Hard to believe that we are now fewer than 100 days away from 2025!

Hallowe’en is on the doorstep. We are not alone in traditionally holding this time of transition to winter as a time of festival celebration of life and death.

The early Christian Church appropriated and co-opted many ‘Pagan’ traditions into rituals reinforcing the ‘one true church founded by Christ’.

Hallowe’en originates in the more ancient festival of Samhain (pronounced SAU-IN), which gave thanks for the harvest and acknowledged the darkness of winter was on its way. It is part of the cultural heritage.

I hope many of you have been enjoying the Lough Erne Heritage Festival, which has been ongoing from last weekend and will continue until this Saturday, October 5.

Alongside the week of events, workshops, and performances reminding us of the diverse and vibrant history of the Lough Erne region, and the beauty of its landscapes and lakes, is an important and exciting conference: ‘A Meeting of Minds’, organised jointly by the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership and the UK & Ireland Lakes Network.

It is happening in Enniskillen, today and tomorrow (Thursday, October 3 and Friday 4), bringing together the local community and a range of people involved with or working in the context of still and freshwaters, or who have a interest or stake in them.

While spaces may be limited, much of it is also available online and is free to join.

If you feel the need to feel more positive about the future, then do something positive, however small, to help bring it about. Check it out!

As the redoubtable Lough Neagh campaigner, Mary O’Hagan, of ‘Save Our Shores’, said at an Autumn Equinox event last week, become an ‘accidental activist’.

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In the early days of my own accidental activism, and during my brief sojourn as a ‘politician’, I found it necessary to do some research on a woman called Cassandra.

The reason was simple. I had been dubbed as a ‘Cassandra’ by the popular media, and had no idea who she was.

I became acquainted with Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Fidel Castro and La Passionara on the same ‘accidental activist’ basis.

Joan of Arc was already on my radar, being a saint, and all that.

Anyway, I discovered that Cassandra didn’t really exist. She belonged in Greek mythology.

It seemed she had been cursed by Apollo with the gift of accurately predicting the future, but would never be believed.

A dirty trick, by any standards!

Of course, I have no such gift. When things have turned out the way I told people they probably would, it has not been because I have what Irish mythology calls ‘second sight’.

It is because I tend to state the obvious.

George Orwell, who wrote ‘ Animal Farm’, and ‘1984’, once said: “We have now sunk to the depths that re-stating the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men [and women]”.

Why so many people choose to ignore the obvious is beyond me, but the fact that they do is what temporarily makes those of who do not, look smarter than the average bear.

I mention this in passing as another week takes us closer to the global war I spoke of recently, towards which the USA and Israel have been driving us for some time.

The latest from Israel – the cockpit of Zionist terror – is its intention to ‘annihilate Lebanon’. (Israel’s words, not mine!)

Still the USA, UK and EU provide political cover, finance and weapons of mass destruction.

Sooner rather than later, the widening arena of the USA-financed Israeli genocide from the skies will extend by accident, or deliberation, into neighbouring Syria, and/or Jordan, or somebody’s patience will break and put serious manners on Israel.

All bets on diplomatic solutions will then be off the table.

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Back home, those who should know better are in denial of the obvious that Partition has run its course. Consequently, they are blind to the transitioning already under way.

A Programme for Government would be a good way of keeping the engine oiled and the wheels turning in the meantime, as well as a roof over the heads of families, and food in the people’s stomachs as the bare minimum for day-to-day survival, while planning strategically to sustain and further enhance the wellbeing of the people, and creating an economy for that purpose as part of an all-island economy.

In 2016, we had a draft Programme for Government which was outcome-based and set out the 12 key strategic outcomes to be achieved by the Executive and departments.

It set out how we would know if we were going in the right direction, and [how to] measure progress made in getting to where we needed to be, and which departments would have lead responsibility for ensuring shared work, shared resources and actual improvement.

It was beginning to look like those in charge of the place had some idea of what needed to be done by 2027 to keep our collective heads above water.

This has now been reduced to nothing more than a ‘wish list’. Who would not want to:

1. Grow a globally competitive and sustainable economy;

2. Deliver more affordable childcare;

3. Cut health waiting lists;

4. End violence against women and girls;

5. [Provide] Better support for children and young people with special educational needs;

6. Provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing;

7. [Provide] Safer communities;

8. Protect Lough Neagh and the environment; and

9. Reform and transformation (sic) of public services?

Tell me this: How will all, or indeed, any of this happen by 2027? Who will pay for it?

What legislation will be enacted; what destructive policies discontinued? What action-based strategies implemented?

What will happen in the meantime for children and families in poverty; the homeless; the elderly; the sick and dying; those not safe in their neighbourhoods, homes, or within themselves; rural communities; poisoned waters?

Nobody running the circus on the hill has the faintest idea! A programme for Government?!

Aye, right!