thegulfdotcom

www.amazon.co.uk

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

Heads in the Sand (of the Middle East)

Posted on April 8, 2016 by richarwb

Next month is the Sydney Writers’ Festival, and the program, contrary to previous years, is parochial, and dominated by female authors concerned only with domestic and feminist issues.

Just a few years ago the headline authors were giants like Izzeldin Abu Elaish, whose book I SHALL NOT HATE detailed his upbringing in a Palestinian refugee camp, his amazing escape through education as a doctor in Egypt, and his trauma of seeing his wife and daughters killed by Israeli shells. And yet he still seeks reconciliation.

And Ingrid Betancourt, the Columbian senator kidnapped and held captive for 6 years by FARC, and yet showing no signs of this traumatic experience she is trying to be a voice of sanity in Latin America.

And there were live interactive chats arranged with the Arab Spring rebels in Egypt, and with dissdents in Pakistan.

Now the best they can muster from the wide world outside Australia is a session with a female French journalist who once worked with another French journalist who worked for Charlie HEBDO. Bonne Chance!

Why are we burying our heads in the sand? Is the terror of DAESH too terrifying to confront? Are we weary of the conflict(s) in the Middle East?

The Arab Spring has turned rapidly to a Winter of Our Discontent. Afghanistan has fallen off the radar, presumably because the Taliban are reasserting their control. Iraq is a total mess, and the civil war in Syria drags on without resolution or road map. And of course always in the background is the atavistic 50 year old war between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Will there ever be enough of blood?

When Yitzak Rabin declared “Enough of blood” and tried to make a lasting peace with Yasser Arafat he was assassinated by a by his own kind. There will never be peace in the Middle East until the West no longer needs the cheap energy that crude oil supplies. Oil is a vital strategic asset that brings billions of dollars to the region, dollars that fuel the conflict(s).

The Middle East, and more specifically the Arabian/Persian Gulf, is the site of a new Great Game where the Politicians, and Movers & Shakers of the wannabe Great Powers play out their war games. There will never be enough of blood until the last drop of oil is spilled.

If you want some insights into the Middle East from the perspective of Western expatriates who washed up there from the 1970s when the price of crude oil jumped from $5 to $25 per barrel and gave the Gulf Emirs wealth (almost) beyond the dreams of avarice, until the events 9/11, which where a direct consequence of that wealth, then read my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”.

You can preview it at:

www.amazon.co.uk

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

Who is The Little House of Horrors?

Posted on March 5, 2016 by richarwb

This week I saw an amazing live stage production of the cult classic rock & roll musical THE LITTLE HOUSE OF HORRORS. It is about a weird hybrid plant from China that almost dies until they find it flourishes on human blood. On this diet it grows into a huge monster of a plant that eats people live. Cuttings of the plant are sold around the world and the resulting monster plants end up consuming whole societies – and the world.

Years ago I saw Frank OZ’s movie version with my young daughter, and, with our advanced sense of the ridiculous, we loved it. But we loved it on a superficial level as a showbizzie rock musical, with great music, and a monster that really rocked – and some delicious horror trimmings. Now older, sadder and hopefully wiser – while my daughter and I still sat there with huge silly grins on our faces at the Doo Wop shrillness of the Harpies Chorus (The Supremes they are not), and rocked to the monster’s Rock & Roll – I realized that it is allegorical.

Just under the surface it is about how FAME (remember that musical and its tag “I’m gonna live forever”), and celebrity, sucks the blood out of people, consumes them, and destroys families and cultures. And going deeper again, it is an allegory for America, cynically using Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll to debauch youth worldwide in order to push their free-market laissez faire capitalism agenda under the false banners of freedom and democracy in order to rule the world.

And if you think that my paranoia is showing, then read EVERY MAN IN THIS VILLAGE IS A LIAR, by Megan Stack. She is a well-educated American journalist who at 23 was sent to cover the wars in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq, and she reached the conclusion that at best American Foreign Policy is delusional, and at worst it is a cynical ploy to try and dominate the world. And she believes that the War on Terror is fake, and has failed.

One chapter in her book has particular resonance. Superficially she enjoyed Israel; and modern, bright and safe Tel Aviv in particular. But she could not shake off the knowledge that all the youngsters prancing in the discos had had weapons training, had done compulsory military service – and she had seen them as teenage soldiers taunting and humiliating elderly Palestians at check points, refusing to give them priority for urgent medical treatment. And pregnant women frequently gave birth in taxis waiting in endless gridlocks to get to hospital, and not allowed on fast roads reserved for West Bank settlers. And she knew that sweating in the restaurant kitchens were illegal Eritrean refugees, and that most of the strikingly pretty single girls dancing in the discos were East European whores. Now matter how hard she tried she could not ignore the dark underbelly of Israel.

And nor could she ignore the fact that it was American taxpayers money that funded the mighty Israeli military machine that enables them to keep the Palestinians in subjugation. She makes the point “You can recover from what people do to you: you cannot recover from what you do to others.”

It resonates for me because she is like Mick, the protaganist in my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”. He too is a young journalist sent to the Middle East in the early 60s, and he is shocked by the Feudal barbarity of the region, and by the corruption and cynical exploitation of those feudal societies by slick Western governments desperate for cheap oil.

Just like Megan, Mick cannot pass through and enjoy the airconditioned and gleaming marble citidels of modern shopping malls and international airport terminals that oil wealth brought – with their shops full of the finest duty free luxury goods the world can offer, staffed by lovely young maidens with dazzling smiles – without noticing the tired old Amahs mopping the urinals, and the coolies sweating in 100 degree heat and 100 per cent humidity of the baggage halls.

And beyond that, modern cities that have the latest motorways and satellite communications, and no sewerage systems. And refugee camps where the sewers run open in the road and kids play there. Kids without hope, and without a future.

I am not, not ever have been a journalist, but I did keep journals throughout my 40 years in and out of The Arabain/Persian Gulf, and Mick is a construct, an alter ego designed to tell the stories of events that I witnessed, or were reported to me by reliable sources, expatriates like me, washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001.

Preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

The Four Horsemen

Posted on February 24, 2016 by richarwb

In the skeptical Western World, Biblical prophecies are treated with scorn – the territory of born again creationists, and overwrought screenwriters short of new ideas.

No such skepticism or irony exists in The Middle East. The People of The Book (Jews, Christians and Muslims) believe that The Scriptures are true – and there will be a day of reckoning. There will be an Apocalypse.

And this idea is gaining traction in The West because of the horrific events coming out from The Middle East.

At the moment I seem to be spending my time promoting other peoples’ work – but I have ulterior motives.

Last week I promoted Dan Smith’s STATE OF THE MIDDLE EAST ATLAS. But that was because it forms an excellent background to my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”. He provides the facts and figures. I provide the stories of the shattering effects of the conflict between Oil, God and Gold (where Oil is the Arabs, God is the USA, and Gold is the Jews) on the lives of ordinary people trying to survive in extra-ordinary times.

Now I have found a documentary film THE FOUR HORSEMEN, that is an excellent background to new book I am writing, GULF II “The Beginning of Sorrows”. My book is based on the biblical reference:

“Ye will hear of wars – and rumours of wars: see that ye not be troubled for all these things must come to pass – but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.

All these are the Beginning of Sorrows”

THE FOUR HORSEMEN film (available free on YOU TUBE) posits that the first Horseman of the Apocalypse has already appeared. He is on a White Horse carrying a bow and is generally seen as the Conquerer – and the thesis of this film is that he represents the modern banks who have taken over the world, and are beyond the control of governments (Too Big to Fail?). And this is in line with my own narrative for GULF II.

Money has now replaced oil as the most valuable commodity traded in the World. And to quote The Bible again:

“The love of money is the root of all evil.”

In a very human way my new book explores the effects of 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq have had on the lives of normal people, and ends with the GFC of 2008.

If you want insights into the Middle East and its harsh and barbaric societies, after WWII, from the perspective of weird and wonderful expatriate oilfield trash, characters washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

Shame on you Barack Obama

Posted on February 4, 2016 by richarwb

The “I am a Jew” speech by Barack Obama, supposedly the most powerful man on Earth, was shameless pandering to the powerful and very effective Jewish lobby. By bending his knee to them he was ensuring the flow of millions of dollars into the Democratic war chest to try and ensure that Hilary Clinton would be the next President, and that she would also give unconditional support to Israel.

Protection racketeering is alive and well and living in The White House.

As I have mentioned before in this blog the Jewish population of CORO survived 25 years under the protection of the Venezuelan state and federal governments by paying a “Special Tax”. But in the end they were driven out by the local population rioting because of the domination of the Jews in the town’s commercial life.

Right now Israel carries out its brutal and repressive tactics against the Palestinians under the protection of the USA. What happens when US influence diminishes – or is distracted by the growing threats of China and Russia (not forgetting Al Qu’eda and ISIS, and Afghanistan etc.)?

My opposition to Israel was based on anecdotal evidence gained during my 40 years in The Arabian/Persian Gulf. I did not realize how complete the Israeli subjugation of the Palestinians is.

But recently I found a wonderful book, THE STATE OF THE MIDDLE EAST, “An Atlas of Conflict & Resolution” that uses hard fact and maps to show how the whole region has evolved since the decline of The Ottoman Empire. It identifies the three most important factors as OIL, ISRAEL, and AMERICAN INTERVENTION. And if you look at the section and maps on Israel you can see that they have no intention of allowing a Palestinian State.

They already occupy 78% of the land that was once Palestine, and control more than half of the West Bank, supposedly the site of the State of Palestine. And Israel’s policy of building illegal settlements on the West Bank, walled off from the West Bank, and linked to Israel by roads open only to Israelis, can be seen quite clearly as the thin end of a wedge to occupy the whole of the West Bank.

Shame on you Barack Obama for bending your knee to the power of the Jewish Lobby. And shame on you for accepting their bribes. The Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves.

If you want more insights into the Middle East, and its harsh and barbaric societies, from the perspective of weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriate characters who washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

Was Einstein Wrong?

Posted on January 21, 2016 by richarwb

Not about Relativity. I don’t understand that theory anyway so how can I challenge it?
But Einstein defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
In 1827 the Jewish population of Curacao, a small island that was a Dutch colony in The Caribbean, was “encouraged” by the government to leave the island because the local Creole population was rioting to protest the Jews’ grip on the island’s commercial life.
Numbers of them left and made the short sea journey to Venezuela. They settled in small towns along the coast, and in particular were welcomed into CORO, a delightful Spanish colonial town of cobbled streets and red tiled roofs.
Three years later the local population rioted to protest the Jews’ grip on the commercial life of the town. They survived under government protection by paying a special tax. But in spite of this, 25 years later they were all driven out by rioting locals, and had to return to Curacao.
As that other heavyweight Jewish intellectual Karl Marx said, “(Economic) history repeats itself . . . First time tragedy . . . second time farce.”
If you spend any time in the Arab Middle East you will certainly be asked what you think of the Jahud (The Jews). And you will be told that “although they are our cousins” they are not to be trusted. The Arabs believe that the Israelis are driven by greed. They want the whole of the Middle East and its oil wealth. And they point to the invasions into South Lebanon, the occupation of The Golan Heights, and the continued building of settlements on The West Bank.
If anybody reads this blog I will of course be accused of anti-Semitism. That is the smoke screen that is always used to hide Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine and the repression of its people. This is a standard tactic in The West to divert attention from the real issue, and is supported by lazy jounalists.
Recently I saw the movie TRUTH about the 60 Minutes investigation of George W Bush’s notional service in the Alabama National Guard that saved him from being drafted to VietNam. The documents that brought this to light were possibly forged, and all subsequent invstigations focussed on this possible forgery and those responsible. It did not investigate whether or not he was a draft dodger, although there was plenty of evidence unrelated to the documents that pointed to the truth.
My book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” opens with a story of how the Israeli Defence Force deals ruthlessly with activists who support The Palestinians. Like all the stories in my book it is not pure fiction but has a strong basis in fact.
All 10 stories are character driven from the perspective of weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriates who washed up in THE GULF oil patch from 1960 to 2001. My stories are not all grim: they are sometimes humorous, sometimes entertaining – and always informative with an authentic context from my 40 years experience working in the international oil industry centered on The Arabian/Persian Gulf.
My book has had four 5 star reviews and one 4 star review, and you can preview THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk
and download it if you have a Kindle.
Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:
http://www.thebookdepository.co.uk
Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097
or direct from my publisher
http://www.feedaread.com

Travel with Trevor????

Posted on November 24, 2015 by richarwb

Having moved permanently to Australia two years ago I am becoming more and more remote from the outside world. News coverage here is parochial. If it didn’t happen in Australia, New South Wales or Sydney, then it’s not really worth more than a 30 second clip, while a dog lost in a Sydney suburb gets 5 minutes.

To be fair the Paris attacks did get comprehensive coverage – but from the perspective of Australian tourists caught in the terror (the most coverage for an Australian tourist shot in the bum), and the newpaper headlines now read “What does this mean for Australia?”.

Australia has insulated itself from the outside world with a heavily protected high wage economy where liesure is King. Rush hour starts at 2 pm on a Friday. And in my socio-economic bracket of retirees, caravans and boats and weekends away are a must. We have made a good friend Trevor, who has helped us enormously to settle into our new home.

Typically Aussie, originally from a farming background, he is able to turn his hand to anything, and source all sorts of tools from his extensive Man Shed. And he is keen to take us on a long camping trip into the bush and The Outback to remote and delightful places like Barrington Tops, and forget the outside world which holds no interest for him.

And why not?

Without wishing to trivialize a very serious problem for many brave soldiers I think I am suffering from a form of Traumatic Stress Disorder. Whatever news I get from the Middle East (buried back at Page 28 of “serious” newspapers) only concerns the barbaric acts of ISIS, the atavistic struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians, or the chaos that exists in Iraq and Syria.

This area was the Cradle of our Civilization. Egypt and The Fertile Crescent, The Ur of Chaldea, Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and The Euphrates that gave us mathematics and astronomy, and enriched our lives with the 3 great montheistic religions of Judaeism, Christianity and Islam. And I lived and worked in that region for 40 years and met, made friends and enjoyed the company of many Iranian and Arab people. Intelligent, educated, cultured and interesting people that they are, always concerned for the health and happiness of you and your family. Now all I hear is death and disaster and no hope of an end to barbaric blood letting.

So why not now, “Fade far away, dissolve and quite forget the weariness, the fever and the fret.”

Why not travel with Trevor to The Outback and 40,000 years of Dreaming?

Because I owe it to Darius Gharamanpour, Frank Zarinal, Davood Nasiri, Said Al-Jurbi, Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Mohammed Al-Shuwaikhat, Khalid Al-Onazi, and many many others too numerous to mention who gave me a good and interesting career, enriched my life and saved my soul – first when I fled from violent and drug-addicted New York on the edge of a nervous breakdown – and again when I was made redundant by the American fad of “downsizing” just when I needed to pay for my daughters’ college education.

If you want insights into the Middle East, and its harsh and apparently barbaric societies, from the perspective of weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriate characters who washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition with free delivery worldwide from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

or direct from my publisher

Paris & Pandora’s Box

Posted on November 17, 2015 by richarwb

The tragic events that have just unfolded in Paris, and the rise and rise of ISIS, the perpetrators of the atrocities, are a consequence of The West’s foreign policy blundering in the Middle East driven by the desire to control and exploit the vast oil wealth of the region. And the invasion of Iraq, and toppling of Saddam Hussein, opened Pandora’s box in that volatile arena.

In Greek mythology when Pandora opened her box all the EVILS of the World flew out, leaving HOPE inside. How prophetic were the ancient Greeks!

Very briefly in the Arab Spring, HOPE did come out of the box – but was driven back by naïve US State Department tragics trumpeting the benefits of Freedom, and the free market (a.k.a. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll), and even more naïve adultlescents (a la Charlie Hebdo and The Danes) who think that life is a twitter of LOLZ where you can mock people’s deeply felt beliefs and customs without any thought of the consequences.

When will we learn that you cannot impose a liberal, free thinking, sceptical and decadent Western society on deeply religious, tribal societies that are essentially feudal in their make-up? I have lived and worked in the Middle East for over 40 years, and I can assure you that the majority of Muslims are decent, deeply religious people who want to live a good and quiet life within their family. But the extremists in their midst have learned their lessons well. Terrorism pays dividends.

The main cause of The West’s conflict with Islam in The Middle East is their unconditional support for the State of Israel – a state founded on the back of Zionist terrorism (IRGUN and the STERN Gang, the bombing of the King David Hotel etc.). There is no hope of peace in the Middle East until the question of Israel is resolved to the satisfaction of The Arab nation. Even if ISIS is defeated another,and more extreme, movement will rise from the ashes, just as ISIS rose from Al-Qua’eda’s demise.

Pandora’s box is wide open and we will never force the lid back on.

If you want insights into the Middle East, and its harsh and apparently barbaric societies, and its corruption, from the perspective of weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriate characters who washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition from:

Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097

(They offer free delivery worldwide)

or direct from my publisher

Death to Drug Dealers

Posted on April 2, 2015 by richarwb

Death to Drug Dealers.

Death to Drug Dealers

Posted on April 2, 2015 by richarwb

Living in Australia as I do I have been caught up in the wave of sympathy for the Bali Bombers sitting on Death Row as desperate measures are taken to prevent their execution by firing squad BUT – and there is always a but I guess – not anymore.

My grandaughter who is only just 5 years old came home from school using the F word. So now the evil tentacles of the “Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll crowd” otherwise known as the foul mouthed Showbusiness reprobates (or the friends of Jimmie Saville) are reaching into the school playground and my grandaughter, and other children, are being robbed of their childhood innocence.

I flew into a rage at this, and the thought that in the not too distant future of them being offered drugs in the school playground and having their innocent young lives permanently blighted as is happening in America.

So now I believe that those who spread this poison through society should face the death penalty. And I believe that those weak souls who fall victim to drugs should be treated with firmness too – as they are in Saudi Arabia.

There is a drug problem there as there is in The West. About sixty percent of the 50 or so beheadings that take place every year are for drug smuggling. But the victims of the drug trade, the addicts it has created, are quietly removed from society and put through an enforced rehab program, and only released when the authorities are satisfied they are cured.

Once again the Saudis demonstrate that social stability is more important than a weak kneed concern for an individual’s civil rights.

If you want insights into the Middle East and its harsh and apparently barbaric societies, based on my 40 years experience there from the perspective of the weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriate characters who washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:

and download it if you have a Kindle.

Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition from: