07 March 2007
06 March 2007
West Ham – Insert appropriate tabloid horror headline
Call it a nightmare on Green Street; call it a Hammers Horror but West Ham has had a season that is very much an annus horribilis (although to date no castle has burnt down).
The Hammers have not won a match since December and have taken only two points so far during 2007. They are at the bottom of the Premiership table, eleven points adrift of safety and relegation seems inevitable (unless prayers to St Jude, the patron saint of hopless causes can turn things around!).
To make matters worse the team is in a morale meltdown according to a report in last Sunday’s Observer. Charges have been laid by the Premier League over breaches rules over the signing of Argentinean players Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.
And now today the press is reporting that the Metropolitan Police confirmed that is investigating a complaint about racist chants heard at last Sunday’s game against Tottenham. One of the chants apparently was: "I'd rather be a Paki than a Jew".
The FA's head of stadia, Chris Whalley, will write to the relegation-threatened club today to demand an explanation for the security and stewarding provisions it has in place. The FA will want to know why there was no intervention from stewards to put a stop to the chanting, which took place at half-time when West Ham were leading 2-0. Even if the chants were from a tiny minority of fans, we need this srt of behaviour like a hole in the head.
Last May West Ham came with in an ace of a famous FA Cup win. This season has been an unmitigated disaster. I wonder if it’s time to pull down the shutters and hope for a successful return to the Premiership next year. On a happier note Dagenham & Redbridge are 12 points clear at the top of the Conference. Barring disaster it looks like league football next season.
The Hammers have not won a match since December and have taken only two points so far during 2007. They are at the bottom of the Premiership table, eleven points adrift of safety and relegation seems inevitable (unless prayers to St Jude, the patron saint of hopless causes can turn things around!).
To make matters worse the team is in a morale meltdown according to a report in last Sunday’s Observer. Charges have been laid by the Premier League over breaches rules over the signing of Argentinean players Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.
And now today the press is reporting that the Metropolitan Police confirmed that is investigating a complaint about racist chants heard at last Sunday’s game against Tottenham. One of the chants apparently was: "I'd rather be a Paki than a Jew".
The FA's head of stadia, Chris Whalley, will write to the relegation-threatened club today to demand an explanation for the security and stewarding provisions it has in place. The FA will want to know why there was no intervention from stewards to put a stop to the chanting, which took place at half-time when West Ham were leading 2-0. Even if the chants were from a tiny minority of fans, we need this srt of behaviour like a hole in the head.
Last May West Ham came with in an ace of a famous FA Cup win. This season has been an unmitigated disaster. I wonder if it’s time to pull down the shutters and hope for a successful return to the Premiership next year. On a happier note Dagenham & Redbridge are 12 points clear at the top of the Conference. Barring disaster it looks like league football next season.
Robyn Hitchcock - I often dream of trains
The title track of Robyn's third solo album. Also features "Man with the lightbulb head" from Fegmania
05 March 2007
Cherokees vote to expel descendants of former slaves
Members of the Cherokee nation voted yesterday to expel descendants of black slaves they once owned. In a special election to amend their constitution citizenship is to be limited to those listed as “Cherokee by blood”. The move stripped tribal membership from freedmen (those descended from slaves) and blacks who were married to Cherokees. They had enjoyed full citizenship rights for 141 years.
The ballot, which followed a ruling by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court in March 2006 confirming citizenship to freedmen descendants, will now limit citizenship to those who can trace their heritage to a “Cherokee by blood” list, part of what is known as the Dawes Rolls census created in 1906. Under that census, anybody with a trace of African-American blood, even if half Cherokee, was placed on the freedmen roll. Those with full Cherokee or mixed white and Cherokee ancestry were put on the “Cherokee by blood” roll.
Supporters say that it was a long-overdue move by Cherokees to determine their own tribal make-up. In their view freedmen were granted tribal membership under duress in an 1866 treaty with the US Government. Those who wanted to expel freedmen said that, without the vote, thousands more descendants would seek to cash in on the tribe’s revenue and welfare network.
Opponents of the vote denounced it as a racist plot to deny tribal revenue to those not deemed full-blood Cherokee, and to block them from claiming a slice of the tribal pie. A minority of the 270,000 Cherokees are descendants of freedmen. Members are entitled to a share of the $350 million annual budget from federal and tribal revenue, housing and medical support.
The vote has reopened a chapter in Native American history –that some country’s largest tribes were slave holders and sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Cherokees, Choctaws, Chicksaws, Creeks and Seminoles were known as the Five Civilised Tribes because they adopted many of the ways of the Confederate South, including the ownership of black slaves.
This may well not be the end of the story: In 2000 the Seminole Nation expelled its freedmen. But the federal Government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and federal courts, refused to recognise the Seminoles as a sovereign nation. Faced with such a loss of status, they took the freedmen back.
The ballot, which followed a ruling by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court in March 2006 confirming citizenship to freedmen descendants, will now limit citizenship to those who can trace their heritage to a “Cherokee by blood” list, part of what is known as the Dawes Rolls census created in 1906. Under that census, anybody with a trace of African-American blood, even if half Cherokee, was placed on the freedmen roll. Those with full Cherokee or mixed white and Cherokee ancestry were put on the “Cherokee by blood” roll.
Supporters say that it was a long-overdue move by Cherokees to determine their own tribal make-up. In their view freedmen were granted tribal membership under duress in an 1866 treaty with the US Government. Those who wanted to expel freedmen said that, without the vote, thousands more descendants would seek to cash in on the tribe’s revenue and welfare network.
Opponents of the vote denounced it as a racist plot to deny tribal revenue to those not deemed full-blood Cherokee, and to block them from claiming a slice of the tribal pie. A minority of the 270,000 Cherokees are descendants of freedmen. Members are entitled to a share of the $350 million annual budget from federal and tribal revenue, housing and medical support.
The vote has reopened a chapter in Native American history –that some country’s largest tribes were slave holders and sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Cherokees, Choctaws, Chicksaws, Creeks and Seminoles were known as the Five Civilised Tribes because they adopted many of the ways of the Confederate South, including the ownership of black slaves.
This may well not be the end of the story: In 2000 the Seminole Nation expelled its freedmen. But the federal Government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and federal courts, refused to recognise the Seminoles as a sovereign nation. Faced with such a loss of status, they took the freedmen back.
Great Firewall of China - update
Hmm the Poor Mouth now seems to be blocked. Perhaps my cats are just too subversive...
A Conversation with Oscar Wilde
Detail of the Maggie Hambling statue located in Adelaide Street, near Trafalgar Square
Great Firewall of China
The Great Firewall of China allows you to test any website and see if it is banned in China. This blog is visible in China plenty but other blogs are banned.
Thanks go to Matt An Insomniac for drawing my attention to the Great Firewall of China in the first place.
Thanks go to Matt An Insomniac for drawing my attention to the Great Firewall of China in the first place.
04 March 2007
Amrita Shergill exhibition - well worth visiting
Amrita seated - taken by her father in the early 30sIf you are in London and you want to go to an art exhibtion the Amrita shergill (or Shergil or Sher-gil) exhibition at the Tate Modern is well worth visiting. I know it's up against a huge retrospective of Gilbert and George's work and there is a major Hogarth exhibition at the Tate Britain but I was glad I went. To the best of my knowledge there aren't any examples of her art on display in a British gallery so it is a wonderful opportunity to see a prodigous talent whose life was cut short so young.
Self portrait as Tahitian 1934
Fruit vendors 1937
Hill women 1935
Sleep 1932. The model is her sister Indira
Hungarian village market 1939The above pictures all appear at the exhibition and are photos of postcards or of plates. Click here and here for my earlier posts on Amrita Shergill
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