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I don’t want your freedom….

4th December 2008 by Helena 3 Comments  

So I missed ‘Freedom’ because we were keen to leave the concert before everyone else in case of a two-hour traffic jam. Actually I forgot to mention that Alicia Keys played before George, she was truly incredible, I liked her almost more.

""Especially when George started doing cover versions of Roxanne and Nina Simone songs. Does he not realise that he will always, to millions of fans, be immortalised by Wake me up before you Go-Go and Careless Whisper?

Last night as we sat at the Emirates Palace outdoor cinema waiting for Madagascar 2 to start and the kids ran around freely we were discussing freedom.

Some might argue that there is limited freedom in a country like this. Personally I feel there is more. There is the freedom to let my children roam without fear of abduction or menacing. There is the freedom to enjoy a vast street party without any risk of violence at all. And the freedom to get into my car without locking it because I think some rapist will have snuck in the back.

Yes, apparently this is the latest thing in England. As you fill up your car with petrol some lunatic gets in the back, then he abducts you and takes you off to be gang-raped. If you survive the attack you are released. One woman called Leigh Matthews has already been killed in this horrific manner after travelling on the M3. What an unimaginably terrible way to die.
In the words of the song, I don’t want your freedom.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Human Rights, blog --> Tagged With: freedom

3 thoughts on I don't want your freedom....

  • okcmermaid says:
    9th December 2008 at 5:56 pm

    I thought the murder of Leigh Matthews happened a couple of years ago, and that she was kidnapped for the purpose of demanding a ransom. Hadn’t heard anything about her being gang-raped after stopping for petrol. Or are you referring to a different Leigh Matthews?

  • helena says:
    10th December 2008 at 3:42 am

    I am not sure, this was sent to me by a friend I trust but it may be one of those urban myths. Either way the point of the blog is still valid.
    Hx

  • Vicky says:
    26th December 2008 at 4:16 pm

    I got that e mail on my facebook then read somewhere else (Can’t remember where) that it was an internet rumour. But still valid bearing in mind the hideous gang rape in Hackney, where a young girl was raped and abused by 9 youths, and people just walked by. I think that says everything you need to know about this country at the moment.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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