williamonthehill

The United Nations Food & Wine Festival, Rome

The United Nations long ago lost any moral authority it may have had.The General Secretaryship of Bortras Bortras Gali was wholly a disaster. During his leadership very little leadership was to be spared. The most gross dictatorships were allowed to run amok completely unchallenged. So that it is now possible for the most crooked and brutal of African and Asian dictatorships to libel truly democratic powers as 'fascist dictatorships' and breakers of human rights.

The rantings and ravings of President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the President of Iran at an supposed conference of the United Nations in Rome should not surprise us. This is exactly the legacy of Gali to which I referred above. It was sickening, it was hypocritical and it was tolerated, nay, encouraged by that body.

Is it not sick and hypocritical of Mugabe to point the finger of blame at the UK and to blame us for the starvation of his people. Isn't it now thirty years since Zimbawe was granted Independence? Get over it Bob.

And as for that clown, the President of Iran.... Words are inadequate and when can we expect the big stick which lands heavy blows, aka The Israeli Self Defence Airforce to eradicate the Tehran nuclear bomb project. Lets cheer them on when they do it.

When you see UN Bun fests like the one in Rome, with its attendant charlatans, fools and clowns you just have to wonder what value, if any that once august body now has in the world. 

Barack Obama as God

Do you believe in sin?

OBAMA:
Yes.

GG:
What is sin?

OBAMA:
Being out of alignment with my values.

Thanks to Gerard Augustas of The Cafeteria is closed Blog

Planning a Holiday

Later today I will be going over to see my son. Together we are going to plan our holiday. Liam has decided that he wants to go to Ireland. I have booked the flight (bmi) and booked the hire car. Provisionally I have booked our first two nights B&B in Ireland. We will stay in Athlone. This is in the Irish Midlands, about 100 miles from Dublin. As we don't get into Dublin until 3 pm (we pick up the car at 3.30 pm) I figure that, allowing for the horrible rush hour traffic in and around Dublin, that Athlone is about as far as I will want to drive on our first day.

One of our reasons for going to Ireland is that Liam wants to discover some of his Irish roots. His grand ma, my mum was born in a small town called Clara, in County Offally. This is about thirty miles from Athlone so we intend to visit and see if we can find any Fagans  in the church yard or the High Street. Athlone is also a good base to visit Clonmacnoise monastic settlement (established circa 536). A good way to visit is a cruise down the Shannon, otherwise we shall drive down, its only 5 miles from Athlone.Clonmacnoise also harbours the Irish National Peat Bog Park and I am looking forward to taking a walk through it.

My mum always called herself the girl from the bog and we never used to know what she meant. But looking at the Road Atlas yesterday I noticed that Clara is surrounded by the "Clara Bog"

The rest of the holiday is as yet unplanned. The car needs to be returned by midday 23rd; our return flight is 3.30 pm, 25th. Liam wants to see something of Dublin so it makes sense to return to Dublin perhaps on the 22nd via the Mourne Mountains and Powerscourt House and Falls (tallest in the UK at 200 odd feet).

Anyway, its all very exciting. Liam and I haven't been away on holiday together for several years. His summer holiday is usually full of things for him to do which doesn't allow for our having time together. So this opportunity comes as a  joyful surprise. 

Kate should get a job

The Headline in today's Mail on Sunday certainly deserves to appear on the News Quiz soon.

" Queen: Kate should get a job" It arrested my progress through Sainsbury's today and I had to stop and read it again just in case I had mistaken what had first caught my attention. No. I read aright.

The 'story' is that the Queen is opposing the engagement of Prince William with Kate Middleton until Kate can get a 'proper' full-time job. The senior royals fear otherwise that the happy couple will present a view to the world of being a mere 'playboy/girl' couple - idle rich with nothing to do except get bladdered at parties and clubs. Does this desire of Her Majesty for the career development of Kate also encompass her grandson, Willy?And what's wrong with getting bladdered at the 'right' parties anyway? Princess Margaret made a very successful career of doing just that throughout the fifties and sixties.

Some of us have long campaigned for the Royals to get proper jobs for themselves instead of living on substantial benefits and other public handouts.

Anyway, this story does demonstrate one thing; who says that the Royals don't do Irony?

Burma Cyclone Disaster

The present situation with the Military Junta refusing foreign aid and assistance brings up an interesting question. Can one force aid on another? In this case, can the United Nations actually use force and coercion on the Burmese government and compel them to accept aid and assistance from the UN and its member natons?

It is day six and the initial death toll (estimates of 200,000) will be added to - by day 15  with the situation unchanged from what it is today, we can expect deaths to have at least doubled (half a million).

What the Un cannot afford to do is to allow the Burmese military carte blanche to control the supplies distribution which is what the Burmese military are wanting to do. For one thing, they have not the experience, the equipment or the administration to do this even half efficiently. A photo in today's press (and stage-managed for the occassion) showed a long line of Burmese matelots unloading a supply ship on the Irriwaddy river. One sack at a time going down this long chain. Would take weeks to unload a ship at that work rate. Weeks! Another, and perhaps bigger issue is that the military will distribute the supplies not to where they might have greatest need, but to their allies and friends inside Burma, mainly the middle class and trhe military itself. In the hands of the Red Cross high energy biscuits can save many hundreds of thousands of children. In the supplies depots of the Burmese military they will become a weapon of war and the Burmese military only conduct war against their own people.

There is a hard, tough war of diplomacy going on right now and we must hope that the Burmese government will cave in. It will already be too late for tens of thousands of the Burmese but better late than never... It might make a terrific difference if China was brought on board. China has much influence over the Burmese government and they could use that influence for good. Perhaps if the Un stood aside in favour of a Chinese-led relief operation much good would come of it. It would be a win-win situation since China and her reputation could only benefit following the rather negative image China has developed of late thanks to its heavy-handedness in Tibet.

At the moment the Burmese people are in a l0se-lose situation and they are dying in their tens of thousands for so long as the present logjam remains unbroached.

Persepolis

My son and I saw this cartoon movie last week. It was brilliant even if not a great bundle of laughs. The cartoons are great art. And no GCI animation. This is an old-fashioned cartoon drawn with ink and each and every frame is worth all the effort.

Beginning in 1979 it is the story of a young girl growing up as the Iranian revolution breaks out. She is the daughter of liberal, westernised vaguely Marxist parents who have grandparents who were Persian Princes and Bolshevik revolutionaries!

The points are well made but there are one or two scenes where the writers soapbox shows. For example, in Junior High school our heroine argues against the history teacher when teacher claims how things were bad under the Shah: " you say that under the Shah there were 30.000 dangerous Marxist revolutionaries imprisoned; but now there are 300,000 political prisoners, including my uncle. How is that an improvement?"

There are many, very dark moments in this movie. As the grip of the revolutionary (see Religious) guards tightens on Tehrain it becomes a very dangerous occupation to be a woman. As for being a westernised, liberated woman... forget it.

The history of the war between Iraq and Iran (1980 - 1988) is not well known here in the west. What is not in doubt is how the western powers (especially USA, France and UK) sold arms to both sides without discrimination or moral scruple. One Million (conservative estimate) people on both sides were killed. The most poignant were the young revolutionary guards, boys of 13,14,15 who were recruited by the Iranian Mullahs. They were often given a small, plastic key which they were told was the key to paradise, and promised a martyrs death where they would inherit a harem of virgins. Sound familiar? Death was what most did receive as they were sent, en masse, in front of the Iranian forces to detonate the minefields and to bear the brunt of the firepower. Truly this is a regime of death, and not life.

Our heroine is driven out of Iran and into exile in Vienna. She becomes a young, liberated woman, has love affairs, gets her heart broken, spends two very bad months on the streets until she catches Pneumonia. She nearly dies but returns home where she becomes very clinically depressed by her expereinces. She goes to Tehrain University but she will not admit defeat. Instead, she cocks a snook at the religious authorities once too often. She has to go into exile, this time to Paris, where she still lives and works.

Altogether  a film to make one think about what it is like to live in exile, to lose one's country, freedom, family. Although I would agree that the film succeeeds in making the Iranian into a human being, I came away feeling very angry at the nature of the regime in Tehrain with its misogynistic and doom laden religious oppression.

Go and see this movie but be prepared to be taken to some emotional places where you might not want to go. Laugh but feel uncomfortable.

Light Blogging

It has been a few weeks since I last posted on the Blog. Many apologies for that. The full-time ness of the job, plus the commuting rather take it out of me. I arrive home too often exhausted and with my mind a complete blank with regard to writing anything witty, meaningful or even literate!

I promise to do better in May.

I am not an Anti-Catholic Bigot... but then again...

You may remember a few posts back that I mentioned two Peers and the debate about the Catholic Church and Condoms in the fight against HIV.

Below is my letter to them,,,

Baroness Flather of Maidenhead

The House of Lords

Westminster

London SW

6 April 2008

My Lady,

I am aware of your many discourses on the subject of HIV/AIDS pandemic on the African continent in the Upper House and elsewhere. I am also aware that for a reason known only to yourself you are inclined to place the blame for this human tragedy on the Catholic Church.

You may wish to know what the Catholic Church teaches and believes on this matter. Firstly , that sexual intercourse may occur only within a marriage, between two spouses. Any sexual encounter outside of the marriage context is illicit and is commonly called fornication. For those who remain unmarried chastity (abstinence) is a valid state and is greatly to be desired. Therefore chastity without marriage, and continence within marriage are the sole guarantors against HIV infection or indeed against any STD infection. Abstinence is the key.

Condoms are absolutely not the answer to this situation. You will be aware one hopes of the failure rate of Condoms, which reaches near to 20 % in some studies (1-in-5). You will also be aware that the latex of the average condom does contain holes of microscopic proportions through which infection can and does travel.

To use a condom is said to be practising ‘safe’ sex. Well, actually no. Over twenty years ago as a counsellor in a street drugs agency the message I was told to give to our service users was not to use the word ‘safe’in this context. The preferred word was ‘safer’ but that the risks of condom sex were to be spelt out to the clients.

So, to return to the Catholic Church. The Church teaches the faithful that sex is something which may occur only within marriage. The spouses are to be loyal and faithful to each other and to practice continence within the marriage.

For those outside marriage sex is not allowed. Yes, I will put it as strongly as that. That means not just hetero, but homo, trans, bi and any other personal preference of sex with or to. This is fornication which is a mortal sin. Those Catholics who are faithful and serious followers of the faith will have no difficulty with this teaching since the church has taught it from the beginning and chastity has Biblical backing.

my Lady, I have some difficulty in following the logic of your argument with regard to the Catholic Church being the principle obstacle to the resolution of the HIV pandemic in Africa. Perhaps you can explain it to me? As I understand you, the Catholic Church refuses to support the use of condoms in Africa. This leads to the continued infection of Africans.

my Lady, I find this argument to be so absurd and illogical. You lack any statistical method by which you might assert this argument. Do you even know how many Catholics there might be on the Continent of Africa? And do you suppose that if Catholics were ignoring the major teaching of abstinence and chastity in this matter, that they would bother to heed the call of the church to use a condom?

I think you would agree with me that South Africa has possibly the highest rate of HIV infection in the Continent? Given that Catholics are fewer than 10% of that countries population I cannot see in what way or manner the Catholic Church can be seen to be blamed for the HIV situation in South Africa. Can you? I would not expect any non-Catholic to heed the voice of the Catholic Church on the issue of fornication or using condoms as protection against STD’s or on anything else for that matter. It is a fact, easily verified that the Catholic religion is actually the minority Christian faith on the African continent and that, overall Islam is better represented on that continent.

I believe, and common sense would appear to support me, that abstinence from any sexual activity is the safest way to avoid contamination from any form of sexually transmitted disease.

I am perfectly capable of controlling my sexual urges, passions and lusts. I am sure that you are too. That is human nature. We all have a conscience and we all understand right from wrong. This is a universal phenomenon. I think that what disturbs me the most about the call to deluge the African continent with Condoms as if this was the sole and only solution to this dreadful disease is, I feel, inherently racist. It seems to me that the message behind the Condoms to Africa movement is one of acute racism and which is beholden of some very archaic colonialist thinking. my Lady, what your message in support of condom distribution in Africa says is this ( I use parody): “Those Africans; children, animals.” What I mean is that the logic which supports your position does not allow for Africans possessing the same nature as you and I. Indeed, the message which your policy seems to put across is that the African is, at best a child who cannot help himself but must be always engaging in promiscuous sex. Or that the African is actually a mere animal who, just like a dog must engage in sexual intercourse when confronted by the bitch on heat.

Thank God that the Catholic Church has a higher view of humanity than do the Secularists and the so called Humanists. That is why the Catholic Church calls for abstinence from sexual activity outside of the Sacrament of Marriage.

The real issue in the debate on HIV infection on the African Continent is surely this; that the only guaranteed way of avoiding infection (from any STD and not just HIV) is not to engage in sex with multiple partners. Africans need to hear the correct message; that only celibacy outside marriage, and continence (loyalty to one’s spouse) within marriage can give any guarantee of avoiding infection. The condom message gives entirely the wrong message, namely one that fully supports promiscuous sexual activity.

My Lady, I am forced to the conclusion that your position on this issue, and your, sometimes intemperate language towards the Catholic Church in the many debates in the House in which you have contributed, is motivated entirely by plain, old-fashioned anti-Catholic bigotry.

Yours sincerely

Clive Baulch

Here is the reply which I received from the good Lady.

Dear Mr. Baulch

You talk about the teachings of the Catholic Church which is to practise abstience and chastity and no  relationships outside marriage. Would it surprise you to know that every other religion teaches the same? So then what is the difference? The other religions accept the fallibility of human beings and do not put restrictions of the kind which people are not going to follow. I would have thought that a person as intelligent as you appear to be would understand that not everyone or in fact hardly anyone is like yourself. Should the rules be for the one or two exceptions like yourself, or should the rules be such that they will help those who constantly fall off the pedestal?

I am sorry to say that it is complete nonsense to say that the condoms do not help STDs or protect from HIV infection. If you go on saying these things you just join the Embeke group of heads in the bucket people. The two biggest problems facing the world today are overpopulation and the spread of HIV, both of which require some intervention. The Catholic church does not allow any kind of family planning devices or condoms which would be helpful in both.

I accept the fact that everybody is not a Catholic but the catholic church does have influence and BEPFAR, President Bush's fund for AIDS alleviation in Africa is being largely administered through catholic churches. That surely would have an enormous impact on the efficacy of the money spent. Most of it is being wasted on a "pie in the sky" dream of promoting abstinence. You say that I am motivated by bigotry/ I am not motivated by bigotry, I am motivated by facts. It is the Catholics who never cease to surprise me by their bigotry.

I will not argue with you anymore. We will just have to accept the fact that I view the world reslistically and you view the world from your own moral standpoint, but perhaps you could explain to me how your own prists have been buggering little boys in their care?

Team UK wins the Olympic Flame Relay event

This morning I am very proud to announce that after the third and final leg of the Flame Relay, held in San Francisco on Wednesday, Team UK has come out as top team.

The event is San Francisco descended further into farce to the point where many of San Franciscos finest did not even know where the flame had gone. At one point the torch 'disappeared' into a building before turning up completely on the other side of town!

After counting up all the points and replaying the news footage the judge (me) has no doubt that Team UK is the clear winner. This judgement is based on the fact that in London alone the torch managed to follow the planned route, was never doused, was never snatched from the hands of the rightful runner,and the Police did their duty impeccably and with minimum force, thus upholding the Olympic ideal.

Team UK are the  proud winners of the first Olympic Gold of the 2008 Olympics! Yeeeah!

Lost in the memories of time

Over on my favourite blogspot - www.mulier-fortis.blogspot.com  my friend Mac blogs on her surreal experience of getting lost in a place you know so well!

Well, this happened to me this week. On Tuesday I visited a client who has moved out of area to Ilford. I had looked up the address in the A-Z and I thought I had memorised the route. Plus, as a lad Ilford was a place I visited very regularly. Ilford was the place we went as kids for the 'special' shop - birthdays, Easter, Christmas. And I remember many Saturday afternoons trawling in and out of the shops along Ilford High Street. Of course, this Ilford which I knew was the one of thirty odd years ago...

Firstly, the bus drops me off in an unexpected place. Something to do with road works. So I find myself in an urban sort of desert. Large urban motorway, flyovers, big roundabout, buildings I have never seen before. It is called the "Redevelopment of Ilford" or something. I find myself walking up and down the road looking for a familiar landmark so I can orientate myself. I get sweaty, stressed, anxious before I clap eyes on a shop which seems to me to be familiar. Then I spot another, and slowly I discover where I am. Thank goodness for old Bodgers! And Waring and Gillow!

Today was another "lost in space" experience. This time I was down in Canning Town and boy, has that place changed! Its a horrid effect of old age! Its called progress... or something!