Just stop shooting us, please! 

By Amanda Beaver

I thought it was time you heard it from the beavers.  Honestly - we’ve just been beavering away here for the last 20 years or so — trying to get by and help our neighbours - doing the stuff we beavers do. But meanwhile what a fuss has been going on!  

It was lonely at first - looking for mates in an almost empty catchment but luckily it turned out there were a few of us coming from different directions - you could smell the signs - little bits of cut stick floating down the river that gave you hope of a mate upstream - that kind of thing.  The lucky ones of us, we met our mates and got settled - us pioneers - we did our best to make homes and bring up our kits in these remote places - miles from our original home. 

I don’t like talking about how we got here - that trap I so stupidly walked into - the man with the beard and the ponytail - but to be fair he did his best to be kind - the long journey in a cage with nothing but apples to eat - the long stay in the tiny enclosure. The humans - those ones, they were mostly kind enough too but it was all disorienting and not a happy time. There was a nice young female human - I really felt she cared - felt my pain.  Promised me one day I would go to a lovely new home - and it turned out to be true, although there were times when I doubted it. 

Anyway - I digress.  

To begin with they wanted to get rid of us because they though we might be the wrong kind of beaver. Some stuff about race.  I picked this up from snatched conversations on the waterside when I was chilling in the lodge during the day. The humans think we are asleep but actually half the time we are awake just listening out. They also have no idea how acute our hearing is - or our gift for languages - well mine anyway. My mate never really got the hang of English - and frankly his German isn’t that good either. (I discovered this when some German visitors wandered past the lodge one afternoon. He only picked up about half of what they were saying - which was actually no loss - their conversation pretty boring.) But luckily I’ve always had an gift for it - its as  instinctive  to me as building dams.

But all that is beside the point. The fact is that they wanted to get rid of us for not being the right race. This was the kind of conversation  that made German humans twitchy - but apparently the authorities  here were not so worried. They thought we were mongrels and should be replaced by the “right kind of beaver” - or preferably none at all. (We weren’t licensed either - whatever that meant. They didn’t like that).  Our new humans - the ones who kept bringing people to see us and what we had built - the ones who seemed to like us - they thought we were the right kind of beaver because we were not too inbred. Our mixed ancestry was a strength in their view. But the authorities  - they didn’t agree.

Well -  I sometimes get messages from relations downstream.  There is plenty of food down there apparently  - humans grow huge fields full of carrots - so there’s no need to go hungry if other things are running out - but they don’t always like us. Some of our cousins have been shot - it’s brutal.  The humans make a breach in the dam and then lie in wait with their guns for one of us to come and repair it. It’s a mean trick. 

I don’t like talking about it. 

The officials say it is fine to shoot us - I heard through the gossip channels and bitching backwaters - they now say since we  are hybrids our genetic base is good they can shoot us without worrying about our “conservation status”.  Excuse me!  Don’t you think there might be any other considerations?  Besides - how do you know you are not reducing our gene pool?  

One minute they have to trap us out because we are skanky mongrels, and the next they can shoot us with impunity because we have hybrid vigour. Heads they win tails we lose.

It’s a shame because I’ve heard from visiting animals that we are wanted in other parts of this country that I have now discovered is called Scotland. The fish that swim past are crying out for us to help them out by making deeper pools with more food in them. (They mean insects - well or water plants I suppose in some cases). The otters say the other rivers are short of burrows  for them to have babies in. They can’t dig, otters - so they like to rent our old burrows. Sometimes we even take them in as lodgers in the edges of the lodge we are living in although we make them leave before the kits are born. It’s not usually a problem because they never stay anywhere for long. Restless creatures although they do like our pools because they say the fish are big and plentiful. 

The birds and animals keep showing up here and telling us what a lack of food and stuff  there is in other places. The heron comes here and eats frogs. I shudder to think being a vegan myself. There are a lot of frogs - thousands probably -  but it doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings. 

The point is, that we like being helpful. We don’t want to get in the way - but we can see that this country needs us. All this drainage is causing problems and we can help fix that. We can build dams and slow down the ditches and burns so they don’t make the flooding and droughts worse.  I once heard someone say we are good at sequestering carbon, whatever that means.

It isn’t just sad that humans keep shooting our relations. iI’s stupid frankly.  We want to help you and you just don’t get that. 

I have heard that we were once here before - hundreds of years ago. (My friendly human brings people to see our home almost every day and I hear what he tells them). I can’t help wondering why it is okay to shoot us for “damaging agricultural land” when it isn’t okay to shoot farmers for “damaging nature”.  I mean it’s just a question. Personally I'm against anyone shooting anyone for any reason. But  they put all that stuff on the fields - I’ve seen them, and some of it runs off into the water. The fish don’t like it. Some of it kills insects, including bees. The soil runs into the ditches and rushes downstream into the river and then the sea. Soil is needed on the fields but it is harmful in the water. We can trap some of it behind dams, but not if you keep taking them out! 

I mean we came here at the same time as humans (so I have learnt) thousands of years ago.  We had one vision of how the land should be - and the humans had another. The human's view prevailed obviously, but I think we all know where that is going to take us.

To hell in a handcart.

Some of you know that. We’ll do what we can to help, but you really have to stop shooting us. Please. 

I understand I am in the demographic that is most likely to vote no on the 18th. That is to say, I am a woman and I'm over 60. And believe me, I understand why anyone might vote no at this referendum.   People of my age have watched things launched in a blaze of hope  go horribly wrong - like marriages and businesses for example. Like holidays that were meant to be fabulous and fun and turned out rainy with  rude people and other people's cigarette stubs in the sand.   Because of these things, my intention to vote Yes keeps wavering back to Don't Know - and even sometimes flirting with No.  A lot of my friends and neighbours and members of my extended family are on the No side, and this makes me nervous. Is their judgement better than mine? Will business really flee from Scotland? Will we lose the pound and be turfed out of the EU forever?

In calmer moments I don't think any of these things will happen. There might be a bit of uncertainty for a while, but I feel confident it will settle down and Scotland will flourish. It won't be Nirvana, but it will be fine. It will be a country - with all the complexity that that implies.  And of course I believe that Scotland can't possibly be the only country in the world that would be disadvantaged by independence - won't find a way to operate on its own. And naturally I am always infuriated by the "Too wee, too poor, too stupid" arguments. And "too lazy" is one I have heard, which totally incensed me! (I mean obviously there are lazy people in Scotland, but surely not more so than in England, or anywhere else!?) And if it were true, then it would be time we were cut loose and made to sail our own ship. This kind of thing from No voters was one of the first reasons I thought of voting Yes. Not very rational - but it was a starting point.

I also felt annoyed when I was told that independence will make us inward looking - and this by someone who has just expressed resentment that we'll have to pay for our own diplomats! Having control over our foreign policy, rather than have illegal wars waged in our name is certainly a temptation.

But the main reason I am most drawn to vote Yes is that  all four of our grown up children are intending to vote Yes, and I trust their judgement and want them to have the future they are going to choose.   They are intelligent educated  people who have given the subject a great deal of thought. They want to contribute to the success of Scotland.  They believe it will be good for them and others if Scotland is independent - that it will bring more opportunities, not fewer. Their intention to vote Yes, is not so much about nationalism, as a belief in the advantages of living in a smaller more democratic country.  They believe that it will bring a surge of creative energy to the country and that, importantly, it will give us all more democracy. The problem of the democracy deficit and the political apathy that has dogged the country for years has been banished by this referendum.  It is exciting to think of people taking such an interest in politics again.

As it's the future we are talking about here I think Grannies like me should support our young people in their hopes and dreams (and the majority of Scottish young people do want an independent Scotland).   The future is unknown by definition, but in the end I think communities and economies are built on hopes and dreams - that's surely what enterprise is all about.  A strong economy is built by people with ideas and energy, and hope.  Our young people will slowly and surely build the country they want - a country that is prosperous, fair and peaceful. A country that is creative and energetic. It may take a while - it won't be easy - and it will never be perfect. But they want to give it a go and they believe it will be possible. To show my belief in that vision and trust in the young people to choose their own future, I intend to vote yes on the 18th of September.

I did my first bit of canvassing today, for Yes Scotland. That's Green Yes Scotland.  But I have to confess I'm finding it a little difficult to entirely nail my colours to the mast. That's both the Green mast and the Yes mast.   Where politics are concerned I am a natural commito-phobe, but the truth is, I do want to be involved. I'm like someone who wants to be married, but finds it difficult to settle for any particular husband.  (Actually I have been married to the same husband for over 35 years, so that's not a very good example.) The Green Party is the one that comes closest to my politics but I do have some differences. For example I'm a monarchist.  We had a conversation about this at breakfast and I ended up agreeing that I was happy to vote for our ceremonial leader rather than have them inherit the position, but I want them to be called the King of Scotland. Or the Queen.  So I'm only sort of a monarchist.

So why was I canvassing? Well, I thought, if we are about to begin to live "in the better days of a better nation" then I want to feel I played a part in making it come about. And if we vote No, then I want to feel I did my bit to try to stop it. I suppose that does make me a yes voter. But when people say things like - the UK isn't really such a bad country is it? I can't help but agree. In the context of a world that contains Palestine (for one set of reasons), Israel (for another set of reasons), Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Russia, or the USA, Zimbabwe, even India, China, or South Africa. Compared to that lot the UK is really doing okay.

The thing about canvassing when you're a definitely maybe, is that you can completely see where people are coming from when they express doubts. How do I know an independent Scotland will be better rather than worse?  How do any of us know?  That's the future for you - its horribly opaque.  Wouldn't it be galling if the rest of the UK  got rid of its current government and started to build a flourishing, Scandinavian-style social democracy and Scotland got taken over by a bunch of thieves and got turned into an American type neo-Con nation? I have these fears too.  But honestly, how likely is it, I ask myself?  On balance I think there is no reason why we Scots shouldn't make a perfectly good job of running Scotland, like we do already so far as the devolved issues are concerned.  Like the Norwegians and Norway? Well, maybe not quite - that might be going too far. I mean we are Scots and they are Norwegians.  But do I want to go on living in a country whose government is chosen by the Daily Mail reading, immigrant hating, climate change denying floating voters of Middle England?  No, I don't. So I that's why I ended up canvassing.  I thought - I should canvass, because I'm going to be voting Yes.  Definitely, er um, well, maybe. Almost certainly. Yes.