Sometimes even the President [...] has to stand Naked

Congrats to Sarkozy and Carla Bruni for their marriage announcement, and teh subsequent slip that she was preggers makes me believe he was almost forced into this situation. She is quite a good singer though. This one is probably for French Speakers only...

In other President related news, it's Super Duper Tuesday today. I'm already bored of it, we'll know a lot more after today that's for sure, but I think I just don't care anymore. Let's hope that American's don't feel this way either.




It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Politician got on his jogging shoes

Put-down of the week.. Barak Obama to Hilary Clinton.

"While I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

That's why he should win... but what do I know ?

Summerdays

Bring the whole family

The government today announced that it is to plough ahead with new nuclear power stations. I do not agree with this policy at all and can see numerous issues surrounding security and the proposed 'enviornomental' benefits of Nuclear power vs traditional power generation. And the nuclear body seems hell bent on telling us all that wind/wave/solar are too unstable and expensive options.

But their might be a little bit more behind this decision. Gordon Brown, PM has a younger brother called Andrew Brown who happens to work for EDF Energy, the UK subsidary of the French state owned energy company that is proposing to build new nuclear plants in the UK. You can read more about how the Nuclear Power lobby has muscled its way into government's machinery at this website here.

What pisses me off is that this is surely such a large issue worthy of proper debate and decision making that we could be making a decision which impacts on humanity in millions of years to come and it all might be coming down to who knows who. People tell me I am naive and idealistic, but surely there are some areas in politics which are out of bounds.

Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Blues

The hour when the ship comes in

Sometimes things happen which makes all the tomfoolery of this blog appear irrelevant. What's going on right now in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is one of those occassions.

I'll leave it to others to comment, this is not supposed to be a political blog, but you get the feeling that a militaristic regime as odious as that in power would have been tackled by the international communty a long time ago, had it had vast amounts of oil reserves (see also Mugabe in Zimbabwe).

However, perhaps we could be on the brink of change anyway with the Monks, students and civilians deciding to take to the streets to protest. What sparked this all off was an increase in fuel duty. So oil is still tied into this all anyway. The country has been getting poorer and poorer and is adrift from the international community with only China as a real friend, meanwhile thousands of refugees are fleeing the country on a daily basis.

One feels a little bit helpless really, looking at this through a computer, but it may well be the first popular revolution broadcast via the internet. This could become a moment of history in the same way that fall of Eastern Europe was, or Tianamen Square. But this time the net is giving people their information and allowing people a say, and we're not watching it through TV sets. This could be a moment in history for us too.

As of time of writing the facebook group to show support to the people of Burma has over 13,000 members. Websites such as the Guardian and BBC are focusing on this issue with a rolling blog and extensive reporting and videos. The Irrawaddy News is covering this extensively too (a South East Asian based news service/blog). Other videos have been posted over at YouTube. The Burnese based blogs reporting this protest are being blocked at the moment, mobile phone coverage has been disabled and internet cafes have been forcefully closed but as the Prime Minister said at the Labour Party Conference today, "The whole world is now watching Burma". You can petition the PM to keep up his actions on Burma, by visiting this website and signing the petition.

Finally, the anarchist in me loves this - you can annoy these companies who do business with the regime. Fuckers. They have no soul.

I hope that a peaceful outcome will arise where members of the military decide not to shoot their own people and turn their guns on the corrupt tyrants running this country. Whatever the outcome the whole world will be watching, blogging and discussing it via the internet.

And you readers will know me well enough now... I couldn't help but think about 'When the Ship Comes In', Bob Dylan's song from The Times They Are A-Changin'... Everything with me comes back to Bob, but it's worth listening to this song, I know I will be tonight..

"Oh the foes will rise

With the sleep still in their eyes

And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'.

But they'll pinch themselves and squeal

And know that it's for real,

The hour when the ship comes in.

Then they'll raise their hands,

Sayin' we'll meet all your demands,

But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered.

And like Pharaoh's tribe,

They'll be drownded in the tide,

And like Goliath, they'll be conquered."

When the Ship Comes In

The glamour and the bright lights and the politics of sin

A History of Tony Blair

Early years - everyone loves him, he's so cool, he plays guitar, he could be our very own Bill Clinton. At Diana's death he coins an iconic phrase that will probably be his only legacy.

Mid years - pisses everyone off by going to war in Iraq, despite the dossier which even a two year old deaf, dumb and blind kid could work out was dodgy.

Late years - Continues to bomb the shite out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Becomes really arrogant. No one likes him anymore - even the Labour Party. Clings onto power because the rest of British politics is inept.

Today - Fucks off from Downing Street. Accepts role as Middle East envoy.

Hold on a minute... First of all Blair goes around the Middle East and bombs the shit out of Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of democracy all the while continually supporting the undemocratic states in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Now he's going to be on hand to help solve the crisis that he has, in part, created? WTF? No wonder the Middle East hates us.

Fuck off and retire you cunt.

Sorry about the language. I'm very angry that I'm going to see his face for years to come. He had a golden opportunity in 1997 to change this country for the better. He never introduced his sweeping reforms of the electoral system, he wasted money on stupid schemes (ID cards, NHS computer project, the Dome) which no one wanted/wants. He had wide-ranging support from the public and could have really changed things. But Blair didn't. Everyting is the same now - we're a little wealthier so I guess people stopped caring. As long as we have our two holidays a year, who cares about democratic reform?

Anyhow, see you later Blair. You will forever be remembered for a war that no-one wanted and a phrase which Alistair Campbell probably wrote for you. That's quite an achievement isn't it? I hope your mother is proud.

Dead Man, Dead Man

I wouldn't marry the president, Uh-huh

Well my other country had elections at the weekend and France chose to elect Nicolas Sarkozy as President, known as “Sarko”. Before I start my rant, I’d like to say that I do have the right to vote in France but choose not too – not because of political apathy, but because I feel it is a bit rich for myself living in the UK having a say on what happens in a country where I no longer live.

He’s been touted as a Thatcherite by the UK press, but he is more like Berlusconi to be honest. In France there was no mention of his marital problems, critics claim that his close links to the French media have allowed him to suppress this news which I believe is of importance when choosing a person to lead the country. His wife also had her book, detailing the issues in her marriage, scrapped by the publishers days before release thanks to political pressure from “Sarko” (this was when they were “on a break”). So he’s got the media on his side at the moment.

What interests me the most is this article from the Independent that claims that had the election excluded those over 55, then Segolene Royal would have won. Easily. So we can see a divided France. The young and urban voted for Royal, the older, rural and pensioned voted for Sarko. Many would have been attracted to his authoritarian stance rather than his plans for economic reform. The young on the otherhand seem a little angry, like this blogger's post-election playlist seems to indicate.

Unfortunately, I fear for France. I feel, like Royal did, that he will prove to be devisive. The fact that there are now clearly observable lines across French society is not new to me – these certainly existed when I lived there. But they are now more violent than in the past – many on the wrong side of the line (i.e. the poor) are severely angry at a society that no longer speaks for them or to them. “Sarko”, if he chooses to be as ruthless as he was at the time of the violence last year when he was Interior Minister, will only enflame the situation even more (calling the protestors “racaille” or “Scum” in English doesn’t help). Two nights of rioting across Paris, and other regional cities have greeted the news that “Sarko” is going to be president. This comes as no surprise to me.

But what many British commentators have forgotten is that a French President has less power than a British Prime Minister. In many respects he is a figure-head who prances around the world claiming independence of Anglo-US foreign policy and pisses people off – it’s just what the French President is supposed to do. We’ll have to wait until the elections for the parliament to see whether he has the majority and political force necessary for his reforms to go through.

All I can say is that I am glad that I no longer live in France and have to deal with this shit. Here’s a message of support from Tony Blair, British PM. I guess that says it all. The last thing anyone needs is encouragement from the guy who history will judge as being the idiot who got the UK into an illegal and immoral war. So click on the play button below to see Tony blabbering on in French.



Froggie Went a Courtin'

Mama, put my guns in the ground

The best blog post in the world was written by this person last week. I've taken the liberty of quoting it in full here. Check out the blog Anti-Crapitalist...

High School shootings

Whilst there are shootings and other stuff in other countries I was reading some of the comments in the UK Times and Telegraph online today from US posters. They were full of those “Fuck you English, we don‘t give shit what you think” posts in response to the debate on America’s obsession with guns.

This made me question whether we are in fact wrong to attempt to comment upon and analyse what is an internal matter for the USA, and whether we have any legitimate right to do so at all.

[Or whether it was simply the case that every NRA cardholding, NASCAR loving, pickup driving, shithead in the US had been told to start posting aggressively on UK media sites by the NRA National Executive].

The Europeans certainly can’t help criticising anything that seems to go wrong in America and you have to sit down for a second and think why we do it.

…… I think I have the answer.

The problem with America, and the reason why acts such as this draw criticism in Europe and elsewhere, is that we are fucking sick of watching your fucking films, drinking your fucking shitty coffee, buying your fucking shitty goods and having our lives invaded every fucking second by the constant bombardment of all of this SHITE that tells us you’re the best country in the world and how your so great at fucking everything. We don‘t ask for it. We don‘t demand access to your culture. You just shovel it into everyone‘s face 24 hours a fucking day until we think were part of it and therefore think we have the right to comment.

I don’t want to watch fucking shite like “Friends” on UK TV, or buy fucking Starbuck’s coffee on my street corner. You did that not me. We didn’t ask for it.

And because you impose your culture on us telling us how friggin great everything is, the minute an event happens that proves that all this shite that you produce in the media is just that, shite, we just can’t resist pointing it out. Because we know that your not all living happy shiny lives in La La Land, and that most of what you generate to show the rest of the world how great you are is fucking rubbish.

The US is not the worlds biggest democracy, it’s a country of big winners and big losers, only your stupid enough to let your losers arm themselves and attack the winners.

The US Government proved after Hurricane Katrina that it does not even give a flying fuck about its own poor or dispossessed so what can the rest of the world realistically benefit from interracting with US culture or values.

Cho Seung-hui is just another armed, pissed off, mentally unstable, loser who should not even have been able to look in a gunshop window never mind be allowed to purchase a fucking gun. Even serious mental health problems, which he had in December 2005, does not seem to preclude you from buying a gun in the free-est country in the world.

Its hardly a shining beacon to the rest of the world and we can’t help pointing that out because the "cultural" imperialism you export to tell us how great things are just fucking pisses us off.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

You're an Idiot, Babe

Idiot Wind

I'd throw all the guns and the tanks in the sea

I've not commented on the shootings in Virginia. The guy was obviously a nut-job. But discussing this in the office today revealed this nugget of information (originally from the Economist magazine).

Since 1963 more American citizens have been killed by guns in the USA than American soldiers killed in the foreign battlefields of the whole of the 20th century.

WWI and WWII were pretty bloody as well. Draw your own conclusions from that.

Let Me Die in my Footsteps

With twenty pounds of headlines stapled to his chest

I may have spoken about this before, but for my work I need to read the Daily Express everyday. It truly is one of Britain’s worst newspapers. Not only in terms of it’s political point of view, but also in terms of quality. The writers are rubbish, the columnists are awful, the layout is cheap, the sports coverage is pitiful.

Everyday they have a question to which readers can phone in their point of view. These are always simple questions with ‘Yes/No’ answers. Today’s question was particularly brilliant:

Is Britain going to the dogs?

YES: 0901 031 1501 or text DXVOTE A to 82100
NO: 0901 031 1502 or text DXVOTE B to 82100

I’ve included the phone numbers so you too can participate in this important exercise in democracy.

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

He had twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife

What is it with this country?

Not to detract from the seriousness of the issue of gay couples adopting, but it has become a massive issue in the UK over the last few days.

But what about more important things, like a little thing called “war”. It amazes me that we can spend column inches upon column inches in the newspapers debating this, that, or the other, but the larger issues remain largely unspoken of as the public has bored of them.

The real reason why this has become an issue is the rise of the fundamentalist Christians in the UK. Copying tactics used in the US by similar groups over there, they have made issues out of Jerry Springer the Opera, abortion and now gay adoption. These are all issues which merit some attention and debate but let’s not go overboard. Let’s just say that they have some very good PR people who are able to create outrage at the drop of the hat.

Some of these organisations are completly insane. As an aside, in America they have an organisation which has decided to list all of the bands which propagate gay issues, so you can choose to not buy their records. Great. Somewhat surprised by the inclusion of Wilco, but hey they do criticise Bush, so it's all the same. Check out the list here. Nice question mark around Morrissey, which did make me laugh.

Anyway back to the issue. I predict that we’ll see a rise in this kind of thing in the UK with the Christian groups stating that we are fundamentally a Christian society (despite the fact that hardly anyone goes to church anymore) and using more and more Americanised PR-tactics to a media which laps it all up. But it’s all a false debate – most of the country don’t really care, and see no problem in gay couples adopting.

I mean Iraq is nearly at civil war, Afghanistan is still a mess, Osama Bin Laden remains at large and we’ve not even touched on North Korea, Iran or Zimbabwe, but the debate on gay adoption goes on and on.

My views on this issue are that gay couples should be allowed to adopt. There are too many orphans who don’t find any home that surely it would be better if they were in a family, however unconventional that you may find that unit. So it could be viewed as a common-sense argument, not a moral one. And I mean no offence to gay people, but seeing as around 6% of the UK is gay, and not all of them in a relationship, how can this dominate the news for days on end? It's all because of a bunch of nutters hell-bent on returning society to a time and place which no longer exists, and one which I think didn’t even exist in the first place.

Rambling, Gambling Willie

Somewheres in this universe there's a place that you can call home

Many of you may know that I am half-English, half-French. Ricky Gervais is as well apparently. He claims that this means that he is a bad lover and has bad breath. What being a mongrel breed has done to me is leave me with the feeling that I’m never quite at home in the UK and never quite at home in France.

I’m a Eurobrat, son of a European bureaucrat, with a good education and no-where to call home. Not that I’m complaining, it is just the way it is. I have a few other friends who are all in this situation or have lived through similar circumstances, and I’m sure that they can relate to this feeling as well. I guess that I am a symbol of European integration. One of the first European off-spring.

But this story that has come out today, and it could have changed my life forever. Apparently, France and the UK were considering a union in the 1950s. Guy Mollet (the French Prime Minister) on 10 September 1956 came over to England and discussed the possibility of France and the UK merging, with the Queen becoming head of a new state (‘Brance’, or ‘Fringland’ maybe). Anthony Eden was apprently lukewarm to the idea, and Mollet responded by asking to join the Commonwealth instead. The French later rejected this proposal and turned to the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and a closer union with their continental neighbours. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But what about me? I could have lived in 'Fringland' and felt at home, I would have finally had a real place to call home that reflected who I was. Bloody roast-beef eating frogs! Why couldn’t they have sorted this out? Imagine the football team as well. We would have really kicked arse. And the food combinations would have been interesting. But for a simple twist of fate I could have lived in a country that really represented who I am. Sigh.

We Better Talk this Over

And for Christmas, buy her a drum

As you all probably know Christmas is now here. For anyone who has still not bought all their presents, shame on you and I hope you enjoy the seasonal crush at the shops. I know that Oxford Street (or any town or city centre) will be absolutely heaving with people who will all be thinking about getting their presents earlier in 2007 but probably won't.

For those looking for gift ideas, I give you the George W. Bush doll. Designed to commemorate the moment that he officially announced the end of hostilities in Iraq (what a joke!), it features the former alcoholic and drug user in full aircraft regalia. Cool, I think you'll agree. You can buy it here from Wartoyz.

Or if that isn't interesting enough, you can get a George W. Bush talking doll. He says interesting things like "working hard to put food on your family", "freedom itself was attacked", and "I come from Texas". You can get that from TalkingPresidents.com. I actually quite like the idea of that one.

Anyway, Merry Xmas from me and the Ramones.




She Belongs to Me

A master in the arts

It’s sometimes great working in central London. While I was on a Xmas shopping errand on Oxford Street I stumbled upon Santa’s Ghetto. This is the now annual event which showcases controversial art by people like the now infamous Banksy. Many have criticised the show as being too commercial and just an attempt to flog rubbish at inflated prices. Maybe it is or maybe it isn’t, I just know that I laughed. A lot. I don’t even pretend to know anything about art but I do know what I like and this kind of guerrilla art is, in my opinion brilliant. Below are some photos from the shop/exhibition which I’ve stolen from this person’s flickr account. Thanks to them for taking the photos in the first place.

I particularly like the vend-a-limb and the picture by Peter Kennard (apparently Ken Livingstone's favourite artist) which was in the front window of the exhibition right on the pavement of Blair using his mobile phone to take a picture of himself in front of a massive explosion. Great political statements, in my opinion and quite obviously created to offend and perplex.

They also had original Modern Toss prints. If you know Modern Toss then bravo, you are now as cool as me. It’s a great cartoon series. Here an example of Modern Toss. You can find it in the Guardian guide every saturday if you live in the UK.



Of course all of these prints, photos, works of art and the associated books are selling for outrageous prices and any of these would be the must-have gift for any art lover. However, it was great just being able to witness these works of art in an accessible place for once and not being surrounded by the artistic, literary and cultural elite so to speak. What a great exhibition. Let’s hope they do it again in 2007.

Ballad of Donald White

When I left my home the sky split open wide

So many words have been written on 9/11 that it seems silly of me to add to them. The internet is full of eye-witness accounts, conspiracy theorists, political commentators, bloggers and survivors and they are all better placed to speak about these events than I am. However, I’ll share my memories of this date that will be culturally and historically significant for centuries to come. It feels like the kind of thing that I’ll one-day tell my grandchildren about (if I ever have any), so I might as well get my story down beforehand.

I remember going out to the shop. Love and Theft, the new album from Bob Dylan and his first since 1997’s Time Out of Mind was released on that eventful day. I remember going to the shop on the Tuesday (I think it was released a day earlier but I couldn’t make it to the shops) and ripping open the packaging before playing the CD on the way home. A couple of hours later the significance of this record would pale in comparison to the events unfolding on television but there are plenty of rhymes and couplets that were given a whole new meaning by the horror’s unfolding on the television screen. Lines like these below suddenly meant so much more than Dylan intended.

"City's just a jungle, more games to play

Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away"

'Mississippi'

"Well, I'm stranded in the city that never sleeps
Some of these women they just give me the creeps
I'm avoidin' the Southside the best I can
These memories I got, they can strangle a man"

"When I left my home the sky split open wide
I never wanted to go back there - I'd rather have died"

"Some things are too terrible to be true"
'Honest with Me'

"You always got to be prepared but you never know for what"
'Sugar Baby'

I remember seeing the events unfolding live. I was watching the news and eating my lunch when it happened. The footage came in of what was at first considered a terrible accident. Little did I realise that I would be stuck to the footage coming in for hours and days to come. It was surreal and horribly addictive, I couldn’t keep my eyes off CNN, Sky News and BBC News. Something which today makes me feel like a lowlife voyeur who can’t keep their eyes off the scene of a car crash.

Looking at 9/11 through 2006 eyes, the situation is different. We’ve had a subsequent Wars on Terror in both Afghanistan and Iraq, bombings in Madrid, Bali and London and numerous warnings, arrests, and political debate. I certainly feel that we live in different times: perhaps more aware of dangers, less innocent, we (as a society) have maybe a fuller view of what’s going on around the world than previously.

There can be no doubt that 9/11 happened because of the minds of mad psychopaths, hell-bent on destruction. For many a time after the events of 9/11 it was hard to even question why this had happened to America and New York City. But today I can speak my mind without sounding like an insensitive bastard. Every day on the planet more people die because of extreme poverty than did in the WTC attacks. You want a look at why people hate America and the Western World ? It is because we, as a human race, have failed to provide many in the world with a better life.

Many will be born and die in poverty as their parents and grandparents before them. And all the while we continue to bomb civilians in the name of the western world’s economic well being (ie: for oil). I may be idealistic but until issues such as these are addressed we will keep pushing people into the hands of a few religious extremist nut-jobs. Its not rocket science and its not caving into the demands of terrorists - it is a common sense view for a better world.

But what of the other issues surrounding 9/11. The continual conspiracy theories that don't seem to go away are proof that there needs to be a proper and open discussion of all these points by the US government. Yes one can dismiss them as nut-jobs but in my book, i'd rather have a society that questions and debates government than one who is completly submissive. In my opinion, there has been no clear answer to some of these queries like how can a pilot who has some lessons on a bi-plane at some flying school in Hicksville fly a commercial jumbo jet with pinpoint precision into a building. Just doesn't seem to make sense to me but then again i'm no pilot. I just need a pilot to explain this to me in clear detail...but then again maybe they can't either which would explain their silence.

I'm not saying that there is a CIA conspiracy or anything like that but there are some fundamental questions that this 9/11 has raised that have yet to be properly and clearly answered. Many of these points are now being championed by the 9/11 Scholars for truth organisation, a group of academics who are looking into all the issues. While I wouldn't agree with their conclusions, the fact that there are these points being raised by scientists and academics surely points to a lack of clarity/real discussion surrounding the issue.

9/11 was a terrible event that will continue to influence our world for years to come. We will continue to hear about conspiracy theories, stories of survivors, questions surrounding the outcomes and influences of 9/11 on American politics in the next five years and more. 9/11 was such a massive event, the like of which I had never witnessed before, let's hope that I don't have to witness another similar event on a similar magnitude in the future. Please excuse the rambling points, I started writing this and couldn't stop. I gues these points had been playing on my mind - yet more proof that 9/11 still influences the subconcious to amazing levels, some five years after the event and I wasn't even a personal witness to these horrible and tragic events.

Honest with Me

When the devil calls your cards

Hello there. I've been sorry that I haven't been updating this website as much as i'd like to recently. This is because I was in France for a friend's wedding (congratulations). It was a good weekend. And i've been super-busy at work and the sun has beating down on this non-airconditioned, glass-roofed office for too long now. By the end of the day (when I usually write this drivel) I'm so brain dead I can't write.

You may have noticed that i've added a banner to the right of my blog. This takes you through to the campaign site of a group against the introduction of ID cards in Britain. I'm not paranoid, not a freak, not some weirdo, I'm just afraid of what this will mean. As a French citizen I have to carry an ID card, but it is so far removed from the proposed UK scheme.

The UK scheme means that the government will be able to know 49 key personal characteristics about me (including biometric data such as my fingerprints). There will be a database which will cross reference existing databases so a complete picture of my life can (and will) be formed. I will be forced to use my card when I go to the doctor, take out a credit card, borrow from the library, go on holiday. All of this will allow the government to know more and more about me and you. I will have to have an interview with a government representative when I eventually am forced into obtaining a card which to be frank disgusts me. And what happens when the government makes a mistake (which they will) and i'm stopped by the police because the database says that i'm evil yet i've done nothing wrong. No, no, no, with the government's record in computer projects (see NHS, DCA computer projects running years behind or when they put thousands of innocent people on the criminal register by mistake) it has the potential to be horrible.

Plus there is the fact that this is going to cost billions and billions of pounds which would be better spent on providing air conditioning on the tube, better health care, better schools, more social housing, more international aid - basically anything but this. Even the home office thinks that the scheme will cost £200 per tax-payer (and they are likely to be conservative in their estimates).

This scares me because I thought everyone had read George Orwell, yet I hear few dissenting voices. I'm scared that we're sleepwalking into a police state, it seems that there are few people discussing this out in the open...we need a national debate surrounding this issue. Let's not let the government tell us about the terrorist threat, id fraud and all that bollocks. It is just propaganda so that we can accept the most intrusive personal relationship that any state has ever had with its people. Even Kim Jong-Ill doesn't know as much about his people, and he's a lunatic.

Don't believe me, think i'm crazier than a loon? Please read the facts then get back to me. This is more than left/right politics. It is about my freedom as a human being and a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and myself.

Watcha Gonna Do?