Tag Archives: history

Ring Ring

Mobile telephones are a mixed blessing. Being in my mid fourties I am old enough to remember the days prior to the invention of the mobile. I vividly recollect feeding ten pence coins into bulky metal phones in bright red telephone boxes and, as technology advanced inserting pre-paid phone cards. It is perhaps a human trait to look at the past through rose tinted spectacles, to become all dewy eyed about the red telephone boxes which for decades where a familiar sight on practically every street of significance in the UK. It is doubtless easy to forget entering a phone box only to find that the receiver had been wrenched off by vandals, the glass had been smashed or both events had coincided to make the phone box unusable.

All of the above is true. I’ve been in phone boxes in which the receiver had parted company with the wire securing it to the handset and I’ve shivered in those tiny cabins due to the glass having been smashed. Consequently I am well aware of the benefits of mobile telephones not least as a means of contacting family or friends when one is running unexpectedly late or in case of emergencies, however the mobile is surely one of the most overused inventions (do I mean abused)?

A couple of weeks ago the British media was full of how a check-out lady in Sainsburys (a leading UK supermarket) had refused to serve a customer due to the lady holding a conversation on her mobile while, at the same time interacting with the shop assistant. The customer subsequently complained to Sainsburys, received an apology and was compensated with Sainsbury’s shopping vouchers.

I don’t condone the actions of the check-out lady. I can however understand her intense annoyance at the rudeness (doubtless unintended) of the customer who instead of interacting with her chose instead to split her attention between the person on the other end of the line and the shop assistant.

When I’m out with friends I often turn my mobile off so I can concentrate on interacting with them which is after all the whole purpose of socialising with friends.

At home I’ll frequently allow the voicemail on my landline to take calls when I’m writing or sometimes simply relaxing. Occasionaly I’ll interrupt voicemail and speak with the caller but by no means always. Technology should be our servant but we are in danger of allowing it to become our master.

I’ll finish with an incident from my own life. Yesterday I was meeting a friend for a meal in a restaurant some 15 minutes walk from my home. My friend kept texting me to say that she had arrived, did I mind if we ate in another restaurant, actually the other place was closed so should we go to an Italian restaurant etc, etc! I suspect that had I not stopped to answer all of my friend’s texts I would have reached the restaurant at least 10 minutes earlier than I in fact did! In the days before mobiles we would likely as not have met without mishap and much quicker as we wouldn’t have been messing around texting one another.

For the article regarding the incident in the supermarket please see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2353581/Sainsburys-customer-shocked-checkout-assistant-refuses-serve-mobile.html

Mandrake

Man does not live by bread alone

Oops I Shouldn’t Have Said That!

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As a child I lost my vision and am now registered blind. This was as a consequence of a blood clot on the brain. Being disabled I was shocked and angered to read about Colin Brewer, a councillor on Cornwall County Council who stated that “disabled children should be put down” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285773/Collin-Brewer-resigns-saying-Disabled-children-cost-down.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490). Mr Brewer made the remarks to a representative of a charity for disabled children back in 2011. The lady to whom the remarks where addressed naturally complained to the Council and over 18 months later received an apology from Mr Brewer apologising for his remarks and stating that the remarks where not, in fact his views. His explanation (excuse) is that he had just come out of a heated council meeting during which the significant costs of supporting children with disabilities had been discussed and he was “still hot under the collar” following the discussions. Seeing the charity workker he gave vent to his anger which he now says was wrong. Not surprisingly Mr Brewer has now resigned although he is, apparently considering standing in May’s local elections. Good luck Mr Brewer, you will need it as the vast majority of decent ordinary people will, I’m sure vote for candidates other than yourself!

We all at times get angry and say things which we don’t mean and later bitterly regret having said, however the remarks of Mr Brewer are not in this category. In Nazi Germany disabled people (both children and adults) where exterminated by the authorities on the direct order of Adolf Hitler. The so-called T-4 Programme was carried out in secret, however news of it’s existence leaked out and (not surprisingly) even in Nazi Germany public revulsion was voiced by brave churchmen and other members of the community which lead to the Programme’s official suspension but it’s continued operation at an unofficial level. The Programme saw experimentation with the gassing of people with disabilities, a method later utilised by the Nazis in the Final Solution (the attempted extermination of European Jewery).

Mr Brewer’s belief that children who are disabled should be “put down” was put into horrific practice in Nazi Germany and this is why it is right that he has resigned. One does (as I said above) say things which are not meant during the heat of the moment, however there are certain remarks which no civilised person would make as it would never enter into their head to make them. Murdering disabled children falls into this category!

Was Enid Blighton A Racist?

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Plans to celebrate the work of the children’s writer Enid Blighton have led to controvasy in the Buckinghamshire town of Beaconsfield (United Kingdom) where the author lived for a significant portion of her life. Some inhabitants are claiming that Blighton was a racist and a snob and, as such her life and works should not be celebrated. Others argue that Blighton and her work should be viewed in the context of the mid twentieth century when atitudes to race and social class where less enlightened than they are today.

I have happy childhood memories of my grandfather reading the Famous Five and other books written by Enid Blighton aloud to me. At that time it never occurred to me that Blighton might be a racist, a snob or any of the other unflattering labels which her detractors are now pinning on the long deceased author (she died in 1968).

Racism and snobbery are obnoxious traits and are rightly deplored by civilised individuals. It is right that we have laws to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, however it is unfair to judge Enid Blighton by today’s standards. As pointed out above she grew up in an era when Britain still possessed an empire and this shaped her view of the world and, very possibly inbued the writer with attitudes which most people rightly condemn today. However Enid Blighton was far from unique in holding such views and if we follow the logic of her detractor’s then surely Kipling’s works should also be consigned to the dustbin as he was (undoubtedly) a racist and an imperialist.

The fact is that a writer may possess views which we disagree with very profoundly. We may, however still regard them as great writers. Are we to stop reading Kipling because his words “lesser breeds without the law” (see his poem Recessional) jar with our modern sensabilities? The answer has to be a resounding no!

We must so far as is possible separate the writer from their work. Some say that Enid Blighton was not a nice lady. This may or may not be true, however it is irrelevant as a writer’s niceness or lack of it does not (and should not) affect how we view the worth of their literary output. A man (or woman) may have treated their family terribly, however if they are a great writer then that is what they are.

In the case of Enid Blighton people of every race and religion continue to enjoy her work which does, surely say a great deal about the quality of her writing.

I don’t like witch hunts and the whole Blighton issue has the potential to turn into something rather nasty. Lets judge authors on their writing and leave aside so far as is humanly possible whether they are “nice” or any other label one cares to put on them.

For the Telegraph’s article on Enid Blighton please visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9870065/Town-torn-over-celebrations-of-Enid-Blytons-racist-work.html.

Photographs of life in Nazi Germany

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The Daily Mail for 29 November has an article showing life in Nazi Germany in 1937 through the lense of the camera. The photographs show happy Germans and where taken by a Norwegian photographer who was a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party). I was struck by the fact that the article makes no reference to the terrible cruelties which Hitler’s Germany was already inflicting on the Jews and other groups at that time (although the “Final Solution” which entailed the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jewish people didn’t start until World War II was underway, Jews where already being systematically discriminated against being banned from marrying non-Jews and being gradually deprived of other rights).

For the article please visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240351/Sunshine-swastikas-Rare-colour-pictures-1930s-Berlin-carefree-life-Hitler-s-capital-war-reduced-rubble.html