Fabricio the Guido

Film called "Blindness" based on a book by Saramago is an awesome read for apocalyptic scenarios. It even has the delicious Juliane Moore in the film. The great thing about the film is about how we remain human and must fight to retain our values in the face of extraordinary circumstances. After Charlotte Rampling, the next greatest in beautiful, steely ice cold but sensually trembling film goddesses. Never sure if Nicole Kidman really belongs on that list or not. But I digress, end of the world and all that. Death, sex, zombies and rampant consumerism. http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1285555.Jos_Saramago

From a purely utilitarian perspective, 11 K dead isn't much compared to the many hundred millions who enjoy owning guns and want to own guns. Only a Kantian approach suggests that each life is valuable and each loss should be avoided in so far as it is possible. #late philosophical musings

Can we stage an effective boycott when these chains arrive? What will resistance look like ?

News note 5,500 children die in Eastern and Southern Africa every day Deaths are declining in Eritrea, Madagascar and Tanzania but, for most countries in eastern and southern Africa, Millennium Development Goal 4 remains elusive NAIROBI, 15 July 2005 - A disproportionately heavy burden of child deaths weighs on families in eastern and southern Africa. Every day 5,500 children under the age of five die across the 21 countries of the region and the majority of the deaths are largely preventable. That means that in the space of just two months more children?s lives are lost in the region than were lost in the tsunami. This toll is followed by 330,000 more in the next two months, and every two months. ?More, much more must be done, and luckily can be done, to prevent these deaths,? said Per Engebak, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. ?What we need now is for countries to make sure that life-saving health interventions get to the children who need them. These interventions aren?t complicated, they aren?t expensive and they work. We know what treated mosquito nets, immunization and vitamin A supplements, for instance, can do. With these and other simple measures in place, children just do not have to die.? The exceptions to the grim rule reinforce this point. Eritrea, one of the world?s poorest countries and encumbered by a long-standing drought, has managed nevertheless to make excellent progress in reducing malaria deaths among children under five. Its many-sided approach includes increasing children?s and pregnant women?s access to treated mosquito nets and to effective community-based diagnosis and treatment. In fact, Eritrea, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia are all within reach of the important target of having 60 per cent of their children under five and pregnant women sleeping under treated mosquito nets this year and ensuring prompt access to effective treatment for those suffering from malaria. More children die from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa than from any other cause. New statistics from Madagascar and Tanzania point to declines in infant and child mortality rates in recent years. Among the reasons are that Tanzania has boosted budget allocations to the health sector and has a national programme to get more babies and their mothers and young children under insecticide treated nets. Madagascar?s integrated approach includes improving children?s nutritional status, and reaching them with immunization and treated mosquito nets. The recent African Union Summit in Libya early in July reaffirmed that body?s commitment to improving children?s survival and development prospects in Africa. The body urged all member states to replicate the successes being achieved and put in place the measures needed to reduce the death toll exacted among the continent?s children. Strong national leadership and sustained international support can turn the tide. As the Commissioner for Social Affairs said in Libya, ?The means to attain MDG 4 [to reduce child mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015] are known, proven, cost effective and widely available. The opportunity to act has rarely been greater. The time to deliver is now!? For further information, please contact: Patricia Lone, UNICEF ESARO, Tel: (0722-590595); [email protected] Victor Chinyama, UNICEF ESARO, Tel: (0722-701505); [email protected] Beatrice Karanja, UNICEF ESARO, Tel: (0722-205482); [email protected] Updated: 19 July 2005

Okay, it's December. Time for christmas markets and mulled wine, ice skating and yuletide carols, but I would love to have a hot drink in a fairly local establishment. So any recommendations please?

Is this an issue about time travel or numerology?

I am starting to have serious misgivings about this theory that morality is historically determined, so that at a particular point in history different moral principles apply. If you use a universal moral approach, it plays into this idea that there is a limit to practical reasoning but at the same time some people seem to think it is wrong to use current eyes to look at activities in the past. I think at the time, some of these actions were probably known to be morally wrong but, a degree of sophistry was used to deal with the moral objections. So economic or darwinian theories were used to justify treating indigenous people differently, even though for example the manner of treatment clearly went against the teaching of the church or judea-christian principles. Niall Ferguson talks a lot of tosh about the British Empire, how for the time, it was benevolent and less inhuman than other colonial empires. I think abuse was probably still abuse in the 1970s & 1980s, abuse of young women, girls and boys was criticised during the Victorian era so how could it have been more acceptable in the 1970s, 1980s?. This ahistorical view of morality is certainly intriguing and I take issue with this revisionist view of morality. Short point is that the moral principles, existed, even if they were abused and not widely respected by justified on spurious grounds. Take something like the killing of captured prisoners, often beached but widely accepted to be wrong even back to the Roman times.

Max Clifford admits to covering up Child Abuse

Max Clifford has been arrested. Who does Max Clifford go to when he, himself, is involved in a bit of scandal?

My evenings were never the same.

Dont know about scared, but am mightily pissed off that the Tories are back in government. 10 years to deal with Stephen Lawrence, and it wasn't easy. All we got was Macpherson and then the 2010 Equality Act which placed a duty on public bodies to have due regard on the impact of policies on disadvantaged groups in reaching a decision. Affirmative Action it is not. Dave gets on tv yesterday and calls equal opportunity 'red tape', which is holding up government. I have to hold my breath again and wait for these bastards to get voted out. The Lib Dems are going to loose a whole generation of voters for this charade. Scared? Yeas, we walk on the same planet and share the same planet but these dinosaurs cant wait to dismantle the things which are supposed to represent the values of our community in favour of filthy lucre.

Well, you are probably not going to change his behaviour, so in terms of your response, the issue is how does it make you feel? What is driving your need to get to the truth? You have been with him for a while, what coping mechanisms have you employed? Do they work? Has he got insight into his condition? Can you trust him to act on any sights, if you helped him to see the impact of his behaviour on you? People have tried to be helpful by suggesting whether these are harmful lies or lies on inconsequential matters. People are different, he may be dealing with unresolved issues, why he has not been able to express or access. This does not mean that he can suddenly change the behaviour over night. If you need that reassurance maybe he is not the right person for you. But I see also a sort of cycle, where he knows you will try and catch him out any way but he is impulsive and attempts to evade you and you are drawn in to try and catch him out anyway. Is he malicious? What sort of 'harm' does his actions have on you? I can only think of more and more question. People lie all the time, but we take them on trust because we need to, it appear you are in some kind of cycle of behaviour and you need to understand your own role in it as much as his role. Maybe he's paranoid ?

I love a bit of Melanie Philips with my cheese and crackers!

Blaming the public? Hang on, leaders set standards and the common folk follow their example. My goodness I am on the verge of a daily mail critique. Going to mull over this for a moment and think about what I want to say. 1. I really do think there has been a decline during the course of history. 2. That's not necessarily a bad thing. 3. Everybody can be a hero, turned into nobody is a hero, which turned into there is no such thing, then we have problems. thinking about Carlye here rather than comparing the prince with the courtier. 3. is there a left critique of consumer culture and celebrity culture, disposable culture with out harking back to standards ?

Let's call it the "Boris effect". Leadership throughout history has always been about personality as much as the values or ideas espoused by a candidate. The problem with the modern age is that the currency of ideas is in decline and it is replaced by the cult of celebrity. This is not a rant about how celebrity culture is ruining our values, it is an attempt to plot the relationship between these ideas. As much as I try and avoid the traditionalist who thump on and on about values and tradition, I can see some of the processes they describe when I see a politician like Boris bereft of ideas but comfortably floating on the cloud of public adoration. American elections case in point. I wanted Obama to win but I wouldn't have been entirely surprised if Romney had won. He insulted his electorate but expected them to vote for him because he told them he could fix the economy with his experience and a bag full of tricksy tax cuts he couldn't explain. I am trying to think about the Prince, and I am sure he says you should always tell people what they want to hear. I paraphrase inelegantly, of course. Yep, celebrity cult, sound and fury without content.

They meet mostly on the graveyard shift..

Ghana is totally safe especially Accra. Benin, I don't know so much about. Make sure you take the taxi all to yourself and don't share it unless with people you know. Extra careful at night, and make sure you learn the 'Azonto' dance before you come back. The food is delicious in ghana, especially the Jollof rice, don't know about Banku, it's an acquired taste.

Going to be glued to this.....

Does anyone think Skyfall might just be the best postmodern `Bond' film ever?

What do we want.. HOOTERS, when do me want it, Now!

Lured onto this thread by the promise of illicit acts and curtain twitching shenanigans of indecency...confronted instead by this.... TAKE BACK OUR LOCAL government ....

Anyone who uses a 'reverse' argument is more a sophist than insightful: See 'reverse' racism and the new one 'heterophobia' . Even, the Church is claiming discrimination these days and taking cases to Europe. Why not the privileged? Ignorance will have you supporting the oppressors and condemning the oppressed.

Well, where some people see problems others see opportunity. It is actually in your interest to argue for a deduction from the selling price based on the estimated cost of the works. This is some times set aside in a reserve. Service charges can be challenged at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The problem with Council major repairs are that the tenants do not usually get sufficient expert evidence to comment on the quality of the works and whether the works have been carried out to a reasonable standard or not. I have had some success before the leasehold valuation tribunal and most of the time, it boils down to the quality of the expert evidence.

Offering lifts to total strangers and especially a minor, this must be an offence. I'd recommend you report it to the police immediately. Jim used to 'fix it' in the back of his limo.

Anyone who talks about "playing the race card" is probably expousing racist ideology from a position of privilege.