Now that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has ended and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has passed a resolution on Syria's chemical weapons the hyper-politics associated with this third and final leg of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour has eased significantly. For example the secrecy associated with Rihanna's island hopping through South-East Asia was not only intended to test out China's ability to track Rihanna's movements but also to what extent this information was being shared between China and Russia. After all Russia is the name more commonly used to describe North-East Asia. Also the concerns about Rihanna's whereabouts and welfare whilst she was in Australia put a huge degree of pressure on the Australian delegation to come up with answers during the UNGA and their presidency of the UNSC.
This easing of the pressure seems to have played a part in Rihanna putting on a very strong concert in Melbourne, Australia today. The big shock of the concert it that Rihanna took to the stage exactly on time at 21:00 (local) not even putting fans through the normal 15-20 minute delay that I actually think help adds to the excitement. Rihanna then worked her way through the usual set-list and costume changes. As always I will have to watch the videos before vouching personally for the quality of the performance but the early reviews are talking about this being Rihanna's strongest performance of this leg of the tour. There are though the usual complaints about the material not really doing the artist justice. All the information I'm working from of course comes from unofficial sources because Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) are still adamantly sticking to their information blackout. This is of course being completely and commendably ignored by the Australian media who have really being putting the effort in.
The strong performance from Rihanna is actually likely to upset the management because once again they've been playing the trick of flying Rihanna from Brisbane to Melbourne just before the concert was supposed to start in an effort to unsettle her leading to a poor performance. Although on this occasion that effort has failed spectacularly it does give me the opportunity to talk about this sleep thing which I think has been in danger of getting blown out of all proportion. While if like anybody else Rihanna is forced to go for long periods without sleep it will quite quickly lead to noticeable psychological problems such as paranoia and irritability simply scheduling things like travelling, promoting new singles/projects and performing for roughly the same time everyday means that Rihanna will get into a routine where she's naturally tired at certain times of the day and naturally wide awake at others. What Rihanna does in her free time when she's wide awake is really up to her although if she doesn't get to sleep when she's tired I doubt Rihanna will be in much of a mood to do anything.
Finally Rihanna has been teasing the imminent release of "Pour it Up" as a single. The is of course the song that was meant to be released over the summer in order to trash Rihanna's reputation with her singing about how much she likes spending her fans money on getting drunk and partying while turning up late for shows and helping to tear apart much of Africa particularly Mali. Fortunately arguments with the video director delayed the release of Pour it Up as a single and things have run rather smoothly in Africa over the summer. However the rumoured release has started to put people on edge. This has been particularly noticeable in Mali where on Saturday (28/9/13) Islamists set off a car bomb outside a military base in Timbuktu marking the first Islamist attack since the completion of the fullscale combat phase of the French military operation in the country. On Sunday (29/9/13) Tuaregs mounted a gun attack on military positions in Kidal triggering fighting that is still going on. This marks the first Tuareg attack on Malian forces since the signing of a peace accord that the Tuaregs have since withdraw from.
Fortunately these all seems relatively minor at this point with the Islamist attack seeming amateurish and showing no signs of more organised Al Qaeda involvement. Also the Nigerian decision to fight their Islamists at home rather then joining the Mali peacekeeping force means that the focus of the fight against Islamists in West Africa has largely shifted to northern Nigeria rather then Mali. Although this shift has seen 50 killed in an attack on a college in Yobe state on Sunday (29/9/13) and at least 159 killed in a series of roadside ambushes in Borno state the previous week the Nigerian government is significantly stronger and more able to deal with these type of attacks then the Malian so I would say that the Nigerians and their neighbours have been very fortunate to have Goodluck Jonathan as President. Hopefully though everybody can try to remain calm and the Tuaregs in particular can refrain from combat operations at least until this Islamist problem is dealt with.
14:55 on 30/9/13 (UK date).
Monday 30 September 2013
Let's Focus on Me.
After all it's clearly far more exciting then all this Diamonds World Tour nonsense.
Basically I'm having a bit of a busy day catching up on all the stuff I put on hold due to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Syria thing. So today I got up early to make an appointment to see my GP. Fortunately I was able to get an appointment straight away. The consultation was all pretty routine with my prescription renewed. The only thing is my GP wants to send me for liver and thyroid function tests. However as the results of the heart tests that were ordered back in like February haven't turned up yet I don't think we'll be making that a priority.
The second thing I've been trying to do is respond to my lawyer over this legal aid issue. Basically they've asked me to sign a new application form because they filled in the last one incorrectly. As this seems such an elementary mistake I'm assuming it's just the law firm creating an excuse to get in touch with me because it would be unwise for them to treat this as just another case. So I tried giving them a call but got voicemail so followed it up with an email. Apart from the legal aid form I want to see if they can send me out copies of the case file and witness statements so I can read through them in order to prepare my defence by detailing the large number of significant inconsistencies they contain. If they don't get back to me I'll just send the paperwork back to them although I could actually just make the legal aid application myself.
The only thing of interest is that my lawyers claim they've been trying to call me on my Blackberry but the calls have not been connecting. This seems to be a very deliberate attempt by the security services to make sure that I don't talk to my lawyer on my Blackberry. That's because attorney/client privilege means that if I'm talking to my lawyer on my Blackberry they cannot bug it. So basically I'll be continuing to use my Blackberry to talk to my lawyer. If the security services want to continue the phone-tap they can always drop the malicious, politically motivated and unwinnable prosecution.
13:30 on 30/9/13.
Basically I'm having a bit of a busy day catching up on all the stuff I put on hold due to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Syria thing. So today I got up early to make an appointment to see my GP. Fortunately I was able to get an appointment straight away. The consultation was all pretty routine with my prescription renewed. The only thing is my GP wants to send me for liver and thyroid function tests. However as the results of the heart tests that were ordered back in like February haven't turned up yet I don't think we'll be making that a priority.
The second thing I've been trying to do is respond to my lawyer over this legal aid issue. Basically they've asked me to sign a new application form because they filled in the last one incorrectly. As this seems such an elementary mistake I'm assuming it's just the law firm creating an excuse to get in touch with me because it would be unwise for them to treat this as just another case. So I tried giving them a call but got voicemail so followed it up with an email. Apart from the legal aid form I want to see if they can send me out copies of the case file and witness statements so I can read through them in order to prepare my defence by detailing the large number of significant inconsistencies they contain. If they don't get back to me I'll just send the paperwork back to them although I could actually just make the legal aid application myself.
The only thing of interest is that my lawyers claim they've been trying to call me on my Blackberry but the calls have not been connecting. This seems to be a very deliberate attempt by the security services to make sure that I don't talk to my lawyer on my Blackberry. That's because attorney/client privilege means that if I'm talking to my lawyer on my Blackberry they cannot bug it. So basically I'll be continuing to use my Blackberry to talk to my lawyer. If the security services want to continue the phone-tap they can always drop the malicious, politically motivated and unwinnable prosecution.
13:30 on 30/9/13.
Saturday 28 September 2013
The UNSC Resolution on Syria's Chemical Weapons.
In the very early hours of this morning the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted resolution UNSC 2118(2013) on Syria's chemical weapons program. The reason that this resolution was able to pass unanimously is that in terms of Syria's chemical weapons it is completely meaningless. The resolution only requires that Syria complies with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and that the OPCW reports any violations back to the UNSC for discussion. This is the standard framework laid out in the 1993 Convention of Chemical Weapons that Syria has voluntarily joined meaning all that the UNSC has done is announce that it has no intention of altering the 1993 convention which answers the question nobody had asked.
Therefore the UNSC vote and the diplomacy leading up to was much more about the UK - acting as an agent of Saudi Arabia and Qatar - forcing itself into a discussion it had no place in. Having forced itself into the discussion the UK then used the spectacle of a UNSC vote to reassert its dominance by mounting another vicious attack against largely me personally. The idea was that the stress of the vote would combine with the broadcast on UK TV of a two week old interview with Rihanna and few other things to turn me into something of a nervous wreck. Therefore the UK would be able to gain prestige by showing itself to be the all powerful puppet master.
Although the UNSC resolution is utterly superfluous to the situation regarding Syria's chemical weapons that does not mean there were not winners and losers in the diplomacy. The biggest losers are of the US and Russia - ironically the two nations that sponsored the plan.
The US are big losers because they've just committed themselves to at least a year of complex diplomacy on the issue in which any Syrian refusal to an OPCW request no matter how reasonable or any rumour of chemical weapons being moved or hidden no matter how false will take on the intensity that the original August 21st chemical weapons use generated. The UK has already positioned itself to make this as rough a road as possible by donating some USD3million to the OPCW in the hope of buying influence to make the OPCW rule things violations that need to go to the UNSC. Then if Syria's chemical weapons are destroyed the US will then come under intense diplomatic pressure to allow Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply larger quantities of ever more powerful conventional weapons to the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA). Based on their current track record the US will inevitably cave to this pressure meaning that the Syrian government will be over thrown leaving the US to deal with the fall out of a failed state and its knock on security impacts on Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to name but a few. Added to that the Saudi and Qatari Irregulars will quickly redeploy to carry out the same trick in another Middle-Eastern or African nation most likely Egypt.
The Russians are big losers because it won't take long for their international allies to look beyond all the anti-US Imperialist banner waving to realise that Russia has sold a long time ally down the river in order to secure that banner. The Russians have also signed up for at least a year of complex diplomacy and based on their efforts so far Russian diplomats are nowhere near as slick or as clever as they think they are. Finally if Russia is to prevent the overthrow of the Syrian government it is going to have to spend a lot of time very publicly playing the bad guy vetoing UNSC resolutions and explaining why Syria is perfectly entitled to break its obligations under the 1993 Convention. This is not going to lead to many of the happy photo-opportunities Sergei Lavrov was clearly craving in his address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
The almost impossible situation the US has played itself into on this issue is highlighted by the OPCW's insistence that they will not start work on establishing a timetable for the destruction of chemical weapons until November 15th 2013. This is also the date that Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour is scheduled to come to an end in New Orleans, US. Therefore the 41 nations of the OPCW seem to be sending the message that they will not be co-operating with the US until the US ends its Rihanna operation. This is a huge problem for the US because unless Chris Brown's restraining order is reinstated and something dramatic is done to alter Rihanna's current trajectory - both things that represent a massive climb down for the US - it could be considered that the Rihanna operation is being continued in an effort to delay the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. That is something that's going to make everybody p*ssed off at the US including the small group of nations that support the Rihanna operation.
17:30 on 28/9/13.
Therefore the UNSC vote and the diplomacy leading up to was much more about the UK - acting as an agent of Saudi Arabia and Qatar - forcing itself into a discussion it had no place in. Having forced itself into the discussion the UK then used the spectacle of a UNSC vote to reassert its dominance by mounting another vicious attack against largely me personally. The idea was that the stress of the vote would combine with the broadcast on UK TV of a two week old interview with Rihanna and few other things to turn me into something of a nervous wreck. Therefore the UK would be able to gain prestige by showing itself to be the all powerful puppet master.
Although the UNSC resolution is utterly superfluous to the situation regarding Syria's chemical weapons that does not mean there were not winners and losers in the diplomacy. The biggest losers are of the US and Russia - ironically the two nations that sponsored the plan.
The US are big losers because they've just committed themselves to at least a year of complex diplomacy on the issue in which any Syrian refusal to an OPCW request no matter how reasonable or any rumour of chemical weapons being moved or hidden no matter how false will take on the intensity that the original August 21st chemical weapons use generated. The UK has already positioned itself to make this as rough a road as possible by donating some USD3million to the OPCW in the hope of buying influence to make the OPCW rule things violations that need to go to the UNSC. Then if Syria's chemical weapons are destroyed the US will then come under intense diplomatic pressure to allow Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply larger quantities of ever more powerful conventional weapons to the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA). Based on their current track record the US will inevitably cave to this pressure meaning that the Syrian government will be over thrown leaving the US to deal with the fall out of a failed state and its knock on security impacts on Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to name but a few. Added to that the Saudi and Qatari Irregulars will quickly redeploy to carry out the same trick in another Middle-Eastern or African nation most likely Egypt.
The Russians are big losers because it won't take long for their international allies to look beyond all the anti-US Imperialist banner waving to realise that Russia has sold a long time ally down the river in order to secure that banner. The Russians have also signed up for at least a year of complex diplomacy and based on their efforts so far Russian diplomats are nowhere near as slick or as clever as they think they are. Finally if Russia is to prevent the overthrow of the Syrian government it is going to have to spend a lot of time very publicly playing the bad guy vetoing UNSC resolutions and explaining why Syria is perfectly entitled to break its obligations under the 1993 Convention. This is not going to lead to many of the happy photo-opportunities Sergei Lavrov was clearly craving in his address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
The almost impossible situation the US has played itself into on this issue is highlighted by the OPCW's insistence that they will not start work on establishing a timetable for the destruction of chemical weapons until November 15th 2013. This is also the date that Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour is scheduled to come to an end in New Orleans, US. Therefore the 41 nations of the OPCW seem to be sending the message that they will not be co-operating with the US until the US ends its Rihanna operation. This is a huge problem for the US because unless Chris Brown's restraining order is reinstated and something dramatic is done to alter Rihanna's current trajectory - both things that represent a massive climb down for the US - it could be considered that the Rihanna operation is being continued in an effort to delay the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. That is something that's going to make everybody p*ssed off at the US including the small group of nations that support the Rihanna operation.
17:30 on 28/9/13.
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 4, Day 2.
This morning the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution on Syria's chemical weapons. I will explain this more fully later but the relevant detail here is that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) which is charged with implementing this resolution has stated quite clearly that it will not entertain discussions about setting a time table until November 15th 2013 - the date of the final concert of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour in New Orleans, US. Due to the hostile political agenda of Rihanna's tour this is no coincidence and very much the world turning round to the US and telling it that they will not do this until the US stops doing that. The fact that the US' itself was forced to vote in favour of this resolution is testament to how much the US' diplomatic standing has collapsed in the wake of its Rihanna operation.
Under this sort of pressure you would have excused Rihanna for screwing up her show tonight in Brisbane, Australia. There was no need to worry though because Rihanna was more then up to the challenge arriving on stage just some 20-25 minutes late which for Rihanna counts as on time. Rihanna went on to preform the standard set-list with the standard costume changes. I will obviously have to wait for the videos to appear before commenting on the quality of Rihanna's performance myself but the early reviews are talking of a flat rather then a poor performance. However that is really an unavoidable consequence of a set-list that is dependent on the very weak Unapologetic album that probably should have been put out to pasture a long time ago.
What is unfortunate about the concert is that it marked a tightening of Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) information blackout. Obviously the management have already made clear that they are going to adamantly stick to their position of refusing to provide necessary information in a timely fashion. However on this occasion - on my account at least - Tweets about the concert were either blocked outright or significantly time-delayed and there were lots of fake Tweets circulating containing false information. This is a worry because it appears that the US' response to the censure it has received from the international community is to provocatively pick a fight. Considering the world of hurt the US has just signed up to this strikes me as an incredibly bad move and explains why I'm now starting to experience the sort of headaches I used to get when working with the clinically insane.
After all there are only so many conversations about the sensors the government have hidden in lampposts in order to test the effectiveness of the cancer causing drugs they've put into the water supply before it really starts to grate.
14:45 on 28/9/13 (UK date).
Under this sort of pressure you would have excused Rihanna for screwing up her show tonight in Brisbane, Australia. There was no need to worry though because Rihanna was more then up to the challenge arriving on stage just some 20-25 minutes late which for Rihanna counts as on time. Rihanna went on to preform the standard set-list with the standard costume changes. I will obviously have to wait for the videos to appear before commenting on the quality of Rihanna's performance myself but the early reviews are talking of a flat rather then a poor performance. However that is really an unavoidable consequence of a set-list that is dependent on the very weak Unapologetic album that probably should have been put out to pasture a long time ago.
What is unfortunate about the concert is that it marked a tightening of Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) information blackout. Obviously the management have already made clear that they are going to adamantly stick to their position of refusing to provide necessary information in a timely fashion. However on this occasion - on my account at least - Tweets about the concert were either blocked outright or significantly time-delayed and there were lots of fake Tweets circulating containing false information. This is a worry because it appears that the US' response to the censure it has received from the international community is to provocatively pick a fight. Considering the world of hurt the US has just signed up to this strikes me as an incredibly bad move and explains why I'm now starting to experience the sort of headaches I used to get when working with the clinically insane.
After all there are only so many conversations about the sensors the government have hidden in lampposts in order to test the effectiveness of the cancer causing drugs they've put into the water supply before it really starts to grate.
14:45 on 28/9/13 (UK date).
Friday 27 September 2013
I Have Found the Bottom of the Barrel.
Yes I know that the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has published its report into the state of the worlds climate. I also know that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will be drawing to a close with what I'm sure will be a barnstorming speech by Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) may be voting on a Syria resolution this evening in what I'm assuming is just an attempt to annoy me.
However much more importantly then all that the Twitter/Instagram feud between Rihanna and Tayana Taylor has suddenly got quite serious. Taylor's fan has started a petition accusing Rihanna of cyber-bullying while Rihanna fans have started a petition calling on Adidas to terminate Taylor's endorsement contract with the company. While I'm finding this little tour into the world of celebrity fandom to be a real eye opener this theme of protest campaigns is sadly all too familiar to me. Although they have prompted Adidas to put around an entirely false rumour that it has dropped Taylor in order to make the barrage of abusive phonecalls stop I feel a little disappointed with the effort by Rihanna's fans. The main problem with their campaign seems to be the wording of their Change.org petition which reads;
"On 23/9/2013 [..] Ms Taylor started sending abusive and offensive Tweets/reTweets to Rihanna over a period of 8 hours. This is not about Rihanna, this is about all the ABUSED WOMEN of the world being MOCKED! IT IS A SHAME that ADIDAS seems to be endorsing @TayanaTaylor!
We demand that you do the right thing and terminate her contract and send a strong message to your consumers! Letting one of your sponsors mock a domestic violence victim discourages your female customers from speaking out against their abusers!!!"
I think this would be much more effective if it read something along the lines of;
"Adidas brand Ambassador Teyana Taylor recently took to Twitter to launch a series of vile personal attacks against Rihanna. Not only did Ms Taylor mock Rihanna for being a victim of domestic violence by posting images of Rihanna following her 2009 assault at the hands of Chris Brown Ms Taylor went on to attack Rihanna for reporting that assault to the police. Every year in the United States some 6 million women are directly affected by domestic violence meaning that it makes up 1/4 of all crimes committed against women and on average 3 women a day are killed by an abusive partner. Sadly only 1 in 2 incidents of domestic violence are currently reported to the police meaning that the majority of offenders often go unpunished. By treating domestic violence as something to be mocked and making a victim feel they should be ashamed for speaking out Teyana Taylor is contributing to this epidemic of violence.
Therefore we the undersigned call on Adidas to immediately terminate their relationship with Ms Taylor in order to prevent Adidas being seen to endorse her abhorrent views."
The problem I have with starting up such a petition myself is that generally nothing kills a petition as quickly as my signature on it. However I'm also concerned that because both Rihanna and Tayana Taylor are signed to Roc Nation records - Rihanna through it's Island Record division and Taylor through the G.O.O.D division this is simply a fake argument intended to generate publicity for Tayana Taylor. It also has the effect of driving onto the political agenda that sadly surrounds Rihanna these days the issue of social media - particularly its ability to mobilise social movements and bring about social change. The argument also seems to be touching on some of the more negative aspects of social media such as Internet Trolls and cyber-bullying both of which have been used as excuses to justify tightening restrictions on the Internet in order to limit its ability to bring about social and sometimes revolutionary change.
Therefore I can't help but feel the real victims of all this are Adidas. After all it's quite common that in order to secure endorsements from big name Roc Nation artists such as Rihanna a company like Adidas will have to sweeten the deal by also taking on no hopers like Tayana Taylor. Therefore if I was running the campaign I would also target Roc Nation.
13:55 on 27/9/13.
However much more importantly then all that the Twitter/Instagram feud between Rihanna and Tayana Taylor has suddenly got quite serious. Taylor's fan has started a petition accusing Rihanna of cyber-bullying while Rihanna fans have started a petition calling on Adidas to terminate Taylor's endorsement contract with the company. While I'm finding this little tour into the world of celebrity fandom to be a real eye opener this theme of protest campaigns is sadly all too familiar to me. Although they have prompted Adidas to put around an entirely false rumour that it has dropped Taylor in order to make the barrage of abusive phonecalls stop I feel a little disappointed with the effort by Rihanna's fans. The main problem with their campaign seems to be the wording of their Change.org petition which reads;
"On 23/9/2013 [..] Ms Taylor started sending abusive and offensive Tweets/reTweets to Rihanna over a period of 8 hours. This is not about Rihanna, this is about all the ABUSED WOMEN of the world being MOCKED! IT IS A SHAME that ADIDAS seems to be endorsing @TayanaTaylor!
We demand that you do the right thing and terminate her contract and send a strong message to your consumers! Letting one of your sponsors mock a domestic violence victim discourages your female customers from speaking out against their abusers!!!"
I think this would be much more effective if it read something along the lines of;
"Adidas brand Ambassador Teyana Taylor recently took to Twitter to launch a series of vile personal attacks against Rihanna. Not only did Ms Taylor mock Rihanna for being a victim of domestic violence by posting images of Rihanna following her 2009 assault at the hands of Chris Brown Ms Taylor went on to attack Rihanna for reporting that assault to the police. Every year in the United States some 6 million women are directly affected by domestic violence meaning that it makes up 1/4 of all crimes committed against women and on average 3 women a day are killed by an abusive partner. Sadly only 1 in 2 incidents of domestic violence are currently reported to the police meaning that the majority of offenders often go unpunished. By treating domestic violence as something to be mocked and making a victim feel they should be ashamed for speaking out Teyana Taylor is contributing to this epidemic of violence.
Therefore we the undersigned call on Adidas to immediately terminate their relationship with Ms Taylor in order to prevent Adidas being seen to endorse her abhorrent views."
The problem I have with starting up such a petition myself is that generally nothing kills a petition as quickly as my signature on it. However I'm also concerned that because both Rihanna and Tayana Taylor are signed to Roc Nation records - Rihanna through it's Island Record division and Taylor through the G.O.O.D division this is simply a fake argument intended to generate publicity for Tayana Taylor. It also has the effect of driving onto the political agenda that sadly surrounds Rihanna these days the issue of social media - particularly its ability to mobilise social movements and bring about social change. The argument also seems to be touching on some of the more negative aspects of social media such as Internet Trolls and cyber-bullying both of which have been used as excuses to justify tightening restrictions on the Internet in order to limit its ability to bring about social and sometimes revolutionary change.
Therefore I can't help but feel the real victims of all this are Adidas. After all it's quite common that in order to secure endorsements from big name Roc Nation artists such as Rihanna a company like Adidas will have to sweeten the deal by also taking on no hopers like Tayana Taylor. Therefore if I was running the campaign I would also target Roc Nation.
13:55 on 27/9/13.
Thursday 26 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 3, Day 7.
In the past few hours Rihanna has performed her concert in Adelaide, Australia. Unfortunately the amount of information that was available through unofficial channels was not as high as it was for the Perth concert. This really serves to underline that it is unfair to rely on these official channels (i.e concert goers) especially when you consider the ages of some of the people involved.
However I do know that Rihanna performed the standard set-list with the standard costumes changes although I will need to wait for the videos to comment on the quality of Rihanna performance. The big talking point though is that Rihanna took to the stage some 1 hour and 20 minutes behind schedule. This is significantly more than the level of lateness that is to be expected and getting close to the Boston debacle when Rihanna appeared on stage almost three hours late. Rihanna's lateness appears to be the result of the curious decision by Rihanna's CIA handler/Live Nation (the management) to fly Rihanna from Perth to Adelaide just before the concert. This meant that not only was Rihanna flying when she should have been sleeping but she also had to adjust to the slight (90min) time difference between Perth and Adelaide. Therefore management's attempts to pique everyone's interest as to whether Rihanna's Australian hosts are engaging in a low level harassment campaign against her seem rather irrelevant because Rihanna's management are clearly engaging in a harassment campaign themselves.
With this sort of hostile conduct from the management it should come as no surprise that they are still trying to enforce their information blackout. Sadly that was something that was obvious from yesterday when the US Department of Transportation announced that it was investigating Japan's Asiana airline over its response to the crash of a Boeing 777 at San Francisco airport back in July 2013. The allegation is that Asiana failed to provide a contact telephone number for friends and relatives of passengers within the required 1 hour. Apparently Asiana did provide a telephone number after 3 hours but this was for an automated ticket booking service. They then provided an appropriate contact number a few hours later but that number was changed the following day. This sounds remarkably similar to my attempts to get in more direct contact with Rihanna that began a year ago today. Therefore the US is clearly investigating Asiana to pressure Japan into a discussion about why I'm not currently in more direct contact with Rihanna at this point. I happen to think that this is exactly the conversation the Japanese were trying to have with the US when Asiana failed to provide the contact telephone number at the time making this current situation even more inexplicable.
If the objective of the current situation is to make everyone deeply annoyed at the US is certainly seems to be working. Yesterday the Polish national airline LOT reported that two of it's Boeing 787 Dreamliner's had to be grounded because they were missing fuel filters and gave Boeing until the end of 2013 to pay compensation relating to faults with the aircraft or face legal action. This is all great news for Boeing's European rival Airbus who yesterday confirmed USD15bn worth of deals with airlines in China and Vietnam which of course are in South-East Asia - the area that this third leg of Rihanna's tour has been especially targeting.
With such clear evidence mounting that the management's Rihanna plan is having a devastating impact on the US' reputation and interests across the globe the obvious question is why are they still so confident they're being successful? To find the answer to that you need to look towards the America's Cup sailing race. In the first eight races the US' Team Oracle were doing appallingly being beaten every single time by New Zealand. Then last Tuesday (17/9/13) just as Rihanna was making her ill-advised trip to Thailand the New Zealand team suddenly fell to pieces and the US' Team Oracle won 9 races in a row to win the competition. This has gone down as one of the most amazing turn-arounds in sporting history and feels very much like a very active member of the UK Commonwealth Realm egging Rihanna's management on by giving them confidence that their Rihanna plan is being a success. It is a sad flaw of the human condition that if someone wants to believe they are being a success they will ignore all the evidence to the contrary provided they are given the false confidence to do so.
17:25 on 26/9/13 (UK date).
However I do know that Rihanna performed the standard set-list with the standard costumes changes although I will need to wait for the videos to comment on the quality of Rihanna performance. The big talking point though is that Rihanna took to the stage some 1 hour and 20 minutes behind schedule. This is significantly more than the level of lateness that is to be expected and getting close to the Boston debacle when Rihanna appeared on stage almost three hours late. Rihanna's lateness appears to be the result of the curious decision by Rihanna's CIA handler/Live Nation (the management) to fly Rihanna from Perth to Adelaide just before the concert. This meant that not only was Rihanna flying when she should have been sleeping but she also had to adjust to the slight (90min) time difference between Perth and Adelaide. Therefore management's attempts to pique everyone's interest as to whether Rihanna's Australian hosts are engaging in a low level harassment campaign against her seem rather irrelevant because Rihanna's management are clearly engaging in a harassment campaign themselves.
With this sort of hostile conduct from the management it should come as no surprise that they are still trying to enforce their information blackout. Sadly that was something that was obvious from yesterday when the US Department of Transportation announced that it was investigating Japan's Asiana airline over its response to the crash of a Boeing 777 at San Francisco airport back in July 2013. The allegation is that Asiana failed to provide a contact telephone number for friends and relatives of passengers within the required 1 hour. Apparently Asiana did provide a telephone number after 3 hours but this was for an automated ticket booking service. They then provided an appropriate contact number a few hours later but that number was changed the following day. This sounds remarkably similar to my attempts to get in more direct contact with Rihanna that began a year ago today. Therefore the US is clearly investigating Asiana to pressure Japan into a discussion about why I'm not currently in more direct contact with Rihanna at this point. I happen to think that this is exactly the conversation the Japanese were trying to have with the US when Asiana failed to provide the contact telephone number at the time making this current situation even more inexplicable.
If the objective of the current situation is to make everyone deeply annoyed at the US is certainly seems to be working. Yesterday the Polish national airline LOT reported that two of it's Boeing 787 Dreamliner's had to be grounded because they were missing fuel filters and gave Boeing until the end of 2013 to pay compensation relating to faults with the aircraft or face legal action. This is all great news for Boeing's European rival Airbus who yesterday confirmed USD15bn worth of deals with airlines in China and Vietnam which of course are in South-East Asia - the area that this third leg of Rihanna's tour has been especially targeting.
With such clear evidence mounting that the management's Rihanna plan is having a devastating impact on the US' reputation and interests across the globe the obvious question is why are they still so confident they're being successful? To find the answer to that you need to look towards the America's Cup sailing race. In the first eight races the US' Team Oracle were doing appallingly being beaten every single time by New Zealand. Then last Tuesday (17/9/13) just as Rihanna was making her ill-advised trip to Thailand the New Zealand team suddenly fell to pieces and the US' Team Oracle won 9 races in a row to win the competition. This has gone down as one of the most amazing turn-arounds in sporting history and feels very much like a very active member of the UK Commonwealth Realm egging Rihanna's management on by giving them confidence that their Rihanna plan is being a success. It is a sad flaw of the human condition that if someone wants to believe they are being a success they will ignore all the evidence to the contrary provided they are given the false confidence to do so.
17:25 on 26/9/13 (UK date).
Wednesday 25 September 2013
Do I Really Need to Explain This?
It's just somewhere between the soccer references and the evening getting really weird I'm pretty sure I picked up a genuine emotional response from Rihanna. Anyway though after being made to look very weak by the Syria situation the US has been coming under a lot of pressure to grant Iran a top level meeting with Iran at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Obviously doing this would make the US appear even weaker so they've been pulling out all the stops to prevent that meeting taking place.
A large part of that effort involved offering Iran a meeting with Obama at a luncheon that just happened to coincide with my traditional Tuesday night visit to the pub. In order to further pile of the pressure the US also got Rihanna to pick a fight with someone called Teyana Taylor. Although I don't know the full story Taylor is part of that Los Angeles social scene that includes Rihanna, Chris Brown and Kerruche Tran. Taylor also claims to be a singer and is signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D record label although I don't think she's got to the point where she's actually released anything. So by starting this argument Taylor brought in all the issues of the LA social scene which the US was already pushing to the fore through the start of closing arguments in the Micheal Jackson wrongful death suit. It also brought in the issues of Internet trolls and the power celebrities can exert over their fans. As the argument appeared to be being conducted across both Twitter and Instagram it also raised issues of who was able to see what and the long running feud between the two social media platforms. The argument also caused worries that the stress and hostility of the argument was keeping Rihanna up at night making her more vulnerable to attack as this final leg of the tour progresses. Finally the argument raised questions about Twitters practise of verifying certain accounts because it feels wrong to me that someone as irrelevant at Teyana Taylor has a verified account while the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations and current President of the Security Council does not.
Anyway I just joined in because I was a bit drunk and I don't know about you but I happen to think that a bit of good natured mucking about is what has really been lacking from Rihanna's tour recently.
11:00 on 25/9/13.
A large part of that effort involved offering Iran a meeting with Obama at a luncheon that just happened to coincide with my traditional Tuesday night visit to the pub. In order to further pile of the pressure the US also got Rihanna to pick a fight with someone called Teyana Taylor. Although I don't know the full story Taylor is part of that Los Angeles social scene that includes Rihanna, Chris Brown and Kerruche Tran. Taylor also claims to be a singer and is signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D record label although I don't think she's got to the point where she's actually released anything. So by starting this argument Taylor brought in all the issues of the LA social scene which the US was already pushing to the fore through the start of closing arguments in the Micheal Jackson wrongful death suit. It also brought in the issues of Internet trolls and the power celebrities can exert over their fans. As the argument appeared to be being conducted across both Twitter and Instagram it also raised issues of who was able to see what and the long running feud between the two social media platforms. The argument also caused worries that the stress and hostility of the argument was keeping Rihanna up at night making her more vulnerable to attack as this final leg of the tour progresses. Finally the argument raised questions about Twitters practise of verifying certain accounts because it feels wrong to me that someone as irrelevant at Teyana Taylor has a verified account while the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations and current President of the Security Council does not.
Anyway I just joined in because I was a bit drunk and I don't know about you but I happen to think that a bit of good natured mucking about is what has really been lacking from Rihanna's tour recently.
11:00 on 25/9/13.
Tuesday 24 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 3, Day 5.
Rihanna has just completed her first concert in Perth, Australia. Rather neatly coinciding with US President Obama's speech at the UNGA Rihanna took to the stage about 20-30 minutes after her scheduled stage which is the expected amount of lateness. Rihanna performed the standard tour set-list with Act 3 (Man Down) appearing before Act 2 (Jump) which is now considered the standard running order. The big news is that Rihanna has gone back to using the standard costume changes confirming that one outfit per show routine used in Macau, Manila and Singapore was purely for the purpose of getting the Chinese to wondering if the changes to 'Rihanna's outfit' were actually references to Rihanna's tour party.
The major problem is that I found out all of this through unofficial channels because Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) are still adamantly sticking to their information blackout. Rihanna's friend Melissa Forde is even going so far as to make pretty weak attempts to distribute false information. This is a problem because with accurate information being easy to come by the flow of official information is really just a test of the managements attitude. For example do they want to be cooperative by providing the required information or do they want to pick fights with people by withholding it. With Thailand aggressively distancing themselves from the operation by making arrests and the South Korean government cancelling contracts with the 787 Dreamliner manufacturer Boeing to supply F-15 fighter jets I strongly suggest the management stop picking fights. That's because if the objective of the operation is to hand the Asia-Pacific region to the Chinese they are doing a bang up job. Also by continuing with the hostility the management are opening the door to things like the Westgate shopping centre attack because on current form it would be all too easy to conclude that was just an extension of the US' Rihanna operation.
On a related note on Sunday (22/9/13) Miley Cyrus preformed at the "I *heart* Music" festival just like Rihanna did last year. Today it's been announced that Miley Cyrus will be the cover star of this months Rolling Stone magazine just like Rihanna did last year. So in short the management is forcing Miley Cyrus to follow in Rihanna's footsteps. In part this is to get us all speculating about what went so tragically wrong last year for Rihanna to end up in this terrible situation. On a more personally level it's to get Miley Cyrus thinking and talking about her attitudes towards Rihanna and by extension me.
16:45 on 24/9/13.
The major problem is that I found out all of this through unofficial channels because Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) are still adamantly sticking to their information blackout. Rihanna's friend Melissa Forde is even going so far as to make pretty weak attempts to distribute false information. This is a problem because with accurate information being easy to come by the flow of official information is really just a test of the managements attitude. For example do they want to be cooperative by providing the required information or do they want to pick fights with people by withholding it. With Thailand aggressively distancing themselves from the operation by making arrests and the South Korean government cancelling contracts with the 787 Dreamliner manufacturer Boeing to supply F-15 fighter jets I strongly suggest the management stop picking fights. That's because if the objective of the operation is to hand the Asia-Pacific region to the Chinese they are doing a bang up job. Also by continuing with the hostility the management are opening the door to things like the Westgate shopping centre attack because on current form it would be all too easy to conclude that was just an extension of the US' Rihanna operation.
On a related note on Sunday (22/9/13) Miley Cyrus preformed at the "I *heart* Music" festival just like Rihanna did last year. Today it's been announced that Miley Cyrus will be the cover star of this months Rolling Stone magazine just like Rihanna did last year. So in short the management is forcing Miley Cyrus to follow in Rihanna's footsteps. In part this is to get us all speculating about what went so tragically wrong last year for Rihanna to end up in this terrible situation. On a more personally level it's to get Miley Cyrus thinking and talking about her attitudes towards Rihanna and by extension me.
16:45 on 24/9/13.
Monday 23 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 3, Day 4.
Following her concert in Singapore yesterday Rihanna did indeed travel overnight to Australia. This was rather easy to predict because Rihanna is scheduled to perform again in Perth, Australia at roughly this time tomorrow meaning that to travel anywhere else would be completely pointless.
Also it is extremely unlikely that Rihanna or anybody else would be able to fly into any South-East Asian country at the moment because Typhoon Usagi is currently slamming into China and the Philippines. The purpose of scheduling the South-East Asian leg of Rihanna's tour for typhoon season was of course to get climate scientists arguing whether Rihanna's moods and menstrual cycle are somehow affecting the typhoons. This does not bode well for November's COP19/CMP9 climate change conference. Finally the authorities in Thailand have arrested two people for endangering wildlife after Rihanna shared Twitter/Instagram pictures of herself with a Slow Loris during Friday's (20/9/13) designated Twitter time. This is the Thai authorites again aggressively trying to distance themselves from the whole operation. So while I doubt they'd actually formally refuse entry if Rihanna were to attempt to visit Thailand again in the near future the Thai authorites would likely protest loudly.
The only problem with the timing of Rihanna's journey to Australia was that it coincided with Emmy Awards which were taking place in Los Angeles, US. Although the Emmy Awards are for TV Shows rather then the music industry and not all famous people know each other a lot of the people attending the awards make up the community that has been charged with containing the threat that Chris Brown presents to Rihanna now that the LA Courts have abdicated their responsibilty to do so. As a result rumours about Rihanna's travel plans would have had an unsettling effect on some of those attending the Emmys. For example the wobbly second season of the show "Scandal" is full of little Rihanna references. This tension has the knock on effect that people watching the Emmys may well have been doing so looking out for clues to Rihanna's whereabouts. Fortunately though it only took a little bit of prodding with coded references to Australian locations to get Rihanna to more or less confirm she had arrived at pretty much the moment it happened.
The advantage of Rihanna being in Australia is that a lot of the pressure on her to confirm her movements hase lifted. Although over the next two weeks Rihanna will have to fly between the different cities in Australia and Auckland which I'm temporarily designating as an Australian city these are all internal flights that don't involve custom posts with the trip to New Zealand being the obvious exception. Also information about Rihanna's movements should flow pretty smoothly on Australia's local grapevine. Therefore Rihanna only needs to report within 1 to 2 hours of departure or arrival to keep the outside world happy. I am though a little bit concerned about when these flights will take place. That's because if Rihanna is being forced to catch planes when she would normally be sleeping it's going to play havoc with her sleep patterns. If the Australians are forced to do their worst this can quite quickly add up into a serious problem. Therefore I would advise that Rihanna's travel is scheduled to coincide with times that she would normally be on stage.
As for the concerts themselves Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) are still under their obligation to keep Rihanna's performances as non-political as possible and provide nessecery information about set-lists, actual show times and limited video in a timely manner. However if the management fail to meet their obligations the relative wealth of Australians and the fact they speak English means that unofficial information shouldn't be too hard to come by.
Finally I've been hearing that Rihanna's been coming in for a lot of criticism over her concert in Singapore. Therefore I should point out that on this tour Rihanna actually has very little say over her set-list, the outfits she wears and the information that is made availible about her concerts with the management making all the decisions. When it comes to things she can control I'm finding that Rihanna could not be more helpful in what is a difficult situation. Rihanna's core tour party could do with making more of an effort though.
14:46 on 23/9/13 (UK date).
Also it is extremely unlikely that Rihanna or anybody else would be able to fly into any South-East Asian country at the moment because Typhoon Usagi is currently slamming into China and the Philippines. The purpose of scheduling the South-East Asian leg of Rihanna's tour for typhoon season was of course to get climate scientists arguing whether Rihanna's moods and menstrual cycle are somehow affecting the typhoons. This does not bode well for November's COP19/CMP9 climate change conference. Finally the authorities in Thailand have arrested two people for endangering wildlife after Rihanna shared Twitter/Instagram pictures of herself with a Slow Loris during Friday's (20/9/13) designated Twitter time. This is the Thai authorites again aggressively trying to distance themselves from the whole operation. So while I doubt they'd actually formally refuse entry if Rihanna were to attempt to visit Thailand again in the near future the Thai authorites would likely protest loudly.
The only problem with the timing of Rihanna's journey to Australia was that it coincided with Emmy Awards which were taking place in Los Angeles, US. Although the Emmy Awards are for TV Shows rather then the music industry and not all famous people know each other a lot of the people attending the awards make up the community that has been charged with containing the threat that Chris Brown presents to Rihanna now that the LA Courts have abdicated their responsibilty to do so. As a result rumours about Rihanna's travel plans would have had an unsettling effect on some of those attending the Emmys. For example the wobbly second season of the show "Scandal" is full of little Rihanna references. This tension has the knock on effect that people watching the Emmys may well have been doing so looking out for clues to Rihanna's whereabouts. Fortunately though it only took a little bit of prodding with coded references to Australian locations to get Rihanna to more or less confirm she had arrived at pretty much the moment it happened.
The advantage of Rihanna being in Australia is that a lot of the pressure on her to confirm her movements hase lifted. Although over the next two weeks Rihanna will have to fly between the different cities in Australia and Auckland which I'm temporarily designating as an Australian city these are all internal flights that don't involve custom posts with the trip to New Zealand being the obvious exception. Also information about Rihanna's movements should flow pretty smoothly on Australia's local grapevine. Therefore Rihanna only needs to report within 1 to 2 hours of departure or arrival to keep the outside world happy. I am though a little bit concerned about when these flights will take place. That's because if Rihanna is being forced to catch planes when she would normally be sleeping it's going to play havoc with her sleep patterns. If the Australians are forced to do their worst this can quite quickly add up into a serious problem. Therefore I would advise that Rihanna's travel is scheduled to coincide with times that she would normally be on stage.
As for the concerts themselves Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) are still under their obligation to keep Rihanna's performances as non-political as possible and provide nessecery information about set-lists, actual show times and limited video in a timely manner. However if the management fail to meet their obligations the relative wealth of Australians and the fact they speak English means that unofficial information shouldn't be too hard to come by.
Finally I've been hearing that Rihanna's been coming in for a lot of criticism over her concert in Singapore. Therefore I should point out that on this tour Rihanna actually has very little say over her set-list, the outfits she wears and the information that is made availible about her concerts with the management making all the decisions. When it comes to things she can control I'm finding that Rihanna could not be more helpful in what is a difficult situation. Rihanna's core tour party could do with making more of an effort though.
14:46 on 23/9/13 (UK date).
Sunday 22 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 3, Day 3.
Today Rihanna preformed at the Formula 1 Grand Prix festival in Singapore. Unfortunately this also provided an opportunity to test out Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) commitment to this information blackout they've been insisting on during the final leg of the Diamonds World Tour.
In terms of information relating to Rihanna's travel from Thailand to Singapore Rihanna herself couldn't have been more co-operative posting lots of Tweets/Instagram pictures making it clear when she had left Thailand and when she had arrived in Singapore. One of this posts included the fact that when Rihanna handed her passport over at Thai passport control the border guard instantly handed Rihanna a picture of herself to autograph giving Rihanna an interesting story to tell. To me that suggests that the Thai authorities were very keen for Rihanna to provide information about her departure. That could indicate that the Thai authorities are beginning to think the US and the UK are not as reliable allies as they had once thought. Annoyingly Rihanna's friend and travelling companion Melissa Forde couldn't have been more unhelpful. Although she did take to Twitter/Instagram to indicate that they were leaving Thailand she went onto imply that they could be returning. Rihanna's other travelling companions remained silent. To me this indicates that a formal order to lift the information blackout has not been given and the management are hoping to get away with it now that the main island hopping part of the tour is over.
This impression was reinforced by the complete lack of official information provided about Rihanna's actual performance although Rihanna herself had a pretty good excuse for not sending out Tweets/Instagrams. Fortunately the unofficial information available was excellent. As it's already been established that Rihanna had done away with the scheduled concert costume changes in favour of a single outfit the first thing everybody was interested to found out what outfit Rihanna had 'chosen.' Although it did feature a cape the outfit itself was politically unremarkable being just a simple dress. However Rihanna later revealed that simple dress had been made especially for her by Raf Simons a Belgian fashion designer who is the creative director at Dior and unfortunately known as RAF. This was a problem because RAF is the acronym used to identify the Royal Air Force - the British air force. It is also the acronym used to identify the Red Army Faction who are sometimes also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang.
Although I pretty sure they were referenced heavily during one of the 2012 Olympic ceremonies for those who don't know the Baader-Meinhof gang were Marxist terrorists in West-Germany during the 1960's. 1970's and 1980's. The late 1960's to early 1980's were of course very much the golden age of international terrorism which featured multiple aircraft hijackings for ransoms including the 1976 hijacking of an Air France passenger jet that ended at Entebbe airport in Uganda with a little help from Kenya. It also featured the 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. With the current terrorism situation in Kenya and the German General Election taking place this choice of outfit struck me as being in extremely bad taste. Mind you it was in nowhere near as bad taste as the US Navy deciding to crash one of it's NH-60S Knighthawk helicopters attached to the 5th Fleet into the Red Sea. This of course forced the Israeli, Egyptian, both Sudanese, the Bahraini, Saudi and possibly Eritrean governments to liaise with the US over a rescue operation while trying to work out if it was all a Rihanna reference. Needless to say US President Barack Obama will be meeting Palestinian 'President' Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Apart from the outfit the other big talking point of Rihanna's Singapore concert was always going to be the set-list. That's because although it has been presented as such the Singapore concert was not strictly speaking part of the Diamonds World Tour. Instead it was part of the entertainment surrounding the Formula 1 Grand Prix race weekend. It continues on Monday (23/9/13) with a Justin Beiber concert.Therefore I was hoping that Rihanna would send all her tour equipment ahead to Australia and just do a sort of greatest hits concerts. Unfortunately management decided to put on the full Diamonds World Tour stage show even though the allotted time meant that the full set-list couldn't be performed and some songs would have to be cut. Personally I would have just scrubbed the entire fourth act (Take A Bow) because the ballady style didn't really suit the occasion.
Unfortunately though management saw an opportunity to make a political point and decided to cut "Cockiness." With A$AP Rocky featuring on the remix this was supposed to promote discussion about whether the management were apologising for their cockiness in thinking anyone in the business would fall for all these rumoured liaisons between Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, Drake and their associated pregnancy rumours. "Love The Way You Lie" was also cut which could equally be interpreted as an attempt to promote discussion about whether Rihanna was done with the domestic violence themes of the song or its coded references to me through the songs main artist Eminem or its Shakespearean roots. Finally "Loveeeeeee Song" was cut in order to give the impression that Rihanna is doing just fine so we don't need to worry about her anymore. After all she clearly no longer needs "love and affection." Sadly though that last point was contradicted somewhat by Rihanna's use of the Raf Simons' cape to make her look like a superhero. This could possibly have been a reference to the Ani DiFranco song "Superhero" which is rarely listened to by people who are doing just fine. That said anytime you are a bit stoned and wearing a cape it is always really tempting to use it to pretend you're a superhero.
Since the end of the concert Rihanna has taken to Twitter/Instagram to indicate that she has left Singapore but not indicated where she is heading too. I am significantly confident that Rihanna is now heading on to Australia. However due to the deception and breach of trust associated with the Thailand trips I will need that confirmed.
I will of course also need the management to buck their fu*king ideas.
22:25 on 22/9/13 (UK date)
In terms of information relating to Rihanna's travel from Thailand to Singapore Rihanna herself couldn't have been more co-operative posting lots of Tweets/Instagram pictures making it clear when she had left Thailand and when she had arrived in Singapore. One of this posts included the fact that when Rihanna handed her passport over at Thai passport control the border guard instantly handed Rihanna a picture of herself to autograph giving Rihanna an interesting story to tell. To me that suggests that the Thai authorities were very keen for Rihanna to provide information about her departure. That could indicate that the Thai authorities are beginning to think the US and the UK are not as reliable allies as they had once thought. Annoyingly Rihanna's friend and travelling companion Melissa Forde couldn't have been more unhelpful. Although she did take to Twitter/Instagram to indicate that they were leaving Thailand she went onto imply that they could be returning. Rihanna's other travelling companions remained silent. To me this indicates that a formal order to lift the information blackout has not been given and the management are hoping to get away with it now that the main island hopping part of the tour is over.
This impression was reinforced by the complete lack of official information provided about Rihanna's actual performance although Rihanna herself had a pretty good excuse for not sending out Tweets/Instagrams. Fortunately the unofficial information available was excellent. As it's already been established that Rihanna had done away with the scheduled concert costume changes in favour of a single outfit the first thing everybody was interested to found out what outfit Rihanna had 'chosen.' Although it did feature a cape the outfit itself was politically unremarkable being just a simple dress. However Rihanna later revealed that simple dress had been made especially for her by Raf Simons a Belgian fashion designer who is the creative director at Dior and unfortunately known as RAF. This was a problem because RAF is the acronym used to identify the Royal Air Force - the British air force. It is also the acronym used to identify the Red Army Faction who are sometimes also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang.
Although I pretty sure they were referenced heavily during one of the 2012 Olympic ceremonies for those who don't know the Baader-Meinhof gang were Marxist terrorists in West-Germany during the 1960's. 1970's and 1980's. The late 1960's to early 1980's were of course very much the golden age of international terrorism which featured multiple aircraft hijackings for ransoms including the 1976 hijacking of an Air France passenger jet that ended at Entebbe airport in Uganda with a little help from Kenya. It also featured the 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. With the current terrorism situation in Kenya and the German General Election taking place this choice of outfit struck me as being in extremely bad taste. Mind you it was in nowhere near as bad taste as the US Navy deciding to crash one of it's NH-60S Knighthawk helicopters attached to the 5th Fleet into the Red Sea. This of course forced the Israeli, Egyptian, both Sudanese, the Bahraini, Saudi and possibly Eritrean governments to liaise with the US over a rescue operation while trying to work out if it was all a Rihanna reference. Needless to say US President Barack Obama will be meeting Palestinian 'President' Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Apart from the outfit the other big talking point of Rihanna's Singapore concert was always going to be the set-list. That's because although it has been presented as such the Singapore concert was not strictly speaking part of the Diamonds World Tour. Instead it was part of the entertainment surrounding the Formula 1 Grand Prix race weekend. It continues on Monday (23/9/13) with a Justin Beiber concert.Therefore I was hoping that Rihanna would send all her tour equipment ahead to Australia and just do a sort of greatest hits concerts. Unfortunately management decided to put on the full Diamonds World Tour stage show even though the allotted time meant that the full set-list couldn't be performed and some songs would have to be cut. Personally I would have just scrubbed the entire fourth act (Take A Bow) because the ballady style didn't really suit the occasion.
Unfortunately though management saw an opportunity to make a political point and decided to cut "Cockiness." With A$AP Rocky featuring on the remix this was supposed to promote discussion about whether the management were apologising for their cockiness in thinking anyone in the business would fall for all these rumoured liaisons between Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, Drake and their associated pregnancy rumours. "Love The Way You Lie" was also cut which could equally be interpreted as an attempt to promote discussion about whether Rihanna was done with the domestic violence themes of the song or its coded references to me through the songs main artist Eminem or its Shakespearean roots. Finally "Loveeeeeee Song" was cut in order to give the impression that Rihanna is doing just fine so we don't need to worry about her anymore. After all she clearly no longer needs "love and affection." Sadly though that last point was contradicted somewhat by Rihanna's use of the Raf Simons' cape to make her look like a superhero. This could possibly have been a reference to the Ani DiFranco song "Superhero" which is rarely listened to by people who are doing just fine. That said anytime you are a bit stoned and wearing a cape it is always really tempting to use it to pretend you're a superhero.
Since the end of the concert Rihanna has taken to Twitter/Instagram to indicate that she has left Singapore but not indicated where she is heading too. I am significantly confident that Rihanna is now heading on to Australia. However due to the deception and breach of trust associated with the Thailand trips I will need that confirmed.
I will of course also need the management to buck their fu*king ideas.
22:25 on 22/9/13 (UK date)
Saturday 21 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 3, Day 2.
It turns out that contrary to initial reports Rihanna did not travel to Singapore immediately after her concert in the Philippines. Instead she returned to Thailand. This misdirection was intended to annoy the Chinese by testing out whether they could track Rihanna's movements and to a lesser extent give Russia incentive to call for an emergency meeting on Syria as the deadline for the declaration of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles expired. By returning Rihanna to Thailand her CIA handlers/Live Nation (from now on I'm going to use the term "Management") were also aiming to strengthen the allegiance with the US by giving the Thais prime access to Rihanna.
As it turns out the Chinese didn't have any trouble whatsoever finding out Rihanna's true destination and the Russians expressed no interest in convening an emergency meeting on Syria. The dishonesty though did mean that the vicious argument the management's information blackout raged for a second day. My personal highlight was when the management realised that rather than getting us all speculating about whether Rihanna was pregnant all these rumours of liaisons with Drake, Chris Brown and A$AP Rocky were actually giving everybody a good laugh at the management's expense. The low point was when management thought they could pacify me by forcing Rihanna to stay up for some designated Twitter time. I suspect they were hoping that having a pretty girl bat her eyelashes at me on the Internet would cause me to forget that vital information was not being provided at an appropriate time. This has been management's hope for over a year now and well, it hasn't worked yet.
However some 20 hours after Rihanna's arrival in Phuket the Thai authorities in conjunction with management released one photograph of Rihanna in the country. This showed Rihanna posing with a fan at a pharmacy. This was of course intended to fuel speculation about Rihanna's menstrual cycle. That photograph was released alongside a number of photographs that claimed to show Rihanna in Thailand but were actually taken elsewhere including one that was taken in London at the launch of Rihanna's River Island clothing line. The intention of bundling the genuine photograph up with all the fakes was to cause confusion and irritation by forcing everyone to sort through the images.
As part of Rihanna's designated Twitter time though it was revealed that since her arrival in Thailand Rihanna had been forced out to experience and be seen experiencing Phucket famously seedy nightlife. Alongside the Ladyboy transsexuals and the prostitutes of all ages and genders Rihanna was forced to spend time with trained elephants at a sort of street circus. Apart from drawing the ire of those always enthusiastic animal rights campaigners this all stems from South Africa's tactics for Rihanna's tour.
Coming across as exceptionally greedy the South Africans have been using global efforts against poaching of animals like elephants for their ivory as a way to pick up information about Rihanna's South-East Asian adventures ahead of the upcoming concerts in South Africa. On Friday (20/9/13) the UK tried to muscle in on South Africa's efforts by sending one of their agents - Colin Manvell - to commit suicide by throwing himself under the hooves of an elephant in Masinagudi in southern India. I suspect Mr Manvell thought he was only going to be lightly injured. At the risk of going off on something of a tangent the UK has been trying to add an extra layer of confusion by claiming that Mr Manvell is deaf. My father is not only deaf but has recently decided that he is becoming more deaf. He thinks this is due to age I think it's due to the volume on telephone calls being deliberately turned down and the contestants on his favourite quiz shows being chosen because they speak rather softly. The UK saga about medical staff being allowed to wear full face Islamic veils appears to play into this because one thing about the Niqab is that it certainly makes lip-reading difficult.
Therefore Rihanna was under orders to show everyone that she'd been meeting with elephants was to try to give primarily the Thais and to a lesser extent the management a way to muscle into that UK, India, South Africa game. The obvious comparison between animals being kept prisoner in order to perform tricks for tourists and sex slaves being kept prisoner for pretty much the same reason probably helped convince the feminists at the State Department that the operation was all about making a bold stand for women's rights. Britain's BBC and Qatar's Al-Jazeera were playing along beautifully by giving great prominence to stories about online child abuse which is similar to a lot of Thai children who are forced to perform sex acts on webcams in order to make money and stories about paedophiles being tracked down and beaten up by vigilante gangs. The intention being to make it look like the UK and the Gulf Monarchies were desperate to find out what was going on with the women's rights aspect of Rihanna's Thailand trip in order to distract the management from events in Australia and East-Africa by making them think their plan was working.
As for Rihanna herself although she has stopped short of allowing us to send more discreet direct messages by either following me herself on Twitter or instructing members of her tour party to do so she has been totally co-operative since her designated Twitter time. The true test will come over the coming day when Rihanna will travel to Singapore for her appearance at the Formula 1 Grand Prix festival and then hopefully straight onto Australia. My fear is that the management's information blackout will return in order for the issue to be used at the upcoming high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly. Given ongoing events in Kenya I cannot advise against that strongly enough.
23:00 on 21/9/13 (UK date).
As it turns out the Chinese didn't have any trouble whatsoever finding out Rihanna's true destination and the Russians expressed no interest in convening an emergency meeting on Syria. The dishonesty though did mean that the vicious argument the management's information blackout raged for a second day. My personal highlight was when the management realised that rather than getting us all speculating about whether Rihanna was pregnant all these rumours of liaisons with Drake, Chris Brown and A$AP Rocky were actually giving everybody a good laugh at the management's expense. The low point was when management thought they could pacify me by forcing Rihanna to stay up for some designated Twitter time. I suspect they were hoping that having a pretty girl bat her eyelashes at me on the Internet would cause me to forget that vital information was not being provided at an appropriate time. This has been management's hope for over a year now and well, it hasn't worked yet.
However some 20 hours after Rihanna's arrival in Phuket the Thai authorities in conjunction with management released one photograph of Rihanna in the country. This showed Rihanna posing with a fan at a pharmacy. This was of course intended to fuel speculation about Rihanna's menstrual cycle. That photograph was released alongside a number of photographs that claimed to show Rihanna in Thailand but were actually taken elsewhere including one that was taken in London at the launch of Rihanna's River Island clothing line. The intention of bundling the genuine photograph up with all the fakes was to cause confusion and irritation by forcing everyone to sort through the images.
As part of Rihanna's designated Twitter time though it was revealed that since her arrival in Thailand Rihanna had been forced out to experience and be seen experiencing Phucket famously seedy nightlife. Alongside the Ladyboy transsexuals and the prostitutes of all ages and genders Rihanna was forced to spend time with trained elephants at a sort of street circus. Apart from drawing the ire of those always enthusiastic animal rights campaigners this all stems from South Africa's tactics for Rihanna's tour.
Coming across as exceptionally greedy the South Africans have been using global efforts against poaching of animals like elephants for their ivory as a way to pick up information about Rihanna's South-East Asian adventures ahead of the upcoming concerts in South Africa. On Friday (20/9/13) the UK tried to muscle in on South Africa's efforts by sending one of their agents - Colin Manvell - to commit suicide by throwing himself under the hooves of an elephant in Masinagudi in southern India. I suspect Mr Manvell thought he was only going to be lightly injured. At the risk of going off on something of a tangent the UK has been trying to add an extra layer of confusion by claiming that Mr Manvell is deaf. My father is not only deaf but has recently decided that he is becoming more deaf. He thinks this is due to age I think it's due to the volume on telephone calls being deliberately turned down and the contestants on his favourite quiz shows being chosen because they speak rather softly. The UK saga about medical staff being allowed to wear full face Islamic veils appears to play into this because one thing about the Niqab is that it certainly makes lip-reading difficult.
Therefore Rihanna was under orders to show everyone that she'd been meeting with elephants was to try to give primarily the Thais and to a lesser extent the management a way to muscle into that UK, India, South Africa game. The obvious comparison between animals being kept prisoner in order to perform tricks for tourists and sex slaves being kept prisoner for pretty much the same reason probably helped convince the feminists at the State Department that the operation was all about making a bold stand for women's rights. Britain's BBC and Qatar's Al-Jazeera were playing along beautifully by giving great prominence to stories about online child abuse which is similar to a lot of Thai children who are forced to perform sex acts on webcams in order to make money and stories about paedophiles being tracked down and beaten up by vigilante gangs. The intention being to make it look like the UK and the Gulf Monarchies were desperate to find out what was going on with the women's rights aspect of Rihanna's Thailand trip in order to distract the management from events in Australia and East-Africa by making them think their plan was working.
As for Rihanna herself although she has stopped short of allowing us to send more discreet direct messages by either following me herself on Twitter or instructing members of her tour party to do so she has been totally co-operative since her designated Twitter time. The true test will come over the coming day when Rihanna will travel to Singapore for her appearance at the Formula 1 Grand Prix festival and then hopefully straight onto Australia. My fear is that the management's information blackout will return in order for the issue to be used at the upcoming high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly. Given ongoing events in Kenya I cannot advise against that strongly enough.
23:00 on 21/9/13 (UK date).
Friday 20 September 2013
A Quick Memo.
I'm sorry for sullying my blog with this quick memo to the US State Department. It's just one of those things that's just a little too long for a series of Tweets.
Hi,
Just wondering when you are going to confirm whether it will be the US Embassy in Singapore or the US Embassy in Thailand that will be dispatching a delegation to explain to Rihanna's tour party their new obligations for this tour. It's just we all already know that the three pillars of the US' control over Rihanna are as follows;
As for South Africa; I strongly suggest you cut out all this rape, rhino poaching, crime cr*p because it only makes you look poor. In fact as this third leg of Rihanna's tour is built largely around the two South Africa concerts it would probably be best if you just kept quiet no matter how much the UK tries to provoke you with the Shrien Dewani issue.
14:00 on 20/9/13.
Hi,
Just wondering when you are going to confirm whether it will be the US Embassy in Singapore or the US Embassy in Thailand that will be dispatching a delegation to explain to Rihanna's tour party their new obligations for this tour. It's just we all already know that the three pillars of the US' control over Rihanna are as follows;
- A fear that her behaviour will somehow result in Chris Brown finally being punished for his multitude of crimes. I appreciate that the US were hoping to spin this into a debate about whether Rihanna is still in love with Chris Brown. Unfortunately wherever you go on this planet most people understand that there is quite a range of human emotions between being madly and deeply in love and wanting to see someone sent to prison.
- A fear that her behaviour could result in her or her friends being stripped of their right to remain/work in the US. I appreciate that the US were hoping to spin this issue into a debate about US immigration policy. However the way things are going at the moment I'm seeing less of an immigration debate and more of the Democrats just giving the Republicans everything they want.
- A fear that her behaviour will result in the Judge ruling against her in this Berdon LLP lawsuit. I appreciated that the US were hoping to spin this issue into an attempt to destroy Rihanna's reputation by making it look like it's all about greed. However most people understand the the Berdon case is interlinked with the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) audit which may result in a criminal prosecution of Rihanna and her associates on tax evasion charges. Wherever go on this planet though most people understand that there is a range of human emotions between wanting to see someone sent to prison and wanting to see yourself sent to prison.
As for South Africa; I strongly suggest you cut out all this rape, rhino poaching, crime cr*p because it only makes you look poor. In fact as this third leg of Rihanna's tour is built largely around the two South Africa concerts it would probably be best if you just kept quiet no matter how much the UK tries to provoke you with the Shrien Dewani issue.
14:00 on 20/9/13.
Thursday 19 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 7.
In roughly three hours Rihanna is supposed to be taking to the stage in Manila, Philippines to preform the third concert in the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour. Unfortunately the US is still enforcing its information blackout so there has been no confirmation that Rihanna has even arrived in the country.
This is a particular problem in the run-up to Rihanna's Australia concerts because by refusing to make this information publicly availible any of Australia's new MP's who are still interested are being forced to rely on the Australian civil and intelligence services to find out details of Rihanna's movements. In turn the Australian civil and intelligence services are themselves quite reliant on their UK counterparts for information. So by forcing Australia's MP's to interact with these apparatus of state on the issue Rihanna is increasing the pressure on them to show their loyalty to the UK by lashing out against her. In short Rihanna is building a rod for her own back.
This is hugely frustrating to watch because Rihanna and her core tour party are clearly acting out of the fear that if they deviate from the handlers plan they will be punished not realising that punishment is the handlers plan.
10:00 on 19/9/13.
Edited at around 18:45 on 19/9/13 to add;
Amid a vicious argument about the information blackout being imposed by the CIA handlers/concert promoters Live Nation Rihanna flew into Manila in the Philippines at around 17:00-18:00 local time (09:00-10:00 GMT) some three hours before she was scheduled to appear on stage. Fortunately Rihanna wasn't held up in local traffic so was able to make it to the venue in order to take to the stage only some 30-45 minutes late. Rihanna went on to perform the standard Diamonds World Tour set-list although due to the blackout I am unable to comment on the exact running order or the quality of Rihanna's performance.
I am though able to tell you that throughout the performance Rihanna wore a white, mesh outfit comprising of loose fitting shorts, a loose fitting jacket, a tight fitting T-shirt and a white headband/hat. This was of course intended to be a reference to the traditional Islamic men's outfit of a loose fitting tunic, loose fitting trousers and a Kufi cap. Unlike the Galabiyya outfit that Rihanna referenced in Denmark (4/7/13) which is traditionally Arabic the tunic, pants Kufi outfit is much most closely associated with Islam itself. In fact in places like Africa and South-East Asia an increase in the number of the men dressing in this style often indicates an increase in the activity of militant Islamist terrorist groups. Rihanna's tight fitting but bulky T-shirt was reminiscent of a bullet-proof vest and a reference to concerns about Rihanna's safety in the Philippines due to the fighting between the Filipino government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that's currently going on around the city of Zamboango. Therefore Rihanna's outfit was supposed to promote discussion about Filipino attitudes towards Islamic terrorism. This effort was so clunky I like to think Rihanna only agreed to wear the outfit in order to mock the effort.
As for the information blackout the handlers/Live Nation are now trying to take it to the ridiculous extent of banning people who are attending Rihanna's concerts from using photographic equipment such as mobile phones. Quite apart from the political aspect this is simply bad business. Although it is extremely unlikely that security at any venue would be stupid enough to enforce such a rule creating the belief in concert goers minds that they are going to be searched for and ejected if they're found to be using their cellphones makes the whole experience much more like visiting a prison then attending a fun night out. Therefore a lot of people are likely to think twice about going to a Rihanna concert again. This ban on photographic equipment was something that the handlers/Live Nation trialled during the European leg of Beyonce's "Mrs Carter Tour." Unfortunately neither the handlers or Live Nation got what is considered in the business a 'friendly' hint when Beyonce was attacked on stage by a fan in Rio, Brazil on Sunday (15/9/13).
On the plus side the US State Department has implied in the strongest possible terms that it wants this information blackout to end. So far that instruction appears to be being complied with but obviously once you've gone so far down the wrong road it takes time to get back on the right path. If there are any further problems with the flow of information I strongly recommend that the State Department dispatches a representative from the US Embassy in which ever country Rihanna is in to her hotel to explain to all members of the tour party what is required of them. A major way that the CIA handlers are enforcing the information blackout is by tricking Rihanna into thinking that her non-compliance will lead to her being stripped of her right to work/remain in the US. Putting Rihanna in direct contact with the people who actually make that decision will go a long way to reducing Rihanna's stress levels on this tour. Also by formally taking control of Operation Misery the State Department makes it much harder for the CIA to ambush them with it.
No doubt citing security concerns Rihanna left the Philippines at around 18:00 (GMT) some two hours after the end of the concert heading for Singapore. This is yet another suicide move on the part of the handlers/Live Nation because in order to preserve her sanity Rihanna will have to be granted a couple of days of before her performance on Sunday (22/9/13). With Rihanna out of the public eye backstage gossip about what she is up to will be at a premium. The host nation Singapore will of course have access to all this information and due to its membership of the UK Commonwealth will be under a great deal of pressure to pass it on to the UK. As a fellow member of the UK Commonwealth Australia will also be under a lot of pressure to seek out this information from the UK.
Obviously you would think that Australian politicians would have more important things to worry about than Rihanna but due to an advertising blitz in the country to promote Rihanna's recently launched River Island clothing collection Rihanna is proving rather difficult to ignore. So not only are the handlers/Live Nation helping the UK to increase it's level of control in Australia they are also giving the Australians great incentive to dislike and distrust the US. This rather undermines the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy.
This is a particular problem in the run-up to Rihanna's Australia concerts because by refusing to make this information publicly availible any of Australia's new MP's who are still interested are being forced to rely on the Australian civil and intelligence services to find out details of Rihanna's movements. In turn the Australian civil and intelligence services are themselves quite reliant on their UK counterparts for information. So by forcing Australia's MP's to interact with these apparatus of state on the issue Rihanna is increasing the pressure on them to show their loyalty to the UK by lashing out against her. In short Rihanna is building a rod for her own back.
This is hugely frustrating to watch because Rihanna and her core tour party are clearly acting out of the fear that if they deviate from the handlers plan they will be punished not realising that punishment is the handlers plan.
10:00 on 19/9/13.
Edited at around 18:45 on 19/9/13 to add;
Amid a vicious argument about the information blackout being imposed by the CIA handlers/concert promoters Live Nation Rihanna flew into Manila in the Philippines at around 17:00-18:00 local time (09:00-10:00 GMT) some three hours before she was scheduled to appear on stage. Fortunately Rihanna wasn't held up in local traffic so was able to make it to the venue in order to take to the stage only some 30-45 minutes late. Rihanna went on to perform the standard Diamonds World Tour set-list although due to the blackout I am unable to comment on the exact running order or the quality of Rihanna's performance.
I am though able to tell you that throughout the performance Rihanna wore a white, mesh outfit comprising of loose fitting shorts, a loose fitting jacket, a tight fitting T-shirt and a white headband/hat. This was of course intended to be a reference to the traditional Islamic men's outfit of a loose fitting tunic, loose fitting trousers and a Kufi cap. Unlike the Galabiyya outfit that Rihanna referenced in Denmark (4/7/13) which is traditionally Arabic the tunic, pants Kufi outfit is much most closely associated with Islam itself. In fact in places like Africa and South-East Asia an increase in the number of the men dressing in this style often indicates an increase in the activity of militant Islamist terrorist groups. Rihanna's tight fitting but bulky T-shirt was reminiscent of a bullet-proof vest and a reference to concerns about Rihanna's safety in the Philippines due to the fighting between the Filipino government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that's currently going on around the city of Zamboango. Therefore Rihanna's outfit was supposed to promote discussion about Filipino attitudes towards Islamic terrorism. This effort was so clunky I like to think Rihanna only agreed to wear the outfit in order to mock the effort.
As for the information blackout the handlers/Live Nation are now trying to take it to the ridiculous extent of banning people who are attending Rihanna's concerts from using photographic equipment such as mobile phones. Quite apart from the political aspect this is simply bad business. Although it is extremely unlikely that security at any venue would be stupid enough to enforce such a rule creating the belief in concert goers minds that they are going to be searched for and ejected if they're found to be using their cellphones makes the whole experience much more like visiting a prison then attending a fun night out. Therefore a lot of people are likely to think twice about going to a Rihanna concert again. This ban on photographic equipment was something that the handlers/Live Nation trialled during the European leg of Beyonce's "Mrs Carter Tour." Unfortunately neither the handlers or Live Nation got what is considered in the business a 'friendly' hint when Beyonce was attacked on stage by a fan in Rio, Brazil on Sunday (15/9/13).
On the plus side the US State Department has implied in the strongest possible terms that it wants this information blackout to end. So far that instruction appears to be being complied with but obviously once you've gone so far down the wrong road it takes time to get back on the right path. If there are any further problems with the flow of information I strongly recommend that the State Department dispatches a representative from the US Embassy in which ever country Rihanna is in to her hotel to explain to all members of the tour party what is required of them. A major way that the CIA handlers are enforcing the information blackout is by tricking Rihanna into thinking that her non-compliance will lead to her being stripped of her right to work/remain in the US. Putting Rihanna in direct contact with the people who actually make that decision will go a long way to reducing Rihanna's stress levels on this tour. Also by formally taking control of Operation Misery the State Department makes it much harder for the CIA to ambush them with it.
No doubt citing security concerns Rihanna left the Philippines at around 18:00 (GMT) some two hours after the end of the concert heading for Singapore. This is yet another suicide move on the part of the handlers/Live Nation because in order to preserve her sanity Rihanna will have to be granted a couple of days of before her performance on Sunday (22/9/13). With Rihanna out of the public eye backstage gossip about what she is up to will be at a premium. The host nation Singapore will of course have access to all this information and due to its membership of the UK Commonwealth will be under a great deal of pressure to pass it on to the UK. As a fellow member of the UK Commonwealth Australia will also be under a lot of pressure to seek out this information from the UK.
Obviously you would think that Australian politicians would have more important things to worry about than Rihanna but due to an advertising blitz in the country to promote Rihanna's recently launched River Island clothing collection Rihanna is proving rather difficult to ignore. So not only are the handlers/Live Nation helping the UK to increase it's level of control in Australia they are also giving the Australians great incentive to dislike and distrust the US. This rather undermines the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy.
Wednesday 18 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 6.
Unfortunately the people running Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour still view me as the enemy. As a result it's only today that I've found out that on Monday/Tuesday Rihanna travelled from Hong Kong to Thailand. Officially this was to shoot the video for her next single "What Now." The real motive though was political and three fold.
Firstly it created a secret group that was aware of Rihanna's location and travel plans. With the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) beginning and high level talks over Syria continuing this secrecy could be used to put pressure on non-US allies by making it appear Rihanna's movements were being used as the basis for some sort of secret code. This part of the plan immediately falls flat on its face because in order to leave Hong Kong Rihanna would have had to file a flight plan detailing her movements. That handed China the key to cracking the code making them the centre of attention and giving them a significant bargaining chip. The secrecy over Rihanna's travel plans might be more effective as she moves from Thailand to the Philippines then from the Philippines to Singapore and from Singapore to Australia.
Secondly the detour provided Thailand with access to Rihanna. Being a Monarchy Thailand has always had strong reasons to be fearful of the republican element of Communism so has been a strong regional ally of the US throughout the Cold War and up to the present day. By granting Thailand access to Rihanna the US was letting them into the secret in an effort to keep the allegiance strong. However being a Monarchy Thailand has always been a much closer ally to the UK. So by giving Thailand access to Rihanna the UK is also being granted access. Combined with the trip to Singapore this gives the UK lots of information about Rihanna's activities and mood. The intention being to force the newly formed Australian government into seeking out this information from the UK in order to prove their loyalty by using that information to wage a low level harassment campaign against Rihanna whilst she is in Australia and New Zealand. The fact that Thailand is a major staging point for the people and drug smugglers that are a significant part of Australian politics really doesn't help. The UK of course has been trying to disguise this as a discussion about age of sexual consent and attitudes towards female virginity because Thailand like neighbouring Cambodia has an appalling record on child prostitution.
Finally and probably most importantly the trip was intended to further destroy Rihanna's sleep patterns. We already know that due to the stupid trip to London Rihanna has been suffering from jetlag. Quite apart from the disruption the extra flights from Hong Kong to Thailand and then from Thailand to the Philippines will cause the video shoot went on for ages meaning that Rihanna had to be awake for the best part of 36 hours. As a result Rihanna is probably not only sleep deprived but her body must be struggling to tell whether it's day or night let alone what day it is. This is a problem because sleep is where the mind sort of reorganises itself so without it people become more irritable, depressed and paranoid. Therefore if these efforts to subject Rihanna to sleep deprivation techniques continue it is highly likely that she will be a nervous wreck by the time she arrives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) if not before.
As a knock-on effect all this harassment of Rihanna frustrates me. That's not because I'm worried the handlers are going to achieve their objectives. It's just that I actually quite like Rihanna so I find any efforts to harm her deeply irritating.
16:10 on 18/9/13.
Firstly it created a secret group that was aware of Rihanna's location and travel plans. With the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) beginning and high level talks over Syria continuing this secrecy could be used to put pressure on non-US allies by making it appear Rihanna's movements were being used as the basis for some sort of secret code. This part of the plan immediately falls flat on its face because in order to leave Hong Kong Rihanna would have had to file a flight plan detailing her movements. That handed China the key to cracking the code making them the centre of attention and giving them a significant bargaining chip. The secrecy over Rihanna's travel plans might be more effective as she moves from Thailand to the Philippines then from the Philippines to Singapore and from Singapore to Australia.
Secondly the detour provided Thailand with access to Rihanna. Being a Monarchy Thailand has always had strong reasons to be fearful of the republican element of Communism so has been a strong regional ally of the US throughout the Cold War and up to the present day. By granting Thailand access to Rihanna the US was letting them into the secret in an effort to keep the allegiance strong. However being a Monarchy Thailand has always been a much closer ally to the UK. So by giving Thailand access to Rihanna the UK is also being granted access. Combined with the trip to Singapore this gives the UK lots of information about Rihanna's activities and mood. The intention being to force the newly formed Australian government into seeking out this information from the UK in order to prove their loyalty by using that information to wage a low level harassment campaign against Rihanna whilst she is in Australia and New Zealand. The fact that Thailand is a major staging point for the people and drug smugglers that are a significant part of Australian politics really doesn't help. The UK of course has been trying to disguise this as a discussion about age of sexual consent and attitudes towards female virginity because Thailand like neighbouring Cambodia has an appalling record on child prostitution.
Finally and probably most importantly the trip was intended to further destroy Rihanna's sleep patterns. We already know that due to the stupid trip to London Rihanna has been suffering from jetlag. Quite apart from the disruption the extra flights from Hong Kong to Thailand and then from Thailand to the Philippines will cause the video shoot went on for ages meaning that Rihanna had to be awake for the best part of 36 hours. As a result Rihanna is probably not only sleep deprived but her body must be struggling to tell whether it's day or night let alone what day it is. This is a problem because sleep is where the mind sort of reorganises itself so without it people become more irritable, depressed and paranoid. Therefore if these efforts to subject Rihanna to sleep deprivation techniques continue it is highly likely that she will be a nervous wreck by the time she arrives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) if not before.
As a knock-on effect all this harassment of Rihanna frustrates me. That's not because I'm worried the handlers are going to achieve their objectives. It's just that I actually quite like Rihanna so I find any efforts to harm her deeply irritating.
16:10 on 18/9/13.
Monday 16 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 4.5.
As far as I know Rihanna is still in Hong Kong, China and with no concerts, cosmetic launches or product endorsements scheduled I assume she's finally getting the opportunity to acclimatise. I hope this has been going well because I've got a lot of bad news to bring.
This morning in the UK Avon & Somerset Police have formally apologised to Chris Jefferies for the distress they caused him by considering him a suspect in the murder of Jo Yeates in Bristol in late 2010/early 2011. The timing of this apology was intended to mark the final episode of a 4 part mini-series "What Remains" that was broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday (15/9/13). The plot of that show was that a woman had been found dead in an old Victorian house that had been converted into apartments and through the investigations of a recently retired police officer everyone who was trying to work out which of the other residents of the building had committed the killing. This plot is very much like the inquiry into the death of Jo Yeates and one of the characters - Joe Sellers - was very similar to Chris Jefferies right down to the fact they were both oddball teachers. The other characters including the psychologically damaged young woman, the lesbian couple who were engaged in a domestically abusive relationship, the nerd and the recovering alcoholic journalist all cut rather close to my bones. So much so that the UK had been hoping that watching this show would drive me slowly and gradually crazy. As it turns out I actually quite enjoyed the show and I think we can agree that my Sunday evening was actually quite calm and successful.
However by that point the wheels had been put in motion so by issuing the apology to Chris Jefferies today the UK was attempting to draw attention to the show in order to promote discussion about how you can psychologically unsettle people. The fact that the UK are proudly endorsing this sort of behaviour is their way of putting pressure on the new Australian government to go ahead with the plan to psychologically unsettle Rihanna while she is in the country.
Using an alliance that dates back to the Silvo Berlusconi days the UK has also teamed up with Italy to unsettle Rihanna through the efforts to re-float the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank in January 2012. This is one of those events that involves people carrying out a complicated engineering process that no-one really fully understands and is highly dependent of weather/sea conditions. The fact that this process is scheduled to last for at least 12 hours gives plenty of opportunity for the people in charge of the operation to release lots of statements that sound like coded references to something. As the Rihanna's fan base is known as "The Navy" and proper navies spend a lot of time on ships the hope was that people would assume there is some great coded conversation about Rihanna going on.
Most worryingly for Rihanna the people who are running her tour - the US - have also been getting in on the act with the shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington DC, US. As with the Costa Concordia story the wall to wall television coverage gives the impression that some great coded conversation about Rihanna and her fans is going on. The idea is to stress Rihanna out by making her incredibly self-awareness and through that heightened self-awareness a bit paranoid. The fact that the ATF team that helped capture the Boston marathon bomber has been brought in to deal with the situation is intended to make Rihanna think that the US is further attempting to get her fans to associate her with death and destruction making her fearful for her career. Also there are certain tactical similarities between the response to the Navy Yard shooting and the situation the Filipino military are dealing with in Zamboanga. This is obviously intended to make Rihanna worry needlessly about her safety ahead of the Filipino concert and generally make life that little bit more difficult for the Filipino government.
Therefore I think it might be an idea to keep Rihanna's Hong Kong hotel reservation open until at least the end of the week because although the concert will be just fine the Philippines still seems a little hot for a long stay.
16:40 on 16/9/13.
This morning in the UK Avon & Somerset Police have formally apologised to Chris Jefferies for the distress they caused him by considering him a suspect in the murder of Jo Yeates in Bristol in late 2010/early 2011. The timing of this apology was intended to mark the final episode of a 4 part mini-series "What Remains" that was broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday (15/9/13). The plot of that show was that a woman had been found dead in an old Victorian house that had been converted into apartments and through the investigations of a recently retired police officer everyone who was trying to work out which of the other residents of the building had committed the killing. This plot is very much like the inquiry into the death of Jo Yeates and one of the characters - Joe Sellers - was very similar to Chris Jefferies right down to the fact they were both oddball teachers. The other characters including the psychologically damaged young woman, the lesbian couple who were engaged in a domestically abusive relationship, the nerd and the recovering alcoholic journalist all cut rather close to my bones. So much so that the UK had been hoping that watching this show would drive me slowly and gradually crazy. As it turns out I actually quite enjoyed the show and I think we can agree that my Sunday evening was actually quite calm and successful.
However by that point the wheels had been put in motion so by issuing the apology to Chris Jefferies today the UK was attempting to draw attention to the show in order to promote discussion about how you can psychologically unsettle people. The fact that the UK are proudly endorsing this sort of behaviour is their way of putting pressure on the new Australian government to go ahead with the plan to psychologically unsettle Rihanna while she is in the country.
Using an alliance that dates back to the Silvo Berlusconi days the UK has also teamed up with Italy to unsettle Rihanna through the efforts to re-float the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank in January 2012. This is one of those events that involves people carrying out a complicated engineering process that no-one really fully understands and is highly dependent of weather/sea conditions. The fact that this process is scheduled to last for at least 12 hours gives plenty of opportunity for the people in charge of the operation to release lots of statements that sound like coded references to something. As the Rihanna's fan base is known as "The Navy" and proper navies spend a lot of time on ships the hope was that people would assume there is some great coded conversation about Rihanna going on.
Most worryingly for Rihanna the people who are running her tour - the US - have also been getting in on the act with the shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington DC, US. As with the Costa Concordia story the wall to wall television coverage gives the impression that some great coded conversation about Rihanna and her fans is going on. The idea is to stress Rihanna out by making her incredibly self-awareness and through that heightened self-awareness a bit paranoid. The fact that the ATF team that helped capture the Boston marathon bomber has been brought in to deal with the situation is intended to make Rihanna think that the US is further attempting to get her fans to associate her with death and destruction making her fearful for her career. Also there are certain tactical similarities between the response to the Navy Yard shooting and the situation the Filipino military are dealing with in Zamboanga. This is obviously intended to make Rihanna worry needlessly about her safety ahead of the Filipino concert and generally make life that little bit more difficult for the Filipino government.
Therefore I think it might be an idea to keep Rihanna's Hong Kong hotel reservation open until at least the end of the week because although the concert will be just fine the Philippines still seems a little hot for a long stay.
16:40 on 16/9/13.
Sunday 15 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 4.
No, seriously already.
On Thursday Rihanna will preform the third concert of the third leg of her Diamonds World Tour in Manila - the capital city of the Philippines. As I explained here; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/operation-misery-month-6-week-3-day-1.html originally this concert was merely intended to act as a deputy for its neighbour Indonesia in order to test out Asian Islamic attitudes towards the vast array of issues presented by Rihanna's life/tour. It was also intended to act as a deputy for the Philippines neighbour Papua New Guinea (PNG) in order to raise the vast issue of immigration within Australian politics ahead of the Australian General Election.
However since writing that post the political situation in the Philippines has changed rather dramatically. Since the late-1960's a moderately Islamist group known as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has been fighting the Filipino government in order to make the southern Philippine islands (there are roughly 7,500 to choose from) of Mindano, Sulu, Palawan and Sabah an independent Muslim state the MNLF chose to call "The Bangsamoro Nation." The historical basis for the MNLF's struggle appears to be the influx of Catholic Christian immigrants from the northern Filipino and neighbouring islands such as Indonesia in the 1930's. Last Monday (11/9/13) a division of the MNLF decided to drive home their point by staging a military style amphibious landing on the Filipino island of Mindano. After the group armed with light weapons such as mortars and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG's) raised their flag in the city of Zamboango they declared the entire island to be an independent state. Rather predicably this created a situation similar to the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India in which the Filipino military are fighting to clear the MNLF from the districts of the city in which they are holding civilians hostage. Although the fighting has killed fewer then 100 people so far it has caused thousands to flee their homes creating something of a mini internal refugee crisis.
Rihanna's concert will take place on the Filipino island of Luzon which is roughly 1000km (625 miles) north of Zamboango and is not considered part of the Bangsamoro Nation. Therefore there is absolutely no risk of the fighting spreading to where Rihanna will be staying/preforming. However there is an ever so slight risk that the MNLF will use Rihanna's concert as a way to raise publicity for their cause either by attempting to kidnap Rihanna outright or by staging a terrorist bombing in the Filipino capital during Rihanna's visit. Although Rihanna's ex-US Secret Service security team will already have a containment/evacuation plan in place to deal with such a threat this situation clearly places a lot of extra pressure on both Rihanna, her security team and the Filipino government. This creates the obvious question of why on earth this concert it is going ahead?
To find the answer to that question you need to look not to the Filipino government but to Rihanna's tour promoter Live Nation and the local concert promoter which is an organisation I've yet to name and whose leader I've yet to behead.
This spectacle of a national government being forced to bow down to the will of a jumped up local private enterprise harks all the way back to the Cold War. Particularly the US' little war in Vietnam. During this time South-East Asia, much like African was used as a chessboard for the superpowers of the time - the US and the USSR - to play out a game of global dominance. The nations within the Soviet sphere of influence such as Cambodia followed the Communist model of no private enterprise with all aspects of the economy being controlled by the government. By contrast nations within the US sphere such as the Philippines were characterised by weak, often fascist local governments with the real power being held by private businesses and organised crime gangs who relied on the US for their supplies. In fact the MNLF seem a lot like a Soviet hangover from the Cold War.
Since the fall of the USSR things have changed on the global scale with more and more people becoming interested in the Chinese model of nominally capitalist free markets dominated by large State Owned Enterprises (SOE's). This shift has been particularly dramatic within Europe with national government's getting heavily involved in the banking sector in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The change has been at its most noticeable in the UK where the government is now not only the largest player in the banking industry but also used the financial crisis as an excuse to take ownership of a number of TV broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4.
This contrast between the Chinese economic model and the traditional US capitalist model is at the heart of the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy and something that the US is clearly trying to force onto the agenda of the ASEAN Summit that President Obama will attend on October 9th&10th (9&10/10/13). Clearly the US wants to be seen as standing up for free market ideals by supporting both Live Nation and the idiot local promoter's right to go ahead with the Rihanna concert. However due to the immense amount of trouble that this concert is causing for the Filipino government and the governments of neighbouring nations it is quite likely that most people are going to be left wishing that the Filipino government were able to exert more control over the local concert promoter and force them to cancel the concert. As such by insisting that the concert goes ahead Rihanna's CIA handlers are quite clearly acting as cheerleaders for the Chinese model across the entire region.
Finally the MNLF's decision to act at this time promotes discussion about who exactly is running this particular group of Muslim extremists. This discussion has obvious resonance in Syria and across the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region all the way through to Libya and down across the Sahel belt into places like Mali. Obviously the MNLF have been looking to embarrass the Filipino government since about 1968 so don't really need much encouragement. However there is a possibility that they may have had some help from the Gulf Monarchies in order to put the frighteners on Russia over Sochi. It is much more likely though that any such support has come from the US with the specific purpose of promoting all these discussions.
00:20 on 16/9/13.
On Thursday Rihanna will preform the third concert of the third leg of her Diamonds World Tour in Manila - the capital city of the Philippines. As I explained here; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/operation-misery-month-6-week-3-day-1.html originally this concert was merely intended to act as a deputy for its neighbour Indonesia in order to test out Asian Islamic attitudes towards the vast array of issues presented by Rihanna's life/tour. It was also intended to act as a deputy for the Philippines neighbour Papua New Guinea (PNG) in order to raise the vast issue of immigration within Australian politics ahead of the Australian General Election.
However since writing that post the political situation in the Philippines has changed rather dramatically. Since the late-1960's a moderately Islamist group known as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has been fighting the Filipino government in order to make the southern Philippine islands (there are roughly 7,500 to choose from) of Mindano, Sulu, Palawan and Sabah an independent Muslim state the MNLF chose to call "The Bangsamoro Nation." The historical basis for the MNLF's struggle appears to be the influx of Catholic Christian immigrants from the northern Filipino and neighbouring islands such as Indonesia in the 1930's. Last Monday (11/9/13) a division of the MNLF decided to drive home their point by staging a military style amphibious landing on the Filipino island of Mindano. After the group armed with light weapons such as mortars and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG's) raised their flag in the city of Zamboango they declared the entire island to be an independent state. Rather predicably this created a situation similar to the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India in which the Filipino military are fighting to clear the MNLF from the districts of the city in which they are holding civilians hostage. Although the fighting has killed fewer then 100 people so far it has caused thousands to flee their homes creating something of a mini internal refugee crisis.
Rihanna's concert will take place on the Filipino island of Luzon which is roughly 1000km (625 miles) north of Zamboango and is not considered part of the Bangsamoro Nation. Therefore there is absolutely no risk of the fighting spreading to where Rihanna will be staying/preforming. However there is an ever so slight risk that the MNLF will use Rihanna's concert as a way to raise publicity for their cause either by attempting to kidnap Rihanna outright or by staging a terrorist bombing in the Filipino capital during Rihanna's visit. Although Rihanna's ex-US Secret Service security team will already have a containment/evacuation plan in place to deal with such a threat this situation clearly places a lot of extra pressure on both Rihanna, her security team and the Filipino government. This creates the obvious question of why on earth this concert it is going ahead?
To find the answer to that question you need to look not to the Filipino government but to Rihanna's tour promoter Live Nation and the local concert promoter which is an organisation I've yet to name and whose leader I've yet to behead.
This spectacle of a national government being forced to bow down to the will of a jumped up local private enterprise harks all the way back to the Cold War. Particularly the US' little war in Vietnam. During this time South-East Asia, much like African was used as a chessboard for the superpowers of the time - the US and the USSR - to play out a game of global dominance. The nations within the Soviet sphere of influence such as Cambodia followed the Communist model of no private enterprise with all aspects of the economy being controlled by the government. By contrast nations within the US sphere such as the Philippines were characterised by weak, often fascist local governments with the real power being held by private businesses and organised crime gangs who relied on the US for their supplies. In fact the MNLF seem a lot like a Soviet hangover from the Cold War.
Since the fall of the USSR things have changed on the global scale with more and more people becoming interested in the Chinese model of nominally capitalist free markets dominated by large State Owned Enterprises (SOE's). This shift has been particularly dramatic within Europe with national government's getting heavily involved in the banking sector in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The change has been at its most noticeable in the UK where the government is now not only the largest player in the banking industry but also used the financial crisis as an excuse to take ownership of a number of TV broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4.
This contrast between the Chinese economic model and the traditional US capitalist model is at the heart of the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy and something that the US is clearly trying to force onto the agenda of the ASEAN Summit that President Obama will attend on October 9th&10th (9&10/10/13). Clearly the US wants to be seen as standing up for free market ideals by supporting both Live Nation and the idiot local promoter's right to go ahead with the Rihanna concert. However due to the immense amount of trouble that this concert is causing for the Filipino government and the governments of neighbouring nations it is quite likely that most people are going to be left wishing that the Filipino government were able to exert more control over the local concert promoter and force them to cancel the concert. As such by insisting that the concert goes ahead Rihanna's CIA handlers are quite clearly acting as cheerleaders for the Chinese model across the entire region.
Finally the MNLF's decision to act at this time promotes discussion about who exactly is running this particular group of Muslim extremists. This discussion has obvious resonance in Syria and across the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region all the way through to Libya and down across the Sahel belt into places like Mali. Obviously the MNLF have been looking to embarrass the Filipino government since about 1968 so don't really need much encouragement. However there is a possibility that they may have had some help from the Gulf Monarchies in order to put the frighteners on Russia over Sochi. It is much more likely though that any such support has come from the US with the specific purpose of promoting all these discussions.
00:20 on 16/9/13.
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 3.
On Friday (13/9/13) Rihanna resumed the Diamonds World Tour in Macau, China. This was immediately followed by another concert in Macau on Saturday (14/9/13).
Both of these concerts were filmed in full by the promoter Live Nation however they are rather childishly refusing to make any of that footage even partially availible. The intention being to create an illusion that there is an elite group of nations who have been given full access while everybody else is being excluded. In order to increase the clamour for information from those in the non-elite group (i.e everyone except the US) Live Nation has also been actively suppressing information about the concerts meaning that not even a set-list has been made officially availible.
Fortunately though a full set-list was made availible through unofficial channels almost as soon as the first concert ended. Therefore we know it was the standard set-list with Act 3 (Man Down) and Act 2 (Jump) being switched in what has actually become the standard running order. The big difference is that Rihanna has done away with costume changes and is instead performing the concert in just one outfit which I presume will change from night to night. This is something that everyone suspected when China was announced as the first venue on this third leg of the tour and something that was trailed at the Helsinki, Finland concert (28/7/13) where Rihanna wore slightly different boots during the Man Down Act. The intention being to pique Chinese interest about exactly who Rihanna would be bringing along on this third leg of the tour in order to get them speculating about which member(s) is the CIA's agent in the room. After all Rihanna's 'oufit' could be a reference to her attire or her tour crew.
Once Rihanna's change in attire had been revealed at the concert the intention was to put more pressure on the Chinese. In the first instance this was supposed to get the Chinese speculating that Rihanna was trying to signal something through her outfit choice as she did with her more demure outfit in Morocco (25/5/13) and her Arabic inspired outfit in Denmark (4/7/13). In the second instance this was intended to put pressure on the Chinese to decide how this new information would be released to the outside world. Primarily due to significant language differences people in China don't really use western social media sites like Twitter instead using their own alternatives like Weibo meaning that while people in China could all be happily discussing and sharing pictures of Rihanna's concert it would take a concerted effort for people to share that information with westerners like me. Although it has significantly loosened over recent years the Chinese government has in the past tightly restricted Internet access especially to US sites such as YouTube and Facebook. Therefore the US seemed to be attempting to stoke-up anti-government feeling in China by making its people angry that government censorship was preventing them from sharing information about Rihanna's concert with me. Of course nothing of the sort actually happened because Chinese censorship of the Internet is nowhere near as strict as the US likes to pretend it is. The Chinese actually took the time to make a little joke of it in the days prior to Rihanna's concert by announcing a new raft of measures to tackle the spreading of rumours on the Internet.
Sadly faced with this level of provocation from the US the Chinese simply couldn't just ignore it. However their responses have all been very low-key and seem designed to minimise the pressure on Rihanna herself. On arrival at her hotel Rihanna was presented with a chocolate statue of her Chinese birth-sign. Chinese culture is very big into astrology but uses a completely different system to the one used in the west. Therefore offering to do their Chinese Horoscope is actually a pretty common way to introduce westerners into Chinese culture. It seems particularly appropriate for Rihanna who has previously expressed quite an interest in astrology. However it also served the purpose of reminding the US handlers that the Chinese are aware that they often remotely influence Rihanna's behaviour through Twitter based astrologers.
Rihanna was also given a gift of a sweatband with an attached black lace veil rather similar to a hat worn by Miley Cyrus in her "We Can't Stop" video. This could be the Chinese expressing confusion at the relationship between Miley Cyrus and Rihanna that was brought into sharp focus by the two of them recording interviews for the UK chat show "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" on Wednesday (11/9/13). It could also though be the Chinese gently reminding Rihanna that she would benefit from being a bit more like Miley. That's because while Miley Cyrus is only 20 she has been in the business for a very long time and I think it was Pharrell Williams who pointed out that Billy Ray Cyrus is her father and her godmother is Dolly Parton.
Finally in an effort to minimise the stress of Rihanna the Chinese invited Rihanna's brother to preform in Hong Kong on Thursday (12/9/13) in order to give Rihanna time to adjust to the massive time difference between the US and China and help her deal with the culture shock. That's because while Hong Kong is most certainly Chinese 100 years of British rule means that it is much more westernised than the Chinese mainland. The Chinese also provided Rihanna with a villa style hotel not at all dissimilar from her home in Los Angles. The idea being that Rihanna could relax there for a few days before moving onto the Philippines.
Unfortunately Rihanna's handlers had different ideas and Rihanna was forced to leave Macau almost immediately after her second concert finished in order to fly to Hong Kong for an event to promote her MAC cosmetic line. As a result Rihanna appears to be suffering heavily with the effects of jet lag. This of course has been the handlers intention all along with a punishing schedule involving the wholly unnecessary trip to London intended to completely physically and psychologically exhaust Rihanna in order to force her nervous breakdown in Abu Dhabi, UAE on October 19th (19/10/13). We are now all waiting to see whether Rihanna will be granted permission to rest in Hong Kong or whether the handlers are going to force her off to yet another country.
The worst thing Rihanna can do is head straight to the Philippines. That's because while the current fighting is taking place on a completely different island from the one Rihanna is heading to she would be well advised to minimise the time spent there especially as Rihanna is going to have to wait around in the country following Thursday's (19/9/13) concert before heading to Singapore for a whistle-stop visit on Sunday (22/9/13).
Of course the obvious thing to do would have been for Rihanna to take the option of a rest in China before flying into the Philippines at the last minute before flying back to Hong Kong for this MAC cosmetics event before heading to Singapore.
12:45 on 15/9/13.
Both of these concerts were filmed in full by the promoter Live Nation however they are rather childishly refusing to make any of that footage even partially availible. The intention being to create an illusion that there is an elite group of nations who have been given full access while everybody else is being excluded. In order to increase the clamour for information from those in the non-elite group (i.e everyone except the US) Live Nation has also been actively suppressing information about the concerts meaning that not even a set-list has been made officially availible.
Fortunately though a full set-list was made availible through unofficial channels almost as soon as the first concert ended. Therefore we know it was the standard set-list with Act 3 (Man Down) and Act 2 (Jump) being switched in what has actually become the standard running order. The big difference is that Rihanna has done away with costume changes and is instead performing the concert in just one outfit which I presume will change from night to night. This is something that everyone suspected when China was announced as the first venue on this third leg of the tour and something that was trailed at the Helsinki, Finland concert (28/7/13) where Rihanna wore slightly different boots during the Man Down Act. The intention being to pique Chinese interest about exactly who Rihanna would be bringing along on this third leg of the tour in order to get them speculating about which member(s) is the CIA's agent in the room. After all Rihanna's 'oufit' could be a reference to her attire or her tour crew.
Once Rihanna's change in attire had been revealed at the concert the intention was to put more pressure on the Chinese. In the first instance this was supposed to get the Chinese speculating that Rihanna was trying to signal something through her outfit choice as she did with her more demure outfit in Morocco (25/5/13) and her Arabic inspired outfit in Denmark (4/7/13). In the second instance this was intended to put pressure on the Chinese to decide how this new information would be released to the outside world. Primarily due to significant language differences people in China don't really use western social media sites like Twitter instead using their own alternatives like Weibo meaning that while people in China could all be happily discussing and sharing pictures of Rihanna's concert it would take a concerted effort for people to share that information with westerners like me. Although it has significantly loosened over recent years the Chinese government has in the past tightly restricted Internet access especially to US sites such as YouTube and Facebook. Therefore the US seemed to be attempting to stoke-up anti-government feeling in China by making its people angry that government censorship was preventing them from sharing information about Rihanna's concert with me. Of course nothing of the sort actually happened because Chinese censorship of the Internet is nowhere near as strict as the US likes to pretend it is. The Chinese actually took the time to make a little joke of it in the days prior to Rihanna's concert by announcing a new raft of measures to tackle the spreading of rumours on the Internet.
Sadly faced with this level of provocation from the US the Chinese simply couldn't just ignore it. However their responses have all been very low-key and seem designed to minimise the pressure on Rihanna herself. On arrival at her hotel Rihanna was presented with a chocolate statue of her Chinese birth-sign. Chinese culture is very big into astrology but uses a completely different system to the one used in the west. Therefore offering to do their Chinese Horoscope is actually a pretty common way to introduce westerners into Chinese culture. It seems particularly appropriate for Rihanna who has previously expressed quite an interest in astrology. However it also served the purpose of reminding the US handlers that the Chinese are aware that they often remotely influence Rihanna's behaviour through Twitter based astrologers.
Rihanna was also given a gift of a sweatband with an attached black lace veil rather similar to a hat worn by Miley Cyrus in her "We Can't Stop" video. This could be the Chinese expressing confusion at the relationship between Miley Cyrus and Rihanna that was brought into sharp focus by the two of them recording interviews for the UK chat show "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" on Wednesday (11/9/13). It could also though be the Chinese gently reminding Rihanna that she would benefit from being a bit more like Miley. That's because while Miley Cyrus is only 20 she has been in the business for a very long time and I think it was Pharrell Williams who pointed out that Billy Ray Cyrus is her father and her godmother is Dolly Parton.
Finally in an effort to minimise the stress of Rihanna the Chinese invited Rihanna's brother to preform in Hong Kong on Thursday (12/9/13) in order to give Rihanna time to adjust to the massive time difference between the US and China and help her deal with the culture shock. That's because while Hong Kong is most certainly Chinese 100 years of British rule means that it is much more westernised than the Chinese mainland. The Chinese also provided Rihanna with a villa style hotel not at all dissimilar from her home in Los Angles. The idea being that Rihanna could relax there for a few days before moving onto the Philippines.
Unfortunately Rihanna's handlers had different ideas and Rihanna was forced to leave Macau almost immediately after her second concert finished in order to fly to Hong Kong for an event to promote her MAC cosmetic line. As a result Rihanna appears to be suffering heavily with the effects of jet lag. This of course has been the handlers intention all along with a punishing schedule involving the wholly unnecessary trip to London intended to completely physically and psychologically exhaust Rihanna in order to force her nervous breakdown in Abu Dhabi, UAE on October 19th (19/10/13). We are now all waiting to see whether Rihanna will be granted permission to rest in Hong Kong or whether the handlers are going to force her off to yet another country.
The worst thing Rihanna can do is head straight to the Philippines. That's because while the current fighting is taking place on a completely different island from the one Rihanna is heading to she would be well advised to minimise the time spent there especially as Rihanna is going to have to wait around in the country following Thursday's (19/9/13) concert before heading to Singapore for a whistle-stop visit on Sunday (22/9/13).
Of course the obvious thing to do would have been for Rihanna to take the option of a rest in China before flying into the Philippines at the last minute before flying back to Hong Kong for this MAC cosmetics event before heading to Singapore.
12:45 on 15/9/13.
Saturday 14 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 2.
Yesterday (13/9/13) Rihanna kicked off the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour (DWT) in Macau, China. In what in was a pretty laughable attempt to put pressure on China this featured a slightly different set-list and a whole new wardrobe of costume. Therefore a full review of the concert should have appeared here last night. Unfortunately though the US and Russia were meeting in Geneva to discuss 'Syria.'
Basically what appears to have happened is that Russia has sacrificed Syria in exchange for improved access to Rihanna's tour. By granting Russia this increased access the US has killed off any lingering chance they had of achieving their political objectives from the tour while at the same time sending the message to the Gulf Monarchies that the US is perfectly happy to prostrate itself at their feet whenever they ask.
So as I said on Twitter the Geneva meeting represents that rarest of diplomatic feat in which both sides have managed to lose.
11:30 on 14/9/13.
Basically what appears to have happened is that Russia has sacrificed Syria in exchange for improved access to Rihanna's tour. By granting Russia this increased access the US has killed off any lingering chance they had of achieving their political objectives from the tour while at the same time sending the message to the Gulf Monarchies that the US is perfectly happy to prostrate itself at their feet whenever they ask.
So as I said on Twitter the Geneva meeting represents that rarest of diplomatic feat in which both sides have managed to lose.
11:30 on 14/9/13.
Wednesday 11 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 1, Day 6.
On Sunday (8/9/13) the US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to London, UK for a Monday (9/9/13) meeting with representatives from the Palestine political party Fatah to discuss peace negotiations. Despite declaring at the start of this process that the US would publicly announce all such meetings of this type Kerry attempted to keep this one secret by disguising the purpose of his visit to London as discussions about Syria. Part of this charade forced Kerry to give a press conference on Syria alongside the UK Foreign Minister William Hague. At this press conference Kerry made an off hand comment about the Syrian government giving up its stockpiles of chemical weapons. This triggered a bizarre chain of events that caused the US Congress to cancel a vote on military action against Syria, both France and Russia table resolutions at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) only to immediately withdraw them and Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov getting press ganged into a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday (12/9/13).
With such a clear example of the devastating effect the wrong word uttered at the wrong time can have I am obviously hesitant as to what to say next.
However on Tuesday (10/9/13) Rihanna flew into London in order to attend a launch party for the autumn collection of her River Island high street fashion line and record an appearance on the Channel 4 chat-show "Alan Carr: Chatty Man." The UK's real reason for inviting Rihanna to London was to show the world that it had prime access Rihanna just before the start of the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour. The UK also hoped to lay the ground work for the illegal drugs element of that tour by getting Rihanna hooked on cocaine. The idea being that Rihanna would do a little big of the drug during the launch party that was attended by the habitual cocaine user Cara Delevingne. Rihanna would then do a little bit more in order to help her get through the Chatty Man recording which also features Miley Cyrus with who Rihanna has a little bit of tension. Having been delayed by the Chatty Man recording the stress of rushing to China is likely to mean that Rihanna would want to do a little bit more just to get through the Macau show. With a small war breaking out in the Philippines ahead of Rihanna's next tour date the stress of the tour and the pain of the comedowns both getting worse will mean that the temptation for Rihanna to do ever more cocaine will only grow. Obviously Rihanna attempting to transport quantities of an illegal drug like cocaine through international border post creates the same sort of legal worries as transporting quantities of marijuana only with stiffer legal penalties.
Obviously because even in espionage circles deliberately getting someone addicted to a drug like cocaine in order to destroy them is still considered a little taboo the UK tried to cover this aspect up by putting on a barrage of inflammatory news stories mainly centred around rape a paedophilia. For example the verdict was reached in the trial of Micheal Turner (aka Micheal Levell). This is the second time that Turner has been acquitted of sexual abusing young children. The first case centred around the abuse of a young boy while this trial centred around the abuse of a young girl. As Turner is/was a member of the soap opera "Coronation Street" alongside William Roache this drags up all the connections with Roache's weird interview with New Zealand TV in which he seemed to argue that paedophilia was a Protestant religious duty. Also the UK have been trying really hard to draw comparisons between Turner and myself dragging up all the issues surrounding my Criminal Damage Court case. Then the Deputy Speaker of the UK House of Commons Nigel Evans resigned after being charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. Mr Evans is gay so all these allegations relate to adult men. In nations where homosexuality is either deeply frowned upon or out and out illegal this is likely to lead to quite a lot of confusion. Finally Alan Carr the presenter of Chatty Man rose to fame as part of a double act with Justin Lee Collins. Lee Collins' career ended after it was revealed that he is a seriously strange domestic abuser who subjected his girlfriend/wife to years of physical and psychological abuse. That has an obvious connection to Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown.
For their part the US were keen to use Rihanna's trip to London as a way to put the boot into Israel while laying the ground work to the immigration element that is going to be a feature of Rihanna's Caribbean and US concerts at the end of the tour. This involved Rihanna's management putting out a rumour that "Pour it Up" will be released as Rihanna's next single. That was intended to provoke the obvious response that Rihanna shouldn't bother releasing anymore singles from the "Unapologetic" album and instead should concentrate on getting back to her music career once her stint as a CIA agent has ended. This problem of people being forced to take a break from their careers while they complete compulsory military service has resonance in any nation that has compulsory national service but is an especially hot button issue in Israel especially with the Israeli military moving away from the manpower intensive infantry model to a smaller, more specialised model. The fact that Rihanna is not a citizen of the nation that is forcing her to do this compulsory service promotes discussion about US immigration policy because a stint in the US military is quite a common route for immigrants, especially from the Caribbean, to obtain US citizenship.
Both the US and the UK are also trying to use the visit as a way to promote discussion about Rihanna's safety and security on this tour. Although I won't give out the specific location Rihanna is currently staying in a hotel close to London's Park Lane road. Most of the other hotels in this area are currently full with delegates attending the "Defence Systems Exhibition International (DSEi) which is the worlds largest arms fair. In previous years the presence of DSEi delegates has attracted large, noisy and disruptive protests to the Park Lane area. The hope is that these scenes will be repeated during Rihanna's visit restricting her movement as she has to avoid road blocks and clashes between police and protesters. Although I haven't checked Rihanna doesn't appear to be travelling with her usual security detail made up of former US Secret Service agents who are well trained and experienced in dealing with this type of threat. The prospect of Rihanna taking a less qualified security team on her tour creates obvious worries about her safety especially in places like South Africa and the Philippines. However it must be said that this argument is unlikely to gain much traction though because Rihanna is clearly acting as a US agent so if they choose not to protect her that's their decision.
I suppose we're all supposed to spend today frantically looking for rumours about whether will attend the Chatty Man recording which is not scheduled for broadcast for a few months yet or simply blow it off so she can get to China on time. Rihanna will obviously attend the recording but I personally think that's a shame because Chatty Man is the type of program Rihanna ignore without any great consequence. In fact it brings to mind that old proverb of "If a tree falls in the forest and there's no-one there to hear it does it make a sound?"
12:10 on 11/9/13.
Edited at around 09:15 on 13/9/13 to add;
Rihanna has either just arrived in China or is just about to arrive in China so I just should quickly point out that while Rihanna was in London none of that stuff about cocaine use or protests outside the hotel actually happened.
After what I'm assuming was a relatively quiet night Rihanna went off to record her appearance on "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" around lunchtime/early afternoon. As part of that appearance Rihanna announced that "What Now" will be her next single which is intended to reinforce the idea that Rihanna and Chris Brown have broken up in an attempt to trick us into thinking there is no need for Chris Brown's restraining order to be reinstated. It also rather unsubtly poses the question of "What Now for Rihanna?" which attempts to feed the compulsory military service debate.
Although it was recorded much later in the day the episode of Alan Carr: Chatty Man featuring Miley Cyrus also featured the UK comedy duo "Mel & Sue" who present a BBC2 show called "The Great British Bakeoff." The latest series of this has been promoted by this trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzUfP8VHkg which is very much inspired by Rihanna's song "Birthday Cake" and all it's vaginal references. Added to that as a 'gift' to celebrate the launch of her River Island line UK designer Stella McCartney sent Rihanna a clutch bag featuring the image of a penis. What the UK will claim they were doing was putting pressure on Rihanna to make her reconsider her relationship with Chris Brown. In reality what they were doing is putting pressure on Rihanna in order to make her head spin in an effort to encourage her to take more cocaine. To make matters worse Sue Perkins is gay while Mel Giedroyc is straight. This obviously promotes discussion about how they are able to maintain a close but non-sexual relationship that's possibly very similar to Rihanna's relationship with Melissa Forde. It can't have helped that Sue Perkins is from my native Croydon.
Rihanna spent Wednesday evening in a studio recording vocals for a song by a mysterious artist who has yet to be named. The intention here was they everyone would be provoked into searching really hard to find out who this mystery artist is. In reality though everyone in the business would simply look at that and see the UK doing everything in it's power to delay Rihanna's departure to China in order to increase her stress levels and encourage her to do more cocaine. On the plus side China appear to be taking a very welcoming and supportive stance towards Rihanna so she should be looking forward to quite a pleasent stay in the country.
With such a clear example of the devastating effect the wrong word uttered at the wrong time can have I am obviously hesitant as to what to say next.
However on Tuesday (10/9/13) Rihanna flew into London in order to attend a launch party for the autumn collection of her River Island high street fashion line and record an appearance on the Channel 4 chat-show "Alan Carr: Chatty Man." The UK's real reason for inviting Rihanna to London was to show the world that it had prime access Rihanna just before the start of the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour. The UK also hoped to lay the ground work for the illegal drugs element of that tour by getting Rihanna hooked on cocaine. The idea being that Rihanna would do a little big of the drug during the launch party that was attended by the habitual cocaine user Cara Delevingne. Rihanna would then do a little bit more in order to help her get through the Chatty Man recording which also features Miley Cyrus with who Rihanna has a little bit of tension. Having been delayed by the Chatty Man recording the stress of rushing to China is likely to mean that Rihanna would want to do a little bit more just to get through the Macau show. With a small war breaking out in the Philippines ahead of Rihanna's next tour date the stress of the tour and the pain of the comedowns both getting worse will mean that the temptation for Rihanna to do ever more cocaine will only grow. Obviously Rihanna attempting to transport quantities of an illegal drug like cocaine through international border post creates the same sort of legal worries as transporting quantities of marijuana only with stiffer legal penalties.
Obviously because even in espionage circles deliberately getting someone addicted to a drug like cocaine in order to destroy them is still considered a little taboo the UK tried to cover this aspect up by putting on a barrage of inflammatory news stories mainly centred around rape a paedophilia. For example the verdict was reached in the trial of Micheal Turner (aka Micheal Levell). This is the second time that Turner has been acquitted of sexual abusing young children. The first case centred around the abuse of a young boy while this trial centred around the abuse of a young girl. As Turner is/was a member of the soap opera "Coronation Street" alongside William Roache this drags up all the connections with Roache's weird interview with New Zealand TV in which he seemed to argue that paedophilia was a Protestant religious duty. Also the UK have been trying really hard to draw comparisons between Turner and myself dragging up all the issues surrounding my Criminal Damage Court case. Then the Deputy Speaker of the UK House of Commons Nigel Evans resigned after being charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. Mr Evans is gay so all these allegations relate to adult men. In nations where homosexuality is either deeply frowned upon or out and out illegal this is likely to lead to quite a lot of confusion. Finally Alan Carr the presenter of Chatty Man rose to fame as part of a double act with Justin Lee Collins. Lee Collins' career ended after it was revealed that he is a seriously strange domestic abuser who subjected his girlfriend/wife to years of physical and psychological abuse. That has an obvious connection to Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown.
For their part the US were keen to use Rihanna's trip to London as a way to put the boot into Israel while laying the ground work to the immigration element that is going to be a feature of Rihanna's Caribbean and US concerts at the end of the tour. This involved Rihanna's management putting out a rumour that "Pour it Up" will be released as Rihanna's next single. That was intended to provoke the obvious response that Rihanna shouldn't bother releasing anymore singles from the "Unapologetic" album and instead should concentrate on getting back to her music career once her stint as a CIA agent has ended. This problem of people being forced to take a break from their careers while they complete compulsory military service has resonance in any nation that has compulsory national service but is an especially hot button issue in Israel especially with the Israeli military moving away from the manpower intensive infantry model to a smaller, more specialised model. The fact that Rihanna is not a citizen of the nation that is forcing her to do this compulsory service promotes discussion about US immigration policy because a stint in the US military is quite a common route for immigrants, especially from the Caribbean, to obtain US citizenship.
Both the US and the UK are also trying to use the visit as a way to promote discussion about Rihanna's safety and security on this tour. Although I won't give out the specific location Rihanna is currently staying in a hotel close to London's Park Lane road. Most of the other hotels in this area are currently full with delegates attending the "Defence Systems Exhibition International (DSEi) which is the worlds largest arms fair. In previous years the presence of DSEi delegates has attracted large, noisy and disruptive protests to the Park Lane area. The hope is that these scenes will be repeated during Rihanna's visit restricting her movement as she has to avoid road blocks and clashes between police and protesters. Although I haven't checked Rihanna doesn't appear to be travelling with her usual security detail made up of former US Secret Service agents who are well trained and experienced in dealing with this type of threat. The prospect of Rihanna taking a less qualified security team on her tour creates obvious worries about her safety especially in places like South Africa and the Philippines. However it must be said that this argument is unlikely to gain much traction though because Rihanna is clearly acting as a US agent so if they choose not to protect her that's their decision.
I suppose we're all supposed to spend today frantically looking for rumours about whether will attend the Chatty Man recording which is not scheduled for broadcast for a few months yet or simply blow it off so she can get to China on time. Rihanna will obviously attend the recording but I personally think that's a shame because Chatty Man is the type of program Rihanna ignore without any great consequence. In fact it brings to mind that old proverb of "If a tree falls in the forest and there's no-one there to hear it does it make a sound?"
12:10 on 11/9/13.
Edited at around 09:15 on 13/9/13 to add;
Rihanna has either just arrived in China or is just about to arrive in China so I just should quickly point out that while Rihanna was in London none of that stuff about cocaine use or protests outside the hotel actually happened.
After what I'm assuming was a relatively quiet night Rihanna went off to record her appearance on "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" around lunchtime/early afternoon. As part of that appearance Rihanna announced that "What Now" will be her next single which is intended to reinforce the idea that Rihanna and Chris Brown have broken up in an attempt to trick us into thinking there is no need for Chris Brown's restraining order to be reinstated. It also rather unsubtly poses the question of "What Now for Rihanna?" which attempts to feed the compulsory military service debate.
Although it was recorded much later in the day the episode of Alan Carr: Chatty Man featuring Miley Cyrus also featured the UK comedy duo "Mel & Sue" who present a BBC2 show called "The Great British Bakeoff." The latest series of this has been promoted by this trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzUfP8VHkg which is very much inspired by Rihanna's song "Birthday Cake" and all it's vaginal references. Added to that as a 'gift' to celebrate the launch of her River Island line UK designer Stella McCartney sent Rihanna a clutch bag featuring the image of a penis. What the UK will claim they were doing was putting pressure on Rihanna to make her reconsider her relationship with Chris Brown. In reality what they were doing is putting pressure on Rihanna in order to make her head spin in an effort to encourage her to take more cocaine. To make matters worse Sue Perkins is gay while Mel Giedroyc is straight. This obviously promotes discussion about how they are able to maintain a close but non-sexual relationship that's possibly very similar to Rihanna's relationship with Melissa Forde. It can't have helped that Sue Perkins is from my native Croydon.
Rihanna spent Wednesday evening in a studio recording vocals for a song by a mysterious artist who has yet to be named. The intention here was they everyone would be provoked into searching really hard to find out who this mystery artist is. In reality though everyone in the business would simply look at that and see the UK doing everything in it's power to delay Rihanna's departure to China in order to increase her stress levels and encourage her to do more cocaine. On the plus side China appear to be taking a very welcoming and supportive stance towards Rihanna so she should be looking forward to quite a pleasent stay in the country.
Saturday 7 September 2013
Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 1, Day 2.
On September 24th (24/9/13) Rihanna will bring her Diamonds World Tour to Pert, Australia for the start of a series of 10 concerts in Australia and New Zealand. As I've explained before the political purpose of these concerts is to allow Rihanna's CIA handlers to asses Australian and to a lesser extent New Zealander attitudes towards a range of issues particularly immigration and drug smuggling.
The path of drugs and illegal immigrants being smuggled into Australia begins in South-East Asia in countries that neighbour China such as Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Therefore the smuggling issue provides a starting point for discussions about attitudes towards the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy that involves boxing China in by bringing its neighbours into the US' sphere of influence through a mixture of lifting economic sanctions and offering protection from the threat from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) - a threat which of course the US is helping to artificially create.
Rihanna is also being lent out to the UK in order to allow it test the loyalty of these two members of the UK Commonwealth Realm to the UK Crown. This will be done by seeing if they will be prepared to use the information provided by the UK to mount a low level harassment campaign against Rihanna. The primary target of this test would be Australia's political leaders as they fought an election campaign and tried to form a new government.
That election was held on Saturday (7/9/13) and although the formal results have yet to be announced the right-wing Liberal/Nationalist coalition led by Tony Abbott has claimed victory while the left-wing Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd has conceded defeat. In terms of how this will affect Rihanna the only good thing I can say is that it has produced an outright winner. That means there won't be a lenghty negotiation to form a coalition government in which different factions try to outdo each other by pledging to take ever tougher action against Rihanna.
Beyond that though this is the worst possible outcome for Rihanna. The Liberal/Nationalist coalition has traditionally been far more loyal to the UK Crown then the Labor Party so is much less likely to refuse instructions. Added to that Tony Abbott's government will be a new government keen to make a show of its loyalty. Finally Abbott is a Catholic and actually once trained as a priest. The relationship between Catholics and the Protestant UK Crown has historically been very bad with members of the Royal Family being banned from marrying Catholics up until very recently. Therefore Abbott is likely to be viewed with a higher degree of suspicion then say a Protestant Prime Minister. As such he is likely to want to try harder to prove his loyalty.
Also through things like the recovery operation at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand and the discovery of new evidence by the 2DayFM radio station that was involved in prank phonecalls the the hospital in which the Duchess of Cambridge was staying both Australia and New Zealand are clearly very worried that the UK will put pressure on them to lash out particularly hard against Rihanna as a sort of peace offering to the Gulf Monarchies for the UK not getting involved in military action against Syria.
That said though the type of action Australia and New Zealand will be asked to take against Rihanna will be low level, low impact stuff such as noisy neighbours at hotels, rider requests not being fulfilled and local drivers getting 'lost' going to and from concert venues rather than things that threaten Rihanna's life, limb or freedom. The primary intention being to frustrate Rihanna to the point that she delivers a series of poor concert performances so her fans lose interest. The fans may also be targeted themselves with traffic congestion around the venues, problems with public transport and the sort of poor venue management that makes it difficult for the fans to get into the venues forcing them to stand around outside for hours on end. The secondary objective is to contribute to a general sense of stress and frustration that will build over the South Africa concerts before reaching a climax at the Abu Dhabi concert at which point Rihanna is scheduled for a full scale nervous breakdown.
As I've said before I would very much like to be in closer, more direct contact with Rihanna during this period. That's because in private rather than just reeling off a long list of threats I can go into a lot more detail about what form those threats will take and how to minimise their impact. Plus once we get the business stuff out of the way we might even get back to a point where we could have some fun. Unfortunately this doesn't seem likely to happen because apparently I'm not capable of the levels of complete sycophantic devotion to which Rihanna seems to have become accustomed. As you may have noticed I'm finding that more than a little bit irritating.
15:45 on 7/9/13.
The path of drugs and illegal immigrants being smuggled into Australia begins in South-East Asia in countries that neighbour China such as Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Therefore the smuggling issue provides a starting point for discussions about attitudes towards the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy that involves boxing China in by bringing its neighbours into the US' sphere of influence through a mixture of lifting economic sanctions and offering protection from the threat from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) - a threat which of course the US is helping to artificially create.
Rihanna is also being lent out to the UK in order to allow it test the loyalty of these two members of the UK Commonwealth Realm to the UK Crown. This will be done by seeing if they will be prepared to use the information provided by the UK to mount a low level harassment campaign against Rihanna. The primary target of this test would be Australia's political leaders as they fought an election campaign and tried to form a new government.
That election was held on Saturday (7/9/13) and although the formal results have yet to be announced the right-wing Liberal/Nationalist coalition led by Tony Abbott has claimed victory while the left-wing Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd has conceded defeat. In terms of how this will affect Rihanna the only good thing I can say is that it has produced an outright winner. That means there won't be a lenghty negotiation to form a coalition government in which different factions try to outdo each other by pledging to take ever tougher action against Rihanna.
Beyond that though this is the worst possible outcome for Rihanna. The Liberal/Nationalist coalition has traditionally been far more loyal to the UK Crown then the Labor Party so is much less likely to refuse instructions. Added to that Tony Abbott's government will be a new government keen to make a show of its loyalty. Finally Abbott is a Catholic and actually once trained as a priest. The relationship between Catholics and the Protestant UK Crown has historically been very bad with members of the Royal Family being banned from marrying Catholics up until very recently. Therefore Abbott is likely to be viewed with a higher degree of suspicion then say a Protestant Prime Minister. As such he is likely to want to try harder to prove his loyalty.
Also through things like the recovery operation at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand and the discovery of new evidence by the 2DayFM radio station that was involved in prank phonecalls the the hospital in which the Duchess of Cambridge was staying both Australia and New Zealand are clearly very worried that the UK will put pressure on them to lash out particularly hard against Rihanna as a sort of peace offering to the Gulf Monarchies for the UK not getting involved in military action against Syria.
That said though the type of action Australia and New Zealand will be asked to take against Rihanna will be low level, low impact stuff such as noisy neighbours at hotels, rider requests not being fulfilled and local drivers getting 'lost' going to and from concert venues rather than things that threaten Rihanna's life, limb or freedom. The primary intention being to frustrate Rihanna to the point that she delivers a series of poor concert performances so her fans lose interest. The fans may also be targeted themselves with traffic congestion around the venues, problems with public transport and the sort of poor venue management that makes it difficult for the fans to get into the venues forcing them to stand around outside for hours on end. The secondary objective is to contribute to a general sense of stress and frustration that will build over the South Africa concerts before reaching a climax at the Abu Dhabi concert at which point Rihanna is scheduled for a full scale nervous breakdown.
As I've said before I would very much like to be in closer, more direct contact with Rihanna during this period. That's because in private rather than just reeling off a long list of threats I can go into a lot more detail about what form those threats will take and how to minimise their impact. Plus once we get the business stuff out of the way we might even get back to a point where we could have some fun. Unfortunately this doesn't seem likely to happen because apparently I'm not capable of the levels of complete sycophantic devotion to which Rihanna seems to have become accustomed. As you may have noticed I'm finding that more than a little bit irritating.
15:45 on 7/9/13.
Friday 6 September 2013
The Great Repository of Tweets.
As you may have noticed due to the G20 and a general level of laziness I have largely been eschewing blog posts in favour of Tweets. However I feel some of those Tweets - especially the ones from Thursday (5/9/13) - could be considered important so I've decided to list them below;
"1/2 Although it was intended as a reference to the Pivot towards the Pacific Obama's decision to open his#G20 w/ a bilateral w/ Japan was"
"2/3 interesting b/c Japan went very public w/ Fukishima's toxic water as reference to my neighbours complaints about my use of herbicide."
"23/3 The Syrian Sarin gas attacks seems to be the Saudi contribution to that discussion."
"1/2 It alright though through the tornado that blew out the windows and Wednesday's 'quake that matched Tuesday's British Columbia 'quake"
"2/2 it seems the Japanese have already been wrapped on the knuckles for not respecting the volatility of the situation."
"1/2 The assassination attempt on#Egypt's Interior Minister is as it seems. A flagging protest movement diversifying into classical"
"2/2 terrorism. As I said in previous posts it's been building up over the last few weeks."
"@chattyman @RihannaDaily @rihanna and Miley Cyrus on the same night. Just admit it there's only one guest you really, really want."
"1/2 At the risk of jeopardising 100's of insurance claims I'm convinced that the#Sheppey crash was nothing more than an act of god."
"2/3 There was a certain artistry to it though. E.g early morning fog behaves a lot like Sarin which is why attacks tend to take place in the"
"3/4 early morning. The long crash was like the Gulf War's "Road of Death" and well quite a few people haven't been getting to their planned"
"4/4 destinations recently."
"1/2 As I go to bed I should point out; I haven't had a totally unproductive day. I had breakfast, went to the supermarket and got a haircut."
"2/2 I also watched my father apply more herbicide. So not totally unproductive."
Then on Friday I awoke with; "Result it's raining so I don't have to water the grass to get that lawn stuff working." and then generally started talking b*llocks.
Anyway rather proving my point about general laziness I'm now going to use this as an opportunity to talk about something entirely different;
Today in the UK some ugly women have been appearing on television once again trying to claim they don't enjoy being raped.
Then of course Micheal Turner who occasionally disguises the fact he's a paedophile by appearing in the UK soap "Coronation Street" under the stage name "Michael Le Vell" has once again appeared in Court accused of raping a child. On this occasion I believe it was a female aged between 12 and 15 years old. Apart from the connection with rape that will become apparent shortly this was intended to promote discussion about fellow Coronation Street paedophile William Roache. Particularly that bizarre interview he gave to a TV station in New Zealand in which he posed certain ecumenical questions. Seriously if Turner gets off this charge people will start asking serious questions about what sort of deal Coronation Street has done with the UK Crown in order to stay out of jail.
Finally a pair of muppets at the BBC have decided to contradict each other over payments made to BBC staff who resigned. This classic "He said, She Said" scenario is going to lead to a stiff grilling by a House of Commons select committee on Monday (9/9/13). The important thing to remember is just like the Jimmy Savile scandal that all this stems from it is largely the government of the day trying to wipe out the BBC because, well they promised Rupert Murdoch.
However taken together all these exciting references to rape remind me of words I couldn't find on August 23rd (23/8/13) when I was last brought to Court. Basically by presenting a "He said, She said" case the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were attempting to fuel the global discussion about rape. By accepting it Croydon Magistrates Court were hoping to use the Criminal Damage case as a metaphor for that accusation that I fathered a child by raping a woman back in, I think, 2007. Of course by accepting the case I think all they've actually done is prove that (a) the prosecution is politically motivated and (b) they clearly have no problem dragging me to Court on a "He said, She said" allegation making me once again seriously doubt the substance of that rape allegation.
It was perhaps that realisation that caused my law firm to send me a note this week. It's something about Legal Aid which I should probably read at some point in the fullness of time. However there's no great rush because with the next hearing not scheduled until November I think Rihanna should be meeting the fees. After all it's only around 5 hours at GBP500. Oh and apparently Dale Cregan is refusing food.
As for the closure of the Dartford Crossing Bridge apart from invoking memories of the Lee Rigby murder and p*ssing off pretty much every motorist in the South East I'm getting a distinct odour of infrastructure spending.
22:15 on 6/9/13.
"1/2 Although it was intended as a reference to the Pivot towards the Pacific Obama's decision to open his
"2/3 interesting b/c Japan went very public w/ Fukishima's toxic water as reference to my neighbours complaints about my use of herbicide."
"23/3 The Syrian Sarin gas attacks seems to be the Saudi contribution to that discussion."
"1/2 It alright though through the tornado that blew out the windows and Wednesday's 'quake that matched Tuesday's British Columbia 'quake"
"2/2 it seems the Japanese have already been wrapped on the knuckles for not respecting the volatility of the situation."
"1/2 The assassination attempt on
"2/2 terrorism. As I said in previous posts it's been building up over the last few weeks."
"
"1/2 At the risk of jeopardising 100's of insurance claims I'm convinced that the
"2/3 There was a certain artistry to it though. E.g early morning fog behaves a lot like Sarin which is why attacks tend to take place in the"
"3/4 early morning. The long crash was like the Gulf War's "Road of Death" and well quite a few people haven't been getting to their planned"
"4/4 destinations recently."
"1/2 As I go to bed I should point out; I haven't had a totally unproductive day. I had breakfast, went to the supermarket and got a haircut."
"2/2 I also watched my father apply more herbicide. So not totally unproductive."
Then on Friday I awoke with; "Result it's raining so I don't have to water the grass to get that lawn stuff working." and then generally started talking b*llocks.
Anyway rather proving my point about general laziness I'm now going to use this as an opportunity to talk about something entirely different;
Today in the UK some ugly women have been appearing on television once again trying to claim they don't enjoy being raped.
Then of course Micheal Turner who occasionally disguises the fact he's a paedophile by appearing in the UK soap "Coronation Street" under the stage name "Michael Le Vell" has once again appeared in Court accused of raping a child. On this occasion I believe it was a female aged between 12 and 15 years old. Apart from the connection with rape that will become apparent shortly this was intended to promote discussion about fellow Coronation Street paedophile William Roache. Particularly that bizarre interview he gave to a TV station in New Zealand in which he posed certain ecumenical questions. Seriously if Turner gets off this charge people will start asking serious questions about what sort of deal Coronation Street has done with the UK Crown in order to stay out of jail.
Finally a pair of muppets at the BBC have decided to contradict each other over payments made to BBC staff who resigned. This classic "He said, She Said" scenario is going to lead to a stiff grilling by a House of Commons select committee on Monday (9/9/13). The important thing to remember is just like the Jimmy Savile scandal that all this stems from it is largely the government of the day trying to wipe out the BBC because, well they promised Rupert Murdoch.
However taken together all these exciting references to rape remind me of words I couldn't find on August 23rd (23/8/13) when I was last brought to Court. Basically by presenting a "He said, She said" case the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were attempting to fuel the global discussion about rape. By accepting it Croydon Magistrates Court were hoping to use the Criminal Damage case as a metaphor for that accusation that I fathered a child by raping a woman back in, I think, 2007. Of course by accepting the case I think all they've actually done is prove that (a) the prosecution is politically motivated and (b) they clearly have no problem dragging me to Court on a "He said, She said" allegation making me once again seriously doubt the substance of that rape allegation.
It was perhaps that realisation that caused my law firm to send me a note this week. It's something about Legal Aid which I should probably read at some point in the fullness of time. However there's no great rush because with the next hearing not scheduled until November I think Rihanna should be meeting the fees. After all it's only around 5 hours at GBP500. Oh and apparently Dale Cregan is refusing food.
As for the closure of the Dartford Crossing Bridge apart from invoking memories of the Lee Rigby murder and p*ssing off pretty much every motorist in the South East I'm getting a distinct odour of infrastructure spending.
22:15 on 6/9/13.
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