Hi there.
Two new stories this week which drew my attention.
Both of them because 'small things matter', sometimes.
And sometimes small things symbolise something much bigger.
The first story is what looks to have been a piece of 'vandalism'.
That's V A N D A L I S M.
And the other one, what may have been an oversight, but with a decidedly
racist connotation, badly handled.
Both small things, but both small things that matter and symbolise a lot.
So one of these stories is about a tree.
The other story is about a little girl.
Are you intrigued?
Before I do that, just a reminder that if you're enjoying our podcasts and
they're helping you with your English language understanding, don't forget
that you can download our podcasts in bundles or groups of 50 podcasts
from our website at adeptenglish.
com.
That's for a small fee.
We've got up to 500 podcasts for you to download.
That's got to be good for your English language learning.
It means you've got quality English language listening on your mobile
phone anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
So go to adeptenglish.
com and our Courses page to discover our podcast bundles.
Let's jump to our first story.
Picture this - a mighty tree, towering majestically, over the
surrounding landscape for centuries.
That means 'hundreds of years'.
Have you ever heard of Hadrian's Wall?
That's where this famous tree is situated.
The tree is so popular that couples have proposed marriage underneath it, even
got married underneath it, or scattered their loved one's ashes beneath this tree.
Thousands of people have also stopped to eat their picnic underneath it,
as they walk along Hadrian's Wall.
That's the level of affection that this tree has been held in.
So this tree in the UK called the 'Sycamore Gap Tree' - a gap, G A P,
means 'a space between two things'.
So here it's a space in the wall, a hole, if you like, and the tree stands
out against the rest of the landscape.
And a sycamore, S Y C A M O R E.
That's a type of tree, and it belongs to the Maple family, or Acer family.
It grows everywhere in the UK and sycamore trees can get quite large.
I get fed up with the ones along the boundary fence at the back of my house.
They're huge, and they drop their keys and their leaves everywhere.
But although they frustrate me, I also recognise that they're
several hundred years old.
They support a lot of wildlife - birds, squirrels, insects and
so I wish them no harm!
I just wish my garden was a bit sunnier.
So the Sycamore Gap tree stood on the boundary called Hadrian's Wall, which runs
for 73 miles across the North of England, along what used to be the border between
England and Scotland in Roman times.
So Hadrian's Wall, built by the Emperor Hadrian, H A D R I A N.
Work started in 122AD.
Although much of the stonework has been removed, the course of the
wall is still visible, as are the sites of numerous forts, that's F
O R T, which were built by the Romans and manned by Roman soldiers.
They liked to keep an eye on the 'unconquerable Scots'!
So this wall was the dividing line between ancient Britain in Roman times,
or 'Britannia', as the Romans called it and ancient Scotland or 'Caledonia'
as the Romans called Scotland.
So this Sycamore Gap Tree - it's a site that people have gravitated
towards for hundreds of years.
It's great to photograph.
There are hundreds of photographs of this tree online, and you can see why.
And sometimes you can get photographs with the Northern Lights in the night
sky behind, the Aurora Borealis.
So why is this in the news?
Well, apparently on Wednesday night, in what seems a completely meaningless
act, this tree was cut down, felled.
That's F E L L E D.
Cut down with a chainsaw.
A 'chainsaw', C H A I N and S A W - this is a hugely noisy tool that
is used for cutting down big trees.
Chainsaws are ruthlessly efficient.
A 16 year old boy has been arrested for this act of vandalism.
His name hasn't been released and no reason has been given for why he did this.
What there has been is a huge outpouring of grief, G R I E F.
People experiencing a sense of loss over this tree.
As I say, people have proposed marriage beneath it, got married
beneath it and it is the site of many people's ashes being scattered.
The Sycamore Gap Tree even featured in the 1991 film, with Kevin Costner,
'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves'.
The reason for such a meaningless act of vandalism is no doubt lodged in the
psychology of this 16 year old boy.
And there are other questions like how did he have access to a chainsaw?
And how come he made such a good job of chopping down a huge tree?
Surely a dangerous task?
But it's the outpouring of grief that's remarkable.
People have been moved and have been sharing their stories online.
This event coincided with another rather depressing news story this week.
Apparently, the State of Nature Report,, published this week declared that
'the UK is the most nature depleted country in the world', meaning
that as a country, we have done the most to harm our natural wildlife.
That's W I L D L I F E, meaning 'our wild animals' and our native plants.
In fact, one in six species of wildlife animals in the UK - is
threatened with extinction.
That means they might not exist in a few year's time.
One in six.
I hope that public opinion will mobilise around this statistic and this
report, and that there will be pressure on government to do more about it.
The Sycamore Gap Tree - yes, it's a shame, but it's a single tree!
Let's mobilise and do something about our depleting nature as well.
The other news story.
Imagine being a 10 year old girl and you've found a sport that you love.
Gymnastics.
That's G Y M N A S T I C S.
You train and you compete in a gymnastics tournament with other girls
your age, and you love taking part.
And at the end of the competition, there's a ceremony, and everyone gets a
medal for participating, for taking part.
Everyone, that is, except you.
And on top of that, imagine that you are the only black child in the team,
in that group, in the competition.
All the other children are white.
What does that feel like?
What does it feel like to be excluded in this way?
And what meaning do you inevitably make of that experience?
This is exactly what happened to a 10 year old girl in a gymnastics
competition in Ireland 18 months ago.
The girl has not been named, though her parents have appeared on the
news to talk about this and there is video footage and photographs of the
girl doing her gymnastics, still pursuing her love of gymnastics.
The 10 year old girl understandably felt very upset after the competition and
the mother and father were understandably angry too and saw the possibility of
racism operating in this situation.
This is exactly the sort of thing that parents want to
protect their children from.
And when it's suspected that there's a race element, this is far worse.
What do you tell your child about that?
How are they to understand the world in the light of that experience?
But actually, what made matters worse, the mother contacted the gymnastics
governing body, the organisation, hoping to get some form of apology,
A P O L O G Y, to show her daughter.
However, it took a whole 18 months for an apology to appear - p
rior to this, nothing was said.
And when the apology did finally come, it was supremely disappointing.
A letdown.
It was just two lines, starting, 'To whom it may concern'.
Very impersonal.
And rather than focusing on the wrongdoing or the hurt caused, the
apology just sought to defend the actions of the people in the
competition and the reputation of the organisation, Gymnastics Ireland.
They said - and this is some practice for you at 'officious' English:-
" The official concerned said that upon realising the mistake, they
immediately rectified it and ensured that the competitor concerned was
presented with her medal before she left the field of play.
The official also expressed deep regret for what they described as
an honest error and requested the opportunity to apologise in person
to the competitor and her family.
That seems to me not a proper apology.
It serves to only defend the organisation and the official.
It shows little empathy for the 10 year old girl and her family.
I hate that sort of apology.
It's in the same category as an apology that says, "Oh, I'm sorry if you were
offended", implying that the act of being offended is solely the responsibility
of the person who takes offence.
If you're going to apologise, do it properly.
Acknowledge that you did something wrong and mean it - or don't bother!
There was another rather warmer and longer letter of apology written, by
the official who made the mistake.
Addressed directly to the girl and her parents, this did acknowledge
feelings and attempted to be empathic, to have some empathy with feelings.
It said things like 'your lovely child' and that the official got flustered,
confused, and it wasn't 'intentional'.
You still have to question.
When you see the video, there's very obviously one little girl that doesn't
have a red ribbon when all the rest do.
I don't think giving out medals is a difficult task, surely?
But while this apology didn't make what happened right, or OK, it would perhaps
have addressed some of the hurt felt.
The problem was that Gymnastics Ireland never passed it on to the parents!
In the 18 months since this incident, the parents tried to hold
Gymnastics Ireland accountable.
That's A C C O U N T A B L E.
They wanted them to take responsibility, in other words.
The parents organised mediation.
That's M E D I A T I O N.
And 'mediation' is when you get a third party involved
to try to resolve a dispute.
Gymnastics Ireland refused to go to this mediation.
They didn't investigate the incident, change any of their policies
and they admitted no wrongdoing.
Again, a little bit like the video a few weeks ago of the XL Bully dog,
attacking someone in a petrol station.
It was only when the video of the medal award in the competition 'went viral'
online that Gymnastics Ireland decided they'd better say something about it.
One thing that did encourage this young gymnast was that Simone Biles, the
well-known American gymnast, probably thought to be the best gymnast in
the world, sent a private video message to the girl, saying, "It
broke my heart to see what happened".
And that "There is no room for racism in any sport or at all".
Along with the support of her parents, maybe this message is
the reason why the 10 year old girl is still pursuing gymnastics.
It certainly isn't the organisation Gymnastics Ireland!
So what's the lesson here?
Maybe that small acts can have huge impacts for better or for worse?
And that small things symbolise a lot.
And that the warmth of human nature stands out against meaningless acts
of vandalism and against racism.
Let us know what you think.
Enough for now.
Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.