The man shot dead by armed UK officers

The dead man is being identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, a legal Brazilian immigrant (as reported by IndyMedia).

A Grand Day Out

I ascribe my slight nerves at heading to London yesterday to Mater repeatedly observing, "There's bombs there!" before I left. I was surprisingly nervous when a young Muslim man put a large suitcase in the rack over my head, and sat down opposite me. So I engaged him in conversation - and he turned out to be on sabbatical to help run a federation of Islamic student societies. He is organising a campaign of outreach and community collaborations. We talked for 2 hours about our different perspective on why people should show compassion, ranging from examining the Big Bang to considering public nudity legislation!

R met me at Marylebone, and we skipped off to Drummond Stret for the most awesome vegetarian Gujerati buffet lunch at the Diwana Bhel Puri House. Then we rode the Victoria Line to Blackhorse Lane and visited the Handweavers Studio, and browsed and resisted temptation and I bought some weaving tablets.

Then back to Seven Sisters, to look for party offerings. Despite drinking profusely at lunchtime (including a teeth-rottingly sweet mango lassi) I was parched, so I indulged in a virgin pina colada (pineapple-coconut juice :-). We also stopped in a cafe so R could get a diet cola, and I had a bottle of water ... which turned out to be imported from Turkey. The cafe owners started smoking, although the smell was masked by incense burners. Ugh.

R bought a hefty watermelon, and we arrived at fjm's just a whisker before 16:00, to find chilperic doing the door welcoming, and purplecthulhu in hot pursuit behind us :-) R was suitably impressed by the awesome SF collection (nearly fainted with delight, I reckon) and Queen Potchka was suitably fawned upon, all in the quiet before the main bulk of partiers descended. Potchka will soon be offered fealty by a new feline subject, who is much in need of sanctuary - let us all hope that she accepts! G arrived around 17:30 (having been relieved by brother J), by which time fabulous food and drink was flowing freely, and animated conversation also.

D & I turned into pumpkins around 21:30, so we dispersed, with G and I arriving home before midnight to Mater's great relief.

Thank you, all, for my Grand Day Out!

Understanding and failure

Can we understand terrorists, and understand errors made by security forces, and from these, understand the bigger picture?

Can we avoid calling individuals, 'failures', yet point to situations where people failed to fully rise to a challenge, and from this, learn how to succeed when next tested?

ID Cards and database: Refuse _or_ Resist

I believe that for security, we also need justice. UK residents can still pledge to refuse to register for an ID card at http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse - more than 10,00 people have already. However, if you cannot sign to Refuse, you can sign to Resist: http://www.pledgebank.com/resist - pledge to donate money, and actively support the refusers.

</TABLE Please only sign one, and ask other to sign one.

The Federation of Islamic Student Societies of the UK and Ireland

I'm pretty sure that my train conversant yesterday was a sabbatical with FOSIS (to which the IC Islamic Society is now affiliated).