Friday, 23 October 2009
"Organisations working with refugees across the UK hit out at government cuts to asylum welfare being introduced today (5 October). The Refugee Council, Refugee Action, Scottish and Welsh Refugee Councils and North of England Refugee Service (NERS), all members of the Asylum Support Partnership, branded the cuts “appalling” and are calling on the government instead to allow asylum seekers to work.
The government will today implement significant cuts to the amount of money it currently gives to asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claim. At the moment, rates are set at 70% of income support. From today, destitute asylum seekers who ask for support and who are single and over 25, will receive even less, with rates falling from £42.16 to £35.13 per week. This is a little over half of what the government says a person needs to live on.
In addition, lone parents with one child will not receive an increase in their income in line with the rise in the consumer price index, which effectively leaves them over £2 per week worse off.
Asylum seekers already struggle to survive on the money they are given each week, and are not allowed to work, so are restricted to the amount set by the government. Refugee communities are already among the poorest in Britain, and there are fears that further impoverishing this group will lead to isolation, poor health and have a wider impact on local communities."
The government will today implement significant cuts to the amount of money it currently gives to asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claim. At the moment, rates are set at 70% of income support. From today, destitute asylum seekers who ask for support and who are single and over 25, will receive even less, with rates falling from £42.16 to £35.13 per week. This is a little over half of what the government says a person needs to live on.
In addition, lone parents with one child will not receive an increase in their income in line with the rise in the consumer price index, which effectively leaves them over £2 per week worse off.
Asylum seekers already struggle to survive on the money they are given each week, and are not allowed to work, so are restricted to the amount set by the government. Refugee communities are already among the poorest in Britain, and there are fears that further impoverishing this group will lead to isolation, poor health and have a wider impact on local communities."
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Freeman Dyson, on the other hand.
heretic is one term.
useful idiot might be another, unfortunately.
heretic is one term.
useful idiot might be another, unfortunately.
the Atlantic's brave thinkers (27 leaders - not necessarily leaders in the conventional sense - pushing things forward) cheers the heart.
yes, it is American-centric (and has more men than women by a margin), but it does peek outside the lower 48 too.
among some of my favourite people on earth, a few get in;
to wit, the leonine Iftikhar Chaudhry,
the nod to de Waal gets it right: the sad fact is that even when Darfuris in the camps were wanting justice, a hard-headed bottom line analysis should probably have gone with peace, for better or worse,
and there's a typically tough-headed article for Morgan Tsvangirai too.
i've never even heard of some of these people, but there's clearly some good sorts in there.
marvel at the tattooed man-mountain with a Harvard public policy degree trying to pull Braddock, PA, back from the brink, the champion of American home-owners, a Dallas DA, the Danish CEO whose firm appears to be gaining notices as a social enterprise model, a man deep into electric cars, and a conservationist-minded academic.
plus the Director of the Stanford Center for Law and the Bio-Sciences, and an appealing sounding Virginia senator interested in penal reform.
blow it, i'm off to read the whole thing..
yes, it is American-centric (and has more men than women by a margin), but it does peek outside the lower 48 too.
among some of my favourite people on earth, a few get in;
to wit, the leonine Iftikhar Chaudhry,
the nod to de Waal gets it right: the sad fact is that even when Darfuris in the camps were wanting justice, a hard-headed bottom line analysis should probably have gone with peace, for better or worse,
and there's a typically tough-headed article for Morgan Tsvangirai too.
i've never even heard of some of these people, but there's clearly some good sorts in there.
marvel at the tattooed man-mountain with a Harvard public policy degree trying to pull Braddock, PA, back from the brink, the champion of American home-owners, a Dallas DA, the Danish CEO whose firm appears to be gaining notices as a social enterprise model, a man deep into electric cars, and a conservationist-minded academic.
plus the Director of the Stanford Center for Law and the Bio-Sciences, and an appealing sounding Virginia senator interested in penal reform.
blow it, i'm off to read the whole thing..
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
some more choice quotes from that interview:
One thing is clear: new entrants are only interested in business mail, which makes up about 80% of the market. Wells admits he has no plans to enter the less profitable "social mail" market [...]
Speak to Wells about the business that made his fortune - those irritating adverts that fall through your letterbox as well as Ikea catalogues - and his real enthusiasm shines out. "Everybody has an opinion on them," he says with some satisfaction. "And do you know why? It's more intrusive. One of the benefits is that it demands an action. If it's well targeted you pick it up and put it somewhere to act on. If not, you put it in the bin."
social mail? that bit speaks volumes.
put it in the bin? if you're not recycling such mail (not everyone does) then you're creating waste.
brilliant.
One thing is clear: new entrants are only interested in business mail, which makes up about 80% of the market. Wells admits he has no plans to enter the less profitable "social mail" market [...]
Speak to Wells about the business that made his fortune - those irritating adverts that fall through your letterbox as well as Ikea catalogues - and his real enthusiasm shines out. "Everybody has an opinion on them," he says with some satisfaction. "And do you know why? It's more intrusive. One of the benefits is that it demands an action. If it's well targeted you pick it up and put it somewhere to act on. If not, you put it in the bin."
social mail? that bit speaks volumes.
put it in the bin? if you're not recycling such mail (not everyone does) then you're creating waste.
brilliant.
FANCY THAT!
David Cameron banging on about the govt's failure to part privatise the Royal Mail and the govt being culpable for looming strikes due to this (nowt to do with the intractable Mail management, who even business psychologists are criticising for rigidity) ignores the crucial fact that the Mail is already part privatised, and also side steps the rather large moot point about whether privatisation would make the Mail harder, faster, better, stronger. (that a debate that needs to be had, certainly, but Cameron appears to have already made his mind up.)
One thing you probably don’t know, for instance, is that the Royal Mail is already part-privatised. It goes under the euphemism of ‘deregulation’. Deregulation is the result of an EU directive that was meant to be implemented over an extended period to give mail companies time to adjust, but which this government embraced with almost obscene relish, deregulating the UK mail service long before any of its rivals in Europe. It means that any private mail company – or, indeed, any of the state-owned, subsidised European mail companies – is able to bid for Royal Mail contracts.
Take a look at your letters next time you pick them up from the doormat. Look at the right-hand corner, the place where the Queen’s head used to be. You’ll see a variety of different franks, representing a number of different mail companies. There’s TNT, UK Mail, Citypost and a number of others. What these companies do is to bid for the profitable bulk mail and city-to-city trade of large corporations, undercutting the Royal Mail, and then have the Royal Mail deliver it for them. TNT has the very lucrative BT contract, for instance. TNT picks up all BT’s mail from its main offices, sorts it into individual walks according to information supplied by the Royal Mail, scoots it to the mail centres in bulk, where it is then sorted again and handed over to us to deliver. Royal Mail does the work. TNT takes the profit.
"Roy Mayall"
any Britons watching their television news in the last few days will probably have seen the chief boss at TNT UK, Nick Wells, moaning about the Royal Mail. curiously, the elephant in the room about TNT was not acknowledged by Mr Wells; the one that 'Mayall' so appropriately identities above.
odd, huh?
'Supporters of Royal Mail - and there are many in parliament - argue that it is handicapped by its obligation to serve every small hamlet and unpronouncably named village in the country while operators such as TNT can cherry-pick the most profitable parts of the service.
Wells says this is a "charge propagated by Royal Mail" but goes on to say the company will have to "compete in certain sectors or geographical areas or products" in order to succeed. Is this not cherry-picking? He says this is a "question of semantics". "We would be silly to exactly replicate what Royal Mail do."'
make your own mind up. also note Wells gets the human touch in about his postie early (just a regular guy, hey), before moving on to business.
David Cameron banging on about the govt's failure to part privatise the Royal Mail and the govt being culpable for looming strikes due to this (nowt to do with the intractable Mail management, who even business psychologists are criticising for rigidity) ignores the crucial fact that the Mail is already part privatised, and also side steps the rather large moot point about whether privatisation would make the Mail harder, faster, better, stronger. (that a debate that needs to be had, certainly, but Cameron appears to have already made his mind up.)
One thing you probably don’t know, for instance, is that the Royal Mail is already part-privatised. It goes under the euphemism of ‘deregulation’. Deregulation is the result of an EU directive that was meant to be implemented over an extended period to give mail companies time to adjust, but which this government embraced with almost obscene relish, deregulating the UK mail service long before any of its rivals in Europe. It means that any private mail company – or, indeed, any of the state-owned, subsidised European mail companies – is able to bid for Royal Mail contracts.
Take a look at your letters next time you pick them up from the doormat. Look at the right-hand corner, the place where the Queen’s head used to be. You’ll see a variety of different franks, representing a number of different mail companies. There’s TNT, UK Mail, Citypost and a number of others. What these companies do is to bid for the profitable bulk mail and city-to-city trade of large corporations, undercutting the Royal Mail, and then have the Royal Mail deliver it for them. TNT has the very lucrative BT contract, for instance. TNT picks up all BT’s mail from its main offices, sorts it into individual walks according to information supplied by the Royal Mail, scoots it to the mail centres in bulk, where it is then sorted again and handed over to us to deliver. Royal Mail does the work. TNT takes the profit.
"Roy Mayall"
any Britons watching their television news in the last few days will probably have seen the chief boss at TNT UK, Nick Wells, moaning about the Royal Mail. curiously, the elephant in the room about TNT was not acknowledged by Mr Wells; the one that 'Mayall' so appropriately identities above.
odd, huh?
'Supporters of Royal Mail - and there are many in parliament - argue that it is handicapped by its obligation to serve every small hamlet and unpronouncably named village in the country while operators such as TNT can cherry-pick the most profitable parts of the service.
Wells says this is a "charge propagated by Royal Mail" but goes on to say the company will have to "compete in certain sectors or geographical areas or products" in order to succeed. Is this not cherry-picking? He says this is a "question of semantics". "We would be silly to exactly replicate what Royal Mail do."'
make your own mind up. also note Wells gets the human touch in about his postie early (just a regular guy, hey), before moving on to business.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
hopeful news:
A judge in Turkey has ordered the release of five Kurdish rebels who crossed into the country from Iraq as part of a 34-strong "peace group".
The Kurdistan Workers Party members were charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. The PKK is banned in Turkey.
But the judge ruled that they should not be held in custody as they had returned of their own free will.
Others from the group who entered Turkey on Monday were released earlier.
The group was made up of both PKK fighters from their stronghold in Iraq's Qandil mountains, and refugees from the Makhmour camp south of Mosul...Monday's event - which Ankara calls a "surrender", but which the PKK insists was no such thing - was a calculated symbolic step by the Kurdish separatists to test the new conciliatory approach promised by the government, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul...How the rebels are treated now will be watched closely in Turkey as an indication of the government's willingness and its ability to deliver on its promise of leniency for those willing to give up the armed struggle, says our correspondent.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the jubilant scenes at the border were a sign of hope.
"How is it possible not to be hopeful when we look at those scenes on the border?" he asked MPs in parliament. "Good things are happening in Turkey."
Mr Erdogan has called for opposition support for a peace plan which he launched two months ago.
But he has not outlined what measures would be included in a peace package. Suggested proposals are said to include constitutional reform, greater concessions to Kurdish culture and possible amnesties.
obviously each conflict zone has its own specifics, and the analogy i am about to draw is very problematic (not least given the realities of some of the problems in the present day Balkans), but i was flashing on the optimistic side of Izetbegović's famous declaration when reading the above
To my people I say this may not be a just peace, but it is more just than a continuation of war. In the situation as it is and in the world as it is, a better peace could not have been achieved.
+
finally, we are allowed to be clear about the PKK. for instance, there's no denying the accuracy of the parts of the backgrounder i quote from Soner Cagaptay below:
'Too many diplomats and journalists accept PKK claims to represent Turkey's Kurds. They do not. To understand the PKK, it is important to understand the characteristics that have defined the group since Öcalan founded it as the National Liberation Army in 1973.
First, it is a cult of personality. PKK members and sympathizers call Öcalan "Apo," the Kurdish word for uncle. Öcalan consciously promotes this cult. "Everyone should take note of the way I live … The way I eat, the way I think, my orders, and even my inactivity should be carefully studied. There will be lessons to be learned from several generations because Apo is a great teacher," he told the Turkish Daily News in 1998. PKK members often refer to themselves as "Apocus" (Apoists), emphasizing Öcalan's central role in shaping the group's identity and destiny.
Second, the PKK holds true to Maoist ideology. In the 1970s, while studying at the prestigious Ankara School of Political Science (Mülkiye), Öcalan grew enamored of the Maoism embraced by many intellectuals at the time. Turkey's Marxist-Leninists he found too soft. He became persuaded that nothing around him was good enough because it was capitalist and imperialist. His politics reflected rural feudal values, rooted in his southeastern Turkey upbringing, and a Maoist obsession with the peasantry, which he developed in Ankara. He dropped out of the Mülkiye in 1978 and founded the PKK. The group "condemned the repressive exploitation of the Kurds" and called for a revolution to overthrow the system in Turkey. The PKK wanted to set up a "democratic and united Kurdistan" in southeastern Turkey to be governed along Marxist-Leninist lines. Since there was no working class in southeastern Turkey at the time―the area's population was split among majority peasants, minority landowners, and a small urban middle class―the fundamental force of the revolution would be a worker-peasant alliance. Under Öcalan's leadership, the peasantry would be the "main force" of the "popular army," providing Öcalan with an expandable manpower supply. Over time, more than 30,000 Kurdish peasants died as a result of this vision.
Third, the PKK seeks to monopolize the Kurdish nationalist struggle. Öcalan tolerated no other Kurdish leftist or nationalist groups operating in eastern Turkey, his area of operation. He branded all his Kurdish rivals fascists and acted to eliminate them. In the late 1970s, the PKK decimated the Revolutionary Unity of the People (Devrimci Halkın Birliği), the Liberation of the People (Halkın Kurtuluşu), and the Revolutionary East Cultural Association (Devrimci Doğu Kültür Derneği, DDKD). Öcalan crushed not only violent groups but also peaceful Kurdish political parties, including Kemal Burkay's Kurdistan Socialist Party (Partîya Sosyalîsta Kurdîstan, PSK), ending the hope of many area Kurds for peaceful political action. He also targeted Kurds who identified with Turkey. In 1979, the PKK rose to national prominence when it assassinated Mehmet Celal Bucak, a well-known conservative Kurdish politician and a wealthy landowner in eastern Turkey. They condemned him as someone who "exploited the peasants." Bucak was the first of many, and the trend continues. On July 6, 2006, PKK members killed Hikmet Fidan, coordinator for the Patriotic Democratic Party (Partîya Welatparêzên Demokratên Kurdistan, PWD), a PKK splinter group based in northern Iraq that promoted nonviolent action for the Kurds.
Fourth, the PKK is dependent upon foreign patrons. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and their Syrian clients underwrote the group. Soviet agents trained PKK cadres in Damascus and Lebanon's Syrian-held Bekaa Valley. The PKK also received help from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. With the Cold War's collapse, Öcalan infused the Marxist component of PKK rhetoric with greater Kurdish nationalism and an Islamic patina that appealed to more conservative Kurds.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, the PKK turned to Greece and the Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq for safe-haven. The Greek government allowed PKK terrorists to infiltrate the Lavrion refugee camp outside Athens. The PKK has relied on a safe haven in northern Iraq since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lost control of the region after the 1991 uprising. Turkish cross-border operations into the safe haven diminished but could not eradicate the PKK presence, which enjoyed the patronage first of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as well as Saddam Hussein, and later—and, at present—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Iran's theocratic regime, diametrically opposed to Turkey's secular system, long saw the PKK as a useful tool to use against Turkey. Tehran allowed the PKK to maintain "about 1,200 of its members at around fifty locations in Iran."'
can't say i'm too bothered about his fourth point (both the great powers funded proxies in the Cold War, after all, and so on), but i leave it in my excerpt for the sake of completeness, and the details about Greece and Iran remain juicy.
The Kurdistan Workers Party members were charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. The PKK is banned in Turkey.
But the judge ruled that they should not be held in custody as they had returned of their own free will.
Others from the group who entered Turkey on Monday were released earlier.
The group was made up of both PKK fighters from their stronghold in Iraq's Qandil mountains, and refugees from the Makhmour camp south of Mosul...Monday's event - which Ankara calls a "surrender", but which the PKK insists was no such thing - was a calculated symbolic step by the Kurdish separatists to test the new conciliatory approach promised by the government, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul...How the rebels are treated now will be watched closely in Turkey as an indication of the government's willingness and its ability to deliver on its promise of leniency for those willing to give up the armed struggle, says our correspondent.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the jubilant scenes at the border were a sign of hope.
"How is it possible not to be hopeful when we look at those scenes on the border?" he asked MPs in parliament. "Good things are happening in Turkey."
Mr Erdogan has called for opposition support for a peace plan which he launched two months ago.
But he has not outlined what measures would be included in a peace package. Suggested proposals are said to include constitutional reform, greater concessions to Kurdish culture and possible amnesties.
obviously each conflict zone has its own specifics, and the analogy i am about to draw is very problematic (not least given the realities of some of the problems in the present day Balkans), but i was flashing on the optimistic side of Izetbegović's famous declaration when reading the above
To my people I say this may not be a just peace, but it is more just than a continuation of war. In the situation as it is and in the world as it is, a better peace could not have been achieved.
+
finally, we are allowed to be clear about the PKK. for instance, there's no denying the accuracy of the parts of the backgrounder i quote from Soner Cagaptay below:
'Too many diplomats and journalists accept PKK claims to represent Turkey's Kurds. They do not. To understand the PKK, it is important to understand the characteristics that have defined the group since Öcalan founded it as the National Liberation Army in 1973.
First, it is a cult of personality. PKK members and sympathizers call Öcalan "Apo," the Kurdish word for uncle. Öcalan consciously promotes this cult. "Everyone should take note of the way I live … The way I eat, the way I think, my orders, and even my inactivity should be carefully studied. There will be lessons to be learned from several generations because Apo is a great teacher," he told the Turkish Daily News in 1998. PKK members often refer to themselves as "Apocus" (Apoists), emphasizing Öcalan's central role in shaping the group's identity and destiny.
Second, the PKK holds true to Maoist ideology. In the 1970s, while studying at the prestigious Ankara School of Political Science (Mülkiye), Öcalan grew enamored of the Maoism embraced by many intellectuals at the time. Turkey's Marxist-Leninists he found too soft. He became persuaded that nothing around him was good enough because it was capitalist and imperialist. His politics reflected rural feudal values, rooted in his southeastern Turkey upbringing, and a Maoist obsession with the peasantry, which he developed in Ankara. He dropped out of the Mülkiye in 1978 and founded the PKK. The group "condemned the repressive exploitation of the Kurds" and called for a revolution to overthrow the system in Turkey. The PKK wanted to set up a "democratic and united Kurdistan" in southeastern Turkey to be governed along Marxist-Leninist lines. Since there was no working class in southeastern Turkey at the time―the area's population was split among majority peasants, minority landowners, and a small urban middle class―the fundamental force of the revolution would be a worker-peasant alliance. Under Öcalan's leadership, the peasantry would be the "main force" of the "popular army," providing Öcalan with an expandable manpower supply. Over time, more than 30,000 Kurdish peasants died as a result of this vision.
Third, the PKK seeks to monopolize the Kurdish nationalist struggle. Öcalan tolerated no other Kurdish leftist or nationalist groups operating in eastern Turkey, his area of operation. He branded all his Kurdish rivals fascists and acted to eliminate them. In the late 1970s, the PKK decimated the Revolutionary Unity of the People (Devrimci Halkın Birliği), the Liberation of the People (Halkın Kurtuluşu), and the Revolutionary East Cultural Association (Devrimci Doğu Kültür Derneği, DDKD). Öcalan crushed not only violent groups but also peaceful Kurdish political parties, including Kemal Burkay's Kurdistan Socialist Party (Partîya Sosyalîsta Kurdîstan, PSK), ending the hope of many area Kurds for peaceful political action. He also targeted Kurds who identified with Turkey. In 1979, the PKK rose to national prominence when it assassinated Mehmet Celal Bucak, a well-known conservative Kurdish politician and a wealthy landowner in eastern Turkey. They condemned him as someone who "exploited the peasants." Bucak was the first of many, and the trend continues. On July 6, 2006, PKK members killed Hikmet Fidan, coordinator for the Patriotic Democratic Party (Partîya Welatparêzên Demokratên Kurdistan, PWD), a PKK splinter group based in northern Iraq that promoted nonviolent action for the Kurds.
Fourth, the PKK is dependent upon foreign patrons. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and their Syrian clients underwrote the group. Soviet agents trained PKK cadres in Damascus and Lebanon's Syrian-held Bekaa Valley. The PKK also received help from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. With the Cold War's collapse, Öcalan infused the Marxist component of PKK rhetoric with greater Kurdish nationalism and an Islamic patina that appealed to more conservative Kurds.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, the PKK turned to Greece and the Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq for safe-haven. The Greek government allowed PKK terrorists to infiltrate the Lavrion refugee camp outside Athens. The PKK has relied on a safe haven in northern Iraq since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lost control of the region after the 1991 uprising. Turkish cross-border operations into the safe haven diminished but could not eradicate the PKK presence, which enjoyed the patronage first of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as well as Saddam Hussein, and later—and, at present—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Iran's theocratic regime, diametrically opposed to Turkey's secular system, long saw the PKK as a useful tool to use against Turkey. Tehran allowed the PKK to maintain "about 1,200 of its members at around fifty locations in Iran."'
can't say i'm too bothered about his fourth point (both the great powers funded proxies in the Cold War, after all, and so on), but i leave it in my excerpt for the sake of completeness, and the details about Greece and Iran remain juicy.
Michel Platini
Wikipedia: Platini was a member of the French national team that won the 1984 European Championship, a tournament in which he was voted the best player and top goalscorer. He participated in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, reaching the semi-finals in the latter two. Platini, Alain Giresse, Luis Fernández and Jean Tigana together made up the "carré magique" (French for "magic square"), the group of midfield players that formed the heart of the French national team throughout the 1980s. He is also widely regarded as one of the best passers in football history as well as one of history's greatest free kick specialists and finishers. He holds the record for most goals (9) scored in European Championship final tournaments despite only appearing in one such tournament (1984). Despite being a midfielder, he held the national team top scorer record until striker Thierry Henry surpassed the 41 goals mark in 2008.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Mark Dearn on Philippine abductions and disappearances
"Philippine human rights group Karapatan estimates that more than 900 activists, journalists, street children, petty thieves and outspoken clergy have been the victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings while the Arroyo regime has been in office...But to bring an end to the chains of impunity something more may be needed. The Arroyo regime is notable for its ‘trapos democracy' style of government, wherein it courts the historically powerful local clans, showing little care for a disenfranchised working class whose campaigners are often prominent victims of disappearances; little hope resides in change coming in this term of office."
in April, retired British diplomatic corps man Brian Barder rightly attacked Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid.
here's another smackdown, from Zambian Economist
here's another smackdown, from Zambian Economist
it's still rare to see on mainstream TV news, so Karen Allen is worth lauding here for her brutal Congolese report (i saw the half-hour repeat on BBC News 24 yesterday)
Benny's grimy garage 1999-2004 mix is absolutely astonishing
1. Ho/Endz mashup - White label
2. How Much Gal? - The Corrupted Cru feat. Mr Bigg$hot (Kronik records)
3. Bite Dem Up - Zed Bias/Sweetie Irie/Ms Dynamite/ Spee (Bigger Beat records)
4. Killahertz - Hazard (Heatseeker recordings)
5. Make it Easy (Davinche Remix) - Shystie feat. J2K & Crazy Titch (Network Music)
6. My Philosophy (Bounce) - Donae’o (Social Circles)
7. Course Bruv - Genius Cru (Kronik records)
8. 1999 - Groove Chronicles (DPR)
9. Live Life (Time to get rowdy) (Steppers mix)- Brasstooth feat. MC Lethal (Well Built records)
10. Sweeter than wine (Bump ‘N’ Flex Vocal Dub Mix) - Dionne Rakeem (Pure Silk)
11. Bad Boy - Bad Boy (Big Apple records)
12. Case of the Ex (Sovereign Remix) - Mya (Interscope)
13. Rose in my garden (Black Rose mix) - Sovereign feat. Specialist Moss (Bigger Beat records)
14. Love Come Down (Dub mix) - AC Burrell feat. Harmanii Rae (Pure Silk)
some of the sounds on it are remarkable.
1. Ho/Endz mashup - White label
2. How Much Gal? - The Corrupted Cru feat. Mr Bigg$hot (Kronik records)
3. Bite Dem Up - Zed Bias/Sweetie Irie/Ms Dynamite/ Spee (Bigger Beat records)
4. Killahertz - Hazard (Heatseeker recordings)
5. Make it Easy (Davinche Remix) - Shystie feat. J2K & Crazy Titch (Network Music)
6. My Philosophy (Bounce) - Donae’o (Social Circles)
7. Course Bruv - Genius Cru (Kronik records)
8. 1999 - Groove Chronicles (DPR)
9. Live Life (Time to get rowdy) (Steppers mix)- Brasstooth feat. MC Lethal (Well Built records)
10. Sweeter than wine (Bump ‘N’ Flex Vocal Dub Mix) - Dionne Rakeem (Pure Silk)
11. Bad Boy - Bad Boy (Big Apple records)
12. Case of the Ex (Sovereign Remix) - Mya (Interscope)
13. Rose in my garden (Black Rose mix) - Sovereign feat. Specialist Moss (Bigger Beat records)
14. Love Come Down (Dub mix) - AC Burrell feat. Harmanii Rae (Pure Silk)
some of the sounds on it are remarkable.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
"When the State Department threatened to forcibly assign U.S. Foreign Service personnel to Iraq in late 2007, many diplomats read about it in the press before hearing about it from their superiors. The rank and file were irate. On October 30, 2007, the director general of the Foreign Service, several hundred employees, and union representatives held a meeting that quickly degenerated into a shouting match. A journalist's surreptitious recording of the gathering was widely publicized soon afterward, conjuring up an image of disloyal, cowardly diplomats, which stood in stark contrast to that of brave soldiers protecting the United States abroad. By stripping away the complex and highly political context surrounding the presence of civilian government officials in Iraq, the media made Foreign Service officers (FSOs) appear unreasonable and unwilling to serve.
In fact, the Bush administration had effectively engineered the dispute in an effort to publicly embarrass the diplomatic corps."
In fact, the Bush administration had effectively engineered the dispute in an effort to publicly embarrass the diplomatic corps."
the current bitterlemons-international focuses on Yemen. good stuff.
"Absent urgent regional or international intervention, Yemen is on a course leading to the potential collapse of Saleh's government or the country's partitioning into autonomous zones run by non-state actors."
here
"Absent urgent regional or international intervention, Yemen is on a course leading to the potential collapse of Saleh's government or the country's partitioning into autonomous zones run by non-state actors."
here
how super that my mate Vim has started blogging again.
his splendid post 'Castro's Legacy' remains a brilliant discussion of its subject
his splendid post 'Castro's Legacy' remains a brilliant discussion of its subject
"Chief executive Adam Crozier has been awarded a total of £2.4m in performance bonuses since arriving at the company in 2003. The figure boosted his £3.6m salary over the period by two-thirds – but it does not include a series of further perks that have added millions to his pay package during his time at the troubled company...The Royal Mail caused uproar last year when it revealed that Mr Crozier received a package worth more than £3m – about 180 times a typical postman's salary – at a time when he was pushing to close 2,500 post offices."
in other words, Mr Crozier (who was a tosser when he was at the Football Association and - surprise surprise! - is a tosser at the Royal Mail) is regarded as as worthwhile as one hundred and eighty postal workers, you know, the people that get up early in the morning, break their back grafting around the country's lanes and estates, are dictated to by tinpot management, and all for a meagre salary. Crozier, incidentally, has a pension that is safe as houses, which is more than can be said for a lot of Mail staff.
so, in summary, the people that do all the fucking work get shafted, whilst the top bosses let poor middle-management saps carry out their whimsical diktats, as those same top bosses continue to line their pockets whilst driving down personal customer standards in a relentless search for profit.
this pseudonymous postie diary (via Owen) is very good, and the author also has a blog, Going Postal
the vermin Tory press will doubtless be going on the attack over postal employees in the coming days and weeks, so it is of some comfort to know that anyone with a brain will ignore their poisonous garbage.
in other words, Mr Crozier (who was a tosser when he was at the Football Association and - surprise surprise! - is a tosser at the Royal Mail) is regarded as as worthwhile as one hundred and eighty postal workers, you know, the people that get up early in the morning, break their back grafting around the country's lanes and estates, are dictated to by tinpot management, and all for a meagre salary. Crozier, incidentally, has a pension that is safe as houses, which is more than can be said for a lot of Mail staff.
so, in summary, the people that do all the fucking work get shafted, whilst the top bosses let poor middle-management saps carry out their whimsical diktats, as those same top bosses continue to line their pockets whilst driving down personal customer standards in a relentless search for profit.
this pseudonymous postie diary (via Owen) is very good, and the author also has a blog, Going Postal
the vermin Tory press will doubtless be going on the attack over postal employees in the coming days and weeks, so it is of some comfort to know that anyone with a brain will ignore their poisonous garbage.
I was with (Bobby) Charlton, (Denis) Law and Puskás, we were coaching
in a football academy in Australia. The youngsters we were coaching did
not respect him including making fun of his weight and age...We decided
to let the guys challenge a coach to hit the crossbar 10 times in a row,
obviously they picked the old fat one. Law asked the kids how many they
thought the old fat coach would get out of ten. Most said less than
five. I said ten. The old fat coach stepped up and hit nine in a row.
For the tenth shot he scooped the ball in the air, bounced it off both
shoulders and his head, then flicked it over with his heel and cannoned
the ball off the crossbar on the volley. They all stood in silence then
one kid asked who he was, I replied, to you, his name is Mr. Puskás.
- George Best
in a football academy in Australia. The youngsters we were coaching did
not respect him including making fun of his weight and age...We decided
to let the guys challenge a coach to hit the crossbar 10 times in a row,
obviously they picked the old fat one. Law asked the kids how many they
thought the old fat coach would get out of ten. Most said less than
five. I said ten. The old fat coach stepped up and hit nine in a row.
For the tenth shot he scooped the ball in the air, bounced it off both
shoulders and his head, then flicked it over with his heel and cannoned
the ball off the crossbar on the volley. They all stood in silence then
one kid asked who he was, I replied, to you, his name is Mr. Puskás.
- George Best
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Friday, 9 October 2009
"A witness at a local hospital told the Associated Press news agency that he had seen the vehicle explode.
"I saw a blood-soaked leg landing close to me," he said. "I understood for the first time in my life what a doomsday would look like."
Witnesses also described how bystanders desperately tried to free survivors trapped in vehicles overturned by the force of the explosion."
"I saw a blood-soaked leg landing close to me," he said. "I understood for the first time in my life what a doomsday would look like."
Witnesses also described how bystanders desperately tried to free survivors trapped in vehicles overturned by the force of the explosion."
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
thankfully, Kostas Karamanlis has been unseated in Greece, w a big swing against the New Democracy party.
this is by far the best thing to happen in Greek political life for a long time.
obviously, there is no such thing as a magic bullet in this world, but this is a start.
this is by far the best thing to happen in Greek political life for a long time.
obviously, there is no such thing as a magic bullet in this world, but this is a start.
from BBC News online this morning
The Pakistani Taliban have said they launched Monday's attack on the UN World Food Programme offices in the capital Islamabad, killing five people.
A Taliban spokesman said the international agency had been targeted because its work was "not in the interest of Muslims"...The Taliban spokesman who called himself Azam Tariq said that the UN and foreign aid agencies were "infidels" promoting an American agenda.
The group has been behind a series of recent attacks.
Last week, at least 16 people died in two suicide car bomb attacks in north-western Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban have said they launched Monday's attack on the UN World Food Programme offices in the capital Islamabad, killing five people.
A Taliban spokesman said the international agency had been targeted because its work was "not in the interest of Muslims"...The Taliban spokesman who called himself Azam Tariq said that the UN and foreign aid agencies were "infidels" promoting an American agenda.
The group has been behind a series of recent attacks.
Last week, at least 16 people died in two suicide car bomb attacks in north-western Pakistan.
"What makes you think he's my friend? He's not my friend This is a copy of his registration, license, photo and all. Are you sure you want this? Have I told you what this man did? Yes. That's a test? Where were you guys when I did my CPA? Ah! What the fuck?! Yeah? Test this you fucking quack. So will you remember me next time you see me? I think you will. Natalie, right? Who the fuck is Dodd? Guess I don't have to worry about him anymore. Who is he? What have you got me into? His name was Jimmy. What happened? He went to meet somebody and didn't come back. Who did he go to meet? A guy called Teddy. What do the police think? They don't look too hard for guys like Jimmy. No pens here, I'm afraid. You're never going to know that I called you a retard, and your wife a whore. Don't say another fucking word! Venereal disease. Maybe your cunt of a wife sucked one too many diseased cocks and turned you into a retard. Leonard? Make him beg. Hey, where are you going? You know what time it is? It's beer o'clock. And I'm buying."
Foust channels Strand to speculate on Nuristan
In 2007, according to ethnolinguist Richard Strand, al Qaeda began a “major strategic thrust toward Afghanistan’s capital” by increasing its presence in Nuristan. Prior to 2007, Nuristan was mostly the domain of Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin, and the two groups rarely worked together (HiG militants thought al Qaeda too extreme). Strand estimated the number of militants in the low hundreds, with supply backers in Pakistan, most likely Chitral.
the Treach Battle b-side of this is immense, deceptively simple but legendary. not a massive Shadow fan although of course i was well into the debut at the time, but hey, have at ya
the Treach Battle b-side of this is immense, deceptively simple but legendary. not a massive Shadow fan although of course i was well into the debut at the time, but hey, have at ya
Monday, 5 October 2009
Coatesy has some interesting stuff on the man David Cameron has asked to think outside the box re welfare reform.
Baron Freud (for it is he) is a mover and shaker.
money central passage from Tendance Towers
David Baron Freud’s ‘expertise’ on welfare is nill. What has he done in his life? Well, he was a public schoolboy. He went to Oxford. Worked at the Financial Times. He then swanned around advising on financial deals, pilfering and making a mess of things.
A general outline of his knowledge of welfare issues: [].
“His involvement in raising £50bn ($72bn) during some of the biggest deals of the 1980s and 1990s made him a wealthy man – yet he continues to cycle to work, swim regularly in Hampstead Heath’s ponds and conduct his business in functional off-the-peg suits.”
Mistakes he has made in his career include [],
He moved into advising companies, and was involved in piecing together extremely complex deals such as the flotations of Eurotunnel and EuroDisney, which cost investors millions, and the financing of the Channel Tunnel rail link. Eurotunnel opened in May 1994 one year behind schedule and £2bn ($2.9bn) over budget. Sir David later admitted the deal was a “shambles” and that he had “successfully sold the market a pup”.But his chutzpah meant his career was not held back.Hauled before furious MPs to explain the mispricing of Railtrack, he was subsequently appointed an advisor to the government on its successor, Network Rail.
all here, plus more besides at the main page.
meanwhile, Nick Cohen recently took a look at Baron Ashcroft.
he's an effective (if seedy) kitty for the Tories, for sure, but some of the fine print about the extent to which he's enmeshed in the Belizean economy is very disturbing.
Baron Freud (for it is he) is a mover and shaker.
money central passage from Tendance Towers
A general outline of his knowledge of welfare issues: [].
“His involvement in raising £50bn ($72bn) during some of the biggest deals of the 1980s and 1990s made him a wealthy man – yet he continues to cycle to work, swim regularly in Hampstead Heath’s ponds and conduct his business in functional off-the-peg suits.”
Mistakes he has made in his career include [],
He moved into advising companies, and was involved in piecing together extremely complex deals such as the flotations of Eurotunnel and EuroDisney, which cost investors millions, and the financing of the Channel Tunnel rail link. Eurotunnel opened in May 1994 one year behind schedule and £2bn ($2.9bn) over budget. Sir David later admitted the deal was a “shambles” and that he had “successfully sold the market a pup”.But his chutzpah meant his career was not held back.Hauled before furious MPs to explain the mispricing of Railtrack, he was subsequently appointed an advisor to the government on its successor, Network Rail.
all here, plus more besides at the main page.
meanwhile, Nick Cohen recently took a look at Baron Ashcroft.
he's an effective (if seedy) kitty for the Tories, for sure, but some of the fine print about the extent to which he's enmeshed in the Belizean economy is very disturbing.
Paul Anderson takes a first look at the new New Statesman for his Tribune column.
it's very good that he got in the extremely correct observation "no one who publishes Neil Clark, an apologist for Slobodan Milosevic, can be taken seriously".
it's very good that he got in the extremely correct observation "no one who publishes Neil Clark, an apologist for Slobodan Milosevic, can be taken seriously".
Sunday, 4 October 2009
it really makes me laugh how omnipresent Frederic Robinson brewery is in the Stockport area (i mean, it's a good thing the town has a major independent cask ale brewery, as well as at least one micro-brewery incidentally: the 3 Rivers brewery), just in terms of i've been procrastinating on that Stockport Pub Guide site added to the links bar, and it's corking stuff, there's some drily hilarious phrases.
divided into the various areas across the wider Stockport sprawl, the entry for the Great Moor neighbourhood starts - quite brilliantly - with the warning "Community straddling the busy A6 between Stockport and Hazel Grove. If you don't like Robbies' you have to get on the bus."
divided into the various areas across the wider Stockport sprawl, the entry for the Great Moor neighbourhood starts - quite brilliantly - with the warning "Community straddling the busy A6 between Stockport and Hazel Grove. If you don't like Robbies' you have to get on the bus."
Sunday morning on C-SPAN
Scott Ritter - doing so well talking about possible Iranian nuclear developments in a measured and sensible way, and fairly analysing American impulses re this etc - has just gone majorly, majorly downhill, and started talking minimising, apologetic (and in some cases downright inaccurate) shite about certain elements in Iran, wrt their views on Israel.
oh Scott.
Scott Ritter - doing so well talking about possible Iranian nuclear developments in a measured and sensible way, and fairly analysing American impulses re this etc - has just gone majorly, majorly downhill, and started talking minimising, apologetic (and in some cases downright inaccurate) shite about certain elements in Iran, wrt their views on Israel.
oh Scott.
"The Saturdays' Saturday Night...
...Party Top 50. Vanessa, Una, Mollie, Rochelle & Frankie take you through the Saturday of all Saturdays as they give us their soundtrack to the perfect Saturday night party!"
can i say i watched/listened to the above programme on British music channel TMF (a subsid of MTV) earlier today and by jove it was freaking awesome
...Party Top 50. Vanessa, Una, Mollie, Rochelle & Frankie take you through the Saturday of all Saturdays as they give us their soundtrack to the perfect Saturday night party!"
can i say i watched/listened to the above programme on British music channel TMF (a subsid of MTV) earlier today and by jove it was freaking awesome
Saturday, 3 October 2009
i am a little uncomfortable w his (too monolithic, too imprecise, not politically correct enough for me at the very least, to be blunt; something like 'first generation immigrants from Muslim-majority states' would clearly be less snappy, to be fair) usage of "Muslim" in the penultimate paragraph (though his "population of alienated Muslims" following that is clearly accurate), but this June 2005 Peter Bergen article on The Power of Nightmares is definitely worth a read.
also on same, and as equally deserving of attention, is David Aaronovitch, writing in late 2004.
"September 30, 2009 (BOR) – Authorities in Twic East County say villagers are fleeing the area following rumors of a new attack from the Lou Nuer who had already attacked the same locality last month.
Armed men from the Lou Nuer in Jonglei on Twic East on August 28 killed 40 people, also more that 160 people were killed by the same tribal elements in another attack on Dok Padiet on September 20.
Southern Sudan officials were alarmed by the escalation of violence in Jonglei. Following a visit to the affected area, the southern Sudan interior minister, Jonglei governor and UN coordinator for the semi-autonomous region agreed they attack had been directed to the government forces and institutions. They all also spoke about a structured and heavily armed militia.
However following the attack, Lou Nuer dismissed the emergence of an organized militia in the area accusing the southern Sudan and Jonglei authorities of taking Dinka’s side. They further said by the attack had been carried out by angry armed civilians who decided to take the law into their own hands as a result of their unresolved grievances that accumulated since 2006.
The southern Sudan army deployed an additional battalion of some 700 soldiers in the area to prevent further escalation of the situation there.
Twic East Commissioner Diing Akol Diing says days are being counted down for possible attack and "there is general fear." Unconfirmed reports claim the Lou Nuer armed men gave 9 days ultimatum to Twic East citizens in Panyagoor to prepare for war or quit.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune by phone from Panyagoor, Twic East headquarters, Mr. Akol says the situation is tense and there is uncertainty about security situation."
Armed men from the Lou Nuer in Jonglei on Twic East on August 28 killed 40 people, also more that 160 people were killed by the same tribal elements in another attack on Dok Padiet on September 20.
Southern Sudan officials were alarmed by the escalation of violence in Jonglei. Following a visit to the affected area, the southern Sudan interior minister, Jonglei governor and UN coordinator for the semi-autonomous region agreed they attack had been directed to the government forces and institutions. They all also spoke about a structured and heavily armed militia.
However following the attack, Lou Nuer dismissed the emergence of an organized militia in the area accusing the southern Sudan and Jonglei authorities of taking Dinka’s side. They further said by the attack had been carried out by angry armed civilians who decided to take the law into their own hands as a result of their unresolved grievances that accumulated since 2006.
The southern Sudan army deployed an additional battalion of some 700 soldiers in the area to prevent further escalation of the situation there.
Twic East Commissioner Diing Akol Diing says days are being counted down for possible attack and "there is general fear." Unconfirmed reports claim the Lou Nuer armed men gave 9 days ultimatum to Twic East citizens in Panyagoor to prepare for war or quit.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune by phone from Panyagoor, Twic East headquarters, Mr. Akol says the situation is tense and there is uncertainty about security situation."
Friday, 2 October 2009
re celebrities who i have a high opinion of, Lucy Cavendish interviewed Emmanuelle Béart for the Sunday Telegraph recently, and we all know the woman has a good attitude in defence of immigrants etc in her native France, anyway the final paragraph (Cavendish wrote the woman's English pronunciation as follows, so, eh, whatever!)
Before she leaves I ask her if she is still politically motivated. She worked for 10 years as a UN ambassador and has marched against France’s right-wing government, protesting over legislation that decreed all landlords must declare foreign lodgers. 'Of course I am political,’ she says, opening her eyes wide. 'You ’ave to be don’t you? Every day it is about your future, your right to that future. ’Ow can people ignore this? We ’ave to leave a good world for our children, n’est-ce pas?’
what an utter piece of nonsense that proposed legislation is/was!
racaille indeed.
Before she leaves I ask her if she is still politically motivated. She worked for 10 years as a UN ambassador and has marched against France’s right-wing government, protesting over legislation that decreed all landlords must declare foreign lodgers. 'Of course I am political,’ she says, opening her eyes wide. 'You ’ave to be don’t you? Every day it is about your future, your right to that future. ’Ow can people ignore this? We ’ave to leave a good world for our children, n’est-ce pas?’
what an utter piece of nonsense that proposed legislation is/was!
racaille indeed.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Jamie Oliver's programme in which he goes around the USA (he ate Mexican food in LA, cooked outside in New Orleans, apparently went ranching on the High Plains but i missed that, and he is in the 'Deep South' tonight as i write).
anyway.
Jamie is going up in my estimation all the time catching this (i liked him before anyway), he is really humane and dwells on politics. for instance meeting reformed gang bangers in Los Angeles, he had some really touching (and sensible, from the structural point of view) thoughts to camera afterward.
a white person just said "n*****" in his presence of an evening when he was hanging out with some folks, and the morning after Jamie is talking to the camera in his rented gaff (or wherever he is), and you can tell he is really, deeply, deeply troubled by it (like his voice is almost breaking).
at the time it happened he just froze or something and remarked on the voice-over he decided to get out of the place ASAP.
he's just said he's in Savannah, GA, incidentally. (of course his friend at the caff the next day - a black woman - tells him in gentle terms to expect that.)
he is cooking bacon, meatballs, collard greens, grits, and shrimps.
anyway.
Jamie is going up in my estimation all the time catching this (i liked him before anyway), he is really humane and dwells on politics. for instance meeting reformed gang bangers in Los Angeles, he had some really touching (and sensible, from the structural point of view) thoughts to camera afterward.
a white person just said "n*****" in his presence of an evening when he was hanging out with some folks, and the morning after Jamie is talking to the camera in his rented gaff (or wherever he is), and you can tell he is really, deeply, deeply troubled by it (like his voice is almost breaking).
at the time it happened he just froze or something and remarked on the voice-over he decided to get out of the place ASAP.
he's just said he's in Savannah, GA, incidentally. (of course his friend at the caff the next day - a black woman - tells him in gentle terms to expect that.)
he is cooking bacon, meatballs, collard greens, grits, and shrimps.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
hellish moments in the sun
you might think this Colin Freeman piece from a couple of weeks ago, about the Dadis Show, drugs, and Guinea, could do with less viewing of the country through the prism of European coke, and maybe you'd be right, but Freeman does not minimise the desperately sad details he notches
while there is a railway for bauxite, no trains for people have run since 1995..."We appreciate his approach against drug trafficking and corruption, but we all want a civilian to come to power and for free and fair elections, not a soldier, because we know the international community will only support a civilian," said Mr Ibrahim.
Diallo Abdullah, 30, who bears a bullet wound in his stomach from the 2007 crackdown, added: "If he doesn't hold elections as he promised, people will take to the streets again, and I fear it will be bloody."
you might think this Colin Freeman piece from a couple of weeks ago, about the Dadis Show, drugs, and Guinea, could do with less viewing of the country through the prism of European coke, and maybe you'd be right, but Freeman does not minimise the desperately sad details he notches
while there is a railway for bauxite, no trains for people have run since 1995..."We appreciate his approach against drug trafficking and corruption, but we all want a civilian to come to power and for free and fair elections, not a soldier, because we know the international community will only support a civilian," said Mr Ibrahim.
Diallo Abdullah, 30, who bears a bullet wound in his stomach from the 2007 crackdown, added: "If he doesn't hold elections as he promised, people will take to the streets again, and I fear it will be bloody."
Monday, 28 September 2009
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Friday, 25 September 2009
ARCHIVE WATCH
k-punk on the splendid Burial debut album
that magnificent cover photo! apparently it's "an aerial view of south London around the area of Wandsworth Prison and the intersection of Trinity Road and Windmill Road"
k-punk on the splendid Burial debut album
that magnificent cover photo! apparently it's "an aerial view of south London around the area of Wandsworth Prison and the intersection of Trinity Road and Windmill Road"
Thursday, 24 September 2009
'Members of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), army, military police and police unlawfully arrested and detained suspected opponents of the government. Among those unlawfully held were human rights defenders, journalists, former security personnel and opposition leaders. At least two journalists were forced to flee the country. Three judges were unconstitutionally removed by the President and then later reinstated. The government ignored a ruling by a regional court to release the missing journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh.
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES AND UNLAWFUL KILLINGS
In July the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (CCJ) ordered the Gambian government to release Chief Ebrima Manneh, a former reporter from the Daily Observer arrested in 2006, and pay him US$100,000. The government ignored the ruling and continued to deny that he was in their custody.
The fate of Kanyiba Kanyie, an opposition supporter arrested in September 2006, remained unknown as the government continued to deny knowledge of his whereabouts. A former detainee who was held with Kanyiba Kanyie in Mile 2 prison in 2007 stated that he was released in early 2007, but there was no further news of him.
Six other people remained disappeared, and it was feared that they may have been extrajudicially executed. They were Momodou Lamin Nyassi, Ndongo Mboob and Buba Sanyang, arrested in 2006, and Marcia Jammeh, Haruna Jammeh and Jisacha Kujabi, arrested in 2005.
"...President Yahya Jammeh threatened to expel or kill lesbian and gay people..."
There was no investigation during 2008 into the fate of five men, including former NIA Director General Daba Marena, initially arrested in connection with the March 2006 foiled coup plot. The men were alleged to have escaped during a prison transfer in April 2006. It was suspected that they had been extrajudicially executed.
ECOWAS and the UN formed a team to investigate the deaths of 55 foreigners allegedly killed unlawfully by Gambian security forces in 2005. The victims were 40 Ghanaians, 10 Nigerians, two Senegalese, one Togolese, one Congolese and one Ivorian. No results emerged by the end of 2008 and no suspects were brought to justice.'
- from the introduction and first section of the same publication's Republic of the Gambia section
+
The Gambia
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$1,300 (2008 est.)
The UK
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$36,500 (2008 est.)
(source for both figures above: CIA World Factbook)
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES AND UNLAWFUL KILLINGS
In July the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (CCJ) ordered the Gambian government to release Chief Ebrima Manneh, a former reporter from the Daily Observer arrested in 2006, and pay him US$100,000. The government ignored the ruling and continued to deny that he was in their custody.
The fate of Kanyiba Kanyie, an opposition supporter arrested in September 2006, remained unknown as the government continued to deny knowledge of his whereabouts. A former detainee who was held with Kanyiba Kanyie in Mile 2 prison in 2007 stated that he was released in early 2007, but there was no further news of him.
Six other people remained disappeared, and it was feared that they may have been extrajudicially executed. They were Momodou Lamin Nyassi, Ndongo Mboob and Buba Sanyang, arrested in 2006, and Marcia Jammeh, Haruna Jammeh and Jisacha Kujabi, arrested in 2005.
"...President Yahya Jammeh threatened to expel or kill lesbian and gay people..."
There was no investigation during 2008 into the fate of five men, including former NIA Director General Daba Marena, initially arrested in connection with the March 2006 foiled coup plot. The men were alleged to have escaped during a prison transfer in April 2006. It was suspected that they had been extrajudicially executed.
ECOWAS and the UN formed a team to investigate the deaths of 55 foreigners allegedly killed unlawfully by Gambian security forces in 2005. The victims were 40 Ghanaians, 10 Nigerians, two Senegalese, one Togolese, one Congolese and one Ivorian. No results emerged by the end of 2008 and no suspects were brought to justice.'
- from the introduction and first section of the same publication's Republic of the Gambia section
+
The Gambia
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$1,300 (2008 est.)
The UK
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$36,500 (2008 est.)
(source for both figures above: CIA World Factbook)
- from the introduction to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia section in Amnesty's 2009 world report
"There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of movement, no freedom of worship, and much of the adult male and female population is conscripted into indefinite national service where they receive a token wage. Dissent is not tolerated. Any criticism or questioning of government policy is ruthlessly punished. Detention, torture and forced labour await anyone who disagrees with the government, anyone who attempts to avoid military service or flee the country without permission, and anyone found practising or suspected of practising faiths the government does not sanction."
This is a tragedy not just for the 4 million people who live in Eritrea (and the many who have fled, because despite its size it is a leading source of refugees) but for everyone who championed the Eritrean cause during its great struggle for freedom.
- from The Guardian editorial,
Eritrea: The world's biggest prison, Friday 17 April 2009
'EIGHT illegal immigrants arrested at the MediaCity building site in Salford have been jailed.
The group of Africans had been working as labourers at the Salford Quays project.
They were charged with using false documents, thought to be passports, which they used to deceive their employer.
The men were arrested this month during a UK Border Agency operation carried out with the co-operation of Connolly Construction, which employed the men.
The firm will face no further action.
The group consisted of one Gambian, four Ethiopians and three Eritreans.
They are: Abdulie Maki Mbye, 48, of Horstead Walk, Levenshulme; Alemseged Gebremeskel, 49, of Tyldesley Street, Moss Side; Seifu Wondeyohannes, 28, of Waterloo Road, Cheetham Hill; Abdoo Rashid Shuukuur, 33, of St George's Court, Hulme; Johnson Ogbazghi, 38, of Romney Street, Salford; and Bahta Haile, 43, Zelalem Asebha, 23, and Elias Fithamik, 28, all of no fixed address.'
"Why has the MEN printed their names when they have no way of proving who these men actually are? I know local lads who are out of work and couldnt get on this site. Its disgusting that companies like this are getting away with it, on a JIB site aswell. TUT TUT TUT."
"Theowolfe is obviously a member of NuLabour or some other International Socialist group of Communists.....why else would be write such nonsense as make illegal immigration legal? Tip of the iceberg just to kid Brits on that the Government is acting 'tough'!"
"This is the project that boasted it was creating thousands of jobs for local people. I know they say the world is shrinking but Ethiopia is not on the Metro route as far as I know."
"yawn! yet more wasting of tax payers money! why cant we adopt a stricter policy on illegals? they are a drain on our system. watching the news on the french jungle camp all the refugees want to come here because we have human rights laws that protect them more than they protect the actual people from that country! if we keep on allowing this we'll end up in a third world country ourselves."
"Just get them out of the country that way it won't cost us anything and then start checking other sites and establishments in the city. Or better still just have spot checks on the 219 bus route."
"Why imprison them in the UK at the tax payers expense and THEN deport them. deport them no, straight away"
Connolly Group was established in 1981 and has developed from the demolition and reclamation experience.
Key Projects are divided by region. Dark blue regions show where Connolly CF have been working. Use the map to navigate your way around the various regions of the UK.
England North West
Media City
Client: Bovis Lend Lease
Scope: Site Logistics, Waste Management, Delivery Management, Operative Supply and Security
Abito 2
Client: Carillion Building
Scope: Waste Management
Blackpool Football Club
Client: Blackpool Football Club
Scope: Demolition
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Cient: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Waste Management
Liverpool St Paul's Square
Client: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Waste Management
Liverpool Airport
Client: Peel Holdings
Scope: Demolition
Manchester United Football Ground
Client: Birse Construction
Scope: Demolition
Manchester Olives Paper Mill
Client: Persimmon Homes
Scope: Demolition
Rawtenstall ASDA
Client: Laing O'Rourke
Scope: Demolition
Oldham - Rose Mill
Scope: Demolition
Manchester Green Quarter
Client: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Operative Supply and Waste Management
three of the blokes no fixed abode.
no fixed abode.
Europe 1 Africa nil.
CCF are constantly on the look out for talented professionals.
The group of Africans had been working as labourers at the Salford Quays project.
They were charged with using false documents, thought to be passports, which they used to deceive their employer.
The men were arrested this month during a UK Border Agency operation carried out with the co-operation of Connolly Construction, which employed the men.
The firm will face no further action.
The group consisted of one Gambian, four Ethiopians and three Eritreans.
They are: Abdulie Maki Mbye, 48, of Horstead Walk, Levenshulme; Alemseged Gebremeskel, 49, of Tyldesley Street, Moss Side; Seifu Wondeyohannes, 28, of Waterloo Road, Cheetham Hill; Abdoo Rashid Shuukuur, 33, of St George's Court, Hulme; Johnson Ogbazghi, 38, of Romney Street, Salford; and Bahta Haile, 43, Zelalem Asebha, 23, and Elias Fithamik, 28, all of no fixed address.'
"Why has the MEN printed their names when they have no way of proving who these men actually are? I know local lads who are out of work and couldnt get on this site. Its disgusting that companies like this are getting away with it, on a JIB site aswell. TUT TUT TUT."
"Theowolfe is obviously a member of NuLabour or some other International Socialist group of Communists.....why else would be write such nonsense as make illegal immigration legal? Tip of the iceberg just to kid Brits on that the Government is acting 'tough'!"
"This is the project that boasted it was creating thousands of jobs for local people. I know they say the world is shrinking but Ethiopia is not on the Metro route as far as I know."
"yawn! yet more wasting of tax payers money! why cant we adopt a stricter policy on illegals? they are a drain on our system. watching the news on the french jungle camp all the refugees want to come here because we have human rights laws that protect them more than they protect the actual people from that country! if we keep on allowing this we'll end up in a third world country ourselves."
"Just get them out of the country that way it won't cost us anything and then start checking other sites and establishments in the city. Or better still just have spot checks on the 219 bus route."
"Why imprison them in the UK at the tax payers expense and THEN deport them. deport them no, straight away"
Connolly Group was established in 1981 and has developed from the demolition and reclamation experience.
Key Projects are divided by region. Dark blue regions show where Connolly CF have been working. Use the map to navigate your way around the various regions of the UK.
England North West
Media City
Client: Bovis Lend Lease
Scope: Site Logistics, Waste Management, Delivery Management, Operative Supply and Security
Abito 2
Client: Carillion Building
Scope: Waste Management
Blackpool Football Club
Client: Blackpool Football Club
Scope: Demolition
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Cient: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Waste Management
Liverpool St Paul's Square
Client: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Waste Management
Liverpool Airport
Client: Peel Holdings
Scope: Demolition
Manchester United Football Ground
Client: Birse Construction
Scope: Demolition
Manchester Olives Paper Mill
Client: Persimmon Homes
Scope: Demolition
Rawtenstall ASDA
Client: Laing O'Rourke
Scope: Demolition
Oldham - Rose Mill
Scope: Demolition
Manchester Green Quarter
Client: Shepherd Construction
Scope: Operative Supply and Waste Management
three of the blokes no fixed abode.
no fixed abode.
Europe 1 Africa nil.
CCF are constantly on the look out for talented professionals.
Coalition deaths in Afghanistan
(source: the Daily Express, 24th Sept '09 morning edition, so obviously only as current as its publication date)
i shouldn't have to say this but just to make it patently plain that i am not an utter cock, yes, the above figures don't include ISAF troops who have been injured (appalling injuries that may affect people for the rest of their lives and entirely alter the nature of the rest of their life), the above figures don't include ANA troops, indeed and verily the above figures don't include insurgents, the above figures don't include Afghan authority figures and employees such as police officers (i realise i may now be sounding like the worst kind of obvious dullard, some bizarre sixth-form moralist or such), the above figures don't include civilians or contractors working to build up Afghan institutions, be they locals or foreigners, the above table most importantly doesn't include any reckoning of all the humanitarians and Afghan people who have been killed, injured, affected, since the invasion of Afghanistan and overthrow of you know who, but, it is a table of - at time of writing - the amount of ISAF troops who have died in that mission, and that is what it is, an unadorned list of the numbers of human beings who have been killed because they signed up to ISAF, including a cursory 'other nations' reference that does not tell you anything about the, at time of posting, two South Korean troop deaths, the one Belgian soldier dead, the one Finn dead and the one Lithuanian national dead
FORCE SIZE FATALITIES
USA 103,000 835
UK 9,000 217
Canada 2,800 130
Germany 4,050 38
France 3,160 31
Denmark 700 27
Spain 780 25
Italy 2,795 21
Netherlands 1,770 21
Poland 2,000 13
Australia 1,090 11
Romania 1,025 11
Estonia 150 6
Norway 485 4
Czech Republic 340 3
Latvia 165 3
Hungary 310 2
Portugal 90 2
Sweden 430 2
Turkey 730 2
Other nations 820 5
TOTAL 135,690 1,409
(source: the Daily Express, 24th Sept '09 morning edition, so obviously only as current as its publication date)
i shouldn't have to say this but just to make it patently plain that i am not an utter cock, yes, the above figures don't include ISAF troops who have been injured (appalling injuries that may affect people for the rest of their lives and entirely alter the nature of the rest of their life), the above figures don't include ANA troops, indeed and verily the above figures don't include insurgents, the above figures don't include Afghan authority figures and employees such as police officers (i realise i may now be sounding like the worst kind of obvious dullard, some bizarre sixth-form moralist or such), the above figures don't include civilians or contractors working to build up Afghan institutions, be they locals or foreigners, the above table most importantly doesn't include any reckoning of all the humanitarians and Afghan people who have been killed, injured, affected, since the invasion of Afghanistan and overthrow of you know who, but, it is a table of - at time of writing - the amount of ISAF troops who have died in that mission, and that is what it is, an unadorned list of the numbers of human beings who have been killed because they signed up to ISAF, including a cursory 'other nations' reference that does not tell you anything about the, at time of posting, two South Korean troop deaths, the one Belgian soldier dead, the one Finn dead and the one Lithuanian national dead
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
"Q: Do the family have Irish citizenship?
A: In 1990, Khalid Bin Mahfouz availed himself of the opportunity under the laws of the Republic of Ireland to obtain Irish citizenship for himself and other members of his family."
from the Other Issues section of the FAQs of the Bin Mahfouz Information website: This Bin Mahfouz information site is designed to provide accurate information for accredited journalists, governments and NGOs about Khalid Bin Mahfouz and his immediate family.
(page accessed 14:26 GMT 23 September 2009 *)
'Though Bin Mahfouz sought to protect his "reputation" in the English courts, he was not English. Nor was he a Saudi. In 1990 he had bought Irish passports for himself and 10 members of his family over lunch at the Shelbourne hotel in Dublin with the then Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey.'
from the 'Ratbiter' column in Private Eye, no. 1245, 18 September - 1 Oct. 2009
* Blogger time-stamps the publishing time of a post as when that post was started, not when it is actually finished and uploaded onto the blogger's site
A: In 1990, Khalid Bin Mahfouz availed himself of the opportunity under the laws of the Republic of Ireland to obtain Irish citizenship for himself and other members of his family."
from the Other Issues section of the FAQs of the Bin Mahfouz Information website: This Bin Mahfouz information site is designed to provide accurate information for accredited journalists, governments and NGOs about Khalid Bin Mahfouz and his immediate family.
(page accessed 14:26 GMT 23 September 2009 *)
'Though Bin Mahfouz sought to protect his "reputation" in the English courts, he was not English. Nor was he a Saudi. In 1990 he had bought Irish passports for himself and 10 members of his family over lunch at the Shelbourne hotel in Dublin with the then Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey.'
from the 'Ratbiter' column in Private Eye, no. 1245, 18 September - 1 Oct. 2009
* Blogger time-stamps the publishing time of a post as when that post was started, not when it is actually finished and uploaded onto the blogger's site
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Benny B kicking it with the '96-'97 speed garage mix, absolutely monster
1. Do me baby (Sixty Brown mix) - New Horizons (500 Rekords)
2. Deeper part 1 - Abstrac & Lady P (Confetti)
3. Let it on (Mystery mix) - Lady Penelope & Abstrac (Emitta Sounds)
4. Over Here - M-Dubs (Babyshack)
5. Come into my heart - G.I. Sly (Zest 4 Life)
6. Ripped in 2 - Unknown white label
7. Watch your bass bins - G.O.D. (Nice & Ripe)
8. All of the girls (All Ai-Di Girl Dem) (R.I.P. Club mix) - Carnival Feat. R.I.P. vs. Red Rat.
9. This is it > pt. 1 (Nu Birth Never Dub) - State of Mind (Ministry of Sound)
10. Electric Runnings - Groove in Motion (DFL)
11. Wake Up (Banana Republic Dub mix) - Maximum Style (Vital Essence)
12. Just 4 U London - Unknown White Label
13. Anytime (Tuff & Jam’s Kick Dub) - Nu-Birth (Locked On)
14. Boom - D.C. Sensation (Nice & Ripe)
15. Pressure On (Sixty Four 2 Da Floor Mix) - Sixty Brown (Sunday Morning Music)
16. Play with voices - Alias (V.I.P.)
17. Rumours - Fabulous Baker Boys (White Label)
18. Deep Inspiration - R.I.P. (Ice Cream Records)
19. Freak Me (Sly & Poolio’s Cut Up Dub) - Another Level (Maximum Productions)
number 12 is gorgeous, and 17 is outstanding
love it love it love it
1. Do me baby (Sixty Brown mix) - New Horizons (500 Rekords)
2. Deeper part 1 - Abstrac & Lady P (Confetti)
3. Let it on (Mystery mix) - Lady Penelope & Abstrac (Emitta Sounds)
4. Over Here - M-Dubs (Babyshack)
5. Come into my heart - G.I. Sly (Zest 4 Life)
6. Ripped in 2 - Unknown white label
7. Watch your bass bins - G.O.D. (Nice & Ripe)
8. All of the girls (All Ai-Di Girl Dem) (R.I.P. Club mix) - Carnival Feat. R.I.P. vs. Red Rat.
9. This is it > pt. 1 (Nu Birth Never Dub) - State of Mind (Ministry of Sound)
10. Electric Runnings - Groove in Motion (DFL)
11. Wake Up (Banana Republic Dub mix) - Maximum Style (Vital Essence)
12. Just 4 U London - Unknown White Label
13. Anytime (Tuff & Jam’s Kick Dub) - Nu-Birth (Locked On)
14. Boom - D.C. Sensation (Nice & Ripe)
15. Pressure On (Sixty Four 2 Da Floor Mix) - Sixty Brown (Sunday Morning Music)
16. Play with voices - Alias (V.I.P.)
17. Rumours - Fabulous Baker Boys (White Label)
18. Deep Inspiration - R.I.P. (Ice Cream Records)
19. Freak Me (Sly & Poolio’s Cut Up Dub) - Another Level (Maximum Productions)
number 12 is gorgeous, and 17 is outstanding
love it love it love it
my lovely, gorgeous friend Ollie was telling me recently about people moving to London back in the day just for the pirate radio stations.
out to the pirates.
out to the pirates.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
one of those 2-step mixes i keep listening to, listed
god bless (insert what you want before 'bless') Benny B of that fine city of Newcastle (Benny B wot mixed it)
1. Telefunkin (First Steps remix) -
2. Street Life (London's Unique 3 dub) - Daryl B & Mark Yardley (Planet Phat)
3. Freaky (Chris Mack’s Freakin Dub) - Another Level (Maximum)
4. Fire in my heart - Pied Piper (Fifty First recordings)
5. I know you got soul - ?
6. Wake Up (Templeton Peck dub) - Maximum Style (Vital Essence)
7. The Rain (Breakbeat mix) - Ray Hurley feat. Simone (Quench)
8. Saturday (Dubaholics Smasher remix) - Joey Negro feat. Taka Boom (Yola records)
9. Get Out (Wideboys Wider Still mix) - Felon (Serious)
10. Loverboy (MJ Cole’s London Dub) - Mariah Carey (Virgin)
11. Think About Me (United Grooves Collective Straight out of Stratford Dub) - Artful Dodger feat. Michelle Escoffery (Public Demand)
12. Out of the Rain (Dubaholics vocal dub) - Aora (W10)
11 into 12 is lovely, and just lovely, deeply so
Alesha Anjanette Dixon and friends
and much love to gremino of Helsinki for
01. hard stepz part 1 - people hold on
02. feet first productions - pushing dope
03. groovebug feat. louise renae - take me away (original vocal mix)
04. j.k. size - runaround
05. shadow kabinet feat. champagne bubblee - southern freeze (vocal mix)
06. chris mack feat. mc nuts - baby gonna rock dis (2 step dub)
07. slip'n'slide vol.1 - trigger finger
08. sixty brown - pressure on (ron pressure mix)
09. hard stepz part 1 - he is the joy (jam hot dub mix)
10. leee john - your mind, your body, your soul (sas 2 step remix)
11. greg stainer - understand this (501 two step mix)
god bless (insert what you want before 'bless') Benny B of that fine city of Newcastle (Benny B wot mixed it)
1. Telefunkin (First Steps remix) -
2. Street Life (London's Unique 3 dub) - Daryl B & Mark Yardley (Planet Phat)
3. Freaky (Chris Mack’s Freakin Dub) - Another Level (Maximum)
4. Fire in my heart - Pied Piper (Fifty First recordings)
5. I know you got soul - ?
6. Wake Up (Templeton Peck dub) - Maximum Style (Vital Essence)
7. The Rain (Breakbeat mix) - Ray Hurley feat. Simone (Quench)
8. Saturday (Dubaholics Smasher remix) - Joey Negro feat. Taka Boom (Yola records)
9. Get Out (Wideboys Wider Still mix) - Felon (Serious)
10. Loverboy (MJ Cole’s London Dub) - Mariah Carey (Virgin)
11. Think About Me (United Grooves Collective Straight out of Stratford Dub) - Artful Dodger feat. Michelle Escoffery (Public Demand)
12. Out of the Rain (Dubaholics vocal dub) - Aora (W10)
11 into 12 is lovely, and just lovely, deeply so
Alesha Anjanette Dixon and friends
and much love to gremino of Helsinki for
01. hard stepz part 1 - people hold on
02. feet first productions - pushing dope
03. groovebug feat. louise renae - take me away (original vocal mix)
04. j.k. size - runaround
05. shadow kabinet feat. champagne bubblee - southern freeze (vocal mix)
06. chris mack feat. mc nuts - baby gonna rock dis (2 step dub)
07. slip'n'slide vol.1 - trigger finger
08. sixty brown - pressure on (ron pressure mix)
09. hard stepz part 1 - he is the joy (jam hot dub mix)
10. leee john - your mind, your body, your soul (sas 2 step remix)
11. greg stainer - understand this (501 two step mix)
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Eye 1245, 18 Sept - 1 Oct 2009
“As human rights violations by the FARDC are so significant, failure at the political and operational levels to act to remedy the situation in and of itself constitutes a serious human rights violation,” the publication said.
A report published recently by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine shows that under President Niyazov the health system in Turkmenistan deterioriated, but there are signs that it could improve under the new president
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Saturday, 12 September 2009
over at Max Dunbar's blog during a discussion of Question Time, the BNP, etc, there are a couple of sentences i want to quote that are extremely, incredibly good and to-the-point on the yeah but-type contextualising of its subject you often get (something i have done plenty of myself, i admit, the whole 'protest vote for some aye yes fair enough')
"There is significant electoral support for racist and fascist politics in this country. You can make excuses about immigration and multiculturalism and political correctness and the victimhood of the white male as much as you like, the fact is that there is support for racist and fascist policies in the UK electorate and you have to face that."
P.S.
what i wrote about Mark Steyn. politically, he is, of course, for the most part, ridiculous (to be kind), but you know what i mean.
"There is significant electoral support for racist and fascist politics in this country. You can make excuses about immigration and multiculturalism and political correctness and the victimhood of the white male as much as you like, the fact is that there is support for racist and fascist policies in the UK electorate and you have to face that."
P.S.
what i wrote about Mark Steyn. politically, he is, of course, for the most part, ridiculous (to be kind), but you know what i mean.
Friday, 4 September 2009
"The government sees no problem with suspending operations as of 9 pm Friday evening (1800 GMT)," a spokesman of the Supreme Security Committee said in a statement on the ruling party website "September 26"...U.N. aid agencies say more than 100,000 people, many of them children, have fled their homes during the surge in fighting.
that scene in Battlestar Galactica (2004) where the lawyer (surely named for the world's first genocide scholar?) asks the cylon woman - after describing, in quite poetic language, about his broken heart - whether her love hurts like his, and she looks very upset, and says "yes".
and the President watching says words to the effect of she feels a part of their world has just collapsed.
fuck me.
and the President watching says words to the effect of she feels a part of their world has just collapsed.
fuck me.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote an epitaph for one neighbour in the cemetery, Alice Cottrell, who died aged one in 1849:
'And here, among the English tombs,/ In Tuscan ground we lay her,/ While the blue Tuscan sky endomes/ Our English words of prayer.'
...
Like many in the cemetery, Clough died young, in 1861 at the age of 42, long before his poem 'Say not the struggle naught Availeth' had found fame. The Italian climate, supposedly so good for dying Englishmen, was fatal, with its searing summers and River Arno damps. Not far from Clough is Fanny Hunt, dead at 33 after a blissful single year of marriage to the painter Holman Hunt. Hunt designed the pleasant, swelling lines of her sarcophagus.
I spent several happy hours trawling through the cemetery, digging up, as it were, splendid figures: Charles and Thomas Otley who, with Charles's son 'il biondo Enrico', founded Florence's jockey club in the mid-19th century. Princess Laura Pandolfina di Temple (died 1877), a British woman who married a Sicilian prince, lies near the poet Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864).
...
The pomegranates she has planted next to the three poets are flourishing, as does the papyrus grown to recall the Egyptian theme on Clough's tombstone.
...Playing on their surname, she is planting giglio - or lilium regale - which appears on the family stemma. She is also keen on using iris pallida - the three-stemmed purple iris that is the symbol of Florence - to line the cemetery's central path...Wild strawberries will grow alongside Roman camomile; forget-me-not and rosemary for remembrance next to golden thyme.
Miss Salt has also brought over a mixed bunch of English daffodil bulbs to recall the faraway home of many of those lying in this giardino Inglese-Italiano, so redolent with the air of both countries.
-Harry Mount, in the Spectator, some years ago
'And here, among the English tombs,/ In Tuscan ground we lay her,/ While the blue Tuscan sky endomes/ Our English words of prayer.'
...
Like many in the cemetery, Clough died young, in 1861 at the age of 42, long before his poem 'Say not the struggle naught Availeth' had found fame. The Italian climate, supposedly so good for dying Englishmen, was fatal, with its searing summers and River Arno damps. Not far from Clough is Fanny Hunt, dead at 33 after a blissful single year of marriage to the painter Holman Hunt. Hunt designed the pleasant, swelling lines of her sarcophagus.
I spent several happy hours trawling through the cemetery, digging up, as it were, splendid figures: Charles and Thomas Otley who, with Charles's son 'il biondo Enrico', founded Florence's jockey club in the mid-19th century. Princess Laura Pandolfina di Temple (died 1877), a British woman who married a Sicilian prince, lies near the poet Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864).
...
The pomegranates she has planted next to the three poets are flourishing, as does the papyrus grown to recall the Egyptian theme on Clough's tombstone.
...Playing on their surname, she is planting giglio - or lilium regale - which appears on the family stemma. She is also keen on using iris pallida - the three-stemmed purple iris that is the symbol of Florence - to line the cemetery's central path...Wild strawberries will grow alongside Roman camomile; forget-me-not and rosemary for remembrance next to golden thyme.
Miss Salt has also brought over a mixed bunch of English daffodil bulbs to recall the faraway home of many of those lying in this giardino Inglese-Italiano, so redolent with the air of both countries.
-Harry Mount, in the Spectator, some years ago
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