Malala: the silence is deafening

THE FRIDAY THING: THERE have been screaming protests at an American-made film that is said to depict the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and a womaniser and a new threat to take those protests to Google and YouTube offices across the world in an effort to persuade them to take what they see as offensive material off line.

Strangely, though, there does not seem to have been the same level of protest about the shooting in the head and neck of a 14-year-old girl whose only “crime” was to plead for the right of all girls in Pakistan to have an education.

What sort of regressive, oppressive psychopath is it that seeks to preclude young women (or women in general probably) from receiving an education and is prepared to kill them for having the temerity to want the right to go to school to properly equip them to fulfil their ambitions and to take their place in society?

Who in God’s name (my God, the Taliban’s God, and anyone’s God) could ever believe that preventing women from gaining an education is a cause worth killing for? The incredibly brave Malala Yousafzai probably knew that her campaign would earn the anger of the Taliban gangsters.

But who would have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that these fanatics would shoot the teenage protester in the head and neck in front of her schoolmates?

We have to ask just what is it about education that the Taliban terrorists fear? Is it the exposure of their own inferiority that the bullies need to beat, punish and dominate to prove, at least to themselves and their misguided peers, that they are superior?

Shooting a 14-year-old girl in the head proves only insecurity, fear, weakness and cowardice. What will the shooter’s God make of that?


I HAVE lived in Oldham for some 48 years and in that time have witnessed a fair amount of demolition and rebuilding, have been in turn excited and disappointed as promises of new dawns and wider horizons have failed to materialise.
This time I am as sure as anyone can be in these uncertain times that the borough and its leaders mean it. We are, I believe, finally on the cusp of a transforming revolution that will change the face of Oldham and, I believe, the sometimes-justified sceptical faces of the Oldhamers.

The 36 page Oldham on the map published in the Chronicle last week was not a vision of what might be, but a firm commitment to give us something new and real.

Metrolink has been a pain and will continue to be so for some time yet, but it is the beating heart of the new Oldham. The cinema complex, the fabulous Hotel Future, the new academies, new modern homes, an improved shopping experience, potential leisure zones with bars, restaurants and cafes and out of town developments leading to the creation of much-needed jobs are all featured in the blueprint of the new Oldham.

I have only one slight reservation. Is the large number of climbing walls in schools, academies and leisure centres these days part of the apprenticeship training of would-be burglars?

We should be told.


YOU really do have to check that it is not April 1 when you read that the European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Had the Nobel selection panel forgotten that when Angela Merkel paid a visit to Athens recently it required 7,000 police to protect her from angry Greeks who described her as a reincarnation of the Third Reich?

Catalonia, Italy and Belgium (yes, even Belgium) have had fractious relations with the rest of the EU and how about the arguments between Britain and just about every other country in the EU?

Some Euro MPs could see the joke, however: as Nigel Farage of UKIP said, “This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humour.”



FINAL WORD: A bit of advice for those still playing the dating game. Women find men wearing purple and who have just had a haircut most attractive, but wearing blue or pink is a no-no. I have never worn anything purple, which probably explains a lot.
Oh, and wearing underpants which give off electric shocks every 10 minutes could stimulate your muscles. Smart-e-Pants and could be available for £200 plus £10 a month for replacement electrodes.

Eat your heart out, “Fifty shades”.