Not in my name

And not in defence of democracy either. I've been opposed to Saddam's regime all my adult life. Our campaigns against the vile men who led the regime should not reduce us to this:

Witnesses said Barzan and al-Bandar were shaking with fear as they approached the gallows. One of those present, public prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, told the BBC that when the trap door opened, he could only see Barzan's rope dangling.

"I thought the convict Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti had escaped the noose. I shouted that he's escaped the noose, go down and look for him. I went down a few steps ahead of the others to see: I found out that his head had separated from his body."

See: Amnesty International campaign against the death penalty

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy ...

... they first make mad. And think, this man used to vote at the UN:

“I think Nato should go global. There is no reason why Japan and Australia shouldn’t join.”

The Arab-Israeli conflict was “not a priority”, he added. “I don’t see linkage to Iraq, and Hamas and Fatah are in a state of civil war.”

“If the future of Iraq is to stay together, that’s fine. If not, I couldn’t care less from a strategic perspective.”

Stop the war in Iraq: see Truthout

Ninety-two thousand, four hundred and ninety-three

The number of words in the first draft of my first novel, completed today.

First day back at work

I'm glad I work on the 19th floor. Rising in the lift between the basement car park and the corridor to my office, alone thank God, there is time to put on the mask: enter the public servant.

Eliot's Prufrock said it better:

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

Prairie Home Companion

Delightful, warm and witty. Elegiac. And not a bad movie either. As Garrison Keillor observed, "The death of an old man is no great tragedy."

As posted to Guardian Unlimited film 05/01/07

Heather and Lauri flew home

Personally, I don't think the saving you make by flying Korean Airlines is worth the twelve additional hours travelling, even of they do throw in a room and dinner in a Seoul hotel. My advice? Fly direct.

Happy New Year 2007

We attended the New Year's concert at the Opera House (we being Heather, Lauri, Susi and me). Beutifully played music (starting with the William Tell Overture, which cast-up memories of The Lone Ranger, of course; this being a movie themed evening). Enchanting singing, especially the flower duet from Lakme. The fireworks were truly breathtaking, as ever..

Picture by Susi