Diversity

I have now had an opportunity to peruse the magazines illustrated at reference 1 and the overall impression is of diversity. There are lots of different people in the world with lots of different drivers and interests.

First up was 'Peace News', a throw back to my Aldermaston Marching flavoured youth. Which came with a blast from the past in the form of a short column from Bruce Kent, lately Monsignor Bruce Kent, still up and running at around 90 and living in Harringay, that well known nest of lefties. Another article tells of the trials and tribulations of conscientious objectors during the first world war, with quite a nest of them living in a certain road in the aforementioned Harringay, from where I associate to the collective madnesses and delusions of reference 3. A full page for trans women - not sure, but I think that these are people who start out as women. Lots of small ads on the back page advertising peace protester activities of various sorts around the country. There is, for example, a gathering today at Hastings, at the Arts Forum. Sadly, one wonders what all this has to do with the real world: does it help Corbyn not bottle it if it ever came to his having an opportunity to get rid of our so called independent nuclear deterrent? A gesture which might still make a difference, even now, although it would have had a lot more impact back in the 1960's, when people still remembered our days as a Great Power.

Next was 'Middle East Solidarity', a magazine devoted to rather horrific affairs in various parts of the Middle East. Including a reminder that Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world named after its ruling family. A family which, despite polygamy, must be quite small relative to the population of 30 million or so, a figure which quite possibly excludes foreign workers, slaves etc. More than Australian and Canada combined? We are also told of connections between this country's large arms industry (think Rolls Royce and BAE Systems) and the University of Cambridge. Professor Baumberg, noticed at reference 4, might be a good talker, but his nano-technology makes its way into Israel's military complex by way of Tortech Nano Fibres Ltd. I don't suppose Baumberg is the sort of man to make a principled stand against such connections. Not that I can talk: a former peace person who now thinks that we need to up our defense spending - although not on nukes. See references 5 and 6.

From where we move to the less murky waters of semi-professional and amateur artists, with one number each of  'Leisure Painter' & 'The Artist' and two numbers of 'Paint'. All of which reminded me of the large number of people who paint for pleasure and of the large amount of skill needed to make any kind of a fist of it - with even the rather dreary stuff which makes it to the walls of our own Bourne Hall being well beyond my own modest reach. See reference 7.

Last of all was a medley of stuff from animals lovers. Save the orangutans from the depredations of palm oil farmers - in which I should declare an interest as BH, now a lover of orangutans, once owned shares in palm oil, shares which collapsed in value when they were nationalised by the Malaysians and I used to have interesting exchanges by (H. M. Treasury) fax with the custody clerk at Sime Derby Berhad. See reference 8. Pawprint from pdsa. Horse news from World Horse Welfare, in which I was reminded of the million or so horses sent over to Belgium and France during the first world war, of which maybe 60,000 made it back. It seems that, to make up numbers, we were importing horses from Argentina, Canada, the United States and Ireland. A throwback to the days when the army had remount officers. From where I associated to the young Count Rostov (of War & Peace) missing the battle of Borodino because he was on remount duty.

And last of the last was a Christmas catalogue, a dogalogue, from the Blind Dogs association. Do you fancy a chocolate dog? Confused messages I thought, eating a replica of your beloved pet or support. But we do have the parallel of eating the body and blood of Christ during Holy Communion, and I dare say an anthropologist could turn up other examples from around the world. With having a fry-up of after birth being a sort of compromise, I think from Vietnam. See reference 9.

Diversity rules!

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/interim-report.html.

Reference 2: https://peacenews.info/.

Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-last-outing.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/is-science-in-bad-way.html.

Reference 5: http://tortechnano.com/.

Reference 6: https://menasolidaritynetwork.com/.

Reference 7: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=abex+kreutzer.

Reference 8: http://www.simedarby.com/.

Reference 9: https://www.dogalogue.com/.