Strangely Perfect

Obama President Obama was elected under the banner of change. Change for the overall health of his nation Change in economics and finance Change of a re-assertion of the higher ideals of his nation expressed in the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Rights. In this last, he even promised this change in his [...]

Coroner and Law I’m often struck when reading the papers or news, to see the coroner’s verdict on someone’s death as: Ending his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed Well they have to say something, it’s their job, but the phrase is very peculiar. Take this couple, the Milners, who were [...]

CIA Guilty of Torture and Kidnap – Damages of 1.5 Million Euros Amazing news today.  An Italian court has bravely taken on the leader of the Western World and convicted 22 CIA agents of kidnap and torture. (see CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap). The man on the left with the wacky beard and hat, [...]

In a weird co-incidence that I missed at the time, I’ve just found that the plans for the Auschwitz death camp were put on  display during my Austrian visit earlier this year.   This visit very soon prompted my outburst on the pontificating nutty bishop, Richard Williamson (see The Face of Evil from 20 Feb [...]

I can’t vouch for the information as I don’t live in Turkey, but I’ve just found out that Turkey has blocked Google.com Google Groups from internet access for it’s citizens.  See: Turkey & My Foreign Perspectives with Bea Vanni: Goodbye Google Alert: Hello More Bans for Turkey While my Turkey blog is less frequent these [...]

Well I Never! ..should be the title of this post.  Having lived in the South-West for nearly quarter of a century, it’s come as a complete shock to me to discover that my favourite vacuum cleaner (if there is such a thing, I’m now defining it here!) is little old Henry, and it’s made about [...]

The Monk and the King by Jill

Jillian has made an excellent post yesterday that marvellously ties in with the heavy-handed police tactics in London at the weekend G20 protests – whose chickens are now coming home to roost; and also, it ties in with our (the West’s) recent (and continuing) history, AND a bit of encouragement, calendared for today, by Daisaku [...]

As part of my Buddhist practice I recite two bits of prose and chant some Daimoku, which is the words “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” over and over again. I recite these two bits of prose, called the “Expedient Means” chapter and the “Life Span” chapter because Jill, the person who introduced me did so. Jillian [...]

Who Needs Friends like Rosenbaum? During my recent visit to Austria I picked up a little tit-bit from “The Rough Guide to Austria” about the composer Haydn who ‘lived‘ in the town of Eisenstadt where I was staying, for some years.  My sarcastic emphasis is because by all accounts, Haydn’s opinion of Eisenstadt and it’s [...]

Just like the ant, Obama has the high hopes of the nation on his side today.  We just hope that the Rubber Tree plant of in-equality that starts in the USA and cascades down across the world like Thatcher’s trickle-down economics, can finally be moved. Two recent posts amplify this disparity that exists across the [...]

This post, http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/06/arabeyes-mauritanian-president-ousted-in-military-coup-detat/ ,and it’s associated comments provide a lot of extra information on the recent coup d’etat there.  This comment by a Mauritanian is totally in line. Check out Jillian Greenwood here, http://jillrees.com/articles/our-reputation-abroad/ ,for her personal view of the country as she passed through last year en route to Mali. The country is primitive [...]

Last week I arrived in Croydon to a week’s worth of knife deaths, convictions and escapes.  It seemed that the whole place was a blood-bath.  In examining them closely, some deaths were national news – and deservedly so, but mostly, there is no world outside of London for all the meeja types. For instance, in [...]

A better translation of the classic Jaques Brel song, “Dans le Port d’Amsterdam” by Jillian Greenwood