Money and other illusions

Hello my lovely people.





I doubt I shall be able to say anything new about money since better people than me have been thinking about, reasoning with it and earn more of it than me for since yonks ago. However, it still does seem to need a mention with all the G20 business and the protests going in London. People are obviously very upset -- putting bricks through the windows of banks and stuff like that. It is hard to see from this vantage point how far these protests are based on ideology and how much on character defects like blame and envy.



I know there is a recession going on but I get the distinct impression that there are several million people complaining of the present difficult circumstance whose situation has not worsened at all. There is an influence on the national mood that is in addition to the net material changes in circumstances. It seems a bit like the nation catching a virus. This virus though only infects thinking and mood and makes you feel that things are worse than they really are. This doesn't refer to people who really have lost jobs and homes etc like some of my favourite colleagues at work who, for the record, have not complained at all to my knowledge.



It would be a bit hard to get worked up about the stupidity of global gambling on assets that don't quite really exist if it didn't really affect a lot of people somewhere. If it were not for that, it would seem like the biggest joke of all time. I am in danger of indulging in the latest national pastime -- kick a banker. I doubt they are particularly worse than anybody else. Lots of people gamble for a living. It would seem to be an advantage though at least to gamble on a real horse rather than a notional one.


Today I bought a cash passport and loaded it with some Euros. Although the home office still have my friend's passport, I'll travelling tomorrow and I needed a bit of back up. Or, more to the point, I felt like I did. They are like debit cards but without the bank account and with a £1.50 charge every time you withdraw money from the ATM. Not bad for a little peace of mind I suppose but certainly, in a small way, an example of an industry that employs quite a lot of peopel and makes quite a lot of money for just moving numbers around from one computer system to another.


I am not an economist but in my head it strikes me that this type of industry must be underpinned by a far greater proportion of economic activity that is genuinely based on a mutually favourable excahnge of things that have been developed out of material natural resources. I suppose I see things like agriculture and manufacturing as giving our economy gravity. In some way I see a move towards an economy dominated by service industries as being Lando's Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back -- a thing that doesn't look like it should be standing up by itself but somehow it does. I know the argument about the more developed economies supplying skilled services etc that newer econmies don't do it is just that -- aren't we pegged to the greater currency of what natural resources we have and how we make them into things we can exchange really?


I read in Nial Ferguson's book The Ascent of Money that if I lend you the bank £100 and they keep £10 on deposit and lend the other £90 out to the next borrower, effectively they have created some wealth; an additional £90. If the second lender then deposits that money in a different bank, who, in turn, lends £80 of that to another lender there are now held as deposits £270 from an original £100. The problem is that the additional £170 is only really a notional reality. It only exists in thin air. Thin air might look thin but it can really come back to haunt you like the hounds at head of this credit crunch. That's not bad for an illusion.

Our passports of yesterday

Well, I am about to go off travelling into Spain which is good. Some years since the Spainish world cup (1982?) I still remember the little orange with the smily face which was sort of the mascott of the tournament. This little fella is still famous, as my Spainish students informed me last year, going by the name of Narahito apparently.

We have got a few last minute complications with the trip. My travel partner is waiting for his passport to be returned from the home office, we hope with all the requisite stamps and stuff. It looks to be going right down to the wire in terms of whether it arrives in time for us to depart at the same time.

Significant though this may be in the stress-before-leaving stakes it only registers somewhere mid-table in terms of the all time classics (of all time). I like the incident that befall myself and Lewis last time I went to Spain - we arrived at the airport on Wednesday only to discover that the flight was on the Thursday. Oops! It is funny how things can get stuck in the head and no matter what is shed by the cold light day of day onto the black of the paper before you, it remains unchallenged. If this can happen with flight dates it must go even further in terms of assumptions abouts peoples motivations, intentions and behaviour.

Another one was the time I was leaving a semester of work in Macedonia, with a family member I'll try to keep anonymous although he looks like me and is fairly near my age. We got the border between Macedonia and Greece only to find that the bank he changed his money at in Tetovo - some two hundred miles north of our present position - had failed to encouage an effective passport recovery routine with the customer in the final stages of the transaction. Nothing for it but one of us to North and the other to go South. I did feel pretty lousy about that one I must say.

Another one of geographical similarity and documentary proximty was during mine and my colleagues great escape from the chaos of Macedonia during the commencement of the bombing campaign in Kosovo and Serbia. Mary's passport had run out some months prior to the Macedonain stoning of the British Consulate and not been renewed. She had to the run the gauntlet of helicopters and chaos of the time to go back into Skopje and meet the foreign office guy in a location some-wise removed the consulate in order to hand over travel documents to get her into Greece.

When she returned to the town down south where we were staying we made paln to get across the border back into EU. Cabs arrived and we loaded our stuff into them. I was in one cab with Mary and Jo and Catherine and Aisling were in the cab in front. When we got to the border crossing with Greece the cab in front went through the official document check and so on and so on and was about to pull away when Mary recalled that her travel documents were in the boot of the car in front. We somehow managed to communicate this and interrupt the car's progression into Europe just long enough to get the boot open and retrieve the documents.

So today we await news of whether the comtemporary of these other auspicious documents is likely to arrive before Thursday. Something of a rigid planner these days (I had to do something with all that energy after I gave up smoking) I now have two rather different plans in the mind in terms of how the trip will pan out. I guess the trips I like the most though don't have every detail hammered out in advance so this could be a good thing.

I'll let you know..... I just gotta get there and bring back some memorabilia from the Spain 82 World Cup.

Weather Rant

Yes it's true that everything comes a standstill in the UK during extreme weather. We hardly mobilize at all during the occurrence of snow and apparently other countries laugh at us. It has been calculated the if half the money we'd lost from the economy had been spent on standby services over the last few eighteen years, we'd be slightly better financially, as a nation, now, in the aftermath of the snow.

Yes it's true that's the kind of arcane calculation that dominated much of the broadcasting over the recent period. It is indicative of the fact that our national consciousness or media or both is dominated by thinking in terms of money. It is said that we are largely de-politicized in the UK but I haven't found this to be the case. I would be hard pushed to find someone who did not have an opinion on public policy. Especially when it comes to the actions or inactions of the local authority.

I must admit, as a council employee who didn't do anything during the bad weather I feel I could have been better employed. Although usually employed in the realm of teaching adults ESOL and literacy, if I had been asked to volunteer to get on a buggy (my imagination fails me... a what... a kind of snow plough troop carrier, open to the elements) to go out and clear pavements. I'd have done it; we'll maybe for a few hours. The thing is, nobody else did it. I am in my thirties. I like walking and I wear walking boots. I slid around and walked cautiously. I reckon it was even harder on the physically infirm, the disabled and the elderly.

One thing that was nice about the weather was that people started thawing out and becoming a little bit more human - even in Croydon. It was like, well, I can't charge down this road at the moment because there's ice on it. On a public level, we could do other than acknowledge our weakness, or perhaps powerlessness over the weather. Something of the insidious self-importance and self-will fell away from us.

It was great to see the roads getting usable again and I felt grateful to the trailblazers who had dug their cars out early and got out on the roads who help to wear down the snow to the level where they were truly drivable again.

Music and the hands of grace

The right hand is loss and the left hand is grace
All bound up together like
Music and the journey of time

Only one of these hands
Has strength
The other grapples the darkness

But suffering don't snuff out the light;
These two
Sliding across circumstance
Towards a purpose
The fury of the clinch
Never outside the narrative
Of resurrection

We all have a story

On Saturday 4th October we met record-breaking paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson at the Croydon's Clocktower - an event we had been looking forward to and working towards for some time.

Learners from CALAT had been involved in a project on the theme of overcoming adveristy. The literacy groups had each read her book, 'Aim High', with each learner then doing a piece of biographical writing outlining a hardship that they had overcome in their lives. Next, the learners had their work published in a booklet which was given to Tanni on the day.

Brit School - A Script of Sorts

The event started off with an excellent performance by a group from the BRIT school who performed a piece called: 'Life: A Script of Sorts'. Combining music dance and personal writing, they were able to communicate as individuals their collective will to live and celebrate the experience at the same time. It was nice to see such a young group able to express a very positive sense of what life means to them, all the more poignant given their 'Script of Sorts' was developed in the context of working with children in a local hospice.

The Young Poets

Next a group of young poets took the stage by storm, using a variety of poetic forms inclusing the limmerick, diamante and shape poetry to express themselves on themes of achievement among others. As the Psalmist said (Pslam 8:2): 'from the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger'. Not normally one to misappropriate the Bible, I did feel that it was remarkable to see such young children writing and then reading poetry in front of such large crowds. Maybe the enemy and the avenger are illiteracy, ignorance and poverty which would seem automatically to occupy any space left by a lack of learning. So maybe education is a powerful weapon against such things; this is an argument that the children made for themselves as they demonstrated how rewarding it was for them to work with poetry and rhyme at a young age.

CALAT Literacy Learners

Our Literacy learners really did well, reading some very personal writing to a large assembled group of mostly strangers. Their work covered themes such as alcoholism, equal opportunities, the shame of illiteracy and memories from childhood. They stood up proud and we were proud of them. It was not difficult to see the value of their education as they delivered their work clearly and confidently one by one. One learner even said that the service had made a huge difference to her life. (Keep it coming!) Many other learners, although not present, had contributed to the booklet making for a real smorgasbord of a publication, with just enough of each story to leave you wishing to read more.

Lanfranc School Learners

The stories written by the Lanfranc learners were also a remarkable pointer to the value of investing in and supporting those in need who chose our country as a place of refuge. I know what we do is ultimately reckoned in terms of numbers and percentage; the value to the Lanfranc learners, though, of the input from their helpers and teachers did seem clearly to transcend such as a calculation.

Tanni Grey Thompson

Tanni then spoke for about half an hour talking about her early life, her athletics career and her life since retiring from the track. She is a very bright individual with a strong desire to succeed and seems never to have worn her impairment a reason to aim for anything other than the absolutely maximum she could achieve in her life. She won 16 Paralympic medals in her career including 11 golds. She deferred reitrement after Athens 2004 and only winning two Golds feeling that she still had unfinished business on the track. This is a philosophy that she seems still to be following today working as a mentor and coach to young athletes among other roles.

Read more about Tanni on Wikipedia

We All Have a Story

As her talk finished it was evident that we had not heard the whole story. Similarly, the learners were only able to read exerpts from their longer pieces. Collectively, there seemed to be a story rising up out of everyone, if only we'd had enough time to hear it all. I got the feeling that the total amount of narrative present in the audience had a greater mass than I had imagined. I even wanted to stand up and tell my story. In an atmosphere of trust, as the stories come out into the light, it does not seem at all unreasonable that the shadows of fear and laziness might gradually evaporate leaving clear a way ahead we thought we might never walk down.

Council website
Croydon Cultural Olympiad

Birthday Party at 36

No actual photos exist from the event but perhaps a few memories. You might remember a joke directed at you that you didn't like the sound of. You might remember salmon falling from your chop sticks onto your trousers. You might remember a room full of people you almost know. You might remember the willingness of your loved ones to take up positions of service. You might remember the story of my dad running over a cat. You might remember meeting for the first time or for the first time in a while. The world is not entirely relative; some things are shared.

I remember the perspective of the table stretched out in front of me. A table lined with candle-lit food warmers like a road heading both ways out of the present into the past and future. You might remember a feeling that no matter where we came from, we have something in common.

Fear was not on the menu and didn't even get through the door: we had tempura, sushi, salmon, and some proper desserts. You might not have noticed the absence of the girl who taught us how to make tempura or the absence of committed drinking. I think I noticed the grace of the One who fills our lives with the potential and the reality of love and companionship. I think the Man who turned water into wine at Cana still likes parties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_at_Cana

Amos 9:14 4 'And I will bring back the exiles of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.'

Orkney and Scotland 2008

Just got back from Orkney and a few other places in Scotland. I like being on tour. It was an excellent trip mostly spent with the family - both nuclear and extended plus a few days backpacking to boot.

Edinburgh

I started in Edinburgh and spent some time with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousins. I saw a show at the Edinburgh festival which was a fairly mixed quality reviewed here in the Scotsman. It was great to see all the family here. Edinburgh is a lovely city but vastly overcrowded during festival time - my presence notwithstanding of course. Didn't really have enough time there but it was great to see everyone. Sadly, only one cousin shown here and she is not the guy with no hair.



Aberdeen

On then to Aberdeen. A city I had wanted to see for some time and the only major city in Scotland I had not visited. I quite liked but I didn't really get on well at the hostel where I spent some time in fourteen-bed male dorm. Yes, it was noisy and smelly. How many times would you get up in the night multiplied by fourteen? I liked the museum and art gallery in Aberdeen though and was pleased to have seen the sparkling granite.

Thurso

I then got the train up to Thurso which takes about seven hours from Aberdeen. The second part though, from Inverness, is a really nice trip along the coast. Sandra's backpackers in Thurso is a cool place. Sandra is a very nice lady and has made a nice space for travelers getting round Caithness or going off to Orkney as I was. You get a nice view of Hoy from the beach. The island sometimes appears in relief when the weather on Hoy is sunny and the weather in Thurso is cloudy. It gives an intriguing glimpse of what might lay in store over the water.

Orkney

The ferry over to Orkney is great; you get to see the Old man of Hoy at no extra cost and trailed by a lot of seabirds during the crossing.

We were staying in Kirkwall which was a good location for seeing the mainland. The accommodation was above a shop on Albert St.

Day One
We drove down the causeways through the Southern Isles. The highlights were seeing the Italian church, the block ships and Churchill barriers. The village of St. Margaret's hope is a good place to have lunch if you can stand the midges.

Day Two
We went up to Marwick head and saw the Kitchener memorial which stands in a great location full of wildlife. Here we saw Great Skuas gliding above the cliffs on thermals. Then, driving round the north of the Island, we passed through the village of Evie and visited the Broch of Gurness; a much preserved two-thousand year old village. Life eback then looked pretty cold with everyone also living at very close quarters.

Day Three


Iain arrived and we went out to see some of the main sites of historical interest on the island. We started at Skara Brae which is an outstanding old village next to a really nice beach; Skail Bay. No wonder they decided to build their village there. After that we went on to Maeshowe which is thought to be some kind of burial chamber although when it was discovered there was nothing inside expect Viking graffiti saying something like 'we stole all the treasure'. The mainland also has some stone circles to visit with slabs of quite considerable size.

Day Four

Iain and I went over to Hoy; the volcanic island south of the mainland. We got the ferry over for about seven quid. Loads of sea birds evident in the harbour. On the way back a man walked up silently behind me and exclaimed 'ganet' in a very dead pan tone. It seemed to be something on an initiating into the ornithology community.

On the island we walked up Ward Hill, the highest hill on Orkney. Some very good views from the top. Walking back down the ridge, I spotted a mountain hare with black ears. There were loads of Great Skuas around too. We got a bit too close to a nest at one stage and almost got dive bombed.

Day Five
In the morning Iain and I looked round the cathedral and saw a scripture on a plack that he had told me about the previous day, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you." Ephesians 5:14. Then we walked round the Earl's and the Bishop's palaces. In the afternoon we went to Scapa Bay and saw Oyster Catchers in quite large numbers then went on to the pier arts centre in Stromness which has a great collection upstairs and is housed in a very contemporary building.

Day Six
We went out to Birsay and checked out the ruins of another village. This one was rather modern though - only eight hundred years old. Then we walked round the mini-island there. In the cliffs we saw what we believe to be Guillemots nesting in the dramatic cliffs there. Also, there were some birds diving for fish that may have been 'divers' of one sort or another. It was pretty much a case of packing in the evening but we managed to get a nice Chinese meal in too.


Back to Inverness
We drove back to Inverness via Dunnet Head and John O'Groats. It was interesting to see the west coast and we stopped off for tea on the way. Inverness was quite busy compared to Kirkwall and it was a bit of a shock to the system checking into the Student Backpackers Hostel which was a metal-loving, hard-drinking joint whether you didgeridoo or you didgeridon't. It was nice to see the river and atmostphere on the weekends. The locals say that the town has changed a lot in the last ten years for the better. The castle there is used as a court now which creates a slightly uneasy mix of tourists and defendants hanging around the same space.

We had meal out a restaurant next to the river for Mum's birthday where they served a pretty decent steak I must say.


London

Nobody had done any major socio-cultural rennovations on South London since I had been away. Back in the news loop and getting fed lots of downbeat economics forecasts and trying to cut down on my sports news intake. Wondering if Orkney still exists or it disappears when you get back to London.