News for Sunday: October 22nd, 2000

Royal jubilee puts empire back on map (Sunday UK Times)
Christopher Morgan and Judith O'Reilly

BRITAIN is to revisit its colonial past. Among measures being lined up to celebrate the Queen's golden jubilee is one that will recall the nation's imperial ambition and the building of the Commonwealth.
Children are to be taught about the subjects as part of a new course that will become part of the national curriculum in 2002, the year that marks the 50th anniversary of the Queen's accession. It is one of a series of grand proposals emerging to celebrate the jubilee. Others include:
Thousands of special medals for the armed forces and other public servants;
The opening of gardens at royal palaces for a series of public concerts;
A special fund to develop sports;
A public holiday to mark the jubilee.
Tony Blair has told Don McKinnon, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth, that "Commonwealth studies" is to become an important part of the new subject - education for citizenship - planned for all children aged 11 to 16.
For years such figures as Clive of India, General Wolfe, who won control of Canada, or Lord Kitchener, the British commander who conquered Sudan, have been besieged by the politically correct.
Some teachers, unsure whether the conquerors represent imperial glory or colonial oppression, have shied away from the subject.
But the proposed course, being drawn up by the Commonwealth Institute and the Department for Education and Employment, will, according to a briefing document at the institute, "explore in detail how the historical links between Great Britain and Africa and Asia and the Caribbean have influenced patterns of migration".
One source said: "The course will have to cover the origins of the Commonwealth, and that means examining the history of Britain's empire."
Not that the age of empire is about to be wholly rehabilitated. According to the guidance on citizenship lessons, children will be taught about the "world as a global community", along with the requirement to study the role and the relationship of Britain and the Commonwealth.
Steve Brace, the educational director of the Commonwealth Institute, said: "We are going to be looking at the impact of the Commonwealth on our multicultural, multiracial and multifaith society."
It may prove controversial. Chris McGovern, of the History Curriculum Association and a former curriculum adviser, warned that many teachers were reluctant to study the imperial past.
"The problem is that there is almost a self-hatred among intellectuals and a massive sense of guilt about the empire, and they don't want to talk about its benefits," he said.
The jubilee year, however, will not shy away from exhibiting symbols and pageantry born of empire days. Up to 200,000 medals are to be cast to mark the occasion following a decision in principle by a cabinet committee on the jubilee, chaired by Jack Straw, the home secretary.
Cast from bronze or brass and paid for by the government, they will be awarded to members of the armed forces and emergency services together with public servants, including teachers. All members of the armed forces who have served for a certain period - either five or 10 years - will receive the honour.
Only 30,000 medals were cast to mark the silver jubilee in 1977, with 9,000 going to the military and the remainder to public servants.
The latest proposal for jubilee medals followed behind-the-scenes pressure from the armed forces, according to Whitehall sources. "We understood the Queen had no strong feelings on the matter," said a minister involved in the planning. "Then the forces got to her, made their pitch and the palace's position changed.
"We're quite happy to cast a medal and pay for it. We realise this jubilee is going to be far bigger than the silver."
The Queen is also understood to be looking favourably on a proposal to open the gardens at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh for public concerts. It is thought that orchestras and top soloists could be invited to perform at the events.
The "Way Ahead" group of senior royals and their advisers is meeting on Thursday to examine other ways of marking the jubilee. The launch of a special sports development fund is likely to be another key part of the celebrations. The Commonwealth Games will take place in Manchester during the year and a fund to help young sports players is expected to be set up.
More formal events are likely to include a gathering of Commonwealth leaders in London, even though they will have all been together at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Brisbane in November 2001.
The 15 governor-generals of the countries where the Queen is head of state are expected to come to a banquet at Windsor Castle and spend the weekend with the Queen.
The Commonwealth Day observance, which takes place annually in March in Westminster Abbey, will be replicated for the first time in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. While the Queen will probably stay at Westminster, other members of the royal family will take part in the other national services.
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Found: a document signed by Cleopatra (Sunday Uk Times)

THE only known example of the signature of Cleopatra, the most seductive queen of the ancient world, has been discovered on a scrap of papyrus that lay forgotten for more than a century in a mummy casing in Berlin, write Rossella Lorenzi and Peter Conradi.
Peter van Minnen, a Dutch professor of ancient history, has identified a single word, "genestho" - Greek for the royal command "so be it" - at the end of a document from 33BC, when Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt.
Experts at the British Museum who are familiar with van Minnen's findings said this weekend that there was little doubt that the word had been written by Cleopatra.
The document contains a promise from the queen of lucrative tax breaks for Publius Canidius, a powerful Roman commander close to Mark Antony, her lover.
It indicates that Cleopatra, who also had an affair with Julius Caesar, was a skilled political manipulator rather than the tragic heroine of Hollywood legend.
"This must be the original signature of the queen," said Susan Walker, deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum. "We are all very excited about it. This is the only example of her writing."
Walker said the document referred not only to an official government bank account, but also to the private account of "ourselves and the children", which was controlled by the sovereign. "The text is actually dated to 33BC, therefore the reigning sovereign has to be Cleopatra VII," she said.
In the letter, Cleopatra promises Canidius lucrative concessions including the right to export 10,000 artabas - an ancient measure equivalent to a sack - of wheat and to import 5,000 amphoras of wine tax-free every year.
At the top is written: "Received: Year 19 = 4, Mecheir 26" - translated by experts as February 23, 33BC. The main text is in a different hand and is thought to be the work of one of the queen's officials. It is composed in Greek, the language of the eastern Mediterranean.
Canidius commanded a land army at the time of the battle of Actium two years later in 31BC. The fleets of Antony and Cleopatra were crushed by Octavian who, under the name of Augustus, went on to become undisputed master of the Roman world.
Cleopatra was shrewd to try to win over Canidius. In his account of the battle of Actium, the historian Plutarch described Antony's initial reluctance to let Cleopatra join in on his side. Canidius persuaded him to change his mind, having apparently been bribed, Plutarch writes. The document is evidence of such a bribe.
The battle ultimately cost both Antony and Cleopatra their lives. The lovers fled after their defeat and both committed suicide soon afterwards.
The signature on the document was identified almost by chance. It was published last month in a volume of essays dedicated to Jean Bingen, a renowned Belgian papyrologist, and was labelled as a private treaty between an Egyptian villager and "Mr X".
When van Minnen saw it, he became suspicious. After ordering an enlargement from the publisher, he fed it into his computer and "within 30 seconds" recognised it as a royal ordinance.
On it he identified what he believed must be Cleopatra's signature. He also found Canidius's name - which experts say is more proof of its authenticity.
Not all scholars are convinced that the signature can be definitively attributed to Cleopatra. Nicholas Purcell, an expert at St John's College, Oxford, believes the word may have been written by an aide. "Even though the 'genestho' is in a different hand, it could still be the personal amanuensis or chamberlain subscribing on her behalf," he said.
Van Minnen rejects this suggestion. "The added order cannot but derive from the issuing authority, in this case Cleopatra," he said. "The high official addressed would immediately recognise her writing."
Alan Bowman, another expert on the period at Christ Church, Oxford, said the document was proof of the tactics Cleopatra used to influence leading Romans in the struggle with Octavian.
"It was not exactly sleaze, because they all did it. That was the way things worked," he said. "They would not have called it sleaze. But neither would some of their modern-day counterparts."

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