Perhaps you think I will now want to conquer India, or China ,or Africa or go West. No I've fallen in love with Russia in a big way and I'm already formulating plans to go there again. I've done the tourist thing and I'm glad I did, but now I want to get to know real Russians and live as family. In Britain we have a marvelous invention known as a Twinning Association. It all started many years ago where towns from Britain were twinned with towns from France, and then Germany and so it spread. Then one day the university of Exeter, near me became twinned with the university of Yaroslavl. Next the cities decided to be twinned. I heard about this last year and joined the Association. Every year the Russians come to us for a week and we return to them for a week. I couldn't go last Spring as I had already booked the cruise, but next year I shall be ready and waiting. Meanwhile I email Ludmilla and try out my Russian on her.
I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...
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