BY ROGER WATSON “Welcome back to Taiwan…” “…do you still have diarrhoea?” Few, if any people arriving in the landside of customs at Chiang Kai-Shek airport near Taipei in Taiwan will have been greeted like this. The young student sent to welcome me, demonstrating typical Chinese directness and insensitivity, was referring to my previous visit when I arrived from Hong Kong following the worst bout … Continue reading Welcome Back to Taiwan
BY ROGER WATSON In Banalysis, Frank Haviland tackles an unpopular subject: that people are different from one another. To even the casual observer it is obvious that people are different, but to say so these days is virtually an anathema. In our increasingly homogenised world, we are expected to accept that nobody wins a race, they merely participate. Nobody fails an examination; instead they receive … Continue reading Banalysis
BY ROGER WATSON Having reviewed Philip Tucker’s book The Jasmine Sari in these pages, I was very keen to read his first novel An Englishman in Terror. It is an entirely different kind of book, but I was not disappointed. If asked to summarise this novel in one word, it would have to be ‘misery’. Still, this is the well-crafted misery of the main character … Continue reading An Englishman in Terror
BY ROGER WATSON Anyone with military connections will understand the term ‘patch’ which is a military colloquialism for accommodation where serving members of the armed forces live with their families. This is distinct from barracks and messes which are usually within the confines of a military camp. Living ‘on the patch’ therefore means living in military housing in the area immediately surrounding a military camp. … Continue reading The Patch
BY ROGER WATSON We have just entered the season of Lent, forty days during which we prepare ourselves for the zenith of the Christian calendar, the Easter Triduum, when we remember the torturing and execution and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I know that this season is upon us because Easter eggs and hot cross buns are already on display at Tesco. Of course, I … Continue reading Family Farce Day
BY ROGER WATSON Published in 2017, this book has had a recent publicity boost and one without which I may never have come across it. It is self-published by the author Philip Tucker, which may explain its obscurity, but the author has clearly and happily decided to invest in having it advertised on the London Calling and Weekly Sceptic podcasts, both of which feature journalist … Continue reading The Jasmine Sari
BY ROGER WATSON One of my favourite places to stay in Hong Kong is ‘The Y”. This is the YMCA Hotel in Tsim Tsa Tsui on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong harbour. Sitting next to the unaffordable (for me!) Peninsula it offers the same views and the same convenience as its more prestigious neighbour but at less than half the price. Before you have … Continue reading Haircut in Hong Kong
BY ROGER WATSON If you spend a lot of money on a hat, you expect it to be a good one. I just have, it is and it came from Borges & Scott. But more about the hat later. I have worn a variety of hats over the years. Starting at school there was the navy blue school cap with the school badge above the … Continue reading Get Ahead, Get a Hat
BY ROGER WATSON The analogies between membership of the Branch Covidian cult and true religion have been drawn before. Other cults with religious parallels exist such as Extinction Rebellion and the general cult of ‘wokery’ described by Andrew Doyle in his book of the same name as ‘The new puritans’. Just as in any religion, including Christianity, there are splinter groups and sects with some … Continue reading The 7 Sacraments of Public Health
BY ROGER WATSON Turning the key in the lock, the old man opened the door to the welcome warmth of the house and closed the door on a cold Christmas Eve. He recalled the days when Midnight Mass really took place at midnight. But, to avoid drunken revellers joining in, for the last few decades it had taken place early in the evening. He also … Continue reading CSM Christmas Story 3 of 3: The Old Summer House
BY ROGER WATSON ‘…surgeon’ The word penetrated the loud chatter, reached her ear and the ‘cocktail party effect’ kicked in. ‘Yes, I work locally. Love my job.’ She disengaged from the hungry gaze and the increasingly salacious conversation of the man who was speaking to her and tossed a glance in the direction of the voice she was actually listening to. She was not disappointed. … Continue reading CSM Christmas Story 2 of 3: A Christmas Party
BY ROGER WATSON The house was dark and quiet. It was Christmas Eve and the rest of the houses on the street were lit up and noisy. This one was dark and quiet but the owners were at home, he knew they were. He pressed the bell and knocked loudly and confidently on the door. Silence. He tried again with the same result. Then he … Continue reading CSM Christmas Story 1 of 3: Lace
BY ROGER WATSON I have just spent one of several weeks this year working in Italy. As with most countries I visit regularly, after initial impressions are over about similarities and differences, once you get to know more people and to know them in depth, you appreciate more of the differences and begin to understand at least part of what makes Italians the way they … Continue reading Have We Lost Our Link to the Land?
BY ROGER WATSON I made my first visit to the National Armed Forces Memorial at the Arboretum in Staffordshire this week. The memorial, opened in 2001 and run by The Royal British Legion but funded by an independent charity, exists to commemorate members of the armed forces who have died since 1948. Since that date there have been over 16,000 deaths in over 50 conflicts … Continue reading The National Memorial Arboretum
BY RACHEL NICOLL Roger Watson’s article ‘Terrain Theory Terrorists’ is disappointingly emotive, labelling terrain theory as nonsense and quoting Wikipedia’s opinion that terrain theory is an ‘obsolete variation’ of ‘germ theory denialism’. Just because one article in Wikipedia says something is a fact, does not make it so. Roger Watson also makes some very sweeping, but unsubstantiated, statements such as ‘But the….doctors who adhere to … Continue reading Response to Roger Watson’s Article: Terrain Theory Terrorists
BY ROGER WATSON Admittedly, this is somewhat of a late review. Kindle is now in its sixth generation with an array of devices, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. While my wife was an early adopter along with three of my daughters, I was not convinced. The original models had no backlight, and this was sold as an advantage as the backlighting on other … Continue reading To Kindle or not to Kindle
BY ROGER WATSON Nonsense has a new name, and it is ‘terrain theory’. Never heard of it? Read on and you will not be able to say that again. Terrain theory is aptly described by Wikipedia as an ‘obsolete variation’ of ‘germ theory denialism’. Obsolete it may be, but it has not expired. To understand what germ theory denialism is, you need to understand what … Continue reading Terrain Theory ‘Terrorists’
BY ROGER WATSON My wife and I had not taken a significant journey from Victoria Station for 40 years. On that occasion we were heading to Paris for our honeymoon. We had spent our wedding night at Victoria Square in the home of our good friend Bunny Austin (the best player who never won Wimbledon). While I lagged with our cases, Bunny was keeping my … Continue reading Pullman Pleasures
BY ROGER WATSON I recently introduced readers to a minority movement, described as ‘virus deniers’. They prefer to describe themselves as ‘virus sceptics’ and quickly enact Godwin’s Law (that eventually all arguments end up with someone being compared to Hitler) when the term ‘denier’ is used. For evidence of this see the comments that greeted another similar piece published in The Daily Sceptic. However, they … Continue reading Baileys’ Quoque
BY ROGER WATSON With the Holy See in the grip of a South American Communist and the long but not so gradual decline of the Roman Catholic Church since the 1960s and the disaster known as the Second Vatican Council, nothing really surprises me any longer when I grit my teeth and join the faithful each Sunday morning for weekly Mass. From the caterwauling in … Continue reading Cafod Olé
