The man behind the moustache

To Mr Brand......and to a lesser extent Mr Webb

2013-11-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

I could be talking to myself but this Is what I want to say to Russell Brand. Mr Brand you are right, the political classes are no longer representing the people. We have swayed hugely from the constituency based model where MPs were our representatives to where we try and pick a party that might in someway represent some of what we think we might like or worse still we choose to vote negatively against what we definitely don't want. And all these party members are subject to the whip (insert your own joke here about politicians and whips). As for Mr Webb, he is not looking at how the state chooses to parent your children, telling you when they should learn about sex, drugs or whatever, driving them towards the academic path when the vocational may be better. If only he had understood the Orwell that he read, he would understand that our children are already being stolen from their beds.....not in body, but in mind and agenda, one so pervasive that it often corrupts those out to change it.

Mr Brand I see the need for revolution, but revolution need not be rebellion. Not voting is waving a white flag saying "whatever" a completely passive aggressive response to something that needs change. Wee need independents free of party affiliation who can vote and advocate with conviction who can hear the voice and heartbeat of their community above the monotonous white noise of "The Party". You can be the voice that calls them to arms, yours the banner under which they stand. You don't need to be the prime minister just the catalyst to change the political landscape. Independents could hold the balance of power rather than party men, keeping constituency politics alive.

I realise there is a whole world of work to be done to sift and select candidates. I'll help, I'll bring others to help and when it's done we can all walk away, leaving the independents to be just that. We need change in just one electoral cycle to see a change to how we perceive politics and politicians to take better ownership of their selection.

Sincerely, get stuck in, promote the change and people will gather around to stand with you.

Make the change Mr Brand, make the change.

A dedicated follower of fashion.....

2013-11-05T13:10:00.003-08:00

In 1966 The Kinks recorded Dedicated Follower of Fashion, not one of my favourite Kinks songs but instantly recognisable to anyone who like music from that era. Personally I prefer Lazy Sunday Afternoon not least because it was a good friends never failing go to song when one too many "soda pops" had been drunk.

Don't worry I am not about to critique the back catalog of The Kinks, I am more interested in the lyrics... well actually the character in the song. The dedicated follower of fashion intrigues me, he's still alive and maybe some of the addresses that the dedicated follower of fashion must visit have changed but his pilgrimage remains the same from store to store; magazine page to magazine page keeping up with the where fashion is is now at. The guy is a disciple of fashion... he seeks out what the current move of fashion is and immerses himself in it, drinks it in, lives and breathes it. There are peoples and groups in the world that have turned being a disciple into a passive word....to be discipled..... it is done to them. They then create a present participle....discipling.....and expect that this should be done by others.

At no point does the disciple of fashion expect things to be done to him or for him. He does not attend lectures, or one to one seminars on how to be more fashionable. He expects to be where fashion is at, go out and grab the latest trends and the latest news of what's hot and what is not, have the latest album downloaded, know the newest unsigned act, have a retweet from the star themselves. Being a disciple is an active thing.....who on earth made it passive!?!? I am not going to point fingers......I am just saying...... ACTIVE!

I don't know if the bible borrowed disciple from elsewhere or vice versa it doesn't really matter the thing I wanted to point out is that Jesus did not sit his disciples down and do Torah studies that I can see. Nor did he have a 52 week course of study for them. He did not provide opportunities for them to practice where he was working he sent them away to do their own thing. That is not what made them disciples.

They followed, they asked questions, they tried to replicate, they followed more, they watched, they fought to be closest to him. They actively pursued where he was at physically, spiritually and emotionally. What made them follow him was the amazing life and love that went with him, certainly when I came to faith in 2007 it was not the "rules" about sex before marriage, drunkenness, or the like nor the idea of hell, nor the moral rightness of christianity that persuaded me it was actually seeing just how beautiful Jesus was. Something that people have seen for generations even the likes of Ghandi who didn't share a faith with him that I am aware of. Since then I have, sometimes more sometimes less, tried to be where Jesus is at, at the edge following him in the crazy paths that have woven across my life. I have been in places where there seemed no God and I have sought him out in the quiet place of my heart and sought him out in the craziness and joy of the highlights of my life and built a very real and personal relationship, digging a well of friendship that won't run dry (something I have been pants at with other friendships if I am honest). I am the disciple because I follow and sure in following I have been taught, corrected, disciplined, built encouraged and all the things people mean when they are asking to be discipled but only because I was there following when it got handed out. I have missed way more probably because I was not following when it got handed out.

When you look at the disciple like this it makes Matthew 28 go and make disciples of all nations sound a whole load of different. When you can't do it to someone you just a have to be beautiful, so attractive that people just want to follow you...not just people ....nations. How beautiful do you have to be for that. I am back on Ghandi again: "if all christians were like christ India would have believed"you have to be some kind of beautiful!!!

All Killer....No Filler.... The Torwalt Kids Nail the art of the Album

2013-07-26T01:00:00.003-07:00

The Sony HF-S90
90 minutes of mixtape mayhem!

Back when I was a kid you bought albums, I am young enough that most of my purchase were cassette and not vinyl but old enough that I think buying albums on cassette means you are young.... you all know what a cassette is right? Anyway it's not about the hardware it's about the music.....it's all about the music baby!!

Back then when cassettes were the new thing and you just hoped you didn't stretch the tape by rewinding and replaying your favourite track bands used to record albums with variety. A metal band would have a couple of anthems, a power ballad or two (metal heads can be romantics too), a fast one and then a couple of other.....well fillers. This wasn't just metal, the new romantics, ska and pretty much most pop went for a formula of an album with 3 singles worth of top music then some other experimental stuff that the band had written, that may or may not be like the stuff on that got them into the singles chart. Somewhere along the line record execs started deciding what went into albums and used demographics....and probably the then equivalent of word clouds.... to select the content of albums and they became a unidimensional reflection of their buying public rather than.....well rather than an attempt to broaden a bands musical horizon in a sonic adventure.

But back in the day you wanted to now that an album was all killer and no filler meaning every track had something for you..... I give you......

This album is genuinely all killer no filler - Old School Style. This is a true album and I for one want to stand on a table somewhere and applaud them. Bryan has one of those voices that has you saying "oh he's a little like......." but then you change who is like with every song. If you like the folky earthy feel of Mumford and Sons you'll love this chap; or if you like the troubadour talent of Damien Rice (but better) -he has that talent of singing just a nanosecond off the actual time of the song. The sharp breaths at the beginning of each phrase lending something to the sound that you can't quite pick.....don't know what I mean check out the first 30 seconds of Holy Spirit.... but it is special nonetheless.

Katie Torwalt has a huge mountain to climb in terms of expectation because I grew up with Shirley Bassey, Suzi Quattro, Janis Joplin and Grace Slick - she however nails it. Interestingly her voice is far harder to compare but it is like the gilding on their harmonies - maybe Sara Watkins but with a lower range that is made of honey covered notes - something a little bit country. There is too much music out there now with women trying to power through the full 5 minutes of a track, Katie's voice is beautifully natural and any power is delivered to be a highlight rather than batter you into aural submission. "I see Heaven" is probably the track that you want to check out if you want to hear Katie in full flight!

What makes this a great album beyond the individual performances is the soundscapes they build and the range of music and even instrumentation they use. "Sing Holy" will have you yelling along and then dropping back into places of reflection; it will change the atmosphere of a room and when it fades to silence you will want to stay there indefinitely. "Nothing Holding Me Back" is the track for you if you are caught up in the New British Folk scene Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling watch out this couple are writing beautiful harmonies and melodies that will draw you in. A truly magical track. In fact M&S you should take this couple on tour!! At the other end of the scale you have the huge and theatrical "Let The Sound of Heaven", this will have all the air drummers bashing away at air cymbals everywhere! I could write a little bit about every track, the trill in Katie's voice in "Glorious" another theatrical epic with choral sing-a-long ability, the tub thumping romp of "He is Faithful".......Bryan must have been listening to heaps of William Matthews before recording this I had to make a double take of the ears!

My song of the album though is undoubtedly - "You Saved My Soul", light, airy, wistful, simply brilliant. There is not a track on this album that you won't find something beautiful in: the carefully crafted lyrics, to the ornate and sculptured percussion, the "whole food" chord progressions. There really aren't enough superlatives for this album.

It truly wins and ALL KILLER NO FILLER AWARD!!

We will go on...

2012-08-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

We will not go back, tomorrow when the Olympics is over and in the effort to drive a sensational story the media try to tell us that the legacy is not going to happen and politicians try to score points off the whole process by telling us the way they propose to do things is the best.

We have an opportunity to stand up and say, We will go on. We respect what GB athletes have achieved and what The London Olympics has tried to achieve and we commit to The Legacy. Because it is US who are the legacy. It is is us who can get out into our communities and lead sport, it is us who can encourage our children to try something new, it is us who can personally donate to sports bodies who are generally charities. It is US who can take hold of this moment and take our first steps to 2016. It is now that we can start to become a new sort of Games Maker.

Games Makers UK for 2016 will not let the inspirational efforts of 541 athletes get ignored in a media rating war or a political debate. They will start taking steps now to ensure that 2016 sees us take Home Advantage on the road. What does the Games Maker UK for 2016 look like?

If you are able then compete!

If you can fund them...then fund them!

If you can stand in the torrential rain watching them compete in a dreary corner of the UK ....then support them!

If you see a dream....... feed it, with anything you can!

If you see them stumble....send them encouragement!

If you have time ...... give it - to coach, to make the teas, to man the gates, to sweep the track, mark the lanes, whatever it takes.

If you can do nothing else take a piece of A4 and write four numbers on it 2-0-1-6 and place it in your window; send a message to your road, your neighbourhood, your town, to the young adults that make noise at 4 am that if they will commit to greatness you will back them because together as a nation we can make 2016 glorious.

Whatever it takes 2016

........Just a thought........

"reproduced without the permission of anyone"

OBAMACARE.....deconflicting rights and responsibilities.

2012-06-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

As a professional logistician I spend a lot of time deconflicting things. Deconflicting doesn't even register in spellcheck but it is an important word in my armoury. Deconflicting logistical effort means not trying to receive 40 containers of stock on the day you conduct your automated resupply.

"Obamacare" is upheld by the Supreme Court and so a basic human right to healthcare is upheld. Now part of me would like to get into the assumptions that a "basic right to healthcare" assumes. It assumes a healthcare system perhaps a basic human right to health is a better phrase to alleviate the assumption.

Instead I want to head back to rights and responsibilities. It would be crazy to suggest that universal healthcare is a bad thing. The right to health is a good one and certainly in a religious and philosophical context most see the value of helping the sick. So with the right to health comes the responsibility on society (not necessarily government) to safe guard that. Whether society chooses to translate that responsibility onto its government is a thing for society to decide. These rights and responsibilities don't really conflict though; but there is a responsibility that is hugely at odds with Obamacare, the responsibility to act with financial prudence.

The more I read about the US budget deficit the more I realise there is no clear picture; people within one report run between 15 and 16 trillion.....but it is the same area as the US' gross domestic product and that leads me not to Adam Smith, Keynes or the great economists but to the great literary figure of Charles Dickens, creator of Mr Micawber.

Micawber the lay economist is famed for his observation to David Copperfield:

“annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

What happens when your 19 pounds 19 and 6 does not meet your human responsibility to protect the health of others? Do you borrow? Surely there is an equal responsibility to keep good accounts? There is a real risk that to continue to spend 20 pounds 0 and 6 will bankrupt you and render you unable to care for anyone.

So here is my quandary when looking at the Obamacare debate from the outside.....the debate is off centre. I can't see that this is a debate of right or wrong it is surely more a debate on how to reconcile two conflicting responsibilities. In such a debate there is a less confrontational air and both republicans and democrats can come together and look at how to better meet the responsibility society has to look after its own and to keep their accounts "in the black". Wiser minds than mine must look at these problems and thrash out a way forward rather than enter the tiring treadmill of confrontation and flip flop legislation.

A missing "eous"

2012-05-15T13:56:00.001-07:00

These are just thoughts, I am not going to edit them or polish them but they have been in my head a while and I want to put them down somewhere.

I have a question...

Where did the gospel of right come from?

Not righteous but rightness.

Too many times I see or hear division because people are asserting their rightness.

If you encounter a blind man in the street walking into things, you reach out to help him... you walk beside him. If you enquired as to his blindness and he claimed he was not you wouldn't push the issue because what is the point, if a man walking into things who can't see doesn't want to admit he is blind no words from your mouth will convince him otherwise.

But put this in a spiritual context and people spend a lot of time telling folk how blind they are. My only conclusion is that the only way to assure you own rightness is to convince everyone of their wrongness...and people are scared of wrongness because it brings punishment.....but what if the outcome isn't as important as the process what if being right is not as important as being righteous.

What if when you encounter a Mormon and he declares that he has the most up to date revelation from God, you get excited for him and said I am so glad you have that revelation but I haven't been given it, let's pray together that God will open our eyes, what if you did that with Islam? What if you had the confidence in your own belief to say I am open that I may be wrong about the doctrine I hang on to but let's go before God with prayer and fasting until he shows us who he is in this?

What if we chose love and relationship ahead of right?

What if we gave up our right to be right?

What if?

#Kony2012

2012-03-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

Is it a good thing I feel I have to have an opinion on #Kony2012 and I use the hashtag advisedly because this is a media event. I have always had an opinion on Joseph Kony since 2004 and working in Sudan an area into which Kony made several visits - welcome and unwelcome. #Kony2012 is a different phenomena.

I don't like having to fall a hate Kony2012 or a hate Kony2012 cynicism camp - there is a bigger diversity of opinion available.

I don't think the filmmakers of #Kony2012 are vain or narcissitic - a criticism which is levelled at them often. I don't think they over dramatised what has been going on. I don't think the world knowing about Joseph Kony is a bad thing. So what do I think.

I do think that leveraging a media fearful global colonial power to come and correct the errors of the last global colonial power is perhaps unwise. My own country created the north south divide of Uganda; is the US the best authority to clear it up?

I do think that the film will aid Joseph Kony to perpetuate his own myth in much the same way Mugabe did with hate media.

I do think it is good people are looking at world issues and I would like to think they will go beyond #Kony2012 and see that Uganda has needs that kill as many children as Joseph Kony.

I do think it is interesting to look at Joseph Kony's spiritual views: a man who believes he blessed by a water witch, is immortal, can breathe under water and never leaves his "safe territory".

I do think more needs to be understood about his support base that allows him to continue.

I do think Joseph Kony is an exceptional military leader and will not be beaten militarily, and that the Uganda government need to look at alternatives to military action.

I do think this is a civil war and not an international one.

Yesterday I blogged about human responsibilities so what is my human responsibility. Thank you #Kony2012 for making me question this.

Rights vs Responsibilities (a bit of a rant)

2012-03-08T02:42:00.000-08:00

I want to show you 2 screen shots of Google searches:

The first is a Google of Human Rights

The second is a Google of Human Responsibilities

Do you note any distinct differences? If you take just a cursory view there are no adverts about human responsibilities, it would appear that they don’t sell. There are no sponsored links either. Look a little closer and you will see that human rights attract the attention of governments and the UN but human responsibilities don’t.

From working in aid work I know that a ‘rights based approach’ is a common way of assessing humanitarian interventions. I know from my sister that all schoolchildren are clear on their rights. What we all seem to be less clear on are our responsibilities. Where is the UN charter on Human Responsibilities? Surely we need a document exhorting us to the highest possible standards of living? I realise there is an industry around protecting, policing and promoting human rights that I think would collapse if we could put just half the effort into promoting human responsibilities. For every right that is claimed surely there must be a corresponding human responsibility. People generally like to have responsibility; people like to feel they have a grip on marshalling their own future. Surely we can aspire to attaining greater levels of responsibility; everyone who has worked knows that you want more responsibility because with it come greater rewards.

A great philosopher, Danny Lee Silk, when asked by one of his children if they “had” to do something told them “no, you get to do it”. What if we switched how we looked at the world and started to think that we get to look after those less fortunate than us. They became a privilege in our realms of responsibility. What if we aspired to greater levels of human responsibility how would the world look? The interesting thing it is almost impossible to have your human responsibilities stolen from you, yet we give them away. We give away our responsibility to look out for each other, to protect the environment, to engender peace where there is discord. I am not even talking of global politics what if in your work place you decided to quench gossip, to help the guy who doesn’t get how the new print management system works, to support your boss in making better decisions rather than criticising their bad ones. What if we stopped looking at our right to employment and looked to our responsibility to work; would our economy look very different.

I think we GET to be humanly responsible rather than HAVE to be and it feels good.

Taking Down The High Places

2012-03-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

A friend recently asked me to engage in their problem. They felt that they were hitting a glass ceiling in their journey with God . This is someone that is way further down the line than me so I took time to hang out with God and ask him what he thought about the problem. 2 Kings 12 & 14 I felt I heard clearly. The thing is I have never been a big reader of Kings, so I dived into 12 leapt over 13 and on into 14. It is the story of Joash and Amaziah, father and son kings of Judah. Their stories are reasonably unremarkable, the get involved in wars and squabbles, do some politicking and then get assassinated after either giving away or losing the Temple gold and silver. OK so maybe not such quiet lives but within 2 chapters both have come and gone.
Their ancestor David dominates a huge section of the bible and even in their story he is referred to, and I think it is in these references that we see why.
2 Kings 12:2-3
Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Kings 14:1-4
In the second year of Jehoash[a] son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash. 4 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
Niether of these Kings removed the high places, the high places being the traditional worship sites of the Canaanites to Asherah. It is thought that sometimes Israelites would go and worship God there too but the inference is that them being left up was bad. David however pulled down all the high places and destroyed the altars and had his chief priest teach the people the law. He did also have a man killed, commit adultery and eat the sacred bread from the Temple….so not flawless but few of the Bible’s heroes are.
So what does tearing down the high places look like in a modern setting. Some might say we worship the cult of celebrity or sport and whilst in part I guess that is true I am not sure that is what God was saying to me. It played out in my head more like this……
I was a reasaonable rugby player, I got county caps, played at a premiership club, coached a national students side but generally underachieved. My rugby career was a picture of talent squandered on mediocrity. There were things to me that were more important or rather things that had their hooks in me to drag me away…..girlfriends….fear of missing out on what was going on with my buddies…… the search for adventure…..the occasional beer fuelled evening. These were my high places these were the things that kept me from fulfilling my potential.

In a faith journey I don’t think it is so different, there is plenty to drag you back from a relationship with God and you can live a good life and do good things and be pleasing in God’s sight but never tear down those high places and live in mediocrity for the rest of your time. Yet it is the tearing down of those high places that made David a name recognised down the ages and Joash and Amazaiah a couple of chapters in Kings. Our high places are different, perhaps judgement, perhaps immorality perhaps overworking but until we get to grips with them and throw them down we are perhaps likely to remain just below that glass ceiling.

NB some details in this story have been changed to protect the innocent, I do not claim to be right I am just thinking about potentially being right and I may even be wrong about that but if it makes you think, then I am alright with that……right?

Camping Cynicism

2011-05-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

I know I am not a regular blogger but sometimes things move me to print, I guess you will never really know the man behind the moustache from these pages. Now and again however something rouses me from a blog slumber to pat a few keys into some semblance of a thought. My title is a little elusive, camping cynicism could have referred to the general expectation that it will rain anytime you erect a tent in the UK.

My Camping, is Harold Camping voice of Family Radio predictor of the Rapture that didn't occur. I am no professor of eschatology but the timing surprised me a little and I am glad we have a little more time to harvest. What surprised me more than the timing was the level of cynicism amongst Christians, including many in leadership. I didn't expect Christian Leaders to have a conference to discuss but many dismissed Mr Camping in a derisory or off hand manner. The truth is no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. (yup plagiarised from Matthew 24:36). If only the father knows then it is maybe a little arrogant to dismiss a brother in Christ or even poke fun at him.

As I have said I didn't feel any divine quickening over Mr Camping's prognostications but I was open to being wrong. I am left wondering if we missed an opportunity to say "I don't know if tomorrow is the rapture but if it is coming - I know I am going"; did we miss an opportunity to honour Harold Camping and say "You know what, I don't hear or see what he sees but he is passionate about God and about reaching the lost and I can admire that, he has been serving God in the best way he knows how with radio since 1958 and that is longer than I have lived and I want to honour that, and if he turns out to be right or wrong I will stand by him as a brother because that is what we do; whether we look foolish or smart." Could we have looked different to everyone else in how we treated this man?

The others....

2011-04-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

I am not talking about the Nicole Kidman film but rather the concept of the others. This is related to my last post about Rob Bell and Love Wins. When discussing anything of a contentious nature within the Christian faith "The others" crop up; rarely are they referred to as the others and none of us are quite sure who they are we quite often give them vague titles as "the unchurched" "the under 18's" "the new to the faith". Our worry for "the others" would at first seem commendable but actually I think it might be disingenuous.

How big is our God? Pretty Big? Very Big? Awesomely Big? Unfathomably Big? Yet it is our concern for the others that is going to save them, if we can only discredit The Shack or Rob Bell or that Bill Johnson character then the others will be safe? Sounds kind of silly when you say it that way doesn't it? Or maybe a little arrogant, that we are so Godly that we have the absolute inside track on what is right and wrong and "the other" idiots may get fooled. I am pretty sure somewhere it says that only the Holy Spirit can keep us from deception. Perhaps if we are so worried for the others we should be teaching the beauty of a communicative relationship with the Holy Spirit.

I believe that "the others" is a tool we use to allow us to disagree with a theological stand point yet remain in relationship with someone - now that is a worthwhile aim. It says I think you are OK and I think you are probably a spirit inspired man but I am fearful of this gap you have opened between us but to keep us close I will transfer this gap to "the others". The problem with this strategy is that it doesn't build up the person the gap has occurred with; it breaks them down, it discredits them. It is time to find a positive way of staying in relationship with people we disagree with, not sidelining them or excluding them or feeling that their text, existence or whatever negates us as people. Let's concentrate on our walk with God in community and relationship and leave "the others" to retire and live in peace and be guided guarded and protected by God.

Monday's with Lloyd and the guys

2011-04-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Rob Bell. Love Wins. This is a book that has caused some hub bub because he may point to universalism; the idea that there are many ways to salvation rather than the one way through Christ which is a central teaching of Jesus (no man comes to the father but by me). I haven’t read the book but I probably will but I have read Sex God his other book and it’s pretty good. I am not sure I agree with everything that is written but on the whole I learned stuff. What interests me is why we focus on that which divides us? Surely there is something in Rob Bell’s writing that is good, why don’t we focus on that tell the world about that rather than our differences? I don’t have the answer, but I have the sneaky suspicion we need to stop doing it. We need to focus on our unity and community and in these places live out our beliefs guided by the spirit.

The Couples Retreat

2010-01-25T05:46:00.000-08:00

The Couples Retreat – quasi review

This is not a film I would have gone to see but for the fact I am in Ghana and the other options were the Princess and the Frog, Alvin and The Chipmunks (the Squeakquel – Lord preserve us), Holmes (which I have seen) and Law abiding Citizen which just didn’t grab me.

Now it has come to my attention that things are edited for quite a conservative Ghanaian market. For instance we did not see Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) swanning around in her Victoriana underwear in Holmes and I think maybe they edited out other stuff that slowed the pace of the story making last weeks film review kind of null and void if you live outside Ghana but I will press on just in case anyone reads these things and wants to know how the Ghana version rates.

The couples retreat:

Genre: US Style Romantic Comedy/ Romcom (ie not written by Richard Curtis)

Stars: Vince Vaughan; Jean Reno, Kristin Davis (the brunette from Sex in the City you know the one), Peter Serafinowicz (not technically a star but go on do the voice…you know the voice…go on do it the one from Spaced….Just do the voice Pete!!!)

Plot: Couples A C D are conned into going on a couples counselling week by couple B who have “issues”. They are on Island West run by Marcel (Reno); with overly polite bureaucratic anglophile Sctanley (Serafinowicz) as the kill joy programme manager. There is a singles inland East where nubile young things dance the night a way. Is there hope of reconciliation or is it going to be an Island hopping bed hopping romp (no pun intended).

Well I have to say I liked it, I can’t say I loved because I think it sits in the shade of films like Old Skool, which was funnier, more poignant, slightly more crass (in a good way) and was my first brush with Ellen Pompeo and Will Ferrell. I don’t mean I brushed Will Ferrell, or Ellen Pompeo for that matter but to that point I hadn’t seen either of them and now I rate them quite highly. This is not a film of American Pie style innuendo (at least not in Ghana) and it has laughs but more cerebral ones. It gently scrapes at the humour and pain of real marriages and not Hollywood ones. Would this appeal to anyone not married – I am not sure. Certainly marriage has been treated with a healthy respect by Messrs Vaughan et al. This could be a case of Vaughan growing with his audience, the wedding crashers of yesterday (you know who you are Cross!!!) are now the married family men of today.

Would I go to see it again? Yes outside of Ghana just to see if it is an entirely different film.

Old bug eyes is back.

2010-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Yellow and black to yellow and black gives you twin headlamps and headlamps is what Enduros are about...that and desert raiding.

The Rise of the Tenere

2010-01-23T03:18:00.000-08:00

It appears I bought a Tenere from someone who knows less about bikes than I do. Despite Davenport’s insistence that I try and install a carb float on my old KMX125, I haven’t really grasped the essence of fixing your own. In that instance it appears that the bike n beer session may have prospered from less beer and more bike know how. You can imagine our joy when we managed to fit the float and kick the bike over.....and at the time we could only imagine it; as the second we kicked the bike over it revved way beyond normal parameters and the kill switch got hit before we got sprayed with molten Kawasaki.

Mad Jim, who bless him may be incontinent on your furniture after absinthe (allegedly) but is pretty good with bikes later informed us from the hospital to which all our bikes used to go that we had indeed fitted the carb up the wrong way. Who knew they had a way?? Certainly not me.

So I have embarked on restoring a slightly worn Tenere 660 (now to be known as The Mighty Tenere) bought from a man by the side of the road in Tema. I ought to explain I am in Ghana. So there is no Mad Jim back up or Davenport pontification out here it is just me and the machine.....oh and Robbo who has taken The Mighty Tenere for a quick burn and has fixed some bikes before but used to ask his mate’s dad for the difficult answers. I figure though as a source of moral support he could be invaluable.

The first set back was the registration and I say the first because I expect more not because this has already become a tale of woe. Normally when you buy a bike in the UK he gives you the reg papers signs his bit you sign yours and away you go happy as Larry. At worst, as in the case I lost the papers to my Varadero before selling it, you write a polite letter to the DVLA and they rectify the problem. Not so Ghana, it involves many many visits to people places and offices only to find out that the guy you bought it from for USD1600 wasn’t in a place to sell it; who was is anyone’s guess. I will keep you posted on this factor.

So today after spending a little time just getting the thing to fire with my team of pushers; namely the driving and grounds staff of Ethimex SA Ghana Branch. I have had a closer look at the electrics. Now I did ask for counsel from Facebook friends as to whether to go the trial and error route or the manual route. They wisely almost exclusively said manual; but the Davenport factor came in and I just wanted to tinker. This is crazy as he helped me fit a float upside down and often has bikes in various states of disrepair (never buy a bike with a warranty it spoils the fun). So I have gone the trial and error route n the initial stages. The fairing os off and neatly stacked.Results:

1.Yellow and black wire not attached to yellow and black wire; here in lies the answer to why only one of the iconic twin headlights of desert raider bikes works.

2.There is a small grey wire which is attached at neither end, use....pretty obscure but I have removed it and as long as it wasn’t balancing the bike I think we can live with it.

3.Dangling red and black end (insert your own gag here) yes it seems the “mechanic” that sold me The Mighty Tenere isn’t big on connecting two ends of a cable. Infact I think from discovery four that potentially the light came from a different bike.

4.The fairing mounting is sheared off at the base giving it a flappy effect in anything other than first gear - I think somebody has dropped this at some point.

5.There is a connecter just above the crank case that doesn’t appear to be connecting.

So down to Game, the local superstore to pick up epoxy resin, electrical tape, tie wraps and gaffa tape. Oh yes there will be tie wrap and gaffa action that would make a Hollywod hostage taking bank job film look tame. So to the Batmobile!!! Well the pick up.

The shack a reasoned response

2010-01-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK65Jfny70Y

The URL is a talk by Mike Driscoll a chruch leader in...erm somewhere. He effectively attacks another Christian in words; this is my response.

Heretical is a big word and I would edge away from judgment of anyone particularly with this word. I think this attack on The Shack goes to show that doctrine often only goes to divide.

I think WP Young was trying to describe how he related to the trinity. I don't agree with everything in The Shack but I certainly don't see it as damaging to God. God knows who he is and if people come to God through this book and then discover him to be different they still have a relationship.

Mark Driscoll offers the huge question at the end "Who is God" - this can only be hinted at in books - even the bible. If we could capture God on paper he would be pretty mediocre; I can't even capture my wife on paper.

Sure there are negatives in the book and some of them don't stand up to theological scrutiny. There are though positives in the fallabilities of this novel. Maybe God does not come to earth as an African American woman - his ways are not my ways so I don't profess to know if he can or would - but the Poppa character does show that God is a loving tender God who is prepared to meet as where we are not where we should be.

And maybe Sayaru (or however you spell it) is only a touch of what the Holy Spirit is but the action in the garden of uprooting toplant something beautiful and new is a great way to see the pain we sometimes feel as God works at changing us into his likeness.

I don't have to agree with Mark Driscoll or William Paul Young to know that they are both searching for the heart of God. I pray blessings on them both and that God might prevail in their lives and bless their ministries.

Let's step away from doctrine which devides us and into relationship which allows for ongoing discussion revelation and growth.

American Politics Day

2010-01-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

For some reason today is American politics day, it may be that this is because American politics are more interesting than the grim inevitability I sense in UK politics - where anyone with a slogan "Yes we can" would have a little man following him around explaining that although technically we can we probably won't due to leaves on the line. Nor am I going to try and fathom the unfathomable politics of Ghana my home for the moment.

UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE.....you would have thought that Barack Obama had suggested paying for healthcare for the Universe, martians included. Instead he proposed a modest reform to ensure that the land of the free meant free healthcare. I live in Ghana and the BBC Worldservice (Yes I am approaching mediocrity, or expat eccentricity can't decide which.....is that London calling) so as I was saying the BBC Worldservice is broadcasting disgusted of Tennesse's attitude to the principal that everyone should get healthcare. The average Ghanain doesn't get this, I mean you pay for everything here and if you don't have the money to pay you go are taken hostage until you can. The step from hospital to hostage is a short one. I mean they literally hold you prisoner in the grounds of the hospital until someone pays your bill. Universal healthcare is a good thing no?

I am not even going to take a stab in the dark at what kind of fear makes Americans so selfish as to not to want to fund a healthcare system to treat one another. I mean i might cough Macarthyism but I really would only cough it because it just seems that there is a disproportionate emotional attachment to not help the weaker guy that I don't get. Don't get me wrong there have been some amazing philanthropists, Getty, Rockerfeller and even Bill Gates but as a nation there is a selfishness that defies belief. Democracy surely suggest that people not only have rights as a citizen but also responsibilites to the citizen. My concern is that the UK has followed suit voting for ever diminishing taxes; eyes averted the ever diminshing services and the ever growing underclass.

A return to the abortion issue

2010-01-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

So Obama won and all the BBC world service seems to want to play is soundbites of the indignant republican. I was talking with L about Obama's policy on abortion. His personal outlook is that it is wrong from a moral and faith perspective but as a political position he understands that each must pursue his own conviction. To criminalise abortion only actually creates criminals, we can look at 1970/80's Eire to know that abortion went underground, women got sick, died and were jailed for living in fear of shame.

I guess it is important that I share where I am coming from, I would love to see a world where every pregnancy and pregnant woman was supported so whole heartedly by society that there was no potential for shame, suffering or loneliness. Yup that is essentially pro-life (very conservative of me eh?) - but it is an acknowledgement that this is a decision that the whole of society must make; it is not about individuals chosing life. It is about community reforming to a point where judgement falls away in the face of love. Not free love but the gritty real love of recognising someone's intrinsic worth beyond the mistakes they make. The gritty of love of living out the commitment to the unborn child that so many profess but when it comes to support of the mother shy away from. I applaud centres which offer all sides of the argument and gather volunteers that say we will stand with you in the hour of your need and I pray that those who walk in open protest at abortion do so in love and not judgement and become part of the solution and not the problem.

I am not for changing the law in the UK or anywhere else at the moment not beacuse I believe that abortion is right but because I think the law is a lapdog. I think it is in "Much Ado About Nothing" that one of Shakespeare's characters says that the law is an ass - it could have been Falstaff in a history play- , for me this works at two levels, the first level is that of a fool. For the scripting it works, the law is an ass and that is the affront to the law which the character wishes to invoke but I think the law is an ass because it is a beast of burden. The law changes nothing, I argued this with L and she sited William Wilberforce's struggle against slavery. Wilberforce pushed through a law that changed the face of a race....or did he? I am not arguing that William Wilberforce's contribution made slavery an abhorrent thing in society, I am arguing that the law was the lapdog to that social change. Wilberforce made himself sick in the pursuit of this counter cultural ideal. He triumphed and the world we know today where Obama has become president owes much to Wilberforce. The law did not change what society did it reflected it, Wilberforce changed society's perception not the law. The law is that beast of burden that carries the aspirations of a society that they might live in a world of moral agreement, not necessarily a state of heightened moral awareness and perfection but perhaps an agreed state of moral decline. Rather bleak eh? I think not i think it put's the challenge on those who care to find constructive ways of changing society and not punitive ones. If the law changes before society does we only create criminals; I think this is the prevalent state of UK politics and law making at the moment and it may reflect the rest of the western world. The law has become arrogant and thought that itself not the ass of burden but a thoroughbred stallion capable of carrying humanity, and we have come to believe it. Rise up the social transformers, that want society to change through love understanding and empathy. Rise up those would have righteous anger like Wilberforce. Those who can deliver a loving rebuke and then cradle those they have rebuked and offer them support and caring in walking out the conviction of that rebuke; stand up! The law IS an ass let us not entrust our future to a beast of burden but take it upon our own hands with integrity, dignity and urgent desire to society healed from within. Let's do it in love and not in judgment, the law brings only judgement.

Coke and Mentos Bomb

2010-01-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

It is a quiet after noon and I have been you tubing and have found the coke and mentos bomb phenomena in the US. It even made it to mythbusters, discovery channels science for people.....well probably science for folk who smoke weed.

Once I had got past the fact that Americans mispronounce mentos as mentos....hold on that doesn't work. Erm they kind pronounce it as if it has a double 's' like doss, toss or Jonathon Woss. We brits favour the Mentoes sounding version with the oh - as in "oh what a surprise American's using sugary food stuffs to make armaments". There is absolutely no guidance over pronunciation on the packet going prove that the manufacturer don't give a toes about how we pronounce stuff as long as we just keep buying it.

Anyway back to my point, the US is clearly awash with both sugary foods and armament, I guess some sparky kids at school figured that probably eventually the human race would be crowded out of North American by their dual passion for sugar and munitions and combine the two. I might say at this point sparky kids overloaded with sugar creating munitions scares me - but hey said sparky kids have worked out you can launch a 2 litre coke bottle through the air in a ballistic parabola just by adding mentos. Well it is better than them surfing the net for recipes for C4 I guess.

You would think by my patronising tone to this point that I probably didn't think highly of these kids; but to be honest I like the shiny faced wide eyed glucose fuelled little scamps and I am off to the nearest convenience store to procure the necessary items before introducing my neighbours to the joys of sugar based explosives.

Grow Your Own Update II

2010-01-12T03:53:00.000-08:00

Exciting News:

The two Salad Rocket seedlings have germinated and broken through, the first is strong and doing well but the second looks a little bent and gnarled, we await the outcome of the day. I have placed Team Veg on a small table in some moderate sunlight...the unfortunate thing about moderate sunlight here is that it quickly becomes blazing hot.

Fattah our gardner has become very interested in my little horticultural project and has already dubbed Team Veg's table the Nursery. He plans to construct beds to house the infant plants. I am not entirely happy with this as this is my hobby and I am keen to retain all rights to the sense of acheivement and indeed eating rights. That said this is one of the first things Fattah has truly engaged in so it seems crazy to desuade him.

Infancy beds...and I am pretty sure this is not a standard gardening term..... are being constructed behind the house in big tin troughs. The soil we have been sold is of pretty poor quality filled with dead wood and material that realistically will not biodegrade quickly in this climate. Which brings us on to compost.

I have to be honest compost brings back memories of the grass pile at the end of our garden when I was a child. The pros of this compost pile were three fold:

a. Useful for hiding behind in hide and seek.

b. Useful for treating as a castle and standing on top of.

c. Handy source of pollen rich material to throw at hay-fevered sister.

the cons:

a. Sooner or late when hiding behind a compost pile the smell of the leaching dampness of rotting vegetation gets the better of you. Very little can be worse (in purely compost terms) than leaning on a thin layer of dry grass cuttings only to get a hand full of gunk or kneeling only to arise with damp gunky kneed.

b. When King of the compost castle there was an inevitability to the shoe full of grass the lingered about with you for the rest of the day. The most frustrating element was when switching from compost based games to running based games. The running action would undoubtedly work the grass into areas unreachable with out shoe removal. Many is the time I have face planted through trying to run whilst also scratching at loose dried grass in my socks. I think it gave me the air of enraged Quasimodo.

c. DON'T MESS WITH MY SISTER.

All this leaves me a little apathetic about compost, but Mark Diaconc is sure that compost is the root to better veg.....although he does advise adding urine in a 4 to 1 ratio with water to your compost! I must seek the counsel of the mighty Goggle. Yes Goggle will have the answer, is urine in 35 degree heat a viable composting tool?

Grow your own update I

2010-01-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well as of this morning no real action. I have watered and even talked to the seeds. I have explained my desire for them to germinate and fulfil their potential. A little of me wants to dig around to see if the little chaps and potentially chapesses have a little sprout of life. In David Attenborough films they grow so quickly with that time lapse photography but still no joy in the real world.

Perhaps I could investigate the germination periods on google? Hmmphhhh - the sound of mild disatisfaction of 1980's comics. I read up on mint, sowing depths, advice on thining, repotting and even recipes but no timeline for germination. This not being adequately frustrating it turns out that "Mint grows like wildfire"......not on my watch it doesn't!!!!

SHERLOCK HOLMES - Downey and Law Style

2010-01-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to like this film, I really wanted to like it. I never bought it that genius would wear a deer stalker hat. I never thought the a sleuth would want a cuddly middle aged side kick. So an irrepresibly random Downey and Law as an Afghan War Veteran (the original one not the latest one) it looked so good....but it didn't deliver.

It wallowed..I mean it really wallowed no manner of action scenes and CGI explosions could really compensate for the lack of pace. There was absolutely no tension even as the whole of parliament is about to be gassed. The fact that some one thought that adding mission impossible style action sequences in essentially a period drama baffles me. Bad scripting or bad editing I just can't say potentially even bad directing. The acting was good Downey made the best of a paper thin character (why exactly does London's top crime detector insist on bare knuckle boxing?) and Jude Law equally did as much as he could with this dire lolloping story.

By the end of it I just didn't care..... it is open for sequel with the mysterious moriarty still bent on mischief but to my mind, Holmes better investigate the Crime against Conan Doyle's work before a sequel.

Grow Your Own

2010-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Now it may be that 20 years later my memories of grow your own are a botched attempt by Jim Morrison (yes that was his real name) to grow cannabis at the age of 16 - under lights of course 60 watt bulbs to be precise but this is not what I am on about.

I have returned to Ghana with a vigour to do the River Cottage thing, not start a farm per se or to start a campaign to free the chickens of the world - although I totally behind the chicken out campaign and applaud free range farmers.

I am talking of the ten small pots and one window sill planter full of .....well muck. It seems that plants like muck. My wife bought me Mark Diacono's Veg Patch book and well I am inspired. Muck is not muck anymore it is soil and I am looking for a good tilth. Tilth is not a word I had heard before Mr Diacono brought it to me. This is not however about growing a horticultural vocabulary this is about the ten contenders sat in small pots in our lounge.

Chives, Mint, Parsely, Rocket, Lettuce, Spinach, Basil, Rosemary, Pot Marigold.........no these are not potential names for some 'A' listers child although Mint Beckham does have a certain ring to it - the y are in fact the seeds which I know hope are starting to germinate as I type.

This is effectively like reality TV but without prizes and no audience vote. You place a seed which seems unfeasibly small in to an equally small depression in your prime tilth, cover it and hope. Who will be first to germinate?

On Rugby

2009-11-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

I don't want to turn this into a sports blog but......

Even out here, you can't miss the Autumn internationals. African Media is so dominated by South African product and South Africa so dominated by rugby that it is easier to catch the full calendar of fixtures here than back home in chilly London.

Mother moustache was visiting so I asked her to bring a selection of rugby print, to see what Brian Moore, Mick Cleary and the eminent mr Stephen Jones were banging on about. Brian Moore was candid about his opinions clearly a man out to sell his talents rather than offer real insights into the game; I think he's be honest about that.

It was Stephen Jones who attracted my attention with his byline in Rugby World

"STEPHEN JONES rugby correspondent of the Sunday Times for more than 20 years, is one of the sport's most outspoken and influential journalists"

A little pompous perhaps -

Outspoken, well yes if by that you mean wild innaccurate and blustering much like the tale you can hear in any Ghanaian expat bar of the adventure that we should have had. Flights of fantasy are Mr Jones' speciality, he will pilot you through the "widely held consesus" of his own pontification. "England need 3 wins from 3 nothing less!" - Really? I mean really really, Autumn internationals mean very little but for world ranking places, I would say they are an excellent place to blood new talent before the real combat of the six nations. The RWC has changed world rugby there are games that don't need a win just an improvement. I think Martin Johnson has done well to hold the Good Ship England together, plenty of decisions I didn't agree with but Rugby has become about the long game and the big prize. Everyone is looking for the cycle or structure that will see their international team be the first to win and retain the RWC. I think the Autumn internationals have done a great deal to strengthen England's strength in depth, we know things we didn't Monye is not a fullback but is a great wing, club form is not international form (Jordan Crane). England can rise from this tough break and turn it into an impressive six nations tournament. OK tub thumping done!

Oh and Mr Jones if you have been this influencing force for 20 years please stop. in the last 20 years the game I love has gone from a beautifully balanced sport for all shapes and sizes to the hideous crassness of the Rugby League with better set pieces sport of today.

All the best TMBTM

An African Morning

2009-07-22T13:05:00.001-07:00

Africa is different in the mornings; I have always loved early mornings. The pre dawn hours spent on airfields loading C130 always held a romance for me that was lost on Corporal “Cold and tired” or Squadron Leader “I could be in the bar”. Whether half light of an rural dawn or the sodium lights of an airfield pan I have always loved early mornings. I am not talking of breathtaking sunrises or rich palettes of oranges, russets and ochres but of the cool quiet breeze of morning.

I chanced an 0530 loading for one of our clients and this afforded me the opportunity to clear Accra before the masses awoke and started to transit to their places of work. In just three junctions and five minutes we were on the highway headed for Tema Port. The air pregnant wit moisture blew briskly over the driver and I as we inhaled the dawn vapours a heady mixture of smoke and tropical dew.

Only the buffeting of the air through the wind disturbed the calm. There were no horns, calls, shouts bells or buzzers. Truckers pulled them selves from under damp blankets and hauled themselves from the relative safety of the area beneath their vehicles. Each rubbing cold limbs stretching and then casually sauntering to the hard shoulder to urinate in to the fronds of vegetation. Small groups gather around billy cans and portable brazier making tea or porridge or some other wholesome start. They seem blissfully unaware of our rapid progression toward Tema. The violent intensity of the Pan African truck driver is lost in the ease of the morning. Already a mother with two toddlers has set up a cooking pot and has hot coals simmering cocao.

As we near Tema the first school children start to appear, it is now 6am; older brothers and sisters escorting younger siblings across the normally busy high way. Men come from the bush hauling up ill fitting jeans having just taken care of their ablutions. Vigorous head rubbing the apparent cure for a night spent in the open. Until now the quite undisturbed and then the first truck rumbles past us, the creak and groan of an old chassis unwillingly lugging a 40ft container; but still no horns just a view of an Africa without guile; innocently risen from its slumber.