You’ve probably read this week about the kerfuffle surrounding yer man Binyam Mohamed, the British terrorist suspect alleged to have been tortured by some nice Americans at Guantanamo Bay.
I’m not going to get into the details of his case here – except for one which is very close to home. Or, more precisely, happens in our home.
Because one of the forms of torture apparently used on this individual was, to quote the official document the British Government wanted to cover up, “continuous sleep deprivation.”
And this, of course, is the principal form of punishment Jamie has been practising on Vanessa and me for getting on to 20 months. (To illustrate, he was up at just after 5am today and refused to go back down).
I’ve done a little research and, in addition to the obvious negative effects such as yawning, headaches and irritability, other impacts of sleep deprivation include aching muscles, dizziness/nausea, hand tremors, increased blood pressure, increased risk for diabetes/fibromyalgia (whatever that is), memory loss, rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement (my personal favourite) and obesity (i.e. another excuse for fatties to claim it’s not the pies).
Clearly none of these are good news and Vanessa and I would obviously like it if Jamie refrained from practising his evil brand of cruelty on us, particularly as my research has also revealed that it is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Should he choose not to do so, I fear I may have no option but to inform the United Nations itself with a request that the Security Council meets to pass a resolution threatening to use the traditional “all available means” to make him stop.
Should he choose not to do so, we could begin by cutting his chocolate rations and after that, well, air strikes would not be ruled out.
At least he couldn't claim he hadn't been warned.
I’m not going to get into the details of his case here – except for one which is very close to home. Or, more precisely, happens in our home.
Because one of the forms of torture apparently used on this individual was, to quote the official document the British Government wanted to cover up, “continuous sleep deprivation.”
And this, of course, is the principal form of punishment Jamie has been practising on Vanessa and me for getting on to 20 months. (To illustrate, he was up at just after 5am today and refused to go back down).
I’ve done a little research and, in addition to the obvious negative effects such as yawning, headaches and irritability, other impacts of sleep deprivation include aching muscles, dizziness/nausea, hand tremors, increased blood pressure, increased risk for diabetes/fibromyalgia (whatever that is), memory loss, rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement (my personal favourite) and obesity (i.e. another excuse for fatties to claim it’s not the pies).
Clearly none of these are good news and Vanessa and I would obviously like it if Jamie refrained from practising his evil brand of cruelty on us, particularly as my research has also revealed that it is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Should he choose not to do so, I fear I may have no option but to inform the United Nations itself with a request that the Security Council meets to pass a resolution threatening to use the traditional “all available means” to make him stop.
Should he choose not to do so, we could begin by cutting his chocolate rations and after that, well, air strikes would not be ruled out.
At least he couldn't claim he hadn't been warned.
PS A quick footnote for those of you who are still awake. Thai Ngoc, a Vietnamese gentleman born in 1942, claims the record for having gone the longest without sleep. In 2006, he said he had been awake for 33 years or a total of 11,700 nights. But I’ll bet he still doesn’t look any rougher than Judy Finnigan first thing in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment