**Saturday 19th August 2006
Well, it lasted a whole five days... The peace in Lebanon has been shattered with an attack by Israeli special forces aimed at what was claimed to be a 'weapons transfer' between Syria, Iran and Hezbollah fighters.
Now before people start attacking my stance as being 'Anti-Semetic' and other such nonsense I DO NOT condone the terrorist rocket attacks on Israeli towns. In the same breath though, I can not condone the Israeli use of excessive force against Lebanese civilian infrastructure either.
I have seen many people try to explain on TV the whys and wherefores of such force. Trying to compare the rocket attacks with London and the V2 raids during WWII and the responses with Allied bombing in Germany. Which to me just emphasises the abject mentality of the Israeli officials hiding behind explanations that have the water carrying abilities of a colander.
The definition of a 'cease fire' is "A temporary cessation of fighting by mutual consent; a truce." I just hope that this agression by Israel doesn't damage this fragile peace in such a volatile area. Maybe if the UN sends the Israeli Knesset a dictionary with 'cease-fire' highlighted and something other then a polite note and total disarray, we might actually move forward in the light towards peace, rather then stumbling around trying to find it in a darkened room full of bear-traps.
**Thursday August 10 2006
I'm rather a rare entity in the UK, you see, I like Country Music. A few years back I discovered The Dixie Chicks, they'd had a couple of albums and hit singles in North America and were generally accepted as a major group in Country circles. Then in 2003 in London the lead singer, Natalie Maines said she was "ashamed" that George W Bush was a Texan, this was less then two weeks before the assault on Iraq. Those in London loved the sentiment, it didn't go down so well in the US, the backlash was rather extreme with several radio stations staging events like mass burnings of Dixie Chick albums and memorabilia and boycotts of their music.
Now, how can a country supposedly built on the premise of free speech suddenly go overboard whenever someone has the temerity to question anything linked to the president or the course
their country is taking. This backlash is still evident with several dates being cancelled from their tour, although some are replaced with dates mainly in Canada.
The new 'Chicks' album 'Taking the Long Way' is currently No1 in the US so most of their fans still follow the group, indeed the tour stops in London, New York and Washington were sold out. The heartland of country music however (south and midwest) are apparently still smarting... Maybe these people should read their 'Bill of Rights' where in the first amendment the protection of freedom of speech is in plain text.
**Wednesday August 9th 2006
There used to be a saying... "The camera never lies", well, now it does apparently, or at least the photo that was taken by it can. Adnan Hajj, a freelance photojournalist has had over 900 photos removed from the Reuters database after he was found to have doctored at least two of them. Hajj has denied deliberately manipulating them, citing he was attempting to "remove dust from the image and made mistakes because of poor lighting conditions".
This brings into question many of the modern day photographers works, since how can you not start to wonder whether the picture you see in the newspapers, on the net or on your tv screen has been altered in any way. Yes we want high impact pictures to go with the high impact news stories, especially with the problems in Lebanon continuing unabated, but integrity has to surpass that need or else they lose any of that impact.
