What hope is there for Kenya?
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I recently visited Nairobi for a week and wrote about my experience here. More recently, I have read a book on the post-colonial history of the country which I have reviewed here.
Somewhere between hope and despair, author Daniel Branch concludes: “Kenya may never be prosperous or be a nation; but armed with a government that it deserves, it can be a state whose citizens live side by side in peace and enjoy equal opportunities.”
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A 30-mile traffic jam in Kenya
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Since my son and his family relocated to Kenya about three months ago, I have been more than usually interested in the history of, and news from, the country.
So I was amazed to learn that more than 1,500 trucks are locked into a traffic jam stretching for 50 km (30 miles) on the highway between Mombasa and Nairobi. You can learn more here.
Next time, you’re delayed by a few minutes in a traffic jam, try to remember this story – and relax.
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How to recognise a stroke
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
It’s called the FAST test and you can learn about it here.
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Why we should support Wikipedia
November 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Dear Roger,
A year ago, you gave £XX to keep Wikipedia online for hundreds of millions of readers. We are deeply grateful for your support, and we need your help again this year.
Please renew your donation today.
We are the small non-profit that runs one of the top websites in the world. The others on that list — Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon — all for-profit companies powered by ads, shareholders, and a constant stream of revenue.
Wikipedia isn’t like that. We’re a small nonprofit. We’re independent. We don’t run ads or sell services to Wikipedia readers. Our size requires us to maintain the server space and programming power of a top site, we are sustained by the support of grassroots donors. People like you.
If all our past donors simply gave again today, we wouldn’t have to worry about fundraising for the rest of the year.
Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind, a place we can all go to think and learn.
If Wikipedia is useful to you, please take one minute to keep it online, ad-free, and growing.
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Thanks,
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder
I’ve just received this e-mail from Jimmy Wales and given another donation to Wikipedia which I think is one of the most impressive sites on the web. You may want to think of doing the same.
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100 amazing women from around the world
November 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Our news and current affairs are still dominated by men, so it’s good to see the BBC compile a list of 100 women who are changing the world. Check out some of these special people here.
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Why did the forecasts of the opinion pollsters get the result of the British General Election so wrong?
November 17th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
So far, we still don’t know. An official study commissioned by the British Polling Council, being chaired by Professor Patrick Sturgis, is due to report its initial findings in January.
But a survey by the British Election Survey (BES) seems to offer some useful indications. It looks as if the BES approach of random sampling is more accurate than either telephone or online polling used by the pollsters.
Telephone polling has the problems that many households are now increasingly reluctant to pick up their landline and that a growing number of young people do not even have a landline.
Online polling has the weaknesses that it draws on panels of volunteers who may not be statistically representative and that many older people are still not on the Net.
By contrast, BES data is collected from knocking on doors which is obviously more time-consuming and expensive but it appears more statistically representative.
More information here.
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Ruminations on Rome (5)
November 16th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Whenever we can, on our short breaks together my sister Silvia and I try to visit a location associated with Jewish life and (sadly) death. So, on the last day of our weekend in Rome, we headed out to the former Jewish Quarter to visit the synagogue and museum.
Jews have been a significant presence in Rome since the 2nd century AD and thrived throughout the Middle Ages until 1556. Then, in a wonderful act of Christian charity, Pope Paul VI – who also founded the Inquisition – confined the Jews to a ghetto where they remained until the unification of Italy in 1870.
On the way to the old quarter, we spotted examples of a new commemorative phenomenon: bronze squares inserted into the pavement outside apartment buildings with the names of Jews who lived there during the war and died in Auschwitz after their deportation. We found five very close to our hotel and another seven later on.
Once we found the synagogue located on the river embankment, there was a lot of security in place, but it had nothing specifically to do with the recent terrorist assaults in Paris. In 1980, there was a terrorist attack on this particular synagogue and a two year old boy died and many were injured.
Once all the men had donned a kippa, a young, heavily-accented woman showed a group of us round the Main Synagogue which was built in 1901-1904 to replace the five synagogues located in the same building in the old Jewish Quarter but necessary because of the different religious traditions. Then we were taken to a basement area which, as well as housing the museum, has a Sephardic (or Spanish) Synagogue.
The excellent museum has seven rooms, six of them devoted to Jewish religious and cultural activities and traditions. Silvia and I – as non-Jews – were most interested in the seventh room which records the horrific events for Roman Jews in the Second World War. After years of utter denial of their civil rights by Mussolini’s Fascist administration, the ultimate reckoning occurred shortly after the Germans took over control of Rome when, on 16 October 1944, all the Jews in the city were given just 20 minutes to pack before being taken away. Their final destination was the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz: 1,022 were arrested that day and just 16 survived the war. Another 700-800 followed.
For the only time on our trip, we took a taxi back to Piazza del Popolo so that we had time to have a decent lunch at the restaurant which we enjoyed on our first evening in the city (“Canova”). I had ravioli and Silvia had aubergines and I finished off with a huge banana split. The reason for the slight rush was that, before we caught our flight home, we wanted to see a couple of my friends. Earlier in the year, Vee and I met Christopher and Gilberto on our holiday in Ethiopia. They have a flat in Rome and flew in this morning for a week’s visit, so we teamed up at the hotel for a drink and a chat. On almost every holiday we have had, Silvia and I have managed to spend a little time with friends who live locally and it always adds something to the break.
Finito.
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Ruminations on Rome (4)
November 15th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Sunday in Rome is still a bustling day full of locals and tourists thronging the streets and cafes, but Silvia and I took it easier this morning while going on another tour in the afternoon. So this morning we left the hotel almost an hour later than yesterday and headed for the banks of the River Tiber. It was so sunny and mild that Silvia wore sandals and sunglasses – in mid November.
We eventually reached Piazza Navona again and this time headed for the south of the square where the Museum of Rome is located. We had noticed yesterday that there was an exhibition entitled “War Is Over” to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and we wanted to see it today because most museums are closed on Mondays.
It was an especially fascinating exhibition for us because our Italian mother lived in Naples throughout the war before meeting our father who was in the country with what he called “the forces of liberation” and she termed “the forces of occupation”. The exhibition was mostly photographs taken by an Italian state organisation and an American military organisation and they reflected the impact of the war on both military and civilians and the complexities of the situation in which Italy changed sides in 1943.
Like yesterday, in early afternoon we were collected from the hotel and taken to tour company offices but this time we took some lunch with us – club sandwich for me and salmon bagel for Silvia. To our surprise, we had the same guide as yesterday. In my last blog posting, I described him as old and today we learned just how old – an amazingly fit and bright 85.
The tour was called “Imperial Rome” and focused on “the Roman remainings” in the old forum. First though we drove through Piazza Venezia which is home to the gigantic Vittorio Emanuele II monument (usually called “The Wedding Cake”) and Palazzo Venezia from whose balcony Mussolini used to exhort the joys of Fascism.
Next we drove through the Roman Forum, observing pagan temples and arches of triumph before halting at the imposing remains of the Colosseum. Inside the structure, our guide explained how it was built by 30,000 slaves in just eight years (72-80 AD), accommodated 50,000 spectators, and was officially called the Flavian Amphitheatre. Of course, we had all seen the film “Gladiator” but we were informed about some of the realities of events in the colosseum.
Next stop was the Capitoline Hill with a statue of a wolf suckling Romulus and Remus and its equestrian statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius plus good views down to the Roman Forum as the sun set and thousands of starlings swirled overhead. Our final destination was the Church of Saint Peter in Chains which houses chains which apparently held Peter and an impressive sculpture of Moses by the prolific Michelangelo.
As yesterday, once the tour was over, Silvia and I stopped at a cafe for a drink and then later found a restaurant for dinner. This evening we ate at a place called “Porto di Ripetta” close to Piazza del Popolo where I had fillet steak in red wine sauce and Silvia had spaghetti with clams. Another very satisfying day.
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Ruminations on Rome (3)
November 15th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Silvia and I had a very full, and very enjoyable, day in Rome where there was an obvious security presence following the terrible events in Paris last night. We decided to use the morning for orientation by visiting the major squares and to use the afternoon to tour the Vatican since it will be closed to tourists tomorrow (Sunday).
So first stop was the nearby Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna. The proper name for the steps is Scalinata della Trinita’ di Monti after the church at the top, but they have their popular name because the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See was nearby. The bad news was that the steps are cordoned off for renovation. The good news is that we could actually see the steps because nobody was on them.
Next stop was the Trevi Fountain in Piazza di Trevi. Silvia had never seen this, so I led her into the square as she kept her eyes closed, in order that she could be truly surprised. If you have not been there before, you don’t realise how huge the fountain is, occupyimg virtually the entire square. If you have been there before, the fountain looks glorious because it has just been reopened after an 17 month clean and renovation.
Striding on, we then visited the Pantheon in Piazza della Rotonda. This was originally designed as long ago as 118-125 AD and has memorials to two Italian kings, Vittorio Emanuele II who finally unified Italy in 1871 and Umberto I who was assassinated in 1900.
At this point, Silvia and I stopped for a rest and early lunch, sharing a large panini of salami and mozzarella cheese. Our fourth and final square was Piazza Navona, probably the most beautiful in the city. Although I call it a square, it is not square or even rectangular so much as cigar-shaped with very long sides of elegant buildings. In the centre of the piazza is the famous Four Rivers Fountain designed by Bernini in 1651.
Throughout our morning in tourist central Rome, we saw loads of vendors, entertainers and beggars. The most frequent object for sale – usually by a migrant – was the ubiquitous selfie stick for cameras.
We returned to our hotel with just five minutes to spare before our scheduled pick up for the afternoon tour of the Vatican. A minibus took us from the hotel to the tour company’s offices where we boarded a coach which an hour and half later managed to pass by our hotel. Our guide was a wizened old man who looked like a character from “The Lord Of The Rings”, but he knew his stuff and he knew it in English, French and Spanish.
Apparently one can queue for hours to gain entry to the Vatican but tour guides lead their groups straight inside. We viewed some of the many magnificent galleries which are full of paintings, tapestries and statues. The most stunning was the Gallery of Maps which has a stupendous ceiling.
Then we were shown into the world-famous Sistine Chapel which is home to some of the very finest work by Michelangelo – the ceiling, which includes the iconic scene of Adam and God touching fingers, and the altarpiece representing “The Last Judgement”. I had seen the chapel before but it was reopened in 2000 following a painstaking cleaning process lasting 14 years and now looks more magnificent than ever.
Leaving the Vatican Museum, we then had some time in St Peter’s Basilica. Among the many artistic treasures here are the marble Pieta’ statue by Michelangelo and the four columns holdimg the huge altar canopy designed by Bernini. Finally we walked a little around St Peter’s Square with its 284 columns. It was now dark but the front of the basilica and the two large fountains in the square were illuminated which made the experience very atmospheric.
Once the tour was over, Silvia and I had a drink and chat before going for dinner and more chat. We found a fish restaurant off the Via del Corso shopping street and both had grilled salmon with cauliflower purée and spinach accompanied by a side dish of roasted vegetables. Of course I had ice cream too to conclude a splendid day of over 12 hours’ sightseeing.
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Ruminations on Rome (2)
November 13th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
My long weekend in Rome with my sister Silvia got off to a slightly anxious start when she was three-quarters of an hour late meeting me at London’s Heathrow Airport. She had major problems with her train from Leicester to London and then her mobile refused to send or receive either calls or texts. Of course, nothing could be done about the train issues. We managed to sort out the mobile issues with an extremely complex technical process known as switching it off and switching it on again.
The afternoon flight to Rome’s Fumicino Airport went smoothly and we had a car waiting to take us to the River Palace Hotel in the heart of the city. We arrived in early evening, so we immediately went out for dinner and found an excellent place called “Canova” where I had veal in lemon sauce and Silvia had fettuccine with prawns and courgettes. I finished with a gigantic ice cream dessert so I’m going to bed happy.
The hotel and the restaurant are both close to Piazza del Popolo, described by the guide book as “Rome’s elegant public living room”. It started life as a trapezoid piazza in 1538. Then, in 1589, Sixtus V ordered the installation of a 3,200 year old obelisk, the 25 metre (82 foot) high megalith from Heliopolis honouring Ramses II. Finally, in 1811-1823, Guiseppe Valadier turned the square into its current Neo-Classical look and oval shape. It must be great for political demonstrations and speeches.
Back at our hotel, we started to learn of the horrific terrorist attacks in another European capital city as the news came through of the huge death toll from a variety of terrible incidents in Paris. We live in a different world now and nowhere is truly safe.
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