. . . I would think again about cultural relativism

Look at this from Der Spiegel on line, and read the excellent article by Leon de Winter which I have reproduced below, hoping that Der Spiegel won't mind (my old dad subscribed to it for over quarter of a century):

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,524630,00.html

How a UNICEF Photo Makes the West's Heart Ache

We are beholding the fiercest barbarism imaginable. But a carefree cultural relativism -- which this age has donned as its outward manifestation of decadent indifference -- allows many to simply look away. They turn away from the sight of an 11-year-old girl, who is about to be raped by the man sitting next to her.

The girl was sold by her parents, even if they probably wouldn't use that word. The caption that came with the photo quoted the parents as saying that they "needed the money."
The girl's soon-to-be husband promised to send his 11-year-old bride to school, but the women living there in the village of Damarda in Afghanistan's Ghor province don't believe this fairytale. They predict that the girl will bear children soon. "Our men don't need educated women," they point out.

A dowry was paid for the girl. The dowry is part of the cultural fabric of the clan-based society. As producers of newborns, women are valuable possessions. A woman can bear sons and fighters, who will defend the family and its honor. Men are only charged with protecting them against kidnappers and thieves, and women need only accept the power of the male members of the family -- "for their own benefit."

Love Is a Word from the Decadent West
It is likely that all of the female forebears of the girl in the photograph were likewise sold -- and the girl, no doubt, saw it as her fate. At the same time, she realizes that what is happening to her is not right. She might think it is "natural" for a young girl to be sold, but she also knows that it's neither good nor legitimate for her to spend the rest of her life as this man's slave. It is a type of knowledge that has little to do with experience. Rather, it is knowledge that is rooted in humanity, and in the hopes and dreams of a little girl.

The man in the image is oblivious of his wrongdoing. He's only doing what his forefathers did. Sticking to traditions increases the chances of survival. His seed will create a new person and strengthen the clan. He will impregnate this girl without love and without regret, since love is a word from far-off stories and songs, a word from the decadent West, where people have no comprehension of the harshness of life in the desert and of war without end, which is the essence of life in this part of the world.

What we witness in this photograph is an unadorned view of humanity's collective past, of the horror of our brutal nature. Love, tenderness, beauty, individuality and respect are all phenomena that we have imposed upon our nature. Since time immemorial, this nature has allowed only the strongest to survive. In our Western consciousness, we have suppressed this nature with conviction and success. This image shows a small, everyday moment that wouldn't surprise anyone in the Taliban -- but looks quite different to our eyes.

A Bold Statement in the Era of Political Correctness
Our eyes behold an abomination. Our eyes have learned to see the world from the perspective of a slowly acquired sense for humanity. And although more and more voices tell us that we -- the former colonialists and imperialists -- have lost the right to judge other cultures, we know just as well as this girl that this marriage is wrong.

I believe that there are regressive cultures. In an era of political correctness, this is a tricky statement. But there is no other statement that can be made about this image. We behold a regressive man, who is taking what he has purchased.

Many of us in the West are convinced that our presence in Afghanistan cannot be justified, that our troops should withdraw and that Afghanistan should be left to the Afghans. They ask themselves: Who are we to believe that it is inhumane to sell an 11-year-old girl? Who are we to impose our values so vehemently on the Afghans, on this man and on this girl?

I don't have a clue who we are. But I know that this universe is not only a universe of iPods, Disneylands, CO2 penalties, tax write-offs, and New Year's sales in our department stores. No, I know that this is also a universe of human rights. I know that this universe is deeply shaken -- right down to its core -- by the suffering of this lonely, lonely little girl.

Leon de Winter, 53, is a Dutch writer and best- selling author.

He lives in Amsterdam and Los Angeles.

I would, if it wasn't such a plug-ugly name . . .

. . . encourage everyone in the world who isn't a nutter Muslim fundamentalist/extremist to call their teddy bears Muhammad.

Here's a nice insight into the fucking prophet's (syntax as in the singing detective's or the naked chef's) private life :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad

See also Daniel Finkelstein in the Times today on that outrageous word "disproportionate" that that hairy archbishop of Canterbury used:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2007/11/the-teddy-bear.html?cid=91841100#commentscid=91841100#comments

This is Jesus the Bear:

I would be recommending beheading.

This is what 50 lashes looks like after 20 days, so you can see that 40 lashes is just nothing at all.

I mean blasphemy!! Surely nothing less than beheading is called for?

It is very easy for us, in the Western world, to forget that a massive part of the world has totally primitive mindsets. What really bugs me is that the Sudanese Embassy in London put out a statement that this is a storm in a teacup.

If I had spend 4 days and nights in jail facing the notion of lashes or imprisonment I would never, for the rest of my life, think of this as a storm in a teacup.

This lets you see that the Embassy in London is as bad as the goon mullahs for all their veneers of diplomacy.

I once flew Sudan airlines. Thank Allah I didn't know till afterwards that its nickname is "Sudden Death Airlines".

As I type this, I hear on the news that Gillian Gibbons has been found guilty. Well, fifteen days in jail and deportation might make her think again about her life choices.

Sara Khawad, the school office worker who denounced her, is the one who needs the lashes. Wish I could get my hands on her. Nasty, nasty fundamentalist cow. But she must be feeling so great tonight with this "guilty" verdict.

Just in case you wanted to email the SUDANESE EMBASSY IN LONDON:

http://sudan-embassy.co.uk/en/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3/

Oldest hatred, new mutation: Britain’s Anti-Semitic Turn

Melanie Phillips in the City Journal:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_anti-semitism.html

and also in her own blogspot:

http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=548

I Would Recall The Call Centres in India

I'm just calming down from having bought a ticket. It took me half an hour. Twice I gave up in disgust and said I'd drive; the third time I just bought it, at just about double the price advertised on the internet.

I don't mind these call centres in principle but in practice the Indian ones transform me in seconds into a ranting racist git.

I want to speak in my usual cynical drawl to someone who knows the branch line from my place to Reading, who knows the cheaper, other line up to London; who knows what time before the rush hour I have to hot foot it out of London before I get done for a massive hike in fare; or who knows the first train I can get onto after the bloody rush hour; who knows where the cheapest parking is when the station carpark is full (which it always is after 9.30 am anyway -- and, besides, I need to remortgage every time I park there).

In short, I want to talk to someone at MY station about MY journey, preferably someone like the station master in The Railway Children. When these little old ladies in India start bleeping away like Peter Sellers I just want to scream.

I'd give a right head-kicking to . . .

. . . National Savings for not telling us loud and clear on their damned website that signing on to Premium Bonds on line and paying that minute by Switch card actually slows things down so utterly stupidly.

Why?

Because you then have to wait for them, the boring arseholes, to send you a form to sign and then you have to send it back to them, and only then do your bonds get into the running.

So I might as well have gone to the Post Office, signed and posted all on that first day when I cashed in my Northern Rock account and decided to invest it in our stupid government.

The outcome of all this is that I lost more or less a week while all this post went backwards and forewards. It takes a month for Premium Bonds to get into the action in the first place.

BorING. Typical government ineptitude.

And now how do I know that someone in the Post Office isn't just going to dump the mail bag with that signature in it, like everything else that goes missing?

I would do something to shut the faces of . . .

. . . inverted snobs. They are so, so, so boring and have no logic whatsoever. My ancient mother is an inverted snob. She can't see for a minute that aristocrats couldn't help their birth any more than her hero, Paul Robeson, could help his skin colour. I had a posh friend with a lovely posh voice that she took against at once.

Many inverted snobs have a knee-jerk attitude to royalty, too. I got a few horrible comments on the Queen picture earlier that I didn't even bother to publish. I have a highly intellectual buddhist friend who just says, "Well Harry is James Hewitt's son isn't he?" How would she like to be Harry reading that about himself year after year from all the morons on the internet? Someone needs to slander and libel her like that for her to imagine what it might feel like. Here is Harry, looking just like his father who he's evidently very fond of:



And here is Harry, poor motherless boy, looking just like his beloved mother who died when he was a few days off his thirteenth birthday:

Leave blimming Harry alone. He has enough to contend with. I am possibly an arch republican, but here I am defending the English royal family just because I hate all the ignorant nastiness that's around.

Zero Tolerance

What ever is the matter with zero tolerance?

If I were Queen I'd do a 100% boycott of the Bejing Olympics. Our athletes would just have to compete elsewhere. I know it would be hard on them, but it's even harder on people under incredible duress in Burma. If Britain and America and one or two other decent countries would boycott these games the pressure on China to put pressure on Burma would be intense. They don't want a failure.

Can't expect France to do much, of course. They have great financial interests in Burmese oil and prop up the military dictatorship. It was the same with them and Saddam's Iraq.

Burma:
Please sign the petition asking the UK Government to boycott the Chinese olympics unless China sorts out the Bhurmese junta: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Boycott-Olympics/ It reads: "China has continued to support the illegitimate Junta that continues to rule Burma. Recently Burma has seen massive peaceful protests from Monks and ordinary citizens alike, despite this the Junta has cracked down and begun the murder of the peaceful protesters. When an emergency session of the UNSC was called - China blocked Sanctions against the Junta. I feel that it is Immoral and unjust that China be able to benefit from western economies and obtain money that would come from the Olympic games they are due to host. I call on the British government to boycott the '08 Olympic games in response to this disgraceful situation."Another view is that China is the only country in the region which could influence the junta enough to make them resign, and that to boycott the Olympics is the only way the UK government or individuals could influence the Chinese government. Thanks for reading this.

By the way, if I'd been Queen for the last 25 years I'd have done a lot more for Burma than we ever have done. There is a great website where you can see the "Dirty List" of companies that have supported the Burmese regime here:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/more.php?id=86_0_1_0_M

Then there's zero tolerance for burglars. Let them just try to put their filthy little feet one centimetre into my property. I don't mind killing them with the poker one bit.

I don't mind a long jail sentence because I'd draw some attention to all this nonsense, and I'd get a bit of peace to write that book at last and not have to deal all the problems of everyday life. What a let off that would be.

An exception

If I were queen I would probably make a law to tie a millstone round the neck and drown in the sea anyone who abused a child. This week I read about "respectable" English people getting five and six years for raping and abusing children. Not life? I just don't believe it. The child has a life sentence of course.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2448998.ece

I am up to here with this. The world has gone mad. Paedophilia, abuse, rape, the sexualisation of children . . . LEAVE IT!

We don't need one person on this planet who would even dream of making any inroad into the innocence of a child. End of story. We don't need them. Just drown them quickly and be done with it. Perfect image, Jesus. I'm really with you on this one.














The picture is of a tiny Netsuke: traditional Japanese ivory toggle closures for garments. This one is from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. The picture is taken from the catalogue of www.MuseumSelection.com who are making these little polymer replicas. I hope they don't mind me using it. It might sell an item.

Unflattering pictures

Journalists are adept at choosing just the right picture to colour their article. Hence, so often the Queen looking grumpy in republican pieces. Well, here she is looking just great. Does anyone know who is sharing the joke with Germaine and Her Majesty?
Apologies for breech of copywrite. I will credit the picture if told whose it is.

Things never to forget number 2:

Gerry Adams carrying the coffin of the scumbag who blew up 9 people in a fish shop in October 1993.

Here is something below from a bit of a partisan site, who won't mind me quoting from it. (http://www.iraatrocities.fsnet.co.uk/shankill.htm). It's a bit of an angry site, but who am I to preach love and forgiveness? There are plenty who do (read about Alan McBride below) and I just can't believe their good hearts. They are the salt of the earth. I am pretty the opposite; I don't think I would ever forgive anyone who took out a member of my beloved family. I would be as revengeful as a bandit. I would vow revenge. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps one wears oneself out with grief and can think of nothing in the end but reconciliation and an end to violence . . .
You can see various pics on the above site. You can read about Adams carrying the scumbag's coffin here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3138842.stm

The Shankill bomb Massacre
As the people of the Shankill Road in Belfast went about their daily lives two Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein members walk into Frizzell's fish shop dressed in white coats looking like delivery men. With them they carried a bomb which was to deliver death and destruction and reduce the shop to rubble seconds later. They had the bomb on a short timer of approx 11 seconds which was to secure their own escape, but not the innocent people doing their shopping in the immediate area. As they walked into the shop there were men, women and children in Frizzells. They knew that all of these people would die but that did not deter them on their deadly mission of murdering innocent civilians in a Protestant area of Belfast.

But the bombers made a fatal error setting the timer and with out warning to them either the bomb exploded prematurely. The carrier of the bomb IRA/Sinn Fein Thomas Begley died in the blast. The bomb was designed to send the force of the explosion upwards and as it did what it was designed to do, all of the upper building came down on the innocent people in the shop as well as themselves, who's intention was to set the bomb down and walk away unharmed.
The Shankill bomb massacre victims, all innocent civilians, were:-
John Desmond Frizzel 63 yrs, married with three children
Sharon McBride 29 yrs one child, daughter of John Desmond
George Williamson 63 yrs married with two children
Gillian Willamson 49 yrs married with two children
Evelyn Baird 27 yrs two children
Michelle Baird 7 yrs old schoolgirl
Leanne Murray 13 yrs old schoolgirl
Michael Morrison 27 yrs three children
Wilma McKee 38 yrs two children

Thomas Begley was one of the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein who died planting the bomb.

The Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein member who accompanied Begley was severely injured in the blast but survived and was given nine life sentences.

The judge said "This wanton slaughter of so many innocent people must rank as one of the outrageous atrocities endured by the people of this province in the last quarter of a century."

Relatives of one victim called out to the defendant "I hope you die in jail, you bastard."
Another said sometime later "We came here looking for justice and I don't think any of the families think they got it. He showed no remorse. He proved beyond doubt that he didn't give a damn about the people he murdered."

Among the injured were a 79 yr old woman and two two-year old baby boys. In total 57 people were injured some of them seriously. Among those injured was a two two year old boys and a 79 yr old woman.

The book the Price for Peace said "Local men, police, firemen and ambulance men tore at the rubble in a search for survivors, but the elderly building had collapsed like a house of cards, bringing heavy masonry crashing down on those inside. They used axes and crowbars and their bare hands, but they knew there was little chance of finding anyone alive. From time to time the rescuers would pause and call for quiet when they thought they had heard a groan or a scream from within the rubble. A deathly hush would fall over the crowd as they listened for signs of survivors; there were few such signs. A fleet of ambulances took away the injured as local people looked on, barely able to comprehend the scale of the disaster. Then, after a while, the ambulance men began to bring out shapes wrapped in blankets as the wreckage of the fish shop began to give up its dead."

The daughter of George and Gillian Williamson said the following day in an interview "They say a mother's love is a blessing. I miss my mother already. To lose both our parents in one day - oh God, oh God. I am angry, I am bitter. I will never forgive them for this, never. I want to see Gerry Adams face to face. I want to tell him that the people who did this to my mammy and daddy are nothing but scum. I want to tell them they are evil bastards."

The husband of Sharon McBride after learning of the explosion said "As soon as I turned the corner and saw the shop I knew there was no one getting out of there alive. I went crazy, shouting and crying." As for the hospital it was "like the waiting room of hell - families in every corner of the room. They were waiting in line to be told their loved one had died. We were last in line and weren't told until about 5pm - Nothing can prepare you for being told your wife is dead. I just went crazy."

When Michael Morrison was killed along with his common-law wife Evelyn Baird and one of his three children seven year old Michelle. The bomb left their nine year old son and six week old daughter orphaned. Their coffins were sealed and no relatives seen their remains due to the horrific injuries all three received in the bomb blast.

An extract from the book The Flight for Peace noted: "One of the shoppers on the Shankill that day was Mrs. Gina Murray, a woman who had lost a child at birth and another in a road accident and her husband had died from a stroke eight months earlier. Mrs. Murray was with her 13 yr old daughter Leanne, who usually stayed close by her side. But Leanne, unusually, had gone into the shop to buy a tub of whelks."

Mrs. Murray said "Suddenly there was this huge bang. We ran screaming for Leanne. We couldn't find her. No one had seen her. There were people lying in the street covered in blood. My little girl was underneath all that rubble. We started clawing at it with our bare hands. I was screaming her name but it was no use. My little daughter was dead."

Gerry Adams helped carry the coffin of the scumbag Begley.

By their actions you shall know them, and this action spoke volumes to the Protestants of Northern Ireland as he was openly and unashamedly associating himself with the Provisional IRA.

A lack of political will, and the huge cost of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, means no other murders will be probed to the same extent, a bereaved husband now fears.

Alan McBride lost his beautiful wife Sharon, 29, and her devoted dad, Desmond Frizzell, in the 1993, Shankill Road bomb. And he firmly believes only killings which implicate the government or security forces in some way, will ever be thoroughly investigated.

In his opinion, that rules out all other atrocities, leaving families who have lost loved ones during the Troubles, still asking why. He feels that establishing the truth is paramount, and everyone is entitled to this. But he adds: "Having said that, I am a realist, and know the cost of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry is going to hit £100 million, before the end of the year. "There is no way that is going to be repeated for anyone else."

All calls for public inquiries at the minute seem to be involving the State - Rosemary Nelson, Pat Finucane and Robert Hamill, for example. "It's to do with matching up the political will and the cost, which I see as very one sided. "I don't in any way deny the Bloody Sunday families their inquiry, it's not their fault others are being left out. "But if we have to go down the road of inquiries, they must be inclusive."

Alan's wife died in the no-warning blast along with eight other innocent men, women and children , and IRA bomber, Thomas Begley. In July 2000, Sean Kelly walked free from the Maze, after serving seven years of nine life sentences, for his part in the attack. Alan was left a young widower with a two year old daughter, Zoe, to care for - and he's been an inspirational dad Although he's not keen to delve into the last tragic moments of Sharon's life through an inquiry, he fully understands how others feel the need. "To be honest, I have always protected myself from the full horror of the facts of my wife's death," he explains."But to get to the truth is important to me. "One young man did time for the Shankill bomb, and the other was killed, but I don't think these young people planned this atrocity. "It was someone else much higher up the ladder, and I don't see that ever being properly investigated. "In more general terms, if inquiries go far enough back into the Troubles, we might find that people involved in the conflict are now involved in government."

Alan works with WAVE, a group set up to support survivors of violence, especially those bereaved through terrorism. They are currently looking at the wide spectrum of truth commissions, and other such processes which exist in other countries. "The past must be dealt with in order for people to get some sort of closure - as I hope the families of Bloody Sunday will find," he says. "The legacy of our past must be replaced with healing."

The Doctor Factor

Before the news broke that some of the psychopaths who tried to kill hundreds of innocent people were doctors, I had already been thinking about the kind doctors and nurses who would be looking after this scumbag. I wonder what goes through their minds.

Look at this decent guy hosing down this scumbag, perhaps saving his life. He could have taken the life of my whole family at Glasgow (where I am going this week), my precious daughters, my beautiful son, my anti-Bush mother.

It turns out that doctors from places like Jordan and Iraq don't have a hypocratic oath. Not that that means a lot really. Think of Dr Crippen or Dr Shipman.

We think we live in modern times.

NOT.

Women own only 1% of the world's wealth.

Women are 70% of the world's poor.

And so, what chance for the children of the world?

If I were Queen I would redistribute the money NOW, just like that. I would take the 99% from the men and leave them 50% and make sure the women got 50%. That would be a start. Of course men spend money on themselves and women spend it on their children, so I guess we really ought to go further. Give the women 70% and the men 30%. That would about do it.

Things never to forget number 1:

I didn't much like Ricky Gervais on Desert Island Discs. I thought he'd be far more interesting than that. He sounded spooky and weird, like David Brent. Why is that so surprising? Barry Humphries doesn't sound like Dame Edna.

He doesn't want children. I didn't like his choice of music, and I don't like his instincts. He was so crazy about Cat Stevens. Well so was I in the old days, but did Gervais know that Cat Stevens called for the fatwah on Salman Rushdie?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens#Salman_Rushdie_controversy

Then, of course, the scummy University of Gloucester (sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it?) gives an honorary degree to Cat Stevens.

He's got a new name now, Yusuf Islam (stupid name for a Greek), but that can't erase his fatwah, no matter how much he tries to deny it, or how many good works he does. Scumbag of the first order.

If-I-Were-King

If I were king I would have zero tolerance for every damned thing. I would kick the heads in of the psycho scum who are trying to blow things up in the west. They are not terrorists. They are psychopaths.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have let the situation get out of hand.

If I had been Tony Blair ten years ago I would have spent half my time in the Middle East saying, "I am SO sorry that it was Britain that got you guys into this mess with the Balfour Agreement. Now we want to do everything we can to help you sort it out, starting by calling on your rich muslim so-called brothers in places like Dubai who are far more concerned with wealth and very happy to leave the running sore that should be Palestine running. It can be done."

They did it for Northern Ireland. Now can they please please do it for the Middle East?

We don't need all this aggro in the world any more than we need it in an infant school classroom. Put all the women teachers of the world in charge of the world.