The plan was that the West would help to develop the country economically and in exchange leave

The plan was that the West would help to develop the country economically and in exchange leave Pretoria to handle African “responsibilities” such as regional peacekeeping and political power-brokering. The result, according to Professor Peter Vale of the Centre for South African Studies at the Western Cape University, is that South Africa has no coherent foreign policy.Over the past two years, the United States and the European Union, tired of dealing with all the maladies of Africa, have tried to push South Africa into the role of continental superpower. During the past two years there has been a glaring disjuncture between what South African foreign policy stood for, what the world expected of it and what the government was actually doing. The question being asked now throughout South Africa and elsewhere in the world is what went wrong? How could South Africa have miscalculated so badly? Why didn’t Mr Mandela heed the appeals of Nigerian opposition leaders and intellectuals for more robust action to isolate General Sani Abacha and his gang of military thugs?
The answers point to short-comings in South Africa’s foreign policy and the country’s lack of understanding of its place in the world. While the execution of Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues at the opening of the Commonwealth summit caught even the most well-informed Nigeria expert off guard, there is little doubt that Mr Mandela lost his international political innocence that day. A letter written last week by one of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s lawyers to Nelson Mandela said it all “Were quiet diplomacy pursued in South Africa …

I doubt you would be alive today.” South Africa’s international humiliation was complete. If I could take 50p off everyone who came in this church, my worries would be over. As it is, we are millions in debt, or at least we need millions to keep the place in good repair Most of my time is spent fund-raising Going on tours of America with my hat held out I’d give anything not to have to do that Just 50p, that’s all it would take …”I admit it It seems I may have been wrong about Canterbury Cathedral.. “I don’t know if you know this, but Canterbury Cathedral now charges for entry I think it’s pounds 2 a head.

What do you think of that?”Monsignor Lewis looked at the coachloads coming in and out of his church and sighed and said: “I have every sympathy with them Every sympathy. Of course, if they ever decided to come back to the true faith …”I decided to consult him on Independent business. It corresponds exactly to what we know of his death, when the sword sliced through his skull HERE and cut off the top of his shoulder HERE.” He demonstrated graphically.”Shouldn’t this all be back at Canterbury?” I said.”Well, it was all back at Canterbury,” he said, “until the place went Protestant and things like this were rescued and brought back to Rome.”"Have they ever said they wanted it back?”"Of course! They’d love to have it back! But it’s out of the question St Thomas was a good Catholic boy, don’t forget Canterbury isn’t Catholic any more, so it should be in Rome. It lists the contents of the casket, which are a bit of shoulder, a bit of brain-case, some brain tissue and a long white shirt.

A letter, or what looked like it.”It’s not a letter – it’s the contemporary certificate of authenticity,” said Monsignor Lewis “We’ve had it tested by experts Absolutely genuine. Wait here.”He bustled off through the crowds in the Sunday morning aisle He bustled back with a glass casket “There you are,” he said “The only known remains of St Thomas a Becket. Absolutely guaranteed.”He twirled it as unconcernedly as if he were carrying a handbag There didn’t seem to be a lot left A bone or two A bit of cloth. That was a reference to the traffic and pollution,” he added, in case we didn’t know that priests like to make donnish jokes.Sensing that we were somewhat sceptical of the authenticity of the Holy Crib – fair enough, I suppose, as nobody is likely to come out from Channel 4 to make a film aiming to endorse the authenticity of Catholic relics – Monsignor Lewis stressed that nobody guaranteed the genuineness of it.”I believe it is genuine,” he said, “but I can’t prove it. We know that the wood is old enough, and we know that it has been preserved for as long as records have been kept, but we can’t guarantee it There are some things we can guarantee, though I’ll show you something. I very occasionally celebrate Mass in Welsh still, though I have to say that there isn’t much call for it here in the Eternal City Or what we call the Infernal City these days.

We had already viewed the skull-bone of Saint Chrysogono (an obscure Roman soldier martyred for converting to Christianity), the left foot of Saint Teresa and the heads of Saints Peter and Paul, but this was the first Biblical furniture we had viewed, and that was how we met Monsignor Lewis.A tall, imposing, white-haired man, sturdily built like an old rugby player, which he might well have been, given the strong Welsh accent which he still retains “Not just the accent,” he told us “I still speak Welsh. They might like to know that Monsignor David Lewis agrees with them.
Monsignor David Lewis is a Catholic clergyman who has risen to some eminence in Rome and now is in charge of the large and imposing church called Santa Maria Maggiore, where the very crib in which Jesus lay as a baby is still on display. I know that because I was there a couple of months ago, working on a Channel 4 film which was looking at the place of relics in the Catholic Church.I think it was the first non-human relic we had seen, this crib. I received several letters from Canterbury residents hotly defending the entry charge and saying that, quite apart from the revenue it raised, it helped to cut down on the otherwise inevitable tourist throng, which was not only making the cathedral unbearable but wearing it away. Tilting the system back to lower-paid people and small businesses would be furiously resisted by the new corporatists of the Nineties.But by God, it would be worth it.. Not long ago I was in the Canterbury area for the first time in a long time and I realised that you now had to pay to get inside the cathedral.