Here you can follow links to essays I have written as generally informative pieces for those wanting a greater understanding, now hosted by the Ragged University project, where anyone and everyone can share whatever ideas, experience and expertise with everyone who is curious

The Sami, or Lapps by Bob Cranwell

The people we call the Lapps are known by a variety of other names, including Lopar, Sabine and Sami amongst others. The origins of our name for them has also provoked a number of explanations; some say it comes from the old Swedish “lopar” – meaning “to run”, and presumably referring to the speed of their movement on skis, achieved with a loping action. Still others say it comes from the Mongolian “lu-pe” – going northwards, or from the archaic Finnish term “lappes” – meaning “banished”.

To read more of this fascinating article follow this link

Sustainability and Education by Bob Cranwell

We do need to be crystal clear. In the final analysis, sustainability cannot work, but by then we’ll have become subsumed in a glowing scorched planet. In my mind it cannot work because it is the same as looking for perpetual motion, and directly contradicts what we know about the laws of the universe. In the interim, though, it is definitely worth a shot at improving both our own lives on this planet, and the planet’s continuing capacity to absorb our presence. Until, at some stage we may miraculously develop the capacity to ensure no energy is lost in any activity.

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The Viking Era by Bob Cranwell

“Set justice aside then, and what are kingdoms but fair thievish purchases? ….if the thievish ragamuffins grow to be able to keep forts, build habitations, possess cities and conquer adjoining nations, then their government is no longer called thievish, but graced with the eminent name of a kingdom, given and gotten, not because they left their thievish practices, but because they may now use them without danger of the law.

Elegant and excellent was that pirates answer to the great Macedonian Alexander, who had taken him. Alexander asked how he durst molest the seas, he replied with a free spirit, ‘How durst thou molest the whole, world? But because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief. Thou doing it with a great navy art called an emperor. ‘ ”

St Augustine. City of God: iv,4.

To read more of the Viking Era, follow this link

Rajasthan’s Thar Desert and its Environment by Bob Cranwell

Much of Northern India is made up of huge deposits of alluvium, extending to several thousand feet in thickness in places. It is composed of material washed and eroded down from the Himalayas and from the Northern edges of the Deccan plateau, via glaciers, rivers, landslides etcetera.

It stretches from Karachi in Pakistan, up through the Punjab and around to Delhi, then Eastwards to Bengal, and where adequate water can be guaranteed, they can be amongst the most productive in Asia,

To read more about the Thar desert follow this link