Be at Politics

Hurray a new email from Gwyneth! I am very pleased with this because she sends me a recipe for mulled wine I have been looking for for ages. It still is a funny idea that a woman like Gwyneth Paltrow is actually cooking herself. 

I know, there is nothing political about this post but it will get you in the Christmas spirit. And the fact that there is no sugar in the recipe could be a small political statement about healthy living. See for the full recipe below. Enjoy!!! Continue Reading »

Cheney thinks he has done a good job in the last eight years. Invading Iraq, torturing alleged terrorists, Guantanomo Bay it was all for a good cause.

What do others have to say about that?

Continue Reading »

The columnist Polly Toynbee makes a strong point in The Guardian this morning about the Labour government applying different rules for the rich and the poor. The Department for Work and Pensions has recently started a nation-wide poster and TV-commercial campaign for fighting benefit fraud with the slogan “Benefit thieves, we are closing in.” However, Toynbee notes, the government has not taken any action yet to prosecute the traders and bankers that were responsible for the economic downfall.

Of course there are different rules for the rich and the poor - and everyone knows it. Why else has the Department for Work and Pensions paid a small fortune for a massive television, newspaper and poster campaign with “We’re closing in” on benefit thieves plastered all over bus shelters in poor areas? There are no such posters in the City, Canary Wharf, Notting Hill or Mayfair suggesting “We’re closing in” on insider traders, bonus-fuelled reckless risk-takers or those purloining monstrous pay and private jets from the shares of everyone else’s pension funds.

Continue Reading »

George Bush was on a surprise visit to Iraq when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at him during a press conference calling Bush a ‘dog’. 

The Native American expression “walk a mile in an other man’s moccasins” means that you have to know the other, before you criticise him. When it comes to Iraq, Bush and his comrades did not try to walk even an inch in the shoes of the Iraqi’s.

The Bush administration hasn’t taken the time to inform itself about the situation in Iraq before they went in and invaded or liberated it. They had not invested in getting to know the culture, the political situation, the history, the different religious factions, the sensitivities and most of all they did not investigate the need of the Iraqi people for liberation.

If they had really tried to get to know the Iraqi’s and not only pursued their own self interest the outcome of the war in Iraq could have been different. They may have gotten appreciation from all the Iraqi’s and there wouldn’t be so much violence. Instead Bush chose a different path and now he has to deal with the shoes flying around him. Stupid, stupid man.  

Yesterday while I watched the final of the X-factor (check out Alexandra Burke, the winner, she has an incredible voice!) I could not stop staring at Dannii Minogue’s face. It is so fake that you can’t tell the difference between a smile and a frown. This is what she looked like when she was younger and this is what she turned herself into. Many might argue that she looks more beautiful and glamorous in the second picture but you should remember that it is not real. It is more a mixture between an artificial and a natural face.

I am intrigued by the changes in the faces of women like Dannii. Sometimes the enhancements are little works of art. The women really look younger or better. But most faces that have undergone plastic surgery or botox treatments don’t look better at all. They look freaky and often older then before the treatment.

I wonder how Dannii perceives herself now? Is she happy with the result or is she crying quietly about her lost face (no one will notice, her expressions are limited).

But I do think women like Dannii are trendsetters and pioneers when it comes to artificially obtained beauty. The techniques for physical enhancements are not refined enough yet. But one day they will be. And Dannii serves as a guinea pig.

I really wonder how this trend will develop in the future. Will there be a distinction between the women who do and the women who don’t have plastic surgery? And which ones will be seen as the superior ones? The natural women or the artificial women? Or will we all have something ‘fixed’ and thus become a crossover between technique and nature.

How will our bodies change with the availability of more and more advanced technologies?

Continue Reading »

Tonight Sky Real Lives channel will show the documentary “A Right to die”, about a man who dies after an assisted suicide. The documentary follows Craig Ewert on his way to Dignitas, a Swiss clinic that assists with suicides. In Britain assisted suicide is illegal. Craig Ewert suffers from motor neurone disease and his life has become unbearable for him. In the documentary Ewert drinks a liquid in the presence of his wife and apparently dies after 45 minutes.

According to Sam Wollaston from the Guardian this documentary is worthwhile television. It shows people what it is like to die and it will help the discussion on assisted suicide. Care not Killing and the Pro Life Alliance do not agree with him. They argue that this documentary is “macabre death voyeurism” and will lead the debate on assisted suicide down the slippery slope.

Gordon Brown has urged broadcasters to deal with the issue of ‘assisted suicide’ without sensationalism.

I find myself torn between two opposite sensations. 

Continue Reading »

What is going on in Greece? For years we hear nothing of this country and suddenly it is on fire!

  For personal reports click here

For BBC reports click here

Witness, an international human rights organisation, has launched a website The Hub. The hub enables people to upload videos’ of human rights atrocities as far and wide as possible.

Do you think this will help in the fight for human rights or is it just another gadget, not getting us anywhere?  

I myself believe it is an important instrument in the fight against violations of human rights. It enables citizens from oppressive regimes, like Zimbabwe or North Korea, to show what life is really like for them. The videos on The Hub complement the videos that are being shot by trained journalists. In some countries, like Zimbabwe, the work of journalists is made very difficult. Videos shot by local people who are not tied to newspapers and western countries but just report directly on what they are experiencing can solve that problem. 

Many will argue that voting for Boris Johnson was a very stupid thing to do. Look at all the trouble he got into in the last months they’ll say. Is this man fit for the job?

His latest hiccups:

The Damian Green case

Sacking of Ross as Olympic advisor (the fourth person to go in six months) 

But to be honest were we left with much choice? Where would London be now if we voted for this man?

Ken Livingstone is now advisor on Urban Planning to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. A man with a good and solid reputation. Livingstone is still infatuated with this man as this letter by Livingstone in The Guardian shows. 

Or should we have voted for this one? 

 Brian Paddick, the liberal democrat candidate, on the ITV show “I am a celebrity, get me out of here”:  

 ”I don’t know what it is about me, whether I was dropped on the head when I was a baby or something but I have this thing about caring for other people.”

“I am not just a serious politician and a serious former serious police officer.”

This is Brian on hoping the ITV celebrity show will change the public’s perceptions of him from serious to ‘fun’.

The shallowness of this man, who ran for the office of Mayor of London just six months ago and now eats insects voluntarily just for the sake of…what exactly, is staggering.

Was it just the 15 minutes of fame he was after? 

So go Boris in your electric car, I’ll just give you a few more chances!

By the way at the opening of the Parliamentary Year in the Netherlands, the female members of parliament wear hats and some of them have made it a tradition to make a political statement with their hats. Like this Member of Parliament from the Socialist Party shows:

Or what about this one, worn by the former minister of Health, Welfare and Sports: Continue Reading »