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Partner countries constituents and GPE staff members at the Asia and Pacific Constituency Meeting.
Bangkok, March 2023
Credit: GPE
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 17/12/2021. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Constituency visit. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a vaccine centre at Hillingdon Hospital. Picture by Andrew Parsons / CCHQ /Parsons Media
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Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
EULOGY
EARLY CHILDHOOD
The late Mzee Harrison Orina Omoro was born in 1932 in Kenonka Village, Bokiambori Sub-location, West Mugirango Constituency in Nyamira County, to the late Omoro O’Isenyangi and the late Mama Kwamboka Kemunto Omoro “Mosiamani”. Orina is the sixth born in a family of 4 boys and 3 girls.
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
In 1951, Young Harrison Orina attended Tonga Primary school and later joined Sironga Intermediate school. In 1961, he joined Africa Inland Mission Kijabe where he undertook a technician course in carpentry. He joined the Africa Highlands Produce Company in 1962, where he worked at the Changana Tea factory as a clerk and later as a supervisor. Due to his diligence, hardwork and dedication, he rose through the ranks to the post of Grade 1 Supervisor. He retired in 1986 and retreated to his Matierio Home to concentrate on small scale farming. Upon retirement Mzee Orina was appointed as a village elder “Omotureti”, within the Bokiambori sub-location administrative Unit, working closely with the Assistant Chief. He was also active in the Tea and Coffee sub-sectors, and was a founding member of a number of self-help groups to promote education and development.
MARRIAGE
Mzee Harrison Orina married Mary Mosero in 1958 and Bilia Mokeira in 1961. They were blessed with 19 children: Charles Orina, Elsepher Moraa, Rebecca Ondieki, Florence Nyaboe, Robert Mosagwe, Naom Nyabate, Teresa Moraa, Elizabeth Kwamboka, Solpher Kwamboka, George Morara, Richard Osoro, Penina Nyaboke, Joseph Ogamba, Rose Nyaboke, Lorna Nyambare, Isabella Chebunga, Eric Rong’i, Joshua Nyandieka and Hellen Kemunto.
He leaves behind 60 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.
RELIGION
Harrison Orina was a dedicated and baptized Christian within the Seventh Day Adventist church. Until his death he worshipped at the Tonga Omonuri Seventh Day Adventist church in Matierio.
SICKNESS
In 2017 Mzee Orina developed a chest infection for which he was put under medication. In April, 2018, he again complained of severe chest pains and an incessant dry cough. He was later diagnosed with Cancer of the esophagus and was put under medication in Nairobi. Following this treatment, Mzee’s condition improved for some time and he returned home.
In September 2018, he again started complaining of severe chest pain and was referred to a specialist for further examination, the doctors recommended stenting, which was successfully done in Tenwek Hospital in September 2018.
However, following a brief reprieve, Mzee’s condition continued to deteroriate and he was admitted at the Nyamira Level Five Hospital on 27 October 2018. His condition seemed to stabilize for some time. But, On 30th October 2018 at around 5p.m. Mzee developed breathing difficulties and efforts by doctors to resuscitate him did not succeed. Mzee reunited with his maker at 5.30pm on 30th October, 2018.
May the Lord Rest His soul in Eternal Peace.
2018-03-24: In a group photograph (Front row L-R), Kathy Riklin, Member of the Swiss National Council; Jennifer Blanke, Vice President, Agriculture, Human, and Social Development, African Development Bank; Mr. Charles O. Boamah, Senior Vice-President of the African Development Bank Group; Johann Schneider-Ammann, Member of the Swiss Federal Council; Catherine Cudre-Mauroux, Executive Director of constituency of Luxembourg, African Development Bank; Pierre Guislain, Vice-President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization; Didier Berberat, Council of States of Switzerland; Stella Kilonzo, Senior Director, Africa Investment Forum; (Back row L-R), Christoph Heinrich, Audit & Assurance and Corporate Finance & Advisory Services; Mr. Vincent Subilia, Director General of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services (CCIG); Damian Müller, Member of the Council of States of Switzerland; Parfait Toure, Ad Interim Head of West & Central Africa Cluster; Dr. Abdu Mukhtar, Director, Industrial and Trade Development, African Development Bank during Visit to the Bank by the Swiss Federal Councilor.
Diane Dodds alongside George Robinson MLA, Adrian McQuillan MLA and Gregory Campbell MP MLA outside his constituency office during a visit to Coleraine
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/01/2022. Uxbridge , United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a science class at Oakwood School during a visit to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
We have discussed this before, but it is important to review and bring it all together. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a president without a constituency. His presidency is assumed, not elected. He rules over a fantasy that doesn’t really exist and an organization that seems destined to disappear.
Abbas’ position is illegitimate. Palestinian Authority elections were scheduled to take place in early 2010 at the end of Abbas’ second term. Instead, the elections were “delayed.” However, they have never come to pass because Abbas’ Central Council – not the people – voted to extend his term in office indefinitely.
Abbas is in political trouble. A survey released on Christmas day, a day not typically celebrated by Muslims, indicated that, if an election were to be held today, Abbas would lose.
Abbas has the PA in economic trouble. Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi is planning to visit Ramallah at the behest of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Fayyad is calling for an immediate Arab summit to appeal to Arab leaders to help to stave off the rapidly approaching economic collapse. The Arab League has been withholding $100 million per month in “safety net” funds from the PA that had been previously pledged to them.
Abbas is corrupt. MPN said recently, “Reports suggest that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, has used his position of power to line his own pockets as well as those of his cohort of cronies, including his sons, Yasser and Tarek.” It’s not about the PA and the people; it’s all about himself.
Abbas refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. In this matter, as in many others, he is coy and sly. He will say that he recognizes that Israel exists. But he will not say that Israel has a right to exist.
We need to be keenly aware of what is going on in the West Bank. The PA is like a mirror balancing on a pin. It’s only a matter of time before it all collapses and Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood step in and try to wrest it from Israel’s legal and rightful grasp. Pray about this matter with us. Israel, and especially the city of Jerusalem, could be facing the fight of their lives once again. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6)
For more on this story, visit: Jerusalem Prayer Team Articles Page.
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Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 27/07/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Constituency Visit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson playing basketball with the children at FIESTA basketball camp at Uxbridge College during his constituency visit. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets constituents during the St Mary’s coffee morning, at Richmond Town Hall, in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 17/12/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Constituency Day. Picture by Dominic Lipinski / Parsons Media/ CCHQ
Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
2022-09-26: President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina sharing a frame with (L-R) Gauthier Bourlard, Director and Special Advisor for Multilateral Development Banks, International Financial Institutions and Non-Regional Shareholders Relations, Office of the President; Mr. Olajide Oyewusi, Special Assistant to the President of AfDB; Nadia Hamel, Analyst, institutional and Initiatives Delivery; Anders Rönquist, Head of Development Cooperation Kenya på Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi; Mette Knudsen, Executive Director Nordic-Indian-Irish Constituency, AfDB; Carin Jämtin, Director-General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); Ulf Källstig, Assistant Director General, Department for Africa, Sida; Johanna Nuder, Desk Officer at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Government Offices of Sweden during visit to Stockholm - Bilateral meeting with Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Director General, Carin Jämtin.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visits his constituency in Richmond (Yorks) - 6/4/23. Photo by Andrew Wong / CCHQ.
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 08/07/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Constituency Visit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Ukrainian families at Uxbridge Library during a constituency visit. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
An 11th century Saxon cross head that marks the focus for the start of the annual Goose Fair in Ovingham.
Ovingham is a civil parish and village in the Tyne Valley of south Northumberland, England. It lies on the River Tyne 10 miles (16 km) east of Hexham with neighbours Prudhoe, Ovington, Wylam and Stocksfield.
The River Tyne provided an obstacle between Ovingham and Prudhoe until 20 December 1883, when a toll bridge (Ovingham Bridge) was finally opened, taking the place of the ferry. The steel tubes are marked Dorman Long Middlesbrough, the firm which designed and built the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Tyne Bridge.
Ovingham is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham.
There was a dyehouse at Ovingham, and in 1828 William Bullock was the foreman. Both Thomas Bewick from nearby Cherryburn and George Stephenson from nearby Wylam had relatives who were dyers. One of Bewick's woodcuts is entitled the Dyers of Ovingham, showing two men who are carrying a large tub on a pole. Mabel Stephenson, George's mother, was a daughter of an Ovingham dyer named Richard Carr. There were weavers in Ovingham, as well as a local tidewaiter, or customs inspector.
The vicarage was, in medieval times, a cell for three Augustinian canons of Hexham, and was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. It was formerly the residence of the late Frank Atkinson, who did so much to establish the Beamish Museum in County Durham, and also the Bewick Trust at Cherryburn. Bewick received his education in the vicarage and the church.
The Ovingham 'pack-horse' bridge over the Whittle Burn consists of two segmental arches with a width of five feet between the parapets, so that it could not be used for wheeled traffic. It is likely that the Ovingham mill dam on the Tyne raised the level of the water. The bridge is grade 2 listed and required repairs to the mortar after the severe flood of 2015. The adjacent ford was replaced by a concrete road bridge in the 1960s, although this is low lying and was overtopped by the Burn in 2015.
Whittle dean is a deep woody dell which stretches southwards & joins the Tyne east of Ovington. The waters of this dean (peculiarly soft & clear) are the most celebrated in the north of England for whitening linen cloth. Mr. William Newton's bleach green, situated on this stream at the confluence of the Tyne is known and famed throughout all these northern parts. (Mackenzie 1825). The Whittle Burn can be traced back to the present day Whittledean Water Works on either side of the line of Hadrian's Wall near Welton Hall.
The first three trees of the Ovingham Community Orchard were planted in the old grazing field next to the allotments by children from Ovingham First School on Friday 23 November 2018. The following morning about 40 villagers turned out to plant the remaining 21 trees. Each tree will produce a different variety of apple.
The village is served by Prudhoe railway station on the Tyne Valley Line. The line was opened in 1838, and links the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear with Carlisle in Cumbria. The line follows the course of the River Tyne through Northumberland.
Passenger services on the Tyne Valley Line are operated by Northern. The line is also heavily used for freight. The railway station is across the River Tyne on the south bank of the river.
The village lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the A69 road giving good links with Newcastle upon Tyne, Hexham, and Carlisle. The A695 road is accessible across Ovingham Bridge giving access to places on the south side of the River Tyne including Gateshead.
Ovingham has two schools, Ovingham Middle School and Ovingham CE First School. Ovingham Middle School educates 358 children, aged 9–13.
The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary has a tall slender Anglo-Saxon tower. There are fragments of an Anglo-Saxon cross in the church, which was much enlarged in the 13th century – wider, loftier and with long lancet windows. The nave with aisles is only two bays long, as the north and south transepts, each with a west aisle, take up the space of two more bays. There is a long chancel with very little ornament. The churchyard has a number of gravestones in memory of prominent villagers. In the porch is a stone slab commemorating Thomas Bewick who is buried in the churchyard, next to the tower.
Ovingham had a charter for a market and two annual fairs on 26 October and 26 April. There was also a monthly tryst for cattle and sheep, which was discontinued in 1823. The ceremony for the Fair was similar to that for the Stagshaw Bank Fair at Corbridge nearby. A procession moved to the principal alehouse for the 'riding of the fair', led by the Duke of Northumberland's pipers, dressed in light blue and adorned with the Duke's sign of a crescent moon. The procession included the Duke's agent, bailiff, constable with many farmers and tenants. The fair was proclaimed and then they beat the bounds, returning to the tavern to drink the Duke's health from punch provided by him. After this men, women and children alike went to enjoy the amusements – stalls, Punch and Judy and performers such as fire-breathers. The custom was discontinued in time, but it has been revived in recent years as the 'Goose Fair', since in the days of the old Fair geese would play an important part in the sale. Quill pens were made in Ovingham from goose feathers.
Notable people
Thomas Bewick was educated in the vicarage and the church, and is buried in the churchyard of St Mary
Mason Jackson (1819–1903) was born in the village, as was his brother, John Jackson, both notable wood-engravers.
Frank Atkinson (1924–2014), founding director of the Beamish Museum, lived in the village from 1982 until his death in 2014.
The punk-rock band China Drum formed in Ovingham in 1989
Rob Barker of Newcastle upon Tyne-based post-rock act Peace Burial at Sea grew up in the village.
Northumberland is a ceremonial county in North East England, bordering Scotland. It is bordered by the Scottish Borders to the north, the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The town of Blyth is the largest settlement.
The county has an area of 5,013 km2 (1,936 sq mi) and a population of 320,274, making it the least-densely populated county in England. The south-east contains the largest towns: Blyth (37,339), Cramlington (27,683), Ashington (27,670), and Morpeth (14,304), which is the administrative centre. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Berwick-upon-Tweed (12,043) in the far north and Hexham (13,097) in the west. For local government purposes the county is a unitary authority area. The county historically included the parts of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne.
The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast. The Cheviot (815 m (2,674 ft)), after which the range of hills is named, is the county's highest point. The county contains the source of the River North Tyne and much of the South Tyne; near Hexham they combine to form the Tyne, which exits into Tyne and Wear shortly downstream. The other major rivers in Northumberland are, from south to north, the Blyth, Coquet, Aln, Wansbeck and Tweed, the last of which forms part of the Scottish border. The county contains Northumberland National Park and two national landscapes: the Northumberland Coast and part of the North Pennines.
Much of the county's history has been defined by its position on a border. In the Roman era most of the county lay north of Hadrian's Wall, and the region was contested between England and Scotland into the Early Modern era, leading to the construction of many castles, peel towers and bastle houses, and the early modern fortifications at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Northumberland is also associated with Celtic Christianity, particularly the tidal island of Lindisfarne. During the Industrial Revolution the area had significant coal mining, shipbuilding, and armaments industries.
Northumberland, England's northernmost county, is a land where Roman occupiers once guarded a walled frontier, Anglian invaders fought with Celtic natives, and Norman lords built castles to suppress rebellion and defend a contested border with Scotland. The present-day county is a vestige of an independent kingdom that once stretched from Edinburgh to the Humber, hence its name, meaning literally 'north of the Humber'. Reflecting its tumultuous past, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, and the greatest number of recognised battle sites. Once an economically important region that supplied much of the coal that powered the industrial revolution, Northumberland is now a primarily rural county with a small and gradually shrinking population.
As attested by many instances of rock art, the Northumberland region has a rich prehistory. Archeologists have studied a Mesolithic structure at Howick, which dates to 7500 BC and was identified as Britain's oldest house until it lost this title in 2010 when the discovery of the even older Star Carr house in North Yorkshire was announced, which dates to 8770 BC. They have also found tools, ornaments, building structures and cairns dating to the bronze and iron ages, when the area was occupied by Brythonic Celtic peoples who had migrated from continental Europe, most likely the Votadini whose territory stretched from Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth to Northumberland. It is not clear where the boundary between the Votadini and the other large tribe, the Brigantes, was, although it probably frequently shifted as a result of wars and as smaller tribes and communities changed allegiances. Unlike neighbouring tribes, Votadini farms were surrounded by large walls, banks and ditches and the people made offerings of fine metal objects, but never wore massive armlets. There are also at least three very large hillforts in their territory (Yeavering Bell, Eildon Hill and Traprain Law, the latter two now in Scotland), each was located on the top of a prominent hill or mountain. The hillforts may have been used for over a thousand years by this time as places of refuge and as places for meetings for political and religious ceremonies. Duddo Five Stones in North Northumberland and the Goatstones near Hadrian's Wall are stone circles dating from the Bronze Age.
When Gnaeus Julius Agricola was appointed Roman governor of Britain in 78 AD, most of northern Britain was still controlled by native British tribes. During his governorship Agricola extended Roman control north of Eboracum (York) and into what is now Scotland. Roman settlements, garrisons and roads were established throughout the Northumberland region.
The northern frontier of the Roman occupation fluctuated between Pons Aelius (now Newcastle) and the Forth. Hadrian's Wall was completed by about 130 AD, to define and defend the northern boundary of Roman Britain. By 142, the Romans had completed the Antonine Wall, a more northerly defensive border lying between the Forth and Clyde. However, by 164 they abandoned the Antonine Wall to consolidate defences at Hadrian's Wall.
Two important Roman roads in the region were the Stanegate and Dere Street, the latter extending through the Cheviot Hills to locations well north of the Tweed. Located at the intersection of these two roads, Coria (Corbridge), a Roman supply-base, was the most northerly large town in the Roman Empire. The Roman forts of Vercovicium (Housesteads) on Hadrian's Wall, and Vindolanda (Chesterholm) built to guard the Stanegate, had extensive civil settlements surrounding them.
The Celtic peoples living in the region between the Tyne and the Forth were known to the Romans as the Votadini. When not under direct Roman rule, they functioned as a friendly client kingdom, a somewhat porous buffer against the more warlike Picts to the north.
The gradual Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century led to a poorly documented age of conflict and chaos as different peoples contested territories in northern Britain.
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vidolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that based on their difference from gladiator gloves warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum.
Conquests by Anglian invaders led to the establishment of the kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia. The first Anglian settlement was effected in 547 by Ida, who, accompanied by his six sons, pushed through the narrow strip of territory between the Cheviots and the sea, and set up a fortress at Bamburgh, which became the royal seat of the Bernician kings. About the end of the 6th century Bernicia was first united with the rival kingdom of Deira under the rule of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, and the district between the Humber and the Forth became known as the kingdom of Northumbria.
After Æthelfrith was killed in battle around 616, Edwin of Deira became king of Northumbria. Æthelfrith's son Oswald fled northwest to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata where he was converted to Christianity by the monks of Iona. Meanwhile, Paulinus, the first bishop of York, converted King Edwin to Roman Christianity and began an extensive program of conversion and baptism. By his time the kingdom must have reached the west coast, as Edwin is said to have conquered the islands of Anglesey and Man. Under Edwin the Northumbrian kingdom became the chief power in Britain. However, when Cadwallon ap Cadfan defeated Edwin at Hatfield Chase in 633, Northumbria was divided into the former kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira and Christianity suffered a temporary decline.
In 634, Oswald defeated Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Heavenfield, resulting in the re-unification of Northumbria. Oswald re-established Christianity in the kingdom and assigned a bishopric at Hexham, where Wilfrid erected a famous early English church. Reunification was followed by a period of Northumbrian expansion into Pictish territory and growing dominance over the Celtic kingdoms of Dál Riata and Strathclyde to the west. Northumbrian encroachments were abruptly curtailed in 685, when Ecgfrith suffered complete defeat by a Pictish force at the Battle of Nechtansmere.
When Saint Aidan came at the request of Oswald to preach to the Northumbrians he chose the island of Lindisfarne as the site of his church and monastery, and made it the head of the diocese which he founded in 635. For some years the see continued in peace, numbering among its bishops Saint Cuthbert, but in 793 Vikings landed on the island and burnt the settlement, killing many of the monks. The survivors, however, rebuilt the church and continued to live there until 883, when, through fear of a second invasion of the Danes, they fled inland, taking with them the body of Cuthbert and other holy relics.
Against this background, the monasteries of Northumbria developed some remarkably influential cultural products. Cædmon, a monk at Whitby Abbey, authored one of the earliest surviving examples of Old English poetry some time before 680. The Lindisfarne Gospels, an early example of insular art, is attributed to Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne from 698 to 721. Stenton (1971, p. 191) describes the book as follows.
In mere script it is no more than an admirable example of a noble style, and the figure drawing of its illustrations, though probably based on classical models, has more than a touch of naïveté. Its unique importance is due to the beauty and astonishing intricacy of its decoration. The nature of its ornament connects it very closely with a group of Irish manuscripts of which the Book of Kells is the most famous.
Bede's writing, at the Northumbrian monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, gained him a reputation as the most learned scholar of his age. His work is notable for both its breadth (encompassing history, theology, science and literature) and quality, exemplified by the rigorous use of citation. Bede's most famous work is Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is regarded as a highly influential early model of historical scholarship.
The kingdom of Northumbria ceased to exist in 927, when it was incorporated into England as an earldom by Athelstan, the first king of a united England[citation needed].. In 937, Athelstan's victory over a combined Norse-Celtic force in the battle of Brunanburh secured England's control of its northern territory.
The Scottish king Indulf captured Edinburgh in 954, which thenceforth remained in possession of the Scots. His successors made repeated attempts to extend their territory southwards. Malcolm II was finally successful, when, in 1018, he annihilated the Northumbrian army at Carham on the Tweed, and Eadulf the earl of Northumbria ceded all his territory to the north of that river as the price of peace. Henceforth Lothian, consisting of the former region of Northumbria between the Forth and the Tweed, remained in possession of the Scottish kings.
The term Northumberland was first recorded in its contracted modern sense in 1065 in an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relating to a rebellion against Tostig Godwinson.
The vigorous resistance of Northumbria to William the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying, mostly south of the River Tees. As recounted by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
A.D. 1068. This year King William gave Earl Robert the earldom over Northumberland; but the landsmen attacked him in the town of Durham, and slew him, and nine hundred men with him. Soon afterwards Edgar Etheling came with all the Northumbrians to York; and the townsmen made a treaty with him: but King William came from the South unawares on them with a large army, and put them to flight, and slew on the spot those who could not escape; which were many hundred men; and plundered the town. St. Peter's minster he made a profanation, and all other places also he despoiled and trampled upon; and the ethelling went back again to Scotland.
The Normans rebuilt the Anglian monasteries of Lindisfarne, Hexham and Tynemouth, and founded Norman abbeys at Newminster (1139), Alnwick (1147), Brinkburn (1180), Hulne, and Blanchland. Castles were built at Newcastle (1080), Alnwick (1096), Bamburgh (1131), Harbottle (1157), Prudhoe (1172), Warkworth (1205), Chillingham, Ford (1287), Dunstanburgh (1313), Morpeth, Langley (1350), Wark on Tweed and Norham (1121), the latter an enclave of the palatine bishops of Durham.
Northumberland county is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but the account of the issues of the county, as rendered by Odard the sheriff, is entered in the Great Roll of the Exchequer for 1131.
In 1237, Scotland renounced claims to Northumberland county in the Treaty of York.
During the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), the county of Northumberland was the district between the Tees and the Tweed, and had within it several scattered liberties subject to other powers: Durham, Sadberge, Bedlingtonshire, and Norhamshire belonging to the bishop of Durham; Hexhamshire to the archbishop of York; Tynedale to the king of Scotland; Emildon to the earl of Lancaster; and Redesdale to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus. These franchises were exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the shire. Over time, some were incorporated within the county: Tynedale in 1495; Hexhamshire in 1572; and Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.
The county court for Northumberland was held at different times at Newcastle, Alnwick and Morpeth, until by statute of 1549 it was ordered that the court should thenceforth be held in the town and castle of Alnwick. Under the same statute the sheriffs of Northumberland, who had been in the habit of appropriating the issues of the county to their private use, were required thereafter to deliver in their accounts to the Exchequer in the same manner as the sheriffs of other counties.
From the Norman Conquest until the union of England and Scotland under James I and VI, Northumberland was the scene of perpetual inroads and devastations by the Scots. Norham, Alnwick and Wark were captured by David I of Scotland in the wars of Stephen's reign. In 1174, during his invasion of Northumbria, William I of Scotland, also known as William the Lion, was captured by a party of about four hundred mounted knights, led by Ranulf de Glanvill. This incident became known as the Battle of Alnwick. In 1295, Robert de Ros and the earls of Athol and Menteith ravaged Redesdale, Coquetdale and Tynedale. In 1314 the county was ravaged by king Robert Bruce. And so dire was the Scottish threat in 1382, that by special enactment the earl of Northumberland was ordered to remain on his estates to protect the border. In 1388, Henry Percy was taken prisoner and 1500 of his men slain at the battle of Otterburn, immortalised in the ballad of Chevy Chase.
Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh were garrisoned for the Lancastrian cause in 1462, but after the Yorkist victories of Hexham and Hedgley Moor in 1464, Alnwick and Dunstanburgh surrendered, and Bamburgh was taken by storm.
In September 1513, King James IV of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Flodden on Branxton Moor.
Roman Catholic support in Northumberland for Mary, Queen of Scots, led to the Rising of the North in 1569.
After uniting the English and Scottish thrones, James VI and I sharply curbed the lawlessness of the border reivers and brought relative peace to the region. There were Church of Scotland congregations in Northumberland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
During the Civil War of the 17th century, Newcastle was garrisoned for the king by the earl of Newcastle, but in 1644 it was captured by the Scots under the earl of Leven, and in 1646 Charles I was led there a captive under the charge of David Leslie.
Many of the chief Northumberland families were ruined in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.
The mineral resources of the area appear to have been exploited to some extent from remote times. It is certain that coal was used by the Romans in Northumberland, and some coal ornaments found at Angerton have been attributed to the 7th century. In a 13th-century grant to Newminster Abbey a road for the conveyance of sea coal from the shore about Blyth is mentioned, and the Blyth coal field was worked throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The coal trade on the Tyne did not exist to any extent before the 13th century, but from that period it developed rapidly, and Newcastle acquired the monopoly of the river shipping and coal trade. Lead was exported from Newcastle in the 12th century, probably from Hexhamshire, the lead mines of which were very prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In a charter from Richard I to Hugh de Puiset creating him earl of Northumberland, mines of silver and iron are mentioned. A salt pan is mentioned at Warkworth in the 12th century; in the 13th century the salt industry flourished at the mouth of the river Blyth, and in the 15th century formed the principal occupation of the inhabitants of North and South Shields. In the reign of Elizabeth I, glass factories were set up at Newcastle by foreign refugees, and the industry spread rapidly along the Tyne. Tanning, both of leather and of nets, was largely practised in the 13th century, and the salmon fisheries in the Tyne were famous in the reign of Henry I.
John Smeaton designed the Coldstream Bridge and a bridge at Hexham.
Stephenson's Rocket
Invention of the steam turbine by Charles Algernon Parsons
A: A group of caterpillars is called an army or constituency.
An army of late instar Lasiocampid Moth Caterpillars (Lasiocampidae). These caterpillars are essentially invisible to the casual eye conformed against this tree trunk. They will pupate together like this also in a silken mass. (To put it in perspective, each larva is 4-5 cm in length).
Pu'er, Yunnan, China
Sudbury (/ˈsʌdbəri/, Suffolk dialect: /ˈsʌbri/) is a small market town in the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the River Stour near the Essex border, and is 60 miles (97 km) north-east of London. At the 2011 census, the town has a population of 13,063, rising to 21,971 including the adjoining parish of Great Cornard. It is the largest town of Babergh district council, the local government district, and is represented in the UK Parliament as part of the South Suffolk constituency.
Evidence of Sudbury as a settlement originates from the end of the 8th century during the Anglo-Saxon era, and its market was established in the early 11th century. Its textile industries prospered during the Late Middle Ages; the wealth of which funded many of its buildings and churches. The town became notable for its art in the 18th century, being the birthplace of Thomas Gainsborough, whose landscapes offered inspiration to John Constable, another Suffolk painter of the surrounding Stour Valley area. The 19th century saw the arrival of the railway with the opening of a station on the historic Stour Valley Railway, and Sudbury railway station forms the current terminus of the Gainsborough Line. During World War II, US Army Airforce bombers operated from RAF Sudbury.
Today, Sudbury retains its status as a market town with a twice-weekly market in the town centre in front of the redundant St Peter's Church, which is now a local community point for events such as concerts and exhibitions. In sport, the town has a semi-professional football club, A.F.C. Sudbury, which competes at the seventh level of the football pyramid.
Early history[edit]
Sudbury’s history dates back into the age of the Saxons.[2] The town’s earliest mention is in 799 AD, when Aelfhun, Bishop of Dunwich, died in the town.[3] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the town as Suthberie ("south-borough"), presumed to distinguish it from Norwich or Bury St Edmunds, to the north.[2] The town is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, as a market town where the local people came to barter their goods.[3] The market was established in 1009.[4]
A community of Dominicans arrived in the mid-13th century and gradually extended the size of their priory, which was one of three Dominican priories in the county of Suffolk.[5] Sudbury was one of the first towns in which Edward III settled the Flemings,[2] allowing the weaving and silk industries to prosper for centuries during the Late Middle Ages. As the main town in the area, Sudbury prospered too, and many great houses and churches were built, giving the town a major historical legacy. The Woolsack in the House of Lords was originally stuffed with wool from the Sudbury area, a sign of both the importance of the wool industry and of the wealth of the donors.
One citizen of Sudbury, Archbishop Simon Sudbury showed that not even the Tower of London guarantees safety. On 14 June 1381 guards opened the Tower’s doors and allowed a party of rebellious peasants to enter. Sudbury, inventor of the poll tax, was dragged to Tower Hill and beheaded.[6] His body was afterwards buried in Canterbury Cathedral, but his skull is kept in St. Gregory’s with St. Peter’s Church,[7] one of the three medieval churches in Sudbury. Simon's concerns for his native town are reflected in the founding of St Leonard's Hospital in 1372, a place of respite, towards Long Melford, for lepers.[8] For the College of St Gregory, which he founded in 1375 to support eight priests, he used his father's former house and an adjoining plot.[9]
From the 16th to 18th century the weaving industry was less consistently profitable and Sudbury experienced periods of varying prosperity.[10] By means of the borough court, the mayor and corporation directed the affairs of the town. They built a house of correction (1624) for 'rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars' and tried to finance the reconstruction of Ballingdon Bridge, which disappeared during a storm on 4 September 1594. Among theatrical companies they paid to visit Sudbury were Lord Strange's Men (1592) and the King's Men (1610). Minor infringements, such as not attending church, were punished by fines, for worse offenders there was a stocks or a whipping. During the Civil War a 12-strong band of watchmen was created to prevent the town's enemies, presumed to be Royalists, burning it down.[11]
Sudbury and the surrounding area, like much of East Anglia, was a hotbed of Puritan sentiment during much of the 17th century. Sudbury was among the town's called "notorious wasps' nests of dissent."[12] During the decade of the 1630s, many families departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the Great Migration.
By the 18th century the fees charged to become a freeman, with voting rights, were exorbitant and the borough of Sudbury, along with 177 other English towns, was reformed by a Municipal Reform Act (1835).
Statue of Thomas Gainsborough on Market Hill
During the 18th century Sudbury became famous for its local artists. John Constable painted in the area, especially the River Stour. Painter Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury in 1727, and was educated at Sudbury Grammar School.[13] His birthplace, now named Gainsborough's House, is a museum to his work and is open to the public. It houses many valuable pictures and some of his family possessions. A statue of Gainsborough was unveiled in the town centre outside St Peter’s Church on Market Hill in 1913.[3]
Victorian times to present day[edit]
The 1832 Reform Act saw the villages of Ballingdon and Brundon appended to the town.[14] In the 1841 general election Sudbury became the first place in the UK to elect a member of an ethnic minority to parliament, with David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, the son of an Indian queen, winning the seat. However, he was not allowed to take his place in parliament as he was subsequently declared insane.[15]
Sudbury's Catholic Church, Our Lady Immaculate and St. John the Evangelist, was designed by Leonard Stokes and erected in 1893. The shrine of Our Lady of Sudbury sits within its nave.[16]
During the Second World War an American squadron of B-24 Liberator bombers of the 834th Squadron (H), 486th Bomb Group (H), 8th Air Force was based at RAF Sudbury. This squadron performed many important bombing and photographic missions during the war, but is perhaps best known as the "Zodiac Squadron", as its bombers were decorated with colourful images of the twelve signs of the zodiac painted by a professional artist named Phil Brinkman,[17] who was taken into the squadron by its commander, Capt. Howell, specifically for the purpose of painting the bombers. Now most of the airfield buildings have been demolished, including the control tower. Sections of perimeter track, aircraft hard stand areas, and two narrow crossing lengths of former runways, provide footpaths between Chilton, Newmans Green and Great Waldingfield.
The Sudbury Society was formed in 1973 after a successful campaign to save the town's corn exchange from developers. However, in protecting its ancient centre the town has not shut itself off from modern development. As the town has expanded (to a population in 2005 of 12,080) modern retail and industrial developments have been added on sites close to the centre and on the eastern edge at Chilton. The 18th and 19th century houses near the town centre have been added to by modern developments. wikipedia
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/01/2022. Uxbridge , United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a cookery class with pupils at Oakwood School during a visit to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets traders at Market Place in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 17/12/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Constituency Day. Picture by Dominic Lipinski / Parsons Media/ CCHQ
Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
Young people from YOUNGO – the youth constituency under the UNFCCC – are taking action today inside the UN climate talks. Silently holding placards bearing the words ‘Equity is the Pathway to Ambition’, they issue a powerful reminder to negotiators from developed countries that it is their responsibility to take the lead in acting on climate change. YOUNGO demands a renewed drive for progress at the climate talks; progress which is based on science and equity.
“We have had loud and fun actions so far. But today we are silent, reminding negotiators of the respect that the fundamental principles of this Convention require. Some governments believe they can simply overwrite the principles of a global convention but these are based on equitable values which are not up for negotiation. It is only by following a pathway which is equitable and just that we will be able to make real strides in the fight against climate change.” said Maja Gudim Burheim from the Norwegian organisation, Changemaker.
READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE: pusheurope.eu/media/pressrelease-24052012/
‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest
Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.
The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.
The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.
The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.
In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”
Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.
A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.
Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.
“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”
In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”
“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.
During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.
“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....
www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...
民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/01/2022. Uxbridge, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Boots Pharmacy meeting staff, and talking to patients receiving their vaccinations during a visit to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
James Moore, MP Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam
Love Democracy. Fight Back.
Stand Against the Federal Budget Bill C38
Join Us at Conservative MP Offices and Supporting Locations on June 2nd.
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/01/2022. Uxbridge , United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a cookery class with pupils at Oakwood School during a visit to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. Picture by Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
Giant chickens opposing a US trade deal visit the North Somerset constituency surgery of Liam Fox MP, protest organised by Global Justice Now highlights the concern that hormone-filled, chlorine-washed meat will flood British markets.
© Jess Hurd/Global Justice Now
Women and Gender Constituency at the UNFCCC in Paris, France December 3, 2015
Photo by Christine Irvine | Survival Media Agency
Accession Number: spa.gw.em.2.13.1
Margo MacDonald contested the Hamilton constituency in 1978, which went to George Robertson.
Margo MacDonald joined the SNP in 1966 and was President of Edinburgh University Scottish Nationalists. She first stood as the SNP parliamentary candidate for Paisley in the 1970 election and was elected MP for Glasgow Govan from November 1973 to February 1974. She was elected as SNP MSP for the Lothians in 1999. In January 2003 she left the SNP and has held this seat as an Independent MSP. For further biographical information
www.scottish.parliament.uk/msps/currentmsps/Margo-MacDona...
This leaflet forms part of the Gordon Wilson collection. Gordon Wilson was MP for Dundee East between 1974 and 1987. He was Deputy Leader of the SNP between 1973 and 1974 and leader from 1979 to 1990. He has participated in an interview with the Scottish Political Archive discussing his memories of the 1979 and 1997 devolution referendums. His interview forms part of the Devolution Referendums Oral History Collection within the archive.
The Scottish Political Archive is housed at the University of Stirling. The archive is home to the oral interviews, personal papers and associated material from prominent Scottish politicians. For further information about the work of the archive please visit our website www.scottishpoliticalarchive.org.uk
//What a disaster
William Saunderson-Meyer says the floods just another blow to a province that was already on its knees
KwaZulu-Natal has declared a provincial state of disaster to try to cope with the devastating floods of the past week.
This is normally a temporary mechanism of which the primary purpose is to facilitate speedy national government assistance to hard-pressed provincial and local authorities. It also triggers the release of emergency funds from the National Treasury.
But in KZN’s case, they might as well make it permanent. This is a province that has been on its knees for some time and it ain’t getting up any time soon.
After all, KZN hasn’t even staunched the bloodied nose it suffered nine months ago. That’s when one wing of the African National Congress government — the Radical Economic Transformation followers of former president Jacob Zuma — tried to bury the other — the so-called reformists led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
KZN hasn’t even properly tallied the body blows it suffered then. The official estimates for the insurrection were 45,000 businesses affected, R50bn in economic damage, 129,000 jobs lost, and 354 killed.
These estimates are probably on the low side. For example, the number of people who were killed in the mayhem doesn’t include the many whose bodies were simply never found and counted.
And the true economic cost is incalculable. There’s been substantially increased emigration of minorities, cancelled investment, and the loss of international confidence in KZN as a safe tourist destination. In at least a dozen small, country towns, all the business infrastructure was destroyed, paradoxically by the very people who worked and shopped in those buildings.
Now the floods. The death toll is over 300 and still rising. Some 6,000 homes have been destroyed and road, water sewage and electrical infrastructure uprooted. As I write this, roaming mobs are opportunistically plundering container depots, stranded trucks, abandoned homes and vulnerable businesses, reportedly unhindered — as was the case during last year’s riots — by the police and army.
Naturally, no disaster is complete without a scapegoat. Ramaphosa, as is his style, was quick off the mark to finger the culprit — climate change.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” Ramaphosa told reporters while inspecting a devastated Durban. “We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”
What balderdash. Whatever role climate change may or may not have played in the larger scheme of things, it’s nonsense to pin on it responsibility for the plight of KZN. That lies with the ANC government.
First, this was not an unforeseeable bolt from the heavens. The forecasters warned months back that this was likely to be an exceptionally wet summer because of the La Niña weather pattern that occurs every few years.
There are also historical precedents for extreme weather in KZN, which a prudent administration would have taken note of.
In 1984, Tropical Storm Domoina wreaked havoc in a swathe from Mozambique, through Swaziland to KZN. Although the current downpour is worse, the scale is nevertheless in the same ballpark.
This latest storm — as yet unnamed — dumped 450mm of rain on Durban in 48 hours. Domoina let loose 615mm in 24 hours on Swaziland and northern KZN.
But the true difference between those events, 38 years apart, lies in the lack of preparedness on the part of today’s authorities. In 1984 the SA Air Force deployed 25 helicopters to airlift people to safety. In the 2000 Mozambique floods, 17 SAAF helicopters rescued more than 14,000 people.
This time, according to a News24 report, the SA Police Service and the SAAF, combined, have been unable to put a single chopper in the air. The erosion of South Africa’s military means that of the SAAF’s 39 Oryx helicopters, only 17 are serviceable.
Durban-based 15 Squadron has not a single helicopter available for search and rescue — they are reportedly primarily used as VIP transport — but two SAAF choppers supposedly have been despatched from Gqeberha to help. The SAPS airwing has only one serviceable helicopter but “the pilot on duty has been booked off sick”.
Second, throughout the province, local government is also in a state of disaster and unable to do its job. The scale of the KZN impairment can be measured in the flood destruction of homes.
Some 4,000 shanties have been destroyed, many because officialdom was too lax to forbid building on the floodplain and against precariously unstable hillsides. Another 2,000 of the homes swept away were so-called RDP houses, shoddily built during the kickback-and-steal bonanza of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme of the late 1990s.
In Durban, the eThekwini metro is bloated and inert. It carries a rates and services debt of R17bn, of which R1bn is owed by the national government.
Durban is also infamously corrupt. Former mayor Zandile Gumede — along with 21 co-accused — is facing fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges in connection with a R320m municipal tender.
Yet at the weekend, even as the rain was bucketing down, she won the ANC’s regional leadership contest hands-down, despite the party’s supposed “step-aside when accused” rule.
The ANC-aligned Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has no illusions about the party it supports. It issued a statement calling on the government to ensure that unlike the plundering of Covid-19 emergency relief funds, the KZN disaster funds were not stolen or misused.
Fat chance. The ANC has already announced that its parliamentary constituency offices in KZN would become “hubs for humanitarian support” and appealed for the donation of relief supplies. Watch the trousering by the ANC’s public representatives of anything that the public is dumb enough to leave with them.
It’s in KZN where the ANC’s brazen indifference to the law and antipathy towards the Constitution is at its most obvious and most destructive.
On Monday, Zuma's corruption trial once again failed to take off in the Pietermaritzburg High Court when he successfully blocked the process with another round of delaying legal actions. His lawyers also had some carefully threatening words for the judiciary in a separate Supreme Court of Appeal action.
They urged SCA President Mandisa Maya to reconsider the dismissal of his latest corruption prosecution challenges. They warned that last year’s deadly July unrest was “in part, traceable to a perceived erroneous and unjust judicial outcome” that put Zuma briefly in prison for contempt of court.
“When such conceived mistakes are committed, the citizens (wrongly) feel entitled to resort to self-help…”
Floods, fires and locusts are devastating but at least happen relatively rarely. The ANC, alas, is a seemingly unending plague.
Jenny joined Caroline Allen to launch her candidacy for the North East London Assembly constituency.
MLA Carlos Almeida Constituency and KTC Chairman
Status 18.6.20
Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar laid the foundation
stone for Ultra Modern Transport Hub cum Administrative Building at KTC on 2.5.2016. The project is of 96 crore and will be executed by GSIDC
The project will have shops, hall, Govt Offices etc.