Oh OK, how many back handers will I get out of this? you clearly have our interests at heart.
Well of course! We believe in democracy for all! We’re going to invade you and milk you and your people for all we can help you!
A few billion/trillion dollars later….
[conversation taking place at UNESCO meeting]
Chairperson
In regards to the motion of allowing the State of Palestine to become a member of UNESCO: 173 countries are present, we have 107 countries in favour and only 14 against the motion as 52 have abstained.
USA
What?! That’s ridiculous! Don’t you understand that USA invented democracy so we can veto this decision?
I’m sorry, you cannot do that.
Well, surely because we are the USA our vote counts for more than 1, shall we say it counts for 94? After all, we make all the other rules to suit us.
Sorry, the motion stands. Palestine join UNESCO.
Objection! We believe so strongly in democracy that we openly reject this vote. We will therefore be withdrawing all monies that we pay UNESCO as we feel this democratic vote of 173 countries does not suit us.
Need I say more?
-PlaneSimple
[Please note: for visa reasons legal reasons the opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be the actual opinion of the writer or of planesimple.wordpress.com ]
Firstly, apologies for the lack of any blog post for nearly a month. No need for me to make excuses to explain why but rest assured I hope to post a few blogs of the next couple of weeks.
Today’s post is all about time travel. A bit of a strange topic, I know, but the idea of taking a light-hearted look at it as a blog post came to me when a recent internet article topic crossed paths with some television entertainment I have been watching.
During the summer (now a distant memory) we purchased the DVD box set of the television series Goodnight Sweetheart, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst. In summary Lyndhurst plays the role of Gary Sparrow who lives in the 1990’s but has found a route back to the 1940’s by going down a certain street in London. He falls in love with a woman in 1940’s war-torn London but continues to travel back and forth to the present where he is married and pretty miserable with his sorry life. It’s all very entertaining and a good laugh.
So we only started watching this series a week or two ago. Then just the other day when quickly checking email before work a headline about time travel caught my eye. George Clarke a film maker based in Belfast was watching Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus and noticed something he had not seen before – what appeared to be a woman talking on a mobile phone! He investigated a bit more and zoomed in on the woman walking by as well as playing it in slow motion. Remarkably it really does look like she is talking on a mobile phone about 50 years before they were invented!
Take a look for yourself:
I think it looks quite remarkable! All joking aside, I do think the film is genuine and not doctored although there must be a more rational explanation than time travel!
So what do you think? If you could travel back in time where would you go? Or would you rather go forward somewhere? As always, let me know what you think please!
So I have been mulling over writing a blog about the flood disaster in Pakistan for a few days now but have not had the chance to blog for a while. So here goes, my thoughts on the floods mixed in with facts and figures.
I think it is so easy to just think of a world disaster as just another misfortune somewhere in the world when it gets to such a scale. So, just to highlight how devastating these floods are, let’s look at some figures.
Reports estimate the number of people severely affected by the flooding at around 20 million. That’s a third of the population of the UK or over 50 times the population of Brunei. Of these 20 million people, 9 million are said to be children. [NB. from the UN: “To be “affected” means to somehow be in need of humanitarian assistance because of the flooding.”] The UN have said that this is more than the number of people affected by the boxing day tsunami, Haiti earthquake, northern Pakistan earthquake and hurricane Katrina combined – although there were more deaths.
Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon gives a concise evaluation:
Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive power will accumulate and grow with time… Make no mistake: this is a global disaster, a global challenge. It is one of the greatest tests of global solidarity in our times.
In the next six months, half a million women are expected to give birth in areas affected by the floods. Over 6 million people do not have access to clean water – almost the entire population of London. 3,500,000 children are at risk of deadly water-born diseases – that is more than the population of Singapore.
Over 3.2 million hectares (about 16% of cultivated land) of crops have been destroyed by the flooding – that’s roughly the size of Switzerland and that is just the area of crops not of land underwater! A huge livelihood simply wiped out as approximately 80% of the population depend on agriculture.
The difficulty with emergencies generated from flooding is that floods build up over time – not instant hits like tsunamis and earthquakes. The size of the disaster is continually growing. Funding, aid and support over the coming months and years as the floods slip off the news tickers will be vital.
So what can be done?
Raising awareness is huge and easy to do. I have really been surprised at the number of status updates on facebook that make mention of the flooding. OK, many of my friends have connections with Pakistan as I was brought up there but it is still encouraging. Raising awareness helps with, even if you can, the next part: fund raising.
As with any international disaster funding will always be required and many charities are seeking people to give generously. As outlined above with concerns over corruption, it does take careful consideration to decide who to give through to ensure the money is effectively used. Groups such as Tearfund work with local agencies on the ground in Pakistan such as SSEWA-Pak. By raising awareness about the need for aid and by giving to such organisations you can help overcome the idea that money goes straight to line ministers pockets or arm terrorists. SSEWA-Pak work with a number of other agencies beyond Tearfund and will be involved in various projects to rebuild schools and other community buildings long after the media have forgotten about what is happening.
Tearfund suggest that £88 will be enough to supply four families with a food package to last 30 days. That’s surely much less than you even spend on your own lunch in a month.
You have done well to read this far and please don’t stop reading just because I put a paragraph about religion in! As a Christian I feel I have a responsibility to take an interest and act upon it. As Romans CH12 v15 says:
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
I have many things to be thankful for and am so much more ‘well off’ than many in Pakistan at the best of times – yet they are the ones that are in the wrong place at the wrong time and have to deal with such awful consequences.
Furthermore, not only do I have earthly things to be thankful for but, as 1Peter 1:22 says:
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters does not need to be read as fellow Christians but as fellow human beings. Just as we are told that Christ has loved us, so we must love one another.
Now, taking a ‘non-religious’ stance on it even ignoring the responsibility I feel as a Christian, I also think we have a responsibility as a human beings. We hear all the time that we live in such a ‘small world’ and how through modern technology we now live in a global community. Well part of living in a community, I think, means supporting other members within that community. As such, regardless of our different beliefs, we should be doing something.
So what am I doing about it? Well, in a few weeks time I plan to host a fund raising dinner. Late last year we found an excellent Pakistani restaurant in Kuilap here in Brunei. The food is very authentic and I have got to know the owner, Amjad, a bit. I plan to get the restaurant to cater for us and charge those who wish to come – with the money going to the rebuilding of communities in Sindh, southern Pakistan (where I grew up). The few people I bounced the idea off have responded very positively and I am hopeful that it will be an enjoyable evening with the people of Pakistan the ones who benefit the most.
So to finish with, here is a news report from an area suffering from the flooding. So what you think, there are hundreds on the news and internet now. Well this one reports from Hyderabad, Sindh – my home from age 2.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know your thoughts and what you are doing or could do to help.
A quick post having been back in Scotland for a week. The time has gone fast and we have been busy with many mundane but necessary tasks.
Most of these tasks have involved filling out pages and pages of forms and ticking box after box (strictly speaking it’s not ticking though, it’s putting an ‘X’). The first day back we applied to renew our passports – so that they are ready for when we fly back. Given that the Post Office have a ‘check & send’ service, for £8, you would think they know what they are doing when they fill out a passport application. No. You’d be wrong. Despite me being the one paying £16 I was also the one who had to correct them 3 times as the form was being completed! Not a good start. Let’s just hope they are ready in time!
Then I was filling out a form for renewing a driving license photo (yes it has been nearly 10 years, surprisingly!). It took 20 minutes or so to queue just to get the form at the Post Office (common theme here). Once I got the form I carefully read through the enclosed leaflet about the form. It explained that it was the correct form for a number of different scenarios including renewing a photo. Great! That was all that was said about it in the leaflet though so I proceeded to fill out the form. Section 1 about who I am and my drivers license number etc. Section 2 about my address (becoming more of a sticking point now we don’t ‘ordinarily’ live here), right up until Section 7 where you sign and date. Then I turn over the page to the end of the form where it tells you how much to pay and where to send it. Oh wait, except one of the last lines on the form, yes right at the end, tells you to only fill out Sections 1 and 2 if you are renewing your photo! Why couldn’t they have said that in the information leaflet or at the beginning of the form?!
We have braved a few trips into the City Centre in Glasgow. It’s nice to see the new motorway coming a long nicely – I was surprised at how much progress they seemed to have made.
Now I admit that it is probably not as cold as what I feel when we’ve been out – not many others had three layers on when walking along Buchanan Street! But that is my next point – even if everyone else feels ‘relatively warm’ some of the clothes they are wearing suggest they should be in a private jacuzzi at home rather than walking down the main shopping street! Grumpy old man syndrome? Maybe.
I mean no offence by this next remark (isn’t the blog looking more professional now that I am including disclaimers?) it is just an observation. There is a high proportion of people out and about who seem on the overweight side. Has the global economic downturn in the past year or two really altered the Scottish diet that much? It is slightly worrying some of the excess baggage some people seem to be carrying about – esspecially given my comments above about suitable clothing!
We’re on to our next bit of the trip now, travelling around England a bit. We flew down from Glasgow yesterday. I find it much easier flying than taking the train. The only frustration was having to wait for 15 minutes at Heathrow once we had landed to park at the gate as there was “another British Airways aircraft at the gate about to depart”. Maybe I don’t understand the complexities of the logistics at Heathrow but I’d have thought they would have had time to arrange a free parking space for us given how long they had known we were coming!
We had feared we were following the bad weather but even thought it was a bit overcast it was much milder than up North. I am now looking forward to seeing more friends and family and hopefully the weather will remain dry at the least!
One last point to add in as I was able to watch the last 20 minutes of the British Grand Prix on Sunday. Congratulations to Mark Webber. I’m delighted for him give the struggles he had with his team over the weekend. Taking parts of his car and giving them to his ‘team mate’ becuase his team mate’s fell off due to his mechanics careless work? He’s a great honest guy and although Australian is really an adopted Brit! Well done Mark (follow him on twitter @AussieGrit).
Do you live in the UK? Have you been to the UK? What do you find annoying? What do you really enjoy in the summer time? Let me know what you think!
So, as his country’s football team qualify for the next round of the World Cup in South Africa, President Obama’s actions continue to be in the top news stories. His latest actions to grab the headlines come after much criticism following the BP oil disaster.
In previous blogs I have suggested that although much of the responsibility of the disaster does lie with BP, the United States are far from squeaky clean in all of this. Perhaps scathing attacks by Obama were part of his strategy to sideline this issue and place the blame, in the eyes of the public, solely with BP. Obama and his administration have stated that BP cut corners and knew something like this was going to happen.
I have two issues with this. Firstly, if the United States are so concerned about what has happened, why were they not monitoring and regulating the industry far better? Surely you should be well-informed and knowledgeable about the actions of those working in your back yard?
Secondly, Obama hardly promotes a climate for speaking up when things go wrong following his remarks about how he would have dealt with the BP head man. And this brings me onto the current headlines regarding Obama’s actions. I admit it was not the best forum or manner to criticise the US President and his policies. However, if someone in a high position who clearly understand his field of work extremely well has concerns about policy and military strategy and voices those concerns surely he should not get fired? Why would anyone ever suggest something is wrong if these were the consequences – as Obama is clearly implying they are?
Despite the promotion of Gen David Petraeus to oversee the US military strategy in Afghanistan receiving positive responses and backing that the correct replacement has been chosen, it is clear that there are many that are concerned about sudden change in leadership within the region. This is perhaps why NATO feel the need to emphasise all is still well. So perhaps Obama is not quite as in control as he wants everyone to think! There are those that fear progress will be severely hampered in Afghanistan.
So why has Obama acted in such a way over the past month or so? Is he trying to regain control he felt he was losing?This too leads to questions as to if he really knows what he is doing with the BP disaster. Does he really understand the complexities of the situation and the far-reaching consequences? The court blocking of the drilling ban imposed by his administration demonstrates that his ‘solutions’ are not so straight forward. Yet he still proceeds to try to have another ban issued.
I lead you to this column which suggests “When a US president talks directly to the nation it is often a sign of events spinning out of control”.
Okay, so I have been extremely critical of the president. However, perhaps he should consider how his actions would be received and how he would react if he was high up in BP or leading his countries troops in a foreign field.
What do you think? How might some of these issues have been better dealt with? Is Obama acting how the US public want him to react? Have I completely misunderstood the complexities of US politics?
Let me know your thoughts and if you think I am too far wide of the mark.
This blog is a just a light-hearted one with a few videos for your enjoyment as I want to experiment to see if I can get this to work. Quite a bit has happened since my last post, notably England have qualified for the next round. My thoughts on that will come soon along with a few thoughts on the Americans (football and political!).
Here’s a great couple of videos which demonstrate the importance of teamwork. Hope they work and you can enjoy them both. Don’t forget to leave your comments. Oh, and use the feature I put on a few blogs ago at the side of the blog to sign up for email updates every time there’s a new post!
What a great insight into the drivers character. I like the comment on month December fo the calendar!
I don’t particularly agree with the way the BP one has summarised BP’s response to the oil disaster but it is quite amusing.
PlaneSimple
PS. Just checked the preview and I am delighted that displaying the video in the blog works!
So here we are, 14 games into the 2010 World Cup with the 15th game about to start. This may come back to bite me but I really feel Chile are going to be a decent team this WC. They’re young but they have been brought up together and are a close knit team who did well in ‘younger’ tournaments together. I watched the Slovakia v New Zealand game last night and although it wasn’t the most exciting match I was delighted to see New Zealand get the goal at the end even though Slovakia were probably the better team overall. It’s great to see “smaller” footballing nations come with enthusiasm for the sport and excited about the event and also get something out of it rather than be blown away. So good on them.
I’ve started to enjoy the competition more and more as it has gone on – especially since Astro have given me a temporary TV receiver box while they work out what is wrong with mine! It is a bit difficult with games beginning from 7.30 pm until 2.30 am here though! Thank goodness they have put on 5, yes five, channels for the World Cup and are always showing highlights or re-runs!
Now to the title of the blog…. Do they enhance the atmosphere? Are they immensely annoying? Should they be banned? Well, I’ll make no secret of the fact that I find them annoying in the games that I have watched so far. I don’t think it would have been good if FIFA had taken action though. I guess it is something that we’ll just have to put up with until July 11. If I can work out how to set up a poll on the blog I will do one regarding the vuvuzelas (or if someone tells me how!). Leave your comments and let me know what you think!
I’m currently sitting in third position in the prediction competition at work at the moment. Have had some good predictions so far and feel well placed to take the lead soon! Will keep you posted!
The blog posts have carried a significant sporting theme so far. Hopefully I will feel inspired to write one with some different thoughts soon.
For now though, let me know what you think of the World Cup so far. Any predictions? Who have you enjoyed watching so far?
Right time for another blog post…. One thing I was going to mention in the last post was about the frequency of my blogging. In line with my blog having no particular topic or theme it will also be relaxed in how frequently it is updated. Sometimes I hope I will be able to blog a few times a week and on other occasions it might take a fortnight or so until you see a post again. Perhaps a reason some people avoid blogging is the pressure to continually update – so I’m not going to let that stop me and please don’t be put off if the blog is quiet for a few weeks – I’ll try not give up!!
So what is apparently known as the greatest show on earth is now under way. Not really an inspiring start given the results but early games can often be nervy. I’m not going to try and be impartial on this and make no secret that I will be following England who play their first game tonight. Nothing is ever certain in football but you would expect the quality and class of an experienced England team to shine through over the course of 90 minutes. Living in GMT +8 means that the game is on at 2.30 am here so I may not watch it live but record and watch it first thing when having breakfast. There are times when coffee and football go better than beer and football!
It is quite a sporting day actually as England take on Australia in the rugby, followed by the F1 Canadian Grand Prix qualifying then the England match. The F1 race this weekend should favour McLaren, given the long straights of the circuit but the Red Bulls did well in second practice yesterday and we may get a chaotic race with rain predicted. Would certainly spice the title challenge up a lot if the two McLaren drivers pick up a lot of points. Here’s hoping!
Continuing with the oil disaster from my last blog, it is good to see some high end discussions will take place. Hopefully Cameron will stand up for the many British private pension holders that get a hiding every time Obama opens his mouth. It is about time that a British PM stands up to the Americans and in future hopefully take them to task when appropriate. At first I had lukewarm feelings towards the new coalition government but the more time that passess I am starting to think they might be a good change. Certainly the more and more arrogant and scaremongering tweets I read from the expected new Labour leader makes me hope they do a good job and keep Labour out for a while! Although one could argue it is all #nickcleggsfault !!
Talking of tweets, here’s a good one for all you F1 fans to follow, some are very funny and well thought out! A good note to end on.
So, which sporting events will you be following? Do you think that the World Cup is the greatest show on earth? Let me know what you think please!
Hi. Right, I’ve decided to start a blog! So what? There are about 75 million words on wordpress from today’s blogs alone! Well, that doesn’t matter. Last week I read a really good F1 blog on wordpress (I was going to link that but haven’t been able to find it since, bad start!) and also Martin Brundles excellent blog / column on the BBC Sport webiste. I thought hey, he’s said a lot of what I think.
Now, I’ve been tempted to start a blog for a while, but never been able to decide upon a topic. And, even though I liked a few blogs I read about the last F1 race and agreed with many points, I know that my blogs won’t be as well read and published as those!
As I thought about it I decided I’d be better off writing something even if once someone visited and read my blog they never returned (please come back!), than not write anything for anyone to read at all. So then I decided actually, what I write about really doesn’t matter.
I also read some good comments and blogs about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and one such blog that was the first time I saw a public comment echoing my thoughts – that the US are not squeaky clean and innocent in all this mess. Who guzzles ridiculous amounts of oil each day and demands for it to be so cheap?
So that is what helped me to decide to start a blog about whatever I want to talk about. Sometimes sport sometimes business, one week about interesting plane stories (yup, that’s where the name comes from!) and the next week about the difficulties my Maths class are having. Sometimes you’ll (hopefully) like what you’re reading and be interested by it and other weeks you may not relate to what I have to say. But hopefully, you’ll return quickly to read the next one and see if it is more your cup of tea.
So I leave you today with a light hearted story. If you are feeling grumpy, it’s worth taking a look.
PlaneSimple Thoughts 