I'm hoping this will turn out as I hope- it's the first time I've tried to embed an url link in a post... The MP speaks for all people with brains when he criticises the idea of naming a school a "place of learning". The whole point of calling it a school is to save on words and ink and breath... What's next? A pub being called a "drinking centre"? Shops being called "purchasing localities"? Farms being rebranded (pardon the pun) "agriculture zones"? Schools are- by their very definition (maybe the head teacher could gain an understanding of that word) "places of learning" and therefore don't need to have their definition spelt out. It's enough to make one want to consume large quantities of sugar-digested-by-yeast...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7809481.stm

New Year’s Resolutions 2009:

Slightly late in posting these, but here goes:
I've classified them separately:
Professional:
Do a great job as (acting) Head of Languages. Sort out Spanish, increase take-up and manage the department well! Manage the International Week. Possibly start some evening classes- where I can try out new language-learning experiments on friends and acquaintances.
Health:
Lose weight. At least 10kilos. Spend an alcohol-free January and lose 5 kilos by February half-term. I'm actually thinking about running a half-marathon in October.
Personal:
Meet someone of the opposite sex. I suspect we haven't met yet because all the girls I have met unfortunately know me! Write. Go to the Basque Country in the summer (where I'd love to write a travel book), spend New Year’s Eve 09/10 abroad, possibly Istanbul. Read more (that's started already). Travel to the US in Easter (already being organised).

I'm sure that's not the exhaustive list, and am sure there's so much to be added, but those were the things that leapt to my hungover mind on January 1st.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7763216.stm

ETA have struck again. Today they killed a businessman called Ignacio Uria Mendizabal in the town of Azpeitia. I haven't read if he was a prominent politician or had any strong views, and I believe he didn't. Just a businessman, who happened to be one of those with involvement in the coming Basque high speed train ("La Y Vasca"). It is also possible that he refused to be blackmailed by ETA into paying the "revolutionary tax" (basically protection money). So it has come to this. ETA is no more than a mafia of criminals and have lost almost all resemblance to the revolutionaries who started the fight against Franco.
And they have the Basque Country by the balls, because the nationalists are shit scared of them and the non-nationalists have turned against the peace-loving nationalists, therefore making the situation all but impossible.
When will it stop?!

The Morning After...

The world breathes a huge sigh of relief. And I was moved by Obama's speech. Admittedly, I watched it online because I couldn't stay up that late- I needed to phone the doctor's surgery at 8... but I digress... What a speech. What an orator. What I particularly loved was his use of "we as a people", echoing Martin Luther King's reference to African-Americans, but applying it to the whole of American society.
Here's hoping he doesn't cock it up.

The Inevitable American Election Post...

Tonight the USA is voting for the next Leader of the Free World. Whoever wins, I hope he does a better job than the last one. I hope he travels far and wide, and gives the rest of us a break. Personally, I hope Obama wins it, as do most Europeans. McCain seems like too much of the same thing again, foreign policy-wise, which is what affects us. But it's not as simple as that. Americans don't all look at their leaders from a foreigner's perspective (heck, why should they?) and domestic policy probably takes precedence, so McCain is more credible than we expect him to be here in the Old World.
Many Christians are going to vote McCain today, mainly on the basis that he is pro-life as opposed to Obama's pro-choice stance. Us British pinko heretic would argue that there is more to politics than the abortion issue, but the Church in the States seems to me to believe this is important enough to decide who governs the country. My problem with the Republican Party in the US is that it holds out the anti-abortion carrot and millions of Christians follow. I was accused by an American voter today of being trite by saying that, and it probably is, but I wonder if McCain would be more "righteous" than Obama. It seems that Obama is actually a churchgoer (though liberal) whereas McCain is not. And so many other issues.
I'm not American, I don't have a vote, and I'm not pretending otherwise. But it would be refreshing to see an Afro-American in the Whitehouse, and to see a President of the USA who gives a monkey's about the outside world.

"Such certainty..." (Jo, Spooks BBC1)

It seems to me it has become fashionable to believe that the main problem with terrorists and other nasty people is their absolutist ideology and certainty in what they believe. The comment above refers to some nasty manipulated suicide bombers who try to blow up innocent Londoners. Now don't get me wrong, I deplore all this inhuman violence, but my problem is not with the ideology per se, rather the phenomenon of violence.
I hadn't realised that the perception of absolutism as the problem was prevalent in this country until tonight. We are all aware of the popular hate of any absolutist religious belief, although for some reason Dawkins and some of his popularisers (Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Hardy et al) seem to think that absolutist atheism doesn't fall into this category. But applying this to Islamic bombers worries me since it suggests that all those who believe strongly and earnestly in something are put in the same category. I believe this is seriously wrong. It is violence and exlusively violence that is the problem. And therefore I would argue that Ian Paisley is not as bad as George W Bush.
This belief in seeing ideology as the problem is very popular in the Madrid-based media in Spain. They see ETA (the Basque Separatist Terrorist Group) as erroneous because of their violence, obviously, but increasingly because of their ideology. It worries me that so many Spaniards can't understand the idea of believing storngly in a cause, and therefore they suspect a financial motive for terrorists' membership of the organisation. Because of this, the Spanish press has demonised all Basque nationalism and implies that it is nationalism that needs to be eliminated, not violence.
The solution is this: Even if someone earnestly believes you are going to burn in the fires of Hell, as long as they don't harm you- or seek to have you harmed, I cannot see a problem. If you don't believe in God, their belief is quite ridiculous so you shouldn't even take it seriously. If they want to hurt you, then that is quite another matter, regardless of their belief. They could even share the same ideology as you yourself, but if they want to cause violence they are in the wrong.
I know I sound like a lilly-livered (sp?) hippy pacifist, and haven't entered the whole Just War thing etc., but basically I just wanted to argue against the idea of Thought Crimes while supporting every step to eliminate violence from our world.

So I Say Thank You For The Music...

I'm steadily realising how important music is to me. It's one of those things that stops me falling into deep despair. I used to think that I preferred Talk Radio to Music Radio- and that may be true still, yet I'm getting to appreciate music so much more these days. I guess that the fact that I can pick and choose what I listen to (glorious mp3 player) allows me to listen to some amazingly life-affirming and cheerful ditties.
The four albums currently lifting my heart (hey, something has to!) are the following: The Secret Of Life- The Ukulele Orchestra OfGreat Britain; Rock With The Hot 8 Brass Band- The Hot 8 Brass Band; Adelantando- Jarabe De Palo; La Radiolina- Manu Chao. The secret of these musicians is twofold: They combine brilliant musicianship of the highest order with either clever musical jokes and satirical adaptations (in the case of the former two) or just cheerful and vibrant energy (in the case of the latter two).
Of course, people have always understood the importance of music in manipulating the masses, from the French Revolution to the Third Reich, to many religious organisations today.
Anyway, sorry to almost seem upbeat, but I thought I ought to share the secret of my survival (heehee).