Ya Bass

Despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent comments on Israel:

There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world. As the Imam (Khomeini) said, Israel must be wiped off the map.

There are still many who think Iran should have an inalienable right to develop nuclear weapons, because it would be hypocritical for them to be told otherwise what to do by a Security Council made up of nuclear powers like the US/UK/France/etc. What they seem to forget is that the world can live and function with this hypocrisy, but living with nuclear armed theocratic states intent on wiping out a people is another matter entirely.

At least Tony Blair understands what is at stake;

These sentiments are completely and totally unacceptable, I have never come across a situation of the president of a country saying they want to wipe out - not that they have got a problem with or an issue with - but want to wipe out another country.

This is unacceptable and their attitude towards Israel, their attitude towards terrorism, their attitude on the nuclear weapons issue isn't acceptable.

If they continue down this path then people are going to believe they are a real threat to our world security and stability.

There are more and more issues I diverge from Blair on domestic policy (his support of faith schools for example) but on the most important and fundamental issue of foreign policy, through which nearly every other issue is mere footnotes, then Blair gets it spot on.

Perhaps in poor taste, but still funny nonetheless.

May I draw your attention to the Daily Mail-o-matic from qwghlm.co.uk:

COULD SINGLE MOTHERS RIP OFF THE COUNTRYSIDE?

WILL NEW LABOUR INFECT CAR DRIVERS WITH AIDS?

COULD KEN LIVINGSTON DEFRAUD YOUR DAUGHTER OF ALL DIGNITY?

WILL THE GERMANS DEFRAUD THE CONSERVATIVES?

WILL TEENAGE SEX STRIP THE QUEEN OF ALL DIGNITY?

This is perhaps old news and as a result unsuited to the fast moving blogosphere but only yesterday I was shown a copy George Galloway's column from the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail (4.09.2005) in which he commented on the fire-raising peer Mike Watson who was sent to prison.

That a large part of the Galloway column is shameless should come as no surprise. Galloway describes Watson as:

The inadequate husband who strutted ever more unconvincingly with ever younger women, giving rise to the best political joke of the decade. Mike Watson sends his apologies for being unable to be here, he is attending the birth of his next wife.

Yes that's right, the Carnally Known One, Mr No Respect himself, criticising someone else for being an "inadequate husband". Beyond parody. For those who don't know the background on this Galloway was divorced from his first wife after he admitted on a press conference that he'd had extra marital affairs while in Greece for a conference with War on Want. Then during the last general election, his current Palestinian wife questioned him naming his new political party, 'Respect'. Her reasoning was that he had no respect for her, or their marriage. George is of course a serial adulterer.

He goes on to describe Watson as:

The anti-racist who, when his position was challenged by Scotland's only ethnic minority MP, Mohammed Sarwar, dredged every barrel, spun every stereotype and relied on a set of dirty tricks that would have shamed a segregationist senator in Mississippi

Galloway obviously learned a few tips from Watson on how to engage in a dirty campaign highlighting ethnic and religious differences.

While on the subject of politicians and arson, I'm reminded of the fires in a couple of Whitefield Social Clubs after a young politician within Dundee council was queeried over missing funds from the bar and the pool table in these establishments. Both clubs burned to the ground and the account ledgers destroyed in the fires which unfortunately burnt just a few short hours before the books were to be seized for investigation.

From the Telegraph, via Spiritof1976 comes the news of Unicef bombing the Smurfs:

The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.



The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."

It is intended as the keystone of a fund-raising drive by Unicef's Belgian arm, to raise £70,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi.

Philippe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium, said his agency had set out to shock, after concluding that traditional images of suffering in Third World war zones had lost their power to move television viewers. "It's controversial," he said. "We have never done something like this before but we've learned over the years that the reaction to the more normal type of campaign is very limited."

The advertising agency behind the campaign, Publicis, decided the best way to convey the impact of war on children was to tap into the earliest, happiest memories of Belgian television viewers. They chose the Smurfs, who first appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958.

It's a pretty sad reflection of the lack of empathy and humanity in parts of society that people no longer connect with the suffering of actual children and that adverts - for a very worthy cause - have to tap into their own childhood memories in order to move them. In this respect it's not about child soldiers in Burundi it all about me me me.

Alternatively, upon watching this film i'm sure there will be many who will just see the images of Smurfs being bombed and think "take that you little blue bastards!"

UPDATE 14/10: Thanks to Wirthy in the comments box who found this footage of the advert from Belgian TV.