The Boy and The Coconut Tree

Momentous and disastrous, foolish, a leap into the unknown driven by petty nationalism.  That sums up my feelings today regarding the Brexit, the decision by 52% of the voters to leave the EU, few of them knowing what it means, what is has meant or has done for them. In fact, I am  so bloody angry about Brexit. My life since 1988 has been positively shaped by the EU and Europeans since I left my small town. Looking at the results show me I was right to leave. I may be from there but I don't belong there and that is sad! What many of them back there do not realize is, much of the economic renaissance since the dreadful 80s was due to the EU, money from it or access to its markets.  Ignorance of many economic realities and the belief that the UK will be better somehow if we turn our backs on 70 years of neighbourly cooperation is what has fed people’s fury.  I am lucky to have experienced the EU and its positives, I have worked for a French company that sent me t...

I am writing this in the gloom of an English summer day. May 31st, dark grey and very wet and rather depressing. Well the day may not be depressing that could be my general mood today with my allergies firing on all cylinders and the medication from my doctor causing me to feel a little "out of it/detached" I wanted to start this entry by writing something about Harambe, the  gorilla shot dead in Cincinnati  for the perceived threat it posed to a 4 year old child who had fallen into the enclosure after squeezing through the security fence etc.  Children are curious and I know from my experience at London Zoo, children love gorillas, I love gorillas, they are magnificent and no I wouldn't want to be in an enclosure with a 170kg male gorilla, he would rip me apart, well he may rip me apart, we can't know. These animals can be gentle and dangerous. I watched the video a few times and I don't feel that the gorilla would have harmed the child. He was rough with th...