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INKYTEXT 286 Part II
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PART II
Issue No 286 Monday 12 April 1999
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancaster.ac.uk
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AGENDA
4. Small Ads: Illustrators wanted, Staff visiting Oz, Childrens'
paraphernalia, Springsteen tickets, Marathon sponsorship, Introduction
to rowing, Spotlight Club, House to rent, Y Reg VW Polo for sale,
Auctions at Amazon.com.
5. Readers' Letters: Kosovo, Teaching and Learning, Search engines,
Ollie Burton.
4. SMALL ADS
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REQUEST FOR SPONSORSHIP FROM MILES MATHER
A LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENT RUNNING THE 1999 LONDON MARATHON
The 26.2 Mile Race takes place on April 18th. Like all the other
runners I have undergone some arduous training (around 1000 miles since
Christmas). I hope to complete the course in under four hours.
I am running on behalf of a charity called the 'Peper Harow
Foundation.' This is a London-based registered charity cares for abused
and disadvantaged children. Since December I have raised 1500 pounds.
My target is still a long way off at 3000 pounds, with the race just a
couple of weeks away. I ask all readers for support. If I reach my
target of 3000 pounds, I will probably be the highest fundraiser for
the charity. If this is assured I will receive guaranteed entrance for
the New York marathon in November. This will open up further Corporate
fundraising opportunities.
Please help me reach my target and give generously to this very
worthwhile cause. Cheques made payable to 'The Peper Harow Foundation'
may be sent to the following address.
Miles Mather, Furness College, Lancaster University Lancaster, LANCS
LA1 4YG. Many Thanks
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POSTER AND LEAFLET DESIGNERS WANTED: I am desperately searching for
art/design/photography students who could do a big favour for East
Lancashire Deaf Society (and add something to their CVs at the same
time!)
We are looking for someone who can design posters and leaflets for an
event we will be holding in July. Also looking for photographer for a
few of the Society's activities. Unfortunately, as a local charity, we
will only be able to afford minimal expenses. The event and brochures
will be high profile though.
The Society offers a number of community services all working to the
ultimate aim of independence and equal opportunities for deaf, hard of
hearing and deafblind people. Even today deaf people do not enjoy the
same rights as others and are more likely to suffer from mental health
problems, be badly educated and unemployed than their hearing
counterparts.
Pleeeeeeasssssssee help!
Contact Cassie Northam on 01254 52620 or cznortham@aol.com
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ITEMS FOR SALE
THREE-QUARTER SIZE CATHEDRAL CELLO with bow and soft case. Beautiful
tone, top quality, now outgrown. 430 pounds.
STARTER BICYCLE, suit 3 6 years, red, good condition, with
stabilisers. 20 pounds.
CHILDS BIKE SEAT, fits over rear wheel. Suit 3 months 2 years. 20
pounds.
2 ENORMOUS SUITCASES. 40 pounds each.
CHILDS PLAY-SHOP, all wood with ample shelf and counter space. Makes a
great stage for all kinds of role-play, and folds almost flat when not
in use. 30 pounds. J.gosling@lancaster.ac.uk or 01524 844166.
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STAFF TRAVELLING TO AUSTRALIA - one of our Alumni, Paul Mather, in
Clayton Australia (at Monash University) would like to host an Alumni
event. He thought timing the event (perhaps a cocktail party) to
coincide with a member of staff's visit would be nice. If you are going
to that part of Australia please can you email me so that I can try to
arrange the event. I would need at least a month's notice. Emily Fay,
Alumni Officer - e.fay@lancaster.ac.uk
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Two tickets for the sold out date Sunday 2nd May. B
R U C E S P R I N G S T E E N and The E Street Band at the Manchester
Evening News Arena - Block 102 Row G. Only 34 Pounds. Contact Marcus on
(5)94298 or email marcus@comp.lancs.ac.uk
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INTRODUCTORY ROWING SESSION AT THE JOHN O'GAUNT ROWING CLUB
On Sunday 18th April the John O'Gaunt Rowing Club will be running an
introductory session for people who are interested in learning how to
row. Rowing is considered to be one of the best forms of all-round
exercise with gentle, low impact movements whilst improving strength,
muscle tone and endurance.
The session is open to both men and women. Everybody is welcome,
whether they wish to row to keep fit, for fun or competition. There are
also places for people who would like to be in control of the rowers
and become a cox. The session is free, however places are limited so if
you wish to have a go please contact Matt Folley on (01524) 383753 as
soon as possible.
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SPOTLIGHT CLUB @ THE YORKSHIRE HOUSE FRIDAY 16TH APRIL
Poets, writers, performers and musicians will be telling tales and
singing songs at the Litfest Spotlight Club on Friday April 16th.
Taking place at Lancaster's Yorkshire House, the club offers new, live,
writing in a laid-back and friendly atmosphere.
This month's programme includes: poetry from Sedbergh based writer
David Forknall, humorous poetry and performance from Rachel Pass, and
Preston's finest contribution to the world of culture, Steeve the Poet.
Plus a short story from Marion Hughes, whose recent off-the-floor
performance delighted the audience and led to her being booked for a
longer spot.
A musical interlude will be provided by singer songwriter guitarist
Scott Millington. And the finale will see a return by popular demand of
blues and folk singer guitarist Guy Scott. Expect classic material
performed with wit, panache and lashings of talent.
The bill could also include you, if you have a poem or a song up your
sleeve and you fancy taking a turn at the mike in the open floor
section which begins the evening. Whether you're a writer wanting
someone to listen to you, or a listener wanting to hear writers ...
Spotlight is for you. If you want to know more, ring 01524 62166 or
01524 847240.
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HOUSE FOR RENT: August 15th -December 15th 1999. Ideal for visiting
academic (preferably female or couple). 200 year-old terraced cottage,
overlooking the Forest of Bowland, in small, quiet village 5 miles from
University campus (car essential). Bedroom/study, bath/shower,
fully-equipped kitchen and lounge with sofa bed. 420pounds excl. bills.
Contact: j.stacey@lancaster.ac.uk (01524-594184).
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CAR FOR SALE: Very Old VW Polo (Y reg), black, no frills, reliable for
local runabout. MOT until Jan 2000. Taxed until end Aug 1999. 250
pounds. Contact Jessica Abrahams on 92670 or email
j.abrahams@lancs.ac.uk
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5. READERS' LETTERS
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Re : Inkytext 285
> There are moments when masterly inactivity
> may well be difficult yet still the most or only statesmanlike course.
Did you really mean to say this?
Go tell it to the ethnic Albanians flowing over the borders, maybe
they could broaden your outlook on life.
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Adrian Bratt
[NOTE: I most certainly think it better to do nothing if the only
things one can think of doing are going to make matters worse. It might
have been an idea, for example, NOT to threaten bombs in the first
place, and not to withdraw the UN observers, acts which encouraged
Serbian troops to butcher with apparent impunity. Bombs seem to me to
mark the failure of diplomacy and a lack of imagination. Bribery is
usually cheaper and arguably more effective. Thank you for your
subscription and goodbye, though I find closing one's eyes to
alternative views a curiously unscientific approach. (Ed.)]
----------------------------------
Re: "There are moments when masterly inactivity may well be difficult
yet still the most or only statesmanlike course" ... i.e. :
"Don't just do something. Stand there!"
... this is not original, but I don't remember the context.
Gerry Steele
---------------------------
I don't bother with search engines myself since I discovered WebFerret
(available free from http://www.ferretsoft.com).
It's about the only good reason to use Windoze 95/98/NT....
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[NOTE: Professor Bob Lewis [Knowledge based systems, ISS] has had a
very long association with (former) Yugoslavia. He has forwarded the
following two letters from correspondents. They are reproduced here, in
part, in the interests of freedom of expression. Further contradictory
material on the conflict can be found inter-alia at the sites below
Ed.)]
http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu
http://www.beograd.org.yu
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/kosovo.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/kosovo.htm
http://www.siri-us.com/issues.html
Imagine an increasing Mexican population in southern California, or a
growing Arab community in southern France, which would declare its will
to secede from the American or the French heartland, and would use
violence and terror to achieve its goal. Would Mexico or Algeria be
then entitled to bomb Los Angeles or Marseille in order to support the
dissidents' claim for independence? If they did, the civilized world
would be unanimous in condemning this as an act of international
piracy.
This is more or less what is happening in Kosovo today. Much more than
France, and certainly much longer than the U.S., the Serbs have
considered Kosovo, since the 14th Century, as the cradle of their
culture and ethnic identity, and as the stage where their history has
unfolded. Over the past decades, due to the poverty and misery in
neighboring Albania, tens of thousands of migrants, for the most part
illegal, have infiltrated into Kosovo to seek new opportunities. This
is not unlike the process of illegal migration from Hexico to the
southwestern states of the U.S., or from North Africa to France.
And yet, those same countries which would not tolerate a migrant
population, and illegal to boot, to secede politically while tearing
away part of the national turf, stand at the forefront of the western
effort today not only to delegitimize the Serbian legitimate endeavour
to protect its national territory, but threaten and do use force to
achieve that morally and politically questionable goal.
NATO bombardments in Yugoslavia are not because Serbia rejects peace
in Kosovo, but because the West wishes to back the Albanians` demand
for self-determination at the expense of their hosts, and insists on
the presence of an international force on the sovereign territory under
Belgrade`s lawful jurisdiction. This is something the proud Serbs
reject, exactly as Washington and Paris would have opposed any
interference of outsiders in their internal matters.
True, there is the moral question of atrocities, and the international
obligation to avert them. But, in addition to the proven inefficacity
of the Western threats in this regard, there is also the factual
question of presenting a true and balanced picture to the world. The
atrocities did not begin with the Serbs, since they are the interested
party to maintain peace and quiet in Kosovo, if only to ensure the
livelihood of the Serb minority in that territory. Once the Albanians
back up their demand for independence with violence and terror, what
are the Serbs supposed to do? [...]
If this new form of international piracy is allowed to pass, more foci
of unrest will arise at the heart of the West which will throw into
chaos most of the multi-ethnic societies of those countries. And so,
instead of focusing the struggle against the rising threat of
fundamentalist Islam, in which the Serbs have stood in the forefront
first in Bosnia and now in Kosovo, it will be tragic for the West if it
divided its ranks and weakened itself in this exercise of
self-immolation that is hard to understand, much less to condone.
------------------------------
I am sorry to hear that anybody in the world suffers from any kind of
violence.
I can can very well understand because I experienced bombing only
eight years ago and I sent similar letters to my colleagues all over
the world. My son was only 14 days old at that time and we had terrible
time. Only few hundred meters from my home the (civil) radio
transmitter was bombed.
But we were not attacked by foreigners, we were attacked by the
Serbian army, with jet fighters that were bought by our money!
I wonder why Serbian intellectuals did not raise their voice at that
time and than during the war in Croatia and Bosnia. Just before the war
in Slovenia, more than one million people from Serbia came to a meeting
in Belgrade where they requested occupation of Slovenia. When the plan
of the Serb National Academy of Science and Art to establish Great
Serbia failed, they decided to ethnically clean at least Kosovo. And
they are doing it now.
I feel sorry for for those, who are creating their freedom with
other's blood!
A Slovenian Academic
-----------------------------
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----------------------------------
With reference to recent articles about the Institute for Learning and
Teaching, the following appeared in the Daily Telegraph Peterborough
column:
From the Evening Mail, Birmingham: "The Administrator of St Paul's
School: Leaning Assistant required to support the class teacher and to
develop appropriate leaning strategies for individuals and small groups
of pupils."
----------------------------------
I have a great deal of respect for the views of the editor. I have
sympathy with his views on the current war in Yugoslavia. Likewise I
respect and sympathise with Alex Salmond and Tony Benn. Alas, after
sharing with them a horror for the inane policy of the American-British
Axis on Iraq, I must differ on the subject of Kosovo.
I regard the present policy of NATO, and by extension the policy of
our government, as totally bereft of any merit. This policy is so
clearly designed to serve the twin but unbalanced requirements of
meeting public opinion (frankly the lesser concern for our masters) and
maintaining US/Western Allies authority over the globe as a whole.
But let us return to the Inkster/Salmond/Benn position. This, or so
it seems to me, is to cry out that 'International Law' has been
scandalously breached, in the first place, and that before anything was
done we should have gone through the futile rigamarole of seeking the
sanction of the UN. This was never a remote possibility. The 50-year
old veto and the other attendant injustices of the structure of the UN
meant that, if something was to be done, it would always have been
'illegal'. China and Russia would simply not have allowed even the
slimmest of pretexts in the case of Yugoslavia.
The red herring of 'law' must be swept off the trail, particularly
when the law and its institutions are almost uniquely asinine.
Then we have this almost Delphic assertion that 'doing nothing is
sometimes the best thing we can do'. Robert Kennedy had a reply to that
little pearl and he was right. Doing nothing was perhaps not as bad an
option as the current black farce being played out in Kosovo but my
personal view is that it would have been equally wrong.
No, the Serb offensive seems to me to have been inevitable, it was
just a matter of timing. I therefore own to the view that the only
possible way to have averted this disaster was to launch a full-scale
invasion (why mince words) of Kosovo with the aim of placing that
province under an international protectorate. It is a controversial
view. I accept it would have required more time. It would have
required, in fact, some Milosovician skills on the part of our
diplomats. He has lied often enough that we should have had no qualms
in lying to him.
The obvious response to this view is to point out that it would have
turned Kosovo into even more of a battlefield than it is today. That is
undeniable; we would have had to face that truth. But Kosovan Albanians
would have had powerful defenders with them, facing the soldiers,
'police' and thugs of the Serb forces. [...]
Nick Bardsley
[NOTE: Even where legal institutions may seem asinine they remain a
marginal improvement on the law of the jungle, which is the
alternative. I feel your views are best described as 'thought in
progress', as you may yourself feel on re-reading your concluding
paragraph. (Ed.)]
------------------
Thank you for putting me on the InkyText mailing list. After I left
Lancaster in 1994 I did a PGCE in Modern Languages at Goldsmith's
College in London. It wasn't really what I wanted to do, but rather one
of those cases when I couldn't think of anything better to do!
I subsequently worked as a supply teacher of French and German for the
next three years. I didn't want to get a permanent contract for fear of
being 'sucked in' for good. Teaching and me didn't really mix, although
I got good reports from Goldsmith's and various inspections.
About two years ago I began seriously to think about pursuing my dream
of acting for a living. I've been acting for years and was very
involved with the Theatre Group at Lancaster. I decided to apply for
drama schools, and after many tries and lots of persistence I finally
got into LAMDA in London which is one of the UKs best schools, it took
me three attempts to get in there, so you know what they say about
third time lucky.
I am absolutely loving it at Lamda and have definitely found my
vocation! I am doing a two year course there. It's very hard work and
extremely intensive. We basically have classes in the morning and
rehearse plays in the afternoon. Last term we performed The Winter's
Tale by Shakespeare and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford, lots of
verse speaking!
Ollie Burton
--------------------------------
QUITE ENOUGH