I went earlier today (25 June 2017) to visit Grenfell Tower site. This is far more chilling in reality than in the photographs. It has the impact of a large concrete grave. Even today that smell and sense of death lingers. I wandered over to the local Methodist Church where the flowers and tokens of remembrance are emotionally powerful. I was in Lagos when it started and felt a sense of horror. I had been in the past chair…
On the evening of Thursday 22 June 2017 I went to White & Case in London for a presentation on the New Silk Road, formally known as Belt & Road Initiative (joining together 2 announcements in 2013 of i) a Silk Road Economic Belt, and ii) 21st Century Maritime Silk Road – Note 1). This is a project to link China through Asia (India and SE Asia) to Middle East/ Europe and Africa. While it is a…
Who are Otto Warmbier and Philando Castile? They are both US citizens and they are both dead. One had a trial and confessed to the charges the other had no trial and was executed. The police man who executed Castile was cleared at trial. The Washington Post called one trial ‘a sham’ even though the defendant confessed but not the other where no crime or offence was committed. In one case the State Attorney says we must ‘accept the…
As we come up to the General election in the UK it is crucially important that we identify some key issues. Theresa May has said that we are fighting for our values and she mentioned democracy and pluralism as key values. But she did not mention freedom of speech. History shows us that we loose our freedoms one at a time if we are not careful and that those who do not care for these values will seek to…
It seems as if no one in Africa recognises the importance of 1917 for the history of Africa. Without 1917 the fate of Africa in the 20th Century would have been much different. Europe and America had imposed an arms embargo against Africa and the new automated weapons had allowed swift suppression of African liberties. 1917 saw the breakdown of that embargo and the possibility of struggles for independence. Many African historians have been unable to understand the…
Well we did say we would cover some trivia!! I am a keen fan of farmer’s markets. On Saturday mornings a Farmer’s Market comes to Notting Hill and I have been a supporter for many years now. I have got to know several of the people there with some affection. I buy some bread and cakes from a lady who started her own blog. She is keen about music -n I think called Indy – and deeply into ecology…
From my good Kiwi friend Haydn Keenan – there is nothing I can add: ‘Sad news has just come to me regarding the sudden death of Herbert Addo. Anyone at Holmewood in the early sixties will remember him. He was a most naturally gifted sportsmen and generous spirit, who’s smile and personality attracted people to him. Everyone wanted to be his friend. In the late fifties Hilary Dennis had been the dominant sportsman at Holmewood. In every sport he…
Apartheid era officials stole a 25 metre sophisticated printing press, bombed the building to conceal their theft, reassembled the printing press at police Head Quarters and then began printing counterfeit money a court case reveals (note 1 and 2). Jeremy Vearey and Andre Lincoln were officers in ANC’s intelligence organisation who busted the group. Much of this is now playing out in a court in Western Cape. US intelligence became involved as these officials had been counterfeiting US dollars. It…
This is an amazing story, not the corruption (which is barely news) , but the misreporting by Global Witness and the Western media generally. Global Witness write: “NEW LEAKED EMAILS PUT SHELL AT CENTRE OF BILLION DOLLAR BRIBERY SCHEME INVOLVING SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL OFFICIALS IN NIGERIA” (ref 1) They then write: “Shell’s most senior executives were told payments for massive oil block would go to a convicted money-launderer, and then likely flow to then President Goodluck…
There has been widespread coverage of a report (ref 7) that the white working class males are suffering from a ‘sea of despair’ causing a huge rise in deaths. This is inexplicably linked to a comparison with the declining rate of death of African American people. An unstated implication which many are reading is that the decline in mortality for Black people is related to the rise for white working class. This is political dynamite and is completely…
