Happy Fourth to you all

Before I worked in the Middle East, I harboured a vague notion that it contained Sheikhs and mysterious masked women in long, billowing robes, as they flitted about the desert on their camels.

Reality was very different. Sure, there were lots of long, flowing robes to be seen. But I almost never saw anyone riding a camel. Mostly they were gathered into the back seats of aged Chevrolet motor cars or white and orange Toyota taxis. Local stations on TV mostly featured a diet of Royal Family attendances at some ceremony or other (accompanied by loud marshal music drowning out whatever His Highness is muttering to the adoring masses). These alternated with serial soap dramas and either camel or horse racing.

After a while, I came to know something about the way most nations there organised themselves. There would be a royal family or equivalent, headed by a King. Islam permits up to four wives, but only if the man is wealthy enough to maintain and treat them all the same. Separating personal wealth of the King from the earnings of his country was thought a vague and very western notion.

When questioned, even senior officers in the Central Banks would shrug their shoulders and change the subject. Why even ask about this?

The King would have many sons, each a prince of his tribe. And they and the most senior man from other, lesser tribes would hold a Majlis every week at least. This is like a medieval court to which a poor petitioner can ask a favour from the Sheikh.

Quite often these were granted. They would usually cost the royal family little, but would bestow a reputation upon the King for being just and fair and generous. So keeping the general populous adequately content. Some of the wealth of the country might be expended upon schooling or new roads or something similar.

But if the balance of contentment to resentment veered too far towards the latter, then there might arise some dissent – this could lead to trouble of various forms. General mutterings of discontent could take root and lead ultimately to an uprising. Think of  the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ which began in Tunisia.

Most countries seemed to the outside world to be run by a strongman dictator – Egypt, Iraq, Bahrain and so on. And, for the most part, one has to admit that, while their way of conducting themselves might have horrified western observers back then, I ask that you consider how our western democracies are coping now with challenges from would be dictators.

My own sense is that we are in for what the Chinese are often quoted as saying – ‘Interesting Times’.

Is it right? Is it wrong? Having had the privilege of seeing how a number of non-western societies organise themselves, I am not sur

e any more.

How am I going to link this to my resident population of slugs? Well, if you permit me some indulgence on this important day for British politics (we are voting to elect a party for the next government) and for America – the Fourth of July is one of the most important holidays of the year – it celebrates Independence from the British Crown and political parties of the day in 1776. The slugs carry on a largely independent existence in my garden. They are entirely self-sufficient and do not require any external assistance – except a ready supply of freshly-planted seeds and seedlings. Which, ridiculously, we continue to provide – rather like shipments of tea going into Boston. And like those Sons of Liberty four years earlier, the slugs metaphorically tip the tea into Boston harbour by eating every scrap of those delicate and highly-prized seedlings.

We may gnash our teeth in frustration, but the Seeds of Revolution have been sown in our garden. What will come next? Cannon fire from our Philadelphia? Fireworks from our Boston? Heaven knows…

a slug with fireworks