Novembre is upon us with the usual bank holidays. A couple of things are planned this month starting with a visit to Lyon and area next weekend to meet old school friends. The excuse is the visit to the Classic Car show “epoqu’auto 2021“.
✏️ Health situation update
COVID-19: INDICATORS ARE ON THE RISE AGAIN
With 13,600 new cases of the coronavirus this weekend, the epidemic is picking up slightly in France.
According to Santé Publique France, 6,329 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in 24 hours, compared to 5,005 last Sunday. On average, 5,858 cases are reported each day, an increase of 11% in seven days. However, the data collected over the weekend should be taken with a certain amount of caution, due to the large number of screening sites that were closed.
Apart from the infections, the incidence rate, i.e. the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants in France, continues to rise. While it was 51 last week, it had risen to 57 by the evening of 31 October. In all, 55 departments are above the alert threshold, set at 50, compared with 32 departments on Sunday 24 October. With an incidence rate of 102, Bouches-du-Rhône remains the most affected department in mainland France. In overseas France, the incidence rate even reached 192 in Guyana.
A RESURGENCE IN HOSPITALS The resumption of the epidemic is also confirmed in hospitals. In seven days, the number of deaths in hospital has increased by 7%.
The number of new admissions to hospitals has also picked up, with 105 new hospitalisations in 24 hours, compared to 63 seven days ago.
A total of 6,572 people are in hospital with Covid-19 infection. Of these, 1,046 people are in critical care due to the coronavirus, up from 1,018 a week ago, with 20 new admissions on Sunday.
▫️ SEASONAL PIC
Château d’Aguilar – Aude
▫️ FOOD & DRINKS
Novembre’s fruits & vegetables
(in 🇫🇷 but with pics)
▫️ MUSIC
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
▫️ INTERESTING FACTS
✏︎ In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are cars.
✏︎ In the UK you are legally required to stop if you run over a dog, but not a cat.
⦿ Daily update on the Covid epidemic in France, with figures from Santé Publique France and the Ministry of Health.
CONTAMINATIONS This Saturday 30 October, 7,360 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours, according to figures from Santé publique France, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the epidemic to 7,160,548. The test positivity rate is 1.9%.
HOSPITALISATIONS The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised was 6,524 (-710 in 24 hours), including 1,039 in intensive care units.
DEATHS In 24 hours, 22 people died in hospital due to Covid. The total number of deaths since the beginning of the epidemic is 117,671, of which 90,788 were in hospital.
VACCINATION Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in France, 51,216,484 people have received at least one injection (i.e. 76.4% of the total population) and 50,034,734 people now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 74.6% of the total population)[1].
▫️ SEASONAL PIC
Halloween
In the Irish countryside, in the heart of Dublin, in every small town, the spirit of Halloween is everywhere and has been for several days now. A festive way of getting in touch with the dead. This tradition is said to have originated in this city. Their Celtic ancestors left them this heritage.
It all started 2,500 years ago on the hill of Tlachtga. A great feast was held to celebrate the Celtic New Year on 31 October, just before the ominous winter nights. Here, the setting fits so well with the legends. The Irish love them, like the one about Jack O’Lantern, the character from Irish fairy tales who is now represented as a pumpkin with flaming eyes. “It was an evil creature, and people used to put a light inside it so they wouldn’t be scared,” says Thomas Dillon, a farmer in County Meath, who now sells 20,000 pumpkins during October, a must-see event for families. The sculptures, once carved into turnips until Irish immigrants to the United States preferred pumpkins, are displayed in front of homes and in schools.
Of course, this festival takes on its full meaning after dark, especially on a full moon night. This weekend even saw the opening of a festival dedicated entirely to Halloween, from a gloomy trail through the forest to numerous poetic shows. Slane Castle is the backdrop for the mix of history and legend, a symbol of Ireland’s pride in its folklore, heritage and Celtic roots.
▫️ FOOD & DRINKS
Time and time again, nuts have been shown to confer numerous benefits, such as better heart and brain health, better weight management and protection against chronic diseases, to name a few. Over time, these benefits add up to ensure healthy aging in later life.
While practically any kind of nut will help you age gracefully, a recent study found that one kind of nut, in particular, outshines the rest as a “superfood” for healthy ageing: WALNUTS
How to add walnuts to your diet
Walnuts are typically enjoyed raw as healthy snacks, but you can also incorporate them into your go-to recipes. Here are some easy ways to add walnuts to your diet:
Top your salads with chopped walnuts
Make homemade granola with a mixture of dried fruits, seeds and nuts, including walnuts
Use walnuts to make pesto sauce
Top your yogurt with chopped walnuts and fruits
Add walnuts to bread batter
Take note that walnuts are prone to becoming rancid because of their high fat content. If you want them to last in storage, keep them in their shells in a cool, dark and dry place.
▫️ MUSIC
I certainly was underaged when I saw the music-hall together with my friend Chris in the late 60’s during one of my regular visits to England / London.
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
▫️ INTERESTING FACTS
As previously announced, from tomorrow November 1st, chains or winter tyres will be mandatory in mountainous areas.
The prefects of departments located in mountainous areas have drawn up a list of communes / locations where vehicle equipment becomes compulsory during the winter period, i.e. from 1 November to 31 March.
Since we are on the subject of winter tyres (or tires if you are in the US) and having been in the industry most of my working life, let me warn you about purchasing cheap brands, particularly imported from certain parts of Asia.
Contrary to popular belief, tyres are high-tech products. To illustrate this, thanks to some of my previous colleagues, please find the link to a very informative info book on tyres.
(I hope the link from my Cloud works)
▫️ FUN / SATIRE
▫️ THE FABULOUS FRIDAY (FUNNIES) GROANS from Paul
Greeting from the Autumnial north (guess I would never have made it as a sign writer)
✒︎ I call my toothpaste ‘Death’ … … Then I tell people, “I had a brush with Death this morning.”
✒︎ Someone broke into my house last night. They took all my soap, shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste. They made a clean getaway.
✒︎ Some interesting thoughts
▻ I saw an ad for burial plots, and I thought: “That’s the last thing I need!”
▻ I have a few jokes about unemployed people, but none of them work.
▻ Will glass coffins be a success? Remains to be seen.
▻ What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter.
▻ Hear about the new restaurant called Karma? There’s no menu – you get what you deserve.
▻ I went to buy some camouflage trousers yesterday but couldn’t find any.
▻ What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind? A maybe.
▻ When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
▻ Is it ignorance or apathy that’s destroying the world today? I don’t know and don’t really care.
▻ The guy who invented the door knocker got a No-bell prize
▻ Sleeping comes so naturally to me, I do it with my eyes closed.
✒︎ Two short jokes
▻ In Spain, I saw a guy in the shop buying cases of San Miguel beer, panatellas and sombreros, I thought “Hispanic buying”
▻I told my girlfriend I was buying a spaghetti car. She didn’t believe me. You should have seen her face when I drove pasta”
✒︎ A man was relaxing on the sofa watching TV when he heard his wife’s’ voice in the kitchen. “What would you like for dinner, sweetie? Do you want chicken, beef or lamb?
“Surprised, he answered, “Thanks! I’d like chicken.”
“You’re having soup, drongo. I was talking to the cat.”
✒︎ Two guys are being chased by a bear, when one stops to put on his sneakers.
The other guy yells, “You idiot, you can’t outrun a bear.”
The first guy gasps, “I don’t have to outrun a bear – I just have to outrun you.”
The man called his wife’s 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it.
✒︎ Friendship among Women:
A woman didn’t come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend’s house. The man called his wife’s 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it.
Friendship among Men:
A man didn’t come home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend’s house. The woman called her husband’s 10 best friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was still there.
✒︎ It was a typically busy day at the bank. After a glance at the line of waiting customers, a harried-looking man came up to the side counter and demanded, “What do I have to do to change the address on my account?” Without missing a beat, the clerk replied, “Move.”
✒︎ Couples who have lived together a long time have their own way of communicating. A woman overheard her aunt and uncle one day, “What are you looking for in that closet?” she asked.”Nothing,” he answered. “Well, it’s not in there. Look under the bed.”
✒︎ “The thrill is gone from my marriage,” one buddy told another. “Why not add some intrigue to your life and have an affair?” “But what if my wife finds out?””Heck, this is a new age we live in. Go ahead and tell her about it!” So the guy went home and said, “Dear, I think an affair will bring us closer together.” “Forget it,” said his wife. “I’ve tried that so many times and it never worked.”
✒︎ A little boy was waiting for his mother. As he waited, he was approached by a man who asked, “Son, can you tell me where the Post Office is?” The little boy replied, “Sure! Just go straight down this street two blocks and turn to your right.” The man thanked the boy kindly and said, “I’m the new pastor in town. I’d like you to come to church on Sunday. I’ll show you how to get to Heaven.” The little boy replied with a laugh; “You’re kidding me, right? You don’t even know the way to the Post Office.”
▻ Q: Why couldn’t the pirate play cards?
A: Because he was sitting on the deck!
▻ Q: What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is every night?
A: A widow.
▻ Q: What did the pen say to the pencil?
A: What’s your point?
▻ Q: What has four legs but can’t walk?
A: A chair!
▻ Q: What did the baby light bulb say to the mama light bulb?
A: I love you watts and watts!
▻ Q: What do you call a fake noodle
A: An impasta!
✒︎A few hilarious short ones to complete the week.
▻ Did you know Muffins spelled backwards is what you do when you take them out of the oven? (go on, pronounce it backwards)
▻ Turns out, when people ask you who your favourite child is, you’re supposed to pick one of your own! Oops!
▻ Sure, skydiving is scary but … have you ever been to someone’s house and the toilet won’t flush?
▻ Apparently, it’s rude to poke someone in the forehead and say “Skip Intro” when they start talking to you!
▻ We all know where the Big Apple is, but does anyone know where the Minneapolis?
▻ My wife asked me why I spoke so quietly in the house. I said I was afraid Mark Zuckerberg was listening! She laughed. I laughed. Alexa laughed. Siri laughed …..
▻ I can’t believe I got fired on my very first day as a signwirter!
▻ Women love it when you kiss their neck .. just not when they’re driving … and you’re in the back seat … and they don’t know you!
▻ I finally did it! I bought a pair of shoes with memory foam insoles. No more forgetting why I walked into the kitchen!
▻ I was going to post a time travel joke … but you lot didn’t like it!
▻ I need to re-home a dog. It’s a small terrier and barks a lot. Let me know if interested and I’ll jump over my neighbour’s fence and get it for you!
It is not clear what the diminutive Ric actually stands for
Ric Hochet is a French-Belgian comic book series created by the scriptwriter A.-P. Duchâteau and the cartoonist Tibet, whose first volume was published in September 1963 by Le Lombard.
The first panel / board / page was published in the weekly magazine Tintin, on 22 May 1962,
I went to the comic book shop this morning and in one swoop purchased the 1st 4 albums of the”new” collection which started publishing in 2015.
It should keep me busy for a short while this weekend
There are at least 78 earlier publications… I better make some shelf space before I start the collection.
⦿ 🇫🇷 The contaminations have been increasing again. Here is the daily update on the Covid epidemic in France, with figures from Santé Publique France and the Ministry of Health.
CONTAMINATIONS This Thursday 28 October, 6,461 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours, according to figures from Santé Publique France, bringing the total to 7,146,755 confirmed cases since the start of the epidemic. The test positivity rate is 1.8%.
HOSPITALISATIONS The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised was 6,541 (+52 in 24 hours), including 1,037 in intensive care units.
DEATHS In 24 hours, 33 people died in hospital due to Covid. The total death toll since the beginning of the epidemic is 117,622, of which 90,739 have died in hospital.
VACCINATION Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in France, 51,147,229 people have received at least one injection, i.e. 76.3% of the total population, according to the French General Directorate of Health (DGS). 49,937,559 people now have a complete vaccination schedule, i.e. 74.5% of the total population.
When I purchased number 39 and latest published album a couple of weeks ago, I realised I was missing number 10 and number 35 in my collection. It is no longer the case since this morning.
On top of that it was very pleasant outside early afternoon and I really enjoyed reading them.
⦿ For several days, the contaminations have been increasing again. The risk of a real epidemic resumption cannot be excluded. Here follows the daily summary update on the Covid epidemic in France, with figures from Santé Publique France and the Ministry of Health.
CONTAMINATIONS On Tuesday 26 October, 6,133 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours, according to figures from Santé Publique France, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 7,133,766 since the beginning of the epidemic.
The test positivity rate is 1.7%.
HOSPITALISATIONS The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised was 6,445 (+40 in 24 hours), including 1,049 in intensive care units.
DEATHS In 24 hours, 38 people died in hospital due to Covid. The total death toll since the beginning of the epidemic is 117,555, of which 90,672 have died in hospital.
VACCINATION Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in France, 51,108,419 people have received at least one injection (i.e. 75.8% of the total population) and 49,889,136 people have now received the full vaccination schedule (i.e. 74% of the total population).
⦿ The incidence rate of covid-19 has been rising for several days in Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales.
Having fallen back below 50 on 10 October, the incidence rate in the Aude region crossed the alert threshold again yesterday, 25 October, over the sliding week from 16 to 22 October. At 55.3 per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday, it has risen again very slightly according to the figure published this Tuesday, concerning the sliding week from 17 to 23 October: 55.5.
In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the indicator, which fell below the alert threshold during the sliding week from 23 to 29 September, has been on the rise again since 9 October, with a relative stabilisation between 37 and 40 for several days. According to the figure published this evening, it is experiencing a stronger increase, to 45 cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the sliding week from 17 to 23 October. It is therefore approaching the 50 per 100,000 threshold.
However, the virus has not claimed any victims in the Pyrénées-Orientales for a week and in the Aude for five days. In addition, the number of patients admitted to critical care is stable in both departments (9 since 24 October in the Pyrénées-Orientales and 4 since 22 October in the Aude), while the number of hospitalised patients has increased slightly in the Pays Catalan (+2 in 24 hours to 57) and in the Pays Cathare (+2 since the previous day, 47 in total).
⦿ Pandemic on the rise in Europe ? In the last 7 days, some 1,672,000 cases, or an average of 239,000 per day, have been recorded in the region. This is 18% more than the previous week, and about 60% more than in August and September, when the number of new cases stagnated at around 150,000 per day.
⦿ Incidence rate by “departement” mainland France on October 25th
▫️ TRAVEL
I have taken out the travel page from this blog. Instead here is a link to the page I mostly used for information. It is in French as everything on it is from the point of view of France but easy to understand.
Below is the current French country classification
▫️ SEASONAL PIC
▫️ FOOD & DRINKS
✏️ In Toulouse, you can buy armagnac in bulk!
Next time you are in Toulouse
Opened two and a half months ago, the Toulouse wine cellar Mr Pépin has chosen to sell spirits in bulk. An obvious choice for Julien Cazaubon, who sees many advantages.
What if, before a family meal or an evening with friends, you went and filled your bottle with a good Armagnac from the Domaine d’Espérance or an organic gin produced in Aveyron? It is already possible at Mr Pépin’s, in Toulouse.
The principle is simple. By buying bottles of 35, 50 or 70 cl, you can serve yourself in the “dames-jeannes” placed on a piece of furniture specially designed by Julien Cazaubon, who opened this wine cellar a few weeks ago on Place Arnaud-Bernard. I am the first in Toulouse to sell spirits in bulk, without a wholesaler,” he says. I wanted to remain independent and work with the producers I wanted. That’s why I created these cabinets so that I wouldn’t have to rent them to the wholesaler and be obliged to work with their suppliers.
The principle is simple. By buying bottles of 35, 50 or 70 cl, you can serve yourself in the “dames-jeannes” placed on a piece of furniture specially designed by Julien Cazaubon, who opened this wine cellar a few weeks ago on Place Arnaud-Bernard. I am the first in Toulouse to sell spirits in bulk, without a wholesaler,” he says. I wanted to remain independent and work with the producers I wanted. That’s why I created these cabinets so that I wouldn’t have to rent them to the wholesaler and be obliged to work with their suppliers. And the concept seems to please, as the demand is already there, much to the delight of the business manager. A clientele of young working people between 30 and 40 years old, seduced by the ecological approach but not only. “The prices are also really interesting”, adds Julien Cazaubon, who has invested nearly 60,000 euros in the business.
And the bulk wine? “There will soon be a French whisky and a Jamaican rum. Offering bulk wine is still very complicated. But it is possible for spirits, of which I am a great fan”, explains the young man in his thirties, a sommelier by training. “Eventually, I want to expand the range by offering brandies, vermouths and liqueurs. The field of possibilities is immense. The aim is to have one room for wines and one for spirits. Because, with more than 350 references, mainly organic, biodynamic or natural, Mr Pépin does not forget the wine lovers either.
Mr Pépin wine cellar, 8 Pl. Arnaud Bernard, 31000 Toulouse
✏️ In case of emergency
▫️ MUSIC
Tangerine Dream
I use to be and I guess still am a fan of the German group who were pioneers in electronic music. I regret missing their show in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2010.
The link below is part 1 of the concert. For fans only. To be listened to with head phones, in the dark and slightly sloshed.
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
▫️ ODD
Did you know there is a German moustache and beard championships?
The competition, which is held in Eging am See in the country’s south-east, saw about 100 men flock into town to proudly display their hairy assets.
Winter must be on the way, despite the current 20ºC , we ate our 1st choucroute of the season this lunchtime. All ingredients were purchased in my favorite shop in town and namely „La Ferme“.
What is choucroute exactly?
Choucroute (from the German Sauerkraut or “sour cabbage”, altered to “cabbage” and “crust”) is a dish made from finely chopped cabbage that is lacto-fermented in a brine and served with a side dish (meat, fish).
The fermented cabbage is usually cooked in white wine but can also be cooked in cider, beer or champagne. Other, more recent variants replace the meat and cold cuts with an assortment of fish, called “sauerkraut of the sea”, or soy sausages “vegetarian sauerkraut”.
It is a dish that is mainly eaten in Europe with local variations. In France, it is emblematic of Alsatian cuisine.
This way of preparing cabbage is said to have originated in China and was spread by the Huns during their conquests (Bavaria, Austria and Alsace). At that time, lacto-fermentation was one of the methods used to preserve vegetables such as turnips.
In France, the first references to the cooking of lacto-fermented cabbage date from the 15th century. In the 17th century it was called compost cabbage, and in the following century it became widespread in Alsace. In the 19th century, sauerkraut became the name for a dish of cooked cabbage and its accompaniment.
Received a couple of miniatures today which I had ordered weeks ago. I have actually seen both cars racing at Le Mans .
I am particularly pleased with the Rondeau designed and built by a local Le Mans guy who unfortunately was killed in a fatal accident (hit by a train) far too early in 1985.
I should be asleep but from past experiences 3 decades ago, I am concerned about the strong possibility of being woken by pain. Maybe it would be wiser to get another 2cl shot of C17H19NO3.
✏️ The health pass becomes compulsory in France today for people working in contact with the public, notably in restaurants, cinemas, museums and on mainline trains.
✏️ As from today, the speed limit will be 30 km/h in almost all the streets of Paris.
✏️ Daily update – National
CONTAMINATIONS On Sunday 29 August, 13,630 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours, according to figures from Santé publique France, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the epidemic to 6,742,488. The positivity rate, which measures the number of positive cases in relation to the number of people tested, stands at 2.9%.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS The critical care services, which treat the most serious forms of the disease, cared for 2,276 people, compared to 2,259 the day before.
DEATHS 53 people have died of Covid-19 in hospitals in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths in this epidemic in France to 114,210.
VACCINATION To date, 48,390,138 people have received at least one dose of vaccine, i.e. 71.8% of the total population, and 43,584,130 people have had a complete vaccination schedule, i.e. 64.6% of the total population.
✏️ Daily update – Regional
With, respectively, 11 and 13 deaths during this week, the Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales record the worst results of the summer and this even if there were no deaths on Sunday.
In the Aude, this Sunday, 89 people are hospitalised, including 14 in intensive care and 63 in conventional hospitalisation (as the day before). 393 people died from Covid-19 in the Aude, the same number as on Saturday evening. In total, there have been 11 more deaths this week, which has been the worst of the summer on the Covid front.
Incidence rate in the Aude still very high at 235 but going down
In the Pyrénées-Orientales, 119 people were hospitalised (+1 in 24 hours) including 19 in intensive care (as the day before) and 54 in conventional hospital (+1). There were no additional deaths this Sunday in the Pyrenees-Orientales where 380 people died from Covid-19. There were 13 deaths during the first 6 days of the week. There too, there had not been so many deaths linked to Covid since the beginning of the summer.
In Occitanie, 1,195 people were hospitalised (+1 in 24 hours) including 305 in intensive care (+7) and 614 in conventional hospital (-7). 4,922 people have died from Covid in the region since March 2020, including 4 more this Sunday.
▫️ MUSIC
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Celebrity spotlight
Stevie Nicks
▫️ TRAVEL NEWS
Travel Page. has been updated with the latest information available:
▫️ FOOD & DRINKS
Nostalgia
▫️FUN
▫️ SATIRE
▫️ NEWS FROM ACROSS THE POND 🇺🇸
Some more gems from crazy USA
▫️ ADDITIONAL READS FOR TODAY
📖 Tony Blair should go to Afghanistan
The former British PM should follow up by personal example on his calls not to abandon Afghanistan.
Former British PM Tony Blair leaves BBC Headquarters after appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, June 6 [Henry Nicholls/Reuters]
Robert Fisk would not be amused.
Rather, I suspect, the late and unparalleled marquee columnist for the online British newspaper, The Independent, would, at the least, be bemused by the cyber-pamphlet’s bewildering decision to republish a 2,700-word piece of exculpatory blather penned by Tony Blair – a preening, historically illiterate dilettante Fisk detested.
Providing Blair with prime editorial real estate represents a curious and surprising volte-face, given that, not too long ago, a senior editor scolded the former prime minister in a pointed “Letter from the Deputy Editor” for having “crawl[ed] out of the woodwork to deny any responsibility for the worsening security situation in Iraq.”
The derisive note ended with this sharp indictment: “But whatever you think of his recent outburst…Mr Blair is right about one thing: the whole of the Middle East is under threat. He just needs to accept the part he played in its downfall.”
I take it that all is forgiven as The Independent has seen fit to permit Blair to crawl out of the woodwork again and share his latest windy “outburst” with readers.
I doubt Fisk would have welcomed or endorsed The Independent’s sorry, click-driven bout of amnesia.
Over many years and in many columns, Fisk excoriated Blair using deliciously blunt language. I revisited Fisk’s prolific catalogue to gather his thoughts about the unrepentant warmonger and his catastrophic obstinance to reshape Iraq and Afghanistan, since it appears The Independent’s editors have forgotten.
Fisk’s overarching assessment of Blair’s essential character cannot be dismissed as an ad hominin attack. Informed by his singular intelligence and experience, it is, instead, an accurate reflection of the foul measure of a comfortably rich, dictator-hobnobbing hypocrite (see Blair’s military coup d’état pal in Egypt, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi) who continues to be described, insanely, as a “socialist”.
Fisk not only called Blair “repulsive”, but also a “worthless” and “mendacious” political figure “who – in an obscenity of history – we…refer to as a ‘peace envoy’” and given his “prosaic” nature, has had a disastrous preoccupation with the “banal” at the expense of the profound, indelible human suffering he is responsible for.
I challenge you to find a more precise precis of Blair.
Proof of every word Fisk employed to define Blair is evident in his recent spleen burst which, at times, reads like the grasping apologia of an aggrieved man seeking desperately to convince others of his innocence when the historical record of his guilt is fixed permanently.
In a futile and, indeed, repulsive attempt to absolve himself of liability for the lethal quagmires he engineered with a Catholic missionary’s zeal to neuter “Islamist terror”, Blair brandishes a rhetorical rod to bash the “abandonment” of Afghanistan as a short-sighted strategic folly that has delivered the country to the malignant Taliban.
Reading Blair’s revisionist, self-serving missive, I wondered, seriously, whether he does not remember that he is, in fact, Tony Blair – the cocksure prime minister who fused himself to George W Bush like a conjoined twin to unleash two unrelenting wars while dismissing the prescient, persistent cautions of millions of wise Brits who, along with Fisk, warned of the humanitarian calamity to come.
Tony Blair and George W Bush are, by now, widely accepted synonyms for “strategic folly”. That Blair remains incapable of acknowledging, let alone atoning for, his egregious geopolitical sins by, in part, just shutting up, is evidence of his abiding hubris and mendacious constitution.
Predictably, Blair trots out the familiar pallet of excuses to try to paint a more agreeable and forgiving portrait of who and what he is – today and tomorrow.
After 9/11 the world was “spinning on its axis” – which Blair apparently needs reminding it does normally – and the fear of another “slaughter” required a response. In his recounting, Blair did not help launch wars that maimed and slaughtered countless innocents in Fallujah, Samarra, Amarah, Tel Afar, or Anbar province, but plotted pleasant-sounding “interventions”. He made mistakes – “some serious” – along the calamitous way. But his intentions were noble. He fails, however, to elaborate on the number and scope of those no doubt irritating errors.
How convenient.
Fisk knew how Blair’s “interventions” in Iraq and Afghanistan would end years before they ended – in inevitable defeat and ruination – because he did not pause to consider some necessary questions.
“Where, oh where are we going?” Fisk wrote. “How much longer must we willfully misread what we are doing and what is being done to us?”
Still, perhaps the most telling and worthless aspect of Blair’s rambling essay is this cliched passage recalling the lonely weight that only prime ministers and presidents understand: “I know better than most how difficult are the decisions of leadership, and how easy it is to be critical, and how hard to be constructive.”
So, in the spirit of constructiveness, let me make this earnest proposal to Blair: Go to Afghanistan to show, by your estimable example and presence, that, unlike the quislings who have retreated in humiliation, you stand steadfast, “shoulder to shoulder” not with the dauphin Bush this time, but with besieged Afghans.
Put down your pen, Mr Blair, and pack a bag – and a bible if need be for comfort and reassurance of the righteousness of this honourable endeavour.
Surely you can leverage your lucrative, rarified contacts in Riyadh, Cairo or Tel Aviv to arrange for safe passage to turbulent Kabul. They could enlist a band of “special” forces to accompany you on your perilous pilgrimage; a tangible testament that, unlike the unnamed quislings, Tony Blair is a man of his word who will not abandon Afghans and Afghanistan.
But we and you know that you will never go, Mr Blair. Afghanistan is a dangerous, unpredictable place and you might be hurt or killed like the thousands of British soldiers who were disfigured and perished in that dangerous, unpredictable place because you decided to impose, through force and on your command, your vain, evangelical designs.
You and your faithful apologists will insist that my entreaty is absurd. It is much less absurd and certainly much less costly – both in the trillions spent to wage your disfiguring wars of choice and the deep damage done in mind, body and spirit to Afghans, the casualties of your vain, evangelical designs.
Despite your calculated effort to rid yourself of the stain of disgrace you have so earned, it will always follow you like a long shadow under the late-day sun.
And, Mr Blair, you cannot escape that your epitaph has already been written by the incomparable Robert Fisk: “Again, the same old story. It’s not the extent of an Afghan’s loss that will measure his recompense but the degree of culpability of those who brought about that loss. And we are never – ever – going to blame ourselves.”
![Former British PM Tony Blair leaves BBC Headquarters after appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, June 6 [Henry Nicholls/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-06-06T085315Z_885131041_RC2WUN9LVGJ2_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN-POLITICS.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
