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OMG - People are actually reading this....
2007-05-18 17:49:00
OMG I just found out, out of the blue, that some people are actually reading my blog! I hadn't thought that would ever happen... thanks... really thanks... Oh well, I'm not getting much time to write on it these days but have hit on a pretty juicy story to put up here soon... So catch you hopefully in a few days Rend
More About: People , Reading , Ally

Public Inquiry & Private Eye
2007-04-28 15:30:00
The public inquiry that is now set to continue on 13th June 2007 concerning the block of flats Crest Nicholson & Luminus are planning to build on the old Cambridge University Press site. Anyway we all know why John Hipkin was really sacked because he wanted, really wanted to make sure there would be provision for families - heaven forbid we want 3 or 4 bedroom affordable houses! Covered in Private Eye, how cool is that..?
More About: Public , Public Inquiry , Riva , Private Eye

Crest Nicholson's Contaminated Land
2007-04-06 17:51:00
Walking Away. Crest Nicholson appealed to the Secretary of State to build on contaminated land without carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Are we building new homes at any price? From what I can see from the letters (hereby attached) the Secretary of State may have been told half the story by Crest. When writing to waive the requirement for an EIA it appears from these letters that no evidence was submitted of the site’s contamination, its TPH contaminated groundwater, or its proximity to Hobson’s brook. Oversight? Perhaps... read more
More About: Land , Rest , Olson , Nate

Vanishing Britain
2007-03-31 12:46:00
This cottage home (1 Fitzwilliam Road) with its quaint history has been destroyed. We'd like to protect the cottages 18-22 Fitzwilliam Road from demolition and prevent the developers from uprooting all the mature trees in the area. My road's Residents Association (FRRA) has submitted a Rule 6(6) Statement of Case to object to Crest Nicholson's appeal to The Planning Inspectorate against the refusal of their designs by the Cambridge City Council. The developers are planning to uproot the mature trees, demolish the cottages on our road and build 408 units just off Brooklands Avenue, where traffic is already at a standstill. I was disappointed, when I met him at the Reserved Matters Meeting, to be refused an audience with CEO of Crest Nicholson Mr Moody. We believe we can show how both (1) new homes and (2) trees and our historic built environment - can be accommodated in a better scheme. That it does not have to be a choice between one and the other. That it shouldn't be a choice...
More About: Britain , Shin , Vanishing , Nish

"Mujahidin": God's Blogging this
2007-03-17 01:47:00
Shaikh Bairam Abdul-Qadir Al-Aifan My great uncle was murdered by terrorists this month for political reasons and I'm going to try to explain why. It was about a war of ideas. He might be dead but the ideas are not, and I'd like to share these with you and learn a bit about more about them myself in the process. Why was he targeted? What was he outspoken about? Why did that not fit very well with the Al-Qaida approach? Who was he? Why was he an important Shaikh? read more
More About: God , Blogging , Blog , This , Blogg

Three Lives One Lesson
2007-03-15 04:40:00
January On Wednesday 24th January, my grandmother on my mother's side passed away in Ealing Hospital at 91. I managed to see her just before she died. She was a a gentle woman who always saw good in people. She used to tell me a story about a chicken who turned into a princess when her chicken suit was burnt and married a prince. I asked her to tell me it over and over. Maida Al-Awsi brought life into the world in the shape of my mother, uncle and aunt. I used to think she wasn't ambitious, a housewife. But it's hard to live with a lack of choice, whether as a woman, a man in poverty or any other person. Someone who always meets adversity with good nature day in day out is special. I know one works at a butcher's in Cambridge. One's an optician, and one serves coffee in the UN in New York. What makes them shine is this disposition that I can only admire and try to emulate. read more
More About: Live , Lives , Less , Lesson , Three

Save Parliament Today 6.30pm at the Cambridge Blue
2006-04-06 12:44:00
"All I want to say is that our whole democracy is on the line..." I love living in a democracy, enjoying fundamental rights like free speech and expression and parliament and magistrates and so on. This proposed piece of legislation will take us all backwards. We must not allow it to become law. Click on This Link or on the banner above to find out more, and Save Parliament. I will be in the Cambridge Blue on Gwyder Street off Mill Road, Cambridge, at 6.30pm today, at the first meeting of the local Cambridge Campaign to Save Parliament from the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, now in its third reading. read more
More About: Men , Today , Ridge

Our Democracy is On the Line
2006-03-30 18:35:00
John Conyers, here pictured with Martin Luther King, comments on Demo cracy in the United States at the Harper's Forum on the 22nd July 2005. "One of the problems with the media these days is that we are flooded with mostly useless crap that has nothing to do with anything. And the few things that count – if they do get broaded, they are gone in an instance. We have to realize that. We have more technology than ever before in the history of men – and yet more and more people - given the levels of education in america - are more uninformed than anybody else. read more
More About: Line

No2ID and Yes to Tea - Cambridge UK
2006-03-29 14:35:00
Meanwhile, here in Cambridge , the Libra Aries bookshop is holding a No2ID information evening on Wednesday 29th March - that's today. Feel free to drop in any time between 6:30pm & 8pm to chat to No2ID activists, get more details on what the government proposes and how we're opposing it, and pick up literature, car stickers and badges. All welcome. I will be saying a few words there at 7pm. Don't worry, this time I'll keep it short and sweet. Sometimes I talk too much I know. I think it's something to do with being Iraqi and wanting to make up for lost time. read more
More About: Ridge , Bridge

Speaking as a Sayyida at the MFE
2006-03-27 22:00:00
Photo Copyright (c) 2006 Marc Vallée. All Rights Reserved. March for Free Expression. Trafalgar Square, London, 25th March 2006. Thank you for giving me the ability to speak. 9/11, Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Saddam’s Iraq, the Holocaust – which happened. Death threats, murders, and imprisonment in response to the expression of what any person feels or believes is unreservedly wrong. Such violent threats, acts and situations should never arise in the name of any civilised value, religion, government or ideology. We stand here today. Not only united against such acts. But historically, in the UK, in solidarity against such acts, not as white people, or Europeans, but as people from all places, all backgrounds, and all walks of life. read more
More About: King , Speak , Speaking , Peak

While our Eyes are Off the Ball...
2006-03-25 01:43:00
While we are being distracted, manipulated for the benefit of the recruitment exercises of vigilante groups, this provides a useful rationalisation of plans that will affect every sex, age group, race, and religion in our Society because they involve a shift in power from the individual to the State. If we can muster enough inter-religious hatred, racial tension and genuine mistrust between people, we may be able to pass the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. read more
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57 Islamic Countries Discuss Cartoons
2006-03-12 18:43:00
Photo: UNICEF This was in many senses a cartoon meeting. But as we know from the Nazi examples, discriminatory cartoons have a serious side as well. Here is what I can say. Iraq expressed support for the meeting's conveners and purpose. These were our comments on the proposed OIC statement: "It is obvious such cartoons will cause a strong reaction. Such defamation has no relation to the right of freedom of expression, and condemnation for them has been appropriately given. These works however should not provide justification for violence. This spoils the image of Islam . Such over-reaction and violence do not reflect the peaceful spirit of Islam. Muslims have full rights to protest against such defamation, and we support such protests in the context of a civilised approach." read more
More About: Cartoon , Islamic , Cartoons , Countries

Our Lords Are Wise
2006-03-04 04:16:00
Amendments well Reasoned. No Need to Play Nice. Knights the Lord s - Not Mice... The House of Lords will be debating amendments to the ID Cards Bill on Monday. Personally, for a variety of reasons, I'd like the size of the government defeat in the Lords on this issue to be as large as possible. If you feel the same way you can write to a Peer, and encourage him/her to vote for voluntary (rather than compulsory) ID Cards. There's a page of tips on how to do it here: read more
More About: Wise

Long Live Legals
2006-02-27 06:53:00
The High Court has ruled Livingstone be allowed to remain in office until his appeal is heard within our judiciary. This case highlights the significance of a legal system independent of government. But what is behind the proposed clipping of British Mayor Ken Livingstone's wings? Are we really going to allow London's elected mayor to be "removed" in what looks like a personal attack administered by a dubious quango? Four weeks can be a long time in politics... This Article provides an interesting view. read more
More About: Legal , Live , Long

Donald Rumsfeld on the New Media War
2006-02-18 03:30:00
"I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to right decisions." Photo by Don Pollard, courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations. Today I attended a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations on East 68th Street, New York. Donald Rumsfeld addressed the Members of the Council, providing a fascinating insight into the Federal Government's war on the violent extremists that terrorise our modern world. "And in this war, some of the most critical battles may not be in the mountains of Afghanistan or the streets of Iraq, but in newsrooms -- in places like New York, London, Cairo, and elsewhere." read more
More About: Media , New Media , Donald Rumsfeld