Strange case of the dead burying the living

Closing the accounts before year-end

I believe it is customary for media organisations to have draft obituaries or prepared documentaries for prominent society figures such that at the demise of such people, only cosmetic changes are required to the drafts and that is out to press.

A case in point was the recent passing of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the long and glowing obituaries were out within the hour of the announcement, the BBC literally had hours after hours of rolling commentary and documentaries about him, it all had to have been pre-planned and produced in readiness for his death.

On the 17^th of June 2021, Kenneth Kaunda, the 1^st President of Zambia died at the age of 97 and soon after the Guardian had published a 2,000+ obituary written by Guy Arnold, a British explorer, travel writer, political writer and specialist in north-south relations, according to his Wikipedia page. [The Guardian: Kenneth Kaunda Obituary]

When the dead speak

I learnt much about Kenneth Kaunda in secondary school because his political autobiography titled Zambia Shall Be Free was one of our required literature texts in my second form. When I travel to South Africa, place names that appear on the navigator maps look quite familiar, Kitwe and Livingstone, seem to have that déjà vu quality and now I realise why.

Anyway, back to the original point of canned obituaries. It is one thing for the living to read of their obituaries to which Mark Twain on reading his own obituary sent a cable from London with the message, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” It is quite necessary to have a good sense of humour at the premise of death. [Dictionary.com: Mark Twain]

However, it becomes a bit disconcerting if certain words ascribed to Jesus Christ in Luke 9:60 begin to fetch true. “Let the dead bury the dead.” For indeed, we have a strange case of the dead writing obituaries of the dead. As it transpires, Guy Arnold who penned the obituary of Kenneth Kaunda, died on the 4^th of January 2020, a good 530 days before the person he eulogised. I would expect the estate and survivors of Guy Arnold will receive payment for this publication.

Just the way it is

It is very likely Guy Arnold had written the obituary many years ago when there was some anticipation of Kenneth Kaunda’s death as he passed the 3-score-and-10 threshold into his 80s and 90s, with a few edits and updates depending on the news.

Guy Arnold himself was no youth, he was just 8 years younger than Kenneth Kaunda when he died at 87. The Guardian might have done some editing prior to publication, but the bulk of the copy had been completed by the dead.

Strange one, but should not be allowed to go unnoticed.

Guardian obituary of Kenneth Kaunda authored by someone who died 530 days before.

When I danced until the music came true

I danced all night

On a nominal scroll through Facebook and the things that get thrown in your timeline, there was a medley of lady singers that reminded me of the time I used to go clubbing almost 30 years ago in some rather sinister places in London.

Then, I danced and moved that my kidneys sometimes would have wondered why they were punished with the assemblage in my cavity. Like the words of Elvis Presley, they were definitely ‘All Shook Up!’. The dancing did keep me a little fitter but never dressed the developing stomach paunch.

The music of memories

Chart-topping performances from 1991 into 1992 were revisited by Robin S, Crystal Waters, and concluded with Ce Ce Peniston. However, the originals had me strutting my stuff like I had no care in the world, though it is rare to find clubs that lay out good Old School discs from the 80s into the 90s, like I have had to easily let my hair down in Paris or Barcelona.

This, like many of my other blogs come with memories, when I got my first Sony Walkman, I had Anita Baker, George Michael, and Madonna as my cassette tapes. Then the first vinyl record I bought after I acquired a turntable was Ce Ce Peniston’s Finally on the A-side with We Got A Love Thang on the B-side. I guess I played the A-side until the record was scratched, though it is better heard on a dancefloor than at home. [AZLyrics]

Finally, my dreams come true

I did not get a compact disc (CD) of any music until much later in the mid-90s, though, I cannot remember the first CD, I bought. Standalone DVD players after using my computer DVD drive came in 2003. Everything is now streamed, even books are shelved on devices than on bookcases, but the feel and smell of paper still have a good feeling.

However, back to Finally, the words made a lot more sense today, for it has happened to me, right in front of my face and I have pictures to prove that I cannot hide it. I found a man who gives me true love and it is more than it seems. We will get married at the earliest opportunity; the ceremonies will come after. I love you, Brian. Here’s to you.

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Observing the subtle racism at black success

Racism touches us all

Racism is a general story and a personal story, the tales I have to regale are many in my almost 30 years of continuous living in Europe. Whether it be in the UK where from when I was beginning to become reacquainted with the land of my birth or on mainland Europe where somewhere between being patronised and being belittled was a covert disrespectfulness you just ignored, you grew a thicker skin.

Racism became a topical issue from the weekend and in football, when the England international and Manchester City footballer, Raheem Sterling, was racially abused at Chelsea Football Club.

Raheem Sterling took to Instagram to give context to how and why racism appears to thrive against young black footballers through the way they are depicted in the mainstream media.

The @BBCNews and @BBCWorld are contributing to the race-baiting that @sterling7 highlighted. He said his teammates "bought houses for their mothers", but Auntie left off the "for their mothers" bit. https://t.co/v9XnMol03U Once again, the black players are painted in poor light.

— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ #FBPE (@forakin) December 10, 2018

Commissions of omissions

He gave the example of how the reportage on two young black football playing colleagues had bought new houses for their mothers, “mothers who have put in a lot of time and love into helping them get where they are,” he said. The press had found a slant to paint these grateful boys in a bad light.

Not long after I had read that post, the BBC was reporting on Raheem Sterling’s Instagram post, quoting the post but incompletely and out of context. The BBC reported the boys had bought houses and left out the positive and mollifying message which was the boys had bought the new houses for their mothers.

That subtle omission of context painted the boys as excessively profligate rather than as endearingly grateful. That was enough to give a platform to forming negative opinions about people who had done some good, but in the reportage were made to look bad.

Jealousy needs no inspiration

It then no surprise that a black footballer as reported by BBC Sport who cannot exculpate themselves from being part of the problem, pulled out of appearing on TalkSport after their coverage of the Raheem Sterling story, for apparently, “former Reading striker Dave Kitson told the station that Sterling had incited ‘jealousy’ by exhibiting a luxury lifestyle on his social media.” [BBC]

Like seriously, a successful young man who happens to be black is exhibiting a luxury lifestyle on his social media? Nothing could be further from the truth, especially with Raheem Sterling.

In my own life, people would be jealous regardless of whether you’re frugal or profligate, the simple fact that you’re successful is enough to accentuate negative feelings, they need no inspiration to be rotten to you, given the opportunity of proximity in the hope to rile you.

We thrive, nonetheless

We have found accommodations or a state of mind, we have no reason to take offence, we ignore them, it is their problem and their headache. At other times, there is a gift of a quick wit, a riposte that sends them back into the crevasses from whence they emerge to glow in our light. Sometimes, it is others who observe the reprehensible and take action at no one’s behest apart from their good-natured disposition and humanity.

We are grateful for good fortune and success in our various fields and long may we have great stories to tell.

However, I leave the last word to one Jonathan Northcroft, the football correspondent for the Sunday Times, “Raheem Sterling represents the type of young black footballer that middle-aged white men of a certain type can’t deal with.”

“Raheem Sterling represents the type of young black footballer that middle aged white men of a certain type can’t deal with” - 🗣Jonathan Northcroft (football correspondent for Sunday Times) @sterling7 pic.twitter.com/ZdqxLgiIvr

— LDNRBS (@LDNRBS) December 11, 2018

Opinion: Media feeding a culpable indifference to the human experience

No soul in the news

If there is any evidence of how the news or rather the media industrial machine consumes everything in its wake in the pursuit of ratings borne of the need for advertisement and ingratiating itself with the sensational without empathy, it has to be with regards to the reportage in the aftermath of the sudden death of the 6^th Duke of Westminster.

The Duke suddenly took ill on the 8^th of August and unfortunately unexpectedly died on the 9^th of August. The focus of the news has been on the vast fortune of almost £9 billion that he leaves to his survivors and the transfer of the hereditary title to his only son, a 25-year old.

Maybe, but not now

There is probably a lot of news and stories to share about wealth, fortune, and eligibility in due course, but at this juncture, there is a family which includes a widow, four children, extended relations, friends, colleagues, partners, beneficiaries and a wider public grieving the untimely death of a husband, father, uncle, friend, colleague, benefactor, philanthropist and much else.

Despite all that man can attain and have access to, we are not by providence or circumstance isolated from the vicissitudes of the cycle of life and death, happiness and sorrow, good fortune and bad luck. Basically, even if we have grown up in a bubble of privilege, it does not exclude us from the harsh realities of human emotion, personal grief, struggles with confidence or depression and many other things in the broad spectrum of our shared humanity.

Firstly, there are people affected

That is why I am saddened by the overarching narrative that seems to have put the personal grief of the new 7^th Duke of Westminster in the shade, whilst the headlines have concentrated on his youthful looks, his being a very eligible bachelor, the amazing inheritance of wealth and the family seat of Eaton Hall amongst all other tabloid fodder. His father has hardly been dead two days.

It seems we have forgotten that these are people, flesh and blood, like you and I, that in spite of and despite their stupendous wealth, they are not immune to the human experience. I wonder if anyone would like their grief subsumed to sensationalism.

Maybe it is too much to ask; a decent obituary has probably yet to be written of the 6^th Duke, and though life goes on, it is too much to try a little tenderness and sympathy, if empathy were too much a requirement to allow this family to grieve without the klieg lights of the grist of reality television being shone into their most vulnerable moment?

Are we culpable?

The question is whether we by our feasting on this media frenzy have not tacitly given legitimacy to this intrusive and uncaring kind of journalism that tends to dehumanise in the quest for entertainment, sensational gossip and controversy.

May God grant the survivors of Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6^th Duke of Westminster, the strength and fortitude to bear their loss in the face of the intrusive interest in their affairs which for all intents and purposes is not in the public interest, but just put upon tittle-tattle.

Opinion: How we are losing the #ChildNotBride debate to Senator Yerima

Game, Set and Match to Yerima

We are swiftly losing the plot and the battle in the debate with regards to putting up our girls for marriage as espoused and promoted by Senator Sani Yerima.

In all the media appearances that the veritable ex-governor and Sharia law advocate has attended, he has literally wiped the floor clean with all his inquisitors demonstrating a thorough grasp of the constitutional issues that allow him the pleasures he enjoys without moral reflection because he believes he is in the right.

Meanwhile with our moral indignation, passion and disdain of the man and his views, we have deployed emotion, celebrity and ignorance against a well-prepared, media-savvy, knowledgeable and formidable force of personality who once again has successfully run rings round us.

Building an unassailable profile

Sani Yerima is a problem, a developing problem with a growing followership, media profile and international recognition; the little leaven of yeast he was years ago has slowly but surely leavened the whole dough, like the little venom of a poisonous snake has fully paralysed us in debate with neurotoxins presenting death.

We are never going to win this debate if we continue to entertain Senator Sani Yerima as the clown, more so, where we must tackle him requires proper intellectual engagement of people who have studied and understood the core legal, religious and socio-economic matters that underpin what makes these practices thrive without sanction.

Atrocious figureheads ruining the plot

This is no time to roll out figurehead celebrities oblivious of data and facts debating and contributing like airheads, adding fuel to the odious glare that is giving Senator Yerima the courage to state his case on the international media without apology.

Without doubt, the man is smart, he also has amazing political nous because what he has successfully done is make his own personal interpretation of issues the core and contention of the debate; once we have absented ourselves from the core objectives to toe this line, well walked by him and less known by us, we have basically lost before the first word is spoken.

The pimping media

The media also have to excoriated about how this debate has been derailed from giving more prominence to the protection of the rights of the child from entering adulthood long before they are due just because some men have found a propensity to satisfy their evil lusts with the innocence of kids.

Yes, the media, the houses and the personalities, for ratings and involvement latching onto the notoriety of the reprehensible have not furthered the debate for the cause of humanity and what is right, but have become voyeurs of comment and counter-comment, happily thinking they are providing a platform for debate when they are no better than pimps providing board for prostitute and punter to meet.

Respect the man

We will only begin to tackle Senator Yerima properly, when we humbly respect that he is knowledgeable, informed, equipped, savvy, smart and intelligent, it means we also have polish up our act by ensuring we match each of these qualities with people who have superior intellect on all the matters constitutional, religious and otherwise – we have many, prominent of whom is Maryam Uwais who gave a well-written submission on this matter here.

Senator Yerima and Constitutional Review – Maryam Uwais

We will never be equipped for the heavy lifting of radical change in national consciousness which some people term the reorientation of the citizenry, and in my view that will take generations of re-schooling, if we have not been exercised in lesser issues like Child Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, Maternal Mortality, Rights of the Woman and the Child, Education, Health to greater social and infrastructure issues as Power, Resource Management, Corruption or even Homosexuality - We have to work with the discreet, and individual parts of the sum to make the whole product, the whole is too unwieldy to tackle, it is a leviathan of a problem.

This David is beating us fair and square

There is much to do, but we have to start with the basic sketches, pencil marks, brush strokes and composition before we get the big picture of where we want Nigeria to be.

The Big Picture is not a screenprint, it will be slow and painstaking, one generation working with the next and preparing the one after to take over reinforcing and building on the foundations laid down now; it is not a chicken or egg matter, but a chicken and egg coexistence because the future we so desire might not come to light until the lifetime time of the grand-chick, just as dreams of our fathers before might only be realised in the lifetimes of our grandchildren, we have to build continuity into the struggle and survival of humanity for the good, the better and the best.

One final note of warning, “Those who treat their adversaries with derision are soon humiliated in the theatre of battle. Think Goliath and David.” It goes without saying that Senator Yerima is playing the part of David too well for the Goliath of our disdain to realise that the stone of Islam in the sling of the Senator’s good aim is the death of Goliath and the end of our side of the story or the protection of girls who should not be brides.

Related reading

Nigeria: Senator Yerima's Child Is a Bride on Friday the 6th of September 2013

Nigeria: On Child Marriage, The Perception Drives the Debate

Nigeria: Senator's teenage marriage is lawful though reprehensible

Nigeria: Senator's defiance makes Sharia Law untenable

The case for State law over religious guidance

Thought Picnic: Raoul Moat is mourned

Beyond which he was like us

Analysis after analysis has painted the once most-wanted man in England in the worst light possible, as a convict, a murderer, a violent personality, a fugitive, a suicide and much else.

Raoul Moat is no hero nor is he a role model by any stretch of the imagination but he once lived within a community, had friends, had family, had children and evidently made enemies.

There is nothing that can justify the crimes he committed and the lives he ruined in his rage against the world and everything else that might have mattered to him including the police but there cannot be just one side to his story.

Waves of news and waves of views

His death was a public spectacle drawn out over days of a relentless media feeding frenzy that just had to pad out the inactivity and absence of summer news with the blow-by-blow account of every move made by both the fugitive and the police.

Whilst experts, commentators and tabloids might want us all to take the view of total condemnation of Raoul Moat, other elements of significance about Mr. Moat’s life are coming to the fore.

In the same public spaces either where he met his end or on the Internet there are people who identify with him for all sorts of reasons, to some it is considered twisted, but to the affected persons there is a facet of his existence that subscribes to a rational affinity with others – they should not be begrudged.

His relationships still endure

His friends might not agree with everything he did but they had a closer relationship with him that with his victims – they cannot for the shame of association or for the inclination to conform disown the man they once knew.

His relations apart from his mother knew him as a different man from the vengeful person who left prison almost 2 weeks ago and who could have been prevented from becoming the anti-hero he became if the police had acted on the warnings they were given about his quest to harm his ex-girlfriend after release.

Other acquaintances know what they saw in Raoul Moat to endear him to their hearts and that is just the way things are about the world.

Raoul Moat is mourned

Raoul Moat would be mourned by those who knew him and he will be buried by those who loved him, the public spectacle that results from this is not so much his fault than for the fact that if the media just left the story alone, it would have no legs.

But our emotions have to be stirred, someone has to express an outcry, some disdain, utter revulsion and amazing incredulity at the events and as their views get an airing to sell the whatever media product is on offer so would everything that made Raoul Moat have significance in other lives as a father, a brother, a nephew, a neighbour and a member of the community within which he found his standing and anti-hero.

They will not forsake him or his memory and no castigation of the majority would deny them the opportunity to pay their respects to the man they knew.

In our own lives too, we would recognise that there would be people who would stand to be counted with us in life and in death regardless of how we have lived our lives and that is the amazing bond of friendship, kinship and anything else that makes people identify with whoever we were for the better or for the worse. C’est la vie.

Nigeria: Storyville: The New Kings of Nigeria

This blog was first published at NigeriansTalk.Org, please leave your views and comments there.

About Nigeria with a pinch of salt

When documentaries are advertised about some aspect of Nigerian life one now tends to take everything with a pinch of salt.

If anything, the titles count for nothing, the expectations the titles invite are usually never anywhere near the reality of what gets shown – in the end, one has to stretch ones imagination to match the intentions with the purpose; objective scrutiny usually ends up as a parody.

This was the feeling that greeted the showing by BBC Four of Storyville: The New Kings of Nigeria [1], which was apparently about the brain gain of Nigerian returnees from the West with the ability to make a difference back home.

Media generation not royalty

At the beginning of the programme, it became clear from the narrator that this was really about “the changing face of Nigeria’s media generation.”

The protagonist was Walter, a great grandson of King Jaja of Opobo [2], a slave in the 19^th Century who became king of his people in Niger Delta area of Nigeria, was captured and exiled by the British, never to return alive to his land because of how powerful he had become.

One can suppose the idea of king came from this relationship rather than king in any real sense of the word. Walter, a public-school educated man from England with a passable English accent had returned to Nigeria after what could not be termed a sterling career in England but with the braggadocio of some foreign expertise to command attention and meet up with opportunities more easily.

The voice of a chancer

He lived with his sister in a fortress-like barricaded building and offered all sorts of platitudes about the hustle of life and livelihood in Nigeria, in many ways meeting up with the sharp ends of skulduggery and people trying to take advantage of so-called newcomers.

He landed his first job as the voice of “Big Brother Nigeria” and then moved into producing and directing reality shows and music videos – at every point, he appeared to pull it off but he never really had the gravitas of being king of his entire in terms of what he did, even though he had lots of words to describe any situation he found himself in.

What this documentary revealed was not so much the resourcefulness and acumen that belied the Welcome to Lagos documentaries but a way of life of the privileged who took things for granted and were ready to mete punishment or retribution out to those who dared challenge the status quo.

No mass opportunity in reality shows

There was no royal aspect to this show, no people being lead or vision being conveyed, rather, cut-outs to The Apprentice Nigeria, Koko Mansion, the popular musician D’Banj and a football talent hunt brought the prospect of great opportunity to the few rather than the many – all these reality shows just plucked individuals from obscurity into stardom and the cachet that it meant in Nigeria.

At the end of the hour, this was a simple favour to Walter, résumé fodder accompanied with references from different people who in one way were burnishing Walter’s ancestral claim with a contemporaneous inclination of expecting Walter to become the “King Jaja” of the 21^st Century; he did not present any such innate ability.

In fact, the classroom references to the story of King Jaja of Opobo was a distraction from the goal of Walter being able to say he appeared on the BBC and you can only wonder how many doors that might open in Nigeria, West Africa and Africa at large.

Public school favours

No, I was not impressed at all, this is not one would expect of kings or of people who really have been successful in the West and have returned to Nigeria to make a difference. If any watcher were persuaded of the opportunities to boss around people as one would not be able to do in the West, it is not entirely that easy and humble-pie is coming fast to your face.

Walter has Elizabeth Stopford the director of this show to thank for this chicanery masquerading as enlightenment, but never say a public school education does not give you undue access to opportunities hard to get by merit.

For a title, it would have been better advertised as “Walter needs a job” and wants VIP access to the big parties and social circles in Nigeria; ambition which does not depict the reserve and comportment of public school progeny, he needs to hear the clink of many kobos before he can cling to being any kind of king .

This was not about Nigeria, it was about an individual many of us in Diaspora would be quite loath to imitate in an fashion, view or mind-set.

As usual Nigeria Curiosity has obtained access to the YouTube version of the show [3], watch and well, make up your mind about it. Thank you Solomon Sydelle.

Sources

[1] BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Storyville, 2009-2010, The New Kings of Nigeria

[2] King Jaja of Opobo

[3] Watch BBC's 'New Kings Of Nigeria' (Video) ~ Nigerian Curiosity

Other reviews

How I laughed whilst googling my great great grandfather – King Jaja : Black Looks

naijablog: The New Kings of Nigeria

Nigeria: Ministers' perception of bad image

Perceptions of image

Nothing gets me so irked than to read half-truths and sometimes untruths upon which the principals have entered into a determined scheme of denial whilst pasting every external element in sight with blame.

The Nigerian Guardian reports that the Nigerian Ministers of Finance and Information blame the media and human trafficking for Nigeria’s bad image [1].

I quote liberally from that news story acknowledging the source to be the Guardian Newspapers.

Whilst the plight of human trafficking is a very serious issue that has hit our screens over time, I would be hard pressed to find any recent material on that matter as compared to the Niger Delta crisis and the way it imparts on the oil infrastructure and oil markets, the inability to conduct decent elections and the sometimes unfavourably slanted reference to Nigeria when it comes to scam letters.

The West has people in Nigeria too

Let us examine the premise put forward by these esteemed servants of the Federation of Nigerian, the Finance Minister, Dr. Mansur Muhtar revealed, “there was a lot of negative reports from the local media and these in turn shaped what the Western media and investors think about the country.”

Interesting insight suggesting the Western media do not have liaison offices and personnel in major cities of Africa’s largest “democracy” and one time its biggest oil producer. Investors would come from countries that probably have embassies plugged into Nigeria and its environment for business and Nigeria belongs to many trade and bilateral organisations that would have representatives in the country and there are international conglomerates operating in Nigeria already.

It is a bit far-fetched to suggest that it is the local media that serves as the main news feed for the International press thus the main source of the bad image of Nigeria.

Credit comes with noticeable impact

The same minister went on to say, “the public seemed not to be giving enough credit to government for what was being achieved.”

Whilst Nigerians might like to hire praise-singers they are not effusive in praise for situations that impact on them negatively. Unlike in the West where we desire and demand small government; where infrastructure, power, transport, health, education and water resources do not seem to be available to the common man, that country needs big government.

The minister must understand that to gain any credit, the activities of government must touch people’s lives – roads for their business activities, power that meets the needs for a developing nation, integrated transport with focus on railways, hospitals that have qualified personnel and unadulterated drugs accessible to the majority, schools that have materials and can stay open the whole year round and really potable water.

Unfortunately, the ministers live in the exclusive decadence of opulence called Abuja almost oblivious of the realities that meet everyday lives such that they expect praise from postulation rather than action that really changes lives for the better.

The enormity of the challenges

I suppose what really puts it all in perspective comes from this further statement; “... government's efforts are not being given enough recognition and coupled with the enormity of the challenges not being appreciated.”

Nigerians know the challenges they face every day, the need to survive, the need to keep a roof over their heads, the need to put food on their tables and the undying optimism that things would improve.

What they expect of their government is first of all competence, the statement the minister made cuts the other way which questions whether the government has ever appreciated the enormity of the challenge of steering the ship of state called Nigeria.

10 years is some time

Blaming previous governments for our problems today is becoming an unforgivable excuse, the same party has been in power for 10 years, a fifth of the time that Nigeria has been independent, 10 years is a long time to turn a country round if the leaders can exhibit a modicum of competence.

I am happy that the Minister of Information has also recognised the negative element of human trafficking and child abuse, however, it does not go far enough as a matter of the Nigerian image abroad if it does not also address the more controversial issue of child sexual abuse within Nigeria itself.

Deliver and trust will follow

If the “people no longer had trust in the government to deliver its promises,” it would appear no tangible promises have yet been delivered on because like I said earlier in my blog; impact would bring recognition, Nigerians would no more stand for the voluble, loquacious and vacuous politician with promises by the truckload – I am sorry, we are looking for results not the thought and ceremony about actions.

Let us see ceremonies at completed projects not stupid foundation-laying ceremonies for white elephants.

In all, I think the ministers are looking for sycophants to sing their praises in vacuity and publish lies and vague achievements to give the government credit for nothing and hoodwink Nigerians with statistics and platitudes without showing real results.

Methinks, the ministers are in deep denial.

Sources

[1] Guardian Newspapers: Muhtar, Akunyili blame Nigeria's bad image on media, human trafficking

The Brit babes do cry in Persia

It will get worse

I had just left a comment on Chxta’s World that this saga of naval personnel selling their stories could not get any worse. On reflection, I did somewhat anticipate this media frenzy in my first write-up on this matter.

Here is what I said then in Stripping the “Great” out of Britain on the 4^th of April.

The naval personnel would return and be made to recant all their recorded confessions of having trespassed on Iranian nautical territory; the tabloids would lay out full spreads of the gallantry of the lady and the men in the midst of enemy territory …

However, by the time the tabloids have unravelled this saga and milked every ounce of newsworthiness out of this farce, nothing great would have been achieved for Great Britain.

Well, I was wrong with my comments on Chxta's World; as we race for the lowest pits of ignominy; the Iranians are now going to oil up the paths that we do reach ignominy faster than anticipated.

They are now going to release their film of the capture of the personnel to counteract any inkling that any of the personnel were treated in anyway but nicely and humanely.

It would appear that the Iranians are still gong to trump the British in this propaganda game as it goes to expose the rank incompetence in both the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry, that of the naval personnel is a foregone conclusion.

In releasing both a CD and a book, I can almost bet on the editor of the film becoming the toast of film festivals around the world for best editing. Sadly, in this case, the naval personnel would have no mobile phone footage of their saga to challenge Iran’s sound and vision documentary of events.

Expect this film to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the most bootlegged film ever.

For once, even I cannot wait to see the footage as the foolish British media find out that they have paid out large sums of money for piffle at first and that now they cannot get exclusives to the snippets of new Iranian film – The Brit babies do cry in Persia.

If the naval personnel had any dignity left, they would go quietly into obscurity before their private shame becomes a public stock and rotten eggs show.

A row the MoD cannot row out of

To sell or not to sell

It has now transpired; the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reversed the decision to allow the naval personnel to sell their stories, which many thought was part of a covert rehabilitation process. However, this was not before the lady and the youngest captive had spilled their hearts and fears to the papers and television for filthy lucre

There is no doubt that these people were in some way in fear for their lives and security, but the whole fear of rape and sexual abuse talk is beginning to sound like the sensationalism anyone would expect the moment the media decides to fabricate public interest in a non-story.

The about-face of the MoD is really a cack-handed mishandling of a rather sensitive situation in the quest to wreak a reciprocal propaganda war against Iran without due consideration of the effect it would have on families of those have not been fortunate enough to return to their local pubs to tell their stories. It is sickening to the extreme.

No heroes just naval serfs

One must reiterate, that these naval personnel were no heroes, they acquiesced to every entreaty, they succumbed to every threat, they submitted to literally every suggestion and basically were in a situation of being conveniently blackmailed into saving their skins at any cost, in the end, they subserviently genuflected to the President of Iran and were overly effusive in gratitude for their release.

They allowed themselves to be in such a vulnerable setting that they were taken advantage of without much coercion, the hoo-hah about their family attachments became part of the enemy’s strategy for interrogation and mental torture, these people were just too chicken to be where they were and when they were caught, they just blabbed like hens and bawled like babies.

This apologia to service in the British forces is now a story worthy of hearing? Indeed the glory of Britain departed its shores and its people.

The only thing that might redeem this situation is to find the really gallant and courageous amongst our forces and celebrate them with honour and reckoning that has been subsumed to the despicable cult of the stupid personality.

Foolish MoD

In the end, the MoD attracted deserved opprobrium, condemnation and vilification, the incompetence of all concerned from the politicians through the civil service to the forces themselves was laid bare for the world to see, there must be a redeeming factor somewhere, if only someone can see it and get it going.

References

Heseltine joins furore over sailors' stories | UK News | News | Telegraph

BBC NEWS | UK | Browne under fire in sailors row