HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Weekly Photo Challenge – Cherry On Top
Posted on July 22, 2016
Many hundreds of people, or even thousands, visit the Grange Stone Circle each year, 1km or so distance from HX. Most feel a sense of energy or awe in the very scenic surroundings.
From the loughgur.com website:
It is the largest standing stone circle in Ireland, 150 feet in diameter and enclosed by 113 standing stones. The largest stone is Rannach Chruim Duibh (Crom Dubh’s Division) and is over 13 feet high and weighs 40 tons. The entrance stones are matched by a pair of equally impressive slabs on the southwest side, whose tops slope down towards each other to form a v-shape.
The placing of hands and forehead on the 40-tonne headstone, to feel the power and energy of the circle, is considered the ‘cherry of top’ of the visit by many.
Grange Stone Circle
The Parting Glass
Posted on July 21, 2016
MB has a friend on fb who regularly posts a simple – “Good morning all. Have a nice day”.
So MB thought he would give you all a decent Irish ‘good night’ song.
Good night from MB!
Turkey
Posted on July 16, 2016
Less than 24 hours ago, the bridges over the Bosphorus Straits were closed by Turkish army units who were attempted a coup. The coup failed. For medium-term or longer-term impacts we must wait and see. MB is no fan of Erdogan, but he does not support any coup.
MB has traveled to Istanbul a number of times in recent years and took many shots of the Bosphorus and its bridges. Herewith:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Details
Posted on July 15, 2016
2013 Shot of one of the buildings under construction at a Zaha Hadid-designed project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dallas
Posted on July 12, 2016
MB does not profess to have any great insights into the Dallas shootings. No more than anyone else who is remote from it, and remote from the USA. MB watches CNN, Fox News, BBC and reads a host of news websites, so that’s the limit of his Dallas/Black Lives Matter education in most respects.
The HX Report has, however, an avid follower in Dallas, Texas, called TC. MB came across TC a few years back on a walking tour around the HX lake back home. TC was on a quest, chasing his family roots who hailed from the HX locality some 150 or so years back. As good luck would have it, two of TC’s Irish relations were actually present on the night, and MB had the great pleasure of introducing TC to DM and PM, his very distant cousins.
Over the months and years since that initial visit of TC to MB’s home locality, TC has visited again on a number of occasions and found the HX locality very much to his liking. So much so that TC is planning to retire to HX, or some surrounding area, in the coming months. MB wishes TC well.
Back to Dallas, etc.
On waking up this morning, MB turned on his laptop as usual and saw another message from TC. It struck MB as an interesting point, given all the recent goings on; in particularly the huge and emotional debate about gun control in the US of A.
MB gives you TC’s comment verbatim, save for a few minor corrections of little consequence:
Howdy Mike. One thing I have noticed – that after the killing in Dallas, that after the attacks on Paris, the airport in Turkey, the massacre of young school children a year ago, the killings earlier this year in California: These gun nuts were saying all over the internet that if there was a person with a gun – there it would not be all those killings. Now after the Dallas shootings there is not one word about how if there was a person with a gun there, he would have stopped this from happening. Well, I guess the reason why is that there were over 100 armed police officers at the peace rally and only ONE gunman, and they could not stop this tragedy from happening. I always thought those gun nuts were closed minded and full of shit, now they are proving my point. Take care.
MB posted an article last night on facebook about gun deaths in Japan, and gives anyone who is interested, the link to access it below. Japan has a population of approximately 130M. In 2014, the last year MB could find any statistics for, the total gun deaths was 6. The reason is simple, and obvious to even a simpleton – almost nobody has access to guns in Japan, and if they do, there are vigorous checks, balances and controls.
The gun lobby has a catchy phrase – Guns don’t kill people, people do. But MB’s question to the gun lobby is – How does any person shoot another person without a gun? Answers please, in the comment box below. Thank you.
How Japan has almost eliminated gun deaths:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/
Keep well.
MB
Weekly Photo Challenge – Look Up
Posted on July 8, 2016
See beyond “the police” for change…
Posted on July 8, 2016
MB follows a blog called ‘Don of all trades’ which is written by a policeman called Don from Missouri, USA. He is a decent guy. He has written in the past about police shootings of black people in his country, and life in general as a policeman in USA. This post was written just after the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday just past, and before the shooting of Philando Castile in St Paul, Minnesota on Wednesday; and obviously before the shooting of police officers in Dallas on Thursday night.
The post speaks for itself.
It is absolutely the worst kept secret that police officers are our own worst enemies.
For whatever the reasons are, we not only look agift horse in the mouth, but we question it, frisk it, shake it down, and run it for warrants just in case.
Damn.
Another black man is dead, and what I’ve been reading all day is that he was killed at the hands of “the police.” This time, it happened in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It seems we can’t take two or three baby steps forward with rebuilding public trust before we take a giant, grown man step backwards.
All I’ve seen all day online line is that we, “the police,” are awful.
“The police” are racist.
“The police” are blood thirsty.
“The police” are violent.
“The police” are vengeful.
“The police” are acting as judge, jury and executioner on the streets of America.
“The police” killed…
View original post 1,650 more words
A stroll around the souq
Posted on July 7, 2016
Souq Waqif and surrounding streets. Doha, Qatar. 05 July 2016.
Of Camino De Santiago (and Onimac!)
Posted on July 5, 2016
Introduction by MB
The Camino De Santiago is a famous route of Christian pilgrimage that ends at the shrine of St James, in Santiago Cathedral in Galicia, NW Spain.
Eid Mubarak
Posted on July 5, 2016
Today is the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid Al-Fitr (the festival of the breaking of the fast) three-day holiday. The new lunar month of ‘Shawwal’ starts with the new crescent moon tonight, which is the 1oth month of the Islamic calendar.
The new lunar month of ‘Shawwal’ starts with the new crescent moon tonight, which is the 10th month of the Islamic calendar. Shawwal means to ‘lift’ or ‘carry’, as MB has just discovered on researching it, so named because a female camel would normally be carrying a fetus at this time of year.
‘Eid Mubarak’ is the common greeting to colleagues and friends out these parts leading up to and during the festival, meaning ‘Blessed’ or ‘Holy’ Eid.
So to any and all concerned, especially to friends & colleagues of MB out these parts – Eid Mubarak to all.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Opposites
Posted on July 1, 2016
Solstice morning. 21 June 2014. The calmest morning MB ever witnessed at Lough Gur lake. The water surface was like a mirror. Every reflection was a perfect opposite. MB took many shots. This is one of his favourites:
HX Report 