Three more Bookfest shows

On the 16th August, Lindsey and I went to see John MacKenzie & Angela McCarthy talk about the Scottish Diaspora at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and today we enjoyed two more presentations, by Nicholas Crane on Building the British landscape, and Juliana Buhring on cycling around the world.

We’d already seen Angela McCarthy the day before.  She knows her stuff, and she and John MacKenzie have edited Global Migrations: The Scottish Diaspora since 1600.  John M. MacKenzie spoke mostly about the Scottish diasporas and Africa, which was particularly interesting for me, having been, in a way, a very small part of it.  From the questions after the presentations it appeared that for some Guardian-reading hand-wringers in the audience there was not enough discussion about the negative aspects of the clash of cultures that resulted when thousands of Scots moved to other parts of the world during the period in question, but I, for one, found the presentation very good.

Last night Lindsey and I went to the sold-out Museum After Hours event at the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street.  We very much enjoyed the Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites exhibition, though in particular I saw little or no mention of the Battle of Blenheim, which was very significant in terms of the broader aspect of what was happening during the time in question.  Anyway, we also viewed various other rooms in the museum, several of which concentrated on the historic Scottish contribution to the world.  It has been immense!  Much of it included contributions to the ‘Empire’.  The explorers, the generals, the soldiers, the missionaries, the civil servants, the traders, the shipbuilders, the transporters, and much more.  The Jocks contributed to, and made vast profits from, what is known as the British Empire.  I only say all of this because my friend Fat Mac tries to tell me that it was nothing to do with the Jocks.

Nicholas Crane today gave his presentation without any slides.  He was good, and succinctly covered 14,000 or so years of British geography and landscape development, but would have been even better with a couple of selected slides to Illuminate what he was talking about.

Juliana Buhring has cycled around the world.  The first, and so far only, female to do so.  What more can you say!  Awesome person, with, as we heard, a very peculiar upbringing.

Africa’s Long Road Since Independence

Africa’s Long Road Since Independence, by Keith Somerville, was published recently by Penguin Books.

Did you know that between 1958 and April 1984 there were 58 successful military coups in Africa?  An amazing figure.  There were also 65 failed coups.  Some people might try to explain this phenomenon in terms of colonial legacy, and others might argue that it shows poor leadership by Africans during the first generation of independence.  Somerville, whilst very aware that it is never a good idea to overgeneralise when discussing African history or politics, points out that in many cases, previously independent institutions such as the unions, opposition parties and non-party associations had been forced into single-party folds or had been destroyed, as the first group of leaders consolidated power in their own hands.  In essence, the underlying assumptions of colonialism were reproduced and in fact increased in nationalists’ thinking.  This left the military as the only sector to have an alternate source of power, when things were not going well.  There was often little opposition or public reaction to military takeovers.  He writes, “…autocratic rulers had built their castles on sand that could be swept away with surprising ease once their popularity waned and economic failure led to discontent, and the breakdown of patronage networks or divisive policies led to over-reliance on the armed forces as guarantors of power.”

What led to the economic failures, though?  Often the first generation of African leaders relied on the export driven monoculture economies they inherited in order to fund their various grand schemes.  Economies were hardly ever diversified, and any profits that were made rarely found their way back to rural producers.  Commodity price changes had a major impact on such economies.  Prices for exports often fell drastically in the 1970s and 80s, whilst import costs for equipment, capital goods, consumer goods, know-how and technology rose.  There was only one possible economic outcome, and often this led, in turn, to massive amounts of borrowing.

I read, for example, that in Ghana, state intervention in the economy, in theory in order to create wealth for society as a whole, was used to justify central control by the one-party system, and this sort of thing was quite typical in other countries.  But the cocoa farmers, for example, themselves hardly benefitted, and when commodity prices fell, Ghanaian society as a whole also did not benefit.

The massive rise in oil prices after 1973 led to political change in several countries where state institutions were typically weak.  The Cold War then led to intrusion in African politics by the superpowers, with all sorts of consequences.  By the end of the 70s, agriculture in Africa had mostly declined, and imported food had to be subsidised, resulting in a greater strain on governments which were forced to borrow.  “Overall, the picture for African economies as the 1970s drew to a close was poor, with little sustained development and continued reliance on a few vulnerable export commodities, corruption and mismanagement, widespread food insecurity, and increasing reliance on costly imports, unequal and damaging terms of trade between primary exports and manufactured, processed or refined imports, and a massive and growing problem of indebtedness.  The scene was set for the drastic surgery demanded of and imposed on Africa by international financial institutions and donor countries: structural adjustment.”  Not a great outlook!

Another interesting passing fact is that despite inheriting national boundaries drawn up by colonials powers with little attention to ethnic groups, hardly ever was there any attempt to change these boundaries by those who came to power after independence, despite those colonial boundaries having been criticised relentlessly by historians and politicians.

When oil was discovered in some regions, benefits did not flow to the societies as a whole, and instead there was an increase in wealth inequality.  In Botswana, the equivalent was the discovery of diamonds.  Somerville recognises that what Botswana has achieved has been remarkable – progress, economic success, democracy, service delivery, etc – but he states that there are still vast gaps between the incomes of the rich elite and the poor.  I feel he is a bit harsh in his criticism, in this instance.

This is a very informative book, although sometimes, perhaps, Somerville over-emphasises the negatives.  I haven’t checked all the Notes and references, but it was nice to see some cited historians that I have worked with.  I’ll put this book aside for my son Jamie to read, when he next comes back from Africa.

Somerville currently contributes to Africa Sustainable Conservation News.

Three shows in

Lindsey and I have been to three presentations at the Edinburgh International Book Festival so far, with several more scheduled for the following weeks.  Within five minutes of the start of the first one, which I won’t name, I was wondering why on earth did I book tickets for it.  It wasn’t that it was bad, but it wasn’t my scene.  It started with a short poetry reading.  Now, unless it’s Allen Ginsberg or Gary Snyder, poetry is beyond me, and my mind was quickly elsewhere.  The poem was followed by a reading from a play, and then a sort of clip from the play, with two actors playing parts.  I couldn’t follow it, because I was distracted by how wonderful the actors were at playing parts, instead of trying to understanding what they were saying in context.

My friend Fat Mac is currently working on a new play of some sorts, though how he manages to find anything to write about when he spends most of the day sitting in his bath is beyond me.  But if he manages to get his play produced somewhere I hope he gets either, or both, of the actors we watched on Sunday to act in his show.  They simply clicked into their roles, and were very believable.  I doubt, however, if even they would be able to bring any life to a two hour show entitled: Watching my toes slowly wrinkle like raisins while I reminisce about the sivinties.

The second and third presentations we attended were really good.  One was by Sunil Khilnani who spoke about his book in which he picks 50 lives to tell the story of India’s history.  India is such a vast place, with a very rich history.  Telling its story through the lives of 50 very different people makes its past accessible.

Last night we went to see Sir Tom Devine and Angela McCarthy talk about their book Tea and Empire: James Taylor in Victorian Ceylon.  James Taylor was one of numerous Scots involved in tea production in what was then Ceylon.  Devine reminded us about how the Scots contributed to, and benefitted from, the British Empire.  One can only imagine what Scotland would be like today had it not gained so disproportionately from the Empire.  Tea was one of many areas in which Scottish people made a great contribution (sugar, tobacco, religion, the army and overseas civil service are some others).

One question asked at the end that I felt the authors did not completely answer was, where did all the money from tea go?  It was a profitable industry, but did not leave its mark on the Scottish economy as much as, say, the sugar or tobacco industries did.

Lindsey and I have already bought four books from the festival bookshop.  The problem will be finding the time to read them, but they all look very worthwhile.

Archaeology on the Borralie Headland

We picked up two interesting leaflets in the excellent tourist information centre in Durness, and used them as guides to visit some archaeological sites on the nearby Borralie Headland.  The first leaflet was about the Loch Croispol Schoolhouse ruin, shown above and below, which was excavated a few years ago as part of a local school history project.  The school was built in the mid 1760s as a parish school for Durness.

From the leaflet, I read that William Ross was appointed schoolmaster in 1811 when aged only 16, but ended up in conflict with the local minister.  The case eventually reached the House of Lords.  By 1850 Ross was still at the school, but there were no pupils!  This is the sort of job, a schoolmaster with no pupils, that would have well-suited Fat Mac, but even then he’d probably complain about being overworked.  Ross was eventually removed from his post in 1861, but stayed in the schoolhouse for a further ten years, spending his time fishing in the nearby loch.

We referred to the second leaflet, entitled Borralie Headland, when walking around the nearby hills.  There is also a very detailed “Archaeological survey
carried out on behalf of Historic Scotland”, Glasgow University 2003, which I found since our walk, and another document, Excavation of an Iron Age burial mound, Loch Borralie, Durness, Sutherland, by Gavin MacGregor.

Above is a sheepfold that was built in the 19th century when people living nearby were moved out to make way for sheep farming.

Ruined farmstead, probably from the 18th century.

Above is a natural amphitheatre called Hakon’s Bowl.  Hakon was a Norwegian king.  There is other evidence of viking presence in the area.

The leaflet calls this ‘Hakon’s Bowl mystery building’ and says that it could be a prehistoric house.

This is the site of Loch Borralie dun and township.  The leaflet says the defended homestead was probably occupied during the mid first millenium AD when Norse speakers arrived in the area, and that the buildings (remains of shown above) around the circular mound (the dun) were built later, probably using stones from the dun.

The leaflet says that the ruin above is a settlement dating from the 1400s.

Above is, I think, one of the Iron Age burial mounds described in the MacGregor paper.  This is situated in a very exposed position.

I found the leaflets shown above very useful.  Well done to the people who produced them.  Using them, Lindsey and I enjoyed a day walking on the moor, looking at the settlements and ruins of past and ancient lives, and our day’s entertainment was entirely free and also good for keeping fit.

After the walk, we enjoyed a hot chocolate in the Cocoa Mountain cafe, Balnakeil.  Lindsey reckoned it was the best hot chocolate she’s ever tasted.

By boat and minibus to the Cape Wrath Lighthouse

A video of a short trip by boat and minibus from Keoldale to the Cape Wrath Lighthouse, July 2017

Istria, the short movie

Kamenjak National Park

We walked around the Kamenjak peninsula, a few miles south west of Pula.  In the heat, the 10 mile walk seemed quite long.  The peninsula is very popular with locals and tourists, though we seemed to be the only ones walking the whole route.  Most people swim near the Safari Bar at Mala Kolombarica, or jump off the nearby cliffs.

In trouble at the top of Beinn a’Chlachair

It was a classic case of what can go wrong when you’re attempting to climb a Munro, in this instance, Beinn a’Chachair.

We’d spent much of the previous day of glorious weather in the car, driving to the camp site at Roy Bridge, and then getting settled in.  Even at 9 pm it was sunny, warm and calm, when we checked the weather forecast for the next day.  It said fair at first, becoming cloudy with possible rain patches later, and strong winds, especially high up.  Hard to believe, as we sat in a cloudless evening, watching the sun go down.

The next day, the weather appeared quite good, so we set off on the track south from the car park on the A86 near Luiblea.  As can be seen from the photo above, taken from the stalker path near the base of Beinn a’Chlachair, our target for the day, conditions were fine.  Maybe the forecast wasn’t entirely correct.

We watched some youngsters on quad bikes enjoying their outing, further down, and looked up at Beinn a’Chlachair.

It looked OK, with a wee bit of cloud at the top, and it was still dry.  There was no-one else on the way up to the hill, and we decided to continue.

Further up, the mist started to come in, but on a couple of occasions the top cleared, so we walked on, had a snack, and left the track as per route directions: “The ground ahead is boggy in places; make a bee-line across it to the south. Beyond climb the initially very steep slopes ahead, bearing a little to the right to reach the eastern rim of Coire Mor Chlachair higher up.”

We could see there was a strong wind blowing the mist over the col which was now to our left, and so we put on our waterproof tops, gloves and hats and continued until we reached the ridge leading to the summit, which was somewhere to our right.  What a wind!  Unless you’ve been in the mountains in such conditions, or have experienced a hurricane, you can’t imagine what it was like.  It was difficult to stand up.

We couldn’t find any path, but staggered on a little.  Every now and then it cleared a wee bit, but we couldn’t see any cairn.  The ground was very difficult, consisting of irregular stones, and we kept tripping up.

We had a printed OS map, the top of which, sticking out of my pocket, began to shred in the wind.  We had a compass in the rucksack.  We were also using an online OS map app for the first time, which Lindsey had downloaded onto her phone at the campsite Wi-Fi.  I was, very fortunately as it turned out, also tracking our route using ViewRanger on my phone.  It was the first time I’d used ViewRanger.

Having got thus far, it’s difficult to turn back without reaching the top, so we tripped and staggered on a bit, in the wind.  The cairn had to be somewhere close, but visibility was down to about 10 yards.  The summit plateau of Beinn a’Chlachair, we knew, is quite flat and extensive.  I thought I saw a bit of a path leading to something for a couple of seconds, so we changed direction a bit and headed on.  The cairn wasn’t there.  The same thing happened again.  As we stopped to check the OS map on Lindsey’s phone, the wind blew a flap of her jacket onto the screen and closed the app.  When she restarted it, the map wasn’t there anymore, only a cursor on a blank screen.

I looked up, and said to Lindsey “I’m disorientated.  We’ve changed direction too many times, this is serious.  Forget about the top.  Which way do you think is down?”  Lindsey had no more idea than I did.  We both knew that there were cliffs somewhere near, around the Coire Mor Chlachair, and also some crags on the south side near the top, so we had to try to retrace our steps.  We were now getting wet, cold and tired.  My spectacles were steamed up on both the inside and outside, and I could hardly see anything.  I had to pull my hat down to stop them blowing away.  Not that there was anything to see, in the mist.  The wind seemed to be getting even stronger.  When I took my glove off to tap my phone, it was so damp that I couldn’t get it back on again – (mental note: wrong type of summer glove for these conditions).

Anyway, it would have been impossible in those conditions to get the printed OS map out, so we looked at my phone, and thank goodness for the route tracker on ViewRanger – we could see our route up, marked in red.  We grabbed each other, staggered a few metres in no particular direction and looked at the phone once more – we could see that we were more or less retracing our steps.  So we continued doing this again and again, looking at the phone every few minutes.  You can see our track on the screen-dump below.

It staggers around a bit, doesn’t it?  The route up is, from the top, to the left.  You can also see that we missed the summit!  The grey line with triangular points on it marks some of the crags.  ViewRanger tells me that we reached max elevation 1,065 and if that is accurate, we had still 22m ascent still to go.

I can’t tell from the route tracker exactly where, but a few minutes later we had left the summit plateau and began to descend when Lindsey tripped slightly and was blown completely off her feet by the wind, landing a bit below on some heather.  She’d twisted her ankle, quite badly as it turned out later, but using both her stick and mine we were able to eventually get off the mountain and onto the stalker path below the col.  Fortunately this is a reasonable path, and the track further down is in very good condition due to being maintained by the quad bike rental company in Roy Bridge.  It was slow progress until we got back to the road.

The moral of this post is clear.  We are too old to do this sort of thing in those conditions anymore, and should have quit at least twenty minutes before we did.

Brijuni Islands

A few miles north of Pula is the port of Fažana, from where we took a ferry trip to the Brijuni Islands.  Although the Romans settled these islands, their main claim to fame is that they were the summer home of Josip Broz Tito, the former President of Yugoslavia.

You get a wee ‘train’ round the island, and see the remnants of Tito’s zoo, but the highlight for me was Tito’s Museum.

Tito was a major player on the international stage during the Cold War era.  Yugoslavia, although communist, adopted a non-aligned position during the Cold War.  He organised various meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the museum featured photos of some of the many leaders who visited Brijuni.  Above is Haile Selassie.

In the museum I managed to identify some of the leaders in the photo above.  My photo of the photo is not of great quality, but I think that it features Haile Selassie, Jawaharlal Nehru, Archbishop Makarios, Sukarno, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Tito.  I’d be interested to know of the names of others in the photo.

KK and Tito.

Castro and Tito.

Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Sophia Loren also visited Brijuni.

While trying to identify more of the leaders in the group photo above, I came across this wonderful post from The Calvert Journal, featuring photos from some of Tito’s trips abroad.

Vina Benazić

I had thoughts of a vineyard tour of Istria, in the knowledge that the wine grown there is of high quality and low quantity, and mainly produced by small companies.  However, most of the vineyards are in the north, and Pula is in the south.  The only organised wine tasting trip from Pula went to places we had already visited, so instead we walked from our apartment to Vina Benazić, just outside Pula.

We really enjoyed the samples of five wines, and the excellent lunch platter, served with olive oil also produced by Vina Benazić.  Katarina, one of the two daughters after whom some of their wine is named (the other one is Veronika) spoke to us about the family business.  The wine was superb.