10 More Years Of This?

I remember the moment very well. I suppose we all do.  I was chairing a business meeting and someone was checking their phone for an incoming text. "A plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre" he said. I guess most of us assumed it was a light aircraft and we didn't think to much more about it. Not long after he said that another plane had crashed. We then knew that something awful was happening. Three thousand people died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Three hundred of these were non-American, including the terrorists. I went home that evening and was transfixed by what I saw on TV. There was something truly awe inspiring and terrible happening. The next day someone said to me that the world had changed as a result and things would never be the same again. Little did we know.......


Since 2001 we have seen saturation coverage of the events of that day. It is kept to the forefront of our minds through the mainstream populist media.  The graphic images are replayed constantly. The planes hitting the towers, the Falling Man, the terrified citizens of New York. The dominant narrative, which is rarely questioned, is that we are under a continuous and ongoing threat of terrorist attack. We are told that we must be ever vigilant and that we must sacrifice our freedoms. 

One thing is for sure, over the next few days very little will be said about the human cost outside of the US as a direct result of September 11, 2001. It is estimated that over 130,000 civilians have been killed (not injured..... killed) in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Wars of "Enduring Freedom" and "Iraqi Freedom" started. That's more than 40 times the number of deaths which occurred as as direct result of September 11, 2011.

The cost of the war is estimated in the US to be now close to $1.25 trillion. Let me write that down for you: $1,250,000,000,000. It is estimated that both wars has cost the British taxpayer close to £20 billion. Let me write that down for you as well: £20,000,000,000.


And as a result of all this death and money spent, is the world any safer? Are we any closer to resolving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict? Is the secular and non-secular world more unified? Has the world become more free and peaceful? Well we know the answer to these questions so let's move on. Who then, has benefitted from all this destruction?

In 1961, one of the greatest US Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell speech as he was leaving office. He spoke about his grave concern about the emergence of an unaccountable military establishment and large arms industry. This is what he said:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience........ Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications..........."

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together" 

Now, Eisenhower was a respected five star general and the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II. A military man. Not a pinko liberal. And when he looked to the future, he was worried. He has been proven to be right.

The rest, as they say, is history, our history. Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq (twice); Afghanistan, Libya......Today, we are dominated by an unaccountable, global military machine which has no interest in securing peace or, for that matter, finding an accommodation with "terrorism".  We are more afraid today than ever before and that's the way they like it.

So why don't we use the occasion of the 10th anniversary to divert our gaze from the ruins of the World Trade Centre and to ask some searching questions. Should we not try to build a real legacy for the 133,000 (and counting) civilians and the 8,000 soldiers who have died for nothing?

"Sky of love, sky of tears (dream of life)

Sky of blackness and sorrow (dream of life)

Sky of glory and sadness (dream of life)

Sky of mercy, sky of fear (dream of life)

Sky of memory and shadow (dream of life)"

Crimes by EU Citizens Trebled in UK since Bulgaria, Romania Accession

I see the Brits are at it again. Dominic Raab from the Conservative Party has claimed that "Johnny Foreigner" crime has "exploded" since Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU.  Raab is a well known anti-EU "Little Englander" who obviously lacks even a basic understanding of statistics. But why let statistics come in the way of the distorted truth, Dominic?! Especially when you have another agenda?

While crime committed by EU citizens has increased since 2007 the biggest offenders are countries who joined before 2007. Three of the top ten offenders were founder members (France, Italy and The Netherlands) who joined in the 1950's while two others (Ireland and Portugal) joined in the 1970's. The worst offender, Poland, joined in 2004.  So basically what the figures prove is that there is no relationship between enlargement in 2007 and and increase in crimes committed by EU citizens since then. But xenophobes like Raab rarely let facts get in the way of their nasty little prejudices. The other, not inconsiderable point, is what kinds of crime are we talking about here? For instance do the figures include traffic offenses?

Two of the top three offenders joined the EU in 2004 and account for approximately 30% of the overall total. But the increase in crime levels only started after 2007. I wonder would the increase have had anything to do with the global recession? Nah....surely not. What happened was that all the Poles and  Lithuanians embarked on a crime spree when Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. They probably thought the Romanians and Bulgarians would steal everything before they had a chance. That must have been it. Pass me another doughnut Homer, will ya? My brain is starting to hurt again.

Of course what Raab omitted to say was how the UK has benefitted from EU accession and enlargement. But that would required a balanced viewpoint. Since 2007 exports to Bulgaria have increased by 45% and the UK is now the 4th biggest investor here. In general, the Brits have done well since they joined the EU. Now if EU enlargement has been so bad for them why don't they leave?

Raab also omitted to include figures for crimes committed by British citizens in the EU. Now that might be an interesting statistic to see, as anyone who has witnessed the idiotic behaviour of adorable vomiting British tourists to the Black Sea can testify!

For the record, over 9.5 million crimes were recorded in England and Wales last year i.e. about 25,000 a day. The UK is the most crime ridden country in the EU. Only 100 crimes a day are committed by EU citizens. This equates to about 0.004% of total crime in the UK. Bulgarians were responsible for a massive 296 crimes in the UK in 2010 i.e less than 1 a day. They should all be sent home immediately!

I would have thought that Dominic had more important things to to worry about? Like the 99.99% of crime caused by his compatriots. Or maybe he could see what he could do with the hundreds of English rioters and looters? David, can you find something useful for him to do? At least introduce him to some basic statistical concepts such as correlation and causation?

What Makes Your Life Worthwhile.....Lessons from Bhutan

Bill Hicks on Marketing

Let England Shake

The west's asleep, let England shake
Weighted down with silent dead
I fear our blood won't rise again
Won't rise again

England's dancing days are done
Another day, Bobby, for you to come
Home and tell me indifference
Is won, won, won

Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain of death and splash about
Swim back and forth, back, back and laugh out loud

Until the day is ending
And the birds are silent
And the insects are courting
And by the shores heavy stones are falling

Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles and let's head out
To the fountain of death and splash about
Swim back and forth, back, back and laugh out loud

Two more years.....?

Yordanka Fandakova has promised to rid Sofia of half it's stray dogs if she is re-elected in the forthcoming mayoral elections. This is good news. The only question is what has she been doing about the stray dog problem during the last two years of her tenure? While past performance is no guarantee of future performance (in this case let's hope not), we are not filled with any sense of optimism by Fandakova's latest promise. Let's hope her bite is a little more impressive than her bark?

Yordanka also said that stray dogs represented one of Sofia's greatest problems. Well, you could have fooled me! I might have been wrong, but I thought the murder of Yana Krateva in the dimly lit Borisova Gradina Park would have ranked pretty high on her list of Sofia's problems. Or perhaps the abysmal state of some of Sofia's parks (take a stroll around the public urinal that is the Doctor's Garden monument for example) should be an embarrassment for any city. Better still, try take a stroll on any of Sofia's third world footpaths if you are feeling adventurous or, if you really want to test your patience, try it with a child's buggy. Should be an Olympic event, if you ask me.

The abysmal failure of the city to promote Sofia as a significant European weekend tourist destination obviously does not feature on the Mayor's radar either. Well.....it should. Sofia is a city which is unwelcoming and intolerant of foreign tourists (only one tourist information centre buried deep in a subway well out of harm's way? And while I'm on the subject why is the very same information centre promoting Serbia as a tourist destination?).

By the time Sofia's hapless tourists navigate the non existent pedestrianised streets, the 2 metre deep potholes, crazy paving, dog shit, poorly lit streets and the beautiful black and white traffic bollards which adorn every street they must be exhausted and probably seriously injured! As they make their way to the airport they can still look forward to being ripped-off by one of the city's cheeky-chappy taxi drivers.

But at least they don't have to cycle on the non-existent cycleways and dice with death with Sofia's psychopathic Mercedes drivers while the ever vigilant and overweight KAT officers grab a coffee and doughnut at the nearest OMV. Nor, presumably, do they have to wait for 7 weeks for hot water while Sofia Water continue to mis-manage the supply of water to the city. We could also mention the C word (no, not that C!) but what's the point?

We look forward to another two years of the current Mayor. At least, when she leaves, the stray dog population will be back to where it was when she first came to power!