Page 20 w The Top
A View From
Welcome to my monthly column “A view from the top”. Hopefully you will find my rambling readable maybe even enjoyable. You may agree or you may disagree with my views, I care not. These are my views long held and forged over a life time of work, travel and experience. Now that’s over let’s have a look at what is really winding me up.
Je Suis Who? The massacre of several French journalists and Police officers unfolded before the viewing publics eyes as Paris became the latest world city to suffer from what appears to the outsider as another example of how differences in cultural beliefs and intolerance of the other viewpoint are deemed as a reason to kill. The whole shocking episode was/is about the freedoms that people have to express those freedoms in today’s world. Understanding and education would suggest that all the world’s people have the same freedom to express a view be it personal or societal on any subject that they have a mind to comment upon. Unfortunately the presupposition that everyone is open and educated enough to listen or view, and make a reasoned and rational response is not the way the world is. Freedom means many things to many people and people do in fact have the right to object to other people’s freedoms as curious as that may sound. The measure of course is the level of reaction….reasoned debate …passionate discussion…even angry exchange are relevant…of course what is not acceptable to normal society is to stop freedom of expression in its tracks. The events in France were appalling and point to a continuance of such events, if rivaling cultures always seem to be pulling away from each other rather than finding some tolerant middle ground. The spectacle of a million people marching for freedom was somewhat marred when you took a look at some of the leaders who were marching. Leaders who deny basic freedoms to their own people, marching for the rights of others to be free. The word hypocrite springs to mind. Incidentally as a matter of information there is no such crime as Blasphemy in the secular state that is France.
Drugs and sport. Interesting story tucked away in the nether regions of the sports internet. The penalty for using banned substances within the athletics field of world sports will be increased from a minimum of 2 years to a minimum of 4 years. My first reaction was one of ‘good that will teach the cheats’. However, after some contemplation I started to wonder just what fun a drug fuelled Olympics would be.
QF Focus Magazine
Can you imagine just how fast those sprinters could go if they were powered by some high performance chemical. How high would the high jumpers jump…how long would the sand pit have to be to accommodate powered up long jumpers. Imagine the spectacle as the Javelin flew over the stadium roof with the hammer in hot pursuit. Sorry to be so flippant, but it made me chuckle. Of course drugs in sport are a bad thing!
Out of our element. Many stories of late have been about the very sad deaths of people who have been attacked by sharks in the waters around Australia’s beaches. In the latest case people were attacked by a shark as they were spear fishing. Tragic …but it is well known that fish when in distress after being speared will release both blood and electrical impulses, which in both cases can attract sharks. My question is one of “do people belong in the sea as a natural state of affairs”? Note in the sea not on the sea. The answer must surely be that people do not belong in the sea for a reason. Maybe this fact is why I have never been bitten by a shark whilst in the Post Office… sharks simply do not belong in there.
Me and my birds. Over the past year or so many of the readers of my ramblings will have picked up on the fact that I am becoming rather keen on the matter of birds. The interest was nurtured as I walked my dogs over the old orange groves of Benijofar. In the spring time especially the arrival of the swifts, house martins and swallows make for a fascinating walk. Last year at the onset of our winter I took to putting out a large saucer of water and a selection of food in my garden in an attempt to help the local sparrows over the colder couple of months of our winter. This year I have done the same thing and have in fact placed the food and water in a place where it can be seen from my computer work station. The birds started to arrive on a one by one basis… then a few more… then more until today as I sit and type this piece I have been visited by several sparrows… two now regular pied wagtails… Mr. and Mrs. beautiful blackbird and my latest visitor…a lovely flycatcher. I can sit and watch the birds through the mosquito netting as it serves as a shield between me and my feathered friends. The only drawback is that I have started eating bacon sandwiches for breakfast as I use the residual bacon fat to fry up the brown bread that goes on the bird table along with the dry porridge oats, the grated cheddar cheese, the bird seed and the chopped up sultanas. I must go now as wagtail number two has arrived and is feeding and the garden is a beautiful chorus of sparrow song. How can it be that so little effort can provide such beauty in my garden?
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