Un viaje escocés

En Junio 2004 viajé a Escocia con cuatro de mis estudiantes. Quisimos andar de la costa oueste de Escocia hasta la costa este. Nos encontramos en Glasgow y fuimos en autobus a Mallaig en la costa oueste. Pasamos una noche en un albergue y la próxima mañana cogimos un barco para ir a una península que se llama Knoydart. Se puede ir al Knoydart solo en barco o a pie.

Desde la salida llovió mucho y la tierra era mojada. A veces tuvimos que pasar por una ciénaga y nos botas fuieron mojadas. Los estudiantes no pusieron andar deprisa y empiezaron a los doler los pies. Dos de los estudiantes tuvieron ampollas muy malas y al tercero día no pusieron más andar. Anduvé un día con los dos otros estudiantes, y me pareció que pusimos andar sin problemas, pero al tarde me dijo una estudiante que se dolió las rodillas. Entonces dejé de andar.

En lugar de andar fuimos a las islas de Orkney en la costa norte de Escocia. Allí vimos muchos restos de la Era de Piedras. Entramos a sepulcros que fueron construidos hace cinco mil años. Además escuchamos un concierto de coro en la catedral de Kirkwall. La catedral fue construida en la doce centuria por un rey noruego. A nos nos gustan las islas Orkney, pero hizo muy frío.

Stovies

This is a draft version, in English, of an entry about stovies that I'm writing for a Japanese encyclopedia of Scotland. I may have to make changes when writing the Japanese version.

Stovies are simple, filling dish served in many pubs in north-east Scotland. It is also available in Aberdeen as fast food—according to my informant in the bakery on School Hill it always sells out very quickly. To make stovies, heat some dripping up in a heavy pan, then put in the pan a layer of sliced potatoes, a layer of sliced onions and a layer of chopped meat (e.g. lamb or beef). Add enough stock or water to cover, then add another layer of the ingredients, season, cover and cook until the potatoes are soft.

Reference:

Traditional Scottish Recipes - Stovies

RRS Discovery

This is a draft version, in English, of an entry about the Discovery that I'm writing for a Japanese encyclopedia of Scotland. I may have to make changes when writing the Japanese version.

The Royal Research Ship Discovery was built to carry the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04. Discovery had an exceptionally thick wooden hull to withstand the pressure of ice, three square-rigged masts, and a coal-fired steam engine. The ship was approx. 52m long and had a displacement of approx. 1645 metric tons. By the 1890s the art of building wooden ships was rapidly being lost, but a wooden ship was needed both for strength against ice and to allow magnetic observations to be carried out. Dundee had a tradition of building wooden whaling ships, and the Dundee Shipbuilders' Company built the Discovery to a design based on that of a whaler. The Discovery carried 47 scientists and seamen to the Antarctic in 1901, under the command of Captain Robert Scott. The ship spent two winters locked in the ice of McMurdo Sound, during which time all kinds of metereological, magnetic, geological, biological and zoological observations were carried out. While Discovery was strong enough to withstand the ice, the ship proved slow under both sail and steam and also rolled even in moderate seas, which made scientific work difficult.

From 1905 to 1911 the ship was used by the Hudson Bay Company to make the annual voyage across the North Atlantic between Britain and the Canadian fur trading stations, passing through the icy Hudson Strait. On the outward journey the Discovery called in at Peterhead or Aberdeen for supplies. In autumn 1915 Discovery carried munitions from France to Archangel in northern Russia. The ship returned briefly to the Antarctic the following year in an attempt to rescue the marooned Shackleton expedition, but arrived too late to be of use. After carrying cargo around the coast of wartime France, in 1919-20 Discovery sailed to the Black Sea ports in a vain effort to boost the economy of areas under White Russian control.

Following a major refit in 1924 Discovery spent three years in the South Atlantic, shuttling between Cape Town and the Falkland Islands area as the scientists on board carried out oceanographic research. Much was learned about whales, which were at that time being hunted by large numbers of ships in the southern oceans. From 1929 to 1931 Discovery was used by the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition. BANZARE's mission was to carry out out oceanographic research and at the same time to formally claim British sovereignty over as many as possible Antarctic territories by planting Union Jacks on dry land. There was considerable friction between the captain, who was anxious about ice, fuel and his crew's lack of sailing expertise, and the scientists and flag-planters who wanted to set foot on as many places as possible.

From 1932 to 1986 the ship was berthed in London, before being brought back to Dundee as the centerpiece of efforts to regenerate that city. The ship is now exhibited in its own dock very close to Dundee railway station.

Sources:

• Savours, Ann, 2001. The Voyages of the Discovery: The Illustrated History of Scott's Ship. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1 86176 149 X.
• Discovery Point Antarctic Museum, Dundee

Robert Thomson

This is a draft version, in English, of an entry about Thomson that I'm writing for a Japanese encyclopedia of Scotland. I may have to make cuts when writing the Japanese version.

Robert William Thomson (1822-1873). Inventor and engineer. Born Stonehaven, Kincardineshire. Thomson rejected careers in religion and commerce in favor of mechanical and civil engineering. After training in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh he became a railway engineer in London, where at age 22 he successfully proposed a railway for the Eastern Counties. In 1845 he obtained a British patent which set out the key characteristics of the pneumatic tire. Thomson's patent described an inflatable rubber inner tube surrounded by a protecting cover of e.g. leather, which together would "present a cushion of air to the ground, or rail." The patent, recognized in France in 1846 and in the USA the following year, was remarkable for its breadth and for its foresight in envisaging many applications and refinements of tires. A horse-drawn bougham was fitted with the tires in 1847 and ran for 1200 miles, and passengers reported a quieter and more comfortable ride. But it was difficult to manufacture inner tubes that did not leak, so Thomson switched his attention to the design of large solid rubber tires for heavy machinery. By the late 1860s steam traction engines throughout Europe were using Thomson's solid tires. The pneumatic tire only entered widespread used in the 1880s when cycling became popular and Dunlop of Belfast patented pneumatic bicycle tires. (It is possible that as a child Dunlop had seen a pneumatic-tired bicycle belonging to Thomson's young half-brother Neil.) Before his death in Edinburgh Thomson obtained 12 more patents, many related to traction systems. A memorial car rally is held every June in Stonehaven.

Sources:

• George R. Cameron, 1973. The Indispensable Pneumatic Tyre and its Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson 1822-1873. Published to accompany the Commemorative Exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of Thomson's death, held in Stonehaven Town Hall.
• R.W. Thomson Memorial Fellowship, 2004. R.W. Thomson Memorial Weekend Souvenir Programme, pp.1-2.
• Stonehaven Tourist Office, "Robert William Thomson", The Stonehaven Guide, 2004, pp. 21-22.

Many thanks to Marjory Stephen, Stonehaven, and the staff of Stonehaven Library.

The Downside of Bloodless Revolutions

In "The Unmaking of Scotland," chapter six of After Britain, Tom Nairn calls for deep changes to be made in the renascent Scottish state. The problem with Devolution is that it leaves in place the same small elite in charge of most aspects of Scottish life. In many respects this is the same elite class that signed up to the Union nearly three hundred years ago. This elite dominates the new Scottish parliament, and is ensuring that efforts to make it distinctive from the one in Westminster are mostly cosmetic. Of course, it is not an English elite—on the contrary, it is imbued with Scotland's problematic national identity.

National identity is usually unconscious, emerging only on certain occasions. We do not understand enough about how it is formed, but in today's world at least part of national identity has its source in "statehood, warfare and international 'representation'" (p.247). Deprived of those sources of identity, some Scots have tried to promote lower-level institutions such as the education system as institutions in which to take equivalent "pride." Others have promoted British identity, while others still have sought to deny the importance of national identity altogether. Most have resorted, since the 19th century, to occasional outbursts of Gaelicism or tartanry, which although alien to most of the population provides a "fantasy alter ego" (p.251). This identity needs to be rebuilt.

A first step towards making a truly distinctive, modern, democratic Scotland whose citizens have a real identity is the adoption of a written constitution. This is a prerequisite for Scotland's integration into Europe, because without it people cannot understand how European union affects Scotland's sovereignty. The strengthening of English nationalism is anyway likely to further undermine the mystique of the chaotic UK constitution and prompt calls for a written English constitution. And without a written constitution, disputes between the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments will fester.

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

Nationalism after September 11

Chapter five of Tom Nairn's After Britain is entitled "On Not Hating England." It restates Nairn's view that Scottish nationalism is civic rather than ethnic in nature. The events of September 11th showed this—the bloodless twin impact of the 1997 Yes-Yes vote rather than the destructive one four years later. Press reports of anti-English sentiment and even violence have been exaggerated and occasionally fabricated by Unionists in order to suggest that only by remaining part of the UK will Scotland escape a descent into racial hatred. In fact, such anti-English sentiment as does exist is a reaction to shameful political incorporation rather than a reminder of how much worse relations would be were independence to be attained.

For three decades from the 1960s onwards the most virulent nationalism in Scotland was not Scottish nationalism but British Socialism. Centered on the Labour Party's impregnable Glasgow base, it kept the English Socialists from backsliding away from the realization of a Socialist empire. Charged with such a lofty aim, Scottish nationalism had to be repressed, or at least confined to harmless 90-minute bursts. Labour's massive electoral gains in England in 1997 removed any need for such a moral sacrifice, which was in any case no longer credible once Clydeside Labour's corruption started to be exposed, and the Catholic voter-base for the first time shifted towards the SNP.

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

Backwards Britain

In "The Last Days of Sovereignty," chapter three of After Britain , Tom Nairn explains the historical context of Scotland's strange constitutional circumstances. The Act of Union was drawn up in the early 18th century, when feudalism was in its death throes but representative democracy had not yet finally emerged. Thus the monarchy's role was still prominent but it was balanced by that of the parliaments. Those parliaments, however, were entirely made up of members of the socio-economic elite. Thus Scotland finds itself in a different situation from subordinated territories around the world whose power arrangements were fixed after the American and French revolutions. This is one reason why the mantle of ethno-cultural, or ethno-linguistic nationalism that fits the Irish case and many others is not applicable to Scotland.

I think I now understand Nairn's point about the forces that brought the UK together now forcing its constituent nations apart. These three forces are "British decline, the European Union, and the advance of non-élite (or anti-élite) democracy." (p. 134). So by extension the forces that brought the UK together were the rise of the British Empire, conflict in Europe (and England's need to break up the Scottish-French alliance), and the consolidation in power of a socio-economic elite.

Post-modern discourse holds that the nation-state is outmoded, and hence that it makes little sense today for nations to attempt to become nation-states. Nairn has some sympathy for this view, which also entails a rejection of nationalism based on ethnic or linguistic divisions. However, this post-modern discounting of the nation-state is difficult to accept from the perspective of a nation whose basic sovereignty is still being denied. Established nation-states can afford to declare themselves to be increasingly unimportant while continuing to enjoy considerable autonomy in the international system and exerting leverage over the future shape of the system. Thus Scotland should attain full independence first, even if the nation-state's days are numbered.

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

Local government and the Scottish Parliament

Chapter four of Tom Nairn's After Britain is entitled "Devolution or 'Virtual Liberation'"? It lacks the clear focus of the preceding chapters, but by and large Nairn talks about devolution in the context of repeated shake-ups of local government in the UK since the 1960s. These shake-ups have tended to contradict each other, but their cumulative effect and unstated purpose have been to concentrate power in the centre and in a small local elite which manages to survive each change. Thatcher's Poll Tax was the most egregious example, but Blair's (or Dewar's) Devolution is firmly in the same tradition. These bids to consolidate power in London are reactions to the loss of Empire; but in recent years the domestic roots of British sovereignty have been exposed as shallow. Unlike France, for example, the UK state's legitimacy does not rest on a sense of nationhood but rather on an acceptance of Parliament as the legitimate ruler. Parliamentarians thus form a self-perpetuating ruling élite—typified by Tam Dalyell—and find it in their own interests that no written Constitution exists by which they could be held to popular account.

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

Blair's Troubles and Scottish Independence

Chapter Two of "After Britain" is a speech given by Tom Nairn in January 1999 on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Scottish National Party. Nairn sees the nearly three centuries of Scottish existence under the Treaty of Union as a long and shameful anomaly soon to be in the past. Suddenly, he says, Scottish people are realizing that Britain does not have to exist, and that they can be entirely free of the schizophrenic mood-swings between hard-headed acceptance of the Union for economic reasons and emotional reaction against the arrogant English. Although the New Labour government provided the referendum, its overriding concern is to prevent a break-up of Great Britain. The Scots, they say, are to have a separate identity but will stay in Britain for reasons of industrial and welfare policy. Accordingly, after the Yes vote Labour and Lib-Dem politicians and their supporters in the Scottish media urged people against going further than devolution in a rush. For Nairn, such caution is denial of the fact that the causes that brought the countries of the UK together are now driving them apart again (I would like him to state more clearly what exactly he means by this). And to argue that Scotland's constitutional situation should be decided on the basis of industrial and welfare policies is to be deliberately myopic; nobody today can remember the economic and welfare issues of the 1950s, let alone the 1700s, but everyone has heard about the stealing of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey.

I found this chapter much more readable than Chapter One, despite the fact that "The Return of Scotland" was written to be listened to rather than to be read. This five-year-old speech also has a surprising relevance—I'm tempted to write prescience—when Nairn considers the circumstances under which full Scottish independence could be realized.

"Of course nobody can know in advance when the 'right' moment will be. This is bound to depend upon the quite unforeseeable circumstances of some future conjuncture, and to involve events far outside Scotland. On the other hand, no one can know that such a moment will not present itself either, in the context (say) of a London Labour régime tumbling out of popular favour, losing a referendum on Europe, or otherwise disgracing itself." (p.117)

How are Scottish politics changing as a result of the Iraq war? The Scotsman has little to say about this, which might mean that the tide is flowing in the SNP's favour again.

(Update: 30 minutes after I wrote the above the Guardian posted SNP bids to eclipse Labour in Scotland)

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

"After Britain" by Tom Nairn

I am only a quarter of the way through this book, so just an impression or so.

Now I know where the term "Ukania" comes from! It's a nod to "Kakania," the name given to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by Musil in his novel The Man Without Qualities. Nairn's finding of parallels between the UK in 2000 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire a century before is fascinating, but I'm not sure that the persistent reference to Musil's novel is helpful. The novel brought the parallel to Nairn's attention and it's a nice anecdote to hear how it did so, but Nairn goes into such detail about the characters and plot that he seems to be finding parallels between contemporary UK and a historical novel rather than the empire it depicts.

Nairn's writing style is full of impressionistic figures of speech. Of course he's writing for a general audience rather than academics, but the cumulative effect is distracting. And why all the hyphenated words? All in all, less readable than I had expected.

Nairn, Tom, 2000. After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland. Granta. ISBN 1-86207-322-8.

La iglesia anglicana

En la decimosexta centuria el Rey Henry VIII de Inglaterra estaba casado con Catherine de Aragón, pero quería divorcarse. El Papa dijo non, por que se recelaba del sobrino de Catherine, el Emperador Carlos V. Henry declaré que el y no el Papa fuera la cabeza de la iglesia en Inglaterra. Ay más informaciones en esta pagina.

"Highlanders" by John MacLeod

This is an excellent popular history of Scotland from the point of view of everywhere north and west of the Great Glen. It strikes a happy balance between sober analysis and enthusiastic story-telling. The maps are good, too.

The problem with a history of the Highlanders is that for the last hundred years or more Scottish history and public discourse have been skewed towards the Highlands, constantly retelling the stories of the 1715, the 1745 and the Clearances. The Highlands, after all, are one of the things that are indisputably different from England. The histories of the Lowlands, Borders and East coasts have been neglected by comparison, especially when one considers that these areas host the vast majority of Scotland's population. However, MacLeod does not dwell too long on the oft-told episodes, but offers a lot of less well-known but mostly fascinating characters and events. The famous events make more sense as a result, and more importantly we see that communities and lives in the region have been a lot more varied and complex than those hackneyed accounts suggest.

Occasionally MacLeod's desire to draw an arresting conclusion is not supported by his material. For example, he sees the 1745 as further illustration of a Celtic propensity to back causes just as everyone else is abandoning them. Yet only a few pages later he is pointing out that the clans were very much divided over their support for Charles. Some families hedged their bets, sending one son to fight for the rebels and another to support the incumbent king.

MacLeod's style is certainly arresting, mixing rather antiquated forms with 90s journalese ("majoring in"). He lets his traditional morals show through, darkly pointing out a "pederast" here and there. And the attention he pays to the interior fittings of car ferries in the final section is endearing, but perhaps implies too strongly that the region is no longer a place where much of importance happens.

(John Macleod, 1997. Highlanders : a history of the Gaels. London: Sceptre. ISBN 0340639911)