tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1706607076415721712024-03-13T06:37:23.760+02:00No Official Umbrella - Glyn JonesGlyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.comBlogger843125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-71235684865304698842014-04-04T09:13:00.000+03:002014-04-04T10:42:42.497+03:00<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One final blog to remember Glyn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Glyn Idris Jones died peacefully at home in Vamos Crete on Wednesday 2 April 2014 at 3:30pm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sitting here at his desk surrounded by all of his things in life, makes it all the more unbelievable that he has gone. The official reason was that his organs failed due to his on-going heart condition, but we think that he gave so much of his heart to everyone else that he left so little for himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Glyn was not a talkative man but anyone who has read his blogs knows that he was a kind and sensitive man, he railed against the injustices of life, he saw all forms of organised religion as part of that injustice, but he never failed to help anyone in need. He participated in many causes for the rights and freedom of people and animals around the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He inspired so many people throughout his life, as a director, actor, teacher and writer. For his funeral Glyn had requested that there be no ceremony, no pomp, just a quiet passing and a gathering of friends. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We had chosen three short passages to read from Glyn's autobiography because, they sum up succinctly how we all felt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The first is a quote from <i>Kai Lung's Golden Hours</i> by Ernest Bramah. Glyn told the story of when he was a schoolboy, how he had read this book and said to himself that, if ever he wrote his own story he wanted this as a prologue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"It is scarcely to be expected that one who has spent his life beneath an official umbrella, should have at his command the finer analogies between light and shade."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The second was a letter from one of his students at James Madison University, Virginia, USA.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">28</span><span lang="EN-GB">th </span><span lang="EN-GB">April 1985<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Glyn,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Sometime during
semester someone asked me who the best director </span>was I ever worked
with and I said Glyn Jones. I explained that I liked him because he has
definite ideas that he communicates well, he is <span lang="EN-GB">knowledgeable about a
variety of technical aspects and they aren</span><span lang="EL">’</span><span lang="EN-GB">t </span><span lang="EN-GB">shrouded [</span><i><span lang="EN-GB">sic</span></i><span lang="EN-GB">] in some ego. I
learned so much working with you, not </span>necessarily big
things, but lots of little things which are perhaps more useful. You are
probably the most patient and in command, though <span lang="EN-GB">not in a manipulative
sense, director I</span><span lang="EL">’</span><span lang="EN-GB">ve known. Now,
working with </span>you as an actor, I am
fairly overwhelmed at the magnitude of your abilities. Much of
what you possess is what I wish to aspire to. Thanks for coming to JMU
because you have truly inspired me.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sincere thanks and
best wishes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Gregg O</span><span lang="EL">’</span><span lang="EN-GB">Donnell<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EL">BURIED CHILD.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And finally in his own words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">"There have been so
many many people influencing my life, whose </span>love and friendship I
have appreciated and who I would like to have mentioned, and to
them all I can only apologise, hand on heart, that in this writing they
have been neglected. Perhaps if I had spent my life in the shade of
an official umbrella there would have been fewer, <span lang="EN-GB">but my life would
have been so much the poorer for it. </span><span lang="EL">To all, I can </span><span lang="EN-GB">only
say a heartfelt thank you. </span><span lang="EL">G.I.J."</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EL" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EL" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EL" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">27th April 1931 - 2nd April 2014</span></div>
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<span lang="EL"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The play is over,</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EL"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">tired, he sleeps.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EL">Christopher Beeching and </span>Douglas Foote</span><br />
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Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-47851273155246003952014-02-18T15:50:00.001+02:002014-02-19T08:43:13.109+02:00Finish<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I seldom get a response to my Blogs but a
couple of day ago I received a lengthy letter, 5 full length typed pages taking
me to task for my antireligious diatribes to which I can only plead guilty. The
writer says he does not know whether I am atheist, agnostic, humanist or any
other ‘non-believer’ and he doesn’t really
care but I seem to delight in taking every opportunity to ridicule the notion
of a superior, omniscient omnipotent being as the first cause and creator of everything
that exists and the catholic church in
particular. Sometimes he believes it could be a case of ‘the lady protesteth too
much.’ I would have thought it pretty obvious
that I am an athiest and, I hope, a humanist. For me there are only two reasons
to believe in a god (1) Pain and the possible alleviation thereof and (2) the
mystery and consequent fear of death. Against these two I could put twenty arguments
or more. Do you believe that Mohammad flew up to paradise on a snow-white
horse? If not, why not? Is the story of the resurrection not on a par when the
graves opened to reveal the dead and nobody made much comment on so unusual and
frightening a phenomenon?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I am glad I received your letter because
this is going to be my last Blog. You have no idea how long it has taken me to
get this far with decrepit fingers and every second word yet another mistake.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">There are reputedly 1400 Christian
denominations not one of which as far as I know has been able tell where I come
from, why should I trust any one of them to tell me where I am going? So I
close on another Glyn Jones quote, this time from ‘The Muses Darling’
Christopher Marlowe (He would be called Christopher wouldn’t he?)</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
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<span lang="EN-GB">NASHE: Take care, Kit. Take care. You break
all the conventions.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">MARLOWE: So I do, so I do. They are there
to be broken or what can be new? I believe in the emancipation of reason, I do
not believe in superstition, massacres, cruel torture and hideous deaths, men’s
bodies broken and the wars we have lived with for so long, all in the name of
religion. I believe in the liberation of the spirit so I break conventions. I
count religion but a childish toy and hold there is no sin but ignorance. Religion
hides many mischiefs <st1:personname w:st="on">from</st1:personname> suspicion.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">FLETCHER: Go to. Maybe you suffer <st1:personname w:st="on">from</st1:personname> the delusion that you are god.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Marlowe said the beginning of religion was
but to keep men in order. That man’s soul ends, vanishes and perishes with his
body. We remember nothing before we are born and we shall remember nothing after
we are dead. That the sacrament would be better served in a tobacco pipe.</span></div>
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Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-87873948197029063562014-02-15T10:40:00.000+02:002014-02-15T10:40:17.184+02:00Marias<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-GB">Marias</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">, a perfectly healthy giraffe born in a Danish zoo, despite his
being offered a home in a park and another zoo has been put down by humane
killer. The reason given was that the zoo has its full compliment of male
giraffes and poor Marius’ DNA was of no use to them. Had he been born female he
would still be swanning around gazing at the world with those enormous eyes,
looking as pretty as a young giraffe can look. It was his misfortune to be born
a male. It is the misfortune of many humans to be born, as they feel it, in the
wrong sex and, although they don’t meet a fate as drastic and as final as
Marius’, life can be pretty sickening at the hands of those ‘normal’ folk who
don’t understand or sympathise. The same applies to the animal kingdom, both
domesticated and wild. I have been regarding on You-tube the wonderful work of
various animal protection societies, mainly in America: New York, Philadelphia,
Houston, Miami, and on Face-book in South Africa and the images of treatment
inflicted on defensive animals is sickening, sometimes cruelly deliberate,
sometimes through sheer neglect and indifference, sometime through ignorance.
The pictures and videos may show an animal from its rescue to a successful
finale, sometimes not and there are those that in particular stay in the mind
so vividly you wonder if you will ever forget them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">For example there was a photograph of
fairly large nondescript dog being led on a leash down a corridor. He is
looking up at his keeper in such a way that you just know his heart must be
fluttering with hope. There are only two reasons as far as he knows that he has
been let out of his cage; some kindly folk had finally adopted him or they are
going for a run. He just does not know as he bounces along, tail wagging, gazing
up at the man who has come to fetch him, that the corridor is for this moment
his own death row. A video shows a girl kneeling on a sidewalk, making a fuss
of a dog so skeletal you could literally see every bone. It could hardly take a
step as it pathetically tried to wag its tail. “They have every right to hate
us,” the girl said, but the fact is they don’t. Dogs that hate are like humans
who hate –they are taught. Of course they can be as vicious as hell. You only
have to watch a police dog in training to realise how fearsome they can be, and
what damage they can cause. But it is still completely loyal to its trainer. On
the other and you have sniffer dogs, dogs for the blind, dogs simply for
sympathetic companionship. It all depends on how they are brought up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">So what has happened to the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sochi</st1:place></st1:city> dogs? First story,
a lady gathered together 146 dogs and penned them in order to protect them.
Second story, a Russian billionaire joined in saying he remembered the puppy he
had got from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sochi</st1:place></st1:city>
when he was a boy. Third story: the government has paid a large sum of money to
a private firm to get rid of the dogs. They are being shot with poisoned darts
and it takes an agonising hour to die. How many dogs are there? A figure of
7000 is mooted. CEO of the firm hired said,</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“The dog is biological trash.” I think
rather he should have said, “The dog is money in the bank.”</span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-37438913200313363062014-02-13T15:32:00.002+02:002014-02-13T15:34:38.989+02:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-GB">Marias</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">, a perfectly healthy giraffe born in a Danish zoo, despite his
being offered a home in a park and another zoo has been put down by humane
killer. The reason given was that the zoo has its full compliment of male
giraffes and poor Marius’ DNA was of no use to them. Had he been born female he
would still be swanning around gazing at the world with those enormous eyes, looking
as pretty as a young giraffe can look. It was his misfortune to be born a male.
It is the misfortune of many humans to be born, as they feel it, in the wrong
sex and, although they don’t meet a fate as drastic and as final as Marius’, life
can be pretty sickening at the hands of those ‘normal’ folk who don’t
understand or sympathise. The same applies to the animal kingdom, both
domesticate and wild. I have been regarding on You-tube the wonderful work of
various animal protection societies, mainly in America: New York, Philadelphia,
Houston, Miami, and on Face-book in South Africa and the images of treatment
inflicted on defensive animals is sickening, sometimes cruelly deliberate,
sometimes through sheer neglect and indifference, sometime through ignorance.
The pictures and videos may show an animal from its rescue to a successful
finale, sometimes not and there are those that in particular stay in the mind
so vividly you wonder if you will ever forget them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">For example there was a photograph of
fairly large nondescript dog being led on a leash down a corridor. He is
looking up at his keeper in such a way that you just know his heart must be
fluttering with hope. There are only two reasons as far as he knows that he has
been let out of his cage; some kindly folk had finally adopted him or they are going
for a run. He just does not know as he bounces along, tail wagging, gazing up
at the man who has come to fetch him, that the corridor is for this moment his
own death row. A video shows a girl kneeling on a sidewalk, making a fuss of a
dog so skeletal you could literally see every bone. It could hardly take a step
as it pathetically tried to wag its tail. “They have every right to hate us,” the
girl said, but the fact is they don’t. Dogs that hate are like humans who hate
–they are taught.</span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-39829550419590429212014-02-10T11:16:00.001+02:002014-02-10T12:25:20.742+02:00Pussy riot etc.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In my previous Blog I wrote details from
“The Death of South Africa,” by Alistair Sparks. I have now discovered the
piece is fraudulent though the author has not been traced. Alistair Sparks is
adamant the writing is not his.</span></div>
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-GB">Uganda</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">'s
President Yoweri Museveni has refused to approve a controversial bill to
toughen punishments for homosexuals. He has written to the parliamentary
speaker criticising her for passing it in December without a quorum. The bill
provides for life imprisonment for homosexual acts and also makes it a crime
not to report gay people. How many false accusations could this invoke? The
bill provides for life imprisonment for homosexual acts and also makes it a
crime not to report gay people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The promotion of homosexuality - even
talking about it without condemning the lifestyle - would also be punishable by
a prison term.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">How many false accusations could this
produce? I see an opening here for blackmail.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The promotion of homosexuality - even
talking about it without condemning the lifestyle - would also be punishable by
a prison term.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Good for Museveni, but then he goes on to
give his opinion on something of which he is completely ignorant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Homosexuals were "abnormal" or
were so for "mercenary reasons" (!) could be "rescued", a
local paper quotes his letter as saying. As for lesbians they are women who
can’t find husbands (!) Isn’t it wonderful? If you don’t know what you are
talking about just make up your own theories.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In December a gay rights campaigner spoke
of her fears about the legislation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Her spokesman told the AFP news agency that
Mr Museveni believes that gay people are sick but this does not mean they
should be killed or jailed for life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">"What the president has being saying
is that we shall not persecute these homosexuals and lesbians. That is the
point," said Tamale Mirudi. Then what is all the fuss about? And where
does the church stand? Well in Nigeria where such a law as been passed they are
being heartedly congratulated by Roman Catholic priests while in Uganda the Church
of England’s stand is exactly the opposite – well for the most part. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Anyone who has followed my Blogs will know
I hold no brief for religion. The one thing the communists got right was to say
“religion is the opium of the people.” But, despite my antipathy and despite
the horrors religion is capable of there are certain standards of behaviour
recently that are totally beyond the pale. I refer of course to the pussy riot
behaviour in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:city>
and, as far as I am concerned the girls deserved their punishment. Recently my
cousin Bert in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Perth</st1:place></st1:city>
sent me a long article from “The West Australian.” It is headed “A tolerant
society relies on equity and freedom,” and I pass on the sordid details of what
happened shortly before Christmas at The Madeleine in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>. A young woman entered the church while
the choir were practicing, stripped off her top and performed a mock abortion
at the altar using pieces of bloody calves’ liver to represent the foetus. She
was photographed, apparently by arrangement, doing so. On her back were written
the words “Christmas is cancelled.” It was written in English for maximum internet
pick-up. Then she left. It is interesting how little this revolting sacrilege
was reported.”</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Sylfaen; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Who was this girl and
what sort of mind does she have that she felt she could or should do this kind
of thing? Was she nervous? Was her heart thumping? Did she feel proud of
herself? Brave little thing. Has she boasted about it to all her friends? What
was it in aid of? We get the so-called subtlety of the imagery with the help of
the written message but I can’t help thinking that Jesus true or Jesus untrue,
the sacrilege committed was a revolting obscenity, nothing more, nothing less.
Read the headline once more with her in mind</span>Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-60425984517636402272014-02-06T12:09:00.004+02:002014-02-06T12:20:02.329+02:00New Play<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Dear
Glyn, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Thank
you very much for sending <i>The Muse's Darling</i> to us and many apologies
that it has taken us so long to get back to you about it. Whilst we
enjoyed the play a great deal I'm afraid we're not going to be able to offer it
a home here which we hope will not be too disappointing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Thank
you for sharing your work with us, I wish you the very best of luck with <i>The
Muse's Darling</i> and with all your writing projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Very
best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Associate Director. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">When I was but two bricks and a pisspot
high as we used to say, aged eight, I was trundled off to boarding school on
doctor’s orders in an effort to ease an asthmatic condition and the contents of
my suitcase all carefully labelled were also itemised, for example: Blazer
black 1, Shirts white 4, Shirts khaki 6, Shorts khaki 6, Shorts grey 2, Socks
black 8, etcetera.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Having given some thought to the e-mail
above I decided, as I approach my 83<sup>rd</sup> birthday, I would open my lifetime suitcase and itemise
it’s contents, at least as far as writing is concerned. It might not be totally
accurate. There are half finished works I haven’t included, projects started but
not pursued, and stuff I am bound to have forgotten or that doesn’t fit into
any particular category: for example “Alice In Winterland” a two part
television ice spectacular with original songs; but anyway, here we go:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Plays, stage 24.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Musicals, Book and lyrics 8.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Libretti, opera 2.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Plays television 9.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Plays screen 8</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Documentaries 5</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Series television 3 “Doctor Who” 4 scripts.
“The Magnificent 6½” 6 scripts plus ghosting for the second series. “The Double
Deckers” 9 scripts and script editor for the 13 part series.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Pilots 5</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Autobiography “No Official Umbrella” 1.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Novels 4</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Thornton King series - Comedy thrillers
6</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Zeta Magazine - Issues 1 to 6</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Blogs
‘No Official Umbrella’ 892</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Not a bad output when you take into account
how many hours have been spent in other directions; acting, directing, teaching
and jobs away from the theatre. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But back to the e-mail that started all
this. I am very glad that those who read it in this particular theatre “enjoyed
the play a great deal.” So, if it was enjoyed a great deal I have to ask the
question why does it stop there? Did they believe an audience would not enjoy
it a great deal? Or was there some other reason? In all the many rejections’ I
have had in my lifetime I cannot remember a single instance in which I have
been given a<i> REASON</i> for the rejection,
only a phrase such as “thank you but not for us,” the standard sort of notice,
sometimes curt, sometimes, as with this one, with more courtesy. In the old
days of hard-copy only the script (SAE for its return if you were lucky to have
it returned at all) would land with a thud on the mat, now it is all done
electronically which at least saves a lot of money. The nearest I ever got to
some sort of reasoning if it was a theatre play was, “Have you thought of
trying it for television?” or a television play, “Have you thought of trying it
for Theatre?” which gets the recipient nicely off the hook. I am fully aware of
theatre managements drowning under an avalanche of plays, that’s the way it has
always been and as it has always been it takes an act of God to get something
accepted. An original musical takes an act of God in convocation with all his
angels, archangels, seraphim, and cherubim which is probably why my version of
“Peter Pan” is the only one to be produced. A miracle is required here but
unfortunately I do not believe in miracles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">So why was “The Muses Darling” turned down?
I‘ve read it and reread it and, after<i> </i>receiving
this rejection I read it again. Has my treatment conjuring up <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> of the
period not been exemplary? Are there hilarious anachronisms I haven’t spotted? I
don’t see any. With all honesty I can only boast my scholarship and my research
if not exemplary come close to it. Does the dialogue sound false? I have tried
and I believe succeeded, using just a few words, the occasional ‘prithee’ or
‘God’s blood’ for example in bridging the gap been modern and Elizabethan
English and no actor should have any difficulty with it – I speak from 50 years
experience as an actor. Are the characters cardboard or two dimensional? I
think not. If I were the right age I would give my eye teeth to play a part
like Marlowe. Is there no humour in the play? If you believe that reread the
post mortem scene. Is there something desperately wrong with plot and dramatic
balance? Nothing that couldn‘t be put right in rehearsal. Is the play
considered too expensive with a large cast (even with doubling and tripling)
and period costume but if this is what has put the cat among the pigeons
(cliché but apt) let me finally ask you this. How often does a provincial
theatre, even a prestigious one, get the opportunity of presenting a world
premiere of what is, I have no doubt about it, a major work? And if it is considered
a major work how difficult would it be to get sponsorship?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Whenever I read details as to what a theatre
wants to-day in choosing a play it has usually to be the work of a young lion showing
promise and relevant to to-day’s problems. Well this is a scraggly old lion and
not all can relate to contemporary issues.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There is nothing new in the Marlowe/Shakespeare
theory. It’s been going on for ages. It has fascinated me for a long time and I
just wanted to write it in my own way; a way I hope that will intrigue, entertain,
say just little bit of England at the time. (Did you know that to masturbate
was referred to as ‘pulling the pope?’) And be appreciated by both academe and
a wider public.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Bearing all this is mind naturally I am
disappointed and I would dearly love to know why the play did not find favour.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Yours sincerely,</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Glyn.</span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-39622886645905606202014-02-03T16:21:00.000+02:002014-02-05T09:11:48.347+02:00The ruin of South Africa<div class="MsoNormal">
So what is wrong or
going wrong with <st1:country-region w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:country-region>? Well, from what I have been told and
what I have read the answer is as obvious as the nose on your face – The ANC is
what is wrong with <st1:country-region w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:country-region> and in particular the buffoon that is
the party’s head. Allister Sparks, a well-known and respected journalist has
written a piece “The death <st1:country-region w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:country-region>. Read this and weep.” The article is
much too detailed to go into here but it concerns the mining industry and some
pertinent facts from Mr. Sparks article` will illustrate all. <span lang="EN-GB">Nicky Oppenheimer, current chairman of Oppenheimer who has just sold
all the family shares for $5.2 billion, says it was a tough decision. The death
of <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region>'s mines is
the death of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>...<br />
There are many microcosms of decay that one can use as examples of the decay<br />
of the macrocosm of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>. In many respects the booming of <st1:country-region w:st="on">SouthAfrica</st1:country-region>'s mining industry and its current decay under the
ANC's Black Economic Empowerment system is a microcosm of the booming of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Republic</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">South Africa</st1:placename></st1:place> under
Apartheid and its decay under the ANC. <br />
Money was flowing, salaries were high. By the 1970s Anglo Gold was operating
six massive mines, with 22<br />
deep level shafts, in which 122,000 people worked. The mines of Welkom were<br />
producing 35% of the gold in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>, which in turn was producing 75%<br />
of the world's gold.<br />
Times were good for blue-collar whites. Even in the nearby black <st1:placetype w:st="on">township</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Thabong</st1:placename>
and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">township</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Bronville</st1:placename></st1:place>, the living
standards were very high. But then the ANC took over in 1994, mostly with the help of the Oppenheimers and J.P. Morgan, who founded Anglo American Corporation in 1917. Hardly had the<br />
ANC communists taken over, than they wanted not only a slice of the pie from the mining industry, but the whole pie.<br />
Black Economic Empowerment was introduced and mines had to give away half of<br />
their assets to black ANC members. For Anglo American Corporation, the<br />
writing was on the wall and before they could lose everything, they merged<br />
with Minorco in 1999 and moved their assets to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>. In the last 10-15<br />
years, more than 100,000 jobs have been lost in Welkom industry. Today, the
mines are being plundered for scrap metal. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">municipality</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Matjabeng</st1:placename></st1:place>
(nee Welkom) is run by the ANC. In June 2011 it came into prominence as one of
the worst examples of ANC corruption and misrule. How a small town blew R2bn.
on dodgy deals. The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aurora</st1:place></st1:city>
mine at Grootvlei, which is owned by the Zuma and Mandela families and at one
stage employed 5000 workers, now have less than 200. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aurora</st1:place></st1:city> is now a ghost town.<br />
On the 8th of May 2011, in a Carte Blanche TV show, it was revealed that<br />
Cosatu (Council of SA Trade Unions) calls the owners of Aurora (Zuma and<br />
Mandela family members) -- Super Exploiters!!<br />
If there is an abyss of desperation, these men abandoned at the mineworker<br />
hostels are in it. At Grootvlei, near Springs, the water and electricity has<br />
been cut, the toilets are a sanitary shock. On good days, they may have hot<br />
food. Two hours drive to the west, is the Orkney mine in Klerksdorp. There<br />
is an inescapable feeling of sadness here. Cooking pots are empty here too.<br />
Ntsani Mohapi has been on the mine since the mid '70s; he should be in line<br />
for a pension, but that is all gone now. "There are people who are crying,<br />
there are people who are dying, because we deal with people who are
lying".<br />
As things stand hundreds of miners are still in limbo; millions of <st1:place w:st="on">Rands</st1:place> are<br />
outstanding in salaries. Wives have left husbands, children have dropped out<br />
of school, people have been blacklisted. They can't even claim Unemployment<br />
Insurance Funds.<br />
The allegations against Aurora's directors are damning: since they took over<br />
the Pamodzi mines in 2009, which were fully operational at the time, they<br />
have been accused of not paying salaries, making endless broken promises,<br />
misappropriating UIF and pension fund money and stripping assets of mines<br />
they haven't paid for. (Source: Carte Blanche TV programme). The BBC has<br />
extensively reported on how the Zuma (Jacob Zuma's nephew) and Mandela<br />
(Nelson Mandela's grandson) families exploit their workers and treat them<br />
worse than dogs. While the Zuma and Mandela family members grow rich and<br />
fat, they do not pay their starving workers, which effectively makes them<br />
slave owners. Is this the 'Freedom' Mandela and Zuma spoke about and fought<br />
for? They were not Freedom Fighters... They were not fighting for the<br />
Freedom of the people, rather for the enslavement of the people under a<br />
communist yoke.<br />
<br />
The Grootvlei mine now stands in ruins. What could not be stolen and sold<br />
for scrap, is cut up and sold to the Chinese state-owned mining company,<br />
Shandong Gold. The white foreman at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aurora</st1:place></st1:city>
can only stand and watch as the<br />
looting of the mine continues. This is the same ANC who wants to nationalize<br />
the mines, the banks and the farms. Can you even imagine the utter<br />
enslavement of blacks, the dilapidation and ruin of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region> that will<br />
follow? that The Aurora mine at<br />
Grootvlei, which is owned by the Zuma and Mandela families and at one stage<br />
employed 5000 workers, now have less than 200. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aurora</st1:place></st1:city> is now a ghost town.<br />
On the 8th of May 2011, in a Carte Blanche TV show, it was revealed that<br />
Cosatu (Council of SA Trade Unions) calls the owners of Aurora (Zuma and<br />
Mandela family members) -- Super Exploiters!!<br />
If there is an abyss of desperation, these men abandoned at the mineworker<br />
hostels are in it. At Grootvlei, near Springs, the water and electricity has<br />
been cut, the toilets are a sanitary shock. On good days, they may have hot<br />
food. Two hours drive to the west, is the Orkney mine in Klerksdorp. There<br />
is an inescapable feeling of sadness here. Cooking pots are empty here too.<br />
Ntsani Mohapi has been on the mine since the mid '70s; he should be in line<br />
for a pension, but that is all gone now. "There are people who are crying,<br />
there are people who are dying, because we deal with people who are
lying".<br />
As things stand hundreds of miners are still in limbo; millions of <st1:place w:st="on">Rands</st1:place> are<br />
outstanding in salaries. Wives have left husbands, children have dropped out<br />
of school, people have been blacklisted. They can't even claim Unemployment<br />
Insurance Funds.<br />
The allegations against Aurora's directors are damning: since they took over<br />
the Pamodzi mines in 2009, which were fully operational at the time, they<br />
have been accused of not paying salaries, making endless broken promises,<br />
misappropriating UIF and pension fund money and stripping assets of mines<br />
they haven't paid for. (Source: Carte Blanche TV programme). The BBC has<br />
extensively reported on how the Zuma (Jacob Zuma's nephew) and Mandela<br />
(Nelson Mandela's grandson) families exploit their workers and treat them<br />
worse than dogs. While the Zuma and Mandela family members grow rich and<br />
fat, they do not pay their starving workers, which effectively makes them<br />
slave owners. Is this the 'Freedom' Mandela and Zuma spoke about and fought<br />
for? They were not Freedom Fighters... They were not fighting for the<br />
Freedom of the people, rather for the enslavement of the people under a<br />
communist yoke.<br />
<br />
The Grootvlei mine now stands in ruins. What could not be stolen and sold<br />
for scrap, is cut up and sold to the Chinese state-owned mining company,<br />
Shandong Gold. The white foreman at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aurora</st1:place></st1:city>
can only stand and watch as the<br />
looting of the mine continues. This is the same ANC who wants to nationalize<br />
the mines, the banks and the farms. Can you even imagine the utter<br />
enslavement of blacks, the dilapidation and ruin of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region> that will<br />
follow? <br />
SEEN IN PARKING LOT AT THE MANGAUNG ANC ELECTIVE CONFERENCE IN DECEMBER
2013: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> ~ 106 BMW X5's, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 28 RANGE ROVER SPORTS,
j</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 211 BMW 5 or 7 series
sedans, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 11 MASERATI's, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 103 MERCEDES BENZ sedans (C & E
Class), </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 6 HUMMERS, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">~ 9
FERRARI's.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Apart from the fact that the tax payer is
paying to get all these cars to the conference, paying for the luxury
accommodation, decadently luxurious and excessive food and drinks (all free!!),
wives, spouses, lovers, friends and family - all catered for - all at tax
payers’ expense. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And then we wonder why the government says
they don't have money for RDP housing, a proper education system,
proper healthcare facilities, a properly trained and corrupt-free police force
and crime control - and all the other things they promised and haven't
honoured !!!! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> And then this ................ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Apart from the fact that the tax payer is
paying to get all these cars to the conference, paying for the luxury accommodation,
decadently luxurious and excessive food and drinks (all free!!), wives,
spouses, lovers, friends and family - all catered for - all at tax payers’
expense. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And then we wonder why the government says
they don't have money for RDP housing, a proper education system,
proper healthcare facilities, a properly trained and corrupt-free police force
and crime control - and all the other things they promised and haven't
honoured !</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">As for the buffoon, he of the multiple
wives, also supported by the tax-payer, and who believes AIDS can be avoided by
taking a shower, how do you describe the insensitive mentality of someone who
builds his multi-billion new kraal with a humble mud hut practically against
the perimeter wall? If that is not going to blow the ANC out of the water
nothing will ever shift them. They will make sure they are there for keeps and
Africa will have another <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zimbabwe</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-12223183959165060962014-01-30T09:20:00.000+02:002014-01-30T09:20:30.705+02:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Poor Justin Bieber – ought one to describe
as poor someone so young, so rich, with
a world-wide following horde of screaming adoring fannettes? Alas, is it
yet another case of fame striking when too young and in consequence the lad
unable to cope going off the rails? Despite his adoring fans he seems with his
behaviour to have got up the nose with a number of folk who have been deriding
him both as a person and for his talent. For one thing it would seem there is a
deep suspicion, whatever the reason, that he is gay and won’t admit it. Well,
if that’s the case, who cares? Though the “girlie” tag isn’t exactly
flattering. Is he a boy or is he a girl? Is he Justin or is he Justine? If he
is gay and came out he would probably have another million fans. However,
whatever, whichever, it would seem fame has gone to his head as well as drugs
and haven’t we seen it all before? Having never heard him sing I wouldn’t know
if he is talented or not and despite Oscar Wilde’s adage that the only bad
publicity is no publicity there is a limit to be drawn before the crash comes.
Phew! What a collection of clichés.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“Money money money! Money makes the world
go round.” I wonder how many songs have
been written about money. Correct me if I’m wrong but I bet there hasn’t been
one about the adverse aspects of money apart from the itch to have it of
course. Well dip me in shit and candy me over as one of my students used to say,
whoever would have thought it? – “Cashgate,” the biggest financial scandal in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s history,
has affected the country's relations with donors and caused outrage among
Malawians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Allegations of the massive looting of
government money became public following the shooting of the finance ministry's
then budget director Paul Mphwiyo in September 2013.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Just days before, a junior civil servant
was allegedly found with bales of cash totalling more than $300,000 in the boot
of his car. So just tick off Malawi as yet another African country where billions
in foreign aid has been lining the pockets of crooked politicians and
government officials- that is if it isn’t being used to buy Kalashnikovs and
other essential military hardware to continue the seemingly never ending game
of my tribe is better than your tribe and my religion is better than yours,
while people living in justified terror are forced to flee their homes swelling
the world’s refugee crises. There are cities of opulence such as <st1:city w:st="on">Abidjan</st1:city>, capital of the Cote D’voire with magnificent
hotels, five star restaurants and, when I was there, shops where women could
buy the latest <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>
fashions, luxury goods, and French patisserie was flown in fresh daily. But it
is surrounded, as so many major centres are, by slums and tin shanties and
further afield people sill live in mud huts as they have done for centuries;
have no access to clean water, electricity, hygienic facilities, and only the most
basic of medical aid, if that, and should the crops fail are likely to face starvation,
but western countries keep on sending aid which never reaches them. Colonialism
is history, <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>’s a big girl now; she must
stand on her own two feet, she can no longer blame the colonists for her
troubles. Those wily oriental gentlemen the Chinese have much the better idea,
instead of sending money to miraculously disappear they build railways, are
granted mining concessions, open any number of shops in which to sell cheap
Chinese goods etcetera which may help Africa somewhat but helps the Chinese more.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And now, alas, the news from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
the one country one felt might not go the same way, at least not quite so
quickly, has fallen into the same trap. Many years ago Alan Paton wrote a novel
about <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region></st1:place>
called “Cry The Beloved Country.” It was a terrible time for the African and the
book, also adapted into film, television, and theatre, achieved great acclaim
but a book with the same title could be written now, though with a different
cry. “The tragedy is not that things are
broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-3214791775077067132014-01-27T15:48:00.003+02:002014-01-27T15:48:27.394+02:00Modern Banking<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">If you were a bank in serous trouble how
much would you think of paying your CEO? J.P.Morgan is the bank in question and
the lucky recipient of $20000000 is chief executive Jamie Dimon. Little wonder
that half the world’s wealth is in the hands of no more than 85 people. Is the
economic crises over then? Like hell it is and banks, despite being mainly the cause
of it all in the first place still, are glad-handing and paying out ridiculous bonuses
to people who obviously do not deserve them already having more money than they
need-far too much in fact and in a year when the bank’s income is down
substantially. Various scandals are involved of course but that’s banking,
who’s surprised?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Some HSBC customers have been prevented
from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence
of why they wanted it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">They were stopped from withdrawing amounts
ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">HSBC admitted it has not informed customers
of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Stephen Cotton, from Worcestershire, went
to his local HSBC branch this month to withdraw £7,000 from his instant access
savings account to pay back a loan from his mother.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A year before, he had withdrawn a larger
sum in cash from HSBC without a problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But this time it was different, He wrote to
complain to HSBC about the new rules and also that he had not been informed of
any change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“When presented with the withdrawal slip,
they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory
explanation as to what the money was for. They wanted a letter from the person
involved."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Mr Cotton says the staff refused to tell
him how much he could have: "So I wrote out a few slips. I said, 'Can I
have £5,000?' They said no. I said, 'Can I have £4,000?' They said no. And then
I wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, 'OK, we'll give you that.' "</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">He asked if he could return later that day
to withdraw another £3,000, but he was told he could not do the same thing
twice in one day. He wrote to complain to HSBC about the new rules and also
that he had not been informed of any change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“As this was not a change to the Terms and
Conditions of your bank account we had no need to pre-notify customers of the
change”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Mr Cotton cannot understand HSBC's
autocratic attitude: "I've been banking in that bank for 28 years. They
all know me in there. You shouldn't have to explain to your bank why you want
that money. It's not theirs, it's yours."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Peter, from Wiltshire, had a similar
experience.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">He wanted to take out £10 000 cash from
HSBC, some to pay to his sons and some to fund his long-haul travel plans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Peter phoned up the day before to give HSBC
notice and everything seemed to be fine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The next day he got a call from his local
branch asking him to pay his sons via a bank payment and to provide booking
receipts for his holidays. Peter did not have any booking receipts to show.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The following day he spoke to HSBC again
and this time, having examined his account, it said he could withdraw the
£10,000.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Belinda is another customer who was
initially denied her cash, in her case to pay her builder. She was told she had
to provide the builder's quote.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">HSBC has said that following customer
feedback, it was changing its policy: "We ask our customers about the
purpose of large cash withdrawals when they are unusual and out of keeping with
the normal running of their account. Since last November, in some instances we
may have also asked these customers to show us evidence of what the cash is
required for."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">"The reason being we have an
obligation to protect our customers, and to minimise the opportunity for
financial crime. However, following feedback, we are immediately updating
guidance to our customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for
customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals, and on
its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse a withdrawal. We
are writing to apologise to any customer who has been given incorrect
information and inconvenienced."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Other banks were asked other banks what
their policy is on large cash withdrawals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">They all said they reserved the right to
ask questions about large cash withdrawals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But none of them said they would require
evidence of what the money was being used for before paying out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for <st1:place w:st="on">Clacton</st1:place>, is alarmed by the new HSBC policy: "All
these regulations which have been imposed on banks allow enormous
interpretation. It basically infantilises the customer. In a sense your money
becomes pocket money and the bank becomes your parent."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But Eric Leenders, head of retail at the
British Bankers Association, said banks were sensible to ask questions of their
customers: "I can understand it's frustrating for customers. But if you
are making the occasional large cash withdrawal, the bank wants to make sure
it's the right way to make the payment."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Staff have been informed it is not
mandatory for customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash
withdrawals, and on its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse
a withdrawal. We are writing to apologise to any customer who has been given
incorrect information and inconvenienced."</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for <st1:place w:st="on">Clacton</st1:place>, is alarmed by the new HSBC policy: "All
these regulations which have been imposed on banks allow enormous
interpretation. It basically infantilises the customer. In a sense your money
becomes pocket money and the bank becomes your parent."</span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-61525316095664125592014-01-23T12:38:00.000+02:002014-01-23T12:38:21.606+02:00Marmalade<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Wow! Seventy three pounds of marmalade all
labelled, and Douglas being <st1:place w:st="on">Douglas</st1:place> they’re
not just your Tom, Dick and Harry of marmalades but come in any number of exotic
assorted flavours. The last half dozen jars are labelled Rahat Lakum flavoured
with rose liquor and parfait amour. And just n case it is thought extravagance
beyond belief the remains of the rose liquor has been lurking in a dark corner
of the booze cupboard since I bought it when first arriving in Crete when the
Greek currency was still the drachma. It was a very small hardware shop long since
closed down the owners (I never made out whether they were husband and wife or
brother and sister though she was a wee bit draconian in manner and he rather
timorous) being too old to carry on, in fact who must be dead by now or at least
in their late nineties. Can’t remember now how much that dusty old bottle cost but
it must have been pre-war. This was the lady who, when I went in to buy a
bucket said, “You want to buy <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>?”
as I used the accent in the wrong place – koùvas/kouvàs. You have to be so
careful with accented languages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Malàka certainly as a very different
meaning to malakà.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Parfait amour and coke used to be my
favourite tipple when I was at university until one night I got so legless on
it I never drank it again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Anyway, since the discovery of home-made
fruit flavoured tsigouthia (raki) there’s been no more purchase of expensive
commercial liquors. And as for 73 jars of marmalade a lot of it will be given
away to friends, in fact the first six jars have already gone, in exchange for
some olive oil from those who produce their own. I can’t remember when last we
had to buy olive oil. I can’t remember whether I’ve said that before. I
probably have. Memory both short and long is virtually kaput these days.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">So 73 jars of marmalade are all very well
but soon it will be apricot time and there is a glut every year. I’m informed
there are 36 one pound jars left and plenty more where they came from as there
is a shop in Rethymno that sells them very cheap. Apricots are a very versatile
fruit anyway: you can eat them straight off the tree and if they have been
standing in the sun the favour is wonderfully enhanced. You can make wine with
them, make jam with them, use them for puddings, dry them and freeze them for
winter use. But despite the myriad uses we put them to the ground beneath the
tree always ends up thick with dropped fruit. Such a waste. Same with the
prickly pear. Walking passed it late in the year you get the distinct whiff of
a brewery.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I have a feeling I might soon have to give
up Blogging on a regular basis, my fingers just can’t cope much longer with
typing. You’d be surprised how long it’s taken me to write this.</span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-10177590223929787652014-01-20T16:39:00.003+02:002014-01-20T16:39:38.441+02:00Zimbabwe<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To-day’s Blog is not mine. A citizen of a
once beautiful and prosperous country by the name of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rhodesia</st1:place></st1:country-region> wrote it to say how it is
now after more than seventeen years under the Presidency of Robert Mugabe and his
cronies. It is hardly an enviable record. If any of you have read this I
apologise but I felt it needed a wider</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">audience and Cathy has most kindly given me
permission to do so.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Dear Family and Friends,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> There's nothing quite like five days
without electricity to remind us </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> how hard our lives were during the
first decade of the 21st century </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> and to warn us how tenuous our grip on
normality is. The prolonged </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> power cut in my neighbourhood left a
fridge full of mould and fruit </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> flies, all the food on the compost
heap and tempers frayed to breaking </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> point. Add a couple of days without
water to this picture and then </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> decide whether to laugh or cry when
you read the message that comes in </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> on the cell phone from the Ministry of
Health. 'Prevent diarrhoea this </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> season,' it says, ' wash your hands
with soap or ash under safe </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> running water before eating or
preparing food and after visiting the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> toilet.' Safe running water is a joke
when you haven't had any water </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> for a couple of days; safe food is
absurd after five days without </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> electricity and a fridge alive with
mould.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> As each month passes since the July
2013 elections it seems we could </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> so easily slide back to the way things
were a decade ago and every day </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> the press reports back up our fears. A
Ministry of Health whose </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> hospitals owe US$36 million to
suppliers and yet who've only been </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> allocated US$23 million in this year's
budget. A Ministry of Education </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> which needs US$73 million to help
educate disadvantaged and vulnerable </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> children but have only been allocated
US$15 million for the program.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> Meanwhile the 51% compulsory
indigenisation of privately owned </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> businesses remains a looming threat
and there is no relief or clarity </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> offered by authorities. The
uncertainty has left no one spending </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> money, companies shrinking and more
and more workers being laid off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> Fear of being targeted in the
indigenisation issue has left most </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> affected people not prepared to speak
out, and not even prepared to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> publicise the absurd amounts of money
they're being told to pay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> Some of these amounts include US$20 to
submit the mandatory </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> indigenisation forms and then US$500
for born and resident Zimbabweans </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> or US$5,000 for 'foreigners' to get a
'compliance certificate.' It's </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> not clear what any of this money is
for, where it goes to, if it's a </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> fee for not being black or if it's
going to prevent you from giving up </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> 51% of your own company. It seems
beyond belief that people are being </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> made to pay for the bureaucracy that
will facilitate them losing 51% </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> of their own companies because of the
colour of their skin. Some </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> 'indigenous' Zimbabweans seem to think
that the mandatory handing over </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> of a 51% shareholding of a private
company is OK because they say the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> shares will be paid for. But does that
make it right you ask; being </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> forced to cede the majority
shareholding of your own work? They have </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> conveniently forgotten that farmers
who bought their farms after </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Independence</st1:place></st1:city>
and then had them seized by the government, because of </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> the colour of their skin, were
promised compensation for fixed assets </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> but fourteen years later 95% of us
haven't ever received a single </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> dollar for the expropriation of our
homes, businesses and life's work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">>
Trying to make sense of it all I stood outside under a stormy night </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> sky looking for answers. Clouds boiled
overhead but every now and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> again the moon broke through. Almost
full, it shed its light on the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> branches of a big Musasa tree,
exposing for a moment a little grey </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> owl. Querulous and quavering were the
best words I could find to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> describe its strange, haunting call.
It sounded so far away and was </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> almost inaudible over the voices of a
million crickets but in fact the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> little owl was immediately overhead. I
couldn't resist a quick flash </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> of the torch to see the little grey
bird with its big round eyes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> staring down at me, its tail flicking
in surprise, alarm or maybe just </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> annoyance. Our lives and future in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zimbabwe</st1:place></st1:country-region> feel
very much like those</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> adjectives: querulous and quavering.
Until next time, thanks for </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> reading, love cathy. 17th January
2014. Copyright Cathy Buckle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> <a href="file:///D:/AAA%20Glyns%20work/Blogs/www.cathybuckle.com">www.cathybuckle.com</a>
<<a href="http://www.cathybuckle.com/">http://www.cathybuckle.com/</a>></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> For information on Cathy’s latest
book: "CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS," or her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> other books about <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Zimbabwe</st1:country-region></st1:place>: "Innocent
Victims," "African Tears," </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> "Beyond Tears" and
"IMIRE," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> letter, please visit her website or
contact cbuckle@zol.co.zw </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> <<a href="mailto:cbuckle@zol.co.zw">mailto:cbuckle@zol.co.zw</a>></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I once heard someone many years go, about
to move to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rhodesia</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
as it was called then, say “It’s the country off the future.” What future? I
shouldn’t think for a moment that Mugabe in his gilded palace gives a fig as he
certainly won’t be going without electricity and water. It could all have been
so different and my fears now are for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region> where corrupt
politicians have been making themselves obscenely wealthy and Zuma is showing
all the signs of that megalomania to be witnessed in Robert Mugabe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-73049655035167336812014-01-16T11:27:00.001+02:002014-01-16T11:27:21.280+02:00Hunters<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Despite opposition and outrage from conservatives, a permit to kill a
rhino, one of only three permits issued yearly by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Namibia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, has been won at auction by
a Texan for the princely sum of $350000. One of the arguments against the
auction is that it might encourage other Americans who have that sort of money
to pay up and kill. The current winner says that the money will go towards
conservation (conservation of who I wonder) and that by killing an old bull
passed his prime, one that would be likely to attack younger ones still in the
sexual circuit, that also goes towards conservation. He could be right of
course. What do I know abut the sex-life of the rhino? How does one know when
one has passed his prime anyway? With the amount of poaching that seems to
increase year by year I would have thought even three kills three too many. You
would have thought with the advent of Viagra the horn worth $60000 a piece would
have become obsolete, especially as its magical qualities are a myth anyway.
The white rhino, of which only four remain in the entire world, is protected
24/7 by armed guards. Soon, guard or no guard, the rhino will pass into history
like the unicorn. Oh, yes, didn’t you know? Once upon a time there were
unicorns. Any child will tell you that and the Bible mentions them four times
so there must have been. Probably left behind when Noah put up the “No
Vacancies” sign or didn’t realise they hadn’t turned up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 9.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Why is the swastika still with us
and all the paraphernalia of pseudo mystic masculinity, the ubermensch, white
supremacy that goes with far right thinking?? Why is so much still published and
why the continued fascination on the life of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
who were nothing but a bunch of malformed, some physically, some mentally or
emotionally, thieving thugs? YouTube has
any number of films, videos, showing every aspect of this period including not
only the horrors of all out war but the obscene horrors of what the Nazis
perpetrated, not only to the Jews, homosexuals and Gypsies in the concentration
camps but wherever they were the </span>conqueror. Is it merely the desire to
have or to show superiority where none exists? Is it a matter of jealousy? With
the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin it was necessary to clean up the city, removing
anti-Semitism signs before foreign visitors arrived and Hitler was non too
pleased when the supreme athlete, Jesse Owens, turned out to be a black
American, and racism, it might be obvious to say it, still seems to be the
basis of the neo-Nazi mentality, especially in America. Here in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Greece</st1:country-region> our
neo-Nazis, the party known as Golden Dawn are also racist but for them it is
anybody who isn’t Greek. It follows the same old pattern of a pseudo-military
aspect and discipline with flags showing their party symbol – not quite a
swastika but it doesn’t take too much imagination to know what it means, intimidation
and brutality. Stall holders of obvious foreign origin have been beaten up and
their stalls destroyed. In <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region>,
a Neo-Nazi by the name of Craig Cobb, evidently from a wealthy background tried
to take over the sleepy town of <st1:city w:st="on">Leith</st1:city>,
North Dakota, where he had been taking over properties to be distributed to his
followers. He apparently expected residents to bow to the new order. He was
wrong. In November, Cobb and a henchman swaggered through the town carrying
shotguns and shouting obscenities. Alarmed locals called police. Both men are
now in custody each facing terrorism charges and lengthy prison sentences.
Nothing to be ashamed of, Mr. Cobb, you are merely following in your mentor’s
footsteps though it would seem his padded cell was a bit more padded than is usual.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 7.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-71834299952363596312014-01-13T12:00:00.001+02:002014-01-13T12:00:33.149+02:00Medical Musing<div class="MsoNormal">
The question of euthanasia, like the death sentence is certainly
a thorny one for many people. In the UK sufferers desperate to end their pain
have gone to law only to have their plea consistently refused, the reason given that it would be open to
misuse; but then isn’t everything? I for one believe, despite the doubts as to
possibly evil intent, that for humane reasons alone euthanasia should be legal
and it surely can’t be long before it is. One hears tales of caring doctors who
surreptitiously end patients’ lives when living for them has become a
nightmare; despite the chance that in so doing they could face an accusation of
murder. I would like to think that should life become unbearable I could be
painlessly sent off into oblivion. It can be done. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:country-region>,
<st1:city w:st="on">Holland</st1:city> allow it and <st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place> made euthanasia legal in
2002. Now there are even discussions as to its availably for children. When
many countries have come to the conclusion that euthanasia is sometimes the
kindest course to take the UK will still be dithering with various factions maintaining
life is precious and to end it before its natural time is both sinful of at
least immoral. Suicide is no longer a crime, isn’t euthanasia the next step?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weather records have been broken across North America, with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and all 50 <st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place> states experiencing freezing
temperatures.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <st1:state w:st="on">Kentucky</st1:state>, an escaped
prisoner turned himself in to get out of the cold while at least one polar bear
at a zoo in <st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city>
had to be taken inside because of the plummeting temperatures.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ABC news correspondent Linzie Janis, in <st1:city w:st="on">Buffalo</st1:city>
in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>,
told BBC News the area looked like a series of ghost towns with roads littered
with overturned cars.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <st1:place w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place>
worried residents took in dogs with frozen paws and people were warned that below
a certain temperature the skin on their face could freeze.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This reminds me of stories one heard about prisoners in
Soviet Siberian work camps who had to suffer amputation of the penis because
their urine froze. True or false I’ve sometimes wondered how the Eskimo manages
not only to urinate but defecate when a certain expanse of the body has to be
exposed to the elements. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
We cannot say we weren't warned. Most of us were born
into a world containing antibiotics, so it is easy to feel they are permanent
fixtures in the arsenal of medicines. In fact penicillin did not go into
widespread use until the 1950s. But according to scientists and medical
personal at the topmost level the golden age of antibiotics is coming to an end
unless urgent action is taken. The growing threat of antibiotic resistant
organisms: bacteria viruses and parasites is once again in the spotlight.The
warnings actually started many years ago, more than five years for example when
a strain of tuberculosis in <st1:country-region w:st="on">South
Africa</st1:country-region> became immune to the drugs. Whereas
antibiotics have been around for less than a century, infectious agents are
older than humanity, and are continually evolving.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There has also been an alarming increase in rates of the
sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, which is becoming more difficult to
treat. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Drug companies are in it for profit so they can't be
expected to spend billions and years inventing new antibiotics on which they'll
never be able to recoup their investment; but the price of some modern drugs is
already reaching astronomical proportions and perhaps the companies may be
persuaded to go back to the lab. Medical advance simply has to keep up if
possible with the evolution of other species or we might as well all just give
up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For thousands of years the Chinese, adept in the fine art of
torture, held executions with the “death a thousand cuts,” an excruciatingly
painful and slow way to die, the pain sometimes accentuated by the administration
of certain drugs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to a report in a Chinese newspaper Kim Jong Un,
beloved leader of North Korea has had his uncle and five accomplices executed
by being thrown to 120 ravenous dogs that had not been fed for three days. Says
everything you need to know about <st1:place w:st="on">North Korea</st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place>
an eleven year old girl was strapped with explosives and ordered by her family
to go and blow up a police check-point. She is now in protective custody which
tells you everything you need to know about the religion of peace.<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25654112?postId=118370482#comment_118370482" title="Copy this link to generate a permanent link to this comment"></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-85061796628263879152014-01-09T10:14:00.001+02:002014-01-09T10:24:43.199+02:00TV series<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Have
watched “Star Trek” 1 and 2 with the original cast and enjoyed them so the Christmas
present wasn’t misjudged. Also watched “Private Schultz,” BBCTV (1981) at its
very best, with Michael Elphick and the brilliant Ian Richardson absolutely superb
as Major Neuheim plus a few smaller parts ending with a one liner, the very
last line in the six part one hour series: “Your change, sir.” Not an inflexion wrong, not a gesture wrong, not
a note wrong, not an expression wrong, an absolute gem of a performance
achieving that wonderful outcome of being both hilarious yet at the same time a
real person rather than a two dimensional comic. Hats off too to Jack Pulman,
most famous probably for his adaptation of “I Claudius,” for his scripts of
“Private Schultz.” He died young (54) before he could see his work. I feel sure
he would have been more than pleased with the final result. Not all of us can
have that sort of talent but what a loss when you see some of the dross TV puts
out. Words of praise too for Mr. Elphick, also for the direction by Bob Chetwyn
who, when he was artistic director at <st1:place w:st="on">Ipswich</st1:place>,
directed the very first play of mine produced, “Oh Brother.” Over the years I
sometimes wondered what had happened to him since then so was delighted to note
his credit here and learn something of his career up to that point as discussed
in the “extras.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> If it is true, and I have no reason to doubt
it, that there are only eight basic stories and the rest is all variation and embellishment
a good example is the series “24” starring Keifer Sutherland. We have started
to watch it a second time and have seen the first four in all of which the
basic plot is a terrorist threat to America: an attempted assassination of the
president, an unknown deadly virus, a dirty bomb, a stolen nuclear missile, and
agent Jack Bauer there to sort out every one, with some assistance of course, but mainly through individual heroics. Exciting stuff, each hour ending in a
cliff-hanger. The series is franchised under the wing of 20th Century Fox. I
wonder if the writers have ever been paid all that is due to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Been a wee
bit disappointed in the last two episodes of “Golden Girls.” Temporarily out of ideas? They’ve gone from
reality to fantasy and once truth or naturalism if you rather gets kicked aside
it is difficult to stay with it. Like hey! We’re stuck here, dream sequence
come to the rescue. Okay, all the gags are still there but that is all they
are, gags. They don’t come out of a natural situation. For example, it’s
Christmas time and Blanche brings a new found conquest back to the house. He is
wearing a Santa Claus costume and Rose immediately flies at him accusing him of
dereliction of duty. He should be out and about doing what Santa Claus is meant
to do. Now this is not said in jest. In fact the attack is quite vituperate and
suspension of disbelief goes out the widow because Rose might be a wee but slow
on the uptake but she is certainly not that stupid. All her herring and down on
the farm stories are wonderfully humorous and ripe for send-up though she doesn’t
realise it but this kind of threatening behaviour is out of character and an immediate
cut-off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Last Sunday
Papa Spiros came around once again (Epiphany?) to bless the house. My timing
was unfortunate because I was in the loo so missed out but Chris and Douglas
were well sprayed with holy water and basil. Papa Spiros is very young and, to
use Noel Coward’s favourite words of approval, very sweet. He is about to
become a father for the second time, hoping it will be a boy. Though we are not
Orthodox or members of his congregation (not even Christian for that matter) he
is well aware of it. He even went especially to visit <st1:place w:st="on">Douglas</st1:place>
in hospital but unlike the Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists he doesn’t try
ramming religion down your throat. So, if blessing our house means something to
him, we wouldn’t dream of denying him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A group, The New York-based <st1:placename w:st="on">Satanic</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype>, has unveiled designs for a
7-foot-tall statue of Satan that it wants erected at the <st1:place w:st="on">Oklahoma</st1:place> state Capitol. The statue features
a goat-headed Satan sitting in a throne with children either side. The Satanic
Temple spokesman says Oklahoma's decision to put a Ten Commandments monument at
the Capitol opened the door for its statue, he says it's moving forward with
plans despite the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission's decision to place
a moratorium on new requests.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The commission says it's waiting until a lawsuit over the
Ten Commandments has been settled</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life’s a funny old thing innit?</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-53330767711074652872014-01-06T11:01:00.000+02:002014-01-06T11:03:38.636+02:00The Maze - some thoughts<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Panos Karnezis is a Greek writer who writes
quite brilliantly in English. The first book of his I read is called “Little
Infamies” and I loved it. I enjoyed it so much that I went on to read his novel
“The Maze” and was so intrigued and taken with the story I decided, just for the
sheer joy of it, to write a full length screenplay without even thinking of
such things as film rights or whether a film would ever be made. At the time
that didn’t seem important. I just wanted to reproduce this wonderful story in
my own way and in my own style in a different medium, just to write about all
these intriguing characters., so human yet so wonderfully theatrical at the
same time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The synopsis on the book cover reads – “Set
in <st1:place w:st="on">Anatolia</st1:place> in 1922 <i>The Maze</i> is the story</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Of a retreating Greek brigade that has lost
its way. It is pursued by a Turkish army that seeks to avenge three years of Greek
occupation. No help is forthcoming. Commanded by a brigadier with a passion for
Greek mythology and morphia, the brigade’s only chance of salvation is to reach
the Mediterranean coast and sail home</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">As the army wanders through the Anatolian desert,
their internal divisions become more pronounced and their dementia more florid.
Eventually they reach a small town, up until now untouched by the war, which is
run by a simple minded mayor and peopled by a gallery of wonderfully strange characters.
When the soldiers leave at last, a tragedy has taken place and the town has
changed forever.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A synopsis simply cannot give justice to
the depth of this adventure and the characters involved: the brigadier himself,
the corporal in love he thinks with a girl in Thessaloniki who he has never met
and whose letters he cherishes not knowing his beloved is a middle-aged bearded
communist trying to convert him to the cause,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">the aide-de-camp who is also a secret
communist, the chaplain with his pet dog who has to beg oil <st1:personname w:st="on">from</st1:personname> the cook to light his votive lamps, the upper
class airman who crash- lands close to the regiment’s camp and whose actions unintentionally
lead to two deaths, the overworked medic, the florid French opera-singing whore
who the mayor hopes to marry much to the disgust of the local schoolteacher who
wants her for himself and feels stabbed in the back by a one time friend, the
stray horse that shits its way to the town thus leading the soldiers to it and
has, with the mayor and dignitaries and at
the mayor’s insistence, have its photograph taken by a correspondent who just
happens to have a camera. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The boy scouts who, as they march out of town
and out of step, are heard singing <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><i>Greece</i></st1:country-region></st1:place><i> shall never die.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">My screenplay is full of directions as to
how I would shoot the film if I were directing it. I can see it so clearly in
my mind’s eye, frame by frame. Another director would of course ignore my suggestions
and go his own way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Mr. Panos’ story would make a wonderful
major motion picture and is too good to be wasted. Has no one in the business
thought of it? If not, why not?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">If ever it is made into a film, knowing how
long these things take, I doubt I’ll be around to see it, which is a matter for
regret.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-9054094108750631852014-01-02T11:27:00.000+02:002014-01-02T11:27:10.814+02:00New Year<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The floor
of the courtyard is littered with oranges fallen before their time and the tree
is still laden, as is the tree in the lower garden, and a couple of days ago Douglas
had a field day resulting in seventeen pounds of mandarin marmalade. I would
have preferred less marmalade and some mandarins just to eat but he cleared the
tree except for half a dozen he couldn’t reach. We’ve had so much rain recently
I must remind them to take a look at the avocados.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Well, or
lipon as the Greeks say, here we are into 2014. As usual we didn’t stay up to
watch the festivities on television. The last time Douglas and I celebrated New
Year was a few years back when we were in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Athens</st1:place></st1:city>
and part of the milling throng shoulder to shoulder in <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Kotsia Square</st1:address></st1:street>, bands playing and at the
countdown the sky ablaze with exploding fireworks. Pickpockets must have thought all their
birthdays had come at once though fortunately we weren’t tagged. One might have
been given a quick brush-by but having suffered from these buggers before we
made sure there was nothing to pick – nothing easily accessible anyway. A case
of once bitten twice shy, or more accurately twice bitten. It’s amazing though
how careless some people can be. I was sitting one day on one of the stone
benches at Ommonia outside my favourite restaurant, “Neon” and I noticed a
young guy who turned out to be Australian with knapsack a couple of benches off
and a big, fat, juicy wallet stuck invitingly out of his back trouser pocket so
I took it on myself to warn him of the danger.
Five minutes later he left with that big fat juicy wallet still there but
not for much longer I reckoned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I wonder if
there was much to celebrate in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Athens</st1:city></st1:place>
this time around and when, if ever, this recession is going to come to an end.
For many Greeks 2014 is not going to be a good year, for so many struggling to
keep their heads above water a loss in their pensions will be the last straw. Perhaps
the politicians would like to tell them what they will have to live on. Here on
<st1:place w:st="on">Crete</st1:place> a group of ex-pats have formed a charity
called “Helping Hand” to distribute food to families in need. In <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Athens</st1:city></st1:place> the fascist party Golden
Dawn is also distributing food but only to those who can produce Greek ID.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A petition
has been started requesting the Greek government do something about saving
Crete’s ancient olive trees, some of them hundreds of years old and being indiscriminately chopped down to
provide firewood for those who simply can’t afford to heat their homes any other
way. As the petitioner has it – </span>“These trees helped our parents put
clothes on our backs and send us to university. It is thanks to these trees
that <st1:place w:st="on">Crete</st1:place> is what it is. Its cultural
development is thanks to them.<br />
Yet no one cares for these olive trees that have fed millions of people for thousands
of years that have been worshipped and adored. These trees are our legacy.” She
could have added “our livelihood.” Unfortunately I doubt the government can or
will do anything about it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what would I hope for in 2014? Apart from the obvious
like religious contention resulting only too often in violence, I would like
there to be more awareness of human cruelty to animals, perhaps starting off
with a complete worldwide banning of vivisection, the closing of zoos not up to
a certain standard of welfare and a blitz on those promoting dog-fights: for
this disgusting phenomenon a lengthy prison sentence, a hefty fine and the
prohibition of keeping an animal for life.</div>
<span style="font-family: Sylfaen; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There are so many many things one could wish for
to make this world a better place but as the old saying has it, “If wishes were
horses beggars would ride,” and all the prayers and wishing in the end isn’t
gong to change a damn thing. Happy new year anyway.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span>Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-55701435628537167302013-12-30T14:08:00.003+02:002013-12-30T14:09:33.788+02:00Happy Christmas 2.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Well, the
holiday season is over. Three days of celebrating Joshua ben Joseph’s birthday
whatever your religion if any, by partying, singing, praying, eating and drinking,
wishing everyone happiness, and completely forgetting the poor, the homeless, the
lonely, the desperately ill, the starving, the bereaved, especially those who lost
a child in a school shootout, a child who will never celebrate Christmas again,
the world’s refugees from natural and man made disasters,</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span>the tortured and those living in fear and dread in the
shadow<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #4b4f4f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 7.5pt;"> </span></span>of the Taliban, Al Qaeda,
Boko Haram, Al Shabaab or any other vicious vipers’ nest of crazed fanatics.<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #4b4f4f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 7.5pt;">. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> the Coptic Christians in Egypt, the Christians
in Pakistan, the fighting in Syria, or Iraq, Iran, Saudi; countries dominated
by clerics, religious police, law courts only too happy to dish out death
sentences and lashings beyond belief for what in the civilised world would be considered
trivial. </span>Raef Badawi, a Blogger who is one of the establishers of the
"Liberal Saudi Network", which angered Ultra-orthodox clerics of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</st1:country-region>
has been sentenced to seven ears in prison and 600 lashes. Think about that for
a moment. Are you actually meant to survive 600 lashes or is that simply a way
of applying a dreadful death sentence without actually passing one? But it
could be worse. It would appear seven years in prison and 600 lashes is not
enough to satisfy the crazy clerics. He could be beheaded soon for a claimed
"apostasy".</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There has evidently been a great deal of news in Arabic
about this issue but in English it has not had much attention till now. However
this piece has now been published:<br />
“A Saudi court on Monday referred a rights activist to a higher court for
alleged apostasy, a charge that could lead to the death penalty in the
ultra-conservative kingdom, activists said.”<br />
A judge at a lower court referred Raef Badawi to a higher court, declaring that
he "could not give a verdict in a case of apostasy." Badawi, who was
arrested in June in the Red Sea city of <st1:city w:st="on">Jeddah</st1:city>
for unknown reasons (?) is a co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network with
female rights activist Saud al-Shammari and others.” And let us not forget
the treatment of women and girls abused (acid attacks? Beatings? Rape?) at the
hands of their men folk in the lands of the mad mullahs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Great celebrations
huh? Well…why dwell on all the injustices in the world at such a joyous time?
You have a warm, snug, happy household, you’re surrounded hopefully by people
you love and who love you. There’s a crackling fire in the hearth, cards on the
mantelpiece, music, decorations, a tree with presents stacked around it and
Christmas lights, a table well laden with food and various delicacies seen only
on this special occasion, and plenty to drink. After lunch if you haven’t over-indulged, you
may play boisterous games with merry laughter or, replete, sit back and watch
telly, doze off and think of the imminent sales in which, having possibly
queued all night outside a large department store, for a few short hours, the doors
open and all sense of decorum is consequently thrown to the winds and you can behave
like a snatching snaring snarling hooligan grabbing for things you don’t really
want and certainly don’t need. I’ve never understood why otherwise ostensibly
sane people do it. The answer could be the demon greed. It reminds one of the
behaviour of the Gadarene swine inhabited by demons throwing themselves off the
cliffs. Poor piggies. Joshua could have got rid of the demons with a click of
his mystical fingers instead of which he sent them howling into the bodies of
the pigs causing this mass suicide. Evidently this event didn’t actually take
place on Jewish soil which answers one question but who in those days could own
a herd of 2000 pigs and, more importantly lose them? And was Jesus sued for the
loss of these valuable animals?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Well, 2013
is almost over. Soon it will be Christmas time once more, Church bells will
ring merrily on high, carols will be sung, greetings sent, and God bless us
every one Tiny Tim will say yet again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-14480866099223468832013-12-23T18:33:00.003+02:002013-12-23T18:33:42.870+02:00Happy Christmas<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Had the
most bizarre dream the other night. I often wonder how the brain in sleep comes
up with these inventions that are pure fantasy, especially when they have
absolutely nothing to do with your every day life. Naturally certain incidents
during the day can be the touch paper as was the case here. Friends lent us two
DVDs of “Startrek” and of course we had to watch them both; that is the others
watched them both but I found, possibly because they were stretched into full
length movies instead of filling a mere half hour usually with a simple
straightforward story, I kept dozing off so obviously missed some of the plot.
I really wasn’t taken in by them at all.* Plots involving time travels are
often suspect. When we went all those year ago in London to the very first
“Star Wars” I was riveted to it, so much so that the very next evening at
supper I suggested we went to see it again, which we did; the only film that
has ever received the two nights in a row treatment. Since then I’ve also sat
through it a few times on DVD. I think “Startrek” was being too clever by half
though the others seemed to enjoy it. It moved at such a rate the dialogue
became almost unintelligible, so fast in fact the sub-titles couldn’t keep up
with it. I disliked the boy playing Kirk but I have a feeling it was not his
fault but the fault of the direction. Having been told to play it big and bold
and brash and possibly egged on he went over the top and became objectionable,
a lout: witness the apple eating scene. This of course is only my reaction and
arguable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But what
all this is leading up to is the dream. Naturally, as with most if not all
dreams, I don’t remember it exactly and if I hadn’t woken up to go to the loo I
most probably wouldn’t remember as much as I have done which was this: the
original crew of the “Enterprise,” that is from the original series; William
Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei etcetera were now crewing a double decker
bus! I ask you, from a spacecraft going to where no man had been before, to the
streets of (I presume as it was red double decker) <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>. Kirk was the driver (that’s logical)
and Spock was the conductor. He had one of those old-fashioned metal ticket
dispensers filled with a roll of paper and a handle to wind out the necessary
ticket. Now this is the truly weird part. It turned out that Spock was Roman
Catholic and his tickets were indulgences so if there were any passengers he
didn’t like they didn’t get a ticket and went straight off to purgatory. Sulu
eventually told him he was being a bit too judgmental so when a pretty girl
boarded the bus and Spock fell for her that was the end of withholding any
passenger’s ticket. So love speaks not only in the language of flowers but in
London Transport bus tickets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A billion
pixels for a billion stars.</span>The Gaia satellite, launched by the European
Space Agency, is aiming to map the precise positions and distances to Earth of
more than a billion stars. It is
one of the most ambitious space missions ever to be launched and should give
the first realistic picture of how our Milky Way galaxy is constructed.<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gaia's remarkable sensitivity will lead also to the
detection of many thousands of previously unseen objects, including new planets
and asteroids. The intention is to put it on path to an observing station some
1.5 million km from the Earth on its nightside - a journey that will take about
a month.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gaia has been in development for more than 20 years.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It will be engaged in what is termed astrometry - the
science of mapping the locations and movements of celestial objects.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To do this, it carries two telescopes that throw light on to
a huge, one-billion-pixel camera detector connected to a trio of instruments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gaia will use this ultra-stable and supersensitive optical
equipment to pinpoint its sample of one billion stars,1% of the Milky Way's
total, with extraordinary confidence; Their physical properties catalogued -
details such as brightness, temperature, and composition. It should even be
possible then to determine their ages. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And for about 150 million of these stars, Gaia will measure
their velocity either towards or away from us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the quality of the new survey promises a raft of
discoveries beyond just the stars themselves: new asteroids, failed stars, and its
map of the sky will be a reference frame to guide the investigations of future
telescopes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And because Gaia will track anything that passes across its
camera detector, it is likely also to see a colossal number of objects that
have hitherto gone unrecorded - such as comets, asteroids, planets beyond our
Solar System, cold dead stars, and even tepid stars that never quite fired into
life. Maybe even Heaven!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the end of the decade, the Gaia archive of processed data
is expected to exceed 1 Petabyte (1 million Gigabytes), equivalent to about
200,000 DVDs of information.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
*All I can
say is I had better get into a “Startrek” mood as we have been given </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the full DVD set for Christmas and that’ a whole lot of viewing.
A happy Christmas to you all and a bright 2014.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-79719081757914884022013-12-19T10:27:00.000+02:002013-12-19T10:27:09.655+02:00The Sex Life of Jesus<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus was a rent boy! What? What? What!!! Now I have heard
everything and, if this is true, it turns the whole world, especially for
Christians and Muslims on its head</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“In a stunning discovery that archaeologists hope might shed
light on the little-known years between Jesus Christ’s childhood and his
ministry, the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered what they believe to be
the site where, in the years before he began his itinerant preaching, a
desperate, cash-strapped Christ briefly turned to tricks for money. Excavators
working in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem unveiled fragments of
several earthenware vessels, a public latrine hewn from stone and terra cotta
piping dating to Jesus’ era, along with a curbed Roman road that served as a
main artery of ancient Judea, where the fledgling, hard-up prophet is believed
to have cruised for johns passing by. “It’s an incredible find, and one that
confirms many of our long-held theories about Christ’s so-called lost years,”
said the dig’s head archaeologist, Aviram Oshri, who went on to note that while
Christ’s hooking is not referenced in the New Testament, suggestions that he
resorted to the flesh trade abound in historical records of the period.” (Abounds?
Where? Where?) “This intersection is an exact match for the area described in
ancient texts, where Jesus is said to have flagged down lonely men traveling
from Yafa and offered his services, this was before he had many followers, of
course,” Oshri added. “Some of his earliest followers were clients, actually.”
(Now how on earth would he know that?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The young Christ, like many Hebrew males adrift, is believed
to have turned to sex work around 19 A.D. helping to cope during a bout of
homelessness. There is noting new under the sun, Though implicitly prohibited
by Jewish law, prostitution was prevalent in ancient Judea, with sex workers
trading their services for cloth, fowl, wine, and small coins, a transaction
that Christ is believed to have executed hundreds of times during a short
period of time in his 20s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christians never think of Jesus having sexual needs, I am
not referring to what is written above, but as the man he was meant to be, he
must have had a normal man’s urges.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the sixties there was a lady by the name of Mary
Whitehouse who had no time for “the Permissive Society” and formed what was
called “The Viewers and Listeners Association” whose complaining members would
endeavor to keep British broadcasting pure. Of course, as always, sex was at the
bottom of it and when a Swedish film came out about Christ’s possible sexuality
she hit the Richter scale at about 6.5. But that was as nothing compared to
“The Romans In Britain” in which there was a certain amount of supposed sodomy
or anal rape on stage which sent the scale up another couple of degrees and for
which she sued The National Theatre, but withdrew her case seemingly happy with
the waves she had made.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, I decided to write a satire about Mrs. Whitehouse in
which though reference is made to Christ’s sexuality it would never have
occurred to me in a thousand years to go so far as to suggest he was for a
short period of his life a boy on the game.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The play is called “Twilight of Aunt Edna” an obvious pun on
“Twilight of the Gods” and the destruction of <st1:place w:st="on">Valhalla</st1:place>,
and Edna being a character invented by the playwright Terrance Rattigan, a lady
from the Home Counties who writes letters to the newspapers about plays she
find objectionable. Well I reckon there would have been a hundred letters or
more over “Twilight of Aunt Edna” which is why I suppose that it got very close
to production a number of times and was then chickened out. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here is an extract – Edna’s son Geoffrey who has a sexual
hang-up over plastic macs, the more colourful the better, is smitten by Edna’s
new secretary, a Pentecostal young lady who arrived wearing one and which he
has stuffed beneath pillows on the couch, and this is the first opportunity he
gets of being alone with her. Father, with a stack of porn and lengths of rope
is tying himself into knots in the garden shed despite “being allergic to
geraniums and turpentine.” And in answer to Hillary’s enquiry re Edna…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: No, she'll
be ages too. She's at the police station.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>HILARY opens her mouth
but nothing comes out.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Malcolm's been a naughty boy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Malcolm?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Not that
I'm surprised. That man's so false even his wig has dandruff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Who is
Malcolm?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Secretary
of the Holier Than Thou Society. He's gone and got himself sodomised in a sauna
and he's up for it. She's gone to see what can be done to pull his chestnuts
out of the fire. I know what his defense will be, the usual one about having
too much to drink and not knowing what he was doing. Anyway, if they can get up
to all these little pranks, why can't we? It's only a question of not being
found out. Jesus got away with it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Got
away with what?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: His
sex-life. Nobody knows anything about that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: That's
because he never had one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Of course
he had one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: That's
blasphemy! Jesus was pure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: On the
contrary, if you deny Jesus had a sex life do you know what you are doing?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: What?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: You're
denying the Christian religion, that's what.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Never.
He was God. What would God want with a sex-life?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Ah, but the
point is, he was God come to earth as <st1:state w:st="on">Man.</st1:state>
That is the whole point. When he died on the cross his suffering was supposed
to wash away our sins. Now, if he didn't have a sex-life, who's to say he
suffered at all? The trouble with you airy-fairy hymn-singing lot is that
everything, including Jesus’ arse is up in the clouds. It's all gentle, meek,
and mild. You forget that if Joshua ben
Joseph bled like us then, like us, he also had to shit, piss, burp and fart.
But you don't like the idea of Jesus doing all that do you? He did it all the
same. Does that somehow make him much more of a man and something less of a
god? Gods somehow don't seem the same if they have jammy toes, right? And, if
you deny his sex-life, you destroy the very cornerstone on which the whole
Christian church is built, that God came to earth as one of us. It doesn't
matter if his sex-life was simply wet dreams and water-stiffs first thing in
the morning the fact remains, he had one. I mean, we know he had the equipment
because we know about his circumcision. That's in the Bible. You can't have a
penis and not have a sex-life, not unless you're completely impotent and
completely innocent, a highly unlikely combination. But, if true, very unfair
and a bit of a heavenly con-trick wouldn't you say?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: You are
the most awful person I have ever met.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Oh? Why?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: You
have absolutely no respect for anything or anybody.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: I have
every respect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: No you
don't. You should consider feelings, other people's feelings. How do you
suppose they feel when they hear you talking like that? And besides, you're
supposed to worship and adore. There's no need to dwell on... other matters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: You mean,
if you thought Jesus had smelly feet that would automatically stop you
worshiping and adoring? Is that how you treat your friends? You love them only
when they smell of scented soap? Some love that is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: I don't
want to talk about it anymore. It's wicked. And you can't hide from God. He is
everywhere. He sees everything.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: He also
understands everything. He'll know why you're doing it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Yes he
will. He sees right into your heart. He knows your true motives even when you
try to hide them from yourself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: That means
you really want to.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Yes.
No! Yes! But I can't!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEOFFREY: Yes but you
can! <i>(He produces her mac.)</i> Put it on
put it on!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: Well...
all right... Just for a moment and you're only to look at me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>He is helping her into
the mac.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HILARY: You are
not to lose control, whatever…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>But he already has. He
grabs her and pushes her down behind the couch.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, Geoffrey!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>For a few moments
nothing can be seen or heard from them then…<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
Extract from <i>Twilight of Aunt Edna</i> © Glyn Jones 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-47719752485341054112013-12-16T09:45:00.001+02:002013-12-19T10:49:41.894+02:00Corrupt clergy<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To continue
my dissertation on corrupt clergy, corrupt in more ways than one but what the
hell they are only human after all even if God has singled them out to enjoy
his special favours. We’ve mentioned greed now let’s go a bit further on that subject
before we chat about sexual peccadilloes, 99% of human sexuality in the eyes of
the religious is spelt s-i-n though why the Almighty with a whole universe and more
in which to occupy Himself should be in the least interested as to who I’ve
been to bed with or whether I masturbate or not is beyond me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But back to
money money money. Ron.L.hubbard, the
founder of Scientology said if you want to make money you won’t get very far
writing science-fiction; you should start a new religion (which of course he
did.) Capitalising on a religion that already exists amounts to the same thing
I suppose. Let us take as just one example, the Televangelist couple, Paul and
Jan Crouch and remember when you read these figures churches do not pay tax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Their Christian
television station TBN is said to be the third largest in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> and
around the world TBN is carried by stations and cable systems to millions of
homes: 5000 television stations, 33 satellites, the Internet and cable systems
around the world. What Goebbels wouldn’t have given to have all that for
propaganda purposes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">TBN’s Annual
income, the latest figures available being for 2006 was $200.7 million –
Expenditure $141.1. stashing away the extra $59.6 million. Assets evidently are
close to a billion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In 1998 the
Crouch’s combined income was $400000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In 2008 it
had risen (including Paul F. Crouch Jun. as Vice President) to $994637.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What it
runs at currently I hate to think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Apart from
their own luxury house at <st1:city w:st="on">Newport Beach</st1:city> the
Crouches have the use of 30 TBN owned residences in <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>,
<st1:state w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:state>, and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:state>. In fact this good Christian family are
worthy of a dozen blogs just to show how affluent they are and how the money
goes. Mind you Joel Osteen has just had a mansion built at a cost over $71
million. He says it is a gift from the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But now
let’s move on to sin. Catholic priests and choirboys is old hat. It’s been going
on for centuries but it is only in the last few years that it has become a cause
célèbre. A number of televangelists in America famous from coast to coast have
tearfully admitted their sins to the world via their favourite medium, sometimes
with brave little wife gazing at her man adoringly and inwardly humiliated and
seething no doubt, as he asks the world for forgiveness, which isn’t always
forthcoming (Judge not lest ye yourselves be judged.)Witness Jim Bakker after
bedding a church secretary by the name of Jessica Hahn, Mind you he also went to
jail for five years having been convicted of fraud. Jimmy Swaggart, preaching
to more than a hundred nations around the world tearfully admitted in front of
70000 that he had sinned with a prostitute. Charles Fox Parham, the ‘Father of
the Pentecostal Movement’ was indicted in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place> on a charge of sodomy. There are more
of course including one whose name escapes me. This one was rabidly homophobic
until it was revealed he was having it off with rent boys in seedy hotels.
Could it have been the anti-gay Baptist George Rekers who it was discovered
hired a rent- boy to go holiday with him for ten days? He said it was to carry
his luggage. Do me a favour, pu-lease!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But all
that is leading up to the main story which involves both money and sin and does
not take place n <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>
but in good old Blighty. This is the story of the Rev. Paul Flowers. He was
Chairman of the Co-op Bank on a salary of £132000, not exactly a fortune but
not too bad at over two grand a week, especially as there was another £60000
for acting as vice chairman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"> At various times he was Trustee of investment funds and
property of the Methodist church, Superintendant at Methodist church, Member of
Labour’s Financial and Advisory Board, Chairman of the Lifeline Project, a
charity which helps drug uses, Member of the board at Advertising Standards
Authority.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">He has been
accused of claiming £75000 in false expenses which he denies maintaining they
were all legitimate. Because of lack of evidence no action will be taken until there
is a full investigation. No doubt, being ever so contrite and offering to pay
back a percentage he would have received a mild slap on the wrist but he hasn’t
waited for the outcome. It is believed he has fled to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thailand</st1:place></st1:country-region> “since
sordid revelations about his private life emerged last Sunday.” Yes, once more
it was evidently rent boys so both greed and sin walked hand in hand to ensure
his downfall. The first might elicit a certain sympathy by the faithful, the
second never.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A Brazilian
pastor has been arrested for convincing his followers his penis contained holy
milk. Can you believe that? Sadly sadly yes I can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-90815005520297552532013-12-12T08:37:00.001+02:002013-12-12T08:37:43.984+02:00Religious Charlatans<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There is
something truly crazy, perverse, and dangerous about people handicapped by
religious beliefs. They seem to make up their own rules as the fancy takes them
and of course, it is all down to instructions given to them by God. I think of
parents who under religious instruction instead of getting medical help allow
their children to die while they pray. Prayers proving to be ineffectual this
is tantamount to murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pastors at some Pentecostal churches in <st1:place w:st="on">Kenya</st1:place> are conducting prayer
services to “cure” patients infected with HIV, confiscating their
anti-retroviral drugs and charging a fee for their healing prayers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.“I believe people can be healed of all kinds of sickness,
including HIV, through prayers,” said Pastor Joseph Maina of <st1:placename w:st="on">Agmo</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Prayer</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountain</st1:placetype>, a Pentecostal church on the outskirts of <st1:place w:st="on">Nairobi</st1:place>. “We usually guide
them. We don’t ask for money, but we ask them to leave some seed money that
they please.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
INERELA an international interfaith network reports that 10
people a month on average undergo pastors’ “miracle cures” in <st1:place w:st="on">Nairobi</st1:place>. They have documented 2,000 such
cases throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Kenya</st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Victims say that desperation and fear of being stigmatized
and rejected by family make the pastors’ offers of cure by prayer seem
appealing. It also seems easier than sticking to a lifelong drug regimen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We were very desperate after realizing we had been infected
as young women,” said Margaret Lavonga, who almost died after attending a
healing prayer service several years ago.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She and other subjects were taken to a clinic for a “test”
that declared them HIV-free, after their drugs were burned and they paid a $36
fee. Lavonga crusaded with the pastors throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Nairobi</st1:place>’s slums, talking up the miracle
prayer cure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I was upbeat, but after two weeks I started falling sick,”
Lavonga said. “When I was tested, the virus was still in me and had multiplied
since I was not taking the drugs.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Kenyan Daily Post reported on an incident this
August in which a pastor paraded an emaciated HIV-positive boy on Kiss TV, a Kenyan
television channel, asking for viewer donations of 310 Kenyan shillings, or
$3.58, before he would pray for the boy. Kenyans were outraged, accusing the
pastor and TV channel of “exploitation” and the “filthiest injustice of human
dignity” in their online comments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sheer greed seems to be at the bottom of so many charlatan
pastors’ directives from the almighty and they get away with it to the tune of
billions proving Barnum’s quip about a sucker born every minute. Unfortunately,
as the ministers line their pockets, build their mansions, fly their executive
jets, so many of the suckers forking out
what little they've got are people in genuine pain who need genuine help, not
being fed and believing in a load of codswallop about heaven and hell. I was always
under the impression that these beliefs went out centuries ago but obviously
not. Neither has the primitive belief in witches, I have just watched a
gut-churning video of half a dozen Kenyan men and women accused of witchcraft
being beaten, kicked, stomped on and forced into a ditch where they ware
covered with brush and burnt alive. When they tried to crawl out they were
kicked back in. I have never witnessed anything so brutal and there was quite a
crowd standing by watching. Are we really living in the twenty-first century? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the murderous bastards doing the killing call themselves
Christians.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mention of the word heaven and I am going to go off at a
tangent with something that’s always intrigued me. ‘Heaven’ is a proper noun,
it is a place, a place has to be situated somewhere, so where exactly is
heaven? According to scripture Jesus came out of the tomb (surprising after
three days his body hadn’t started to decompose but that’s all part of the
magic I suppose) mooches about for forty days and then ascends bodily into
heaven. Later mater would follow his example. Now it was not a spirit but a
flesh and blood body that, defying the law of gravity ‘ascended’ into heaven,
but where in the great blue yonder up there did it actually go to? Apart from gravity
it had to suffer extreme cold and lack of oxygen. Since those far off days man
has been exploring that selfsame blue yonder in close-up as it were and there
has been no sign of heaven. It could still be discovered somewhere in the
universe I suppose but somehow I doubt it.</div>
<span style="font-family: Sylfaen; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">For the religious greed can also lead to greater
things. It could lay a whole country at your doorstep. The Reverend Doctor
William Tolbert, a Baptist minister from <st1:city w:st="on">Charleston</st1:city>
ended up president of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Liberia</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
Exchange the word president for dictator and the Reverend and the whole Tolbert
family had nine years in which to have their way and bury their snouts in the
trough before being executed by firing squad. At the urging of both Christian
and Muslims a court in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>
has reinstated the law against homosexuality making it a criminal offence with
possible sentence of ten years.</span>Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-14172090005662451662013-12-09T16:27:00.004+02:002013-12-09T16:38:37.283+02:00The Milipede<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
invasion of the millipedes. Every year at this time they appear, seemingly out
of nowhere and really with nowhere to go as they cross a wide open space of
floor that to a human being would be any number of miles. The Greeks call them
forty-legs (sarandapotharousa) but however many legs they might have every time
I see one I have been fascinated to know more about them, in particular what
they eat. So finally, my curiosity getting the better of me, I looked them up on
the internet. According to BBC Nature millipedes are a common class of
anthropoids with over 10000 named species! Wot! Ten thousand? Wikipedia says
12000! Millipedes, centipedes, sow bugs and pillbugs tend to move into houses
during brief periods in the spring or fall. By the way, if you’ve never seen
what a sow bug looks like, look ‘em up.
You have never in your life seen such a weird nightmarish looking creature. No
science fiction writer has ever described one I shouldn’t think and one (giant
and menacing of course) has never as far as I know appeared on “Doctor Who.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Millipedes
eat decaying leaves and dead matter which again raises the question why do they
come into the house where they are hardly likely to find any dead leaves or
decaying matter?</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span>Millipedes are slow moving and can
be easily distinguished from the somewhat similar and related centipedes which move rapidly, are carnivorous, and have a single pair of legs for each
body segment. The scientific study of millipedes is known
as diplopodology, and a scientist who studies them is called a
diplopodologist. Imagine you’re at a swish cocktail party and someone asks what
you do for a living and you tell them you’re a diplopodologist. That would
bring the conversation to a sudden stop.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;">Some millipedes are
considered household pests, including</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>some<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">which
infest thatched roofs in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">Other
species exhibit periodical</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>swarming
behaviour<span style="background: white;"> which can result in home invasions;</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">crop
damage, train delays, or even train crashes and derailments. Millipedes also
appear in</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>folklore <span style="background: white;">and</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>traditional
medicine<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">around the world. Many cultures ascribe millipede
activity with coming rains.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">In the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>Yoruba
culture<span style="background: white;"> of</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><st1:place w:st="on">Nigeria</st1:place>,<span style="background: white;"> millipedes are used in pregnancy and business rituals, and crushed
millipedes are used to treat fever,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>whitlow,<span style="background: white;"> and</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>convulsions
in <span style="background: white;">children.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">In</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Zambia</st1:country-region><span style="background: white;"> smashed millipede pulp is used to treat wounds, and
in the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><st1:place w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:place>
<span style="background: white;">millipede juice is used to treat earache. In</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Malaysia</st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">millipede
secretions are used to poison arrow tips.</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;">With certain Himalayan</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>tribes<span style="background: white;">, dry millipede smoke is used to treat</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>haemorrhoids. Now there is
something to make the mind boggle. Don’t lose your balance whilst squatting
over the fire or the results could be painful. Baked balls, barbecued scrotums
are not to be laughed at. So there you are; a short essay on the millipede and
its manifold uses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These last few evenings we’ve been having a delightful time
watching one of our very favourite soaps, “The Golden Girls.” Just as funny,
warm, and true as it was when we first saw it, how many years ago? 1985. With
quite an amount of sexual references not all that usual for the time, I wonder
how it went down in the Bible belt back then. I have to admit I’m not a great
one for soaps or half hour comedies. I probably watched four or five
“Eastenders” not with much enthusiasm, a number of “Emmerdale” but that was
because, living in <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place>, I was hoping to
write for it: a forlorn hope. Loved “Steptoe and Son,” have never seen a single episode of "Coronation Street," programmes like "The Army Game" were simply appalling and more up to date we really enjoy“Ugly
Betty” and “Two and a Half Men,” though it tended to go off the boil slightly when Sheen
left and the beautiful Ashton Kutcher took his place. Absolutely loved Jon
Cryer’s performance and there was real chemistry between them all in the
original cast.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How about someone producing a soap based on the WestBoro
Baptist church? It could be titled “Gays the cause of every calamity,” or "Friendly Faggot."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">On a <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">New York street</st1:address></st1:street> a
woman dressed in a frock of rainbow colours stands holding up a large placard reading
“Gay marriage killed the dinosaurs.” Are people really this crazy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-62760325993875958062013-12-05T11:16:00.003+02:002013-12-05T11:16:46.891+02:00Beirut<div class="MsoNormal">
The question of homosexuality, except for those
unfortunately still suffering, even facing death, for being who they are, must
be becoming rather boring but, as the western world, with Christian
exceptions, becomes more enlightened,
more tolerant, less superstitious, so in the Middle East it would seem the
exact opposite is happening. As the West takes one step forward the Muslim
world takes two steps back. By Christian exceptions I think of the American
Bible Belt, the Russian Orthodox church, and now the Greeks who once upon a
time before the advent of Christianity knew exactly what it was all about both
in myth and reality, have entered the fray with dire threats of excommunication!
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the West some parents are learning that if they have a
gay child it isn’t because they have done something wrong and should feel guilt
in some way, and there is simply nothing to be done about it except accept and
continue to love and cherish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recently a boy gave as his Bar Mitzvah speech a defense of
same sex marriage. What? A thirteen year old? And in the synagogue of all
places? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Muslim countries women buried from head to toe in black
simply do not exist outside the home. In the West women (for the most part
though here is still a way to go) are treated for what they are worth. The
Church of England has 29 women bishops and number 30 to be ordained in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region>. What
happened to the Biblical injunction that women should know their place, stay in
it, subject to their husband’s will and keep their mouths shut?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During Macy’s Thanksgiving parade a number was performed by
the cast of the award winning musical “Kinky Boots” which caused an immediate
outcry from conservatives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Kinky Boots disgusting and wrong.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Kinky Boots is what’s wrong with <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region>.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Kinky Boots is a disgrace”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“After watching the Kinky Boots” show from the parade I have
a little less hope for humanity.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the answers are quite illuminating. Here are only two.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Dear World: if you are personally outraged (or, even if
you're miffed...I'll accept miffed) by this specific performance at the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade, I truly don't want to know or associate with you. I
will never understand your POV. That's my problem. I accept full
responsibility. Let's just not associate with each other. Ok? Thanks.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“All of these
outraged people should lighten up and get over it. Teacher for 37 years,
parent, and grandparent. Kids can handle life. Parents sometimes...... Not so
much. Life is too short to get upset over silly things. Too many serious things
to worry about.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>'s
capital, <st1:city w:st="on">Beirut</st1:city>,
comes alive under darkness. Its narrow alleyways meander into streets full of
bars.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The locals, many dressed in designer clothes, sit on the
verandas drinking cocktails till dawn. The city's liberal demeanour really does
make it like no other place in a deeply conservative region.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But <st1:city w:st="on">Beirut</st1:city>
has another side to it that highlights this difference - it has an underground scene
that is private yet very much alive with discreet gay bars and clubs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, recent events are said to have challenged <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>'s relatively
tolerant reputation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year, a <st1:city w:st="on">Beirut</st1:city>
cinema was raided by police who arrested more than 30 people believed to be
homosexual. They were each subjected to anal examinations by a doctor at a
police station to ascertain whether they had been having "unnatural"
intercourse. The raid evidently sparked a public outcry but then psychiatrist
Nabil Khoury went on prime-time television and told the nation that
homosexuality was "a disease that needs to be treated". (Still? Will
they never learn?)<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four months later, censors blocked a screening at the Beirut
International Film Festival of a French film that features a gay love story.
The interior ministry cited a news report which attributed the decision to
"obscene scenes of kissing between gay men, philandering, naked men and
sexual intercourse between men</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In an empty bar on the outskirts of <st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place>, a man in his 20s told how he had
recently been arrested for being gay. The man revealed that he had been
subjected to an anal examination that was painful and incredibly humiliating.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Obviously it was really demeaning. It made me feel
like I had no body rights, like the government had access to my body," he
said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I wasn't stable psychologically. I was really
depressed for a really long time. I was feeling so resentful, and was just
staying by myself all the time."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even though the government strongly condemned and banned
anal tests after the cinema raid, the BBC has spoken to dozens of gay people in
the country who strongly believe it is still going on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"These tests have been banned by the ministry of
justice and the syndicate of physicians," says Ahmad Saleh, from the
Lebanese LGBT rights group Helem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"However, we have reports from people who have been
arrested, who told us that police officers had threatened them by saying that
they would be subjected to these tests unless they confessed to whatever charge
they were facing."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anal testing is widely discredited as a method of
determining sexuality. Some gay people avoid anal sex and people with other
conditions can be wrongly identified as gay. The Lebanese Psychiatric Society
has now publicly stated that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and does
not require treatment, but campaigners think that is not enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
."The way gay and lesbian people are treated by wider
society, the serious abuse, the torture and ill treatment to which they're
subjected to in police cells and detention is wrong," says David Mepham, <st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place>
Director of Human Rights Watch, which <a href="http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/lebanon0613_forUpload_1.pdf"><span style="color: black;">published a report in June</span></a> on the
abuse of LGBT people in police custody.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"We've documented very serious patterns of abuse. That
abuse needs to end, and this culture of impunity needs to end."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In countries like <st1:country-region w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iran</st1:country-region>,
being homosexual can lead to the death penalty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The World Health Organisation and many countries in the West
stopped considering homosexuality disease years ago, and <st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place> became the first Arab
country to do so. Even so, there are many in the country whose views are in
line with the teachings of Islam and Christianity, which are traditionally
opposed to homosexuality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some gays are optimistic about the future. They say the
media is devoting more time and attention to the topic of homosexuality, and
hope that this will help break down prejudices and stereotypes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the fear is palpable and illustrates the long journey
they have yet to travel in order to be accepted in this "liberal
city".</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-57858082554552134382013-12-02T11:45:00.003+02:002013-12-02T11:45:34.670+02:00Nelson Mandela<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So, one of the
greatest and most generous of spirit yet seemingly modest of men has finally gone
to that Bourne from which no traveller returns and (with the exception perhaps
of a minority whose lives have been turned upside down) it is not only South
Africa that will mourn him but the whole world has lost something precious. It
is a great pity there are not more like him. I refer of course to Nelson
Mandela and it seems fitting that at 94 he had a number of years to enjoy after
his long incarceration of eighteen years on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Robin</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Island</st1:placename></st1:place>.
I never knew him, I only knew of him, yet the news of his passing has brought
me to tears. Is there any other world figure whose death would do that? Offhand
I can think of no one. Mandela was not unique. There have been others like him
throughout history, Ghandi for example, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Joyce
Banda, Jose Mujica, the very opposite of the Mugabes and Zumas of this world
but oh, they are so few and so far between and the world needs men and women of
their stature so very badly. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Nelson Mandela
evidently died back in June but whatever the reason the South African
government and the family for some reason have kept it a secret.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">R.I.P. Madiba.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-78798790178210592182013-11-28T11:53:00.000+02:002013-11-28T11:53:15.865+02:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Dear
Creationists, so much for intelligent design. So the complexity of the human
eye amazes you and therefore must have been intelligently designed but what
about all those phenomenon great and small that scream “design maybe but go
back to the drawing board.” For everything beautiful there are too many
opposites that simply deny intelligent design. For example the man embraced by
the Pope whose entire body is covered in disfiguring weeping painful lumps, (neurofibromatosis)
why, like The Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was he singled out for such a fate?
What brought intelligent design to mind was reading on the news that 51 ponies
in The New Forest have died agonising deaths by gorging themselves on a glut of
windfall acorns which are evidently fatal to both horses and cattle. You would
have thought an intelligent designer would have installed in the beasts a
faculty for knowing what for their species is poisonous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Creative
Design has also produced the greatest stupidity. “When I’m not talking to God,
I’m listening for His directions. I even moved to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> to be closer to Him.” This
had to be said jokingly surely, I mean we all know God is universal and you are
closest to Him in a garden be it in New Zealand or America but no, it was said
by Ray banana man Comfort, a believer in Genesis if ever there was one and,
according to him, the banana having been intelligently designed to fit in the
human mouth only goes to prove the existence of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">‘The
Creator of the universe went to great lengths to create the foreskin then
insisted you cut it off”. - Makes sense – Richard Dawkins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1993 Jawdat Ibrahim won $23 million in the <st1:state w:st="on">Illinois</st1:state> state lottery and opened up a restaurant in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>. He
offers a massive 50% discount on the bill for all the customers who switch
off their cell phones while dining in his restaurant.<br />
Why?<br />
Ibrahim is hoping to bring back the appreciation for food, conversation and
good company.<br />
In a 2010 survey, 67% of diners surveyed in <st1:city w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city>,
64% in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> and 63% in <st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place> agreed that texting, checking
e-mail or talking on a cell phone is rude while in company.<br />
A <st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place>
restaurant, ‘Eva,’ offers a 5% discount to customers for leaving their phones
with the host during their meal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.A deli in <st1:state w:st="on">Vermont</st1:state>
actually charges people an extra $3 for using their cell phones.<br />
For once just enjoy at least half an hour of food and good
company with your friends or family and forget about technology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the same token I wish some restaurateurs would realize
that loud music (not to everyone’s taste in the first place) kills conversation
stone dead and it really is true that silence is golden</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When a writer creates a character does he or she have a definite
image in mind as to exactly what that fictional character looks like? I think
so, in the same way as one imagines what a certain film location looks like
only to find the locations manager invariably had a very different idea and has
chosen somewhere not remotely like your imagining. So, whenever I watch
television I look out for any actor who fits my mental image of what Thornton
King looks like. Thornton King, for those not au fait with my writing, is my
private eye in a series of comedy thrillers, the first of which is <i>Dead On Time. </i>I’ve seen half a dozen or
so actors on screen who approximate to my imagining but now I have seen one who
is without a doubt Thornton King exactly as I have always pictured him. He is
an Irish actor by the name of Allen Leech and I came across him thanks to
YouTube and a rather delightful Irish film, <i>Cowboys
and Angels. </i>I believe he has been appearing in <i>Downton Abbey </i>but never having watched it I wouldn’t know what his
performance there is like. I would certainly cast him on the strength of his
performance in <i>Cowboy and Angels. </i>Tall,
handsome, talented, just the right age (32) and oozing Irish charm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, if here is an astute producer out there who would
recognize <i>Dead on Time</i> as a
potentially terrific movie, (or television) and any of the other Thornton King
adventures for that matter, look no further than Allen Leech for your leading
man. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.com1