Panorama & Libya

I know the point of Panorama is to anger the viewer but I am angry towards Panorama. They are taking a blinkered perspective, not accounting for culture or respect.

I remember travelling to Libya in the 90′s and as part of my warning, I was told that the punishment for stealing is to chop a hand off, if I steal a second time, I lose my other hand so that I cannot steal again. If I commited any crime, punishment was harsh. An eye for an eye pretty much sums up their policy based on their culture and beliefs.

Now along come Panorama and they are objecting to the way prisoners are treated. Come on. Imagine the Libyans started berating us for giving people who commit crime an easy time. We would not accept them interferring in our judicial systems, so why do we think we can and should interfer in their policies, methods and justice?

Suicide

If you ever wanted to cmmit suicide then New York is the place to do it because jumping off a building is illegal. This is punishable by death. Just hope they punish you asap rather than after the recovery period of the fall. But at least you can rest assured, that if you fail, they probably won’t! Definate success?

Changing the Future

“Always remember the future comes one day at a time”. Dean Acheson

It would be nice to be able to have instantaneous change but that is next to impossible but starting with small things all helps change. Not that you are going to do it, because hey -  you are wasting your time reading my blog instead of having a life, but start by being nice to the next person!!

HA!!

Riots are not protests! DUH!

There are all these riots which are meant to be a protest of sorts… except with a protest usually you can pacify them by giving them what they want… but what do these rioters want other than destruction? Also protestors would not be “breaking and entering”, stealing, killing or burning homes and businesses down!

And the worst of it is that I am sure that most people in the riots have any idea of the impact to the economy, society or if the country ended up under Marshall Law.

I cannot believe how frightened the cops are of the looters… for crying out loud, give the Police back their guns and their respect. In the past it was an honour to be a policeman and everyone respected them. Today they are ignored and sometimes even abused, which is unacceptable. So please let us give the police the ability to do their work and we won’t have things like riots any more!

Royal Wedding

Some people are celebrating. Some continuing with their daily lives (they weren’t personally invited or know the couple intimately). And some have decided to protest. My question is WHY? I guess some people are so dissatisfied with their lives, they have nothing better to do.

Despite all my grumbling… I am joining my street and partying. Life is too short to just grumble and so I am taking the opportunity to make the most of the event and for once I shall party and not grumble. I suggest you do the same.

(I’ll be back grumbling soon enough)!

Racism or Faulty Logic?

The Guardian had a headline which read “Black male headteachers in England’s state schools number just 30” and the rest of the article was even worse than the headline. The headline implies that there are only a handful of black male headteachers in the State School  System. They seem to forget that a) the teaching proffession does tend to be female oriented (and they do actually quote that there are 127 black females headteachers and b) the indigenous British race happens to be “white”.  

Personally I believe that a headteacher should be chosen based on ability and not colour and the reality is that the choice of  staff is dependant upon the applicants that actually apply for the post. I would not expect them to pluck a black guy from the street to do the job just because he is male and black!

Earth Day

Earth day started in 1970 by a senator from Wisconsin after he visited the site of a massive 1969 oil spill off the coast of California. Since then it has been celebrated globally in 175 countries and more than 500 million people celebrate Earth Day. Especially considering recent events such as the Earth Quakes in Japan, the fighting in Afghanistan, Libya and the Ivory Coast, and who knows what else, it is nice to for a change pull together. And today, virtually anyone with an internet connection can speak globally.  Running today from 7AM EDT and running for 24 hours, the global chat will cover a range of topics, feature prominent expert panelists and hopefully oganize global action towards peace and environmental stewardship.