DON'T THEY LOVE SEX AND THEIR OWN VOICES

Don't they love the sound of their own voices. Don't they hate a story that produces some better news than they wanted to hear. Don't they love spending time on prurient irrelevancies when there are really important weightier concerns around to hear about. 

We are hardly short of noteworthy news in all its forms at the present time. Instead, as there is a court judgement given that is favourable to the media, what do we get, a headline and discussion on someone's private life, because it gives the media a chance to indulge in a 'holier than thou' frenzy of righteousness.

Meantime, a relatively good news story, the decisive yes vote in the German Parliament supporting Euro emergency funds gets the 'if it [the vote] had gone the other way' treatment, which it decisively did not, 'there would have been ruination'. Well, Armageddon did not make a visitation today and the media did not get the story that they had so hyped up and hoped to report on.

There are three other world stories: 

One is about a pastor in Iran who is threatened with the death penalty for his Christian faith. The death penalty will be lifted if he renounces his Christian beliefs. The penalty meted, is outwith the state and Sharia laws. It sounds like exemplary and dangerous posturing.

The second major concern is the sentencing to hefty terms of imprisonment of Bahrain medical staff who treated injured people at the time of the protests there. As far as could be seen, the nurses and doctors were performing humanitarian acts to save people's lives. That's what they are trained to do. Many protested about the types of injuries they saw appearing in the emergency units. The apparent silence from the Americans, Europe and the UK on this issue is shameful. 

And another little matter of some interest. Rev.Desmond Tutu invited the Dalai Lama to his Birthday party in South Africa. The South African Government have a delegation in China at present. The Dalai Lama's visa request to attend the celebration is now on the back burner....no guesses needed as to why. The retired Archbishop is not at all amused by the political antics. There were no blocking tactics in the past, when The Dalai Lama was invited  to the South Africa for Nelson Mandela's celebrations.

NET COMMUNICATIONS-THE JUDGEMENT OF SOLOMON.... IRAN AND CHINA INTERESTED

It didn't take long for Iran and China to comment on our home-grown scenes of destruction. Iran, (mischievously) suggested that David Cameron should be reported to the United Nations for, I can only presume, supporting physical criminal acts committed by the police against 'protesters' and further, also human rights violations. It's the old chestnut of a revolutionary or terrorist is someone else's freedom fighter. Anyone would be hard pushed to describe what happened as either of those. It cannot be said that what occurred in some of the English cities was anywhere in that league. Perceptions are interesting, as is how they are reported. 

The apparent role of social networking in the recent rioting, arson, thieving and looting, has ratcheted up, by several notches, the debate about controlling this specific element of the internet, to the point, where, closing down social networking sites, or, perhaps, blocking the ability to access the internet, has been openly suggested. China perceives double standards and sees a [re-trained] future ally in controlling the freedom of the internet. It reduces by one the number of Western democratic political critics of China's totalitarian methods and its imposition at will, of the isolation of its country from the global internet. 

The closing down of cell phone networks has already occurred, following the bombing atrocities in London about five years ago, and with good reasons. The Madrid bombs were set off by cell phones. I could not phone mobile-to-mobile to find out how a relative was, who travelled daily in to central London using at least one of the underground lines affected. 

It is not beyond the realms of reality to believe that security services together with police are going to be involved in setting up emergency procedures which will contain instructions not just about shutting down cell phone networks - this would neutralise Blackberry encrypted messaging - there would also be operating codes of conduct with social networking sites - coded language for possibly, temporarily, (UK wide) switching them off - in case of any future civil unrest. This is a murky area full of pitfalls. Does the scenario make China's moral stance a smidgin more familiar? 

The dangers in closing down messaging networks also works against the innocent people caught up in situations who need help and have no other means of calling for help than a cell phone to do so. Someone or some group will have to make the judgement of Solomon.