Eostre Monday

Back to the Highlands. Three more days of shifting rocks and wool and then a glorious 130 minute,10.5 mile run this morning up around Alistair's loop. Quite exciting in places, scrambling over fallen trees, across rivers and through peat bogs with the two enthusiastic dogs. This afternoon we watched a new-born calf taking its first steps in the sunlight, which epitomised everything that is good about Spring.

Conflict and contradiction

A brisk 25 minutes run.
Yesterday the news of Libya sounded almost hopeful. Today it sounds almost hopeless - an endless and bloody civil war which highlights the hypocrisy and double standards of the Western intervention, as well as the widespread difficulty of knowing exactly what is happening - although a convincing piece by John Pilger goes some way to bring some clarity.
Meanwhile, maybe as a distraction, the English media go into further hysterics about next week's wedding. Here in the West of Scotland it's difficult to detect any interest in the event. Even the Queen must be getting bored by now !

Creep

A cool morning and a good 25 minute run.
Meanwhile in Libya there are promising signs that the two sides are preparing to discuss a meaningful ceasefire, although not helped by the badly timed latest interference from the British & French governments of sending in military "logistics and communications" experts to train the rebels - a move widely recognised as mission-creep.

Busy Monday

Back to the city for a gentle 25 minute run. In our absence the trees have exploded into life.
In Japan the plan to stop leaking radiation has been disclosed, with an estimated timescale of 9 months. Meanwhile the stalemate in Libya continues. Initial talk of letting the intervention be led by Arab neighbours seems to have been forgotten as Obama, Sarkozy, and Cameron put increasingly strident emphasis on regime change. Nothing to do with pending elections in the US & France, obviously.

Quiet Sunday

Two days of unavoidable weight training via straw bales & rocks, then a fine 68 minute run this morning up to the top of the forest track. Also a therapeutically news-free couple of days.

Let's hear it for the woodlouse

Another gentle 25 minute run along the loch side and forestry track, revelling in the signs of Spring.

David Attenborough presented a television programme recently which focussed on the origins of life on Earth. One of the older species, woodlice, have been around for 300 million years. To put that into context, dinosaurs came & went within 165 million years, whilst humans have been around for a mere 15 million years and already seem intent on self-destruction. Who deserves the prize for sustainable co-existence ? (Clue – not the species that invented consumerism and weapons of mass destruction).

The elephant in the room

Back in the Highlands. A wet 25 minute run along the loch-side. The peace and emptiness of the place made me reflect on the issue of over-population which is probably the biggest single planetary issue currently being largely ignored, at least in the British media, except by a handful of far-sighted individuals such as David Attenborough, John Burton, and Chris Packham  . Meta-history suggests that the planet as a living organism is quite adept at population reduction when necessary, but it would be comforting to think that we could do it on our own terms by controlled reproduction, rather than by apocalypse. The potential for controversy is enormous though. Experience with the energy debate suggests that many people feel they have an absolute right to burn as much fossil fuel as they wish, despite the consequential damage and the diminishing supplies. To suggest that perhaps we should also no longer be able to breed at will should generate enough heat in some quarters to power a small city.

Chill winds

A beautiful but chilly morning, and a brisk 25 minutes run. Aches after Sunday's longer run reminded me yet again about the importance of stretching before and after.

New information is emerging about the appallingly brutal suppression by the British of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s. Whilst the extent of British government complicity is so far unclear, the events should serve as a timely reminder to the current government to avoid being sanctimonious in their dealings with other nations.

Meanwhile the Fukushima disaster has now been elevated to the same level of concern as Chernobyl.

My name is Capitalism and I am an oil addict

A beautiful warm morning, and a fine 65 minute run, spoiled only by further thoughts of hypocrisy.
In many private hospitals treatment will only be delivered if the patient's financial credit is good, regardless of how sick or vulnerable they may be. The same seems to be the case at a macro scale too. Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa, and the 9th largest in the world, and Iraq possibly has the largest oil reserves in the world, which makes the noble rhetoric about humanitarian intervention and prevention of terrorism sound very hollow indeed.

Peaceful Glasgow

Back to the relative sanity of Scotland for a very welcome 25 minute run in fresh air. London is getting prepared for the the marriage of the queen's grandson and the woman he's been living with, in a fancy-dress pageant that allegedly will be watched by 2 billion people across the planet. Probably a large proportion of that 2 billion will be attracted by the burlesque theatrical qualities of the event, rather than by respect for the British monarchy, but either way such attention will be a depressing boost to Britain's, or at least England's, misplaced sense of self-importance. Apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury has advised that the co-habiting couple should live apart for a week or so before the wedding to maintain the "illusion of innocence", in a spectacular piece of institutional hypocrisy.

Rushed

25 mins run, rain, now off to get train to London.

Running with the Dalai Lama

A brisk 25 minute run through drizzling rain, reflecting again on the Dalai Lama, his 52 years of exile, and the conundrum that is China.

Disturbingly, the Chinese artist & activist Ai Weiwei has not yet reappeared after being arrested again by the Chinese authorities on 3 April, as they endeavour to quell the spread of unrest. 

Despite the many many flaws of the UK government, for now at least we are still relatively free to speak. 

Reasons to be gloomy

A gentle 25 minute run.
And a very clear-headed article in Spiegel International, entitled "Our Most Dangerous Illusion Is that We Can Control Nuclear Energy". On the other hand, if we follow that logic and burn more & more coal, then we accelerate global warming and the onset of drought & flood. But perhaps that will be the planet's way of dealing with all this pesky over-population and insatiable consumption of resources.

Sunday

 A very fine 61 minute run past several cows and up the forestry track, in between the April showers.

Meanwhile the Libyan campaign seems to be losing its focus, and its interest to the UK media, the situation at the Fukushima plant is still unfolding as a slow motion tragedy, the Ivory Coast's civil war is becoming more vicious by the day, and the pending wedding of the Queen's grandson continues to fascinate royalists and republicans alike (though perhaps not in the same way).

Not a joke, just a comedy

Back up to the Highlands and an exhilarating 35 minute run through the driving rain.
The Queen has obviously been feeling sorry for His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter,  Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty & Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, what with all the bad press coverage he's been getting recently, so last month she awarded him Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order to cheer him up a bit. Most mothers would make their son a cake in such circumstances, but maybe the Queen doesn't like baking.