Wishing you all a happy christmas and a merry new year

Flying the flag

BBC

The BBC's Hong Kong correspondent, Chris Hogg, says the defeat will probably confirm Beijing's suspicion that the territory's democrats are untrustworthy and unpatriotic - the very reasons, some analysts say, that China is reluctant to offer Hong Kong true democracy.

Sounds familiar..

'Terrorists' coming to Japan?

Mainichi Daily News

After the man began to run away, four male passengers, including two police officers who were on their way to work, chased him for some 50 meters before tackling him on the platform. He fell unconscious shortly afterwards, and later died. (Mainichi)

Were the four male passengers over-zealous in an attempt to prove their feminist credentials? If only japanese police officers could be this 'efficient' in tackling the mafia!

Pre-hysteric shopping

"early man venturing towards the out-of-town hunting grounds."


"This finely preserved example of primitive art dates from the Post-Catatonic era.

"The artist responsible is known to have created a substantial body of work across South East of England under the moniker Banksymus Maximus but little else is known about him.

Most art of this type has unfortunately not survived. The majority is destroyed by zealous municipal officials who fail to recognise the artistic merit and historical value of daubing on walls."

Inch'Allah

BBC

"He is human, he does not have the power of God," he told the AFP news agency.

"He got away once, he will not get away the next time. He will be tried for the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people."

Let's hope Mr Kamal's power of prophesy is real...

Why wasn't I there?!

Vadim and Yarah of One Self live on the f*****g streets of London!

A voice of reason

"We must, if we're going to make our country better, and more secure, and more democratic, and more multi-cultural, understand this better."

-7/7 survivor John Tulloch on why he tries to understand the bombers, and why he feels more anger for our leaders and those behind the attacks than for the suicide bombers themselves.

Why do people prefer to listen to those like the tabloids who claim to speak for survivors by supporting populistic and counter-productive anti-terror laws, rather than rationally-minded individuals who to top it all, actually have experienced terror? Anyone have an answer?

CS Monitor

So controversial is the issue that it even divides heroes and victims of 7/7. One victim, John Tulloch, said last week that he objected to a British newspaper juxtaposing his stricken image with the text "Tell Tony He's Right," strongly implying that Mr. Tulloch supported Blair's new laws. Another man, Paul Dadge, whose act of heroism in rescuing a victim made him front-page news, said he was "dumbfounded" by MPs rejection of the 90-day provision.

I guess for some democratic principles are less important than the mythical 'war on terror', even if we are supposed to be 'exporting democracy', and even if sacrificing democratic principles creates more tension than it prevents terror. Once more, the voice of reason is ignored in favour of knee jerking.

Murdoch jailed for murder

Australian mechanic Bradley Murdoch has been jailed for life for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio.

He has not been sentenced to death, because in Australia, as in most democracies, the death penalty no longer exists. Are there more murders in Australia than in the USA? Somehow I doubt it.

"We wish that we could find Peter - we don't get any closure until we find Peter," he added.

For his parents closure doesn't depend on revenge. What they need is to say goodbye to their son. My father died when I was 13. I'm glad my mum insisted on taking me back to the UK for his funeral. That way I could say goodbye.

Execution

BBC

"The facts do not justify overturning the jury's verdict or the decisions of the courts in this case," said Mr Schwarzenegger, who could have commuted the death sentence to life in prison without parole.

Once again, America chooses revenge. An eye for an eye.

And one more for the road...

PETROTHEISM

As long as those who represent (ahem!) us are in love with oil, we are doomed. However, it is up to us citizens to stop the addiction. Their power depends on our complacency.

Pokie the Punisher

POKIE

Credit to DJEB at A Logical Voice

Does closure exist? That's up to the individual to decide. However, society needs to decide whether or not revenge is the right way to reach closure.

Capital punishment without jury

This man has been killed for...not being a terrorist.

BBC

"I did hear the lady say her husband was bi-polar and had not had his medication," she said.

"I saw the woman... she was hysterical."

On Jean Charles de Menezes, the latest news:

Black Online

“Neither we nor Jean Charles’ family want this complaint to distract us from the main task of finding out how and why Jean Charles died. We still expect our investigation into the shooting to be completed by the end of December. The results of our investigation will be made public once the legal processes are completed.”

Watch this space at the end of December...

Stanley 'Tookie' Williams

Here is my message to the stapmother of Lora Owens:

What I would like to say to Mrs Owens, is that I have
no personal or political agenda or any axe to grind. I
merely think capital punishment is wrong. I am not a
christian, nor even a believer, but I believe in
forgiveness. Not only for the perpetratos, but also
and especially for the victims and/or their families.
I can't feel the pain you feel, but I know that it is
possible to forgive, as it has been recently shown in
the case of a murdered teenager in Britain. His
mother, a christian has said she forgives. Luckily, I
would say, in Britian there is no capital punishment.
What I am saying has nothing to do with redemption or
mitigating circumstances. It doesn't matter whether or
not Williams means what he says, or whether he is a
'changed man'. What matters is, as you call it,
closure. Closure for you, and a hope of closure
(redemption if you will) for him. I do not expect your
feelings to change at this point in time, but even if
he is put to death, I hope you eventually find it in
your heart to forgive, and to accept that capital
punishment is not an answer. Even if by then Williams
was dead, your change of heart would not be
meaningless.
I wish you strength in coming to a sense of closure.

Revenge

Here's a message to the Singaporean government. The people in this picture are honouring the life of a man. Not a drugs smuggler, but a human being. As I have already written on this blog, humans need forgiveness. This has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion. Vengance is UN-human. Vengance is barbaric, unnecessary, violent and counter-productive. The idea that people are going to stop taking drugs, because of the death penalty, and that therefore drugs smugglers will cease to exist, is fantasy. You know that, and the Australian PM knows that, despite his call to Australians to refrain from smuggling BECAUSE of the death penalty in Singapore and elsewhere.
If we are to believe the story of this man, he smuggled drugs out of love for his brother who had incurred debts when he was a drug-addict. Nguyen was probably killed for trying to help his brother. Furthermore, by putting this man to death, you have inflicted terrible pain on his mother, his brother and the rest of his family and friends. Do they, if anyone, deserve such pain? For this reason alone, the death penalty is a vicious and hateful practice.
I would like to repeat my belief that executing someone is not only IN-human but also UN-human.

Dread

Roman Catholic priest defends marriage...

BBC

"To put beside marriage an alternative or what appears to be a perfectly approved legal alternative lifestyle I think does not help the institution of marriage at all."

Aliens in South Africa

Is this John Howard?

Freedom of Speech

Britain is going down the French path. While in France, criticising religion is included in the crime of 'inciting racial hatred', the UK government, which already has a 'racial hatred law' wants to bring in a 'religious hatred law'. While it is true, that as Rushdie writes, Britain is an 'exception to European secularism', secularism is not a safeguard for freedom of speech, as we see in France with the threats to sue the 'intellectual' Alain Finkielkraut for expressing his xenophobic and islamophobic opinions.

Guardian

Philip Pullman:

I'd better say why I would like to be free to criticise religion, and think about its effects on society, without fear of prosecution. Religion is something that human beings do. Like art, it's a phenomenon that has characterised every society we know about. Thanks partly to the Enlightenment, it's been possible in the past couple of hundred years or so to consider religions dispassionately, to look at their historical development, to examine their social effects, to appreciate the art they inspire, to question the philosophical implications of their claims to truth, and so on.

Robert Fisk on the BBC

BBC

Yes, my latest book is called The Great War for Civilisation after the inscription on the back of my father's World War I medal.

After WWI the British and French created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East.

I've spent my entire professional career watching the people within those borders burn.

For me it's all about linking history with the present.

Oddly enough, that's true of Bin Laden as well, he talks about the Balfour declaration, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the loss of Andalusia to the Christians in the 15th Century.

It seems that in many ways, history haunts us and maybe we should all carry a history book in our back pockets.

I think I might become a born-again...

BBC

Forgiveness

Do I forgive them? At the point of death Jesus said 'I forgive them because they don't know what they did'.

The Sun believes her response is "too good" for the killers, who it says "deserve to rot in jail".

"Lets show the minority that this will not be tolerated. Let's show them that this is Huyton and Liverpool and the people here are different and special and they will do something about it."

I think forgiveness is paramount. Not only for the perpetrator, but fot the victim and/or the victim's family. I don't think one has to have religious faith to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not the monopoly of religion. It is a humanist belief too. However, is it possible to forgive if the perpetrator fails to ask for forgiveness? Seemingly, in this case, he has asked for it.
What the last comment shows, is that, despite what tabloids and populists would like us to believe, forgiveness does not mean tolerance of hatred and violence.

More on Dr Sentamu

The Times

The Ugandan-born Archbishop, who fled Idi Amin’s regime in 1974, said he would not be where he was today were it not for the British Empire and the English teachers and missionaries who worked in Africa.

And maybe Idi Amin wouldn't have got to where he was if it hadn't been for the British Empire...

Dr Senatamu on multiculturalism

The Times

“Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me, let other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains,” he said.