The Tropic of Cancer continued

It looks as if I have missed out on the fourth of Simon Reeve’s six programme circumnavigation of the world along the Tropic of Cancer. The country visited was India about which I know something of its history, people and the challenge of improving the welfare of its way as part of internal capitalism. However Simon Reeve has a unique style which captures the essence of a nation, its people and its problems, concentrating on the gulf between rich and poor, the extent to which the people are free or oppressed, the impact of climate change and the affects of population growth and economic development on the animals, birds and fishes.

Whereas I have a basic knowledge of India and Pakistan, that of Bangladesh was limited, especially that its population is over 160 million, the seventh most populated and one of the most densely populated countries in the world. While successive democratic governments have made progress in reducing the numbers in poverty it remains one of the poorest countries. We think of the British Islands as over populated with concerns that the total could rise to over 70 million, yet in Bangladesh 160 million live in an area smaller than England Wales and where over 50% of the land area floods every year, with 700 rivers including the upper reaches of the Ganges.

Simon went the capital city of Dhaka by boat, a city with 13 million now but expected to double. On the way he stopped to watch a riverside village attempt to stop the erosion of its land, erosion which is making one hundred people homeless every year and which Simon argued was being caused by climate change from the melting of the polar icecaps. It was in the city that he experienced the reality of life for children, with thousands living on the streets searching through waste for discarded tins, plastic and other materials which they can sell to recycling shops in order to buy food.
He was then shown a small recycling furnace in which broken glass was converted in small glass bottles in which the young boys assisted the operation working in 40 C plus temperature in order to earn a small bag of rice for their families a day. The United Nations Children’s organisation UNICEF has had to compromise and instead of insisting that children are not employed, arrange for them to have a few hours off in which to attend a centre where they receive a nourishing midday meal, are able to shower, play games and given simple instructions. Before leaving Simon endeared himself to a local community by joining in the national sport of wrestling.

This was an interlude before embarking on his most dangerous visit of both series. His contact was a young Burmese woman living in India because at home she had a price on head from the military junta. Burma was a British colony from 1886 after Rangoon, the capital, and Southern Burma had been incorporated in 1853. Burma was granted self government in 1937 and then became independent from the UK in 1948. In 1962 nearly 50 years ago there was a military coup d’etat and aspects of society- business, media and production were nationalised and brought under government control using a Revolutionary Council. In order to try and legitimise their power an attempt was made in 1942 to create a single party political system in which the military resigned and stood as civilian candidates. Some 300000 Burmese Indians were forced to leave the country and this was followed by hundreds of thousands of Burmese Muslims. There was a further military coup in 1988 in which thousands of people were killed and the country changed its name to Myanmar, not recognised by the UK the USA, France, Australia and Canada.

The main concern remains the lack of basic human rights with the large army using sections of the population as slave labour, estimated at 800000 by the International Labour Office and with reports of major brutality, including rape and forced prostitution. Resistance from Buddhist monks in 2007 was ruthlessly put down and the leader of the opposition to the military has been under House arrest for the greater part of the last decade and subsequently charged with politically motivated offences. Britain and the USA have led pressure for tighter sanctions on Burma but other countries, particularly India have resisted and it is known that India has been selling arms to the Burmese dictatorship. This I find extraordinary.

Because of isolation and mismanagement the country remains one of the poorest in Asia with life based around the village outside of the capital city. Simon Reeve made his way through northern India crossing a river into the country when he walked along tracks to reach an isolated village where a community help organisation was bringing health checks and medicines. There is no road structure in the area. He had to leave during the night following reports of approaching interest by the military who it has to be presumed have established a net work of informants to gain information about indications of opposition or the presence of outsiders.

The last Programme proved just as moving and challenging. The Tropic of Cancer cuts through Southern China but Simon and team were refused admission and forced to travel through Northern Laos. This was a smart move by the Chinese Government as it enabled Simon to reveal that the United States of America had dropped millions of tons of bombs including the infamous cluster bombs which cover a 30 metre radius and which given the population meant each individual had to avoid hundreds of tons of explosives. If this was not bad enough hundreds of thousands of the bombs and other munitions now lay unexploded killing several hundred men, women and children every year. An international organisation does defuse the bombs when they are detected several decades after they were dropped, but why the USA did not set about demonstrating its peaceful attentions by sending teams to make the ground safe should be beyond comprehension. Alas it is not.

At the end of the film on a deserted Hawaiian Island beach to which Simon had been taken by helicopter we were shown the extent to which the sand was becoming colourful plastic. The spot was miles from human habitation and the islands are thousands of miles from mainland’s on either side the biggest ocean on the Earth planet. Given that the plastic is primarily a twentieth century product, the series ended on a pessimistic note.(Cellulite products were developed from 1855, Bakelite pre second World War, Polystyrene and PVC and then the various developments of recent times including recyclable and biodegradable material). A major theme of the series is the extent to which humans in the economically developed nations have created the problem through pollution and climate change and making other changes to the natural habitat

In the programme Simon visited the independent island people of Taiwan about a third of the size of the Britain in terms of area and population but which now has one of the best standards of living in the world having effectively cornered the High Tech production industry with the production of lap top computers the best known example. It also boasts one of the best education systems with an emphasis on maths and sciences according to Mr Reeve. I must admit that I had no understanding of the position until seeing the programme and undertaking some research. It is a country head and shoulders from all the others visited along the Tropic and which as Mr Reeve pointed out usually comprise undernourished peasants and slum dwellers, many illiterate and in ill health, the subject of corrupt and ruthless governments and criminal gangs. He claimed that the ordinary people of Taiwan were richer and freer than and everyone looked happy as they went about their business with his visit to the Tropic of Cancer school a great delight.

The marrying of communist and capitalist enterprise was also evident in Laos where along the Mekong River there are a growing number of Chinese traders following the role of the 19th century British merchant adventurer. Simon was taken to a new hotel and casino complex costing £80 million as the first part of the development of a one hundred square kilometre site by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs. The Las Vegas of the Jungle!

I was disappointed with the visit to Vietnam and Hanoi although the two examples of life he picked out may represent what the country is becoming. He was taken along by his guide to one of the many new golf courses where membership could be bought for $18000 dollars for twenty five years and then to a street in Hanoi full of those keeping bears in small cages in order to farm their intestine bile which is used as part of natural medicines. He then went to a rescue centre where the animals are being given medical treatment before being helped to live more naturally in a protected environment.

The theme of series has been the plight of the ordinary people, of wildlife and the environment. In Laos known as the land of a million elephants the number is rapidly diminishing with some 700 to 1000 in the wild and 500 harnessed into working as slave labourers in logging where they are worn out and unable to build up their strength and allowed to have the time to produce offspring. On Hawaii Simon visited a bird sanctuary which is attempting protect a number of endangered species and where the laying of an egg was treated with acclaim and is followed by night and day after care when the egg is hatched. If only all humans could be given such attention in most of he countries which Simon visited. It is good that so far all the three major political parties have been given commitments to keep present public expenditure on international Aid. Well done Simon Reeve and the BBC. Hopefully his previous series will be repeated and a new venture planned.

1922 Wallander and Lewis Durham and Sunderland

After a quiet Saturday I looked forward to Sunday with several choices in the afternoon for Television, radio and the internet sport. Sunderland’s game against Manchester United was on Sky with Liverpool home to Chelsea. While there was little in the game for Sunderland other than pride, if Liverpool could hold Chelsea or do better then Man U if they won would be ahead and in the driving seat. I was also interested in the other televised game commencing at 1pm between Sheffield Wednesday and my boyhood club Crystal Palace. If Sheffield won they would remain in the Championship and Crystal Palace would be relegated and vice versa. A draw will see Palace safe. Durham are also playing at Kent in their second 40 40 game with commentary on the Internet and Newcastle are away to QPR at lunchtime.

Sadly Durham’s game at Kent was called off because of rain and Chelsea beat Liverpool which means that all Chelsea has to do is win next week to secure the title and assuming that Man U get all three points at Sunderland, and which is by no means certain.

In an exciting and tough game Crystal Palace secured their position with a 2.2 draw, Sheffield having equalised twice. Manchester United then won at Sunderland by one goal in the first half and had opportunity to score one or two more. Sunderland put up a brave fight and did not capitulate although as the game progressed the overall difference in technique and class was evident.

In the evening I watched the latest Wallander, called The Priest, having previously watched the remaining missing episode from this series called The Thief. The Priest was a classic whodunit with the most likely suspect being framed for the murder. The priest, a title usually reserved for the Catholic clergy, applied to a heterosexually married priest in the Swedish Church who was having an adulterous affair with the wife of the idealistic director of company selling used hospital equipment to South Africa. The couple were drawn to each other because of unsatisfactory marital relationships. The wife of the Priest had become a member of contemporary non conformist where is appeared she was having a close relationship with a young new female convert. An overheard conversation appeared to confirm suspicions that she could have been behind the shooting and framed the accused, especially as she had taken the decision to turn off the life support system when her husband was declared brain dead. It was never clear what their role was except to arrange for a photo identifying who her husband was with and passing that information to accused.

The accused had a strong case against him after photographs taken of his wife together with the priest were found at his home together with his camera, and then the gun which shot the priest twice as he was leaving the scene of a tryst and where both had decided it was time reveal their relationship to their partners and plan a new life together. The husband was a guilt ridden perfectionist who took life very seriously. The culprit turned out to be the company financial Director who was making money on the side and who also arranged for an employee to provide supporting evidence against his boss. The relationship between Wallander and his divorced boss appears to be blossoming.


In the episode before the Cellist, called the Thief, the subject appeared to be vigilante action going wrong as three men beat up a suspect who they believed was responsible for a spate of burglaries in their area. They are right in so far that the man was responsible for the break ins and thefts but he was killed, not from the beatings up, but from subsequent action by one of the three, a doctor whose wife was said to have left on a visit to see a relative.

The wife had fallen and broken her neck in argument with her husband, saying she was leaving him. Her body had been discovered by the thief who then blackmailed the doctor into stealing 20000 krs from the local boys football club raised from a raffle and other ventures. The two bodies were then buried in soil above which a new all weather artificial turf pitch was laid. Wallander had found himself at odds with his boss and other members of his team when no bodies could be found. As with other Wallander series there was a sub plot of the racism which appears to have developed in Swedish society over the past fifty years. When I visited in 1963, staying in a Folkhighschool but also made a visit to the University at Uppsala having been invited by a student psychiatrist who we had met in Stockholm, how I cannot remember, perhaps when I went to see a public relations officer for the local authority about the operation of their welfare services. The two and other experiences provided many opportunities to talk with educated Swedes and one can gained the impression of a strong traditional conservatism alongside the liberalism of the capital and university.

On the evening it was the first of a new series of Lewis, the follow up to Morse and the brilliant John Thaw. The programme designers hit on the idea of keep Geordie actor Kevin Whately, having jettisoned his wife and children to create a character fixed on work and living otherwise alone as with Morse, Frost and Foyle. In a reversal of roles his assistant is the bright one, fast track Oxbridge Laurence Fox as DS James Hathaway. In this fourth series, one of the best to date, the focus was the background of James as much as the murder in hand. While the majority of the Morse and Lewis programmes feature Oxford City and college life, or the lives of students and staff there also have been several films on the landed and upper class gentry in the surrounding area. This time there is quickly found to be a connection between a dead academic found and a shooting and wounding during the enactment of a battle in the grounds of country estate. This is the estate where Hathaway grew up and where he played with the first daughter of his Lordship and the boy who became the butler head of household to the Lord and his second wife.

We learn that Hathaway and daughter Scarlet, had a thing going and that she hoped he would return after going off to university a decade before. She had married, divorced and is about to marry again the son of Mediterranean business partner of the Lord who has fallen on hard times with the failure of his bank. We then learn that the Lord married his second wife when she was 17 but they have not shared a bedroom since she produced a son and heir, a sixteen year old lad with a motorbike who appears to be having an intimate relationship with the daughter of the estate manager who has brought up the young woman since his wife departed, believed to have run off with someone when she was only eight years old. The Lord has been kind to her allowing her to use the family piano and thinks the world of her father.

It transpires that the man shot at the enactment is the lover of the second wife of his Lordship. It also transpires that the killed academic had been taken a great interest in the estate and was murdered in the chapel from where he was moved. He was on the search of missing treasure and following clues provided in a picture part of a collection being sold by the Lord to raise funds and which has been added to including a painting in of the Folly which was created 100 years after the original painting. Living in the Folly is a young Jesuit priest. When the estate manager is found having appeared to have committed suicide the theory emerges that the estate manager has found out that his wife ran off with the academic, and who had then ran off again, the estate manager had killed the academic and then turned the gun on himself leaving his daughter suicidal. The second proposition is that the Jesuit had killed the academic when it is discovered and a few years before when a student the Jesuit had pushed his friend both drunk out into the roadway where the academic had knocked and killed the student. The Jesuit says he blamed himself. Hathaway and the police boss, also a woman as with Wallander, think it is an open and shut case, but Lewis instinctively knows better.

When Hathaway encounters Scarlet again. the day before her wedding she makes a play for him , admitting she is only marrying for money to save the estate for her father and they spend the night together, she offering to continues their relationship in much the same way as the second wife of her father. At the same time as seducing the Police Detective she warns that he should keep away from her and her family. He is going through a troubled time having discovered the remains of abducted ten year old and learning that the culprit is pleading diminished responsibility. When Lewis finds out about the relationship he places the assistant on involuntary leave and the assistant in turns says he intends to hand in his papers. Lewis does not want this and consults the forensic doctor who says that people do not know how one is feeling unless you tell them. This we feel not just applies to Lewis and his assistant.

Then the truth is revealed. It is correct that the academic was on the search for missing treasure when Lewis finds out what he was studying at the Bodleian University Library which as a student I was sent to read for essays and made me feel a serious student for the first time. He had arranged to view the painting where the Folly had been added and on going to the roof of the folly they find astrological symbols and between two there is a view to a sundial which in the painting is not reflecting the light from the adjacent candle. On going to the Sundial they see it lines up with where there is now a statue and once former fountain in which Hathaway and Scarlet threw coins and made wishes before he left for University. In the climax Lewis goes to the estate having received a message that he should meet up at the Chapel. Hathaway has also received the same message while at the wedding reception and has worked out that the letter sent to the academic was written by Scarlet and not he runaway wife. Before he goes to the Chapel, Lewis has arrived and finds head of household there and out to kill Hathaway who independently of Lewis has also commenced to work out what has happened.

The Lord had a liking for young girls and had “violated” the daughter of the estate manager. Her mother had found out what was going on and had been killed and her body hidden in the base of the statue replacing the fountain. The academic and the estate manager had been killed to prevent the body being discovered, the academic having contacted the estate manager to arrange for the excavation under the statue. The boyfriend of the second wife had been shot at random as several of the hostel had been loaded with live ammunition to create a diversion so that the body of the academic could be moved off the estate. While the head of household has been doing the dirty work he had been acting with the knowledge of Scarlet. In the melee the second wife’s boyfriend is killed and Scarlet and her father are arrested for their part in various crimes and attempted cover ups. Confused. Well anyway Lewis and Hathaway decide they make a great team so we have the rest of series filmed in the summer of last year.

It is nearly fifty years since going to Oxford to attend Ruskin College and proved to be one of the great choices which I made, taking up the place rather than as Secretary for the London region CND. I have planed to send a few days there later in the year and last night found the Alumni association has an online web site which I registered until into the early hours after wondering what happened to my close friends from that time, especially that final week when we returned for the result, had a picnic at Blenheim Palace and went on a punt on the river.

I am still not sure what to make of the remake of the Prisoner which has a strangely out of date 1950’s post war feel about it!

I did watch a great chunk of the Chronicles of Riddick a science fiction nonsense akin to Dr Who which continues to go downhill from the serious heights reached with the previous two Doctors. I also saw a large chunk of Oceans 12 and other time fillers unremembered.

It looked as if the Gods were going to be unkind towards Durham County Cricket Club for the second day in succession as they travelled from Kent to Leicester and the opening was delayed because of rain and then a further interruption reduced the number of overs from 40 to 26. Durham managed a creditable score in the circumstances with Blackwell, Ben Harrison and captain Will Smith all scoring some important runs. Then the scorer made a blunder and set the target which Leicestershire had to reach 5 runs lower and because this was not noted until after the game commenced it had to stand according to the rules. Then there was a catch which the umpire ruled against as did the third umpire. Batsmen edged missing their stumps narrowly and for a brief moment it looked as if Leicestershire would take the day. However the bowlers and fielders rallied and with wickets falling Leicestershire fell behind in the run rate so that Durham won comfortably in the end and head the table, important because only those heading one of the three groups are guaranteed a semi final place to be played on September 11th with the final at Lords the weekend later.