Mom is back in Britain safe and sound, just in time for the St. Patrick’s Day Massacre. Chris has managed to get me a runner’s job for a producer who has been commissioned to make a promotional film for Birmingham’s bid for the 2008 European City of Culture. After coming across someone who had started their blog as a production diary, (what a brilliant idea!), I think I’ll keep one in this way. I can easily see how a production team could share blog space and perhaps there’s a service to be offered specifically for this – I shall have to investigate…Mwhawhawhawha!

Deep came around this weekend and amongst the usual entertaining conversations about Deepopia, beautiful Eastern European women and the anti-globalisation movement he discussed at length the ugliness of Richard Perle and the sexiness of Donald Rumsfeld!!

Anyway, today’s NY Times editorial “Repairing the World” featured a comparision by Thomas Friedman, between Blair and Bush. He longs for Bush to adopt the ‘international vision’ of Blair (and he wasn’t even being ironic!). But Friedman also worries about the bad omen of the Serbian Prime Minister’s assassination. Perhaps in giving expression to his worries about the imminent war, he had in mind another story gleaned from the NY Times, about portents of doom as revealed by a talking Hassidic fish!…

about to laugh the story away, I notice a bit disconcertingly that reports are just emerging of a highly contagious killer mystery virus from the far east. Apparantly, this virus does not respond to any antibiotic and is being spread about the world by unsuspecting jet travellers.

Great! … now we have Conquest, War, Pestilence and Famine stalking our world… maybe the fish knew what it was talking about.

The past few days have been marked by the number of Light House Media people I’ve been in touch with in one way or another. More or less recovered from the extended ‘session’ with Chris and Ros. It was good to catch up and now Chris has a job at Maverick and Ros has offered to get me one at Thomas Cook I may end up seeing more of them. Met up with Jackie and Nikki for a lunch at the Orange Studios and got the dates for their documentary. Not quite sure what my level of involvement will be as Assistant Producer, (or is it Production Assistant?). Spoke to Matt and Jamie, separately, on the phone; I should be working with both of them at some point in the next few weeks/months. Maybe I can make a go of this meeja malarky afterall.

Anyway, Mom comes back from Bangladesh later today so a nice drive down to Heathrow in the morning. At least she’s timed her return for before the beginning of the war.

Donald seems to have dealt Tony a ‘friendly fire’ of a punch and looks like the UN vote may not even go ahead. It was so obvious that it wasn’t going to happen, why did they, (the British Government), persist – they’re becoming delusional. I think Tony’s inner circle have become so accustomed to spinning their way out of tricky situations, and relied so much on the fickle nature and short attention span of the media and the public, that they just don’t know what to do in this situation. This must be the first time he’s encountered the true bulldog spirit of the Great British public.

Meanwhile in Palestine, the occupation, intimidation and defiance continues. I read a story on the Beeb’s website that was quite moving; a reporter has been living with a Palestinian family in Nablus for a week and he reports upon the experience. In particular, I’ll higlight these paragraphs:

But the moment I’ll probably remember longest came after the Israelis had been ransacking Nablus’s old quarter, the Casbah, for four days.

The city’s mayor called for a peaceful protest. At 2030 exactly that evening people began, en masse, to let out Islam’s famous cry – Allahu Akbar, God is Great.

Men and women, the young and the old came out onto thousands of balconies and rooftops in driving rain to shout at the top of their voices – over and over again.

Their cries and whistles began to merge and swell.

In the end, it seemed that the whole city was roaring into the night – demanding that God and the world hear its rage and defiance.

In the morning the Israeli army pulled out of the Casbah.

Earlier I watched a program on BBC1, (a good day for aunty!), about Nelson Mandela, one of the most moving moments in the program came when we watched a few sessions of The Truth and Reconciliation Council. Where white security forces were pardoned for their acts of brutality in return for full confessions to the council and, poigniently, the victims of their acts. After that, some black freedom activists were confronted and pardoned by a devestated white man whose wife had been killed by them. It was powerful stuff; this Council and it’s pivotal role in preventing a blood bath out of revenge at the ending of apartheid was only possible because of the stature of a man like Nelson Mandela.

If only the so called leaders of the Western world were big enough to see that a statesman’s path to peace has already been mapped out for them.

A scary story from Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper about a training camp of the Islamic militant group Jama’atul Mujaheedin Bangladesh.

It seems as if the house in which they were making their bombs belonged to an ex-member of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Anyway here’s a couple of paragraphs from the article:

Police seized two ‘powerful’ bombs including a petrol bomb, two chocolate bombs, several dozen packets of gunpowder, chemicals, sulphur, splinters, designs of time bombs and important places, watches, telephone wire, nylon wire, toll receipts, register books of Jama’atul Mujaheedin, 50 books on commando training and Jihad, 30 audio cassettes of Waz Mehfil (religious sermons), a mobile phone, a still camera, a two-in-one, a radio, and three sacks of potato, rice and dried beef.

Most of the books are written by Asad bin Hafiz and Salauddin Ayubi and the subjects include training of ‘Jihad’, ‘Talebanism’, and formulas to make time bombs. Many of audiocassettes have titles like ‘Taleban’, ‘Jihad on Allah’s way,’ and ‘commando attack’.

This really scares me, (and what’s chocolate bomb anyway!). Are these guys local taleban wannabes or a recently transplanted Al-Qaeda cell? Either way it’s bad news but at least there seems to be an attempt by the Bangladeshi authorities to clamp down on them and the fact that it’s being reported in the papers suggests to me that the government want to be seen to be doing something about terrorism.

But the story also reported that they, (the police), didn’t get any of the leaders of this group – who tipped them off?

I recieved a reply to my 24th Feb rant from my MP, Gisela Stuart.

It included a printed copy of the statement by Tony Blair to the House of Commons on Iraq and the European Council, made on the 25th of Feb., and the speech made by Ann Clwyd in the big dabate on the 26th Feb.

Anyway, here’s the Junior Health Minister’s reply, (dated 5th March):

Dear Joseph Jabbar

Thank you for your E Mail.

I have received many letters and E Mails from quite a number of constituents some of them agreeing with me, others making quite the opposite case. At the vote last week I did what I think every M.P has to do on such occasions and that is to listen to all the arguments and then arrive at what they think the right thing to do is.

If the last 100 years have taught us anything – or at least should have taught us anything – it is that appeasement does not work.

I thought you might be interested to see a copy of a Statement which the Prime Minister made to the House of Commons on the 25th February 2003 and I particularly ask you to have a good look at the speech Ann Clwyd M.P gave in the debate on the 26th February 2003 and may be you will see from her speech why I voted the way I did.

Yours sincerely,

Gisela Stuart M.P.
Labour M.P for Birmingham Edgbaston

Given that my rant included a reference to one of Edgbaston’s previous MP’s, Neville (the appeaser) Chamberlain – I can only conclude that either she didn’t read it, had one of her constituency workers categorise it and send off a standard reply or perhaps she just doesn’t see any irony in her position given Blair’s suicidal appeasement of Bush.

On second thoughts, I’ll credit her with enough cynicism to know on which side her bread is buttered. Afterall the good people of Edgbaston aren’t your usual bunch of Labour supporting peaceniks. The well-healed constituents only turned New Labour recently and although these conservative leopards did change their spots, they’re still leopards. Ms Stuart is clearly no fool.

Spending far too much time on-line!