International – Page 30 – For the fainthearted . . .

Who cares about those with nothing to offer?

The final question of this afternoon’s lesson was, “who should have protected the Jews?” It was a lesson on the anti-Jewish laws enacted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1942, challenging material for Year 8 students. There was no real answer to the question, who was there who would have protected powerless people?

I remember 1991 when the Coalition forces were sweeping north through Iraq; crushing an ill-equipped Iraqi army. Alec, my neighbour, a countryman not given to radical opinions, watched the progress on his small television. “Do you know, …

Prejudice never needed a reason

The girl seemed to take exception to prejudice being challenged.

”I’m English,” she said.

”So am I,” I said.

”Yes,” she said, presumably responding her perception that my accent was not local, “but I am English English.”

“So am I,” I said, “my family have been in Huish Episcopi parish for four hundred years. How long have your family been where you are?”

It was a sharp response, but I have realised that the sort of liberal democratic values in which I believe will only be preserved if moderates are …

ANZAC Day

There is a moment at the end of Oh! What a Lovely War where a group of British officers from the general staff arrive outside a building in limousines. A parade has been formed and as the officers begin the inspection, a group of Anzacs, tired and dirty and battle hardened, survey the scene. One begins to sing and the others join in a marching song from the time – sung to the tune of John Brown’s body:

One staff officer jumped right over another staff officer’s back.
And another …

A realistic wish list

“Global issues” has been the geography topic for the term. Climate change, population growth, pollution and the use of plastics have been among the areas covered. The Millennium Development Goals were reviewed before we considered the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in 2015.

The list of seventeen goals was dutifully written down by the students, with the odd supplementary note as to what a goal might mean. Most of the list meant little to a Year 9 class in an English seaside town; they would probably mean little to …

Rwanda’s darkest moment

Between 2009 and 2015, I visited Rwanda five times. It is a land of great beauty, a fertile land, an abundant land. The people whom I met were kind people, warm-hearted people, generous people; they were people who went the second mile to take care of the stranger who was five thousand miles from home. Among them, there are people who are still good friends.

In 1994, Rwanda was among the most developed of sub-Saharan African countries Rwanda was a place far removed from the images of the continent of …

Beating dementia

Once, I knew a doctor, a man prominent in his profession, a man distinguished in his service in the British army in the Second World War. Captured at the fall of Singapore, he had acted as medical officer in the prisoner of war camp in which he was held, working without proper medication or equipment. When the camp had been liberated, he had weighed just five stones.

A well-known consultant physician, he had continued to see private clients until he was in his 80s. At the age of eighty-five, he …