Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

From the Independent Newspaper, London, 29th August 2008.
PA Report.

The American Dream is alive and the nation can be better than it has been during the last eight years of President George Bush, Barack Obama said as he accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Delivering the most important speech of his life to more than 80,000 people at an open-air stadium in Denver, Colorado, Mr Obama left no doubt America was ready for change and said it was time for voters to stand up and say: "Eight is enough!"

"I get it," he said. "I realise that I am not the likeliest candidates for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington. But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's about you." Mr Obama confronted every criticism made by Mr McCain and the Republicans of his campaign and the Democrats head-on, from his ego and rock star status to his lack of foreign policy experience and his tax policies.

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have," Mr Obama declared, referring to his rival's notorious temper and criticism of his own lack of experience. "America, we are better than these last eight years," he said. "We are a better country than this." Mr Obama, who made history on Wednesday as the first African American US presidential nominee of a major party, said: "This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive." The 47-year-old Illinois senator said his Republican rival John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, had "voted with George Bush 90 per cent of the time".

"I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a 10 per cent chance on change," he said. Mr Obama, whose keynote address at the party's 2004 convention shot him to fame, gave his 44-minute acceptance speech last night 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr inspired the world with his "I Have a Dream" speech.

"America, we cannot turn back," he said.

The final day of the convention was moved outside to the Invesco Field stadium in a bid to show his candidacy extends beyond the politicians who have dominated the convention so far. Ten supporters, including some who donated only $5 (£2.72), were invited to join Mr Obama backstage beforehand and watched his speech from the front row. At the end of a convention dominated by the issue of unity between Mr Obama and his former rival Hillary Clinton, the Democrat received the loudest applause when he embraced the idea of coming together.

"The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook," he said. "The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America." Mr Obama said America needed to restore its "sense of higher purpose" and "the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort."

The Democrat also confronted the McCain campaign's accusations over his ego and celebrity status. He said his grandmother Sarah in Kenya had worked hard so that he could have a better life and "poured everything she had into me. I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine," he said. Striving to dismiss criticisms that his lofty, inspirational campaign consisted of empty rhetoric, he set out "exactly what change would mean if I am president".

He pledged to cut taxes for 95 per cent of all working families, end US dependence on oil from the Middle East within 10 years and create jobs for Americans. America's troubled economy and its national security were his central focus. He said he had "made clear we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights" and added: "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives." Mr Obama went on: "As commander-in-chief I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home." He offered details of his plans for energy and education, health and the climate crisis and pre-empted criticism he was a liberal who believed in "spend, spend, spend. I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow," he said. Mr Obama added that America's failure to respond to its challenges were "a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W Bush".

It was time for Republicans to "own their failure", he said. "It's time for us to change America. And that's why I'm running for President of the United States." Fireworks erupted over the stadium as Mr Obama was joined by his wife Michelle and daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, at the end of his speech. A bid to get most of those packed into the stadium to form the world's largest phone bank - text-messaging thousands more to boost voter registration for November's general election - also underscored how the Obama campaign has harnessed modern technology to garner support in what polls indicate will be a close race between Mr Obama and Mr McCain for a place in history as the 44th president of the United States. At the end of a convention dominated by the issue of unity between Mr Obama and his former rival Hillary Clinton, the Democrat received the loudest applause when he embraced that theme.


He said some critics dismissed such suggestions as "happy talk", but he said that when rivals did not have any fresh ideas, they "use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from," he said. "You make a big election about small things." Mr Obama used his speech to confront every criticism made by Mr McCain and the Republicans of his campaign and the Democrats.

"These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States." He also described his former rival Hillary Clinton as "a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours". He even echoed Mrs Clinton's passionate speech on Tuesday night when he said: "I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's about you."

Striving to dismiss criticisms that his lofty, inspirational campaign consisted of empty rhetoric, he set out "exactly what change would mean if I am president". America's troubled economy and its national security were his central focus, with pledges to cut taxes for 95 per cent of all working families, end US dependence on oil from the Middle East within 10 years and create jobs for Americans. "We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. As commander-in-chief I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home."

He also detailed his plans on energy and education, health and the climate crisis. Mr Obama then pre-empted criticism he was a liberal who believed in "spend, spend, spend". "I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow," he said. Mr Obama added that America's failure to respond to its challenges were "a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W Bush".

It was time for Republicans to "own their failure", he said. "It's time for us to change America. And that's why I'm running for President of the United States."

Capri

Few names have as much romantic associations as the “Beautiful Isle of Capri”, a byword for beauty and luxury since Roman Times. Long a hang-out of the rich and famous, who own sumptuous villas with arresting views, or who anchor their purring yachts in the Marina Grande, Capri has fixed itself in the collective imagination as a place where one might set foot for a few hours, but never settle; a place one can see but never really touch; a bit out of reach unless one has money or power. And yet, beneath the glitz, is a charming Island, with a storied history, where one can spend a day (or two or three!) and come away well-sunned, all appetites sated and the soul re-invigorated. But...in summer, Capri is swarmed by tourists, and the locals are in full "tourist" mode - professionally friendly but detached. Visit Capri in the off-season if you can.


The approach by sea whets the sense of anticipation whether you go by ferry or launch from Naples or Sorrento along the Bay of Naples overlooked by the brooding precence of Mount Vesuvius or along the chequered Amalfi Coast. Here, braced by the salt air a wondrous vista unfolds of deep eroded ravines, villages tucked into the clefts for shelter and defence, Saracen watch towers and implausibly steep terraces groaning with the heavy lemon fruits of Amalfi which make the famous Limoncello. Here we can be in awe of the spectacular coast as we head towards Capri and the Isola Gallo Lungo, once the home of Rudolf Nuryevev but in antiquity these were the islands (Sirenum scopuli; three small rocky islands) where, according to the Greek poet Homer, Ulysses was enticed and held captive by the mystical song of the Sirens. Visitors will still be seduced by the Sirens and the Amalfi Coast today.

"You will come first of all to the Sirens, who are enchanters
of all mankind and whoever comes their way; and that man
who unsuspecting approaches them, and listens to the Sirens
singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting
his wife and little children as they stand about him in greeting,
but the Sirens by the melody of their singing enchant him."

Homer, (Odyssey XII, 39).

Then Capri comes into view, a mysterious prescence in the ocean with a definite sculptural quality which is both enticicing and mysterious, surrounded by Cliffs and sea rocks with the two (originally) fortified towns of Capri and Anacapri on the heights at the centre to protect them from the frequent visitations of Barbary Corsairs and others. And then at the end of the island facing towards the Bay of Naples you can envision the palace from which the Emperor Tiberius Caesar ran the empire which stretched from the atlantic Ocean to the Arabian desert, from the Pillars of Hercules to Judea. Here on this island in the centre of the sea which they named “Mare Mediteranea” – The Middle Sea where one man ruled from a palace named after their greatest deity Jupiter, the “Villa Jovis.” It was 2,000 years ago the largest house in the world and if it was still standing today it would still have that title. But to our modern mindset Capri was a vision of romantic escapism as epitomised by the song made famous in the 30’s by island resident Gracie Fields;

“Twas on the Isle of Capri that I found her,
Beneath the shade of an old walnut tree,
Oh, I can still see the flowers blooming 'round her,
Where we met on the Isle of Capri.”

Not to mention Noël Coward’s jolly ditty about the matronly English widow "who discovered in the nick of time that life was for living".

“Just for fun, three young men
Bowed low to Mrs Wentworth- Brewster
Said "Scusi", and abruptly goosed her,
Then there was quite a scene,
Her family in floods of tears cried, "Leave these men, Mama"
She said, "They're just high-spirited, like all Italians are"
And most of them have a great deal more to offer than Papa
In a bar on the Piccola Marina “


Capri Town

Capri is an island which some people love and some people hate. Those against the island are generally those who arrive for a daytrip, and find an expensive commercialised destination crammed to bursting with other daytrippers. Others, however, love the combination of island simplicity, natural beauty and busy glitz. And if you stay overnight, you'll find a different Capri. After the last daytrippers leave, a kind of exclusive peace settles over the island as those who are privileged to be staying overnight emerge for their evening passeggiata, or to sip drinks on the famous little square, the Piazzetta. The principal Capri tourist attraction is the island itself; its views, its rocky seashores and its scenic charm. There is plenty of good walking - or strolling - to be done as you explore the island.



Top scenic panoramas include views of the Bay of Naples, the Faraglioni Rocks and the Gardens of Augustus. From the mid-19th century onwards, following the “rediscovery” of the Blue Grotto, Italian and foreign visitors flocked to the island, attracted by the climate, the inhabitants’ hospitality and the colours and magnetic atmosphere of the places. Artists, intellectuals, writers, exiles, eccentrics and wealthy visitors chose it as their permanent or seasonal residence, contributing to form the highly varied cosmopolitan international colony that has made the name of Capri famous throughout the world. Capri is a saddle-shaped island that sits about 7.5 kilometres from the tip of the Amalfi peninsula and 17 kilometres due south of Naples. Mount Tiberio rises to 334 meters at the eastern end, and Mount Solaro peaks at 589 meters on the western end. Marina Grande (big marina) sits on the north shore and Marina Piccola on the south, connected by a traversing ridge. The City of Capri clamours up the hillside around and behind the Marina Grande, and the town of Anacapri sits on a verdant plain on the western flank of Mount Solaro.

Marina Grande

There are two towns on Capri; Capri town itself, which is in the centre of the island, and is where most of the hotels are located, and Anacapri. Although the two towns are scarcely three miles apart, the centuries-old antagonism between the two sets of townsfolk endures. The Capresans no longer routinely refer to the Anacapresan women as faticatore e puttane ("drudges and whores") as they did only 50-odd years ago, but they still poke fun at the Anacapresan dialect. The Anacapresans, for their part, cling to the high ground both morally and literally, believing that even their air is superior.


Piazzeta, Capri Town

On either side of Carpri Town there are two ports, the Marina Grande (large port) and the Marina Piccola (little port). Ferries from Naples, Sorrento and Amalfi arrive at Marina Grande from where you have two choices. You can take the special short island buses which twist around the windy road to Anacapri or you can take the Funicula up to Capri Town. If you take the latter option the top station on the funicular is beside the centre of Capri Town, the Piazzetta, the pedestrian square from which all the island routes radiate. From the station on top you can also take the distinctive island buses to Anacapri, they join the route from the Marina Grande about a mile down the road. Now something else you need to know about Capri. In summer these are the only roads where traffic is allowed and then only buses and taxis. Everywhere else is pedestrianied with only electric golf carts and handcarts allowed. This adds greatly to the peace and quiteness of the island but makes intra island transport akward. The small buses are painfully crowded and the taxis are special stretched softops with three rows of seats which take 7 passengers but are eye wateringly expensive. But nothing is cheap on this island, a cappucino will cost 5 euro, a pasta 20 euro and the mainly 5 star and rather luxurious hotels are upwards of 300 euro a night.

Funicular Railway

For shopaholics, Capri town is a dream, with all the big designer names and expensive boutiques. Almost every Capri visitor makes the trip to the Grotta Azzurra, the Blue Grotto. Like the island itself, it tends to split its visitors in two - those who find the blue-lit cave an unforgettable experience, and those who find the jostling boatsmen and extortionate prices a rip-off. A boat trip around the island, though, is a more rewarding experience. You can admire the coastline and the island's other grottoes in a leisurely fashion. In Capri Town, you find the Piazza Umberto I, more a courtyard than the usual expansive "main square". Around it is arrayed the Cathedral, the Bishop's residence which is now a municipal office building, the Torre dell'Orologio (bell tower) and a number of cafes, restaurants and shops.

From the Piazzetta the natural route is to head down the Via Tragara which is the most famous and best liked walking rote in Capri: along it there are many elegant villas. It ends with a panoramic terrace facing the Faraglioni Rocks (“I Faraglioni, the three enigmatic, pale-ochre limestone colossi”), the view of Capri known the world over. From Tragara's terrace you can enjoy also a wide view over island's southern side, featuring Marina Piccola, underneath the steep face of Mount Solaro, in the middle of which is found the enormous cavity of Grotta delle Felci (Grotto of the Ferns). The whole area called Tragara extends from Mount Tuoro's western slope to the plain of Occhio Marino (Sea Eye), situated behind the Charterhouse. Here also, overlooking the old Roman harbour you will find the Punta Tragara, where Churchill & Eisenhower first met. This former private villa, designed by Le Corbusier, stands above rocky cliffs at the southwest tip of the most desirable panorama on Capri. It is now a seriously 5 Star luxury hotel. It was here Eisenhower & Churchill met before the Allied invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno. Visiting Salerno today you may feel they did a fairly comprehensive job on bombarding the town

Faraglioni Rocks


Punta Tragara

On the way down there on the Via Tragara you first come to The Certosa of San Giacomo (Carthusian Monastery). It was founded in 1371 by Count Giacomo Arcucci, secretary to the Queen Giovanna I of Naples. This beautiful building is famous in its own right but the Carthusian Monastery is best known to visitors for the famous perfumes of Capri which are produced there based on the natural flora of the island.

Carthusian Monastery

Here you will also pass where Paolo Neruda lived in the beautiful “Casa di Arturo” belonging to Edwin Cerio, writer and engineer. This episode in his life is imortalised in the film “Il Positano” but obviously his exile was not as frugal or as isolated as depicted in the movie. The Chilean poet took the name of the murdered Czech socialist, Jan Neruda, as his nom de plume and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. At just 19 years of age he published his first book: Crepuscolario. In 1927 he entered the diplomatic service. He lived through the experience of the Spanish civil war of ‘36-’37 which indelibly marked the poet’s soul. Pablo Neruda came to Capri in 1952 with his lover, the Chilean singer Matilde Urrutia. On the island During his period in Capri, Neruda’s collection of love poems “The Captain’s Verses” was published. He was the Chilean ambassador in Paris in 1973 when America engineered the coup which brought down the democraticaly elected government of Chile, killed the President Salvador Allende and installed the brutal dictatorshio of Augusto Pinochet. He died later that same year.


Il Poeta del Poppolo

Heading onwards you then come to the site of the Gardens of Augustus and Via Krupp, which were by the German magnate steel Alfred Krupp. His Villa Krupp is on the height above you and it is joined to the sea and the Marina Piccola by the beautiful winding Via Krupp. The road was built in 1902 and characteristically zig-zags its way to Marina Piccola. According to architect R. Pane, it proves "that even a road can be a work of art". The Gardens of Augustus are built on the site of a villa of the Emperor Ovctavian Augustus on the "Fondo Certosa" (Certosa Estate), which Krupp purchased from the monastery. The provide a relaxing waypoint and a beautiful viewpoint on this spectacular island coastline.

View from Gardens of Augustus


Via Krupp

Anacapri basks on the hill above Capri, and is a quieter, more 'normal' town. Apparently, and despite being inland, Anacapri was hit harder by invaders than Capri Town (another source of competitiveness). The Saracens dragged the menfolk off to sell as slaves, and raped the women, the consequences of which can still be seen today in the faintly Moorish features of many Anacapresans. Their "smouldering looks" and "wild beauty" were certainly appreciated by the visiting German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius in the 1850s, and his enthusiastic, not to say libidinous reports helped to fuel an invasion, this time peaceful, of northern Europeans. Anacapri became a colony of artists and writers, and still has a bohemian vibe, even if mass-produced tourist tat is far more in evidence than original art.

The best art in modern Anacapri is in the Villa San Michele, once the home of the Swedish doctor, philanthropist and ornithologist Axel Munthe, who crammed it with antiquities. The villa San Michele is located on the north-eastern side of 'Anacapri, 327 metres above sea level. Here was an ancient Roman imperial villa, whose ruins were preserved by Axel Munthe and are now to be found in the garden. In the area there were the remains of a medieval chapel later moved to its present position by Munthe himself. San Michele was Munthe's residence between 1896 and 1910. The fanciful architecture was meant as a perfect environment for the collections of its owner, and at the same time, served to enhance the beauty of the landscape. The buildings and the collections reflect a Romantic, Symbolist taste, typical of that century. Accommodation in Anacapri is generally cheaper, although you're still not far from the hub of things, and there is a regular bus service. From Anacapri you can take the chairlift up to the top of Monte Solare and enjoy the views before the trip back down (on foot if you're so inclined).


Blue Grotto

Capri started occupying an important role in the political and military matters of the Roman Empire when Ottaviano, not yet Augustus, landed here in 29 BC and, struck by the incredible beauty of the island, took it from Naples, in exchange for Ischia. After Ottaviano, the Emperor Tiberius resided on the island for a decade and it was from Capri that he managed the interests of the Empire. The presence of the two emperors on Capri notably influenced the island architecture and the development of the urban area. The advanced engineering and building capabilities of the Romans, resulted in the construction of the port, sophisticated drainage and water storage systems, farms, habitations, and the twelve Imperial villas listed in the nineteenth century by the native historian, Rosario Mangoni. Fine examples of the Roman period are Villa Jovis, Villa Palazzo a Mare and Villa Damecuta, whilst, in a much less evident form, one finds traces of the era in Villa Tragara, Villa d’Unghia Marina, Villa del Colle San Michele, Villa del Castiglione, Villa Truglio a Marina Grande, Villa di Aiano, Villa di Capo di Monte (now Villa San Michele), Villa di Timberino and Villa di Monticello in Anacapri. Tiberius built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis, one of the best preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27 CE, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37 CE. According to Suetonius, while staying on the island, Tiberius (accompanied by his grand-nephew and heir, Caligula) enjoyed imposing numerous cruelties and sexual perversions upon his slaves.




Villa Jovis

The most important of the island's twelve imperial villas, Villa Jovis was built in the First Century AD and discovered in the Eighteenth Century under the rule of Charles of Bourbon. Dominating the promontory that extends from Grotta Bianca Point to Caterola Point, the villa, which covers an area of 7000 square metres, towers over the valley looking out to Cesina. Originally built as a fortress, the centre of the villa housed a number of cisterns designed to collect rainwater, used both as drinking water and as a reservoir with which to supply the baths located to the south, along with an open portico. These baths were heated by braziers and divided into the traditional frigidarium, tepidarium and calidarium. The eastern side of the villa contained a number of reception rooms, while the northern side accommodated the imperial quarters. These were completely isolated from the rest of the building, but connected by ramps and stairways to the triclinium and loggia. The latter, based on a rectangular design 92 metres in length, was primarily designed for taking the air and admiring the breathtaking vista of the Gulf of Naples, stretching all the way from Ischia to Campanella Point.

In his Aeneid, Virgil states that the island had been populated by the Greek people of Teleboi, coming from the Ionian Islands. Strabo says that "in ancient times in Capri there were two towns, later reduced to one." (Geography, 5, 4, 9, 38). Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri (or Capreae, as it was spelled in Latin). Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th century.

The etymology of the name “Capri” comes from tle Latin “capraeae” (goats), not from the Greek “kapros” (wild boar), even though numerous fossile remains of this animal have been found on the island. Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, when it was joined to the mainland, the island was first Greek and later Roman. In the 7th century it was raided by the Saracens and in the centuries thate followed it was dominated by the Longobards, Normans, Anjouins, Aragonese and finally the Spanish. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the island came back into fashion, in unison with Naples’ period of great political and artistic pride, thanks to an active diocese and the privileges conferred on it first by the Spanish and later by the Bourbons.

Romantic Capri!


Grand Hotel Quisisana

Capri, in addition to being blessed with an incredible natural beauty, boasts a history which increases even further the appeal of the island. isitors to Capri are often surprised by the quantity and variety of walking routes on such a small island. Along these pathways, tourists can choose to immerse themselves in the authentic atmosphere of a coastal village, inhabited by fishermen and sailors; explore the marine caves; walk through masses of sheer rock and peer over precipices which drop dramatically into the sea; saunter through the patches of land cultivated by the country dwellers, planted with olive groves and orchards of lemon and orange trees; or stroll through the center of Capri with its otentatiously luxurious boutiques, elegant hotels, artists studios, churches, and the remains of Roman villas. One of the magical things about Capri is that, even in peak season in August, when the roads are crowded with tourists, one can always find a solitary spot in which to rest, or a hidden bay where to take a swim in the crystal clear waters.

The atmosphere here, due to Capri's seductive powers, is sophisticated and cosmopolitan. It has long been a hang-out for writers and artists, a few of the top order, but most, second-raters. Somerset Maugham wrote a short story, The Lotus Eaters, about the island. Today it is still a special place with beautiful hotels filled with the ghosts of famous former guests, superb views over the bewitching Bay of Naples, romantic and perfect Bellinis sipped on terraces by moonlight and an ability to elicit your gratitude as improbable amounts of euros are discretely removed from your wallet! Capri - it's a kind of luxury and it's the kind of luxury you should give yourself at least once in this life.

See also;

Caprese.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/caprese.html

Amalfi Coast.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/02/amalfi-coast.html


Grotta Azzurra, the Blue Grotto

travel

Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

Wendover High Street

Seen from the Vale of Aylesbury the reason for Wendover’s existence becomes obvious. It is set into a cleft in the Chiltern Escarpment providing a natural route through the hills at a point where the ancient Anglo Saxon Icknield Way which runs from the Wash to Salisbury bisects the route from London. It is framed on either side by over 7,000 acres of mature woodland criss crossed with bridle ways and footpaths including the 84 mile long Ridgeway which follows part of the old Saxon road. Nestling in a gap in the Chiltern Hills there is much to enjoy in and around Wendover with its historic buildings, many restaurants and country walks which attract visitors from London just 45 minutes away by train. On the direct rail route from Aylesbury to London Marylebone and with easy road access, Wendover is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is well situated to give the city-tired visitor a peaceful interlude in the pleasant Home Counties. Wendover is situated in the Chiltern Hills just a few miles from the county town of Aylesbury. It is on the A413, 3 miles from the A41 and 17 miles from the M25 making the village easily accessible by road.


Wendover offers much to both local people and visitors with the countryside around being very popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Apart from the Ridgeway Path, the National Trail that passes down the main High Street of Wendover, there are 33 miles of public rights of way and bridleways criss-crossing the parish. These paths will take you over the open chalk downland of Coombe Hill with its impressive monument to the Buckinghamshire men who died in the Boer War, or to the shaded Wendover Woods on Boddington Hill belonging to Forest Enterprise. There is a short two mile walk to the pretty hamlet of Dunsmore and in the spring you can enjoy the carpet of bluebells, or enjoy the shaded woods on Boddington Hill belonging to Forest Enterprise. Here the visitor can enjoy specially prepared cycle routes, all ability walks, barbecue sites as well as play areas for the children.

Clock Tower

Wendover was first mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086 where it was referred to as "Wendovre". Before then, it was also mentioned in 970 in the will of the Aeldorman of Wiltshire and Hampshire. Wendover was initially a very small market village which was mainly a base for agricultural industry. The market has been held since 1199 during the reign of King John, and is still held every Thursday. Other forms of work in Wendover would include lace making and straw plaiting. Wendover is a town full of buildings of historical interest which appear to have hardly altered over the years. Many of these can be found in the streets surrounding the High Street. The Cold Harbour cottages which exist on the Tring road date back to Henry VIII when he gave them to his wife Catherine of Aragon.

Wendover is renowned for its Public Houses which are scattered throughout the town, and seem almost disproportionate to its size. During 1577, an inventory was made of all of the public houses and Inns, and Wendover is recorded as having one tavern and eight Inns at that time. This could be due to the fact that the town was placed so strategically close to London, and yet far enough for those travelling via coach or horse back to need to stop and refresh. One of the oldest Public Houses in Wendover is the Red Lion, originally named the Lion. Records date it back as far as 1670 although it is likely to be very much older. Initially it was used as a fine Coaching Inn and as a meeting point for the local councillors. Another ancient coaching Inn is The George & Dragon which was recorded in 1578 and is placed near the centre of the town was another popular place for people to stay on their way into London.

Red Lion

In common with the Celtic village plan seen in much of Buckinghamshire the Church is outside the town as with plague and fever victims it was considered better to have the church and graveyard just outside the built up area. St Mary's is steeped in history and church has been at the centre of the community for over 700 years. Although it is certain that a church has existed on the site since the 12th Century, the present building dates mainly from the early and later parts of the 14th Century. It consists of a tower, nave, chancel, North and South aisles, North and South porches and chancel aisles (the North side now being St Mary's Centre). The building was restored in 1838-39, 1868-69 and in 1914. The fittings are mainly Victorian with some excellent examples of stained glass. More recent improvements include new glass doors, a bell ringing floor and lighting. In mediaeval times the rood cross was venerated as a place of pilgrimage. During the Civil War, Cromwell's troops camped in the church (you can still see the graffiti!) and in 1799 the first penny savings bank in the country was started in the church vestry. For generations the church has participated in the main events of life - babies are baptised, young people are confirmed and couples are married and at the end of their lives they are laid to rest in the churchyard. One pleasant tradition appreciated by visitors and walkers on the Ridgeway is tea and homemade cakes which are served in St. Mary’s on summer Sundays to raise funds to repair this venerable old church – what you pay is left to your discretion.


St. Mary's Interior




Lych Gate

Walking along the picturesque High Street visitors can be unaware that one of the most attractive features is the short half mile walk southwards on the many paths which emerge between the buildings on this ancient street. Head inwards towards St. Mary’s Church and you come across a charming area with a babbling brook, weirs and fine old houses peeking discretely over hedgerows where you can spend an unhurried afternoon strolling around Wendover taking in the 13th Century Parish Church of St Mary, Hampden Pond, Heron Path and the green parkland of the Witchell.

Thatched Cottages High Street



Hampden Pond

Walking to the far end of the High Street and over the bridge by the station over the railway line and the bypass which thankfully keeps the traffic out of the town you come to a forest path on the left for Coombe Hill. This is a hill in The Chilterns, located next to the hamlet of Dunsmore and overlooking Aylesbury Vale. It is not to be confused with another Coombe Hill on the flank of Haddington Hill, some two miles to the north-east. The majority of the hill (an area of 106 acres (43 ha)) once formed part of the Chequers Estate but was presented to the National Trust by the United Kingdom government when they were given the Estate in the 1920s.The summit of the hill is 852 feet / 259.7 m above sea level and is the highest point in the county of Buckinghamshire. Near the summit is a monument, erected in 1904, in memory of the 148 men from Buckinghamshire who died during the Second Boer War. The monument was almost totally destroyed by lightning in 1938 and was rebuilt the same year. The original bronze plaque and decorations were stolen in the 1980s and were replaced with a stone plaque and iron flag with the remainder of the decoration being created from bronze. For all its small height Coombe Hill provides an impressive viewpoint with Oxford (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/day-in-oxford.html ) visible on the horizon on a clear day.

Wendover from Coombe Hill


Coombe Hill Monument

On its left flank you look across towards a church on a volcanic outcrop at Ellesbororough and an ancient Saxon fort known as Cymbeline’s mound. In the valley in between is a handsome Tudor House, this is Chequers, the country residence of British Prime Ministers which has received many distinguished guests over the years. Chequers is an Elizabethan mansion in the Chiltern hills near Wendover, and was given to the nation by Lord Lee of Fareham under the Chequers Estate Act 1917, which came into effect in 1921. Its estate contains about 500 ha/1235 acres of farmlands and woods. The mansion dates from 1565 or earlier, but was extensively altered by Lord Lee, under Reginald Blomfield. It contains a collection of Cromwell portraits and relics. Interestingly you can get a closer view of Chequers by walking the public footpath which goes through the grounds in front of the house, a slightly surreal experience as the “bushes” move as hidden cameras follow your stately progress!


Chequers with Coombe Hill in the background

On the far side of Wendover are the former woods of Halton House, once owned by the Rothschild family whose mansions surround Aylesbury Vale. Situated on the northern edge of the Chiltern escarpment this wood affords spectacular views across the Aylesbury Vale. It is owned by the Forestry Commission and managed by Forest Enterprise, an executive agency of the Commission. You can explore all of the 325 hectares of mixed coniferous and broadleaved woodland and each year it hosts a woodcraft festival where woodcraft traditions of willow basket and fence making, woodcarving, charcoal burning and bodgering (chair making) are showcased. On the far side of the woods is the Hale Valley where the vineyard owned by Anthony Chapman produces one of England’s best wines on the chalky south facing slopes which are similar to the topography of the Rhine Valley wineries.


Halton House


Salon Halton House

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a financial wizard, started as a penniless Jewish orphan in a Frankfurt ghetto. Between 1798 and 1821 he scattered his five sons (represented by his five arrows) into the major European countries. One remained with him at Frankfurt, but others went to Vienna, Paris and Naples. Nathan, the third son and the red haired genius of the family, came to England, and set up a London bank. Wherever the Rothschild’s settled, they flourished, making good reputations and huge fortunes for themselves - the English family being amongst the most successful. The land at Halton were inherited by Mr Alfred de Rothschild, Nathan’s middle son, who almost immediately set about creating what he called 'An English Chateau modelled on modern French lines' which was built by Cubitts and finished in 1883. It is interesting to compare the house with Waddesdon Manor (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/waddesdon-manor-buckinghamshire.html ) built at the same time by a second cousin, where the Rococo decoration on the interior walls is of wood, whereas here it is of plaster. Visitors here are often surprised lo learn that the mansion is only just over a century old Photographs are displayed in several places showing the house as it was in the late 19th century. Although praised for his taste, Alfred was a musician and a collector of paintings and objects of art many rooms appear to have been filled with a mixture of heavy, fussy, Victorian furniture, dainty gilt and tapestries eighteenth century pieces and heavy draperies and massive plants. A resident Hungarian orchestra was maintained and outside there was also a private circus, a skittle alley and skating rink to entertain the guests. Amongst who visited were Edward VII, the Shah of Persia, Patti, Melba and Lily Langtry. The Rothschild’s were the plutocrats of their day and Alfred Rothschild was famous for his house parties where he would travel by private train in the blue and yellow family colours having first withdrawn (from his own bank) £1,000 pounds in cash for expenses. The mansion is now the Officer’s Mess of RAF Halton and its impressive staircase served as the stairs of the “Presidential Palace” that Madonna descended in the movie “Evita.”


RAF Halton

The Grand Union (formerly the Grand Junction) canal, as its name implies, was designed to be part of a system of canals linking with each other rather than a single canal. Indeed, many waterways make up the integrated Grand Union Canal as it is today, forming a main artery to link the prime routes from London and the south to Birmingham and the Potteries. The main line runs effectively from the River Thames at Brentford westward to Cowley Junction (access to the Slough Arm) then north and North West to the midlands.

Tring Summit Grand Union Canal


Wendover Arm

The Grand Union Canal ascends some 380 feet from its junction with the River Thames until, after a climb of 56 locks in over 36 miles, it reaches the two and a half mile long Tring Summit. Here the descent northwards towards Braunston commences. The Tring Summit was completed in 1797, in advance of the main line to north and south. As this stretch of water was to supply the needs of the canal on both sides of the summit it became imperative to find sufficient water; the first Act of Parliament for the canal stated the need for a feeder from the north side of the Chiltern Hills behind Wendover to the summit level. The Wendover Arm became the first of several feeders to the summit level.

Work started on the construction of the Wendover Arm in the summer of 1793 and followed the 390 ft. contour line to join the summit of the Grand Junction Canal at Bulbourne Junction on the Tring summit level. After construction of the Arm had started, it was soon realised that little extra expense would be incurred in making the feeder navigable and authority to carry out this work, costing £13,000, was obtained in 1794. Although the Wendover Arm was primarily built to supply water for the locks at Marsworth and Cowroast it was served by many wharves along its length sending local produce to the London markets and also receiving coal, timber and manure for use on the land. Commercial traffic on the Grand Junction Canal increased very rapidly - the canal was the "M1" of its day - so much so that a great number of reservoirs were built in the Tring area to collect water for canal use.

Winter Woodland at Dunsmore

But the life of the Arm was short. By 1802 there was a considerable loss of water through the banks and the canal was closed for repairs to be carried out. By 1841, 20 locks of water were being lost per day through leakage, and extensive repuddling over a length of four and a half miles was carried out. To no avail, however, as by 1855 some 25 locks of water were escaping. The Arm was closed in 1904. The reservoirs remain as nature and angling reserves and have the beneficial side effect that drinking water locally is Chiltern spring water.

One such reservoir about a mile from Castle Caldwell is Weston Turville reservoir which is fed by the Chiltern springs and is home to the Aylesbury Sailing Club and the Prestwood Anglers Club. The reservoir was constructed in 1795 to supply water to the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal. It is now owned by British Waterways and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The reservoir contains reedbeds, which are scarce in Britain and are a very important habitat for water birds such as Shoveler and Water Rail. It is of national importance for the over-wintering Shoveler, and it is also the only site in Buckinghamshire where Water Rail regularly breeds. The reservoir was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1986.

Weston Turville reservoir

Today, embraced by woodlands and with its atmospheric high street with thatched cottages and antique shops Wendover is an attractive and busy town which has much of interest and has maintained its sense of community. Just 45 minutes from central London it continues to be a fine place to live and to attract walkers and visitors to ramble over the hills, browse the shops and replenish themselves in the many restaurants and fine old pubs. And as you leave these establishments you may think you hear the wheels of the London stage coach and its weary passengers relieved to have travelled unharmed through the notorious highwayman infested Chiltern Hundreds and looking forward to bed and board in the coaching inns lining the High Street.

travel

A Surly Republican

Regular followers of the Celtic Sage will know that he has a perverse regard for the writer John Milton (1608-74) whose 400th Birthday is being celebrated on the Tube (and elsewhere!) this year as part of the hugely successful and much imitated Poems on the Underground public arts programme.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/poems-on-underground.html

This is part of a year-long international celebration of his writings with exhibitions taking place from Cambridge to New York. The new series of Poems on the Underground features The Expulsion from Eden – the final lines from Paradise Lost, Book 12 by Milton, which is considered by many as one of the greatest poems written in the English language.

Four hundred years after John Milton's birth, the greatest poet and polemicist of the English Revolution still speaks to us loud and clear. Once disparaged by Samuel Johnson as "an acrimonious and surly republican" John Milton must be counted as one of the most significant writers and thinkers of all time. Indeed when you ask people which writer has given the most phrases to the English language most would automatically answer William Shakespeare but they would be wrong. Those who track such things (a man in the basement of a college in Oxford) reckon Shakespeare’s writings have given us roundly 229 English phrases whereas Milton’s writings have given us around 694 phrases ranging from “every cloud has a silver lining” to “Hobson’s Choice.” According to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge University and fellow of Milton's alma mater, Christ's College, who has trawled the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for evidence, Milton is responsible for introducing some 630 words to the English language, making him the country's greatest neologist, ahead of Ben Jonson with 558, John Donne with 342 and Shakespeare with 229. Without the great poet there would be no liturgical, debauchery, besottedly, unhealthily, padlock, dismissive, terrific, embellishing, fragrance, didactic or love-lorn. And certainly no complacency.

Lines from Milton pepper the phrase and fable of our modern language: "darkness visible"; "eyeless in Gaza"; "all passion spent"; "pastures new"; "they also serve who only stand and wait"; "amid the blaze of noon". Milton's influence is enormous; his rhetorical range seldom rivalled - from the limpid pastoral of the opening of "Lycidas", via the thunderous "organ-music" of Paradise Lost or the white rage of his sonnet "Upon The Late Massacre in Piedmont", to the strange, broken psychodrama of "Samson Agonistes". In L'Allegro' Milton also 'tripped the light fantastic'. Our images of Hell, the devil and the fall of man have been irrevocably shaped by Milton's versions of them.



Great deals of his tracts were political and the Puritan Cause he espoused has not worn well in our memories. It failed as a political force in an England which has proved itself in history to be generally resistant to extremism. Eventually as a political creed it was exported on the Mayflower with the “Puritan Fathers” to America where its seeds fell on more fertile soil. In Ireland it is particularly reviled for the toxic mix of vicious anti-Catholicism and the brutal re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649 to defeat the Confederate rebellion which had controlled Ireland since 1641 and which was allied with the Royalist cause. The vicious Parliamentarian campaign is estimated to have resulted in the death or exile of about 15-20% of the Irish population and its legacy of death followed by the confiscation of land and the passing of draconian anti-catholic Penal Laws is remembered to this day. In vain can you argue to an Irish person that time was not on Cromwell’s side as he vainly tried to save England from a Third Civil War for there was a definite sectarian and racist overtone to the campaign spurred on by tales of Protestants massacred in the Irish Rebellion. Ireland lives with the results of Cromwell’s actions to this day.

Bur we must also remember that by attempting to establish the rights of the people to be represented and the independence and sovereignty of Parliament, the English Puritans laid the foundation for every modern democracy. No longer would an individual rule by Divine Right and not be accountable for his actions. Or as it was expressed in America there would be no Taxation without Representation.

It is odd then that for somebody caricatured as a dour Puritan that Milton wrote a musical masquerade, Comus, albeit on the virtue of chastity and tracts in favour of divorce and free speech. His speech “Areopagitica”, which was subsequently published as a polemical pamphlet was a condemnation of the licensing of printing presses under the Stuart Monarchy. It is a foundational text in the philosophy of the freedom of speech and is famously quoted in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution: Milton denounces censorship, and argues for toleration and the free expression of ideas. It is a tract which still resonates today in the world of the Internet and the Beijing Olympics. Indeed it is the basis for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.



First Amendment to the United States Constitution; (1791)
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

No doubt Milton would be tickled that this amendment is the reason Airports cannot stop Christian fundamentalists proselytising when you try to escape from an American airport but it is also perversely the reason why American states can’t outlaw pornography and why Americans take libel actions in London and not in their home country.

Thomas Hobson (1545–1631), was a real historical figure and he ran a thriving carrier and horse rental business in Cambridge, England, around the turn of the 17th century. Hobson rented horses mainly to Cambridge University students but refused to rent them out other than in their correct order. The choice his customers were given was 'this or none', i.e. Hobson's choice. The Spectator, No. 509, from 1712, explains how Hobson did business, which shows clearly how the phrase came into being:

"He lived in Cambridge, and observing that the Scholars rid hard, his manner was to keep a large Stable of Horses, ... when a Man came for a Horse, he was led into the Stable, where there was great Choice, but he obliged him to take the Horse which stood next to the Stable-Door; so that every Customer was alike well served according."

After his death in 1631 he was remembered in verse by John Milton in a jocular jape, saying "He had bin an immortall Carrier". That seems rather a strange thing to say just after he had died. Eighty six was a very good innings in the 17th century, but hardly immortality. The phrase was still well enough known in the 20th century for Hobson’s to be adopted then as Cockney rhyming slang for voice. The most celebrated application of Hobson's choice in the 20th century was Henry Ford's offer of the Model-T Ford in 'any colour so long as it's black'.

Here are some of the extracts from Milton’s works which give us some of these 630 Milton inspired English phrases;

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 1.



How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year.
On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631).

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
Arcades (1630-1634), line 68.

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,
At a Solemn Music (c. 1637), line 1.

Where the bright seraphim in burning row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.
At a Solemn Music.

Truth...never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), Introduction.

Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)

For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.
Eikonoklastes (1649), 23.

Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war.
To the Lord General Cromwell (1652).

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless.
On His Blindness (1652).

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones
Forget not.
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont (1655).

In mirth that after no repenting draws.
To Cyriack Skinner, upon His Blindness (c. 1655).

But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,
I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On His Deceased Wife (c. 1658).

O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.
Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough.

License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
For who loves that must first be wise and good.
On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises.

No war, or battle's sound
Was heard the world around.
The idle spear and shield were high up hung.
Hymn, stanza 4, line 53.

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
Line 36. L’Allegro (1631)

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Line 67. L’Allegro (1631)

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Line 61. Il Penseroso (1631)

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth.
Line 5. Comus (1634)

Was I deceived or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
Line 221. Comus (1634)
Origin of the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining.”



What hath night to do with sleep?
Line 122. Comus (1634)

That power
Which erring men call Chance.
Line 587. Comus (1634)

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.
Line 663. Comus (1634)

Love Virtue, she alone is free,
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heav'n itself would stoop to her.
Line 1019. Comus (1634)

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. Areopagitica: (1644)

A man may be a heretic in the truth, and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy. Areopagitica: (1644)

Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books. Areopagitica: (1644)

• Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.

• Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

• Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.

• Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.


John Milton and his father's grave. St. Giles Cripplegate, City of London.

• Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself. Paradise Regained: Book IV, Line 327

• The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. Paradise Regained: Book IV, Lines 220-21.

• For what can war, but endless war, still breed?

• Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to my conscience, above all liberties. Areopagitica: (1644)

• Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

• He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.

• He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

• He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

• Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

• Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.

• No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free. Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649).

• None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence.

• Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.

• The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Satan, Paradise Lost, Book I, Line 254-255

• The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.

• The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.

Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
On His Blindness (1652).

• Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.

• Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but knowledge in the making.

• To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.


• True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves.

• Truth never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her birth.

• Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.

• When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.

• Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self. Areopagitica: (1644)

And finally, this is the one George W. Bush should have memorised when he was at Yale;

• • Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe. Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 648-49.

Latest Poll Reveals 430 New Demographics That Will Decide Election

Latest Poll Reveals 430 New Demographics That Will Decide Election

Bush watch Update - Only 152 Days to go America - Hang in there!

"You see not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war."

Washington D.C. ; June 8, 2005.

"I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary for Defense."

Washington D.C.; April 18, 2006.

"I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place."

Collinsville, Illinois; January 5 2005.

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."

Washington D.C.; May 25, 2005.

"For every fatal shooting, there are roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. And we're going to do something about it."

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; May 14, 2001.

"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?"

Florence, South Carolina; January 11, 2000.

"One thing is clear, is relations between America and Russia are good, and they're important that they be good."

Strelna, Russia; July 15, 2006.

"There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, "I don't want you to let me down again.'"

Boston, Massachusetts; October 3, 2000.

"You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you are gone."

Washington D.C.; May 5, 2006.

Walktalk

Everybody has a certain degree of human courage that they can draw on in a difficult situation but human courage only goes so far. In our quieter moments we all must consider how we would cope with catastrophe and tragedy and whether the experience would crush or strengthen us. This is probably the reason most of us admire people who have experienced tragedy and instead of being crushed find an inner strength to fight back. I have thought about this over the weekend seeing the bravery of Gill Hicks, a victim of the London bombings on 7th July 2005, who lost both legs in the attack and who has completed a 250 mile walk from Leeds on her artificial limbs to publicise her Walktalk charity. She is one of a number of remarkable women who have found strength in adversity and then gone on to make a positive contribution which reinforces our common humanity and having been confronted with evil have renewed our faith in human goodness.


One such person was Diana Lamplugh who responded to the traumatic disappearance of her daughter Suzy Lamplugh by becoming an indomitable advocate for reducing the fear of crime by raising awareness of the importance of personal safety and helping to provide solutions to help people, particularly young women like Suzy, avoid violence and aggression and live safer, more confident lives. In 1986 Suzy Lamplugh, a 25 year old estate agent disappeared after she went to meet an unknown client. So far her body has not been found. However, she has been presumed murdered and legally declared dead. Her parents, Paul and Diana Lamplugh, believed that Suzy, like most people at that time - and even now - was simply unaware of the possible dangers that individuals can face in society. Paul and Diana founded the Trust to highlight the risks people face and to offer advice, action and support to minimise those risks. I met Diana when she was a member of the Police Committee of the Transport Police representing the public interest. She was a tireless advocate for improving public safety and intolerant of excuses, no matter how practical, of not doing so. I greatly admired her spirit and determination in the face of the terrible loss of her daughter and the cruel uncertainty of not knowing what had happened to her or where her body was. Diana has suffered a severe stroke since and has contracted Alzheimer’s but the work is continued by the trust and her husband, Paul who has always been the organiser behind the scenes.

The attacks by four suicide bombers on the London Transport system on 7th July 2005 were the largest mass murder in Britain in peacetime killing 52 passengers on The Tube and on the No. 30 bus at Tavistock Square and injuring 800 more, many seriously. Injured or not, and serious or not all who lived through the experience carry vivid and unsettling memories. There is a curious obscenity about suicide bombing, about the personal fascism which rationalises killing yourself and complete strangers you have first looked in the eye because you have convinced yourself it is for a greater good. There is a particular perversity, if you have religious faith, in destroying what you believe are God’s creations because you have appointed yourself as God’s representative and indeed have convinced yourself that shortly afterwards you will be personally thanked by Him.

Of the bombings the greatest loss of life was caused by a 19 year old Muslim convert living in Aylesbury (where he was not known to the local Muslim community) Germaine Lindsay who had married a local girl and had a young son. At 08.50 hrs a bomb exploded on Piccadilly line train number 331 travelling south from King's Cross station to Russell Square. The device was next to the rear set of double doors in the front carriage of the train. Twenty-six people, plus the bomber, were killed. More than 340 were injured. The Piccadilly line is 21.3 metres (70 feet) below ground at this point. Intense heat of up to 60C, dust, fumes, vermin, asbestos and initial concerns the tunnel might collapse delayed the extraction of bodies and the forensic operation. Being a single track deep tube line the force of the explosion was concentrated in a smaller area accounting for the high number of deaths as well as the number and the severity of the injuries caused.

Rachel North

One of the survivors Rachel North wrote a compelling diary for the BBC News website in which she detailed her experiences and emotions on 7 July and the days that followed. Her story is more complex as she was rebuilding her life at the time after a rape attack and since the bombing she has been harassed by an obsessive stalker who has since been jailed. Her story is told in this article in the Times Newspaper; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article597033.ece

She has maintained a Blog (Rachel from North London in my BlogRoll on the right sidebar) detailing her experiences, her effort to rebuild her life and campaigning for a public enquiry into the events of 7th July 2005 – here she explains why in her own words;

“Lessons 'not learnt'

It's not about blame, or politics, I say, it is about saving lives. I truthfully don't think all the lessons of 7th July have been learned and shared amongst all the agencies and people who need to prepare for and respond to disasters and terror attacks - which include the public itself. And until the learning’s are shared, as publicly as possible without compromising the safety of the realm, how can the public feel any safer than they did on 7th July?

I would love to step away from the devastation of 7th July that still haunts my dreams. Campaigning for answers is not something I do to bring "closure"; it is tiring and it is hard work. But I strongly believe that it is the right thing to do. I couldn't help the people who died and were hurt on the train but I can try to help people now, to tell what happened so that people can learn from it, understand, be safer.

I continue to write of my journey after 7th July, the personal and political fall-out, on my personal blog.”

Some have unfairly accused her of publicity seeking but in her efforts I see great honesty and openness which I am sure just doesn’t help her cope with the traumatic aftermath but also helps her co-survivors and many others who have experienced great trauma.

In that same Piccadilly Line train as Rachel North was a woman who lost both legs and who completed a 250-mile walk which she hopes will help unite communities. Gill Hicks, 38, took 30 days to walk from Leeds to London, stopping in 22 towns and cities along the way. Her Walktalk project aimed to help people of different faiths and communities to engage with each other. Arriving in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 17th August 2008, she said a "belief in humanity" helped her complete the journey. Gill Hicks walked from Leeds - the city where three of the suicide bombers lived - to London to prove that people of different faiths can live together. She was the last person to be pulled from the wreckage of the Piccadilly Line carriage in 2005 and "died" twice on the way to hospital. Despite her injuries she has learned to jump, jog and climb stairs on the prosthetic legs her doctors fitted.

Gill Hicks finishes walk in Trafalgar Square

She began the Walktalk in Leeds as three of the four suicide bombers, who killed 52 people and injured nearly 800, had links with the city. The walk first headed to the Beeston area, where bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain lived and where their leader, Mohammed Sidique Khan, had many connections. At the end of her month-long trek, she said: "All of us stepped into this journey with great faith and great belief that humanity would carry us through from town to town and that's exactly what happened. "For me to walk from Leeds to London is probably the single most difficult thing I could ever have imagined. I still can't quite believe that I have achieved it but I never gave up because of the people that never gave up on me."

Her husband, Joe Kerr, 48, said: "We've come on a small journey in the scale of things, but a large journey for us, of hope, of optimism, of reconciliation. The journey to build a better and fairer and more equitable society is a journey we must all continue on relentlessly and continue on together. We can build a society that's based on mutual respect, which respects difference but recognises our common humanity."

Perhaps I should leave the final word to Rachel North describing the actions of the Piccadilly Line train driver on the 7th July;

“The train driver stayed behind on his train and once the front of carriage one, where I was, was cleared of frightened passengers, he was able to walk into the horrific aftermath of Europe's most deadly suicide bomb attack. He has never spoken publicly of what he did, what he saw. But I know now how he stayed for nearly two hours, trying to save lives. I dare not imagine what it was like. I wish I had known how many were hurt. I wish I had been able to help them.”

Here are the websites for Walktalk and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust – Organisations which deserve our support and which are a vibrant and practical testament to the courage of some very special people.


http://www.walktalk.org.uk/

http://www.suzylamplugh.org/