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The Ascension Island Newspaper |
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The Ascension Island Newspaper |
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Two Boats School Sports Day was held at Two Boats Football Field this year. A thoroughly entertaining day, woth a teaches race which was won by Darren, a parents relay race, tug of war, fun games, long and high jump and much more. It was a close call but Beale managed to take the trophy yet again. |
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CHANGING YOUR TUNE
Have you ever grumbled about 'THEM' - you know, the government, the tax man, the council, your bosses or superiors or the vicar - anyone in authority or some position of leadership that touches the way we work or the way we live or enjoy ourselves! Our grumbles can be real or imagined, they can be based on hearsay or rumour, self defence, prejudice or ignorance of the facts .......... or just plain anger at what we think is unjust or unfair. It can be caused by misunderstanding words and the way they are used, by jealousy, envy, bitterness or hatred or by failure to understand the different social, cultural, racial or religious groups they represent.
Of course, it's always 'THEM' and rarely me that is at fault ....... and have you noticed that when confronted by the object of our grumbles, we mostly and quickly change our tune? We avoid the issue or back down or, out of fear of reprisal, back off completely because it's safer!
When Jesus came into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday all the people who had grumbled about 'THEM' - the Romans or the religious leaders or whoever - welcomed Him with shouts of "Hosanna". Here was a 'king' who would change everything and they made Him out to be their defender. But how quickly they changed their tune; He condemned their dishonest dealing in the markets - He talked of loving those who they hated and He confronted the issues of injustice with a love that went beyond their grumbles and the bigotry of those in authority, and within a few days, those who welcomed Him with open arms and shouts of joy, either kept quiet or cried our "Crucify Him"! His thought and giving of Himself was for them and all people whoever and whatever they were - theirs was for themselves and saving their own skins; by and large they went along with the crowd and allowed 'THEM' to do their worst.
BUT LOVE always triumphs - as it always will whenever people stop thinking about 'ME'. We wish you all the joy of Easter and the new way of Living and Loving that God has given us in His Son. Fr Brian
Fr Brian and Daphne
LETTERS|
Dear Sir, I got your reference from cable and wireless. i am a phonecards collector of Canada and I want to exchange phonecards with the local collectors from Ascension island, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha. I shall be very thankful to you if u can put my add in your local news paper. Regards Harry Chohan Harry Chohan 232, Last week in the Islander it was suggested that Phillip Stevens is going to university. However, Phillip will in fact be returning to Ascension on July 18 following completion of his a-levels. We would like to express our displeasure that this potentially misleading information was published without first consulting with Phillip or his family. Phillip was accepted at five U.K universities, and had decided to accept a place at Bristol University to study electrical engineering. We asked the Ascension Island Government for funding for Phillip to attend university, but we were told that there is none available. On ST Helena some students have already been financially supported to attend university by the Government there under an arrangement where the students are required to work within the island for a set period on their return, to show their commitment to the Island. Phillip is very disappointed that he will be unable to go to university and it is a great pity that there are no government or private sector funding parties interested in supporting Phillip in his studies. Raymond and Lynn Stevens |
Dear All Terry and Jane Randells would like to use the Islander as a way of passing on love and prayers to everyone that remembers them from their two years on the Island. We will be thinking of all those that will be celebrating Easter on the Island. Love and blessings from Terry and Jane
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Shub, Dr Robin, June, Karen, Neil, Patsy, Patty, Sue & Eileen for their professional skills and caring nature when looking after me following my recent accident. Thanks also to Mum & Babs and everybody that visited, sent gifts, cards or messages for a speedy recovery. Tony Goddard |
| Letters to
the Editor can be sent to editors@the-islander.org.ac |
LETTERS TO THE ISLANDER14th April 2003 Dear Editor, I would like to place on record my appreciation of the commitment that the Island Council has shown in the current Estimates to the financing of education in Ascension Island. Education of young people is obviously an investment in the Island's future and it is pleasing that children and staff in the school are provided with the resources necessary for their learning/training. I know that members of staff at the school share this view. As a Head with experience of working in a number of schools I can say with certainty that I have never been in a position before where planned spending on Education has gone up by almost 16%. We are obviously excited at the prospect of some of our young people being able to study overseas as a result of the funding that the Council has approved for the Further Education policy. Hopefully too we will be able to increase the scope and number of courses that we can provide for members of the community. We realise that the community will justifiably want to see a return on the investment that has been made in the school and we will do all we can to provide that. David Higgins |
Following a discussion that lasted over the last two Council Meetings, the Island Councillors have decided that the Fire Station should be moved from its current location in Anchor Block to the site occupied by the incinerator and the old chicken sheds.
Several other locations were considered, including making temporary use the of Ocean View in Two Boats.
The need for a new building was highlighted when the new fire tender was delivered recently - currently both tenders are at the mercy of the wind and the weather.
The new site has a number of advantages:
Work will begin shortly to open up the front of one of the old buildings on the site and build a concrete access slop so that the fire tenders can be stored under cover.
Andrew Kettlewell
Administrator
We share with you this week some guiding news of the forthcoming visit by Girlguides from down South as well as Rainbow Guide activities.
GIRLGUIDES UNITE!
Coming to us for Easter from the Falkland Islands will be five Guides and their Leader, Trish Halmshaw. Trish is no stranger to Ascension as she spent a pre-Christmas holiday here a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was at this time that the idea of uniting with our Girlguides was initiated, and on her return to the Falklands, Trish started the ball rolling for planning, fund-raising and making all the necessary arrangements for an Easter Get-together with us. The girls accompanying Guider Trish are Helen McKay, Helen Davies, Gilly Cotter, Hannah Arthur-Almond and Tiphannie and we look forward to their arrival on Thursday 17 April. They will return to the Falklands a week later after joining our Girlguides at Easter Camp and enjoying a varied after-camp programme drawn up by our Guide Leader Cheryl Anthony. A big thank-you to Cheryl for arranging this as well as the Easter (themed) Camp. It all looks to be great fun!! We can't promise an Easter Camp without rain, but we can guarantee our FI friends will not feel the chilly winds they experience down South! Trish and the FI Guides will be given home hospitality during the time they are not under canvas and the starlit sky! I would like to take this opportunity to thank the families of the Guides who have willingly agreed to take our visitors into their homes and give them a taste of true Ascension Island hospitality.
SO WELCOME TRISH AND GIRLS - WE HOPE YOU ENJOY BEING WITH US!
Now let's see what our Rainbows have been up to.
RAINBOW GUIDES' FUN MEETINGS
Well, we've been having lots of fun doing all sorts of activities and having visitors share our meetings with us. To get us into the creative mood, Kirsty (Anthony), our Unit Helper, made newspaper hats with us one afternoon and this tested our paper folding skills. For our Teddy Bear Fun afternoon, each Rainbow introduced their Bear which they brought to the meeting, Elma (Mrs. Miller) came and told us a delightful story (which she wrote the day before) about Golden Bear and the Eight Little Rainbows and we played musical 'Pass the Bear'! When we had a Balloon Sports afternoon, we played games such as Keepy Uppy, Balloon Archery and High Thump!! It wasn't easy doing the 'balloon walk' to the money pot with a balloon between our knees, but it was great fun! During our Flower Power session, we talked about flowers of Ascension, gave ourselves flower names and then Daphne (Mrs. Birchmore) showed us how to arrange flowers in an attractive way.
To end the meeting on a sweet note, Jodi made us some lovely flower-shape biscuits to munch! At our last meeting for this term, which was all about Easter Things, we were fortunate enough to have two visitors with us. Wendy (Mrs. Joshua from School) made delightful chickens in egg shells with us which the girls took home to gather their Easter eggs into, and Suzanne (Mrs. Higgins) talked to us about Robin Hood who lived in Sherwood Forest. Well, Robin Hood may have rolled Easter Eggs at the bad King John to try and bowl him over when he was robbing the rich to pay the poor, but that wasn't the reason why he was talked about at our Easter Things afternoon!! Mrs Higgins comes from Robin Hood's part of the world (Nottingham) in England and she's a Unit Helper with the 1st Eastwood Rainbow Guides. So it was nice to have her join us and bring letters from them in reply to those we had written to them earlier on, and to give us badges and fluffy tags. Anyway, here's a picture of all of us with Kirsty and our visitors taken on the day. Do you like our bright yellow chicks??
THANKS and HAPPY EASTER
We would like to say a big THANK-YOU to all the adults who have come and shared our meeting times with us and taught us things over the last few weeks.
Please come and visit us again!! We would welcome others to our meetings especially if you have something interesting to show, teach or to just simply share with us. Next time we will have exciting things to tell you about the Guides and their Falklands visitors and Easter Camp.etc. and, at a later date, we will share some Brownie activities with you as well. So until then, we wish everyone A HAPPY TIME AT EASTER!!
Betty Joshua
For Girlguiding Ascension
Listening to a BBC programme broadcasting listeners' comments. This comment made me reflect on matters closer to home.
"Democracy is not something like food or drink that can be given (to the Iraqi people). They must want it from within"
It made me reflect on how Ascension has gained its changes and still has more to strive for. How does a people demonstrate that new found freedom? Do we have the vision to strive for a better future together, supporting changes, honouring promises, making sacrifices in the process, being patient for bigger changes and not so patient for others. Working together to bring about the changes.
Ascension cannot start to make comparisons with any other country. Ascension is unique and in its uniqueness lies its strengths and weaknesses.
Do we want it from within?
I welcome your 'reflection' on the above or anything else you wish to share.
The Race……..
Reflecting on this scene:
A group of junior school children lined for a race searching each others faces for confirmation that they were doing the right thing. They took off as the whistle signalled them to run. Midway there was a hesitancy from the front runner who found herself alone. She looked behind to see if the others were still running, unsure if she was to continue. As soon as she realised they were hot on her heels she gathered speed and ran to the finish to win.
The incident made me smile at the time. The children's faces
stand out in my mind. To see each child trying his or her best, proudly wearing
the team colours, participating as a group yet wishing to excel. They must
have realised that without the participation of each one there could not be
a race. They needed each other, the fast ones and the not so fast ones. In
participating they excelled themselves, urging others to do the same. They
may have appreciated the applause offered to the winners and the chasers.
I also wondered, when do those with not such young legs forget to run or walk
together………
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The Met Office Weather Report |
Statistics for the week ending Monday 14th April 2003
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Max (deg
C)
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Min (deg
C)
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Rainfall
(mm)
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AIRHEAD
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31.0
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24.9
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Trace
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TRAVELLERS
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29.0
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22.1
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3.2
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RESIDENCY
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28.5
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19.8
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Trace
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|
GEORGETOWN
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34.0
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24.0
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Nil
|
| ST. HELENA | 24.3 | 19.2 | 21.2 |
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FALKLANDS
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15.0
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2.5
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14.9
|
|
UK
|
19.0
|
-7
|
12.0 (max
24hr)
|
ASCENSION ISLAND: : So far April of this year has not lived up to it's
reputation. Long term averages figures for rainfall show April as being Ascension
Island's wettest month of the year. A generally dry and sunny past week witnessed
Green Mountain clear of cloud for most of the time. Well broken cloud and a
half moon presented the perfect weather for turtle watching. The only rain in
a very dry week fell overnight Sunday into Monday morning when some moderate
showers fell on Travellers.
UK: : A ridge of high pressure resulted in dry and settled weather over all parts of the British Isles early in the week. However on Wednesday a frontal trough moving into Southeast England from the continent brought a cold airmass and a temporary return to winter. Scenes of snow falling outside 10 Downing Street were beamed to the world by the television networks. However it was a week of contrasts with Central London recording the highest temperature in the UK, 19 Celsius on Sunday 13th for the Marathon Run. Lowest minimum temperature was read at Hawarden in Flintshire at Minus 7 Celsius on Friday 10 th. On that day frontal troughs associated with a small depression in the northern North Sea presented cloudy conditions and outbreaks of rain to Scotland. Further Atlantic fronts brushing northwards across Ireland and western Britain gave more unsettled weather to these western parts during the weekend. Falmouth received 12.0 mm of rain on Sunday. That was the highest 24 hour UK rainfall total for the week. Meanwhile most other areas remained dry and mild.
FALKLANDS: Unsettled weather during the first half of the week with a series of depression and associated fronts tracking eastwards. Quieter weather from a ridge of high pressure drifting eastwards across South America and the Falklands brought thick overnight fog patches on Friday before further rain and showers moved in from the west by the weekend. The highest weekly maximum of 15.0 Celsius was on Saturday 12th while a minimum temperature of 2.5 Celsius was recorded on both the 11th and the 12th. The total rainfall was 14.9 mm for the week.
ST HELENA: : A mixed week of sunshine with rain or showers. Highest maximum temperature of 24.3 Celsius was read on Thursday 10th. The lowest minimum was also recorded on that day. Mean temperature for the week was 20.8 Celsius with a mean winds speed of 11.5 knots. Total sunshine for the week was 36.4 hours.
Here is the second instalment of our proposed introduction to the island. If you have any corrections, suggestions or constructive criticisms please either email the Islander or phone me on 4548. Neil MacFall, Two Boats
ORIGINS
You will have gathered by this time that Ascension Island is volcanic. In fact there are about 50 volcanic cones on the island, scattered around the original volcano, Green Mountain and Middleton's. So why is this volcano stuck here in the middle of the ocean? The answer lies in the Mid Atlantic Ridge, a long underwater mountain chain that stretches from Iceland, though the Azores to Cape Verde Islands and then on to Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha and finally to Bouvet Island near the edge of the Antarctic pack ice. These islands are all volcanic in origin and mark the region where the raft of land which carries Africa meets that which carries South America. The area where they meet has a line of "hot spots" which produce volcanoes and new islands are liable to form at any time. St Helena first grew above the waves over 14 million years ago but Ascension Island is much younger at about 1 million years old.
The early years of the island were obviously very turbulent as Green Mountain grew and grew by throwing molten lava out through its vent, which is now well hidden by all the debris. It certainly was not a green mountain in those days. Gradually this island built up with many small erupting vents opening up on the side of the original mountain and a rain of molten rock continually landing from massive explosions to make the little island grow.
This went on for many years. As a rough guide the white lava hills mainly in the southeast of the island are the oldest, whilst the red and black volcanic cones are the newer parts. The last known eruption was between 500 and 700 years ago when the black lava flow which spreads out from the Sisters range of hills, was thrown out. Another very small, comparatively recent eruption produced the "Devil's Inkpot", a splash of black lava across the Letterbox Plateau.
Is it likely to erupt again? Well, a volcano is not considered dead until it has been dormant for 10,000 years, so it is possible. However, there would be plenty of warning and earth movements would have to take place before a vent could open. We do have seismic monitoring equipment on the island, so the chances of a surprise eruption during your visit are very small indeed, whether you are here for a few days or even a few years.
Hash number: 948
Hares: Chief Longpole & Penguin
Hounds: The Major, Mildew, 100 Watt, Skipper, Slap Head, Dick Head, Talking Head, Baywatch Babe, Mr. Bubbles, Batman, Bart Simpson, Yeti, Bloodsucker, Morticia, Radar, Rugrat, Rat Boy, Hardcore Heidi, Plumline Pete, Uncle Fester, Mama 3 Bones, Richard, Brian
The gathering point was at the base of one of the hills by the rifle ranges. Worried that some hashers may have proceeded a little too far, Plumline Pete headed off at a brisk pace to check the hut. Definitely too much energy before the hash even started. Easy to tell he hasn't been on an Ascension hash for a while! For a little while it was doubtful if one of the hares could make it, and this news filled our heads with scenes of lost souls scattered all over, since he was the only hare who knew the route of the second half of the hash! Luckily Chief Longpole made it and we were ready to go.
The briefing mentioned a few ups and downs and some loose footing. Of course this meant that the on-on was straight up the hill. It was a tricky climb, with loose rocks all the way up the steep hill. After a nice circle check at the top, we found out that going down was even worse. There were a number of people who decided to "have a sit". I'm sure there were a few people nursing sore backsides the day after, right Morticia? The Great Crater Crawl continued. As soon as we reached the bottom, it was down the way a bit and then up another hill. It didn't take a lot of reasoning to figure out where that bar check was leading. We all scaled the hill successfully, a few needing a little help along the way. Again, after a circle check, it was right on to another, even steeper, hill. Not even any down this time.
After a particularly arduous scramble, we ended up at the rim of Perfect Crater, a magnificent view. After some discussion as to whether the next part was going to be down into the crater, we were relieved to find out that the hash led us around the rim to the backside. The wind on the rim was strong and occasionally felt like it would blow us off the trail. Good thing Batman and Bart Simpson are low to the ground. Of course when we got around to the back of the crater, we had to get back down. A long, slippery descent followed. A few among us had some close calls. 100 Watt, under the guise of helping Mildew down, almost sent her tumbling head first into the valley. How a few of the hashers got down so quickly still has the rest of us wondering. At the base of the crater, after the next circle check the trail headed up the gully towards yet another crater.
Thankfully, the quicker among us soon discovered a back arrow, and the trail headed over relatively flat terrain, back to the base of the first hill, and refreshments. Boy, can hashers move when the ground is flat and they are thirsty! Not even the ever present thorn bushes slowed them down! As usual, a good time with good food followed. The circle of friendship was drawn and we welcomed another sorry soul to the world of hashing. Ron will now round out the trio of "Heads", having been blessed with the name "Talking Head". Glad to have you join us. Thanks to Chief Longpole and Penguin who laid a great hash.
Next Week: Long Beach Hares: Rat Boy and Rug Rat
EDITORS : Julia & Adam
The New Islander Office, Fort Hayes, Georgetown, Ascension Island.
Tel/Fax 00 + 247 6327
E-Mail: editors@the-islander.org.ac
Internet Team: Alan George, Andy Roberts and Gavin Yon
Deadline for all contributions is 6.00pm on Monday
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