My water appointment gathers flow
June 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It is now almost three months since I started my new appointment as Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water. It’s been a fascinating time in which I’ve learned so much and met many dedicated people.
The company arranged a comprehensive induction for me with four days of discussions with the most senior managers and two days of site visits. Meanwhile I have been appointing member of the Group and we have now held our first meeting.
The trade magazine “Utility Week” devoted three pages to an interview with me and featured me on the front page [you can read it here], while the water regulator Ofwat has asked me to speak at a conference in a couple of weeks time.
So the new role is developing well and, if you’re interested, you can follow our work on a section of the company’s web site devoted to the Group here.
Posted in Environment, My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
A review of “Prometheus”
June 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I love films; I really enjoy science fiction movies; and I’ve always welcomed additions to the “Alien” franchise.
This week, I saw “Prometheus” – the fifth element of the franchise when Ridley Scott, director of the original, returns to the story. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Discovering a new place in London
June 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’ve lived and worked in London for 40 years, but from time to time i still discover a new place of interest. This week, it was the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide.
I went there to view a small exhibition on the Berlin Olympics of 1936, obviously timed as a counterpoint to the London Olympics of this summer. As always, I learned new things.
I had not known that, for the Olympics after the Great War in both 1920 and 1924, Germany was excluded but, that, when the country was readmitted to the Games in 1928, it achieved the second highest collection of medals.
Most people know about Jesse Owens, the black American athlete who at the Berlin Games upset the Nazi propaganda of Aryan racial superiority. But I did not know about Helene Meyer, a German Jew who was compelled to leave the country and take part in the Berlin Olympics as an American competitor.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Gaby’s Deli saved for at least a year
June 20th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Last September, I did a posting about the campaign to save my favourite London cafe: Gaby’s Deli in Charing Cross Road near Leicester Square. The campaign has gone from strength to strength and I am delighted that Gaby’s is still open and that we now know that it will have a lease at least until May 2013.
This is great news for Gaby, his brother Menahem, the staff and all their customers.
Headline in tonight’s “Evening Standard”
I love the place so much I set my first short story there – as you will see here.
Posted in Miscellaneous, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Whatever happened to the cashless society?
June 19th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
“When I first became involved in the communications industry in the late 1970s, I was convinced that the then new microelectronics revolution would soon eliminate a lot of the need for cash. At that time, it looked as if some kind of electronic card would be the approach.
In the 1980s, there was a trial in Swindon of a card called Mondex which was supposed to promote e-payments. It never happened and most of us still have as many notes in our wallet and coins in our pocket as ever.
Some three decades later, it does now look as if finally e-cash is set to happen big-time. A host of schemes are being launched and a plethora of players are involved and, at this stage, we cannot know which technology and which organisation will come out top.”
This is how I have opened the latest – number 73 – in my long-running series of columns on Internet issues. You can read the rest here.
Posted in Internet, Science & technology | Comments (2)
The Anglo-American War of 1812
June 18th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Two hundred years ago today, a war commenced between the United States and Britain. Today the conflict hardly features in the history classes of either nation.
You can read a short note on the war here and a longer account here.
The war is mostly remembered in the USA as the origins of the national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” which was inspired by the American success in the battle of Baltimore focussed on Fort McHenry which I visited a couple of weeks ago [my account here].
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
How would you have voted?
June 18th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Since I obtained the right to vote 44 years ago, I have never missed an opportunity to cast my vote, whether in a national or local election. It has not been difficult for me to decide how to cast my vote since principles and ideology matter more to me than current policy or the particular candidate, so I have always voted Labour.
I am aware, however, that if I lived in another country my decision might not be so easy. I was struck by this thought when considering three national elections held this weekend in very different countries and circumstances.
In France, would I have voted for the Centre-Left Socialist Party or the neo-Gaullist Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)? I would not have hesitated. I am delighted that the Socialists now hold the Presidency and both chambers in France.
In Greece, would I have voted for the New Democracy Party or the new and resurgent Syriza? On the one hand, I want Greece to stay in the Eurozone, so I would have been tempted to vote NDP. On the other hand, I think that the austerity measures imposed by Greece’s creditors are too harsh, so I would have been tempted to support Syriza. In the end, I guess I would have voted for Pasok, the socialist party, but I would have been concerned that, by supporting a party with relatively low support, I was opting out of deciding who was going to form the next Greek government.
In Egypt, in the first vaguely democratic election for president, would I have voted for the former prime minister and ex-air commander Ahmed Shafiq or the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Mursi? On the one hand, I want a complete break with the regime of the former dictator Hosni Mubarek which would have led me to Mursi. On the other hand, I want a political system that is not dominated by religious fundamentalists and will offer economic and social stability which might have led me to Shafiq. I don’t know what I would have done – probably taken a risk with Mursi.
Democracy is complicated …
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why the Olympic torch will not see the centre of Darlington
June 17th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Explanation here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (2)
Is the United States in unstoppable decline?
June 16th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This is the question at the heart of the book I read during my recent holiday in the USA [my account of the trip here].
The book by Edward Luce is entitled “Time To Start Thinking: America And The Spectre Of Decline”. You can read my review here.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
The rise and rise of baby Catrin
June 15th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Regular readers of NightHawk will know how delighted (OK, besotted) I am to be a grandfather. Baby Catrin is now almost one and a half and remains an absolute delight.
I like to see her once a week, but recently we have been to Washington & New York and Catrin & parents have been to San Antonio, so I haven’t been able to see her for some time.
When I collected her from nursery this week, it was four weeks since I had been with her – and what a change. She is taller and heavier, she has more teeth, she is walking more confidently, and she is so much more expressive.
Her mum & dad have taught her on request to point to her nose, mouth and ears and to the questioner’s nose, mouth and ears. I was so impressed. We need to start saving now for her university expenses.
“I’m a big girl now, ain’t I granddad?”
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)