Armchair Revolutionaries

Hi to everybody...read this in the Independent today, and just feel that things are getting so much out of hand that something needs to be done about this....don't know what but something needs to be done...I saw some of the exhibition in Euronews I think it was and it's a very good exhibition on Palestine and the Palestinians...now the Barbican is being accused
of being anti-Israeli!!

Barbican's tribute to 1948 accused of demonising Israel

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent
Wednesday, 30 April 2008

As far as the organisers of the exhibition are concerned, these photographs of Arab refugees, displaced from their homes in Israel in 1948, are merely an artistic slice of life from a dramatic point in Middle Eastern history.

But the Barbican Arts Centre's show Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black and white images taken by the photojournalist Alan Gignoux soon after Israel gained independence, is the unlikely frontier of new hostilities between Britain's Israeli and Arab communities.

Jonathan Hoffman, of the Jewish umbrella group the Zionist Federation, has complained to the London arts venue's director Nicholas Kenyon about captions accompanying the photos, which state that the 800,000 Palestinians who left their homes were "uprooted" and "dispossessed". He accused the Barbican of "falsifying" history.

Mr Hoffman insisted he was not speaking on behalf of the federation, on whose board he sits, but added: "The exhibition contains historical distortions which have the effect of demonising Israel."

Similarly, Lior Ben-Dor, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy, said the language used in the exhibition, which was originally funded by the British Council and staged in Jaffa, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Belfast and Amsterdam without causing offence, did not reflect reality.

He claimed it ignored the fact that the "refugee problem" was caused by Arabs refusing to accept a United Nations resolution for the establishment of a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. "They refused a UN resolution and started a war. The result of war was the creation of a refugee problem," Mr Ben-Dor added.

He also criticised the Barbican for not staging an Israeli film festival for 18 years, despite repeated requests, yet regularly hosting a Palestinian festival, the latest of which closes this week. "We would like for them to open their doors to us," Mr Ben-Dor said. "The embassy would be very happy if the Barbican chose to balance its activities with the Palestinian Film Festival with an Israeli one."

Last night, the Barbican dismissed the accusations and insisted it would not bow to political pressure. It said it had received only two other complaints and defended the decision to stage the show, as well as the language used in the captions.

It said: "We appreciate that interpretations of historical events can potentially be controversial and may inspire strong reactions, but are clear that decisions on such matters need to sit firmly with our artistic and curatorial team.

"This exhibition is a serious, thought-provoking examination of the issue of home and exile, juxtaposing portraits of Palestinian exiles with present-day images of the places that they left in 1948."

London's Palestinian Film Festival is Europe's biggest and has been held at the Barbican for four years. The centre is planning a Yiddish film festival next year, and there was an Israeli Cinema Showcase across the capital earlier this month.

For Mr Hoffman, though, a celebration of Yiddish cinema is not enough. "If the Barbican thinks a Yiddish film season in 2009 goes any way towards balancing four successive years of Palestinian film festivals, they are wrong. It is about as much balance as would be putting chicken soup and salt beef on their restaurant menu."

Mr Hoffman said he objected to the language in a caption describing the forced expulsion of Palestinians. He said: "Many Arab inhabitants left or sold their homes to Israelis."

He claimed that a caption accompanying a picture of a grandfather, saying he was "allowed to stay in Israel after 1948", was inaccurate because Palestinians were not subject to systematic expulsions. Another photo, showing empty fields where a Palestinian village once stood, says its inhabitants fled after hearing of violence nearby where "dozens of Palestinians were killed". Mr Hoffman said this statement was "conjecture".

The London-based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign insisted that the language used was "appropriate" and hailed the festival and exhibition as a success. Its spokesman, Martial Kurtz, said: "It is widely accepted that the creation of Israel involved massacres and villages being erased."

I am aware I have put up quite a few posts on similar subjects, but I am growing increasingly alarmed by the constant accusations aimed at anybody who dares to criticize Israel, or to show any sympathy with the Palestinians, or to now even put on exhibitions showing their films and photographs and some of their history...it is going to end in a disaster at some point I fear...

Hi to everybody...in the Independent yesterday there was this article and it has me flummoxed...does anybody else think that it is extremely confusing...
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-living/is-your-breakfast-making-you-fat-817165.html

Never do anything finite.

Hi to everybody...thought you might be interested in these two letters from the Independent yesterday...re Hebron and what's going on there..

Victims of settler violence in Hebron

Sir: I have worked as an observer three times in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron and immediately recognised the portrait of injustice and casual brutality by members of the Israeli army, police and settlers (report, 19 April). The need for outside observers was also highlighted by the article: as long as Israeli authorities are responsible for the safety of all residents and property in areas of Hebron, but act only to protect the settlers, one of the few options is for observers with cameras to film settler and army violence and to try to bring these events to the attention of the media.

On many occasions, I have been attacked by settlers from the Beit Hadassah and Tel Rumeida settlements in Hebron, often in front of Israeli soldiers or police, who on every occasion except one did nothing to stop the attacks or to attempt to apprehend the perpetrators.

The most common response from Israeli soldiers was that they could do nothing to prevent the attacks and to imply that the attack was my fault, as my mere presence as an observer was a "provocation" to the settlers.

As long as such fanatical settlers are supported by the Israeli government with army protection, financial support and near-immunity from prosecution, the situation will not improve for Palestinians in Hebron, and anyone whose presence in Hebron is considered a "provocation" by the settlers risks being attacked.

Last week, the Israeli media reported that a delegation of German politicians to Hebron were forced to cut short their visit after they were attacked by settlers. The army did not intervene.

Joanna Welch

Manchester

Sir: It is a tribute to the courage of some of the soldiers, and of Donald Macintyre, that the brutality of Israel's occupation of Hebron has been revealed. The lesson of their testimonies is that occupation, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine, corrupts and dehumanises the occupier, even as it terrorises the occupied. Our duty should be to work towards the termination of this and other occupations.

But in this case, the occupier has encouraged foreigners, few of whom are even Israeli-born, to colonise the city and vent their fury on its defenceless citizens, against the tenets of the Geneva Conventions. The time has come to hold Israel to account by, at the minimum, making its privileges, such as the EU-Israel trade agreement, which gives Israel special export rights to the European Union, conditional on evidence that international human rights protocols are being observed.

Diana Neslen, Martine Miel, Carolyn Gelenter

There has to be a time when this behaviour is recognized as unacceptable by the rest of the world...we are rebuking China for its treatment of Tibet, Mugabe for his treatment of the Zimbabweans who oppose him, Russia for its treatment of some of its previous satellite countries and so on...but we rarely hear a strong public rebuke of Israel...this surely needs to change and it isn't anti-semitism either, just the same as it isn't anti-African to rebuke Mugabe, anti-Russian to rebuke Putin, anti-Chinese to rebuke them for Tibet...it's human beings shocked by what is perceived whether rightly or wrongly as injustices against other human beings...and by rightly or wrongly I mean there are always two sides to every story, and every country or person accused of injustices should have the right to explain why they are behaving in such a manner...if the explanation is considered valid then the two sides should be brought together to heal the rift...the efforts being made to bring Palestine and Israel together have failed constantly and every time one fails, the Palestinians end up far worse off than they were before...what we're witnessing is the systematic destruction of a people and their economy and the infrastructure of their country...that's profoundly wrong and must be stopped.

Hi to everybody...BBC Green are putting out information now about the environment and how we can help protect it...here's a good explanation of the pros and cons of biofuels.
What are biofuels?

Biofuels are the plant-based alternatives to oil-based fuels such as petrol, diesel and heating oil. Burning biodiesel emits CO2, but this is offset by the fact that the crop used to produce it uses CO2 from the atmosphere to grow.

However, the environmental benefits of biofuels are hotly disputed, with some green commentators claiming that they cause more harm than good.

There are two main kinds of bio-fuel: biodiesel and ethanol.
Biodiesel

As the name suggests, biodiesel is designed for use in diesel engines. It is very similar to vegetable oil and is produced from the same kinds of plants – oil-rich sources such as sunflower, palm, rapeseed and groundnut. It can also be made from animal fats or oils recycled from restaurants.

Biodiesel can be used neat in some diesel cars. But at present it's more commonly found in a mix with regular diesel – typically 5 per cent biodiesel with diesel fuel. This mix can be used in any diesel car.
Ethanol

Ethanol-based biofuels are designed for use in petrol engines. It is produced mainly from sugar and maize but it can also be made from many other cereal crops, such as wheat and barley. Ethanol is particularly popular in Brazil, where around 30 per cent of vehicle fuel is produced from sugar cane.

Like biodiesel, ethanol is typically added to conventional petrol, which allows it to be used in any car. However, some special cars, such as the flexible fuel vehicles common in Brazil, can handle ethanol in much higher concentrations.
Driving destruction

Growing fuel in fields is an attractive idea but serious concerns have been raised over the side-effects of the burgeoning market for biofuels.

The main worry is that the rush for biofuels will impact on our ability to grow sufficient food crops, which would be disastrous for poor urban populations. The other concern is that it will boost the incentive for people in tropical countries to clear rainforests and grow crops – disastrous for the environment.

But production of biofuels is still rising and the EU wants them to account for 10 per cent of fuel for transport by 2020.
Hidden emissions

Another argument against biofuels is that they may not be as climate-friendly as they appear. It's true that burning a biofuel releases CO2 equal to or less than that soaked up by the plants as they grew.

But that doesn't take into account the greenhouse emissions caused by growing the plants in the first place. For example, CO2 from fertiliser factories and tractors, and nitrous oxides released by ploughing the soil.
Blessing or curse?

The total environmental impact of a biofuel is difficult to measure. It depends on the crop, the farming practices and even the degree to which rainforests are protected in tropical countries.

While biofuels continue to be promoted by some policymakers, on both sides of the Atlantic, many experts remain highly sceptical of their benefits. In January, the UK’s government’s Environment Audit Committee recommended dropping biofuel targets. Author and journalist George Monbiot has even gone so far as to describe biofuels as an "agricultural crime against humanity".
Future fuels

As for the future, cellulosic biofuels, made from low-input crops that can be grown on marginal lands, could bring clearer benefits. But it remains to be seen how long it will be before these next-generation fuels become practical and economical.

A more promising solution may be algae, say some experts. Algae doubles their size in a day, making them among the most efficient organisms at capturing light energy and converting it into biomass. And unlike biofuels such as corn, algae don’t use up land or water that could be used to grow food crops.

Some experts believe that algae on around 20 million aces of land would be enough to supply all of the US’s transportation fuel needs, which is a small fraction of its agricultural land. Algae need a good supply of carbon dioxide to grow at an acceptable rate, and they can feed on nutrients in sewage. Both of these resources are readily available so biodiesel from algae could offer real hope.

As a result, algae are getting increased attention from oil companies. Shell, which is building a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow and test marine algae for its potential on an industrial scale.

Hi to everybody...still here and struggling to keep my blogs going with all the probs BCUK has at the moment.
Here's a very interesting article in the Independent's Extra today...
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-living/feeling-stressed-pull-yourself-together-813249.html
Interesting in that, if it doesn't exist, what causes the side effects of all that 'normal' behaviour, like ulcers and breakdowns etc..? Or, is that normal too, and we just take too much notice of it in our modern world...perhaps it has always gone on ever since humans first appeared on the earth, but quirky or erratic behaviour was just accepted as belonging to that particular individual...maybe I shouldn't be taking the pills I now take to calm the build of acid in my stomach caused my being rather stressed at the moment...LOL...who knows?
Big hugs to one and all...

Hi to everybody...hmmm...there are some things in the world that get publicity and some things that do not, and this has been one of them...why? Tibet is now being taken up by a mass of people who haven't cared for forty years what's happened there...Zimbabwe is being discussed...what is happening to the Palestinians is being shunted off the front pages and either ignored or just one of many incidents that are so commonplace as to be not worth reporting anymore?...
Here's a shorter report than the one on the front pages of the Independent today...but still as important...
Mario Vargas Llosa: How Arabs have been driven out of Hebron.

Saturday, 19 April 2008

Hebron is the image of desolation and pain. I'm talking of the H-2 sector, the oldest part of this ancient city, which is under Israeli military control and where some 500 colonos – settlers – live in four settlements. It is one of the holiest places of Judaism and Islam, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where in February 1994, the settler Baruch Goldstein machine-gunned Muslims at prayer, killing 29 and wounding dozens.

To protect these settlers, the zone bristles with barriers, camps and military posts, and is overrun by Israeli patrols. But such mobilisation will soon be unnecessary because this part of Hebron, subject to ethnic and religious cleansing, will soon have no Arab residents.

Its centuries-old market, which was once as multi-coloured, varied and bustling as that of Jerusalem, is now empty and the doors of all the shops are sealed. Travelling around, you feel in limbo. So too when you walk through the surrounding deserted streets, with shopfronts shuttered with metal sheets and on whose roofs you glimpse military posts. The walls of this entire semi-empty neighbourhood are filled with racist inscriptions: "Death to the Arabs".

Some 25,000 residents have been cleared from their homes in H-2 zone in five years. In the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood alone, where there is a settlement of the same name, barely 50 out of 500 Arab families remain.

The extraordinary thing is that they haven't already gone, subjected as they are to systematic and ferocious harassment by settlers, who stone them, throw rubbish and excrement at their houses, invade and destroy their homes, and attack their children when they return from school, to the absolute indifference of Israeli soldiers who witness these atrocities.

No one told me this: I saw it with my own eyes and heard with my own ears from the victims themselves. I have a video of the hair-raising scene of children from Tel Rumeida settlement stoning and kicking Arab schoolchildren and their teachers who, to protect themselves, returned home in groups instead of individually. When I told Israeli friends this, some looked at me with incredulity and I saw they suspected I exaggerated or lied, as novelists often do. It turned out that none had ever set foot in Hebron.

------

The amount of damage caused to the Palestinians by the Israelis so outweighs what is being done to them by the Palestinians it beggars belief that they aren't now undergoing embargoes on their products, vetoes on their rights to participate in Human Right's conferences until they change their brutal tactics, and a public denouncement by world leaders of what is going on every day in the Palestinian homelands....It also quite shocking to discover that many Jews have never met a Palestinian...they are taught that they are the enemy and, as such, any means of rendering them helpless is permitted...Mugabe is bad for Zimbabwe and we say so publicly...who is saying that what is going on in Palestine is as bad if not worse...because this is another people bringing another people to its knees in front of the whole world and we just look away...just as we did when the Jews were being carted off to the concentration camps in WW2 and it was known about and nothing was done...the same thing is happening now to the Palestinian people...and it is to the world's shame that it remains muted in its reproach or condemnation...

The Libertarian National Socialist Green Party - Hitler and anti-Semitism

It's an interesting article - have a read.

why post it?

because i can,
because i wouldn't want your afternoon to be boring, and
because the name "Libertarian National Socialist Green Party" cracks me up.

Hi to everybody...this article was in the Independent today...I found it more than a little amusing...they have got to be joking! I can't say that much because it involves a member of my family but corruption in the construction industry has been known about for decades and has been going on for as long as construction companies have existed I should imagine...to suddenly come out with this report as if is something new just takes the biscuit in my books!!

Construction firms accused of price fixing

By Holly Williams, PA
Thursday, 17 April 2008

More than 100 construction firms were today accused of "bid-rigging" by competition watchdogs after one of the biggest ever investigations by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Construction giants Balfour Beatty and Carillion are among the 112 firms alleged to have taken part in a cartel to fix prices when bidding for business.

The OFT said more than 40 companies had already admitted price-fixing in the inquiry so far, which first started after an initial complaint in the East Midlands.

Another 37 firms out of the 112 have applied for leniency, according to the OFT.

The inquiry spans 240 alleged cases where firms have colluded to inflate prices during a tender process, covering both the private and public sector, including building contracts for schools, universities and hospitals.

In a minority of more serious cases under investigation, the OFT alleged some firms agreed to make "compensation payments" to unsuccessful bidders, accompanied by false invoices.

The investigation follows a similar inquiry in the roofing industry by the OFT between 2004 and 2006, covering projects including the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham.

John Fingleton, OFT chief executive, said: "Cartel activity of the type alleged today harms the economy by distorting competition and keeping prices artificially high.

"This investigation, together with the OFT's previous decisions in the roofing sector, will hopefully send out a strong message to the construction industry about the seriousness with which we view suspected anti-competitive behaviour. Businesses have no excuses for not knowing and abiding by the law."

The OFT said today's investigation was sparked by a complaint from a health authority in the East Midlands, but added it "quickly became clear from the evidence that the practice of cover pricing was widespread".

The formal allegations cover neighbouring areas including Yorkshire and Humberside and also elsewhere in England.

It said the firms named in its investigation have 30 days to respond to the allegations.

Balfour Beatty confirmed that it was one of the firms that has applied for leniency from the OFT.

It said in a statement it had reviewed its compliance with the Competition Act in June 2007 and was "confident that all of its subsidiaries are now fully compliant".

The group said: "Balfour Beatty neither promotes nor condones anti-competitive behaviour. The company and its operating businesses have co-operated fully with the OFT in all aspects of its investigation. As a result and subject to ongoing co-operation, the OFT has granted leniency to Balfour Beatty, thus reducing any fines which might ultimately be levied on Balfour Beatty or any of its operating businesses.

"The company will respond to the OFT in respect of its statement of objections in due course."

That's it...

Eating disorders are on the rise and it’s well-known that dieting has a lot to do with this rise. There’s oodles of evidence for it - which you’ll have to research yourself if you’re interested, but it’s easy if you just type ‘dieting and eating disorders’ into a search engine. Evidence includes the parallel rise of enforced body dissatisfaction and the advice to diet with rising instances of anorexia and bulimia and binge eating disorder. Also, countries that haven’t been exposed to Western culture and dieting have extremely low to non existent levels of eating disorders. There’s more, though, much, much more.

Anyway, while looking up the statistics for eating disorders in the UK for something I was writing, I noticed – not for the first time – that the way eating disorders are classified excludes obesity and overweight. It’s very strange. It always stands out to me but it seems to be accepted as normal that even a scientific or medical trial paper can separate the two. It’s the perfect example of a sleight of hand that Derren Brown would be proud of, except that it pulls the wool over everyone’s eyes and blinds everyone to the obvious truth in favour of a belief that helps the diet industry to earn millions, but which destroys the quality of life for millions of ordinary people.

Bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating are all classified as eating disorders with various theories about their cause, including the pathological need for control, the anaesthetising of past trauma and abuse etc, but the main driver for these disorders is well-known to be high levels of body dissatisfaction and chronic addiction to dieting.

The physical effects of eating disorders such as anorexia’s extreme weight loss are taken as a side-effect of a psychological disorder and although shocking, as the physical side effects are, anorexics are never blamed for being severely underweight and they are treated as if they suffer from a mental illness.

Where eating disorders are shown in a sympathetic light and sufferers are largely described as victims, those who are obese and overweight are linked with greed, weakness and lack of self discipline. Obesity is given a class all of its own and overweight people are given a diet sheet and told to control their overeating by self discipline and shown that they are thought of as weak and greedy and lacking in self respect. The message is: if you don’t respect yourself enough to stop overeating, then how do you expect anyone else to respect you?

Overeaters take this on board and struggle their whole lives trying to follow this advice when in fact their problem is as much of an eating disorder as any anorexic or bulimic. In fact, just like weight loss is the physical symptom of anorexia, so weight gain is the physical symptom of compulsive overeating and binge eating disorder – AND the direct cause, as has been established, is body dissatisfaction and the drive towards chronic dieting!

The compulsion to overeat, driven by dieting, is in fact the basic foundation of all eating disorders. Anorexics are compulsive overeaters whose different neuroses and needs drive them to starve themselves and the overweight and obese are compulsive overeaters whose needs drive them to overeat! It’s exactly the same disease. But because of the current prejudice against obesity one is given treatment that, although largely ineffective, is at least sympathetic, and the other is treated by blame, humiliation and given directions to follow a solution that is actually the known direct cause of the problem itself.

THIS is the reason why obesity seems to be on the rise and why everyone is running about like headless chickens worrying about the cost to the NHS and where we’ll be in 2010 when so many more people are predicted to be overweight. This is why our kids no longer grow out of their puppy fat.

It's also the reason why you are sitting there thinking 'I don't suffer from an eating disorder, I just need to be able to stick to a diet,' and then going on to lose control of what you put in your mouth, day in, day out, obsessing and worrying about it and letting it destroy your quality of life.

Many things are truly bizarre about our culture, but this has got to be one of the most unbelievable of all.

Hi to everybody...an interesting article in the Independent today on China and Tibet...

Adrian Hamilton: The Chinese will never compromise over Tibet
Thursday, 10 April 2008

The Chinese say they are still determined to take the Olympic torch through Tibet, for all the demonstrations and worldwide protests. Of course they are. The West consistently misunderstands China's attitude towards Tibet. For Beijing, it is not about the Tibetans and their treatment of them. It is about the territorial integrity of their country.

There is nothing new in what the Chinese are doing in Tibet, or to the Uighurs of Central Asia. Stalin did the same thing in the Soviet Union, moving whole populations out of areas to other parts in an effort to destroy their nationalism and pouring Russian settlers in their place. Half the problems of Ukraine, the Baltics and the Central Asian republics are the residues of this policy.

Nor is the Chinese policy of reducing local culture to a kind of tourist antiquarianism new to the world. It was, after all, what the Spanish did in Latin America, the US did with the red Indians after they had swamped the American West and what the Australians have done with the Aborigines.

When Australia's new Prime Minister, the refreshing Kevin Rudd, apologised for the "stolen generation" of Aborigines he was accepting responsibility and the shame of a deliberate policy of taking indigenous children and trying to re-educate them in Australian families on the grounds that only enforced uniculturalism could work with so backward a people. You get exactly the same approach, and racism, in the official Chinese statements on Tibet, never mind the blogs in China on the subject. But it is precisely because we have been here before that the outside world needs to be clear in our dealings with Beijing over Tibet.

It is all very well – and right – to express outrage at Chinese oppression of political voices in Tibet as if we are talking about monks in Burma or Palestinians in the West Bank. But Tibet is not Burma, an independent country suffering the oppression of its own rulers, nor Palestine, a land occupied but not claimed (or at least not all of it) by its conquerors. It would be a lot easier to work out a response if it were.

The Chinese regard their claim on Tibet as absolute and they simply will not compromise on it. And, frankly, the West, which went shamefully along with the invasion a half-century ago with only a squeak of protest, is in no mood to face a total confrontation on the issue. Calling for self-determination is easy enough, but so long as Beijing regards this as a step to unwarranted independence, the calls are going to go unheeded. Which is why the Dalai Lama has always sought not independence for Tibet but a self-governing role within China. The only trouble, as we have seen in the last few weeks, is that Beijing has no interest in this either. Their determination is not multiculturalism but the total absorption of the country within mainland China. Everything that China has done – the settlement of nomads, the building of road and rail links, the control of trade, the investment in raw materials and the insidious inducements to intermarriage is directed towards making Tibet another homogenous part of the Chinese nation. To the Chinese, this is all perfectly logical and, it has to be said, almost universally accepted. To them, the Tibetans should be grateful for everything that the Chinese have done in increasing investment, opening up transport links and encouraging immigration. If, as one official put it, the Tibetans have been left behind by the growth of Han Chinese businesses in Tibet, it is not because of exclusion but because they are "lazy" and in thrall to an outdated feudal church hierarchy. China is offering them "freedom", freedom from want and religious credulity.

Demonstrations along the Olympic torch route are not going to alter this, nor protests within Tibet. But at least they can, if only Western leaders are as courageous as the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – who went to Beijing and made clear his views, in Mandarin – repeat and keep repeating that the outside world does not accept this version of events, that it has an entirely different view of Chinese actions towards the Tibetan people and that it is genuinely concerned for Tibetan culture and self-expression. Not for a moment should Beijing be allowed to believe that it is persuading anyone of its version of history and the present.

And if the outside world does value Tibetan culture, there is something else that it can also do, which is to support the Tibetan refugee communities. As any visitor to some of the camps in Kerala, or elsewhere, can testify, the Indians have allowed the Tibetans in, but kept them isolated and in a dire state of poverty. The actions to exclude and drive out Tibetan refugees by that fabled, newly-democratising kingdom of Bhutan are little short of barbaric.

The Olympic protests have drawn the attention of the world, including China's, to the concern felt by the public over Tibet. Now it is up to our governments to show the same concern and resolution.

a.hamilton@independent.co.uk

A senior family court judge has warned of an “epidemic” of family failure which is pushing children into drugs and crime.

Full Story – BBC

Mr Justice Coleridge warned that urban family life is in “meltdown” and attacked the government for doing little to address the problem, “it is certain that almost all of society’s ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life”.

Justice Coleridge warned the breakdown of the family would, within 20 years, "be as destructive as global warming".

Behold a generation of devvos

Hi to everybody...this article was in the Independent today...am I going mad or is the world?
Blair declares his faith: I want to awaken world's conscience

Tony Blair delivers his address on faith at Westminster Cathedral last night

By Nigel Morris
Friday, 4 April 2008

Tony Blair has called for a drive among people of all faiths to "awaken the world's conscience" over the failure to tackle poverty, illiteracy and poor health in the developing world.

Delivering his first major speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral, the former prime minister, who converted to Catholicism last year, argued that religions of all kinds should be rescued from extremism and irrelevance to help meet a "profound yearning within the human spirit" at a time of unprecedented global turbulence.

He set out plans for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which is designed to forge closer ties between young people of all major religions, as well as promoting the importance of faith in general.

Its first aim, he said, would be to champion the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the targets set by the United Nations for improve conditions in the developing world by 2015. They include halving extreme poverty, providing universal primary education and halting the spread of HIV/Aids.

He said the MDGs were a "litmus test of the world's values" and were "stark in their ambition and necessity". Mr Blair warned: "We are falling short as a world in meeting them. It would be a great example of faith in action to try to bridge the gap and awaken the world's conscience."

He added that the foundation would focus on the "Abrahamic faiths" of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, and that it would help people of those faiths "discover what they share" and "help partner those within any of the faiths who stand up for peaceful co-existence and reject the extremist and divisive notion that faiths are in fundamental struggle against each other".

Mr Blair also admitted he had under-estimated the extent of "seismic shift" globally from West to East while he was Prime Minister. He said: "The centre of gravity, economically and politically, is shifting east and it is shifting fast.

"China and India together will industrialise the bulk of their populations, presently employed in subsistence agriculture, probably within two decades."

He argued that the "strong historical and cultural influence" of religion in both East and West could help both hemispheres unite around "common values" rather than undergo "a battle for domination".

About 1,600 people obtained free tickets to hear the address by Mr Blair, who has divided his time between acting as a Middle East envoy, pursuing business interests and developing his plans for the Foundation. He has also accepted a teaching post on the subject of faith and globalisation at Yale University.

Mr Blair said he was forced to play down the importance of his faith while in Downing Street because of scepticism in Britain about politicians who were actively religious.

He said they could be considered "weird" people who engaged in "some slightly cultish interaction" with their religion, wanted to impose their faith on others and were pretending to be better than the next person.

"[There is an assumption] that you are somehow messianically trying to co-opt God to bestow a divine legitimacy on your politics."

He said: "Even 10 years ago, religion was still being written off as a force in the world ... But, in fact, at no time since the Enlightenment has religion ever gone away. It has always been at the very core of life for millions of people."

A major police operation was mounted as anti-war protesters holding placards gathered outside the cathedral during his speech.

*

Just mind boggling his messianic fervour and his complete inability to grasp what he has done....I found this with religious people when I was involved in religions...they cannot see another side to an argument at all, nor can they see that they might be wrong either!!! Scary people indeed....

Hi to everybody...here's some rather alarming news in Computer Shopper today...
Hackers cause migraines and seizures 10:26AM, Monday 31st March 2008
Hackers caused migraines and several fits when they placed seizure-inducing animations on an epilepsy sufferers' message board using automated scripts.

The affected forum belonged to the Epilepsy Foundation, an organisation founded to support sufferers and to promote medical research into the condition.

The attackers used Javascript to place flashing animations on the site,

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and also redirected browsers to a third party site that hosted images designed to induce fits. Moderators were forced to temporarily shut down the site, but it is now working once again.

The attacks began on 22 March, and caused several seizures amongst those who logged on. The true number of those affected will not be known for some time, though, believes Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the foundation, as those users may not yet feel safe to return to the forum and comment on the issue.

One user reported that she "locked up" when she saw one of the animations, and had to be rescued by her 11 year old son who closed down the browser window. Another user described a "spike of pain" in her head when she saw the animation.

Posts on the forum claiming to be from the hacker group Anonymous have claimed responsibility, but the true culprits of the attack are not yet known.
Matthew Sparkes

Record levels of immigration have had "little or no impact" on the economic well-being of Britons, an influential House of Lords committee has said.

Benefits of immigration

It says competition from immigrants has had a negative impact on the low paid and training for young UK workers, and has contributed to high house prices.

The use of GDP as the measure of immigration's economic contribution was "irrelevant and misleading".

It went on to add: "The available evidence suggests that immigration has had a small negative impact on the lowest-paid workers in the UK and a small positive impact on the earnings of higher-paid workers."

And there was a "clear danger" immigration had hit training and apprenticeships offered to British workers.

This report is well worth a read - however many of us have been saying this for the last 5 years. It's blindingly obvious. So why does the Labour government insist on pushing ahead? The reason is that the Labour party is infested with hand wringing liberals, leftists who believe in spreading wealth to anyone, except those who have worked for it, and people who just plain hate the united kingdom.

The working man needs to wake up - Labour is his enemy not his friend.