Human Failing
At a recent meeting about the challenges that face humanity, someone in the audience mentioned carbon trading as part of the solution. Well, at the risk of being cynical (again!), I’d say that such a statement is naïve. The fact is that billions of dollars in profits are being made from carbon trading. It [...]
Continue reading about Carbon Trading – Nice Work If You Can get It
On many occasions, Sally and I have been challenged on our views that the complex industrial system which supplies most of our food is malignant. Though we patiently try to explain the workings of this global leviathan, our views are generally dismissed as being at best misplaced and at worst positively conspiratorial. If we [...]
Continue reading about Lunacy and Larceny – with official approval
Released in 1940, The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin’s first true ‘talking picture.’ A humorous film based on the age-old comedic concept of mistaken identity, it nonetheless has serious overtones in its parody of despots like Hitler, making it a welcome addition to the UK/US propaganda machine of the day. One might suppose that [...]
Just the other day, I saw a disparaging reference to Al Gore. Not the first one I’ve seen of course but, considering it is six years since the release of his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, it is surprising that he is still being pilloried for giving us all that bad news and for ‘inventing the [...]
Fatuous, inaccurate, misinformed and dangerous. That’s the best I can say about last night’s airing of Britain’s Favourite Supermarket Food on BBC1. Rolled out for us in suitably vacuous style by a standard-issue blonde presenter, it took us on a jolly jaunt through what are allegedly the public’s favourite purchases at the supermarket: tea, baked [...]
As Twelfth Night approaches, the sun is beginning to climb in the sky and we in the north are on our journey into the light. For the three days after the solstice, the sun rested on the horizon before beginning its gradual ascent to the peak of midsummer. In that time, the eternal force will [...]
How far do we have to be pushed before we reach an emotional tipping point, beyond which we descend into a reliance on primitive instincts? What would cause that to happen in our modern society? Our history is full of examples of times when ordinary people have reached the point of no return and in [...]
Not many people know this, but I was born in Uganda and lived there for the first twelve years of my life. I have now settled in a part of Herefordshire where my father’s ancestors lived and worked, which feels a bit like coming home – but Africa is still in my blood. It saddens [...]
We haven’t been to Abergavenny Food Festival for three years now but, on a whim and a relatively quiet weekend, we drove over on Saturday just to wander around the town and take in the atmosphere. The first thing we noticed was how the festival has spread around the town since we were last there. [...]
Now then (my favourite oxymoron), let me get this straight. America buys all its stuff from China. China has got rich selling all its stuff to America, and China thinks that by selling all its stuff to America, it will have enough money to make its own citizens rich, so that they can become like [...]
Continue reading about Alice’s Further Adventures in Wonderland