The Beach

I have a constantly evolving list of places I want to travel to; as things stand, many countries in Africa head the shortlist, some undiscovered corners of both eastern and western Europe follow closely behind, and then you can count numerous random places around the rest of this beautiful world of ours jockeying for position on my globetrotting calendar, but probably having to wait more patiently for their turn than if I was, say, decadently minted and able to drop my responsibilities and don the shorts and flip-flops of eternal freedom tomorrow.

Alas, I can't, just now (bugger). But I'm working on it ;-)

Sometimes though, places get unexpectedly elevated up the wish-list, often simply because they offer something a bit quirky. Today, for example, I was thinking that I hadn't viewed some of the stunning photos on this site recently, but then I had the brainwave of seeing what I could find by visiting THIS site to maybe help me bring some of my favourite ever stunning images to life, of St Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, where holidaymakers are terrorised/treated (depending on your particular viewpoint) to the spectacle of hulking great passenger airliners swooping shit-poopingly low over the golden sands of Maho Beach, which sits right at the end of the island's airport runway.

Looks cool to me, and seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse (in my book) to visit the Caribbean someday (yeah, like I needed one - when do England next play the West Indies?!)

Surely, this is one of the world's most unique beaches...it's either be thrilled, and/or be deaf as a post for the rest of your life...







What I love about this next piece of footage, other than the sheer power of the thrust from the engines of the Boeing 747 that is making waves (literally), is the fact that I've no idea whether the people on the beach are taking advantage of the artificial "surf" like any committed board-head perhaps would, or simply being blown into the sea involuntarily (I hope it's the latter, if I'm honest ;-):

He got game...

This track is the bomb...Public Enemy at their best :-)



He Got Game

[Flavor Flav]
Yeah that's right
this cut goes out to all y'all that's been missin us for mad years
One love y'all
Yeah that's right, He Got Game
PE 1998

[Chuck D]
If man is the father, the son is the center of the earth
In the middle of the universe, then why
is this verse comin six times rehearsed?
Don't freestyle much but I write em like such (Word)
Amongst the fiends controlled by the screens
What does it all mean all this shit I'm seein?
Human beings screaming vocal javelins
Sign of the local nigga unravelling
My wanderin got my ass wondering
where Christ is in all this crisis
Hating Satan never knew what nice is
Check the papers while I bet on ices
More than your eye can see and ears can hear
Year by year all the sense disappears
Nonsense perserveres, prayers laced with fear
Beware, two triple O is near

[Chorus - both]
It might feel good
It might sound a little somethin
but damn the game if it don't mean nuttin
What is game? Who is game?
Where's the game in life behind the game behind the game
I got game, she's got game
We got game, they got game, he got game
It might feel good
It might sound a little somethin
but fuck the game if it ain't sayin nuttin

[Chuck D]
Damn, was it something I said?
Pretend you don't see so you turn your head
Ray scared of his shadow, does it matter?
For the reparations got him playin with the population
Nothin to lose, everything's approved
People used, even murders excused (You preach to em yo)
White men in suits don't have to jump
Still a thousand and one ways to lose with his shoes
God takes care of old folks and fools
while the devil takes care of makin all the rules
Folks don't even own themselves
payin mental rent, to corporate presidents (My man my man)
Ugh, one outta million residents
bein dissident, who ain't kissin it
The politics of chains and whips
Got the sickness and chips and all the championships
What's Love Got To Do with what you got
Don't let the weight get to your head or lost to your heart (Word)
Nonsense perserveres, prayers laced with fear
Beware, two triple O is near

Chorus

[Flavor Flav]
Yeah that's right
Everybody got game
But we just here to let y'all know
that PE, is in full effect, from right now till the year 2000
Aiyo my man sing it

[Stephen Stills]
There's something happening here (Yeah yeah)
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man, with a gun over there (Yeah that's right hah haha)
tellin me, I got to beware
It's time we stop, children what's that sound?
Everybody look what's goin, down
(Aiyo, I don't think they heard you Stevie
Kick it to em again one more time)
It's time we stop, children what's that sound?
Everybody look what's goin, down

[Flavor Flav]
Haha, that's right boy, PE in full effect boy to the year 2000 yo

[Shabach Community Choir of Long Island]
Stop, look, what's that sound
Everybody knows what's goin down
*repeat to fade*

[Flavor Flav - over top of choir]
Come on sing it
Sing it again y'all come on
Hey!
He-hey!!!
Aiyo, these are some serious times that we're livin in G
And a new world order is about to begin, y'knowhutI'msayin?
Now the question is - are you ready, for the real revolution
which is the evolution of the mind?
If you seek then you shall find that we all come from the divine
You dig what I'm sayin?
Now if you take heed to the words of wisdom
that are written on the walls of life
then universally, we will stand and divided we will fall
because love conquers all, you understand what I'm sayin?
This is a call to all you sleepin souls
Wake up and take control of your own cipher
And be on the lookout for the spirit snipers
tryin to steal your light, y'knowhutI'msayin?
Look within-side yourself, for peace
Give thanks, live life and release
You dig me? You got me?

Futile

I'm at home this morning, watching BBC News 24 and the return of another four British servicemen's dead bodies to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

I don't know why, but today's images of the coffins and pallbearers has really hit a nerve with me.

The war in Iraq sickens me. It has achieved basically nothing, yet spawned a host of new problems in an already unstable region. Our leaders see progress in hanging a man who, ultimately, was convicted of killing 148 people, yet ignore atrocities such as, say, the state-sponsored genocide in Sudan in which 200,000 people have been killed in the last two years. This cannot be right.

What gives the likes of Tony Blair the right to abuse the privilege of their position and deceive the electorate as they have in bringing to bear this futile war?

Our vote, I guess...

Earth from the air

There's a fascinating outdoor exhibition of photographs at the Forum in Norwich at the moment.

The images are aerial shots taken around the world by the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand for his Earth from the air project, and he has captured some breathtaking scenes. Well worth a look if you can make it.

A nice touch, too, is the interactive map (pictured above); it was certainly proving a hit with the kids. I have to admit I like the idea of simple activities like this that help get children interested in the world around them from a young age.

One of the images that particularly caught my eye was this shot of villagers in Bangladesh, who are resigned to adjusting their lifestyles for many months of the year as the waters rise in the floodplains at the foot of the Himalayas:

A Good Friday indeed...

We decided to make the most of the bank holiday Friday by heading off to the Norfolk coast on Friday (by "we", I mean myself, Craig, Shelley, Simon, Lindsay and the boys Thomas and Oscar), to Horsey.

Horsey attracts a large grey seal population, and we witnessed hundreds of them both lining the shore and lazily bobbing around in the shallows, a wonderful sight.

The boys (for which read both young and old!) busied themselves with typical "boys activities", with beach cricket, football and kite flying all undertaken.

Speaking of the latter, Oscar earned his "kite wings" for the first time as well - and how nice it was to be there to witness it...!

A question of etiquette

Today sees the start of the 71st US Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, an event that effectively marks the start of the golfing calendar for 2007.

I read with interest the official Masters website, and in particular the section that explains the necessary conduct for spectators at the tournament. The list of stuff that you can't take into the course is comprehensive to say the least, and only just stops short of requiring you to attend the tournament without any clothing, though it is I suppose heartening that they choose to mention that "weapons of any kind" are banned - "Oh, really?!"

The interestingly titled "President in Perpetuity" (sounds like the self-imposed title of several African dictators over the years) of the Augusta club, Bob Jones, has made a statement regarding spectator etiquette on the site:

"In golf, customs of etiquette and decorum are just as important as rules governing play. It is appropriate for spectators to applaud successful strokes in proportion to difficulty but excessive demonstrations by a player or his partisans are not proper because of the possible effect upon other competitors."

So, in addition to mobile phones, folding chairs, cameras and periscopes (I shit you not!) to name a few of the banned items, can we expect to see outlawed also that most annoying of cat-calls "IN THE HOLE!!!!!!" that American fans seem to love so much, to the point of yelling it at every green?

Sort them out, Bob.

Playing the game

I breathed a sigh of relief this evening upon reading the news that the 15 navy personnel captured by Iran are to be released to their families ahead of this weekend.

But my relief was not only for an end to an ordeal for the captives, but also that the stand-off has thankfully not escalated into a situation where the bloody-thirsty George Bush deemed there to be "just" cause to sharpen the knives of war, and direct his oft-wilful slashing towards Tehran.

It is no secret that the man who effectively invented the notion of WMD's in Iraq would be just as happy to whimsically invent another case for war, this time against Iran, if the opportunity presents itself; indeed, Bush has gone on the record in blaming Iran for many of the woes currently being experienced by its neighbour, and is clamouring for an excuse to foster anti-Iranian sentiment in the western world.

What Bush fails to point out that, in the tumult of mass-insurgency in Iraq, exactly how many Iranian suicide bombers have in fact launched attacks in the country? When, say, compared to the thousands of deaths caused by the terrorists acts of the Sunni-Arab insurgents? Reportedly, none, is the answer.

Whilst not wishing to turn this post into a debate about a conflict that is threatening to split Islam from within, it should be pointed out that Saudi Arabia (a country seemingly beyond criticism from the USA, despite its shocking human rights record, not to mention the homeland of Osama bin Laden) is a predominantly Sunni country, whereas Iran hosts a mainly Shia population, the very people that are bearing the brunt of insurgents' attacks in Iraq.

Discuss.

Again, I sympathise with the plight of the sailors since their capture, I also feel the need to question quite why the Islamic Republic of Iran should be demonised as it is?

Why should a country not have the right to use nuclear technology to provide itself with power? Are the US, or anyone else, right to self-appoint themselves as judge and jury in deciding who "is nuclear" and who is not? And if the US should be given such jurisdiction, then when will it start to throw its weight around in the environs of arguably more pressing scenarios such as Korea and China, to name but two?

Let us not forget that Iran's nuclear programme was started in the first place in conjunction with the US. Years later, the world observed, without condemnation, the battering that Iran took during their war with Iraq, as Saddam unleashed chemical weapons upon the innocent Iranian people, but it collectively chose silence. Could you blame Iran if it was indeed trying to arm itself against belligerent neighbours?

The issue around the maritime boundary between Iran and Iraq is, for me, hilarious. The facts are that no such demarcation has ever been officially determined, and such woolliness (especially when you're talking about margins of a half of a nautical mile here and a cats whisker there) quite obviously suggests that neither side can categorically state that they are correct in their assertions with regard to the "trespass" - the shifting mouth of the Shatt al Arab river notwithstanding (interested? Click here if so...)

I have enjoyed the theatre of the last few days when I've donned my PR hat, but not the dread that this situation might well have sparked a conflict that could, potentially, precipitate a world war, such is the delicate balance between Western/Middle Eastern relations just now.

Iran has juiced every last drop of political capital from the hostage situation over which it has smugly presided, yet more power to them for it. The hypocrisy of Blair and Bush's insistence that "unconditional release" was the only outcome is scarily arrogant in a world in which the disgrace that is the Guantanamo Bay detention facility exists.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, was quick to pounce on every PR opportunity available to him as he announced the crew's release today, heralding it as "a gift to the British people".

Tony Blair was swift in his retort, claiming "no ill will" against the people of Iran.

So there we have it. A diplomatic stand-off resolved? I really, really hope so.

I also pray that Blair, or whoever succeds him, can retain a balanced view when the warmongers of the US, who he has regrettably kow-towed to during his term in office, next come knocking for this country's support for a futile, yet immeasurably damaging conflict.

I remember some politician saying recently that the UK's involvement in the war in Iraq had once again earned them the "fear and respect of the world". I see little evidence of that where Iran are concerned, and I cannot help but secretly admire them for their reticence.