God Save Britain and the UK!!

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052881/Who-killed-Britain-A-new-book-reveals-land-Queen-Elizabeth-II-ruled-longer-exists.html

So, we don’t live in the same Britain that her Majesty ruled over more than 50 years ago! I imagine a lot of Brits are gasping for air trying to swallow the fact that a national newspaper finally had the balls to publically declare (albeit not very British but nonetheless absolutely necessary in this case) what we could have told the Queen herself at about anytime between 27th June 2007 and the present day, or indeed many moments between May 1997 May 1998 and the present day. (Just to give some credit to the Labour government – they did after all make a huge one-off payment to the national debt and secure the Good Friday agreement, which of course must be respected, unlike the first achievement, where debt has risen to record levels under our rather “prudent” Piss-it-all-up-the-wall Prime Minister.)

Your Majesty, I am not one to be rude or impolite but please stop listening to all the bullshit (also known as “nonsense”) that your government feeds you about the perfect, harmonised Britain in which we live. (A Britain that just happens to require the world’s most dense network of CCTV cameras to live in and you still don’t feel safe – however save a space in your purse for your future ID card – it can save you!) I implore you Majesty to come back from la-la land with the other Royal Teletubbies; I implore you to wake up and smell the.............well, how do I tell you...............the Royal tea bag! (However, “Get ‘wit it” would be the more modern translation, and it’s amazing that the Microsoft Word spell checker didn’t even underline “wit’ it” as a grammatical nor a spelling error) Please Majesty, wake up from la-la land using those two sugar cubes in your small cup of tea and rule over us with some sense of purpose and direction; leave the rather innocent touchy-feely nature of your world and embrace us here in your Britain wholeheartedly, for we desperately need some kind of leadership that injects a sense of collective identity back into the British people – that is a polite way of saying national identity. We all know it is going “down the drain”, “to the wall”, “to pot”, “up the creek”, “AWOL”, “kaput”, “pear-shaped”, and “rather doo-lally”, etcetera, etcetera – don’t we?

The Daily Mail in its article of Wednesday 10th September was not afraid to spell out some rather uncomfortable home truths in its depiction of “what we all knew anyway, but were too afraid to say” tone of voice. (For the fear of offending some other undefined group of people - that must be respected - because they are defined as different by the very fact that they are undefined - and we are not as such.) Let’s applaud the newspaper for trying to publicise what must have difficult in the asphyxiating politically-correct environment in which it must print its ink and cause the felling of many more trees. However, this might be one example of when such an environmentally unfriendly activity could have been justified, not too dissimilar from another major piece of news from the same day regarding the Greenpeace activists that successfully were able to claim in the courts that their criminal damage to a coal-fired power plant was justified in that they were attempting to prevent the even-bigger damage caused to the planet by the Co2 emissions of the plant.

Hoorah!

So we have two examples in one day from the same newspaper not afraid to stick two fingers up to extreme political correctness for a change. Of course, the sceptic might say that all this publicity and temper-tantrum attitude will make little difference – point duly noted – but when we wake up one day and our sense of national identity that has made us feel so proud of who we are, secure, and with a sense of belonging to a group disappears, then I don’t want to hear anyone say that they weren’t told. However, always one to look on the bright side, I guess that the ultimate loss of the British identity (and thus the political union on which it was founded) will give the PC brigade a mission, sense of purpose, and a real big mammoth of an event to pour their pens over for years to come. They can waste money, time and paper all they want trying to figure out how it could have happened. (Oh I just realised; it did all of a sudden dawn on me - excuse me for not explaining the term “PC” – this equals “politically-correct” – I am genuinely sorry to any group that felt excluded by their lack of knowledge of abbreviations) Back to the point, I wonder if the PC brigade will recognise that for once in their artificially-created bio-bubble (fast running out of air because nothing can imitate Mother Earth nor the true art of breeding bullshit) that they didn’t actually consider the British people, because if they do their jobs well, they can save £500,000 of public funds and still discover that this is the true answer. Learn from the lesson of spending £10,000 to tell us that the best biscuit to dunk in our tea was a digestive, oh mighty pen-pushers! (No offence meant to the actual researchers who completed the investigation.)

To close my moaning session, I address you again your Majesty by saying that I absolutely, without the shadow of a doubt; without feeling the guilt of my most non-PC act to date, look forward to seeing you on your arrival from la-la land. The kettle is on and the biscuits are waiting. Have a safe trip on the Royal plane!

Your most faithful subject but pissed off citizen of the state you are supposed to uphold and represent. (God Save the Queen!)

(Just to tell readers for the record, only two errors were highlighted by Microsoft Word in this text – the first was “Teletubbies” and the second was the “lally” in “doo-lally.” Not bad at all I’d say.)

(Final final point: Sarcasm is a most British craft, so I must apologise for any offence caused to any group of people - and yes this includes those who feel offended but don’t quite know to which group of offended people they belong yet. Please address any comments on a postcard to the usual address. Goodbye for now.)

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New Semester - August 2008

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Things have certainly been hectic here since the semester started on Monday 4th August. As I write I am midway through the third week and have covered an enormous amount of material with my students, including an introduction, their final project, the two world wars and the cold war.

I have had a wonderful amount of energy and enthusiasm lately despite the demands of work, and with the final project of my students now online, where they have to produce a small video analysis of two articles from a selected international publication each week, it is amazingly convenient to track their work. To do that I have designed and now maintain a central page – http://www.netvibes.com/johnread

This allows me to present deadlines through a countdown, send messages and make a to-do list, as well as maintain RSS feeds to students’ youtube channels, and a direct link to the NEW class blog at http://escenariosregionales2008.blogspot.com

Finally, students conduct weekly participation and an extension of class activities on their own class “wiki” – addressed as http://escenarios1.wetpaint.com (change the number to 2, 3, 4, or 51 for the other groups) The wikis can all be designed by the students in each group and it was my intention that they completely control how the wikis develop. I am able to track participation through the netvibes page or the wiki itself, where an RSS feed tells me who did what when, and provides direct links.

Welcome to Web 2.0!

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What great weather! And video of "us"...

Before I go on to mention the beautiful weather in Hermosillo right now, I want to draw your attention to this small YouTube clip; I think it's excellent, designed to make you really reflect on "Us" - collectively. Very nice.

Now, the weather. I had wanted to write last week, hopefully I will be able to put up some photos soon, but the weather is marvellous! We are well and truly into the raining season here in Hermosillo; the small sandstorms have given way to bucketloads of rain that hit you suddenly at 3pm in the afternoon, diffusing the intense heat that builds throughout the day. However as nice as the refreshing moment is, the intense downpour leaves the streets completely flooded, and depending upon the sheer quantity of water, it is difficult to walk back home when the water can come up to your knees. And all of this with 35 degrees in the background.

The resulting thunderstorms offer more beauty, with nature at its best as well as most dangerous. The sky lights up as far as the eye can see, with massive sheets of lightning that all condense to release a thunderbolt here, another one there, but rest assured, all seem as though they are right in front of your eyes. It is a magnificent experience for somebody who loves storms, and I shall enjoy the next month immensely.

If anyone in their travels has some photos of great storms it would be cool to see them!

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Ireland says No - wonderful news! Sad day for EU and UK

Let me make clear first of all that I remain, on the whole, pro-European, (although that really depends on the actions now taken by the other EU governments to force this treaty through in the wake of a No vote to the Lisbon Treaty by Ireland) but the people of Ireland have spoken and rejected this Treaty. I must say that I agree completely with the decision. If the EU is to truly have a purpose it must be close to the people of Europe. Sadly, it is not. From the corruption that forced the resignation of the entire Commission in 1999 to the sheer arrogance of re-packaging the Constitution and forcing it through 26 of the 27 EU countries without a referendum, the EU simply needs to understand the concept of ACCOUNTABILITY. For this we have the Irish people to thank. They really looked at this issue, said "Hold on, we don't understand it at all" and voted No. How right they were, especially when the Irish Commissioner in the EU admitted that he hadn't even read the document himself. How right they were, even when the new Premier Brian Cowen hadn't read it either.

Take a look at this brilliant summary

First point: It is more than sickening to think that the whole "Yes" campaign stated the dire consequences if the Treaty was rejected, but without having read the document it wasn't able to state what these were.

Second point: The arrogance of the Yes campaign is breathtaking. Betting shops (Paddy Power) paying out early, the whole Irish elite political machine against the No vote, biased media coverage (I'm not so sure of this claim in Ireland itself, but the British press has HARDLY covered the issue over the past few days) and to top it all off, the erosion of more civil liberties in the UK itself yesterday with the extension of the time that someone can spend in detention to 42 days. Why do I connect the two issues? Because this seems to have been the week that the elites were going for it - to swipe away a lot of fundamental freedoms all at the same time - to get it over and done with. I would even like to go as far as to say that the detention vote in the Commons was probably planned to coincide with this referendum in Ireland to take away attention. How cynical some of you might say I have become - however, with the ever-increasing intrusion of the state in our lives; of political correctness and local Councils using terror laws against innocent people, I believe that cynical is not the word - lifting the wool would be the term.

Third point: Corruption. I would be the first to defend the UK in terms of corruption. Regardless of a deep subconscious awareness of the corruption of any government, I have always defended rigorously to my students the general anti-corruption stance in the UK. The way in which we are a "fair" people, and the way in which the police serve the people, being two examples. I feel I seriously have to keep my mouth shut now because I cannot transparently justify such assertions. We are becoming a police state; these "terror" laws prove that - ID cards prove it - the political correctness of the police proves it - and linked to all of this, the Lisbon Treaty enshrines the transfer of an unacceptable amount of British sovereignty to Brussels. I really feel that we have learned, at a government level, some of the tricks of the trade of corruption, and that some of those tricks come directly from the EU.

The EU is becoming less accountable, more corrupt by the day, and ARROGANT.

a) Holding off on a raft of proposals such as tax harmonisation until after the Irish vote.
b) The EU insisting the continuation of ratification procedures despite the Irish rejection.
c) Rumours that the EU will get the Lisbon changes into EU law anyway by playing with their own rules.


This is all incredibly sad for me to see. Sad for somebody who was so passionately pro-European. Sad to see so much corruption and lack of democracy. Sad to see decisions taken by people that I don't even know. The EU could have been so much greater if it hadn't taken this path.

A welcome sad day for the EU, a disaster for British democracy, and a great day to say thank you Ireland for your courage and common sense. The Irish people looked at the reality and made the right decision. Like the British, they wanted to be part of the EU for its economic benefits. If there were to be political integration, it had to be something that came more naturally, instead of forced upon the populations of 26 out of 27 countries without a vote - Ireland wasn't going to forget why it joined the EU, and for a long time to come, the Irish two finger-salute to the EU will be remembered, as will the shame that now arrives as I believe the elites will try to push the treaty through anyway. The good thing is that this time, they can't attempt to push it through privately. All is out in the open.

I would like to finish by saying that I think it's time to take a holiday - to Ireland.


Thank you.



I will attach some links below, if you feel like me you will see the huge biased-ness for the Yes campaign and the current opinions of the British and Irish press.


1) This is probably the article that sums it all up - the arrogance and the wrong attitude, and the exact reasons why the Irish have rejected this. EU leaders plotting to get around the rejection in defiance of their own rules. The arrogance and lack of trust that this makes me feel is enough to make me vote out this Labour government, for it is the only democratic protest that I have. I hope many choose to follow, for what UK would there be left if we integrate so deeply into a club that operates in these ways?

2) EU referendum: What part of 'No' don't you understand?

3) EU referendum: Ireland's debt to the EU

4) We're fighting the EU treaty in the courts

5) Well done, Stuart Wheeler

6) This article makes me sick, especially when it talks about "Bridging mechanism" to isolate Ireland to still get the Treaty through - the rules are the damn rules guys, you can't change them now.

Jana's Wedding!!

Time to blog Jana's wedding! Jana finaaaalllllyyyyy got married to her long time boyfriend Leon on Saturday 24th May and I was honoured to have been invited. I had a really good time, enjoyed the differences in the ceremony to a "typical wedding" (the wedding was spectacularly located on the beach) and I further enjoyed all of the festivities afterwards - the company was great, (thank you to Galicia and Chayito, especially for waiting for Dong and I an extra 30 minutes at the end as we indulged ourselves a little too much in tecate and whisky!) the food was great and the dancing was fantastic. It was also very nice to see Paul again come over to visit from Canada, and I intend someday to realise my ambition to know Canada, and take his invitation to Montreal.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable night where I was really able to finally let my hair down after this long semester. Congratulations to Jana and Leon, may you be very happy together and enjoy every day of your lives! :)

John

ALL OTHER EVENTS.......................

Rather than write a post about each event separately, I am throwing them all together in one. Writing chronologically, after the pool party and final exams we went directly into the "alumno de calidad" event on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th May. This event honours the highest achieveing students across a range of categories.

Elizabeth Laredo Castro, congratulated in her distinction as a high quality student by her tutor Rozenn.

Mauricio comes to the stage to collect his award.

Then, that same evening was the official "ambigu" (this is a word to describe a formal meeting with light food and refreshments served afterwards) with parents. It was a pleasant evening that involved various speeches from the Director of the Campus, and two selected students from the graduating year. It was a chance to celebrate student achievements before the official day of graduation, which is more of a formal event where their diploma is received rather than a time to contemplate and reflect. No pictures from the ambigu I'm afraid.

The official graduation photo came the following morning, Thursday 15th May. I don't have a copy of this electronically but below are some informal photos that I took with students.

Girls-only photo, and I will write their names for the benefit of my future memory - Left to Right (Top) - Darinka Beltran, Jessica Torres Haro, Alejandra Garcia Durazo, Galia Reyes Bernal, Maria Laura, Carolina Felix Robles, (and at the bottom) Georgina Navarro Rojas and Daniela Felix Ramonet.

Boys-only photo, and I will write their names for the benefit of my future memory - Left to Right - Carlos Guerrero, (Warrior) Alejandro, Mario, Carlos Efren, (Carlos II) Oscar Toledo and Narciso.

The "political" couple Ana Madrid del Rio and Diego Ballasteros.

The offical graduation came next, Friday 16th May. I was sitting up on stage behind the Directors of the School anf invited guests, to proudly watch all of my students receive their diplomas one by one. I also had the honour to watch some ex-students from the University also graduate and receive their degrees, as well as 3 of my students in the University from this semester who were finishing.

Graduation Photo with Juan Pedro Cota, Fernando Biebrich and Narciso Romero Pineda.

Next, and finally, was the official student-organised party, held at the Casino building in Hermosillo. I went along with another John from LA who teaches English here, and stayed until the end. It was a good party although I didn't realise that I would be so encouraged to dance and participate by the students! All in all a really nice night and a fitting way to congratulate them on the next stage of this journey called life.....



John

End of the Semester Events 2 - Final Exams

Final exams, ah don't they hate them! With good reason too, for I don't make them easy. However I decided this time to have mercy and apply exams that were relatively easy in their requirements, with the exception of an analysis section at the end.

Grading the exams were easy, the real problem this semester were the essays that I set - must remind myself not to ask for 140-odd essays and expect to have them graded in a week - what a nightmare!