Monday's Letters: Curiosity that can start a life-long journey of discovery

From: G Evans, Baker Street, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne & Wear.

THE other morning when I was making my cup of coffee, I went for my sugar bag and I saw the words "cane sugar" and immediately thought of the West Indies and of Eric Braithwaite, author of the book To Sir With Love and 1960s film with Sidney Poitier. It is a long story how the bag of sugar got there.

Eric Braithwaite came to England in 1942 to do his part in the war effort as a young qualified oil engineer graduate and became an RAF air crew engineer. After the war, he became a teacher in London's East End. He turned out to be a very good teacher, inspirer and infectious curiosity dispenser of the wonders of the world – how things got there, who made them, who invented them, where they came from, the history of the trade, the people and its mineral sources and growth of expansion to this present day of trade.

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The reply of Eric Braithwaite to his 14-year-old pupils' question as to the colour of his skin sticks in my mind: "It's a long story." Then he went into the history of the discovery of the Americas, the exploration and spread or increase of peoples and trade and so through the terrible anguish of slavery and through the fight for freedom to liberation and integration.

Again in mathematics classes on the subject of measurement (most of the pupils' families were in the manufacturing industry or market stall holders), he traced the history of common weights and measures that were hammered by communities and nations for the sake of convenience.

Don't you think that there are those who have lost their way in the world and should be helped to discover and learn how to learn again, the curiosity, the wonders, the marvels, the long history and story of all that make up our daily lives and that we take for granted?

I look around my living room and see prints of pictures – the story of writing, recording and printing, how and where paper was discovered, how modern printing is produced or manufactured, and how colour prints are produced. Whose idea was it?

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I look through my window. Who invented glass, its chemical make-up? Monks brought glass making from Rome to the North East around 700 AD. The window frames of PVC – what are its chemical elements? The hydrocarbons come from coal and oil etc – the list is endless.

The point is that curiosity didn't kill the cat.

It's the beginning of a long journey of discovery and adventure into learning and it's a life-long wonder.

Revive pride in the workplace, its company, history, how it grew, its traditions. Revive Miners' welfare clubs where WEA classes were held and in the Welsh valleys, where reading rooms and papers were on hand. The wonders of our world are waiting to be discovered in the encyclopedias of our public libraries!

Private road to profiting at public expense

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

AM I alone in being puzzled by Marjorie Gill's reply (Yorkshire Post, November 12) to my letter on traffic chaos in Otley caused by privatised utilities? Does she support privatised utilities or oppose them? It was not at all clear. Did she experience the chaos and frustration that occurred in Otley?

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Her advice centred on using democratic processes such as contacting our local councillors while ignoring the total lack of consultation and accountability with local people on planning for this operation.

In Otley, we have Lib Dem councillors who we know from experience of the party nationally are unreliable, renege on pre-election promises and are anything but democratic. And with this lack of democracy, we can do nothing to get rid of them until the next election.

Her suggestion that a borough engineers can control multi-national foreign companies is surely not serious. Private companies are a law unto themselves and the idea that a local engineer can control them is laughable and nave in the extreme.

But I do agree that, God forbid, decision-making should not be devolved to Whitehall under any circumstances. These are local matters to be decided by local people.

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Her comments comparing workers of days gone by with the inefficiency of today's private companies confirms that both depend on good management for efficiency.

However, privatised companies get paid regardless of performance aided and abetted with massive government subsidies and therefore have little incentive to improve management.

The key fact is that it is that with private companies it is the shareholders who benefit at the taxpayers' expense and it is this together with our lack of democracy that needs addressing.

Stepping stone for workers

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

IN reply to various complaints about jobs and cuts too numerous to mention, may I offer a personal experience. I had left the Civil Service in search of a change and was out on a limb.

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Admittedly, it was my decision but the fact remains I had no immediate prospects, especially in Blackpool. I jumped in at the deep end and started cold calling, selling home improvements. After years behind a desk, this was quite a culture shock but strangely enough, I began to enjoy it and things developed from there.

The moral, of course, is that one can be too picky about taking on new jobs, especially those which appear menial or low paid, or both.

In my opinion, the labour market is far too rigid and immobile but it now looks as though people are going to be compelled to be flexible to survive in the present harsh environment. At any rate, preparing to take on a modest job like these may impress a future employer and be a stepping stone to better things.

Accent on local help

From: Peter R Hyde, Kendale View, Driffield, East Yorkshire

I HAVE broadband through BT and a few days ago I had a problem connecting to emails. After some time, I finally gave up and used the help-line telephone number.

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I was connected to a young man from the Indian sub-continent. I have to say that this young man was extremely good and sorted the problem after taking control of my computer.

I am a Yorkshireman and in my youth spoke with a strong Yorkshire accent, I suppose I still do, plus the fact I am a little on the deaf side, and I had some difficulty in understanding his words.

However he was patient with me and we successfully reconnected. The question is, why can't we have local people dealing with our problems? I take it money comes into the equation, but surely BT should take into account local needs and accents?

Students on a spree

From: JA Hinchliffe, Bingley.

I NOTED with great interest the plea from the Leeds Mutiple Sclerosis Society (Yorkshire Post, November 17) for volunteers to assist in collections at Leeds railway station, which I consider to be a very worthwhile cause.

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What a splendid way to spend an hour or two on a Saturday. My mind wandered on other ways to spend a Saturday, from a selfless one helping community and those less fortunate than ourselves to a selfish and thoughtless one of going to London with monies provided by the taxpayer.

While the ignorant, unlearned students can in part be excused, the learned latter-day professors cannot.

It might be that such luminaries have too much time on their hands as, I am given to understand, that they only have to teach in the order of 25 hour per week – the remainder given up to research.

It is, perhaps, an alternative for those students who feel themselves badly treated, to contemplate undertaking the harder route via the Open University, studying at evenings and weekends rather than traipsing off to London on a vandalising spree.

Bonus mark for police chief

From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

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I READ with satisfaction the comments of Tim Hollis, Chief Constable of Humberside Police (Yorkshire Post, November 16).

Mr Hollis states that he does not believe in bonuses and that both he and the chief officers of his force have not benefited from any bonus since he took up office as Chief Constable some five years back.

Would it be possible to have this edict printed and displayed in the premises of all banks and indeed any institution practising this money-grabbing practice?

All that bonuses do is encourage greed at whatever expense – whether it be selling unsuitable products to the gullible general public or giving less than 100 per cent effort to stimulate a bonus to top up salary.

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Hurrah for Mr Hollis, his officers and those of like-minded constabularies.

Evidence backs opposing views on climate change

From: DM Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering, North Yorkshire.

THE many devastating floods, wind, rain and snow storms which have struck this island over the past few years have invoked two arguments – "this is direct evidence for global warming/climate change"

versus "these local events have been happening for many hundreds of years, they are merely evidence that we have weather".

I would argue that they are not wrong, they are both correct – to a degree. Being natural events of weather, itself a consequence of climate, they are governed by the rules of chaos. As a result, there will always be examples of extreme behaviour.

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This supports the "it's happened for hundreds of years" posture.

Measurement over the past 100 years or so, and earlier anecdotal journalists' records when compared do suggest that the severe events are becoming more and more severe – thus supporting the first argument.

Current global warming and climate change theories are founded on inferential evidence spanning the last 400,000 years of which the last 10,000 years are relevant to our present state.

The second law of thermodynamics is an innocently insidious piece of mathematics. It is routinely and maliciously ignored by those who would seduce us into schemes for "saving-the-planet" at great cost to ourselves for no other reason than that it helps our economy.

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Building thousands of windmills or sucking carbon dioxide out of flue gasses to pump it underground to force out the last dregs of oil serve only to exacerbate the problem.

Reduce carbon dioxide production, by all means, for a healthier planet.

Avoid, to the greatest possible extent, the direct and indirect (always the largest source) production of this gas, in all practices, and perhaps we might see a cleaner planet in a few hundred years.

Unfortunately, this requires the combined and committed international political will to do so.

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