friday 1Yorkshire Day, surprised at how many are true for me.

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”

Democritus 460 BC – 370 BC

Katie got the film “J. Edgar”, another Leonardo di Caprio film, this one directed by Clint Eastwood. Quite a dark film about establishment of the FBI and the increasing power and corruption going hand in hand as the organisation develops.

Near the end, there’s a nice quote:

“The very essence of our democracy is rooted in a belief in the worth of the individual.

That life has meaning that transcends any man-made system … that love is the greatest force on earth, far more enduring than hatred or the unnatural division of mankind.”

J. Edgar Hoover

Rest of the month spent working and preparing for the holiday to Spain or getting back into things after it. Refer separate post in trips for details.

saturday 30 – unpacking. sorting out things, placing back in their normal places and going through photos

sunday 31 – nice chat at breakfast with Saby and Katie, about the complexity of the female brain, what we men take as maybe, craziness, which is an offense in a way, again carrying on about how traditional feminine values are denigrated by society subversively.

The UK news these last few days has been full of the horror of the child abuse cases in Rotherham, children’s stories, particularly when unpleasant and using uneducated/working class language is simply not being taken seriously.

Going through the papers accumulated on the journey back, the FT letters page from Friday 29th August had a letter from Harish Dave in the US complaining about ciriticisms of the recent elections in India, saying “Just like Britain has a dominant religion in the form of Christianity, and Christian mores pervade societal behaviour, so it is in India where Hindutva pervades”, quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true.”

Also a letter from Mohandas Nair in the UK saying that the Indian state of Kerala were introducing an entire ban on alcohol over 10 years, questioning softer approaches such as labelling as in Sweden (and the UK), saying “Withstanding the side effects of alcohol consumption (liver damage, addiction) requires a genetic robustness that the Indians lack.” Mentioning that similar action might be urged against car pollution, and that by 2025 Kerala might then live up to its other name “God’s Own Country”.