FROM YOUR CHIEF

Kenya is a good place to be for the Olympics. Suddenly this badly managed and drought-stricken land can be seen and see itself as The Best. Out of the high country round Eldoret come raw distance runners who show the rest of the world what grace in endurance can mean. After running to school every day ten miles each way at 10,000 feet, somehow running in circles in Sydney comes easy !

But what about that Olympic opening ceremony? My son Dugald and I shared the feeling : "We're not there." In come a lot of fit looking young people labelled 'Great Britain' behind the Union Flag, and the commentators start babbling about the English. We don't exist. We're not there.

This is not another dig at the complicated politics of Scotland. It's about the deeper matter of identity. Not many years ago, I would not have had the problem : Twentieth Century Scots have been used to the 'two flag solution', happy to identify as Scots or as British as the case may be. Now, that Union flag seems at best a sad historical joke, at worst offensive. In the Twenty-first Century, I think a majority of us are ready to march in line behind Saudi Arabia and in front of Senegal.

(Incidentally, have the sporting among you ever wondered why there is no British team in the Olympic soccer? Answer : there is no British soccer authority in a position to choose the team. In that sport, Britain is four separate countries. But not in most sports. Confusing, isn't it?)

The other day, I went to a wedding in Kenya of two white people. I wore a kilt, and every African in the place wanted their photograph taken with this 'tribal' white man. Perhaps what struck them even more was that the bridegroom being Welsh, all of the large contingent that came from Wales were native speakers of Welsh. "You mean", Africans would ask with astonishment, "that you wazungu (white people) still have your tribal languages : I thought you all just spoke English!"

I know American elections can get to be a lot of empty razzmatazz : I've been there during one. But enjoy the privilege of voting. I do have a clear view about this election, but I won't preach it. I will confine myself to a plea that Americans vote with an eye to their enormous responsibility and influence in the rest of the world. Remember the rest of us, and don't lock yourselves and your very real privileges away from all the countries

Danus Skene of Skene

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