Pink Sauce

In the series: I can be just as stupid as you. I think I have finally figured out why the Isreali are so keen to start a war in Middle East. Apparently , the war is all gay people's fault. Hezbollah were attacking Isreal because World Pride was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem in August. There had been lots of opposition to the parade but finally the High Court (I believe) had given authorisation. Now, however, because of the war, the Parade has been cancelled . Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, who heads the Eda Haredit rabbinic court , said: "Who knows where things will get to if we do not act further and more stringently against it." Starting a war seems pretty stringent to me. The good Rabbi must be pleased that so many people will die to stop this peaceful demonstration of love to take place. Tags: Isreal , Middle East , Lebanon , Palestine , Middle East conflict , lesbian , Middle East crisis , Hezbollah , war , gay , LGBT , GLBT , lesbian , bisexual , transgender , homop...

Op. Non Cit. by Alan Isler An interesting and unintentional (but enjoyable) choice, considering the post below... Before that (and not showing on this pages through carelessness on my part), I read The Romanian , by Bruce Benderson. Tags: book , books , reading .

I have to admit that I am not sure what to think about what is currently happening in the Middle East. I keep reasonably well informed of what is going on but still I am confused. I dislike prejudice and want to try and be as objective as possible when forming an opinion about something. My gut feeling is to condemn the Isreali government for what they are doing both to Palestine and Lebanon. I can not help but feel that the state create by a people who has suffered so much from oppression should have learned a few leason and know to avoid conflict and agression. Of course, I am French and France notoriously supports the arab world and Palestine. I wonder to what extend I am conditioned by what I have heard most of my life on this sugject. After all Israel keeps on repeating that they are not being treated fairly or in a similar manner to other countries. I would like to avoid falling into that trap. Listening to interviews of Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, however, I...

In this week-end's Sunday Times, Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and the third most senior bishop in the Church of England, previewed Treasures on Earth , a booklet on environmental matters to be sent to every diocese for distribution. The paper reports that in this booklet, Chartres explains that it is "sinful for people to contribute to climate change by flying on holiday, driving a “gas-guzzling” car or failing to use energy-saving measures in the home." The argument is apparently supported by the idea that "scientific research supporting predictions that the earth faces serious climate change is “overwhelming”". And the bishop to ask Christians to be a little more mindful of what they do to increase climate change. No doubt, US Christians (read: Bush's supporters who are still more or less denying climate change and certainly the fact that we should reduce our carbon emissions) won't be too happy with that... On first examination, I am tempted to ...

Last week was busy to say the least. I had something on each and every evening, be it a rehearsal or a meeting. The week-end however provided the highlights. I won't tell you about Friday, since, the lost boy has done it for me . The next morning, I managed to wake up a reasonably good shape (and without a headache!) and made my way on time to the Royal Festival Hall where coaches were to pick me and my fellow chorines up and take you to Cardiff. As part of the celebrations of our 15th anniversary, the Chorus was taking its madness to sunny Wales for the first time. This was my first visit there too. We did not have much time to explore much however. Arriving at 3.30pm, we went directly on stage for the technical rehearsal and only came out again at 6pm for an hour break before the show. I had brought my dinner with me but having decided that I needed more water (always important when you sing), I went hunting for a supermarket of some sort. I was rather dismayed to notice that, wh...

We were only singing during the second part of the show. The first part was therefore spent c'leb spotting (there were lots of them around) or watching the show on TV with a crap sound backstage. I saw Jennifer Saunders (who looked rather pissed off), Graham Norton , his dog and its walker, Sandy Toksvig , Dame Ian McGandalf (aka Sir Ian McKellen ) who was organising the whole thing and appeared singing on stage as Widow Twanky. We had already spent the afternoon rehearsing and learning our positions. During the warm, Heather Small and her Musical Director came to say hello and were apparently quite impressed by the short demo we gave them of our vocal talents. Before the show, we had a break for dinner and a few of us found themselves sitting in nearby Hyde Park checking out a bunch of hunky guys playing football who turned out to be members of the cast of Mama Mia also having a break before the show. At 7.30, I went to great Slightly and his borther who were benefitting from the...

I know I am coming in a bit late in the debate but I just heard something on radio 4 that reminded me of it. I also saw a few placards of protest produced by Stonewall at Pride and politicians talked about it at the rally. About a month ago, one of the BBC's presenters, Chris Moyles, got under fire for calling a ringtone "gay". The BCC is supporting this choice of word saying that the word has now a new meaning of "lame", "rubbish". Does that mean that we can say that Moyles is gay (because, in my book, he is certainly rubbish) without the risk of being sued? Does Tom Cruise know about this? Some people were quick to voice their initial distaste at the loss of the original meaning of the word (as "joyous") and tried to minimise the whole thing by saying that this was just another step in the constant evolution of language. This is not however an innocuous or benign one. The new use of the word (by teenagers) is a direct result of homophob...

Yesterday, as expected , I received a Livebox which allows me to receive 8Mb broadband (for free). The installation wasn't quite as smooth as it could have been. My CD player is a little tired and I had to try several times to run the set up programme. Once everything seemed fine, my PC rebooted itself twice for no apparent reason (after showing, too quickly for it to be readable, a BIOS screen). I rang the Orange support line who were very friendly and apparently helpful although the technician diagnosed that the problem had nothing to do with the newly installed broadband but rather was due to a fault on my PC. I wasn't convinced. Finally, and rather unexpectedly, microsoft came to my help. Windows XP has a fault report facility built in. Each times my PC had rebooted, one such report had been sent as well as when the problem occured a third time. This time however, something new happened. An Explorer window opened giving me a possible solution to my problem. It seemed that...

Well, The programme of festivities for Europride I posted a week or so ago , underwent(as these things are wont) quite a bit of changes. The core of Pride, for me, is the parade. It is the important moment, where LGBT people take over the street and show that the exist and that they are probably not as scary as could be thought. The rest is mostly commercial profiteering. After doing my first ever Pride as a lonely walking drop in this sea of colours in 2001, here in London, I have ever since been stewarding at the Parade. An enjoyable and rewarding way to take part. The best possible position to be given as a steward is, in my view, to walk along the floats which allows you to actually take part in the parade. This year, because it was Europride and many people were expected, the organisations with a float were asked to also provide their own team of (6) stewards. The Southwark LGBT Network , of which I am the co-chair, were having a float sponsored by Southwark Council this year like...

Well, The programme of festivities for Europride I posted a week or so ago , underwent(as these things are wont) quite a bit of changes. On Thursday morning, I received an email from one of those mailing lists I am registered to, announcing a talk for the same evening by Judy Shepard ( Matthew Shepard 's mother). This was organised by Merril Lynch as part of the second Diversity Week. After humming and arring for a while, I decided to go. And a very good decision it was too. The talk was introduced by the Managing Director for London and started with a short address by Sergeant Richard Hendron, the youngest sergeant in the Metropolitan Police who talked about how the service had improved in openess with gay officers in the past 20 years. He also showed a fairly moving video retracing the history of the GPA . Then, it was Judy Shepard's turn. Although she describes herself as a mum simply sharing her views, she is an increadibly articulate speaker and a very inspiring one. She...

Yesterday, 05 July, marked the sixth anniversary of my arrival to London. A date I am keener to celebrate than my own birthday for some reason. In the morning of that day in 2000, I stuffed my stuff in my little 106 Peugeot and drove off to end up about 7 hours later, in Surrey Quays where I would stay at a friend's place for a few months. I remember, when I was probably about ten, wondering where I would be in 2000 when I would be 26. I didn't imagine at the time that I would be starting a life in a new country. There has been up and downs in those past 6 years (as should be expected) but on the whole, I think, the ups outnumbered the downs. I also got the chance to do things I would never have been able to do, had I remained in the sticks. Here is to another 6 years!