Re: A Dance called Survival

We are in a new Millennium. We are also in a new age which allows us (you and I and
millions of others) to communicate with eachother in a matter which was undreamt of a
few years ago. In this respect, there are no boundaries. Similarily, in business there
are no boundaries to amalgamations and joint ventures. You have recently seen Times
Warner tie up with AOL and a few days later with EMI. On this side of the Atlantic
Vodaphone took over Messermann of Germany. Britain no longer has a home-grown
car industry and this trend towards globalisation of industry will continue apace.

In the above circumstances, independence for Scotland or independence for Wales or
for Cape Breton are absurd irrelevancies when we look at the real problems which are
facing the World. 70% of the World population is living at subsistence level. The Sahara
desert is advancing at the rate of 30 kilometers a year all the way from Mauritania across
to Eritrea . Our oceans are being turned into cesspits. One could go on and on with
the disasters which are facing Mankind. There is only one certainty: We cannot live or solve problems in isolation nor, for that matter, can we expect politicians to address
the real issues which the World is facing today. They are looking for votes and in order
to get those votes they will open their mouths and utter absolute claptrap to deceive a
largely (as you have said) illiterate and ill-informed population.

If the Scottish people had been presented with the truth rather than a lot of hype about
independence and national identity, they would have realised that there was little sense
in fragmentation. The Scots, as recent articles to these columns have stressed again and
again, are not "little islanders". Their contribution to the British Empire and Commonwealth
and to the World at large has far outweighed their numbers. Prosperity has little to do
with isolationism (as America discovered) and it has never been increased with a proliferation of 'talking shops' to allow politicians to spout whatever brand of "ism" is most likely to deceive the largest number of people and, ipso facto, to allow them to remain in a comparatively cushy job (producing more and more paper about less and less).

I do not profess to know or to have the answer to the World's problems which are now
escalating out of control. However, I do know they cannot be addressed in isolation nor
can they be left to politicians (of whatever hew) to sort out. Their tools have always been
those four cardinal sins: lies, embellishments, fabrications and omissions.

However, our aims should be clear: Firstly, we must protect the integrity of our own
nation states so that others can be influenced by our example. Secondly, we must protect the sanctity of the planet on which we all have to live and which we hold in heritage for succeeding generations.

With due humility.

Niven Sinclair