Cricket fan that I am, I have been struggling to think of something to say about the murder of Bob Woolmer. I thought of 'it's just not cricket' at once and then constructed a Murder on the Orient Express fantasy in which everybody was guilty. That, however, is much more likely to be the fate of Steve McLaren the next time he forces his way through the angry mobs outside the FA or, indeed, the next time he runs into Wayne Rooney and his Merseyside friends in a dark alley. On balance, however, I have nothing to say since I know nothing, have no expertise and I can't escape with a gag since it's not funny. Beyond continuing to maintain that it's not cricket, I am speechless.
I am similarly at a loss on the matter of the British sailors seized by the Iranians. Here, however, I do note that Blair has adopted tougher rhetoric than Margaret Beckett. Also I am told, possibly reliably, that British and American special forces have been making secret incursions into southern Iran in support of anti-government factions. Putting the two together, I can only conclude what everybody else seems to have concluded - this is big.
Monday, March 26, 2007
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
They want to attack Iran, and the justifications are busy being found. The black-comedy of aggression posing as defence. Hitler actually claimed Germany was under attack from Poland which necessitated that invasion; even more comically the Americans actually got away with portraying the Nicaraguans as an imminent threat. The same ploy used in Iraq; Putin used in with Chenchya. Same old stuff, just variations in geography.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, well sort of, Irish cricket (previously, a contradiction in terms) is in the ascendant. Heretofore, playing cricket in Ireland was tantamount to taking the Oath of Allegiance while dancing on the grave of Bobby Sands. While it seems to have lost its political significance, which is a good thing, it remains for me a game of existential significance. That is, the mere mention of it makes me think dark thoughts and if there was an abyss nearby I would gladly fling myself in.
ReplyDeleteSeems to have the same effect on you, Andrew, I see.
ReplyDeleteThe Darks are multiplying. Imagine when every thought is dark. Then you'd roughly be in the same frame of mind as Mr Ahmadinejad who has brought this all about.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Andrew. I was wondering when I would first read the Conspiracy Theory of the Captured Sailors.
ReplyDeleteNow I only have to wait for the inevitable 'Bob Woolmer was murdered by George Bush' theory.
People are as ever willing to have the intellectual and political depth of goldfish, Brit.
ReplyDeleteThough actually, Neil, what's been more or less air-brushed out of Irish history is that prior to the rise of the Land League and the formation of the GAA, cricket was actually very popular in Ireland, across the cultural and class divide. In the general nationalist movement from roughly the 1870s, gaelic games were used to promote a particular Irish consciousness, and cricket like other 'foreign' sports associated with the dilution of this Irishness, the foreign yoke, etc. The patriotic reaction against cricket was a kind of manufactured political tool, whether this a good or bad or indeed neutral thing.
ReplyDeleteOpen your EYES Brit! BlairRommell is intent on reconquering the Middle East oil fields for his master/puppeteer BushHitler. The blood-oil-money will feather his retirement nest quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteWere the 8 marines mentioned not armed?
ReplyDelete