Osama and I

Recently I have come across a number of people drawing parallels between the character Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwells 1984 and Osama bin Laden. In Orwells book the citizens of Oceania were united by their common enemy and through 'hate' sessions screened every day they were reminded why and how much they detested this person, in 2008 citizens of the free world are close to united in there dislike of Osama and are reminded why most days via the media.


In 1984 the Party used Goldstein as a propaganda tool, it would not be difficult to argue that Osama is/was used in much the same way. Goldstein appears to have been close to no threat to Oceania in 1984, whereas Bin Laden is certainly the financer and commander of Al Qaeda, but is he now the threat he once was?


Is Osama Bin Laden still the threat to global security we believe or is he a conveniant Goldstein-esque propoganda tool to be rolled out by the governments of the world to ensure they have the full support of their people when taking action on terrorism / the axis of evil?

And the results are in

Which politician was most important in creating today's peaceful society-

1: David Trimble - 24 votes

2:Tony Blair - 8 votes

3:Ian Paisley - 6 votes

4:John Hume - 4 Votes



For the first time in a while David Trimble appears to have won a vote. The readership of this blog appears to view his contribution to the peace process as very positive, which is odd as much of the unionist public seem to see Trimble as a lundy, sell out and now denounce him for the GFA. Perhaps W.E. Gladstone's quote 'No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes', best sums up how Trimble could be viewed or perhaps you only realise what you have once you lose it.

Moving on to second place, Tony Blair, he took a lot of credit for 'bringing peace to NI', it appears some of this blogs readership believe he was due this. Irish politics proved the graveyard of many a 19th century British government but eight people seem to believe Blair fared well in Ulster.

Six deranged individuals believe Paisley was the peacemaker. I can only guess that they feel he was instrumental in bringing orthodox Unionism in from the cold, but if you look at it from that perspective could McGuinness and Adams not be included as they brought militant Republicans were they are now. Frankly I believe he had a negative impact, feel free to challenge me on that.

John Hume managed to get four votes, again I am not sure about that.

More attacks on the Fountain Estate

Firstly I would like to apologise for the cessation of blogging on this site.

Recently the Fountain Estate has become the target of yet more attacks, giving apparent proof to those who claim Republicans in the city are not prepared to tolerate their few remaining Protestant neighbours. With the Cityside having seen 97% (12,000 to 15,000) of Protestants flee in the last forty years it appears the remaining 250- 500 people in the Fountain Estate will continue to be targeted.

Recent weeks have seen a number of attacks and allegations of the City Centre becoming a 'no go' zone for Protestants. The Londonderry Sentinel published a story on Wednesday in which young people claim they are no longer able 'to go the short distance from the estate to the town, without continual verbal and physical harassment'. Other incidents covered in the article were an attack on the estate by one hundred nationalist youths and the targeting of a taxi driver from the Waterside (perhaps that area shall soon be attacked in the same manner as the Fountain).

Prior to this there was a spate of petrol bombings (both thrown in too and thrown from the estate). Sinn Fein blamed the hostilities on the residents of the Fountain Estate and have alleged that people from that area altered the H - Block memorial, which many Fountain Residents see as offensive. This was strenuously denied by the people of the Fountain but they became the scapegoats none the less.

With hostilities apparently continuing lets hope history's worrying trend of the national and international media remaining hushed about the fate of Protestants in the Cityside does not persist.