Visit to Nairobi (1)
October 16th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Almost 14 months ago, my son Richard and his family relocated
to Nairobi when he obtained a job as Head of Strategic Communications for the consultancy arm of a media company called Well Told Story. I am now on my third visit to them and, as well as my granddaughter Catrin (now aged 5 and 3/4), I have a beautiful new grandadaughter called Kara (aged just 7 and 1/2 weeks).
I timed this visit – like the others – to coincide with Catrin’s half-term, so that I can spend the maximum time doing things with her. In fact, I flew out a day before she broke up because the last morning of the first half term (Friday) was designated Grandparents’ Day – a lovely idea which the Montessori Learning Centre has been running for 10 years now.
Catrin is always excited about my visits – and the presents which I bring – so she likes to come to my bedroom as soon as she is awake. In fact, she had a bad dream and joined me in bed at 3 am. I managed to get her back to sleep but she was awake for good at 6 am.
Grandparents Day was a delight. Each class sang a special song to us highlighting love of grandpas and grandmas, a group of teachers performed a dance, and one of the grandparents – a Sikh singing in Urdu – performed a song while playing a wind instrument called the harmonium.
In the afternoon, Catrin got to open her first and most expensive present: a large Lego set of a ladies hairdressing salon. She had built it all within a couple of hours.
Saturday was a very physical day spent with Richard and Catrin.
In the morning, we visited an indoor rock climbing place at Diamond Plaza. Catrin has been there around five times before. She loves it and she is really good at it. She was keen for me to have my first experience of the sport at the advanced age of 68. I did about half a dozen climbs but it was not easy and afterwards my arms ached.
In the afternoon, we went to the Jacaranda Hotel where, after some lunch, we made use of their swimming pool. For Nairobi, it was not too hot: 27C with some cloud. Catrin adores swimming which she has done since she was a few months old and Richard is a proficient swimmer. My main role was to throw Catrin in the air and catch her plus other inventive games.
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So how is Jeremy Corbyn really doing?
October 11th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Clearly the guy is very popular with party members: he has just been re-elected leader by an increased margin, record numbers of new members are flocking to join the Labour Party, his meetings are packed out, and they are even organising a series of concerts in his support. What do members see in Corbyn? Somebody who is authentic and says what they want to hear about our unjust society.
And yet the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party think that he is not up to the job. He suffered a massive vote of no confidence by Labour MPs, most of his front bench spokespersons resigned their posts, and the recent reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet has only stirred up further worries. What do MPs see in Corbyn? Someone who does not listen to the PLP, who cannot chair his Shadow Cabinet, is weak in his Parliamentary performances, and has failed to bring forward new policies that are detailed and convincing.
So who is right: the members or the Members of Parliament?
Ultimately politics is about changing society; to do that requires being in government; to achieve that means winning an election. So what do voters think of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn? The latest Guardian/ICM opinion poll gives the Conservatives a 17-point lead at the end of the party conference season. The survey places Theresa May’s party on 43% while Labour slips to 26%, with UKIP on 11% and the Lib Dems on 8%.
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U.S. presidential election (33): the second debate
October 11th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I spent this evening watching a recording of every minute of the one and half hour second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It was an ugly business which probably had minimal impact on voting intentions because both candidates will have been seen to have done well by their supporters.
For me, Clinton kept her cool. She was assured, fluent and statesman-like. Trump was sickening in his charges against Bill Clinton and his wish to see Hillary Clinton in jail. He was glowering and strutting like a modern-day Mussolini.
It looks as if Clinton is pulling ahead again in the polls as more and more Republican politicians withdraw support from Trump but, around the world, people are holding their breath in case the polls are wrong as they have been on some big political votes recently in a variety of countries.
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A review of the new movie “Deepwater Horizon”
October 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I saw the new disaster movie “Deepwater Horizon” which tells the true story of a blow-out on an oil rig that we all know caused the biggest environmental catastrophe in US history but we forget killed and maimed so many workers.
Many films do not lose too much by being seen at home on a television set. But this is not one of them. See it on the largest screen you can find locally. You can read my review here.
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Was the pound’s flash crash caused by an algo?
October 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The financial markets are a world unto themselves that ordinary people simply cannot understand – but we are all affected by movements in currencies and shares whether buying foreign currency for a holiday abroad or trying to maintain the value of our savings or pensions. So this week’s experience of the value of the pound on foreign exchanges should interest us all – even if we can’t understand it.
As explained in this “Guardian” article, in just 8 minutes, the value of the pound against the dollar plunged by more than 8% from $1.26 to $1,1491. What happened? There will be an inquiry but we may never know for sure.
The most likely explanation seems to be the operation of an algorithm or ‘algo’ which is a computer program designed to sell the pound when there is negative economic news including speculation about Brexit. The algos operate in micro-seconds with no human intervention. And they can feed off each other.
Another possible explanation is what is called a ‘fat finger’ trade where a dealer types an incorrect figure into their terminal – but this seems unlikely. Yet another possibility is some kind of technical factor such as ‘stop-loss’ arrangements where investors have pre-arranged orders to sell currencies that fall below a certain level.
In the everyday world of decision-making, the use of algorithms may seem weird or even scary, but there are many good reasons why clever algorithms are very, very useful, not least for giving you relevant feedback when you do a search on the web.
In fact, algorithms are used in all sorts of situations, as I have explained in this short article. I concluded the piece as follows:
“There are no easy answers but, for starters, citizens and consumers need the right to view and correct personal data, organisations need to be able to explain the basics of their algorithms and decision-making systems, and there should be effective appeal mechanisms involving humans against decisions based on algorithms.
We all need to have some understanding of what is going on with big data and of the power of algorithmic authority. Because, if you are not at the table, then you are on the menu.”
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A review of the Italian novel “Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay”
October 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
My summer reading project – which has extended into the Autumn – is to read the four works that make up the ‘Neapolitan Novels’, an acclaimed series by the Italian author Elena Ferrante.
This is a saga of the 60-year friendship between two girls from a poor neighbourhood of Naples after the Second World War: the narrator Elena Greco, known as Lenu, whose father is a porter and Raffaella Cerullo, known as Lila, whose father is a shoemaker.
The first novel in the series is called “My Brilliant Friend” and I reviewed it here. The second novel is titled “The Story Of A New Name” and you can read my review here. I’m just concluded the third novel: “Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay”. You’ll find my review here.
These are marvellous works and I’ve gone straight on to the fourth and final novel in the sage: “The Story Of The Lost Child”.
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20,000 days of the Darlington diaries
October 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Like many men, I enjoy counting things. So I know that today is the 20,000th day of my diaries.
And why have I kept a diary so long and so consistently? I’ve tried to explain here.
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Cost of consumer detriment is £30 billion a year
October 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Citizens Advice has recently published a consumer report entitled ‘Consumer Detriment – counting the cost of consumer problems’.
In summary, the researchers found that consumer problems cost UK consumers £22.9 billion in 2015 – on average £446 per UK adult. Consumers experienced 123 million problems and wasted 1.2 billion hours resolving these problems.
More than half of consumers did not seek a refund or compensation for their problem, often because they felt complaining would be too difficult or time consuming.
The goods and services costing consumers the most were television, phone and internet services, followed by professional services, construction, home maintenance, property services, and pension and investment services.
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Visit to Athens (5)
October 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Our last day in Athens was a shorter one than the others because we flew back that evening.
We visited the Ancient Agora at the foot of the Acropolis which is known as the centre of Athenian democracy. The most complete and impressive structure is the doric Temple of Hephaistos which was constructed between 460-415 BC.
Our final visit was to the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum. Lalaounis (1920-2013) was a brilliant designer of a wide range of jewellery inspired by the shapes andy forms of Ancient Greece.
We ate very well in Athens and, unlike many foreign destinations, I was able to indulge in my love of desserts. At the Acropolis Museum cafe, I discovered the best baklava I’ve ever know: the largest and sweetest piece topped by cinnamon ice cream. At lunchtime on our last day, we revisited the cafe and I was able to repeat the supreme baklava experience.
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Visit to Athens (4)
October 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
On our third full day in Athens, my sister Silvia and I visited our third archaeological museum. This was the National Archaeological Museum where we spent a total of five hours. Our guide book calls the place “one of the world’s most important museums” and “Greece’s pre-eminent museum” and explains that it houses “the world’s largest and finest collection of Greek antiquities”. Two of the most outstanding exhibits are the 460 BC bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon and the 2nd century BC statue of a horse and young rider.
We took a taxi from the hotel to the museum but walked back on a route which took us down Stadious Street which is like a version of London’s Oxford Street except that clearly austerity has hit it hard. So many department stores are closed and boarded up with the hoardings covered in political graffiti. Like so many streets in central Athens, there are beggars and homeless. We called into a cafe and spoke to a Britain and an Australian with Greek parents who made it clear that they envisaged the readjustment of the Greek economy as likely to take a generation.
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