5 May, 2008

EXODUS from Shetland? Population collapse? It's nothing new to Shetland. (See: 'Drift? It's an exodus!', Letters, Shetland News, 2 May)

Folk have always gone and some will always come back. It's an ebb and flow that'll not be managed by our community planners, who take most of their cues from Edinburgh and London.

And, it'll not be stopped by building new places like Mareel for folk to spend time and money ...... just as they could do (but probably better) if they were not in Shetland.

I was a leaver and a returner not that long ago. I came back for things that are in Shetland that don't exist elsewhere. There are hundreds of them, but they include the usual family ties, a grounded community with an identity, and to catch the last couple of decades of my culture and the dialect before education, immigration, and modernisation kill them off completely.

And I even came back for the "changeable" climate and the unremarkable scenery.

A panic over the population isn't worth the effort. I agree that it is an issue, and maybe even something to be concerned about. But the tide is a natural flow and islanders wanting to stay need to make the effort and learn the skills needed to survive here and deal with the down sides.

And if anyone really don't like it to the extent that they get into a panic.... then they should go. One of these days even I might have to go. It'll be difficult, but it's not the end of the world.

David L Thomson
Weisdale
doreholm@hotmail.com