I am well aware that Osborne has been redistributing money to the rich in his budget. I am also stunned by the idea that the state should see its role not as reducing regional inequality of wealth, but as reinforcing it through regional public sector pay rates.
But my days at the moment are like this. I get up at 7.30 am and after a very frugal breakfast I take a local taxi to the disastrously neglected and underfunded National Archive of India. I spend eleven hours there hastily transcribing from an enormous wealth of documents on Alexander Burnes – really beyond my wildest hopes – and then at 8.00pm the security guards kick me out, the curators having left some time ago. I get back to my budget hotel, take a light supper of imodium and activated charcoal, chat with Nadira, and then fall asleep exhausted.
I had to look him up …
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Burnes
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However that matters not. What matters is that you are clearly passionate in all your journeys and views.
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George Osborne on the other hand is little more than a Corfu Estate Party Rent Boy who has to dutifully bend over and take it from the Elite revellers. Osborne’s rectum and mouth are both slaves to his paymasters.
Craig: are you heading off to Kabul on your researches? Last night I met quite by chance two people who knew you in Tashkent, one of who has just gone back as legal advisor to the Italian Embassy in Kabul, the other working on banking crimes.
I sympathise with the difficulty of eating an India breakfast. But while you’re in Delhi, make sure you find a place that does a good Thali and make the most of it for you evening meal!
Iain
Have decided to return to UK before Kabul. Thought it might be prudent to leave with my publisher a finished book which a visit to Kabul will improve, but could be published still were I not in a position to write it up.
@ Craig,
You are very well placed to discern, in India, what significantly skewed income distribution does to the frabic of a society – so – maybe you need urgently to get your message through to
Osborne.
Avoid Qantas. John Pilger writes
Up, Up And Away: How Money Power Works Down Under http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30887.htm
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[…]
In recent years, however, the safest airline has had close calls, including an Airbus A330 that went into a sudden dive in 2008 and injured up to 74 people, a Boeing 747 engine that blew up after leaving San Francisco in 2010 and a new A380 whose engine shattered over Singapore later that year. These, and a series of less serious incidents, have all happened since the airline was taken out of public ownership and handed to global banks. The largest shareholders include J P Morgan, HSBC and Citicorp, which are also among the top shareholders of Australia’s major banks and largest mining companies. The national airline, like the Australian economy, is mortgaged: the product of a bi-partisan political system dominated by rapacious business.
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It was an article of faith that the world’s only island-continent, flanked by the two greatest oceans, needed a long-haul airline – until the asset-strippers took control. What followed is a cautionary, universal tale. Last October, without warning, the Qantas Chief executive, Alan Joyce, ordered the grounding of the airline’s global fleet. More than 68,000 passengers were stranded in 22 countries, and the entire Qantas workforce was locked out without pay. Joyce later admitted that tickets had been “mistakenly” sold for flights that Qantas management would never take off; the grounding had been planned well in advance.
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This unprecedented action was the climax of a plan to crush the unions, Murdoch-style, and to take much of the company “off-shore” into Asia. A subsidiary airline based in Asia would employ fewer staff and pay them less, including pilots and engineers, in conditions once unknown to the world’s safest airline. For a decade, the company has been building wholly or partly owned domestic and regional airlines on this cut-price basis while closing Qantas routes.
[…]
Obama speaks of Gandhi and Mandela and sees himself in their image. equal. Deluded.
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“The civil rights movement was hard. Winning the vote for women was hard. Making sure that workers had some basic protections was hard,” President Obama said at a fundraiser while talking about how difficult it is to bring about “change” in politics.
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“Around the world, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It takes more than a single president. It takes more than a single individual,” Obama said.
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“What it takes is ordinary citizens who keep believe, who are committed to fighting and pushing and inching this country closer and closer to our highest ideals. And I said in 2008, ‘that I am not a perfect man and I will not be a perfect president.’ But I promised you, but I promised you, I promised you back then that I would always tell you what I believe. I would always tell you where I stood,” he also said at a fundraiser in NYC.
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/03/02/obama_likens_himself_to_gandhi_and_nelson_mandela.html
He must have a good tax accountant who knows all the loopholes.
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George Osborne ‘not a top rate taxpayer’
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Chancellor George Osborne has told the BBC he is not a top rate taxpayer so will not benefit from his own Budget policy for the highest earners.
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He said he was “not a big winner from this Budget”, and was “trying to think about what’s right for the country”.
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/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17474501
This is a GREAT restaurant, near Jamme Masjid, suitable if you’re on a low budget http://www.karimhoteldelhi.com/profile.html
Looking forward to the Burnes book one day.
From the wikipedia article:
“It came to light in 1861 that some of Burnes’ dispatches from Kabul in 1839 had been altered so as to convey opinions opposite to his, ”
I think I see the attraction to the subject now 🙂
India’s a great country- hope you enjoy your time there.
Mary
Some remaining scales fell from my eyes watching Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly in 2009. Others were talking about global issues for their allotted time, but Obama came on and went well over time, talking a lot of crap about himself as if these serious people wanted to hear an election speech. Then Gadaffi came on and delivered his show-stopper – that’s probably why Barry had him and his country killed.
I almost hope Romney beats him just to have a different brand of fakery on show. The effect on foreign policy will be minimal, and who in the civilised world gives a damn about US domestic policy?
O/T: Public service annaouncement
WARNING: SUB_MALWARE.
I linked to the P*r*t*n H*rd Dr*ve on the Karimov thread. Only go there if you want ads for this ridiculous product to pop up on every site you visit. It drops a cookie (or maybe Google does) which runs a advert script replacing an ad on the page you open.
If you did go to the PHD site,and are seeing PHD ads everywhere, delete your cookies, and the problem should not recur.
Very sorry for this, it’s not always possible to check these things in advance, and it further confirms my low opinion of evangelical Crosstians.
Don’t like your diet much Craig but your dedication to the Burnes story is admirable.
Look forward to reading it.
There’s another story needing to be told and thankfully some who won’t let it get cold.
http://www.bristol247.com/2012/03/23/shadow-minister-attacks-watchdog-on-liam-fox-charity-42799/
Can’t wait until you have enough rope to hang them all in your true tale of Lies Treachery and that odd Man Werrity.
Curious. The Charity Commission’s investigation found that AB was not a legitimate charity, and ordered its closure. Therefore the Commission’s guidelines on disclosure cannot possibly apply to AB.
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But here’s the nub:
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“The Charity Commission issued a statement that said: “As is always the case, when we apply an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act and do not release information, we explain the reasons why to the person making the request. Where required, as in this case, we carefully consider whether the public interest in withholding information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
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Now who, I wonder, told them that disclosure was not in the public interest? A lawyer who hadn’t read the papers? Or a slightly more influential entity?
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http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/bulletin/third_sector_daily_bulletin/article/1123644/charity-commission-used-spurious-argument-atlantic-bridge-case/?DCMP=EMC-CONThirdSectorDaily
Clues:
http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/news/content/7749/mps_call_on_government_to_review_charity_commissions_funding
Louise Ellman on the side of the workers? Incredible.
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Date unknown:
{http://www.johnmannmp.com/complaints_to_charity_commission}
Komodo,
Serves you right, for taking the piss out of the rapture freaks. The mysterious ways also include the crappy adverts instead of the lill devils and their handy work with their lill pitchforks on the nether/tail regions.
,
Craig,
I sympathies with you, and wish you luck, looking forward to read your up and coming book.
Passerby: I can tell you’re Saved(tm). It was some comfort to find an evangelical user group whose members were complaining about the ad popping up everywhere too…
Anyway, as far as I know, my own source of spiritual comfort and Biblical wisdom does not reach out to sinners quite as indiscriminately as TPHD: click in the knowledge of the Lord’s grace and protection, but don’t forget your tithe. Glory!
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/
Take care of yourself Mr Murray. You must be working on one good piece of academic work. Modern days so called Historians (Niall Ferguson for example) do not bother to work in archives and sleep in cheap hotels in faraway places.
Craig, you’re making me nostalgic. The happy days I spent in libraries and archives, munging through dusty, long-forgotten papers for hours and days and weeks on end. The joys of research…
From memory having visited Delhi about 15 years ago, the Thali’s in the old part of the city were delicious.
Sounds as if you are making good use of your time in Delhi, getting used to the food must take some time, you might get some British dishes in some of the better hotels or clubs, but I’m guessing here, others might know better.
US staff were told to leave Ghaza at the beginning of this week, now this.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-199821/Three-Americans-killed-Gaza-attack.html
To say that they did not know that these vehicles were US diplomatic vehicles sounds hollow. Maybe the IDF is being used to play politics, interviewing future Fulbright scholars can be such dangerous thing to do.
But will baroness Ashton also pull out EU staff?
Here they go again. Can they sniff oil or something?
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23 March 2012 Last updated at 13:40
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Somalia pirates: EU approves attacks on land bases
The European Union has agreed to expand its mission against Somali pirates, by allowing military forces to attack land targets as well as those at sea.
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In a two year-extension of its mission, EU defence ministers agreed warships could target boats and fuel dumps.
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The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner says the move is a significant step-up in operations, but one that also risks escalation.
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Several EU naval ships are currently on patrol off the Horn of Africa.
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They police shipping routes and protect humanitarian aid.
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The EU says the main tasks of the mission are the protection of vessels of the World Food Programme delivering food aid to displaced people in Somalia, and the fight against piracy off the Somali coast.
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In a statement, the EU’s foreign policy head Catherine Ashton said fighting piracy was a priority of the mission in the Horn of Africa.
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“Today’s important decision extends [Operation] Atalanta’s mandate for two more years and allows it to take more robust action on the Somali coast,” she said.
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The EU said “a budget of 14.9m euros (£12.4m; $197m) is provided for the common costs of the prolonged mandate”.
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/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17487767
Nevermind. I thought it odd that there was no date or time on that Mail story and that there was nothing about those deaths on any other site including the BBC’s. I think it refers to this report from 2003.
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GAZA ATTACK
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October 15, 2003
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A roadside bomb ripped through an armored van in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing three Americans traveling through the area in a U.S. diplomatic convoy. New York Times reporter John Burns discusses the attack and the situation on the ground in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from his perspective in Jerusalem.
/…
Think you’re right, Mary.
No doubt about the date on this one, though..
http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/docs/perspectives167.pdf
The toxic Ungar in Ha’aretz today. In Ha’aretz, I stress. (As well as the JP, but that is unremarkable)
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/if-recent-israel-gaza-escalation-isn-t-war-what-is-1.420310
“regional public sector pay rates.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14692596
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Osborne=The Merchant of Venice.
“George Osborne ‘not a top rate taxpayer’”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/22/budget-2012-georgeosborne
Apologise for the confusion caused, I thought I seen a 23 march date on the page. It did talk of bombing, nothing about groups active getting involved untile after the ‘bombing’. I think this is was an Israeli airstrike yesterday or the day before which lead to the call for US staff to leave.
Thanks for the strategy paper Komodo. The aim of OP cast lead was to stop the missiles coming down on Israel, to that aim, it has failed.
“Surely, if israel does not act strong enough, the number of missiles will increase”. was a justification for cast lead, again this overkill strategy has failed.
Well, Israel did act strong, it killed mainly women and children which should have, no doubt, stopped the missiles, but it did not. Maybe, just maybe, they killed indiscriminately by targetting open places at a time when schools exchanged pupils, when there were lots of children running about, but it sure looked as if it was intentionally.
Thanks for links Komodo, chilling though they are to read. Inbar and Singer reinforce the mindset of a General Eitan who referred to the Palestinians in Gaza as ‘drugged cockroaches in a bottle’.
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“WHEN WE HAVE settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”—Rafael Eitan, April 14, 1983
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“We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel…Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.”—Rafael Eitan, April 13, 1983
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This is the latest report on the second hunger striker, Hanaa Shalabi.
What is there to say? Terrible.
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Palestinian on Hunger Strike “in Mortal Danger”
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After more than a month on hunger strike, Hanaa Shalabi is in “immediate mortal danger” and at “risk of coma” according to a Physicians for Human Rights doctor. Shalabi’s strike came at the heels of another high profile campaign by Khader Adnan who survived a 66 day hunger strike before the Israeli authorities decided to release him. Both were arrested under Administrative Detention, a military order that allows Israeli authorities to arrest anyone and hold them indefinitely, without charge or trial. The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky met with the families of the two prisoners and spoke to lawyers Shawan Jabarin for Al Haq and Sahar Francis of Addameer about the mass imprisonment of Palestinians:
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http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8123
The latest wheeze to defraud the 99% is a plan by London councils to take a cut from charities’ profits from donations of clothes in collection bins.
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http://www.itv.com/news/london/2012-03-23/charities-attack-clothes-bin-plan/
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