Layer 256 . . . More Woody, Joan Bakewell, Contentment, Confucius, Virtue, the Treasury and Toyota

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Decided to re-listen to Sir Clive Woodward on yesterday's repeat of Desert Island Discs.

To give him his due, he did actually admit that he'd been fortunate to be associated with some superb players during his time as England rugby manager.

"I was very lucky. I had wonderful players."

He also admitted that in life generally he's been very lucky.

Hearing it the second time around I felt pretty sorry for him for having had such a crap childhood. Running away from his Welsh boarding school not once but twice, and managing a home run both times, shows a lot of unhappiness and desperation, and also a lot of determination. Finally though, it seems his spirit was broken, since he remained at the school in Anglesey between the ages of 13 and 18, and was never allowed by the Welsh to play his beloved football. It must have felt like being incarcerated in a kind of rainy and damp British gulag.

He finished up with a bit of a Zen-like  philosophy - "Don't get bogged down in the past, and don't look too far into the future. It's all about today."

But mentioning Bob Dylan and Ronan Keating in the same breath was still . . .  breathtaking. And very amusing.
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Kirsty Young is brilliant in her DID role. She has such a quick mind, and great empathy with the people she interviews. It must take incredible concentration, preparation and skill, as well as personality, to do what she does with such apparent unobtrusive ease.

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Joan Bakewell, age 76,  had a very thought-provoking column in the Guardian this week. This is the kind of thing that can change someone's entire outlook.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/23/joan-bakewell-happy-at-74

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Bakewell

Happiness is being 74

The young have stress, ambition, unfulfilled dreams. The elderly have contentment

Happiness, it seems, peaks at the age of 74 – or so scientists have concluded after asking 21,000 people how happy they were on a scale of 1 to 7. Teenagers racked with angst registered around 5.5; in their 40s people reckoned they had less happiness in their lives. Those who were 74 rated themselves 5.9, the highest of the lot. At 74 I was single, living alone and all life's choices were mine: I was writing my first novel, making new friends and visiting new places. What's not to like?

We define happiness in our own terms and for our own particular life moment. There is probably nothing as ecstatic and overwhelming as falling in love; pledging your love together before family and friends carries its own euphoria; holding your new baby is your arms is another of life's highs . . . all family moments. Then there's the job, the promotion, the first home . . . all rungs on today's ladder for measuring how well you're doing in life and thus how happy you might expect to be.

Happiness is about something else entirely: it's not about future expectations but a deep satisfaction with the here and now, with yourself and your place in the world. It involves a degree of healthy self-esteem and a worldview that sets petty preoccupations against a wider canvas. It probably has little to do with money, though dire poverty will be its enemy. It depends on the falling away of all the things that blight our happiness when we're younger: ambition, competitiveness, stress, unfulfilled dreams and hopes.

In terms that will appal younger spirits, it calls for a certain resignation – an awareness that life is finite, that you finally know who you are and accept your limitations and disappointments. Disappointments, when they come, are less sharp than they once were. They are simply part of the pattern.

There's plenty to make old age unhappy, too. The deep wounds sustained by the death of those we love are the greatest. There's infirmity and illness, the closing down of life's options. But there's a relief too, in knowing you won't be climbing the Eiger or pioneering a new vaccine. The blessings of family and friendship count for more, and they grow as the years go by.

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A History Of The World

In 100 Objects

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/#/object_Fh59-tI4TViuv1RSsx0qhQ


A Chinese Bronze Bell from the time of Confucius - 2,500 years old - Radio 4

Music produces the kind of pleasure that human nature can't do without. Confucius believed that music plays a central part in the shaping of the individual, as well as the state. Individual people, individual sounds, blending together in a pleasant and pleasing way. Society needs harmony, and peace.

The individual and society also need virtue, benevolence and righteousness.

[See also Oxzen Layer 148]

Leaders should embody virtue, and demonstrate their right to rule.

[More for Brown and Cameron to think about.]

In a good society there should be no need for punishment. If leaders and rulers set a good example, then virtuous individuals will live and work together harmoniously.

[NB Gordo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/Fh59-tI4TViuv1RSsx0qhQ

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/c/chinese_bronze_bell.aspx

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The Great Offices of State - 3. The Secret Treasury - BBC4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00r0sf5/The_Great_Offices_of_State_The_Secret_Treasury/

Everything about the Treasury and the people who run it is repulsive. A nasty, gloomy building, full of nasty gloomy people. Full of people puffed up with ego and pride. And a fat lot of good it did them whilst they allowed the State and its finances to hit the buffers. Voodoo economics. Crashing and burning in the most spectacular fashion. No proper oversight or stewardship of the financial system. Many of us said this at the time the bubble was growing - but did they listen?

I know someone who used to have on their child's primary school's governing body a young man who worked in the Treasury. An arrogant little twat in the mould of Ed Balls and the other Young Pioneers of New Labour. He overreached himself in his plotting against the school's leaders and the staff reps on the governing body. He thought he was doing his stuff (secret meetings with local authority officers and so on) ever so cleverly behind their backs, but he was too clever by half, and tripped over his own ego. Thankfully the very people he tried to patronise - parent governors and staff governors - exposed him in a meeting and gave him such a fucking good kicking he promptly resigned. A story with a happy ending.

It seems the look on his face at the time of his public humiliation was a sight to behold. He hadn't realised that regular working people could use words so effectively, and with such deadly intent, and outcome.

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Talking of huge crashes -

Toyota: A giant crashes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/25/toyota-giant-crashes-editorial

The Economist has written off the entire affair as exemplifying the problems with Japanese corporate governance. Oh, if only those salarymen in Tokyo had learned from their counterparts in New York and London how capitalism should be done!

Mr Toyoda himself yesterday reiterated that his company had been too focused on growth and had "confused" its priorities. One could put it more plainly still, as former Toyota executive Jim Press has, describing his old employer as being "hijacked" by "anti-family, financially oriented pirates". In so doing, a widely admired company has wrecked its reputation . . .

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Layer 70 Targets, Achievement, Attainment and Gold Medals.

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The People’s Republic of China has the same birthday as me - September 30th, 1949. Not a lot of people know that.

I suppose it was always going to be difficult to avoid the craziness of the Olympics, and it’s been very easy to get sucked into watching the games, given all the circumstances, which include a decision not to go away for a holiday this August, the crap weather outside making staying inside a good option, and the fact that live TV coverage of the various sports is spread right across the day from pre-breakfast to suppertime. Getting hooked into watching the whole of the opening ceremony, thanks to that fabulous drumming spectacle, was also a big factor.

The other key element was the fact that, for once, ‘Team GB’ has actually been very successful, at least in a small number of sports that require a heavy investment in incredibly expensive equipment and facilities, lots of very expensive and elitist coaching, and in which there are relatively few other nations taking part. To whit - cycling, rowing and sailing. All of which has been very intriguing and thought-provoking, and which made for some compelling viewing.

There’s also the China factor - the fact that the games are being held in a country that’s intriguing, fascinating and astounding, for all sorts of reasons. It’s not that long ago that China was a completely closed society, and very few of us knew anything about the place. Now, thanks to a plethora of documentaries, and thanks to China becoming a global economic powerhouse that can’t be ignored, we are starting to take notice.

Amidst all the chatter amongst the commentariat about China’s record on freedom, democracy and human rights there’s the undeniable fact that the political leadership have done a remarkable job in transforming the country from a peasant economy with a doctrinaire Marxist culture into a socio-economic system that’s rapidly gone from strength to strength because they didn’t do the stupid things that Russia and its satellites did when the Soviet system collapsed.

Much to the frustration of the neo-conservatives in the US and elsewhere, communism in China didn’t collapse or capitulate to capitalism like the Soviets. They haven’t privatized their state-owned assets, and they haven’t allowed robber billionaires to strip wealth from the public realm. On the other hand, they have allowed foreign investment to flow inwards, and to expand their productive capacity hugely. *

Needless to say, the current Russian leadership are now very angry indeed that their political predecessors, like Boris Yeltzin, sold out, became virtual puppets of the West, and allowed their professed socialist ideals to be kicked into touch. The Russian state became a virtual bystander as oligarchs and billionaires took over control of the commanding heights of the economy.

The inexorable rise of China has been reflected in Olympic success - they are the country with the most gold medals by far . They are now successful even in events that require power and stamina as well as finesse and strategy. And we in the West are now aware that the Chinese are as ethnically and physically diverse as anywhere on earth, and given some hefty levels of investment in facilities, equipment and coaching, they are able to succeed in sports that were once the preserve of the USA and the Soviets. Money = power = dominance. As even we in Team GB have discovered, it’s not rocket science, it’s bloody obvious, and it’s about money and investment.

Meanwhile, here at home people are starting to realise that in these days of sports science and intensive training regimes most of the successful British competitors come from elite school backgrounds and from homes that can afford private coaching and training. Kids from council estates generally don’t have decent access to either facilities or coaches. Therefore the Olympics are not about competition to establish who are the best athletes on the planet, merely about which of the most privileged young people are the fittest, fastest, most skilful, etc.

This is one of the reasons why it was so delightful watching the unaffected young spirits of Jamaica doing so well in the 100 metres sprints. Just to prove the point that young people from a relatively small and impoverished Caribbean island can be the equals, and indeed betters, of anyone on earth - at least when it’s mainly a matter of tearing down a running track at incredible speed.

And well done Becky Addlington from Mansfield, The Midlands, for two brilliant victories!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s starting to feel very angry that our sodding stupid government have set TARGETS for Olympic medals! On what basis? Where’s the need for it? They’ve even hinted at dire consequences if the targets aren’t met. How dare these bastards attempt to take ownership of even our sportsmen and women? The money for funding sports development comes, for the most part, from the Lottery, which means that it’s OUR money, not theirs. And even if it came from taxes then it’s still OUR money.

These politician bastards don’t even realise that they’re not doing this stuff in OUR name! They don’t represent US! Nobody wants them to set stupid fucking targets. Leave sports, education, health, etc to people who know what they’re talking about and know what they’re doing. As if these people aren’t already doing their best to be successful and need oppressive targets to motivate them. Everybody just wants this government to fuck off and die.

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Two more excellent contributions to the achievement/attainment debate:

Francis Gilbert

The news that A-level gradeshave risen yet again comes as no surprise to teachers like me. We've become much better at teaching to the tests, and pupils are much more proficient at passing them. But does this mean that our students are genuinely becoming cleverer?
Worryingly, I think not. My experience suggests that precisely the opposite is happening. When I think back to when I first started teaching A-level 15 years ago, I realise that my lessons were a great deal more creative and exploratory and, as a result, fostered more intelligent, original and crafted responses.

The emphasis was upon "exploration" rather than teaching to the exam.
In my quest for good exam grades I (now) encourage pupils to slap down the material that will enable them to meet the assessment objective rather than painstakingly help them craft essays – like I used to. Since teachers are now judged solely on results by their students, parents and line managers, and their pay is dependent upon this, they would be foolish to teach like they used to. The net result is that exam grades have risen, but standards have declined.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/schools.alevels

Anne Perkins

Our poor teenagers have just spent two miserable years in the most thankless task of learning how to pass exams. Francis Gilbert's teacher's perspective precisely mirrors the experience of my own daughter. During her last two years at school there has been no room for open-minded inquiry, the excitement of the unexpected discovery or serendipitous connection. Instead she can recite how many marks each question is worth and what arguments she needs to spew out in order to score them. Teachers are judged on their results, and their pupils are desperate to get the grades. Together they conspire in a miserably impoverished academic schedule that leaves them unready -– as the universities now complain – to move on.

Just look at Michael Phelps' diet and his sad comment that all he's good for is eating, sleeping and swimming and you get a feel for how A-level students feel at the end of their courses. When you have to get to a target, that target is going to be all you want to get to. But at least no one tells Phelps he's wasting his time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/alevels

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Confucius “wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world”.

"His moral teachings emphasise self-cultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules, etc”.

He believed that pursuing one's own self-interest is not necessarily bad, but one would be a better, more righteous person if one based one's life upon following a path designed to enhance the greater good.

He believed in the virtue of perfectly fulfilling one's responsibilities toward others, most often translated as "benevolence" or "humaneness".

Wikipedia also says, “Confucius's moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To develop one's spontaneous responses of rén so that these could guide action intuitively was even better than living by the rules of yì. To cultivate one's attentiveness to rén one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat oneself. Virtue, in this Confucian view, is based upon harmony with other people, produced through this type of ethical practice by a growing identification of the interests of self and others."

I wonder what Confucius would have to say about British education in the 21st Century.

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* For the record, Wikipedia says this about China, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China :

After Mao's death in 1976 and the arrest of the Gang of Four, blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping quickly wrestled power from Mao's anointed successor Hua Guofeng. Although Deng never became the head of the Party or State himself, his influence within the Party led the country to economic reforms of significant magnitude. The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the communes were disbanded with many peasants receiving multiple land leases, which greatly increased incentives and agricultural production. This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment, a system termed by many "market socialism”.

President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, both former mayors of Shanghai, led post-Tiananmen China in the 1990s. Under Jiang Zemin's ten years of administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual GDP growth rate of 11.2%. The country formally joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001.

Although China needs economic growth to spur its development, the government has begun to worry that rapid economic growth has negatively impacted the country's resources and environment. Another concern is that certain sectors of society are not sufficiently benefiting from China's economic development. As a result, under current President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the PRC have initiated policies to address these issues of equitable distribution of resources, but the outcome remains to be seen. For much of China's population, living standards have seen extremely large improvements, and freedom continues to expand, but political controls remain tight.
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