As long term readers know, I love the Eurovision Song Contest. It is just so much fun and so resoundingly daft. Graham Norton’s comment last night, “it’s like the gay wedding I’ll never have”, summed it up rather well. We also learnt that Danish humour is impenetrable. Having once spent a week there living with Danish friends, I guess a country that seems to live on raw fish and raw eggs will forever shimmer beyond my comprehension. Like Hamlet’s mind – impossible to understand completely, but marvelous.
I was however saddened by the audience booing of the two young Russian girls. That was really nasty and unfair. They were scarcely more than children, for goodness sake. Putin is not their fault. That booing was an exhibition of racism; nothing else you can call it. If people wanted to make a point, they could have screamed for the Ukrainian girl – they didn’t have to boo the young Russians.
People always complain about political voting, but I think that’s half the fun. I always enjoy the voting far more than most of the singing. Last night, I think, was political voting in a wonderful way. It was a joyful expression of approval for the idea that human beings can and should be what they want to be. It wasn’t the first time either – I remember a similarly gender challenging singer from Israel winning some years ago. What was even better this year, was that another stereotype was also challenged, in that Conchita swept up much support from Eastern as well as Western Europe. Let it be said that she had a damn good song too.
We voted for the Polish girls. I thought the honesty of their approach was brilliant, and reminded me of so many happy days in Warsaw in my youth. Good to see women doing the washing too.*
All in all, great fun and a life-affirming evening. Now to clear away all the mess – why did I stick all those empty Prosecco bottles on the front garden railings?
*Private joke for my friends at Russia Today media (formerly trading as Indymedia).
I heard this on the World Service earlier. Worth listening to for some truths. John Laurenson deconstructs the myth that Muslims are driving out Christians.
‘Christians in the Holy Land – Bagpipes in Bethlehem
Heart and Soul, Christians in the Holy Land Episode 1 of 2
Duration: 29 minutes
First broadcast:Saturday 17 May 2014
Pope Francis will make a highly symbolic trip to the Holy Land, meeting his Orthodox counterpart, having talks with the Israeli prime minister as well as the Palestinian president. He will also say mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem, as the birth place of Jesus, the most significant place for Christians around the world.
In the first of this two-part documentary, John Laurenson travels to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, to explore why this once overwhelmingly Christian place is losing Christians in droves. It seems like the place where it all began looks more like a place where it’s al coming to an end. The Christians now represent less than 15% of the population. John explores the reasons for the exodus.
In the fields where the Angel Gabriel is said to have told the shepherds about the birth of Christ, a Christian returnee picks wild peas and wild barley and tells John about the land, her family in LA and how a foraging expedition with a 10 year-old nephew ended with Israeli tear-gas. The spokesman for the Israeli PM says Christians are leaving because of the Muslims, but they say there is little tension between the two faiths there.
John also hears from Bethlehem’s bagpipers as they prepare to honour a tradition that goes back to the British mandate – to parade with pipes and drums in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yvy2r
Mary
“I do not like being addressed as ‘dear’ by anyone, especially by people I don’t know. I wasn’t aware that anyone had ‘ticked me off’. That is up to Craig and/or the mods.”
___________________
Well, Craig HAS in fact ticked you off recently, but what I was pointing out was that you get quite upset and aggressive-defensive not only towards those you choose to call trolls but also towards other commenters who tick you off. Examples are : DREOILIN, KELLY…
But anyway, this blog is bigger than any individual – you’d agree with that, wouldn’t you?
Sofia Kibo Noh 17 May, 2014 – 8:23 am
I don’t know. I don’t think she was a hasbara fiction. She gave her real name. Could still be hasbara. Or just genuine – I’m sure you’ve seen the film ‘Defamation’.
Badly treated? She must’ve expected that reaction to the words “I love Israel” so I don’t suppose she was upset by it. Nonetheless, she adopted a tone of polite reasonableness, which I believe is best answered with polite reasonableness – a common courtesy if she’s genuine and a good debating tactic if she’s not (don’t let your opponent gain the moral high ground).
All of which is besides the point for me. Hasabara or not, if they’re prepared to defend their position, let them. An examination of Israel’s actions can only expose it for what it is – genocide. That the confirmation comes from the ‘mouth’ of an Israel-supporter will be all the more convincing for any undecided onlookers. So let them try to defend the indefensible – they can only harm their cause. For us it’s like shooting fish in a barrel with the added bonus that if the hasbara is any good, they might expose some flawed assumptions in our own thinking.
We can learn more from an argument than a lecture.
P.S. Ta. Same to you with brass knobs on 🙂
From: Justice for Palestine Matters <humanrights@……
Subject: Letter to POPE FRANCIS NOT TO LAY WREATH ON HERZL'S TOMB in Palestine
Date: 17 May 2014 9:40:17 AM AEST
To: Vatican Vatican <service@…..
Dear Pope Francis
I am shocked, profoundly shocked, to read in a Sydney newspaper that …
"He will not celebrate a public Mass in the country, but in a first for a visiting pontiff, he will lay flowers at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the global Zionist movement."
Zionism is the movement to take over the WHOLE of historic Palestine for the Israeli people.
Your gesture will be a shameful act of normalising the illegal brutal occupation, the illegal theft of Palestinian land with the expansion of the illegal settlements.
What about your Papal moral and religious responsibility to the Suffering Christ in the evicted Palestinians who weep on the rubble of their demolished homes, farms, uprooted olive groves and livelihoods,
to the Suffering Christ in the ethnic cleansed Palestinian refugees refused their inalienable right of return by Israel, and to the Suffering Christ in the Palestinian families mourning their murdered martyred children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters..now buried in their martyred homeland ????
You could not do anything worse that this heinous flower-laying except ride in an Israeli Merkava tank and blast the hopes for Palestinian justice.
Please renounce this unworthy act of honouring Herzl.
Sincerely
Dr Vacy Vlazna
Sydney, Australia
I wasn’t aware that Craig had ticked me off??? He has thanked me for some links on the Scottish referendum thread and before that asked if I would use my forensic digging power on Acanchi. He did not want isolated links to articles on his Ukraine piece if that is what is being referred to. Stop stirring and disappear. Are there no tales from Squonk to be carried? I will not comment on other posters in spite of the enticement.
Do not be taken in by the sweet reasonableness of Kelly and then her departure causing feelings of guilt that she was possibly given a hard time. I have seen it all before and am not taken in. I think about what is happening to the Palestinians every day.
Read about The Israel Project. Sofia linked to another piece pn it earlier.
http://othersite.org/stuart-littlewood-israel%C2%B4s-professional-liars/
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
15 May, 2014 – 11:55 pm
“Mr Scorgie”
“And just to counter your usual selective quoting, here again is the FIRST part of my comment to Mary:”
“No one on this blog – I hope, at least – enjoys hearing of the mistreatment of children, whether in the West Bank, Nigeria, Pakistan, even in the UK.”
“Do you agree with that, you dishonest scallywag?”
No I don’t agree Habbabkuk. I quoted the relevant part of your post which effectively said (of the Palestinian deaths) that it was their own fault.
Also I referenced your post for others to look back if they wished:
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
15 May, 2014 – 6:36 pm
Mary For Truth and Justice
16 May, 2014 – 9:16 am
“There was a large protest against Livni last night.”
Yes Mary it looked like a pretty large event judging by the photographs but I can’t find reference to it in the British media not even in the Guardian.
Our news is being censored by omission.
How the poster @ 10.26am has the nerve to still be here on Craig’s blog I really don’t know. Having done his/her best (we still know nothing about the person other than Habbabkuk is the name of a Hebrew prophet) to bring the blog down in Craig’s absences, he/she possesses no right to comment. Nothing is contributed except for snide remarks and insults.
I was also persecuted for a long time which is difficult to forget and to forgive. Why was that I wonder? Perhaps because most of my posts are about Palestine.
I was mulling this over whilst pulling up weeds. Quite therapeutic except it is very hot and humid.
Kelly ben Maimon
16 May, 2014 – 12:56 pm
“PS For fuck sake Mary, you really, really need to get out more. Just seen above, as left link open on my iPhone and glanced down. Have never been groomed but with your conspiracy theory mind set block is never going to accept that. When I get home intend to throw Craig Murray’s book in the bin, as he clearly entertains obnoxious characters like you! And btw STILL love Israel. Will delete all trace to this website NOW!”
Go away silly cow
I thought she was back! I wish you had not repeated it Doug.
I never said that she was groomed btw. She got that wrong. It’s Hasbara who try to groom us.
Doug Scorgie
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
15 May, 2014 – 11:55 pm
Me to you:
“No one on this blog – I hope, at least – enjoys hearing of the mistreatment of children, whether in the West Bank, Nigeria, Pakistan, even in the UK.”
“Do you agree with that, you dishonest scallywag?”
And your reply :
“No I don’t agree Habbabkuk”
____________
So you do enjoy hearing about the mistreatment of children.
Thanks for that clarification.
Mary
“How the poster @ 10.26am has the nerve to still be here on Craig’s blog I really don’t know. Having done his/her best (we still know nothing about the person other than Habbabkuk is the name of a Hebrew prophet) to bring the blog down in Craig’s absences, he/she possesses no right to comment”
_________________
Calm down, dear, and remember that you are not – repeat not – the owner of this blog but a mere invitee like everyone else.
You are therefore not qualified to judge anyone’s “right” to comment here.
Why is that so difficult for you to understand?
A slippery evasion of an answer.
“From: Justice for Palestine Matters <humanrights@……
Subject: Letter to POPE FRANCIS NOT TO LAY WREATH ON HERZL'S TOMB in Palestine
Date: 17 May 2014 9:40:17 AM AEST
To: Vatican Vatican <service@…..
Dear Pope Francis
I am shocked, profoundly shocked, to read in a Sydney newspaper that …
etc etc, etc
___________
I sincerely hope that the Holy Father will give that letter the attention it merits – ie, none at all.
Dr Vacy Vlazna is not even an ordinary, concerned member of the public; she is a militant in the Palestinian cause. As entitled, of course, to write such an overblown and vexatious letter as the Holy Father is to ignore it.
******************
Doug Scorgie
“There was a large protest against Livni last night.”
Yes Mary it looked like a pretty large event judging by the photographs but I can’t find reference to it in the British media not even in the Guardian.”
___________________
Your observation only makes sense if you believe that every demonstration against a visiting Israeli politician is newsworthy.
Is that your belief, Doug, and if so, could you explain why?
Mary
“A slippery evasion of an answer.”
__________________
Well, for starters, it was a response to a comment of yours, not an answer to a question .
And why “evasive”? Do you think you’re the blog owner or that you have greater rights on here than anyone else?
A simple “yes” or “no” would do, Mary.
‘Dr. Vacy Vlazna is an Australian humanitarian scholar and activist and Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle. Vacy was coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001.’
She has made a far greater to the human condition than some we know of.
It shows in her expression. Shines.
http://arabnyheter.info/sv/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DR-.-Vacy.jpg
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
17 May, 2014 – 6:56 pm
“Dr Vacy Vlazna is not even an ordinary, concerned member of the public; she is a militant in the Palestinian cause. As entitled, of course, to write such an overblown and vexatious letter as the Holy Father is to ignore it.”
Why do you deny being a Zionist when you obviously are Habbabkuk?
I have read the letter and I agree with it in its entirety. There is nothing “overblown and vexatious” about it.
“Dr Vacy Vlazna is not even an ordinary, concerned member of the public…”
How do you know that Habbabkuk?
“…she is a militant in the Palestinian cause”
How do you work that out? She is a human rights activist.
Perhaps you think Dr Vlazna is anti-Semitic.
Her letter:
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2014/05/letter-pope-francis-lay-wreath-herzls-tomb-palestine/
Doug.
Thanks for being so kind to Dad.
Now that “Habbabreak ( “IT REALLY WORKS!!” ) has left the poor man arguing mainly with the household appliances*, it’s touching to see someone with patience and compassion enough to engage with his fantasies.
An interesting perspective here from Rabbi Brant Rosen, “…Yom Ha’atzmaut should much more appropriately be observed by Jews as a day of reckoning rather than a day of unmitigated celebration.”
More at, http://rabbibrant.com/
*I thought the toaster made a good point about how when we see something wrong and take no action we become complicit. That got the old fool really choking on his toast.
Correction: ”
Mod. How about giving us an edit button, please?
What sickos.
Inside the 9/11 museum’s offensive gift shop
http://nypost.com/2014/05/18/outrage-over-911-museum-gift-shops-crass-souvenirs/
George W Bush skipped the Obomber grand opening.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2630088/George-W-Bush-skipped-9-11-museum-dedication-spend-Thursday-Medal-Honor-winners.html
Take a tour of the new 9/11 Memorial Museum – video
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2014/may/14/9-11-memorial-museum-world-trade-center-new-york-video-tour
Murnaghan looked utterly gormless when interviewing Carney. Blinking, tongue tied and looked uncomfortable. Totally different to how he comes over in the Sky News studio.
I suppose the reason was that he felt he was in the presence of a deity. Pathetic. Yet another of these servants to power.
http://news.sky.com/story/1263732/carney-house-prices-biggest-risk-to-economy
The situation in Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia is tragic. The worst floods on record and in early Summer too.
Record Balkan floods: Over 20 killed, tens of thousands forced to flee (PHOTOS)
http://rt.com/news/159612-serbia-bosnia-flood-killed/
We do not appear to be helping whereas Russia is.
A_Node –
I don’t think anyone really “won”. Nobody does on t’internet, do they? My impression was that Kelly, despite a name reminiscent of Maimonides’, wasn’t pushing Israel as an issue. I had the impression she was grooming possible support here – notably JG and possibly Mary (initially!) But when she told us of her love for the place, both Guano and I picked up on it. Politely. She declined to engage. Elsewhere she demonstrated that she was no starry-eyed innocent of the web’s cut-and-thrust.
As far as I could see she was exactly what she claimed to be – very high-profile local politician wannabe whose professed concern for the poorly-housed must make her lots of friends at Conservative Central Office. (Her partner/brother is a lot less transparent). I think if she had continued she would have made friends with a few of the commenters – the ones for whom emotion beats reason – and gently subverted them. One at a time. Didn’t work.
Ba’al Zevul (Demoniser) 19 May, 2014 – 10:20 am
Agreed. I sacrificed clarity for brevity. I explained it better in a later post (17 May, 2014 – 11:58 am ) ….
…. of which the final point is the most important to me. I’d much rather follow a good argument on this blog than do my own fact-checking research. Let Resident Dissident and Kempe (for example) do the spadework – challenge facts, smear sources, question motives, propose alternative explanations, etc. They’re too wily to debate the morality of Israel’s actions so they try to discredit the information flow which proves it to be genocide. Good. There’s misinformation on both sides of the argument. Thanks for being my bullshit filter, lads.
It therefore follows that I regard everyone who’s prepared to discuss issues as an asset to this blog. Since I especially value debate, those who challenge the majority view here are the most valuable! The better their challenge the more I value them! I don’t have to like them.
It further follows that I’d rather have 10 Kellys than 1 Habbabkuk.
A-Node
“It further follows that I’d rather have 10 Kellys than 1 Habbabkuk.”
___________________
It doesn’t follow at all, actually, but never mind.
The “dissenters” (for want of a longer definition) on this blog can generally be counted on the fingers of one hand. What is less obvious, however, is that the “other regulars” (the “like-minded community” as someone once called them) are not that much more numerous; I should put the number at something like 15 at most.
So the impressive 10-1 ratio quoted by A-Node – which certainly reflects the noise level on this blog – is reduced after simple analysis to a much more manageable 3 or 4 to 1.
********************
La vita è bella, life is good!
… correction, 20 Kellys
A_Node
I agree – a 5 to 1 ratio accords even better with the noise, idle chatter and nonsense level. 🙂
*************
Are you a real Node or just a Useless Ganglion?