Collapsing worlds

19th June
The WI Book Group met this afternoon to talk about "Children of Men" by P.D.James. Those among the group who are P.D. James fans found this novel just as a-typical as "Death comes to Pemberley".It certainly engendered a lot of discussion and some had seen the film which apparently was very different to the book.The whole idea of the human race suddenly being unable to reproduce was quite disturbing.The effect on people as individuals and on governments was explored in the story and provided many different views among our readers.And what about the end? Was it hopeful or was the lead character going to abuse his power as others had done before him? Or was that abuse the only solution? Fascinating stuff! Was there a Christian message contained in the book as some readers thought? Even if we were not sure whether we had got the right end of the stick, we could all enjoy the lovely style of writing and the descriptions of a disintegrating landscape, especially as much of the action took place in the Oxford streets that we know so well.

18th June
The Bucks Federation of WIs put on a day's event called "Water,Water everywhere...nor any drop to Drink" at the Hub in High Wycombe. It was a pity that the audience was smaller than hoped because the calibre of the speakers was extremely high.Of course we had just come through a very wet week when the hosepipe ban had been lifted but no one should imagine this is anything but a temporary relief in the grand scheme of things.We are still using more water daily than the skies or the underground aquafers can replenish.Dr Mark Brandon, the polar oceanographer advisor to Frozen Planet, spoke well and showed fascinating pictures of his adventures.Professor Charles Ainger offered some solutions to individuals and water companies while explaining the costs and problems. We heard about WATERAID from Janet Wells and the world of the Marine Conservation Society from Paul Biggin. In the afternoon Roger Lerry told us about the local chalk streams and their problems.The NFWI with ACWW has been running campaigns to try to encourage people to conserve water. WI members, nearly a quarter of a million of us, could make a difference and teach our families to be aware of this problem. Never mind hosepipe bans: start at home with fewer showers, less deep baths, water butts, re-using water for flushing, stop the tap while you brush your teeth etc.A more complicated system would be if we stopped using our wonderfully safe water for every function and had a domestic fitting to safeguard drinking water in the home. Todays sytem is built on mutual distrust: the water companies dare not risk downgrading purification in case of legislation and the public buys bottled water because it doubts the water provided by the water companies.There's a national campaign for you!