Mumbo Jumbo and The Arms Trade

These are things I have been reading recently and which deserve a review. Firstly Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions which took some concentrating on but was ultimately very interesting. As with all such books, I didn't agree with everything he said and I thought on occasion he'd thrown out some babies with bathwater, but I particularly found the chapters on the Thatcher and Reagan regimes fascinating. It filled in some history for me in terms of how the US and UK interfered in politics in the middle east, in particular in Iran, and the chapters on how the economics of the time didn't add up and have led to the situation we are currently experiencing were particularly illuminating.

Wheen's main thrust is that since 1979 every institution in the west has been turning its back on the values on the Enlightenment - rational thinking, logic, open-mindedness, lack of superstition, turning away from religious faith - and turning towards the 'mumbo jumbo' of the title. There are many things he includes in his definition of mumbo jumbo, including many things which are frankly shocking, such as Ronald Reagan's use of astrologers in making US policy. He's also very much against relativism and post-modernism. His thoughts on Princess Diana were very funny. He attacked Left politics as well as Right politics.

However, sometimes the tone became a bit smug. Personally I do actually think that examining accounts of history taking into account the context in which it was written is a logical and scientific thing to do. But, a bit of balance, I do also think that there are also objective facts which can be established. Wheen seems to be saying at times that context and relativism are never useful. I'm also very dubious at his claims that alternative medicine is illogical and irrational superstition. And his assertion that conventional medicine is entirely based on logical progression in research and scientific methods is just plain ignoring many facts which spring easily to light should you pay even the most passing attention to the history of medicine. Maybe wishful thinking?

Anyway, all in all, very amusing, enlightening and wlel worth a read even if there are bits which will annoy you a bit.

The second book I want to talk about is Mark Thomas' As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade which was another fascinating, if very disturbing, book. I have to admit to not knowing very much about the arms trade, and neither do I want to. Except, that we should know about it, in order to campaign for it to be better regulated. If you know anythig about Mark Thomas and his comedy style, then you'll be able to imagine the kinds of things he does for this book - sets up fake arms companies to trap arms dealers in breaking the law, to show up the ridiculous and inadequate nature of the law, and to show how big business takes precedence over concern for human life.

I wasn't sure how many laughs could be squeezed out of such a subject, but Mark Thomas manages to make us laugh about it without ever forgetting how serious it is. This is an important book which never reduces things down to a simplistic level. Thomas manages to acknowledge the humanity and complexity even of the most repugnant and callous arms dealer, while at the same time condemning their trade. The Government (yet again!) are the ones who come out of this book the worst. And it's good to know that Thomas' actions for this book did actually prompt some real changes in the law. Another recommended book.

Inspirational books

Well, Christmas is coming and I thought a list of inspirational books which people might want to add to their wish lists or buy for other people would be appropriate. So here goes:
So Shall We Reap by Colin Tudge - this is a detailed and educated look at the current food situation and how factpry farming is not only not the answer but is part of the current problem.
Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield - this is a classic and inspirational book. It's quite short but packed with get-up-and-go. Makes you want to forage in a skip for old tyres, turn them into planters and use them grow tomatoes on your patio!
Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman - another book which makes you more and more outraged as you read it, wondering why this kind of information is not mandatory in all schools.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement and Reproductive Wealth by Toni Weschler - this is another on the 'required reading list' for all women. If you're trying to get pregnant, not to get pregnant, or have ever worried you were pregnant when you were not, this is absolutely vital information. I consider myself pretty clued up on health and reproductive issues but I learnt so much from this book. I can honestly say that I probably wouldn't have managed to have my children naturally (if at all) without this book.
How to be Free by Tom Hodgkinson - I've talked about this book before and I still highly recommened it as a way of seeing our culture in a new way.
Affluenza by Oliver James - a psychological look at why everyone is so depressed these days despite being so well off materially. An interesting read.
Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey - a lovely, moving and fascinating read about a group of mothers from before and during WW2 who supported each other through a penpal circle.
And finally, one for the Pagans here: Living with Honour: A Pagan Ethics by Emma Restall-Orr - a must-read for all thoughtful Pagans with an interest in philosophy.
Enjoy!

Reading

I have to share a great author I've discovered this year. I've gradually been working my way through many of his books and have been constantlyu blown away bu the sheer inventiveness of the polts and settings, the detail of the worlds he conjures up and the variety of characters. So, if you like 'hard' sci-fi, with a very surreal edge, but great rollicking adventures, I advise you to go and try Charles Stross - particularly Singularity Sky, The Atrocity Archives and Accelerando. Whenever I read his books I feel like my brain looks like the faces of astronauts who are undergoing heavy-g acceleration! But in a good way.

Socialism and mid-life crises

Well, only one mid-life crisis and thankfully not mine but comedian, socialist and general political pundit, Mark Steel's in his new book What's Going On?: The Meanderings of a Comic Mind in Confusion which I have just finished reading. It was a weird read - some parts of it I utterly related to, such as Steel's confusion about how the world has changed so that people think you're mad, naive and a bit stupid if you suggest that things could ever be run on any other basis than profit. It really brought home to me how insidious this mind-set is, as he reminded us how things used to be run differently and how many other ways of doing things there actually are.
It was also terribly sad to hear of the gradual disintegration of his relationship with the mother of his children and how this coincided with him turning 40 and questioning so much of his life up until that point. It made me very glad that I am not having to deal with that at least.
Unlike Steel, I'd never joined a political party or believed that party politics was remotely helpful - maybe this is because I'm that little bit younger than Steel, as he discusses in the book how anyone younger than 30 (I'm not that young!) genuinely doesn't understand the entire concept of socialism. Steel charts the rise of protest, not organised by specific political parties but on an issue-by-issue basis, and how people are reluctant to join an actual party as they distrust the apparatus of party politics, and how this maybe dilutes the opposition to the current government. He also admits that protest and dissent has changed, that the internet plays a bigger role than he ever thought possible.
Some parts of it clanged with me though - ironically, right about the time that Steel was decrying all the splits, schisms and in-fighting amongst the Left, he was still propagating this himself in his little digs against those of us whose preoccupation is green issues rather than trade unions, or who choose to live in rural or small towns rather than in cities. His implication seemed to be that wanting to eat fresh local food was a very middle class desire with no place in Left-leaning politics, which is a shame. I really think that if the remnants of the Left got together with the Greens, it could be rather interesting. Again it was particularly ironic as Steel also pointed out how the role of class has changed with regard to Left politics, and how definitions of class have themselves changed. I can understand that if you were a 1980s striking miner, organic food might seem to be a rather lah-di-dah concept, but this is ignoring the fact that organics and permaculture and many other green movements which are now much more mainstream were developing amongst the same counterculture as the union-dominated Left of that time.
However, that criticism apart, Mark Steel is a hugely knowledgeable and vastly entertaining writer and speaker and even though this book has you chuckling at least every other line, it also feels like you're being educated. It's a bit like a discussion with an older and wiser friend, it has you laughing and nodding and generally feeling validated. Well, it did for me anyway, if you were a supporter of Margaret Thatcher, you may not enjoy it quite so much. I can't help but think Mark Steel would be a fun person to go down the pub with.

Thoughts

I've just read Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Transformation and Unconditional Love
by Martha Beck, the author of Finding Your Own North Star: How to Claim the Life You Were Meant to Live a life-coaching book which I actually found enjoyable and helpful to read.

Expecting Adam is her memoir of her pregnancy with her second child, a son who turned out to have Down's Syndrome and who completely changed her life. The book tells of a really mad and chaotic time and just reading it made me feel exhausted. Beck went from being a neurotic, repressed, super-high-achieving Harvard academic to starting to see life from a completely different perspective during the time she was expecting her son.

I have often heard people say they had their baby speak to them while pregnant, or that the baby told them its own name or other things like that. Despite knowing myself from my own pregnancies how much you can get to know about your baby before they are born, I never had such specific experiences and wondered if they could possibly be real. I think that after reading this book, I can understand that some children bring such experiences with them.

As Beck said, her mystical experiences with Adam are because of *him* - he brings them with him and they are incidental to him having Down's, which was a whole different part of the book. In fact, the parts that discussed his Down's horrified me. I know her experience was in 1987, but the language used horrified my 21st century sensibilities. The book often used the word 'retarded', and every single medical person she encountered advised her to have a late abortion when the condition was diagnosed. It is very much to her credit that she refused, despite the immense pressure she was subjected to, and despite the hugely misleading and downright wrong information she was given on the subject of Down's (referred to by the medical professionals she saw as 'Mongoloid Idiotism'!)

It is a sad indictment of the world when a world-respected research centre such as Harvard has such eugenic attitudes about the value of human beings. I can only hope that attitudes have changed there since.

This book was utterly bizarre. At points I was crying, at others I thought Martha had really lost her marbles. Some parts I found hard to believe and I cringed at others. But the bottom line is that, for anyone who has ever been pregnant and given birth, it is fasincating to read detailed accounts of other people's experiences of pregnancy and birth, and this is no exception.

*That* conversation

We've been having a lot of discussion about sex in our household recently - usually in the bath or on the train (I'm sure we've amused many a fellow train passenger!) and I have to share Where Willy Went with you all as it is hilarious and also gets the information across. It's all about the 300 million sperm who live in Mr Browne preparing for the Great Egg Race, and the hero Willy, a sperm who isn't very good at sums but is very good at swimming. This book is regularly requested at bed-time and sometimes provokes questions and at other times just enjoyment of the story and characters. But either way, it's been a very good book to have around.

Off-grid

I've been reading How to Live Off-grid and have been absolutely fascinated. This book has had a lot of criticism and probably an equal amount of praise, but I found it interesting and inspiring. In it, the author treks around the UK in a cusomised camper van visiting off-grid families, individuals and communities and chats to them about how they manage their lifestyle, what works, what doesn't work, the problems and successes they've had. The main criticism of the book is that the author is a middle-class wannabe off-gridder rather than the real deal, but I don't really see this as a problem. He never pretends to be otherwise. He reiterates throughout the book that his main motivation for seeking this information is not for environmental reasons and that he could only ever be a part-timer in this lifestyle. These things do not make his research any the less valid in my opinion. The people he visits are pretty inspirational. Even in the instances where things have not worked out or where they would do things differently if they had to start over, they are trailblazers, unafraid to do things differently and outside the mainstream, and those of us in a firmly-entrenched on-grid life can still learn a few things and maybe make a few changes without having to buy a woodland in Wales.
I found the views expressed in the book by various experts and non-experts on the likelihood of grid break-down scary, eye-opening and interesting and it has given me quite a few starting places for a wish-list of items to install if we ever have any spare money (yeah, right!). It has also reassured me that in the case of a catastrophic break-down on on-grid power and water services, it is still possible to survive and thrive.
All in all, I found this a fascinating and informative read with lots of handy information and interesting glimpses into the lives of people who have dared to be different in a way I'm not sure I'd have the guts (or knowledge) to do. I'd highly recommend it.

£1 a day?

I've just read How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day which has been a thought-provoking read. Author Kath Kelly discovered why it is that the poorest memmbers of our society are the fattest even as she walked miles to avoid paying for public transport.
Her challenge isn't one that many people could pull off. I feel she was very lucky in where she lived (Bristol) as there seemed to be free events, receptions, shows and openings every night of the week, all of which provided free food and wine. There certainly aren't so many free events in my neck of the woods, and I couldn't use them to feed the children! Also, she hitch-hikes a lot and I wouldn't feel safe doing that. She constantly reiterates that she was safe doing it, but I can't help but think that every person who has ever been murdered hitch-hiking presumed they were safe until the fateful encounter where they weren't safe.
I also have a few problems with buying elderly and reduced fresh food from the supermarkets - everyone knows (don't they?) that vitamin content is hugely reduced in fresh produce the older it is, so I think it's actually a false economy to buy that kind of thing when discounted. Obviously, this doesn't apply to all produce and I'm the first to buy other kinds of discounted products.
I did enjoy the book though. The author is likeable and some of her money-saving ideas are interesting, and the whole idea is quite inspiring. I felt slightly sick that she managed to find over £117 in lost cash over the course of the year of her challenge (I've never managed to find that much, people are obviously richer in Bristol!). And, as she herself pointed out, if you're trying to spend as little as possible then you can't buy organic, fair trade or ethical. For me, this is unacceptable. And all the free samples she manages to blag of toiletries and household cleaning products are full of chemicals which I'd never use on myself, the children or around my home, even if they were free or only cost 10p. But the whole book is very good at helping you see what your own priorities (and extravagances) are, and on the whole I'd recommend it as a good read, and one which makes you think.

Writing and reading

I've been a bit off fiction at the moment which is normally my favourite vice, but I can't seem to settle to a book at the moment. Maybe because I know I should be trying to finish the next draft of the novel I am writing at the moment. I still don't feel properly well though and having a head which feels like it's stuffed with cotton wool is not the best start for the complicated task of a third edit of a 90,000 word book. Or maybe that's just an excuse. Maybe what I'm really afraid of is that after spending a year on writing and editing it, if I actually finish it and submit it to agents and publishers they will once again unanimously reject it and I will once again feel like I've wasted my time and energy, and my confidence will again plummet. Obviously I'll never know unless I try and I really will try and pull myself together, but my confidence it pretty low right now anyway. None of my other efforts at novels have been published (well, unless you count this one which is self-published, but hardly a best-seller).
However, I have been reading some interesting non-fiction. United States of Hysteria: An Englishwoman's Journey Through the Madness of America by Anne Dixey is a memoir of a London woman who moved to Washington DC with her family 3 weeks before 9/11 and it is fascinating reading. Of course it is easy to be dismissive or scathing of another culture and ignore the bizarre things we do here, but there were many truly scary things in this book which made me appreciate little old England far more than ever before. Such as when Dixey's 5 year old daughter came home from school with the news that they'd been practising the drill for when a gunman is loose in the school (go into the toilets and stay very quiet!) after a gunman had shot 10 people over a 3 week period in the neighbourhood.
I'm just wishing that an American friend of mine who lives here now would write a similar book about her experience of the different cultures - I think that would also be a fascinating read!

Pondering attachment

Having just read Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Mate I have been pondering on attachment. I've always been a fan of John Bowlby's ground-breaking theories, but even though I was aware that attachment theories are currently out of fashion I hadn't really quite realised how much this view of childhood and family has been left out of most modern childcare books. Even those in the 'attachment parenting' genre rarely seem to actually mention the importance of attachments and the problems lack of attachment or insecure attachment can cause.
The book was truly radical in its recommendations and very thought-provoking in its conclusions of how many of children's current problems and society's ills can be laid at the door of inappropriate attachments while children are growing up. I can't even attempt to summarise the scope of the arguments and evidence presented, but would urge any parents out there to read it. But beware, it's one of those books that makes you reflect on your own childhood and see areas where you (or your parents!!) went wrong and the consequences of that. There were a few tears for me as I read this book, as suddenly some teenage experiences made sense for the first time.
So, my pondering on the importance of attachment continues and I feel I have had a fundamental shift in my parenting perspective which is having practical consequences for my actions as a mother, and also maybe as a friend.
Coming soon - pictures of our Yule crafts!

Another book

What with the nasy weather, and the children taking ages to get to sleep, I've been doing lots of reading recently, and here's another review.
How Children Learn At Home by Alan Thomas & Harriet Pattison was a fascinating read - academic yet accessible and rather inspirational and quite a relief for those of us using mainly informal learning with our children. I was particularly interested in their comment that the way informal learning was acquired in all its chaotic, leaps forward, regressions and general piecemeal nature was highly similar to the way learning is acquired at the cutting edge of scientific research, the methods of writing novels, composing music and various other highly creative and high level projects. Maybe my children will be geniuses yet!
The way the book is split into different subject areas - reading, writing and maths in particular makes it easy to find the area you are most interested in and the quotes and example from families are illuminating and fascinating in themselves.
All in all a great read, especially if you're home educating using informal learning methods, or if you want to know how these ways of learning may fit in with school.

Book review

I've just finished reading Crap At The Environment by Mark Watson and enjoyed it. Though I don't really class myself as 'crap at the environment' as Mark Watson classed himself and have always been interested in green issues and done my best to stay informed and active about it, I do really see his point that so many people are put off even trying because they don't know where to start. To address this problem, he started a small movement called Crap At The Environment or CATE to welcome other people who felt they wanted to or ought to make more effort with green issues but didn't want to go the whole hog, or were embarrassed to join in with groups that already knew more. And he surprised himself in the process - the more he learned and the more effort he put in, the more green he found himself being, to the point where he suddenly realised he'd become the very people he'd ridiculed for being 'green extremists' just a year before. His struggle with complex issues and his pragmatic and realistic approach make his book very readable (as well as the fact he's a very funny comedian) . And whatever shade of green you think you are, it's always good to re-visit the reasons these issues are important and to remind yourself of the basics. Well worth buying for any hesitant would-be greenies this Christmas!

Bread

I've been reading BREAD MATTERS: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Ownby Andrew Whitley (the founder of the Village Bakery) and have been held spellbound. There is more to bread than I ever imagined. I'm not a bread novice. I've been making my own for years and also studied how to make it at school but there was so much that I didn't know! The history of bread-making is fascinating - I didn't realise that commercial baker's yeast is a relatively modern innovation and I certainly didn't realise that aspects of modern industrial bread-making are to blame for the rise in intolerance to bread and gluten sensitivities.
Whitley has an amusing and authoritative authorial voice - he sounds slightly curmudgeonly but with a dry humour - and he really knows his stuff. His descriptions of the chemical changes within bread made traditionally versus the modern industrially made product will have you reaching for the flour bag vowing never to buy it again!
I have already put some of his tips into practice and have found improvements as a result. If you ever make - or want to make - bread, rolls, brioche, croissants, sourdough or anything remotely bread-related you have to read this book first. Some books that concentrate this intensely on one topic manage to make the whole thing sound complicated, Whitley talks about techniques for pages on end and yet simplifies them, making you think 'I could do that!'
The only problem is - now that I realise how much I didn't know about bread-making, I'm wondering how much I don't know about cake-making, jam-making, gardening, sewing.... I'be got a lot of reading to do!

Disappointing book

I've just finished reading Panic Nation: Unpicking the Myths We're Told About Food and Healthwhich promised to 'expose the myths we're told about food and health'. I was drawn to its claims that it had a leading expert in the field give the genuine facts about each issue in a separate essay which would then enable the reader to sort the facts from the opinions of those who may be biased and thus be able to make up our own minds.

That's exactly the sort of book I could do with as I don't trust anyone these days. But sadly, it was very disappointing. Many of the essays were characterised by the kind of hysterical hyperbole that they condemned in those they disagreed with, and a fair amount of them presented no sources for 'facts' they quoted or else apparently presented merely a different opinion to their opponents without any more eveidence than those they condemned as 'zealots', 'health freaks', and even 'witch doctors'.

There were some exceptions - the essays on cholesterol, the sun and skin cancer, and salt were very interesting and presented new evidence with huge consequences for health decisions. The chapter on food additives was well-balanced and written without hysteria by the author of E for Additives and summed up well with a reasonable position of - some are harmless, some are helpful, some are harmless but also pointless, some might be harmful to some people, and some are dubious for most people.

The chapter about pesticides was utterly awful and didn't even mention at least half the issues surrounding pesticides, let alone engage with them. Apparently, pesticides are harmless, end of story. Oh, apart from if you're a poverty-stricken, illiterate third world farmer who has not training or safety equipment, in which case yes you get poisoned, but that's OK for us in the West. That seemed to be the main thrust of the argument. Concerns over disrupting eco-systems by wiping out whole species from a particular locale, salination of the soil, pollution of water-tables were not even mentioned, nor the fact that pesticides allow large-scale monoculture which has its own problems...

The authors seem to have a bit of chip on their shoulders about people being 'anti-science' and attribute every different viewpoint to their own to this allegedly dangerous tendency. NOw, I'm really not anti-science, but they managed to really get my back up anyway by talking of science as if it is infallible and omnipotent and as if anyone who is not a professional scientist has no right to hold an opinion on anything.

I had the idea that science was to do with asking questions and doing research to find answers or to learn more. But this book gave the impression that everything is known and anyone who questions it is being 'ludicrous'. I also felt they were setting out to 'debunk' things in a controversial manner, so they were hardly unbiased to start with, which is not very scientific. They kept saying 'there is no evidence for x or y'. That doesn't actually tell me anything. That could easily mean that no research has been done at all, or that the research which has been done doesn't support it. As my science teachers used to say 'absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.'

So, I am still looking for a book which sets out the actual facts of current hot topics, as far as they are known, with no hidden (or not so hidden) agendas and no axe to grind, which treats me as intelligent enough to understand science but that takes out the most impenetrable jargon. If you are looking for that book too, then this one isn't it.

Slowly does it

Although it's not a new book by any means, In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed has just fallen into my hands and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Having read a lot of books on this kind of subject (and enjoyed them) including How to Be Free and Affluenza amongst others, I wasn't sure what there was to add. But Carl Honore proved me wrong by covering some aspects of the subject of living more slowly and mindfully that others had failed to mention, such as sex, gardening, cooking and music.

All in all, this was a delightful read and inspiring as well as fascinating.