On Oysters and Paranoia.

Staying with our Bella on Guernsey, and having both friends and neighbours on Sherkin and a brother-in-law in County Clare who farm oysters, Fiona and I were delighted to meet Bella’s friends Penny and Mark Dravers of Guernsey Sea Farms, and to be given a

Mark Dravers

fascinating guided tour of their oyster hatchery. A piquancy is added by the fact that the Murphys on Sherkin used to get their spat from here, and the story of why they no longer do so is curious.

Algal soup for oyster spat.

Fortunately there seems to be no lack of alternative markets, but the Guernsey Sea Farm is suffering from the odd fact that their spat has not been exposed to the disease which has ravaged the French stocks and also much of the Irish stock. The result is that they have no immunity, and whereas French spat are liable to losses of 80% due to the disease, the Guernsey spat is liable to be wiped out if exposed to it.

Millions of baby oysters.

Mark complains, quite rightly, that it was very irresponsible to allow French spat into Ireland, and indeed of the EU committee responsible not to have certified the disease and closed down all movement of infected oysters, as would be the case with foot and mouth disease, for example. He says they were leaned on by the massive French oyster industry to put their interests ahead of the scientific fact of this disease.

It is rather a classic case of the old English beef that the Continentals only face facts when it suits them, and when they are forced to acknowledge facts, only take the necessary regulations seriously when this suits them. Meanwhile the poor old English, not to mention Irish, are compelled to respect the regulations, and being in the main law-abiding folk are indeed inclined to do so, unlike those anarchistic and arrogant French!

While allowing a degree of truth in all this, let's examine the difference between the Germanic and Latin approaches. As someone who has pretensions to help reconcile these, I have to say that there may be just something to be said for the French approach, along the following lines: - Everyone acknowledges that the transmission of the disease is not the automatic result of exposure to it. After all, we know that it is exacerbated by factors such as stress from over-stocking. We have already also observed that stocks can build up a measure of immunity. What’s more, it is highly questionable whether it is in fact possible to eradicate such a disease by the usual preventive measures. Perhaps, while not neglecting measures to prevent the spread of the disease, we should also be trying to find ways of building up immunity?

I shall pass up the opportunity to expound the principles of homeopathy, and before the scientific fundamentalists of this world start jumping up and down, let me add that whatever way one finds to get through such problems, they must be based on rigorous respect for scientific facts - an infectious

Oyster eggs dividing under the electronic mycrosope.

disease for example is just that - as well as for other facts that don’t suit our current state of scientific knowledge, and above all on maximising our respect for other people who see things differently, a difficult undertaking at the best of times!

I have picked up an excellent book here at Bella’s - ‘The Examined Life’, by Stephen Grosz, a psychoanalyst. In a discussion of paranoia, he refers to another book, ‘The Great War and Modern Memory’, in which Paul Fussell 'documents soldiers’ widespread conviction that the farmers were directing the German guns to British emplacements.' He quotes Fussell ‘In both wars it was widely believed but never, so far as I know, proved that French, Belgian or Alsatians living just behind the line signaled the distant German artillery by fantastically elaborate, shrewd, and accurate means.’

Grosz comments that ‘It is less painful, it turns out, to feel betrayed than to feel forgotten.’  He depicts paranoia as an at times necessary defence against the more catastrophic sense of being isolated, alone, powerless and forgotten. The feeling of being hated shielded his patient from ‘the catastrophe of indifference’.

It all resonates with the current state of mind of some Brexiteers that I have encountered. They somehow manage to blame the chaos and mess of the current state of the British body politic on the EU in general and often President Juncker in particular. That gentleman’s name even vaguely recalls, without of course their acknowledging it, a type of German Second World War bomber. First step to undoing the knot - call out the paranoia, get rid of it!

We have come rather a long way from oysters.

Breeding stock - same lot, different environment.

It is amazing how one thing can lead to another! I shall come back to Guernsey, and a letter I just wrote to the Editor of The Guernsey Post. I am agreeably surprised that they have printed it. In a hotel bar here I found, besides the Post, the following Daily papers:- Telegraph, Express and Mail. Some kinds of paranoia run very deep, - but there may be a big change coming to Guernsey - part of a bigger breakthrough that may come out of all the Brexit grief! Here is my letter:-

Britain’s ongoing saga of ‘taking back control’, threatening turmoil and chaos on all sides as exemplified in your lead story today (8th January), is of intense concern to all its neighbours, and to none more so than the Channel Islands, perched just off the Continental coast. Like my own Irish countrymen, you had no opportunity to participate in the much-vaunted democratic process that brought it about. At this crucial juncture, you should consider what is truly in your interest and make your voice heard.

I have been coming here for sixty years, and have a daughter and three teenage grandchildren here. They like all their generation are facing a world with huge possibilities and also massive challenges, indeed as all widely respected authorities have stated, existential threats to the very future of civilisation. If these are to be overcome, and if Europeans are to be able to assert themselves and thrive in a world dominated by the likes of China and Mr Trump’s USA and their massive corporations, it is essential that we work together.

On page three of your paper today, we find the statement from Deputy Peter Roffey that UK immigration plans ‘could spell disaster for our economy’. Guernsey is by no means alone, and in the process very many people of all kinds are threatened with having their life options grossly curtailed. I have an English grandnephew who is threatened with a £21,000 bill for a year’s tuition in Spain that was going to cost £1500 within the EU.

Whence comes this monstrous desire to deprive those who consider themselves European of their rights and the many opportunities on this great Continent? Their essentially thuggish nature has just been demonstrated outside the Westminster Parliament. The lie is given to their commitment to democracy by their opposition to another referendum, in today’s much more informed circumstances - not that it was ever a good way of proceeding, being in Clement Atlee’s words ‘alien to all our traditions and beloved of fascist dictators’.

The value of the EU has been demonstrated in Ireland by the successful peace process under its auspices. Those who want to be Irish and those who would rather consider themselves British can cooperate and get on with life as best they may. Likewise, there need be no opposition between those who want to be British and those who consider themselves European. In fact the various identities complement and enrich each other.

However, confronted with a choice between facing the future and digging oneself into a bunker, there comes a point when this choice cannot be evaded. Such a time is now. I suggest that the Channel Islands would do well to announce their intention of getting together and applying to join the EU as an independent entity, and a great future would open up for you thereby.

Such a statement would also send a powerful message across the Channel!

Photos by Fiona.