Munawar is Out Of The Office

The last 12 months in summary!

2009-09-28T20:16:00.001+01:00

IMG_0348
Originally uploaded by Munawar Jaffer

Playful Indian Children - India Nov 2008

I must apologise for having fallen off the blogging habit.

It’s been a busy year or so!

Jul '08 - Karachi trip for a family Wedding & to see my Grandfather
Oct '08 - Conference in Pune
Nov ‘08 - Tour of Gujarat & Cutch
Dec ' 08 - prep & training for a new business
Jan ‘09 - Launch of Expense Reduction Analysts
April '09 - Syria & Turkey Trip
May-Sep 09’ - Overseas visitors & Masuma's Final exams
14th Sep '09 - Grandfather passes away

Where does the time go - I'm glad the summer is over - it ain't been pretty.

In an effort to play a little catch-up I thought I’d post a shot of two playful children in Cutch, India - this is where my father was born - a very very poor part of the world which I had immense pleasure in visiting last November.

There girls were not begging, as one might think - they were just happy, and playful, wanting to see their photos. Sitting near the mosque in Mundra, if I recall correctly.

Note the "muck" draining from the building behind into the street.

Laughing Cavalier

2009-09-25T21:30:00.002+01:00

DSC_1751
Originally uploaded by Munawar Jaffer

Saami enjoying himeself after diner in Sharm el Sheik. Sugar high no doubt!

Frog on the Cross - More Mutual Respect less Freedom (to Cause Offence)

2008-09-28T16:58:00.001+01:00

The pope is offended at artwork depicting a frog being crucified. This was reported, but with relatively little comment as far as I know.

Why then when a bearded religious (Muslim) leader is offended at something similar - i.e. cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohamed (S.A.W.) - does the world revolt with condemnation of the already offended preacher?

It’s difficult to compare what is "justifiably" offensive or sensitive - any depiction of the Prophet Mohammed, offends most Muslims, but most depictions of Jesus are fine by Christian standards. We all ought to have enough respect for one another, that if offence is taken, we accept that, and change - whether it is that the Holocaust never took place, frogs on the cross, or cartoons of the Prophet - there ought to be a little more respect, all-round.

Cricket Power Heads for India - 20/20 is the Future

2008-09-23T14:33:00.001+01:00

The IPL has been born, and seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to the ECB!

Millions of dollars have been thrown at IPL, and the players gave cricket fans a delightful show. Teams are backed by super-wealthy high profile/celebrity investors: India's one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, signed for an astonishing $1.5m for six weeks "work" ( http://snipurl.com/3smnd [www_guardian_co_uk] ).

Initial ECB reaction was to ban its players for the IPL - short sighted in my opinion - but I guess they've missed the boat. The IPL is now established wealthy, and in their face - probably a bit like Laksmi Mittal.

The ECB should have set-up their own 20-20 super-league franchise - now that ship has sailed they should at least try and get an invite to the party, and stop pouting - otherwise they'll just be left at port, like a wet Friday in Southampton while the rest head off for a Caribbean cruise.

Investment Banks Broken & Liquidity Dried up - Cats Fat & People Pay: History Repeats

2008-09-22T12:09:00.001+01:00

I've been watching the financial markets with some interest in the last few weeks.

My children were asking me what happened to these banks - which caused me to try explain how banks work to them in simple terms - as if I really understand it!

I told them banking was a great business: you take deposits for savers / investors, and promise to keep it safe - or at least safer than putting it under the mattress. You know that actually all the people will not want all their money all at one, immediately - and so you can start lending it to people for interest or in Islamic banking, for a share of the profits. Usually you lend on the back of assets - so if someone cannot pay their mortgage you get to keep, and dispose of the house. i.e. Commercial Banking. I explained what these banks did wrong was lend to people that were not going to be able to pay them back, and had bought houses that were not worth as much as the original loan. Duh!

So what about investment / merchant banks - well these firms help companies, raise money by issuing shares in their company, or (Corporate) bonds, and advise on sales / purchases / mergers of firms, and trade debt!

Until de-regulation on the 1980's and 90's investment Banks were kept separate from commercial banks - these were separated after the crash of 1929, and heavily regulated. So it should not come as a surprise that one of the factors causing the 1929 crash was securitisation of credit - i.e. the same re-packaging of risk-laden debt. ( http://snipurl.com/3smwt [www_prospect_org] )

I'm certainly no expert, but it seems to me that Investment bankers, and associated businesses, have grown fat off fees trading debt, and now the people will pay:

1. Shareholders have lost out e.g. Fannie Mae Freddie Mack, HBOS

2. The FED, and other (UK) government agencies look like they will be bailing out these firms ( http://snipurl.com/3smyk [www_timesonline_co_uk] ) - this will be several Trillion USD to add to the already Trillion plus committed

3. Recession - when companies like Taylor Woodrow fail to get funding ( http://peek.snipurl.com/3smzh ) the economy will slow down and likely decline

4. unemployment will follow

This morning, just days after various governments made if illegal to "short" financial sticks, I hear the remaining two independent Investment Banks are to become commercial. I certainly will not be queuing to deposit my funds with them - if their balance sheet is so solid why are they changing their model to start taking deposits?

Fifth on the list on the ways the general public will foot the bill could commercial banks going bust, Time to ensure no more than 35K GBP is on deposit with any one (UK) licensed institution ( http://snipurl.com/3sn1n [www_fool_co_uk] ) , and and I'm going to transfer assets to somewhere safer, like the First Bank of Nigeria (sic) !

Petrol (Gas) hits £5 ($10) per Gallon (March '08): Oil will not see 100 USD again

2008-06-23T12:15:00.002+01:00

We've recently returned to "two car" status - my runabout is a lovely drive, but I'm re-thinking the sense in owning such a lively car: I had cause to fill-up both mine an the wife's car in one day in March - the cost - a mighty £143 ($286) - at c.20 mpg for my motor, and with recent UK announcements on car tax, and congestion charges, the costs are becoming extraordinary.

Fuels costs are rising very fast even since march, and last week I attended a seminar which convinced me that Oil will never see $100 a barrel again (well not for long anyway) - so it is not going to get any better. Prices are up another 15% since March!

Still looking on the bright side - it should mean that my next car, another guzzler, will coming down in price fast!

I've seen the bullet holes of extremism: Gordon Brown has let us down

2008-06-22T17:36:00.005+01:00

Though Al-Qaeda were allowed to operate out of Afghanistan by the Taliban, the war in Afghanistan was not self defense IMHO. The Taliban should have been persuaded to remove Al-Qaeda, especially if the Pakistani forces, and intelligence were used - after all it was apparently the American CIA and Pakistani SIS's handiwork to create the Taliban in order to bring some king of law and order to the country post the Soviet war, when Osama Bin Laden was funded by the CIA to train and arm the Mujahideen against the soviets, and then civil war in 1996.

Note Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban and Wahhabism/Sunni based organisations, and have a deeply critical view of Sufi and Shi'a Muslims, calling them as apostates, and often engaging in violence against them - I've seen the bullet holes myself in mosques as far away as suburban Karachi.

It does seem that the reason to go to war in Afghanistan was a pre-cursor to war was a pre-cursor only to going into Iraq.

Why Iraq: Oil. Even Greenspan admits it was so .

How ironic now that Bush is now thinking of military action against Iran - A democratic state (well since the US appointed monarch , The Shah, was overthrown), which is Shia - while the West continues being on great terms with Saudi Arabia - a monarchy, the home of Wahhabism, and most of the 9/11 terrorists. Seems like that the lesson has not been learned.

Meanwhile deaths in Afghanistan of western troops is on the rise, and the county is in the hands of drug lords, and the president Karzai lives up to his derogatory title of Mayor of Kabul. People of Iraq meanwhile pray for the westerners to leave so that they can rebuild their country and infrastructure. Nobody knows how many Iraq's are dead, where the oil has gone, nor what treasures from this historic land have been looted.

Its been five years since the war in Iraq was "won"!

How can the world allow itself to be scared into thinking that is right or just - or that this will contain the ideology that has generated the horrors of 9/11. Gordon Brown had a great opportunity to show courage and great leadership by declaring a withdrawal of forces from these two wars - I'm afraid he appears to have failed his country on day one as Prime Minister.

Paris & Southampton: Paying for housing " in kind", not to mention having a murder in the house

2008-06-22T02:08:00.003+01:00

When I lived in a shared house (i.e. a house of bed-sits) in the Polygon in Southampton in 1986, I had just finished my Degree, and was in my first proper (professional) job. I remember paying £30.00 per week in rent, and sharing with a right lively motley crew of characters:

Bill - a nervous, 40+, reformed (tee-total etc) Geordie ex "merchant sailor" - which I assume at times was code for a variety of various times spent away

Liz - A vivacious young woman, teacher I think, from Portsmouth (or was it Gosling, or something), and non-resident, but frequent guest,

Goz - A skinny local lad, about whom I cannot remember much - he was only around for Liz, and only really interested in one thing - Liz.

Fitzroy - A flamboyant, chatty, rapping Jamaican lawyer from Willesden, London (who happened to go to law-school in Guilford with "Mo" my old friend, and ex president of Newcastle Polytechnic's Asian society - (it is a small world).

Sharon - a local 16 year-old run-away. Bubbly, blonde, erm an easy going kind of girl if you know what I mean.

Heather La-Valle - A blonde, attractive, petite, American 20-something, traveling around the world, currently with

Grant (I think) - an Aussie: These two were selling toys to feed their alcohol habits, and supposedly saving to travel to their next destination.

"Tracy" - I'm afraid her real name slips my mind. She was not around much.

The house was, fun, loud, and always filled with incident.

I remember someone having throwing a little party one night, and it seemed like half of Southampton was there - and none of the residents knew any of the "guests". I remember things started getting really crazy - like a very large black man, well-heeled in a pimpish kind of way asked another tough guy "DO YOU WANT SOME?!", with one fist clenching the guys collar, whist pushing him down hard to the floor, and raising his other large fist in the air ready to pound bone onto the already soaked, dirty carpet.

This was right outside my room doorway. I was scared - not only for myself, but for others in the house. I had to get to bed, as I had a flight to Holland the next day, for work. I locked the door, got some kip, and When I left the next day nearly all the "guests" had left.

What a night - I also had an eventful day/morning. but I'm getting sidetracked. I'll save my squash story for another time too, not to mention the Fraud Squad 6 a.m. raid. Boy I've had my moments of excitement in younger days!

What I meant to write about was this girl, Tracy. Often on a Friday night the landlord would come to collect the rent - and of course she would be short of cash. He would be upstairs talking to her for 20-30 minutes, and then leave seemingly happy enough. Payment in kind!

Liz was an attractive, slim young woman. but not someone we got to know all that well. Just as well....

At the time in Southampton there was a famous murder, and investigation. A local cabbie, last seen less than half a mile from the house had been found murdered. Sure enough it turned out "Tracy's" boyfriend was arrested, and charged. We'd had a murderer in the house!

The news that housing in Paris is getting so tough that landlords are now openly advertising apartments for "contre services" i.e. Property-for-sex ( http://snipurl.com/2mltj ) reminded me of Tracy, and the house near the old Southampton football ground, The Dell (now replaced with St Mary's). Decades later we cycle through good-times and bad once more, but people at the bottom of the ladder face the same struggle, and choices - victims of market dictat.

Windows Live "Suite" - the old dog gets some teeth

2008-03-19T11:34:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago I heard a very interesting interview by some chap hading up the Windows Live team. He spoke quite enthusiastically about various principles ("North Stars") guiding development of the free applications for mail, photos, etc.

I've tried the Live Photo Gallery and it looks great - I'm now using Live writer to make this post.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks - these are impressive tools, and clearly aimed at beating Google at their own game - good to see them finding some teeth, and the competition bringing innovative products to the consumer.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Google,Windows Live,Blog,Blogger,Blogspot,Live Writer,Live Photo Gallery,Live Messenger,technoliogy,innovation,competition

PC Spring Clean - Malware be gone

2008-03-18T20:07:00.004Z

I had a virus sneak on to my XP machine a few days ago - here are a few good tools to purge Windows of such nasties (use in this order makes sense to me)...

XP's Disk Cleanup
CCleaner
CWShredder
Rogue Remover
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware
AVG Anti-Spyware
AVG ant-virus

AVG anti Virus and spybot offer downloads / updates, and stay resident - which are not too bad for freebies.

Kumail Sweeps the Board with Exam Success

2008-03-03T20:15:00.004Z

We got fantastic news last week - Kumail was offered places at all three private schools he applied, and sat exams for. He also got scholarships offers, one of them ‘major’, from two of the three.

I don't think I've ever seen his mum so happy.

Today ("A- day") we got more great news - he was offered what is probably the most sought after school in North London - Q.E. Boys School - the pick of the remaining (state) schools.

The lad has put us in a quandary with all this choice - we need to decide soon – time to do some maths and weigh up pro’s and cons!

Private Schools

St Albans School	Scholarship offer
Merchant Taylors' School	Offer
Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School	Major scholarship

State Schools

Queen Elizabeth’s School	Offer
Watford Grammar School for Boys	Deferred (2nd choice - state schools)
Parmiter's School	Deferred (3rd choice - state schools)

Kumail impressed Merchant Taylors' at interview with his blog but I guess it was not good enough to swing a scholarship offer there :-(

Kudos for Manor Lodge School that Kumail has been at for just over a year now - 22 scholarships for their pupils this year - a bumper crop never to be beaten no doubt.

Smear Campaign

2008-02-24T21:39:00.001Z

DSC_3135
Originally uploaded by Munawar Jaffer

This ol' boy in is immaculate beamer was visibly distraught when this somewhat grubby ol' gal stretched out over his bonnet, forcing a windscreen clean he really did not want.

Not exactly the image sold at the motor shoes i.e. the kind of 'lady' draped over flashy cars.

Gave me a chuckle in Marylebone, and an excuse to test out of this Flickr->Blogger posting actually works.

Tough Luck Jaffer's - maybe not?

2008-02-22T10:35:00.007Z

Boy oh boy does it seem like we've had a run of tough luck in our household of late - though perhaps if I look at it with a 'half glass full' attitude it might not be so bad.

I'm No longer @ UBS - after a really progressive eight years there

Looks like UBS has some serous problems in their business and leadership

It's not healthy to stay at one firm for a long time these days - it was probably the optimum time to exit

The exit has allowed me to spend some time "decompressing" after 14 years of continuous work in the City for Investment banks

I've had two medical 'investigations'

Both of these were troublesome: one serious and one very painful - A reminder of what is important in our lives.
It serves as a reality check of actually how lucky we are to keep good health and too often take it for granted.

My youngest son was denied a place at the local school

My other sons went to Newberries Primary in Radlett - about one mile away: Saami did not get a place there as there were 12 'sibling' applications, and 18 children live closer to the school than us. We have been allocated Meryfield Primary which is c. 4 miles away and has abysmal stats and reports!

I was worried that this might happen, and luckily Saami was assessed and offered a place at Private school Manor Lodge, in Shenley - thou at significant cost - Three children in private school is a significant burden

We are going through our third round of bugs in as many months in addition to chicken pocks over Christmas

We all have to have these bugs sometime - one now is one less later!

I'm hoping Kumail gets a choice of offers for secondary school: we should get results today / this week - lets hope for (continued) good fortune.

Kumail's 11+ exams almost over!

2008-01-29T13:14:00.001Z

Some lovely news this morning: Kumail has passed another 11+ exam - this one was taken yesterday at the historic St Albans School, and he has been invited back for an interview.

It's very pleasing to see the lad's hard work, and preparation pay off: So far he has passed exams 3 of the five exams for six schools he has applied for:

St Albans School

Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School

Queen Elizabeth’s School

Watford Grammar School for Boys

Parmiter's School

Some interviews are also complete - two more this week. Kumail deserves a treat and a good break - but I don’t think I can stretch to the 20,000 pound car that one classmate's father has offered his boy if he does well in his applications!

Footballers and the Radlett Crime Wave

2008-01-24T11:33:00.000Z

I cannot help but notice how the much higher police presence in Radlett, and the surrounding areas, and link it to an increase in robberies, and burglaries in the area.

The affluent area Radlett is most recently attractive for footballers (pretty handy for the Arsenal training grounds in London Colney -

though the rumours about David Beckham living in Radlett are rife, after him being spotted training at the Arsenal facilities, but seem unlikely), as well as the traditional lawyers, accountants, and bankers that seem to dominate the area.

A few weeks ago I got a letter asking me to contribute towards private security that some neighbours have engaged - so much for the local bobby's on the beat!

With the house-price peak/ decline, threat of rail depot development blight, and what seems to be a new crime wave, it's probably time to move!

News feeds

2008-01-24T10:49:00.000Z

In an attempt to encourage people (friends & family) to adopt 'Feeds (rss/atom), here is a link to a little guide courtesy of the BBC.

Here is a feed for this blog which you can use with your chosen 'reader - personally I currently favor the Google Reader.

Hillary KFC - Repost

2008-01-23T09:53:00.002Z

Hillary Clinton: I would not go as far as to say poor Hillary, but this is nasty.

I'm becoming fascinated by the US Political race - oh democracy!

(reposted on 13/March/2008 as the image suspiciously disappeared!!)

Calendar play-pen

2008-01-23T00:09:00.000Z

This calendar can be used to easily add an appointment that will be visible in my Outlook Calendar...

Ideally this is best done after this is used to check my availability....

Windows Seasonal Overconsumption

2008-01-22T15:20:00.003Z

Disk Purge

Windows, and/rather applications installed on windows, are not great at cleaning up disk space.

Is it too much to ask for a base windows system to fit on an 8GB Partition - I only use office, ITunes, and some other basic apps after all – and keep data on a separate partition.

After some hounding around here are some locations/applications worth looking at for recovering some disk space…

a. ITunes - this thing is messy. It keep, and never seems to purge

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer

The iTunes installer seems to re-create what it needs, so purging this is worthwhile.

b. IPod photo cache - if you have changed it within iTunes, you will need to manually remove the old one more info.

c. Uninstalling Photoshop Album leaves some stuff in

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Album

This needs a manual purge - its where that app keeps its catalogue of your photo's.

d. Windows updates

C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download

Can be purged …more info.

e. Compress Service Pack files C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 ….more info.

Jaff featured in Windows in Financial Services Magazine atricle

2007-11-28T10:35:00.000Z

I was interviewed by Windows in Financial Services Magazine regarding the Microsoft acquisition of Parlano and the original UBS Intellectual Property that spun out into Parlano - it's a fast moving world - published now - on an interview about a month ago - but already it's starting to date !

My Photo's @ Flickr

2007-09-14T09:29:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I started using a website to share photos. I happened to have a couple of photo's uploaded to Yahoo Photos - but they are shutting down that old service, and moving to all users & photos Flickr - and offering an unlimited account for those that move - good news: I hope My ISP will be able to deal with the uploads over the next few days/weeks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/munawar for the photos - there an RSS feed too.

Deli.cio.us Web

2007-09-14T05:54:00.000+01:00

I've been using another 2.0 site/service recently - del.icio.us t o try an manage/ share my bookmarks - I think I'll need to start using Digg as well.

Keeping bookmarks on the "server side", or "cloud" seems obvious, but then I've used yahoo's toolbar for that for a while - the ability to share these bookmarks, get some 'hand-chosen' URLs, make recommendations to your fiends (Network), and subscribe to keywords is interesting.

I probably am in the habit of storing too much in the way of bookmarks - but tagging , and being able to search them helps.

These networking/2.0 services are all very transparent - e.g. If I browse and bookmark a site whilst at work it is very obvious. I see no harm in this in my case - Sadly the division between 'work' and 'personal' time is increasingly blurred - but it could trouble some.

Google-Bell

2007-09-14T05:51:00.000+01:00

I've added some Google ads to this my blog site - not so much to earn any cash - just to see learn a little more about how easy this has become, and how effective, and context sensitive advertising can be. BTW I've now earned $0.02 from it! Must declare that on my tax return :-) - It’s a while since I had to do a US one - I hope the UK US tax treaty still holds.

This led me on to include some Google analytics, and other web-site analytics tools to the blog.

Google have been handing out free £30 'vouchers' encouraging people to run ad campaigns - I'll have to give it a try !

I hear the deep pockets of Google are going to stretch to parts of the US EM Spectrum that can go through walls (700 Mhz?) - though that rumour seems to have quietened of late. If Google purchase this, and turn on all that dark fibre that they also, apparently, have, the Telco's (mobile/land/and perhaps even VIOP) and ISP's better start thinking about a new business model !

Social Mobility

2007-07-01T11:08:00.001+01:00

Credit where it's due, my eldest son, Zaahid, worked very hard aged 10, for the '11+" exams, and was lucky enough to get his choice of offers - deciding to go to Merchant Taylors' School, in Northwood.

I helped him prepare for those exams in autumn/winter of 2004 - it was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do: The boy rose to the challenge - and I am hopeful Kumail will Join Zaahid's ate MTS in September 2008.

In a country that apparently has a very low "social mobility", I guess the boys, burdened with their ethnicity [sic] will need all the help they can get!

Sports day, Manor Lodge School

2007-07-01T10:50:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday 20th June I took a couple of ours out of the regular day to go to see my middle, and somewhat talented son, throw and run for Centaurs house, at Manor Lodge School, which he joined in September last year.

He has settled there as well as we could ever have hoped, and is happy there. He said the 'people (children) are nicer, which was very pleasing to hear, "but , dad, you really don't have any idea how hard they make us work!"

Achievement , academic, and otherwise, seems to be very important to Kumail - he's extremely determined, and motivated - he gets it from his mum "She who must be obeyed" . It was very pleasing to see him do well on Sports Day, and get a place on the Cricket team this week to add to his rugby b-team 'cap'.

Networking, Socialising & Assets

2007-06-22T08:22:00.000+01:00

This week I started using a '2.0' site for "networking", called LinkedIn.

I am ever so impressed that we are finally using computers & the web for something as productive as trying to keep people in touch .I think if this kind of tool/site carries on growing in popularity it could become effective in helping firms recruit better, and better value their People, and their Teams.

One of the most destructive things to an organisation is miss-hires: typically, we do not to much traditional reference checking when staff are hired – this tool allows people to have recommendations – it may help in reducing miss-hires, and all that comes with it.

LinkedIn facilitates the registration of some websites in you profile - so I recalled, and referenced this site, and it has encouraged me to start posting to it again.

It was interesting to see how many people I've worked with are already LinkedIn "users" - I reached out to over 100 that I wanted to get/keep in contact with - many have responded, and Its quite interesting to catch-up on what they have been doing. Apparently, it counts as “socialising” for IT-types!

One Telecom start-up, Uma, actually has teams of people mapping out org-charts of companies, and they are targeting staff across many industries to hire, simply, the best talent in the world.

I hope that ultimately 'networking 2.0' helps ensure that those that deserver it - those that are effective in their work, are well/better rewarded – perhaps that the ‘social’ part of LinkedIn :-) .

Jaffer's on Joliday, Javea, Spain, 26 Jul - 2 Aug, 2005

2007-06-20T02:26:00.000+01:00

I'm glad winters over

2007-06-20T02:21:00.000+01:00

Experienced professionals - job boards - Job details

2007-06-19T23:07:00.000+01:00

"Chat Engineer" - ref #25513BR

"Chat Analyst" - ref #18613BR

"Product Manager - Chat & IM initiatives" - ref #21944BR

Japanese PM does Elvis impression at Graceland

2006-07-01T12:53:00.000+01:00

While Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were at Graceland, the PM starting singing Elvis Presley songs during the press conference. If you check out the video of the press conference, he starts singing about halfway through.

read more | digg story

First Stellar Outcast Speeding at Over 1.5 Million Miles Per Hour

2005-02-09T16:49:00.000Z

Star escapes our galaxy

Rookie Imam's

2004-08-29T19:10:00.000+01:00

Following BBC Radio 4’s exploration of the worlds of Britain’s
Rookie Reverends, two new programmes enter the tough and
demanding worlds of Rookie Imams and Rookie Rabbis.

Dirty Wars War against Terrorism ?

2004-08-29T17:31:00.000+01:00

BBC - Radio 4 - Dirty Wars War against Terrorism ?

Super Size Me - Mickey D's effect on your liver, cholesterol, libido, headaches, depression, not to mention heighten

2004-06-26T03:18:00.000+01:00

Super Size Me

The US and Sharon will dictate future of Palestine from the Whitehouse Lawn - so much for the peace "roadmap".

2004-04-14T18:04:00.000+01:00

The New York Times > International > Middle East > Arafat Says U.S. Backing of Sharon Could End Peace Plan

As expected Bush backed Sharon's plan to 'disengage' - which includes keeping the major Jewish settlements in the West Bank. When Bush was asked by the US Press how this was aligned with the peace roadmap, Bush gave his usual intelligent response.

Bush said, the "realities on the ground and in the region have changed greatly" and should be reflected in any final peace deal - i.e. the fact that Israel has large [illegal] groups of settlers in the West Bank means that they should remain.

In almost the same breath he said Palestinian refugees, as part of any final peace deal with the Palestinians, should be settled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan in a lightning victory over Arab armies in the 1967 Middle East war.

For several decades, U.S. administrations have operated on the assumption there could be some adjustments in the borders that existed between Israel and the Arabs before the war.

But Sharon eyes more than a small part of the West Bank, hoping to hold on to five large blocs of Jewish settlements there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/default.stm

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Motorists: less Motorhead, more Mantovani!

2004-04-14T17:54:00.000+01:00

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Motorists: less Motorhead, more Mantovani!

Sick as a Parrot

2004-04-04T19:25:00.000+01:00

I seem to have come down with food poisoning or a really bad tummy bug. Honk count:5. Give dinner a miss tonight !

Murdoch Wins Again!

2004-04-03T20:03:00.000+01:00

Very irritated today to watch Arsenal go out of the FA cup competition in the Semi Final: Arsenal 0-1 Manchester United,

I'm not sure if that, or Pakistan losing to India in the cricket was worse. One thing is for sure, I should not have bothered paying Mr. Murdoch for the privilege!

Saami Hussein

2004-04-03T01:35:00.000+01:00

Hello!

2004-04-03T00:47:00.000+01:00

It's the early hours of Saturday - ahh the weekend at last.

Its been a very heavy week at work, but sort of exciting, and rewarding.

My new baby son, Saami, is growing fast - before going to work I had a moment to splash some water on him while my wife Masuma was giving him a bath - The highlight of my day :-)