5 Nov 08 : Base camp’s been buzzing lately.  All the chatter’s been about the American team…some party in the main tent.  And WHAT a party…Did they borrow the guidebook from those pesky IJs?  Anyway, the clean-up is underway and a seemingly very decent, capable guy called Barack has emerged smelling of roses.  Most of the other teams seem happy with that – hard to find any loud dissenting voices around camp….mind you, where HAVE the Russians gone?  Zoiks…even the Afghans and Iraqis are being polite…so that’ll be a crocodile smile then.

Team BJ seem in good shape…adapting well to the altitude.  Sherpa to Climber ratio under review.  No fixed dates for the climb up to the higher camps.  It seems sensible to defer any talk of the summit itself.  Dalai Denis is a considerable presence, not just within the team but around Base Camp generally.  His English is pretty good…we can understand him most of the time.

Time for a brew and to feed the mules…adios…hasta luego…

Mountain Goat

Did you see last night’s Question Time from Leeds?  I caught it mid-programme.  

I guess Heathrow’s 3rd runway would have been the opener / top debate.  Shame to miss that.  But I came in on the debate over Gaza.  Phew.  Heated, prickly stuff.  I’m not sure why I found this so surprising, but I did.  QT is generally very watchable but can be fairly tame alot of the time and could often offer a broader sample of society, both on the panel and in the audience.  Last night’s debate was exceptional, including some very strong / informed views from the floor.

For example, was it widely known that Israelis living near the border with Gaza treat bomb shelters as part of their everyday lives? I didn’t.  Apparently, they have to have lots of them. There’s a basic protocol whereby everyone should be able to get to a shelter within, I think, 40 seconds.  Can you imagine that as a part of your daily routine?  And, apparently, over the last 7-8 years of Hamas bombing, around 6000, yes, 6000 bombs / rockets have been fired onto Israeli territory

It was striking to see so many people in last night’s QT audience with such strong views, often based on first hand experience of recent time in the region.  And to see such a deep rift in the audience.  Mind you, the rift was not as simple as pro-Hamas / pro-Israel.  Several strong fault-lines were evident, reflecting the horrendous complexity of the issue(s).  And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Israel has given itself at least two huge challenges as a result of the recent military offensive – (1) global PR and (2) dealing with the inevitable waves of hatred and revenge that seem now destined to crash on and around the Israeli people from the hard-line components Hamas and its sympathisers.

The scale of the problem and the daily suffering are truly, deeply shocking.  The regular Israeli spokesmen on our news seem to me to reflect a chilling “resolve” to see this latest crisis through to whatever bitter and bloody end they have envisaged….or maybe gambled-on is a better way of putting it.  And what a gamble.

It’s hard to see how it’ll reach a constructive, durable conclusion…or, at least if it does, it’ll be many years ahead.  Look how long it took to reach anything like a “stable” solution in Northern Ireland, arguably a less complex conflict, or at least one with fewer gobal strings attached.

Let’s pray for a miracle.

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