PeterRS

I've been called anti-American more than once. Now the Brits will have me in their sights for a whistleblower has blown the lid of the British reaction to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. A former civil servant desk officer at the foreign officer has heaped criticism at the British government and its lies after the evacuation. Among his allegations - 1. The government falsely claimed that every request for evacuation had been logged. Thousands of emails, even those sent to Members of Parliament, had not even been read. 2. Up to 150,000 Afghans applied for evacuation. Fewer than 5% got any assistance. Some who were left behind have been murdered. 3. Even for those whose pleas were actually read, there were no regulations for deciding the criteria re who should be eligible. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had approved a list that included judges and intelligence officers, but final decisions were left to individual officers. 4. Guards who had protected the British Embassy were not prioritised. 5. Telephone calls were only to be in English. The Dari text of emails inviting Afghans for evacuation was inaccurate because it said a printed version of the email was necessary to enter Kabul airport when a digital copy was sufficient. 6. Despite the gravity of the situation, there were insufficient civil servants to undertake processing and overtime was only very reluctantly agreed. 7. Civil servants from the former Department for International Development who had volunteered to help were "appalled by our chaotic system." 8. Despite the huge numbers trying to leave, the Prime minister instructed the Foreign office to use "considerable capacity" to help animals to leave the country. So animals are given an aircraft at the expense of British nationals and those at risk of imminent murder. What a disgrace! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/07/whistleblower-on-uks-afghan-evacuation-main-accusations

Not sure about these new boats until I have tried one. But I think the older long boat services are much more interesting. So much to see at the side of the river and lots of photo ops for visitors.

Wait till you see the navy boys in their white uniforms LOL

I have quickly looked at those wikipedia sites. I'm sorry they are just far too long for me to even bother reading in detail! But it is clear from the first few paragraphs that there are Muslim communities in most major Chinese cities and that they are primarily Hui people. So, as in Xi'an, they have been integrated into the local Chinese populations for very many centuries. There may well be some Hui people in Xinjiang but I know from good friends in Beijing and Shanghai that the population is very largely of a different ethnic stock. The reason the Muslims in Xinjiang are being treated so abominably by the Chinese leadership is that they have only really been part of China for a much shorter time. Over history they have been ruled by different Empires as well as different Chinese Empires. Then as I noted above they had 5 centuries of virtual independence before the Qing Dynasty forcibly annexed the Province again. Xinjiang and Tibet are 2 massive Provinces which happen to make up China's western border. We know from quite recent Chinese history that the Beijing leadership has since the decline of the Imperial system been extremely sensitive about the country's borders. In the second half of the 20th century it has fought border wars with the Soviet Union (which almost became nuclear), then India and most recently with Vietnam in 1979. Perhaps oddly China assumed control of both Provinces only in the early 18th century, although it paid little attention to them until after the collapse of the Nationalist government. The communists were determined that the country would never again permit the annexation of chunks of Chinese territory by western nations and Japan as it had been forced to do in the 19th and early 20th centuries. So its borders became the focus of far greater attention. The government's fear in both Provinces is of breakaway movements that might mushroom into full scale rebellion. What it is doing to ensure breakaway movements are strangled before they become a threat is something the world should be paying far more attention to. But in terms of international relations China is now too powerful. The rest of the world is not prepared to take China on in other than through meaningless diplomacy. China will have its way.

I don't want to get into an extended discussion but I'm sorry it is quite wrong to say that both regions are in China's northwest. Xinjiang definitely is. But Xi'an in Shaanxi Province is in the centre of the country, far closer to Beijing and Shanghai than it is to Uyghur territory. The distance between Xi'an and the nearest edge of Xinjiang Province is around 2,500 kms., roughy the distance between London and Moscow. In fact, Xinjiang is closer to Delhi than Xi'an!

Yes, i agree in that photo he looks typically Chinese. Seeing his face in close-up on television I reckoned there were certain differences. But just my thoughts. I don't think it is true that the Uyghurs are from the same region as the Hui in Xi'an and thereabouts. I have always been under the impression the Uyghurs were from a different 'stock'. There have ben Hui in Xi'an for around 1,300 years, They come from a mix of Silk Road countries like Persia and parts of Arabia. They are well assimilated into the life of the city and suffer no persecution. They have their own Great Mosque of Xi'an, one of the oldest in the country. The Uyghurs are ethnically different from the Hui. They come more from the northern Middle Eastern countries like Turkey and then the various central Asian 'stans' - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc. The region was conquered during the Han Dynasty around 2 millennia ago. Thereafter it was variously part of the Mongol empire, a series of independent states, of the Tang Dynasty and then for five centuries an independent state again. The Qing Empire finally conquered it in the 18th century and eventually renamed it Xinjiang. Amongst the Uyghurs there is a strong West Eurasian gene resulting in fair hair and blue eyes in roughly 50% of the population. This is totally different from the Muslims in Xi'an. Xi'an Great Mosque Streets in Xi'an Muslim Quarter

I stayed up till 4:00 am. I was absolutely hooked on that final. Zhao won in the most superb fashion. At times his playing was near unbelievable. Now everyone is talking about him. As his opponent said later, he's a 24 year old who looks 14!

Zhao was extremely cute when he beat John Higgins in the German Masters about 6 years ago. I agree - I still find him cute and I love his composure during matches. I know his home town is Xi'an which has a large Muslim population. It seems to me that he does not have classical Han Chinese facial features and I wonder if there is an element of Muslim blood in his family - not that makes the slightest difference to his playing and being cute! If he can only win tonight, I think it will be the start of a very exciting new era for the game of snooker.

I wonder how many of my contributions you have actually read. When I contribute a piece based on my travels, surely it is only natural that I point out what I have enjoyed, the sights that I believe should be seen, bars to be visited and other positive things. The whole point, if I enjoy a place, is to convey that sense of enjoyment as possibly an incentive for others to visit. In Tokyo, for example, I'll write about cheaper hotels, ease of getting around the huge city, the attractions it offers, detailed directions to the Shinjuku ni-chome gay district and what readers will find there - including a warning that most bars will not accept non-Japanese - as well as a bit about other gay venues in Ueno and Asakusa. I deliberately do not write about the many street sleepers in their cardboard boxes you see every night in one section of Shinjuku station. Who plans a trip around seeing street sleepers? When I have written elsewhere about two visits over a 30 years span to Nepal, I did not write about the filth and the squalour, although some would have been evident from the photos I added. Far more important is the history, the stunning historic buildings, the visual variety and the magnificent views over the Annapurna range as dawn breaks. Similarly I will rarely comment on posts made by others who have visited certain cities/countries unless it is to add value to their experiences - not to undermine them because they fail to point out negatives. To my way of thinking, however, any post that is merely a click and paste job from a newspaper or other media outlet is nothing like a personal opinion - unless it is accompanied by some personal comments from the poster. It is therefore perfectly acceptable to point out issues which the paste job omits, positive as well as negative. As far as Phnom Kulen is concerned I have never wandered that far from Angkor. You complain about my quoting from a travel book written two decades ago. Any internet check will reveal there is now an even worse critique of the garbage there. Even the Khmer Times wrote only 4 years ago that the rubbish problem there is getting "even worse" and that visitors had complained about the "huge piles of rubbish in the park". The following year, one tourist commented, "There is a lot of garbage lying around. Why, oh why would anybody treat this holy site like this?" The poster added the site was crowded with Chinese and Korean tourists. They could just as easily be responsible for the trash-piles as local people. To me, my comment was perfectly valid. It had nothing to do with a poorer country's people. It is simply a fact! Wishing you all the best in getting back to Thailand.

Not sure if there are many snooker fans on the Board. I have enjoyed the sport for decades (purely as a spectator - I can't pot anything) and have loved the exploits of many of the greats. But tonight there is the chance to witness something vey unusual. Two mid-20s guys competing in their first-ever major final at the very prestigious UK Championship. The promise of these two has been obvious for years and they finally seem to have come of snooker age. In the semi finals yesterday, they demolished in absolutely stunning fashion much higher ranked opponents, as they have throughout the two week tournament. The 24-year old Chinese from Xi'an, Zhao Xintong, has been called by Ronnie O'Sullivan, arguably the finest player ever to have graced a snooker table, "the Roger Federer of snooker". Other top players, past and present, call him the most natural talent to have appeared for many years. Zhao will play the 26-year old Belgian Luca Brecel. I remember being impressed when first seeing him play 9 years ago. He was then a cute young lad. But I recall at one point the camera focussed on his parents and being surprised that his father looked like a fat, bald and generally unattractive slob (only a personal opinion). Sadly, the genes have been passed to Luca who is now almost totally bald and lost many of his good looks. But that should in no way detract from the skill he shows in abundance. The match today should be a classic between two guys we will hear a great deal more about in the years to come.

You clearly have a selective memory. I have written about the appalling garbage mountains in Manila which are still barricaded with the brick walls former President Marcos built in an attempt to keep the sight from visitors. Only the dumps are too high. And since this topic is about Cambodia, you might wish to read this article from the Cambodian Children's Fund website. The title is "From Garbage Dump to Valedictorian". "Sophy would spend seven days a week knee-deep picking through noxious trash on the dump to earn money for her parents, surviving by eating discarded food that she managed to scavenge from amid the filth." https://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/stories-news/garbage-dump-valedictorian That dump was the notorious Stung Meanchey Dump close to the centre of Phnom Penh. It covered around 100 acres. Roughly 2,000 Cambodians lived there picking through the rotting garbage for what they could eat or sell. It was known everywhere as "one of the world's most famous rubbish dumps." That was finally closed in 2009 and eventually moved to the outskirts of the city. Many of the pickers moved to the new dump but the old waste dump still remains along with its smaller army of pickers. As an article in The Guardian wrote, "the old dump is still a desperate place." That Guardian article pointed all this out only 5 years ago. It rightly added that "around the world, millions of people make a living a living by waste picking." https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/11/hell-earth-great-urban-scandal-life-rubbish-dump Or perhaps you might wish to view this more recent television news clip about Phnom Penh recorded 3 years ago. As for my standards, I hardly think you can call them western when I have lived and worked in Asia for over half my life and visited most of its countries, many regularly. Perhaps it might help if you did not pick on every post that is anti something you have quoted from endless media outlets and of which you yourself seem to have little personal experience. I suppose you have been to Phnom Kulen. I trust you enjoyed that trip and did not see lots of trash nor had experience of any landmines.

Not my words - the words of Lonely Planet. Perhaps you might contact them. An accumulation of trash in locations visited by many people is far from limited to poorer nations. Just look at the plastic and other waste on beaches in many far more wealthy countries. I can recall rats scurrying around London when there was a strike by the waste disposal unit.

As an avid concert goer I have had the joy of hearing many of the world' great pianists, and many who are not quite at that level. Rarely do I come across one of whom I have never heard. But one who just recently came to my attention and whose pianism I find riveting is this young man who prefers to be called Cateen instead of his real name, Hayato Sumino. He's 26, has been playing the instrument since he was three and never had any formal training apart from lessons from his mother. Never went to a Conservatory or Music Academy, although he does now study classical music and jazz with some notable teachers. In Japan he is best known as a jazz pianist. Go to one of the world's best-known jazz bars, Blue Note Tokyo, and the chances are good that he will turn up and play for a while. The customers will go wild and won't let him go! To get an idea of his amazing technique, listen to this video in which he plays Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" at 10 levels of difficulty. Almost unknown outside his native Japan other than to his huge number of youtube followers, Cateen came to world attention in September when he won a place in what is now arguably the world's greatest Piano Competition, the Chopin Competition in Warsaw held every 5 years. He sailed through three rounds but just missed out on a place in the final 8. As an example of his classical work, listen to this short fiendishly difficult Etude Opus 10 No. 1 by Chopin. It's not recorded in a formal concert hall and the piano is fractionally out of tune. But I think this young man is incredible and should be much better known. I am certain he can attract hoardes of youngsters to listen to classical and other musical genres.

Frankly not sure of the point of the BBC's including this article as it is primarily about Angkor Wat's water management system and the reason for the Empire's demise. This has been well known for decades. My 2000 issue of the Lonely Planet Guidebook on Cambodia describes it in more detail. It also gives over two pages to Phnom Kulen and its importance to Cambodians. But it adds that this area used to be heavily mined and in 1998 two boys were killed when wandering off a path for a pee when they stepped on one. It also mentions the trash left by Cambodian families and strewn around the area. Hopefully both issues have been addressed by the government and the area has now been cleaned up.

I have had the tracking app on my phone for many months. There was once an article in the Bangkok Post that if anyone living in Thailand was found to have covid19 and had not installed the tracking app, they would be subjected to a large fine. Since it seems to be a condition that those entering the country have the app on their phones, I am more than surprised there is no officer at the airports to check it has been downloaded - a very simple exercise - by every arrival. I suppose it would thereafter be easy enough for someone to rid their phone of the app if they wished. But if arrivals were warned that they too would also face a substantial fine if they were ever found without the app on their phones, I suspect tracing would be a relatively simpler matter. Why this has not been done beats me!

How can these people not be traced? I thought part of the regulations for opening up were use of the tracking app on mobile phones.

Yesterday afternoon the cream of Broadway performers paid their own tribute to Stephen Sondheim in Times Square. I wonder if this ever happened before.

Sondheim admitted in several interviews that he was basically alone until he came out as gay when he was around 40 - so perhaps 1970. Even then, though, he did not have a partner until the 1990s when he spent 8 years with a man named Peter Jones. Not sure when he met Jeff Romley but they married in 2017. With attorneys making sure his royalties and fees were fully protected with each new show, I'd find it hard to believe he would not have had a prenup had he wanted one. I am sure he had a cast iron will and that if that ever becomes public he will have left a considerable amount to Broadway charities and perhaps also to St. Catherine' College in Oxford where his close friend Sir Cameron Mackintosh founded and endowed the Chair in Contemporary Theatre. Sondheim was first Visiting Professor in 1990. Since he had no brothers or sisters, it is unlikely there are any close family members whom he might wish to leave money to. But these are obviously only guesses.

I only once took Canadian. I was on a round the world trip with several executives from a client. Our first stop from Asia was Los Angeles but I elected to leave 3 days early and took Canadian so I could just relax in Vancouver first. On that trip the other airlines were American and British. The OneWorld Alliance had just been formed earlier that year with 7 airlines of which Cathay Pacific, Canadian, American, British and Qantas were original members. In the last 3 months of 1999 the Alliance had a promotion for members based in Asia. In that period, fly 3 airlines and you got a bonus of 25,000 miles; 4 airlines, 50,000 miles; and 5 airlines 100,000. Since I already had Cathay, I was up to four by mid December. And I had a holiday coming up in Sydney over Christmas. On a rainy morning just after Christmas, I went out to Sydney airport. At the Qantas desk I asked the young lady for the cheapest ticket to anywhere and back the same day. She looked at me quizzically before looking into her computer. She suggested Canberra which would be around A$240. I asked for somewhere cheaper. She said Newcastle would be about A$185 but there was nothing to see there. I said it was still too expensive and I had no intention of seeing anything! Then she asked why I would go somewhere just to wait an hour and then come back. Apparently the promotion was only applicable in Asia, not in Australia. When I told her, she looked again. Then she said she had the perfect ticket. To Melbourne leaving in 30 minutes, 45 minutes on the ground and then back for about A$140. She told me it was a special pensioners ticker but no one would check my age and she'd give me both boarding passes. So posing as a young pensioner i did a quick round trip and earned the extra 50,000 miles. With a round trip business class ticket from Bangkok or Hong Kong to Sydney then requiring 60,000 miles, I thought it a great deal. I kept hoping there would be a similar promotion, but it was never repeated.

Perhaps some confusion is over the use of CP. It's the obvious acronym for Cathay Pacific but when Cathay started it felt CP would be confused with the now defunct Canadian Pacific Air Lines. So Cathay is always known as CX.

I cannot imagine who thinks it actually matters if Jeff Romney was Sondheim's lover or husband or what the age difference was! Sondheim really only ever found happiness in love quite late in life and Romney was his only his second long term boyfriend. But to realise that Sondheim's net worth was only around $20 million is surprising considering his massive output and the royalties he would still be getting from all his shows including West Side Story. Almost 20 years ago there were 17 productions of Sweeney Todd in North America and the UK alone. Andrew Lloyd Webber has a fortune of at least $1.2 billion - and that's almost all on the basis of just 6 shows - Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, CATS, Phantom with Starlight Express and Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat tagging on behind. Sunset Boulevarde was to be the big smash hit after Phantom. Although it ran for several years on Broadway and in London's West End, lawsuits (by Patti Lupone who was promised the Broadway opening and then fired and Faye Dunaway who was rehearsing to take over from Glenn Close in Los Angeles where it was premiered when she was fired), a massively expensive set and high weekly running costs resulted in the show losing its investors all their many millions. As Lloyd Webber himself lamented a couple of years or so ago, since Phantom he has written 20 musicals and every one has flopped. Not that Sondheim didn't have a dud or two. Even he admits that. But almost all his shows are masterpieces in their own right. Unlike Lloyd Webber, he never courted popularity. He never invested in theatre ownership or collected Pre-Raphaelite paintings or had huge wine collections. ALW said he never bought one case of fine wine - always two. One would be for drinking, the other for selling when the price had risen significantly. Sondheim's life was his work. Yesterday I heard an interesting interview he made in 2004 with the British classical music journalist and author Norman Lebrecht. With divorced parents, he was almost living in the home of Oscar Hammerstein II whose son Jimmy was his best friend at school. He idolised Oscar adding had Oscar been a geologist, he Sondheim would have also become a geologist. Becoming a lyricist he loved crosswords, the more difficult the better. Around the time of West Side Story, he discovered one of the most difficult of them all in a British weekly magazine, The Listener. He even got Bernstein hooked on them! Perhaps this is one reason the lyrics always came first and are so beautifully crafted. They can also be wonderfully funny as in one song many will have heard through the Tim Burton movie of Sweeney Todd. The lyrics of the song when Mrs. Lovett tells of the content of her meat pies that have become immensely popular. "If you're British and loyal you might enjoy Royal Marine" "This marine doesn't appeal to you? How about Admiral?" "Too salty. I'd prefer General." "With or without his privates?" This is Patti Lupone as Mrs. Lovett with the great George Hearn (who can forget his rendition of "I am what I am" in Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles) and Michael Cerveris at a celebration for Sondheim's 80th birthday.

Adored West Side Story. Amazing to hear CNN this evening telling viewers he wrote the music. That will be news to Leonard Bernstein's children! Not sure if Stephen Spielberg's new movie version out next month will be a success. I hope so as it will bring the show to a totally new audience. But his version of another classic, J. M Barrie's Peter Pan, was a disaster. I suppose not really interesting now but all four creators of West Side Story were gay. I know Bernstein was married but it was very much a marriage of convenience - essential if he wanted to get the job as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He had been almost outrageously gay before the marriage, and soon after they tied the knot his wife wrote a letter to him saying, "I know you are homosexual and may never change," but she was prepared to accept that. Saw Gypsy in London 6 years ago with the wonderful Imelda Staunton in the title role. I had just arrived in London and maybe I was suffering from jetlag but I just did not enjoy the whole evening. And I'm a bit of a musicals junkie!

Sondheim revolutionised the musicals genre even more I believe than Rodgers and Hammerstein II. Indeed it was Hammerstein who first noticed him and helped encourage him. I was fortunate in having a dear friend in London who adored musicals. He gave me my first Sondheim experience with the London production of Company featuring the Broadway original performers: Larry Kert in the lead role of Bobby and the legendary Elaine Stritch whose "Ladies Who Lunch" remains seared on my memory. We then saw A Little Night Music with the wonderful pairing of Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold. "Send in the Clowns" from that show became his one worldwide hit. Unlike Lloyd Webber Sondheim was not especially interested in beautiful melodies. Whereas Lloyd Webber always wrote the music first and then had lyrics added to it, for Sondheim the lyrics and the detail in those lyrics were the absolute key to how he wrote a song. A struggling London producer who was to become a close friend and collaborator on future Sondheim shows, Cameron Mackintosh (later to produce the four great blockbusters CATS, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon), then mounted a low budget evening of songs by Sondheim titled Side by Side by Sondheim - a reference to one of the songs from Company. This was a total joy. On Broadway I was later to see Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. I enjoyed it so much I returned a second time. Although Company remains my favourite, a close second is Follies which I saw again on Broadway in the 2001 revival. A truly wonderful evening. It is a difficult show to produce almost anywhere requiring as it does effectively two casts - a group of 60/70 year old singer/dancers who used to perform in a variation of the famous Ziegfeld Follies and return for a reunion. They appear alongside a younger group performing as ghosts of their former selves. I wish I had seen more. I have several on CD but nothing beats the live stage experience for me. To say he was in a class by himself and that he revolutionised musical theatre is superfluous. He was quite simply a ground-breaking genius. Most will remember him with "Send in the Clowns". I prefer his much more gritty "Ladies who Lunch" which really can only be sung Elaine Stritch. It's a song filled with mockery about the bitterness, boredom, wasteful lives and fondness for alcohol of rich society ladies who really have nothing meaningful in those lives. Just listen to the mournful opening phrases and then the biting satire of the lyric. Magical!

From the BBC website We're back in familiar territory - growing concern about a new variant of coronavirus. The latest is the most heavily mutated version discovered so far - and it has such a long list of mutations that it was described by one scientist as "horrific", while another told me it was the worst variant they'd seen. It is early days and the confirmed cases are still mostly concentrated in one province in South Africa, but there are hints it may have spread further. Immediately there are questions around how quickly the new variant spreads, its ability to bypass some of the protection given by vaccines and what should be done about it. There is a lot of speculation, but very few clear answers. The variant is called B.1.1.529 and is likely to be given a Greek code-name (like the Alpha and Delta variants) by the World Health Organization on Friday. It is also incredibly heavily mutated. Prof Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, said there was an "unusual constellation of mutations" and that it was "very different" to other variants that have circulated. "This variant did surprise us, it has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected," he said. More at https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59418127