A fascinating place I must say. I always like going there – it seems like a totally detached island…nothing to do with reality and everything there is so surreal.
For example…I came across this really funky group of Filipinos who set up this rock band. The men all had mullets and wore leather waistcoats and the women had massive shoulder pads with cheap studs stuck to them! They called themselves Icy Idaho (I have no idea why) and they knew almost every single 60’s, 70’s and 80’s rock song that came out of America.
They’ve been on the island for about 13 years and every Thursday they participate in a battle of the bands competition in a large Bahraini hotel. They have almost always faced the same band in the competition that has almost always consisted of two competing bands and a group of drunk and depressed US navy officers, Gulfies and women of the night.
Wow!

So now Ocampo has got what he wanted – the indictment of Omar Al-Bashir. Does Omar deserve it? I don’t think so and certainly many Northern Sudanese are up in arms against the whole sham.

Of course the Southerners are loving it; after all, anything to annoy the president causes them great joy – so imagine the glee when they heard about this. Plus, they have already managed to convince a number of rebels in Darfur to fight against Khartoum…this simply adds more to the whole air of uncertainty in the country. It appears that the SPLA and SPLM are getting far more than they could have dreamed of getting.

Yes there are problems in Sudan – Darfur itself is a catastrophe but it wasn’t Bashir’s making and certainly the reasons behind it are not what people around the world think. Other problems of economy and development are more pressing – particularly as once they are addressed Darfur can be solved.

I think from now on Bashir will be forced to have his holidays domestically; I’m not sure if he will risk flying out anywhere anymore.

And the bloody Arab League is a disgrace too.

Mr Fishburne, the man with the pills and the frameless sunglasses has given a pretty interesting interview to The Guardian newspaper here in the UK.

Joining CSI however isn’t the best move for him I think…

And so the improbable but inspiring story of Slumdog Millionaire gets shot to pieces as the father of the little lad who acts in it (and is from a slum himself) gets beaten by his father as he returned home from the Oscars ceremony.

A bleak reminder of how bad things are for young kids and especially how bad things are in India, where a ruthless caste system exists that cements child abuse, abuse of women and of the poor into the society there.

My apologies about the source of course, but more on the slums of India and the caste system can be found here and here.

the shredder

So this gentleman, who was known as fred the shred because of a legendary reputation of cost-cutting and clinical efficiency, turns out to have been the plum behind the near collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr Peston, economist extraordinaire and wry-smile of the year award holder said this about him. Mr Peston also give the low-down on the actual negotiations that happened before the pension was approved.

So now, as a tax-payer and one that almost totally owns the RBS – I am pretty cheesed off. But then again, with such a system in place, I don’t blame him for taking advantage of it. I guess many of us in such a situation and with such financial power at our fingertips would right away guarantee ourselves such a large sum of money – no questions asked.

In tux, with his ever-stylish wife:)

I must say I really dig this guy – I hope he is able to do something great for America and the rest of the world

Link

…is about to hit town.
God help us

This will be a really quick one and I’m going to write a few more posts about this over the next week or two as it is something very close to my heart and really something that I wish could simply dissapear.
Whilst a lot of emphasis is always put on forced marriages and how they ruin peoples lives, not much emphasis is put on people who are forced to be away from those they love and those they would like to marry or be with.
It is actually almost as bad to be honest. So many young men and women are forced to steer clear of the person they love and threatened with so many different things if they dare to disobey. As a result they end up living pretty miserable lives.
I’ll elaborate more once I catch up with my ever-increasing pile of work!

I just saw the movie. I think it was great. PSH comes up with the goods yet again. Streep was also great; steely, icy and resolute.

8/10

With religious fervour increasing all around the world and with the strict codes of conduct that many religious denominations and group request of their members, inevitable clashes occur wherever liberal tendencies feel threatened by all-encompassing religious order. Legitimate questions and malicious investigations are touching the heart of religions and their groups in the East and West, with religions struggling to get on top of it all and try to achieve a balance between modernising, compromising and revising their beliefs and practices.

Doubt touches upon this and shows the struggle of a fanatically devout nun, who in her desire to ensure that nothing should be allowed to contaminate the purity and violate the sanctity of her Church, will stop at nothing to hound and pursue the head of the church, a liberal and progressive PSH. Random and innocent acts are read into in such a way that she arrives to the conclusion that he is a child abuser and has taken advantage of the only coloured child in the church school.

The film threads other minor stories into the main story with great finesse and whilst initially I felt more time could have been given to develope the characters of the film, I have come to the conclusion that the actors beautifully fulfilled their roles and the script was so tight as to allow viewers to reach almost the same identical conclusions about each character. There was depth to each character; generosity and love in the case of PSH and sterility and raw emotion in the case of Meryl Streep.

The child actors too were very good.

Watch Doubt. You won’t regret it.  Trailer.

As the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, the international caffeine empire now knows…you don’t mess with Mr Mandelson.

This is a man who has been reviled and hated by almost 86% of the country (a totally made up figure just to appear slightly credible), resigned twice from Cabinet, managed to get on a boat with a sleazy oligarch and make Osborne look worse for wear and get off scott-free.

So when Mr Schulz talks disapprovingly of the UK economy in the presence of Mr Mandelson, the Mandelsonian inner PR cogs get whirring as the machine roars into overdrive.

Who the F***k is he? Mr Mandelson thundered, using expletives to get in with the great unwashed and attacking a Yankee to get in with the more nationalistic unwashed!

Something that has now endeared him slightly within the media and those who follow UK politics. For about 12 hours I would imagine.

Our economy is still going down the pan unfortunately and his cursing isn’t doing much about it.

Anyway, Mr Schulz apologised.

Just like the death of Diana, a new celebrity tragedy exposes the spiritual and moral abyss that exists in today’s Britain.

I’m not moralising here. Nor am I asking for people to be any more or any less spiritual or moral than they feel they should be.

But in ripping Jade apart and now resurrecting her as a dying saintly figure, Britain has shown to want a moral and spiritual figurehead by any means necessary (hence creating one out of previously villified and hounded celebs like Diana and Jade) but only once they’ve done time (by being totally shredded by the media) and also been subjected to collective public disapproval.

Once the public has discerned that the person is worse than they are, in as many ways as possible…then, and only then it seems, they can be permitted into the gallery of modern day saints (managed and approved by publicists, agents and record label executives).

Unfortunately I never got any emails asking me if I was alright; or if I was gobbled up by lions however now I am going to be back blogging once I release my new look site!

It is going to take a bit of work but hopefully within the next 2-4 days I will have a great banner and better design!

See you then!

A most fascinating example of intelligence within the general American public

Link

link

I wonder what the policeman said..?!

When will it ever end?!

A paedophile sex attacker recommended for deportation struck again after a Home Office bungle let him remain in Britain.

Somalian asylum seeker Sadiq Mohammed, 31, was yesterday convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl.

He was jailed for four years in 2000 after he sexually assaulted two women and a girl of 14.

A judge recommended Mohammed be deported after completing his sentence because he was a danger to women, and his presence was ‘detrimental to this country’.

And so what happens? He gets to stay here and surprisingly carries out another string of attacks. Is this government actively bringing people here like this man or what exactly?! Read more…

Once again, the boys in blue bring a proud smile to my face as they chase tony’s cronies out of office and into jail! Lord Levy, Mr Blairs personal Middle East envoy (Dumb move! He is Jewish – hint: Middle Easterners don’t like Jews very much; apart from Israelis) has been arrested for the second time in connection with the cash for honours scandal.

Fantastic stuff. I would give anything to see Blair getting shackled off after him!

Interesting poem I found on Evan Siegels site. Quite accurate I think!
Halliburton Hillbilly, Paul Henning with Jerry Politex

Come ‘n listen to my story ’bout a man named Dick
A neocon so wrong, he made our nation sick
Because one day, spouting lies very rude
He took us to Iraq to get their crude

Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea

The first thing you know, Dick’s friends are millionaires
But we said, “Dick, move those troops out of there”
Dick said, “Can’t stop me, they ain’t come’n back”
And he loaded up more troops and moved them to Iraq

Iraq, I said, dead bodies, civil war

Well, now it’s time to say goodbye to Dick and all his ilk
Better late than never, though the milk’s been spilt
But in ‘08 you’re invited back again to his locality
To have another helpin’ of his hospitality

Madness, that is: lies, theft, killing

Y’all come back now, hear?

I can’t wait! I will be flying out in about 12 hours time to an exotic and very warm location!

More details sooooon!

Can’t say I agree with David Cameron on this one…He should have been more firm. I think he is convinced there are alot of gay people in the party! There might well be, but I think by and large, the Tories are rather conservative (duh!) and disagree with him.

What are these guys playing at? Two gay men adopting a child? “Hello! We are your new father and father! Well actually he can be the mother at times…naughty boy!” It’s disgusting.

and then gives her the boot as soon as he sorts his papers out.

This is a really disturbing story about a poor woman who is a mute and suffers from a host of things that basically give her a mental age of seven. She is actually 28 years old. Now the girls father is trying to sue the man. I reckon he should also be sued for allowing this arranged marriage to take place.

I’m not sure that is a good idea…they will “rehabilitate” her back to what she was?

I just saw this very gruesome and harrowing set of pictures on Sileas’ blog. Truly terrible and a reminder to all of us of the terrible nature of war, violence and injustice.

Link

Israeli forces – the worst and most unethical in the world.

The wierd thing is that Emma Faust Tillman (RIP) appears to be white, and the article states that she was the daughter of slaves. I didn’t know there were white slaves…link

This guy is about to swim up the Amazon river, risking his life and catching a million and one tropical diseases purely to “prove to the world that nothing is surmountable”. I am not sure if the mistake is from him or from the metro.co.uk people but what was more laughable, quite frankly, is his ridiculous citation of Martin Luther King; a man who died to abolish racism and to see equality established in what is a very unjust country.

Now swimming up the Amazon is an impressive feat – but I reckon it is a feat that pales in comparison to the feats of Martin Luther King. I also find it a bit of a slight really – but then there you go!

Martin Strel (aka Fishman) will be at risk from the toothpick fish – a creature that swims up the penis and then raises its spines. It can then only be removed by surgery (Check the link – it’s there!)

Only Americans!

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