A Gurn from Nurn - News, opinion and pictures from sunny Nairnshire - keep in touch, bookmark the Gurn
Tributes to the late Ken Ramage are stacking up on Alison Kerr's jazz blog.
Here's another wee one from a regular Gurnite:
We will miss Ken dearly and are so thankful for the good times he has given us as a unique present for so many years.
"The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more."
(William Wordsworth)
Did anyone manage to get a ticket for that one?
Just a wee bittie from the editorial of the West Highland Free Press (26th August). Again in reference to the Scottish Government's recent research/opinion poll.
"Action not surveys are needed if Gaelic is to survive.
...But overall, we do not need a census to tell us that spoken, community Gaelic continues to decline. And we do not need another Scottish Government survey to reassure us that 81 per cent of Scots "feel it is important that Scotland does not lose its Galeic language traditions". In present circumstances that is at best condescending.
At worst it is whitewashing failure. What money is available to Gaelic should be spent on Gaelic, not on canvassing shoppers in Cambuslang for their opinions of Gaelic.
And the money that is spent on Gaelic must be spent more bravely, more imaginatively and more distant from from the dead hand of Inverness. If it is not, if there is not a root-and-branch reappraisal of current policies, we will all have reason to dread the results of the 2021 census."
There are those in the Gaelic world that think that too much is organised from Inverness. "The dead hand of Inverness" could apply to a lot of other things too couldn't it - especially the way the status of Nairn has been gradually eroded by Invercentrics at the heart of local government in the Highlands.
Well talking about Gaelic in English (a bit of an industry really). Gaelic activist Johnny Campbell who lives near Aviemore recently wrote an interesting letter to the Herald. Here it is:
Published on 24 Aug 2011
Acknowledge the survival of Gaelic outwith the isles
Many will be surprised by the research findings released last week by the Scottish Government indicating general support for Gaelic (“Survey reveals degree of apathy among Scots toward Gaelic”, The Herald, August 19).
Few will be surprised that 9% of survey respondents were hostile to the language. It might have been appropriate to have asked this group if they were hostile to any other languages.
The Berlin Wall is now history, totalitarian regimes across the world are crumbling. Yet here in Scotland we are still fettered to outdated beliefs about language learning and a faith in standard school English as the only language of any value in the modern world.
A substantial number, 38%, had no opinion on Gaelic. That, alas, can hardly be described as surprising given the official secrecy that still surrounds the language.
Within living memory there were native speakers from areas of the Clyde close to Glasgow and from parts of Dunbartonshire, Perthshire and Stirlingshire just a bicycle ride from the main cities.
Evidence of the recent survival of Gaelic in these areas might help inform debate on the language. What’s the point of keeping it hidden away in archives in Edinburgh?
We must move beyond the illusion that Gaelic belongs exclusively to the Western Isles.
John Campbell
There are those that think that Gaelic might even have a brighter future on the Mainland than in the still declining traditional Gaelic speaking communities in the West and the Isles. John Campbell also recently wrote an open letter to the Minister for Gaelic,Alasdair Allan, in which he severely criticised the policies of Bòrd na Gàidhlig. A copy of that letter in both Gaelic and English can be read here.
The price of Nairnshire's living national treasure rises to 45p this week, a staggering price rise of 12.5%! Despite that it is, as usual, compulsive reading.
There's news on the front page of a letter that Dr Joan Noble has written to the main mannie at Highland Council. She's setting aboot them again on the issue of Sandown-Delnies and the potential impact on the Common Good Fund. Issues that never went away Gurnites. Joan Noble has not held back and tells it like many others think it is - just add all that to the continuing down-trodden look of the town centre along the A96 and you have a powerful political cocktail that will still be there (like the drink in last night's glass) for everyone to savour at the May elections to the Highland Council.
Get informed, read the articles and Iain Bain's editorial and if you feel motivated enough why not get yourself up to Nairn Academy tomorrow night at 7.30 p.m. (Tuesday) where the Suburban Community Council has the Sandown Lands on the agenda and is asking "Development - what does the Community want?" We already know Highland Council have their ideas - can there be a compromise between the local authority and the community or will there be another winter of extreme discontent in Nairn?
Another poll done and dusted and a new one looking forward to next May's Highland Council elections now in the side bar.