It Rained

It Rained

Not news to many, no doubt, but last week we had the first rain since Christmas day. I had already been watering the pots and ground out front to encourage the bulbs I planted last atumn to get going, h first time I have watered at this time of the ear. Anyway, many bulbs are now in flower , ound 20 crocus across theroad ans a large pot of daffodils on top of my porch. I’ve also created a barrrier of stones across the road to keep the compost I’ve dumped there in place and so that water doesn’t simply run off into the road. It’s still too early to remove the ttissue protecting pots from cold nights and see what has survived so that is about as much as I can do at the mment.

How We Think And A Marking Experience

When I was quite young, 26 years ols, I became a member of a NATO think -tank through a series of accidents and coincidences. It was the 1968 meeting that coined the term software engineering and had some renown in the evoluyion of computing. I should never have been there but benefitted enormously from the experience. However I was by about 15 years the most junior and the east qualified ; everybody else was either a professor of maths or engineerig or a head of research at a mjor company so it occurred to me to wonder what I was doing there ; what could I offer. I ventured to ask the question and as told that I was a catalyst : I made others think in ways that they would not normally think.

That experience marked me. In a subsequent job, trying to identify interesting IT projects around the World, it brought me into contact with many leading lights in IT and while I pondered on what they knew and did what most intrigued me was the train of thought that had brought them to where they were. What was their framework for thinking ? That intrigued me because I had become accustomed to how mathematicians and engineers would typically approach a problem but many of these people had added something else, something « out of the box ». What I sought was less to understand what they were doing and more to understand how they had got there, to get inside theeir minds.

That itrigues me still. The more I understand about science ; physics in particular, about the weather and politics and many other things, the more I understand the huge complexity that has yet to be unravelled and which can probably only be done so in way that we have not yetur thoght of.. Ouvery culture from which we can escape only with extreme difficulty, conditions us to view the world in predetermined ways. Does Asian music sound discordant to weestern ears ? How does western music sound to Asian ears ? How can Sanskrit symbols or Egyptian hieroglyphs be tranlated into precise European words ? They can’t. The answer is interpretation, a way of thinking, a way of looking at what we believe is reality.

It’s athought, and just that, but maybe the most important thing for the future is to discover how people think and not to use that but to cget them hallenge it.

 

CCapitalism Abd Democracy

Capitalism And Democracy

My strating point is what we can rely on as most unlikely to change. Economically I think that we can assume that the world will be driven by capitalism in one form or another. Poylitically it will be driven by democray in one form or another or dictatorships. To think in terms of dictatorships would be to think in terms of almost ineviable war and destrcution of everything, including the human race. So wehave to hope for democracy and the model to follow I think is in Scandinavia.

If we examine the Scaninavian counries they all embrace capitalism and democracy with some differencies in how they do it but all do it in ways that that avoid extremes of wealth/poverty and political exremes. The tndancies to these exremes exist within them but are restricted to a large extent. The other, less obviously political etremes , are wealth and poverty which, if extreme, tend towards political ewtremes. So these too need to be factored in.

So the force against xhich democracy and capitalism have to fight is communism which, in practice if not in heory, appears to rely on dictatorship whilst promising if not necessarily delivering equitable wealth distribution. So, if we wnt democracy we have to have capialism. The question the is: what kind of capitalism?

One example of an extreme form of capitalism can be found in the USA, which has some of the wealthiest people in the world and also some of the most deprived iamong developed countries. Other countries with in the economicqlly developed orld mitigate against the extremes of capitalism in various ways, to a larger or smaller extent. It’s a question of wh has got the best balance and my bet is that the Scaninavian countries have achieved that. Wealth generated by capitalism appears to be more equitably shred in these countries which have, amongst contempories, both higher employee earning and higher taxes, both anathrma to pure capitalism. Isn’t there a lesson to be learned there?

 

Update

 

Update

I have noticed that I haven’t updated thi blog for some time and I need to add something. The problem is that not much happens here during the winter and that is accentuated by by the COVID restrictions. Nonetheless there are a fewthings worth recording.

Christmas and the new year ere quietly enjoyable, as I would have wished them. I went to friends Steve and Jo for lunch on Christmas day and, with other friends invited, had a good lunch and pleasant time. On Boxing day I invited Steve, Jo and jean-Claude and had the same. The village was lit by it’s customary blue and white lights, an obvious connection with a Chelsea supporter (see photo).. To celebrate the new year I took Steve and Jo to the St Hubert restaurant in Entrechaux and again had a very good meal and good company. All this went as expected and was quietly enjoyable. There is, it must be admitted, at me age the sad corollary of having to wonder at the fate of those who haven’t replied to Christmas greetings.

 So what else is there to report? One thing that struck me through my interview for French nationality, and which has stayed with me, is the French dfinition of «fraternité» in their holy trinity of «liberté, égalité,, fraternité». Fraternité is paying the taxes decreed because the money is used for, amiong other things, paying for public services which benefit everyone. The underlying theme is that the better off help the less well off. In particular taxes pay for the health service, which has remained at a very high standard here despite the strain put on it by COVID.

There is a strong sense of coillectivity in France, contributed to by the fact that their are very many small enterprises, particularly in agriculture. Small holdings need mechanisation sometimes but can’t afford it individually so cooperatives are everywhere, jointly purchasing mechanisation for shared use. Fraternité chime with solidarité explains the strength of unions in France. Contrast that with free market forces and devil take the hindmost..

I find this a refreshing and interesting take on taxes. The general view is that, although inevitable, they are always undesirable. Maybe that view should be questioned. I’m reminded that Eisenhower, when US president and faced with an economy that was rudely healthy and growing, raised corporation tax temporarily to 90 %. I’ve no idea what amount of outrage that raised but his thinking was that no business would want to pay that rate of tax and to avoid it they would have to invest most of their profits in themselves. It worked and US businesses became even more dominant. I call that creative thinking and the world could do with a lot more of it. It’s also an example of a political leader deliberately taking what must have been an almost universally unpopular measure to create a general benefit. And that is rare indeed.

An example of the aforesaid fraternité occurred to friends Jo and Steve a few days ago. A neighbour who is a hunter offered her about a quarter of a large boar that he had killed. Some might object to killing a wild boar but they are increasing in numbers around here and cause a significant degree of destruction on farm land and gardens. Culing the herds, because that is what they form, is a necessity to some degree as they have no natural predators. And it is not uncommon here for people who have an excess of something to share it with neighbours. When vegetables are plentiful people sometimes come to one of the cafes with a bag of excess produce to be shared by whoever wants it. Fraternité again. Anyway, Steve Jo and I now have stocks of boar in our freezers.

One thing you are sure to get in a small agricultural village is a lot of mice and rats, as well as the loirs that abound here. It’s not that the village is overrun with them but they are there. They don’t worry me except in that I suspect they have eaten a lot of the bulbs I have planted outside. Friends Jo and Steve had a similar experience last year when they planted a lot of bean seeds and had only one survive. I’m pretty sure that seeds and bulbs can be coated with something that deters rodents from eating them and have made a mental note to ask at the local agricultural co-op what can be done.

My boules playing has been curtailed by the weather. I feel the cold more than I used to and find I can’t play well encumbered by a heavy pullover and jacket nor if I feel cold. My muscles, such as they are, seem to clench up and affect how I throw the boules. But it is a small and temporary matter; let spring come soon.

On Being Old In Mollans

On Being Old, In Mollans

I’ve just come back from a lunch organised by the Amiriés Mollanases, the old folks organsation in the village, called «un repas gourmand» but which could equally be called a «repas gourmet». The distinction is whether the meal is plentiful or of high quality and this was both. What the organisation does is to invite a delicatessen from smewhere (the Gers region in this case) to put on a spread and advertise and sell its products while providing a good meal for us wrinklies at a low price. The price was 10 euros, around £9. For that princely sum I had an aperitif, half-a-dozen courses of excellent pâtés, sausages and hams (what the delicatessen was mostly selling and a meal in themselves) plus a main course of preserved duck (confit de canard) and beans, cheese, as much wine as I wanted and coffee. I think that is a very good meal and incredibly good value for money. The goods on sale were high quality but relatively expensive; I didn’t have to buy anything but did buy a couple of jars of confit de porc (pork cooked and preserved in its own fat) and a jar of sausages similarly prepared.

At the event leaflets were distributed for the old folks Christmas lunch, something we haven’t had before but organised this year by the Amitiés Mollanaises. It’s a similar deal, a good lunch with wine and coffee for the same 10 euros. In January there will be the old folks lunch organised by the village council, a luxurious 4-hour affair with music and dancing, served by the mayor and village councillors. That is free of all cost to we wrinklies.

Being old, we wrinklies tend to die before long, too frequently. That happens in Mollans as elsewhere but in Mollans at least there is good reason to believe you can die with a smile on your face. You certainly won’t die of starvation.

The event reminded me of a question i was asked at my interview for gaining French nationality in Grenoble: what does «fraternité» mean in the French holy trinity of «liberté, égailté, fraternité»? The key, to the French, is that fraternité you pay your due taxes, which can then be used for the benefit of the community as a whole. It is a crucial distinction between a society in which everyone is supposed to look out for themselves, first and foremost (and devil take the hindmost) and one in which the welfare of the community as a whole takes precedent. Among other things, this means that we wrinklies are looked after here, very well.

 

80th Birthday Etc

80th Birthday

It was one of those birthdats that are deemed to be important but I’m not quite sure why. It marks another decade of survival but so do 20th and 30th birthdays and they are not deemed especially important. My survival thus far has rarely been in doubt. Having escped from being knocked down by a car and appendicitis at age 10 little else has threatened my life until 11 years ago. Then an early diagnosis of bowel cancer thanks to my local doctor and subsequent operation certainly did save me from a lot worse but that is about it. So I have been lucky thus far. Luck has also played a large part in a satisfying career and enjoyable retirement. 

 

I am lucky also to have two very good friends in Steve and Jo who invited myself and several other friends to celebrate my birthday with lunch at their place, as the photo shows. It was a highly enjoyable and memorable occasion and I owe that to them. 

Gardening

The argyranthemum by the front gate is doing me proud but there is not mush colour elsewhere; a few fuchsia and nasturtium flowers are all I have to show. It’s time of the year when I think about which plants I am going to try to save over the winter. The choice has been surtailed by some loirs having eaten pelargoniums and geraniums on my balcony. I don’t think loirs ewist in England and all my dictionary searches can come up with as a translation is dormice, whch they certainly are not although they may be the same species. They look like miniature squirrels and generally nest under roofs. There’s not much I can do about them this year but they are reputed to dislike strong smells so I am going to try camphor capsules, used here to stop moths eating clothes, to deter them from feasting on my plants next year.

 

Getting French Nationality

Next week I have to go to Grenoble for an interview that should be the final step in my obtaining French nationality. Strictly speaking I don’t need it as I have a titre de séjour giving me the permanent right to remain here. However, since that is what I intend to do it makes more sense to be French. Also I think it may help my granddaughter to become European if and when she so desires. At the moment she is a Scot, in the future maybe in an independent Scotland or a possibly much-changed UK. The only problems for me know are the French administration’s insatiable desire for documentation and the normal delay of 12-18 months after the interview to hear whether I have been accepted.

 

Rémuzat

 

Rémuzat

The Amitiés Mollanaises organised a stay in Rémuzat this week with people from around the area, Sarrians, Beaume de Venise, etc, for general relaxation and a boules tournament. Rémuzat is an hour’s drive north of here, in the foothills of the Alps, where vultures were successfully re-introduced a few decades ago. The stay was very enjoyable for everyone, I think, made the more so for me by my winning the boules tournament. During the stay some of us drove up to a small plateau at 2000ft to see the birds in their habitat. It was a magnificent sight. At first there were just 5-6 eagles coasting through the air below us and then, suddenly, a dozen vultures in the sky above us. I had been told that the vultures couldn’t take off until the air had warmed sufficiently to create updrafts and clearly that moment had then come. It was a bit different from the sparrows, nuthatches and tits I see on the bird feeders on my balcony. I took some photos but the vultures, large as they are, came out as mere specks in the sky. Anyway, the scenery allowed itself to be photographed. Must get myself a better camera (or a better photographer).

 

Work And Robots, People And profits

Robots are good, science fiction would have us believe, given a directive no to harm humans. The "no harm' stricture doesn't apply to humans of course. Robots can be very useful, precise in their actions to a degree that mere humans cannot attain.But if they dive, and look increasingly to drive, the manufacturing and mechanical world, do we want them to drive the rest of our world too?

Work is now in my past. In that past I sometimes worked very hard at times, sometimes less hard but generally enjoyed it and had some fun along the way; but I never realised how lucky I was. Recent acquaintance with people doing mundane jobs has made me realise that. In (too) many cases these jobs are simply using people as robots that haven't yet been designed.  The thought shocked me.

Ive done quite a few mundane jobs in holidays to earn money when I was a student. There was never any interest in the job itself but I reckoned that I gave value for money in the effort I put in. And there was the bonus of social interactions with colleagues and the knowledge that I was doing this so that I would never have to do the same for the rest of my life. Others, I also realised, would not be so fortunate but would at least have the social interaction and enough money at the end of the week for a Saturday night out. Not any more it seems.

Around 40% of benefit claimants in the UK are in work, so bang goes that Saturday night out. The effort I put in to woek ws never measured but now it is. Every moment of someone doing a mundane job is now scrutinised to ensure that they are doing the job at the desired (maximum?) pace, through headsets or the clock. So bang goes social interaction. Workers of mundane jobs have simply become robot substitutes. The goal, of course, is profit, ever more profit.

My knowledge of all this is just from the UK and I have no idea how widespread it is in other developed countries. But if people are dehumanised to this extent no one need worry about climate chanage; the human race will destroy itself in the pursuit of profit. If there is such a thing as absolute evil it consists in treating another human being as a thing (John Brunner).