The 46th Harry Brittain Fellowship
17 May to 24 June 2004
WILTON MAMBA (Swaziland)
England: the land that can still be recognised by its first ancestors
After almost two months in England, I still cannot fathom how a country could marry the old and the new in the manner England has with its architecture.
When I visited London recently as a Harry Brittain Fellow, I had not been warned that it would not be the glitz and glamour that had been a product of years of my imagination of what the great city would be like. The little that I had seen on television and heard of on BBC radio was not enough to prepare me for the brick and mortar City of Westminster, which stands proudly in total defiance of England's largely grey weather.
Fellows with Seb Coe at Olympics 2012 |
A whistle-stop tour of London, Manchester, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Blackpool allowed me to appreciate the beauty of one of the world's fewest countries that can still be recognised by its first ancestors.
The British Parliament building, government offices, the Foreign Office and even residential houses in and out of London still retain the Victorian architecture, something the whole world envies. I learned how the City of Westminster is held in such high esteem by the ordinary English folk, especially the people of colour who have found a warm home in England.
It was a special treat to visit 10 Downing Street. I had read Jeffrey Archer's First Among Equals many years ago and formulated a totally different picture of the place. Visiting Downing Street was a dream come true.
In stark contrast to the Victorian architecture is the Canary Wharf, a modern glass city which boasts arguably the highest building in the world, which stands 50 floors high. The 50th floor is occupied by the 2012 Olympic bid committee, which is confident of securing the rights for England to host the prestigious event. The Harry Brittain fellows met the Olympic Committee on its last week and were impressed with the level of preparedness. We all seemed to agree that all basic infrastructure was up to standard. The delegates were very impressed with the English transport system and felt this would play a pivotal role in swinging the vote in England's favour.
I spent the last few days sightseeing and meeting people in London. I was awe-struck, not for the first time, that you don't pick anything in the manner people go about their daily business that England is a target for terrorist attack because of the position it has taken on Iraq. Interestingly the issue of the war on Iraq continues to be uppermost in parliament debates and might just be the factor that will decide England's next national election.
I was inspired to find that the Westminster government practises what it preaches to the international community in as far as democracy is concerned. I was impressed by the manner parliament business is run. More fascinating is how the opposition keeps the governing party on its toes during parliament debates. I was impressed with Prime Minister Tony Blair, who seemed to have answers to opposition leader John Howard's every trick aimed at exposing him.
The people in London, which is perhaps the biggest cosmopolitan city in the world, have a very distinctive character about them as compared to the folk in all the other cities and countries I had been to in the United Kingdom - they walk so fast you would think they are in some kind of competition. Not the same can be said of the people in Manchester, Blackpool and Cardiff in Wales, though they too are very fast by our standards in Swaziland.
Above all, I was impressed how the English are so particular about keeping time. Everything that Jane Rangeley (CPU's Training Manager) said would happen, did so almost as planned.
All in all, I had a wonderful experience in the United Kingdom under the Harry Brittain Fellowship and as I prepare to go home, I am salivating at the prospect of being called a Harry Brittain Fellow.
For further information on the training programme,
contact
Jane Rangeley -
jane@cpu.org.uk
Tel: +44 20 7583 7733 Fax: +44 20 7583 6868.
