Bryan Islip's Blog, page 49
February 3, 2011
Always something new
Today I finished two things on which I've been working these three weeks past. Great satisfaction in the finishing but I don't know about how they'll seem in a day or two. Looking back at something you have created invariably produces thoughts of something or things you could have done differently, perhaps better.
Anyway for better or worse there's my commissioned pastel painting that I will call 'Midsummer Midnight - Seabank'. My client commissioned it for her 92 years old mother. The background story is fascinating. The lady's mother was brought up over on Isle Ewe but crossed to the mainland at nearby Bualnaluib, in fact into the waterside cottage named 'Seabank'. You'll understand why Seabank when you see the picture, which I won't post on here until the owner has received and approved the original in a couple of weeks time. Anyway this mother met with and married a soldier who was based here during world war two, and they soon moved to the Home Counties, which is where my client was born. As a child my client recalls her occasional holidays up here in Seabank. She remembers lying in bed listening to the burn (stream) tumbling down into the sea and the sounds of the sea itself that virtually lapped the crofthouse's doorstep.
I was given a free hand with regard to season, weather, time of day etc. I chose to try something I've never tried before. A midsummer midnight up here is alomost as light as mid-day, but the quality of that light is somehow different. Like an underexposed photograph only with the whites and the sunset colours bright as bright. Enough to say that right now I'm pleased by the results.
The second thing I finished today is a short story. It's called 'There Was A Soldier' and if you want to read it you'll need to await the first day of a future month - maybe March or maybe later on this year - and subscribe (horrible word, 'subscribe' for something as free as the wind down the loch) on my www.bryanislipauthor.com. If you haven't already done so, and decide to go ahead now, you will receive the February story 'A Life With Dogs' followed by one more original ten minute read on the first of each month this year. You can unsubscribe at any time but of course I hope you won't want to and so far nobody has. You can also receive my January story by e-mailed request ( bryan@bryanislip.com )
Anyway for better or worse there's my commissioned pastel painting that I will call 'Midsummer Midnight - Seabank'. My client commissioned it for her 92 years old mother. The background story is fascinating. The lady's mother was brought up over on Isle Ewe but crossed to the mainland at nearby Bualnaluib, in fact into the waterside cottage named 'Seabank'. You'll understand why Seabank when you see the picture, which I won't post on here until the owner has received and approved the original in a couple of weeks time. Anyway this mother met with and married a soldier who was based here during world war two, and they soon moved to the Home Counties, which is where my client was born. As a child my client recalls her occasional holidays up here in Seabank. She remembers lying in bed listening to the burn (stream) tumbling down into the sea and the sounds of the sea itself that virtually lapped the crofthouse's doorstep.
I was given a free hand with regard to season, weather, time of day etc. I chose to try something I've never tried before. A midsummer midnight up here is alomost as light as mid-day, but the quality of that light is somehow different. Like an underexposed photograph only with the whites and the sunset colours bright as bright. Enough to say that right now I'm pleased by the results.
The second thing I finished today is a short story. It's called 'There Was A Soldier' and if you want to read it you'll need to await the first day of a future month - maybe March or maybe later on this year - and subscribe (horrible word, 'subscribe' for something as free as the wind down the loch) on my www.bryanislipauthor.com. If you haven't already done so, and decide to go ahead now, you will receive the February story 'A Life With Dogs' followed by one more original ten minute read on the first of each month this year. You can unsubscribe at any time but of course I hope you won't want to and so far nobody has. You can also receive my January story by e-mailed request ( bryan@bryanislip.com )
February 2, 2011
The King's Speech.
On Monday we went to the movies, a very rare treat levered in amongst all our activities, considering the nearest cinema is 80 miles distant. I'm very glad we did take time out though, because The King's Speech is a very fine film, perhaps a great one. I've read that it contains historical inaccuracies but we didn't see any of consequence and we both know quite a lot of the facts surrounding that dangerous epoch in British and world history.
A really good movie, like a really good book, inspires you to feel better about your life and human life in general. Nobody can say exactly why. Anyway this one did it for us. This is the triumph and the tragedy. This is reality. It's worth a million miles of virtual. Go see it for yourself.
A really good movie, like a really good book, inspires you to feel better about your life and human life in general. Nobody can say exactly why. Anyway this one did it for us. This is the triumph and the tragedy. This is reality. It's worth a million miles of virtual. Go see it for yourself.
Oh didn't it rain, children
It's been raining heavily for some 48 hours on and off - mainly on. At 04.30 the raindrops turmed into heavy hailstones; woke me up with a rattling on widow panes akin to a detachment of WW2 machine guns. I thought of the red deer out on the hill, wondered why they never seem to be much bothered by weather conditions we think of as hostile. Ditto all wild animals, birds and bees for that matter.
Grandfather Islip had a well-used phrase or saying whenever I moaned on about the rain: 'Bryan, God made us all waterproof', he would pronounce. Which used to drive me crazy when all I wanted to do was get out in the fields bird nesting (yes it was still legal - indeed regarded as educational - to collect birds eggs in those distant days) or down to the river with my fishing rod or those other more forbidden things that small boys used to get up to. But when to the days of my childhood returning I look out through a rain-running window over wind tossed branches to a half obscured, white driven Loch Ewe I am happy to be warm and dry inside.
Rain should after all be good. Water ranks alongside food and ahead of clothing, shelter and sex in scale of importance to (our) lives on earth. When I worked in Saudi Arabia water was more expensive than petrol. Now it's a toss up which of these will be the cause of World War Three through a combination of population growth and resource depletion.
Never mind. Just as my adopted country sells its excess of oil and hydro electricity to our more affluent neighbour down south, one day we will make ourselves rich through our excess of all this wonderful, God-given drinking water.
Grandfather Islip had a well-used phrase or saying whenever I moaned on about the rain: 'Bryan, God made us all waterproof', he would pronounce. Which used to drive me crazy when all I wanted to do was get out in the fields bird nesting (yes it was still legal - indeed regarded as educational - to collect birds eggs in those distant days) or down to the river with my fishing rod or those other more forbidden things that small boys used to get up to. But when to the days of my childhood returning I look out through a rain-running window over wind tossed branches to a half obscured, white driven Loch Ewe I am happy to be warm and dry inside.
Rain should after all be good. Water ranks alongside food and ahead of clothing, shelter and sex in scale of importance to (our) lives on earth. When I worked in Saudi Arabia water was more expensive than petrol. Now it's a toss up which of these will be the cause of World War Three through a combination of population growth and resource depletion.
Never mind. Just as my adopted country sells its excess of oil and hydro electricity to our more affluent neighbour down south, one day we will make ourselves rich through our excess of all this wonderful, God-given drinking water.
January 30, 2011
Making nought save money
I've just been reading the Sunday Times - the section devoted to the goings on at Davos this week.For those in the majority who are uninterested in economics, the G20 summit is all about money - yours and mine - or the lack of it, though none of those in attendance can be short. It costs someone (you and I as our government is in multi attendance) around £45,000 a head for these few days of financial talk-fest by bankers, economists, uber-industrialists and politicians.
If what follows makes me sound like some kind of a radical, whoopee!! Perhaps it's time for us all to think about the Big Issue. The big issue is that the world's banking industry has been for years betraying both its customers and its own dearly beloved credo called capitalism; the system by which they exist. Customers I say. What a word is that? Yes, you and me and everybody who deposits the monetary results of their labours in a bank so that the bank can use it as cannot-lose chips in the casinos commonly referred to as hedge funds, derivatives (what a beautiful word) and other incredibly clever devices explicable only to the I-must-always-win gamblers of the City of London and Wall Street, New York.
The betrayal of which I speak was brought to the surface of public recognition when same public was forced to dig deep on the edict of their governments in order to keep the casinos in business. Apologies from the miscreants? Never. Any sign of a mending of the ways? You have to be joking. Do they care about the billions of ordinary (i.e. non-banking) people who are daily losing jobs, peace of mind, even the roofs over their heads? You know the answer, folks.
Another little piece in today's Sunday Times. The joint head of Goldman Sachs UK has just pocketted for himself and family a little matter of nine million pound notes - plus a mind numbing salary - for his year's 'hard work'.You know, it's like these people have discovered the holy grail sought by all criminals since time began: i.e. how to rob the world's treasuries with total impunity. And the governments we put in charge of making laws to stop such pocket picking of the of the public purse - what are these guardians of capitalism doing about it? Not a bloody thing. We are now being told all the time that if this robbery in any way by law inhibited all the greedy one will move from London to somewhere else unspecified.
Will somebody please tell me in properly credible detail why Jesus Christ threw those who neither toil nor spin out of the temple whereas we are afraid to do likewise? Don't tell me we need their taxes. For every million of unearned pounds they take for themselves they are kind enough to pay us back a tiny propostion is anything at all.
Please Mr Pickpocket, you have my wallet with fifty quid so may I please have some bus money to get home?
Am I simply jealous of those getting away with it? Would I not do the same were I in position? No and no, I would not.
If what follows makes me sound like some kind of a radical, whoopee!! Perhaps it's time for us all to think about the Big Issue. The big issue is that the world's banking industry has been for years betraying both its customers and its own dearly beloved credo called capitalism; the system by which they exist. Customers I say. What a word is that? Yes, you and me and everybody who deposits the monetary results of their labours in a bank so that the bank can use it as cannot-lose chips in the casinos commonly referred to as hedge funds, derivatives (what a beautiful word) and other incredibly clever devices explicable only to the I-must-always-win gamblers of the City of London and Wall Street, New York.
The betrayal of which I speak was brought to the surface of public recognition when same public was forced to dig deep on the edict of their governments in order to keep the casinos in business. Apologies from the miscreants? Never. Any sign of a mending of the ways? You have to be joking. Do they care about the billions of ordinary (i.e. non-banking) people who are daily losing jobs, peace of mind, even the roofs over their heads? You know the answer, folks.
Another little piece in today's Sunday Times. The joint head of Goldman Sachs UK has just pocketted for himself and family a little matter of nine million pound notes - plus a mind numbing salary - for his year's 'hard work'.You know, it's like these people have discovered the holy grail sought by all criminals since time began: i.e. how to rob the world's treasuries with total impunity. And the governments we put in charge of making laws to stop such pocket picking of the of the public purse - what are these guardians of capitalism doing about it? Not a bloody thing. We are now being told all the time that if this robbery in any way by law inhibited all the greedy one will move from London to somewhere else unspecified.
Will somebody please tell me in properly credible detail why Jesus Christ threw those who neither toil nor spin out of the temple whereas we are afraid to do likewise? Don't tell me we need their taxes. For every million of unearned pounds they take for themselves they are kind enough to pay us back a tiny propostion is anything at all.
Please Mr Pickpocket, you have my wallet with fifty quid so may I please have some bus money to get home?
Am I simply jealous of those getting away with it? Would I not do the same were I in position? No and no, I would not.
January 29, 2011
A lochside walk
The weather hasn't exactly lent itself to any wildlife studies of late. Cold northerly winds and much rain. Although we do get out with our soup and sandwich lunches most days it's been very much hats on, hoods up, heads down; for exercise only.
But today the wind has dropped and the sun peers weakly through thin cloud and it was really good to walk the shoreline of Loch Ewe, actually able to observe what's going on around and about. What was going on included a hungry herring gull and an equally hungry otter.
This solitary seagull knew we would leave bits of bread and pieces of cheese for her when we got up to go home after our lunch. 'We did so yesterday so why not today?' she would have figured. And for her tomorrow is not a problem because it does not exist. Tomorrow is for humans alone amongst all creatures great and small. As we ate and drank and talked we watched her flying slow circles, for she would not alight to take our small offerings whilst we were nearby. We people have well earned the fear factor awarded us by almost all else that lives on land and sea (my last blog) and in the air. Which is a shame.
It was difficult to say for sure, but we thought the otter was a three parts grown cub. (Do they have a fixed breeding season?) For ten minutes we sat quietly and watched it hunt along the inshore and its seeweedy margins. This one performed a rather special trick. When it surfaced it shot up from below at great speed, rising its entire body length up into the air before splashing down, rolling about on its back for half a minute or so then submerging again with its characteristic loop-tailed dive. There is something about an otter at sea ...
But today the wind has dropped and the sun peers weakly through thin cloud and it was really good to walk the shoreline of Loch Ewe, actually able to observe what's going on around and about. What was going on included a hungry herring gull and an equally hungry otter.
This solitary seagull knew we would leave bits of bread and pieces of cheese for her when we got up to go home after our lunch. 'We did so yesterday so why not today?' she would have figured. And for her tomorrow is not a problem because it does not exist. Tomorrow is for humans alone amongst all creatures great and small. As we ate and drank and talked we watched her flying slow circles, for she would not alight to take our small offerings whilst we were nearby. We people have well earned the fear factor awarded us by almost all else that lives on land and sea (my last blog) and in the air. Which is a shame.
It was difficult to say for sure, but we thought the otter was a three parts grown cub. (Do they have a fixed breeding season?) For ten minutes we sat quietly and watched it hunt along the inshore and its seeweedy margins. This one performed a rather special trick. When it surfaced it shot up from below at great speed, rising its entire body length up into the air before splashing down, rolling about on its back for half a minute or so then submerging again with its characteristic loop-tailed dive. There is something about an otter at sea ...
January 28, 2011
There is a Farland
Today I'm going to do what an author should never do. I'm going to give you a revelatory extract from my novel Going with Gabriel On another day I will tell you why this, why now.
Background: the scientist / street musician Gabriel has been involuntarily 'placed' in Farland 101. The following extract sets out the Rules by which he and all in a Farland have to live their lives. All I would say now is that these Farlands are designed along the lines theorised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his friend William Wordsworth as 'Pantocracies' to be formed in the then virgin woodlands of North America. (The two poets gained their concept rom the writings of Socrates, the father of democracy.)
Gabriel reads ....we urge you to be happy here. Your fellow Farlanders will do everything reasonably possible to help you to make the very necessary adjustments. The eventual numbers of, and the nature of the population of this particular Farland has been set after considerable research to match the theoretical ability of the available terrain to support it. We all understand that this level of self-support will take time and great effort to achieve and sustain. It may even never be completely possible, even with the extra support you bring here. We are pioneers and pioneers by definition cannot be sure.The following are our Rules. They are written in English because English is the chosen lingua franca of Farland 101. These Rules were devised after intense research over many years by the Central Council of The Company. Although they are absolute and apply absolutely to all of us without exception they are subject to (and expected to) change as circumstances change:-
You will not, by any means, seek to disclose to the Outside the existence of this or any other Farland colony and you will assist in the defence of this colony against any Outside intrusion.
You are expected to work at your own best pace during six days in support of yourself and other Farlanders, such work being self-appointed and self-managed. It may be cerebral or physical or both according to your abilities, the state of your general health and the needs and constraints of the colony. On the seventh day (Sunday) you shall not do any work, nor shall you encourage others to work.
There are no idols ('celebrities') in the Farland colony, therefore you will not seek special status. Should you be awarded the title of Founder, note that your rank shall be equal to the rank of all other Founders, which is to say the rank of all other Farlanders.
Regardless of origin, original race, or practice of religion, you will honour your fellows so as to ensure to the best of your ability that it goes well in Farland for each of us. Know that each one is here according to their value to the colony as a whole and that the practice of any religion is allowed provided its ethic does not conflict with these rules and that it remains discreet to the individual and that therefore it neither incorporates nor promulgates any actual 'Church' as such. 5. You will not seek to injure your fellow Farlander and you will not seek to work against him or her. Adversarial debate is allowed, even encouraged, but you will at all times do your utmost to love your neighbour as yourself. The absence of love is an offence to all.
6. You will not take, by force or by stealth, that which has been allocated to and remains wanted by your fellow. You may apply to the Council for whatever you need, knowing that within the resource available it will be allocated to you. You will neither argue nor debate such allocations or non-allocations. Anything you no longer need you will return to Stores or pass on to a fellow Farlander. (Note that no financial currency as such is used or needed in this or any other Farland.) You will lead the building of your future home but will exchange that home every three years for one built by another, at the direction and the total discretion of the Council and on the basis of random selection.
7. Without restraint you may form and conduct private, consenting heterosexual relationships, but know that there is and will be no homosexuality in Farland, and no adultery, for all Farlands are heterosexual, monogamous communities.
8. You may marry by simple declaration before five witnesses. However, understand that the fact of your marriage will be posted and that such a marriage is permanent and unbreakable other than by the death of your partner. Furthermore, marriage is an essential prerequisite should a Farland couple apply to take to themselves and bring up a family.
9. You have been made aware that you not capable of reproducing yourself by 'natural' means. Should you marry and apply to the Founders for a child or children, and thus become a parent, the natural parentage of such 'offspring' will remain unknown to you and to them. However, we confirm that the male and the female donor will have been selected Outsiders. Know also that the embryo has been cultivated for the benefit of all Farland communities by the science that is here in Farland 101. You have the right to be proud about that.
10. There are and shall be no secrets between yourself and any or all other Farlanders other than in matters of personal privacy that affect nobody but yourself and your partner, if appropriate. You may bear witness to the Council but never false witness against any fellow Farlander. If and when you bear witness (or, 'accuse') you must make clear before the Founders the distinction between actual fact and your own interpretation of the fact (opinion). Know above all that the telling of lies, whether direct or by implication, is one of the most vexatious of all human habits. In this and all other Farlands it is a serious offence and is punishable as such.
Punishment:
The above are our Farland Rules, equivalent on the Outside to the Law of the land. However there is no jail in Farland for transgressors. There are only two alternative punishments for the contravention of any Rule. The first and most serious is physical expulsion. This is summarily followed by on the spot execution. The second is the time-set marking, by red coloured leg band, of the transgressor. This is intended to leave exposed any transgressor to the community at large. Any third leg banding results in physical expulsion, therefore the immediate demise of the transgressor.
Capital punishment may seem a harsh, even an arbitrary resolution. It is no such thing. We do not want as a Farlander any individual who does not respect our Rules and we will not risk the wellbeing of the whole on the future actions of any individual judged and expelled as a miscreant.
The punishment is decided by the Council of Founders after a trial. This trial will be of no more than one hour's duration and the period of time between accusation before the Council of Founders and the trial of the accused shall be immediate or in no case delayed for more than three days. The accused will defend himself or herself and the accuser will bear witness, alongside any other corrobarative witnesses.
It is recognised that this system is likely to be less than perfect. Justice is never so, whether it is here or Outside, but here there is no appeal. Note that there are no police in Farland, or if you prefer it, we are all police, all judges, all jurors. OUR DETERMINATION IS TO MINIMISE VEXATIOUS HUMAN CONDUCT in whatever form it occurs.
If you feel like reading the novel Going with Gabriel look for ISBN 978-0-9555193-1-4 or direct from me via www.bryanislipauthor.com Labels: Going with Gabriel, My own writing
Background: the scientist / street musician Gabriel has been involuntarily 'placed' in Farland 101. The following extract sets out the Rules by which he and all in a Farland have to live their lives. All I would say now is that these Farlands are designed along the lines theorised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his friend William Wordsworth as 'Pantocracies' to be formed in the then virgin woodlands of North America. (The two poets gained their concept rom the writings of Socrates, the father of democracy.)
Gabriel reads ....we urge you to be happy here. Your fellow Farlanders will do everything reasonably possible to help you to make the very necessary adjustments. The eventual numbers of, and the nature of the population of this particular Farland has been set after considerable research to match the theoretical ability of the available terrain to support it. We all understand that this level of self-support will take time and great effort to achieve and sustain. It may even never be completely possible, even with the extra support you bring here. We are pioneers and pioneers by definition cannot be sure.The following are our Rules. They are written in English because English is the chosen lingua franca of Farland 101. These Rules were devised after intense research over many years by the Central Council of The Company. Although they are absolute and apply absolutely to all of us without exception they are subject to (and expected to) change as circumstances change:-
You will not, by any means, seek to disclose to the Outside the existence of this or any other Farland colony and you will assist in the defence of this colony against any Outside intrusion.
You are expected to work at your own best pace during six days in support of yourself and other Farlanders, such work being self-appointed and self-managed. It may be cerebral or physical or both according to your abilities, the state of your general health and the needs and constraints of the colony. On the seventh day (Sunday) you shall not do any work, nor shall you encourage others to work.
There are no idols ('celebrities') in the Farland colony, therefore you will not seek special status. Should you be awarded the title of Founder, note that your rank shall be equal to the rank of all other Founders, which is to say the rank of all other Farlanders.
Regardless of origin, original race, or practice of religion, you will honour your fellows so as to ensure to the best of your ability that it goes well in Farland for each of us. Know that each one is here according to their value to the colony as a whole and that the practice of any religion is allowed provided its ethic does not conflict with these rules and that it remains discreet to the individual and that therefore it neither incorporates nor promulgates any actual 'Church' as such. 5. You will not seek to injure your fellow Farlander and you will not seek to work against him or her. Adversarial debate is allowed, even encouraged, but you will at all times do your utmost to love your neighbour as yourself. The absence of love is an offence to all.
6. You will not take, by force or by stealth, that which has been allocated to and remains wanted by your fellow. You may apply to the Council for whatever you need, knowing that within the resource available it will be allocated to you. You will neither argue nor debate such allocations or non-allocations. Anything you no longer need you will return to Stores or pass on to a fellow Farlander. (Note that no financial currency as such is used or needed in this or any other Farland.) You will lead the building of your future home but will exchange that home every three years for one built by another, at the direction and the total discretion of the Council and on the basis of random selection.
7. Without restraint you may form and conduct private, consenting heterosexual relationships, but know that there is and will be no homosexuality in Farland, and no adultery, for all Farlands are heterosexual, monogamous communities.
8. You may marry by simple declaration before five witnesses. However, understand that the fact of your marriage will be posted and that such a marriage is permanent and unbreakable other than by the death of your partner. Furthermore, marriage is an essential prerequisite should a Farland couple apply to take to themselves and bring up a family.
9. You have been made aware that you not capable of reproducing yourself by 'natural' means. Should you marry and apply to the Founders for a child or children, and thus become a parent, the natural parentage of such 'offspring' will remain unknown to you and to them. However, we confirm that the male and the female donor will have been selected Outsiders. Know also that the embryo has been cultivated for the benefit of all Farland communities by the science that is here in Farland 101. You have the right to be proud about that.
10. There are and shall be no secrets between yourself and any or all other Farlanders other than in matters of personal privacy that affect nobody but yourself and your partner, if appropriate. You may bear witness to the Council but never false witness against any fellow Farlander. If and when you bear witness (or, 'accuse') you must make clear before the Founders the distinction between actual fact and your own interpretation of the fact (opinion). Know above all that the telling of lies, whether direct or by implication, is one of the most vexatious of all human habits. In this and all other Farlands it is a serious offence and is punishable as such.
Punishment:
The above are our Farland Rules, equivalent on the Outside to the Law of the land. However there is no jail in Farland for transgressors. There are only two alternative punishments for the contravention of any Rule. The first and most serious is physical expulsion. This is summarily followed by on the spot execution. The second is the time-set marking, by red coloured leg band, of the transgressor. This is intended to leave exposed any transgressor to the community at large. Any third leg banding results in physical expulsion, therefore the immediate demise of the transgressor.
Capital punishment may seem a harsh, even an arbitrary resolution. It is no such thing. We do not want as a Farlander any individual who does not respect our Rules and we will not risk the wellbeing of the whole on the future actions of any individual judged and expelled as a miscreant.
The punishment is decided by the Council of Founders after a trial. This trial will be of no more than one hour's duration and the period of time between accusation before the Council of Founders and the trial of the accused shall be immediate or in no case delayed for more than three days. The accused will defend himself or herself and the accuser will bear witness, alongside any other corrobarative witnesses.
It is recognised that this system is likely to be less than perfect. Justice is never so, whether it is here or Outside, but here there is no appeal. Note that there are no police in Farland, or if you prefer it, we are all police, all judges, all jurors. OUR DETERMINATION IS TO MINIMISE VEXATIOUS HUMAN CONDUCT in whatever form it occurs.
If you feel like reading the novel Going with Gabriel look for ISBN 978-0-9555193-1-4 or direct from me via www.bryanislipauthor.com Labels: Going with Gabriel, My own writing
January 27, 2011
Swimming with Hugh
I just received an invitation to add my name to a mass public protest organised by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Apparently Hugh has just realised that, quote, 'half the fish caught and killed by fishermen in the north sea are immediately thrown back' - 'wasted' says the protest letter. Now, like many/most people I am an arch-conservationist and instinctively support almost anything that minimises our negative impact on the wildlife of planet earth, but I have two minor problems and one major one with Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall's stance.
Is this not the same Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall who was seen on TV swimming for the cameras within a salmon farm ring some few years ago, surrounded by hundreds of those awful, demented 'kings of fish'? (Since when we have refused to watch his otherwise excellent River Cottage programs.) The same celebrity chef who champions this most unnatural of cruel new industries? The industry that has decimated the ancient wild salmon and sea trout fisheries of the rivers and the lochs of the lovely Wester-Ross in which I live?
Secondly I take issue with the word 'waste'. Hugh and all of us should remember that all life dies and is then recycled by that complex eco-system of which he, I , you and all things are a part. Because a fish is not consumed by we humans does not mean it is 'wasted'. As the chief executive of BP recently declared, to the horror and consequent vilification of all good Americans, the ocean is large enough to take care of itself. (He should have added, 'thus far'.)
No, I am not saying that catching and killing and discarding fish is a good idea. But I am saying that scientists who spend a lifetime studying the subject, and who are now unanimous in support of the EEC's attempts to conserve, are more likely to be right than an attention seeking celebrity chef or two - or individual owners of the massive catch vessels intent overwhelmingly and understandably on paying back their banks.
So too is Charles Glover's brilliant and comprehensive study, The End of the Line more likely to be right. If you haven't the time or haven't sufficient interest to read it, have a click right here on http://endoftheline.com/
So now to my major concern: if we don't want to kill billions of fish without eating them why not simply stop catching them? I'm talking about a moratorium on all fishing by boats of more than, say, thirty feet in length, and in all of the North Sea, for a fixed period of say five years? Ask any old enough fisherman about what happened to 'our' fish stocks after World War Two when, for some five years, only a much reduced fishing effort was possible. So lay up the factory boats and give the fishing industry the same money from the exchequer - our exchequer - as it would have made from fishing during the period of the moratorium. This would be a positive investment of public money, in place of a Trident or two perhaps, with huge returns for all of us in the future.
Is this not the same Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall who was seen on TV swimming for the cameras within a salmon farm ring some few years ago, surrounded by hundreds of those awful, demented 'kings of fish'? (Since when we have refused to watch his otherwise excellent River Cottage programs.) The same celebrity chef who champions this most unnatural of cruel new industries? The industry that has decimated the ancient wild salmon and sea trout fisheries of the rivers and the lochs of the lovely Wester-Ross in which I live?
Secondly I take issue with the word 'waste'. Hugh and all of us should remember that all life dies and is then recycled by that complex eco-system of which he, I , you and all things are a part. Because a fish is not consumed by we humans does not mean it is 'wasted'. As the chief executive of BP recently declared, to the horror and consequent vilification of all good Americans, the ocean is large enough to take care of itself. (He should have added, 'thus far'.)
No, I am not saying that catching and killing and discarding fish is a good idea. But I am saying that scientists who spend a lifetime studying the subject, and who are now unanimous in support of the EEC's attempts to conserve, are more likely to be right than an attention seeking celebrity chef or two - or individual owners of the massive catch vessels intent overwhelmingly and understandably on paying back their banks.
So too is Charles Glover's brilliant and comprehensive study, The End of the Line more likely to be right. If you haven't the time or haven't sufficient interest to read it, have a click right here on http://endoftheline.com/
So now to my major concern: if we don't want to kill billions of fish without eating them why not simply stop catching them? I'm talking about a moratorium on all fishing by boats of more than, say, thirty feet in length, and in all of the North Sea, for a fixed period of say five years? Ask any old enough fisherman about what happened to 'our' fish stocks after World War Two when, for some five years, only a much reduced fishing effort was possible. So lay up the factory boats and give the fishing industry the same money from the exchequer - our exchequer - as it would have made from fishing during the period of the moratorium. This would be a positive investment of public money, in place of a Trident or two perhaps, with huge returns for all of us in the future.
January 26, 2011
Behaving like Federer
Got up early this morning to watch Andy Murray play his quarter final match in the Australian Open tennis. He won it handily enough, three sets to one, but it made me think a bit about the nature of competition and how it brings out the best and the worst in each of us. We are all competitors, are we not? I suppose it goes back to the origins of our species - indeed of all species - when survival and the chance of procreation depended upon getting one's share - or more - of what there was: food and drink, clothing to keep out the cold, a mate to ditto.
This competitive spirit is most marked in sport. In his famous poem "IF" Kipling wrote (something like) "If you can win or lose but treat these two imposters just the same .... then you are a man my son." But today tears for the loser and triumphalising for the winner have become the norm. And personally I find one as unnecessary, as embarrassing as the other. True, tennis is better than most but even there the clenched fist pump, the hate-filled glare at one's opponent after hitting a winner, the screaming and the racket destruction are all too common. They don't seem to understand that such actions are not necessary, in fact can act more as handicap than help.
If you want to be as good as Federer you might as well learn to behave like him.
It's now 09.30. Lovely January day. Good ration of blue above. Time to move on with my latest painting. It's a commission to be called Seabank Sunset.
This competitive spirit is most marked in sport. In his famous poem "IF" Kipling wrote (something like) "If you can win or lose but treat these two imposters just the same .... then you are a man my son." But today tears for the loser and triumphalising for the winner have become the norm. And personally I find one as unnecessary, as embarrassing as the other. True, tennis is better than most but even there the clenched fist pump, the hate-filled glare at one's opponent after hitting a winner, the screaming and the racket destruction are all too common. They don't seem to understand that such actions are not necessary, in fact can act more as handicap than help.
If you want to be as good as Federer you might as well learn to behave like him.
It's now 09.30. Lovely January day. Good ration of blue above. Time to move on with my latest painting. It's a commission to be called Seabank Sunset.
January 25, 2011
Temporary v Immortal creativity
Following my blogged invitation, if you tuned in to Two Lochs Radio (www.2lr.com ) at 17.20 last evening to hear my not so dulcet tones -sorry! The interview was actually broadcast at 18.20. The conversation with Alex Gray was recorded Friday last and to be honest I could not have told you much about what had been said before hearing it myself.
Having listened in I must say I was pleased . The questions and my answers nicely covered the salient points of my short story of the month idea. See www.bryanislipauthor.com if you're interested. The story comes to you on the first of each month free but with the hope that you'll spread the word re subscribing or pass it on if you like. Obviously what I'm trying to do is create a readership for my paper published novels - which are not free of charge!
I'm told that radio is making something of a come-back; not that it's ever been away, mind, just partially submerged beneath all those moving pictures. Not long back I blogged about imagination and my personal belief that, of the three gifts allotted to humankind and human mind - intelliigence, knowledge and imagination, the greatest of these is imagination. How come? Because imagination is the primary requirement, bolstered by native intelligence and aquired knowledge, for any act of human creativity. And it is creativity that takes us nearest to that great eminence which most folk on planet earth call, or think of, as God.
Just as TV requires less exercise of the imagination than does radio, radio requires less than reading: that is, reading books or reading this or reading your newspaper. But whereas your newspaper, and this, is history tomorrow, words on paper if written well and truly enough can be with us forever.
The other evening we attended our Wester-Ross Burns Club Burns Supper. I blogged about Mel MacGregor's great speech 'To The Immortal Memory". The immortal memory of Robert Burns, that is. But of far greater importance to us as readers, and to the healthy exercise of our imaginations is the immortal memory of THE WORKS of Scotland's iconic bard. I believe he would know the difference.
Having listened in I must say I was pleased . The questions and my answers nicely covered the salient points of my short story of the month idea. See www.bryanislipauthor.com if you're interested. The story comes to you on the first of each month free but with the hope that you'll spread the word re subscribing or pass it on if you like. Obviously what I'm trying to do is create a readership for my paper published novels - which are not free of charge!
I'm told that radio is making something of a come-back; not that it's ever been away, mind, just partially submerged beneath all those moving pictures. Not long back I blogged about imagination and my personal belief that, of the three gifts allotted to humankind and human mind - intelliigence, knowledge and imagination, the greatest of these is imagination. How come? Because imagination is the primary requirement, bolstered by native intelligence and aquired knowledge, for any act of human creativity. And it is creativity that takes us nearest to that great eminence which most folk on planet earth call, or think of, as God.
Just as TV requires less exercise of the imagination than does radio, radio requires less than reading: that is, reading books or reading this or reading your newspaper. But whereas your newspaper, and this, is history tomorrow, words on paper if written well and truly enough can be with us forever.
The other evening we attended our Wester-Ross Burns Club Burns Supper. I blogged about Mel MacGregor's great speech 'To The Immortal Memory". The immortal memory of Robert Burns, that is. But of far greater importance to us as readers, and to the healthy exercise of our imaginations is the immortal memory of THE WORKS of Scotland's iconic bard. I believe he would know the difference.
January 24, 2011
An author speaks
17.20 ish today Monday 24th January.
If it isn't too late and if you have ten minutes and a spoonfull of curiosity listen to me being interviewed by Alex Gray on Two Lochs Radio. Go to http://www.2lr.co.uk/ then click on Listen Here. The focus is on my new short story of the month available through www.bryanislipauthor.com It's free as the wind that flies down Gairloch's deeps.
For that matter turn on at any time to our local news views and music program. It's not the biggest but folk say it's amongst the best of the smallest. People from Abu Dhabi to Alaska are listening in!
If it isn't too late and if you have ten minutes and a spoonfull of curiosity listen to me being interviewed by Alex Gray on Two Lochs Radio. Go to http://www.2lr.co.uk/ then click on Listen Here. The focus is on my new short story of the month available through www.bryanislipauthor.com It's free as the wind that flies down Gairloch's deeps.
For that matter turn on at any time to our local news views and music program. It's not the biggest but folk say it's amongst the best of the smallest. People from Abu Dhabi to Alaska are listening in!
