THE FAR REACHING EFFECTS OF WAR AND CONFLICT!

IT HAS EVER BEEN A MAN´S WORLD BUT WHY, WHEN THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN CAPABLE OF MAKING VALID DECISIONS FOR US ALL?  POST NO.24/IN (A 10 minute read) 

What a traumatic week I have had for sure! So many different waves of sensations and so few of them bringing any pleasure or anything positive. I have at last made it to my communal swimming pool and gardens as some respite from the overbearing temperatures that we have here in Almería right now. My desktop thermometer is marking 38%C outdoors currently and my indoor thermometer is at 28%C!

The summer heat is kicking in and I was horrified to hear on yesterday´s news bulletin that last year 2022, no less than 11,000 people here in Spain, died from heat exhaustion! Yes, this heat is exhausting, it really is. On Monday I had a trip out for a translation job and on return we found ourselves in the midst of a traffic pile up.

Typical Spanish scheduling and road resurfacing going on; one lane of traffic only!! We were one and a half hours waiting for the said appointment and then a full two hours sat out on the road. From having left my home at 10.15am, I returned at 4.50pm. I was absolutely exhausted. The sweat pouring in the car was quite something and our water supply had not been meant to last that length of time.

So, little visible physical activity but with a sweat loss of someone doing a hard aerobic workout, the dehydration factor is real. The metabolism is having to work overtime to try and maintain a healthy core temperature. It is this invisible activity, coupled with the loss of body fluids, that leaves you feeling so completely depleted, exhausted and good for nothing for the rest of the day.

Fortunately though, in times gone by, there was much wisdom applied to the building of human living, working, breathing spaces. A reporter yesterday did a temperature check at the Alhambra Palace of Granada. An exquisite remnant of the Arab occupation of Al Andaluz (Andalucía). The in the sun temperature (no shade), was 42.9ºC. Moving just three metres under the portico, her thermometer dropped to 29ºC.

That is some shift in temperature for a few metres moved, is it not? Then she moved into the building proper and found the temperature inside at a pleasant 25ºC. Nigh on 18ºC less inside the building than out. This was staggering engineering and design. Fortunately the wise amongst the Arab nations, are recognizing that their ancestors really did come up with some magnificent designs which did make living in these extremely hot conditions bearable!

STAYING OUT OF THE HEAT. Inside the Alhambra Palace, Granada. Photo by Adam Marikar on Unsplash.

There were small lakes and pools of water, fountains and streams running all through the gardens and patios. All shaded areas which were made to combat the feel of overwhelming heat and dehydration. Their aqua engineering had much to say for itself as well and this was a society who had water available to them through the strategies of the collection of, the storage of and the channeling of, all available waters.

I have spoken much of the Roman aqua engineers of some few thousand years ago and their brilliant strategies. All the great ancient civilizations were built up around an ingenuous aqua strategy, it was the availibility of water that allowed those societies to survive, grow and thrive up to a point. What point in time was that? It was surely another prolonged period of drought which saw these civilizations fail.

We have arrived again at that point in time and here in southern Spain, the scarcity of natural rainfall and the elevated temperatures which cause any accumulated body of water to disappear quickly via evaporation, is seriously threatening the ability to bring any crop full cycle to a fruitful finish. Water becomes evermore expensive as it becomes more scarce.

The Arab nations recognize the value of water in human survival. All Arab nations are largely desert land now but how long has that been so? Desalination water technologies are now being seen as a factible solution and this is something that I am trying to keep an eye on. New technologies will need much tinkering and additions, actually learning from first hand experience, just as the ancient Arabs did and the Romans of course.

All that said and what a contrast with the headline news that is the USA prepared to send a clutch of banned cluster bombs to the Ukraine!!! I try to bend all my thoughts towards the living, I do! It is so hard to find the strands of positivity around me. The news both nationally and internationally, is filled with tales of death by one means or another.

WHY? Simple really! Because it has always been just as it still is, (IT IS) A MAN´S WORLD, the title of chapter twenty-one of my second book titled ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT. I am a year on now from finishing the writing of this book but even as I wrote this chapter, we were moving into the month of June 2022 and the conflict between the Russian masters team and the Allied team, was taking on new dimensions.

I quote myself from this chapter: 

But even as I write my way through the days and weeks, that shatranj board is all ago! So, I will now pick up that thread again and check on the state of play at the moment and have a look at the major moves that have gone down of late.

Well, it was the last week of March 2022 which saw Mr. Russia making a clear definition between friendly nations and non-friendly nations. Having done so, he warned all the non-friendly nations that Russia would stop their gas supplies if they did not pay for it in Russian Roubles!

I had to smile at that one, in many ways I feel that I understand Mr. Russia! Russia is the biggest exporter of gas worldwide, with only the USA and Qatar anywhere near them on the gas league table. Norway and Australia are the only other two nations who export on a massive scale.

Canada and Germany are also small exporters, as are Holland (Netherlands), they fill the sixth, seventh and eighth places respectively on the gas league tables. Any who have read my first book ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, will have read of my travels through Algeria and the Sahara Desert. I wrote of my surprise as I drove through southern areas with massive gas plants!

I really had not expected that at all but Algeria find themselves ninth on the table though they export just a fifth of the quantity that Russia does! In tenth place is Nigeria, who also produce a little less than a fifth of Russia´s quantity. Between these ten nations, they supply eighty percent of all global gas exports but forty percent of that gas comes from just the top three, Russia, USA and Qatar. End of quote.

As a nation, here in Spain, we found our gas prices take a massive jump upwards. We were out of our cold indoor months though and as such, I was not overly affected by the change in gas prices. But our restaurants certainly were and the increase has seen business profits cut further still. Having had the strain of hiked up electric costs all winter, this new extra, proved too much to withstand for many.

I look in more detail at this foolish game play that our leaders have decided to take on, supposedly on our behalf. Well folks, I would have said to each government, "PAY THE GUY IN ROUBLES FOR NOW! Were you not all making plans to come off fossil fuels? So, why now start looking for alternative gas sources?"

Our man-made gods on earth all vying to be MR. NO.1, the MOST! All point scoring, tit for tatting! It is so pathetic that as females, we really would not ever be making the same decisions as our male leaders, NO WAY! All our strategies would be very distinctive. I tire of writing of man-kind and all of his deficiencies and shortcomings, so, inevitably when writing, my mind becomes weary of so much avoidable strife, struggle and the suffering of the regular human being.

My Trains of Thought will then come to a set of points in the tracks and I can see a sidetrack, inviting me to go down it and come away from my main track which is man-kind and bringing him down to size, tiring as it is. So, anytime I come to a set of points, I do not hesitate for even a moment, I launch myself down that sidetrack knowing that it had offered itself at just the right moment, as I needed a break from man-kind!! I quote myself again from this chapter:

Neither Mr. Russia or Mr. USA are present on the board of today. They stand no risk of losing their lives, or not at the moment they do not! There is a long way to go before the head to head showdown. 

These two are fishermen, they are not the action men at all, but unless you are a very `compleat angler´ and will be very scrupulous in choosing which fish to take home for dinner and which to put back in the water to swim free another day, any old or young fish will do. After all, once out of the water they are all a gonna! Whether you cook them or not!

Even as I just wrote that paragraph, my inner eye has been flooded with the most beautiful and tranquil pictures from home. The COMPLEAT ANGLER Public House in my home city of Norwich, UK! Oh, how I would love to be enjoying their two for the price of one (as advertized on their website), of PINTS, PROSECCO and PALOMAS, sat in their beer garden watching the swans swimming on the beautiful River Wensum.

Beautiful city of Norwich and there is a tiny ferry boat as a memory of crossing the River Wensum, prior to a bridge being built across. This is a beautiful spot and can be found just across the river from the train station. From this point one can hire boats of various denominations or go out on organized boat trips.

I can remember taking a rowing boat with a friend one Sunday and rowing around the city on a pub crawl! Shades of me and my dear girl friend from college and our windsurfing pub call up in north west Norfolk! We can have some exquisitely beautiful, warm, sunny weather in England and it was one of those days.

Later we pulled up in the shade of some divine Weeping Willows and laid on the flower strewn river banks enjoying our summer holidays from college. Before rowing just another three hundred metres or so, back to the quay. Just in time for five o´ clock opening of the COMPLEAT ANGLER!!

So, after a strenuous day relaxing, it was an ideal time for another round of refreshments. I can see it all and even hear it all so clearly that it aches! I am so relieved to see that the slip way of the ferry, which is called Pull´s Ferry, is still there! End of quote.

Enjoying this wander around my beloved home city, I have a good ramble through my city´s his-tory and give all the factual background to the period of time, the 11th Century in fact, when our first Norman King William I of Normandy came and took over the island of Gran Bretaña. The Castle of Norwich was built on the command of this king and it was his descendants who completed the grand Norwich Cathedral. Quoting myself again:

Earlier on I said that I must come back to Eleanor of Aquitaine and via this little rambling down my adolescent memory track, I have unwittingly come now very close to her in time. How beautiful it is to just follow trains of thought, they will lead you where they will, if you allow yourself to follow them.

Follow your own lead without any fear. Maybe you cannot see why you went off down this little side track but seeing two young people with bleached blonde, spiked hair, with earrings by the dozen and studded leather jackets in a rowing boat on the River Wensum and later laying on the banks green and grassy, all strewn with flowers??!!!

ROMANCE, romance, romance!!! Young love it was and it felt beautiful! There I find Eleanor! Kindred spirits, both looking for the same in our relationships with men. Needing all our senses stimulated. Not all at once, no, each and everyone having its own space and time to be savoured for its very own uniqueness! End of quote.

As promised previously, I return to female leadership and look in particular at the leaders around Europe, the Black Sea and Adriatic regions and all those who share borders with the Ukraine and Russia!

The next chapter is titled, Balancing The Field Of Play and this chapter is dedicated exclusively to female leadership, so, check back and find out more. Thank you for reading today, have yourselves a great afternoon. Keep cool and drink plenty of water!!!

My second book is now available for sale (18/08/2023); help yourselves!!!!

Links to the paperback book: ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT

And the e-book version: ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT

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