Credit Where Its Due

I have been doubtful about the Iraq project that the US (with its sidekick ally the UK), have been attempting, and indeed I thought the whole debacle would end in a civil war, but recently there have been signs that despite everything, a semblance of a democratic state in a Muslim world appears to be emerging from the rubble.

Firstly, elections in Iraq have been held not once but twice, and generally accepted as being 'clean & fair', with the next national elections being set for January 2010, and for that I have to credit where its due.

And now, the Iraqi Minister of Trade, Abdul Falah Sudani (along with his brother Sabah Mohammed Sudani), and 1,000 allegedly corrupt officials, have been arrested for corruption by the anti-corruption watchdog, the Commission on Public Integrity. Few details have been disclosed, but the public watchdog said at least 50 were senior figures were included in those arrested.

Now, you can prove me wrong, but how many middle eastern states have a Commission on Public Integrity? And how many would arrest a minister and his officials, after 'serious complaints about the trade ministry, where officials allegedly took bribes for contracts'?

If this is proved to be a genuine investigation, and not some power struggle between factions in the Iraqi, then maybe this is a sign of a genuine democratic government developing in soil that is not very promising.

However, the sheer scale of the alleged corruption could mean that in fact the government is riddled with thieves and is therefore already failed .... figures suggest as much as a billion dollars a year is stolen by government officials.

Who knows, maybe George W Bush (and little Tony Blair), may be proved to be right in their assertion that history would eventually prove them correct ..... but my money is on the fact that Transparency International, say that Iraq is one of the most corrupt places in the world, third only to Burma and Somalia (which are both considered 'failed states').

The Good, The Bad And The Saintly

Now that I have given Portuguese policing and drug policies a kicking, heres the lighter side of the week.

A skateboarding Cow, is leading the Forca Portugal party

This is a life size (and more than lifesize?) Red Indian

in a shop window ... no shame :-)

Matts bar has the laziest bar staff on the strip

(trust me, if you ain't got tits, you ain't getting a drink)

Libertos outside disco is a fantastic venue (and not LOUD!)

And finally ................ What can I say, living legend!

Sir Cliff Richard .... having a "Summer Holiday"

Not a bad week, despite the "Charley salesmen"

Drugs in Paradise

The Trip to Portugal was good ..... weather hot, accommodation really excellent, but man is it expensive for UK tourists in Europe now. The collapse of the pound (goddamn you Gordon Brown!!), means that beer and food costs are on a par with, or even more expensive than at home.

I suspect that my European Odyssey's are largely over, and I will be looking outside the Euro Zone for value in the future, but that's not why I am writing, no its another matter that prompted this blog.

In Albufeira on the Algarve, the Beaches and Restaurants, were the haunts of "African Migrants" (aka illegal 'asylum seekers') who try to sell you "Rolex's" or "RayBan's". To be honest it was a bit of a pain, but apart from the fact that it was Africans, and not the Albanians who operate in the Eastern Mediterranean, it wasn't anything new.

No, the one remarkable feature of this holiday, was the open sale in the streets of drugs ..... you could hardly walk around, without being asked if you wanted "Smack, Charlie, Smokes?" .... this 'offer' was usually made by Portuguese (or dark skinned men) in front of children and families, with little or no police interference.

Most of this drug dealing was centred on "The Strip" and how the Portuguese police can't clean it up is beyond me.

'The Strip' is, as you can see, is a mile long strip of bars, interspersed with Restaurants. Hardly un-policable, so you have to ask why the Portuguese police do nothing?

Tail between my legs

Well Manchester United lost the Champions League Final, and in all fairness the better side (Barcelona) won .......... that's all I can say really.

South African Slide Begins

And so it starts ..... Helen Zille the duly elected and "English" (aka white) premier of Western Cape Province in South Africa, has been subjected to increasingly racist attacks by President Zumas supporters, because she pointed out that Mr Zuma had put his wives at risk of contracting HIV by having sex (allegedly forced) with a HIV positive 'family friend'.

A fact that should cause no problem as that's exactly what Mr Zuma did by cheating on his three wives in the "Rape" case, as well as the fact that he took no precautions, and had a shower to 'stop catching AIDS'. However to the 'veterans' (doesn't this sound oh so familiar already?) this was a part of a 'racist' attack that had upset their delicate sensibilities.

They have also racially abused Ms Zille because she chose a male only cabinet of the talents, by saying that this was to 'service the white woman' or that one of them was her 'boyfriend' ...... the irony of blacks accusing whites of being too sexually active, is all the more funny because, these are illiterate black men (the rapists of South African society).

Kebby Maphatsoe, chairman of the Military Veterans Association, and leader of President Zuma's shock troops, gave an ominous warning for the Democratic Alliance.

"Should Zille not immediately cease her racist tendencies that bring pain to all military veterans of South Africa... the association will not hesitate to implement a militant programme of action to take back the streets and our communities," he said.

Ah, the sniff of Zimbabwe is in the air, "Umshini wami" (Bring Me My Machine-Gun)!!

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!"

No, its not the end of the road for this blog, but we are taking a break to the sunnier climes of Portugal, for Sun, Beer and Football watching (in hot and sticky bars), so there will be no update for a week or so ..............

Hopefully, Manchester United will be still be World, European, and Premier League Champions, or I will be too hung over to care one way or another LOL.

The Quote? Oh that's a book by Douglas Adams

Local Naming and Shaming

The fall out from the MP's expenses scandal just continues to rumble on ..... 

MP Expenses Scandal Made Headlines

 

..... In a spirit of enquiry, I checked out some of the local MPs, and found that they are just as grasping as any others.

Victims of Saddam Hussein

Amongst all the recriminations about the War in Iraq, we sometimes forget how bad the Iraqi regime was under Saddam Hussein. This story from Kuwait, describes the grief and hatred that many in that country still feel towards Iraq, twenty years after the "First Iraq War".

"We started with 605 missing Kuwaitis or third country nationals. Now we have retrieved and identified the remains of 236 people, who were brought from mass graves in Iraq and buried in Kuwait." said Ibrahim al-Shahin, Vice President of the National Committee For POW Affairs in Kuwait.

"The remaining 370 or so are still open files with the International Committee of the Red Cross, listed as missing until it is proved they are dead."

Its feared of course that all those taken by the Iraqi's were killed with in days or even hours.

The Iraqi government is accused of dragging its feet over the search for the bodies.

"We feel the new government in Iraq should really look at this matter more sincerely. We hear a lot from them in meetings about how they are also the victims of Saddam. We understand that. But we tell them that we are dealing with the Republic of Iraq, which is responsible for locating these mass graves and helping us retrieve these bodies, regardless of which government is in power."

Despite the changes in regime in Iraq, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has felt the need to express public concern, that despite some progress, the remains of 369 Kuwaiti and third country nationals had not yet been identified. He also noted that the Kuwaiti national archives had also not yet been found, despite promises made to return them.

In October, Kuwait appointed an ambassador to Baghdad, and is waiting for Iraq to reciprocate.

The Right To Vote

Gibraltar, that little bit of England in the Mediterranean, fought a very hard legal battle against our pathetic governments, and the Spanish (who like the Argentinians find history hard to digest, and democracy even harder to swallow .... is it because they are both 'new' democracies??), to get the right to vote in European elections, is voting this week, as part of the English constituency of 'South West England and Gibraltar'.

I am pleased that despite the PC policies of appeasement to the Spanish speaking world, that this country has followed under the Labour Government since the "Falklands War", justice and democracy finally prevailed, due in part to the much maligned (by me amongst others) "Human Rights Act".

Pakistan Cricket Board Blind To Reality

The Pakistani Cricket Board are to sue the International Cricket Council, because it decided it wasn't safe to play any of the Cricket World Cup matches there in 2011, and so rescheduled them to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Pakistan 2011 Cricket WC

Now, considering the fact there was an attempt by Islamic Terrorists to wipe out the last visiting cricket team, Sri Lanka, and the virtual collapse of law and order in all the 'tribal' and border areas of Pakistan.

In A Hole? Then Stop Digging!!

There is an old adage that "If you find yourself in a hole, then stop digging!", and some MP's would have been better to have remembered that.

Ms Blears, who has increasingly come to this blogs attention, was proclaiming yesterday (along with all the others), that she had 'broken no rules'. But today, increased attention to her practice of "flipping" (transferring the status of various homes, from 'Primary' to 'Secondary') in order to maximise her claims, has uncovered that fact that she may have avoided paying "Capital Gains Tax" on the £45,000 worth of profits she pocketed on the sale of one of them.

If Ms Blears had kept a lower profile, she may have remained hidden in the pack, but her voluble claims that she had done no wrong, have caused a deeper investigation by the press that has uncovered other details on her claims.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper has said that Blears avoided £18,000 taxes by her practise of 'flipping' and that by doing it three times in one year alone enabled her to to claim up to £20,000-a-year for each property. They then allege that only last week, when the expense claims were being first revealed, she had claimed to only have ever owned a small flat in London, and that she still lived 'mainly in Salford', but they state that 'Land Registry' records revealed, that since becoming an MP in 1997, Miss Blears had owned three flats in London, and had sold the first two at profits.

She now 'lives' in a flat in Clerkenwell, Central London, worth about £500,000, but despite claiming thousands in subsidies on it, none of her neighbours who spoke to the newspaper could recall seeing her there...... oops!

The Sunday Express features a call for Ms Blears to resign from former independent 'anti-sleaze' MP Martin Bell who is quoted as saying “I would have thought that Hazel Blears should resign. To claim public money against three homes in one year, is beyond carelessness.”

He added that there were now "scandals of shamelessness" among MPs, and he has claimed that "If our Cabinet ministers worked for a private company or public corporation, half of them would be out of a job this morning. They would have been shown the door."

"Their employers might then call in the police. The politicians will claim, as they always do, that they acted within the rules – rules that they created and they police. But the common thread is an expedient switching from one residence to another of the property that they designate as their second home."

Another minister, Tony McNulty is having his claims considered by the Police, after they had received a complaint that Mr McNulty may have "obtained pecuniary advantage by deception".

And so it goes on and on ...... drip, drip, drip, and sooner or later there is going to be someone who will resign (there is surely someone with 'honour', even amongst this self serving bunch of 'chancers').

The Labour party should by any rights be politically 'dead', but there are enough PC lefties in the UK to keep them afloat, but one man is going to carry the can for this fiasco.......

PC Driven Health and Safety Culture UK

Two Police forces collide with the modern culture, and public safety loses:

A Police Force has abandoned its motorbikes force because the Health and Safety 'Red tape' surrounding their use has made it no longer worthwhile sending them out. A study had found that police officers using them were "particularly vulnerable to collision". senior officers have insisted that the move to sell off all the motorbikes will "maximise officer safety".

A serving police officer, who was not not named in the reports, said: "I guess with all the health and safety red tape surrounding the police service these days their days were always going to be numbered. It's a great shame we won't be able to use them any more – cars just aren't the same. Maybe they'll offer us push bikes instead – as long as we can produce our cycling proficiency test certificates, obviously."

And following right along from that story, a police officer in a different force, refused to pose on a stationary push bike for some photographs, because it hadn't been assessed for health and safety risks, and besides he hadn't 'passed his cycling proficiency test' ..........

To be fair Pc Cobban said that he was only following orders (not that that old Nuremburg chestnut!), which state that staff who have not taken the proficiency test exam (a course taken by thousands of schoolchildren every year), are banned from using a bike.

"It was basically a health and safety thing. I was just being cautious as I haven't passed the cycling proficiency test," he said. "My personal view would be concern if anything happens to me while on the bike and it hasn't been risk assessed or insured – in this day and age you have to cover all bases. It's the way of the world. I could get on the bike but I'm not massively proficient."

If ever there was a sign of how far we have crumbled under Labours PC driven Health and Safety Regime, its with these two stories ....... one can hardly think of anything to say. All I can ask is if there needs to be a Health and Safety survey before police tackle burglars, or enter a crack house, or tackle armed robbers?

If this is the 'thin blue line' (now on a health and safety clipboard?) that's all that stands between us and the collapse of civil society, then 'God help us' because this lot no longer can do the job.

Honesty in Low Places

Whilst sleazy politicians in the UK, and corrupt ones in South Africa dominate this weeks blog entries, just a word about the taxi driver in La Plata, Argentina, who having discovered that an elderly couple had left a bag with $32,000 in his Taxi. Spent three days seeking them in order to return the bag (how many UK politicians would I trust to do that?).

Now this would be a remarkable bit of honesty in any time and place but from a taxi driver who is likely not to be very well off, this was an all the more impressive bit of integrity.

As well as blogs like this saluting him, a web site in Argentina highlighted the story and ‘reward’ donations flooded in, with over $14,580 to be handed over to the taxi driver Santiago Gori. It reminds me of the story of Richard Karyea in Liberia refusing a bribe (1,300 times greater than his salary), and reporting drug smuggling.

Sometimes, just sometimes, honesty is its own reward ….. with a little helping hand from the public.

Corruption in High Places

The ongoing revelations about the epic scale of UK politician’s greed over expenses are still causing headlines. I won’t bother to go over it all again as a billion hot air balloons couldn’t hold all the hot air that this story has generated.

Remember that this same group set their own wage rises, insist that their pension scheme be immune from Gordon Browns pension raids (that have impacted many UK schemes), set up and scrutinise their own expenses scheme and generally look after their own self interests.

Suffice if to say that, basically it all comes down to ‘second home allowances’ where many a crafty financial wheeze (or even just blatant money grabs) has been employed by ‘Right (dis) Honourable Members of Parliament’ in order to feather their nests …. in some case many nests.

Which brings me nicely to the members of ‘Browns Babes’ who are featuring in this debacle. Among other revelations, Ms Hazel Blears is said to have claimed for expenditure under the Additional Costs Allowance on three different properties during the same year, spending £5,000 on furniture in three months.

Her, and all the others excuses "I haven't broken any rules", or "my claims are within the rules" or "The House Committee approved my claims" ...... as though that absolves them from any moral wrong doing, or blame. These are 'rules' that they set and policed themselves!

And good old 'harridan' couldn’t keep quiet either ….. “I don't think there's any reason for resignations, but there is reason to tighten up the system “ says Harriet Harman, deputy (permanent) Labour Party leader

But quote of the week (and possibly the century), comes from one of those labour backbenchers who take knighthoods for being house ‘veterans ‘ (aka loyalty wards) Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the House of Commons Commission, and who said the expenses claims were "not unusual" or "out of order".

He added: "We do respect public opinion and we do respect the need for change - and I think that change is coming, I hope it will come quicker, and I hope the public will get the respect for MPs back, which we do actually deserve at the end of the day."

If ever a quote showed why politicians should only be allowed to do the job for a maximum of ten years, its this ………. this buffoon believes that MP’s with their snouts in the trough and their hands in our wallets, actually deserve our respect!

The merry wives of KwaZulu Natal

President Zuma of South Africa is setting something of a first in “modern” sub-Saharan Africa by currently being the possessor of three wives, as well having and ex-wife in the cabinet as a ‘political advisor and minister.

Although this trend for polygamy is dying out amongst educated black Africans (in Southern Africa) according to political analyst Protas Madlala, it is still popular amongst, the poor & uneducated in rural areas (such as where Mr Zuma was brought up).

Is this therefore a backward step for a south Africa already displaying many symptoms of post independence Africa … Corruption is now largely unchecked with the closure of the scorpion police anti corruption unit. And there appears to be political interference of the judicial system, with the dropping of Mr Zuma’s ‘trial’ for alleged corruption.

Are we seeing a movement towards ‘traditional’ African politics where the ‘Big Man’ sets the laws and his whim become ‘policy’?

Who knows? And only time will tell.

But for sure, the election of a man with so much political and ethical baggage doesn’t appear on the face of it to be a forward step for a country whose future is in the balance.

I Dreamed a Dream

This movie has been viewed millions of time already and is almost old hat. However embedding it has been disabled on YouTube .... naughty naughty that's not the spirit of YouTube!

So in a spirit of anarchy, and of keeping the the net free, I found another site that weren't so churlish, and embedded their version. The net is about freedom of thought and content, not to lock things from distribution.

Its still remarkably moving, both for the obvious talent and the choice of song, and so deserves to be circulated and not suppressed. Its also an interesting commentary on our societies values, that this lady has a great voice but at the age of forty eight, had to risk ridicule on a TV 'talent' show in order to realise her dream.

Elections: "Light Touch Financial Regulation"

In case any British Voters who have lost their jobs, are wondering how the UK came to end up in such a stupendous mess, I provide this reminder of Gordon Browns speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in 2005. 

Ball and Brown - Undertakers

Now we are in recession, Gordon Brown is casting about, to lay the blame on the Americans (without naming them out loud), and certainly is not accepting his role in the UK's problems.

How the Saudis hate their women!

Finishing my blogs on 'Wimmins' issues ................. this little tale of what the Harriet Harman's of this world can expect for their daughters in the Sharia world they are bringing to the UK.

How the Saudis hate their women, in Saudi Arabia women are banned from driving, must wear a head-to-toe cloak when out in public, and must obtain permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry or can be married off by their fathers.

But all that that's not enough .... oh no, not for these beard loving fellas, so they have decided to close women's gym's. Afterall we don't want women doing anything unsupervised by men, so many women-only sports clubs and gyms in Saudi Arabia, now face closure under a government clampdown on unlicensed premises which they claim is for health reasons.

If the Ms Harman's, Blears and Smith's of this world want to create a new social order (as had been reported), then maybe they should look at what they are likely to be ushering in, when they have finished destroying the "white males".

Inequalities Of Thinking Bill

Sticking to my Harriet Harman theme ..... (sorry readers).

Once again Harridan Harman has come up with a cunning PC wheeze .....exposing the gender gap (women get paid less than men) even though legislation already exists to stop employers paying women less than men in the same job (except where work bonuses make a difference).

How Women See The Wage Gap

But that's not the point is it?

More Planets, Old and New

More amazing science discoveries, as the the most distant single object ever detected by telescopes is pictured.

The explosion of the giant star is confirmed to be more than 13 billion light-years away, which means the explosion being viewed, is from when the Universe was only 630 million years old, a mere one-20th of its current age (estimated to be 13.7 billion years old).

And following fast on this piece of news came reports that astronomers have discovered a strange Jupiter-sized world circling a star similar to our own Sun. These reports of other planets keep coming thick and fast, and I truly live in hope that we will detect a world that has all the signatures of life, e.g. Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, and Methane, in the atmosphere.

The "Wimmin" of the Left

News this week that Hazel Blears ....

Hazel Blears

 .... one of the New Labour type of women Members of Parliament, who seem to have proliferated in the last decade, has turned on her boss Gordon Brown, our very own unelectable 'dear leader'.