Christine Lagarde, former French Finance Minister, has become the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), succeeding its former head, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was also the presidential candidate for the French Socialist Party. DSK was charged earlier with attempted rape by the authorities in New York, a charge that seems to be now on its way to collapsing, in my opinion because his lawyer has proven to be better than the District Attorney. Two days ago, he was released on bail, which means that the prosecution's case is on shaky grounds. I am certain of one thing, with regard to Lagarde working at the IMF's headquarters in Washington, which is that she will not be caught naked running after a maid, male or female, to rape her or him, at a hotel room. I had an additional reason to welcome Lagarde's appointment, which is that DSK is a Likudnik extremist, as is his wife. If he were to become the president of France, he would have enhanced cooperation with the fascist government in Israel, and defended and promoted it despite its daily crimes. However, his ordeal may soon end with his exoneration, which means that he and his wife may return to their known pro-Israeli stances. Over the past week, I would barely resolve to comment on a news story before a more important story came along. In the end, I chose to select a number of stories to comment on, before they fade into oblivion: - From a Likudnik man to a Likudnik woman: According to the news, the old hag Barbara Amiel, wife of the Canadian-British media tycoon Lord Conrad Black, has collapsed in court. This happened when the judge decided to extend Conrad Black's sentence by 13 months, as his former company Hollinger, which owned several publications around the world including the London-based Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, had defrauded and fiddled its shareholders. Black was the fourth husband of the man-eater Barbara Amiel, who is his second wife. Were it not for the disastrous union between them, he would have perhaps remained a wealthy right-wing international publisher. However, she led him to his ruin, and then could not leave him because she was in her sixties, and thus could not find another ‘lamb' to skin and use its wool to stay warm. For this reason, she collapsed in court. But they both are ancient news. In truth, I would not have deigned comment on the extension of his sentence, and the new charges against him of embezzling his company's funds, were it not for the Likudnik angle of the story: For Barbara Amiel has habitually defended and justified Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians, whilst criticizing Arabs and Muslims, especially the Palestinians. May she be punished by divine justice, before worldly justice, as she deserves. - I have lived in the West more than I have lived in Lebanon. And yet, there are things about British society, and Western society in general, that I find hard to understand, despite the fact that my thinking combines many cultures. For instance, a few years ago, several boys attacked an Arab doctor living in London to rob him. However, he resisted and some passersby rushed to help him. Then when he detained one of the boys and took him to the police station, the police immediately released the boy and arrested the doctor, for illegally detaining the boy. The doctor told me after this that the boy had spent an hour at the police station cursing the police using the worst possible obscenities, and as loud as he could, but that nonetheless, the boy was released whilst the doctor was arrested. I recalled this story a few days ago as I read that the courts have ordered Scotland Yard to instruct its officers that cursing by suspects in custody against the police is not considered by them to be a crime or misdemeanor, no matter how obscene the cursing is, and shall therefore not punish them for it. Is this progress? Does it further freedom, democracy or human rights? I would have wished that one of these suspects curse Arab policemen at an Arab precinct, because he would probably return afterwards to his home with his tongue in his hand, if not another part of his body. - Meanwhile, gay (homosexual) rights advocates have achieved a phenomenal victory after the New York State Board approved a bill allowing gay marriage (male to male, and female to female). Gay people around the world celebrated this brilliant victory, and I saw gay people demonstrating in London and kissing in public. After 35 years in London, I now realize the importance of one exercising his or her freedom. However, I don't understand it when people try to impose this freedom on others. While I harbor no ill will towards homosexuals, I just want them to stay away from me. - There is a new film about Princess Diana that ends with a scene showing Mohammed Fayed burning the royal warrants, which show that the British royal family purchases goods from Harrods (recently purchased by the Qataris). He apparently did that to spite the royal family and British society, which rejected him after he failed to come out of his humble origins, and learn how to be accepted by this society. The burning of the warrants was yet another proof of the ignorance of Fayed, and of his complexes and mental illnesses. Like Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel, Fayed is ancient news that has no room in the present. [email protected]
