22 FEATURE
29 JULY 2021
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From the front line… We’re not (yet) going on a Summer Holiday. Whatever you do, keep safe.
BY JACQUELINE CURZON It was devastating to read of deaths in Scottish waters last week. There were four separate tragedies, in which six people died. One incident caused the death of a woman, her son and a family friend. When a 7-year-old fell into the open water at the end of a pier, the other members of the group went in to save him, as the water looked quite shallow. They soon got into serious difficulties, and another child Rana Haris Ali (9) and his mother Edina Olahova (29) both succumbed, along with Muhammad Asim Riaz (41), the only member of the group who could actually swim. Jacqueline Curzon Edina’s husband, Waris Ali, said he tried PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY to throw his shirt as a lifeline to his wife, but sadly couldn’t get her to safety. Mr scheme saw us give £28 million, as recently Riaz's son was saved by a local man and as last November. 8,700 migrants have now remains in hospital in Glasgow. Separately, three boys (11, 13 and 16) drowned in other reached UK shores this year. Tim Loughton, a former minister, said ‘international tragedies. maritime lawyers had ruled that the French Civil servants in Scotland have been could intercept migrants boats and return encouraged to add pronouns to their email them to France,’ as they have committed sign offs, under plans for a transgender two crimes - illegal entry and paying trafinclusivity drive. The Scottish government fickers. What is the game going on, here? is backing proposals recommending 8000 British teenager Zara Rutherford (19) has workers take a pronoun pledge where they set her sights on becoming the youngest add terms such as ‘she /her’ or ‘he /him’ to woman to fly solo around the world, two the bottom of every work email. However the plan has provoked opposition from civil years after her pilot father cheated death in a plane crash. Zara said ‘when dad had servants after a survey which has caused a that crash you know things can go wrong massive row. I mentioned a few weeks ago and he was very lucky.’ She said this made about college tutors insisting on being referred to as he/she or they, and this is surely her realise that she potentially might not just another extension of the same thing. make it back. She will take off from Brussels The pronoun pledge includes non-standard next month in a shark ultralight, the world's terms such as ‘zie’ and ‘zir.’ Supporters of fastest light sport aircraft for her self-funded this say it would foster an open culture record attempt. Zara has actually replaced that is supportive of the LGBT community, the only other seat in the aircraft with however the results of the survey indicated an extra fuel tank to prevent any future that 60% of respondents did not want to go accusations that she’s not flown solo. Zara‘s down the pronoun rabbit hole. Diversity is mother is also a pilot, so one could safely supposed to make people feel included, but say flying runs in the family. We wish you I for one, feel excluded if I can’t be referred success, safe travels and a following wind, to as ‘straight, married, female, Mrs or Zara. Ms, or her.’ for fear of offending someone Rescuers have been asked to suspend a non-binary. We are born male or female, search for a missing climber, after a request unless you are deemed androgynous. Surely from his family. Kim Hong-bin (56) from the time has come for this absurd rebrandSouth Korea had overcome his disabilities ing to stop. If anyone feels a compelling to scale the 14 highest peaks in the world, need to include alternative salutations or but he sent a distress message out on July 18 sign offs on their correspondence, let them after completing his ascent of the 26,401 ft get on with it, but please don’t compel Broad Peak on the Pakistan- China border. those of us not playing the political correctIt’s believed he may have become disorientness game, to join in. ed on the descent and fallen into a crevasse. The French have told us they will not stop A Russian team spotted him but had to call illegal migrants at sea, this despite receiving off the rescue when a rope broke and Kim £54 million from us to combat illegal chanfell further. He lost all of his fingers to frostnel crossings, providing (French) police bite on a previous climb, and had requested presence and surveillance. With numbers that no one be put in danger should he now reaching 1,000 daily, this is a huge slap need assistance on Broad Peak. on the face for European relations. A similar A Scottish climber has been killed in an
avalanche on K2, whilst attempting a new route. Having narrowly avoided death on the same mountain 3 years ago, Rick Allen (68) was climbing the world’s second highest mountain to raise funds for charity. His two climbing partners - one from Spain and another from Austria - were both rescued. Allen, who was from Aberdeen, won the Piolet d’Or award for completing the ascent of Nanga Parbat’s Mazeno Ridge [Pakistan] in 2012. It’s not often I get to crack a joke about egg-on-the-face, but this week a story was ripe for inclusion in my column. An American e-commerce manager, David Ezrine, landed himself in hot water when he insulted one of his employees, telling him the ‘Brits would queue up [even] to jump off a cliff.’ Now, I know we are fanatical for obeying rules about everything, including queuing, but this was rather mean and over the top. Gavin Ford (40) took this complaint to tribunal and won, resulting in damages being awarded against Ezrine, the founder of the Big Green Egg Barbecue. From eggs to nuts now. South Norfolk council has put a preservation order on a walnut tree, rather than allowing it to be trimmed. This would not normally make the news, except that the tree overhangs the garden of Beau Beck (6), a girl with severe nut allergies. The tree stands 17 metres tall and is 100 years old. Beau’s mother has not asked for it to be taken down, rather to be height reduced and trimmed so no nuts fall into the garden, risking anaphylaxis. 11 people wrote with objections to the council, whilst 17 others wrote letters in support of Beau. South Norfolk is indeed a hard council to crack. Politics crossed into music some years back, where the BBC decided not only to relinquish the cheery morning music on R4, which follows the shipping forecast, but also crossed over into Last Night of the Proms, which forced Rule Britannia off the programme. It is now being reinstated in a drive to celebrate our Britishness. Now the music of Robert Burns is up for political tinkering, with an anti-Brexit exhibit installed at an Arts Festival. With financial backing from the SNP, Auld Lang Syne is to be sung in Gaelic and languages from all 27 Euro countries - Oh crivvens. Edinburgh Arts Festival has received £350,000 in taxpayer cash from the Scottish Government. Now we sing therein of a ‘cup of kindness,’ but even singers have to eat. Maybe a platter of deep-fried pizza? I have seen it (but couldn’t bear to sample!!!) but never the ubiquitous fried Mars bar, which I’ve neither partaken of nor seen either - but hey, it’s good to see how they can fritter away their funds.
A full size Spitfire has been built in a back garden in Cumbria by David Price, an author. Since 2018 Mr Price (58) has spent 3,000 hours and £5,000 on his project, taking inspiration from blueprints in a history book. He said the Spitfire ‘represented the icon of freedom, as well as being a beautiful creation.’ Although it will never fly, it has been faithfully built/ restored with mainly original parts, although several modifications have found their way into the build, including a baked bean tin, downpipe brackets and a bottle top. How truly inspirational. Now, with all the thunderstorms and rain we’ve had, I wanted to know if anyone has ever built an Ark, and if so, perhaps they will have reservations and accommodation space should our torrential downpours continue. So I found a few Arks on the web; the most impressive might be Ark Encounter, which opened in July 2016, in Kentucky, and is billed as the largest timber-frame structure in the world, standing at 51 feet tall and 1-1/2 football fields in length. Much of the craftsmanship details that went into building the boat was the handiwork of Amish laborers. Ark Encounter was built at a cost of $102 million, but Noah had no such financial issues, I would suspect. Finally, a little known fact…. Sir Roger Bannister, our 1954 record breaking runner, will be memorialised in Westminster Abbey. You’re wondering why, as was I. Less well-known was that this young man, running 1 mile in the record-breaking time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in Oxford, was a 25-year-old medical student. He came fourth in the 1500m at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, before achieving his record in the mile. He had set a British record by the time he was knighted for services to sport in 1975, but he also enjoyed a long career in medicine including writing more than 80 scientific papers which he considered more important. Bannister became a consultant and a leading expert in neurology which prompted a stoic response when he himself was diagnosed with Parkinsons in 2011. Before he died aged 88 in 2018, he said he would “rather be remembered for my work in neurology than for running” and it’s as a scientist that he will be commemorated with this memorial in Westminster Abbey, as an expert in disorders of the nervous system. He will be honoured with a ledger stone in a scientist's corner, alongside the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Up there with the greats. That’s a nice way to round off this week's news.
Love Jacqueline x
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