Blackwell bluebirds

At the end of a holiday in the Lake District I visited Blackwell House. It's a beautiful Arts and Crafts house with every feature custom-made for the building.

It has some spectacular glass-work, and one or two of the panels were just bewitching.

When I got home I had to have a go at making something like them. I used the postcard you can see in the second picture to make a pattern and then set about finding the right glass.

I made a bunch of pieces, and this is my favourite. Don't ask me why ! I suppose there is something in the balance of clear and coloured glass, and the curved lines are gentle on the eye. Apart from the short break-lines in the leaf, there is only one straight line in the whole piece. What's more, all the curves are easy to cut.

It's only about half the size of the original, but then I don't have a window big enough to take the original.

The Gettysburg address

In November 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood on the site of the battle where so many had fought over three days the previous July. He was surrounded by a vast crowd, and he had come to dedicate the burial ground for the soldiers who had died there.

Before the speech, he had reported that he felt ill. The speech - fewer than 300 words - was not made short by his illness, however. Though it sounds very natural, it was not extempore. He had written it carefully in several drafts, and it took him a couple of minutes to deliver, maybe three.

In an age of political speeches heard by millions, few stand out. Very few are as short and painstakingly crafted as this one. It is just sad that we can't hear Lincoln, note his pauses, his emphases, his intonation.

But there is little doubt that this speech carries an extraordinary emotional freight which is hard to explain. It is an astonishingly affective piece of oratory, and I can't read it without feeling almost overwhelmed, 150 years after the event. I just love the mastery of this speech and its visceral power.

One interesting feature is 'here' which is repeated 8 times. Lincoln seems to use 'here' to link past and present, to encourage a sense of somehow being part of the experience of the battle, to recognise the cost, and to galvanise his hearers to action. 

If you want to hear a great reading of it, try this one by Sam Waterston. He gets it.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Genital mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) became illegal in the UK in 1985. That's the good news. The bad news is that since then, prosecutions have been rare, and there has not been very much enthusiasm for taking the issue as seriously as it deserves.

In 2016 there is a greater public awareness of FGM than previously, and perhaps also a greater public revulsion.

FGM constitutes the mutilation of the female genitals in one or more of four different procedures. The reasons for FGM are predominantly cultural or religious: purity, chastity, honour are among the motivations.

FGM damages women. Designed to impact on female sexuality, FGM is effective: it inhibits sexual pleasure and makes sexual activity painful, difficult or impossible. It is hard to imagine such cruelty. Of course, it is men who wrote the rules.

If FGM is not taken seriously, Male Genital Mutilation, circumcision, is not even considered as an issue.

Why is this ?

Though the impact of FGM and circumcision may be different, the procedures are different in degree, not in kind. Both involve mutilation of the genitalia for non-medical reasons. Both are conducted for religious or cultural reasons. Both are routinely conducted on children without their permission.

If circumcision is not genital mutilation, what is it ?

If genital mutilation is required for reasons of cultural or religious identity, then surely the consent of the victim should be gained. If adults wish to undergo genital mutilation, then I have no problem with it. But to bring about such life-long changes without consent looks like child abuse to me.

FGM could be improved by the surgical removal of the 'F': genital mutilation is just that, regardless of gender. It is barbaric, atavistic, anachronistic and a sexual assault of the worst kind.

If there are no medical reasons for genital surgery, it should not take place. Full stop.

Panjab University and the information black hole

On 26 February I wrote to Punjab University in the hope of tracking down information about an alumnus of that university. Here's the bloganonymised exchange. I did not need top anonymise the university's responses, as no name was given: they appear in full here.

I am researching an alumnus of PU on behalf of his daughter.

Gurdial Singh xxxx received an MA (1955) and an LL.B (1962), both from Panjab University. His date of birth was 18.04.1932.

He left India for the UK in 1964, and, sadly, died at the age of 34 in 1966.

His daughter is keen to find any information about him that she possibly can, which is why I am writing to you.

Specifically, I wondered if you could give any details of his degrees: class of degree; subject of his MA. As the MA probably required a thesis, I wondered whether a copy of the thesis might be lodged in the university library, and if so, whether it would be possible to obtain a copy. You might even have a record of where his first degree, a BA, was obtained.

I realise that after such a long period of time, this is an odd, and probably hopeless, request, but its purpose is to try to help xxxx find her father, who died when she was still a child. I would be very grateful for any information you might be able to offer, or for a contact who you feel might have such information.

Many thanks

Nothing happened, and I re-sent the mail. Then, this week, I got a reply.

From:

The Registrar,
Panjab University,
Administrative Office,
Dewan Anand Kumar Hall, Chandigarh-160014.


PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

No.________________/R&S Dated________________


Memo

With reference to your email dated 12.03.16, this is to bring to your kind notice that the information cannot be supplied, as this information pertains to third party.

Now I understand about data protection, and can quite see that the university might want to keep some details out of the public domain. But whether or not the university holds an MA thesis in its library seems an unlikely piece of information to keep secret.

I wrote again.

Dear Registrar

On reflection, your approach may be unduly cautious as well as unhelpful.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me what information you actually have, without telling me what it is.

This would be very useful.

I would be so grateful if you could be a little more accommodating: this is a daughter’s search for her father who died in the UK when she was a child and still living in India.

Any effort you could make in providing information would be not only helpful, but also humane, and I guess that humanity is the business of any university.

Thank you

And here is the reply

Memo

With reference to your email dated 17.03.16, the reply already made through email be treated as final.

Punjab University ranks 7th in India, and 1220 in terms of comparison with universities worldwide.

In terms of helpfulness, Punjab University would be several zillion down the list.

What is the impression given by the replies ? It seems unfortunate that any institution with a mission to teach should be so singularly unhelpful to anyone who wishes to learn. But the replies themselves, undated, unreferenced, unsigned appear to me to be at best discourteous, and at worst arrogantly dismissive.

Maybe I was unlucky in finding some jobsworth who could not be arsed to find any kind of answer that would have involved effort, and who was keen simplt to bat away anything that might involve effort.

I have written again. Watch this space....

Candle holders

A bloganonymous church warden I know asked me if I could make a couple of candle holders for some tall, oil-filled candles for two churches' altars. He had in mind two wooden squares, each with a precise hole drilled to take the candle. Maybe, he thought, a cross could be carved on the front face of each block.

This felt like a very minimalist approach, and beside being aesthetically lacking, it looked technically tricky, especially as cost meant that softwood, not hardwood, was the material of choice.

After a bit of trial and error, I came up with a cruciform design that needed no carving, but conveyed some sense of the ecclesiastical context.

You're right - that baking powder tub isn't tall, and it isn't a candle. But it was just the right diameter to work around, and when filled with sand it gave at least a sense of weight. The holder doesn't look right: it felt a bit brutal.

The things were a bit too chunky, and sloping them down from the centre was an obvious refinement.

Stained and varnished, the finished holders were well received and are working well so far. I am hoping that the changing temperature in the churches will not upset the wood, but only time will tell.

Envoi

Churches are organisations and have committees. Nobody makes independent decisions. I was amused to find that an earnest debate had taken place about whether the holders would be acceptable, having been made by a non-believer. I would have loved to take part in this, and wonder whether there was a view that churches were constructed only by masons, glaziers, roofers, carvers and lead workers of unimpeachable faith.

Somehow I think their joyous craftsmanship was worship enough.

The past is a foreign country

This family photograph probably shows Alfred Robertshaw, my great grandfather, who worked in a Bradford Mill, on a works outing.

Which one is he ? Who knows ? There are no other pictures of him to compare and help identify him.

Easier to identify the charabanc. When I was a kid in the 50s, older people still called them charas. The picture shows a Karrier charabanc, registered in the Bradford area before and March 1922, when the AK prefix denoting Bradford ceased to be used. 

AK 5322 looks like a 1914 model, and was made in Huddersfield by Clayton and Co Ltd. Clayton first produced motor vehicles in 1908.

It's tantalising to think he is there in the picture and that there is no way of knowing which of these characters he was.

The picture is somehow an image of so much family research where you can feel so close but know you are still light years away.

Even with the most assiduous research, the subtle details of lives have gone: did they whistle or sing when working ? What were they like when they first came home after a day at work ? Did they laugh easily ? Were they kind to others ? Were they quick to help ? Were they slow to put their hand in their pocket, or generous to a fault ?

There is a kind of 'thick present' when we might be known, maybe to our grandchildren, and even be a vague but real memory for great-grandchildren. But in three generations we are finally gone: all that remains will be odd dates, a half-remembered name, dubious family legends, and indecipherable electronic data that seemed so modern at the time.

This was my great grandfather too:

J.F RASPIN LIMITED

COMMISSION WOOL COMBERS

TELEPHONE N^os

3900, 3901 BRADFORD

PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS,

“RASPIN”,

BRADFORD

VALLEY MILLS, BRADFORD

February 23^rd, 1931.

Dear Alf,

I have been going to write to you for some time.

I was so busily employed with other matters at the time you were taken ill, I did not know about it until more than a week later. Since then business outside the routine of my own business has occupied my attention almost exclusively and this last week I have been at home myself.

I was so very sorry to hear that you were ill and trust you are now quite better.

You will be pleased to know that thanks to your splendid efforts we are now perfectly satisfied with our work and production.

I have made careful comparisons with other well known Combers’ work and in every case I consider ours the best.

Will you accept my very grateful thanks for the generous manner in which you have given me your unstinted assistance and for the whole-hearted way in which you tackled our problem. It was indeed very good of you.

Perhaps you will call and see me sometime when you are feeling quite well again.

Yours very sincerely

J F Raspin

 

Dognapped

If my bloganonymous neighbours ever find that their dog is missing, it will be because he has been dognapped. By me.

One of these hairy animals is Harris. You choose which is which.

I'd kill to be able to lick yogurt off the top of my nose.