Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings: June 2004

La Cucaracha - The Music Of The Spanish Civil War

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Regional press weighs Iraq handover

You asked for it!!!!

Yummy

Well at least one of you folk, yes Sharon, has asked me to post recipes. Here goes.

"The Today Programme has decided to find out if other countries are as unhealthy - so over the course of a week we will be travelling around the globe find what other nations are eating...

Our first stop was the Ukraine. Helen Fawkes came across a dish called Chocolate Salo: The dish is a tasty mix of pork fat covered in chocolate.

The next port of call was the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Here Matt Prodger came across the famous deep fried steak known as 'Karadjordje Stea'k - named after the Prince of Serbia.

The next country on our whistlestop tour was Canada. In Toronto our reporter Lee Carter discovered 'Poutine'. This dish is was originally dreamt up in a French town on the outskirts of Quebec. The dish is made of thin fries, fresh cheddar cheese curds and to top it off - a serving of gravy. The curds have to be fresh so they do not melt. If this happens the dish is dismissed as a fake.

We sent our next reporter on a Bavarian mission. Ray Furlong has ordered a dish called Schweinshax'n - the main ingredient

is deep fried leg of pig.

Chocolate Salo Recipe

* Cut off a section of pork fat (but avoid the rind unless you are really adventurous.)

*Carve the meat into a shape of your choice.

* Cover in melted chocolate andstore in the freezer.

* Once the chocolate has set, eat and enjoy.

Karadjordje Steak:

* One fillet of veal or pork.

* Coat with generous helping of kajmak (fermented milk top) and egg yolk.

* Wrap with bacon or ham (optional)

* Cover with breadcrumbs.

* Deep fry for ten minutes.

Poutine:

* French fries

* Fresh cheddar cheese curds

* Gravy poured all over the dish.

Schweinshax'n

* Bread and lard

* Deep fried leg of pig

* Fruit dumplings and cream "

Enjoy

Cheers.

t (sloping off licking lips)
http://tonyhatfield.blogspot.com/

False Memory Syndrome

One of the reasons Bush/Cheney gave for their unlawful invasion of Iraq was a link between Saddam and the leader of the 9/11 atrocity, Mohammed Atta. They blathered on about a meeting between Atta and Iraqi intelligence in Prague in April 2001. Nobody, certainly not the 9/11 Commission, believes this tosh anymore. But compare these two extracts from TV interviews with Cheney. The first a few days ago, the other in April 2001.

" Let's go to Mohammed Atta... you have said in the past that it [the alleged Prague meeting] was quote "pretty well confirmed."

Cheney: "No I never said that."

Interviewer: "OK"

Cheney: "Never said that....absolutely not."

Now the 2001 interview with NBC's Tim Russert.

Cheney: "Well, what we have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course was that report that- it's been pretty well confirmed that he [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia [sic] last April".

Cheers.
t
http://tonyhatfield.blogspot.com/

Useful phrases

This may be useful for the Greek/France game this evening.( With thanks to the Graun.)

Eh, une minute, Nicos Dabizas n'a pas été choisi! Bah Ce n'est pas un cadeau des grecs.

"Hold on they haven't picked Nicos Dabizas.! Well, so much for Greeks bearing gifts

Cheers.
t
http://tonyhatfield.blogspot.com/

2-2 ?

Don't be daft, of course there's no evidence that the 2-2 draw between Sweden and Denmark was fixed ahead of time. After all it was the only result, assuming Italy beat Bulgaria, that would allow both these Scandinavian neighbours to proceed into the lucrative knock-out stage of Euro 2004. And for the Azzurri to climb aboard their Alitalia Airbus and return to a frightful inquisition at home, and their manager, Trapattoni, to collect his P45 from the Italian federation. The score had all conviction of votes divvied out in the Eurovision Song Contest.

What was really disturbing however were the opinions of the commentators on the radio and TV this morning. To a man they told their audience that the game could not have been fixed. After all they watched it and would have been able to spot any hanky-panky! Bollocks. Professional sport is awash with examples of cheating. And that cheating is almost never exposed by the commentators.

A Google search turns up some of soccer's more dark and putrefying corners.

In a recent interview with German TV, Franz Beckenbauer, hinted that his club Bayern Munich, threw a Bundesliga game to ensure city rival TSV 1860 Munich did not win the 1966/67 title . "We lost 5-2 in Braunschweig and that suited us," Beckenbauer, now a Bayern executive, told German television. "I can say it now. We did not want our local rivals to win the title again. I'm not saying that we lost on purpose but our resistance was limited to the minimum."

Gheorghe Hagi, Romania's best-known star, alleged important matches were decided for up to $60,000.

And who can forget Bernard Tapie, who brought to European Cup to Olympique Marseille in 1993? The cup was hardly in the club's trophy cabinet when the team was disqualified following evidence of bribes to players of Valenciennes to "go easy" in a league match against Marseille.

And if you think it's only the dirty furriner how about Grobbelaar's clumsy$65,000.00 game against Newcastle in 1993 to enable, it was alleged, a far-eastern betting syndicate clear the pot?

Did we hear an suspicions voiced from those "experts" at the matches. Did we hell!

How about Sir Alex Ferguson's suggestion that the Champions League quarter-final draw in spring 2003 was rigged? "Real Madrid -- they have a nice draw, they must have picked it themselves," the Old Trafford boss said. "The Spanish or Italian teams don't play each other. How do you think they work that out? They don't want us in the final, that's for sure."

Rob Hughes of The London Times perhaps got close to the truth. Trying to keep a lid on corruption, he wrote, "is like trying to trap odious vapour in a colander. The poison seeps out."

Cheers.
t
http://tonyhatfield.blogspot.com/

Embarassing CD

I've been sorting out my CD's. And I thought it would be fun for us to own up to our most embarrassing CD. I'll get the ball rolling with..no not the Nolans..but Rick Astley's 1987 offering " Whenever You Need Somebody". Over to you! Cheers. t

Complacency

OK, so I do have too much time on my hands, but for the last week one of my daily pleasures has been to watch the English teams' press conference from their hotel outside Lisbon. Knowing little about the "beautiful game" I'd hoped to learn something about team structure, tactics and similar features of the game that have just passed me by. I was not too surprised to how most of our players need little encouragement to demonstrate their stupidity. I'm surprised that the Anti-Social Behaviour Act does not include a provision allowing an order to be imposed on the excessive use of football clichés. Perhaps I'm being too hard. In fact I know I am. The fault does not lie on this uninspiring lot. It lies with the journalists who seem to be unable to construct a question intended to elicit a half- intelligent response. Last Saturday and Sunday, three players on display were Beckham, Frank Lampard and John Terry. I guess these must be amongst the brightest. Presumably those in the Rooney dullard camp would not be allowed out without their minders. The BBC's top man Garth Crooks tested them. "Becks" managed to tell him at least half a dozen times that the team were not complacent. "Complacent" is a magic word ", with all sportsmen and politicians. They had actually "studied" their next opponents Croatia, and they were a "good team". He continued by telling Mr Crooks that their aim was "to go as far as possible in the tournament" Good one that Beckham! Lampard us that "he was pleased to be in here", and "they would not underestimate Croatia". But to top that on came John Terry, yes one of the Chelsea Four, "I think we'll win, and I intend to have a good game." Some f***ing achievement that Garth!

Parmigiana

Most Italians have a recipe for this wonderful dish. There are almost as many different versions as there are households. Do try!

Parmigiana.

Baked aubergine with tomato and cheese. (Makes two to three portions)

2 Aubergines
Sea salt
1 Onion chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil *
150g tomato sauce **
1small bunch basil
2 hard-boiled eggs cut into slices
100g mozzarella cut into slices
100g Parmigiano grated
Salt and pepper

Cut the aubergines lengthwise into slices, each about 2cm thick. Cover with sea salt for an hour, to let the bitter juices run out, then rinse, dry and deep- fry until just golden brown. Dry on kitchen paper and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Gently fry the onion in two tablespoons of olive oil, stir in the tomato sauce and a few basil leaves and cook for about 20 minutes. Cover the bottom of an oven dish with some of the resulting sauce, then over it arrange a layer of aubergines, egg slices, basil, mozzarella and Parmesan. Repeat the layering twice more so that you have three of each layer, then bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden.

* I suggest plain ole vegetable oil for deep-frying. A wok is as good as anything. .
** I use a tall tin of chopped tomatoes or a bottle of Passata

t

Euro 2004

There are pictures on all today's newspapers of the latest Inger-lish saviour, Wayne Rooney just after he scored. What most have in common, and it was even clearer on the TV, is that the facial expression does not seem to me to evince pleasure. There's no smile. Nothing. The expression is one of anger. Of violence just about under control. And come to think about it it was rather similar to that expression on the faces of the Albufeira Nine as they were led into of court on Wednesday. Or remember that clip of Maradona, just after scoring a goal, rushing towards the TV camera, his eyes just about popping out of their sockets.

I suppose I really don't care whether "oor lads" win or lose.
Neil Clark in Saturday's Graun described the team as " without doubt the most uninspiring set of dullards ever to pull a white shirt over their heads. He continues;
" Leading the line there's the property tycoon, Michael Owen-a man alongside whom even Tim Henman would appear interesting. In midfield we have Frank Lampard-who together with John Terry was one of the "Chelsea Four" a quartet of Wildean Humourists whose idea of having a good time was to be drunk and abusive in front of a group of American tourists a day after the 9/11 attacks. Terry, who had been arrested a year earlier for fighting outside a pub and lying down in the road semi-naked with his pals, chalked up his hat-trick a month later when he was arrested for fighting outside a night club. Then there's Wayne Rooney, whose eighteenth birthday at a Liverpool hotel ended up in a drunken brawl. In the middle of that sorry collection of lager louts and megabores stands the grotesque human phenomenon "Becks"-the perfect icon for our narcissistic, materialistic and under-educated times."

Is there anything that can be prescribed?

By the way I've just been stung by a bee!

t

BBC NEWS | Politics | Europe rocked by winds of change

Aljazeera.Net - Iraqis killed, wounded in Falluja air raid

Aljazeera.Net - US troops, militia clash in Sadr City

Euro 2004

There are pictures on all today's newspapers of the latest Inger-lish saviour, Wayne Rooney just after he scored. What most have in common, and it was even clearer on the TV, is that the facial expression does not seem to me to evince pleasure. There's no smile. Nothing. The expression is one of anger. Of violence just about under control. And come to think about it it was rather similar to that expression on the faces of the Albufeira Nine as they were led into of court on Wednesday. Or remember that clip of Maradona, just after scoring a goal, rushing towards the TV camera, his eyes just about popping out of their sockets. I suppose I really don't care whether "oor lads" win or lose. Neil Clark in Saturday's Graun described the team as " without doubt the most uninspiring set of dullards ever to pull a white shirt over their heads. He continues; " Leading the line there's the property tycoon, Michael Owen-a man alongside whom even Tim Henman would appear interesting. In midfield we have Frank Lampard-who together with John Terry was one of the "Chelsea Four" a quartet of Wildean Humourists whose idea of having a good time was to be drunk and abusive in front of a group of American tourists a day after the 9/11 attacks. Terry, who had been arrested a year earlier for fighting outside a pub and lying down in the road semi-naked with his pals, chalked up his hat-trick a month later when he was arrested for fighting outside a night club. Then there's Wayne Rooney, whose eighteenth birthday at a Liverpool hotel ended up in a drunken brawl. In the middle of that sorry collection of lager louts and megabores stands the grotesque human phenomenon "Becks"-the perfect icon for our narcissistic, materialistic and under-educated times." Is there anything that can be prescribed? By the way I've just been stung by a bee! t

Hobson's Choice

They won't of course, but this Sunday evening, the Tories should be quietly grateful for Ukip' s challenge during the Euro elections. Ukip has pointed out the absurdity of the Tories' policy towards the European Union: an absurdity, which should have been spotted and junked after the 1997 election. The idea that any UK government can renegotiate any of the EU Treaties is fanciful in a Union of fourteen member states, but with twenty-four the likelihood is as close to zero as it's possible to get. And they don't talk about the consequences of our partners' guaranteed refusal. It's not going to be easy for the Tories. But if they hope to return to the party that enjoyed a longer continuous history than any other European party, they will have to have the European debate Michael Howard hoped could be put off by a policy of "don't ask, don't tell". They can follow the logic of their present position and chase Ukip to the exit door. Or they can ditch the present policies and watch their membership dwindle. That choice is the only realistic one. Stripped of its European fixation, it can become a genuine centre-right party with the possibility of returning to power. Rather than "an offshore pimple on the British body politic" they would surely become were they to follow the alternate route.

Bye-Bye Ronnie

To provide a bit of balance on the present celebrations <g>

>From: palast@gregpalast.com

KILLER, COWARD, CONMAN -
GOOD RIDDANCE, RONNIE REAGAN
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Sunday, June 6, 2004
by Greg Palast

You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.

Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.

In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis.

People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.

Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.

and when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog ... then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.

I remember Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses, some of the "gifts" that flowed to the Reagans -- from hats to million-dollar homes -- from cronies well compensated with government loot. It used to be called bribery.

And all the while, Grandpa grinned, the grandfather who bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.

The New York Times today, in its canned obit, wrote that Reagan projected, "faith in small town America" and "old-time values." "Values" my ass. It was union busting and a declaration of war on the poor and anyone who couldn't buy designer dresses. It was the New Meanness, bringing starvation back to America so that every millionaire could get another million.
"Small town" values? From the movie star of the Pacific Palisades, the Malibu mogul? I want to throw up.
And all the while, in the White House basement, as his brain boiled away, his last conscious act was to condone a coup d'etat against our elected Congress. Reagan's Defense Secretary Casper the Ghost Weinberger with the crazed Colonel, Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini.

Reagan's boys called Jimmy Carter a weanie and a wuss although Carter wouldn't give an inch to the Ayatolla. Reagan, with that film-fantasy tough-guy con in front of cameras, went begging like a coward cockroach to Khomeini pleading on bended knee for the release of our hostages.

Ollie North flew into Iran with a birthday cake for the maniac mullah -- no kidding --in the shape of a key. The key to Ronnie's heart.

Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the "contras" - the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters.

I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, "The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disburse" ... and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper.

In Chaguitillo, all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway?

Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets.

In the deserted darkness of Chaguitillo, a TV blared. Weirdly, it was that third-rate gangster movie, "Brother Rat." Starring Ronald Reagan.

Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead.

Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance.

Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com

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t

If you want to comment on this visit my blog at
http://tonyhatfield.blogspot.com/

Seconds out

I think the fight is now over. A pity. I really don’t know who won, but there was no knockout, not even of the technical variety. Yesterday, for some inexplicable reason, the Tories decided that the extra-terrestrial John Redwood should don the Eurosceptic gloves and enter the ring for a two five minute, bare-knuckle, bout with that “gadfly” Robert Kilroy-Silk. They limbered up on Channel 4 with Jon Snow as the referee. I suspect, as the watershed had not been reached, the producers felt there would be fewer complaints if they kept the protagonists apart. ET was in a studio some miles away from the gadfly. Nevertheless, like two boxers at the peak of fitness, they were both determined to use all their verbal blows. Most of them landed. Their seconds and indeed their spouses anxiously examined their abdominal protectors when the bell eventually rang to mark out the end of the third minute. I suspect this equipment resembled the dented sample pushed in front of Harry Carpenter’s face by a boxer, whose name I cannot recall, to demonstrate just how many punches his opponent had landed “below” the belt. The second round resumed after their handlers had had a couple of hours to patch them up. This time Newsnight’s Gavin Esler donned the striped referee’s shirt. By 10.30, both protagonists were allowed to be in the same studio, though sensibly a large, sturdy table separated them. They reprised, almost blow for blow, the first round. At the end of the bout it was difficult detect any policy differences. Redwood looked as embarrassed as he did trying to sing Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, at the Welsh Tory Conference, and Robert’s extraordinary orange complexion was untroubled by a single bead of sweat. t

Who's counting

Those of us who warned that the illegal adventurism into Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom was likely to fall apart must now begin to face up to answering the question the Prime Minister batted back to Charlie Kennedy at PMQ's last week. Are the Iraqis minus Saddam are better off now than they would have been had the UK/US followed the UN route, which may have allowed the dictator to remain in power? It's about time we examined a cost/benefit analysis of the decision. According to Iraq body count, http://www.iraqbodycount.net/, civilian deaths, since the war started, now exceed 11,000. There is no record of Iraqi military deaths and no record of Iraqi civilian injuries. Coalition fatalities have reached 910, with, according to the US Department of Defense, 4327 recorded as "wounded in action". I can find no record of other coalition wounded. Iraq's infrastructure has been flattened. Even today, over a year after Bush declared the war won, most of the Iraqi people still do not have regular supplies of clean water and electricity. And although we are told that schools are open, many of the parents are too frightened that their children will be kidnapped to let them attend those schools. Oil production, which was to finance the rebuilding, has hardly recovered to pre-war levels. Western firms engaged in large rebuilding projects are leaving the country. BP has just pulled out their staff. Even with 150, 000 troops and an unknown number of mercenaries, Iraq is a state that resembles a failed state. The streets are not safe. That is unlikely to change on the 1st July. Is the world outside any safer? According to the Institute of Strategic Studies more terrorists have been recruited. Iraq, a state without Al Qaida,is now becoming a training ground for those terrorists who left Afghanistan. Moderate Islamic states- Egypt and Jordan- see their own extreme Islamists become more threatening. Saudi Arabia with the majority of its population under 25 and unemployed must look towards the future with real concern. t

Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

June 29, 2004

La Cucaracha - The Music Of The Spanish Civil War

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Regional press weighs Iraq handover

June 28, 2004

You asked for it!!!!

June 25, 2004

Yummy

False Memory Syndrome

Useful phrases

June 23, 2004

2-2 ?

June 22, 2004

Embarassing CD

Complacency

June 21, 2004

Parmigiana

Euro 2004

June 19, 2004

BBC NEWS | Politics | Europe rocked by winds of change

Aljazeera.Net - Iraqis killed, wounded in Falluja air raid

Aljazeera.Net - US troops, militia clash in Sadr City

June 18, 2004

Euro 2004

June 10, 2004

Hobson's Choice

Bye-Bye Ronnie

June 03, 2004

Seconds out

June 01, 2004

Who's counting

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