I am so tired I cannot be bothered to travel anywhere from here ..and anyway there’s not much happening nearby within an hour. It's not easy to get around like it was in Malaysia or other second world cities. I would think about going to see some things at the Edinburgh drama festival, but last time In the 100 things I saw 97 were disappointing and travelling there if I went by train it would take half a day and cost $120 and if I hitch It might take a day, plus there's nowhere to stay. Still apart from transport things are cheap MP3 players and Ipods are as cheap as they are in Malaysia if you look around.
Lonely UK
There's a low degree of socialisation; it's not that British people are unfriendly it's that there's not much opportunity to speak to people. Despite the fact that many people don't speak English in a normal day in KL I speak to a lot of people : people at the hotel, the owner of the organic shop, people at the Chinese lunch place, people at the internet cafe, the security guard at the shopping mall, there are many places to have a tea for £0.15 and people talk to me in many places cos I'm a foreigner. In the UK I speak to almost no-one. One is either in a busy place like a large supermarket, or at home.
You eat, have a cup of tea, and use the internet at home. So in the village everyone comes home from work and switches on the TV and stays home. There are no small friendly spaces for people to go, there are no places to drink tea for £0.15, there is the pub, but why pay £2 for a drink when you buy a whole bottle of wine at the supermarket for the same price.
N Lincs Events
Hull Events
Lincs Events
Lincs Events
Grimsby
Lincoln Events
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There's a lot of good TV and radio (98% is crap, but with 484 TV channels there is some good stuff) and some things you learn
UK TV listings
the planet receives more energy from the sun than mankind uses in one year BBC Material world
False Memory syndrome - people can remember things, but not always in context. If someone is mugged and you show them some mugs shots and in the same room the computer screensaver shows a faces, this face becomes associated with the crime. So later in a line up if the person with the computer screensaver face is there ..he stands a high chance of been picked out.
MP3 documentaries to download odeo.com
tafn.org.uk
links : uswitch.com, changeyourstate.com, Freethinkers.og
English Summer After 2 or 3 weeks of sunshine will a couple of days above 30C the weather has changed .. today it's 17C and for the last 2 days we have being wearing coats and it's supposed to be the middle of summer.
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Israel
What's up with the Israeli government ? ..are they on an Al Kaida recruiting drive ?
Their core values don't work, they never have done, they could have had peace 50 years ago
Instead their oppression causes some Palestinians to become terrorists, which causes the Israeli government to behave like terrorists back making a vicious circle of violence.
I have met good Israelis; people who don't share the crazy views of their governments. (remember the heroes who refuse to serve in the occupied territories)
In the West the core values are 2 wrongs don't make a right, racism is bad. (so retribution is not good; whether a person is good or bad depends on them not their race, you can't say : people of one race are better than any other race.)
Israelis grow up bombarded by propaganda that there is a special people God's chosen people and that all Arabs are terrorists so their values are different to the above values.
On the scale of things the number of deaths even in Lebanon is miniscule compared to African deaths, but this time the stupidity of the Israeli government and their totally disproportionate actions is putting the lives of all western people at risk as it fuels terrorism.
Sometimes governments do irrational things, cos of secret information, but in this case it's difficult to see the justification for the US and British governments not telling the Israeli government to stop right now.
Just heard a radio report about a guy who organises an orchestra summer school between Israeli and Palestinian youths called the East/West Divan orchestra
See Wikipedia
there were a couple of good TV programs
Jemiah and Jumia - Where TV crews videoed school classes in the Israeli schools and the Palestinian schools. The history lessons were completely different, the Israeli lessons were particulary biased and disturbing .. talking about possibility of Palestinian kids being caught in the crossfire some kids "that's OK cos they'll only grow up to be terrorists anyway". A pity the kids were brainwashed to have such polarised views : "all Israelis are evil occupiers", "all Palestinians are terrorists"
Promises - In this film a Jewish American filmaker persuades some Israeli kids to visit their Palestinian neighbours.. they make good friends and realise the stereotypes weren't true and everybody is human. In the follow up film is not so good news - One Israeli kid is now quiet rightwing, the Israeli twins are now soldiers chhosing to defend their country even they realise the politicians are wrong. One Palestian kid is now a refugee in the States and is most positive as he can see how multicultural society works. He had a great time when he lived with a Jewish family.
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