Ian Martin and the Tapes

Oops, looks like long time blogdai nemesis Ian Martin of the tattered UNMIN has finally met his match.

Sorry Ian, apparently, one of the most difficult things for a UN employee to be is an idealogue.

It seem poor Ian gave an inflammatory report to the UN that was highly critical of Israeli intentions

Another Oops for poor Ian: Our dear deposed PM Prachanda was caught on tape confessing that he exaggerated the strength of the Maoist forces by some factor of five. Compound this with the latest news that Maoists claim that they never turned over their weaponry per sir Ian's request and instead kept the best and most lethal armaments away from UNMIN scrutiny and inventory bodes poorly for the efficacy of such UN missions in Nepal.

Per Ian Martin's request as well, monitors were to be stationed at all Nepali polling places during the last elections. blogdai immediately shouted "fraud" and "incompetance" at the idea. Having first hand knowledge (and photos, mind you) blogdai can assure all gentle readers that the UN delegation never made it out of the Kathmandu valley during election time. I saw most of them at club 1905 and they had no intention of leaving the valley for any "rough" travel to polling stations in the village.

Ian Martin's legacy in Nepal is one of abject failure. The worst of which is his idea of containing Maoists in cantonments. A complete an unmitigated failure of both concept, policy and implementation, this was. Maoists chose who would reside in said cantonments, had no sense of restricted movement, and basically carried on as usual. Such is the legacy that Israeli critics capatilized upon.

A career in ruins:

Well, that's it for Ian, finally. After blogdai has been calling for his removal from the world stage for the last couple of years, the pompous grandstander with the English pedigree has finally been brought down by Israeli scrutiny. They've rightly pointed to his failures in Nepal as an example of how he should not be allowed to conceive any report on Israel that bears any international credibility whatsoever. The so called "Martin Report" on Israel will now live as the penultimate example of the UN's perception of its own hegemonic inluence, and its ultimate failure as a policy.

So long Ian Martin. Stick a fork in him: he's done.

-=blogdai

First Photos from Everest

blogdai is a proud supporter of Pemba Dorje Sherpa. Pemba and his brothers summited Chomolungma this May 19, but failed to stay atop the worlds highest peak for 24 hours as planned. Apparently, weather drove them down after 2 hours.

The first available photos of Pemba Dorje Sherpa at the summit of Everest sent exclusively to blogdai. So piss off you spoiled brat white American climbers.

Pemba, as you all remember, holds the worlds speed record for climbing Everest at just over 8 hours. He was attempting to bring the symbols of each of the world's major religions to the summit and pray during this record attempting period. Pity, but no sadness is required. Pemba will do it again. In fact, there are probably 100 active climbing Sherpas who could conceivably attempt world record type feats on Everest. Insanely strong people, these Sherpas, with an insanely high hematocrit.

As a blogdai friend, our first words from Pemba indicated that his two brothers were getting sick at camp II and that the endurance record would not be attempted. Still Pemba acheived his 10th summit of Sagarmatha: no failure in any human's opinion.

MEMO TO CHINA: Have a look at these pictures. This is what a real, non-simulated summit looks like. Cloud and mountain references in the background. Tibetans and Sherpas don't need your phony Olympic torch ceremony to get them up the mountain; they were born for this and find your politics distasteful. More on this later as blogdai is beginning to boil at the topic.

Anyway, Pemba says a direct "thank you" to all who've supported this effort. Peace and Namaste to all

-=blogdai