Out Islander

Sad Water in Paradise - World Humbugs as Normal

2011-01-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

I am told by Google Stats that although nobody has formally signed up to my blog .......its on the Map. Frankly I don't care .......this is the beauty of living far away from the boredom of the fast track. However if there was an ardent follower out there, he or she would have noted 'zero'...that is three months of blankety blank. In that time the Grim Reaper has accounted for two close friends, one of my dogs, a spouse traumatic near miss .......and several acquaintance 'almosts' . Sadness beyond belief.

It is however not the only reason for a silent quill......a new business, much binding in the bush ......and a merry canter into 2011 with a few friends over for Christmas from a very chilly Blighty......ensured an involuntary blogger strike.

Going back to the weather, La Nina which is the cause for all this global weather outrage has allowed us all here to wear our UK Summer Wardrobe almost continuously for a month and a half.....heaters are being imported. That said some days have been very warm and with no humidity (hence night time chill) very pleasant......and following a good rainy fall the island is looking stunning.

While walking fully wrapped on a beach today .........aware I was scoring with my "ink pot" later ..... it struck me how appropriate this weather move outside my comfort zone equated to what was happening in many parts of the world particularly in western style democracies. This has not happened overnight, but assiduously over many years since the last World War in fact, but now the layers of wallpaper covering the cracks are falling away revealing walls that themselves are crumbling.

Wikileaks has sought a bow, being welcomed by many who would die before their own real persona was socially outed. Also all those who worried about the destabilising of the Middle East by America seem to have little problem with risking mass scale Shia uprisings by writing in Capitals on their 'walls' that their leaders are encouraging America to bomb Iran. Sadly only those who live shell like lives would have learn't anything from these leaks........while diplomacy, the art of defusing tensions, is put in the dock by those who keep telling people 'they love them' for fear of rejection.

In the States Obama has received an unwelcome (although politically welcome for him) boost by the attempted assassination of a congress woman by an unstable young man.......who for all the wrong reasons has hopefully begun a serious quest into the credibility of irresponsible media masquerading as Newscasters. Anybody with any semblance of brains cannot rule out the influence people such as O'Reilly, Beck and Olberman have .....not on the public at large .........but the baying sheep who flock to their piper's tunes........rigged up to boost their egos, bank balances and self aggrandisement they thrive on the sound of their own voice and continuously prove why Americans are sadly so prone to Cult figures. In the UK we also have a media issue ..and egos are involved ...but its not to do with the right or left of politics .......more I can outsmart or at least out shine the PM (Conservative, Labour, whomever) as typified by John Humphries. The saddest part of the US dilemma is to meet the many rational well travelled intelligent GOP (more so than Democrat ) voters who are shocked and ashamed of the lowbrow reactionary literally incitement shown by so called Tea Party activists, elements of the Republican party and the aforementioned wreckers of accord.. .... many seriously believe that unless Obama can turn partisanship around America will lose its credibility completely and become ungovernable.

.......meanwhile in Europe Germany takes on the role of European Chef, while France hangs on ignominiously and the British Coalition attempts to jump out of debtors prison with one bound...........in the East you could argue that they are at last approaching something like a comfort zone for the first time for centuries .....but that is just it ..all is changing around them ..... and they too are in foreign waters, albeit getting warmer.

Bring on the Ides of March ..........I am sure they have something in store.

2010-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Have been stumbling around the bush caretaking property for friends in now overgrown farm. No home, internet, or TV since selling cottage well over four months back ........hence no blogging. Have escaped to local library.....part of major project to empower local people with further educational aspirations....which I will talk about another time and have just been reading Times on Line about UK austerity plans and British people's reaction. Must lighten up when I get back to regular blogging..........however the hypocrisy and cant that today's slump has generated is unforgivable by any creed known to mankind and is far too tempting not to assault.

From history (that much discarded factual calculator) we learn that at the turn of the first millennium AD there was a great period of uncertainly, doubt and the dawning realisation that life could not proceed as it had ..................and it took some three to four hundred years (the dark ages) to begin to reach a beacon of hope which of course became the 'renaissance period'. It was the latter that spurred man not only to the many achievements, inventions and freedoms which were to mark of the latter half of the millenium ..........but also more radical thinking. My point is that in the very simplistic of terms we could percieve our uncertainly today is no dissimilar to those of our forefathers in 1066 and all that...........................for despite protestations from the "have nots" and the arm chair socialist 'twist of lime'.......there is no real poverty in the UK accept where individuals have willed it on themselves via some "little helper" or self interest .............greed is now endemic amongst people of all means and the feel good factor has sufficiently waned for people to become uncertain and for politicians everwhere to begin talking change as the opiate for reform ...........but it a major change in the British mindsets that is required - not just in their administrations .........and David Cameron in recognising it has nailed his flag to a mast where the people lead the change ......not the Government.

This has many similarities to Obama's perspective of what he mean't by change, although Obama cannot possibly enunciate it ........his current unpopularity alone is due to the small amount he has tinkered with personal freedoms (which any patriot sees as their constitutional right) and any suggestion that he was trying to change their mindset would be fatal.

Unfortunately religion still dominates creeds and not humanism.......until people fully appreciate one another in a credible and selfless way our natural survival instincts whilst keeping human kind hopefully in existence, are likely to work against a possible third way of co-existing. Changes of mindset could well be altered by practical issues (which is not itself a bad thing) but not instinctive behavioural features. To ensure a way of both changing and sustaining the practical measures that need to be taken .................not only in our own.... but also global society ....for the human race to have any chance of advancing to 3000AD..........we need to change our instinctive priorities. Good luck to today's leaders.......especially those who espouse democracy.......and the next time you electorates blame your leaders check your "glass houses".

Hope to be back more regularly end October lighter, fresher and mainlining on far less humbug.

Island warming up as X Factor politics heats up UK Election

2010-04-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

At last a rather prolonged winter with even chillier than usual nights leading to a hunt for blankets ......has given way to the warm zephyrs and clear skies that herald the coming of summer. The high season which is coming to an end saw an increase in visitors despite the current fiscal malaise, but now the schooners and catamarans that recently laced the Sound we live on are leaving for their northern summers.

So while its warming here ........political humbug in the UK is alive and well and heating up as X factor politics make for a Well Hung parliament!

Sadly, whilst every body is entitled to their own opinion and vote (in a democracy), most UK voters perspective of politics is clouded by: a poor understanding of both (especially political) history and economics (thanks to a wanting academic curriculum): virtually no understanding of governance (domestic or foreign) due to an inherent disdain for civil servants:a fiscally driven media more interested in sensation and gloss than substance: and the remnants of a class system that still fuels conservative - in historical terms - divisions

Any apolitical analysis since the World War two.....suggests that the most important ingredient for change (which is by no means a new mantra) is strong leadership and governance, regardless of ideology. Real advances for both Social Welfare (the NHS) and the free market have been made by strong administrations from both sides of the spectrum........ and of late there has been more and more consensus as both parties lurch toward the centre. Tony Blair called it the third way and David Cameron would, without the recent economic slump, have been the natural successor to Blair. Now he faces a third problem X factor politics

Nick Clegg for all his populist new found appeal (worrying how ill informed the British public were of current Liberal politics and their personalities) is a lightweight, and without the strap line that the Liberals are the natural party of the centre and youth on his side .......would be floundering like his predecessors. A far more telling version of the strengths and weaknesses of Clegg could be seen when he was interviewed by Paxman, especially when compared to Cameron........

This UK election should basically be about the direction to take following the failure for the US to remember that Adam Smith never ruled out interventionist politics.. for ironically for the first time in years there is a political choice for immediate very specific change .........between on the one hand perceived fiscal stability (Labour - strong Keynesian) as stimulus appears to be slowly working and on the other an attempt (Conservative - not eliminating Keynes by any means) to 'change gear' by revitalising the private sector and begin dealing with a 'tax timebomb' that many apparently don't or don't want to see. Against that a hung parliament (given the real choice that exists) will be an anticlimax bringing, as it well in pragmatic terms, business as usual.

However a scenario that might well transpire is a Hung Parliament leading to Brown Clegg pact.........and my guessing is for all rhetoric ...economics will be entrusted in Labour ranks as well as anything of real substance. Cameron will meanwhile benefit as there is a gradual dawning on the voters that nothing has changed.........hence another election will be called early (say after two to three years if not before) as so called "winters of discontent" mount. At that point the Liberals will benefit from cross floor activity from the "Social Democrats" Labourites .....Blair would have been one. At the forthcoming election Labour is extinguished to third party status held for the last 75 years odd by the Liberals.......but a Conservative administration will get in......there will however now be a strong Liberal party as a working concern .......it might even benefit by a move from some ambitious Tory politicians into the Liberal camp .....Cameron however having nailed his flag to the mast, will be compelled to take the Tories into more extreme pasture ........and the Liberals will win the next election with a landslide victory to form their first administration for many a year in 2017.

This I suggest is a far more pragmatic answer to those Brits who are seeking a realistic change to the political canvas and business as usual..... a Liberal party blatantly Centre ....with importantly strong Leadership (Clegg could possibly hold on as a figurehead but very questionable given the likes of Milliband being in his ranks ......forget Cable and the others they are with one or two exceptions deadweight) and Governance.

All this of course presumes that the Liberals are not dumb enough to introduce PR just when their glory days are re-achievable!!

Clairvoyant or too close...........yet so far.........and hopefully the world recognises its vulnerability

2010-01-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

I do not know how to start this, my first blog in 2010. My last title could be seen as a horrible insight into the future ...........A messy party & yet no natural shocks to measure ...........and then just Wait for it.........I would be lying if I said I saw the Haitian Earthquake ........but I was thinking that the world had a Rabbit up its sleeve ....... it was in "knocking mode" and there were bigger strings out there ........and then I could not think exactly what I wanted to say.......and chilled ......... with my friends out here for the New Year.

So now ......what do I say ......well I don't go back to the last blog ...........Messy Party incidentally was reference to the world's current imploding issues.

One of the continuing Beauties of living here is its total removal from reality.......normally I would be more sensitive to Bahamian sentiment ........but it is true ........... for those who wish to think clearly and gather their thoughts in an ever diminishing global cacophony ....Eleuthera is surely it. So close to perceived reality and security in its western conceptual and yet so removed from normality when living the model.

I set this Blog up to both laud why I was here and then give some global perspective to planet earth. I confess however it turned into a rant about US media cant due my perception of their lack of substance (and my proximity to the US media "water boarding techniques"). A New Years resolution .......based also on a better understanding of US "shoes" is to be kinder to Fox anchors and the like.............................and Europeans don't hack the American so called Right ........until you fully appreciate (and that might take a while) that the US President was never intended to govern his or her people ... just fend off foreign interventionists.....and rule the "world"..check the Constitution and its accruels of what is basically 17th & 18th Century British enlightenment thinking.

So today unfortunately I am on the flying saucer watching the world sort out another "big string" but from a warm (as in proximity to the fire) position....the unfolding disaster in Haiti. To be blunt I think the US has done as well as it could .....Obama was on the case the same time as CNN from word go ......but.......the like of the big anchor man of Fox was still talking petty politics only changing to "I might go done there myself.....just to check the money is going in the right place" when he saw his temporary ratings dropping............sorry I broke my resolution.

What does Haiti tell us ..........they say that the slippage of the plate was over due .......but then so is the "big blow at Yellowstone Park ...for the record goes up every 70 Million Years and we are well over that by I am told a Million Years .....but of course it never happens on our watch. So Nature ...."God" for those who must ........... has the upper hand.

Incidentally those who have the benefit of a historical perspective will recognise that this was the first Caribbean Country to have Independence ....... yes .......from the French (they are the ones who helped the US to gain their independence from those interventionist Colonialist Brits and then literally lost their heads in the revolution because the campaign left the country burrassic e.g. broke).....incidentally they the French have had other colonies ........were life has also not been peaceful - Vietnam, and the Gold Coast for instance

But up to date, forgive me I cannot be but "black humoured" by the pull out of Belgian Doctors from a Field Hospital in Port of Prince last night leaving Dr Sanjay Gupta (Oscar Style) ......a truly professional Doctor and Reporter for CNN to fend for himself ..............they choose their anchors well .......but for the Belgians who have pushed the Belgian Congo under the radar......bad publicity ..........I wonder if the new EU President (Belgian) has a view on this ........... a glimpse of their character?. CNN unfortunately can do things armies can't do (see you in WWIII) but recognise we are all not superman, Sanjay and even "Anderson of the 180" .............. when I hear the media say that things are not quite right........ I know just how hard it is to coordinate a beachhead ....... bring back Kenneth Moore ......

Well the bottle is dry, yet my eyes are wet ..............we have more Haitians in the Bahamas they (formally) say they want ....yet they are integral part of what works here ..........they do the sweat stuff .........and the PM Hubert Ingraham has .......... been brave .......... by allowing all those who are here illegally to stay until life returns to normal. On a personal note those we know well have news ......good news their relatives are alive...bad new they are in a field with their homes in rubble ............so ..........for all those who want a special start for 2010 .............. take heart from where you are..... sleeping in a comfortable bed tonight ..... live to fight another day, or your Nemesis.

PJM/16/1/10

A messy party & yet no natural shocks to measure

2009-12-30T19:15:00.001-08:00

Wait for it!!

Its all happening - yet one hardly notices

2009-11-24T17:39:00.000-08:00

I am guilty of having been off air for some time again - but life here has been almost in reverse. The dogs and I have been walking and musing over a life style that could either be prehistoric or post nuclear - this is about as far away from realty life on this island can be. I love it

Yet I am beginning to appreciate that the biggest threat to this Eden is the cultural "trash can" that currently pulls up on our coast. The locals addicted to the idea of Tourism as their passport to the good life (and that is understandable given the lack of industrial creativity encouraged by successive administrations) have bastardised themselves to picking up the Disney "Guys and Chicks" , most of whom use Zimmer Frames to get into the fast lane; these guys have no money and worse will be the first to flee to new sirens without qualms when they appear - Cuba will open within the next five years. Thier contribution consequently is to upgrade the Gamma input in a country that is striving to improve its educational levels.

Meanwhile the world is definitely losing its edge thanks to the Media - imagine a world without radio, TV and Cell phones (any phones) heaven - and oh yes check out Slavlov Zizek while you are about it.

Back from ..........Rehab??

2009-09-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

UK Re-Hab????.................a London Lido when the temperature reached the mid eighties.

Arriving back on Eleuthera....can only be akin to the incredible sense of relief and absolute fulfillment, Conway (him of the Lost Horizon by James Hilton) would have felt on finding his way back to Shangri-La ..........if of course he had he ever done so.

The Island has this wondrous welcome muse of silence, slow, slow ...................slow and smiles ..............slow and sun......slow and deserted beeches....... slow and warm breezes and scents. Have been back to the UK for a while and after virtually three years here without more than a week or so away it was well worth a visit to planet earth to realise why this garden of Eden is so special.........I confess nature's finest elixir required a little bit of rehab to remind the seasoned addict of the great rush when you first inhale ......CAY ELEUTHERA.

Back in the messy world of media politics, whilst reminiscing on the fall out from the second world war some 70 years old this year, a couple of well versed historical sages agreed on Newsnight (a higher ...than some..brow media UK TV editorial) that while the English most definitely and the Russians probably, continue to lack confidence whilst they try to discover their true global identity, a legacy of victory in Europe...........shh shh........ the Americans, apart from continuing to ride a media frenzy that is more partisan than ever, are beginning to show at last the first signs of questioning their unquestioning self belief.......and I am not talking about the Iowa folk.

Warming and Thinking

2009-07-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

At this time of year the sun still scatters its warming rays amongst the waves late into the evening and the sea dutifully laps away at one's body...........there is no one to be seen accept for the sea birds who endeavour to steer you away from their offspring, well hidden but too near for comfort. In fact all across this 'Island of Eden' the birds are currently auditioning for a re-make of Alfred Hitcock's blockbuster, dive bombing anyone who encroaches within their nursery space. The most magnificent are the swallows that woosh past at considerable speed, at head height and only a metre or so away.

For those who have been secretly following my blog but don't want to admit it - you will note that I have been off air for a while. To be honest I guess I have just slipped into an island stupor - induced by a state of bemusement as fault lines are beginning to appear all over the world due a very rational self effacing voice stemming for a change from the USA ........and while not from Alastair Cook's profession, as a observer of his times President Obama is that rare american who appears to fully appreciate the level of intellectual paradox and mental fervour that created his constitution.

Sadly I contend that the majority of americans, if not virtually all, have in the very act of achieving greatness (wealth, advancement and power) and developing their subliminal sense of national superiority lost sight of the thought processes that fed the seeds of their existence. From my experience so many seem to be ignorant or in denial that the Constitution of the United States owes its birth to a partnership between the political, economic and scientific clothing of the British (Scottish) Enlightenment and the spiritual ruderies of the Great Awakening - this paradox of intellectual arbitration is well over the heads of the media. Scotsmen such as Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, William Tennant, Francis Hutcheson, Lord Henry Kames, Benjamin Rush, David Hume, John Witherspoon, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and James Wilson had their five pennies worth either directly or indirectly spliced within this legacy for a 'freer and better' life.

So what is my point. To understand the holistic meaning of the American Constitution - you have to understand what was not written as well as what was written and for that part you need to learn all about the people I have mentioned above and what they actually believed (and there were of course many more players). Fear not I am not going to conduct a history lesson as to how each played an integral part in this process - the fact is the American Constitution itself which americans do factually know was designed to garner not so much consensus, but a human 'freedom park' of religious and civil rights to be overseen by a Head of Federal States who effectively was subjugate to the people. It would be a gross understatement to say it was just cleverly written and legislated to nobble any attempt to restrict or suppress by the top dog, the President despite their revered status, it was simply brilliant 'staff work'..........................hence Obama, rational as he is to the intellectual world, and as disarming as he may be those in the world who despise (and in many instances are equally jealous of) the US.........is perceived at home, especially with his plans to reform the health care system, school reform and the introduction of new fairer tax system , etc, etc., as a threat to this charter for 'eternal' personal freedom .

I confess this is something I did not fully take into consideration when confronted by intelligent opposition to his nomination..........mainly because it was not mentioned by my american adversary but obviously it is endemic to every american's subconscious. The problem however is that any statutory governance built so rigidly around individual and personal freedom is likely to be aligned to the mores and behavioural patterns of its authors..............simply put what was quite rational behaviour in Tomb Stone when the Clancey's where alive is obviously not so acceptable today - yet the right to carry guns is still a constitutional right with appalling consequences.

Obama is striving to make changes which can be portrayed by his opponents as un-american and non-patriotic simply because they are so easily perceived as curbing the individuals rights. However, just taking one aspect of today's global climate - economics - Adam Smith foresaw that excessive greed and profit unfairly distributed could well undermine a free market capitalist system and wrote that in such instances government intervention and a more 'socialist' approach do have a place (not so well known by the majority of americans). Incidentally, I used the word 'socialist' here simply to adhere with the US Right Wing definition of this word which is unrecognisable in the country whose language they use.

My greatest fear is that this lack of intellectual understanding and ancestral mores acting as a block to the establishment of the American Constitution as a true dynamic - irrespective of Obama's personal understanding and possible successes - will lead to America becoming a 'Jurassic Park' not so far removed in its relevance to a positive role in global survival than a fundamentalist Islamic State.

Terns are Mating and Screeching at Scraps - Familiar

2009-05-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

For the past month the beach outside our cottage has been alive with seabirds, mating and pouncing on anything edible they can find - living their nature. Mankind has always perceived itself as being more than a mere animal -whether based on science, religion, intellect..............we believe '..we are because we understand' ................je pense pourquoi je suis'. Yet all the issues that the harbingers of gloom are using as bullets in our global game of Russian Roulette point to man living his nature not engaging his self proclaimed USL.

Warm Zephyrs , the Harm Principle and TV

2009-03-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

For the last few days Southerly winds and cloudless skies have heralded a general warming of the air, edging out the need to slip a fleece on over the shirt and making star gazing as therapeutic as it can be. Meanwhile as Summer approaches the Terns are arriving back to begin their courtship over the beach and vie with the stray dogs over scraps left from our Settlement's weekly 'Fish Fry'.........................but sitting outside on the Porch enjoying the sheer indulgence of such idyllic repose, I can't help feeling a sense of guilt.

Where does this come, well possibly a re-acquaintance with the men of enlightenment and their belief in the basic morality of man (my current 'Scots Invented the World' read). Not that they were against the trimmings of success and material gain, indeed they opened the gates for capitalism. Its just that they opined to such an unfathomable extent and at such an incredible pace that whenever I begin to ruminate on such thinking, I feel I am wasting valuable time not joining their crusade to find global karma.

For those who understand the more interesting aspects of Mill's Harm Principle, I feel this procrastination is an 'omission' and so to fend off my concerns I turn on the TV and put my brain to receive only. Now here is a bonanza for those drawn by John Stuart's list of toxic influences. I would suggest it even merits a Philosophical dissertation ..........."Weigh up the good and bad when considering the invention of the Television as it relates to Mill's 'Harm Principle' in the 21st Century'.'

Cotton Fields and Baby Boomers

2009-03-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just around the corner and down the road from our house amongst the bush, along from the ruins of an old stone cottage one can just make out the perimeter of a small two acre field.........and at this time of year the cotton bushes sprout and out number the crop of jumbie weeds that infiltrate where ever they find vacant grass. Nature repeating itself despite years of neglect.

In reply to a political sparring partner who was bemoaning Obama's rekindling of a new age of enlightenment, I found myself highlighting the neglect of my generation. My reasoning was simple. The natural way of things has been both tangibly altered and totally neglected to the greatest extent since man's evolution by us - Baby Boomers. This is how I put it:

".....................the trouble is like raw communism - raw capitalism has had its day. Both creeds have been bought down by people - human nature - not administrations - e.g. the greed for power and lack of incentive in communist regimes, and the greed for money and material gain in the case of unrestrained capitalism. In an ideal world with ideal people manning it both creeds - whilst at opposites ends of the scale - would work. ............................................................................
.............. if you were to argue that the real culprits of today's woes are ourselves - the developed world's baby boomers then there is the crack

Born in a world with two thirds less people - to a great extent filtered of hate sanitised by two world wars - seeing a tremendous upgrade in material well being - able to use the backdrop of assured annihilation to drop out, be Hippie, love freely ...............................and then as the reality of its artificial security dawns and (perceivably) falls away, becoming more materially minded and lining their pockets for old age - living beyond their means because its so so very easy - giving not for charity but for self aggrandisement and tax breaks ..................WHILE all the time the world outside their immediate space is changing a pace, hours become minutes, minutes become seconds ............and they are not paying a damn to the issues .......like climate change (regardless of human intervention the icecaps are melting) or the growing divergence of wealth ....... a population explosion, etc.,etc., .............but instead they indulge in their children as opposed to teaching them to be responsible, setting standards through their own materially debauched lifestyles that their kids are just so happy to enhance (Coke as opposed to Pot) - losing all sense of historical perspective (the Muslim faith is now exactly the same age as when Christian zealots and the Spanish Inquisition were doing their Christian militant bit so should we be surprised), and making a God of a little box (created by a Scotsman called Baird) that allows low brows to control their minds.............the list is endless.

A generalisation yes and no doubt we can all reason our own path away from this painful prognosis...........but here the cock has crowed more than thrice.

Windy, Warm and Whimsical

2009-02-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

Our old Bahamian Cottage is literally fifty foot from the beach and with the West South Westerly winds, the Sound is choppy and turning that incredible azure colour that visitors just marvel at. We live on the L'ward side of the island and so luckily avoid the cooler North Easterly winds that can prevail for several days at this time of year- of course it is all relative and if you have just left the wintry chill of Europe or anywhere North (our winter 'sometime' neighbours are Canadian) it can feel warm anywhere, including swimming in the Atlantic which until May or June is a No No for us, and the dogs. The wind today being from the South is however nice and warm and so here I am tapping away at my Laptop and staring at a priceless sight. A couple of Casuarina's whistling at occasional wisps of cloud that ride the clear blue skies, waves scuffing the stones littering the beach at low tide and leaving the sand to dry out white, a fisherman's sun and salt distressed dinghy outboard half cocked anchored close by, while in the distance like another deserted island, the other side of this glorious Sound we live on.

A couple of weeks back a friend who knew me to be Scottish gave me a book - entitled 'How the Scots Invented the Modern World' and although I have only just started reading it I am already intrigued to learn just how many well known intellects were Scots when History portrays them as Americans, Canadians etc., - just because they lived there in their later lives. Like so many British 'patents' - it seems so many distinguished Scots where invented on the Sceptred isle but credited to the New World.

Meandering on Windemere and musing on Murdoch

2009-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

The other day I was meandering on Windermere, musing about Murdoch and watching the Egrets circling overhead.

Windermere is a small Cay enjoined to the mainland of Eleuthera by a bridge which hosts Old and New money in an array of variously decked Beach Front 'manors'. Royal watchers will recall Prince Charles and Diana spent some of their honeymoon there in Charles's Uncle's retreat, while a past US President's family has cottages there. So while my wife discussed 'snagging lists' (a restorer's term) with a contractor friend, I took the dogs for a stroll down the rustic lanes that circumvent this secluded haven and wind their way inextricably to the Windermere Club ……….. echoes of a British surmise.

Returning to Charles and Diana and the very public 'soap' they so tragically got swept up into - I found myself pondering how much the media desperately needs and feeds on drama - like vampires live off blood - tragedies, wars, disasters, inaugurations, assassinations, "celebs" doing bad, "celebs' doing good, political stalemate ....…..the list is endless providing is either extreme, black or white, and avoids boring us, the ''demented mugs' who pay their wages………. no place for steady as she goes, we agree, we are living in peace, oh and by the way this celeb is behaving normally ……..!!".

Why is this so relevant now - will just look at the under currents of skepticism and downright negativism flowing through the veins of the US news media. The so called right and left mainstream newsrooms appear to be sniffing around for anybody or anything that smells of political fragmentation in an administration that has not even reached first base. Their perceived portent the spreading of BP……… not the oil company but something less tangible and far more likely to cause a News blight e.g. Bi-Partisanship. Could a grey cloud of rational objectivity rise up from the ashes of raw capitalism as with communism and the extremes of political ideology become blurred? A third way - what a bummer - compromise, cooperation etc., and hell, a media slump.

Nowhere of course is this more overt than at Fox News (now enjoying underdog political privilege) where Murdoch (a self confessed political tart) recognizes Partisanship as the means to maintain and possibly boost his ratings. Fox's primary audience, as with several news media in the US is virtually preordained, but with specious strap lines that claim fair and factual coverage and the placement of 'common sense' lowbrows (their words not mine) to enjoin the $10M Irish 'Pub' orator - Murdoch is stealthily shuffling his cards to re-engineer a return to fifty fifty politics - the polarised society, President Obama has set out to dismantle. Bad for the US and worse for the World but great for the Aussie's Billy Can ............then again out here I can always look up and see Egrets flying in the clear blue skies - j'y suis et j'y reste.

A chill wind for 'Obama' Week

2009-01-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

These last few days have been noticeably chilly - with both the wind and rain adding to the rare need to unwrap that sweater or fleece that has sat idle in the dark recess of one's wardrobe for the past year. The rain however is welcome at all times by flora who leave in its wake such an abundance of colour to delight a Fauvist's pallett,

Meanwhile back in Washington the unthinkable has happened - a rational individual from the generation once removed from the 'baby boomers' - who just happens to be black - but has a middle name of Hussein has taken on the role of a perceived global saviour. Yet even as he boldly goes about his promised reformation of US governance and foreign policy - the media sense the opportunity such audacity places at their avaratic door. It struck me that during this economic storm - the one theatre that does not seem to be suffering is the media - what if all the media had a global hand out day - all proceeds for one day's News TV and radio, including the live presenter's wages handed over to their host nation's government. Trouble is even if practical they would never agree for the greed that pervades some in this parasitical circle would make the Wall Street 'boys' look almost philanthropic.

Another Stunning Day in Paradise whilst Israel does an 'Adolf' on Global Opinion

2009-01-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today has been one of the most perfect I can remember on the island - virtually no clouds or humidity, very little wind, a warm, very warm sun gathering in its winter shadows that remind us we are still in the Northern Hemisphere, and a clear, very clear horizon which grows as you climb the hill overlooking our settlement. Meantime a German friend who left the island this morning goes back to Arctic conditions but with a postscript I promised I would write for her.

While she is horrified at what is going on in Gaza, she is also aware of the difficulties her Aerian roots create when dealing with the deep seated cultural neuroses that exist in the Jew's historical 'pendant'. Back in the UK, the likes of Tony Benn, Annie Lennox etc., evade the real roots of a conflict so embedded in the above and limit their emotional response to the current reality of the Jews bent on permanently eliminating all Palestian opposition to their cuckoo's nest (which incidentally we British had a little bit to do with!) and their opponents using innocent civilians as cannon (propaganda) fodder.

However the deafening silence that pervaded Europe in the 1930s (and for so many years before) over the anti-semitism so openly paraded in Bavarian cloisters prior to Hitler's final solution should not discounted from the Israeli equation.

White faces in paradise while American's warm up to Inclusivity

2008-12-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

Could this island be busier - despite cries of 25% less arrivals - there appears to be more white faces around - probably encouraged to investigate our gem by now withdrawn adverts in the Conde Nast collections for local developments which are now most definitely on the backburner.
One things for sure the silver lining of a diminishing gold rush of would be investors, is the retention of a platinum lifestyle - acres of untouched island and deserted beaches.

Meantime BO (not necessarily the way Barrack Obama would wish to be anachronised) has just upset his gay supporters by inviting a non supporting critic of single sex relationships to do the evangilist bit at his inauguration) - but wait just a tiny little moment - this is surely the reality of inclusivity......................but then again american english is not the true Oxford as my father used to say.

Wild horses in Narnia.

2008-12-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took the dogs for a walk on the overgrown farm road where our friends who froze their .... off (see "London freezes .........) live when here. Its the old Woodprince - big name in Chicago - ranch where some one thousand head of Charleroi cattle and three hundred and fifty odd horses strutted their stuff in the mid 1900s. It all ended around the nineteen seventies but some animals escaped shipment (or sadly worse). Today there are left just a very few cattle, hardly seen, and possibly up to three dozen horses roaming around in the wild, and since they are now wild the latter have mostly resorted into two or three herds with stallions guarding their mares and foals with their instinctively traditional blend of caution and bravado. Wonderful to watch if you can find them, but a huge problem for what is left of a small local farming community whose mangoes and bananas have become part of their staple diet.

For me however the greatest thrill about walking on this old farmland is the feeling that you have been their before - this Bush divided by a variety of trees marking out what used to be fields, including the twisting knots of a mile long row of magnificent Banyan trees - still provides paths through which one can stroll, lapping up what I suppose are Narnian instincts of childhood walks in the woods of the English countryside.

Yet here we are circa the Tropic of Cancer - this island is simply the best!

London freezes while warming winds fan the tan but not in Athens

2008-12-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

I don't believe it - a heap of bulldozed dirt and bush blocking the track to White Beach, one of the many untouched gems of natural sand strewn treasures that abound the length of our Island. On the west side (the leeward side) of this Isle of Freedom there is a tarmac road, named (in deference to a previous national landlady) the Queen's Highway. On the east, the Atlantic side, however there was just this old overgrown track which land owners and surveyors have recently cleared to sow their markers. Presumably they are hoping that despite all the developments on the island on hold or worse, they can still sell their plots to desperate savers looking to turn liquid nothing into Terra Firma .

The good thing about this clearance is they have recreated a three mile track road through the bush - passing all types of verdant scrub, trees including the whistling Casuarinas and Silver top palms, the odd lake, ponds, egrets, herons, sea eagles - and for the dogs the waft of myriad scents. All this while the distant sounds of the sea clash with what are locally called blackbirds, yet apart from being black, look more like parrots and similarly screech warnings of your approach. So on Sunday here we where, the dogs and I taking in the cloudless skies, the sun and and the embracing warmth of southerly winds - walking and re-booting the tan. Meantime - on the same day in London our good friends who also have a house on the island were freezing their .... off pushing their one year old daughter around the frozen ponds of Regent's Park. So where would you rather be?

Well how about Athens. Yesterday whilst gazing out over the azure waters of our Sound, I found myself musing over the media coverage of the riots taking place there. My issue was their hackneyed use of it being the birth of democracy. For those of us whose history lessons included just a little substance and enjoy being contradictory - it would be fair to argue that far from being a Democracy the Ancient Greek form of governance could equally well be labeled the blueprint for facism and communism e.g. authoritarian regimes - with its three distinct tiers - the rulers or ruler (the Oligarchy) - the brown shirts, thugs, party leaders etc., (the fores) and the masses (the plebs) - the idea that it was benign sprung more from the awakening of perceived liberal rational thought and discussion amongst the rulers, for as Socrates and Plato both learned to their cost when taken too far was as feared then as it is today. Yet here we have the media brandishing such strap lines as street fighting under the very pillars (the Parthenon) of democracy.

Whilst mentioning these two ancient sages one should point out that it was they, in fact Plato, who first picked up on the greatest of media fault lines - namely the stuttering, spluttering yet wise expert stood little chance against the well versed well kitted out fool - and this well before the expediter of today's mental numbing - our TV - included the aberrations of full facial nudity.

No Athens may not be the place to be right now but over a couple of millennium years or so ago it would have been cool to be a citizen with all your wealth, power, servants and the reassuring belief that you were being democratic.

Blue Skies, Obama and Plato

2008-11-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

Another lovely day in paradise - hardly a cloud in the sky - a perfect day to take the dogs for a walk on the pink sands that abound the Atlantic shores and contemplate on how the US media is falling over itself to cope with a new kid on the block who brings with him a rare presidential gift - Platonic Oligarchic Tendencies.

Out Islander

2008-11-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

After four years of silence, save to an unfortunate family and friends - Out Islander is coming out the closet to extol the virtues of living on an idyllic island away from the madding crowds, inhabited by especially friendly people yet with - for the most part - all the conveniences of modern life. Yet as a place for objective thinking whilst walking on miles of deserted beaches and the ditching of background 'clutter', it provides a perfect base for rational thinking and where appropriate criticism of a fast changing consumer world - welcome to the world of Out Islander