Little and large

24 July

And so, after two days I have booted-up me ‘puter. No reasons really for not doing so earlier really, just feeling very tired again. Actually, I’m not all that bright either, but two days not doing so is enough. Even so, a number of items on telly have caught my eye; here’s the first one …

A Panorama programme sent a British Jew to Jerusalem to investigate the Jew/Arab problem there, and if a train the Jews have built is helping or hindering things. The problem as I saw is that the line was built on Arab lands and yet runs nowhere near the Arabs now once the land owners have been moved off. It struck me that neither side will actually talk about the real issues. All they want to talk about is how badly they are being treated by the other side, claiming that they are only responding to attacks from the other side.

I’ve seen something similar in Cyprus where the Greeks and Turks blamed each other for what happened in the 1970s. The Greeks point to a Turkish attack on a bar near Limassol but say nothing about the Turkish villages and shepherds and their folks that went missing in various places. The Turks of course point the villages and shepherds but refuse to listen to the claims of the bar attack. And so it goes on. Top and bottom of it all is the centuries of hatred and mistrust between the different cultures and beliefs. That needs to be dealt with before anything else can be sorted.

It’s all well and good for me to sit here and point a finger at the eastern Med area and claim it doesn’t happen here in the UK. But it does; the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Ulster ran along similar lines for a long time. This time it was Catholics and Protestants falling out. And here’s a thought; look at the numbers involved in all three situations mentioned here. One of the groups has the largest population, the Jews in that area are not as numerous as the Arabs around them; there are more Greek Cypriots than Turkish one; and finally the Prots outnumber the Catholics in Ulster. Moving on then …

A few years ago we went to London for the day and Jan was looking forward to seeing the crown jewels. However, we didn’t get in and I was really annoyed at the huge great queues to get into the Tower in the first place. At one point I walked to the front to find what the holdup was. It was all down to people being asked to gift aid their admission fees. Those who would were then asked to fill out a form there and then. The results were the long queues.

Now come up to date on this. The government is reducing support for the arts and museums and a number of local museums have already brought in an admission charge. Can you see where I’m going with is? How long will it take for the queues to begin building up, not long I suggest. Not only that, it won’t be long before some of the more niche museums beginning to fold because of the lack of support. It’s all down the tory doctrine of not getting anything for nothing.

Today’s photo … 

Hogwarts Castle, one place you already have to pay to see.

Today’s funny …

The next important person was Noah. He was a really good guy, but one of his kids was a Ham. Noah built a big boat in his back yard and put his family and a lot of animals in it. He asked his neighbours to join them, but they said they would have to take a rain check.