Malala

Last March I attended the Commonwealth Day Service in Westminster Abbey. Queen Elizabeth looked radiant, belying her 88 years by walking up stairs unaided, as did Prince Phillip,now into his 90's. They are both amazing and seem to have endless energy and interests. The principal speaker was Malala Yousafzai, who has just won the Noble Peace Prize. Her classmates were seated just in front of us, and Malala stood with her Lady Principal in the aisle as the audience filed in. She goes to school in Birmingham, having been brought to the UK for medical treatment by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Westminster is a difficult space to see anyone, but I walked to the front where an
attendant showed me where the Queen would sit (at the very end of the Choir, on a huge oak chair) and where Malala would speak (from the huge pulpit) and indeed she was right
in front of us. When the Royals came in (we had been seated for over an hour) all we saw was the tops of their hats, as everyone of course stood up. I must say, hearing "God Save the Queen" with full organ blasting away with full choir and congregation made for a real tingle. Elizabeth is very dear to my generation. We saw her often as a young lady in the newsreels during the Second World War, and followed her as she joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Corps and learned to be an auto mechanic! Her father George VI told her she couldn't just sit around the palace, much to her delight. When she married Prince Phillip we got up before dawn to hear the service on the radio.

Malala is a force. Her speech was obviously the words of a 16 year old girl, but the power of her presence is very forceful. She has the aura of one chosen to lead. She gives basically the same message over and over, mainly that it is everyone's right to be educated...and of course as a professor and artist, I have always had the same goal. There is something of the miracle in hearing such a young voice give life to this hope for universal knowledge.

Since she has won the Noble Peace Prize, the articles about her have revealed the double edged sword she has experienced in her homeland of Pakistan. While she is revered by millions, she is reviled by many as being an embarrassment to her government, and the product of a publicity driven father and others out for financial gain. They say her father writes all her speeches, that she is a weapon of Western Agents out to shame Pakistan and some go as far to say that her shooting was all an arranged affair. I know this sounds crazy, but in the turmoil of present day Pakistan very believable. The fact that she has risen above all this is a tribute to the truth of her message.

A few days after returning home I read in the London Telegraph that the Queen has made known her discomfort with the short set of stairs that leads up to the choir in Westminster. I remember looking at them while standing at the front with the nice lady attendant, and wondering why they looked so steep and no visible rail. I am always looking for rails these days....funny what you noticed as you approach 80. The Queen is
terrifically spry for her age, but I agree with her! Give us rails and we can conquer the World!