Joshua’s fourth birthday party

April 26th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Vee and I had our first holiday in China in September 2000. On the flight back from Beijing to London, we sat in a row of three seats, the third of which was occupied by a 25 year old Chinese student setting off to Oxford University to commence a PhD in biochemical engineering. It was a journey of over 10 hours and there was plenty of time to talk and become friends.

Hua (English name Cathy) had never left China before and was a little anxious about negotiating controls at Heathrow Airport, connecting with the person expected to meet her, and establishing herself in Oxford. So we stayed with her while she went through the controls and then met her contact and the next weekend we visited Oxford to take her for lunch and see how she was settling down. From that initial contact developed a wonderful friendship in which Hua became like a daughter to us.

At the end of her first year of study at Oxford University, Hua returned to China to marry her university boyfriend and he subsequently joined her in Britain. Zhihao (English name Alex) was as warm and engaging as Hua and immediately became like a son to us. In April 2007, Hua & Zhihao had a baby boy called Qinyuan (English name Joshua). By then, they were living in London and we visited them every few weeks to see Joshua growing up. At the time, we had no grandchildren and darling Joshua became like a grandson to us.

This Bank Easter weekend, Joshua had his fourth birthday and we all celebrated at the Egham home of Vee’s nephew Martin. Martin and his wife Isobel have two wonderful children: Yasmin, who is five and half, and Lucas, who is almost three. Also they have a long garden which had lots of fun things for the kids including a small bouncy castle. The weather was still warm (it’s become cooler now), Isobel made some lovely food, and Hua brought a delicious cake – so we all all had a really fun time. The three children particularly enjoyed me being the tickle monster.

Joshua (middle) with Yasmin (left) and Lucas (right)

Joshua’s special cake – tasty, very tasty

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A review of “Far From The Madding Crowd”

April 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

The film, not the book.

Check it out here.

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The music of Adele

April 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

I may be a man in his early sixties, but I try to keep up with popular music. So I decided to check out the work of Adele which has become so popular in both the UK and the USA.

I bought her latest – the second – CD called simply “21”. It is really good and she has a terrific voice. My favourite track is “Set Fire to The Rain”.

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What does it take to start a revolution?

April 24th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Three weeks ago, I did a posting about the revolutions currently convulsing the Arab world. I wrote:

“The underlying causes of this Arab Awakening include dictatorial regimes in power for decades, growing nepotism and corruption, increases in those obtaining higher education, substantial youth unemployment, rising food prices and falling living standards, the ability to communicate and organise provided by social media on the Internet, and the confidence taken from experience in other countries as shown on satellite television. But what was it that actually set off this incredible chain of events? It was the self-immolation of a desperate man in Tunisia.”

It was believed that Mohamed Bouazizi had deliberately set himself alight because he had been humiliated with a slap in the face by a female official called Fedia Hamdi. Except now we have this article which suggests that he was not slapped in face and may not have intended to commit suicide.

Many observers – including me – have compared the successive revolts in neighbouring Arab countries with the successive revolutions which brought down communist regimes in Central & Eastern Europe in late 1989. The first of these was the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in what was then Czechoslovakia. The spark for this revolution was a particular demonstration when it was reported that a young protester had been killed – except that later we found that there was no such death (it was a secret police agent pretending to be dead).

Does it matter? I have argued in this essay why truth matters intellectually. But, in terms of impacting fast-moving political events, it is the perception of truth that matters. So Mohamed Bouazizi will still be remembered as the man whose death kick-started the Arab revolutions. Of course, we still have no idea how genuine and long-lasting and extensive these revolutions will be.

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A review of “The Rock Of Tanios”

April 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington

I’ve just discovered a great author – the Lebanese-born Amin Maalouf.

Possibly his best-known work is the novel “The Rock Of Tanios” which I’ve reviewed here.

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The challenges of being young and female

April 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington

This week the British think tank Demos published a study of young women which is co-authored by my son Richard.

The report suggests that, compared to boys, British teenage girls experience worse rates of binge drinking, worse levels of physical inactivity and more frequent incidences of teen pregnancy than their European counterparts. In the course of this research, the researchers found evidence that twice as many teenage girls as teenage boys suffer from ‘teen angst’

You can read the media release here and the full study here.

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Our very busy social week

April 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington

This week has been amazing in London with consistently hot weather which has been great for the kids off school and the tourists visiting the capital. Furthermore the week has been special for Vee and me for the very full social programme that we’ve enjoyed which has been particularly busy because of Jewish Pesach coinciding with the Christian Easter.

So, on Tuesday evening, we were invited to a special Seder meal – our first – on the second night of Pesach by our Jewish friends Cindy (South African) and Eric (American) in north London’s Muswell Hill. There were 12 of us in all. The event followed a very traditional sequence from the four glasses of wine to the ten plagues as explained here. It was a fascinating occasion for we humanists and we felt honoured to be involved as goyim, but I have to say that horseradish is an acquired taste.

Then, on Wednesday evening, we took out friends to “Rules” restaurant in central London. We only made these friends a month or so ago in Beirut [see my account here] and it was fun to see them again so soon in a different capital city. Claire is British and her partner Fadi is Lebanese. “Rules” claims to be the oldest restaurant in the city and it’s the kind of place that is frequented by politicians and performers. A fellow customer that evening was Matthew Fox, the star of the television series “Lost” who is currently appearing on stage in London.

Next came Thursday evening when again we had a meal with foreign visitors to London. This time the friend was an American Jon, whom I first met in London in 1981. Thirty years later, we finally met most of his family: wife Virginia, elder daughter Alyssa and son Zach. Jon is Jewish and Virginia, who is American-Chinese, converted to Judaism so the kids are both Jewish and Chinese which is an unusual combination. We ate at an up-market Chinese restaurant called “Good Earth” in Knightsbridge and the food was delicious.

Finally we come to today: Good Friday. We started with a barbeque brunch with Eric & Cindy and Cindy’s daughter Kita in Eric’s garden in Muswell Hill. We had venison burgers and venison sausages with homemade coleslaw which was all mouthwatering. After this, Vee and I drove down to the South Bank which was buzzing, partly because of a four-day India festival and partly because of the start of a six-month series of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.

We met our son Richard, his wife Emily (Canadian) and their three-month old baby daughter Catrin [regular readers of NightHawk will know about my beautiful granddaughter and welcome the up-date photos below] with my brother Ralph, his partner Carol (whose parents are from the Caribbean) and their seven-year old daughter Saskia.

Great friends – Roger and Catrin

Roger with Saskia and Catrin

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Preparations for the Royal Wedding

April 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

Today I had a meeting at the Department for Work & Pensions in central London and there was a great deal of unusual activity at the end of Tothill Street.

The area outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, which is adjacent to the entrance to Westminster Abbey, is full of scaffolding and seats in preparation for the Royal Wedding a week on Friday. Meanwhile special cranes are loading structures on to the top of the Methodist Central Hall which overlooks the Abbey since television crews from around the world will be using this site as the vantage point for the ceremony.

I wish Prince William and Catherine Middleton well for the day and for their lives together, but I am a republican and will not myself be watching the wedding coverage on television. As a result, I may be missing this performance.

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Yes to the alternative vote

April 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington

In a previous posting, I have declared my support for the introduction of the Alternative Vote (AV) electoral system for elections to the UK Parliament and my intention to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum on 5 May.

Today the think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) – for whom my son works – has published a report setting out the case for AV and refuting the arguments against it.

According to the report, the Alternative Vote system is better suited to the modern electorate than First Past the Post because voters have become more ‘promiscuous’ and less tribal in the way they vote. The report shows that voters are happy to express more than one preference when they cast their ballots and most people are prepared to express three preferences.

The report shows that AV will reduce tactical voting while preserving the principle of ‘one voter, one vote’. YouGov polling for ippr shows that more than one in five voters say they have engaged in ‘tactical voting’ and voted for their second choice under the First Past the Post system

The media release is here and the report is here.

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