Fooled by Hitler's memoirs

 

Britons now are more confident about EU than Westminster

 Twenty third out of 24 countries when it comes to confidence in the Press.

So, who and what do we rely on for accurate information?

Trevor

 

 

Britons have more confidence in EU than Westminster, poll finds

Faith in bloc higher than that in UK parliament for first time in three decades of World Values Survey

Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Thu 30 Mar 2023 06.00 BST

The Guardian

 

 

People in Britain have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals.

Since the UK voted for Brexit, the proportion of people declaring confidence in parliament has slumped by 10 percentage points to 22% while there has been a seven percentage point rise in confidence in the Brussels-based bloc, to 39%. Confidence in the UK government also fell from 2017 to 2021.

 

The findings from the World Values Survey (WVS) exploring trust in institutions in 24 nations from Canada to South Korea are likely to boost confidence among advocates of rebuilding links between the UK and the EU.

 

The former Brexit secretary David Davis said the marked shift was probably a result of “a whiny, unpleasant, bitchy row” in parliament over Brexit since late 2017, “which has been completely unproductive”.

He said UK government crises over the coronavirus pandemic would have added to the slump in trust and suggested that since Brexit, the media – he named the Sun, Daily Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail – have stopped “kicking Brussels all the time” as they did in the run-up to the 2016 referendum.

“No one reads about square strawberries or straight bananas any more,” he said.

 

The boost in confidence in the EU also follows a robust response from EU leaders to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s desire for his country to become part of the bloc.

Only 24% of people said they were “happy” that the UK voted to quit the EU while 49% said they were disappointed.

The findings also show the UK has joined the ranks of countries least likely to have confidence in government and parliament – falling behind France, Germany, Australia, Iran and China.

“Confidence in parliament has halved since 1990,” said Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, which analysed the figures. “We’re among the least likely of more than 20 countries in the study to have confidence in the government; confidence in the police has fallen sharply, particularly in London; and only Egypt has less trust in their press.”

Confidence in parliament was dragged down by particularly low scores among members of the generation X, millennial and generation Z cohorts.

With only 13% of people saying they have confidence in UK political parties, the nation is on a par with Brazil, Italy and France but well behind Norway (36%), Sweden (32%), Canada (24%) and Germany..

 

The UK was 23rd out of 24 countries in terms of confidence in the press. Media in Mexico, Italy, Russia and Brazil all enjoyed

more than double the level of confidence.

“Some institutions fare better, with our courts system relatively highly rated, and the civil service coming out much better than our political institutions,” said Duffy.

The WVS is one of the largest and most widely used academic social surveys in the world, in operation since 1981. The latest UK data was collected in 2022, with data for other nations collected at various points throughout the latest wave of the WVS, which spanned 2017 to 2022.

“These trends matter,” said Duffy. “The pandemic showed how much we rely on public cooperation in times of crises, with confidence crucial to that, and the review of the Met police concluded ‘public consent is broken’. We need to work hard and quickly to shore up public confidence.”

 

Memories of growing up in Nairobi (just a few)

 

MELVYN FERNANDES Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:22:41 -0700

Nairobikars: The Memory

 

Just Sharing

 

Have you read this one?

 

02/10/2017 10:14:15: W lobo: This is NOT SHORT .... but do read it when you have

a few minutes spare...it has been written by someone else...not me.  P***** Sept

7th 2017.

 

In case some of you did not see this on the Nairobi Asians site, gone a bit

viral!!!

 

Soft, sweet, gentle things, kisses from a whispering Nairobi breeze on any

evening, I remember the other love of my life: Nairobi.

 

My friends, many colours, many thoughts, many dreams, trust, loyalty, poverty

and riches,  you don't count as money or wealth...

 

Watching the world go by in Nairobi National Park or fishing somewhere,

anywhere!

 

Tea with a pretty girl at the Tea House of the August Moon opposite the Kenya

cinema.

 

What is it that psychologically tricks our taste buds into thinking that fruit

and veg grown anywhere else other than Kenya lacks taste, and aroma, that just

plucked freshness, and just does taste that Kenya sweetness? And why is this

particularly true of those gorgeous matundas that I used to eat by the kikapuful

at one sitting topped off with a couple of slices of pineapple? And what about

the madafu? What is it about the Kenyan coast that makes them so different? And

all those mitai sweets ... why do the laddoos and jelebies seem so different,

the sweetness just right in the syrup, and laddoos moist but firm. Was it the

water? Was it the air?

 

Green mangoes with salt and chilli powder, red paw paws and yellow papaya. Days

when Coke was a drink and Fanta orange was the prize. When girls smashed ripened

pomegranate seeds on their lips or drank Vimto make their lips red, centuries

before they were emboldened to wear the "devil's colours" lipstick. They looked

great au naturel!

 

Grams and jugus (groundnuts) cooked in hot sand ... delicious also charcoal

grilled corn (maize) and yam chips (muhogo), packets of papetas and pocket-fuls

of jamlums (jamuns) guavas (more salt and chilli), thick KKC milk cream with a

a little bit of sugar or joggery, sweet potato cooked in the hot charcoal ashes,

avocado with a little sugar or smashed in milk (or with icecream, like faluda),

thick masala tea, banana fritters and pancakes to die for ... so soft you never

felt you actually ate them, sweetened balls of popcorn and white sugared grams,

syrupy dried nut crunches, sugar and butter on hot chappattis, diwali sweets,

Idd sweets, Christmas sweets, wedding sweets, Nirmala's halwa (who can ever

forget that) sweet sweet mandaasi, irio, maharagwe, skinny muchusi (curry) and

the king of foods: ugali. Roasted bananas and delish banana fritters. Like

kisses, soft, sweet pancakes with honey or fillings of grated coconut and

joggery! The fruit and veggie carts outside our homes each morning followed by

the lullaby of the “chupa na debe” (bottles and cans) men! The happy-go-lucky

wabenzi tiffin carriers who took warm, daily cooked food for the bwanas in town.

 

Stern fathers who rarely spoke to their children and mums who fussed worse than

mother hens and you only learnt to miss all that when they were gone but you

loved them every minute of your life.

 

Music: Fadhili Williams and Malaika opened a new world of music to the

uninitiated. Bata Shoe Shine Boys and Inspector Gideon and the Police Band.

showed us a new kind of music with Kenya soul. Henry Braganza and the Supersonics,

The Bandits, the Rhythm Kings, Cooty's bands, The Wheelers, Max Alphonso's

unforgettable harmonica playing, Steve Alvares and his band and the talented

Alvares family, classical, jazz, dance and pop.

 

Escape to India at the Shan or Odeon or the wonderful family musical parties or

those boisterous but wonderful Sikh weddings.

 

And just for Aftab Jevanjee: basking in the midday sun, not too far from the

hustle and bustle of the city, in then beautiful gardens where children ran wild

like butterflies on Saturdays and Sundays where the family gathered for an

Indian picnic made in heaven. My nostrils are still filled with the rich aromas!

 

Dinner at too many Singh's restaurants, or Punjabi snacks at tiny bars in the

suburbs or roast chicken at the Sikh Union accompanied by four fingers of scotch

paraded as two fingers, the forefinger and the little finger. The gentle advice

from my many Sikh uncles!

 

Puberty and growing up at all the social clubs, especially the Goan clubs, the

music, the dances, the girls, the friends, the sports, the laughter and

carefree, the happiest times of my life.

 

Working at the Nation: the greatest moments of my life!

 

Lunch and drinks any Saturday at the Tropicana and their brilliant salad tray!

 

Faluda at Keby's.

 

The world's best samosas and aloo bajjias at the Ismalia Café opposite the Khoja

Mosque.

 

Maru's Cafe in Reata Road.

 

Kheema-mayaii chapatis, delicious kebabs cooked fresh every where ,the likes of

which I have never seen or tasted again.

 

Quiet contemplation in the grounds of the Jamia Islamia Mosque or Holy Family

Cathedral.

 

Lunch, a snack, or a drink at the Thorntree restaurant, a drink at the historic long bar of the New Stanley Hotel with its historic bullet holes. Drinking expensive stuff, especially champagne in the Norfolk Hotel sauna. Magic at the Starlight Club, great music, drinks in the huge garden, and an even larger array of nymachoma (barbecued meat).

 

Barbecued or fried chicken, better than the American stuff, just opposite the Nairobi Uni.

 

Pan Afric Hotel for the music and the place for dinner dates.

 

The Kenyatta Conference Centre … we were honoured with an invitation when Prince Charles and Princess Anne were guests of the Foreign Minister, the late Njoroge Mungai.

 

 

 

Coffee with lawyers at Nairobi Town Hall

 

Coffee and snacks at Snocream

 

Midnight rendezvous at Embakasi Airport.

 

The drives to anywhere outside of Nairobi .... Karen, Nairobi National Park,

Thika, Kiambu, Liumuru, Naivasha, Gilgil, Nakuru anywhere, a million dreams.

 

World's greatest breakfasts at the Wagon Wheel Hotel Eldoret, Kericho Tea Hotel,

Nakuru Hotel.

The sweet scent of the Jacaranda, watch your step.

The dread of the locust scourge.

The long-awaited long rains, smile when the short rains brought some rescue from the heat.

Learning to swim at the Salisbury.

Watching cricket and tennis at the Nairobi Club.

Dining at the Nairobi Railway Station, even better at the Railway Club.

Corner House Steaks, did I mention that already?

Dancing at the Equator Inn, and loving jiving even more at the Kontiki (Paloma Hotel).

Waiting with glee for the South African Coon (pardone moi) Carnival.

The sheer joy of the Coronation Safari (later the East African Safari, Kenya Safari).

Oh those days without a care and the joy of silence in Nairobi National Park.

Fishing along the Athi River for the mighty bass.

Drinks, chatter and lots of laughs at Dambusters and the sheer pleasure of boarding a single prop or  a twin prop at Wilson Airport.

Quiet evenings at the Nairobi Dam, or a walk along the graves at Langata Cemetry, and an even more joyous time at Nairobi City Park and all its history.

A walk along the delightful streets of Nairobi, when a traffic jam was something of a shock if ever there was one. 

Driving to the other paradise, Mombasa, Malindi, Watamu Beach, Silver Sands, Nyali Beach, Diani Beach, and one of my greatest joys was spending some time in Lamu, in the days when it was unspoilt and the only vehicle was the DC's Land Rover. He took great pride it in driving it back and forth to the Whispering Palms hotel.

Trips to Gilgil, Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Kericho, Kisumu, all the way to the mighty shores of Lake Victoria. Will never forget, the Aberdares, Meru, Embu, Sir Isaac Walton Inn, just glorious, especially nights at the bar (trout fishing), Nyeri, Nanyuki (more trout fishing).

Will never forget the times and huge fish at Lake Rudolf ... Isiolo, Marsabit and all of the Northern Frontier District and all its wild, wild country and absolutely gorgeous tribespeople.

 

The bathing of the mind at any game lodge: Watching that magical moment, the

last nanosecond when day morphs into the night. The first chorus of the night

orchestra mixed with the grunting sighs of the animal kingdom going to lala.

 

Eastleigh, Pangani, Juja Road, River Road. Starehe. Kariokor. Dagoretti.

Killeshwa, Mincing Lane, Nairobi markets, the churches, the temples, a million

smiles.

 

Kariokor Market: The world's greatest nyama choma (barbecued meat) served with

onions tomatoes, green coriander, pinch of salt, drop of vinegar and on the rare

occasion a slice of lemon.

 

The bands, the music, the dancing, Swiss Grill, Topaz Grill Room, Equator Club,

Sombrero, Starlight, Equator Inn, Jeans Bar, Caiados Bar, Indian Bazaar, Museum,

Ngong racecourse,

 

Waited with panting nostrils each Easter to cover the East African Safari. I

will treasure every single moment I spent in each and every game lodge, one of

the greatest experiences of my life and everyone should do it at least once. If

you need any help my mate Lewis De Souza will set it up for you!

 

I am sure you guys have your own special memories

 

Hey, hey they told us: don't fall in love. Everything will be arranged. And for

many so it was. We brownskins had to stick to our respective communities and

assimilation was out of the question. We had been conditioned into accepting

that to the point it had become part of our DNA. A few broke the taboos and were

instantly marooned in a world far from the rest of us. We did not see anything

wrong with that. It was the time, it was the place, and it was the custom.

 

We were many religions, many faiths, many customs, and many traditions and we each

kept firm with that which we honoured our fathers and mothers for. We respected

each other's boundaries and did our own individual thing. Yet, we got along,

played sports together, and even socialised in small proportions and we were no

strangers to each other’s houses when we were children and growing up. We had

little or nothing to do with the white socially. For one thing, they lived on the

other side of town and we were really familiar with their airs and graces or

thought mistakenly perhaps that we may not do the right thing. Anyway, they were

not a part of our world and we did not even think about them. It was the same with

Africans. Although we did not know it at the time, this was the British

conspiracy of separate development at work. It did not bother us.

 

There were no suicide bombers tearing people to shreds, no inter-communal riots,

great marches of protests, boycotts, blackmail, street brawls and all that is

ugly and all around us today. We have known what it is to be alive and free, free

enough to feel the wind in our hair, hope in our hearts and love in our souls

where really the human for the most part could be as calm, cool and gentle as

the climate itself. You will gather by now that I have treasured the friends I

made all my life. For an investigative journalist, you might think naïve with a

head full of some light gas considering the pain and death were all around us for

some of the time. I prayed for them then and I pray for them now. So I will ask

your forgiveness and ask you to allow me my moments of yesterday's exhilaration.

Life is beautiful. In the end, you really only remember the good.

 

Yesterday in Paradise 1956 to 1974 – Cyprian Fernandes (Sydney Australia)

 

An appreciation by the late Melvyn Fernandes (Thornton Heath, England)

 

Never judge a book by its cover when I first came across Yesterday In Paradise

on Social Media the cover could easily  have been a painting by David Shepherd

or the Late Caje Fernandes even Andrew Dias whose photographs of Wildlife used

to adorn Kenya Tourism brochures. There was also Alex Fernandes from Sapra

Studios Nairobi.

 

The scene could have been from the safari  lodge Tree Tops where the late

Manuel Fernandes from Colvale is accredited as being chef to (now the late) Princess

Elizabeth who is now  91 years old Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of the United

Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

 

Credits must go to Bina Nayak a Goan Independent Graphic Designer and

Communication specialist from Sir JJ School of Art Bombay for putting a thousand

words into one picture, she also works from Pune and Goa.

 

Goa Book Club for Distribution ISBN:978-93-80739-92-2 not forgetting GOA 1556

(Goa first printing press) the publishers of this second edition coordinated by

Frederick Noronha, Saligao 403511 Goa India http://goa1556.in.

 

In this age of the instant, I never got around to reading the first edition. My

thanks to Greg Carvalho at a recent London Reunion of St. Theresa’s and Catholic

Parochial schools managed to acquire a copy of the paperback second edition for

a nominal sum.

 

This book is one you can open wide and say aaah. Cyprian’s story is also our

Story, especially the Eastleighkars. Although garnished with history it covers the

two houses named Romulus and Remus built by their parents whose children

drowned in the quarry in their memory a place forbidden to us teenagers we made

do by playing in the stream at Mathare valley.  There are some lines on what I

think was Milango Kuba at Pangani and the Poltergeist.   If you were ill there

was always Dr Charlie Paes and his clinic. Not forgetting Dr Abel Carrasco.

 

The achievements of our Olympic sportsmen are brilliantly recorded in several

Chapters, one all-rounder Sister Trifa De Souza representing Kenya was

disqualified from the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Cardiff

because she held a Portuguese Passport. Today marks over 50 years as a Catholic

Nun in the service of Children especially very young and abandoned girls in

Kenya and thanks to all ex-students and friends of Dr Ribeiro Goan School from

around the world for their support of  her work at Edelvale Women’s Complex In

Nairobi.

 

Hockey Legends like Hilary Fernandes, Silu Fernandes,  Anthony Vaz, Egbert

Fernandes, Edgar Fernandes, Alu Mendonca and Athletics Seraphino Antao,Kipchoge

Keino started the Olympic Gold rush for Kenya. There is also a mention of Aires

and Josephine Fernandes, Aires was one of the best Goan Snooker and Billiard players in East Africa. In London, Aires used to give us a lift from Tooting in his red

Renault to join 149 volunteers pulling together at any one time for the

refurbishment of the Goan Association Clubhouse at Ravensbourne under the

supervision of Building Engineers Trewin Pinto & Leslie Mendonca.

 

The development and segregation of our people by our people at the Goan Institute,

the Railway Institute and the Goan Gymkhana in Nairobi are very diplomatically

explained. Sports Day is when we all met in competition with each other and

other communities. At Catholic Parochial School Sister Gertrude our music

teacher could not get me to sing the right notes, bless her soul, unlike my

Aunties Euphemia Mary, Rosie, Helen and Saturina who were in the Choir at Holy

Family every Sunday with Oboe Noronha the choirmaster.

 

I became a Roadie hanging out with musicians Polly, Andrew, Vallent, Johnny,

Sparky, Polly Drummer, Violinist Lobo having mastered the maracas just about

played the Rhythm guitar with the band Les Typhoons.

 

You see music, like sports, conquered all barriers and even today at the sounds

of music like puppets on strings our people love a dance cast or no cast. I

fondly remember Henry Braganza of the Scorpions and his carving from a bamboo

cane for sound effects also the introduction of the infrared mike, no more

cables Magic my thanks also to the late Cooty of All Stars, Amigos to name a few.

 There was an upcoming band called the Bongo Boys Band.

 

We even played at the Freemasons Lodge, visited the Swiss Grill, the Pan Africa

and starlight to name a few.

 

Not much has changed amongst our people today in October 1960 the vice premier

of Portugal Pedro Teotonio Pereira at the invitation of the British Colonial

Government visited Kenya. Pereira arranged for the financing of the Fort Jesus

Museum and a sum of GBP 30,000  was made available through the Guibenkian

Foundation.   Fort Jesus was hijacked and forced into celebrations marking 555th

anniversary of the death of  Prince Henry the Navigator. Today, it is said Goans

say one thing and do another.

 

Cyprian defends the East African Goan labelled as dodderer. The Hijacked Goan

Festival in London over ten years ago was like the clubhouse an East African

Goan initiative where families of all generations met under one sky some even

displayed and showcased their villages in Goa with pride.

 

On page175 he wrote” You have to be a contemporary of the dodderer to appreciate

that he was once a warrior, a pioneer who was forced out of the comfort of his

family home for nearly a century and transported to an alien country where he

found no welcome but racist abuse and taunts.  Worse he was called a Paki while

skinheads and white supremacists bashed him. He was for a long time a “Black

Bastard” at work or on the streets of England. Whatever the pain and suffering

the dodderer persevered for the sake of the children. Some could not take it and

packed their bags for Goa only to return a short time later. Being blessed with

a good command of English the dodderer found it fairly easy to slip into

mainstream English life both in the Public and Private Sectors. It was not long

before the dodderers were commanding high salaries and high positions.  It was

also not long before the poms were able to discern the different Brown skinned

citizens. In Parliament, the dodderer and his tribe were recognised for their

former colonial service”

 

There is bitterness between the newly arrived GPPH (Goan Portuguese Passport

Holders from Goa.) Our community has never been in so much trouble with the

Police in the last forty years like today these GPPH have no manners, are also

known as the Khoito Head as like the Khoito they are sharp bent and given the

opportunity will eat you out of house and home and even your job in Breadline

Britain.

 

In Eastleigh life revolved around St Theresa’s Church , everyone knew everyone

and walked everywhere.  Voluntary work was introduced at the Legion of Mary

weekly meetings where an insight of Committee structure and duties of President,

Secretary and Treasurer along with the attendance register gained valuable

booking keeping and minute taking was learnt some took to shorthand either Gregs

or Pitmans which assisted in Employment.

 

Cyprian’s book is an insight into his first job application and career.  His

experience can be mirrored by many of us. Some years ago, I attended a crowded

seminar at Ibis Earls Court London England organised by an American the theme

was how to make money with the bottom line –Write a Book. The room was full of

cheers I must be from a different generation as I could not understand what the

cheering was about.

 

Having read Cyprian’s book with shed loads of information I found it a sincere

Down-to-earth story and life experience and take this opportunity to appreciate

his work and sharing with us condensed into a paperback with bite-size chapters.

 

The views expressed in this article are personal and should not be regarded as

any authority to purchase a copy of the book.

 

Thanks for the Memory.

 

Melvyn Fernandes

 

Thornton Heath

 

Surrey, England

 

8 October 2017

CYPRIAN: Then one day our worst fears were realised. Uhuru was here and not long after Jomo Kenyatta told us that there was no room for us in a free Kenya. "Kwenda{, get out, no work permits! The clever ones had already got their money out, and British passports got them out quickly until Enoch Powell promised us rivers of blood. Towns in the UK begged us to stay away. My folks were among the lucky ones, I got a passport issued in London and was considered a resident. It was not long before we were out of the UK ... to Australia to restore our waning skin tans and an unforgettable life ... not like Kenya we knew but pretty close. Thank God, every day.