Support your local protest !

A fine woodland run on Saturday immediately followed by a trip to Newcastle, and then this morning back in Glasgow for a run around a 19^th century park, which makes an excellent running track, complete with swans and ducks.

The anti-capitalism camps are reaching a difficult time in the UK, as they have done elsewhere. The patrician authorities, like indulgent parents finally running out of patience, are essentially saying “You’ve made your point. Now run along and let’s get back to normal before I lose my temper”. Admittedly, the effectiveness of a permanent camp as a means of maintaining public focus on the issues is questionable. Probably, regular demonstrations would be better, being less prone to being dismissed as the antics of a handful of under-employed camping enthusiasts. On reflection though, both would be better still !

The critical matter is that the protests continue. As a timely reminder of what they are about, not only have the salaries of the top 100 CEOs in UK risen by an unbelievable 50% in the last 12 months of austerity and job loss, but the Queen’s eldest son has now been shown to be protecting his £18m private annual income by influencing government legislation that might affect his business interests (ref).

Killer whales 1 Humans 0

Back to the city, and a good woodland run on a clear chilly morning.

Last night we watched an excellent documentary film about life in the even chillier Arctic & Antarctic. One of the most dramatic scenes was of a group of orca preying on seals in a very synchronised and intelligent way, almost to Olympic standards. The villainous and cruel orca were shown in contrast to the poor helpless seal with its big brown eyes and cute whiskers. Except that, before the orca arrived, the seal was sitting on an ice flow with blood on its own muzzle, clearly having recently preyed on some other hapless creature further down the food chain. And both deaths will have been relatively quick and painless compared to that of the millions of fish and crustaceans trawled from the sea in vast nets for human consumption, or indeed that of those prisoners of war abused and tortured to death by their captors.

Blank

After two hard days of roof-top weight lifting (don't ask), a gentle dawn run along the loch-side this morning. Maybe I'm weary or maybe the news is particularly grey and dull today, but nothing has leapt out demanding comment.

Murkier and murkier

A calm, dry, and beautiful morning for once, and a fine run along the forestry track.

As the hypocrisy continues regarding Gaddafi's death, one of my elite team of intelligence agents has highlighted  a convincing proposition (ref) that the NATO involvement was not so much to do with maintaining control of the oil fields and more with maintaining the supremacy of the dollar, pound, and french franc as the currencies of choice. Gaddafi had been actively promoting the gold dinar as a pan-African currency, which would have given African states much greater financial autonomy. Saddam Hussein had similar plans just before the farago of lies about weapons of mass destruction. At first this sounded like conspiracy-theory fantasising but googling "gold dinar & dollar" brings up a substantial amount of corroboration. 

All in the name of humanity

A windy morning and an exhilarating pre-dawn run.

After 6 months of NATO assistance, Colonel Gaddafi has finally been found and killed. Accounts of what actually happened are predictably contradictory and confusing. Much of the Western media are bravely managing to illustrate their censorious comments about his inhumane death with endless images of his corpse, so we can see repeatedly just how inhumane it was. And the US government has joined demands for further details of how he was killed, according to a report in the NYT. That’s the same US government that, having watched the summary execution of Osama bin Laden live on video, went on to issue contradictory and confusing accounts of what happened to him too (ref), so it's clearly a big issue for them.

I'm a Celebrity Climate Scientist - Get Me Out of Here

A postponed run this morning in the hope of a break in the rain. Aye right.

Conflicting reports today regarding global warming. The Guardian refers to a report published by Berkeley, looking at data for the last 200 years and concluding that yes, the planet really is warming up (ref). On the other hand, the Independent recently quoted a leading climate scientist as saying that the climate sceptics are still convincing the public despite the scientific evidence, as a result of powerful lobbying by the business-as-usual sector (ref).  

Scientific evidence has always had a rough ride, especially when it comes to uncomfortable truths. Admittedly, heretics are no longer burnt at the stake but, rationality-wise, we really don’t seem to have moved very far since the Spanish Inquisition. Except that, now, reality TV shows are very popular, which they weren’t in the 15^th century, so maybe therein lies the solution.

Beware conservatives bearing concessions

An exciting run this morning up the forestry track where the dogs & I encountered 10 red deer - either rutting or demonstrating against corporate greed.

In the Independent this morning the editor is comparing the spreading protests to the revolutionary movement in Europe in 1848 - a movement which did manage to achieve some permanent changes for the better, but which overall has been regarded as a failure. His final point is probably his most cogent - that to create real change takes both clarity of purpose and endurance. And that must surely include enduring establishment obfuscation and compromise as well as enduring outright opposition and hostility. Even conservatives are now conceding that there might be some justification to what is happening, which could be seen as a vital breakthrough by common sense, or as a potential kiss of death to radicalism.

Never mind the evidence

A brisky dawn run along the chilly loch-side at last.

In the last couple of days of admittedly Noah-style rainfall I have chatted politely with two respectable ladies who calmly denied the existence of evolution because it’s not in the Bible, and  I’ve also been accused of being wicked in a Daily Telegraph comment forum. The latter narrative was even harder to follow than that of the two ladies, but I think it because I suggested that there is justification in the global protest against corporate greed. Maybe the Enlightenment was just a dream, and we are still in the Middle Ages after all.

Capitalists - look away now

Back in the Highlands, and another night of loud rain & hail on the tin roof, so today has been designated a no-run day for reasons of energy conservation.

Meanwhile, the global protests against corporate greed and the consequential “austerity measures” seem to be spreading with encouraging speed and vigour, although the media coverage seems interestingly muted. A high proportion of what comment there is seems to be focussed on the apparent lack of clear goals, action plans, strategy documents & mission statements amongst the protesters. On the whole this is probably a good thing, because the more firmly rooted the protests can become before they are taken seriously by the 1%, the greater the chances of real change. The Trojans had a similar action plan with their wooden horse. 

Happy day

A good long run this morning through the autumn woods.

And the most cheering news headlines for a long time: Protests against corporate greed and government cutbacks have been held in cities around the world.

Having made the mistake of googling the Bullingdon Club (try it, if you have a strong stomach...) and been haunted by images of the supercilious bastards at the heart of the UK government, this is a real antidote ! 

Not a good time to become old

A murky morning and a slightly slow run - possibly because I'm a year older than I was 2 days ago.

The UK news this morning is dominated by a shocking and depressing report which highlights the poor quality of care for elderly people in many state-run hospitals (ref). The fundamental cause seems to be a combination of under-funding which leads to the employment of too many under-qualified, under-trained healthcare assistants, and a management regime which is simply too remote from caring for people. No doubt Cameron’s government will use this as further justification for dismantling and privatising the National Health Service, although there are many indications that standards of care in much of the profit-driven private sector are even worse.

The shy & retiring BP are at it again

A very wet and brisk run this morning, as the poor weather in Scotland continues. Not that the weather is stopping BP from preparing to drill a 1,290m deep oil well off the stormy coast of Shetland. Apparently this time their disaster-contingency plan allows for a record-breaking leak of 75,000 barrels of oil per day for 140 days – twice that which they managed to spill last year at the Deepwater Horizon well (ref).

BP allegedly held a public consultation about the project, although their definition of “public” seems to be such that there has not been a single response. Perhaps nobody in Scotland cares about potential damage to one of the most sensitive parts of its coastline or, just maybe, BP didn't try very hard to tell people about it. Let’s  hope that their safety team is more effective than their consultation team !

Meanwhile, down in the forest....

Back to the city again, and a fast dawn run through the rain-soaked woods.

The Independent yesterday carried a revealing piece about deforestation. The carbon emissions from just one day of rainforest clearance is equivalent to 8 million people flying from London to New York (ref). Now, 60% of rainforest clearance is for agriculture – mainly due to “shifting cultivators”, which is a euphemism for people driven off their land by the international agri-business of producing coffee, sugar, and cattle for the rich, developed nations (ref).These displaced people need to clear the forest to grow food to survive, while we worry about the loss of rainforest over a coffee & Danish and conveniently forget about the deforestation of Europe which allowed us to get rich in the first place.

Rooting for change

Another wet morning and, in a brief struggle between duvet & damp running gear, the duvet won.

After 3 weeks the Occupy Wall Street protests are continuing, and spreading, in the US. Not in huge numbers, and still heavily policed, they seem to be successfully tapping in to widespread dissatisfaction with the direction in which US society is being steered (ref).

Meanwhile in Europe, a group of 150 anti-capitalist Indignants have marched to Brussels from Spain, France and the Netherlands to set up an alternative parliament during the forthcoming EU summit on the debt crisis (ref). And in London 2,000 people gather to protest against the UK government's attacks on the National Health Service (ref).

Maybe it's too optimistic but, if anything is ever going to change for the better in this world driven by global capitalism, it will probably start with exactly this type of protest, quietly taking root and spreading - preferably without violence, so it can't be demonised as "terrorism". Of course we've been here before, but that was before the internet, and when all the movers & shakers were too stoned to follow it through !

Face to face

Another damp grey morning and an inwards looking run, although the drizzle did have a certain silvery beauty.

In an interesting analysis of the media reaction to the recently acquitted Amanda Knox, the Guardian refers to the illusion of asymmetric insight. Proposed by a Princeton psychologist, Emily Pronin, this suggests that, when you meet someone, you will always be more conscious of your thoughts and their face than they are, leading to a misleading assumption that whilst your own thoughts are complex & subtle, theirs can be easily read from their facial expression.
Probably not the most world-changing news item today but nevertheless a potentially useful reference point in our increasingly twittery, socially networky world of superficial intimacy. And a very pleasingly neat parcel of a theory.

Hit & myth

Another cool grey morning, and a fast run along the loch-side, trying to avoid the showers.

The death of Steve Jobs has been followed by what seems to have been unprecedented coverage in the media, as well as by elegiac statements by heads of government. We might have been witnessing the passing of a global statesman or spiritual leader, rather than a talented and successful business executive. And of course spiritual leader is what he was, in the religion of stylish and profoundly addictive consumerism. An analysis on the BBC makes the point that by buying an Apple product one is buying into the myth of boundary-shifting creativity, in much the same way as touching the garment of a religious leader brings additional sanctity. By owning an i-product one is a step closer to writing the novel or making the hit recording, so the myth has it, just as the medieval Catholic church promised its followers a place in heaven. Myth-making made the Vatican obscenely rich, as they promised salvation to the poor. And the Apple myth-making has been so successful that, this year, the corporation had more cash than the US government. 

Close your eyes and think of the money

A recent combination of other activities and unfeasibly bad weather has interrupted the smooth rhythm of running & blogging. Today, as the rain batters loudly on the tin roof, is a blog-but-no-run day.

Bahrain has an appalling human rights record (ref), the latest manifestation of which has been the lengthy jail sentences imposed on medical staff who treated people injured during the brutal suppression of protesters earlier this year. Even the Bahraini government has been embarrassed by this, and has ordered a re-trial (ref). Meanwhile it is unsurprising that the UK government, currently intent on diluting its own human rights legislation, is whoring after the Bahraini oil wealth with undiminished enthusiasm. Last month Bahrainis came to yet another London arms fair; this month they are coming to a Bahrain/UK sales conference. Next month King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah will take over George Osborne’s second home*. I made the last one up, but it's only a matter of time.
*That's the second home in London that Osborne lied about to avoid paying tax (ref).

Bring it on

No run today for energy-conservation reasons, but an invigoratingly blustery day.

There's been an interestingly underwhelming media response to the Occupy Wall Street protests in the US, as various groups take Arab Spring-inspired action to protest against corporate greed, and over 1,000 protesters have already been arrested. 

The US, like the UK, often seems to exist in a spectacularly complacent bubble and, whilst sadly unlikely to escalate to regime change, any such signs of dissent are to be warmly welcomed.

Winter of discontent

A fast run by a rather misty and autumnal loch.

As Britain prepares for another long cold winter, and as fuel costs continue to rise, Cameron’s government demonstrates again its grasp of social need by cutting the winter fuel allowance. The WFA is something of an anachronism, like many of the benefits for older people in the UK, because it is awarded (and cut) regardless of individual need for it. There seems to be an unwillingness to means-test people – maybe because such intimate questioning is just too un-British. All old people receive state benefits whether they are rich or poor. Probably even the Queen is entitled to free bus travel. As a predictable result there isn’t enough money to go round so the allowances have to be cut even for the people that actually rely on them to keep warm.