Issue 40

During Easter week, the Community Theatre at the High School was once again transformed into a highly varied art gallery, with a rich mixture of paintings, drawings and a wide variety of astonishingly skilled works of craft. It’s impossible to mention everyone who so richly deserves it, but a random selection follows, on the basis that each artist left something of value that will last long in the mind of the viewer.

Stephen Gill, painting on a larger scale than usual, has been exploring the craggy heights of Arran, looking out with great freshness to the air where eagles fly. Gaynor Harris. whose work is always interesting, catches something of the same sense of movement in her watercolours, Le Vent and Panache. Lesley McDowall is an artist of great honesty and quiet observation, whose work has something of Lowry’s appeal, showing people going about their business in a village or small town that somehow fits them properly, with none of the overwhelming commercialism of today's strident shopping centres.

Phil Holmes is an artist of broad talents, and shows paintings of very different kinds. His Indigo Peaks is, as the name suggests, a study of deep-toned mountain tops, seen with an eye to the way their abstract shapes form a strong pattern – and yet, his North Sannox Burn is utterly different. This painting is full of delicate detail and evokes the spring sunlight filtering through branches putting out new green shoots. Ronnie McNeice, too, is feeling his way towards a different form of expression. Two of his current pictures have abandoned his usual firm construction for looser brushwork. In these, a swirling evocation of wind and weather evokes the massive sweep of Turner’s still-astonishing landscapes. Think of his Rain, Steam and Speed that showed an embattled locomotive adding its own cloud to a torrent of overwhelming weather, and you are close to the new McNeice style.

Ruth Yates has long been one of the most diverse and inventive artists on Arran, and in this exhibition she shows a new certainty in her various techniques. Her Cottage in the Storm was boldly seen, with high colour in spite of the beleaguered state of things, yet in complete contrast, her Winter Crocus at Kew was perceptively seen, both in detail and as a joyful patterning of natural form.

There was some impressive photography, particularly from David Hogg, whose large print of the Waverley heading straight towards the viewer packed a great punch. Howard Walker achieved an equally knock-out effect with his stunning study of reflected light in Lamlash Dawn.

I must admit to a particular affection for works of fine craft. Janel Nichol’s wonderful shopping bags woven from jute are delectable, and Lucy Cartledge showed equally beguiling products. Who could imagine anything more inviting to chilly feet that her knitted slipper socks made of handspun wool? Ruth Mae showed two of her amazingly alive wire horses, plus a delectable bowl turned from holly wood – and David Samuels, who produces masterly furniture and musical instruments, also showed a Spotty Dog toy that galloped when you pressed its supporting clothes peg. And that, for me at least, was irresistible. Reader, I bought it.

This brilliantly talented duo, performing on guitar and cello, entranced their audience with music from India’s classical raga tradition. Its very non-European rhythmic basis that goes something like ta takka ta, takka-takka-takka ta is a subtle support for all kinds of musical expression from the gentle to the passionate, the voluptuous to the enraged, and listening was something akin to a magic carpet ride – a roller-coaster of emotional expression. Simon Thacker, who runs the guitar department at Edinburghs’ Napier University, is a dazzling left-handed player who displays quite extraordinary technique, and he is well matched by Justyna Jablovska, a cellist of no ordinary quality.

It would have been interesting to hear other aspects of the repertoire available to the cello/guitar combination, exploring the European, Gypsy and Latin American traditions, but everyone present was fascinated by the depth of expression revealed by the two formidably talented players. We have to apologise to them for the rather low temperate in the hall, which caused them constant difficulty in keeping instruments in tune.

This is no ordinary swimming pool. In Goa, south India, it is a thing of enchantment, an oasis of unbelievable luxury. Two boys, Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan) and Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah) are living hand-to-mouth, and cannot believe what they are seeing. Venkatesh perches unseen in the branches of a tree by the pool, and watches. He becomes obsessed with the demure girl called Ayesha (Ayesha Mohan) who is always reading by the pool.

The film was directed by Chris Smith, the US documentary film-maker who made The Yes Men. Though it was completed six years ago, it took a long time to be released in the UK. Gentle, well acted and beautifully shot, its language is Hindi (which Smith could not speak), and distributors perhaps thought it would not be a money-spinner. For those of more subtle tastes, it is a deeply rewarding film. At its start, Venkatesh, a sensitive, illiterate village boy, is working in a second-rate hotel and supplementing his small income by selling plastic bags in the street with his best friend, an orphan lad. The swimming pool in the garden of a house belonging to a wealthy Mumbai businessman fascinates the boys, and so do its owners, the businessman and his truculent daughter. Through a combination of accident and design, Venkatesh becomes part of the menage. The result is a subtle, truthful, moving story of class, ambition, friendship and romantic yearning that many feel could have been inspired by Satyajit Ray.

The showing begins at 8:00pm in Corrie Hall on Sunday, 11th May, and all are welcome. There is no charge, but contributions to the hall’s running costs are always gratefully received.

On Tuesday, April 1st, an evening of sheer astonishment took place in Whiting Bay Hall when four singers and an intrepid pianist created a magical world of opera. Working to a clever script that provided its own tale of love and loss (and sometimes sheer, delectable lust), these rising stars of Scottish Opera unfurled a programme of continual delight.

‘And not a mic in sight,’ somebody said at the interval as we sipped coffee in the beautifully renovated Lesser Hall with its pale wood panelling. ‘How do they manage to make all that sound?’ Opera singers are truly astonishing in their control of breath and voice production, but what was so attractive about ‘our four’ was that each one of them was also a consummate actor and dancer. Bringing their own simple but ingenious set and lighting programme that could be changed to accommodate changes of mood, the stage-craft and movement was immaculate. With never a fluff or an imprecise movement, the four of them, baritone, tenor, alto and soprano, were neat and quick and often very funny, and their voices soared gloriously through the hall.

Each one of these young stars is clearly on his or her way to great things. Sarah Power, slim and light and wickedly flirtatious, has a clear, true soprano voice, beautifully balanced by Máire Flavin’s soaring alto. When, following on from a lively quartet from Figaro, she turned to the meltingly beautiful Handel solo, ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ (‘Let me weep’) the shared wave of emotion was almost palpable. Andrew McTaggart, baritone, could have been put into this world to play Falstaff, generous of build, with great stage presence and with a warm, glorious voice, and Paul Curievici, tenor, is quite simply astonishing. His stage presence and timing are completely magical, and he seems able to do everything. His voice is stunning, his quickness and accuracy a joy to watch, and he has the audience helplessly in his hands, entranced to know what he is going to do next.

The inventive programme was sure-footed, moving from the classic greats to a beguiling new composition by Gareth Williams and ending with a Weill/Gershwin number in which the talented four turned their talents to ‘Thirties song-and-dance as smoothly as a well-oiled engine. The whole thing was quite wonderful.

Carol Burge kindly sends us this update on Arran’s new, combined choir and its concert plans.

You may in the past have supported the Lochranza choir and the Rowan Singers, and hopefully you will continue to support the newly–formed choir who have chosen to be called The Arran Singers. They will be giving their first concerts in July at two locations, in Lochranza on Friday 4th July and in the Community Theatre in Lamlash on Friday 18th July. More details nearer the time.

The Financial Times reported earlier this month that the coalition government plans that the Queen’s Speech in May will include plans to change trespass laws, allowing companies to explore for shale gas whether the landowner agrees to give permission or not. The FT reported a senior government figure as saying, ‘We want to streamline the rules and get this thing off the ground.’

Do we detect a trace of panic? Yes, undoubtedly. Just last week, on April 23rd, a jury in Dallas awarded $2.925 million to Bob and Lisa Parr, who sued a shale fracking company called Aruba Petroleum Inc. for causing a nuisance on the Parr's property which impacted their health and ruined their drinking water. The jury agreed that Aruba Petroleum ‘intentionally created a private nuisance’ though its drilling, fracking and production activities at gas wells near the Parrs' home between 2008 and 2011. The pollution from natural gas production was so bad that the Parrs were forced to flee their 40-acre property for months at a time.

The Parrs’ attorney, David Matthews, said he was ‘really proud’ of his clients for refusing to ‘take it anymore.’ His blog post reveals that the verdict included $275,000 for the Parrs’ loss of property value, $2 million for past physical pain and suffering by the Parr family, $250,000 for future physical pain and suffering (as the fracking will not stop) and $400,000 for past mental anguish.

Could a similar case be brought in the UK? Yes, it could. Although British landowners have no rights to the oil or gas under their property, the existing laws of trespass means they may sue companies who drill under their land without consent from the landowner. Five Sussex landowners are already using this right in a bid to prevent Celtique Energie from drilling for oil under their land. Celtique, in Gallic outrage, told the London Government that that such objections could strangle Britain’s shale industry at birth. Hence the panic-stricken rush to change the law.

In Balcombe, which led the fight against fracking last year, local people now plan to generate their own renewable energy. The choice is quickly becoming a stark one – do we go for short-term, dangerous fracking or invest in renewable energy? Cameron’s threat to enforce the quick money-making choice is a very real one. It’s a gift, of course, to the Scottish Independence campaign, but more immediately, if you want to join the protest, sign the current Greenpeace petition to protect our homes from fracking.

BT’s Clyde Coast phone directory for 2014/15 is a shadow of its former self. Barely the thickness of a thumb, the print is so minute as to be illegible without a magnifying glass, and at first glance, looks like a well-weeded plot of grey soil in which the adverts bloom. Its purpose can only be to wean people off type altogether. Tough on those who don’t compute, let alone anyone with less than hawk-eye vision. Do we care that it saves BT money? Well, no, not really.

Following an explosion of outrage from the national press, the Walmart-owned supermarket chain, ASDA, has revolted against Wester Ross farmed salmon and banned the product from its shelves.

It has taken time, but at last there is a reflex action from the trade as ASDA flinched from stocking fish from what the Sunday Times on April 20th called the ‘problem’ Wester Ross Fisheries. Scotland on Sunday went one further on the same day, asserting that salmon farms are said to be killing off wild stock. Wild sea trout are being ‘eaten alive’ by fish-farm parasites in Wester Ross following farmers’ ‘failure to control lice numbers on farmed salmon’.

In a long interview with Javier Sethness for the dissenting American site, Truth-out, Noam Chomsky had a few brisk words to say about the market system, which always ignores the unknown people who may be affected by a deal. Economists call these the ‘externalities’. See the following:

Katy Clark, Arran’s MP, is troubled by the big increase in the number of people using foodbanks. Research from the Trussell Trust has highlighted that there was a more than tenfold increase in the number of people who received over three days worth of emergency food from their foodbanks in North Ayrshire. Katy said the jump is ‘simply appalling.’ delays, she said, ‘a direct consequence of the policies which this Government has pursued. We are now seeing the human cost which punitive measures such as the Government’s bedroom tax and sanctions regime are having on our communities.’

Not surprisingly, pet ownership is becoming an unaffordable luxury. Increasing numbers of animals are being given away or put down because of the cost of keeping them. A recent survey shows that 9.4% have given a pet away because it was too expensive. One in ten devoted pet owners admit that they have made cutbacks on own living expenses rather than discard a beloved animal. Either way, the enforced choice is a cruel one.

Last Friday night in the Community Theatre at the High School, there was an unwritten expectation that Lesley Riddoch, well known as an outstanding broadcaster, would be speaking on behalf of the Yes campaign for Scottish Independence – and in a way, she was. But Lesley’s way did not tread the well-worn steps of political argument. Instead, she presented the content of her recent book, Blossom, as a closely-worked suggestion that Scotland has much to learn from Norway.

There are strong similarities. Norway and Scotland have almost exactly the same population, and both countries consist of a mainland and a broad outreach of islands. Both have people who are at heart practical and pragmatic, ready to solve problems as they find them. But there the similarity ends. Norway is robustly Scandinavian, and has little truck with over-fussy government. Though the state is in control of such things as Norway’s oil and overall economic decisions, it trusts the wide spread of local communities to do things in whatever way they find fit and possible. In a semi-Arctic country that abuts on the Russian border in the north, weather conditions are reliably frightful in the winter, so there is no sense of emergency about coping with frozen roads and deep snow. Overall policies, too, are very different. Land is not in the hands of a few traditional owners of vast estates, as it is in Scotland. As a result, land is cheap and self-built houses are not only permitted but expected. The regulatory hand is light. If you want to build yourself a wooden hut with no outside loo, and live in it, you can. In 1944, when the retreating German forces left Norway a ‘scorched earth’ desert, there were no houses. It was assumed people would build their own, with some finance from the ‘husbanken’ – house-banks. As a result, there are 368.000 wooden huts in Norway – not second homes but first ones, with people living in them full-time. On Arran, we all know people well able to build a home made of the abundant timber, and anxious to do so. But they are not allowed to. Instead, we watch tree trunks being hauled to the pier and shipped off to the mainland to be pulped for paper. Is this not crazy?

Why, Lesley asked, are Scots dying at a younger age than people anywhere else in what is still the UK? The figures for cancer and heart disease are the same, but the really big killers are alcohol, drugs – and suicide. People are dying of frustration and unhappiness. That’s a frightening fact, and one to which the Westminster government seems indifferent. Lesley’s book, Blossom, is highly readable, telling the stories of people she knows all over both Scotland and Norway. It makes fascinating reading, and its solid good sense may with any luck be a beacon for the future.

The Scotsman rightly described Mr McFall's Chamber as 'the jewel in the Scottish musical crown'. The Herald said the group is ‘the most important single development on the Scottish music scene for a long time'. And Arran is their first choice in a selected summer tour. They will be at Brodick Hall on Thursday, June 19th as the opening performance in a tour called ‘On the Shore of the Mind’, taking them from Edinburgh to the islands, with Arran their first stop.

McFall’s Chamber plays an amazing range of music, from tango through jazz and rock to contemporary classical, and much else as well. It consists of string quartet, bass, piano and percussion, with vocals from the glorious soprano, Susan Hamilton, well known for her performances with the Dunedin Consort. Its aim is to create ‘new audiences, new music and new possibilities’ – and it’s already a wild success. After their Edinburgh performance The Times reviewer asked, ‘Why can’t all concerts be like this - engaging, witty, relaxed, sophisticated, exquisitely played and just plain fun?’

So – for an evening of ‘just plain fun’ provided by Scotland’s top players, don’t miss this one. Tickets at £10 will be available from Inspirations or online from Arran Events, or can be bought at the door – provided there is still room!

See more on McFall's Chamber website and watch for more details in the June edition of Voice for Arran.

Can South make three spades? West leads the ♠A.

selected by David Underdown, who also supplies the footnote.

A Difficult Colour

by John Glenday

Think of it this way:
imagine a sea voyage. You have drawn

the boat up on the shingle for the night.

The water is barely luminous.

Someone points into the gloom. On the far hill
they are burning crofts.

The rain comes on again, but softly,
to preserve the sanctity of desecration

You stand watching the reflections
tremble upon the water.

It’s that sort of colour.

John Glenday is a Scottish poet whose third collection ‘Grain’ (Picador 2009) was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. This short poem leaves a lot of space to be filled in by the reader. The mood of gentle reasonableness in the opening lines is suddenly shattered by the line ‘they are burning the crofts’ that comes out of the blue and is profoundly shocking. Glenday lives in Drumnadrochit and works in the NHS as an addictions counsellor. His fourth collection is due be published in 2015.

California is seeing a staggering increase in autism. In 1981, only one person in ten thousand was affected by this condition, but by 2007 it was one in every 150 – a massive jump. Two years later, it had risen to one in a hundred and now, in 2014, it stands at one in every 68. If the rise continues at its present rate, within the next decade, at least half the citizens of California will have autism. The criteria that provide the statistics have not changed since research began, so no shift of focus can be argued.

Why is California so drastically affected? In the same period, autism rates have not risen in Europe, or in less intensively agricultural American states. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an epidemiology professor at University of California, points to clear evidence that ‘environmental culprits’ are responsible for the increase. She is backed by other leading scientists, who warned last month that ‘children world-wide are being exposed to unrecognised toxic chemicals that are silently eroding intelligence, disrupting behaviours, truncating future achievements and damaging societies.’

These ‘brain toxins’ are the chemicals found in solvents, flame retardants and pesticides. The massive increase in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is tightly linked to the expanded use of pesticides and herbicides, made necessary to protect GMOs against any natural resistance. In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan and all the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. America, however, is so in thrall to the big chemical companies such as Monsanto that it no longer regulates the use of these chemicals. Glyphosate, originally patented and sold by Monsanto as Roundup is a potent endocrine disruptor. That means it can interfere with the production and functioning of the body's natural hormones. Babies and unborn children still in the womb are particularly at risk, as any disruption of endocrine systems can affect their brain development.

Monsanto has always sworn that Roundup doesn't accumulate in the human body – but they were lying. Last week, a study was done that examined the breast milk of ten American women and found alarmingly high levels of glyphosate in three of them. The study also examined urine from 35 people across the country and found glyphosate at levels ten times higher than a similar survey done in a European population. Though the sample figure is small, the percentages revealed are alarming.

The New England Journal of Medicine has published the findings of brain autopsies done on autistic children who had died from unrelated causes. Autistic brains showed abnormal patches of disorganised neurons, disrupting the distinct layers in the brain's cortex. Because of the early age of the dead children, the abnormalities had to have occurred in utero during the key developmental period between 19 to 30 weeks’ gestation. The immature brain of an embryo is at risk of significant and permanent damage from exposure to such chemicals as pesticides, at levels that may have no detectable impact on adults.

Monsanto produced the infamous Agent Orange used in the Vietnam war, and many of the pesticides it has since developed are derived from chemical warfare agents such as nerve gases. They work by causing chemical disruption of the brain and nervous system of insects. At the first stage of pre-natal development, a human baby’s brain is no larger than that of many insects. Research has already confirmed that mothers more exposed to commonly used, ‘safe’ pesticides bear children with lower intelligence, structural brain abnormalities, behavioural disorders and compromised motor skills. They tend to have a smaller head size and develop higher rates of brain cancer.

In December 2013, the European Food Safety Authority said the neonicotinamides linked to declines in bee populations might adversely affect the development of brain structures in unborn babies. Two months before that, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had joined with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in issuing a joint statement. ‘Exposure to toxic environmental agents,’ it said, ‘can have a profound and lasting effect on reproductive health across the life course.’

The Standing Committee of European Doctors – which includes the British Medical Association – recently stated, ‘Chemical pollution represents a serious threat to children, and to Man's survival.’ Tests had found that 99 percent of pregnant women tested positive for at least 43 different chemicals.

With rapidly rising rates of autism and behavioural disorders in the US, you would think public health officials and politicians would be desperate to find out exactly what is happening and how to stop it. But industries such as Monsanto America are so powerful that no government dares to question their results. So the US blunders on, helpless to prevent damage to their unborn children and the resulting steady decline in America's collective intellectual prowess. While seeking to dominate the world, it is a nation heading for catastrophe.

Saturday, 10th May is going to be a big day for Arran Brass and its conductor David Payn. As part of the European Festival of Brass 2014, they will be welcoming The Scottish Brass Band Trail to Arran for two great performances. The first will be an informal afternoon concert/workshop at 2:00 pm at the Glenisle Hotel, Lamlash, and on the same evening the visiting players will be joined by Arran Brass for a grand concert in Whiting Bay Hall at 7.45pm. The Glenisle event is free of charge, and the evening concert is priced at £8 (£5 concessions), with free entry for young people of school age. Tickets can be bought at the door, and everyone will be welcome. The planned programme is full of entertaining, ‘easy-listening’ numbers, and a very good time is assured.

The European Festival of Brass runs from 26th April – 11th May. Hosted in Scotland by the internationally renowned Scottish Brass Band Association (SBBA), the 2014 European Brass Band Championships will be taking place at Perth Concert Hall during the first four days of May. There will also be a rich variety of outreach projects taking place across the country, including the Scottish Brass Band Trail, where an enthusiastic group of brass musicians will be on a week-long tour through various Highland and Island venues, from Stornoway and Kinlochleven to Lochgilphead and Campbelltown. Arran will be their culminating visit, on 10th May.

We found a dead young common seal at high tide mark at Lamlash Yacht Club. In case anyone finds a dead mammal (seal, porpoise, dolphin, whale) around Arran’s beaches please let strandings@sruc.ac.uk know, preferably with a picture, exact location (Grid reference), size (approx) and type if you know. It is important that a check is kept in case of “clusters” indicating disease. NTS Rangers Centre at Brodick Castle also keep a record. If you find a live animal contact NTS Ranger Centre (302462) or 01463-243030. The Strandings project investigates mortalities of marine mammals. In some cases they collect cases for sampling or necropsy. Mortality in young grey seals is high and this animal looks in thin body condition. If other cases turn up however, please inform Strandings asap, as they would like to be aware of any unusual patterns in the number or location of strandings.

The story of how Sreepur Cards are supporting the victims of the Rana Plaza building collapse.