Author: Margot

Freedom of speech and the right to be offended

Posted on By Margot

Today I find myself in a world where I dare not say anything against the state of Israel, for fear of being called anti-Semitic. I dare not say anything that shatters the myth of Mohammed, for fear of causing riots hundreds of miles away. And if I were to say anything derogatory about homosexual people – well, I am homophobic at best, if not the worst example of fundamentalist Christianity. And I must not, on pain of being deemed a social pariah, say anything that could be construed as racist. If I were a person in the public eye, say a politician, I would be drummed out of office, even if these terrible blasphemies were uttered in private.

Perhaps, the extremist talk that encourages people to riot, plant bombs, kill, should be banned – that which can be caught up in the umbrella of incitement to hate. But ordinary intellectual discourse or the expression of deeply held beliefs, should they too be banned? And if so, then who decides what is to be allowed and where?

Lymington hails Ben Ainslie

Posted on By Margot

Tuesday 11 September 2012

It is 5pm in Lymington. We are standing by the side of the road in the High Street waiting to see the Ben Ainslie bus. Beside us are two little boys. Both boys are here with their mums and younger siblings. One has his face painted as a Union Jack. Both boys are very excited.

We wait – the crowd is beginning to grow. The boys are attracting media interest from the reporters and camera men wandering up and down the high street. Some stop to interview the boys.

A cheer goes up – the post van is beside the Ben Ainslie postbox. A few minutes early I put my postcards in to the postbox – and never have I found a post box so full – I was concerned that my cards would fall out.

Still we wait. The news ripples through – the bus has left the hospital, then the bus is at The Avenue. A few minutes later, the bus is in St Thomas’s Street. The cavalcade is coming. Now much longer now. And then, coming out of the sunshine, cresting the brow of the hill is the bus. A cheer goes up as the open topped bus inches its way down the hill.

Everyone cheers, the flags are waved, the bus inches forward – the excitement is intense. As the bus moves towards the end of the High Street and its destination, we join the throng following the bus. Now the road is a sea of people following the bus – a few unfortunate drivers have been unwise enough to try to follow the bus downhill and are now marooned in the sea of people.

Somehow Ben gets off the bus which has stopped outside his house and opposite the famous postbox. Even more amazingly he has made it across the road to the Henri Lloyd Sailing Store. Someone cries “three cheers for Ben” and the crowd roars “hip hip hooray”. The hero has been welcomed home.

Links

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2012-09-11/ainslies-gold-medal-bus-tour-of-lymington/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19543505#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9922906.Thousands_lined_streets_to_welcome_home_Olympic_hero_Ben/

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Posted on By Margot

The story line is simple and reflects the origin of the book, nine inter-related stories first published in Science Fiction magazines between 1940 and 1950. The stories are based on interviews with Dr Susan Calvin, the chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men and chronicle the development of the robots and teh positronic brain.

Asimov invented the robot that we know and love and his legacy is felt throughout the science fiction world. Data in Star Trek: the Next Generation is powered by the positronic brain.

The three laws

These are hardwired into the positronic brain and provide a framework for robotic behaviour.

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

There is a question that needs to be asked; do these three laws make robots inherently more moral than human beings. This question is explored in the eighth story, Evidence. Given these three laws, how can you differentiate a humanoid robot from a really good man?

Evidence is the prelude to the next question – if Robots are more moral to human beings, should they rule the world?

The benign dictatorship

Suppose super robot brains are developed, brains that are built upon the Three Laws or Robotics – so that they would never harm human beings, and these brains were capable of processing immense quantities of information , enough to run the world. The promise is that war would be eliminated, hunger eradicated and every human desire for self fulfilment could be delivered. Why not, then, allow thaese entities run the world. Heaven on earth? I, Robot ends with this scenario. The earth is divided into 4 regions, and each region has a superbrain referred to as Machines. There is no more war, no more hunger, no more religious intolerance..

The big question : Would you vote in this system? Why (or why not)?

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot

Now reading in September

Posted on By Margot

September is when we go away, this year to the New Forest. So I need something to read. After the Angel’s Game and The Shadow of the Wind, I have decided to go for something a little less thought provoking.

So this is my reading list for my holiday:

I Robot by Isaac Asimov. This was one of the offerings from Surrey County Council, so I downloaded it. It is an enjoyable read and brings back happy memories of those exam years. When I was revising for my O-levels and A-levels I read avidly, mostly Science Fiction – often several books a week.

Wolf hall by Hilary Mantel. I have listened to this as an audio book an now I shall read the book. The English Reformation is fascinating, for many of the key players, Cromwell, Wolsey, More are not from the aristocracy. More was the son of a lawyer and Cromwell and Wolsey sons of tradesmen. I will argue that England only became great when the English people shed the shackles of servitude to the monarch and took matters into their own hands. Here we see the beginning, a process that reaches its culmination when Oliver Cromwell, great nephew of Thomas Cromwell seizes power. England was never the same again, its people were at last in control.

Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian. I really enjoyed Victoria Hislop’s The Thread. This book covers the Armenian genocide (but the Turks insist that there was no genocide).

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

The Shadow of the Wind second post

Posted on By Margot

First published: July 2012

I have just finished reading this book. A delight to read. What kind of book is it? A love story? A historical novel? A thriller. A comedy – or a tragedy. Like all great books, this book does not easily fit into such categories for it is a multi-layered novel.

So some observations

Syria is descending into civil war. The cruelty and brutality will beggar belief. Zafón’s book is set against the recovery from such a civil war. The Spanish Civil War ended finally in April 1939 – Barcelona had fallen to Franco’s republicans in January. The aftermath of the civil war was cruel and brutal. Even 10 years later, the repercussions can still be felt.

Stalking the streets is Inspector Fumero, a psychopath who enjoys cruelty, who glories in prolonging the suffering of his victims and specialises in murder. Is Fumero’s characterisation over the top? Sadly no, for we just have to look at what is happening in so many parts of the world to realise that there are instances of Inspector Fumero in all totalitarian regimes.

The story hinges on lies and the suppression of the truth. The character of Julian Carax, the fictional author of the Shadow of the Wind, falls in love with his benefactor’s daughter, Penelope. But the untold truth is that Julian is in fact his benefactor’s illegitimate son. The love affair is ended tragically and for Penelope, barbarically. Julian is forced into exile. And now the second distortion of the truth – the fate of Penelope is kept from Julian by his closest friend. But when Julian discovers the truth, then another tragedy unfolds. Julian sees himself accursed, the devil, and scours Barcelona for copies of his work to destroy.

And another motif is bought into play – the motif of redemption.The boy Daniel is entranced by the work of Julian Carax, he wants to know about the author, there is no ulterior motive. For so long, Julian had regarded himself as a thing absolutley outside  the decency. Yet Daniel, with his enthusiasm and innocence remins Julian of what he once was.  Slowly Julian changes, and when the pregnant Bea has had to flee from the wrath of her family, it is Julian who takes her it and protects her. The story of Penelope and Julian echoes the story of Daniel and Bea. History does not repeat itself and Bea and Daniel escape the tragedy that engulfed Julian’s life. At the end of the novel we find that Julian has begun writing again.

It is not often that you come across a book that is so satisfying to read and stays with you . This is just such a book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Wind


Updated: July 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Posted on By Margot

Audio book read June 2007, first published July 2012

This is a story of a family caught up in the terrible events of the Biafran War. In the 1960’s we had pictures of terrible starvation in Biafra – the images of skeletal, pot-bellied children stay with me even today. The tragedy was that Nigeria had the potential to be a rich country, and yet the population was starving to death because of the intransigence of a few generals. One wonders if such a situation would be tolerated today.

The book was an eye-opener onto an African world, from an African perspective at a time of appalling suffering. Biafra was a nation state that reached out for independence yet starved into submission and this story follows this process through the lives of Odenigbo, a university professor, Olanna and Ugwu, Odenigbo’s house boy. Olanna is sometimes described as Odenigbo’s mistress, but today we would describe her as Odenigbo’s partner.

There is meat enough in the relationship between Odenigbo and Olanna without a civil war. This begins with a story of middle class Africans, educated in English and treading the line between traditional African and global/British middle-class culture. Olanna and her twin sister Kainene are modern African women from a wealthy family. There is the personal level in this story bringing to life the events that we witnessed through news programmes. What do you do when your partner impregnates another woman (although if Ugwu’s account is to be believed, Odenigbo is tricked into this)? How do you cope when your relatives are massacred in an inter-ethnic uprising? And what impact does it make on you when you have to live in a refugee camp?

Half of a Yellow Sun does what all great literature should do – open the doors into a different world and then reveal a shared humanity. It is worth reading

Links

http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/index.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/aug/19/fiction.shopping2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_of_a_Yellow_Sun

Audio book: http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/ref=sr_1_3?asin=B004EWB8O2&qid=1342363666&sr=1-3

The spy who came in from the cold by John le Carré, published by Victor Gollancz, September 1963

Posted on By Margot

First Published July 2012

What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives. Do you think they sit like monks in London, balancing the rights and wrongs? (Alec Leamas in The Spy who came in from the cold)

Spying is a nasty sordid business in a world where there are no good guys – only our side and the enemy. The rules are that the ends justify the means. The individual is expendable for the sake of what is perceived to be the greater good. If you think that spying is glamorous, exciting and even noble, then prepare to be disabused by this book. This is not a romantic fiction, but a grim reality check. When the liberal throws up his or her hands in horror when the news breaks that our Secret Services have been involved in interrogating witnesses under duress or involved in “extraordinary rendition” then this book says get real, the world and the relationships between states is not genteel and good-mannered. John le Carré tackles these issues in the closing chapter of the book. Up to this point the book has been a slow burning firework and now it explodes with raw emotion. This is the point, the climax to which the book has been building and now there can only be one ending as the firework burns itself out and crashes to the ground.

The mastery of this book is the quiet measured prose describing the interaction of the characters. They are all drawn with humanity and the evil of Mundt is thrown into sharp relief against the decency of Leamas, of the East German Fiedler, even George Smiley. But none can escape the strictures imposed by the world of espionage and the demands of the political masters. In many respects the old British state, unfettered by any ideology is more than a match for the enemies behind the iron curtain. Who are the good guys – there are none.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_Who_Came_in_from_the_Cold

The spy who came in from the cold by John le Carré, published by Victor Gollancz, September 1963, Penguin Classics (2011) – Paperback – 272 pages – ISBN 0141194529

Also available in audio book format, ePub format and for Kindles

July 2012: A drought in Surrey?

Posted on By Margot

Today it rained and tomorrow it will rain and also, according to the forecast, it will rain on Wednesday. June has been the wettest on record – to go with a wet May and an even wetter April. And yet our local water company, Veolia, is declaring a drought and the hosepipe ban is in full force. My garden does not look as though it is suffering from a lack of water – even before it started raining in April. Just what is Veolia trying to prove? That the amount of water saved from a hosepipe ban during the wettest summer on record will fill the aquifers? In which case, it is the wet summer not the hosepipe ban that is the cause.

As I drive over the Thames each morning on my way to work, I am constantly amazed a the level of the Thames at Walton. Not high enough to flood, but high enough. Now remind me. Is there not a myth that the water is taken out of the river at the pumping station to supply the local population. If that is the case, why are we on drought alert? Using the water at Walton for water supply would surely be preferable to allowing this water to flow out to sea. If our water does come from the pumping station, then why are we subject to drought restrictions when there is plainly not a water shortage in this area?

Perhaps I also take exception to use of the word drought. A real drought is when it does not rain for months if not years. It is when nothing grows and much dies. It is when vegetation catches fire spontaneously. A drought is not when you have to keep listening for flood alerts. It is not when your strawberries and raspberries rot because it keeps raining.

But Veolia says there is a drought. And they have spent the princely sum of £30 million to fix the leaks. They are also spending money to educate the consumer. And at the same time, they are have to pay off a massive debt. There is no money for the sort of investment in infrastructure that is really needed. It is definitely true that the bulk of the population lives in the south-east, but the water surplus in sin the north and west of the country. What is needed is a scheme to harness the water surplus in one part of the country to ensure that eh southeast does not go short. Such problems could be solved by the Romans 2000 years ago – but not in seems, the British in the 21st Century.

Veolia – the only drought you have is one of your own making. So get real.