Sins of the father, sins of Man; the price of the Immortals

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“Tess of the D’Urbervilles” is a classic Victorian tragedy about the life of an impoverished and virtuous Wessex country girl who becomes a victim of her society and the forces of fate. Her destiny will be both in the hands of the changeable morality of her fellow humans and the consistent forces of nature.

In memory of a teacher

Teachers are very important to me and it always sad hear about their passing. Today, 22 April 2010, I received the tragic news that Tony Hayes had died. Tony Hayes was my muay Thai kru for an intensive year of training in Warwick. During this time I travelled several times a week, had private lessons with him, represented his club at a judging course and was a part of his fortnightly "fight club". He awarded me my "Training Instructor" qualification shortly before the club closed. Below is an article I wrote for club's website - this was before my work was widely published in martial arts magazines and just before I began Clubb Chimera Martial Arts. There is a certain naivity in the writing and it reflects a time when Hayes Muay Thai was in its hayday. I haven't edited anything for fear it will take away what a good friend of mine calls "lived experience" of the time, so please forgive any grammatical errors. I offer it as my own way of remembering one of my teachers...

Pet Peeves - Coping Methods & Finding Closure

Can a person remain happy and be productive through an examination of his pet peeves? I think so. By identifying annoyances that find you all-too-often you can find a type of release in writing down your reasons for becoming irritated. It also prompts a bit of meditation on how to deal with said annoyances and, most importantly, move on. In fact, I have actually put forward some advice I have found was useful to me in dealing with them. Below is a list of the “little” things that tend to get on my wick from day to day. It’s been an enjoyable exercise for me. Don't worry if you disagree with me. Many of these annoyances are readily brought on by many people who are quite close to me, including several family members. If anything upsets you, too bad. However, as a consolation I have just provided you with a few buttons that, when pressed, will surely get my gander up. I hope you will find it interesting or even mildly amusing.

Icon Series: Meyer Lansky - the thinking man's gangster?

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Of all the main icons of the Prohibition/gambling era of gangsters, Maier Suchowljansky, known as Meyer “The Brain” Lansky ( July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983) is perhaps the most understated. In fact, he is famed for being the reserved “chairman of the board” in popular mythology. 

Black clouds in the distance for zoos

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Barely a week after an apparent government poll announced that a supposed “94%” of the general public wish for the “total ban” option on travelling circuses with wild animals, Angela Smith, Labour MP called for a ban on zoos. Smith is not new to the animal industry in the UK. In 1998, just one year after the Labour party received £1m from the political animal lobby, she showed an anti-circus Animal Rights video to Parliament.

I am often very wary of logical fallacies. The “slippery slope” fallacy is one I probably check in myself more than any other. The trouble is that everything seems to point towards a “thin end of the wedge” approach to the attack on the animals in education and entertainment culture and industry. Having read through the huge amount of written material that led up to the Animal Welfare Act 2006

Black Friday for Circus

Back in the 1960s my grandfather, the great circus director and animal trainer, Dick Chipperfield, dedicated his book, "My Friends the Animals", with no little affection, to the general public. He loved the people who viewed his circus and appreciated their support, never forgetting them. Many who worked for him or grew up on his circus will testify the importance he placed on giving service to the general public and to always be friendly and helpful to them. His was a time when circuses brought whole communities together and broke class divisions. We have footage of incredile queues of people snaking their way up to the huge tents that contained his shows. And why not? Britain was the country that gave birth to the modern circus. The officials and the press of Britain today would have you believe a far different story...

Friday 27^th March will probably go down in circus history as a “Black Friday” for animal circuses. Despite there only being a small number of circuses in the UK containing animals and despite a thorough scientific investigation in for the 2006 Animal Welfare Act returning the consensus that the circus “animal issue” was purely a “political” one, an apparent survey was conducted to decide whether the general public would back one of these three proposals:

1. Business as usual for animal circuses
2. Wild animals to be travelled in circuses only under regulation
3. A total ban on wild animals in circuses.

Yesterday a source leaked to me that the results to be published by DEFRA today confirmed that 94% of those who took the vote backed the total ban option. The official circus governing body, the Association of Circus Proprietors were behind the regulation option from the beginning and even drew up regulations that were submitted for the working group consultation on the Animal Welfare Act.

I for one am very sceptical about the apparent 94% backing of the ban. How does this correlate with the packed houses regularly enjoyed by the few circuses that do have exotic animals in their circuses? I think it is more than likely that those voting were rallied by the various activist groups who oppose animals in circuses. Why this was recently pushed not long before election time also makes me ponder, but I won’t go into that one.

So far there have been at least two independent scientific investigations into animal husbandry in circuses. The first one was conducted in 1989 by Dr Marthe Kyle Worthington at the behest of the RSPCA and its results were published in the book “Chiron’s World?” Despite various parts of the book often being quoted out of context or misconstrued a full reading of the book shows a general positive outlook for animal circuses and their methods. The 2006 research really summed up the essence of the issue regarding animals in circuses – a political one.

Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Britons back circus animal ban (telegraph.co.uk)
• Circuses facing wild animal ban (news.bbc.co.uk)

The Hazeid - Watership Down Review

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“All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.”- Richard Adam, "Watership Down"

Below are my reviews and reflections on the great book and film, "Watership Down". When it comes to literature and movie adaptations very few of the latter measure up to the former. There is no rule to how this turns out. Just because a film remains as loyal as possible to its source material, such as the graphic novel "The Watchmen" and especially "300", which was a frame-by-frame adaptation, it doesn't mean that the end result is going to be any good. Slavishly adhering to the original material almost makes the whole point of creating a film pointless. A film is a different animal to a book or even a play. In the latter case one has only to look at many of the early "talkies" and then compare them to the way cinema developed in the 1940s to see the important distinction.