O G San

O G San

Joined Member # 739458
0 Posts 0 Replies 1,078 Reputation
Reply to 2005: The Future Is Like A Foreign Country in International JoeUser Forums

shades, The best I could hope for in terms of British politics is a palace coup which leads to Gordon Brown becoming PM. This would also have the added benefit that Brown, who is quite ferociously competent, would no longer be chancellor. Some joker would be put in charge of the economy and the value of the pound would fall. Then my earnings in Korean won would be worth more back home <img src="../images/smiles/smile.gif" border=0

10 Replies 4,765 Views
2005: The Future Is Like A Foreign Country in International JoeUser Forums

Prediction, like alcohol, makes fools of us all, so here goes: 1. Iraq The elections will be held in most of the country and then guess what? The violence will go on. The country will descend even deeper into anarchy and despair. At some stage this year it is possible that the American public will reach a tipping point when a m

10 Replies 4,765 Views
2004: R.I.P. in International JoeUser Forums

Year-end obituaries tend to suggest some commomn thread running through the twelve months in question. There is supposed to be a theme, 2004: The Year Of X. But this is a conceit. 2004 was not the year of X, or Y, or even Z. It was just a period of time. In this past twelve months new trends became apparent, established trends continued and old trends faded away. Peop

5 Replies 3,937 Views
Bush Gets In Touch With Reality in International JoeUser Forums

You know how it is. You're compiling your Christmas card list when the name of an old friend springs to mind. You're unsure whether or not said old pal should receive a card. You were thick as thieves once, but that was long ago. Would sending a card now make up for all that time or would it just serve to highlight the distance that has grown between you? It's a tough

7 Replies 3,844 Views
Reply to Those Who Can't, Blog in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Thanks for your comment, greaywar. As for your remark about the late Palestinian leader being corrupt, I would point out that he lived modestly throughout his life. Those around him were often corrupt and he tolerated this, true. As for your point about Yasser throwing away the chance for peace, it depends on how you define "peace". If, as most Palestinians do, you define peace as an end to the occuaption, then Arafat never threw aw

2 Replies 1,680 Views
Those Who Can't, Blog in Blogging JoeUser Forums

As I'm sure you're all aware, I celebrated my first anniversary as a Joeuser last week. Yes, O G San is now one year old. Birthdays are a time for reflection so I've been pondering the nature of blogging recently, "this thing of ours", as Tony Soprano might say. There can be no doubt that the weblog is an idea whose time has come. Bloggers have started to

2 Replies 1,680 Views
Reply to Arms And Taiwan in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks for your comments. established, "the issue is silenced to death in the country." Too right. I have a friend who was in Tiananmen a few months ago. He asked his tour guide (who was in her 20s) about the massacre and she basically said "I know nothing about that." The scary thing is that it's quite possible she wasn't lying.

14 Replies 5,657 Views
Arms And Taiwan in International JoeUser Forums

One Saturday last year I was browsing the shelves of a basement book shop in Taipei, my home at the time. Having made a purchase, I was walking up the stairs back to the street when I was confonted by something quite unexpected - quiet. Taipei must rank as one of the world's noisiest cities, with traffc roaring by twenty-four hours a day. But as I stood there, I could

14 Replies 5,657 Views
Peace By Peace in Politics JoeUser Forums

A few years ago there was a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble. At one stage the star of the piece is shown travelling to Stormont to be sworn in as first Minister for the first of what turned out to be several occasions. "An historic day" offers the interviewer from the front seat of the car. "Yes", says Davie, not even looking up

1 Replies 2,252 Views
Reply to Pictures!! in Misc JoeUser Forums

You look just the same as the last time I saw you (2001). Wish I could say the same about me. You should see my hairline

5 Replies 392 Views
Reply to The Accent's On The Positive in Misc JoeUser Forums

Too right I wasn't listening, Meghan. For me a "conversation" is divided into two parts: times when I'm speaking and times when I should be speaking.

6 Replies 4,114 Views
Impeach Blair in International JoeUser Forums

Public protest is a vital part of any true democracy. When people are angry about something, it's right and healthy that they should take to the streets to voice their unhappiness. To the thousnads of British citizens who have protested, and who continue to protest, against their government's insane support for Bush's war in Iraq, I say "more power to you." B

2 Replies 2,692 Views
The Accent's On The Positive in Misc JoeUser Forums

Last weekend I was, as ever, sitting in a bar with Soupy, my erstwhile friend in both the online and offline worlds. At one stage, as we sat there putting the world to rights, an English woman came up to us and started chatting. The woman in question was determined to tell us, over and over and over, just how sexy she found our Ulster brogues to be. Well, wh

6 Replies 4,114 Views
Allah Or Ramallah? in International JoeUser Forums

"Remember that when Arafat was still regarded as a superterrorist...the Israelis encouraged the Hamas to build mosques and social institutions in Gaza. Hamas and the Israelis had very close relations when the PLO was still in exile in Tunisia. I can remember being in southern Lebanon in 1993 reporting on the Hamas, and one of their militants offered me Shimon Peres

0 Replies 2,063 Views
Reply to Let's Clarify a Few Things... in Blogging JoeUser Forums

"I am not obligated to be unbiased, or to present an opinion that you agree with." Damn right! I hate it when people say things like "you're biased" or "you're not being balanced". The whole point of a blog (in my mind) is that it's what YOU think. It's supposed to be biased. But some poeple leave comments on my blog which give the impression that they expect me to be some sort of BBC.

13 Replies 282 Views
Reply to After Arafat in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks for your comments. Madine, As I said in the article, the Palestinian mainstream has long since accepted Israel's right to exist. The PLO Charter has been amended to reflect this new reality. As the Palestinians don't actually have any power as such, I'm curious what more you expect them to do. Where is the Israeli response to Palestinian moderation? Paul, I'm no expert on the nature of internal Palestinian

4 Replies 2,964 Views
My Wee Ulster in Misc JoeUser Forums

At Easter I was drinking in the famous Crown Bar, a popular tourist spot in Belfast city centre. Waiting for my drinks, I got chatting to the guy next to me, who like most of the people in the bar, was not a local. He was from Tralee, in the south-west of Ireland. Despite being the wrong side of forty, it was his first visit to our country's second city. He commented

2 Replies 2,641 Views
After Arafat in International JoeUser Forums

One of the most popular myths in the corridors of power in Tel Aviv and Washington is the notion that the Israeli/Palestinian conflcict could be solved easily were it not for the obstructionism of Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat. If nothing else, Arafat's imminent death will soon show this belief to be a fiction. It is of course convenient for Bush and

4 Replies 2,964 Views
Before Arafat in International JoeUser Forums

So much of life in the occupied West Bank seems to revolve around the management of boredom. Life under occupation involves dealing with a number of delays to your every day life, whether queueing at a checkpoint or sitting around waiting for the latest closure to be lifted. The sheer tedium of Palestinian life is the only part which an outsider can fully experience.

2 Replies 2,404 Views