The Wizard of Oz

Julian Assange is a wiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was.  Put him, a computer and the internet together, add a big rebellious anti authority streak, a bunch of devoted followers and fans,  and there's nothing much he can't do.   He is a top-of-the-class hacker, an all time uber geek, a punk rock pirate.

And a babe magnet on a big scale.  Just check out the girly sites on the web devoted to this man, with his doe eyes and pale skin bathed in the strange white light of theTV screens and flash cameras that capture his image so regularly. With a toss of that white blonde hair, and a rare enigmatic smile,  he  draws women to him - even though a couple of ladies have been giving him some aggro in Sweden lately. Something to do with condoms, or the lack of . . .

 But there seems to be a protective female shield put up around our boy - remember, it was the beautiful socialite Jemima Khan who put up a lot of the bail money to spring him from prison recently,  and he came out to an adoring throng with phrases like 'I want to have your baby' tossed at him.

Rolling Stone has claimed him for their own - but is this photogenic,  softly spoken, brilliant computer programmer and man-on-a-mission, who has taken on the power of the USA by publishing something like 91,000 classified US documents on the war in Afghanistan, about to crash and burn? Whatever happens, we're not just talking about a pretty face here. Julian Assange has a hell of a lot of courage but he's made some very powerful enemies.

Is he hero or villain? Or just, for all his brilliance, a touch naive -  an extraodinarily gifted product of a very troubled childhood.

He was reportedly born in 1971 in Townsville in Australia.  He and his mother and half-brother spent his childhood fleeing the father of that half-brother.  It seems this man became  a member of a scary cult, led by a female ex-nurse who had her own weird ideas on kidnapping and bringing up children.

In all, Julian was enrolled in 17 schools and six universities by the time he finally came into adulthood.. He took adult education classes in physics and maths at Melbourne Uni and launched himself into the mysterious world of hackers. In 1995 he developed 'Strobe', the first free  port scanner, which allowed hackers to penetrate networks throughout the world. Two years later he developed another piece of encryption software, to allow hackers to conceal their identities when penetrating computers worldwide.

He discussed his expertise in the wonderfully titled 'Underground Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontiers", published in 1997.

(Also, along the way, he married and acquired a son).

And in 2006 he put all these stunning computer skills together to set up Wikileaks.

And that's very much an on-going story, for later.

Leaks

It's nearly the witching hour in London so here's a bit of fun to go to bed with:

What more can I say . . .

Doing 2011 the Roman way

Mr Abramovich threw a 5 million pound bash at the complex he bought recently at Governor Bay on St Barts.

Mr A bought the complex, shown on the R, in 2009. (The photo was taken by Laurent Benoit, famous for great shots of megayachts, and the marina at St Barts, where he lives). It comprises 70 acres and cost approx. 90 million dollars, which makes it one of the most expensive private properties ever sold.

 It consists of a cluster of cottages round a main villa, open Balinese bungalow-style buildings,  so it's apparently like you're living on the beach.  Personally, I've never liked the sound of this, a bit like a super version of carry-on-camping - not for me.  I wouldn't turn it down if it was offered, mind you, but I'd sell it on immediately and find something a little more civilised.

As the for the NY Eve do, well, absolutely everybody who was anybody in the entertainment world seemed to be there and they're all listed in the popular papers, all predictable, and so I want bother naming them all. You know who they are, anyway: the surgically beautiful Miss Demi Moore and her like and the shoals of pretty little things who swarm around the big fish as they cruise the world's oceans on their megayachts.

 Lots of money sloshing around and every entertainment money can buy - including underwater speakers and a swim-up bar - but as I've said before, wealth does not necessarily equate with power, and show-biz wealth, outside the flimsy world of illusion the celeb/showbiz crowd inhabit, definitely doesn't equate with real power in the real world.  So, who were the really powerful people at that shindig? As often, the really interesting people didn't get a mention and no doubt very wisely kept well away from the cameras.

 So let's move on, nothing interesting to see here.

And by the photo of Roman in the Daily Maily, he's bored by the whole thing. After all, he's done it so often before.  Maybe he's just doing it for Daria Zhukova ('Dasha' to her friends), his present partner.
This photo was taken by BigPicturePhotos( this is quite a routine one for them, for they do take the most magnificent photos). 

I'm a great admirer of Abramovich, he survived the fire-storm of the fall of Communism. He deserves everything he's got - for his courage, his brain power, and for holding his nerve when so many others lost their's. He remains one of the oligarchs who is still safe in his own country.  He remains a friend of Vladimir. He hasn't made any mistakes. Machiavelli would bow before him. And I mean that as a compliment.

 Intelligence is not much good if it doesn't go hand in hand with the survival instinct. I don't see any intelligence in deliberately alienating  people who have real power, unless you're pretty sure you have the resources and back up to win them round to your views.  Otherwise you end up like poor old unwise Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in all Russia, and now languishing in a prison cell in Sibera. Where's the sense in that?

So that's the end of the NY celebrations - back to more serious things tomorrow.

Seeing 2011 in

Before work starts in earnest tomorrow, let's look at where some of the wealthy and powerful are spending the New Year break.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, is in Switzerland. At Klosters apparently, tho' his office said Davos, where the annual World Economic Forum is held. Of the two I prefer Davos - but there's not a lot in it, the two resorts are only 10km apart and share the same ski slopes.

The Royals prefer Klosters. This gorgeous shot above  is of Klosters at night, (thanks to the skisafari.com site who will tailor-make skiing hols for you, if you'd like to join the royals and George.)

Davos was immortalised in literature in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and its dry, pollen free air has attracted a lot of health research institutes, who have settled there.

If you need a hotel in Davos, George when last there stayed at the Fluela Hotel, pictured R. It's a traditional 5-star, been going since 1868 and the same family still own it. They say no more than 130 guests and no less thant 90 staff to care for them -  and it's opposite the train station. Crackling log fires and a pianist in the bar - and it greatly endears itself to me because it allows pets.  No charge for the animals, but their food is extra - come on, now, you can't have everything.  I think Mr Osborne shows a lot of taste in having picked this hotel to stay in on an earlier visit.

And where is Mr Roman Abramovich?  Doing something quiet and low key for the New Year,  I expect.  But perhaps not.  Next post coming up.

The ice-man cometh . . .and all that

Power and the sources of power, and the people who wield it, fascinate me. Yet I find the Wikileaks saga, with its cool blonde condom-hating front man, Julian Assange,  an example of a rather spurious type of so-called power - in fact, there's something vaguely  comical about the whole thing.

The organisation is murky in the extreme, the cast of characters are, to put it mildly, unusual in their life styles and behaviour, and it is never obvious who is briefing who, lying or telling the truth, pushing a hidden agenda or simply fantasizing and making some of it up as they go along.  It's a beautifully complex story and God alone knows who and what is at the back of it because for the life of me I can't see anything that tells me who is funding it, and what the overall agenda is.

As Wikileakileaks.org says, Wikileaks' tagline is 'We open governments' yet the organisation itself is about as open as North Korea.

Assange's admirers seem to particularly love him because he's sticking one to the good old US of A.  Yeah, right.  He doesn't seem to like condoms either - though he says himself that women have been very generous to him.  Seems it's not just gentlemen who prefer blondes.

He has a certain star quality, he's photogenic - and, though I hate to use that cliched word, face to face he probably has charisma. My goodness, I'll be saying he's got the X-factor next. Time to move on and ask what he's actually done.

Amid all this fuss and uproar, what has Wikileaks really achieved?   As far as I can see, nothing has been leaked that  most people interested in current affairs didn't already know, or suspect.  So the Saudis have been urging the US to bomb the hell out of Iran?  Come on, is anyone really suprised that having Ahmadinejad as a near neighbour on the other side of the Persian Gulf makes the Saudis nervous?

Where did it all this begin? Maybe I'll take a look at the history of it in the New Year.

Ice Cold in Norfolk

And who colder than the Ice King himself,  judging from the photos and demeanour of the exotic Julian Assange?

 Assange walked free on 16 December - temporarily on bail and staying withVaughan Smith in Norfolk, at Ellingham Hall, Vaughan's 600 acre 10 bedroom Georgian mansion, pictured on L.


 Vaughan Smith is ex Grenadier Guards. Won the inter-Army shooting championships. Became independent cameraman and video journalist working in many of the major conflict zones.

He is also  is the founder of the Front Line Club, a media club in Norfolk Street, near Paddington Station. Picture and info below from the Frontline Club webset.

The Frontline Club opened its doors soon after the Frontline Television News agency closed down. Frontline TV was created over Christmas lunch in the midst of the chaos and confusion of the Romanian revolution. It went on to become a key player in the independent fringe of television newsgathering.


The Club quickly became a centre for a diverse group of people united by their passion for quality journalism and dedication to ensuring that stories that fade from headlines are kept in sharp focus. It exists to promote freedom of expression and support journalists, cameramen and photographers who risk their lives in the course of their work.

More to come but for now Christmas Day evening begins in earnest, and I have to dress for dinner (yes, my host and hostess expect that sort of thing, and why not) and get into the spirt of things.

Reactivating this blog and wishing you all a very Happy Winter Holiday.

Christmas Tree and Angels at Rockefeller Center.

Christmas Day 2010 and, after a year's absence, I am reactivating this blog.  2010 was a busy year, and I had a book to write - the book is approaching the finishing post, so I now have time to devote to keeping this blog going as well.

I'm Christmassing in New York, and flying back, hopefully, tomorrow. Due to weather, everyone else got away before me, so Christmas Day, though very civilised, has not been the one I planned.   With various aspects of work/life on my mind, I'm taking time out from my host and hostess's Christmas party to allow myself a short diversion to catch up on my favour subject - where does real power lie, and who has it? A short post may follow, to get the ball rolling, then it'll be time for dinner, and after Boxing Day all should be back to normal.