Complacency and indifference

Some people really seem to care about issues affecting the greater good and can often be overheard sipping ethically traded coffee at cafes around the city proclaiming with a healthy dose of indignation their views on one crucial issue or another. “They are ruining our rivers”, they cry, “and polluting the atmosphere”.

Often others will join the denunciation “they are murdering our whales in the name of research!” the last spat with the distaste normally reserved for murderers and rapists.

I try not to take sides on these issues but do question what word the Japanese actually use to defend their whaling policy. The word tankyuu can mean research but it can also mean quest or pursuit; and it makes me wonder whether the Japanese are simply saying they hunt whales for the thrill of the chase. I expect they may want to go deer stalking next.

Others choose issues much closer to home, crying out when local schools are closed down, complaining about soil erosions, clean air, traffic, or launch a campaign solely because they happened to buy a house without broadband access.

But every so often I come across an issue that does motivate me into action; an issue so important I just have to take a stand and say: something must be done. So it is with the campaign to build the Statues of Pillars of Argonath either side of ‘the cutting’ in Miramar.

So let’s write the slogans, print the badges and paint the placards; there is more than civic pride at stake here.