Re: Jacboties

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 21:44 01/11/00 +0000, you wrote:
> > There can be no
> apology for the Highland Clearances without an act of
> > institutional contrition. Let the highlands be resettled by those
> who can
> > prove that they are descendants of cleared highlanders and other
> cleared
> > Scots. It would be a simple matter of ammending the laws of
> immigration and
> > citizenship. It surely would bring a lot of investment into the
> country.
> > 
> For what it's worth, my own view is that the Scottish Parliament should
> not go about raking all this up again. It smacks of a bit of a political
> stunt by Jamie Stone. It is not a topic to meddle with: in this list
> alone, we have seen how emotive the subject can be. It should concentrate
> on its core function of legislating for the people in Scotland. I think
> it is fair to say that most people here have put the pain of the
> Clearances behind them.
>  
> IMO, to think that the process can be reversed
> and the Highlands 'resettled' by descendants of emigrés is slightly
> fanciful. I'm not at all sure that there would much interest
> anyway.
>  
> No, if the Highlands are to be repopulated and
> the Scottish Parliament is to demonstrate any sort on contrition, the
> Parliament should open its chequebook and start spending on the
> infrastructre (esp. digital) so that 'settlers' can live rurally and work
> remotely.
>  
> Euan
>  
> PS - Jacboties ???


Euan,

An excellent summation of the situation.

Always remember, Governments open cheque-books with our
money.  Subsidies
are rarely (if ever) a long term answer.  In any event, any
returning 'settlers' would
be like fish out of water.

Information Technology will bring people back to the Highlands without
any need for other inducements. As you rightly point out, people can live
'rurally' and work 'remotely'
- thanks to the IT at our finger-tips.

My brother's book "A Feeling for the Land" suggests (among many
other things now
being adopted by the majority of EU countries) that we could reduce our
National
Health Bill by half if we got people back to the countryside - if only so
that they could
walk on Mother Earth rather than on concrete.  IT will make this a
reality.

Finally, Man's ability to deceive himself is undoubtedly his most
developed faculty.  I
have seldom read such flawed reasoning being advanced as an excuse for
the failure of the
some Scots to 'make good' because of "multi-generational
traumas" they suffer as a result
of what happened to their ancestors during "The
Clearances".  Such people need a kick up
the backside rather than pseudo-psychological twaddle of this kind which
merely invites
them to do nothing to help themselves.  True, it provides employment
for psychologists
but the end-results are purely negative.  I hope Sinclairs are wise
enough to avoid this
escape route - this 'shifting the blame' syndrome.

There is only one person responsible for one's own failures -
one-self!!

It isn't one's mother or father, or brothers or sisters, or teachers or
bosses, or this
syndrome or that syndrome, or this abuse or that abuse, or past traumas
experienced
by one's ancestors which result in failure.  It is the thought which
suggests failure.
Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts.  Think
failure and you will
assuredly get failure.  Think success and you will reap
success.  The recipe is as
simple as that.  The ingredients are within us.

Niven Sinclair