English Yokel

Others have written about the cold blooded murder of Benazir Bhutto, Yokel has nothing to add, except to suggest that we might pray more fervently for the minorities in Pakistan for their life will surely be getting tougher.

Instead Yokel will contemplate the news that "Egypt 'to copyright antiquities'" said the BBC on Boxing Day. Must have been a quiet news day, because the same story appeared in two Australian news sites, on Zee News, on Fox, on news.egypt.com etc. No, Yokel isn't going to give you all the links, you'll have to Scroogle.org for them yourself.

Well it struck Yokel as a bit odd. Here we are in the UK have a bit of an argument about whether Cliff should be able to have a longer copyright period to see him into his old age (well I suppose it will save having to pass the hat round at Wimbledon, won't it!). But that is about 50 years, plays 70, or even 90 years as the entertainment business wants in the USA. (What is it making Yokel think that if the creative types had actually been creative and turned out a few more good quality productions just like the 60s and 70s that then there wouldn't have been this childish pestering for more?) Anyway here we are arguing about copyright period in terms of decades, and the Egyptians trump that with a copyright claim for not just centuries, but millennia! Why? Must be something to do with not having a lot of oil under Egyptian sands. They must be getting left out on the Jizya gravy train, compared with the oil rich Arab states.

Then the BBC report continues: "Zahi Hawass, who chairs Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the BBC the law would apply in all countries." Until fairly recently, it was the British Parliament that made the laws that applied in the UK, and anyone else could go whistle. Then of course we gave away most of our lawmaking powers to what is now our national government in Brussels, and the UK parliament is just subservient. We used to mock the Soviet Dumas for being a rubber stamp machine for measures already decided in the Kremlin Politburo. It's here, we've got one, it'll just take an outsider to point it out to the British people as they are in denial about it. The topics in which Yokel practices his profession have long been an area of Brussels "competence", and we have already seen what's left of the British Government go grovelling over there with "Please sir, by your leave sir, would you be gracious enough to permit us to pass a law sir, one that isn't directly on your programme sir, but might actually be good for the UK sir, if you don't mind sir".

And now we have Egypt wanting to tell us what laws apply in the UK? Maybe the chance to apply such laws is one of the baits being offered by the EUrocrats to get the Arabs of the Near East and North Africa to join this infernal Union.

Perhaps we also have the US contributing to the melting pot as well. After all, it was in a trial in a UK court that an agent of the US government was reported to have said that it was perfectly legal (in US law) for them to kidnap someone in the UK and transport them back to the US, regardless of what laws those Brits thought should apply. And that is without considering the shamefully one sided extradition treaty between the UK and the US. And as the US gets away with appearing to be a bully, Yokel guesses that other nations are deciding that they would like a piece of the action. Now that is likely to be a problem in the long run.

As Yokel got further down the article the author noted that: "The announcement came two days after an Egyptian newspaper called on the hotel [the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas] to pay a share of its profits to the central Egyptian city of Luxor, which administers the ancient Valley of the Kings burial site." I'm so glad that it is not only in Britain that the press tells the government what to do!

Yokel's conclusions after his meanderings? This is yet another sign of people flexing their muscles and making ever less reasonable demands. The world is going to get a lot rougher, and it will need honest folk to stand up for what is true and right.

Does the UK have that backbone? Yokel hopes that we can find some leaders who do! And soon!