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and download it if you have a Kindle. Or you can buy it as a paperback from:

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(Show) Business as usual

Posted on July 22, 2013 by richarwb

Why anybody with a shred of intelligence is surprised at the disgusting behavior of Jimmy Saville and other UK showbiz personalities, surprises me. At first glance it seems confined to the UK (is paedophilia truly an English disease) until you remember Michael Jackson and the young boys who slept in his bed – and the consequent multi-million dollar payouts.

In general show business personalities are shallow, vain, and selfish; egocentric reprobates whose public image (these days carefully groomed and media managed by clever PR people) bear no relation to the real person and their dark secrets. 80% of people in “the Business” are from broken homes and/or abusive relationships – and have substance abuse problems. Look at the recent suicide/accidental overdose of GLEE star Cory Monteith, not to mention Janis Joplin, Keith Urban etc.

In my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” I deal with all sorts of characters who wash up in The Arabian/Persian Gulf for all manner of reasons. One such was Peter Moore, a decent enough fellow (but probably a bit vain and egocentric too) who happened to get very rich in the oilfields – and that attracted the undesirables. In his case he married Angie, a popular wannabe actress who turned out to be drunken, lecherous and promiscuous with a rather unhealthy interest in S&M. Eventually Peter divorced her – and she walked away with a sizeable chunk of his fortune squandered on designer clothes, botox and cocaine. But that is just Peter’s back-story.

We pick up his story in the 2000s on the rebound when he joined the hedonistic movers and shakers in the manic property boom in Dubai, and rebuilt his fortune. Unfortunately history repeats itself, and he fell for a stunning 19 year old East European whore who led him a merry dance, and cost him most of his new found wealth – but for very different reasons. Old Habits Die Hard – and maybe that should have been the title of the story.

But I titled Peter’s story “The Girl who went to the Moon” as Chapter 10 in my book which you can review by following the link:

and you can download it if you have a Kindle.

If you do not have a Kindle and/or prefer to have a real book you can order the paperback from my publisher:

www.feedaread.com

or from

They offer free delivery worldwide.

False Economy

Posted on July 11, 2013 by richarwb

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was brutal and oppressive, but provided you steered clear of politics, it was an efficient and functioning society. He was clever enough to provide the general populace with decent jobs, food and education. And all the Second Gulf War did was to replace that efficient society with an inefficient society that is just as brutal and oppressive. And between the two Gulf Wars the sanctions did not work.

Why anybody with a shred of intelligence believes that economic sanctions against rogue nations achieve their ends (viz. Zimbabwe, Iraq, Iran etc.) is beyond me.

I guess the theory, like most theories, is sound. Make the populace suffer and they will rise against their rulers. Most of us want to live a quiet life and just have a roof over our heads, put food on the table, and educate our kids. We may grumble about prices and taxes – but politics is a bore (Showbusiness for ugly people) and we grin and bear it. Only when the filthy rich and powerful start grinding our faces in an ever increasing workload and tax burden – and threaten the lives of our children – do we rise up.

But in practice the Iraq sanctions did not cause the populace to rise up in spite of the sufferings including an estimated 300,000 children dying for lack of medicines. And all the “oil for food” program did was create a huge black market in illicit oil vouchers that enriched and corrupted Russian, French and Indonesian government officials, private American investors – and besmirched the reputation of Swiss independent inspection companies and the UN at the highest level including Kofi Annan and Benan Savan.

The effects of all of these shenanigans are illustrated in the story False Economy in my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”

Poor Captain Bob, ruined by the false economics of so-called free market capitalism, still has enough dignity to gather the tattered shreds of his self-respect and blow the whistle on the oil for food program in spite of the consequences.

Preview my book by following my URL:

And you can download it as an ebook if you have a Kindle for just US$2.99.

If you prefer a paperback in your hands you can buy from:

They offer free delivery worldwide.

The more things change

Posted on July 4, 2013 by richarwb

“The budget must be balanced: the Treasury must be filled. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled and assistance to foreign lands be curtailed lest Rome will become bankrupt. People should learn again to work instead of living on public assistance.”

CICERO: 55BC

I want to share this with you because one of the constant themes in my writing is that nothing has really changed, and probably never will. This quote is as relevant today as it was when it was written over 2,000 years ago. The miracles of the digital age have merely put a shiny veneer on things and covered the cracks and deep divisions, and increased the hubris, vanity and arrogance of deeply ignorant and arrogant people (financiers and politicians) who never learn the lessons of history.

People should wherever possible stand on their own two feet and deal with their own problems. Obviously this is not universal. The vulnerable such as children and old people – and the seriously ill – have to be taken care of in a decent civilized world. But every other person should make a contribution and not try to live by exploiting his fellow man, or welfare.

At the start of my book THE GULF: “Reaping the Whirlwind” I use the cynical French phrase “Plus ca change – plus c’est la meme chose” to express my disgust at the way Western Governments continue to destroy the lives of “ordinary people” (I’ve never met an ordinary person in my life) by which I mean normal people who just want to live a decent and worthwhile life and are not consumed by ambition, greed, ego and arrogance.

(Arrogance is the self-confidence of the ignorant a.k.a. George Bush/Tony Blair).

My book is filled with stories of people who washed up in the Arabian/Persian Gulf because of politicians wars, financial crises and/or the perfidy of women. You can preview the book by following my URL:

http://www.thebookdepository.co.uk

And you can download it if you have a Kindle.

If not, and you prefer a real book, then you can buy it in paperback from:

They offer free delivery worldwide.

I hope you read it enjoy. To quote another great thinker “I may not write the whole truth – but I have not written anything that is untrue”

If nothing else my book is authentic.

Belly Dancers and Big Bikes

Posted on June 25, 2013 by richarwb

One of the feature writers in THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN wrote about a party she attended where there was a beautiful young belly dancer, and her husband could not take his eyes off her, and talked to her for an hour after her performance. But the writer said she was not jealous because he has the same sort of intensity about big superbikes (pull the other one).

But seriously, the male animal is programmed to respond to a number of stimuli, including nubile maidens and powerful steeds. And thinking of the recent UK scandals of Showbiz personalities being indicted for having sex with underage girls, there has to be a degree of compassion (but not for the depraved like Jimmy Saville who interfered with 9 year old boys and girls, and the handicapped). Being surrounded by underage Lolitas desperate to be in the limelight must be a terrible temptation – especially where alcohol loosens inhibitions.

So do we insist on strict moral judgments – or do we deal pragmatically with the world as it is?

It must be equally tempting for pretty young girls to use their sexuality to get what they think they want (after all belly dancers are highly regarded in the Arab World). And having done that, it’s not too much of a stretch for some of them to become call-girls; a (relatively) easy way to make an affluent living. And if prostitution is the oldest profession then war must be the second oldest. We have always had it, still have it, and probably will always have it. So is it wrong to make a living from war, or prostitution?

Someone has to make the guns, missiles, ammunition, airplanes – and someone has to supply, distribute and sell them. It’s a business like any other. If you don’t – someone else will. And someone will one day take a maiden’s virginity and she will lose her innocence. And if you don’t – someone else will. And if she uses sex in order to survive in the fog of a war zone who can blame her? It’s a bastard world – and I didn’t invent it.

Read my story IF YOU DON’T . . . in my book THE GULF: “Reaping the Whirlwind”

You can find it and preview it by following my URL:

and you can download it if you have a Kindle. If not you can purchase the paperback from:

To find it just type in Mike Richards. They offer free delivery worldwide.

I’ve never known a woman who couldn’t dance

Posted on June 19, 2013 by richarwb

We call it dancing—but why do you think discotheques are so popular with young women?

I have written before about the innate artistry and sensitivity of tribal women in the Middle East—particularly Persia—that enables them to preserve and refresh their nomadic culture and myths by weaving vibrant and stunningly beautiful rugs. Another gift that women carry is the innate ability to sway their supple bodies sensually—and erotically—to music and the rhythm of the drum. This is a talent lacking in most men, except those of African/Afro Caribbean ancestry.

Through all our layers of so-called civilization women have maintained an overwhelming biological urge to choose the best mate, and to reproduce healthy and strong children. And in most societies they do this by making bold eye contact and displaying their bodies the best way they can. Even in Saudi Arabia—where women’s bodies are covered by a black obayah, and their heads and faced covered by a hijab—the nubile maidens make sure that their obayahs are tailored to the contours of their bodies, and their hijabs are so flimsy that you can see their faces, or reveal their heavily made-up eyes. And repressed as they no doubt are, when they are in all female company, off come the obayahs and hijabs and they dance crazy mad.

When I worked in Saudi Arabia I directed a number of training videos, and my professional American cameraman was invited to big Saudi wedding, and allowed to film the womens’ party. (The receptions are segregated into a male and a female gathering). He described it in detail as the most erotic thing he had ever seen, and I have tried to replay this in my story I’VE NEVER KNOWN A WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T DANCE, in my book THE GULF: “Reaping the Whirlwind”

In true journalistic style my story was authenticated by a woman friend who had worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia for 9 years and attended a number of weddings.

Out of shame that this is not really a work of fiction, I amended the title slightly from COULDN’T to WOULDN’T and added an imagined beginning and ending to give it context. You can read the full story—and many others about the Middle East—by following my URL:

and downloading the Kindle edition. Or if you prefer a paperback you can order it from;

They offer free delivery worldwide.

The iron Curtain – and the Irony of Iron Man

Posted on June 10, 2013 by richarwb

It is ironic that the rigorous training schedules of the West’s Iron Man competitors grew out of Eastern Europe’s ruthless selection of gifted children to live their lives as elite athletes to prove the superiority of Communism over decadent capitalism. And that irony deepens when you consider that the pastime of competitive running for sport grew-out from dedicated amateur athletes: British Oxbridge graduates running for the joy of it. And the fashion for jogging and marathon running en-masse grew out from dissolute British colonial administrators’ bored with boozing and eating public school comfort food. They called themselves “drinkers with a running problem”, and founded the Hash House Harriers.

The Hash was founded in the Selangor Club in Malaya before WW II, based on the British public school Hares & Hounds paper chase. A few good runners would speed off and leave a paper trail for the snuffling hounds to follow. It wasn’t that serious, and there were “Tiffin Wagons” along the way to provide liquid refreshment. The idea caught on rapidly with British colonial expats, and “Kennels” were established in Kabul, Sinai, Addis Ababa and The Falklands. It died off during the war, but was revived shortly after, and kennels were established again wherever British expats gathered. There is even one in New York (and there was one in The Green Zone in Baghdad during the Second Gulf War).

For the elite few the running was more serious, and led to “Chariots of Fire” privileged Oxbridge graduates like Dr. Roger Bannister and Christopher Chataway, who gave their all to break the 4 minute mile barrier, and establish British dominance of middle distance running for two decades. The response of the Eastern Bloc took the form of athletes like the original Iron Man, Czech colonel Emile Zatopek, who pushed through his pain threshold by sheer willpower and swept aside the Oxbridge amateurs. The West worked hard to catch up, and the fierce determination of American athletes to sacrifice all and to win at any cost re-established dominance. But “win at all costs” comes at a price (not the least the present drugs in sport scandals) – and for a while at least the Russians and their satellites found that finishing second and relying on charisma sometimes has its benefits.

Read my story THE MAN WITH THE FACE OF A FISHERMAN, based on The Hash House Harriers and the Bahrain half-marathon, in my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”. You can preview the book, and download it in Kindle by following my URL:

Or if you prefer hard copy you can purchase a paperback with free delivery worldwide from: www.thebookdepository.co.uk

Thanks for your support

VIVA ESPANYA

Posted on June 1, 2013 by richarwb

I have not posted for over a week because we have moved back to Spain after 11 months in Australia – and I had forgotten what fun Spain is. Nothing works. We have had problems with water, electricity, Sat TV and finally with internet – only overcome this morning. But what is most scary is how quiet Spain is as a consequence of the GFC and the Eurozone crisis.

We arrived in Barcelona mid-morning, picked up a hire car and drove to the airport TRYP Hotel as usual, too tired after 22 hours of flying to attempt the 500 Km drive home. Usually the roads around the hotel are jam-packed and it is difficult to find parking. There was a 60% availability of parking spaces. And next morning when we left at 7 am – normally rush hour in a busy commercial centre like Barcelona – there was very little traffic on the roads. And we had the main highway from Tarragona to Valencia – the Autopista del Mediterraneo – almost to ourselves. Few people can afford the tolls?

How long will it be before the young people will rebel against 40% unemployment and cause serious, and I mean serious, civil unrest?

And still the incompetent and corrupt politicians, and the greedy and incompetent bankers and financiers, insist that laissez faire capitalism (where 1% of the population control 90% of the wealth, and want even more) is the correct system for a civilized society.

Perhaps now I will find the motivation to finish my second book GULF II “The Beginning of Sorrows”. In the meantime you can access and review and download my first book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” by following my URL:

This shows through the stories of expatriates washed up in The Arabian/Persian Gulf the consequences of the West’s botched foreign policies and greed for cheap oil. History repeats itself – first time tragedy, second time farce.

Weaving Magic Carpets

Posted on May 9, 2013 by richarwb

Before the West’s greed for cheap oil and its consequences – the carve up of Assyria by the French and British after WW I, the Balfour Declaration and the problems of Palestine, the Gulf Wars and the events of 9/11 – we had a much more romantic view of the Middle East. It was the land of Scheherazade’s “Tales of a 1,001 Nights” where every night a wife used her feminine imagination to take her husband on a magic carpet ride to prevent her execution (so the brutality has always existed).

These tales, produced during the Islamic Golden Age, are actually a collection of folk tales from Persia and South Asia, probably based on the Persian Pahlavi “Hazar Afsan” (A Thousand Tales). And the tribal women of Southern Persia still weave their magic in the form of hand woven carpets and saddle bags that are now recognised as works of art.

When I worked in Iran (Persia) my Iranian friends wanted me to buy carpets. But they insisted on sophisticated and elaborate silk Qum, Kashan and Tabriz carpets. I preferred the tribal rugs of the Qashq’ai whose vegetable died natural wools, and geometric designs glowed from the walls of the carpet stalls in the Bazaars.

The nomadic tribes of Southern Iran persist in leading their harsh traditional lives in spite of the efforts of The Shahs (and the Ayatollahs) to settle them in villages and carve up their rich grazing lands into farms for themselves and their cronies. Every Spring the tribes and their flocks trek from the winter grazing in the lowlands over the snow and ice-capped Zagros mountains to the rich summer grazing in the high valleys, and back down again in the Autumn – hopefully before the blizzards. Many suffer frostbite and some die, slipping away on the ice.

Beg, borrow or steal – or even rent or buy on DVD – Anthony Howarth’s amazing documentary PEOPLE OF THE WIND to see the incredible hardships these people endure to follow literally in the footsteps of their forefathers. And read the story TRIBAL WEAVING in my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” to see how tribal women, as a defence against the coarseness and constant upheaval of their lives, use their inherent feminine artistry to weave their magic carpets to traditional designs that keep alive their cultural heritage and their tribal myths.

Their lives may be hard and short, but they are lived with an intensity and passion that is missing in The West. TRIBAL WEAVING is a story of love.

You can preview and download – or buy in paperback – my book by following my URL:

IT’S THE RICH WHAT GETS THE PLEASURE . . .

Posted on April 30, 2013 by richarwb

. . . and the Poor what takes the blame.

I guess the “Dear John” is as old as war itself. It’s such a well-worn cliché it’s probably a universal truth. It was featured recently in a feature film of that name, and in JARHEAD and HOMELAND.

The noble warrior goes off to war, and his wife or fiancée cheats on him – usually with his best friend, or seduced by her boss – those close enough, predatory enough and wealthy enough to wine and dine and take advantage of vulnerable and weak women.

One of the main reasons oilfield trash wash up in the isolated oil camps of the Arabian/Persian Gulf is a failed marriage, and mostly while they were away fighting in politicians’ wars. Not just VietNam – but the dirty little wars that are all about oil. One such was the Dhofar Campaign fought in Muscat/Oman kept under the radar because it was in support of a feudal and tyrannical ruler – yet another cliché.

Poor Ray Taylor was a Special Forces trooper fighting bravely with his mates in that campaign when all he wanted was to get home and marry his sweetheart – his princess. That dream was snatched from him, and he wreaked a terrible vengeance. But the Dhofar Campaign was so secret he was not able to use his brave and loyal service to The Crown in his defence when The Crown prosecuted him for causing Grievous Bodily Harm.

So Ray, like so many others, found solace in the masculine comradeship of the oils camps, free from the wants of women, soothed by the isolation and hard physical work – and many bottles of vodka or saddique (the Arabic word for friend), an illicit spirit distilled in The Gulf. And yet Ray was still resourceful enough to beat the rap when the rich bosses conspired against him once again.

Read Ray’s story THEY GAOLED THE WRONG MAN in my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”.

It can be previewed and obtained by following my URL: