PM apologises over soldier letter November 10, 2009

Unfortunately, this is the biggest news in the UK for the moment.

For non-UK readers, Gordon Brown has taken an unprecedented step of hand-writing individual letters of condolence to the  close relatives of soldiers killed in the middle-East this year.

This is no mean task for someone running a country, when such letters would have normally been cranked out from a computer or by a typist and just signed. Not made easier because the PM does not have perfect vision in his one remaining eye and his handwriting is far from neat. He said “Every time I write a letter to mothers and fathers and partners who have suffered bereavement to express my sincere condolences, it is a moment of personal sadness to me. And I am in awe of the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces.”

Who in this situation might not have made mistakes? Unfortunately he did in one letter to the mother of Jamie Janes – several – and the letter clearly was not proof-read before being posted.

She complained. The PM phoned personally to apologise for the errors and was, apparently,  harangued by her for 15 minutes. She recorded the tirade and subsequently passed it for publication to The Sun. In a video distributed by the Sun newspaper, his mother Jacqui called the letter a “hastily scrawled insult”. What, if anything, she is being paid for this has not been revealed but The Sun is known to have its own anti-government agenda.

She has every right to be upset and her desire, or even ‘need’, to  blame someone for her loss is not unexpected. What she is not showing is the dignity shown by the relatives of every other UK soldier killed in this conflict. She shows no respect for the effort Gordon Brown has made nor for his disability. I’m sure her son would not have wanted it this way. Like every man and woman in the conflict, he signed up for the armed forces, knowing full well that he might give his life for his country. Like many others, I believe he wrote a letter to be opened in the event of his death.

The sooner this ‘news’ item fades from the airwaves and headlines the better. I hope that Mrs Janes can soon accept the facts, understand and accept the motives of others and find peace of mind in her grief.

 

Obama says health vote ‘historic’ November 8, 2009

This is the big news of the day. Viewed from the UK it may seem strange that a rich country is only now considering a state-funded health care system which looks after the poor, funded by those who can afford it. We’ve had the NHS for nearly 60 years. It’s not perfect and some people still prefer to buy their own private care but I’ve never met anyone who would prefer the current American version.

Mr Obama said: “Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable healthcare for the American people.

“The United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.”

Read the full story: here on the BBC website, along with background to the bill, US citizens’ stories and a growing debate.

It’s not over yet.

man appears at his own funeral November 5, 2009

“A 59-year-old Brazilian man has surprised his family by turning up at his own funeral, local media report. Police told O Globo newspaper that relatives had trouble identifying the corpse because it was badly disfigured. He did not get word of his funeral until it was already happening on Monday morning, his niece Rosa Sampaio said.”

Read the full story: here

It could happen to any of us, I suppose.

Why was David Nutt sacked? November 2, 2009

Mark Easton’s article on the BBC news web site enlightened us somewhat on the controversy over what scientific advisors tell our government and what the government subsequently decides to do with that information.

For what it’s worth, I agree that cannabis is more harmful than tobacco or alcohol by any number of measures. I agree that government has ignored good advice in the past – and suffered for it.

However, if we extrapolate Mr Nutt’s advice, we should not only downgrade cannabis but we should reclassify tobacco and alcohol as illegal drugs. And that’s just not going to happen (for a very long time, at least) for many reasons; economic (employment, income and other taxes), social and historic.

What else damages the health of millions and puts a drain on the NHS as much as smoking?

Poor diet and lack of exercise? Lots of initiatives to improve these areas.

Fighting, gangs, drug wars, guns, knives? Again, big efforts in these areas.

Growing old? ……………..

I think we have to accept that all political decisions are (should be?) based on evidence and intelligent consideration of many other factors. That means that decisions can appear to be subjective and subject to good old human error, so some times they turn out, with hindsight, to have been wrong. And sometimes we, the public, fail to understand the reasoning behind these decisions. But that’s why we elect and pay politicians.

If enough people disagree with what they decide and if there are would-be politicians more likely to do what we want then we vote for a change. That’s democracy.

Wal-Mart starts selling coffins October 30, 2009

BBC news reports today that:

“The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, now plans to hold on to customers even after they die – by selling coffins. Prices range from a “Mom” or “Dad Remembered” steel coffin for $895 (£540), to a bronze model at $2,899. The retailer is offering caskets at prices that undercut many funeral homes, say correspondents.”

This is the best bit:

“But an industry spokesman said it was not gravely concerned about Wal-Mart’s move”

Man’s 16 day toilet refusal October 26, 2009

“A drugs dealer who refused to go to the toilet for 16 days to avoid producing the evidence that would convict him has been jailed for 52 months. Damien Ankrah, 28, placed the drugs in condoms and swallowed them to avoid detection, Swansea Crown Court heard. Ankrah was arrested in Haverfordwest on 13 July as part of a police operation uncovering new drugs suppliers coming into Pembrokeshire.

Ankrah eventually began to accept drinks after local magistrates granted police more time to detain him and on 17 July he started to eat again.
On 29 July he went to the toilet and produced five bags of heroin.”
Crikey, swallowing that stuff is risky enough without increasing the risk of one bursting by hanging on to it unnecessarily. And it was an unnecessary risk because the final outcome was, after all, inevitable.

Ethiopia to seek urgent food aid October 22, 2009

According to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), ”Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution,” said Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, who has just returned from Ethiopia. If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can survive despite what the elements throw at them.”

Read the full story: here

However, the CIA world fact file on Ethiopia states that only 10% of the country is arable. Both sources agree that harvests are failing regularly now (probably due to global climate change, but that’s another matter).

Doesn’t there come a time when a population has to accept that the area they’ve lived in for centuries is no longer inhabitable? Should the rich world’s workers pay, through taxes and donations, for 10 million people to live in what seems to be becoming an extension of the Sahara desert?

This isn’t what we understand Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” to be about, surely.

Instead of waiting for these people to reach the point of starvation and desperately moving to Red Cross feeding camps as refugees (as we’ve seen in so many other countries) why can’t the Ethiopian government plan the migration of the suffering subsistence farmers to those areas of the country with a better climate and water supply? All land is government owned which should ease any such movement, after all.

UK postal workers’ strikes October 22, 2009

Sometimes I despair at the lack of logic of some groups of workers and the blinkered view of their unions.

Any group of workers whose jobs are threatened have my sympathy. Some (notably in the last 12 months) have agreed to work more flexibly, take pay cuts or longer unpaid leave to help save jobs. Not the postal workers.

Someone once said “The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history.” So true here.

Every time they strike or disrupt deliveries more companies seek out alternative ways of continuing their business. Competition to Royal Mail letter delivery grows and grows. At Christmas Scout groups deliver cards locally to raise funds around Farnham and Ipswich, a  one man operator delivers mail in Plymouth and a plethora of larger companies offer courier services in the uk and delivery world-wide.

Do these workers genuinely believe their actions will achieve anything positive for their jobs and their future?

Egypt cleric ‘to ban full veils’ October 5, 2009

“Egypt’s highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women’s veils, known as the niqab.

Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.”

Read the full story: here

At last, some truth and common sense. Perhaps the rest of the world can follow his lead.

Tsunami warning in the Pacific September 29, 2009

A warning was released an hour or so ago, after an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale struck 20 miles below the surface, 120 S-W of the Samoa islands.

The warning is for  American Samoa, New Zealand and other Pacific islands such as Fiji, Tonga and the Cook Islands. As yet there are no details of when or how severe any tsunami might be.

Looking at a map, it would have to be pretty severe to pose much of a threat to New Zealand’s northern-most coastal areas.

22:20 BST

According  to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre , the long distance warning has been withdrawn. A 1.6m wave was detected at one island site but, it seems, the worst is over.