My Sleepwalker

The phone on my desk rang. It was Silla from reception asking if I was available to see a client who was very upset and wanted to see someone right away. I asked what the problem was and Silla said the woman didn't speak much English, but that she had indicated that her son was in some kind of trouble with the police. From the tone of Silla's voice, I knew she really wished that I should see the woman. I respected Silla, for her many years of experience, and for that Mauritian flair with which she expertly and confidently executed her duties at the front desk. So I deferred to her judgement, set aside what I was working on and asked that the woman be shown in. 

The door opened and a 30-something year old Somali woman entered my room carrying a child in her arms, a toddler. Following behind her was a lean bespectacled teenager. The resemblance was obvious to see, I could tell immediately that these two were mother and son. Mrs G's frustration was clear, so I did the best I could to get them to relax. I then got down to the business of finding out what I could do for them. Mrs G spoke little English, but her son A, who was 18 and attended school, acted as our interpreter.

The story was that sometime the previous week, policemen had visited their home and invited A, the son, to the police station. After the visit to the police station on that date, the son had been released on police bail and was requested to attend the police station again today. Mrs G had accompanied her son to the police appointment this morning, and, (thrusting the charge sheet at me), said her son had now been charged with the offence of breaking and entry.

Their neighbour next door, a female Polish immigrant, had made a complaint to the Police that she had been awoken from sleep in the middle of the previous night. On waking she realised that what had roused her were sounds and movements in her bedroom. She lived alone in her flat and normally left her bedroom window open at night during the summer months. She was alarmed, fearing that there might be an intruder in her bedroom so she switched on the bedside lamp. To her utter dismay she found a black man standing before her, inside her bedroom. She screamed, and the black man seeing that she had awakened, suddenly turned around, rushed to the open window, climbed out, and vanished into the darkness on to the roof of the kitchen extension of her building. She called the Police immediately and some officers were sent over to make sure this woman was alright. 

Seeing that she was okay the officers requested that the woman attend the police station in the morning to make a statement. In making this statement in writing at the police station, the woman suggested that the black man in her bedroom bore a striking resemblance to the young son of the Somali family that lived next door to her. (I know all of these facts because I later got to read the statement that this woman gave to the police. During their first visit to my office, Mrs G and her son had only told their side of the story).

Now what Mrs G said to me during that first visit was that throughout his childhood A had suffered from somnambulism. He had been a serial sleepwalker, but that as he reached adolescence the incidence of sleepwalking had reduced significantly. The family had been living in London since her son was about six years old, and as a child he had received medical treatment for the condition. She was afraid that his sleepwalking might have resumed, although apart from this present incident, there were no recent incidents that she knew of. She thought her son could have been sleepwalking when he climbed out of their upstairs bathroom window in the middle of the night, and made his way on to the roof of their patio extension. He must have crossed over to the roof of the neighbour's kitchen extension, crawled across that roof to the neighbour's upstairs bedroom window, which was open, and climbed into the neighbour's bedroom.

The son himself had no recollection of the incident. He told police that he did not remember climbing out of the bathroom window of their house. Mrs G said her son's bedroom was down the corridor from hers, and that she had heard nothing. But his bedroom was directly next to the bathroom, and going by the allegation made by the neighbour, she feared that her son might have done that which he was now accused of doing. I accepted the case because I thought this would be interesting. My client (A, the son) was due in court the next Monday morning.

Early Monday morning I arrived at the Camberwell Magistrates Court and obtained the Advance Information documentation from the Crown prosecutor. He (or she) is obliged to make these available to me. In this bundle of documents is contained the victim's statement, and the statements and reports of the police officers who had attended the scene and conducted the investigation. I also noted from the papers that the victim had subsequently positively identified my client as the "black man" she saw in her bedroom.

On the basis of the information contained in the Advance Information bundle I advised my client to plead "Not Guilty", and this is what he did when the charge was read out to him in the crowded courtroom. 

Monday morning in any magistrates court is busy because of the overnight cases from the previous weekend. Detained cases are given priority. These are mostly remorseful young men who let alcohol get the better of them during the Friday and the Saturday night just gone. On this day there was a wife beater too. I said the courtroom was crowded, but half of the public gallery was taken up by what seemed like the entire adult Somali population of the borough where my client resides. 

I genuinely doubted that the prosecution would be able to prove (to the standard of proof that is required) that my client "broke into and entered" the victim's "dwelling place, with the intention of committing an offence", the legal definition of the crime of 'breaking and entry', which is what my client was now charged with. I realised that the mental element, (the intent), was a crucial element of this offence and that the prosecution would have great difficulty in proving that my client indeed climbed into his neighbour's bedroom, if at all, with the intention of doing something unlawful.

It was a 'Not Guilty' plea then, so the matter was to be adjourned and a date set for trial. At this point I interjected, saying that my client would be relying on medical evidence in his defence. For this reason, a reasonable period of time was required to obtain the medical report. I requested an adjournment for four weeks, and my request was granted. The next date would be for a case management conference, a date for the court to assess the preparedness of the parties for trial.

Leaving court with me and surrounded by several loudly chattering Somali men and women, Mrs G was smiling, looking happier than I had ever seen her before then. I shook many appreciative hands, and I wondered why, since this was only the beginning of this case.

"Now to see to that medical report", I thought to myself, as I left them and headed back to the office.. (To be continued).

Another Icelandic explosion?

We have just seen more than 100,000 flights grounded across Europe and a beleaguered airline industry frantically trying to restore to itself the confidence of hundreds of thousands of hapless, stranded travellers. We have witnessed perishable fresh produce rotting away in warehouses in far flung locations such as in the Caribbean, South America and Africa, for want of transport to consumer markets in Europe. Businesses and schools have been disrupted, business meetings have been cancelled.

And all this because one relatively small volcano in Iceland erupted in icy conditions, causing huge volumes of ash to be produced, the ash cloud rising high into the atmosphere. The wind direction too by coincidence was such that it guaranteed that this ash cloud would drift across most of northern Europe. One week later, we are only now just starting to breathe a sigh of relief that this immense disruption has come to an end. But there is another fact that we must be aware of.

And the fact is this: A far bigger Icelandic volcano, Katla, is tipped to erupt in the following months, potentially causing much more severe and sustained disruption to industry and to society as a whole. Eyjafjallajokul erupted last week and records show that each time Eyjafjallajokul has erupted in the last 2,000 years - in the year 920, in 1612 and between 1821 and 1823, Katla has exploded within six months.

The ash from the Eyjafjallajokul eruption was sent to such high altitudes because the ice on top of the mountain melted as the volcano erupted and the mixture of cold melt water and lava caused explosions, which in turn shot the volcanic ash high up into the air. The ash cloud drifted far across Europe because of the high altitude to which the ash had been shot.

Katla however is ten times the size of Eyjafjallajokul, with a correspondingly larger ice field. Were Katla to erupt, there undoubtedly will be shot high into the atmosphere larger amounts of ash than we saw with Eyjafjallajokul, with even more serious disruption the likely outcome, if the winds were blowing in roughly the same direction as with the recent Eyjafjallajokul eruption.

"I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Katla erupted within the next year, but how much it affects Britain and northern Europe depends on what happens with the winds at the time," the volcanologist Bill McGuire told The Independent newspaper.

Bill McGuire is a professor of earth sciences at UCL and widely accepted as one of Britain's leading volcanologists, whose main interests include monitoring volcanoes and global geophysical events. He is a bona fide authority on the subject of volcanoes and his advice is for airlines to start from now to draw up contingency plans. However, it is obvious that not very much can be done if the airspace is taken over by a volcanic ash cloud. What perhaps businesses could consider is to stock up on supplies early on. And travellers could have a rethink about whether they really need to make that trip.

There are jokes being passed around that the volcanic ash is a hidden agenda by the Green movement to limit unnecessary flights. Some have even said that the ash cloud is Iceland's reprisal against Britain for demanding repayment from Iceland of the billions of pounds paid by the British government in compensation to customers of Iceland's failed banks.

Mother Nature clears her throat

Mother Nature clears her throat, and we humans in all our arrogance, are humbled.

The bolts of lightning appearing in the plume of the ash-spewing Eyjafjallajokull volcano are pretty to look at, but the truth is that the process that creates this kind of lightning in erupting volcanoes remains something of a mystery. Lightning, which is usually associated with severe weather such as thunderstorms, hurricanes and the like, is also produced by the rolling debris clouds of volcanoes.

It is thought that the lightning in a volcanic plume is connected to the rotation that these hot gases and ash undergo, sort of like a tornado. As a plume rotates, it can spawn waterspouts or dust devils, which gather together the electric charges in the plume to form a sheath of lightning.

Lol, I'm not an expert, obviously, but I've been doing some reading and you can join me by having a look at this site.

All in all this ash cloud business has become rather a nuisance. I did see a few vapour trails of aircraft flying over London today, but the explanation came when I heard that some other European countries had opened their airspace to aviation and that these were aircraft flying across Britain from the European continent, possibly towards North America and vice versa. I learnt also that a few airports in Scotland and the north of England and in Northern Ireland had opened, but only very few aircraft movements had been reported.

Then I was pleased this evening to hear of several British Airways long-haul flights from all around the world headed for London, even though UK airspace remained officially closed and many of the earlier flights bound for London had been diverted to Madrid instead, from where weary travellers were left to make their own way across Spain and France to the channel port of Calais so as to board a ferry to Dover, (if they could manage to get a place on the ferry that is).

But there was then a report that a BA 747 had just touched down at Heathrow, with live footage to boot. Shortly after these pictures were shown, the 10 O'clock news, which had begun with the announcement that UK airspace was still closed and was not expected to reopen before tomorrow morning, ended with the surprising announcement that the airspace was now officially open. What a difference half an hour can make!

So now, we should all feel better that the end to this chaos is finally in sight. But lets not ignore the important lessons that this has taught us, the first being that the world is totally unprepared for an event such as this. Especially, when one considers that this Icelandic volcano is only a minor volcano.

God bless you, you're doing a great job

"You're doing a great job, thanks and God bless you. Your special number today was powerful and I believe that your ministration on Sunday will be even more powerful..." is the text of the SMS I received from the pastor of my church last Saturday. It's not the first time either that he has commended my efforts as leader of the choir. Sometime ago I blogged about my appointment as choir leader in January this year. At first it was daunting, the prospect of managing the complex affairs of a choir. But I dug into my role with gusto and have found myself actually enjoying it.

I am in charge of a group of choristers many of whom are married women with small children, who also have jobs. So there is the fact that members of the choir oftentimes cannot find the time to attend choir practice, (small children can be such a handful sometimes). Then there are issues concerning family commitments and so forth, and it hasn't been an easy ride for me. But I've been open and honest with them that I am quite inexperienced at this. And by appearing to be naive, I've somehow warmed my way into their hearts, apparently, because all of the members seem to be much more enthusiastic about the choir now than I remember them ever being. And this enthusiasm shows too when the choir ministers during the church services.

I think this might have something to do with the fact that soon after my appointment as leader, I delegated different responsibilities to various members, each of whom was assigned a set of tasks. Also, I have been careful to always encourage them in carrying out those tasks, praise them when they deserved it, seek their opinions, listen to their suggestions and defer to the judgement of the more experienced choristers when making decisions. Such that each of them feel as if they are actively participating in the decision making, and any previous resentment about my appointment as leader appears now to have dissipated.

It was my idea that rather than attending for choir practice on Saturdays and losing our Saturday evenings, we should instead meet for practice after service on Sunday, a time when I calculated that everyone would be in a good mood. This idea has turned out to be quite popular, hence the improvement in the quality of our performance. It is still my job to choose which song(s) the choir would sing at the Sunday service, teach the song to the choir if necessary, and direct the music. But I'm not complaining because I genuinely love doing this. For next Sunday I have picked this delectable song.

Zimbabwe, 30 years under Mugabe

On April 18th 1980, the Union Flag came down in Harare and the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, Lord Soames, transfered executive power to the first Prime Minister of independent Zimbabwe. On the thirtieth anniversary of Zimbabwean "freedom", how is it working out?

This article is reproduced here with copyright permission from Independent News and Media Limited. You should read Mark Steyn's take on the Zimbabwe story too, which some think might be closer to the reality on the ground in Harare...

General Babangida must NOT become President of Nigeria

It is being reported that a spokesman for General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has told the international media that General Babangida will run for president in the 2011 presidential poll after seeking the nomination of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP)

Personally, I cannot think of a more inappropriate candidate for the presidency of Nigeria. If the PDP candidate must be from northern Nigeria, there is a multitude of Nigerians from the north who are better qualified than General Babangida and whose reputations are not tarnished in the way that Babangida's is.

As my friend and fellow blogger Akin so aptly put it, "New Blood NOT Incredibly Bad Blood" is what Nigeria needs at this moment for the country's leadership. "General Babangida is incredibly bad blood" Akin states, and I am in complete agreement. It was under Babangida's tenure as president that corruption became endemic in Nigeria, the economy deteriorated and democracy was shoved aside. In fact, it was on the back of Babangida that the evil Abacha regime came to power.

Nigeria as a nation is already in a weakened state, due largely to the inept and incompetent leadership of recent years, a malaise that potentially will only be exacerbated by a Babangida presidency.

Given that sycophants abound in Nigeria, many of whom were enriched and thereby empowered by Babangida and his evil progeny Abacha, and who therefore are today in positions of power and influence, I am justified in my fear that the voices of millions of concerned Nigerians will be ignored; those who like me dread the return to power of the "Evil Genius", (a nickname Babangida gave himself). Shockingly, Babangida on his website even refers to himself as "Nigeria's Best President". May God help us...

You may want to read this interesting piece written by Sola Salako.