Archive for July, 2007

So, not only was the famous SIM card not in the truck that crashed into Glasgow Airport – as had been asserted by the Australian Federal Police – but the person found in possession of it (Sabeel Ahmed) has not been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation. He’s been charged with withholding information, but I sense that might be a tough case to make.

Either way, how can Mohamed Haneef be charged with the support of a terrorist organisation if he plainly did not do that? There’s no linkage here, and this case is getting weaker by the second.

On the one hand you’ve got a seemingly innocent young doctor that just wanted to go and visit his family, and on the other you have a government (and seemingly also a police service) that is absolutely hell-bent on getting someone for something, damnit!

I mean, the man even tried to telephone an investigator in the UK FOUR TIMES. Four times! Does that sound like a guy that wants to run away? Not to me, it doesn’t.

Even if Dr. Haneef’s visa were now reinstated, I doubt he’d want to stay in Australia. But it should be reinstated so he at least can get out on bail while this circus winds itself up. And, further to that, I believe that the Australian Government owes this man an apology. If he’s a terrorist, let’s see the evidence. But I don’t think giving a soon-to-expire SIM card to a family member should be an offence in any legal system.

And don’t even get me started on Ruddock announcing he was going to review the conditions of bail for terrorist suspects. How can you call yourself a free country when you can lock people up – indefinitely – for nothing? (Oh, wait, I guess you could call yourself the USA.)

Set the man free.

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In the news lately there’s been a lot of coverage of “fake” products coming from China. First it was fake mobile phone batteries that can explode, then melamine (used to make plastics and fertiliser) in the dog food, then it was ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) in toothpaste. Now we hear about Chinese companies even cheating each other by supplying fake coal fly ash for use in concrete.

For those who don’t know, fly ash is produced when you burn coal. There are different parts to the ash and slag produced, and the fly ash is the part of the ash that floats up the flue (chimney) with the exhaust gases. And, apparently, it’s cheaper to make fake fly ash than it is to collect the real stuff. No country in the World uses all the fly ash it produces. The mind boggles.

Shit, it sounds like these guys should be running Pan Pharmaceuticals.

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It seems that the advertising industry in Lebanon has taken it upon itself to try and make Lebanon, and thus the World, a better place. There are currently campaigns running such as “When Will I Be Lebanese” which takes aim at sectarianism. (Why should you care what religion you are, you’re Lebanese.)

The best example I have seen of this rise in patriotic (jingoistic?) advertising is this one. It was done for free by the Beirut branches of H&C Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. They donated their time for free. Everyone involved in the project donated their time and equipment for free. And it is being aired right now on Lebanese television for free.

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