Sunday 18 April 2010

Our common home - # 19/10


I am both unfortunate and at the same time enormously priviliedged to live close to Heathrow Airport (LHR) and underneath one of the world's busiest and most important flight paths.  Normally the sky is full of con-trails tracing the track of huge aircraft making their way to and from London Airport (LHR) and the major airports on the continent of Europe. The surroundings are never quiet. The rumble is constant and depending on wind direction flights from "the world's busiest airport" going to Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and the distant destinations of the old British Empire - India, Pakistan, Africa, the Arabian Gulf, Australia, - come directly over my house, and those bound for America are visible and highly audible as they turn away before reaching me.  I welcome them, log them and also curse them.

But today everything is absolutely QUIET!!!!  The sky is CLEAR!!!!  The dust cloud from the volcano in Iceland has stopped all aviation.  There is not a single rumbling noise; only the sound of birds.  No planess bound for America: in fact NOTHING to ANYWHERE.

At which point I make a big leap and signal the TV programme.  BBC television recently showed a British-made police drama series based the Swedish novels about the Ystad Police detective Kurt Wallander. The BBC is now showing the original Swedish-made TV dramas in Swedish with sub-titles.  It's fascinating to compare and contrast how the different film directors and cameramen have filmed the "Wallander" dramas in similar but also in distinctively different ways. But at the end of the day we are left with one very clear message: whether Swedish or British we have such similar concerns, and our lives are so closely linked.

And so, back to the Icelandic volcano: no aviation, no contact, no meeting point, yet all of us facing the same potentially serious economic consequencies, and all of us realising that we live in one very small "common home".

9 comments:

  1. J'ai une amie bloggeuse finlandaise, mariée à un français et parlant plein de langues dont le suédois, qui nous parlé il y a peu de Kurt Walander. C'est un anti-héros comme les aiment les scandinaves. J'aime bien pour ma part, à petites doses, l'écrivain islandais Arnaldur Indridason. Lorsque je le lis au lit, je crois qu'il pleut dans la chambre. Les cadavres découverts 50 ans après le meurtre ne sont pas décomposés à cause du froid.
    J'habite pas très près de Roissy (30mns en voiture) mais cependant dans le même département et les avions nous survolent assez haut. Le concorde nous survolait tous les jours à 11H20, c'était un vrombissement agréable qui me rappelait celui d'une Harley-Davidson...

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  2. (Soit la cheminée ne sert jamais, soit vous passez beaucoup de temps à la polisher)

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  3. (Le motif du double-rideau est très féminin)

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  4. The sky is clear. Really? NO ash?

    What concerns me is that the original decision to shut everything down, was based on computer projections from one research unit. Every test plane that has come up has not determined the sky to be 'dangerous'. But we would only need one plane to come a cropper, and merry hell would break loose, I guess.

    No man is an island ...

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  5. Careful Chucker - are you sure you're up to sudden leaps yet? Jolly pleased if you are....

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  6. Nature can stop us all in a heartbeat. How complacent we become with everything following as we've planned. I will admit being grateful I wasn't headed to Paris at this time. I do however understand the grave circumstances of those caught in all of this.
    V

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  7. Hi Stuart! We are definitely in the same boat... ;)
    Anyhow, I was already stuck before the cloud, so things aren't good at all...
    Hope you're getting better!!

    Blogtrotter Two has a French party for you in Turkey... ;) Enjoy and have a great weekend!!

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  8. I'll bet it's roaring again , chez Stuart! Good for travelers, not so swell pour toi?
    V

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  9. Looks comfy and cozy to me!

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