Mayhem in the Middle East..............

The Middle East is falling apart before our very eyes. Where to begin? Jordan is a bit of a surprise as I thought King Abdullah was in complete control. Not quite, as protesters want the PM ousted and, by tradition, the PM is appointed by the King.

Thanks partly to WikiLeaks, we are now aware that the US has fostered and supported Egyptian activists seeking regime change in the form of a parliamentary democracy. One unnamed activist was identified by the US embassy in Cairo and sent to New York as a participant in an 'activist summit' under State Department sponsorship.

This leads me to wonder what our State Department is up to, how many 'activists' it is cultivating, from where, and what type of training do they receive. Is the US exporting revolution? We get precious little information from our government.

O seems to be playing both sides and claims to have sympathy for the protestors on the one hand while praising Mubarak as a staunch Middle Eastern ally on the other. Hillary is mealy mouthed in her statement of 'deep concern' about the use of violence.

Peter Oborne has a misguiding headline in today's DT that reads 'what is happening in Egypt is none of our business'. Well, it is the business of we Westerners and beyond. Peter goes on to explain that what he really means is we have no business supporting dictators simply because they comply with our policies.

My take is that Mubarak will soon be history. Money must be flooding into Egypt and its neighbors in the Maghreb. Some comes from nations like the US seeking proponents of Western policies while the remainder comes from radical Islamic sources. All would be leaders need do is hold out their hand and it will be filled with gold and silver.

I am not so sure that al Qaida will come out a winner, but I fully expect Hezbollah to loom large in whatever Egypt's political future will bring. I doubt that a fully pro Western government will emerge.

I am also concerned about the role of miscreants and prisoners who appear more interested in looting and shooting than in regime change. This element needs to be controlled as does the plethora of tribal and political factions throughout the region.

In the case of Egypt, I fear that only a strong dictatorial leader will be able to keep the competing factions at bay. We really need to learn the lesson that the overthrow of a dictator, as in the case of Saddam Hussein, can induce greater death and destruction than occurred under the dictator. We also need to stop exporting our concept of democracy as the panacea for worldwide political ills.

The lead into the Telemufti could not be ignored so I did some research for background purposes. Amr Khaled seems to be just the ticket and I would endorse his immediate departure for Cairo. I have often been critical of the Islamic world for not having produced moderates that would counterbalance the challenges posed by al Qaida et al.

As it turns out, such moderates exist in abundance, but have not captured the attention of the media and thereby revealed to the likes of me. My research exposed a number of moderate and not so moderate leaders many of whom are Westerners who converted to Islam.

Out of the frying pan into the fire?

Enter the Muslim Billy Graham.

My prediction about the Maghreb domino effect seems to be developing along the lines we suggested. Mubarak looks due for an early bath, Gaddaffi is getting nervous, and the Yemen is revolting. Algeria is seething and Morocco looks dodgy.

 None of this tumult appears to be Islamist in nature.

Its current characteristics combine youth, computer literacy and the internet, social networks like Facebook and a demand not just for the material things in life that young people elsewhere take for granted but also for political freedom and plurality.

If this assessment is anywhere near accurate there is no room for a medieval caliphate. We may be seeing the high-watermark of extreme Islamism.

Or maybe this is wishful thinking.

One certainty is that the turbulence is spreading quickly in Maghreb countries which have one thing in common: nasty dictators who have been propped up by the West for fear that they might be replaced by Islamic extremists, just as they propped up vile regimes around the world which might otherwise have become Communist.

Why the West never progressed from this infantile foreign policy is a mystery. Perhaps it was the policy embodied in the nursery poem ‘Always keep a hold of nurse/for fear of getting something worse’.

On a more uplifting note the Speccie carried a full piece on the Islamic Billy Graham. Step forward the Telemufti Amr Khaled. He is a celebrity who preaches inter-faith dialogue and the need for young Muslims to get along with the West.

I have had a look at him performing on his web-site. He is good-looking, impeccably dressed in a dark business suit, no towel on the head, no robes, no beard, and oozing charm. He is the very model of a televangelist.

He has started a project in Yemen called ‘New Hope’ which is aimed specifically at Al Qaeda. Its object is ‘to pull out the roots of extremism in Yemen’. The project is deploying 100 clerics and 5,000 youth volunteers who will go to every city in Yemen to confront extremism, preaching the ‘true merciful Islam’, and inveighing against nonsense-talk of slaughtering infidels and all the other imagined grievances of disaffected Muslims.

The project started last November and combines old-fashioned preaching from the pulpit at Friday prayers with the latest internet techniques. Khaled seems convinced that before this year is out Al Qaeda will be yesterday.

Khaled is an Egyptian who was forced into exile because Mubarak thought he was getting too influential, and came to England. He is quoted in the Speccie as ‘living a wonderful life in freedom’.

He is using a UK-based foundation to train a new generation of youth leaders for Yemen. He has chosen 100 of the world’s most respected Muslim clerics to preach moderation from the pulpit and via podcast.

His general approach is to attack Osama with mockery and to show him to be ignorant of the Koran. He says ‘Who gave extremists the authority to speak on behalf of Muslims?’

Let’s hope that he succeeds and is not thrown off-course by the current political turbulence in Yemen, especially as he has the support and commitment of the present regime.

The NYT recently said that the unfettered growth of the security apparatus in the US was a far greater long-term threat to US freedom than ‘a few madmen in Yemen’.

We need to be a bit less worried about the limited threat imposed by Al Qaeda and much more worried about the moves by Blair and Broon to turn the UK into a totalitarian state which the new regime has done little to reverse.

Mahgreb muddle...

Lebanon looks to be in bad shape given Hezbollah's victory in forming a paper thin majority. There goes another American ally in the Middle East. We might well take instructions from Hesbollah's political engineering capabilities. Leveraging money and support from Iran and Syria respectively, they targeted the impoverished and neglected Shiites of South Lebanon through development assistance projects aimed at grass roots participation in housing and agriculture.

The next few weeks and months should prove interesting as I understand Lebanon is split roughly down the middle with respect to Islamic rule, Hezbollah, support of Shiites and relations with the West. Pity, Beirut was once the Middle Eastern destination of choice for European tourists.

Dubai has taken over that prize and I simply cannot understand why. What with its morality laws and several highly publicized prosecutions of sex offences, e.g. kissing on the beach, its impossibly and diabolically hot weather, and its lurking and leering Arab youth population, I would prefer to take my chances in Lebanon.

I am led to understand that the recent anti government violence in Tunisia was conducted largely by a population seeking greater material rewards and a greater slice of the economic pie and, most significantly, without reference to conservative or fundamental Islam.

I read further that similar feelings in Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Mauritania prevail, especially among youth populations. The Maghreb looks to be the next hot spot. Indeed the entire coastal area of North Africa is seeking reformation.

Warsi, bigotry and a Thai view...........

This was published in the Bangkok Post today. It is an important insight to bigotry from an Asian standpoint, so I have posted it in full.


‘Recently someone sent me an article titled Xenophobia in Thailand on the Rise. The article, dated March 26, 2007, discusses the strict foreign business law and the growing disdain of foreigners among Thais.

One Thai banking executive was quoted as saying: ''We are getting a lot of weird retirees here. They can't survive in your country so they come here.''

A Thai accountant said: ''I've seen so many old farangs with young Thai women. These old farangs damage the reputation of Thailand; they turn Thailand into a land of prostitutes.''

More than three years have passed since these people were quoted. It's worth asking: Do a lot of Thai people still think that way? Of course we do. Is there racism in Thailand? Absolutely. Just like anywhere else in the world. We're not any more or less special - we're just not.

Does racism go both ways? Just take a glance through the Bangkok Post website's forum and you'll find plenty of foreigners, who hold Thailand and Thais in absolute contempt but refuse to leave (or keep coming back for visits) because the costs of living is cheap and so are the prostitutes, which far outweighs their contempt. That's not to mention the fact that complaining about where you live (and other cultures) is everyone's favourite pastime. Then there are those who simply hate for the sake of hatred.

I won't get into land ownership or foreign business laws; they're boring. Rather, let's scrutinise social attitudes and human nature, focusing on Westerners (retirees or otherwise) and Thais. (Because, face it, we don't have the same problem with Japanese, retirees or otherwise.)

Do we get a lot of ''weird retirees'' in Thailand? Of course we do - both those who can and those who can't survive in their own countries. Firstly, foreign is different. Different is weird. It's the nature of human perception. Secondly, retirees are weird the world over. But they are only ''weird'' because younger people find older people weird. Likewise, younger people are weird to older people. It's the age gap that makes the difference.

The only thing that makes Western retirees weirder than their Thai counterparts is the term ''foreign''.

I work with Westerners who look so old they ought to be retired _ and they are weird. But so am I, and by gad I love them! Even if at times in their senility (or in their rush to get to the pub) they forget to correct grammatical errors or misspellings while subediting my articles.

Does anyone ever look at an old farang and a young Thai woman couple and go, ''Aww, isn't that sweet?'' with hand on heart, head tilted, endearing-like, smile forming at the corners of the lips, mushy-like, eyes beaming in dreamy appreciation? No, of course not _ everyone goes ''Oooooh''. But again, people would have the same nauseous reaction to seeing an old Thai man with a young Thai girl. The only difference is the ''foreign'' bit.

Have old farangs turned Thailand into a land of prostitutes? Absolutely. And so have young farangs. But they have done so to a far lesser degree than old and young Thai men. Or Thai women themselves, who (whether as a lifestyle choice or an economic necessity) prostitute themselves. Or Thai parents, who sell their daughters to pay debts. It is what it is.

On the flip side, as I've mentioned, take a look at the Bangkok Post website's forum and you'll see anti-Thai racism, whether subtle or blatant. It's only natural. ''Thai this and Thai that, blah, blah, blah''.

Foreign residents (legal or otherwise) will always complain about their host country. Any Thai who has lived in the West will tell you that we complained while living there too. Why? Because people complain, it's in our nature - and we complain best when the object of our bitterness is foreign.

Thais living in the West gripe about the decadence, the hedonism, the violent society, the lack of respect for family values, etc. Westerners living in Thailand gripe about the two-face greng jai attitude, the shakedowns and the dual pricing, the corruption and the inef ficiency, etc. That's what people do - we groan with delusions of our self-righteousness; we wail in our inability to embrace the fact that we simply cannot shape and mould the world and all its creations into our hopelessly personal, and grossly biased, ideal vision; we moan because we are self-centred.

But at the end of the day, Thais in the West must deal with the fact that, hey, they chose to live in the liberal West, and must carry all the baggage that comes with it. Likewise, Westerners in Thailand must deal with the fact that chose to live (temporarily or otherwise) in developing Thailand, and take all the baggage that comes with it.

Two-face greng jai? It's just good manners, and it can be positive when done as a social nicety, or negative when done to hide lies and deceit. Shakedowns and dual pricing? The day we get rid of these is the day we get rid of ''expat'' salaries. Fair enough? Corruption and inefficiency? We don't like it either, but you're the one who moved from the first world to third world, silly; so don't look down on us - help us improve the situation.

None of this is meant as an excuse for anything. Racism is wrong, no matter how you look at it. But racism is also human nature and will be with us as long as there are such concepts as ''foreign'' and ''diversity''. So I would urge that it be viewed not through bitter self-righteousness, but rather using the understanding eye of humanity, with a bit of comedy thrown in for good measure.

Thailand is changing rapidly, and it can be overwhelming, especially to the everyday people walking the streets. Twenty years ago, the only Western faces we saw in Thailand were old and wrinkly, generally speaking. Today, Bangkok is a melting pot filled with people from all corners of the world, young and old.

If I went to a club 15 years ago, there were only dark-haired Thais. The only pale faces were those of the Thai-Chinese and those who used very good skin-whitening creams. Now if I go to a club - well, as I did just last night - it's like the United Nations. Whites, blacks, browns, yellows, we have got it all.

When I was a kid, there were four channels on TV and that was it. Now my TV has a French channel. Oui.

Thailand, well, let's say Bangkok (and to a much lesser extent Chiang Mai, Korat, etc) has become a melting pot, and it has come to a boil very fast, in just about 20 years. The Thai culture and psyche colliding with multiculturalism _ it can be daunting, overwhelming _ will take time to adjust too. Below the-high rises, behind the screenings at state-of-the-art movie theatres and in the basements of fancy shopping malls, this is still a very conservative and traditional society that has just met all the rapid changes head on. It can cause seizures at times.

I have witnessed bitter racism from both Thais and Westerners. All I have to say is: chill, calm down, it's not all bad; we are adjusting to each other. Don't be so self-righteous, don't be so negative and don't be so sensitive.

If an old Western man and a young Thai girl are together, it's nobody else's business. Just appreciate that they are happy together.

If a Westerner chooses to live here, there's something I always like to say: ''Dorothy, you're not in Kansas any more.'' Adapt a little. It's a developing world, understand a little.

For the overly sensitive, if someone calls you ''farang'', it's just the term that we use, our language. Don't get offended. There's no negative connotation to it, unless an expletive precedes it - so chill. There may be racism in Thailand, as there is anywhere else, but two things I will say. First, no matter how much we complain (Thais or foreigners), we love it here, otherwise we wouldn't be here - and out of love, we should want to change things for the better, together.

Second, criminals may rob you of your money here, as will happen anywhere else in the world. But unlike in the West, there is no skinhead racist gang stomping you into the ground simply because of the colour of your skin. Appreciate that.

________________________________________

Contact Voranai Vanijaka via email at

voranaiv@bangkokpost.co.th

Cameron cuddles Europe.........

The devious, deceitful, disingenuous, double-dealing Dave continues on his unprincipled course with his coalition co-conspirators, especially in his relations with the EU. He is a good example of my long-held conviction that politicians inhabit a parallel planet, and the longer they are in Parliament the more they lose touch with reality.

They simply cannot see that the EU is not merely disliked in England; it is hated as an unelected, corrupt, self-perpetuating oligarchy. Those who say that we have a shared cultural heritage with Europe could not be more wrong. Our heritage is unique, which to a large extent we have passed on to our cousins in the US, Australia, New Zealand and other places.

Remember that no other member of the EU has an unbroken experience of Parliamentary government going back more than 65 years. Many of the members are as corrupt as third world countries. As an island race, we have a genetic dislike and distrust of Europeans because for most of the last 2000 years they have arrived –or failed to arrive – as invaders.

In particular, I believe that the traditional French foreign policy of neutralising the Brits both economically and politically continues unabated. Why else would they push for hedge funds to be regulated from Brussels when 80% of them are based only in the UK, although over 1000 have moved out of the City to Switzerland as a consequence?

The first broken promise was a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. But there will be a referendum on the alternative voting system which was not sought by the people and which was not in any manifesto. If Dave pulls off this fraud on the electorate, the next step will be fixed-term Parliaments, thus eliminating the ability of the Commons to get rid of a failing government, especially a coalition.

We expected Dave to take a tougher line with the EU than did his predecessors. Instead, he is even more of an integrationist.

Amongst his transgressions, there is his agreement to the new European diplomatic corps, supervision of the City of London, extension of criminal jurisdiction which will make the ECJ the court of last resort instead of the House of Lords, as I will continue to call the absurd ‘Supreme Court’ which cost the taxpayer around £50 million for no good reason, and acceptance of a higher EU budget at a time of cut-backs in the UK.

He opted to join the Irish bail-out although it is obvious that the intention is to save not Ireland but the euro.

Now there is the European Union Bill going through the Lords. This is supposed to defend against further EU encroachment by requiring any extension of powers to be decided by the courts, when the election undertaking was that Parliament would be the final arbiter, another broken promise.

To be fair, Dave is at last tackling some of the civil liberties issues. The ID card is now abolished and the data base dismantled. The 24 day detention without trial powers expire shortly and UK reverts to the previous 14 day period, so it’s not all bad.

An end to cheap fuel in the US>

Pundits here are beginning to acknowledge what quite possibly may be the end of the cheap gasoline era. Predictions are between $4 and $6 dollars a gallon with the prospect of an increase in the federal gasoline tax. One commentator mirrored my take on the subject which is that the US simply must extract itself from our addiction to oil; foreign oil.

Doing so, however, is tantamount to political suicide, but I do think that O has already taken that decision. If this proves to be correct, we will be entering a new era and the prevailing paradigms will be shifting like the desert sands.

Oddly, there remains enough oil and allied fossil fuel products to power world industry for some time to come. This is in spite of rising demand and rising demand is clearly Chinese driven. We in the US have 750 cars on the road per 1,000 people. China has 10. China also has a bourgeoning middle class complete with a lust for luxuries including motor cars.

What with soaring Chinese demand and world oil largely in Arab hands, the problem with fossil fuels is as much political as economic. As one commentator put it, the stone age did not end because it ran out of rocks. Indeed, other vicissitudes intervened to a point where necessity mothered invention.

We are now counting on that process to kick in and if it does not, everyone will be in trouble. The name of the game is alternative energy and I am certain that China will play a commanding role in its research, development and manufacture.

An end to cheap fuel in the US?

Pundits here are beginning to acknowledge what quite possibly may be the end of the cheap gasoline era. Predictions are between $4 and $6 dollars a gallon with the prospect of an increase in the federal gasoline tax. One commentator mirrored my take on the subject which is that the US simply must extract itself from our addiction to oil; foreign oil.

Doing so, however, is tantamount to political suicide, but I do think that O has already taken that decision. If this proves to be correct, we will be entering a new era and the prevailing paradigms will be shifting like the desert sands.

Oddly, there remains enough oil and allied fossil fuel products to power world industry for some time to come. This is in spite of rising demand and rising demand is clearly Chinese driven. We in the US have 750 cars on the road per 1,000 people. China has 10.

China also has a bourgeoning middle class complete with a lust for luxuries including motor cars. What with soaring Chinese demand and world oil largely in Arab hands, the problem with fossil fuels is as much political as economic.

As one commentator put it, the stone age did not end because it ran out of rocks. Indeed, other vicissitudes intervened to a point where necessity mothered invention.

We are now counting on that process to kick in and if it does not, everyone will be in trouble. The name of the game is alternative energy and I am certain that China will play a commanding role in its research, development and manufacture.

Shangri-la and pear-shaped Pakistan..........

And so we go on, in our Thai Shangri-la. We are very lucky to be able to spend virtually the whole winter here. The Cupids is a boutique hotel of only 12 bedrooms, but the owners’ house is pressed into service for some lucky folk if the main building is full. We had a honeymoon couple from the US staying there a few weeks ago; the main bedroom has the lot – Jacuzzi and all. It’s not so much a hotel but a more running family house party.

There are no ‘sirs’ or ‘madams’; it’s all first-names or ‘darling’! There are no receptionists, porters, cooks or cleaners; only ‘the girls’ who multi task. Jan the Manager does all the office work, cooks, gardens (I have a photo of her swinging a pick-axe to install a new garden fence) and as she lent us her welding mask to observe the total eclipse of the sun last year goodness knows what else she does.

The only men on the staff are the handymen and gardeners. The food is terrific, the air-conditioned rooms are all enormous suites with everything including free wi-fi, and the service is five-star. The gardens are beautiful and the birds prolific.

At any given time we know most of the guests because so many return every year from all over; we counted 9 nationalities in our first few days. We have 2 old friends returning next week who let their house while they are away from England which more than pays all their costs here, so reasonable is the tariff.

And to top it all, the winter weather in Northern Thailand is perfection; cool mornings and evenings and warm days with hardly a cloud in the sky. The Cupids is 15 kms from downtown, so it is cooler and far less polluted by traffic in its village location.

It is as near perfection as one will get in this wicked world; if only home commitments allowed us to stay longer than our usual three months!

Trip Advisor ranks the Golden Cupids as 13th out of over 300 hotels and against some pretty stiff competition. It does not take cost into account but when this is factored in, the Cupids comes out at number 2.

To more serious matters.

The situation in Pakistan scares me.

The murder of a moderate and able politician by his bodyguard as the others stood by and did nothing is a step down the road to complete anarchy. The sight of people showering the murderer with rose petals is a clear indication of the moral turpitude of a large part of the population. That the men with beards have gained enormously in strength since Musharaff left is self-evident.

How did it come to this pass? It was not intended to be so; when Ali Jinnah led Pakistan to independence he intended it to be a secular and democratic country where the Muslim religion was obviously dominant but where other faiths would be respected.

The rot started with the ghastly Zia who began to turn Pakistan into a fundamental Islamic state arising, I believe, from a promise to Allah if his son recovered from a life-threatening illness. Then the even more ghastly Sharif introduced the death penalty for blasphemy in between looting the treasury. Then the Afghanistan situation over many years brought the Taliban and the Islamic extremists.

But I believe that the present situation is not only rooted in the rise of aggressive Islam. It is likely that political, social and economic evils are behind the semi-chaos that is today’s Pakistan.

Some years ago, when I was involved in the election that brought Sharif to power, a senior retired Army officer told me that unless the ruling elite changed its ways, the people would rise up and there would be a bloodbath. It’s getting there quickly.

Politics has always been not only hopelessly corrupt but also incompetent in every respect, despite the fact that Pakistan has some very able civil servants. It is said that in reality Pakistan is ‘owned’ by about 400 families – the Qureshi, the Khans, the Bhuttos etc. It seemed to me that life in the rural areas, which I visited extensively in the Punjab and Sindh, was basically feudal. There is, for example, the indenture system; if a man has to borrow a bride-price from his landlord, the deal will that he makes a given number of, say, bricks in return. The borrower is disadvantaged in two possible ways. The first is that the lender might attempt to raise the quantity before the debt is discharged. The second is that the debt can be sold-on.

I have seen worse rural poverty in Pakistan than in all my travels throughout Africa. The peasantry is ground down. The landlord may charge for water taken from ‘his’ river so that children often suffer from skin diseases because they can’t afford to wash.

It is reported that the flooding was as a result of landlords diverting the Indus to the east when previously it was diverted to the west in times of threatened flood, so that their land would be unscathed when the waters started to rise. I have no idea whether the reports are accurate, but I would not be surprised. On BBC World I saw the police in charge of food-aid distribution demanding bribes before they would release any food at all, so the poorest suffer all over again

And so here we are, with chaos looming in a nuclear-armed country. I predict that the Army will soon take over again in the absence of an alternative, but the country might also effectively disintegrate, with parts under the control of the Taliban, especially in the FATA and other areas bordering Afghanistan. I cannot see India standing idly by if Pakistan goes Taliban.

Now we have Tunisia falling apart. Will there be a domino effect? Hillary clearly sees the danger, judging from her recent berating of corrupt Arab autocrats for failing to move with the times.

And what sort of revolution are we seeing? It does not seem Islamist at this time. Its causes are more to do with lack of jobs, repression, poor educational opportunities, and other social and economic ills.

Let us see how it all pans out.

Gun law, American-style.........

Americans are prisoners of the second amendment to the Constitution. The intention of our forefathers remains clear and it is decidedly not to arm the public. At the time of framing the Constitution, each colony maintained its own militia however ragtag and undisciplined. There being no federal army, the states were not only granted, but encouraged to sustain their militias as a first line of defense. Please note the emphasis on 'militia'.

The amendment has been spun by the political right into an unalienable right to not only bear arms but to keep an arsenal of automatic hand guns and rifles along with as much ammunition as one wants to stockpile. The National Rifle Association is a sacred cow that is inviolable as demonstrated by a multitude of unsuccessful but highly aggressive efforts to disenfranchise it, or at least dramatically curtail its powers.

Many, like myself, are content to allow our citizens the right to a hunting weapon or enjoy sport shooting at a gun club. I steadfastly believe, however, that any weapon for any other purpose is a danger to individuals and society and should be outlawed. This includes weapons for self defense.

Unfortunately, this viewpoint is itself unrealistic because so many Americans are so well armed, and so intent on acquiring more weapons and ammunition that it would be virtually impossible to disarm them. In short, we could not disarm America if we tried.

Federal approval is required to purchase a weapon. This takes about 15 minutes for a person without a criminal record and can be accomplished while waiting in front of the weapons counter at Wal Mart or any other store dealing in guns. There is no limit to the number of weapons one owns. Gun fairs and shows buy and sell weapons indiscriminately and often without reference to federal approval.

Guns are constantly bought and sold privately and through newspaper want ads and are likewise traded without reference to federal screening. Guns are frequently exchanged, traded, stolen and gifted especially by criminal elements such as the Mafia, militia groups and street gangs.

I recently visited a gun store to buy a 22 caliber replica version of a Henry or Winchester lever action rifle. I was astounded to see on display a vast array of automatic weapons including machine pistols, M16 rifles, AK47s and even a light machine gun with a tripod mount, scope, night sight and laser sight. These are not big game hunting weapons. Nor are they weapons for self defense. They are assault weapons which are being purchased throughout the US in anticipation of the day when citizens will be called upon to aggressively defend themselves against invasion.

To the casual non-American observer, it may seem unlikely that an enemy force would, or even could, penetrate our military defenses and take hostile action against common urban, suburban and rural dwellers in this vast country of ours. And such observers would be correct. You see, it is not a foreign enemy that so many of our citizens fear, but rather our very own government. In addition, we fear scenarios in which our government fails to curtail criminal and anti-social elements who, given a natural disaster or food crisis for example, might take it upon themselves to 'take over' and to subdue any resistance through brute force during efforts to steal food, fuel or money.

Hollywood has produced numerous films using this and similar scenarios and it is incredible how popular and seriously taken these films are. Young and old alike lie awake at night conjuring up situations in which they heroically defend their community, or country, with little else but a stealthy demeanor and plenty of automatic weaponry.

Every time we have an incident in which a public figure is shot, laws are proposed to curtail the sale and spread of guns. The guts of such laws that have passed into legislation have been removed to the point where their intent has been negated. The image of Charlton Heston, a former Chairman of the NRA, holding a rifle aloft from his podium at an NRA convention and saying "come and take it" remains fixed in our minds. Through popular efforts such as Heston's, anti gun advocates have been effectively emasculated in their endeavors to bring sanity and reason to the issue of bearing arms.

The Tucson massacre: aTexan take.......

The Tucson shooter, Jared Laughner, is not known to the public. My take is that he suffers from psychological maladies that engender insecurity and paranoia and make him feel capable of and justified in righting perceived social ills. In a word, he is insane, although he may not be so judged by a jury of his peers.

Never mind, the guy is a nutter, acting alone and very much influenced by contemporary political and media rhetoric.

It is this rhetoric that has focused public attention. Both the political right and left are accused of employing martial and inflammatory phrases to characterize the personality, intent and disposition of public figures.

Yes, the Tea Party is a prime suspect, especially in the use of terminology in which individuals with whom they disagree should be placed in the cross hairs of public scrutiny and assaulted with the verbal weapons of our most articulate sharpshooters.

This accusation is not limited to the political right, but the new conservative movement including the Tea Party are very much guilty of employing inflammatory rhetoric. This includes Sarah Palen, Rush Limbaugh and a host of others.

I have long believed that their poison words will come to no social good and have long rued the inability of their opposition on the left to not refrain from responding in kind.

Deepwater: 'We are all guilty....'

BP, Halliburton, and Transocean were jointly responsible for the Deepwater blowout, says the official enquiry. No surprise there, then. Who else? The BBC World news reported that the Feds also got a shellacking for complacency but this never appeared in the print media. So nobody comes out with any credit. Two people especially.

I said at the beginning that O’s stance was unpresidential. By slating ‘British Petroleum’, knowing full well that it had ceased to be such when it took over AMOCO, he displayed at the best an appalling piece of duck-shoving. By allocating blame before the inquiry had even been set up, he exposed himself as having unpleasant demagogic tendencies.

The second villain-of-the-piece was the wretched Chairman of BP, Sven the Invisible. It is the Chairman’s job to speak for the company in times of crisis, not that of the CEO. So what does he do? Goes off on a Far East cruise on his yacht with his squeeze. And why was his Director of Communications so silent? Isn’t it his job to spin his masters out of trouble?

The crucifixion of Tony Hayward was despicable; true he did not handle the PR at all well. But he is an oil-man not a PR spiv and he was busy on rectifying the culture of complacency and cost-cutting on safety that was introduced by John Browne, his predecessor.

BP has apparently been voted as one of the American companies most hated. No surprise there, then. Whatever happened to British Petroleum?

Massacre in Tucson.......

What are we to make of the terrible events in Tucson?

The DT editorial has slated the left and by implication Obama for what they describe as political point scoring about the acrimony introduced into the political discourse of the US. In the same issue, Alex Spillius quotes violent statements by the Right, especially the T Party, which if accurate would have resulted in prosecution in UK for incitement or as ‘hate’ crimes.

I feel that it is stretching credulity too far to suggest that this was a political assassination. If it was, why did the gunman kill six innocent people, including 9-year old girl? The more important question is what kind of polity permits a known nutter to buy a machine pistol?

The DT reports brought all the usual worms out of the woodwork. The majority of those that I read were fiercely defending the right to use lethal force against almost anything that they disagreed with, and the Second Amendment gets almost constant reference.

‘A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed’.

The meaning of the Second Amendment seems to me abundantly clear. It is the right to bear arms as a member of a militia’ in the days before the US had a standing army. It is absurd to imagine that the remarkably astute men who drafted the Constitution had any intention of allowing individuals untrammelled right to arm themselves to the teeth without hindrance.

Regrettably, the US courts do not agree with me. I would quote Oliver Cromwell at them – ‘Thinkest thou in the bowels of Christ, gentlemen, that thou mayest be mistaken’

But surely there should be stringent gun control to prevent the purchase of military-type weapons, such as an automatic pistol designed for use by police, special services and the like. Sensible restrictions should apply to both the person and the weapon.

Personal restrictions should include the need to have a firearms licence subject to:

• No record of conviction of an imprisonable offence;

• No record of serious psychiatric condition;

• Age not less than 21 (the same as for alcohol);

• Training in the use of the weapon applied for (I believe this is so in South Africa);

• Proof of permanent residential address and of immigration status if not a US citizen;

• Life ban if convicted of a crime of violence or a firearms offence;

• One handgun and one rifle or shotgun per applicant;

• Annual renewal;

• Instant cancellation if convicted of any misuse of the firearm;

• Substantial penalties for infringement including bans.

Restrictions on weapons should include:

• No automatics – single shot only, which means that only revolvers and bolt action rifles would be permitted.

• Maximum calibre of .32 for handguns and .30 for rifles.

None of these would conflict with the Constitution. But try telling that to the NRA.

Airlines to hate

American Airlines has been voted the most hated carrier in the US. In the UK I would not be at all surprised if that citation went to BA. By coincidence, Wee Willy Walsh was on BBC World whinging about ‘unfair’ competition from the rising airlines in the Gulf.

They smartly reposted that until recently all national flag carriers in Europe were nationalised and received huge subsidies from the state, whereas the Gulf airlines are required to function as commercial entities and receive no privileges like cheap fuel.

I have always had acceptable service from BA, but I heartily dislike them as a company. The main reason is that when they ran regional services, they had a nasty habit of cancelling flights for ‘technical’ reasons, or take you to an alternative destination.

For example, I came back from Malawi via Joburg arriving at Heathrow. I then took a taxi to my connecting airport, Luton. My flight was not even on the departure board. As BA had no enquiry counter at Luton it took me some while to discover that we were all being bussed to Gatwick instead, not nice after a journey that by now was about 24 hours with another four or five to get home.

It is blindingly obvious that the ‘technical’ problem was lack of passengers so they put everyone on a single flight.

A friend living in Thailand bought refundable BA tickets for his son and girl-friend to visit from England. The day before departure the girl friend discovered that she had lost her passport. So my friend claimed a refund. That was two years ago. He has had no reply whatsoever to his numerous approaches to BA and has now given up.

But he is a frequent premium traveller, and has vowed that he will never, ever fly BA again.

I have flown Virgin twice. If my experience is typical they have brought the pleasure back into flying.

It started in the business-class lounge. The waiter welcomed me by asking if I would like a cocktail. As it was only 7 a.m. I had coffee instead. The food was the first I had really enjoyed in 50 years of flying. The service was exceptional. Diagonal single seats were fantastically comfortable. And there is a stand-up bar.

I can never sleep on aircraft. Wrapped in a duvet on my flatbed I had to be wakened on the return journey because we were landing at Gatwick. Even missed my breakfast!

We take eight flights a year by Thai. Their service is good but their long-haul aircraft are clapped. They should have been replaced by the A380 but this is three years behind delivery date. They do not reply to complaints.

With a succession of technical problems QANTAS is now known as Quite A Nice Trip; Any Survivors?

What is your experience?

No news is bad news......

One must search hard for interesting news just now, but that is a good thing, is it not. It affords journalists to report something positive, although I have not seen much along those lines. Lots of speculation, however, such as the origin of the spate of massive bird deaths, why the Catholic church is suddenly interested in publicly exposing its exorcism rites, what nascent form of dishonesty might be lurking at No. 10 Downing street, how the Republics who are now the majority in our House of Representatives intend to reduce spending while not increasing tax revenue, and cetera.

Flavor of the month editorially speaking is the production of scenarios regarding the demise of the USA as the world economic, political and military power. I would be delighted for the USA to leave the limelight as world No. 1 and enjoy the luxury of sitting back to watch another super power contend with world ills. China would be fine with me in this role, as would India, Brazil, Russia and even the EU, although the latter is not bloody likely given the prevailing absence of any form of unity whatsoever.

China could address the opium and Taliban issues in Afghanistan while sending envoys to Israel and Palestine to jump-start peace negotiations. India would be ideal for ensuring human rights, child labor reform, and taking a firm hand in controlling North Korea. Russia might well commit itself to resolving Middle East crises, prison reform, freedom of the press and the evils of alcohol. As for the world's monetary leader, I leave it up to the EU to take over that role along with that of financing faltering national economies.

Spanish practices........

Like Churchill’s pudding, this missive has no theme. There has been nothing happening lately that commands exclusive attention, so it will be ‘a thing of shreds and patches’.

After the Xmas hiatus in the political panto, the world seems to be returning to its customary state of deranged equilibrium. Here, for example, is F&CO advice to travellers:

‘There is a high threat of terrorism in Thailand. Bomb and grenade attacks have been indiscriminate, including in places visited by expatriates and foreign travellers. Sporadic attacks continue in Bangkok and around Chiang Mai. Since the beginning of 2010, there have been 114 reported explosions in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces’.

Who writes this damaging rubbish? Does the F&CO ever weigh its words against their possible impact, particularly on the tourist trade? It’s true that a few grenades were chucked around during the riots last year, but apart from the Muslim south, ‘terrorism’ is virtually unknown. F&CO is confusing terrorism with violent political demonstrations. Surely the two countries most at risk from terrorism, apart from its birthplace, Israel (which invented terrorism as an acceptable political weapon under the British Mandate) are the UK and the US. Does the F&CO describe them as having a ‘major terrorist threat?

More dottiness in Spain.

It has a financial crisis that observers say makes Ireland’s problem look like a walk in the park. So what is the first piece of legislation passed in the New Year? Why, a draconian smoking ban – in a country where the hospitality industry is huge. Spain is Europe’s fourth largest tobacco-grower. It receives large subsidies under the CAP (yes, the EU subsidises tobacco at the same time as spending taxpayers’ money on promoting smoking bans – no surprise there, then). Have they not learnt from the experience in UK and Ireland, where pubs are closing daily because of the loss of custom, or that in Ireland recently published figures show that smoking has gone up since the ban, especially amongst the under-25s?

Back in the UK, people are now getting worried about the dangers from the proliferation of urban foxes, following attacks on children. There was photo in the DT of a monster that was twice the size of a rural fox, nearly as big as a large dog. Apparently this is because of them feeding mightily on the prolific food waste that is a feature of modern Britain. This is all a consequence of the hunting ban, a ludicrous and unenforceable law that occupied something like 700 hours of Parliamentary time whereas the debate on the Iraq war only took up about 17 hours of our masters' consideration.

They, of course, brushed aside the fact that hunting with hounds is the the most humane and environmentally-effective way of controlling population growth. Other measures are cruel and ineffective. Hunting culls the old, the sick and the unhealthy, and death is instantaneous and certain. Other methods don’t discriminate and often leave the animal wounded, to die miserably. The outcome of banning deer-hunting is that they have proliferated to such an extent that they are becoming a major traffic hazard. At least as important is that diseased animals are no longer taken out, with the result that they are spreading infection amongst farm animals.

Needless to say, the townies and bunny huggers won’t listen.

One of the consequences of Wikileaks is that the well-turned apercu is likely to disappear from diplomatic dispatches. When I was working on elections in Pakistan, the British High Commissioner gave me a copy of his note to the F&CO about the conduct of the EU election observer mission. It was hilarious. Concerning the French representative he wrote ‘ The French Government representative arrived with gorgeous pouting Rita Chevrolet, checked in to a five-star hotel, never to be seen again’.