Are Boko Haram Just Psychotic Male Chauvanist Pigs
I’ve just watched John Simpson’s report from north eastern Nigeria on the BBC.
I’m left with the thoughts that led me to write this post.
I’ve read extensively about Islam and can’t see how any of Boko Haram’s actions have anything to do with the religion.
In fact, in the early days of Islam, women were equal and over the centuries education has been a large part of the religion. In fact, but for early Islamic scholars and thinkers, we wouldn’t have the mathematics we have today.
Boko Haram are just thugs and should feel the full force of all right-thinking people in Nigeria and the wider world.
Am I Illiterate?
In The Times today there is a section called “The 25 Books You Should Read”
I’ve read just one; Pride and Prejudice. And that was for my GCE O Level!
So am I Illiterate?
Which Is The Best UK University For Students With Coeliac Disease?
When I went to Liverpool University in the 1960s, I hadn’t been diagnosed with coeliac disease, but this article from the BBC web site about students with nut allergies got me thinking.
In my travels around the country, I find cities and towns vary with their knowledge of the disease. For instance, London, Brighton, Cambridge and Liverpool are easy cities for a coeliac and others like Ipswich, Blackpool and Middlesbrough are difficult.
I think drinking could be the biggest problem, as it is only in a few places you can drink a pint of something gluten-free, like real cider. At least these days, there is a wide availability of microwaveable meals from the major supermarkets that are gluten free and there are now reliable Indian restaurants, who cook with gram flour everywhere. And you can usually find a Pizza Express. Who’d have thought that good gluten-free pizza would be available nearly everywhere, a few years ago?
I think in the 1960s, being a coeliac, would have been a real problem at university and I probably would have taken an easy option to stay in London with my aunt. I couldn’t have lived with my parents in Felixstowe, as there was no University in the county.
So my life as a coeliac would have been totally different. I certainly wouldn’t have met my wife and would have missed out on forty very happy years.
The BBC Gets The Pronunciation Wrong
According to the BBC Six O’Clock News, Gateacre School has been closed because of the heat. The story is here on the Liverpool Daily Post site.
But the BBC pronounced Gateacre wrong, by effectively making the mistake of treating it as two words; gate and acre.
I made the very same mistake, when I first went to the city.
Liverpool University’s New London Campus
after a false start a few doors away, Liverpool University seem to have at last got a building for their campus in London. It’s reported here.
My only complaint, is that I think it’s in posh Islington, rather than practical and common-sense Hackney. At least though it’s only a short walk from the 141 bus stop, I can get close to my house. For those visitors from Liverpool, it’s just a 205 bus from Euston to Epworth Street.
Soldiers In The Classroom
There has been some discussion about whether ex- soldiers should be fast-tracked as teachers. The story is here on the BBC. Here’s the first bit.
Former armed forces personnel without degrees will be fast-tracked into teaching in England under a new government programme.
The Troops to Teachers scheme will help “highly skilled” former military personnel become teachers within two years.
As someone, who was at school in London in the 1950s and 1960s, a lot of our teachers had either fought in the Second World War or suffered air-raids. I think these experiences made them better teachers,as they would always add anecdotes and stories into lessons.
So I’m very much in favour of the Troops to Teachers scheme, provided that the right soldiers are re-trained.
Paying It All Back
Liverpool University has been good to me in many ways, so it is only right, when they ask me if I would mind being interviewed as part of their research into widowhood, I don’t say no.
Last week, I was interviewed by a student and as ever I found it rather a pleasant experience, which is probably better than paying for therapy.
I very much believe that we should all use our experience to help others and what better place to start than your old school or university. I can’t go back to my old school, as it no longer exists, so Liverpool University will have to put up with me.
In an ideal world, there would be a central database of research projects, that needed guinea pigs or experienced professionals to help fulfil the research.
The Internet For Timely Information
I generally look each morning, at the list of the ten most read pages on the BBC’s web site.
This morning, only one of the ten is not about the weather and seven are concerning school closures. In order they are Notts, Essex, England, Leicester, Kent and Shropshire.
In pre-Internet days, parents would have listened to local radio.
An Unintended Consequence Of Guns In US Schools
The NRA’s proposal to have armed guards in every school will lead to an unintended consequence.
Teachers showed at Sandy Hook that they are prepared to do anything to protect the children in their care. And some died!
Some, and I’ve not seen any figures, will accept the armed guards and would even arm themselves if they were asked.
But a proportion would feel that guns in a school was totally unacceptable. Many of these could easily find alternative employment or perhaps would be at an age where retirement is an option.
Could the US school system cope with a loss of a proportion of its teachers?
British Coal In A British Grate
This phrase was quoted in an article in The Times today by David Aaronovitch, where he likens the arguments of those who don’t believe in climate change, global warming and renewable energy, with those who were against the Clean Air Act of 1956. The MP for Bromsgrove, Michael Higgs was the opponent of the Act, who Aaronovitch quoted.
I can remember the smogs of that time and they weren’t pleasant. The only good thing was that we got sent home early from my primary school; de Bohun in Southgate. Teachers would organise us into groups and put a responsible ten or eleven year old in charge. Our parents didn’t know we were coming home, but then most mothers didn’t work in the 1950s.
I don’t think they’d do that now!
The Anonymous Widower 