One of the books I’m currently reading is the heart-rending, brilliant Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Andrew Bromfield). It caused a bit of a controversy in the USSR when it was first published in 1991 mainly, I guess, because it’s honest. And, I reckon, the best way to end the war would be for all Russian mothers to read it. It would be a hard heart indeed that could ignore the pain and suffering in the book.
And that makes me wonder what sort of mind decides to send thousands of people off to slaughter and be slaughtered. Why do ‘normal’ people allow the ones without empathy, into positions of power? Like racism, homophobia, general intolerance, it’s all beyond me.
Something else that’s beyond me is how most of the people I saw in the park this morning were overdressed. One woman I saw was wearing a hoodie with the hood up over her head, thick trackies and a big quilted jacket. I walked by her in shorts and t-shirt and gave her a cheery greeting. The temperature was already in double figures at 07:30.
In fact, the day was decidedly mild, tempered by a light breeze. There was a bit of rain late on but, generally, it felt like Spring. I’m so glad there’s no climate emergency.
Which reminds me…at the moment there’s a bit of a kerfuffle with who is and isn’t going to attend COP27 in Egypt. Representing the UK we have PM Rishi Sunak who isn’t and the King has been told he’s not allowed to go. There was a rumour that Boris Johnson might go, though I think that’s because it’s being held at a very expensive and exclusive resort and, of course, his holiday in the Caribbean was cut short by the leadership non-contest.
The thing is, Sunak should stay here and sort out the Tory-made problems, the King should go if he wants to, and Johnson should really be visiting his constituents rather than gallivanting on an Egyptian beach. If he remembers where they live, that is.
Then, late in the day, Greta said she wasn’t going because it was all a load of greenwashing.
“I’m not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” Thunberg said. “COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing.”
Available online at: https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/greta-thunberg-blasts-attention-seeking-cop27-leaders/
Then, in the Commons today, the once fired, then subsequently rehired a few days later, Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, was asked about all the Channel crossings and what she was doing about it. She is not very nice and was full of hate, claiming she’d be cracking down on the illegals as well as trying to send the real refugees to Rwanda.
The thing is, as the climate gets hotter and people are starving, dying of thirst or simply unable to survive, there will be more and more people wanting to have what we have. And yet, a lot of people still think there isn’t a problem and we in our comfortable little western houses can just call them names and write bile on Twitter.
In the meanwhilst, we had an email from Luca, who had planned to visit with us this weekend. He wrote to say plans had changed somewhat, and he’d be with us from tomorrow night. There was some frantic tidying up going on after that.
Hi Gaz ! Finally making time for more important things, like reading your always entertaining blog ! Am currently sitting at a cafe with Archie called “The Treehouse” ( it has a big tree growing through the roof ! ). Missing you guys heaps ! Archie says “Woof !” 🤗