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  • SAIFON
  • LONDON
  • DECAYING INFRASTRUCTURE
  • KON TIEW
  • HIV AND AIDS
  • NEIGHBOURS FROM HELL
  • MORE ON SAUDI FINANCE
  • FIERCE CREATURES
  • CREDIT CARDS
  • HOUSES OF CARDS
  • MINDSPORT OLYMPIAD
  • DANGEROUS CATS
  • DIANE AND DODI
  • NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 1997
  • CHARITY MAFIA
  • MEDIA BLITZ
  • QUEEN BEE
  • STREET LASERS
  • THE DEVIL
  • FREEZING CLIMATE AND LOUD BANGS
  • LASER ATTACK
  • BLACK AND WHITE
  • BIRD FLU (H5N1)
  • LILY OF THE VALLEY
  • TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE
  • WATERGATE SEX BOMB THREATENS CLINTON PRESIDENCY
  • FALSE IMPRISONMENT
  • TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE (II)
  • REDUNDANT TECHNOLOGY
  • BAD TIMING
  • SHOOT THE RICH
  • FOOD DIARY
  • REDUNDANT TECHNOLOGY
  • NIPPON CLUB
  • THAI COOK BOOK
  • CAT BITE
  • OCTOBER
  • NOVEMBER
  • BAK.SPC.ORG

    SAIFON


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    Priestess of the People's Century.

    Name: Saifon. From jungles of North Thailand. Waterfalls.

    Age: c 30+

    Sex: Female

    Education: Started business course at college

    Residence: Thailand, Japan, Korea, UK, India, Italy, Bahrein

    Job experience: Secretary, Waitress, Shop keeper (Camden Passage).

    Has taken many excellent photos of travels in Italy, Portugal.

    Owns four cats.

    Worked as secretary for female artist in Japan.

    Worked in tourist industry in Bangkok. Got comissions from

    introducing customers to jewellery shops.

    The chief cat is called Echo. Echo is the mother of the other cats. The 'Tabby' cat child, 'Booby' is bigger than the mother. On showing pictures of her cats to her sister, a dog owner, the sister's children also demanded cats to be kept in their house in Thailand.

    Echo is also the alias of a Go Player. Echo plays on the IGS, and quite likely Echo is a Chinese student in the USA. Echo beat me most times I played him, or her. I only met Echo on the Internet.

    Echo is a name from Greek mythology. Saifon is the sort of woman who would know of the story even if in a version passed into Eastern folklore, or perhaps the original meme was Asiatic, but it entered Greek culture.

    Echo has a mature outlook on life. Barn, Booby and Lam have different characteristics. These three are still contesting the place of second cat. Barn has been injured in a road accident. He gets a lot of attention from his mistress. Booby is away for much of the time. When at home Booby eats a special diet of chicken and rice. Booby disdaains cat food (ca2t foo4d). Lam means sharp. The name of his mistress could be spelled da1o in chinese, with the first tone. That means sword. Lam is the most friendly cat towards strangers. He is also the first to attack.

    None of these cats met spuddy, whose namesake is a bulletin board.

    Priestess of the People's Century.

    The BBC made a historical program called The People's Century. Saifon is not yet in the cast. She should be. Her story covers the leisure and tourism industry. If sex is an art form, then Saifon is one of the supreme artists. She could be said to use sex to empower herself.

    Lin owns four cats (Si Miaow). One is the mother of the other three. These seem quite distinct. One is a large tabby cat. The others are smaller. The black cat with white socks sometimes hides under the bed while we make love. The other cats sit around on the shelving space. That space is used for the video, and the tapes and so on. There are recesses so all the cats can be in the room, and observe the antics of the people. When telepathy is invented, then people will realise the reason for cats.

    The same may be said of Thai ladies from Bangkok to Beirut. Saifon has lived in Japan, Korea, India and Bahrein as well as the United Kingdom.

    Saifon's father was a Thai official. Her mother is partially Chinese. She has mentioned visits from relatives who live in China. Finding a common language can be a problem. The choice is between speaking Thai, Chinese, or English.

    Saifon speaks excellent English. This is a considerable accomplishment in Thailand. On her cruise trip to the Far East the Thai whores on the ship could no longer believe Saifon was a Thai at all. Maybe a Singapore or Hong Kong girl with an education at a British Univiersity. Her English is so good.

    Saifon mentioned that the cruise ship had an epidemic of food poisoning. Mass catering produces such epidemics, and there are also periodic cases of tainted airline food where all of the passengers get sick from salmonella or some other pathogen.

    Saifon studied fine arts. She attended college at Bangkok.

    She has suffered bereavement. A Portobello Road antiques dealer murdered in Chieng Mai. Noi, my first love also suffered bereavement. Her lover was shot by the police. He was killed as revenge for violating the policeman's wife. Noi came from the Chiang Rai province. It must have been quite easy for the policeman to shoot her lover dead. Police impunity is well documented by organisations like Amnesty International. But in the case of Noi's first lover the man could well have deserved his fate. Could it have been boredom which lead that man to seek a dangerous secondary relationship ? Or was it mere social pressure where every man is expected to have several lovers ? Is the policeman's bullet more dangerous than HIV/AIDS ? That depends where you live.

    Saifon is from Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is a town in Thailand, and it is also the password to a computer account. The town is in the North of the country. It is logically part of the Sukothai region, the heartland of the Thai Nation, perhaps like Bavaria to Germany.

    LONDON


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    London was made famous by its Great Plague [1] and then its Great Fire. The twentieth century also saw conflagrations in London when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the 1939-45 war. Following the Second World War London enjoyed further bombing at the hands of the IRA.

    In her book, 'The Coming Plague', Laurie Garret writes:

    By 5 BC Rome's 1 million residents consumed 6000 tons of grains a week. After the fall of the Roman Empire, no city would attain such a size for 1,000 years, when London would become the largest metropolis in history up to that time.

    Howard Marks in his book 'Mr Nice' claims that the late 20th century citizens of London get through two tons of hashish a night. These figures both show how much importance the authors attach to London.

    During the latter half of the twentieth century no Christmas in London was normal unless there were at least rumours of a 'Christmas Bombing Campaign' by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

    To some, London drains the rest of Britain of wealth. The conflict between center and periphery proved too much for the Irish experiment. Particularly galling was the picture of rich landlords living it up in luxury while the peasants starved to death. This sort of thing still seems to happen whenever rich foreigners acquire property here. They are bleeding the poor of their own country, or other labour supplying countries in order to live it up in the capital city. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait spring to mind.

    An important Saudi financier is Talal, nephew of Saud. His investments have included a slice of Citybank in USA, a holding in the Paris Disneyland and Canary Wharf in London. The Bayswater area of London is full of Saudis. Whiteleys, the big shopping center on Queensawy reminds me of the Al Akharia center in Riyadh.

    London has developed from a city famous for its writers to becoming a publishing center. As always there is competition with the Netherlands where censorship is not practiced so much. The trend of English language communication is towards 'Dumbing Down'. As tabloid values pervade the English speaking media, it will become very difficult to get an objective picture of the world. The British TV market is tightly protected with special teams of lawyers assembled to keep out foreign pornography, or even the broadcast of English sports events. In the case of pornography the lawyers are financed by the government, while in the case of sports coverage they are paid by the owners of the transmission rights for the games.

    De Quincy gave a good account of life in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He attempted to describe street life during that period. Along with Boswell and Defoe he wrote about life as it is.

    The streets of London are dotted with plaques on buildings describing the famous people who lived there. But the most forgotten philosopher is Karl Marx. While Karl Marx lived in London his financial backer and co-author was based in Manchester. Manchester enjoyed the greatest ever IRA bomb in 1996. It also suffered the loss of the 1994 World Chess Champiomship when the British challenger, Nigel Short, reneged on a deal put together by the Manchester city authorities to sponsor the event.

    Salman Rushdie described London in his controversial book, 'The Satanic Verses'. He devoted a whole section of the book to the subtitle Ellowen Deeowen. The mere fact that the name could enter South Asian spelling games shows the power of the place.

    London now has the support of a famous ecological warrior called 'Swampey' who wishes to employ direct action in preventing the expansion of Manchester airport.

    LOVE versus GAMES

    Is love a game ? The Yes/No answer is a serious philosophical point. It can wreck friendships. Saifon did not yet hear of the term 'Go widow'. There are quite a few computer widows in the 1990s. The computer game robs the lady of her spouse.

    DECAYING INFRASTRUCTURE


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    The London Tube is the name of the underground railway, of which much was started in the nineteenth century. In the 1980s there was a fire followed by explosion of the hot gases at Kings Cross, a major nexus of the system (November, 1987). Since then cigarette smoking has been banned anywhere in the system.

    On 19th March 1997 I ventured a journey from Bayswater to Vauxhall seeking to meet some internet contacts who failed to show up. The journey seemed quite simple. Take the Central Line to Oxford circus, then change to the Victoria line to follow a course to the South Bank of the river Thames. That should be a forty minute journey, but as usual a gross underestimate. The platform for the Victoria Line at Oxford Circus was packed. Time for a cigarette. Despite the one thousand pound fine and presence of hundreds of pissed off witnesses I lit up, and on being admonished by a young man claimed that the system was going to pot, and that I needed my fix of nicotine. After suggesting that I was smoking a spliff the young man also lit up one of his own cigarettes, taken from a packet. His Persian girlfriend looked on dissaprovingly but said little.

    The station platform was crowded because all the trains had to run with extra caution. Cracks had been found somewhere on the line. Some trains passed the station, and they were already so full that few people could board them. Many people on the platform had seen several trains pass. The announcements on the tannoy were helpful, suggesting that people move to the rear end of the platform, further away from the entrance. This was easily possible by walking down the platform of the other direction, and then crossing via a connecting tunnel.

    The travelling public are used to delays. Often train doors refuse to close, and a train has to be abandoned. There are all sorts of problems. The mere threat of the IRA leads to posters telling people what to do if they see suspicious bags or packages. Litter bins have been removed from many platforms to prevent the IRA from hiding bombs there.

    But there have been no sarin gas attacks. Japan has had the high-tech efforts of Aum Shinryoko (1995) while Paris has seen the gas cylinder bombs of the Algerian Islamicist sympathisers (1995-6), but the London tube suffered its worst outrage through inadequate maintenance. One of the senior executives at the time of the 1987 explosion was given a job supervising the safety of the Channel tunnel. That was blighted by fire in 1996.

    Transport policies in the UK have been politicised, and especially in the 1990s the choice between individual and public transport has come under scrutiny. Because of the increase in poverty and subsequent rise in violent crime, some people have become reluctant to use public transport. This means more cars, at least in theory. Car factories are closing down all over Europe because of excess capacity, but the UK government planners have been trying to make sure the motor car remains king.

    Out of town shopping centers have changed the map of England, and also added to the blight of many inner city communities. The 'Flight to the Suburbs' has provoked some churchmen to say that it is OK to steal from supermarkets. The damage to communities caused by excessive reliance on the motorcar is incalculable. The damage is not as bad as that inflicted by mortars and cluster bombs, but the closure of neighbourhood shops is miserable.

    Many young people, some of whom grew up under the Thatcher Regime (1979-90) are quite appalled by this transport policy, and they have taken direct action to prevent the expansion of the road network. They do this because all of the legalistic methods of opposition are easily countered by the well organised and financially well off 'Road Lobby'. These road builders in the UK have been staunch supporters of the ruling Conservative Party, and are easily able to get the permission to destroy the habitat of vanishing species of wildlife.

    The road protesters have also developed their own logic, much of which seems to be based on a fundamentalist opposition to cement. Despite these protests cummunal transport suffers, and one of the last acts of the Conservative government was the privatisation of the rail system. The new owners then proceded to fire safety staff and drivers and reduce services while increasing prices in order to rip-off the public.

    The British government claim that this is the best way to go, and their spokesmen quite rightly point out that England's continental rivals, France and Germany, are facing great problems in retaining state owned railways. A planned infrastructure is expensive, and public borrowing is restricted by the criteria selected for European Monetary Union (EMU).

    In the meantime the London Tube suffers a lack of investment, and that is all too obvious to its passengers. Other inconveniences are a normal part of any urban transport system. The electrified line in front of an oncoming train is an excellent place for suicide. Some tunnels or train cars form a well protected environment for robbery. March 1997 saw an armed hold up incident near Queen's Park in Northern London. Changing fashions in psychiatric care, motivated mainly by budget cutting excercises, have lead to crazy people committing murder on The Tube.

    During the 1950s there was a more relaxed attitude where not only could people smoke anywhere they wanted, but government scientists were able to conduct experiments to test the dispersal of chemical-biological warfare agents (dummies) on the system.

    KON TIEW


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    A Thai phrase for a single person. It's in their Pop Songs. But the Thais also listen to English songs. How many of these songs are about singles. In English you can say 'Singles Bar', perhaps.

    HIV AND AIDS


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    Decca Aitkenhead[Guardian 28/03/96]

    British businessmen pay 20 LSTG extra to have sex without a condom. Repressive politicians, and also vigilante groups seek to stigmatise HIV+ people. The fear of the disease is often worse than the disease itself, while the arrogance of those men who avoid safe sex translates directly into miserable and exploitative attitudes to their employees and customers.

    Laurie Garrett uses the word 'Thirdworldization' to describe the spread of HIV/AIDS and certainly business globalisation has its flip side in the increasing flows of microbes as opposed to money.

    From an American perspective 'Thirdworldization' means selective statistical reporting. Towards the end of the 1980s mortality rates were calculated for sub-populations within the USA. The figures showed black people in Harlem had a lower life expectency than the national figure for Bangla-Desh, one of the World's poorest countries. Many Harvard based economists have drawn on this methodology since then, and the true debates about poverty and inequality have been confined to the academic ghetto while politicians go on to stigmatise the poor, and organise massacres as in Ruwanda or former Yugoslavia, or to advocate mass incarceration as in the USA and more recently the UK [1].

    Amartya Sen pioneered this research, and he has recently been appointed Master of Trinty College Cambridge (1997).

    The Global media are prepared to do anything they can in order to divert the attention of the masses from the real issues, hoping no doubt to create a sort of information underclass which is effectivly kept in ignorance. This attitude is called the 'Mushroom Treatment' by cynical media professionals: 'Keep Them in the dark, and cover them in Shit'. Repressive regimes all over Asia from Beijing to Riyadh enjoy the support of Western media magnates who know that censorship is helpful to any monopolistic provider.

    In fact there is still a precarious balance between good and evil, or at least truth and falsehood. Sex education has to a large extent succeeded in places like Thailand and San Francisco, despite opposition from conservative elements. There has also been resistance in some places to the 'Drug War' phenomenon as recent reformist votes in Arizona and California are showing.

    Laurie Garrett goes on to describe links between poverty, despair and disease. This seems obvious to many, but there are many well qualified academics who appear to seek to widen the portals to disease by brutal economic policies. Even the medical profession is divided. Animal to Man transplant operations go ahead while microbiologists anxiously await the species jump of killer bugs which could exploit medically aided transmission.

    In the meantime the media concentrate on issues such as human cloning and 'gay genes' where ignorant bishops and politicians can pontificate about scientific matters, with the help of the capitalist media.

    Of course the transplant operations are popular because the newspapers can run their 'sick kid' stories. There is nothing better than a 'sick kid' story to inflame the passions of the masses. Better a white kid, rather than a landmine victim in some country whose name begins with an 'A' for Afghanistan or Angola, 'B' for Burma or 'C' for Cambodia. Be the time we get to 'Z' for Zambia or Zaire the problems are HIV/AIDS or kleptocracy.

    The 'Sick Kid' stories are excellent for those 'Family Values' groups which want to model the rest of the world in their own image. A single rich child with a rare disease will perhaps get a treatment costing more than the health budget for a whole municipality in Africa.

    Commercial pressures have lead to many such ethical anomolies. The rich and powerful decide what diseases get treated, and often hire lawyers to show the absence of disease when compensation claims are involved.

    NEIGHBOURS FROM HELL


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    Saifon calls time on drunken thugs.

    Following the throwing of garbage out of the windows of her bloc Saifon went up the stairs and confronted the people living above her. I suspect they are Italians, but I cannot be sure. When these neghbours persisted with the bad behaviour she went and called the police. They quickly responded, and that is reassuring. They at least show an interest. Saifon can be quite assertive at times.

    This area is not some miserable council estate, but a classical square (Prince's Square) in Bayswater, London. Anti-social behaviour is not unknown here. I personally witnessed a group of Eastern European youths walking down Hereford Road, and one of them pulled a box of drinks from a parked van. Feeling rather intimidated after seeing Martin Bell's commentaries I did nothing. Were they Ustase or Chetniks rampaging over London ? There are surely many people living in this area who have witnessed extreme violence in Mogadishu or Kashmir or elsewhere. Many of the traffic wardens here are obviously African. Just like the people from Eritrea and Sudan who I knew in Riyadh.

    MORE ON SAUDI FINANCE


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    A former British politician and cabinet minister abandoned a libel action after evidence emerged to prove him a liar on who paid a particular hotel bill. Jonathan Aitken has been singled out although lying about a hotel bill seems a small infraction compared with supporting Saddam Hussein, or Zionist shock-troops.

    Other more colourful allegations were made: the supply of call girls to entertain Arab visitors to the English countryside. All of this was to lubricate trade deals. If the man were Japanese his actions would be thought of as quite normal and patriotic.

    His wife apparently abandoned him not because of infidelity, but over his efforts to get her to back up his hotel story. The Guardian Newspaper apparently managed to secure the co-operation of an airline and a car rental company in order to trace the man's itinary, along with the journeys of his wife and daughter.

    Jonathan Aitken was connected with Al-Bilad, a company owned by the Saudi royal family. He is extremely rich but now people are calling to have him locked up in jail.

    There seems something contrived about the vendetta between the Guardian and certain members of the past Tory government. No one is going to face charges of conspiracy to wage war. Saddam Hussein remains in power, and the Americans and English admit a few Iraqi refugees via the back door while most of their Arab compatriots starve in misery.

    Rather than a jail sentence for Jonathan Aitken, some sort of truth commission which could call on the whole Thatcher regime for evidence would be a more appropriate follow-up.

    FIERCE CREATURES


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    Saifon revealed another name to me recently. Thais often do seem to give nicknames to foreigners. Shortly after she got scratched and bitten by one of the cats. The wound was very nasty, and required hospital treatment. Luckily it subsided, but the scars remain, and to a suspicious customer, she would have to explain away the cat scratch marks and insist they were not self inflicted wounds.

    Kitchen implements and broken glass as well a nails in the floor are also potential hazards, as well a moving vehicles in the streets.

    Lam was the perpetrator of this violent attack. He had been facing down another of the cats, and Saifon tried to intervene. Barn, the shyest, and also a road accident victim, was the object of Lam's agression. But in the end he bit and scratched his mistress on the hand, and scratched her arm. The palm was bitten on the part known as the Mount of Venus by hand readers. There were two deep incisions from the cat's teeth which are normally used for severing the spinal cords of rodents, at the neck. On the morning after the incident, Saifon phoned me, and I tried to persuade her to seek hospital treatment. Luckily another person came round and waited with her in the hospital casualty department. I told her I had a chinese lesson that morning.

    In the end she visited me in order to check out the story.

    The wounds healed, but only after a terrible swelling of the whole arm. It shows just how dangerous cats can be. It shows that cats need respect. The trouble is that some cats get more respect than others. Saifon's often fight each other, and they are very shy when in the street.

    There are some cats which will let almost anyone stroke them. Other cats almost always run away from strangers.

    CREDIT CARDS


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    Saifon has some credit cards, and does not always pay on time. That was no excuse for Diner's Club to pass on an invoice originating in California. When Saifon complained that she had not spent the money then the credit card company sent a form letter asking if she would like to add another name to the authorised list of users. In the meantime another invoice appeared from Chicago, also in the USA, and again without comment from the company.

    While it is well known that organised gangs try to defraud the big credit card companies, this message does not yet appear to have percolated to their English offices.

    Saifon had travelled to Thailand in November in 1996, and used her credit card there. In fact Thailand is known for credit card fraud. A friend of mine, Ricky McShane of Belfast had also got false invoices after a trip to Thailand, then India, but he was able to sort out the problem on return to Northern Ireland. Maybe the bank clerks and credit card companies are more aware of organised crime there.

    Paco, another Belfast friend, had also travelled to USA and used a VISA card. All of the party had enjoyed partnership in the use of their credit cards. Hotel staff can see both a card number, and a date of birth in a passport, and build up a file of false ID data to be used over the telephone.

    The banks have indemnity funds to cover such fraud, but they still want more and more people to use their credit cards, or plastic money, or even smart money. Smart money of course is not classless. The poorest people in the world are still those outside the cash economy. In particular, it is those who are denied credit.

    HOUSES OF CARDS


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    Some of the neighbours here are Albanians. Most belong to an earlier wave of refugees, following the Balkan civil wars of the early 1990s. Some lived in Italy before arriving in the UK.

    At the end of 1996 the pyramid selling schemes which dominated the Albanian economy started to fail. By the beginning of 1997 the state was in turmoil, and a NATO intervention force was cobbled together. A state of anarchy has persisted, and the NATO troops served mostly in protecting themselves.

    In South East Asia an economic collapse of much greater magnitude has taken place. Many Thai banks have already failed since the beginning of July, and Saifon's sister is due to arrive in London to have a look round.

    According to financial experts the collapse took place because the property sector was over valued. This meant that the assets of the banks were overrated. Bangkok experienced furious growth at the beginning of the 1990s. Everyone knew that the country owed a lot of money even in the 1980s, but that did not appear to be much of a problem until just one day.

    It is said about the fall of the Republic of Venice that the Venetians lost in a single day that which had taken four hundred years to build. In this case it was a military venture which failed, but the case of modern day Thailand is more difficult to explain.

    Some Malaysian commentators have laid charges against George Soros, the financial genius associated with speculation against the British Pound Sterling in 1992. What they are really saying is that a system is very weak if it can be wrecked by just one man.

    Of course many economic and financial systems are weak, despite the assurances of the men in suits. Marx said it all in the 1800s. He attempted to explain much, but he did not achieve for economics that which was done to physics in the mid twentieth century. Following Einstein's equation for energy a warlike application was found within just half a lifetime. Einstein himself lived to see it happen. The strong economic system of the USA was able to finance the Manhattan Project and build atom-bombs on a timescale that seems incredibly short compared with many civilian infrastructure projects.

    MINDSPORT OLYMPIAD


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    David Levy

    Raymond Keene

    Tony Buzan

    The three people named above had been thinking of a Mindsport Olympiad for some time. In 1996 they decided to act, and quickly got the agreement of The Royal Festival Hall to provide the venue, and of Sir Brian Tovey to act as chairman.

    During my time in London from 1970-73 I actually played Raymond Keene in the King's Head Pub on Moscow Road. The King's Head Chess club still exists in Bayswater, but at the Durham Castle, at the back of Westbourne Grove. David Levy is famous for a bet he made that he could never be beaten at Chess by a computer, before a certain date. The outcome of the match between Deep Blue (IBM computer) and Gary Kasparov indicates that David's bet was finely timed. If he had set a later date, he would have had to pay up.

    I do not know anything of Tony Buzan.

    Sir Brian Tovey was a former director of the GCHQ, the British equivalent of the USA's National Security Agency. GCHQ provided employment to a host of the UK's strongest chess players during the 1940s to the 1970s. During the 1939-45 war many of Europe's strongest chess players were recruited by the SIGINT (Signals Intelligence Service).

    During the 1980s GCHQ became better known as an employer where trade union activity was banned. Macho management combined with cost cutting excercises must have put many on the defensive.

    The Mindsport Olympiad managed to attract significant international participation. The classical games included Go (Wei-Qi), Chess, Chinese chess (Xiang-Qi), Backgammon, Mah Jong and Owari, an African game. There was also a series of Bridge events.

    Minority groups were well represented. The Chess tournament had significant participation by black people, while the Owari event seemed dominated by Afro-Caribbean women who took two of the top three places.

    The Go events were dominated by two Chinese: Guo Zuan, now a Netherlands citizen, and Zhang Shutei, an opthalmogist based in London. The Chinese Chess contingent included a large number of Viet-Namese who had travelled over from Paris.

    There were also many more modern games represented there. The prize money for the big events was donated by Skandia, a large Swedish insurance group. They had apparently used the concept of 'Intellectual Capital' in much of their promotional literature and on being approached by the organisers agreed to put up much of the prize fund.

    The event attracted 2000 participants from 58 different countries. Media coverage included TV crews from Brazil and China. By my own personal estimate the prize fund must have been at least quarter of a million pounds sterling. Divided amongst 2000, that is 125 pounds each. The entry fees for the tournaments were mostly set at 17.50 or 25.00 pounds sterling.

    Other big sponsors included ICL/Fujitsu (Cybercafe, Programming Competion), Silicon Graphics, British Airways (Concorde tickets in prize fund) and The Times (crossword contest). Clearly the organising committee had worked very hard.

    Most tournaments were organised in two playing sessions: from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, and then from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. At ten o'clock there was an opening ceremony when the sound system played some 'space music' interspersed with strong rolling percussion beats. The closing ceremony at eight (or half past eight) included prize giving for the completed contests.

    DANGEROUS CATS


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    Lam is a Thai word for sharp. The cat was trying to sleep on the carrying case for this computer. When I tried to take the case and pack up the computer, the cat attacked me. Lam used both teeth and claws to such an extent as to inflict pain, but not such as to cause penetration of either teeth or claws. The judgement of the cat was very finely balanced. The first cat to greet strangers warmly is also the first cat to demand respect, and deliniate territory.

    DIANE AND DODI


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    The two lovers died in a car crash in Paris on the 31st August 1997. The accident was totally unexpected, and apparently gross stupidity was much to blame. The car was part of a high-speed chase on a public road. In fact the French State has the power to close roads for VIPs but it was not the case on that night. The princess was in Paris, to visit her lover, the son of Mohamed Al Fayed.

    Although Gulf Arabs are present in London in large numbers and are conspicuous by their powers of consumption, Egyptians are less prominent in English life. Since the advent of mass transport, and the Suez Canal, there have always been Egyptians in London. Generally they were not so rich. One exception seems to have been Mohamed Al Fayed, who, with his brother, bought the Harrods Store chain.

    This purchase was controversial, because it was vehemently opposed by a metals magnate called 'Tiny Rowland'. For a while a vehement press campaign was waged against the Al Fayed brothers, but they survived. One of the main allegations is that the two Egyptians were merely frontmen for Abdurrassalem, the Sultan of Brunei, reputed to be one of the richest men in the world.

    Sub-conspiracies involving the Fayed family have been drawn out over at least a decade in the UK. Here certain investigations proceed at a snail's pace. Many of the ringleaders were already showering Saddam Hussein with arms in order to avenge Mossadegh and the Teheran Hostage Crisis. These emerged as 'Arms to Iraq' scandals following the Gulf War, and a change in the political climate concerning Iraq.

    It is paradoxical that the very 1984 of Orwell already saw the equivalent of the British 'Ministry of Truth' proclaiming that Iran was always the enemy, and that Iraq was a useful ally. This is certainly the message propagated on many Gulf Arabs.

    During the 1980s the British Ministry of Defence was very interested in supplying Iraq with arms. The UK was competing with France and the USA to outsell the Communist-bloc consisting of Russia and China. The arms trade saw high growth during the 1980s. Powerful people would arrange rendez-vous with top military officials and advisers. The oil money was being recycled in arms, and the common people had little consent in this dealing.

    Sometimes the rich did not tell the truth as to where arms were really going. Arms for Saudi Arabia, or Jordan might end up in Iraq or Afghanistan. A very large scale business was founded on lies and deception. There were even some fairly large attempted arms deals where the self styled brokers would just take the advance payment and run. Many false papertrails were set up to disguise these lies and deceptions. Some of these lead to the House of Fayed.

    Jonathan Aitken featured in some of these deceptions. The really surprising thing is that first the Fayeds actually payed the government minister small bribes, but later on the witnesses amicably denounced the minister as a venal man, while hanging on to their own jobs. No one really examined the motives of these witnesses, nor any possible pressures put on them. In a deregulated society with high unemployment jobs are scarce, so almost any employer can put a lot of pressure on the staff.

    The Fayeds also have business with the British Home Office. The two brothers did not quite qualify for citizenship, although they have the right of residence here. There is supposed to be bad feeling them, and the former Tory Home Secretarty, Michael Howard. Undoubtedly they feel somewhat let down.

    The death of the son Dodi is less noted than that of his more famous consort. But both of the victims had made enemies. Conspiracy theorists will have an exciting time trying to unravel the web of lies which surrounds so many of the rich and powerful. There are plenty of questions to be asked.

    According to the obituary for Dodi, which appeared in the Guardian, the mother came from a prominent family. Adnan Kashoggi was a famous arms dealer and also appeared in a New York court over corruption charges connected with the evil deeds of the Marcos regime in the Philippines. Dodi's mother was the sister of Adnan Kashoggi.

    Although Adnan was nominally a Saudi citizen, that means little about his family origins. Many merchant families have links in large groups of Middle Eastern countries. Saudi Arabia is seen by many as a good place to acquire citizenship nowadays. Its oil wealth means that many can enjoy a USA style standard of living, but without the fear of street crime. There may be other fears, but that is another story.

    An American or European education is common amomgst the sons of the elite in many countries of the World. In the case of Dodi he attended a military school, and was briefly in the service of an Emirate airforce. His education must have included some navigation and engineering skills, as well as blind obedience and combat skills.

    Later on Dodi invested money in Hollywood, and co-produced the Oscar Winning film 'Chariots of Fire', along with David Puttnam. As a co-producer he would have been able to hand out lots of contracts to his friends. Such a job is an excellent means of building an economic power-base or strengthening existing financial relationships.

    NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 1997


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    The Notting Hill Carnival is one of the biggest street parties in Europe. The 1997 event passed of very well with a very relaxed atmosphere. Many people were drinking, but the floats and bands kept to their place, and unlike the Royal Car Chase in Paris, the vehicles were under control. I even saw a heavy truck being driven by a black lady just as small as Saifon.

    I left the carnival at about ten o'clock and because I had slept all day I had decided to pass Whiteley's. When I left I could see here curtains drawn, and inferred she was entertaining a customer. Although I often go to Whiteley's to use the Internet Cafe, I did not have any particular reason to go that night, because I often go to Queensway to purchase cigarettes or food. On the way back I decided to phone Saifon to see whether she was free.

    Crazy though it seems we often play Go-Moku together. That game was not presented at the Mindsport Olympiad, because it is logically too simple. There is a forced win for Black. As a result the game is played as Renju, with some additional rules about open threes, and overlines.

    Saifon had learnt Go-Moku, along with Darts in a Thai bar somewhere in Bangkok. She was one of the strongest players amongst those who knew the game. She had even brought down my magnetic Go set to her flat so that we could play there.

    On the way back from Whiteleys I phoned Saifon.

    She picked up the reciever and said 'Come quickly, I am in danger'.

    I walked back. Even if the matter was important, then it was best to arrive with some reserves of strength. I knew the danger that could arise from an over-stayer. Anyone who has regular house guests must know how to handle people. I respected Saifon's ability, and still do really.

    Although I have the key, a walked down the steps, rang the bell and announced myself. Saifon opened the door herself, and I went in the room and saw another man, naked, on the bed. The room was in some dissarray, and Saifon said the man had kept her imprisoned and tried to strangle her. There were some bruises on her body, and also she complained of neck pain.

    I sat down, and kept an open path between the other man and the door. Saifon was shouting that the man had tried to rape her, and had kept her from making calls. I talked to the man, and asked his name. I also said I was a gambler, and asked him his occupation. He said he was a mechanic specialising in Deisel engines.

    I wanted to get him out of the house but without the use of force. This means staying detached, so I did not condemn except to say that what the man had done was not good. I had also mentioned that I come from Belfast to try and make him fear me a bit.

    After we got the man out, I discussed with Saifon and asked what she wanted us to do. I was keen that she get some counselling, and looked for the Rape Crisis Center in the telephone book. I decided that no rape had taken place, and that assault and false imprisonment were the obvious charges to be levelled at the man.

    One reason for this is lack of faith in the English Criminal Justice system. Although it seemed obvious that she had been assaulted she still seemed in much better shape than after her attack by Lam, a pet cat. That incident had required a rapid trip to casualty, but as both of us knew, 'Morning After Contraception' can be done in office hours.

    I also had asked whether she wanted to press charges.

    At the time she had said 'No'.

    For myself I thought recourse to law unlikely to improve matters.

    The assault is equivalent to that of a bar room brawl. In cases where a fight is self-limiting the police are not always called. In many cases of assault the culprit is arrested at the scene, but not always. Sometimes detective work is required.

    The assault was potentially lethal, because strangulation was involved. But then mosquito bites can also kill, along with the AIDS virus (HIV). The man is a danger to prostitutes, and he could be traced.

    The next day I asked Saifon whether she needed contraception. She denied this and added that it was not necessary. She had faught the man and defended herself against being raped, but with wounds to prove it.

    The bruises healed well, and will be overlain with other bruises and cat scratches in time. Today she bought some pig's blood in the local Thai Shop. Although emaciated, Saifon is very beautiful, and she has had an eating disorder for a long time. Her eating habits are ruinously expensive, but not rapidly life threatening.

    Since the assault she has had a marked mood change, and this is evident to everyone. Unfortunately she has previously reported forgetting things, and other inexplicable lapses of memory. She regularly loses things in taxis, and this can be confirmed by many witnesses.

    CHARITY MAFIA


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    The death of Princess Diana, followed closely by that of Mother Theresa prompts an examination of charities. Saifon thinks that musicians who play for free at charity events are sincere lovers of mankind. A more cynical view is that the musicians are just seeking free publicity and image by being associated with a good cause.

    Princess Diane had been a patron of many charities, but what exactly is a charity. In theory people could set up charities to allow tax free research into why Ayrans were superior to Jews, and that good eugenic practices along with a vigorous 'law and order policy' could establish a perfect state of human happiness for 'god's chosen people' whoever they may be.

    In the UK a character called Des Wilson used to run a charity for the homeless. The man is now a corporate adviser, and a respected guru of New Labour, and yet there are far mor homeless on the streets than when Des Wilson started. A cynic would have said that Des Wilson had better gone and lived in Amazonia.

    Greenpeace is a charity in the UK, and yet they can put crowds on the streets, just like Sinn Fein. Orchestrated mob violence is also a speciality of the Triads, and the Nazis. The patrons of many charities often include the so-called 'Great and the Good'. This will include virtually ennobled pop-stars such as Elton John as well as successful businessmen such as Alan Sugar and Richard Branson.

    In the UK donating to charity is equivalent to spending time in a Buddhist monastry, or giving up food for a few days of fasting. The rich can just pay money to escape these obligations, so giving to charity becomes a substitute. Since God made life so short, those who exploit most run out of time to see to their duties, so the 'Give to Charity'. This often means sponsoring self gratifying projects of little value to science. Imran Khan's venture is a typical example of the 'Sick Kid Syndrome' and yet it captivated Princess Diana. It is difficult to imagine how a cancer clinic in Pakistan can possibly bring much improvement to the country's problems.

    People like Mother Theresa and Princess Diana may help people to die more easily, but other charities may be sharply critical of euthanasia legalisation or other progressive ideas. Many charities are really just set up to hide the fact that world economic system is designed to be unfair and unjust by those with the greatest command of economic resources. They want the poor to accept their fate and die gracefully.

    Normally they show few concerns for demographics. That means counting every human as equal. But charities tend to be run by the rich who see the poor as some sort of problem. A minority of poor people who set up charities do become rich as trustees. These people are exceptions. Charities are simply non-profit organisations who wish to promote their own agenda.

    Aum Shinryiko had set itself up as a charity in Japan. For some reason its major trustee decided Japanese society would be vastly improved by the mass extermination, by sarin gas, of commuters and 'sarary man' on the Tokyo Metro. His plans failed, but it goes to show that just because an organisation calls itself a charity, it does not necessarily mean that it is also good.

    MEDIA BLITZ


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    The Death of a Princess caused regular media reporting in the UK to come to a full stop. The Ulster Unionists favourite slogan , the single word 'No', was effectively stifled for a whole week. Of course they all wanted to go on TV and explain they could not possibly sit at the same table as Sinn Fein. The media actually wanted to create the impression that the whole country mourned the late Princess, but was that really true ? The BBC did admit to receiving a rather hostile reaction from its more articulate customers who actually complain about programs. The changed schedules were a cause of much criticism, and some listeners compared the British Media to that seen in the days of Stalin.

    Whatever happened is a clear case of media consensus. Few editors would dare to defy percieved public opinion by criticising the glitzy lifestyle of the elite. But the nation is divided. It's no longer a 'Them' and 'Us' situation but something like a 30% 30% 40% division between people with strong opinions either way and a number who feel powerless to influence events, and who are politically apathetic. Some theorists describe the apathetic and powerless as the 'Underclass'.

    Of course Diana did appear to relate to the powerless. Her visits to Angola and Bosnia touched many who had previously had little sympathy to some of her causes. The media also had to be more carefully managed on these trips. Few of the paperazzi would be so keen to walk into the middle of a minefield to get a better vantage point. Her attention to the sick and the homeless was also reported along with her patronage of an up-market excercise club.

    The fact is that the press could get some really fantastic pictures of women rock-climbers but that is no longer so fashionable after the media antics of that German woman, Reifenstahl, in the 1930s. For the British the 'Blood-Line' is often more important than physique. Many of the Royal Families of Europe were related to the 'German Line' established in the eighteenth century.

    For hundreds of years British Royalty have been selected in such a way as to have no real power over Parliament. That does not mean that the family is totally without power. The last great statesman from the Royal line was Lord Mountbatten, blown up by the IRA in the 1980s. But the achievements of Lord Mountbatten were in some ways under played by the press. He was not able to change anything in England, but he was certainly in favour of giving Viet-Nam back to the French after the Japanese defeat in 1945.

    The americans had strongly resisted the reassertion of imperial rights by the European colonial powers: France, the Netherlands and the UK. The american idea of democracy has always had supporters in the UK, and there are Republicans here, although they are not well represented in parliament. One reason is that many Republicans are too cynical to actually go and vote.

    The media completely ignored any dissent when talking about the 'State of the Nation'. The truth is that the disruption of the funeral and its organisation was very inconvenient for many. Others, including many foreign tourists, saw the events as some sort of free circus. However those who actually tried to take away souvenirs from the tons of tribute given to the dead Princess were quickly disillusioned. Judges and magistrates gave out jail sentences to some hapless foreigners who thought no one would notice their souvenir collecting.

    For some shops the event must have seemed like a pre-christmas boom right in September. The homage paid to the princess is very reminiscent of some sort of Hindu Apotheosis where a new figure is raised to heaven. The candles, flowers and inscriptions show that the Church, Mosque and Synagogue are all on their way out. The Church of England is reminded of its own status as the child of a stormy series of divorces many centuries ago.

    QUEEN BEE


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    Saifon mentioned aliases when I mentioned this document. A photo of her had reminded me of that aspect of her, and yet she suddenly said 'I am like a Queen Bee'. That was when she was sitting, surrounded by her four cats.

    Another name is Lili, or Lily of the Valley.

    STREET LASERS


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    In the dystopian future the street gangs will be able to blind their enemies with high power hand held lasers. The newly fashionable 'zero tolerance' attitude of UK politicians is already hindering any effects to prevent the slide to anarchy.

    In the 1990s snipers in both Northern Ireland and the former Jugoslavia achieved great notoriety. Single shot accuracy has been de-skilled with the invention of laser sites, which must be adaptable to battlefield conditions.

    In a university laboratory those experimenting with lasers should wear protective goggles, and warning signs must appear on the doors where there maybe a health hazard from the apparatus.

    In the UK of 1997 battery powered lasers can be bought by many. I first saw one demonstrated in Whiteley's by Jaimz the cyberhost. The laser was able to illuminate spots on both ends of the atrium, at a distance of 40-50 meters. A friend of mine in Bradford had seen the effects of a laser in his study, observing the device was held by a young Pakistani.

    Members of the UK parliament have tried to make the streets safer by banning the sale of knives to youths. Unfortunately knives are almost essential to good health. A vegetable free diet is an even worse risk factor than smoking. To eat vegetables in their best state they need to be washed and peeled, and skill with the knife can be life-saving.

    Hand held lasers are also used by people giving lectures to point out places on a projection screen. This use in education is potentially beneficial.

    THE DEVIL


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    The Tarot card pack includes card #15 titled 'THE DEVIL'. This seems very intimidating if drawn in readings. Will the querant go out and ram-raid the local Dixon's store on seeing this card ? Of course not. The devil is in all of us. Saloth Sar a.k.a. Pol-Pot and Radovan Karazdic are both cited as contemporary devils. One had been a Director of Education and retainer to the Royal Family, while the other had been a psychiatrist and financial speculator in the local economy. Both of these men went bad. They became worse than the too common but ruthless pirates that still haunt the Far Eastern Seas in the days of satellite electronic tagging and the Internet.

    The 'Devil' aspect of Saifon is alcoholism and depression. The old saying about Thai girls goes like this:-

    'You can take the Girl out of the Bar.

    But you cannot take the Bar out of the Girl'

    One interpretation of this saying is that the girl must be a chronic drunkard if she was found working in a bar. Saifon herself has mentioned experience of bars where the girls entice the clients to buy overpriced drinks. This is an old established English practice where such bars were called 'Clip Joints'. Unlike Thailand the British still do not have a specialised 'Tourist Police' to protect foreigners from the depredations of rapacious local businessmen.

    FREEZING CLIMATE AND LOUD BANGS


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    The twentieth century has witnessed sieges of modern cities in winter. Leningrad and Sarajevo have been the most spectacular examples, although we should not forget the inhabitants of Kabul.

    November, in an unheated flat, reminds me of these historical events. The bangs come from fireworks which are sold for both a Hindu festival, and also Guy Fawkes Day. In the evenings there are outbursts of loud bangs, accompanied by bitter cold.

    LASER ATTACK


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    The Star, a Sheffield newspaper carried a report of a laser attack in its edition of 4 th November 1997. A bus driver was attacked in Thurnscoe, near to Doncaster. The driver saw a red dot, and continued driving, but a few minutes later the pain in his eyes became so severe that he had to abandon his route. Docters are still undecided as to whether the driver's sight is permanently impaired.

    BLACK AND WHITE


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    Following the Farrakhan 'Million Man March' and other all male demonstrations in Washington DC, the BBC produced (Leslie Gulf, The World This Weekend) a program on the American Women's Fightback. Or at least black women. This is a very 'Deep Thought' agenda. The American Black Women actually go to show that evolutionary divergence between men and women is higher amongst blacks. Larry Niven publicised the idea in his book 'The Wrong End of Time', where men and women partitioned the Earth. It's certain that many black women feel that besides being victims of racism, they also have to contend with violence from men. There are examples of morality murder where a man has killed his sister for selling marijuana. Getting laid by another man may be bad enough, but drug dealing is made to be an equally contentious issue in modern politically correct style of morality.

    When people talk about 'single mothers' they mean many things. Normally they are trying to pretend women deliberately get pregnant to get welfare cheques and social housing. There have been plenty of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic who denigrated single mothers, Black women can feel doubly offended at both the politicians and the metaphor itself. Excessive control is reason for divorce. Saifon is a living example. Her husband wanted to rule her too much and Saifon rebelled.

    BIRD FLU (H5N1)


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    Following the handover of Hong Kong there has been further news from the former colony. A new variant of the influenza virus has made itself known, and it is possibly quite lethal. It has come from chickens and most of the earlier victims have been involved with the poultry industry. Experts have flown into Hong Kong to study the phenomena and Hong Kong's public health authorities have banned the import of chickens from adjacent areas of China.

    Newspapers have been following the story. There are still only a dozen or so cases, but there is much anxiety, especially in China. The 'One Child Policy' makes parents particularly concerned about their offspring. They now have other things to think about besides banning the 'Tamaguchi' pets from schools.

    At the end of 1997 the public health authorities decided to slaughter all chickens in Hong Kong. The official count of victims remains below twenty with just four deaths. The American Center of Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are both involved in news management, so at the moment the world appears to have a new disease with more experts than victims.

    The disease has apparently killed many birds. Cynics would say that it is just another case of intensive farming practices causing unforseen problems. BSE in cattle, and effluent from pig farms have already caused significant economic and diplomatic problems.

    The rulers of the capitalist countries try to arouse the passion of the masses over the supposed development of biological and chemical weapons by so-called 'Rogue States' such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. In the meantime they hope to force down wages and bury the workers in toxic shit. The land-owning classes are now behaving not as they did one hundred years ago before the Lenin's Revolution in Russia, but more like the members of the 'ancien regime' in France before 1789.

    One of the main reasons for popular discontent in pre-revolutionary France was the exemption of the nobility from taxes. Modern capitalist parties such as the American Democrats or Britain's New Labour are chasing the opportunity to decrease taxes for the rich, financed by more intensive exploitation of the poor.

    The capitalist media makes much of the great benefits of genetic engineering and its possibility to eliminate hunger in the world. This is especially the case around Christmas time when the media bosses wish to boost consumer spending in order to revive flagging economies.

    Bio-technology is being sold as the usher of the New Age, but in fact much of it relies on the exploitation of land and space, and will do nothing by itself to reduce the inequality which is responsible for so much world hunger. Conversly, the extension of property rights to DNA sequences and so on is setting the stage for the biggest rip-off in history since the expropriation of American land and African slaves by the Europeans following the great voyages of discovery.

    There is much scepticism about the right of the propertied classes to do what they wish, but in the UK at least this revolutionary fervour is channelled into 'Animal Rights' movements. The people may demonstrate against fox-hunting but few are willing to go on and hunt down and kill the rich landowners.

    In Africa and America, where there is more space, things are different. America allows its citizens to bear arms, while in Africa 'Man Hunts' are common in places such as Algeria and Ruwanda. Land suitable for objective scientific research is extremely scarce. Despite America's relative freedom scientists still cannot do research on more performing varieties of cannabis, opium, or coca plants. In Africa few universities can afford to buy books.

    The Hong Kong government has created further problems. Killing so many chickens created a garbage problem, with cats and dogs going for the unprecedented windfall. If the virus just had a bird reservoir, then it may be able to spread to a wider population through a hastily thought out government action.

    LILY OF THE VALLEY


    Next Section
    Saifon has used the nickname 'Lily of the Valley'. The flowers of this plant are well known as a cardiac tonic. The active ingredient is called Convallotoxin. Structural chemistry gives a similarity with digitalis, and also cortisone and the steroid family of substannces.

    TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE


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    In the fall of 1997 a British Cabinet Minister toured the Far East. Despite collapsing economies he found plenty of time to exhort his hosts in the 'War On Drugs'. This appears to be part of New Labour's ethical foreign policy. He may have noticed the haze from the forest fires, and the airport posters advertising judicial murder as the solution to 'The Drug Problem', but he still went on with proposals for more police collaboaration to deal with a global menace. One assumes that England would be willing to supply handcuffs, armoured landrovers, and flame throwers to help the foreigners to eliminate the drug menace threatening British youth. This is part of globalisation.

    It's the sort of globalisation predicted by Philip K. Dick who saw the end of the Cold War as an alliance between the FBI and the KGB to run the world as some sort of Fascist State: a sort of closed society with such slogans as 'A Drug Free Scandinavia by 2000' and so on.

    In the meantime an English schoolboy was studying for his exams and socialising with his colleagues. One night some yuppies importuned him for something to get them high. In a British School in the 1990s peer pressure is such that any one who is not a complete wimp should be able to 'Score a Deal'. Despite the rhetoric of the 'Reagan-Thatcher Visionary Years', drug use in the UK has spread from universities into schools. Grahame Steel, son of the former Liberal Democrat Leader, David Steel demonstrated the trend by being imprisoned for a high-tech hashish growing operation. The British can certainly export expertise in using infra-red detectors from helicopters in order to track down home growers. And of course the armoured landrovers are a legacy of the Ulster troubles.

    The schoolboy was the son of another British Cabinet Minister, the Home Secretary. While one minister argues for foreigners to torch their drug plantations the other minister ensures that the former industrial areas are put under surveillance by helicopters with heat seeking rangefinders. They both owe their living to those who do not agree with them and cause messy domestic and international problems.

    Both cabinet ministers see themselves as 'Statesmen', but others would perhaps describe them as 'Control Freaks'. The Home Secretary in particular has been keen to advocate junior curfews and electronic tagging to deal with social problems.

    The schoolboy was duly set-up by 'agents provocateurs' in the run up to Christmas. The story broke in the Daily Mirror who had acted as the midwife of our new style secret police. On December 24 the paper ran a 'CABINET MINISTER'S SON IN DRUG SCANDAL' story describing how its journalists had procured a gram or so of cannabis resin for ten pounds sterling. Apparently the minister's son had had to see another person to actually get the stuff and sell it.

    Before the collapse of the East Asian economies one would have thought this a charitable act. The young man had gone out of his way to help a couple of strangers in need. This is very good Christmas spirit and it may even boost the tourist industry.

    The newspaper went back to the minister and said it had the story. The minister duly took his son to the local police station to make a statement. Both the minister and his son knew that a either a caution or a fine were the most likely results of the son's actions. In London activists have reported to Marylebone police station and confessed to distributing cannabis for two years running. On each occassion the local police supervisor dealt with the people and sent them away with the message that prosecution on that day was not in the public interest. The home secretary's son may well have received such a message. One wonders if the home secretary would have been so zealous if he knew his son would face a death penalty, or a mandatory minimum jail sentance which would be the case in many of the UKs major trading partners.

    Worse was to come. The cabinet minister was imprisoned by a Kafkaesque wall of silence. His son could not be named in the British press ! As a consequence he could not issue a statement without breaking the law. There are obscure laws hindering the freedom of the press to comment on certain matters that are under consideration by the courts.

    These catch-all laws on press freedom are useful to most governments but for New Labour it was a particular embarassement as they knew that in the global village the news would become common knowledge quite quickly. For a full week, between Christmas and New Year the story must have featured in Pub Quizzes up and down the land, but it was kept out of the mainstream media while lawyers engaged in intense legal wrangling. Finally the Scottish newspapers named the minister on January 2, 1998.

    In the meantime there had been some heavy hints. Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who has advocated cannabis for medical use, suggested it would affect the credibility of the minister if he were involved in law enforcement. He was interviewed by many newspapers.

    Jack Straw is the Home Secretary. He was once a feared radical in the UK's National Union of Students. Communist infiltration was considered a terrible threat to the British Way of Life during the 1960s. As Jack Straw aged, radicalism turned into equally vehement conservatavism. He was willing to fight Michael Howard on Law and Order. Both men advocated toughness against anti-social behaviour and crime, and especially those acts emanating from poverty.

    In modern democracies Law and Order issues are tackled by rhetoricians who pass enforcement onto policemen. Dictatorships such as SLORC in Myanmar are run by soldiers who have the army directly under command. Most competant armies are able to organise elections if necessary to satisfy foreign critics.

    On the issue of Drugs, New Labour promised to shorten the chain of command on Law Enforcement. Since they also advocate the line that most recreational drugs are so bad that they must be prohibited there is no doubt that they see the problem as one of social control. They are not yet up to executing drug dealers in football stadiums as they do in China, but they wish to toe the line set in Washington DC.

    Perhaps a former general, or policemen, as drugs advisor is one of the modern trappings of power. The official comes along with chauffeurs and telephone calls on the expense account. New Labour is sold on the idea of the maintaining and zealous enforcement of existing prohibitions. All of the great religions emphasise purity, and the elimination of corruption. Being 'Drug Free' is definately an obligatory form of purity for modern nation states. Look at the exceptions: Somalia with its qhat, Afghanistan with its opium and hashish, or Colombia with its cocaine. Top ranking nation states despise such examples.

    Many EU foreign ministers are also keen to criticise the Netherlands whenever possible, for its supposedly soft line on drugs. That has not prevented the Netherlands from joining Europol, France has been keeping certain border controls, contravening the Schengen agreement. The French president is determined to hinder French citizens from going to the Netherlands to buy cannabis.

    WATERGATE SEX BOMB THREATENS CLINTON PRESIDENCY


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    The Paula Jones sex scandal hit the American Presidency in January when trawling lawyers got round to putting the pressure on Monica Lewinsky, a previous White House intern. Monica Lewinsky had come from a good family and had a degree from a college in Oregon. She was doing a form of work-experience, without pay, in the White House. Later she got a job in the Pentagon. She lived in the Watergate complex, while working in Washington.

    Following the scandal the government of the USA has been making strong threats against Iraq, including deployment of more and more armed forces in the Persian Gulf. The UK government started off with unconditional support for America, but more recently the Brits have been seeking consensus for military action at least amongst the members of the UN Security Council.

    FALSE IMPRISONMENT


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    A few days ago Saifon had to seek the help of the police to deal with a customer. When the man turned nasty she was able to escape from her own flat, run to a phone box, and call the police. On returning to her flat, with help, the customer had locked himself into her flat. The police eventually took the man away and Saifon had to spend ages making a statement.

    She told me that her sincerity is the cause of the problems. She cannot believe that other people are not as honest as herself. That leads to difficulties with some people.

    TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE (II)


    Next Section
    Jack Straw finally rejected Germany's extradition request for Rosalyn McAlisky. The unlucky woman had been held in notorious British jails during her pregnency, and was finally sent to a psychiatric hospital. Many of her supporters claimed that much of the damage was inflicted shortly after herr arest in Ulster, when she was interrogated at the Castlreagh holding center in East Belfast.

    Robin Cook has achieved beneficial media exposure by confronting militant Zionist settlers at the Har Homa district of Jerusalem.

    Both of these meritorious acts have drawn fire from critics within the British establishment. The McAlisky decision was seen as a 'Sop to Terrorists', as though the critics are totally unaware of the rest of the story, including the armed raid on the family home in the 1980s.

    Malcolm Rifkind, the former Tory Home secretary was the keenest critic of Robin Cook. Mr Rifkind lost his parliamentary seat last year.

    REDUNDANT TECHNOLOGY


    Next Section
    In the developed world, old computers are junked by insurance companies and banks. The computers may even be carted off to landfill sites. In the less developed countries human skulls make excellent landfill when certain political factions are in power. Kampuchea, Bosnia and Ruwanda have all gone in for this method. Of course in many humans the brain is made obsolete quite soon after birth by some forms of social conditioning. Organised religion has often been used as a tool to do this.

    BAD TIMING


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    Tony Blair announced plans to deal with the 'Millenium Bug' on the 29th of March. Robin Cook had to wait until April Fool's day to announce his plans to combat child prostitution world wide.

    Both plans are silly. The 'Millenium Bug' plan will effectively pay off the managers and experts responsible for the problem in the first place. The second plan seeks to cure a human rights problem by sending a small minority of men to prison for long periods. A great deal of attention is paid to rich men who pay to have sex with young boys. The penis is bad, but the sale of electric torture batons will no doubt be promoted by other organisations close to government.

    In a sense anything that diverts the police from killing journalists and trade-union leaders must be good. Robin Cook aquires merit in the mind of many charities who forcefully advocate the end of prostitution. It is certainly easier to crack paedophile networks in the 1990s. It is often just necessary to chase internet addresses and read the 'gay' newsgroups. Eavesdropping is never easier. People with vast 'porn' archives on their computers sometimes have to get the machines repaired. The engineers can act as police informers.

    'Lo-tech' paedophile networks also exist, sometimes within the charity sector itself. English public schools were notorious for homosexuality, and also some of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges had bad reputations. Many men actually approve of sex with boys. There is ample historical documentation to show that such love has been both celebrated and castigated at different times and in different cultures.

    Paedophiles may have friends who do not share their views on sex, but nevertheless, these friends do not see incarceration as a solution. My own personal attitude is rather squeamish. It's like a cat with a dead mouse. If the mouse is dead, then it's too late, but if I see a cat with a live mouse, not yet damaged, then I will 'shoo away' the cat, and try to let the mouse run free.

    Forced sex is rape, and that's bad. For many of the World's women arranged marriages amount to little more than forced sex. And forced sex is very dangerous for women because of the possible complications of pregnency. Contraception is still not 100% effective at the time of writing. Indeed in some countries contraception is still either forbidden, or strongly discouraged.

    SHOOT THE RICH


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    Below the cliff at the bottom of the valley lie a river, a road, the main railway to London, and a few factories and workshops. On the night of 2nd - 3rd April I was walking back from across the valley. When taking the snicket from Broadfield Road I noticed flames from a fire somewhere near the factories. I continued along the snicket passing two youths and a girl. It appeared that they had come from the opposite direction to the flames.

    I continued and turned right into Little London Road, approaching the fire. It was a burning car, in a triangular yard at the end of a factory. The car was opposite a transformer on which the local anarchists had spray painted the slogan 'Shoot the Rich'. What an appropriate setting for a blazing car. While the car was burning there were minor explosions, so I did not pass it on the road. I returned, and found a telephone box on a main road and dialed 999. A bored operative logged the call, and I continued to my house because I hand an interview next day with Sanderson CBT .

    The next day I passed the site of the burning, but the debris and ash of the car had mostly been carted away. There were traces, but the Spring rains will wash away even these quite soon.

    FOOD DIARY


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    On Thursday I entered the Dickensian looking premises of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Northern General Hospital. Clearly this is a case of bulima by proxy. Saifon is bulimic. I am going to hospital for her disease. I was to meet a vampire. The researcher makes a lot of her petty cash by drawing blood. In my case two samples were to be air-freighted to Canada, and two were to be kept in case the first lot got lost. I complained a lot at the drawing of blood. The last time was for the AIDS test at Lodge Moor. AIDS testing was a compulsory requirement to get a Saudi Visa back in the 1980s. Having the needle is very invasive for something meant to relate psychiatry and nutrition.

    The researcher had a long day. The project involves several hundred people. The study was widely advertised in Sheffield. Everyone must have symptoms of depression. The researcher is not allowed to know who gets the nutritional supplement. It is a double blind trial: niether patient nor therapist know the contents of the capsule.

    Capsule, Gum Arabic, Sudan, Burroughs-Wellcome. There is a strong connection between Sudan and the modern pharmaceutical industry. Gum Arabic has been used as a binding agent for many medecines. And maybe Wellcome engaged in Magic ceremonies while exploring the Nile. Whatever he did, Sudan remains very poor.

    The WHO has published a report citing the donations of unwanted and unlabelled drugs by many of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to Third World Countries. Various groups working in Sudan have been reasonably good in reporting these scandals.

    The Center for Human Nutrition wants to test something out. All that the subjects are told is that it is a fatty acid. Blood samples must be taken at the beginning and the end of the study.

    The researcher drew blood, and then gave me some forms to fill out. They all measure depression. For such a study they must expect some suicides. Surely these patients are more lokely to commit suicide than others ? If the forms are really accurate then there should be some way of getting life expectation from the information collected.

    While I filled in the forms the researcher separated the blood with the aid of a centrifuge which works like a spin drier. There were computers in the laboratory, and also there was a bed. The computers were not switched on during my visit.

    Doing medical research is quite arduous. Many doctors deliberately infected themselves with a disease in order to verify a cure. This is especially true with narcotics addiction and alcoholism. Smoking must also rank on the list of popular self inflicted diseases. Sports injuries are another fashionable topic.

    REDUNDANT TECHNOLOGY


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    In the developed world, old computers are junked by insurance companies and banks. The computers may even be carted off to landfill sites. In the less developed countries human skulls make excellent landfill when certain political factions are in power. Kampuchea, Bosnia and Ruwanda have all gone in for this method. Of course in many humans the brain is made obsolete quite soon after birth by some forms of social conditioning.

    At the end of April I had an oppprtunity to program a video wall. James Wallbank of Sheffield had set up an organisation called Redundant Technology with the intention of collecting old computers from business. He has already collected about one hundred including a bunch of machines with 486 processors. Those computers which did not work were stripped down to the circuit boards which were arranged on the floor of a warehouse in Sheffield. Paul Matosic, a sculptor, took on this task. He spent several days covering the floor. It was part of an exhibition timed to coincide with the Lovebytes Arts Festival in the Cultural Industries Quarter (CIQ) of Sheffield.

    Product training is one of the most boring forms of education imaginable. A very biased view is presented. That is why mathematics must seem boring to many engineers and physicists. Only the triumphs are presented while the failures gravitate to academic backwaters.

    NIPPON CLUB


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    I played in the 1998 challengers tournament for the British Go Championship at the Nippon Club in London during the May Bank Holiday. The second day saw the end of my chances with a defeat during the afternoon game.

    Because the venue was the Nippon club it was possible to watch canned Japanese TV. The Japanese have journalists. There was a display in the lobby featuring pictures from Japanese news gathering organisations. Prominent was a picture of a child soldier in a wooden shack guarding a body with cotton wool stuffed up the nostrils. The wooden shack was apparently windowless. It seemed rather like the wooden shack trucked from the Rocky Mountains to a Sacramento court house. Pol Pot aka Saloth Sar, former dictator of Cambodia, had died in a shack on the Khmer-Thai border. Since his denunciation in 1997 he had been living under house arrest in the dwindling Khmer Rouge heartland.

    The wooden shack in the USA had been the home of the Theodore Kaczynsky, aka Unabomber. Theodore Kaczynsky had devoted his life to waging war against the criminal conspiracy of American capitalism by sending bombs through the post to UNiversities and Airlines, hence his name.

    Some Japanese have also been prominent in criticising capitalism. In the 1960s and 1970s the Japanese had a Red Army which attacked the capitalist system itself. The 1990s saw the deployment of terror weapons against the 'sarariman' or mindless lacky of the ruling elite. In March, 1995, Aum Shinryoko members tried to kill everyone on the Tokyo subway. Some of the would-be mass murderors had been high flying students of astronomy and physics.

    Corporate Fascism offers no attractions to those of independent spirit.

    That is true for people of all race, sex, or religion.

    Unfortunately a large section of corporate fascism is modelled on religion, and Aum Shinryiko in particular was almost a mirror image of the system its leaders wished to destroy. Brainwashing was extreme in Aum Shinryiko. High tech devices were implanted in helmets, and ordinary fee paying members of the cult were invited to wear these helmets at all times.

    The guru of the cult had made many friends amongst the pyramid selling cults of the forner USSR. The business methods relied on a charismatic leader to sell the promised goods to gullible morons who would divest their life savings. The message was worth more than money.

    The Japanese TV also showed pictures of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. Japanese journalists went to interview the Hezb-i-Wahdat. This is a small group of Shia muslims who revere the philosophers of islamic jurisprudence.

    THAI COOK BOOK


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    Saifon will write a Thai cookery book. She needs to be persuaded to get a machine with a keyboard. But she must not be killed if she at first disagrees to get such a machine. She must be wooed even if she seems a devout technophobe. She got a mobile phone after all.

    Tom Goodey thinks that a computer is not neccessary for the recipes. That's true. But DTP is always necessary. Saifon wants to get pictures of meals sent over by her sister. She has had lots of criticism from Peter.

    The project sounds almost like 'Gallery of the Future'. That involved the reconstruction of an exhibition via fax, deliberately chosen because of the loss of information.

    CAT BITE


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    July 1998. Booby bit Lam, and Lam was limping very badly. Needed expensive medical treatment by a local vet. I called on Saifon when I went to buy a computer from Tom.

    Installing LINUX occupied my thoughts for a while. James Wallbank gave me the book with the SLACKWARE distribution. Technology has advanced since I tried on Tom's installation back in 1996. At that time I was uncertain what to do about the 'boot manager'. The fact is that I did not feel sufficiently confident at that time to take control of those machines. After all, I was afraid of losing face.

    For the same reason Tom never played Go against me while I was in London. He does not want to lose face by playing against me. This goes on to show that as we get older our behaviour is changing. More like cats perhaps. Irrational seeming hostility, but hidden by socialisation.

    When compared with Windows, Linux seems like a sort of Shadowland. The graphics system, known as the X-server is a horror to install. It's cutting edge technology, but that reduces progress to a crawl. The modem card and TCP/IP do not mix. It's easy to use dial in with a console at the other end, but direct ppp causes problems.

    That could be the timing of the modem card.

    OCTOBER


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    The Westminster City council sent a note of denunciation to Saifon's landlord. The lady is very upset. She does not know why she has been picked upon when there are so many other people mis-using their accomodation.

    NOVEMBER


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    Saifon's cats continue to fight amongst themselves. Tom's cat died earlier in the year: fell into the water and drowned. This Manx cat was in the death stages of an internal cancer.

    Maria's Burmese cat had died of a brain tumour earlier this year, and unfortunately after a vetinary operation. Cats are suffering from similar diseases to humans.

    I met Kazan, from Kurdistan today. He said Abdullah Ocalan was a good man, and he has certainly been a leader of combat against tyranny of the Turkish state. This state set the tone for the Twentieth Century: the Great Idol worshipped by Hitler, Tojo, and the Idol which seduced Weizmann and Jinnah.

    BAK.SPC.ORG


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    Bakspace is on the ground floor of a converted warehouse by the Thames. It's in Clink Street, near London Bridge. It is quite near to the recently reconstructed Globe Theatre.

    References:

    [1] The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett, Virago 1995.

    [2] Mr Nice, Howard Marks, Secker & Warburg 1996.

    [3] Betrayal of Trust, Laurie Garrett, Hyperion NY 2000 ($30).

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