there's much in the news about the death of Osama bin laden.... too much braggadocio and crowing really.. and i wonder... what happened to justice? I feel that the event has made a smaller man of Barak Obama... and the world is becoming a scarier place because of the loss of a lack of justice afforded bin laden. It is too easy to say that he didn't treat his victims with any sense of dignity or acknowledgment of their right to live.... why behave in the same manner, how does that make one a decent person, how does it make our system of 'democracy' and 'playing fair' stand up to critical eyes.... Bin Laden was shot in his room, unarmed.... not arrested and tried under a fair judicial system...

president truman after the second world war insisted that the Nazi leaders should be tried in a court of law, a transparent court, where their crimes could be spelt out and understood by all and their guilt decided on in a fair and equitable way..... this was considered the 'right way' to conduct such events

and so more than 50 years on and we seem to have forgotten this sense of justice... a man was shot dead, summarily executed... and thousands crowd the streets to cheer!?? where is the justice? Obama rose to the presidency on a call for change.... he promised to remove the illegal guantanamo imprisonments... he was considered a man of integrity...and now he crows over the death of an enemy? He is reduced by such an act, and becomes no better than the 'terrorist....

justice needs to be done and to be seen to be done... there was no justice here

went climbing again yesterday

and really rediscovered the excitement... recently I have been climbing low gades, v diffs or even a diff and have felt mixed about it as I am learning to overcome vertigo so although the climbs were easy and straightforward I had to come to terms with getting weirdly scared.... particularly at the top of a climb. I can no longer peer over the top of a cliff without a sensation of tumbling over

and so yesterday I climbed a vs, a much harder climb and this one had quite an exposed element to it... half way up i had a panic and thought I'd cop out as there was a diff right next to the route i was attempting, but the rope was coming from too far from the right and actually caught around a crag... so i had no choice but to head back to the right route and actually climb it. I had had some good scrambles earlier and was feeling quite strong and confident so i edged around the rock, feeling my way around a corner unable to see any foot or hand holds... luckily there was a wonderful juggy hold which enabled me to swing around the outcrop and i made it into the small gully that was the actual route.... after that it was a more simple climb upwards and i was, using the emphatic surfing terminology, 'stoked'!!! I finally feel like i am a climber again