Urban Greetings

Jogging over Wimbledon Common this morning,
customs or manners of greeting one's fellow man or woman around town
seem as prevalent in their own C21 way as they have always
been down the generations.

Normally these days, London's sheer volume of people limits the possibility of
greeting others passed by or met by chance,
to friends and colleagues unless a major event or disaster is happening,
when universal greetings can become the norm. Otherwise studiously
avoiding acknowledging others, is more or less the universal custom.

Commons' greetings however are different. Joggers invariably greet/acknowledge
other even complete stranger joggers except those who seem to be
pro. or on a mission who may still
adopt the prevalent non acknowledgement custom. On the other
hand joggers and cyclers (fits better than cyclists) sharing the same tracks ignore each
other and dog walkers likewise except when the dog goes on the rampage.
Horse riders tend to acknowldge few people below horse height
unless they know them when a shouted greeting will break through
the jogger's automatic pilot mode.

An acknowledgement can even become a conversation
without words when the same jogger is passed at the same time
at the same place over a few months
- unspoken greetings at such times for some reason can be very touching.

C21 urban life is thankfully full of such small
but important reminders of our common humanity and spirit.

Kosovo

The Balkans have always seemed far away and part of an era of thirty years or so ago when world's geopolitcs appeared more (metaphorically speaking)
black and white than they do today.
The post WWII cold war main participants were to
my then adolescent eyes, politicians from 'The West'
who were the good guys led by the USA; the bad guys were the USSR's politicians
and their presumed followers such as Yogoslavia's Tito. Then there were those
bogeymen-like politicans from the far away East such as Mao and his red book
followers.

The late Pope JP II and the Polish Solidarity shipyard trade unions, cataylised
huge changes; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR and Tito died.

Yugoslavia then moved up my consciousness as a consequence of making
a private pilgrimage to Medjugore via Mostar, Sarevo and Zagreb in
the early 1980s. I still
wonder about JPII's apparent lack of enthusiasm for Medjugore but shortly
after returning from a brief but momentus, few days there, the break up
of Yugoslavia began. Sareavo in particular became a byeword for internecine
bloodshed. Mostar's famous bridge was demolished.

My Balkan consiousness moved up again when upon making my way to the
start of the Flora London Marathon at the turn of the millennium,
runners were asked to wear black ribbons as signs of solidarity with
Kosovogans who were being slain in the civil wars that were
still plaguing that region post-Tito.

Now on 17th February 2008 Kosovo is apparently looking
for a show of independence accompanied with the usual ££s of
fireworks. The independence is to be supported by the EU
but not by Russia or Serbia. Is it a good thing or not will be
the key question? The answer to that question will doubtless
take some years to emerge but my view fwiw at present is that
it has been rushed through too quickly and against UN resolutions.

The UN is flawed but it is the main forum for trying to deal with problems that
span countries and continents. Acting against its resolutions
however politically loaded such resolutions might have been,
is fraught with risks. European politicians may well be found to
have taken such a risk with a consequence being that of more bloodshed
than would have been the case had patience prevailed.

Render to Caesar - the Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Church of England.
Part of the raison d'etre of the Church of England as a seperate
church from the catholic church geographically centred in Rome,
was King Henry VIII's wish in the C16 to be rid of his wife Catherine of Aragon.

The laws on nullity of marriage and divorce in the England of 1527
were largely those of catholic church and determined through Rome.

Henry VIII's Act in Restraint of Appeals in 1533 effectively outlawed appeals
to Rome then the next year, by the Act of Supremacy England was declared a sovereign state with the King as Head of both the country and the Church.
The King having got rid of the religious laws of Rome,
then also appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury as head of the CoE
and rid himself of his wife and several subsequent wives.

Ironic then in the C21 that the Archbishop of Canterbury, whether
by accident or design, by his words this week
caused many to believe that the CoE would
welcome the return of some non-uk based religious laws
to bind English citizens.

Sharia Law has its origins in 7th Century Saudi Arabia
whereas the CoE's origins are a combination of earlier Christian values and
later secular English royal and political overtones. Catholics
or Jews or others already have private tribunals to which
individuals may submit certain aspects of religious/personal
life for decisions, if they so chose and there is nothing
to prevent other faiths or even secular groups from doing the same
as eg the Jockey Club in England does for Horse Racing. However
such a forum for settling issues is private and voluntary and always
subject to the secular law. Thus the catholic marriage tribunal
will expect those who seek a declaration of nullity
of marriage first to have secured secular divorces.
Why then did the Archbishop of Canterbury need to
make comment in this area at all? Possibly
simply to cause people to think and debate or possibly
he was surprised by the subsequent criticism. Either
way I hope that he now also participates enthusiastically
in the public discussions initiated as a consequence of his
initial words.

The freedom of individuals to have a particular religious belief
or none or to change their belief, is a secular human right
in most civilised countries. The need at the same time, to respect secular laws
is emphasised by the; "Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's
and to God that which is God"; quotation in St Matthew's Gospel.

Deeply held religious (or other) beliefs may lead to individuals
refusing to obey particular laws or others working for their repeal
but the Reformation itself evidences only too well, how oppressive
laws become when the religious authorities on earth try to
combine the roles of Caesar and God.

The Archbishop in his further comments I hope
will not seek to revisit the errors of the 16th Century
for fear of catalysing their remaking in the 21st.

Ha Ha Alcohol

Friday night this week involved some informal
farewell drinks arranged by two day job colleagues who are making career moves.
The two are I think in their 20's and reserved a space for us
in the new Ha Ha establishment (it is not a pub in the traditional
meaning of the word) near London's Victoria mainline station.

The two girls are popular
and all are sorry to see them leave. Their choice of the Ha Ha however
made me reflect, as our evening there coincided with yet another
one of those reports (in the Tablet this time) about British youth and alcohol.

The Ha Ha was heaving with noise and people, most of whom
were in their 20's also. The premises on two very large floors
with extensive plate glass windows and modern decor, were more reminiscent
of a contemporary department store than a pub. There was huge
crush at the bar to buy drinks so for the proprietors,
judging by the sales taking place, the place is probably a
cash cow.

The two leavers had reserved a space for us upstairs but even there
conversations had to be conducted almost by shouting.

When in my own 20's the pub atmosphere that most of us sought as
I recall, was that of a quiet place to chat and drink.
Sometimes for a change a pub with live music was chosen but that
was not the norm.

The best pubs for the atmosphere which facilitated
chat argument and conversations, were those with
only a few customers, which meant that the price of drink, comparatively
speaking, was far higher than it is today so we drank less and talked more.

Essentially young people going to pubs in the sixties imbibed
the atmosphere they created themselves although of course this
was affected/enhanced by the alcoholicdrink and pub character. Young people
in the noughties however, seem almost compelled to take on the atmosphere
made by the pub leaving them to have to conform
to the pub rather than the pub being a place for their own atmosphere to
be created.

The C21 pub's atmosphere of course is conditioned to maximising
the drink intake - conversation being almost impossible -
hence perhaps a significant cause of the social drinking problem.