Mecca...

I read an article today, on the Guardian website, about the difficulties that will soon be faced by pilgrims to Mecca, if climate change remains unchecked. As soon as next year, apparently, summer days in Mecca could become unbearably hot. Doing the hajj is an obligation on all Muslims who are physically capable of making the trip (and who can afford to do so). However, nowhere in the article does the author question why this is so. Millions of people fly to Saudi Arabia each year for a week of ritualised self-abasement, because of what one illiterate merchant heard in a cave 1,400 years ago. Does going to Mecca in such numbers really suggest that the participants are closer to an omni-present God? And, if not, then all those flights represent one hell of a lot of pointless air-miles.

A street in Hull, called The Land of Green Ginger...