Father Kevin Donovan SJ RIP

Father Kevin died suddenly in Cannizaro Wimbledon on Thursday 21st August 2008.
A wonderful priest and friend to many and an old boy of my own old school, Beaumont College.

He was a people's priest for the people. Amazingly talented; he
ran 8 London marathons and I was privileged enough to run a couple
with him in the Jesuit Missions' London Marathon team (wombles).
He invariably played the flute during his homilies to make
points musically as well as vocally. He could relate to
students at London University's Heythrop College, primary school children at the Ursuline Prep and Donhead and ordinary men and women he encountered in
or out of the pews.

He celebrated Mass at the Beaumont war memorial on Remembrance Sunday 2007
and in previous years when many OBs and their families were present.
He attended and spoke at many Beaumont Union annual dinners.

Most of all he was an amazingly
holy man who will be greatly missed by many in his community
parishioners friends, Beaumont old boys and myself.

R.I.P.

'A' Level Agonies

The youngest in the maytrees household needed to attain two 'A'levels at grade
B and one at grade A to confirm her place at Exeter University in her chosen subject of mathematics.

When the
'A' level results were published nationally on Thursday this week, there was the
usual media commentary about dumbing down and grade inflation, which tends to
belittle the great efforts students have to make to achieve good grades in
those exams.

In the event maytrees min secured two passes at grade A and one pass
at grade C. Exeter took a nerve racking, for her, 48 hours to decide
that A+A+C = B+B+A before confirming thair offer to her.

Despite the media criticism and the trend towards more students
passing more 'A' level examinations and with better grades over the years,
'A' levels still consititute the gold standard not only for prospective
employers to considerjob applicants against but also for the students
themselves in measuring their own academic achievement by the end
of their childhood and schooldays.

Of course there are many other
yardsicks for measuring achievement and application against
as events in the Olympic Games in Beijing illustrate but academic
achievement and application are for many, important markers
in life.

Olympic Spirits: Chairman Mao; Moscow; Beijing and London

The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been widely lauded in the British media at least though not Team GB's kit which the Indy describes as having
a 1980s Next Directory look.

From the main opening ceremony excerpts I saw on TV, its participants
would undoubtly sweep the board for gold medals in synchronised everything.
However this whole opening ceremony concept I find disturbing. The mass simultaneous synchronised actions by hundreds of human beings takes place at the expense of the celebration of individuals' idiosyncrasies yet surely the Olympic spirit should be about manifesting and celebrating individual sporting prowess?

Yesterday's synchronised Olympic opening ceremony reminded me more of the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s with Chairman Mao's Little Red Book and the 1976, swim by 12 000 people across the River Yangtze to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mao's swim, than of the celebration of the sporting
endeavours and achievements to come of men and women individually and in
small groups. There is too much nationalism and national flag worship in
today's Olympics which maybe reflects modern man and woman's preoccupation
with nationality and territorial rights, a preoccupation which also seems to affect most
of the animal kingdom. Mankind is supposed to comprise homo sapiens
but the sap. characteristic is alas often not apparent in our behaviour.

The 1980 Moscow Olympics largely eschewed national flags and anthems and the
athletes' successes were frequently celebrated with the international
olympic committee's own flag and anthem. Will the London Olympics 2012
reflect the Moscow or Beijing interpretations of the games' spirit; or
its own hopefully more idiosyncratic one?

NHS 2008 - How it works in Practice

During Mass on Sunday (after the sermon) I fainted and despite
protestations that nothing was amiss, the various
doctors in the congregation had me whisked off in an
ambulance to St Georges NHS Trust Hospital thus enabling me to
revisit the question and answer in my post last week
from first hand experience.

Every conceivable heart diagnostic device was applied
with great skill and sensitivity by numerous medics and at once which is
apparently potentially essential in some heart cases (in the event luckily
not mine).
Every non-medical person employed by the Hospital
as well as the NHS ambulance paramedics also spared no
time or trouble in making my NHS stay as pleasaant
as possible. Cleaning seemed non stop and effective.

Unlike Mum's St Helier NHS hopsital, the specialist heart wing
of St Georges has 21C feel and look about it. The medical diagnosis
was carefully considered and explained in detail and proved to be nothing
life threatening and not even as bad as Tony Blair's similar type
condition a year or two back.

The pharmacist explained the proposed
medication and provided copious pamphlets and illustrations of
what was likely to be going on in the heart and last but not
least the hospital food was healthy and tasty.

Still being in hospital is not something to look forward to
so although the consultant said that he prefered me to stay for two nights
he agreed not to veto my departure after one.