New Pioneers of Old Frontiers

I really wish I'd said it first, I really, really do. Really! But I didn't, and what's worse is that I heard it first during a popular TV drama. Even worse than this, on American TV- that is of the US of A- those who, so often in the broadcasting of such 'opinions', seek not to address the issue 'confronted' but rather to hide the bigger problems behind nothing more substantial than a glitzy facade of freedom.

So exactly what was it that I wish I'd said first? And by 'first' I really mean first, as in at that perfect moment, launched into the air at that exquisitely judged moment of honed perfection, in order to really nail the argument. To really knock the stuffing out of some sanctimonious git! It would be a shame to waste such a thought upon less than a substantial audience, or, at the very least, a long-time nemesis. The wisdom, of which I write, was, "And so would slavery," proffered in response to the claim that abolishing the minimum wage would create jobs.

The US TV programme in question is really almost irrelevant; more than likely the programme nabbed the idea from somewhere else entirely. Even if the line was original, as seems highly unlikely given all of the great speakers in the world, it wouldn't have been the light-bulb-moment of one astute character, it would have been the creation of a team of script writers, the result of hours of bouncing ideas off of one another in order to create maximum effect, hardly the spontaneous line of judged perfection, which was, 'naturally,' how it was presented upon the TV.

Thankyou Teo's photo

I don't think, for the merest second, that I'm the first person to have been impressed by something spoken upon the 'silver' screen; I know for certain that I'll not be last. There are just so many words out there, strung together in such perfect fashion as to appear, at times, to almost undermine some of the greatest speeches ever to have been penned and delivered.

Of course, historians and others would be quick to point out that great wisdoms and speeches are invariably best judged to be great in the context within which they are delivered. These same people might also go on to correctly argue that any speech or line delivered in a fictitious context cannot realistically be judged 'great', not historically great at any rate. Perhaps the best that Hollywood (and not just Hollywood) can ever hope to achieve is simply to accurately repeat already historically great speeches.

And really, we should endeavour to keep this ever in mind. As I've already written, 'there are so many words out there'. If we are to become dazzled and less discerning as a result of such a bombardment- how many TV channels are there now?- we could even find ourselves judging the world's most significant historical moments according to the fiction of Hollywood.

I realise that this might, on the surface, appear a tad alarmist, but have you ever sat and listened to people talking on the bus, as they perhaps piece together their latest gleaned wisdom? Have you ever sat and pondered the puzzling growth in the number of 'significant' US citizens who appear in all sorts of supposedly-historically-accurate Hollywood blockbusters? Perhaps during a Hollywood-recreated-moment in which you thought, until this moment, that no US citizen had even been present?

Thankyou bandarji

It would be a shame, would it not, to see historical reenactment going the way of a significant bite of the music industry? All of those once great songs that are, perhaps, beginning to grate ever such a tiny bit, as they are rehashed yet again, by Simon Cowell's latest aspiring, "I've dreamt of this moment all of my life!" teenager. I realise, of course, that this is just a tiny blip in the larger music world- and thank the lord above!- but the blip seems to be growing, like some form of aggressive and inoperable tumour. A dark, dark shadow upon the latest x-ray of the music industry, as joyfully presented by prime-time TV and radio.

History, quite apart from it's huge academic credentials, should be important to everyone; an informed electorate, imagine that! Imagine a country served by politicians elected by people desperate not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We'd quite literally be rewriting history, we'd certainly be heading in a vastly different direction, with vastly different people at the helm. Vastly!

And, it's so darned easy to write people into history, isn't it? But, it's altogether different hoping to scrub them- the mistakes- out again. Hitler... Stalin... Thatcher... Which is why we should endeavour not to keep repeating the same mistakes, time and time again.

I'd be right, of course, in assuming slavery to have been much more of a mistake than a benefit to society, wouldn't I? I'd also venture to assume that I'm right in having spotted a not too tenuous link between slavery and the abolition of the minimum wage.

See, just because it's been secreted within American TV, it doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be a few choice cherries worth picking.

      

Butterflies

Remember that awful sinking feeling, perhaps brought on through a fleeting moment's ill-considered actions? Or else, maybe, something entirely different, this time the result of an action fully beyond your means to control? Butterflies, in the pit of your stomach!

But why 'butterflies'; why such ephemeral and exquisite creatures, conjured magnificently from the evolutionary process? On the one hand such shimmering and iridescent perfection, bouncing almost weightlessly upon the merest whisper of a summer's breeze, on the other that stomach-churning sensation of falling, that we equate with absolute dread. In whose mind was it first thought to equate such disparate phenomenon?

So, while we're on the subject of butterflies, a short while back I thought I'd do my bit to help the UK to reassess the status of it's various butterfly populations. At this juncture, I feel it might be prudent to just briefly explain to anyone of similar outlook to that of 'our' Minister for Wildlife and Biodiversity- such a grand title, don't you think?- approximately what, and more precisely how significant, a butterfly might prove to be. It is doubtful, although not entirely beyond belief, that Richard Benyon has ever spared the time to atomise such an 'insignificant' creature, with anything selected from his vast array of hunting paraphernalia. Thus, in his 'mind', a butterfly might barely be acknowledged to significantly exist; perhaps merely as nature's 'litter' that might intermittently happen to distractingly tumble across the cross-hairs of his latest 'toy', as he prepares to obliterate any from the vast array of larger 'targets' on offer.

Butterflies, for there are many species, are invertebrates, insects with the gift of flight in fact, of the order Lepidoptera, so are relatively small compared to say an averagely-sized British mammal, or hunter's more traditional target. These extraordinary creatures are coated with microscopic scales, and it is these scales that give them such an exciting scope of iridescences, patterns and colourings, deepest obsidian blacks through to the most vibrant of primaries. In turn, the evolutionary purposes of the butterfly are also diverse. Some have evolved intricate symbiotic relationships with other invertebrates. All act as pollinators, some to a vast array of plant species, relying, in turn, upon some of these plants in order to sustain their own species. During their four-stage life cycle they may be beneficial to, or rely upon, entirely different creatures or plants at any of these four distinctive stages, therefore can be said to have an entirely interwoven relationship with their environment. Butterflies may, thus, legitimately be regarded as also an indicator of wider concerns within a given environment. Oh, and of course, they are exquisitely beautiful.

Thankyou Thiophene_Guy

It is most frequently their exquisite, almost radiant, beauty that plays the largest role in drawing our collectively-subjective attention towards their mere existence. Best not to overly analyse this pathway, lest it lead us down that dark alleyway to things theological, or worse, creationism. So let's quickly close the door upon that nonsense and move swiftly onwards and upwards. Biodiversity, it's right up there, along with the planet's very best attributes. It's even, arguably, what a fictitious Creator would have wanted.

Thus, on to my own tiny part in the national butterfly survey. Obviously selecting an appropriately warm and sunny day- something of a scarcity of late- I set out to count numbers and note species within a small area of local countryside, passing, en route, several voluminous buddleia plants, all in full and fragrant bloom. Perhaps these should have served as early warning to that which I had already had ample cause to suspect, as every single 'butterfly bush' that I passed had yawned alarmingly vacantly into the warming day.

Naturally, wholly focused, and recognising the simple scientific premise behind the planned survey, I was not to be distracted from my task.

Nevertheless, and despite these somewhat prophetic forewarning signs, I still found myself to be more than a tad deflated at the end of my stipulated survey time. That is not to say that I had come home empty-handed, figuratively speaking. Of course there were butterflies in evidence, there were even limited numbers of such, yet my survey notes and those of several consequent follow-up observations are of 'interest' far more through an absence of species than for any other reason. For those with an eye and a mind for nature I have to report that even Peacock and Brimstone were completely absent from my survey tally, only a single Small Tortoiseshell was noted and as for the Wall Brown, which I once used to almost take for granted as a regular garden butterfly, this will be merely the latest in a significant run of years that I have failed to connect with a single specimen. Not a big positive tick in the Biodiversity box then?

Thankyou to georgeeustice

So, a heavy-handed lob back into your court, Mr Benyon, Minister for Wildlife and Biodiversity. In his area of appointed 'expertise', what thinks 'our' relevantly-portfolioed minister? And here the problem becomes crystal clear, for in Richard Benyon lies not any form of reassuring answer but instead an alarming series of questions, all of which present themselves as burgeoning problems, of which Mr Benyon himself is rather a large and intransigent one. And, altogether of far greater concern, he's just one of many port-droopy-faced-inept problems with which 'our' nation is currently saddled.

Minister for Wildlife and Biodiversity implies, does it not, such a fascinating wealth of possibility, knowledge and understanding? Yet, it would appear that 'our' Mr Cameron has picked his cabinet ministers entirely like that bully and his best mate in the playground used to pick sides for the lunchtime scrap of something akin to football.

Remember, if you will, those other butterflies in the pit of your stomach, as you waited with dread to discover which lowly level of acceptance you might be afforded during this particular lunchtime, as you witnessed the 'conforming' lesser bullies gathering before you, wondering if you would be deemed worthy of any form of recognition at all; teams selected entirely upon the whims of Junior-already-Top-Dog and his inner circle of thugs. The rules where ever a mystery, were they not, certainly not requiring any evident aptitude for the task. Maybe, you perhaps thought, tomorrow's dinner money might purchase a single day's respite.

And again to Thiophene_
Guy

I would suppose that this situation might be symptomatic of the divide with which various factions in the good ol' UK have 'embraced' the Olympics. Oh, how some of those memories from the old school yard stick with us and perhaps define who we might eventually transpire to become. With time the butterflies might gradually diminish but, by then, another tiny yet significant tweak to who we are may already have covertly asserted itself. And, now that we are older (and wiser?) we find ourselves at liberty to 'appreciate' both aspects of the butterflies' demise, care, in the most significant instance, largely of 'individuals' like Mr Benyon.

If only t'were the one indicator, that's currently giving 'our' government a huge drowning-not-waving thumbs down, in all things environmental. Check any of these out- it's really Richard's job but, clearly he's far too preoccupied to care or bother:
a dramatic drop in farmland bird populations such as that of the skylark,
or starving seabird colonies around the UK coastline,
or the decline of the eel in inland waters,
or the serious continued northward retreat of our native red squirrel,
or the depopulation of the UK's remaining woodlands.

I really could go on; it's not difficult to reel out these concerns, there are so many to choose from. I could almost do it in my sleep. And depressingly, this could be taken as an oblique reference to the manner in which Richard Benyon is 'operating'. If he were asleep on the job things might actually be a shade brighter, at least he wouldn't be playing such an active role in Bio-un-diversifying our planet! Just a thought, but was young Richard, in his role as Minister for Wildlife and Biodiversity, keen to take up a pro or an anti stance in 'our' government's attempt to sell off so much of our native woodlands? And I only offer this as an example.

The damage that one bully and his cerebrally-challenged mates might cause in the playground, of course, is infinitely less than, for example, the havoc that such a gang in charge of a country might wreak. "Georgie boy, Chancellor? Dave, fancy a crack at Universities and Science? What about you, Eric, Communities and Local Government? How about a play with Education, Mike? Chris, you're Energy and Climate Change and, Andy, what d'you fancy? Health? Rich, as it's your ball, you can have a go at Wildlife and Biodiversity." What could possibly go wrong?

Richard Benyon, Minister for Wildlife and Biodiversity, hobbies, shooting, brandy and rich food, it would appear has about as much grasp upon the finer points of Biodiversity as any number of school yard bossers. Perhaps, the very last, possibly the only invertebrate, that 'our' Rich has been able to positively identify, in his vastly copious backyard- currently also in the process of being environmentally trashed- is Nick Clegg. That is if young Nick isn't still saving his dinner money up, in the desperate hope of being permitted to play his own part in this environmental trashing process.