The shirt definitely looks whiter than white.

come to think of it, Ghana exports latex and imports wellington boots. It’s a good illustration…

Hopefully the chili peppers are for domestic consumption, and you can fend off imports.

Wild fluctuations in the cost of chili peppers was one of the main factors in the rash of suicides amongst Indian farmers.

Japaleno peppers, by all means. I couldn’t get jalapenos in a local un-named supermarket the other day.

Wellington boots can be hard to get on and off, but what about walking shoes with an hard rubber sole suitable for walking on rough ground or snow? There’s fair trade possibilties there, maybe.

Well, Craig, you’re certainly not in camouflage!The welly-boots are cosmic!

Good job. A little export led boost will help those people.

Good dispatch and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you as your information.

Now I feel guilty for growing my own organic chillies – especially as they are three times the size of yours

Hoehoe

http://www.rickmann-uk.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-Waterfall.jpg

The Wli Falls cascade spectacularly 100ft over a sheer cliff in the range of mountains which separate Ghana from Togo. There is a pleasant walk through the forest to the falls where visitors can see coffee beans, cocoa pods and pineapples growing.

Many Ghanaians visit the falls to picnic and swim in the pool at the base. So whoops, splashing and laughter resounded around cliff faces. Some of the enterprising locals may offer to shoot the roosting bats from the cliff face around the falls and cook the catch on an open fire for your nourishment and delectation.

a~~

Not so nice for the bats.

Your driver and photographer is an economist who illustrates his views well. As a historian, you might add reflections on rubber and Empire.

I can’t resist this suggestion for a spoof caption for the above pic. “The Man from Del Monte is not sure”.

Abe your caption is spot on. Craig looks like something out of Randal and Hopkirk Deceased.

Craig give Peter our love hope business is going well. Maybe a wellie factory will be good business. You could even make croc type boots and designer wellies.

Indirectly linked to to topic.

@ Craig,

The shit that the Africans have experienced with exploitation, brings us to the points of incongruence, where in fact the Whellies ( or is it some other spelling?) are more practical for earnings in the village that what the whole of the Western dominated system has on offer. And they are fully aware of that.

Lest we forget what is happening in the UK – just consider this:-

This is how the system really works…

A. convince the populace that someone ( e.g. Osama), or a country (e.g. Iran) is the enemy.

B. bleed them with low wages and higher regressive taxation.

C. then use the tax money collected from them to support the defence industry corporations, because we have to have a system in place that gets us from C back to A, so that we can get back to C. again.

£142.5m combat aircraft unveiled

It may look like the stuff of science fiction but this unmanned jet could be the combat craft of the future. Skip related content

Related photos / videos

£142.5m combat aircraft unveiled Enlarge photo

Named Taranis, after the Celtic god of thunder, the £142.5 million prototype has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.

Dubbed the “pinnacle” of British engineering and aeronautical design, it is the size of a light aircraft and has been equipped with advanced stealth technology making it virtually undetectable.

Almost invisible to ground radar, it is designed to travel at high jet speeds and cover massive distances between continents.

The plane is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors.

And it has been designed to carry a cache of weapons – including bombs and missiles – giving it a potential long-range strike capability. It can be controlled from anywhere in the world with satellite communications.

Experts say the cutting-edge design is at the forefront of world technology and as advanced as any US development.

Gerald Howarth, minister for international security strategy, said: “Taranis is a truly trailblazing project.

“The first of its kind in the UK, it reflects the best of our nation’s advanced design and technology skills and is a leading programme on the global stage.”

The jet was unveiled at a ceremony at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire. Flight trials are due to start next year.

Mr Barnett – Taranis will never happen. Trident replacements will probably never happen. The ‘system’ is near collapse.

The comment about exporting latex and importing wellys is a good example of what’s wrong with a lot of struggling countries – they export raw goods and import finished products. If there’s enough demand, it makes a lot of sense to produce at least enough for the home market, and export more of the finished products. A decent import tax on wellies, and a good export tax on latex too, will help the economy a lot.

Off topic, sorry.

Libel reform bill announced:

http://www.libelreform.org/news/465-9th-july-2010-government-announces-libel-reform-bill

Stephen Jones?

If you put a levy on boots, is that a stamp tax?

@ Somebody,

“Mr Barnett – Taranis will never happen. Trident replacements will probably never happen. The ‘system’ is near collapse.”

Help us all and explain why so – in logical sequence. Thanks for the anticipated elucidation.

CB ( http://www.globaljusticeonline.com)

There’s a sort of space alien glow to that shirt. Are you sure you’re not about to be abducted?

“If you put a levy on boots, is that a stamp tax?”

“Hoehoe”, indeed …

it would be hard on a sole proprietor.

Somebody,

I almost hope you’re right. If the UK can build these things, many others can’t be far behind, which then looks like a new arms race.

Courtenay Barnett,

spiraling debt; could be something like this (635 KByte PDF)

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/The%20Zeitgeist%20Movement.pdf

Courtenay Barnett: “convince the populace that someone ( e.g. Osama), or a country (e.g. Iran) is the enemy.”

But bin Laden is the enemy. He gave material and moral support to the 19 Arab-American hijackers who pulled off 911.

Courteney Barnett

Your Global Justice website was unable (even though it requested them) to accept my comments. Here they are:

My comment is really on Courtney Barnett’s postings on Craig Murray’s website. They are generally interesting and grammatical. Would that more were – not just on this and other blogs – in the media, in private e-mails etc.

Could style and content transform Google from universal protoplasm into the second rung of evolution towards intelligent life?

I was intrigued to find that the website is based in TCI (not a place I had previously associated with Freedom of Information). Are you related to Brian Manco? What’s your relationship with Michael Misik? What do you think of the Hashed Lobster at the Saltraker Inn? Do you know Michelle Fulford-Gardner?

Do Salt Cay inhabitants still have more than one vote per person?

I don’t understand your “Category” question. I am a person -a member of Homo Hopimg to be Sapiens. My website is http://www.biodiplomacy.net

But, alas ! the advice comes too late, it’s already a hosted website.

“Mr Barnett – Taranis will never happen.”

According to some, it already has:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4206116/UFO-turbine-mystery-the-theories-in-full.html

Why do all the men have wellies but not the woman ?

——”Libel reform bill announced:

http://www.libelreform.org/news/465-9th-july-2010-government-announces-libel-reform-bill

Stephen Jones?”——

The short answer is it won’t make much difference because it doesn’t address the problem.

The problem is exorbitant legal costs (libel suits are not alone in that).

There already is a clear public interest defence (the Reynolds defence).

There’s nothing in the reforms that would have stopped Spicer bullying Craig’s publishers into giving up.

Stephen Jones,

thanks for taking a look.

@ Iain,

You have asked me a lot of questions, but I will just give some sort of general reply.

I am a lawyer in practice for almost 30 years. I have argued a multitude of cases in my career. One of the interesting ( and tragic ones) I did earlier this year, involved the shooting death of a 16 year old boy and the police firing 68 shots at my client, who received one bullet that penetrated his arm and exited without hitting the bone. I presently have a case before the European Court of Human Rights.

Some of those you mention, I know, but not all.

My work involves substantial private matters and I accept a lot of public interest work as well.

My interest in world affairs stems from the fact of my having been accepted, post-grad from London University, to read International Relations. I diverted and was called to the British Bar. The rest , stated above, is history, as the saying goes.

Here is a link to a report in the Times in a case where I was defending the rights of 148 Chinese workers, when I received a death threat: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/32458,news-comment,news-politics,charles-laurence-lifts-the-lid-on-the-shady-politics-of-a-british-owned-sunshine-isle-in-the-caribbean ( see first paragraph)

Evidently, I lived to tell the tale ?” that I did not die.

Life goes on.

Trust I have answered you.

Respectfully,

CB

The obscenity of Taranis, another method of killing by remote control, the futility of the project and the waste of valuable resources.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/taranis_rollout

The obscenity of killing Palestinians by remote control.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/israels-new-video-game-executions/

Already happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Predator of course.

“it would be hard on a sole proprietor.”

Only if they were on their uppers to start with.

“on their uppers”

*laughter*

Being unable to follow that, it occurs to me instead to drop a quick plug for the New Rope String Band. Partly just because they’re good people and lots of high quality fun, but mainly in hopes that they still do their South African Wellyboot Dance.

Here’s my contribution, which I hope Craig will appreciate.

In the late 1930′s the great American actor and singer Paul Robeson was appearing in a variety show in Glasgow. He had wowed the Old Vic with his Othello to Peggy Ashcroft’s Desdemona, an only slightly less risque cross-racial casting than it would have been in the USA.

In this Glaswegian show he had been preceded by a stand-up comic who had had a hard time. As he came off into the wings, he passed on his advice: “Jimmie, it’s an awfu’ audience; they’re no worth blackin’ up fer.”

My contribution – for Craig to enjoy.

In the late 1930s the great American actor and singer, Paul Robeson, was appearing in a variety show in Glasgow. He had recently wowed the Old Vic with his Othello to Peggy Ashcroft’s Desdemona, a cross-racial casting only slight;y less risque than it would have been in the USA.

Robeson was preceded by a local stand-up, given a hard time by the audience. As the Glesca comic walked into the wings he passed on his advice: “Jimmie, the audience is awfu’. It’s no even worth blackin’ up fer.”

For Robeson fans: we might meet at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Black Heritage event at 14.30 on 17 July: “Othello, Robeson and the FBI”:

“Join literary critic Professor Tony Howard to examine the work and legacy of Shakespearean actor and political activist Paul Robeson. Hear a dramatised reading which includes original extracts from FBI and MI5 files, and explore The Robeson Project display.” at the V&A.”

For the sake of historical accuracy, my story about Paul Robeson should be rephrased as follows (thank you, Elspeth; and fond memories of brother Roy Cunningham, the best teller of the tale):

Towards the end of his career – and after the US government had given him back his passport – the great American actor and singer, Paul Robeson, was appearing about 1960 in a variety show in Glasgow’s St Andrews Halls.

This was long after he had first wowed Old Vic audiences in the late 1930s with his Othello to Peggy Ashcroft’s Desdemona, a cross-racial casting only slightly less risque than it would have been in the USA.

Robeson was preceded by a local stand-up, Jimmie Beattie, who had been given the bird by the audience. As he walked off into the wings he said to Robeson:’Hey pal. They’re no worth blacking up for.’

That was, of course, the era of the Black and White Minstrel show.

For Robeson fans: we might meet at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Black Heritage event at 14.30 on 17 July: “Othello, Robeson and the FBI”:

“Join literary critic Professor Tony Howard to examine the work and legacy of Shakespearean actor and political activist Paul Robeson. Hear a dramatised reading which includes original extracts from FBI and MI5 files, and explore The Robeson Project display.” at the V&A.”

Iain Orr, that’s a great post. I wish I could go to see that event and the V and A. Paul Robeson, as you say, toured the UK around 1960. He came to Hull, where (before I was born) my father met him and was totally impressed by Robeson – a major figure, a genius in the true sense of the word, who was treated shamefully by the US authorities. They really killed him, by preventing him from doing what he loved – singing, performing. They really killed most of the black leaders in the USA who were systemically critical of the economic/ military system. He got a great reception in the UK/ Europe though, esp. in Wales, I think; people really warmed to him and to his and his people’s struggle. I didn’t know he’d come to Glasgow too. That’s really interesting. He would have got a super reception here.

Suhayl

Thanks for that response and also for your many sane posts on this site.

If you can send me your email (mine is: biodiplomacy@yahoo.co.uk) I will send you my report on the V&A event and also explain – not relevent to Craig’s website – why Paul Robeson has been my childhood, teenage, university, professional (FCO), wrinklie – and no doubt post-human Heaven/ cyberspace/ Hell/ Nirvana – flawed hero.

Note – for heroes without flaws look to Mao, Stalin and Blair. [I think the technical term for this descending figure of speech is "bathos".]

Added reason. I’ve unlocked “Joseph’s Box” and when my Japan-based sister is in Harris and Lewis in August, I hope she’ll visit Two Ravens Press in Uig and return to see me in London with a copy of your novel.

PS Why two ravens rather than any other number? Is the allusion to fidelity/ monogamy? Will they stick with you (and vice-versa when you get Bookered)?

I have no time for rich cunts like you who sponged off the taxpayer for years living the high life and producing zilch.

above comment not from suhayl, obviously…

That commnet at 1129am on 17th July 2010 was NOT written by me. Please be assured of that, Ian Orr and everyone. I would never write such a thing about/ to anyone (outside of a character’s interior monologue of dialogue of course!). Someone has been ‘impersonating’ me on threads recently – yesterday – but if in doubt, please assume that it’s not me. Thanks. This kind of nonsense is to be expected from the envious and those who wish to disrupt.

Ideally, I would prefer if comments which are forgeries wer removed, as anyone might stumble across them on the web and think it’s me. I realsie, though, that Craig can’t spend his time doing this or it’d be a full-time job.

Iain Orr, thanks very much for your kind comments. I’ll get in touch as you suggest. You’re right about Robeson, btw. I hope – I’m certain – you didn’t imagine that that stupid comment a’ 1129am on 17th July 2010 was written by me.

I love Craig’s shirt, btw!

Thanks, technicolour.

Whoever they are, they are trying to sow discord – but as both Richard Robinson and technicolour have made plain, it won’t work. People on these boards know who I am and how I relate to folk.

So whoever they are, I don’t really care whether or not they desist – it will make not one iota of difference to me or anyone else. We see through it all.

The brightness of Craig’s shirt has illumined the world!

Thanks, Suhayl. I’m sending you some mango body oil!

I think someone is impersonating Craig today as well. Someone very envious, perhaps.

Suhayl,

I think somebody’s very, very worried about your brilliant contributions to Craig’s blog.

Thanks, Ruth, for your solidarity and good vibes. Best wishes.

Cunts! “Liberals” ha ha. Lick my anus!!

Sorry for off topic but I can find no email address. I ordered direct ‘The Catholic Orange men..’ on 8 June. On 19 July no sign of it. I paid through Paypal ref Transaction ID: 9WP267392M117315T

I would like to order ‘Murder in S..’ direct also if possible, not evident from your site.

Austin