Monday, July 26, 2004
GHOST GROUNDS PLANE
- Yesiree BOB, we're serious about security
A United Airlines flight en route to Los Angeles returned to Sydney ninety minutes after departure after a refuse bag with BOB written on it was discovered in the lavatory.
The pilot (obviously a fan of word games) interpreted that as meaning "bomb on board", whereas it is now thought to of meant "best on board" – crew "code" for a particularly attractive passenger.
Is this what the world's coming to – somebody writes BOB on an airline refuse bag and, Bob's your uncle, a major security incident ensues.
Ironically, the phrase "Bob's your uncle" has its roots in Lord (Robert) Sainsbury's preferment of his nephew Arthur Balfour.
Who was Arthur Balfour?
The man who got us into this mess in the first place!
As British Foreign Secretary, Balfour wrote what is now known as the Balfour Declaration in 1917 – a letter to the Zionist Federation stating the decision, agreed at a cabinet meeting, that the United Kingdom supported Zionist plans for a Jewish national home in Palestine.
There was indeed a Bob on that plane, and on every plane, but it wasn't a bomb but the ghost of Lord Bob and his nephew.
That ghost will continue to haunt us until one of the main root causes of terrorism today, the Palestinian issue, is resolved.
I am not in anyway condoning terrorism nor am I taking sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict, in fact I think that the wall that the Israeli's are building should be pulled back a bit until it encompasses the whole of Israel and the Palestinian Territories – whereby the two sides should be left to sort it out amongst themselves, sparing the rest of the world.
Speaking of ghosts, have you seen the Scooby Doo episode where, in the pro forma dénouement at the end, the gang have caught the ghost of Arthur Balfour and take off his mask to reveal Theodor Herzel (the founder of the Zionist movement)?
Fred explains, "It was Mr. Herzel all along – he dressed up as Mr. Balfour and tried to scare the Palestinians away so that Mr. Herzel and his friends could have the whole of the Holy Land".
Herzel replies "despite you meddling kids, United Nations Resolutions and world opinion I did get away with it".
Scooby says something funny, everybody laughs and it's all over.
What, you haven’t seen it?
Know why you haven’t seen it?
You haven’t seen it because Scooby Doo is obviously fictional whereas the above scenario is allegoric fact.
Does anybody remember what the start of this piece was about (we've come a long way) and what my initial point was (if I indeed had one)?
I don't.
If you do, please email me and enlighten me.
"Monoliterate" is my term for people who are technically literate but effectively illiterate because they only read the one book, their holy book (we've got a lot of that type of person in the Middle East).
I don’t claim to speak for God, but I just think that God would want us to read other people too (to learn about His world)
Ignorance is the real sin.After all, every worthy artistic creation, regardless of its subject, is only but a testimony to the glory of the ultimate Creator and can thus only bring us closer to Him.
11:58 am
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