A Stranger's London
THE ANGUISH CONTINUES
The third in the Test series has ended with England having been beaten yet again by the West Indies in a humiliating fashion. Not only did the West Indian bowler Marshall take seven English wickets for 53; he took the last four wickets in 16 balls. As there are five matches in the Test series, it means that West Indies have won but that fact is not at all likely to detract from the interest in the last two matches.The cricket fans seem to have a ghoulish streak and want to be there when the 5-0 whitewash is accomplished.
As the Daily Mirror reported it, 'England. RIP.' where RIP does not stand for what is put on your ordinary tombstone but Rubbish, Incompetent, and Pathetic!
THE SILLY SEASON
July and August are supposed to be the 'Silly season' when nothing is supposed to happen - most people being concerned with their holidays, and sun- bathing and newspapers are therefore reduced to publishing stories which in should normal times would end up in the wastepaper basket.This year, what with the almost 20-week old miners strike and now the dock strike, there seems to be enough to occupy the newspapers.
The 'Dikko affair' as it has come to be known provided an interesting interlude from the coverage of the miners' pickets.
It has provided innumerable scope for cartoonists and a recent one in The Guardian tells it aptly. The strikes having brought the Dover port to a halt and stranded many intending travellers, one of a couple also caught up at Dover tells the other: "It's alright for us but think of all those poor Nigerians stuck in their crates."
GAMES OF NUMBERS
This problem is quite familiar back home in Africa but this really beats everything I have heard, and coming in the Olympic Games week makes it all the more interesting.Although the British Olympic party is made up of 504 people, only 352 of them are actual competitors. The 152 extra people are described as 'officials'. As worked out by one columnist of a daily who was trying to make sense of the curious imbalance in the selection, for every seven athletes there are three officials to tell them what to do; that's almost a ratio of one official to every two athletes.
"This means that no matter what happens in Los Angeles, no British athlete will ever be at a loss for an official when he needs one. Wherever he turns there will be an official ready to instruct him on how to wear the blazer, how to avoid turning professional, what to say to the press, and all the rest of the absolutely utterly essential skills our athletes must have if we are to do any good in the Games".
So he posed the question: if the selection board had such room to spare why didn't they enter Coe, Ovett, Cram and Elliot for the 1500 metres and save the poor athletes who have trained all these years for the games from the frustration which is bound to assail them? Why not, indeed!
DEBENDOX PAY-OUT
The agony of parents whose babies have suffered from birth defects as a result of drugs taken during pregnancy continue to pop up in the media from time to time. The case of the Deben- dox-drug for morning sickness manufactured by an American company, Merrel Dow Pharmaceuticals have raised hopes for many afflicted children and parents.It was reported early last week, that as a result of relentless campaigns and court actions against the company, it ture". "has agreed to pay $120 million (£90m) in the United States to settle current and future claims that their drug caused birth defects, but it does not intend to do the same in Europe...
Mr Jack Ashley, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, who set up the Debendox Action of 450 families in this country has said there was a clear moral obligation on the company to pay voluntarily in Britain to British sufferers, and if they fail to do so then the court would award similar damages to those given in the United States."
Dr Harry Masheter, medical director of Merrel Pharmaceuticals in Houns- low, Middlesex, however rebutted this view. "The settlement in the U.S.", he said, "had been made for business purposes and had nothing to do with the drug's safety."
So it looks as if the struggle would go on for a longer time than anticipated. And complexity of the law will ensure that it takes quite a bit of time before any appreciable decision is arrived at. Observed the learned Chief US District judge, Carl B Rubin. "A full trial of all 678 cases might require one judge for 105 years or 105 judges for one year". The choice facing the defendents in this protracted case is, needless to say, quite obvious, as victims of Thalidomide and Opren have realised over the past few decades.
THE CEILING WAR
Two families in Bristol - the Greens and the Dunsdons - have been waging war through a hole cut in the ceiling between their flats for months.A Magistrates Court was told that after making the hole in the Dunsdons ceiling bigger with a hacksaw, the Greens dangled knives, launched missiles, shouted abuse and poured water through it. The Dunsdons retaliated by hurling back insults and cutting off the Green's electricity.
The neighbours decided they had put up with enough noise and foul language and called the police.
Mr Alfred Dunsdon, head of the downstairs family, was said to have pushed up a poker through the hole injuring a 14-month-old child, but the injuries were said not to be "serious enough for an offence of wounding". Mr Dunsdon told the magistrate that Mr Green (head of the upstairs family) "is a skinny little bastard; his family have been making our lives a misery. Sometimes they sprayed water down through the hole and ruined our furniture”.
Mr Dunsdon admitted causing a breach of the peace and was bound over for two years. It was not stated in court what started the upstairs, downstairs war.
THE EXCELLENT FIRST CLASS REV. VILE
A vicar organised drinking parties at his vicarage and sexually assaulted young boys who stayed the night. Some of the boys were servers at his church and another was a scout.A Swansea Crown Court was told that the offences were discovered when the Rev. John Vile took a group of youngsters on holiday and assaulted a 15-year-old boy after lights out.
The boys mother called the police when her son told her and the police uncovered sex attacks going back nearly three years.
Rev. Vile, aged 36, was jailed for nine months after admitting four charges of gross indecency and asking for eight similar offences to be con- sidered. The Rural Dean of Penderry the Rev. Douglas Davie, described Rev. Vile as an "excellent, first-class parish priest - everything we would expect”.
