Young people communicating less by post
October 9th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
A poll of 2,000 people finds 43% of millennials (those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s) have never sent a handwritten letter, thank you card or parcel to someone they know. However, 80% are sad that these are not sent as much anymore, according to the research which was carried out for ipostparcels .
A research study for Citizens Advice found 45% of people aged 18-34 use post (letters, cards or packages) to contact others. In contrast, 67% of those aged 55-74 use post for personal communications. However despite these findings, recent Citizens Advice research confirms 98% of people aged 16-30 are using post offices for postal services.
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An up-date of the 71 countries that I have visited
October 7th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I am half English and half Italian, so it might seem inevitable that I love travelling to other countries and meeting people from other cultures. In fact, I grew up in a working class, single-parent household where overseas trips were rarely on the agenda. My Italian mother took us – by train – to her home city of Naples when I was four and again when I was almost 14, but this was the only foreign travel of my childhood.
When I was 18, I was fortunate enough to be selected for an educational tour of western Canada, but essentially I did not start to travel until I was a university student. My first independent trip was as a 21 year old when I spent a bitterly cold Christmas 1969 in Amsterdam.
Subsequently I have spent most of my holidays abroad, initially visiting European cities but, more latterly, venturing further afield. I have only ever lived in Manchester and London – both large cities – and therefore I love going to cities for holidays. Not for me lying on a beach wasting time and risking skin cancer!
Top of my bucket list is the wish, so long as I have sufficient health and wealth, to have visited as many countries as my age. I am now 69 and I recently visited my 71st country (Georgia) thanks to the invitation to attend the launch of a book by my good friend Eric Lee.
You can see a map and a list of the countries that I have visited here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
My congratulations to Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro
October 6th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I am delighted to hear of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to English writer Kazuo Ishiguro. I have enjoyed two of his works.
“The Remains Of The Day”
“Never Let Me Go”
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Nine reasons why coffee can benefit your health
October 5th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I drink a lot of coffee so I was interested to see this analysis of the health benefits of the drink. Cheers, mate!
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (1)
A review of “The Experiment: Georgia’s Forgotten Revolution 1918-1921” by Eric Lee
October 4th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
So many events in history are said to be unknown or forgotten, or at least under-researched and/or under-appreciated, and for me at least this Georgian revolution was one of them. But no more, thanks to this well-researched and lucidly written book by Lee, an American now living in Britain who has wanted to write this work for some 30 years. The publication in 2017 is timely, since we are marking the centenary of the Russian revolution and it was the civil war following that revolution that allowed the Georgians to conduct their experiment but the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia that sealed the fate of the Mensheviks in Georgia.
Lee starts his history by reminding the reader that Georgia was a province of Tsarist Russia from 1801 until almost the end of the First World War and the seeds of the Georgian revolution were sown in the peasant rebellion in the country’s western district of Guria from 1904-1906. The Georgian revolution was led by the Social Democrats, headed by Noe Zhordania, with overwhelming support from the peasants as well as intellectuals and a genuine commitment to the sort of land reform that had been initiated by the ‘Gurian Republic’.
What did the Georgian revolution look like? Above all, even though the Social Democrats were Marxists, it was a functioning democracy, with free elections and a multi-party system. Women had the vote many years before most other countries. Elections to the Georgian Constituent Assembly in February 1919 involved 15 political parties, although the Social Democrats won 109 of the 130 seats. There was a free media and freedom of assembly and, as Lee explains in two dedicated chapters, a thriving trade union movement and a strong role for co-operatives. Civil society was vibrant.
What did the Georgian revolution achieve? Lee argues that “Nothing the Georgian Social Democrats did could compare in importance to their agarian reform”. Land was not nationalised or collectivised but given to the peasants. Unlike in Russia, there was no war between city and countryside, no famine, no starvation.
Yet, from the very beginning and throughout these three years, Georgia was faced by severe challenges. First the Germans and then the British had military forces in the country. There was the threat of a Turkish invasion, a short war with Armenia in December 1918, and incursions from the White Army in the Russian civil war. The local Bolsheviks – although small in number – constantly challenged the government with overt support from the party in Russia and even attempted coups in November 1919 and May 1920.
Then – as now – Georgia was seriously troubled by ethnic divisions, most notably in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Adjara, and Lee concedes that “For all its achievements, the Social Democratic government was tarnished by its crude and brutal attempts to suppress some of Georgia’s ethnic minorities”. Meanwhile the country was in economic crisis.
In all the circumstances, it is remarkable that the Georgian experiment lasted as long as it did, achieved as much as it did, and overall was relatively peaceful. But the experiment was a work in progress and the Constituent Assembly only completed work on the 1921 Constitution as the Red Army was entering the capital of Tblisi (then known as Tiflis) and, following a review of this remarkably progressive document, Lee notes poignantly that the Georgians “imagined a society unlike any which existed in the world at that time or since”. He does not disguise his support for the type of democratic socialism represented by the Georgian revolution but equally he is not uncritical of the weaknesses and failures of the experiment.
This important historical work has contemporary relevance as it explains why Georgia today looks to the European Union and not to ‘mother’ Russia.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”
October 3rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The first outing for Kingsman, “The Secret Service” in 2015, was so successful that two years later it’s back, even more star-stunned and even more outrageous but just as action-packed and entertainingly over-the-top.
Taron Egerton as Eggsy Unwin is growing into the role and Colin Firth and Mark Strong are back (even though the former’s character was apparently killed off last time) while, thanks to the involvement of Statesman (the US equivalent of Kingsman), we now have a host of American stars, most notably Julianne Moore, who clearly loved her role as Poppy Adams, head of a truly massive drug operation, but also Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum and Halle Berry (whom we are likely to see next time round in a more active role).
Throw in Elton John playing himself and you’d think that would a rich enough cast-list. But we also have Poppy Delevingne, older sister of the model Cara Delevingne, Emily Watson (Elsa Einstein in “Genius”), and Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell in “Game Of Thrones”).
From the opening fight sequence in a racing London cab, the action is furious and massively enhanced by CGI so that it all looks utterly fantastical. There’s a magical lasso, following in the path of a similar device in “Wonder Woman”, and some scary mechanical apparatus such as robot killer dogs and a giant meat grinder.
Four-letter expletives are commonplace, but the most offensive element is a scene at Glastonbury music festival involving a minature tracking device which surely goes beyond the bounds of decency even for the “Kingsman” franchise. But, perhaps not, because director of both movies Matthew Vaughn and his co-writer of both scripts Jane Goldman are obviously determined to see how far they can subvert the James Bond formula for a new, usually younger, audience. And it’s working …
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Do some religions have a higher birth rate than others — and how does this affect global population growth?
October 2nd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This TED lecture is fascinating and only 13 minutes:
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the recent film “Patriots Day”
October 1st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The day is 15 April 2013; the place is Boston; the occasion is the annual marathon. As we all know, two radicalised Chechen immigrants, Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze), set off two bombs which killed three people and injured several hundred others, including 16 who lost limbs.
This film is a very workmanlike and respectful, almost documentary-style, account of the eve of the event, the bombing itself, and tracking down of the assailants in a tense five-day manhunt. Mark Wahlberg, reuniting with the director for the third film in a row, is Boston detective Tommy Saunders, a composite of several real people, while Kevin Bacon plays FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers.
For writer and director Peter Berg, following “Lone Survivor” and “Deep Water Horizon”, “Patriots Day” can be seen as the third part of his unofficial Americans-in-crisis trilogy which probably play better for US audiences than overseas, but manage to combine information with entertainment.
This time round, the viewer cannot fail to be struck by the complexity and sophistication of modern-day surveillance and forensic technologies. If only these technologies could prevent terrorist incidents (without too much of a sacrifice of our privacy and freedoms) as well as find those who have just committed such an atrocity.
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How to have a six-month honeymoon and see the world
September 30th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this year in May, I had a holiday in Sri Lanka. You can read my account of the trip here.
At one point in the holiday, we made an exciting train journey from a town called Nana-Oya to a city called Kandy. On the journey, I met briefly a good-looking young couple who were clearly very much in love. I learned that they were Australian and were on a six-month honeymoon travelling around the world. I was so impressed by their initiative and in awe at their confidence.
The couple, Damien and Britney Woods, told me about their travel blog and we exchanged Facebook details. Don’t you just love social media? Their journey is now over, they have settled in London, and I’ll be seeing them soon.
Meanwhile you can check out their blog with fabulous photos here and you might like to read Damien’s piece on “Why it was the best thing for my career” here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Why did the Conservatives lose the general election?
September 29th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
“The Conservatives would have won a 42-seat majority in June’s general election if they had secured the same level of support among minority ethnic Britons as they did among white voters, analysis has found.The report, by the British Future thinktank, identifies what it calls an “ethnic minority voting gap” that cost Theresa May 600,000 votes and an extra 28 seats.”
More information here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)