The beginning of a New Era in Britain

On the 10 May 1940, a dark shadow of war swept across Europe engulfing France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The relentless advance of Hitler’s forces overwhelmed everything in their path. The world had suddenly become a much darker place.

On the very same day as the Continent echoed to the marching jackboots, the man who would inspire a nation stepped up to become the Prime Minister of Britain. That man was none other than Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

2020 represents the 80^th anniversary of that momentous year.

One of the gifts that Churchill had was the force of his rhetoric as a way of uniting the nation after the Battle of Alamein in November 1942 after Montgomery’s “Desert Rats” routed Rommel’s “Africa Korps”, turning the tide of the North African Campaign. He summed the feeling of Britain echoed in his words:

“Now this is not the end.

 It is not even the beginning of the end.

 But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

A moment of significance in history is set to happen at midnight CET, 23.00 hrs GMT on 31 January 2020.

After 3 extensions and 3 and a half years after the Referendum, Brexit is actually going to happen.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will no longer be a member of the European Union. Nothing big will happen. Big Ben will not bang or bong, but Friday the 31^st  January 2020  will mark the end of the beginning of the Brexit saga.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, an Eton and Oxford toff, previously elected Mayor of London serving two terms (2008-16). was elected leader of the Conservative Party in July 2019 and became Prime Minister of Britain in a bid to take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal.

                                                              

The Boris Bounce  

Within six months he won convincingly at the election in December 2019 with a majority of over 80 Members of Parliament and sealed the Brexit Deal he negotiated with the EU in early January 2020.

Bo Jo as he is known is alive to the mindset that rhetoric cannot make a difference. He has a big battle ahead.

After UK formally leaves the EU, there is still “a lot to talk about” and months of negotiation will follow, but Boris has his cards up his sleeve.

During the transition period due to end 31 December 2020, the UK will continue to follow all of the EU rules and its trading relationship will remain the same. A Trade Agreement will have to be worked out between UK and the EU. This is needed because UK will leave the single market and the Customs Union at the end of the transition period. A Free Trade Agreement if negotiated, will allow goods to move around to the EU without checks and extra charges and may mean tariffs (taxes) on UK goods to the EU and possibly, other trade barriers.

Luckily for UK, although there are prophets of doom circling like Irelands Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who on the strength of a Trade Agreement for UK with the EU has sought his own re-election in the coming days, and perhaps, Michael Barnier, the EU negotiator stating that “Brexit is only a matter of damage limitation”. Besides, Boris has also  critics in UK. But does it worry him?

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has decided not to make any victory parades yet. He has expressed that he wants a calming influence to soothe the divisions within the UK and to unite the corners of the British Isles before any big celebration.

However, the Brexit Party of Nigel Farage is going ahead with plans to spend £100,000 for a party in Parliament Square on 31 January 2020 to mark UK’s “triumphant exit from the EU”. Citizens of Britain will eat humble pie and accept the circulation of a new Commemorative 50 Pence Coin as a token in their pockets.

This is the way Britain works history or historic occasion. No fanfare, no tamashas, no “rubbing of noses” which many around the world are generally accustomed.

It is the beginning of the end of Brexit on 31 January 2020 and the word “Brexit” will no longer be used in future in IUK.

It will now be up to Team Boris to negotiate a comprehensive Trade Agreement with the European Union in the 11 months ahead, a tough job but if there’s a will, there will be a way to do it.

Whilst Britain is leaving the EU more than 350,000 UK Citizens have opted to apply for nationality of another EU member state since the Referendum in 2016 as dual nationals, some even forfeiting their British passports to retain their EU rights.

A new beginning awaits us and the European Union in the months ahead.

Victor Cherubim

Can Music slow down our aging process?

Research tells us that listening to music can improve the mood and help in relaxation to some extent, but other more interesting effects have also been observed.

With brain imaging fMRI scans, scientists now can even show where this happens in our brains. Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California, Davis, USA recently concluded a study that illustrates how the “medial pre-frontal cortex” links familiar music, memories and emotion. He also noted that music triggers powerful personal memories in Alzheimer patients.

It can also help children to feel soothed, to feel more relaxed and secure.

I can remember from my own childhood that when my mother played the “Blue Danube Waltz” on the “gramophone,” I remained calm for longer periods. This may have been due to the repetitive pattern of the music or perhaps, because music helped me to promote my body rhythms to synchronise with the rhythms of music heard. This I now feel, is nothing new as mothers lull their babies to sleep with lullabies.

                                                  

Listening to music may even help in reducing pain. Recently research published in the Lancet by Dr. Catherine Meads of Brunel University found how music can affect people who were undergoing surgery, their need for pain medication and their length of their hospital stay. It was found that patients who listened to music reported experiencing less anxiety and pain than those who did not. Those who were played music were also less likely to need pain medication.

How can listening to music create a long life?

Music is very significant part of our daily lives. Listening to music helps stress, relieves pain, improves health makes us relax, helps us to concentrate on study, increases productivity and performance, but does it help to create a long life?

Music is an art and a business. It affects us all. Music therapy is particularly noticeable in old age. It can profoundly improve the quality of life in old age, when no other treatment is able to help.

Take Japan for example, people are living longer lives thanks to, as many have commented, listening to music. There are other factors too, green tea daily served everywhere, smaller portions of food, more sea food, bath culture, showers at night improving body circulation, access to portable healthcare. One or all of these secrets may provide the answer, but it is often more than that.

Music gives the old aged brain what it needs to think and feel at the same time. Of primary importance in old age, as well are material and physical health,is financial security, together with family relationships and close social ties.

Aging is about serenity, not senility?

There is the question of altering mood states induced by music. These are seen in many parts of the world associated with reduced blood pressure, changes in neurochemicals, such as dopamine and endorphins, adjusted or altered stress levels, modulation of life and the immune system. Music is increasingly being used to assist in the aging process.

What can we do in Sri Lanka to reduce the aging process?

Learning a musical instrument as well as listening to music as a daily routine helps to stay cognitively sharp in old age. As we all know music is a powerful antidote to cognitive degeneration as we age. Listening to music can improve our creativity.

We need to unite as a nation, the young and the old, the educated and the less educated.

Instead of quibbling on trivial pursuits, we need to unite in singing the National Anthem with one voice, to bring in our united thoughts in everyone who sings it and hears it.

Singing the National Anthem together,  is a unifying experience for not only all people of Sri Lanka, but also for young and the old. Music gives us all one way in uplifting our injured feeling.

Victor Cherubim

Going along to get along

We often hear the words: "There are doors closing and opening".

We need or rather want to get out of a rut to explore all that life has to offer. From the political to the emotional as well as to the spiritual, many find it imperative to fall in and go with the flow when it comes to sudden changes of life that they experience.They want to conform to the general expectation so as to not rock the boat,nor to disrupt or endanger the status quo for fear of security or belonging.

When changes have been brewing for some time but have suddenly been triggered by a minor incident which has blown over, many tend to stay contented without wanting to change the conditions.

Talk and thought may have made us aware of our need to change our mindset.

What is Mindset?

Mindset is an established set of attitudes held by someone. In simple terms it is a way of thinking, a frame of mind. 

Carol Dweck's work on Mindsets suggests that there are two specific types of mindsets - Growth and Fixed. There can also be a mix of both.

                                           

 A Growth Mindset begins from the central premise that intelligence,talent and ability are open to change.They may go up or down. A Fixed Mindset begins with the belief that intelligence,  talent and ability are static. You are born with what you are given and it cannot change or be changed. In other words you are pre-destined. This is particularly applicable to young people and often to students in their formative years.

Learners often with a fixed mindset try to succeed, to do well,to pass examinations but are put off by the ensuing obstacles.They often try to avoid challenges and see mistakes and failure as dangerous and threatening. Thus they learn less.

The process of changing a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset is not rocket science. It is what is termed in person centred counselling, as turn on one's "self worth". It means having the ability to focus on the task ahead and by trial and error search and find a method which works.They say if it works for you and if you keep at it in the foreseeable future you will notice a subtle shift in perception. It shows that the decisions you have taken and the effort you have put in,works in the end.

This change is vividly seen in Sports personalities willing themselves to win against all odds against, through sheer will power and determination.

Of course, there are other strategies,activities or techniques which can be used to make one cultivate  and sustain a Growth Mindset. Among these are a few techniques. They are as follows:

1. Changing how you perceive or respond to mistakes.

2. Giving feedback towards effort

3. Thinking about the way we think through problems.

4. Creating challenges and meeting them head on.

Destiny is influenced not only by perception, or by one's effort and by resilience among others.

To attribute failure to fate or predestination, or vibrations of your aura, is a simple escape of reality.

Nothing remains the same, nothing is preordained as we all know that change is part and parcel of living.

Why do people often give up and accept fate?

When conditions are ideal for people to make progress in career progression, some give up hope, others want to remain calm and feel it not right to rock the boat, still others want to go along to get along. They do not visualise their action as undoubtedly their right to probe and pry thereby creating a drama,even when they feel the conditions are not right.

What can we say to people with this mindset?

Achievement in life is a two way street. Life satisfaction and happiness is not an easy answer. They are undoubtedly difficult to answer, but they are issues which affect each of us in different ways. Are there reliable comparisons of well-being of mankind across time and space that can give us clues regarding what helps us to strive and achieve happiness?

These questions often crop up and will come up time and again?

Victor Cherubim

Are Handwriting Exercise Books old fashioned?

The New Year brings with it new opportunities and among them digitalisation is the key word not only in business but also in education. We are being told that paper consumption is at an unsustainable level globally having increased year on year and quadrupled over the past 50 years.The burning of trees for energy,and pulping is the single biggest source of emissions,some statistics say it is 40% responsible for deforestation globally.

Everyone now talks about the paperless society including the signing of documents and declarations with digital signatures that can be emailed between clients and firms.They assure you that it is not only safe and secure but may even speed up business processes and bring about a closer connection through the sharing of documents in quick time.

However, it must be stated that computers nor libraries will never be able to give us the information we want, that other people and living life or experiment  will?                                         

What does paperless mean?

Paper usage in itself as some maintain is not bad for the environment, at least not compared to other materials such as plastic which is why necessarily there has been a trend towards replacing plastic cups with paper cups and plastic straws with paper straws. But the process of recycling,disposing of used paper is not comparatively as dangerous to the environment as recycling electrical items.The latter need to be specially disposed otherwise dangerous chemicals will be released to the environment and damage your health at the same time, besides also harm other living creatures?

The environmental impact of paper use is sometimes exaggerated. Computers and servers are not exactly carbon neutral either, since they all require electricity which today is essentially produced by non-environmentally friendly methods. 

The rise of interconnected technology has made it easier to invade computers through cyber warfare and "capture" or steal private and secure information, even with advanced security measures. Thus keeping a physical copy or backup document is essential.

Why are Exercise Books becoming old fashioned? 

A Headteacher of a Grammar School in England has said exercise books are too old fashioned.Children need to be prepared for the future,not for the past.

Kathy Crewe-Read, Headmistress of Wolverhampton Grammar School has said: "We are trying to prepare our students for a distant future where ultimately,writing and reading might be a thing of the past."

Pupils at WGS aged 9 to 14 use iPads rather than exercise books and textbooks in every lesson where everything is stored digitally on iPads and science experiments and class discussion can be filmed. They also use an "exercise book" if the students want to write in the old fashioned way, but these pages are then photographed, perhaps, scanned and then saved on to iPads. 

But exercise books are reintroduced for year 10 and above as students have to write by hand in public exams.Is it somewhat similar to the argument of teaching students only in the swabasha until year O Level and then doing further education in English.I seems a tall order for a student to fluently communicate in English which now seems a short sighted policy,when students have to learn English to communicate with the rest of the global society or for getting a job in Sri Lanka?

When I was a student in Sri Lanka?

I want to take my readers to the days when I was student in Sri Lanka. It is not to visualise the comparative change, but to elucidate the ease of learning. Like the modern "Slate"internet Tablet, I was familiar with the Black Graphite Slate with a slate pencil. I was able to write down,scribble, doddle,do games and learning on my slate and rub it down at the end of the class, similar to what you can do on an iPad, but which now leaves a footprint.

It is a totally proven fact that the use of educational games was a important and positive effect on the learning process of children. Child psychologists and educators generally agree that educational games reinforce curiosity in children and facilitate their future academic performance. Several studies we are told have shown that this type of games stimulate the cognitive development of children of school age as well as skills and coordination. Likewise educational games can strengthen the memory of children and help them develop their capacity for social interaction. 

All this sounds good, but of course education must evolve and innovate at the pace of technology, but preferably at the pace of the student. 

It is thought now important to be able to transmit knowledge in the language of the student and the language of today is technology.

Victor Cherubim 

Bushfires and Koalas

Australian bushfires are not new. They have been raging in years before, but the fires of 2019 have devastated not only humans, but also the fauna and flora of that land. Not much is mentioned about what it has done for the animal kingdom.

For 1000’s of years indigenous Australians have used fire to foster grasslands for hunting and to clear tracks through dense vegetation. Thus manmade “bushfires” in the Outback have been a common occurrence.

In recent times as early as 1967 we learned about the Tasmanian natural bushfire disaster which occurred on 7 February 1967, known in Australia as Black Tuesday which killed 62 people and 900 injured and nearly 7000 homeless.

In 2003 the Canberra bushfire caused severe damage to the suburbs of the National Capital. This took place around 18-22 January 2003. Almost 70% of the area’s pastures, pine plantations and natural parks were severely damaged.  Mount Stromio Observatory was completely destroyed, with 4 people dead, 490 injured and 470 homes destroyed or severely damaged requiring repairs and reconstruction.

On 7 February 2009 some ten years before the recent bushfire in September 2019 a further bushfire occurred in the State of Victoria and some 173 people died.

Now in 2019, we are told already 5,900,000 hectares of land is destroyed over 2500 buildings and at least 18 people have lost their lives including some volunteer firefighters.

                                                                      

What are some of the effects of the Australian bushfires?

Bushfires have an intensive effect and impact extensive areas and cause property damage and loss of human life. But no one talks of the extensive damage, which as many will agree, is caused to the animal and bird life, which is difficult to quantify.

We are reliably informed that half a billion animals are feared dead in these bushfires and it is estimated at least 8,000 koala bears have already been wiped out.

Many will also agree that the firefighters cannot search for animal life including search and rescue koalas, kangaroos, camels and other animals, not to mention the varied species of birdlife.

                                      

According to researchers at the University of Sydney, some 480 million mammals, birds, reptiles are estimated to have perished since the fires started in New South Wales, Australia in September 2019. We are further informed that some 8000 koala bears alone are thought to have been killed, a third of the entire koala population of the region.

What are some of the effects of the bushfires in far away South America? 

Yes, we all agree that bushfires in Australia are a regular feature of life in Australia.

But the recent blaze in the two states of Australia, New South Wales and Queensland and perhaps even in the state of Victoria, have not previously occurred on such a scale.

The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) offices in Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom, has been able to monitor the bushfires in Australia since September 2019 and states that smoke particles from these bushfires have reached South America as satellite imagery shows atmospheric pollution created by the fires across New South Wales has travelled more than 10,000 kilometres to Chile and Argentina. No one knows whether they will make a claim for air pollution to a Climate Court in the years to come?

                                                  

Reading between the lines, we see messages on Twitter stating what it really is like in New South Wales: “the sky was just black, the Sun was red, and we saw men beating back the flames………”.

Clamour for Climate Change

From tomorrow 3 January 2020, two Australian States of New South Wales and Queensland have declared a State of Emergency as the bushfires are a serious threat to heavily populated areas in their states.

The Volunteer Firefighters who up to now have been a volunteer force will from now on be paid for their firefighting work.

The Security Services, the Australian Army and Navy have also been recruited to help in the operation.

Citizens of towns and cities in the devastated areas are fleeing to the beaches in search of refugee.                                            

This has led many around the world to seek answers whether the bushfires in Australia can be linked to Climate Change?

As many know or may know, the science around Climate Change is complex. It is not the cause of bushfires, according to some scientists.

But what we know for sure is that the average temperature in Australia now is running about 1 degree centigrade above the longterm average. Seasons are starting earlier according to Richard Thornton, Chief, Bushfires and National Hazards Cooperative Research Centre in Australia. Is it any wonder for us who are ordinary citizens?

Australia’s Climate Change commitment under the Paris Agreement – the global deal to tackle rising global temperature is a 26-28 % per capita reduction in emissions by 2030 and a 64-65% reduction in the emissions intensity of the economy between 2005 and 2030.

Will it be practical to scale this reduction in the years ahead?

Victor Cherubim