The Biggest Moon

Just been watching what is supposed to be the largest full moon I will probably ever see.  The moon is at its closest to the earth at the moment.   I despaired of catching a glimpse through the thick cloud ceiling we've had for days here, but at about 11pm the clouds parted and it shone through.  Not as big as those bloated  harvest moons hovering like helium balloons over the horizon, but big and bright all the same, creating a long, shining wake on the river.

I wondered how the inhabitants of Libya were feeling about it - not a romantic symbol there, but a night-light for war machines.  It creates a kind of ache in the stomach.   Now, after the relief of the UN intervention - the feeling that at last someone was going to do something -  there is only uneasiness about death and destruction caused by our own missiles and wariness about the supposedly altruistic motives that are behind them.  The best summing up of the case is given by the arab journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent.  Well worth reading for its honest analysis of the moral issues.

Photo Bryan Jones