Last week I happened across a very upbeat article in Arabian Business quoting Sheikh Maktoum who is predicting a boom within the next two years. This is great news and fits in very neatly with my observation that there has been a bit more traffic on the roads since the Ramadan Eid holiday weekend. For an article full of cheerfulness click on the link below:
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/597629-boom-coming-in-next-two-years–sheikh-maktoum
The prediction game is a lot of fun. The basic principle is to make as many as possible and then if one should happen to come true you can climb a rooftop and shout out loud. For example, my prediction made before the World Cup started was that Spain would be crowned champions, bang on. On Saturday my chum Paddy McGrath predicted that Darren Bent would be the leading scorer in the Premiership this season (or words to that effect) which will come as a huge surprise to ’arry Rednapp who reckons his mum has more chance.
Even if a prediction goes wrong you can always apply a bit of computer wizardry to change the course of history. Being in advertising I’m aware that some of our competitors are a little heavy-handed when it comes to PhotoShop. Nothing however compares with how an Egyptian newspaper manipulated an image to elevate their leader to first among equals.
http://www.dailybloggr.com/2010/09/photoshop-fail-newspaper-crops-out-obama-behind-other-leaders/
I’m guessing the Pope, who turned out to be more akin to a loveable granddad rather than an ex-member of the Hitler youth on his recent trip to England, would love to airbrush history here and there. He could start with priests behaving badly and then move back in time to address the exploits of Thomas More. More was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1886 and canonised, with John Fisher, in 1935. In 1980, he was added to the Church of England’s calendar of saints. Unfortunately More comes with a bit of form which causes you to think he fell a bit short in the saintly stakes. During More’s Chancellorship, the secret Inquisition he developed gained substantial power. In total, there were at least six heretics burned at the stake during More’s Chancellorship: Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham but in contrast during the previous one hundred years a total of only thirty persons were burned for all categories of crimes.
I’m currently reading a brilliant book by David Mitchell (the author not the comedian) called The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. Set at a turning point in history on a tiny island attached to mainland Japan, David Mitchell’s tale of power, passion and integrity is an extraordinary feat of story-telling. Mr Mitchell is a genius for historical detail, I kept asking myself how he could possibly know the many layers of Japanese culture and customs from over 200 years ago. It could only be by an enormous amount of research or he is applying my long-held theory that if you say something with enough conviction people will believe you. This worked brilliantly until Google and Wiki came along (WIKI = What I Know Is – thank you David F for that little gem but apparently the acronym emerged much later than the website name).
My restored enthusiasm for book reading has been partly triggered by Showtime’s loss of the Premier League. My only real interest in watching TV is sport or anything that involves a competition like, for example, the Great British Bake Off – I had zero interest in the subject matter (baking) apart from when the contestants made Cornish Pasties but the winning and losing makes for compulsive viewing. Etisalat is advertising the socks off eLife which includes a free subscription to the footie however the catch is only about .00005% of villas in Dubai have the fibre optic connection required to benefit from eLife. It’s all very frustrating especially that your connection speed with eLife is about 1,000 times faster than with Al Shamil broadband and it costs about 1,000 times less! My wife has been Twittering away about eLife and the nice people at Etisalat responded but twittered on about copper and then faded away.
One of competition shows I watched when I was in England was This Is The Music on Sky TV. Some great bands emerged none more so than Finding Andy, Cameron Bellman’s new favourite band – check out the video:
While I’m on the subject here are my Top 5 winner and losers shows:
- Dragon’s Den
- Masterchef
- The Apprentice
- Over the Rainbow
- Jeux Sans Frontiers
Have I missed out your favourite? Share your thoughts on this or anything else in the comments section.
Somethingtochew0n 