Saturday November 3rd 2012 will not be remembered as the day itself but because of events that occurred, a BBC radio broadcast at the Sage Gateshead, a Newcastle Walkabout in warm afternoon sunshine and the most engaging of the Montalbano episodes throughout the two series this year.
The day commenced with uncertainty about what I should take with me and how long I would remain out. I had debated baking a baguette for salami and olives for lunches as I had only a few minutes between two planned events at midday. I decided against taking a bag with me although did put a small umbrella in my coat together with the ticket information and a notebook. I also failed to provide myself with as much time as appropriate after deciding on a little Wii exercise of some 15 minutes as it felt cold and indeed I had to zip up the double layered black Winter’s coat. I must make sure I have a woolly hat to hand.
It was just before 10.30 when I arrived at the Gateshead Metro Interchange station and I lost several minutes trying to find out the bus and stand for the Sage missing one and with close to 20 minutes for the next bus, twice the advertised every ten minutes painted on the side of some of the buses I decided to walk, a good decision. I went passed the new shopping development being created on the Get Carter Car park site and then the old Town Hall building which was used for the Tyneside Film Theatre while that was we being extended and refurbished, and then across a succession of pedestrian crossings to get to the entrance of the concert halls.
Since my last visit to the Sage there has been a major change with the ending of the splendid music listening library and Internet centre provided by Gateshead Leisure. This is now a second cafeteria restaurant. There has also been a major switching around with the ticket office outside Hall 2 and a shop outside Hall one. The cafeteria and the Brassiere are where they were. I had time for a coffee at £1.50 after collecting my tickets from the special BBC Free Thinking weekend desk. There was a separate bookstall related to the weekend speakers as well as a couple of screens showing one of the events already in progress. I had started the journey frustrated because I had brought a notebook but left a pen and was horrified at being asked to £2 for a Sage product, later when I purchased a pack of six pens for 99 pence at Rymans I found I had left the notebook at the Sage and ended up writing the notes on the way home on the back of the leaflet info about the event I had experienced.
The first recording of the morning was by Charlotte Blease a new Generation thinker providing a fifteen minute talk about the real nature of General Practice and medical diagnosis in general. She identified that there were a number of problems including those symptoms identified could match more than one problem and that the diagnostician was dependent to a great extent on what the patient was able to explain. My own experience is that without keeping records it is often difficult to remember when a change was noted or that a change occurs in such a way to suggest it needs to be reported or is considered part of the aging process or other natural imbalances which occur from time to time.
The talk was not an attack on medical practice being made but an attempt to place medical diagnosis in perspective. A current example is that even with a proven screening technique such as for breast cancer which is estimated to save 3000 to 4000 lives a year, for every one individual prescribed treatment a number were found not to have required it because what was detected did not lead to a malignant tumour yet without early detection women died unnecessarily.
There was no time for a comfort break between this talk and the first two major events with a panel approach to Rewriting History which was undertaken recently by Andrew Marr with his series on the history of human kind and which he reminded was part of a legacy with Bronowski The Ascent of Man. James Burke’s Connection and a series on Civilization which concentrated on the European cultures in the days of early Television. Anthony Beever is a leading military Historian who is completing or has completed a history of World War II from the World perspective which could argue that the World War commenced prior to 1939 with the Japanese attack and colonization of China. One memorable point made was that for 200 years Japan closed its borders and concentrated on it own development in terms of feeding its people and political and social government playing no part in the rest of the world, trading, politics, economics and this strengthened and led to self sufficiency. The third speaker Maria Misra was a Modern Historian whose primary subject was India while the chair for the session Rana Mitter background was Chinese History. What struck and a point briefly made later in the discussion is that the study of human kind is not the same as the study of the earth planet and that environmental changes, a la Hurricane superstorm Sandy can have more devastating consequences than the great wars, earthquakes, famines and floods etc against national and civil wars.
My point and one not made in the discussion is that given the potential mismatch between resources and population growth it can be argue that major disasters and wars are a way of stopping the population becoming too great for the planet‘s resources to sustain and that war also has proved to be a period of innovation and the rebuilding also becomes a time for economic growth as happened post second world war in Japan and Germany in particular.
Marr said that his work was leading up to the choice facing mankind was blowing themselves up or destroying the planet environmentally, or working towards the conquest of space and the unlimited possibilities and opportunities of that but also the threats given that the overwhelming populations of the Americas was destroyed by the importing of old world illnesses rather than through aggressive conquest. He said he was optimistic. I am not remembering the Ice Age and what happened to the indigenous Americans and is happening to the Africans.
I had to leave the discussion briefly when I knew I was going to have coughing fit so went out of some bottled water at an outrageous £1.60. Does anyone learn from History? Is there anything to learn? Karl Marx attempted to predict from selected historical events and circumstances while Hitler was enamoured by the ability of the British go control their empire was so few troops.
There was only 20 minutes before needing to queue for a good seat for the second discussion on Is Social Mobility overrated? There as time for a comfort visit and some sea salt and black pepper crisps 90p bring the total expenditure for the three events only £6.25 (I bought a ham and Cheese baguette from the Quayside Greggs on my walkabout),
The panel this time included the Guardian Polly Toynbee whose background includes the creator of Toynbee Hall in the East end of London always left of centre and currently President of the British Humanist Society and Treasurer of the Fabian Society. Lawrence Goldman is an Oxford Historian. The two other speakers were an obnoxious management consultant originally from New Zealand and a rational and practical woman from the North East who represented all types of schools in the region.
This was the least successful of the three events I attended. The problem was the vastly different perspectives, personalities and lifestyles on the panel looking at the problem from both of the telescope. On one hand the management consultant appeared to believe that individuals should be left to cope with their nature and nurture without state intervention and everything should be privatised and that it was in the natural order of things to be poor and the rich and for some people to move or down according to the decisions taken and the time and circumstances of their lives, while Toynbee appeared to believe that everyone should be able to achieve the best from their innate and acquired activities and the state should intervene to ensure an equality of opportunity.
I thought a better construction to the programme would have been to consider the extent which we are a class ridden society and its consequences or an examination of the obstacles to providing an equality of opportunity. The basic of living will always be food, warmth and shelter with work part of it and income associated with work a major factor. Education is good in itself but is usually associated with furthering opportunity while the arts and culture are and expression of what people feel about their lives and their society. Do I really want to encourage people to make more money that they need and then misuse their power or become aggressive and violent and social mobility is usually associated with people getting power and wealth to do what they want without regard to their obligations and duties to each other their families neighbourhood and communities.
The discussion on the day appeared to fix on Education while the current big issue is employment where capitalism and international capitalism are the governing factors together with the problem of allowing hordes in from European countries to come and work the jobs on low pay, mainly service and also other manual this creating an inter generational underclass. The third is shelter was not touched in the discussion.
