No doubt you will have heard about the ‘Terror Arrests’ around London by now and I expect, like me, you’ll greet the news with incredulity, sadness, anger and a growing sense of foreboding.

For the past couple of weeks, everytime I get the itch to post up something I think might be of mild interest to those surfing into the vicinity, I’m put off by some murderous fool who either contemplates, perpertrates or participates in some godless act of violence.

I mean, I ask you – Crawley, Luton and Slough of all places – it’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.

Today I was going to proudly put in an entry about the Online Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh and how inspirational an achievment this is for the beloved land of my ancesters but then I heard about the bomb making fertilizer stored in an Access Storage facility. I mean, how mundane is that! – not some secret shed hidden in the countryside but a public storage facility shared by people storing their, fridges, spare sofas and other ordinary stuff. Stuff that can’t be used to kill anybody (though I suppose the fridge could be dropped onto someone from a height but flying white goods aren’t quite the weapons of choice you’d think they’d be amongst terrorists). And how is it that fertilizer is so dangerous anyway? Is this the same stuff that they put onto cabbages and carrots to make them grow? If so, I’m starting to get a little concerned about the potential for mass destruction that my next vegetable stew may represent.

I thought about dropping a line or two about Letter from America’s – Alistair Cooke who just passed away. His regular 15-minute musings on the state of american life was a peerless inspiration for the whining self-publishing that these posts rarely escape being. But instead, I have to ponder the words of Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission who says of the raids that netted 8 young muslim men today,

“These raids are usually given a lot of importance when they are taking place, but when people are released without charge, it is not news. “

Muslims may indeed be demonised in the press because of such raids but there’s somebody out there who isn’t concerning themselves with Human Rights – Islamic or otherwise – and frankly I’m happy if legitimate suspects are caught and locked up. I console myself that because we live in a society that at least attempts to implement due process, the innocent will eventually be released. As for the press – well what do you expect – Sven has signed up for an extra two years and there isn’t another pointless football story to be had anywhere so this story is a god-send for Rupert’s hacks.

Also not to be posted today (but at some point in the next few days) is something about the trip to Bradford I made to see the Shine04 – Short Film strand at the Bradford Film Festival which was genuinely inspirational. For now I’ve got to say that I was dissapointed to note that there weren’t more British muslims at the event. It’s a bit surprising given the sizeable, mostly Pakistani and Bengali, muslim population in the city but it seems symptomatic of the self-imposed apartheid that prevails in so many of our northern towns. Is this a sign of the ‘them and us’ mentality I fear that’s coming to pass? Perhaps in Birmingham things are a bit better (or am I deluding myself?)

Well, I say to all fertilizer hoarders – “Make Movies not Bombs”. (Of course you could still make a movie that is a bomb too!)