Lukashenko the Highjacker

 

How many people around the world have/had heard the name, Alexander Lukashenko? Probably not many, so for those reading this blog, this guy is the president of the small state of Belarus, which has borders with Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and of course its big brother, Russia. It was the dictator of this country, President Alexander Lukashenko, who ordered the basic hijacking of the passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania on May 24. The flight was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, escorted there by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet. On its landing, authorities took journalist Roman Protasevich into custody. This is a well-known dissident and blogger opposed to the authoritarian rule of its ghastly tyrant. So, Protasevich ended up in court, looking as though he had been beaten up, seemingly having been told to own up to 'terrorist' actions against the government. A complete and total farce.

But all of this is a result of Lukashenko's re-election last year that was obviously faked and controlled by the State. This led to 100 days of protests that transformed the vast majority of the peoples' thinking and came to the conclusion that, yes, their leader was in fact a de facto dictator. During the last 48 hours or so, the UK, the EU and the United States have condemned the hijacking fiasco and have and will take action against Lukashenko, his henchmen and government. But of course, one country remained in utter silence - Russia - not a word from that other dictator, Putin, and of course not a word from the Kremlin. Yes, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, two of the world's most vile despots. And you have to wonder if, at the end of the day, Putin sided with Lukashenko on the highjacking. I mean, let's face it, if there was a fair and lawful general election in Russia tomorrow, one does wonder if Putin would be voted into power. However, this is not going to happen because last month, Putin gave final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms - this was Monday, April 5, giving himself the possibility to stay in power until 2036. I mean you couldn't make it up. It basically reminds me of that other Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin. He prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labour camps and persecution in the post-war USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign, especially, Western influence. He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in 1949 led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. In 1950, he gave North Korea’s communist leader Kim Il Sung (1912 - 1994) permission to invade the United States. A prick? Uh-huh and a mass murderer of his own people.

So today the West, especially Europe, is having to come to grips with Belarus and its fascist leader. For me? Well, I hope we cut off all diplomatic and economic relations with this country, empty its embassy in London and we, and by that I mean, all European countries should do the same. Maybe then the people will rise up even further and bring down this vile regime!

 

I was once a Buddhist practitioner way back in the 70s and early 80s. These days I just call myself a Buddhist - the teachings of the Buddha for me are the wisest teachings. Why Buddhism? Well, it was the theory, if you want to call it that, of reincarnation that attracted me to Buddhism but in the teachings it's called rebirth. Here is something you might like to know.

Every summer, during the school holidays, my mum and dad would take me and my brother for a trip into what is called the Trossachs, possibly the most beautiful landscape in Scotland. I would have been about seven at the time, a jellybean, a bit green, undefiled. Anyway, we were in the Trossachs this particular day and, suddenly, this incredible view captured my imagination. My dad said this was Loch Lomond. I would never forget that moment when my eyes came to rest on this most spectacular, breath-taking sight. In an instant I seemed to be lost, inwardly transformed, and a bit confused . . . as a boy I might quiz what I thought that day for the rest of my life . . . there was something, possibly a memory?

Fast-forward to 2003, the end of the Iraqi war was nigh, Saddam having been captured. Estonia voted to join the European Union but, more importantly, Ian Oliver set off on his first trip to India. Before that year I had visited various Buddhist centres throughout the UK, Samye Ling being the most memorable, and had my Buddhism in Britain published in 1979. Anyway, I spent two days and two nights in New Delhi, surely one of the filthiest cities on the planet. I shall spare you the details.

My plan was to visit a small town of McLeod Gang about 10 kilometres north of Dharamsala in Northern India, in the state of Himashal Pradesh. Back then it was home to about 60,000 Tibetans. My main reason for going was because McLeod Gang was and still is the home of the Dalai Lama. Maybe he would be there when I visited. So I caught a flight from New Delhi to Kangra airport and from there got a taxi to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj. It took about 45 minutes and one of the scariest taxi/car trips I've ever experienced; I mean I was in the foothills of the Himalayas. And then suddenly, there it was, on the right hand side, a landscape identical to that of Loch Lomond I saw 45 years ago. Coincidence? No, because looking at my feelings seeing Loch Lomond for the first time and sensing that I'd seen this before - somewhere. My mind took me back to that day, a seven-year-old boy, who was convinced he’d seen something he would see again but with a different meaning. These days it’s called déjà vu.

I’ll leave you with this link; it’s about a little boy in Scotland . . . the first time I saw this video, about five years ago, I simply empathised with his incredible story!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSrzpLoODo

Life As We Know It and the Media

 

Recently I was working in Epsom, Surrey. I was renting a flat in the small town of Leatherhead during this time. It was when I was working in Epsom and living in Leatherhead, I had to get a train that took about eight minutes to my destination. Here is an abiding memory.

So, as usual, I sauntered onto a train at Leatherhead (it was an hour late) that hopefully would get me to my destination in one piece. And, as usual, the carriage was strewn with crushed-up copies of a free, daily tabloid newspaper, The Metro. So I sat down, managed to get a copy that wasn't crumpled and wrinkled like Ena Sharples’ face, and scanned the front page. There was the momentous disaster that was Notre-Dame. The front page also covered a bloody stabbing that took place in London the previous night. Still in London, on the front page, there was a column covering demonstrations relating to climate change that had resulted in widespread violence with 767 arrests for drunkenness, breach of the peace and other 'sordid behaviours.' And just as I was about to turn to page two, there was the horrific report of a ten vehicle pile-up on the M6 close to Salford resulting in the deaths of 24 people.

I had had a pretty awful day at the office and was looking forward to either a stiff G&T or a couple of large glasses of wine to ease the twitchiness that had gripped my nerve endings like a blacksmith’s vice! But these front page disclosures: misery, doom and gloom, despair, cans of rotten worms, catastrophe-en-contretemps. And as I eventually did get to page two, there was the story about an OAP in Manchester being arrested for defecating in the Arndale Shopping Centre - hellish!

Later, I sat back with what turned out to be my third glass of Chianti Classico Riserva and was aware of my mind drifting. It was a hazy shade of red, just like the Chianti. I started to reflect and uttered to myself, ‘Life as we know it?’ Depends which side of the fence you sit on, doesn’t it? So what am I saying here? Well, it has been a life-long conundrum for me. It is this. Why, during my life, have I been spoon-fed by the media: newspapers, television, radio, Internet newscasts, you name it, daily bucketfuls of unreserved crap? Why this obnoxious obsession with feeding the public with endless headlines covering death, hatred, Islamic terrorism, suffering and starvation, stabbings and murder? I mean it is fed to us by the media moguls as if our very existence depended on it.

As I poured myself another very large glass of Chianti, I decided to switch on the telly. Unfortunately, Sky News was on, and before I could switch channels I caught the last few seconds of a news item: seemingly the Chao Phraya River in Thailand had burst its banks resulting in the deaths of scores of people . . . deary, dear, some things never change. Or, the media and life as we know it (from the media).

The Media’s Obsession with Negative News

Israel and the Jews versus Palestine and the Muslims

 

Just when we all thought during the last 14 months, due to the Covid pandemic, that things were at last quietening down between Israel and Palestine but then suddenly it has all flared up again. I’m talking from May 9th and centering on the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. There have also been exchanges of rocket fire between both sides around the Gaza strip which has led to 26 reported deaths. The Israelis returned rocket fire against what is believed to be Hamas ‘terrorists’. Let’s take a quick look back on recent times.

The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict began with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This conflict came from the intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine between Israelis and Arabs from 1920 and erupted into full-scale hostilities in the 1947–48 civil war.

Between 1949 and 1953, there were 99 complaints made by Israel about the infiltration of armed groups or individuals and 30 complaints of armed Jordanian units crossing into Israeli territory. Between 1949 and 1956, 286 Israeli civilians were killed. During the same period, excluding the Suez War, 258 Israeli soldiers were killed. And so it went on. Of course there was the Six-Day War in 1967 and two years later one, Yasser Arafat, was appointed chairman of what would become the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Throughout the 70s and 80s, there were all sorts of terrorist raids in and around the Gaza Strip which led to other attacks in Europe and beyond. I could write a book about the history of the conflicts between Arabs and Jews . . . it could take a while! Of course, tensions have come and gone since the 80s but now?

What do I think? Well, this whole sordid mess can be traced all the way back to the creation, if that is the right word, of two religions that would, as the years passed by, be known as Judaism and Islam.

Judaism developed as three essential and related elements: study of the written Torah (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the recognition of Israel (defined as the descendants of Abraham through his grandson Jacob) as a people elected by God as recipients of the law at Mount Sinai, his chosen people, and the requirement that Israel lives in accordance with God's laws as given in the Torah.

On the other hand, there is Islam. The origin of Islam can be traced back to the 7th century in Saudi Arabia. Islam is the youngest of the great world religions. The prophet Muhammad (circa 570 - 632 A.D.) introduced Islam in 610 A.D. after experiencing what he claimed to be an angelic visitation. Muhammad dictated to his followers the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, which Muslims believe to be the pre-existent, perfect words of Allah (God).

Basically, you have two strong religions that originated and evolved in the Middle East. Many of the followers of these religions can be classified as zealots. They have the Talmud as their 'Bible'. And then one only has to observe the sombre-clad Jews praying and nodding at the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to get appreciate their devotion to Judaism.

On the other side of the fence, we have the Muslims. Of course, they have Mecca. Mecca is the birthplace of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. The Hira cave atop the Jabal al-Nur (Mountain of Light) is just outside the city and is where Muslims believe the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad. Visiting Mecca for the Hajj is an obligation upon all able Muslims. The Great Mosque of Mecca, known as the Masjid al-Haram, is home to the Ka'bah, believed by Muslims to have been built by Abraham and Ishmael, is one of Islam's holiest sites and the direction of prayer for all Muslims (qibla), cementing Mecca's significance in Islam.

For me, the followers of these two religions will never embrace each other’s beliefs and finally declare inter-religious unity. According to today’s news - Thursday 13th May, a full-blown war is potentially imminent. Watch this space!

Back On the Blog

 

It's been nearly four years since I last posted anything on the blog. The one dated today, 10th May, 2021, was actually written about five years ago but for some reason I never published it. Anyway, I am home and as I am now semi-retired and back in the UK, I shall be writing more about national and International relations and politics. I might throw in the odd satirical sketch.

So I thought I'd take this opportunity to discuss the Scottish election poll that ended three days ago. As a Unionist - one who wants to preserve the future of the UK - I voted for the Conservative candidate in my constituency. Bearing in mind that my constituency has been SNP-governed for the last 10 years or so, I never felt confident of the outcome. And I was right. The SNP won the vote  - some things never change! The day after the election I read that only 55% of the people came out to vote; a complete disaster. And you know what? I reckon there was a large percentage of voters who thought, 'Oh, the SNP will win anyway, so why bother voting?

So we are now in the unfortunate position of having what I call the Scottish Nazi Party (SNP) governing the country for another 4/5 years. Yes, I say Nazi because Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, was and has been exercising her authoritarian power just like Adolf Hitler did in Germany back in the 30s and early 40s. Of course people outside the UK will have no knowledge and thus no understanding of how the SNP run our country. For any government to have around 50% of members of parliament in office, then you can understand how a dictatorial rule can happen. And believe you me, the SNP is a dictatorial party who once again is pushing for yet another independence referendum (indy-ref). In other words to get the Scottish people to vote to become independent from the UK and to ‘go it alone’. However, the day after the SNP won the election and Sturgeon’s plea that another indy-ref would take place within a couple of years, Boris Johnson came out and said there would not be another indy-ref. Period!

Back in 2014 when the first indy-ref took place, I recall Alex Salmond (then the First Minister at Holyrood - the Scottish Parliament) that the vote would be a ‘once in a generation’ event. And to Ms Sturgeon I would enlighten her, as if she already doesn’t know, that once in a generation means approximately 25 years. Your then boss said it. So live with it - get on with self-government - and start to rebuild the Scottish economy after the pandemic instead of this constant viral obsession with independence.

I would just finish this new blog about the United Kingdom. The UK is actually now classed as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Initially, the two separate ‘warring’ nations of Scotland and England eventually made peace. Of course this was dissolved over the years. The Act of Union made a conclusive end to the kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707. From then on only Great Britain remained, one nation with one parliament and one monarch. The Commonwealth of Nations, generally known simply as the British Commonwealth, is a political association of 54 member states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. The current Commonwealth of Nations was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which modernised the community and established the member states as 'free and equal'.

So, that’s me . . . back on the blog and enjoying it!

A Cup of Tea in Baku

On my blogsite I have covered the sublime, the ridiculous, the dangerous. I have not at any time concentrated on the trivial, however, that is until the now. Well, you could call it trivial but there is an underlying message in this blog.

Now for any of you who follows this blog, you will know that I have been living and working in Baku since November 2010, nearly 15 months, and I have tried to keep the few posts that I have written meaningful and entertaining. I am going to continue in a similar vein. So, there we were yesterday, Saturday, and had decided to go out for lunch. I had suggested we go to Finnegans, the famous Irish bar in the city. However, it was absolutely freezing - it had snowed overnight - and the pavements were treacherous to negotiate. Added to this was a swirling, stormy wind that made walking any distance unbearable, never mind unthinkable. So we opted for a small Italian restaurant just a two-minute walk from our apartment.

So, there was me, the wife and my daughter, braving the icy blast and eventually reaching the restaurant which, by the way, wasn't what one would call warm and cosy inside. Anyway, we were ready for something to eat. As my wife and daughter began to scan the menu for food, I was thinking about what we were going to drink. Even althought it was cold enough outside to freeze the knackers of 100 brass monkeys, I certainly could have downed a beer. So that was what I decided on. It was what happened next that shook me up a bit. My wife said, “I'll have a black tea”. Daughter opted for a cappuccino.

We eventually chose our lunch items and I was about to wave over the waitress when my eye caught sight of the drinks prices. I couldn't believe my eyes. My beer, an Efes, which is Turkey's Number One lager, was priced at 3.25 Manats (£2.65) but it was when I checked the price of my wife's cup of tea: 5.0 Manats (£4.07)!!!! Can you believe that? The tea was more expensive than the beer!! So I decided to work out how much the teabag would have cost. Based on ASDA prices for a single teabag, this comes to a maximum of five pence (£0.05). So if we add to this the overheads for making the cup of tea; wages, utility bills, taxes, etc, I reckon that cup of tea cost the restaurant owner about the equivalent of £0.20 - a 1935% net profit! Now I don't know how much it cost to produce and serve the beer, other than the cup of tea cost nearly double the cost of the beer. So, for me, that was a first; the first time in my life that I have paid more money for a cup of tea than a glass of beer anywhere in the world!

Yes, folks, it could only happen in Baku! And the underlying message? If you come to Baku to live, always expect the unexpected, especially when it comes to crazy prices!!