Last Wednesday I attend an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Crick report. The event was housed at the very modern and even science fiction looking building that is the counterpart to the traditional Parliament building. The original parliament building, designed in a time where events and celebration like this one would still have been focused more around the monarchy and would have thus been located in one of the royal premises, has become far too small to accommodate the majority of the goings on of the modern parliament.
The event consisted of various members of Parliament from all parties and specialists and officials of education giving presentations on their conceptions of citizenship education, how it has progressed and the direction that it should be heading. The speakers then sat on a panel to answer questions. In the traditional parliamentary style of the British this was done in a very free and combative manner. Even though we were in a small room voices were booming as tempers were raised in response to interrogative questioning from teachers, advocates and others that work with and promote citizenship education. Even though citizenship education has been mandated here for going on seven years, it is still a very controversial topic. Usually the advocates of citizenship education fit into the more liberal political mind parties where the opponents tend to be more conservative minded. Though its a little more complicated then that with some parties such as the British National Party, an extremely conservative party, calling for an increase in citizenship education but with it’s aim being focused on breeding a sort of nationalism along racially and ethnically bigoted lines.
It was very interesting to see all these sides have their say and be torn apart in turn. I also got to meet some scholars and educators who are interested in the same research area I am looking into now: the history of citizenship education, what it has meant in the past and what connections can be drawn from what it once was to what it is now.
I have started to do some of my research on this topic. I have found some really interesting books and articles such as several written on the need for or concept of citizenship education that were published in the early part of last century. I have found many of these books and articles at the Senate House Library, where I have been spending a significant amount of time. It is a very dramatic neo-classical or art deco style building all in grey. It has been in many movies and written about a lot. It also was the planned capital building for the Nazis when they were hoping to take over Great Britain.
I did not spend as much time in the library this week though as I probably should have because I went to Edinburgh, Scotland on Friday for a weekend holiday.
Besides being treated like a con-artist and almost thrown off the train by Bastard Express (also known as National Express) on the way to Scotland despite paying a £100 roundtrip ticket, it was a very enjoyable trip. My friend and I stayed at a lovely little backpacker’s hostel called Argyll, on Argyll Street, in the heart of Argyll country. Friday evening after checking in to the hostel we went to a whisky tasting at the Scottish Whisky Experience. We learned how to sample and differentiate between different whiskies and got some tradition whiskey glasses to take with us. After that we went on a ghost tour all over Edinburgh, which is supposedly the most haunted city in the world. We didn’t see any ghosts but we did see a lot of interesting and spooky sights. And it was just cool to be able to walk around through the city's graveyards and ruins and such at night.
The next day we went on an all day coach tour that took us to Loch Lomond, the village of Aberfoyle, and Stirling Castle. Despite the legendary monster of Scotland living in Loch Ness not Loch Lomond we still kept our eyes open for it as we strolled around the ‘bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond’. Then from there we had lunch in a very traditional Scottish inn in Aberfoyle. There we dared to try Scotland’s notorious national dish haggis, which we were both shocked to learn that we actually enjoyed. I also had salmon that came out of the loch I had just wandered around.
Then we went to Stirling Castle. I am not trying to sound like a huge nerd but the castle and its landscape looked like something right out of the Lord of the Rings. The castle which was originally constructed on the site over 900 years ago sits on the peak of a dead volcano and hovers over the lowlands that surround it for several miles in every direction. However, in the background are ranges of monstrous snow-capped mountains seemingly stretching on forever. Between the castle and the begining of the mountains is another volcanic parturition with a stone tower reaching up from the tallest of the rocky corners of this natural structure.
The Castle and tower which are only separated by a hand full of lowland miles were held at different times by either the Scots or the English in opposition to each other. Stirling Castle is said to be the key to controlling Scotland and is situated exactly where the lowlands and highlands of Scotland met.
That night we went on a pub crawl around Edinburgh going to several unique and interesting old pubs around the city. At one there was a local band playing some traditional Scottish folk music.
The next day we went to Edinburgh castle which stands in the middle of the city and is visible from all points around it. It is not quite as old or historically important as Stirling Castle but is very cool to have a walk around and it offers some amazing views from atop its walls. Afterwards I bought some traditional Scottish wool scarves, which I was very glad for as the Bastard Express train I took back was very very cold despite it being so crowed that people were forced to stand in the loos.
All is well as it all ended well and I had a great time and am now happily back in my favourite city!

Ich bin ein Berliner

The above statement is the eloquent quote by JFK which translated into English means: I am a Jelly Donut. Of course in fact what he meant was: I am person of Berlin. And after this weekend I would like to echo the sentiment of JFK in his speech made from Berlin, where he indeed called himself a Jelly Donut, and say, I now feel akin to the Berliner.

Berlin is the most interesting and extraordinary city I have ever been to. It also fringes on the bizarre in so many ways. Though my final impression of the city is one of awe and respect, my first impression was not so positive. After leaving the airport outside of the city I hopped on a bus to get into town. I was told to get off at ‘Rudow’ to catch a train to the city center near the Hostel my friend and I were going to be staying. I was a little concerned though when I got on the bus I saw that all the stops had ‘Rudow’ in the name. So I rode for a while hoping the stop I needed to get off at would become apparent. As I sat on the bus I took in the other people around me. All of them were very quiet and looked a bit miserable, frowning or with heads hung down. I thought of Amsterdam and how when I arrived there everyone was smiling and talking cheerfully or singing even on public transportation. However, their faces reflected the countryside, or suburbs, we were riding through that were in shades of brown and gray and very desolate. The few buildings to be seen were very small houses all looking very similar. I got off the bus where I though I might be able to catch the train into town. However, when I got off it was apparent that I would not be able to catch it here and that I was still in this desolate countryside. I realized as I sat there waiting for the next bus that just until recently this was East Germany and was under Soviet control and wow did it still resemble it. It was not hard to imagine the grim life that would have been lived here less then two decades before and why so many people risked their lives to leave this area.

As I finally made my way into Berlin itself my impression did not change. I walked to my hostel from the train station nearby. The neighborhood consisted of huge roadways cutting across mostly dilapidated but not old looking buildings and industrial canals, all still very colorless in shades of grays and browns. This is what much of Berlin looks like. There are miles of areas that look just like this with little pockets of prettier or more modern looking buildings or squares. But even in the most elegant and famous parts of the city, like Museum Island where much of the famous and gorgeous building of Berlin stand, there are still large patches of destitute or destroyed buildings or huge construction sites marring the views. This all creates a melancholy and dark ambiance to the city. However, I started to learn over the course of the weekend that one has to understand Berlin to appreciate it. And that if one understands Berlin and can appreciate it then it becomes a Mecca of artistic and historical insights and every block and every destitute building becomes meaningful and inspirational.

I came to this realization during a walking tour that my friend and I took around the city lead by a woman of not even 30 years but who had still spent a third of her life under the soviet’s repressive occupation. She explained that the city was so utterly destroyed by domestic strife leading up to WWII, WWII itself, and the soviet occupation of the eastern half of the city that almost nothing was left from the pre-WWII era of the city. And that nothing in the way of rebuilding of the wondrous old emblematic buildings or even of decent housing had really been able to take place in the city until after the reunification.

The city really is a living monument to itself and its history, which is perhaps one of the most intense in recent times. My weekend there was focused on this unique history. This included the 4 hour historical tour I just described. On it we saw the Imperial Cathedral, which is pictured above in sharp contrast to the ruins of the Imperial palace blown up by the soviets. We also saw the monument to the victims of tyranny and war, the monument to the books destroyed by the National Socialists, the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, the remains of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler’s bunker, and a lot of other interesting historical artifacts and places.

I also went to three museums. I saw the Museum of German Jews first. It is kind of odd and moving to be going through this museum dedicated to the positive accomplishments and the devastating history of Jews in Germany knowing that nothing that celebrates German Jewry would have been able to exist a hand full of decades ago. The museum is very well done, however, and the building its self is one of the most amazing pieces of architecture I have ever encountered. It is built to resemble a broken Star of David. The building is quite tall and as you walk through it you encounter what is called the voids which are large deep chasm that are the gaps between the triangles in the star. Some of the these voids are just pits of darkness, some are open and light pours in to them, and one had thousands of metallic screaming faces pilled up at the bottom of the void. And there is the holocaust tower there which is one of the eeriest places I have ever been. It is a huge completely empty tower with an extremely high ceiling painted completely black so when you look up it is as if you are looking into complete nothingness. The room is so dark you can not really see who else is in there and the only light is a very thin line of white light coming down from one corner of the ceiling. It is very cold in there and there is a mysterious almost ghostly sound that seems to permeate from the huge concrete walls. The only object in the room is a latter stretching up to the blackness starting just high enough to be out of reach of anyone.

I went to two other museums both as amazing and unique as this one. I went to the Old National Gallery witch consists of German expressionism from the 18th and 19th century. And also to the German Museum of National History. This second museum was perhaps the most interesting museum I have ever been to. I am very interested in German history and this was a huge museum chalked full of facts and artifacts from all points in German history. The area about National Socialism in the museum was particularly amazing to me as I took a course last semester at Clark on Nazi Germany and much of the pictures and copies of posters we were shown by the professor in that class were on display in their original and horrid form.

Also, the second night we were in Berlin we went to the Reichstag. The Reichstag the parliament building of Germany and has been destroyed and rebuild many times. This latest reconstruction of it has a glass dome on top of it. One can climb to the top of this dome and not just get a great view of the city but also you can peer down into the parliament chamber below you. This is supposed to represent transparency in the new German republic so that nothing like the tyranny that Germany has had to suffer so much of can happen again. Like I said the city is a monument to itself, its mistakes, its victims, and its own suffering. Every build, square, and monument, is completely full of layers upon layers of meaning built into them. I could write another several pages on all this symbolism in everything I saw. This is why the city transitioned in my mind to a place still of great darkness and melancholy but also of great depth and beauty.

I also had some more light-hearted times though while in Berlin. My friend and I went to several Breweries and Beer halls to sample the legendary local brews. We also ate some amazing Turkish food, as Berlin has the largest Turkish population of any city in the world other than Istanbul. I also had some traditional potato dishes and sausages, and currywursts.

Now I’m back in London. As always not a bad place to have to return to. I am going to Parliament tomorrow for an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Crick Report, which is the Report to Parliament that really got the ball rolling on the mandating of citizenship education here. I am very excited to meet some interesting people there and see parliament. And then I’m going off to Scotland this weekend. More to come soon…

A New Week, A New President

Much has transpired since last I wrote an entry. The most crucial of which was the election of now president elect Barack Obama. Watching the election results and being part of the aftermath here was good and bad. I enjoyed seeing the international perspective but part of me wished to be home and in the excitement with my fellow citizens electing this historic president. My flat mates and I stayed up till 2 or 3 Tuesday night watching the results on the BBC even though they had been projecting Obama to be the winner for what seemed like a week already. Then at 5 in the morning I got a text message telling me that Obama would be our next president and that he was about to give his acceptance speech. I sat alone in the dark at 5 in the morning with tears in my eyes watching my next president give his beautiful speech.
I am genuinely excited about what change Mr. Obama will bring to our country and the world and so are the British people. I don’t think I met one person who has not been excited about Obama coming to office. I even had a co-worker explain to me that to them the American elections are more important because whatever happens in their elections the fundamental social liberalism of Britain will remain but the US political climate is a lot more volatile. In fact, there was a mid-term election here a couple days ago but it got severly less press leading up to, during, and after the election than the US election got.
As a result of all the excitement from the elections and from Guy Fawkes night, Wednesday night was a crazy night. As soon as it got dark, which is like right at 4 now, fireworks started going off to beat shock and awe. A couple of my mates and I went to a park in an outer borough of London, Canada Water, to see some fireworks. It was a really exciting atmosphere out there. We followed a mass of singing, glow-jeweller adorned people from the Canada Water’s underground stop to the park. All of Canada Water must have been crammed in that park. There were carnival attractions and fireworks but sadly no effigies. I guess it was too family friendly for that.
There were more celebrations this weekend but unfortunately I had to lay low this weekend in order to get some work done. I finished up my essay for my British literature class and started seriously working on my independent study. I finally decided to research the development of modern citizenship education in this country and try to find out what education for the development of active citizenry existed prior to modern citizenship education. And then do some kind of comparison between the two.
So I’ll keep gathering research for that and working on my various projects at work this week. But this Friday I am going to BERLIN for the weekend!

Oh and by the way the picture is of a statue that I thought was very interesting and unique. It is on top of a monument dedicated to the Common Wealth’s camel brigade that fought in various campaigns in the Middle East. It is in Victoria Embankment Park. I noticed it on a long walk I took down to and along the Thames this weekend.

The Land of Cold, Rain, Snow, Fireworks and Burning Effigies

Hello from the land of cold, rain, snow, fireworks and burning effigies. The atmosphere of London has drastically changed over this past week or so. For one, the weather here is turning into a stereotype of itself: very grey, cold and rainy. We actually got snow though the other day. It was crazy no one predicted it. I was actually walking out of a restaurant and all of a sudden it started to hail like crazy. I was on my way to an exotic teashop but even though a good cup of tea would have been great after being stuck in the storm, I could not make it being hailed on as I was and so I jumped into a nearby pub to have a pint and wait out the storm. By the time I finished my pint it had stopped hailing but it was snowing now.
Apparently it hasn’t snowed here at this time of year since 1938 (A year before England entered WWII). It was very pretty despite being a cold, wet nuisances. People were freaking out though, like it was a sign of Armageddon.
Perhaps this mood carried over to the latter part of the week, or maybe this is the normal atmosphere of Brits this time of year, but the last several days have been wild. Constant huge fireworks being launched at all times day and night. I’m not talking about firecrackers but large professional quality fireworks being shot off from random courtyards and side streets (no wonder London has such a intimate history with fires). Also, I have not seen one yet, but I have heard talk of effigies being burned all over the country. There was even one of Sarah Palin burned in the town of Battle.
This last example of eccentric celebration speaks to how obsessed the Brits are with the US election right now. It is hard to imagine that people in the US are paying any more attention to the presidential election then people are here. Every day there are programs on every station about is, several articles in every newspaper and people talking about it every café and pub. My office is even having an election party tomorrow night. Not surprisingly the chatter and media coverage here is always pro-Obama.
I have had to resist getting too lost in the excitement here and keep at it with my work. I finished up the youtube page for the Giving Nation program, http://uk.youtube.com/user/GivingNation for those that might be interested. I am still working on fund raising and also doing some new research into local economic issues that could be used in regional active learning programs. The foundation has a program called ‘Paying for it’ that encourages young people to examine and engage with economic issue of importance to their local communities.
Other then that I am working on a paper for my British Lit class about the relationship between the individual and society in the context of the novels we have been reading. And also starting to do some research on my independent study that I am doing. I have finally decided to focus it on the evolution of the concept of citizenship in England.
Saturday I took a little break to take an ‘urban hike’. I went around the St. Paul’s Cathedral area and ended up walking to the area around the Tower of London. Since it was the day after Halloween and the city was engulfed in a quite dramatic gloom I decided to visit some old graveyards and allegedly haunted places, including a very bizarre outdoor wall dedicated to those who died trying to save other people's lives and failed. Their are about 50 plaques on the wall all with random and unusual tails of this sort of heroism that all date back more then a hundred years. I didn’t see any ghosts but it was still eerie walking through some of the old chapels, ruins and grave sites and such. I ended my walk with a visit to the Museum of London, which is dedicated to the history of the city.
More to come about the reaction to the elections here, Guy Fawkes Night and life in London…