A classic sorrowful country ballad song about a young man’s suicide and a girl shocked by her family’s indifference and insensitivity to the event.

A young lady, (the narrator) and her brother, returns from farm yard cotton-picking chores to be told to clean themselves up. Their mother then casually tells them of the story of Billy Joe having just killed himself by leaping off the Tallahatchie Bridge, a real bridge over the River Mississippi, though the bridge referred to in the song fell down and had to be replaced in 1972.

Her father seems to find the story of no surprise and accuses Billy Joe of committing suicide from sheer stupidity. The family seems to hold the people of Choctaw Ridge, near the bridge, in contempt, and Billy Joe MacAllister is one of the people from there.

The family dines and pass food to one another, occasionally returning to he subject of Billy Joe. It’s the brother who drops the first hints that the narrator may feel closer to Billy Joe than the others think. He remembers her meetings with him, including his cruel joke of putting a frog down her back. He seems surprised by the suicide as he saw Billy Joe only the day before his death.

The Mother notices that the girl is losing her appetite for the family feast and remembers a local preacher believing that he saw Billy Joe and the girl (or someone resembling her), playing around on the bridge some time soon before the death of Billy Joe. The preacher saw the couple throw something from the bridge into the water but the song does not say what this object was.

The final verse moves on a year. The girl’s brother has married and left the family home. Her father has died, leaving the mother depressed. The narrator throws commemorative flowers off the Bridge….

That the narrator was in love with Billy Joe is very clear, and the bridge seems to have been a key meeting place for them. Why Billy Joe dies is never hinted at, as the song focuses on the family of the girl, taking the story of his suicide as nothing but trivial gossip. Only the narrator feels the loss and sense of tragedy at Billy Joe’s departure.

The lyrics in full – http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/gentry-bobbie/ode-to-billie-joe-13490.html

Arthur Chappell

Vasco da Gama

Having crossed the Vasco da Gama bridge, I was inspired to find out more about the man it was named after, as while the name was very familiar, upon scanning my brain for relevant information I discovered that there was none. This felt a bit embarrassing as he is obviously one of the most famous Portuguese in history. So off I went a-Googling and found it: Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to reach India by sea, in 1498. 

I was unimpressed. That’s nothing on what Columbus did in discovering America, is it? Well, yes, historians say, it was actually a greater feat because of the distances and treacherous waters involved. 

Da Gama’s route to India

Let’s take the first of these. For some reason my intuition told me that a trip from Spain or Portugal to America would be longer than one to India, but how wrong I was. Even as the crow flies, we are looking at approximately 6,000 km to America and 8,000 km to India. When crossing the Atlantic, one can do a pretty good impression of a crow flying, but getting to India requires a trip across the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal at Egypt, then round the Middle East and across (close to the green and yellow lines marked above). And when it dawned on me that the Suez Canal was only built in the 1800s, I realised that da Gama had to sail down the Atlantic to the most southerly point of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope, near present day Cape Town, England 0 – 0 Algeria), then back up the eastern side of Africa past Madagascar and then across the Indian Ocean (the black line above – he was directed by a previous explorer to do that big loop out into the Atlantic to avoid a difficult area off the Western coast of Africa) . In fact, da Gama’s return journey was longer than the distance around the equator.

Da Gama leaves for India in 1497

So yes, technically a much greater feat than that of Columbus. But what I discovered next was a much better argument: da Gama was actually trying to get to India, and did. Columbus actually found America by accident when trying to get to India. Not only that, but Columbus wasn’t even the first European to discover America anyway – apparently that was Leif Erikson (not the one in the High Chapparal but a Viking) a whopping 500 years earlier. Actually, when you think about it, Columbus was a bit of a loser. I got to wondering why the Spanish glorified him the way they did when he really cost them a lot of money, was rubbish and wasn’t even Spanish. I suppose they had to make out he did well to justify the decision to hire him, a bit like when Real Madrid signed Ronaldo (the original goofy one, not the winker).

Da Gama’s success in reaching India was incredibly significant because it opened up trade routes across the whole of Asia, under Portugal’s control, helping to make this little country arguably the wealthiest and most powerful in Europe for almost a century to follow. 

Da Gama arrives in Calicut, India, in 1498

At this point I was almost getting behind the “Vasco da Gama deserves his place in history” idea when I discovered that he was a bit of a naughty boy. He arrived in India assuming that these “natives” would be terribly impressed with a few silks and not realise the value of what they had to trade. The Indians, used to all manner of spices and gems, were not at all stupid or impressed, and da Gama was sent away with a flea in his ear. It was left to the leader of the next excursion, Cabral, to tempt the Indians into a trade agreement with some decent swaps. This angered Muslim merchants whose trade it was that the Portuguese were attempting to steal, and they killed 50 of Cabral’s men. Cabral retaliated by killing around 600 Muslim sailors and torching some villages. Da Gama headed up the next visit and took the retribution even further by committing some barbaric acts. After attacking several Muslim ports along the east African coast, he continued the terror against Muslim shipping off the Malabar Coast, burning a ship with 400 Muslim pilgrims on board who were returning from Mecca. Da Gama kept the fires burning for four days to ensure that every last man, woman and child had died. He then moved further up the Indian coast, dismembering 30 fishermen. Most charming of all, when the Indian’s high priest was sent to da Gama for talks on expelling the surviving Muslims from India, da Gama ordered the priests’ lips and ears to be cut off and sewed a pair of dog’s ears to his head before returning him to his leader.

So there we have it, Vasco da Gama, the man that not just our bridge but also monasteries and towers are named after. Rubbish at trading, a bit of a psychopath but definitely a better sailor than Columbus.

Stunning prequel to the original Planet Of The Apes movie, with some elements of the original franchise sequel / prequel Battle For The Planet Of The Apes.

Here, the Apes develop their hyper-intelligence through scientific research going wrong. Experiments conducted on apes in an attempt to cure human Alzheimer’s go dreadfully wrong. An ape given the drugs becomes highly aggressive, partly to protect its own newborn cub. When the mother is shot, the leading research Doctor, James Franco, realizes the cub has inherited the benefits of the drug treatment, and smuggles it home to rear the ape himself. 

The doctor’s father, played wonderfully by John Lithgow, is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, but the drug seems to cure him rapidly, and he develops a friendly bond with the growing ape, which he calls Caesar. Alas, the effects of the drug wear off on Lithgow, and his condition deteriorates, giving his story a distinct and deeply touching Flowers For Algernon sub-plot.

A bolshy neighbour driven to distraction by Lithgow’s declining health, assaults the old man, which brings out Caesar’s rage – the ape attacks the neighbour and gets taken away to an ape sanctuary, run by Brian Cox. Here, the apes are very badly treated, especially by Tom Felton, last seen as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

Caesar’s intelligence begins to affect the apes, though only a former circus orang-utan knows enough sign language to be able to communicate with Caesar, warning him to be cautious. Caesar instead, breaks out of the sanctuary and into the research centre where he steals the drugs that gave him his intelligence – he releases the supply on the apes at both centres and leads a mass break out – Felton is his first victim, trying to stop him only to be assaulted by Caesar When Felton utters the famous Charlton Heston line “Get your hands off me you filthy ape’, the momentary sense of familiarity is knocked for six when Caesar barks back ‘No!’

The Apes take off for the woods, having to cross The Golden Gate Bridge, where the police attack. It’s here that the film shows ingenuity on several levels. First as a straight and tense action sequence – secondly in the extremely good thinking in the director’s handling of both ape and human approaches to the battle for the bridge. The police try to quell it as they would with a human riot. The apes behave like apes. Caesar is clearly living up to his Roman predecessor’s name in more ways than one – he directs apes to advance on three fronts, directly along the bridge as the police might expect, but also from the upper suspensions, and from the underneath where they can swing quickly along the cables and struts. The cops don’t stand a chance.

Some great touches here – we see news reports of a missing Mars bound spaceship – the astronauts who will eventually return to an Ape dominated Earth? Secondly, the drugs that wore off on Lithgow have become a virus, killing one of the researchers and infecting others. The film ends with the drug infecting people at an airport and a closing credit sequence charting the course of the flights spreading it round the World in the Terry Nation’s Survivor’s fashion. This seems certain to be the start of the decline of humanity to the dumb slave class dominated by the apes descended from Caesar’s tribe – sequels may well also show his remaining traces of respect for some humans leading to his overthrow – a Brutus – Mark Anthony rebellion among the apes.

Charlton Heston is referenced directly in a clip of him in The Agony & The Ecstasy where he played Michelangelo. If the new franchise keeps its nerves this could lead to some astonishing films to come. Two performers deserve Oscars here – Andy Sirkis plays Caesar at several ages and stages of development perfectly, and Lithgow’s performance is just beautiful.

The film on the International movie database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1318514/

Arthur Chappell

The dark clouds filled the skies,

whatever he preached about life were all lies,

these thoughts were rushing in like the tide,

as his reality, died,

from the right lane of the bridge,

he could make out a cluster of emergency vehicles

on the span’s Brooklyn side,

his sanity just wanted to go for the ride,

he wanted to take his own life,

and he had nothing to hide,

it was his suicide

so he would jump without pride,

all this because his cover was blown,

the scene closed to the public,

and a yellow police ribbon marked the zone,

the bridge, colossal in its architecture,

and straddling the river with its massive concrete,

its where the souls would meet,

after lives fell to defeat,

and angels would cry,

because they knew it was just a dreary place to die.

The vehicle came to rest several feet below the road surface and frightened passers-by rushed to. 

The picture taken this weekend, shows that not only is our own Minister Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa who need to worry about bad roads. 

Two people were in the car when the road Yitong Bridge in the Chinese city of Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, north-east of the country collapsed. 

Survived 

The hole was so large that the room in the wagon train 
Both were injured, but amazingly no one died in the crash, which is under investigation. 

According to the Daily Mail investigating authorities in the city in the wagon train, carrying steel, was overloaded. 

H woolly Norwegian roads 

This spring, there has been much focus on bad Norwegian roads. AP readers sent in hundreds of images of poor Norwegian roads. An image that made ​​an impression showed SP-politician Nina Daniels who got a place in a half-meter deep hole on the county road 466 in Gyland. 

The conditions seem to be even worse in the Changchun in China. According to the Daily Mail 100,000 die in road accidents in China each year. There are twice as many as in the U.S., which has four times as many cars.

     Of course, it may be true that most grown-ups have their own prospects about  certain aspects of life, especially their conventional tradition. With this culture instilled in them from childhood onwards, they behave stubborn, unable to give in to another’s domination.

     This is today’s world; when people can do scores of great things with the will-power they muster, then what more does it need to be a little more understanding? ‘Impossible’ is not a word in the dictionary of the successful. If you wish to be successful, send that word from your life to the trash.

     Being intimately close, especially in case of family, friends and other social relations, means bridging nearly all gaps with the difference in the mutual understanding of one another. Subsequently, it refers also to coming close with our grand-parents and parents,etc. who lived the previous generations. As your age grows older, remember you belong to the older times. You have the right to ‘guide and advise’ the newer ones but no dominating attitudes. No one likes it. Why if your children had to be your parents and direct you, even you yourself would not like it. 

      This is where the gap begins. If you think the above explanation stands distinctly important, I tell you this is not an excuse for you youngsters’ bad behavior. Nor is it an explanation for your right to disobey. No one ever has this right. Everyone is obliged to someone or the other.

      As in the story ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing, the whole despair and unhappiness of the family was only because of that old man who cemented himself on not letting his youngest grand-daughter into marriage then, as he wanted her to ’stay a little longer’ to enjoy the babble and childish playfulness. When this stubbornness has changed it is very moving to read about him letting free his beloved doves. It is really selfish and disapproving to hinder another’s needs because of one’s own needs. But it is always like God’s attitude; if you are going astray or already lost, I will put you in the right path. If you are seeking the path of pious pansies, I will show you the path. So the young traveller should humble himself to the help of the guide.

     Realising one another’s needs and aspirations, and being willing to put up with them are necessary for the world to sustain. This ‘can’ help bridge the generation gap to a certain extent and it is unappealing to say that there is ‘nothing’ we can do for this. ‘If there is a will, there is a way’ – this is true and must be instilled.  

The question now is weather or not Ravi and Wei can be blamed for Clementi’s death. It is probably safe to assume that they did not intend to drive the young man to suicide or expect the possibility that he would kill himself. However, being that they are described as intelligent people, they did know they were invading the privacy of this man during an intimate encounter. It is easy to then deduce that they were aware that their actions were causing him emotional damage. Ravi and Wei, probably did not know just how much damage they were causing but this not mean that they should just walk away scot free from this incident. Because one often cannot judge the emotional state of another person, one should not take part in any activity that could lead to a breaking point. Ravi and Wei severely invaded the privacy of Clementi without a single thought or care about the consequences of their actions. That was their fault. They should have thought about the consequences and the impact on this man’s life. Even if he hadn’t killed himself, his intimate life was broadcast for all to see. People, who had no business knowing who Clementi prefers to sleep with, now knew.  All because Dharum Ravi and Molly Wei wanted to be entertained, and did not care about the fact that their actions were affecting this man’s life in a major way. It is not that they did not know that they were hurting him, they did not care! They could not have known exactly how he would’ve reacted so even if just for that reason, they shouldn’t have done what they did.  Therefore,  Dharum  Ravi and Molly Wei are partially to blame for Tyler Clementi’s death.

The crumpled remains of two barges can be seen on a sandbank in the middle of the river Severn. They lie a couple of miles upstream from the docks at Sharpness where the Gloucester and Sharpness canal joins the river and although they are only visible at low tide they are an otherwise constant reminder of a tragedy that happened 50 years ago this year – a tragedy that caused the Severn Railway bridge to be closed for ever.

The railway bridge had been completed in 1879 to carry coal from the Forest of Dean mines over the estuary, so saving about 30 miles off the route through Gloucester itself.  At around the same time a tunnel was excavated beneath the Severn to link South Wales with Bristol and on to London. This was an important route for the Victorians as before the tunnel or the bridge opened passengers had to cross the estuary by ferry. The Severn estuary is renowned for its treacherous tides and when bad weather added to the problem of travel these journeys could turn into life-threatening ordeals.

Digging the tunnel was a long and difficult task – it was flooded several times – but eventually it opened to goods and passenger traffic in 1886. There was much jealousy and competition between the two crossings but the tunnel won in the end and still provides a major link in the rail network. The bridge became relegated to a lesser role and was only used to any extent when the tunnel closed for maintenance. 

Before pipelines were laid across the country to carry fuel, barges were used to take diesel oil and petrol from ports such as Milford Haven around the Welsh coast and up the Severn to fuel depots in the Midlands. One such important depot was sited near the river just downstream from Worcester but is long gone now. Crewing these barges was dangerous work particularly when bad weather and difficult tides combined to hinder their progress.

On the evening of 25 October 1960 a thick fog covered the river as several cargo vessels came up on the incoming tide. They were aiming to get into the canal through the lock at Sharpness. Without the benefit of radar or, in many cases, even radios, two of them missed the entrance and found themselves swept on upstream passed the lock gate. ‘Arkendale H’ and ‘Wastdale H’ were carrying highly explosive cargos of around 5000 gallons of petrol and fuel oil. Lost in the darkness and the fog they collided and were carried by the tide into one of the central columns of the cast iron bridge part of which then collapsed onto the barges setting them on fire. 

In addition to the railway track the bridge also carried an electric cable and a gas main which fractured. The resulting explosion was heard miles away and set the river on fire from side-to-side for about a mile upstream of the bridge. Five of the eight men on board the barges were killed but three survivors managed to struggle ashore.

Terrible as the loss of life was that night, the tragedy  could have been even worse. A maintenance crew should have been working out on the bridge at the time but, fortunately for them, they had all gone to a signal box on shore to listen to a boxing match on the signalman’s radio instead of being at work. Had they not done so, the death toll could have been far higher. I have no idea what their bosses said when they found out about their absence but I doubt any of them would care.

The bridge was never repaired as it was, even then, considered a ‘white elephant’ and uneconomic to repair or replace. It was dismantled in the late 1960s and until now only the round pier that formed the base of the swinging section over the canal, the bases of some of the pillars and the twisted wrecks on the sand bank remained.

Now, at last, on 17 October 2010 a memorial plaque will be unveiled on the bank that divides the canal from the river between Sharpness and Purton to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

*

Another story from the Severn Railway bridge has come to light since I finished my previous article… 

One day in spring of 1943, a flight of Spitfires were being delivered from the factory to an airfield when, as it was low tide, one of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) pilots decided to fly under the bridge. 

Some time later, another pilot repeated the trick without realising that by then it was high tide and so there was 30 feet less headroom. She survived but when the authorities found out that this underflying was becoming a common occurrence a local policeman was instructed to record and report their serial numbers. It is not known how many pilots were caught out or disciplined for ‘buzzing’ the bridge.

Yet, in spite of our wild expectations of things on which we are presently focused, the specter of horror continues to haunt our planet, casting a shroud of fear and despair over the length and breath of this bridge and leaving us wondering if we can finally triumph over those, intent on crushing our hopes and relegating humanity to barbarism.

However, in spite of the gloom, human endeavors remain untouched by the evil designs of those who seem to be impervious to pain, whose sheer numbers serve to overwhelm our quest toward peace, love and goodwill. 

Notwithstanding the obstacles and impediments that  continue to stand in the way of progress, the bridge shall be crossed and each milestone of ingenuity shall mark the advent of fresh starts and new beginnings.

Let me end this hope with a prayer that our valid dreams of getting together peacefully shall be translated into reality, as we turn another page of the book of humanity and peruse through the lines of progress without any hindrance; and that the deadends on the paths of freedom shall become open avenues of peace and togetherness, Amen.