Bali Photos

Ok, enough of politics, news and all that boring stuff. Here are some more photos from Bali, which I have been promising to put up for a while now.

The first two are at a temple at the bottom of a valley - the pics are at the top but don't really do justice to the views and the tropical feel when you go down into the valley. It was hot, humid and wonderful. We had to wear the sashes since it was a temple - and you can tell that we were on our own because we never could take a picture of the two of us together!






























This is another temple with holy ponds where people bathe


















This is the beach at Jimbaran bay in the twilight - the first one is a view from the hotel grounds












































And this one is just a lovely pic of Shadi in our room in Ubud

George Galloway

I don't know what to make of Gorgeous George. On the one hand I cheered him on in his rant in the US Senate when he gave evidence in relation to the oil-for-food scandal and to allegations that he had diverted profits from his Iraqi charity to himself and business associates. It was good to see someone stand up to the anonymous men in the US Senate who appeared to try to rule the world from cozy Washington.

Also, I read his book which was released when he was expelled from the Labour party and started the Respect party in the UK - the book was full of, what I considered to be good common sense and decency if a little idealistic.

But now, he has gone on Radio 4 in UK (basically the most prestigious news and political radio show in UK) saying that if someone decided to kill Tony Blair it would be "morally justifiable" - or rather repeating the claim that he made in an interview in GQ magazine.

It's what I like about the guy - he's not afraid to say what he thinks which is refreshing for a politician. And, if you read what he says basically he says that it would be more morally justifiable than the July bombings in London but that he would prefer to see Tony Blair in front of a War Crimes Tribunal for war crimes.

This I would agree with. If it is not the case that a person who takes a country into war on lies and false premises cannot be held accountable for those lies, what is the point of democracy. And, I think that George was merely saying that, since Tony Blair is directly responsible for the murder of innocent Iraqis, there would be more moral justification in killing him than in killing innocent civilians.

But, he must have known how his comments would have been taken and it is a shame to see someone who, for the most part, makes entirely sensible statements which appear to me to be on the side of decency, lose credibility because of the more hyperbolic statements he comes out with. I bet that Labour and Tony love George because he has made himself into the perfect straw man.

Six years too late!

Al Gore has a new documentary out which is the subject of much media comment and hype. It's called An Inconvenient Truth and it's not, as you might expect, a treatise on the inconvenient truth that Gore actually won in 2000 - boo! hiss! - but a film about Gore's passion, Global Warming or Climate Crisis as he calls it. Apparently, the man has been charming the people at Cannes out of their frilly knickers and he is rumoured to be a charismatic affable guy in public. Good for him, I guess, but for us citizens of the world I would just say it's six years too late. He bears a heavy responsibility for not being as good as he could have been.

Disaster Has Struck

The Sachdeva household (the one in Hong Kong) is in crisis. The cable box has broken. The beloeved cable box, whose only channel is the cricket channel is no longer and cannot be resurrected. That too, on the day of the start of the India vs. West Indies cricket tournament and during a week where the man of the house is on his own.

The cruelty of the convergence of the broken cable box, the start of a new cricket series and the my solitude is just too much to bear.

Being ingenious, of course, I have phoned the cable company to fix it. But it is a race to see whether they'll come and fix it before the first ball is bowled....

UPDATE: the cable guy came and fixed the cable but there was no cricket channel. So I was left with all the local cable channels in cantonese and no cricket. I rang the cable company and asked where my cricket was, since I was paying a princely monthly sum for it after all, and they said that they had no record of me having the cricket channel but that they would turn it on during the next week. As you can imagine, I used my most stern lawyer voice on the phone and explained that if they didn't turn it on within 5 minutes (there was less than an hour to go before the match) I would be "extremely disappointed" or equivalent. They turned it on, but the match was rained off until the middle of the night, so I slept through it. Oh dear....

Karl Rove to be Indicted?

Apparently, Karl Rove is (or has already been) indicted on charges for perjury for the Valerie Plame thingy. Further charges of obstruction of justice may also be brought. I read this somewhere over the weekend (and can't remember where) but it is not covered on bbc, nytimes, guardian or any of my usual haunts.

Anyway, let's see what happens.

Return To Sender

Ahmadinejad has written to GWB - ahh, how sweet...Shadi and I were trying to guess what it said this morning. She thinks that Mahmoud was telling George what wonderful eyes he has and inviting him for some romance under the Tehran skies. Personally, I think the letter was really meant for Condi since now that Jack Straw has been sacked by Blair, Ahmadinejad reckons he's in in with a chance.

Well, after coming into work, I found on my desk a plain manila envelope mysteriously addressed to the "Fragrant Harbour Blogger" (how they knew my work address one can only know) and behold, an illicit copy of the letter as sent to Bush. Turns out both Shadi and I were partly right. It's a particularly rambling letter starting off very aggressively but softening considerably before the end.

Here's a parsing of the most interesting bits:

"Dear Goat F**cker,

By the will of blessed Allah, my lamb kebab has just arrived so forgive me if the paper is a bit oily...

Meester Bush, your bellowing about Iran is like is like a man without balls bragging about impregnating a 60 year old woman. I'll put it in terms you might understand - Iran is now a nucular power - haven't we proved as much by our dancing students holding vials of liquid?

You are too late, Meester Bush - if you bomb us now, we can easily make new vials from our children's chemistry sets at home. I make this solemn promise that if you bomb Iran, all the kebab sellers in the city of New York will go on strike, meaning that all your police and lawmen will go hungry.

If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possible imagine. (to quote one of your popular 'motion pictures')

If you bomb Iran, I will stop trimming my beard so that it will grow long and straggly so it will be more scary.

Now George, we are not so different, you and I. We are both religious tee-totallers who have broken our electoral promises. You think Iran is not a democracy but I had to lie real hard to get elected...just like you! I thought that out of all world leaders today, you would recognise this defining feature of democracy.

Now, let me address some of things I have been reported as saying so that there is no misunderstanding. First I never called for Israel to be wiped off the map - why should I? In Iran none of the maps show Israel anyway...Anyway what I meant to say was that the current regime in Israel should go - there you go another thing we have in common: a wish to conduct regime change in other countries...The problem I think is that Farsi is just too complicated a language for you Americans. When we want to say that we don't like something, we often say it is a 'stain which needs to be bleached out' - in fact I was just saying that about a particularly bad episode of Baywatch I saw on pirate satellite tv. It doens't mean anything more than I don't like it.

Now, I am going to Indonesia in a couple of days to meet Bangbang someone (look- something else we have in common!) but then I am sneaking off to Bali for a "conference". I have put it down as work expenses (don't tell the Ayatollah) but I am really intending just to sit on the beach and maybe surf a little. My proposal to you is that you come join me - we can have romantic walks on the beach at sunset; we can talk through the issues between us sharing a non-alcoholic pina colada.

I can rub sun tan lotion on your back and you can do the same....

Love and Kisses - Mahmoud

Ps Bring Condi along too but leave Laura at home"


For those who want to read the entire text of the letter it is here