Morning music
On this day a year ago
If I say so myself, my blog post from a year ago has stood the test of time well, as have most of those of my blog posts that I have reread recently.
In fact, my blog post about the “anti-terror” programmes “Prevent” and “Channel”, published 3-4 years ago, seems to be still very relevant: see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/05/30/one-mans-extremism-is-another-mans-struggle-for-liberty-and-justice/.
Looks hopeful…
One aspect of all that that I have noticed is the growth in and around academia of a not-very-respectable pseudo-academic industry focussing on “terrorism” and “radicalization”. There are plenty of pretty useless people, some of whom are superannuated students, some with nominal academic titles or positions, some ex-Army, ex-police etc, involved, all making careers or at least incomes out of this farrago of nonsense.
It’s a bit like the whole “security” business; it gives shelter to quite a lot of bogus people, “studies”, programmes etc.
An anecdote from my past: when I lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan (1996-1997), I usually attended meetings held for locally-resident expats like me, given by and at the small British Embassy (where I was fairly often anyway, and which was only about 15 mins walk from my ex-Soviet “penthouse” apartment on the then Prospekt Lenina, one of the main streets).
At the time, not many British people lived in Almaty (former Alma-Ata), and there were virtually no tourists. I think that I was told about 70 or so Brits lived in Almaty itself, in a city of over 1.5M people (the oil fields, which did employ quite a few expats, were mostly around the Caspian Sea, 1,500 or more miles away; Kazakhstan is very large).
Even the Embassy had only a few British employees, along with locally-recruited staff: the Ambassador (who was also First Secretary), the Second and Third Secretaries, and a couple of other people in such roles as consular or admin staff. A blonde girl whose official status I do not recall was the SIS representative, or so I think that I was told. I have no idea whether she was declared or not. Probably.
All in all, a shoestring operation (I mean the whole British diplomatic effort), despite the fact that British companies were major investors in the country.
The Embassy shared a building with the French and German embassies, the Germans taking the lion’s share of space, and paying out most of the cost (the internal armed security, in a glassed-in bulletproof box in the entrance hall, were all German). There were three receptionists, too, at other desks, each with a little flag in front of her: Union Jack, French tricolour, German.
One time, that meeting for expats, held in late afternoon, was better-attended than usual, with about 40 people there, attracted by a notification from the Embassy that an expert in personal security would be giving a talk.
The “personal security expert” turned out to be a very odd-looking fellow. He was fairly short, and wore a long-ish black leather coat into the meeting, which gave him rather the air of von Smallhausen in the British TV comedy, ‘Allo ‘Allo! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Allo_%27Allo!]; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Louis_Mansi].
My memory may be faulty here, but I think (in fact am pretty sure) that the expert was even wearing a leather wide-brimmed hat when he arrived! He stared rather insolently at me as he walked past to the front of the meeting (or perhaps my paranoia is showing…).
The “personal security expert” was introduced as ex-British Army (no detail, as far as I can recall), and started off by saying that he had only been in Almaty and Kazakhstan, for the first time, two days, and that every expat Brit he had met had told him that the city was very safe. He disagreed, and then recounted how, the very evening before the talk, he had attended a nightclub, only to trip over a dead body as he left…
Actually, the security expert was halfway right. There were dangerous aspects to Almaty. An American (possibly CIA), supposedly a journalist (no-one had heard of), working for a little magazine (that no-one had heard of), and based (supposedly) in Texas, was tied to a chair, tortured, and then murdered, in a building across the wide avenue from where I myself lived.
Arrests and confessions were made and obtained the very next day by the Kazakh police. The story I heard later was that the KNB (the continuation of the former Soviet Kazakhstan SSR KGB) suspected the American of being some sort of American spy, and so had installed hidden cameras and listening devices in his flat (quite likely; I had reason to think that my flat was similarly blessed, at least as to audio), and so the police, via the KNB, had actual footage of the ghastly crime committed by two men the American had met in a nightclub.
The official line was that the American had met the two men in a casino/nightclub and taken them back to his flat for homosexual purposes. They wanted his money, and his CD and video players, and killed him for that. The Kazakh authorities did not say how they had tracked down the killers in only one day; as to the confessions, a few stories I heard about other incidents make the confessions easier to believe: the Kazakh police can be very rough.
Well, there’s my story. The visiting “personal security” expert gave a few tips about securing doors etc, but I cannot recall that he mentioned my own top security tip, which is to avoid most bars, nightclubs, and casinos in places like Kazakhstan! I hate noisy nightclubs anyway, and managed to avoid them when I was in Almaty, with the exception of one place I had to attend, once, out of duty. My own evenings when not at home were spent in quiet restaurants (especially a Georgian place I liked, down a very quiet lane not far from my address), in equally quiet hotel bars, or with Russian friends at the small ski resort (just a hotel, a cafe, and a ski lift) of Shymbulaq (in the mountains above Almaty), or (quite often) at diplomatic receptions to which I was invited.
A few times, on weekends, I went up to a place even higher in the mountains, an Alpine-style lodge at Tyuk-Su, informally called the Presidentski Bar, which was actually owned by President Nazarbaev, but was open to the public (to the few who had imported SUVs or at least Lada Niva jeeps, and so could get up there) when the President was not using it. I liked that place.
I have to say that I found Almaty to be reasonably safe then (25 years ago), though I did once have a scuffle in the car driven by an unlicensed “taxi driver”, i.e. car owner making extra money, and when returning from my office one day. Nothing much, I suppose, though my shirt was slightly torn and my sunglasses broken (the driver also suffered a couple of shoves and elbow jabs etc before he drove off quickly). After that, I engaged a former Soviet MVD driver, used by some German diplomats, to ferry me to and from my office, though I still used “wild” cars (and local trolleybuses and trams) at other times.
Safety now, in Almaty? I have no idea. I have never returned.
For me the lesson is to be sceptical of both “security and intelligence” bods and “terrorism and radicalization” “experts”.
Incidentally (?), I have noticed that these various odd “anti-radicalization” and “terrorism and security” academic think tanks (etc), are packed with Jews. Indeed, the tweet showcased above, from the “ICSR” at King’s College (London University), shows that the ICSR is publishing material in tandem with the “Community Security Trust” [“CST”], the very well-funded Jewish strongarm and snoop org. Blatant infestation.
“Panicdemic” latest
“Doomsday prediction [that] Omicron could overwhelm NHS ‘is flawed’: HALF of patients in London hospitals ‘with Covid’ were only diagnosed AFTER arriving with another ailment, it is revealed as experts and MPs rail against ‘pessimistic’ Sage’s worst-case scenarios.”
Separate figures published on the NHS England website show there were 1,248 patients in hospital with coronavirus in London on December 14, the latest date available, but only 963 of them were there because of the virus.
The remainder – almost a quarter – were being treated for something else and their positive test was merely incidental.” [Daily Mail]
The most likely place to get “Covid” —and much else— is precisely in one of the now-shambolic, maladministered, and unclean NHS hospitals.
More about the “panicdemic”
OK as far as it goes, but the writer does not mention the “Great Reset”, nor the fact that the “panicdemic” is being utilized as an excuse to launch a transnational police state and dictatorship, complete with microchip “vaccine passports” (to track people 24/7) and so on.
Sarah Moulds, animal abuser— latest
“A shamed primary school teacher filmed kicking and slapping a horse during a hunt has been sacked.
Sarah Moulds, who was condemned by the RSPCA for alleged animal cruelty after shocking footage of her emerged, has now lost her job at Somerby School after she was suspended last month.
The disgraced rider and mother-of-two from Somerby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, learned her fate today following a six-week investigation by education chiefs.” [Daily Mail].
Well done to the anti-hunt activist who took the film, without which that bitch would never have been named, shamed, and prevented from having contact with young children.
Tweets seen
Starmer and “Labour” have just nothing to say, nothing…
Neither have the “Conservatives” anything to say, though…
https://twitter.com/Steve_Laws_/status/1472952551460978697?s=20
The enemies of national freedom riddle the msm.
Stray thought
I saw a newspaper report to the effect that the Queen is concerned that Prince William continues to fly himself with his family in one helicopter. I share that concern, despite not being particularly pro-monarchy. After all, whatever one may think of “William and Kate”, were they to be knocked off the board (with their offspring), the British people would be looking at a King Henry IX somewhere not far down the line, with Queen Meghan as queen-consort. That really would be the end of the monarchy. Maybe not such a bad idea…
Late tweets
Clown. Sinister clown.
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1473232217405067265?s=20
https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1473276006530170887?s=20
https://twitter.com/theysayitsrare/status/1472866077403144192?s=20
https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1472896890303926276?s=20
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 