Sorry Jock

There has been a lot of debate this past 10 days or so regarding How British Andy Murray is, one tabloid even had a compass which had a half Scottish and half British face,the pendulum had been very gradually moving towards British all week, moving strongly into the British half after Murrays fantastic quarter final effort, within minutes of his defeat against Roddick in the Semi final, he has become 100% Scottish again.

Ahmadinejad, the Smooth Criminal

As I warned last week the Michael Jackson story taking the worlds attention away from what was going on in Iran, has contributed to the attempted "revolution" fizzling out. There have been many deaths and thousands of arrests, anyone on the streets protesting has been savagely attacked, the levels of violence against attempted protesters has been brutal. Meanwhile the Worlds press has been camped at Neverland.Even world leaders have commented more on the pop stars death this last week than on what was happening in Iran. Ahmadinejad has behaved like appallingly and got away with it.

Owen and Fergie Top Team

What a masterstroke, the man’s a genius, the master tactician has stumped everyone again, this time with an outrageous move in getting Michael Owen on a free transfer and only paying him 50,000 pounds a week , I say only fifty thousand in context of the ridiculous sums being paid this season to the like of Eto’o, Kaka, Ronaldo etc. Whatever you think of Owen there is one thing you cant deny, the man scores goals, always has done at the highest level, in the past when people have tried to write him of, myself included he has answered in the only way he knows how by banging them in . When Capello overlooks him for England  when  fit, it is England’s loss, his goals  for England makes him the forth highest ever scorer for his country. In his debut season for Liverpool he finished joint top scorer, the following season  he was the leagues top goal getter. Between 1997 and 2004 he was Liverpool’s top marksman. After Leaving Merseyside he plied his trade for Real Madrid when they were a top side not the shambles of the last couple of years, he was used mainly as a sub but still managed 13 goals the best ratio there per minutes played. like I said the man is a natural. When he signed for Newcastle he started well then suffered a succession of injuries which kept him out for 18 months then returned to be once again  top scorer.  I may have jumped the gun a little by writing this because though personal terms have been agreed there is still the medical to get through, I hope he pass’s and Utd sign him. And I  bet he scores 20 plus goals this season. I would also hope that Eto’o completes his move to Utd rivals City and Owen trounces him in the scoring stakes.

The End for the Taliban

The US has just launched the biggest ever offensive against the Taliban In Helmund province, by years end there will be almost 70,000 American troops there with another 33,000 Nato soldiers making up the numbers. I think this time they can be successful, in previous attempts at dislodging the Taliban from Helmund the attacks have been more surgical with much smaller numbers, and it was always  just a clearing exercise rather than a snatch and hold. This time it will be an all out assault with overwhelming fire power, so confident are commanders that they believe the first 36 hours will decimate the enemy, after that it will be a case of mopping up, nobody expects that it will be finished then because the Taliban will then take to the hills, and for the foreseeable future will fight a kind of guerrilla war. Critics point out that the Afghans have never been beaten on their own turf, but if my history is correct they have been beaten  before when the warrior Genghis Khan invaded,but this isn’t against the Afghan population this is against the terrorist population,   Khan’s tactics  was like the Americans are employing now huge numbers and overwhelming force. Gradually as the Americans start to rebuild their towns and villages and stay and protect them from the terrorists, the locals will see their lives returning to normal and start to accept the Troops for what they are, Nation builders not occupiers, I will be watching events there closely, and I am confident in 6 months we will see a return to normal for the locals with the Taliban in tatters.

Miracle’s Do Happen

What an unbelievable story of the 14 year old girl who survived the Yemeni air crash. She was thrown clear when the A310 Airbus hit the water, that in itself sounds incredible, that anybody could survive that kind of impact is a miracle,  according to Bahia Bakari she then grabbed a piece of debris in pitch darkness  and stayed afloat until help arrived, she clung to that debris in freezing waters from 1.30 am to 3 pm the next day when she was plucked from the sea, I’m not sure when push comes to shove just how religious I am, but there does seem to be a higher power at work here, it will be interesting to monitor this young girl and see what become of her life, will she go on to become a great person, was she spared for a reason, perhaps she will grow up to find a cure for cancer, or rid the world of hunger. I do hope  that she does make something of herself, because this morning, unless there was divine intervention, she is the luckiest girl in the world.

From Russia With Love

Gambling in Russia becomes illegal as from today, there will be four designated gambling areas and that will be it. At first glance it seems strange for a government to ban something which brings in 1 billion dollars in tax a year, it will also put an estimated half million workers out of a job. But desperate times call for desperate measures, there has a been a massive rise in gambling addiction in Russia, after the collapse of communism the sudden freedom afforded to the population has spawned a gambling culture that has got out of control, money lending and money laundering are just two other by products. No support groups or counselling over there its straight for the jugular with the cure, If only our rulers could be so decisive. In the UK we have gone the other way by increasing the amount of ways people can lose their hard earned cash. bookmakers have turned their shops into mini Las Vegas's with wall to wall slot machines,horse racing from all around the world, Dogs, Football, Cricket, Tennis, Rugby you name it, it's available to be bet on. In fact you can bet on just about anything nowadays, staring from 8 am in the morning to 9pm at night. For those days where the weather interferes with the racing programme there are virtual horse and dog racing cards, with predetermined results, that you can throw your money at. Who would have thought we could ever envy a Russian government, there are not many things we can take from the Russians but this is something we should.

Painkiller Addiction

There has been reference to Painkiller addiction in the news lately because of the death of Michael Jackson, I used to think it was a made up illness, after all, how come only celebrity’s seemed to get it. but I’m sad to say its very real, I myself have suffered and indeed do still suffer from it. though I am pleased to say I am in the final stages of beating it,  this particular affliction has no quick fix, only by weaning yourself  under your GP’s guidance with a very strict schedule can you hope to overcome it. If I stick to my schedule, which I am finding it a little hard to at the moment, I should be able to say I am over it by mid August.  Compared to the extent of other peoples addiction and I refer to celebrity’s as we “ordinary’s” don’t have our problems plastered all over the papers, mine was relatively mild, It happened without me really realising it, at the beginning of the year I suffered very badly with back problems and was given as part of my treatment a drug called Tramadol, I didn’t know at the time but this particular drug is one of the worst culprits, I also know now why it’s still widely  used it, even though its addictive qualities are well known. Its cost,  Tramadol is cheap.  It’s hard to describe how it makes you feel, but it is similar for want of a better example of a Heroin addict as portrayed in TV shows. The agitation the moodiness the sweats its all there, As I said earlier mine is by normal standards mild, but I can imagine how bad Michael Jacksons was as he had  suffered for the best part of 30 years. since his first meeting with the surgeons knife he had been on painkillers, as with a lot of medication the more you use it the more a tolerance your body builds up, so you have to increase the dose which in turn feeds your dependency. when the final  Autopsy  and toxicology results come in I bet we find he was on hundreds of tablets a week. The number of people who suffer from this worldwide is in the millions, Doctors should be a little more careful while trying to save money when doling out prescription painkillers.