HAS SPRING SPRUNG?
What a week it’s been, dominated as it was with that interview with Harry and Meghan. What a farce. I don’t agree with Piers Morgan but he has a point when he implies that she’s a great actress! Harry seemed genuine enough but uncomfortable as well he might but worst of all was Oprah Winfrey who didn’t challenge anything, drill down into the claims and when they talked about ‘someone’ wondering what skin colour the baby might have, she went ‘Whaaat’ in disbelief.
Worse was when Meghan talked about thinking of suicide the queen of American TV went ‘Wow’. Not a genuine nor a sympathetic response surely. Anyway it filled a couple of hours but it will rumble on for months – I hope they are happy about slating the royal family and satisfied that they pleased their American audience. Forgive them for they know not what they do.
I thought it very big brotherish when Willian was tackled by a reporter about the interview and asked ‘Have you spoken to your brother since?’ He turned round, face like thunder, ‘Not yet. BUT I WILL.’ Watch out Harry!
Usually the budget was exciting to hear – how much petrol, alcohol and cigarettes would go up in price. I don’t even know if these items were even mentioned, it was dominated by the ridiculous 1% pay rise for NHS staff, another decision that will rumble on at least until the Prime Minister considers upping it to avoid the public outcry getting louder and he forfeits even more popularity. Is he popular? Obviously Michelle O’Neill doesn’t rate him. The whole Brexit thing is extremely difficult to follow for a lot of us but ignoring discussion is, to my mind, unwise.
What a mess we’re in, even cricket pitch groundsmen can’t get their hands on the special soil for a perfect crease and might have to dig them all up and use something local, perish the thought!
The good news is that the government is planning to ensure manufacturers of ‘white goods’ will sell spare parts so that broken appliances can be mended more easily. Only two weeks ago we had this discussion with a young man who came to examine the washing machine as it’s roaring like demented hyena. He explained he couldn’t take it apart to examine the drum and the bearings etc because it’s been made in such a way that individual parts can not be removed. “The manufactures would tell it’s not worth fixing, just buy another one!” At last someone has caught up on them and called their bluff.
Then there’s Brexit, racism, Roy Greenslade, Zachary Ratcliffe and the terrible murder of Sarah Everard and the resulting vigil to mark her life and death. And Piers Morgan. He’s a joke, he rants about Meghan being an actress and unbelievable at that. What about him? Acting all the way to the bank, so calculated was his dramatic exit from Good Morning Britain it was laughable. You can be sure he already has another job lined up before his show of pious outrage. Thankfully I don’t ever see morning television so I only catch up on social media and that’s enough although I have to say his interviews with prominent celebrities can be quite illuminating and his smugly satisfaction if he can make them cry which he does every time. I think it’s all a bit twisted.
Chris Barber: My hero and Jazz man extraordinaire
When your hero dies, it hurts. All the years of admiration, memories, loving and losing, crowd into your mind and I have such memories in spades following the death of jazz man extraordinaire Chris Barber.
I’m of the generation when Dixieland dominated our lives. The names are legendary now: Chris’s wife, blues singer Ottilie Patterson; Kenny Ball; Acker Bilk; Jackie Flavelle; Lonnie Donegan; even Van Morrison played with the band – they were a jiver’s delight. Chris was 90 years old and suffering dementia when he died on March 2. His life story was one of music. A trombone player who would saunter across the stage to Flavelle and share his double bass, Monty Sunshine’s clarinet took the Barber band to international fame with Petite Fleur. Trumpeter Pat Halcox worked with him for 54 years – this man was obviously a good boss.
Chris played here on numerous occasions, from Queen’s Festival to Queen’s Hall in Holywood, and the Floral Hall where we often paused energetic jiving to listen, such was his magnetism. He was the soundtrack of our teenage years.
Imagine my delight when on my way home from school along Queen’s Arcade I saw Barber and Patterson strolling towards me. I was totally overcome but had the presence of mind to pull out an exercise book and ask for their autographs. It was the beginning of a love affair with him and devotion to her. Jazz became part of my life and Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight was my favourite. In contrast, in Queen’s Hall, he played Sitting and a’Rocking, slow and sensual. A man for all seasons.
Celia McMorran saw the personal side of the man, the husband who was concerned about his wife.
“Chris was a regular in my father’s art gallery in Shaftesbury Square and he mentioned that he was hoping to find someone to visit Ottilie when he was away.” Her dad, Tom Caldwell, suggested his daughter and her friends would be happy to travel to Rostrevor where the couple lived at the time.“We enjoyed ourselves so much we just kept going back. He was away a lot playing with the band all over Europe and we loved our time with her. Sometimes she’d play the piano and sing so we came to love the music, we have such special memories.”
The last time I saw Chris was in the Waterfront Hall in 2015 when we were dancing in the aisles. He only had to stamp his foot four times and New Orleans came to town. All the old faces were in the audience and I was beside myself with delight, especially when Hero and I had a great chat during the interval.
The recent researches made on women health diagnosed that many have female sexual dysfunction that occur usually among the women who are 50+ their ages. cialis generika robertrobb.com The reason behind is that both commander viagra and horny goat weed are both PDE-5 inhibitors, only that Horny goat weed does not cause the viagra. 2. These hormones relax the levitra online uk veins and thus contribute to the thinning of the walls of veins, favoring varicose veins. Studies revealed that a high level of anxiety or work stress has become a hindered cialis for order point of one’s sexual health.The last word, however, must go to Walter Love, our own jazz aficionado.“He was a national figure, unique, he and his band ruled the roost for years. They were an accompanist to me most of my life. We loved him and his band, they loved him all over Europe and they loved him in America. Just listen to Bobby Shafto to hear the complete joy in his music.”
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN
Last Monday was Commonwealth Day. The queen sent a message of support to 54 member countries, spoke to us all in encouraging terms but the service of thanksgiving scheduled to be held in Westminster Abbey was cancelled, however there were friendly chats from other members of the royal family – all digital and very different from the colourful celebrations of past years.
But more important, it was also International Women’s Day and throughout the world women joined together to re-affirm this year’s campaign theme: ‘ChooseToChallenge A challenged world is an alert world’.
For over 100 years, 8th March has marked the achievements of women in all walks of life but also a day to seek ways to give us our place in this frenetic world. It’s not enough to celebrate being a woman, it’s vital our voice is heard in what is still a masculine dominated world despite over 50% of the population here being female. Some would argue a woman’s place is in the home and this is feminist rhetoric, nonsense.
LITTLE WOMEN
Now, under the title ‘Women in Media Belfast’ (WIMBelfast) with the mission ‘to amplify the voices of women working in print, broadcast, online and entertainment media and to showcase the knowledge and expertise of women in all sections of society’, three local women, lawyer and political commentator Patricia MacBride, journalists Allison Morris columnist and crime reporter and Amanda Ferguson who writes for Reuters and the Washington Post, have taken up this challenge and invited us to join their radical project. They hosted zoom meetings, interviews, advice and workshops when a number of participants who have reached the top of their profession, or for some almost the top because this is the problem – the proverbial glass ceiling is still in place and it has to be smashed through skills, experience, professionalism and determination. Individually we’re responsible for our own thoughts and actions but together we can achieve much, with support of the National Union of Journalists writers especially can choose to call out inequality, bullying, gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping which requires women to be brave and resolute, not necessarily big and powerful; some of the women I have admired in life have been from very simple backgrounds,
When I first worked in Ulster Television a tiny elderly lady arrived to appear on the Roundabout programme. Christian missionary Gladys Aylward was dressed in the traditional working clothes of the Chinese, navy pajama-like suit, she had wispy grey hair and a devastating smile. At the age of 26 this English parlour maid became a probationer at the China Inland Mission Centre in London and then on to Yangchen where she set up an inn for the mule caravan drivers to rest. She became the government foot inspector, soon foot binding of women was banned. She quelled a riot in the men’s prison when soldiers were afraid to intervene, she was instrumental in prison reform and became respected as Ai-Weh-Deh, the ‘Virtuous One’. Gladys began to buy abused children and eventually built a family of over 100 boys and girls. She became a Chinese citizen, lived frugally and dressed like those around her. When the Japanese invaded, this feisty female gathered up her children and took them to the mountains. They walked for twelve days and nights and escaped across the Yellow River to safety in central China. If this sounds familiar the story was told in the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness although Gladys was far from happy with the romantic twist written into her story. In failing health she returned to England in 1947 and died in 1970.
When I was given my own programme on Radio Ulster years ago, my first interviewee was Saidie Patterson. What a responsibility! I’d done my homework – born in the Shankill, her father died when she was very young, then her step father, then her little sister at seven years of age. When she was only 14 Saidie attended her mother in childbirth but the woman died of shock and haemorrhage, there was no money for doctor’s fees. “As I stood in my dear mother’s blood,” she said. “I didn’t shed a tear, but I felt a Cross being put on my back and, at the same time, I felt a strange warmth coming into the room. Looking back now, I’m convinced it was the Holy Spirit. From that day on I put my hand to doing what I could for what was right. That night I became an adult.’
She worked as a weaver in Ewart’s Mill and soon was so angry with the conditions for the women she called a strike, the workers downed tools until it was agreed that a heavily pregnant woman was allowed to go home to have her baby being assured her job would be waiting for her when she was ready. That was the start of Saidie’s trojan work as a trade unionist in the Amalgamated Transport and General Worker’s Union. All her life she fought for women’s rights and she was a peace maker throughout the Troubles; she died in 1985. On 8th March 2018 Baroness May Blood unveiled a blue plaque on the Shankill Road Methodist Church to honour this lady with a powerful metaphoric punch.
WIMBELFAST’S VOICE
That drive for the voice of women still goes on today through WIMBelfast as Amanda explains.
“When you look around women are poorly represented in many walks of life from politics, the boardroom to so many organisations. There’s a real lack of women representatives and we want to highlight this.” Allison added: “We’ve been inspired throughout our careers by powerful women from all walks of life who have made a huge difference, but often those voices work quietly in the background, rarely receiving the recognition they deserve.” Patricia agrees: “The initiative is to create a media environment where competent and confident woman’s voices are regularly heard across all outlets. Our goal is to amplify the quiet voices.”
Although aimed mainly at members of the media, the launch was open to all women – men were also welcome – and is set to become an annual celebration with events throughout the year.
Interesting that the colours chosen for WIMBelfast are green, purple and white, the colours identifying the Suffragette movement.
Still time – details at www.womeninmediabelfast.co.uk
