About the Blog

This blog celebrated its tenth birthday a few months ago. In those ten years there have been 1,400 posts. That’s almost 3 a week – with each post taking up almost a full morning (once you take the researching into account). Quite a bit out of one’s time – justifiable if something worthwhile is left behind

It took me some time to realise that the blog contained an amazing resource for English-speakers….the top-right corner has the list of E-books which have resulted from a careful selection and editing of the posts. They are, effectively, annotated guides to such subjects as -

- The critical writing of the past century about our economic system

- The literature on administrative reform

- Scottish independence

- Cultural aspects of Romania

- Cultural aspects of Bulgaria

- Cultural aspects of Germany

I can safely say that no such guides exist elsewhere in the English language. But I’m not able to crack the question of their wider dissemination. They’re not much use if noone knows of their existence!! This is an issue I have to address in 2020..

Ironically, however, the “resource” offered by the reading lists which have become such a feature of the blog is not something I seem to avail myself of too frequently! I tend all too often to “skim and save” – and generally fail to return to the link and read it properly.

At this time when New Year Resolutions are so popular, there’s a bad habit I need to discipline!!

Every now and then I go back to the original aims I set for the blog and check the extent to which the posts still express them. This is what I intended in 2009 -    

·       This blog will try to make sense of the organisational endeavours I've been involved in; to see if there are any lessons which can be passed on; to restore a bit of institutional memory and social history (let alone hope).

·       I read a lot and want to pass on the results of this to those who have neither the time nor inclination to read widely.

·       A final motive for the blog is more complicated - and has to do with life and family. What have we done with our life? What is important to us?

I felt that the blog still pursues these objectives – although I did add that 

- The world seems confronted with new problems which apparently require new thinking…….and make obsolete writings before (say) 1990?…Because I’ve kept a good record of my wide reading since 1960, I would dispute this….the old themes are still there – although they may require a bit of dusting…..particularly of language

-  I have therefore become more conscious of the importance of my role in giving annotated reading lists - and, even more passionately about the need for clarity of expression!!. This explains the emphasis I increasingly place on tables – which act as discipline on verbosity.

 - I am perhaps using posts even more deliberately these days as a means of getting inspiration to help me express better my thoughts on reform and social change issues….When I click open text I have been working on for some time, my creativity tends to freeze – but when I confront a blank page, the words come together to form a new perspective……

- As I move through my “autumn days” and feel the approach of winter, the “settling of final accounts” (in the spiritual sense) becomes perhaps a more dominant theme