Short and Sweet and a Teddy Called Mo

A short and sweet offering today I am afraid, as the non-availability of a computer is beginning to prove a real problem. I have just written out my Christmas list and hopefully Santa will bring me a nice shiny new one… or perhaps he won’t!

I have several updates on previous blogs, the first and most important of which is to the story in my blog for Tuesday 27th November which advised of the story regarding the arrest of British teacher Gillian Gibbons for naming a teddy bear Mohammed (I think I spelt it Muhammad previously – which is correct?). Mrs Gibbons appeared in court in Khartoum today to face charges of inciting religious hatred. It is reported that 54 year old Mrs Gibbons looked tired and distressed but was not hand-cuffed and was escorted into the court by around 20 police officers. The prosecutor-general said Mrs Gibbons could expect a swift and fair trial under Sudanese law. The sentence, if found guilty, could be 6 months imprisonment, a fine and/or 40 lashes. The more extreme members of Islam were demanding her execution!Journalists were unable to enter the court, prevented from doing so by riot police, embassy officials nor her legal team were also initially prevented from entering although they were later allowed in. There has been international condemnation of the arrest and it remains to be seen as to what the outcome will be. It should be remembered thought that we are talking about a middle-aged female teacher being put on trial for naming a teddy bear Mohammed. Anyone want Islamic Law here?

Fortunately there are a couple of items I can add here that are less ridiculous although the first of these is none the less very interesting. My blog entry for Thursday 15th November mentioned the problems experienced with the selective reporting of the Wiltshire Gazette, the local weekly newspaper we see in Calne. It seems it is not only the BNP that suffer from this. At a meeting of Calne Town Council on Monday, concern was also expressed about this unbalanced reporting, if interested the minutes can be seen HERE – item 66.1 refers!

Finally on a more pleasant note, in my blog of Tuesday 16th October I mentioned what a wonderful village Lacock is. Some readers may already know, but if not, have a look at the splendid BBC series Cranford, based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novels, as Lacock is where it was filmed.