The weather has become glorious for only the second time this year and on this occasion the sun has been up before eight and continues until the early evening getting as warm as the upper twenties past three days with the promise of more over the rest of this week and next. It has been a golden 24 hours in several respects. It can also been a time longing for what has been.
Thursday evening commenced with an enjoyable meal of roast beef and unlimited vegetables followed by an ice cream at the Britannia Cleadon. On leaving the bench tables seats were still being used on the grass by the car park as the dusk descended. On return I was tired but made the mistake of checking emails and saw a request for information about Ancient Greece and this led to a quick read of a book in the Classical series and remembering images from my visits to mainland in 1966 and late to Corfu and Rhodes which all covered a number of mini trips to classical sites and to several other islands. I continue to read from time to time Remember Greece by Dilys Powell and the plight of the present economy grieves me.
The news channels have concentrated on the future of Greece where Minister from Europe and the G8 have been issuing a stark warning to the Greek people that unless they bite the bullet and accept some form of major austerity plan there will be no alternative but for them to leave the Euro and revert to their former currency. I cannot see these proud people being bullied by International politicians whatever the consequences for them and repercussions for us and the rest of Europe and will again support parties who want to renegotiate a less damaging financial plan. The second General Election in a month is unlikely to provide the kind of result to achieve stability.
I believe Greece was the most important of the ancient civilizations for those of us Western Europe because of the belief in the essential freedom and political equality of all male citizens. True this excluded slaves who forms as much as a third of the population of some City States and in keeping with the Western tradition until the twentieth century, women were excluded from the right to vote and their say, and were expected to manage homes, children and accept control by their fathers and their husbands. Clever women were able to exercise influence and indeed control but unofficially.
Given the way Athenian democracy has been replaced by representative democracy in which the rich, sometimes aristocratic, these days usually international corporations, their owners and executives control the representatives, it can be argued that the greater contribution of the Ancient Greeks has been in art with a number of plays still performed today by National and Classical Theatre companies - Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, the Trojan Women and Lysistrata are known throughout the cultured world as they were in Greek cities three to four thousand years ago.
I have visited some of the sites of ancient amphitheatres and some of modern creations such as the Minack on the cliff top in Cornwall and in Shields although called the that amphitheatre on the sea front in South Shields where I walked to day it is circular with in two weeks there will be free evening concerts on Thursdays and Saturdays in June and entertainment for children during the summer school holidays.
I must confess to not having read the Greek Poets including Homer’s Iliad or the Odyssey but I am familiar with many of the adventure stories subsequently made into films and which emanated from ancient myths and legends going back in their time.
I have seen reproductions of the main music instrument the Lyre used to accompany the poetic songs and only recently made the connection between the Lyre and the Lyric.
The Greek statues are famous for being life like and beautiful to look at, and so are their buildings with the Parthenon former Temple of the Athens Acropolis and I have watched the sunset fall over Cape Sounion yhrough the Tempt of Poseidon.
I acquired a fake Grecian urn and have read The Ode of John Keats.
When I was at Ruskin I was required to read Plato’s Republic for one of the weekly assignments in the term in which Political Theory was my main subject along Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Hegel, Lenin and Marx, Edmund Burke and Stuart Mill. I read from Sabine’s History of Political Theory and the non technical work on the same subject by Professor G C Field.
I know of the works of Aristotle and Socrates rather than from studying them during a period when I also acquired volumes on Logic and Ethics as well as the history of philosophy, including samples of their writings which I failed to digest having been tempted by the university behavioural psychology tutor to go for a Philosophy, Psychology and Physiology Oxford degree instead of professional training in child care social work.
Aristotle remains the grander of the trio because his interests mathematics, biology and zoology as well and thoughts of thought and of the emotions with his interests in the theatre and poetry.
And of course for a thousand years between 700 BC 300 AD the Olympic Games were held in Greece in varying forms and diminishing importance until they were held again just before the turn in to the twentieth century. I appreciate the concept of the Olympic Flame which does originate in those Ancient times but not the Nazi inspired 1936 Torch relays which have become a money making event with some of the 8000 of the cost to buy £200 torches already being offered for sale on by making £5000. Originally the organising committee was against resale but now admits it proposes to sell off any of those not purchased by the individual participants thus generating a market.
London will be the first city to have been awarded three of the modern Games (1916 and 1948 being the two previous occasions) and with Athens, Paris and Los Angeles although some countries have held them in different cities(Australia- in Sydney and Melbourne, Germany, Berlin and Munich)
The 21st and 23rd of May 2012 will become a remembered days because in the dawn of the Monday an email was sent saying that my Summer Olympic tickets had arrived at the Shields delivery office and would be received during the day. Within minutes of the package arriving another email was sent to confirm this event. Interestingly although I was charged £6 for the original allocation from my first bid and then when I went for tickets at St James Park all four arrived together with an information leaflets and the Travel card. I am not complaining having been allocated £40 seats for £16 with the Travel card worth £8.50 and which will get me from Croydon into London by train and then out to Wembley for the quarter final on the Saturday afternoon.
The memorable part is not the arrival of the tickets but realising that the final tranche of tickets- 1.4 million for the football and half a million others were going on sale at 11 am on the Wednesday. The day before the ticket availability was up on screen so it was possible so I worked out a wish list for the day. My first efforts were not successful. I made a selection of four events the maximum for a single session and was told I would have to wait 15 mins before knowing if any of the tickets were available. The computer crashed around 20 minutes just when the site showed there was only a minute to go. I rebooted and on the second occasion I went the full 15 plus minutes and got a £5 day pass for the Olympic site on the first full day after arrival cost £11 because of the special postage arrangements.
I decided not to give up but to apply for tickets one by one so on this same day I have a £40 seat at a cost of £16 for a basketball session at the Olympic Park. I will try and resell my football ticket for that day through the official site. On the second day I will go in the afternoon to the Excel stadium to watch a session of boxing and on the third day back to the Olympic Park for handball in the Copper Box an arena which will be kept at the site and as an indoor sports centre. In all instances I was able to get £40 seats for £16 plus the postage less the free travel card. The final purchase was the most expensive the full £65 ticket to watch Badminton at the Wembley Centre in the morning before the afternoon Quarterfinal the Stadium. There is an hour and three quarters between the two events. Having got to the swimming centre for the Paralympics, the Athletic stadium remains my last target.
In contrast to the excitement of the sun and the Olympics the fist three episodes of Prisoners of War was a good dose of the reality of human behaviour. It is understandable why this Israeli language film became essential viewing given the release of a couple of soldiers held in captivity after many years in exchange for several hundred Muslim detainees.
This films follows the release of such former soldiers held for close on two decades and the impact on their families, including that of the sister of a third soldier whose remain are returned in a coffin, As yet we know nothing of the third soldier who died except that he has become alive for the sister who kept kennels run by her parents going after their death so that their son would have an occupation when he returned. She has a friend who undertakes support for the families of prisoners and over the episodes a relationship develops between them which promise to heal the bitterness and the loneliness.
The two men who return are bonded though their experience of constant torture but appear very different personalities, in part because of the experience of their partners but there is also a lot more to be revealed. I have two books which provide an excellent account of what happens to no combatants who are taken prisoner and held for long periods in hard captivity. Brian Keenan an Irish Journalist, An Evil Cradling was taking prisoner in Beruit along with John Macarthy. He has returned to the City some 17 years. Terry Waite was appointed a negotiator by the Church of England to seek the release of McCarthy and other hostages and was held himself for over four years.
The first of the two appears the most normal. He was married at the time of his capture with a daughter born and a son in the womb. At first it the children who find the arrival of their father the most difficult in part because their mother has spent the greater part of their lives campaigning for his release She remain a national hero commanding universal respect.
This contrasts with the former betrothed of the second man who had pleased that that he would be with her for ever. In fact as hopes of his release end and she had married his brother and now has a teenage son. On release the authorities persuade the woman to return to her former home and pretend she has been waiting for his release without mentioning the marriage and the child. In fact we know that he already knew what had happened because for some reason not disclosed he is taken to a house when he is allowed to live a shot while in comfort but shown a newspaper with the information that his fiancée has remarried. However he does not disclose his awareness when on arrival the two men are allowed to stay overnight with their families.
The men are then taken to a guarded coastal villa for debriefing and are kept under 24 hour observation and here the principal investigator initially concludes nothing happened which endangers national security and the two men are allowed to return to their homes for the second evening in succession. His wife has been counselled to make room for husband and clear space for his clothing and also removed a vast quantity of material associated with her campaigning of the years. She prepares some favourite food but he wants to go out for some Pizza and is supported in this by the children. She finds it hard not resent this or that the first morning he had gone out for a run without telling her. The second “wife” experiences public hostility and guilt and willingly says at the flat on being told of his planned second visit wearing make up and cutting her hair to make herself look younger. Naturally the husband and son are bewildered by what has happened. The prisoner is dropped off but does not enter and goes to see his father, sad that his mother has died while incarcerated and distressed by the situation he is in.
While under observation it becomes evident the two men had developed a simple Morse code to communicate and this is cracked to reveal inconsistencies between what they have told the inquisitors about what happened to the dead comrade and what they say to each other. The implication is that one or both had a hand in the death of the third and there is also the suggestion that one of the two has become a secret Muslim.
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