World Challenges

Just as this is a new column for me in the Gazette, the world faces new challenges in the wake of events in the USA. And it’s hard to start without a personal comment, a personal view, on recent events.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the West generally viewed an enemy of our enemies as a friend. And that’s why we supported the Mujahadeen against the Soviets during their ‘adventure’ in Afghanistan. Now we reap the harvest with Osama Bin Laden, whom we previously supported, emerging from there as our most virulent opponent.

But we must do more than deal with our immediate problem, enormous as it will undoubtedly prove to be, we must start to redefine how we relate to events inside other countries. And the first must be respect for those with faith, all faiths. Every faith has extremists who distort and abuse others beliefs. True faith stabilises society in an uncertain world.

Abuse (Scotland) Bill

And while the world focuses on great conflicts, our Parliament’s Justice Committee has been considering how we deal with smaller conflicts.

About twenty years ago the Matrimonial Homes Act introduced a legal basis for deciding how to proceed when there are disputes inside a house. And it’s generally thought to have worked well.

The Abuse Bill now addresses disputes outside the house. Firstly the definition of abuse is widely drawn. And it doesn’t just address disputes between neighbours. It covers behaviour by children and mental abuse. And would be a criminal offence to continue abuse after a court order.

So there should be new ways of dealing with problem members of families. I’m certainly supporting the principles in the Bill.

The Book of Deer

George Smart is a local sage who under-rates his knowledge. He recently took me on a ramble to Aden Country Park over a somewhat damp patch of Buchan. We met archaeologists from Reading who were excavating a stone circle. We saw fence posts made from re-cycled plastic bags.

But most interesting of all was what he had to say about the 'Book of Deer'. It seems that is defaced by scribblings, the earliest surviving written Gaelic, around the margins. And it’s the scribblings that we now value most, not the wonderful illustrations it also contains.

Unlike the ‘Book of Kells', a broadly equivalent Irish book which attracts many tourists to Dublin, our ‘Book of Deer’ languishes in Cambridge, England.

So how about an exhibition of the ‘Book of Deer’ in the North-East to coincide with and commemorate the visit of the Scots Parliament to Aberdeen next year? Now there’s a thought!