At around 02:40 on 31/3/12 that's the small thought that's going to take me to bed.
Seriously do you know how depressing it is to wake up on a Saturday morning with a hangover to discover you've got a working Internet connect only to realise the first thing you've got to read is what you wrote.
Friday 30 March 2012
Man on Fire.
No at around 02:05 on 31/3/12 with the Internet coming up at the second request that's not a comment on how I'm feeling. It's just the title of a great film I've been watching on BBC1. In fact it's that good it's like two great films spliced together. In the first act a washed up drunk CIA assassin is hired as bodyguard for a young girl in Mexico City. She teaches him about life and how to love again. Then in the second act she gets kidnapped and he gets all upset. Actually watching it for about the seventh time all the talk of burns on the right hand and teenage swimming lessons convinces me that there must have been a Brit involved in there somewhere.
Anyway about my brother. While he's not getting paid Sky News will be sending a car to take him into the studio for about 08:30 but there's no guarantee he'll appear on screen. In fact as the third bottle of wine goes down the only thing that's certain is that I'm probably the only one with a good excuse not to watch him.
Anyway about my brother. While he's not getting paid Sky News will be sending a car to take him into the studio for about 08:30 but there's no guarantee he'll appear on screen. In fact as the third bottle of wine goes down the only thing that's certain is that I'm probably the only one with a good excuse not to watch him.
I Have Returned. I Have Returned. I Have Returned.
It's around 22:50 on 30/3/12 and my home Internet connection is working perfectly.
One possible explanation for this is that I've been out for a boozy dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday. This was an event of such immense national importance that it began with a phone call from Sky News booking my brother for a spot at 08:30 tomorrow to discuss the public health drive against smoking. Of course apart from my brother and my mother the other dinner guest was my other mother who is one of the civil servants who actually wrote the UK smoking ban. As a result the evenings conversation took a distinctly medical turn. After another lengthy lecture on the dangers of smoking we moved on to a discussion about HIV/AIDS as it relates to the recent announcement about the UK's Dementia strategy. Eventually though we got into a story about how the Chief Executive of Croydon University Hosptial (CUH) Chris Hulme - who I named in my grandmother's Court of Protection case - resigned shortly afterwards under a cloud and how the Croydon Advertiser (local) newspaper has rightly taken his side.
Then the Opera singer turned up which kind of killed conversation. It was just after I kissed her full on the lips that we decided that I was a bit drunk and the atmosphere in the restaurant changed. However after sitting outside for a cigarette for a while I returned to hear my mother explain how BBC1 have been filming a drama in CUH and she got in a little bit of trouble for telling off a nurse who looked a bit like Jo Brand for smoking because it turns out it was just Jo Brand.
So all in all a good night.
One possible explanation for this is that I've been out for a boozy dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday. This was an event of such immense national importance that it began with a phone call from Sky News booking my brother for a spot at 08:30 tomorrow to discuss the public health drive against smoking. Of course apart from my brother and my mother the other dinner guest was my other mother who is one of the civil servants who actually wrote the UK smoking ban. As a result the evenings conversation took a distinctly medical turn. After another lengthy lecture on the dangers of smoking we moved on to a discussion about HIV/AIDS as it relates to the recent announcement about the UK's Dementia strategy. Eventually though we got into a story about how the Chief Executive of Croydon University Hosptial (CUH) Chris Hulme - who I named in my grandmother's Court of Protection case - resigned shortly afterwards under a cloud and how the Croydon Advertiser (local) newspaper has rightly taken his side.
Then the Opera singer turned up which kind of killed conversation. It was just after I kissed her full on the lips that we decided that I was a bit drunk and the atmosphere in the restaurant changed. However after sitting outside for a cigarette for a while I returned to hear my mother explain how BBC1 have been filming a drama in CUH and she got in a little bit of trouble for telling off a nurse who looked a bit like Jo Brand for smoking because it turns out it was just Jo Brand.
So all in all a good night.
Phew!
It's around 15:55 on 30/3/12 and my home Internet connection and PC are working.
Due to the repeated Internet outages my valve-era electrician father today took it upon himself to fix the PC. His solution to the software problem was to install more RAM. This is the IT equivalent of trying to fix the petrol crisis by buying some goldfish. However as I have plenty of RAM lying around upstairs and installing it is simply a matter of plugging object A into slot B I was prepared to indulge him. Unfortunately my father doesn't think me capable of performing this simple task so instead decided to take the machine to a chain store. The last time he did this the in-store experts managed to hit a trip wire in the software that caused the hard drive to literally blow up. As a result we had to buy a whole new machine.
However as you've probably worked out things were OK this time and we've got a working machine packed with lots of expensive new RAM that may or may not connect to the Internet. On the plus side though at least my father used the opportunity to cancel the service contract on his laptop that died about four years ago.
Due to the repeated Internet outages my valve-era electrician father today took it upon himself to fix the PC. His solution to the software problem was to install more RAM. This is the IT equivalent of trying to fix the petrol crisis by buying some goldfish. However as I have plenty of RAM lying around upstairs and installing it is simply a matter of plugging object A into slot B I was prepared to indulge him. Unfortunately my father doesn't think me capable of performing this simple task so instead decided to take the machine to a chain store. The last time he did this the in-store experts managed to hit a trip wire in the software that caused the hard drive to literally blow up. As a result we had to buy a whole new machine.
However as you've probably worked out things were OK this time and we've got a working machine packed with lots of expensive new RAM that may or may not connect to the Internet. On the plus side though at least my father used the opportunity to cancel the service contract on his laptop that died about four years ago.
Petrol Panic!
At around 10:10 on 30/3/12 my home Internet connection is working. With the second meeting of the Syria Contact Group taking place tomorrow (31/3/12) it's probably best not to question why lest you give yourself a headache.
In the meantime though Britain is currently in the grip of a panic over supplies of gasoline products (petrol & diesel) with fuel stations running dry and endless queues as people start to panic buy. On Monday (26/3/12) members of the Unite trade union who work as gasoline tanker drivers voted to strike over health and safety standards within the industry. This brings back memories of the fuel protests in 2000 that saw Britain come within hours of running out of gasoline with even the emergency services being unable to get fuel to power their vehicles. However this situation is completely different.
The shortages in 2000 were caused by illegal protests that blockaded oil refineries physically preventing tankers entering and exiting the sites. What we're looking at now is the possibility of some of the drivers staying home from work. Drivers working for the two main distribution companies wont be taking part of the strike and the army are to be deployed to take the place of the striking drivers. Therefore the strike will not have anywhere near the impact the 2000 fuel protests had and the fuel supply chain might even improve. Also because it is an industrial action the union need to give seven days notice of when the strike will take place and what form it will take so there is plenty of time to prepare.
The British government's reaction to the strike vote though has been completely out of proportion to the threat faced. A Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maud has instructed everyone to fill up their cars and store extra fuel at home in Jerry cans*. The Prime Minister David Cameron has instructed everyone to make sure their cars are full of fuel at all times. With any possible strike not taking place until April 6th (6/4/12) at the earliest this advice is worse then useless because if you fill up now you'll run out again by the time the strike starts. However the government's advice comes on the back of several recent reports that show people are responding to the recession and taxes on fuel by buying less fuel. With fuel sales up some 107% the government's advice seems to be a way of getting people to change that behaviour and buy more fuel boosting fuel company profits and government tax revenues.
*Petrol and petrol vapour are incredibly flammable. Therefore it is against the law to store more then 5 litres at home and breaking that law invalidates your insurance. Already today one woman has managed to blow herself up by trying to store petrol in her house.
In the meantime though Britain is currently in the grip of a panic over supplies of gasoline products (petrol & diesel) with fuel stations running dry and endless queues as people start to panic buy. On Monday (26/3/12) members of the Unite trade union who work as gasoline tanker drivers voted to strike over health and safety standards within the industry. This brings back memories of the fuel protests in 2000 that saw Britain come within hours of running out of gasoline with even the emergency services being unable to get fuel to power their vehicles. However this situation is completely different.
The shortages in 2000 were caused by illegal protests that blockaded oil refineries physically preventing tankers entering and exiting the sites. What we're looking at now is the possibility of some of the drivers staying home from work. Drivers working for the two main distribution companies wont be taking part of the strike and the army are to be deployed to take the place of the striking drivers. Therefore the strike will not have anywhere near the impact the 2000 fuel protests had and the fuel supply chain might even improve. Also because it is an industrial action the union need to give seven days notice of when the strike will take place and what form it will take so there is plenty of time to prepare.
The British government's reaction to the strike vote though has been completely out of proportion to the threat faced. A Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maud has instructed everyone to fill up their cars and store extra fuel at home in Jerry cans*. The Prime Minister David Cameron has instructed everyone to make sure their cars are full of fuel at all times. With any possible strike not taking place until April 6th (6/4/12) at the earliest this advice is worse then useless because if you fill up now you'll run out again by the time the strike starts. However the government's advice comes on the back of several recent reports that show people are responding to the recession and taxes on fuel by buying less fuel. With fuel sales up some 107% the government's advice seems to be a way of getting people to change that behaviour and buy more fuel boosting fuel company profits and government tax revenues.
*Petrol and petrol vapour are incredibly flammable. Therefore it is against the law to store more then 5 litres at home and breaking that law invalidates your insurance. Already today one woman has managed to blow herself up by trying to store petrol in her house.
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Operation Oil Theft: Month 13, Week 2, Day 1.
Due to repeated Internet outages I have absolutely no idea what's been happening in Libya recently. Not even about how Britain has been putting pressure on the National Transitional Council (NTC) over two British journalists who were arrested by a militia for spying while working for Iranian broadcaster PressTV. Considering that Britain and PressTV despise each other that must have been a very complicated negotiation.
So instead I'm going to talk about recent events in Mali that are undoubtedly a consequence of the foreign intervention in Libya. Throughout his rule Muammer Qaddafi supported liberation movements across Africa paying special attention to the Tuareg cause. The Tuaregs are a nomadic tribe that have inhabited parts of Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since long before those countries were countries. Since the 1960's the Tuaregs have been fighting for an autonomous homeland mainly in northern Mali and Niger. Qaddafi supported them with money and political assistance as well as granting many Tuareg refugees Libyan citizenship allowing the to live semi-autonomously in southern Libya. When the Libyan uprising began many Tuaregs returned the favour by fighting for Qaddafi. Following the fall of Tripoli the Tuaregs - even the Libyan born ones - became the target of the militia's ethnic purges forcing many of them to flee to Mali with many of them taking Libyan money and weapons with them.
Since January 2012 this influx of battle hardened combat veterans and weapons has fuelled a Tuareg insurgency that has killed hundreds and internally displaced over 200,000 people. The Malian army has not been coping with this insurgency with many of the rank and file blaming the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure for not giving them the resources they need to fight the Tuaregs. So on the night of last Wednesday, March 21st 2012 (21/3/12) a group of soldiers led by Amadou Konare and calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy stormed the Presidential Palace and TV station in the capital Bamako before suspending the constitution, sealing the nations borders and declaring a Coup. Since then chaos has reigned with different army units seemingly doing what they like and widespread rioting and looting amid the power vacuum. The African Union (AU), the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the United States (US) have all condemned the Coup calling on all troops to return to their barracks and immediately restore both constitutional rule and the democratic government of President Toure. The US has also suspended all military aid to Mali and is reviewing it's supply of humanitarian aid.
In another story that relates to Libya Britain is currently in the grips of what is being called the "Dinner for Donors" scandal. Broken by the Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday (25/3/12) it revealed that people who made large donations to the governing Conservative Party were rewarded with invitations to discuss government policy with the Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha at their private residence. One of these donors was revealed to be Ian Taylor the boss and major shareholder of a oil brokerage firm called Vitol who donated around USD800,000. Shortly after Mr Taylor's cosy dinner with the Prime Minister Vitol was granted a special licence to break the UN imposed oil embargo and sell Libyan oil on behalf of the rebels during the conflict. That earned Vitol around USD1billion in profit and helped them win the distribution contract for Libyan oil in 2012 which is worth a lot more to the company.
So instead I'm going to talk about recent events in Mali that are undoubtedly a consequence of the foreign intervention in Libya. Throughout his rule Muammer Qaddafi supported liberation movements across Africa paying special attention to the Tuareg cause. The Tuaregs are a nomadic tribe that have inhabited parts of Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since long before those countries were countries. Since the 1960's the Tuaregs have been fighting for an autonomous homeland mainly in northern Mali and Niger. Qaddafi supported them with money and political assistance as well as granting many Tuareg refugees Libyan citizenship allowing the to live semi-autonomously in southern Libya. When the Libyan uprising began many Tuaregs returned the favour by fighting for Qaddafi. Following the fall of Tripoli the Tuaregs - even the Libyan born ones - became the target of the militia's ethnic purges forcing many of them to flee to Mali with many of them taking Libyan money and weapons with them.
Since January 2012 this influx of battle hardened combat veterans and weapons has fuelled a Tuareg insurgency that has killed hundreds and internally displaced over 200,000 people. The Malian army has not been coping with this insurgency with many of the rank and file blaming the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure for not giving them the resources they need to fight the Tuaregs. So on the night of last Wednesday, March 21st 2012 (21/3/12) a group of soldiers led by Amadou Konare and calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy stormed the Presidential Palace and TV station in the capital Bamako before suspending the constitution, sealing the nations borders and declaring a Coup. Since then chaos has reigned with different army units seemingly doing what they like and widespread rioting and looting amid the power vacuum. The African Union (AU), the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the United States (US) have all condemned the Coup calling on all troops to return to their barracks and immediately restore both constitutional rule and the democratic government of President Toure. The US has also suspended all military aid to Mali and is reviewing it's supply of humanitarian aid.
In another story that relates to Libya Britain is currently in the grips of what is being called the "Dinner for Donors" scandal. Broken by the Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday (25/3/12) it revealed that people who made large donations to the governing Conservative Party were rewarded with invitations to discuss government policy with the Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha at their private residence. One of these donors was revealed to be Ian Taylor the boss and major shareholder of a oil brokerage firm called Vitol who donated around USD800,000. Shortly after Mr Taylor's cosy dinner with the Prime Minister Vitol was granted a special licence to break the UN imposed oil embargo and sell Libyan oil on behalf of the rebels during the conflict. That earned Vitol around USD1billion in profit and helped them win the distribution contract for Libyan oil in 2012 which is worth a lot more to the company.
Monday 26 March 2012
Operation Ostrava: Month 2, Week 3, Day 1.
Delayed from 18:15 26/3/12.
I know, between the Internet outages and all this talk of Dementia I've managed to confuse myself. However after checking my calender I can assure you that today (26/3/12) is the first day of the third week of the second month after Russia and China vetoed a proposed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Syria on Saturday February 4th 2012. Strictly speaking I should back date the whole thing to March 15th 2011 when the operation to overthrow the Syrian government went public. That though will take ages and is probably too complicated for me to manage without messing it up.
Arguments about dates aside though the tempo of the conflict in Syria has slowed significantly since the Syrian government re-asserted control over the Babr Amr district of Homs. Since then large sections of the insurgency have either been captured of fled completely while other sections are in the process of switching their tactics towards an asymmetric long war with bombings in places like Aleppo and targeted assassination attempts on Syrian government officials. What is more surprising though is that the Syrian government has failed to push on with the momentum it gained and re-take restive districts in other cities. The reason for this hesitation has been the politics at the UNSC up to the production of the Presidential Statement on March 21st 2012. Breaking the Syrian government's momentum and prolonging the insurgency is of course the UK's main reason for seeking the Presidential Statement.
Although much more balanced then previous UNSC statements on Syria S/PRST/2012/6 or "the six point plan" as it's more commonly known is still much more focused on regime change then ending the violence. For example the first point calls on the Syrian government to forfeit control over Syrian territory and allow a foreign third party to assist the insurgents in achieving their aims which at the moment seem entirely focused on killing the Assad family and supporters. The second point calls on all parties to cease armed violence in all it's forms. However it sets out a timetable for this cessation which would see the Syrian government cease all operations first. Then and only then will the UN Special Envoy begin to put pressure on the insurgents to begin ending their operations. This type of one sided ceasefire is more commonly known as a surrender. Likewise the sixth point calls on the Syrian government to respect freedom of association. That is to say that if the Syrian government has intelligence that a group of insurgents are conspiring together to kill a government official they are to stand back and let the insurgents get on with it.
The most interesting thing about S/PRST/2012/6 though is the way that the US are trying to turn the issue into another element of it's widespread diplomatic campaign against China. Recently the US President hosted the UK Prime Minister to underline US support for the UK. This was a controversial thing for the US to do because after Libya, the stuff with my grandmother and other things there are many people who think the UK should be stripped of it's seat at the UNSC because they represent a clear and grave threat to global peace and security. It is only US support that has prevented this from happening and the US have been more then happy to have it known that they only support the UK so they can do the US' grunt work at the UNSC. This has sown a seed of doubt in the minds of the Russians that perhaps the Chinese are using them for the same purpose. As a result the Russians seem to be starting to waver on Syria and could drop their opposition all together leaving the Chinese exposed as the sole opponent to this fascist-like attack on a sovereign nation. This Chinese exposure could have positive effects for the US in terms of currency valuations and caps on rare earth exports but will pose a significant threat to the people of Syria and other nations across the globe.
I know, between the Internet outages and all this talk of Dementia I've managed to confuse myself. However after checking my calender I can assure you that today (26/3/12) is the first day of the third week of the second month after Russia and China vetoed a proposed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Syria on Saturday February 4th 2012. Strictly speaking I should back date the whole thing to March 15th 2011 when the operation to overthrow the Syrian government went public. That though will take ages and is probably too complicated for me to manage without messing it up.
Arguments about dates aside though the tempo of the conflict in Syria has slowed significantly since the Syrian government re-asserted control over the Babr Amr district of Homs. Since then large sections of the insurgency have either been captured of fled completely while other sections are in the process of switching their tactics towards an asymmetric long war with bombings in places like Aleppo and targeted assassination attempts on Syrian government officials. What is more surprising though is that the Syrian government has failed to push on with the momentum it gained and re-take restive districts in other cities. The reason for this hesitation has been the politics at the UNSC up to the production of the Presidential Statement on March 21st 2012. Breaking the Syrian government's momentum and prolonging the insurgency is of course the UK's main reason for seeking the Presidential Statement.
Although much more balanced then previous UNSC statements on Syria S/PRST/2012/6 or "the six point plan" as it's more commonly known is still much more focused on regime change then ending the violence. For example the first point calls on the Syrian government to forfeit control over Syrian territory and allow a foreign third party to assist the insurgents in achieving their aims which at the moment seem entirely focused on killing the Assad family and supporters. The second point calls on all parties to cease armed violence in all it's forms. However it sets out a timetable for this cessation which would see the Syrian government cease all operations first. Then and only then will the UN Special Envoy begin to put pressure on the insurgents to begin ending their operations. This type of one sided ceasefire is more commonly known as a surrender. Likewise the sixth point calls on the Syrian government to respect freedom of association. That is to say that if the Syrian government has intelligence that a group of insurgents are conspiring together to kill a government official they are to stand back and let the insurgents get on with it.
The most interesting thing about S/PRST/2012/6 though is the way that the US are trying to turn the issue into another element of it's widespread diplomatic campaign against China. Recently the US President hosted the UK Prime Minister to underline US support for the UK. This was a controversial thing for the US to do because after Libya, the stuff with my grandmother and other things there are many people who think the UK should be stripped of it's seat at the UNSC because they represent a clear and grave threat to global peace and security. It is only US support that has prevented this from happening and the US have been more then happy to have it known that they only support the UK so they can do the US' grunt work at the UNSC. This has sown a seed of doubt in the minds of the Russians that perhaps the Chinese are using them for the same purpose. As a result the Russians seem to be starting to waver on Syria and could drop their opposition all together leaving the Chinese exposed as the sole opponent to this fascist-like attack on a sovereign nation. This Chinese exposure could have positive effects for the US in terms of currency valuations and caps on rare earth exports but will pose a significant threat to the people of Syria and other nations across the globe.
Britain's Dementia Strategy.
With the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in South Korea for the Nuclear Security Summit the British Prime Minister David Cameron today (26/3/12) announced a new national strategy to tackle dementia.
This is obviously an issue that is synonymous with me and my grandmother. So much so that this policy was first announced back in December 2011. Shortly after my Court of Protection case both the Alzheimer's Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists made strong public statements criticising Dementia diagnosis. The government responded by announcing that it will be dropping all pretence and making more money available to what are now semi-private health care providers who have Dementia patients on their books and offering out and out cash payments for doctors who diagnose elderly patients with Dementia regardless of what's actually wrong with them.
Today's announcement was about putting a figure of £66million on that extra money. So I think the objective of Britain's new Dementia strategy is to produce a lot of data but very few solutions.
This is obviously an issue that is synonymous with me and my grandmother. So much so that this policy was first announced back in December 2011. Shortly after my Court of Protection case both the Alzheimer's Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists made strong public statements criticising Dementia diagnosis. The government responded by announcing that it will be dropping all pretence and making more money available to what are now semi-private health care providers who have Dementia patients on their books and offering out and out cash payments for doctors who diagnose elderly patients with Dementia regardless of what's actually wrong with them.
Today's announcement was about putting a figure of £66million on that extra money. So I think the objective of Britain's new Dementia strategy is to produce a lot of data but very few solutions.
Sunday 25 March 2012
I'm Disappointed Now.
After intermittent service all weekend at around 23:05 (British Summer Time) on 25/3/12 my home Internet connection is working. It's a shame because I was so convinced it wouldn't be working I was all ready to use Twitter explain how the proposed North Korean satellite/missile test is North Korea teaming up with the USA to use the nuclear security conference in South Korea to heap pressure on China.
Unfortunately I can't really do that in more then 140 characters because all of Britain's braying in the budget about expanding Britain's fibre optic network and privatising the road network was their way of saying they'd like a lot more information.
And I think we can safely say that this post is a pretty good way of guaranteeing my Internet connection won't be working tomorrow.
Edited at around 00:10 on 26/3/12:
The nuclear security summit taking place in South Korea is the follow on from the 2010 nuclear security summit that was held in the USA. The official objective of both of these summits is to secure nuclear materials from theft and environmental hazards. The 2010 summit was defined by an earthquake in Chile which struck as nuclear material was being moved on to transporters on it's way to the US for secure storage. Just as the 2012 summit is getting underway a 7.2 magnitude has struck Chile.
Unfortunately I can't really do that in more then 140 characters because all of Britain's braying in the budget about expanding Britain's fibre optic network and privatising the road network was their way of saying they'd like a lot more information.
And I think we can safely say that this post is a pretty good way of guaranteeing my Internet connection won't be working tomorrow.
Edited at around 00:10 on 26/3/12:
The nuclear security summit taking place in South Korea is the follow on from the 2010 nuclear security summit that was held in the USA. The official objective of both of these summits is to secure nuclear materials from theft and environmental hazards. The 2010 summit was defined by an earthquake in Chile which struck as nuclear material was being moved on to transporters on it's way to the US for secure storage. Just as the 2012 summit is getting underway a 7.2 magnitude has struck Chile.
Thursday 22 March 2012
Sorry For the Delay.
If you've read my Twitter feed you would know that my home Internet connection has been down for most of the day. It came back again around 20:00 and it's now around 22:45.
Anyway the siege of Toulouse between the French police and Mohammed Merah, the suspected spree killer has now ended. At around 10:30 (11:30CET) today (22/3/12) police mounted a raid on the suspect's apartment leading to an intense exchange of automatic gunfire which left two police officers wounded. Merah then tried escaping the apartment by jumping out of a window and was shot in the head by a police marksman. He didn't survive.
Obviously I don't have enough of the facts to comment but questions have to be asked over why the police decided to move in. With Merah cornered in an apartment with limited food, no running water and limited opportunity to sleep I didn't see the siege going on for a particularly long time. It also would have been useful if they were able to question Merah to find out if he was proper Islamic terrorist or just some sort of Al Qaeda reject. Instead though it looks like we're going to have to endure endless conspiracy theories.
Anyway the siege of Toulouse between the French police and Mohammed Merah, the suspected spree killer has now ended. At around 10:30 (11:30CET) today (22/3/12) police mounted a raid on the suspect's apartment leading to an intense exchange of automatic gunfire which left two police officers wounded. Merah then tried escaping the apartment by jumping out of a window and was shot in the head by a police marksman. He didn't survive.
Obviously I don't have enough of the facts to comment but questions have to be asked over why the police decided to move in. With Merah cornered in an apartment with limited food, no running water and limited opportunity to sleep I didn't see the siege going on for a particularly long time. It also would have been useful if they were able to question Merah to find out if he was proper Islamic terrorist or just some sort of Al Qaeda reject. Instead though it looks like we're going to have to endure endless conspiracy theories.
Wednesday 21 March 2012
The UK Budget 2012.
Today (21/3/12) the UK's head finance minister, George Osborne announced the national budget for the financial year 2012/13. Even by the standards of accountancy and finance this was a pretty dull event. On the economic level there was very little to report. Borrowing is expected to be £1bn lower then the predicted £127bn with the saving being used to pay down the national debt. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit is expected to peak at 8.7% this year and then fall over the coming years.
The main controversy though relates to the news that the growth rate is predicted to rise from 0.7% to 0.8%. Although that figure is likely to be broadly correct what the budget failed to mention is that the increase has been caused by the Bank of England's policy of Quantitative Easing (QE). Back in February 2012 the Bank of England simply created £50bn of new money and used to it to buy up British government debt leading to a situation where now about 30% of British government debt is now owned by the British government. So in this one move Britain has managed to boost it's growth figures and increase confidence in it's debt because they're hardly likely to bankrupt themselves. This unconventional approach is highly controversial and the area on which Britain has been looking for the most reassurance from the global financial markets. The long term hope is that it will substantially devalue Sterling making British exports competitive allowing Britain to re-structure it's economy towards manufacturing and trade it's way out of recession. In short they want to become the China of Europe. The risk though is that the shift towards manufacturing and the increased exports don't materialise and the weakened currency leads to a Zimbabwe style collapse. Likewise the expected peak in the number of unemployment benefit claimants owes more to confidence in the Welfare Reform Bill's ability to force people off benefits rather then confidence in the economy's ability to create jobs.
Beyond that the Budget was just a laundry list of tax cuts for the rich. Corporation tax will be cut from 25% to 24% this year and to 22% by 2014. The top rate of income tax will be cut from 50% to 45%. The system of tax credits for the film industry will be expanded to the TV and video games industries and there will be further tax breaks for companies setting up business in designated enterprise zones. A large portion of these cuts will be funded by the scrapping of tax relief for pensioners. The entire ethos of this budget can be summed up by the changes to the way low yield electronic gambling machines are taxed. These electronic poker and roulette machines have long been a plague on poor areas of the UK with betting shops on every corner to allow people who don't have much to begin with pour their money away. They create and feed gambling addiction and force thousands into debt and financial ruin. Up until now the takings from these machines were taxed through the VAT system at 20%. This budget takes them out of the VAT system and places them in dedicated tax mechanism that's levied at a rate of just 5%. This is obviously great news for the profits of the people who operate these machines but probably bad news for society as a whole.
In keeping with the "We're all this together" mantra the government also threw in some things to keep the LibDems happy and disguise the fact that this was a budget for the rich at the expense of the poor. These include the increase to the threshold at which people pay income tax from £8105 to £9205 which the government claims will take some of the poorest in society out of the income tax system entirely. However based on a 35 hour week and a legal minimum wage of £6 per hour even the poorest working people are earning a minimum of £10,000 per year. So I'm not sure who exactly it will be taking out of tax. It will though save all taxpayers £220 per year including those higher rate payers who have already seen their tax bill cut by 5%.
Then there is the new 7% rate of Stamp Duty for properties over £2million and a new 15% rate for properties sold through a registered corporation. Stamp Duty is the fee you have to pay the Land Registry to stamp the forms when you transfer ownership of a property. Basically it's a tax on house buying. The middle classes in Britain are obsessed with property prices and house buying. So by telling them they're raising a tax they have to pay but only for people who are richer then them allows the government to make itself popular with this key voting demographic. In reality though only around 120 properties over £2million are sold every year in Britain so the effect of this new tax bracket is likely to be negligible. Likewise the new 15% bracket sounds like it's a punitive measure designed to discourage people using the corporation route to avoid paying Stamp Duty. In reality though it's designed to make life more difficult and expensive for corporations that legitimately need to own residential properties either to entertain clients of house specialist workers on short term assignments. This war against the meritocracy has been a recurring theme from the European Monarchies since the crash of 2008 and something I wanted to cover in more detail in relation to the Belgian bus crash. Basically though the Monarchies have realised that although far from perfect capitalism has been a very effective mechanism for increasing personal freedom and limiting the power of the state. They hate that because as far as they're concerned your only purpose is to serve the interests of the Crown with absolute obedience.
The main controversy though relates to the news that the growth rate is predicted to rise from 0.7% to 0.8%. Although that figure is likely to be broadly correct what the budget failed to mention is that the increase has been caused by the Bank of England's policy of Quantitative Easing (QE). Back in February 2012 the Bank of England simply created £50bn of new money and used to it to buy up British government debt leading to a situation where now about 30% of British government debt is now owned by the British government. So in this one move Britain has managed to boost it's growth figures and increase confidence in it's debt because they're hardly likely to bankrupt themselves. This unconventional approach is highly controversial and the area on which Britain has been looking for the most reassurance from the global financial markets. The long term hope is that it will substantially devalue Sterling making British exports competitive allowing Britain to re-structure it's economy towards manufacturing and trade it's way out of recession. In short they want to become the China of Europe. The risk though is that the shift towards manufacturing and the increased exports don't materialise and the weakened currency leads to a Zimbabwe style collapse. Likewise the expected peak in the number of unemployment benefit claimants owes more to confidence in the Welfare Reform Bill's ability to force people off benefits rather then confidence in the economy's ability to create jobs.
Beyond that the Budget was just a laundry list of tax cuts for the rich. Corporation tax will be cut from 25% to 24% this year and to 22% by 2014. The top rate of income tax will be cut from 50% to 45%. The system of tax credits for the film industry will be expanded to the TV and video games industries and there will be further tax breaks for companies setting up business in designated enterprise zones. A large portion of these cuts will be funded by the scrapping of tax relief for pensioners. The entire ethos of this budget can be summed up by the changes to the way low yield electronic gambling machines are taxed. These electronic poker and roulette machines have long been a plague on poor areas of the UK with betting shops on every corner to allow people who don't have much to begin with pour their money away. They create and feed gambling addiction and force thousands into debt and financial ruin. Up until now the takings from these machines were taxed through the VAT system at 20%. This budget takes them out of the VAT system and places them in dedicated tax mechanism that's levied at a rate of just 5%. This is obviously great news for the profits of the people who operate these machines but probably bad news for society as a whole.
In keeping with the "We're all this together" mantra the government also threw in some things to keep the LibDems happy and disguise the fact that this was a budget for the rich at the expense of the poor. These include the increase to the threshold at which people pay income tax from £8105 to £9205 which the government claims will take some of the poorest in society out of the income tax system entirely. However based on a 35 hour week and a legal minimum wage of £6 per hour even the poorest working people are earning a minimum of £10,000 per year. So I'm not sure who exactly it will be taking out of tax. It will though save all taxpayers £220 per year including those higher rate payers who have already seen their tax bill cut by 5%.
Then there is the new 7% rate of Stamp Duty for properties over £2million and a new 15% rate for properties sold through a registered corporation. Stamp Duty is the fee you have to pay the Land Registry to stamp the forms when you transfer ownership of a property. Basically it's a tax on house buying. The middle classes in Britain are obsessed with property prices and house buying. So by telling them they're raising a tax they have to pay but only for people who are richer then them allows the government to make itself popular with this key voting demographic. In reality though only around 120 properties over £2million are sold every year in Britain so the effect of this new tax bracket is likely to be negligible. Likewise the new 15% bracket sounds like it's a punitive measure designed to discourage people using the corporation route to avoid paying Stamp Duty. In reality though it's designed to make life more difficult and expensive for corporations that legitimately need to own residential properties either to entertain clients of house specialist workers on short term assignments. This war against the meritocracy has been a recurring theme from the European Monarchies since the crash of 2008 and something I wanted to cover in more detail in relation to the Belgian bus crash. Basically though the Monarchies have realised that although far from perfect capitalism has been a very effective mechanism for increasing personal freedom and limiting the power of the state. They hate that because as far as they're concerned your only purpose is to serve the interests of the Crown with absolute obedience.
French Shooting Latest.
At around 03:00 this (21/3/12) morning French police raided a property in Toulouse in order to arrest the 24 year old French-Algerian Mohammed Merah in relation to a spate of shootings in the region. It's fair to say the raid has not been a complete success because two police officers were shot and wounded and the police remain in an armed stand off with the suspect.
Obviously the police have yet to fully establish that they've got the right suspect let alone have a long discussion with him about his motives. However as Merah is a Muslim of Algerian descent it's likely to be related to Islamic terrorism or the 50 anniversary of the French Algerian war.
It also means the only thing I've written about this topic so far that's been accurate is saying that the British tip about Nazi paratroopers was less then helpful.
And at around 09:45 on 21/3/12 my home Internet connection is working.
Obviously the police have yet to fully establish that they've got the right suspect let alone have a long discussion with him about his motives. However as Merah is a Muslim of Algerian descent it's likely to be related to Islamic terrorism or the 50 anniversary of the French Algerian war.
It also means the only thing I've written about this topic so far that's been accurate is saying that the British tip about Nazi paratroopers was less then helpful.
And at around 09:45 on 21/3/12 my home Internet connection is working.
Tuesday 20 March 2012
Fabrice Muamba.
It's currently around 23:10 on 20/3/12 and look at that my Internet's still working.
Anyway on Saturday (17/3/12) the Congolese born but naturalised English footballer Fabrice Muamba was playing for Bolton Wanders in their FA Cup Quater Final against Tottenham Hotspur. At around 18:10 Muamba suffered an apparent cardiac arrest and collapsed face down on the pitch. Fortunately the team of fully equipped paramedics who are working about 20 metres away at the time rushed onto the pitch and began resuscitation in front of the shocked crowd and global TV audience. Even more fortunately amongst the crowd of around 37,000 there was a consultant cardiologist who was able to begin advanced resuscitation and co-ordinate Muamba's transfer to the cardiac care unit at the London Chest Hospital. The match was abandoned at 1-1.
As is standard on the NHS Mr Muamba's treatment at the London Chest Hospital centred around using a general anesthetic to slow the body to the point of death and cooling blankets to force the patient in a state of hibernation. This is done in order to minimise the risk of damage to brain and heart muscle. After all I thought it was Voltaire who said medicine is what we do to keep ourselves busy while nature runs it's course.
In Muamba's case the treatment must have worked because at around 23:20 on 20/3/12 the latest I've heard is that he is awake, breathing normally and showing no signs of serious brain injury. While we'll need to check his motor functions I'd go so far as to say he may even be able to carry on like nothing happened. F*ck he'd need to lose 20 IQ points to become as smart as your average footballer.
Anyway in my completely unqualified medical opinion I think that Fabrice Muamba suffered from a mild case of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS). Although a recognised medical phenomenon this is really just what pathologists write on the death certificates of otherwise healthy young people who've died of a heart attack once they've ruled out all the normal causes like coronary artery disease, damage to the heart muscle, brain damage or drugs. In short no-one knows why it happens. I believe the main theory at the moment has something to do with the magnetic charge of the electrolytes that drive the movement of the heart but that is just one of several competing theories at the moment.
Although rare this sort of thing is not as uncommon as you would imagine. Back in 2003 a similar thing happened to Marc - Vivian Foe and Phil O'Donnel died on the Scottish leagues in 2007. It even happened to a guy at my school (Bishop Thomas Grant). While it was a bit before my time I believe he was the model student with good grades, good at sport and popular with all the girls. Then one day while playing for the school football team he suddenly dropped down dead at the age of 15.
My heart problems of course are the result of drink, drugs and stress. This makes them much easier to predict and control. So at around 23:45 on 20/3/12 - in the style of Monty Python - just as I go to bed I demand a machine that goes "beep"
Anyway on Saturday (17/3/12) the Congolese born but naturalised English footballer Fabrice Muamba was playing for Bolton Wanders in their FA Cup Quater Final against Tottenham Hotspur. At around 18:10 Muamba suffered an apparent cardiac arrest and collapsed face down on the pitch. Fortunately the team of fully equipped paramedics who are working about 20 metres away at the time rushed onto the pitch and began resuscitation in front of the shocked crowd and global TV audience. Even more fortunately amongst the crowd of around 37,000 there was a consultant cardiologist who was able to begin advanced resuscitation and co-ordinate Muamba's transfer to the cardiac care unit at the London Chest Hospital. The match was abandoned at 1-1.
As is standard on the NHS Mr Muamba's treatment at the London Chest Hospital centred around using a general anesthetic to slow the body to the point of death and cooling blankets to force the patient in a state of hibernation. This is done in order to minimise the risk of damage to brain and heart muscle. After all I thought it was Voltaire who said medicine is what we do to keep ourselves busy while nature runs it's course.
In Muamba's case the treatment must have worked because at around 23:20 on 20/3/12 the latest I've heard is that he is awake, breathing normally and showing no signs of serious brain injury. While we'll need to check his motor functions I'd go so far as to say he may even be able to carry on like nothing happened. F*ck he'd need to lose 20 IQ points to become as smart as your average footballer.
Anyway in my completely unqualified medical opinion I think that Fabrice Muamba suffered from a mild case of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS). Although a recognised medical phenomenon this is really just what pathologists write on the death certificates of otherwise healthy young people who've died of a heart attack once they've ruled out all the normal causes like coronary artery disease, damage to the heart muscle, brain damage or drugs. In short no-one knows why it happens. I believe the main theory at the moment has something to do with the magnetic charge of the electrolytes that drive the movement of the heart but that is just one of several competing theories at the moment.
Although rare this sort of thing is not as uncommon as you would imagine. Back in 2003 a similar thing happened to Marc - Vivian Foe and Phil O'Donnel died on the Scottish leagues in 2007. It even happened to a guy at my school (Bishop Thomas Grant). While it was a bit before my time I believe he was the model student with good grades, good at sport and popular with all the girls. Then one day while playing for the school football team he suddenly dropped down dead at the age of 15.
My heart problems of course are the result of drink, drugs and stress. This makes them much easier to predict and control. So at around 23:45 on 20/3/12 - in the style of Monty Python - just as I go to bed I demand a machine that goes "beep"
Now How's That For Percussion.
It turns out that I've been smoking weed since about 20:30 and all paras are trannies. So I'll be taking my taxi now Mr Headon. (22:35 20/3/12)
3 Kids & a Rabbi Walk into a Bar.
And at around 20:00 on 20/3/12 I've got to stop that joke there. Mainly because I can't think of a punchline.
Anyway I'm back from the pub and was hoping to spend my evening away from the Internet drinking my own body weight in Kronenbourg. Kronenbourg is of course a French lager that in Britain is very much the rival to Stella Artois. That is to say you are either a Stella person or a Kronenborg person. In Belgium they're equally spilt between French speakers and Flemish speakers while in Switzerland it's more of a three way between French, Flemish and German. Got a headache yet?
However it was while I was in the Norbury pub drinking Carlsberg that the proverbial penny finally dropped on the old French shooting thingy. So more words will appear here soon. 20:07
20:15 The first of the French shootings occurred on March 11th 2012 (11/3/12) in or around Toulouse. A French paratrooper was trying to sell his motorbike on the Internet when one prospective buyer turned up to view the vehicle but instead shot the seller. On Wednesday (14/3/12) one of the horses in one of the races at the Cheltnam festival (I was less then detail orientated last week) crashed into a French photographer. At the the Cheltnam festival photographers are forced to wear a red armband to identify themselves. This arm band is very similar to the type of armband that French plainclothes police officers wear to identify themselves and not a million miles away from the red Swastika armband the Nazi's used to wear. So the Cheltnam crash was Britain's way of telling the French that they'd identified the shooter as one of the three paratroopers who were kicked out of the French army in 2008 for being Nazis. However in the midst of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President I would say that this advice was less then useful to the French especially as the shooter has clearly been influenced by what has been publicly reported about Breivik.
However the three ex-paratroopers identified in most of the European press are now the main suspects. There is of course though a huge difference between identifying the suspects and catching the suspects especially when the suspects have been trained in escape and evasion techniques.
Oh and about 10 minutes after my previous post a 7.6 magnitude struck Mexico. It hit in the middle of the desert so I'd be shocked if it managed to destroy a building let alone kill anyone.
Anyway I'm back from the pub and was hoping to spend my evening away from the Internet drinking my own body weight in Kronenbourg. Kronenbourg is of course a French lager that in Britain is very much the rival to Stella Artois. That is to say you are either a Stella person or a Kronenborg person. In Belgium they're equally spilt between French speakers and Flemish speakers while in Switzerland it's more of a three way between French, Flemish and German. Got a headache yet?
However it was while I was in the Norbury pub drinking Carlsberg that the proverbial penny finally dropped on the old French shooting thingy. So more words will appear here soon. 20:07
20:15 The first of the French shootings occurred on March 11th 2012 (11/3/12) in or around Toulouse. A French paratrooper was trying to sell his motorbike on the Internet when one prospective buyer turned up to view the vehicle but instead shot the seller. On Wednesday (14/3/12) one of the horses in one of the races at the Cheltnam festival (I was less then detail orientated last week) crashed into a French photographer. At the the Cheltnam festival photographers are forced to wear a red armband to identify themselves. This arm band is very similar to the type of armband that French plainclothes police officers wear to identify themselves and not a million miles away from the red Swastika armband the Nazi's used to wear. So the Cheltnam crash was Britain's way of telling the French that they'd identified the shooter as one of the three paratroopers who were kicked out of the French army in 2008 for being Nazis. However in the midst of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President I would say that this advice was less then useful to the French especially as the shooter has clearly been influenced by what has been publicly reported about Breivik.
However the three ex-paratroopers identified in most of the European press are now the main suspects. There is of course though a huge difference between identifying the suspects and catching the suspects especially when the suspects have been trained in escape and evasion techniques.
Oh and about 10 minutes after my previous post a 7.6 magnitude struck Mexico. It hit in the middle of the desert so I'd be shocked if it managed to destroy a building let alone kill anyone.
The Belgian Bus Crash: Part 2.
In the first part of this trilogy I explained how the Belgian Royal Family deliberately caused a bus to crash in a Swiss tunnel on Wednesday last (14/3/12) in order to help the British Royal Family to put pressure on the United States of America over the proposed military pull out from Afghanistan and kick start the Republican Party's 2012 Presidential election campaign. Beyond those specific objectives the bus crash was also designed to cause generalised confusion in and around the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President.
For example although fairly common in Europe the design of the tunnel with two tunnels each carrying traffic in opposite directions is similar to the design on the Channel or Euro-Tunnel which carries rail traffic between France and Britain. The Channel Tunnel is obviously a strong physical symbol of the link between Britain and continental Europe. Apart from that a fire in the Channel Tunnel was used to publicise and explain a blood clotting problem that my grandmother had following hip replacement surgery in 2008. My father also helped in the building of the Channel Tunnel and I'm sure it's been used to discuss many other issues that I'm not even aware of.
Then there is the paedophilia issue. Along with Austria both Switzerland and Belgium have been rocked by some very nasty - Josef Fritzl style - paedophile scandals in recent years. While there is absolutely no suggestion of this sort of wrong-doing by anyone involved in the bus crash there is only so long you can listen to stories about children having fun with adults in Swiss ski chalets before you think about child abuse at least once. This is especially true when the Belgian authorities kept making statements about how the teachers had been loving the children as if they were their own. This unsettling topic of conversation was fed even more by the fact that on Thursday (15/3/12) Britain's BBC News Channel was holding it's annual "School Report" event. This involves schools across Britain teaming up with the BBC to allow specially selected children between 11 and 16 years to work with professional journalists throughout the week to interview politicians and produce their own news reports. Some of these reports are then broadcast internationally on the BBC News Channel. Obviously this sort of thing does draw attention to how the British Establishment screens children from a very young age and then sometimes "grooms" them into performing certain roles. Mainly though the BBC School Report causes chaos in the normally quite robust working environment of British politics and the news media while everyone is forced to watch their language as they're over-run by school children.
Then of course there is the beer issue. Apart from the FN FAL assault rifle Belgium's most famous export is probably Stella Artois a legendary Pilsner Lager that I used to drink alot of. However the Stella Artois you get in the UK these days is actually brewed in Wales and their tinkering with the recipe has produced a lager so sugary that even I struggle to find it drinkable. I am though quite partial to the Cidre they recently brought out even though I much prefer Magners Cider which is brewed in Clonmel in the Republic of Ireland. The children killed in the bus crash came from Lommel which although in Belgium and spelled differently is pronounced more or less the same.
Now talking of beer it's around 17:45 on Tuesday March 20th 2012 and I'm shortly off to the pub. It will probably be the other pub because Crystal Palace are playing Burnley tonight. Burnley of course are the team of Alistair Campbell - Tony Blair's infamous spin doctor. So at this rate and with the UK budget tomorrow I don't see part 3 turning up anytime before Thursday.
For example although fairly common in Europe the design of the tunnel with two tunnels each carrying traffic in opposite directions is similar to the design on the Channel or Euro-Tunnel which carries rail traffic between France and Britain. The Channel Tunnel is obviously a strong physical symbol of the link between Britain and continental Europe. Apart from that a fire in the Channel Tunnel was used to publicise and explain a blood clotting problem that my grandmother had following hip replacement surgery in 2008. My father also helped in the building of the Channel Tunnel and I'm sure it's been used to discuss many other issues that I'm not even aware of.
Then there is the paedophilia issue. Along with Austria both Switzerland and Belgium have been rocked by some very nasty - Josef Fritzl style - paedophile scandals in recent years. While there is absolutely no suggestion of this sort of wrong-doing by anyone involved in the bus crash there is only so long you can listen to stories about children having fun with adults in Swiss ski chalets before you think about child abuse at least once. This is especially true when the Belgian authorities kept making statements about how the teachers had been loving the children as if they were their own. This unsettling topic of conversation was fed even more by the fact that on Thursday (15/3/12) Britain's BBC News Channel was holding it's annual "School Report" event. This involves schools across Britain teaming up with the BBC to allow specially selected children between 11 and 16 years to work with professional journalists throughout the week to interview politicians and produce their own news reports. Some of these reports are then broadcast internationally on the BBC News Channel. Obviously this sort of thing does draw attention to how the British Establishment screens children from a very young age and then sometimes "grooms" them into performing certain roles. Mainly though the BBC School Report causes chaos in the normally quite robust working environment of British politics and the news media while everyone is forced to watch their language as they're over-run by school children.
Then of course there is the beer issue. Apart from the FN FAL assault rifle Belgium's most famous export is probably Stella Artois a legendary Pilsner Lager that I used to drink alot of. However the Stella Artois you get in the UK these days is actually brewed in Wales and their tinkering with the recipe has produced a lager so sugary that even I struggle to find it drinkable. I am though quite partial to the Cidre they recently brought out even though I much prefer Magners Cider which is brewed in Clonmel in the Republic of Ireland. The children killed in the bus crash came from Lommel which although in Belgium and spelled differently is pronounced more or less the same.
Now talking of beer it's around 17:45 on Tuesday March 20th 2012 and I'm shortly off to the pub. It will probably be the other pub because Crystal Palace are playing Burnley tonight. Burnley of course are the team of Alistair Campbell - Tony Blair's infamous spin doctor. So at this rate and with the UK budget tomorrow I don't see part 3 turning up anytime before Thursday.
The Belgian Bus Crash: Part 1.
It's currently around 15:45 on 20/3/12. Ideally I would also have liked to have posted this on Sunday (18/3/12) but I guess I'll have to do it now while I've got the chance.
In the early hours of last Wednesday (14/3/12) a bus carrying Belgian school children crashed in a tunnel in Switzerland killing 22 children and 6 adults. What appears to have happened is that the bus driver simply chose to crash his vehicle into a kerb probably in the belief that he would survive and only a few of his passengers would suffer major injuries. This was primarily done in order to allow the Belgian Royal Family to assist the British Royal Family in getting what they wanted out of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President that was taking place at the time. So in order to understand the crash you first need to understand the meeting between David Cameron and Barack Obama.
Although many topics were discussed including Syria, Iran, the US election race and the global economy the main work of the meeting - done by the civil servants in the respective entourages - was how to withdraw from Afghanistan. The current plan is for the US & UK troops who make up the bulk of the NATO force to withdraw in 2014 and leave the Afghan government, police force and army in charge. Many people - myself included - think that this is a terrible idea because in many ways the situation in Afghanistan is worse now then when the US invaded in 2001. Back then it was just a three way contest between the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Northern Alliance. Now it's a cauldron of competing interests including those three actors along with the NATO alliance which is neither as strong or unified as it likes to present itself, the Afghan government, the Afghan army, the Afghan police, the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Gulf states and the Iranians to name but a few. As a result unless the US withdrawal is done absolutely perfectly there is a very strong possibility that Afghanistan will once again be used as a base for terrorist attacks to launched against foreign nations. For a number of years Britain has been responsible for training the Afghan security forces (army/police) and intends to continue that role beyond 2014 allowing them to act as gatekeepers for those future terror attacks. Therefore I think it would be better for the US to cut the UK out of the equation and use the troops that have been freed up by the withdrawal from Iraq to take over responsibility for the Afghan security forces. That way if they cannot completely stamp out the terrorists they can at least make sure it isn't the US who gets attacked.
However this approach is politically difficult for President Obama for two main reasons. Firstly the US military and wider electorate are already very war weary so telling the troops that have just got back from Iraq that they've got to re-deploy to Afghanistan is never going to be popular in an election year. However I believe that the actual military and their families will be prepared to make that sacrifice provided that they are being asked to do so for the right reasons. The second - much larger - problem is that Britain is very opposed to this change and is prepared to resist it violently. So by involving the Belgian military in the operation to recover the victims of the bus crash the Belgian Royal Family was issuing the threat to the US that it is prepared to send it's people to fight and die alongside Britain.
Another thing that Britain had been hoping to achieve from the meeting was to kick-start the Republican Party's 2012 Presidential campaign which - speaking as an observer - prior to Cameron's visit seemed unlikely to defeat Obama. Britain's most high profile tool in this plan was me and this blog. Prior to the arrival of the estate agent my plan for last Tuesday (13/3/12) was to go to bed early and quietly. However the estate incident forced me to go back online whilst getting ever more drunk in the hope that I would launch into a drunken tirade detailing everything that Obama has been doing wrong. For the most part I managed to avoid that but just as I was going to bed things were getting just a bit too concise for a time when the UK Prime Minister could simply turn to the US President and ask "So what do you think of that then?" It was just as I'd turned off my PC and people were placing bets on whether or not I'd make it to bed (I did) that the first confused reports of some sort of crash somewhere in Europe started to emerge. Apart from creating even further confusion the idea was to convince the Americans that the British plan had crashed and burned giving them the confidence to go ahead with whatever they had planned for the following day.
What the Americans had planned for the following day (14/3/12) turned out to be the false flag suicide bomb attack on US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's plane as it sat on the runway at the British Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. What the US were hoping to achieve here was to cause a panic that would force the British delegation to call on it's intelligence gathering networks in Afghanistan and in doing so expose those networks. Basically they were looking to see if the British delegation had a guilty look on their faces as if they'd carried out the attack or a smug look that said they knew who'd carried out the attack but they weren't prepared to tell the Yanks. Unfortunately it was so immediately obvious to anyone in that sort of business that the Americans had carried out the attack that the British delegation probably had the sort of big grin on their faces that said they were trying very hard not to roll about on the floor laughing.
Beyond that the bus crash was intended to spread generalised confusion and tackle some regional and local issues that I will address in parts 2 and 3 which will hopefully follow soon provided I have Internet access.
In the early hours of last Wednesday (14/3/12) a bus carrying Belgian school children crashed in a tunnel in Switzerland killing 22 children and 6 adults. What appears to have happened is that the bus driver simply chose to crash his vehicle into a kerb probably in the belief that he would survive and only a few of his passengers would suffer major injuries. This was primarily done in order to allow the Belgian Royal Family to assist the British Royal Family in getting what they wanted out of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President that was taking place at the time. So in order to understand the crash you first need to understand the meeting between David Cameron and Barack Obama.
Although many topics were discussed including Syria, Iran, the US election race and the global economy the main work of the meeting - done by the civil servants in the respective entourages - was how to withdraw from Afghanistan. The current plan is for the US & UK troops who make up the bulk of the NATO force to withdraw in 2014 and leave the Afghan government, police force and army in charge. Many people - myself included - think that this is a terrible idea because in many ways the situation in Afghanistan is worse now then when the US invaded in 2001. Back then it was just a three way contest between the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Northern Alliance. Now it's a cauldron of competing interests including those three actors along with the NATO alliance which is neither as strong or unified as it likes to present itself, the Afghan government, the Afghan army, the Afghan police, the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Gulf states and the Iranians to name but a few. As a result unless the US withdrawal is done absolutely perfectly there is a very strong possibility that Afghanistan will once again be used as a base for terrorist attacks to launched against foreign nations. For a number of years Britain has been responsible for training the Afghan security forces (army/police) and intends to continue that role beyond 2014 allowing them to act as gatekeepers for those future terror attacks. Therefore I think it would be better for the US to cut the UK out of the equation and use the troops that have been freed up by the withdrawal from Iraq to take over responsibility for the Afghan security forces. That way if they cannot completely stamp out the terrorists they can at least make sure it isn't the US who gets attacked.
However this approach is politically difficult for President Obama for two main reasons. Firstly the US military and wider electorate are already very war weary so telling the troops that have just got back from Iraq that they've got to re-deploy to Afghanistan is never going to be popular in an election year. However I believe that the actual military and their families will be prepared to make that sacrifice provided that they are being asked to do so for the right reasons. The second - much larger - problem is that Britain is very opposed to this change and is prepared to resist it violently. So by involving the Belgian military in the operation to recover the victims of the bus crash the Belgian Royal Family was issuing the threat to the US that it is prepared to send it's people to fight and die alongside Britain.
Another thing that Britain had been hoping to achieve from the meeting was to kick-start the Republican Party's 2012 Presidential campaign which - speaking as an observer - prior to Cameron's visit seemed unlikely to defeat Obama. Britain's most high profile tool in this plan was me and this blog. Prior to the arrival of the estate agent my plan for last Tuesday (13/3/12) was to go to bed early and quietly. However the estate incident forced me to go back online whilst getting ever more drunk in the hope that I would launch into a drunken tirade detailing everything that Obama has been doing wrong. For the most part I managed to avoid that but just as I was going to bed things were getting just a bit too concise for a time when the UK Prime Minister could simply turn to the US President and ask "So what do you think of that then?" It was just as I'd turned off my PC and people were placing bets on whether or not I'd make it to bed (I did) that the first confused reports of some sort of crash somewhere in Europe started to emerge. Apart from creating even further confusion the idea was to convince the Americans that the British plan had crashed and burned giving them the confidence to go ahead with whatever they had planned for the following day.
What the Americans had planned for the following day (14/3/12) turned out to be the false flag suicide bomb attack on US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's plane as it sat on the runway at the British Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. What the US were hoping to achieve here was to cause a panic that would force the British delegation to call on it's intelligence gathering networks in Afghanistan and in doing so expose those networks. Basically they were looking to see if the British delegation had a guilty look on their faces as if they'd carried out the attack or a smug look that said they knew who'd carried out the attack but they weren't prepared to tell the Yanks. Unfortunately it was so immediately obvious to anyone in that sort of business that the Americans had carried out the attack that the British delegation probably had the sort of big grin on their faces that said they were trying very hard not to roll about on the floor laughing.
Beyond that the bus crash was intended to spread generalised confusion and tackle some regional and local issues that I will address in parts 2 and 3 which will hopefully follow soon provided I have Internet access.
Oil-ay! Oil-ay! Oil-ay!
Geddit, sounds a bit like "Ole! Ole! Ole!" And would you believe that at around 14:30 on 20/3/12/ that's the sober version.
This was orginally supposed to be posted at around 11:30 on Sunday (18/3/12). However after extensive negotiation it's been decided that I'm only allowed to post it while the US equity markets are trading.
At around 16:00GMT on Thursday (15/3/12) - just as the UK Prime Minister was arriving in New York following his meeting with the US President - the US announced that the two men had agreed to release oil from their respective nation's strategic reserves. Apart from creating drama on the world stock markets the main objective was to trigger other nations to do the same bringing down global oil prices which although not yet high enough to threaten the global economy are high enough to make life very difficult for middle and lower income voters. Unfortunately a few hours later - following an Argentinian threat to take legal action over Falkland Islands oil exploration - the UK denied that it will be releasing oil from it's reserves.
What President Obama had failed to factor into his plan is that as far as the Monarchies are concerned his Presidency will expire at the end of 2012. The main way they intend to bring about this change is by conspiring to push up the global oil price ideally to derail the US economic recovery but they'll settle for driving up retail gasoline prices. Perhaps it is a shame then that President Obama is prepared to be the agent of his own destruction both by p*ssing off the people who've been carrying him for the past for years and by further driving up the oil price by pressing for ever tighter sanctions on Syria's and Iran's oil industries. After all if Saudi Arabia if want the US' support on Syria they should at least offer the US some sort of incentive. Of course though as part of the negotiations since Sunday Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase it's oil output and the global price appears to have stabilised at around USD107 per barrel.
Now who's feeling brave enough to explain to the White House that the commodity markets that deal in things like oil don't actually ever close?
This was orginally supposed to be posted at around 11:30 on Sunday (18/3/12). However after extensive negotiation it's been decided that I'm only allowed to post it while the US equity markets are trading.
At around 16:00GMT on Thursday (15/3/12) - just as the UK Prime Minister was arriving in New York following his meeting with the US President - the US announced that the two men had agreed to release oil from their respective nation's strategic reserves. Apart from creating drama on the world stock markets the main objective was to trigger other nations to do the same bringing down global oil prices which although not yet high enough to threaten the global economy are high enough to make life very difficult for middle and lower income voters. Unfortunately a few hours later - following an Argentinian threat to take legal action over Falkland Islands oil exploration - the UK denied that it will be releasing oil from it's reserves.
What President Obama had failed to factor into his plan is that as far as the Monarchies are concerned his Presidency will expire at the end of 2012. The main way they intend to bring about this change is by conspiring to push up the global oil price ideally to derail the US economic recovery but they'll settle for driving up retail gasoline prices. Perhaps it is a shame then that President Obama is prepared to be the agent of his own destruction both by p*ssing off the people who've been carrying him for the past for years and by further driving up the oil price by pressing for ever tighter sanctions on Syria's and Iran's oil industries. After all if Saudi Arabia if want the US' support on Syria they should at least offer the US some sort of incentive. Of course though as part of the negotiations since Sunday Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase it's oil output and the global price appears to have stabilised at around USD107 per barrel.
Now who's feeling brave enough to explain to the White House that the commodity markets that deal in things like oil don't actually ever close?
Miracles Will Happen(!)
It is currently around 14:00 on Tuesday March 20th 2012 (20/3/12). If you've been reading my Twitter feed (@Sovereignaka) you will know that with the exception of a narrow window yesterday morning my home Internet connection has been blocked.
The reason why this block has been lifted now is that at around 11:20 today an explosion rocked the central police station in my home district of Croydon. Four people have been injured and the explosion which believed to have been caused by construction work has already been declared to be non-terrorist related. Later today the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be debating the wording of a non-binding Chairman's statement on Syria. This type of statement require consensus by all parties and therefore cannot be subject to vote or veto.
Through the Croydon explosion Britain is trying to influence the UNSC meeting through the message "They're bombing their own police stations" with the other UNSC members being forced to guess who "they" are in the Syria metaphor.
The reason why this block has been lifted now is that at around 11:20 today an explosion rocked the central police station in my home district of Croydon. Four people have been injured and the explosion which believed to have been caused by construction work has already been declared to be non-terrorist related. Later today the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be debating the wording of a non-binding Chairman's statement on Syria. This type of statement require consensus by all parties and therefore cannot be subject to vote or veto.
Through the Croydon explosion Britain is trying to influence the UNSC meeting through the message "They're bombing their own police stations" with the other UNSC members being forced to guess who "they" are in the Syria metaphor.
Monday 19 March 2012
France Shooting: Volume 3.
It's around 11:35 on 19/3/12 and my home Internet connection is working again.
However what I was going to post has been overwhelmed by the news that this morning three children and one adult have been shot and killed by a lone gunman at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.
The fact that this shooting comes on the back of two similar attacks on soldiers in the past week means my first instinct is that they are the work of a Raoul Moat style nutcase rather the something more government sponsored. This is hardly surprising though because in the run-up to France's 2012 Presidential election the political climate has been pretty toxic with even the left-wing candidates finding potential votes in immigrant bashing.
In fact it has been a subject I would have liked to have covered in more detail if I'd had the Internet access.
However what I was going to post has been overwhelmed by the news that this morning three children and one adult have been shot and killed by a lone gunman at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.
The fact that this shooting comes on the back of two similar attacks on soldiers in the past week means my first instinct is that they are the work of a Raoul Moat style nutcase rather the something more government sponsored. This is hardly surprising though because in the run-up to France's 2012 Presidential election the political climate has been pretty toxic with even the left-wing candidates finding potential votes in immigrant bashing.
In fact it has been a subject I would have liked to have covered in more detail if I'd had the Internet access.
Friday 16 March 2012
Almost 24 Hours Later.
It's now around 15:45 on 16/3/12.
When I was trying to post yesterday at around 19:40 I was going to tell you that my father and I had just finished dinner. Over dinner we discussed my interview at the Jobcentre. This led into a conversation about the possibility of me renting my grandmother's now vacant property. After explaining that I could probably claim a maximum of around £500 per week or £2000 a month I asked him how much my grandmother's care costs are. When he was unable to answer I explained to him that they're around £800 per week or £3200 per month leaving a £1200 per month shortfall. I then raised the possibility of moving my grandmother to a nursing home in Wales where she'd be closer to friends and relatives and be able to speak her native language. My father's response was basically that the idea hadn't even occurred to him.
Obviously pointing out his shortcomings is such a blatant way increases my father's stress levels especially as he is considering increasings the households outgoings further by getting a Sky payTV package to watch the football and Formula 1. These increased stress levels may become an issue because tomorrow (17/3/12) he may or may not be meeting up with his Internet friends in Wandsworth to celebrate St Patrick's day. He's yet to completely make up his mind but I think he probably will.
Also I wanted to register the blog address http://www.100badones.blogspot.com which I have now done. Although it was the Belgian bus crash that gave me the final nudge this is something I've been meaning to do for a while. This seems more appropriate because I often find myself writing about these sort of incidents and starting by explaining that you can get 100 people to agree to an idea for 1 good reason or 100 bad ones before listing those 100 bad reasons. The new blog is actually controlled through the same user interface so I may or may not use but at least I now own the name.
As for the Belgian bus crash I still need to get it together in my head before I can even begin to start thinking about how to explain it. However I will say that it was a joint venture mainly between the Belgian and British Royal Families in order to get what they wanted out of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President.
When I was trying to post yesterday at around 19:40 I was going to tell you that my father and I had just finished dinner. Over dinner we discussed my interview at the Jobcentre. This led into a conversation about the possibility of me renting my grandmother's now vacant property. After explaining that I could probably claim a maximum of around £500 per week or £2000 a month I asked him how much my grandmother's care costs are. When he was unable to answer I explained to him that they're around £800 per week or £3200 per month leaving a £1200 per month shortfall. I then raised the possibility of moving my grandmother to a nursing home in Wales where she'd be closer to friends and relatives and be able to speak her native language. My father's response was basically that the idea hadn't even occurred to him.
Obviously pointing out his shortcomings is such a blatant way increases my father's stress levels especially as he is considering increasings the households outgoings further by getting a Sky payTV package to watch the football and Formula 1. These increased stress levels may become an issue because tomorrow (17/3/12) he may or may not be meeting up with his Internet friends in Wandsworth to celebrate St Patrick's day. He's yet to completely make up his mind but I think he probably will.
Also I wanted to register the blog address http://www.100badones.blogspot.com which I have now done. Although it was the Belgian bus crash that gave me the final nudge this is something I've been meaning to do for a while. This seems more appropriate because I often find myself writing about these sort of incidents and starting by explaining that you can get 100 people to agree to an idea for 1 good reason or 100 bad ones before listing those 100 bad reasons. The new blog is actually controlled through the same user interface so I may or may not use but at least I now own the name.
As for the Belgian bus crash I still need to get it together in my head before I can even begin to start thinking about how to explain it. However I will say that it was a joint venture mainly between the Belgian and British Royal Families in order to get what they wanted out of the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the US President.
There is No Need For Alarm
It is currently around 12:00 on Friday March 16th 2012 (16/3/12). If you've been reading my Twitter feed (@Sovereignaka) you'll be aware that my home Internet connection was not working from about 19:40 yesterday (15/3/12).
Obviously I will now have to go back and check that my all my Tweets actually appeared but first I'm going to have breakfast. The good news is that at least I don't need to go to an Internet cafe.
Edited at around 12:35 on 16/3/12 to add:
All 17 Tweets present and (almost) correct. Basically after establishing that my home Internet was not working at around 19:45 I tried checking every hour or so to see if it was working and writing something unique every time it failed. So at around 20:40 I mentioned that I'd been out to buy some more beer. At around 22:40 I mentioned that I'd been watching a preview to the new Formula 1 season on the news. The flurry of Tweets between 02:30 and 03:00 was basically me having a mini-nervous break down as I finally decided to give up and go to bed.
As for what I was going to blog at around 19:40 that moment has more then passed. I might write it up later but I'm really planning to have a quiet one today.
Obviously I will now have to go back and check that my all my Tweets actually appeared but first I'm going to have breakfast. The good news is that at least I don't need to go to an Internet cafe.
Edited at around 12:35 on 16/3/12 to add:
All 17 Tweets present and (almost) correct. Basically after establishing that my home Internet was not working at around 19:45 I tried checking every hour or so to see if it was working and writing something unique every time it failed. So at around 20:40 I mentioned that I'd been out to buy some more beer. At around 22:40 I mentioned that I'd been watching a preview to the new Formula 1 season on the news. The flurry of Tweets between 02:30 and 03:00 was basically me having a mini-nervous break down as I finally decided to give up and go to bed.
As for what I was going to blog at around 19:40 that moment has more then passed. I might write it up later but I'm really planning to have a quiet one today.
Thursday 15 March 2012
So What's Evo Morales Up to These Days.
I mean apart from making lots of noise and getting little done.
I of course at around 18:55am am highly busy making dinner (spaghetti bolognase) and trying to work out what to watch on TV later. I could watch the football or I could watch White Heat on BBC2 or I could watch Family Guy on DVD. Alternatively I could watch Goodnight and Good Luck. But if I watch the latter can we at least agree that George Clooney's dues have been paid.
I of course at around 18:55am am highly busy making dinner (spaghetti bolognase) and trying to work out what to watch on TV later. I could watch the football or I could watch White Heat on BBC2 or I could watch Family Guy on DVD. Alternatively I could watch Goodnight and Good Luck. But if I watch the latter can we at least agree that George Clooney's dues have been paid.
Sh*t Must Be Serious.
I've been forced to a buy a copy of today's (15/3/12) Guardian newspaper to check out their coverage of the Bashar al-Assad emails. Don't worry though I also brought a proper newspaper and some beer because have I mentioned how much I like beer and think it's no time to go changing.
I really should have brought a copy of last week's Croydon Advertiser newspaper because apparently it had a special review of the August riots. I would have liked to have seen if it was able to explain that there wasn't one big riot in the UK in August 2011. Instead there were like 19 separate riots over a five day period all with their own unique characteristics. For example in Tottenham and Croydon it was all about the arson and property destruction while in Clapham and Enfleid is was all about the looting and in Hackney it was all about giving the police a good kicking.
And now (16:09) we get drunk.
I really should have brought a copy of last week's Croydon Advertiser newspaper because apparently it had a special review of the August riots. I would have liked to have seen if it was able to explain that there wasn't one big riot in the UK in August 2011. Instead there were like 19 separate riots over a five day period all with their own unique characteristics. For example in Tottenham and Croydon it was all about the arson and property destruction while in Clapham and Enfleid is was all about the looting and in Hackney it was all about giving the police a good kicking.
And now (16:09) we get drunk.
So I Went to That Jobcentre Interview.
Arrived at around 12:40 left about 13:10. I wore a shirt and everything.
Unfortunately I was in a very bad mood so my demeanour could best be described as sullen, aggressive and un-cooperative. If this had been a medical interview all of those things would have counted as an asset. Sadly though it was a clerical interview so the above traits meant I have little idea what went on.
The actual interview started at around 13:05 and consisted of me giving my diagnosis and prognosis (Manic Depression/Anti-Social Personality disorder & untreatable). Then the interviewer went through the checklist of questions on his computer screen while I answered "Yes" or "No" without really listening.
Anyway the summary is that under the new system I have to come in for a similar interview every three months. As it currently mid-March that means the next one should be coming up just about at the start of the Olympics but no date has yet been set.
Unfortunately I was in a very bad mood so my demeanour could best be described as sullen, aggressive and un-cooperative. If this had been a medical interview all of those things would have counted as an asset. Sadly though it was a clerical interview so the above traits meant I have little idea what went on.
The actual interview started at around 13:05 and consisted of me giving my diagnosis and prognosis (Manic Depression/Anti-Social Personality disorder & untreatable). Then the interviewer went through the checklist of questions on his computer screen while I answered "Yes" or "No" without really listening.
Anyway the summary is that under the new system I have to come in for a similar interview every three months. As it currently mid-March that means the next one should be coming up just about at the start of the Olympics but no date has yet been set.
So What Happened?
It is around 13:30 on 15/3/12 which is around the time I should have been at that Jobcentre interview.
I may tell what happened later but right now I'm having too much fun watching a network of US informants burst into flames.
I may tell what happened later but right now I'm having too much fun watching a network of US informants burst into flames.
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Yeah it's the Second Day That Will be the Killer.
That's the point the Belgians were trying to make while lulling the Yanks into a false sense of security.
Anyway it's around 15:40 on 14/3/12 and I'm hearing reports of an attempted but failed suicide bombing at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. I was hoping to spend the day prepping for the Jobcentre interview tomorrow but my blood pressure's far too high and my pulse is racing. So instead I'm going to spend the day sitting down and trying to relax. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge after all 10 O'clock Live is on tonight so there's little risk of me being over stimulated.
Anyway it's around 15:40 on 14/3/12 and I'm hearing reports of an attempted but failed suicide bombing at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. I was hoping to spend the day prepping for the Jobcentre interview tomorrow but my blood pressure's far too high and my pulse is racing. So instead I'm going to spend the day sitting down and trying to relax. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge after all 10 O'clock Live is on tonight so there's little risk of me being over stimulated.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Thank You And Goodnight.
It's currently around 02:10 on 14/3/12 and I'm going to turn off the computer and go to be. Hopefully after that sleep will come but if not the floor pillow looks great.
And Now I Need to Photocopy.
So it's around 01:55 on 14/3/12 and now I'm on computer. It's now around 01:57 and the printer is on so more more words may appear here later.
Edited at around 02:01 to add: I have scanned bms13312 and hope to soon upload it to my photobucket.
Nope at around 02:05 I'm going for photocopies because I'm sure this copy of Sam the estate agent made sense once upon a time.
Edited at around 02:01 to add: I have scanned bms13312 and hope to soon upload it to my photobucket.
Nope at around 02:05 I'm going for photocopies because I'm sure this copy of Sam the estate agent made sense once upon a time.
Southern States Sound Off!
Because it's around 01:46 and because as the paper hit my tongue I decided it's wasn't as bad as mortar fire. Serioudly if I don't get to bed soon some nigger is going to keep hiding behind a bullet proof screen.
Anyway that's my point so at around 01:50 on 14/3/12 I'm going into the front room to watch Al Jazeera.
Anyway that's my point so at around 01:50 on 14/3/12 I'm going into the front room to watch Al Jazeera.
Darned Valkyries
They were the bastards who sent me out to the Black Lion at around 21:05 yesterday (13/3/12) to drink French beer and shout at traffic.
Anyway it's now around 00:55 Wednesday (14/3/12) and according to the front-page of yesterday's "The Sun" newspaper HRH Prince Harry has been told to give up drinking or facing risking his career as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
Actually the area covered by the August 2011 riots in Croydon were very similar to the area I was chased around by an Apache attack helicopter gunship. If it was armed I thought it would have done less damage.
Anyway Rebekkah Brooks was released from police custody around 22:00 on 14/3/12 and according to Times (01:01) Pixar she's feeling and bit brave. Also according to the sound just behind my left eye my father has gone to bed. So may the fun begin.
You Know the "Ride of the Valkyries" - the only bit of Opera you know. C'mon it was in "Apocalypse Now" 01:05
Anyway it's now around 00:55 Wednesday (14/3/12) and according to the front-page of yesterday's "The Sun" newspaper HRH Prince Harry has been told to give up drinking or facing risking his career as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
Actually the area covered by the August 2011 riots in Croydon were very similar to the area I was chased around by an Apache attack helicopter gunship. If it was armed I thought it would have done less damage.
Anyway Rebekkah Brooks was released from police custody around 22:00 on 14/3/12 and according to Times (01:01) Pixar she's feeling and bit brave. Also according to the sound just behind my left eye my father has gone to bed. So may the fun begin.
You Know the "Ride of the Valkyries" - the only bit of Opera you know. C'mon it was in "Apocalypse Now" 01:05
Well it Wouldn't Be a Proper Pub Unless it Had Beer in It.
Anyway it's around 00:30 on 14/3/12 and I will be back with more words shortly.
It's now about 00:40 and I'm sorry for the delay. It's just I've been out in static caravan in garden smoking weed and staring at the walls. It started out life in the 1930s with residential planning permission. Then in the 1960's my paternal grandfather - a teetotal WW2 marine - took it over and built the "Black Lion" pub.
Anyway still here. Still not dead.
It's now about 00:40 and I'm sorry for the delay. It's just I've been out in static caravan in garden smoking weed and staring at the walls. It started out life in the 1930s with residential planning permission. Then in the 1960's my paternal grandfather - a teetotal WW2 marine - took it over and built the "Black Lion" pub.
Anyway still here. Still not dead.
Damned Gypsies.
Yes it's around 22:40 on 13/3/12 and I really need to talk to my neighbour Charlie "Ratko Mladic" about the wall.
I mean with a couple of bricks and some cement I could fix a gate there me-self.
Anyway is anyone showing the Cheltnam Festival Highlight's. 22:42
I mean with a couple of bricks and some cement I could fix a gate there me-self.
Anyway is anyone showing the Cheltnam Festival Highlight's. 22:42
Ah Yes, The Old War.
It's now around 20:05 on Tuesday 13/3/12 and I'm back from the pub. I woke up this morning and had the sort of physical shock that told me it's no time to stop drinking alocohol. Since then I've been stoned since about 16:00 and I've just brought 8 cans of Kronenburg.
More words will appear here shortly. 20:10.
It's is now around 20:15 and I used to be a Traffic Warden or technically a Parking Attendant. Either way we are probably one of the most hated professions in the UK. In fact our only saving grace was that we used to wage war against Estate Agents. So when I saw these three human shapes in the darkness I knew I had to challenge them. The nigger in the sharp suit (Sam) barely looked up from the young Pakistani beardy weirdy Muslim couple that he was showing Charlies (Ratko Mladic) house too and knew exactly what to do. He marched me to his car, lent me a pen and some paper and allowed me to record both his "name" and his office address.
Assuming that "Sam" won't disappear into the ether I now need to contact his office. I could send them a strongly worded lawyers letter threatening to mount an expensive civil law suit if they continue to trespass on my property. Alternatively I could call them in to value my grandmother's property to find out how much a two bedroom bungalow with no street access is really worth. Of course the lack of access doesn't matter to the Whitgift Estate who are land banking. However if I receive a fair valuation we may well find that my grandmother's assets fall below the threshold at which the Crown will have to pay for her care I can then mount a lengthy and expensive civil case in a Crown court arguing that the Local Health Authority (LHA) has to pay for my grandmother's care. Unfortunately the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 has already been passed so LHA's don't exist anymore.
So anyway later tonight British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama will be trying to draw attention to College Basketball by giving the half-time talks.
Seriously I'd say it's like teaching a special needs class but there was actually a Special Educational Needs (SEN) teacher in the pub. After my father tried boxing me into a conversational corner and I brushed him off she got all professional which certainly shut her boyfriend up.
Anyway it's now around 20:35 and I think it's time to get Rancid or possibly watch the second half of a Channel 5 documentary about the Falklands war. All I know is the new series of CSI starts at 21:00 so either way we'll be (Ted) Dancin.
More words will appear here shortly. 20:10.
It's is now around 20:15 and I used to be a Traffic Warden or technically a Parking Attendant. Either way we are probably one of the most hated professions in the UK. In fact our only saving grace was that we used to wage war against Estate Agents. So when I saw these three human shapes in the darkness I knew I had to challenge them. The nigger in the sharp suit (Sam) barely looked up from the young Pakistani beardy weirdy Muslim couple that he was showing Charlies (Ratko Mladic) house too and knew exactly what to do. He marched me to his car, lent me a pen and some paper and allowed me to record both his "name" and his office address.
Assuming that "Sam" won't disappear into the ether I now need to contact his office. I could send them a strongly worded lawyers letter threatening to mount an expensive civil law suit if they continue to trespass on my property. Alternatively I could call them in to value my grandmother's property to find out how much a two bedroom bungalow with no street access is really worth. Of course the lack of access doesn't matter to the Whitgift Estate who are land banking. However if I receive a fair valuation we may well find that my grandmother's assets fall below the threshold at which the Crown will have to pay for her care I can then mount a lengthy and expensive civil case in a Crown court arguing that the Local Health Authority (LHA) has to pay for my grandmother's care. Unfortunately the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 has already been passed so LHA's don't exist anymore.
So anyway later tonight British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama will be trying to draw attention to College Basketball by giving the half-time talks.
Seriously I'd say it's like teaching a special needs class but there was actually a Special Educational Needs (SEN) teacher in the pub. After my father tried boxing me into a conversational corner and I brushed him off she got all professional which certainly shut her boyfriend up.
Anyway it's now around 20:35 and I think it's time to get Rancid or possibly watch the second half of a Channel 5 documentary about the Falklands war. All I know is the new series of CSI starts at 21:00 so either way we'll be (Ted) Dancin.
Fecking Estate Agents.
It's currently around 19:05 on 13/3/12 and I've just caught Sam from Banard Marcus in my garden trying to sell number 52. So a conversation was had and I'm now going to the pub to consider my next move.
Operation Ostrava: Month 2, Week 1, Day 1.
Yesterday (12/3/12) Britain convened a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) following the United Nation's Special Envoy to Syria - Kofi Annan's two day visit to the country over the weekend of 10/3/12 and 11/3/12. However I'm still so far behind on Syria I cannot comment on either the Special Envoy's visit or the UNSC meeting. So instead I'm going to talk about Syria's recent constitutional referendum.
On February 27th 2012 (27/2/12) Syrian voters overwhelmingly voted to adopt widespread changes to the nations constitution. These changes represented a political earthquake in Syria because they end the Ba'ath Party's absolute dominance of Syrian politics, allow for the formation of other political parties and pave the way for democratic, multi-party elections. However no-one is treating the referendum or it's results with much credibility because only about 50% of registered voters took part and even the most democratic country wouldn't even consider holding any form of public vote when the security situation is as bad as it is in Syria. Syria's enemies were quick to label it a "sham" but I think that's unfair. If anything the referendum demonstrated Bashar al-Assad's lack of ruthlessness and his genuine desire to bring about democratic reform.
Between 1971 and 2000 Syria was run by Hafez al-Assad who ruled with an iron fist. He presided of a totalitarian regime which was very similar to Saddam Hussein's Iraq where the only political party was the Presidents party and there was a massive security apparatus to keep the Syrian people in line and quickly identify dissidents. When those dissidents were caught or even just suspected they were subject to arbitrary detention, torture and death. When the people of Hama rose up and challenged this system in 1982 Hafez al-Assad simply shelled the city into the ground killing some 22,000 people. Hafez al-Assad always intended to hand power to his son Bassel al-Assad but he was killed in a car crash in 1994 leaving a choice between two of the other sons; Maher al-Assad and Basher al-Assad. However - possibly because of the Hama massacre - there was a feeling within the Syrian establishment that Maher al-Assad was too aggressive and too much like his father so Syria's future would be safer in Bashar al-Assad's soft hands. After giving up his career as an optician Bashar al-Assad became Syria's President in July 2000 and the world welcomed him as the man who was going to reform Syria's repressive regime.
Then on September 11th 2001 Al Qeada attacked the United States and the US responded by declaring every Muslim to be a potential enemy. In October 2001 the US invaded Afghanistan and in doing so sent out the message to all the leaders in the middle-east that if they didn't keep their populations firmly in line they would be next. Then in March 2003 the US invaded Syria's neighbour Iraq underlining that threat and ending any opportunity that Bashar al-Assad may have had to liberalise Syria's security apparatus. Then in 2006 Syrian pressure on Hezbollah forced them to agree a ceasefire which ended Lebanon's war with Israel. This made Israel very angry because they were just about to use the war as an excuse to invade and occupy much of southern Lebanon. So the Israel lobby got the US to begin building up a network of agents in Syria to make life difficult for and possibly overthrow the Syrian government. Rather then allowing them the space to liberalise and reform this left the Syrian security machine no option other then to become even more repressive.
In the summer of 2011 with input from Britain and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) this situation came to a violent peak. While Maher al-Assad set about crushing the insurgency the only way he knows how Bashar al-Assad seems to have seen the crisis as an opportunity to drive through the political reforms he's been waiting twelve years to implement.
So I think the best way to end the killing and bring genuine democratic reform is to support Bashar al-Assad.
On February 27th 2012 (27/2/12) Syrian voters overwhelmingly voted to adopt widespread changes to the nations constitution. These changes represented a political earthquake in Syria because they end the Ba'ath Party's absolute dominance of Syrian politics, allow for the formation of other political parties and pave the way for democratic, multi-party elections. However no-one is treating the referendum or it's results with much credibility because only about 50% of registered voters took part and even the most democratic country wouldn't even consider holding any form of public vote when the security situation is as bad as it is in Syria. Syria's enemies were quick to label it a "sham" but I think that's unfair. If anything the referendum demonstrated Bashar al-Assad's lack of ruthlessness and his genuine desire to bring about democratic reform.
Between 1971 and 2000 Syria was run by Hafez al-Assad who ruled with an iron fist. He presided of a totalitarian regime which was very similar to Saddam Hussein's Iraq where the only political party was the Presidents party and there was a massive security apparatus to keep the Syrian people in line and quickly identify dissidents. When those dissidents were caught or even just suspected they were subject to arbitrary detention, torture and death. When the people of Hama rose up and challenged this system in 1982 Hafez al-Assad simply shelled the city into the ground killing some 22,000 people. Hafez al-Assad always intended to hand power to his son Bassel al-Assad but he was killed in a car crash in 1994 leaving a choice between two of the other sons; Maher al-Assad and Basher al-Assad. However - possibly because of the Hama massacre - there was a feeling within the Syrian establishment that Maher al-Assad was too aggressive and too much like his father so Syria's future would be safer in Bashar al-Assad's soft hands. After giving up his career as an optician Bashar al-Assad became Syria's President in July 2000 and the world welcomed him as the man who was going to reform Syria's repressive regime.
Then on September 11th 2001 Al Qeada attacked the United States and the US responded by declaring every Muslim to be a potential enemy. In October 2001 the US invaded Afghanistan and in doing so sent out the message to all the leaders in the middle-east that if they didn't keep their populations firmly in line they would be next. Then in March 2003 the US invaded Syria's neighbour Iraq underlining that threat and ending any opportunity that Bashar al-Assad may have had to liberalise Syria's security apparatus. Then in 2006 Syrian pressure on Hezbollah forced them to agree a ceasefire which ended Lebanon's war with Israel. This made Israel very angry because they were just about to use the war as an excuse to invade and occupy much of southern Lebanon. So the Israel lobby got the US to begin building up a network of agents in Syria to make life difficult for and possibly overthrow the Syrian government. Rather then allowing them the space to liberalise and reform this left the Syrian security machine no option other then to become even more repressive.
In the summer of 2011 with input from Britain and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) this situation came to a violent peak. While Maher al-Assad set about crushing the insurgency the only way he knows how Bashar al-Assad seems to have seen the crisis as an opportunity to drive through the political reforms he's been waiting twelve years to implement.
So I think the best way to end the killing and bring genuine democratic reform is to support Bashar al-Assad.
Well At Least My Alarm Clock Works.
I set it up on Saturday and it woke me up for the first time on Sunday. It woke me up again today (13/3/12) at around 09:50 so I'm ready for the start of the British Prime Minister's two day visit to the United States.
This is why the UK has been raising the pressure in the past few day with a lot of the high profile trials over the August 2011 riots coming to an end, yesterday's "Right to Die" case, my upcoming meeting at the Jobcentre, Dwayne Chamber's Olympic appeal and today's arrest of Rebekah Brooks and other News International employees for offences relating to perverting the course of justice.
What I don't understand is why the US agreed to the timing of meeting and participated in the process with my Internet connection problems, the antics in Afghanistan and the Kony 2012 thing. To me that looks like a country that wants to lose.
This is why the UK has been raising the pressure in the past few day with a lot of the high profile trials over the August 2011 riots coming to an end, yesterday's "Right to Die" case, my upcoming meeting at the Jobcentre, Dwayne Chamber's Olympic appeal and today's arrest of Rebekah Brooks and other News International employees for offences relating to perverting the course of justice.
What I don't understand is why the US agreed to the timing of meeting and participated in the process with my Internet connection problems, the antics in Afghanistan and the Kony 2012 thing. To me that looks like a country that wants to lose.
Monday 12 March 2012
Really Not Suitable For Work.
It's around 14:35 on 12/3/12. You'll be glad to know that I've deleted the (pornographic) images from my last post but one because they could have been deemed offensive. Mind you compared with photographs of what the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) get up to I didn't think they were that bad. And once again we're back into the debate about the US' Federal Communications Committee (FCC) restrictions or broadcasters. After all it's long been said they're more open to violence then they are to sex.
In other news I got up today at around 13:05. This does not bode well for my chances of making that appointment at the Jobcentre at 13:00 on Thursday (15/3/12).
In other news I got up today at around 13:05. This does not bode well for my chances of making that appointment at the Jobcentre at 13:00 on Thursday (15/3/12).
Sunday 11 March 2012
So Those 9 Songs Were;
- Wild About My Lovin' by Imelda May from the Love Tattoo album,
- Big Bad Handsome Man by Imelda May from the Love Tattoo album,
- Love Tattoo by Imelda May from the Love Tattoo album,
- Smokers Song by Imelda May from the Love Tattoo album,
- Nothing by Pennywise from the Unknown Road album,
- Vices by Pennywise from the Unknown Road album,
- Message in a Bottle by Machine Head from the Burning Red album,
- Blasphemous Girl by My Ruin from the Speak & Destroy album,
- Close Your Eyes by My Ruin from the Speak & Destroy album.
Although I only set up my new DAB alarm clock up on saturday (10/3/12) morning no alarm clock will wake me this morning (12/3/12) because at around 02:15 I'll be resting my back.
Well That's One Egyptian not Expecting a Virginity Test.
Because it's around 01:36 on 12/3/12 and I've decided to mark my Google email as "Unread"
Make Him Famous!
It's around 01:20 on 12/3/12 and I've just finished the Kony2012 video;
http://www.kony2012.com/
However I think I had the better sound track. We started with "Civil War" by Gn'R followed by; "Blasphemous Girl" by My Ruin. Followed by; "Like a Soldier" by Johnny Cash. Followed by; "Higher Ground" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Followed by "Oi the World" by The Vandals. Followed by "My Boy Builds Coffins" by Florence & the Machine.
Anyway it's around 01:30 on 12/3/12 and it turns out it didn't get "grown up." So I'm not going to bed until you show me an axe wound and read to me my Google terms of service.
http://www.kony2012.com/
However I think I had the better sound track. We started with "Civil War" by Gn'R followed by; "Blasphemous Girl" by My Ruin. Followed by; "Like a Soldier" by Johnny Cash. Followed by; "Higher Ground" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Followed by "Oi the World" by The Vandals. Followed by "My Boy Builds Coffins" by Florence & the Machine.
Anyway it's around 01:30 on 12/3/12 and it turns out it didn't get "grown up." So I'm not going to bed until you show me an axe wound and read to me my Google terms of service.
Kony 2012!
At around 00:05 on 12/3/12 to my mind that is the worst election campaign slogan I've heard since "Hillary 2008."
However if like me you've not been sent a copy of the Kony 2012 video. About a week ago a bunch of Californians released a viral Internet video calling fo the USA to capture Joesph Kony before 2012 is out. Now I will properly have to get around to watching this video but I believe Joesph Kony was a not very nice chap who started his trade in Uganda with a machete. After founding the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) he moved onto Sierra Leone and then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Following his antics in Sierra Leone the International Criminal Court (ICC) are soon expected to convict Charles Taylor.
Now Sierra Leone was a nasty war. Throughout the 1980's Britain's Tory government supplied both sides with weapons. In fact they supplied one side with one of the Self-Loading Rifles (SLR's) used in Northern Ireland's second "Bloody Sunday" massacre. Then Tony Blair sent some paratroopers to sort out Sierra Leone.
Now at around 00:15 on 12/3/12 the pizza's getting cold and like I said I need to watch a viral video.
Edited at around 00:50 on 12/3/12 to add:
After finding the kony2012 video here; http://www.kony2012.com I left it to stream for my neighbours while I went outside for a smoke.
It's now around 00:55 and I'm ready to watch;
http://www.kony2012.com
I bleive it gets grown up around 04:34
However if like me you've not been sent a copy of the Kony 2012 video. About a week ago a bunch of Californians released a viral Internet video calling fo the USA to capture Joesph Kony before 2012 is out. Now I will properly have to get around to watching this video but I believe Joesph Kony was a not very nice chap who started his trade in Uganda with a machete. After founding the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) he moved onto Sierra Leone and then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Following his antics in Sierra Leone the International Criminal Court (ICC) are soon expected to convict Charles Taylor.
Now Sierra Leone was a nasty war. Throughout the 1980's Britain's Tory government supplied both sides with weapons. In fact they supplied one side with one of the Self-Loading Rifles (SLR's) used in Northern Ireland's second "Bloody Sunday" massacre. Then Tony Blair sent some paratroopers to sort out Sierra Leone.
Now at around 00:15 on 12/3/12 the pizza's getting cold and like I said I need to watch a viral video.
Edited at around 00:50 on 12/3/12 to add:
After finding the kony2012 video here; http://www.kony2012.com I left it to stream for my neighbours while I went outside for a smoke.
It's now around 00:55 and I'm ready to watch;
http://www.kony2012.com
I bleive it gets grown up around 04:34
I Demand Answers.
Mainly because at around 23:40 on 11/3/12 I've got a pizza in the oven. However for the eight questions I posed earlier;
- No Idea.
- No Idea.
- No Idea.
- 8 cans of Kronenburg. 20 Marlboro Blacks. 4 smoked.
- 2 and two.
- 4 from Imelda May's "Love Tattoo." Two from Pennywises' "Unknown Road." 1 from Machine Heads' "The Burning Red." and two from My Ruin's "Speak & Destroy."
- A pizza.
- Because I really need to listen to the "Police's" version.
At around 23:50 it's all good. My pizza is ready.
Sorry I've Gone a Bit French.
But do not worry. It's around 23:30 on 11/3/12 and in my hand I have a piece of paper promising "Peace in our Time."
Welcome to the Jungle!.
That is so totally the Guns 'n Roses song I'm listening to now (23;20 11/3/12) while I'm getting my head straight. "Top Gear" beat "Dancing on Ice" in the sofa wars. So instead my father and I watched "Upstairs Downstairs."
It's now around 23:25. The washing up has still not been done and I've got no idea what's for dinner.
It's now around 23:25. The washing up has still not been done and I've got no idea what's for dinner.
Oh Homeland. I Love Your So Much More When I'm Stoned.
Because I've got no idea what you were like before I was stoned.
Anyway Damian Lewis just got rained on as he met Claire Danes at the end of an AA meeting known as "My So Called Life."
If you've not brought a series of "My So Called Life" feel free to go down to New Orleans and blame a Jew. The Jew I've decided to blame was called "Saul." He gave me "Chicago Hope."
But do not worry because it's around 23:10 on 11/3/12 and I have paper. On that paper there are printed questions which I will soon return to answer.
Anyway Damian Lewis just got rained on as he met Claire Danes at the end of an AA meeting known as "My So Called Life."
If you've not brought a series of "My So Called Life" feel free to go down to New Orleans and blame a Jew. The Jew I've decided to blame was called "Saul." He gave me "Chicago Hope."
But do not worry because it's around 23:10 on 11/3/12 and I have paper. On that paper there are printed questions which I will soon return to answer.
Top Gear V Dancing On Ice.
First they came for the porn. Then they came for the drugs.
The good news is that's around 20:35 on March 11th 2012 (11/3/12) and I'm home safe.
The bad news is that my father and I are currently staring at an un-done pile of washing up and trying to work out what to watch on TV. I've been out in the shed while he's been bashing about on my grandmother's (Freesat) box. However I'm sure we're about to agree to watch the BBC's "Upstairs Downstairs" followed by the USA's "Homeland" on Channel 4. Last week we skipped the lesbian episode of "Upstairs Downstairs" to watch "Homeland" in HD instead.
I'm proud to report that my father pulled out long before I did in "that" scene when Damian Lewis off of "Warriors" spent about three minutes wanking of on Monica from "Firefly" tits.
The even better news is that now (20:42) is I've decided to copy to Windows text (MS Word 20:43) and print (20:44) a copy of the questions I asked in my previous post.
22:46. I'm done.
The good news is that's around 20:35 on March 11th 2012 (11/3/12) and I'm home safe.
The bad news is that my father and I are currently staring at an un-done pile of washing up and trying to work out what to watch on TV. I've been out in the shed while he's been bashing about on my grandmother's (Freesat) box. However I'm sure we're about to agree to watch the BBC's "Upstairs Downstairs" followed by the USA's "Homeland" on Channel 4. Last week we skipped the lesbian episode of "Upstairs Downstairs" to watch "Homeland" in HD instead.
I'm proud to report that my father pulled out long before I did in "that" scene when Damian Lewis off of "Warriors" spent about three minutes wanking of on Monica from "Firefly" tits.
The even better news is that now (20:42) is I've decided to copy to Windows text (MS Word 20:43) and print (20:44) a copy of the questions I asked in my previous post.
22:46. I'm done.
Question Time.
Hello, it's around 19:02 GMT on 11/3/12 and I think I may be an alcoholic. So before this evening is out I would like answers to the following 8 questions;
- Why didn't my Internet connection work first time?
- Who am I? Where am I? and WTF is going on?
- Did my father's attempts to de-frost the outside freezer succeed?
- How many cans of Kronenburg beer and how many Marlboro Black cigarettes did I buy today?
- How many spliffs (cannabis) did I smoke while drinking Red Stripe in the shed?
- What were the nine songs I added to my iPod yesterday?
- What's for Dinner?
- Why do I think the Machine Head version is the superior version when compared to the Police version?
Operation Oil Theft: Month 12, Week 4, Day 1.
I have to start by saying that I am still having real trouble getting quality information about the situation in Libya. However it is obvious that the British agents who are still operating in the east of the country are having some success. Apart from putting pressure on the National Transitional Council (NTC) by desecrating British war graves they have also played a significant role in organising the anti-NTC protests that have been taking place in Benghazi pretty much since the fall of the Qaddafi government.
Despite those protests boiling over into violence in late January matters really came to a head last Tuesday (6/3/12) when around 5000 tribal and militia leaders came together in Benghazi, declared themselves to be the Cyrenaican Regional Congress (CRC) and elected the 79 year old Ahmed Zubair al-Sennussi as their leader. As is often the case in Libyan politics what the CRC wants isn't exactly clear and doesn't seem particularly well thought through. However they claim they want to set up some sort of federal form of government that would see the NTC is overall control but Libya's three main regions; Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south west and Tripolitania in the north west acting as largely independent states. Of course Cyrenaica has lots of oil, Fezzan has some oil and Tripolitania has none at all.
The main problem with the CRC's unilateral action is that Libya is just three months away from it's first elections since well possibly ever. Planning for these elections and the laws that govern them haven't considered a federal model at all and the CRC don't seem to have an concrete suggestions as to how the technical aspects of federalism would work in practice. Therefore I could go so far to suggest that rather then setting up a federal system of government the CRC want to use the issue as a way to promote a boycott of the upcoming elections. They will then set up something closer to the Saudi model which will see the nation divided into private fiefdoms run for the benefit of a variety of Princes. Highlighting his complete lack of understanding of what federalism actually involves al-Senussi is totally wrong in his assertion that the USA and Germany were able to achieve federalism without any problems. The federalisation of Germany following world war two led to the country being divided into East and West Germany for the best part of fifty years and America's attempts at federalism led to the American civil war.
The fact that the CRC's first act was to set up it's own army and the NTC has said that if need be it will use it's army to resist the plan suggests that Libya could be looking at a situation similar to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990's. After almost a decade of war this saw Yugoslavia split into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
Fortunately at least 9000 Libyans are already aware of this staging protests in both Tripoli (5000) and Benghazi (4000) on Friday (9/3/12)
Despite those protests boiling over into violence in late January matters really came to a head last Tuesday (6/3/12) when around 5000 tribal and militia leaders came together in Benghazi, declared themselves to be the Cyrenaican Regional Congress (CRC) and elected the 79 year old Ahmed Zubair al-Sennussi as their leader. As is often the case in Libyan politics what the CRC wants isn't exactly clear and doesn't seem particularly well thought through. However they claim they want to set up some sort of federal form of government that would see the NTC is overall control but Libya's three main regions; Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south west and Tripolitania in the north west acting as largely independent states. Of course Cyrenaica has lots of oil, Fezzan has some oil and Tripolitania has none at all.
The main problem with the CRC's unilateral action is that Libya is just three months away from it's first elections since well possibly ever. Planning for these elections and the laws that govern them haven't considered a federal model at all and the CRC don't seem to have an concrete suggestions as to how the technical aspects of federalism would work in practice. Therefore I could go so far to suggest that rather then setting up a federal system of government the CRC want to use the issue as a way to promote a boycott of the upcoming elections. They will then set up something closer to the Saudi model which will see the nation divided into private fiefdoms run for the benefit of a variety of Princes. Highlighting his complete lack of understanding of what federalism actually involves al-Senussi is totally wrong in his assertion that the USA and Germany were able to achieve federalism without any problems. The federalisation of Germany following world war two led to the country being divided into East and West Germany for the best part of fifty years and America's attempts at federalism led to the American civil war.
The fact that the CRC's first act was to set up it's own army and the NTC has said that if need be it will use it's army to resist the plan suggests that Libya could be looking at a situation similar to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990's. After almost a decade of war this saw Yugoslavia split into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
Fortunately at least 9000 Libyans are already aware of this staging protests in both Tripoli (5000) and Benghazi (4000) on Friday (9/3/12)
That's Just Sick.
The Yanks simply couldn't let the Japanese grieve for one day. So around two hours after my previous post a US soldier left his base in the restive Kandahar province in Afghanistan and went on a shooting spree in an Afghan village killing a reported 17 civilians.
The US are trying to dress this up as the soldier suffering from some sort of mental illness but no-one's meant to believe that. Unfortunately for the Yanks there is little evidence of the violent response they were trying to provoke actually emerging.
The US are trying to dress this up as the soldier suffering from some sort of mental illness but no-one's meant to believe that. Unfortunately for the Yanks there is little evidence of the violent response they were trying to provoke actually emerging.
Saturday 10 March 2012
March 3rd 2012.
Today is the first anniversary of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Knowing that this date was coming up I was hoping to write something that best explained how much devastation these triple disasters caused and how much the Japanese people have suffered since. I could have talked about how many people were killed or how many miles of coastline were wiped out. I could have spoken about the nuclear workers who volunteered to risk almost certain death to prevent the Fukushima plant going into full meltdown or the generations it will take for the exclusion zone around the plant to become safe again. I could also have talked about how the forced shut down of most of Japan's power stations has meant no-one there has had a normal day since let alone begun to reconstruct the country.
However even with all the time in the world to stop, reflect and research all the little details I still don't think I could ever find the words.
Knowing that this date was coming up I was hoping to write something that best explained how much devastation these triple disasters caused and how much the Japanese people have suffered since. I could have talked about how many people were killed or how many miles of coastline were wiped out. I could have spoken about the nuclear workers who volunteered to risk almost certain death to prevent the Fukushima plant going into full meltdown or the generations it will take for the exclusion zone around the plant to become safe again. I could also have talked about how the forced shut down of most of Japan's power stations has meant no-one there has had a normal day since let alone begun to reconstruct the country.
However even with all the time in the world to stop, reflect and research all the little details I still don't think I could ever find the words.
Friday 9 March 2012
And it Was All Going So Well.
There I was on Wednesday (7/3/12) with a working Internet connection all ready to get to work. Now it's around 00:50 on Saturday (10/3/12) and I've got the munchies and a whole stack of email reminding me that I need to drink just to feel normal.
Balls.
At around 16:00 today (9/3/12) I decided that it would probably just be easier to carry on drinking. So at around 23:50 the bad news is I'm going to be up for hours.
On the plus side Britain's Amnesty International (AI) benefit gig "The Secret Policeman's Ball" is on TV. I know that it's AI's 50th anniversary and it's the first time it's been it's been held in New York but it's meant to be a comedy gig. So if you don't make me laugh I will kill.
On the plus side Britain's Amnesty International (AI) benefit gig "The Secret Policeman's Ball" is on TV. I know that it's AI's 50th anniversary and it's the first time it's been it's been held in New York but it's meant to be a comedy gig. So if you don't make me laugh I will kill.
Rastamouse is No More.
Rastamouse is a Children's BBC (CBBC) show about a Rastafarian mouse puppet that lives on a Caribbean island investigating mystery's and searching for cheese with his friends. Some people say it's really great. Other's say it's a bit racist. All I think is that the Rastafarian it's based on lives down the road from me at number 55.
Well I say lived. He got evicted at the end of February and now all their stuff's in the front yard and the neighbours are worried about who'll move into the vacant property. It could have been all so different though. When number 50 was known as the "hen-house" he's 14-15 year old son was keen on getting to know the 18-20 year old girls. It's a shame they got moved on because nothing makes a city block easier to flatten then a brothel.
I think that might have been why my father recently decided to put a red light in my grandmother's window. But at around 23:10 on 9/3/12 all I can think is how nice it was to get involved some 18 months after the fight.
Well I say lived. He got evicted at the end of February and now all their stuff's in the front yard and the neighbours are worried about who'll move into the vacant property. It could have been all so different though. When number 50 was known as the "hen-house" he's 14-15 year old son was keen on getting to know the 18-20 year old girls. It's a shame they got moved on because nothing makes a city block easier to flatten then a brothel.
I think that might have been why my father recently decided to put a red light in my grandmother's window. But at around 23:10 on 9/3/12 all I can think is how nice it was to get involved some 18 months after the fight.
USD 3 Billion.
That's the early estimate on how much Credit Default Swaps (CDS) will have to pay out on the USD13obn Greek debt default. Apparently it's been quite a struggle to get insurance for Greek debt recently. ISDA's decision may also have an impact on future sales of Greek Sovereign Debt but at the moment I don't have a clue what they are. Just think if I was allowed sobriety and Internet access at the same time I could research this sort of thing.
At the moment (20:40 9/3/12) I have got Internet access but sobriety left me long ago. So instead I shall tell you a story.
As I was making my way to to the shop today (9/3/12) at around 15:00 to buy a newspaper I was accosted by these two young (14-15) black kiddies. They asked me lots of random questions like whether I had a cigarette and whether I thought I was God (Sorry said "Good"; prn is always difficult). As this was far from my first dance I knew straight away this was an attempted mugging. However at the moment the mugging should have happened they suddenly backed a way. You'll have to ask them why they did that but I like to think they were intimidated by my impressive masculinity.
At the moment (20:40 9/3/12) I have got Internet access but sobriety left me long ago. So instead I shall tell you a story.
As I was making my way to to the shop today (9/3/12) at around 15:00 to buy a newspaper I was accosted by these two young (14-15) black kiddies. They asked me lots of random questions like whether I had a cigarette and whether I thought I was God (Sorry said "Good"; prn is always difficult). As this was far from my first dance I knew straight away this was an attempted mugging. However at the moment the mugging should have happened they suddenly backed a way. You'll have to ask them why they did that but I like to think they were intimidated by my impressive masculinity.
Greece Has Just Defaulted.
Yesterday (8/3/12) I believe 85% of Greece's creditors agreed to write of 70% of Greek Sovereign debt they hold. At around 20:00 on 9/3/12 CNBC are reporting that the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) who govern this sort of thing has ruled that yesterday's deal does constitute a Sovereign debt default.
In terms of Greece this is pretty much meaningless. However it means that those creditors who signed up to yesterday's deal who have credit insurance (Credit Default Swaps) will receive payment. It is still not clear whether or not the 15% of creditors who didn't sign up will also be paid. This is a very long and complicated story about the moral hazard presented by insurance into which Britain is trying to find guidance about payment for August 2011's riots.
Like I said - my entire weekend ruined.
In terms of Greece this is pretty much meaningless. However it means that those creditors who signed up to yesterday's deal who have credit insurance (Credit Default Swaps) will receive payment. It is still not clear whether or not the 15% of creditors who didn't sign up will also be paid. This is a very long and complicated story about the moral hazard presented by insurance into which Britain is trying to find guidance about payment for August 2011's riots.
Like I said - my entire weekend ruined.
Yikes This Back Thing's a Bit Serious.
I mean that in the sense it will probably sort itself out in the next couple of days. However when I went to get out of bed this morning (9/3/12) at around 09:20 I put my feet on the floor to discover my left leg couldn't support the weight so I went back to bed for the next four hours.
It is now around 13:40 and as you can see my home Internet connection is working but I can tell already my whole weekend's been ruined.
It is now around 13:40 and as you can see my home Internet connection is working but I can tell already my whole weekend's been ruined.
Thursday 8 March 2012
But Long Before That I Brought Wine.
At around 02:45 on 9/2/12 did I mention the time delay. Anyway yesterday I brought wine. Did I mention how much I like wine. It reminds me of Italia '90 and darn gosh it's just so whiney.
Oh Yes That Magic Moment Has Arrived.
At around 02:40 on 9/3/12 I've got 2m36s into Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." It was around this moment I realised my last set of ear phones had died.
But then I brought some milk.
But then I brought some milk.
OMG No!
By; "Went 'round the back and gay'd it up in Africa.
I meant; "Left Evidence."
Glad we've cleared that up it's currently around 02:30 on 9/3/12.
I meant; "Left Evidence."
Glad we've cleared that up it's currently around 02:30 on 9/3/12.
Oh Yeah That STRATFOR email.
>From: Saudi Arabia
>To: Great Britain.
>RE: Sovereign's Grandmother.
Hello Dear,
If you'd had the courage to declare her a Witch we would have respected you. However instead you went 'round the back and gay'd it up in Africa.
Now can I have tenner or the Greek. I hear he's good at dealing with house boys.
Anyway,
much love Saudi Arabia.
Now at around 02:20 on 9/3/12 I believe it's time to Renew Trident and Rock the Casbah or possibly just go to bed.
>To: Great Britain.
>RE: Sovereign's Grandmother.
Hello Dear,
If you'd had the courage to declare her a Witch we would have respected you. However instead you went 'round the back and gay'd it up in Africa.
Now can I have tenner or the Greek. I hear he's good at dealing with house boys.
Anyway,
much love Saudi Arabia.
Now at around 02:20 on 9/3/12 I believe it's time to Renew Trident and Rock the Casbah or possibly just go to bed.
So Yeah My Mother's...
.. Got terrible taste in music but fantastic taste in women. Discuss.
F*cking Hell. At around 01:55 on 9/3/12 if this carries on much longer I'm going to have to start making up my own STRATFOR emails.
F*cking Hell. At around 01:55 on 9/3/12 if this carries on much longer I'm going to have to start making up my own STRATFOR emails.
Oh Zach Braff - You Poor, Jewish C*nt.
On stage in London's West End all through this.
Anyway at around 01:45 on Friday March 9th 2012 (9/3/12) I'm proud to confirm that these headphones are wearing in fine. I am trying to work out if it's wrong that I've got the "Prague Philharmonics" version of the "Gladiator" theme on my Ipod or whether I could just look at porn.
Anyway at around 01:45 on Friday March 9th 2012 (9/3/12) I'm proud to confirm that these headphones are wearing in fine. I am trying to work out if it's wrong that I've got the "Prague Philharmonics" version of the "Gladiator" theme on my Ipod or whether I could just look at porn.
Good Morning Asia.
I've bruised me bum.
And at around 01:00 on 9/3/12 by "bruised" I mean "hurt" and by "bum" I mean "Lower spine" I think it was the walking that did it. Now does anyone know why my left thumb's gone numb?
God I'm too tall, dodgy knees. My eyes are terrible too. I think I need to visit one of those eye doctor chappies.
And at around 01:00 on 9/3/12 by "bruised" I mean "hurt" and by "bum" I mean "Lower spine" I think it was the walking that did it. Now does anyone know why my left thumb's gone numb?
God I'm too tall, dodgy knees. My eyes are terrible too. I think I need to visit one of those eye doctor chappies.
Oh Yeah There Was the Point.
On returning home from Croydon Town Centre on Thursday March 8th (8/3/12) I received the following letter;
DWP60312 Informing me that I've got to go to a meeting thingy at "Jobcentre Plus" at 72 High Street, Thornton Heath, CR7 8YY on Thursday March 15th 2012 (15/3/12) at 13:00.
Assuming my chances of pretending that I never received it have now (00:30 9/2/12) gone I plan on attending but as you may have learned from 12 years of precedent there are red lines. If they're crossed I will withdraw.
DWP60312 Informing me that I've got to go to a meeting thingy at "Jobcentre Plus" at 72 High Street, Thornton Heath, CR7 8YY on Thursday March 15th 2012 (15/3/12) at 13:00.
Assuming my chances of pretending that I never received it have now (00:30 9/2/12) gone I plan on attending but as you may have learned from 12 years of precedent there are red lines. If they're crossed I will withdraw.
So That's Why My Bank (HSBC) Sent Me a New (Visa) Debit Card.
Turns out the old one expired at around 23:59 on February 29th 2012 (29/2/12).
I wish I'd worked that one out before around 14:00 on March 8th 2012 (8/3/12) when I found myself shopping in Croydon without any cash. This lack of cash seriously cut short my shopping trip. Sorry I'm working on a bit of time delay so let's look at what I brought;
I wish I'd worked that one out before around 14:00 on March 8th 2012 (8/3/12) when I found myself shopping in Croydon without any cash. This lack of cash seriously cut short my shopping trip. Sorry I'm working on a bit of time delay so let's look at what I brought;
- Some JVC in ear headphones. I spent ages looking at over the ear headphones but I'm running these in and they seem just fine.
- An Alarm Clock. Since about 1999 my existing one has taken a very Einstein-ian approach (it only moves forward in time ) so I felt it was time to upgrade. Unfortunately I can't tell you exactly which model because my alarm clock features heavily in discussions about if my housed is bugged.
- "The Baader Meinhoff Complex" on DVD. I know I said I watched it on Oscar night but I really wandered in half-way through and thought "I really need to watch that when I'm less hammered.
So at around 00:12 on 9/3/12 I've got that pencilled in for around mid-June.
So Have We Got Him Yet?
Because at around 23:35 on 8/3/12 I think there's a f*cking ninja Afghan bomb-maker out there with a price on his head.
And Focus.
It's around 23:25 on 8/3/12 and some f*cking N*gger's nicked my fucking Chi.
Sorry I'm a Warrior: Contents may get bloody.
Sorry I'm a Warrior: Contents may get bloody.
Names, I've Had Few.
So many in fact it becomes difficult to remember exactly which name I've used in which circumstance. Seriously in at least one of my trade union memberships I think I'm a women.
However one thing I can remember is that upon discovering my home Internet was not working I made the following two Tweets (@Sovereignaka) on my cellphone;
"I once went by the name 'Chris' It's a long story I can tell"
and
"At around 18:20 on 8/3/12 my home internet's not working."
Of course the first Tweet should've read: "I once went by the name 'Chris' It's a long story I can't tell"
However I'm sure this related to the killing of an Italian hostage "Franco Lamolina" and British hostage "Chris McManus" in Nigeria and I used the name "Chris" in Brixton mainly whilst doing drug deals.
As for what happened in Nigeria. Basically some British agents (Boko Haram) kidnapped an Italian hostage and a British hostage called "Chris" from an Italian oil company working in Nigeria. After Britain making noise about this for years the Nigerian government invited British special forces (Special Boat Squadron) and Royal Marines to to assist with the rescue. They went in today (8/3/12) and somehow the hostages ended up dead.
This of course will make life very difficult for the Ghanaian Kofi Annan as he prepares to visit Syria in the role of United Nations (UN) Special Envoy.
Also at around 23:10 I've also had a few beers and few spliffs (cannabis) and quite a lot of Red Bull (Relentless).
However one thing I can remember is that upon discovering my home Internet was not working I made the following two Tweets (@Sovereignaka) on my cellphone;
"I once went by the name 'Chris' It's a long story I can tell"
and
"At around 18:20 on 8/3/12 my home internet's not working."
Of course the first Tweet should've read: "I once went by the name 'Chris' It's a long story I can't tell"
However I'm sure this related to the killing of an Italian hostage "Franco Lamolina" and British hostage "Chris McManus" in Nigeria and I used the name "Chris" in Brixton mainly whilst doing drug deals.
As for what happened in Nigeria. Basically some British agents (Boko Haram) kidnapped an Italian hostage and a British hostage called "Chris" from an Italian oil company working in Nigeria. After Britain making noise about this for years the Nigerian government invited British special forces (Special Boat Squadron) and Royal Marines to to assist with the rescue. They went in today (8/3/12) and somehow the hostages ended up dead.
This of course will make life very difficult for the Ghanaian Kofi Annan as he prepares to visit Syria in the role of United Nations (UN) Special Envoy.
Also at around 23:10 I've also had a few beers and few spliffs (cannabis) and quite a lot of Red Bull (Relentless).
It's Greek Debt Default Day.
You remember ages ago the European Union (EU) did a vague deal to write off 50% of Greek Sovereign debt. Well the deadline for that vague commitment expired at around 19:00GMT on 8/3/12. The latest report I heard was that 30% of Greek debtors had agreed to write of up to 70% of the Greek debt they hold. Negotiations continue and I'm not expecting a result any time soon.
Basically it's the highest stakes poker game you've ever played and through Al-Jazeera the Qatari's are pressing the French banks to go all in. But that may be a bluff.
You may also have noticed that in the run up to tonight's events there have been some very large explosions in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Brazzaville and I've been summoned to a work interview thingy at the local DWP office. So the reason why the USA shut down my Internet connection at around 17:50 on 8/3/12 was to find out what China's call was on the Greek debt issue.
It is also International Women's Day. However I am yet to witness Hillary Clinton giving women-kind their greatest gift ever and resigning.
Basically it's the highest stakes poker game you've ever played and through Al-Jazeera the Qatari's are pressing the French banks to go all in. But that may be a bluff.
You may also have noticed that in the run up to tonight's events there have been some very large explosions in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Brazzaville and I've been summoned to a work interview thingy at the local DWP office. So the reason why the USA shut down my Internet connection at around 17:50 on 8/3/12 was to find out what China's call was on the Greek debt issue.
It is also International Women's Day. However I am yet to witness Hillary Clinton giving women-kind their greatest gift ever and resigning.
Oh Look 21:45 8/3/12.
My internet's working.
Man U are 1-2 down to Alethetico Bibalo. Does anyon'e know how the Greek's done?
Man U are 1-2 down to Alethetico Bibalo. Does anyon'e know how the Greek's done?
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Thank You And Goodnight.
At around 00:45 on 7/3/12 I'm shutting down the computer and hopefully going to bed.
Super Tuesday Nuts Are We.
Seriously listen to a bit of Chas n' Dave It'll make the next five minutes sound much better because 'round here in Thornton Heath we've had a gypsy panic. Well two gypsies were doing a drive two roads next to mine.
So at around 00:35 on 7/3/12 that's a full blown panic. Imelda May's still not go tit yet.
So at around 00:35 on 7/3/12 that's a full blown panic. Imelda May's still not go tit yet.
So Yeah I've Got the Biggest Crush on Clair Foy.
You may have seen her in "Little Dorrit." "The Promise." "Hacks." or "Upstairs Downstairs."
Either way I'm not ashamed to admit it because at around 00:05 on 7/3/12 it was into "Iron Man" I decided that I need to buy some new headphones because Imelda May's about to get it tonight.
Either way I'm not ashamed to admit it because at around 00:05 on 7/3/12 it was into "Iron Man" I decided that I need to buy some new headphones because Imelda May's about to get it tonight.
I Found Abbey.
Turns out she was wandering around Manchester during the early morning sunshine in episode 2 of series 2 of "Survivors" on BBCHD.
However long before that there was lots of drink and drugs and I must announce that around 23:45 on 6/3/12 my father has gone to bed so I can watch Sky News un-interrupted.
However long before that there was lots of drink and drugs and I must announce that around 23:45 on 6/3/12 my father has gone to bed so I can watch Sky News un-interrupted.
Operation Green.
I kid you not. That was the Nazi's name for their plan to invade Czechoslovakia. However on this Tuesday night (7/3/12) as we sit down to watch the season finale of "Body of Proof" just after an Iranian election I thought that would've been too much.
Anyway it's Tuesday night and I got back from the pub at around 20:00. In the pub I finally checked the sms messages on my phone for the first time in about a month. I then quickly fired off a reply to my mother explaining that while I want to meet up I'm currently so low on energy that even the 10 minute walk to her flat would be a challenge. I finished up by assuring her that I would definitely promise to at least attempt to call her before Saturday.
I then (around 19:22) might have inadvertently provoked a small riot by posting the first of a series of 4 Tweets (@Sovereignaka) from the pub. More words will appear here shortly (20:05)
Edited at around 20:15 on 7/3/12 to add:
I'm still not loving the Twitter. Three of my four Tweets came out OK but the final one failed me. I was trying to make a joke about how my usual Tuesday night pub (The Flora Sandes in Thornton Heath) opened on the same day that Hillary Clinton was born (October 26th). So my last Tweet should've read; "No, not really. The pub's much younger" but instead it came out as "No not really. The star much younger" which makes no sense.
Anyway I've decided that these post-pub postings are more trouble then they're worth. In fact I believe that about a year ago I said I was going to drop them except during important global summits. From next week I would like to re-affirm that sentiment.
Now at around 20:20 I must confess that around 17:40 I got a bit stoned while listening to Jacques Offenbach's "The Can-Can" just as President Obama prepared for his first big speech of the new year. SeriouslyI wish I could make this sh*t up.
Anyway it's Tuesday night and I got back from the pub at around 20:00. In the pub I finally checked the sms messages on my phone for the first time in about a month. I then quickly fired off a reply to my mother explaining that while I want to meet up I'm currently so low on energy that even the 10 minute walk to her flat would be a challenge. I finished up by assuring her that I would definitely promise to at least attempt to call her before Saturday.
I then (around 19:22) might have inadvertently provoked a small riot by posting the first of a series of 4 Tweets (@Sovereignaka) from the pub. More words will appear here shortly (20:05)
Edited at around 20:15 on 7/3/12 to add:
I'm still not loving the Twitter. Three of my four Tweets came out OK but the final one failed me. I was trying to make a joke about how my usual Tuesday night pub (The Flora Sandes in Thornton Heath) opened on the same day that Hillary Clinton was born (October 26th). So my last Tweet should've read; "No, not really. The pub's much younger" but instead it came out as "No not really. The star much younger" which makes no sense.
Anyway I've decided that these post-pub postings are more trouble then they're worth. In fact I believe that about a year ago I said I was going to drop them except during important global summits. From next week I would like to re-affirm that sentiment.
Now at around 20:20 I must confess that around 17:40 I got a bit stoned while listening to Jacques Offenbach's "The Can-Can" just as President Obama prepared for his first big speech of the new year. SeriouslyI wish I could make this sh*t up.
Operation Ostrava: Month 1, Week 4, Day 4.
The Czech Republic's third largest city is the name I've given to the current situation in Syria. The date refers to Saturday February 4th 2012 (4/2/12) when Russia and China vetoed the proposed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Syria.
Back in 1930's Germany there was a very unpleasant man called Adolf Hitler. In response to an economic crisis his Nazi Party were given a seat in a German government of national unity. However due to restrictions placed on the German military by the international community the Nazi Party's twin militias - the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schuzstaffel (SS) - were quickly able to oust the coalition government and install the Nazi Party as the sole, legitimate representative of the German people. Almost immediately Nazi Germany began supplying weapons and technical support to political insurgents in neighbouring Austria who wanted to liberate themselves from the oppression of the Austrian government. The Austrian insurgents used those weapons to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks that led to a civil war and eventually saw the insurgents take power in a military coup in March 1938. Days later the insurgents welcomed in the German Nazis with open arms and the Adolf Hitler became the sole, legitimate representative of the Austrian people too.
Boosted by this early success Nazi Germany began supplying weapons and technical support to insurgents in what was then Czechoslovakia. Again these insurgents used the weapons to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks that forced the Czech army to move into the border regions to restore order amid wild allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses. On Hitler's instructions the insurgents issued the Carlsbad Decrees which called on the Czech government to set up safe havens along the border with Germany in which the insurgents could exercise political freedom and rule themselves in accordance with Nazi principles. While the Czech government was considering adopting the Carlsbad Decrees the insurgents provoked the Czech security forces into attacking a demonstration in Ostrava on September 7th 1938 (7/9/38). Hitler used this incident to demand that the international community allow him to invade Czechoslovakia in order to prevent the slaughter of civilians. The international community in the form of the League of Nations was powerless to stop him and in October 1938 Edvard Bene's government fell leaving Adolf Hitler as the sole, legitimate representative of the Czechoslovakian people.
In September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland leading to the effective collapse of the League of Nations and six years of total war across four continents that saw the Nazi Holocaust and the dropping of two atomic bombs. As a result the founding principle of the successor to the League of Nations - the United Nations is that no nation may proactively interfere militarily with the political affairs of another nation. That is the principle that is under threat when people call for intervention in Syria.
Back in 1930's Germany there was a very unpleasant man called Adolf Hitler. In response to an economic crisis his Nazi Party were given a seat in a German government of national unity. However due to restrictions placed on the German military by the international community the Nazi Party's twin militias - the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schuzstaffel (SS) - were quickly able to oust the coalition government and install the Nazi Party as the sole, legitimate representative of the German people. Almost immediately Nazi Germany began supplying weapons and technical support to political insurgents in neighbouring Austria who wanted to liberate themselves from the oppression of the Austrian government. The Austrian insurgents used those weapons to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks that led to a civil war and eventually saw the insurgents take power in a military coup in March 1938. Days later the insurgents welcomed in the German Nazis with open arms and the Adolf Hitler became the sole, legitimate representative of the Austrian people too.
Boosted by this early success Nazi Germany began supplying weapons and technical support to insurgents in what was then Czechoslovakia. Again these insurgents used the weapons to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks that forced the Czech army to move into the border regions to restore order amid wild allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses. On Hitler's instructions the insurgents issued the Carlsbad Decrees which called on the Czech government to set up safe havens along the border with Germany in which the insurgents could exercise political freedom and rule themselves in accordance with Nazi principles. While the Czech government was considering adopting the Carlsbad Decrees the insurgents provoked the Czech security forces into attacking a demonstration in Ostrava on September 7th 1938 (7/9/38). Hitler used this incident to demand that the international community allow him to invade Czechoslovakia in order to prevent the slaughter of civilians. The international community in the form of the League of Nations was powerless to stop him and in October 1938 Edvard Bene's government fell leaving Adolf Hitler as the sole, legitimate representative of the Czechoslovakian people.
In September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland leading to the effective collapse of the League of Nations and six years of total war across four continents that saw the Nazi Holocaust and the dropping of two atomic bombs. As a result the founding principle of the successor to the League of Nations - the United Nations is that no nation may proactively interfere militarily with the political affairs of another nation. That is the principle that is under threat when people call for intervention in Syria.
Monday 5 March 2012
That's a Bit Annoying.
After realising how far behind I'd got with events in Libya I tried to spend yesterday (4/2/12) catching up on that and other things. One of the main sources I've been using to find out about what has been happening in Libya is the Feb17.info website. This US backed project was set up shortly after the Feb 17th revolution and was used to disseminate pro-rebel propaganda in order to generate support for foreign military intervention. However following the fall of Qaddafi it took on a new role aggregating news about Libya - both good and bad - from around the Internet.
I thought this would be a useful resource to continue up until at least June's election. However the people running the site clearly disagreed and it was shut down on it's first anniversary because now the war drums are beating for Syria we've all got to forget about the problems that post-intervention Libya still faces.
I thought this would be a useful resource to continue up until at least June's election. However the people running the site clearly disagreed and it was shut down on it's first anniversary because now the war drums are beating for Syria we've all got to forget about the problems that post-intervention Libya still faces.
Sunday 4 March 2012
Operation Oil Theft: Month 12, Week 3 , Day 1.
With my Internet connection not working last week and my brain not really working this week I have little idea what's been happening in Libya. So instead I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about Syria instead.
Yesterday (3/3/12) the Syrian foreign ministry sent letters to the United Nations Secretary General and the Chair of the United Nations Security Council accusing foreign powers of arming the insurgents and accusing the insurgents of using those weapons to kill civilians in order to make it look as though the Syrian government are carrying out massacres. These accusations are not without basis.
On Friday (2/3/12) Syrian insurgents claimed that the Syrian army attacked a peaceful protest with mortars killing 13 in the Al-Rastan district of Homs. They released this video to support their claims; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIzvPddKL4&feature=related It shows a protest in a barn/industrial building when suddenly an airborne object with an exhaust trail enters the building in the top left of the screen. People then rush out of the building and the camera pans towards the back of the building where presumably the camera operator saw the object land. You can seen one or possibly two building lying on the ground presumably injured.
Now I'm not a weapons expert but I'm assuming the type of mortar that's alleged to be being used is closer to a M1937 82mm type mortar rather then a much larger M43 160mm mortar. You can see a similar US 81mm being used in Iraq in this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TS09c0HGYg As you can see when the mortar bomb hits it's target it does so without an exhaust trail and falls almost vertically as nothing but gravity pulls it to the the target. The mortar bomb also generates a lot of smoke and flame as it explodes. By contrast the object in the Syrian video is moving more horizontally with an exhaust trail and doesn't seem to produce any explosion. Therefore the only thing I can think it is is a RPG-7 which can be seen here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ZS2PFQ6p4 which fails to detonate either because it's faulty or because the firer failed to pull the priming pin.
The only problem is that the RPG-7 only has an effective range of around 300m and there weren't any Syrian soldiers that close to Al-Rastan at the time of the incident. So either the other residents of Al-Rastan had decided they'd had enough of the insurgents and opened fire on them or the insurgents opened fire on their own protest in order to create an atrocity.
Oh and the one thing I do know about Libya is that today (5/3/12) video has emerged showing British world war two war graves in Benghazi being desecrated. I know this because the story is on the front page of almost every British newspaper. What's happened is quite obvious - British agents in Benghazi have desecrated some war graves in order to pressurises Libya's NTC into dialogue. Since the fall of Qaddafi the NTC have upset the British by trying to run the new Libya for the benefit of the Libyans rather then British oil companies which was not the original plan so they need a jolly good talking too.
Yesterday (3/3/12) the Syrian foreign ministry sent letters to the United Nations Secretary General and the Chair of the United Nations Security Council accusing foreign powers of arming the insurgents and accusing the insurgents of using those weapons to kill civilians in order to make it look as though the Syrian government are carrying out massacres. These accusations are not without basis.
On Friday (2/3/12) Syrian insurgents claimed that the Syrian army attacked a peaceful protest with mortars killing 13 in the Al-Rastan district of Homs. They released this video to support their claims; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIzvPddKL4&feature=related It shows a protest in a barn/industrial building when suddenly an airborne object with an exhaust trail enters the building in the top left of the screen. People then rush out of the building and the camera pans towards the back of the building where presumably the camera operator saw the object land. You can seen one or possibly two building lying on the ground presumably injured.
Now I'm not a weapons expert but I'm assuming the type of mortar that's alleged to be being used is closer to a M1937 82mm type mortar rather then a much larger M43 160mm mortar. You can see a similar US 81mm being used in Iraq in this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TS09c0HGYg As you can see when the mortar bomb hits it's target it does so without an exhaust trail and falls almost vertically as nothing but gravity pulls it to the the target. The mortar bomb also generates a lot of smoke and flame as it explodes. By contrast the object in the Syrian video is moving more horizontally with an exhaust trail and doesn't seem to produce any explosion. Therefore the only thing I can think it is is a RPG-7 which can be seen here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ZS2PFQ6p4 which fails to detonate either because it's faulty or because the firer failed to pull the priming pin.
The only problem is that the RPG-7 only has an effective range of around 300m and there weren't any Syrian soldiers that close to Al-Rastan at the time of the incident. So either the other residents of Al-Rastan had decided they'd had enough of the insurgents and opened fire on them or the insurgents opened fire on their own protest in order to create an atrocity.
Oh and the one thing I do know about Libya is that today (5/3/12) video has emerged showing British world war two war graves in Benghazi being desecrated. I know this because the story is on the front page of almost every British newspaper. What's happened is quite obvious - British agents in Benghazi have desecrated some war graves in order to pressurises Libya's NTC into dialogue. Since the fall of Qaddafi the NTC have upset the British by trying to run the new Libya for the benefit of the Libyans rather then British oil companies which was not the original plan so they need a jolly good talking too.
Friday 2 March 2012
I Thought the Red Cross Were Supposed to be Neutral.
Clearly I was mistaken though because the head of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has spent most of today (2/3/12) briefing against the Syrian government for not allowing a ICRC convoy into the Baba Amr district of Homs. The thing is that the Baba Amr district is still a combat zone that the Syrian army only entered around 24 hours ago so they probably just want another 12-24 hours to lock everything down before they let every Tom, Dick and Harry wander around.
It's also worth noting that the Syrian government aren't under any obligation to let the Red Cross in anywhere. They are under an obligation to provide civilians with humanitarian aid but they most certainly don't have to let a bunch of partisan foreigners deliver it. So if the ICRC are really that concerned about the people of Syria perhaps they should drop the politics and let the Syrian government deliver the aid.
It's also worth noting that the Syrian government aren't under any obligation to let the Red Cross in anywhere. They are under an obligation to provide civilians with humanitarian aid but they most certainly don't have to let a bunch of partisan foreigners deliver it. So if the ICRC are really that concerned about the people of Syria perhaps they should drop the politics and let the Syrian government deliver the aid.
How's This For a Weird One?
The day after I had dinner with my brother on February 14th I woke up covered in more then a dozen flea bites. As we don't keep pets in the house and I hadn't been near an animal in about three months this was very unusual. Then there was a spate of stories about flea or tick borne diseases from questions about Lyme disease in the House of Lords to the panic about the Schmallenberg out break and advisory briefings being sent out to UK rambling associations.
So what's the betting that in a variation of an old Soviet surveillance trick infected the fabric seats in the pub with fleas to provoke a dramatic discussion about my current lethargy and apathy. The answer to that is of course much more prosaic. After all I've got more then enough reasons to be depressed and the cocktail of psychotropic drugs probably haven't helped.
So what's the betting that in a variation of an old Soviet surveillance trick infected the fabric seats in the pub with fleas to provoke a dramatic discussion about my current lethargy and apathy. The answer to that is of course much more prosaic. After all I've got more then enough reasons to be depressed and the cocktail of psychotropic drugs probably haven't helped.
Thursday 1 March 2012
Syria Latest.
Overnight (29/2/12 - 1/3/12) Syrian ground forces moved into the Baba Amr district of Homs. The insurgents say that they've tactically withdrawn i.e fled the area and the Syrian army say they are in full control. Now they have control of the area the Syrian government in preparing to allow the International Red Cross/Crescent in to deliver humanitarian aid. The detail that everyone is trying to avoid mentioning is that the Syrian army claim that they've captured French military advisers in the operation and the whisper I've heard is that that is true.
The Olympics Are Coming.
There are just 148 days until the start of the 2012 Olympics in London and final preparations are being made to the security plan. The terrorism aspect of that plan has been covered by all the recent war games in London so now attention has turned to the issue of protest.
On Tuesday (28/2/12) evening Len McLuskey the head to the Unite trade union allegedly called on his members to engage in direct action and civil disobedience during the Olympics to protest against government spending cuts. This gave the Prime Minister the perfect opportunity at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (29/2/12) to loudly and publicly condemn Mr McLuskey's comments and in doing so send out the message that Britain has no plans to see the Olympics disrupted by protests. This message was reinforced by the US announcement that the North Koreans had given up their nuclear intentions. This of course may be a bit of a bluff because the way changes to the compulsory work experience were reported seemed to be encouraging protesters by giving them the illusion of victory.
Oh and today (1/3/12) former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry of his role in the investigation of the phone hacking scandal. Of course he had to give his evidence via videolink because he's currently on secondment to Bahrain helping them put down their revolution.
On Tuesday (28/2/12) evening Len McLuskey the head to the Unite trade union allegedly called on his members to engage in direct action and civil disobedience during the Olympics to protest against government spending cuts. This gave the Prime Minister the perfect opportunity at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (29/2/12) to loudly and publicly condemn Mr McLuskey's comments and in doing so send out the message that Britain has no plans to see the Olympics disrupted by protests. This message was reinforced by the US announcement that the North Koreans had given up their nuclear intentions. This of course may be a bit of a bluff because the way changes to the compulsory work experience were reported seemed to be encouraging protesters by giving them the illusion of victory.
Oh and today (1/3/12) former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry of his role in the investigation of the phone hacking scandal. Of course he had to give his evidence via videolink because he's currently on secondment to Bahrain helping them put down their revolution.
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