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I'm current writing a short story which involves a language or script with hundreds of symbols or letters.
This may seen very odd to English speakers since the English alphabet is only 26 letters. But, on a recent cab ride, my Tamil driver told me that his language has 247 characters.
Hard to believe? Check it out here.
If you're a lot younger than me, perhaps you go to discos, in which case you may know that the coolest thing around just now is the experience offered by 3D glasses. In the UK, they've been developed by the North East's Novak collective. To obtain a hint of what's involved, go here, click on 'videos', and - if you're under 30 - see what you're missing.
Since India and Pakistan obtained independence from Britain in 1947, India has managed to remain a vibrant, if flawed, democracy, whereas Pakistan lost its eastern section (now Bangladesh) and is in real danger of becoming a failed state. No elected civilian government has ever survived a full term and the all-powerful military posses the nuclear bomb but cannot defeat its resident fundamentalists.
The British Council has recently published a report on the views of Pakistanis aged 18-29 and the findings are shocking. Only a third of those polled thinks democracy is the best system and a mere one in ten has confidence in the government. Three-quarters identify themselves as primarily Muslim rather than Pakistani and around a third favour Sharia law.
The "New York Times" covered the report in this article.
When I was on holiday in Iran, I bought some local music and I've done a posting about the musician in question. I like to listen to music from around the world and am always open to recommendations.
A member of the British group visiting Iran told me about a singer called Souad Massi of whom I'd never heard. She's Algerian but now lives in France.
At home, I purchased some of her music: "The Best Of Souad Massi" and have just been listening to it.
Shirin Ebadi is the first Muslim women to be awarded a Nobel Prize, winning it for peace in 2003. She has been away from Iran since travelling to Spain for a conference the day before the disputed 12 June presidential election, but she still intends to return. Meanwhile her husband has been beaten and her Nobel Prize has been seized. More information here.
For 118 days, 12 hours, 54 minutes, Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari was detained, interrogated and beaten in Tehran's notorious Evin prisoner where he was accused of spying for the CIA, MI6, Mossad and "Newsweek". He is now in London with his wife and newborn daughter, but the Revolutionary Guards have threatened to track him down and kill him. This week's edition of "Newsweek" devotes 10 pages to his case - this is his story.
This clip from a recent Channel 4 programme is fascinating:
An oceanic gyre is any large-scale system of rotating ocean currents - a fuller definition in this page from Wikipedia.
Apparently, around the globe, there are five huge gyres that contain accumulated rubbish from the oceans in what represents an environmental disaster - more information in this article from the "New York Times".
There's a test here.
I haven't done it yet. Apparently it takes 20 minutes and I have work i have to do first.
But let me know how you get on.
Footnote (24/11/09):
I've done the test now. I scored high for openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and agreeableness and medium for neuroticism. Looks like I need to be less neurotic then!
Here in the UK, there has to be a General Election in the next seven months. The most likely date is Thursday 6 May 2010 when we have local elections. Labour will be defending its record in office of 13 years. Can it win a fourth term? Sadly I think not.
But it may be that the Conservatives will be denied an overall majority. In the "Observer" today, we have the results of an Ipsos MORI poll which puts the Conservatives on 37%, only six points ahead of Labour on 31%. The Liberal Democrats are on 17%. This is the narrowest gap between the two main parties in any poll since last December.
In an analysis piece, Bob Worcester, head of Ipsos MORI, explains that "the Tories need to win 117 seats to achieve a simple majority, but perhaps 140 for a working majority, which is a huge mountain to climb".
If the Ipsos MORI poll is accurate (it may be rogue) and if the voting intentions are replicated at the next election, the Conservatives will hold the most seats but fall 35 short of an overall majority in the Commons.
Now, there's a question ...
According to Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates.
But, according to a survey mentioned in this column, most people see life as a journey.
For me, life is like a short story. We like to think that we're writing it ourselves, but sometimes it seems to write itself. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sad, and we're never quite sure how it's going to end - but hope that afterwards somebody will still think it worth reading.
What about you?
Only very occasionally does the media cover anything about the Western Sahara, the last unresolved colonial issue in Africa. I wrote about the situation in a very early entry in my long-running series called "Forgotten World" but the issue remains disputed since Morocco still lays claim to the mineral-rich territory and refuses to hold the referendum called for by the United Nations.
This week, a story reminded us that human rights activists are still fighting for the people of the Western Sahara to have their voice and their state recognised.
If I'd read it in the English-language "Iran News" which I studied on my recent trip to that country, I might have thought that it was propaganda from a fiercely anti-American regime, but the story was in the British "Guardian" and the statistics are taken from an official US Government survey.
One-sixth of the US population was found to be unable to afford enough food to stay healthy at some point last year. More than a million children regularly go to bed hungry in America.
This is the situation in the richest country on earth. This is the price of unregulated capitalism.
Wednesday morning means my short story writing course at the City Lit in central London. In fact, this morning we arrived at the college to find that trouble on the underground meant that our tutor had not been able to make it and the class was cancelled.
However, six of us gathered in the canteen, took turns to read out our homework, and discussed each piece of work. It was a very supportive and useful discussion.
I read out my piece on "Cinderella Rebooted". As a result of my class mates' critique, I may well revise my effort and even expand it into a full short story.
As regular visitors will know, I'm doing a short story writing course at the City Lit in central London. We are given writing exercises in the sessions and we are given homework exercises to do between sessions. This week's homework involves retelling a classic story but from a different point of view, that of a minor character. You might be interested in my effort.
“CINDERELLA REBOOTED” by Roger Darlington
When the lord employed me to be servant to his three daughters, I was the proudest man in the land and the most famous in my little village, but I had no idea how different his daughters would be and how much I would be touched by one of them.
I had assumed that all three daughters were the lord's with his wife, but I soon learned that one of the daughters was his natural daughter from his first marriage and the other two were his step-daughters through his new wife. My mother had remarried after the death of my father and had more children but she treated us all the same. The lord's second wife though was terrible to her new daughter, a lovely girl called Cinderella.
The wife took to giving Cinderella almost as many household duties as me and I was really embarrassed that the lord's daughter should be treated no better than a worthless person like me. As we shared the duties, Cinderella and I talked and became close friends. She was forced to sleep at the top of the house in a garret next to mine and we would talk together before sleeping in our respective beds. She was so innocent and showed no fear of having me in her bedroom. I became so in love with her but honoured her too much to threaten her in any way.
We shared our stories and our secrets and our hopes. We had so much in common and laughed together so much. On one thing only did we disagree. I wanted her step-sisters to be punished for their cruelty to her – perhaps add some special berries to the soup and give them a terrible stomach ache. But Cinderella would hear nothing of it. Instead she showed her sisters only kindness. Nobody in our village behaved like this and she taught me a new way of looking at life.
One day, the king's son decided to hold a ball and, of course, the lord was invited to send his daughters and there was no question that his two step-daughters would attend. There was never any suggestion, however, that Cinderella would go to the ball. When she was left behind, she started to cry and I asked her how I could help. She asked me to find her godmother which I did. Then her godmother asked me to find a pumpkin, six mice, a rat, and six lizards. I had never had such strange requests in all my life but I would do anything for my Cinderella.
I have no idea what the godmother said or did as I waited outside the room but, when the door opened, out came a golden coach pulled by six grey horses with a coachman sporting the most splendid moustache and six footmen in laced uniforms. As for Cinderella herself, she looked stunning in a dress of cloth of gold and silver. Before I had loved her; now I adored her.
Cinderella was back just after midnight and up in the garret she told me all about the ball and the king's son. I was not surprised that the prince found her so attractive but I was frightened when she spoke so warmly about him. Surely she didn't think that a girl who spent her time sitting among the cinders could be a companion to a prince? Surely she realised that it was us who were destined to be husband and wife?
The next night, she was home later and distraught. She told me everything that had happened. It was clear that she was falling for the prince and that he was utterly smitten with her, but he did not know who she was or where she lived. His only clue was the little glass slipper that had fallen from her foot as she had rushed to beat her godmother's deadline of midnight for being home. Next day, I heard that the prince's servants were trying to find the woman whose foot would fit the glass slipper and that, once she was located, he was determined to marry her.
I was sure that the lord's house would not be visited – it was hidden deep in the forest – and, even if it was, they would never find Cinderella who would no doubt be confined to the garret. All I had to do was wait and Cinderella would be mine again, mine alone, mine forever. But night after night, I would hear her sobbing through the dividing wall between our rooms in the garret. I knew that there was only one thing that would make her happy but that same thing would destroy me. When her sisters were so cruel to her, all she thought of were their needs not her own. She had taught me a lesson in love and loss.
That night, I slipped a note under the main door of the king's palace and next day the prince's man arrived at our house with a glass slipper and a suggestion. I never saw my Cinders again.
In June, the world was horrified by the killing of Neda Soltan, a peaceful protester in Tehran against the fraudulent re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Now her boyfriend Caspian Makan has escaped the country and given this account of Neda's life and death.
Our recent holiday in Iran brings the number of countries that I have visited to 53.
You can see a map of the countries visited and a list of them here.
A week ago, Vee and I returned from a wonderful week's holiday in Iran. I have now written up a full account of the trip which you can read here.
Later I will add a selection of photographs.
As a result of my web site, I receive e-mails from all around the world and I'm always happy to hear from readers. Today I had this e-mail from a German student of 27 in response to my web essay on "A Short Guide To The British Political System":
"I am studying English and Portuguese at the University of Heidelberg (translation and interpretation). Next week, I will have to talk about the UK Parliament in class. During my researches I came across your article which I consider quite helpful.
My concern: Since I don't want to bore my audience with plain facts only, I was thinking about including some anecdotes or simply some "everyday life stories". Maybe something that is very strange, typical or special about the Parliament and its members.
I'd be so glad hearing from you!"
So - how did I respond? As follows ....
"I think I know what you want, so let me offer a couple of suggestions.
If one walks from the lobby of the House of Commons into the chamber of the Commons, one passes through an archway which looks odd because it is evidently damaged. In fact, most of the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by German bombing in the Second World War but, when Parliament was rebuilt after the war, Winston Churchill proposed that the original archway with its obvious damage be retained as a reminder of the war. Today it is called The Rubble Arch.
You can see an image here and, if you click on the 'i' in the top right, you'll see a picture of the arch after the bombing.
When one passes through the archway and enters the chamber, there is one surprising feature of the seating - there is simply not enough. The current membership of the House of Commons is 646 (it will rise to 650 at the next General Election), but there are only enough seats for 427 members.
The reason that this arrangement works is that, unlike other Parliaments, there are not assigned seats for each member; instead members take any seat they want on a 'first come, first served' basis, although there are various traditions (notably blocks of seats for particular political parties, most especially those in Government and those in Opposition).
The reason that the arrangement was chosen is so that the chamber does not look too empty when (most of the time) very few members are present for the debates. Conversely, when there is a major Commons occasion (such as a Budget statement), so many members try to enter the chamber that all the seats are taken and members have to sit on the stairways or stand at the entrance. This all adds to the sense of excitement."
My wife Vee - who is not at all sensitive about her age - is 65 today. When we married she was only 38, so we're growing old together which is a comfortable feeling.
Vee has a twin sister who is much more concerned about her age. Miraculously she claims not to be be 60 yet.
Happy birthday to them both!
My short story writing course at the City Lit has now been running for eight weeks, although I have only been able to attend on five occasions.
In recent weeks, we've been looking at the issue of the point of view (POV) of the narrator. Basically there are two choices.
One option is the first person singular - that is, the use of 'I'. There is a variant of this called the unreliable narrator where the narrator does not tell the full truth for some reason. The use of the first person is very popular in contemporary fiction but has a number of serious limitations, such as the narrow knowledge base of the narrator. It is an approach that I have only used once - in my story "The Hostage".
The other option is the third person singular - that is, the use of 'he' or 'she'. This is my usual style as in, for instance, my story "A Moment In Time". A variant on this option is where one uses more than one viewpoint. This is the style I've adopted in my latest short story where we see things through the eyes of two young characters - the story is called "The Away Day". A further variant on this option is what is called the third-person omniscient where the narrator knows things that the characters themselves do not know. I've never used this style so far.
The important point for a fiction writer is, having chosen the point of view, to be consistent in narrating the story from that point of view.
For the past 25 years, I've lived in the same semi-detached house in north-west London. Even though we live in a major capital city, it has not felt like it because at the bottom of our garden is a spinney with some huge trees. However, the largest - a horse chestnut standing about 60 feet tall - has become diseased and, over the last three days, three guys have been systematically cutting it down. Strange perhaps, but I feel sad about the loss.
If we carry on fuelling world economic growth largely through the use of oil resources, one day the oil will run out. For years, people have talked of "peak oil" - the time when oil production levels start to fall. According to this story, oil reserves are not as high as was thought and we may already have passed the point of "peak oil". It's clearly time to use less oil and develop more climate-friendly energy alternatives.
Today I added the 1,500th e-mail address to the circulation list for my "Thought For The Week". I have been sending out these thoughts every Sunday for over 10 years to a growing number of people all around the world.
If you would like to know what kind of thoughts I've been circulating, check out the full list here.
If you would like to receive these thoughts, e-mail me.
Ed Mayo - who was the founding Chief Executive and a colleague of mine at Consumer Focus - has just become Secretary General of Co-operatives UK. He's drafted a kind of manifesto that rejects the 'dog eats dog' world of so much of contemporary society and presented a kind of 'dog helps dog' model based on co-operativism.
See the text here.
Some UK supermarkets are greening up their act and doing more to help customers shop green but others are lagging well behind according to new mystery shopping exercise by Consumer Focus on whose Board I sit.
The UK's top nine supermarket chains were ranked on sustainability measures such as availability of UK in-season fruit and vegetables, organics, higher welfare meat and eggs and sustainably sourced fish. The survey looked not just at availability in the store but also how clearly these products were displayed and promoted to consumers in-store.
The exercise found that the gap between the best and worst performing supermarkets has got wider since the first survey in 2006. Sainsbury’s and M&S made the biggest leap by achieving the first ever overall “A” (excellent) score. They were followed by Waitrose, which retained a “B” grade. Other supermarkets such as Morrisons showed improvement over the course of the surveys; Tesco showed no progress since 2007 and Asda moved down the ratings.
The survey also found some good green practices among the high street chains. The discounters Aldi and Lidl, surveyed for the first time, were the only two supermarkets to have closed doors on all freezers, thereby helping to conserve energy. The co-op was found to be selling the highest proportion of fairly traded products among its own brand products than any of its rivals.
I always like to purchase some local music when I visit a new country. During my holiday last week in Iran, we were in the town of Kashan where I bought two CDs of work by local musician and singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian. I'm listening to it now as I work on the computer - evocative stuff.
Before I went on holiday to Iran, I drafted my 13th short story. Since returning, I've finalised it and posted it on my web site.
It's called "The Away Day". Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Vee and I returned home this morning from our week's holiday in Iran. We had a wonderful time. All went well and we had no political problems, although we were in the country for the 30th anniversary of the taking of the American Embassy hostages.
More so than any other country I've visited - and this was number 53 - people were amazingly friendly and excited to make contact with us. It's absolutely clear than most Iranians - especially those in the cities and the young - do not share their government's hostility to the British or the Americans.
We were able to visit an Iranian family in their home in the capital Tehran and spoke - if only briefly - to literally dozens and dozens of Iranians who wanted to engage with us wherever we went.
Over the coming days, I'll be writing up a full account of our visit here. I hope that you'll check it out and find it of interest.