Terrorism and Religion

The reports of car bombs left outside a nightclub
in central London's Haymarket yesterday, provide much food
for thought and reflection.

A key issue is surely the value of human life? The IRA
bombers sought to make political use of the Catholic religion and many
of their supporters were at least ostensibly, Catholics. The same
applies to their protagonist Protesant Unionists.

During the
earlier part of their campaigns to secure change through violence,
or likewise to maintain the status quo by killing,
bombs were often detonated without warning, causing much human death
injury and misery. Pressure, not least from men and women in the
pews, led to their tactics altering. Officially recognised coded
warnings of impending bomb explosions were given so that people could be
cleared from the affected areas.

This changed tactic still enabled the IRA
to further their campaign by attacking economic targets.
The example I recall was of their huge bomb in London's Canary
Wharf business centre. The thousands who worked there had time
to escape; much damage was caused by the bomb but with
only one human casualty, an Evening News vendor I think.

Such pressures also affected their Protestant Unionist protagonists. Having
recognised the value of human life, which of course
is fundamental to Christianity, Catholic and Protestant alike,
logical steps inevitably followed,
which appear to be leading to all sides being assimilated
into the democratic political processes. That must be
better than the previous carnage their activities wreaked
under the flag of religion which they had all wrongfully
purloined from the Church.

The unsuccessful perpetrators of last night have yet to be identified
but if they claim to represent any religion or ideology,
in my view the ordinary people who also adhere to that religion or
ideology, now need to stand up and be counted like the peace people
of Northern Ireland did in the late C20.
Those three women's protests which began in about 1976, about the
carnage being caused in the name of their God or of their
Country, started the road back to sanity there.

Policitians need to take courageous steps too. While it lasted,
Internment in Northern
Ireland stymied the Peace People, a point which those responsible
for maintaining the Guantanamo Bay prison would do well to
heed today.

Let ordinary co-religionists of yesterday's attempted bombers,
find the courage and spirit to become today's peace people of C21.
A religion which really recognises the value of
human life, must surely eventually catalyse its own
peace people to emerge and affect those
whose actions deny that value, whatever holy sounding
words they may utter or beliefs they claim to hold?

Tony Blair to become a Catholic

But for the tradition/teaching of the Catholic Church welcoming sinners
I wouldn't/couldn't be a member myself. The Sacrament of Reconciliation
also ensures that the welcome never wears thin.

The cross over point
between religion and politics sometimes creates difficulties.
Not passing judgement about others possible
moral transgressions, aka "sins",
is also a key part of Catholic tradition/teaching and appearances
can be deceptive. However passing
judgement on individual politicians is par for the course.

Some political actions also raise clear moral issues.
Abortion is a sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church though that
does not neccessarily make the woman who has an abortion a sinner.
The Scottish Catholic Bishops' advice to Catholic politicians
who in their political lives give succour to the extending
of Abortion Laws, to have regard to the aptness of then receiving
Communion is thought provoking.

Culture Clash

Ad agencies were unknown quantities to me until for the first time
this week I had occasion to visit one. Their world and people seem
entirely different from the world at large. Their culture
clashes with mine - at least I hope so.
I had assumed that the
image I had of glitzy offices, larger than life
individuals, hysterics, designer trappings everywhere and lots of
money, would prove to be a false cliche. The reality is if anything
even more true to the cliche than my assumption had been.

I suppose in advertising, public perception is everything. For those who
live in the world of directing, moulding and even forming,
perceptions for the public to adopt, there is always a risk of
real personal identities drowning in the mish mash of image projections.
However those who work in that industry and overcome such risks
may be better able than the rest of us at distinguishing
between flannel and reality.

By the end of the day, the questions that frequently recur in life
of "who am I" and "why am I" seemed so much more attractive than
the alternative questions doubtless frequently asked of ad agents' clients, of:
"Who do you want to seem to be" and "what do you want others to think of you"?

The ad agency experience makes me even more wary of politicians and leaders
who rely heavily on Spin Doctors than I was before the visit.

C21 Green Gap Year - C20 Rushed Gap Week

Youngest son's departure for his gap travels did make for some 'green
with envy' type reactions. He is travelling much of the way by train:
Wimbledon-Waterloo-Brussels-Berlin-Moscow-Bejing-Hong Kong
so his journey is greenish in the C21 sense of the word as well.

I will try to post a link to his blog later if I can remember how
to work this blogger's dashboard but meanwhile was amused to read
a letter in today's FT comparing some aspects of Western C21 young
people's lives today with those of their C20 parents:

"Dear Junior, Nice to know that you are back from your second gap year travels. The photos of Sydney and New York looked fantastic, although we are worried to see that you haven't kicked your binge drinking habit. It would be nice to think that one day we might visit these places, rather than gazing at photos attached to the occasional e-mail asking for another few quid to keep you partying.

Your mum and I were reminiscing about the "gap week" we had between leaving school at 16 and starting work. It seems strange to think that only 6 per cent of us then went into higher education, unlike 43 per cent of today's school leavers.

Those were the days - two weeks' holiday a year and no excuse for not having a job. That brings me to your sister. Afraid she is still one of the 1.3m Neets (not in employment, education or training) generation. I can't understand how she finds it so hard to get a job when none of those lovely young Pole and Czech youngsters appear to have any problems. One bit of good news, she should be starting her drug rehabilitation classes in the next few weeks.

I hoped your degree in media and origami would have given you a little more academic rigour. But no, from the mistakes in your letter it looks like you will be attending one of these remedial classes that employers are providing for their new graduates. Five minutes using Google would have avoided these silly mistakes.

Only 44 per cent of health spending in the US is funded by the government compared with 72 per cent in countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Where did you get that nonsense about them having to subsidise drugs for seniors?

Less of the sniping about my "early retirement package". How little you know about corporate speak. This is a polite term for redundancy. Don't forget that our dear Mr Blair has created an extra 900,000 jobs in the public sector, all with nice fat final salary pensions. I know you don't necessarily want to be an "outreach worker" or a "co-ordinator's assistant's assistant" but there are still plenty of final salary pensionable jobs about if you want one.

Your biggest gripe is about the cost of housing. There you have a point. The affordability of housing today is around the same level as it was back in 1989. You were only four so you will not remember what happened next - the property crash. Be patient. What goes up can come down, and normally does!

Don't be so gloomy. I am sure if you lost some weight, stopped smoking and didn't drink so much, the world would look a lot better.

I had better get back to writing the umpteenth job application. Not much fun trying to get re-employed when you are 50-plus"

(Courtesy Dick Stroud, Managing Director,20plus30)

Though to be fair, my own gap travels also included trains from London's
Victoria Station to Istanbul (the last bit to Sirkeci station by steam)
as well as Egyptian railways Alexandria to Thebes, were for rather
longer than 1 week.

Gordon Ramsay at Claridges

This blog entry about eating well in one of London's "Grand"
hotels, contrasts somewhat with my last one about globalisation and poverty in Africa.

However the popularity of Gordon Ramsay's restuarant at Claridge's
in Mayfair, is illustrated by the fact that following a
2006 Christmas gift by our children of a £200 voucher for a meal there,
the earliest available booking was 8th June 2007.

The atmosphere in London yesterday evening was bright and balmy
so we worked up a good appetite by walking the 3 miles from
Pimlico to Mayfair. London is blessed with many green spaces
large and small. St Georges Square, The Mall, St James' Park and
Mount Street Gardens to name those which we meandered through.
Its highways and byeways are also full of contrasting activitiy
bustle and architecture and the mood as is often the case on a Friday after work,
was upbeat for the start of the week end


Claridges has the appearance of an old fashioned British
Grand Hotel doubtless catering in generations past, for
the landed gentry. The decor and atmosphere of Gordon Ramsay's restuarant
there mirrors the hotel's history and is cosy with decent spaces
between the tables. I doubt that we were the only non-landed gentry
diners however.

The service was excellent and not too overwhelming. We both chose
Mr Ramsay's 6 course taster menu. This included exquisitely presented
small gems of dishes, like a cup of chilled consomme with
Sussex tomatoes, black olives and tarragon. A refreshingly
cool soup after our long walk. After the next course,
(on toasted brioche) Mrs maytrees selected some
lamb with bacon kohlrabi,grelot onion fricasse on crushed broad beans
whereas I had sea bass, crushed Jersey Royals, crab roasted salsify
fizzed up with coriander veloute.

There were home made breads, warm rolls, sweet doughs and
what seemed like brown nutty mini baguettes, aplenty

The puddings were a treat. We both chose two but were then presented
with about 8 sample sweets/puddings hot, cold and frozen. Amazing.
The petit fours that followed were too much.

The £200 voucher meant that the wine list too could be enjoyed.

The total cost was high - the whole £200 plus a decent (cash) tip
- higher than I would ever dream of spending on a meal for two,
but fantastic as a present. Thank you.

Globalisation Ranters

I wished yesterday, to buy a book as part of
mrs maytrees birthday present for 4th June. Sebastian
Faulks "Engleby".

Wimbledon Broadway boasts
3 booksellers in close proximity, WH Smith,
Waterstones and Books etc. Smith's sale price was
£17.99p. Books Etc. £14.99p and Waterstone's £13.99p.
Waterstones it was then Not that long ago
the UK book sellers were legally bound by
something called Retail Price Maintenance outlawing
any reduction in a book's retail selling price.
Ostensibly
this was to protect authors, independent book shops
publishers and you name it, any other lobby group
except those who actually read the books. In those
days the book's price would have been £17,99p
everywhere -like it or lump it. Today,
after the abolition of RPM, book
readers can shop around for the cheapest price and
save ££s.
Furthermore there are no shortages
of books or of different places to buy them or of publishers
or so far as I can judge, of authors new and old.

Competition locally and nationally, works then
so logically internationally too.

"Globalisation" protests I really
do not understand. Taking the book example
above, Amazon, a product of globalisation if there
ever was one has the same book on sale for £8.99p
(but mine was an impulse rather than planned buy
hence Waterstones won despite their price).

Similarly not that long ago buying a decent cup of
coffee in decent surroundings in many British
towns was well nigh impossible. Starbucks
arrived and though I loathe their coffee and style
they certainly "bucked" the market into
delivering choice and now that new coffee houses have
set up shop, decent coffee whenever
the mood takes one.

Of course the globalisation protests are said to
be about the impact of Starbucks Nike et al on
the 3rd and developing worlds not on Wimbledon Braodway.
Frankly the
corruption and self gratifying behaviour
of many of the politicans in parts of the third
world, cause more suffering for their poor peoples
than global commercialisation by the rich countries

Trade restrictions like EC agriculture
are damaging as may have been some colonialisation.
However many people in Ireland complained of 100s of years
of British colonial rule yet now look at
how quickly, aided by the absence of very much
corruption, they have powered through to prosperity.

The Irish were assisted by the Europeans but surely
Non-corrupt African nations could aid their neighbours
in the same way? Help from the wealthy nations
is also needed but what on earth are the Rostock
protests about and what are they trying to achieve?