THOUGHT

FOR THE

DAY

I wonder how many Buddhists convert to Christianity in order to get in touch with their inner spirituality?

Celebrities, you've gotta love 'em eh?

HISTORY - IS IT BUNK?

A bad British historian who's been widely discredited for years as a crank has been jailed for three years in Austria for denying the 20th century mass murder of European Jewry now known as the Holocaust.

I realise that attempting to re-write history is a dangerous and corrosive practice that could prevent future generations learning from the mistakes of their ancestors.

But correct me if I've got this wrong - I thought it was the Germans (including Austria, which was swallowed up by the Third Reich before the war) who murdered at least five million Jewish people during the Second World War - not a right wing lunatic from Essex.

I wonder whether the energy of the Austrian and German states would have been better employed in the last 60 years bringing to justice those people who built the fences, put up the huts, drove the transport trains, collected the clothing and tallied the numbers, as well as those who dropped the gas canisters through the roofs of the 'shower' blocks?

Oh, but that would have meant some of the people who sat in the Viennese courtroom yesterday as David Irving was convicted, would never have been born. Their grandparents might very well have been executed for what they did if the standard of proof regarding involvement in genocide had been lower.

So the lesson of history is the lesson that a bad British historian signally failed to learn, but that the dwindling band of surviving SS and Wehrmacht soldiers have known for years.

If you want to escape the judgement of the world, make sure you don't stand out from the pack too much. It's much safer to be a clerk in a death camp office, or a low-key racist spouting your opinions in a bar, than it is to be a camp commandant or a bad historian with plenty of media exposure.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

(Left) A Hero (Right) A Toady

An unarmed British policeman who held on to an Al-Qaeda suspect to stop him escaping even when the man stabbed him repeatedly in the side, has been refused a posthumous bravery award.

A UK government committee decided that Special Branch detective Stephen Oake, aged 40, a father-of-three from Manchester, had acted 'spontaneously' and that it was not an act of calculated bravery. They refused to recommend him for a George Cross, Britain's highest civilian award for gallantry.

This was despite the fact that the murder trial judge in the case of the suspect Kamel Bourgass said that what Oake did was exceptional.

The judge said: "That resolute attempt to escape was foiled only because of the professionalism and bravery of a number of police officers - bravery which cost Stephen Oake his life."

And during the trial, Oake's colleagues repeatedly gave evidence that they owed their lives to his action.

Bourgass was convicted of murder and conspiracy to use poisons and explosives.

Now British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is always giving fine speeches about 'The War on Terror' and is very happy to put other Britons into dangerous situations around the world, has reportedly decided he will not intervene.

And who was the man who headed the committee that turned down the medal request?

Step forward Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell.

And how did 'Sir' Gus get his knighthood? Cabinet Secretaries get them automatically, although his climb up the greasy Whitehall pole included a stint as press secretary to former Prime Minister John Major and as an adviser to British finance minister Gordon Brown.

Oh and 'Sir' Gus is also a keen Manchester United fan, even though he was born and brought up in south London.

Enough said.

'DISGUISE STORES'
KFC WARNS

MIDDLE EAST

STAFF

'AN HONOUR' TO BE SHOT

BY US VICE PRESIDENT

- VICTIM

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

(Left) Liberty Tower (Right) Library Tower

Bush......................................................................Bush

ENGLISH LESSON Bird flies

Bird flew

HARI KITTY

Now we know why the tourism marketing people in Macau have been worshipping the false idol of Hello Kitty. There are plans to build a theme park in the territory in honour of the character - to be called, not surprisingly, 'Hello Kitty Land'.

Interestingly (to me at least) the Hello Kitty brand owner, the Japanese company Sanrio, has a biography of the character on its web site, in which it claims Hello Kitty "lives in London, England, with her parents and her twin sister, Mimmy".

I'm really, really hoping the world's 'cutest' character lives in north west London (where quite a few Japanese expats are based) so she can be given the nickname 'Harrow Kitty'.

Thanks to sachsreport.com for the Kitty Idol photo.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

- 'BUGGER OFF'

An American who sent a message in a bottle across the Atlantic has been "told off" by a Briton for littering.Captain Harvey Bennett, of Napeague in Long Island's Hamptons resort, launched five plastic bottles into the ocean last August.
Last week, one of them returned in the post with a letter telling him off for throwing rubbish into the sea.
His bottle had been picked up by Henry Bigglesworth, from Bournemouth in Dorset, southern England, according to the East Hampton Star newspaper.
He said he had found the bottle on the beach at Poole Harbour and was not impressed.
"You Americans don't seem to be happy unless you are mucking about somewhere," he wrote.
The letter began "Dear 'Captain Bennett'" and continued: "I recently found your bottle while taking a scenic walk on the beach by Poole Harbour.
"While you may consider this some profound experiment on the path and speed of oceanic currents, I have another name for it, litter."
Capt Bennett, 55, who owns a tackle shop, said he was somewhat taken aback.
He said: "I kind of felt like no good deed goes unpunished."
Capt Bennett said he thought the recent hurricanes had helped the bottle on its 3,000-mile transatlantic journey.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

This charming photo was taken by my neighbour Mary yesterday evening, the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday in Hong Kong.

Don't be fooled by the idyllic setting. The waters around Hong Kong are normally some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Business returned to normal today however, when a huge oil tanker rammed and sank a fishing boat at around 4pm local time.

The tanker then veered sharply to port, and seemed to be about to plough into the the Wah Fu housing estate at Waterfall Bay, before the crew apparently stopped it by reversing engines and dropping anchor.

It sounds like the marine equivalent of doing a handbrake turn.

My friend Marco saw it happen from his office window in Aberdeen, which is on the south side of Hong Kong Island. He said the trawler was literally gone in 60 seconds, so I don't know if there were fatalities.

Marco even took some photos of the aftermath, but only happened to mention it to me this evening. I hope he's a better draughtsman than he is a reporter.