Two Questions and Yet Another Woman Called Emily.

I watched a wildlife documentary last night, which included a feature on bees. We were told that bees are essential to humans, because without them nothing would get pollinated and we’d have no food to eat. Einstein calculated that if bees became extinct, humans would follow about five years later. No bees = no crops = no humans; got that? Fair enough. But then we were told that bees aren’t indigenous to Britain; they were introduced by the Romans.

So my first question is this: how did people manage to live here and grow crops for thousands of years before the Roman occupation if there weren’t any bees? I’m not denying the science, I just want an answer to the question.

And then tonight I saw that there’s a sports documentary coming up called ‘Usain Bolt; the Fastest Man Who Has Ever Lived.’

Second question: how do we know he is the fastest man who has ever lived? We’re always being told that earlier generations of humans were physically stronger than modern ones, so how do we know they weren’t faster as well? Is this part of the great five-point presumption of our times:

Humans are superior to animals.

Technologically advanced cultures are superior to simple ones.

Modern humans are superior to ancient ones.

Men make better rulers than women.

Christians are superior to everybody else.

I had to add number four because I read some stuff about Emily Davison again today. I visited her grave once as part of a commissioned photo shoot, and first read about her then. That was nearly twenty years ago, and it sent shivers up my spine. It still does. Which is all getting off the point a bit, but never mind. It’s my blog.