Aftermath of a Visit

My mate Neill came to visit us this weekend. I picked him up from Stansted Airport and when I was driving down the M11 I didn't see the sign for the M25 exit. This resulted in driving around the East End of London to get on the North Circular. Much swearing, despite listening to Tahiti 80's Puzzle album, which I almost forgot was almost too cute for words.

Upon reaching our flat we ate Japanese food, courtesy of the missus, then went out drinking in High Wycombe. Neill is used to drinking at least once a week because he is not married and therefore has a social life. I have only recently started going to pubs again, and normally after 11pm when my wife finishes work at that. Anyway, my wife went home at 10:30 or 11-ish and we partied on, going to an empty drum n' bass night at Butlers and the crap but cheap Litten Tree, where Neill suggested Coronas with shots of Jack Daniels.

After that, a blur of stumble, kebab shop, home, puke. Apparently, between home and puke I wanted more to drink so we drank Jura whisky.

Saturday we went sightseeing with hangovers and saw Parliament (the place, not the band) and Buckingham palace all set out for the Olympic Party and heard the recording of Il Divio singing 'Hero', a piss-poor welcome for Team GB, which should surely have been Bowie's 'Heroes'.

After that, chaos descended when we met up with Neill's other buds and he stayed out drinking with his friends who had stamina.

Awesome weekend but by Jove I'm knackered.

Questionable Content

Not mine, this time. It's about time my 2 regular readers had some entertainment.

Questionable Content is the best Webcomic I have laid eyes on. If you like Coupland's Generation X you should like it.

Amnesty Appeal

OK, I know I said I was giving blogging a rest for a while but I got a message in my email from Amnesty about a woman sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, which she only admitted to in order to stop her husband and brothers from being charged with the murder of a man found in her house.

Steve from Amnesty explains further:

Shamameh, aged 34, had originally been sentenced to execution by stoning in June 2006. Her brothers and husband had murdered a man they found in her house and nearly killed her too. The men were convicted of 'legitimate' murder and received a sentence of six years in jail.

In a letter submitted to the court during her first trial, Shamameh said: "Since I am a rural, illiterate woman and I didn't know the law, I thought that if I confessed to a relationship with the dead man, I could clear my brothers and husband of intentional murder. I said these untrue words in court and then understood I had done myself an injury."

The fact that Shamameh is a woman will have undoubtedly worked against her. Iranian women do not get equal treatment under the law and higher illiteracy rates among women mean they are more likely to sign confessions they don’t understand.

Now she is facing a brutal punishment.

Amnesty is calling on Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Iranian Judiciary, to commute the sentence of flogging.

You can support women's rights in Iran by taking action with Amnesty here.

Break in posts

As my mother says, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

I am becoming aware that there are more than a few "angry young man" posts of late. In an attempt to chill out, I'm giving my RSS feeds and stuff, including blogging and non-fiction books, a rest. I'm going to devote my time to sorting stuff out for school in September and playing the guitar.

One last moan though:

Just how crap are Skoda Fabia's? I got one as a courtesy car yesterday. I can't believe people pay money for them. I used to drive an 11-year-old Citröen AX and even that was better than a 1-year-old Fabia. Maybe Skoda should try actually building cars made out of cake like in their adverts, they'd probably be better quality.

Two great free albums

I've long been a fan of Radioboy's (aka Matthew Herbert) album The Mechanics of Destruction. It's aware and inventive. Very political but not in a Rage Against The Machine sort of way. Anyway, the reason for posting this after yesterday's Sting/Thom Yorke moment is to post another album.

Luther Blissett: The Open Pop Star

Some of it is just contrary. Most of it is great. All of it is by people who identify with the name Luther Blissett.

Anger

I can't help it. I have an overwhelming feeling of anger lately and it probably feels a lot worse, and makes me feel helpless, because there's not just one cause.

I'll list as many as I can think of.

War, in general. In particular, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Ossetia.
Corporate Greed. Energy companies, banks.
Corporate Hypnosis. Buy one get one free. Half price. Three for two. All of it shit that you don't need. Commodity fetishism.
Climate change. It is happening. I've seen it with my own eyes, fools.
Apathy. Yeah, sit pretty in your bubble and do absolutely nothing. It's all right, Big Brother's still on for 24 hours a day until the end of the summer and then it'll be I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, Celebrity Come Dancing, Celebrity Big Brother. Don't you worry about a thing; everything's all right with the world.

What to do though? Fill E-On and EDF's offices with mail? Culture jamming? Turn off your TV set and do something less boring instead?

South Ossetia: Not my problem?

It's hard to curb my natural instincts for obscene language, especially as Eastern Europe sleepwalks into war. Personally, I think Putin is an arse; he rattles his sabre when it suits him, ignores human rights and encourages the use of the veto in the face of issues that could improve the lives of others in less fortunate countries, much like the least-loved characteristics in the present least-loved world leader George W. Bush. Medvedev just kisses the arse. What a massive sea-change in leadership.

Saakashvili seemed to be a pleasant enough man on TV when he was part of the bloodless coup to oust Shevardnadze but determined to wage war to 'keep' South Ossetia. Apparently 90% of South Ossetia's residents have Russian passports, and only 30% are ethnically Georgian.

What difference does it make at the end of the day. Give them independence and let them make up their own minds.

Do we need another Balkans? Is it written into European law that there must be a war somewhere west of the Urals every twenty years or so?

What can we do about it?

Letter or email:

Embassy of Georgia
Ambassador Gela Charkviani
4 Russell Gardens, London W14 8EZ
email: embassy@geoemb.plus.com

Russian Embassy
Our address:
Ambassador Yury Viktorovich Fedotov
5 Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 4QS
Fax: 0207-229-32-15
email: office@rusemblon.org

Just let them know that you want them to return to the negotiating table and refrain from the use of violence and (in the case of Russia) incursions into Georgian airspace. Please!