What are now regarded as crimes in Northern Ireland, used to be, not very long ago, considered acts of heroism, resistance to tyranny and patriotism. Songs were written about them, Guinness and Bushmills drunk, medals issued and even careers enhanced. But to those clouded by the hypocrisy of hindsight, to say this this might seem […]
Security Forces’ “Crimes” in Northern Ireland Read More »
When an FBI forensic artist drew portraits of women according to their own descriptions of themselves, and then a second sketch according to the descriptions of another woman they’d met, the differences were incredible – and telling: http://realbeautysketches.dove.com/ Apparently only 4% of the world’s women believe themselves to be beautiful. I don’t know if there
We Need to be Beautiful Read More »
You’ve probably seen this story – about a WW2 Bomber Command veteran who died without family or friends in a nursing home. This obituary led to a call for people to attend his funeral. The end result was a huge crowd standing outside because the chapel was totally full. There were uniformed Air Cadets, veterans
We should be remembering Veterans while they’re still alive. Read More »
I was down with my old military unit today – at Poole in Dorset. With their last Afghanistan deployment behind them, they’ve been training very hard to get everybody back to the unit’s proper role – the use of naval gunfire. They’d just finished a very arduous training course to get their naval communicators and
After Afghanistan: getting back to “normal”…. Read More »
An article in the New Yorker triggered off some ideas I’ve been thinking about for the past few days. It was a about an agency setting itself up to sell celebrities’ free time for huge amounts of money – as if they were empty hotel rooms. For a self-aware person to sign up to this,
Self-Awareness as a Survival Mechanism – and Duty Read More »