Operation Misery: Day 6.

Yesterday (10/3/13) Rihanna was supposed to have performed the third concert of her Diamonds tour in Baltimore, US. However as previously discussed at great length she was forced to cancel due to illness.

Today the heir to the UK throne Prince Charles began a diplomatic tour of the Gulf nations beginning with a visit to a camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan. This along with the visit by the Russian Foreign Minister to the UK and British claims that they will circumvent the European Union (EU) arms embargo to supply the Syrian rebels (Saudi/Qatari Irregular Army, SQIA) with weapons is the UK trying to speed up the overthrow of the Syrian government. According to some reports in return for these efforts Qatar is going to give Britain around USD14bn to help re-start it's stalled economy. France is also said to be considering supplying the SQIA with weapons. However given the situation in Mali I would think they're saying that for very different reasons then the UK.

Although the US still wants to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government they want to be able to control the process in order to control what replaces the Syrian government. Therefore they are desperately trying to slow down Assad's fall and are made very nervous about any attempts the speed it up. As such they've today put in a slew of efforts - that should have included Rihanna's concert - to put pressure on all concerned to find how successful the UK's efforts on Syria are being.

Lead amongst these is the start of what has become known as the Steubenville rape trial. Named after the Ohio town where it's all going on this case revolves around two High School football players who are accused of raping a drunk 16 year old girl who comes from Chris Brown's home state of West Virginia. What makes the case standout though is that the alleged rape took place at a house party where it was extensively photographed and filmed by a large number of onlookers. Initially the local police refused to prosecute anyone over the crime and it's widely believed that many more people should also be on trial. This has obviously promoted a lot of heated debate about police in the US' attitude to violence against women and how people can just stand there and watch someone being raped and abused but not do anything to stop it. Therefore the case is a metaphor for Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion especially the incident in the New York nightclub in October 2012 which is triable as a rape offence.

Also there has been the news that fan letters sent to the US popstar Taylor Swift have been found dumped in the trash. This is supposed to raise speculation that Rihanna hasn't been in contact with me because she's thrown away the card I sent her with my phone number on it. Of course this also raises questions about who knows what was on that card. However I think we all know that Rihanna and her people have most certainly not lost my phone number. If it were true though and if by someone miracle Rihanna would actually want to talk to me in light of the above paragraph the solution is simple. Someone at the UK division of Rihanna's record company simply buy another phone and deliver it to me. After all with the work I'm doing for them they should really be paying me.

The US play I'm finding the most interesting though is the shooting of four people and subsequent manhunt in around the villages Herkimer and Mohawk, New York state. I find it interesting because although it touches on a wide variety of topics it doesn't seem to a have a particular point. Obviously being a mass shooting incident which put local schools on lockdown it touches on the current debate in the US about gun control and all the issues included in that very large topic.

Also the initial shooting took place at a barbers shop and a Mohawk is a type of hairstyle so the US are clearly pushing the issue of haircuts. A 'haircut' is a slang term for losing money on a financial transaction so that reference could apply to any financial transaction anywhere in the world ever although the term 'haircut' gets used a lot in reference to the Eurozone debt crisis. Alternatively I said recently that people have suggested that the Rihanna song "Man Down" is about me. What I actually meant was that people at my barbers have suggested it. It would be interesting to see who'd heard that particular story.

Finally the village of Mohawk along with the Mohawk river it sits on the banks of takes it's name from the Mohawk tribe of Native Americans. One significant element of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that was passed in the US recently was that it extends to protections of the act to include Native Americans specifically. Therefore the shootings also touch on the issues of violence against women and domestic violence which is sadly is all Rihanna seems to be famous for these days.

Mainly though I think the Mohawk shooting is just intended to be a spinner. That's a story that contains lots of twists and turns but ultimately doesn't go anywhere in an effort to confuse and annoy people.

As for Rihanna herself she yesterday added 6 dates to the Diamonds tour in Australia and New Zealand in September 2013. Hopefully she will use the month or so between the end of the European leg and those dates to take a rest.

After all we're all pretty much just sitting here waiting for the announcement that tomorrow's concert in Philadelphia is also cancelled due to ill health.

23:50 on 13/3/13.