Marketing Director Ms Amanda Baker of the Duke of York’s is mounting a ‘Now and then’ display in March. It would be a crime not to include CSM Rowson of G Coy, so one hopes she’ll not overlook him, for he was a fine fellow. In his sixties, ancient and overweight I thought when I was under his care as a boy. Yet his deeds were renowned and mighty, and his memory crystal clear when he recounted them to our attentive throng. In the 21st Lancers, he was a 15 year old and served as the CO’s trumpeter during the famous charge of the 21st at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Trumpeter Rowson sounded the charge on [no, not a trumpet] a bugle and stuck close to the side of his Commanding Officer as ordered. He used his bugle to beat off the Dervishes who came too close and emerged from the reckless charge unscathed, alongside his CO, having ridden at the head of the Lancers through massed Dervishes, hidden in the large declivity until the 21st found them. Check the muster rolls for accuracy. Rowson was there. So was Churchill, but we know all about him, don’t we?
Now and then
January 30th, 2012Going down the road
January 29th, 2012As that lovely ditty has it, ‘The work is hard, the pay is small, so take your time and sod them all,’ to which we may add ‘for she who strives to do her best goes down the road, just like the rest’. Corrupting the message of this witty ditty written of British working men makes sense as, one and all, we go down the road. For some it is longer than for others. No matter. Should you meet a crumpled-up Mr Death on the road with his scythe lying alongside be sure to pick him up, dust him off and wish him well. He might then, for your kindness to an old man, say he’ll give you ample warning when he comes for you. If that be so, enjoy what’s left of this juicy meaty sandwich – which is a thick chunk of meat between two thicker chunks of nothing. So when he does tap you on the shoulder, don’t complain about the ample warning he promised. We experience near misses every day.
Barely room at the public trough
January 29th, 2012Let us raise a toast to any politician of a single party in a single country who creates a single job without access to the public purse. The public purse is what governments jingle with the taxes they collect – or fail to collect as the word has it in the case of Greece, Spain and Portugal. We are teetering on the brink, whatever that is, from failure of the financial system. What lies below? Jagged rocks and crashing surf? Crushing debt is the lot of nations stretching from Europe to North America. The reason? Governments that take more from the trough than comes into it. Politicians and public servants of every stripe with hair-brained schemes who award themselves fat salaries, indexed pensions and unlimited expense accounts cause national strife. The fat cats of the banking sector have been long enough at the trough.
Cuba remembered
January 28th, 2012
Republican contestants for nomination in the coming presidential election have been so busy denigrating Cuba, someone has to leap to its defence. Work permits, see here, were essential in the olden days – for most people anyway. More than that, assignment to a work gang was the norm. Work Gang 69 was a swinging crew to which yours truly was assigned at the José Marti Airport. Not to infuriate expatriate Cubans or to consternate their politicians, hard work had its privileges as in the United States. Cuba has two kinds of workers: those at the bottom of the heap who work and those above who direct. Both categories are civilised. There were those who ate from battered aluminum plates and drank out of mugs of the same metal in the cafeteria. The privileged few ate in a Cuban-style Delmonico’s, feasting off bone china and having double-damask dinner napkins. Moved from the cafeteria to this elegant restaurant for exemplary work done it was no joke being returned in disgrace to the work gang – all for confessing to a journalistic assignment and asking for an interview with the President. Journalists were anathema to Cuban high society.
Correcting an historical misconception
January 28th, 2012
Readers of Arabic will recognize this press card and note that it is for Yemen, which at the time of its issue in 1978 was known as North Yemen. That distressed land was then busy having a furious donnybrook with South Yemen. To meet and interview the then President of that volatile land, this one-time reporter had to pass through an iron curtain security. Briefcase, pockets and personal possessions were intensely scrutinised and only then did the interview proceed. Six weeks later, President Abdul al Gashmi of North Yemen was blown to kingdom come by a bomb brought by an emissary from South Yemen, who accompanied the President on his journey. The present brought was gift-wrapped. The emissary would otherwise never have passed through the iron-clad security barrier. To correct an historical misconception, Al Gashmi was not blown up by a suitcase bomb as now reported. As the only journalist ever to have interviewed this mercurial dictator, and familiar with the scene in that quarter, I stick by my opinion relating to the means used to assassinate him.
A foul name exposed
January 28th, 2012As the patriarch of the of our clan observed in his dotage, everyone saddled with the name Cockerill should know that it may well be a foul name, but there is nothing paltry about it. This axiom is well known to those who bear the name. Among them it has taken on the tired character of a witticism refreshing only to those hearing it trotted out for the first time. Pedlars of escutcheons or coats of arms, flogged to gullible customers, have not yet realised this, for they insist on including a rampant cockerel strutting about the farmyard. It is nothing of the sort. The name Cockerill is of Celtic origin. It means thatcher as in ‘a thatcher of cottage roofs’. That’s it. Let’s have no more rampant cockerels on fake escutcheons. Try a thatched labourer’s cottage instead.
Begging the question. Really?
January 27th, 2012Reporters, critics, pundits, and commentators frequently speak of something as begging the question. The statement ‘That begs the question’ often follows after the speaker hears or makes an illogical statement. This they immediately follow by asking a question, which is contradictory. ‘To beg the question’ means to avoid asking one. What the speaker really means when trotting out this clever-sounding phrase (‘petitio principii’ in Ancient Greek, meaning ‘assuming the initial point’) is that ‘this raises the question’. If commentators stuck to this simple conjunction of reasoning they would not sound ridiculous and irrational to informed listeners. I may be wrong, of course, but my educated friends who know about these things would pick up the faux pas.
The life and soul of the party
January 26th, 2012Time and time and time again we hear that yet another’s slain. Etiquette requires we have the grace to breathe not a word of caste or race. That said, this victim’s better half tells of how well he made her laugh. His neighbours, too, thought well of him and praised his ever happy grin. In short, they thought the world of him. Words he unpeeled like candy from a wrapper. He was even extolled as an aspiring rapper. He was the life and soul of the party, a lovely chap both hale and hearty. Forget the fact that he did time, which is by no means out of line. Some say he liked a sniff of coke he, met a lot back in the choky. He paid his dues, wasn’t all that bad; besides, he was a damned good dad. The kids’ll miss him now he’s dead. He didn’t deserve a bashed-in head. Or was he knifed or mugged or shot? One can’t recall. I’ve quite forgot? Still, before the set of sun we’re sure to have another one, so let’s not be sad or over-arty. He’ll have been the life and soul of the party.
Acts of war
January 26th, 2012With the exception of Dr Ron Paul, dubbed a libertarian, contenders for the Republican nomination in last Monday night’s debate in Florida blithely discussed taking out Iran’s nuclear installations with the assistance of Israel. This idea is ludicrous with or without Israeli involvement. The U.S. has had enough wars and armed conflicts since the Second World War to last a lifetime. As Ron Paul said, going to war over control of the Strait of Hormuz, gateway to the Persian Gulf, is easily avoided by discussing the matter with the Iranians. Why not? The Iranians are believed to speak English as a second language well. As has already been said, ‘Jaw-jaw is better than war-war’. It has taken ten years of fighting to speak to the Taliban. The U.S. should try the same thing with the Iranians before starting a slugfest. It is not necessary to send in the Marines every time to sort out the ruffians.
Don’t blame the rich for being rich
January 24th, 2012Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney seeking the Republican nomination for President of the United States released his tax returns today. Vultures of the news media pounced to wallow in the detail. Rounded off, Romney’s income for one year is $21 million. Of this he paid 15 per cent in taxes and invested the rest, having first given away $7 million to charitable organisations. Journalists, commentators and his opponents blame him for being rich. But what’s wrong with that? He earned his wealth by hard work and need apologise to no one. On the same news report, a basketball player is stated to have signed a contract that guarantees him $25 million a year. Whether the player has a university degree, experience in commerce or industry or knows anything beyond basketball was not revealed. The contrast is revealing. It should make you think.