Pensioner Terrorists

I suggested in a previous post that there was no such thing as an elderly suicide bomber, but it is often the mature extremist who influences youth to commit the atrocities. There is a report today of a resurgence of organised soccer violence here in Scotland. The participants are under 20s whereas there is evidence that the organisers are in their 40s.

If the middle-aged or elderly can influence young people to evil and violence, why cannot parents and teachers produce a more benign influence?

Youth

It has always been true that young people are rebellious, but surely it is getting worse.

Why are young people so out of tune with their communities? Just two examples. Most crime in the UK is committed by the under 25 age group, especially minor violence and civil disruption. And who has ever heard of an elderly suicide bomber?

Surely before we can do anything about this, we need to discover the cause or causes. Is it their upbringing in the family, the lack of proper education or what?

Frog Rescue

After the Woodpecker episode, laterthat evening I discover three tiny frogs about 1 cm long, two in one dog’s food bowl and one in another. The dog bowls are at least a couple of metres apart and the frogs were unable to get out of them so could not really have climbed into them. There were no other frogs, large or small, anywhere else.
I know it sounds far fetched but the only explanation I can think of is that our Scottish Terrier with a longish beard brought them in tangled in it. The dog does have a habit of drinking from the pond in the garden.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

This morning just as I was waiting for a tradesman to arrive there was a thud on the window of our conservatory. To my horror, looking out, there was a small woodpecker lying twitching on the ground. When I got to it, it was still moving and its eyes were open. I gingerly picked it up and it lay still in my hand with its feet tightly curled under its body. It was about the same size as a small blackbird so I am assuming it was not fully grown. It had a patch of red on its crown and some red at its rump. It allowed me to comfort it for several minutes, opening its beak jerkily several times and at one point making a series of faint squawks. I thought about ringing the RSPCA, but because my visitor would be arriving at any moment, I decided to leave it till after he had gone.

Its wings did not appear to be broken and I could move them without causing the woodpecker any distress but it would not allow me to uncurl its feet. It was lying lopsided in my hand at an awkward angle with its beak over the edge of my palm. It did seem to be recovering rather than getting weaker so I laid it gently on some soft plants in a large tub where the dogs would not get at it.

After my visitor had gone I went out to the patient but as I approached the tub it flew briskly away, so I assume it had recovered and had been but stunned.

It was an amazing experience holding such as small vunerable creature in my hand, allowed to stroke it without apparently frightening it any further.

India Overtakes UK

I have just heard on the ITV News that India now has more investment in the UK than the UK has in India.  I think that is hugely significant.  Britain has always been a major exporter of capital; this would appear to be one of the factors in the long demise of British industry.  Now the tide is turning.

Major worries for the West are global warming and now the sideling of the West,  America and Europe, in world economic terms.

Man’s Cruelty

I have now got to the point where I cannot bear to watch the TV news. In a sense the nightly reporting from the frontline is an intrusion and a trivialisation of the suffering.

Man’s inhumanity to man.