My offer to be a London Ambassador (5)
August 4th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It’s almost exactly a year ago that I did my first posting about my wish to become a London Ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games. Subsequently I applied and was shortlisted and this morning I was actually interviewed for the position.
First, a few facts and figures. Apparently, some 33,000 registered an interest in the role. Around 16,000 were shortlisted for interview. The organisers are looking for 8,000 Ambassadors although they might actually appoint up to 10,000. So the odds look good.
Recruitment events have been running since April and the last interviews are tomorrow. My selection procedure was held in the basement of Church Street Library near Edgware Road tube station in central London.
The selectors have been working hard. Today they have seven one-hour sessions. Each is supposed to involve 12 shortlisted candidates but for my session only nine actually turned up. The level of enthusiasm is amazing. This is evident from the number of applicants for the unpaid role, but our group had a woman currently living in Turkey who had flown over for her interview and apparently other interviewees have travelled from as far as China.
First thing: identification. UK citizens have to bring along a passport or a driving licence. Then we were given an overview of the selection process. For our group, this came from Kai who hailed from rural Egypt before spending years in various rural part of Yorkshire. This is the first time he has lived in a city and he was so excited about living in London and helping with the Olympic Games.
Next came an ice-breaker. We were invited to complete a sticky label with our answer to what we most like about London and then fix it to a wall of answers from other interviewees. I wrote: “You can meet people from every country in the world”.
The core of the session was a series of exercises. For this, we were split up into three teams. The teams should have been four each but, since only nine had turned up for my session, we were divided into teams of four, three and two respectively. I was in the team of two with Sunita whose parents are from India – she lives in Northampton but works at Queen Mary College in east London.
Exercise 1: we had to place magnetised symbols of London landmarks on a large wall map of central London. Sunita and I were good at this, placing the dinosaur where the Natural History Museum is located (as opposed to the London Zoo) and the tank where the Imperial War Museum is located (as opposed to Buckingham Palace). Our only problem was the Central Criminal Court or Old Bailey which we confused with the location of the Royal Courts of Justice – although I can’t imagine any London visitors wanting to visit either.
Exercise 2: we had to select from a small choice of face-down cards and then speak for one minute on the subject named on the card. Sunita went first, her card said ‘colour’, and she was brilliant. I went next and my card said ‘weather’ (it was crashing with rain outside which was inspiration). Other choices might have been ‘sports’, ‘music’, ‘place’, or ‘fruit’.
Exercise 3: we had to do a role play, taking it in turns to be a London Ambassador and a visitor to the city who had a particular character ( a choice of face-down cards again) with a particular query (another random choice of card). Sunita played a foreigner with virtually no English who wanted to know how to reach Stratford shopping centre and then the Olympic Park. I portrayed a grumpy visitor who wanted to know what to do with two spare hours.
Finally came the one-to-one ‘ interview’. My interviewer was Shiereen who was born in the Kurdish part of Iraq, brought up in The Netherlands, and now lives in Sutton.
In fact, the ‘interview’ was incredibly informal. We sat on chairs next to each other – and very easy – it was really just a checklist of questions on things like availability plus the obvious question of why one wanted to be an Ambassador and a question about what would get one out of bed to do it.
I was asked whether I would be willing to mentor young volunteers (yes) and whether I would like to be a member of ‘the flying squad’ who would move around from day to day filling gaps (no thanks, I’d rather work in one location with one team).
Only at the every end did the need for managers come up. They want Location Managers who would staff each of the 45 ‘pods’ and Area Managers who would work in the six area offices. I’d said that I would be willing to do the first but not the second, because I actually want to meet visitors and help with queries. Applications for managers have to be submitted by this Monday, so I’ll have to get my Olympic running shoes on.
Selection of London Ambassadors will not be announced until November but selection of mangers will be made sooner.
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Catrin & I visit ‘Appearing Rooms’
August 3rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I spent the afternoon with my granddaughter Catrin who is now six and a half months old and phasing in to attendance at a nursery.
“Corr, it ain’t ‘arf hot here in London town”
It was really hot (30C/86F), so I thought it would be fun to visit the ‘Appearing Rooms’ fountain on the South Bank in central London.
Danish artist Jeppe Hein’s aquatic sculpture was originally commissioned for the garden of the Villa Manin, Italy. Inspired by the Baroque villa, he designed an ornamental fountain that combines sculpture, architecture, and technology.
Catrin & I watched all the kids rushing in and out of the fountain, screaming with excitement, and getting pretty wet. We ventured in twice as well. Catrin found it all fascinating. To obtain an indication of the joyful scene, check out these photos.
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A review of “Captain America”
August 3rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Just what the world needs – another super-hero. Actually “Captain America – The First Avenger” is not bad at all and sets us up nicely for next April’s release of the collective of super-heroes “The Avengers”. You can read my review here.
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How can America cut its deficit?
August 2nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Economics can seem complicated and coverage of the debate over raising the US debt limit has been about process more than substance. But, in this article, George Monbiot, makes the implications of the agreement clear:
“There are two ways of cutting a deficit: raising taxes or reducing spending. Raising taxes means taking money from the rich. Cutting spending means taking money from the poor. Not in all cases of course: some taxation is regressive; some state spending takes money from ordinary citizens and gives it to banks, arms companies, oil barons and farmers. But in most cases the state transfers wealth from rich to poor, while tax cuts shift it from poor to rich.
So the rich, in a nominal democracy, have a struggle on their hands. Somehow they must persuade the other 99% to vote against their own interests: to shrink the state, supporting spending cuts rather than tax rises. In the US they appear to be succeeding.”
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My summer reading project
August 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Amazingly it’s the first week of August already. The organisations on which I sit do not have formal meetings, so it’s a light month for me and I like to have a project.
Two summers ago, the project was to write five short stories. I exceeded my target and continued with the exercise so that now I have written 27 short stories.
This August, I’ve decided on a reading project. I read quite a lot, but almost twice as much non-fiction as fiction and the fiction I read is contemporary. Since I left school, I’ve hardly consumed any classic fiction.
So I’ve decided to read two classic British works – one by a male author and another by a female writer. I’ve bought new hard-back editions of “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens (1859) and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte (1847).
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
There must not be another Hama
July 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The political protests in Syria came later than in most Arab countries but have now been running for almost five months. The demonstrations began within a matter of days of Vee and I leaving the country after a brief holiday.
One of the places we visited briefly was the city of Hama (see here). This location has a special resonance in the minds of Syrian protestors because it was here in 1982 that tens of thousands were killed in an infamous massacre when the city was attacked by the army.
It is clear that the Syrian authorities want to stop the current protests from escalating during the forthcoming month of Ramadan and so they are hitting back hard with the latest report of dozens of deaths in Hama.
History must not repeat itself. This time the regime must fall.
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why is the most powerful nation on earth powerless to resolve its debt crisis?
July 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
“The crisis is ostensibly about raising America’s debt ceiling from its present $14.3 trillion (£8.7tn). But in reality the crisis is not about the ceiling but a consequence of the polarisation of US politics that began under George W Bush and hardened with the arrival of Barack Obama in the White House and the birth a few months later of the Tea Party movement.
Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, said: “This is a very unusual place in American history. No one in my field can remember circumstances like this. You have people in Congress who will not sit down and compromise. Compromise is a dirty word. But representative government is impossible without compromise. The Republicans and Democrats are voting as separate units, which they have rarely done in the US.”
The crisis is being driven by a hardcore of about 20 House members affiliated to the Tea Party. They are prepared to put at risk the US’s faltering economic recovery – and economies around the world – to push the Tea Party ideal of small government, in particular cutting federal spending. Martin Frost, a former Democratic congressman from Texas, writing on the Politico website, compared the Tea Party to the Taliban in its drive for ideological purity, lack of respect for tradition and unwillingness to compromise.”
An extract from an article in today’s “Observer” newspaper.
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How political shifts have altered the map of Europe
July 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
With 21 European Union member states now under varying degrees of right-wing government, Europe has never been more blue. To see how its political complexion has changed in the 38 years since Britain joined the EEC, click on this interactive map produced by the “Guardian”.
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (2)
A review of “Of Gods And Men”
July 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I don’t see that many foreign films but this French-language work was recommended to me and is well-worth viewing. I’ve reviewed it here.
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A review of “The Social Animal”
July 29th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just finished reading a fascinating book about how people behave and how they achieve success. You can read my review of “The Social Animal” by David Brooks here.
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