Saturday 11 August 2007

YesBut that was the second week of August


Poor old Gordon Brown, two days after becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, suicide bombers tried to blow up a London nightclub. The next day they tried to blow up Glasgow Airport. Then there came the rains, resulting in flooding and billions of pounds damage. Now we have a Foot & Mouth outbreak. As the “Son of the Manse” I bet he’s wondering

“Is this a Divine revelation? Was the blessed Tony truly the Chosen One, and I shouldn’t have got rid of him”.

Gordon had one days holiday before having to return to London to manage the Foot & Mouth emergency. If Tony was still PM, by now he would have been sunning himself on some private beach owned by a geriatric pop star.

This week its been noticeable how the days are getting shorter. Two weeks ago it was still light at 10:30, now its dark by 10pm, with sunset at 8:30. Even now I hope we will get an Indian Summer to compensate for the dismal one we’ve had.

India has been very much the theme of the week. With festivals throughout the country and programs on BBC television and radio to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of Pakistan and Indian independence.

I have visited both India and Pakistan; a challenge - not places to go to relax. But I would really like to re-visit Pakistan, to judge for myself the degree of radicalism that exists. General Perez Musharraf, intones one message to the outside world “you must support me, if I’m deposed the Muslim fanatics will take over”. Is that the true situation? Is the West being conned to support a dictator, who opposes democracy? The image I have perceived this week is of a very conservative but not fundamentalist country.

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