a Dirty Martini

Awaiting Spring

via www.flickr.com

I love being inspired by other people's photography and this is gorgeous! Flickr moasic is the tool used to make this montage.

I updated the post below with a clip of Blair.

Um...

Thanks. As I whittle away here on this blog with random thoughts. I just wanted to thank you all for the comments lately. I really appreciate and enjoy them all

  

I felt Proud

I felt very proud to be English today. A lovely, rare feeling. 

Sure, I can talk up London and our history til the cows come home. I can brush past our governments failings and look to the good in life. I can shrug off the incessant grinding characteristics of many out there who can never find a good word to say about us, our past or our present. But it's rare I feel a sense of overwhelming pride in someone who embodies certain characteristics. With the exception of our armed forces I hasten to add. I need to justify it to myself since he's part of a party I loathe - and then some. I truly loathe his policies at home. I cannot thank the man for a decade of overall baaaad government. But on foreign policy and in a decade shaped by nothing but foreign policy, I cannot fault the man. But it was more than that. Tempered by a sense of overwhelming sadness and making my blood run cold when he spoke earnestly about the fear in Bush's voice, ...it's hard to explain... but I felt proud at his reaction to that fear. His conviction. His patient dignity in taking those who don't get it slowly back through the reasons. The wholly justified reasons that I firmly believe history will show to have been right re Iraq. And that rare quality in a politician - the absolute strength of his own convictions on such a serious serious matter, standing outside of his party, on his own, taking full and sole responsibility while those armed with the sanctimonious benefit of brilliant hindsight pick over it all. His ability to respond intelligently, unprompted and utterly resolutely. I felt proud.

To Tony Blair - I can't believe I'm saying this but - thank you.

Updated with a clip:-

Ni Putes Ni Soumises & the Burqa

You may or may not be interested in the terrific debate going on in France at the moment regards the niqab and burqa. I've been following it avidly especially as it's in the papers here and rattling cages politically. I'm particularly interested in one group I wholeheartedly support and which I was loosely involved with when living in France - somewhat before they morphed into the pretty excellent tour de force they have become. For a quick wiki hit on them see here. There is a good deal to them and loads I could go into but I'm not sure if this is interesting to you or not.  I'll give it a shot. For a better perspective on their history you can read a little in Time magazine here. 

I won't bore you with my lengthy involvement with French politics in the late 90s when the majority of my friends in France were French Arabs (pre 9/11 noone called them muslims, especially in laique France). I spent a huge amount of time conducting research into Islam in France and spending weekends in the banlieues and HLMs, experimenting with crazy Algerian eye makeup, the kind women wear under burqas, interviewing fundamentalist imams (keep in mind this was pre 9/11), reading the Koran and socialising with people heavily involved in equality movements for the rather despised French Arabs who, at that time at least, yearned to be embraced by French society. 

I only chose the topic because I figured this nice soft squishy politically correct number would score multi brownie points with my tutor and get me the grades I wanted. My project was assisted by a young French Algerian, an atheist, who despised Islam and went to enormous lengths to ensure I saw this religion at least partially through his eyes. His name was Karim. I knew of the issues in the cites and Karim was at pains to tell me some of the horror stories. But it seemed less a religious issue and more a gang type issue. Of the kind of machismo gang posturing that comes with young men who feel the world owes them respect for nothing more than having a dick. Maybe a little like south central LA but without the uzis. At the end of the day I could see this issue gnawing at Karim's normally smooth edges yet he despised religion. He certainly squeezed every last drop out of the machismo that comes culturally from North Africa. I can recall one occasion where a North African student who was overheard 'insulting' me in the corridor of the student halls was hauled in front of me by Karim and his mates, aggressively forced to his knees and made to apologise. There I was boiling pasta on a single hotplate in the sparse shared kitchen and in they trooped. It felt ridiculous. But they were taking it so seriously I actually feared for the guy's life so simply nodded along to his apology, my face a rictus of serious compliance. To this day I have no idea what the alleged slur was. 

The Time article I linked to above sketches it all out quite well. Don't get me wrong here. The guys were generally okay, funny, smart. The girls were cool. They never wore any kind of religious dress. They were very much into fashion, make up etc. Vivacious, hard working, conscious of their parents culture but easily able to put that to one side and make the most of growing up in a western society.

But now it's 2010. We live in a post 9/11 world.  While French feminists have ramped up the debate on some serious issues in France, far removed from glass ceilings and all that crap and while they embrace the cross party consensus on a proposed burqa ban for reasons of basic equality, American feminists deplore France and support burqa wearing. What a fucked up world.  

I couldn't give a shit about glass ceilings, abortion rights, pay equality and all that crap. The ONLY thing that matters to me (apart from raunch culture) is seeing idiotic women born and raised in the West adopting the symbolic veil and using it to self segregate, poison and dilute while others both here and in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia are forced into this crap. The things I read today on some big hitting US feminist websites make me wonder what the hell they are on about. Their egos or issues? And no doubt the rather limp British versions will bleat the same.

Here is a clip from the group and their website. Loosely translated it calls on the Socialist Party to support a months long cross party debate and consensus on the burqa and niqab. It deplores their recently cool and timid approach to the issue, when the party appeared to get cold feet, feels cheated by the party they would usually fall in behind and demands they clarify their position and support a complete ban on the burqa which they view as a symbol of enduring oppression and violence. To not abandon women in the banlieues to the "forces obscurantistes". They staged a protest in front of the PS headquarters dressed in black burqas - and got the answer they wanted.  The majority of French North African women who subscribe to this group are from the banlieues themselves. I only WISH we had as powerful and smart a group here.  One comment in the threads on Facebook suggested that the left she had always supported had sold out. Apparently, only the right have the courage of their convictions, she added.

 

Urban Seal

 

 

via Londonist blog:

Lucky Londoner and wildlife photographer Julian Cox currently has a seal sunbathing in his back garden. ...His flat overlooks St Saviour's Dock near Tower Bridge where this glorious creature is currently basking in the Thames.

"I was given special access out on to the dock this weekend to photograph the seal. Truly amazing! She's very relaxed and comes in regularly on the high tide in the afternoon and just after midnight. She hauls out onto the platform meant for the local swan. The swan's not happy. On Saturday the swan was forced to vacate the platform while the seal waited patiently in the water for her chaise longue to become free!"

 

Winter is underappreciated

Winter is so underappreciated, in my view. It suffers the badmouthing of sun worshippers. To me summer is a grossly overrated disappointment of frizzy hair, searing heat and unhealthy blasts of air con, of sticky sweat and oil-basted sybarites who like to spread out on the beach like sausages in a frying pan. The dry short breath of hot winds that desiccate greenery each summer is something I can handle as a short adventure but not for extended periods. 

Wet, windy and cold or sunny windy and cold, doesn’t bother me. I like to rug up and hide away. I prefer to feel the sun on my face when I’m wrapped up warm against the bitter cold. And outside of this city, faraway memories of a winter wind whipping foam from the steel-blue waves outside the harbour make me smile. Just enough perfect warm sunshine that day to show off the freshly painted facades of an Americana streetscape. The grey, stoney beach and the facades made the place feel slightly British.

On the outside of the bus window rain droplets raced each other to the bottom of the glass. Already that week I had skidded down icy wet pavements, rugged snug in my coat against the chill snow squalls that played catch-up with blue skies and winter sunshine. To sit later near an open fire in a pub, slurping a favourite cherry red wine. Modestly served by my standards. (It didn’t taste quite right anyway).

The cold winter air that morning seemed so refreshingly soothing and clean I swallowed it in big greedy gulps.  I allowed a certain pain to wash across my mind and heart remembering it was my dad’s birthday. The early sun extended prongs of gold beneath moody winter clouds grey and fat with snow, illuminating a pretty little neighbourhood garden. I know he’s smiling. 

Links & Stuff

I don't feel like writing at the moment. I do like to collect articles and share the links to them so here are a few good reads:

Stopping Terrorism is Not Criminalising Dissent. I fully agree with this point of view but for an alternative intelligent take on this subject, read Pub Philosopher.

Via the Monarchist blog - A pro-British movie? About Queen Victoria? The historian Andrew Roberts gives us the astonishing news:

"It is probably too much to hope that Hollywood has fundamentally altered its view of the English – we are still the minority it's totally safe to be racist towards – but Victoria allows us a glimpse of how good Hollywood history movies could be if they didn't exude such prejudice against us and our past".

I wrote about the effects of Hollywood's anti English history bullshit myself here

How porn is killing intimacy for teens. 

The Rules, or what my grandmother and mother called"treat em mean keep em keen" applied to work. Heh or aargh. Can't decide which.

We Must Not Leave Afghanistan Yet - 

"Not since the demise of Marxism has the world been faced with a comprehensive political, social and economic ideology determined, by force if necessary, to achieve hegemony over large parts of the world"

Prince William proud to respresent The Queen. And I'm proud of Prince William if rather glum about our Queen getting old which is the real reason behind her dwindling duties. Actually I'm seriously hoping for a royal wedding to be announced soon :)

Top Ten Places You Can't Visit - Secret Clubs, rooms, Bases and shrines...

Stunning stunning stunning Photography of India.

US Trip - Seattle to Los Angeles September 1-12 2001 - scans mostly..

 

I had to go explore this riverbed and got totally stuck when I got down there

 

 

That trip I went from feeling happy and excited to the feeling of chaos and a new order I didn't want to accept. 
 
I would love it if you could drop the names of some worthwhile blogs I haven't maybe yet discovered into the comments please. I need some new reads to add to my existing ones and maybe even a brand new perspective of the blogosphere.
  
 

Hafiz

 

One liners feel good right now. Hafiz is one of my favourite poets.

 

The Searchers

I watched The Searchers last night. Never watched it before. Here are some of my favourite pics to share with you from my US trip last year. They say pure America to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take care all

x

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Two girls blown up by callous Taliban bomb saved by hero Brits

These pictures made me cry..click to enlarge

 

Photos and story by Major Paul Smyth. 

TWO little Afghan girls horrifically injured by a Taliban bomb have been saved by the determination and skill of a group of caring British soldiers and medics.

Three-year-old Kamila and pal Wasila, six, nearly died after accidentally triggering an improvised explosive device (IED) as they played outside their home in Musa Qala, Helmand Province.

Kamila took the brunt of the blast, suffering severe head injuries, while Wasila's stomach was ripped open by molten shrapnel causing liver damage.

Kamila's horrified father was on the scene in seconds and scooped up the girls and took them to Musa Qala District Centre, certain that coalition troops there would help.

But the injuries were so severe that they alerted a four-man British Medical Emergency Response Team, staffed by doctors and nurses, which raced to help in a Chinook chopper.

The girls were then flown to a hospital at Kandahar Airbase.

Kamila was placed in an intensive care unit where doctors feared the worst. The blast had paralysed her on her entire left side and brain damage left her unable to express emotion.

But the tender care of a British neurosurgeon, who had volunteered to serve in Afghanistan, along with his Canadian and American colleagues changed that.

After weeks of treatment Kamila and Wasila recovered. Doctors were even able to help Kamila show her emotions again - and she got back her cheeky grin.

The British neurosurgeon who cared for Kamila - who cannot be named for security reasons - said: "The majority of people I have treated are children under 15 years, and the most common injuries have been as a result of IEDs.

"It's great when it works out, as in this case. It makes it all worthwhile. But it takes the whole team to make it work, fantastic intensive care unit support, nursing staff and physiotherapists, especially as the hospital is not scaled for humanitarian medical aid."

Another doctor who treated the girls said: "Before Kamila arrived, we had a young boy with similar injuries who died, so we were all very nervous about the chances of recovery. After initial treatment, the signs were not good, as Kamila could not move her left side and was unable to express emotion.

"Although there were to be further complications, Kamila is now interacting with the people around her and even smiling.

"We consider Kamila our miracle child. She was such a morale booster, because we see so many kids that don't make it."

Lieutenant Andrew Jelinek, from the Household Cavalry Battle Group operating in Musa Qala, said: "IEDs laid by insurgents take a terrible toll on innocent civilians.

"They have had a deadly effect on British and coalition forces but it's the ordinary Afghan people that are hit the hardest.

"Unfortunately children are the frequent victims of Taliban IEDs and, sadly, the story of Kamila and Wasila is far from unique.

"It's only thanks to the work of British soldiers that there are not more incidents of this kind.

"Back home we worry about our kids' safety when they go out to play, but here it's on a different scale.

The dangers the kids face when they are out playing are life and death. The Taliban just don't give a stuff about them.

"They plant these bombs knowing kids might set them off but they just don't care."

Kamila's dad stayed with the girls throughout their treatment, but is anxious about returning home for fear the Taliban will suspect him of consorting with the enemy.

This week tearful staff said goodbye to the girls, who hitched a ride back to Musa Qala on a British Chinook returning for a routine task. They will now receive further medical care from their nearest Forward Operating Base.

More stunning photos and daily Afghanistan ISAF updates at Helmand Blog.  

Major Smyth is based out there. He rocks. Please offer your support in the comments if you are of a mind to. Thanks

Add on:

The Perfect Antidote to Anjem Choudary's Islamist Poison - click to read the story with the photo

 

Choudary's poisonous Islam4UK were banned today. They had just cancelled their planned march into Wootton Bassett, the town made famous for it's dignified popular salute of our repatriated soldiers, after much hostility arose to it. Nearly a million people signed up to the Stop Islam4UK March Facebook page etc etc 

They are silly and spurious liars of course. And I don't just mean their bullshit about British troops. For those that would like to see - here is a picture of Anjem Choudary pre 9/11. Pic care of his old university pal who conversely runs a liberal, pro Blair, pro Bush blog called Harry's Place. Currently the most successful left wing blog in Britain.