Week37.08

Tendring Topics……..on Line

 

An Offensive Fence

 

            Circumstances nowadays often prevent my investigating in person, matters on which I'd like to comment.  I have to rely on newspaper, radio and tv news stories for my facts.  Just now and again though I do get the opportunity to see for myself.  Such an opportunity arose on Friday of last week (4^th September) when my son and daughter-in-law and my grandson Chris (on a brief holiday from teaching in Taiwan) and his charming Taiwanese girl-friend visited me.

 

            My son suggested that (despite the unrelenting rain!) we might drive over to Mistley and lunch at the Mistley Quay Café, overlooking the Stour with its swans and its views of the Suffolk coast, There they have an excellent, mainly vegetarian, menu featuring freshly harvested local produce.  Provided that you can manage the fairly steep stairway entrance (I can just cope!) it is a pleasant, welcoming venue for an excellent lunch, afternoon tea or morning coffee.

 

            My particular interest (apart from the company and the excellent meal) was the fence that had been attracting so much controversy in the local press.  Could it possibly be quite as awful as all the well-publicised protests suggested?

 

            It most certainly was.  It was difficult not to feel that the Mistley Quay and Forwarding Company, who are responsible for its installation, had gone out of their way to find the ugliest kind of barrier available.  Only electrified wire or a double barbed wire fence with guard towers at each end could have been worse!  A lovely view across the Stour will be completely ruined, yachtsmen will no longer be able to moor up at the Quay and an attractive corner of England's 'green and pleasant land' will have been comprehensively uglified!

 

            I have said 'will be' in the sentence above because, at least on 5^th September, the fence hadn't been completed.  Local protestors had parked cars and other vehicles in its proposed path. The Stourside communities are united in protest and they have  been joined by many other lovers of Mistley and its swans, including the local MP. 

 

 The Company had been told by the Health and Safety Executive that they must either close off the quay to the public, or provide full safety provision.  They chose the former option.  Nowadays 'health and safety' seems to be responsible for a great many idiotic things but surely, in this case it couldn't have meant much more than providing a couple of life belts and a rope, and perhaps also providing steps down from the quay to low water level.

 

            I think it at least possible that, even now, the Company may be deciding that the easier solution is to comply with those requirements.

 

            In an interesting post-script to this controversy an octogenarian who had lived in the neighbourhood all his life couldn't remember a single case of anyone falling off the quay.   Octogenarian memories aren't all that reliable (I should know!) but we do, I think, tend to remember all the disasters that have occurred in the past, if not the good things.

 

            Perhaps the health and safety experts could take their eyes off north-east Essex for a few moments and take a look instead at, for instance, Lake Windermere.  Now there's a stretch of deep and dangerous water that ought surely to have a high fence all round it.  Or perhaps spare a thought for The White Cliffs of Dover. There the consequences of going over the edge are rather more serious than those at Mistley Quay!

…………………………………….

 

 Who pays the piper?

 

            I don't always, perhaps not even often, find myself in agreement with our MP, Mr Douglas Carswell.  However, I share his indignation at the fact that he has been excluded from the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme Committee which exists to strengthen ties between MPs and the armed forces.

 

            He has apparently asked just too many questions about the standard of the arms and equipment supplied to our forces in Afghanistan.  As an example he claims that the UK's Lynx helicopters will not operate in the extreme heat that they sometimes experience there.  The government could have replaced them with American Black Hawk helicopters.  Instead though they have decided to build a new generation of Lynx helicopters 'which critics say will be much the same as the old ones but will cost twice as much'.

 

            Well, before passing judgement I'd like to know who 'the critics' are, and how they come to know something that is surely shrouded in secrecy.  On the whole I'd prefer to buy 'made-to-measure' in Britain than 'off the peg' from the USA.

 

            But then I'd prefer that neither a United States firm (and its shareholders) nor their British equivalent were profiting from the manufacture and sale of lethal weapons.  I think it likely that Mr Carswell would regard me as one of those odd people among whose ranks he tells us he is not to be found.  He is not, he assures us, 'Some sort of left-wing, hippy peacenik, who is opposed to the arms trade'.  Peacenick is a description I'd accept with pride. My soldiering days are long over and aren't we all supposed to be working for peace these days?

 

            I am strongly opposed to the arms trade. It saddens me to see anyone profiting from the death or maiming of our fellow men, women and children.  I look forward to the day when the arms trade is regarded in the same light as the slave trade.

 

            Am I then 'Some sort of left-wing hippy'?

 

Hippy? Hardly.  I don't think that there are too many octogenarian hippies who shave and shower daily, keep their hair short and their beards well trimmed, rarely venture out without wearing a hat (and I don't mean a woolly one!) and are seldom seen without a collar and tie.  'A left winger'?   Since the advent of New Labour I'm not at all sure what left-wing means.  On a number of issues many people, including quite possibly Mr Carswell himself, might consider my ideas to be thoroughly reactionary.

 

 

            Having said all that, I do strongly believe that Mr Carswell, as our elected MP, has every right to serve on a committee that exists to strengthen ties between MPs and the services, and to ask any questions that he considers relevant to that purpose.

 

            But then, I had imagined that this was a normal committee funded by the government like other parliamentary committees.  It appears that it isn't.  It is funded by private enterprise, including the manufacturers of the very helicopters of which he has been so critical!

 

 Mr. Carswell must surely know that 'he who pays the piper calls the tune'

………………………………..

 

 My trip to Germany

 

            In my last week's blog I said that this week I would explain why it was that I was so keen to go to Germany for a few days at the end of this month.  Since then there has been a story in the local newspaper about my trip that has explained this in some detail.

 

            I'll be quite brief then.  Towards the end of February 1945 I was one of about half a dozen British prisoners of war in Zittau, a small town in eastern Germany,  detailed to go to the town's museum for a heavy job.  This was to load a number of large and heavy wooden cases onto a lorry and go with them to a ruined monastery on the summit of Mount Oybin a small but spectacular mountain six or seven miles from the town.   We were told that they contained treasure (we thought in terms of gold or silver objects!) that was being transported there for safety.

 

            Years later I made friends with a Zittau family (I did admit to being a Peacenick!).  In correspondence I mentioned this particular task as being one of the odder jobs that I had performed while 'doing hard labour' in their town some sixty years earlier.

 

            They immediately thought of Zittau's famous Fastentuch or Lenten Veil, an enormous piece of linen that at one time had been used to screen off the sanctuary of churches in that part of Germany during the season of Lent.  Zittau's Fastentuch was unique in dating from the fifteenth century and in having 90 paintings, 45 illustrating Old Testament stories, and 45 stories from the New Testament.  It was greatly treasured in the town.

 

            At end of World War II it could not be found.  Months later it was discovered, in pieces, on the slopes of Mount Oybin where some Russian soldiers were using it to improvise an al fresco sauna!   Nobody knew how it got there until my friend received my email. Thus, I filled in a small gap in Zittau's very chequered history.

 

            This gave me a certain local celebrity that resulted in my being given a VIP welcome when I was able last year to visit the museum/church where the restored Fastentuch is now on public display.  It certainly was impressive.

           

This year three different Christian traditions in Zittau have been holding ecumenical meditations with pictures, words and music, on the theme of the Fastentuch, once a month throughout the summer, either in or near the museum/church of the Holy Cross where this historic religious artefact is displayed.   The last of these is to be held on Wednesday evening 24^th September and the 'words' of the meditation will be readings from an article of mine, 'Return to Zittau', (translated into German) that I wrote shortly after my return to England last year.  I have been invited to attend and to say a few words (through an interpreter, I hasten to add.  My German would be more likely to evoke laughter than meditation!).

 

            I shall, of course, be honoured to do so, and my son Pete and daughter-in-law Arlene have made my visit possible and are coming with me.  I don't know exactly what the 'three different Christian traditions', are but I suspect that they may be Roman Catholic, mainstream Lutheran and some kind of Evangelicalism.

 

            I am sure that whatever the three may be, my Anglo-Catholic Quakerism (or should it be Quaker Anglo-Catholicism?) should make an interesting admixture.

 

            I'll let you know how I get on.

……………………………………..

 

'Georgia's on my Mind!'

 

            A great many important people have publicly expressed their opinion about the recent conflict in Georgia and how to deal with its outcome.  The President of the United States (whom, I suspect, until a month or so ago had never even heard of South Ossetia of Abkhazia) has told us what he thinks about the situation, so has our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, the French President and the German Chancellor.  We have also heard the point of view of the Russian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and that of the President of Georgia.

 

            Just two voices haven't been heard. They are those of the people at the heart of the conflict; the South Ossetians and the Abhkazians. I have not heard a single Abhkazian or South Ossetian voice  on radio or tv.  Nor have I seen an interview with an Abkhazian or a South Ossetian reported in a single British newspaper.

 

            Could it be that everyone is worried that they might say the wrong thing; that they would prefer to have their independence, but that if that isn't possible they would rather be a part of the Russian Federation than of the Georgian State?  They have, of course, experienced both, and are thus able to make a more balanced judgement than any of those important people who have made their voices heard.

 

            Surely, if we really believe in freedom and democracy, the solution to this conflict is to hold a plebiscite under United Nations' control in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and to respect the will of the people, whatever it may be.

           

            I pray that we may be spared another Cold War.  That is something from which only the arms manufacturers would emerge as victors, and which could, all too easily, develop into a Hot War from which none of us would emerge unscathed.

……………………………………..

 

 

 

 

 

                          Tendring Topics……..on Line

 

An Offensive Fence

 

            Circumstances nowadays often prevent my investigating in person, matters on which I'd like to comment.  I have to rely on newspaper, radio and tv news stories for my facts.  Just now and again though I do get the opportunity to see for myself.  Such an opportunity arose on Friday of last week (4^th September) when my son and daughter-in-law and my grandson Chris (on a brief holiday from teaching in Taiwan) and his charming Taiwanese girl-friend visited me.

 

            My son suggested that (despite the unrelenting rain!) we might drive over to Mistley and lunch at the Mistley Quay Café, overlooking the Stour with its swans and its views of the Suffolk coast, There they have an excellent, mainly vegetarian, menu featuring freshly harvested local produce.  Provided that you can manage the fairly steep stairway entrance (I can just cope!) it is a pleasant, welcoming venue for an excellent lunch, afternoon tea or morning coffee.

 

            My particular interest (apart from the company and the excellent meal) was the fence that had been attracting so much controversy in the local press.  Could it possibly be quite as awful as all the well-publicised protests suggested?

 

            It most certainly was.  It was difficult not to feel that the Mistley Quay and Forwarding Company, who are responsible for its installation, had gone out of their way to find the ugliest kind of barrier available.  Only electrified wire or a double barbed wire fence with guard towers at each end could have been worse!  A lovely view across the Stour will be completely ruined, yachtsmen will no longer be able to moor up at the Quay and an attractive corner of England's 'green and pleasant land' will have been comprehensively uglified!

 

            I have said 'will be' in the sentence above because, at least on 5^th September, the fence hadn't been completed.  Local protestors had parked cars and other vehicles in its proposed path. The Stourside communities are united in protest and they have  been joined by many other lovers of Mistley and its swans, including the local MP. 

 

 The Company had been told by the Health and Safety Executive that they must either close off the quay to the public, or provide full safety provision.  They chose the former option.  Nowadays 'health and safety' seems to be responsible for a great many idiotic things but surely, in this case it couldn't have meant much more than providing a couple of life belts and a rope, and perhaps also providing steps down from the quay to low water level.

 

            I think it at least possible that, even now, the Company may be deciding that the easier solution is to comply with those requirements.

 

            In an interesting post-script to this controversy an octogenarian who had lived in the neighbourhood all his life couldn't remember a single case of anyone falling off the quay.   Octogenarian memories aren't all that reliable (I should know!) but we do, I think, tend to remember all the disasters that have occurred in the past, if not the good things.

 

            Perhaps the health and safety experts could take their eyes off north-east Essex for a few moments and take a look instead at, for instance, Lake Windermere.  Now there's a stretch of deep and dangerous water that ought surely to have a high fence all round it.  Or perhaps spare a thought for The White Cliffs of Dover. There the consequences of going over the edge are rather more serious than those at Mistley Quay!

…………………………………….

 

 Who pays the piper?

 

            I don't always, perhaps not even often, find myself in agreement with our MP, Mr Douglas Carswell.  However, I share his indignation at the fact that he has been excluded from the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme Committee which exists to strengthen ties between MPs and the armed forces.

 

            He has apparently asked just too many questions about the standard of the arms and equipment supplied to our forces in Afghanistan.  As an example he claims that the UK's Lynx helicopters will not operate in the extreme heat that they sometimes experience there.  The government could have replaced them with American Black Hawk helicopters.  Instead though they have decided to build a new generation of Lynx helicopters 'which critics say will be much the same as the old ones but will cost twice as much'.

 

            Well, before passing judgement I'd like to know who 'the critics' are, and how they come to know something that is surely shrouded in secrecy.  On the whole I'd prefer to buy 'made-to-measure' in Britain than 'off the peg' from the USA.

 

            But then I'd prefer that neither a United States firm (and its shareholders) nor their British equivalent were profiting from the manufacture and sale of lethal weapons.  I think it likely that Mr Carswell would regard me as one of those odd people among whose ranks he tells us he is not to be found.  He is not, he assures us, 'Some sort of left-wing, hippy peacenik, who is opposed to the arms trade'.  Peacenick is a description I'd accept with pride. My soldiering days are long over and aren't we all supposed to be working for peace these days?

 

            I am strongly opposed to the arms trade. It saddens me to see anyone profiting from the death or maiming of our fellow men, women and children.  I look forward to the day when the arms trade is regarded in the same light as the slave trade.

 

            Am I then 'Some sort of left-wing hippy'?

 

Hippy? Hardly.  I don't think that there are too many octogenarian hippies who shave and shower daily, keep their hair short and their beards well trimmed, rarely venture out without wearing a hat (and I don't mean a woolly one!) and are seldom seen without a collar and tie.  'A left winger'?   Since the advent of New Labour I'm not at all sure what left-wing means.  On a number of issues many people, including quite possibly Mr Carswell himself, might consider my ideas to be thoroughly reactionary.

 

 

            Having said all that, I do strongly believe that Mr Carswell, as our elected MP, has every right to serve on a committee that exists to strengthen ties between MPs and the services, and to ask any questions that he considers relevant to that purpose.

 

            But then, I had imagined that this was a normal committee funded by the government like other parliamentary committees.  It appears that it isn't.  It is funded by private enterprise, including the manufacturers of the very helicopters of which he has been so critical!

 

 Mr. Carswell must surely know that 'he who pays the piper calls the tune'

………………………………..

 

                               My trip to Germany

 

            In my last week's blog I said that this week I would explain why it was that I was so keen to go to Germany for a few days at the end of this month.  Since then there has been a story in the local newspaper about my trip that has explained this in some detail.

 

            I'll be quite brief then.  Towards the end of February 1945 I was one of about half a dozen British prisoners of war in Zittau, a small town in eastern Germany,  detailed to go to the town's museum for a heavy job.  This was to load a number of large and heavy wooden cases onto a lorry and go with them to a ruined monastery on the summit of Mount Oybin a small but spectacular mountain six or seven miles from the town.   We were told that they contained treasure (we thought in terms of gold or silver objects!) that was being transported there for safety.

 

            Years later I made friends with a Zittau family (I did admit to being a Peacenick!).  In correspondence I mentioned this particular task as being one of the odder jobs that I had performed while 'doing hard labour' in their town some sixty years earlier.

 

            They immediately thought of Zittau's famous Fastentuch or Lenten Veil, an enormous piece of linen that at one time had been used to screen off the sanctuary of churches in that part of Germany during the season of Lent.  Zittau's Fastentuch was unique in dating from the fifteenth century and in having 90 paintings, 45 illustrating Old Testament stories, and 45 stories from the New Testament.  It was greatly treasured in the town.

 

            At end of World War II it could not be found.  Months later it was discovered, in pieces, on the slopes of Mount Oybin where some Russian soldiers were using it to improvise an al fresco sauna!   Nobody knew how it got there until my friend received my email. Thus, I filled in a small gap in Zittau's very chequered history.

 

            This gave me a certain local celebrity that resulted in my being given a VIP welcome when I was able last year to visit the museum/church where the restored Fastentuch is now on public display.  It certainly was impressive.

           

This year three different Christian traditions in Zittau have been holding ecumenical meditations with pictures, words and music, on the theme of the Fastentuch, once a month throughout the summer, either in or near the museum/church of the Holy Cross where this historic religious artefact is displayed.   The last of these is to be held on Wednesday evening 24^th September and the 'words' of the meditation will be readings from an article of mine, 'Return to Zittau', (translated into German) that I wrote shortly after my return to England last year.  I have been invited to attend and to say a few words (through an interpreter, I hasten to add.  My German would be more likely to evoke laughter than meditation!).

 

            I shall, of course, be honoured to do so, and my son Pete and daughter-in-law Arlene have made my visit possible and are coming with me.  I don't know exactly what the 'three different Christian traditions', are but I suspect that they may be Roman Catholic, mainstream Lutheran and some kind of Evangelicalism.

 

            I am sure that whatever the three may be, my Anglo-Catholic Quakerism (or should it be Quaker Anglo-Catholicism?) should make an interesting admixture.

 

            I'll let you know how I get on.

……………………………………..

 

'Georgia's on my Mind!'

 

            A great many important people have publicly expressed their opinion about the recent conflict in Georgia and how to deal with its outcome.  The President of the United States (whom, I suspect, until a month or so ago had never even heard of South Ossetia of Abkhazia) has told us what he thinks about the situation, so has our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, the French President and the German Chancellor.  We have also heard the point of view of the Russian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and that of the President of Georgia.

 

            Just two voices haven't been heard. They are those of the people at the heart of the conflict; the South Ossetians and the Abhkazians. I have not heard a single Abhkazian or South Ossetian voice  on radio or tv.  Nor have I seen an interview with an Abkhazian or a South Ossetian reported in a single British newspaper.

 

            Could it be that everyone is worried that they might say the wrong thing; that they would prefer to have their independence, but that if that isn't possible they would rather be a part of the Russian Federation than of the Georgian State?  They have, of course, experienced both, and are thus able to make a more balanced judgement than any of those important people who have made their voices heard.

 

            Surely, if we really believe in freedom and democracy, the solution to this conflict is to hold a plebiscite under United Nations' control in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and to respect the will of the people, whatever it may be.

           

            I pray that we may be spared another Cold War.  That is something from which only the arms manufacturers would emerge as victors, and which could, all too easily, develop into a Hot War from which none of us would emerge unscathed.

……………………………………..