It has been an intense week for news at home, and abroad. We were deeply moved by the coverage on January 27th of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
The gathering of world leaders, and especially the sadly dwindling number of survivors, were thanked by Auschwitz’s Memorial Director, Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywinski, who dedicated his speech to the importance of memory.
He said: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, felt like a child, and thought like a child. But when I became an adult, I left behind the ways of childhood. Except for memory. Memory endures. Even from the earliest experiences of our lives."
Today, we must reflect upon memory and experience.
I realised this as I grew up and, most importantly, in this very place. Nowhere else have I matured more. After all, I became aware of Auschwitz thanks to you and through you - Survivors.
Every generation needs a lens to evaluate its time. Today, we all stand together, looking at the world through the lens of adulthood.
We must look within ourselves and ask: "What have we done with memory?"
These were such poignant, powerful words in the context of Auschwitz-Birkenau. But for anyone living with dementia, they have a wider significance, without memory, we cannot learn from our mistakes nor our triumphs, nor recall those to whom we owe so much and why.
Alastair Stewart marks the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz, placing it in the context of memory and living with dementia in this week's Living With Dementia
GB NEWSWe teach history, but this is not the same as teaching memory. History is the knowledge of facts. Memory is the awareness of those facts, which is precisely what we so desperately need today. History does not create trauma. Memory can. Memory is the key to understanding today's world and designing if ‘never again’ is to be more than just a slogan, we need memory, as well as willpower.
Yet, we continue to focus solely on teaching history, not memory. Our educational programs must be changed. They must. Because memory is not just a matter of culture; it is a matter of identity.
In the more mundane world of domestic politics, I watched and listened to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech on growth, infrastructure and planning, and on speeding up the planning process.
Make no mistake, Rachel Reeves and this government intend to limit the scope for objectors to raise their genuine concerns about the impact of building projects. I think that is undemocratic.
As I listened to Rachel Reeves say the Government supported a third runway at Heathrow, I could not help but think of Boris Johnson’s pledge to lay his not insubstantial form in the way of the bulldozers. I’m not sure he is a heavy plant blocker, but the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is not a fan either.
As for a Silicon Valley between Oxford and Cambridge, given how long it has taken even to modernise the existing network rail station at Oxford and the approach roads, I am not holding my breath!
Others around here say the Thames Valley, especially Reading and Basingstoke, are doing just fine with limited government intervention, normally a dead hand on enterprise and entrepreneurialism.
It is all very Keynesian, the man who said it was worth the government burying bottles with £5 notes in them and paying people to dig them up.
In the United States, we had the tragedy of the collision between a military helicopter and a small commercial passenger jet. I thought it especially inept of Trump to muse it may have been due to diversity policy. I oppose quotas and box-ticking in employment for purposes of social engineering, but this was not the time for Trump to shoot from the hip as hundreds mourned, awaiting intelligent explanations for their losses.
My brother-in-law came back for another metal detection session, no treasure chest - but a silver spoon, a horseshoe and a 303 rifle bullet. We know there was English Civil War action around here, including a big battle at Cheriton, but not even Cromwell’s new Model Army was not that far ahead in the armour game, so we remain intrigued.
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