Disconcerting co-incidence

A trip to London and back yesterday to see my sister June. I decided to take a book to read, rather than a magazine or newspaper. I took a paperback from my shelf which has been there, waiting for me to get around to reading it for the past dozen years - Thomas Friedman's account of life as a journalist reporting on Middle East affairs between 1979 and 1987, first in Lebanon during the civil war then in Israel afterwards called 'From Beirut to Jerusalem'. On the front cover it cites a reviewer who says "If you're only going to read one book on the Middle East, this is it."

The only other book I read about the Middle East was a history of Arab Christianity back 1997, when I visited Syria. The rest of my knowledge and interest is based on my brief travels in Jordan, my ten week sabbatical in Jerusalem, plus decades of following BBC news of the region on air and on the Web, plus Ma'an News and Al-Jazeera Web coverage. As I've been following the Libyan conflict closely of late, I wondered if this book had in any way stood the test of time.

I found it immensely readable, full of insight still relevant today, and I got through half of its five hundred pages in travelling to and from London. His narrative stops in 1987, yet a great deal of Friedman's analysis and commentary stands the test of time. Since it was published in 1990, he has produced four other major works (see here) - on globalisation, on the impact of  9/11,  on the internet revolution, and arguing the need for a green revolution in response to climate change. I guess I'll have to read all of them to gain more of his perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian situation, as there's no follow up to his first book yet. He's become one of America's wisest and balanced commentators of the modern world. I have some catching up to do!

Fortunately I enjoyed the quickest scheduled bus journeys both directions with no traffic delays. In the day's mail was a DVD from the Environment Agency, telling us what to do in the event of flooding. Cardiff's flood defences are much improved since the last big inundation in the 1980s, and there's the barrage as well, but given the huge rainfalls we now get, and the remote possibility that the barrage floodgates could not be opened, there could be trouble, so it's sensible to be informed and ready just in case. When I checked the on-line news this morning there were first reports and pictures of the Japanese tsunami wreaking havoc on a scale hardly imagined. It was disconcerting co-incidence.

South Wales took a hit from a tidal wave on the same scale in 1604, yet the Coalition Government has just shelved plans to build a Severn barrage, which would not only economically uplift South Wales and the West of England, but also provide a high level of front line resistance to another tsunami. Damage to the economies of regions on both sides of the Severn Estuary would far exceed building costs that would be recoverable from the energy generated over the next half century. Peter Hain recently expressed the conviction that private investment could be raised to cover the costs of building a barrage. It will be very interesting to see who else puts their hands up in his support in the light of the colossal tragedy which is undoubtedly about to unfold.