Give 1.5 million people a cargo of fish, and tomorrow they’ll be hungry again. Help those people break through an illegal siege, and tomorrow they’ll be able to fish for themselves. This is the reality for Gaza, and is one part of why the volunteer humanitarians on board the Freedom Flotilla are not interested in […]
.at/his.desk
random rants & rambles
Author Archives: Kieran
Gaza aid flotilla massacre – points arising
Some thoughts from the day’s discussions that arose on Facebook: Jane asked: What I want to know is – how does dropping from a helicopter onto an aid ship constitute being “ambushed by activists bent on violence” ? This is key. I am sad to see the Israeli footage of some of the people on […]
Gaza convoy update 2010december27th
Hospitality is perhaps not a thing to generalise about, but how many shops in the UK would insist that you sit down with them for a really good Turkish coffee, just because you went in to buy some board shorts, and despite the fact that you don’t share a word of the same language? So […]
Rebirth of the phoenix
Because blogs need pretencious titles, n’est-ce pas? So, every so often, I rebuild this blog after a technical calamity or personal epiphany stops me from keeping it. And on each ocassion, I write something a little bit like this. Chances are it won’t remain once there is some actual content to take its place, so […]
Petrol
I noticed today that I really love the smell of petrol stations. They remind me of road trips; of being abroad; specifically of the many dozens of foreign motorway services we’ve stopped at en route to Kosova, Ukraine, Albania, and all those places I love so much. Even a simple German autobahn stop can seem […]
“…sea surplus store, corner of Peebles Drive & 124th Street” I’ve had crazy sleep patterns since new year. It’s because of life being so unstructured just now, while I house-hunt, and don’t really do much of anything work-wise. So, I’m enjoying reliving Hill Street Blues. I always loved it, though I’m not certain I realised […]
End of days
One of my best, closest and most loyal friends is lying curled up behind me. She often stops by to visit, but once I move house and leave this town in less than a week, I may never see her again. I’ve been trying to tell her this for ages; being extra careful to always […]
Take your hammer and break the chains…
The weekend found me in Scotland, involved in preparations to disarm a nuclear submarine. “I’ll take my hammer and break the chains I’ll not remain in silence. I will stand and I will defend My right to fight against violence.” No, really. Britain’s Trident submarines are an internationally illegal nuclear weapon delivery system. The International […]
Small world!
I’ve just been to the National Film Theatre to see Storefront Hitchcock, a film by Jonathan Demme (who also directed Stop Making Sense for the band Talking Heads.) The film is of Robyn Hitchcock playing in an “uncomplicated” location: a vacant shop in New York. They manage to be quite inconspicuous, in a “nobody has […]
Local colour
Becky B called today. She’s an honorary little sister — I’ve known her since she was 14. Definitely my friend, but somebody I particularly try to look out for; who’s had her lifetime’s allocation of crap already. Actually, it was her I went to see one morning recently to talk to about the then relationship […]