St Anton (2)

The skiing lessons went amazingly well. Better for some than others. But in no time we could do turns, slow down, and stop when we wanted. And not fall too often. Our ankles hurt, and we had an enormous appetite by lunchtime. Needless to say, the surroundings were picture-postcard beautiful.

But I was only on Day 4 when I had a pretty bad fall, and after insisting that I'd be ok, I had to give in and see a doctor. That was complicated. He had no English and I had no German. But I mimed what had happened, and showed him and his nurse where I was hurting. (My ribs.) They took an X-ray, and fitted me up with a kind of corset affair, which held me in very tight, all around my middle. The doc said no more skiing. But I wasn't about to waste my money and I was back out again the next morning. They gave me the X-ray to take home and I still have it upstairs somewhere. It clearly shows a safety pin that I didn't know I was 'wearing'.

The town was full of young people and the craic was mighty in the evenings. I had my guitar with me and, having ditched two Germans (who seemed to be interested in literally nothing only getting us into bed) we hooked up with a couple of Czechoslovakian lads who also had a guitar with them. I have lots of snaps of crowds of us out on the street, in the snow, singing, and in one I'm wearing a French Foreign Legion Hat which someone had plonked on my head. (My friend suggested that the corset had given me a somewhat military bearing.)

The Czechoslovakians had no English, but they did have German, and we made innovative use of the English-German-English dictionary. They took us up in a cable car to the top of the nearest peak (and I do mean 'peak') where amazingly, there was warm sunshine, a bar, and deck chairs out on the heavily packed snow. We spent the afternoon there with the two guitars and sang every folk song we knew, and some we didn't. It emerged that the guys had either left or been thrown out of Czechoslovakia after Dubček was expelled from the Communist party, and that they couldn't go home. So they were working in Germany. They were only young, like us, and I found the idea that they couldn't go home terribly sad.

We left them on our final night about 2am, and they promised they'd come and say goodbye in the morning -- although our coach was due to leave at 6.30am. We really didn't expect them. But watching from our balcony at 6.15am we spotted them trundling up the pathway, ankle deep in snow. It was a warm and lovely ending to a great holiday.

PS A year or so later, we decided to try skiing in Aviemore, in Scotland. And found ourselves sharing the training slope with a bunch of British SAS men and their very voluble CO. More about that later, perhaps. It's not often you get to laugh at the SAS.

St. Anton for a week -- £47

Back around 1972, a friend and I went skiing in St. Anton, Austria, for a week. As rank amateurs. The whole package cost us £47 each (Irish punts at the time), and included return flights to Munich, return coach transfers to St. Anton, half board at the hotel, hire of skis, boots and sticks for the week, and beginner lessons once a day. (There were no artificial ski slopes around then, so we couldn't prepare before leaving.)

The hotel accommodated us in chalets, where we breakfasted every morning. Evening meals were at the hotel, where we also indulged in Après-ski in the late afternoons and were introduced to gluvine, which we didn't like very much. We preferred the Austrian beer at the underground Bierkeller, where the lederhosen-equipped musicians played requests for just about any nationality, and caused a lot of mirth in the process.

Even for those days, it must have been great value. Our chalets were comfortable (we were introduced to duvets for the first time - white, cotton-covered, and very soft) and the little breakfast room was cosy and smelled wonderful. Continental coffee was a novelty in those days, and the choice of breads and 'Konfitüren und Marmeladen' was superb. We went off on the first morning to get fitted for boots and skiis, and the stiffness of the boots made us grumble. But our ankles were very glad of them by the time we got to Day 2. (Have you ever tried to bend your ankles sideways?)

On to the nursery slopes then, and my friend caused hilarity by managing to ski backwards all the way down the slope without falling over. She didn't ski exactly, she slid -- she hadn't learned how to stop yet. But there were about 30 of us in the beginners' class, and everyone managed to make an ass of themselves that first morning, so nobody cared.

That first evening in the hotel, we met a honeymooning couple from rural Waterford, who owned their own pub back home and were intending to run it after their honey-break was over. Months afterwards, we visited them in Waterford, and they took the opportunity to take a couple of hours off, leaving us in charge of the pub for the duration. Neither of us had ever pulled a pint. But that's another story for another day.

St Anton was thronged with visitors of many nationalities - French, German, British, Czechoslovakian, American - and many others - all communicating, where necessary, via sign language and song. I had French, but neither of us had a word of German, although we had the foresight to bring along an English-German, German-English dictionary, which got us out of many a spot. And into others, no doubt.

(Part 2 to follow)

Good news (for once)

Reposting straight from here

Suzanne Nossel resigns as Amnesty International USA Executive Director

"Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, has tendered her resignation and steps down on January 11th. Amnesty are looking to appoint a new Executive Director.

"HRI has written about and campaigned for Nossel’s dismissal. In our opinion and that of many Amnesty members her advocacy of war to cement the US’ position of dominance worldwide made her completely unsuitable for the role.

"We wish Suzanne Nossel all the best in her future career and hope she will find a position advocating human rights in a non-violent way, respecting the human rights of the Palestinians and, perhaps, with a more critical attitude towards US foreign policy.

"We are also hopeful the Amnesty USA Board will make a better choice this time around and appoint as Executive Director a person who can help Amnesty to come to terms with their failures over Libya, including failing to take timely action to defend the Tawergha, migrant workers and dark-skinned people from racist atrocities and ethnic cleansing and to defend the people of Sirte from NATO bombing.

"The new Executive Director should also be committed to ensuring that, in the future, Amnesty resists those forces who seek to use the organisation as a propaganda vehicle for western military intervention."

 

Those videos are now available!

I had no idea, after Google sent me a Google+ email and I went to disable my Google+ account (which I never knew I had) that they would make my YouTube videos "private" and unavailable for viewing here on the blog. But that's what happened.

I've now gone and signed up to a minimal Google+ account and reset the videos to "public". So Na hUaisle (below) should play for you now. Sorry for any confusion.

Father of Malala to become "education attache"

I was pretty sure when I posted about Malala (below) that we hadn't heard the last of her or her father in the US/UK grand scheme of things. This morning I read this at the Guardian:

"Malala Yousafzai's father appointed to diplomatic job at UK consulate" 

"Father of campaigner shot by Taliban to become education attache while his daughter recovers in a Birmingham hospital"

In the first place, that seems to be strange wording, since apparently he and his family will be able to stay in the UK for five years - and it already seems as if Malala is well recovered, or at least well on the road to recovery. I hope she is.

[Update: Malala released from hospital -- apparently posted by the Irish Times while I was posting this]

Secondly, I learned this: "Doctors discovered that the bullet came within inches of killing her, lodging in her neck instead of penetrating her skull."

I had wondered about that. I had seen numerous clips on TV of Malala in hospital and she seemed to have a full head of lovely black hair -- no sign at all of any of it being shaved off for medical reasons. So now that is explained. No bullet penetrated her skull although we were told constantly that she was "shot in the head and neck" -- which under normal circumstances would be expected to kill anyone, or at the very least cause brain damage, which she doesn't appear to have either. (What I have noticed is that in all recent clips and pics, she looks increasingly unhappy, and is always, but always, shown in the company of her father. I read somewere - here I believe - that her mother is  kept inside the house. Funny, that.)

Meanwhile, mealy mouthed William Hague is quoted again as having said, "we are also determined to do all we can to champion education for women and girls in Pakistan" -- something that had never occurred to them until after they invaded Afghanistan AND after it becamse obvious that their geopolitical aims there were not going to be achieved. Education for women in Afghanistan (or Pakistan) was the last thing on their weasly minds when they invaded the area in October 2001.

Are they planning to push that excuse again (education of women) to justify the murder and mutilation of Afghan people, and deaths of 'US-led' soldiers, since 2001? Surely not. It's far too ridiculous. Obama has been gaily killing and dismembering civilians with his drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan since January 2009. Or is it that, having given permission for these US drone attacks, and having suffered severe criticism from their own population, the Pakistani Government is desperately trying to make up some lost ground by making a song and dance about Malala and her family and her father "the educator" (and owner of a number of for-profit schools)? With the connivance of the US/UK and their lapdog media?

"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that between 391 – 780 civilians were killed out of a total of between 1,658 and 2,597 [deaths from drone strikes] and that 160 children are reported among the deaths. The Bureau also revealed that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners, tactics that have been condemned by legal experts" Source

'We are killing their women and children in order to educate them'

Quoting from here again:

"There is one other dimension worthy of attention and that is what the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has done. He has launched a United Nations petition using the slogan “I am Malala” demanding that all children in the world should be in school by 2015. He plans to present the petition to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari later this month. Brown’s activities on behalf of Malala and indeed other children would sound more noble were it not for the fact he heads the “global campaign for charter, for-profit school systems.” There is tons of money to be made in this enterprise."

Make of it what you will.

So what was all that about Malala?

So what was all that about Malala Yousafzai? It smelled fishy to me from the start. Why all that international attention for one girl badly injured by the Taliban in Pakistan, while we heard virtually nothing about three Afghan children killed by American troops in Helmand within days of the attack on Malala?

Why was the Guardian pushing so hard to make Malala their 'person of the year' for 2012, and why did they publish such a sour grapes report afterwards when voters chose Bradley Manning instead? (Heh)

A lot of the answers you can guess for yourself. What we're told in the western MSM is carefully selected. Agenda, agenda ...

Below at Crescent International is a detailed picture of what and who Malala is, and more importantly, who and what her father is, and what the agenda with Malala most likely was (and still is, I assume, although she was beaten, again, as Time's Person of the Year 2012):

 Was Malala Yousafzai used for a larger US plan?

Happy New Year!

Image source: Miki de Goodaboom

Back in the day (2)

Further to my two videos from na hUaisle, below, here is an mp3 of "Kissinger an Rí" which is worth hearing. Shades of Jacques Brel, I think. I don't know (yet) if video exists, or if I can get my hands on it. Dates from around the late 1970s, when it was recorded for a Christmas programme on RTE.

Back in the day

Na hUaisle, singing Spiritum Sanctum Dominum, RTE, early '70s.




Na hUaisle, early '70s, winning the Oireachtas (new) competition for groups with guitar. Brought them to the attention of the media, and especially RTE, for whom they made many appearances in various Irish language programmes.

"Pillar of Cloud" my eye

If you want REAL coverage from Gaza (as opposed to the skewed guff you get from Western mainstream media) go to Harry Fear's live stream here.

Harry is/was in Gaza to make a documentary. He's at risk of being blown up by Israeli shells/missiles/drones. He's online as much as he can -- given sleeping and eating and very occasional forays outside -- but you'll get him during the day, most of the time (Gaza time, which is UTC/GMT +2 hours.)

You'll also find Harry here on Twitter.