Tangents » News and Current Affairs

Here comes the fear

Ronan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:18:40 +0000

I love Adam Curtis. Watch “The Power of Nightmares” or “The Trap – What Happened to our Dreams of Freedom” if you can find them, really great portrayals of the sinister side of recent history. He has a blog with the BBC where he puts up posts full of archival footage and analysis about Afghanistan (on which he’s working on a project on) amongst other things. The most recent post has footage of villages being bombed and burned from the air in the 1930’s in Waziristan, on the Afghan – Pakistan border. It resembles of a mix of the current war there and what the Sudanese campaign in Darfur was up to. A relative of mine flew RAF missions similar to these in Egypt/Sudan, policing tribes from the air between the wars. I don’t like to think what he may have been responsible for.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/04/the_weird_world_of_waziristan.html

It’s frightening the way these events, and similar ones in Iraq during the 1920’s have repeated. Another question reading this post raises is what exactly is going to happen in the North Caucasus? The bitterness there, translating into suicide bombs in the Moscow underground is extradonarily potent. Sometimes you need to be jolted out of your comfortable assumptions that the course of human history if one of progress and enlightenment. Curtis is good at doing that.

Also, the word “goolies” turns up in the video, a word we used as kids. Didn’t realise it came via the British from the Pashtu language. The Waziri tribesmen had a policy of collecting British “goolies” so the Brits had a policy of offering a financial award if the airmen or soldiers were returned with “goolies” intact, hence the word entering the English language.

Where’s the logic?

Ronan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:14:11 +0000

Where’s the logic in trying to re-capitalise AIB to the tune of €1 Billion when it currently has a market capitalisation of less that €500 million? The €1billion in private funds is simply not going to happen, no way. So the Irish government is going to end up owning a majority stake in AIB (€1b vers >€500m of stock) or let it go to the wall.

Stop beating around the bush, just nationalise it. That way you don’t have to pump in the potential black hole in cash, you can just assume ultimate responsibility for the debts and allow the bank to operate as if it never had toxic assets, that is, making loans to those who are worthwhile. Then you can allow those debts that are assumed to be toxic to either unwind themselves over time without the bank going to the wall or you can shift them into a holding bank/ company.

Nationalising removes the legal obligation of the bank to the shareholders that would remain if the government attempted to “insure” the bad debts (as though the government can afford to do that at the moment). €340 million? Just buy the damn thing Lenihan, it would be in the best interests of bank customers and the taxpayers. This goes for BoI too.
Or that’s how I see it.

A Queer Statistic

Ronan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:33:53 +0000

10,708 atheletes competed at the Beijing Olympics. 10 were openly gay. Only one man was openly gay.

Curious.

Via outsports.com