Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

A stage of Ethicality

In this, we first need to set the proper stage, for example the notion that we are going into a boxing ring, and it is square no less. As such we are told to be ethical, which is a habit of conduct with regard to right and wrong or a body of such rules and habits. But in all this, for the last 400 years, it was the habit to make as much money as possible without breaking the law, and yes, the second part is actually important. 

This reflects (on me) that I would be happy to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia either the BAE Tempest, or the Chinese Chengdu J-20. One gets me less than the other, but I will not care. On a personal note. I will prefer the BAE Tempest, because that might score me an OBE in the future besides my commission, but I can live happily without the OBE. My grandfather didn’t get one in WW1, so why would I need one, I feel certain he would have earned it more than me.

This now reflects on the article by the NOS (Dutch news, at https://nos.nl/artikel/2383223-van-ark-herhaalt-mondkapjesdeal-met-van-lienden-voldeed-aan-voorwaarden)  that is optionally flaming the people to have a go at Sywert van Lienden. The news reports {De medische mondkapjes die opiniemaker en ondernemer Sywert van Lienden verkocht aan het ministerie van VWS hadden een redelijke prijs, waren van voldoende kwaliteit en konden snel geleverd worden. Daarom werd de deal, ter waarde van ruim 100 miljoen euro, gesloten} “The medical masks that opinion maker and entrepreneur Sywert van Lienden sold to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport had a reasonable price, were of sufficient quality and could be delivered quickly. That is why the deal, worth more than 100 million euros, was closed”, the Dutch government has embraced for well over 25 years their ‘subsidised dealings, the company I worked for in the 90’s had a deal (a very nice one), and others have too. The Dutch will embrace manufacturing, reporting, and enhancing whatever they can and they will pay, so stop crying.

It is when you realise {Van Lienden leverde twee soorten mondkapjes, voor 2,26 euro en 2,78 euro per stuk. De gemiddelde prijs die op dat moment werd gevraagd door aanbieders was tussen de 2,50 euro en 3 euro} “Van Lienden supplied two types of mouth caps, for 2.26 euros and 2.78 euros each. The average price asked by providers at that time was between 2.50 euros and 3 euros”, that in hindsight against what I can buy now per piece $2 (€1.26) or per 10 for $1 (€0.63) each, the writeup is seemingly quite remarkable when we compare it to the now, and that is what the consumer sees. I guarantee you that these pharmacies are not working for free. So what did Sywert van Lienden do wrong? I do not believe that he did anything wrong, he saw a market and he got right there on Day Zero (implying someone whispered that news to him). The news implies all kinds of political connections on both sides of the aisle. Does that matter? The EU floats (and thrives) on Nepotism, I have seen and felt that for well over 27 years and I got the short end of that equation many times, do I cry? No I don’t!

And perhaps my ship will come in, perhaps it will not. Over those 25 years, I have worked, wrote articles, created technology (mostly 5G), created data solutions, wrote files for dozens of corporations and I am dubbing over a TV series (two actually), I got the idea out there for at least two movies and I had an additional idea for a third movie (thanks to Dwayne Johnson and John Cena), not to mention several video games. So in the end I made a decent creative footprint, but will that digress me from making $65-$121 million if I get the chance? Hell no! Are my chances good, not really. This world was altered to adhere to the exploitative, the openly short sighted (age discrimination) to give the exploitative even more options. 

We all have that moment when the jewel in your crown is just there for the taking, in this we are handed two setbacks. The first is the direction to look in, so the wider the view, the better your chances. The second is to recognise the jewel from the truckloads of Coprolite floating around it, so you need to be fast, precise and accept the consideration that you will grasp the wrong thing. That is life gentlemen (ladies also)!

 

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Genuinely puzzled

Yup it happens, the news at time makes little sense, it makes little sense for several reasons and that is fair, even for me. Consider the BBC headline ‘Saudi Arabia: Authorities defend mosque speaker restriction’,  which in itself outside of any Islamic nation might be treated with a simple ‘Meh!’ This would not be a negative response, merely a response that approaches the sentiment of ‘Whatever!’, so as I read “The country’s Islamic Affairs Ministry announced last week that all loudspeakers should be set at only a third of their maximum volume. Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullatif al-Sheikh said the measure was in response to complaints from the public. But the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media”, I initially wondered why the BBC even took time to give notice to the event, for the most, what does it inform us about? Is it to give visibility to Abdullatif al-Sheikh? Perhaps it was to alarm us to “the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media”? I actually do not know, but this news also gives us that there was no space for ‘WHO to start COVID-19 vaccination in Houthi-run north Yemen’ with “Houthi authorities in control have played down the impact of the pandemic, largely denying any outbreak there”, or perhaps it is ‘UAE shows last minute unity to host Asian Qualifiers as China baulks at covid outbreaks’ with “The remaining seven matches in Group A – which will qualify teams for both the next round of the AFC’s World Cup 2022 qualifying and directly into the Asian Cup China 2023 – will be now held at the Sharjah Stadium”, neither news is seen at the BBC, so whilst we accept that speaker settings for announcements are important to the people in the KSA, the western population would all like to know the impact of Football decisions (people in the UK are weird that way), oh I reckon that the people in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Italy would react in a similar fashion.

So whilst it is nice to read “the measure was in response to complaints from the public”, I personally would reckon that the rules of Islam have been clear in many Arabic nations, and as these speakers tend to be set, why would there be complaints now? So whilst some might know that the 5 moments are “Fajr (sunrise prayer), Dhuhr (noon prayer), Asr (afternoon prayer), Maghrib (sunset prayer), and Isha (night prayer). Each prayer has a specific window of time in which it must be completed”, the internet also shows us “In a mosque, the muezzin broadcasts the call to prayer at the beginning of each interval. Because the start and end times for prayers are related to the solar diurnal motion, they vary throughout the year and depend on the local latitude and longitude when expressed in local time”, when we see that, some (including me) might wonder why the speaker settings are suddenly cause for concern. The sound of a person calling to prayer the islamic people is part of Islamic heritage, I wonder who the complaining people would be. I would go as far as stating that unless these calls are lately a lot louder, who would complain on speaker settings and the part we read “the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media” gives rise to my puzzlement. It is fair that this news would be (and is) seen in Al Jazeera, but I saw no mention in Arab News, so Islamic news made it to the BBC and not to Arab News? What is going on? 

And when we see “Mr Sheikh said that those who want to pray do not need to wait for the Imam’s call to prayer” the wondering does not top and here I found that the news also made it to Radio Athens, they give us on their website with the added “In a country where there are tens of thousands of mosques, the decision was generally welcomed. However, it also provoked reactions on social networking sites, with the appearance of a hashtag calling for a ban on loud music in restaurants and cafes”, I could not rely on the radio as I haven’t spoken proper Greek since 3575BC. And more important the information on Athens Radio is seemingly the same as the BBC, but the paragraph comes across different due to “with the appearance of a hashtag calling for a ban on loud music in restaurants and cafes”, all whilst both sides give us the one side that is seemingly strange “The restrictions come as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues attempts to make Saudi Arabia more liberal and lessen the role religion plays in public life”, I am not sure how to react, optionally, I see in part a reason to disagree. I get that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to make liberal moves and as we can see on YouTube, several tourists are showing the world just how pretty and how amazing Saudi Arabia looks. I have seen a few of these video’s and the view we see from the Sky Bridge Kingdom Tower is amazing. It was the first time I saw this and I wonder why other media have never given a clear view of an architectural marvel like that and what it offers. Yet even if I were to go to Riyadh, I personally feel that I would miss out on the call of prayer, not that I am Islamic, but it is part of Islamic life. As a visitor we would not want to see changes that are part of the foundation of a nation. Yet, I admit that this might merely be me. And in all this I am personally more stricken by “those who want to pray do not need to wait for the Imam’s call to prayer” I have no idea what to make of that, but I understand that as I am not Muslim, I might not get that part. Another source gives us “The decision has angered ultra-conservatives in the country”, it is fair that there are those in favour and those opposing any decision, yet the BBC (Radio Athens neither) gives us anything on the ultra-conservatives and who they are. This sparked a revisit to the Washington Post who gave us in 2018 ‘Saudi Arabia’s once-powerful conservatives silenced by reforms and repression’ with the addition of “these conservatives now tiptoe on social media outlets like Twitter. In mosques and at community gatherings, they reluctantly criticise recent changes they stridently oppose, such as the easing of social boundaries between men and women”, with that in sight we see certain patterns emerge and the BBC was not informing us of that, or perhaps they assumed we knew that, which in light of the Martin Bashir caper is massively silly on several levels. In all this the one part some people overlooked. If the speakers are to be set to 33%, what stops them from upgrading the sound equipment in Mosques from 100 Watt to 300 Watt? It is merely a thought. All parts the BBC is overlooking and I know for a fact that they have faced the ‘hardware upgrade’ in the past. So the lack of information in their article is calling for a few questions. In the end, the only useful information I got from the article was the existence of Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullatif al-Sheikh. From my personal point of view the BBC article was a blunder, one that the BBC should not have made. 

As such my genuinely puzzled setting is quite complete.

A new starts and breakfast is approximately 3 hours and 32 minutes away. Have a great Wednesday!

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You poor little sheep!

Yup, this is me having a go at my readers. You see, we need to wake up, we need to see the exploitation and we need to realise that the BBC is every bit a part of it. My rage started about three hours ago when the BBC gave us ‘Martin Bashir: I never wanted to harm Diana and don’t believe we did’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57215498), in my view he set a chain of events in motion, or at the very least accelerated it to cause the death of Diana, Princes of Wales. 

I will get to my reasoning down the track of this article, but first we need to see how complicit the BBC is. The BBC had no issue framing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into events that may or may not have happened to Jamal Khashoggi. They did not pull any punches and in addition, they did not question evidence handed to them. Now we see evidence of Martin Bashir ordering the forging of documents and they quote him using the word ‘mockup’. In addition we now see “he rejected Prince William’s claim that he fuelled her paranoia, saying they were close and he “loved” her”, which I regard to be an absolute lie. Then we get “he comments on having showed her brother Earl Spencer forged bank statements and says: “Obviously I regret it, it was wrong. But it had no bearing on anything. It had no bearing on [Diana], it had no bearing on the interview.”” If it had no impact there would not be a reason to do it, would it? More important, there is enough evidence that Diana, Princes of Wales had some form of paranoia, it is my speculation and it takes a psychology master to look at that and, oh yes, the BBC did not bother with that part, did they? The BBC did not bother with a lot of issues, apart from the cover up and it seems now that people like Lord Hall are running for their lives, they give all kind of reasonings, but the truth is that Diana, princes of Wales was the darling of the British people and they have been deprived of her, a dozen people, including Martin Bashir and optionally Lord Hall as well are in the scope of well over 30,000,000 people all willing to string them up for what they did and these 30,000,000 people might have a decent (not a legal one) reason to kill the roaches that were all about exploitation. And the BBC is still helping them! When you see “Asked whether he is able to forgive himself”, we see the absence of killing questions, isn’t that what reporters are supposed to do?

Se when we see the interview that (by Dulcie Lee) it reads like a marketing joke. Consider that “The average salary for a news editor is £34,055 per year in United Kingdom”, now consider that he had a one point nine million pound house, he has a sixty thousand pound car. Please try to get these two on that income. Are you waking up now? And the money keeps on rolling in (optionally for him) we see again and again “Bashir left the BBC without a pay-off earlier this month”, perhaps there is more happening than a tap on the shoulders? It might have been a “Leave now, or else” setting, and that would be speculating, but in all this does my stance make sense? I believe it does and it goes a bit further than Lord Tony Hall. The media is protecting itself because it needs a massive overhaul, it needs to be held accountable. 

My reasoning
This is part of the caper, I need to tell you the reasoning here. There are a few settings that give rise to the stage that Diana, Princes of Wales was to some degree paranoid. We can argue if it was merely the media and the paparazzi, but that is as far as I can take it. Now, consider that the one institution that has for decades seem like it was above all suspicion hand over FORGED documents to a relative that there was a foundation of her paranoia, would that simmer it down or fuel it? We must understand that paranoia is a complex issue and that it takes an educated psychologist to give value to my assessment and I accept that but, oh wait, the BBC never bothered with that side of the equation, did they? In all this the BBC tip toed around Martin Bashir, and left half a dozen clues unanswered, the media protect its own and that is the larger failing as they cater to Shareholders, stakeholders and advertisers. The BBC might not have a lot of advertisers to cater to, but they do have shareholders and they definitely have stakeholders. 

And part of this is given by the BBC through Lord Dyson, in another piece we get “Lord Dyson’s report suggests the corporation’s values and principles were parked to protect its corporate reputation. The BBC used its press office to deflect difficult questions, the kind of institutional cover-up its own journalists seek to expose”, which is what I was saying all along, or perhaps equally valid is the setting that I agree with the statement. And as we see other versions all over the net, some via the Sun, we get to see “Bashir has since hit back at the Duke of Cambridge, telling The Sunday Times “everything we did (Diana) wanted. My family and I loved her.”” I would like to remind you all that he is disgraced and shown to be a liar, as such he has no credibility, and the Sun and other media let him get away with that, so how do you feel about the princess you all loved being pushed into a situation where she got killed, will you finally demand the media be held to accountable standards? I’ll tell you right now, if it suits the media, they will allow a person like Martin Bashir (optionally Lord Tony Hall as well) to be stung up to a tree, they would rather lose two people than be held to actual standards where they can end up in the dock answering for all carefully phrased denials. 

The Spencers (source: The Sun)

The media likes the Status Quo, the change there is not one they accept because their shareholders and stakeholders do not accept them. So whilst some will look towards Oliver Dowden on what is next, I think it is equally important to keep a keen eye on the Earl Charles Spencer, it is time we all listened to him and take his word. The BBC has been knowingly and intentionally been lying to us all for a quarter of a century and they need to learn the hard way that this was not OK. 

Their feigned answers have no business in media, especially as Martin Bashir and Lord Tony Hall willingly walked away (as quickly as possible), their reasons do not hold water, the media not investigating their actions have no value and it is time that the larger group of the British people wake up to that, if Piers Morgan can be pushed into some direction with 41,000 complaints, what do you think is possible with well over 30,000,000 angry people?

Do not become one of the sheep, be a wolf and mess up the wrongdoers. 

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An Insane Retard Awful Nuisance situation

There is no way that you have not heard about the issue on Hamas versus Israel, and there are a lot who will blame one or the other, yet the BBC article giving us 6 reasons is quite good the article (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9bUhCGXvTY) gives us a lot, it gives us 6 reasons and they are good reasons, yet you might notice the quick jump we see when reason one is given. The 6 evictions on Sheikh Jarrah. This was an Israeli legal ruling, I am not judging it, not really, I am wondering why everyone is jumping that specific fence. Al Jazeera was one of the few who did not, and they give us “a request to the court to invite Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit to explain an anomaly in which the land’s ownership had apparently been transferred to a settler group in 1972, allowing the settlers to illegally register the land in their names”, a setting that matters, ‘illegally register the land in their names’, which is bad enough, the setting that no one took notice for 49 years gives me the feeling that the land was not very valuable. I see it in a simple way. It I go to a certain place and I fuck Ivanka Trump there is a chance that a man named Jared Kushner takes (great) offence and optionally becomes violent, that is fair and she looks good enough to take that risk, yet when I get to do the horizontal lambada with her for 49 years straight, we can assume that he might not care too much. I know it sounds crude and not entirely civil, but that is the setting we seen here and the media avoided that part for too long. No matter the stage where we see ‘illegally register the land in their names’, the stage that is was allowed and the anomaly was not acted on by a whole truckload of people on the Israeli side matters. In my specific case there is one man who optionally sees offence, in the Israeli case a dozen people should have acted a decade ago and in this situation, I myself have serious questions for the Israeli government, questions that the media is not asking. 

Turning back the clock
There are a few issues that play, you see the BBC gave us 6 reasons and I personally feel that they left a seventh reason out of the list. Now, we should understand that there are many more reasons, but as I personally see it, the seventh reason is important. Yet to get there we need to see a few items.

In July 2019 I wrote “The devil you know beats the devil you do not and in Iran there will always be another Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waiting to take the highest seat of Iranian office. One would have hoped that the yellow-back politician was an extinct breed, but that is not the case and I fear that their damage will be visible for decades to come, no matter where that damage is.” It was in ‘The Yellowback politician’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/07/03/the-yellowback-politician/), I warned about the dangers, and guess what. Yesterday the hardliner Mahmout Ahmedinejad registered for another two terms as Iranian president, the person who wants to wipe Israel from the map, the man who pushed for Nuclear options is about to become president of Iran again, and that person has the full backing of the IRGC. He will be the first one to do this in Iran (as far as I know) and he will do whatever he can to get his nuclear arsenal. The Yellow-back politicians in the west are facing the hardship they could have avoided long ago, but they didn’t their ego would not let them.

There have been all kind of messages regarding Iran and Hamas, yet in all this, who remembers seeing Hamas fire dozens of rockets in the last two days? The Washington Post gave us “Under a rain of more than 1,700 rockets fired from Gaza in recent days, Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main link to the outside world, closed indefinitely to incoming flights on Thursday”, who wants to do the math? 1700 times $25,000 is still $42,500,000, so where did that money come from? More important how did these 1700 missiles get into Gaza? Yes there are all kinds of whisk-it-away answers, but the larger issues is that Iran is giving massive support to Hamas. Perhaps certain yellow-back politicians would want to wait for another case of “Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Thursday thanked Iran for providing his terror group the rockets it used to strike deep into Israel and warned the Jewish state that Tel Aviv would be struck again in response to any offensive against the Gaza Strip”, they did not do anything in 2019, so why expect action now?

When we see all these events and we see the impact of Iran, why did the BBC not mention Iran as the seventh reason? There is enough evidence and enough events out there to do so, these parties had no issues to push for a guilty party in the case of Jamal Khashoggi WITHOUT evidence, so why wait now when the evidence is there?

We see a lot of sabre rattling on both sides of the fence and we get it, both sides have its version of extremism to bait the other one in acting and Iran is seemingly happy to oblige. All this in a case when most of us are given ‘Hamas Calls for Iran-Saudi Unity, some might not see that this is the stage Iran is hoping for, ‘a case to embrace’ not to hold accountable, a stage Iran dreaded for too long and the media is offering a helping hand, yet in all this we need to realise that Iran is about to rain on the parade of Saudi Arabia and Israel, when that happens we will have no further options. Iran gave us less than a day ago ‘Iran To Saudi Arabia: Sell Our Oil And We Will Reduce Houthi Attacks’ and no one in the west is asking questions? I wonder how much some people are filling their pockets, because in this, a 1% day marker, even an Iranian one is still a lot of money and it is all happening at the same time, I am speculating that there is a new Iranian orchestrator in town and whomever it is, he is setting a larger premise that also revolves around Mahmout Ahmedinejad returning to power. A danger I warned about a few times, to be honest, I warned about someone like him returning. He himself becoming President again is something I had not expected. 

So whilst the media is embracing ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ the larger stage is behind these screens and no one is seemingly looking there, why not?

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Change and debate

We accept these two words, they are part of our lives. Yet when do we debate change, or change the debate we are having? Think about it, debate instills the option for change, in the same way change causes debates to start. It is a double loop, as you see below, there are numerous examples, they are all set to the same issue, A affects both, it is the start of one and the end of another. And the loop works in both directions. Blue affects red, red affects blue. We can add all the fancy labels, but in either side there are adjustments, shifts, experience, generalisations, correction, results and learnings. What we need to understand is that this is a much larger field, and to that extent I am looking at two examples.

Holy Yemeni Cricket!
On November 3rd 2018 I wrote ‘Media, call it as it is!’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/11/03/media-call-it-as-it-is/), there I added “we have seen an utter lack of larger political activities by many nations other than the USA against Iran and Hezbollah, exactly how does that add up?”, consider that this was WELL OVER two years ago, and now (11 hours ago), the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57065894) ‘US warship seizes huge weapons shipment in Arabian Sea’, the article also gives us a total lack of where and direction, isn’t that interesting? OK, I get it, and I accept “the source and intended destination of the weapons were under investigation”, yet the amount of weapons is clearly enough to start WW3, it is actually better and more powerful weapons than several nations in the EU have, so you do understand that this governmental joke has gone far enough? And in all this, I reported (and some others added evidence) well over two years ago. It took THAT LONG for the media to take a larger stance, why is that? So when I see “After all the illicit cargo was removed, the dhow’s crew was questioned, provided with food and water and released” I wonder how they get better treatment than some of the victims all over the world, they were intentionally carrying truckloads of weapons, so what gives? 

Chicken Vindaloo Flambee
Yup, it is not the most eloquent title, yet consider that I have been trying to inform the people for a long time that the numbers did not add up in India. The article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/12/20/the-rest-of-our-lives/) was called ‘The rest of our lives’, which I wrote in December 20th 2020, and even before that, and I got some abuse from others (which will always happen) and they were all in denial, they all stated that this would never happen. So now, with pride (and joy) I see that the BBC FINALLY caught up, and with ‘India’s Covid crisis: The newsroom counting the uncounted deaths’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56969086) we get to see “On the night of 16 April, the journalists drove 150km (93 miles) around Ahmedabad and visited 21 cremation grounds. There they counted body bags and pyres, examined registers, spoke to cremation workers, looked at “slips” which assigned the cause of death, and took photographs and recorded videos. They found that most of the deaths were attributed to “illness”, although the bodies were being handled under rigorous protocols. At the end of the night the team had counted more than 200 bodies. But the next day, Ahmedabad counted only 25 deaths”, it had become that bad, scientifically we can see that less than 10% is reported, so how bad had it all become? Before we go all sentimental on those poor poor politicians, remember that this level of cooperation can only happen when governments are pushing buttons. staff members in hospitals and crematoriums, the people transporting, the goods for protection, full, the list goes on and on and this scale of governmental cover up had to be massive, yet some journo’s were willing to take the hard road, yet I have always admitted that there were a few good ones. 

source: BBC

Two issues are now, less than a day ago proven that I was on the ball, that I was correct and that my insight was red flagging a lot more than anyone comprehended, even the data analysts that doubted and opposed me are not in the limelight, so if they catered to the needs of stakeholders, I am about to have a field day and I feel a large level of joy on all this. You see it also proves something I have claimed since around 1995. When those catering to the political game adjust weights and numbers so that the results match the questions, we can safely assume that someone has kept a backup just to cover themselves. I merely have to find that weak link now and I will have a great great Christmas, it might just come early this year. Over the last 8 years I compiled a nice list, I wonder how many will be found out. It will take some time, but time is one element I have currently an abundance of. 

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The big match

Yes, most of us can relate to sports, I am all about the biscuit (NHL puck), most are about the balls, some round, some oval, yet in all this we tend to be able to connect to sports, it is almost a global thing. When it is not Chess or Go that is. As such I am keeping an open mind towards the Iran-Saudi Arabia talks. I do hope that Saudi Arabia gets the peace it is entitled to, but personally. In light of all that has transpired, I am not really optimistic that Iran will keep its word, but that is my view of the matter and at present I would be happy to be wrong. 

The first issue
There are a few issues that intertwine and they are not up to Saudi Arabia, the first player is Hezbollah who has been accused a few times to give support to Houthi forces after an alleged call from General Qasem Soleimani. There are a few speculations attached to it, yet the larger stage remains. Iran directly and allegedly indirectly via Hezbollah decided to attack the citizens of Saudi Arabia and engage in a long term proxy war. This issue will resolve itself over time, yet for the tool in that conversation (Hezbollah), we might take notice of ‘Stockpiling fuel from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah braces for state collapse’ (source: The Arab Weekly), with supporting text “The plan chimes with worries in Lebanon that people will have to rely on political factions for food and security, in the way many did in the militia days of the 1975-1990 civil war. In response to a question about Hezbollah’s plans, Leila Hatoum, an adviser to the caretaker prime minister, said the country was “in no condition to refuse aid” regardless of politics.The sources from the pro-Hezbollah camp, who declined to be named, said the plan for a potential worst-case scenario has gathered pace as an end to subsidies looms in the coming months, raising the spectre of hunger and unrest”, a stage that has one side, yet when Iran has to collapse its assistance, the stage there changes, Hezbollah will no longer be regarded as a local asset, it will be regarded as a larger national liability and that is not a good place for Hezbollah to be in. It is a win-win for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, if this part is not met, Iran will show itself to be a non-peace driven party to the world. If it does, support in Yemen toward the houthi forces becomes a non option quite soon. 

The second issue
The second player in all this is Turkey, it has sided with Iran too often and they are seeing the larger impact, so I was not surprised to see the Middle East Eye give us ‘Turkey’s foreign minister to visit Saudi Arabia, a first in four years’, it is a personal view, but I reckon that they want to get ahead of the curve, kicking the one player that is vocation stability is not a good thing and the larger stage as well as the blatant openly inaccuracies and pushed mis representations regarding a journalist no one cares about (Jamal Khashoggi) will be the larger noose they need to avoid. We might think that there is a focus around “Cavusoglu is expected to make attempts to repair bilateral ties during the visit, but the closure of Turkish schools will be a top issue, sources told MEE. Last week, Turkey’s education ministry said it has been informed by the Saudi authorities that the eight schools, which have a total of 2,256 pupils, will have to close at the end of the current school year. Last month, the education ministry said there were 26 Turkish schools in Saudi Arabia”, yet I believe that this is a ruse. This minister will have some form of apology package with all kinds of considerations. Turkey has no choice, their crypto currency collapse (Thodex and Vebitcoin) with bosses running for the hills (at least one with $2,000,000,000 plus in its USB pockets) and the people angry with losing all they have is the larger setting for civic unrest to a scale they never faced before and that requires all kinds of sides to reduce pressure wherever they can and both Turkey and Iran are happy to let Hezbollah drown on its own. Yes, this is my speculation, but if you followed the news in the last two years, you would end up having similar thoughts.

The third issue
The third issue is Yemen, there is no way around it and these two players are on opposite sides. Even as the media has avoided to a larger extent to show and to report on the unacceptable acts by Houthi forces, the UN who was the target on several occasions has not and that is where Iran find itself at a much larger disadvantage. They might have options if General Qasem Soleimani had been around the last 6 months, but someone solved that problem for many and now the less experienced players have painted themselves in corners and that works to the advantage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well. It is more against Iran but that might be mere semantics. Here we see France24 giving us (at https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210506-saudi-walks-diplomatic-high-wire-on-iran-yemen) “Saudi Arabia’s secret talks with arch-rival Iran signal a high-wire diplomatic act as it scrambles to rein in Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels”, as I see it, if Iran wants clear resolutions of the outstanding issues in play they would have to back down to a larger extent, optionally an openly extent to denounce the Houthi forces, but that would be an unrealistic expectation. And I do not disagree when we see “The Houthis would prefer to be their own interlocutor with Saudi Arabia and will not want Iran taking their place in that,” Elana DeLozier, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told AFP”, Elana DeLozier, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has a clear point there, but these forces will not get too much of an option when Iran walks out, when that happens before the Houthis get any talks going they might end up being on their own and that pretty much ends the Houthi options in Yemen as I see it. As such the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a lot to gain, and with Iran being on everyone’s display they have a larger chance of getting a lot done.

In all this the stage will soon change and I reckon that there was a reason that Mevlut Cavusoglu (Turkish Foreign minister) used the Schools as a reason, The Arab Weekly gives us ‘May 20 deadline to register for Ithra conference in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran’, which is seemingly also a beautiful place to be and get some informal settings, especially as it is away from Riyadh and has the nice extra to be a setting where the Turkish schools can be discussed openly and optionally talk about a few more issues less openly. As such, If I am correct a few larger issues will be on someone’s table in August so that they might be discussed in September. I reckon that this is the time that both Hezbollah and Houthi forces have left. In 8-12 weeks Turkey might need to get baubles for Euros to avoid a much larger negative national setting and I reckon they are willing to sell a few issues down the river for their own good. It is a personal speculated vision, but I feel that I might be onto something here, Iran will try to avoid making quick decisions, which makes perfect sense, so Turkey needs to get ahead of ending up being the piggy in the middle chasing after the ball and the goods. If Iran gives in too soon Turkey will end up holding the bag and in either scenario Hezbollah will merely forfeit whatever it thought it had in the first place, and there ‘thought they had’ was the operative part in all this and the Houthi forces merely lose. Optionally they will lose twice, because they made enemies of the local population all over the place as well and without Iranian funding these people will be running for the hills all whilst they know that everyone in Yemen will be out to get them. 

Game, set and match for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which comes with a dose of highly needed stability as well. And Iran? That leaves us out in the open, the people might accept a few parts, but the Nuclear deals are still there and Iran is delusional to think that Saudi Arabia (or Israel for that matter) will allow them to continue on the nuclear path they are.

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First promise kept

Consider your mobile, especially when you bought it less than a year ago. You think it is a mobile, you use it as a mobile and we all do, but the short and sweet is that it is more, it is your personal data server and EVERYONE wants access to whatever you have there. This has been the case for a while yet as per soon with 5G, a lot more people want access including organised crime, that is because data, personal and categorised data is the new currency and it is like printing money in your living room (if you have enough data). You see the governments are not ready for the waves that are about to hit us all and with 5G the waves will be higher and they will come with a factor 50. Now, for the most you will never notice, but when your data is out in the open, your value decreases. This is not some figment, this is a given. Insurance companies want all the data to see what premiums they can skew in their favour, some want to see your interest so they can advertise more directly and personally, some want to see who your connections are. For the most these corporations have no interest in your life, they want the data of millions and every ‘convenience’ added to the mobile is one step closer to the getting your data. It does not matter whether it is an Android or an iPhone, they want it all. So in the first stage I came up with the Dumb Smart Device. The dumb smart device is simple, it is a buffer. It will replace the swipes you will make at marketing, in shops, getting information and requesting data. It can accept data from all but will only pair with 1 or 2 devices, your mobile and your laptop, or desktop. It will make more sense as the other devices are added to public domain.

There is more, but it will come with the second device, this should get the hungry designer started, lets see what w get next.

You see we might ignore the swipes, but some will not, some will want to milk it for all they can and that cannot be stopped, but this device will dampen and delay the effect. Some will state that this is all between my ears, this is not real and it will never happen. Search the news, zero day faults, hacks on Cisco, Microsoft Exchange, Android hacks, iPhone hacks and all kinds of transgressions. We might think that we have a handle, but with 5G the usage pressure will increase factor 50 and the law cannot even keep up now, when that happens they will fight a battle they have already lost and they are all about blaming, but the real part is that they have no clue, so I came up with a few devices that to stem that tide. I doubt it will completely stop it, but I can delay the impact. And as the DSD gains momentum, we will see a new retail era emerge.

These DSD devices will be part of jewellery, rings (in a more advanced stage), pendants, necklaces and some will be kitsch, it will take shape like the ghetto blasters did. More and more will be a little oversized, some will become fashion statements basically saying ‘I have one, some will do it to show it is a tool. There will be all kinds of reasons, but it will grow in several directions all at the same time. A tool that needs no swiping, it keeps the mobile where it is sae, in ones pocket. And this stage is merely the beginning.

You see this was not designed in the Covid era, even though it benefits on a larger scale, it was not set as such. This came to mind when I saw the first drafts of Marketing needs to evolve, approaching customers will go differently and as my mind was adjusting to that stage, developing new methods of digital power towards customers and interactions, I saw that the power needs to be with the customers, only such an approach will create a larger wave of loyalty, not the ones taking power away from the customers, those giving them options will benefit to the same degree , but much longer, it creates larger retail waves. Yes the books are all saying the opposite, yet those books were written in an age where newspapers ruled, where the population was known, in a digital age that is not a given as such the empowering party will gain a longer benefit to that population, creating a larger wave of customers. It is a different approach to a different era. The iterators never understood it, they come from their ‘position of power’ and that dog no longer barks, we need a different approach and I a setting the first step by making it public domain, now the faster connector will become a larger player and optionally a winner. It is my first step, one of several to debunk those wannabe managers relying on bulletpoint memo’s. Now they cannot shout, now they have to deliver. Well, have fun with that.

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The knife to use

The stage is not a real one, the stage is a speculative one, one for the silver screen no less, optionally what some used to call the boob-tube, no matter where it goes, perhaps it goes nowhere, it does not matter, it served the purpose for those it was meant to be, and they now know that I knew, so we leave that up to the historians to consider. There is a man, he walks with his little boy, they are on route to some event, we only know that the event was on military grounds. They go through the gateway, we see all the scanners working, but they set off nothing. This was how it was supposed to be, in the mean time the crowds gather more and more. And as the to had walked for about half an hour, they were closer to the airfield. The man asked if the little  prince wanted an ice-cream, the first show is almost an hour away, the boy smiled and nodded. He bought a large cone and made sure that thy were sitting next to a couple of ladies. “Excuse me ladies, I really have to go to the bathroom, can you look after my little prince for a couple of minutes?”, they all nodded and he told his prince that he was off to the bathroom and that he would be back soon, and told him to just enjoy his ice-cream and the ladies would look after him whilst he was away. He walked quickly in the directions of the toilet signs, but the moment he turned a corner, he repositioned his gaze to the floor-plan in his mind, he quickly passed two buildings and entered a third one. He snuck up to the second floor and past a few doors, there as the door he needed to be. He got a knife out of his pocket, one made from rubber, one that would not set off any detectors. He ripped of a slither of the spine, it showed a piece of plastic, almost like the tape of a cassette, only ten times stronger and sharp as a razor. He carefully entered, there was no one, he quickly looked though the desk, and found what he was looking for. The paper were exchanged and then he heard the footsteps down the hall, exactly like anticipated. He had left the door ajar for that reason, he hid behind the desk and waited for the person to come inside. “Hello? Anyone here?”, the man seemingly looked in the office but did not go all the way. As he turned around the man stood up and moved swiftly, he sliced the neck artery and pushed him to the floor hard, the blood never reached his side and he quickly departed. Walked back and into the first bathroom he saw. He dropped the knife in the toilet and added the chemicals from a hip flask. The knife dissolved almost immediately, he flushed and left the toilet, he went back to his little prince, he hd been gone less than 15 minutes. He shrugged at the ladies “Sorry there was a queue”, he looked at his prince, his alibi. Wanna see the planes now? The boy nodded and they left both holding a new fresh ice cream. 

This is as far as the story goes, but consider that some weapons can never be retrieved, some investigations are closed because they were politically inconvenient and for the most the players deal in pieces of paper that they often do not completely understand, they are attracted to the number on that piece of paper (most often with a $ sign). So as we see the truths of political inconvenience, how long until we are told that sources are not as reliable as some stated they would be and in all this we see a continuing wave of people filling their pocket, so where does that leave the people who do not get a voice or a vote in the setting? As such how much faith can we have in the statement ‘China-Iran 25-year deal not aimed at any country: Iranian envoy’, or perhaps ‘Iran admits saboteur derailed nuclear program and escaped scot free’, so as such should we give value to ““There is no credible explanation or civilian justification for such an action on the side of Iran,” Stano said. The narrow scope of the new enrichment provides Iran with a way to quickly de-escalate if it chooses, experts say, but time is narrowing. An Iranian presidential election looms on the horizon as Tehran threatens to limit international inspections. While 60 per cent is higher than any level at which Iran has previously enriched uranium, it is still lower than weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent”? Yes what they are stating is true, yet any dirty bomb is happy to blow on the premise of 60% and that I still a very large danger, the situation is not merely the 60% marker, it becomes a time scale that if that goes correct, how far will 90% be from reality? Th political powers in the US and the EU are sitting on their hands, way too much. So when we are given “European Union spokesman Peter Stano called Iran’s decision “a very worrisome development” we see a quote absent of action. So when they give us “Talks will continue “for a few days and then I think the two most relevant delegations will go back home to receive more precise instructions and then, I don’t know when, we will resume,” the EU official told reporters in a phone briefing”, talks all talks and still no plan, even though Iran has broken pretty much every accord on a whim, that is why they are too dangerous to continue. And when Israel faces that dirty bomb, will we see strong words without action from the EU, they let the Jews be pushed into genocide once, the second time should be easier. The problem is that such a bomb will make most of the Mediterranean countries a danger to live in and for that matter, it will end options for Malta, Cyprus, Crete and a few other places, then the currents take that irradiated dust to Italy, Greece and Turkey to options are gone, Iran will blame some sod in a high place and the EU will smile because they got an Iranian accord, they merely had to be willing to sacrifice a few nations no one cared about. So is this how it is going to be?

A knife does not need to be metal, ceramics or even mistletoe to cut and slice, anything sharp will do and when the right people figure it out it will most likely be too late, the wrong people will relocate to a safe place holding on to riches they were never meant to have, so how many people were investigated, not merely them, but the bank accounts under their mother-in-law maiden name too. I wonder what that will result, if that person was working from the EU, the chances are that it will go nowhere. 

Those who wield a knife in the house of kitchen, they are all aware that the knife is a tool and/or a weapon, but the one element that we tend to forget is that a knife optionally extends the reach of a person, did you consider that? It might not seem much, it might not be much, but at times it is enough.

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When anger wins

We all have that moment, some call it ‘enough is enough’, others refer to ‘the straw that broke the camels back’, we have all kind of expressions, but in reality anger took the forefront of the debate and emotions run high, so whilst we get the view (by Al Jazeera) ‘Houthis say they attacked Aramco, Patriot targets in Saudi Arabia’, all whilst CNN, BBC, and a whole range of sources are quiet, in a stage where we get the news from merely Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. The other players were not that quiet when it concerned a journalist no one cares about, they were all screaming then. So this was my moment of anger, if news has to be filtered to this degree, it is time to set the  premise to a different scope. This first weapon system I designed (to sink the Iranian navy) is now public domain and in the hands of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the next step will be a new weapon that can meltdown the Iranian nuclear reactors. The hack that (allegedly) Mossad did was nice, but soon Iran will figure out how to set the nuclear reactors to closed systems with two separate systems with people at both ends and that ends the hack option, but I am still here, so a weapon (based on a novelty snow globe), should (in theory) create a nice and solemn Chernobyl reactor setting and it should work on most reactors, well at least the Russian reactors. I am nothing if not creative and I personally do not think anyone had considered that approach, so my science teacher in secondary school was right, I will not grow up to be any good, but I was preceded in this by most media and most politicians, so I am apparently in good company if I get to hell. 

At times anger gets to win, there is no other way, it brings to mind an old saying ‘Change is valuable, it lets the oppressed be tyrants’ and most of us have had enough of the current tyrants, even if we live in a golden cage. Yet I see no other option but the make matters worse, perhaps it will wake up the media and as they have to explain the essential need of share holders and stake holders, take notice of ‘their’ essential need. We wanted the news, we wanted all the news, but the share holders and stake holders did not agree, so I decided to pave the way for them to take the front seat in the limelight. It is not subtle, it is not a decent approach, but it was the only one left to me. 

You might oppose and that is fine, but consider all the actions that Iran was behind in the last two years and the amount of actions that somehow never reached many of the western media, now also take into consideration all the transgression Houthi forces did in Yemen, whilst we got one sided news on the actions of Saudi Arabia, how long do we tolerate a corrupt media circus? That is how I see it, filtered news is a form of corruption. I personally see no other way to interpret this.

It is my view and optionally my flaw as well, but as I said, as some point anger takes over and in that stage anything can happen, the media banked on that premise too often, but did they ever consider the fact what happens when that premise goes into another direction?

So, my weekend will be a weird one, but an essential one.

Have a great weekend.

 

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Belated brilliance

Some of us know what I am talking about, when we first see it, we think ‘nice’, nothing negative, just a plain nice. We liked the story, the girls loved Jude Law, the men were all over Jennifer Jason Leigh (virtually). The story was good, there was nothing bad about the whole thing, but now 20 years later some are realising just how brilliant David Cronenberg really was at that moment, our computers are catching on, our approach to virtual reality is catching on and suddenly what was once nice, is now regarded as the Koh-i-nor diamond. I am off course referring to eXistenZ the movie. We can take it apart from any angle, but consider the side we can now use on the PS5? What if we create an RPG that is a dream within a dream?

Not unlike the book the Talisman, consider a map, the normal game map set to a normal grid (whatever you call normal). Now we see a second map, that map has relative places in the same place (not the same place), but you are placed in wherever the temple, or resting place was. So in map one we have something resembling Japan, whilst Map 2 is more like New Zealand, as such map one is 50% larger, yet in relative places we see similar places and the resting places is an option to travel between the worlds, both worlds having duties, quests and achievements, but if you are a Shaman in one, you are an artisan in the other, a ying to every yang. Now that we have the power systems (like a PS5), we should use that to fuel gaming imagination, not merely a more buggy and textured killing game, but a sandbox game with several sandboxes, optionally they have very different kinds of sand in that box. Optionally there aren’t 2 worlds, but three or four, the opportunity offered will be staggering. 

Now consider that no game designer has ever considered creating such a leap, well, apart from serious Intel computers, the power was not there before, so why do we see more Assassin’s Creed 2022 LEAKS, with references to Africa, why more of the same whilst the last two games are still buggy? Why more existing IP, and what makes for the massive absence of new gaming IP? The creativity is out there, some of it is 20 years old and never considered for gaming, all whilst that movie was all about virtual gaming. What allows for an iterative mind to exist in a world that relies on true innovation? I mentioned that before, when you try to make a game that appeals to all, you end up with a product that pleases none, I would think that some game makers would have learned that small truth by now. I created (in my mind) in the last three months close to half a dozen games and if I can do it, why not these self proclaimed experts? 

I will let you decide, but if you get jumpy and overly exited when you see the next Assassins Creed, like a teenage boy seeing his first photo model topless shall we say. In a stage when we can be exploring life as a tailor, designing cloths for her naked body, I reckon you got exited for the wrong deal. By the way, according to some ladies that same formula works with Daniel Craig too, so he should be happy for now. 

For me, these ideas came to me as my mind was arranging books and movies, rearranging ideas in all novel ways to make connections that were not there before, so why aren’t others able to do just that?

And if you think gaming is a mess, consider that I completed the concept of a stealth systems to deploy a solution giving the Iranian navy a unique view of the Sea of Dammam (the view from the bottom), so what gives? Northrop Grumman lost idea’s and is relying on the Next Generation Interceptor program to stay alive a little longer? Well, if software iteration x.53 is anything to go by, it will not last long. Iteration was the game of financial stability, it is now the deterrent of innovative leaps ahead, it was the one part that the weapons industry had in common with the gaming world. Innovation was everything, and that is falling away more and more. 

So even as the Wall Street Journal gave us in 2018 “a payload adapter—that failed to operate properly in space”, it is interesting wording, apart from the silly notion that more than one thing went wrong, so as I gave two maps with different scaling, what else causes a person to be in a different place when he falls asleep? The person who never really knew where he (or she) was and that is important in gaming, because there we do not sleep, we merely pass time, so what happens when location and time are triggers? What if one life is set to time, but the other one is depending on a sun and a moon? In a real stage where we have two worlds where both work in a different premise, understanding that premise is essential if you want to efficiently win the game, that has been a cornerstone setting in RPG games for a long time, so why not change that stage, the technology is now powerful enough.

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