Scarecrows and local customs!




Back when I was a kid (a while ago) scarecrows were found in fields. The idea was that they would keep birds away from eating what was intended for others. Round here though they seem to be a town phenomenon and Sunday afternoon was spent inspecting them. Sure enough they were all over, lurking in front windows, attached to lamposts, on the roof of a shop and in the park. The local supermarket even had its own black cat!

More fixing the planet...

...this time about making peace with the neighbours and moving on despite some terrible things having happened - in this case Ugandans appealing, in the interest of moving forward now, that old stories be forgotten and the horrors of the Lord's Resistence Army not be taken to the Court of Human Rights.

On a more parochial level The Mail on Sunday today has a story of a very experienced woman nursery worker being taken to court for chastising a small child in her care in the manner of TV's Supernanny. It records that the parents of the child felt that there was no case to answer and made no complaint but that the case was taken forward anyway as a matter of principle.

More about fixing the planet!

Seems like Big Al really is winning votes finally - having adopted the Ronald Reegan method - wow 'em with a movie. The story is compelling: a planet in jeapody, millions of lives at stake and a superhero (also, interestingly called Al) with the key to saving the lot! Even the critics are hailing it as worthy of a look. But, hark, just a moment, surely this can't be the same Big Al who not so many years ago came to visit our special corner of the planet in Southern Africa and insisted on flying in (on a separate cargo plane) his own limo - so that he would not have to use any of our 'unsafe' local vehicles to drive the 5 or so miles between the airport and the President's Palace where he was expected for a light lunch en route to who knows where?

Enough said.

Why am I not surprised?

Given what I have written below today I'm not at all surprised that a Senate committee has concluded that there was no connection between Iraq and Osama and his merry men. The full report can be accessed via this account.

I await with interest the next round of 'explanations' and 'justifications' offered for the Gulf War and its continuation.

And another thing the world doesn't need...

is a three 'flavour' airfreshner to plug into living rooms globally and rotate the aroma it delivers every 45 minutes...

Is it me? I hope not. Am I bothered? Yes. The planet needs fixing, manufacturing and releasing these things into the environment is destroying it. Why are we letting this happen? Because we shut ourselves away in our own little ghettos of supposed safety, interacting with no-one for fear of just about everything. These little small enclosed safety fantasies will not save the planet, however nicely they are scented - even on a rotating basis.

Everybody wants to be a hero - or why I'd ban all reality TV, and why the cult of celebrity is so dangerous.......

yes, muttering madly today - about the festivities (I use that word advisedly)around September 11. I quite agree with the view expressed by one woman saved from one of the towers that the nature of human existence is such that sooner or later such an event will happen again (Albert Camus's book La Peste - The Plague - is an excellent literary example of the principle whereby when the present outbreak is over and the disease seems to have vanished it is in fact returned to the ground and will lie dormant until conditions are right for it to re-emerge)but it worries me how the idea of vigilence gets practiced. This story about how one ex-policeman's over enthusiasm nearly ruined an innocent man's life is just the latest example of how the idea of being a superhero predominates over the option of keeping an open mind and getting to know those of other cultures and life experiences and not jumping to hasty conclusions.