Philip@It's all in your mind on Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre and 'Lost in Translation'.

It's all in your mind is a quite incredible blog, it really is, isn't it?

the last line that Phil writes on the 'LIT'/MBV piece is actually perfect.

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A journalist who fled to Britain from Pakistan after exposing corruption could be sent home within weeks despite death threats.
Mansoor Hassan, 40, his wife Aqila, 39, and their four children came to Britain two years ago seeking asylum after their house was burned down and he was warned he would be killed.
They have been living in Openshaw for 14 months, but claim they are virtual prisoners in their own home due to racial abuse from youths.
Mr Hassan’s application for asylum was refused and in January he lost an appeal. The Home Office said the appeal adjudicator was satisfied he would not be in danger if he returned to Pakistan.
But Mr Hassan said: “I believe that if we go back to Pakistan I will be held by the authorities as soon as we arrive and we will be in danger.”
The National Union of Journalists is campaigning to try to get the Home Office to let the family remain and is lobbying Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd. It has also alerted police about the racist abuse.
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perhaps Home Office lawyers felt, since Hassan was warned he might be killed, that’s alright then/

the Daily Express’ laudable campaign supporting retired Gurkhas in their quest to attain British citizenship (the govt is guilty of utterly appalling treatment to a group that has repeatedly been prepared to die for British interests in far-away fields of which we know little) has been marred just a little by the nasty phrasing and wrong-headed politics of the other the Express continues to play in its editorials whilst discussing the issue.
a couple of days ago, one leader contained the magic words
The Government…welcomes economic migrants who have contributed nothing to this country but still take much.
Ho-hum.
can one have their cake and eat it?

in the press on Wednesday 8th September 2004 (i.e., some time last week) was
At precisely 6.44 pm, 60 years ago today, the first of Hitler’s deadly V2 rockets smashed into British soil. The rocket, with 1 tonne of explosives, hit Staveley Road, in Chiswick, South London, killing three people, injuring 22 and destroying six houses. By the end of World War II 1,300 had been fired at Britain, killing more than 2,700 people.

the proms

this isn't really my cup of tea although a close mate was singing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Abertawe (in fact i saw the boi Thaxo on the telly just now, looking considerably slimmer and younger than some of his peers, it must be said).

some Yank bloke conducting in London cracked a bad joke about a Czech composer and namechecked the wondrous Smetana {Ma vlast hurrah!} so it can't be all bad.

i suppose it's a bit like going up the match for posh people.

Seurat

enjoy yourself here momma
lubbin you!

there again i don't think i'm one for all these theories about the omniscient knowledge of the Ancients blah blah blah being unlocked with a system of far-flung quartz skulls etc

---

Tony Oursler's talking crystal one is great mind

a bloke at work has pointed out he thinks the signatures on that Buddy Holly picture don't look too faded, given they're dated '58.

interesting one.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets

could be a nice little earner

Dear Ankara,

no, never do that

wuv,
yr fellow Europeans [Commission progress report due October 6th]

respect - as they say - is due

- Simon silverdollarcircle on grime at Stylus {"love it like cooked food" _ brilliant}

- The Rambler on sampling~

there again, Peter Dobbie in the Mail on Sunday.

i mean, fuck me, he thinks David Blunkett's too left-wing.

somewhat regrettable headline in the Daily Mail today, re. an issue (British soliders appearing in civilian courts about their getting up to alleged mischief in Iraq) that needs a more complex and nuanced approach than the Mail would allow.

excuse me, perhaps i should gather my toys back into my pram.

but, i mean, the Mail.

RIP Munir [more here]

Pakistan attacks militants in South Waziristan

Initial investigations show this was a car bomb. We do not know whether anyone was in the car

yesterday it was reported that the UK ambassador to the Saudis directly accused Saudi security forces of colluding with terrorists, in an incident in which 22 people were slaughtered.

if you want to be further disturbed, the Beeb has more here.

Tim Judah's family left Baghdad in the late nineteenth century. When Saddam Hussein's regime fell he was the first member of his family back in Baghdad for over a century. He decided to find what is left of the Iraqi Jewish community: 'According to those that remain, their numbers add up to the grand total of thirty-four people.'

'Passover in Baghdad'

and in today's Guardian, the eloquent Anna Politkovskaya is able to convincingly disprove one embarrassing thrust of John Laughland's ill-advised and clumsy article from yesterday.

you surely have to be distrustful of someone bandying around the term fashionable as Laughland does.

to the Bosnian village of Kozarac, May 24th 1992:

"Mind you," he adds, pensively, "it's difficult to enjoy yourself in a place where 7,000 people are missing from a population of 25,000."

that's what i call fashion, clearly.

Oliver C would doubtless be interested in the roll-call of the great and the good in today's John Laughland piece.

-those other fashionable "Muslim" causes, Bosnia and Kosovo
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no really Mr Laughland, it's quite alright, we got new double-glazing last winter, no really!
-
what i want to know is, are clothing labels such as Armani, Diesel or Bench (say) more fashionable than these Muslim causes, or less so?
is Mr Laughland just engaged in a titanic, possibly aeons-old struggle with Geoffrey Wheatcroft for the coveted title of Britain's Most Curmudgeonly Columnist?
do i know what i'm on about? is the moon made of green cheese? am i chatting out of my arse? why is the beer in Bournemouth so expensive?
etc.
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i like how he compares CNN to Russian television and then concludes that Russian television is superior covering a crisis in its own backyard... ...one would hope it is (although this, from the same site he's writing on, might give one pause).
are independent MPs in the Russian Federation complaining about (increasing, they fear) media censorship in that country merely stooges of the BBC or CNN then?
+

negotiation with terrorists should not be pursued, no (no we don't want to pay too much attention to Ledeen, granted), and some of the things he outlines in his admirably investigative article are a serious cause for concern, but does Mr Laughland need reminding of Sunday's measured and succinct Telegraph leader?

is it me, or is there actually nothing wrong with
Although the White House issued a condemnation of the Beslan hostage-takers, its official view remains that the Chechen conflict must be solved politically?
= finding it hard to work out if there's an implication here that this may be a bad thing.

perhaps i'm inferring like a child, and applying too little nuance&flexibility in my reading; maybe i'm misreading, or just plain misunderstanding.

=
Allegations are even being made in Russia that the west itself is somehow behind the Chechen rebellion, and that the purpose of such support is to weaken Russia, and to drive her out of the Caucasus

Really?

+
as usual, you start off seeing Laughland, you catch his eye across the crowded pub and think to yourself 'eh, there's old John, haven't seen him for awhile, i'll go over, buy him a drink, and say hello' and of course before you know it you're shouting at each other, again.

i apologise for my tone in this simplistic and brief post (and if i were to discuss these issues like an adult with Mr Laughland i am sure i would be far more mature about it) but i find Laughland perverse sometimes.

i found the one report on Russia in the website following Laughland's name [here] fascinating and instructive (bit of character assassination on the old Lithuanians though?), but for recent NGO reports in the English language on Russia, Amnesty's "Normalization" in whose eyes? is more sobering.

a suspect in last year's assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic {obituary}, (the trial resumed yesterday, with the chief suspect returning to court, along with 12 other men), has said that Djindjic had problems with the [Hague] tribunal.

{see here for an interview w' Misha Glenny}

"If anyone thinks that they will stop the rule of law and implementation of reform by eliminating me, then they are badly mistaken."