Across the Pond or Bridging the Ocean*

by Joe Sinclair - aka - The Brit

Introduction

My previous contribution to these columns was greatly occupied with the weather.  This article is more concerned with the whether.  Or perhaps, more precisely, the where and the when.

This morning (April 2, 2004) I opened my newspaper (The Times) and was confronted with the following banner headline.

The inside page informed me that "Three days after unprecedented raids on suspected Islamic terrorists, Britain's Muslim community is polarised as never before - between moderates who oppose violence and radicals who believe their culture is under threat and the only answer is to bomb the west.  Why do they think like that?"

My instant gut reaction to this kind of statement is the certainty that a new terrorist outrage will be perpetrated, and the only question to be answered is where and when it will take place.

So the fact that Spring has finally arrived, not merely chronologically but climatically, is not a subject designed at present to exercise my thoughts and writing.  There are more serious matters to be considered.

Is it Politics - or is it Life?  (If a serious topic is not your "bag", click here and skip this section!)

It was never my intention to use this column for any sort of political statement.  Nor do I have any political tub to thump or bugle to blow.  But whether, where and when questions keep popping up; while the answers stay submerged.  Or, if any do intrude on my deliberations, they seem to make little sense.

So maybe I can take this opportunity simply to air my concerns and, if I touch a responsive chord in any of you, perhaps you will be encouraged to contribute your own ideas to joe@conts.com.

The disquiet I have been experiencing came to a head with the atrocious terrorist attack on civilians in Madrid last month.  This was on a par with 9/11 in the USA and, given the relative sizes of the two countries and populations, was of much the same order of savagery and contempt for human life.

After 9/11 it was really heartening how the democratic nations rallied round and shared the grief and sense of outrage of the Americans.  It was particularly inspiring to witness the display of comradeship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair^[1], despite their apparently divergent political beliefs.  If the free world could learn to cooperate and collaborate in confronting the menace of fundamentalist terrorism, I thought, then maybe some good might come out of the horror that was 9/11.

So, along with the millions of other citizens of our two countries and other supporters such as Spain and (reluctantly) Turkey, and despite the misgivings of our "allies" Germany and France, supported by Russia, I was only too happy to accept the pronouncements of our leaders that Iraq was the major potential danger to the world, with its weapons of mass destruction, and its harbouring of the criminals that had fled Afghanistan.

Now it appears there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  The al-Qaeda terrorists had not escaped to Iraq.  International terror, predominantly of Islamic origin, is as devastating as ever.  Spain, the partner of the UK and USA in the war on Iraq has now denounced our continued presence in that country. Even more disquieting is the suggestion that evidence of terrorist activity has been known for years and was not acted upon; and the war in Iraq was undertaken for reasons which had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11.

As I said above: I simply don't know what to believe.  I'm looking for answers without knowing what questions need to be asked.  Apparently more than 20 planned terrorist operations in Europe have been thwarted in recent years, including plots to blow up a Christmas market in Strasbourg, to attack Western shipping in the Straits of Gibraltar, to kill US airmen at a base in Belgium, to release the poison ricin in Britain, and to bomb the US embassy in Paris.

These are all outrages.  They are all acts of terror.  For once I believe Pravda got it right when it wrote: "Tears taste of salt whether they are shed by Iraqis, Spaniards, Americans, Palestinians or Israelis."  Winston Churchill once said that "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."  More American and British forces have been killed in the peace (so-called) that has followed the war in Iraq than were killed during the hostilities.  We seem to be feeding a hungry crocodile a substantial meal, and its appetite shows no sign of abating.

Building Bridges Appropriately the above was all written at the same time as I was preparing the latest online issue of my Nurturing Potential magazine (http://www.nurturingpotential.net), due to be published at the end of April,  the main theme of which is that of Creating Cultural Bridges.  In the course of preparing the leading article for this issue, I came across two rather good quotations that I'd like to share with you: "Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins" - Cheyenne proverb "Let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved." - John F. Kennedy

 

Time was when . . . 

. . . life began at forty - or so Sophie Tucker would have had us believe.  (She, you may recall, was billed as the "last of the Red Hot Mamas" - but more of that anon.)

Nowadays, as we of the Circle of Friends know full well, it doesn’t begin until 50.  “And I’m gonna start living all over again,” Sophie used to sing.  And so say all of us!

Time was when . . . 

. . . we used to shock our parents.  Now we are more likely to shock our children.

. . . banishing a child to its room was a punishment.  Now they've got a hi-fi system, a TV set, video games and a computer; it's no longer a punishment, it's a reward.

. . . education was the prerogative of "youngsters".  Now the Open University and the University of the Third Age in the UK boasts a greater alumni of mature students than the entire ivy-covered and red-brick university population.

And this brings me back conveniently to Sophie Tucker.  I was privileged to be a guest at a dinner party in a night club where she was appearing.^[2]  It was in 1957.  A young woman, with whom I was enjoying a delightful friendship, worked for a theatrical agency and Sophie Tucker was one of their clients.  My friend asked me to join her for her firm's celebratory dinner at the club.  It was tremendously exciting for me - not long out of college - and I will never forget her performance which included the legendary numbers Some of These Days and My Yiddishe Momma.  The evening was even more auspicious when our party was joined by Lionel and Joyce Blair, the English equivalent of Fred and Adele Astaire, (Lionel, now well into his seventies, still appears regularly on TV quiz and chat shows). Also in our party was the singer Alma Cogan who sadly and tragically died at a very young age.  

A young Sophie Tucker	Sophie Tucker as she looked when I met her

As for my friend Jean - to quote some Noel Coward lyrics: "I wonder what happened to her?"  But I do recall that her kindness and generosity extended to another invitation that year.  This was to the Royal Command Variety Show at the London Palladium, where several of her agency's clients were appearing.  I still treasure the programme I acquired that day.  Indeed, I have it before me as I type these words.  The cast of artistes were such as to gladden the hearts and souls of anyone whose memories stretch back those almost 50 years.

My apologies for the poor quality of these reproductions, scanned from the well-thumbed pages of the old programme.  But you will certainly recognise Judy Garland (she performed We're a Couple of Swells accompanied by Jimmy Brooks - "Who he?"), Mario Lanza (Donkey Serenade and Be My Love), Count Basie and the full orchestra! (April in Paris and One O'clock Jump), and Gracie Fields (Sally and The Biggest Aspidistra in the World).

Other performers that evening (mainly of interest to Brits!) included Tommy Steele, Tommy Cooper, Winifred Atwell, Arthur Askey, Vera Lynn, Markova, Alma Cogan, Frankie Vaughan, Dickie Valentine,  Norrie Paramour and his Orchestra, Dennis Lotis, The Crazy Gang, Ben Lyon, Max Bygraves, Dickie Henderson, Harry Secombe, Bob Monkhouse . . . and many others.

Names and memories to conjure with.  And perhaps any "chutzpah" of which I have been guilty in detailing these very personal reminiscences will be tempered by memories you have had stirred by these names.

Finally, back again to Sophie Tucker, with a couple of quotations:

"From birth to 18 a girl needs good parents; from 18 to 35 she needs good looks; from 35 to 55, good personality; from 55 on she needs good cash.  I'm saving my money."

"I've been rich and I've been poor.  Believe me, honey, rich is better."

Sophie Tucker's life spanned 82 years from 1884 to 1996 and she continued working right up to the day she died.

In Memoriam - Alistair Cooke

One of my journalistic idols died on March 30, 2004..  It did not come as a surprise.  One month earlier he had announced that he was ceasing to broadcast his weekly Letter From America.  This was after 58 years and 2,869 broadcasts. In all that time he had missed only three.  It was clear that nothing other than desperately bad health could have been the reason for his decision.  He was 95 years of age; the oldest person on the British airwaves.

His style was always riveting without recourse to the sensationalism favoured by other journalists.  He often linked his description of current news stories to events that had occurred decades earlier.  He would go off at one tangent and then another, always enthralling, and unerringly at the end of his fifteen minute broadcast would return to his subject naturally and inevitably.

I used to listen to his weekly broadcasts on our old family wireless set (not quite a cat's whisker, but not far removed!)  with my grandfather, from the time they started shortly after World War II.  Radio broadcasts and card games, were the only activities I shared with the old gentleman. I also loved radio variety programmes, but their humour was wasted on my mother's father - an immigrant from the Ukraine.  Alistair Cooke's gentle humour, however, and his clear English diction, were very much appreciated.

Cooke published 12 books including Alistair Cooke's America (1973), which sold more than 800,000 copies in hard cover.

He received four Emmy awards from the US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, three George Foster Peabody awards for broadcasting, and he was made an honorary knight commander of the Order of the British Empire. 

Alistair Cooke, the consummate Englishman, became a US citizen in 1941.

He did much for Anglo-American relations.  He was always an inspiration to me and I hope I may reflect some of his values and high standards in this column I send in the reverse direction.

* Picture of Tower Bridge courtesy of ©Ian Britton, whose excellent photography may be found at www.FreeFoto.com and the Golden Gate Bridge © www.danheller.com 

^[1] This is reminiscent of the warm relationship which existed between FDR and Churchill during World War II despite their being on the reverse side of the political spectrum from Bush and Blair.  Is it a natural consequence of my age that statesmen nowadays seem to be so puny compared with the statesmen of old?  Somehow I doubt it.  It's simply a reflection, I guess, of our changing values.

^[2] The Jack of Clubs in London's Soho district.