coroner, Lady Justice Hallet also published a 63 page report detailing 9 areas for improvement which can be read here; http://7julyinquests.independent.gov.uk/docs/orders/rule43-report.pdf but will only really be of interest to people with a working knowledge of emergence preparedness planning.
Obviously it will take time for me to read through and digest this document but at first glance it appears that many of the recommendations are the exact same recommendations that were made during the Inquest into the 1987 Kings Cross Station fire which shows you just how often Coroner's recommendations are actually acted on.
The main purpose of the Inquest was of course political and the BBC have dedicated special programming to just that purpose. The first objective was to turn the 52 dead into martyrs in order to re-energise the war on terror or the war on Islam as the Brits see it. The second objective was to heap pressure on Barack Obama specifically and America generally for not being able to catch Osama bin Laden. Events earlier in the week seem to have somewhat spoiled that party.
But that was never the point because as always the purpose of a Coroner's Inquest is to examine the circumstances of the deaths to establish what happened and if improvements can be made rather then apportioning blame. In this case the two main questions were whether or not the security services could have done more to prevent the bombings and if the emergency services could have saved more lives following the bombings. So apart from handing down the unlawful killing verdict the Coroner, Lady Justice Hallet also published a 63 page report detailing 9 areas for improvement which can be read here; http://7julyinquests.independent.gov.uk/docs/orders/rule43-report.pdf but will only really be of interest to people with a working knowledge of emergence preparedness planning.
Obviously it will take time for me to read through and digest this document but at first glance it appears that many of the recommendations are the exact same recommendations that were made during the Inquest into the 1987 Kings Cross Station fire which shows you just how often Coroner's recommendations are actually acted on.
The main purpose of the Inquest was of course political and the BBC have dedicated special programming to just that purpose. The first objective was to turn the 52 dead into martyrs in order to re-energise the war on terror or the war on Islam as the Brits see it. The second objective was to heap pressure on Barack Obama specifically and America generally for not being able to catch Osama bin Laden. Events earlier in the week seem to have somewhat spoiled that party.
Ouch !
Despite counting all night only around a third of constituencies have declared a result in the English local council, Scottish Parliamentary and Welsh Assembly elections. In Northern Ireland, where they traditionally do politics quite differently then they do on the British mainland, they have only just started to count the votes this morning (6/5/11).
At this early stage it appears that Conservative Party have stayed roughly where they were. The Labour Party and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists) have both made slight gains and the Scottish National Party (SNP) seem to have been the biggest winner with a projected gain of 20 seats. The big story though is that the Liberal Democrats (LibDems) - the junior partner in the national governing coalition - have made significant losses. Of the 1800 seats they held before the election the LibDems have already lost nearly 300 and party officials are hoping the extent of the losses stays as low as 500 seats.
The result of the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum won't be known until around 10pm (22:00) tonight. However exit polls indicate amongst the people who did vote 70% of them voted No.
The depressing fact is that in a year where we've seen thousands of people across the middle east being killed in the fight for democracy only around 20% of people in Britain bothered to vote.
At this early stage it appears that Conservative Party have stayed roughly where they were. The Labour Party and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists) have both made slight gains and the Scottish National Party (SNP) seem to have been the biggest winner with a projected gain of 20 seats. The big story though is that the Liberal Democrats (LibDems) - the junior partner in the national governing coalition - have made significant losses. Of the 1800 seats they held before the election the LibDems have already lost nearly 300 and party officials are hoping the extent of the losses stays as low as 500 seats.
The result of the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum won't be known until around 10pm (22:00) tonight. However exit polls indicate amongst the people who did vote 70% of them voted No.
The depressing fact is that in a year where we've seen thousands of people across the middle east being killed in the fight for democracy only around 20% of people in Britain bothered to vote.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
It's Still Referendum Time.
Although the polls in Britain's Alternative Vote (AV) referendum and, in some places, local elections don't close until 10pm (22:00) I went and voted at lunch time. While I was doing that I realised another problem with AV.
In Britain and elsewhere central to the principle of democracy is the idea of the secret ballot where, unless they choose to tell you, no-one knows who voted for which candidate. This allows people to vote for who they truly want to win free from pressure from friends, family members or employers. It also prevents people who voted for a losing candidate being woken up in the middle of the night by a nasty knock on the door when the winning candidate takes power. When you consider the sort of harassment that political protesters often have to put up with it is sadly not too difficult to imagine things like that happening in Britain.
The way we maintain the secrecy of the ballot actually has a lot to do with the physical mechanics of how each vote is cast. After applying in writing each voter is posted a polling card containing their name, address and a serial number. At the polling station this polling card is checked against the electoral register and if it matches the voter is given a ballot paper. This ballot paper also contains a unique serial number to prevent it being copied and re-used. This serial number is different from the number on the polling card and is assigned on a first come first served basis so, in theory, there is no way of knowing which voter used which ballot paper. Under First Past The Post (FPTP) the voter then takes the ballot paper into a curtained off voting booth, puts a simple X next to the candidate they want to vote for, folds the ballot paper and slips it into a sealed ballot box. Although Britain's political constituencies are all different sizes the mathematical ideal is 75,000 voters per constituency casting their votes in 7 ballot boxes in 7 polling stations. So assuming a 50% voter turn out there will be roughly 5000 ballot papers used in each ballot box. So if you were to examine the ballot papers you've got roughly a 1 in 5000 chance of guessing which ballot paper belongs to which voter.
The AV system dramatically shortens those odds by requiring the voter to write down a numbered preference next to the candidates. This brings in a persons handwriting as an identifying factor because while most people write a simple X in much the same way there are often huge differences in the way that people write numerals (1's, 2's, 3's etc). Plus when you rank the candidates you are leaving a fairly unique identifying pattern on your ballot paper. Assuming that there are 10 candidates and every voter ranks each candidate there are 1000 possible variations of what the pattern can be giving you a 1 in 5 chance of guessing which ballot paper was used by which voter. That's the sort of ratio you can use to start checking ballot papers against known samples of voter's handwriting and suddenly it's not a secret ballot anymore.
In Britain and elsewhere central to the principle of democracy is the idea of the secret ballot where, unless they choose to tell you, no-one knows who voted for which candidate. This allows people to vote for who they truly want to win free from pressure from friends, family members or employers. It also prevents people who voted for a losing candidate being woken up in the middle of the night by a nasty knock on the door when the winning candidate takes power. When you consider the sort of harassment that political protesters often have to put up with it is sadly not too difficult to imagine things like that happening in Britain.
The way we maintain the secrecy of the ballot actually has a lot to do with the physical mechanics of how each vote is cast. After applying in writing each voter is posted a polling card containing their name, address and a serial number. At the polling station this polling card is checked against the electoral register and if it matches the voter is given a ballot paper. This ballot paper also contains a unique serial number to prevent it being copied and re-used. This serial number is different from the number on the polling card and is assigned on a first come first served basis so, in theory, there is no way of knowing which voter used which ballot paper. Under First Past The Post (FPTP) the voter then takes the ballot paper into a curtained off voting booth, puts a simple X next to the candidate they want to vote for, folds the ballot paper and slips it into a sealed ballot box. Although Britain's political constituencies are all different sizes the mathematical ideal is 75,000 voters per constituency casting their votes in 7 ballot boxes in 7 polling stations. So assuming a 50% voter turn out there will be roughly 5000 ballot papers used in each ballot box. So if you were to examine the ballot papers you've got roughly a 1 in 5000 chance of guessing which ballot paper belongs to which voter.
The AV system dramatically shortens those odds by requiring the voter to write down a numbered preference next to the candidates. This brings in a persons handwriting as an identifying factor because while most people write a simple X in much the same way there are often huge differences in the way that people write numerals (1's, 2's, 3's etc). Plus when you rank the candidates you are leaving a fairly unique identifying pattern on your ballot paper. Assuming that there are 10 candidates and every voter ranks each candidate there are 1000 possible variations of what the pattern can be giving you a 1 in 5 chance of guessing which ballot paper was used by which voter. That's the sort of ratio you can use to start checking ballot papers against known samples of voter's handwriting and suddenly it's not a secret ballot anymore.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
It's Referendum Time.
On Thursday May 5th Britain will hold only it's second ever national referendum. Sadly the question won't be whether or not I need to sort my life out because the answer to that one's pretty obvious. Instead it will be whether to adopt the Alternative Vote (AV) voting system.
Under AV each voter is given a ballot paper listing all the candidates standing in that constituency. Theoretically there is no limit on the number of candidates who can stand in each constituency but it is normally around 10. After being given their ballot paper the voter then has to rank the candidates in order of preference. So they put a 1 next to their first choice, a 2 next to their second choice and so on. The ballot papers are then collected and all the first preference votes are counted. If any one candidate receives more the 50% of the total votes cast in that constituency they're declared the winner and the counting stops. However if, as is more likely, no candidate reaches the 50% threshold then the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out. The ballot papers that cast a first preference for that candidate are then re-examined and their second preference votes are added to the totals of the appropriate candidate. If this allows one candidate to reach the 50% threshold then they are declared the winner and the counting stops. However if it doesn't then the process is repeated and keeps being repeated until either one candidate reaches the 50% threshold or there are no more votes left to count. So at the theoretical extreme under AV a candidate can win an election by being the least popular candidate amongst the majority of voters.
Obviously this is much more complicated then the current system called First Past The Post (FPTP) where everyone votes for one candidate and the candidate with the most number of votes wins. This added complexity is putting most people off the idea of AV. So to counter that supporters of AV are quick to point out that voters don't have to rank all the candidates if they don't want to and can just choose to just vote for one candidate like they do under FPTP. Although this is true it doesn't tell the full story. The problem is that there are a lot of people out there like me who (normally) fully understand the AV system because they work with politics or mathematical analysis all day everyday. So while most people are only voting for one or possibly two candidates what these people will do is rank all the candidates in highly complex tactical voting strategies which will give them more say in the outcome of the election. While that's great for me it's hardly in line with the principle of democracy that everybody gets an equal say in the outcome of the election. If fact it seems to be dragging us back to the days when only people from the right sort of background with the right sort of education were allowed to have a say in who ran the country.
So for that reason and the fact that AV massively increases the scope for electoral fraud I will be voting No to AV on May 5th and I urge other people to do the same. Although the opinion polls show that the No campaign has a slight lead I getting more and more worried that AV might just pass anyway. Due to the complexity of the issue the campaign has hardly been electrifying. Coupled with the fact that a lot of people will just want to relax during the first few days back at work following a long holiday the voter turn out is expected to be low, especially in London where local council elections aren't being held. That means that AV could sneak through due to AV supporters being the only ones bothered to go out and vote.
Under AV each voter is given a ballot paper listing all the candidates standing in that constituency. Theoretically there is no limit on the number of candidates who can stand in each constituency but it is normally around 10. After being given their ballot paper the voter then has to rank the candidates in order of preference. So they put a 1 next to their first choice, a 2 next to their second choice and so on. The ballot papers are then collected and all the first preference votes are counted. If any one candidate receives more the 50% of the total votes cast in that constituency they're declared the winner and the counting stops. However if, as is more likely, no candidate reaches the 50% threshold then the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out. The ballot papers that cast a first preference for that candidate are then re-examined and their second preference votes are added to the totals of the appropriate candidate. If this allows one candidate to reach the 50% threshold then they are declared the winner and the counting stops. However if it doesn't then the process is repeated and keeps being repeated until either one candidate reaches the 50% threshold or there are no more votes left to count. So at the theoretical extreme under AV a candidate can win an election by being the least popular candidate amongst the majority of voters.
Obviously this is much more complicated then the current system called First Past The Post (FPTP) where everyone votes for one candidate and the candidate with the most number of votes wins. This added complexity is putting most people off the idea of AV. So to counter that supporters of AV are quick to point out that voters don't have to rank all the candidates if they don't want to and can just choose to just vote for one candidate like they do under FPTP. Although this is true it doesn't tell the full story. The problem is that there are a lot of people out there like me who (normally) fully understand the AV system because they work with politics or mathematical analysis all day everyday. So while most people are only voting for one or possibly two candidates what these people will do is rank all the candidates in highly complex tactical voting strategies which will give them more say in the outcome of the election. While that's great for me it's hardly in line with the principle of democracy that everybody gets an equal say in the outcome of the election. If fact it seems to be dragging us back to the days when only people from the right sort of background with the right sort of education were allowed to have a say in who ran the country.
So for that reason and the fact that AV massively increases the scope for electoral fraud I will be voting No to AV on May 5th and I urge other people to do the same. Although the opinion polls show that the No campaign has a slight lead I getting more and more worried that AV might just pass anyway. Due to the complexity of the issue the campaign has hardly been electrifying. Coupled with the fact that a lot of people will just want to relax during the first few days back at work following a long holiday the voter turn out is expected to be low, especially in London where local council elections aren't being held. That means that AV could sneak through due to AV supporters being the only ones bothered to go out and vote.
Wow I Feel Terrible.
Last night I must have drunk 10 pints of beer in a space of about 5 hours which is really bad even for me. Today I haven't so much got a hangover as the symptoms of a mild case of alcohol poisoning. I know it's not a excuse but I'm blaming the long weekend. It's knocked me right off balance.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
The Big Noise Is Back
Bitches(!)
Like I said I am most definitely, totally, 100% magnificently not stoned.
However I have been up for the last three hours reading all 53 of the comments about the alleged IndymediaUK shutdown.
More importantly though at some point during the evening at around 00:30 local (BST/GMT+1) I decided it would be a good idea to fix by grandmother's wooden side gate that had been blowing in the very strong winds we've been experiencing in UK recently. Unfortunately I was drunk so I worry that I may have made quite a lot of noise as I finally set out with a torch, a spliff, a beer and a couple of bricks and solved the problem. If that's going to be a worry I should explain to my neighbours that at some point I am going to have to fix the door on the henhouse's (#50) shed door. This will involve me criminally trespassing on the Notting Hill Housing Trust's (NHHT) property with a torch and an electric screwdriver at some point during the night/early morning. I hope this won't be a problem.
So it's 02:08 on Wednesday May 4th 2011. Be ready for work.
Like I said I am most definitely, totally, 100% magnificently not stoned.
However I have been up for the last three hours reading all 53 of the comments about the alleged IndymediaUK shutdown.
More importantly though at some point during the evening at around 00:30 local (BST/GMT+1) I decided it would be a good idea to fix by grandmother's wooden side gate that had been blowing in the very strong winds we've been experiencing in UK recently. Unfortunately I was drunk so I worry that I may have made quite a lot of noise as I finally set out with a torch, a spliff, a beer and a couple of bricks and solved the problem. If that's going to be a worry I should explain to my neighbours that at some point I am going to have to fix the door on the henhouse's (#50) shed door. This will involve me criminally trespassing on the Notting Hill Housing Trust's (NHHT) property with a torch and an electric screwdriver at some point during the night/early morning. I hope this won't be a problem.
So it's 02:08 on Wednesday May 4th 2011. Be ready for work.
And Here We Go Again.
Although I have most certainly been drinking I have most certainly, definitely not been getting stoned because I think we can all agree that Sunday (1/5/11) was a little bit weird. The best I've come up with so far is that I honestly, hand on heart, did not know that the Americans were going for bin Laden. However have you ever had one of those days when you know something massively important is going on but just can't quite put your finger on what it is?
Personally I'm blaming a big Jewish conspiracy with the Jews in question being Ian Goldberg and Josh Friedman. So now. While the American CIA is claiming that they're gaining lots of new information about bin Laden's support network in Pakistan Britain's MI6 appear to be shi*ting themselves with lots of anti-terror raids in north London and near the Sellafield nuclear power plant and lots of talk about how there's going to be blowback.
Personally I'm blaming a big Jewish conspiracy with the Jews in question being Ian Goldberg and Josh Friedman. So now. While the American CIA is claiming that they're gaining lots of new information about bin Laden's support network in Pakistan Britain's MI6 appear to be shi*ting themselves with lots of anti-terror raids in north London and near the Sellafield nuclear power plant and lots of talk about how there's going to be blowback.
The Tomlinson Inquest Verdict is In.
You've all heard this story.
At the anti-G20 protests in London on April 1st 2009 a man called Ian Tomlinson died. The initial autopsy was carried out by a Doctor Freddie Patel who ruled that Mr Tomlinson had died of a heart attack brought about by pre-existing coronary artery disease and a million stories circulated in the media attacking the reputation of the victim and the protesters. Then a video emerged showing Mr Tomlinson falling to the ground after being struck by a police officer moments before his death. Then two subsequent autopsies, carried out on behalf of Mr Tomlinson's family and the police officer, PC Simon Harwood ruled that Mr Tomlinson had in fact died of internal bleeding as a result of blunt force trauma of the sort you would get if you'd been struck by a police baton. However the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided that although it had been contradicted by two fellow professionals Dr Patel's evidence meant that they couldn't possibly prosecute PC Harwood for manslaughter.
It then emerged that Dr Patel had provided questionable autopsy findings in two other cases of deaths in custody. He was then brought in front of the General Medical Council (GMC) over another autopsy in which he had made a mistake that led to a serial killer known as the "Camden Ripper" going free long enough to kill another two women. Although he was found guilty of multiple counts of professional misconduct the GMC failed to strike him off the medical register - a move that would have prevented him from describing himself as a doctor ever again.
Then on March 28th 2011 Britain made a big show of opening a Coroner's Inquest into Mr Tomlinson's death at the specially chosen location of the International Dispute Resolution centre in order to show the world that Britain takes the killing of peaceful protesters or indeed people who happen to be walking past peaceful protests very seriously. To everyone's surprise the Coroner gave the Jury the option of returning a verdict of unlawful killing. Today (3/5/11) after considering all the evidence that is exactly what the Jury did ruling that PC Simon Harwood unlawfully killed Ian Tomlinson.
The CPS reacted to the verdict by saying that they will review their decision not to prosecute PC Harwood for manslaughter. It is a shame then that by presenting all this evidence to the inquest and in doing so prejudicing any future criminal trial the British state have made very sure that PC Harwood will never be brought to justice.
At the anti-G20 protests in London on April 1st 2009 a man called Ian Tomlinson died. The initial autopsy was carried out by a Doctor Freddie Patel who ruled that Mr Tomlinson had died of a heart attack brought about by pre-existing coronary artery disease and a million stories circulated in the media attacking the reputation of the victim and the protesters. Then a video emerged showing Mr Tomlinson falling to the ground after being struck by a police officer moments before his death. Then two subsequent autopsies, carried out on behalf of Mr Tomlinson's family and the police officer, PC Simon Harwood ruled that Mr Tomlinson had in fact died of internal bleeding as a result of blunt force trauma of the sort you would get if you'd been struck by a police baton. However the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided that although it had been contradicted by two fellow professionals Dr Patel's evidence meant that they couldn't possibly prosecute PC Harwood for manslaughter.
It then emerged that Dr Patel had provided questionable autopsy findings in two other cases of deaths in custody. He was then brought in front of the General Medical Council (GMC) over another autopsy in which he had made a mistake that led to a serial killer known as the "Camden Ripper" going free long enough to kill another two women. Although he was found guilty of multiple counts of professional misconduct the GMC failed to strike him off the medical register - a move that would have prevented him from describing himself as a doctor ever again.
Then on March 28th 2011 Britain made a big show of opening a Coroner's Inquest into Mr Tomlinson's death at the specially chosen location of the International Dispute Resolution centre in order to show the world that Britain takes the killing of peaceful protesters or indeed people who happen to be walking past peaceful protests very seriously. To everyone's surprise the Coroner gave the Jury the option of returning a verdict of unlawful killing. Today (3/5/11) after considering all the evidence that is exactly what the Jury did ruling that PC Simon Harwood unlawfully killed Ian Tomlinson.
The CPS reacted to the verdict by saying that they will review their decision not to prosecute PC Harwood for manslaughter. It is a shame then that by presenting all this evidence to the inquest and in doing so prejudicing any future criminal trial the British state have made very sure that PC Harwood will never be brought to justice.
Operation Oil Theft: Month 2, Week 3, Day 1.
While we've all been distracted by other things there have been dramatic developments in Libya although the conflict generally is still in something of a stalemate.
On Friday (29/4/11) - the day of the British royal wedding Muammar Qaddafi decided to make an hour long speech, live on Libyan state television. This allowed NATO to pinpoint his exact location and halfway through the speech NATO aircraft, believed to be British, attacked the building in a completely illegal attempt to assassinate him. Although Muammar Qaddafi survived the attack and even managed to finish his speech his youngest son Saif al-Arab Qaddafi (not Saif al-Islam Qaddafi) was killed along with his wife and three of their children. The blatant and cynical nature of the attack prompted supporters of the Libyan government to storm the long deserted British Embassy in Tripoli and more or less destroy it. This prompted the British government to expel the Libyan Ambassador to London on Sunday (1/5/11) and Britain is now talking about further escalating the conflict by using HMS Liverpool to bombard Libyan coastal towns from the sea. Of course the naval bombardment of Libyan coastal towns was one of the reasons Britain used for intervening in the first place.
Unlike America's (recently successful) attempts to kill Osama bin Laden the situation in Libya means that the assassination of Muammar Qaddafi can never be legally sanctioned by any resolution by the United Nations or any other international body. Since the end of the second world war and the formation of the UN the world has experienced an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity based on the principle that no nation can launch a war of aggression against another nation. Of course if one nation is attacked it can launch a defensive war against the aggressor or even possibly launch a pre-emptive war against a nation that poses a clear and present threat to it or another nation although that's rarely a good idea. However you simply cannot attack another country just because they've got something you want or you don't like the way they organise their government otherwise everyone would be doing it and there would be no peace.
Certainly for the last decade Qaddafi's Libya has not posed a clear threat to any other nation on earth and all that is happening in the country now is that the government is trying to put down an armed insurgency within it's own borders that may well have been started by another nation. By contrast bin Laden's Al Qaeda repeatedly attacked America and continued to attack them on many fronts so America's killing of bin Laden was not only justified but arguably necessary to underpin that principle which maintains world peace. Plus now that America has finally got him they should now have the intelligence resources available to at least know when they're making a huge mistake.
On Friday (29/4/11) - the day of the British royal wedding Muammar Qaddafi decided to make an hour long speech, live on Libyan state television. This allowed NATO to pinpoint his exact location and halfway through the speech NATO aircraft, believed to be British, attacked the building in a completely illegal attempt to assassinate him. Although Muammar Qaddafi survived the attack and even managed to finish his speech his youngest son Saif al-Arab Qaddafi (not Saif al-Islam Qaddafi) was killed along with his wife and three of their children. The blatant and cynical nature of the attack prompted supporters of the Libyan government to storm the long deserted British Embassy in Tripoli and more or less destroy it. This prompted the British government to expel the Libyan Ambassador to London on Sunday (1/5/11) and Britain is now talking about further escalating the conflict by using HMS Liverpool to bombard Libyan coastal towns from the sea. Of course the naval bombardment of Libyan coastal towns was one of the reasons Britain used for intervening in the first place.
Unlike America's (recently successful) attempts to kill Osama bin Laden the situation in Libya means that the assassination of Muammar Qaddafi can never be legally sanctioned by any resolution by the United Nations or any other international body. Since the end of the second world war and the formation of the UN the world has experienced an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity based on the principle that no nation can launch a war of aggression against another nation. Of course if one nation is attacked it can launch a defensive war against the aggressor or even possibly launch a pre-emptive war against a nation that poses a clear and present threat to it or another nation although that's rarely a good idea. However you simply cannot attack another country just because they've got something you want or you don't like the way they organise their government otherwise everyone would be doing it and there would be no peace.
Certainly for the last decade Qaddafi's Libya has not posed a clear threat to any other nation on earth and all that is happening in the country now is that the government is trying to put down an armed insurgency within it's own borders that may well have been started by another nation. By contrast bin Laden's Al Qaeda repeatedly attacked America and continued to attack them on many fronts so America's killing of bin Laden was not only justified but arguably necessary to underpin that principle which maintains world peace. Plus now that America has finally got him they should now have the intelligence resources available to at least know when they're making a huge mistake.
Britain's Left Defeats Itself Again.
On November 30th 1999 thousands of anti-capitalist/globalisation activists gathered in Seattle, USA to protest against and successfully shut down a meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). A large part of their grievance was that the WTO was effectively operating in secret with no reporting of the decisions it was making and the effect those decisions were having across the world. So by way of a solution a group of activists set up the Independent Media Centre or "Indymedia" for short. The idea was create a network of un-moderated, open publishing websites so people from all over the world could share news about the decisions being made in the name of globalisation and the actions that were being taken to protest against them. The Independent Media Centre was probably one of the most successful ideas to come out of the Seattle protests and there are now 180 Indymedia sites across the world in places as diverse as Japan, Israel, Kenya and Burma making Indymedia the blueprint for the sort of "Citizen Journalism" that's become so fashionable recently.
In the UK Indymedia has been particularly successful with 11 regional sites publishing local news and a national site that gathers up all the news from the regional sites and adds to it international news. Although as always with open publishing the quality is patchy at best a lot of what is published on the UK national site is so high quality that it has begun to be used by the mainstream media as a wire service alongside Associated Press and Reuters. In fact a lot of the stories you may have read in national newspapers, especially the ones about Climate Camp and Mark Kennedy - the undercover policeman, have been lifted straight from Indymedia and then re-published with minimal editing.
Obviously this free dissemination of uncensored news coupled with the fact that the un-moderated, anonymous open publishing model makes it nearly impossible for the collective that runs the site to be held legally liable for it's content means that Indymedia is hated by the British authorities and there have been various attempts to shut it down over the years. These efforts have included multiple police raids and illegal seizure (read theft) of computer equipment but most recently have focused on police officers serving with a dedicated unit known as the "National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NECTU)" either posting articles calling for more moderation or articles that are so deeply offensive that they cause others to call for more moderation.
At around the time that all those undercover police officers were operating within the UK activist scene these calls for tighter moderation took hold among the Indymedia collective fuelled by the usual mix of paranoia, ego and passionately held political beliefs. Eventually this led to two distinct groups forming within the collective. One known as the Mayday collective wanted to keep Indymedia pretty much as it is while the other known as the BeTheMedia (BTM) collective wanted to shut down Indymedia completely and replace it with a tightly moderated, isolationist site that would focus on British news for British people. Bizarrely these two groups reached a consensus decision that on May 1st 2011 the UK Indymedia site would gradually be wound down and replaced by two new sites; Mayday and BeTheMedia.
When May 1st arrived the BTM group insisted that the Indymedia site be shutdown immediately. This went against the consensus decision so the Mayday group locked the BTM group out of the running of the site and kept it going. There is currently a three week suspension on the site shutdown to allow the factions to meet in person to try and solve their differences. I expect that the Indymedia site will remain open after that because if the BTM group want to go and do something different then the Internet is a big place so there's nothing stopping them and they don't need to shut down Indymedia to do it.
In the UK Indymedia has been particularly successful with 11 regional sites publishing local news and a national site that gathers up all the news from the regional sites and adds to it international news. Although as always with open publishing the quality is patchy at best a lot of what is published on the UK national site is so high quality that it has begun to be used by the mainstream media as a wire service alongside Associated Press and Reuters. In fact a lot of the stories you may have read in national newspapers, especially the ones about Climate Camp and Mark Kennedy - the undercover policeman, have been lifted straight from Indymedia and then re-published with minimal editing.
Obviously this free dissemination of uncensored news coupled with the fact that the un-moderated, anonymous open publishing model makes it nearly impossible for the collective that runs the site to be held legally liable for it's content means that Indymedia is hated by the British authorities and there have been various attempts to shut it down over the years. These efforts have included multiple police raids and illegal seizure (read theft) of computer equipment but most recently have focused on police officers serving with a dedicated unit known as the "National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NECTU)" either posting articles calling for more moderation or articles that are so deeply offensive that they cause others to call for more moderation.
At around the time that all those undercover police officers were operating within the UK activist scene these calls for tighter moderation took hold among the Indymedia collective fuelled by the usual mix of paranoia, ego and passionately held political beliefs. Eventually this led to two distinct groups forming within the collective. One known as the Mayday collective wanted to keep Indymedia pretty much as it is while the other known as the BeTheMedia (BTM) collective wanted to shut down Indymedia completely and replace it with a tightly moderated, isolationist site that would focus on British news for British people. Bizarrely these two groups reached a consensus decision that on May 1st 2011 the UK Indymedia site would gradually be wound down and replaced by two new sites; Mayday and BeTheMedia.
When May 1st arrived the BTM group insisted that the Indymedia site be shutdown immediately. This went against the consensus decision so the Mayday group locked the BTM group out of the running of the site and kept it going. There is currently a three week suspension on the site shutdown to allow the factions to meet in person to try and solve their differences. I expect that the Indymedia site will remain open after that because if the BTM group want to go and do something different then the Internet is a big place so there's nothing stopping them and they don't need to shut down Indymedia to do it.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Mission Accomplished. Version 2.0
On May 1st 2003 the US President George W Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier and announced that with the toppling of Iraq's Saddam Hussein America's war on terror was over. On May 1st 2011 US President announced that US forces had killed the founder of Al Qeada, Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Details are still emerging but apparently back in August 2010 US intelligence managed to identify a man who they believed to be one of Bin Laden's most trusted couriers and began to track his movements. As the intelligence picture became more detailed on April 29th 2011 the Americans were able to confirm that the courier was staying with Bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. On May 1st 30-40 members of the US Navy's elite SEAL team six launched an operation from a base in Afghanistan to kill or capture Bin Laden. Without the permission or prior knowledge of the Pakistani government the SEAL team used four helicopters to fly into Pakistan and assault the compound. In the early stages of the raid the SEAL's took a number of civilians prisoner in order to protect them during the 30 minute fire fight that followed. It was during this fire fight that Bin Laden was cornered and after refusing to surrender was shot twice in the head killing him instantly. While we can argue for forever and day about the moral rights and wrongs of killing Bin Laden it is something that the Americans are entitled to do under the rules which everyone else in the world has agreed to. Therefore it was both legal and justified.
After the SEAL team had secured the bodies of Bin Laden, one of his sons, two couriers and a female bodyguard they released the civilian prisoners, destroyed one of their helicopters that that been damaged in the attack and flew out aboard the other three helicopters. The entire ground part of the operation took just 40 minutes and the were no American causalities.
Bin Laden's body was then flown back to Afghanistan where DNA samples were taken and the body was formally identified before being buried at sea in an undisclosed location. The reason for this swift and rather secretive burial was twofold. Firstly parading the body of someone you've killed is just disrespectful and America didn't want to be seen lusting over Bin Laden's bloody corpse. Also the Islamic faith requires that a body is buried a maximum of 24 hours after death so the Americans were trying to show Bin Laden some respect in death. Secondly Bin Laden is going to be viewed as a martyr by his supporters so if he was buried on land his grave would quickly become a shrine. Obviously without proof of Bin Laden's death rumours are going to start that he's not really dead. However in that part of the world people do love a good conspiracy theory and many Pakistanis don't even believe that Al Qaeda carried out the September 11th attacks so I think those rumours will persist no matter how many gory pictures of Bin Laden's dead body the Americans release.
Edited @ 22:50 to add;
I didn't support the war against Afghanistan. Nor did I support the September 11th attacks or a few hundred other things that created the conditions for those attacks. However 10 years down that road I think Americas decision to raid Bin Laden's compound, especially in the way it was carried out, was the right decision and one they can rightly feel proud of. That said I'm not so naive as to think Bin Laden's death is going to cause Al Qaeda to suddenly crumble or end the war in Afghanistan even if it is a step in the right direction.
So the title of this post was simply to point out that it did occur on the 8th anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech and possibly draw a small comparison between Obama and Bush's contrasting approaches. As for the timing of the raid itself I think fair bet that Bin Laden summound his courier in case he needed to prepare a response the Britain's Royal Wedding.
Details are still emerging but apparently back in August 2010 US intelligence managed to identify a man who they believed to be one of Bin Laden's most trusted couriers and began to track his movements. As the intelligence picture became more detailed on April 29th 2011 the Americans were able to confirm that the courier was staying with Bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. On May 1st 30-40 members of the US Navy's elite SEAL team six launched an operation from a base in Afghanistan to kill or capture Bin Laden. Without the permission or prior knowledge of the Pakistani government the SEAL team used four helicopters to fly into Pakistan and assault the compound. In the early stages of the raid the SEAL's took a number of civilians prisoner in order to protect them during the 30 minute fire fight that followed. It was during this fire fight that Bin Laden was cornered and after refusing to surrender was shot twice in the head killing him instantly. While we can argue for forever and day about the moral rights and wrongs of killing Bin Laden it is something that the Americans are entitled to do under the rules which everyone else in the world has agreed to. Therefore it was both legal and justified.
After the SEAL team had secured the bodies of Bin Laden, one of his sons, two couriers and a female bodyguard they released the civilian prisoners, destroyed one of their helicopters that that been damaged in the attack and flew out aboard the other three helicopters. The entire ground part of the operation took just 40 minutes and the were no American causalities.
Bin Laden's body was then flown back to Afghanistan where DNA samples were taken and the body was formally identified before being buried at sea in an undisclosed location. The reason for this swift and rather secretive burial was twofold. Firstly parading the body of someone you've killed is just disrespectful and America didn't want to be seen lusting over Bin Laden's bloody corpse. Also the Islamic faith requires that a body is buried a maximum of 24 hours after death so the Americans were trying to show Bin Laden some respect in death. Secondly Bin Laden is going to be viewed as a martyr by his supporters so if he was buried on land his grave would quickly become a shrine. Obviously without proof of Bin Laden's death rumours are going to start that he's not really dead. However in that part of the world people do love a good conspiracy theory and many Pakistanis don't even believe that Al Qaeda carried out the September 11th attacks so I think those rumours will persist no matter how many gory pictures of Bin Laden's dead body the Americans release.
Edited @ 22:50 to add;
I didn't support the war against Afghanistan. Nor did I support the September 11th attacks or a few hundred other things that created the conditions for those attacks. However 10 years down that road I think Americas decision to raid Bin Laden's compound, especially in the way it was carried out, was the right decision and one they can rightly feel proud of. That said I'm not so naive as to think Bin Laden's death is going to cause Al Qaeda to suddenly crumble or end the war in Afghanistan even if it is a step in the right direction.
So the title of this post was simply to point out that it did occur on the 8th anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech and possibly draw a small comparison between Obama and Bush's contrasting approaches. As for the timing of the raid itself I think fair bet that Bin Laden summound his courier in case he needed to prepare a response the Britain's Royal Wedding.
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