Pentonville Street, London N1

Is not pale blue, at least not from where I am sitting looking at it. Out of the restaurant window this part of London rushes by on a road that is blue-grey; well at least we agree on the blue part.

Joggers run the traffic with earphones plugged...a cyclist with clips on his trouser legs, a motorcyclist exists the gate opposite.

Busy it is!

So what is going through their minds as we reach into a new phase of boom and bust, that Gordon promised would never happen; as Nick and David now take the reins? Today, Ed protested as schools were offered control of their destiny, Europe calls for new national taxes on banks to prevent taxpayers having to pay for future financial meltdowns and Dr Paul Eggleton who is a termite expert at the Natural History Museum in London states that Termites are very important in serving the tropical ecosystem. They are social insects who live in large colonies and they utilise decaying plant matter, taking these back into their termite mounds and recycling the carbon, feeding other animals and plants.

In some places termites are considered pests. I guess for a termite, humans are pests. After all we are prolific, we gather in large clusters and devastate the natural ecosystem around us, destroying anything that doesnt suit our immediate purpose. Sounds pretty pest like to me.

Nevertheless, we are the most advanced, most intelligent animals on the planet! Hmmmm, apparently we didnt sense the tsunami on it's way on Boxing Day 2004 and escape to higher ground as did animals not coralled by humans, infact we didnt even notice the animals had gone!

I wonder which line of intelligence we are measuring by and which animals created the measuring guage. Was this a democratic vote? Can Whales, Dolphins, Elephants and Gorillas join in? Or is this an elitest vote, humans only, and then only those humans perporting to have a "scientific" background; which of course means that they are wholly objective and allow nothing at all subjective to influence their thoughts. That's right, not their personal history, upbringing, peer pressure, belief systems...nothing...absolutely nothing!

As I watch London rush by in Pentonville Road I think of Marilyn Hamilton, author of Integral Cities saying "Look after self, look after the other, look after the ecosystem around us" and I wonder who has more intelligence, human's or termites?