British Expat Newsletter

14 December 2005

Hello, and welcome to those who have joined up since our last newsletter.

In this issue

This week: War graves
On the website
Virtual Snacks
Sponsor
Bizarre Searches
Joke and quotation

This week

We've been in touch for some time now with the people from the British War Memorial Project. They are all volunteers working to document online the graves and memorials of British Service personnel from 1914 to the present day. They need volunteers to help them to do this and are particularly keen to find volunteers abroad to photograph war graves. Dave and I are hoping to get some friends together and do a trip to Kanchanaburi, which is near the River Kwai and the scene of the infamous Death Railway.

The project people are considering organising a tour of the Somme in May next year but the deadline to express your interest is rapidly approaching - the 16th of December. We've been running an article about this for a couple of weeks now. But this is your last chance - if you're interested in helping by going on the Somme trip, please read the article and get in touch with the BWMP.

Still on the subject of war, it would seem that the world is becoming a more dangerous place as we hear more and more about wars. The war in Iraq, the never-ending Palestinian conflicts, and so on. But a study by the World Bank appears to imply that civil war at least is less likely to occur these days. The article was rather heavy going and I'm afraid I was in a bit of a rush to get this newsletter written this week but if you have the time to analyse it more deeply, please do and we can discuss the issues on the forum.

Similarly, I hadn't realised that the study of war was so complex. Sure, I realised that military strategy and psychology would play important roles. But even a quick look at a postgraduate course outlining the subject of the changing nature of war was quite an eye opener.

Interesting though the subject is, I can't spend all day reading up on it. I have two priorities right now: to give you a final reminder about the Somme trip and to get this newsletter out.

War is an interesting subject, though, and perhaps one we can discuss in more detail later.

Do you have anything to say about this topic, or do you have some suggestions for other issues we might discuss in our weekly email? Why not tell us about it on the forum?
British Expat Forum: BE Newsletter discussion

On the Website

Plenty of new additions this week - two more articles in our Christmas Around the World series, plus a handy glossary of Spanish property terms for anyone considering setting up home there. There's a new Pic of the Week from Bangkok's vast weekend market, Chatuchak Market. And we've reviewed and updated our advertising policy page.

All the new articles and features are listed on our What's New page:
What's New on BE?

If you're looking for travel features on the site, a good place to start is our Expat World page.
Expat World

Virtual Snacks

Here's a link to a postgraduate course with an outline of what's involved in studying the changing nature of war:
University of Melbourne: The Changing Nature of War

World Bank paper on the incidence of war (Warning! This is not exactly what you might call light reading!):
World Bank paper: How much war will we see?

Sponsor

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Offshore Companies House

Bizarre Searches

Some strange search terms which have led people to visit British Expat recently:

wife ready husband ribbon wipe children s faces
british names for penis
fattest bird
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jaime olivers book leak
drink online
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first greek obelisk and sex
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wedding toppers bizarre

Till next time...
Happy surfing!

Kay
Editor
British Expat Magazine

Quotation

"Move him into the sun —
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow."

- Wilfred Owen, war poet and soldier killed in World War I (1893-1918)

Joke

A new soldier is on sentry duty at the main gate. His orders are clear. No car is to enter unless it has a special sticker on the windscreen.

A big staff car drives up with a general seated in the back. The sentry says, "Halt! Who goes there?"

The chauffeur, a corporal, says, "General Wheeler."

"I'm sorry, I can't let you through. You've got to have a sticker on the windscreen."

The general barks, "Drive on!"

The sentry says, "Hold it! You really can't come through. I have orders to shoot if you try driving in without a sticker."

The general repeats, "I'm telling you, corporal, drive on!"

The sentry walks round to the rear window and says, "Sir, I'm new at this. Do I shoot you or the the driver?"