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I'm moving - new blog page
Pitas has been a great first blog host. But I'm getting ambitious and would like to do a bit more. I'd like to thank the Pitas people for their hosting and hope they have a lot of fantastic new bloggers. Please find above the link to my new blog.
Look after yourselves, all of you. Hugs, your Aunty Marianne
Romanian street kids
I mentioned this in my trip diary to Ukraine and Romania, the kids around Brasov town square having particularly distressed me; they form mobile communities and try to take care of each other and the weaker amongst them. I watched one group member return to his posse and meticulously share his food with everyone, including the littl'uns and the mentally handicapped one. They are very deserving kids and at the time of my trip I was hoping that forthcoming Accession could help to relieve their condition. From this article it seems that Accession requirements might even swell their numbers, which would be unconscionable. Something to be vigilant about...
Sri Lankan handball team vanishes
I didn't stop laughing for a good five minutes.
UN says Sudan failing on Darfur
Oh, and the UN aren't? Where were the peacekeepers six months ago? The problem with the Security Council is that it has NO BALLS. Count'em. None. The genocide has happened, and now it's all bullet holes in the cookpots and dying kids, and the UN have the gall to point at the ultimate responsibles and accuse them of having 'failed'? What is the point of our backing the UN - a fantastic concept which I support wholeheartedly - if all your money goes towards supporting a toothless, ball-less organisation not capable of standing up to members who don't even cough up their contributions on time. It makes me fulminate, it really does.
Snail spitting
Isn't there some animal protection issue here? At least the Bridport area's stinging nettle eating competition (traditionally won by members of the local constabulary) doesn't involve hurting harmless animals.... except of course the odd unlucky aphid.
UKIP and womens' rights
a) How refreshingly unreconstructed. What a magnificent performance piece. Highly entertaining.
b) I don't think now that the Commission will have anything to have for breakfast once their fellow MEPs have had at them.
Cresson back in the sights
Good. I think I can say for the majority of my colleagues that we were delighted to see the back of her, and look forward to seeing her de-pensioned. And I'm glad the powers that be have not given up.
Bossi leaves Berlusconi
And the whole house of cards begins to topple.
Sharon calls for French Jews to move to Israel
Demographics beginning to worry you, Mr Sharon? Not breeding as fast as the Palestinians, are we?
UKIP arrive in Brussels
I am so going to enjoy the next 5 years. UKIP haven't the chances of a pork chop in a synagogue¨, they're completely out of their depth. I saw Kilroy Silk on Frost and he was all bluster and no briefs, silken or otherwise. He's probably never even met an ENA graduate before. The Eurocrats are going to have him for breakfast, wrapped up in a croissant, with schinken on the side.
Black Death vaccine developed.
Great. Now all we need is the time machine and we can accelerate the course of industrialisation and Toffler's Third Wave by 200 years. Or could we?
Berlusconi has plastic surgery
Oh, PLEASE. Worst thing is, it may even actually have the desired effect on Italian voters.
Oetzi was Italian
and since he was killed in a fight (see below) it probably means he was done for by the very people who've been scrapping with the Italians over his nationality for years - the Austrians. I have to say I'm sorry this has been settled once and for all. It was always a good one for winding up colleagues into entertaining debate if you had a certain nationality mix in the room.
Theft in the gaming world
Fascinating. It's crime, Jim, but not as we know it.
Stephanie of Monaco marries a circus acrobat
Oh please spare us. Has the woman no shame?
Particularly stupid theft
If you half-inch someone else's cheese sandwich, be sure it's not a policeman's in his own police station.
Pauline Hanson jailed
I love it when this particular sort of racist intolerant self-righteous politician comes unstuck for any reason. It confirms my belief that karma, or heaven and hell, are not models of the afterlife, but quite definitely temporal. It's the darker side of the Golden Rule. You will, sooner or later, get what you deserve.
Doctors' slang
A good morning giggle.
The Paisley Slug Case - 75 years of tort law
From small things do massive industries grow.
Oetzi was killed in a fight
But this is no solution at all. Was he an Italian who had strayed into Austrian tribal territory, or an Austrian who strayed into Italian tribal territory? The debate rages on...
This was why.
It appears that the Welsh Underpants Vandal took to the sound of breaking glass after throwing a bottle through a phone shop window. Shades of Hilaire Belloc. Shades of Hazel O'Connor. Perhaps a job in a glass recycling factory would help?
Burlesquoni claims to be 'almost German'
Silvio, in an attempt to salvage the Italo-German diplomatic scene, claims to work so hard he might also be German. Only problem is, he's been an MEP for years but, according to my moles in the Parliament, is hardly seen in Brussels. It's not because he has a lot of hats in his wardrobe that he's wearing any of them. So it's in fact yet another insult, whether deployed unwittingly or not I don't know. The man's an absolute liability - but at least it's keeping the silly season hacks off their usual summer practice of making up Euromyths.
Ukraine gets grain from Russia
About time Russia paid some back.
Pizza protects from cancer
This undoubtedly popular message from what is no doubt the Italian national food producers association sounds like the sort of arrant vote-winning nonsense that produced the baked-beans-count-towards-your-5-portions-of fruit-and-veg-a-day recommendation from the British. However, it's not. Lycopenes in the tomatos and vitamins A and C act as antioxidants. Essential oils in the anchovy will help skin linings. The olive oil will help reduce your cholesterol levels. All this is good news - I like pizza too. But I'm fairly convinced that the healthiest bit of the pizza is the salad you eat alongside it. My friend Kristof once announced at my table, as I served a salad as a starter, that 'You don't make friends with salad'. Perhaps not; but you keep the ones you've already got.
Fainting in Coyles
I don't necessarily agree with, or indeed follow, everything Terrance says. Sometimes I think he's either wide of the mark or just plain rabid. But I do enjoy watching him fulminate eloquently all over the page. I wish I had more time for this blog...
Some more of Berlusconi's marvellous wisdom
The Beeb have helpfully gathered together some of the gems. Isn't it interesting that although We Love the Iraqi Information Minister, and this is just as preposterous, we have no sympathy at all for the batracian Berlusconi?
Berlusconi and the Nazi comment
45 minutes! He lasted 45 minutes! If I were a betting woman, I'd still have lost. I'm all for a rotating EU presidency, but it would help if countries could actually elect decent leaders to assume it. Quite apart from the fact that it's him who's living in the far-right Northern League's greenhouse, you'd think Berlusconi had never met a foreigner in his entire life. It's right up there with his "Islam-is-a-backward-religion" contribution to the post 9/11, pre-Afghanistan Western shuttle diplomacy effort (this from a Roman Catholic - don't get me started on bars against contraception, female ordination and the marriage of priests for backwardness). The newest typing pool dweller in Brussels would have known not to make that sort of crack. He's just not competent to even walk onto the European stage. And that's an embarrassment we're going to have to suffer for the next six months. On the other hand, it's going to be nice watching him get duffed up by the Euroestablishment and the media, or at least the media he doesn't already own.
Semolina
We had semolina in the office canteen today. This elicited vastly dichotomous reactions. Half of us went 'OOOh! Semolina!' and fell to with glee and reminiscences of where they last had it. The other half went 'Urrrrgh!' and averted their eyes as we peeled the top layer off. Semolina, by the way, is a Europe-wide childhood dessert phenomenon. As is the strong polarisation of reactions to it. As to the link, I hope we don't go the way of the Devon schoolchildren...
French MP sings in parliament
Eccentricity is clearly not only a British trait.
Ghanaian software firm
I especially liked the bit about 'no room whatsoever for fiddling the books'.
Quorn may cause athsma
The taste buds never lie. How could it possibly be good for you when it tastes that dead?
Woman on the edge
I know exactly. Exactly. why she did this. and how she felt.
Turkish Cypriots open border
I cried when I read this. I did. It reminded me of 1989. I still can't see a Hungarian fruit lorry on a Western motorway without brimming over. Trying to explain that feeling to teenagers, even people in their early 20s, is almost impossible already. I must sound like those crumblies who rabbit on about what it was like in the Second World War. How awful, I'm becoming an oral history primary source.
Goerge Galloway - the man Saddam Hussein could no longer afford
This is a beaut of a scandal and no mistake. Apparently treason is still a capital crime in Britain. The people I feel sorry for are all those well-meaning pacifists who marched behind him on the anti-war marches. I bet they're gutted.
De-warming
I have just spent a good minute wondering what de-warming is and why undernourished groups in Sri Lanka would need it. Perhaps it's a new medical treatment. Perhaps they want to slow metabolisms down to enable more of the nutrition to be stocked and not used? Perhaps they are wrapped in coolant blankets to cool down fever? Perhaps they get depressed because of the heat and need to be placed into a refrigerated reefer container like when the Swedish go to these light therapy rooms to ward off seasonal depression... And then I realised it meant de-WORMING.
Unfortunate language from Jack Straw
Dear me, we can't have vocabulary like this. Old Europe is particularly sensitive to this word... it knows what happened the last time an Anglo-Saxon demanded 'cooperation'.
French have not ruled out EU intervention in Iraq
Hah! The French have suddenly realised how to get in on the reconstruction contracts bidding carousel. Also French military probably fed up with loitering around corridors at NATO in braided khaki and white gloves being mistaken for one of those large plane trees the mairie paints the bottoms of in Southern France.
We love the Iraqi Information Minister
I thought I was the only one in mourning at the ending of those delightful speeches from Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, Saddam Hussein's Information Minister. It appears I am but a worthless drop in a veritable ocean of fans, whose collective adoration of the master of optimism have rendered the above website inaccessible over the weekend. And no wonder, for up for sale are such tasteful must-have items as "Their stomachs will roast in hell" barbecue aprons. It is a great pity that Mr Saeed may be up for war crimes, because I for one would have given a lot to see him on the National Lottery Draw, in the next Celebrity Big Brother or perhaps hosting the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.
Gary's Chess Agony Column
For those of you who, like me, thought on reading the previous entry that they were looking at an abstruse form of cerebral Chinese, Gary has a second and much more entertaining column at this second address. Enjoy.
Gary's Chess Column
Finally found it. Most entertaining, Gary.
Now the work begins....
One of the great things about working in major international institutions is the chance to help make a difference. This time a year ago I was up to my ears in Afghanistan; there's still plenty of that happening but now it's Iraq that we'll be focusing on. It normally takes about three years of work through ECHO before we hand on to the Development and Cooperation people here for more long-term reconstruction. The longer I work in this field, the more I want to try and get better at doing this, not necessarily the immediate humanitarian aid but working at reconstructing countries and people's lives. It's addictive, it's satisfying, it's just the most fun work there is.
Welsh Underpants Vandal
But why? Why?
VIP latrines
We've all been puzzling over these up here in ECHO's finance department for some time. Why, we have been asking ourselves, do some countries get VIP latrines, while others seem to use ordinary ones? Today the curiosity just got too much. So we looked them up on Google to see just how luxurious they actually were, and it turns out that VIP stands for 'ventilated improved pit'. There's a diagram and everything. If you're wondering why not all countries use the VIP latrine, socio-cultural aspects sometimes affect design and siting. Now you all know what I do all day. BTW for those of you living in Zimbabwe, apparently there they are known as a Blair.
Trip diary, Ukraine/Romania
I finally finished the trip diary, so here it is. It still needs some photos but the essential is all there. Enjoy.
Schroeder - Return of the Pangolin
I refer to earlier comments on this further south on this page. This time, Mr Schroeder has problems with speculations regarding his marriage, speculations the BBC declines to repeat, one notes. If the paper in question is right, then it is in the public's interest that any difficulties that might be affecting his ability to govern Germany be exposed. It's like lying to Parliament, it's not whether or not you did it, it's about admitting to having a difficulty and then moving on, like Robin Cook did. If the paper is wrong, he should just let them publish and then sue them for libel, that would teach them. Once again, his preference for suppressing the media rather than letting them hoist themselves on their own petard (c.f. the hair dye business) is unhealthy and I can't understand why he's not censured for it more than he is.
Who not to scam
It takes real daring to try and scam the very organisation that is investigating one's scams. Go Nigerian letter scammers!
Wendy House left standing by council
This playhouse, given to 2 small children by their grandmother this Christmas, was slated for demolition after the local council decided it was too big and should have received planning permission. After considerable protest, council meeting established that the Wendy house might remain in situ. I am therefore relieved to see that Britain has not gone completely to the dogs.
Photos from Kiev
Lots of people have asked about my trip to the Ukraine and Romania in September 2002. I didn't take any photos and Paddy's seem to be in suspended animation, but a pretty good record of the first couple of days in Kiev can be found on Barbara's website, link above. We met Barbara on the plane, she and her friend Tara are complete hoots (and rabbit mad), and she's quite a photographer. Hopefully at some point in 2003 I'll get my trip account up and some further photos, I will let you know. In the meantime, enjoy this taster of an amazing trip!
EU Competitions
Dear hearts, I am sorry I haven't updated the blog for a while. I have been upbraided for this by my chess writer friend Gary Lane who lives in Australia. Sorry Gary. So why haven't I been keeping up with you all? I have been busy sitting some of the EU's notorious competitive civil service exams. With often tens of thousands of candidates for barely 100 places, these are vicious cut-throat Multi-Guess tests of just how many factoids about the EU, its history, politics and functions one can cram into one's head, accompanied by papers testing IQ, second language and specialist knowledge. They take place in the Heysel exhibition palaces in Brussels and in national capitals simultaneously. The prize? A job at the Institutions. This may sound fairly boring but since over 10,0000 of us turned up the other day for 95 places you'll see that there are probably some hidden advantages. The palaces at the moment are damn cold, and you sit there freezing your backside off and trying to stop your brain from icing up. It's survival of the warmest and if I have to sit another round I think I'll take a duvet. Anyway thank God that's all over, results in February, and I can now get back to updating the blog more frequently. Hugs to you all, M.
The Sprout is Born
Here you go, you want hot sauce with your Brussels hustles? Read it quick before it collapses from libel suits. Updates once a month.
Girls will only compete if it's worth it.
This comes as no surprise to me. Especially at work, there is no point competing unless you have to, it's a waste of energy. But when you have to, you are ruthless. Besides, why compete when you can be amused by the men's little testosterone games?
End of the Chicken War
It appears this conflict, which frankly was for the birds, has now come to an end. Let's hope that the US and Russia find something equally paltry to squabble over, or they might turn to something serious and have us all running about like a bunch of headless ....
Boy charged for hamster as well on bus
This is not only a horrific story of a bus driver scamming 10p off a kid for his own profit (the bus company doesn't charge for animals). It's also a microcosm anatomy of why the British Empire fell. The bus driver doesn't even appear to have been disciplined. I would have fired him. As Hillary Clinton echoed, it takes a village to raise a child, and what are we raising here? Kids who learn the hard way that scamming is an acceptable activity. No wonder Britain no longer has the right stuff.
France moves its consulate into British consulate ground
Fascinating turn of events, first of all the French running, and secondly, of all the other countries to choose to run to! And of course we'll extend our wing over our French colleagues. Noblesse oblige.
The end of the Coal & Steel Community
The treaty that kept Western Europe at peace for 50 years has died. It was celebrated by quite the most desultory little ceremony I have ever seen outside the Breydel. Without any warning to the staff, and with a pauper's congregation when it should have had a state funeral, the Coal and Steel Community flag, which none of us have ever seen before, was taken down and folded up by a suitably anonymous military man in dress uniform. He handed it to the Head of the ECSC who was about as familiar as the flag, who handed it to Mr Prodi, who bowed and said thanks, and handed back a European flag, which the ECSC man handed to the fellow in the white gloves and cap, who ran it back up the pole. There was a sprinkling of clapping, and everyone went in to get on with other stuff. Well I was upset, because I would have liked to pay my respects had I known about the ceremony, about which they could at least have informed the staff. It seems ridiculous to pay respects to what was basically just a text, but it was the very foundation of our current peace and prosperity. It deserved more.
Second only to Collina
Yes, if there is a god for football gods, it's gotta be Collina, with his Skeletor looks and his seldom seen radiant smile. So stern, so strict, so sexy. I'll take two, please gift-wrap the second for my mother.
Chocolate and child labour
I have just given up chocolate until the end of 2005. As a world-class consumer of chocolate, I'm thinking of mailing chocolate manufacturers with this news, in order to accelerate their compliance. You can find a list of links to manufacturers on http://www.icco.org/menulinks.htm#manuf.
G7 switch from loans to grants for Third World aid
About time too. The poorer areas of the EU (Spain, Ireland, Greece, Portugal) didn't get loans, they got grants for infrastructure and training (grants that often went to EU firms and expertise) and look at the rise those countries have enjoyed since accession in GDP and indicators like life expectancy. Loans to the 3rd world are medievally usurous and have been spoiling for a Robin Hood action for a while. The World Bank needs to change to be able to operate with grant donors, not bemoan the end of its current incarnation. Grants don't hurt our own prosperity because the money often comes back to our firms, and it will provide a fledgling economy with market infrastructure, increase productivity by ensuring health through the provision of clean water and basic preventive healthcare, particularly mother and child. If the US can afford 110,000 civil servants for a new national security body, and the EU can afford its own GPS satellite network, then we can, sure as children in Zimbabwe are starving, afford to grant the money, not lend it.
Cook vetoes purchase of House of Commons cat
Shame, Mr Cook. Shame.
Italy cancels Mozambique's debt
Good for them. Let's have some copycats please.
Bridge from Italy to Sicily
This beautiful suggestion is being criticized because the money could, allegedly, be better spent on providing better roads and water supplies for Sicilians. But the existence of the bridge will itself dramatically lessen the cost of getting supplies and contractors over from the mainland. The bridge will also enhance Italy's prestige and advertise its construction skills. Go ahead, Italy. If you build it, they will come.
We're giving the meerkats TB
Is there nothing joyful human beings will not ruin?
Morris dancing
Some of my readers may not know what Morris dancing is. Suffice to say that it's a pagan English animist ritual drawing deeply from sympathetic magic. Very similar to cricket, in fact, but with more scrumpy.
Masai gift to the US after Sept 11th
Of all the expressions of sympathy to the US after the Sept 11th attacks, this must be the proportionally largest, most generous, most touching one a people could have given.
Brussels Golden Jubilee Party
Bunting, beer, and patriotic bacchanalia. Be there and bring your change, because I'll be selling raffle tickets for HM's Jubilee charity works.
Cameroon confident after drawing friendly with England
It's no secret I'm not fond of footie. Why I pay attention to the World Cup is that it's one of those positive festivals which maybe 40% of the world's population, rich and poor, on all continents, avidly follow. The set-up through which they obtain information (radios, TVs, cybercafés) is itself far more important than the event they're following, in that it also brings news of places with fairer elections, freer markets in a rule of law, more open social conditions. The World Cup brings global events into to the poorest and most remote villages. It's a party we all attend.
Stag nights in Belgium
We see them coming through Brussels, hordes of young Brits, hideously drunk and incredibly rude, assuming everyone is a moron and doesn't speak English when many Bruxellois speak it better than they do. They can't adapt to the fact that there's no closing time so they're wazzocked by 11, hassling girls in pubs and offering up their stomach contents liberally to the populace. I'm sorry this best man was drowned in Ostend, that was a tragic accident, but frankly I'm not at all surprised given how plastered the boys seem to get. For God's sake, lads, have you any idea what the locals think of Brits because of you?
Stephen Jay Gould has died
I was very very sorry to hear this. Aside from his academic prowess, Gould was one of the most successful popularisers of science I've read. We will miss his wit, his abilities to draw easily understood analogies and to communicate his passion for his work. The world is significantly poorer for his passing, but by far the richer for his legacy.
T-Rex was slower than us
Says here T-Rex was about half as fast as a good human sprinter. This means most of us could have got away, except for my mother, who could just have turned and faced it down until it retreated, whimpering.
Schroeder wins hair dye case
Germany's Chancellor has won the injunction against the DDP news agency printing any more about its allegations that he dyes his hair. The judge deliberately made no ruling on whether or not Mr Schroeder actually does dye his hair. According to his barber the few grey hairs that are to be found show that Mr Schroeder doesn't dye his hair, which is like Thierry, the unsung capillary genius to whom I owe my flowing fragrant waves of glory, saying that because I've got a couple of strands of hair he hasn't streaked yet I haven't really gone blonde. Now let's look at the pangolin and the biscuit of this affair. The biscuit (what he is distracting us with) is that he is now suing Stern for printing a rather unappetising faked near-naked photo of him on its cover. I won't bother following that story because it's the biscuit. The pangolin (what we're being distracted from)is how far Mr Schroeder is prepared to pander to his own vanity. Was it really easier to muzzle a news agency and violate free speech, Mr Schroeder, than to admit to Germany that you get the odd touch-up from Helmut every now and then?
Solar sails
I just think they're dead cool.
Five Naked Ladies
Joslin Towler has updated her website to include her latest and most exciting work, including the Body Prints series for which she oiled up her husband and made him lie down on large pieces of paper, which he said at least made a change from the office, and the (in)famous Five Naked Ladies exhibition in London about which I haven't been able to stop talking for weeks.
Click on 'Current' and 'Portfolio' for the most recent stuff.
It's Joslin's birthday on Saturday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSLIN!
Escape parachutes
After Sept 11th's distressing pictures of people jumping from the WTC towers, there was a raging debate here in the Institutional web forum about how we were supposed to escape from our buildings in similar circumstances, ie. if the floors below were blocked off. One woman came up with this idea of escape parachutes and was widely derided, while my reminiscences of being taught how to abseil with a fire escape pulley and sling system down from my bedroom window by my insurance-man father was rather better received if only for its entertainment value. (Sadly the system's potential for getting suitors UP to my bedroom window only dawned on me after we had moved from that house). Anyhoo, this Bosnian Mr Ibrovic has come up with an escape parachute that apparently works. I'd have to be pretty desperate, but then.... Besides, which Institution would a terrorist hit? As the Commission's resignation in 1999 proved, a whole Institution can go down and Europe barely blinks. That looks like weakness but actually that's a strength.
The Thing Mil and Margret have argued about.
Laugh? I split my surgical corset. I especially liked the bits about the potted plants.
Babies are contagious
Finally the proof. Babies are contagious. Approach a nursing mother, ladies, and triggered by that baby smell your body will depose your brain in a hormonal coup d'état, turn you into a ravening sex maniac and leave you twelve months later haggard, sleep-deprived, having your bust chewed off by a squalling vomiting poopmachine, and wondering what the hell happened to your life. I always suspected as much.
Baked beans now officially vegetables
What a lot of arrant populist vote-winning nonsense, clearly designed to distract the public's attention from yesterday's Budget. Baked beans are predominantly protein floating in a solution of sugar, artificial flavouring and gelatin. I love'm, especially on hot buttered brown toast. But they shouldn't be classified as vegetables under the 5 portions a day recommendation.
Gorilla has cataract removed
Another heartwarming, end-of-the-news skateboarding dog story from the BBC. Sends us all off to work like the cheerful little robots we are. Hooray! P.S. I really am very happy for the gorilla, it seems she can now work out whether her prospective mate is coming on to her or attacking her, something I myself have often had trouble discerning.
Mr Schroeder's hair libel case goes to court
The saga continues. Now, readers, as mentioned earlier, if these hair-dying stories are indeed a cover-up (hur hur) obviously there are very deep shenanigans going on here at the apex of European politics, and so I promise you that I will chase this hare (hur hur) until it dies (hur hur).
Who's going to own up?
Well turns out there's this lump of space junk that fell into a woman's back garden in Uganda; the police have it locked up and they are have invited the owner to come and claim it. It's pretty burnt up, so they can't tell whose it is. Would you own up?
Envisat results
And why shouldn't the Gaia hypothesis form the basis of a new animism? Looking at these photographs I'm struck by the beauty and obvious existence as a whole creature of the planet we live on. Wow.
Breathprints
We'll be seeing criminals in the old-fashioned flat cap and hanky tied round the lower face once more, I'll bet. But will we end up in a situation where only the guilty will brush their teeth? Will halitosis be the new badge of the good citizen? Urgh urgh.
Cheaper to buy than rent.
And they call this news?
The Lion and the Oryx
For the same reason as all us single women have small dogs or cats or large houseplants.
Mobiles in Africa
There's a prevailing idea that developing countries have to go through all the stages of development before they reach the more high-tech levels. What a huge waste of money it would be to land-line an area for telephone service more easily and cheaply, these days, covered by well-placed mobile phone nodes. Mobile phones can be made very cheaply - mine came free with the first call time I bought - and a couple could be donated to each rural community in the beginning. I hear they are the latest must-have in the cities. This would also mean training and paying locals to maintain the nodes, which would bring good expertise and salaries into rural areas. I think we should definitely be encouraging this particular leap forward.
Pope changes his mind
For I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, and I have seen the Eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker...
Cloudblog
A blog from my friend Clouds in Albuquerque, New Mexico (that's the Mexico that's in the USA, not the one underneath it as generally assumed). Check it out, like everything else from New Mexico it's got chili in it.
Ireland and the World Cup
The ability to cheerfully consider the unthinkable, however ridiculous, is an important national skill missing in many European countries. Not in Ireland though. Campaigners want the government to move the clocks forwards 9 hours so that they can watch the World Cup. Sounds like a great idea to me, except of course that their first match will be against Cameroon (see hereunder), so it could be a lot of trouble to go to just to watch the first few matches.... :-)
Body Worlds/Korperwelten
I was taken to see this exhibition here in Brussels along with some other friends. We're good friends but we had very different reactions to it. I found myself approaching it from the art side of things, although I felt a couple of the pieces were disrespectful to the donor, and besides now I've seen what the more male parts of a body look like without their skin on at least I'm no longer afflicted with a libido. Whatever your own reaction to it, you come away much better informed about the composition of the human body, which is allegedly the good Professor's main intention. Is it art? Is it education? Or is it trash? Whatever your conclusion is, this is a question of freedom of speech. You can put warning signs up outside, but the exhibition should not be shut down.
Frank the cat
is a very poorly moggy. But luckily he is on the mend and if we're in need of a bit of good news, we can follow his progress online, check out his X-rays and read his biography as his owner tries out some new broadband tech (whatever that is, I just drive these things, I don't want to know what's under the bonnet). He's very popular. When I visited him, I was one of 1135 visitors. Apparently he's getting tons of e-cards too. Let's hope he gets well soon and congratulate him for being way cuter than the iguana.
What colour is the Universe?
Apparently it's beige. We used to think it was turquoise, but now we know it's beige. Definitely. So that's settled, and we can all heave a sigh of relief.
Cameroon women's footie
You go girls!
Dr Rath and his petition
Dr Rath is lobbying against the new European Directive on Dietary Supplements. Whatever the scientific basis for his petition (which has been cast into doubt) his lobbying methods have been nothing short of a disruption of our democratic process. He has been bombarding MEPs with hundreds of emails of a massive fulminant dossier on how the pharmaceutical industry is trying to keep us all sick by preventing us from sucking down tons of dietary supplement pills. (I wonder who's funding his campaign?.... NOT.) Anyway his lobbying methods made the MEPs so angry that they publically reprimanded him during the debate, which has led in turn to him trying to discredit them by bringing up the same old hackneyed scandals that caused the Commission (which is apparently some 'committee') to resign in 1999. Well Dr Rath, don't hope that by throwing mud at the (new) institutions with (old) scandals the people that have disagreed with you will all be taken away and you'll be given a new set to bludgeon into agreement. MEPs are not sheep you can herd into your own way of thinking. They're thinking people capable of analysing situations, they'll make their own decisions for their constituents, and long may it remain so.
Cold War to Chicken War
No better sign of peace than squabbling over food imports. Good thing Russia doesn't grow bananas.
Proof of pudding.
Towards the end of 2001, there was an armoured van raid in Germany. The van carried both deutschmarks and euros, which were being frontloaded, but the robbers left the euros behind. Now again in Germany there's been a raid, and someone has made off with €10M. (That's roughly the equivalent of what Europe is spending on humanitarian aid this year in Sierra Leone). Clearly the criminal element now thinks they're worth stealing, so I think we can safely say public confidence in the euro is up. Or at least that of the underworld, whose contribution to the economy is not readily quantifiable but should not be underestimated... Any pigeons flying?
Israel in Palestine
Another cat for pigeons, some of you really won't like this one. A humanitarian aid decision for the Occupied Territories just landed on my desk and it paints a far more distressing picture than we are seeing on the news. I'm not at all surprised the conditions I am reading about produce uprising and suicide bombings. Just reading about it as an English Anglican I'm angry, so I can quite see how much angrier you'd be if you were Palestinian. Furthermore, you would think that the Israelis would have learnt something about tolerance and cohabitation over 2000 years of refugee status. You'd think...Well Israeli policy is frankly getting up my nose and large sections of European public opinion are beginning to feel the same way. If Israel don't start thinking of some other way to come to terms with the fact that they have to share the Holy Land, they're going to end up international pariahs. Again. If not, if you're Israeli (and I know there are some great-hearted rational human people among you) for God's sake get rid of Sharon. Not at the next election. Now.
The Gender Test
The Gender test, with 80% certainty, has informed me that I am a man. This comes as a bit of a shock both to me, and to my purveyors of lipstick, pre-stressed cantilevered ferro-concrete lingerie and what my sister Catherine calls Foo-Foo (nice smells of various sorts) Have a go. You never know, you might be as surprised as I am.
Metric Martyrs
This entry might put the cat among the pigeons with some of you. Britain's Metric Martyrs have lost their right to trade in imperial weights. What strikes me as alarming is that their defence was based on the fact that the UK introduction of the EU directive was "unconstitutional", being foisted upon them by 'a gathering of unelected bureaucrats over which we have no democratic control', but nobody seems to have pointed out that they ARE represented in Brussels and that they do have directly elected parliamentarians who rightly provide them with democratic control over the activities of the European Commission. What the Commission does is rightly scrutinised by Parliament, but until we can get the EU electorate to a) elect and b) hold accountable their MEPs in the proper fashion, the Martyrs have a point. There is a democratic defecit. But it won't be corrected by court cases at national level or fulminating in tabloid newspapers. It will be corrected when future Martyrs hold their MEPs directly to account. How are we going to achieve that?
Blair's Hair
What sort of a bandwagon is this? Since the Cult of the Third Way a couple of years ago, we apparently have a new pan-European political fashion to salute - not dying one's hair. As mentioned earlier, Mr Schroeder emphatically doesn't dye his hair dark. Mr Blair, who rightfully allows his temples to grey in a distinguished manner in just the way Mr Schroeder is allegedly not, now emphatically doesn't dye his hair blonde. The more cynical of my friends say it is a cover up for deeper machinations, a hare (hur hur) for the Press to chase. What's going on? And does it have anything, at all, to do with hair?
Kenyan civil servants warned away from the pub.
Hope this doesn't happen here. Half the really useful plots in Brussels are hatched over a quick glass of wine after work with one's mates.
Cup of Nations - Cameroon-Senegal final
Last night I sat riveted as Cameroon-Senegal went to a penalty shootout in the final of the Africa section of the Cup of Nations. After the long and well-televised struggle Senegal finally lost tragically on a penalty kick miss off the boot of their captain. As a Cameroon supporter I was of course delighted, but the agony of the Senegalese brought tears to my eyes. Bringing me to my point, what struck me as particularly good was the opportunity to watch this magnificent match at sports primetime on BBC2 and enjoy high quality TV coverage, with all the crane and telephoto shots one expects to find at an FA Cup match. This fantastic coverage was achieved from Mali. Live. It was wonderful to see something of the greatness of spirit Africa is capable of through sports coverage, instead of the constant televisual impression one receives of war, famine and disease. We were able to see that in comparably very reduced circumstances, Africa can produce a fantastic sporting event. More of this spirited dynamic aspect of Africa should be shown.
Schroeder's Hair - And Does It Matter?
Mr Schroeder, the German Chancellor, is apparently quite keen to reassure the entire world that he does not dye his hair. In fact, he's threatening to have an injunction taken out on anyone who says that he does. What's up with that?
Ja Da
This is what happens to you if you eat strong cheese too late at night before going to bed.
Bridport, West Dorset
I am proud to hear of the recent acceptance of the Jurassic Coast of the south-west of England by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Jurassic Coast, an upended geological journey through the age of the dinosaurs, runs past my home town of Bridport. A popular holiday destination, the magnificent and often-filmed area around Bridport offers a warm welcome, especially from the gastronomic point of view. You'll find a lot of links on this local website.
6 Feb 2002
Well hello! First entry on the blog. I'm going to be using this space to ruminate about the cool stuff that goes on around me. There will be links to friends' sites, cogitations and philosophising on the great questions of the day (Marmite or Bovril? Dove or Nivea?) etc etc. Thanks to all those who encouraged me to publish my thoughts, you asked for it and now you've got it. Hope this site proves entertaining. Also hi to all friends and family scattered across the globe, welcome to this online diary, hope you enjoy it too.
Hugs, Marianne
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