Bring your own Shisha

Extremely busy at work and tomorrow I join my new employer. Same job, same boss, same boss’s boss, same boss’ boss’s boss, but most importantly different company.

 And it is bitterly cold in the UK. And I wish my washing machine hadn’t broken over the weekend. It’s actually been a couple of weeks of just disasters around the house.

Gas leak one Sunday morning. Transco came around and disconnected the gas saying we had a leak, and it was now our responsibility to find someone to fix it. Spent 3 days phoning people and getting false promises, until the wife digs up our Home insurance papers and finds we have Domestic emergency cover (See, spouses have their uses). So we have someone come round and at least put the heating back on.

 Then we bought a new gas hob, which took a week to arrive. I duly fitted it and then had to wait another 2 days for someone to come and connect the gas to that. Great. And then this weekend, the washing machine door decided to come away in my hand (I’m astounded by my own strength sometimes), and the pressure cooker blew up.

 Anyway, such is life in the Shapps household. Just waiting for the Dishwasher, Oven, TV, Stereo to all give up the ghost. Joy!

Why would people wear pink psychedelic wellies? What sort of fashion statement are we making here? Will anyone defend them?

Blogcode is effectively a new way of reading blogs that you like. It allows you to start with your favourite weblog (or perhaps even your own) and find others like it. Recommendations are based not only on subject matter, but also on the style and input of the bloggers themselves - and their readers. Plus the recommendations are formed by the collective view of those who have read and enjoyed these same weblogs.

It’s still in Beta, but it is a collaborative affair. So the more ‘recommendations’ it gets the better the recommendations that come out.

So we finally seem to have got our act together and ‘mainstream’ muslim organizations are protesting this Saturday at 1pm in Trafalgar Square. Not just against those darned cartoons, but also against the violence perpetrated by muslims during the last week’s worth of protests.

To quote the Muslim Association of Britain:

“The first message we want to send to the country is that of the legitimate voice of the Muslim community as opposed to those that hijacked last week’s demonstration outside the Danish embassy. We are people of peace and are trying to do our best also in bridging the gap between Islam and the West.

“Secondly, to Europe , the lesson from the cartoon is not that Western newspapers come under the fold of Islamic law. It is actually that orientalist and Islamophobic caricatures are unacceptable, irresponsible, and lead to a more polarised world. Jewish leaders and figures like Bill Clinton have likened it to the characterisation of Jews over the centuries. We know where that ended up.

“Thirdly, to the Muslim world, we wish to send a message of calm. It may appear to them that there is a great Western conspiracy against their faith, but there are a large number of people who are on the side of reconciliation, and we hope that comes out loud and clear on Saturday.”

I hope these three messages are carried clearly across the World. I also hope the press give this as much coverage as the other protests, but the cynic in me says that’s not going to happen.

I wasn’t going to comment on this but the sheer idiocy of my Muslim Brethren is causing me to speak out.

What on earth are we thinking? Will we never learn?

Back in September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons which depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. But the reaction of the muslim world back then was one of ‘Ignore it and it will go away’. But somewhere, someone has gotten hold of this and decided that this is a major issue.

There have been so many depictions of the prophet through the ages that to bring this up now is simply ridiculous. Alhamedi goes through these depictions with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

But yet again, our reaction belies how far we have moved away from the roots of Islam where tolerance was given to all. Once again the name of ordinary muslims are being dragged through the mud because of a small bunch of zealots who cannot see the beyond their own noses. Screaming and shouting about ‘art’ which is offensive only pushes it into the public arena and gives it unwarranted publicity.

We need to think about our reaction to things and work with the system we are in. A mosquito cannot kill a human. But if the malaria virus infiltrates the human system, it can bring it down. Become part of the system if you want it to change.

Think about it you idiots!