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I have a section of my web site called Life Skills which is very popular. There's nothing terribly original there, but the advice is offered in a concise, catchy and friendly form which appears to appeal to readers.
Today I've created the 25 page in this section. It's called "How To Take A Good Photograph". Enjoy!
"Those gazing towards the sunlit digital uplands must not forget those among our citizens - including three-quarters of socially excluded people and a half of people on low incomes - who have no access to the internet or do not use it. They must not be left behind as the government's use of the internet gathers pace."This is an extract from a media release to mark the publication of a not altogether complimentary report on government websites and their use from the Public Accounts Committee.
The actress Sharon Stone has rightly been criticised for her utterly insensitive and totally ridiculous suggestion that China's earthquake was the result of that country's treatment of the Dalia Lama through the medium of the concept of karma.
In this report, it is argued that Stone does not understand how karma works:
"None of us fully understand the concept of karma unless we are wise, so to use it in this context is ill-advised. The concept of karma is that you are sowing seeds that come back on yourself, but for Sharon Stone to suggest the earthquake was caused by bad karma is unthinking. Things don't work in such straight lines and she seems to have neglected that Tibetans suffered in the quake."So - how does karma work? According to this explanation, the essence of karma is :"if you do good things, good things will happen to you - if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you". But there is simply no evidence for this and indeed it is self-evidently untrue.
Bad things happen to good people (the victims of the Holocaust were good people) and bad people can (literally) get away with murder. To suggest that we are responsible for what happens to us, including illness and misfortune, is a cruel deception. We only have limited control over what happens to us and but more control over how we respond to what happens to us. Life is not logical and life is not fair and we all have to live with that - including Sharon Stone.
The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa with a size of only 4,361 sq miles and a population of a mere 1.7 million. Unlike many of its West African neighbours, it has enjoyed long spells of stability since independence from Britain in 1965. President Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 as a young army lieutenant and has ruled the country with an iron fist ever since, winning three widely criticised multi-party elections.
However, stability has not translated into prosperity. Despite the presence of the Gambia river, which runs through the middle of the country, only one-sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of one crop - peanuts. This has made The Gambia heavily dependent on peanut exports and a hostage to fluctuations in the production and world prices of the crop. Consequently, the country relies on foreign aid to fill gaps in its balance of payments.
I always knew that there were 14 James Bond novels authored by Ian Fleming because I read all of them as a teenager in the 1960s. I always knew that other authors had continued the franchise but, until this week's publication of "Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks, I had no idea just how many Bond books there were.
If you exclude the works in the Young Bond and Miss Moneypenny series, then the grand total now is 43. You can see the full details here.
Texas is the second largest state in the US (after Alaska) at 268,601 square miles and the second most populous (after California) with 24 million residents.The name Texas comes from the Hasinai Indian word tejas meaning friends or allies. It is the only state to enter the United States by treaty instead of territorial annexation
Texas's strong economic growth can be attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing, the lack of a personal state income tax, high quality of education, low taxation and limited regulation of business, a central geographic location, a limited government, favorable weather, and abundant natural resources. As a result, Texas has a gross state product of around $1.1 trillion, making it the 15th largest economy in the world based on GDP figures.
Texas is perhaps best known as an oil state. The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels which makes up approximately one-third of the known U. S. supply. Perhaps not surprisingly, Texans consume the most energy in the nation both in per capita and as a whole.
Five years ago, Vee and I spent a few days in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, at the conclusion of a holiday in the Indian sub-continent [my account here]. At the time of our visit, for six years there had been an insurgency by Maoist rebels which had already claimed almost 8,000 lives, most of the deaths in the previous year. The day after our arrival in Kathmandu, the chief of police, his bodyguard and his wife were killed while on an early morning walk on the outskirts of the capital. Then, three days later, the Maoists declared a ceasefire.
This was not the end of the insurgency or of violence on the streets, but in 2006 a peace deal was signed and in elections last month the Maoists won a majority of seats in the new parliament. Today the parliament voted overwhelmingly to abolish the monarchy as reported here. The new republic faces huge economic and social problems, but the abolition of the monarchy is a symbol of a move to modernity and it is so good to see this wonderful country emerging from a decade of darkness.
The reason I ask is that I'm currently reading "A History Of God" by Karen Armstrong and this is focussed on Christianity, Islam and Judaism as the three great monotheistic religions. When I was in India [account of my trip here], I heard talk and saw representations of a great many gods and was told that Hinduism has 330 million gods - which seemed somewhat excessive.
So I've a search of the web and found this site which explains that:
"Hindu religion is often labeled as a religion of 330 million gods. This misunderstanding arises when people fail to grasp the symbolism of the Hindu pantheon. According to the Hindu scriptures, living beings are not apart from God, since He lives in each and every one of them in the form of atman. Thus each living being is a unique manifestation of God. In ancient times it was believed that there were 330 million living beings. This gave rise to the idea of 330 million deities or gods. Actually, this vast number of gods could not have been possibly worshipped, since 330 million names could not have been designed for them. The number 330 million was simply used to give a symbolic expression to the fundamental Hindu doctrine that God lives in the hearts of all living beings."So, really Hinduism is another monotheistic religion. In his book "The God Delusion" [my review here]. Richard Dawkins points out that, in the course of human history, the number of gods has been reduced to (in most cases) one and he simply goes one further. Personally, I agree.
Italy is the fourth largest European economy and has one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe, but its politics are chaotic and corruption remains endemic. There have been close to 60 governments since the country formed a democratic republic in 1946 following World War II. It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, but persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.
Silvio Berlusconi began his third term as prime minister of Italy in May 2008, heading a centre-right coalition including his own Forza Italia party. He is one of Italy's wealthiest men, and owns three of the country's seven television channels and several leading newspapers. Mr Berlusconi has been put on trial at least six times over financial matters. Although found guilty on three occasions, he was later acquitted or benefited from the expiry of the statute of limitations.
There is concern over Italy's birth rate - the lowest in Europe - and the economic implications of an ageing population with the population forecast to fall by nearly a third over the next 50 years.
I've been working at home today - mainly reading more than 250 pages of papers for tomorrow's meeting of the Board of the New National Consumer Council. This gave me the opportunity to spot an urban fox which occasionally frequents our garden in north-west London.
In the past, I've seen some pretty mangy foxes in the garden but today's sighting was a beautiful-looking creature with lovely red fur and a large bushy tail.
Apparently there are around 30,000 urban foxes in the UK and there's an FAQ section on the web concerning these animals.
One of the most popular scenes in the film "Love Actually" [my review here] was when the British Prime Minister (played by Hugh Grant) tells the American President (portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton) that the UK is no longer going to follow slavishly US policy.
So it's good to see the news that US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has told American supporters in London that the 'special relationship' needs to be "recalibrated".
Yemen at the southern end of the Arabian peninsula has been at the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia for thousands of years thanks to its position on the ancient spice routes. The modern Republic of Yemen was born in 1990 when traditionalist North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged after years of border wars and skirmishes. But the peace broke down in 1994 and a short civil war ended in defeat for separatist southerners and the survival of the unified Yemen.
Since unification Yemen has been modernising and opening up to the world, but it still maintains much of its tribal character and old ways, tensions still persist between the north and the south, and its 22 million citizen live in the poorest country in the Middle East. The scene of attacks on a US warship and a French tanker, Yemen has gained a reputation as a haven for Islamic militants.
I have lived in London now for 37 years and I fairly recently read a book about the Duke of Wellington [my review here] but, until today (a very wet and windy Bank Holiday Monday), I had never visited Wellington's home at Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner.
The house was built between 1771-1778 by Robert Adam for Baron Apsley and sold to the Duke of Wellington in 1817, two years after the Battle of Waterloo and just before Wellington became Prime Minister. Apsley House was given to the nation in 1947. The Waterloo Gallery with its heavy oil paintings and the Dining Room with its ornate table piece are particularly fine.
It's time for another week of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World - a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 130 entries here.
Since independence in 1961, Burundi has been plagued by tension between the dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority. In 1993 the country seemed poised to enter a new era when, in their first democratic elections, Burundians chose their first Hutu head of state and a parliament dominated by the Hutu Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu) party. But within months the president had been assassinated, setting the scene for years of Hutu-Tutsi violence in which an estimated 300,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed.
Burundi is now beginning to reap the dividends of a peace process, but it faces the formidable tasks of reviving a shattered economy and of forging national unity. Landlocked and with sparse resources, half the population of 8.5 million lives below the poverty line. Indeed Burundi has the lowest GDP per capita in the world, arguably making it the poorest country on the planet. One scientific study of 178 nations rated Burundi's population as having the lowest satisfaction with life of all.
It's Sunday - so let's have a religious posting.
On the strong recommendation of a friend, I'm currently reading "A History Of God" by Karen Armstrong. I'm find it tough going, not least because I am so unsure of the position of the author, and I am constantly asking myself whether Armstrong is now a person of religious belief.
I found this long interview partially helpful. It reminds us that Karen Armstrong spent seven years in a convent before leaving because she had lost her faith in God. But it seems that, while writing "A History Of God", she rediscovered some kind of religious faith and we are told that she now calls herself a "freelance monotheist".
The interview concludes as follows:
"Do you consider yourself a religious person?
Yes. It's a constant pursuit for me. It's helped me immeasurably to overcome despair in my own life. But I have no hard and fast answers.
I take it you don't like the question, do you believe in God?
No, because people who ask this question often have a rather simplistic notion of what God is.
What about an afterlife?
It's a red herring as far as I'm concerned."
I'm been blogging longer than most (just over five years) and I blog more often than most (usually every day), but I'm very careful to respect the privacy of my family and friends and indeed of myself. I guess that some bloggers become carried away and forget that their postings can be seen by anyone in the world with access to the Net and for all practical purposes are there for ever.
There's an article in the "Observer" newspaper today about the unfortunate experience of American blogger Emily Gould. The British piece refers to a much longer article - some 8,000 words in fact - in the "New York Times" in which Emily writes about what she gained and lost by writing about her intimate life online. She concludes the piece as follows:
"I understand that by writing here about how I revealed my intimate life online, I’ve now revealed even more about what happened during the period when I was most exposed. Well, I’m an oversharer — it’s not like I’m entirely reformed. But lately, online, I’ve found myself doing something unexpected: keeping the personal details of my current life to myself. This doesn’t make me feel stifled so much as it makes me feel protected, as if my thoughts might actually be worth honing rather than spewing. But I still have Emily Magazine as a place to spew when I need to. It will never again be the friendly place that it was in 2004 — there are plenty of negative comments now, and I don’t delete them. I still think about closing the door to my online life and locking them out, but then I think of everything else I’d be locking out, and I leave it open."
The Internet has been a key feature of Barack Obama's primaries campaign against Hillary Clinton - and could prove critical (especially on fund raising) in his general election fight against John McCain, as explained in this BBC online item.
Hillary Clinton was 33 percentage points clear of Barack Obama in a poll in September 2007, but today it is Obama who is close to clinching the Democratic nomination. He's done it because he is a brilliant candidate - but he's been assisted by a very impressive team headed by his formidable campaign strategist David Alexrod.
There's a profile of Axelrod in today's "Guardian" newspaper.
Footnote: Do any politicos out there share my view that David Alexrod looks a bit like Tony Blair's No 10 head of communications David Hill?
For Labour, the result of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election was about as bad as it could be. Just weeks after Labour's poorest local election results in 40 years, the Parliamentary by-election saw a Labour majority of 7,078 turned into a Conservative majority of 7,860 - a 17.6% swing from the 2005 General Election. The pressure group Compass has this analysis of the lessons from Crewe.
Some political commentators are pointing out that this is first Conservative gain from Labour in a by-election for 30 years. In Ilford North in March 1978, the swing was only 7%. I remember Ilford North well.
In those days, I thought that I wanted to be a Labour MP (I had already fought the two General Elections of 1974) and I went for the Labour candidacy in the by-election. I attended nine meetings involving the selection, I won three nominations and was shortlisted with five others, but the chosen candidate was Tessa Jowell who lost the by-election but went on to a successful Ministerial career which continues to this day.
Such is life ...
As a teenager in the 1960s, I read all 14 of the James Bond novels and saw every one of the 007 movies as they were issued. When I became a father, I always took my son Richard to see the latest Bond film and today the two of us when to see a special exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum entitled "For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond".
This exhibition is both informative (I didn't know that in the books Bond bedded 'only' 14 women) and entertaining (there are some fun touch screen devices). The exhibits range from the Bell Textron Jet Pack from the film "Thunderball" to Halle Berry's orange bikini from the movie "Die Another Day". You can take a spin round the highlights here.
After yesterday's primary contests in Kentucky and Oregon, Associated Press projects that Barack Obama has 1,956 of the 2,026 pledged delegates and super delegates needed to claim the nomination, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 1,776 total delegates. Obama’s campaign estimates that, if he simply held his own in the three remaining contests (Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico), he would then need only 25 more votes from super delegates to secure the nomination. There are 221 undeclared super delegates left.
Already Obama has passed a crucial psychological point: he has a majority of the pledged delegates that will go to the Convention. This will ultimately deliver him what is called "the Pelosi Club" - a list of super delegates who have specifically committed to vote for the leader in pledged delegates.
Meanwhile Clinton will be hoping that she can persuade the forthcoming meeting of the Rules & Bylaws Committee (RBC) for the 2008 Democratic National Convention (DNC) to reinstate the so far invalid votes of Florida and Michigan. Theoretically there are more potential delegates being discussed at the RBC meeting (366) than all the pledged delegates left to be selected and the uncommitted super delegates combined, leading some commentators to call the meeting the biggest "primary" left.
Of course, if the Clinton campaign won its way, this would be tantamount to endorsement of rule-breaking and would rightly unleash the wrath of the Obama campaign - so it isn't going to happen. The last three states will have their votes, most of the so far undeclared super delegates will then back the man with the most pledged delegates, and Clinton will pull out of the race in June well before the Convention in August.
I blogged earlier about my encounter with the original green version of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer at a House of Lords event addressed by Nicholas Negroponte. Initially Negroponte set a target of selling 100 million machines by 2008, but so far OLPC has only sold about 600,000 machines.
In an announcement today, details have been given on the new version of the XO laptop designed for schoolchildren in developing countries created by the OLPC project. It looks like an e-book and has had its price slashed to $75 per device. The first XO2 machines should be ready to deliver to children in 2010.
At the MIT launch event, Nicholas Negroponte announced the resumption of the Get-One-Give-One programme to allow people in wealthy nations to buy two XO laptops and donate one to a child in a developing country.The programme will be open to people in North America and Europe and start in August or September.
The Institute for Economics and Peace think tank has just produced its 2008 Global Peace Index which is based on a total of 24 indicators.
For an overview, check out the map, while you can see the full rankings here.
Again Iceland comes top, followed by Denmark, Norway and New Zealand . The UK is 49th, while the USA is 97th. Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Israel come bottom.
Gordon Brown is offering to answer questions from the public via YouTube as you'll see here. It won't do anything to reverse his spectacular fall in popularity but, if it helps some people to engage more in political debate, then that can only be a good thing.
Of course, it would have been a little more exciting if one didn't have to wait up to a month before the questions were answered. This is not exactly broadband speed.
No economics course that I have ever done has mentioned behavioural economics. Yet today I attended a meeting of the Ofcom Consumer Panel at which we had a paper and a discussion on the subject and coincidentally today the "Guardian" had a feature on the topic.
So what is?
Behavioural economics incorporates insights from psychology into standard economic analysis with the aim of generating more realistic theories about how individuals make decisions and the impact this has on markets. At its core it involves relaxing the standard assumption that individuals are rational and self-interested. Instead it recognises that individuals are subject to a variety of cognitive limitations, impulses and emotions.
It has been a niche field for a couple of decades but has recently entered the mainstream within economics. One of the driving forces behind this was the award of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 to Daniel Kahneman, one of the most important researchers in the field. Also, the growing use of experimental methodologies has revealed many weaknesses in economists’ standard assumption that individuals are rational (i.e. that they do not, on average, make mistakes).
As the "Guardian" article puts it:
".. contrary to economic belief that more choice is better, confronted with too much complexity, we make bad decisions, or stick with what we have already got."
In my 60 years (OK, short of a few weeks) on this earth, one of the most decent men I have ever met was Billy Blease, otherwise known as Lord Blease of Cromac. He has just died aged 93 and today his obituary appears in the "Guardian".
At the time I knew Billy best in the 1970s, he was Secretary of the Northern Ireland Committee (NIC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). This was his darkest hour when his beloved trade union movement was hijacked in a strike led by the Ulster Workers' Council, a hard-line Loyalist force that overthrew the first power-sharing government of Northern Ireland. It has taken us three decades to put together another such power-sharing administration.
Billy was a brave and honourable man who fought for workers' rights and against sectarianism of all forms and I was proud to know him.
Sometimes I buy a CD without hearing a single track and without even knowing the performer because I have read a good review and want to try something new. This is why I listened for the first time this weekend to "The Beauty And The Sea" by Mor Karbasi.
She is a London-based Israeli singer whom the "Guardian" has described as "one of the great young divas of the global music scene". She is directly descended from both Moroccan and Persian Jews and she is an exponent of Ladino music and surviving songs of the late 15th century when Jewish and Muslim communities in Spain were expelled by the Christians.
"The Beauty And The Sea" features songs in Ladino, Hebrew and Spanish. It is melodic, moving, and magical.
The "New York Times" has an aricile giving six reasons why Barack Obama may actually be a stronger candidate after the battering he has received in his fight against Hillary Clinton. The piece contrasts this tough experience with the easier primary races of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry.
In my posting on the day of the recent local elections, I affirmed my belief in a fairer and more equal redistribution of power and wealth in our society. Given this belief, I found myself in full support of a letter which my friend Jeremy Mitchell wrote recently to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. With my friend's permission, I share it with you ...
Rt Hon John Hutton MP
Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
13 May 2008
I have not read the whole of the speech you made recently extolling the virtues of wealth. However, I understand that it included the sentence ‘Rather than questioning whether huge salaries are morally justified, we should celebrate the fact that people can be enormously successful in this country…Rather than placing a cap on that success, we should be questioning why it is not available to more people.’
What puzzles me about your approach is that you appear to equate wealth with success. Are you using a tautology here? In other words, if people are wealthy they must therefore be successful? Well, successful at making money, perhaps, but success can be measured in countless other ways – success at being a good surgeon, at being an outstanding teacher, at writing a poem that gives delight to thousands. The problem is that these and many other kinds of success in our society are not rewarded by inconceivable – or even conceivable – wealth.
Many of the hugely wealthy people in Britain, whose praises you sing, seem to have made themselves rich by in effect buying and selling money in its various forms. It is difficult to see how a city trader who makes a small fortune by talking down the price of a share in order to buy it on the cheap before watching its price rocket back up again can be said to set an admirable example for us lesser beings. And are we supposed to admire the asset strippers, who make themselves fortunes by buying companies in order to break them up? Even the Director General of the CBI has criticized the bonus culture that has turned thousands of bankers and city dealers into millionaires, because the benefit structure rewards success but does not penalise failure. He pointed out that the directors of a number of investment banks have overlooked basic risk controls in their drive to increase profits and enhance their profit-linked remuneration.
When things go wrong, however, Britain’s super rich just walk away with their pockets full. For example, Adam Applegarth, chief executive of Northern Rock, who led a major financial institution from profitability to ruin, is said to live in a £2.5 million mansion and has walked away with a £760,000 pay off, funded by shareholders who have seen 80% or more of the value of their investment wiped out. Bob Diamond, head of investment banking at Barclays, was paid £36 m last year even though Barclays has had to write off £1.6 bn through its reckless involvement in the US sub-prime housing market. Is this the sort of success you ask us to admire?
More generally, we are witnessing the extraordinary sight of a Labour government apparently content with a situation in which society is becoming less and less egalitarian. The distribution of wealth is now back to where it was before the second world war. In the last twenty years, the earnings of the average FTSE 100 chief executive have gone from 17 times the average employee’s pay to a multiple of over 75. To quote The Economist, income in the UK is ‘…distributed more unequally that in almost any big rich country except the US.’
The electorate are not stupid. They know what is happening – and they do not endorse it. According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, 76% think that the gap between rich and poor is too wide. Poverty has a relative as well as an absolute dimension. The feeling of bitterness at the financial excesses of those who are in a position to determine their own remuneration is spreading more and more widely. Do you really think that this is not a major contributory factor to Labour’s poor performance in the recent local elections in England and Wales?
Jeremy Mitchell
I've just returned from working as a Support Trainer with a training consultancy called Lamont Associates on a course near Oxford. One of the tools we teach is the use of stories and I thought that I would share with you one which we used this week:
"By good fortune, I was able to raft down the Motu River in New Zealand twice during the last year. The magnificent four-day journey traverses one of the last wilderness areas in the North Island.The first expedition was led by "Buzz", an American guide with a great deal of rafting experience and many stories to tell of mighty rivers such as the Colorado. With a leader like Buzz, there was no reason to fear any of the great rapids on the Motu.
The first half day, in the gentle upper reaches, was spent developing teamwork and co-ordination. Strokes had to be mastered, and the discipline of following commands without question was essential. In the boiling fury of a rapid, there would be no room for any mistake. When Buzz bellowed above the roar of the water, an instant reaction was essential.
We mastered the Motu. In every rapid we fought against the river and we overcame it. The screamed commands of Buzz were matched only by the fury of our paddles, as we took the raft exactly where Buzz wanted it to go.
At the end of the journey, there was a great feeling of triumph. We had won. We proved that we were superior. We knew that we could do it. We felt powerful and good. The mystery and majesty of the Motu had been overcome.
The second time I went down the Motu. the experience I had gained should have been invaluable, but the guide on this journey was a very softly spoken Kiwi. It seemed that it would not even be possible to hear his voice above the noise of the rapids.
As we approached the first rapid, he never even raised his voice. He did not attempt to take command of us or the river. Gently and quietly he felt the mood of the river and watched every little whirlpool. There was no drama and no shouting. There was no contest to be won. He loved the river.
We sped through each rapid with grace and beauty and, after a day, the river had become our friend, not our enemy. The quiet Kiwi was not our leader, but only the person whose sensitivity was more developed than our own. Laughter replaced the tension of achievement.
Soon the quiet Kiwi was able to lean back and let all of us take turns as leader. A quiet nod was enough to draw attention to the things our lack of experience prevented us from seeing. If we made a mistake, then we laughed and it was the next person's turn.
We began to penetrate the mystery of the Motu. Now, like the quiet Kiwi, we listened to the river and we looked carefully for all those things we had not even noticed the first time.
At the end of the journey, we had overcome nothing except ourselves. We did not want to leave behind our friend, the river. There was no contest, and so nothing had been won. Rather we had become one with the river.
It remains difficult to believe that the external circumstances of the two journeys were similar. The difference was in an attitude and a frame of mind. At the end of the journey, it seemed that there could be no other way. Given the opportunity to choose a leader, everyone would have chosen someone like Buzz. At the end of the second journey, we had glimpsed a very different vision and we felt humble - and intensely happy."
If you like this type of story, you'll find many more here.
When I am not doing my consumer work, I sometimes act as a Support Trainer with a training consultancy called Lamont Associates.
This is run by a remarkable woman called Georgeanne Lamont who wrote the book "The Spirited Business" [my review here].
I'm off now for a few days to run a course for a group of managers who work for QinetiQ which used to be the research arm of the Ministry of Defence.
For no less than 453 weeks now, I have circulated by e-mail a Thought For The Week to a growing number of friends and contacts around the world (the current circulation is around 1,200). You can check out all these thoughts here.
Now this week's thought is:
“Remember – a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic.”
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
One of the recipients of the thought points out to me that this is not technically true. But then Ian does nit pick!
If you would like to be put on the circulation list for these thoughts e-mail me.
There are different estimates of the delegate count secured by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but most now suggest that Obama has just acquired more super delegate votes than her - adding to his long-term lead in the pledged delegate tally.
The 2008 Democratic Convention Watch gives their calculations and some others. The trend is very clear: Obama has effectively won the nomination and Clinton needs to find an early and dignified exit strategy.
From the age of eight, I was brought up in a single-parent household led by my mother and I was the oldest of the three children. Although I saw my father regularly, it was not a happy relationship - so altogether I was short of a respected father figure and tended to find one where I could.
The first was my headmaster at the Roman Catholic direct grant grammar school in south Manchester where I studied from 1959 to 1966. The school was called the Xaverian College, it was run by a religious order of brothers, and the headmaster was a guy called Brother Cyril. I saw a lot more of him than most pupils because he chose me as School Captain for my final year and he allowed me to nominate my own prefects and to establish a School Council.
Everyone found Brother Cyril a formidable, even scary, figure. Although short and very quiet, he commanded immense respect and even fear. So often when I visited him in his study, he would fall silent for what seemed an eternity. At first, I nervously rushed to fill the silence. But then I learned to stay silent myself and give him time to think. This silence technique is one I have subsequently used countless times to assist me in negotiations or encourage people to talk about their problems.
Now Brother Cyril seemed old to me at the time (I was aged 11-18) and, if I ever thought about him these days, I assumed that he was long dead. So imagine my surprise to receive an e-mail directing me to a web site run by another former student at the school which carries a recent interview with Brother Cyril. I learn that amazingly he was headmaster from 1962 to 1989 and that he is now living in retirement in the USA aged 83.
I wish him long and happy retirement.
I've been tagged for a meme by my American cyber friend Dana Huff. I won't follow all the rules but I'll go with the flow and answer the questions.
What were you doing ten years ago?
I've checked my diary.
I was Head of Research for the Communications Workers Union (CWU) which represents staff in the postal and telecommunications industries. The Union had just elected a new General Secretary Derek Hodgson and one of his very first meetinga - on which I accompanied him - was to meet the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury (now Chancellor of the Exchequer) Alistair Darling. The sole subject of the meeting was Derek's fear that the Government was considering privatisation of the Post Office (now called Royal Mail). We were assured that this was not the case. But today - ten years on - there is a Government-commissioned review of the postal industry being led by Richard Hooper that will certainly be revisiting this immensely controversial issue.
What are five things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)
What are some snacks I enjoy?
What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Tell as few people as possible, give each family member enough to pay off debts and have a holiday, and give away the rest to various charities as soon as I could.
What are three of my bad habits?
What are five places where you have lived?
What are five jobs I have had?
My good friend Andy has directed me to a great web site that enables one to create a personal map showing all the countries one has visited. I've eagerly done this and posted the map on my web site.
Now on my web site, I list the 49 countries that I reckon I have visited. But, creating the map on the World66 site, I clicked on a total of 52 countries. Two of the extra countries are the Channel islands and Vatican City. Should I count these for my web site calculation. The third extra country is my own: the United Kingdom. Do I count this on my web site list?
Help me out here, guys. I need your advice.
By the way, the World66 map misses out an entire continent: Antarctica.
Last night, I watched Barack Obama being interviewed on CNN's "The Situation Room". He was thoughtful and articulate and, if I was an American, he would certainly have my vote.
Now Obama is going to be the Democratic Presidential candidate - it's just going to take a little more time for Hillary Clinton to accept that and withdraw. So he must now be thinking of his Vice Presidential running mate.
Conventional wisdom states that the Presidential candidate should chose a running mate that complements him. So maybe Obama should be looking for someone who is a woman, white, able to connect with blue collar workers, from a state that is not in the north-west, and whom he respects and admires.
Clinton scores on the first three but fails hopelessly on the last two. So there will be no so-called 'dream ticket'. In the CNN interview, Obama said that she "would be on anybody's shortlist" - but I don't see any chance of him choosing her.
Another option - one favoured by my good American friend Eric Lee - is John Edwards [see his case here]. Edwards scores on everything except gender and his selection would work for me - but I can see two problems.
First, Edwards withdrew from the Presidential race suddenly and surprisingly. The assumption is that he wanted to be with his wife who has cancer. If that's the case, would he want to run as Obama's number two?
Second, the Republicans are trying to paint Obama as too liberal to win the general election. But Edwards is more liberal than Obama on many economic issues. This seems bizarre to us in Britain but it could rule out an Obama-Edwards ticket in the USA. I don't think it will happen.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel.
Among the many media pieces marking the event, I thought that this article was a good assessment of the situation.
You can read my review of a book on the Arab-Israeli conflict here.
A year ago, I visited Israel and you can read my account of the trip here. I concluded my narrative as follows:
"Israel is a country of great contrasts and contradictions. It has biblical and archaeological sites dating back 4,000 years and yet it is the most modern state in the Middle East by far. Its citizens come from all over the world and consist of the fanatically religious and the totally secular and everything in between. There is desert in the south but green hills in the north with the beautiful Sea of Galilee and the saline Dead Sea in between. It has a city (Jerusalem) that is especially holy to three major world religions and a church (the Holy Sepulchre) that is contested by six denominations. There is quite simply no country like it.One has to hope that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be resolved soon and, if it is, the basis may well be a version of the Geneva Accord of December 2003. Israel has been a great success as a nation state, creating a dynamic economy and a vibrant democracy with a free media. It is not the apartheid state that some of its critics charge. But equally too it does not treat its Jewish and Arab citizens equally and the behaviour towards Arabs in the occupied territories is often shameful. Security for Israel and land for the Palestinians cannot come soon enough"
It really depends on the categorisation one uses
Seven areas are commonly regarded as continents. They are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. On this basis, I've visited five - not having been to Antarctica or Australia.
As you'll see from this analysis, however, there are at least six different ways of categorising continents with numbers ranging from four to seven.
In all the categorisations, one continent is Australia, but this continent is not always called Australia, sometimes being known as Australasia or Oceania.
I think that I have some understanding of what it is like to be a senior politician. I worked full-time for one in the 1970s, two years in the House of Commons, two years in the Northern Ireland Office and two years in the Home Office. Since those days, I have met many Members of Parliament and a lot of Ministers.
When I read about the set-backs facing figures like Gordon Brown in the UK and Barack Obama in the USA, I wonder how these politicians manage to cope with the pressures, especially today with 24/7 media coverage. In some walks of life, one can lie low for a while and recover one's confidence. In politics, there is no time and no space to suffer privately. It's amazing that more politicians do not resign or suffer mental illness or even commit suicide.
I guess that politicians survive by being emotionally tough and resilient. In part, this involves the capacity to create an alternative reality so that, however bad things look to others, the politician can battle through pressured times. I spoke recently to someone who worked very closely with Tony Blair in his final years as Prime Minister and he told me that Blair was amazingly up-beat and confident throughout his tribulations.
Yet, if the ability to create an alternative reality is essential to political survival, it can also have dramatic consequences. For many months, Gordon Brown was in total denial about the impact of abolishing the lower 10p tax rate. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair convinced himself that there were weapons of mass destruction in the country and, for months after the invasion, maintained that stance in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.
So, how can a top politician hold out against all the day-to-day criticisms but maintain a clear view of the essential reality of the situation? I think that part of the answer is to have some trusted advisers who can tell it as it really is. I worked as a national trade union official for no less than seven different General Secretaries, many of whom were tough operators. Part of my task, especially in my last seven years as Head of Research, was to say to the GS: "Look, I know you don't want to hear this, but ..." It was uncomfortable for him and for me.
Our recent visit to Cuba [my narrative here] has stimulated my interest in Cuban music. We bought a couple of CDs during the trip and, since we returned from the holiday, we've purchased and watched the 1999 film "Buena Vista Social Club" [my review here].
So we were excited at the opportunity to hear some Buena Vista Social Club stalwarts live in London and attend a concert last night at the Hammersmith Apollo. Vee and I were joined by her twin sister Mari and brother-in-law Derek plus two of our special friends from the Cuba trip, Juan-Jose and Joanne.
Now the Apollo is an unimpressive venue with poor facilities, but the concert was wonderful. It began with a group from Los Angeles called Very Be Careful. Then we had the Buena Vista Social Club for almost two hours (there was no formal interval all evening).
As well as an 11-piece band from Havana, we had the four stars: Cachaíto Lopez on double bass, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal on trumpet, Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos on trombone, and Manuel Galbán on guitar and organ [biographical summaries here].
What I love most about Cuban music is its sheer joy and exuberance. However, I also delight in the ensemble nature of the playing with each main instrumentalist and singer having a chance to take the lead and show his or her virtuoso talent.
It was a terrific evening and, for the last number, we were all dancing in the rows. If anything, that was all that was really missing to make the evening perfect. Cuban music and dancing are simply inextricable and, in Cuba itself, the best concerts feature professionals dancers and the restaurants and clubs positively invite customers to swing their hips.
Vee and I usually finish the day sitting on the couch together watching television. Most of what we watch is recorded on Sky+. That way, we never miss a programme we really want to watch, we can stop the programme if we missed some dialogue, and we can skip the adverts.
At the core of our viewing is the American series. In fact, we follow three: "Desperate Housewives" (we've just started series 4), "Brothers And Sisters" (we've just commenced series 2) and "Heroes" (again series 2 has just begun). I also watch "Lost" (we're on series four here) but Vee thinks this is silly.
We're both keen on news and current affairs, so we always watch BBC's "News At Ten" and we usually watch CNN's "The Situation Room" (to get the latest on the US primaries).
We like some entertainment, so we generally watch "Friday Night With Jonathan Ross" and we loved "Gavin & Stacey".
Vee watches more television than me. She likes programmes on property and gardening, so she's never sort of something to view, and she's also strong on nature programmes and historical documentaries. My extras tend to be programmes on science, especially cosmology and physics.
Neither of us is remotely interested in sports programmes.
What you you like to watch?
Two days ago, I did a posting about the London elections. In the event, Ken Livingstone did not come that close to holding on to the post of London Mayor and now we have at least four years of Boris Johnston in the top seat. It will take some getting used to - but he may surprise us. I liked his statement: "I was elected as new Boris and I will govern as new Boris, or whatever the phrase is".
Although there was an encouraging turnout in London of over 45%, appallingly the British National Party (BNP) still managed to win a seat on the Greater London Assembly (GLA) because they exceeded the 5% threshold. The only good news for Labour in London was the winning of the Assembly seat for Harrow and Brent by Navin Shah. That's my seat and of course I voted for him.
Nationally the result has been a disaster for Labour. I joined the party in 1969 and have been a member continuously ever since. Thursday's results were the worst for Labour since 1968 with a mere 24% of the poll putting the party behind the Lib Dems. I guess it means that we won't have a General Election now until 2009. Meanwhile a lot of thinking and rebuilding needs to come from the Labour side.
Part of the defeat is the consequence of being so long in power; part of it is the result of the global downturn in economic conditions; but an important element is self-made and Labour clearly needs to reconnect with its core voters while not forgetting the middle class vote. It won't be easy and there is not much time - but it can be done.
The organisation Compass has been quick off the mark with its analysis of what went wrong and what needs to be done.
Australia is one of the largest countries in the world - but most of it is desert - and constitutes the overwhelming mass of the smallest continent on the globe (Australasia). The population is just over 21 million with approximately 60% of the population concentrated in and around the mainland state capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Australia has a prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita GDP slightly lower than that of the UK, but higher than those of Germany and France in terms of purchasing power parity. The country was ranked third in the United Nations' 2007 Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist worldwide quality-of-life index 2005.
The country tends not to make the world's media unless there is an election or there is regional crisis.
There are two major political groups that form governments: the Australian Labour Party and the Coalition which is a grouping of two parties: the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party. Currently the Labour Party is in power.Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens 18 years and over, in each state and territory and at the federal level.
Australia has mediated between warring groups in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and deployed thousands of peacekeepers in newly-independent East Timor.
Ever since I obtained the right to vote at the age of 18 - almost 42 years ago - I have never failed to vote in an election and I have never failed to vote Labour. This may make me predictable and old-fashioned but, if (as I do) one supports a fairer and more equal redistribution of power and wealth in our society, I don't see that one needs to change one's vote from election to election.
Today I voted four times: my first choice for Mayor of London, my second choice for Mayor, my choice of constituency candidate for the Greater London Assembly, and my choice of political party for the GLA.
It seems to be touch and go whether the new Mayor will be the incumbent Ken Livingstone for Labour or the main challenger Boris Johnson for the Conservatives. I have long believed that essentially there are only two election slogans: one is "It's experience that counts" (used by the incumbent or Establishment figure) or "It's time for change" (used by the challenger or outsider). So it has proved in the London Mayoral election.
I believe that Livingstone is a flawed candidate who supports some odd causes and places too much faith and power in his friends, but he has helped to make London effectively the capital of the world, he has been brave and right in introducing the congestion charge, and he has by far the best policies for our multicultural and dynamic capital.
However, I believe that he has made a mistake is attempting to portray Johnson as a buffoon and a fool. Johnson is certainly colourful and idiosyncratic, but he is intelligent and shrewd and he has run a disciplined and effective campaign. It would have been better for Livingstone to treat Johnson with more respect and focus on the weaknesses of his polices compared to those of the Labour leader.
We'll see soon what the electors of London have decided ...
Formerly called Upper Volta and a French colony until 1960, Burkina Faso (which translates as "land of honest men") is a country of 15 million which has spent many of its post-independence years under military rule with repeated coups, especially during the 1980s. Coup leader Blaise Compaore won a new five-year term in 2005 after 18 years at the helm.
A poor country even by West African standards, landlocked Burkina Faso has suffered from recurring droughts. The country has significant reserves of gold, but cotton production - an industry vulnerable to changes in world prices - is the economic mainstay for many Burkinabes. The UN rates Burkina Faso as the world's third poorest country.
Burkina Faso has been linked to conflicts within the region, notably Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.