In the news this weekend.....

Spent the last two days in a state of stupour celebrating the birthday of a good pal, leaving me with a brace of the Daily Propoganda and an inbox full of news alerts to read... these are the titbits that caught my attention. No doubt you bastards are well ahead of me, but that's the way it goes sometimes.....


Australia

"For a first-world country to be imposing a third-world penalty by executing this young man, it diminishes the lives of all of us. The Singapore Government must understand that killing this young Australian will not kill the fight against the mandatory death penalty."

Rob Hulls, Victoria State Attorney General, Australia.

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In principle I agree. But where the fuck were your heartfelt comments when the US Government offed Kenneth Lee Boyd - the 1000th execution since the reintroduction of the death penalty there in 1977? Get a grip on your moral ideology, Rob.

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Japan

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"Reading conventional books about China is tiring. So we decided on a comic book, which is easier to absorb."

Hokuto Hata, representative of Japanese publisher Asuka Shinsha.

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Again, you have my agreement. Far from the snobby idea of 'dumbing down' graphic representations of history can really bring it alive. On example is an excellent representation of the holocaust where all the characters are presented as animals (I belive it is called Maus, but it has been a while and I could be mistaken). But here the problem is one of re-writing history. Titled An Introduction to China - A Study of Our Annoying Neighbours this book paints the Chinese as a race of cannibals and AIDS-infested prostitutes and suggests that they dug up ancient bones to fabricate the proof that the Japanes killed 300,000 civilians during their occupation. A similar comic book titled Hating the Korean Wave paints Japan's brutal annexation of Korea as a 'liberation' from Chinese influence.

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How fucked up does this nation want to be? Despite good political relations with the US they must realise that from survival instinct alone they need to build friendships within Asia, particularly with China on the ascent. Interestingly the writer of this book is from Taiwan - a country that, despite it's odds with neighbour-cum-wannabe-parent China, had a harsh time itself under a 50-year Japanese occupation.

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The World Health Organisation

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"It is not illegal for an organisation to offer positions solely to non-smokers. An applicant would not be able to challenge an unsuccessful job application on that basis."

Michael Bradshaw, employment partner at Charles Russell Law Firm.

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Okay, maybe we should applaud the fact that the WHO are going with their principles (I don't want to seem a hypocrite after my opening paragraphs). After all, it does look a bit bad for their employees to be effectively killing themselves. But smoking is not actually illegal in most countries, so how can it be legal to exclude someone who is not technically doing anything wrong. Let me come clean and admit I am a smoker. I intend to give up now middle age has set in and I no longer feel like I'm going to live forever, but I've been puffing for 20 years and it isn't that easy. Is shunning me going to make it easier for me to give up? I don't fucking think so. And what about the smokers that the WHO already employ? Is it a case of "quit the weed or quit the job"? I think Michael Bradford may find it a little harder to justify that kind of action.

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Cheers m'dears!