On Thursday, in Tottenham, Mark Duggan, 29, was fatally shot by police officers attempting to arrest him as part of a planned Operation Trident mission. He had a loaded handgun - a replica converted to a fatal weapon. Whether he fired it is under investigation by the IPCC. The Guardian reports that the bullet lodged in a policeman's radio, that had seemed earlier to incriminate him, was police issue.

Going by the nickname 'Starrish Mark' he leaves behind a facebook page that shows him posing in a Lamborghini, under this picture he wrote 'i aint even countin money no more, if it aint right it jus aint right, it does'nt even matter 2 me no more. loool'.

It is reported (by the Daily Mail, I must add) that he was a crack dealer  and It is also reported (by the Evening Standard) that he was a good father to his four children.

A friend of his, calling herself 'Nikki' (53) said 'yes, he was involved in things...but he never hurt anyone". The Sun reports he was a member of Man Dem, 'a gang with links to the Yardies'.

A crowd, including members of his family, gathered on Saturday outside Tottenham police station purportedly to protest, to ask for information, for 'justice'.

But this soon turned to widespread looting and violence.

And it took in Tottenham, then Wood Green, then Enfield, Ponders Green, Brixton, Hornsey and Hackney.

Croydon on Monday evening was 'like a war zone' according to the BBC.  Clapham too.

This is the BlackBerry message supposedly widely circulated to organise and incite looting in Oxford Street: http://t.co/slxMOAG

It is not seemingly a riot of principle, but a consumerist riot, driven by the desire for things.  Riot coke, if you like.

Some are particularly keen to remind us of the socio-economic factors that exist in the areas where this this flare-up started, and while it is true among these are areas of deprivation, and that there are serious problems that is not an excuse for this criminality.

If anything, these deprived areas are where community is most necessary, and by trashing, burning and stealing from local businesses these criminals have shown disregard, contempt and have physically and abstractly damaged their community.

There is a strong gang, yob, street - whatever you want to call it - mentality and 'culture' in Tottenham, seemingly in all of London. These are the communities - criminal communities - that the young (and young adults, from eyewitness reports of looters) appear to be drawn into and to then feel they belong to. Not the community at large.

I think it is a crying shame that the public sector and services are experiencing debilitating cuts, that youth centres are to close - there is hope in these places, slim, but some hope nonetheless -  and I think unemployment and lack of education and opportunity all need addressing, and yes - are contributing factors to this outbreak of violence. But I also think that people need to condemn organised and opportunistic violence and theft for what it is, and not see in it some ideological or moral purpose that is not there. If you read the Blackberry message above you won't see any Marxist rhetoric, you will just see violent, criminal, wannabe gangster greed.

Not that this isolated message is indicative of all the motives of every participant in the 'riots'. Of course there may well have been a range of motivations. But it seems to me that the grievance over the killing of a young man by police and the ongoing looting need to be clearly seperated. 

Overall, there is a lot to feel sorry for. I feel sorry for Mark Duggan's children.  I feel sorry for the Police who are criticised for not using force to stop the looting, and who are also criticised for using the force that killed Mark Duggan in the first place.  I feel sorry for the people whose businesses have been ruined by opportunistic criminals. I even feel sorry, pathos, for the Currys worker caught looting her own store. I feel sorry for Mark Duggan.  He could have been something other than a police statistic, with a different set of choices, with a different set of friends, with a different set of opportunities.

People need help, people need support, but you have to realise people are ultimately responsible for themselves, people are responsibile for their community and people are responsible for their actions, otherwise you are just patronising them.

I feel sorry that the rioters don't realise how lucky they are to live in this country, in a world where most people live in actual poverty, where people die for want of clean water, where there is famine, war and terrible injustice.

We live in a country with free education, a health service, with housing and benefits, with support systems in place to take care of any broken families, a democratic country with freedom of expression. Far from perfect, but good, and free. But this is not enough 'free stuff' for them, so they have smashed windows and stolen what they could. 

There is only so much sympathy you can have for those looters that 'have nothing to lose', 'are alienated', 'don't have any prospects' when you see things like this hurt young man being robbed.

In my heart, l also feel sorry that we don't have a better society, there is something tragic about the looter pictured gun-fingering his trophy - a large Tesco value bag of rice; something pathetic about people breaking in to JD Sports to steal trainers, or Currys to steal TVs. But what is more pathetic is that those TVs and trainers are made by people far poorer than the looters. So perhaps spare a thought for the people in the world who are hungry, or downtrodden, for real.  And consider how much sympathy relatively you really should give to the poor who organise crime via their Blackberries.

*************

This woman, puts her point across better than me

This is a facebook ad I saw today:

"I died in a car crash and saw a vital missing piece for the law of attraction. Read what you must consider to manifest money or goals."

Firstly, I am somewhat annoyed that facebook's targeted ads seem to think this relevant to me. I'm used to the 'get a six pack', 'apply for a credit card', 'why not give your kidney to a dog?' sort of thing but this...what is it?

What the hell is it selling?  Who the hell is selling it?

'I died in a car crash?' 

Ok.  Sorry to hear that. It doesn't seem to have dampened your patter, though.

'...and saw a vital missing piece for the law of attraction'

Ignoring the weird grammatical construction, what the hell does this mean?

The law of attraction - what, gravity? magnetism? horniness? 

What the DICKENS are you talking about?

'Read what you must consider to manifest money or goals?'

Oh, right, it falls into place.

You are selling the usual bullshit. 

The twist is that you are doing it from the grave.

Is there a book I can buy?

There is! Oh brilliant.

Does it have any robots in it? No. A breathtaking twist? No.

Does it, like Tolstoy, consist of immaculately constructed sentences and insights into human existence?  No. It doesn't.

Is it some shonky piece of rubbish that you, some sort of idiot, are peddling to other idiots?

Does it mention quantum physics at some point to disguise the reek of spurious guff with the pine scented air freshener of pseudo-science?

It is! It does! Please accept my monies.

With the news that 11 alleged deep cover Russian agents have been exposed in America, I thought I would look to the internet for advice on how to spot a spy, just in case my greengrocer, newsagent or local debonair, womanising, casino denizen is an undercover agent for a hostile nation.

An American site 'spybusters' offers a list that includes the helpful advice that to spot a spy you should look out for:

• Military intelligence experience.

Which means that if someone has worked as a spy, they might be a spy.

Good advice.

The site eHow, which offers advice on a plethora of subjects, suggests the following:

'Ask the potential spy if they like to play chess or other games of intense concentration. Most spies will have very good logic and problem solving skills. They are very intelligent people.'

Suddenly my suspicions are aroused.  There is a man who gets the same train as me each morning, he has talked to me several times - about the football, the lateness of the trains, the fact that I wear headphones to prevent having to talk to people on the train platform.  He has also told me about his love for the game of chess.

Is he a spy?

eHow says:

'Identify a spy by their age. Most people who are spies will be between the ages of 25 and 40 years old. However, there are also older or younger spies.'

He seems to be older than 40, but it does say there are older spies.  So far the answer to the question 'is this man a spy?' is a resounding yes.

'Watch for unusual behavior. Does the spy subtly try to be left alone in an office for a few minutes? Do they asked to be trusted with important information? These are all red flags.'
I haven't had an opportunity to test him in the office, but my imagination tells me that if I were to, he would do all sorts of espionage.

Did they ask to be trusted with important information? Well, he has asked me questions about my life and hobbies, questions others might have mistaken for the small talk of a friendly commuter, but not me, the vigilant spycatcher.  Thanks to eHow and Spybusters, I have his number.

He is a secret agent.

The next step is to alert the authorities so he can be extraordinarily rendered by black helicopter from the train platform when he attempts to strike up conversation tomorrow. They will take him somewhere awful and lawless like Morocco or South London, leaving me able to listen to my music without threat of espionage or small talk.

Be vigilant!

The Odd Couple 2010:

(Clegg is dusting, wearing an apron and squirting air freshener passive aggressively at Cameron who is loafing on the Chesterfield in dishevelled dinner dress from the night before, he is smoking a fat cigar)

Clegg: Are you going to go out at all today?

Cameron: Nope, my plan is to watch the Coach Trip omnibus and get steadily drunk on 'Bolly

Clegg: (having sneezing fit) do you have to smoke those awful things, you could at least open a window

Cameron: If you don't like it, why don't YOU go outside

Clegg: I can't dust outside, can I?

*Close up of Cameron's booze sotted face as an idea flickers across it. Cut to Clegg outside, hoovering the pavement*

Clegg: It's fifty-fifty all the way!

*sound of champagne cork popping inside*

(Thanks to my brother Jonathan for inspiring this by suggesting the whole situation was like a bad E4 comedy - promising 'hilarious consequences')

This poll refers to current news stories relating to decades of allegations and authenticated cases of abuse by clergy of the Catholic church, and the reactions of respected members of the institution whereby they have blamed homosexuals,Jews and Satan

Whatever happened to Mea Culpa?

More on this on my website

At the end of a day like any other a bundle of bone swaddled in rough
skin and hessian rags transfers itself from the sealine to the rocks.  A
thin hand wipes oily sweat from hollow cheeks, ears gather the sound of
the waves as they fade into a whisper amid the soft heat of the hill's
crest.

In the air, circling, the birds fleet, navigating the dying thermals of
the evening down to the dust.

On the top of the hill the man takes a smooth stone and a flint and
carves lines upon the earth. The lines gather at his command, to form a
memory.  A face.

The sky is blackening.  At the rim of sight the opalescent fire sinks
into the shimmering water.  Long strips of firelight lick across the
sea, stretching towards the land like cats before slumber.  Then the
dreaming stars take their seat in the shadows, to watch down on the
staged world.

The man's brittle finger traces the lines he has engraved on the Earth.
The lines of a face.

His mouth is dry and silent, ruined.  His eyes are closed. Softly,
through the night, he weeps and the running tears fall upon the Earth,
erasing the lines he has drawn, like passing winds or rain.

A ritual without meaning, without witness. When the morning comes he
passes down the hill to replenish his tears from the cold waters of the
shifting sea. His thirst always getting more severe.

This is just amazing. You can follow the artist, Willard Wigan on twitter @mylittleeye. Inspiring and breathtaking (for him too, as you will see)

Google has announced it is to stop censoring its Chinese search results. The move comes after a series of hacks, including compromised gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The implication seems to be that these were the work of the clandestine branches of the Chinese government or at least occurred with the government's approval.

The announcement may mean the end of google.cn, as it will have to operate within the laws of its host country and uncensored search results may contravene those laws. Google is to discuss this with the Chinese government in the coming week.

On the one hand, well done Google. On the other, what were you doing in the first place? Censoring happily away at the government's behest for the past four years. Is that really 'doing no evil?'.  However, Baidu the most popular search engine in China is likely to  gain further power with Google's retreat. And won't this lead to a more insular, censored, national web?

China was recently shamed as the belligerent manipulator of the Copenhagen climate talks. It has become the world's biggest exporter and holds great international sway, but some financial speculators predict it is headed for a fall in 2010.

It will be interesting to see which way China goes, the emergent middle classes may expect openness and westernised liberty but the government is still strongly controlling of information and ideas. The Chinese Internet may well become an intranet.