Tag Archives: London

Meeting Movers and Shakers in London

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I am putting my fingers to the keyboard a little ahead of schedule this month. I wanted to get this blog out before I travelled to South Africa at the end of April. Those plans changed, as I describe later. I’ve had an interesting couple of weeks and am writing while it is still fresh in my mind.

I am a member of the UK board of the organisation ForAfrika. Just over a week ago I was invited to a small gathering of board members in London. The CEO, Isak Pretorious, hosted a dinner in the Conduit Club. It is quite unique, its members are concerned with making a difference, and I think they do.

Going back to the main reason for my trip: I joined the UK board several years ago, and this dinner was an opportunity to meet people from other countries. So, what is ForAfrika? It was originally known as Joint Aid Management (JAM) International and

‘focused on providing emergency relief, health and nutrition, education and water, hygiene and sanitation interventions to vulnerable communities in Africa – in dignified and sustainable ways.’

I must be honest and say I still don’t fully understand all the operations and their links; it is big! I would urge readers to look at their website, something I do regularly.

JAM was started over 40 years ago by a South African, Peter Pretorius. He was one of the first people to respond to the Mozambican government’s plea to the international community for urgent humanitarian relief in the early 1980s. There was a severe drought which, combined with an insurrection in Mozambique, led to a desperate famine. There were millions of people starving and little support reached them. The government was fighting a war, and the international community did not seem to be paying attention.

I vividly remember the drought as we had moved to Durban in September 1983. There had been no rain for months. Crops failed, the major dams in the province were drying up and there was draconian water rationing. The slogan for toilet use, for those who had waterborne sanitation was: ‘If it is brown, flush it down, if it is yellow, let it mellow’. In January 1984 the drought in KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland was broken in dramatic fashion by Cyclone Demoina. I well remember we drove up to Swaziland soon after this and had to pick our way gingerly over flood damaged roads, and across rickety, replacement bridges.

ForAfrika grew as an African founded and led organisation and today works across much of the continent. Their goal is to help people stay alive and then become self-sufficient. They have a concept of moving communities from crisis and emergency, where humanitarian support is essential, through to self-sufficiency, and finally to a point where they are commercially viable.

The website shows that they reach over 2 million people in emergencies and help with health and nutrition, sanitation, education, food security and livelihoods, and economic empowerment for millions more. It is quite complicated and I need to do more to get my head around the data and the reports.

Prior to the dinner there was a gathering in London organised by the Africa College Foundation, a UK based charity that primarily supports the Maharashi Invincibility Institute. The institute occupies the old Anglo-American company headquarters at 45 Main Street in downtown Johannesburg. This part of the city was a no-go area for some years, but is coming back to life. This looks like an amazing establishment. I felt privileged to be invited to the gathering and meet some interesting people.

To my amusement, one of the people I met was a young Canadian woman in the final years of her Ph.D. at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) in Waterloo, Ontario. I must have seen her at the school because we overlapped, and I may even have taught her, but I don’t remember. It was great to catch up on some of the goings on in Waterloo and at the school.

I also chatted to a couple of young South Africans who are just embarking on further education in London. They were self-assured, enthusiastic, and clearly exactly the sort of people we want as future leaders. I handed out a lot of my business cards and hope I might hear back from some of the individuals.

The one thing that was striking from these interactions is that there is comparatively little cross-over between the main cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and so on. I would love to see an index or directory. I think the Development Bank of Southern Africa used to take care of this, but I have not seen anything recently.

After the reception/networking, seven of us gathered in a private room at the club where we were served a magnificent meal, with excellent wines. Isak Pretorius, the CEO, guided the conversation, and it was wide ranging and interesting. A couple of days later there was another meeting organised by ForAfrika on how to develop straplines and information for the public and potential donors, and communicating messages. I’m not certain who was there as I was a few minutes late, but again it was most interesting. It strikes me that ForAfrika is an organisation on the cusp of doing even more than it does now. I hope this will include reflection, documentation and communication. There is much to be learnt from what they have done and could do. I hope I can be a part of it.

One of the main reasons for travelling is because I feel the need to get back to my flat and Durban for a while. However, on 22 May I am having a birthday party at St Clements restaurant in Musgrave Road in Durban. I promised myself that I would host a 70th birthday gathering in both England and South Africa to ensure that no one would be left out. The one in Norwich was on the 21st of March, and I really enjoyed it. So, if you are reading this blog and haven’t been invited, would have liked to have been, and can come to the event in Durban, please drop me a note to be added to the list.

Unfortunately, my flight had to be delayed by a couple of weeks as I developed a painful ingrowing toenail. I was supposed to fly on the 28th April but went to a podiatrist on 25th March. He spent nearly an hour with a scalpel sorting it out. I ended up with a huge dressing, it was very painful for a couple of days. Thank goodness for the flexibility of KLM who allowed me to change my ticket and travel in May.

Now to end off with a few interesting little snippets that I’ve come across recently. The Guardian of 20th April has an article entitled ‘Loss of Public Toilets endangering Public Health, report warns’. It said,

‘the number of public toilets in England has fallen by 14% in a decade, creating vast swathes of lavatory ‘deserts’ and unpleasant environments’.

Apparently, there is one public toilet for every 15,481 people in England as compared to one per 8,500 people in Scotland and one for every 6,748 in Wales. There are no data for Northern Ireland.

These data come from the Royal Society for Public Health, and it is something that is close to my heart as I get older. I am going to bowdlerise the last paragraph of the article:

‘the ministry responsible has announced that they are going to help councils provide public services and have made £78 billion available to council finances with local leaders free to decide themselves how best to spend every penny’.

The original text actually read ‘how best to spend the money’!

I came across an article that talks about the design of Waterford School in Mbabane and is worth looking at. There is a longer article in Portuguese if you follow the various links, and when I have a chance, I will run it through Google Translate. People who know Swaziland and Waterford may find it interesting.

I have not paid attention to my memoir for quite some weeks, so the article was most encouraging. It gives me added incentive to continue. I suppose the one piece of progress on the memoir is that I have printed out hard copies. The editor has gone through the whole document, and I need to give it a final rewrite before I start submitting to publishers again.

Old Friends and Long Walks

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At the end of March 2024, I spent most of a day in London with my friend Simon Dalby. He was appointed to the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) in 2013 just before me and was in the office next to mine. He retired a couple of years ago and lives on Mayne Island, off the coast of British Colombia. He was in Europe for a series of meetings and to contact and visit family members he had never met or not seen for decades.

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Museums in Spring

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Spring is here. The days are longer; the crocuses have come and gone; the daffodils are out; there is blossom on many of the trees, indeed the first leaves are emerging; and it is slowly getting warmer. However, the welcome sunny days have been intermittent, the overwhelming feature has been grey and chilly periods. The temperature will rise in time.

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Family and a Funeral

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In my last post I mentioned we were hosting my half-sister Pat’s dog, Bessie, a small black Patterdale terrier. Pat’s husband, David, had been waiting for surgery and did not want the dog around in the run up to it, or in the recovery period. Bessie was with their daughter, Kate, but needed interim lodging. We collected her at the end of December. The trip was also a chance to see family.

Sadly, David died on New Year’s Eve 2023. Arranging funerals and cremations can be a lengthy process, the facilities are busy in January. The date was set for 1st February in their hometown of Cranbrook. The Norwich contingent was Ailsa, Douglas, Rowan, and me. As Rowan and Douglas could only get one day off work, we had to make a day trip.

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It is Chilly in Durban

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When I last posted, over a month ago, I speculated about the prospects for a drought in the south of the UK. Although I have now been in South Africa for three, I am assured that there has been ample rain in Norwich, indeed some very heavy showers with ‘localised flooding’. Sadly, this is symptomatic of global climate change. By contrast, the nights in Durban have been extremely chilly, to the point that I have had all the blankets in the flat on the bed and am wearing my fleece.

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Of Funerals and Families

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For most people living in the United Kingdom, the 10 days between the 8th and 19th of September passed in a blur. On the evening of Thursday 8th of September it was announced that the Queen had died. There was a well-prepared plan for this eventuality known as Operation London Bridge, covering everything from the announcement of her death, through the mourning period to the state funeral. It was developed in the 1960s and frequently revisited. There are similar plans for other royals.

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Family and Travel

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March should mark the end of winter in England. There are clear signs that spring is approaching. Some of the trees are covered with blossom. The daffodils in our garden are almost all in full bloom. However, despite the signs that nature is stirring, the weather has been rotten. We experienced periods of sustained strong winds and rain for nearly two weeks at the end of February. The western part of the country has had flood after flood, houses and homes have been wrecked. I find it quite confusing to see car roofs protruding from the middle of floods, surely you can drive a car out of harm’s way.

Of course, the serious floods over the past fifteen or so years meant defenses have been built, and in many cases they have worked. It could have been so much worse. The problem is that there are just too many houses built in vulnerable places (unbelievably on floodplains), and the nature of these storms is that they are ever more intense, a month’s rain in 24 hours. Yes, global warming is real, and it is affecting us in the UK in clear and measurable ways.

I had been organising a lunch in London with our extended family in mid-February. It turned out to be the wildest and windiest weekend of the month and public transport was greatly disrupted. As my sister and her husband are not youthful, canceling the gathering seemed appropriate, and indeed this turned out to be prescient. Fortunately, we made the call to postpone before I finalised the restaurant booking.

My brother, Derek, was passing through London for a day on his way back from the United States to Cape Town, and so we decided to have a smaller lunch the following weekend, on Saturday, 22 February. The plan was for Douglas and I to take the train down to London and meet up with the family at a restaurant they had booked near Notting Hill Gate. This was a central location and gave easy access to and from Heathrow for Derek as he had a limited amount of time.

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Month One of English Living

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Now that I am in Norwich for a spell I am in the process of organising my office and activities. This involves something of a clear out. I have been going through huge quantities of paper. Many printed papers have been recycled, the realisation is that I am neither going to reread or refer to them.

Books get appraised for their usefulness now and in the future, and there is a high bar if they are to remain. I probably have 300 CDs and they too need to be gone through. Anything that I am uncertain about is being put on the player. If there are scratches on the disc, or it is something I will never listen to, it either goes in the bin or the charity pile. In a few months I expect to have a very much more habitable and organised office.

Since London is where so many interesting things happen, I anticipate going down reasonably regularly. This is made easier because the ‘over 60’ railcard I have makes travel more affordable. In addition, to my surprise on looking at the train timetable, I discovered there is now a train that has cut 30 minutes off the two-hour journey, a few times a day. That does make it a great deal easier to travel down. I went at the end of January for the day – leaving Norwich at 9.30 and getting back at 10.30, not sadly, on the fast train.

Decades ago, I joined the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS). This was a club on Northumberland Avenue, very close to Trafalgar Square and only about 100 yards from the Embankment station on the Circle Line. When I first joined it was a bit dusty and old fashioned, but the club had a library, meeting rooms, a restaurant, lounge, bar and bedrooms. It was a great place to hang out and meet people. I organised meetings, seminars and dinners there and even, occasionally, stayed overnight. Unfortunately, over a period the offering dwindled, first the bedrooms, then the meeting rooms, until the club finally closed in 2013. I had been pondering what to do to get a London base and came up with a solution earlier this year.

In 2009 I was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow for the British Department of International Development. I held this fractional post for several years. It was great fun and I really enjoyed the experience of working in the Civil Service. This means I will get a small British Government Civil Service pension. It also meant, I realised, that I was eligible to join the Civil Service Club, very close to where the RCS was. The address is ‘Great Scotland Yard’! I applied and was accepted. The fees are modest, which is a real plus. Towards the end of January, I had occasion to visit London. I went to the club for the first time and got my membership card sorted out. I would not describe it as modern or flashy, but it has all the amenities one could want, and it is a place one can meet people, hangout and relax without feeling pressure to consume. There is a very nice patio for the summer and the street is extraordinarily quiet.

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“January brings the snow: makes your feet and fingers glow”

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(Title: Michael Flanders and Donald Swann’s ‘A Song of the Weather’)

The first half of January was exceptionally warm for winter. We are told not to ‘cherry pick’ weather events to argue global warming is real. When they come one after the other, however, the evidence seems to be stacking up. The weather maps showed high pressure over the UK and to the south, so the fronts seem to be further north than usual. Scotland got a battering. Sadly the potential advent of Scottish independence won’t help that situation – weather is bigger than politics.

The rest of the month saw a few hard frosts, grey days and wind and rain, as well as some gloriously sunny spells. Even in the depths of winter the sun shining through the window can be warm enough to warm the south facing rooms. We have wood / coal burning stoves in the living areas and I must admit to getting a great deal of pleasure in laying and lighting the fire: paper, kindling larger pieces of wood and the coal. If I do it right we use 10 kg of coal for four fires. It warms both the room and the house very nicely.

If January weather was not enough to keep us depressed, the all-consuming topic in the UK is Brexit. Theresa May presented her deal to Parliament in mid-January, and it was soundly defeated. In fact the margin was astonishing: MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately tabled a vote of no confidence, which, unsurprisingly was not passed. If it had been it would have led to a general election.

The problem is both the Conservative and Labour parties are both deeply divided on leaving the EU and the deal, so there is no consensus. An election would not help, unless the smaller parties did really well, which is unlikely. It is all a terrible mess. There have been, in past few days, more votes in Parliament and the situation is even more uncertain at the end of January.

The papers, or at least the ones I read, are full of commentary on the rise of the right in global politics. This is clearly happening, but just as worrying is the growth of incompetence in leadership. The events of the past few months in the USA seem to epitomise this. When this is combined with the lack of vision I worry even more.

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”

I knew the quote and I was writing this letter I decided to see where it was from. The answer is James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) an American theologian and author. There do not seem to be any great works by him but lots of very good quotes.

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The Meaning of Life

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Half of September was in South Africa and half in Norwich. I travelled from Norwich to Cape Town via Amsterdam on the 1st September. This visit was to oversee the scientific writing course we held in Stellenbosch. The KLM flight takes over 11 hours and seemed very long, especially since these days I usually travel in economy. I am very grateful for my ‘Life Time Platinum Elite’ frequent flyer status as it gives me seating choices and lounge access. This practically means I usually get a bulkhead seat with more leg room, and that really makes a difference over long flight.

The 2nd (Sunday) was a free day and on Monday the participants started arriving. The programme is mainly taught by my friend and colleague, Tim Quinlan, whom I have known for close to 30 years. He came to Durban to teach at the University of Durban-Westville, which in those apartheid days was the ‘Asian’ higher education establishment. He subsequently joined HEARD as the first Research Director. This is the second year that he has run this programme with me. I am very lucky to also have as the main recruiter and administrator Nick Zebryk, who did a degree at the Balsillie School, and was my first (and last) full time research assistant in Waterloo. He managed the application process, and travelled to South Africa to troubleshoot. Thanks to his hard work there was no trouble to shoot!

We had 16 people from across Africa. On this occasion the largest number were from Malawi (four). I had taken some flack last year as six people were from Swaziland and this was seen favouritism. Everyone came with work in progress, and both Tim and I met with individuals to go through their manuscripts. We finished on Friday morning and on Saturday I went to Cape Town and spent a night in the City Lodge at the Waterfront. Firstly I wanted time by myself and the hotel is ideal for that; second I had a lunch meeting with the acting editor of the Global Fund Observer. This is run by a Kenyan-based NGO AIDSpan and I am on the board. As with all donor funded organisations, there is the constant need to raise funding and this means being relevant and supportable. Fortunately, so far, this has not been an issue for us.

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