Netherhall News January 2010

Don’t I know you?Don’t I know you?Residents see double at 2009 Christmas showResidents see double at 2009 Christmas show

London, January 2010Issue 32

a bi-monthly magazinebbbbbbbiiii ttttthhhhhlllll iiiiiiiiNetherhall News

The State of FaithThe State of FaithA frank look at religion’s role in state educationA frank look at religion’s role in state education

Netherhall NewsLondon, January 2010Issue 32

a bi-monthly magazine

... IN THIS ISSUE

Netherhall NewsCONTENT EDITOR Zubin MistryMANAGING EDITOR, DESIGN & SETTING Luke WilkinsonCONTRIBUTIONS AND ADVICE Peter Brown, Fr Joe Evans, Simon Jared, João Bettencourt, Prakarsh Singh, Frank Pells, Neil Pickering, Chima OkezuePHOTOGRAPHY Raffy Rodriguez, Frank Pells, Neil PickeringERRAND BOY Filip KopijerCHOCOLATIER James Mwaniki

CIRCULATION

Netherhall News is sent by e-mail to current and past residents of Netherhall House. It is also available at http://www.nh.netherhall.org.uk/magazine/magazine.htm

CONTACT US Would you like to be included in our mailing list, contribute to or express your opinion on Netherhall News? Write to:LUKE WILKINSON

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or E-MAIL: [email protected]

special features

the state of faith • religion and education in broken britain

saviour siblings • negotiating the ethical minefi eld

terror trials • playing devil’s advocate remembering ‘sam’ • a tribute to gani fawehinmi

friends reunited pickering goes east

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10

11

12

17

regular features

editorial

director’s notes

mind boggler

athlete’s foot

passing through

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5

15

16

21

FRONT PAGE:

Pablo Hinojo im-personates fellow resident Jimin Kang alongside Simon Jared at the 2009 Christmas show

from theNetherhall News January 2010 3

Editor’s DeskEditor’s DeskOccasionally the breezy routine

of life is rudely interrupted by a deep questioning of the self,

the kind of questioning which has the power to transform how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others. And lately I’ve had to draw on my meagre reserves of courage to face up to one such question. Should I get a haircut? Closely related to this is another question. When did I last get a haircut? Working out the answer to either question is no easy task. In fact, it’s beard-scratchingly diffi cult.

Th ere are other questions which tend to spring from these openers and, rather uncomfortably, they tend to be posed by someone brandishing a sharp object. If – and it’s an if – you do settle upon paying the hairdresser a visit, you’ll inevitably be asked, ‘So, what would you like?’ Th e only correct answer involves negatives. In my case, I simply don’t want to relive any of the following examples from the extensive catalogue of follicular sins which have blighted my past: the junior dictator, the geeky pirate, the inadvertent bouff ant, the side-curler, the Joe Pesci (several variants thereof, minus Pesci’s style), the hobo-hobbit and - undoubt-edly worst of all – the ‘step’, which was quite as bad as it sounds, if not worse.

But shame invariably prevents me from divulging the list and the dated exem-

plars of fl oppy-haired models pouting down from the walls don’t off er much sympathy. Defeated, I’ll pipe up with a timid, ‘Oh, just cut a bit and we’ll see’ And there I am, at the hairdresser’s mercy. Th ere are few areas in life in which we knowingly hand over well-earned (or even ill-begotten) cash for an experience which will leave us poorer in more ways than one, but it’s the com-mon thread which joins together trips to the hairdresser and trips to the cinema to watch the twelfth instalment of the Saw franchise.

Th is may well seem rather silly and over-blown but history’s on my side. When I was seven or eight, I got nicked by a pair of clippers wielded by a sadistically clumsy barber and the mental scars have yet to heal. Th ankfully the physical scars healed last Th ursday. As the old cliché goes, those who cannot learn from his-tory are doomed to repeat it: back in the day, I got the ‘step’ done not once but twice, and the hairdresser declined to mention the fl urry of stick I would get at school.

But history’s also on my side in a slightly larger sense than the admittedly fascinat-ing history of me, myself and I. All over the place, hair is a vexed subject. As the covers of countless Latin textbooks will attest, the Romans tended to be rather clean-cut and cropped. Hairiness was more a barbarian thing. In the fourth century, Sidonius Apollinaris described one bunch, the Burgundians, as seven-foot giants who chomped on onions and smeared their long hair with rancid but-ter. And after the Roman empire disinte-grated in the west – partly, one imagines, because Romans agonised so much over making sure they were carefully cropped and cleanly shaven – one important dynasty, the Franks, came to be known as the reges criniti, the ‘long-haired kings’. Long hair was the mark of the chief, the chap at the top (something I’ve been trying to impress upon Netherhall’s own director for quite a while now).

Hair was central to the mythologies of tribal identities. How did the Lombards, or Langobardi, get their name? Back in the day, the story goes, there was a small tribe called the Winnili. A woman, Gambara, ruled over them with her two sons, Ybor and Agio. Th e leaders of another tribe, the Wandals, moved in with their army and demanded a tribute. Th e Winnili refused. So the Wandal lead-ers asked Godan, the king of the gods, to give them victory. Godan replied that he would grant victory to whoever he saw fi rst at sunrise. Th is was a bit of a problem for the Winnili – there weren’t that many of them after all. So Gambara approached the goddess Frea, Godan’s wife. She advised the Winnili to come at sunrise with their women, each of whom was to let her hair down around her face like a beard. At sunrise, Frea awoke Godan, who saw the Winnili with their women. ‘Who are these Long-Beards?’ he asked, before giving them victory. Th e name (Langobardi) stuck.

Hair was important and losing it was no small thing. In seventh-century Iberia, the Visigothic king Wamba punished the rebel Paulus by chopping off his hair rather than his head. But Wamba got his dues when a young man called Erwig cut off the king’s own crown of hair as he lay sleeping. To be tonsured – with the crown of your hair cut off in that distinctive ‘medieval’ way – was the mark of a monk, so Wamba (like Paulus

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Things have gotten a little hairy for ZUBIN MISTRY.

Zubin Mistry sporting the Joe Pesci look

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‘Short back and sides?’

Netherhall News January 2010 4

before him) went off to the monastery and Erwig became king. In other words, and as I told my parents throughout my teenage years, forcing someone to have a haircut is nothing short of barbaric. And in a more serious sense too. Lopping off hair has, of course, been a punishment meted out to women across societies, refl ecting the sometimes scrupulous, scrutinising gaze to which women are subject (though it’s a small consolation that women came off better than men when Soul-Glo perms were all the rage). With great tenderness and wit, the singer Jake Th ackray imagined such scrutiny in his song ‘Th e Hair of the Widow of Bridlington’, the story of a young widow, ‘small and bonny at forty-two / with eyes of very unsettling blue’:

My only darling’s dead, he is, and all my children grown;Th e house has emptied, all the love-birds fl own.In place of widow’s weeds I’ll let my coal black hair grow long:As glossy as a blackbird’s wing, as cocky as his song.

After she found a raucous new lease of life, the ‘neighbours sniff ed, as neigh-bours do’. Eventually, their cankerous rancour grew into a rage until they mobbed her house, broke her windows, spat upon her cycle shed, cropped her hair and shaved her head. After her sobs died down, the widow of Brid swept up her hair, bought a wig, and set off ‘to cause a stir / in poor old bloody Scarbor-ough’:

Forget the spit and the window pane.Bugger Brid! I’m still the same.My hair will always grow again.It did, it did, it did.My hair will always grow again.It did, it did, did, did, on the widow of Brid.

But the importance of uncropped hair was not entirely a barbarian thing. Philosophers got in on the act too. In Classical times, there were plenty of arguments about whether or not men of learning should have a beard. Th e Stoic philosopher Epictetus would rather have had his head chopped off than his beard and in the second century the emperor Marcus Aurelius (another Stoic) ignited a furore when he created four chairs

of philosophy in the school at Athens. When the holder of one of the chairs died, two candidates emerged: the aged, unshaven Diocles, and the younger, smooth-chinned Bagoas. Th e latter’s appointment set off a squabble. How

could Bagoas inspire confi dence in his students if he didn’t have a beard, some asked quite reasonably. But clearly not everyone agreed. Bagoas countered by saying that if beards were so important then the chair of philosophy should go to a billy-goat.

Diff erent philosophical schools were notable for their diff erent attitudes to hair. Th e austere Cynics had the mangi-est beards, while the Peripatet-ics, followers of Aristotle, who had more time for such things as social standing and, pos-sibly, hygiene, trimmed theirs. And in the fourth century, the emperor Julian (the last pagan emperor), a notable beardy whose fuzz was sub-ject to ridicule, wrote a satire against clean-shaven philoso-phers called the Misopogon, the Beard-Hater. So, if you’ve ever wondered why busts of Socrates bear more than a passing resemblance to Brian Blessed, you now know why: philosophy and facial hair have a long, entwined and fraught history. And not just facial hair. Descartes had a respectable mop, Locke had an admirable

mullet, Schopenhauer had whiskers to match his horns and Leibniz somehow managed to write about everything de-spite presumably having to spend hours each morning coiffi ng up his frankly stupefying do.

My historical allegiances necessarily lie with post-Roman ‘barbarians’ and hairier schools of philosophy rather than with eff ete Romans though we’ll let the rancid butter slide (not in the Burgun-dian sense). And this should be pause for thought for those historically myopic fools who think anything other than a crew cut is girly (which also overlooks girls who have crew cuts), Unfortunately, in my extensive experience, the kind of person who’s going to beat you up for having girly hair isn’t all that interested

in early medieval regal coiff ure or preso-cratic muttonchops. Maybe it’s a sign of the times that on the night bus, the fact that Charlemagne’s biographer drew at-tention to his beautiful white hair doesn’t hold much weight. Ours is a sadly depil-ated age. Next time a crew-cut barbarian sticks to his guns despite hearing how the Lombards got their name, I’ll go down fi ghting: ‘You’ll have to tonsure me!’ It’s got to be better than the ‘step’, right?

“ ”In the fourth century, Sidonius Apollinaris described one bunch of barbarians, the Burgundi-ans, as seven-foot giants who chomped on onions and smeared their long hair with rancid butter.

from the Editor’s Desk, cont...

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Leibniz auditioning for the Soul Glo commercial

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Director’s NotesDirector’s NotesPETER BROWN fi lls up on Carols and Punch at the end of another great term in Netherhall

The Christmas vacation has arrived and by the time you read this most residents will be back at home. It’s been another great term and another great group of resi-

dents. Looking back on the term there were plenty of high-lights.

As ever, the formal occasions passed off very well. Th e start of term dinner in mid-October was, as usual, a good icebreaker with new and old residents being forced to sit together for 90 minutes without being able to rush off or be distracted by mobile phones. Th e Christmas dinner and show at the start of December was perhaps the single most enjoyable evening of the term. Th e dinner took the customary format, which former residents will recognise. Th e staff did a great job serving the food and then we had speeches from a new resident and an old resident an-swered by the director. Th is year we invited Neil Pickering as a special guest to thank him for the constant work he does for the House. Neil is the chairman of Netherhall Educational Association and maintains links with a vast number of former residents around the world and in particular in Asia. In his speech Neil was able to tell us something of what it was like to live in the House some three decades ago. He observed that whilst the material state of the House has improved (everyone has a single room now, for example), the spirit was the same as then as it is now. In fact, Neil has moved back to the site. He is the new director of Rutland, the centre of Opus Dei that sits above the suite corridor.

Th e other guest of honour at the House dinner was Pat Perry. Pat has been with Netherhall since the new buildings were com-pleted in 1994. As anyone who has lived here sine 1994 will know, Pat is the man who single-handedly keeps the buildings together and in good repair. In my speech at the end of the dinner I was able to thank Pat on behalf of all the residents for the tremendous job he does.

For the last few years we have had a play at Christmas and the House dinner has been followed immediately by a perform-ance of the play. As a consequence we haven’t had a Christ-mas show for some years. Th is year, with the play scheduled for February, the show was reinstated after the Christmas dinner. And what a show it was! It lasted nearly two hours but at no point did it drag. Th ere are some quite outstand-ing performers in the House. Pablo Hinojo’s impressions of residents were so funny that it hurt and I was amazed at the energy that Raff y Rodriguez from Malaysia demonstrated in his dance routine.

We had two magnifi cent concerts this term. A recital for cello and piano by Oscar Alabau and Ricard Rovirosa, and a recital for piano by João Bettencourt. We are really blessed to have such outstanding musicians in the house and I am indebt-ed to all of them for being so willing to perform for us. In January we are looking forward to the arrival of Ben Schoeman, the 2009 winner of the Royal Overseas League

Neil Pickering with current resident Temirlan Shaikhutdinov

Pablo Hinojo impersonates fellow resident Miguel Anton, in a sketch with Simon Jared


competition. He will be staying here whilst studying at the Guildhall school of Music. It promises to be another great term of music.

As in previous years, Carols and Punch was a very popular event. Eoin McCarthy (2006-2008) led an outstanding choir and Simon Jared demonstrated considerable talent as Santa.

An event that can’t go unmentioned in this list of highlights is the completion by Russell Wilcox (2004-2007) of his doctorate. Yes, he has fi nally fi nished and passed his viva! All those sceptics who thought he would never fi nish because he spent all his time doing work (or other activities) unrelated to his PhD have been proved wrong. Russell is now going full steam ahead with two books, one of which is for Oxford University Press. He’s also tak-ing up an appointment with the University of Navarre as an assistant Professor to teach….sociology.

Over Christmas we are refurbishing the lounge. We are improving the lighting, installing new audio equipment and putting a new projector into the ceiling. Th e room should look great and make presentations simpler.

Finally, our best wishes go to João Bettencourt who will be baptised this Christmas back home in Portugal. We shall be keep-ing him very much in mind. I wish a happy and peaceful Christmas to all current and former residents of Netherhall House.

Pat Perry, Peter Brown and Martin Hagitte at the house dinner

Director’s Notes, cont...

Eoin McCarthy (third from right) leads the choir at this year’s Carols and Punch

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GUEST SPEAKER SERIES, 23rd November 2009

The democratic state has a duty to allow and to provide funding for religious ‘faith’ schools. Th us

argued Professor Gerald Grace, Director of the Centre for Research and Develop-ment in Catholic Education (CRDCE) at London’s Institute of Education. It was this notion, that the state should not merely tolerate but should actively support faith schools that was the crux of Professor Grace’s argument and proved to be the most controversial aspect of his views on education. Professor Grace had prepared his argument well having recently given it to the Socialist Edu-cational Conference in Stoke-on-Trent and said that that he was anticipating a warmer reception than he had been given there. Th e main arguments that Professor Grace put forward for why faith schools should be allowed in a democracy were as follows. Th ere is a considerable histori-cal precedent for religious organisations to be involved in the running of schools. Th erefore for the state to mandate the abolition of faith schools would be entirely undemocratic because the state has a duty to recognise the diff erent faith communities that live within its jurisdiction. Also where, historically, ‘faith education’ has been provided for members of one faith, it cannot be denied to members of another (at least as long as there are enough members of that faith-community to establish a viable school). As long as faith schools fulfi l national require-ments for numeracy and literacy etc. they should be allowed - and even encouraged - as an expression of citizens’ liberty and society’s pluralism within a modern democracy. Professor Grace also argued that, contrary to a common miscon-ception, faith schools

simply do not ‘force religion down children’s throats’. Even if they did, to raise a child in an entirely secular school with no mention of religion, or to give it only a very superfi cial treatment (for example in R.E.) would be, eff ectively, ‘forcing atheism down a child’s throat’. He also went on to assert that parents are the primary educators of their children (something this author feels Ed Balls et al. would do well to remember) and that just as an atheist couple would discourage their child from be-lieving in a god (and of course would not send their child to a religious school) so too should religious parents be al-lowed to encourage their child to believe in God and send their child to a school that shares their own religious ethos. So much for the right of faith schools to exist. Th e controversy really began when Professor Grace went on to explain why the state should not only allow faith schools to exist, but why it should even pay for such schools to exist, indeed, why the state has the duty to subsidise religious schools.

Th e argument put forward was, essen-tially, simple: without state funding these religious schools have to charge fees. Th is amounts to an eff ective discrimination against the members of a particular faith community from deprived backgrounds by the school in question, discrimina-tion however which is encouraged by the state which refuses to subsidise the school. Professor Grace drew on his own experience here of having seen private

Catholic schools teaching only students from privileged backgrounds because they had no money from the state and in so doing becoming a living contradiction of their founders’ ideals that education, and particularly in this instance, Catholic education should be provided for every-one, especially for those who cannot pay for it themselves.

In fact, such schools had been founded before the state ever had a duty to pro-vide education. Grace also argued that allowing only the rich to enjoy religious

education fuelled class war as the poor slowly started to associate the rich with ‘crazy religious ideas’ in which they have not been raised, or, more likely, they envied the rich for having been given the education that was denied them. Th us religious communities become divided, and the tensions that exist in any society between rich and poor are heightened by religious diff erences. In the case of fee-charging reli-gious schools awarding scholarships much like

The State of Faith Faith schools are not just a political concession,

but an obligation. FRANK PELLS reports

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For the state to mandate the abolition of faith schools would be entirely undem-ocratic because the state has a duty to recognise the different faith communi-ties that live within its jurisdiction

“”

Professor Gerald Grace speaking with Netherhall chaplain Fr. Joseph Evans


any other private school, a lot of religious schools (particularly Catholic schools) are heavily over-subscribed, and so there might not be enough room for there to be students on scholarships - and this would penalise unfairly the students who had the money to go to such a school but could not due to lack of places, as well as the ungifted students who did not have the money. Th e oversubscription of many religious schools (particularly in the cases where they are paid for by the state) is another reason in itself why the state must subsidise these schools, ac-cording to Grace; the implication being that really there should be more in order to meet demand. Professor Grace’s other argument for why the state should subsidise religious ‘faith’ schools was an appeal to the audience’s sense of justice: if the state has a duty to provide its citizens with education then those who provide this service for the state, following the state’s own criteria for education (albeit enlarged, to include the religious element) should receive some compensation from the state, in recognition of the service that they provide to society. Th e expectation that these schools should provide society with ‘something for nothing’ and that parents should eff ectively pay for their children’s education ‘twice’ (once through taxes and again through fees) is unfair. In Britain however, with the welfare state, the idea that the rich should

provide ‘something for nothing’ is all too prevalent - and in these ‘bail-out’ times it seems futile to try to justify the state subsidy of faith schools by making an appeal in the name of justice on behalf of the rich. In my experience of teaching at a private, religious school in Spain I think the most valid argument for the state subsidy of faith schools is that where religious schools are private through a lack of public funding, the social division that occurs as ‘the poor slowly start to associ-ate the rich with ‘crazy religious ideas’ in which they have not been raised ... and envy the rich for having been given the education that was denied them’ becomes so prevalent as to be obvious even to an outside observer. In this case though, the history of tension between the Catholic Church in Spain and the Spanish government and people needs to be taken into account, particularly in Catalonia where these tensions are even more pronounced. Finally, a point was made by one of our residents that where the separation of church and state is presumed (in this case, in France) it is unreasonable that the state should pay for the church’s existence and propagation through ‘faith’ schools - since the propagation of religion is something unconscionable to atheist taxpayers and also contrary to the ethos of such a secular state. Th is is

a valid point, but I would invite such a person to consider another dilemma: that of Catholic and other ‘pro-life’ taxpayers living in some western democ-racies (Canada, Britain and France, for example, but not the U.S. - yet) who are obliged to pay, through taxation, for abortion, even though they consider this to be an unjustifi able taking of an in-nocent human life and something that is gravely contrary to their religion. I think, in this case, that the way British Catholics in particular have cheerfully paid their taxes over the past forty-two years - knowing where their money is going and not complaining (much), but trying to change the situation through le-gitimate public argument and by voting for the politicians whom they consider sympathetic to their views is truly exem-plary, and could teach Britain’s secularist-brigade a thing or two about tolerance. It seems to me that in ‘Broken Britain’ the very least that the state should do is to recognise the truly patriotic citizenship of these and other peaceful faith com-munities - particularly when all that the members of these communities want to do is to raise their children in accordance with their own values, exercise their right to freedom of expression and be left in peace.

Frank Pells has recently returned to the UK after teaching English in Spain for two years

The State of Faith, cont...

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Stonyhurst College, founded in 1593, is one of the oldest Catholic schools in the country


GUEST SPEAKER SERIES, 2nd November 2009

Kate and Anna are unusual sisters. Kate, the elder of the two, suff ers from leukaemia. Th eir parents

conceived Anna through IVF so that she would be a match for her elder sister. For thirteen years, Anna has given her bone marrow and blood to her sister. Kate is still very sick and needs a new kidney. But Anna has a change of mind and decides to sue her parents for breaching the right to her own body.

Th is is the basic outline of Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s Keeper. Th e intersect-ing character arcs and culmination of the plot are typical novelistic fare – though the ultimate revelation that Kate does not want Anna to go through with the transplant is an interesting twist. But the procedure at the heart of the story is not a fi ctional conceit.

As Stephen Barrie, Education Offi cer at the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Eth-ics, explained, the creation of ‘saviour

siblings’ builds upon the existing practice of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a process which uses in vitro fertilisation to create embryos. Th ese em-bryos are screened for genetic predisposi-tions to particular illnesses and condi-tions. Only those which have a suitable genetic profi le, free from such predisposi-tions, are implanted. Th is procedure is particularly geared towards ‘monogenic’ disorders (i.e. disorders linked to a single, specifi c gene) such as cystic fi brosis. In other words, PGD is a technique to pre-vent the birth of individuals with certain genetic profi les. Th e creation of ‘saviour siblings’ is distinct from this. Although it employs the same procedures, using IVF to create embryos and PGD to screen them, it is a process designed to create individuals who can act as donors (for instance, bone marrow donors) for an older sibling.

Th e Human Fertilisation and Embryol-ogy Authority (HFEA) has so far granted

14 licences for the procedure and in August, the fi rst ‘saviour sibling’ twins were created. In their case, it was hoped that blood from their umbilical cords would be able to help their older brother, who suff ers from aplastic anaemia, a condition whereby the immune system destroys the parts of the bone marrow which produce blood cells.

Part of the HFEA’s remit is ‘to protect the special status of the embryo’. Th e reality, Barrie argues, is rather diff er-ent. Th e HFEA seeks to ‘balance trust with progress’, but the manner in which information is presented to the public is not balanced. PGD is not a diagnostic or preventative procedure in the ordi-nary sense. Doctors aim to prevent or diagnose illnesses in individuals; PGD screens out those with – or with the capacity to develop – illnesses. It is not a procedure that diagnoses or prevents ill-ness, but a procedure which prevents the birth of embryos diagnosed with certain

Saviour Siblings ZUBIN MISTRY encounters a cautious opponent of new reproductive technologies

Stephen Barrie (third from right) pictured with Peter Brown, Vincent Karyadinata, James Naylor, Fabio Fiorelli and Piers Tattersall


illnesses or predispositions to illness. Down’s Syndrome provides a telling ex-ample. As a condition, Down’s Syndrome is ‘disappearing’. But this is not because it has been cured, but because those diag-nosed with Down’s Syndrome in utero are not being allowed to live.

Th ere are several familiar arguments against procedures like PGD or the crea-tion of ‘saviour siblings’. People might be opposed to such practices because they tamper with nature, entail the creation of ‘designer babies’ or on religious grounds. None of these arguments, Barrie sug-gested, is very good. Arguing that such practices, by creating children as a means to an end, violate the famous Kantian maxim is slightly better, but it is not per-fect. In agrarian societies, for example, parents necessarily have children (partly) so that they can work the land. In other words, most people would distinguish between treating people (partly) as a means to an end and treating people merely as a means to an end.

Instead, Barrie turned to the moral status of the embryo and argued that such

procedures entail a form of discrimina-tion. Embryos are living human organ-isms, they are very young human beings. From their earliest beginnings, embryos are continuous with adult human beings. Th ere is an unbroken identity between the embryo and the adult human who eventually emerges. Stephen Barrie was once a teenager. Further back, he was a small child. And further still, he was an embryo.

Of course, embryos cannot think or feel as adult humans can. Th ey are easy to think of as ‘blobs’ and part of this perspective comes from the context in which they are seen: embryos are humans out of context when they are in vitro. Admittedly, they cannot take an inter-est in things, including themselves, as most (but not all) adult humans can. But taking an interest is not the same thing as having an interest. Embryos do have objective interests as very young humans. Th ey certainly have biological interests in nutrition, a safe environment for growth and so on, interests which procedures such as PGD fail to acknowledge and, indeed, violate. Biologically, the burden

of proof rests on those who think that embryos do not have such interests.

Th e procedures upon which the crea-tion of ‘saviour siblings’ relies, however, destroys unsuitable or surplus embryos. But ‘saviour siblings’ and IVF also raise other moral questions. Such procedures, argues Stephen Barrie, stretch the parent-child relationship to breaking point. Generally speaking, welcoming a child for its own being, rather than its quali-ties, is a paradigmatic feature of good parenthood. Making love conditional on certain qualities is not. Moreover, if screening for race or sex is troubling – as it is for most people – why is the same not true for disability? Th e histori-cal sceptre of state eugenics still evokes strong images in many people’s minds: should ‘free market eugenics’ not evoke a similar response?

Every child created, he stressed, should be welcomed by families, communities and society. But there are grave ques-tions about how we go about creating children.

Saviour Siblings, cont...

Michel Massih QC is passionate about law and justice. Th e last time he came to Netherhall,

he spoke ardently about the ‘issue of our times’, the Israel-Palestine confl ict (Netherhall News, November 2006). A native of Jerusalem who came to Britain as a teen in the late 1960s, Massih was a founder member of the Association of the Palestinian Community in the United Kingdom. More recently, he has prepared warrants – hitherto unsuc-cessful – for the arrest of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli army chief at the time of the second Palestinian infi tada at the beginning of the decade, for breaches of international law.

Massih is best known for his work as a defence barrister in a legal career span-ning three decades. Beyond representing those accused of extortion and murder, Massih’s curious legal speciality has been terrorism trials. He has represented Hus-sain Said, the man who shot the Israeli

ambassador, Shlomo Argov, in 1982 and has been involved in various IRA cases, including the Brighton bombing. More recent-ly, Massih has defended men accused of various acts of terrorism in the so-called ‘transatlantic airline plot’ and the ‘ricin plot’. In a land-mark case last year, he successfully appealed a sentence against a group of men who had downloaded extremist Islamist material online and had been convicted of terror-ist off ences. Following the appeal, mere possession of such material is no longer suffi cient for a conviction.

One mark of a civilised society, Massih emphasised, is how it reacts to terror-ism. Th e UK has reacted in the right way in attempting to catch such men

and women and bring them to trial with the best lawyers that money can buy. Responding to terrorism with the rule of law is of fundamental importance. A nation in a state of war cannot behave in any which way. Th e state must protect its citizens in such a way that the rule of law is maintained, for if the rule of law is undermined, the whole of society is undermined.

GUEST SPEAKER SERIES, 16th November 2009

Terror Trials: playing devil’s advocateZUBIN MISTRY reports

Michel Massih (second from left) pictured with Eniola Leyimu, Peter Brown and Jan Carl Stjernsward


CHIMA OKEZUE pays tribute to Gani Fawehinmi, Nigeria’s senior advocate of the masses

Detained 32 times. Imprisoned 8 times. Assaulted 6 times.

OPINION

From 1993 to 1997, US Ambassa-dor Walter Carrington was a thorn in the side of the fascist Abacha

dictatorship for his uncommon activism in favour of democracy in Nigeria. Unlike other ambassadors, who mouthed only diplomatic niceties, Mr. Carrington, an African American veteran of the 1960s US Civil Rights Movement and hus-band to a Nigerian woman, frequently denounced the repressive military junta in the local media and openly fraternized with enemies of the government, namely radical university student groups, inves-tigative journalists, human rights lawyers and elements of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). Of all the sins that Carrington committed, the one that rankled the fascist regime most was hob-nobbing with NADECO stalwarts whom military dictator General Sani Abacha feared and hated. Despite a ruthless cam-paign of assassinations and incarcerations, NADECO, whose membership boasted intellectuals, human rights activists, ex-military offi cers and business-people, continued to challenge the regime. Its exiled membership — led by retired Air Commodore Daniel Suleiman, pro-de-mocracy politician Tony Enahoro and the 1986 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka — established their base in the United States from where they lobbied the Bill Clinton administra-tion and ran a clandestine radio station whose broadcasts into Nigeria the Abacha regime tried unsuccessfully to block.

It was NADECO in 1997 that success-fully lobbied to have the Washington DC street where the Nigerian Embassy was located renamed in honour of the late Kudirat Abiola, who was gunned down by the dictatorship in 1996 for campaign-ing for the release of her incarcerated husband, Moshood Abiola, who had won the 1993 free and fair presidential elec-tions, which the military dictatorship had annulled. Th e dictatorship promptly re-taliated by naming the Lagos street where

the US Embassy was located after Black American separatist leader Louis Farra-khan. (Two years later, the newly elected Obasanjo government renamed the Lagos street in honour of Carrington). It was this pathological fear and hatred of NA-DECO that once led Nigerian soldiers to attempt an invasion of the US Embassy in a bid to capture pro-democracy activ-ists who were invited to a reception in the Ambassador’s residence. Diplomatic protests from Washington DC stopped

the soldiers from actually entering the embassy. Th is was the fi rst ‘Carrington incident’.

Th e second ‘Carrington incident’ oc-curred in 1997 outside the embassy, during a Lagos send-off party held by pro-democracy activists in honour of an outgoing Ambassador Walter Car-rington. On that fateful day, party organizers abandoned the original venue of the event— the house of a NADECO chieftain—when the police stormed it. Th ey moved to the house of another NA-

DECO leader in a diff erent part of Lagos, but policemen still managed to trace it. Barging in with cocked guns they ordered everyone in the room, including Ambas-sador Carrington, to disperse or they would open fi re. A very dark-skinned man stepped forward, opened his shirt to reveal his bare chest, walked up to the policemen and said, ‘I challenge you to shoot! Shoot me!’ Th e normally trigger-happy policemen for reasons best known to themselves backed down. Th e defi ant

man was the late Gani Abdul Fawehinmi (1938-2009), a renowned, fi ery human rights lawyer, well known to the Nigerian security services who regularly assaulted, detained and incarcerated him for long periods. For his pro-democracy and hu-man rights activism between 1969 and 1996, he was detained 32 times, impris-oned eight times and physically assaulted six times. His passport was seized 10 times and his house searched 16 times.

In a career that spanned 45 years, Gani fought successive military regimes through the law courts, which were powerless since their verdicts were largely ignored by the dictatorships. He handled more than 5,000 cases in court free of charge for poor people who could not af-ford to seek justice on their own. One of his most celebrated courses of action was his frequent legal action against the police to compel them to investigate the 1986 parcel bombing of News magazine editor, Dele Giwa. Th e murdered journalist was investigating the disappearance of a fe-male drug mule who had earlier confessed to working for the wife of military dicta-tor General Babangida when he received a hand-delivered parcel which exploded

A very dark-skinned man stepped for-ward, opened his shirt to reveal his bare chest, walked up to the policemen and said, ‘I challenge you to shoot! Shoot me!’“ ”

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when he tried to pry it open. A journalist colleague who survived the bombing said that Dele Giwa had told him it was from Babangida before attempting to open it. General Babangida denied complic-ity in the assassination. Gani Fawehnmi alleged that a Colonel Haliru Akilu of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) had called Dele Giwa’s wife to ask for directions to their house a day before a dispatch rider hand-delivered the deadly package. Th e police concurred, saying that the ‘telephone conversation between Akilu and Mrs. Giwa the day before the bombing could not have been coinci-dence’. But vested interests prevented any police investigation beyond that state-ment. Gani funded a private investiga-tion, but could not persuade the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take the case on. He fought valiantly all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to act as private prosecutor in the case and lost. For his eff orts, he was regularly jailed and beaten by the Babangida regime. But he never gave up. Between 1986 and 2009, he managed to institute 38 court cases, made 214 court appearances before 24 judges and wrote petitions in an eff ort to force the authorities to bring the powerful people behind that dastardly murder to justice. To date, no one has been pros-ecuted for the murder.

Under the extremely cruel Abacha dicta-torship, he regularly participated in street

demonstrations and formed the National Conscience Party even after the dictator-ship forbade the formation of political parties. All these transgressions earned him long incarcerations in gulags located in remote parts of the country. Despite frequent beatings and death threats, Gani represented the playwright and environ-mentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, during the latter’s 1995 sham trial on trumped-up charges of murder. Th e subsequent execu-tion of Saro-Wiwa led to Nigeria’s suspen-sion from the Commonwealth of Nations and a huge international campaign to boycott the oil companies Shell and BP.

His law fi rm was frequently subject to arson attacks and several of his publica-tions were confi scated. In fact, he had just returned from one of his long spells in detention when the second ‘Carrington incident’ occurred. I suspect that the po-lice did not act because they were tired of dealing with Nigeria’s foremost national gadfl y who was never scared of incurring the ire of corrupt military rulers despite the frequent persecution.

After military rule ended in May 1999, Gani turned his attention to fi ghting cor-ruption and expanding political freedom. He took the Independent Electoral Com-mission (INEC) to court for refusing to allow his party to participate in elections. Citing freedom of association, the Su-preme Court declared it was illegal for the

INEC to restrict the number of political parties in the country. Th is landmark ruling allowed the number of political parties in the country to jump from 3 to 50. Gani’s abrasive non-diplomatic style of doing things once got him in trouble, even with some of his own ardent sup-porters. In 2005, fi rst lady Stella Obas-anjo died during a ‘tummy tuck’ cosmetic surgery in a private Spanish hospital. Gani Fawehinmi—who at that time had accused President Obasanjo of corrup-tion and was suing Obasanjo for alleg-edly using public funds to build a private University and Library— commiserated with the president over the loss of his wife and then published an article asking whether his late wife’s cosmetic surgery was illegally funded from the government treasury. Many prominent Nigerians, including allies of Gani, denounced the article as ‘wicked’ and ‘insensitive’ to the grieving president. Gani justifi ed his arti-cle saying that he had asked the president a legitimate question. President Obasanjo did not respond to the query.

At the time when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, Gani was suing the new Yar’Adua government for the removal of Nuhu Ribadu, the popular boss of the Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, who many believed was sacked for daring to arrest Mr. James Ibori, an extremely corrupt ex-Governor of Delta State. Th e ex-governor of the oil-rich Nigerian

Detained 32 times. Imprisoned 8 times. Assaulted 6 times., cont...


Gani Fawehnmi was a fearless human rights activist and a philantropist

state is believed to have bankrolled the election campaign of President Yar’Adua who succeeded Obasanjo in May 2007. (Currently, the ex-governor’s accomplices, including his sister and mistress, are currently being prosecuted in London’s Southwark Crown Court for money laundering off ences.)

I was in Nigeria on holidays in Decem-ber 2008 and was privileged to buy a newspaper which bore Gani’s last full length interview. In it he explained why he had rejected President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s off er of one of the country’s highest national honours, the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). Gani said that a government which came to power through rigged elections and protected corrupt offi cials was ‘dishonourable’ and therefore had no moral authority to be-stow any national honour on him. He ex-pressed his frustrations at his inability to use his legal practice to reinvent Nigerian society. He also regretted not writing an autobiography before the cancer came. A non-smoker and teetotaller, the fi ery hu-man rights lawyer believed until his death on September 5, 2009, that his lung cancer had been caused by the pungent fumes of a strange chemical pumped into his prison cell during a four-month long incarceration in 1989 for his activities on

behalf of the slain journalist, Dele Giwa. Despite Gani’s failure to re-invent Nige-rian society, his contribution to the de-velopment of the legal profession and ju-risprudence is unparalleled by any lawyer of his generation. From 1985 onwards, he initiated and maintained a publica-tion of the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR) which has since become stand-ard reading material for legal practitioners and students of law and jurisprudence. His other legal publications, simplifi ed to make them easy for non-lawyers to follow as well, helped broaden access to Nigerian court proceedings. Another important part of his legacy is his gigantic legal library and a law fi rm employing more than 200 people from across the ethnic divides of Nigeria. Gani Fawehinmi was also a prolifi c writer and author of many non-legal books and publications which he donated to libraries and media houses. In the dark days of military dictatorships, many of these publications were subject to seizure by government agents.

As a result of his anti-establishment activities, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) refused to elevate Gani to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)—the rank is equivalent to Britain’s Queen’s Counsel (QC)—even though everyone knew that he was a legal colossus. In

protest, Nigerian university students, declared him ‘Senior Advocate of the Masses’ (SAM) in 1987 for his contri-bution to democracy and his free legal representation of university students and ordinary poor people. Gani Fawehinmi won several international awards for his human rights and pro-democracy work. Examples include the 1993 Bruno Kreisky Prize and the International Bar Association’s 1998 Bernard Simmons Award. In 2001, a shamed Nigerian Bar Association fi nally elevated him to SAN.

Th ough he was born to a middle-class ethnic Yoruba Muslim family in south-west Nigeria, he suff ered hardship while studying law in the University of Lon-don in the 1960s because of his father’s unexpected death. He worked as a public toilet cleaner at Russell Square to fi nance his education until he graduated and returned to Lagos in 1964. Th is personal experience of poverty turned him into a life-long philanthropist. For the next 35 years, he awarded scholarships annually to indigent students from all corners of the country, irrespective of ethnicity and religion. Even while in detention during the era of military regimes, he ensured that school fees and allowances were paid on time. At the time of his death, 39 poor university students from diff erent parts of Nigeria were benefi ciaries of the 2009 Gani Fawehinmi Scholarship Fund.

When Gani died, I counted over 30 editorials and articles in various Nigerian newspapers eulogizing him. Over here in London, the Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Independent also wrote tributes to him. Back in Nigeria, many venal politicians and his now retired military tormentors fell over themselves to praise a man who had denounced them repeatedly until his death. Former President Obasanjo declared him a ‘cou-rageous man’ while ex-military ruler Ibra-him Babangida, who sent Gani to several gulags between 1986 and 1993, praised his deceased opponent for being a ‘sincere critic’ who kept elements of his dictatorial regime ‘on their toes’. Th e questions on the minds of the ordinary Nigerians who lined the streets of Lagos for his funeral procession with banners saying ‘Farewell to our Legend’ were: who will take over as the conscience of our society? Who will speak for us? Who will fi ll the big shoes of the departed Gani? For my own part, I simply said, ‘good bye, our Senior Advocate of the Masses’.


Gani with an enlarged photo of slain journalist Dele Giwa before a 2001 Panel of Inquiry investigating atrocities committed during the era of military dictatorships

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Detained 32 times. Imprisoned 8 times. Assaulted 6 times., cont...

Mιnd Bοg λεr g (Lapland + American hawks) x caulifl ower = PRAKARSH SINGH at Xmas


On Christmas eve, the attention of the world will shift from Copenhagen to the Lapland Province of Finland where a distinguished gentleman will start a world

charity tour wearing red and white (supposedly because Coca-cola wanted it to be its brand ambassador). In southern Finland lie the origins of another global company that started off by making tyres, raincoats and shoes1. Recently, I was in a store trying to buy a pair of shoes. I had to decide fi rst whether I wanted to go walking, running or hiking. I chose the stress-free walking. Th e next three choices were performance, cushioned or stability-based (don’t ask me how they are diff erent). [How are they diff erent? - Eds.] Finally, I chose a size-11 blue and silver Reebok performance-based walking shoe. Th e name comes from ‘rhebok’, an African gazelle that moves in small herds dur-ing winter, but in bigger herds in summer. Th ey are found in the San Diego zoo2 and also in South Africa. South-Africa also holds the distinction of having the national fl ag with the great-est number of colours3.

Flags are interesting objects that increase love for one’s coun-try and (possibly) hatred towards a neighbouring country. Sri Lanka and Bermuda have something common in their fl ags4. In a recent cricket match between India and Sri Lanka, India scored their highest beating their previous best against Bermu-da. India is also the country credited with the fi rst fl ag though Denmark has the oldest surviving state fl ag. Danes are currently the happiest people in the world and the Great Danes are the tallest dogs.

A study by Angus Deaton, an economist at Princeton University showed that taller people are more content5. Deaton is how-ever, more famous for his work on measurement of poverty6. Among Hindu ascetics, Buddhist monks and followers of evan-gelical counsels in Christianity, voluntary poverty is associated with attainment of spirituality. Another symbol of voluntary poverty is the ‘Gandhi diet’. Th is consists of 1 litre goat’s milk, 170mg cereal, 85mg leafy vegetables, and 2 sour limes among other things7. Goat’s milk has been shown to be better for cur-ing anaemia and softening of the bones compared to cow milk8. However, according to Hindu Vedic scriptures, cows are sacred and should be treated as one’s mother. Th us, beef burgers are not served in India. Big Macs are not the same across the world. Th e Mexican Big Mac has the highest calorifi c value and fat (600 kcal and 33 gm fat). Mexico has an eagle in its fl ag. Th e

eagle, unlike the cow and the gazelle, is not a herd animal. Th e Bald Eagle is found on the Seal of the President of the US (even when the foreign policy is not hawkish). Th omas Jeff erson had a pet mockingbird which he kept in the White House study. Th e current White House occupants have started an organic garden to keep them self-suffi cient. Since 2005, all school lunches have been made organic in Italy. School lunches have been shown to drastically improve attendance in India9. Beef and caulifl ower is served for lunch in Finnish schools and if you look carefully on the trees outside these schools, you may spot a golden eagle eagerly awaiting its Christmas treat10.

The Bald Eagle is found on the Seal of the President of the US (even when the for-eign policy is not hawkish)

“”

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1Nokia (established in 1865) merged with the Finnish Cable company and then focused only on electronics and telecommunications.2In the Dreamworks feature fi lm Madagascar, the animals from Central Park Zoo assume they must be in San Diego Zoo upon landing in Madagascar, due to white beaches and extensive habitats.3On the other hand, Libya’s fl ag is completely green.4Both have a lion in it.5http://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloads/Life_at_the_top_Benefi ts_of_height.pdf

6His research (with Subramanian) on the demand for food by the poor illustrated that expenditure on calorie consumption as well as on expensive calories went up by roughly the same amount for a unit increase in total expenditure.7According to Wikipedia, Gandhi maintained a BMI of 17.78http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070730100229.htm 9However, a study by Linden and Shastry found that teachers manipulated certain students’ attendance records favourably in a program that allocated grain to students every month if their attendance exceeded 80%. 10Finnish farmers leave a sheaf of wheat on trees to be eaten by birds during Christmas.

One question that an amateur sportsman rarely gets to ask himself is: how far is he willing

to go in order to win? How much is he willing to put at stake? And once one starts refl ecting on these questions, one also starts to think about something much deeper and complex. What is the true meaning of sports? What is the goal inherent to such activity? Is it to win? Is it a mere form of amusement? Never in my life has this issue aff ected me in such a profound way since the diabolical events that took place in the Stade of France on 18th November. How would a cold, disinterested, unbiased spectator describe what happened? A player from the French national team controlled the football with his hand, crossed it and one of his team mates scored. Personally, besides being utterly gutted that such a piece of cheating worked for one team and that the op-posing team consequently (and unfairly) failed to qualify for the World Cup, I started thinking deeply about things.

First of all, I feel completely enraged by the fact that Michel Platini is still against the introduction of technology-based refereeing aids. I’m strongly in favour of the implementation of such technology because it will benefi t the sport and can be done without aff ecting the fl ow of the game, as I argued in this column some months back.

Th en, I asked myself what the true es-sence of sports is. However, I couldn’t possibly try to put myself in Th ierry Henry’s boots and imagine what I would have done in that situation. As a fan, I

demand that sports are cheat-free, clean, clear and honest. But if I was a profes-sional sportsman, playing for my country in such a decisive moment, wouldn’t I have done the same? I think that pretty much everyone would agree that we are left with only these two options, since we can’t really see it as an involuntary act, a refl ex; after all, Henry controlled the ball with his hand twice in a matter of a split second! Still, today, after refl ecting on this issue for a while, I cannot come to a defi nite conclusion. As a person who values honesty as one of the most important qualities in a human being and as a fan who demands sport to be an example of integrity, I condemn, in disgust, Henry’s action, especially taking into account the consequences of such act. But as a patriot and understanding what was at stake in that situation, I have to ask myself: wouldn’t I have done exactly the same thing? And the simple answer: I don’t know…

Athlete’s FootJOÃO BETTENCOURT poses some awkward questions


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The deciding moment in the France-Ireland World Cup qualifi er

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Richard Dunne and a strangely dejected Thierry Henry after the match

http://www.nh.netherhall.org.uk/magazine/March2009.pdf

Each year that goes by sees the number of former residents grow. Only a few months had passed since Alan Chu’s memorable performance in the auditorium; successfully completing his postgrad at the Royal Academy of Music, he returned home this summer and joined us at the reunion in the Hong Kong Club, hosted again very generously by

Denis and Agnes Chang. Th e reunion was a meeting of the decades from the 1960s into the new millennium, spanning close on 50 years!

Th e photograph of the reunion says it all. Apart from Denis Chang, Judge Ian Carlson, Richard Fawls and Michael Leung, together with myself represented the 1960s. And the new millennium was represented by Alan, Henry Suen, Eugene Low, Gerald Ho, Brian Zhu (joined by his wife and little boy), JJ, Billy, Bosco and William Liu who delayed his fl ight to China to be with us... Th e two ‘eras’ were fi lled by Y.S. Lee, who has just retired only to take up a new teaching post, Stephen Lam, John Wong who came with his wife and their second son who is a very talented painter of caricatures and made a very good attempt at portraying ‘uncle Neil’; also Luiz Pedruco (1982), Joseph Chan (1982), Alec Chan (1977), Anthony Chan (1980), , Tony Eccles (1972), Mak Sai Yiu (1977). Other friends joined us – Bill Tam, Vincent Lam, two young barrister friends of Denis from China, as well as Chris Tsai whose brother Eric graduated last year from UCL and who is now working in London.

One sees every stage in life, with the youngest still battling to fi nish their studies, the young professionals starting their career and some, like Eugene, planning to get married in 2010; others on the brink of retirement. It is never easy to fi nd a date for the reunion which suits everyone, as businessmen and bankers especially are travelling all over Asia. Some, like Johnny Chan, George Sun, Th omas Sum, Adrian Chang and Donald Pang were abroad. But others who had commitments on the day itself were able to meet up over a drink on other days: Anthony Pang, Jason Hung, Gerald Ho and Robert Chu ...

It is always tricky to organise more than one reunion during the trip, which meant that Singapore saw a series of smaller get-togethers. Professor Augustine Chong is one who predates all those in Hong Kong as he was in Netherhall at the turn of the 1950s. Together with Terence Siew, we usually end up talking a lot about China since all three of us coincided in Beijing

Friends ReunitedA report on Neil Pickering’s most recent Asian odyssey


STANDING: (from l-r) Fr Stephen Lee, friend of Denis, John Wong, Colman Wong, Alec Chan, Luiz Pedruco, Y.S.Lee, Mak Sai Yiu, Stephen Lam, Ian Carlson, Brian Zhu, Daphne Zhu, Tony Eccles, Richard Fawls (hidden), Neil, Jeong Ju, Bosco, Michael Leung, Alan Chu, Billy Ng, Anthony Chan, Henry Suen, Chris Tsai, Vincent Lam, Joseph Chan, William Liu, three friends of Denis/Vincent.SEATED: (from l-r) Mrs Wong, Mrs Lee, Agnes Chang, Brian Zhu's son, Denis Chang, Bill Tam

some years ago. It was fortunate that Terence was around, as he is often on conferences related to Climate Change and was representing the Government in Copenhagen just recently. Similarly, one could make use of the fact that the hub of my SIA fl ights is Singapore and the time between changing planes was used to good eff ect in meeting up. It was really good to go back to the home of Mark Yeo (1985), who is now mainly in Dubai but spends a few days each month back in Singapore, to meet the family and see how his two children are growing apace. When Mark was in the UK for a spell, the children attended kindergarten at Devonshire School on Fitzjohns Avenue.

Similarly Freddie Long, resident from the turn of the 1960s, is based in Johore Bahru and, since retiring from being Min-ister of Tourism for Johore State, has continued setting up a series of restaurants. Freddie came down to Singapore with two of his daughters to meet up for dinner. Had he not been

so busy setting up his restaurant in Malacca, he would have joined me and Pan Tongudai in Th ailand. Pan was, in the late 1960s, the Chairman of the House Committee when I acted as Secretary, and his daughter has just started medicine at Chiang Mai University. Philip Lim was back in Singapore on holiday from Hong Kong and we were able to catch up with all the news of his two young children and his work in the oil company in HK. Eugene Lim (1979) had called into Netherhall earlier in the year when he was meeting clients. We were able to go on a walk to the old haunts of Hampstead and he was very happy to meet up again with Javier Castanon. We had lunch together with Daniel Chia (1985) in the Tower Club which has a wonderful view of Singapore at the top fl oor of the tallest building in the city, a building which was in fact the project of another former resident, Chow Kok Fong (1978).

From the same era, Peter Heng had just changed jobs and extracted himself from a busy schedule to have lunch with his usual warm hospitality. More recently, Lay Kok Tan (1990s) met up just before he himself left for Europe on a conference. Lay Kok, in his role as Obs & Gyn specialist, had in fact delivered the two babies of Sony Adhiguna’s wife. Sony has been back in Singapore for several years now and still has a permanent smile on his face, no doubt the result of putting up with Peter Brown’s jokes! Kris Tan had just celebrated the fi rst anniversary of his wedding when we met. And Raj De-vadas (1999) was still optimistic about Liverpool’s possibili-ties – an inveterate optimist, he heads the Liverpool support-ers fan club in Singapore! I had hoped to meet up with Jamal Hassim who lives in Kuala Lumpur but is sometimes down in Singapore for work and to get together with Edward Lam, both residents in the mid 1990s. Unfortunately Jamal ended up in China, but phoned with the good news that he will


Friends reunited, cont...

Mark Yeo (1985) with Keith and Trish

Freddie Long with two of his daughters in Singapore

Panuchat Tongudai (1969 - 1971) with Neil in Thailand


Friends reunited, cont...

be in London over Christmas and he is visiting Netherhall on Christmas Eve. But Edward himself took me home and we had a very nice Sunday lunch with family and friends, with the children playing some of the latest computer games. And just before leaving, Tim Watkin (1990s) drove me from the Opus Dei centre where I was staying (together with Fr Michael Chan – 1979) to drop off his oldest child at kinder-garten (they had another baby just two weeks previously) and to have breakfast and talk about his time in both Grandpont House and Netherhall. At the airport itself, Eng Wee (2005) had just returned from the States covering the visit of a VIPs for his newspaper, so we were able to meet and learn that he will be getting married next year.

A side-trip to Kuala Lumpur enabled me to meet two former residents from the late 1960s who, together with Denis Chang and a few others, had set up the fi rst Malaysian Law Gazette (after Singapore and Malaysia separated) in Netherhall. Mah Weng Kwai, former Chairman of the Malaysian Bar, who has just been appointed a judge, and Leow Chai Fah. After lunch with a good friend, Joe Khoo, I managed to meet up with Heng (2008) and Joseph Poh (2007) who is now preparing for his wedding on 2nd January 2010.

Th ere were lots of meetings also with friends who were not residents as such but who feel a part of the family: Ronnie Chong, Louis D’Silva, Peter Lim, Adrian Villanueva, Francis Pang (father of Gregory)....

Th e last meeting in Singapore was with Hari Gunasingham (1974) who fl ies between Singapore, Sri Lanka and Dubai on business. As the return journey can go via Colombo and In-dia, I was able to attend the fi rst anniversary of Hari’s project in Tamil Nadu, setting up an ecosystem to facilitate a self-sustaining community in Southern India. He had wanted me to come as he was so impressed by Netherhall’s understanding of other religions and he wanted to replicate this in the Hindu community he is supporting.

And in Colombo I spent a wonderful time with Mohan Ranaweera (1977) and his family. Th e return via Delhi ena-bled me to spend one full day there and, amongst others, I met

up with Vibhor Singh who was just celebrating becoming a father for the fi rst time. He told me about all his future plans. After a non-stop trip, it was back to the cold of London, only matched by the brief stop in a Beijing covered in snow where I met Ruiming (2006), Michael Lin (summer course of three years ago) along with several other friends.

Whatever the country, whatever the situation, whatever the age, the same Netherhall spirit prevails. And long may it con-tinue to grow!

Raj Devadas (1999) with Neil in Singapore

Leow Chai Fah and Mah Weng Kwai (1968)

Mohan Ranaweera (1977) from Sri Lanka

Heng Chong Tan (2008) and Joseph Poh (2007)


SIMON JARED draws together some of the highlights of the Autumn term

The last few weeks of the fi rst term have been pretty busy around the house. We’ve had the Christmas dinner and after-dinner show, people have been working hard trying to meet deadlines, we’ve had the Carols and Punch

evening, people have been leaving to go home for the Christmas break, the lounge is having a make-over, and we’ve had to deal with the shock of having a new piece of furniture in the entrance hall. Sometimes I wonder how most of us have managed to keep sane through all of it (Miguel Limm being an obvious exception – he just seems to wander the corridors looking slightly dishevelled these days).

Of all these events the highlight, especially in terms of entertainment, defi nitely had to be the show after the Christmas Dinner. It was a great mix of musical talent from our resident pianists and violinists, act-ing virtuosity (from Alvaro in particular – who mastered the hooded student character in a hilarious detective parody sketch), Houdini-like escapades from Th e Great Antonio, dancing mastery by Raff y, and comedy genius from Monty Python, acted brilliantly of course by Sam and Alex.

But judging from audience laughter I think it’s fair to say that Pablo Hinojo stole the show with his impersonations. His ability to pick up on the little idiosyncrasies of certain residents was rather impressive. Speaking to residents afterwards it was clear that everyone had their own favourites. Personally I think his rendition of Ricard was very funny despite the hair ruffl ing I received.

Pablo Hinojo shows his appreciation for Simon Jared’s Joke of the Month

Inmates James Naylor and Ratty Rodriguez take carols

and punch a little too seriously...


Passing through...Alumni re-visiting Netherhall House; news about former residents - it’s all here...

Arnaud Richou (2005-2006) with his wife Sabine on their wedding day in September

Kai Eberspaecher (1995-1997) with his wife Debby, and children Amelia and Max

Henry Wang (1974) visited recently


Enrique Huesca (2003) recently attended the Iberoamerica conference for South America, Central America, Spain and Portugal, in Esteril, Portugal. True to form, he managed to charm his way into pictures with Cristina Fernán-

dez de Kirchner, President of Argentina (above, sixth from right), below with Vincente Fox, former President of Mexico, and bottom left with Margarita Zavala, fi rst lady of Mexico

Pietro Rosario (1996-1998) with his family

Netherhall News January 2010

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Transcript of Netherhall News January 2010