Diary of a Shopkeeper, 23rd August

I’m just back from my summer holiday – a fantastic day on Hoy, visiting old friends and favourite places.  Lyrawa Hill, the Dwarfie Stane and Rackwick seemed more special than ever this gloomy year.

One thing struck me.  I have never seen so many bonxies in my life.  You’d always spot a few near their nesting grounds on high and isolated moors – and they would let you know you weren’t welcome.  This week there seemed to be bonxies everywhere we went, and precious few other birds to be seen.

Looking out from Rackwick, gannets plunged into the sparkling water half a mile offshore, but onshore bonxies were the only birds visible in any numbers.  I’m no ornithologist, so can’t say why the Great Skua seems to be so dominant these days, but it was very noticeable.  Can they really have killed or chased off all other birdlife?

Another noticeable beastie was the Heather Bull, present in great numbers on the paths and amongst the heather of the glens.  Well, Heather Bulls is what my friend from north Hoy calls them.  I call them hairy caterpillars. 

Not a very scientific name!  But seeing the caterpillars reminded me of something I’d been reading recently, about the difference between Caterpillar Economics and Butterfly Economics.

It’s the shape that’s significant.  The caterpillar shape is a straight line of actions: take raw materials, make them into something useful, use them, and discard the waste.

The problem is, the caterpillar model results in the raw materials – be it oil or healthy land or a community’s resources – becoming depleted and eventually exhausted.  Meanwhile, harmful waste piles up in dumps, in the sea, and in our bodies.

For the butterfly comparison, imagine its two wings.  The “take – make – use” line of the abdomen is similar to the caterpillar, but instead of piling up waste at the end, as much material as possible is sent circling back round. 

In text-book diagrams, one wing typically represents regeneration.  This involves capturing waste energy at each stage of manufacture and use, and using it or storing it.  The other wing covers restoration, and includes repairing, reusing, refurbishing and recycling. 

The whole idea is that waste is minimised, producing a “circular” economic system that doesn’t destroy the community it’s meant to serve.

It’s hard to think of the beautiful and harmless Heather Bull as a metaphor for a destructive economic system, so let me suggest a new one.  Orkney is increasingly a victim of Bonxie Economics. 

Great Skuas are apex predators.  They bully birds to steal their food, and attack small animals and other birds, killing and eating them.  Human behaviour, changes in climate and other environmental factors seem to be pushing the ecosystem out of balance, resulting in a growth in bonxie numbers and a decline in other birds. 

The parallel suggests that a small number of Apex Predator businesses, with their HQs and shareholders outside Orkney, are putting our islands’ economic system out of balance.  Huge amounts of money flowing out of the county never to return.  Meanwhile, the small, locally owned businesses that make up our traditional rich community ecosystem are struggling, and in some cases dying.

This process hasn’t been caused by Covid-19 – it was well underway already – but it has been accelerated by the effects of the virus.  During the lockdown, for instance, local specialist shops selling hardware or clothes or white goods were forced to close.  Meanwhile, large supermarkets could stay open selling exactly the same goods, amongst much else.

So an unintended consequence of the government’s drive to keep us all safe has been to strengthen the bonxies of the economy, and weaken the butterflies.  Yet only the latter – local businesses that circle their profits back into Orkney – will help Orkney survive and prosper in the long term.

Butterflies versus bonxies: which will prevail?

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 27th August Other diaries will appear weekly. I am posting them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.