Palestine Open Prison

The tragedies of inhabitants of many Middle Eastern countries
continue seemingly forever. Palestine has been much in the news
of late as the open prison conditions imposed on its civilians
are being broken by sheer human spirit which is prevailing
over politics, gunmen and possibly even some apparent
historical imperatives themselves.

The UK history of involvement with Palestine cannot really be judged
fairly decades afterwards as lives and circumstances have moved on.
From the little I know there were good intentions but little
understanding on the part of the UK authorities.

Suffice it to say that the UK involvement settled little
yet now that the baton has moved on to others to try to settle such deep seated
conflicts, mistrusts and hatred,
the current arbiters' attempts at resolution are proving no more successful.

Israel's usual 'eye for an eye tooth for a tooth' response is presumably
an approach familiar to scholars of both the Torah and Koran.
I also presume that most people so tragically affected in that part of the world,
empathise with the Jewish or Islamic faith so may have more understanding
of escalation by way of retaliation, than I do as an armchair catholic,
more familiar with the Biblical New Testament than the Old.

Hamas supported rocketeers fire indiscriminately into
Israeli civilian settlements and Israeli army likewise launch counter
attacks affecting Palestian civilians. That such meeting evil with evil
cannot do any good to anyone seems obvious -
from the vantage point of the armchair.

Less obvious however is why the Egyptians should want to close their
borders with Gaza. The people of Gaza have collectively incurred
the wrath of Israel for whatever reason but why should Egypt not
offer the same freedom of movement to Palestians to and from
its borders as say the UK does to those from Pakistan or these
days Russia?

I see no justification for Egypt facilitating
a blockade of Gaza instigated by Israel although Israel is of course free
to deny access to its territory by blockade or otherwise.

Northern Rock

A post about mammon this week and I can do little better than
to copy and paste from my recent post on SC:

So Northern Rock (LSE: epic NRK)
shareprice fell another 7% today to c. 64p

The talk of nationalisation should imho be clarified
by the govt. issuing a statement saying that it hasn't
been ruled in or out but that if NRK is taken compulsorily
into the State sector, the basis for any payment
to shareholders will be the lower of:

LSE mid sp on Nationalisation Day or
True worth of the co. as ascertained by
independent accountant upon the premise
that there were in place no open ended govt.
guarantees benfitting NRK's depositors or business,
beyond those that applied to all UK banks
b4 the crisis began.

The City pros. who bought in recently appear (Indy reports)
to be demanding a true worth
payment of c.£4 a share upon nationalisation
and threatening 'human rights' based court action
if they do not get their £s payments.

That kind of posturing should be dealt with by
govt/BoE asap and firmly imho.

Some govt. backbone in the face of any such
quasi blackmail would be essential and the
govt would need to get its
defence in first with a clear public statement now otherwise
taxpayers risk being fleeeced.

I accept that many PIs including loyal NRK
holders from Newcastle are not investing in
the same way but share investing is fraught with
risk for everyone and there is no human
right to be bailed out when the risk
crystalises. You cannot decide that one shareholder
deserves more than another where the class
of shares each holds is the same.

Also I'd be pretty certain that most SCs could
name a co in their p/f the sp of which is far below its true worth
yet we all know that the real worth
is what the market will pay as shown by
the SP from time to time. Why should the
govt. featherbed NRK holders :shocked:

This post is not directed at any SC holders of
NRK shares but at the possibility of incompetent,
or worse govt. and huge waste of taxpayers' monies. :shocked:

I post as a taxpayer and do not hold NRK shares. :p

The saga continues.

Charlie Wilson's War

Quite a grown up film this, despite the obviously infantile
antics of Congressman Charlie Wilson, that according to the
film's plot, he was indulging in before or rather when, seeing the light.

That the Russians' defeat in Afganistan took place in the 1980s
is another reminder of how quickly time is flying.

Ignoring the possible USA film makers bias towards USA, the film
was a salutory reminder of how cruel man can be to man.
The Russians' disguising of mini-mines as toys or sweets to
target children on the basis that the more children were disabled the more
adult carers would have to leave the battlefields, was an especially
hideaous reminder.

The outcome then, was a defeat by USA assisted peasants, of the other superpower
at the time yet that was not the end of the story as today's wars in Afganistan
show.

I happen to believe that the UK and other armed forces of the West
in Afganistan are doing worthwile work there very bravely at present
as the previous subjugation of women by the Taliban seemed akin to mass torture,
but presumably a taste for wars and Charlies' $bns and weaponary
are tragic parts of the history which the film does not cover.

A good film nonetheless

Atomic TV - BBC 4

TV viewing preferences for me usually tend to be of the dramatic variety,
such as TV productions of Sense and Sensibility (BBC recent) or Brideshead
Revisited (ITV ancient) or The West Wing (USA modernish) so on
channel flicking after a hard day job day, I did not expect to
come across so absorbing a TV series as BBC 4's "The Atom".

The BBC blurb on this reads:

In this three-part documentary series, Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever: that the material world is made up of atoms.

But that does not do justice to the entertaining educational and dramatic
teamwork by the Professor and the BBC's production team.

The simple pollen on water type experiments contrasted with the huge
and expensive ones such as the miles long atom crackers the first of which
was built in USA (I think the European CERN atom cracker is the
newest now) made for riveting viewing and learning.

Having also shown the dramas between prima donna scientists enroute,
the professor took viewers down the path from discovering the atom, to finding some
if its component parts that took place largely in C20, through to
the present day, where he signified that the question for scientists
in C21 will be to determine why some atoms combine to form say
human beings and others say the rocks around us.

He pointed out that
the component parts of atoms of say gold and mercury are almost identical
yet the very slight difference indeed still gives rise to a liquid metal
and a solid precious metal. That many atoms are inherently unstable to
the extent that over time they may all be decaying or developing
into the most stable form - Iron - was news to me.

His question for C21 scientists however I feel will need input
from theologians in the search for answers. Even so the conclusion might
be that some questions may not be answerable by mere mortals.

HCPT - Tempus Fugit - More Secularisation

The London Beaumont Region's HCPT day of preparation has come round again
- it will take place tomorrow on the Feast Day of the Epiphany at a CoE church
hall somewhere off the M4 motorway.

My last blog post about the HCPT prep. seems like only yesterday, such is the
speed with which time flies.

The increasing secularisation of British society may be being illustrated
by its impact on the make up of HCPT Group 35 in 2008. Easter falls very early
in 2008, as a consequence of which, Easter Week (last week of March) largely
falls within school term times.

Some non Catholic schools, the needy pupils
from which have in the past been encouraged to join the HCPT pilgrimage,
have decided not to permit their pupils to travel during the school term times
in 2008.
This has reduced by about a third the number of child pilgrims. Most
Catholic schools on the other hand seem to be taking the view that a trip
to Lourdes is part of their students' over all learning experience so
are encouraging theirs to travel with us. As a result the Group
may have a far larger number of Catholic school
sixth form helpers than usual (doubtless some 17 year olds are
pleased to get away for a week during
their school terms) but a smaller number of child pilgrims because
of the veto on travel by their non-catholic schools.

The pilgrimage veto is a shame really, not least because
Lourdes is a place for thought reflection and learning
for all of any religion or none and losing such opportunities for personal growth because of red tape or prejudice is part of the changes in society that secularisation is bringing in its wake.