For how long do I have to hear: "Arsenal are a young team, just you wait and see and they'll win [insert league/Champions League/whatever other trophy of choice here]"
I'll tell yous this: I've heard this said since I was a young lass. And that was quite a few years ago.
6.5.09
Chelsea-Barcelona reactions
My clinical, non-partisan side: Well, Chelsea should have had at least one (if not two or three) penalties and, really, they deserved to go through to the final since Barcelona were mostly s..te with all that fancy passing which seemed to end up nowhere near the penalty box.
The me who was jumping up and down like a lunatic: Oh! how bloody brilliant was it that a) Barca scored in the 3rd minute of a 4 minute extra time and (especially) b) Terry passed the ball back to a Barca player instead of just clearing it.
Overall reaction: well pleased. Much more so than I thought I'd be. I'm sure y'all needed to know that :)
The me who was jumping up and down like a lunatic: Oh! how bloody brilliant was it that a) Barca scored in the 3rd minute of a 4 minute extra time and (especially) b) Terry passed the ball back to a Barca player instead of just clearing it.
Overall reaction: well pleased. Much more so than I thought I'd be. I'm sure y'all needed to know that :)
Bookblogging, Part I: Frederick Forsyth's The Afghan
I was taking a break from my usual activities of writing, watching footy, writing some more (in between bouts of eating and drinking (and sleeping)) by wandering down to the local thrift store. There, I discovered a 50c copy of this: Frederick Forsyth's The Afghan * .
Usually I strictly avoid books about terrorism or counterterrorism. The only reasons those books seem to exist are for sensationalist portrayals of the evil (usually Islamic these days) Other, about to rape and pillage his (almost always male) way across the peaceful, democratic West. Read similar books from a couple of decades ago and the storylines were the same, the terrorists were Irish. Hence, they are all best avoided if one's blood pressure is to remain fairly constant. Though it does make me wonder if I'm in the wrong business with this dissertation-writing. I mean, I can write short, stupid sentences--why not write a counterterrorism-based novel? I'm sure there are plenty of Nepalese terrorists who are willing to be fictionalised for my literary endeavour. But, I digress. Today's post is not about my hypothetical book but about Mr. Forsyth's real one.
I've decided to read Mr. Forsyth's book, a few chapters at a time**, and blog about it. That way, yous get to enjoy it along with me!
Today, Part I: "Stingray"
- in which we are introduced to our main characters (I presume): two British brothers who grew up in Iraq, one of whom is a throwback to the past (their granddad married an Indian lass, while jauntering about in India) and is dark-skinned and dark-haired; the other (younger one) is red-headed and chubby.
One is a soldier (SAS), the other is not. Surprisingly, it's the plump red head who's the soldier. No, of course, he isn't. He's gasp an academic--a Middle East scholar. And gay.
- we are also introduced to an absolute daft plan to "infiltrate" al Qaeda by sending in one of "our men", disguised as an AQ operative.
Redhead lets slip his brother can speak Arabic and looks like one of them (dark, you see). The powers-that-be are on their way to Older bro's place to proposition him.
No, not that sort of proposition, dear readers. He's asked to go undercover as an AQ operative. He reminds TPTB that he actually doesn't speak the local Afghani dialects. He's told he'll be taught enough ( enough to fool a local? I foresee a terrible end for our fake Afghan )
That it possibly, maybe, perhaps would have been easier to get an actual local person to play this part is not even considered. After all, a local must be linked with one of them terrorists.
- There are surprisingly good moments within all this. Forsyth's explanation of why the term "fundamentalist" is completely wrong is rather brilliant (for a fluffy novel, that is). These people are not interested in the basics, the fundamentals, as it were since, if they were, they'd realise that Islam (like most religions) prohibits harming others. So, to call them fundamentalists is to credit them with more knowledge than they deserve, he (rightly) writes.
The description of the older brother, who's retired from the SAS and has bought himself a lovely fixer-upper house in a small English village and who spends his time roofing, is nicely-written. Makes me think he won't survive this larking about as an Afghan. But, I guess the strong silent type of bloke goes for this sort of stuff--you give decades of your life to your country and are still ready to run off at a moment's notice if asked. Us armchair readers can feel a few teardrops falling at the image as we vicariously feel proud of such loyalty.
Or, if you're like me, you wonder why on earth the man would leave such a nice, peaceful gig to run off to the wilds. The whole premise makes no sense to anyone with some amount of brain.
- The Koran Committee (a high-ranking special group of academics who study the Koran and interpret it for the security forces) makes for a pretty good Superhero name.
- The word we need to know the answer to is (drumroll): al-Isra. Apparently it's a magical journey, undertaken when called upon to do so by Allah himself. Rather like the Yellow Brick Road.
Except no one knows what al-Isra might refer to. But they are pretty sure it's something big. And terroristic.
So, off they go to recruit the Older Brother (Mike Martin's his name). He's recruited. Onwards to the next step...
I did say this but I'll say this again: so far, this is pretty interesting. The details of how a pay-as-you-go phone may be tracked from overseas (there's a major Pakistani operation involving lots of phone-tracing), how small everyday events all add up when organising a counterterrorist operation (a small-scale AQ chap mistakenly uses a tagged phone, setting off a chain of events that leads to the capture/death of a more important operative), all the stuff about fundamentalism and jihad being stupid terms to use and so on.
I'll let you know how Part II: Warriors goes. Sadly, not like these warriors, I'm sure.
Yous can read parts of the book on Google books here. The best bit is when you scroll to the author's picture at the end and he's sat there in front of a typewriter. A proper typewriter. I rather like that, actually.
* I should mention here that I've read quite a few of Mr. Forsyth's books in my younger days.
** A policy radically different to my usual practice of finishing books within a few hours.
Usually I strictly avoid books about terrorism or counterterrorism. The only reasons those books seem to exist are for sensationalist portrayals of the evil (usually Islamic these days) Other, about to rape and pillage his (almost always male) way across the peaceful, democratic West. Read similar books from a couple of decades ago and the storylines were the same, the terrorists were Irish. Hence, they are all best avoided if one's blood pressure is to remain fairly constant. Though it does make me wonder if I'm in the wrong business with this dissertation-writing. I mean, I can write short, stupid sentences--why not write a counterterrorism-based novel? I'm sure there are plenty of Nepalese terrorists who are willing to be fictionalised for my literary endeavour. But, I digress. Today's post is not about my hypothetical book but about Mr. Forsyth's real one.
I've decided to read Mr. Forsyth's book, a few chapters at a time**, and blog about it. That way, yous get to enjoy it along with me!
Today, Part I: "Stingray"
- in which we are introduced to our main characters (I presume): two British brothers who grew up in Iraq, one of whom is a throwback to the past (their granddad married an Indian lass, while jauntering about in India) and is dark-skinned and dark-haired; the other (younger one) is red-headed and chubby.
One is a soldier (SAS), the other is not. Surprisingly, it's the plump red head who's the soldier. No, of course, he isn't. He's gasp an academic--a Middle East scholar. And gay.
- we are also introduced to an absolute daft plan to "infiltrate" al Qaeda by sending in one of "our men", disguised as an AQ operative.
Redhead lets slip his brother can speak Arabic and looks like one of them (dark, you see). The powers-that-be are on their way to Older bro's place to proposition him.
No, not that sort of proposition, dear readers. He's asked to go undercover as an AQ operative. He reminds TPTB that he actually doesn't speak the local Afghani dialects. He's told he'll be taught enough ( enough to fool a local? I foresee a terrible end for our fake Afghan )
That it possibly, maybe, perhaps would have been easier to get an actual local person to play this part is not even considered. After all, a local must be linked with one of them terrorists.
- There are surprisingly good moments within all this. Forsyth's explanation of why the term "fundamentalist" is completely wrong is rather brilliant (for a fluffy novel, that is). These people are not interested in the basics, the fundamentals, as it were since, if they were, they'd realise that Islam (like most religions) prohibits harming others. So, to call them fundamentalists is to credit them with more knowledge than they deserve, he (rightly) writes.
The description of the older brother, who's retired from the SAS and has bought himself a lovely fixer-upper house in a small English village and who spends his time roofing, is nicely-written. Makes me think he won't survive this larking about as an Afghan. But, I guess the strong silent type of bloke goes for this sort of stuff--you give decades of your life to your country and are still ready to run off at a moment's notice if asked. Us armchair readers can feel a few teardrops falling at the image as we vicariously feel proud of such loyalty.
Or, if you're like me, you wonder why on earth the man would leave such a nice, peaceful gig to run off to the wilds. The whole premise makes no sense to anyone with some amount of brain.
- The Koran Committee (a high-ranking special group of academics who study the Koran and interpret it for the security forces) makes for a pretty good Superhero name.
- The word we need to know the answer to is (drumroll): al-Isra. Apparently it's a magical journey, undertaken when called upon to do so by Allah himself. Rather like the Yellow Brick Road.
Except no one knows what al-Isra might refer to. But they are pretty sure it's something big. And terroristic.
So, off they go to recruit the Older Brother (Mike Martin's his name). He's recruited. Onwards to the next step...
I did say this but I'll say this again: so far, this is pretty interesting. The details of how a pay-as-you-go phone may be tracked from overseas (there's a major Pakistani operation involving lots of phone-tracing), how small everyday events all add up when organising a counterterrorist operation (a small-scale AQ chap mistakenly uses a tagged phone, setting off a chain of events that leads to the capture/death of a more important operative), all the stuff about fundamentalism and jihad being stupid terms to use and so on.
I'll let you know how Part II: Warriors goes. Sadly, not like these warriors, I'm sure.
Yous can read parts of the book on Google books here. The best bit is when you scroll to the author's picture at the end and he's sat there in front of a typewriter. A proper typewriter. I rather like that, actually.
* I should mention here that I've read quite a few of Mr. Forsyth's books in my younger days.
** A policy radically different to my usual practice of finishing books within a few hours.
4.5.09
If I were a Marxist...
I'd find my research far more interesting than I do. Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to finish up my chapter on the shifts in representations of the Maoists in Nepal. The problem being that there's hardly any primary sources to draw from (and, for a project that uses discourse analysis, this is fairly problematic). Let me recap:
- Library databases don't even have Nepali media sources, including the major ones.
- My uni's reference librarian wasn't entirely positive Nepal had media*
- Online sources were the most help: most of the Nepali media (newspapers and an aggregate news collection web site) have online archives that date back to at least 2003.
- YouTube is surprisingly useful, especially for finding public statements by politicians.
- As are blogs.
Now, let me recap what happened during the Northern Ireland chapter:
- There was FAR too much information.
- If, for some reason, I wanted to know that Martin McGuinness was doing on 4 February, 1974, I'm sure I would be able to find it since either he or one of the many, many newspaper reports, films, books, would have written about it.
- It was difficult to decide how to organise the research without getting overwhelmed.
Marxism? Well, about 3,500 people died over the three decades in Northern Ireland and, yet, we (terrorism researchers) consider it to be the exemplary case of terrorism/counterterrorism.
Nearly 13,000 people died over a decade (most within the five years from 2001-2006) and we hardly hear of them. International media barely picked up on the conflict.
Academically, it's the same: there are extensive journal articles and books about terrorism in Northern Ireland, hardly any about the conflict in Nepal. It seems well-accepted that Northern Ireland was really terrorism, Nepal is "just" dissatisfaction/bad governance/poverty/(name your own stereotype here).
So, yes, my dissertation would be much easier to write if I were to go on about how powerful interests/global capitalists silence "others". Others that are smaller, at the "periphery" of world politics, and so on. Unfortunately, perhaps, I find it difficult to attribute all this to the structure of the global capitalist system. Geographical/cultural proximity, perhaps? Well, actually, why there are (or are not) many sources is not the point of the project so I'll probably write up about the discrepancies in the amount of data available and leave it at that.
But, maybe a journal article? One that talks of how "silencing" is operationalised in practice and gives actual examples/numbers rather than assuming it is the foundation for analysis? Maybe.
* One of the most diverse media markets exist, with over 100 newspapers, at least 4-5 independent FM radio stations and more than one non-state television channel.
- Library databases don't even have Nepali media sources, including the major ones.
- My uni's reference librarian wasn't entirely positive Nepal had media*
- Online sources were the most help: most of the Nepali media (newspapers and an aggregate news collection web site) have online archives that date back to at least 2003.
- YouTube is surprisingly useful, especially for finding public statements by politicians.
- As are blogs.
Now, let me recap what happened during the Northern Ireland chapter:
- There was FAR too much information.
- If, for some reason, I wanted to know that Martin McGuinness was doing on 4 February, 1974, I'm sure I would be able to find it since either he or one of the many, many newspaper reports, films, books, would have written about it.
- It was difficult to decide how to organise the research without getting overwhelmed.
Marxism? Well, about 3,500 people died over the three decades in Northern Ireland and, yet, we (terrorism researchers) consider it to be the exemplary case of terrorism/counterterrorism.
Nearly 13,000 people died over a decade (most within the five years from 2001-2006) and we hardly hear of them. International media barely picked up on the conflict.
Academically, it's the same: there are extensive journal articles and books about terrorism in Northern Ireland, hardly any about the conflict in Nepal. It seems well-accepted that Northern Ireland was really terrorism, Nepal is "just" dissatisfaction/bad governance/poverty/(name your own stereotype here).
So, yes, my dissertation would be much easier to write if I were to go on about how powerful interests/global capitalists silence "others". Others that are smaller, at the "periphery" of world politics, and so on. Unfortunately, perhaps, I find it difficult to attribute all this to the structure of the global capitalist system. Geographical/cultural proximity, perhaps? Well, actually, why there are (or are not) many sources is not the point of the project so I'll probably write up about the discrepancies in the amount of data available and leave it at that.
But, maybe a journal article? One that talks of how "silencing" is operationalised in practice and gives actual examples/numbers rather than assuming it is the foundation for analysis? Maybe.
* One of the most diverse media markets exist, with over 100 newspapers, at least 4-5 independent FM radio stations and more than one non-state television channel.
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