Some more shocking videos have emerged — produced by the bloodstained ISIS. Is this the ghastly price charity workers now have to pay? To be beheaded at the whim of terrorists? Alan Henning was a former taxi driver who had been kidnapped on Boxing Day last year while delivering aid to Syrian refugees. His throat was cut by a fellow Briton, nicknamed “Jihadi John”. Another “jihadi” (sadly the word is becoming increasingly detached from its real meaning) called Omar Hussain, who used to work in a supermarket chain, Morrisons, has been also taped ranting about revenge against Western superpowers. This is a new kind of war where life and death are treated as though they are a cruel videogame.
If only the same funds which are being used to prop up these mad killers were being used to educate them, and give them meaningful lives!
And so the UK is now preparing for another long, bloody war — against its own citizens, in another land. As the winter begins to arrive, the sadness over these lost lives is perceptible.
On a more cheery note — this was a funeral many of us would have loved to have! When Deborah Cavendish, the Dowager Duchess of Cavendish died last week at the age of 94, (the last of the famous Mitford sisters) she wanted no memorial service and no eulogy. Instead the attendees donated to her favourite charities, and celebrated her.
And How Great Thou Art sung by Elvis Presley played, and her coffin was buried to the strains of New York New York. Royalty attended, and more than 600 workers at her 3,500 acre estate stood with heads bowed... Now that’s a send off to remember!
Just in time for Gandhi Jayanti — the details for the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Parliament Square were put up for public display. This is a part of getting the planning permission. The nine-foot bronze statue of Gandhiji will be placed to the left of Nelson Mandela but on a slightly higher plinth. Behind him would be Abraham Lincoln and the Supreme Court. The latter would really please the “English Barrister” as Gandhi called himself. His grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi was recently in London, and he too looked over, and approved the site in the Square. Donations are also coming in at the website gandhistatue.org. (Do send some!) Let us hope the setting up of the Gandhi statue is generously received all around the world. It will only go to prove his international appeal and reputation. It will be a great moment for Indians.
On a more serious note, there is one baby that we might see a little less of. Apart from some who will be heartbroken, there is really little to be worried about. In fact the child already suffers from over exposure! And so we had Prince William and Kate Middleton issuing a stern warning to Neeraj Tanna, a dedicated royal photographer who was apparently last seen scooting among the bushes at Battersea Park in hot pursuit of Prince George and his maid, Maria Teresa Turrion Borallo. As the royal spokesperson mentioned, this demonstrated a “fundamental weirdness” of the paparazzi following the 14-month-old baby.
I was intrigued because after a long time we have an Asian sounding fellow in the middle of a scandal. I was kind of missing that. Even if this is only a bust up over a toddler, at least we Asians are back in the news! Hurrah for Neeraj! But perhaps he could disguise himself as a tree or a plant next time he gets close to George. After all, with a grandfather like Prince Charles, George must be used to talking to plants.
Meanwhile records have thrown up a “prickly affair”. This is the naming of a rose after the late Margaret Thatcher, while she was still Prime Minister. It had, quite hilariously, threatened to become a full-fledged international spat. It seems she had once given permission to the German Central Horticultural Associa-tion to name a rose after her, and then forgotten all about it. Six years later, she once again allowed a Japanese firm called Takatori to name a rose after her... and so a dispute ensued.
The foreign office had to forward to nip the affair in the bud, and a response was sent to the Japanese, in typical bureauctratese: “The two roses are different in appearance, but if an error has been made, the Prime Minister very much hopes that it can be satisfactorily and easily resolved.
“We can understand your concern, and would like to assure
Mr Takatori of our high regard for the masterpiece he named.”
Though I am not quite convinced which Prime Minister really deserved a rose named after her, I would not dream of naming one after Thatcher!
The writer is an award-winning author
