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| Saturday, 12 February 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
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Rule Britannia
A survey of about 50,000 people in more than 60 countries across the globe has found that a significant majority actually quite like the UK. Whilst people in Egypt, Greece, Uruguay and Turkey expressed negative feelings towards Britain, she still has staunch friends particularly among Africans, Americans, Canadians, Russians and eastern Europeans, according to Gallup International's "Voice of the People" poll. Although the British seems to have largely forgotten the enmity of WW2, Inigo Radcke, the German Consul General for Scotland, lamented that the Second World War was still clouding relations between Germany and the UK. "I think the fact that 50 per cent of Germans have an undecided view of Britain is to some extent due to the fact that many people are puzzled about the way the British public view Germany," he said. "I think we feel ill-judged by the British public. We cannot
explain why German youngsters here (UK) are greeted with 'Heil Hitler' and
all these things..." British Pioneers Pupils in Cheshire are among the first to move towards a "paperless school" - following the introduction of a new system which allows them to file their homework by email. The pilot project is run by the Ambrose Roman Catholic College in Cheshire. The pupils can email their homework in and have their teachers email back their marks. They can also do some lessons online. According to Headmaster Michael Thompson "pupils are incredibly enthusiastic about this. The homework is emailed to the boys...they are so enthusiastic about getting it done that they just want to finish it. We are getting it returned without half an hour. It's also made marking homework much easier...by using the electronic system the presentation of work has improved so the boys are concentrating on content and accuracy" Most pupils at the grammar school have access to a computer at home and those who don't can use school facilities after hours. Other e-learning initiatives currently being piloted in schools include a " Parent Gateway" at St. Martin's School in Essex, which allows parents to check their children's attendance, punctuality, target grades and results online. They can also see what homework their children have been set everyday.
Parents of 1,000 out of 1,800 pupils at the school have signed up to the
scheme so far. Another Summit What is the point of another world summit, writes Simon Jenkins in the Times. Consider recent history; in 2000 in New York 150 world leaders gathered for a "Millennium Summit" - its aim was to "confront world poverty" and so crowded were the most expensive hotels in New York that they reportedly exhausted the city's supplies of lobster and champagne. Nothing happened. The following year the G7 leaders were frantic to say something relevant at the over-cosseted Genoa Summit. Amid an array of personal masseuses, private chefs and the Three Tenors, Tony Blair, George Bush, and others declared their unshakeable commitment to "alleviating world poverty." Nothing happened. Next came the UN's 2002 Johannesburg Summit. This took as its theme our old friend, "tackling world poverty", by means of sustainable development. Pre-summit sessions were held, papers written, hotels booked and delegates arrived. Nothing happened. As if oblivious to the cynicism, the British government chose as the theme for this year's British-led G7 summits "combating world poverty." The Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown suggested 100 per cent relief of Third World Debt. He proposed an International Finance Facility whereby poor countries could borrow against the security of future aid or seek assistance from the revaluing of IMF gold. The Americans poured cold water on both proposals. The G7 ended with another declaration that world poverty must be tackled but with no agreement on implementing even the debt relief proposals. The only word that springs to mind is cynicism. Relieving the debts of Third World countries is urgent if their public sectors are to recover any buoyancy. Such relief will be expensive to rich countries, and requires careful thought. How are the debts to be written off without damaging creditworthiness?
What discipline is needed to redirect debt repayments to domestic poverty?
What is the point of relieving poor economies if rich ones will not buy
their produce and dump surpluses on them instead? The summits never answer
these crucial questions. The impression left after each one is of a
feel-good publicity gimmick. Panther Spotted A stunned taxi driver and his passenger claim to have spotted a panther on the outskirts of East Lothian town of Dunbar in Scotland. Cabbie Martin Mchale said he had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting the 5ft- long creature which was clearly visible in the car's headlamps before it darted back into the woods. His passenger, who used to work in a zoo thought it was either a panther or a puma. "I have been driving taxis in this area for five years and have never seen anything like that before", he said. Over the last five years, reports of such elusive animals to the Scottish Big Cat Society have rocketed. In 2003, there were five sightings of a "large, black cat-like animal - not unlike a panther" in the Dunbar area within the space of a month. - Evening News |
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Britain
may have once ruled over a third of the world, but it seems many of its
peoples do not hold that against the British.
