Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Voice for Arran.
We have a wide-ranging mix of items for you this month, and a distinctly global feel to the issue.
We hear from Alice Maxwell of Lamlash who reports on her recent trip to Tibet, and from a family in Australia who are looking for information about their family’s connections with Arran. We also have a notice on the forthcoming anniversary of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the commemorations that are taking place in Arran and across Scotland for this. There is also more news from the on-going campaign against fish farm expansion, an issue current in Arran, but also across the world. The write up on the recent film screening of Artifishal describes the situation in the west coast of America but it also shows clear links to the Arran case, and both are encompassed in the industry’s global ambitions.
In his article Doom and Dharma that we publish here, Alistair McIntosh grasps these global implications with his analysis of dharma, of finding and living our truth across time. Such is the far reaching nature of global industry and business, in the current times of increasing climate change McIntosh argues that instead of jumping to short term deadlines to hold off the inevitable, to counter these powerful interests we too need to reach beyond lifetimes and grasp a more timeless way of being in the world. Citing Ghandi, McIntosh says for things to fundamentally change, we have to understand and go with the dharma, the unfolding reality of time. At a personal level, he says, this means walking in the path of truth that leads to life.
On a lighter note, on Arran it is nearly McLellan Arts Festival time of year again! August begins with the Arran Open Studios weekend, where artists all over the island open their studio doors to the public, and ends with the start of the Festival and the poetry competition prize giving on the evening of the 31st. See here for the full festival programme (PDF) and the fantastic line up of events that the team have organised. There is everything from theatre, film, poetry, music of all kinds (from opera, a community chorus, the annual festival ceilidh), and also a Clamjamfry. For those of you who don’t know what a Clamjamfry is, the word according to the online ‘scotsdictionaries’, covers all manner of things, from riotous crowds, to joyful assemblies, to cheerful and inclusive occasions. The McLellan Clamjamfy will certainly be one of these, and all must surely be part of the dharma!
There are fish hatcheries in Scotland, albeit on a smaller scale than in the US; these primarily exist to boost wild salmon stocks for recreational fishing. Their operation does however raise some of the same issues raised in the film, particularly their impact on wild fish populations.
Fish farming mainly takes place on the West coast of Scotland because of the powerful land-owning lobby on the East coast who know the effect farms can have on their wild fishing interests.
Sea-based fish farming has significant effects on the whole marine ecosystem. Over three years the following pollutants entered the Clyde: 38 tonnes of total copper from the feeding nets, 4 tonnes of zinc, 1539 tonnes of nitrogen, ammonium and urea, 210 tonnes of phosphorous/phosphates and 4939 tonnes of organic carbon. The industry uses neurotoxins to get rid of the sea lice which grow on the salmon and this impedes the lice’s ability to shed their skin allowing them to grow bigger. Sea lice are crustaceans and these chemicals have the potential to cumulatively affect and stunt our wild crustaceans such as lobsters and crabs. And there is a 17-20% mortality rate amongst the salmon themselves.
The salmon farming business has had large amounts of money pumped into it, primarily through governmental support. Commercial short-termism and boosting the economy is the overriding priority and there is a big push to exploit the Chinese market with its high potential revenues. However, consumers are fickle and the tide may already be turning on the cheap salmon food fad. The socio-economic benefit doesn’t lie with the community, it lies with massive multi-million dollar organisations outside Scotland. Before we know it, in 20 to 30 years’ time we will have been consumed by open-cage salmon farming.
There are many claims made about the importance of fish farm-based jobs for the rural economy although the numbers of those employed are very hard to pin down. The reality is probably about 3,000 people in total with just half of those in rural areas.
The salmon farming industry, despite many statements to the contrary, is largely governed by a voluntary framework of guidelines, a code of good practice. The industry regularly breaches the guidelines and so part of the fundamental part of the campaign which Corin has been working on is about bringing voluntary guidelines into a statutory framework and enforcing those. Enforcement is, in itself, challenging unless well-resourced.
The findings from recent parliamentary enquiries into salmon farming are damming although recommendations from them, as from many similar enquiries, may well not be taken up.
There are alternatives to open-cage fish farms such as self-contained inland models – however, these are expensive and ultimately salmon farming is about making money. It costs a lot of money to heat up the system or run closed containment. This potentially reduces production so the fish will be much more expensive. But you have to think with any food production system ‘what is the real cost?’
There is a lot of media interest and public awareness of the disadvantages of salmon farming. As individuals and organisations we need to lobby politicians and those who the fish farming industry are selling to. The industry has a strong PR machine which puts them at great advantage. However, there are hopeful signs of communities fighting back.
Tipping waste into our marine environment - a report from Lamlash resident and marine scientist Sally Campbell
The Isle of Arran Distillers was granted a licence to discharge up to 60,000 litres per day of mixed untreated distillery effluent over 2 x 3 hour periods each day into Kilbrannan Sound, transported to the outfall head by road tanker. The sea outfall is located at Rubh Airigh Bheirg, an important geological area, 2.5km SW of Catacol on scenic, unspoilt coast. SEPA decided that the “relative remote isolation”, “relatively small volume” and "lack of protected areas” reasons that formal consultation with external organisations was unnecessary. It is now in use and one wonders what will happen to waste generated at the new distillery on the south coast of Arran. What do Arran residents and visitors think of the discharge, a tanker twice every day spilling effluent down a pipe by the roadside? The smell of organic effluent, a range of alcohols and phenolic compounds, along a wonderful stretch of coast where tourists often stop to look at the Lennimore and North Thundergay graveyard, and at the geology of metamorphism and the tectonically deformed Dalradian rocks? The photo of the disposal site for the distillery is included. The other photo, snapped from a passing bus, shows a tanker discharging distillery effluent at Areverga point.
If we are to build a regenerative culture, ours is not to only jump at deadlines; we must cast out lifelines.
I often feel challenged when asked to speak at climate change gatherings. Especially so, at events like the five-day Rebel Camp that Extinction Rebellion recently held outside the Scottish Parliament.
Public campaigning works on simple messaging. Yet climate change has been described as a “wicked problem”. It’s riddled through with interacting systems, multi-layered conundrums and emergent properties.
ARRAN’S MP INCREASES PRESSURE OVER RIP-OFF PARCEL DELIVERY CHARGES
Arran’s MP and SNP Consumer Affairs spokesperson, Patricia Gibson, has challenged the UK Government to do more to stop Scottish shoppers being penalised by extra delivery surcharges.
In a House of Commons debate last month, Mrs Gibson called on the UK Government - which has the power to regulate delivery charges - to take “concrete and decisive action” to ensure that consumers in Arran and across much of Scotland do not face higher delivery fees or have their order refused.
Jess Wallace, sustainable food coordinator at Eco Savvy, updates us on the latest events to take place on the new Food Programme.
It’s been an exciting start to the Eco Savvy Food Programme! A few weeks back we had our ‘Fermentation station’ workshop. This was a well attended evening where participants learnt the basics of dry salt fermentation, had the opportunity to ‘massage’ cabbage and to place their sauerkraut in a communal crock for collection later this week. We also had the lovely Donna with us sharing some brilliant chutney and Jam recipes. There is a lot to be learnt from these traditional methods of food preservation (aside from being delicious!) and our food program hopes to share these skills with the Arran community.
Here Lamlash resident Alice Maxwell reports on her recent trip to Tibet, where she visited some of the organisations that the Tibetan Lama Akong Rinpoche, founder of the monastery Samye Ling in Dumfriesshire, set up in the Eastern region of the country.
Trip to Tibet – July 2019
It is thirty years since I have last set foot in Tibet. Since then my dear friend, the late Tibetan Lama Akong Rinpoche (brother of Lama Yeshe of Holy Isle) has set up many charitable organisations in EasternTibet. These focus on medicine – training of doctors and nurses and creating hospitals, education of orphans, and preserving Tibetan culture. We were to meet people whose lives had been dramatically changed for the better through his far-reaching vision and compassion.
Last month Lyn Beard from Australia contacted the Voice to help her investigate a family connection with Arran, and the Allison family of Brodick. Here is what she writes:
I am researching a family connection to the Allison's of Brodick.
My father-in-law, Des Beard, died in Perth, Western Australia in 2012 and recently I was given a shoebox of his treasures, probably because I have become the family historian.
Des was one of the first West Aussies to enlist at the outbreak of World War II and saw service in Palestine and Greece before being captured when the Germans occupied Crete in 1941. He spent the remainder of the war in a camp in Germany.
Going Global Travelling WorkshopA sense of creative communityIf you’d like to join the group in Arran or remotely, or start a group in your community, contact Fionaearththreadsuk@gmail.comFacebook pagewebsiteThe combined body of work from the Arran and West Kilbride groups is to be exhibited at the The Barony Centre in West Kilbride and also on Arran in March 2020.
A message from the team behind the Arran Open Studios
Arran Open Studios builds up more head of steam than a Clyde Puffer as it ploughs into its eighth year. 2019 boasts 41 movers and makers on this iconic isle in Scotland’s Firth of Clyde. This is a unique opportunity to visit artists and makers in the studio/workshop. It’s an opportunity to engage, one on one, with contemporary artists and craftspeople working in a broad range of disciplines and materials, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, fabrics & textiles, stone and bronze sculptures, furniture, woodturning, printmaking, jewellery, illustration, assemblage, and mixed media.
On Saturday 10th August at 7.30pm, American Folk duo Hungrytown will be playing in Whiting Bay Hall.
Music Arran writes, "Hungrytown are doing a UK tour in July and August, so we are very honoured that they have chosen to come to Arran. Bring a bottle and your friends and family to enjoy a fun night".
Arran CNDWhiting Bay at 6pm on Tuesday August 6thThe following events have been organised in Scotland:CND works to prevent world leaders having the means to commit similar atrocities in the future. Arran CND group meets monthly in Brodick – see The Arran Banner ‘What’s On’ section for details.The featured image shows the memorial plaque by the tree in Whiting Bay.
In this article, local MSP Kenneth Gibson reports on the work of the charity Playlist for Life, and tells of the effect music has on people living with dementia as well as on their carers.
Music is everywhere and an important part of our lives. The charity Playlist for Life is the country’s leading music and dementia charity and works towards its vision that every person with dementia should have access to a unique personal playlist and everyone who loves and cares for them should know how to use it to make living with the condition easier and happier.
With the UK on the brink of leaving the EU, Scotland’s role as a welcoming and open country is more vital than ever. While Brexit threatens our ability to connect and prosper, the SNP Government has taken ever increasing action to build and strengthen links with our European neighbours.
In May, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP visited Dublin and met Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to discuss the future of Scottish-Irish relations in the wake of continuing uncertainty about the UK’s future relationship with the EU.
The film showing at 8 pm on Sunday 11th August is The Florida Project (Director Sean Baker. USA2017 111 mins. Cert 15).
Set over one summer, the film follows six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.
Warm, winning, and gloriously alive, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project is a deeply moving and unforgettably poignant look at childhood. Set on a stretch of highway just outside the imagined utopia of Disney World, The Florida Project follows six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her rebellious mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) over the course of a single summer. The two live week to week at “The Magic Castle,” a budget hotel managed by Bobby (a career-best Willem Dafoe), whose stern exterior hides a deep reservoir of kindness and compassion.
UK Tory Government returns funding allocated by the EU to tackle Child Poverty
Patricia Gibson MP has slated the “staggering incompetence” of the UK Tory Government after it was revealed that EU money allocated to the UK has already been clawed back because it has not been spent. The UK received more than £3.5 million for 2014 to 2020 from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, to be used in projects such as child poverty, homelessness or food banks.
A suggestion for a mass search for the Loch Ness monster later this year has gone viral on social media and caused concern for the RNLI. On Facebook about 18,000 people say they are going to the Storm Loch Ness event, with 38,000 interested. It has been inspired by Storm Area 51, an idea tens of thousands of people could storm a US Air Base to uncover the truth about a UFO conspiracy.
But Loch Ness RNLI is warning of the dangers of the loch’s deep water. Concern that hundreds or even thousands of people head out on the loch for Storm Loch Ness on September 21st, the volunteer RNLI crew said it could not match the resources being used by US military to deal with Storm Area 51.
A spokesman for Loch Ness RNLI said, "Our Atlantic 85 has an impressive survivor carrying capacity but that will be stretched by the attendees of this event."
A mouthful of language to swallow:
stretches of beach, sweet clinches,
breaches in walls, bleached branches;
britches hauled over haunches;
hunched leeches, wrenched teachers.
What English can do:
the warmth that chuckles beneath
fuzzed surfaces, smooth velvet
richness, plashy juices.
I beseech you, peach,
clench me into the sweetness
of your reaches.
By Peter Davison
Peter Davison, American, 1928-2004. Speaking of his own career, Davison once told Contemporary Authors: "I must be one of the few poets of my generation who has never either taken or given a creative writing class, but I cannot suggest what to make of that fact. I have seldom found my editorial career in conflict with my writing except at UNFATHOMABLE depths. Poetry for me is not work but pleasure, not a career but a second life - a play within a play. "
