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2006/2/5 The fanatics are at it again....What a surprise, another day and another excuse for the religious fanatics that constitute a large section of the Islamic faith to throw their toys out of the pram. How can a a group claiming to represent the 'religion of peace' react to fairly standard political/religious cartoons by burning down embassies, mass violent protests and the boycotting of Danish produce round the world.
Grow up I say, all faith groups are regularly lampooned by the media, why should Islam always be treated with kid-gloves? Have they ever heard of freedom of expression? Why are they consistently the most sensitive of religious groups? Remember that this was the case before 9-11.
By threatening to kill those who insult them, the terrorists are demonstrating THE VICIOUS REALITY behind the caricature of Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban better than any cartoonist ever could. Entirely predictable.
For those who are interested, below are a few of the more 'offensive' 12 cartoons that were published in a Danish newspaper.
    Any thoughts? 'What a load of bollocks' springs to mind. To get that upset over these images demonstrates the mentality of the group representing the greatest threat to world peace.
The utter hypocrisy is that Muslim countries regularly lampoon Christians and Jews in their comics while demanding the west refrain from any criticism of Islam.
More Islamic meddling? After the 12 pictures were published in Denmark, a delegation of Danish imams went to the middle east to discuss the issueof the cartoons with senior officials and prominent Islamic scholars. It is widely thought that they openly produced a booklet that showed not only the original 12 pictures, but also three fraudulent anti-Mohammed depictions that were much worse than the ones published in Denmark. It is widely believed that these 'bonus' images are what ignited outrage in the Muslim world. These images are shown below (ignore the red writing which has been added on).
   I am not saying this is fact, but if you do a few internet searches you will see that there is definitely something going on. The person who inserted these cartoons (Abu Laban a notorious Islamist) stated 'mockery against Mohammed deserves the death penalty'. Can you see protestants and catholics rising up demanding death to anyone who insults Jesus Christ? Very unlikely. The difference between the fanatics and the West is the aility to apply rationality, common sense and reason to these situations.
While they criticise the West for insulting Islam, it seems the Arabs are quite happy to insult Israel, the USA and the West in general. See below examples of cartoons that Arab newspapers have produced:
In this cartoon, from Al-Watan newspaper in Qatar (June 23, 2002), Ariel Sharon is shown watching on the sidelines as an Israeli plane crashes into New York’s World Trade Center. The Arabic words alongside the Twin Towers are “The Peace.” This cartoon restates the widely held myth in the Arab world that Israel and the Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks which were in fact carried out by al-Qaeda. 
The cartoon above, from Arab News (April 10, 2002), shows Ariel Sharon wielding a swastika-shaped axe to chop up Palestinian children. Arab News is a Saudi-based English language daily which is supposedly one of the Arab world’s more moderate papers. 
In the above cartoon, from Akhbar Al-Khalij (Bahrain) (June 10, 2002), the anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew on the right says: “Say: ‘I hate the Arabs!’” and American president George W. Bush, made to resemble a parrot, repeats: “I hate the Arabs, I hate the Arabs.”
Double standards anyone??
A last thought. If Muslims hate the west so much, why are they living here? Why not go to Saudi Arabia instead of England, France or Denmark. The very fact that they are allowed to protest against the photos and insult the very countries that they live in highlights the difference between their intolerant medieval society and the West. Consider the photos below:
These photos were taken on the streets of London in the last week. Shocking? Absolutely. Would westerners be allowed to get away with such protests on the streets of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or any other Arab state? That needn't even be answered. The cartoons raise the most important question of our times - freedom of expression. Are we going to cave into pressures from societies with a medieval mindset or are we going to defend our most precious freedom - freedom of expression, a freedom for which thousands of people sacrificed their lives over the last century. A democracy needs such freedoms, the freedom to argue, to debate, to dissent and even insult or offend at times. This is a freedom sorely lacking in the Islamic world. Without this fundamental freedom Islam will continue to stifle thought, human rights, individuality, originality and truth. It surely remains unassailed in its intolerant and fanatical views. In summary we must defend freedom of expression - our western heritage and not apologise.
2005/11/21 The relatives departAfter three weeks, and three thousand meals, my Malayisan (Chinese) relatives have cleared off back to a sunnier climate. No more for them the frostbitten fingers, the anoraks or the inflated prices - they are off back to proper Chinese food and a life of permanent sweating.
They shall be sorely missed. My cousin's children Elizabeth (11) and Genevieve (6) struck up a great friendship with my nieces Sophie (9) and Ashleigh (13), so hopefully they will keep in touch via e-mail.
I have included some selected photographs for your perusal opposite. See if you can work out which two girls are the two from Malaysia and which two are from a small village just outside Newbury!! What a match!!Oxfordshire 1sts played their first match of the season yesterday again Bedfordshire 1sts at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes yesterday....and what a little ripper it was!! I'll save the score for later.
Now I know that most of you are county badminton virgins. So here's how a match works.
There are around five men and five women in each county team (yes we like to mix - it makes it much more fun)!
The format of each match is below (by the way, a rubber is a single match within the context of the overall match - not something you use for bedroom activity - well maybe later but definitely not now).
Round One - 2 mens singles and 2 ladies singles rubbers
Round Two - 4 mens doubles rubbers (two pairs on either side play reverse matches against each other)
- 4 ladies doubles rubbers(two pairs on either side play reverse matches against each other)
Round Three - 3 mixed doubles rubbers
Each rubber is the best of 3 ends (or sets if you like) played to 15 points - only scoring on your own serve.
We were two rubbers a piece after the first round. Myself and my partner are Oxfordshire's first pair, and we took both of our mens doubles rubbers. Our second mens pair took one of the two rubbers leaving us with three out of four for the mens doubles. The ladies unfortunately could only manage one out of four rubbers, leaving the match score tied at six rubbers a piece going into the last round of mixed doubles.
The first and third pair went on first, I was playing second with Alison my partner. She had a slight ankle sprain so was getting a bit of treatment before we went on. By the time we started, the other two matches were well under way.
To cut to the chase, our first mixed pair lost in three close ends, but our third pair won in three not so close ends. As they came off - yes you guessed it we were still on with the match now tied at 7-7. As the crowd gathered close, we took the first end 15-8 reasonably comfortably. Our opponents took a small lead of 4-0 in the second end. Alison and I corrected our tactics and got the rhythm going again swooping into a a 10-8 lead. With the cheers ringing out, we finally took the match 15-9. The crowd went wild (well ours did) - we had won an epic encounter 8-7. 2005/11/15 Visit from MalaysiaWell the relatives have been over here for a few weeks now and are no doubt getting used to the frost bite. My (oldest) cousin Francis, his wife Julina, their two children Elizabeth (11) and Genevieve (6) and my Aunty Josephine are over on a visit to England and Ireland where Francis' brother and sister are currently residing. As an aside, I used to fancy a Genevieve at school, she was a class act.
Anyway, back to the relatives. Between my mum and dad, Taryn, my brother Ben and my sister Christine and husband Mark we have shown them some of the highlights of our sunny land. One of the highlights had to be the London Dungeon! I have never come across such a strange selection of second rate actors in all my life. Bless them, they tried to scare, but I reckon my brown corduroy jacket was scarier!
We took the rels to a firework night on the 5th Nov. Unfortunately Elizabeth was so cold (she is used to 38 degreed celcius and 95% humidity) that she threw up! Poor little mite. She, her sister and mum ended up watching the bonfire and fireworks from their car.
I'm sure another highlight for them was eating that traditional English dish we all love - shepherd's pie. This was lovingly prepared by the cook-tastic Taryn. Well they had already tried a Sunday roast and bangers and mash!
They are all in Ireland at present, Galway to be specific. All except Francis, he had to shoot back to Malaysia - he is a barrister and had a case to hear which couldn't wait.
Anyway, there's more to come this week, so I'll keep you posted.
PS I've added some photographs opposite. 2005/10/26 Our new houseOK it's not a NEW house, but it is NEW to us! As requested by a dear colleague, please find photos...well over in the photo bit. Lots of decoration has been done, tears shed and blood spilt.
Note the Moroccan Red paint that manages to sneak into a couple of rooms - it's awesome stuff. Highly recommednded.
Apologies regarding the beige floral suite, this was going to be chucked out from the folks house, so it would have been rude not to rescue it. I know....I'm a very generous man. It's kind of growing on me. 2005/10/22 David Ford update.I know you've all been waiting to hear more Ford news...so here's some.
His new album - 'I sincerely apologise for all the trouble I've caused' is out to buy now in HMV under F for Ford (strangely).
A song from his album, 'If you only knew' is track 7 on the new HMV free playlist (when you buy certain CD's). This is a beautiful song written by David about a female friend of his who used to work as a barmaid at a nightclub/bar in Eastbourne where he comes from. The said barmaid committed suicide sadly, and the song (obviously melancholy and moving as always) states that 'if you only knew...just how we feel about you...you wouldn't hurt like you do...' Awesome lyrics.
The Ford is due to support Starsailor on their forthcoming UK tour from 30th October to 8th November.
Taryn and I saw David Ford live at Bush Hall (in Shepherd's Bush) at the end of September - he was absolutely amazing. He is clearly multi-talented as he came on as the (replacement) drummer for his support band - 'The Late Greats' prior to his own set. He was however wearing a mask while drumming so that no one knew it was him (and I guess he unselfishly did not want to detract from the focus on the support band). Only true fans knew it was him. How many so called 'stars' would do this??
I have added some photos from the Bush Hall gig and a few choice others for your perusal. Enjoy.
2005/10/21 What a wonderful world.OK it's been a while since my last blog entry - 26/8/05 to be precise.
It is not a pleasant reason that draws me back to the all mighty blog. Look at the photo beneath this text. This is the result of a a girl of twelve attacking another girl of twelve with what is purported to be the blade from a pencil sharpener. Repeatedly. Because the previous day, the girl with the scars tried to stop the girl with the blade from bullying another girl.
What the f**k is going on with society??
This is absolutely the fault of parents who quite frankly don't give a damn what their children do and how they bring their children up. It scares me to think of the generations of children who will become even worse parents than their own.
Three words - discipline, discipline, discipline.
I'm sure my next entry will be much more positive.
PS. You could say to me 'Cheer up...you miserable f**k' (That's the title of a David Ford song)!
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