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2/5/2006 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.
11/21/2005 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. 11/15/2005 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. 10/26/2005 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. 10/22/2005 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.
10/21/2005 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)! 8/26/2005 I don't care...I don't care as well as being the title of an up and coming David Ford album track also represents the fact that I DON'T CARE that you don't love The Ford. He is the greatest singer songwriter to grace our ears in a generation. Anyway, he has two gigs coming up, the first is a small intimate gig at The Barfly in Camden on Tuesday 30th August which Taryn and I are going to. The second is The Ford's official single launch (State of the Union - his angry young man song) which is a full on party at Bush Hall in West London - www.bushhallmusic.co.uk. It's a pretty cool place, Turin Brakes, REM, Starsailor and others have played there. I also have tickets to this. If anyone wants to hear proper music and be inspired then come on down. You know you want to... 8/14/2005 Want to be scared...?If you want to be scared senseless (don't pretend you are too tough) I recommend watching a new British film called 'The Descent'. Along with The Excorcist and Event Horizon this movie is definitely in my top three most terrifying films. It is quite simply an exercise in pure fear.
The film is about a group of five females who are on a potholing/caving holiday. They semi-unwittingly enter a never before explored series of caves in the Appalachian Mountains. A rockfall blocks their way out, and things start to go wrong...very wrong from there on. I don't want to spoilt the film by saying too much, but needless to say there is a lot of subterranean group tension, claustrophobia, gore and atmosphere. There are things in the caves that they really should not have disturbed...
The film is shot in natural light - which in caves mean none whatsoever other than the torches and glow-sticks that the girls have with them. Unlike many modern horror films, the director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers) actually pays close attention to character, which along with the general lack of humour keeps the tension within the group simmering throughout. The title of the film is a metaphor, and describes their emotional as well as physical 'descent'.
You must watch this film at night and preferrably with someone else...for safety! Taryn fell asleep on me, so I had to be brave and watch on, and at times it makes for uncomfortable but compelling viewing.
You have been warned! 8/12/2005 Some of my favourite lyrics.......Yes you are reading correctly, I have an appreciation of fine lyrics - especially those that touch the soul!( Wow - that's getting a bit deep). Here are some of my favourite lines in no particular order - see what you think. Obviously they sound a hell of a lot better with music...so I'll tell you where you can hear these fine words accompanied by equally impressive music at the end. Imagine violins, guitars, and other melodic sounds as you read on...
1. A thousand broken hearts, Littering your path through here...(Tonight)
2. You'll always be to me, A Stain to never fade, The worst mistake I've made...(A Stain To Never Fade)
3. The sun will burn the sea, You'll waste yourself on me, Tonight...(Tonight)
4. Give me all your demons, They don't scare me now...(Demons)
5. Here's a day to last for a while, A run towards the guns and you're out in style...(Demons)
6. The ache of a thousand nearly nothings, Like unrequited love, It doesn't mean a single f*cking thing (This is Where I Stand)
7. Well we've had our problems but hey hasn't everyone? As soon as they're gone we just drag in another one... ('Til The Day)
8. So why are you holding onto misery? Don't you see there's nothing left to fear?...(When You Come Back, I Won't Be Here)
9. You were not the first, And I won't be the last, But if it makes it better, You can call me what you will...(I don't Care What You Call Me)
10. Get your coat 'cos the righteous are leaving, 'Cause they can't work out what the hell to believe in...(State Of The Union)
Hope you enjoyed them..? The man behind the words is none other than David Ford of David Ford/Easyworld fame. I think his lyrical genius is something to behold.
In the words of DF and by way of sign off:
Don't look and you won't find,
It's always worth your time,
I love you and goodnight.
8/9/2005 Tennis coaching anyone....?I played in the last mens doubles league match of the summer season last Saturday against Banbury, and what a shocker it was. After going through the season and my doubles partner and I losing only one rubber in seven matches (there are three rubbers per match....ooh err sounds dodgy sorry) we lost two out of three rubbers in one match! That is simply not acceptable. I have decided that I am now qualified to offer specialist coaching in the following areas:1. Crap backhand service returns (on the deuce court) 2. Criminally slow and dangerous second serves 3. Netted forehand service returns 4. Generally p*ssing your partner off! Yes I think thats enough quality to be getting on with. If anyone would like coaching please do not hesitate to contact me. Introducing Mr David FordYou've heard me droning on about him....so here are some photographs of the great man! Remember, for all you philistines who have not succumbed to the accoustic talents of the living legend that is David Ford, he was formerly the front man and lead vocalist for the best band who never made it - Easyworld (RIP). For those of you who were not aware, DF has reccently been signed as a solo artist by the same label as Travis and Embrace - Independiente Records. His new single "State of the Union" is released on Monday 26th September followed by his album "I sincerely apologise for all the trouble I've caused" on Monday 3rd October. Visit his website at www.david-ford.com to listen to some of his upcoming tracks. The photos below (taken by Erika Ungar - www.erikaungar.com) are from two gigs DF did in July; The Camden Barfly which I had the privilige of attending and the Nokia Wireless Festival in Hyde Park - which also featured James Blunt. The idea of the photos is to try and woo the female viewers amongst you. Taryn fancies the pants off him. Aparently he has nice teeth! Don't ask me...... 8/4/2005 Civil Libbers..........It is now four weeks since that tragic day of 7th July 2005 and a time when many of us will be reflecting on what has happened since then and the situations we may have to face in the future. I have just been looking at the BBC website which has a section dedicated to all the victims of the bombers. There are links with pictures telling the individual stories of all those innocent people - it is very moving and if you have time I recommend a visit to this site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/london_blasts/victims/default.stm
What is really bothering me at the moment as always is the civil-libbers and human rights brigade who have come out of the woodwork now that as a country we have had to take measures to protect ourselves. It is vital that our police have the power to stop and search whomever they feel they need to. Now since they are principally looking for suicide bombers, and suicide bombers are not normally people of white appearance surely it makes sense that they should be concentrating the majority of their efforts on searching non-whites i.e. people who are not white e.g. people who are any colour other than white! This is surely not hard to comprehend. All the suicide bombers so far have been persons of African or Asian origin. This is not a time to be sensitive and to tiptoe around ethnic groups. The facts are that the perpetrators of these evil acts come from these ethnic minority groups - that is not a racist statement, that is stating a one hundred percent fact. I speak as someone who has an English father and a Malaysian-Chinese mother. Thus I constitute part of the non-white population. If I am one of those who is searched I welcome it - I will then know that the police are doing their job well. Sure I may get p*ssed off, but that is a small price to pay. So my message to the 'precious' civil-libbers' is WAKE UP and smell the roses!!!!
7/31/2005 Karaoke Killers!Wednesday 27th July. That is a date etched in my mind, for that is the date I was exposed to the horror that would become a works Karaoke night! The setting for this event would have been more fitting for a private lap-dancing room, all Moroccan red paint and slippery leather benches. Despite this, and perhaps because of it (!) the evening was actually an unqualified success. Organised by the ever resourceful Emily Ward our 'social secretary', thirteen of us sang the night away scaring off any wandering patron who happened to pass our room. We were graced by the presence of The Boazman, who performed some spirited duets with Layla 'Kylie' Forster and the aforementioned Miss Ward (straight in there with the ladies - who would expect any less). I have not managed to get the image of Head of Client Services - Karen 'Shake It Baby' Daniels-Smith indeed shaking her booty to the classic Bootylicious out of my mind. I have been assured that two more psychotherapy sessions will do it! (Only joking Karen - I like my job). Although I'd like to take the mick out of him Balders could hold a tune pretty well and Miss Newell's voice was an accoustic delight. Truly a good night out. Even Taryn who met my work colleagues for the first time was able to look past the singing/torture and realise they were really all nice people...... 7/28/2005 Well done Lamey!!Congratulation to the lamester for a thoroughly well deserved employee of the month!! A constant source to inspiration, amusement and fashion advice to us all. Where did that Hawaiian garland get to...... 7/25/2005 The terrorist situation so far.I have been thinking a lot about the innocent Brazilian who lost his life after shot dead by armed police. There is no doubt that this is an absolute tragedy. However, I ask did he leave the police any other option? An electrician working in England, he must have had some understanding of the English language. Everyone surely understands the words 'police' and 'stop'. Inthis climate of terrorism and with the recent bombings that have occurred the worst thing he could have possibly done is run from the police, hurdle a ticket barrier and sprint down into the underground.
He may have not been a suicide bomber but he certainly had a death wish. As a regular user of London Transport and particularly the underground, I would have demanded that the police take this person out. Preferrably before he could set anything off. And yes I want the police to shoot him five times, so he has absolutely zero chance of pressing any buttons or levers. This multi-burst tecnique is policy for the Israeli police who are far more experienced in dealing with suicide bombers than we are. One shot may or may not incapacitate the suspected bomber - with five shots there is not doubt and no argument.
As for all the civil liberty types/do-gooder types, your day needs to be over. Our tolerance of the incitement of religious and racial hatred as perpetrated by the type of people who 'preach' in the Finsbury Park mosque is a big part of the reason why we are in the position we are in. This is England, if you don't like this country then leave. If you don't like our values, then go somewhere else. We can't let this country rot from the inside out by harbouring these religious extremists and radicals . In the opposite situation do we think an Islamic country would allow us as individuals to conduct ourselves in a similarly traitorous way? Of course they wouldn't - and quite rightly.
This country has been a soft touch for too long. We need to toughen up and fast.
7/23/2005 Welcome!Welcome to my blog - I hope you enjoy looking around. I am going to try and make the site as interesting and more importantly as provocative as possible! No weak views here. I'd also like to thank the devestatingly beautiful Josie and Layla for inspiring me to start my own blog.....and well just for being damn fine people...... |
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