Canadian No More

I mentioned in a previous post that i was so ashamed that Phil Collins shares the same nationality as me that i would prefer to be Canadian.
It was then pointed out that having the best guitarist in the World hailing from Stoke on Trent more than rubbed out the embarrassment of the slap headed crooner. Saved by Slash.
Of course, if i had to choose my nationality i would consult this list, the Global Peace Index which ranks countries by their ‘absence of violence’.
It would come as no surprise to anyone except maybe Bush & Blair, that Iraq is rock bottom of the list as the most violent place on the planet. Israel and Sudan join it to make up the bottom three places you would not go to for a relaxing break unless you happened to be Rambo.
Top of the tree and most peaceful country is Norway followed by New Zealand and Denmark with the aforementioned Canada rolling in a respectable 8th.
It is a long drop down the 25th to Australia and almost double that again to find the UK at 49.
Interestingly, the USA (96) is one above Iran (97).
With the 4 Scandinavian countries in the top 10, i can only put their peaceful disposition down to all that snow, saunas and videos of a dubious nature.

Putting The Great Into Great Britain

In his long and drawn out resignation speeches to groups of handpicked supporters, Tony Blair has taken to finishing his speeches with the words "Great Britain is the best in the World".
Exactly what Tony thinks Britain is the best at is anybodies guess.
Healthcare? Sweden top that league table.
Entertainment? America knock us into a cocked hat.
Football, our national sport? Italy are the World Champions there chummy.
Television shows? America again.
Music? Not since the 70's grandad.
Industry? Don't even go there.
So just what can Blair be possibly thinking of when he says we are the best?
Darts.
In Phil Taylor we have the 13 times World Champion, sweeping aside all comers from every corner of the globe.
Yes, we excel at a pub game where overweight men in shiny shirts throw sharp objects.
The thought brings a tear to your eye doesn't it. Much like the players taste in shirts actually.

Chavez On The Box Again

Since its conception, Television has scaled the dizzy heights (Simpsons, Buffy, Monty Python) and plunged the sickening lows (Seinfeld, Are you being served, Fox News).
It has served to etch mankind's greatest achievements in our minds (Moon landing, Berlin Wall tumbling, Maggie Thatcher removed from office).
All this is little consolation to the RTCV viewers in Venezuela because the President Hugo Chavez has shut it down.
Before you could say 'knee jerk reaction from the right', the right wing knee jerked that it was a sign of the authoritarian nature of Socialism and it proved Chavez was against freedom of speech and other things but you know what it is like listening to right wing rant, you tend to block them out after the initial 3 seconds.
The RTCV channel supported a botched coup against Chavez in 2002 and refused to acknowledge his support when people power brought him back again so Chavez had a valid argument and he was only following the precedent set by Maggie Thatcher who did much the same to Thames TV in the 80's after it enraged her by showing the documentary Death On The Rock against her demands.
The employees of RTCV should think themselves lucky that they have Chavez to deal with and not George W Bush.
He wanted to blast Al Jazeera to tiny biddy bits for not toeing the US administration line during the Iraq War so if Bush was making the decision to silence a TV channel, RTCV staff could have found themselves spread over several miles courtesy of a couple of 500lb US bombs.
It all makes Chavez's treatment sound quite respectable.

US & Iran Talking

Anyone with a passing interest in the Middle East cannot fail to watch the news with a heavy heart lately.
The same US administration that armed Israel last summer to slaughter Lebanese, is now arming the same Lebanese to fire at insurgents in the South of their Country.
Syria are widely believed to be meddling in Lebanese affairs while Israel's Premier tells his Government to expect a long, drawn out battle with Hamas as Israeli gun ships target Palestinian leaders.
Hamas continue to land their deadly home made missiles on Israeli cities when they are not busy killing each other.
I wouldn't know where to begin with the burning hole where Iraq used to be and Iran are in the cross hairs of two leaders who lied to the hilt to go to war with its neighbour.
Without doubt, the Middle East is on fire but the news that Iran and America managed to sit down and talk today is a chink of light in a dark, dark tunnel.
A century of the West meddling in Middle Eastern affairs have brought us to where we stand today so hopefully, this will be the start of us engaging with the countries there rather than dictating to them. It cannot make matters any worse.

Channel 4 In Another Controversy

The usually excellent Channel 4 are attracting some bad headlines recently as close on the heels of their slap on the wrist for their conduct over the race row in Celebrity Big Brother, they walk straight into another controversy over their Princess of Wales programme.
Demands are growing for the channel to cancel a documentary featuring pictures of the car crash that killed Diana in Paris in 1997.
Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel, includes the first public airing of images taken by French photographers immediately after the collision and shows one picture of Diana receiving oxygen and other explicit images of the interior of the car.
I am of the opinion that if you are so offended by such images, you can choose not to watch it but as sure as eggs are eggs, Channel 4 are including these images in an attempt to drive up ratings. The inclusion of these images was always going to be provocative and stoke argument and Channel 4 know this.
They also know that the publicity from the outcry will give them a huge audience. Pictures of anyone dying, whether it is a Princess or not, are not my cup of tea but there will be plenty of viewers who will tune in just because of the publicity this has generated.

The No Suspicion Law

Back in the bad old days, Britain had stop-and-search law that permitted a police officer to act on suspicion, or 'sus', alone.
The law caused much discontent among certain sections of the population and was abolished in 1980 following riots in Bristol, London and Liverpool because the law was widely believed to have been abused by Police to harass the black population.
Subsequent evidence that non-whites were six times more likely to be stopped than whites bore this out.
Unbelievably, the British Government now want to revisit the same laws only with a new
twist, there does not have to be any suspicion this time. Anyone is fair game for whatever reason the police deem fit.
Under the proposals, officers would have the right to stop, search, inquire about identities and movements with failure to comply leading to criminal charges or a hefty fine.
After a damning 2003 report on racism in the UK Police Force, the police commissioners grudgingly admitted that they were institutionally racist and promised to review their recruitment practices.
With the law being bought in under the catch-all umbrella of "anti-terrorism", we are seeing yet more of our civil liberties chipped away and further powers handed to a police service that, in light of recent events, very few have much faith in to do the right thing.
The question being asked is are we literally sleep walking into a Police State?

Trying To Forget The 70s

For some unknown reason there has been a rash of programmes lately remembering the 70s.
As i was born 8 months shy of the start of the decade, i grew up in this era of bad haircuts,even worse clothes and music so sickly sweet you would need an insulin jab if you spent more than 30 minutes listening to the radio.
Of course my poo-pooing of the decade has bought me into confrontation with friends who bizarrely remember the time as one long party.
For me, when i cast my mind back to the 70's i think of flares, patchwork dresses, Gary Glitter, that damned Copacabana song, skinheads, interior decor that made your eyes bleed, power cuts, black & white television and that song about the Queen being a fascist that got to number 1 but nobody could listen to.
Take out Punk music and some of the Glam Rock stuff, and the music that you are left with are the types of songs that should be played to those held hostage in Guantanamo Bay, I would be confessing to the shooting of JFK after a few verses of My Ding A Ling or Tie a Yellow Ribbon.
Maybe i was too young and didn't appreciate all that was going on at the time but any era that can proudly boast Barry Manilow deserves to be quickly forgotten.

Another Nail In Blair's Legacy

The anti-war lobby has been given a huge shot in the arm by the British judicial system with the decision to clear two protesters who were acting to stop war crimes.
The two men were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage in their attempt to sabotage US B-52s and so prevent them from taking off at the launch of the Iraq War.
The verdict unanimously acquitted both two men, accepting their defence that they were acting to prevent the US air force planes from committing war crimes.
The result is another nudge towards acceptance that war crimes were committed by Britain and America in Iraq and all the implications that brings with regards to the International Criminal Court.
The main beneficiary will be future protesters who now have another precedent. Last year, five Irish peace campaigners were found not guilty after damaging an American transport jet at Shannon airport.
No statement from Downing Street but Blair's retirement not be as comfortable as he thought after this decision by the British Court.

Big Brother In Yet Another Scandal

When Big Brother started i was a huge fan, mainly because of the psychological side of it but after events in Australia it pains me to say that i think the plug should be pulled on the whole programme.
Producers of Australia's Big Brother refused to tell a female contestant that her father has died of cancer while she is on the show. He has now been buried without his daughter attending the funeral, still oblivious to her fathers death.
The programme has earlier given out a task where the contestants were handed life-like baby dolls to care for despite being fully aware that one of the females in the group had recently suffered a still birth age, reducing her to tears.
With the racism row on UK's BB still reverberating around, the programme has moved out of the realms of experiment and into a sordid exercise in humiliation and degradation.
There will always be people willing to suffer such humiliation for their 15 mins of fame and a shot at a career in television but to me this show has outstayed its welcome.

Understanding Control Orders

The use of control orders are under review as three terror suspects abscond and are expected to have gone abroad.
Control orders were brought in after the policy of detention without charge or trial was ruled illegal and are used when people are considered a threat to national security.
Tony Blair has insisted that control orders were being used only because tougher laws, the detention without charge, had been overturned by the courts.
To confuse matters even further, Home Secretary John Reid, today made a commons statement that the three were not considered to represent a threat to the public.
Maybe i am missing a something here but if they were not a threat to us, why where they under the control order in the first place?
If someone is considered enough of a threat to have to be locked up indefinitely to protect us, then surely the powers that be must have some evidence to these ends and then they should be bought up in front of a judge for sentencing.
In my world, if you have no evidence then that person is innocent, if you have evidence then you charge them.