My latest short story: “The Girl With The Crimson Scar”

January 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington

It’s been nine months since I wrote a short story, but the quiet beginning to the New Year has given me the opportunity to craft a new story – my 28th.

It’s entitled “The Girl With The Crimson Scar” and you can read it here. All comments very welcome.

If you want to check out all the other stories I’ve written, you can access them here. Enjoy.

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So who is Rick Santorum?

January 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington

The Republican primary race has been bizarre for the constant media effort to promote the chances of someone who can beat the front-runner Mitt Romney. In turn, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gringrich have been favoured and then crashed. I have even heard the suggestion that Florida Governor Jeb Bush is waiting to put himself forward at the Republican Convention as a third Bush for the White House (dream on, Jeb).

Three months ago, I did a posting that expressed my view that Mitt Romney would win the Republican nomination and I still stand by that.

The first actual primary – held in Iowa on Tuesday – saw a record turn-out of some 122,00 votes but a result which separated the top two candidates by just eight votes. Technically Mitt Romney ‘won’ but Rick Santorum sprung the kind of surprise performance that you usually only see in movies.

But who is he and what does he believe? It’s not a pretty picture. You can check out a “Guardian” profile of Santorum here.

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Word of the day: Mittelstand

January 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington

I’ve spent the last couple of evenings catching up on recordings of two television programmes made by the BBC’s economic correspondent Robert Peston (I used to know his father when I worked in Whitehall in the 1970s). The programmes were called “The Party’s Over: How The West Went Bust” and sought to explain the origins of the current global economic crisis.

Peston has always been a good analyst and now his delivery is much better than it was, so it was a fascinating set of programmes. In a word, the explanation is: debt. Individuals, companies, banks and governments borrowed far too much. At least in the West. By contrast, China is a major lender to the West and its citizens consume less and save more.

When Peston came to looking at how Britain could rebalance its economy so that it is less dependent on the financial sector which got us into this mess, he praised the German concept of Mittelstand. There is no formal definition of this economic system, but essentially it is about supporting small and medium sized firms, many of them family-owned, focused on manufacturing vital components, investing for the long term, enjoying good labour relations, supporting training and apprencticeships, and integrated with the local community. Sounds good to me.

More information here.

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Searching the web is no substitute for critical thinking

January 2nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington

The nature of my large and eclectic web site is such that I receive e-mails from school, college and university students around the world and I always try to reply and be helpful.

But I am really struck by the observation that many students expect to find the answer to their assignment in the nature of information somewhere on the web and would merely like me to give them that information or at least tell them where to find it.

They simply do not appreciate that they have to make a personal effort or that some thinking is required and that thinking does not happen on the web but in the mind.

Information alone is not the answer. Information has to be challenged and evaluated which requires critical thinking of the kind I have explained here.

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2.4 M visits to my web site in 2011

January 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington

In the last few years, the number of visits to my web site – which includes my two blogs – has been around 1.8-1.9 M but, last year, the number broke the 2 M barrier for the first time. In fact, in the course of 2011, there were 2.384 million visits. That’s an average of just over 6,500 visits a day.

Thanks so much for your interest and support. Please keep visiting and spread the word.

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It’s a new year – so let’s be cheerful

January 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington

“So we face challenges, but we have a growing capacity to respond. For the average inhabitant of Britain, or Europe, or the planet, there has never been a better time to be alive than today. And, like as not, that statement will be true again tomorrow, and the next day – and the next.”

This is the conclusion of a thoughtful article in today’s “Observer” newspaper by Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development.

You can read his piece here.

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What does “auld lang syne” actually mean?

December 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington

At midnight, many of us will be attempting to sing “Auld Lang Syne”. But what on earth do these words mean?

Literally they mean ‘old long since’. Less literally, they mean ‘long long ago’.

More information here.

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My 50 years writing a daily diary

December 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington

On 31 December 1961, I started to write a diary – and never stopped. So today marks the 50 year mark with an entry for every single day. If you’re curious, that’s 18,260 days!

You might think that 31 December – rather than 1 January – is an odd date to start a diary. The explanation is that back then i was 13 and about to visit by paternal grandmother for a few days over the New Year period. She lived in a village called Sedgley (where I was born) outside Wolverhampton and I travelled down there from Manchester by train on New Year’s Eve, so it seemed logical to start the diary a day ‘early’.

And why have I kept such a diary so methodically? The best explanation I can offer is here.

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The day I was zapped by a laser in both eyes

December 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

As if we have not had enough trauma this Christmas with having to put our cat to sleep and my sister-in-law being admitted to hospital (she’s still there), I had to spend three hours at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London this afternoon. It was a scheduled appointment – the first I could obtain – after a test at my optician’s two months ago found a problem with one eye that could not be corrected with lenses.

The story actually begins 8 years ago when I had two cataract operations at Moorfields which transformed my very poor and deteriorating sight. Two months ago, the optician detected an opacity in my right eye and warned that I would probably need corrective surgery which is why I was at Moorfields this afternoon instead of at home eating mince pies.

I had expected the specialist to confirm the diagnosis and make an appointment some months later for the laser treatment. In fact, he found opacities in both eyes and offered to correct both today if I stayed around until the end of his consultations which is how I was zapped by a laser first in the right eye and then in the left.

So, right now, things are pretty blurred but both eyes should settle down in the next couple of days, so that I can ‘see’ in 2012 clearly.

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