Times Online reports that Alistair Darling has pulled out of out of Davos -
"A spokeswoman for the Treasury confirmed that Mr Darling would not be going to the event, and had been due to fly to the WEF earlier this week. It also emerged today that David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has also pulled out of Davos.
A spokesman for the Treasury said it was decided that since a number of people Mr Darling had been due to meet had pulled out of Davos, his time would be better spent doing other things."
What better things could Mr Darling be turning his attention to? Rescuing the failing economy would be the first thing that springs to mind.
The Telegraph report "that the UK will be at the bottom of the league table of major developed countries this year, in the weakest year for the global economy since the Second World War"
This means that the UK is set to face a worse recession than any other major country in the world. The future looks bleak however according to a report in The Australian Post"FOR a nation that has just been officially told by the International Monetary Fund that it is about to suffer the worst recession of any developed country since 1945, Britain is remarkably relaxed.
There are no threats of mass strikes by workers fearing for their jobs, no calls for a crisis election and certainly no hints of the street riots that have recently been seen in several other European countries."
Although I do not condone the actions of those in other countries at least they are making their feelings known to those in charge. A relaxed attitude is one that has served to place Britain at the bottom of the league table. . British politicians NEED to get a grip of the situation, instead of the constant bickering between the different political parties, the government needs to work as a team that mean TOGETHER. A viable solution can only be achieved if all parties are in agreement.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Alistair Darling pulls out of Davos
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Google Earth accused of aiding terrorists - Times Online
An Indian Court has been called to ban Google Earth amid suggestions the online satellite imaging was used to help plan the terror attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month.
read more | digg story
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Monday, 26 January 2009
Exclusive: YouTube Will Soon Let Big Content Partners Bring Their Own Ads
Exclusive report from Tech crunch, You Tube are currently making plans to allow the big media giants to profit from advertising revenue. This is a big step for the future of broadcasting and points the way forward in terms of the industry.
"Big media companies have always had a love-hate relationship with YouTube. They don’t know whether to sue YouTube for abetting copyright infringement or get in bed with it because it is the biggest Web video game in town. YouTube is trying to convince them that love is better than war by giving them a cut of advertising revenues from their videos that appear on YouTube, regardless of who put them there."
read more on Techcrunch:
Friday, 23 January 2009
UNSEEN GAZA
A report in The Independent argues that There have been two versions of the assault on Gaza played out over the past three weeks. One is the moderated account aired in the West; the other is the unexpurgated account of civilian deaths filmed in vivid close-up inside Gaza.
The Channel 4 documentary Unseen Gaza explored the the war on Gaza from the media perspective as foreign news organisations were refused access into the Gaza Strip. John Snow offers an insight into the frustation expressed by UK journalists as the IDF created a closed military zone along the borders of Israel and moved reporters on to a specially designated hill overlooking the territory, but away from the fighting.
An article on which I read on Media Channel indicates that the ban on journalists is a form of censorship and questions the motives behind the Israeli decision. The ban did not however did not apply to journalists already living and working in Gaza although it seems that they were targeted during the conflict.
What gives Israel the right to ban foreign media? Surely that only happens in countries such as Zimbawe and China whose leaders run oppressive regimes and inflict fear or terror on its citizens without intereference from the outside world.
Monday, 19 January 2009
Rescuing economy tops Obama's 100-day agenda | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A calm manner, rhetorical gifts and the promise of new ideas all contributed to Barack Obama's rise to the U.S. presidency as Americans put their trust in him to rescue the economy from its worst crisis in decades.
Now the public and the financial markets want to see if he can deliver.
When he takes the oath of office on Tuesday, Obama will inherit a deepening recession, a shattered financial system, a housing-market meltdown and trillion-dollar budget deficits well into the future.
Well aware that stemming the economic decline is the No. 1 priority for his first 100 days in office, Obama is diving in.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Facebook Users Go to War over Gaza - TIME
Facebook Users Go to War over Gaza - TIME: "Social-networking websites may have started out as online cliques where friends could swap opinions on music, pop culture and other bits of innocuous personal trivia. But as the conflict in Gaza has unfolded, it's becoming evident that sites like Facebook are increasingly being used to express political views, adding an acrimonious, even menacing undertone to what were once lighthearted online forums."
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Who are Hamas?
The largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation is Hamas, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.Branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, Hamas are seen by its supporters as a legitimate freedom fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation
BBC NEWS article
George Bush Does Not Care About......
"I think President Bush might very well be the worst president in U.S. history," -Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joseph Ellis (2008)
As the Bush administration draws to its logical conclusion I have been reflecting on what aspect of his Presidency he will be best remembered.
The comments made by Kayne West in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?
Maybe for his war on terror or should that be his war of terror which he inflicted on the innocent Iraqi people who have died as a result of his search for invisible Weapons of Mass Destruction?
His game of hide and seek then hide again with Osama Bin Laden?
Or maybe his vision of a world in which "freedom will prevail" sorry I mean his vision that America will prevail especially in offering support to the genocide of thousands of innocent Palestinians.
By authorising his signature on a memorandum which stated that the Third Genenva Convention regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime, did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban sealing the fate for those abused at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay?
Those will be some of the things that I will most remember, well done you did your father proud Mr Bush, and you get the credit for his legacy.
Life is like a box of chocolates!!!
Monday, 12 January 2009
China blocks 41 websites for distributing porn-China-World-The Times of India
BEIJING: China has blocked 41 websites after getting Google and other search engines to apologise for carrying porn and lewd content. This is among the measures taken by the government to 'purify' the Internet during a month-long campaign launched last week." Read more:
How the press has been reporting Gaza - Guardian Article
Newspapers are supposed to be better than TV at putting over context. But they rarely are. This has always been a problem in the Israeli-Arab conflict where, as Jonathan Freedland observed in the Guardian, there is a 'Newtonian chain of claimed action and reaction that can stretch back to infinity'. Lack of context normally works against Palestinians who are portrayed as 'terrorists' and wild 'bomb-throwing militants' bent on undermining a well-ordered, western-style state. By banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza, Israel helped turn the context problem against itself. Nearly all the stories and pictures came from local Palestinian reporters and photographers.
read more on how the press has been reporting Gaza | Media | The Guardian
Friday, 2 January 2009
Q&A - What's next in the Gaza conflict?
Jan 2 (Reuters) - Israel pressed on with its seven-day-old air attack on Hamas militants in Gaza on Friday and the death toll reached 424 Palestinians, with 2,000 more wounded in the blockaded coastal strip. This article from Reuters answers key questions about the conflict
read more | digg story
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Shoes thrown at President Bush
A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference.
An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president.
The soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture.
LOL
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Them and Whose Army?
After the terrible events which have taken place in the last few days in Mumbai questions are now being asked about who was the likely perpatrator. First reports in British newspapers suggest that there may have been a British link. A report in the Independent suggests that four of the terrorists, two of them dead, had connections with Britain. The Times suggest that the figure could be more but reveal that the Indian authorities firmly denied reports that up to seven of the attackers were British. The Guardian outline how Indian channel NDTV quoted Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, as saying there were British nationals among the militants arrested. What also isn't clear is the total number of terrorists involved in the attacks which took place in ten locations across the city. Many reports on television are putting the figure at ten but if this is the case that would mean that there would have been only one gunman involved in each attack which doesn't make any sense. I am sure that the true extent of the ordeal suffered by victims at both the hands of the terrorists and the Indian military will never be revealed. If more terrorists were involved in the attacks where did they disappear to and how? Surely questions clearly need to be asked about the competence of the Indian authorities in rounding up those responsible.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
More things to ponder....
Why, Why, Why,.............
Do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weaker?
Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Whose idea was it to put an 's' in the word 'Lisp'?
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That hurt, you stupid idiot?'
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
And finally.............
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends --- if they're okay, then it's you.
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Its on your shoulders now Mr Obama
I have been following the US elections with great interest, either way this was set to be a record breaking contest - the oldest President or the first black President ( although I argue that Obama is as much white as he is black) Now we have finally reached the end and the world is looking to Obama for guidance and the solution to the worlds problems. He has promised to
provide everyone in America with health care,
sort out welfare,
lower taxes and raise taxes (not sure how that works,)
sort out the Middle East
be nice to China
feed the world (with a loaf of bread and five little fishys)
walk on water
Here's looking at you kid.....can he do it?#
YES HE CAN
Johann Hari: Don't kill the planet in the name of saving the economy - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
"We are living through two great meltdowns – the credit crunch, and the climate crunch. The heating of the planet is now happening so fast it's hard to pluck a single event to fix on, but here's one. By the summer of 2013, the Arctic will be free of ice. How big an event it this?"read more - The Independent
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