Much ado about nothing

Sadly the long weekend is now behind us and there are no more public holidays until Labour day - which falls on a Saturday - which means that Vesak day (2 June) will be the first weekday holiday for a while. So, we have an uninterrupted 7 weeks of work - lets make hay whilst the sun shines!

On Friday we went to the Sloane Court Hotel for breakfast - Sausage (not real english sausages mind you), bacon, toast, beans (not Hienz - I am guessing Ayam brand), two fried eggs and a tomato - all for $10 - which is really not too bad. The food wasn't great, but it was worth the money - and the hotel really is like some kind of 3 star home counties country hotel - I could have been in Sussex or Hampshire, rather than Singapore. Of course, it didn't even come close to beating the Orchard Hotel buffet breakfast - where i normally consume vast quantities of bacon and ham - but then that costs over $30 which is rich in any language.

I also had a quick game of WHFB with Kanga - only 500pts which came out as a draw/ minor victory in my favour - which was entirely due to her using (for the first time) her lizardmen army....whereas I had my DE's - so the game was weighted in my favour. On the topics of games, tonights game is off as T needs to rest - so I shall either play WHFB or go to the cinema. I am leaning in favour of the former rather than the latter option, as Belle is a bit ill at the moment (ok, she is whiney at the moment - which is normally an indicator that something is up) and I think it would be nice to stay at home with her - however, Hellboy at the cinema sounds very, very tempting.

On the topic of films, it appears that Alan Moore has asked for his name to be taken of the upcoming movie "Constantine" as the creator of the character. For those of you with lives, let me expand - Constantine is the movie adaptation of the Vertigo comic "Hellblazer" which is about a sardonic chancer John Constantine, who dabbles in magic, sex, drugs and other peoples lives. He normally manages to squeeze himself out of bad situations with little damage to himself - although all his friends (except Chas, the taxi driver) seem to get killed in the process. It is a top comic - adult themed, offensive to any evengelical/charasmatic christian (not that that recommends teh comic to anyone - just thought I would state the possible offensiveness of it), and is a personal favorite. In the film Keanu Reeves is playing John - a classic miscast if ever there was one - bear in mind that John is British, blonde and smokes. Also he is a character, a personality, not an ass kicking Wu Shu master. Keanu is American, dark haired and cannot pull off character acting (think Thomas Anderson, aka Neo - much as I like the Matrix, no one could accuse Mr. Anderson of having a personality). I smell a stinker - and a pre-release contender for a Raspberry.

Whilst I am on the topic of clueless Americans, I would like to postulate that George Bush jnr must be regretting allowing Dr. C Rice to appear, publicly, before the 9/11 congressional committee. On a scale of 1 -10, in weighting a faux pas - admitting to a CIA daily briefing, 36 days before the events that led to America flexing it's gloabl military muscle, imaginatively entitled - "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States" - has to be close to a perfect score. To then go on to make a press release that said - "I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America" - two days after the testimony can surely only be described as an own goal. It doesn't take the acid tongue of a Kerry aid or the literary surgical skills of a spin doctor to see what the general reaction to this is going to be. Maybe Mr Bush jnr cannot read english - a problem shared by 47% of the upcoming electorate - who are borderline literate. Maybe Bush jnr should rethink his plocies on universal education rather than pouring so many billions into the war on terror that his defict this year is at $500 Billion (pre adjustment)

Thinking of Bushy jnr generally leads me to think about his good friend and supporter Tony Blair. Mr Blur must be rapidly regretting involving himself, and the country that he leads, in Americas war on terror. With the departure of Sir Jeremy Greenstock from Iraq the voice of Britian is considerably weakened - a point that was cogently made by Lord Hurd when he said that Britain is "involved in the consequences and ....should be involved in the taking of....decisions" regarding Iraq. Although my position vis a vis the Iraq conflict is that conflict was inevitable (although not for any altruistic reasons), I do feel that with any risk there is normally an associated reward. The failure of Britian to assert itself in the emerging Iraq, by failing to keep strong diplomats in the country, can only lead to political disaster both internationally and domestically. It is worth remembering that after the last prolonged conflict that Britian engaged in - WWII - Britian failed to assert itself within Europe sufficiently and hence was barred access to the EU, twice, by the Gaullists in France and their allies in Germany. It was as a direct consequence of this that Britian kept herself out of Vietnam - the Prime Ministers of the day could see that there was no benefit to the British from investing troops in the conflict. The benefit to Britian from involvement in Iraq should be in creating a stable democracy in the middle east, with the potential for rewarding economic and diplomatic ties. We should be trying to counter balance the American position of creating a 51st state in the Middle East, and should be wary of being bought off with lucrative contracts in rebuilding what we have destroyed. This didn't work in post war Europe, and certainly won't work in post war Iraq.

Reading through the above makes me realise that my inability to participate in a political process in Singapore is, in the words of WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman, a bad thing. It is the responsibility of all people to at least think about politics, as we need to counterbalance the interests of civil servants, politicains, political parties and lobby groups, and sometimes remind the politician that he is our represenative (a stance that can be countered effectively by examining the etymology of Politician - Polis (greek for State) and Tician (refering to somene who studies or is an expert in something) - not a particularing utilitarian job description).

Anyway - I better get on with eating my lunch

Tata and Taekwon