On January 12th the West Indian Island of Hispanola shared by the Dominican and Haitian Republics was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake, the biggest for some 200 hundred years and according to the media devastated only Haiti with its population of under 9 million of whom one in three cannot read or write. Yet this was the first of the 19th century enslaved nations to rebel and create an independent Presidency and subsequent party political system of sorts with its most notorious period between 1957 and 1986 the Duvalier family were the dictators with a private army and terrorist death squads, the Tonton Macute supported by the USA Military and USA finances. The country has never had a stable administration and as recent as 2000, the USA government intervened forcing the President to seek sanctuary in France. Since 2004 the UN has partnered the latest President with a Stabilization Mission which has included armed peace keeping soldiers
The extent of the devastations is being reported round the clock by the international media, and governments from around the earth planet are providing emergency response team and aid, and the usual raft of International aid organisations have mounted expeditionary teams and charitable donation coordination in the UK.
Human and animal bodies lay rotting in the streets and the injured lay dieing in hospitals and in the open tended only by their relatives and friends. The collapse of the Haitian military, political government and civil administration has resulted in chaos and a humanitarian crisis which will require a major coordinated international effort to prevent further deaths, and the reconstruction of a government and civil society. The situation resembles that of a post nuclear attack of which I have some knowledge having attended national training to deal with such an aftermath.
In stage one the situation needs a hierarchical military led administration to rescue survivors, attend to the physical injuries and other trauma, to bury the dead, feed and clothe as well as providing clean water to drink, cook and clean. Temporary towns and villages will have to be created for the existing population including the provision of field communications, lighting and energy. The various multinational aid workers and the media will also require the basics of food and shelter and indeed these will be priority as well as providing for rest and relaxation if they are to be able to continue beyond the first crisis response. All this will have been prepared for and crisis response teams will have been on stand by in the G 20 and other nations around the earth planet.
It is inevitable that some people will die who should not, some will exploit the situation for their own ends and international corporations and governments will fight to participate in the reconstruction contracts. Sorting this out as primarily a problem of the US and UN and Britain should be careful to provide help but not get over involved or disproportionably involved.
There has been no more snow in this area although some is forecast for the weekend. My cold has gone to the chest although I am taking medication which has some positive effect and I may still get to the relay of a new production of Carmen from the Metropolitan on Saturday although I will ensure that if I do I will not spoil the experience of others by coughing or sneezing and blowing my nose.
I have managed to watch all five episodes of Babylon 5 this week and hope to write about these and the X files over the weekend. I dipped to the Big Brother House where the former girl friend of the Stones drummer proved what a silly girl she is and was rightly evicted on Friday along with Heidi, who attracted some sympathy but treated the experience as if she was back in prison, keeping out of the way and doing as little as possible and sleeping whenever she could. I was not surprised that the young tomboy rapper who has a phobia about wearing dresses and a foolish childish temper which should have been outgrown long before now was also in the participant selected bottom three as she has also demonstrated a constant selfishness and self interest. Her behaviour appears to be a defensive reaction she needs to listen to the good advice being given to her if she is to survive. The Swedish singer has a good voice but is obnoxious in his behaviour and it will be interesting to see if my reaction is confirmed in having lost one bedmate he immediately seeks another. I would be surprised if he and the rapper are not in the front line next week.
I also managed to see something of the new and enlarged Celebrity Ice Dancing with the amazing Jane Torvil and Christopher Dean. For the first week there were seven female dancers and I knew of five with Heather Mills the former wife of Paul McCartney the most well known, with Sharon Davies the Olympic Swimmer, looking her years and Danniella Westbrook of Eastenders fame doing well with the judges, as did the Singer and Simon Cowell ex, Sinita, who failed the dance off. Tana Ramsay, the wife of Gordon was in the bottom three according to the judges. The two unknowns to me are Emily Attack who came last but was not in the skate off and someone called Hayley Tamaddon who the judges awarded the highest marks. She has appeared in west end shows and came to attention in Stars in their Eyes programme.
A corresponding friend recently wrote about never having seen the sea and I considered this and decided that the call of water, the sea, the ocean, is basic to all human beings and it is understandable that you have a longing to experience an expanse of what appears to be endless waterway. It has to do with curiosity, about personal identity in the context of eternity and the experience of the womb.
We in Britain have the advantage of living on an island, the biggest of what are four separate nationalities inhabiting a number of islands with Scotland forming the northern part of the main island, England covering the greater part of the remainder and Wales to the west, with Ireland being a separate Island to the west and where there are hundreds of smaller islands around the coast with the majority uninhabited. It is a fact that you cannot live anywhere in the British Islands without being less than 150km from the sea and usually less than a two hour drive with exception if you live in central London although you can reach the sea in most directions by train in under an hour and a half.
The British or French Channel is the area of seaway between the British Islands and France and which is less than 50 km in some parts and where the is now a trains across the sea bed for private cars and goods vehicles and for high speed passenger trains. It is quicker for someone to get from London to Paris than from Newcastle to London. The British or French channel is the busiest sea area in the world with ships going north to other European states, or south to the Mediterranean or west across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
Where I was raised as a child we were within an hour's train journey of the south coast which I first experienced just after the War in Europe ended in a day trip to Brighton where the beach had not been cleared of mines, barbed wire and anti tank emplacements
Because everyone lives with the sea not too far away it is possible to visit just for a day and this is now a more popular activity than taking a longer holiday of a week or two which first became popular in the 20th century when workers were given paid holiday leave. Then in the 1960's cheap air flights were introduced to Spain, visiting Spanish coast resorts became popular, and to the Islands of Greece. France was also a place to visit and Italy, but here the interest was historical and cultural and appealed more to the more educated and wealthier classes than the industrial, the factory and the shop worker. The main reason from the change of spending annual paid holiday in Spain rather than the UK is the weather, where in the UK the summer can pass with only a few really warm and sunny days were in Spain, Greece, Italy and southern France such condition are almost guaranteed.
I was taken as a child to spend one or two weeks for a seaside holiday to places on the South and South West coast of England with the most memorable those the Isle of Wight, a small island with only 250000 long stay residents and it was not until I was in my early twenties that I visited Scotland and late twenties I visited Wales, and I have only made one short visit to Ireland.
My situation changed when I moved to the North East in 1974 over 35 years ago and bought a house from which one could view the North Sea across a small open space and walk the sandy beach in all forms of weather. There was then also opportunity to visit the English Lakes in Cumbria, expanses of inland waterway surrounded by Mountains to the west and involving two to three hour drive each way, leave early and you arrive by mid morning and then spend the day before returning mid evening. I have also been to the Lakes for short breaks of two or three days over a weekend and the weekend break to the coast or to a city for the night life has become in creasing popular as more people had the opportunity. Many people also purchased second homes, from cottages in the country, to flats in town centres and caravans and special holiday homes in the countryside and seaside so they did not have to make the journey there and back in the day and could leave clothes and equipment which they did not have then to transport back and forth. However the greatest pleasure was to be able to take short breaks and longer holidays to Scotland which is also full of lakes which are called Lochs, mountains and hills. These visit was taken at Easter or Christmas or half school term holidays as I was also in a position to visit other European Counties during the summer to Sweden Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. I have also driven through Germany staying a couple of nights and also driven through Austria and stayed three nights in Switzerland and a night in Andorra between France and Spain.
Although I no longer live directly facing the sea I can see the mouth of the River Tyne from the front windows as I live on a hill close to a grassy bank part of one of three parks which run between the housing and the river mouth and sandy bay which forms South Shields and where one can walk along the coast line all the way to Seaburn Sunderland where I lived for thirty years some 11km away. I used to a good walker and two decades ago did walk the whole distance but these days take the car and walk for an hour or less along the different parts of the coastline from spring to autumn. So I have been lucky in this respect and been able to satisfy the call of the water, although I have no enthusiasm for taking holiday on water and the plane is a preferable means of travel although there is little opportunity recently..
I also did not learn to swim, to bathe, in water with confidence until joining a leisure club some twenty years ago which included a small 10 m pool. As a consequence of using the facility on a regular basis I gained confidence and was able to swim some distance when taking holidays to Greece and France. One of my most memorable holidays was when I was able to hire a small villa in Southern France in a hill village and which has its own swimming pool. While there is a public swimming pool in the town it is more designed for leisure and where the special sessions for older people are in the early morning. There is the intention of building a new facility within waking distance of my home which will be a bonus. I am trying to lose weight. and swimming a little on a regular basis would help as well as keep in better health.
The extent of the devastations is being reported round the clock by the international media, and governments from around the earth planet are providing emergency response team and aid, and the usual raft of International aid organisations have mounted expeditionary teams and charitable donation coordination in the UK.
Human and animal bodies lay rotting in the streets and the injured lay dieing in hospitals and in the open tended only by their relatives and friends. The collapse of the Haitian military, political government and civil administration has resulted in chaos and a humanitarian crisis which will require a major coordinated international effort to prevent further deaths, and the reconstruction of a government and civil society. The situation resembles that of a post nuclear attack of which I have some knowledge having attended national training to deal with such an aftermath.
In stage one the situation needs a hierarchical military led administration to rescue survivors, attend to the physical injuries and other trauma, to bury the dead, feed and clothe as well as providing clean water to drink, cook and clean. Temporary towns and villages will have to be created for the existing population including the provision of field communications, lighting and energy. The various multinational aid workers and the media will also require the basics of food and shelter and indeed these will be priority as well as providing for rest and relaxation if they are to be able to continue beyond the first crisis response. All this will have been prepared for and crisis response teams will have been on stand by in the G 20 and other nations around the earth planet.
It is inevitable that some people will die who should not, some will exploit the situation for their own ends and international corporations and governments will fight to participate in the reconstruction contracts. Sorting this out as primarily a problem of the US and UN and Britain should be careful to provide help but not get over involved or disproportionably involved.
There has been no more snow in this area although some is forecast for the weekend. My cold has gone to the chest although I am taking medication which has some positive effect and I may still get to the relay of a new production of Carmen from the Metropolitan on Saturday although I will ensure that if I do I will not spoil the experience of others by coughing or sneezing and blowing my nose.
I have managed to watch all five episodes of Babylon 5 this week and hope to write about these and the X files over the weekend. I dipped to the Big Brother House where the former girl friend of the Stones drummer proved what a silly girl she is and was rightly evicted on Friday along with Heidi, who attracted some sympathy but treated the experience as if she was back in prison, keeping out of the way and doing as little as possible and sleeping whenever she could. I was not surprised that the young tomboy rapper who has a phobia about wearing dresses and a foolish childish temper which should have been outgrown long before now was also in the participant selected bottom three as she has also demonstrated a constant selfishness and self interest. Her behaviour appears to be a defensive reaction she needs to listen to the good advice being given to her if she is to survive. The Swedish singer has a good voice but is obnoxious in his behaviour and it will be interesting to see if my reaction is confirmed in having lost one bedmate he immediately seeks another. I would be surprised if he and the rapper are not in the front line next week.
I also managed to see something of the new and enlarged Celebrity Ice Dancing with the amazing Jane Torvil and Christopher Dean. For the first week there were seven female dancers and I knew of five with Heather Mills the former wife of Paul McCartney the most well known, with Sharon Davies the Olympic Swimmer, looking her years and Danniella Westbrook of Eastenders fame doing well with the judges, as did the Singer and Simon Cowell ex, Sinita, who failed the dance off. Tana Ramsay, the wife of Gordon was in the bottom three according to the judges. The two unknowns to me are Emily Attack who came last but was not in the skate off and someone called Hayley Tamaddon who the judges awarded the highest marks. She has appeared in west end shows and came to attention in Stars in their Eyes programme.
A corresponding friend recently wrote about never having seen the sea and I considered this and decided that the call of water, the sea, the ocean, is basic to all human beings and it is understandable that you have a longing to experience an expanse of what appears to be endless waterway. It has to do with curiosity, about personal identity in the context of eternity and the experience of the womb.
We in Britain have the advantage of living on an island, the biggest of what are four separate nationalities inhabiting a number of islands with Scotland forming the northern part of the main island, England covering the greater part of the remainder and Wales to the west, with Ireland being a separate Island to the west and where there are hundreds of smaller islands around the coast with the majority uninhabited. It is a fact that you cannot live anywhere in the British Islands without being less than 150km from the sea and usually less than a two hour drive with exception if you live in central London although you can reach the sea in most directions by train in under an hour and a half.
The British or French Channel is the area of seaway between the British Islands and France and which is less than 50 km in some parts and where the is now a trains across the sea bed for private cars and goods vehicles and for high speed passenger trains. It is quicker for someone to get from London to Paris than from Newcastle to London. The British or French channel is the busiest sea area in the world with ships going north to other European states, or south to the Mediterranean or west across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
Where I was raised as a child we were within an hour's train journey of the south coast which I first experienced just after the War in Europe ended in a day trip to Brighton where the beach had not been cleared of mines, barbed wire and anti tank emplacements
Because everyone lives with the sea not too far away it is possible to visit just for a day and this is now a more popular activity than taking a longer holiday of a week or two which first became popular in the 20th century when workers were given paid holiday leave. Then in the 1960's cheap air flights were introduced to Spain, visiting Spanish coast resorts became popular, and to the Islands of Greece. France was also a place to visit and Italy, but here the interest was historical and cultural and appealed more to the more educated and wealthier classes than the industrial, the factory and the shop worker. The main reason from the change of spending annual paid holiday in Spain rather than the UK is the weather, where in the UK the summer can pass with only a few really warm and sunny days were in Spain, Greece, Italy and southern France such condition are almost guaranteed.
I was taken as a child to spend one or two weeks for a seaside holiday to places on the South and South West coast of England with the most memorable those the Isle of Wight, a small island with only 250000 long stay residents and it was not until I was in my early twenties that I visited Scotland and late twenties I visited Wales, and I have only made one short visit to Ireland.
My situation changed when I moved to the North East in 1974 over 35 years ago and bought a house from which one could view the North Sea across a small open space and walk the sandy beach in all forms of weather. There was then also opportunity to visit the English Lakes in Cumbria, expanses of inland waterway surrounded by Mountains to the west and involving two to three hour drive each way, leave early and you arrive by mid morning and then spend the day before returning mid evening. I have also been to the Lakes for short breaks of two or three days over a weekend and the weekend break to the coast or to a city for the night life has become in creasing popular as more people had the opportunity. Many people also purchased second homes, from cottages in the country, to flats in town centres and caravans and special holiday homes in the countryside and seaside so they did not have to make the journey there and back in the day and could leave clothes and equipment which they did not have then to transport back and forth. However the greatest pleasure was to be able to take short breaks and longer holidays to Scotland which is also full of lakes which are called Lochs, mountains and hills. These visit was taken at Easter or Christmas or half school term holidays as I was also in a position to visit other European Counties during the summer to Sweden Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. I have also driven through Germany staying a couple of nights and also driven through Austria and stayed three nights in Switzerland and a night in Andorra between France and Spain.
Although I no longer live directly facing the sea I can see the mouth of the River Tyne from the front windows as I live on a hill close to a grassy bank part of one of three parks which run between the housing and the river mouth and sandy bay which forms South Shields and where one can walk along the coast line all the way to Seaburn Sunderland where I lived for thirty years some 11km away. I used to a good walker and two decades ago did walk the whole distance but these days take the car and walk for an hour or less along the different parts of the coastline from spring to autumn. So I have been lucky in this respect and been able to satisfy the call of the water, although I have no enthusiasm for taking holiday on water and the plane is a preferable means of travel although there is little opportunity recently..
I also did not learn to swim, to bathe, in water with confidence until joining a leisure club some twenty years ago which included a small 10 m pool. As a consequence of using the facility on a regular basis I gained confidence and was able to swim some distance when taking holidays to Greece and France. One of my most memorable holidays was when I was able to hire a small villa in Southern France in a hill village and which has its own swimming pool. While there is a public swimming pool in the town it is more designed for leisure and where the special sessions for older people are in the early morning. There is the intention of building a new facility within waking distance of my home which will be a bonus. I am trying to lose weight. and swimming a little on a regular basis would help as well as keep in better health.
No comments:
Post a Comment