"For, being green, there is great hope" (quote from Shakespeare's HENRY VI PART 2, ACT 3 SCENE 1)

Gold cherry

By Di_Hard

Sat, 22 Jun 2024
  • 2230 reads
33 comments
 

Some people are angry that Just Stop Oil threw coloured cornflour at Stonehenge. Because the structure is old? A symbol of how humans have survived for thousands of years? How we are capable of working togather to achieve something that must have seemed unachievable to many?

As unachievable as a Green Revolution?

No one, now, knows the purpose of Stonehenge. New examples of the intelligence of those distant minds who dreamed it up continues to come to light, many ways of mapping the movements of stars into the future.

We can see into the future, but we choose not to. We can see that climate change is happening in the floods and heatwaves. We know how to stop it becoming unstoppable

but we choose not to.

We say, smugly, the Younger generation, our children, they will fix it.

The younger generation we imprisoned in their bedrooms during Covid. The ones whose chances of work are being honed down and down to Amazon warehouses and waitressing. The ones who have worse mental health than ever before, who have suicide as one of the leading causes of death.

Or maybe they are already too old. Maybe the ones at preschool now? Those innocent ones who sit infront of their screens with the sole purpose of keeping them quiet. We used to watch stuff when we were their age, didn't we? Carefully crafted, magical programs we remember even now. The internet must have far more examples from all over the world for children to watch and be stimulated by, guiding them into being curious about life, stimulating their imaginations, introducing ideas of ethics and responsibility, of trust and kindness.  

But there are so many, many more hours of screentime to fill these days as parents have to work longer and longer hours and are more and more tired. How to make all these extra much needed programs without increasing licence fees or asking for subscriptions? AI of course! Adults might notice the difference, the lack of coherence, the UNHUMANNESS, but little children, they won't. And though AI produced content doesn't need the work of human writers, actors, animators, musicians, those who take the trouble to put it online need a living, which is where advertising comes in. Beautiful, expensive, carefully contructed advertisements aimed at guiding children into trusting a brand, stimulating their imagination  that they could be happy if only they could have that one enticing product. And the next, and the next.

There is to be an election. The other day, in an interview, someone was asked about education. He mentioned with pride how many children go on to Further education - did not mention how funding for further education has been cut and cut, resulting in much of the equipment at the college my son goes to being irrelevent to current practices, or broken; nor how the last months before the end of term more and more days the college has been closed while their tutors strike for more pay, leaving modules untought. Compared to the Health service, "Our" National Health, it is not a priority (even in the Health service there is inequality - some children have waited over half their lives for an operation)

My son is old enough to vote, but he won't. He cannot see the point as no one cares about his generation, no one will care for decades.

This is what happens when there is no opportunity for creative expression in schools, when childen are not given the tools to express their hopes and fears, to explore their imaginations, to make dreams come alive on paper. 

Perhaps that was the point of all the changes to education, to make it all about grammar and report writing, all about still life in art and playing other people's music. 

Teaching children passively to watch success in other people's lives and know it is as unobtainable as the toys they could not have as little children because their parents were not paid a decent living. Teaching them not to expect to own a home, be healed when they are sick, breathe fresh air, safely drink water from the tap....

Those in Power shout warnings about the Right and the Left, shout with anger at anything they see as a threat to the past

while taking away the Future.

I don't know what Stonehenge was for, but an edifice that took so much time and  effort to create must have had importance, must have commanded respect,  attention. Maybe offerings were made on its stones to ask for a good harvest, for healthy families, for making the right decision

perhaps human sacrifices?

Orange coloured cornflour seems tame compared to all the deaths that climate change will bring, the sacrifice we seem willing to make to keep using oil to manufacture plastic, fertilizer, deisel, electricity.

If we do not take climate change seriously, continue to rely on fossil fuels, only stones will survive

 

and our disposable plastic of course

 

 

Certificate U
Non-fiction
Rant

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

A rant from the heart - thank you for sharing Di. I'm so sorry to hear that your son doesn't feel it's worth voting.

Is the title a quote from somewhere?

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou for the cherries :0)
The quote is HENRY VI PART 2, ACT 3 SCENE 1, so I thought it wouldn't matter about copyright, but I found it along with others which left me dumbstruck on https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespea...

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

That is amazing! What foresight he had! It's not really a copyright thing Di, it's just a: I was curious, and b: it's considered usual when you quote to cite your source, that's all. You could put an asterisk at the end of your writing, then it doesn't get in the way of the impact of anything

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

:0) It's boggling such a mind can exist, isn't it? Will do as you suggest, thankyou

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

There always have been and always will be frustrations in this fallen world, Di. That is not to say we don't try to work to put right the inustices, foolish wastes etc that we see at any given time, but it keeps from despair and self-righteousness. And to see that the most urgent need of all, young and old, is to have the Creator's help as we live in the world we are living in and amongst the situations we find ourselves, and our young people find themselves. To have grace and hope (for daily help, and a future without waste or climate danger) and love when we wake and go to sleep is what Jesus Christ came to make possible and to offer each personally. And he can and will save this world properly. Which as said is not to say we don't do what we can and urge others too, but also work on the small problems and above all encourage that personal relationship for each with the Almighty. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou very much for reading, and your thoughtful and kind comment, Rhiannon. You are right, I do swing between "despair and self righteousness"! As you know, I am always obsessing about the environment, but when my son told me how so many little children are watching stuff made by AI, made for the sole purpose of selling advertising, I was angry too. And later while looking up about income inequality, read on several websites that UK children ARE GETTING SHORTER, are now shorter on average than peers in European countries, I am confused how this is being allowed to happen. Green can mean untried, naive, maybe even mad, but the Earth was green long before we came along. I don't think it was fallen till us. It worked fine. I think it is time we gave green a chance :0)

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Thank you for posting this, Di, definitely one from the heart. It is so sad when young people feel a vote is worthless and they have no investment in democracy. It is very true that many people feel the climate crisis is something vague in the future, when of course it is happening around us now, and we are leaving a terrible legacy for those young people.

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou Jane. He has suddenly got interested in the French Revolution (!) so we watched both parts of 1989 film French Revolution. Though a bit misleading, according to things I looked up later, it was the best I could find. One sad thing about the film, which was in French, was how many not French actors were in lead roles (Danton, Lafayette, Marie Antoinette) and what would be the possibility of UK actors in the future being able to do the same. Though one good thing about all the texting young people do is how they are able to read subtitles :0)

I was intrigued from being tuned into Tiktok's version of the zeitgeist, he wanted to know about it. Perhaps politicians are right to want to ban protests...

Boris Johnson is not Danton, but he wanted to break the ceiling of the accepted so he could climb through, allowing for Farage to scramble after, and who know who else, after him. Fascinating/horrifying how many people in the Revolution, who had never seemed bloodthirsty before, suddenly advocated for hundreds of deaths, making me think of how the internet has "freed" people to say whatever they want, unafraid of the consequences.

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Your concern for the future of our children, our society, and our climate and its effects, shines out intelligently from your article. I enjoyed folowing your thoughts on these matters and I do agree. As with some other very relevant pieces, I would like to share this one on my facebook, to my very limited audience, if you are happy with that, as I think it is well worth sharing?

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Good Gracious! THANKYOU DAVID :0) Of course, I would be very honoured!

 

Submitted by rjnewlyn on

This is our Facebook and Twitter/X Pick of the Day! Please share/re-post if you like it.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

THANKYOU :0) That is really kind!

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

I love a good 'ol rant, Di. Not enough folks ranting about stuff that needs to be ranted about. Something like that. Glad yu had the right stuff. x

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou so much Rich :0) I hope you are well and settled in your new home?
I'm like one of those crusty old pans always bubbling away with worries about something or other, them being so outraged about Stonehenge just made me boil over

 

Submitted by Mark Say on

Sorry to read that your son can't see the point in voting. I understand his frustrations, but feel that lets politicians off the hook. If his main concern is environmental issues a vote for the Green Party counts forr something as the numbers rack up, even if our present electoral system deprives them of seats in Parliament. I fear that people saying they won't vote gives politicians a green light to follow paths that reflect the opinions of people who are in a minority but will vote.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou very much for your thoughtful comment, Mark. I am ashamed not to have been able to persuade him to vote, specially as he cares so much about many issues. He read your comment :0) Then he told me that he knew about the Stonehenge incident and since he had been shocked at how ALL the thousands of comments he'd read had been so right wing, many even advocating that the protesters be physically punished, he realised now (or maybe my blithering finally trickled through) that this is what the Right does, mobilise everyone who is unhappy to unite in blaming someone else, whether it is Just Stop Oil, or migrants or trans/gays etc. Which allows whatever is causing the problem to go on doing so. This makes it pointless to protest if there is a Tory government, so however useless a more Left government might be, as at least they will allow protests and not demonise those who take part, might even pay attention to their concerns, it IS important to vote! NEXT TIME he'll be ready!
Thankyou, very much, again, for making the argument to vote so clear

 

Submitted by Turlough on

This is a depressingly accurate account of the mess that the world is in at the moment, and nobody seems to be doing anything about putting it right. We can recycle our empties, and turn our lights off and we can struggle to shelter our kids from the mass media but what we can each do personally to improve our circumstances only scratches the surface of what needs to be done by governments and global companies. I feel despair and frustration every time I read the news. What's the point of even thinking about it all?

I can understand your son not wanting to vote. If I lived in Britain I wouldn't know who to vote for. It's important that people do vote though because democracy seems to be gradually drifting away from us and giving up our votes is giving in to those who want that.

 

It was these words of yours that struck a chord with me... 

Those in Power shout warnings about the Right and the Left, shout with anger at anything they see as a threat to the past

while taking away the Future.

 

Good on you Di.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou so much Turlough :0) I don't think I have ever been so angry with politicians, at least not since Mrs Thatcher, and I was much younger then, did not really understand what she had set in train. It matters a lot to me that something I wrote struck a chord with you

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thatcher was an awful woman but at least she knew what she was doing. 

What you have written matters a lot to me too. It's good to be on the same wavelength.

 

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

She got things done, not sure she knew what she was doing in terms of consequences, but maybe that's me having faith in her Methodist upbringing. How could she have lived with herself otherwise

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I can't fathom how she could live with herself at all. She brought so much misery. 

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I guess she must have found a way to filter it out. Maybe once she had left parliament it might have been easier to blame it all on biased reporting. There was a clip of her saying how those who had received contaminated blood were getting "the best possible treatment". Like she really thought that they were! Either she was lying to herself or someone was lying to her Like she was a canon to be rolled out. But she CANNOT have been oblivious to everything.
In the French Revolution film we watched, there came a time when Robespierre realised the People who he thought he was bringing to freedom, thought HE was a tyrant. I so, so wonder if that ever hit her, the privatisations resulting in trains not working and polluted water in her green and pleasant land, and food banks for nurses and children killing themselves because they have no hope. All that money from oil going to make it look like her low tax, trickle down, everyone for themself policies worked instead of investing in infrastructure. Is not true that she was good with money, any more than it is true someone who uses insider information to lay bets on when the election will be is good with money, or someone who makes their income from renting, as do so many backbenchers that it has not been possible to get through legislation against no fault eviction. Argh
Sorry :0) I hope you are all well, and your garden is springing up again!

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I regret that I find it impossible to justify or forgive Thatcher's actions. Too many destroyed businesses, broken homes, nervous breakdowns and suicides lay in her wake as well her damage to Britain's industry. Then there was her atrocious handling of the Falkland Islands, the North of Ireland, apartheid in South Africa, the Hillsborough disaster, the miner's strike, Reagan's cruise missile bases in Britain and friendship with fascist dictator Pinochet in Chile. And after all those Christmas dinners with him, she must have known something about Jimmy Savile. But similarly I cannot forgive Blair for the war in Iraq. 

Our garden is sort of tidy and there are a few new shoots on the trees that survived but there will be no fruit or flowers this year. The clearing up operation was heartbreaking... dozens and dozens of wheelbarrows full of grapes, pears, figs and plums mixed with leaves and branches. On the plus side we have a compost heap as big as a whale. Our two cars went to the scrapyard last Wednesday and the insurance fella's coming to talk to us about a new roof on Wednesday.

But we're alive and the weather is beautiful when it's not trying to destroy us and the whole thing seems to have brought us closer to our lovely Bulgarian neighbours. 

I hope all's well with you and yours and your lovely island. 

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I am SO SORRY about all your fruit! Thank goodness you are not a farmer though! Must be terrifying getting storms like that when it is what you have to live on. Your elderly neighbour who has two homes, and grows so much, her garden must be ruined too? Still finding it hard to believe a storm could write off two cars, very glad your insurance held up. But it cannot be a happy kind of exhaustion at the end of the day. And all the birds, they will have no berries in Autumn, let alone bees, if there are any left, will have no flowers this year. And the sunflower fields! Really glad that it has made you even closer with your neighbours, you reap what you sow in friendship this year

 

Submitted by Turlough on

It's really sad. There aren't many leaves on the trees and their aren't many birds around since the storm. It's very quiet in a garden normally filled with birdsong. I'm hoping they've gone somewhere else but I have some doubts about their welfare.

Maria of the Two Houses gets a bit bad tempered at the best of times and over indulges daily in her homemade rakia. She won't be making rakia this year though because all her grapes were destroyed. So maybe that's a blessing. Though hers was probably the best I've ever tasted because she distills it twice. Her chickens were outside when the hail struck so there were casualties amongst them too.

Our cars were only written off because all of the lights and mirrors were smashed and because they were old it was impossible to get new parts for them. If we'd only needed a couple of bits I'd have tried scrapyards (though I'm no expert) but we needed eight lamp units and four electrically operated wing mirrors. The bodywork was covered in hundreds of dents too. Mechanically they were fine but legally they weren't fit to drive.

We look at it as an unfortunate but rich experience that we will never forget but hope it won't be repeated on such a scale. Fingers crossed for the rest of our lives.

Turlough

Submitted by marandina on

"We say, smugly, the Younger generation, our children, they will fix it."

For sure, all that will be left is stones but I would question the JSO shenanigans at Stonehenge. Of all the places to protest, the spiritual capital of the country and somewhere synonymous with nature, history, mysticism and a long line of other things seemed incredibly counter-productive and simply alienated many people sympathetic to their message. There are rare lichen living on the stones apart from anything else and it was a desecration of a revered site. Yes, protest by all means but choose appropriate targets. I know they went on to orange powder Taylor Swift's jet which seems a little less ludicrous but maybe more in sync with their values.

I see governents trying to get to grips with the Climate Crisis but struggling with the seemingly intractable costs involved. For everyone to switch to electric cars by 2030/35 in the UK, a whole heap of things need to happen but the main thing is to get the average price down. Ordinary folk will never be able to afford £35K+ to replace their car or whatever the mean cost of a second hand car eventually settles at. Ditto with replacement boilers and the llst goes on.

Notwithstanding, the severe consequences of evolving weather extremes are with us and have been for quite a while so answers need to be found and found now. Our leaders need to get together at a global level and take the issue far more seriously and with less self-interest.

Your points about how young people view the world particularly resonated with me, Di. I know you have said before about students being stifled within curricula and a dogmatic approach to what's important.

I commented on another post recently that I am sure that overall wealth has skewed in favour of the older generation at the expense of the younger over the last few decades. High house prices, massive deposits needed, large student debt leaving University (albeit I think it's still free in Scotland to nationals?), the insecurity of renting. It's a much tougher transition post school than it was for my generation.

Again, I am not saying older people are minted (far from it for many) but when there is a finite pot of money, I believe that youngsters have been getting an increasingly raw deal. I think this needs addressing properly. Our sons and daughters are our future and they should start out in life with optmism and ambition and not saddled with huge debt. I could go on about the vagaries of the university system and how it's become a money-making conveyor belt not fit for purpose but I won't. For now :)

A thought-provoking piece, well written and beautifully articulated. You raise critical questions that need sensible answers.

I think we all want a better future. It's how we get there that's the challenge.

 

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou so much for your wonderful comment Paul, extremely well argued :0) Very sorry I did not realise you had made it, till this afternoon, and then when I did, internet stopped working again

Excellent point about Stone Henge being a site revered by many nature lovers. Just as gluing oneself to a means of public transport (tube train roof) during rush hour also seemed a bit counter productive. I am more understanding of the first than the second, though.

At a time when the natural environment is under threat it is really important we think of ALL the land under our feet. Already farmers have been struggling with waterlogged fields this year, last year no hay because of drought. Lots of soil is dying from constant fossil fuel derived fertilizer and pesticides while population grows and farms in other countries, even EU ones like Italy and Spain, suffer with rising temperatures. Stone Henge is the product of farming - hunter gatherers would not have had the HR because they'd not have had their extra food.

Just last night there was discussion on PM about the nimbies not wanting pylons carrying electricity from windfarms to run across farmland in Suffolk. The power cables could be buried but that would cost A LOT more. However that's good farmland. More good farmland is to be turned over to housing, while so many buildings, many already perfectly inhabitable, are empty. Should we really be damning more of the Earth's surface to barrenness?

And how much of this electricity is going to be sucked up by by AI and data centres? Why are we not having big discussions about how important or unimportant these are to the possibility of survival? It seems every decision we make is short term. Stone Henge is OLD, it has endured, it could be seen as Time standing still, while in pursuit of convenience we have pushed our feet down on the accelerator, No Time to stop and think in the real world as we work and play more and more in the virtual planes (will not mention at this point how many photos of trees I have clogging up the internet, mumble mumble...)

This might be a link to a radio 4 program about EVs : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001zvw2
All my garbled opinions come from radio 4 and World Service programs (which are very good and entirely blameless for my misunderstandings)

There seem to be two possibilities
1) those with enough money to fund transition to renewables do so, instead of spending it on vanity projects
2) 4 horsemen of Apocalypse (now AI robots for increased productivity) leave Earth in as crappy a state as all the other places in the universe we have, in our huge cleverness, discovered, and those rich enough can look at all the land they own through periscopes from their padded bunkers

Stone Henge and all such monuments are brand marks in rock, an early sign of mankind's overcoming the mysteries of stars' light above, overcoming the weight of stones below, yet the Earth is not our slave

My son said to me, while we were talking about why his friends are so depressed "there is nothing for us to aspire to, everything is going to end"

I wish I knew how to cheer him up

I would very much like to read what you have to say about Higher Education! Have been shocked by my son's experience of Further Education. Hoping VERY MUCH that Uni will be better, while noting that UCL students are suing over their (lack of) experience during Pandemic

 

Submitted by marandina on

I should clearly be listening to Radio 4 so much more.

Labour are talking about using "grey belt" land to build some of the 1.5m new houses over the next 5 years. So land like disused former petrol stations that have gone to seed. The concern is green belt land being classified as "grey belt" with landowners manipulating any new definition. I think with Labour's huge majority and the fact that they have already re-instated manditory new build targets, it's hard to see how this all doesn't involve greenery being concreted over with new towns etc.

Re universities: My point there is that back in the 70s and 80s something like 1 in 5 students went on to University. As I have been droning about this for so long, a friend of mine validated my claim and I think it was something like 17% in the late 70s. Everybody else went on to apprentiships or work. There wasn't an assumed snobery around taking up a trade.

Over the last few decades, that percentage has got so high that virtually every school leaver thinks the next  step is to go to Uni and the take up in things like plumbers, electricians, builders etc has suffered meaning significant reliance on people coming from other countries who don't shun that way of earning a living. Not everyone can get a degree and go straight to being a CEO.

The mindset has started to shift now, probably due to the residual debt young people end up before they even start out in life. Other options are becoming more prevalent like a revised focus on apprentiships, practical skills training and work-based sponsorships. University was traditionally suited to the most academically gifted rather than being a one-stop shop for all. Economically, that historic model should still apply.

These are just my thoughts and many will disagree with me. I just think young people should find the right place in life to suit them and that is NOT automatically via a university system that doesn't necessarily mirror what businesses want from the next generation of employees.

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Hullo Paul :0) Have huge worries too, not just about genuine green land being built on, but also that the necessary affordable homes are no more likely to be built now than before, because they do not provide the same level of profit?
It is easy to degrade a small piece of woodland - takes much less time to cut down trees than for anyone concerned to contact the right person in authority to come to challenge the felling. Once the trees have gone, the land looks "scruffy" and it's much easier to get permission to build, the only consequence might be a small fine, which would be far outweighed by the rewards of planning permission. My brother works in tree preservation down south, and people are ALWAYS doing things without permission. Also, Developers have plenty of money and influence to "sway" councils so they get to do things which were not originally agreed to.
I feel there should be more repurposing of empty buildings, and reversal of encouraging buy to let landlords; raising taxes on second homes and holiday lets would help too with funding it all, as at the moment developers are reimbursed by building more unaffordable homes than those actually needed.
A weird consequence of countryside diminishing in England is how many older people are moving out and out into remaining green places, like up here. Fewer and fewer young people as no jobs, and more and more retired. The other day there was a group of children (not aggressive or anything, just laughing and talking a bit loudly) and everyone scowled and tutted as they went by, the person whose dog I was stroking muttered "what are those children doing?". It's a problem when some get bored and throw stones but can't blame anyone for laughing with friends in the sunshine!

I agree with you about university too. But there's a huge problem with the apprenticeship thing. If government funds employers to train people, it is in the employer's interest to train staff already working for them, not take on someone new. Where I live, it's a small community, so not much opportunity. Someone told me one of the men offering apprenticeships here was known for abusing those he took on, when it happened to his brother he went to work in the supermarket as he didn't want the hassle of making a complaint, didn't know where to start, and didn't want pressure/backlash. Would be more useful if there could be better funding for courses relevant to local employers in further education instead of reducing funding year after year to pay for health and transport etc. It's not because children don't want to be plumbers or electricians, it's because there's no training, or if there is a course it's probably not keeping up with changes. My son has been studying a vocational subject at an FE college and all the equipment he needed is either no longer used in industry or broken and not replaced. Add to that the strikes and high class numbers (until lots dropped out in despair) and it's understandable that everywhere on the internet says experience is more use to employers than qualifications! But for such experience you have to know someone, there's no regulation, funding etc etc. He has got into uni now and really hoping will be better there, but still not sure it's going to help with a job.
And WHY is there such emphasis in schools on Business Studies if there are no skills on which to base a business?
And then there are all the courses like fashion and game design etc. The most useful thing about these is "transferrable skills". I feel such courses exist because children long to have such jobs and if colleges have to make money from the courses they run, then that sort of course makes business sense from their point of view. But it's a waste of everyone else's time and money! It's like everything else broken - public services exist to help, not to make a profit.

So I really hope you are right and "The mindset has started to shift now, probably due to the residual debt young people end up before they even start out in life. Other options are becoming more prevalent like a revised focus on apprentiships, practical skills training and work-based sponsorships. University was traditionally suited to the most academically gifted rather than being a one-stop shop for all. Economically, that historic model should still apply."

ps if you have time to listen to more radio, this Inquiry is about powering AI https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5xhd

According to this article https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/ai-energy-demand-infrastructure "As demand for generative AI continues to escalate and it becomes embedded into more products and services, energy demand is expected to intensify. Proprietary Morgan Stanley Research indicates that generative AI’s power demands will skyrocket 70% annually. By 2027, generative AI could use as much energy as Spain needed to power itself in 2022. "

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for those links, Di.

I guess the shopping list of issues to be resolved will always be weighty. Human beings are a deeply flawed species. On the upside, young people seem to be more aware and in touch with things like environmental challenges and I am hopeful that they will turn things around as they go out into the world after leaving school/college/Uni.

In the meantime, I hope your son revels in his time at Uni. As much as it's about creating a platform for a career, it's also about a lifestyle experience and everything that entails. Yes, I hope he enjoys it and comes out the other side happier, wiser and stronger. There's a big future waiting for him.

 

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