The other side.

An exhilaratingly windy run this morning, as we catch the skirts of Hurricane Katia.

Meanwhile, the Guardian has published an excellent analysis of the situation in Somalia, by Madeleine Bunting, which is another part of the context in which to view what happened on 9/11.

The prevailing narrative in the western media is that the current famine is the latest misfortune to hit this unstable country, where the best efforts by international aid organisations are stymied by hostile extremists such as al-Shabaab. A potential death toll of 750,000 is currently being predicted, but hey, what can we do in the face of such intransigence? And anyway it's only Africa, and they don't even have any oil.

Well - it would appear that one thing we could do is to understand that, like any conflict, neither side has a monopoly of truth or justification. A major factor which has destabilised the region for the last 10 years has been the disastrous "war on terror" waged, in this case covertly, by the US, which is precisely why there is such hostility to, and mistrust of, western intervention. Until that is recognised, and respected, the carnage seems likely to continue.