I’ve pulled these comments out on to the main blog page because both viewpoints deserve an airing.
cynicalHighlander said...
You are completely wrong on Trump and obviously have no idea on the natural environment and treat one area the same as any other area.
Trump is an arrogant wealthy bullyboy full of his own self importance. He thinks he knows better than nature in stopping naturally shifting/living sand dunes from continuing there natural flow. Can you please enlighten me to the economic benefits other than filling real estate developers pockets with taxpayers cash. The local taxpayers will end up paying for all the infrastructure needed to service this real estate development to satisfy this man's ego. A blight on Scotland.
As to the lady in Glasgow I believe that this has been ongoing for over a decade and cannot comment on her plight.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Moridura said...
Thanks for posting, cynicalhighlander - now try hard to be realistic highlander.
Donald Trump is a hard-headed American businessman who is bringing jobs and tourism to an area that desperately needs it. Instead of sentimentalism about sand dunes, start thinking about jobs and economic activity. We've never needed them more than today.
I worked for an American company for 14 years, Goodyear. It was part of what used to be the Scottish car industry, now vanished like snaw aff a dyke. There were many complex reasons for that, but among them was a complete dissociation from reality by many Scots and some trades unions.
Scots need to wake up to the real needs of this country, and sentimental longings won't cut it. Neither will this poisoned United Kingdom, which sucks all power south.
Saor Alba!
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Posts
No I think you need to be realistic as you seem to value money rather than the environment and we can see what state the world is in following that mantra.
ReplyDeleteWithout a healthy vibrant environment our days on this planet will come to a rather abrupt decline leaving a wasteland in our clinging to perpetual growth in a finite world.
Trump is an ignorant rich man who lives and breathes money and fame nothing more as he couldn't care who or what he destroys to achieve his goal.
Not Trump but big business.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/666759/uk_and_usa_retailers_join_boycott_against_alaskas_dirty_gold.html
Have you checked the unemployment stats in this part of Aberdeenshire?
ReplyDeleteIf this were a project in an area thatr needed an economic boost (let's say his mother's home island of Lewis) then it MIGHT be a different kettle of fish.
But when the application includes 400 units of staff accommodation, you do have to wonder why? Could the reason be the 1.4% unemployment locally and the need to bring labour in from outside?
We probably have little more that is useful to say to each other, cynicalhighlander, since our perceptions are so different.
ReplyDeleteI understand very clearly the ecological arguments and the dangers of unregulated development and the threat from major corporations. But the Trump issue is one that has been blown out of all proportion to its real ecological and environmental significance.
We live, for better or worse, in a developed world, wholly dependent for vital goods and services on major public utilities and their supporting infrastructure.
Those in rural areas are as dependent as those in urban areas, and the national grid, hydro-electric schemes, the road network, etc. were not built without substantial impact on the environment.
We are now threatened by the worse economic depression that has hit Scotland in generations, and tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their livelihoods and economic security.
Among other things, Scotland is heavily dependent on tourism and leisure, and the Trump development will undoubtedly bring more tourists to Scotland. The spin-off benefits from the Menie development will be much wider than just the area itself.
We can't turn the clock back to some kind of 'The Good Life' imagined era of self-sufficiency. For most of Scotland's history, life for Scots was nasty, brutish and short, with the majority of the people living in grinding poverty and ill-health, desperately trying to provide subsistence for themselves and their families. They weren't gambolling in the sand dunes, admiring the plants and wildlife, they were trying to stay alive.
Industrialisation, with all its negative aspect, nonetheless began to change that, and the lives of most people are infinitely better in all regards than they were.
Big business must be controlled and regulated, and there are undoubted dangers. Trump on the Menie Estate development is not such a threat, in my opinion, and he should be supported.
This correspondence is now closed.
But good luck with your campaigning - you have a perfect right to fight for your viewpoint.
Thanks for posting, Debra
ReplyDeleteSee my reply to cyncialhighlander - there is little more I can say on this - we disagree.
Trump's development will have a much wider, and more positive impact on Scotland than just the immediate area