Forum Topics

Sudan - ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’

The vast majority of media comment from the BBC to the left-wing press such as the Guardian and even posts on this humble Forum has raged about and denounced what are claimed to be 'humanitarian atrocities' - military actions, civilian deaths etc, carried out by Israel in its war with the Palestinians.Posters on this Forum have stated their positions as to whether they believe Israel is perpetrating such, and if so whether in a time of war some explanation, if not the condoning of them, is possible.However what the continual focus on and denouncing of Israel's behaviour has done, perhaps deliberately, is to turn attention away from what is happening in other parts of the world and what atrocities Islamist Arabs are perpetrating on a far, far more massive scale against non-Arabs in Africa.Even the Guardian and the UN is beginning to take notice and show concern, diverting its attention from Gaza.Today's Guardian."NGOs and UN say country is ‘worse off than ever before’ with wide-scale displacement, hunger and attacks on refugee camps". 'Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.The UK is hosting ministers from 20 countries in London on Tuesday in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks. However, diplomatic efforts have often been sidelined by other crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.Two years to the day since fighting erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary (ISLAMIST - my comment) Rapid Support Forces, hundreds of people were feared to have died in RSF attacks on refugee camps in the western Darfur region in the latest apparent atrocity of a war marked by its brutality and wide-scale humanitarian impact.The consequences for Sudan’s 51 million people have been devastating. Tens of thousands are reportedly dead. Hundreds of thousands face famine. Almost 13 million people have been displaced, 4 million of those to neighbouring countries.“Sudan is now worse off than ever before,” said Elise Nalbandian, Oxfam’s regional advocacy manager. “The largest humanitarian crisis, largest displacement crisis, largest hunger crisis … It’s breaking all sorts of wrong records.”There were “massive-scale” violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict, said Daniel O’Malley, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Sudan. “All of the civilian population, irrespective of where they are in the country, have basically been trapped between one, two or more parties. And they have been bearing the brunt of everything. The sheer numbers are just mind-boggling.”It is also claimed that as a fall out from this intra-Islamic civil war is that Christians are also being persecuted. In January of this year the US formally declared that the RSF had committed genocide, marking the second time in less than 30 years that genocide had been perpetrated in Sudan.The United Arab Emirates has been accused of fuelling the conflict by arming the RSF. Emirati passports allegedly found on the battlefield last year point to potential covert boots on the ground.All of this does not make for pleasant writing or reading and of course any claims of genocide should not be ranked in order of wickedness.However it does put the claims made against Israel into some form of perspective.

John Hawkes ● 69d23 Comments ● 31d

Eurovision Song Contest

I am not sure I will be watching the Eurovision Song Contest tomorrow. Firstly I have had serious doubts over the impartiality of European voters ever since 1959.Then the UK's Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson singing 'Sing Little Birdie' were pushed into second place by the Netherlands with the song "Een beetje", performed by Teddy Scholten. A song (but who remembers it) ? with rather dubious moral undertones we have now come to expect from that country.But secondly the competition has been predictably sullied by the coming together of the influences of today's drumbeat political issues - the wickedness of Israel and gender politics."The current Eurovision champion (sic) has said they (he is a man so should be 'he') support the decision to ban Israel from the 2025 competition".Nemo Mettler won the song contest in 2024 on behalf of Switzerland with the song The Code.This song was described by Nemo as one that details their (his) experience with accepting their (his) non-binary identity. A song that must have gone down well in pubs, at parties and any other occasion for fun and jollity.'Ahead of last year, the singer joined critics in calling for a boycott of Eurovision if Israel’s Eden Golan was allowed to participate as the conflict in the Middle East continued to rage on.Nemo, who was the first openly non-binary (whatever this means) act to represent Switzerland in Eurovision, was one of nine acts who issued a group statement expressing solidarity with Palestine.This time around, the singer-rapper (sic) has once again objected to Israel’s participation."Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights."Obviously he has not read the Hamas Charter !Views undoubtedly Gary Lineker would endorse as he also once lobbied to get Israel banned from international football competition.Why is a song competition so politicised and life in general so dulled by issues much over stressed both in importance and the public's acceptance of them ?Lulu, Sandie, "Brotherhood of Man" and "Buck's Fizz" with your naughty skirt pulling routine  - where are you now when we so need you, surrounded as we are by so many miserabilists ?

John Hawkes ● 38d18 Comments ● 35d

Bridge envy: Renfrew bridge (£117M) is a 184-meter double-leaf bobtail cable-stayed swing bridge

A selection of quotes from the below links. Work started on site in May 2022 — Open 9th May 2025. £117M twin-leaf opening road bridge across River Clyde opens to traffic — 9th May 2025 The 184-metre, twin-leaf bridge uses a cable stay system similar to the Queensferry Crossing and provides a two-lane crossing for vehicles, pedestrians and active travel as it connects Meadowside Street in Renfrew and Dock Street in Yoker, with the ability to open for passing ships as required.
A sustainable facet to the project was the installation process.  By floating in bridge segments from Belgium, the surrounding region and native ecosystem were not affected by lorries transporting large components. The bridge materials were fabricated in Belgium in a well-ventilated warehouse with controlled conditions. There was no disruption to Glaswegian neighbourhoods due to fabrication, paint, and assembly of the bridge. The bridge is powered by a hydraulic motor system, and the team uses biodegradable hydraulic fluid.


https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/117m-twin-leaf-opening-road-bridge-across-river-clyde-opens-to-traffic-09-05-2025/#:~:text=New%20Civil%20Engineer-,%C2%A3117M%20twin%2Dleaf%20opening%20road%20bridge,River%20Clyde%20opens%20to%20traffic&text=The%20Renfrew%20Bridge%2C%20the%20first,and%20Renfrew%20Riverside%20regeneration%20project.
https://iabse.org.uk/event/site-visit-renfrew-bridge-river-clyde/

Ed Robinson ● 37d4 Comments ● 35d

Random pic 27 April 2025

'Marie-Antoinette' Breguet No. 160 watch. Originally designed by Abraham-Louis Breguet, 1783 https://flic.kr/p/2qWatt5This jewel of a timepiece was crafted from the finest materials: gold wherever possible and sapphires to reduce friction on the moving parts. However, Breguet was not choosing style over substance. His ingenious design, and the mechanical expertise of his workshop's craftsmen, enabled the watch to be packed with many impressive functions, each known as a 'complication'. Over the more than 40 years it was being worked on, Breguet continued to add new complications as he developed them.Among the watch's 823 parts, Breguet included mechanisms which perform a range of functions beyond the telling of time in hours, minutes.and seconds. These include:
• Pare-chute' shock absorber
• Self-winding mechanism
• 48-hour power reserve indicator
• Minute repeater sounding a sequence of hour, quarter hour and minute
• Independent second hand - acting as a stopwatch
• Calendar for date, day and month - corrected to account for leap years
• Equation-of-time indicator
in minutes
• Bimetallic thermometeIn 1783 the clockmaker Abraham-Louis
Breguet was given an unlimited budget to craft an exceptional timepiece for Queen Marie-Antoinette. Although no records confirm this, it may have been commissioned by the Swedish soldier-diplomat Axel von Fersen a close friend of the queen.A Labour of Love:The timepiece would exceed all others in beauty and complexity, becoming Breguet's masterpiece. In his pursuit of perfection, and interrupted by the French Revolution, the watch was not completed until the 1820s, long after Marie-Antoinette's death in 1793.At the London Science Muuseum, Versailles Science and Splendour Exhibition(Lent by The L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem, Israel Loan no. L2024-129 Images Avshalom Avital)[Text from Science Museum Exhibition Label]

Michael Ixer ● 57d1 Comments ● 57d

Illegal HMOs

The story of April 10 about 'Charles Marguiles of BMR Hemini Ltd', who apparently operates 'more than 200 properties across the capital'.. should have faced far stronger legal and police action. These vultures are buying up three bedroom houses and making them into seven or more mini-bed houses. Streets become filled with excess cars, pushing out local resident's vehicles; the amount of sewage increases three-fold. Politicians and the authorities need to wake up - this is Putney's most serious problem: such developers should be ordered to convert the housing back into original configuration.In Ealing they estimate there are 25,000 'additional' HMOs - caravans, garden sheds, etc - all pouring huge amounts of additional human waste into the Thames. When I rowed on the Thames 30 years ago it was far cleaner than it is today. Not now: the Thames Tunnel will have little effect on the increasing volumes. Mark my word.A landlord and a property development company have been fined £43,000 for an illegal development in a Southfields garden.Charles Marguiles of BMR Hemini Ltd operates more than 200 properties across the capital. He specialises in buying residential properties and converting them into Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) to rent to individual tenants.In 2022 the company bought the house on Linstead Way and proceeded to build accommodation at the rear.When residents objected, it emerged that no planning permission had been sought or granted for the new buildings. A retrospective application was made but this was refused by borough planners and an enforcement notice was issued for demolition.An appeal was launched against the notice and tenants were moved into the new units.A Government Inspector supported the council’s position but then BMR Hemini claimed it was unable to comply because the buildings already had a tenant in them.The council began prosecution proceedings on the basis that failure to comply with the enforcement notice was an offence under the Town and Country Planning Act, It was only following a court summons that the extension was demolished, nine months after it first went up.Despite this belated compliance, the council continued the prosecution due to the stress the neighbours had experienced.Margulies and BMR Hemini Ltd were convicted on 24 March, at Wimbledon Magistrates Court for failure to comply with the enforcement notice. They were fined £16,000, ordered to pay the council’s legal fees of £23,554 and pay a victim surcharge of £3,600.The judge was critical of their actions particularly placing a tenant in the building when they knew an enforcement notice was pending.The Leader of Wandsworth council, Simon Hogg, said, “All of the actions from this landlord clearly show that they cared more about rental income than following the rules.“The outcome of this case sends a clear message that we will not tolerate breaches of planning control in Wandsworth which ignore the impact such actions have on neighbours.”

Marcus Gibson ● 66d0 Comments ● 66d