Nigel Oakley

The Prime Minister is talking Democracy in the Middle East, which is fair enough. Democratic accountability in North Africa and the oil-rich Arab states is rather less prevalent than most of us would like. But I would like to see a bit more critique here about the arms deals, the oil deals and the general support for the leaders who are under so much pressure, or who have now gone in the Middle East. We kept very quiet about oppression and repression in far away countries while it suited us to take the oil (for the lowest possible price). And why was David Cameron in the Middle East at all? Nothing to do with making sure our arms trade carries on even while these countries change leadership?

And democratic accountability is a very funny thing: now – all of a sudden – we want the peoples of these states to have a say in choosing how democracy will work for them. A very good idea, especially as they were the ones to put their lives on the line in seeking that democracy, in seeking to have their leaders removed. But what about us? How far do we value our democratic accountability? While all this fuss has been going on in the Middle East, there has been a lot of quiet preparation for a full take-over of BSkyB. While I wouldn’t expect too much fuss about this in certain media outlets already owned by News Corp; there doesn’t seem to have been a lot being said by, say, the BBC, alerting us to this. Maybe I just haven’t been listening or watching the right programmes, or checking the right web pages; but the issue about the power of the ‘fourth estate’ does not seem to have got above the radar. It will be interesting to see, given that this take-over of BSkyB happens, how far our media bend with the storm and become unified behind a bland wall of silent non-criticism when one person controls about half the outlets for that media.

Is it something we care about, or aren’t we really bothered? It’s an age of austerity, we are told, so should we be bothered who gives us the story? Or are we sleep-walking into a situation where there is only one story simply because there is only one story-teller?

So, yes, let’s have democracy in the Middle East – and the sooner the better; but let’s also keep a weather eye on our own democracy, so we don’t have to take to our streets just in order to be heard!

You write an article after a pause of a year or two and what happens? It goes out of date very fast indeed because of a government U-turn. Of course we still have a problem: what do we do with our forests? They have to be managed somehow, by somebody. We certainly don’t want to see yet more ‘commercial’ forests, where the only things that grow are the conifer trees in their serried ranks. If we have a National Forest then it must (obviously) be there to be enjoyed by everyone: but can, or should, the Forestry Commission, be allowed to continue as before?

Opposition, in the strict sense of opposing policy or action by government or another organisation, is all well and good, but when ‘they’ hold their hands up and say: ‘We’re sorry, we’ve got it wrong,’ those who have taken the oppositional stance have to come up with something more positive. And to do that, we need to know where our opposition comes from. In terms of the forest sell-off, it appears that a lot of the opposition came from the idea of being able to wander in our natural forests: the broad-leaved oaks and ash where deer and badger play. Where dappled light-filled clearings allow a sentimental picnic… But even these forests, as I have said, have to be managed if they are not to become an overgrown tangle of scrub, bush and sapling.

Nothing is clear cut: in the early days of Israelite settlement, the cedars of Lebanon, like other trees were metaphors for righteousness (see, for example, Psalm 92), but by the time of Ezekiel, where the Israelite state had become a memory, the trade in those same cedar trees for grand palaces and warships, turned the metaphor around and those same trees (already becoming a depleted resource) now stood for the pride and arrogance that opposed Yahweh and His ways.

So it is today: if all we do is look to what remains of our forests and see ways of making money, then we will soon find ourselves even further down the road to ecological disaster. We may, as our present government has found out, also have a political disaster on our hands. But if we fail to manage these same forests, then we could end up with an impenetrable wilderness, even the Garden of Eden in its perfect condition required Adam to work it: the truth lies in learning how to use, and not abuse, our forests. And that use must take account of all who depend on that resource – be they animal or human.

The government is sure that selling off the woods and forests is a good thing. I wonder.

As a family we often go for a walk in the local woods. Admittedly, we don’t go walking so often in the winter months, but last weekend – despite the mid-February weather – we donned wellies and waterproof coats, and set off.

Our walk in the woods is the other side of town from where we live, and there is space to park a few cars: we enjoy the public information notices on the discovery trail, the boys find sticks that will make good guns or swords, or laser blasters. We smell the gently rotting leaves, note the general brownness of a wood in winter, and suggest to the boys that climbing a tree that has fallen across our path is not clever as both it and their wellies are soggy and not good for getting a grip.

The trail leads us on a four mile round trip: there’s a pond, some hills, a field or two to walk through, and a few stiles to clamber over. All very pleasant. That is until we notice the sign on the gate. We’re on our way back by this stage. We’re getting tired and it’s starting to rain, but the sign difficult to miss. It’s on a red background and it tells us that if we are to proceed any further we must wear our appropriate badges or the people who are patrolling ‘will challenge’ us. Suddenly public access to the discovery trail has been superceded – a new management? Has the property been sold on? Either way, we no longer feel welcome. But we have come too far to go all the way back. There is no official on patrol, and we get back to the car unchallenged. We’re more sodden than when we set out, but – despite that red notice – in a more cheerful mood after our exercise.

But it’s the red notice that worries me now. Where we walked is not National Forest, but if the government has its way, the National Forest will be more like where we walked. The government may be able to ensure that the people it sells to allows public access, but what when the land is sold on again? Or if there is a new management who were not part of the original deal? How long will it be before others find that places where they used to walk has red notices denying access? Once the land is sold, it’s sold; and inconveniences like public access generally can be overcome by a determined landlord.

What do you do when you’ve been run off your feet for longer than you can remember; you’ve tried to run a medical programme with a staff who are paid whether they turn up for work or not (and often they don’t); you’ve had to watch as a little girl you’d cared for finally succumbs to an infection; another young man left blind and deaf after brain surgery dies: and, to cap it all, you have a car accident… And all this happens in a culture emphatically not your own.

Answer: you go on holiday. This is why we found ourselves in Cyprus for a week’s holiday. No, that stuff hadn’t happened to us: but it had happened to our friend, and our son’s god-mother, Judith (not her real name) who works in northern Iraq. It didn’t do us any harm to be in a warmer climate for a week: days of pool, beach and the hard question of which restaurant to dine in that evening. Our boys loved it, because Judith is a great story-teller! I’ve had to take notes of the stories they made up together and promise to write them up.

Another thing about going to meet Judith was being able to take her post – there is no trustworthy postal system, so we had a bundle of letters, magazines, books and, at Judith’s request, a couple of baby outfits… no, not for Judith!! But, as she said: “they make good presents…” We were asked for “two for girls and two for boys of early born (the newborn are usually too big for the babies here).”

So, we spent a week where all we did was chat, play, discuss, swim, build sandcastles, eat together – basically everyone was able to “be me” and relax. Which for Judith, was just as well: the second night Judith was back, she was in a local hospital “looking after our driver’s son who had just had pins put into a broken arm and was coming out of general anaesthetic, without pain relief until 5:30 the next morning. It was a long night!”

But her holiday? “My whole time in Cyprus was so good and a time where God refreshed, reenergised and revisioned (if you can have that word!) me!”

Sometimes, you can do good just by treating yourself – and a missionary – to a holiday!