Sunday, January 24/2010

Rainyish day - well, January is when the little rain that cyprus gets does fall. So reading and telly. We're now reading Julian Rathbone's A Very English Agent. Spy fiction set in the early 19th century. Well researched and as interesting for the social background as the narrative.

The Doha Debates are on BBC World tv in the afternoon. Today's resolution: the present government in Afghanistan is not worth fighting for. (Resolution passes 51:49). The Doha debates are mainly impressive for the caliber of the debaaters they are able to attract - high level UN representatives, ambassadors, MPs, etc.

In the evening we watch a french film on Dubai television - a good film and, interestingly, subtitled in both Arabic and English. Film punctuated by loud singing outside as groups (of sports fans?) return home. It occurs to us that public singing is virtualy never heard in Canada any more - we pay people or electronic devices to do our singing for us.