Last Wednesday (28/9/11) my grandmother's best friend died aged 99 years. Today (7/10/11) she was laid to rest alongside her husband and seven year old son at Devils Bridge in north Wales. As my grandmother is still in hospital she was unable to attend the funeral so my father went to pay her respects on her behalf. This obviously created some security concerns for me.
As for my grandmother on Monday (3/10/11) my father told her that her friend has died on Saturday (1/10/11). When I visited my grandmother yesterday (6/10/11) she was completely unable to remember that her friend had died. However she was aware that my father had gone to Wales to help the friend move on to somewhere else and the friend had recently brought a new box like bed like the one she'd brought for her child. Today (7/10/11) when I visited my grandmother she was not only able to recall that her friend had died but was also able to remember details of the funeral such as it's location and directions of how to get to and from that location. However her immediate term memory was unusually poor. To me this is just further evidence that my grandmother's memory problems are caused by her psyche trying to suppress traumatic memories and the effort that takes rather then a neurological problem.
This recent setback apart my grandmother's general condition is improving every day. So it goes without saying that the hospital are delaying performing a psychiatric assessment in order to polish my grandmother's condition so when they do carry out that assessment it becomes easier for her to pass meaning they can insist on nursing home care on grounds of mobility rather then psychiatric disorder.
Friday, 7 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Operation Oil Theft: Month 7, Week 3, Day 1.
Over the weekend the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) went back on an earlier claim that it won't form a new executive committee/political cabinet until the fighting has ended by announcing a new executive committee/political cabinet. However this seems to be little more then a publicity stunt because the only notable changes are the appointment of Hamza Abu Fas as Minister for Islam and the Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabril sacking his deputy and also taking on the role of Foreign Minister. It was also announced that this executive committee would disbanded and a new one appointed within one month of "liberation." Liberation appears to be defined as the fall of Sirte rather then fall of the entire country or the capture of Muammer Qaddafi.
How long it will take for Sirte to fall is hard to gauge. The rebels launched a fresh, large offensive on Monday (3/10/11) and were able to add the Bouhadi district to the districts near the air and sea ports as parts of the city under their control. However overnight (5/10/11 - 6/10/11) Libyan government forces have staged a significant fightback and control of the Bouhadi district is currently being fought over. Meanwhile the Red Cross/Crescent have warned that the rebel's siege of Sirte has caused a humanitarian crisis. The situation in the city is said to be dire with the main threats to civilians coming from the rebels and the NATO bombs being dropped to protect civilians.
Although access is even more difficult there I suspect that a similar humanitarian crisis is developing in Bani Walid which has been under rebel siege for over a month but remains firmly under government control.
In Sabha operation bribe appears to have worked. Following the rebels disbursement of 20 million Libyan Dinar opposition in the town suddenly ceased and the rebels are now in full control. One their first acts in charge was to deport 1200 black Libyans to Chad, stripping them of the Libyan citizenship granted to them by Muammer Qaddafi.
How long it will take for Sirte to fall is hard to gauge. The rebels launched a fresh, large offensive on Monday (3/10/11) and were able to add the Bouhadi district to the districts near the air and sea ports as parts of the city under their control. However overnight (5/10/11 - 6/10/11) Libyan government forces have staged a significant fightback and control of the Bouhadi district is currently being fought over. Meanwhile the Red Cross/Crescent have warned that the rebel's siege of Sirte has caused a humanitarian crisis. The situation in the city is said to be dire with the main threats to civilians coming from the rebels and the NATO bombs being dropped to protect civilians.
Although access is even more difficult there I suspect that a similar humanitarian crisis is developing in Bani Walid which has been under rebel siege for over a month but remains firmly under government control.
In Sabha operation bribe appears to have worked. Following the rebels disbursement of 20 million Libyan Dinar opposition in the town suddenly ceased and the rebels are now in full control. One their first acts in charge was to deport 1200 black Libyans to Chad, stripping them of the Libyan citizenship granted to them by Muammer Qaddafi.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
The Horror. The Horror.
Apparently a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter suffered a tail rotor failure on take off and then crashed into New York's Hudson River. Although the pilot(s) survived 1 Brit was killed and three others hospitalised in the crash.
Much more depressingly though the Occupy Wall Street protest continues. This was inspite of the New York Police Department's (NYPD) creative attempt to end the protest on Saturday (1/10/11) by drawing the protesters onto the Brooklyn Bridge in order to arrest them all.
Of course the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu referenced the Brooklyn Bridge in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). This could have been a sign of cowardice or it could have been a call for help but it was a precursor for what I thought was the best joke of the entire meeting. Whilst talking about how small Israel is without the Occupied West Bank Netanyahu said something along the lines of;
"[Israel] is the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University and you have to remember that our neighbours are not as friendly as the people of Brooklyn and New Jersey."
At which point all those familiar with New York collectively thought;
"Well... New Jersey?!"
Which of course further made it look like the Jews where behind it all but really at that point I just thought the Israeli PM was starting to panic.
Much more depressingly though the Occupy Wall Street protest continues. This was inspite of the New York Police Department's (NYPD) creative attempt to end the protest on Saturday (1/10/11) by drawing the protesters onto the Brooklyn Bridge in order to arrest them all.
Of course the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu referenced the Brooklyn Bridge in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). This could have been a sign of cowardice or it could have been a call for help but it was a precursor for what I thought was the best joke of the entire meeting. Whilst talking about how small Israel is without the Occupied West Bank Netanyahu said something along the lines of;
"[Israel] is the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University and you have to remember that our neighbours are not as friendly as the people of Brooklyn and New Jersey."
At which point all those familiar with New York collectively thought;
"Well... New Jersey?!"
Which of course further made it look like the Jews where behind it all but really at that point I just thought the Israeli PM was starting to panic.
Is There Ever a Good Time For a Wildlife Story?
Probably not so I'll give you the abridged version;
Some of you may remember that there used to be a family of foxes living underneath the shed in my garden. Then one day one of my neighbours tried breaking into my house and the foxes chased them away. So the council came round and killed the lot of them - the foxes that is, not the burglars. With no foxes anymore the space under the shed got taken over by rats which I think you'll agree is a far worse problem.
A while ago I happened to mention this problem to my mother and then, a few days later a new young fox turned up who seemed so unafraid of humans and behaved in such a generally un-fox like manner that I got the distinct impression that he'd been reared by humans. Recently that fox has been trying to make friends with us. Now if you've ever had a pet dog or cat you will know that they sometimes try and show their affection by leaving you little "gifts" like the odd dead mouse or the occasional mortally wounded bird. This fox is trying the same thing but he's far too streetwise for dead rodents so his "gifts" have included gloves, wallets and at least one mobile phone.
Although most of these things have been salvaged from nearby rubbish bins he did recently deliver us a wallet that contained a pensioner's travel pass and contact details for a daughter. So rather then simply handing the travel pass in at the local railway station my father spent a large portion of last week trying to make contact with the daughter and making arrangements to return the pass to it's rightful owner.
Also last week we discovered a wasp's nest in the rafters of the house. So a man came in on Thursday (29/9/11) and dusted the entrance to the nest with a special powder and by Friday (30/9/11) all the wasps were dead.
And in case you haven't worked it out by now it's Tuesday October 4th and I got back from the pub to discover everything is OK at around 20:10.
Some of you may remember that there used to be a family of foxes living underneath the shed in my garden. Then one day one of my neighbours tried breaking into my house and the foxes chased them away. So the council came round and killed the lot of them - the foxes that is, not the burglars. With no foxes anymore the space under the shed got taken over by rats which I think you'll agree is a far worse problem.
A while ago I happened to mention this problem to my mother and then, a few days later a new young fox turned up who seemed so unafraid of humans and behaved in such a generally un-fox like manner that I got the distinct impression that he'd been reared by humans. Recently that fox has been trying to make friends with us. Now if you've ever had a pet dog or cat you will know that they sometimes try and show their affection by leaving you little "gifts" like the odd dead mouse or the occasional mortally wounded bird. This fox is trying the same thing but he's far too streetwise for dead rodents so his "gifts" have included gloves, wallets and at least one mobile phone.
Although most of these things have been salvaged from nearby rubbish bins he did recently deliver us a wallet that contained a pensioner's travel pass and contact details for a daughter. So rather then simply handing the travel pass in at the local railway station my father spent a large portion of last week trying to make contact with the daughter and making arrangements to return the pass to it's rightful owner.
Also last week we discovered a wasp's nest in the rafters of the house. So a man came in on Thursday (29/9/11) and dusted the entrance to the nest with a special powder and by Friday (30/9/11) all the wasps were dead.
And in case you haven't worked it out by now it's Tuesday October 4th and I got back from the pub to discover everything is OK at around 20:10.
Ray to Rub it In.
As expected yesterday (3/10/11) Amanda Knox had her conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher set aside by an Italian appeal court. Apparently the argument at the forefront of the Judges mind was an empty American threat to block the European Union compensating Italian banks for losses incurred by a Greek default.
On the same day it was announced that Raymond Davis had been arrested for assault in the US. Raymond Davis is of course the private security contractor who was arrested for murder in Pakistan only to be freed after the US paid a sum of around US$1million to the victims families. So that seems to be the Americans way of pointing out to the Italians that when they do this sort of thing they normally expect to at least have to pay a bribe.
Interestingly Italian prosecutor say they intend to appeal against the appeal verdict which should prevent Amanda Knox leaving Italy for the foreseeable future which I think is a good thing because allowing her to serve her sentence in a US prison is one thing but allowing her to claim to be innocent is taking things too far.
On the same day it was announced that Raymond Davis had been arrested for assault in the US. Raymond Davis is of course the private security contractor who was arrested for murder in Pakistan only to be freed after the US paid a sum of around US$1million to the victims families. So that seems to be the Americans way of pointing out to the Italians that when they do this sort of thing they normally expect to at least have to pay a bribe.
Interestingly Italian prosecutor say they intend to appeal against the appeal verdict which should prevent Amanda Knox leaving Italy for the foreseeable future which I think is a good thing because allowing her to serve her sentence in a US prison is one thing but allowing her to claim to be innocent is taking things too far.
Monday, 3 October 2011
The Occupy Wall Street Protest.
Just as the high level segment of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was getting underway in New York on September 17th some protesters set up camp on Wall Street also in New York to protest for or against something or other. In the process they caused security headaches and travel problems for UNGA delegate as they made their way between various meetings and to and from their hotels. It was at this point I have to admit that I got bored and went off and did something else.
However it turns out that the whole thing was slightly more targeted then just the Americans trying to annoy all the UNGA delegates and provide a pre-text to monitor and disrupt the off the books bilateral meetings going on. It was also designed to cause specific problems for the Israeli and Chinese delegations.
While it was billed as a Tahrir Square style demonstration the absence of tanks, petrol bombs and lunatics with swords on camels meant it looked and felt much more like Israel's Levinsky Park demonstrations which were used as a justification for building even more Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. These protests were fuelled in no small part by the Strauss Group's - a large Israeli food manufacturer - decision to massively increase the cost of everyday essentials like milk and hummus and everyday treats like chocolate and coffee. The chair of the Strauss Group is a woman called Ofra Strauss who is a very close associate of Tony Blair, the quartets middle east peace envoy. This parallel made the protests seem Jewish in origin and forced the Israel Prime Minister to explain what was going on in his own country. Always a difficult position for a national leader to find themselves in.
Although the protest was called by the technically Canadian Adbusters Foundation it was widely promoted by the Anonymous group. While Anonymous are a loose and fluid group their core has previously behaved in such a pro-Israeli manner - undermining the US' largest export industry etc - that they're seen as a Mossad front organisation. So their involvement also made the protest look like a Jewish thing while at the same time putting the Mossad under great pressure to find out how deeply the Americans have been able to penetrate Anonymous.
The Chinese of course were under pressure to make sense of all this while at the same time making a decision about the Palestinian statehood bid and the IMF meeting on Greece. Also the anti-bank nature of the protest seemed like a direct American attempt to de-rail the Eurozone bailout which contains provisions for some Italian banks to be compensated for some of the losses incurred by a Greek default.
Needless to say the Wall Street protest has generated so much international attention that a host of other governments are currently trying to recruit cannon fodder to stage their own retaliatory protests on October 15th;
http://15october.net/
However it turns out that the whole thing was slightly more targeted then just the Americans trying to annoy all the UNGA delegates and provide a pre-text to monitor and disrupt the off the books bilateral meetings going on. It was also designed to cause specific problems for the Israeli and Chinese delegations.
While it was billed as a Tahrir Square style demonstration the absence of tanks, petrol bombs and lunatics with swords on camels meant it looked and felt much more like Israel's Levinsky Park demonstrations which were used as a justification for building even more Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. These protests were fuelled in no small part by the Strauss Group's - a large Israeli food manufacturer - decision to massively increase the cost of everyday essentials like milk and hummus and everyday treats like chocolate and coffee. The chair of the Strauss Group is a woman called Ofra Strauss who is a very close associate of Tony Blair, the quartets middle east peace envoy. This parallel made the protests seem Jewish in origin and forced the Israel Prime Minister to explain what was going on in his own country. Always a difficult position for a national leader to find themselves in.
Although the protest was called by the technically Canadian Adbusters Foundation it was widely promoted by the Anonymous group. While Anonymous are a loose and fluid group their core has previously behaved in such a pro-Israeli manner - undermining the US' largest export industry etc - that they're seen as a Mossad front organisation. So their involvement also made the protest look like a Jewish thing while at the same time putting the Mossad under great pressure to find out how deeply the Americans have been able to penetrate Anonymous.
The Chinese of course were under pressure to make sense of all this while at the same time making a decision about the Palestinian statehood bid and the IMF meeting on Greece. Also the anti-bank nature of the protest seemed like a direct American attempt to de-rail the Eurozone bailout which contains provisions for some Italian banks to be compensated for some of the losses incurred by a Greek default.
Needless to say the Wall Street protest has generated so much international attention that a host of other governments are currently trying to recruit cannon fodder to stage their own retaliatory protests on October 15th;
http://15october.net/
One Dale Farm Verdict Is In.
Today (3/10/11) Britain's High Court ruled on the matter of the enforcement notices issued by Basildon Council to allow the eviction of the Dale Farm traveller site. The full judgement has yet to be published but the short version is that Basildon Council can remove all but three of the caravans along all of what are known as hard standings - basically concrete bases for caravans - that were added to the site after the travellers brought it. However they cannot remove any of the hard standings that were laid while the site was a scrap yard. Nor can they remove any of the permanent buildings, walls or gates on the site because the Council didn't include them on the enforcement notices. Therefore the site cannot be returned to a greenbelt site.
However the injunction against eviction remains in force until the travellers applications for Judaical Review have been heard with the first hearing taking place tomorrow (4/10/11). As Basildon Council cannot achieve their legally stated objective of evicting in order to return the site to greenbelt and Basildon Council have been shown to selectively enforce planning legislation on the basis of race the travellers have a good chance of being granted that review.
However the Judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Ousely, previously granted Basildon Council permission to evict the nearby Hovesfeild travellers site so it could be returned to greenbelt only for Basildon Council to turn it into a rubbish tip. So I think we're once again likely to see the difference between what the law says should happen and what a Judge chooses to do.
However the injunction against eviction remains in force until the travellers applications for Judaical Review have been heard with the first hearing taking place tomorrow (4/10/11). As Basildon Council cannot achieve their legally stated objective of evicting in order to return the site to greenbelt and Basildon Council have been shown to selectively enforce planning legislation on the basis of race the travellers have a good chance of being granted that review.
However the Judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Ousely, previously granted Basildon Council permission to evict the nearby Hovesfeild travellers site so it could be returned to greenbelt only for Basildon Council to turn it into a rubbish tip. So I think we're once again likely to see the difference between what the law says should happen and what a Judge chooses to do.
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