Mmm x2

Since my last post, Bliar has given up one PM role only to take on another though I'm not sure if the Palestinians on the street view him as a Peace Mediator or a Provcative Mediator (one to add to the oxymoron list) given his not so closeted closeness to the Bushman and the Israelis. Once again, I feel his delusional sincerity coming to the fore.

Brown, Bliar's successor has said it's time for change, it remains to be seen what form this change will take. However his plans for change have had to be put on the backburner for the timebeing given the recent events in London and Glasgow. Bliar believes that those behind the events have a false sense of grievance regarding what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Portugal has not had any similar events, but then again, they aren't part of the so called coalition of the willing - coincidence, I think not.

The DoJ (Dept of Justice) in the US is looking into whether BAE was in compliance with anti-bribery laws regarding the Saudi arms deal, but that hasn't stopped the latter winning US defense contracts - there really is no such thing as bad publicity in the world of arms dealing. The UK's SFO (Serious Fraud Office) is going to question BAE executives, under caution, with regard to other deals in Europe and Africa.

At least one US newsreader has cojones. Faced with what she considered to be a trivial news story, she went against her producer wishes and eventually shredded the story. But then again, she's a serious journalist who's father was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor.

I wonder what was the thinking behind the CIA's decision to divulge its covert operations between the 1950s and 1970s. The current CIA director said "....unflattering but part of CIA history" as if covert operations are no longer part of their modus operandi.

The scramble for Africa's oil is well under way with the US wanting to setup military bases to safeguard their interests. Africa is projected to provide a quarter of the US imports within a decade. Fortunately, all the countries that were asked, have said no.

Thierry Titi Henry has gone to his spiritual home and he will don the number 14 shirt, in homage to the player he admires most. Au revoir Titi, buena suerte and thanks for the memories.

It's a mark of the standards that Lewis Hamilton has set in his fledgling Formula 1 career that his 3rd place finish at Magny Cours was regarded with something approaching disappointment in the British media. Expect him to be on top of podium at his home Grand Prix this weekend.

It would appear that our summer occured in the month of April as it's been rainy and quite cool since summer officially started on June 21. The rain has wreaked havoc at the so called world's best tennis tournament. Venus has done what she needs to do in the matches she has played so far, relying on her experience and mental strength, but she will really have to step it up against Maria Sharapova as her serve and forehand have been consistent in their inconsistency. Serena injured her calf in her 4th round match so it looks as if their sister act in the doubles will have to be abandoned. Her incredible mental strength was on display as she limped to a quarter final meeting with Justine Henin. The Swiss Maestro is not only making serene progress, winning all his matches in three sets, but his 4th round opponent has pulled out so he's already in the quarter finals. El Pirata is in the 5th set of his 3rd round match which has been abandoned because of the elements. He should win the match, but he faces having to play matches on consecutive days which should test even his much vaunted fitness levels.

Tyson Gay looks like the man to beat at next month's World Athletics Championships after posting the fastest times of 2007 in the 100m & 200m, at the US trials. He ran 200m in 19.62s, the 2nd fastest time after Michael Johnson's 200m world record of 19.32s. His time for the 100m was 9.84s.

Stay dry.

Mmm

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others especially if you are Real Madrid and you would like to have your influential Malian midfielder play in a La Liga determining match as opposed to playing for Mali in an African Cup of Nations qualifier. FIFA is always trumpeting on about how countries take precedence over clubs, but in a complete volte-face, FIFA instructed the Malian federation to release Mahamdou Diarra and Frederic Kanoute (who plays for Sevilla). JS Kyblie, an Algerian team, that wanted their international players released to play in a cup final had their request turned down. BTW, Mali beat Sierra Leone 6-0 to top their group.

David Beckham finally got his hands on a La Liga medal after Real Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-1 yesterday.

Well, I predicted awhile back that Lewis Hamilton would win the Formula 1 Driver's Championship in his inaugural season and he's going about it in the right way after following up his Canadian Grand Prix win with one at the US Grand Prix.

Tiger Woods maintains his consistency of not having won a major coming from behind.

The "first watch" disappeared from the "first hand" of the "first man" aka the Bushman during a meet and greet in Albania. If Secret Service detail, can't keep a watch thief at bay, well....

Controversial

Is it just me or has the word controversial become ubiquitous in its mainstream usage. It's quite amazing how many news articles (written and reported) are prefaced by the word controversial. I thought news was supposed to be objective in its reporting, but by labelling an article controversial, the news networks and newspapers are telling us what to think. Noam Chomsky has researched this extensively and his DVD, Manufacturing Consent illustrates how pervasive this is.

Mmm

Yesterday belonged to a couple of early twenty somthing year olds. First, Rafael Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open for the third consecutive time when he defeated Roger Federer. Then Lewis Hamilton claims his maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix win in Montreal and by doing so, he's extended his lead atop Formula 1's drivers' championship by 8 points. Given that they are so young, they can only get better which isn't good news for their rivals.

The destination of this year's La Liga title will remain unknown until the last day of the football season in Spain. Real Madrid and Barcelona have the same number of points, but Real are top because of a better head-head record against Barca. Lionel Messi emulated his idol, Maradona, to a tee when he scored the first goal with his hand and went onto score a legit second goal, in Barca's penultimate match against Espanyol - let's hope that's as far as he takes his emulation.

Bliar attended his last G8 summit and in Berlin and there was the obligatory munificence show towards Africa. This time the headline grabbing figure was $60 billion, but when you drill down, it's not as generous as it sounds, especially when you consider that the $50 billion boost to aid for Africa, announced at the G8 summit in 2005, has not been honoured. "Trade not aid" is what Africa needs.

In the wake of the furore surrounded BAE, a former Lord Chief Justice has been appointed to head an independent review of BAE's business practices. How independent the review will be remains to be seen considering BAE's contribution to Britain's national coffers. Consider this, even after Haliburton was found by the US Army's Auditor General to be overcharging the US military for petrol in Iraq aka war profiteering (which is a felony), their contract to supply the US military in Iraq was not terminated.

The US wants to set up a missile defense shield in central Europe which has sent temperatures plummeting in its relationship with Russia.Russia has offered the US joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran and it remains to be seen if the US will take up this offer.

Till next week.

Mmm

Liverpool failed to successfully convert the chances they made and Paolo "One Club" Maldini's two howlers went unpunished. Surprisingly, Stevie G didn't make Maldini pay as he shot too close to Dida. Well done to Milan though, for Liverpool, the rebuilding continues.

So David Beckham has finally been deemed worthy to put on an England shirt - I can't believe that he wasn't considered one of England's 23 best players for 10 months, up until his recall on Saturday. If Phil "The Donkey" Neville can be in the England team, how is it possible to leave Beckham out? David Beckham has made a career out of proving people wrong and he will continue to do so, LA Galaxy move notwithstanding.

The mainstream media in the US is mostly supine with very few papers and no TV networks critical of the White House administration - one could venture to say that the media in the US is state controlled in all but name. Hugo Chavez has determined that one of the TV channels in Venezuela, RCTV is trying to destabilise his government and has decided not to renew its TV license. RCTV will stay on air, but it has lost its public broadcast frequency so it will no longer be able to reach as wide an audience as before. He has also put a second TV channel, Globovision, on notice. Given that Chavez was temporarily deposed in an externally engineered (no prizes for guessing who was behind it) in coup in April 2002, who can blame him?

Did you know that when the US makes a food aid donation, it insists that the food has to be sourced in the US despite the enormous cost involved in shipping it to the latest famine hotspot. Analysts have argued that the US would be better off making a cash donation which would allow the famine afflicted country to source the food locally and would be much cheaper as well. You can read how US food aid donations have destroyed Malawi's maize production here.

¡Hasta luego!

Pot calling kettle black

Transparency International has in the recent past labelled Nigeria as the most corrupt nation on earth. I'm not sure where the US ranked or the UK for that matter, but if one is looking for corruption on a monumental scale, one need look no further than what Haliburton is doing in Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz was caught with his hand in the cookie jar - he influenced/intimidated the powers that be to ensure his Iraqi girlfriend got jobs in Iraq and later at the State Department. In Kenya, we call that nepotism, the World Bank's board, calls it acting in good faith because the guidelines weren't clear. The board of the World Bank should tender their resignation with immediate effect because any integrity they may have had, has gone along with their absolution of Wolfie.

Whoever sang that war is good for absolutely nothing, got it totally wrong as the profit earnings of Haliburton and KBR can attest. Haliburton was awarded contracts on the basis of their links to Dick Cheney and despite this, they still overcharged the US Army when it came to fuel, as the US Army's own Inspector General discovered. I thought war profiteering was a felony - evidently the some animals are more equal than others rule applies here. In the UK, the AG halted an investigation into how BAE came to win a contract with the Saudis for fears it would jeopardise future multi-billion pound contracts. BAE, a significant contributor to the UK's GDP, exerted considerable pressure on Downing Street to halt the investigation.

So the next time the US and the UK see fit to lecture another country on corruption or lack of transparency just say Haliburton, Wolfowitz or BAE.

****UPDATE****
It has since emerged that BAE has been accused of paying ONE BILLION POUNDS STERLING to a Saudi prince, over a 10 year period, who saw to it that BAE was awarded their biggest weapons contract. What's more, it was done with the full complicity of Britain's Ministry of Defence - more details here.

Mea culpa

If I haven't achieved what my talents indicate I should,
it's solely down to the choices I have made
and the decisions I haven't.
The buck as they say, stops with me.

If the truth be known, I've done things on my own terms
which in reality means that it can take longer
to get to where I want to be.
The buck as they say, stops with me.

Living in the moment

I've resolved to live in the moment, the here and now,

the past is gone and who knows what the future holds?

That isn't to say that I'm not planning for the future,

but best laid plans can go awry.



So my primary objective is to live in the present,

I'll hold onto my dreams and put plans in place,

but as I've experienced life's volte-face

realism will now serve as my essence.