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Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 152 new officers in the force's largest attestation ceremony to date on the evening of Tuesday 22nd October 2019, at Stockport Town Hall.
In front of family and friends, all officers partook in the Police Oath which is their promise to the Queen in front of a magistrate to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official start of the officers commencing their duties, and is a milestone to be celebrated.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was in attendance to welcome each and every new recruit to the force.
Also in attendance were Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes and the Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Laura Booth.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
The Jay Heritage Center is known for its educational programs including "Striving for Freedom" where students participate in an interactive theater presentation performed by a professional cast followed by a discussion period. Set in 1813, the play examines the lives of two sisters, Clarinda and Mary, both born at the Rye farm, believed to be the children of enslaved parents owned by John Jay's father. The two sisters were separated, with Clarinda sent to Bedford and Mary staying behind in Rye with John Jay's brother Peter; both were later freed and reunited. The program includes tours of the site-orientation exhibit, the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House, and grounds. Teachers receive pre- and post-visit materials and students examine primary source documents.
Pictured here are the two actresses at the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House recreating the reunion of the sisters. Behind them hangs a reproduction of "The Locusts" the farmhouse in Rye where John Jay grew up as a boy. It is on this site that enslaved people were also emancipated.
Archives show that Caesar, another man enslaved by the Jay family, owned successively by John Jay, then Peter Augustus Jay and Peter Jay, John Jay's brother, was eventually freed on May 28th,1824 but continued in service for the Jays in Rye. Caesar was given a lifetime stipend in Peter Augustus Jay's will in 1843 and lived in Rye with the Jays intil his death in 1847. He was buried on the Jay family's Rye property in a Christian ceremony likely near where his ancestors were buried.
John Jay was the first President of the NY Manumission Society advancing emancipation as early as 1785. His son Peter Augustus Jay also served as President of the NY Manumission Society.
"A respectable number of Citizens having formed themselves into a Society for promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and protecting such of them as have been or may be liberated, the following Extracts from their Proceedings, are published for the information of the Public."
"The benevolent Creator and Father of men, having given to them all an equal right to life, liberty, and property, no Sovereign power on earth can justly deprive them of either; but in conformity to impartial government and laws to which they have expressly or tacitly consented."
"It is our duty, therefore, both as free Citizens and Christians, not only to regard with compassion, the injustice done to those among us who are held as slaves; but to endeavor, by lawful ways and means, to enable them to share equally with us in that civil and religious Liberty, with which an indulgent providence has blessed these states, and to which these our brethren are, by nature, as much entitled to as ourselves." (From the American Mercury, 1785, reporting on an article in the Hudson Gazette, JHC Archives)
To schedule a performance for your school contact the
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
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A National Historic Landmark since 1993
Member of the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County since 2004
Member of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area since 2009
On NY State's Path Through History (2013)
I have visited Minster perhaps more than any other village in Kent. This is because the station is an excellent spot from which to snap steam tours as they manoeuvre to take the avoiding chord to Deal and Dover. And each time I go I try to get into St Mary the Virgin and I find the door locked fast.
The week before whilst visiting Monkton, I met one of the wardens who assured me that Minster would be open every Saturday morning for bellringing practice.
Saturday morning came round and so I headed to Minster with my friend Will to snap it, if it was open. Although it appeared to be locked, the door was just stiff and soon gave way to the wonders inside.
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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet
------------------------------------------------------
he history of Minster church is entwined with that of Minster Abbey. The abbey was founded in 670AD, when Ermenburga of Mercia accepted a gift of land from Egbert of Kent as weregild for the murder of her younger brothers at the king's court, so that she could found a nunnery on the Isle of Thanet. According to legend, the boundary of the land granted to Ermenburga was determined by the course her pet deer took when released to wander on its own. With the addition of later grants of land the estates of Minster Abbey encompassed about half of Thanet. The abbey was ransacked by the Danes, and abandoned for a time before it was refounded by the monks of Canterbury, who rebuilt the Saxon timber buildings in stone. Throughout this early part of the abbey's history the monastic church served both the nuns and the townsfolk as a parish church. For a more detailed history of Minster Abbey see our article on the abbey.
There is some confusion over what part of the church is the oldest; the nave dates to 1150, and the chancel may be slightly earlier. The tower is said to be Saxon; it certainly has old stonework and a very odd turret stair, but the material is Caen stone which only truly became popular after the Norman Conquest. So it may not be as old as it appears at first glance. The turret may have simply been a shipping lookout, for in the Middle Ages Minster had a busy port and the Wentsum Channel lapped at the base of the churchyard wall. The tower and the nave walls also contain Roman bricks.
But that's nitpicking; the church is very obviously of ancient origin and even more obviously an impressive example of medieval architecture, with features covering every century since the Norman invasion - and probably before.
We've already mentioned the 12th century nave, which has remained almost unaltered since it was built. The north aisle pillars have capitals decorated with foliage carvings, while in the aisle is a wall monument to Thomas Paramore (d. ). At the north end of the aisle is the Thorne Chapel, with the 13th century tomb of Aedile de Thorne. Look up at the lancet windows and you will see a stained glass depiction of a stag, the symbol of Thanet after the story of Ermenburga's deer.
The chancel is a true highlight; one of the finest of any parish churches in Kent. It is primarily in Early English style, with a much later Victorian east window by Thomas Willement, the “Father of Victorian Stained Glass”.
But the real highlight in the chancel are the wonderful medieval misericords that decorate the choir stalls. The early 15th century stalls feature no fewer than 18 carved misericords. These 'mercy seats' were used to provide a comfortable place for monks to rest during long services. There are 18 misericords here, probably carved in 1410, and they cover an array of subjects including a cook with a ladle, an angel playing a stringed instrument, a serpent eating its own tail, a king, dragons, lions, and other strange beasts. Perhaps the strangest, a certainly the one that tells us most about medieval society, is a depiction of a 'scold's bridle'; a woman with a bit in her mouth, intended to stop her from speaking. Together these make up one of the finest collection of misericords in the south east of England.
There are several interesting bits and bobs in the south aisle, including a cover of a wooden chained Bible in a glass display case. At the west end is a 12th century Norman font near an ancient iron-bound muniment chest, unusually made of fir with a lid of elm.
Spare a glance for the list of vicars by the door. I seldom pay these long lists much attention, but in this case there are several interesting characters among the incumbents at Minster. One was Seth Travis (1547), the first appointment made by the Archbishop of Canterbury after the Dissolution of the Monastery. Richard Clerk (1597) was one of those learned scholars named by James I to hammer out the details of the King James Bible. Then there is Meric Casaubon (1634) who was deposed by Parliament in 1644 for his Royalist sympathies. In 1652 Cromwell asked him to write a history of the war, setting down impartially 'nothing but matters of fact'. He declined. When Charles II came to the throne at the Restoration, Casaubon was reinstated as vicar of Minster.
While Casaubon was suspended during the war, however, Minster was saddled with Richard Culmer, aka 'Blue Dick'. Culmer was a virulent iconoclast, and a bitter enemy of Episcopy. He was best known for destroying monuments and breaking up stained glass at Canterbury Cathedral. So unpopular was his appointment among the townsfolk that he had trouble collecting church tithes. His name is conspicuous by its absence from the list of vicars. And speaking of such lists, Henry Wharton (1688) was the first to popularise the making of such lists of incumbents, an act he thought might impart a sense of continuity to Church of England churches. A later vicar, John Lewis (1708) wrote over a thousand sermons in his time at Minster. On his death he ordered them destroyed, fearing that vicars who followed him might find the temptation of plagiarising his works too great.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
A modern jet leaves a trail in the sky above Sir Robert Peel's statue in Bury.
This Sunday (5/2/2012) marks the 224th anniversary of the birth of Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the modern police service.
Born at Chamber Hall in Bury, he was the eldest son of the Lancashire magnate Sir Robert Peel, senior. The young Robert Peel was educated by James Hargreaves who was the curate of Bury Parish Church. Peel completed his education at Harrow and Oxford.
Between 1822 and 1830 he was Home Secretary. He abolished the death penalty on over one hundred offences. He organised the inspection of large prisons, abolished gaolers' fees and employed the first female prison warders.
But he is most remembered for the 1829 Metropolitan Police Act, which established a single, full-time and professional police force for London (with the exception of the City of London), which acted as a model for later police forces throughout the country.
It was Peel who insisted that the police service should be civil, rather than military in nature and who decided that the uniform of the first police officers should resemble civilian clothing, rather than military attire, in order to stress that the “New Police” had evolved directly from the system of locally appointed, civilian Parish and Town Constables that carried out policing duties prior to 1829.
He laid down the now famous 9 Peelian Principles which outlined how the new force should operate:
1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
These principles were adopted by police forces across the world and are still at the heat of the modern police service.
Sir Robert later went on to become Prime Minister twice, his second ministry lasting from 1841 to 1846. He died on 2nd July 1850. As well as the legacy of the police service, Sir Robert Peel's name introduced two new words into the English language: "Peelers" and "Bobbies".
For information about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.
Powerful Portadown profit from poor performanceby Roger Corbett
A powerful Portadown side gained revenge for their defeat by Bangor in the Junior Cup last season by taking advantage of the home team’s poor performance and deservedly finishing ahead by 24-43.
With a number of changes to the side that did so well against Dromore last week, a young Bangor side got this second round Junior Cup fixture underway. The playing conditions were good, with the breeze blowing across the pitch and not benefiting either side. From the outset, Portadown played the game at a fast pace, and pushed Bangor back into their own half for long periods. Both sides, however, made many unforced errors and as a result promising attacks were halted.
After 10 minutes of play, it was Bangor who got the scoreboard started, when Portadown conceded a penalty for being offside and Mark Thompson converted the kicking opportunity. Portadown then resumed their attacks and it looked like they would score next. However, from a lineout on the Portadown twenty two, the ball was taken by Freddie Black before the rest of the pack formed around him and started to drive for the line. The rolling maul moved slowly forwards and sideways until one final push saw captain Jamie Clegg carried over to score to the right of the Portadown posts. The conversion by Neil Cuthbertson was successful and Bangor were now 10-0 ahead.
Even an impartial observer might have commented that this score was against the run of play, but to Bangor’s credit they took their chances well. Unfortunately, just 5 minutes later Bangor were reduced to 14 men after Black was yellow carded. From the resulting penalty, Portadown kicked for touch, and secured the ball from the lineout. They patiently worked the ball through their forwards until a gap opened up in the Bangor defence, allowing an easy run through to score under the Bangor posts. With the conversion, the score was now 10-7.
With only a few minutes of the first half remaining, Portadown continued to push forward and from a good cross field kick, they took advantage of the reduced Bangor cover and scored in the left hand corner. The tricky kick into the wind was successful, and Portadown were now in front by 10-14. To add to Bangor’s woes, scrum half Danny Diamond had to retire injured with what looks like a broken collar bone, and front row forward Phil Whyte limped off with a bad calf injury – we wish both a full and speedy recovery. Undeterred, Bangor tried to fight back and came very close in the final minute when more good forward play got the ball over the Portadown line, but it wasn’t able to be grounded.
As the teams turned around, Bangor would probably have been the happier with the scoreline, especially given the amount of possession Portadown had enjoyed in the first half. However, over the course of the following 20 odd minutes, and largely as a result of their own mistakes, their task became much harder. It started with another poor Bangor lineout which Portadown won and simply broke through to score in the right hand corner. The kick was good, extending the lead to 10-21. Then Bangor lost the ball in contact in the centre of the pitch, allowing the Portadown backline to quickly move the ball wide to their winger who rounded the Bangor defence to score under the posts.
Finally, from their scrum, Portadown took advantage of some missed tackles to open up a gap and score again under the Bangor posts. The score was now 10-35, and Bangor had a mountain to climb.
If the game looked lost at this point, nobody had obviously told Jamie Clegg. From Mark Thompson’s restart, Clegg ran in pursuit and managed to snatch the ball from the Portadown receiving player. He then had just enough time to pass outside to Neil Cuthbertson who managed to negotiate 3 Portadown defenders to score, and reduce the deficit to 17-35, with 26 minutes gone.
Shortly afterwards, the Portadown hooker was yellow carded. However, instead of capitalising on this advantage, Bangor then conceded another penalty, this time in front of their posts. The Portadown kicker gratefully took the 3 points, making the score 17-38.
It was around this point that it was starting to look like Portadown were paying the price for their furious onslaught in the first half. Bangor sensed the weakness and started to play their best rugby of the game so far. Patient build-ups by the forwards, accompanied by strong runs from the backs, produced the opportunity for full back Davy Charles to dive under his tacklers to score beside the posts. Cuthbertson’s quick kick was good, and the score was now 24-38.
As the final play approached, and the end result no longer in question, yet another lineout mix-up gave Portadown possession again. With the Bangor defence largely flat footed, Portadown cut through and, despite a desperate covering tackle by Charles, touched down for the final score of the game. Although the kick was missed, Portadown’s victory was by an emphatic 24-43 margin.
This young Bangor side can learn much from their older, wiser opponents. While fitness and commitment is not in question, consistency of technique in basic set pieces, and retention of the ball when in contact would need to improve, or at least return to levels seen in earlier games. While the disappointment of an early exit from the Junior Cup cannot be denied, the focus will now be wholly on returning to success in the league, the next fixture being a home meeting with Cooke.
Bangor side: P Whyte (P Dornan), A Jackson, J Harrison, R Meeke, F Black, M Coey, J Clegg (c), C Stewart, D Diamond (P Nicol), M Thompson, M Widdowson, M Aspley, M Weir, N Cuthbertson, D Charles
Subs: P Nicol, P Dornan
Bangor scores: J Clegg (1T), N Cuthbertson (1T), D Charles (1T), M Thompson (1P, 3C)
I have visited Minster perhaps more than any other village in Kent. This is because the station is an excellent spot from which to snap steam tours as they manoeuvre to take the avoiding chord to Deal and Dover. And each time I go I try to get into St Mary the Virgin and I find the door locked fast.
The week before whilst visiting Monkton, I met one of the wardens who assured me that Minster would be open every Saturday morning for bellringing practice.
Saturday morning came round and so I headed to Minster with my friend Will to snap it, if it was open. Although it appeared to be locked, the door was just stiff and soon gave way to the wonders inside.
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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet
------------------------------------------------------
he history of Minster church is entwined with that of Minster Abbey. The abbey was founded in 670AD, when Ermenburga of Mercia accepted a gift of land from Egbert of Kent as weregild for the murder of her younger brothers at the king's court, so that she could found a nunnery on the Isle of Thanet. According to legend, the boundary of the land granted to Ermenburga was determined by the course her pet deer took when released to wander on its own. With the addition of later grants of land the estates of Minster Abbey encompassed about half of Thanet. The abbey was ransacked by the Danes, and abandoned for a time before it was refounded by the monks of Canterbury, who rebuilt the Saxon timber buildings in stone. Throughout this early part of the abbey's history the monastic church served both the nuns and the townsfolk as a parish church. For a more detailed history of Minster Abbey see our article on the abbey.
There is some confusion over what part of the church is the oldest; the nave dates to 1150, and the chancel may be slightly earlier. The tower is said to be Saxon; it certainly has old stonework and a very odd turret stair, but the material is Caen stone which only truly became popular after the Norman Conquest. So it may not be as old as it appears at first glance. The turret may have simply been a shipping lookout, for in the Middle Ages Minster had a busy port and the Wentsum Channel lapped at the base of the churchyard wall. The tower and the nave walls also contain Roman bricks.
But that's nitpicking; the church is very obviously of ancient origin and even more obviously an impressive example of medieval architecture, with features covering every century since the Norman invasion - and probably before.
We've already mentioned the 12th century nave, which has remained almost unaltered since it was built. The north aisle pillars have capitals decorated with foliage carvings, while in the aisle is a wall monument to Thomas Paramore (d. ). At the north end of the aisle is the Thorne Chapel, with the 13th century tomb of Aedile de Thorne. Look up at the lancet windows and you will see a stained glass depiction of a stag, the symbol of Thanet after the story of Ermenburga's deer.
The chancel is a true highlight; one of the finest of any parish churches in Kent. It is primarily in Early English style, with a much later Victorian east window by Thomas Willement, the “Father of Victorian Stained Glass”.
But the real highlight in the chancel are the wonderful medieval misericords that decorate the choir stalls. The early 15th century stalls feature no fewer than 18 carved misericords. These 'mercy seats' were used to provide a comfortable place for monks to rest during long services. There are 18 misericords here, probably carved in 1410, and they cover an array of subjects including a cook with a ladle, an angel playing a stringed instrument, a serpent eating its own tail, a king, dragons, lions, and other strange beasts. Perhaps the strangest, a certainly the one that tells us most about medieval society, is a depiction of a 'scold's bridle'; a woman with a bit in her mouth, intended to stop her from speaking. Together these make up one of the finest collection of misericords in the south east of England.
There are several interesting bits and bobs in the south aisle, including a cover of a wooden chained Bible in a glass display case. At the west end is a 12th century Norman font near an ancient iron-bound muniment chest, unusually made of fir with a lid of elm.
Spare a glance for the list of vicars by the door. I seldom pay these long lists much attention, but in this case there are several interesting characters among the incumbents at Minster. One was Seth Travis (1547), the first appointment made by the Archbishop of Canterbury after the Dissolution of the Monastery. Richard Clerk (1597) was one of those learned scholars named by James I to hammer out the details of the King James Bible. Then there is Meric Casaubon (1634) who was deposed by Parliament in 1644 for his Royalist sympathies. In 1652 Cromwell asked him to write a history of the war, setting down impartially 'nothing but matters of fact'. He declined. When Charles II came to the throne at the Restoration, Casaubon was reinstated as vicar of Minster.
While Casaubon was suspended during the war, however, Minster was saddled with Richard Culmer, aka 'Blue Dick'. Culmer was a virulent iconoclast, and a bitter enemy of Episcopy. He was best known for destroying monuments and breaking up stained glass at Canterbury Cathedral. So unpopular was his appointment among the townsfolk that he had trouble collecting church tithes. His name is conspicuous by its absence from the list of vicars. And speaking of such lists, Henry Wharton (1688) was the first to popularise the making of such lists of incumbents, an act he thought might impart a sense of continuity to Church of England churches. A later vicar, John Lewis (1708) wrote over a thousand sermons in his time at Minster. On his death he ordered them destroyed, fearing that vicars who followed him might find the temptation of plagiarising his works too great.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
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Greater Manchester Police has welcomed 89 new police officers to the ranks.
The new recruits were sworn in at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall last night, Tuesday 11 June 2019.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling, Deputy Major of Greater Manchester Bev Hughes and Magistrate Joan Cooper were in attendance at the event.
The Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough and her consort were guests of honour.
Family and friends of the new officers watched on proudly as each of took an oath to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 152 new officers in the force's largest attestation ceremony to date on the evening of Tuesday 22nd October 2019, at Stockport Town Hall.
In front of family and friends, all officers partook in the Police Oath which is their promise to the Queen in front of a magistrate to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official start of the officers commencing their duties, and is a milestone to be celebrated.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was in attendance to welcome each and every new recruit to the force.
Also in attendance were Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes and the Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Laura Booth.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Declaration of 4,000 MPs, including majorities of 30 parliaments
Moreover, a deceleration by over 4,000 MPs from 40 countries across the globe in support of the Iranian Resistance and especially Ashraf residents was unveiled at the gathering. The MPs, including the majority of the European Parliament, the majority of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and majorities of 28 national parliaments, called for the urgent protection of Ashraf by the UN, U.S. and EU, the immediate lifting of the siege on Ashraf – especially ensuring free access to medical services – and an impartial, comprehensive and independent investigation into the crimes committed on April 8th in Ashraf
In a large and exhilarating gathering held in the Villepinte Auditorium near Paris on Saturday afternoon, 18 June 2011, Iranians called for the immediate protection of Ashraf by the UN with assistance provided by the U.S. and EU. They also condemned any kind of displacement of Ashraf residents inside Iraq, and declared their support for Europe’s peaceful long-term solution for Ashraf. The participants described maintaining the terrorist tag against the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) by the US State Department as an illegal measure and tantamount to participating in the repression of the Iranian people and Resistance. The attendees called on the U.S. government to comply with last July's verdict of the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. and immediately revoke the PMOI's terrorist designation.
Hundreds of prominent politicians and MPs representing a broad range of political views from countries in five continents of the globe also took part in the largest gathering of its kind by Iranian exiles. In addition to expressing their support for the Iranian Resistance and defending Ashraf’s rights, the high-profile dignitaries also called for the recognition of the National Council of Resistance by the international community
Rudolph Giuliani, former New York City Mayor and Presidential Candidate (2008); US Congressman Bob Filner; Rita Sussmouth, former Speaker of the German Parliament (1988-1998); Judge Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General (2007-2009); Ambassador John Bruton, former Prime Minister of Ireland (1994-1997) and EU ambassador to the US (2004-2005); Jean-Pierre Brard, Member of French National Assembly; Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff of President George Bush (2001-2006); Tom Ridge, first US Secretary of Homeland Security (2003-2005); Alejo Vidal Quadras, European Parliament Vice President; Geir Haarde, former Prime Minister of Iceland (2006-2009); Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, Head of the Labour Peers group in the House of Lords; Nariman al-Rousan, Member of Jordanian Parliament; Aude de Thuin, author and founder of the Women Forum; Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Prime Minister of Algeria; Robert Torricelli, former U.S. Senator; Carlo Ciccioli, Member of the Italian Parliament; Jean-Charles Rielle, Member of the Swiss Federal Parliament; and Henry Leclerc, Honorary President of the Human Rights League of France.
A number of French mayors, including Jean-Pierre Béquet, Mayor of Auvers-sur-Oise; Nelly Rolland, Mayor of Villepinte; and Maurice Boscavert, Mayor of Taverny, delivered speeches and declared the support of 5,000 French mayors for the Iranian Resistance.
The ceremony was held on the eve of June 20th, the Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners in Iran. The master of ceremony for the first part of the event was Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Member of US House of Representatives until 2011. David Amess, Member of British Parliament from the Conservative Party, took over the event for the second part.
While being accompanied by Mrs. Rezaii (the mother of 7 martyrs), Mahin Saremi and a number of French MPs, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi honored the memory of 120,000 martyrs of the Iranian people, who have fallen during the three decade struggle against the clerical dictatorship, including the martyrs of the past two years and those who lost their lives as a result of the recent criminal attack against Ashraf.
Mrs. Mahin Saremi, the wife of PMOI supporter Ali Saremi, also took part in the gathering. Ali Saremi was Iran’s most prominent political prisoner and was hanged last year by the Iranian regime after enduring 24 years of imprisonment and torture. Mrs. Saremi, who herself was arrested and imprisoned several times since the 1980s, was recently condemned to 10 years of imprisonment but managed to flee from the Iranian regime and reach Paris. Akbar, the son of Ali and Mahin Saremi, is among the residents of Ashraf.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Powerful Portadown profit from poor performanceby Roger Corbett
A powerful Portadown side gained revenge for their defeat by Bangor in the Junior Cup last season by taking advantage of the home team’s poor performance and deservedly finishing ahead by 24-43.
With a number of changes to the side that did so well against Dromore last week, a young Bangor side got this second round Junior Cup fixture underway. The playing conditions were good, with the breeze blowing across the pitch and not benefiting either side. From the outset, Portadown played the game at a fast pace, and pushed Bangor back into their own half for long periods. Both sides, however, made many unforced errors and as a result promising attacks were halted.
After 10 minutes of play, it was Bangor who got the scoreboard started, when Portadown conceded a penalty for being offside and Mark Thompson converted the kicking opportunity. Portadown then resumed their attacks and it looked like they would score next. However, from a lineout on the Portadown twenty two, the ball was taken by Freddie Black before the rest of the pack formed around him and started to drive for the line. The rolling maul moved slowly forwards and sideways until one final push saw captain Jamie Clegg carried over to score to the right of the Portadown posts. The conversion by Neil Cuthbertson was successful and Bangor were now 10-0 ahead.
Even an impartial observer might have commented that this score was against the run of play, but to Bangor’s credit they took their chances well. Unfortunately, just 5 minutes later Bangor were reduced to 14 men after Black was yellow carded. From the resulting penalty, Portadown kicked for touch, and secured the ball from the lineout. They patiently worked the ball through their forwards until a gap opened up in the Bangor defence, allowing an easy run through to score under the Bangor posts. With the conversion, the score was now 10-7.
With only a few minutes of the first half remaining, Portadown continued to push forward and from a good cross field kick, they took advantage of the reduced Bangor cover and scored in the left hand corner. The tricky kick into the wind was successful, and Portadown were now in front by 10-14. To add to Bangor’s woes, scrum half Danny Diamond had to retire injured with what looks like a broken collar bone, and front row forward Phil Whyte limped off with a bad calf injury – we wish both a full and speedy recovery. Undeterred, Bangor tried to fight back and came very close in the final minute when more good forward play got the ball over the Portadown line, but it wasn’t able to be grounded.
As the teams turned around, Bangor would probably have been the happier with the scoreline, especially given the amount of possession Portadown had enjoyed in the first half. However, over the course of the following 20 odd minutes, and largely as a result of their own mistakes, their task became much harder. It started with another poor Bangor lineout which Portadown won and simply broke through to score in the right hand corner. The kick was good, extending the lead to 10-21. Then Bangor lost the ball in contact in the centre of the pitch, allowing the Portadown backline to quickly move the ball wide to their winger who rounded the Bangor defence to score under the posts.
Finally, from their scrum, Portadown took advantage of some missed tackles to open up a gap and score again under the Bangor posts. The score was now 10-35, and Bangor had a mountain to climb.
If the game looked lost at this point, nobody had obviously told Jamie Clegg. From Mark Thompson’s restart, Clegg ran in pursuit and managed to snatch the ball from the Portadown receiving player. He then had just enough time to pass outside to Neil Cuthbertson who managed to negotiate 3 Portadown defenders to score, and reduce the deficit to 17-35, with 26 minutes gone.
Shortly afterwards, the Portadown hooker was yellow carded. However, instead of capitalising on this advantage, Bangor then conceded another penalty, this time in front of their posts. The Portadown kicker gratefully took the 3 points, making the score 17-38.
It was around this point that it was starting to look like Portadown were paying the price for their furious onslaught in the first half. Bangor sensed the weakness and started to play their best rugby of the game so far. Patient build-ups by the forwards, accompanied by strong runs from the backs, produced the opportunity for full back Davy Charles to dive under his tacklers to score beside the posts. Cuthbertson’s quick kick was good, and the score was now 24-38.
As the final play approached, and the end result no longer in question, yet another lineout mix-up gave Portadown possession again. With the Bangor defence largely flat footed, Portadown cut through and, despite a desperate covering tackle by Charles, touched down for the final score of the game. Although the kick was missed, Portadown’s victory was by an emphatic 24-43 margin.
This young Bangor side can learn much from their older, wiser opponents. While fitness and commitment is not in question, consistency of technique in basic set pieces, and retention of the ball when in contact would need to improve, or at least return to levels seen in earlier games. While the disappointment of an early exit from the Junior Cup cannot be denied, the focus will now be wholly on returning to success in the league, the next fixture being a home meeting with Cooke.
Bangor side: P Whyte (P Dornan), A Jackson, J Harrison, R Meeke, F Black, M Coey, J Clegg (c), C Stewart, D Diamond (P Nicol), M Thompson, M Widdowson, M Aspley, M Weir, N Cuthbertson, D Charles
Subs: P Nicol, P Dornan
Bangor scores: J Clegg (1T), N Cuthbertson (1T), D Charles (1T), M Thompson (1P, 3C)
I have visited Minster perhaps more than any other village in Kent. This is because the station is an excellent spot from which to snap steam tours as they manoeuvre to take the avoiding chord to Deal and Dover. And each time I go I try to get into St Mary the Virgin and I find the door locked fast.
The week before whilst visiting Monkton, I met one of the wardens who assured me that Minster would be open every Saturday morning for bellringing practice.
Saturday morning came round and so I headed to Minster with my friend Will to snap it, if it was open. Although it appeared to be locked, the door was just stiff and soon gave way to the wonders inside.
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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet
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he history of Minster church is entwined with that of Minster Abbey. The abbey was founded in 670AD, when Ermenburga of Mercia accepted a gift of land from Egbert of Kent as weregild for the murder of her younger brothers at the king's court, so that she could found a nunnery on the Isle of Thanet. According to legend, the boundary of the land granted to Ermenburga was determined by the course her pet deer took when released to wander on its own. With the addition of later grants of land the estates of Minster Abbey encompassed about half of Thanet. The abbey was ransacked by the Danes, and abandoned for a time before it was refounded by the monks of Canterbury, who rebuilt the Saxon timber buildings in stone. Throughout this early part of the abbey's history the monastic church served both the nuns and the townsfolk as a parish church. For a more detailed history of Minster Abbey see our article on the abbey.
There is some confusion over what part of the church is the oldest; the nave dates to 1150, and the chancel may be slightly earlier. The tower is said to be Saxon; it certainly has old stonework and a very odd turret stair, but the material is Caen stone which only truly became popular after the Norman Conquest. So it may not be as old as it appears at first glance. The turret may have simply been a shipping lookout, for in the Middle Ages Minster had a busy port and the Wentsum Channel lapped at the base of the churchyard wall. The tower and the nave walls also contain Roman bricks.
But that's nitpicking; the church is very obviously of ancient origin and even more obviously an impressive example of medieval architecture, with features covering every century since the Norman invasion - and probably before.
We've already mentioned the 12th century nave, which has remained almost unaltered since it was built. The north aisle pillars have capitals decorated with foliage carvings, while in the aisle is a wall monument to Thomas Paramore (d. ). At the north end of the aisle is the Thorne Chapel, with the 13th century tomb of Aedile de Thorne. Look up at the lancet windows and you will see a stained glass depiction of a stag, the symbol of Thanet after the story of Ermenburga's deer.
The chancel is a true highlight; one of the finest of any parish churches in Kent. It is primarily in Early English style, with a much later Victorian east window by Thomas Willement, the “Father of Victorian Stained Glass”.
But the real highlight in the chancel are the wonderful medieval misericords that decorate the choir stalls. The early 15th century stalls feature no fewer than 18 carved misericords. These 'mercy seats' were used to provide a comfortable place for monks to rest during long services. There are 18 misericords here, probably carved in 1410, and they cover an array of subjects including a cook with a ladle, an angel playing a stringed instrument, a serpent eating its own tail, a king, dragons, lions, and other strange beasts. Perhaps the strangest, a certainly the one that tells us most about medieval society, is a depiction of a 'scold's bridle'; a woman with a bit in her mouth, intended to stop her from speaking. Together these make up one of the finest collection of misericords in the south east of England.
There are several interesting bits and bobs in the south aisle, including a cover of a wooden chained Bible in a glass display case. At the west end is a 12th century Norman font near an ancient iron-bound muniment chest, unusually made of fir with a lid of elm.
Spare a glance for the list of vicars by the door. I seldom pay these long lists much attention, but in this case there are several interesting characters among the incumbents at Minster. One was Seth Travis (1547), the first appointment made by the Archbishop of Canterbury after the Dissolution of the Monastery. Richard Clerk (1597) was one of those learned scholars named by James I to hammer out the details of the King James Bible. Then there is Meric Casaubon (1634) who was deposed by Parliament in 1644 for his Royalist sympathies. In 1652 Cromwell asked him to write a history of the war, setting down impartially 'nothing but matters of fact'. He declined. When Charles II came to the throne at the Restoration, Casaubon was reinstated as vicar of Minster.
While Casaubon was suspended during the war, however, Minster was saddled with Richard Culmer, aka 'Blue Dick'. Culmer was a virulent iconoclast, and a bitter enemy of Episcopy. He was best known for destroying monuments and breaking up stained glass at Canterbury Cathedral. So unpopular was his appointment among the townsfolk that he had trouble collecting church tithes. His name is conspicuous by its absence from the list of vicars. And speaking of such lists, Henry Wharton (1688) was the first to popularise the making of such lists of incumbents, an act he thought might impart a sense of continuity to Church of England churches. A later vicar, John Lewis (1708) wrote over a thousand sermons in his time at Minster. On his death he ordered them destroyed, fearing that vicars who followed him might find the temptation of plagiarising his works too great.
OBITUARY.
Another pioneer settler, who was especially familiar to picnickers at the National Park at Waitakerei, passed away on April 17 in the person of Mr William Baxter, formerly of Henderson, who died of heart failure at the age of 74 years. Deceased, who was a fine type of colonist, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in 183O, and went to Melbourne when the great gold rush broke out in the middle of last century, arriving in Victoria's capital in 1852. He spent a number of years on the Bendigo and Ballarat goldfields, and was also present at the historic Eureka stockade riots. He had many interesting stories to relate of the rough and occasionally dangerous life on those fields. Subsequently he returned to England, where he married, but the love for the free life of the colonies was strong in him, and he came to New Zealand in the ship Ganges, reaching Auckland in 1863. He passed through the many hardships incidental to the life of the pioneer, and when the Hokitika goldfields were discovered he joined in the rush, spending some little time in Westland. He had his third experience of goldfields life at the Thames, being one of the early arrivals on that field. Returning to Auckland, he opened a general store in Karangahape road, being in business there for some years. In the later seventies he retired from business, and started fruitgrowing at Henderson, where his farm, one of the last on the road to the Nihotupu Falls, became a very popular camping ground for picnickers to the Waitakerei Ranges. He came back to Auckland in December last, and enjoyed good health until about a fortnight ago, when he was suddenly attacked by influenza. Pleurisy supervened, followed finally by heart failure. He gradually sank, dying peacefully at four o'clock yesterday afternoon. Mr. Baxter enjoyed excellent health all through his life, and was highly esteemed by all with whom he came in contact. He is survived by his widow and two sons, Messrs. W. E. Baxter, well known in musical circles, and Mr. F. Baxter, a member of the literary staff of this journal.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19040418.2.56
DIED SUDDENLY.
MR. WILLIAM BAXTER.
It will be with much regret that many old-time residents of this city will learn of the sudden death of Mr. William Baxter, a gentleman who came with his parents and family to Auckland more than half a century ago, and he has lived here ever since. Mr. Baxter, who was about sixty-one years old, was well known in the world of music. He had not been in the best of health for some time, and it was while visiting Mr. Samuel Adams, of Symonds Street, musician, that he expired suddenly of heart failure. During his life in Auckland he has been active in musical circles, and has been choirmaster of Sacred Heart and St. Benedict's, also organist at the Newton Congregational Church. Mr. Baxter had lived for many years in Gundry Street, Newton, and is survived by his widow, three sons, and one daughter. All three sons had offered their services, and two are in France. The interment at Waikumete cemetery took place this afternoon. Many friends followed the cortege, and a great number of wreaths and flowers were piled upon the grave.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180701.2.40
A resident in Auckland for over 55 years, Mrs William Baxter died yesterday afternoon at the dwelling of her daughter-in-law. Deceased, who was born in Leeds, Yorkshire. England, arrived in Auckland in the ship Ganges in October, 1863, with her husband and two sons. As the Waikato War was then in progress, Mr Baxter was enrolled in the Militia and had to do patrol duty around the outskirts of the town. After carrying on a grocery business in Karangahape Road for some years, Mr and Mrs Baxter went fruitgrowing at Henderson, at what is now still known as "Baxter's Bush." In 1903 they returned to town to live, and since the death of Mr Baxter the widow resided with her eldest son, the late Mr W. E. Baxter. The only other son is Mr Fred Baxter, of the literary staff of the "Auckland Star." The interment took place, this morning at Waikumete Cemetery, the service at the grave being conducted by the Rev. Frederic Warner, minister of Beresford Street Congregational Church, of which Mrs Baxter was one of the oldest members.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19181121.2.75
LONG LIFE ENDS.
VETERAN JOURNALIST
MR. FRED BAXTER'S RECORD.
LINK WITH EARLY DAYS.
A picturesque figure in journalism in the Auckland Province for over 50 years, Mr. Fred Baxter, of Ladies' Mile, Remuera, died yesterday. About a week ago he underwent a severe operation.
Mr. Baxter, who was in his eighty first year, retained his interest in journalism right up to the time of his death. He was engaged in writing his experiences in the early days of the province. During his life Mr. Baxter "covered" many exciting events in the history of New Zealand for the "Auckland Star," chief amongest which was the Tarawera eruption of 1886.
Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, in 1859, Mr. Baxter came to New Zealand with his parents and brother in the ship Ganges, landing at Auckland in October, 1803. His father, Mr. William Baxter, first had a grocery business at the corner of Great North Road and Newton Road. Over 60 years ago the family went to Henderson Valley and started a fruit farm on an area still known as Baxter's. Mr. Fred Baxter returned to town, and for some time worked for Robertson Bros., provision merchants. His next job was with a small paper known as the "Evening Telephone," which later was absorbed by the "Evening Bell." In 1884 Mr. Baxter joined the staff of the "Auckland Star" and remained with the firm until he was retired on superannuation in July, 1935. He came to the "Star" as a junior reporter shortly after the premises were removed from Wyndham Street to Shortland Street and worked his way up to the position of chief of staff.
Interest in Mining.
Among many interesting jobs that came his way as a general reporter was the "covering" of the opening of the Rotorua railway, on which occasion the late Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon drove the engine of the first train. Mr. Baxter also attended the three days' meeting of one thousand natives at Ruatoki, in the Urewera Country, at which the Maoris decided to open the gates of that big territory to the pakeha. On another occasion he went with a posse of police to rescue a Maori girl who had been abducted by another tribe. Mr. Baxter started the "Star's" commercial column and was mining reporter for more than forty years.
He never engaged in public affairs, but the efficient and impartial manner in which he carried out his professional duties, and his high personal qualities won him the respect and friendship of many Aucklanders. He took a very keen interest in the welfare of the Maori race and was known far and wide as a collector of greenstone. He was also interested in stamps, and at one time conducted a philatelic column. He was also an enthusiastic gardener. Mr. Baxter was a member of Lodge Ara 348 I.C.
He is survived by his wife, two daughters, Miss Ethel Baxter and Miss Margaret Baxter, and two sons, Mr. Fred D. Baxter and Mr. Owen L. Baxter.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19391211.2.100
Plot 3: William Edward Sawers Baxter – Musician – Heart failure
Elizabeth Baxter – Widow – Old age
Plot 4: William Baxter – Farmer – Heart failure
Plot 5: Fred Baxter – Rtd Journalist
Fred Davies Baxter (72) 21/12/1968 – Rtd Solicitor (ashes)
Plot 6: John Baxter (3 hours) 1904
Elizabeth Baxter
In Loving Memory
of
WILLIAM BAXTER
born 11th Oct. 1829.
died 17th April 1904.
aged 74 years.
"He giveth his beloved sleep."
Also ELIZABETH,
beloved wife of the above
died 20th Nov. 1918, aged 89.
And WILLIAM EDWARD S.
their eldest son
died 29 June 1918 aged 62.
In Loving Memory of
FRED BAXTER
Died 10th December 1939
Aged 80 years.
Also his beloved wife
ELIZABETH
Died 14th March 1961
aged 91 years.
And their infant son
Died 5th July 1904
DEATHS
BAXTER.—On April 17, at his late residence, Sussex-street, Grey Lynn, William Baxter (native of Leeds, Yorkshire, and recently of Henderson), beloved husband of Elizabeth Baxter, in his 75th year.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19040418.2.2.3
BAXTER.—On June 29, at Auckland suddenly, William Edward Sawers, beloved husband of Annie C. Baxter, and eldest, son of Mrs Wm. Baxter, of Gundry Street, Newton; aged 61 years. Interred at Waikumete to-day.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180701.2.82
BAXTER.—On November 20, 1918, at the residence of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. W. E. Baxter, Gundry Street, Newton, Elizabeth Baxter, widow of the late William Baxter, formerly of Henderson; aged 89 years.—Passed peacefully away.
Private interment this morning, Waikumete.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19181121.2.2.4
BAXTER.—On December 10, 1939, at a private hospital, Fred, the beloved husband of Elizabeth Baxter, of 82 Ladies Mile, Remuera, and father of Ethel, Fred D., Owen L. and Margaret Baxter; in his 81st year.
The funeral will leave the above address at 10.30 a.m. to-morrow (Tuesday), December 12, for Waikumete Cemetery.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
Marble, AD 70-80
After Nero’s death, his images were defaced or destroyed in an act of damnatio memoriae, the offcial suppression of his memory. Others were removed and reworked into the portraits of later emperors. This marble portrait of Vespasian, made for insertion into a full-length statue, was re-carved from a likeness of Nero. It retains Nero’s deep-set eyes. Small traces also remain in the surface of the marble at the back of the neck. They show that a longer section of hair, characteristic of Nero’s coiffure, was removed.
[British Museum]
Nero: the Man Behind the Myth
(May - Oct 2021)
Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness.
The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome, Boudicca's rebellion in Britain, the execution of his own mother and first wife, grand projects and extravagant excesses.
Drawing on the latest research, this major exhibition questions the traditional narrative of the ruthless tyrant and eccentric performer, revealing a different Nero, a populist leader at a time of great change in Roman society.
Through some 200 spectacular objects, from the imperial palace in Rome to the streets of Pompeii, follow the young emperor’s rise and fall and make up your own mind about Nero. Was he a young, inexperienced ruler trying his best in a divided society, or the merciless, matricidal megalomaniac history has painted him to be?
Nero was the 5th emperor of Rome and the last of Rome’s first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, founded by Augustus (the adopted son of Julius Caesar). Nero is known as one of Rome’s most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty and debauchery. He ascended to power in AD 54 aged just 16 and died at 30. He ruled at a time of great social and political change, overseeing momentous events such as the Great Fire of Rome and Boudica’s rebellion in Britain. He allegedly killed his mother and two of his wives, only cared about his art and had very little interest in ruling the empire.
Most of what we know about Nero comes from the surviving works of three historians – Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. All written decades after Nero’s death, their accounts have long shaped our understanding of this emperor’s rule. However, far from being impartial narrators presenting objective accounts of past events, these authors and their sources wrote with a very clear agenda in mind. Nero’s demise brought forward a period of chaos and civil war – one that ended only when a new dynasty seized power, the Flavians. Authors writing under the Flavians all had an interest in legitimising the new ruling family by portraying the last of the Julio-Claudians in the worst possible light, turning history into propaganda. These accounts became the ‘historical’ sources used by later historians, therefore perpetuating a fabricated image of Nero, which has survived all the way to the present.
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37.
He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Both Gnaeus and Agrippina were the grandchildren of Augustus, making Nero Augustus’ great, great grandson with a strong claim to power.
Nero was only two years old when his mother was exiled and three when his father died. His inheritance was taken from him and he was sent to live with his aunt. However, Nero’s fate changed again when Claudius became emperor, restoring the boy’s property and recalling his mother Agrippina from exile.
In AD 49 the emperor Claudius married Agrippina, and adopted Nero the following year. It is at this point that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In Roman times it was normal to change your name when adopted, abandoning your family name in favour of your adoptive father’s. Nero was a common name among members of the Claudian family, especially in Claudius’ branch.
Nero and Agrippina offered Claudius a politically useful link back to Augustus, strengthening his position.
Claudius appeared to favour Nero over his natural son, Britannicus, marking Nero as the designated heir.
When Claudius died in AD 54, Nero became emperor just two months before turning 17.
As he was supported by both the army and the senate, his rise to power was smooth. His mother Agrippina exerted a significant influence, especially at the beginning of his rule.
The Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all claim that Nero, fed up with Agrippina’s interference, decided to kill her.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, there is no way of knowing if or how this happened. However, this did not stop historians from fabricating dramatic stories of Agrippina’s murder, asserting that Nero tried (and failed) to kill her with a boat engineered to sink, before sending his men to do the job.
Agrippina allegedly told them to stab her in the womb that bore Nero, her last words clearly borrowed from stage plays.
It is entirely possible, as claimed by Nero himself, that Agrippina chose (or was more likely forced) to take her own life after her plot against her son was discovered.
Early in his rule, Nero had to contend with a rebellion in the newly conquered province of Britain.
In AD 60–61, Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe led a revolt against the Romans, attacking and laying waste to important Roman settlements. The possible causes of the rebellion were numerous – the greed of the Romans exploiting the newly conquered territories, the recalling of loans made to local leaders, ongoing conflict in Wales and, above all, violence against the family of Prasutagus, Boudica’s husband and king of the Iceni.
Boudica and the rebels destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being heavily defeated by Roman troops. After the uprising, the governor of Britain Suetonius Paulinus introduced harsher laws against the Britons, until Nero replaced him with the more conciliatory governor Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
The marriage between Nero and Octavia, aged 15 and 13/14 at the time, was arranged by their parents in order to further legitimise Nero’s claim to the throne. Octavia was the daughter of the emperor Claudius from a previous marriage, so when Claudius married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, Nero and Octavia became brother and sister. In order to arrange their marriage, Octavia had to be adopted into another family.
Their marriage was not a happy one. According to ancient writers, Nero had various affairs until his lover Poppaea Sabina convinced him to divorce his wife. Octavia was first exiled then executed in AD 62 on adultery charges. According to ancient writers, her banishment and death caused great unrest among the public, who sympathised with the dutiful Octavia.
No further motives were offered for Octavia’s death other than Nero’s passion for Poppaea, and we will probably never know what transpired at court. The fact that Octavia couldn’t produce an heir while Poppaea was pregnant with Nero’s daughter likely played an important role in deciding Octavia’s fate.
On 19 July AD 64, a fire started close to the Circus Maximus. The flames soon encompassed the entire city of Rome and the fire raged for nine days. Only four of the 14 districts of the capital were spared, while three were completely destroyed.
Rome had already been razed by flames – and would be again in its long history – but this event was so severe it came to be known as the Great Fire of Rome.
Later historians blamed Nero for the event, claiming that he set the capital ablaze in order to clear land for the construction of a vast new palace. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Nero took in the view of the burning city from the imperial residence while playing the lyre and singing about the fall of Troy. This story, however, is fictional.
Tacitus, the only historian who was actually alive at the time of the Great Fire of Rome (although only 8 years old), wrote that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but returned to the capital and led the relief efforts.
Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all describe Nero as being blinded by passion for his wife Poppaea, yet they accuse him of killing her, allegedly by kicking her in an outburst of rage while she was pregnant.
Interestingly, pregnant women being kicked to death by enraged husbands is a recurring theme in ancient literature, used to explore the (self) destructive tendencies of autocrats. The Greek writer Herodotus tells the story of how the Persian king Cambyses kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, causing her death. A similar episode is told of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Nero is just one of many allegedly ‘mad’ tyrants for which this literary convention was used.
Poppaea probably died from complications connected with her pregnancy and not at Nero’s hands. She was given a lavish funeral and was deified.
Centred on greater Iran, the Parthian empire was a major political and cultural power and a long-standing enemy of Rome. The two powers had long been contending for control over the buffer state of Armenia and open conflict sparked again during Nero’s rule. The Parthian War started in AD 58 and, after initial victories and following set-backs, ended in AD 63 when a diplomatic solution was reached between Nero and the Parthian king Vologases I.
According to this settlement Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, would rule over Armenia, but only after having travelled all the way to Rome to be crowned by Nero.
The journey lasted 9 months, Tiridates’ retinue included 3,000 Parthian horsemen and many Roman soldiers. The coronation ceremony took place in the summer of AD 66 and the day was celebrated with much pomp: all the people of Rome saw the new king of Armenia kneeling in front of Nero. This was the Golden Day of Nero’s rule
In AD 68, Vindex, the governor of Gaul (France), rebelled against Nero and declared his support for Galba, the governor of Spain. Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support.
It was at this point that Nero lost the support of Rome’s people due to a grain shortage, caused by a rebellious commander who cut the crucial food supply from Egypt to the capital. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide.
Following his death, Nero’s memory was condemned (a practice called damnatio memoriae) and the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
After Nero’s death, civil war ensued. At the end of the so-called ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), Vespasian became emperor and started a new dynasty: the Flavians.
[Francesca Bologna, curator, for British Museum]
Taken in the British Museum
Prompt: a statue of Lady Justice wearing a blindfold holding the scales of Justice and books on a desk, symbolizing the law. --ar 4:5 --v 6.1
The blindfold was originally a satirical addition intended to show Justice as blind to the injustice carried on before her, but it has been reinterpreted over time and is now understood to represent impartiality, the ideal that justice should be applied without regard to wealth, power, or other status.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 152 new officers in the force's largest attestation ceremony to date on the evening of Tuesday 22nd October 2019, at Stockport Town Hall.
In front of family and friends, all officers partook in the Police Oath which is their promise to the Queen in front of a magistrate to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official start of the officers commencing their duties, and is a milestone to be celebrated.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was in attendance to welcome each and every new recruit to the force.
Also in attendance were Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes and the Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Laura Booth.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 152 new officers in the force's largest attestation ceremony to date on the evening of Tuesday 22nd October 2019, at Stockport Town Hall.
In front of family and friends, all officers partook in the Police Oath which is their promise to the Queen in front of a magistrate to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official start of the officers commencing their duties, and is a milestone to be celebrated.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was in attendance to welcome each and every new recruit to the force.
Also in attendance were Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes and the Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Laura Booth.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
Marble, AD 50-54
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus becomes Nero
Nero was born as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37 into an elite clan closely related to the imperial family. He lost his father aged three.
In AD 49, the reigning emperor Claudius married Nero's widowed mother, Agrippina. He formally adopted Nero the following year. Statues like this were probably created to mark the occasion. They are Nero's earliest portraits. He became the official crown prince a year later, and ruler of the Roman empire in October AD 54, two months before his 17th birthday.
[British Museum]
Nero: the Man Behind the Myth
(May - Oct 2021)
Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness.
The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome, Boudicca's rebellion in Britain, the execution of his own mother and first wife, grand projects and extravagant excesses.
Drawing on the latest research, this major exhibition questions the traditional narrative of the ruthless tyrant and eccentric performer, revealing a different Nero, a populist leader at a time of great change in Roman society.
Through some 200 spectacular objects, from the imperial palace in Rome to the streets of Pompeii, follow the young emperor’s rise and fall and make up your own mind about Nero. Was he a young, inexperienced ruler trying his best in a divided society, or the merciless, matricidal megalomaniac history has painted him to be?
Nero was the 5th emperor of Rome and the last of Rome’s first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, founded by Augustus (the adopted son of Julius Caesar). Nero is known as one of Rome’s most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty and debauchery. He ascended to power in AD 54 aged just 16 and died at 30. He ruled at a time of great social and political change, overseeing momentous events such as the Great Fire of Rome and Boudica’s rebellion in Britain. He allegedly killed his mother and two of his wives, only cared about his art and had very little interest in ruling the empire.
Most of what we know about Nero comes from the surviving works of three historians – Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. All written decades after Nero’s death, their accounts have long shaped our understanding of this emperor’s rule. However, far from being impartial narrators presenting objective accounts of past events, these authors and their sources wrote with a very clear agenda in mind. Nero’s demise brought forward a period of chaos and civil war – one that ended only when a new dynasty seized power, the Flavians. Authors writing under the Flavians all had an interest in legitimising the new ruling family by portraying the last of the Julio-Claudians in the worst possible light, turning history into propaganda. These accounts became the ‘historical’ sources used by later historians, therefore perpetuating a fabricated image of Nero, which has survived all the way to the present.
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37.
He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Both Gnaeus and Agrippina were the grandchildren of Augustus, making Nero Augustus’ great, great grandson with a strong claim to power.
Nero was only two years old when his mother was exiled and three when his father died. His inheritance was taken from him and he was sent to live with his aunt. However, Nero’s fate changed again when Claudius became emperor, restoring the boy’s property and recalling his mother Agrippina from exile.
In AD 49 the emperor Claudius married Agrippina, and adopted Nero the following year. It is at this point that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In Roman times it was normal to change your name when adopted, abandoning your family name in favour of your adoptive father’s. Nero was a common name among members of the Claudian family, especially in Claudius’ branch.
Nero and Agrippina offered Claudius a politically useful link back to Augustus, strengthening his position.
Claudius appeared to favour Nero over his natural son, Britannicus, marking Nero as the designated heir.
When Claudius died in AD 54, Nero became emperor just two months before turning 17.
As he was supported by both the army and the senate, his rise to power was smooth. His mother Agrippina exerted a significant influence, especially at the beginning of his rule.
The Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all claim that Nero, fed up with Agrippina’s interference, decided to kill her.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, there is no way of knowing if or how this happened. However, this did not stop historians from fabricating dramatic stories of Agrippina’s murder, asserting that Nero tried (and failed) to kill her with a boat engineered to sink, before sending his men to do the job.
Agrippina allegedly told them to stab her in the womb that bore Nero, her last words clearly borrowed from stage plays.
It is entirely possible, as claimed by Nero himself, that Agrippina chose (or was more likely forced) to take her own life after her plot against her son was discovered.
Early in his rule, Nero had to contend with a rebellion in the newly conquered province of Britain.
In AD 60–61, Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe led a revolt against the Romans, attacking and laying waste to important Roman settlements. The possible causes of the rebellion were numerous – the greed of the Romans exploiting the newly conquered territories, the recalling of loans made to local leaders, ongoing conflict in Wales and, above all, violence against the family of Prasutagus, Boudica’s husband and king of the Iceni.
Boudica and the rebels destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being heavily defeated by Roman troops. After the uprising, the governor of Britain Suetonius Paulinus introduced harsher laws against the Britons, until Nero replaced him with the more conciliatory governor Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
The marriage between Nero and Octavia, aged 15 and 13/14 at the time, was arranged by their parents in order to further legitimise Nero’s claim to the throne. Octavia was the daughter of the emperor Claudius from a previous marriage, so when Claudius married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, Nero and Octavia became brother and sister. In order to arrange their marriage, Octavia had to be adopted into another family.
Their marriage was not a happy one. According to ancient writers, Nero had various affairs until his lover Poppaea Sabina convinced him to divorce his wife. Octavia was first exiled then executed in AD 62 on adultery charges. According to ancient writers, her banishment and death caused great unrest among the public, who sympathised with the dutiful Octavia.
No further motives were offered for Octavia’s death other than Nero’s passion for Poppaea, and we will probably never know what transpired at court. The fact that Octavia couldn’t produce an heir while Poppaea was pregnant with Nero’s daughter likely played an important role in deciding Octavia’s fate.
On 19 July AD 64, a fire started close to the Circus Maximus. The flames soon encompassed the entire city of Rome and the fire raged for nine days. Only four of the 14 districts of the capital were spared, while three were completely destroyed.
Rome had already been razed by flames – and would be again in its long history – but this event was so severe it came to be known as the Great Fire of Rome.
Later historians blamed Nero for the event, claiming that he set the capital ablaze in order to clear land for the construction of a vast new palace. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Nero took in the view of the burning city from the imperial residence while playing the lyre and singing about the fall of Troy. This story, however, is fictional.
Tacitus, the only historian who was actually alive at the time of the Great Fire of Rome (although only 8 years old), wrote that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but returned to the capital and led the relief efforts.
Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all describe Nero as being blinded by passion for his wife Poppaea, yet they accuse him of killing her, allegedly by kicking her in an outburst of rage while she was pregnant.
Interestingly, pregnant women being kicked to death by enraged husbands is a recurring theme in ancient literature, used to explore the (self) destructive tendencies of autocrats. The Greek writer Herodotus tells the story of how the Persian king Cambyses kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, causing her death. A similar episode is told of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Nero is just one of many allegedly ‘mad’ tyrants for which this literary convention was used.
Poppaea probably died from complications connected with her pregnancy and not at Nero’s hands. She was given a lavish funeral and was deified.
Centred on greater Iran, the Parthian empire was a major political and cultural power and a long-standing enemy of Rome. The two powers had long been contending for control over the buffer state of Armenia and open conflict sparked again during Nero’s rule. The Parthian War started in AD 58 and, after initial victories and following set-backs, ended in AD 63 when a diplomatic solution was reached between Nero and the Parthian king Vologases I.
According to this settlement Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, would rule over Armenia, but only after having travelled all the way to Rome to be crowned by Nero.
The journey lasted 9 months, Tiridates’ retinue included 3,000 Parthian horsemen and many Roman soldiers. The coronation ceremony took place in the summer of AD 66 and the day was celebrated with much pomp: all the people of Rome saw the new king of Armenia kneeling in front of Nero. This was the Golden Day of Nero’s rule
In AD 68, Vindex, the governor of Gaul (France), rebelled against Nero and declared his support for Galba, the governor of Spain. Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support.
It was at this point that Nero lost the support of Rome’s people due to a grain shortage, caused by a rebellious commander who cut the crucial food supply from Egypt to the capital. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide.
Following his death, Nero’s memory was condemned (a practice called damnatio memoriae) and the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
After Nero’s death, civil war ensued. At the end of the so-called ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), Vespasian became emperor and started a new dynasty: the Flavians.
[Francesca Bologna, curator, for British Museum]
Taken in the British Museum
Interventions publiques extérieures sur 14 panneaux rétroéclairés le long du boulevard Monk, entre le métro Monk et la rue St-Patrick.
Présenté par MAP - Mouvement Art Public
Jon Rafman fait partie d’un noyau d’artistes qui créent à partir d’archives de Google Street View et de fonds d’images. Le titre de sa série The Nine Eyes of Google Street View (2008- ) fait directement allusion aux neuf caméras installées sur chaque véhicule hybride envoyé par Google Maps pour répertorier le monde. Rafman choisit des images d’évènements bizarres captés en cours de route par l’appareil automatique soi-disant impartial. Les résultats ainsi obtenus donnent des photographies troublantes qui défient toute compréhension rationnelle du monde.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 152 new officers in the force's largest attestation ceremony to date on the evening of Tuesday 22nd October 2019, at Stockport Town Hall.
In front of family and friends, all officers partook in the Police Oath which is their promise to the Queen in front of a magistrate to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official start of the officers commencing their duties, and is a milestone to be celebrated.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was in attendance to welcome each and every new recruit to the force.
Also in attendance were Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes and the Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Laura Booth.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
As I sample the fare of the various barbecue vendors in the North Alabama/South Central Tennessee area (properly described as the Tennessee Valley), the standard order will be "a pulled pork barbecue sandwich."
Whatever they put on it, is what they put on it. I won't make any special requests.
In this instance, however, I did ask if there was any outside meat (meat from the exterior surface), which is where much of the smoked barbecue flavor will be found, and it was that, more than anything, which I wanted to taste. And as can be seen in the image, there is outside meat (found as the darker portions) on the sandwich.
The cost of this sandwich was in the $5 range, and as I ordered, the cashier asked if I wanted slaw on it. Inquiring about the type of slaw used (vinegar-based, mayonnaise-based, mustard-based), I requested the mayo style.
There was a generous portion of moist, tasty meat between the buns, which wasn't chopped to smithereens (once cooked, pulled pork is pulled apart, not chopped, chipped, sliced, diced and minced), service was rapid, and the plate was brought to my table.
The slaw wasn't excessively laden with mayonnaise, was similarly long cut (not chipped, or pulverized), and was abundantly piled atop the meat.
This view of the sandwich is as it was inverted, and the bottom bun removed.
As can be seen, the barbecue sauce was in a small separate container, and there was none placed upon the meat. Two small dill pickle chips also accompanied.
With an abundant portion of meat, great flavor, and superb service, the sandwich was an excellent value.
My conversation with Paul was congenial, and he shared with me about all things barbecue, barbecue cooking competitions, and how he cooks his fare.
Because of prohibitively expensive insurance costs, he uses a gas-fired stainless steel cooker, which has a holding pan for the drippings (rendered fat), and a separate one for the wood smoke (dried hickory). As he described it, there is virtually no circulation in the cooking compartment.
The traditional method is to cook the meat over an open flame, and allow the renderings to drip into the fire, which in turn burn, and rise up onto the meat, and contribute to the flavor.
When asked if he participates in competition barbecue cooking, he said he does not, because the system isn't reflective of customer/patron preference, and is instead, reflective of the judges' preferences. "So," he said, "once you get to know who the judges are, and what they like, it's only cooking for them, not for what the people like."
He also noted that in some of the larger, and more renown barbecue competitions (Memphis, for example), the judges are treated as celebrities, and are catered to, and pandered to, which further adversely affects any sense of impartiality.
In this restaurant, there is a modestly-sized indoor dining area, tables are appointed with a black-and-white checkerboard table cloths, seating is comfortable, and the indoor decor is a combo of barbecue and political memorabilia from the owner.
Little Paul's Barbecue
815 Madison Street SE
Huntsville, AL 35801
United States
256-536-7227
...is located directly across the street from Huntsville Hospital's Emergency Department Ambulance bay.
Little Paul's Barbecue is owned by Alabama State Senator Paul Sanford (R), who is related to the Gibson barbecue family, whose Great Grandfather "Big Bob" Gibson is the progenitor for many barbecue restaurants in the Tennessee Valley - particularly in the Huntsville/Decatur area - and is credited as being the originator of "White Barbecue Sauce," also sometimes called "Alabama Style" Barbecue Sauce.
No website, no online presence, no social media, no Facebook page
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
Marble, AD 70-80
After Nero’s death, his images were defaced or destroyed in an act of damnatio memoriae, the offcial suppression of his memory. Others were removed and reworked into the portraits of later emperors. This marble portrait of Vespasian, made for insertion into a full-length statue, was re-carved from a likeness of Nero. It retains Nero’s deep-set eyes. Small traces also remain in the surface of the marble at the back of the neck. They show that a longer section of hair, characteristic of Nero’s coiffure, was removed.
[British Museum]
Nero: the Man Behind the Myth
(May - Oct 2021)
Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness.
The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome, Boudicca's rebellion in Britain, the execution of his own mother and first wife, grand projects and extravagant excesses.
Drawing on the latest research, this major exhibition questions the traditional narrative of the ruthless tyrant and eccentric performer, revealing a different Nero, a populist leader at a time of great change in Roman society.
Through some 200 spectacular objects, from the imperial palace in Rome to the streets of Pompeii, follow the young emperor’s rise and fall and make up your own mind about Nero. Was he a young, inexperienced ruler trying his best in a divided society, or the merciless, matricidal megalomaniac history has painted him to be?
Nero was the 5th emperor of Rome and the last of Rome’s first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, founded by Augustus (the adopted son of Julius Caesar). Nero is known as one of Rome’s most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty and debauchery. He ascended to power in AD 54 aged just 16 and died at 30. He ruled at a time of great social and political change, overseeing momentous events such as the Great Fire of Rome and Boudica’s rebellion in Britain. He allegedly killed his mother and two of his wives, only cared about his art and had very little interest in ruling the empire.
Most of what we know about Nero comes from the surviving works of three historians – Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. All written decades after Nero’s death, their accounts have long shaped our understanding of this emperor’s rule. However, far from being impartial narrators presenting objective accounts of past events, these authors and their sources wrote with a very clear agenda in mind. Nero’s demise brought forward a period of chaos and civil war – one that ended only when a new dynasty seized power, the Flavians. Authors writing under the Flavians all had an interest in legitimising the new ruling family by portraying the last of the Julio-Claudians in the worst possible light, turning history into propaganda. These accounts became the ‘historical’ sources used by later historians, therefore perpetuating a fabricated image of Nero, which has survived all the way to the present.
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37.
He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Both Gnaeus and Agrippina were the grandchildren of Augustus, making Nero Augustus’ great, great grandson with a strong claim to power.
Nero was only two years old when his mother was exiled and three when his father died. His inheritance was taken from him and he was sent to live with his aunt. However, Nero’s fate changed again when Claudius became emperor, restoring the boy’s property and recalling his mother Agrippina from exile.
In AD 49 the emperor Claudius married Agrippina, and adopted Nero the following year. It is at this point that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In Roman times it was normal to change your name when adopted, abandoning your family name in favour of your adoptive father’s. Nero was a common name among members of the Claudian family, especially in Claudius’ branch.
Nero and Agrippina offered Claudius a politically useful link back to Augustus, strengthening his position.
Claudius appeared to favour Nero over his natural son, Britannicus, marking Nero as the designated heir.
When Claudius died in AD 54, Nero became emperor just two months before turning 17.
As he was supported by both the army and the senate, his rise to power was smooth. His mother Agrippina exerted a significant influence, especially at the beginning of his rule.
The Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all claim that Nero, fed up with Agrippina’s interference, decided to kill her.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, there is no way of knowing if or how this happened. However, this did not stop historians from fabricating dramatic stories of Agrippina’s murder, asserting that Nero tried (and failed) to kill her with a boat engineered to sink, before sending his men to do the job.
Agrippina allegedly told them to stab her in the womb that bore Nero, her last words clearly borrowed from stage plays.
It is entirely possible, as claimed by Nero himself, that Agrippina chose (or was more likely forced) to take her own life after her plot against her son was discovered.
Early in his rule, Nero had to contend with a rebellion in the newly conquered province of Britain.
In AD 60–61, Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe led a revolt against the Romans, attacking and laying waste to important Roman settlements. The possible causes of the rebellion were numerous – the greed of the Romans exploiting the newly conquered territories, the recalling of loans made to local leaders, ongoing conflict in Wales and, above all, violence against the family of Prasutagus, Boudica’s husband and king of the Iceni.
Boudica and the rebels destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being heavily defeated by Roman troops. After the uprising, the governor of Britain Suetonius Paulinus introduced harsher laws against the Britons, until Nero replaced him with the more conciliatory governor Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
The marriage between Nero and Octavia, aged 15 and 13/14 at the time, was arranged by their parents in order to further legitimise Nero’s claim to the throne. Octavia was the daughter of the emperor Claudius from a previous marriage, so when Claudius married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, Nero and Octavia became brother and sister. In order to arrange their marriage, Octavia had to be adopted into another family.
Their marriage was not a happy one. According to ancient writers, Nero had various affairs until his lover Poppaea Sabina convinced him to divorce his wife. Octavia was first exiled then executed in AD 62 on adultery charges. According to ancient writers, her banishment and death caused great unrest among the public, who sympathised with the dutiful Octavia.
No further motives were offered for Octavia’s death other than Nero’s passion for Poppaea, and we will probably never know what transpired at court. The fact that Octavia couldn’t produce an heir while Poppaea was pregnant with Nero’s daughter likely played an important role in deciding Octavia’s fate.
On 19 July AD 64, a fire started close to the Circus Maximus. The flames soon encompassed the entire city of Rome and the fire raged for nine days. Only four of the 14 districts of the capital were spared, while three were completely destroyed.
Rome had already been razed by flames – and would be again in its long history – but this event was so severe it came to be known as the Great Fire of Rome.
Later historians blamed Nero for the event, claiming that he set the capital ablaze in order to clear land for the construction of a vast new palace. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Nero took in the view of the burning city from the imperial residence while playing the lyre and singing about the fall of Troy. This story, however, is fictional.
Tacitus, the only historian who was actually alive at the time of the Great Fire of Rome (although only 8 years old), wrote that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but returned to the capital and led the relief efforts.
Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all describe Nero as being blinded by passion for his wife Poppaea, yet they accuse him of killing her, allegedly by kicking her in an outburst of rage while she was pregnant.
Interestingly, pregnant women being kicked to death by enraged husbands is a recurring theme in ancient literature, used to explore the (self) destructive tendencies of autocrats. The Greek writer Herodotus tells the story of how the Persian king Cambyses kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, causing her death. A similar episode is told of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Nero is just one of many allegedly ‘mad’ tyrants for which this literary convention was used.
Poppaea probably died from complications connected with her pregnancy and not at Nero’s hands. She was given a lavish funeral and was deified.
Centred on greater Iran, the Parthian empire was a major political and cultural power and a long-standing enemy of Rome. The two powers had long been contending for control over the buffer state of Armenia and open conflict sparked again during Nero’s rule. The Parthian War started in AD 58 and, after initial victories and following set-backs, ended in AD 63 when a diplomatic solution was reached between Nero and the Parthian king Vologases I.
According to this settlement Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, would rule over Armenia, but only after having travelled all the way to Rome to be crowned by Nero.
The journey lasted 9 months, Tiridates’ retinue included 3,000 Parthian horsemen and many Roman soldiers. The coronation ceremony took place in the summer of AD 66 and the day was celebrated with much pomp: all the people of Rome saw the new king of Armenia kneeling in front of Nero. This was the Golden Day of Nero’s rule
In AD 68, Vindex, the governor of Gaul (France), rebelled against Nero and declared his support for Galba, the governor of Spain. Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support.
It was at this point that Nero lost the support of Rome’s people due to a grain shortage, caused by a rebellious commander who cut the crucial food supply from Egypt to the capital. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide.
Following his death, Nero’s memory was condemned (a practice called damnatio memoriae) and the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
After Nero’s death, civil war ensued. At the end of the so-called ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), Vespasian became emperor and started a new dynasty: the Flavians.
[Francesca Bologna, curator, for British Museum]
Taken in the British Museum
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Greater Manchester Police proudly welcomed 140 new officers to the force at an attestation ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday 8 January 2020.
In the presence of family and friends, the new officers took the Police Oath in front of magistrate Stephen Paine. In the oath they swore to uphold the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality.
The ceremony marks the official commencement of their police duties.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins welcomed each new recruit to the force.
Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Hilary Fairclough, was in attendance as was Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
To contact Greater Manchester Police for a less urgent matter or make a report online you can also visit www.gmp.police.uk.
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give evidence.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019. Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Yesterday, Tuesday 22 January 2019, Greater Manchester Police welcomed 100 new recruits to the Force. The officers were officially sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, senior officers and magistrate Stephen Paine.
The attestation ceremony was held at Stockport Town Hall.
The Mayor of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett, was also on hand to welcome the new recruits.
Family and friends watched the new officers make their oath to uphold their role with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality throughout their time in post.
New recruits have to complete a two year probation period which includes classroom based learning and a year of active patrol. During their training they will have the same of level of authority as regular officers, including the power of arrest.
The new recruits are replacing those who have either retired or left the organisation and therefore helping GMP to maintain current officer numbers.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.