Building Blocks Scholarship

Adiós

2007-06-10T15:03:00.000+01:00

I have been to Chautauqua in many incarnations: scholar, Director of Youth Ministry, teacher, lecturer and participant and today I add a new chapter to my Chautauqua story with my attendance at the wedding of my next door neighbour Elizabeth Congdon.

The wedding is taking place in the elegant surroundings of the Hall of Philosophy with the celebration conducted from the same platform where I delivered my “Education in the New Millennium” speech.

And it is from this seat of learning and the learned that I draw this project to a close.

For our main partner schools in Britain and America the summer holidays await and many of you are moving on to pastures new next academic year. I hope that you have enjoyed the encounters we have shared with the world over this past year and if I may leave you with a parting thought it would be this…

try always to live every day of your life. This is a wonderful world and we owe it to ourselves to drink in the wonders of creation.

Wednesday June 6th 2007. Lake Placid, New York.

2007-06-07T02:02:00.000+01:00

Robert Louis Stevenson spent the winter of 1887/1888 in Saranac Lake, New York. Some communities make the most of their history, no matter how tenuous the link and Stevenson in reality spent a very short period here.

That said the Scottish author did compose the twelve essays of the Charles Scribner series; The Master of Ballantrae and The Wrong Box whilst in Saranac.

It was to Saranac Lake that the author came from his home, in one of my former home towns, Bournemouth, England; enroute to the South Seas.

I have completed the journey the other way round and now from the South Seas I too make my stop at this humble home that was the New York resting place for a master literary craftsman.

Then its back on the road to Randolph via the Brick House Café in Brewerton.

Tuesday June 5th 2007. From Randolph. New York to Lake Placid.

2007-06-04T20:17:00.000+01:00

On the road again and I am heading up to Lake Placid through the beauty of the Adirondack Mountains. Enroute we stop in Brewerton at the Brick House Café for lunch.

The scenery was spectacular and Lake Placid itself is a most pleasing vacation destination. It was here in 1932 and again in 1980 that the Winter Olympics were held.

Tonight we dine at Charlies with a lovely view of Mirror Lake.

Monday June 4th 2007. Randolph, New York.

2007-06-03T19:59:00.000+01:00

Jamestown, once the home of a great furniture empire, a centre of cultural assimilation and what is often forgotten...a small city with a big history.

Jamestown's own Robert Jackson had an emminent career in the legal world rising to be the United States Chief Counsel at the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg...

"One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and the other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections".

Sunday June 3rd 2007. Randolph, New York.

2007-06-02T19:01:00.000+01:00

One of the most interesting and unexplored histories of this area is the Underground Railroad that brought escaped slaves north to Canada and freedom. In dear old Jamestown one such house existed on 7th Street where Catherine Harris carried out heroic services for fugitive slaves...sadly today this is a very poor area renowned for its social ills.

One of the cute links I find with this story is the fact that just as the ladies of Changi passed messages to their men in the quilts they made for their fellow inmates, so underground railroad messages were also passed in quilts crafted by slaves and containing coded locations of stops on the road to freedom.

Sunday morning in Randolph and after baking muffins we are off to Randolph United Presbyterian Church in God-fearing small town America.

In the afternoon we take to the water on my beloved Chautauqua Lake...Now I really feel at home. Summer is here and the Lake has come alive, in our case with David, Chris, Alice and I.

Saturday June 2nd 2007. Main Street, USA.

2007-06-02T17:56:00.000+01:00

After coffee on Main Street at Oregano's I am off to the school horse show.

Randolph Academy is a non-secure detention facility and it provides some of the most innovative and customer focused educational programmes I have seen anywhere in the world. From animal husbandry to hairdressing to catering skills the education offered is practically focused. The basic premise is that the education provided will allow the student participants to play an active role in the outside world when they leave school.

Many of the students here are the victims of abuse, some have found themselves on the wrong side of the law...but all are children, all are people and all deserve to be given a fair and equal chance to engage with society. I have nothing but admiration for the special educators who work here and for a curriculum that thinks out of the box.

It strikes me today just how difficult it must be for the staff here. On a day like today when some families have made the attempt to come and see their children and when the school is effectively open to the outside world; it must be almost impossible to monitor legal judgments that do not allow student and family members to be on their own unsupervised or that prevent student engagement with other peers.
I am more than impressed with the way the staff here monitor and care for the students.

After the show, where so many students I have known over the years are just so pleased to demonstrate their skills and show me their prizes, we head off to have sun tea with Gayle on her porch.

On March 14th 1878 Buffalo Bill Cody brought his "new and exciting border drama" to the stage of Jamestown's Allen Opera House. The site of the opera house is today the Reg Lenna Civic Center (a late 1800's theatre built on the site where the old opera burnt to the ground on January 21st 1881)...

Tonight nearly five years to the day since its original discovery the complete billboard that advertised that 1878 performance will go again on public view. After 129 years a piece of American cultural history again comes to life.

What makes this billboard so important is not just the fact that Buffalo Bill was one of the first people ever to use billboard advertising; but the fact that this work of art was actually used to promote the show. It was displayed for public knowledge and it was never intended to survive. It was never a collector's piece but rather it served its purpose and has only survived because it lay hidden behind a wall for some 124 years.

Mike, Alice and I are lucky enough to be witnessing history as the six panel billboard, believed to be the oldest in the United States (home of billboard advertising), is unveiled.

Laura Schell, the paper conservator, is a true artist. Salvaging and re-assembling the hundreds of pieces of paper that comprised the billboard, her work of conservation and restoration has brought to life a lost period of history. In the 1870's new posters tended to be pasted over older advertisements and so few originals survived. The Jamestown billboard was pasted to the wall of a building that sits on the corner of Third and Pine streets and its discovery was a matter of chance following the collapse of a brick wall in June of 2002.

This 26ft by 10ft billboard advertised a "border drama"; such shows were carried out by Buffalo Bill's theatre troupe a full decade before he began his Wild West shows. The particular show performed in Jamestown was based on the 1857 Mountain Meadow Massacre and it was staged here only a year after the execution of John Lee for his part in that massacre.

The world-premiere reading of the new play 'Behind The Buckskin Curtain: Buffalo Bill's Border World' tonight was sadly a disappointment. Whilst I could see where the playwright was trying to go with his work (in drawing parallels between the time of Buffalo Bill and the modern day) there were just too many loose threads. Further, in a good play the political messages are subliminal and not overt. From Shakespeare to Miller the writing was timeless though set in a specific time. What I mean by this is that the writings could be interpreted to any period because they covered universal themes...this play was far too trapped in Bush-era quips.

Tam's Birthday 2007 and I am in Randolph, New York.

2007-05-31T18:30:00.002+01:00

Shuffle off to Buffalo...

Henry Ford and Teddy Roosevelt, Harvey Firestone and Susan B. Anthony, literary and cultural icons, philosophy and William Glover...What do we all have in common I hear you ask? The answer lay until today in the Chautauqua Institution.

For all the years I have spent in Western New York, it was only a matter of time before I would beat a path to the Roycroft and further strengthen that Chautauqua link.

From 1895 until his death in the sinking of the S.S. Lusitania, Elbert Hubbard focused the attention of America and the wider civilised world on the town of East Aurora.

Hubbard, the one time sales partner at Buffalo's J.D. Larkin Soap Company, entered the world of publishing to "make a book like a William Morris book". As his fame grew so too did his Roycroft complex, modelled after William Morris' Kelmscott Press and Crafts complex in Hammersmith, which Hubbard had visited in 1894 in order to meet the great man.

By 1896 Hubbard's new print-shop was housed in a building that he modelled after the old chapel at Grasmere where Wordsworth is buried.

With the Roycrofters, East Aurora became a specialised centre not just for printing and bookbinding, but all manner of arts and crafts from mission-style furniture and leather goods to copperware and intellectual discourse.

Best known world-wide for the classic work A Message to Garcia which focused on the acceptance of responsibility and doing the "right job", Hubbard was the leading North American lecturer and literary figure of his day. His eminent circle ranged from Booker T. Washington to Andrew Carnegie and his Roycroft Inn and Campus became a cultural centre known for its unpretentious discourse and the industry of its employee-followers.

The Roycroft Campus continued as the leading American centre for the arts and crafts movement until 1938 and today beyond the Inn the movement is once again flourishing in former campus buildings.

In case you have not guessed, today I am in East Aurora to explore the Roycroft, to marvel at the beautiful crafted woods in the Inn, to dine whilst listening to Jazz played by Natural Elements and to visit Vidler's five and dime store and a Buffalo institution.

Thursday 31st May 2007. Randolph, New York.

2007-05-31T18:30:00.001+01:00

Back to school and back to curriculum development.

Today I am at the Board of Cooperative Educational Services Teaching and Learning Center in Cuba, New York.

Cuba is world famous for its cheese and I could not resist a little shopping whilst I was here.

Tonight we dined at The Old Library Restaurant in Olean. Built in 1909 and opened in 1910 the building (like so many libraries in both the United States and the United Kingdom) became a reality with the injection of Carnegie money. This particular building continued in existence as a library until 1974 and as well as its pleasant central rotunda the art works include a marble frieze depicting Alexander's triumphal entry into Babylon. The longbar once stood in Chicago's Cattleman's Restaurant, famously frequented by the notorious figures of the 20's and 30's.

Wednesday 30th May 2007. Jamestown, New York.

2007-05-31T18:21:00.001+01:00

Today I am busy with my chores. After putting out my washing I am off to Jamestown to do some work for my friend Marlene. Amongst the tasks, I carried out some chores for the Lucy Desi Museum and then in the afternoon I collected Elizabeth from school and we headed off to another Jamestown icon...Tastee Corners. With its booming rock 'n' roll music and neon signs this ice-cream shack is as American as apple pie.

BBQ was on the menu tonight whilst Marlene and I planted the summers pots and chatted with my neighbours on Pearl. After heading back over to Randolph there was a late evening tea party in the garden where Cathy (my only neighbour here on teacher alley that I hadn't seen since my return) and I were re-acquainted.

I do love being back in my American HOME after all my travels. In the seventeen months since I was last here so much has changed and it is great to feel that I am getting back into the swing of normal life again.

Tuesday 29th May 2007. Randolph. New York.

2007-05-29T15:49:00.000+01:00

Today I am back at work and trying desperately to get the blog up to date. Thanks for all the e-mails, I am trying and you should be updated real soon.

Tonight I took Alice to the 'Y' in Jamestown and I spent a quality evening visiting with Michael before I dined on a Jamestown institution...Lena's Pizza with Alice, David and Donna.

Rockin' Rocky

2007-05-29T15:43:00.004+01:00

For a few nights now a raccoon has been spotted at the Inn pestering patrons and frightening the cats.

Late Saturday evening as we returned to the family house on the property we discovered that the raccoon had been indoors and had both terrified the cats and consumed their food.

Not wishing the animal any harm we decided to trap it humanely and relocated it to a wooded area where it could live its days in its natural environment. Sunday came and we set the trap and sure enough Rocky was caught.

So we fed him and gave him water and he spent the night in his cage preparing for relocation the next day. On Monday we drove Rocky some sixty miles from home to a forest that covers thousands and thousands of acres and we set him free. Unusually for a raccoon he was reluctant both to leave the cage and then ultimately to leave us. It was only after the event that we realised that strictly speaking our actions may have seen us arrested for the illegal trapping and releasing of a wild animal.

This is when my thoughts turn to the difficulties of interpretation where the law is concerned. We may have been breaking the law by protecting an animal and caring for its needs and yet as we drove out through the woods today we saw a sign that read:

Turkey Hunters Beware, Identify your target!...I suppose it is a good idea that you don't shoot your dumb brother in the ass when all is said and done.

Memorial Day 2007. Orange, Virginia.

2007-05-29T15:43:00.003+01:00

It was 400 years ago this year that 104 men and boys crossed the Atlantic aboard three ships to establish the first permanent settlement in the New World in the name of King James - Jamestown is where cultures came together and where modern America was shaped. From the original toehold of the Virginia Company of London came the notions of representative government, the rule of law, individual opportunity, free enterprise, a common North American language and celebration of diversity.

Well Rocky made his presence felt during the night moving his cage a full ten feet and eating his way through an electric cable...but today he is set for release.

After a lovely breakfast amongst the guests on the sun-washed terrace I am off into town to attend the Memorial Day Parade. The only non-American here and yet I am the only attendee heading out from amongst the guests to the parade.

My first port of call though is Ed's gallery where he and I have a very interesting conversation based around the true meaning of life and the struggles we all have to face in crafting our way in the world.

AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE should REMEMBER THEM!

As the bell tolled out from Trinity Methodist Church and the vet's saluted the passing flag with chests puffed out you could not fail to be swept up in the emotion of conflicts past and present. The justifications for wars can be debated until time immemorial but the reality is that it is only right that we honour the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

I can though understand why this appears to some to be a slice to far of Americana. After the preaching from the minister of Orange Baptist Church (and we had the only white minister out of the ten plus Baptists ministers in the area) we saluted the flag and sang the national anthem before we all recited the pledge of allegiance.

This is the South and this was an Anglo-Saxon celebration and yes this was propaganda wrapped in red, white and blue right down to the lady in front of me and her Heart of America crocheted cardigan. From sea to shining sea and across thy fruited plain America rightly celebrated the sacrifices that have been, and are still being made.

Upon leaving Orange our task was first to release Rocky and then to take Vince back to Washington D.C..

After saying our final farewells to Rich and Vince in Alexandria, Alice and I headed over to St Elmo for lunch before we hit the road back to New York. As usual we made the most of our trip stopping to enjoy the views and even stopping for ice-cream at one of the sadly declining number of roadside diners.

Sunday 27th May 2007. Orange, Virginia.

2007-05-29T15:43:00.001+01:00

Today is a day at leisure when I work on the project and I even make a stab at the beginnings of the project book.

However we do head out both to Woodberry Forest School and to the Ed Jaffe Gallery where we get a private tour of works that I really enjoy.

Tonight we have a family Memorial Day BBQ (for which Ed joins us) and Rocky the Raccoon makes his starring appearance.

Saturday 26th May 2007. Virginia and it's Blue Ridge Mountains.

2007-05-29T15:41:00.000+01:00

In 1762 the Secret Treaty of Fontainebleau saw France cede the Louisiana territory to Spain in order to prevent it falling into British hands…the French continued to meddle in North American affairs and they became the first real ally of the new independent United States of America…naturally for their own political ends.

I begin my day with a stroll through downtown Orange and a visit to the Farmers Market before I go to view the Re-Visions exhibition of works by J.M. Henry and Farida Hughes at the Arts Center. Breakfast is at Not the Same Old Grind before Alice and I head out of town to visit what I find to be the most pleasing of presidential homes.

Ash Lawn-Highland was the home of president James Monroe; the man who held more major offices than any other American President. A total of 11 major offices of state ranging from Minister to France, Minister to Spain, Minister to the Court of St James, Secretary of State and Secretary of War, Governor of Virginia and fifth President of the United States of America.

As Jefferson’s special envoy it was Monroe who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and today his Monroe Doctrine would serve the current administration well as a cornerstone of foreign policy.

In Monroe’s time the house was known as Highland and as a protege of Jefferson it was to be the older man who both chose the site for the house and who would have his gardeners from neighbouring Monticello begin the orchards.

The first guests that the Monroe’s entertained here were their friends James and Dolley Madison and I love the fact that although this was a wealthy home, having more than one room, it did not stretch to the grand scales of many Virginia planters but rather remained a “cabin castle”.

Many of us think of the Eisenhower presidency as being the birth of America’s love affair with the car…and that is true. However, it was the Monroe presidency that began the birth of the love affair with the open road when Highway 40 became the first federally funded interstate roadway.

After a pleasant early afternoon in the sun-drench grounds of the Monroe home we head out to explore a local feat of engineering.

The Shenandoah Skyline Drive that follows the backbone of the Blue Ridge for 105 miles was built at a cost of $50,000 per mile and it remains one of the greatest Depression era projects. The work was completed between 1933 and 1939 by the men of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) as one of the many projects aimed at bringing American out of its economic black hole.

We join the drive at Rockfish Gap and dine at Loft Mountain taking in scenic overlook after scenic overlook. This is not a drive to get you from A to B, but rather a time to stop and saver all the natural beauty that this world offers and that we are all too often too busy to enjoy.

So in the early evening Alice and I hike to see Dark Hollow Falls...And to crown our wonderful day we enjoy a fine meal at the Inn this evening with Nan and Rich.

Friday 25th May 2007. Orange, Virginia.

2007-05-26T14:02:00.000+01:00

History of the times...In 1749 when George Washington was commissioned to survey the new county of Culpeper he was only 17 years old.
1760 saw the silk top hat was first introduced in Florence

AND John Brown's body helped ignite the Civil War with his bloody insurrection at Harpers Ferry.

After breakfast with Nan and Myrtle at the Greenock House Inn, Alice and I headed off for the day to Montpellier, the home of the United States fourth President and the Father of the Constitution James Madison.

Today this is a 2,650 acre estate that is home to both a flat track and a steeplechase course built by the last private owner Marion DuPont Scott. However the real history here pre-dates the DuPont era to the days when Montpelier was home to several generations of enslaved families who worked the plantation of Madison’s time.

The estate began life as Mount Pleasant with Madison’s grandfather Ambrose but it was James the gentleman farmer, who was to thrust the family into the limelight.

As father of the American Constitution and architect of the Bill of Rights (one wonders what Madison would think of the current erosion of civil liberty under the Bush administration?), he also served as Secretary of State for his friend, mentor and neighbour, Thomas Jefferson.

The Madison’s though were equally famous for the role played by Dolley, James’ wife and the only First Lady to serve a total of four full terms in office…(as Jefferson was a widow Dolley had fulfilled this role for the presidency that pre-dated her husbands).

Dolley was actually the first President’s wife to be given the title of First Lady and she is still considered to have been one of the most astute political hostesses of modern America.

It was Dolley who as First Lady refused to leave what we know today as the White House, until the portrait of George Washington had been secured, when the British burnt the city in 1814. The name White House only dates from around 1900 and the reason for the colouring of the building was a simple attempt to cover the burn marks stemming from the War of 1812.

I am lucky enough to be visiting this home at a time when it is being restored to the 1820’s era of James and Dolley.

The icon of the property remains The Temple which still shines out as a beacon of Madison’s notion of liberty and learning each leaning on the other for mutual support. His temple though is no folly. Madison was a practical man and whilst his temple reflected visually his dreams of an agrarian republic, it served practically as an ice-house.

The grounds of this property tell as many tales as the home and a stroll through the Landmark Forest gives you an idea of the resource base on which the new empire would be built.

A man of reason in an age of enlightenment, Madison saw the United States as taking its lead from the two great political experiments that were the Roman Republic and Ancient Greece. What may be telling for modern America is that both of these empires were brought down not by enemies from without, but from the enemy within.

The grounds also tell the social history of the time offering up a wealth of knowledge about the death ritual.

We have the family cemetery (the only resident non family member is one Frank Carson of Lislee, Ireland who owned the home in the mid-1800’s) and it is indistinguishable from any other European cemetery of the time; but we also have the slave cemetery with its markers at head and foot of the body and the rituals from night-time burial to the freeing of the spirit. Slave funerals were a celebrated blending of European and African tradition mixing both traditional beliefs and Christianity.

We headed on to round off our day with lunch at Mama’s in Gordonsville where Alice and I explore the town before heading back to Orange and evening supper with Nan and Drea.

Thursday 24th May 2007. New York to Virginia.

2007-05-26T14:01:00.000+01:00

After school Alice and I headed off in the car to Virginia. Our route took us down through the Allegheny State Park in Pennsylvania before a stop in Ridgway to have ice-cream at Two Scoops. Dropping down into Virginia I took the back roads all the way to Orange where we were welcomed by Nan to the family Memorial Day weekend.

Tuesday 22nd May 2007/Wednesday 23rd May 2007. Randolph, New York.

2007-05-22T22:15:00.002+01:00

I am now busy working on curriculum development with the partner educators in New York state.

Wednesday night...Tonight Alice, Marlene and I dined at Mariner's Pier out at Holiday Harbor before we went walking in Celoron (the childhood home of that local heroine Lucille Ball).

It was sad to see that even little old Celoron has not been left unaffected by the modern terror threat. At the Veteran's Memorial there is a special addition that was created in 2006 to mark the first loss of local life in the conflict in Iraq. Terror may seem a world away but we are reminded of its impact nearby with the memorial to Amy King the local girl killed as a flight attendant on board one of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center on the now infamous 9/11. From here we headed over to Lucy's childhood home that is currently being restored by a friend.

Monday 21st May 2007. Jamestown. New York.

2007-05-22T22:15:00.001+01:00

I spent this morning on the telephone with the TSA enquiring as to how they expect me to return my property to Scotland with two suitcases that are now broken (one completely beyond repair). Dealing with any administrative organisation is never fun and from one telephonic abyss to another I journey.

Eventually after exhaustive discussion I am informed that whilst the damage is regrettable it is not the responsibility of the TSA (who caused it)…but they will send me a form to complete and mail in and they will look at the complaint from there.

So after school today Alice and I headed over to Chautauqua and Mayville to help inspire in me the feeling of being home and now safe from all the trials of this last year.

It is wonderful to be back on familiar stomping ground and it is amazing how much things change in a short space of time. In the seventeen months since I was last here the old Red Brick Farm where we headed for coffee has been completely re-vitalised into a gourmet dining and boutique shopping experience.

Just driving around gave me a sense of the on-going development that has altered the landscape with new housing, a new hotel and the closure of old favourites adding to the vitality that is the changing landscape of life.

Tonight however was wonderfully familiar as I sat down to dinner at the Lucas household. It seemed like I had never been away. They say familiarity breeds contempt and that is true, but after all I have seen this past year I also realize that familiarity infact breeds greater comfort and joy!

Sunday 20th May 2007. New York City to Western New York State.

2007-05-22T22:02:00.001+01:00

Shannon, Alice and I had breakfast this morning at the Corner Bakery on 3rd Avenue. I am still feeling rather groggy but today I must journey from the city home to Randolph and the luxury of my own bed at long last.

Enroute Alice had a surprise destination in mind and so we found ourselves at the world’s largest kaleidoscope located in the Catskill Mountains. The Catskill Kaleidoscope at Emerson was a very interesting pit stop. Located so close to Woodstock, as I lay there on the floor watching the scenes change above me I could not help but feel a little closer to the hallucinogenic 60’s.

Afterwards we ate in one of those wonderful local roadside bakery’s that characterise the picture postcard view of the North Eastern United States. And Pineview Bakery on Route 28 certainly had its standardized locals, its long counter top, its large grill and its waitress ready with the coffee pot…Oh, yeh; and a few tourists too.

But with me this year there always seems to be a crisis and our trip to see the kaleidoscope got us ticketed by a state trooper. So with fine in hand we resumed our journey home.

Saturday 19th May 2007. The Big Apple.

2007-05-22T21:53:00.000+01:00

Today I really feel under the weather. This bug has all my bones rather sore and I seem to have no energy.

Determined not to waste my time though I decide to head out anyway and see how I get on.

We begin our morning exploring the Lower East Side taking a wander through the streets of one of the few areas of this city I have never previously explored. Then it was time for a pit-stop to have breakfast at what Time Out claim is the best brunch in the city.

It all looked lovely, but I hardly touched my food at the Clinton Street Baking Company before I was back on the subway and back to the apartment and to bed.

I resumed my day this evening by joining Shannon, Charlie and Alice for the dinner they had planned for me at the Atlantic Grill on Third Avenue, a very upscale experience where I ate as much as I could but did not do the food justice.

Friday 18th May 2007. New York State of Mind...

2007-05-18T00:24:00.001+01:00

Proud of my soldier ashamed of my President.
Support our troops not our President...It is refreshing to see that there are alternative political opinions in this country. Irrespective of whether you agree with such views or not it is good to see that the broader worlds' opinion of America the right wing extremist is not necessarily a reflection of the truth.

This morning I am off to the National Museum of the American Indian housed in the former US Custom House which stands on the ground where Fort Amsterdam was erected by the Dutch in 1626 to secure control of trade in the harbour. Indeed, nearby Wall Street is so named for a wall that was erected on that site by the Dutch in 1653 to keep out northern Indians.

George Gustav Heye founded the museum in 1916 and remained its director until 1956. He began his collections in 1896 with the purchase of an Apache Deerskin shirt and went on to accumulate the largest private collection of native American objects in the world.

Native American history and the relationship between people and a sense of place, historically and metaphysically, has been researched extensively both by the literary and the visual arts.

We often site the relationship between native peoples and "the land" as the root of tribal identities. Like the Aboriginal and Maori peoples encountered in this project, the Native American draws their origin stories and their understanding of the world around them from the geographical features of their landscape. Tribal identities are inextricably linked to the natural environment of their homelands.

The natural world is an identifier both literally and conceptually of tribal identity and the struggle between Native and non-Indian settlers over the use of land epitomises the central role that "the land" plays in native cultures. These disputes range from the use of land to farm commercially to the exploitation of natural resources and the Off The Map exhibition reflects the landscape as a place not just of history, but of expectation and ultimately of loss.

I particularly enjoyed the work of the self-taught James Lavadour who equates walking over the hills and mountains of his home community on the Umatilla Indian Reservation with the movement of his hand across the surface of his paintings. His Blanket (2005) and Wall {'Skiing to Hell' as Alice named it} (2006) were stunning.

What has interested me in visiting Aboriginal, Maori and Native American museums is the debate that rages over the souvenir...

Whilst many people argue that souvenirs made by native peoples are inauthentic, I argue that there are many issues we need to consider. Art needs to adapt to the changing social and physical circumstances in which we live. It has to adapt to new ideals and new materials. Traditions are vital to this ability to adapt to change because they allow us to maintain our values. Adaptability after all allows for survival physically, emotionally and culturally and we need to remember that for many peoples the making of souvenirs is a viable option for survival.

Souvenirs are art and the purist must recognise that the market is simply different, there are still buyers and sellers and people still exchange.

This building is a work of art in itself. 100 years old this year, the building is home to stunning rotunda murals that are the work of Reginald Marsh.

In 1937 under the WPA (Work Progress Administration) programme, Marsh was commissioned to decorate the panels of the Custom House rotunda in what is one of the finest examples of beaux arts architecture in the city. Beaux Arts with its monumentality, accurate symmetry and elaborate ornamentation unites both the classical Greek and Roman schools.

From here we head to Alice's Teacup at 64th and Lexington for afternoon tea, before we head into Central Park to see the statue of Alice in Wonderland and to watch the turtles messing about in the Turtle Pond.

On a day of art I must mention Cleopatra's Needle...I know all the world's major cities seem to have one but this obelisk dating from 1600bc made its way here courtesy of Vanderbilt money and that links us back to The Getty and the fortunes like Mr Deering's that whilst removing art works actually helped preserve them.

On our way home we stopped for coffee at Dean and Deluca.

Tonight we are off to see a show like no other I have ever seen in New York City. Shannon and Charlie are taking us to the HIRO Ballroom in Chelsea to see Meow Meow, a drag artist who performs as a poor copy that mixes elements of Patsy and Edina…unfortunately Meow Meow is not absolutely fabulous.

The venue is filled to bursting with the ultra-cool. This is the place to see and be seen tonight if you are a trendy New Yorker. Here the upwardly mobile of the metropolis are feeling very intelligent and superior, and dare I say it, a little risky. They are applauding loudly at behaviour you would scold a child for and laughing whimsically at humour that would fail to impress in an undergraduate theatre studies class.

What cannot be denied is that this is an excellent piece of marketing. Taking these so establishment customers and letting them taste the risk that is involved in the cross-dressing fanciful world of others…but all for a price.

Anyway I round the night off with that New York staple, Pizza…and boy was it good.

Thursday 17th May 2007. Finally in New York City...

2007-05-17T23:56:00.000+01:00

Here I go with my diatribe...The Americans notion of service is a joke. From the country that claims to have invented good customer service they really don't know the first thing about what customer relations mean.

Let's begin at the beginning...When I get to Miami International Airport, Continental Airlines are insistent that check-in is via machine. Only when the machine refuses to read my passport or booking does a person finally agree to check me in. The ladies behind the counter are more concerned with their job descriptions and working to rule than they are with serving customers.

In the United States they now have this idiotic public show of re-screening bags that are locked. The idea, I presume is to make us all feel safer in the air, and not to intrude on the individuals personal liberty under the guise of security?

When I flew from Los Angeles a few weeks ago I took my bags for re-screening by the TSA (Transport Security Administration).

I asked about this in Miami and I am told that my bags are OK to travel. Well when I get to LA (where I have to collect my bags because Continental refuse to check them through to New York City because the last leg is an American Airlines flight) I discover that the TSA has burst open the locks on my new bag and wrapped the bag in cling film...What gives them the right?

If they had wanted to search my bags again then they could have paged me at the airport.

So I trundle off still with a painful shoulder, hand and neck over two terminals to check-in for my NYC flight. Again American Airlines are requiring check-in by machine and again it does not work and I am eventually served by a very arrogant woman who effectively tells me I am an idiot. She condescends to tell me that I will not understand the difference between a ticket and a reservation...and here is the saga.

When I arrived in the USA I contacted Qantas to confirm the next leg of my journey and I was told two things. One, that I must fly back from Miami to Los Angeles to validate the next portion of my round-the-world ticket and two, that I needed to contact American Airlines to book the cross USA section.

I did this and American Airlines gave me a flight reservation which I reconfirmed. Now the agent can see the reservation but she insists I must travel to yet another terminal to see the Qantas agents for them to release the ticket. So carrying all my luggage, in my neck brace I head over to Qantas to get them to release the ticket; even though the ticket is in the system.

Qantas tell me I have a ticket and send me back to the American Airlines terminal telling me that American must let me board. Back again at American Airlines and again they refuse to let me board my flight unless I want to buy a one-way first class seat for $5000. I refuse and point out that I have gone fully through the system and that the problem is with them.

At last it is all over and I am off to security to get to my gate...Lucky I had a five hour lay-over as it has taken three and a half hours just to argue my way into my own seat.

...but then. I am selected for the full pat-down (which is fine in this security conscious age) but my two carry on bags are also selected for full screening. What I object to is the way in which this is carried out. Everything is dumped out without thought or consideration and all my little notes fly across the floor. When the girl finishes she simply walks off leaving the mess for me to clear up saying "have a good one now".

These people are still public servants answerable I would hope to the taxpayer and yet they act in an arrogant and superior manner that reflects their social and cultural ignorance.

It was all I could do not to land one on the TSA pat-down guy who thought he was a comedian by mimicking my accent for the amusement of his friends. If we did not live in such an age of over sensitive security I would have complained, but there seemed no point creating a drama and I don't want to miss this flight as it is one step closer to blighty.

In all my years of coming to America the last few have really limited my view of the country. I was at one time the most pro-American educator you could meet, but as time has gone on I have become more and more aware of the arrogance and ignorance that causes the hatred for this great country exhibited by the rest of the world. For the first time ever I am of the view that it would not bother me if I never returned here.

The final sting in the saga comes when I get to the gate and they tell me they have no seat for me although I do get onboard and make the journey eventually.

You have to accept that these people are only implementing the rules when all is said and done, yet it annoys me that we cannot question 'why'. Questioning is not the accepted practice. The agents are here to implement the rules even if they do not understand them and please do not ask them to interpret what the rules actually mean, we all must simply follow like helpless sheep.

I do enjoy the fact that on this 5hr+ flight you can watch the "free" movie if you buy a headsset and you can have water if you buy a bottle and you can eat if you buy a snack...so this is service? It is embarassing that the countries flag-carrier offers such poor service in the world's leading nation.

Not even a peanut, just a very small coke as my comlimentary drink and I ponder just what this full service carrier is actually offering. It makes you wonder why they need all these inflight staff? For an airline that claims to pride itself on customer service, you cannot talk to a service representative but you can talk to the airline through the anonymity of their website.

The talk around me on this flight is of jobs and position and salaries. This is a hideously obsessed nation when it comes to money and the garbage I have just heard spoken in the name of commerce is astoundingly, though sadly not, unbelievable.

To crown this journey when I get my luggage at JFK Airport the indestructible coffin has also been burst open...only in America!

Travel may broaden the mind but it also can break the soul. It makes you aware that we do not live in one world but infact in a world horribly divided between the "have's" and the "have not's" and that within these groupings dangerous cracks appear.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Well after all the saga, I am finally at Shannon and Charlie's with my now destroyed luggage and not being positively disposed towards the United States.

I am off this morning to a UNICEF briefing at the United Nations building. The speaker is a UN official who has managed UNICEF activities in a variety of arenas around the world and who I am to discover is politically a member of the Christian right.

She came to her present role through the World Council of Churches. This raises for me the question, should people in such high positions within UNICEF be religiously biased or does this indeed equip them better i.e. spiritually, to deal with the rights of children?

In the modern world, as throughout the ages, the people most likely to be disenfranchised are children. Indeed, today in many developing countries, such as those in the Aids ridden continent of Africa, we often find half the population under the age of fifteen years.

The United Nations was founded on the principal of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and whilst UN development agencies are apolitical, this does not necessarily mean that the wider world does not percieve western dominance in these agencies.

A question that I have often Headquarpondered is why is such an economic money spinner as the International ters of the United Nations located here in the First World; indeed in the world's wealthiest nation? Should such an economic giant not be located in a developing nation? Would this not help bring prosperity and stability to a countrty in sub-Saharan Africa? But then again, do they have the necessary social, cultural and diplomatic as well as practical infrastructure needed? If such infrastructure does not exist, should we not lead by example?

The needs of the populous differ with age i.e.health issues for children differ greatly from those of adults.

UNICEF works with social workers, educators and health professionals in offering support. However when I heard of their key role in teacher training and counselling the image was one of your standard politically correct group talking about issues but doing nothing practical.

That said UNICEF as an organisation works at governmental level through creating protocol's such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which only two countries have refused to sign. One of these is Somalia (which has not had an effective government for the last fifteen years) and the other is the United States of America.

UNICEF is constrained by working through the United Nations notion that we have to work through governments if we wish to bring massive change, and it is true that you do need the legislative to work in harmony with the grassroots. However we must note that governemnts making decisions in the United Nations on their own will not stop phenomena on the ground.

And this is not to say that UNICEF does not do a great deal of work in vaccines funding and training of health workers in particular as grassroots activities. UNICEF also tries to get to the grassroots by working with non-governmental organisations.

UNICEF has been a pioneer in collecting data for advocacy work , but how productive is this? It has a strategic planning role, but people want fed today.

It is the people at the margins who need intervention the most and many of the most marginalised people don't want to be brought in.

It was interesting that at one point the speaker got her UN and her US policy mixed up. A freudian slip maybe, but when she talked of ending the powers of tribal chiefs and educating them in the ways of democracy there appeared to be a 'Bush agenda' going on. Are we certain that creating democracy along US lines brings civilisation, or does it kill a civilisation in the name of progress?

We have to remember in politics as in any struggle, that people get stuck with a label and a lack of hope and they end up on a downward spiral. They see that there is so much involved in seeing someway out that they don't even bother...What international organisations must do is offer some hope!

After a heavy political morning we head over to Houstons on 54th and 3rd to have lunch before our meeting at the education department of the Central Park Conservancy.

Wednesday 16th May 2007...The Epic Journey.

2007-05-15T22:35:00.000+01:00

Today I will make a somewhat idiotic journey to get to New York City.

Because of the way airlines ticket flights and because I must take the next section of my economy round-the-world ticket from Los Angeles;

I am flying from Miami to Houston to connect to Los Angeles...just to then fly to New York City. A journey that will take me from leaving Wendy's at 9am to arriving at Shannon and Charlie's at hopefully 8am tomorrow!...Such madness cannot be environmentally friendly when New York City is a two and a half hour direct flight from Miami?

Tuesday 15th May 2007. Miami, Florida.

2007-05-14T22:14:00.000+01:00

Florida factoid...The Florida Keys' are home to the legend that is the Overseas Highway, that 113 mile drive on US Highway 1 from mainland Florida to Key West. A marvel of engineering the concrete expanse stretches over huge areas of water with the Atlantic to the left and the Gulf to the right. These waters teem with fish and a coral life that lies just below the teal coloured waters that are dotted with islands.

This morning I started my breakfast with fresh-pressed organic sugarcane juice (very healthy, but not very tasty)...But I needed it. I got word today that a letter had arrived in Scotland regarding my car accident saying that the other party are denying negligence and so I will need to pay the hospital bills and then sue for damages if I wish to proceed...what a saga. America is so litigious and every drama seems to become a crisis.

Today I aim to visit a Miami-Dade Police Station for the photo opportunity, my dad is a huge CSI fan...but as Wendy said...only if we are visiting and not as part of one of my calamities!

Lunch is on Lincoln Road at Pasha's where I have the classic yani before I head off to enjoy Britto Central.

The Pasha concept developed out of a Harvard Business School project that aimed to make healthy Mediterranean cuisine easily available to customers in various formats, from quick service to delivery and catering. The menu is inspired by the cuisine of Levant.

Romero Britto's Gallery is an explosion of colour from the Absolut Vodka bottles, to china and sculptures to my favourite, Winter, an acrylic and oil pen on canvas.

Also on display you will find the Alexandra Scott Butterfly Award, given each year to an exceptional child hero who helps others in need, as part of the Volvo for life Awards; this piece is a collaboration of Romero and Tiffany & Co.

His vivid colours, joyful themes and bold compositions make him the premiere pop artist of our time, merging expressionist colours with the compositional elements of cubism to present playful and youthful themes that are optimistic and joyful.

My next stop is the Miami Beach Garden Center a botanical garden that although small is a wonder of vibrant tropical colour.

Tonight Wendy and I dine at Sawaddee on Bay Drive...and a last Miami fact, this Normandy Isle area was named by the property developer Henri Levy in the early twentieth century after his native France.

Monday 14th May 2007. Enough Already Its' Miami, Florida.

2007-05-14T05:18:00.000+01:00

Today I am moving from the Hispanic theme of yesterday to the other major culture here in Miami, Judaism.

I am visiting the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial 'A sculpture of love and anguish' bearing a message that we must never forget.

Though their bodies have perished, their souls and their spirit will forever remain immortal.

The sculpture is a dramatic tribute to the six million Jewish victims of Nazi terrorism during the second world war. The holocaust was the premeditated and systematic murder of millions of people during the planned destruction of European Jewry.

In the worst human catastrophe in modern history an entire people and their age-long culture was destined to become extinct.

In a powerful display of pain and suffering, at the centre of the memorial stands a bronze arm and hand stretched toward the sky. Struggling to climb it are life-sized sculptures depicting the horrified victims.

Remember that as a by-product of the Zyklon B fuelled gas chambers, human bones were crushed for fertiliser, hair was made into military blankets and soap was crafted from human fat.

Surrounding the monument a photographic history of some of the darkest years of human existence are etched into black granite where the walls chronicle the images of the infamous death camps.

The work of Kenneth Treister the memorial is a construction of Jerusalem stone and marble. The sculpture itself stands as part of a lily-filled reflection pool where I take time to sit awhile and ponder on the many questions we all face in our lives.

**********

This is a vital memory that cannot be forgotten and this is a good piece of work, but it is not excellent. The most famous resistance to this horror came in the shape of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 19th 1943 which held the Germans at bay for some 27 days (the whole of France fell in only 14 days).

We owe it to this memory to get all our facts correct. There are some questionable facts here and with such a powerful statement everything must be accurate or else you are opening up the flood gates of bias. It would also have paid to have employed a good English teacher before etching this somewhat grammatically, and at times chronologically, challenged work.

I for one find that the statement

While The World Watched....
While The World Listened....
And Remained Silent..........

to be an interpretation rather than a historically accurate description of this story. 'The World' made mistakes but it fought a bloody conflict during the days of the holocaust to bring freedom and liberty.

Opened in February 1990, the greatest reflection on this work comes from Sabina Frydman a survivour of Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and the "March of the Dead"...

"This memorial is very dear to me. It is like our cemetery, where our names are inscribed...When school children visit the Memorial, their response is unbelievable. Some get very sad and some cry. We speak out against all prejudice...we want the children to know this".

Tonight Wendy and I dine on the Cuban delicacy of Pollo Tropical and black beans, it was lovely.