Throughout this week Russia has been holding bail hearings for 30 Greenpeace activists from 18 nations who were arrested aboard the Arctic Sunrise ship on September 19th 2013 (2013) and initially charged with piracy. Those charges were then lowered to hooliganism and so far 18 have been bailed, 1 has been remanded in custody, 5 will have their cases heard later in the week and I don't think even Greenpeace know what is going on with the other 6.
Coming during the high level segment of the COP19/CMP9 these sudden grants of bail are supposed to signal that Russia is taking a softer position on measures to tackle climate change. After all the point Greenpeace was trying to make is that Russia has long accepted that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming and that warming is causing Arctic sea ice to melt. However rather then taking action to prevent this Russia seems to have actually been trying to speed it up in order to take advantage of the melting ice opening up new shipping lanes and making Arctic oil easier to access. So by being gentle on the Greenpeace activists Russia is trying to send the message that it may be reconsidering that position.
Obviously this message has been tempered somewhat by the sheer confusion the bail hearings have caused. For example no-one is quite sure if the activists have been granted conditional bail or unconditional bail or whether they will be allowed Russia before their trial. Also there is the question of whether Russia is trying to hold onto the one activist whose been denied bail and those who were given the option to apply for bail in order to punish or maintain channels of communication with certain nations.
I am prepared to make allowances for Russia on this because since the start of the Saudi and Qatari invasion of Syria Russia has come under relentless pressure from all quarters. For example this protest by a Greenpeace ship with a majority UK Commonwealth crew does not strike me as the groups wisest move. As a result Russia is now on its version of a global charm offensive in order to repair its reputation. The most worrying element of this have been the increasing overtures Russia has been making towards Egypt. On one level this is just Russia tying to make friends while the US seems hellbent on destroying its reputation in the region. However it also seems intended to send the message to the Saudis and the Qataris that if Russia can find a replacement Mediterranean sea port it will be happy to press ahead with this chemical weapons destruction scheme giving the Saudis and Qataris exactly what they want.
On a barely related topic that I'm including here because it's hardly worth a full post the UK's efforts to disrupt the COP19/CMP9 has obviously been my case and its aftermath. I've decided not to aid them by commenting on this anymore then I have to. However one international element has been the case of chronically obese Frenchman Kevin Chenais. Chenais was due to fly back from the US to France last month but UK airline British Airways refused to transport him because he was too fat. After lengthy discussions he was flown to the UK last week by another UK airline Virgin Atlantic. Today he tried to return to France via the Eurostar but was told he was too fat to fit in the Channel Tunnel. Finally the UK owned ferry company P&O agreed to sail him back to France and Eurostar provided an ambulance to take him to the port. This is all the UK trying to assess how people feel about lifted the long standing travel restrictions on me. That's because the UK is now very keen for me to able to fly off and meet off with Rihanna. It's almost as if certain people have failed to generate the intelligence product they were supposed to.
In slightly better and actual COP19/CMP9 news Norway (USD135million), the UK (USD120million) and the US (USD25million) have together pledged USD280million for a new scheme they are calling the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) which will contribute to the REDD+. Although no-one's in a position to complain about any money that's being pledged at the pointI hope this will be a stop-gap measure while the Green Climate Fund (GCF) gets up and running rather then a rival to it.
18:00 on 20/11/13 (UK date).
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Operation Misery: Month 9, Week 3, Day 2.
Just as I was going to bed on Monday (18/11/13) night paparazzi pictures of Rihanna out and about in New York City started to emerged. Apart from the new black bob Rihanna was wearing 1970's style black leather flared trousers, a black leather 1970's style trenchcoat and let's just say a black fabric T-shirt.
Some people have suggested that this made her look like Whitney Houston. Although Whitney Houston did wear a similar style trenchcoat and hairstyle in the video for one of her later singles I think the outfit was mainly a reference to the uniform of the US Black Panther movement of the 1960's and 1970's. Their agenda of black empowerment obviously had huge resonance in the South African anti-apartheid movement which under the leadership of Winnie Mandela at the time was not quite as warm and cuddly as everybody likes to remember. As a result the black leather trenchcoat sort of became a symbol of resistance across the western world during what was really the golden age of international terrorism.
There is also a widely held conspiracy theory that the CIA flooded the US' black, urban population with cocaine and heroin in order to destroy the Black Panther movement. Whitney Houston of course died after decades of cocaine abuse and as I've been saying for a long time Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) have been trying to get Rihanna hooked on cocaine in order to make sure she meets the same fate as Whitney Houston. So while I can't help but be a little impressed by Rihanna's choice of outfit it hardly fits with my recommendation that she keeps a low profile politically.
While she was out and about in New York Rihanna made a point of making sure that paparazzi saw her visiting a tattoo parlour where she picked up some miscellaneous bits and pieces. The main purpose of the visit though was to draw attention to the fact that Rihanna has started having the early work done on her left hand for a tattoo similar to the cover up job she recently had done on her right hand. The hope seems to be that if the tattoos match it will make the right-handed tattoo look less ugly. I obviously think that it will just make it doubly ugly. Therefore Rihanna getting yet another tattoo could be interpreted as an act of defiance of me and my views.
On Tuesday (19/11/13) there was further defiance with Melissa Forde posting on Instagram/Twitter a picture of her sitting with her feet up on a private jet eating popcorn. Obviously with no indication of where she was headed or why a picture that simply indicates Rihanna's core social group are on a plane causes more problems then it solves. I like to think that the popcorn was intended to indicate that Forde was going to enjoy sitting back and watching what management had assured her would be a very stressful evening for me. I of course responded by mocking her homosexuality.
A few hours later Rihanna posted a picture on Instagram only of her herself together with Forde in what could be a hotel room or could be a private jet. The picture claimed that the pair were in Detroit and the flight times would broadly support that. The fact that Rihanna didn't re-post that image on Twitter so I could see it immediately along with her failure to offer any evidence to support the claim that she was in Detroit could well be interpreted as further acts of defiance against me.
We are of course still awaiting confirmation that Rihanna is indeed in Detroit along with the bullsh*t excuse as to why she is in Detroit. However the intention is to create speculation that Rihanna is in Eminem's home town to work on the video for the song "The Monster." The issue of whether the management have given Rihanna permission to work with one of the Eminem's is of course a conversational mine field. There is also hope that Rihanna's presence in Detroit will be viewed as having some connection to the race issues brought up in the ongoing Theodore Wafer/Renisha McBride case which is of course being further complicated by the subsequent arrest of George Zimmerman.
Obviously I didn't find out about Rihanna's Instagram picture until about four hours after it had happened. As a result I though it might have had some bearing on my decision to ignore Tweets from both Cara Delevinge and Chris Brown. As it turns it didn't and that's just sort of what my brain does when I really should have gone to bed 20 minutes earlier.
12:00 on 20/11/13 (UK date).
Some people have suggested that this made her look like Whitney Houston. Although Whitney Houston did wear a similar style trenchcoat and hairstyle in the video for one of her later singles I think the outfit was mainly a reference to the uniform of the US Black Panther movement of the 1960's and 1970's. Their agenda of black empowerment obviously had huge resonance in the South African anti-apartheid movement which under the leadership of Winnie Mandela at the time was not quite as warm and cuddly as everybody likes to remember. As a result the black leather trenchcoat sort of became a symbol of resistance across the western world during what was really the golden age of international terrorism.
There is also a widely held conspiracy theory that the CIA flooded the US' black, urban population with cocaine and heroin in order to destroy the Black Panther movement. Whitney Houston of course died after decades of cocaine abuse and as I've been saying for a long time Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) have been trying to get Rihanna hooked on cocaine in order to make sure she meets the same fate as Whitney Houston. So while I can't help but be a little impressed by Rihanna's choice of outfit it hardly fits with my recommendation that she keeps a low profile politically.
While she was out and about in New York Rihanna made a point of making sure that paparazzi saw her visiting a tattoo parlour where she picked up some miscellaneous bits and pieces. The main purpose of the visit though was to draw attention to the fact that Rihanna has started having the early work done on her left hand for a tattoo similar to the cover up job she recently had done on her right hand. The hope seems to be that if the tattoos match it will make the right-handed tattoo look less ugly. I obviously think that it will just make it doubly ugly. Therefore Rihanna getting yet another tattoo could be interpreted as an act of defiance of me and my views.
On Tuesday (19/11/13) there was further defiance with Melissa Forde posting on Instagram/Twitter a picture of her sitting with her feet up on a private jet eating popcorn. Obviously with no indication of where she was headed or why a picture that simply indicates Rihanna's core social group are on a plane causes more problems then it solves. I like to think that the popcorn was intended to indicate that Forde was going to enjoy sitting back and watching what management had assured her would be a very stressful evening for me. I of course responded by mocking her homosexuality.
A few hours later Rihanna posted a picture on Instagram only of her herself together with Forde in what could be a hotel room or could be a private jet. The picture claimed that the pair were in Detroit and the flight times would broadly support that. The fact that Rihanna didn't re-post that image on Twitter so I could see it immediately along with her failure to offer any evidence to support the claim that she was in Detroit could well be interpreted as further acts of defiance against me.
We are of course still awaiting confirmation that Rihanna is indeed in Detroit along with the bullsh*t excuse as to why she is in Detroit. However the intention is to create speculation that Rihanna is in Eminem's home town to work on the video for the song "The Monster." The issue of whether the management have given Rihanna permission to work with one of the Eminem's is of course a conversational mine field. There is also hope that Rihanna's presence in Detroit will be viewed as having some connection to the race issues brought up in the ongoing Theodore Wafer/Renisha McBride case which is of course being further complicated by the subsequent arrest of George Zimmerman.
Obviously I didn't find out about Rihanna's Instagram picture until about four hours after it had happened. As a result I though it might have had some bearing on my decision to ignore Tweets from both Cara Delevinge and Chris Brown. As it turns it didn't and that's just sort of what my brain does when I really should have gone to bed 20 minutes earlier.
12:00 on 20/11/13 (UK date).
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
COP19/CMP9: I'm Going to be Using This Title Again.
It turns out that six hours reading is not enough to get anywhere near up to speed on this. However with the high level segment beginning today I should point out that apart from attempts to flesh out the Durban Platform on Adaptation (ADP) needed to provide the framework for a 2015 replacement to the Kyoto Protocol the other big issue has been that of finance.
Under the Kyoto Protocol the main mechanisms for climate finance was the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that capped carbon emissions and allowed tokens to exceed those caps (CERS) to be sold on the open market. The intention was that the majority of the revenue generated by these CERS would be used to cut deforestation through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) program which was enhanced to REDD+ by the Bali road map.
The Bali road map and therefore the REDD+ program expired at COP18/CMP8 in Doha. At that same summit the CDM was gutted by the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol caps that collapsed the value of CERS. The value of CERS was further reduced by the decision to extend their life past one year creating a glut on the market. This campaign was led by Poland, the current hosts of the COP19/CMP9 Summit however I feel it was their European Union (EU) partners pushing them to the front of that debate. Fortunately in preparation for the Doha Summit a new mechanism for climate finance known as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was agreed. In 2013 the GCF finally became a legal entity although it is not yet at a point where it can receive donations or disburse grants.
All the work needed to set up the GCF and the ADP along with all the work that used to be done by the Ad-Hoc working groups of the Kyoto Protocol is now being done by the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) on top of all the usual work the SBI does. In response to all this extra pressure the amount of funding the SBI receives has remained largely the same and they're coming under so much pressure from the UK to freeze their budget they included one of the UK's favourite catch phrases "Fit for Purpose" in their annual report.
Obviously with climate finance pretty much frozen the old Annex II developing nations are beginning to panic that the old Annex I developed nations are going to renege on the spending commitments creating a very tense atmosphere. Although mainly through fault of my own I'm not in anywhere near in a position to comment on this may I suggest rather then attacking directly on the funding issue the Annex II nations instead try and pin the Annex I nations on restoring caps for carbon emissions because that will not only slow the growth of carbon emissions but is will breath now life into the CDM. It also makes it looks less like you're just beggars on the take. After all following the year they've had no-one is believing the Central African Republic's self-certification.
Also along with suffering from what seems like a full-scale nervous breakdown since the well COP18/CMP8 the US is now starting to respond to the finance issue by heavily politicise it's aid effort in the Philippines. That's a shame because I thought the US' effort merely an opportunity to correct a grievous error.
23:05 on 19/11/13 (UK date).
Under the Kyoto Protocol the main mechanisms for climate finance was the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that capped carbon emissions and allowed tokens to exceed those caps (CERS) to be sold on the open market. The intention was that the majority of the revenue generated by these CERS would be used to cut deforestation through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) program which was enhanced to REDD+ by the Bali road map.
The Bali road map and therefore the REDD+ program expired at COP18/CMP8 in Doha. At that same summit the CDM was gutted by the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol caps that collapsed the value of CERS. The value of CERS was further reduced by the decision to extend their life past one year creating a glut on the market. This campaign was led by Poland, the current hosts of the COP19/CMP9 Summit however I feel it was their European Union (EU) partners pushing them to the front of that debate. Fortunately in preparation for the Doha Summit a new mechanism for climate finance known as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was agreed. In 2013 the GCF finally became a legal entity although it is not yet at a point where it can receive donations or disburse grants.
All the work needed to set up the GCF and the ADP along with all the work that used to be done by the Ad-Hoc working groups of the Kyoto Protocol is now being done by the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) on top of all the usual work the SBI does. In response to all this extra pressure the amount of funding the SBI receives has remained largely the same and they're coming under so much pressure from the UK to freeze their budget they included one of the UK's favourite catch phrases "Fit for Purpose" in their annual report.
Obviously with climate finance pretty much frozen the old Annex II developing nations are beginning to panic that the old Annex I developed nations are going to renege on the spending commitments creating a very tense atmosphere. Although mainly through fault of my own I'm not in anywhere near in a position to comment on this may I suggest rather then attacking directly on the funding issue the Annex II nations instead try and pin the Annex I nations on restoring caps for carbon emissions because that will not only slow the growth of carbon emissions but is will breath now life into the CDM. It also makes it looks less like you're just beggars on the take. After all following the year they've had no-one is believing the Central African Republic's self-certification.
Also along with suffering from what seems like a full-scale nervous breakdown since the well COP18/CMP8 the US is now starting to respond to the finance issue by heavily politicise it's aid effort in the Philippines. That's a shame because I thought the US' effort merely an opportunity to correct a grievous error.
23:05 on 19/11/13 (UK date).
Monday, 18 November 2013
Operation Misery: Month 9, Week 2, Day 7.
Much to everyones annoyance despite the end of the Diamonds World Tour Rihanna remains still very much alive. As far as anyone can tell she is currently celebrating this fact whilst holed up in a hotel in New York City, US. Considering that Rihanna is currently renting an apartment just around the corner from this hotel this strikes me as an extremely poor decision.
The poverty of the situation is being particularly added to by the fact that Rihanna is staying in this hotel alongside the British model Cara Delevinge. Although for some reason the pair genuinely appear to be friends Ms Delevinge has a well established reputation as a British informant and actually wore the England soccer/Crystal Palace Football Club style outfit at the recent Victoria's Secret show. Therefore the reason why Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) have forced to pair together at this time is to give the impression that the UK is trying to gather information about an operation that is continues to fully endorse. This may have been true even as recently as September with the UK trying to us Ms Delevinge as a way to get Rihanna hooked on cocaine in an attempt to promote discussion about drug smuggling. However since then even the UK has distanced itself from an operation that now only the US and the US alone thinks should continue.
I will though continue to follow Ms Delevinge on Twitter in an effort to try and work out what on earth the attraction is. After all Cara Delevinge and Melissa Forde together is a lesbian porn film I think we'd all pay to see.
One outcome of Rihanna's stay in New York so far has been that she's changed her hairstyle. Gone are the long extensions and the undercut being replaced by a more natural looking black bob. This seems to be a direct nod to the hairstyle of Nelson Mandela's granddaughter Zoleka who has been doing the rounds recently talking about her battle with cancer. Obviously the element of this story that attracts Rihanna is that if she continues to dye, relax and add to her hair it will fall out at the roots much as Zoleka Mandela's did during her chemotherapy. However being a the star of a Kim Kardashian style reality show Zoleka Mandela also raises the issues of her grandfather Nelson's struggle against apartheid in South Africa and her grandmother Winnie's somewhat less noble role in that struggle whilst making the point that in a relatively poor nation where roughly 1 in 5 people are HIV positive people still face more traditionally western health care problems such as cancer.
Basically one of the main outcomes people are hoping for from the COP19/CMP9 is to flesh the Durban Platform which was laid out at the COP17/CMP7 in Durban, South Africa to provide a replacement for the Kyoto framework which is set to expire in 2015. So win or lose South African has quite a lot of its reputation staked on this.
On the subject of weather/climate the US is currently trying to make an awful lot of a series of late season tornadoes that have swept across parts of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois. Despite being home to Chicago and therefore US President Obama's adopted home state Illinois also contains lots of place names that sound a lot like other place names. For example one of the most talked about areas is the town of Washington that shares its name with Washington D.C where the US federal government is based. So I actually think this storm has been the environment trying to show the US what it has been doing to everybody else for the past year.
After all along with Typhoon Haiyan the US storm has posed lots of relevant questions about how urban design adapts to the threat posed by environmental hazards. Particularly why people who live in an area prone to tornadoes still insist on building their houses out of wood rather then stone? After all the effort to repair the damage will place extra pressure on the world's forests (carbon sinks if you prefer) that the REDD+ program is trying to protect.
15:50 on 18/11/13.
The poverty of the situation is being particularly added to by the fact that Rihanna is staying in this hotel alongside the British model Cara Delevinge. Although for some reason the pair genuinely appear to be friends Ms Delevinge has a well established reputation as a British informant and actually wore the England soccer/Crystal Palace Football Club style outfit at the recent Victoria's Secret show. Therefore the reason why Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) have forced to pair together at this time is to give the impression that the UK is trying to gather information about an operation that is continues to fully endorse. This may have been true even as recently as September with the UK trying to us Ms Delevinge as a way to get Rihanna hooked on cocaine in an attempt to promote discussion about drug smuggling. However since then even the UK has distanced itself from an operation that now only the US and the US alone thinks should continue.
I will though continue to follow Ms Delevinge on Twitter in an effort to try and work out what on earth the attraction is. After all Cara Delevinge and Melissa Forde together is a lesbian porn film I think we'd all pay to see.
One outcome of Rihanna's stay in New York so far has been that she's changed her hairstyle. Gone are the long extensions and the undercut being replaced by a more natural looking black bob. This seems to be a direct nod to the hairstyle of Nelson Mandela's granddaughter Zoleka who has been doing the rounds recently talking about her battle with cancer. Obviously the element of this story that attracts Rihanna is that if she continues to dye, relax and add to her hair it will fall out at the roots much as Zoleka Mandela's did during her chemotherapy. However being a the star of a Kim Kardashian style reality show Zoleka Mandela also raises the issues of her grandfather Nelson's struggle against apartheid in South Africa and her grandmother Winnie's somewhat less noble role in that struggle whilst making the point that in a relatively poor nation where roughly 1 in 5 people are HIV positive people still face more traditionally western health care problems such as cancer.
Basically one of the main outcomes people are hoping for from the COP19/CMP9 is to flesh the Durban Platform which was laid out at the COP17/CMP7 in Durban, South Africa to provide a replacement for the Kyoto framework which is set to expire in 2015. So win or lose South African has quite a lot of its reputation staked on this.
On the subject of weather/climate the US is currently trying to make an awful lot of a series of late season tornadoes that have swept across parts of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois. Despite being home to Chicago and therefore US President Obama's adopted home state Illinois also contains lots of place names that sound a lot like other place names. For example one of the most talked about areas is the town of Washington that shares its name with Washington D.C where the US federal government is based. So I actually think this storm has been the environment trying to show the US what it has been doing to everybody else for the past year.
After all along with Typhoon Haiyan the US storm has posed lots of relevant questions about how urban design adapts to the threat posed by environmental hazards. Particularly why people who live in an area prone to tornadoes still insist on building their houses out of wood rather then stone? After all the effort to repair the damage will place extra pressure on the world's forests (carbon sinks if you prefer) that the REDD+ program is trying to protect.
15:50 on 18/11/13.
Sunday, 17 November 2013
That Probably Requires an Incident Report.
As I mentioned on Twitter someone got quite severely beaten up outside my house last night. As far as I can tell it wasn't anybody who was on my radar. Beyond that I really don't know what happened.
About 22:00 I thought I heard raised voices outside but dismissed it as someone either having a house party or at worst someone leaving a house party early after having a drunken row. Then I thought I heard a neighbour calling my father's name so I sort of stuck my head out of the back door to see if the neighbour needed our help. After not seeing or hearing anything I assumed I was just being silly and went back inside. It now appears that I must have chosen the only 10 seconds when there wasn't anything to see or hear.
About 10 minutes later though I went out to check it again and it was quite clear that something big had happened and that it was already over. There were lots of people milling about and one young black kid laying in the road not looking particularly conscious. He was being attended to so after quickly speaking to someone to establish that an ambulance had been called and the victim wasn't known to anyone the police arrived on scene so I decided that in light of recent events I wasn't going to be helping anyone by milling so I went back inside.
What I've heard second hand today though is a group of around ten youths chased the victim down from the park, knocked him to the ground and gave him a kicking. One of the neighbours came out to break it up and got punched in the face for his trouble. I gather the victim was then rushed to the local hospital suffering from a broken jaw, head injuries and possible fractured skull.
Apparently the police are working under the assumption that the attackers were Iranian. So although I think this was just crime you can hear the rumours about Iranian intelligence acting to avenge my recent Court case starting as we speak. I probably should point out though that in my experience Iranian intelligence would have gone after some of the people actually involved in the case.
12:05 on 17/11/13.
Edited at around 21:30 on 17/11/13 to add;
Although I doubt the regional murder squad will be troubled with the victim legitimately being taken to hospital all this is going to have to be investigated as causing Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) with intent to kill contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act of (I think) 1861. That is of course if the young gentleman in question wishes to make a complaint. After all here in the UK we operate on the principle of policing by consent meaning that if the live victim feels that no crime has been committed then as far as the police are concerned no crime has been committed.
However in the event of a lengthy police investigation I obviously saw the whole thing. After all I believe I'm still owed at least one hammer.
About 22:00 I thought I heard raised voices outside but dismissed it as someone either having a house party or at worst someone leaving a house party early after having a drunken row. Then I thought I heard a neighbour calling my father's name so I sort of stuck my head out of the back door to see if the neighbour needed our help. After not seeing or hearing anything I assumed I was just being silly and went back inside. It now appears that I must have chosen the only 10 seconds when there wasn't anything to see or hear.
About 10 minutes later though I went out to check it again and it was quite clear that something big had happened and that it was already over. There were lots of people milling about and one young black kid laying in the road not looking particularly conscious. He was being attended to so after quickly speaking to someone to establish that an ambulance had been called and the victim wasn't known to anyone the police arrived on scene so I decided that in light of recent events I wasn't going to be helping anyone by milling so I went back inside.
What I've heard second hand today though is a group of around ten youths chased the victim down from the park, knocked him to the ground and gave him a kicking. One of the neighbours came out to break it up and got punched in the face for his trouble. I gather the victim was then rushed to the local hospital suffering from a broken jaw, head injuries and possible fractured skull.
Apparently the police are working under the assumption that the attackers were Iranian. So although I think this was just crime you can hear the rumours about Iranian intelligence acting to avenge my recent Court case starting as we speak. I probably should point out though that in my experience Iranian intelligence would have gone after some of the people actually involved in the case.
12:05 on 17/11/13.
Edited at around 21:30 on 17/11/13 to add;
Although I doubt the regional murder squad will be troubled with the victim legitimately being taken to hospital all this is going to have to be investigated as causing Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) with intent to kill contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act of (I think) 1861. That is of course if the young gentleman in question wishes to make a complaint. After all here in the UK we operate on the principle of policing by consent meaning that if the live victim feels that no crime has been committed then as far as the police are concerned no crime has been committed.
However in the event of a lengthy police investigation I obviously saw the whole thing. After all I believe I'm still owed at least one hammer.
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Operation Misery: Month 9, Week 2, Day 5.
Last night Rihanna performed the final concert of the Diamonds World Tour in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The day did not begin well with Rihanna apparently being struck with a bout of verbal diarrhea that caused her to re-Tweet and reply to various comments she was recieving in response to the video for her song "What Now" that debuted earlier in the day. This was so stunningly unprofessional that even the US State Department ended up expressing embarrassment on Rihanna's behalf. However on reflection I think that Rihanna was merely trying to highlight the pressure she was coming under from her social media followers to talk about the video.
Even without the release of the What Now video yesterday was always going to be a particularly stressful day for Rihanna with the US throwing pretty much everything it had at her final concert. So amid a general climate of noise which included more revelations about the terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, the recent shooting at Los Angeles international airport a few false alerts about possible mass shooting incidents the US put on a number of high profile stunts.
Probably the strangest of these was the so-called "Batkid" story. This revolves a terminally ill 5 year old boy named only as Miles who was granted his dying wish to be the superhero Batman for a day by the Make-a-Wish Foundation. This hugely elaborate set-up saw Miles rescue a damsel in distress and foil a bank robbery all whilst being watched and cheered on by tens of thousands of people in San Francisco in California. It also included a personal message to Miles from the President of the United States Barack Obama which obviously pushed the event onto the international news agenda and worldwide Twitter trends.
The pathetic young boy being turned into a superhero for the day element of the story along with the massive social media coverage it received were supposed to be confusing and not particularly complimentary references to me especially my recent efforts at fighting local crime. The element of a charity helping out a terminal ill child was supposed to draw comparisons between the UK's "Children in Need" charity telethon that was taking place at roughly the same time. The idea was to raise the international profile of the always politically challenging Children in Need event in the hope of giving the impression that the US and the UK were having some urgent bilateral discussion about something. In reality though I think that the US was struggling to keep up with Children in Need which being run by the BBC already has quite a high global profile.
In terms of actual US politics yesterday the lower house of Congress - the House of Representatives passed a bill that would end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that terminates private health insurance policies that are not compliant with the Act. This is a big thing because throughout the effort to sell Obamacare to the American public President repeatedly claimed that it would not force people with existing health insurance to switch their plans. Since the roll out of Obamacare it has emerged that not only was this a complete and utter lie but that Obama also knew that he was lying every single time he made the claim.
So that fact that a bill overturning that provision has been passed with the help of members of Obama's own Democrat Party is hugely embarrassing for Obama and highlights just how badly his reputation has been damaged over the past year due to his own poor judgement. In practical terms the bill now needs to be passed by the upper house - the Senate - who've said they'll block it and the signed into law by the President who has said he'll veto it.
In preparation for the House vote on Obamacare the New York Times rather unhelpfully published an article comparing the damage to President Obama's reputation by the Affordable Care Act to the damage done to President W Bush's reputation by the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. This promptly propelled the issue of Hurricane Katrina right to the top of American public discourse and the worldwide Twitter trends for most of the day. Hurricane Katrina of course struck New Orleans, Louisiana where Rihanna was performing and most of the damage it did to President W Bush's reputation stemmed from America's black community labelling his failures as racist which has been a divisive issue in the US dating all the way back to the days of slavery. So by comparing Obamacare to Katrina the New York Times was attempting to play about with the notions of race and slavery. For example the fact that Obama the US' first black President seems happy to see Rihanna - a black woman - used and abused in any way imaginable to help him achieve his political goals suggests that the slave owner mentality transcends the issue of race. Mainly though it all contributes to an outsider getting the impression that there was something exciting and vitally important going on in internal US politics.
Also on the issue of race prosecutors in Detroit, Michigan yesterday charged the white Theodore Wafer over the November 2nd (2/11/13) fatal shooting of Renisha McBride a black teenage whose family claim was hammering on Mr Wafer's door in the early hours of the morning in an effort to seek assistance following a car accident. Although this happened in Eminem's home town my first instinct that it was just one of those things and a fair trial needs to take place in order to establish what happened and if any crime has been committed. The chances of that fair trial taking place seem pretty limited at the moment because the case is packed with hot political topics such as race and gun ownership along with strong echoes of the Trayvon Martin case. Also Wafer has claimed that his shotgun went off accidentally meaning that the technical aspects of how a firearm can discharge by accident are likely to play a large role in the case. This issue also plays a huge role in the case of Mark Duggan whose fatal shooting by the police sparked the UK's August 2011 riots which the US is still adamant were entirely Rihanna's fault.
As for the UK it is currently very busy with the hugely controversial Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka and the fallout from my most recent Court case. As a result the UK is making huge amounts of noise itself. However as far as I can tell none of this noise bears any relation to the noise the US is making. The US is very keen to have people believe that the two things are connected though. So for example on Wednesday (13/11/13) the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show took place in New York. Last years event was of course headlined by Rihanna. Although this year the music was provided by Taylor Swift the main theme of the show was the UK in particular it's capital city London. As a result lots of British models were used and they wore outfits that resembled the uniforms of the famous British policeman the famous guards at Buckingham Palace and one outfit that resembled a England football kit although I personally think that looked quite a bit like a Crystal Palace FC kit from the 1970's. This though all of course pushed the notion of a tight bond between the US and the UK to the fore.
Obviously to be continued because you can't have failed to notice that I haven't managed to get onto the actual concert yet.
16:00 on 16/11/13 (UK date).
Edited at around 20:05 on 16/11/13 to add;
As for the concert itself it goes without saying that Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) maintained the information blackout that has been in place throughout the tour. However from unofficial sources I can tell you that it was all pretty routine. Rihanna arrived on stage within the allotted time and performed the standard set-list with the standard costume changes and stage set up. The overall performance was more subdued then the previous night's Houston concert which itself was more subdued then the Oklahoma City performance. Again this isn't saying that there was anything wrong with the performance it just meant that the tour fizzled out rather then ending on a triumphant high. I actually think this was appropriate because while the tour has ended the operation most certainly hasn't and sadly unless she finds a way to alter her current course I can only see Rihanna's world continuing to shrink from here.
The fact that the tour has now ended is not from a lack of trying on the part of the management. Not only did they cancel the Barbados concert in order to raise the possibly of an extension they dispatched Justin Bieber to cause an awful lot of trouble on the South American leg of his tour. Apart from spraying graffiti to pose questions about Rihanna's latest tattoo Bieber has also visited brothels, had a one night stand with a women who may not always have been a woman, stormed off stage and trampled on the Argentinian flag which carries a 4 year prison sentence in the country. The intention was to make the South Americans think that Bieber was playing some significant role in the Rihanna operation so they would have to get Rihanna over for a South American leg of the Diamonds World Tour in order to find out what was going on. Fortunately no-one was falling for that and yesterday the Argentinians responded by seizing all of Bieber's tour equipment. This obviously has the effect of stopping his tour dead and was what the management were hoping would happen to Rihanna on her tour.
With the tour at an end and with the help of the single and video we are all supposed to be speculating what now for Rihanna? The problem is that we all already know. Although reflection and consideration are clearly in very short supply within Rihanna's social group there will come a point where the adrenaline of the tour will wear off and Rihanna will slip into a bit of a depressive lull but I don't mean that in the clinical sense. Just as Rihanna is at her weakest and most vulnerable Chris Brown will be returning to Court in Los Angeles for an appearance that has been made all the more dramatic by his recent arrest. As I've explained Rihanna tends to like to mother Chris Brown so the prospect of him coming under threat coupled with the depressive lull means that it is quite likely that the two will reunite as a couple and the American Music Awards (AMAs) are certainly pulling out all the stops to try and make that happen. So while it may seem cruel I honestly think Rihanna needs to have someone in her life who will openly and spitefully mock the side of her personality that would even contemplate a relationship with Chris Brown.
Obviously though with the high level segment of the COP19/CMP9 taking place during this period the management are not only intending to reunite Rihanna and Chris Brown they also want to cause as much disruption as possible whilst doing it. So not only have we had the rumours and attempts to force Rihanna into a relationship with either Drake or A$AP Rocky a singer whose had the misfortune of being taken under Chris Brown's wing by the name of I think Sevryn Streeter recently released a single. This gave Kerruche Tran the opportunity to prove that she's standing by her man by helping to promote the career of Chris Brown's protege.
As I pointed out in my previous post on the subject though even the management are beginning to accept that there is a possibility that their plan to reunite Rihanna and Chris Brown may fail meaning that the continuance of Brown's relationship with Tran and a new relationship for Rihanna with either Drake or A$AP Rocky becomes the face saving fall back position. Obviously Rihanna starting a relationship with either of those men will make be extremely jealous but either would be an improvement on Brown. That said the way that Drake appears to think that he can win back Rihanna by complying with the management's plan so they will engineer Rihanna into a relationship with him does not fill me with confidence. As for A$AP Rocky I honestly would not recognise him if he was sitting across from me now so I feel I don't have the required knowledge to comment one way or another.
I have to say though that I'm not entirely happy about Rihanna rushing into a new relationship even if it was with me. That's because as I've been saying for more then a year now what I think Rihanna really needs is a little time being single away from the chaos of touring so she can learn about and become more settled in herself even if that doesn't sound very rock and roll.
The day did not begin well with Rihanna apparently being struck with a bout of verbal diarrhea that caused her to re-Tweet and reply to various comments she was recieving in response to the video for her song "What Now" that debuted earlier in the day. This was so stunningly unprofessional that even the US State Department ended up expressing embarrassment on Rihanna's behalf. However on reflection I think that Rihanna was merely trying to highlight the pressure she was coming under from her social media followers to talk about the video.
Even without the release of the What Now video yesterday was always going to be a particularly stressful day for Rihanna with the US throwing pretty much everything it had at her final concert. So amid a general climate of noise which included more revelations about the terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, the recent shooting at Los Angeles international airport a few false alerts about possible mass shooting incidents the US put on a number of high profile stunts.
Probably the strangest of these was the so-called "Batkid" story. This revolves a terminally ill 5 year old boy named only as Miles who was granted his dying wish to be the superhero Batman for a day by the Make-a-Wish Foundation. This hugely elaborate set-up saw Miles rescue a damsel in distress and foil a bank robbery all whilst being watched and cheered on by tens of thousands of people in San Francisco in California. It also included a personal message to Miles from the President of the United States Barack Obama which obviously pushed the event onto the international news agenda and worldwide Twitter trends.
The pathetic young boy being turned into a superhero for the day element of the story along with the massive social media coverage it received were supposed to be confusing and not particularly complimentary references to me especially my recent efforts at fighting local crime. The element of a charity helping out a terminal ill child was supposed to draw comparisons between the UK's "Children in Need" charity telethon that was taking place at roughly the same time. The idea was to raise the international profile of the always politically challenging Children in Need event in the hope of giving the impression that the US and the UK were having some urgent bilateral discussion about something. In reality though I think that the US was struggling to keep up with Children in Need which being run by the BBC already has quite a high global profile.
In terms of actual US politics yesterday the lower house of Congress - the House of Representatives passed a bill that would end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that terminates private health insurance policies that are not compliant with the Act. This is a big thing because throughout the effort to sell Obamacare to the American public President repeatedly claimed that it would not force people with existing health insurance to switch their plans. Since the roll out of Obamacare it has emerged that not only was this a complete and utter lie but that Obama also knew that he was lying every single time he made the claim.
So that fact that a bill overturning that provision has been passed with the help of members of Obama's own Democrat Party is hugely embarrassing for Obama and highlights just how badly his reputation has been damaged over the past year due to his own poor judgement. In practical terms the bill now needs to be passed by the upper house - the Senate - who've said they'll block it and the signed into law by the President who has said he'll veto it.
In preparation for the House vote on Obamacare the New York Times rather unhelpfully published an article comparing the damage to President Obama's reputation by the Affordable Care Act to the damage done to President W Bush's reputation by the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. This promptly propelled the issue of Hurricane Katrina right to the top of American public discourse and the worldwide Twitter trends for most of the day. Hurricane Katrina of course struck New Orleans, Louisiana where Rihanna was performing and most of the damage it did to President W Bush's reputation stemmed from America's black community labelling his failures as racist which has been a divisive issue in the US dating all the way back to the days of slavery. So by comparing Obamacare to Katrina the New York Times was attempting to play about with the notions of race and slavery. For example the fact that Obama the US' first black President seems happy to see Rihanna - a black woman - used and abused in any way imaginable to help him achieve his political goals suggests that the slave owner mentality transcends the issue of race. Mainly though it all contributes to an outsider getting the impression that there was something exciting and vitally important going on in internal US politics.
Also on the issue of race prosecutors in Detroit, Michigan yesterday charged the white Theodore Wafer over the November 2nd (2/11/13) fatal shooting of Renisha McBride a black teenage whose family claim was hammering on Mr Wafer's door in the early hours of the morning in an effort to seek assistance following a car accident. Although this happened in Eminem's home town my first instinct that it was just one of those things and a fair trial needs to take place in order to establish what happened and if any crime has been committed. The chances of that fair trial taking place seem pretty limited at the moment because the case is packed with hot political topics such as race and gun ownership along with strong echoes of the Trayvon Martin case. Also Wafer has claimed that his shotgun went off accidentally meaning that the technical aspects of how a firearm can discharge by accident are likely to play a large role in the case. This issue also plays a huge role in the case of Mark Duggan whose fatal shooting by the police sparked the UK's August 2011 riots which the US is still adamant were entirely Rihanna's fault.
As for the UK it is currently very busy with the hugely controversial Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka and the fallout from my most recent Court case. As a result the UK is making huge amounts of noise itself. However as far as I can tell none of this noise bears any relation to the noise the US is making. The US is very keen to have people believe that the two things are connected though. So for example on Wednesday (13/11/13) the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show took place in New York. Last years event was of course headlined by Rihanna. Although this year the music was provided by Taylor Swift the main theme of the show was the UK in particular it's capital city London. As a result lots of British models were used and they wore outfits that resembled the uniforms of the famous British policeman the famous guards at Buckingham Palace and one outfit that resembled a England football kit although I personally think that looked quite a bit like a Crystal Palace FC kit from the 1970's. This though all of course pushed the notion of a tight bond between the US and the UK to the fore.
Obviously to be continued because you can't have failed to notice that I haven't managed to get onto the actual concert yet.
16:00 on 16/11/13 (UK date).
Edited at around 20:05 on 16/11/13 to add;
As for the concert itself it goes without saying that Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) maintained the information blackout that has been in place throughout the tour. However from unofficial sources I can tell you that it was all pretty routine. Rihanna arrived on stage within the allotted time and performed the standard set-list with the standard costume changes and stage set up. The overall performance was more subdued then the previous night's Houston concert which itself was more subdued then the Oklahoma City performance. Again this isn't saying that there was anything wrong with the performance it just meant that the tour fizzled out rather then ending on a triumphant high. I actually think this was appropriate because while the tour has ended the operation most certainly hasn't and sadly unless she finds a way to alter her current course I can only see Rihanna's world continuing to shrink from here.
The fact that the tour has now ended is not from a lack of trying on the part of the management. Not only did they cancel the Barbados concert in order to raise the possibly of an extension they dispatched Justin Bieber to cause an awful lot of trouble on the South American leg of his tour. Apart from spraying graffiti to pose questions about Rihanna's latest tattoo Bieber has also visited brothels, had a one night stand with a women who may not always have been a woman, stormed off stage and trampled on the Argentinian flag which carries a 4 year prison sentence in the country. The intention was to make the South Americans think that Bieber was playing some significant role in the Rihanna operation so they would have to get Rihanna over for a South American leg of the Diamonds World Tour in order to find out what was going on. Fortunately no-one was falling for that and yesterday the Argentinians responded by seizing all of Bieber's tour equipment. This obviously has the effect of stopping his tour dead and was what the management were hoping would happen to Rihanna on her tour.
With the tour at an end and with the help of the single and video we are all supposed to be speculating what now for Rihanna? The problem is that we all already know. Although reflection and consideration are clearly in very short supply within Rihanna's social group there will come a point where the adrenaline of the tour will wear off and Rihanna will slip into a bit of a depressive lull but I don't mean that in the clinical sense. Just as Rihanna is at her weakest and most vulnerable Chris Brown will be returning to Court in Los Angeles for an appearance that has been made all the more dramatic by his recent arrest. As I've explained Rihanna tends to like to mother Chris Brown so the prospect of him coming under threat coupled with the depressive lull means that it is quite likely that the two will reunite as a couple and the American Music Awards (AMAs) are certainly pulling out all the stops to try and make that happen. So while it may seem cruel I honestly think Rihanna needs to have someone in her life who will openly and spitefully mock the side of her personality that would even contemplate a relationship with Chris Brown.
Obviously though with the high level segment of the COP19/CMP9 taking place during this period the management are not only intending to reunite Rihanna and Chris Brown they also want to cause as much disruption as possible whilst doing it. So not only have we had the rumours and attempts to force Rihanna into a relationship with either Drake or A$AP Rocky a singer whose had the misfortune of being taken under Chris Brown's wing by the name of I think Sevryn Streeter recently released a single. This gave Kerruche Tran the opportunity to prove that she's standing by her man by helping to promote the career of Chris Brown's protege.
As I pointed out in my previous post on the subject though even the management are beginning to accept that there is a possibility that their plan to reunite Rihanna and Chris Brown may fail meaning that the continuance of Brown's relationship with Tran and a new relationship for Rihanna with either Drake or A$AP Rocky becomes the face saving fall back position. Obviously Rihanna starting a relationship with either of those men will make be extremely jealous but either would be an improvement on Brown. That said the way that Drake appears to think that he can win back Rihanna by complying with the management's plan so they will engineer Rihanna into a relationship with him does not fill me with confidence. As for A$AP Rocky I honestly would not recognise him if he was sitting across from me now so I feel I don't have the required knowledge to comment one way or another.
I have to say though that I'm not entirely happy about Rihanna rushing into a new relationship even if it was with me. That's because as I've been saying for more then a year now what I think Rihanna really needs is a little time being single away from the chaos of touring so she can learn about and become more settled in herself even if that doesn't sound very rock and roll.
Friday, 15 November 2013
Typhoon Haiyan: Day 7.
Yes Friday November 15th 2013 (15/11/13) that is the one week anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda nee Haiyan striking the Philippines a full 3 hours before it was expected.
Of the estimated 10 million people affected by this natural disaster only around 18% (1.8 million) have been reached by the disaster relief effort. Obviously this is not OK. However rather then being caused by laziness or incompentence this merely reflects the scale of the tragedy. For example the number of provinces without electrical power has now been cut from 11 to 5 and all provinces have had some level of celluar telecommunications restored with the average being 70% and Eastern Samar being the worst affected with only 14% restored.
In a nation where the majority of the population are in shock, homeless, hungry and in need of clean drinking water making sure that all their televisions and radios work might sound like a strange first priority. However the national electrical supply also powers lights, water pumps and things like hospitals. It also powers the national communications infrastructure. Now that this communications infrastructure is beginning to work a clearer picture of the damage is begining to emerge. For example we now know that electrical power has not been restored to certain areas due to the failure of 556 damaged pylons and 7 damaged substations.
In terms of immediate aid (1.Water, 2.Shelter, 3.Food) it has been arriving in ever increasing volumes since Sunday (9/11/13). The problem is that it has largely been arriving at Manila's international airport where it is being loaded off aircraft and stacked in neat rows. In order to get to those affected by Haiyan this aid next needs to be sorted, loaded onto another aircraft and flown to the six Filipino islands for distribution.
The largest and hardest hit of these is Leyte which is served by one airport in the island capital Tacloban. At the best of times this hardly counts as an international airport because rarely deals with large jets and doesn't allow for nightflights. With both of the two runways being roughly 200 metres (600ft) from the sea it goes without saying that it also was badly damaged by the storm surge which brought 14 mtres (45ft) of sea water, cars, houses and associated debris onto the runways.
Since their arrival on Monday (11/11/13) the advance party of US Marines (USMC) and Air Force (USAF) personel having being working to re-open Tacloban airport. They now seem to have achieved this although an argument seems to persist over whether the US military or the Filippino government should pay to upgrading the airport for night flights. Generally I would say that it's the Filipino government's responsibilty just as soon as the US military can get a contractor in.
Fortunately though whilst that argument has been going on the Philippines single C130 and the US's C130 have been bolstered somewhat by at least; a C17 and a C130 from the UK, a C17 and C130 from Australia, 3 C130's from Indonesia, 2 from Singapore and 2 from Malaysia along with a fair few creaky Antanov's from various nations and at least 2 undisclosed large transport aircraft for Israel. These at least 15 Globemaster/Hercules type aircraft give the USAF just enough capacity to set up and control an air bridge between Manila international airport on Luzon island and Tacloban airport on Leyte island.
Of course once the aid products have been transported to Tacloban airport they then need to be distributed across the remaining 6 affected islands. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by helicopter or STOL aircraft. Fortunately on Friday (15/11/13) the USS George Washington carrier group arrived off the coast of Leyte bring with it at least 21 UH-60 Blackhawk type helicopters to compliment the Philippines 50 UH-1 helicopters and the USMC 4 V-22 Ospreys. Further helping the effort the UK is now going to replace HMS Daring with HMS Illustrious which is now being tactfully described as a "helicopter platform" and may even bring one AW101 Merlin with it. Personally I'm just hoping this just turn into a big argument between the UK and the US over the F-35 Joint Srike Fighters.
Elsewhere in international aid news China has contributed a full USD100,000 to the relief effort. This has obviously provoked some discussion with many in the Philippines questioning why China has made such little effort. The Chinese state media has responded by either suggesting that if the Filipinoes have got enough money to buy weapons they don't need international aid or demanding that the Philippines give the money back. So in summary it appears that Chinese official response to this disaster has been to try and be as offensive as possible. This seems to be a deliberate attempt to inform the US of the general regional consensus in the wake of the Rihanna operation and provide them with an opportunity to make a large gesture. After all it would be a lot easier for the Philippines traditional ally to aid with the relief effort rather then their traditional enemy.
As usual Israel has been quite interesting flying two C130's to the Philippines with at least one containing a full feild hospital. On around Wednesday (13/11/13) there were rumours that these aircraft attempted to land at Tacloban airport with orders to take over the local hospital. However as the rumour goes they were refused permission to land so instead flew on to Cebu island where they have now set up their feild hospital and built a landing strip. Israel now has at least 1 C130 going spare and much clearer idea about what it will take to break out from Leyte. In the meantime Australia has also dispatched a feild hospital.
Sadly the Filipino government has, as yet, failed to declare martial law meaning that the relief effort is still being hampered by local political disputes and the effort to re-open Tacloban airport continues to be hampered by the large group of, well, unemployed people milling around outside.
Obviously all of these logistical problems mean nothing without finacial support so while the accountants of my celebrity readers should all be aware of the SWIFT code by now for lesser mortals I can always recommend; https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon-philippines-a
23:25 on 15/11/13 (UK date). Spell check is still not working so I apologise if I've spelt most things wrong.
Of the estimated 10 million people affected by this natural disaster only around 18% (1.8 million) have been reached by the disaster relief effort. Obviously this is not OK. However rather then being caused by laziness or incompentence this merely reflects the scale of the tragedy. For example the number of provinces without electrical power has now been cut from 11 to 5 and all provinces have had some level of celluar telecommunications restored with the average being 70% and Eastern Samar being the worst affected with only 14% restored.
In a nation where the majority of the population are in shock, homeless, hungry and in need of clean drinking water making sure that all their televisions and radios work might sound like a strange first priority. However the national electrical supply also powers lights, water pumps and things like hospitals. It also powers the national communications infrastructure. Now that this communications infrastructure is beginning to work a clearer picture of the damage is begining to emerge. For example we now know that electrical power has not been restored to certain areas due to the failure of 556 damaged pylons and 7 damaged substations.
In terms of immediate aid (1.Water, 2.Shelter, 3.Food) it has been arriving in ever increasing volumes since Sunday (9/11/13). The problem is that it has largely been arriving at Manila's international airport where it is being loaded off aircraft and stacked in neat rows. In order to get to those affected by Haiyan this aid next needs to be sorted, loaded onto another aircraft and flown to the six Filipino islands for distribution.
The largest and hardest hit of these is Leyte which is served by one airport in the island capital Tacloban. At the best of times this hardly counts as an international airport because rarely deals with large jets and doesn't allow for nightflights. With both of the two runways being roughly 200 metres (600ft) from the sea it goes without saying that it also was badly damaged by the storm surge which brought 14 mtres (45ft) of sea water, cars, houses and associated debris onto the runways.
Since their arrival on Monday (11/11/13) the advance party of US Marines (USMC) and Air Force (USAF) personel having being working to re-open Tacloban airport. They now seem to have achieved this although an argument seems to persist over whether the US military or the Filippino government should pay to upgrading the airport for night flights. Generally I would say that it's the Filipino government's responsibilty just as soon as the US military can get a contractor in.
Fortunately though whilst that argument has been going on the Philippines single C130 and the US's C130 have been bolstered somewhat by at least; a C17 and a C130 from the UK, a C17 and C130 from Australia, 3 C130's from Indonesia, 2 from Singapore and 2 from Malaysia along with a fair few creaky Antanov's from various nations and at least 2 undisclosed large transport aircraft for Israel. These at least 15 Globemaster/Hercules type aircraft give the USAF just enough capacity to set up and control an air bridge between Manila international airport on Luzon island and Tacloban airport on Leyte island.
Of course once the aid products have been transported to Tacloban airport they then need to be distributed across the remaining 6 affected islands. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by helicopter or STOL aircraft. Fortunately on Friday (15/11/13) the USS George Washington carrier group arrived off the coast of Leyte bring with it at least 21 UH-60 Blackhawk type helicopters to compliment the Philippines 50 UH-1 helicopters and the USMC 4 V-22 Ospreys. Further helping the effort the UK is now going to replace HMS Daring with HMS Illustrious which is now being tactfully described as a "helicopter platform" and may even bring one AW101 Merlin with it. Personally I'm just hoping this just turn into a big argument between the UK and the US over the F-35 Joint Srike Fighters.
Elsewhere in international aid news China has contributed a full USD100,000 to the relief effort. This has obviously provoked some discussion with many in the Philippines questioning why China has made such little effort. The Chinese state media has responded by either suggesting that if the Filipinoes have got enough money to buy weapons they don't need international aid or demanding that the Philippines give the money back. So in summary it appears that Chinese official response to this disaster has been to try and be as offensive as possible. This seems to be a deliberate attempt to inform the US of the general regional consensus in the wake of the Rihanna operation and provide them with an opportunity to make a large gesture. After all it would be a lot easier for the Philippines traditional ally to aid with the relief effort rather then their traditional enemy.
As usual Israel has been quite interesting flying two C130's to the Philippines with at least one containing a full feild hospital. On around Wednesday (13/11/13) there were rumours that these aircraft attempted to land at Tacloban airport with orders to take over the local hospital. However as the rumour goes they were refused permission to land so instead flew on to Cebu island where they have now set up their feild hospital and built a landing strip. Israel now has at least 1 C130 going spare and much clearer idea about what it will take to break out from Leyte. In the meantime Australia has also dispatched a feild hospital.
Sadly the Filipino government has, as yet, failed to declare martial law meaning that the relief effort is still being hampered by local political disputes and the effort to re-open Tacloban airport continues to be hampered by the large group of, well, unemployed people milling around outside.
Obviously all of these logistical problems mean nothing without finacial support so while the accountants of my celebrity readers should all be aware of the SWIFT code by now for lesser mortals I can always recommend; https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon-philippines-a
23:25 on 15/11/13 (UK date). Spell check is still not working so I apologise if I've spelt most things wrong.
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