Patrick Craddock

Reza  Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last Shah of Iran  and now in exile in the US would love to return to Teheran and become the new leader. Would he be a believer in democracy and encourage it?  I doubt it. Before the obvious and evil oppression of the present regime, the Shah of Iran  had his own oppression security force, SAVAK. It used surveillance with extreme brutality and  operated its own detention centres, such as the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. One report I read said SAVAK had 5,000 personnel. Amnesty International noted SAVAK interrogations included: Bastinado: Whipping the soles of the feet. Electric shock:Read More →

In Greece you can still visit the place where the ancient Greeks asked for answers from their Delphic Oracle.  This involved getting answers with double meanings or cryptic phrases that could be interpreted in  different ways. The ambiguity often ensured the oracle’s prestige, as the statements could be seen as correct after the fact, regardless of the outcome. For example, King Croesus of Lydia (c. 560 BC) or the self-appointed King Donald of the US might ask what’s going to happen if they wage war against the Persian Empire (Iran)? · Oracle’s Answer: “If you make war on the Persians, you will destroy a greatRead More →

Trump has one God. The ancient Greeks didn’t have just one God of War, but two of them. Ares, the male alpha God and Athene, the wise woman War God. They show us two sides of our natures. Trump and the religious clowns who sat in the White House Oval Office touching him with reverence and sanctimonious thoughts have one idea, one philosophy. They are sure they are virtuous and right and support Trump, who like thousands of leaders before him goes to war with his one  idea. Ares is his God. Ares  understands destruction. The Trump legacy is dead civilians and destroyed culture inRead More →

A CNN report describes the Pentagon under Secretary Pete Hegseth as a “black box”  in that he uses his position to polarise media viewpoints. He uses the language of official secrecy and by restricting access to information. Since he came to office most press briefings have been replaced by one-way video releases and social media posts, with the Pentagon correspondent corps largely kept at arm’s length. Questions referred to the White House often go unanswered. Pirate Pete Hegseth has been accused of using almost exclusively Trump-aligned outlets like Fox TV.  He has stifled the opportunities of journalists to ask tough follow-up questions. This vacuum forcesRead More →

  He killed 51 people worshipping at a Mosque in Christchurch in New Zealand during  March 2019. The terrorist was apprehended by two policemen as he was preparing to  kill more people.  In court he pleaded guilty.  There was an abundance of evidence. He had a manifesto online. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. A psychologist and a psychiatrist who had assessed the terrorist before his sentencing in August 2020 concluded that he was fit to plea at that time. Now the 35-year-old Australian claims he pleaded guilty only because he was irrational due to the solitary nature of his prison conditions, andRead More →

There are so many good thinkers  and writers on theatre, film and other arts. Your writing  is on past and present theatre, film and other arts.  Great. I want to read more of what you write. But I hate you.  I really do. And for good reason. Damn university!!!!!!! Your academic books are so expensive even on Kindle. Then when I look for your essays and articles I frequently find that either you or your university want to sell them to me. In some cases you expect me… a  mere single human being to morph…. to become an institution… to pay a large subscription feeRead More →

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Just yesterday and with a grandson I watched the film Avatar Fire and Ash. It’s too late , but James Cameron should have had a dedication in it to the people working in Washington in The White House and to one Donald Trump in particular.  In 3D colour and extreme sound this dedication would have made the film unique in the long fake saga of the US, safely with the walls of Hollywood, saving the world. Avatar Fire and Ash has a primary coloniser called The Resources Development Administration (RDA), a human corporation backed by militaristic force (represented by characters like Colonel Quaritch). Some quotesRead More →

On this last day of 2025 I shudder about a new political development in the Middle East. My view is that Israel has just made plans for a possible future war. They recognised Somaliland as an independent state. No other UN country has done this. Somaliland is a self-declared republic in the Horn of Africa. It has a history of colonial rule, a failed political union, and a journey to build a stable democracy.  Israel’s is making hard-nosed strategic calculations about its future in the turbulent Horn of Africa and Red Sea region. Over the past decade, there have been intermittent talks and in 2025,Read More →

This week our politicians have been extremely busy throwing insults at each other.  So here is one more from Shakespeare.  I dedicate it to two politicians who throw insults around like confetti or rice at a wedding.  This is for David Seymour and Shane Jones from the Sweet Swan of Avon: “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander. It insultsRead More →