Spel it rite!

Watching ABC (Australia) News tonight I saw one headline:

GAILS AND RAIN HIT KARRATHA COAST

Surely they've got the spelling wrong. Ignorant colonials! It should really read:

GAILS AND REIGN FIT KARATE TOAST

Beyond Belief

Zacarias Moussaoui is on trial in Virginia on charges connected with the September 11 massacre. Although his lawyers tried to stop him taking the stand for fear that it would further incriminate him he has made bold and sweeping statements in court. He claims that, although he was arrested in August 2001 he knew the targets of the 7/11 raids but he did not know their exact timing. He claims he bought a radio in prison so that he could listen to the news on the Twin Towers disaster. He rejoiced when he heard the death toll rise.
Further he claims that, if he had not been already in prison, he had been ordered by Osama Bin Laden to hi-jack a fifth airliner and fly it into the White House. One of his fellow hi-jackers would have been Richard Reid, the British "shoe bomber".
Now there are some - not necessarily all of them Muslim fanatics - who would have been rejoicing if the White House had been hit, especially if George W. had been in residence at the time. Putting that aside these are astounding claims by Mr Moussaoui. He already faces the death penalty. These admissions will almost certainly guarantee that it will be carried out. One begins to wonder about his motives. Does he feel aggrieved that he was unable to join his fellow conspirators in the glorious attack on US imperialists? Does he want to become another "martyr" for the cause of his fanatical brand of Islam? If so, in doing so, is he also sewing the seeds of doubt in the US security system about how much they really knew? Is he dressing it up, knowing that he has nothing to lose?
In short, is this just his last weapon against the US Imperialists? Put doubt and uncertainty where they thought they had it all sewn up. Undermine the faith of the American public in the ability of their own security services. Mr Moussaoui has nothing to lose and perhaps, in his own mind, great glory in the afterlife to gain by these statements.
I don't know what to believe. But this show trial, designed to show America is meting out justice against the terrorists, is being turned around by this man and will bring nothing but uncertainty and disquiet for America.

Freedom?

Norman Kember has been freed from captivity in Iraq. Thank goodness.
Thanks also must go to the soldiers who risked possible death in the operation to free him and his colleagues. Thanks must also go to whoever it was who tipped off his captors that the operation was coming - because when the soldiers got there all the captors had disappeared. They must have known that the only other way was to fight to the death, probably killing the hostages on the way, and thankfully they chose the path of life and freedom.
Mr Kember is 74. He has seen a lot of life. He went to Iraq, sponsored by a peace organisation, with the admirable intention of trying to secure peace between Christians and Muslims. He must have known that it was a pretty futile exercise. He even recognised the possibility of being taken captive by some terrorist group because he had stated before he went that, in such a scenario, he would not wish a military operation with the risk to the lives of soldiers to be carried out in order to rescue him. Luckily for him the military ignored his request and he was rescued.
The organisation which sponsored the group's visit has since stated that it is considering disbanding because of the risks involved. The whole visit was futile from the start.
Mr Kember is lucky to be alive. Thank goodness he is for the sake of his wife and family. But Mr Kember should never have been there in the first place. Such actions can never do any good. They just create opportunities for others to put their own views in the only way they know how - with violence.

Food for Thought?

I've just been listening to BBC Radio 4's Friday Play. It was a radio adaptation of Thea von Harbou's prophetic novel "Metropolis". Thea's husband Fritz Lang made the classic 1927 silent movie of the novel. The novel was taken by Peter Straughan and adapted into a radio play. The feelings of fear and foreboding ran through me as I listened to Ms von Harbou's vision of what life would be like in the year 2000 AD. Edward Hogg plays Freddy to perfection and Maria is vibrant in the voice of Tracy Williams. Enough weird sound effects are introduced to make just the right feeling of subversion against the Big Brother state. It's worth listening to. You can do that until 9.0 pm British Summer Time on Friday, April 1, 2006. Listen and be scared. Listen and receive real food for thought. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml and select The Friday Play from the list of programmes. Sit back and wallow in an hour of some of the best radio drama heard on the airwaves ever. Then think about what life is like in 2006 and compare ...

Wily Coyote versus the Police State

Hal the coyote has been captured. Hal's only crime was to wander around New York's Central Park. He was a particularly enterprising dude, having had to cross railway bridges, swim the river to reach Manhattan Island and finally find his way to a sensible stretch of green where he might find a bite to eat. He wasn't doing any harm, going about the business of making a living just like many other inhabitants of that city. His crime was just being there. It took a sizeable portion of NYPD's manpower to chase him and finally shoot him with a tranquilliser dart. Talk was that he would attack dogs being walked in the park. With that many humans around I doubt he would have done so unless he was suicidally desperate. Doubtless there were other animals resident in the park - like squirrels, rats and mice - which would have satisfied his appetite. Meanwhile crimes were still committed in the city. But the police were too busy chasing an innocent animal to deal with those.
In the UK we have foxes. They have urbanised to a great extent, taking advantage of small open spaces right in the middle of cities. They have learned that the waste bins near restaurants can realise rich pickings to feed themselves and their young. Urban foxes are now accepted as normal inhabitants of most cities in the UK and people no longer even find it unusual to see them crossing roads and dodging the traffic. So what's wrong with a coyote in Central Park? It's not the American way. It doesn't swear allegiance to the American flag (God bless it and all who sink with it). So - it must be BAD!!!!!
What a load of balls! Wake up and realise that coyotes were there long before most of your ancestors (they came from Europe, Africa and Asia mere centuries ago). Thus you have less right to be on Manhattan Island than Hal.
Such is life . . .

Save the Environment - eat with your hands!

Browsing through ABC News (Australia) website I came across what appeared to be a quaint little story from China. Apparently they are going to levy a 5% tax on disposable wooden chopsticks. Weird or what? You might think so - until you delve a little further into the complete picture. Apparently the Chinese government is embarking on a campaign to cut environmental waste by 20% over the next five years. That's quite a task considering the expanding economy of the country and the new-found affluence of many of its citizens. The increase in car use and increasing demand for power to fuel both industry and a higher standard of living must certainly be making an environmental impact which affects the whole world. Car taxes are to rise and many other measures are to be taken. So what good is a tax on chopsticks going to have? Look at the figures. According to ABC's story China gets through more than 10 billion boxes of chopsticks annually - and goodness knows how many chopsticks there are in a box. That's an awful lot of trees and a lot of energy used in their manufacture. At home - although they are not used often, I have sets of chopsticks made of plastic which I have owned for the past thirty years. They can be washed and used again and again. That makes sense. It is not often that I can say that I agree with something the Chinese government is doing but this time they are right. I hope their strategy succeeds, partly because it will benefit not only China but the whole world. US, Europe and other consumer-led cultures take note and follow. A 20% cut in energy drains across the world would go a long way to saving the planet for all our futures.

Headline News?

So - both the BBC in the UK and CBS in the US saw fit to follow the story of a stupid cat that got stuck up a tree. Yes, the cat was very frightened. Yes, attempts were made to coax it down. But at the end of the day it fell a claimed 80ft and lived to run off, probably scared even more shitless by the host of paparazzi awaiting its rescue than it was when stuck in the tree. So this is the important news today? Not some environmental catastrophe, nor a terrorist threat. Not even the news that ETA in the Basque country has declared a cease-fire. No, a cat fell from a tree. Next thing we know Mrs Bates of East Cheam will be in the world news because she hung out her washing on the line.
What a load of balls.
I also saw another dose of "RAW" news on CBS. For those of you who don't know RAW news is video coverage with no verbal explanation. This is probably because the network does not have sufficient literate employees to actually relate the story. This particular story showed a wild coyote in Central Park in New York filmed from a helicopter (how much does it cost to fly a helicopter?). The short written preamble introducing the story talked about chasing it with tranquilliser guns. Why? Is the animal doing any harm? More than likely it's doing a service to the local community by killing and eating some of the local vermin. But I've heard that Central Park has more rules and regulations than a medium-sized country and doubtless rule number 3004 reads: "Thou shalt not let coyotes roam wild in the Park".
Has anyone stopped to think that the coyote is yet another oppressed "Native American"? Historically it probably has more right to be in Central Park than most of the citizens of New York.
Again, what a load of balls.

Nothing's Simple

So - Slobodan Milosevic is dead.
The official autopsy, attended by a Serbian doctor, gives the cause of death as a heart attack.
The international community considers it has been robbed of a show trial where they could prove that he was a genocidal maniac.
They feel cheated.
Many Serbians consider he was the saviour of the Serbian people.
They feel cheated.
Who is right? I don't know. Certainly thousands of people were killed, possibly for not supporting the Serbian cause, possibly because they came from the wrong side of the Serbian tracks. Possibly, even, because of their religious beliefs and way of life. We will now never know. But even if the trial had come to a conclusion would we ever have known the real truth? I doubt it.
Many diehard Serbs think he was poisoned. There are stories that even Milosevic himself said he thought he was being slowly poisoned. I would like to hear from the Serb representative at the autopsy, if he was truly allowed to have his own opinions.
Whatever happens, no one will be truly satisfied with the present outcome. People will still believe what they want to believe.
Nothing's simple is it?

No Simple Answers

Natalie Evans' new fiancé, Dave Richardson, has stated that he wants to adopt any offspring of Natalie’s at birth. He has said this in the hope that it would perhaps alleviate some of the fears of the natural father Howard Johnston, who has withdrawn consent for her to use embryos fathered by him, which have been stored for more than four years.
Mr Johnston must have all sorts of fears about this situation. Perhaps he would be forced to support the child even though the prospective mother has vowed that this would not be the case. Perhaps he would want the child for his own once he knew it had been born. Perhaps he just wants nothing more to do with Natalie. We don’t really know what really is going through his head. There is no doubt that if the child was adopted by Mr Richardson then Mr Johnston’s financial responsibility to the child would be nil. But this does not address any of the natural father’s emotional arguments.
There is also another angle. At the age of 18 the child would have a legal right to know who his or her natural father was. Such a child may wish to find out more and attempt to contact him. I don’t know how I’d feel, twenty years down the line, if my child, whom I had never even seen let alone known, suddenly came into my life. How would it affect my life? Or that of my family? Or my partner? The permutations are endless.
This is one of the reasons why the law is framed as it is. There must be complete agreement on the part of both parties. Any of you who feel sympathy for Natalie must accord that same sympathy for Howard Johnston.
There are never any simple answers.

It is notable that Ms Evans’ story has not made it on to CBS News website. It seems it’s small beer to the American media. However Donna Marie Maddock was featured today (March 9). Donna is a very silly girl. Irresponsible is a very good word to describe her actions. She was driving along a particularly dangerous road in North Wales purportedly hurrying to meet up with her boyfriend. To save time she was applying her make-up while driving, at times having neither hand on the wheel. Unfortunately for her a police video camera caught her in this act and she was pulled over and charged. The result was a £200 fine.
CBS and most of the British media told the story as if “Big Brother with a camera” was interfering with her right to risk others’ lives on the road. Hardly any space was given to police and road safety experts’ statements about the dangers of driving with no hands on the wheel. More than 40 people died on that road in a recent two-year period so it is not a place to be distracted from your driving.
What CBS also failed to record was that Ms Maddock had, just last week, been banned from driving for 20 months after being found guilty of drink driving. Her irresponsibility is compounded to the point where it could be considered that the magistrates were extremely lenient in just fining her for the make-up incident.
If people want to risk their own lives that’s up to them. But when, through careless disregard, they risk the lives of those around them something has to be done to put an end to such behaviour. I wonder how Ms Maddock would feel if her very pretty face was disfigured by being smashed through the windscreen due to her lack of concentration on the road?

No Winners

Today the European Court of Human Rights dashed the hopes of Natalie Evans. She had hoped to have a baby conceived by IVF from embryos which had been frozen four years ago before she had an operation to remove her ovaries after cancer-like symptoms were found. Her fiance at the time was the father. Since then they have split up and now the father is objecting - as is his right under law - to the use of the embryos. The law is clear. Either partner can change their mind right up to the time of implant of the embryo. Since he is no longer with Miss Evans he doesn't feel able to be the father. Perhaps he is scared that he will be prevailed upon to support such a child. Perhaps Miss Evans would invoke the services of the dreaded Child Support Agency to appropriate funds from his salary towards the upkeep of the child. Or perhaps he feels nothing but hate for her since their parting - whatever. His decision is his to make and it must be a terrible dilemma for him.
It must also be painful for the girl. She knows that this is her only chance to have a child she can truly call her own. She has taken her appeals through the highest courts in Britain and now to Europe. Her one last chance is to appeal to the Grand Chamber, which could overturn the decision. Laws have to draw lines and rightly so. It is unfortunate that Miss Evans has come down on the wrong side of the line for her. But the father has just as many rights as she does and if he cannot bring himself to agree then the law says that she cannot proceed. Her appeal must be heard with all due haste as the embryos must be destroyed after five years in storage. That five year period expires in October this year.
Whatever the outcome there will be pain and sorrow for at least one of the parties, if not both.
I have no answers (I always say that). Perhaps there is no just solution. My heart goes out to both of these unfortunate people and all I can do is wish them peace and happiness in some form.

Memories . . .

Today saw the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire. The prototype first flew on March 5, 1936 and more than 22,000 Spitfires were built. The aircraft has a particularly poignant memory for me. My late father-in-law, Leslie Naylor, worked for the makers, Vickers Supermarine, as a draughtsman and had a hand in the design of this iconic aircraft. I remember taking him to an air display marking two hundred years of flight where there were many aircraft on display, both static and flying. They included the de Havilland Mosquito, the Gloster Meteor (first jet fighter to break the sound barrier) the Hawker Hurricane and, of course the Spitfire. There were several Spitfires flying that day. They were lined up for display and then, when they started their engines, I looked at my father-in-law and thought I saw a tear in his eye. Obviously the sound of the Merlin and Gryphon engines stirred many memories for him. I will never know quite how he felt, I only know it was an extremely moving experience for him.
Back to today. At 4.35 pm, exactly 70 years to the minute, five Spitfires took off from Eastleigh airport where the first Spitfire was built and tested and flew over Southampton and Portsmouth in a tribute flight. In one of the aircraft, the only two-seat Spitfire in existence, Alex Henshaw was a passenger. Mr Henshaw, now 93, was a chief test pilot on the Spitfire and was able to take the controls for a short time during the flight. The emotion on his face as he flew in that aircraft, which was bought by the Irish air force in 1946 after British wartime service and converted to a two-seat trainer, was obvious and moving to watch.
The flight was a tribute to R. J. Mitchell, the designer of the aircraft, who died of cancer a year after that maiden flight and never saw his wonderful creation reach its pinnacle of fame. It was also a tribute to all those who flew the plane in wartime and in peace. It is often said that the Spitfire won the Battle of Britain. This is obviously not totally true as the Hurricane was still the main armament of the RAF and took the brunt of the battle. But the faster Spitfire as it was introduced and increased in service certainly played a vital part and went on to have a deciding role in air warfare in the European and other theatres of war.
My father-in-law loved this aircraft. We would often talk about it and its merits and, partly because of his love, the plane has a special place in my thoughts as well. My father-in-law's unfinished memoirs are at present being transcribed on www.spitfireman.blogspot.com. Do read them - I think they're worth looking at.