DECEMBER 2003
The month hasn't started off particularly well. A few days ago I was flying Topsy, my little kestrel, in the garden. As she was coming in for landing the neighbour's cat jumped out of the bushes, and Topsy panicked and took off for pastures unknown. I have spent all my free time looking for her, but to no avail. I know I was supposed to release her back into the wild again, but I still miss having her sit on my shoulder pulling my hair.
Then Marcus called, saying his best Saker-peregrine falcon had been killed by a car while chasing a pheasant, his Berkut Eagle was suffering from lead poisoning, and to top it all, his other Saker-peregrine had come down with the same fungus that did for my old Redtail hawk, Bronwen. Well, at least Arthur, my Eagle owl is flying well, touch wood.
Early twenty-first century Western socity is perhaps the first in human history where most grown men do not routinely bear arms on their persons and boys are not regularly raised from childhood to learn skill in the use of some kind of weapon, either for community or personal defense - club or spear, broadsword or long bow, rifle or knife. It also happens to be one of the rudest and crudest societies in history, having jubilantly swept most of the etiquette of speech, table, dress, hospitality, fairness, deference to authority and the relations of male and female and child and elder under the fraying and filthy carpet of politically convenient illusions. With little fear of physical reprisal Westerners can be as loud, gross, disrespectful, pushy, and negligent as they please. If more people carried rapiers at their belts, or revolvers on their hips, It is a fair bet you would be able to go to a movie and enjoy he dialogue from the screen without having to endure the small talk, family gossip and assorted bodily noises that many theater audiences these days regularly emit. Today, discourtesy is commonplace precisely because there is no price to pay for it."
Samuel Francis
As Heinlein put it,
"An armed society is a polite society."
In the year 1369, Edward III, issued the following order:
"Cause public proclamation to be made, that everyone strong in body at leisure time on holidays use in his recreation the bow and arrow and learn and exercise the art of shooting - forbidding all and singular on our behalf that they do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones, wood, iron, handball, football, bandyball, cambuck, or cock fighting; nor to other such like vain plays which have no profit in them, under pain of imprisonment."
Edward Rex, Westminster, 12th day of June
After observing the public hysteria which seized the media here in the UK in connection with the recent win in the World Rugby Cup, I can't but think we have been going backwards for quite a long time.
"Campaigns to bear-proof all garbage containers in wild areas in America have been difficult because, as one biologist put it, `There is a considerable overlap between the intelligence levels of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.'"
"Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact."
Balzac
The Chancellor has just announced that he'll have to borrow 37 billion pounds this financial year. To se where the money is going one has just to peruse the appointment section of any newspaper. As an example the Yorkshire Post today carried 6 pages of job offers in the public sector. There were openings for Smoking Advisors, a Health Promotion Specialist (Tobacco Control), a Library Development Officer ("to help us put libraries on the map) Personal Advisors (one-to-one advice for teen-age parents) and six executive positions (at salaries between £45,000.- and £75,000.- per annum) for an organisation which has been set up to put 14-17 years-olds "at the centre of everything we do" (What?). The local NHS trust was looking for a Project Manager for a Prison Mental Health Collaborative, a Systems Supervisor, a Health Inequalities Worker - Asian Community, an Estates Supervisor, loads of Accountants, more Smoking Advisors (are these people supposed to advise you on how to smoke?) and as an afterthought they actually were willing to employ 2 nurses. Being close to Christmas the jobs on offer are actully a lot fewer than usual.
My son Erling dropped in at the Bursar at his University last month to pay his tuition fee, and was shocked to be told that they wanted £9,500.- a year, as he was classified as an overseas student. The fact that we are all permanent residents in the UK, and that his sister had just graduated paying standard fees, were not seen as relevant. As all children are liable to do, he transferred the problem to his Dad, So I went to have a word. According to the Bursar everything would be OK if I could prove that I was a migrant worker, meaning that my purpose for coming to the UK was to work, not for children to get a free(ish) education. Having coughed up more than £250,000.- in school fees during the last 10 years I found that slightly risable, but in the end it all turned out well. All the Bursar need was a letter with a company letterhead stating that I had been sent by my company to work in the UK. The computer took care of that in no time, though it must have been one of the shortest lived companies in the history of mankind. But it seems to have kept the Government Snoopers out of the Bursar's hair.
"If you don't mind being where you are, you are not lost."
Bruce Truter
One thing we have to admire about Tony Blair is his sincerity; especially when he doesn't mean it.
"Everyday some new do-gooder is trying to save us from ourselves. We have so many laws and safety commissions to ensure our safety that it seems nearly impossible to have an accident. The problem is that we need accidents, and lots of them.
"Danger is nature's way of eliminating stupid people. Without safety, stupid people die in accidents...
"With safety, however well-intentioned it may be, we are devolving into half-witted mutants, because idiots, who by all rights should be dead, are spared from their rightful early graves and are free to breed even more imbeciles.
"Let's do away with safety and improve our species. Take up smoking. Jaywalk. Play with blasting caps. Swim right after a big meal. Stick something small in your ear. Take your choice of dangerous activity and do it with gusto. Future generations will thank you."
Lawrence A. Bullis of Phoenix to the "Arizona Republic"
Yorkshire is up in arms. A chap was told by his local council that according to Government regulations he had to apply for planning permission to fly the White Rose flag. This has gone down like a lead balloon around here, though the company that produces the flags are not complaining; it will take them several years to honour the orders they got since.
Plans are now being finalized to reduce the armed forces after it was found that there was a shocking lack of equipment in the Gulf. One wonders if it would not be more cost effective to reduce the MOD as the Ministry employ one Civil Servant for each 2 soldiers.
Government figures for the local constablery came out today. Muggings are up a whopping 60%, burglaries a more modest 40% and so-called gun crimes are still under review, meaning we will probably never be told. The Government has come up with extra funding for speed cameras.
The fund for conversion of the Heimbu stables into a proper Hov stands at this moment at £150.-. The Americans have contributed two thirds and the Australians the rest. The Europeans seems to have deeper pockets than the length of their arms. We shall see what the new year brings.
There are a few moments given to us all when we experience a feeling of extreme happiness. Personally these moments have always come around either dawn or dusk at a time when I have been all by myself far from civilization. They don't last long, but they are treasured.
Has it ever occurred to you that half the people you run into are below average?
The Soham murder trial has finally finished, but the fall-out is set to last far into the new year. Our local Chief of Police is set for the chop as his force had erased from its computer un-proved allegations against Ian Huntley of having under-age sex with girls. His defence that he was following Government guidelines has been met with near hysteria from several ministers, and New Labour's spin machine has gone into overdrive to discredit him.
Also there is something very ugly going on in the gutter press' treatment of Maxine Carr. They are whipping up a mood where they are almost baying for her lynching once she is out of jail. It seems that everyone is losing all sense of proportions in this case.
Dag Leiro of the San Francisco Hov sent me a book on Bagwa which arrived just before Yule. Sending an E-mail to say thanks he wrote back saying that he hoped there would be no problem cashing the cheque he had included for the Americans' Hovscatt. My first reaction was "What cheque?" Then I heard the binmen coming to cart away our trash, and I managed just in time to get our binliner back. The cheque was at the bottom of the bag, just a little bit worse for wear. I really need to be more observant, I'm afraid.
When I was young, (a long, long time ago) education was something you got at home, while schools trained you for work. Fathers educated boys and mothers girls. I don't know about girls these days, but boys don't seem to have fathers, no matter what their birth certificate might state.
Manners was taught at meals, which might be difficult today, as no-one seems to have meals together anymore. And we were given the opportunity to learn to cope, which these days would result in your children being taken into care.
I used to spend the summers when I was still in primary school in a small boat sailing from island to island with either a friend or a cousin, with only a fishing line and a 22 rifle to feed us, sometimes staying away from home for weeks at a time living off the land. (or the sea actually)
Apart from being taught Stav I also learnt to ride, sail and ski at an early age. Hunting, fishing and gathering was a natural way of life; I was expected to look after rabbits, chickens, dogs, horses, cats and eagle owls. I chopped wood for the fire, I climbed trees and explored caves. It was a great life.
I have tried to give my own children the same opportunity to learn as I had, but it has been difficult. My daughter has been riding and looking after horses since she was two years of age, my son learnt to shoot with an airgun and later a 22 in the Army Cadets, we have all went fishing when they were young; Erling and I still try to go once a year at least, we have gone hawking, but not as often as I would have liked; it has been impossible for them to live wild as there are no wild places left in this country, but we have at least foraged the hedgerows and we have always had meals together. So far it seems to have worked out pretty well.
The children have been home for Yule, the Yule dinner has been eaten, and the presents distributed. We were under 4 inches of snow on the 22nd, but it was all gone next day.
Heimbu wishes you all a Good Yule and all the best in the Year of Urd