Personal but insightful look at the slow but painful progress towards a truly equal society.

The only story here is that it has been confirmed that the detainees eat chicken and rice. What were we expecting them to eat? No comment at all about the suggestion that as a result, they are getting fat due to the goodwill and generosity of the American taxpayer. Yes it is true, yes it is meaningless, yes it is disingenuous.

The story is interesting as it is based on self reporting. The concern I have with it is that there is little if any reported context to the research. We all work in pressured environments and are often asked to be reflective about our work and our roles. However, the difficulty is that we are also under pressure to achieve targets and feel guilty if we take the time to assess our own performance as it seems like time poorly spent. The key issue for me is that the participants feel that others waste more time than they do. Very subjective data but worthy of a more qualitative approach.

As an overseas reader, this article helps me to gain a much better picture of the reality of opposition in the elected houses. It seems to be a clear case of picking the fights you can win. Good stuff.

The story reads well on a superficial basis. However, the hostages were released following a barrage of diplomatic efforts at every level from UN to EU to national. Whether those were the reasons for the release or whether the release was due to an Iranian judgement that the situation had gained the maximum effect is too early to say. However, the slant placed on this story is exactly the same slant put forward by John Bolton in an interview with the BBC on April 4th. This view suits the agenda of the Daily Telegraph which is ideologically opposed to the current UK Government. The real question from my perspective is whether Gunboat Diplomacy at the cost of 15 service persons lives or liberty was a better option?