A poem

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A Walk in the Woods

 

I walk in wonder through the wood

Like some great temple, moist and still,

Bid fair to meet some forest god,

Or spirit of the Spring’s new growth,

Maybe perched upon a bough

Or peeping round some mossy root.

“Do you, good stranger, come I peace

Or will you jar our ageless calm?”

 

The May shower ended, and humid air

Hangs lank and languorous in the awakened wood.

Odours of peat, decaying leaves,

Are soft and wasted under foot.   (TURN)

 

In churches bells hang high on towers,

But in this holy, pagan place

A million bells in violet blue

Have carpeted the wildwood floor.

They burst upon the woodscape, and then

Glory done, can rest a year

No temple architect can match

This bluebell sea in stone or tile.

 

The May shower ended, and humid air

Hangs lank and languorous

In the awakened wood.

Odours of peat, decaying leaves,

Are soft and wasted underfoot.

 

Like ancient pillars of a nave

The grey-green beeches, smooth and clean

Hold up on high a canopy

A  trembling green and yellow shade.

But of a sudden sun breaks through

And dissipates the lingering cloud.

Shaftlets of light dapple the bark,

And raindrops shimmer on the leaves.

 

The May shower ended, and humid air

Hangs lank and languorous

In the awakened  wood.

Silent I tread where many more have trod

But never meet my forest god.

An unsuspected love of animals

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A man dressed up as a dog took part in the Dog Day celebration in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on 25 April.

Turkmenistan’s leader (a Soviet leftover) has already written an ode to the country’s celebrated and extremely large national dog, the Alabai, and built a gilded monument to it. But now the country has gone further, introducing a new national holiday dedicated to the dog, with the first holiday taking place on Sunday. It featured a contest to find the best Alabai dog, a courage award to a border service dog, and a race.  (https://i.guía.co.u.k.).

My comment: My wife and I  visited Turkmenistan years ago (she on business).  The alabái dog must be the only living thing going for the country. I wandered around Ashgabat, the souk and so on, talking to the locals.  All of them ( I mean all of them) wanted to get out of the place.  The only good thing was that they dressed me up as a very imposing medieval Turkmen chieftain, and I had my photo taken, sans camel. Alas, I could do nothing for the benighted Turkmen themselves.

Vaccine “diplomacy”

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Discomfort among European leaders this week after Joe Biden’s surprise proposal of a temporary patents waiver to boost the supply of Covid vaccines for poorer countries. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission boss, said the EU was open to the idea, but at a summit in Porto,  Germany and France gave it a cool reception. They may have a point about US and UK exports (or lack of them) being the real issue but with his move Biden appears to have put the US on the moral high ground about getting the world vaccinated, and Europe on the spot.  (The Guardian 12 May , 2021)

My comment: The advantages enjoyed by the “advanced” countries in terms of fighting covid results in an acute moral problem.  I believe that Epicurus would want as much equity in the fight against covid as possible. The stories coming out of India should make the most hard-hearted wince and squirm.   We should be shipping vaccines to all such countries and, this once at least, ignore the corruption and authoritarianism emerging in so many of them (including India). One way of fighting this authoritarianism is to set an example of no-strings-attached generosity.   What you give comes back to you eventually.

An attack on arts education funding

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The U.K. government is facing a backlash from some of the country’s most prominent artists and writers after revealing plans to slash funding for higher education arts courses by 50%.

The budget cuts follow a six-week consultation by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and the Office for Students, the independent regulator for higher education in England, that found arts education subjects were not “strategic priorities”.

The budget cuts may come into effect during the 2021-22 academic year. Other proposals include increased funding for courses “identified as supporting the NHS”, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The reduction in funding, which would affect performing and creative arts, media studies and archaeology courses, has been described by the  Public Campaign for the Arts as “catastrophic” and “an attack on the future of UK arts”.

A petition opposing the cuts, launched on 5 May by the arts lobbying group, describes the reduction in funding as “a targeted attack on arts subjects” and has received more than 56,000 signatures.

“Artists and curators” are also “urging the government to reconsider” The Art Newspaper adds that the “truly appalling cuts to arts subjects will further divide society”.  And Booker prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other author Bernardine Evaristo wrote on Twitter that “this tin-pot chumocratic government has its priorities all wrong”, adding: “An absurd £37 bn on the failed Test & Trace, unlawfully awarded, now this awful assault on the arts in universities.”  (The Guardian 10 May 2021).

My comment: I have a degree in Modern History from a major British university.  I learned more about human nature, motivations and man management from the brilliant tutors than I learned later from business school. History turned out to be a boon when I found myself with 120 employees, a load of disgruntled customers and a bank threatening foreclosure within six months.  Handling all this proved successful – staff happy, company reputation with customers in due course excellent, debt reduced. Please excuse the self-interested bit of praise, but I owed it principally to modern history!   Man cannot live by technology alone.

A side-effect of Brexit

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Thousands of British citizens in France have been left without a valid driving licence, or face losing theirs within months, because of bureaucratic overload and the failure of the two countries’ governments to sign a post-Brexit reciprocal agreement.

“I’d say there are 3,000 who are seriously worried – for whom this has really become nightmarish,” said Kim Cranstoun, who moved permanently to France three years ago. “Commuters risk losing their jobs, tradespeople can’t work, elderly people have missed medical appointments. Many British people in France live in quite remote, rural areas, with little or no public transport. Some are thinking of moving back to the UK. It’s quite desperate.”

The French government announced late last year that, as a consequence of Brexit, British residents of France would need to exchange their UK licences for French ones, and would have until 31 December 2021 to apply to do so.

Short-term visitors and tourists in France can continue to use British licences.
However, those applying to exchange their licences since January have had their requests systematically rejected by a new French online system, known as ANTS, on the grounds that no reciprocal licence agreement is yet in place between the UK and France.
Driving in France without a valid licence can result in a fine of up to €15,000 (£12,808), while taking the French driving test instead of swapping licences entails mandatory lessons and a daunting French-language theory exam, at a cost of about €1,800.

Government sources suggest a UK-France reciprocity agreement is “close to being sealed”, but not there yet. The problem has been compounded by administrative overloads at the centres in Nantes and Paris that processed earlier paper exchanges, but became swamped by more than 100,000 applications during 2018 as a possible no-deal Brexit loomed.   This prompted France to drastically limit applications by decreeing, in April 2019, that UK driving licences were valid for as long as Britain was an EU member, and requesting holders not to try to exchange their licences unless they were expiring or lost. It seems that UK licences “will continue to be recognised in France until 31 December 2021”, but the rules for exchanging  licences have not been confirmed

Many Britons duly waited until after the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020 to begin the process, and now find themselves with licences that have expired and are unable even to start exchanging them.
“People followed both governments’ instructions, and are now being punished through no fault of their own,” said Cranstoun. “This is having a massive impact, on working people and pensioners. Unless it’s sorted, we’ll have to take French tests.”. (Jon Henley Europe correspondent, The Guardian, Tuesday, 30 March 2021)

My comment:  The EU is not about to make it easier to leave the bloc.  We knew this years ago, and I personally, sympathize with the French.  So the French driving may be scary, but their test is exhaustive, by reputation.  You might have no choice, fellas.  Blame the Brexiteers.