When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Shakepere Sonnets
Friday 16 December 2011
Friday 8 July 2011
Rotten apples?
We learn this week that thousands of pounds have been given to members of the Metropolitan Police in return for information. Reports of sums in excess of £100,000 are being mentioned. One can be certain that the sums publicly reported will be only a part of the total. There exists in the Met, therefore, a culture of accepting bribes. This may not be widespread, but neither can it be put in the 'few rogues' category for, if it has been uncovered in the context of the press, it will for sure exist in other contexts. We know from other police forces that where there is a plentiful supply of money, there will be those prepared to accept it in exchange for favours. Drug criminals are renowned for being willing to pay for official myopia. Organised crime will also ensure that it stands the best chance of avoiding detection. Some of this may involve ensuring that some things are overlooked.
Within the Met there will be many devices by which sources can be managed. The use of 'sources' is of necessity an opaque business. It is necessary to protect the source and his organisation and may be necessary to protect the handler. Such opaqueness can be perfect cover for corrupt practice. The challenge for us is that information about handling practices is, by definition, kept on a 'need to know' basis. In some cases the very existence of a source may be kept secret. Investigation from outside is certain to come against strong resistance. Investigations can only be information-led and one is not going to get information from many involved in corruption.
The News of the World has provided plenty of good information, we are led to believe. The most pressing question now is who will investigate where this information leads? Asking the Met to do it is as bizarre as asking Rebekah Brooks to clean up News International. Asking another police force to do it raises significant difficulties. First, they will be unfamiliar with some of the methods used by the Met. They will therefore depend on some from within the Met to guide them. The real danger is that they may be guided away from dangerous ground. This difficulty pertains if a non-police organisation does the investigating. Second, there will be a natural desire to keep things in-house; to avoid more scandal than necessary; to minimise damage to the reputation of the Police service. This risks less thorough probing and calling a halt to the search as soon as an adequate story has been uncovered. None of this is in the public interest. Society needs to know how far the contagion has spread and that all of those involved have been disciplined. It also needs to be reassured that, as far as possible, there is sufficient openness and oversight to prevent recurrence if it is to have confidence in the Police.
Whether it is possible to have confidence in our Police service is uncertain. The actions taken over the coming months and the attitudes revealed will go far towards answering the question.
Within the Met there will be many devices by which sources can be managed. The use of 'sources' is of necessity an opaque business. It is necessary to protect the source and his organisation and may be necessary to protect the handler. Such opaqueness can be perfect cover for corrupt practice. The challenge for us is that information about handling practices is, by definition, kept on a 'need to know' basis. In some cases the very existence of a source may be kept secret. Investigation from outside is certain to come against strong resistance. Investigations can only be information-led and one is not going to get information from many involved in corruption.
The News of the World has provided plenty of good information, we are led to believe. The most pressing question now is who will investigate where this information leads? Asking the Met to do it is as bizarre as asking Rebekah Brooks to clean up News International. Asking another police force to do it raises significant difficulties. First, they will be unfamiliar with some of the methods used by the Met. They will therefore depend on some from within the Met to guide them. The real danger is that they may be guided away from dangerous ground. This difficulty pertains if a non-police organisation does the investigating. Second, there will be a natural desire to keep things in-house; to avoid more scandal than necessary; to minimise damage to the reputation of the Police service. This risks less thorough probing and calling a halt to the search as soon as an adequate story has been uncovered. None of this is in the public interest. Society needs to know how far the contagion has spread and that all of those involved have been disciplined. It also needs to be reassured that, as far as possible, there is sufficient openness and oversight to prevent recurrence if it is to have confidence in the Police.
Whether it is possible to have confidence in our Police service is uncertain. The actions taken over the coming months and the attitudes revealed will go far towards answering the question.
Tuesday 28 June 2011
No Longer Made in Britain
It has been interesting to read the comments generated by Evan Davis' programme. They reveal some of the underlying paradigms that have caused and been caused by our industrial decline. Gavin James Bower writing in the Guardian on Monday perhaps best expresses them. There is no doubt that our industrial landscape has changed dramatically over the past 50 years and the effects on parts of our country have been dramatic. Most of the change has been seen as decline although some islands of excellence remain. Three issues dominate the discussion; foreign ownership, foreign production and innovation.
Foreign ownership of British companies is a headline issue. Rolls Royce cars is owned by BMW; Bentley by Volkswagen. The Mini is owned and produced by BMW. Tata, an Indian conglomerate, owns Jaguar and Land Rover. Kraft owns most of our confectionery production including Cadbury, and one could continue. Although emotive, this has little to do with our industrial decline. For a start, all of these examples have only occurred in the past 13 or so years. Incipient industrial decline was in full force in the 1950s. Moreover, in each of these examples, the product has continued to be made in England. The question that needs to be addressed is what caused these businesses to be unsuccessful and so become a target for take-over. Three factors have played a disproportionate role. These are the costs of manufacturing, attitudes generated by highly interventionist government policies and labour relations in a period of strident Union activity.
Rolls Royce motor cars and Bentley have teetered on the brink of failure for most of their century of existence. They were nationalised in 1971 following the financial failure of the RB211 aero-engine designed for the ill-fated TSR2. The project was just too big for the company to finance, even with several government subsidies. The motor car business was privatised in 1973 and bought by Vickers in 1980 who sold it to BMW & Volkswagen in 1998. At that time, the most serious issue was the cost of designing and building a new series of cars. For 30 years, Bentley, though produced separately, had relied almost completely on Rolls Royce design and components. Not until the 1980 Mulsanne, did Bentley begin to reassert its sporting pedigree but it was still a Rolls Silver Spirit underneath. Without massive investment Rolls Bentley could not continue. BMW and Volkswagen offered that opportunity. It is probably true that the money was available through UK investors, but it required a major quality volume manufacturer to be able to pull together design, manufacturing, marketing and sales necessary for such a premium brand.
There are those who consider that nationalising heavy industries such as coal and steel was a constructive method of avoiding the failure of smaller producers and of creating a single market for the products and labour. It allowed the creation of national wage structures which significantly contributed to raising living standards. However, it had at least two huge disadvantages. First, it allowed Union militancy on a national scale to be exercised irrespective of the profitability of the industry concerned. In the 1950s this could be considered enlightened; by the 1970s it was mad. Second, it caused industrial rigor mortis. Innovation and change was stifled and resisted despite the rapidly changing nature of global business and competition. Eventually, governments recognised that they could no longer fund huge, expensive, loss-making businesses. They needed the life blood of innovation and change.
Exactly the same approach had been applied to volume car making from the late 60s. It was too important to fail and so was nationalised. The result was an appalling period of British car making. Poor models produced by poor design by people with no responsibility for success; poor manufacturing resulting in inefficient cars with very poor reliability embarrassingly revealed in the famous expression by BL, 'the customer is our quality control!'. It was not until Jaguar was privatised in 1984 that it began to tackle its appalling reliability record and become a car of note again.
It is natural for those of us who live in the North of England to be painfully aware of the effects of changing markets. The mills and terraces are all around us as constant reminders. It is not difficult to be drawn to some imagined golden age of mill towns while ignoring the grinding poverty, appalling living conditions, short life-span, disease and exploitation that characterised it. Remember that in Bradford in 1850, the average life span was 17 years! However, there is another aspect to this. It was the entrepreneurial enterprise of Victorians that created the mills, that clothed the nations, that drew people in from the hill farms to relative affluence, that built the terraces, schools and chapels and, in some cases, began to create new urban conditions in which people could prosper. It was the industrialists that largely changed Bradford from its filth by creating urban government. The Union movement had important roots there, too. The creation of industry in the North was not an end in itself, though for many, for over 100 years, it must have seemed like it. It is well to remember that in the 1950s, we had to recruit workers in Pakistan and India to keep the mills working. English people were generally no longer prepared to tolerate the conditions and wages and the businesses were no longer sufficiently profitable to change. This trend continued as overseas economies began to develop and manufacturing moved to where workers were plentiful and less expensive. It was a natural and inevitable consequence of the employment environment and the aspirations of English people for more and more at affordable prices.
Innovation is the most important aspect in a changing industrial landscape. It allows all the skills of the people to be concentrated on finding new opportunities. However, for the political class and journalists, it is a difficult quality. They naturally want to know what is coming next but innovators need a benign environment and time to develop their ideas. We can all recognise the results when we look at successful companies and we tend not to see the unsuccessful start-ups that accompanied them. Not every new idea will succeed at first. As Evan Davis pointed out last night, innovation is at the heart of the British economy. We cannot compete with other parts of the world in unit cost of many manufactured items but we can more than compete in the development of ideas-based businesses. These will be the new success stories of this century. We have to allow it to happen accepting that, initially, it may not be in the shape we want it or where we want it. We also have to accept that those who create successful new opportunities deserve the rewards.
Foreign ownership of British companies is a headline issue. Rolls Royce cars is owned by BMW; Bentley by Volkswagen. The Mini is owned and produced by BMW. Tata, an Indian conglomerate, owns Jaguar and Land Rover. Kraft owns most of our confectionery production including Cadbury, and one could continue. Although emotive, this has little to do with our industrial decline. For a start, all of these examples have only occurred in the past 13 or so years. Incipient industrial decline was in full force in the 1950s. Moreover, in each of these examples, the product has continued to be made in England. The question that needs to be addressed is what caused these businesses to be unsuccessful and so become a target for take-over. Three factors have played a disproportionate role. These are the costs of manufacturing, attitudes generated by highly interventionist government policies and labour relations in a period of strident Union activity.
Rolls Royce motor cars and Bentley have teetered on the brink of failure for most of their century of existence. They were nationalised in 1971 following the financial failure of the RB211 aero-engine designed for the ill-fated TSR2. The project was just too big for the company to finance, even with several government subsidies. The motor car business was privatised in 1973 and bought by Vickers in 1980 who sold it to BMW & Volkswagen in 1998. At that time, the most serious issue was the cost of designing and building a new series of cars. For 30 years, Bentley, though produced separately, had relied almost completely on Rolls Royce design and components. Not until the 1980 Mulsanne, did Bentley begin to reassert its sporting pedigree but it was still a Rolls Silver Spirit underneath. Without massive investment Rolls Bentley could not continue. BMW and Volkswagen offered that opportunity. It is probably true that the money was available through UK investors, but it required a major quality volume manufacturer to be able to pull together design, manufacturing, marketing and sales necessary for such a premium brand.
There are those who consider that nationalising heavy industries such as coal and steel was a constructive method of avoiding the failure of smaller producers and of creating a single market for the products and labour. It allowed the creation of national wage structures which significantly contributed to raising living standards. However, it had at least two huge disadvantages. First, it allowed Union militancy on a national scale to be exercised irrespective of the profitability of the industry concerned. In the 1950s this could be considered enlightened; by the 1970s it was mad. Second, it caused industrial rigor mortis. Innovation and change was stifled and resisted despite the rapidly changing nature of global business and competition. Eventually, governments recognised that they could no longer fund huge, expensive, loss-making businesses. They needed the life blood of innovation and change.
Exactly the same approach had been applied to volume car making from the late 60s. It was too important to fail and so was nationalised. The result was an appalling period of British car making. Poor models produced by poor design by people with no responsibility for success; poor manufacturing resulting in inefficient cars with very poor reliability embarrassingly revealed in the famous expression by BL, 'the customer is our quality control!'. It was not until Jaguar was privatised in 1984 that it began to tackle its appalling reliability record and become a car of note again.
It is natural for those of us who live in the North of England to be painfully aware of the effects of changing markets. The mills and terraces are all around us as constant reminders. It is not difficult to be drawn to some imagined golden age of mill towns while ignoring the grinding poverty, appalling living conditions, short life-span, disease and exploitation that characterised it. Remember that in Bradford in 1850, the average life span was 17 years! However, there is another aspect to this. It was the entrepreneurial enterprise of Victorians that created the mills, that clothed the nations, that drew people in from the hill farms to relative affluence, that built the terraces, schools and chapels and, in some cases, began to create new urban conditions in which people could prosper. It was the industrialists that largely changed Bradford from its filth by creating urban government. The Union movement had important roots there, too. The creation of industry in the North was not an end in itself, though for many, for over 100 years, it must have seemed like it. It is well to remember that in the 1950s, we had to recruit workers in Pakistan and India to keep the mills working. English people were generally no longer prepared to tolerate the conditions and wages and the businesses were no longer sufficiently profitable to change. This trend continued as overseas economies began to develop and manufacturing moved to where workers were plentiful and less expensive. It was a natural and inevitable consequence of the employment environment and the aspirations of English people for more and more at affordable prices.
Innovation is the most important aspect in a changing industrial landscape. It allows all the skills of the people to be concentrated on finding new opportunities. However, for the political class and journalists, it is a difficult quality. They naturally want to know what is coming next but innovators need a benign environment and time to develop their ideas. We can all recognise the results when we look at successful companies and we tend not to see the unsuccessful start-ups that accompanied them. Not every new idea will succeed at first. As Evan Davis pointed out last night, innovation is at the heart of the British economy. We cannot compete with other parts of the world in unit cost of many manufactured items but we can more than compete in the development of ideas-based businesses. These will be the new success stories of this century. We have to allow it to happen accepting that, initially, it may not be in the shape we want it or where we want it. We also have to accept that those who create successful new opportunities deserve the rewards.
Friday 24 June 2011
Bellfield's Conviction
Levi Bellfield is probably as guilty as sin. However, in light of the many cases that have been celebrated only to be found unsafe years later, perhaps we shouldn't be too eager to celebrate the outcome of this trial. As a layman, there seems much about it that should give us pause. Perhaps this criminal will not change his mind and plead innocence requesting a retrial, not least because he has been convicted of several other murders for which he is serving long sentences. Nevertheless, there are aspects about the process that should leave us with an uncomfortable feeling.
First, there is no forensic evidence linking him to Milly. I understand that even the cause of death cannot be properly ascertained and none of the clothes or bed linen has been examined. It seems incredible that the car in which it is supposed he removed the body has never been found. So that has not been forensically examined either. It was seen on CCTV 22 minutes after Milly was last seen at Walton Station. From the images nothing could be deduced about who was in the car and as it was a side view, we may not be certain that it was his car.
For many years, the Police had no line of investigation. Following Bellfield's arrest on other murder charges, they began to consider the possibility of him being Milly's killer. They had only circumstantial evidence. The danger with this is that it starts to create a 'group think' situation. The longer the investigation continued, the more co-incidences could gain credibility until they became accepted as fact. One danger of this is that real pieces of evidence may be missed because they do not fit the pattern. This situation was encouraged by Bellfield's refusal to make any statement or answer any questions. Because so much time had elapsed and none of the crucial evidence had been found, the circumstantial evidence became more compelling.
In our adversarial court system, it is important for the defence to be robust. No doubt Counsel for the defence did what could be done, but with the defendant silent, that was limited. The Jury, on the other hand, who were aware of Bellfield's convictions, would have found his silence and the prosecution evidence damming. They will have been motivated by a desire to 'do the right thing'; to make sure he didn't get away with it. They undoubtedly felt a pressure to help the victim's family whose raw emotions had been seen in court. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that they reached a unanimous guilty verdict.
We often hear the claim that people cannot 'reach closure' without a body being found or a person being convicted. This is a recent phenomenon. It may stem from our much more visual age, being accustomed as we are to seeing everything almost immediately. However, it probably creates stresses that may not have existed so strongly in the past. The Police are under considerable pressure to clear historical cases. Juries may also be unconsciously affected.
There is a strong desire in society for punishment and sometimes for revenge. When complex issues go wrong, almost the first question asked is, 'who is to blame?'. This is now deep-seated in our culture and gives rise to the deeply unattractive culture of seeking financial recompense where no financial loss has occurred. It also leads to huge prison populations as we seek to punish and remove those who threaten our security. Milly's family now have a person to focus their loathing on. Let's hope it is the right person.
More important, I hope that Milly's family and friends may learn to forgive whoever killed Milly and so begin to heal the tremendous hurt they have suffered.
First, there is no forensic evidence linking him to Milly. I understand that even the cause of death cannot be properly ascertained and none of the clothes or bed linen has been examined. It seems incredible that the car in which it is supposed he removed the body has never been found. So that has not been forensically examined either. It was seen on CCTV 22 minutes after Milly was last seen at Walton Station. From the images nothing could be deduced about who was in the car and as it was a side view, we may not be certain that it was his car.
For many years, the Police had no line of investigation. Following Bellfield's arrest on other murder charges, they began to consider the possibility of him being Milly's killer. They had only circumstantial evidence. The danger with this is that it starts to create a 'group think' situation. The longer the investigation continued, the more co-incidences could gain credibility until they became accepted as fact. One danger of this is that real pieces of evidence may be missed because they do not fit the pattern. This situation was encouraged by Bellfield's refusal to make any statement or answer any questions. Because so much time had elapsed and none of the crucial evidence had been found, the circumstantial evidence became more compelling.
In our adversarial court system, it is important for the defence to be robust. No doubt Counsel for the defence did what could be done, but with the defendant silent, that was limited. The Jury, on the other hand, who were aware of Bellfield's convictions, would have found his silence and the prosecution evidence damming. They will have been motivated by a desire to 'do the right thing'; to make sure he didn't get away with it. They undoubtedly felt a pressure to help the victim's family whose raw emotions had been seen in court. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that they reached a unanimous guilty verdict.
We often hear the claim that people cannot 'reach closure' without a body being found or a person being convicted. This is a recent phenomenon. It may stem from our much more visual age, being accustomed as we are to seeing everything almost immediately. However, it probably creates stresses that may not have existed so strongly in the past. The Police are under considerable pressure to clear historical cases. Juries may also be unconsciously affected.
There is a strong desire in society for punishment and sometimes for revenge. When complex issues go wrong, almost the first question asked is, 'who is to blame?'. This is now deep-seated in our culture and gives rise to the deeply unattractive culture of seeking financial recompense where no financial loss has occurred. It also leads to huge prison populations as we seek to punish and remove those who threaten our security. Milly's family now have a person to focus their loathing on. Let's hope it is the right person.
More important, I hope that Milly's family and friends may learn to forgive whoever killed Milly and so begin to heal the tremendous hurt they have suffered.
Thursday 23 June 2011
Discovering Who I Was
When young, life appears to stretch ahead of you in an endless vista of unexplored possibilities. In this phase I was content to accept that I had been adopted. From whom and why were questions that only hovered around the edge of my consciousness. The family I went to were loving and open while implausibly professing to know little about my background. In time I was encouraged to get involved in Scottish activities such as dancing. Boarding school led to Sandhurst and a career in a fine regiment. The next 20 years brought a lovely family and we were caught in the hurricane of growing up, working and schooling. In their teens, the more curious began to ask about my early life. Having been adopted created an area of mystery which, A. in particular, wanted me to explore. However, I had never been particularly interested and I felt that it would be impossible to go back to records which might no longer exist.
Then came a very narrow escape from prostate cancer. The operation successfully completed, I found time on my hands. A. was keen that I research what could be found. Her insistence made me begin to wonder what could be uncovered. The biggest hurdle was that all records are in Kenya; none are computerized and anecdotal evidence suggested they had not been well preserved over the 40 years since Independence. Without a Court Order, I could not access the adoption records. I was put in touch with a lawyer in Nairobi who delegated the task to an Assistant. She made several unsuccessful visits to the Registrar before being 'allowed' to read the entry across a desk! She memorized the mother's name; Mary McLean! She also saw WE McLean. This was the nugget that I needed.
The law firm applied for a copy birth certificate. I could only have a High Commission extract and I found myself in the bizarre position of having two identical certificates; one in my name and one in the name of Neil McLean. The web is an incredible resource for genealogy. I found 'Find my Past' the most usable and comprehensive and I studied the shipping emigration records. It is difficult to convey the sense of wonder on discovering the young man embarking for British East Africa from Southampton in 1921. The same records showed him leaving England again in 1926, this time with a wife and two very young daughters, one of which was Mary Esler McLean. That information allowed me to find his wife Doris emigrating in 1923 to marry WE. Both entries also gave addresses in Wolverhampton from which they had come.
I was keen to find out what the Records Office in Wolverhampton could tell me. I spent a day searching the Electoral Rolls and 1901 Census and making notes but my searches didn't seem to reveal anything. Back home I continued following the leads I had. Suddenly, new information enabled me to see the connections with the notes I had taken and my maternal Grandmother's family fell into place. I could see the wool merchant with his nine children and servants as they were in 1901 and on the Electoral Rolls until 1927.
It was time to see what could be done in Kenya with this information. There is a resource called the 'Up Country Directory' that has been compiled lovingly by an amazing man living in Kenya. It records tens of thousands of people who lived and worked in 'Up-country' Kenya. I contacted the compiler for an up-to-date copy and it was then easy to find WE working in Kampi ya Moto. I also asked him if his long ears had heard who my father might have been. He fairly quickly came back with the name of a vet who used to practice in Nakuru, Brian Sherrif. He also put me in touch with a delightful couple living near Oxford who he thought might still be in touch with my mother's family who were by now in New Zealand. They kindly invited us to tea and talked freely of the family. They had remained close to Mary's sister, Paula. He remembered dancing with Mary when she was pregnant. Having vetted us, they relayed to Paula that we were OK and she and I began a delightful correspondence that continues. She was able to provide answers to many of my questions. She sent me some pictures of my mother and I experienced the most unusual and unexpected reaction; a relaxing sense of peace. I had found her although she had died 7 years earlier. Perhaps most extraordinary, Paula was the person who, at 17 and having just got her license, had to drive me at ten days old, from Nakuru to the Home in Nairobi.
In the summer of 2009, Paula visited us in England. It had been 60 years since she had said goodbye and handed me over to begin a different life.
Then came a very narrow escape from prostate cancer. The operation successfully completed, I found time on my hands. A. was keen that I research what could be found. Her insistence made me begin to wonder what could be uncovered. The biggest hurdle was that all records are in Kenya; none are computerized and anecdotal evidence suggested they had not been well preserved over the 40 years since Independence. Without a Court Order, I could not access the adoption records. I was put in touch with a lawyer in Nairobi who delegated the task to an Assistant. She made several unsuccessful visits to the Registrar before being 'allowed' to read the entry across a desk! She memorized the mother's name; Mary McLean! She also saw WE McLean. This was the nugget that I needed.
The law firm applied for a copy birth certificate. I could only have a High Commission extract and I found myself in the bizarre position of having two identical certificates; one in my name and one in the name of Neil McLean. The web is an incredible resource for genealogy. I found 'Find my Past' the most usable and comprehensive and I studied the shipping emigration records. It is difficult to convey the sense of wonder on discovering the young man embarking for British East Africa from Southampton in 1921. The same records showed him leaving England again in 1926, this time with a wife and two very young daughters, one of which was Mary Esler McLean. That information allowed me to find his wife Doris emigrating in 1923 to marry WE. Both entries also gave addresses in Wolverhampton from which they had come.
I was keen to find out what the Records Office in Wolverhampton could tell me. I spent a day searching the Electoral Rolls and 1901 Census and making notes but my searches didn't seem to reveal anything. Back home I continued following the leads I had. Suddenly, new information enabled me to see the connections with the notes I had taken and my maternal Grandmother's family fell into place. I could see the wool merchant with his nine children and servants as they were in 1901 and on the Electoral Rolls until 1927.
It was time to see what could be done in Kenya with this information. There is a resource called the 'Up Country Directory' that has been compiled lovingly by an amazing man living in Kenya. It records tens of thousands of people who lived and worked in 'Up-country' Kenya. I contacted the compiler for an up-to-date copy and it was then easy to find WE working in Kampi ya Moto. I also asked him if his long ears had heard who my father might have been. He fairly quickly came back with the name of a vet who used to practice in Nakuru, Brian Sherrif. He also put me in touch with a delightful couple living near Oxford who he thought might still be in touch with my mother's family who were by now in New Zealand. They kindly invited us to tea and talked freely of the family. They had remained close to Mary's sister, Paula. He remembered dancing with Mary when she was pregnant. Having vetted us, they relayed to Paula that we were OK and she and I began a delightful correspondence that continues. She was able to provide answers to many of my questions. She sent me some pictures of my mother and I experienced the most unusual and unexpected reaction; a relaxing sense of peace. I had found her although she had died 7 years earlier. Perhaps most extraordinary, Paula was the person who, at 17 and having just got her license, had to drive me at ten days old, from Nakuru to the Home in Nairobi.
In the summer of 2009, Paula visited us in England. It had been 60 years since she had said goodbye and handed me over to begin a different life.
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Out of the blocks!
Since I joined Twitter, I have been entertained and challenged by the blogs that I have read. I have seen different ways of using blogs in conjunction with Tweets and I have been challenged by some of the views being expressed. Most of all, I have come to understand that one cannot really make a contribution without a blog to back his tweeting. However, I have also been impressed by the knowledge, the quality of the thinking and the writing and I embark on this project with humility. Whether or not anyone will read my blog will depend on whether I can find anything worthwhile to say. I will do my best. This is my point of departure; the beginning of a journey of discovery, discussion and, maybe occasionally dissent. Exciting!
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