News from Mannin Branch Celtic League:
With the collection of Manx folklore and culture very much to the fore over the weekend a colleague and I (as we are wont to do) were contemplating yesterday evening the broader Celtic context and especially the oft neglected Breton aspect.
As an aside whilst considering François-Marie Luzel my colleague remarked that one of Luzel works ‘The Crystal Maze’ might be a pointer to the thinking that drives the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce – I know! The Chamber pop up everywhere these days they are sort of the bête-noire of the nationalist movement and the population generally. Unloved by all it seems – except the Manx government and Manx Radio.
He’s an excerpt from Luzels ‘The Crystal Maze’:
{And they left the Crystal Palace and went along a path so narrow that Yvon had to walk behind Yvonne’s husband. Then came to a great arid, sandy plain where Yvon was surprised see fat, shiny cattle sitting on the sand, chewing their cud peacefully; yet he did not say a word.
Further on they came to another plain where the grass was thick and tall, yet the cattle there were emaciated, fighting each other and bellowing. Yvon found this strange, and asked:
I’ve never seen anything like this; cattle thriving on sand, others almost starving on good pasture. What does it mean?’
‘The fat shiny cattle on the sand are poor people, who, content ¬with their lot, do not covet others’ goods; the thin, starving cattle always fighting, are the rich who’re never satisfied and always fighting and seeking more at others’ expense.’}
The emaciated cattle fighting in the field where the grass is ‘thick and tall’ sums the Chamber of Commerce up to a tee because there is never enough for them there’s always one more demand.
Its not that the Chamber don’t want to do ‘good works’ they do – but just for their own members. The rest of us can go hang. get taxed and extorted by our government to fund the grandiose strategy for growth of the Chamber which seems centred on expanding the workforce so that a ready supply of minimum wage ‘fodder’ pertains always.
Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Marie_Luzel
Image: François-Marie Luzel (6 June 1821 – 26 February 1895),
BERNARD MOFFATT
Public Relations Officer Mannin Branch
Issued by: The Mannin branch of the Celtic League.
15/01/17
