April 03 Newsletter

An angel fell from heaven
This is Tris Penna.

Tris is helping me and EMI to put together all those Sandie Shaw tracks that you have been nagging and nudging me about so helpfully. He really is an angel. He has been a major player in the music industry since ever and lucky for me he is a complete Sandie Shaw expert. In fact he seems to know more about her than I do – it’s frightening! His ‘spokesperson’ says -

"Tris Penna has had the incredible good fortune of being able to work within the British music and entertainment industry with some of its most legendary figures. He can be fairly described as a music obsessive and has a collection that stretches from Edison cylinders through to downloads on his ipod. He is very flattered that Sandie and EMI have requested him as consultant for the forthcoming series of Sandie Shaw cd releases - and hopes at last to make 'Toy' available on cd, in stereo"

• Shock and awe?
• I feel ashamed and humiliated to be part of a human race that uses its immense wealth, creativity and ingenuity to bully, kill and mutilate their fellow human beings in order to impose what they want. This is all the more dreadful when there are valid, peaceful alternatives for achieving the same end.
  Such as –

Shopping For World Peace
The initial US taxpayers’ bill for this war is 49 billion pounds sterling. In the UK it is 3 billion – and rising. The total is 52 billion. With this as our shopping budget how else could we spend it to achieve the same goal – to make the world a safer place?

SHOPPING BUDGET – 52 billion pounds
I’m gonna spend, spend, spend!

SHOPPING LIST
Item 1:
One of the aims of the war was to stop weapons of mass destruction from getting into the hands of terrorists. 2 billion pays for the entire 7-year budget of the "loose nukes" programme, a US scheme, which keeps tabs on all the nuclear and chemical weapons held by the former Soviet Union. This scheme –

a. Ensures that ex-Soviet nukes are destroyed instead of sold on the black market to al-Qaeda.

b. Woos ex-Soviet nuclear and chemical scientists to work for US salaries rather than be tempted by rogue nations or terrorist networks.

SPEND AND SAVE OFFER – for an extra million the scheme could be extended to fund Pakistani scientists, blunting any temptation to sell their brainpower to Osama bin Laden.
EXTRA BONUS OFFER – a few million more would pay the guards currently watching over eastern bloc nuclear installations: some were left unpaid for so long, they left their posts to forage for food.
TOTAL COST: 2.3 billion
In the basket

Item 2:
Instead of spending money on fighting terrorism why not spend it to prevent it from taking root in the first place. Experts agree that education is the secret weapon that can turn poor, unstable societies around. For just 3.3 billion a year, every child in the world could go to primary school. Currently an estimated 120 million kids worldwide never see a classroom. Rich countries only pay around a tenth of what is needed.
TOTAL COST: 3.3 billion
In the basket

Item 3:
Lack of clean water causes 80% of the health problems in most developing countries. According to the UN, 13 billion a year would pay for upgrading water supplies and sanitation to meet basic needs in poor countries. The cost of one Cruise missile would pay for 1000 handpump wells in Africa.
HIDDEN BONUS – The poorest nations on earth would see their mortality rates and healthcare costs tumble.
TOTAL COST: 13 billion
In the basket

Item 4:
A billion people go to bed hungry every night. The long-term solution lies in fairer trade and education but meanwhile the UN estimates that for just 1 billion we could feed the 38 million starving in Africa for the rest of this year.
BARGAIN PACKAGE – an extra billion would feed the rest of the world’s hungry.
TOTAL COST: 2 billion
In the basket

Item 5:
Instead of fighting each other why not fight disease? One in four of all the people in the world who will die this year will die of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or infections related to lack of clean water. The Global Fund set up to fight those diseases needs just 6.5 billion to do its work. The richest nations pledged just one fifth of that amount then failed to pay up.
SPECIAL ONCE IN A LIFETIME OFFER – According to UNICEF for just 500 million we could eradicate polio forever.
TOTAL COST: 7 billion

Incredibly, this still leaves 24.4 billion of the US and UK initial spending budget for the war for our spending spree.
So how else can we indulge ourselves in retail therapy?
EXTRAS
Loyalty Bonus:
Write off most of the 32 billion in debts the poor countries owe the rich.
In the basket

• Feel Good Factor
  Now doesn’t that feel better than killing unarmed men, women and children, destroying their homes and infrastructure and imposing your own values on a culture, who with the right kind of support as above could look after themselves and be valuable world citizens making their unique contribution to the common good? So how would you spend your 52 million on World Peace (no, John that does not include diamante camouflage gear for our boys!)

PS. The justification for the invasion of Iraq was to find their weapons of mass destruction and to capture and bring to justice, Saddam Hussein. A-hem. WHERE are the WMD’s? WHERE is Saddama bin Laden?

• My Sandie Shaw Story
  I get lots of mail from people who have a story to tell about their relationship with Sandie Shaw: where I fit into their life. I thought I might start putting some of them up in the memorabilia section. Like this one sent today from Dale
  
  Hi Sandie
  I've recently come across your excellent web site and felt the need to drop you a line. In the sixties I was a huge fan of yours, covering every inch of my bedroom walls with pictures of you. In 1970 I lived in London for a short while and one day I was waiting for a friend outside a shop in Knightsbridge when a grey Ford Zephyr driven by a chauffeur pulls up and out gets a young lady carrying dresses who trips up and falls at my feet looking up at me as if to ask whether I was going to help her up! but I was so astounded that it was you that I couldn't help you up for shock! (for which I now apologise).
  You picked yourself up and ran up a flight of stairs into a building! I think I must have told this story a thousand times! "Did I tell you the time that Sandie Shaw fell at my feet?" I was only 19 busking in London at the time where I earned about sixpence! as I kept getting chased away by other buskers who claimed I was on their patch. So I went back home to Wales. I am an amateur songwriter and I must have written a dozen songs for you at the time but never sent them to you (lucky escape for you I say).
  So Sandie what does the future hold for you? Any plans for a new album?
  
  Go to top of page, Dale….Love Sandie
  
• Kids Stars in Their Eyes – did anyone see "me" on this TV programme on the 26th April?
  
• You can still email me on info@sandieshaw.com. I read everything personally and I often reply. It’s great having the feedback from you all.