With only the finals of the wheelchair rugby and the wheelchair basketball to take place tomorrow along with the marathon the para-Olympics have certainly been winding down. As a result there have been a series of small niggly issues rather then anything major. On the plus side it gives me the opportunity to talk about some actual sport.
After being beaten by Alan Olivera in the men's 200m and by Jonnie Peacock in the men's 100m Oscar Pistorious - probably the most famous para-Olympian ever - finally won an individual Gold medal after winning the men's T44 men's 400m by a margin of about a week. Israel's Noam Gershony won the Gold in the men's tennis. If you're not familiar with Gershony's back story he was a pilot in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) whose helicopter was shot-down during the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah. The only survivor of the crash Gershony took up tennis as a way to come to terms with being paralysed in the crash. As tennis is very much seen as the sport of the Gulf Monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Qatar etc) this victory could be interpreted as the Olympic family showing support for Israel's non-interventionist approach to Syria as opposed to the Gulf Monarchy's violent interventionist approach because what's going on in Syria and Lebanon now makes the 2006 war look like childs play. Of course that and the fact the Gershony is actually very good at tennis. I should also take a moment to mention TeamGB's T54 distance er, runner David Weir who will compete in tomorrow's marathon. I've not mentioned him before because as a general rule if I've seen someone doing well out of pure athletic ability I've decided it's not really in my purview and ignored it. Weir has done really well though winning Golds in the 800m, 1500m and 5000m so I think he should at least get a mention.
One political thing that no-one at the Olympic park could have failed to notice is that as you looked out across the Olympic Stadium from the media centre there was a thick black cloud of smoke rising behind the stadium giving the impression that it was on fire. It wasn't. What was on fire was a community centre in the Denmark Hill area of south London. As this makes up part of my old Brixton/Camberwell/Peckham stomping ground this was designed to promote discussion about my activities in that part of the world because the Brits seem very disappointed that I'm not longer an active member of community. Of course the fact it was a community centre also promotes discussion about the effect British government spending cuts are having on these sort of community projects including the sports clubs where many of our Olympians began.
The latest from the French Squirt story is that French police have arrived in Surrey, UK to search the al-Hilli family home and interview friends and relatives. As Surrey police have been suggested as a police force to mount an investigation in to the Metropolitan Police's misconduct in my grandmother's case in the slower version of the story the French were hoping that this would be seen as them helping with that investigation and raising the point that we might now be requiring an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation. Highlighting the differences in reporting between the British and French press the French are talking excitedly about two mobile phones that were found in the al-Hilli family BMW while the British are quite happily talking about the fact that the French are looking for two suspected hit men. The fact that a lost Renoir has been found at a flea market in the USA certainly tells you that I'm not the only one think that the artists responsible are French. Rather proving my point that France were hoping to use the incident to promote discussion about Private Military Security Contractors (PMSC) like G4S and Defence Systems Limited (DSL) David Simpson - a British pilot - has returned home to the UK after being freed from prison in the Central African Republic (CAR) where he was being held after being convicted of carrying out a Lords Resistance Army (Josef Kony) style massacre of 13 gold miners. Although I don't know the specifics of the case I think this was the CAR trying to start a discussion about something known as the "Increment." Although it may well be an urban legend the story goes that after Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) got all famous by ending the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege Britain could no longer use them for highly covert and highly illegal black operations. So to solve this they started weeding out promising candidates at the basic training stage of their military careers and dishonourably discharging serving soldiers. These soldiers were then given secret special forces training and placed with PMSC's like DSL. With no links whatsoever to the British government these soldiers could then been dispersed across the globe and brought together when Britain needed some dirty business like Libya doing. Their name (Inc for short) is meant to be a reference to the fac they're trained to an increment above special forces.
23:45 on 8/9/12.
Edited at around 23:55 on 8/9/12 to add;
Most of today's stuff has actually come out of the USA starting with an UFC (cage fighter) who has pleaded not guilty by way of insanity after cutting out a friend's vital organs causing him to die while the pair had been taking magic mushrooms. The raises questions about the legal defence of insanity because under the British definition the principle of concurrent operation means that because the man knowingly took a drug that he knew would cause insanity he is still responsible for his actions in that state of insanity. However as I think it is unlikely that the man will be taking magic mushrooms ever again this also raises questions about the Vengeance versus Rehabilitation argument that was raised on Thursday(6/9/12) in the story of British Judge Peter Bowers. As the man is extremely unlikely to commit the offence again the rehabilitation school thinks that despite being found guilty (if he is found guilty) he should not be punished further. The vengeance school thinks that the man will have to be punished in order to avenge the victim's death. The fact that the maximum sentence is 50 years should tell you that the US is big into the vengeance school of thought. Also in the US a man was arrested on a sailing boat off the Californian coast after running away with his two children in a divorce/custody dispute. This obviously promotes discussion about child custody disputes which are often one of the most difficult issues that courts have to deal with and there are many arguments how best to deal with them. For example western societies tend to favour the mother while Islamic societies always favour the father. One example of this difference has been the case of Adam Jones a 13 year old boy who has been at the centre of a custody battle between his British mother and his Qatari father. Obviously this is a story that has been cooked up by the Brits and the Qataris as a metaphor for me. Basically it's Britain blaming it's treatment of me on the Qataris but at various points Britain has also blamed the USA, Israel, Italy, France and Germany so I think they're just working their way though the list. This story also touches on why the Brits think Rihanna is a US spy. Due to post-9/11 immigration rules Rihanna cannot get US citizenship unless she gives up her Bajan citizenship meaning that if she wants to work in the US she's got to keep re-applying for visas and this is quite a famous way for governments to get people to do what they want. Of course this US immigration policy stands alone as an argument because it affects lots of other people including London Mayor Boris Johnson who was born in the US but can't take citizenship because that would mean giving up his British citizenship ruling him out as London Mayor.
Another US story is that a police man accidentally shot a shop worker who was trying to escape a robbery when the two men collided in a doorway causing the police officers gun to go off accidentally. The shooting element of the story is a reference to the Mark Duggan shooting that sparked off the August 2011 riots because while no-one is disputing that the first round the police fired was fired accidentally there are certain things you can do to guns to make it much more likely they will go off accidentally. I think the point that was being made was that no matter who they try and blame it was Britain itself which played the largest role in causing the riots. The shop part of the story is a reference to the "Mind in Croydon (MiC)" charity shop/mental health rehabilitation project I used to work in which I dubbed 'the Bargain store' (after the Dolly Parton song) during the Olympics. This has provoked furious debate with the Queen of England advertising for a specialist to help fix her old, broken clocks with a suggested salary of GBP30,000. Prince Charles has also weighed in suggesting/ordering that the new James Bond film makes a donation to charity that helps former employees of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Sadly though I doubt I can make any future contributions to charity until the Lord Chancellor gives his permission.
Elsewhere back in Britain authorities have issued a warning about a drug that's supposed to aid sun-tanning called Melonotan after a women in Bolton died after injecting the drug. As the woman is supposed to have brought the drug over the Internet this is a way to start a discussion about the best way to prevent the sale of drugs over the Internet although if the practice was legalised the quality of the drugs available would increase reducing the risk. Also junior health minister Ann Sorby has said that she supports the right to die talked about so much in the Tony Nicklinson story. As the right in question there was really the right to free expression/speech the hope was that Ms Sorby's comments would be interpreted as support for the people who booed senior health minister Jeremy Hunt at the Olympics on Friday (7/9/12). That would lead to people think there were splits within the department of health over NHS reforms. There may well be splits and differences of opinion but it doesn't matter because the controversial reforms contained in the Health and Social Care Act 2011 have already been done.
23:59 on 8/9/12.
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