WINOL Week Two and Steinbeck

With the second WINOL dummy run now behind us, I think it's fairly safe to say that we are slowly beginning to gel as a news team. Speaking purely for the sports team, we're starting to think over a week ahead in terms of news which is fantastic if something falls through we can always slot something else in.

From a personal perspective, another week in which I would (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being highest) rate News Production, Enjoyment and Knowledge Gained with a big, fat 10. I've most certainly been bitten by the telly bug ever since I presented the sport last week! Although there was a slight mishap with the autocue, I got through it with a minimum of fuss; a huge confidence boost. Definately better on the timings this week too, bring on the live edition next week I say!

Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was the topic for Thursday's lecture. Having read another classic of his Of Mice And Men, it's easy to see how Steinbeck was pilloried for his ellusions to socialism (or more correctly communism, when the time period is taken into context; McCarthyism, Red Tide etc.). At the heart of his writing is the temptation and seduction of pastures new for people who literally had nothing.

The crux that underpins the entire novel is, I think, a reference to a method of achieving pure socialism. If everyone has nothing then are people made more aware of collective values and conciousness? Is this then where we see true humanity?

The style of writing is also important with Steinbeck: the way his books are so simply and accessibly written, with all the lyricism and poetic elements of novel-writing stripped away to reveal an almost raw depiction of what life is like for immigrants (wow, A-Level English Literature came in handy for something!).

Immigration has become a hot topic in recent weeks with the ultimately pointless appearance of a certain someone on a certain flagship BBC debate programme. As an immigrant (of sorts) myself it always makes me laugh how people with clearly foreign surnames claim they want to kick out anyone who is not a native. A "native"? In this country? Invaded by Romans, Normans, Vikings and Saxons (not in that order I hasten to add I do know my history!) then surely anyone who is Italian, French, German or Scandinavian has claim to being a native Briton!

With the recent influx of Eastern Europeans into the country they seem to be getting the brunt of the anti-immigration flak. My story is a little bit different to those who either come to work or merely to sponge off the soft-touch UK benefits system. Having been forced from their homes by the Soviets both sets of my grandparents' families were taken to Siberia. They then came to Africa with the Free Polish Second Corps through India then Asia Minor and then down to Rhodesia and Tanganiyka. When the war ended, they were told they could return to Poland if they wished or go and start a new life in another country. With the new communist government in place my families chose to come to the UK like many others did but for those who returned to Poland, they were quickly seen as being a potential problem to the newly installed government and were either executed or exiled.

As a result, any factually correct Polish history and culture was doctored to suit the Soviets which has a knock on effect today, where most (not all but certainly a lot) of Poles coming to the UK today have either a warped view of their own history or don't know anything at all. My grandparents knew that this was happening - people in Soviet Poland were actively taught in schools that the millions of Poles like my family in the UK, the US, Australia and beyond were traitors. Therefore I, like many of my contemporaries, have been brought up with this history in an attempt to stop the truth being erased from history altogether.

Not a lot of people know that.