A persent History of Ian Rosmarin

The last few days I have discussed with my friend James, developing a website for my blog. In fact in a few weeks if all goes well Ian's World or (a persent history of Ian Rosmarin), will effectively become an online magazine. The plan is simple and number of my friends again to seeing the writing on a variety of issues. From Middle East peace to football (and yes the gunners), the first stage in the change from blog to website will happen in late between February too Augest this year when my mate gets back from Thailand and we start redesigning the website. My intention is eventually to go and live at some point in the next few months. By that point they'll probably be five to six other writers, who at the time of writing I am in discussions with. My blog will have to work hand-in-hand with my legal career which by 2010 should have started. If you want to be one of those first writers, you need to meet me in person in the meantime enjoy this blog when the new website to starts up the plan is to have a separate website, or the articles a you've read over the last year on the blog will be transferred it you'll still be able to read Ian's world but the chances are over time most of the submissions will only be on the new website not here. It's extremely early days now my business models essentially on the hope I can get people to the advertise on the website. If I don't succeed at least I tried...

Is my generation seeing a repeat of the 1929 crash?, That is the question I ended up asking myself today?could it be that I'm in for a once in a century catastrophe which is only second to a war?

I must sound like the prophet of doom when I come out with lines like the one above. But the enormity of the financial bubble that has happened in the last 16 years means that I am not very optimistic. It seems very likely that best I have a long recession ahead of me at worse there is going to be depression. It seems to me that such a depression could even lead to a major global conflict just like World War II.

All the signs are there, large numbers the world's population now live in places where they want to get rid of the government. The world economy today has a bolimited global financial sector. The people who work in it now look not so much like masters of the universe but lambs to the slaughter.Lehman Brothers is now no more, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch may actually go the same way as well in many of the other financial institutions worldwide including the new Lloyds banking group are effectively nationalized enterprises.

Before I say capitalism is dead which it is not ( if you don't agree see USSR) I am well aware that the world goes in stages but that does not help me, or my family what this world needs is a Hero!

I just want to say that the last post for a bit of a in joke between me and a friend! I not always the type of person who writes hard nose blogs about, sex, the law, BPP, Polites every time.

I do sometimes like to make fun of everything!

bunny love you?

bunny I want you?

bunny where ru?

bunny what do you think?

bunny don't do that?

bunny R' us?

bunny love?

bunny don't do that?

bunny what's up?

bunny don't go mad!

bunny be a carefull!

bunny know what I talking about?

Bunny is Ian being funny?

over the last few days is suddenly dawned on me, that's the next few weeks I'm simply not going to have a life. I first realized about this new phenomena, when I was invited out on Friday, Satday and Sunday I failed to make a single one of the nights out that I agreed to go on. The fact is within the next month I got three legal exams,litigation, business and property!

Like most people who were doing the LPC I'm trying to apply for jobs and revise for the exams it's a nightmare. I read other friends on the LPC and class mates from last year on the what your doing on facebook I can clearly see we are all in the same boat. lines like 'Law kills sleep', 'I hate crime' seem commonplace. We all know it's not the fault of the college or our teachers or even the Law firms I think the low society should set severe guidelines on how many exams students should take and they should be a debate about what really is realistic for us to do. At the end of the day giving us so many exams means that many of us will find it impossible to get training contracts as they simply will not have the time or they'll have to wait a couple of years. I'm lucky in one respect that I actually have contacts now in a fuel funds but I know most people are not in my position. However I have a number of problems I have only got a 2.2 and there my nagging worry to at 27 I may still find it hard to get the training contract.

The LPC is in fact much easer then the GDL the only problem with it is that in most students opinion its too jam packed. All I can say is if I was planning the course I would spread out the exams more the result of not sprending exams out is that many students are exhausted. In my own time working for law firms I have found that I have never worked as hard as I have on the LPC.

Meanwhile both my social life and my love life are now suffering...

What am I going to do?

I was thinking about the weather today, I know it's a boring subject, but here in Britain we often were on the phone we can't think of anything else to say we talk about the weather. For a country which is smaller than most American states it may seem like a boring subject, but here in Great Britain every day the weather can be slightly different Even with climate change I imagine that in a few hundred years one day it will be boiling the next day it will be freezing.

not go go back to my civil litigation and mediation...

Once long ago (I think in the 1970s) there was a flim about being Jewish in American.it was called Goodbye Columbus.The main plot line was between two young lovers he was an outsider she was a member of the American upper class of with issues of sex and race in 1970s America. The scenes I remember the most are the ones of the father stuffing his face during a but mitzvah ( or was it a wedding)but the one I most remember is when the Male lead leaves his ex-friend, her father tells him he is lucky and he wished he had done the same.

Today Jewish life in London is dominated by people like this, they believed that only they and their friends can run Jewish institutions. The result is they've been heavily run badly, I remember trying to join a committee of one organization last year and being told the as I haven't gone to school with the chair people I couldn't join. The result is a rapidly we have a Jewish secenes in this country that is absolutely awful, apart from smingle and a few other get togather we seem to have a very badly run very corrupt community.

This is also having a number of the side effects, for example Goodbye Columbus is now a term used by lawayers to describe the higher than average divorce rates among Jewish couples in Britain. An acquaintance told me that their 20% higher than the average divorce rates seen across Britain in any area or among any other ethnic group. It's generally believed that the problem is rooted in the youth movements and the actual structure of the society. The result is people getting married to early after they had children. Just the other week I was at a Jewish do and I found out half the people in the room with mehad divorced parents most of their parents were doctors, lawayers or accountants. The other factor that stood out was mostly got married between the ages of 18 to 26 by the time the children were forced by their parents had split up or the marriage had collapsed effectively.another friend of mine is now a teacher at Manchesters Jewish secondly school has told me that as a growing amount of poverty among the Jewish community in this country. The reasons for this is obvious it seems clearly to me that we have a highly divided community. It's very hard to meet other Jewish people which can be seen in our higher than average single numbers. The reality is if the society doesn't change what is today's mainstream Jewish community were within 20 years be outnumbered by the ultra-Orthodox (which to a degree is not surepizing) they have much lower divorce rates and are generally happyer). To me the best solution in this corroding mess is to change the way we operate as a community. However I did see change coming soon enough! and sometimes like the male lead its better to leave it.

I was watching BBC News 24 and the front cover of the Jewish Chronicle (the main Jewish News paper in Britain) when it hit me that a number of my predictions that I have made in the past are starting to come true. Isrealis are starting to realize that the Egyption state is losing control of the Sinaiand the newly anointed 44th president of the United States is explaining the Congress is going to have to spend a vast amount of money to stop the entire country going down the drain!

In fact I believe that I have been thinking this for sometime. For the last few yearsI quickly found out that the society I lived in along with most of the rest of the West had ceased to manufactured goods. In the end we were just doing services banking, finance, fashion consultants, IT designers,magazines industry and Media.

You have to ask the question can a society that makes the best such a designs and risk not being able to make the items the designers design?we produce such great artists like Norman Foster but if you want a plumber he has to be Polish or if you want a decent car it has to be German or Japanese. However even when you look at Japan and Germany you quickly noticed that even these countries are moving alway from making things and have eventually moved into service heavy industries.

It seems to me that societies, countries and civilizations go through phases They start by building themselves up in inventing new inventions that mean they progress to the dizzying heights. However once they reach the top of their game they eventually become lazy they stop fighting wars, developing or inventing new ways of thinking the result is a rapid decline. It's my belief that the West has reached that stage and I for one believe that it will never recover. The reason it will never recover is that the West is actually now being replaced or to put it more accurately it is becoming something else.

If the period between the 15th century and the 20th century mocked the rise of the West the 21st century seems to mark the West's rapid decline. In fact if you look at the rest of the world, Indian and Chinese to be disappearing in many respect sculture seems to be rapidly merging with their neighbors,in Africa the Chinese are rapidly taking over and in North America the societies that are rapidly becoming a mixture of European, Latin American and Asian culture which is slowly mergerying with mainland asai. It seems to me likely that within a few centries we will have a global civilization. States will rapidly look like just provinces of the world. It seems certain to me that eventually languages will also standardize themselves the more interconnected the world becomes the more homogeneous it becomes. The more homogeneous it becomes the more likely that you one bit to tell the difference between Lebanon or California or Eastern China based on culture. It will be a lot like when you walk into a old European town and they tell you that a tribe used to live there. The tribe didn't die out what they usually do is they married into the local population I believe that's the future for the people of many countries. in fact even if genetic engineering becomes extremely commonI suspect people will genetically engineer for the same traits.

They will want strength, power and intelligence the result will be people who will be incredible however as everyone else is then they will want to be even greater. Welcome to a brave new world it may however be very boring!

It may be decades and centuries into the future but it's still our future...

The last few weeks I had 100 people a day reading my blog why has the number fallen so fast?

I spend the last hourromancing about the last week, thinking about what the most important event of the last seven days that historians may remember. First I am sure new US President Barack Obamawill not only be remembered for being the first African American President ( in fact he should be remembered as a mixture of half Kenyan and Irish, English)but as a great president. However I do believe that unfortunately he may be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

A good idea I think is to compair him to the 43rd president (I know one of them is a dim wit but we don't know if Obama is going to be better than in we should not base his goodness on the colour of his skin but on if he can do the job!). As I have written in previous blogs I think that Obama may find himself spending most of his time re-building America! in fact it wouldn't shock me at all if within 3 or 4 years America has gone from being a Super Power to being a Great Power and that could be one of the resons that America voted in this true American. When I say the words True American I mean it by the 2050s America will be a melting point. Most Americans will not be of European/British descent but will be a mixture. In fact even now most African Americans and White American as well as Chinese American in fact are mixtures of different immigrant groups. Come to mention when you think of virtually every country in the world most of its people are mixtures (and if you think thats not good i.e. your a memeber of the far you only need to go to Japan to know thats its a lot more boring when everyone looks the same!) however this point I'm getting away from the main point. At points that I realize as I watched the BBC last nigth on a week in politics. One of the presents said Obama was the first person who looked like the majority of the world and not just a European, my question is what does a European look like?

The first answer you will give is a pale skin individual but in reality the last few decades this is changed. In the next few hundred years the world's population will mix and merge like never before. What we call European will still be around as genes never completely disappear in a population but I get the feeling that as the world becomes more divests it will at the same time become more homogeneous. If you want a brief snapshot of what the world's population will probably look like in a century or two you only need to go to Latin America, USA, China or Isreal these all countries where people have married traditionly people from other ethnic groups if you visit these countries you rapidly see that people are race blind and that I believe is the future.what worries me is that the world could also go to like one country that is at the crossroads of Asia, Afghanistan. Afghanistan is known to be one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world it is also one of the most divided societies in the world and for those people who believe in their country staying pure ( as they're racists) I would strongly suggest that you visit Afghanistan for this could be the world's best model of what would happen on a Goble scale to a divided world which brings it back to the main subject of debate George W. Bush. George W. Bush however, represents the past in my opinion he is a white foolish individual. He started two wars upset most of the world and speeded up America's already rapid decline.the new president inherits a country where there is a growing risk if he has international ambitions that he could send it into its own suis crisis!

What worries me about America's future or the American future as one commentator called it is that America has to be get used to no longer being a superpower. I believe I have seen the future even if many of the other people have been commentating on that feature.

on a Wednesday I usually go into Law school on a wedesday.however today I discovered that I any had a 35 minute lecture for the entire day(the Photo of myself is a test image soon I am going to have photos on most blogs!), I ended up thinking what is the point, why is it at BPPthat some weeks we have five lectures other weeks we only have one?

Today I found out unless I have retake at the end of my LPC in 16 weeks I am due to finish!

I have a confession to make just under five months ago when I started the LPC I believed that it was longer than the GDL. I have since been proved wrong, it turns out to be about the same length the result is that I'm just realizing how many law firms I will have to apply to over the next few weeks!

The economic situation in the United Kingdom is terrible I am more ready hearing about law firms laying people off and in this job market I now find myself feeling the breach. The other night I talked with a French girl who was a fully trained lawyer. For the last two years she has been a paralegal and now even she can't and you would not believe that if you met her.

For starters she is intelligent and I believe in a normal market she would be snapped up immediately.however we don't live in normal times companies rapidly go to the wall without warning, for every Woolworths I suspect there will be a Lehman Brothers a company that looked sound and stable before it is engulfed by lack of credit.

After watching the Prime Minister atempt his second bail out of the banks I can only hope things get back to. I'm glad my parents don't have a mortgage and that would pretty well off at some measure I can have some true independence after the LPC finishes

Yes I spend anyother nigth on the Jewish scene I would wholeheartedly recommend Schmongle, if you want a relaxed Jewish experience without religion then it's definitely the best night you can go out in London if your Jewish!

I wish I could talk more about this subject but I'm so busy with work recently that I have to be up to write much for my blog. That's where the good news comes over the next few weeks I'm going to be appointing a number of new co-wirters!

Today I got my results for my first assessed work. It had happened months ago and was know by the suitably cudily name 'practical legal research' PLR overwise known as PLR1. It was what was called a library card and was 6 pages law. I spent the best part of a month doing it and preparing the course work. After two and a hour nail bitting hours between 10 am and noon I finally found out if I was competent (C) or not yet competent (NYC). I soon found out that PLR1 was competent and I had successfully completed the next stage of the LPC.

As I got those results I could not help but start thinking why did we need to do so many exams. The GDL was really hard but the LCP has proved to be easy I could switch off my brain for the course and I suspect I would still past whilst the GDL was not so much work but the work we did do we had to think about all the time.

So the net result is today is I am sitting here about to get to grips with another stage in my vocational career as a lawyer. I'm sorry to make this blog so short but I've got to press on and do some revision.

out of all of Bushs press conferences I would say he's last one is the only one I've truly ever enjoyed watch back home on television. This ape of a man has miss run the world for almost 8 years and what have we come to expect! in his last press conference as president he seemed a fairly chippy chap, maybe it was because it was less frightening the biggest fool ever to hold the highest office in the world since Nero. He has reduced the power of the world's most powerful country started at two major wars which seem to be reducing the West to a group of satellite states compact with their Asian rivals.

He slowly talked about each one of his mistakes, for example putting the words Mission accomplished on an aircraft carrier. Or flying over New Orleans after Katrina had hit, watching him was like watching a funny kind fool. Unfortunately this man have been in control of an entire country, looking back at the last eight years I am actually quite surprised that we did not end up having nuclear war.

When you think about it we've actually been quite lucky in the last few years. Each of the countries which could have caused a major war with America warm peace and want their people to prosper, if America's rival had been a country like the Soviet Union I could imagine the entire world being a graveyard.

Today I also saw one of the new programs in the city season on BBCis the TV presenter explained how we ended up in this mass. I realized it could have been so much worse, then I remembered my one really good American friend. He works for a company that advises on risk to third world counties he's lived most of his life in London and Manchester University. I remembered a conversation we had roughly 18 months ago and then I realized Americans have not yet realized they'd no longer rule the world. With that information I realized that the next president will have an even bigger challenge than even President Bush could ever had...

Two nigths agoI was watching Newsnight when they had this really boring debate about whether to have a third runway at Heathrow. One was a youngish looking man who I suspect in a few years will be running as a Tony candidate for a seat in parliament the was a trade union man who is trying to give the case for building a third runway. As I watched the two men will went through my mind which was cynical. That if the tonys were in power and not Labour they would probably still built the runway. The reason of causes economics you only have to go to Heathrow Airport on a busy day to realize why we need the new runway. The place is chockablockwith thousands upon thousands a weary travelers trying to get their destination. I agree yes when it comes to short journeys to Manchester, York,Scotland and even across the Irish Sea as well as the English channel then it's probably best to try and stop air travelers from getting off the planes. The problem of course comes from this country's history and that's why I suspect we will need this runaway.

My family is the average British family, like most British families many of our numbers are descended from people not from the United Kingdom. My ancestors came from Eastern Europe Poland, Russia and Canada to name a few places. I can understand taking the Eurstar to see a friend in Paris but to see any of my famly Canada, Israel, Australia, America but I would tell you would have to be mad. I do understand the environmental arguments but I also understand that technology development means that within 20 years at crustal probably amid much less Co2. I fully understand what they mean by climate emergency but by the time that runaways built then it would've either been sorted out or be effectively to late. that's why will not be buying parcels of land I do know is other ways of getting to other parts of the world apart from planebut like most people I didn't have 20 days to board a ship till I reach my destination. That is where Greenpeace and other pressure groups like plain stupid are wrong the result is even the and delicates use planes to get around.

So what is my answer?my first answer to those critics of the Heathrow expansion is unless you have a proper alternative. For example not answers that that mean people have to go to Manchester airport to get a plane to New York than what I have to say to you is get a life. I know one person who has obtained a parcel of land they are a nice person but a bit like the man on Newsnight the other night they are not realistic. In the 20th century the plane was invented in whatever they think of aircrafts resume our normal jumbo jets of today or airships of the early 20th century they are here to stay.my of families spread around the four corners of the world I'm sorry but to even figure out a way that I can get to New York within five hours other then by airplane then I think you can be stopping the expansion. After all most people who do these journeys who are not going on holiday are normal people of all classes. The rich and the upper classes were willing to say that we shouldn't fly or genetically engineered crops are badeven if they will save millions in the third world as well as help in the fight with global warming it also reminds me of the argument against nuclear power what a load of hypocrites!I have noticed many upper and upper middle-class families will say that more people should recycle but they never cost can these people afford to live with these changes. It's like designing the perfect vintage for the environmentally friendly technologies where each house costs and million pounds and then suggesting that someone who works in a factory should buy it when they cannot afford to buy even half of it. I've come to the conclusion that it's their way of saying they're better than the rest of us but they can be smog in their belief that they are saving the world well I got news for you you may be the loudest voices but you are not the majority and if I'm being honest I don't think the majority wants or has the money or time for what you have in mind

a few weeks ago I switched from the carphone warehouse to O2 the network is much better.however recently I've been trying to get online a fully itemized bill I have found the last few months that I've been unable to access the bill. I already spoken to them a number of times and I still can't get the dam bill.

I would of by now through in the 21st century!

Luckly I just talked to the phone people who I guess are in a some place in Liverpool but it is really annoying

Have you ever been on holiday and noticed how everyone seems to be speaking English. I've noticed it's especially when I met a local girl, I remembered two of my exes and who I both met on holiday one French the other Israeli as well as a close friend from Athens. I never seem to learn their language I always seem to expect they know mine.

It seems to be the main problem for anyone who is from Britain ( as well as other English-speaking countries), Spain, India or China.so many people understand our native tongues we often don't bother to learn their languages. The result is once we have a Japanese born girlfriend or Latin American girl friend when we meet their parentsthere are almost immediate communication problems.

I remember my Israeli ex parents could speak both Russian and Hebrew be any problem was they could not speak English and I could not speck their languages. The result of was almost constant confusion and constant confusion led to funny situations. It is recently got me thinking if I do meet a girl whose family doesn't speak English how will I cope?

And that's how I end my post

I have to confess I don't know much about the new president of the United States Barack Obama,is in many ways a transformation president. For one thing the country in days heinherits from Bush is in many ways a shadow of its former self. Every time I watch TV I can see the cracks in the United States its foreign policy seems to have reducing ambitions I know for a fact when I was in America in 1998 that its infrastructure is clearly in a bad way.I remember watching TV when Katrina hit New Orleans clearly the richest country in the world should of had its flood defenses in order. It turned out the poor was the victim of budget cuts. Even now New Orleans still has not recovered I saw top gear the other day they were going to sell their cars in New Orleans but they can find anyone to buy them. Then there was the 25 year old shuttle Columbuswhich broke up when it reentered the atmosphere a close friend told me one of the fact is that NASA would have had to kept in mind was the age of the craft. The space shuttle is actually not the oldest American air craft that should be replaced B 52 has been around since 1955 that means they've been in use for more than 50 years. A close friend has told me they really needed replacing more than 10 years ago the design is out of date and in reality it's believed that within 10 years it will prove easy targets on the battlefield.

It goes to prove one thing I've always suspected I can't tell you the number of friends who told me that the service industry, industries like banking I hope the faily of Lehman Brothers has somehow told the world the banking cannot replace manufacturing. We will remember Iceland for example with the biggest industry was finances and now they returning to fishing and using their local resources. I hope the credit crunch has changed those people. Even as I trained as a lawyer I'm well aware that's not true to me even if you have a large service industry you still need to get to manufacture stuff. America has seen this to its cost its car industry and its route network of both be underinvested in the last 50 years. As America has brought freedom to much of the world it is failed to look after itself. Now America needs to retire from the world as a superpower it may very well recover its old status one day but I suspect wouldn't be waiting for at least three or four decades before America dominates the world as much as it did between 1945 to 2008. To me and I suspectAmerica is on the long march to rebuild itself a reinvent itself.America has already decided it will lose its superpower status by 2020. I suspect it may come 10 years before that. America's declining in my eyes be much quicker than even Britain's declining during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. China, India, Russia and the Arab states all seem to be developing much quicker. They building new infrastructure while America tries to rebuild what already constructed.

In 1998 when I was in New York I remember heading into New York and seeing the number of road works as well as the state of the Cars other road vehicles. What struck me was how old they where even when I was North of the bordering in Canada they had trains which what is 50 years old. Even the London underground the oldest trains date back from the 70s. In fact it was not just the cars that looked old it was also many of the buildings including the late World trade center. I can understand Obama saying thatAmerica needs to rebuild its infrastructure but I get the feeling the need to rebuild the infrastructure will result in American foreign policy being scaled down.

It's true the United States of America does have the biggest defense budgetand the decline in its internal infrastructure is a symptom in the world but it's also true its one of the many countries in the world where the gap between the rich and poor is the largest.this is the obvious reason why believe America in the coming decades during a Obama presidency and after the will be a much smaller player on the world stageIt seems obvious to me that if at home things are in a mess then you will have to spend time putting everything right. I suspect that fairly soon America after its retreat from Iraq will soon find they will need retreat from Afghanistan. It will be because it is not the political will it will be because there is not the money. That is the key problem with everyone who says America will save them on the world stage. America has done so much in the last few decades first against the Soviet Union then more recently against the former Yugoslavia wear there was ethnic cleansing and Iraq I suspect the next few years will all be able rebuilding America. The country is a damaged state roads need rebuilding, railways need to be built. It's surprising when you find out how few high-speed rail links there are in North America.American healthcare needs to recover. American motor industrie needs to be rebuilt. The new president may want to act on the world stagebut I believe he simply will not have the money. It's ironic Bush started his presidency wanting to concentrate on domestic matters but ended up invading in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he did not want to get involved in the Middle East the last couple of years he has. I suspect Obama wants to get involved in international stage but will find that he simply does not have the money to stay in Afghanistan never mind help solve the Middle East between the Israelis and the Arabs. What I see is the president who ends up having to dismantle the American global cooperative called by some the American soft empire. The world now belongs to both China and India who I suspect will reshape it in ways we have not yet realized. I suspect for example that both nations will drive into Africa as well as much of Asia. I would not be surprised if within a few decades Indonesia is split up by China and India as well as in southeast Maritime Asia. Because these of the places where most the resources which have not yet been untapped by the world are smaller countries are easier to deal with then bigger countries. I would also not be surprised if China and India did not get involved in hard Empirebut these are only my predictions for the future I hope they do not all come true.

However it seems to me my native Britain along with other European countries will soon have to change the foreign policy. They need to understand that America very soon will not be the worlds greatest superpower and as a result they have to do what the Australians did in the 1960s with Britain they have to stay friendly with what will be a continuing great power was that the same time stay close to the emerging superpowers. I very much doubt for example Europe will be one of those powers Europe is after all hobnob giant like the American intelligence agencies said. What worries me is as America retreats from the world the result will be that the European Union will collapse as local European states become rivals. Global warming seems to me to be any one salsa problems for Europe may face as well as lack of resources were already seeing the results of this with the problems between the Ukraine and Russia and with the war in Georgia between Russia and Georgia both of those two small provinces.

Me and an acquaintance with talking in London yesterday we were talking about London nights out for Jewish people. It turns out the most them these days are religious and the people who do do unreligious ones are not really up to a good standard so I'm just asking if anyone who reads this blog who is Jewish would like to set up Jewish events in London. If they want to I would be more than willing to accommodate them on this website!

I'm sorry I did not write a blog yesterday or the day before but the last 48 hours I have few truly revised to within an inch of my life. But even after such detail and exact study I'm still not sure if I pass one of the two exams I have today. My personal teacher told me that every Lawayer in the country she known once they left law school forgot how to do Solicitor's accounts, if I have to retake the exam that will mean I won't pass till September which means no Turkey in Augest! bomber!

Today I was listening to the radio and I heard an Arab commentate say that 'for the Gazas a Holocaust was taking place'. Firstly I do think the Israeli have gone too far its a bit like at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland in my opinion sending in a full scale invasion. When Britain did take action that was similar to what the Israelis did the resuolt was that the troubles were not worked out in Northern Ireland till the late 90s and they were completely concluded till 07. The attacked in Gaza is certainly in my opinion going to far the Israelis are reacting like a Jewish mother being overprotective mind you as is often been pointed out the last few days any other country would have acted the same. But for Arab commentators to use the word 'Holocaust' is completely wrong. The first point is that in the a few hundred Palestinians have actually died in the a confession so far. In addition I belive in order for the H word to be used there needs to be a real genocide like for example in the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda the during the 1990s. In my opinion to use H-word to describe a state which was partly formed due to the event that happened in the 1930s and 40s is completely wrong. The Israelis have gone to far that I am sure but what mitigates it to an extent in my opinion is the fact that Hamas launched its rockets first on innocent civilians.

This blog is almost 9 months old that's right I started in late March 2008. I've gone from having between four to 10 people a day reading this blog to 87 to 95 people a day reading this blog. As a result I'm doing two things first I am planning in the very near future introducing a number of Co-Authors.

The result is in the near future this blog is going to be a lot more commercial. You will no longer just have me talking giving you my views and opinions on a variety of issues. I am planning on approaching a number of my friends including one who's moving to Japan to Co-write the blog. My objective by the end of this year is to have 1000 to 10,000 people a day reading this blog I hope you enjoy the new changes. But I have to warn you at this stage nothing is set in stone the people reading this blog may decline in number, no one may click on the Banners as well a dozen things could fail out and no one could volunteer to become co-authors.

So far today 87 people have viewed this blog!

Only yesterday (or the day before yeserday) after 99 years the high street store affectionately known as woollies to many of its customers shuts its final store. I have read in a number of News papers that the brand should returned in some form or another in the near future. However I suspect that even if it is reincarnate in will be as part of a larger group of brands and the chances are woolworths will not be anything like it used to be.

In fact when I come to think of it I do not know what the chain was like? They never sold anything I wanted when I was young I never used pick and mix when I was older I used the internet or WH smith to get CDs and films. It is only now I realize how big the store was in Potters Bar seeing its empty shelves I found out from a friend they owned entire building which had five floors. The problem was after the 60s they never any of the floors in the store to sell things. The first, second, Third and fourth where used for staff rooms and offices. Now that shop is empty it's clear that Waitrose could fit an entire store, Tesco's could have a large supermarket and Boots would still have space for a middle sized supermarket!

When you realize how they misuse the Potters bar site you realize why this well known brand was doomed to fail. It was not just that they misused to buildings they used to store stock but they also sold an amazing array of items. In the dying days of the popular chain my mother got herself a great and Alanding cave of gadgets I've never seen before. Her like millions of other British shoppers rushed into Woolworths some even asking if they could take back their half price bargins to soon to be unemployed staff. I would see many of the staff members as I walk down the road crying as they were asked that question. What the barging hurters did not seem to understand was when the shop went bust the shop assistants lost their jobs. The real with the store from what people people said after they had finished shopping at the soon to be extinguished stores was 'I did not know they sold this here?' or 'they sold good products but you never known if you could find them! Which really suggests that the shop did sell what people wanted but they simply did not present it rightly.

Mind you with Wedgwood going into administration pretty soon the bargain Hunters will be able to move on to their next target. Woolworths rest your dead soul you will not be the last the credit crunch still bites!

Just don't ask if you can bring it back...

Whenever you read the papers in Britain even they are the Guardian which is a left wing paper or the evening standard which is a conservative paper (and London's only local paper that you need to pay for.) when the News is thin on the ground or they only have terrible news they will always reamark about the weather.

During a sum as they say the weather is the hottest it has ever been in during the winter they will say it's too cold. Today I woke up too find that it was snowing here in Potters Bar. Well all I can say is I wish the papers would get over it. The way they sound these days they may as well been writen by a load of foreigners. I've lived in this country all my life even if I was an immigrant after a few months I would have realized that this country's weather is so changable. On the phone when you do have much to talk about or as a ice breaker talking about the weather is fine but unless there is going to be a serious disaster I really wish the newspapers would just leave it!

Last nigth I watched the BBC News channel the interviewer was interviewing an expert on Middle East politics. I have to say after hearing him talk it made me realize the tragedy going on in Israel for both the 800,000 Israeli in Southern Israel and the 1.5 million Arabs in Gaza.

The tragedy is not that there is rocket attacks going on on the Israeli or that Israeli F 16 are bombing Gaza the tragedy is the international community's response as well as America foreign Policy. The two sides seem to take their cues from the international community not from common sense. Hamas seems to be controlled from Tehran and Damascus not from Gaza and Jerusalem seems to have little control over its own policy it does what it pleases till the US till the US tells it to stop. The result seems to be a kind of mad war let me give you some examples...

The settlements in the West Bank are clearly going to need to be dismantled if a two state solution is to be started. Yet the Israelis like morons now have half million settlers in the West Bank. True a large percentage of the settlers will be inside of Israel because of land swaps but you really have to ask yourself is it in Israel's interest? Another example of a bad policy is Hamas rocket attacks on Israel they may spread fear among the civil population but the result of their actions mean a few Israelis a sympathetic to Gaza's plight. To me the key problem is that both sides seem to have a pathological determination to carry on fighting. I don't believe the new president in America can do anything about the Middle East. Clearly he will be too busy trying to rebuild American industry. I belive we are seeing the beginning of a American retreat from the Middle East. As American leaves many of the regime's they put in place or helpped strengthen will probably collapse. If I was a betting man I would look at the two Arab states which share borders with Israel which are at peace with Israel to give two conflicting examples.

I start with the state I believe thats heading in the rigth direction Jordan on Isreal's Eastern boarder. Recently there have been free elections at it looks to me that the regime is heading to becoming a democracy. I've got friends who have lived in Jordan are from what I've heard it looks likly that it will hopefully become a stable democracy.

The second more worrying example which is much more typical of how America is leaving the Middle East is Egypt. Here you have the corrupt national Democratic Party which seems every day I read about than to be losing more power. In a crisis group report from 2006 'Egypt's Sinai question' crisis group reported how Egypt was losing control of the Sinai rapidly. The report now is only two years old but already it's predictions are coming true within a year of being written Hamas were in power in Gaza. Most Egyptians are trying to leave for the big cities like Alexandria and Cairo. It seems to me that within ten years the NPD is likely to be out of power and the Islamic brotherhood (Hamas wing in Egypt) is likely to be in power. The result in my opinion would be to make an already unstable situation worse. Egypt to some extent has already lost control of a number of eastern areas on the Israeli border. If this carries on it seems likely the Sinai will end up like southern Lebanon.

So what is my vision of Israel in ten years if this carries on? To use a well used saying Israel will be one of those places where 'It is nice to visit not to live'. I see the Israelis fighting in Gaza to stop rocket attacks for the foreseeable future when Egypt finally does destabilize I see the figthing moving to first part of then all of the Sinai which I think eventually Israel would need to Annex in order to stabilize. Even if Israeli brings Sinai under control they then have the problem of Gaza this area of land in my mind now has little in common with the West Bank its too small to form a stable state actor I just see the Israelis fighing the people in that area if there some agree on what to do? Whatever happens it seems to me West Israel will not be a safe place to live. In addition I do not believe that Israel will be able to control the West Bank. I see most of the settlers in the East of the West Bank and around the Jordan valley turning against Israel much like the Rhodesian in Africa finally turned against the British. The two mini states which would be the result of this conflict would be extremely unstable at best the Israelis could end up policing a frozen conflict. At worst the West Bank could end up like Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1990s. Jonathan Freeland suggested that the Jewish entity came into existence in the West Bank it would be called Judea it would probably be a fundamentalist entity. On top of these small regional complex would be a long term cold war between Israel and Iran in short I maybe pro-Israel but I would never live there till they (the Israelis and Arabs) finally realize that most of their actions are not only terrible but also counterproductive to both their interests.

This week the great Nobel prize winner and French Légion d'honneur, Pinter received 19 honorary degrees and numerous other prizes and awards. A number of Academic institutions and performing arts organizations have also devoted symposia, festivals, and celebrations to him and his work, in recognition of his cultural influence and achievements across genres and media.playwright Harold Pinter died aged 78(10 October 1930 ? 24 December 2008). He was famous for writing a number of plays including 'The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted to film, and his screenplay adaptations of others' works, such as The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He directed almost 50 stage, television and film productions.

Even with his failing health since 2001, he continued to act on stage and screen, performing the title role in a critically-acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006'.

All of this is known in the media in addition was a sharp criticism of both George Bush and Tony Blair for their invasion of Iraq. I remember watching him on Channel four describing America as the world's greatest salesman whilst bringing destruction to small states that did not agree with its ideology. But it will not be my lasting memory of Harold Pinter to be honest I'm not sure if I've ever even watched one of his plays or TV productions to me he belongs to my grandparents generation I am 27 years old both my parnets are 13 years younger than Pinter but I always remember what my my mother told me as she used to work in the office when she was my age with one of his relatives. It turned outthat he would often not go to family functions?

I've got no idea about the man I've never met him his work is not really my taste from what I know but all I can say is that it does not matter how controversial you are at all it is how you treat your friends and family he may of been a good man but as I never knew him I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to say that he was a great man even if he had a Nobel Prize everything we do in life is eventually forgotten the people we love will eventually die off

If you're looking first for a good nigth out during the first full nigth of 2009 then you could have done a lot worse then 'THE CREDIT CRUNCH NEW YEARS DAY PARTY' at the The Adelaide. I should know I went there to meet up with a girl (she stood me up!). However the night was not wasted!

The music was good a very contemporary mixture of Dance music,
R&B, Electro, Old Skool classics. The venue was of a very high standard in what could only be called a mini-club above the pub 'The Adelaide'. This event like the previous one of Dan's events it was just the right size of number of people for the event. For me it was the first time in almost 2 weeks (apart from meeting up with friends) I had been out. It was an easy walk to both chalk Farm station and Camden town tube station. It only cost £7 (and the drinks were not overpriced) so for the fraction of the money you would gain the atmosphere that was a lot better then many clubs in the West End or even New York and a number of European and Israeli clubs. The music was a mixture and some of the people there that night were songwriters and singers but they were not performing they were there to have a good time.

I have to confess however that is not the first time I been to DJ Dan-H event I had been a few weeks previously they always seem to choose good venues and is always a good crowd of people around. I would strongly recommend going to one of these club nights. If you're ever see a DJ Dan-H event posted on facebook or see his website I would definitely go to one of his gigs.

I just wanted to say happy new year to all my readers, over the next 12 months I plan to increase the size of my blog. I also want to point out that I had this month just under a thousand people read this blog. Since I started this blog I have had between 300 to 400 people every month read it. So this is a massive increase on the usual number of people reading my blog.

Here I am at home revising for major exam hoping that at the end of my legal practice course that actually have a job. My plan is if I do not have a job by then to work for my friend in Turkey for a few months and spend some time at Israel.

I hope that you have a happy new year and the recession doesn't bite you. I'm planning on going out tonight getting some partying done before I have an exam on the 8th of January. The next year looks to be a very hard year for many people in both Great Britain and around the world we can only hope it does not last long.

On the bright side if you're not one of the bankers who made an obscene amount of money you may actually be a very happy person. In addition if you did not get a mortgage then it might be a year to be happy as well were like myself you may not even got a property...