Yesterday (10/3/13) Rihanna was supposed to have performed the third
concert of her Diamonds tour in Baltimore, US. However as previously
discussed at great length she was forced to cancel due to illness.
Today the heir to the UK throne Prince Charles began a diplomatic tour
of the Gulf nations beginning with a visit to a camp for Syrian refugees
in Jordan. This along with the visit by the Russian Foreign Minister to
the UK and British claims that they will circumvent the European Union
(EU) arms embargo to supply the Syrian rebels (Saudi/Qatari Irregular
Army, SQIA) with weapons is the UK trying to speed up the overthrow of
the Syrian government. According to some reports in return for these
efforts Qatar is going to give Britain around USD14bn to help re-start
it's stalled economy. France is also said to be considering supplying
the SQIA with weapons. However given the situation in Mali I would think
they're saying that for very different reasons then the UK.
Although the US still wants to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's Syrian
government they want to be able to control the process in order to
control what replaces the Syrian government. Therefore they are
desperately trying to slow down Assad's fall and are made very nervous
about any attempts the speed it up. As such they've today put in a slew
of efforts - that should have included Rihanna's concert - to put
pressure on all concerned to find how successful the UK's efforts on
Syria are being.
Lead amongst these is the start of what has become known as the
Steubenville rape trial. Named after the Ohio town where it's all going
on this case revolves around two High School football players who are
accused of raping a drunk 16 year old girl who comes from Chris Brown's
home state of West Virginia. What makes the case standout though is that
the alleged rape took place at a house party where it was extensively
photographed and filmed by a large number of onlookers. Initially the
local police refused to prosecute anyone over the crime and it's widely
believed that many more people should also be on trial. This has
obviously promoted a lot of heated debate about police in the US'
attitude to violence against women and how people can just stand there
and watch someone being raped and abused but not do anything to stop it.
Therefore the case is a metaphor for Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion
especially the incident in the New York nightclub in October 2012 which
is triable as a rape offence.
Also there has been the news that fan letters sent to the US popstar
Taylor Swift have been found dumped in the trash. This is supposed to
raise speculation that Rihanna hasn't been in contact with me because
she's thrown away the card I sent her with my phone number on it. Of
course this also raises questions about who knows what was on that card.
However I think we all know that Rihanna and her people have most
certainly not lost my phone number. If it were true though and if by
someone miracle Rihanna would actually want to talk to me in light of
the above paragraph the solution is simple. Someone at the UK division
of Rihanna's record company simply buy another phone and deliver it to
me. After all with the work I'm doing for them they should really be
paying me.
The US play I'm finding the most interesting though is the shooting of
four people and subsequent manhunt in around the villages Herkimer and
Mohawk, New York state. I find it interesting because although it
touches on a wide variety of topics it doesn't seem to a have a
particular point. Obviously being a mass shooting incident which put
local schools on lockdown it touches on the current debate in the US
about gun control and all the issues included in that very large topic.
Also the initial shooting took place at a barbers shop and a Mohawk is a
type of hairstyle so the US are clearly pushing the issue of haircuts. A
'haircut' is a slang term for losing money on a financial transaction
so that reference could apply to any financial transaction anywhere in
the world ever although the term 'haircut' gets used a lot in reference
to the Eurozone debt crisis. Alternatively I said recently that people
have suggested that the Rihanna song "Man Down" is about me. What I
actually meant was that people at my barbers have suggested it. It would
be interesting to see who'd heard that particular story.
Finally the village of Mohawk along with the Mohawk river it sits on the
banks of takes it's name from the Mohawk tribe of Native Americans. One
significant element of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that was
passed in the US recently was that it extends to protections of the act
to include Native Americans specifically. Therefore the shootings also
touch on the issues of violence against women and domestic violence
which is sadly is all Rihanna seems to be famous for these days.
Mainly though I think the Mohawk shooting is just intended to be a
spinner. That's a story that contains lots of twists and turns but
ultimately doesn't go anywhere in an effort to confuse and annoy people.
As for Rihanna herself she yesterday added 6 dates to the Diamonds tour
in Australia and New Zealand in September 2013. Hopefully she will use
the month or so between the end of the European leg and those dates to
take a rest.
After all we're all pretty much just sitting here waiting for the
announcement that tomorrow's concert in Philadelphia is also cancelled
due to ill health.
(Originally Posted) 23:50 on 13/3/13.
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