If you think the recent anti-immigrant violence across these islands and the declining health of the biosphere have nothing in common, you would be wrong. They are both underpinned by dysfunctional ideas that have become as familiar as the wallpaper in our living room, so much so that we have ceased to notice them.
When I was growing up in Belfast, I was oblivious of the ideological and ethical meanings imbedded in the words people used. Rather, what my mind alighted on were accents. When I worked in community education I became so attuned to accents I could tell what part of the city the person I was listening to likely grew up in.
In the UK general election – along with the other 92 general, presidential and mayoral elections that will be conducted worldwide this year – the call made by the competing parties and independent candidates was that to vote for them is to vote for change. This was the mantra across the UK political spectrum, inclusive of the SDLP and the UUP, the UK Labour Party and the Reform Party led by Nigel Farage.
There is a part of the human psyche that wants to dwell forever in childhood, in a place of happy endings, comforted by the thought that as The Big Bad Wolf in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ met a sorry end, we can expect our own tribulations to end well.
When earlier this year I was living in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, I did not need to read any scientific reports to realise that we are burning the world.
Despite being in faraway South Sudan at the time of writing, Laurence Speight's insights resonate with environmental issues much closer to home.
If any of us went to see our doctor for a health check and the results revealed that all was not well, we would immediately address the problem, which might include eating less processed food, committing to a regime of daily exercise, getting sufficient sleep, and if we drink alcohol, reducing the amount we consume.
