Dàithaì C

Iran Amok?

2012-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

American military bases surrounding Iran - The US has also invaded the two countries on either side of Iran with disastrous results for those countries and their people and for the US Budget Deficit

The Western Media led its cheerleader Fox New are constantly harping on about “The Iranian Threat” – but this seems another version of Goebbels “Big Lie” technique. The map of the United States military bases surrounding Iran displays a reality which is self evident (especially to Iranians) but the consistent story in the western media is that Iran is threatening the West. In fact no Middle Eastern country (Arab & Iranian) has threatened the West in living memory but since 1914 the West has interfered in the Arab world and Iran / Persia for its own selfish purposes. Not for nothing did Osama Bin Laden, an Arab Nationalist supported and bankrolled by the CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, consistently refer to the “Shame of the Treaty of Sevres.”

The "Shah" of Iran - installed by America and Britain

After World War 1 when the British conquered much of the Middle East, they re-drew much of the boundaries not according to the Ottoman rule or to ethnic lines, but rather according to strategic objectives and various political agreements with France (such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement). As a result, much of the border issues that developed later in the twentieth century, such as between Iraq and Kuwait, between Iran and Iraq, and even between Syria and Turkey, were results of the British and French colonial powers arbitrary drawing of the borders. The inhabitants of the Middle East are still harvesting the poisonous fruits of this betrayal of the original Arab Revoloution to this day.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html

Iran was invaded by the Allies in World War 2 and partitioned between the Soviets and Britain / America whilst its natural resources were ripped off as the spoils of war. We know that Bush committed several hundred million dollars towards a program creating instability in Iran and that Obama has never renounced the operation. Iran, surrounded by threatening enemies and the daily recipient of dire threats from Israel and the United States, has absolutely no history of aggression: it has started no conflicts in its entire modern era, but naturally enough it becomes concerned about its security when threatened by nuclear-armed states.

Such threats from the United States are not regarded idly by anyone, coming as they do, from a nation occupying two nations of Western and Central Asia, a nation whose invasions have caused upwards of a million deaths and sent at least two million into exile as refugees.

Iran's nuclear programme began under the Shah - Israel's Mossad has engaged in cyber terrorism and assassination of Iranian scientists - with the countries leading the so called "War on Terrorism" firmly looking the other way

As for the other regular source of threats against Iran, Israel, it is a nation which has attacked every neighbour that it has at one time or another. In the last two years alone, it has killed more people in Lebanon and Gaza than the number who perished in 9/11. It is also a secret nuclear power, having broken every rule and international law to obtain and assist in proliferating nuclear weapons. By most estimates Israel has 150/200 nuclear warheads and is bankrolled as its military proxy by the United States to the tune of $3 Bn. a year – money America has to borrow from China?

Mohammed Mosaddeq - Time Magazine cover January 1951

And remember, too, Iran had a democratic government more than half a century ago, that of Mohammed Mosaddeq, but it was overthrown in 1953 and the bloody Shah installed in its place by the very same governments now meddling in Iran, the United States and Britain. Leave the Iranian people to sort out the regime which is oppressing and failing to deliver for its people as they sorted out the American installed Shah who took power from Mohammed Mosaddeq who was removed in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the United States CIA at the request of the British MI6.

So who is running amok in the Middle East? Certainly not Iran.

USS Abraham Lincoln entering the Straits of Hormuz - "Give us your oil!"

Knickers from New York

2012-01-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

There is much more to knickers than meets the eye!

The name is an abbreviation of Diedrich Knickerbocker, a Dutch character in a popular play in New York towards the end of the C19 who wore the Dutch sleeved pantaloons which became known as Knickerbockers. The word entered common usage after this and has been abbreviated since to knickers, as indeed have the garments themselves.

Diedrich Knickerbocker

The character in the play was based on the first major work of the American writer Washington Irving “A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty”, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809), a satire on self-important local history and contemporary politics. Prior to its publication, Irving started a hoax akin to today's viral marketing campaigns; he placed a series of missing person adverts in New York newspapers seeking information on Diedrich Knickerbocker, a crusty Dutch historian who had allegedly gone missing from his hotel in New York City.

Washington Irving

As part of the ruse, Irving placed a notice—allegedly from the hotel's proprietor—informing readers that if Mr. Knickerbocker failed to return to the hotel to pay his bill, he would publish a manuscript Knickerbocker had left behind.
Such was the influence of Washington Irving’s work that Knickerbocker became a slang term for inhabitants of Manhattan, hence the desert Knickerbocker Glory.

However when it comes to the story of knickers not everything goes down well. For in the US of A they are called panties, not knickers. There you have it, Diedrich Knickerbocker, a fictional prophet not without honour, save in his own country.

PS. We have not used this Blog to show knicker shots, if you want that sort of thing read the Daily Mail!

The Knickerbockers Baseball Team

Freedom loving democracies update

2012-01-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

Abu Qatada - He even looks foreign!

The Red Top Tabloids who put Britain First Europe Last and support Our Boys and jobs for Our People have had all their xenophobic bells rung in the case of Omar Othman t/a Abu Qatada who they have labelled, on the basis of no evidence at all, as Osama Bin Laden’s representative in Europe. Very careful with the facts are our British Tabloids, no doubt they have obtained hacked voicemail evidence on this as they care so much about the “Public Interest.” To add to the tabloid interest Abu Qatada helpfully looks foreign, being one of those Mohamedan’s that the God fearing people of Britain have been warned about. Britain of course started interfering in the Arab world in earnest from 1914 onwards not because they cared about them or Arabs were going to arttack Britain but for its own entirely selfish purposes.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html

Now the radical cleric Abu Qatada has won his appeal against deportation from the UK to Jordan, at the European Court of Human Rights. The judges accepted the UK's deal with Jordan to protect the cleric from abuse was sound. But the court said he should not face trial for terrorism on evidence obtained by the torture of others. Home Secretary Theresa May said the European judges' decision was "not the end of the road". The British government can make a final appeal before the judgement becomes binding in three months' time. If it does not appeal, the cleric will have to be released from detention.

Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, is one of the most influential Islamist clerics in Europe, supporting jihadist causes. British judges have described him as "truly dangerous". He has never faced trial in the UK, but has been detained without charge and had his movements restricted by a control order, a form of house arrest. The Palestinian-Jordanian preacher has been convicted in his absence of involvement in two major terrorism plots in Jordan, a country famed for its judicial standards, accomplished torturers and motivated hangmen.

European Court's Clare Ovey: ''There's a real risk that the evidence obtained from his co-accused by torture will be used against him at trial'' Abu Qatada says that those convictions were based on evidence extracted by the torture of co-defendants and he would face similar treatment if returned. He originally fled to the UK in 1993 after being tortured twice.

And so the “Putting Britain First” Tabloids are in arms against this foreigner with a hairy face who took the home of democracy to a nasty European Court who doesn’t understand the British way of doing things, such as participating in renditions and sending fuzzie wuzzies to other countries to be tortured.

Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi who was head of Interpol

Is this the same European Court of Justice they are talking about, set up by the victors (including Britain) in WW11 to stop the creation of Police States as happened under the fascists (low point Reinhard Heydrich, the NAZI's poster boy and chair of the Wanesee Conference was the pre-war head of Interpol) and of kangaroo courts which sentenced resisters to death. You remember them, don't you, as the Allies executed a number of Nazi judges even though they were following orders / Nazi laws? Is this the same ECJ which has nothing to do with the EU and which was championed by Winston Churchill?

Of course Churchill’s mind had been concentrated by the Holocaust. Before the “Final Solution” was put into effect the German public had come to accept the “Fog and Night” killings of the Nazi’s political opponents and the killing of 70,000 disabled and mentally ill people in the name of racial purity. Before all this happened the Nazi Reich had turned hospitals into places where people were murdered and Courts into places where the Law was denied. As Churchill was later to declare about the Holocaust;

"... and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe."

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/auschwitz-birkenau.html

And is this the same Abu Qatada who is described by MSN as a "Terrorist" but who has NEVER been convicted of a crime in Britain (that actually might require evidence not “tainted by the poisonous fruits of torture” which has been banned by The Common Law for over 500 years) and has been under effective house arrest for over seven years in this "Freedom Loving Democracy."

Yes on all counts, M’Lord.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16590662

The Great Conspiracy

2012-01-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

Made in Hollywood!

Two conspiracy theorists die and go to heaven. They find themselves standing in front of God.

“Look fellas” said God ”I’ve got to tell you Oswald did in fact shoot Kennedy, the US Air Force never shot down any alien spacecraft, the Apollo missions really did land on the moon and the World Trade Centre towers were taken down by 19 Saudi terrorists.

“See!” said one conspiracy advocate to the other, "I told you it goes all the way to the top."

Aliens attack Israeli Nuclear Plant!

This Blog posting has been covertly sponsored by the Illuminati, that mysterious elite which set up and controls the United States, controls our minds through video games and caused the World Banking Crisis to allow them to control the world through the IMF / Kim Il Jung / Rothschild’s / Israel / Obama who isn’t even American / Wal Mart etc; If you have any mad theories of your own please throw them in at this stage, the madder the better and if there is not the slightest bit of evidence to back them up, this just proves it is a really clever conspiracy.

A typical contribution to this non-debate from Internet Nutters Inc. below;

The Global Power Elite have acquired many names. And some of their organizations are known as “The Bilderberg Group“, ” Council on Foreign Relations“, “Illuminati“, “Skull and Bones” etc.

[From article "20 Things The Illuminati Can Teach You" By Stefan Fobes]

“They know what TV is and does – they introduced it, you know! The goal comes before the TV or any of their other mind control devices, such as video games. Watching all those hours every day and being “awake” are like matter and anti-matter. They cannot be in the same place at the same time.”

Live long, be paranoid and boldly go where no logic has ever ventured!

Illuminati created the US!

Kos Yacht spotting

2012-01-08T15:58:00.001-08:00

Kos

The island of Kos has been a maritime crossroads since ancient times. Its ancient Mandraki (Harbour) guarded by the Castle of Nerazia provides a pleasant hive of activity and a focal point although the ferries and inter island catamarans and hydrofoils go from a landing stage on the far side of the Castle. Despite regular and devastating earthquakes throughout its history Kos Town has remained on this site benefiting from the seaborne trade.

Kos Marina

But go out of the town a short distance to the hill on which is built the Temple, Sanatorium and Hospital, The Asklepion of Kos where Hippocrates developed the tenets of modern medicine you can see why this island is still a Mecca for yachts of all shapes and sizes. For you are looking across a gentle sheltered stretch of water to the coast of Asia Minor and to the fortress of St. Petrium (modern day Bodrum in Turkey) and sailors have come to this fertile island to rest and restock. From Romans who used it as a half way house on the way to Palestine and Egypt to the Knights of St. John who used it to protect the approaches to Rhodes and harass the ships of the Caliphs.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/09/asklepion-of-kos.html

A vintage Camper & Nicholson yacht leaving the harbour of Skala on Patmos

Kos is the most fertile of the Dodecanese blessed with rich volcanic soil and plentiful water. In the ancient Mediterranean the trade routes did not go in straight lines but hugged the coast and on the height above Kos Town occupied by the Asklepion (the Temple where one of its priests Hippocrates practiced medicine) you have a wonderful view over the straights as far as Bodrum (as Halicarnassus home of one of the wonders of the ancient world, the tomb of Mausolus, King of Caria) on the mainland of Asia Minor and you can imagine the scene with ancient galleys. For the Roman Empire this was the stopping off point to / from Syria, Palestine and Egypt where they took on provisions (including the Cos lettuce), used the gymnasia and baths and left the sick to follow on after recovering in the Asklepion and sanatoria. And from guilt or longing they would buy their Roman ladies, Coan draperies, the somewhat saucy translucent numbers for which the island was famous!

Nowadays, with its harbour and modern marina it is a good a place to go yacht spotting as these beautiful Mediterranean waters attract ships to tour the Greek Islands and the historic Turkish coastline. Just as most editions of “Country Life” are bought by Londoner’s then most of the glossy yacht mags which proliferate in newsagents are bought by people who will never own a yacht. Is this “yacht porn?” Well they are certainly very aspirational and unobtainable for most. But they also represent the zeitgeist of design and are frequently financed by people with more money than sense but as J.P. Morgan said when asked how much his yacht Corsair cost “I you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it!”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/kos-town.html

So here is a short guide to some of the passing traffic I’ve snapped in Kos and the Dodecanese over the years.

Air

Interior

Air's bulbous bow which dampens yaw and increases speed through the water

Air was gracing Kos Marina in October 2011 and is a distinctive offering from Heesen, a northern Dutch yard famous for its innovative style and the sea worthiness of its yachts. Air is sixth vessel in the 47-Metre displacement class, a design that resulted from the close collaboration of Heesen Yachts’ in house naval architects and Frank Laupman from Omega Architects, who conceived her stream-lined exterior design with its pelican beak bow – a style that is now Heesen’s very recognisable trademark. The 47-Metre displacement class is renowned for its fine entry at the bow, which incorporates an efficient bulb, its notable top speed of 15,5 Knots and an excellent range of 4.000 Nm at 12 knots. The yacht’s elegant superstructure combined with the sloped wheelhouse windows give Air a particularly sleek appearance.

April Fool

April Fool is a Feadship launched by Royal van Lent and is 60.96-meter (200’). She was delivered to owners who required the finest luxury motor yacht that money could buy. Feadships are the Rolls Royce of the yacht world, hugely expensive but holding their value for years. Dedicated to private entertainment, the onboard logistics synthesize all Feadship’s know-how and experience. Highlights include a four-deck elevator and a custom-developed electric awning on the sun deck. In addition to a superb full-beam owner’s suite, April Fool has four spacious staterooms and fine quarters for up to eighteen crew.

Designed by De Voogt Naval Architects, April Fool is a twin screw motoryacht with a steel hull, aluminum superstructure and a top speed of 16 knots. The owners made an intentional decision to opt for Feadship quality, recognising that this was the only way to ensure their yacht not only looked good but would be technically perfect in every aspect. The name comes from the derision he suffered when he was told he was a fool going into business and it seems he who laughs last, laughs loudest. She was seen in Bodrum Harbour in Turkey in May 2010. Did I mention Feadships hold their value? She is up for sale for 45 million euro.

Duke Town

Saloon

The motor yacht Duke Town is a 37 m 120 (ft) good sized aluminium ship which was produced by Heesen Yachts and conceived by Diaship Design and Omega Design. Sleeping 10 guests and 8 professional crew, motor yacht she used to be called 11436 which was her project name. Launched in 2002 the comparatively recent internal styling illustrates the worth of the design work of Bert Quadvlieg/Frank Laupman. She was moored at Kos Marina in 2009.

E & E

The yacht E & E (ex Jasmin II) is a 42 m explorer yacht by the Turkish shipyard Cizgi Yachts launched in 2011 and is seen here on sea trials in Kos Harbour in October 2011. It is a new generation explorer designed by the well known Vripack studio who, other than designing her elegant exterior, made sure of the sea going comfort for both the Owner's family and their charter guests. E & E charter yacht is available for charter in the Mediterranean - summer season as well as Caribbean during the winter months. Vripack designed Jasmin I which was built by RMK Shipyard on the same principle – the guest cabins are based on the Bridge Deck rather than the traditional accommodation deck below the waterline. This ensures they have excellent views whilst simplifying the complicated plumbing when floors are below the waterline. All of the crew cabins and quarters are located below deck and are completely separated from the guest areas.

Swim platform

Master Cabin

Twin 737 horse power engines are expected to power up this full displacement Expedition Motor Yacht E & E to a speed of 14 knots and to a cruising speed of 11 knots. Her range is 4,500 nautical miles with 10% safe margin). She has been built to ABS class and LY2 code. She has an overall beam of just over 9 metres and a draft of 2.72 metres. E & E's designed weight of 480 tonnes means she is under the crucial mark of 500 tons. When I saw it in the old harbour of Kos (Mandraki) it was on sea trials from its Turkish builder and as can be seen its ballast was still to be properly trimmed.

Mayko

This is Mayko, a “Gentleman’s Yacht” anchored in the road off Kos Harbour with retro tug styling by a specialist Istanbul shipbuilder Taka Yachts. Set up by two Turkish naval architects this company specialises in retro designs in GRP and timber.

An American (Marshall Islands) Azimuth GRP yacht "Delaware" seen in Kos Marina

Ocean Victory and MY Shanti moored side by side in Rhodes

Ocean Victory

Ocean Victory being launched at the De Vries Makkum shipyard

Ocean Victory is one of the top-of-the-range Feadship XL series built at the De Vries Makkum facility. The 75.75-meter (248’6”) Ocean Victory was christened on 18 October 2008 in the presence of hundreds of invited guests and following a spectacular laser show. Designed by Alberto Pinto and Laura Sessa, the interior accommodates fourteen people in the highest degree of comfort and style. The owner’s stateroom incorporates a bedroom, two bathrooms, two dressing rooms and a separate office. There are three lounges onboard Ocean Victory and six guest suites.

MY Shanti now renamed Aquarius and for sale for 67 M euros

MY Shanti

Built for Israel's richest woman, billionaire Shari Arison, "My Shanti" is now up for sale. At 212 feet, My Shanti is one of the world's top 100 yachts according to Power & Motoryacht's list for 2008. The yacht was listed for $103 million. Since this photo was taken in Rhodes in 2009 the yacht has had a name change and is back on the market for a new lower price. Superyacht Times reports that the Aquarius is up for sale for 67 million euros (around $85 million) with Fraser Yachts. The 212-foot yacht was built by Amels in 2007. It has a banquet hall, cinema, eight staterooms, helipad and room for a crew of 17. The interior was designed by Terence Disdale Design.

Mosaique

Designed by the world-renowned Dubois Naval Architects and built by the well respected Turkish Yard, Proteskan Turquoise, Mosaique is a sophisticated and stylish luxury yacht which retains a sense of intimacy and ease throughout her spacious sundecks and aft decks, her opulent interiors and her luxurious suites. She is seen here moored off Kos.

Lady Angels

Seen in both Kos and Kalymnos in 2011 "Lady Angels" is a fairly basic Turkish built GRP boat which shows signs of damage to parts of its superstructure. This is built for commercial holiday cruising rather than as a private yacht.

An unidentified Amels yacht off Kos with Turkey in the background

So many luxury yachts cruise off the Greek and Turkish coasts it can be hard to keep track. Some have distinct features such as dark blue hulls or large oval windows that help to set them apart from the rest, but in general, even the most spectacular of sleek white hulls can be tough to tell apart for all but the most expert naval architects. However what they all have is allure, there are few sites more compelling than a yacht sailing off into the sunset and wondering about the destination of the boat and indeed the lives of those aboard. For me the interest is in the design challenge of building a pleasing environment in what is basically a complex machine loaded with equally complex services and equipment to provide a safe and seaworthy means of transport. Are the people onboard happy? I don’t know but the old adage is that there are only two days a boat really makes you happy; the day you buy it and the day you sell it! I’m not sure if this is true but it would be fun to find out for myself!

Ruppie’s World

2012-01-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

Mr and Mrs Digger

Is there anything more ridiculous than The Dirty Digger Ruppie Murdoch lecturing us on Twitter @rupertmurdoch from his holiday home on St. Bart’s (Not his house on Centre Island, his yacht “Lionhearty”, etc; etc;) that we take too many holidays? Well, yes it’s the fact his Tweets are so boring! Maybe he could learn from his own low life tabloids (Which speak for the Nation and Back Our Boys) and run a countdown on when his granddaughters become legal like he did with Charlotte Church who as a 13 year old had sung at his wedding to Wendy Goldigger. Or maybe some topless shots of his family on a private beach or some up the skirt shots of your granddaughters getting out of cars.

Come’on Ruppie spice it up and get the cheap tabloid thrills going – nobody expects you as an Oxford Graduate to do it – ring your low life newshounds Rebecca and Andy for advice. No point in barking yourself when you keep several dogs?

Yours ever,

@daithaic

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/07/dish-dirty-digger.html

A Muslim at Yad Vashem - Selahattin Ülkümen

2012-01-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

Yad Vashem

We sometimes forget how diverse much of the world was before the 20th Century – How in many parts of Europe, Middle East, India and Africa Christians, Muslims, Copts, Jews, Farsi, Armenians and others lived together, often intermarried, and traded. So in Prague we had a unique Judaeo / Christian culture and a Germanic / Czech literature exemplified by Frank Kafka, in Morocco we had the Jewish areas, the “Mellah” under the protection of the King and a city like Essaourira which was half Jewish and Muslim and which to this day is painted in the Jewish colours of blue and white. And on the Island of Rhodes we had a Jewish Community which had been there since Roman times and made up a third of the population of the town and spoke “Ladino”, the language of the Sephardim, the Jews from Spain and Portugal who had been welcomed by the Ottomans as “People of the Book” after their expulsion from Iberia.

Then in the 20th Century much changed. There have been genocides in history, the 8 million South American indigenous people’s estimated to have perished in silver mines in Bolivia and in the 20th Century and before WWII writers such as Winston Churchill used the terms to describe the destruction by the dying Ottoman Empire of the Armenian population of Turkey, as well as the attempted destruction of the Greek and Assyrian populations, a process observed by a joint Germano-Austrian military mission. Smaller events occurred, often unnoticed by an indifferent world. By 1923 the Muslim population of Crete which had a similar ethnic makeup to Cyprus was extinguished along with its unique Greek speaking Cretan Turk culture by the last of compulsory population exchanges. In German South-West Africa under the Kaiser the native African people who fought against colonisation experienced the first German Death Camps. The father of one Hermann Göring was the colonial Governor at the time. But what makes the Nazi Holocaust of Jews and others in Germany and 21 occupied and allied countries unique is the scale, the premeditation and the sheer cold ruthlessness and cruelty in implementing the policy for a “Final Solution” agreed at the Wanesee Conference in 1942.

Bimah from a synagogue on Rhodes

The “Final Solution” failed, but not by too much – historians and others can speculate what could have happened if, with the vagaries of war, Germany had not been cast back at El Alamein and had conquered Palestine or if the war had continued for a year longer allowing the 6 Death Camps to continue their deadly work. As it was of the Jews in Europe at 1939 two thirds of them had been murdered by the racist Nazi state and its fellow travellers by 1945.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/auschwitz-birkenau.html

The Final Solution failed and at Yad Vashem both the Martyrs and the Heroes of the Shoah are commemorated. On a hill at Har Hazikaron, the Mount of Remembrance, just outside Jerusalem, Yad Vashem is a vast, sprawling complex of tree-studded walkways leading to museums, exhibits, archives, monuments, sculptures, and memorials. Yad means “hand” but also “memorial”, while shem means “name”. The name of the museum derives from a Biblical verse:

“And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off“.

Plaque commemorating the holocaust victims from Rhodes

Jewish schoolgirls Rhodes 1930's

Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of each of the six million victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust for generations to come through its archives, library, school, museums and recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations.

The last monument (in fact 2,000 trees planted to commemorate those who helped Jews) also demonstrates the power of diversity. What used to be known as the Righteous Christians has been changed to the Righteous Gentiles because a Muslim, Selahattin Ülkümen, was the first non-Christian to receive the award. In June 1990, Ülkümen was installed on the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Israel. The Avenue also contains a further nod to diversity for installed here is the only member of the Nazi Party commemorated at Yad Vashem along with his wife Emilie, Oskar Schindler.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/jewish-krakow.html

Identification portrait of Selahatin Ülkümen, Turkish Consul-General in Rhodes.

On Rhodes, Jewish descendants of refugees from the Spanish Inquisition had prospered during 390 years of Ottoman rule, and then under Italian occupation. But following Mussolini's removal from power in 1943, the Nazis took over the island, which, at that time, had a Jewish population of some 1,700. On July 19 1944, the Gestapo ordered all of the island's Jews to report for "temporary transportation to a small island nearby", but in fact to take them to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Alexander Angel a young Jewish boy on Rhodes wearing the star of David in 1943. Jews on Rhodes were not required to wear the yellow star and he is wearing it as an innocent gesture of pride. He was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944

Ülkümen, the 30-year-old Turkish Consul General, approached the German commander, General von Kleeman, telling him that Turkey was neutral in the war and demanding that all Jewish Turks on Rhodes, including their spouses, whether Jewish or not, should be released at once. But, as Ülkümen later remembered: "The German commander said that, according to Nazi laws, all Jews are Jews and had to go to concentration camps. I objected. I said that, under Turkish law, there is no difference between whether a citizen was Jewish, Christian or Muslim. . . I said that I would advise my government if he didn't release the Jewish Turks and that it would cause an international incident. Then he agreed." Ülkümen was playing a dangerous game. He bluffed the Germans — there was no such law. Ülkümen's action saved the lives of 42 Jewish families. The rest of the Jews on the island were deported to Greece and from there to Auschwitz.

German Army occupying Kos Town in September 1943

The Jewish community of Rhodes goes back to the 1st century CE. In 1480, the Jews actively defended the walled city against the Turks. At its peak in the 1920s, the Jewish community was one-third of the total population. The community was mostly wiped out in the Holocaust. Kahal Shalom, established in 1557, is the oldest synagogue in Greece. It is still standing in the Jewish quarter of the Old Town of Rhodes. It has been renovated with the help of foreign donors but very few Jews live year-round in Rhodes today, and services are not held on a regular basis. This synagogue is maintained basically as a memorial to the 1800 Jews from Rhodes and Kos deported to the concentration camps from here, with plaques in French (the language of educated Ottoman period Jews in the Aegean). There's a museum in the back with photos of the Jewish community and its life on Rhodes and also in its widespread Diaspora in both the United States and in Africa. The museum was set up by a Los Angeles attorney of Jewish Rhodian descent.

Rhodes Town

The Platia ton Evreon Martyron /Square of the Jewish Martyrs was named to honour the large Jewish community of Rhodes almost completely wiped out by the Nazis during the summer of 1944. A 1929 Italian tourist guide so described the Jewish quarter of Rhodes: “Beyond the Admiralty we enter the Jewish quarter where the atmosphere is so different from that of the Muslim quarter: the latter is very silent with family life going on behind closed doors, the Jewish quarter is happily noisy with children screaming and the open doors allow to see women doing their chores in rooms and courtyards.”

That is now all gone; On July 19, 1944 the island’s 1700 Jewish inhabitants were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to extermination camps, of whom only some 151 survived.

President of the Jewish Community laying a wreath to the victims of the Holocaust at La Juderia

The “Square of the Martyred Jews” (known in Greek as “Martyron Evreon”), is located in the heart of the former Jewish Quarter of Rhodes Town. The present park area of the square was originally an area of Jewish homes and small shops. However, the area was bombed during World War II, and in its place was established a small park and square. The present fountain ornamented with three seahorses replaced a previous fountain that was destroyed during World War II.

Selahattin Ülkümen 1914 - 2003

Ülkümen’s bold personal action is credited with saving 42 families. But his bluff didn't go unanswered. In September 1943, the German army occupied the island of Rhodes and moved to close the Turkish consulate, the last remaining Turkish consulate in Axis-controlled territory. When Turkey protested, German planes bombed the building, seriously injuring Ülkümen’s wife, Mihrinisa, who later died. His wife, nine months' pregnant, was seriously injured and died of her wounds while giving birth to the couple's son, Mehmet.

In the end, all those on Ülkümen’s list were released, while the rest of the Island's population of 1,700 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Among those he saved was Albert Franko, who already had been placed on a transport to Auschwitz from Piraeus. When it was determined that Franko's wife was a Turkish citizen, Ülkümen had him taken off the train and returned to Rhodes. In August 1944, when Turkey broke diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany, Ülkümen was interned on the Greek mainland. He was released only on May 8, 1945.

Six Jewish women from Rhodes photographed in Bologna, Italy in June 1945 who survived

It will come as no surprise to those who study such things that those responsible for the War Crimes in the Dodecanese, for the deportation and extermination of the Jewish population, for the summary execution of Italian Officers and the hanging of Greek Partisans were never punished. General Ulrich Kleeman went on to lead hundreds of his troops to their deaths when his Panzergrupppen was destroyed by the Red Army at the disastrous Battle of Budapest in 1945. He died of natural causes in Germany in 1963 and his honour from Hitler of The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was displayed on his coffin. Selahattin Ülkümen continued in the Turkish Diplomatic service until his retirement and never sought recognition for his bravery. His actions were recognised and lauded by the Rhodian Jewish Diaspora and are a testament to our common humanity and bond.

The president of the Central Jewish Council of Greece, Moisis Constantinis (R) presents on July 24, 2008 in Rhodes an award to Mehmet Ülkümen (L), son of Selahattin Ülkümen, The Turkish Consul General on the island who in 1944 saved 42 Jewish families from being deported to Nazi concentration camps.

Selahattin Ülkümen 1914 – 2003

Remember the Shoah and respect the memory of the victims.

“in the world which will be renewed”

“בְּעָלְמָא דְהוּא עָתִיד לְאִתְחַדָּתָא”

See also;

Jewish Kos

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/jewish-kos.html

Rhodes Town

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/03/rhodes-town.html

The Gaza Massacre

2011-12-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

Today, on its third anniversary we remember the victims of the Gaza Massacre which started on December 27, 2008 with a no warning air strike. Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths, 4 from friendly fire. It was carried out on civilians and civilian infrastructure in one of the most densely populated places on earth which is an occupied territory protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The IDF is the 5th strongest military force in the world supplied with American weaponry and $1.6 Bn of US Bilateral military aid.

A coward’s war if ever there was one.

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free the Palestinians.

For the background to Nakba - The ethnic cleansing of Palestine see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/nakba.html

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free the Palestinians.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-gaza-free-palestine-free.html

My favourite Christmas Carols

2011-12-24T16:45:00.000-08:00

Why should somebody who believes Man created God Blog about Christmas Carols? Well, maybe because they are an important cultural artefact in their own right, an important part of our musical tradition and the culture of communities who came together in the dark and hungry nights of mid winter. They are not Folk Songs for they were normally liturgical hymns written in Latin by clergymen. But in times of yore they would have been performed in churches by the same musicians and singers from the local community who performed at festivals so the cross over to / from the folklore tradition was direct.

Folk band at Xmas outside the Marienkirche,Lübeck

Indeed on one of my visits to the wonderful German medieval city of Lübeck for the Xmas Markets I was struck by the traditional folk musicians playing outside the Marienkirche. Inside the resident musician and organist in the 1600’s was one Dieterich Buxtehude. He laid the foundations of Baroque Music and was so renowned that in 1705, Johann Sebastian Bach, then a young man of twenty, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 400 kilometres (250 mi), and stayed nearly three months to hear him play, and, as Bach explained, "to comprehend one thing and another about his art".

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/10/lubeck-and-its-xmas-market.html

The singing of carols is the oldest of Christmas customs. The ancient tradition of carols was revitalised after nearly two centuries of dormancy in the years 1823 to 1848. You might ask, what is a Christmas carol? The question is not as silly as it may at first appear. Singing at festivals is as old as festivals themselves. Ancient Egyptians and even the Druids used music in their sacred rites. And so did the Romans and the Greeks. The earliest Christians sang psalms and hymns during their festivals and the vigils of their saints. Sacred or profane, it is obvious that music and singing was very much a part of celebrations and festivals. Oxford, 18 miles from us, has a rich musical scene and many choirs and the Oxford Book of Carols spearheaded the revival of Carols in England from 1820’s onward.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/xmas-is-coming.html

Xmas Market in front Oxford Castle

The term "carol" originally meant songs intermingled with dancing. As time went along, it was applied to festive songs in general. Since Christmas is the most festive period of the year, carols came to be thought of almost exclusively as Christmas carols. It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French "carole" or the Latin "carula" meaning a circular dance. In any case the dancing seems to have been abandoned quite early.

One of my favourite carols in the plainsong tradition is Gaudete (“rejoice" in Latin), a sacred Christmas carol, composed sometime in the 16th century. The song was published in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs published in 1582. No music is given for the verses, but the standard tune comes from older liturgical books.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/12/xmas-in-london.html

Oxford Street, London

The Latin text is a typical medieval song of praise, which follows the standard pattern for the time - a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain (in the early English carol this was known as the burden). Carols could be on any subject, but typically they were about the Virgin Mary, the Saints or Christmastide themes. Gaudete is along with Pie Jesu one of only two songs in Latin to be a Top 10 hit in the UK charts.

Gaudete - Latin

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!

Tempus adest gratiæ Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ Devote reddamus.

Deus homo factus est Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est A Christo regnante.

Ezechielis porta Clausa pertransitur,
Unde lux est orta Salus invenitur.

Ergo nostra contio Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino: Salus Regi nostro.

Gaudete - English

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born Of the Virgin Mary — rejoice!

The time of grace has come—This that we have desired,
Verses of joy Let us devoutly return.
God has become man, To the wonderment of Nature,
The world has been renewed By the reigning Christ.
The closed gate of Ezekiel Is passed through,
Whence the light is born, Salvation is found.

Therefore let our gathering Now sing in brightness
Let it give praise to the Lord: Greeting to our King.

Xmas Tree in front of the GPO, Dublin

Probably the most famous Irish Xmas Carol is The Wexford Carol (Irish: Carúl Loch Garman). This is a traditional religious Irish Christmas carol originating from County Wexford, and specifically, Enniscorthy (whence its name), and dating to the 12th century. The subject of the song is that of the nativity of Jesus Christ.

The song is sometimes known by its first verse, "Good people all this Christmas time."

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His belovèd Son.
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day;
In Bethlehem upon the morn
There was a blest Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide
The noble virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass:
From every door repelled, alas!
As long foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble oxen stall.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep;
To whom God’s angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear.
“Prepare and go”, the angels said,
“To Bethlehem, be not afraid;
For there you’ll find, this happy morn,
A princely Babe, sweet Jesus born.”

With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the babe to find,
And as God’s angel has foretold,
They did our Saviour Christ behold.
Within a manger He was laid,
And by His side the virgin maid
Attending to the Lord of Life,
Who came on earth to end all strife.

My favourite version is the 1991 album by the Irish folk group the Chieftains with Nanci Griffith - "Bells of Dublin". This album is named after the Dublin tradition of welcoming in the New Year by gathering at the centre of the Old Viking City at Christchurch Cathedral to hear the bells at midnight. The twelve bells of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, date back to 1738, and are rung twice every Sunday and also peal on special occasions such as the inauguration of the President. As a tradition the people of Dublin City gather in Christchurch Place to hear the bells ‘ring-in’ the New Year. The bells of Dublin are part of the fabric of life in Dublin, as are their 'voice' sounds and patterns, and this has been incorporated into the opening piece on the album and made into an underlying theme for the proceedings.

Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin

There is however another substantial Dublin Xmas musical connection as Handel's Messiah (HWV 56) was first performed in the "Antient Musik Hall" in Fishamble Street, Dublin in a gala in aid of the Foundling Hospital. This is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto by Charles Jennens. Composed in the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin on the 13 April 1742, Messiah is Handel's most famous creation and is among the most popular works in Western choral literature. The very well-known "Hallelujah" chorus is part of Handel's Messiah. What is also notable about the billboard for the Dublin premiere was that, due to space restrictions "Ladies are requested not to wear hoops and Gentlemen are requested not to wear swords." Even today there is always a performance of "Messiah" in Dublin before Xmas, normally for a weekly season in the Carmelite Church, Whitefriar Street, where in addition to the paying audience one St. Valentine listens from his resting place below the high altar.

St. Valentine in Dublin
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/02/st-valentine-in-dublin.html

Dublin's Fair City
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/dublins-fair-city.html

Site of "Antient Musik Hall" Fishamble Street, Dublin

George Frideric Handel

Boris’s Flying Circus

2011-12-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

With the end of London Mayor Boris Johnston’s reign looming after the Mayoral Election on the 3rd May 2012 minds are being concentrated. Londoner’s are taking stock of that great classicist’s achievements as Mayor. For one thing he has got rid of 275 of the proven, high capacity, disabled friendly Bendy Buses at a third of what they cost and replaced them with 5 Boris DeluxeMasters at only £1.6M a copy! This wasn’t Boris’s only achievement, oh no! He has also hiked bus fares 55%, delivered 52 affordable homes in London last year and started his silly cable car from nowhere to nearly nowhere!

Greenwich Peninsula

On the last item you can now go along to an exciting new exhibit at London Transport Museum on Boris’s only other transport initiative the UK’s first urban cable car. The exhibition opened on Tuesday 29 November 2011, and gives visitors their first taste of the new transport link in all its glory. I’m afraid all the other Boris achievements, London Overground, East London Line, DLR extension were actually all started by somebody called KEN! Boris also has an anti-achievement to his name, cancelling the Western Congestion Charging Zone, losing the income from it whilst writing off the £55 million expenditure to set it up. All this while London is endangering its citizens by breaching EU air pollution standards.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/londons-transport-museum.html

The interactive exhibit at the Museum will be the first chance for the public to see up close up details of the cable car and gondolas which is being branded as “Emirates Air Line” after its sponsor. Highlights of the exhibit include a fully branded cabin, similar to the cabins that will take to the skies next year and fly users across the Thames every five minutes. Visitors will be able to board the cabin and see an animated film that gives an idea of the spectacular aerial views on offer once the link between the Greenwich Peninsula and Royal Victoria Dock is complete.

The stations on the new Tube Map containing the sponsor's name - the first time branding has been allowed on this iconic design classic

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/mapping-world.html

Royal Victoria Dock station

Koblenz, Germany where a similar system across the Rhine was recently built for $20 M using similar technology. Notice the simpler "temporary" stations compared to London's showpiece stations. Built at a cost of Euros 12 million the cable car travels across the Rhine from Deutsches Eck up to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a distance of 850 metres, giving visitors breathtaking aerial views of the Rhine and Moselle.

There are 18 gondolas on the Koblenz cable way, each with a 35-passenger capacity. And if you’re not fearful of heights, one of the cabins has a glass floor so you can look down into the Rhine as the cable car takes you across. It is expected that 3,500 passengers can be transported per hour in each direction.

The cable car will provide a new river crossing for London, travelling between two new terminals, Greenwich Peninsula south of the Thames and Royal Docks on the Northside. Expected to take its first “flight” in summer 2012 it will have a capacity to carry 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, the equivalent to 30 buses an hour, but of course only if they turn up. The new transport initiative will also directly link the O2 – Europe’s biggest entertainment venue – and the ExCeL – Europe’s biggest conferencing venue and provide a new step-free interchange between the Jubilee line and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) whilst complementing the existing public transport network.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/08/londons-dome.html

The question that probably everyone asked was how did an estimate of £25 million end up at a final project cost of £65 million. That’s quite an overspend! When finally completed, the most striking aspect of Boris’s latest folly/innovative public transport service (delete depending on political preference) will be the three tall pylons that carry the cables over the Thames.

Interior of a Gondola

Rachel at Londonlist has commented;

“Yesterday’s news that the Thames Cable Car costs have risen to £60m didn’t surprise us that much – Caroline Pidgeon got an admission out of Boris in June that it was pushing the £57m mark, but what’s made us eye-poppingly enraged is TfL telling the BBC that they’re paying for it out of the rail budget.

If TfL were swimming in cash this would be fine, but this is the same TfL that’s just announced PAYG fare increase of 10p per bus journey and an 8% rise for travel cards. A TfL that’s committed to huge upgrades on the tube network (surely a nobler cause for raiding other parts of their budget?). A TfL that’s expanding the Overground network and involved in Crossrail.”

An expert on cable car projects Steven Dale who runs the International Benchmarking site “The Gondola Project” is harsh about what London is paying for this project;

http://gondolaproject.com/2011/09/26/exploring-the-thames-cable-car-costs/

“Over the weekend it was announced that the estimated project cost for London’s Thames Cable Car (Gondola) has ballooned to an estimated £60m. For those interested, that means the system will cost roughly $100m USD per kilometre. With the possible exception of the Caracas Metrocable, the London Thames Cable Car will easily be the most expensive gondola/cable car ever built.

The London Thames Cable Car appears to be nothing more than the latest example of largely English-speaking transit agencies’ unwillingness and/or inability to rein in costs related to transit projects. There is absolutely, positively, completely no reason whatsoever this project should cost London taxpayers ~$100m USD. Not a single good reason:”

North Pylon under construction

The completed 270 Tonne pylon

The site London Reconnections points out;

http://www.londonreconnections.com/2011/where-lame-ducks-dare-benchmarking-the-london-cable-car/

“Mott MacDonald act as project advisers to TfL on this project. They are a respected engineering consultancy responsible for similar projects such as the, much longer Ngong Ping Cable Car in Hong Kong. They are also owners of Franklin and Andrews, a household name in households where banter about project construction costs is the norm across the breakfast table. Franklin and Andrews are collators and disseminators of benchmark construction cost standards through a series of “Black Books”. Mott’s could well be able to contribute international comparator information on this matter.

Further questions also seem pertinent – at what point in the project risk register were the cost omissions and deviations recognised and what mitigation processes were put in place? To what extent do the London specific tailored features, the pylons and the stations, impact on the increases in cost? To what extent, if any, did the imperative to get something done before the Olympics influence the life cycle project procurement and management process?”

The stakes are high in the London Mayoral elections next year and despite the desperate spinning going on by Boris’s acolytes there is no confidence that dilettante Boris can win even if his Flying Circus across the Thames opens in time. How important this election is to Tory prospects is demonstrated by David Cameron who has described Boris Johnson's re-election for a second term as London Mayor as his "number one priority" for 2012. In a speech last night to Conservative backbenchers, the Prime Minister described victory in the capital city as "essential" to the party's strategy. But he warned that next year would be "tougher than the first couple of years under Margaret Thatcher" because of the state of the economy. Mr Cameron was given thunderous applause at the mention of the London election battle on May 3.

Be that as may be Daithai C believes time is running out for Bluffy Boris. The fact is in the last election people in the outer donut of London didn’t vote for Boris, they voted against Ken. In four years much will have changed. Ken learnt from his defeat and has discarded General Jasper and the hangers on who did the perception of his cause much harm. The ludicrous Americans under “Agent” Bob Kiley have largely disappeared from TfL with their platinum contracts which Londoner’s of all political hues resented. Boris with his £250,000 a year for his Rag Mag columns in the Telegraph and his many “distractions” has looked increasingly amateurish while Ken is the serious candidate dedicated to making London better for all.

We are all in this Circus together?

David Cameron has rightly identified that a push to abolish government by Old Etonians in London in 2012 will gather momentum as a campaign to abolish government by Old Etonians nationwide. When it comes to the voters of London deciding whether its Ken or Boris next May Boris will not be greatly in credit with them having expensively abolished cost efficient Bendy Buses for his 5 £1.6 million a copy DeLuxemasters – A project in the fine tradition of British Worldbeaters which won’t beat anything. His Flying Circus across the Thames has “stolen” £65 million from the rail budget and the reality of its viability will be seen in the cold winter of 2012 in the post Olympic hangover when we see if it gets anything like the 2,500 passengers an hour. Whilst much has been made of the “£36 M” Emirates sponsorship this is over 10 years and is dependent on minimum traffic levels being achieved – it is not cash up front.

"Death to the Bendy's" thundered Boris!

Then think of what Boris has not done? But he was wrong to cancel the pedestrianisation of Parliament Square, and his cycling "superhighways" are feeble - London needs proper cycle lanes. He cancelled the Cross-River Tram and the Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf Bridge - we need projects like this. Yet he abolished Bendy Buses and is building his cable car – two transport initiatives with nothing approaching a business case. I suspect at the Opening Ceremonies the London Mayor representing us will have a name beginning with K and London voters will have delivered their verdict on Bluffy Boris’s vanity projects. In the cold Winter of 2012 after the Olympic glow is well gone we'll see if this gimcrack link is really viable or if it was just another Circus Act?

What was TfL saying a mere year ago?

“TfL said it aimed to fund construction of the (£25 M) scheme with private finance, adding that discussions were being held with a number of private sector organisations. A privately funded cable car system offers a relatively quick and cost effective way of improving connections across the river for pedestrians and cyclists." Guardian – 5th July 2010

Looks like the private sector have since made up their own mind not to throw money into this?

Nobel Peace Prize 2011

2011-12-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot and "peace warrior" Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni "Arab Spring" activist Tawakul Karman. They were awarded the prize for 'their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work'

These are three truly remarkable women and there have been too few women Nobel Peace Prize winners (18 in total) when women have to bear the brunt of the consequences of war and violence which is very rarely created by them. Of these three special women I would single out Tawakul Karman a 32 year old journalist and mother of three who by her personal integrity and courage has defied stereotypes and united a revolution which is taking place despite the indifference and double standards of the world. As she herself has written;

“What is truly regrettable, though, is that the world has not shown the least interest in what the Saleh regime does with Yemen and its revolutionaries. Despite this huge number of martyrs, despite the transformation of the country into a huge prison where citizens struggle to get even a drink of water for their children, and despite the use of heavy weapons against civilians, Saleh's regime did not even receive a token verbal condemnation from the United Nations or other world governments – despite our calls to impose sanctions. Yet harsh sanctions were imposed on other regimes that committed lesser crimes.”

Tawakul Karman

Tawakul Karman became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that is part of the Arab Spring uprisings. She has been called by Yemenis the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution."She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date.

She stopped wearing the traditional niqab in favour of more colourful hijabs that showed her face. She first appeared without the niqab at a conference in 2004. Karman replaced the niqab for the scarf in public on national television to make her point that the full covering is cultural and not dictated by Islam. She told the Yemen Times in 2010 that:

“Women should stop being or feeling that they are part of the problem and become part of the solution. We have been marginalized for a long time, and now is the time for women to stand up and become active without needing to ask for permission or acceptance. This is the only way we will give back to our society and allow for Yemen to reach the great potentials it has.”

She has alleged that many Yemeni girls suffer from malnutrition so that boys could be fed and also called attention to high illiteracy rates, which includes two-thirds of Yemeni women. She has advocated for laws that would prevent females younger than 17 from being married. In an Arab world which in many places squanders the talents of half its people she is a rare and very clear voice.

Contrast the hope around these 3 women with the craven intimidation by the self appointed Chinese dictatorship who still imprison last year’s laureate Liu Xiaobo, his wife (without charge) and harass his family and supporters. Ahead of this year’s ceremony for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, past laureates and human rights groups announced a committee in support of Liu, a writer who is serving an 11-year sentence after writing a manifesto for democratic change. The committee - which includes South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu - voiced fears that Beijing is silencing Liu's family and friends after first carrying out an "international wave of intimidation."

Liu Xiaobo

"The international community seems to have forgotten that a year after the award ceremony, Liu Xiaobo remains in prison in China and in harsh conditions," the committee said in its first statement issued Thursday. The committee calls on all those committed to freedom of thought and opinion to join the committee in its efforts to obtain the release of Liu Xiaobo," it said.

Liu Xiaobo's empty chair at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Liu, a former professor, co-authored Charter 08, a bold petition calling for political reform in one-party Communist-ruled China. He was convicted of subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison on Christmas Day 2009. China responded furiously to the Nobel Peace Prize and cut off political dialogue with Norway, which administers the award. Relations remain tense a year later. In the past year, rights groups say that Chinese authorities only allowed Liu to leave prison briefly when his father died and have put his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest without charges.

Liu Xiaobo is the only detained Nobel Peace Prize winner. Myanmar last year freed peace laureate and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after she spent nearly two decades under house arrest. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued separate appeals Thursday for China to free Liu, with both advocacy groups fearing that Beijing is becoming more intransigent over human rights.

A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing’s Cangan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square on 5th July 1989.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/tiananmen-square-nothing-happened-here.html

Congratulations and respect to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman. Congratulations and respect to Liu Xiaobo still fighting against the “Great Dictatorship” which continues to imprison him for peacefully expressing an opinion. What is right will win out.

“I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints.”

—Liu Xiaobo at his “trial” by the Great Dictatorship, 23 December 2009

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/10/demand-that-china-free-liu-xiaobo.html

Symi, Greece

2011-12-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Gialos, Symi

It was up at dawn to get the Bluestar Ferry “Diagoras” to the wonderful island of Symi where Prometheus is reputed to have given the gift of fire to humans and was turned into a monkey by an enraged Zeus (according to myth!), hence the name; Symi = the Monkey. Although in Greek mythology nothing is clear cut. Symi is also reputed to be the birthplace of the Charites and to take its name from the nymph Syme (in antiquity the island was known as Aigli and Metapontis), and it is Pliny the Elder and some later writers who claimed it came from the word scimmia meaning a monkey. Behind the Mythos there is always some truth and the stories are probably allegories of the the spread of the Dorians along the coast of Asia Minor and the offshore islands. My story there was slightly less dramatic; Zeus opened the heavens and sent torrents down upon me! The journey down from Kos to Symi is full of promise from the very start. You stand on a harbour pier staring at the darkness and like sentinels two huge ferries appear out of the morning gloom and reverse carefully end on to the pier.

The miracle which is the unloading and loading of a Greek Ferry

World Class is not an expression I would normally use about a Greek company but Bluestar and its subsidiary, Superfast Ferries are truly impressive. In the gloom of the morning the two huge ships appear out of the morning gloom having come down from Athens overnight. Efficiently with the assistance of the Hellenic Coastguard, probably the only efficient Greek State agency, they disembark and embark these Titans of the seas efficiently and safely. The Ferries have step free access and, uniquely for Greece, well trained disability aware staff who immediately offered to assist my travelling companion who was using a crutch. We were found comfortable seats in the reception area and when I went up to the coffee bar later the waiter insisted on bringing the tray down to our seats. The boats are well equipped but made in Korea and not in the former shipbuilding nation of Greece which has made itself uncompetitive in this industry as in many other. They are ultra modern with 2 floors of cabins and two floors also of restaurants, lounges and bars. The two hours to Symi pass quickly as we watch the sun rise over the Turkish coast and as we head into the port of Symi, known as Gialos or Yialos, the reason we are on the smaller boat, the 145 metre “Diagoras” becomes obvious as in an amazing manoeuvre it is reversed into the pier with probably only 30 metre clearance.

Bluestar Ferry

Symi / Σύμη, also transliterated as Syme or Simi is a small but historic Greek island and municipality. Geographically, it is part of the Dodecanese island chain, located about 41 km north-northwest of Rhodes (and 425 km from Piraeus, the port of Athens), with 58.1 km² (22 sq mi) of mountainous terrain. The other main inhabited localities on the island are Chorio ("The Village"), Pedi, Nimborio, and Panormitis which is the home of the island's famous monastery which many people from all over Greece submit to a pilgrimage every year to visit. The island has 2,606 inhabitants, mostly engaged in fishing, trade, and tourism. In the tourist season which is roughly May until October, tourists and day-trippers bring the number of people on the island up to as much as 6,000.

The bridge joining the two halves of Gialos

Taverna in Gialos

Symi is one of the most beautiful islands in the Dodecanese, and has a rich history that stretches back to ancient times, when it was known as the Kingdom of Nireas. According to the writings of Homer, Nireas was one of the most handsome and brave of the Greeks, and he fought in the Trojan wars. What followed was the story of the rest of the Aegean islands: the Romans invaded in the 2nd and 1st century BC, the Byzantine years came after, interrupted in the 14th century when the Knights of Rhodes took over. They built a castle on top of the ancient acropolis to protect themselves against pirate raids, and were to stay of the island until the Turks invaded in the 16th century.

War Memorial

Because the Symian boats were extremely fast, the island got the important responsibility of post office to the Ottomans. In return, the island was left pretty much to itself, and did not suffer as many other places around Greeks. The fishermen of Symi were also allowed to fish sponges, which together with the wine production, was to be an important source of income, even though outshone by Kalymnos.

In 1912 the island was given to the Italians, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, and during World War II it was invaded by British and German troops, until its final unification with Greece in 1948. The shipbuilding and sponge industries were substantial on the island and, while at their peak near the end of the nineteenth century, the population reached 22,500. Symi's main industry is now tourism and the population has declined to 2,500. Its nearest land neighbours are the Datça and Reşadiye peninsulas of Muğla Province in Turkey.

Jimmy's Rend-a-Moto

Its interior is dotted with small valleys, and its coastline alternates between rocky cliffs and beaches, and isolated coves. Its main town, located on the northeast coast, is also named Symi and consists of the lower town around the harbour, typically referred to as Gialos, and the upper town is called Chorio or Ano Symi. In addition to its many historical sites, the island's isolated beaches, many reachable only with small boats, are popular with tourists. The Municipality of Sými includes the uninhabited offshore islets of Gialesíno, Diavátes, Kouloúndros, Marmarás, Nímos, Sesklío, and Chondrós. Its total land area is 65.754 km². Other villages on Symi are Pedi, Nimborio, Marathounda and Panormitis.

The harbour area of Symi town, known as Gialos must be rated as one of the most beautiful sights in the whole of Greece. The port has been an architecturally protected area since the early 1970s. Symi is really two places in one. The first, from late morning to mid afternoon, is a harbour thronging with hundreds of day trippers brought over in large excursion boats from the island of Rhodes.

Cameras start clicking as soon as the ferry pulls into the main Symi island harbour at Gialos or Yialos. It is a very impressive sight, a semicircle of Venetian mansions and houses tumbling down the steep hillsides to the shoreline. The ferry hoots madly and the sound echoes around the horseshoe of hills. Gialos is a favourite destination for day trippers from Rhodes and three or four big ferries arrive every day. As a result, it is often packed with visitors poking their way around the stalls that are set out on the long harbour front to meet the ferries.

A typical Xeno

Sponges and spices are the main goods on sale. Symi was once famous for its sponges but those on sale in Gialos today are mostly imported. There are also the usual souvenir shops and waterside tavernas. The Cathedral of Timios Prodromos, which was built in 1830 and refurbished in 1869, with a marvellous pebbled yard provides a welcome enclave just yards from the waterfront. In the right side of Gialos, a clock tower, named Roloi, built in 1881, counts for the Symiots the time which runs quietly in Symi. In front of Roloi, Michalaki the little fisherman (made by Kostas Valsamis) welcomes the ships, yachts and the caiques.

Roloi

When all the day trippers have gone, the atmosphere in the town tends to relax, the hustle and bustle gives way to a much more laid back approach to life. Both the locals and those holiday makers lucky enough to be staying, on the island, coming out for an early evening stroll around the waterfront, then settling down for a quiet, pre dinner drink, and to enjoy the entertainment of watching the yacht flotillas that start to arrive at about this time, attempting to dock for the night.What the visitors may not realise is that this town was left virtually destroyed by the retreating Germans who vindictively let off a huge explosion with the munitions they could not take away. Despite the years of rebuilding and restoration walk in from the waterfront and the scars of this vandalism are still visible.

Above Gialos is the upper town known as Chorio. The main road that runs up from the waterfront to the high town is not for the faint hearted. Named the Kali Strata, it consists of 500 wide steps. Both sides of the road are lined with fine, old neo-classical style houses, some with doorways leading to secluded flowered courtyards.

Chorio

There has been a great deal of building restoration done throughout the town to repair damage caused by the bombing and burning of the town during the Second World War however it still has a fragmented feel with the “centre” being none too obvious essentially a widened strip of road with a bus shelter, bench and kiosk. Many of the day trippers from Rhodes tend to take one look at all the steps and decide to stay in Gialos. But it is possible to catch a small bus whose route runs from along side the waterfront, up around the back to the top of the town. If you do take the bus or brave the steps, then you are rewarded with some of the best views to be found in all the Greek islands. You catch this bus on the far side of the harbour across the small bridge which connects the two sides of Gialos. Be warned, there is no obvious notice on the times of the bus which runs hourly on the hour up and on the half hour down. If Symi wants to improve its visitor perception it could do something dramatic like clean this bus. I have never been on a filthier bus anywhere. It looked like the interior had not been cleaned all season, it is beyond me how a bus driver could go to work every day and have so little pride as to lounge about smoking after each ten minute trip and not clean this mobile pig sty.

Once in Chorio you could visit the famous churches the island is noted for. You could only you will find them firmly closed and in the best helpful Greek tradition there will be no indication of when they might be open. The old town of Chorio is not car or indeed pedestrian friendly with essentially steep donkey tracks and steps. There are really only two places to head for. The Villa Pitse, perched high up in old town has stunning views of Gialos below. The hills surrounding the harbour form an amphitheatre so that on calm days, with the breeze blowing in the right direction, it is just possible to make out individual conversations being carried out way down by the waterside. Villa Pitse is only one of the many interesting buildings to be found, they range from large, lavishly decorated mansions, to much smaller houses, but each one seems to have a character of its own. However in the abscence of a guidebook or notices these are not accesible to the casual visitor.

Symi Museum, Chorio

Worth following the many signs for through narrow climbing pedestrian streets is the Symi Archaeology and Folklore museum which is housed in the house of Nikolaos K. Farmakidis. Here the friendly curator takes pride in showing you the paintings, photographs, costumes and material which shows the history and culture of the island. It is open from 08:30 to 15:00, except for Monday. Down below and part of the same complex is the fascinating four-storied house of Chatziagapitos-Chatziioannis, next to the museum with its impressive wall paintings. This mansion shows you the inside of an aristocratic Symian house with the dining and the sitting room (furniture, settings, paintings and photographs of that period), along with some traditional local costumes and artefacts. For me the most fascinating insight were the small servants quarters with above a ”quarantine” sleeping area for people who had infectious diseases and needed to be kept out of the main house.

The Museum includes the following collections:

» Archaeology collection of artefacts dating back to Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods
» Byzantine collection
» Folklore collection

Before leaving go onto the terrace for the classic view of the harbour of Symi down below. Going back down to get the mobile pig sty bus back to Gialos you’ll find a couple of cafes aimed firmly at the locals and patronised by economically under utilised young men of the island who firmly laugh in the face of the alleged smoking ban. As with using seat belts and crash helmets this is seemingly a law which only applies to tourists!

The Greeks gave us logic!

In the south of the island and connected to Symi by a spectacular 8km road you will find the reason many Greeks visit Symi, the shrine at Panormitis. However to get there from Symi Town is difficult as buses go at 7.45 and 13.30 hrs, one before the ferry arrives and the second which won’t get you back in time for its departure! Better to go there on a direct boat trip from Rhodes in season. Panormitis is the island's famous monastery which is visited by people from all over the world, and many Greeks pay homage to St Michael of Panormitis each year. The monastery of the Archangel Michael (Taxiarchis Michael) is the most important sight on the island. It was originally built in the 6th century, but what you see today is the result of restoration and new buildings from the 18th century. Panormitis is a small place and there are two museums, a folklore and a religious, as well as a tavern. However the monastery is a substantial complex with facilities for feeding and accommodating pilgrims.

Monastery and Icon of Arch. Michael "Panormitis"

A nave was built on the remains of a Byzantine chapel, also dedicated to St Michael, in 1783. Since those days the monastery has expanded enormously, so much so that its guesthouse can accommodate up to 500 people. The harbour is dominated by a highly decorated, mock-Baroque bell tower that was built in 1905 and is a copy of the bell tower of Agia Foteini at Izmir in Turkey. There is a taverna and a bakery that bakes excellent bread. There is also a small beach. The excursion boats from Rhodes, usually make Panormitis their first port of call before moving on to the main town, so if you wish to try the bread from the bakery you will have to be early, for when the boats arrive they tend to sell out very quickly. As the boats only stay for a very short time, you may think it wise to plan your visit for late morning, early afternoon, so avoiding the crowds.

Since 1995, Symi has hosted the renowned Symi Festival during the months of July to September. This festival was founded by famous Greek political journalist, Ioannis (John) Diakogiannis, who established it in the birthplace of his father Eleftherios C. Diakogiannis. Since its inception it has attracted many of the leading Greek musicians (Katy Garbi, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Glykeria, Alkistis Protopsalti, Mihalis Emirlis, Dimitra Galani, Despina Olympiou, etc.) to perform at free open-air concerts in the main square of Yialos, and also consists of many dance and theatre events. Well known Greek artist Eva Geraki has painted the Festival programme's cover, each year for the past 15 years.

In summary, Symi is a very friendly island which has not been spoilt by mass tourism, and still retains the traditional Greek island way of life and hospitality. There are no high rise hotels, no villa complexes, just some small friendly hotels, holiday houses and studios which are traditional Symian houses, some of which were originally wealthy sponge merchant’s mansions, renovated with loving care, with modern conveniences which you expect when on holiday. Staying in one of these old traditional houses and living amongst the local people means you will be able to live like an islander and totally unwind and forget the stresses of modern life. Come and see for yourself why people who come to Symi become enchanted with this special island and keep returning year after year.

Σύμη , Δωδεκάνησα - Symi island, Dodecanese – Greece

KOF is a contender!

2011-12-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

KOF

Dáithaí C has long tipped that talented purveyor of chunky Urban Beatz from the Pool KOF for greater things. KOF draws both on the gritty urban reality of Liverpool and the values of his Ghanaian roots to develop the sharp take on life articulated in his music. 'Be Like You' is the second single from the forthcoming project by KOF and finds him standing up for the purity of music and its purpose. Now in an interview with CNN he has received prestigious endorsement from Kanya King as one of her five favourite artists.

Kanya King is the founder of the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards which aims to elevate black music and culture to mainstream popular status both in the UK and internationally. King chooses her five favourite artists of the moment for CNN.

"Now KOF is an artist who shows it's not just the artists from London who have a big future ahead of them. We rate the young man from Liverpool so highly that we made sure MOBO TV shot an acoustic session with him and one of the songs we were lucky enough to hear live was "Be Like You."

Kanya King founder of the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards

The singer/songwriter's second single is getting huge support from the UK radio stations like 1Xtra and Choice FM, and rightly so. He is re-injecting true soul music back in the public eye and I can only support this as soul music is the first genre of music I fell in love with. It was one of the reasons why I started up the MOBO Awards in 1996.

Apart from, of course, Adele, there are not enough musicians out there who can really touch your inner self like the greats, such as Aretha Franklin, could many years ago. Obviously, these artists are plying their trade in the UK, but KOF, however, is getting the recognition he deserves quicker than most.

As for the acoustic session KOF gave, it is definitely a special and intimate performance that you can see when you have a few minutes."

MOBO

http://www.mobo.com/

Full CNN interview with Kanya King;

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/07/opinion/kanya-king/

www.kofmusic.com

KOF: Be Like You

The Great New Year Transport Robbery

2011-12-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

This January will see rail fares rise by an average of 8% and some as high as 13% - That's daylight robbery for most passengers as season tickets rise by hundreds of pounds more each year and walk up fares reach eye watering levels. We need affordable fares, not day light robbery. Worse of all this Government sanctioned stealth tax is set to continue for the next four years - a wallet busting price hike! For many in the workforce and education who commute this will be a tax too far on employment and on education. Indeed spin doctors are already on the case and this is publicised not as a “Fare Increase” but merely as a “Fare Revision” or in an attempt at absolute minimalism as “New Fares.” Who can argue with “New Fares” – we were so fed up with those old fares!

Since Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London bus fares have increased 55% in 3 years

Now there is a further example proposed of the “Hershey Bar Technique” – charging more for less. But this time under the heading of “Red Tape Challenge” the almost invisible “rights” enjoyed by passengers are being eroded further. The ConDem Coalition government has signalled its intentions by publishing the latest in its series about the Red Tape Challenge which is currently focused on Rail and Maritime. There are several areas of concern but one that applies to passengers, workers and communities appears under the section Rail Transport: Fares and Licensing at:

http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/rail-transport-fares-and-licensing/

If you follow the link you will see a box on the left hand side that lists legislation that the ConDem Coalition government evidently considers to be red tape.

What is the Red Tape Challenge?

The government has a policy to reduce what they regard as red tape because it allegedly hurts business and, they claim, does real damage to our economy. Whilst in marginal cases this may be true, in reality what the Red Tape Challenge is about is reducing business regulation in a variety of areas so that companies can maximise profits either:

1. At the expense of workers’ employment rights, including pensions and safety, or

2. by removing passenger rights as demonstrated by the inclusion of the National Conditions of Carriage and the Ticketing & Settlement Agreement. The Rail Fares and Licensing issues clearly have an impact on both passengers and workers:

The National Conditions of Carriage gives passengers some protection around ticketing and as you will see from the Red Tape Challenge link above, a number of people have already added their comments in this area. However, it is with regard to the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) that it is also regarded as Red Tape and the government is trying to change it drastically to attack the scant “rights” passengers have.

The McNulty Report, published in May 2011 recommended that there should be either “amendment or removal by the DfT of the obligations in the TSA relating to ticket office opening hours.” The government's formal response to the McNulty Report has been delayed into the New Year but by the inclusion of the TSA in the Red Tape Challenge it appears to be signalling its intentions.

The TSA is important because Schedule 17 stipulates that if a train operating company wants to change the opening hours of a ticket office – or simply close it altogether – it must carry out a three week stakeholder consultation via the passenger watchdogs, Passenger Focus and London Travel Watch. This means it must ask for the views of the local communities that will be affected by the proposal.

There have been a number of examples of consultations where a combination of groups and individuals have successfully campaigned to keep ticket offices open because of the service that they provide to local communities, not to mention to protect the jobs of rail workers. One of the most recent – and high profile – was London Midland’s plans to close or amend the opening hours of virtually all of its ticket offices but which resulted in over 18,000 objections from members of the public.

The TSA's three week public consultation is a very short period but if Schedule 17 of the TSA is withdrawn, there will be no public consultation at all when ticket offices are shut or their hours reduced. This will mean that communities up and down the country will be presented with a fait accompli as commercial companies put profits before public services. On my own line to Aylesbury it would mean station ticket offices at Stoke Mandeville, Wendover and Great Missenden would be closed.
Against this backdrop, there is a very real threat which comes from the recommendation in the McNulty Report that the ticket offices on all 600+ Category E stations should be shut – and the opening hours on another 300 ticket offices on Category D stations should be reduced.

Stoke Mandeville is one of 600+ stations which could have its ticket offices closed without consultation after the McNulty Report

Please click on the link above and fill in the box that appears to let the government know that you object to any change to Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement because stakeholder (public) consultation must be kept. It is a form of democracy that the government wants to remove but why should they?

You have until Thursday 8th December to participate so please hurry.

And when you have done that, please tells Together for Transport by e-mailing;

rob@togetherfortransport.org

What else can you do?

Join Together for Transport's Website is at: http://togetherfortransport.org/

Like us on Facebook at: TogetherforTransport

Follow us on twitter at: @forTransport

The Nations National Health Service

2011-12-05T15:07:00.002-08:00

At the last election, David Cameron promised he would "cut the deficit, not the NHS". Last week’s autumn statement showed the opposite is true. As a result of lower growth and higher unemployment, the government will be forced to borrow £158bn more than forecast a year ago. The New Statesman points out that this is more than Labour was projected to borrow at the last election – an amount that Conservatives then claimed would take Britain to the "brink of bankruptcy".

Aylesbury Labour activists celebrating the NHS's 63rd Birthday @ Stoke Mandeville Hospital earlier this year

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-63rd-birthday-to-national-health.html

On December 1st children across the country opened the first window in their advent calendars, starting the countdown to Christmas. But let us mark the countdown in another way - by sending David Cameron a message that all we want for Christmas is our NHS. Cameron’s Health Bill, the Bill that will rip apart our Health Service, is still making its way through the House of Lords. The fight to stop this Bill is far from over: Labour Lords are making a strong stand against it, and it still needs to go back to all our MPs to be debated before it can become law.

But if we want to defeat this Bill, we have to keep up the pressure on the man who is responsible. That’s why we’re going to deliver ‘Health-Scrooge’ Cameron a big Christmas card from all of us, saying: all we want for Christmas is our NHS. Will you sign the card?

http://www.nhsalert.org.uk/signthecard

Cameron’s Tories, backed up by the Lib Dems, are putting the NHS at risk. Their cuts mean that people are already waiting longer for the treatment they need, and they are wasting billions of pounds on a top-down restructure that will mean:

• worse patient care with services cut, hospitals closing and longer waiting times for treatment

• more privatisation and more companies making money from all parts of our health service

• more red tape making it harder for nurses, doctors and other health professionals to do their jobs

David Cameron promised to ‘protect the NHS’, to ‘give the NHS a real rise in funding’ and to ‘stop top-down NHS reorganisations’. He is breaking every one of those promises – you just can’t trust the Tories with the NHS. Join thousands of other people in sending ‘Health-Scrooge’ Cameron a Christmas message - all we want for Christmas is our NHS. Sign the card today:

http://www.nhsalert.org.uk/signthecard

This Christmas, we want a gift that matters to everybody - a National Health Service that puts patient care before private profit.

PS. If you have 2 minutes to spare, why not sign the Government e-petition calling on Cameron to drop the Health Bill?

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

Protect the health of the Nation and not the Private Healthcare Lobby who fund the Tories.

Wenlock and Mandeville

2011-12-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Wenlock and Mandeville

The groundswell is growing in London against the elitism and commercialisation of the London 2012 Olympics, dubbed in some quarters “The rip-off Olympics.” One commentator has captured the mood:

"The Olympic spirit no longer exists, it's been completely replaced by a relentless hunger to make the Games as much of a money-spinner as possible; for the contestants, for the organisers, and especially for the corporate sponsors."

The imposition on Londoners is considerable; Transport plans based on 30% of Londoners not going to work during the Olympics, sky high ticket prices but the best seats reserved en bloc for freeloaders and sponsors. A so called “traffic free” Olympics but with 3 Zhil Lanes (now renamed Olympic Ways) for the “Olympic Family (50,000 “VIPs”, officials and freeloaders) to have exclusive access to these lanes in 3,000 prestige cars on security grounds - and this for what was billed as "Car Free Olympics!" And then there is the overweening sponsorship; In the Olympic sites, you can only drink Coca Cola products, you can only use Visa, you can only eat McDonalds, you cannot wear anything with somebody else’s logo in an outburst of sponsor fascism. In Bhopal in India nearly 200 survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster have burned effigies of Lord Coe and an Indian Olympic official to protest against Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the London Games.

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the organising committee with the London 2012 Logo which bears a passing resemblance to Lisa Simpson!

Olympic Stadium under construction in 2010 with Canary Wharf in the background. All the main venues have now been completed a year before the event.

The spectre of commerce was conspicuous in its absence at the first Olympic Games staged after the Second World War. The president of the IOC, Avery Brundage, was a right-wing businessman from the USA; but he opposed with a messianic vehemence any moves to develop the Olympics on a more commercialised footing. Even at the time of his retirement, at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Brundage was still declaring that the IOC ‘should have nothing to do with money.’ The idealistic founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertain, spoke against ‘athletics as a show’, implying that commercially-based large-scale events would corrupt the amateur spirit: drawing upon promotional budgets and generating large crowds to justify the investment in the event, ‘these oversized showcases are the source of the corruption at the root of the evil.’

The main venues @ The Olympic Park in East London

Consider then that London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville have failed to visit a single school in an Olympic borough as head teachers struggle to pay their "exorbitant" appearance fee. Pupils in Hackney were left disappointed after the two characters used to promote the Games stayed away, despite repeated requests by staff. Emma Penzer, the head of Mandeville Primary, said her school had failed to qualify for a free visit, despite sharing a name with one mascot. She said the school, from where pupils can see the Olympic stadium, was now considering paying £850 for the privilege. "Normally we would not even consider spending £850 on something like this," she said."But as our name is Mandeville and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the children, we have thought about it. We'd hoped for a free visit but didn't win the draw."

Stoke Mandeville - Spiritual Home of the Paralympics

The characters are named after the small town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire - which hosted a precursor to the modern Olympic Games in the 19th Century - and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire. The Wenlock Games gave inspiration to de Coubertain as he formed his concept of the modern Olympics in 1896. Olympic motifs chime through the design: Wenlock wears the Olympic rings as friendship bracelets, and although predominantly silver in colour, also contains flashes of gold and bronze. Mandeville's head reflects aspects of the three crescent shapes of the Paralympics symbol. In a deliberate homage to London taxis, each has a yellow light on top of its head, with an initial in the middle.

Mandeville's name is inspired by Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire. In the 1940s, Dr.Ludwig Guttmann came to Stoke Mandeville Hospital to set up a new spinal unit to help former soldiers suffering from spinal cord injuries. Looking for ways to inspire those in his care, he encouraged them to take up sport, leading to the formation of the Stoke Mandeville Games, widely recognised as a forerunner of the modern Paralympic movement.

You can follow the adventure of these strange (and expensive) creatures on their own site;

http://www.london2012.com/mascots

The £850 fee is to cover the two "actors" who put on the Wenlock and Mandeville costumes and also to pay for an assistant. A visit from one of the characters costs £600. Neighbouring Newham has had one school visit, Greenwich one and Tower Hamlets three.

Stratford International Station - The public transport gateway to the Olympics - just 9 minutes from St. Pancras on "The Olympic Javelin"

Andrew Boff, Tory spokesman on the Olympics at the London Assembly, said he will raise the subject as it appeared Hackney schools were "not getting their fair share". A spokesman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games said: "Our priority is and has always been to make mascot visits available free to schools via initiatives and competitions."Wenlock and Mandeville have already visited many schools."

Perhaps Jeremy Clarkson could arrange for them to be executed in front of their Olympic family?

See also; London Olympics 2012

http://www.daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/london-olympics-2012-stratford-station.html

Paralympic Games and Stoke Mandeville

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

An Effin Cheek

2011-12-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

Ann Marie Kennedy, a proud native of Effin, Co Limerick, is taking on Facebook

In Ireland we cherish the uniqueness of our place names and the fact that they are often incomprehensible to visitors only adds to the attraction for the natives. But put unique place names up against “intelligent software” and Yankee centric computer giants you can never talk to then you get classic “miscommunication scenarios.”

Indeed this automated filtering software can produce unexpected results as a City Stock Analyst found when he issued a “Buy” recommendation for a stock which was “CUM DIV” – city code for a share where a dividend had been declared but not yet paid. His recommendation was blocked unbeknown to him and his clients lost out. Now, Facebook finds the Irish town of Effin too Effin rude for site. According to the Irish Independent newspaper it’s one hell of an Effin story.

A Limerick woman has started an online campaign to get her native village recognised by Facebook. But Ann Marie Kennedy (47) has a problem: the village of Effin has been branded 'offensive' by the social networking giant. Ms Kennedy, who works at the University of Limerick, said yesterday that she, along with several more friends, have been trying to insert the village name into the 'homeplace' section of their Facebook profiles in recent months. But they haven't been successful.

Ms Kennedy also tried to set up a Facebook page entitled, 'Please get my hometown Effin recognised'. But it too was blocked by the social networking site. "It came back with an error message saying 'offensive'," Ms Kennedy said. "I would like to be able to put Effin on my profile page and so would many other Effin people around the world to proudly say that they are from Effin, Co Limerick, but it won't recognise that," she said. "It keeps coming up as Effingham, Illinois; Effingham, New Hampshire; and it gives suggestions of other places.

"It will recognise Limerick but I'm not from Limerick city, I'm from Effin. I'm a proud Effin woman. And I always will be an Effin woman. It's just a pet peeve," Ms Kennedy - who lives in Banogue but hopes to return to Effin - said of her Facebook battle. "It's not fair really. It will let you put it in but when you go to save it - nothing. It's like as if it's blocked.

Effin Map

"I've tried contacting Facebook but it's very hard to. You can't pick up the phone. There is a forum on Facebook about home towns as other people are having problems as well," she explained. Ms Kennedy was born in Effin and can trace her ancestors in the area back to 1857. The village has a population of around 1,000 and is about 40km south of Limerick city near Charleville. It is uncertain as to where the village name is derived from but it has been suggested that the origins lie in Cill or Teampaill Eiffin, meaning the Temple or Church of St Effin.

Surprise, surprise! A spokesperson for Facebook could not be contacted for comment last night. This has to be tackled sooner rather than later. Next, there will be the crisis to be faced when the inhabitants of Bastardstown, Co. Wexford and Carnalway,Co. Carlow try to get on Facebook and that is without going to Kilcock! And did I mention that there is also an Effin in the Lone Star State of Texas? Mark, you think you are in trouble now? Just don’t make the mistake of messing with the Republic of Texas!

Effin, TX

Crap Town UK

2011-12-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

Many will feel that Britain is a relaxed society but they have not read the Idlers “Crap Town UK” which lists, with convincing evidence, the 50 crappiest towns in Britain. But even amongst this underbelly there exists a sense of belonging for as soon as the list was published the outrage began “Why were we left out” shouted the denizens of excluded Crap Town’s. But even within this underclass there is a further unfathomable state of outcastery. There lives in the UK a deprived minority who suffer terrible discrimination, whose food is Pork Scratchings, the only snack food outside of Papua New Guinea with hairs, their beer is Banks (yes it rhymes) and their trough which they inhabit fitfully is the rust bowl of Wolverhampton and these benighted peoples with the UK’s worst accents and attitudes are know collectively as Wolvies.

Objective evidence of Wolvies crap credentials and the vicious circle of crappiness its inhabitants cannot escape has been piling up for nigh on 37 years. In 2009 Wolverhampton was listed as one of the worst cities in the world on a travellers' website. The West Midlands city was number five on a list compiled by Lonely Planet, based on feedback from its website users. Detroit in the US was voted the worst city, followed by Accra in Ghana, Seoul in South Korea and Los Angeles, US. Lonely Planet said Wolverhampton was so bad it had not even made it on to the reviews of cities on its site, as it would crap it up. One correspondent compared it with the devastation of Ground Zero in New York.

The Man on a Horse which provides a focus for public unrination. The Wolvies blame it on the horse, such scallies!

Sathnam Sanghera says;

“Wolverhampton, my home town, where I spent the first 18 years of my life, was the crappest town in Britain. Wolverhampton’s grimness is legendary. My memories of growing up there almost entirely consist of running away – either from people trying to mug me, people trying to glass me, or from rabid dogs trying to savage me.

Crap Towns does do Wolverhampton justice. One entry says “the city is so divided along class and racial lines that it is hardly a city at all but a collection of tribal groupings”.

Award-winning journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera receiving an honorary award from the University of Wolverhampton. He actually went to Christ’s College, Cambridge and Wolverhampton is probably UK’s worst university but we can’t be sure as it has taken itself out of the rankings! Some students even do their own dissertations.

Michael Thompson in the idler http://idler.co.uk/crap-towns/wolverhampton/ describes it thus;

“The most attractive thing about Wolverhampton was the multi-story car park on School Street, the roof level of which used to offer attractive rural vistas of Staffordshire, Shropshire and the Wrekin. However, the council knocked it down in the 90s. Now its most attractive feature is an orbital dual carriageway so impossibly difficult to negotiate (unless you’re a local) that it actually performs a service to the community by keeping curious outsiders away from this gutter belch of the West Midlands.

Pork Scratchings - the culinary delicacy of Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton was made a city in 2001, and as the nation shrugged, TV pictures were beamed into every home by way of the 6 o’clock news, showing Wolverhampton’s town crier (who reasoned that a testimony to 60s concrete renewal required a town crier?) announcing this momentous event to at least 6 interested residents gathered on Dudley Street in the pissing rain.

According to some, the night life in Wolverhampton has improved in the last few years. Yeah, it’s great if you’re a suede-headed moron who diligently phones each of your mates in turn before a night out to make sure you aren’t all going to be wearing the same colour YSL shirt, before heading down to Yates’s to pull a 40 year-old mother-of-5 and punch someone in the face for having a different skin tone to yourself.

Beautiful Wolvie

Unemployment in Wolverhampton is, of course staggeringly high and the city is so divided along class and racial lines that it is hardly a city at all but a collection of tribal groupings. Some of its outlying suburbs (such as Heathtown) are terrifying concrete wastelands too terrible to describe (Heathtown is where the people of Wolverhampton go to die).”

The town has given birth to such talent as Slade and Eric Idle. Its local politicos, whisky-supping sham socialists to the core, have the ruddy faced corpulence of the undeniably corrupt about them. In the evenings, the smell of hops from Banks’s Brewery permeates the town like the stench of a trapped animal slowly decaying in a drain pipe.”

Don’t take my word for it, drive into Wolverhampton on the A41 from the M6 Motorway and enjoy the wonderful approach of a town surrounded by derelict steel works and old slag heaps inhabited by …. Well you tell me! Yes, there are famous people who come from Wolverhampton but they have one thing in common, they now live somewhere else! Why for holidays and high days the inhabitants who can escape to Coventry and Manchester as better alternatives! Q.E.D.

Look out! Wolvies about!

So there is the phenomenon of the Wolvie Diaspora where the natives escape the rust bowl of Wolvie; some to vice or call centres, some go across the border to Codsall or points west in Staffs, others further south to Watford, Camden Town or The French Riviera, to Calgary or indeed anywhere which is not the City of Pork Scratchings. Ossie Osborne escapes to Beverly Hills (not to be confused with Beverley Knight) but when in the UK is careful to stay in his mansion in leafy Buckinghamshire. But wherever in the world these unfortunates end up they cannot escape the “First Law of Wolvie” – You can take the person out of Wolvie but you can’t take Wolvie out of the person!

AND LONELY PLANET'S NINE MOST HATED CITIES ARE....

Detroit, Michigan
Accra, Ghana
Seoul, South Korea
Los Angeles, USA
Wolverhampton, England
San Salvador, El Salvador
Chennai, India
Arusha, Tanzania
Chetumal, Mexico

Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK, edited by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran, is published by Boxtree Books, price £10

Sathnam Sanghera is a British journalist and author of The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton. Published by Penguin, shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Biography Award, the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize and named 2009 Mind Book of the Year.

Wolverhampton is Shit website;

http://www.wolverhamptonisshit.co.uk/index.html

Wolverhampton on the Chav Towns website;

http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/?s=wolverhampton

Billy Wright - the most famous person in Wolvie

George Harrison; Musician and Humanitarian

2011-11-29T16:32:00.001-08:00

10 years ago today the world lost a great musician, songwriter, film maker but above all a great humanitarian who’s Concert for Bangladesh started it all.

Harrison’s songs, which included “Within You, Without You,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something,” were among the gentlest and most meditative of the Beatles’ output.

“Here Comes the Sun,” for example, was written on a beautiful spring day in 1969 when Harrison left the Beatles business office feeling frustrated by nitty-gritty accounting details. He walked over to his friend Eric Clapton's house and strolled around the garden with a guitar. The result was one of the most buoyantly joyful of his songs:

“Little darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter/Little darling it feels like years since it’s been here/Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun/And I say ... It’s alright.”

The Concert for Bangladesh was the first benefit concert of its kind in that it brought together an extraordinary assemblage of major artists collaborating for a common humanitarian cause – setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher cause.

To quote the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “George and his friends were pioneers.”

Ravi Shankar

The concert was inspired by a great Bengali and musician, Pandit Ravi Shankar who wrote;

It was early in April 1971 that news reached me of an unfolding humanitarian crisis in my homeland of Bengal. My heart went out to the Bengali speaking people of Bangladesh and it was natural for me to reach out and want to help the refugees and the hundreds of thousands of little children.

On Sunday 1 August 1971, Shankar, Harrison and those "friends" – among them Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell and Ringo Starr – staged rock's first mass act of philanthropy, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Harrison, whom Shankar lovingly describes as "my student, my brother, my son, all combined," was enjoying his peak years as a solo superstar. His presence alone ensured that the concert was more than just a worthy cause, in accordance with what we might call Geldof's First Law of the Charity Gig: "The only responsibility the artist has is to create good art," says the man behind Live Aid. "They only fail when they create bad art."

May the many hands of Shiva continue to fill his pockets with goodies! As for George, his guitar still gently weeps.

Concert for Bangladesh;

http://theconcertforbangladesh.com/theconcert

See also;

A Day in the Life of Abbey Road

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/day-in-life-of-abbey-road.html

10th Longford Lecture on "Crime, Punishment and the Media"

2011-11-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

The scene in Church House which included a Cardinal, a Police Commissioner, several Lords (not a leaping) Lady Antonia Fraser, serving and former prisoners and Dáithaí C!

An inspiring evening was had by the full house attendance @ the 10th Longford Lecture on "Crime, Punishment and the Media" by the redoubtable Jon Snow and chaired by Shami Chakrabati of Liberty, once described as “the most dangerous women in Britain!” Held annually to honour the memory of Frank Pakenham, Lord Longford, and to further his work on penal reform it has attracted distinguished speakers in its 10 year history; Cherie Booth QC (2002) • Bishop John Sentamu (2003) • Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2004) • Brenda Hale (2005) • Clive Stafford Smith (2006) • President Mary McAleese (2007) • One-off Longford Debate (2008) • Sir Hugh Orde (2009) • Martha Lane Fox (2010). This year on the 17th November 2011 it was once again held in the Assembly Hall of the Church of England and in a wonderful sign of how the world has changed the Catholic Primate, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor strolled in without fuss to take his seat for the lecture.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams

As a young don in Oxford Lord Longford, Frank Longford, (1905-2001) was already interested in prisons. He was in the process of converting to Catholicism and very struck by the Christian message: Hate the sin but love the sinner. This remained the foundation for all his subsequent work with prisoners and other people who he felt were ill-served by society. He never condoned criminal actions but always believed in the possibility of change, however hardened the criminal. This approach led to his support for the child murderer, Myra Hindley which drew on him so much criticism. Happily, there was a more sympathetic portrayal of his beliefs in the 2007 award-winning TV film Longford.

The trust was set up in the memory of Lord Longford and pursues the goals which he pursued during his life.

It was fitting that this 10th anniversary lecture was by the journalist and broadcaster Jon Snow as Lord Longford had picked him to be a director of New Horizon, a London charity, because he’d been thrown out of university. So had the last director, the noble peer added gleefully. They became lifelong friends, lunching together every month. ‘No-one was more entertaining’, said Snow about the great reformer.

Jon Snow

Snow had been studying law at Liverpool University and had taken part in a student sit in at the administration building in protest at the University investing in companies trading with Apartheid South Africa. For this, he and 9 others were expelled, a point he referred to in his lecture in asking was this a correct punishment? He painted a vivid pen picture of his first meeting with the peer in the (then) somewhat scruffy and dank surroundings of the under croft of St. Ann’s in Soho where the charity was then based. In a recess there was Frank Pakenham wearing a tweed jacket, an ancient cardie and his tie knot somewhere around his ears, an immaculate Jack Profumo only six years after the scandal which led to his resignation and the then chairman of BOAC. Jon has maintained his connection with New Horizon which is now based near his home in Camden and with the causes close to the heart of Lord Longford who gave him his first break all those years ago.

Shami Chakrabati of Liberty who chaired the evening

In his lecture Snow questioned why no major City figure had been prosecuted over the financial crisis three years ago. Delivering the annual Longford Lecture, sponsored by The Independent, he doubted that every action by every investment banker during that period was above board. He said: "I can't believe that you have an event so searing, so terribly destructive, as the global meltdown of 2008 without what you and I might recognise as a crime or an element of crime. But how many are behind bars?" He suggested that bodies such as the Serious Fraud Office were struggling to grapple with complex financial systems.

Snow protested that it was the innocent paying the price of the banks' mismanagement, such as the one million young unemployed adults being "punished for the fiscal failures of their elders". He took a swipe at companies for registering their headquarters in tax havens, saying: "It's not a crime, it's legal, but it doesn't feel right." Indeed he has long campaigned against tax haven, 23 of which are controlled in one way or the other by the United Kingdom, asking elsewhere “is it right they make it here and park it there?”

Snow also spoke of other innocent victims of crime such as the musician Carla Rees who lost a collection of valuable flutes when her home was burnt out in the summer's riots. He pointed out that Society seems keen to imprison those guilty of crime from the bottom such as last summer’s rioters but not those guilty of crimes from the top such as bankers and others. Indeed he asked if Financial Engineering and hedge funds which engage in socially useless activities devalue our overall morality.

However he pointed out the overwhelming evidence that prison doesn’t work with 81% of young offenders serving sentences of less than a year reoffending within a year of release. The need for Penal Reform which Frank Longford campaigned for is even more pressing as the prison population edges up over 88,000, seemingly egged on by media pressure by the discredited British Tabloids. They don’t consider the proportion of the prison population who have alcohol or drug dependencies which will not be effectively addressed in prison, the numbers who are foreign nationals who will cost us £48k + to house or indeed the high proportion (15%) who are ex-military and have not found their way in civilian life. Whilst the Tabloids support “Our Boys” going into war they are somewhat more muted when they end up in prison due to the effect of the trauma they have endured.

Jon Snow has been the face of Channel 4 News since 1989. He joined ITN in 1976 and became Washington Correspondent in 1984. Since then, he has travelled the world to cover the news – from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela, to Barack Obama's inauguration and the earthquake in Haiti. His many awards include the Richard Dimbleby Bafta award for Best Factual Contribution to Television (2005), and Royal Television Society awards for Journalist of the Year (2006) and Presenter of the Year (2009). As well as presenting the programme, Jon writes Snowblog - a unique take on the day's events - and Snowmail - a preview of the evening programme's main stories. To the public he is instantly recognisable for his trademark colourful ties and socks.

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog

Another fine feature of Lord Longford’s legacy are the Longford Awards for Penal Reform and the Longford Scholarships helping offenders gain educational qualifications.

For its innovative and effective work with offenders, The Clink received the Longford Prize, sponsored by the Independent Newspaper. The award recognises "outstanding qualities of humanity, courage, persistence and originality" in penal or social reform. The Clink is located in Her Majesty’s Prison High Down in Sutton, Surrey. It is the first and only commercial restaurant to be built inside a working British prison to date.

The Clink - reservations are essential!

The Clink is the brainchild of Alberto Crisci, the jail's catering manager, who was already training inmates to cook and prepare food before he hit on the idea of serving gourmet fare to paying customers. The aim was that offenders would receive work experience and gain qualifications to prepare them for well-paid jobs in catering. It has been supported to a great extent by Kevin McGrath and his McGrath Family Foundation and its ambitious menu includes crispy Stilton quenelles, slow-cooked spice pork cheeks and home-made crab ravioli. But you have to be patient to get a table at The Clink, which has become so popular that it is fully booked until January despite patrons needing to go through special security procedures on arrival and departure. This is one restaurant where you will not be disturbed by the dreaded mobile phones!

www.theclinkcharity.com

The Longford Trust, founded in Frank Pakenhams memory and run by writer Peter Stanford, has three aims. Firstly, the annual lecture; secondly, a programme of scholarships for ex-prisoners who are taking on further education and thirdly, awards for an individual or organisation that has done outstanding work in penal or social areas. Generous tribute was rightly paid by Jon Snow to the writer and former editor of the Catholic Herald Peter Stanford who has headed up the Trust since its inception and been responsible for Trojan work in expanding its scope and its fundraising. His biography of Lord Longford was the basis for Channel 4's 2006 multi-award winning drama, Longford.

Peter Stanford

http://www.peterstanford.co.uk/biography.php

Afterwards there was a fine reception, as is the tradition, attended by no less than 19 “Longfords” including his daughter Lady Antonia Fraser, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Sir Ian Blair and many other luminaries old lags and myself! It was an opportunity to mingle, to meet Longford Scholars and to see the wonderful work of the various prison charities. It was catered in some style by The Clink and serving prisoners and was an opportunity to take stock of the continuing need for Penal Reform. For once the needs of Justice have been served by Trial and sentencing then the needs of Society are only served afterwards by stopping reoffending and that is the area where the UK’s Prison System is an expensive failure. Is a prison sentence the only way to tackle criminality or do we need to change the emphasis to rehabilitation? As Peter Stanford points out on the Longford Trust’s site;

“The benefit of such a dual approach (punishment and rehabilitation) is that it delivers what society really wants – released in-mates who do not offend against the rest of us again. Instead what the present overcrowded, punishment-obsessed prison system turns out is 80 per cent of under-21 years who reoffend within two years of release and nigh on 70 per cent of over 21s. It is a pitiful result that costs us all a fortune. We spend around £40,000 a year on each prison place.”

Generous tribute was also paid in conversation at the reception to Jon Snow; A man passionate about using his profile to improve society and who many years after first meeting Frank Longford is still fighting the good fight he inspired.

To learn more about the work of the Longford Trust and how to support it see the website;

http://www.longfordtrust.org/

Rihanna and O’Donoghue’s new opera

2011-11-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

RiRi @ O'Donoghue's Dublin

The Bajan popster known to her neighbours in the Parish of St. Michael, Barbados, as Robyn Fenty and to the rest of the world by her middle name of Rihanna has added to the fame of one of my favourite Dublin Pubs, O’Donoghue’s. Famed for its traditional Irish music sessions and being the pub where the Dubliner’s started out it is so famous that it is the setting for a movie “O’Donoghue’s Opera.”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/odonoghues-opera.html

Well its fame has increased as according to a report in the “Irish Independent” Rihanna mania hit Dublin last night as the superstar singer decided to host a dinner for 100 guests ahead of her concert tonight. The singer is in the city as part of her Loud Tour and is performing at the 02 in Dublin. She has been on the road for a long time and decided to give her band a Thanksgiving meal at O'Donoghue's, the old Dubliners' haunt which is also beloved by tourists in search of a music session.

RiRi fans outside O'Donoghue's

But it wasn't O’Donoghue’s traditional toasted sandwiches she was after - she had food delivered from top French restaurant Hugo’s, just across the road. She handpicked the menu, which included clam chowder soup followed by a traditional turkey dinner with mashed spuds, vegetables and cranberry sauce. Sweet potato mash, marshmallow sauce and macaroni and cheese were also on the tables.

O2 Dublin

As word spread that the megastar was inside the pub, fans began to arrive. Jamie Kelly (22) from Rathfarnham said he was waiting outside the pub after seeing Rihanna going in earlier. He said that she told him that she would come out afterwards to say hello. "I met her before two years ago," he said. She's lovely, really nice."

The reception she got in Dublin was like that of royalty compared to the day in September when she met farmer Alan Grahan (61), who pulled up beside her in his tractor in Bangor, Co Down - and told her to cover up.

RiRi being loud

While I say O’Donoghue’s is one of my fav. Dublin Pubs the last time I arranged to meet friends there it was full to the door and we had to decamp to Foleys across the road where we enjoyed some very happy hours. I don’t know what that other great O’Donoghue’s institution Con the Barman thought of RiRi and her entourage but as Con is very trend aware I’d imagine it would be ”Yo man! That girl iz well slack!”

See also; Dublin Rambles

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/09/dublin-rambles.html

Great Train Fare Robbery

2011-11-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

The two and a half desperadoes

Today Tuesday 22nd November Transport Together supporters across the country spread the word about the campaign for affordable fares with protests and leaflet drops at mainline stations. This January will see rail fares rise by an average of 8% and some as high as 13% - That's daylight robbery for most passengers as season tickets rise by hundreds of pounds more each year and walk up fares reach eye watering levels. We need affordable fares, not day light robbery. Worse of all this Government sanctioned stealth tax is set to continue for the next four years - a wallet busting price hike!

Tens of thousands of Wild West- style "wanted" posters featuring David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg, were today handed out at mainline stations across London. Given to peak time commuters arriving at Victoria, Waterloo, Euston, King's Cross and Liverpool Street stations, they launched the start of an intensified campaign against January's fare increases.

Commuter fares will rise by an average of eight per cent - though many increases on busy routes serving the capital will be in double figures, adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of season tickets. The rail companies, who make millions of pounds' profit, have been given permission to increase fares by three per cent above RPI - currently running at five per cent - for each of the next three years. It could add up to 25 per cent to peak-time fares.

The posters were produced by the TSSA transport union and backed by pressure groups including the Campaign for Better Transport. TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: "It is simply outrageous that passengers who rely on rail to get to work should be held to ransom every year by ministers. "Here we are in the worst recession in living memory and passengers are expected to find huge sums of money when their pay is being frozen or hardly rising at all."

Adding to the pressure this letter appeared in today’s Guardian Newspaper supporting the campaign.

Fares in London just keep going up (Report, 18 November). Instead of debating how much they should go up, let's prove things can be different by cutting them. Since 2008, thanks to the Tory mayor of London, a single bus fare has risen by 56%. A zone 1-6 Travelcard is up 22%. But every year the mayor raises far more money from Londoners' fares than his own budgets say he needs. In the last year alone, the unplanned operating surplus was £728m. The mayor should be putting that money back into people's pockets. With VAT, inflation, student fees and unemployment all up, ordinary people are feeling the pinch. London already has the highest cost of living in Britain. Fairer fares would relieve some of the pressure on Londoners and put money back into the economy. Ken Livingstone is proposing a 5% cut in fares to be introduced in autumn 2012. We back a fares cut for Londoners and call for a halt to endless above-inflation rises.

Jarvis Cocker, Benjamin Zephaniah, Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite the Union, Billy Hayes General secretary, CWU, Owen Jones, Zoe Williams

At a time when economic activity has slumped and the economy is flat lining these inflation busting increases on public transport are a tax on jobs and education. Many people are being forced to change jobs because they can’t afford the train fares. At a time of economic hardship public transport should be part of the plan to help people find work not a stealth tax hitting people already hurting. If you agree that trains shouldn't just be a luxury for the rich and that they should be affordable for all; then get involved to help stop this Great Train Fares Robbery.

Here is the campaign website;

http://togetherfortransport.org/fares

She Moved Through the Fair

2011-11-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

Replica Famine Ship "Jennie Johnston"

The most haunting songs and poems are on the subject of unrequited love. A sense of loss appears to be the sense which resides deepest in our memory, be it for a love lost, a country from which we are exiled or a person who has passed on. Think of Pablo Neruda’s “Tonight I can write the saddest lines (Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.);

“She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.”

The Irish folk genre has an abundance of such laments which reflects the doleful history of the country, the recurrence of exile and emigration and the longing for what has been lost. Indeed the tradition when a person was emigrating to America on the notorious coffin ships was to throw a “wake” for the person leaving as you would at a funeral for his family were never to see him again.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/gorta-mor-irelands-great-hunger.html

Famine Memorial - Marquette by Eamonn O'Doherty

The Gaelic language and place names are littered to references to “mBrón” – sadness and names such as the Poulnabrone Dolmen - Poll na mBrón in Irish meaning "hole of sorrows." The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 saw the defeat of Hugh O'Neill, despite his alliance with the Spanish, and the ultimate victory of the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland came with his surrender to crown authority in 1603. The bardic tradition of Gaelic poetry after that event universally lamented what had been lost and pined for that Ireland to be regained as in the early 19th century poem Caoine Cill Chais (The Lament for Kilcash);

“Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad,
tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár;
níl trácht ar Chill Chais ná a teaghlach,
is ní bainfear a cling go bráth;
an áit úd ina gcónaíodh an deighbhean
a fuair gradam is meidhir thar mná,
bhíodh iarlaí ag tarraing thar toinn ann,
is an tAifreann binn á rá.

What shall we do from now on without timber?
The last of the woods is gone.
No more of Kilcash and its household
And its bells will not ring again.
The place where that great lady lived
Who received esteem and love above all others
Earls came from overseas to visit there
And Mass was sweetly read.”

The same sense of loss and longing is found throughout Irish literature and song in Danny Boy, The Rose of Tralee, Mo Ghile Mear and the prose poem “On Raglan Road” by the poet Patrick Kavanagh.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-raglan-roag.html

It is found in the rich interplay and conflict between Irish and English literature and has informed both genres as epitomised by the writings of James Joyce who only ever wrote about a Dublin he had left behind as an exile, an Edwardian Dublin under British rule. His greatest work “Ulysses” is set in one day in that city, 16th June 1904. And, on that one day an exile, James Joyce, observes Dublin through the eyes of an outsider, a Jew of Hungarian descent, Leopold Bloom. It could be called “OCD and loss, a novel.”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/james-joyce-and-me.html

In this pantheon of pathos, of doleful and dolorous tracts the song “She Moved Through the Fair” more than holds its own for its lyricism and haunting melody, based on the mixolydian mode. The ancient Greek Mixolydian mode was invented by Sappho, the 7th century B.C. poet and musician and in modern forms appears in Yiddish Klezmer music and the Star Trek theme.

It gives a particular haunting quality to “She Moved Through the Fair,” a tragic piece about lost love. This song was written in 1909 although the original pre-dates this. A song collector and publisher named Herbert Hughes heard the melody while in County Donegal and approached the poet Padraic Colum with the last two lines of the song and asked him to write a version. It was published by Boosey & Hawkes in London in a work entitled Irish Country Songs in 1909. The lyrics were also published in Colum's 1922 book Wild earth: and other poems (though the book doesn't mention their traditional origin). Colum may have altered the traditional words significantly, perhaps cutting a number of verses; the variant of the song called Our Wedding Day has ten verses, to Colum's four. The song is often shortened further by omitting the third verse.

In the last verse we hear the line; I dreamed last night my young love came in. The original line is, I dreamed last night that my dead love came in (implying she haunts him for what he done).

Fairport Convention recorded the song in 1968, adopting the style of the song from the influential travelling singer Margaret Barry, though she herself had learned it from a vinyl recording made by Count John McCormack at Abbey Road in 1941. Also of note are the recordings of the song by Alan Stivell in 1973. The song has been used in several movies including Brave Heart and Sinead O’Connor’s version was used for the soundtrack of “Michael Collins.”

John McCormack recorded this with Gerald Moore on 25 June 1941, after his official retirement. The arrangement is by Herbert Hughes. Even though he would be dead in 4 yrs, and his breath was starting to go it says a lot about the artist that this was actually McCormack when his voice had coarsened a bit. The soaring and sweet tenor notes in the high register, so breathtaking in his operatic and early concert performances, were no longer in evidence. John McCormack at its worst so to speak, was so much better than most singers at their best. Teddy Schneider accompanied superbly on piano.

The usual modern version of the song (including the third verse) has these lyrics;

My young love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kind.
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
Till our wedding day.

As she stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there.
And then she turned homeward,
With one star awake,
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.

The people were saying,
No two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow
That never was said.
And I smiled as she passed
With her goods and her gear,
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.

Last night she came to me,
My dead love came in.
So softly she came
That her feet made no din.
As she laid her hand on me,
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day.

From Clare to here

2011-11-15T15:56:00.000-08:00

The majestic Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic's edge

It was with a spring in my step last week that I bounded along Kensington High Street in London to a unique event held in conjunction with World Travel Mart in London, “London to Clare.” Whilst a Dubliner I regard County Clare on the West Coast of Ireland as my adopted county. I have many friends and connections there and as a caver I got under Co. Clare more than most, it has a remarkable cave system where the soft limestone of the Burren hits sandstone sending rivers underground. Set on the Atlantic seaboard it is one the most evocative places in Ireland with the magnificent Cliffs of Moher and the wild Atlantic seascape which is at its most impressive on a stormy winter’s day rather than in the calm of summer. County Clare contains great variety within its boundaries. It contains the Burren, a unique karst region, which contains rare flowers and fauna from both the Mediterranean and the Arctic growing side by side.

Doolin2Aran Ferries "Jack B" under the Cliffs of Moher

The county's Southern border is the River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland. Along this estuary is the town of Shannon and Shannon International Airport which has a proud place in aviation history. This airport was the first airport to have a duty-free zone. On the eastern boundary is the bountiful land and riverscape of Lough Derg, Irelands 3rd largest lake, 22 miles from toes to tip and part of the Shannon / Erne navigation. It has 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) of spectacular waterway, ideal for all kinds of watersports, cruising and angling surrounded by beautiful countryside around the lake shore, perfect for walking, cycling, horse riding and other visitor pursuits.

Dáithaí C with Keith Wood and Mayor of Clare, Cllr. Pat Hayes

Clare’s sense of place derives not just from the landscape but also from the people because it has also preserved traditions of music and story telling which makes it a magnet for traditional music and folklore enthusiasts. And it does have much evidence of antiquity with a large number of old castles and abbeys, several ancient towers, and numerous raths (earthworks of ancient Irish chieftains) and cromlechs (circles of standing stones).

Poulnabrone Dolmen - Poll na mBrón in Irish meaning "hole of sorrows"

At the exhibition and function there was an excellent range of exhibitors showcasing what Co. Clare, nicknamed the “Banner County,” has to offer. The “main event” of the evening was the celebrated Irish international and BBC TV top rugby analyst Keith Wood who led a 40 strong team to London as his native County Clare becomes the first county in Ireland to harness the good will of its UK Diaspora in promoting tourism. The group was in London to showcase the best of Clare’s cultural, culinary, artistic, tourism and festival attractions at one of the largest ever gatherings of London Clare people in the UK capital and they kindly included me on an honorary basis in that number.

Aillwee Cave

Former Ireland rugby captain, Keith Wood expressed his pride in being a Clareman, acknowledged the importance of strengthening the ties with fellow Clare people in London and the UK particularly in a time of national and global crisis. He also extended his appreciation for the absolute generosity they have shown in effectively becoming tourism ambassadors for the county. “It’s time to think outside the box,” he said, “and time for us in Clare to lead the way and take responsibility for creating a county that is spirited, creative and productive not just for us but for the generations of the future.” Speaking to Keith it struck me what a capable character he was and he was telling me how after 14 years living in Richmond, Surrey, he had moved back to Clare. Keith is originally from Killaloe and played originally for Garryowen and Munster.

Keith Wood with artist Michael Hanrahan and his painting of Queen Elizabeth’s inaugural visit to Ireland

The London visit coincides with an attempt to name the spectacular Atlantic edge Cliffs of Moher as one of the 7 Wonders of the Nature. The Cliffs of Moher is competing with 28 other special world-wide locations in an international online competition. The Clare gathering in London stood firm in support of the Cliff’s bid for success as the clock counts down to 11.11 on the 11th November 2011 when the final decision is made and over a billion votes cast from all over the world.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/cliffs-of-moher.html

The county’s first citizen, Mayor of Clare, Cllr. Pat Hayes and brother of the internationally renowned traditional fiddle player, Martin Hayes, endorsed the event as one of the most innovative yet practical actions the county has ever taken. He said he came to London specifically to say to the Clare Diaspora and tour operators that the county is open for business and open to new ideas for delivering UK tourists to one of the most spectacular physical and cultural landscapes in the country. “We have a county of outstanding beauty, unrivalled tradition of music and superb quality food. Turn down any narrow road in the countryside and you will find artists and artisan products of the highest world standards,” he said.

Dáithaí C and Birgitta Hedin-Curtin from Burren Smokehouse

Among the product providers who travelled from Clare was hand-smoked salmon producer, Birgitta Curtin from The Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna who offered the same delicacies at the ‘London to Clare’ evening that were provided to Queen Elizabeth at the state dinner in Dublin Castle earlier this year. I sampled the smoked salmon and it is in a class of its own, organic award winning artisan produce.

www.burrensmokehouse.ie

Artist, Michael Hanrahan whose painting of Queen Elizabeth’s inaugural visit to Ireland is part of her personal art collection that hangs in Buckingham Palace, was also present. Joining the team of county emissaries were representatives from genealogical & attraction providers, accommodation & activity providers, local authorities and tourism agencies The event was chaired by former television presenter, Ciana Campbell representing Ennis Book Club Festival.

Doolin

Many years ago I went across to the easternmost of the fabled Gaelic speaking Aran Islands, Inis Oirr (The Eastern Island) from the pier at Doolin in a small fishing boat. Well today there are several operators all using state of the art craft to do the trips to the three Aran Islands (Inishmore - the largest and westernmost island, Inishmaan - the middle island & Inisheer - the smallest and easternmost island) and the Cliffs of Moher which are even more awe inspiring in scale when viewed from the sea. Joan Reilly from Doolin2Aran Ferries pointed me in the direction of their excellent Blog which is a great trip planning resource;

http://www.doolin2aranferries.com/blog/

Joe Russell, Chairman of Clare Tourism Forum, which inspired the event, stressed the significance of the county’s assets and its ease of access from London. ‘Shannon International Airport and indeed the Cliffs of Moher are just a hop away,’ he said. With 3 flights each day from Heathrow and further flights from Stansted, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh, Clare is no more than an hour away and costs a little as €36 if you plan in advance. Shannon Airport on our doorstep is an invaluable strength that we simply cannot ignore and must maximise,’ he added.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/05/shannon-airport-ireland.html

The ‘London to Clare’ Evening marks the commencement of a highly active period of engagement with the Diaspora and is expected to generate €1 million and 2,000 tourists to coincide with The Gathering homecoming initiative in 2013 and backed by the Government. ‘If 200 people attending the UK event could send 10 people to Clare who would spend €500 each, it is not at all an impossible task to deliver this target, added Joe Russell.

Magical Lough Derg

"The ‘London to Clare" Evening was an excellent promotional initiative for Clare to raise the profile of the County in London and build closer links with its London Diaspora. I would like to commend all of the work and the collaborative approach that has gone into making this event happens,’ said John Concannon, Director of Marketing Development, Fáilte Ireland.

Vote online for the Cliffs of Moher on www.new7wonders.com

I was delighted to bump into Jackie Whelan who has led the resurrection of the West Clare Railway. I hardly recognised Jackie looking smart in a suit but was delighted to hear of his plans for next summer on the extended railway. Great tribute and credit has to be paid to the team who kept the dream of the WCR alive and in particular to the remarkable Jackie who has messianically driven the project forward, his son Stephen and Locoman First Class Richard L. Gair. Jackie said I was very welcome to visit again if I brought a shovel. I’m sure he was joking, I’m management – I don’t do shovels!

Dáithaí C with Jackie Whelan and Richard L. Gair on the West Clare Railway

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-west-clare-railway.html

The evening went very well with a large attendance and we adjourned to enjoy the irresistible combination of traditional Irish Music and Fullers London Pride in my favourite London Pub, The Churchill Arms. Few publicans in London can compare with Gerry O’Brien, colourful landlord of The Churchill Arms, who has been 26 years at the award-winning Kensington Church Street pub. I’ve a soft spot for Gerry as he hails from the County Clare and if I described him as a Mad Irishman he would take it as a compliment for he is a true eccentric and has made the Churchill Arms into something rare in London a brewery owned tenanted boozer with real character where people literally come from miles around to visit.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/churchill-arms.html

Ireland has taken some hard knocks recently and there is no shortage of hindsight among the knockers. But County Clare is the hardiest and most go ahead of counties as well as one of the most remarkable landscapes on the face of the planet. It elected both Daniel O’Connell (The Liberator) and Éamon de Valera and is a place blessed with an independent spirit. Shannon was Ireland’s first new town and a place with both a pioneering spirit and a diverse community from all over the globe. The county still attracts many who come for its beauty and stay for the lifestyle. It is a "wired up" county with Ennis being Ireland's firs "Digital Town" and SFADCO attracting web entrpreneurs with its E-Town developments.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/e-towns-ireland.html

They are an entrepreneurial bunch setting up businesses in crafts and artisan foods which gives Clare a cosmopolitan feel contrasted with its landscapes both primeval and mellow.

Bunratty Castle and Durty Nellys "The Village Pub"

But one incident reminded me of the difference in spirit. I was speaking to the well known broadcaster and writer Fergal Keane (married to Anne, a lovely daughter of the Banner County) and said I thought in an article he had referred to somebody who was a good neighbourhood friend and schoolmate who I last saw 30 years ago. In a flash Fergal had his phone out, rang a number in Ardmore Co. Waterford and handed the phone to me. It was my old buddy and Fergal’s best friend and in a flash thirty years disappeared. That is the spontaneity, warmth and sincerity you find in that unique place on the edge of the Atlantic called Co. Clare. Looking around you realised that the saying that in Ireland “A stranger is a friend you haven’t yet met” would be a cliché only for the small fact it is often true. Go to Clare and see for yourself.

Thanks to Fergal, Paul Ryan from SFADCO, Maureen Cleary from Clare Tourism Forum and many more for a warm and life affirming evening.

County Clare "The Banner County"

Check out www.clareoffers.com for great value offers on accommodation, discounted admission to attractions & activities, discounts off shopping and much more in County Clare.

Check out County Clare’s Tourism Website www.clare.ie

Fly Shannon Airport www.shannonairport.com

Should Larry the Cat resign?

2011-11-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Larry the Downing Street Cat

The ConDem Coalition is under pressure as its slash and burn tactics by the Cabinet of All the Millionaires drags the economy deeper into recession. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.

As you would expect the pressure has already lead to high level political resignations and the papers are speculating on what is to come with both Theresa May and her nemesis Ken Clarke being frequent names in the media frame. However far more seriously there is a clear and vicious smear campaign against the one name which still commands cross-party support and the public vote, Larry the Downing Street Cat who was drafted in to get the rats out of British Politics.

Today, Downing Street has rebuffed calls for Larry to resign as No 10's cat after reports a mouse appeared at a recent prime ministerial dinner. The PM was with other ministers, including Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, when the offending creature appeared, the Daily Mail said. No 10 brought in Larry, in February, to combat its rodent problem. Asked whether Larry should resign, the PM's spokesman said: "Larry brings a lot of pleasure to a lot of people."

Four-year-old Larry came to Downing Street from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and was said to have "a high chase-drive and hunting instinct", developed during his time on the streets. A spokesman said he had also shown "a very strong predatory drive" and enjoyed playing with toy mice. Larry's services were called upon after a large rat was seen scuttling past the door of No 10 during live television broadcasts.

In June, the prime minister told the BBC he was "a good mouser" and had caught three mice since his arrival. Spotted during a live broadcast from Downing Street during the BBC's News at Ten, Larry patiently waited on the steps before being let in through the famous door. The PM said he had taken a photograph on his mobile phone of a mouse in his kitchen, but at the time Larry had yet to have been allowed in that room.

He said the cat was "doing well" in his new home and although he was "not very keen on men", he had made an exception in May when he was happy to be stroked by US President Barack Obama. Larry is not taxpayer-funded - and until a recent fundraising event, his meals were paid for by the prime minister's staff out of their own pockets. A spokesman for the Royal Parks confirmed in September that Maisie, a cat who lives at the nearby St James' Park keeper's cottage, had struck up a close friendship with Larry.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/st-jamess-park-london.html

This is the political story which has it all, backbiting, intrigue, leaked smears, back alley briefings, cat porn and inaccurate fork throwing. As for the future of Larry the Downing Street Cat? Well there are no grounds for optimism, David Cameron has just given him his “fullest 100% support” and described his position as unassailable. It seems for Larry the Cat the writing is on the skirting board, he is being set up as a scapecat?