A Strong Man

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“Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge and dares forgive an injury”.

There will an avalanche of tributes to the memory of Nelson Mandela, who died yesterday evening, at the age of 95, but this quotation by the 19th century American preacher and poet E. H. Chapin seems to me to be an apposite epitaph.

We are all familiar with the history of Mandela’s struggles, his imprisonment and 27 long years of incarceration before his eventual release in 1990. Back then the world expected a desire for revenge against his former oppressors, a natural human trait, but instead it witnessed forgiveness which, as another great 20th century leader of peace and freedom, Mahatma Gandhi, described as “an attribute of the strong”.

The world lost a strong man yesterday.

The Perils of Paternity Leave

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Earlier this week the Government announced that from 2015 onwards fathers will be given a year’s leave to care for their new born babies. Very nice indeed for the fathers and their families but what about the businesses that employ those fathers?  I don’t mean large companies or corporations, with plenty of employees to go round, but smaller concerns such as family run businesses with a handful of employees each and every one of whom are vital to the success or failure of the operation.

 It’s all very well the Government issuing these people-pleasing edicts but what about those left to pick up the tab? Depending on which economist you listen to we are either still in or are just coming out of recession so isn’t it vital still that all hands remain firmly at the pump?

This, I’m afraid, is yet another example of government by liberal academics who have no experience of life in the real world and clearly no knowledge of how hard it is to run a business.

Allowing a key member of your company to take a year off because he has become a father may be a very nice humane gesture but it makes no business (or common) sense whatsoever.

His Country’s Saviour

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Tomorrow is the birthday of the man who in 1999 was voted the greatest Englishman of the millennium. He was born on the 30th November, 1874 and died on the 24th January, 1965. In his 90 years he achieved more than most ordinary men or women would achieve in several lifetimes. He was a soldier, a journalist, a Nobel Prize winning writer, a historian, a painter and the greatest politician and statesman of his age.

Winston Churchill was a true colossus and though not without his faults (is any human being flawless?) he was a politician with qualities that today’s political pygmies can only dream of. If his political career was chequered prior to 1940 his achievements thereafter were nothing short of remarkable. His grim resolve and defiance became the embodiment of British resistance to Nazi tyranny and ultimately proved invaluable to the allied victory in the Second World War.

Still, it’s easy for me or any other Englishman to speak in such terms of one of our own and there is admittedly a danger that we may overstate the case and not always be as objective as we should. I will leave the final word, therefore, to a foreigner, the American political commentator and philosopher, Thomas Sowell who said of Churchill –

“It is enough of a claim to historical greatness for a man to have saved his own country. Winston Churchill may have saved civilisation”.

Humility in Victory

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The events of this last sporting weekend got me thinking about the poem “If” written by Rudyard Kipling for his young son, an excellent poem that any responsible and loving parent would wish to impart upon his or her child. One of the key tenets in the poem is the need for “Triumph and Disaster”, which Kipling refers to as “the two impostors”, to be treated in exactly the same way. We will undoubtedly experience both at some stage and, as Kipling implies, the reaction of the boy to those impostors will ultimately define the man.

It has always struck me that this is sound advice for life generally and for competitive sport  particularly. Thus, a loser should behave with dignity and good grace (masking  a secret determination that it won’t happen the next time) and the winner should behave with humility and respect for his vanquished opponent, since it may well fall upon him to wear the loser’s mantle the next time around.

This is a lesson that every child – and many international so-called “sportsmen” – would do well to learn and remember.

Memories

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Quite naturally, November 22nd is the date that most people associate with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Today, that date is even more poignant since it is now 50 years since America’s charismatic and youngest ever President  had his life snatched away by the marksman’s bullet.

However, there are happier things to remember today, particularly, if you happen to be English, for this is the 10th anniversary of the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup Final. The day when England defeated Australia in their own backyard.

There will, of course, be sober and respectful thoughts today but when the evening comes my glass will be raised to the stars in honour of that moment on a dark Saturday night in Sydney when Jonny Wilkinson’s right boot broke the hearts of one nation and sent the other into raptures of ecstasy! Memories don’t get much better than that!

Chaos in Bromsgrove

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Over the weekend the M42 motorway near Bromsgrove was closed for approximately 27 hours whilst local police tried to dissuade a man from throwing himself off a motorway bridge. They succeeded in their efforts but not before the incident had caused severe traffic chaos, a complete shutdown of roads in the local area and many instances of people stuck immobile in their vehicles for as long as 6 hours.

A row has broken out following the posting of tweets and messages on various  social media by people affected by the incident urging the man to jump so that they could all get on with their journeys and daily business. In response, the local Police Chief has accused them of insensitivity and a lack of compassion which is fair enough; surely nobody could really wish death upon such an unfortunate and clearly disturbed person?

Putting all that to one side however, it’s easy to see why people would be infuriated by the incident. They are entitled to ask why it took so long for the matter to be brought to a conclusion. For example, couldn’t the Police have arranged for netting or inflatable plastic/rubber to be placed under the bridge to stop the man’s fall? Couldn’t a couple of lorries be placed underneath the bridge to reduce the height of the drop? Don’t  the Police have experts available to deal with such incidents?  Should it really have taken well-over a day to bring the matter to a conclusion? What about the pandemonium  caused to the rest of the populace? All these questions deserve answers.

A New Tattoo

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Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby announced earlier this week that, at the age of 75, he has finally succumbed to temptation and has had a tattoo of a scorpion etched on his shoulder. It may well be that it was simply a publicity stunt to promote his new BBC series called “Britain and the Sea” but, when interviewed, he did say that he’d always wanted one.

Predictably, the story has attracted a lot of attention and quite a few negative comments about foolish old men losing the plot, vain celebrities and such like. Well, everybody is entitled to their own opinion and, equally, Dimbleby is entitled to do whatever he wants with his body. Good luck to him.

Anyway, tattoos are pretty ubiquitous now. Men and women, sports stars, rock stars, actors and actresses, they all sport them these days and Britain is said to be among the most tattooed nations in the world. Wasn’t it ever thus? The great Roman general, Julius Caesar himself, remarked upon the fierce painted natives when he first crossed the Channel way back in 55BC – and that was just the women!

 Personally, I couldn’t care less whether Dimbleby or anybody else for that matter covers their whole body with tattoos – just so long as, in the majority of cases, they do the decent thing and keep their clothes on!

Taking Care of Our Own

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I was listening to a Bruce Springsteen song the other day called “We take care of our own”. The lyrics that caught my attention were “Wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own”. Now this song is not, as you may imagine, a call to arms and a glorification of war; in fact, far from it. Nevertheless, it did get me thinking about the different attitudes in the UK and the USA to veterans of our respective armed forces.

Today, is Armistice Day, a celebration of the peace declared on November 11th, 1918 when the First World War finally came to an end. In the USA it is called Veteran’s Day, a national holiday – and there is the first great difference. Can you imagine the whinging from the PC brigade if we dared to “glorify war” by making Armistice Day a national holiday?

I have just returned from the USA and witnessed, as I do every time I go there, how Americans honour and respect those men and women who fought for and sometimes died for their country. Veterans are given discounts in stores, priority boarding on commercial aircraft, concessions in restaurants and a whole host of other benefits. I even saw a sign by a highway proclaiming “The University of South Florida Honours our Veterans”. Can you imagine something like that happening in our country?

Every year, it seems that the wearing of the Royal British Legion’s  red poppy, that symbol of  ultimate sacrifice, creates more and more controversy. Why should this be when the proceeds of sale of those poppies help provide financial and other assistance for British veterans and their families?

Some public figures tell us that we shouldn’t feel obliged to wear a poppy and actually, for once, they are right. We shouldn’t feel obliged. No, we should feel honoured and proud to wear our poppies but not through any misguided or naïve notions of nationalism or even patriotism but from a simple gratitude for the sacrifices made on our behalf. Springsteen speaks for all of us, we should indeed take care of our own.

Small Beer

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What a dreadful shock, a politician admits to smoking crack cocaine. The story, if it can be called that, of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s drug taking, whilst evidently in a drunken stupor, has made headlines across the world.

I get the impression that many people are more upset by the fact that he only admitted to his wrongdoing after six months of denial than by the deed itself.  That may well be the case but,  putting it to one side, it seems to me that in an age where drug-taking is at epidemic levels worldwide (throughout all levels of society – including politicians, the judiciary and even journalists!), this is actually pretty small beer.

Not for a moment would I seek to condone such foolish and potentially life-threatening behaviour but, personally, as a voter I’m far more concerned by politicians embezzling public funds and faking expenses claims than by anything they might do in their private lives. Surely, the only question that needs to be asked by those clamouring for his head is this –  is he any good at his job? If he is why not  leave him alone, let him suffer the humiliation from the worldwide exposure of his stupidity and let him get on with being Mayor.

Anyway, what might his successor be like? I don’t see too many Mother Teresas in national or world politics these days and sometimes it really is a case of better the devil you know.

Who would have thought it?

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A recent study in the USA, using state of the art eye-tracking technology, has revealed that men look at women’s bodies more than at their faces. Gosh, what a revelation that is!

The study, of over 70 men and women, revealed that women also look at other women’s bodies more than at their faces. It didn’t mention clothing but I’m pretty sure that that features pretty high up the list too!

Researchers concluded that “those bodies with larger breasts, narrower waists and bigger hips often prompted longer looks”. Quite incredible, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I have no idea how much money this study cost but couldn’t they have saved an awful lot of time and money by interviewing just about any normal man (or woman) virtually anywhere on the planet? I don’t think that their conclusions would have been any different, do you?