right way, wrong way

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them," George Orwell observed, "and there is almost no kind of outrage … which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by 'our' side".  Indeed.  This was quoted in an article by Mehdi Hassan in today's Guardian about the state-sponsored killings by the West that are becoming both more prevalent and more widely reported, but without any ensuring public outcry. On the contrary, the reaction is if anything largely positive, as Mehdi Hassan reports.  His argument is spoiled however by a selective quotation from Michael Burleigh in the Telegraph.  Burleigh is a well-respected historian and Hassan's quote suggests he is unequivocally in favour of these murders: 'I shall not shed any tears whenever one of these scientists encounters the unforgiving men on motorbikes, men who live in the real world rather than a laboratory or philosophy seminar.'  But there is a vital coda in the next sentence: 'Except that if Israel ventures down this road, I cannot think of much of an argument to prevent Iran following them, and then anyone else who decides to follow'  Shame on you Mehdi Hassan.  Your sloppy journalism undermines an essentially vital and vibrant piece of writing.

No nostradamus!

Surely this should be enough to scotch the rumours that 'the end of the world is nigh'.  Mayan, er, prophecies have no more validity than those of good ol' Nostradamus.  Yet people are so gullible and astrology still so popular.  So too the multitudes flocking to Lourdes and any of the hundreds of 'Vatican approved Catholic place of worship' to be found on the Internet at www.sacred-destinations.com.    In our post-Enlightenment world this is always a matter of concern for me, even though I understand the consolation religious faith does bring.

The sinking feeling of 'the other'

The sinking  of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy is shocking.  The deaths of the passengers and crew a tragedy.  Five people are confirmed dead and fifteen are missing.  The story has dominated the UK news across all of the media.  All this in the hundredth anniversary year of the sinking of the Titanic.  But as Ian Jack in this weekend's Guardian noted: 'Two years after the Titanic, a coal boat rammed the Empress of Ireland when the Liverpool-bound liner got stuck in a fog in the St Lawrence. The liner heeled over and sank within 14 minutes, and more than 1,000 people drowned: men, women and children struggled in the water "as thick as bees", according to a survivor, but no stories of self-sacrifice or selfishness emerged. It had all happened too quickly. The Titanic, on the other hand, took two hours and 40 minutes to go down on one of the stillest nights anyone could remember. Enough time for quandaries, conflicts, and good and bad behaviour.'  He also reminds us that Titanic was neither the fastest nor the largest liner operating at the time, and 'White Star line never advertised her unsinkability beyond a cautious sentence in a short-lived brochure of 1910'. What is shocking to me in 2012 watching the television coverage of the Costa Concordia is the obscene disparity between this and the sinking of the ferry off Indonesia in December of last year with almost a hundred killed, or the loss of the Zanzibar ferry in September with almost 200 drowned, and so it goes on.  But then western European lives are worth more in the hard currency of media reporting than those of 'the other'.  Always have been.  Ask Edward Said.

enthusiastic and comely

 I did enjoy the new series on BBC4 tonight about illuminated medieval manuscripts and what they might tell us about the 'private lives of medieval monarchs'.  The presenter, Dr Janina Ramirez, was both enthusiastic and comely, and refreshingly down-to-earth and giggly but in a good way.  The sort of person you would enjoy chatting to about the ins and outs of medieval history over a pint or two after work.   I did wonder sometimes about her rather sweeping generalisations and the validity of some of the historical analysis, but overall it was still very entertaining  to watch and I enjoyed being in her company for an hour.  The stars throughout of course were the illuminated manuscripts themselves and the wonderful work of the largely unknown artists and scribes. Truly these are great works of art and it is a shame that they should be locked away out of sight from the very public who pay for their upkeep.    

paradigm

It's one of my favourite words.  Paradigm. Wonderful definition from my trusty Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, page 998, quote 'a conceptual framework within which scientific theories are constructed, which is consistent within itself, but may need completely revising as evidence challenging the factual accuracy of some aspects of it accumulates'. I first came across the word reading Thomas S. Kuhn as a history undergraduate.  Ah, those were the days.  How often do you come across great words like that anymore? 

toasted bread soldiers

There are some foods that are transformed by the simplest of things into something elegant and refined. For example, take a soft boiled egg and add to it toasted bread soldiers lightly buttered. Sprinkle a little salt, some pepper, dip your first toasted soldier, and I guarantee you'll be in foodie heaven.  Go on, try it.  There is really nothing quite like a soft boiled egg with lightly buttered toasted bread soldiers.  Oh, and the egg is best boiled for three minutes exactly but should be placed in the pot of cold water from the start.  (These instructions are for Large, Free Range Eggs and take no account of the risk from salmonella because there really isn't one. Raw eggs can certainly present a health risk from Salmonellosis, but so too can reptiles and especially pet turtles.  Both things best not eaten with your breakfast.)

Ho! Ho! Ho!

An old joke maybe but it does make me smile.  As do these:

"Did you hear about the bloke who bought a bottle of liquid Viagra?  He drank Tippex by mistake and woke up with an enormous correction."

The Dalai Lama goes into a pizza shop, and asks, 'Can you make me One with everything?' 

Ho!  ho!  

The ugly face of religion

On the BBC TV programme QI recently I was slightly startled, but secretly pleased, to hear the host Stephen Fry declare that 'religion is shit!'.  Two stories in today's Guardian suggest he was right, that whatever benefits religion might bring in terms of personal consolation, its wider social effects are often wholly negative.  In the first article, about the worldwide eradication of polio, Jason Burke describes how 'in the late 1990s, (in India) local clerics began telling congregations that the (polio) vaccinations were part of a government plan, backed by the West, to make Muslim women infertile'.    Burke goes on to explain that 'some religious leaders convinced the community otherwise', but the point surely remains that religious groups continue to wield a disproportionate influence in our post-Enlightenment world.  Just consider, for example, the majority church leaders response to the idea of same-sex marriage in Scotland, which they were of course against.  There followed an equally disturbing story from Afghanistan about the torture and imprisonment of a fourteen year-old girl by her husband and his family that involved her fingernails being ripped out by pliers and her ears burned.  The roots of domestic violence against women, child marriage and the absence of basic legal rights for women are as much cultural as religious in Afghanistan, but given that Islam underpins so much of Afghan society it seems once again that the influence of religion can be as much pernicious as beneficial.  The fact that it is delusional and based on a belief in supernatural beings renders it even more disturbing.  And yet, it continues to prosper across the world and surely will continue to do so ad infinitum.  

Mild comic threat

It's that time of year again, the start of a new one, and traditionally the moment to list resolutions for the twelve months that lie ahead.  They don't always work but they're fun to do.  Mine include being a more regular blogger, eating less, reading more, going out to the theatre on a more regular basis, listening to my backlog of new cds, reading my backlog of books, exercising more, worrying less, and etc.  So no surprises there then.  I also hope to be able to go to the cinema more in 2012 but that depends largely on the selection offered at our local multiplex.  Mostly the films I want to see aren't shown, but an exception is 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' remake.  That's for tomorrow afternoon hopefully.  On checking the listings, I did find another hilarious advisory from the BBFC for Mr Popper's Penguins, quote, 'Contains mild comic threat and flatulence jokes'.  Penguins that fart?  Well, I never.  That's almost as funny as Edinburgh Zoo spending tens of thousands of pounds a year renting pandas from China.  At a time of economic austerity, for anyone to commit several millions of pounds to hiring out cuddly bears is beyond preposterous.  Aargh!  Looks like 2012 is going to be just as crazy as 2011 and the Olympics haven't even started yet.  At least with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee we get an extra holiday.  I suppose we have the excitement of the American Presidential election to look forward to, starting with the race for the Republican nomination, and the distant but longed for implosion of Britain's coalition government, starting with the implosion of George Osborne.  My money is still on Obama winning in November and I will certainly enjoy reading about the twists and turns of the election in my beloved Guardian - in newsprint for I have not yet been persuaded by a Kindle, but I can feel the moment approaching.  And whatever happened to Sarah Palin?  The Tea Party seems to be losing ground in term of its electoral support but the Republican Party still kowtows to it in much the same way as Cameron kowtows to the Tory right in the UK.  Why not just take the right-wingers and all of their associated nutty, loony-tunes supporters on face to face?  President Bartlett would.  Which reminds me that I must re-resolve to re-watch The West Wing on dvd from beginning to end in 2012.