"Some never participate. Life happens to them. They get by on little more than dumb persistence and resist with anger or violence out things that might lift them out of resentment-filled illusions of security." (Frank Herbert, Chapter House Dune, ISBN: 0-399-13027-6)
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Osama bin Laden has apparently been killed in an assassination mission by US troops in Pakistan. The news is full of jubilation and back-patting, but also a consistent use of the word ‘justice’. For example, the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, is reported to have said “the operation to find and kill him showed that the US would never abandon its pursuit of justice”; President Obama has repeatedly talked of Osama bin Laden being brought to justice.
For those in my generation, religious extremism is and has been an everyday experience in the media. I personally didn't realise this was a relatively new expression. "Fundamentalist religion as a major force of successful mass mobilization belongs to the last decades of the twentieth century, which have even witnessed a bizarre return to fashion among some intellectuals of what their educated grandfathers would have described as superstition and barbarism." (Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes, page 202, ISBN: 978-0-349-10671-7) |
Living in a city that will host the Olympic Games is probably a one-off opportunity. I recently registered online to receive updates when the ticket sales are available. Reading through the information blurb, I noticed that VISA has been selected as a major sponsor. Nothing wrong with that, as a London taxpayer VISA is more than welcome to keep down my contributions to the event. However, there seem to have been conditions on the sponsorship: The only payment methods allowed are cash, cheque or VISA. So holders of Mastercards, American Express, Amex or any others will have to dust off the cheque book or make their way to a ticket office to pay in cash. Google Pay or Paypal are also not allowed. I do have a VISA card but I also feel that customers should be able to pay with any legal means. Much as the sponsorship is I'm sure crucial to the Olympics, for me the governmental support of a payment monopoly over customer choice goes against the government's responsibilities. I am reminded of the Budweiser sponsorship of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Sales of any other beer varieties was banned within a 2 km radius of the football stadiums. In the Fan Miles of the host towns, multi-cultural drinking sessions were creating a great atmosphere on the finest of German beers. And then walking up to the match, all that could be found was Bud. Very noticeable was that the dispensing stalls were thinly visited and consumption in the grounds seemed to be kept to minimum. Why bother, when a couple of hours later you could return to a vast selection of beer unfiltered by cats' kidneys?
It all began back in mid-October. Upon receiving a letter from Talk Talk expressing their regret that I had chosen to leave them, I called them to explain that I had not authorized a move and did not want to change provider. The unsolicited cease was cancelled and life with a landline and broadband service continued as normal. On 19th November, another letter arrived announcing surprising further intentions from my side to leave Talk Talk. Further phone calls on 22nd and 24th November resulted in the assurance that this cease of services would also be cancelled. What could be done to stop these attempts to cancel my line, I foolishly asked. Nothing was the succinct reply. And then it all started to go wrong in a downward spiral. On 1st December, my phone line was unable to receive incoming calls and the termination of Radio Paradise (great internet radio station, check it out) signalled the end of my broadband connection. I was only slightly concerned as London was covered with a sprinkling of snow, sufficient to stop all vital services if not quite enough for a decent snowball fight. “Adverse weather conditions”, that was probably the reason. I raised a support issue on 2nd December through the automated phone line. Outbound phone calls were still possible, so in the spirit of scientific experiment, I phoned my mobile from the landline and discovered that my phone number had changed. That would explain the lack of incoming calls and possibly also the non-functioning internet connection.
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