One news item that struck a chord with me this week was the announcement that the Falkland Islands have been declared landmine free almost 40 years after war with Argentina.
The Islands were heavily mined in the 1982 conflict by the Argentine forces, and it has taken 38 years to finally remove these hidden, deadly dangers to both human and animal life. In fact, there are natives of the Islands, born after the conflict, who have never been able to walk on some of the beautiful beaches. Finally, all the mine warning signposts have been removed, and the peace of the region has finally been restored.
An estimated 13,000 land mines were buried across the islands during the 10-week conflict, and a Government funded programme to remove them has been under way since 2009 as part of the UK’s obligations under the international anti-personnel mine ban convention. The 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty compels signatories – which include the UK – to clear minefields in territory under their control. On a day to day basis, a team of largely Zimbabwean operatives, highly experienced in demining their home country, risked their lives, removing and destroying landmines to make the Falklands safe for the Falklanders and wildlife that live there. The deminers had cleared more than seven million square metres of mostly rough countryside. But now, with completion Phase 5 of the demining programme dealing with sensitive sites of environmental concern, such as Yorke Bay, have finally achieved their target. These brave people will now move on to other countries where their skills are still, unfortunately from a humanitarian viewpoint, still in urgent need.
One side effect of the minefields laid by the Argentinians was the unintentional creation of human-excluded nature reserves for penguins.
Thousands of Magellanic and Gentoo penguins, who were luckily not heavy enough to set off the mines generally, although there were occasional explosions. Shielded from human attention, these penguins have had peace and quiet to thrive, as has the native flora and, hopefully, now people can once again walk on the pristine sands and dunes, this natural environment will not once again be destroyed for the opportunistic greed of Governments.
However, a potential hazard is tourism, a keystone of the modern Falklands economy. The Islands get thousands of visitors annually, mainly from from cruise ships and the danger is that this mass tourism traffic can easily reach the now open natural resources, with the obvious risks such footfall will bring. Also, with Yorke Bay being publicly owned there are concerns about leisure activities and livestock grazing.
The Falklands is facing a clash between the opening up of the formerly mined areas and the imperative for environmental conservation, but at least the remnants of hidden, deadly and inhuman weaponry have finally gone, and, for the present, full freedom of movement returns.
Having spent a good chunk of my career working with Americans, travelling there extensively, and made many friends over the years, I can understand how Trump got in to position in the first place. Americans tend to see things in black and white, it’s either good or bad, with very few actually sitting on the fence. At the time of Trump’s rise, there was a need for a strong character to lead a country that seemed to have lost its pre-eminence in the world, and, to his credit, his initial actions did pull everyone together. But as time wore on, his many character flaws, his narcissism, came to the fore, and it has been long apparent to the outside world that he needs to be replaced by a more stable character who will not divide to conquer, but pull everyone together once more.
Water is essential to human life but is very expensive and difficult to launch into space (and landed on the lunar surface) in the volumes needed and the presence of water on the Moon may mean we can utilise the water that is there rather than sending it up. The establishment of a base on the Moon would help immensely with the next step of human expansion in to space, the human exploration of Mars as early as the 2030s. Experts say that water could form the basis of a future lunar economy, once we’ve figured out how to extract it. It would be much cheaper to make rocket fuel on the Moon than send it from Earth. In future water could be turned into the hydrogen and oxygen commonly used as a rocket propellant.
Without a doubt, the Covid-19 virus is here to stay for a long time, until an effective vaccine is found. None of the past, current or future methods being used by the Government to restrict the growth in infected numbers have any logic based in day to day reality and to date have any lasting effect whatsoever. The initial universal ‘lock down’ was only a delay, the virus was simply always there, but growth was limited by the fact that one of the prime movers of disease and infection, education (at all levels), was closed. The continued blaming of the hospitality and leisure industries by the government and the subsequent restrictions actually had little, if any impact on infection numbers. All the difference this seemed to make was to drive businesses out of existence, and contribute to a rise in stress and isolation based mental health issues. Basically, the infection rates had dropped to manageable levels over a few months, and the country looked like things where returning to normal.
For those with an interest in both Hollywood ‘A’ listers and lower league UK football (that’s ‘soccer’ if you’re reading this in the Colonies!), you may have noticed a bit of a media frenzy last week when it was announced that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have shown an interest in purchasing ( or ‘investing’ if you read some sources, whatever that means) Wrexham AFC, my home town team that plays in the 5th Division of English football, and initially intend putting £2 million in to the Club.
And what is the future? What will the deal be? The two prospective owners have stated in their initial approach that the wish to take over the club for a nominal amount (whatever that may be) and then will pump in an initial £2 million with further investment to come. Given the past history of ‘investors’ promising us the world but delivering less than nothing, fans will be very wary of what the future actually may be. However, looking at the standing of Ryan and Rob, the one thing that they can offer as an insurance of type is reputation.
As a recent victim of a smear campaign by a small group of narcissists, I thought I’d put out a message to others who suffer this modern curse, an intense campaign designed to humiliate an opponent while simultaneously elevating the narcissist. It requires quite a bit of skill, manipulation, and persistence to successfully pull one off.