Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_12_09/GA_0912_E1_038.pdf 

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38 N E W S

Galway Advertiser

December 9 2004

Alt.com Jake the Lab takes ? to college life
BY JEFF O'CONNELL

Was Alexander great

Early in January 2005, Alexander, a major new historical film directed by Oliver Stone (Platoon, Natural Born Killers, JFK, Nixon), will open in cinemas world-wide. It's already opened in the US and the reviews have been somewhat less than enthusiastic. I'm adopting a `wait and see' attitude myself, recognising that critics are as fallible and as prone to fads, fashions, and biases as anybody else. Stone, though a mainstream director, has never been afraid to tackle controversial subjects in an imaginative and often provocative fashion. JFK aired virtually every conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination, Nixon presented the disgraced US president as an almost tragic Shakespearean figure, while Natural Born Killers explored media fascination with killers. The Alexander of the title is, of course, Alexander the Great, (356-323 B C), one of the most remarkable individuals in history, who, by the end of his brief life, had conquered an empire that extended from Greece to India. Had he not died of a fever, he had plans to extend his empire to Arabia. So why has Stone made a film about Alexander? Well, if there's one thing in which he's shown a continuing interest it's a fascination with the use and abuse of power, and Alexander certainly exemplifies the exercise of power on an heroic scale. Topicality is also Stone's forte, and it can hardly be without significance that Alexander, representative of the values of Greek culture, was the first Westerner to launch an invasion, as well as undertaking a `civilising `mission', of what is today Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. There is much talk about the `myth' of Alexander, but he is only a `myth' because his achievements were legendary in his own lifetime. And Alexander himself was not above using myth for propaganda purposes. He claimed descent from Achilles, the hero of Troy, and from Zeus himself. He took Homer's Iliad with him wherever he went. He wanted to be acknowledged as Pharaoh in Egypt and also to be recognised as a god. `Alexandros Megalos', to give him his Greek sobriquet, reminds us of the root of our word `megalomania.' His teacher was the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who, perhaps sharing in the continuing rage and shame at the Persian desecration of Athens by the Persians, urged his pupil to treat the peoples of the Persian Empire as coldly as he would plants or animals. The available evidence is that Alexander did not take this advice. He certainly followed the custom of ancient warfare in allowing the massacre of cities that did not surrender and the enslavement of captives. But in smashing the gruesome power of the seemingly eternal Persian Empire, he showed the qualities that have earned him the title `great'. Those he conquered were incorporated into the administration of his empire, and were treated by him with respect; the captured family of the vanquished Emperor Darius was treated with almost exaggerated courtesy, and Alexander himself married a Bactrian wife and encouraged his officers and generals to do the same. Indeed, he was criticised by the Macedonian hardliners for being too ready to adopt the customs of those he had defeated. This was partly pragmatic - it was only by this policy of alliance that he was able to keep his army on the march all the way across Afghanistan to India, and then back through modern Iraq and the Gulf, founding city-states all the way - but he does seem to have had a broader vision of a `cosmopolitan' culture, mixing the best of east and west, stretching from Egypt and Greece to India and Afghanistan. If we have the word polis ( from which derives our word politics), we owe it to what we can call Alexander's `globalization'. And the people of the lands he conquered found themselves with a common language, in the form of a bastardised Greek, which even the later Roman sphere had to adopt. After his death, Alexander's empire swiftly fragmented, but his legacy is what historians today call `Hellenism' - the spread of the culture of ancient Greece around the Mediterranean and as far as India. There are cities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan which still bear versions of Alexander's name. Today we distrust the idea of heroism; this, it can be argued, is a contemporary prejudice. The idea that history is made by significant individuals fell into disrepute during the heyday of Marxism, but figures like Alexander show that one man, driven by ambition, altruism, or the gods, can shape the course of his times, and affect the future in a way that only the ideologically myopic could dispute.

BY UNA SINNOTT Like most first year students at NUI, Galway, Martin Gordon has been busy settling into the routine of lectures and assignments and getting to know Galway during his first few months at college. Unlike his peers however, Martin spends his days on campus with his best friend and constant companion Jake. Jake, a three-year-old labrador, is one of the first guide dogs to attend NUI, Galway, and the first to appear on campus for several years. Martin, a long-time sufferer of the degenerative eye disease glaucoma, went blind at 16 when his retinas detached. Two years later he sat his Leaving Certificate. "I always had glaucoma and the pressure increased on the optic nerve," he said. "I went straight back to school. I was lucky it happened in the summer. I didn't want to take a year out. "I'm blind but it could be a lot worse, that's what I say. I'm not sitting around thinking `I'd love to see'. If you think like that you'll just annoy yourself." Martin, who has had Jake for the past year and half, was the first guide dog owner to sit the Leaving Certificate, and he is currently the youngest guide dog owner in the country at 19. However people can start using a guide dog from age 18 so he is unlikely to be the youngest for long. Now a first year student of public and social policy, Martin has found Jake to be an invaluable tool in getting around as well as a loyal and playful companion. "If I didn't have Jake I wouldn't be in university," he said. "It's

as simple as that. I use a long cane but you're limited with that. It's totally different with a dog. It gives you a new lease of life." Jake is one of hundreds of guide dogs trained and provided by the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, a national organisation which provides dogs, support, and independent living courses to blind and visually impaired people throughout the country. Candidate dogs spend their first 12 months learning basic skills and social behaviour with a puppy walker before moving on to early training and guide dog training at the organisation's training centre in Cork. Guide dogs must be perfect in terms of health and temperament, and 60 per cent of dogs don't make it through this process. The organisation then matches its guide dogs with clients looking for a dog, and the handlers then spend five weeks in intensive training with their new dogs before returning home. The Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind also provides follow up services including further training and establishing routes with the new dog. Martin is very used to travelling around his native Sligo with Jake, but the organisation organised further training for both dog and owner when the pair moved to Galway earlier this year. "When I am walking a new route first I take someone's arm and walk through it with them and they tell me what's there, and then I use the cane and find my obstacles on my own," he explained. "Once you know it with the cane it's going to be no problem with the dog. "The cane is an obstacle finder but the

Student Martin Gordon with his guide dog Jake at NUI, Galway. Photo:-Mike Shaughnessy

Jake and Martin at work in the college. Photo: Mike Shaughnessy

dog is an obstacle avoider. I can just take Jake's harness and go and not worry about it. With the cane you're constantly concentrating on each step. You're constantly feeling for surface changes and looking for markers. I find it's easier in a busy area with a cane, but in an open area it's harder. With the dog it's no problem. You just walk freely. "Every year they [the IGDB] do a routine check to see how the dog is working, and to ensure everything is OK, and every time I move they come up and do training," he added. Guide dogs are essentially working dogs, providing a vital service for their owners, but they require as much, if not more, love and attention as a family pet. "When he has the harness on he knows he has to behave himself, but as soon as it's off he's a pet," Martin explained. "You can keep the dog yourself when the dog retires but you don't use the harness. When Jake

retires he will stay with the family." The IGDB also rehomes dogs whose owners are unable to keep them after they retire. After a year and a half Martin and Jake are very used to each other but the sight of a guide dog can still come as a surprise in Galway, where there are very few guide dog owners at present. "I find it's quite new to people in Galway," he said. "There are a couple of guide dog owners around, but some people don't realise he's a guide dog. I have been refused from restaurants. It's just ignorance." Businesses and service providers are required to accommodate guide dogs under equality legislation. Despite the o c c a s i o n a l misunderstanding in the city, Martin is very happy with the level of accessibility at the university. "NUI, Galway is brilliant in terms of accessibility," he said. "I came down a few times before I started college to

check it out, and this seemed the best option. It's close to home and it's very accessible as well. "There are booths in the library with computer equipment for blind and visually impaired people and I have the same equipment in my apartment. I also have an assistant from the Galway Centre for Independent Living to bring me to lectures. All the lecturers e-mail me their overheads and my assistant takes down additional notes in the lectures and I have software that reads them out." The cost of training a guide dog, including health screening, aftercare, and training expenses, is currently 35,150. The Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind receives eight per cent of its budget from health boards, and relies on donations from the public to make up the balance of funding. For further information on IGDB fundraising, including Christmas cards and calendars, visit www.guidedogs.ie