Impala Publishers Blog Page

Terry Moseley, former President of the Irish Astronomical Association, writes;-

I was away since Thursday night. Reports are still coming in. It now looks like any possible fall would have been in the Donegal area, or possibly in the sea.

Thanks, Terry. The fireball was produced by an object, possibly the size of a small car, which entered the earth's atmosphere at enormous speed. The heat of friction could have split the object into fragments, some of which may have survived intact to fall to earth as meteorites.


The Bovedy fireball of 1969 dropped meteorites which were found both south and north of Lough Neagh. Other fragments may have splashed into the Lough or have remained undiscovered in the surrounding woods and farmland.

The possible target area for last week's fireball must be large. What about the report from the Glenshane Pass? Good luck, in any case, with the search!

Link

Fireball, Saturday, February 6. 2010

Ed: Africa’s Development Impasse (Zed, 2010) was covered in Southern Africa on Saturday. Its author, Stefan Andreasson, writes -

Thanks for plugging my book on your blog. I had not yet read Malan's piece on de Klerk in the Spectator, which you reference in your blog entry. I've now read it and I don't find it a very good account of the events leading up to 1990 - the 'unbanning' of the ANC and the SACP and the release of Mandela.

It is indeed the case that the crumbling of the Iron Curtain in Europe helped tentative and would-be reformers within the ruling National Party to make their case to Afrikanerdom's staunch anti-communists (as opposed to those primarily intent on racial domination). In some way it is very difficult to see this momentous move on part of de Klerk in early 1990 taking place without the fall of communism in central Europe. At the same time, the domestic pressures of the anti-apartheid movement's campaign of 'ungovernability', increasing economic pressures (especially since the Western banks stopped rolling over short-term loans in the mid-1980s) and the cultural strain of isolation in the international arena generally, to which the Englishman in Malan's story points, were all quite significant factors in contributing to the growing sense that the status quo was no longer feasible.

That the ANC and the South African Communist Party had become close allies over the decades of struggle against the apartheid regime was no secret, and Malan's notion that 'Mandela’s comrades in exile were red beyond the most paranoid imaginings of Pretoria’s secret policemen' is simply inaccurate. South African intelligence was well aware of the links.

However, the ANC was always a 'broad church' in terms of ideology, and the alliance with the communists was never an easy one. The young Mandela was a black nationalist deeply suspicious of dealings with the communists (which were also disproportionately white) as were many others in the ANC prior to it being forced underground after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. There is at least one account of Mandela and other ANC youth leaguers jostling communists off a common stage during some political rally (in 1940s Johannesburg if I recall correctly).

Thabo Mbeki essentially parted way with the communist leadership under Joe Slovo on account of deep differences on political strategy. South Africa's business leaders knew there was a strong African bourgeois strain within the ANC, and thus they began secretly courting ANC leaders in exile in the 1980s, at important meetings in Lusaka and Dakar, which is not mentioned at all in Malan's account. I recall one astute observer suggesting that the ANC was the only liberation movement to begin discussing issues of fiscal prudency before assuming power.

It is true that Mandela, following his release, made much noted statements about the importance of the ANC to follow socialist economic policies (including nationalisation of banks and mines) but important changes were already under way within the party and he had been relatively isolated in prison for a long time. The ANC-Communist (and labour) alliance existed, and exists, for a range of reasons. It is quite difficult to suggest that, considering ANC policy since becoming the governing party in 1994, there is a direct link between SACP aims and government policy. In other words, it is easy to exaggerate the significance of this link (as many do), and it seems to me that Malan is exaggerating it.

Malan's account on the security situation is also confusing. In one paragraph he speaks of the serious (Soviet) threat posed by Angola, only to note the 'invincibility' of the South African armed forces in the next. Historically, the account is also problematic: the Afrikaners did not create an empire in Southern Africa; the English did. After the Boer War and the Union of 1910 (by which Britain famously 'won the war but lost the peace') Afrikaner nationalists managed on account of numerical and organisational superiority gain hold of power from the English and thus, in a sense, take over the 'empire' already created. It enjoyed a couple of decades of relative hegemony, through severe repression, until it began steadily unravelling from the 1970s onwards.

Sandra Baillie, whom I met recently, is an able young lady with a Ph.D. in the Sociology of Religion. Currently she is taking a degree in Law and acts for the Ulster Unionist Party as its women’s development officer for East Belfast. Dr Baillie, the author of Presbyterians in Ireland Today: Identity in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) among other works, has asked me to post the below.

East Belfast Ulster Unionist Association are hosting a public meeting at the Strandtown Unionist Hall, Belmont Road at 7.30 pm on Thursday 4th February to hear the views of women involved in politics here.

The all women panel for Question Time will include representatives from each of the four main parties across the Northern Ireland political spectrum and the UUP will be represented by Lady Daphne Trimble who has been following politics over the last two decades.

Questions will be asked on key political issues such as the transfer of policing and justice, education, the economy, green issues and women’s issues. There will be an opportunity for questions from the floor. The meeting will be chaired by Dr. Sandra Baillie, UUP women’s development officer for East Belfast.

Commenting on the event Sandra said; “I have a keen interest in politics and I hope this event will act as an inspiration to many young woman particularly those who would like to get involved in politics at either a local or national level. The UUP has been working hard to get more women involved in the structures of the party. We as a Party need to utilise the talent we have ensuring that individuals have the confidence to go forward and achieve their political ambitions.”

Sandra has sent me associated photographs, too large to post here, which you can examine (click to enlarge) in Women's Questiontime on Mister Keep Fit.

It would seem that this meeting has taken place. There was no Conservative representative on the panel.

Psalm 150 (New International Version)

1 Praise the LORD. [a]
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,

5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.

Footnotes:
a.Psalm 150:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah ; also in verse 6

There has been reaction to the speech given by Lady Sylvia Hermon MP, reported in
Sylvia:"I will stand as an Independent", Saturday, January 30. 2010. Peter Weir, a local Councillor and Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), representing the DUP, has issued a press release quoted in the local press -







Clarify or withdraw, challenge to Hermon

Lady Sylvia Hermon MP

There are calls this week for North Down MP Sylvia Hermon to refute, or apologise for, comments she is accused of making during a recent speech in Bangor.

Local DUP man, Peter Weir, attacked comments allegedly made by the Ulster Unionist during her talk as guest speaker at the annual dinner of the North Down SDLP association in Bangor last Friday evening.

"Having read reports at the weekend of Lady Hermon's address to the local SDLP branch, I was shocked and angered by some of her reported comments.

"Her cosying up to the SDLP is not surprising, given her stated option of running as an independent, but I take grave exception to reported comments that she accused the DUP of not appearing at the funeral of Constable Stephen Carroll who was murdered in Lurgan by dissident republicans. This is not just untrue, but a gross and unfair slur on my Party." Mr Weir hit out.

He continued, "We value the lives of all police officers, irrespective of what side of the community they come from, and give full support to our police.

"In this case, the DUP were represented at the funeral by Police Board member Jimmy Spratt MLA and Stephen Moutray MLA.

"It is possible that her speech was misreported, in which case I call upon her urgently to publicly refute this report. If however this report is accurate, I demand that she withdraws this allegation and apologises without delay."

Your Editor is confident on the accuracy of the report carried on Impala and has had the detail which concerns Weir confirmed by a prominent politician who was present when Lady Hermon gave the speech.

Weir and Hermon do have personal 'form'. Sylvia only joined the UUP in 1998 in reponse to the Good Friday Agreement negotiated by David Trimble. Soon she was elected Chairman of the North Down Constituency Association.

Peter Weir was elected to the NI Assembly in 1998 and was selected as the North Down UU Prospective Candiate for the General Election. But Weir, in common with a good part of the UUP, rejected Trimble's Agreement. Lady Sylvia used the power of her position to have Weir was de-selected as UUP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate and replaced by herself. Sylvia won North Down for the UUP in 2001.

Soon afterwards Weir left the UUP and joined the DUP, in whose interest he has fought subsequent elections. He contested North Down unsuccessfully in 2005, for the DUP and against Sylvia. Weir is likely to be the DUP's candidate once again in this year's General election.

It appears that a major fireball flew over Ireland last Wednesday, 3rd February. The Irish Astronomical Association website has:

Reports are coming in of a Fireball event over Ireland Wednesday evening (3rd Feb).

There were two separate events! The first, and almost certainly the most important, was at about 17.50 yesterday, and seems to have travelled from Kerry at least as far as Armagh and South Tyrone. That one may have been a 'meteorite dropper', though it's too early to say.

So far the evidence seems to point to a substantial body, travelling roughly S to N over the West half of Ireland, and possibly ending in Donegal, or maybe NW Co Derry, or maybe the sea. We've now had about 40-50 reports, including some replies to queries for further information. We have a lot of plotting on maps to do before we can narrow it down any more. What we really need is footage from any security cameras or similar.

The second event was not as big or bright, but at least as bright as Venus, was at about 19.30 - 19.40, more than 1.5 hours later. It was seen from near Moy, and in a NE direction.

The IAA is appealing for information.

The Astronomy Ireland website has:

On the evening of February 3rd, a huge fireball was seen by thousands of people in Ireland. This fireball was a large rock - possibly the size of a car - striking our atmosphere and blazing into flames, a sight seen be so many all over the country.
This asteroid may have made its way to the ground, and Astronomy Ireland is seeking reports from anyone who may have seen it.

An article in yesterday's Newsletter gives some further details. There were sightings as far south as County Kerry and as far north as the Glenshane Pass in Co Derry. The object was travelling from south to north.

Was the fireball a "meteorite dropper"? Terry Moseley of the IAA is quoted as saying that an object is more likely to have landed in Northern Ireland, if it didn't go right over the province and land in the North Channel. Moseley appealed for people to come forward with information, especially with any captured footage on security cameras, to enable experts to guage an accurate time and actual trajectory of the fireball.

The Armagh Observatory has admitted that its meteor camera was due to switch on at 6 pm, but was switched off at 5.50 pm when the fireball event occurred.

Fireballs are not themselves uncommon events, but it is much rarer to find associated meteorites . They may fall into water, bogs or swampy ground, abundant in Ireland, which soon swallow up the alien rocks. The Bovedy meteorite (1969), or meteorites, avoided such a fate, on which subject I heard a talk - see Bovedy meteorite Part 1 (Tuesday, April 28. 2009) and Part 2 (Thursday, April 30. 2009). One meteorite advertised its presence by punching a neat hole in a police storehouse at Sprucefield, near Lisburn, Co Antrim, while another piece was found soon after on farmland at Bovedy, Co Derry. Since then only one meteorite has been found in Ireland. It fell at Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, in 1999.

Blog Links

Bovedy Meteorite Part 1 and Part 2

Ed: Stefan Andreasson writes here of his new book, published in the last week, which you can buy online at Zed Books here -

Is it possible to say anything new and interesting about social, political and economic drivers of development in Africa? This was one of the key questions which motivated me to write Africa’s Development Impasse: Rethinking the Political Economy of Transformation. With this book I intended not only to challenge the so-called neoliberal hegemony in development thinking, which was never as hegemonic as is generally assumed and which in any case has undergone significant change over time. Nor did I think it sufficient to combine scepticism about liberal thinking on development with an argument highlighting the many intractable problems with socialist varieties of state-led development and the simplistic notion that African countries can replicate the ‘developmental states’ of decades past.

Instead I aimed to rethink the theoretical and socio-political foundations of development, in this case as they relate to three Southern African countries – Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe – that capture a range of problems faced by postcolonial African states and which they have not managed to resolve. To do this, I have written a book which argues for the rediscovery and re-articulation of a post-development vision that moves beyond the strictures of orthodox development thinking, whether liberal or socialist in origin, to thereby provide the possibility of a socially and politically sustainable future. The book is in this sense iconoclastic, but hopefully also one that makes a novel contribution to the political economy of development. It is a sign of Zed’s genuine commitment to ‘provoking ideas’ that they have provided the support for this book to come into being. It does not quite fit with much that is currently written on development and Africa’s political economy, but I hope you find it has something important to say.

‘A bold and imaginative reflection, in the context of southern Africa, on what the post-development injunction to seek alternatives to development can actually mean. This book contains the most sensitive and nuanced treatment of post-development thinking I have read. I highly recommend this volume not just to Africanists, but to all those who, with an open mind, are willing to reconsider just what the ‘development’ enterprise is and might be’. – Richard Sandbrook, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto

Ed: The current issue of THE SPECTATOR contains a very interesting article entitled F.W. de Klerk: a hero of our time on the 20th anniversary of the South African Leader's speech on 2 February 1990 in which he unbanned the ANC and freed Nelson Mandela. Malan points out that de Klerk's speech was delivered 3 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And it emerged that the ANC leadership were far redder than even the wildest imaginings of Pretoria's secret police. All but one of the ANC National Executive were secret members of the South African Communist Party, in league with the Soviet Union, and dedicated to scientific socialism and the global dictatorship of the proletariat.

Yesterday Michael (Mickey) Adams emerged victorious in the 8th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar after a playoff involving four players.

Gibraltar sees the world's largest chess Open tournament, with over 350 players from 51 countries. There are only 10 rounds so that, more often than not, the lead will be shared. The rules insist however on having a single winner, so that there is provision for a playoff which involve complicated rules.

In order to hold the playoff in the final afternoon, so that the winner is known for that evening's dinner, the leading players are forced to play their last round game in the morning, starting at 10 am (local time), 9 am (our time). They include not only those in the top group but also those of the chasing pack who have a theoretic chance of making the playoff. Yesterday this included the four leaders (who played each other) and several others, making 7 games in all.

What a day's chess we had, starting at 9 am! Gustafsson v Movesian was drawn quickly (20 moves) in a Nimzo-Indian as mentioned yesterday. Vallejo v Adams was eventually drawn in 38 moves after a protracted struggle (Adams played the ambitious Marshall Gambit against Vallejo's Ruy Lopez). That left these four tied on 7.5/10. Winning players in the chasing group would join these four, which meant that complicated rules entered to decide which quartet would qualify for the play-off.


Matters only became clear after almost 6 hours of play around 3 pm, when the dedicated Stuart Conquest had stuck to his last for 6 hours and was, understandably, complaining of tiredness. Conquest had an hour's rest, then the semi-final rapid playoffs began at 4 pm (our time). They involved Adams v Gustafsson and Francisco (Paco) Vallejo, of Spain, v Chand Sandipan, of India.

Adams claimed his place in the final the hard way. Gustafsson, with White, crushed Mickey in the first game. The German had the better of the second game as well, until he blundered a piece. Mickey then converted smoothly. That led to an "Armageddon" game, decided by another German blunder, this time of the exchange. This led to background comments by Ray Keene in Commentary Room about Germans, blunders and Nimzowitsch (see yesterday) until Conquest urged Keene to behave.

Vallejo won his first semi-final game with White, and the second game was decided by a blunder by the Indian. The final became a battle between England, represented by Mickey Adams, and Spain's Paco Vallejo (whom Leontxo Garcίa has suggested is the strongest Spanish player ever).

In the final's first game, Adams obtained a strong advantage in a Tarrasch French, which he duly converted. Vallejo and Adams had that morning contested a game at normal speed in which Vallejo had opened with the debut named after his countryman, Ruy Lopéz and alternatively called the "Spanish Opening". Adams had counter-attacked with the Marshall Gambit and the game resulted in a draw.

It was good to hear Leontxo Garcίa speak in the Commentary Room, until his duties to write today's El Paίs chess column called him away (see Vallejo pierde El Peñón "Vallejo loses The Rock" where Leontxo analyses the drawn Vallejo-Adams tournament game).

During the game the Commentary Room was plainly crowded. A schoolboy was sitting near the front audibly suggesting moves with often led to the loss of a piece, and drowning out Ray Keene's off-camera comments. For the return game, the room had plainly been cleared of suplus spectators.

The clock was now approaching 7 pm. A long day's chess for anyone, but particularly so for Sturart Conquest who had yet to decide on the tournament's Prize Game, and then afterwards to preside as MC of the closing dinner. Paco Vallejo chose the Spanish Opening once more, but Mickey defended conservatively this time with the Breyer Variation. Mickey was able to push his d-pawn without immediate disadvantage to d5, producing equality. Vallejo needed a win so he sacrificed a piece to complicate. The Spaniard never received enough compenation and Adams won without much further difficulty.

ä ö ü Ä Ë Ö Ü ß ê î Î â Â ă Ă Ş Ţ Ç ş š ţ ç Á É É Í Ó Ú á é í ó ú À à è Ő ő ű ñ ï ë Ł ź ¡ ć ï
Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω ᾲ ᾴ ῂ ῄ ὶ ί ῦ ώ ύ

Today sees the final round of the Gibraltar Chess Festival. Play has already begun on the leading boards in the Master tournament, so that a play-off for 1st place can, if necessary, take place this afternoon.

Yesterday I had some trouble logging on to the site. By the time I did so Jan Gustafsson (see
http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2010/publicity_eng/competitors.html for a short bio) had already joined official commentator Stuart Conquest in front of the camera and the two were discussing Gustafsson's game among other things.

Gustafsson is a German Grandmaster with a Scandinavian name. He speaks fluent English with a slight American accent ( he was not familiar with the British pronounciation of "semi", as in 'Semi-Slav', which differs from the American).

The reason Gustafsson appeared early was that his game had already finished. He had played the Exchange Variation against the Slav Defence (not the most challenging approach although Ray Keene at one time recommended it) and then agreed to a draw by repetition on the 15th move. The German explained that he had encountered an unfamiliar Black move - 10 ... Nd7 ( which can't be any better than the standard 10 .. Bd6)- but for that reason was happy to agree a quick draw rather than play on and think hard about finding an antidote. Today Gustafsson had White again. Black played a Nimzo-Indian against his 1.d4 (interesting choice!), and once more Gustafsson repeated moves to force an early draw, on the 20th move this time.

I suspect that some of the older chess masters would call this approach "anti-chess". Today the game has become greatly shaped by computers, which can analyse standard opening lines very deeply. The older players were left to their own resources.

Gustafsson, commentating together with Stuart Conquest, happened to observe that Nimzowitsch (inventor of the Nimzo-Indian and much more) "blundered a piece every other game". Of course the commentary was being beamed worldwide, but the commentary room contained one of the world's experts on Nimzowitsch, Ray Keene. Keene was the author of ARON NIMZOWITSCH:A REAPPAISAL (Bell, London, 1974). The Soviet Union had many Granmasters of its own in those years who wrote many books on chess, yet the Russians chose Keene's book as one of the few from the West to translate and publish in the Russian language. Keene's interest in the great Hypermodern continues, and only recently he was responding positively on ChessGames.com on the possibility that some previously unknown games by Nimzo have recently come to light.

Keene immediately challenged Gustafsson, adding the fact that he was the author of a book on Nimzo. Gustafsson agreed that his claim was an exaggeration, moderating it to one that Nimzo "was weak on tactics".

But was Nimzowitsch weak on tactics in fact? Yesterday we heard Stuart Conquest quote the old German Master, Richard Teichmann, "Chess is 99% tactics".

The entry on Nimzowitsch in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO CHESS (Hooper & Whyld, Oxford, 1984) includes - 'as a player he ranked third in the world after Capablanca and Alekhine (Lasker having temporarily retired) from about 1925 to 1930 ...(he) liked to call himself the crown prince of chess'.

Of course, Nimzo's chess career extended for much longer than the period when he was counted among the world's top three. Nimzo shared the title of All-Russian Chamion with Alekhine before the First World War and died in 1935. In my opinion, it's unfair to judge a great master by results towards the end of his career, whgen his forces have naturally declined. Conquest defeated Tal through the latter's blunder in time trouble in 1988, and Keene defeated Botvinnik at Hastings in 1966 through another blunder. Both Tal and Botvinnik had been World Champions!

On Nimzo's courage, Alekhine was a feared rival of Nimzo's in 1927, a year in which Alekhine would defeat Capablanca in a long match to become World Champion. In that year in the New York tournament, Nimzo opened, as White against Alekhine, with 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. b3 d6 3. g2 e5 4. c4 ?! e4 5. Nh4 !? (!), hoping to embroil Alekhine in a whirlpool of complications which Nimzo eventually won in 57 moves. He made very few short draws.

So was Nimzowitsch tactically inept? It would seem to me that it would be impossible to reach the top level in chess if he was. Did he make more blunders than his fellows of comparable rank? I'm looking for help here from readers. It might help discussion if Gustafsson could supply a list of Nimzo's greatest blunders.

I have read somewhere that Akiba Rubinstein, "the greatest stylist who ever lived", did spoil several beautiful games through late blunders - but I've never read anything similar of Nimzowitsch.

Finally, Keene and Gustafsson did have a further spat. Keene revealed that he won the strong Dortmund tournament in 1980, when Gustafsson was one year old. The best that the German achieved in the same tournament was 2nd.

Link

Official tournament site

ä ö ü Ä Ë Ö Ü ß ê î Î â Â ă Ă Ş Ţ Ç ş š ţ ç Á É É Í Ó Ú á é í ó ú À à è Ő ő ű ñ ï ë Ł ź ¡ ć ï
Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω ᾲ ᾴ ῂ ῄ ὶ ί ῦ ώ ύ

Today sees the penultimate round in the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar. Due to generous sponsprship from Gibtelecom and others, play takes place in the beautiful Caleta Hotel, which commands magnificent views over the Mediterranean. A galaxy of chess talent, male and female, is taking part.

Conditions for chess approach the ideal, with plenty of space for play, an analysis room and a commentary room. GM Stuart Conquest, British Champion 2009, presides in the commentary room and this year you can follow his comments live on the official tournament website through 'livestreaming' (it seems that an investment of £100K in new cabling in the hotel has been needed).

Recently Conquest hosted former World champion, Boris Spassky, as a fellow commentator. And yesterday Ray Keene joined Conquest. Conversation ranged widely over topics including;

- chess on television (see Chess on TV yesterday) with Keene suggesting that Sky TV was the most likely broadcaster to relieve the recent dearth of chess on British television);

- "Chess is 99% tactics", a quotation attributed to Richard Teichmann, a German Master who shared 7th equal at Hastings 1895;

- games with World Champions. Keene defeated Botvinnik at Hastings. He defeated Tal in a simul and drew with Tal at Hastings. Conquest defeated Tal in a proper game, explaining that Tal blundered in time trouble.

- a simple system against the King's Indian Defence. Keene played Bg5 in the Sämisch, following the plan used by Kasparov's second, Josip Dorfman.

Conquest's commentary begins today and tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Link

Official tournament site

ä ö ü Ä Ë Ö Ü ß ê î Î â Â ă Ă Ş Ţ Ç ş š ţ ç Á É É Í Ó Ú á é í ó ú À à è Ő ő ű ñ ï ë Ł ź ¡ ć ï
Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω ᾲ ᾴ ῂ ῄ ὶ ί ῦ ώ ύ

Dr Ian Adamson writes: "I thought you might like to look at my speech in Atlanta last Fall and that to the last Ulster Unionist Conference. Perversely as the sole member of the British Unionist Party I am happy to be the Honorary Historian to the Ulster Unionist Party and Senior Advisor on History and Culture to Dr Ian Paisley MP, MLA." The Atlanta speech appeared here on Impala yesterday.Ed

In June of the year 1895, the last government in the whole western world to possess all the attributes of aristocracy took office in England. The United Kingdom was at the zenith of empire when the Conservatives won the general election of that year, and the cabinet that they formed was one of great splendour and magnificence. As the superior citizens of the greatest empire the world had ever known and speaking the most powerful language on earth they felt they owed a duty to the state to guard its interests and manage its affairs. They governed from duty, from heritage, from habit and, as they saw it, from commitment to the rights of humankind.

The Prime Minister was a Marquis, the lineal descendant of the father and son who had been chief ministers to Elizabeth I and her successor James. Secretary for war was another Marquis who traced his title of Baron back to the year 1181, whose great-grandfather had been Prime Minister under George III and whose grandfather had served in six cabinets under three reigns.

The 1895 cabinet included Dukes, Earls, Counts, Barons and Baronets. Of six commoners, one was a Director of the Bank of England, one was a country squire whose family had represented the same county in Parliament since the sixteenth century, one had a fortune of four million pounds and the other a Birmingham manufacturer was widely regarded as the most wealthy and successful man in England. And yet they also, in the words of the liberal opposition, “possessed an almost embarrassing wealth of talent and capacity, for in England as nowhere else the proper and highest profession of gentlemen was government.”

They were a British Government of which Ulster was an integral part. The Prime Minister Lord Salisbury’s private secretary Sir Schomberg McDonald was a nephew of the Earl of Antrim. The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, then British Ambassador of Paris in 1895, had taught himself Persian and noted in his diary that year that besides reading eleven plays of Aristotle in Greek, he had learned by heart, twenty four thousand words from the Persian dictionary. And it was during that period that the modern Unionist conscious was forged in the defining opposition to English liberal and Irish Nationalist plans for Home Rule.






Yet, only thirty years later those doubting opponents were identified with astounding losses and disaster. First of all the Titanic in 1912, then the Somme in 1916 followed by other Great War reversals which seemed to keep Home Rule at bay, as it were, largely by historical default. It may be that there are certain setbacks of such magnitude and heroism, in this case that of many of the passengers and crew of the Titanic (also remember that 68% of 1st class male passengers went down with the ship) and the retrospective sense of heroic intensity of local labour that went into the ship and the enormous losses of the 36th Ulster Division at the Somme, that they served to sustain and temper a people instead of weakening them.

Or else, perhaps the setbacks came to have an energising, emblematic power. Perhaps, it may be that the Somme and the loss of the Titanic have come to symbolise unconsciously the thwarted nationhood of the Ulster People. Perhaps at the level of community consciousness the foundering of the ship, the loss of the sons of Ulster and the founding of Northern Ireland were intertwined. The ship and the Battle became Northern Ireland. This was statelet which invited the pride in which it was fashioned. The supremely impressive Stormont Parliament Buildings and the splendidly reassuring Burgher Palace, the Belfast City Hall, came to be seen figuratively as stationary Titanics in danger of sinking by the chilling impersonal iceberg dynamics of Irish nationalism following partition. Both catastrophes proved to be more than a shock, rather a collective trauma, the collective wound of which over time became a community disturbance.

Such it was that Nationalists in Ulster rejected the emotional appeal of the Titanic story as they did heroism of the Somme and the other great battles of the Great War. In the case of the Titanic it is doubtful if this was due to the one hundred and thirteen third class Irish passengers the ship picked up on its last stop at Queenstown, now Cobh, two thirds of whom perished. The Titanic was not primarily an immigrant ship; rather the reason for rejection was ideological. The quarrel was with the Ulster Unionists rather than with the English policy makers in Ireland--- for Nationalists it was caused by the creation of Northern Ireland itself.

We have now also suffered not only the Second World War and the Troubles. But our British heritage remains strong and I feel proud that this is being further strengthened by the healing of the fissure which has developed in recent years with the Conservative Party. I look forward to chairing this new Grand Unionist Centenary Committee , which will relive the circumstances under which our Community was born…...Thank you.

Councillor Dr Ian Adamson OBE

Ed: Very interesting. Curiously the link with the Salisbury family has re-emerged in the last few days, with the talks convened by Shadow Secretary of State Owen Patterson at the Salisbury country seat, Hatfield House - see Secret talks, Saturday, January 30. 2010.

RELEASE INTERNATIONAL PRAYER ALERT

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

1. NIGERIA – Violent clashes rock Jos for the second time in just over a year

Church leaders in Jos have appealed for calm after serious violence rocked the Plateau state capital again, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people.

Tensions remain high and security is tight after three days of clashes between Christians and Muslims in and around Jos left at least 300 people dead and up to 18,000 people displaced. The precise death toll may never be known as the Government has ordered many bodies to be buried in mass graves.

Latest reports say that two pastors and 46 other Christians are confirmed dead. And 27 Christians are still missing, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria. Large parts of the city were badly damaged: Bukuru market, a large commercial area, was razed to the ground, with at least 1,000 shops and homes destroyed.

The trigger for the violence is unclear. Christian sources insist that Muslim youths attacked worshippers in St Michael's Church in Nasarawa Gwong and then burnt down ten other church buildings on January 17. A Muslim group, however, contends that the violence began when Christians tried to stop construction workers from rebuilding a Muslim's house which had been destroyed in violence in November 2008.

Stefanos Foundation, a Release partner in Nigeria which has launched a factfinding mission in Jos, reports that Muslim builders on the construction site, which is in a mainly Christian area, began chanting inflammatory phrases, apparently to goad local Christians. When builders started chanting 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is great), local youths reportedly interpreted it as a call to arms and started attacking churches. There have been reports of some people from the general Christian community retaliating and attacking Muslims.

The BBC reports that the violence had apparently been fuelled by scores of intimidating text messages, sent to both Muslims and Christians, designed to stir up religious hatred. Stefanos Foundation believes that insurgents from Nigeria's northern Sharia states such as Jigawa may have helped fuel the conflict.

Jos is no stranger to violence. Clashes in the city in 2001 left more than 1,000 dead and a weekend of riots in November 2008 claimed hundreds of lives.

(Sources: BBC, Compass Direct, Daily Nation , Human Rights Watch, Stefanos Foundation)

2. SOMALIA – Extremists shoot dead leader of underground church

A pastor's wife has been forced to flee Somalia after Islamist extremists shot dead her husband and then threatened to kill her too.

Amina Ibrahim Hassan left Somalia with her two-year-old son Abdi after Al Shabaab extremists, who have links with al-Qaeda, murdered her husband Mohammed last month.

Soon after her husband's murder, Amina received a phone call from Al Shabaab. 'We also know your home and that you are a follower of the Christians, and we are going to kill you the way we killed your husband,' they said. Both Amina and Mohammed were raised as Muslims but later became Christians.

Mohammed, 41, had arranged a new year celebration for his church in Medina, nine miles outside Mogadishu, and was attacked as he made his way there from his home in Hodan. It was not until the following day that Amina learned that he had been killed. 'We waited for him that day but he did not turn up,' Amina told Compass Direct news agency.

Compass Direct reports that Al Shabaab had apparently been monitoring Amina and her husband for some time – looking for proof that they had left Islam. Al Shabaab extremists killed at least 15 Christians in Somalia last year, targeting them specifically for their faith in their bid to 'cleanse' the country of non-Muslims.

(Source: Compass Direct)

3. BURMA – Thousands of Karen flee their homes to avoid army attacks

More than 2,000 ethnic minority Karen have been forced to abandon their villages and go into hiding following attacks by the Burmese army.

Troops have been shooting at villagers in Karen state in eastern Burma in a spate of attacks which began in mid-January, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

One person was found decapitated and at least four villagers were shot during recent raids on Keh Der, Hti Aw Top and Kaw Htoo Toe. Several Christian properties were burned.

Burma's military junta has long persecuted the country's ethnic minorities as part of its campaign to promote Buddhism and impose a blanket national identity. Many of Burma's ethnic minorities, however, have campaigned for greater autonomy and are seen as a threat to national stability. Two of the largest minority groups – the Karen and the Chin – are predominantly Christian, so religious persecution has become a weapon of war.

Parts of Karen state apparently now fall within the so-called 'Black Zone', an area which the army considers to be under the control of armed resistance groups and where soldiers are instructed to shoot on sight. The junta has been launching indiscriminate attacks to take control of villages, according to sources for Compass Direct news agency.

Some observers believe that persecution of Burma's minorities will intensify in the run-up to the country's first parliamentary elections in two decades, scheduled for later this year.

(Sources: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Compass Direct, Mizzima News)

4. PAKISTAN – Christian jailed for life after 'petty row' sparks blasphemy charge

A young Christian shopkeeper has been given a life sentence for 'blasphemy' – but locals insist he was 'set up' by a business rival.

Imran Masih, who is in his 20s, was convicted of desecrating the Koran after another shopkeeper accused him of burning a copy of Islam's holy book. Imran, who comes from the Hajvairy suburb of Faisalabad, insists that it was not the Koran he was burning but a pile of old business records he was throwing out of his shop.

After the incident in July, his accuser, who is reported to be part of an Islamist extremist group, allegedly used a mosque loudspeaker to incite a mob to beat Imran and ransack his shop, according to Compass Direct.

Local people said that they had seen Imran and the other shopkeeper arguing a few days previously. They believe the blasphemy charge resulted from a petty business squabble.

Imran, who was also given a ten-year sentence and fined more than £700 for 'outraging religious feelings' at the hearing on January 11, is reported to be planning to appeal to a higher court. He is being held at Faisalabad District Jail.

(Sources: Compass Direct, VOM Canada)

The next Prayer Alert issue will be on February 16, 2010.