"I saw a Mountain"

I saw a mountain higher than Mt. Blanc
And more holy than the Mountain of Sinai
Not in a dream. It was real.
On this world this mountain stood,
Such a mountain I saw--of Jewish shoes in Majdanek.
Such a mountain--such a mountain I saw.
And suddenly, a strange thing happened…
The mountain moved…
And the thousands of shoes arranged themselves
By size--by pairs--and in rows--and moved.
Hear! Hear the march.
Hear the shuffle of shoes left behind--that which Remained.
From small, from large, from each and every one.
Make way for the rows--for the pairs--
For the generations—for the years.
The shoe army--it moves and moves.
"We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.
We are the shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,
From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,
And because we are only made of stuff and leather
And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.
We shoes--that used to go strolling in the market
Or with the bride and groom the chuppah
We shoes from simple Jews, from butchers and Carpenters
From crocheted booties of babies just beginning to walk and go
On happy occasions, weddings and even until the time
Of giving birth, to a dance, to exciting places in life…
Or quietly--to a funeral.
Unceasingly we go. We tramp.
The hangman never had the chance to snatch us into his
Sack of loot--now we go to him.
Let everyone hear the steps, which flow as tears,
The steps that measure out the judgment."
I saw a mountain
Higher than Mt. Blanc
And more holy then the Mountain of Sinai.

Moshe Shulstein.

This was used in the plenary session after our recent visit to Auschwitz. If there's one thing that haunts me more than anything, it's one particular child's shoe amongst the thousands that you can see. I can see it in my head still.

Lessons from Auschwitz

Along with the sixth formers we took to Poland on Tuesday there were a number of 'VIPs' including schools minister, Jim Knight, and several journalists. Here's an extract from one of the articles. This one is from the TES. http://www.tes.co.uk/2456680

Teen Spirit

Despite repeated media frenzies about ASBO collecting hooded youths prowling the streets of Britain and common reinforcing oft-repeated complaints on the lines of:

• young people have no respect
• the youth of today don't know how lucky they are
• I never had X, Y or Z in my day
• kids are so rude
• this sentence is too damn long and complex

I was proud of the kids that we took to Poland on Tuesday: Two hundred 17-18 year olds on planes & coaches and on their feet for much of the day in sub zero temperatures and driving rain. Of course you'd expect anyone visiting Auschwitz to be decorous but that wasn't my experience when I was there before. Some of the American visitors were the most noticable; complaining about the toilets and the lack of refreshments available in the camp and totally oblivious to the irony at the heart of their complaints. In their defence, maybe I only noticed the Americans because I could understand what they were saying. Perhaps there's a World wide irony reduction agreement that the UK have decided to abstain from.

It didn't take long for these young people to make the link between their own discomfort and the relative inconsequence of it when compared to the people they were learning about. These weren't a bunch of posh kids either: many of them were 'proper cockney' kids from the most deprived areas of London. They asked intelligent questions and listened intently to their guides. Some (re-assuringly) reverted to type on the plane on the way home but must were subdued and reflective. It's a shame that our common perceptions can't be redressed a little somehow. I know mine have by being a part of this but I also know that stories about young people making us proud don't sell papers.

World view

The little world map that I linked to in mid Oct tells me that 225 different IP addresses have found their way to this blog. I'm guessing that for most people it's just an unlucky accident: 'Mon dieu, what iz zees 'North and South', I av come to ze wrong place'.

Actually, the likelihood of anyone uttering the above, especially in allo allo English is virtually zero as most of the hits are from the UK. I like the idea of people randomly happening upon me; I do the same by clicking 'next blog' from time to time. Too often I get some dodgy porno blog which ruins the whole thing but I can get totally engrossed in what my boy would almost certainly call 'random err stuff'.

The best thing about the world map though is that it shows me that at least 1 person from Greece and another from Poland has, at least for the briefest of moments, had my blog on their screens. The best one though is that little dot right in the middle of Brazil. No doubt this is a long lost tribe using crystal skulls to access the outside world's data in readiness for the return of Eric von Daniken's Space gods. Or something.



(The actual link and map are in the column on the right)

Boro 1, Juan de la Cruz Ramos Cano's blue and white army 1

New manager.
Radical team selection.
Dressing room shake up.
New life.
New hope.


Same result.
Surprise surprise, the less than mighty Spurs take the lead then lose it again and only get one point. Middlesborough was eerily sunny as we drove in on Saturday. My boy was telling me as we drove in that it is rated as one of (if not THE) bleakest town's in the UK. Best mate, who is from that neck of the woods confirmed that it's famous for its permanent grey, industrial fug.

Already I have forgotten much of the game except our big named boss' decision to drop Berba and Keane to the bench and Bent's well taken goal. We still showed defensive frailty but Dawson looked more commanding and the back line was a heck of a lot straighter than at Newcastle. Midfield still lacking something; not least a spark from Jenas. Nevertheless, Lennon was lively with his mincing little runs down the right and Malbranque was penetrative until he went limp in the second half.

Like last year, there was something sad about the empty seats in the ground. Especially sad was the fact that the most noise in the ground (apart from the Spurs fans) was from a cluster of about 100 kids in little red Boro caps. They squaked 'Red army' throughout the second half. I thought the Spurs response of 'Your support is f*****g s**t' was mean and wholly uncalled for. 'Your support is jolly young' would have been more in keeping with the age profile and mood.

Sis Army!

As you can see, my sister felt the long arm of the law even before she got into WHL on Sunday. She said: ' The law does indeed have a long arm but that holds no long term interest for me. At best a short arm will do. Or no arm at all.'

A week is a long time in football (I hope)

So...my Blackburn prediction was cruelly misjudged though, thank the lord of football, I got the Carling Cup right. Took my sis to the Blackburn game. It was her first ever game and she cried when the players came out. To prove to her nephew that she did know about football she helpfully outlined her version of the basic rules in the car on the way up:

' One team tries to get the ball in the goal and the goal player catches it then the other team have a go. Some players aren't allowed to score I think. Oh...and the referee isn't allowed to kick it.'

I'm not joking about this either. Despite this woeful ignorance she enjoyed it immensely which is a real shame because she's clearly an unlucky mascot and we're not taking her again.

Going to Boro tomorrow...

Juande we will win again (that is not a prediction)