Heading into Christmas holiday period. It's too long. I am reading the Bernard Shaw play Pymalion at the moment. He was groaning about the same thing about 100 years ago: too long and too comercialised.

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Impeach Blair

Just back from a 2 week holiday in Egypt. Had a great time. Did all the touristy things: visited the Pyramids at Gisa, Explored Cairo, cruised the Nile, saw Aswan, Luxor and the the Valleys of the Kings and Queens; Snorkelled in the Red Sea and tried my hand again at board sailing - I was better than expected - it helps to have a low centre of gravity! The Eqyptian people are very hospitable, although the pressure for tips and mock outrage when one tries to negotiate any commercial transaction can at first be overwhelming. Suffered "upset stomach" for most of the 2 weeks, even though we thought we were being cautious about what we ate. My girlfriend has not yet recovered from this, even though we are now almost a week home. I was taking antibiotics following a dental proceedure. I think this helped my recovery. We stayed in the Cairo hotel used by Python, Michael Palin in his BBC "Round the World" programme. In fact we stayed in the very room he occupied. The staff at the Windsor were excellent, especially Front-of-House Manager, Aryan. Great assistance too from Amigo Tours - the handsome Ahmed (my girlfriend insists!) and Friday (which doesn't sound very Egyptian to me).
It was great to have the invaluable local knowledge and good humour of our new London-based Eqyptian friend, Sam.

It's a bad situation when a government apparently puts out a scare story to increase a president's position in the polls. Where is the evidence of inreased threat from militant groups? It all sounds a bit self-serving. It smacks of the WMD scare last year.
I hope Bush has better control of the government than he has of his bicycle. Somehow, I doubt it.

Absence from Blogging
It is some months now since I have blogged. In a nutshell: I was quite depressed about world affairs and particularly the doings of Bush and Blair. I felt that pondering on these issues too long would not be in the best interests of my continued good health.
This may have been a good decision. The "US-led coalition" has been involved in many dark deeds in Iraq, including the terrorism in Feluga, further terrorism shooting up a wedding party and the sytemic abuse and humiliation of "detainees", the unqualified support of the terrorist Sharon and much more- all from the folks who are there to sell "democracy" and liberty to Iraq. It would be a laugh if it weren't so tragic and so many people actually took it seriously.
Meanwhile the media in the UK has been silenced. The BBC has been whipped into place by the white-washed Hutton Report. A legal farrago of the highest degree. The Guardian seems to have lost its balls. Only the Independent, amongst the dailies has maintained a credible line throughout.Blair continues to hoodwink and lie with patrician smarm. The latest nonsense being that there will be a transfer of sovereignty to the Iraquis at the end of June. So this an an admission that the sovereignty now rests with the invaders, that is the US? This will be a bogus transfer to a puppet regime - see Vietnam, Niaragua or indeed any place where the US has exerted its hegemony. It's a long list.
It's not all gloom however. There is a possiblity that the unelected Bush will not be in the White House after November; Blair is becoming deeply unpopular in Britain for his Iraq outrage and other marks of the (thatcher) vampire.
I have just returned from a holiday in Egypt and encountered a number of Americans. Many had endured mild criticism from locals about the policies of their government. Not one of these US citizens was in favour of George Bush, and one a soldier on leave, referred apologetically to the "Invasion of a Iraq". Thank goodness for the ordinary folk of America!
If some of my comments appears a bit strong, then I will again re-iterate my position: I believe in democracy, that the perpetrators of the attacks of the 11 September 2001 must be brought to justice and that Israel has a right to exist.

Recent reading
Over the last 6 months, I have read Will Hutton's "The World We're In", Michael Moore's, "Stupid White Men" and I am currently devouring Naom Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival. America's Quest for Global Dominance." I defy any person with average intelligence and education to read these works and admit that they are not deeply concerned about where the Bush regime is taking the world. Americans should know that the world outside America is frightened by the outrageous behaviour of your government. We are normal law-abiding, peace loving people, who are shocked by a group of very dangerous people at the top of your establishment.
Perhaps we are lucky in that we are not yet assaulted by outrageous "shock-jocks", bullshit from Fox News and crazy media who accept every distortion put out by the Neo-con spin machine.
I have read other books too - including "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss, James Joyce's "Dubliners" (again), Don DeLillo's "Underworld" and "White Noise", and many British and US short stories.