Photographs of Crouch End and Alexandra Palace in Haringey, North London

Here are some pictures of Crouch End, London N8, and Alexandra Palace, Haringey, with some lovely examples of late Victorian/Early Edwardian and Art Deco architecture

 Left:
Crouch End

Showing the Clock Tower and terraces of flats and shops

      

Below and Right:

Crouch End Town Centre

Below:  Crouch End Town Hall and the old Electricity Board building

Right and Below:                                       Alexandra Palace, Haringey

Do you know what Mennonites are?

Somewhere at the top of Shepherds Hill in Highgate, London, there is an enormous old red brick Victorian manor house.  I had reason to go there to collect something, and discovered that it was the  Library of the London Mennonite Centre.  I was curious to find out what this organization was, as I had never heard of it.  I tried the usual Wiki search, but it was a bit too piecemeal for me so I tried another website, gotquestions.org, which seems to be a website about all things biblical. I have summarised what they say :

"Question: "Who are the Mennonites and what are their beliefs?

 Answer: The Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist (opposed to infant baptism) denominations      named after and influenced by the teachings and tradition of Menno Simons (1496-1561). They are  committed to nonviolence, nonresistance, and pacifism.

"Mennonite congregations worldwide embody the full scope of Mennonite practice from old-fashioned “plain” people to those who are indistinguishable in dress and appearance from the general population.

Early Mennonites in Europe were good farmers and were invited to take over poor soils and enrich them through hard work and good sense. Often the governing bodies would take back the land and force the Mennonites to move on since they would offer no resistance. So the migration to America started and they were welcomed by the Colonists.

There are many schisms, which actually started in Europe in the 1600s and continued after the immigration to America. Many of these churches were formed as a response to deep disagreements about theology, doctrine, and church discipline. Mennonite theology emphasizes the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. Their core beliefs deriving from Anabaptist traditions are: the authority of Scripture and the Holy Spirit; salvation through conversion by the Spirit of God; believer’s baptism by sprinkling; discipline in the church (including shunning in some congregations); and the Lord’s Supper as a memorial rather than as a sacrament or Christian rite.

There is a wide scope of worship, doctrine and traditions among Mennonites today. Old Order Mennonites use horse and buggy for transportation and speak Pennsylvania Dutch (similar to German). They refuse to participate in politics and other so-called “sins of the world.” Most Old Order groups also school their children in church-operated schools. Conservative Mennonites maintain conservative dress but accept most other technology. They are not a unified group and are divided into various independent conferences. Moderate Mennonites differ very little from other conservative evangelical protestant congregations. There is no special form of dress and no restrictions on use of technology. They emphasize peace, community and service.

Another group of Mennonites have established their own colleges and universities and have taken a step away from strict Bible teaching. They ordain women pastors, embrace homosexual unions, and practice a liberal agenda, focusing on peace studies and social justice issues, good works and service to others.

There are many varieties of Mennonites. Some  are more evangelical than others; some are focused on Bible study and prayer; others re carefully maintain the works-based tradition set out by their ancestors; and, some  have left the faith of their fathers and focus instead on current social issues."

Memorial to Oliver Tambo in Durnsford Road Park, Muswell Hill, London

Oliver Tambo lived with his family in Muswell Hill for many years during his exile from South Africa during the apartheid years.

Here are some photographs of his bust in the park and a few words about him. I got up very early one November morning to get the most spectacular photos I could, just before and after the sun rose as the colour of the bronze changed from dull brown to shimmering gold; and then, in addition, I couldn't resist showing a very chilly Oliver in the snow.



November - a minute before sunrise



The minute of sunrise November Dawn

A cold winter's day

Oliver Tambo, co-founder of modern South Africa, was instrumental in bringing down the apartheid regime from a house in Muswell Hill, North London. He and his former home were recognised in October 2007, when his bust, by the late Ian Walters (who also sculpted the statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square) was unveiled in Durnsford Road Park, and a blue commemoration plaque was placed on his old house.

The three-storey house on the corner of Alexandra Park Road was once, in effect, the home of a government in exile and the children of one of the 20th century’s greatest statesmen used to play in the nearby park where now there is a memorial site with the bust of Oliver Tambo, the co-founder of the modern South African state, who came to London penniless and unknown in 1960, with the police on his tail. His wife Adelaide and young children were smuggled out to join him. The family could not have afforded this large house had it not been for political sympathisers raising the money to provide what was in effect the unofficial London headquarters of the African National Congress.

Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela together led their people to freedom. While Mandela was in prison for 27 years for political offences under the old apartheid regime, Tambo was travelling the world as a head of a quasi government in exile. In Muswell Hill a lot of people had never heard of him, and he was remembered by many locally, if at all, as the quietly spoken husband of an NHS nurse who lived with her three children in the big house. Unknown to them, it was a house where the phone was tapped and which attracted many visits from those involved in the anti-apartheid movement.

Nelson Mandela, a fellow lawyer and activist, visited him briefly in 1962. At that time Mandela was unknown, but by the time of Mandela’s second visit just after his release from 27 years’ imprisonment, they were both world leaders.

Over the years Tambo lobbied for international recognition, establishing ANC missions which were shadow embassies for a future South Africa, in 27 countries. He also founded the military wing of the ANC. When the Portuguese empire came to an end in 1975 Tambo moved his guerrillas out of training camps in Tanzania and Zambia into Angola near the South African border as a warning that the ANC were prepared to use force unless the apartheid system was dismantled peacefully. By the mid 1980’s, governments across Europe were in contact with him. The British Thatcher government, however, still considered the ANC to be a terrorist organisation, but eventually at an unofficial meeting with Sir Geoffrey Howe, the foreign secretary, Tambo was able to convince Howe of his serious statesmanlike qualities.

In 1989 Tambo suffered a stroke and, seriously ill, he was warned not to overwork. He returned to South Africa for the ANC’S first legal national conference there, in July 1991 and was elected as its National Chairman, but he died less than two years later barely having time to enjoy the fruits of his hard thirty-year struggle for freedom from apartheid in South Africa

[The source of most of this information is an article by Andy McSmith in The Independent 15 October 2007]

Our lovely MP's

Now that all their shennanigans have come to light how are we to feel confident that our Members of Parliament are working on our behalf and not for their own benefit?

 Well, I am happy to learn that my local  MP for Wood Green, Haringey, Lynne Featherstone, LibDem, has been declared clean by the Daily Telegraph, and she has been claiming somewhat less than most: no mortgage, no second home, no half-baked tricky-dicky expenses. In fact she has behaved as one would expect an MP to behave.

Thanks, Lynne!

Although it might be easy to throw up one's hands and

never vote  again, I do feel people should still vote, and not lose heart entirely, in order to avoid creating a vacuum which would swiftly be filled by fringe candidates with odd ideas, and I leave those ideas to your imagination

........and don't mention Nick Griffin! 

And if you would like to read my poem on this very subject go to

this link:  "A Cold Winter is Forecast - 2008"

(it's about half-way down that page).