These Summits Can be Murder.

Recently the UK hosted the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Summit. Being the UK they couldn't resist having some big, spectacular stories such as the Ashya King case to accompany the event. As with the Olympic ceremonies these stories were supposed function much like an psychologist's Rorschach/ink blot test. That is to say that there was no purpose to them other then to test out how people react to them by seeing what element they focus on.

One such of these stories has been the disappearance of Alice Gross, 14 from London on August 28th (28/8/14). Alice is said to suffer from anorexia and eating disorders that my family has a great deal of awareness off. "Alice" is also the name of a girl I used to know back in my old life in Brighton. That Alice didn't so much stop returning my phone calls as disappeared from the face to the earth witness protection style. With little proof that she ever existed that Alice has become something of a legend in entertainment circles. When I was discussing her as part of the 2012 para-Olympic closing ceremony I described her as being part of a long line of women who have stormed off from me thinking they can do better only to discover that they can't. Due to her appearance in the 2012 para-Olympic closing ceremony I think it is fair to now include Rihanna on that list and I don't seem to be alone in that thought.

Amid seemingly compulsory references to the July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) Al Qaeda bombings in London, UK it has emerged that the police are searching for a 41 year old Latvian man who had previously served 7 years in a Latvian prison for murdering his first wife. This obviously brings in all the issues surrounding crime and punishment - the issue of sentencing in particular - but for certain sections of the UK public and a growing number of founder members of the European Union (EU) its all about immigration from the new EU member states. However for NATO purposes the link to Rihanna meant that it attempted to invoke memories of the 2014 Eurovision Song Concert.

You may remember that here the Baltic states - such as Latvia with their song "Cake to Bake" - were focused very heavily on Rihanna and basically got mocked for it by their peers for following the previous years trends.

The Baltic states along with Poland are new members of  both the EU and  NATO. It has been this little grouping along with America that has been pushing both the EU and NATO for more provocative action against Russia which is severely straining EU/Russian relations not least because it damages both of their economies. As such the question was sort of being raised as to whether, in their quest to join the west, these nations would be happier joining the USA rather then the EU?

The US' main effort for the NATO summit was of course the Ray Rice/NFL domestic violence saga. If you somehow failed to make the connection between this, Rihanna and her relationship with Chris Brown CBS - who broadcast the NFL in the US - brought in Rihanna to help promote the start of the new season. However Rihanna was dropped at the last minute specifically because of her personal connection to the domestic violence issue. As Eurovision showed it has been a very long while since anyone in Europe has had any interest in what Rihanna does so this was always bound to fail.

The US obviously didn't like the UK stealing its thunder so it responded by aggressively trying to match the Alice Gross disappearance with the disappearance of Hannah Graham an 18 year old student at the University of Virginia who went missing from the Downtown (Abbey) Mall on September 13th (13/9/14). Chris Brown of course comes from the state of West Virginia which is, erm well, just west of Virginia. The name "Hannah" is used to represent a composite character of people working within UK intelligence. She's white, aged in her late 20's/early 30's, graduated from university (but not one of the better ones) and is gay. Every disaster by British intelligence - particularly MI5 - automatically gets blamed on this Hannah character because there seems to be a general consensus that she's not particularly good at her job.

As such the US seems to be expressing its general displeasure at the UK while trying to get the attention back on them. For example Hannah Graham is white but was last seen in the company of an unidentified black man. That obviously raises the issue of race - in particular interracial relationship - which the US has long been trying to convince us is a major issue in US politics.

This all seemed a bit much for Thailand who are trying to get their post-coup junta/'government' accepted by the international community. So they went out and murdered a Hannah of their own. Hannah Witheridge, 23 and David Miller, 24 were found semi-nude on a beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao. They had both been beaten to death with a hoe - as in the gardening implement rather then the woman from all the rap songs.It has since emerged that shortly prior to her death Ms Witheridge had engaged in sexual activity with multiple men who were not Mr Miller. This element of the story which is rather euphemistically being described as "DNA samples" has helped rule out several British men who were originally declared to be suspects and prompted lots of discussion about sexual promiscuity and tourists flouting of local Thai modest standards. It also provides us with a pretty accurate description of who the attackers are although from the speed at which the locals closed down the tourist ferries I'm pretty sure they all know exactly which locals committed the crime but are too afraid of the police to identify them.

The Witheridge/Miller Story obviously attempts to put Thailand in the middle of the discussion between the US and UK but also puts it in direct contact with the UK which suggests that after their Rihanna 'gift' last year they still really don't trust the US' judgement.

18:15 on 21/9/14 (UK date).