The title of this blog comes from a Gaelic expression -"putting on the poor mouth"-which means to exaggerate the direness of one's situation in order to gain time or favour from creditors.
The Observer carries a story today concerning a meeting between the oldest surviving British and German WWI veterans. Henry Allingham, 110, and Robert Meier, 109, met in Meier's home town of Witten, near Dortmund.
Allingham and Meier are the oldest men in the UK and Germany respectively. Allingham remembers watching WG Grace play cricket. Meier remembers meeting the Kaiser during the First World War. There had been a plan to make yesterday a three-way meeting with France's oldest veteran, but he was too frail to travel. For a time Meier had been written out of the history books. Last year the death of 108-year-old Charles Kuentz was widely reported as the passing of Germany's last First World War veteran. In fact the number of Germans had been underestimated: some sources suggest as many as eight are still alive. The number of known surviving British veterans stands at nine.
Allingham joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915, became a Mechanic First Class and flew eight missions as a gunner. He served aboard one of the first aircraft carriers and witnessed the Battle of Jutland, then in early 1917 was sent to the Western Front, where he serviced planes and had to retrieve those shot down at Ypres and the Somme. In 1918 he transferred to the newly formed RAF and is its sole surviving founder member.
Meier, born in 1897 to German parents in Ukraine, was also in the trenches. He fought again in the Second World War and was taken prisoner by the Soviet Union, which held him for two years. 'The time in prison took it out of me,' he recalled, adding that without that hardship he would be even more mobile today.
Apparently there are still 51 WWI veterans alive, although a proportion will not have actually seen active service while at the beginning of the year there were about 90. That so many are still alive is probably unsurprisjng given the millions who fought in the conflict. One thing is certain the veterans will be gone in a few years and then the conflict will pass from living history.
I planted a Yew a few years ago in the full knowledge that it will, if untouched, be around for centuries, if not millennia. At present it is covered in bright red berries. Not surprisingly, given that it is nearly November, the garden is in decline even though some things are still well in flower. It is good to still see some colour as winter draws ever nearer.
Adventure Rocket Ship appears on Robyn's new album Ole Tarantula. In my (extremely biased) view is is a wonderful song that should be purchased and loved by everyone! It is a great song from one of Robyn's very best albums
Al Yammanah, (The Dove) is one of Britains biggest ever arms deals. In 1985 Britain agreed to sell 72 Tornado and 30 Hawk warplanes to Saudi Arabia. The deal was renewed in 1993 when Saudis agreed to buy another batch of 48 Tornado warplanes. Last year a final stage was signed in which Saudi Arabia agreed to buy 72 Typhoon fighters. The arms deal has helped keep British Aerospace (now BAE) afloat for the last 20 years
Yesterday the government was yesterday scrambling to recover secret documents containing evidence suggesting corrupt payments were made in the Al Yamanah deal. MoD documents reveal that the price of each Tornado was inflated by 32%, from £16.3m to £21.5m. It is common in arms deals for the prices of weapons to be raised so that commissions can be skimmed off the top. The £600m involved is the same amount that it was alleged at the time in Arab publications was exacted in secret commissions paid to Saudi royals and their circle of intermediaries in London and Riyadh, as the price of the deal.
Saudi Air Force Tornado
The allegations were treated with such concern in Whitehall in 1985, documents reveal, that a copy of the Arab magazine in question was immediately sent in confidence by the Foreign Office to Mrs Thatcher's chief aide at No 10, Charles Powell, with advice that officials "should simply refuse all comment". Yesterday, 20 years on, the MoD at first sought to take the same line. It insisted the Chandler telegram must have been leaked and said "we never comment on leaks". In fact, a copy was released to the National Archives on May 8 by the Department of Trade and Industry.
Last night, the DTI said : "The files were placed in the National Archive by mistake. Successive governments have regarded the Al Yamamah agreement to be confidential. The files have now been removed." The MoD said : "We regret the fact that this material has been made public. We attach great importance to the confidentiality of the government to government Al Yamamah agreement with Saudi Arabia, and in order to protect that confidentiality we are not commenting on these papers
Saudi Hawk
Ian Gilmour, a Conservative minister at the time, recently confirmed bribes were common on Saudi arms deals. Lord Gilmour told BBC2's Newsnight: "You either got the business and bribed, or you didn't bribe and didn't get the business ... If you are paying bribes to high-up people in the government, the fact that it's illegal in Saudi law doesn't mean much."
It has also been alleged that Lady Thatcher's son Mark received secret commissions from the deal.
Amnesty International has launched a campaign on behalf of prisoners of conscience arrested by repressive governments for expressing unwelcome views or disseminating sensitive information online.
In an appeal yesterday today, Amnesty urged webmasters around the world to stand up for their imprisoned fellow bloggers - in countries such as Iran, Tunisia, Vietnam and China - and denouncing major internet service providers, including Yahoo! and Microsoft, for providing foreign governments with the information they need to purge the web of dissenting voices.
The call comes as the online world prepares to meet at the Internet Governance Forum) to discuss the future of the internet. Amnesty released a statement to the IGF today and is sending a delegation to ensure that human rights are not sidelined and remain at the heart of the forum’s discussions.
Steve Ballinger, part of Amnesty International’s delegation to the IGF, said: “Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege – but it’s a right that needs defending. We’re asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government.
“The internet is a powerful force for human rights, enabling the free flow of ideas and information around the world. But some governments have sought to curtail this freedom. People have been locked up just for expressing their views in an email or a website. Sites and blogs have been shut down and firewalls built to prevent access to information. Companies have restricted internet searches to stop people accessing information that repressive governments don’t want them to see.”
Yahoo! via its Chinese partner company, Alibaba, has provided the Chinese authorities with private and confidential information about its users that has been used to convict and imprison journalists. It has also agreed to censor and deny access to information. Microsoft shut down the blog of New York Times researcher Zhao Jing on the basis of a Chinese government request. The company has also admitted that it responds to directions from the Chinese government in restricting users of MSN Spaces from using certain terms. Google has launched a censored version of its international search engine in China.
Amnesty International is also highlighting the cases of prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for the expression of their peaceful views online. Chinese journalist Shi Tao used his Yahoo! account to email a US-based website about an internal government directive instructing journalists how to handle media coverage of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities." Yahoo! provided information to the government that was used in his prosecution.
Vietnamese political dissident Truong Quoc Huy was first arrested in October 2005 with two other young people after chatting on a democracy and human rights website. He was held incommunicado for nine months then released, but on 18 August 2006 he was rearrested in an internet cafe in Ho Chi Minh City, where he had logged on to a chatroom. His whereabouts remain unknown and no charges have been publicised.
Pompeii’s biggest and most richly decorated brothel, The "wolves' lair" reopened to the public yesterday after extensive restoration.
Pompeii was packed with bordellos. At least 25 have been identified. But most occupied a single room, usually above a wine shop. The "Lupanare" (or lupanar), was different. Archaeologists believe it was the ancient city's only purpose-built whorehouse. So-called because, in Latin, lupa (she-wolf) was a common term for a prostitute, it consisted of 10 rooms and a latrine beneath the stairs. Set into the wall of each of the women's rooms was a stone bed covered with a mattress.
Researchers believe that its wall paintings, which depict different position, were intended to advertise the various specialities on offer. The more elaborately painted upper floor, which had a separate entrance, is thought to have been reserved for better-off clients. The prostitutes were slaves, usually of Greek or Eastern origin. Their earnings were collected by the owner or manager of the brothel. Well it seems that the modern sex industry emulates its classical counterpart in that respect....
Early on the 30th of September a group of Tibetan refugees were making a trek across the border into Nepal, moving in single file across a mountain slope near the 5,800m high Nanpa La Pass, Chinese border guards opened fire.
A few minutes of jerky video footage shot by a Romanian cameraman on a mountaineering trip brought their plight into Western living rooms this month. In the video, a Chinese border guard calmly opens fire on the group of unarmed Tibetans. Two figures drop to the ground. "They're shooting them like, like dogs," says an incredulous voice, one of the other mountaineers standing beside the cameraman. And then the camera trains on the dead body of one of the Tibetans in the distance.
The full story of what happened that day in the Himalayas has now emerged. The accounts of survivors can be pieced together with those of the mountaineers who witnessed the shooting. "There was no warning of any kind," Thubten Tsering, a Buddhist monk, told reporters in Delhi this week. "The bullets were so close I could hear them whizzing past. We scattered and ran." There were 75 of them in the group when they left. Only 41 made it across the border into Nepal, and on to India. Two are believed to have died. There are 32 others still unaccounted for. "We don't know where they are or what happened to them," said Mr Thubten.
The body in the footage is that of Kelsang Nortso, a 25-year-old Buddhist nun. A witness, who did not want to be identified, said: "We were walking in line. Before the shooting we knew the soldiers were after us so we started to walk quickly. They warned us to stop, and then they started shooting. We were running. The bullets were landing near us. The nun who died was 100 metres ahead of me. I saw her fall down. I was lucky. A bullet tore my trousers, but it missed me." She and some of the other refugees had to run past Nortso's body as it lay in the bloodstained snow.
In all, between 2,500 and 4,000 Tibetans flee across the border into Nepal every year - one of the toughest borders in the world to cross, since it runs along the line of several of the highest mountains on earth, including Mount Everest. They cross at Nangpa La and a few other passes, following in the footsteps of the Dalai Lama who made his own escape through the Himalayas in 1957. The crossings at Nangpa La are generally made during the night to avoid Chinese border patrols, but the one that was attacked was attempting to cross in the morning - possibly because of the large number of children in the group. Most have to pay guides around 5,000 yuan (£340) to guide them through the mountain passes - serious money in rural Tibet. "Most know they are taking a big risk to come to India," said Urgen Tenzin, of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. "There are threats from Chinese guards, but also the extreme freezing conditions and the dangers of climbing steep mountains to get to Nepal."
The Romanian video footage was not the first the world heard of the incident. The first accounts emerged from Western mountaineers who were in the area, and who witnessed the killings. The story did not emerge immediately, and it is believed fears over the safety of Western mountaineers still in Tibet, and fears the Chinese may clamp down on mountaineering expeditions, made some of the witnesses hesitate in coming forward at first.
The Chinese authorities reacted by issuing a statement through the Xinhua news agency that claimed the border guards only opened fire after they were "attacked" by a group of some 70 Tibetan refugees who refused an order to go back to Tibet. That version of events does not stand up against the video footage, which clearly shows the refugees as defenceless. It is also contradicted by every witness statement - such as that of a British climber who described "Chinese soldiers quite close to advance base camp kneeling, taking aim and shooting, again and again, at the group, who were completely defenceless".
Pressed on the incident, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said: "If the report is accurate, the Chinese authorities will investigate the matter. As to whether it is a policy for border police to open fire on people, I think the border police and army's responsibility is to safeguard the peace and security of the Chinese border."
The mountaineers have not come out of the story free from controversy. "Did it make anyone turn away and go home? Not one," said an American climber who asked not to be identified. "People are climbing right in front of you to escape persecution while you are trying to climb a mountain. It's insane."
After the incident, the refugees who had escaped capture regrouped in the mountains, and headed down into the lowlands of Nepal. It took them another eight days. In total, they walked for 25 days across some of the highest mountain passes on earth.
