The Poor Mouth

Photo Hunt - Rubbish

2009-07-10T20:10:00.003+01:00

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is garbage. This was an easy one given the thoughtlessness of so many people. This rubbish was photographed in Battis Walk near Romford Station

Our soldiers in Afghanistan are dying for this?

2009-07-10T13:20:00.002+01:00

The Times reports that two more British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll in the last nine days to nine, The Ministry of Defence said that the two soldiers were killed yesterday in separate incidents in Helmand Province. This means that a total of 178 British servicemen and women have now been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Richardson, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "These fine British soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice and their memory will live with us forever. We mourn their loss and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends at this very sad time. "We know that their deaths were not in vain.”

Or are they?

Today’s Independent report that an Afghan law which legalised rape between husband and wife has been sent back to parliament with a new clause letting husbands starve their wives if they refuse to have sex.

According to civil society groups, the law, which regulates the personal affairs of Afghanistan's Shia community, also includes clauses which allow rapists to marry their victims as a way of absolving their crime and it tacitly approves child marriage. The law sparked demonstrations in Kabul where hundreds of Shia women took to the streets in protest. They were attacked by mobs of angry men who launched counter demonstrations outside the capital's largest Shia madrassa.

The law is due to be ratified by parliament, which first passed the legislation in March with hardly any debate. Critics claim that Mr Karzai signed the law to appease Shia leaders, ahead of presidential polls on 20 August.

Women's rights activist Wazhma Frough, who was involved in the review, said that conservative religious leaders had pressured the Justice Ministry to keep many of the most controversial clauses."There have been a few little changes, but they are not enough," she said. "For example, if the wife doesn't accept her husband's sexual requirements then he can deny her food."

Violence against women is already endemic," said Razia Jan, who is building a women's community centre in Afghanistan's Shia heartland, Bamiyan. "Men pay thousands of dollars for young girls and they are treated like slaves. Women here are already so vulnerable."

Forces went into Afghanistan, inter alia, to rid the country of the Taliban, an evil rabble of misogynists from the 8th Century. it seems that their replacements are little better.. The report states some (unnamed) NATO countries have threatened to withdraw their troops unless the legislation was drastically re-written. Perhaps it is time for them all to leave.

Robyn and Bebe

2009-07-10T00:16:00.000+01:00

The tabby twosome on the not-wife's lap. This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

The Virgin Mary tree stump

2009-07-09T20:28:00.002+01:00

Ah there’s nothing like reporting on a good simulacrum story be it a nun in a bun or Alahu Akbar spelled out in the seeds of an aubergine, So here’s one from Ireland.

The Irish Times reports that almost 2,000 people have signed a petition seeking to prevent the removal of a tree stump on the grounds of a Co Limerick church. The stump is said to depict the Blessed Virgin Mary.

People from the town organised the petition in an effort to have the stump, which was due to be dug out of the ground yesterday (Wednesday 8 July) , made into a permanent fixture at the church. “We have almost 2,000 signatures on the petition already and we are going to continue getting more,” said shopkeeper Séamus Hogan.

“People have been coming from Kerry and Clare to see this tree, which we believe shows a clear outline of Our Lady,” he continued. Mr Hogan said the discovery was bringing people from all walks of life to Rathkeale to pray.It’s doing no harm and it’s bringing people together from young and old to black and white, Protestant and Catholic, to say a few prayers, so what’s wrong with that? There’s enough violence and intolerance going on in the world,” he said.

Local parish priest Fr Willie Russell said on a Limerick radio station that people should not worship the tree. “There’s nothing there . . . it’s just a tree . . . you can’t worship a tree.” Meanwhile a spokesman for the Limerick diocesan office said the “church’s response to phenomena of this type is one of great scepticism

Well I’m convinced. Those rosary beads around the neck are a dead giveaway

Nick Griffin shows his caring, compassionate side with regard to illegal immigrants

2009-07-09T00:09:00.001+01:00

The BBC carries a brief tv interview with Nick Griffin in which he states that EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering .

In an interview with this week's edition of BBC Parliament's The Record Europe, he said:

"If there's measures to set up some kind of force or to help, say the Italians, set up a force which actually blocks the Mediterranean then we'd support that. But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over.

"Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats. Anyone coming up with measures like that we'll support but anything which is there as a 'oh, we need to do something about it' but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe' we will oppose."

The interviewer, BBC Correspondent Shirin Wheeler, said: "I don't think the EU is in the business of murdering people at sea."

Mr Griffin replied: "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea - I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya. But Europe has sooner or later to close its borders or its simply going to be swamped by the Third World."

Libya is a staging post for migrants from Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa wanting to reach Europe. Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian shores last year, an increase of about 75% on the year before.

There’s no denying that illegal immigration is a concern and action that targets the vultures that prey on the hopes of desperate people gets my support. After all the traffickers have no concern for their charges except to extort huge sums of cash out of them. That said, what Griffin advocates is a disgrace. How many illegal immigrants will drown if their boats were sunk by some EU backed force? But then I daresay Griffin’s view would centre about omelettes and eggs.

If there is something that should be blown out of the water it’s Griffin’s idiotic suggestion

Porcelain Sky - Rajna

2009-07-08T22:30:00.001+01:00

A bit of Boccherini

2009-07-08T19:21:00.003+01:00

A piece loved by Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in Patrick O'Brian's books

And an extract that appears at teh end of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Iran Solidarity Declaration

2009-07-08T00:11:00.000+01:00

iransolidarity.org.uk

In June 2009 millions of people came out on to the streets of Iran for freedom and an end to the Islamic regime. Whilst the June 12 election was a pretext for the protests - elections have never been free or fair in Iran – it has opened the space for people to come to the fore with their own slogans.

The world has been encouraged by the protestors’ bravery and humane demands and horrified by the all-out repression they have faced. It has seen a different image of Iran - one of a population that refuses to kneel even after 30 years of living under Islamic rule.

The dawn that this movement heralds for us across the world is a promising one – one that aims to bring Iran into the 21st century and break the back of the political Islamic movement internationally.

This is a movement that must be supported.

Declaration

We, the undersigned, join Iran Solidarity to declare our unequivocal solidarity with the people of Iran. We hear their call for freedom and stand with them in opposition to the Islamic regime of Iran.

We demand:

1. The immediate release of all those imprisoned during the recent protests and all political prisoners

2. The arrest and public prosecution of those responsible for the current killings and atrocities and for those committed during the last 30 years

3. Proper medical attention to those wounded during the protests and ill-treated and tortured in prison. Information on the status of the dead, wounded and arrested to their families. The wounded and arrested must have access to their family members. Family members must be allowed to bury their loved ones where they choose.

4. A ban on torture

5. The abolition of the death penalty and stoning

6. Unconditional freedom of expression, thought, organisation, demonstration, and strike

7. Unconditional freedom of the press and media and an end to restrictions on
communications, including the internet, telephone, mobiles and satellite television programmes

8. An end to compulsory veiling and gender apartheid

9. The abolition of discriminatory laws against women and the establishment of complete equality between men and women

10. The complete separation of religion from the state, judiciary, education and religious freedom and atheism as a private matter.

Moreover, we call on all governments and international institutions to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran and break all diplomatic ties with it. We are opposed to military intervention and economic sanctions because of their adverse affects on people’s lives.

The people of Iran have spoken; we stand with them.

Click here if you wish to sign

7/7 Memorial unveiled

2009-07-07T17:20:00.003+01:00

Four years ago today four suicide bombers took the lives of 52 people in London. They may have believed that it was some sort of blow a blow for justice against the evils, real or perceived, committed by Britain against fellow Muslims but it was murder, simply murder. The bombers made no attempt to strike against the machinery of state. They chose instead to destroy the lives of ordinary Londoners.

While I was never that keen on Ken Livingstone I think his words after the sickening event struck a chord with many people:

“I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.

That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved.”

It was a vile and sickening act. Almost as bad in my view were those that saw the attack as some form of justice.

Today Prince Charles dedicated a memorial in Hyde Park to the 52 people killed exactly four years ago, victims of the 7/7 bus and underground bombs.

"The families of the victims, the survivors and the stout hearted emergency services remain very much in our thoughts and prayers.” He said "You are a moving example of holding together bravery in the face of such inhuman and deplorable outrage and you offer us hope for the future,"

The memorial, which consists of 52 steel pillars, each 3.5m tall (11.5 feet) and is located between park's Lover's Walk and Park Lane

Tessa, Jowell, Minister for London, said that each column represented "a unique person and a unique grief. Each one casts a shadow just as they do - each one standing tall and proud just as they did, and each one will in an individual way absorb and reflect light just as they did."

Architects Carmody Groarke said that stainless steel pillars symbolised the random nature of the loss of life - how it could have been anyone travelling in London that day. Director Kevin Carmody said the firm worked closely with the families through monthly liaison meetings to ensure the finished product was what they required."It took a long time to get to the strong ideas like symbolising the single and collective loss of life," he said.

26 of the stelae were grouped to represent those killed on the Underground near King's Cross.Other clusters represented Tube bombing victims at Aldgate and Edgware Road, with the remainder symbolic of those who died on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

"Hopefully people will have an almost magnetic propulsion towards it," said Mr Carmody. He said it could be viewed from afar as a single entity but that as they moved closer, people would discover the significance of the four groupings and individual columns. Though the stelae are anonymous, they are inscribed with the date, time and location of the bombings they represent.

A representative of the bereaved families' group said: "The memorial is a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them. It represents the enormity of our loss, both on a personal and public level. We hope this memorial will speak to visitors so they can understand the impact of these horrific events."

Saba Mozakka, 28, from Finchley, north London, was one of six family members to sit on a liaison board during the memorial's design. Her mother, Behnaz Mozakka, 47, a biomedical officer, was killed on a Piccadilly line train near King's Cross station while commuting to work.

Ms Mozakka described the memorial as "truly incredible". "I'm very happy. It's very poignant," she said. "It's an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us."

Grahame Russell, whose 28-year-old son Philip died in the Tavistock Square bus bombing, said the ceremony had been "extremely moving, extremely poignant. The speakers were outstanding. You could see by their faces and the way they spoke that they understood the way we feel."

In addition the prime minister, London Mayor Boris Johnson, Conservative leader David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone and senior figures from the emergency services were present.

I will have to pay a visit to the memorial shortly. 7 July 2005 was an awful day. I arrived in the City around the time of the bombing and spent several hours hemmed in unable to get out again. On that day I never felt more useless or superfluous in my life.

WW- Cephalaria in decline

2009-07-07T11:03:00.003+01:00

. I often find that flowers in their decline are even more interesting than when they are in their full glory. This week's entry for the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Wordless Wednesday.

Lisa Greenwood sacking - clarification

2009-07-07T00:00:00.002+01:00

The Guardian Technology Blog provides a little more information on the actions that led to Miss Greenwood’s dismissal (see my earlier post below). Yesterday’s Telegraph report indicated that she left a comment about Hazel Blears on Theyworkforyou.com. This actually wasn’t the case.

According to Tom Steinberg, the head of MySociety and who spoke to Lisa, what actually happened was :-

Miss Greenwod She used google and ended up on Hazel Blear's page on TheyWorkForYou.com

She clicked through from it to Hazel's official site

She found the 'contact me' page on the official site and then clicked on the email address, which, using a mailto: tag popped up her work email client.

She wrote and sent her fatal email, which was delivered from her DCSF email account, not her Hotmail which she'd normally use.

It was that use of the DCSF email address, not Hotmail, which was the killer. (she wrote to Blears, via email, "You are only sorry that you have been caught. You are a disgrace (including all the other honourable members). Why haven't you been sacked?")

The actual course of events makes Lisa’s actions seem more foolish than I and others originally thought. That said I still think the action of the department was a overreaction.

In summary:

Lisa Greenwood – Foolish, foolish, foolish

DCSF – OTT. OTT, OTT

And now a reminder to russian artists that Vladimir Putin has no sense of humour

2009-07-06T20:52:00.004+01:00

A few months ago I posted a few items regarding Connor Casby and his satirical portraits of BIFFO - not the Beano bear but the Big Ignorant Fucker From Offaly as the Taoiseach Brian Cowan is less that fondly known (see here, here and here).

Mr Casby faced the annoyance of BIFFO and his humourless Fianna Fail cohorts (He is never called the Big Happy Fellow From Offaly) but it was as nothing compared to wrath faced by a Russian artist last month:

A Russian artist was arrested by the secret service after depicting prime minister Vladimir Putin as a woman. Alexander Shednov (also known as Shurik) portrayed the Vladimir Putain in a tight, low-cut dress with long hair and large hoop earrings. The image was a protest against Poontang in trying to return to the Kremlin for a third presidential term.

The artist had attempted to beam the portrait onto the main administrative building in Voronezh, his home city, on Russian Independence Day last Friday. But Shednov's artistic statement did not go down well with the FSB, the Russian state intelligence agency.

He was arrested and, according to claims, he was questioned for seven hours and beaten. Friends said his flat had also been searched and some of his paintings removed. Shednov faces a court charge of inappropriate behaviour.

Personally I think Putain looks good in a dress but the earrings make him look cheap and tarty.

There is a lot of nonsense about Putin being an ultra-manly macho man. Personally I think his publicity photos hint of something a little more flamboyant lurking just beneath the surface...

A sad reminder to civil servants to be careful what you post online at work

2009-07-06T00:41:00.001+01:00

Today’s Telegraph carries an item regarding the sacking of Lisa Greenwood, from her £16k a year civil servant at the Department of Children, Schools and Families.

Miss Greenwood, 38, posted an anonymous message on the internet at the height of the furore over abuse of the second home allowances. Rather foolishly she posted the comment from a work computer. Her comment was traced back to her work email account.

Miss Greenwood had been angered by Miss Blears's ability to avoid paying capital gains tax on the sale of her designated second home. On May 13 she posted the following comment anonymously, on a political website: "How dare you wave a cheque about on national TV, saying that you are sorry. You are only sorry that you have been caught. You are a disgrace (including all the other honourable members). Why haven't you been sacked?"

Miss Greenwod, who had worked for the DCSF for seven months, was brought before a disciplinary panel and dismissed on May 22.

"A written warning I could understand, but I was shocked to be sacked," she said. "It has been extremely upsetting that I have been sacked for having an opinion. When the scandal broke we had all been discussing it at work, despite the civil service code. It was just the same in writing that everyone else had been saying at work and discussing openly in the office."

A DCFS spokesman said Miss Greenwood had been found guilty of gross misconduct and had brought the Government department into disrepute. "The civil service has a clear code of conduct for its employees, which states that civil servants should be politically impartial and not act in a way that could damage the reputation of their department."

Even though there was a lot of justifiable anger at the venality of our Members of Parliament, Miss Greenwood was foolish to post the comment from work. Although her comment was anonymous and she did not identify herself as a civil servant, it would have been pretty obvious from her ip address that she was posting from a government department. Had she waited until she got home nobody would have been any the wiser.

That said, I think the DCSF were needlessly heavy handed in their approach. Looking at her salary Miss Greenwood was a probationer in a very junior post (probably an Admin Assistant or maybe an Admin Officer). A verbal or written warning would have ensured that she would have kept her own counsel at work in future.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s 5,000th Days of Detention

2009-07-05T18:25:00.003+01:00

Today marks the 5,000th day of incarceration for Nobel Peace Prize Winner (and who should have been the real leader of the Burmese state in 1990) Aung San Suu Kyi, The brutal scum that make up the Burmese junta must have thought that by putting her out of circulation she would have been forgotten by the world. How wrong they were! That said the response of the world could and should have been far more robust than it has been.

We are reminded by Andrew Buncombe in today’s Independent on Sunday that Aung San Suu Kyi will spend the day in detention accompanied by two women. At present she is being held in a "guesthouse" in the grounds of Rangoon's Insein jail. For the six previous years she in a lakeside house with no television, radio or phone.

As is (or should be) well known she has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after an American swam to her home and spent the night there. As Andrew Buncombe reminds us her real “crime” was to win an election nearly two decades ago. Moreover, she strikes fear in the heart of the vermin Than Shwe and his junta because even now she can do something they never could for all their brutal force – and that is to unite the Burmese people.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, The National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide election victory in 1990. But this election was simply ignored by the junta. It was at that time that the opposition leader was first imprisoned, for a period of three years.

She has spent almost 14 of the past 19 years under house arrest. On occasion, the junta has made clear it would release her if she agreed to leave Burma but she has always chosen to remain a part of her country's struggle. In 1999, while temporarily free, she faced the agonising choice of visiting her dying husband, the British academic Michael Aris, who had been refused a visa to enter Burma. Fearful that if she left she would never be allowed to return, she stayed in Burma without seeing her husband again.

Mark Farmaner, of the Burma Campaign UK, said the reason for her continued detention was very simple. In a country that has been brutalised by violence and the fear of violence, ordinary people will still, in private, whisper about the "the lady" and how she could help fix their broken land. "It might be one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world but they are terrified of this one woman," he added. "They hoped by keeping her detained the world would forget about Burma, but the opposite has happened. The fact that she has now spent 5,000 days in detention should shame world leaders who have tolerated this situation."

Ms Suu Kyi is just the best known of an estimated 2,000 or more political prisoners being held by the regime. I hope that the day comes and comes soon that the Junta will be swept away into the sewers of history, stopping first to receive a very long dose of what they have inflicted on these people.

Heidi Berry - Up in the Air

2009-07-05T15:16:00.003+01:00

American born (but British raised) singer covers song from Husker Du's Warehouse: Songs and Stories. I have a soft spot for Heidi Berry's music. It is a shame that she hasn't released an album since 1996. I would strongly recommend looking out for Pomegranate, an Anthology that was released in 2001. It can be picked up quite cheaply on Amazon.

Ghost Dances

2009-07-05T00:56:00.000+01:00

This version is performed by the Houston Ballet. I saw the Ballet Rambert perform it twice in 1982 and 1983 (The first time in an attempt to impress a girl, the second time because I loved it so much the first time. I didn't go back with the girl...)

UN General Secretary delivers a speech for deaf ears

2009-07-04T21:09:00.003+01:00

The Sydney Morning Herald published an extract of a public speech by UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon (above) that outlines his vision for a democratic Burma.

Ban told an audience of diplomats, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations at the Drug Elimination Museum in Rangoon that the military regime must free the Aung San Suu Kyi and introduce other reforms for the good of the country's people.

"I am here today to say: Myanmar, you are not alone. We want to work with you for a united, peaceful, prosperous, democratic and modern Myanmar. We want to help you rise from poverty ... work with you so that your country can take its place as a respected and responsible member of the international community, but let me emphasise: neither peace nor development can thrive without democracy and respect for human rights. Myanmar is no exception."

Than Shwe, brutal thug

Junta chief Than Shwe (above) earlier Saturday refused to let Ban visit Aung San Suu Kyi, who is in prison facing trial over an incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house in May. Ban Than Shwe's snub as "deeply disappointing" and said in his speech that all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, "should be released without delay".

Ban also urged the junta to ensure that elections promised in 2010 should be free and fair. Critics say they will be a sham that will allow the ruling generals to entrench their power."The upcoming election, the first in 20 years, must be inclusive, participatory and transparent if it is to be credible,"

I agree whole heartedly with the words and the sentiments of the General Secretary. Sadly I cannot imagine them cutting any ice with the brutal thugs that run Burma. A case of fine words falling on deaf ears, sadly. There’s a fat chance of the junta giving up the levers of control... Prising the levers out of their cold, dead hands is a thought though

An unpaid advert on behalf of North Korean beer

2009-07-04T17:28:00.003+01:00

North Korea has foregone the launch of another missile to launch a tv advert instead for a local brew. .

Extolling the virtues of the product of Taedonggang Beer Factory the advert features young women in traditional Korean dress serving trays of beer to men in Western suits and a thirsty worker holding a mug of frothy beer.

Billed as the "Pride of Pyongyang", the advert promises drinkers that the beer will help ease stress."It represents the new look of Pyongyang," the two-and-a-half minute advert says. "It will be a familiar part of our lives."

The beer has been in production since the Taedonggang Beer Factory bought a British brewery in 2002 and shipped it back to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, said to have a fondness for fine wines and brandy, has taken a personal interest in the brewery. "Watching good quality beer coming out in an uninterrupted flow for a long while, he noted with great pleasure that it has now become possible to supply more fresh beer to people in all seasons," North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, said after he visited the brewery in 2002."

Comments following the article on the BBC website indicate that is is a bit sour, can be of variable quality, sometimes cloudy, but not bad.

Even if it were to make its way to the UK I'm not sure if it would become my favourite tipple. I'd probably try a bottle out of curiosity though

2009-07-04T09:34:00.002+01:00

I would like to thank a visitor from British Columbia who came to look at my most recent photo of Ted a few hours ago. He ior she was visitor 500,000 to the Poor Mouth. Thanks and haste ye back. There's freshn drivel (almost) every day!

Photo Hunt - Pink

2009-07-03T20:50:00.003+01:00

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is pink. For once I don't need to do something like a blue work shirt by Thomas Pink. Here are two blooms from a little Sempervivum (house leek) that is growing in a small gap in the wall of our front garden.

Still life with Ted, Corkscew, DVDs and Television

2009-07-03T00:04:00.000+01:00

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Henry Mayhew and the word pure

2009-07-02T20:44:00.003+01:00

My post below on the likelihood of justice for Neda Agha Soltani featured a quote from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"The massive propaganda of the foreign media, as well as other evidence, proves the interference of the enemies of the Iranian nation who want to take political advantage and darken the pure face of the Islamic republic."

I am sure, Ahmadinejad probably meant pure in the sense of the face being homogeneous, free from impurities, containing nothing extraneous, faultless or even chaste

The problem for an anal retentive like myself or teh not-wife) is that we tend to think of pure in the sense of one of its older meanings and one that seems to have fallen into disuse in the 20th Century (or we would not have a chaine of tanning salos called Pure Tanning!) and is certinly dead in teh 21st.

The word pure was used as a noun meaning dog dung dog eggs, dog shit or whatever one wishes to call it. Dog shitwas used in the tanning industry and apparently got its name for its cleansing properties.

19th Century social commentator Henry Mayhew had this to say pure and pure finders in his book “London Labour and the London Poor” (I found the online text here).

"The pure finders meet with a ready market for all the dogs'-dung they are able to collect, at the numerous tanyards in Bermondsey, where they sell it by the stable bucket full, and get from 8d. to 10d. per bucket, and sometimes from 1s. to 1s.2d. for it, according to its quality. The 'dry limy–looking sort' fetches the highest price at some yards as it is found to possess more of the alkaline or purifying properties; but others are found to prefer the dark moist quality. Strange as it may appear, the preference for a particular kind has suggested to the finders of Pure the idea of adulterating it to a very considerable extent; this is effected by means of mortar broken away from old walls, and mixed up with the whole mass, which it closely resembles……

...The pure collected is used by leather-dressers and tanners, and more especially by those engaged in the manufacture of morocco and kid leather from the skins of old and young goats…. In the manufacture of moroccos and roans the pure is rubbed by the hands of the workman into the skin he is dressing. This is done to 'purify' the leather, I was told by an intelligent leatherdresser, and from that term the word 'pure' has originated. The dung has astringent as well as highly alkaline, or, to use the expression of my informant, 'scouring,' qualities. When the pure has been rubbed into the flesh and grain of the skin (the 'flesh' being originally the interior, and the 'grain' the exterior part of the cuticle), and the skin, thus purified, has been hung up to be dried, the dung removes, as it were, all such moisture as, if allowed to remain, would tend to make the leather unsound or imperfectly dressed.

The number of pure-finders I heard estimated, by a man well acquainted with the tanning and other departments of the leather trade, at from 200 to 250. The finders, I was informed by the same person, collected about a pail-full a day, clearing 6s. a week in the summer -- 1s. and 1s. 2d. being the charge for a pail-full; in the short days of winter, however, and in bad weather, they could not collect five pail-fulls in a week."

While Ahmadinejad certainly did not mean the "dog shit" face of Islam when he used the word pure. However but he and his puppet master Khamenei certainly among those who tarnish it.

Justice for Neda? Somehow I think not

2009-07-02T00:33:00.000+01:00

Hypocrite

On MondayIranian “President” Ahmadinejad called the death of Neda Agha-Soltan "suspicious" and urged the authorities to identify those responsible.

Ahmadinejad told the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, to probe the incident and make the results of his investigations public "The massive propaganda of the foreign media, as well as other evidence, proves the interference of the enemies of the Iranian nation who want to take political advantage and darken the pure face of the Islamic republic," he said in a letter to Shahroudi, according to the Fars news agency.

On the same day Press TV said Agha-Soltan did not die the way the opposition claims. Two people told the channel that there were no security forces in the area when she was killed. Also it claimed that the fatal bullet, from a small calibre pistol is not used by Iranian security forces.

According to a report on Press Tv today Iran's Police Chief, Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam, stated that Neda’s murder was a 'prearranged 'premeditated act of murder'. Ahmadi-Mogadam blamed Arash Hejazi (pictured below) who witnessed Neda's final moments, has fanned the flames of the western media hype. He said that the Iranian Intelligence Ministry is making every effort to discover the whereabouts of Hejazi. "He has fled the country and is working against the Iranian government abroad." In fact Arash Hejazi is postgraduate student at Oxford Brookes University rather than a fugitive. AFP also reports that Arash is also now wanted by Interpol

Scape goat?

According to CNN, Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, has suggested that U.S. intelligence services could be responsible for her death."This death of Neda is very suspicious "My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held?...Well, if the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the government elements, then choosing women is an appropriate choice, because the death of a woman draws more sympathy."

In the light of the above I wonder what the chance of Neda’s murder being pinned on the Basij militia? Somewhere between fat and fuck all, methinks. My money would be put on a joint Mossad.MI6/CIA operation carried out by a crack team consisting of the ghost of Ofra Haza, Emo Phillips and Jade Goody’s mum.

Needless to say they will besmirch the name of a young woman who appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meanwhile a respected author and translator seems to be the object of the regime's bile. No doubt if he was returned to Iran his fate would not be pleasant.

Meanwhile in Phnom Penh Comrade Duch stands trial

2009-07-01T19:45:00.002+01:00

Vann Nath, Tuol Sleng survior, now one of Cambodia's foremost artists.

The trial of Kaing Guek Eav (aka comrade Duch) the commandert of the Khmer Rouge murder centre Toul Sleng or S21 is underway in Cambodia (which apparently and appropriately means Hill of poisonous trees in Khmer). On Monday there were numerous reports of the testimony of Vann Nath, one of the seven people believed to have survived imprisonment inside that evil place.

Vann Nath described how hunger had driven him to eat insects, and said he had also eaten the food beside corpses of starved fellow prisoners. "The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," he told the tribunal, as he broke down in tears. "I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

He said he was fed twice a day, but each meal only consisted of three teaspoons of rice porridge. "We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," he said. "We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals."

He described how prisoners were kept shackled - 20 or 30 of them together - and ordered not to speak or move.

Vann Nath survived due to his skills as a painter. He was forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders - on pain of death. "I thought that if I could do good pictures and they were satisfied with what I painted, they would be happy and I would survive,"

Van Nath's portraits passed muster - and he has since become one of Cambodia's most famous artists, and his work often depicts scenes from Tuol Sleng.

Comrade Duch has admitted responsibility for his role as governor of the jail, and begged forgiveness from his victims. At least his long overdue punishment, when it comes, will have some meaning.

Le Sacre du Printemps

2009-07-01T15:36:00.001+01:00

Choreography by Pina Bausch who died yesterday