Ginger fest

Ginger hair - It is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin.

History: Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn.

Apparently some still believe that people with red hair are 'weird', which I do not understand. But what is even more astonishing is a Ginger Fest organised in Wolverhampton. Apparently we are supposed to celebrate and not ostracise them.

elephants on drugs

Now this isn't a clever little pun that I concocted but it is in fact the latest news to grip the UK. Well, maybe not grip, but still important enough for it to be published by the BBC.

Elephant on drugs cured in rehab.

What I do not understand is why the traders had to spike him with heroin. Surely, they could have sold the heroin to some fool in the west who wants to 'enjoy life' and used the money to buy a 4x4 or something. But then having an elephant is so much more fun.

poetry and violence

The UK government has banned a poetry from the GCSE English course because it talks about a loner with knives. This, they argue to to help reduce knife crime in the UK. I agree that knife crime is on the rise here and it is encouraging that people are starting to think about it as a serious issue. It is also very true that the latest stories about knife stabbing and deaths have revolved around adolescents and young adults. This trend is of course very alarming.

What I do not understand of agree with is that poetry leads to people stabbing each other. I wonder if they have got any scientific reason to ban a poem talking about knives, any statistical data to prove that the kids stabbing each other are the ones attending their English class regularly. Some times you just want to slap the people making these rules across the face and ask them to get their act together. Maybe that is a little extreme, but surely they should focus on getting the kids off the streets and into classrooms where they can get a proper education. Why do they focus on small things like these, which as I assume is NOT going to cause a sharp decline in stabbing rates in the UK.

It gives the bureaucrats something to do I guess.

wars and such

I am still not convinced that countries need to have armies. I understand the need for security, but invading other countries when there are enough problems at home is something I will never understand. It not only sucks out lots of money which could be used to solve social, economic or scientific issues, but it also causes loss of life, which cannot be accounted in numbers. But number do help. After a long time today I checked the update on the number of people that have been killed in Iraq ever since the war started. It was 2003.. a long time ago. There were mixed feelings. Channels such as the BBC, CNBC, CNN heralded the smashing of a Saddam statue by the NATO forces. There were people dancing in the streets. There was a general feeling in the west that the age of oppression was over. The west had saved the world yet again, just like they always do in Hollywood.

The present does not reflect that optimism does it? Almost a 100,000 people have been killed in the last 5 years. Some by the NATO forces, some by the makeshift Iraqi forces and some by the violence that always follows the war. Check Body count in Iraq for more information on the deaths in Iraq.

After all this the west wonders why there is terrorism. Why do the 'lesser developed' countries hate them. Are politicians really that daft to see that war is never the answer. How can you hold a gun in your hand and preach peace? This logic does not make sense to me. Try explaining this logic to the families of the people whom you have killed.

And this is not the situation only in Iraq. Afghanistan, where the ISAF forces have been since 2001 is no better. People are dying there every day and the west still thinks that they have the answer to everlasting peace in the region. This of course is also preached with guns. The ISAF website says that at most only 15,000 people have been killed ever since the start of the war. Most of them were militants. 'Most of them'... well done! What about the ones who were not? The terrorists attacked the US.. less than 2000 people died. How many have died in Afghanistan?

They say it is not about the numbers but why is it not about the numbers when you make a comparison. This war seems very hollow. The west has several things to be proud of, the freedom of speech, the freedom of movement, equality. But then the foreign policy still needs a lot of work. Or am I just in a nagging mood?

One article I found hilarious on the ISAF webpage was How the insurgents make claims of false deaths. Are all the deaths false?