GTF is back from its summer holidays.
It is now September and the summer is ending. soon the geese will be returning from the north, passing overhead daily as they migrate to graze on fields and return to roost on the Montrose Basin.
There has been a bumper crop of Geans (wild cherries in English) and the Plum tree overhanging from next door's garden is heavy with plums. The air is getting chillier and winter approaches. I will be heading for Barcelona soon for a few days to top up on some sun before digging in for the winter and the cold times to come.
This week has seen the start of my reduction in hours at the day job to 21 per week. Three days in effect. This will give me more time to write and play music and do a bit of other work on the side with a view to keeping body and soul together.
I am looking forward to some more freedom and self-efficacy. For too many years I have been working too damned hard. That is not a rare complaint. We all work far too hard. Even if we're not working at all these days. Being unemployed and in receipt of benefits is a full-time job. Not an easy one either.
These are hard times, yet in Aberdeen there has just been the "Offshore Europe" Trade Fair for the oil industry. They don't like you calling it a trade fair, but that is what it is. A vast gathering (50,000 - plus attendances) over four days. The citizenry of Aberdeen thank their lucky stars that it is only every two years that the whole traffic system of the city is entirely screwed up for a week.
A week of corporate back-slapping and deal-making. Allegedly sex workers have noticed a welcome increase in trade over the week,.
It is hard to see what else the oil and gas industry has brought to Aberdeen. Full employment (though even that is not as straightforward as the statistics indicate) but nothing in the way of contribution to the civic wealth of the city. Nothing to support affordable childcare for the workers in full employment for example. No contribution to an Arts or Cultural centre either.
The City of course DID have a fully funded Arts Centre on the stocks, till that was derailed by the hubris of a wealthy individual. Power without responsibility, which someone once described as the "prerogative of the Harlot".
One looks at the scathing response to the City's bid for "UK City of Culture 2017" status. The laughable notion that it stood even the slightest chance of such an accolade.
One of the reasons for that is that parts of the private sector have done extremely well out of the City and the north east as a whole and at little cost to themselves.
In Norway the industry was held to account by the public. As a result, Norway's Oil Fund supports public infrastructure and a standard of living and security that any country in the world would envy. We squander an opportunity and instead spend it making wealthy people wealthier and poor people poorer.
In the meantime we all have Syria to worry about. Or rather our rulers insist we do. Not that they gave a shit until it looked like the Assad regime was going to win the civil war. I have no idea who used nerve gas in this instance. I do know that I don't believe David Cameron's assertions on the matter. I am delighted that he lost the vote to send armed strikes to add to the misery of the Syrians.
Assad used to be a great buddy of the British State. Tony Blair, that great peace lover toyed with the idea of proposing him for a knighthood. A bit shabby really, when one thinks that even George Foulkes got a peerage.
At the G20 meeting of heads of state, Vladimir Putin yesterday described "Britain" as a "little island that nobody takes any notice of.." How true this should be.
At any event, the civil war in Syria which has seen Britain and America stir the pot by arming the rebels (but not enough so that they can win) shows no sign of ending any time soon. Obama's plans for "humanitarian" strikes are designed only to stop the regime winning and prolonging the fight. To call such actions humanitarian is simply a lie
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