PeterRS

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

I cannot see upgraded carriages speeding up travel times. You'd need better trains for that - and probably also better track. I wonder what the tourist routes will be.

Bond, James Bond!

In another article in yesteday's issue of The Guardian, Afghanistan's reincarnation of Vietnam's Lt. William Calley has once again been revealed. Some of the article refers to incidents already itemised in the New Yorker article posted earlier by @fedssocr. But this is new, at least in this forum as far as I am aware. It speaks for itself. "The men of Zangabad village, Panjwai district lined up on the eve of 11 September to count and remember their dead, the dozens of relatives who they say were killed at the hands of the foreign forces that first appeared in their midst nearly 20 years ago. "Their cluster of mud houses, fields and pomegranate orchards was the site of perhaps the most notorious massacre of the war, when US SSgt Robert Bales walked out of a nearby base to slaughter local families in cold blood. He killed 16 people, nine of them children. "America’s tragedy, thousands of families’ terrible losses on that September morning in 2001, would indirectly unravel into similar grief for thousands of other families half a world away. "Afghans who knew little or nothing about the planes flying into towers in New York, and certainly had no link at all to al-Qaida, were caught up in the war that followed, and that claimed their loved ones year after year. "Haji Muhammad Wazir lost almost all his immediate family, apart from his four-year-old son in the early hours of 11 March 2012. It was more than a decade after the twin towers came down, but they were the reason the US military was on his doorstep. "Bales killed his wife, four sons, four daughters and two other relatives. He shot the children in the head then tried to burn their bodies. “It is very hard for me, I still feel like these things are happening right now,” Wazir told the Guardian, nearly a decade after the almost unimaginable slaughter ripped apart his life. “I am very happy the American forces have finally left Afghanistan, and very grateful to Allah for making this happen. At last I feel safe.” The article later points out that the Taliban, too, was responsible for the deaths of Afghanis. But it was the actions of some of the US servicemen and their NATO partners in the war that drove many Afghanis directly to the Taliban, either as fighters or as financial supporters. At least Bales was arrested for his crimes in what is now known as the Kandahar massacre. In a plea deal he pleaded guilty to murder, assault and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The US Supreme Court refused to hear his case and his lawyer is now trying to get a new trial in a civilian court. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/10/how-mass-killings-by-us-forces-after-911-boosted-support-for-the-taliban

What sounds like an interesting movie has just wrapped filming in Brighton, England. It tells the story of a loving married couple (man and woman) living in a happy menage a trois with the husband's male lover. "My Policeman" is an adaptation of a novel which covers the interesting period between the 1950s and 1990s when attitudes to sex and sexuality went through much change in Britain and much of the rest of the world. An article in The Guardian takes as its theme the role of the lover, played by the gay actor Rupert Everett. This, the writer suggests, is ideal casting as Everett has had to live through many changes in recent years following his starring role in the film version of the E. M. Foster novel, "Another Country" in 1984. Although homosexuality in England was not decriminalised until 1967, attitudes took time to change. Then came the gay plague AIDS which set advances back a few years. It also resulted in closet gay personalities like Rock Hudson and Liberace having to die with neither privacy nor dignity. The writer has interviewed many gay actors over the last 40 or so years. He wonders if the public as a whole actually was as homophobic as the media claimed. He is depressed that when interviewing the gay actors Richard Chamberlain and Sir Anthony Sher (the latter is one of Britain's most famous actors particularly for his roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre and who became best known for his portrayal of Shakespeare's Richard III who first appears in silhouette on crutches rather like an overlarge spider), their PR masters had informed him that on no account could he discuss their private lives. Photo: from Anthony Sher, Year of the King - Nick Heron Books Like so many others, both hid their sexuality and Sher actually got married as a disguise. Sher, who sadly is dying of a serious unspecified illness, now agrees that not talking about his private life essentially was like having a neon sign over his head saying "This guy is gay!" Sher eventually came out and was one of the first to enter into a civil partnership with his long time lover. Some, like the macho Harry Andrews, was firmly in the closet despite being partnered. Interviewed when he was in his 70s, the writer thinks Andrews had wanted to come out but he was then being considered for a starring role in the hit TV series "Dynasty" as Blake Carrington's father. Had he been known as gay he would almost certainly not have got the part. Earlier in 1970 he had been cast in the role of a leading gay man in the film of Joe Orton's hilarious "Entertaining Mr. Sloane". It was almost as though he had wanted to send a signal by accepting this role, but was always reluctant to discuss his participation in that movie in his rare interviews. Others like John Schlesinger, the director who in 1971 made "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with its famous lips-on-lips deep gay kiss, was quite happy to be out. When there were media objections to Ian McKellen's award of a knighthood, he signed an open letter defending him. “I could hear a particular sound in my head the morning it was published,” Schlesinger told me, grinning. “It was teacups clinking disdainfully on saucers in Cheltenham as little old ladies said to each other ‘My dear, it’s so unnecessary’.” The writer ends the article by stressing - "Each of the actors I spoke to found his own modus vivendi. What’s not in question is that the tabloids and some politicians had made these relatively recent years a distinctly hostile environment for gay people." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/08/40-years-celebrity-interviews-attitudes-gay-men

I used to visit Manila quite a few times but these were way back in the early 1980s. Those trips made a welcome relaxing break from the more hothouse atmosphere of working in Hong Kong. Besides, gay life in Hong Kong in those days was limited and against the old British colonial sodomy law (not repealed until 1991). Each year 3 or 4 guys would be thrown in jail for a couple of years for some alleged offence or other. It was known the police kept tabs on the handful of gay venues and cruising places. Triad activity involving rent boys was rife. Manila on the other hand was a haven of beautiful and willing boys. Like many gays I'd stay at Imelda Marcos' lovely Philippine Plaza Hotel on the Bay (her murdering, thieving dictator of a husband owned the posher Manila Hotel not far away). The rooms were large and well-furnished, the view over the bay superb and the pool and garden a superb place to relax over a drink or two - or three. At week-ends the hotel seemed like cruise central. So many expats would be there from Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere, each with a different boy du jour every time at breakfast. Even with martial law in force, gay life seemed not to be curtailed. Coco Banana was the in-place for more up-market gays, a sort-of Studio 54 of Manila with DJs playing the latest disco music from the US, a melange of fashion, society and entertainment - and lots of gorgeous boys. I believe it was Asia's first openly gay club and seemed to stay open all night. I met and brought several guys to the hotel, spending time with the same one on several visits. Gay life in Manila at that time seemed more active and raunchier than Bangkok. The place to go for sleaze was an enormous barn of a place at 690 Retiro Strip in the nearby Quezon City district. When getting a taxi, you never had to utter more than "690" for the driver knew exactly where you wanted to go. Packed to the gunnels at week-ends, this bar/club had long catwalks with beautiful Filipino boys parading wearing little or nothing. Shows with naked boys and soap suds were common before I ever saw one in Bangkok. The one depressing factor of those trips was the horrendous poverty. At every intersection, tiny waifs would hold out their little hands for a peso or two. Marcos had had placed large boards by the massive rubbish tips where children seemed to be everywhere scavenging for anything they could find that they could sell. Marcos and the dreadful Imelda couldn't bear visitors to see the reality behind the facade of their beautiful city. As Bangkok's nightlife developed, I switched my allegiance to Thailand. Frankly, I had grown a bit tired of Manila whereas I have never tired of Bangkok. I have since been back for three work visits, the last around 1998. Unsurprisingly the whole scene had changed. One alleged gay bar I attended was not gay at all and the "boys" seemed all in their 40s. I am sure there were several which I just did not bother to visit. For me the glamour of the gay scene had descended to pretty basic levels. Perhaps it was just that Thailand at that time offered vastly more in terms of nighttime entertainment and willing young guys. Perhaps the elected governments had tightened up restrictions. In the mid-1990s Manila's Mayor Alfredo Lim was The Philippines predecessor to Thailand's Interior Minister Purachai. He was unrelenting in his campaign to close down all Filipino prostitute bars - both gay and straight - all of which were raided from time to time. Many ended up just closing. In the mid 2000s, the media - in particular the leading broadsheet The Philippine Enquirer - started an anti-gay campaign led by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Who knows? Times change.

Once a genie is out of the bottle it is usually difficult to get it back. Young people in China are like young people most everywhere else. They follow the latest fads and fashions, and with the K Pop look and craze having flooded the country, I can see the increasingly old guard among the leadership muttering disapprovingly that this is not what the revolution was all about. Let's not forget that President Xi's father had impeccable credentials as a revolutionary, even though in his later years he was better known and even imprisoned for his political moderation. I am sure the old guard will succeed in their efforts to control the rise of Tencent and NetEase, just as they have clipped the PR wings of Alibaba and other private sector giants. They see the rise of any company that gets so big and with such an extensive national reach as increasingly able to sway the public as a threat to the Party. But when it comes to the way people dress, I don't believe there will be more than a temporary change - if that.

I find the incredible delay in testing in packed slum areas like Klong Toey one of the government's biggest failings. They just had to look at the huge clusters discovered among Singapore's migrant workers dormitories or even that among both legal and illegal workers at the Samui Sakhon fish market way back in December - both a result of failure to test. But then this Thailand government has little time for the poor. They have to fend for themselves no matter that we are in the midst of a pandemic.

I think it is important to realise that the Chinese have very long memories. Most families will still have older members who recall the supreme disaster of the Cultural Revolution which destroyed so much of the country and it culture with its education and judicial systems wiped out. China was till then an agrarian society with most of its population desperately poor. I can recall my first visit to Shanghai in 1986 barely ten years after that disastrous period in Chinese history when lamplighters still lit the streetlamps in the French quarter! These grandparents still cannot believe how the country has changed out of all recognition. I know I have said it before but how many countries have ever in world history dragged 400 million or more out of poverty in the span of just one generation? How many countries have enjoyed massively increased and increasing incomes since then? How many could have possibly considered that Shanghai would become an even more cosmopolitan city than pre-coved Hong Kong? From my Chinese and western friends who live in China, I know well that there are costs to such rapid growth. Those of us brought up in the west would probably find it difficult to live in any country where our freedom to think and say (within reason) what we want is curtailed. But we look at this country of 1.4 billion people from our own western experiences. The vast majority of those who live in the country have a different mindset borne of their history and society when for the entire millennia of their existence they have lived under a similar system. The average Chinese today puts up with its unelected government because they can compare what it has achieved in little over 40 years. My friends are perfectly happy living in China and none, not even the Americans with Chinese boyfriends, some wealthy in their own right, want to live anywhere else. The inevitable question then becomes: how long can any people live under a virtual dictatorship? My only answer is as long as the compact between government and people that people's lives continue to improve.

I finally had time to read this fascinating yet horrifying and damning article. All the spin we have heard over the last 20 or so years is shown to be just that - spin. As the coalition PR machine kept telling us so frequently, the war was being won. As in Vietnam, in the countryside the exact opposite was true. Clear disagreements between the USA and its NATO allies. An Afghan translator mistakenly arrested and shipped off to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with no appeal. US forces raiding the home of a "beloved tribal elder", killing him and leaving his son a paraplegic. A coalition air strike hitting a mosque and killing all inside. At least the Taliban fighters would warn villagers where they had placed IEDs so they could be avoided. Not so, the coalition forces. Several of Shakira's cousins being killed at different times. Seven year old Muhammad mistakenly killed when coalition forces strafed the car he happened to be in. Her 16-year old cousin Amanullah was merely working in the fields when murdered by a sniper of the Afghan army. No reason given and a family too afraid to ask. "Entire branches of Shakira’s family tree, from the uncles who used to tell her stories to the cousins who played with her in the caves, vanished. In all, she lost sixteen family members. I wondered if it was the same for other families in Pan Killay. I sampled a dozen households at random in the village, and made similar inquiries in other villages, to insure that Pan Killay was no outlier. For each family, I documented the names of the dead, cross-checking cases with death certificates and eyewitness testimony. On average, I found, each family lost ten to twelve civilians in what locals call the American War. "This scale of suffering was unknown in a bustling metropolis like Kabul, where citizens enjoyed relative security. But in countryside enclaves like Sangin the ceaseless killings of civilians led many Afghans to gravitate toward the Taliban. By 2010, many households in Ishaqzai villages had sons in the Taliban, most of whom had joined simply to protect themselves or to take revenge; the movement was more thoroughly integrated into Sangin life than it had been in the nineties. Now, when Shakira and her friends discussed the Taliban, they were discussing their own friends, neighbors, and loved ones . . . "Some British officers on the ground grew concerned that the U.S. was killing too many civilians, and unsuccessfully lobbied to have American Special Forces removed from the area. Instead, troops from around the world poured into Helmand, including Australians, Canadians, and Danes. But villagers couldn’t tell the difference—to them, the occupiers were simply “Americans.” Pazaro, the woman from a nearby village, recalled, “There were two types of people—one with black faces and one with pink faces. When we see them, we get terrified.” The coalition portrayed locals as hungering for liberation from the Taliban, but a classified intelligence report from 2011 described community perceptions of coalition forces as “unfavorable,” with villagers warning that, if the coalition “did not leave the area, the local nationals would be forced to evacuate.” By 2019 when the US was holding talks with the Taliban, an optimism returned to the valleys. It did not last long. "Shortly before the Americans left, they dynamited her house, apparently in response to the Taliban’s firing a grenade nearby. With two rooms still standing, the house is half inhabitable, half destroyed, much like Afghanistan itself." ". . . the Afghan government and American forces moved jointly on Sangin one last time. That January, they launched perhaps the most devastating assault that the valley witnessed in the entire war. Shakira and other villagers fled for the desert, but not everyone could escape. Ahmed Noor Mohammad, who owned a pay-phone business, decided to wait to evacuate, because his twin sons were ill. His family went to bed to the sound of distant artillery. That night, an American bomb slammed into the room where the twin boys were sleeping, killing them. A second bomb hit an adjacent room, killing Mohammad’s father and many others, eight of them children. "The next day, at the funeral, another air strike killed six mourners. In a nearby village, a gunship struck down three children. The following day, four more children were shot dead. Elsewhere in Sangin, an air strike hit an Islamic school, killing a child. A week later, twelve guests at a wedding were killed in an air raid. "After the bombing, Mohammad’s brother travelled to Kandahar to report the massacres to the United Nations and to the Afghan government. When no justice was forthcoming, he joined the Taliban." As in all wars, mistakes are made and massacres probably and sadly an inevitable result. Do we remember My Lai in Vietnam, an atrocity where up to 500 Vietnamese villagers - men, women, children and infants - were massacred but not before American troops had first gang raped women as young as 12? When this finally came to light, the platoon leader was sentenced to life in prison, surely a just sentence. But Americans look after their own. All he served was three and a half years under house arrest. How can any reasonable person consider this is justice? As the subject of the New Yorker article, Shakira, says of the future under the new regime - “I have to believe,” she said. “Otherwise, what was it all for?” If we cannot get things right in our own countries, what right do we have to try and sort out problems in others? None!

I certainly salute Bryan Ruby. But I do think there is a difference between a gay man deciding to come out and a very straight man identifying with and bringing to world attention his support for the LGBTQ community, even though he himself is not gay. Yet both advance the LGBTQ cause since both are role models.

Earlier this year Hungary passed its anti LGBTQ education bill that bans the depiction or promotion of homosexuality and gender change among under-18s. Many have lambasted the President who promoted the bill and the European Parliament has condemned it. Surely no protest was more symbolic and seen by so many around the world than a short appearance by the 4-time Formula 1 world champion driver, Sebastian Vettel. F1 - along with its more junior ranks of F2 and F3 - directly and indirectly employs many tens of thousands of people and is one of the world's most watched sports seen in almost every country. It has never been associated with the LGBTQ movement. Even as stars in other sports have started to come out, only one has come out it this most macho of sports even though there are a few remaining in the closet - and that happened 30 years ago! Present and former F! drivers are seemingly a totally heterosexual bunch. Sebastian Vettel certainly fits that profile as a happily married straight man with kids. But at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix held ten days ago, Vettel singled himself out as a champion of gay rights. During the pre-race national anthem line-up, he sported a simple Pride shirt with the message "Same Love". During the race, his shoes and helmet were adorned with the rainbow colours. No other driver joined him, although to be fair that is almost certainly because he did tell them beforehand and did not want to make a fuss. He knew the TV cameras would pick up on his shoes, shirt and helmet and linger long over them. As indeed they did. And the world saw it. The race stewards were not happy, though, and he received a warning for not removing the short when asked to. Photo: Rex/The Sun "It doesn't matter your skin colour, it doesn't matter your background, it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter who you fall in love with. In the end, you just want equal treatment for everybody . . . "I was surprised it was so much of a big deal," Vettel admits. "Ideally, there wouldn't be any reaction because it's just normal. "There are countries still arguing about whether gay marriage should be legal or not legal. I think there's enough marriage for all of us, you know. It makes no difference to straight people whether gay people are allowed to get married or not, but it makes a huge difference to gay people to be able to get married like everyone else. "So yeah, I was surprised - but it shows that there's still so much that needs to be done." https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/58453220

So true. I wonder how many in 1900 could have foreseen even as a remote possiblity that seven great Empires would quickly collapse - China, Britain, Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Turks, Japan and Tsarist Russia? Or that two World Wars would completely revolutionise the world order? Or that warfare would change from mighty armies pitched against other mighty armies largely to monstrous technological machines on the ground, in the sea, in the air and no doubt soon in space? Clearly anyone who predicts the future is as likely to be wrong as he might just be right.

In the old pre-war days, I am told sleeping beths were relatively common for long haul routes. I wonder how many remember that Philippine Airlines was the first post-war airline in the world to introduce beds on their 747-200s in 1980. It installed 16 full flat bunk beds in the upper deck for first class passengers on their trans Pacific routes. It was also the first airline to be awarded the coveted award for its in flight cuisine by Les Chaines de Rotisseurs. The ince mighty continue to fall.

As pointed out above, the interviews took place in 2011/12. Without knowing P's exact age, I can only surmise that he was taught sex education before the first Thaksin government had reached its mid-way point. After the huge success of Meechai's campaigns, it was extraordinary that Thaksin decided to reduce funding for sex education and HIV prevention in schools. Perhaps he was under the influence of his old pal, the deeply religious Interior Minister Purachai and his emphasis on the family - of which the Social Order campaigns were only the most obvious ouward sign). As a guess this reduction would have been put into effect in the curricula around 2003/4. A 2017 study outlined in a very long UNAIDS paper "The Thai State and Sexual Health Policy: Deconstructing the culture of silence and stigmatisation of young people’s non - marital heterosexual activity" states - "for the age group of 15 to 24, only 46 percent of those surveyed could correctly identify ways to prevent the spread of HIV, implying more focus is needed on HIV prevention education for young people." Given that a large part of those surveyed in the cities would indeed be aware, the actual knowledge of boys in the countryside may well have been very limited in 2011/12, as it probably is today.. https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/120203/1/Drew2019_PhD.pdf

Yes, Britain chose isolation by the narrowest of margins. Since I had no vote, it's perhaps wrong to comment, but it is clear that the primary reason for the 'No' vote was the recession in parts of the country that has been continuing since 2008. Clear lying on the part of the Brexiteers was a secondary factor, but perhaps the Stayers also lied. Strange how 45 years ago, China was a total basket case, its economy, education and judicial systems, and family structure in total chaos, and a government that hardly seemed to function. 30 years ago we thought Russia would be relegated to a third world power. Our world changes fast these days.

Thanks you @CurtisD for a fascinating and wide-ranging review. It throws up many issues which I did not realise would be covered in the book and, hopefully, once and for all condemns to the trash can other western outdated notions of why young gay boys in Thailand behave as they do. It has been obvious for decades that the real success Thailand had in combatting HIV and AIDS had little to do with western programmes and vastly more to one Thai man, Meechai Veravaidya. As when I was a young boy, condoms were difficult to buy and there seemed to be a stigma attached to purchasing them in a shop (indeed, in my town only one shop stocked them). Working in family planning, Meechai realised that the only way Thailand could reduce it mushrooming birthrate was to work on birth control. So he set about touring villages to popularise the condom and its use. He even had condom blowing competitions and creating water bombs from them. It worked amazingly well and the birthrate has now been significantly reduced. When HIV came along, he switched to stressing the importance of condom use. By the mid '80s he was a Minister in Prime Minister Prem's government and therefore very high in the social hierarchy. Since condoms had become so popular they were known as 'Meechais', this unquestionably helped in controlling rates of HIV. Had he been able to continue his work which was by the start of the century extensive, more could have been done But the Thaksin government cut the funding for HIV-AIDS education. Sadly the boys in the study largely fall into that group, approaching puberty when the HIV prevention programmes were being wound down. And these I believe are the main reasons for the following conclusions from the book - But even more important, I believe, is the notion of public/private personas and fulfilling a role. It explains why there can be a general acceptance of homosexuality in much of Thai society but non-acceptance in, for example, most places of work. It explains why gay men a bit older than those in the study who are trying to hold down a job in a large company and to fit in to Thai society are exceedingly reluctant to be associated with gay movements. Thank you again.

I wish I could be so optimistic. As I slowly learned about colonialism and its effects, some good but most bad, for a while I felt guilty to have been born British. But we cannot change the past, despite what some of our elected politicians believe. What worries me is that there remain policy makers and politicians in several countries who still believe that their countries are needed to wield power in the world at large. In the UK, Tobias Ellwood, the Chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, is a politician whose leader is the ineffective Boris Johnson. It should be remembered that only a few months ago Johnson's one-time closest aide claimed before a House of Commons Committee that Johnson is "unfit to be Prime Minster". Ellwood stated this only yesterday - "For more than 80 years, we were the bridge between America and Europe. Post-Brexit, we are no longer the go-to country when the White House wants a second opinion. The back channels are significantly diminished and our relationship both with our European allies and the US is at its lowest for a generation. We have lost the passion and the art of leadership . . . "When Britain lost America, we built the empire. When we lost the empire, we sought Europe. Now we seem to have lost both with no plan B. Our departure from Afghanistan has no doubt made the world more unstable. My fear is that, without a revival of our will to lead in the world, it will make us ever less relevant. This is not where Britain should go." After some comparisons with Churchill and Thatcher, this man has the gall to talk about "our will to lead in the world?" Who is he kidding? Does he not realise that Britain's influence on World Affairs died in the disastrous attempt to recapture the Suez Canal in 1956? Britain is already virtually irrelevant in World Affairs. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/04/britain-must-rediscover-the-will-to-lead-on-global-issues

I agree, provided the authorities do pay attention to the many studies that are now underway, especially to protect children whose brains can be affected more severely than those of adults. I also accept that all sports have an element of risk, even though these are small. Having just watched the Dutch F1 Grand Prix, I recall that one of the greatest drivers of all time, Michael Schumacher, was skiing when he had a simple fall off piste resulting in his hitting his head on a rock. Although he was wearing a helmet, he was whisked to hospital and has not been seen since. Clearly he suffered a major brain injury in the most unlikeliest of places. A similar and seemingly innocuous accident happened to Natasha Richardson, the wife of actors Liam Neeson and daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. That simple accident resulted in bleeding in the brain which killed her. We all have to be aware of the risks and make decisions accordingly.

I agree with your sentiments. There is another very perceptive piece by the excellent Simon Jenkins in Friday's Guardian Newspaper. Headed "Biden isn’t the first president to promise never to wage another war of intervention", he points out that each of Biden's recent predecessors have make the same claim, even with "Condoleezza Rice, emphasising Bush's opposition to foreign adventures." Her later remarks about mushroom clouds appearing unless Saddam was dethroned only illustrates how quickly the neo-cons gained control in Washington. Tony Blair also comes in for excoriation over his hypocrisy. "The pomposity of his message was absurd." Three paragraphs are worthy of note here. The last sentence is the one which we should all worry about. "In the latter period of the British empire – of which events in Iraq and Afghanistan offer an uncanny echo – colonies became costly, not profitable. They duly required ever-more elaborate eulogies and justifications. To Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Milner and his Round Table, colonial wars were a sacred duty of European powers. The concept of a Christian imperium was one of ethical obligation bound up with macho adventure. The colonialist Rudyard Kipling saw empire as the “white man’s burden”; in his poem of the same name, he exhorted the US to take control of the Philippines. In many ways, the occupation of Afghanistan has been Kipling for slow learners . . . "Wars of intervention have become political baubles and vanity projects. They meddle in other people’s affairs, other cultures and other views on how societies should be run. They are an offence against the UN charter and the rights to self-determination. It is hard to avoid the accusations that they are racist. If we want to help other people in distress, there is a wealth of charitable causes to oblige. In almost every case, military action just makes things worse. "We might hope that the US will now retreat into a period of introversion and sober reflection. It did so after defeat in Vietnam in 1975. To the recent generation of Anglo-American politicians, these wars have been a sick reprise of an old imperialist urge. They are a stupendous expenditure of lives and treasure at mind-boggling opportunity cost. They appear over. Yet even as Iraq and Afghanistan sink below the horizon, we can sense Taiwan and Ukraine stumbling into view. Will anything be learned?" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/03/biden-president-war-intervention-military-adventurism

Chris Riddell's cartoon in today's Observer

A good suggestion but how on earth do you make it happen? As fedssocr has pointed out, groups opposing the army are joining forces. But let's be honest. What chance do they have? The Burmese army has a strength of around 400,000. It has sophisticated weaponry. It also has China on the side of the generals. Just as Kissinger visited Jakarta just before the Indonesian army invaded East Timor in December 1975 and informed the dictatorship that the USA would not stand in the way of the annexation, so a visit by China's top diplomat Wang Yi to Yangon just before the Burmese army seized power is assumed to have given the generals China's green light. The world can blame China all it wants but no doubt China will point directly at the role of the US in the East Timor invasion. State Department documents in the National Archive are unequivocal - "that the Secretary of State fully understood that the invasion of East Timor involved the "illegal" use of U.S.-supplied military equipment because it was not used in self-defense as required by law . . . "In 1979 the U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that 300,000 East Timorese—nearly half the population—had been uprooted and moved into camps controlled by Indonesian armed forces. By 1980 the occupation had left more than 100,000 dead from military action, starvation or disease, with some estimates running as high as 230,000." This much is only what we know, for much of the material regarding the annexation of East Timor remains classified. Kissinger claimed he never held discussions with General Suharto about East Timor. That has since proven to be a lie, for both Ford and Kissinger discussed the issue when they visited Jakarta that month. In Kissinger's memoirs Indonesia's brutal repression in East Timor is not mentioned and even Indonesia as a country is hardly mentioned, no doubt as Kissinger had acquiesced to having broken the law. Former President Ford similarly omits such mention. So the US is in no position to point the finger of blame at the Chinese who are alleged to be supplying weapons to the Burmese military. In Myanmar today, the leader is a dreadful murderer and tyrant, Min Aung Hlaing. He masterminded the murder, rape, torture and explusion of the Rohingya and has zero intention of letting them back. Whatever happens in the next election (if it does happen), the tyrant has no worries since he has ensured there will be a majority military presence. Only massive intervention by the general population is likely to result in any change. With China determined to maintain stability in its bordering countries, will the world's second largest superpower permit this to happen? https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/ https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Who-is-Myanmar-s-coup-leader-and-what-does-he-want

I noted that Barrack Obama stated that had he had sons he would not have allowed them to play American football. But I do want to stress that this was just one example in a variety of sports that i discussed. Perhaps it is the most obvious because the long-term medical impact of repeated concussions and mere banging into other bodies, sometimes with head forward, have been known for longer. I had absolutely no idea there was any possible impact from playing rugby (which I could not do at school because I wore spectacles) apart from the banning of dangerous neck tackles. And I had even less idea of the impact of constant heading of a soccer ball until about a year ago which is roughy when this came into the public consciousness. I started my earlier post by mentioning boxing. This "sport" has been around for centuries, if not longer. As noted "punch drunk" was a frequent description given to those who suffered head injuries as a result. When I was at junior school, boxing was part of the sports curriculum. Boxing after all was thought of even then as a "man's" sport. As such, once a week, several boys had to take part in short bouts. I can still recall one 10-year old being hit hard on the jaw. He collapsed and could not be revived. A doctor was called and he was rushed to hospital. Thankfully he was OK and back at school th next morning. But I often wondered if that one punch might have done something to his brain. Probably not, as I now understand it is the repeated blows which cause the serious problems.

I'm not sure I agree. A big payday should definitely not be an inducement to play a sport which may result in what is now known may be a pretty ghastly 10-15 years end of life. This is especially true of children for whom sports stars are often role models. After all, there are dozens of other sports as we recently saw at the Olympics and which we will see at the winder Olympics coming up in a few months where there is far less element of danger to quality of life that American Football, Rugby etc. can have Stars like Hanyu Yuzuru who is a doubt Olympic Gold Champion in figure skating might only get paid a fraction of what a top American footballer gets paid for events in which he participates. But he is not risking his life on a regular basis. Besides, in an age when individual sponsorship of sports stars is at an all time high, Hanyu still makes tens of millions of US$$s annually in individual sponsorships. The end-of-season Fedex Golf tournament is presently underway in Atlanta. The top prize in that event is US$15 million. The US Open Tennis now underway is paying out US$2.5 million to the winners. They will also likely to see their sponsorship income increase exponentially. There are plenty of sports where it is possible to make very large amounts of money if an individual works at it without known medical risks

There is news today about the death of an 18-year old boxer who was knocked out in a professional bout 5 days ago. So what, was my first thought? That fact that it was a woman made no difference. If you elect to become a boxer, your head is going to be battered in countless bouts in the ring. For many fighters that will unquestionably have short, medium or long term affects on the brain. You make your choices and take your chances. How many recall Muhammad Ali in his later decades. Mentally alert but increasingly a physical wreck resulting from Parkinson's Disease. I used to think it was only boxers who are at risk of brain injury. Now we know that this is nonsense. Participants in many sports involving head contact are increasingly coming down with brain injuries. I personally have always disliked American football. To me it is not a sport. It is more akin to all out war. When much of the game involves players crashing into each other, when wearing something akin to body armour is required before you ever get on the pitch, how can that be called a sport? It's more like the trench warfare of World War One! Mind you, the husband of a friend of mine in the USA lives for it, spending 2 or 3 evenings each week, popcorn in hand with the TV tuned to football games. But then some retired players started behaving strangely suffering from a variety of serous ailments which often resulted in aggressive behaviour and even suicide. This was brought home to me in the 2015 movie "Concussion" which showed how many former players were subject to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and how many will do so in the future. Like Alzheimers, CTE gets worse over time. Many studies are presently being undertaken. For the time being, one in 2017 published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that of the 202 brains of players who had died, 177, or nearly 90 percent, were diagnosed with CTE. The NFL has certainly made the game safer, but it remains very dangerous for long term medical consequences. Now, though, a study conducted for Imperial College, London, has shown that up to 25% of rugby players display some form of brain abnormality. The research was limited to elite players who play professionally, but there can be little doubt that damaging effects will be found in schoolboys throughout Britain and other parts of the world where rugby is part of the sports curriculum. Most worryingly for most, if only because it is the world's sport, many major soccer players and their families have come out regarding the dangers of constant heading of the ball. When I first heard this, I assumed it was nonsense. Not a bit of it! At least 5 members of the side which won the World Cup for England in 1966 suffer from or did suffer from dementia. 5 out of 11! One, Ray Wilson, suffered for 13 years. Today Sir Bobby Charlton suffers from it. His brother Jack who died in July last year also suffered from the disease. The son of another, Nobby Stiles, informed the media that his father started showing signs of dementia 20 years before his death. Billy McNeil who led Glasgow Celtic to Britain's first ever European Cup win suffered from it for ten years before his death two years ago. The largest study so far was conducted by the University of Glasgow in 2019. Researchers compared the causes of death of 7,676 former Scottish male professional football players born between 1900 and 1976 against over 230,000 matched individuals from the general population. The study revealed that former professional football players had an approximately three and a half times higher rate of death due to neurodegenerative disease than expected. What the study could not discover were the reasons for the imbalance. Several new studies are underway. In the meantime the Scottish and Irish Football Associations have issued guidelines that children aged 11 and under should not be taught to head the ball in training since children are more vulnerable than adults. This is similar to an existing ban in the USA. UEFA, the European Soccer Association, has confirmed that if ongoing studies find conclusive evidence, it is prepared to ban heading in future. The ban will no doubt be contested but the facts stare us in the face. Of that World Cup eleven, 46% suffered from dementia. The WHO estimates that the worldwide average for the over 60s is 5% to 8% of the general population. Who said some sporta are not war? https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/58432013