A charming email arrives from Ann
who wrote to us yesterday (and then appeared on the programme) to talk about Nelson Mandela. She says, in part:
"re the Nelson Mandela email and fantastic recording done yesterday by you. I have never heard my voice before, even though I talk to myself all the time. With many, many thanks for one of the most exciting days I have had for years. Several people rang up to say they recognised my voice, and I haven't heard of them for a long time.
from Annie, as all my friends call me."
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Oh, how nice of Annie! and how nice for you, Eddie.
Makes a change from all the whinging froggers, doesn't it? ;o)
And a message to Annie,
Thank you for sharing your memories with us, it was lovely to hear it, and your evident enthusiasm for your encounter. I was thrilled to hear yesterday that a concert is planned for next year to celebrate Mr. Mandela's 90th, and I'm already trying to find out more so that I can make sure I'm there. It should be a ball!
I cannot understand why there appear to be some people, evident on another thread, who clearly have a big issue with there being a statue to a great man in Parliament Square. Could it be a matter of colour, I wonder? It makes me very sad that such attitudes are still around in my own country, especially when we owe a great deal of our development upon exploitation of the resources of other countries.
Annie & Eddie.....wot a team!
Seriously, I really enjoyed listening to her piece and Eddie your 'Red rag to a bull' was a very good 'trigger'!!
Well done both.
Perhaps we can hope to see a Frogging Annie soon?
DIY
Sis (1),
"especially when we owe a great deal of our development upon exploitation of the resources of other countries."
A great deal indeed, and we continue to rip out their minerals and carry off their forests.
Eighty percent of global resource consumption is down to twenty percent of Earth's inhabitants, and we're in the upper portion of that quintile.
Annie, you did fantastically! This is what PM is about! Congrats to all involved.
xx
ed
Annie
Clive Ponting is obviously biased. He thinks all the indigenous peoples and societies are dead. What evidence did he find for that?
Thanks, Eddie again.
re vyle (4) 30.08.07
There is plenty of evidence for 'the lethal impact' the marauding colonists had, for instance, on American Indians, Zanzibar, the Maories and Aboriginess: if it wasn't the alcohol that killed them, the European germs that they had no immunity from were not good for them, neither were the guns.
By the way what is the meaning of Quintile - or is it a made up word for bloggers? Don't forget I am new to this, and couldn't find out what to do - to blog - for several days last week.
There is something else I would like your opinions on. I heard this on another news, sorry, on 4th Sept 2008.
In New York City they have closed a couple of enormous secondry schools, and turned them into, for instance, 4 small schools. Each have their own head teacher and staff. Many of whom the new head could choose.
They share the big school's facilities, like library, games and athletics, canteen and concert hall etc..
I believe that each head should have a secretary who can take over all the paper work for the head, and allow him or her to take lessons so that he/she can get to know the pupils, as happened in my days, 60 years ago.
The secretary must know about accountancy, and be able to research the staff invited for interviews, which must be intense investigations.
The head must be less an office worker, and be able to organise class music lessons, orchestral programmes, art workshops, science labs; and wood work and metal classes, and games facilities as well
to give the more athletic and less academic pupils hope and fulfilment. As many as possible of these facilities could be shared by all the schools.
Although some of my grandchildren went to big secondary schools in Lambeth, do not shudder, they have all been taught brilliantly, and are doing well in their exams. I still feel the majority of young men, white and especially black do not get the time and care that they need in our education system.
Eddie I am not sure how to get onto the latest blog, of messages after mine, on the 'charming email' 6th Sept 2007
I would like to join in on the latest comments, and will send this on the only address I know, so here goes
Young people and how to keep them away from trouble. It seems to me that my generation of parents, in the late 1960s, started the problems for their children, by being afraid to say 'No' and becoming slaves of their children's demands. I was chastised for being too strict to my three children.
In fact I was unmercifully spoilt by my parents, the only ones I have known, because I was adopted. This spoiling was a mistake for me as I was always a rebel. I longed to hear them say 'I don't want you to do, this or that, please stop it for me because I love you'. But it was always, 'What will the neighbours think.
I decided that I would not spoil my two daughters and son. So long as I was not too tired I would make a joke of things and jolly them along into doing what I'd told them to do.
Cuffing them around the head and shouting at them, only makes them angrier, and it also could make them believe they are not loved at home, and so have to find another group of people to respect and copy.
I have heard and read of so many ideas to help youngsters, what ever colour and sex. Poverty is so difficult for the whole family, and parents find they cannot cope with the situation. There are older teenagers, some of whom have committed crimes and been to prison, who are now out on the streets trying to help.
One such man is an actor, Ashley Walters, who was interviewed in the Guardian, by Damon Syson. They were talking about guns and large estates in the poorest parts of England's cities.
Here are two of his quotes:
'Being part of a gang isn't always about wanting to be involved with drugs or violence. It's more about feeling safe where you live'.
'Gangs have become like families now. With parents forced to work longer hours, the street becomes your stability, your safe environment.
There are young peop;e in the poverty stricken areas of England, trying to work something out, and they seem to be far more sensible, when they talk than the frightened and negative people who prescribe severe punishments.
I woder if it could be possible to set up a telephone call centre like 'Hello Peace'- Shalom Salaam, if the Israelie and Palestinian children can talk things out together, surely the British can too?