A review of “Blood Diamond”
May 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ve only just caught up with the 2006 movie “Blood Diamond” which deals with the role of conflicts diamonds in the Sierra Leone war. It’s certainly worth viewing and I’ve reviewed it here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Cheer up! It’s not the end of the world …
May 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Were you relieved by the news that the world did not end yesterday? Probably not. After all, we constantly have such apocalyptic forecasts which are invariably nonsense and so many religions and cultures have a story or belief about the return of some sort of saviour, something I’ve blogged about here.
What was different about the forecast from the American organisation Family Radio was the effort they made to propagate and publicise this view. Apparently over $100 million was spent worldwide. Such a sum could have alleviated a lot of poverty.
For an end of the world tale with a difference, try my short story “The Day Of Reckoning”.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Time with American friends in Dover
May 21st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The trouble with having friends all around the world is that I don’t see some of them for many years at a time. This is the case with our American friends Michael & Laura Grace who live between Washington DC and Baltimore. So, when we heard that they would be doing a trans-Atlantic cruise that would be docking in Dover for a morning, we were quick to plan on seeing them.
Vee and I went down the evening before and stayed in a hotel close to the docks so that, as soon as Mike & Laura called at 8.30 am, we could pick them up. After a lively chat, we did a bit of tourism by visiting Dover Castle which was built by Henry II in the 12th century.
Vee, Mike, Roger & Laura at Dover Castle
While there, we took the opportunity to go on a short tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels which were brought into operation in 1942.
Mike & Laura overlooking the white cliffs of Dover
Our time together was over all too quickly and we had to drop Mike & Laura back at their cruise ship the “Celebrity Constellation” by 2 pm. They have invited us over to the States and provisionally we’ve planned to go over in May 2012.
Before heading home for London, we took the chance to visit the Battle of Britain Memorial at nearby Capel-le-Ferne. This has a wall listing all the 3,000 Royal Air Force pilots who fought in the Battle which includes Vee’s father the Czech Karel Kuttelwascher.
Battle of Britain Memorial
The name of Vee’s father
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
Baby Catrin: progress report (9)
May 20th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
This week, I had another opportunity to check in on my beautiful granddaughter Catrin who is now four months old. She’s started to teeth and sometimes in distress, poor thing.
It was another ‘daddy day’ and daddy was pretty tired, so I took Catrin out for a hour and a half to give daddy the chance to get some rest and for me to have some ‘granddad time’.
Ain’t she cute?
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
How diverse is your community?
May 19th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The UK’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) has just published new population estimates by ethnic group for England & Wales. The “Guardian” newspaper has an article on the subject which includes access to an interactive map.
The headline message is that, of the 54 million people in England and Wales, the non-white British population has grown from 6.6 million in 2001 to 9.1 million in 2009 – or nearly one in six – and there are now a million mixed-race people in the two countries.
The white British population has stayed the same since 2001 because, even though there has been an increase in births, there has also been a similar number of people migrating. The non-white British population has grown by 4.1% a year, or a total of 2.5 million over the whole period, or 37.4%.
Brent, in north-west London, is the most ethnically diverse borough in the country – just 38% of its population counts as white British – with large mixed race, Asian, Black and Irish communities making up the rest. This is where I have lived for the last three decades.
I am half English and half Italian; my wife is half Welsh and half Czech; and our daughter-in-law is Canadian. In our road, our immediate neighbours include Irish, Spanish, Polish, Indian, Pakistani and Lebanese. My postman is Nepalese, my doctor is Indian, my dentist is Iranian, my newsagent is Sri Lankan, and my dry cleaner is Pakistani.
I love this diversity. England, more especially London, and most especially Brent, is a microcosm of our diverse world and all the more wonderful for it.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The power of words
May 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
A review of “Another Year”
May 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The latest Mike Leigh film is as far away from the Hollywood blockbuster as you could imagine. I’ve reviewed “Another Year” here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How Britain is becoming more and more unequal
May 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Under a Labour Government, Britain gained a Low Pay Commission created by the Government itself. Under the Coalition Government, it now has a High Pay Commission but this has been formed by Compass with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
The High Pay Commission has just published its Interim Report. What does this report tell us? The Commission has found that:
- If current trends continue, we will go back to levels of inequality not seen since Victorian England.
- A top executive is currently paid 145 the average wage. By 2020, the differential will be 214 times.
- Exponential top pay increases are a form of market failure.
You can read more about the report in this “Guardian”article.
Posted in British current affairs, Social policy | Comments (0)
A day in Oxford with our Chinese ‘family’
May 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I spent today in Oxford visiting our Chinese ‘family’: Zhihao and Hua and their four year old son Joshua. We see them every few weeks because they really are as close to us as family.
Today we visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (where we bought Joshua a toy snake) and Pitts Rivers Museum of Anthropology & World Archaeology before having a drink at the “Turf Tavern”, said to be the oldest pub in Oxford.
Roger and Joshua
with Peter the snake
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the book of British history “Monarchy”
May 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Kings and Queens of England and Britain have come and gone over the centuries and the present Queen Elizabeth II might yet become the longest-serving monarchy. But the institution has changed – and, in turn, changed the nation – enormously.
I’ve just read a book by David Starkey – called simply “Monarchy” – which describes the last five centuries. You can read my review here.
Posted in History | Comments (1)