Ideas, Investigations, and the Highlands

We started this week off with a couple fascinating lectures about Entrepreneurship and Investigative Journalism, respectively.

Very aptly, the lecture about Entrepreneurship took place in the good old Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Center. Our presenters were Dr Niall McKenzie and Mr Bernd Wurth. Mr Bernd Wurth started out the lecture to tell us about a bit about Fulbright actually! He's a Fulbrighter originally from Germany who studied in Texas and now in Glasgow. Bernd started by telling us a bit about his own postgraduate work in Glasgow but went further to make sure we knew the benefits of being a part of Fulbright. He called this new network of friends and potential collaborators from all over the world the "Fulbright Bond" and implored us to take advantage of it in our lives as entrepreneurs and advocates of social enterprise.

The rest of the presentation was done by Dr McKenzie who focused on strategies of openminded thinking and increasing our ability to come up with new ideas. His motto is a quote by Linus Pauling that says "the best way to get a good idea is to have lots of them." The quote really struck me as both true and highly applicable, no matter what your area of study. He advocated for addressing multiple viewpoints when it comes to coming up with ideas along with deferring all judgments, and challenging assumptions. This all sounds good and well, but it's much more difficult to apply to daily life. For instance, one of his examples was challenging us to turn "IX" into the number 6 with one stroke. Think about this while you read the rest of the blog...I'll tell you the answer at the end.

After going through different strategies for creatively coming up with ideas, he split us into two groups and put a chart of a business model in front of us and challenged us to come up with a viable business that advances social enterprise and entrepreneurship using our new strategies for ideas. Our group developed a plan for an app like Uber or AirBnB that would allow people to rent out adventure equipment like kayaks or bicycles on the same sharing model. The other group came up with a plan for an eco-friendly gym in which the equipment powered the gym itself thereby addressing both environmental and fitness issues at the same time. I was quite impressed with both groups' ideas and ability to flesh out a business model with such little practice.

Daniel and Patty presenting "Ecofit," their idea for an eco-friendly gym

The next lecture was all about Investigative Journalism and was vastly eyeopening to the profession as a whole. The lecturer was Dr Eamonn O'Neill, an extremely prominent investigative journalist in Scotland who also happens to spend a lot of time in the States. Thus, he was able to provide many critical insights about the differences and similarities between the U.S. and Scotland. My favorite of these insights, although mostly unrelated to journalism, was when Dr O'Neill noted that Scotland knows America, but America doesn't know Scotland. He pointed out how seldom the average U.S. citizen travels outside the states and even if they do, Scotland isn't a typical destination. As a history major, this observation particularly struck me. How often are we, as history students, taught a historical perspective other than that of the U.S., England, France, or Germany? Almost never! Unless of course, you study history at a higher level. And then there's the other side of it: Scotland knows America. So the relationship between the two countries is simply fascinating. Although we didn't delve into the reasons for any of this, having this perhaps obvious statement, pointed out was quite thought-provoking.

Right, investigative journalism. Dr O'Neill described investigative journalism in two key ways: firstly, as trying to make people care about things and secondly, in the words of Carl Bernstein, "...simply the search for the best obtainable version of the truth." He complained about the bad reputation journalism has in popular culture, and rightly so. Throughout his presentation he gave us countless examples revealing the critical importance of investigative journalism. He did admit that some journalism is disreputable and is simply churned out without any true fact-finding or investigation. He also noted that the U.S. has some of the best investigative journalists because of our constitutional right of "freedom of speech." The U.K. doesn't officially have this freedom of the press, and U.K. investigative journalists are more restricted to functioning within the system.

Everybody after our lecture from Dr O'Neill

The last thoughtful part of Dr O'Neill's presentation I'll discuss is the insight that some people only do the right thing when it's more painful to continue doing the wrong thing. He says one comes to realize this when working as an investigative journalist, especially when uncovering stories concerning government officials. As he rightly points out, many corrupt government officials continue their misbehavior until they are worse off misbehaving. In a way, investigative journalism turns these people away from doing the wrong thing by making it less painful to do the right thing. Yeah, it's a sort of dismal way to look at the world, but it's certainly a fascinating insight when considering the role of journalism in society.

Also, if you're looking for movie recommendations from a real-deal investigative journalist, look into All the President's Men, Pelican Brief, Citizen Four, The Insider, and Veronica Guenn.

That night, Michael's Aunt told us about a theatrical event going on at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow hosted by a Fulbrighter! Talk about the Fulbright Bond! So we all headed over to the CCA to experience the "Stage to Play" event. Essentially local playwrights, directors, and actors get together to perform one scene from a play the playwrights are in the midst of writing and then accept feedback from the audience of Glaswegians! What?! How cool is that? We saw three really amazing scenes that gave us more insight into Glaswegian culture than anything else so far - as the arts typically do. The first was about the 1959-1960 New Year's Eve in Glasgow! So through this play, we learned about Glaswegian traditions such as the city's bells tolling at midnight, there being something called a "first step" through the doorway (I think it's just the first person to cross the doorway in the new year), and it being bad luck to take a drink before midnight! It was a lovely story about the importance of family, the transition from 1959 to the new decade of the "swinging 60s" (making us consider the fact that the decades of the 20th century have different reputations than they do in America), and the deep history of Glasgow.

All of us with Sarah Rose, a Fulbrighter who did her year in Glasgow! She was hosting the Stage to Play event. #FulbrightBond

The next scene was about a shopkeeper in a rail station shop and her interactions with her regulars. It definitely highlighted the centrality of public transportation, namely trains, so much so that businesses can function in the stations. Again the relationship between regulars and shopkeepers. This reminds me of how small Scotland can seem to me, as someone from the U.S. In fact the other day on our trip to the highlands (more on that in a moment), our staff contact, John, ran into a friend of his who lives across Scotland just by chance. People really seem to know each other all over this country, revealing a sense of community and wholeness that the U.S. simply could never have.

The third scene was between an Islamic State terrorist of 17 years old holding a police man hostage. The scene went deep into the terrorist's background revealing that he had grown up Jehovah's Witness. The scene was a fascinating commentary on the psychological impact of religion and the rather drastic results. Given how hugely religion has shaped this country's history and still affects it, it wasn't hard to see some of the inspiration for this scene. However, after Matt, one of my peers, talked to the writer of the play afterward, she said she was inspired by how working in the economic world of market schemes and the like can brainwash a person as effectively as a religious belief can. (Do note this is how the writer felt, not how I, nor the Fulbright Commission, feel about religious beliefs.)

Either way, the nature of this event and the truly insightful dialogue between the Glaswegians and their fellow playwrights, directors and actors reveals the liberal nature of this city and its vast appreciation for the arts.

So after our night of Glaswegian theater and culture, we came back to the flats to rest up for our day in the highlands!

On Tuesday, we got up early and hopped on our bus to the Highlands! The trip was centered around the Glencoe Massacre and the Appin Murder and we were guided by Dr Allan Macinnes, a retired professor from the University of Strathclyde who has actually been working for the government to uncover the truth behind the murder! But first, the Glencoe Massacre. So, remember the Jacobites? They were pretty upset when William of Orange and his wife Mary (Protestants!) took the throne after James II (A Catholic Scot) was essentially forced to leave. So, as we know, there were uprisings across Scotland including the highlands. After it was clear that the Jacobites would not be successful for the time being, William of Orange offered a pardon to highland clans if they took an oath of allegiance to him in front of a magistrate. So when the MacDonald clan of Glencoe was a little too close to William's oath deadline, some rather prominent lowlanders who had some beef with the highlanders ended up convincing William of Orange the MacDonald clan needed to be "extirpated." Thus, a regiment was gathered from a neighboring clan, the Campbell's, and the massacre ensued killing 38 MacDonald's. There still remains some deep animosity between the two clans today as a result.

A small monument acknowledging the Glencoe Massacre

Dr Allan Macinnes telling the story of the Glencoe Massacre - it was a bit rainy, but we didn't mind

So we hiked up close to Signal Rock, where the signal was given during the massacre and Dr Allan Macinnes told us a much more detailed version of that story. It's all very confusing actually. But the highlands are really really stunning. As I told Patty in all serious, the Scottish highlands are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Just look:

Here's the whole squad stopping off at a common stopping point for travelers in the highlands throughout history. It's a point between Glen Kinglas and Glen Coe. It was so commonly used that there has been a stone with the kind words "Rest and Be Thankful" for passing travelers. 

After learning about the Glencoe Massacre, we drove even further into the Highlands to learn about the famous Appin Murder. Dr Macinnes had particular insight into the murder since he's been researching it for the government for a number of years. Basically, a member of the Campbell clan, Colin Campbell, was shot twice, allegedly by a marksman far away. The man arrested and hanged for the crime was James Stewart, despite his pretty obvious innocence. Thus, in an effort to figure out what really happened, Dr Macinnes has been up and down the hills of the Highlands where it took place using the little evidence they had (mind you, this murder happened in 1752, people) of different times and testimonies. Essentially, Dr Macinnes explained why he thought it was possible that Colin Campbell's own nephew was the one who killed him. He had many reasons for this possibility, but the main one was motive. Mungo Campbell, Colin's nephew, was able to take over Colin's job and status after his death. That's motive if I've ever heard one. Anyway, Dr Macinnes says his work will be published soon, so we can all read more about it then.

The stone commemorating the spot where Colin Campbell was murdered! 

After our lovely afternoon in the highlands, we headed to a gorgeous manor on Loch Lommond owned by the University of Strathclyde! We were provided a wonderful meal, a lovely view of the Loch and even greeted by an authentic bagpiper! We certainly felt like we were getting the royal treatment. So, after a very delicious haggis appetizer, a wonderful meal and an overall lovely day, we headed back to Glasgow, full and quite exhausted.

Me, Patty, and Nina at Loch Lommond

All of us and our bagpiper outside the university's gorgeous manor at Loch Lommond

So, did you solve Dr McKenzie's challenge from the beginning of the blog? How do you turn "IX" into the number 6 with one stroke? The answer is to add an "S" to make it say "SIX." That's what I call thinking outside the box. Well done if you solved it before getting to the end! You're a creative thinker.

The next blog will feature what we learned from a truly phenomenal lecture about the Scottish legal system and our trip to BBC Scotland! Get excited! I know we are.

Cheers till then!

Braveheart, Urquhart, Nessie, and the Jacobites

The major plot point of this weekend was a rather exciting trip to the Highlands of Scotland to find Nessie! But before we could leave, we had a few lectures from our lovely Dundee Professors.

The first lecture on Friday was a lecture about theater and film from Dr. Jodi-Ann George and Dr. Brian Hoyle. It mainly focused on the play Macbeth, which unfortunately, I have yet to read. Even without much context, we were still able to grasp a lot of interesting information. Macbeth actually takes place in Scotland, something I probably should have known, but didn't. Macbeth, a real person himself, plots to kill the Scottish king (in case you haven't read it either), and the castle is even based off Glamis Castle, which I visited earlier in the week. Anyway, Macbeth actually has inspired some fascinating questions about how to present Shakespeare. For instance, Orson Welles's film version originally was made with Scottish accents, but that was considered tainting Shakespeare, so it was dubbed over with English accents. The story is notably written for James I, a king particularly concerned with the concept of regicide (his own father having been murdered...perhaps by his own mother, Mary Queen of Scots) and also involved in legislation concerning witches and demonology - two major themes from the play. The other fascinating thing we learned from this lecture is a lesson of business. Apparently, thesbians were worried that people would be too depressed leaving the theater after a tragedy so they implemented a "stage jig" after the show to perk everyone up a bit. If you'd like to see an example, check out the following video:

The next lecture was the very anticipated Braveheart lecture(!) by Graeme Morton, one of our lovely Dundee hosting professors. We love Graeme. And his lecture included all the reasons why Braveheart is completely inaccurate, which is something people like to point out here quite often. Okay, let me set the scene for you. It's 1297 in Scotland, and William Wallace is quite put out at the English (surprise, surprise) and is fighting for the desired Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, or later, Robert I. Anyway, the Scottish men haven't worn face paint in battle in many many years (Braveheart Inaccuracy #1) so they approach Stirling Bridge with paint-less faces, ready for battle. Note that I said Stirling Bridge. Yeah, the real Battle of Stirling Bridge happened on a bridge (Braveheart Inaccuracy #2) and was a major factor in William Wallace's victory. The tactic used by the English that often brought them immense success was their ability to surround their enemy and attack from all sides; however, when they were fighting William Wallace and his men from across a river, their only access point was from a narrow bridge, thus, the Scots had an incredible advantage.

A bit north of the bridge pictured here is where Stirling Bridge was and the battle took place. As you can see, surrounding the Scottish men would be an impossibility for the English Army.

We actually know very little about the real William Wallace, which is part of the reason it's a little irritating that Braveheart didn't even adhere to the things we actually do know...but production value and stuff I guess. In fact, we only have one description of William Wallace, and the main feature is that he was quite large (Braveheart Inaccuracy #3...Mel Gibson is 5'8"). That description comes from an epic poem written by "Blind Harry" around 1475, almost 200 years after William Wallace's death. Our other source is the records from his trial, which essentially proved that he did in fact exist. Because we know so little about him, his story was romanticized throughout the years. One author in particular called Jane Porter contributed to this romanticizing of William Wallace with her book in 1810. Developments like this muddied Wallace's legacy shifting the focus from independence and Scottish nationalism toward more romantic motivations, which probably wasn't the case. Either way, the woman William Wallace is mainly involved with in Braveheart was either not even born yet or very very young at the time of the story in reality. (Braveheart Inaccuracy #4). There are more inaccuracies, but I'll get to them later. 

After Graeme's awesome lecture, the squad headed for the Dundee train station, and hopped on a train to Inverness, the city of Loch Ness. It's about a 2 hour train ride north of Dundee. We all immensely enjoyed watching the Scottish highlands pass outside our large windows during the ride. The trains in Scotland, and probably the rest of the UK, have large windows and comfortable seats like a coach bus. They're spacious and even have tables sprinkled throughout each car. Our train ride there went very smoothly, despite a little trouble from the avian population while waiting for our first train. After our change in Perth, we were very excited to get to Inverness and check into our hostel, which wasn't even that sketchy. 

Matt struggling with our one-legged pigeon friend

Perth Train Station, where our change was

So, we arrived in Inverness to find the same strangely large population of seagulls inhabiting the place. Did I mention the crazy amount of seagulls here? It's rather unfortunate. They're ever-present in both Dundee and Inverness so far -- perhaps Glasgow will be a different story. Anywho, after checking into our hostel, we decided to mosey around the city of Inverness for a while. You will be oh-so-surprised to know there's a castle in Inverness, but that wasn't our favorite part. There was a gorgeous walking path up and down either side of the river that the squad and I spent most of our night enjoying. They even had twinkle lights lining the path once it got dark enough, which does take a long time, mind you. One of the most difficult things to get used to up here in Scotland is how it doesn't really start to get dark outside until 10pm (or as they would say here in the UK, 22:00) and the sun doesn't even set until about 11pm (23:00). Military time has really been testing my basic math skills, let me tell you. 

Inverness Castle and Matt

The boys at the beginning of our Inverness river walk -- apparently its called "Ladies Walk," though, so please do appreciate the irony in this photo; we work hard to be subtle

Most of us hit the hay after our river walk in anticipation of our trip to Loch Ness the next morning. As we waited for our bus at the Inverness, we made a few more avian enemies of the seagull variety but luckily we all made it onto the bus unscathed...or unpecked, I guess. 

Jael, Daniel, Mike, Liam and Matt at the Inverness Bus Station

 Loch Ness is about a half hour's journey from Inverness and drops you off at Urquhart Castle (pronounced urk-ket), right on the lakefront. Urquhart Castle is the ruins of a huge castle dating all the way back to the 13th century. It ended up being intentionally blown to smithereens by its current owner at the end of the 17th century to prevent Jacobites from using it as base or any of its resources during the wars of Independence. This presents an important aspect of the idea of Scottish Independence throughout the country's history. Not everyone was on board with the idea of independence, just like today. There were the Jacobites, who fought for a Scottish king and independence from England, but there were those who disagreed and were content with the Scottish relationship with England like the owners of Urquhart Castle. (Edit: since writing this, it's been pointed out to us that it's a misrepresentation of the Jacobites to consider the uprisings an England vs. Scotland issue and that instead, it's more of a Scotland vs. Scotland issue. This idea is perfectly demonstrated by the events at Urquhart Castle.)

Urquhart Castle with Loch Ness in the Background

Daniel, Mike, Me, Nina, Omar, Matt and Liam loving Urquhart Castle

My favorite part of Urquhart Castle was a man dressed in traditional Jacobite clothing of the 17th century who told us all about the weapons and clothes used by Jacobites during the wars of independence. As promised, he even told us about another Braveheart Inconsistency! One of the swords he showed us that was actually outdated by the time the wars of independence were taking place, is featured in Braveheart, which is okay because Battle of Stirling bridge was long before the wars of independence. The sword, a double-handed Claymore, is extremely long and quite dangerous. In Braveheart, good old Mel has the sword slung over his shoulder and is seen reaching up to grab it over his head. Well, as we know, Mel is a tad on the shorter side and such a maneuver would not be possible and such a sword probably wouldn't be either since it's probably longer than Mel himself. 

Our Jacobite Warrior showing why the Claymore would not work for little Mel -- yes, his hand is demonstrating Mel Gibson's height

After Urquhart and our Jacobite lesson, we walked to a small cafe on a road near the Loch and had some lunch. We asked the owner of the cafe for the best way to the shores of Loch Ness, and she directed us to a rather offbeat path that passed a graveyard, some private farms and required trekking across a number of streams. It soon became apparent that it was a path usually used for horse trails due to the rather frequent occurrence of feces, but we didn't mind at all. The trail brought us directly to the shore of Loch Ness where several of us stripped down to swim suits and took a dip with Nessie (who was unfortunately unseen throughout our trip...but we're kind of in denial about that). It was a tad numbing, but at least the sun was out!

Crossing this lovely and only slightly frigid stream was part of our path to Loch Ness (photocred to Patty Esch)

Maybe we did see Nessie after all!

After Loch Ness we were all quite tired - we had hiked at least 5 miles, but probably more, the whole day. So we hopped on our bus and went back to Inverness where we split up for dinner. Patty, Michael, Tim and I tried "PizzaExpress" a chain here in the UK that is actually really good. Restaurants seem generally more health conscious here -- this chain restaurant offered broccolini as a side! What?! Patty, who is very passionate about vegetables, is very happy about this. 

Our last day in Inverness was Sunday and we decided to take a trip to Culloden Battlefield. Of course, we soon learned that no buses go directly to the battlefield on Sundays, so we had to take a 2 mile walk to the battlefield after our short bus ride and could therefore only spend about 30 minutes at the actual site, but it was just enough. 

Let me take a moment to talk about the Jacobites. I know I've touched on them before, but they are a rather integral part of Scottish history and identity. So, the Jacobites were a group of strong-willed Scots who adamantly supported the "rightful" king of Britain, James II and eventually opposed English rule of Scotland. The crowns of Scotland and England just happened to be joined in 1603 by chance since, as we know, Elizabeth I had no children and therefore no clear heir, James VI of Scotland was the most logical choice, therefore becoming James I of England. So, after the rule of James I, Charles I, the Glorious Revolution, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II and James II, when James II was rejected as king (he was Catholic) and his daughter and her husband William of Orange (notably not a Scot) were chosen as rulers of England (and Scotland) instead, many Scotsmen were quite peeved, and joined to form the Jacobites. Thus, the Jacobites supported James II as the true king of England and Scotland. Eventually, their mandate changed toward being against the union of Scotland and England all together. 

Here's the Jacobite flag which we saw in the McManus Gallery and Museum. It has the St Andrews cross and a thistle. The thistle is the symbol that means you're doing the work of the king, so since the Jacobites supported James II's right to the crown, they figured they were doing the work of the true king. The words across the top read something along the lines of "don't mess with us," quite fittingly I might add. 

Anyway, the Battle of Culloden was a decisive and extremely devastating battle of the Jacobite Uprisings between the English army and the Jacobites on April 16th, 1746. Note that this is after the joining of the Scottish and English parliaments into the British parliament (1707), so the country continued to move toward union even after Jacobite protests. It should also be noted that there were also religious tensions contributing to the Jacobite-English conflict. The Jacobites supported James II, a Catholic king while the English obviously embraced Protestantism as would their next King, George II of the Hanover household. The Battle of Culloden resulted in huge amounts of casualties for the Jacobites. The English were absolutely merciless and even after the battle had been won decisively, continued slaughtering the Jacobites. Ultimately, this resulted in three things: 1) the end of armed conflict for Scottish independence 2) the banning of and attempting to wipe out highland culture 3) a legacy of hatred between England and Scotland that fluctuated throughout the countries' history. This battle is an important moment in Scottish history that is still poignantly felt by the Scottish people, which is made clear by its emphasis throughout our program and the thoroughness of the site to this day. 

Culloden Battlefield - the red flag marks where the British line began

"Field of the English; They Were Buried Here"

The squad at Culloden Battlefield

After Culloden, we had to rush back to catch our bus back to Inverness and then we putzed around town for a few hours until our train back to Dundee. We were all quite happy to return to our happy little town of Dundee, especially Patty and Michael who missed the connection in Perth on the way back. 

Thus, the squad and I learned a ton about Scotland on our trip to Inverness, even without the amazing lectures we get during the week here in Dundee. 

That's enough for now, but there'll be more soon. 

Cheers!