Interesting lyrical mashup

Jerusalem, if I forget you,
fire not gonna come from me tongue.
Jerusalem, if I forget you,
let my right hand forget what it's supposed to do.

They tried to make me go to rehab but i said 'no, no, no'
Yes I've been black but when i come back you'll know know know
I ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab but i won't go go go

Joseph descended sold as a slave,
thrown into a dungeon cause he wouldn't be swayed
Interpreted pharaoh's dreams and Egypt was saved
stock piled food for seven years of rain
then sold to all the nations when the drought came
Joseph rose to power and the yiddin stayed

They started to build and success was made
Pharos getting worried let's make them pay bound in chains
First born was sent down to their graves
Moshe was saved and a prince he was raised
Hashem spoke to him hears a message to relay
Take my Nation from Mitzrayim (Egypt) I see the suffering
Hard hearts ego breaks take sparks and make way

Sweet reunion, jamaica and spain
Were like how we were again
I'm in the tub you're on the seat
Lick your lips as I soak my feet

Then you notice lickle carpet burn
My stomach drops and my guts churn
You shrug and it's the worst
To truly stuck the knife in first

I cheated myself like I knew I would
I told ya I was trouble, you know that I'm no good
I cheated myself, like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled, yeah ya know that I'm no good

Tolo TV

Tolo TV and its associated businesses (including Arman FM and Lemar TV) are the pre-eminent independent media outfit in Afghanistan. Together with a number of related enterprises Tolo TV is run by the Mohseni family - Saad, Zaid, Jahid and Wajma. Wajma's a good friend of mine (she flew all the way from Kabul to Melbourne for my wedding!) and things aint looking that great over there right now.

A recent (17 April 2007) press release by Tolo TV is reprinted in full at the bottom of this entry, but in short Tolo TV appears to be at war with Afghanistan's attorney general. And that's not a good place to be.

SEE Tolo TV entry on Wikipedia

See also recent blog posts at The Huffington Post, American Footprints and again here, Afghaniblog, Safrang and various other places

The present state of play (as I understand it courtesy of The Guardian) is that a government commission has ordered Tolo TV to apologise, it has refused to do so, and it continues to play (and to make available on its website) footage of police attacking the Tolo TV offices.

Tolo TV press release
Tonight at about 7pm Kabul time, more than 50 armed men from the 10th District Police, under direct orders from the Attorney General, Abdul Jabar Sabet, surrounded the offices of TOLO TV in Wazir Akbar Khan in Kabul Afghanistan. The Police physically entered TOLO TV premises and violently attacked staff of TOLO TV, taking three staff members of TOLO TV with them. The TOLO TV staff members, were taken directly to the Attorney General’s Office and detained.

Earlier at about 6.20pm tonight, the Attorney General, Abdul Jabar Sabet, had complained of a news clip on the 6pm TOLO TV news, which he claimed was inaccurate or misrepresented the Attorney General’s comments at an earlier press conference today. After investigating the complaint, TOLO TV management found the complaint to be invalid. The TOLO TV news clip broadcast was accurate and representative of what the Attorney General had said at the press conference.

At the time that the District 10 Police came to TOLO TV offices, they sought the detention of Hamed Haidary, who was the journalist covering the news clip mentioned above, and the “person responsible” for TOLO TV. The Police did not have any legal documentation. When asked to produce such documentation, the Deputy Commander of District 10 Police, wrote on a piece of paper the following:

To the administration of TOLO TV
In accordance with the order of the Attorney General, the responsible person for TOLO TV, and Hamed Haidary, the reporter, are required to appear at the 10th District Police Office.
Signed on behalf of the Commander of the 10th Police District, Mohammad Qasim Aminzoi


The above document was handed to TOLO TV staff, but was not accepted by legal advisors to TOLO TV as it is not valid in Law. Under the Constitution of Afghanistan, Article 38 states as follows:

Residences shall be immune from trespassing.
No one, including the state, shall have the right to enter a residence or search it without the owners permission or by order of an authoritative court, except in situations and methods delineated by law.

In case of an evident crime, the responsible official shall enter or search a residence without prior court order. The aforementioned official, shall, after entrance or completion of search, obtain a court order within the time limit set by law.


No arrest warrants, Court orders, or other legal or written documents were produced by the 10th District Police (other than as noted above). They advised that the Attorney General had verbally ordered them to detain TOLO TV staff. When TOLO TV staff, including TOLO TV legal advisor, Mohammad Abdullah, TOLO TV Administration Manager, Siddiq Ahmadzada and TOLO TV Security Manager, Lal Mohammad, tried to reason with the Police they were physically assaulted and then dragged into Police vehicles. These three TOLO TV staff members were taken to the Attorney General’s office (not the 10th District Police Office), where they were held until public pressure forced the Attorney General to release the TOLO TV staff after about 1 hour. A number of other journalists, including 4 staff members of Associated Press who were covering the incident, were also detained without charge and allegedly assaulted and their footage allegedly confiscated.

It should also be noted that under the Media Laws of Afghanistan, all complaints about the media should, at first instance, be directed towards the Media Investigation Commission which is tasked with investigating such complaints. This Commission is then able to refer the matter to the Attorney General’s office if warranted. This procedure was not followed in this instance.

We hereby state as follows:
- the actions of the District 10 Police and the Attorney General's office, including the Attorney General, Abdul Jabar Sabet, were a complete violation of the Constitution of Afghanistan
- the manner in which TOLO TV were physically abused and detained was completely unacceptable and against the law
- the physical transgression into TOLO TV offices is against the Constitution and the laws of Afghanistan
- the taking of TOLO TV staff to the Attorney General’s office was against the law
- the direct ordering of District Police by the Attorney General’s office is against the law
- these actions of the Attorney General’s office and the District 10 Police are not only against the rights of media enshrined in the Constitution, but also against the principles of democracy and against the national interest of Afghanistan



Further, we demand as follows:
- the immediate suspension from duty of all persons involved in this incident including the Attorney General, the Commander of the 10th District of Police and the Deputy Commander of the 10th District Police
- the creation of a commission who will be tasked with investigating this incident, to be comprised of members acceptable to the media
- the dismissal of all those found to have had any involvement in this incident which is against the laws of Afghanistan
- the prosecution to the full extent of the law of all of those found to have committed any crime

Further, TOLO TV Management would like to thank all of those people who have indicated their support for TOLO TV, including all other media organisations of Afghanistan and international organisations who have covered this event, human rights organisations, members of Parliament, unions representing journalists, the staff of TOLO TV, Lemar TV and Arman FM, all other organisations who have expressed their public support, and most of all the public of Afghanistan who have been unswerving in their support.

Amy Winehouse

I must be having a jewish recording artist phase. Following on from Matisyahu, I've decided Amy Winehouse is very listenable. Particularly Rehab.

Matisyahu

My next obsession, I think, will be Matisyahu - the orthodox/lubavitch hiphop/reggae artist and nominee at the 2007 grammy awards. I must be jumping on the bandwagon pretty late, because there's a fully-formed wikipedia page.

I'm not as yet fully convinced by the Message in a Bottle cover, but Jerusalem rocks.

See official website here.

And some more Rachel

I've had a pretty crappy few days; perhaps a few more Rachel pictures will improve things a little

Revisiting Miller's Crossing

Watched Miller's Crossing the other day for the first time in years. Like a few other films I loved then left for years (eg. Blue Velvet) it is even better than I remember it... and Gabriel Byrne is simply incredible. The film that showed me the true talent of the Coen Brothers.

Intricately plotted - and it all makes perfect sense at the end (so long as you pay attention). Fantastic minor characters (and character actors). A cool anti-hero. A film set in the prohibition era, confronting issues of racism and homosexuality. A sexy femme fatale who screams trouble. Awesome dialogue. I could say plenty more but duty calls.

Just because

It's been too long since I posted a Rachel Bilson picture

Allen keys and more

As I sit on my couch typing, M is putting together a large, expensive floor lamp which was a wedding present. She is complaining a little, but I know she loves putting things together - it is in her genes as a third-generation engineer. Whilst as a lawyer I am pretty happy watching her do it and making witty / annoying comments.

In recent years I've watched many items of furniture being assembled; it is clear that we live in an Ikea world - even if we never actually buy anything from Ikea.

It is virtually impossible to buy any large item without [sorry for the interruption - I just had to go hold the lamp while M screwed something in] having to do most of the assembly work yourself (or, in my case, sitting around while your wife does most of the work).

A combination of European design and Chinese workmanship ensures hours of fun for the whole family... so long as you have the right Allen key.

A painful field of expertise

As someone who has broken ribs on three separate occasions, I can definitively state that it hurts. Quite a lot. And everything is sort of harder for a few weeks. And sneezing really sucks.

This time I don't even have a good story.

The first time: go-karting at Mike's bucks party
The second time: whilst having sex

This time: tripped over at home while thinking about work and fell onto an outdoor umbrella stand.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg's money machine

There's power in that name. The man, Michael Bloomberg, runs New York City and may have even grander ambitions. The company, Bloomberg LP, is a prodigious success and just keeps getting stronger.


Fascinating article on Bloomberg LP from Fortune... the company is an absolute powerhouse as a leader in the financial information oligopoly - a pretty good place to be!

Assuming operating profits are indeed $1.5 billion, and assuming also that terminal sales will keep rising - there was a gain of 26,000 in 2006 - a price of $20 billion might be not only possible but close to a floor. Amounts above that seem entirely feasible.
And even at $20 billion, Mike Bloomberg's stake would be worth more than $13 billion - which is a far sight above the $5.5 billion that Forbes has just accorded the mayor in its billionaires' list

When a customer buys a standard Bloomberg Professional subscription he enters into a two-year contract, paying quarterly in advance. If the customer has just one Bloomberg, the rate is $1,800 per month. If he has multiple Bloombergs, which is overwhelmingly the case, the charge is $1,500 for each. Should the customer want Bloomberg to, for example, effect equity trades or supply flat-panel screens, there are additional charges; real-time stock prices are among the other items that cost extra.

An unusual element of this pricing structure - and a pillar of the business model - is that Bloomberg absolutely will not provide volume discounts. The monthly price if you have two Bloombergs is $1,500 for each; the price if you have 2,000 Bloombergs is $1,500 each. Neither can you buy only a portion of Bloomberg's data. It's the whole megillah or nothing.

Facebook

Excellent blog post / article / meta-article about Facebook on the Fastcompany website.

A few extracts:

a billion dollars (allegedly) is a lot of money. But specifically for businesses that live on the web, memories from the bubble of yesterdecade – epic stories of overvaluation and excess, business plans on backs-of-napkins, etc – have taken on powerful second lives as punch lines and cautionary tales. Hey: Lesser mortals, even well-meaning ones, have blown through investor money only to end up as occasional entries in “where are they now” columns. Or worse. And we all love the smell of schadenfraude in the morning. I mean, come on.

Facebook investor Peter Thiel put it this way - “The strange boom/bust cycle in the late ‘90s is a big part of things here. Most people who lived through that remember the bust more than they remember the boom. That distorts a lot of thinking.” (I lived through it, and he’s right.) His bigger point is that Zuckerberg’s youth works in his favor – he’s less likely to be haunted by a specter of imminent market meltdown and stay focused on building something worthwhile.

You'll all recall Peter Thiel of course - founder of X.com / Paypal and superstar hedge fund investor / space nut.

although I suppose it’s possible that Facebook could seriously screw things up, I’m inclined to believe that they are up to the task. This is a pretty smart group – 200 strong - who think very deeply about what, how and why they do what they do. And as any weary Web 1.0 survivor can tell you, a company that is ramping up for the sole purpose of selling itself off to the highest bidder has a very specific feel to it

Truer words were neve spoke

Meanwhile, the main Fast Company article about Facebook is here - I will post about it later