Saddam executed

Saddam Hussein Executed for War Crimes

BAGHDAD, Iraq— Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise today, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

British-Syrian Connection

Bashar al-Assad (Arabic: بشار الأسد‎, Bašār al-Asad) (born September 11, 1965) is the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Regional Secretary of the Baath Party, and the son of former President Hafez al-Assad

Standing about 6' 3", Assad has a distinct physical build. He speaks English from an intermediate to an advanced level and is fluent in French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyet elite school in Damascus, before going on to medical school at the University of Damascus Faculty of Medicine. He then went on to get subspecialty training in ophthalmology in London's academic hospitals. He is married to Asma' al-Akhras, a Syrian Sunni Muslim whom he met in Great Britain, where she was born and raised.

Asma al-Assad (born August 11, 1975) is the First Lady of Syria. Born in London, England, she married Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2000, having previously pursed a career in merchant banking.

Unlike previous Syrian First Ladies, she has maintained a higher profile at state, diplomatic, and charitable events. Since 2004 Asma al-Assad has held a Honorary Doctorate in Archaeology from La Sapienza University, Rome.

She is the daughter of prominent Syrian physician Fawaz Akhras.

Fawas Akhras is a London, England-based, Syrian cardiologist. He is a founding Director of the British Syrian Society and is involved with a number of Syrian causes.

FAWAZ AKHRAS is the Clinical Director of Cardiac and Medical Health Services and Consultant Cardiologist at the Cromwell Hospital in London. He completed his postgraduate studies at King College Hospital-University of London, where he also obtained his higher degree in Internal Medicine and Cardiology.

In 1992 during his post as Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at the Westminster and Charing Cross Hospitals, he was appointed Chief of Cardiology at King Fahd Military Hospital in Jeddah where he was responsible for the creation of a new cardiac department. This proved to be an exciting challenge and culminated in a state of the art fully operational non-invasive and interventional cardiac programme.

He developed the first interventional cardiac research programme in Syria, which has subsequently led to their integration into multi-centre European research studies. His work at present is focused on his primary interest in interventional cardiology, which provides the platform for his on-going clinical research. He is the principal investigator of the Syrian arm of an international study of 5,000 real world (unselected) patients with coronary artery disease looking at the long-term results of the Infinnium Paclitaxel Eluting Stent (IPES) in such patients.

Such an achievement came on the back of his extensive experience in clinical cardiac research. He has published a large number of research papers in international medical journals, and presented numerous lectures at both national and international scientific conferences. He is also known for his marked contribution to the development of the first physiological pacemaker, which is now widely used around the world in the treatment of patients with heart block.

He is the recipient of several awards in recognition of his personal contribution to clinical and scientific research in cardiology that bridge the basic and clinical sciences.

He is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the British Cardiac Society, the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society and the British Society of Echocardiography.

He is actively engaged in teaching and he is a member of the Order of William Harvey for Education in recognition of his commitment to education at the American College of Cardiology.

He is a founder member and Co Chairman of the British Syrian Society in London and Damascus.

Sources:

Wikipedia

http://www.britishsyriansociety.org

Burma's rebel leader Bo Mya dies at 79

I don't know well about real facts of Bo Mya. What I heard was only from one side, aired by Burmese government. So it is not wise to judge he is a bad man or good man after being a long time Karen leader. But what I belive is that opposition groups are essential to play a balancing role.

"This is the big loss for the Karen and all Myanmar ethnic fighters," said Mahn Sha, the group's general secretary. "Gen. Bo Mya has led the fight of the Karen for more than five decades."

The daily life of Santa...

The daily life of Santa..., originally uploaded by Mark Velasquez Photography.

A psychic patient

A few weeks ago, I came across a nice personal website and I visited there regularly. As its main component is blog, I did leave some comments whenever I wanted to do so. One post was about a consequence of Fiji coup. So I left this comment.

"I feel coup is something like a sporadic infectious disease. Obviously it is a immaturity of democratic era in Fiji."

What I meant is that Britain with an old enough democracy will not face coup.On the other hand, such illegal thing is inevitable in Thailand and Fiji whose democratic era have not been long enough to be mature.

Someone replied my comment as follow:

"When something like this happens in a small country…it’s called a “coup”…but when it happens in countries such as the USA, France, or Russia, it’s called a f*** revolution. Steve should stop yapping about democracy until he studies, learns, and understands Political Science."

I didn't expect to receive such a response. After analysing his words, I believe that that person has lost his thinking power after suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder .

According to the American Psychiatric Association (1994), post traumatic stress disorder develops after someone is exposed to an extremely traumatic event and they reacted to the event with intense fear, horror or helplessness.
( http://www.anxietyaustralia.com.au/anxiety_disorders/post_traumatic.shtml )

In this case, this person would have a bitter past history of democratic activities against his benefits . He would lose some or all of his properties because of democracy. He would have an intense fear of democracy. Once the word such as democratic or democracy is heard, the mental problem would recur, leading to a new deterioration of thinking power. As a result, he would be in a delusional state and thought that revolution and coup are the same.

If you want to learn the meaning of coup, visit here

The following links are about revolutions in USA, Russia and France.
American revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_revolution
Russian revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution
France revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_1848_in_France

You will know more about how much difference between coup and revolution after reading these and you may understand that the responder is a crack.

A murder case in Stratford

30-09-06_1421, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

This incident occurred in last September 2006. It is 3 minute walk from Olympic count down timer. I don't mean this area is not safe. But if you want to learn more about crime related data, go to
www.crimereduction.gov.uk
www.crimestatistics.org.uk

London Olympic 2012 count down

London Olympic 2012 count down, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

Last weekend, I did shopping at Stratford, the place where 2012 London Olympic is supposed to take place. This is count-down timmer was seen near the bus terminal and tube station.

This is my comments I emailed to BBC, Burmese team

I have some comments, regarding recent X21 program.

1. I feel yesterday’s X21 is patronizing Burmese people as I believe that many Myanmar internet users from Burma have got such knowledge. Not new for them, wasting BBC’s limited time.

2. Bebo has been listed in presenter's second position at the beginning of the program. I don't believe it is a popular one. Why didn't she include blogger.com? Forget or leave it deliberately? Check this http://myanmarblogdirectory.blogspot.com/2006/07/myanmar-bloggers.html
Many Burmese from Yangon and Mandalay have been its members.

3. I noticed that presenter could not pronounce "friend" correctly when she talked about Freindster, I’m afraid. I had to check with http://www.answers.com/friend when I heard her voice. I know this is Burmese program, but any English word used should be in a proper way, I think. You all are broadcasting from London, aren’t you?. By the way, Tharaphi Than is doing very well. She has got a fantastic voice, playing very well in her role.

My comments could be useful in a quality improvement process to some extend, I believe.

My favourite song:George Michael's Amazing

Surveillance video of UK prostitute before murder

British police released surveillance television footage of one of five murdered prostitutes on Saturday (December 16) as they stepped up their hunt for a possible serial killer. The image of 24-year-old Anneli Alderton, who was three months pregnant when she was murdered, shows her travelling on a train between the towns of Harwich and Colchester in eastern England on December 3, a week before her body was found.

My experience with Morrison

Customer Service Department
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC
Hilmore House
Gain Lane
Bradford
BD3 7DL


Dear Customer Service

This is my experience with Morrison store (Stratford, London)

On the 17th of December, 2006, I went to London Stratford shopping centre to buy something. When it was about 1 o’clock at noon, I felt peckish and I popped in to nearby Morrison superstore to eat something. Basically people are active and happy in such a pre-Christmas days. But I can’t believe that catering staffs in Morrison (Stratford) were with grooming faces. When I saw them I felt they were not energetic and not willing to serve customers happily. They reminded me old communist Russia’s sale assistants.

I was waiting for someone to be served near the till. 2 minutes later, a man (looked like Indian origin) came out and asked me what I would like. I asked him “Can I have a fish and chip”. He didn’t say properly anything, but he disappeared in to the room. I thought he checked if the food was available or not. I was wrong. 3 minutes later, he came out again and took off his apron. He avoided eye contact with me and he just went back. I guess his time had finished. I can’t believe his attitude toward customers. I was not alone. Another elderly couple was also awaiting to be served. Other staffs were pretending not to see us and they were doing their jobs in a very slow manner. I have no idea why they could not say in a civilized manner "we are serving you in a minute, don't be long". After 4 minutes later, We had to give up and left the Morrison.

This is the copy of letter what I sent to Morrison customer service.

Myanmar, Russia and Copy Right Law

Lately, via one of Burmese blogs, I got to the www.bmstu-myanmar.com of Myanmar students studying in Russia Federatoin (as far as I understand). I was amazed that on their website, the latest films such as Dejavu, 007 Casino Royale and many more were available.Some comercially available softwares as well.

I have a big concern about copy right law. I know thier aim for Burmese fellows. But I don't understand why they did so at the expense of taking risks. Maybe in Russia, people don't need to care about copy right law.I must confess I don't know about Russia too much. What I know is a high risk of crime rates in Russia, lovely Russian ballet,terrible Russian Mafia, wonderful stories of Russian billionares living in London and Polonium 210 used for assassination.

When I google bmstu, it is Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Full moon over River Thames

Full moon over River Thames, originally uploaded by szin.

In fact London is an old city with many mature buildings of victorian era. But this photo of full moon, millenium dome and River Thames is somewhat interesting, I think. This artistic photo was taken by one of the Flickr members, szin.

Typical London Taxi

These are typical London taxis. W- number plate means it was registered around 2000. You may notice that British people are basically conservatives if you see this photo. The majority of residential houses are double storey buildings. People don't like high rises to live. In 1970s, developers introduced multi-storey residential apartments, but those were not popular. I also don't like skyscrapers, I think these are horrible and against the nature.

Molly and Rose

I found this photo from my old folder. Last summer, We visited Lancashire, north west England, where some of our friends lived. We also popped in a village as a nice English couple invited us to visit their place. In their lovely farm, those 2 Scottish highland cows were feeding themselves. Their names are Molly and Rose as far as I can recall.

A view from docklands

A couple of weeks ago, I got to London Excel for some reasons. From there, I saw Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf.

Serial Killer Update

Police investigating a string of prostitute killings in south-eastern England Tuesday found two more bodies, bringing to five the number of victims.

Police had already said they were seeking missing prostitutes Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29. It was not immediately confirmed that their bodies were the latest finds.

So total 5 prostitutes have been murdered in that area.

UK Serial Killer 2006

UK Serial Killer 2006, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

Many believe that there has been as a serial killer in eastern England after 3 naked women have been found dead this month around Ipswich, 110km northeast of London. They are prostitutes.

Police is warning to stay prostitutes at home if they wanted to stay alive yesterday. Normally, there would be about 40 selling sex on the streets near Ipswich Town’s football ground. But as darkness fell only a handful were out.


According to the BBC news, 2 more girls are missing.

British culture and British value

Well those who have a plan to apply for permanent residency
need to pass British citizenship test from April 2007 according to the news. I
know many Myanmar have been familiar with British culture although they may not
follow 100%. On the other hand, believe it or not, I notice that there are many
other people who have been living in British isle for more than a decade, but
never speak English, never eat fish and chips, never learn British culture. Now
government is to introduce new strategies for a British value. Yes logically, if
you stay in China, you need to learn how to use chopsticks, if you are in
Myanmar, you need to take off your shoes at the entrance of the house, if you
are in Thailand, you may adopt the Thai style greeting.

Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Blair said one of the most common complaints he heard from Muslim women was that they were barred from even entering certain mosques.  He said: "Those (mosques) that exclude the voice of women need to look again at their practices." This would not involve changing the law but the Equal Opportunities Commission had been asked to produce a report by next spring on how it could address the problem of discrimination in mosques.  New British citizens already have to pass a language test but from April the 150,000 to 170,000 people who seek permanent residency in the UK each year will also have to pass an English test before residency is granted.  And visiting preachers would have to have a proper command of English as well as facing the existing test that the Home Secretary can ban them from the UK if their presence is judged not to be in the public good.  In addition, the age at which a person can get permission to come to the UK to marry may be raised from 18.  Mr Blair said the Government would also encourage all faith schools to "construct a bridge to other cultures" by twinning with schools from another faith.  The Prime Minister said: "If you come here lawfully, we welcome you. If you are permitted to stay here permanently, you become an equal member of our community and become one of us. Then you, and all of us, who want to, can worship God in our own way, take pride in our different cultures after our own fashion, respect our distinctive histories according to our own traditions; but do so within a shared space of shared values in which we take no less pride and show no less respect.  "The right to be different. The duty to integrate. That is what being British means. And neither racists nor extremists should be allowed to destroy it."  Mr Blair also re-entered the row over Muslim headscarves - saying it was "plain common sense" that teachers should have to remove them in the classroom.  The controversy was fuelled by the suspension earlier this year of a Muslim teaching assistant who insisted on wearing the niqab.  He said: "I know it is not sensible to conduct this debate as if the only issue is the very hot and sensitive one of the veil.  "For one thing, the extremism we face is usually from men not women. But it...really is a matter of plain common sense that when it is an essential part of someone’s work to communicate directly with people, being able to see their face is important."   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/09/npoison09.xml © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2006

 

A Chinese food shop at Central London

A Chinese food shop at Central London, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

I have a friend in Nederland. She told me a few years ago she could not find the roast duck similar kind available in Yangon. I don't think so. Maybe she lives in a small town. In London? Well you can see in the picture I took last week when Cate and I ate out at cetral London. Cantonese roast duck. I think better than Yangon's Shwebe'.

CT Machine

CT Machine, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

It takes only 5-10 minutes to see what is going on inside the brain and body. Last week one elderly lady got heart arrest on the table, but we didn't let her go. No I don't mean this machine has a high risk of such incidents. It was just a coincidence as she was really ill.

At the hospital, we carry the bleeps . Once someone gets heart arrest or unresponsive, the switchboard announced " Cardiac arrest, Cardiac arrest at A&E Resus.......". Those who are involved in on-call teams have to run wherever they are and whatever they are doing and start the advanced life support, according to the guidelines from http://www.resus.org.uk. We all are well trained for that purpose. Registrar gives the commands. Anesthetist secures the air way by putting a tube inside the patient’s throat. One doctor does shocking if required. Some do message. Nurses make ready to give parenteral medicines. ( Resuscitation course fee is over £300. It is just a 2 day course).

On call team mean it is covering the emergency patients and in-patients 24 hours round. Team members will change after doing hand-over about ill patients.

Typical London Pub

Typical London Pub, originally uploaded by bollo_303.

Well it is one of the typical pubs which can be seen in London and many cities.
We gather at some Friday and Satuday evenings.
We talk.
We play pool and dart.
We watch latest sky footballs.
Some came in with thier parters,
Some as group.
Normally kids are not allowed.
In Burma, people would see pub as a bad place.
Here in London, it just serves as a recreation place or local community centre
The place for celebration,
The place for farewell.
Nice place for football fans.
Not only for men,
But for women.
Not only for young adults,
But for the elderly people.

I simply like it.

This Day In History

1703 ---Bristol England damaged by hurricane,
Royal Navy loses 15 warships

1716 ---1st lion exhibited in America (Boston)

1778 ---Capt Cook discovers Maui (Sandwich Islands)

1789 ---1st national thanksgiving

1793 ---Republican calendar replaces Gregorian calendar in France

1825 ---1st college fraternity founded (Kappa Alpha (Union College, NY))

1832 ---1st streetcar railway in America starts operating (NYC) (12« fare)

1841 ---1st date in James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan

1861 ---At Wheeling, a convention adopts a constitution for new state West
Virginia

1865 ---Alice in Wonderland published

1868 ---1st baseball game played in enclosed field in San Francisco, at 25th
& Folsom

1885 ---1st meteor photograph

1895 ---Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association formed

1896 ---1st large indoor football game, U of Chicago beats U of Michigan 7-6

1896 ---A.A. Stagg of U Chicago creates the football huddle

1924 ---Mongolian People's Republic proclaimed

1940 ---Nazis force 500,000 Warsaw Jews to live in walled ghetto

1941 ---Amateur tennis champ Bobby Riggs turns pro

1941 ---Lebanon gains independence from France

1945 ---During snow storm, school bus crashes, killing 15 (Washington)

1949 ---India adopts a constitution as a British Commonwealth Republic

1950 ---China enters Korean conflict, sends troops across Yalu River

1962 ---1st recording session under the name "Beatles"

1965 ,,France launches 1st satellite, 92 lb (42 kg) A1-capsule (Asterix)

1966 ---1st major tidal power plant opens at Rance estuary, France

1969 ---Creams' final concert (Royal Albert Hall)

1972 ---Pete Gogolak scores NY Giant record 8 pts after a touchdown

1973 ---Nixon's personal sec, Rose Mary Woods, tells a federal court she
accidentally caused part of 18-minute gap in a key Watergate tape

1974 ---Approximately 140 die when suspension bridge collapses (Nepal)

1975 ---Fed jury found Lynette Fromme guilty of attempted assassination

1976 ---Ringo releases "Hey Baby" single

1978 ---10 die as fire erupts at Holiday Inn in Rochester, NY

1980 ---Columbia mated to SRBs & external tank at Vehicle Assembly Building

1982 ---Clyde King named Yankee manager

1982 ---Yasuhiro Nakasone elected PM of Japan succeeding Zenko Suzuki

1982 ---Howard Cossell calls his last fight after being disgusted by the
Larry Holmes-Tex Cobb mismatch

1983 ---Heathrow Airport, robbed of 6,800 gold bars worth $38.7 million

1984 ---John W Mercom Jr announces NO Saints are up for sale for $75 million

1985 ---23rd Space Shuttle Mission (61-B)-Atlantis 2-is launched

1988 ---Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Jean-Loup Chretien launch

1988 ---Pioneer 6's closest approach to Earth since 1965 launch (1.87 M km)

1990 ---Buffalo Bills become 6th 1st place NFL team to lose on same weekend

1990 ---Matsushita purchases MCA for $6.6 billion

1990 ---Mikhail Gorbachev tells Iraq to get out of Kuwait

1991 ---Condoms are handed out to thousands of NY High School students

Source Thank you Blu

Sherlock Holmes Statue, Baker street

Sherlock Holmes Statue, Baker street, originally uploaded by steve_ever_green.

I took this photo with my mobile phone Motorola V3. It is just outside the Baker Street Tube station. You know this address:

The Sherlock Holmes Museum
221b Baker Street,
London, England.

Again the nearest tube station is Baker Street

Cat visitor

This ginger cat is our visitor from nearyby house, resting on my desk. He is a close freind of our 3 cats. They are really organized and fight against other cat, black and white one what we called Felix as he really looks like the picture of the cat from Felix cat food.

The weirdest land I've ever been to.

Burma, originally uploaded by palgus.

The lady originally posted her copy of Burma visa said "The weirdest land I've ever been to. "

I left the comment "Why did you say so?"

Check her reply later on.

Maybe she would be true. But I'm still curious about her reason. Mine would be the same or different.