Friday, September 21, 2007

North Korea: Behind the headlines

Last night Amnesty UK and Anti-Slavery International hosted a discussion evening. The first part of the evening was short snippet of a documentary (title not remembered) which covered some of the human rights problems in the DPRK. This was followed by a talk from Anti-Slavery about their latest report on forced labour in North Korean prison camps, a talk from Amnesty International on enforced disappearances, and finally a talk from Human Rights Watch on the food crisis and North Korea. Followed by Q&A which mostly focused on how to raise human rights concerns with the DPRK regime and how to ensure that any activism follows a 'no harm' approach which means that by raising an issue you are not putting those people at even greater risk than if you said nothing at all.

Rugby World Cup

The RWC has now been underway for about two weeks. Not surprisingly, Australia are doing very well so far. Our next match should be a good one against Fiji, which have been showing some nice style. Fiji's game against Wales will be very interesting on the 29th. Tonight is a critical match between France and Ireland, both teams have been a bit lacklustre so far. My support, if there was any doubt, is for Ireland.

And on the topic of the RWC, the crucial matter of man-boobs should be discussed. In general the uniform styles this year are very much about emphasising the man-boobs of the players. In particular the Australian team have added a thick yellow stripe across their chests which outlines very clearly their man-boobs. I've also been looking at the arses of the Australian players very carefully and am engaged in a dispute with a fellow arse-watcher as to whether their shorts have different shades of green, specifically small dark green squares just below each cheek, or are the shorts a uniform colour? If anyone else has been closely observing the butts of the Australian Rugby team and has an opinion on this, I would be very interested to hear it.

Currently reading:

"Hell" by Yasutaka Tsutsui