and freer immigration. The Labour MPrnfor Woolwich attended the Sinn FeinrnAnnual Conference in Dublin in March,rnearning censure from Tony Blair, and hernis only one of a large minority of far-leftrnLabour MPs and supporters, such asrnthe 31 or so MPs who recently refused tornratify the renewal of the Prevention ofrnTerrorism Act. (Liberal Democrats alsornopposed Michael Howard’s modestrnproposed increase in police powers torncombat terrorism, using the unusualrnargument—for them—that hasty legislationrnis bad legislation.)rnBut Unionists were proven to havernbeen only too well justified when, onernnight early in February, the CanaryrnWharf development surrounding London’srntallest building on the Isle of Dogsrnwas shaken by an enormous bomb whichrnleft two innocent local workers deadrnamid the twisted girders. The sense ofrnshock was palpable; reporters were genuinelyrnshocked, as though no one couldrnpossibly have dreamed that this wouldrnhappen. Unionist politicians chivalrouslyrnrefrained from pointing out that theyrnhad told us so. There was a noticeablernincrease in tension in town the followingrnweek, with grim-faced police highly visiblernon the streets and at airports andrntrain stations.rnThen on February 18, a murdererrnmanque blew himself to pieces (quite anrnIRA tradition) on the No. 171 bus inrnAldwych going from Catford to Holborn,rnin the middle of one of London’s busiestrndistricts, full of theaters and hotels.rnLuckily, nobody else was killed, althoughrnsome were seriously injured, including arnman up from Devon with his girlfriendrnfor “a romantic weekend in London”rnthat he had won in a local prize draw.rnDriving into the city that night for a concert,rnunaware that there had been anotherrnbomb, we were stopped and brieflyrnquizzed by serious-looking City of Londonrnofficers. About a week later, therernwas a small, late-night, harmless explosionrnoutside Brompton Cemetery inrnKensington, where suffragette EmmelinernPankhurst and the philologist, adventurer,rnand my personal hero GeorgernBorrow are both buried. Police speculatedrnthat it may have been planted there inrnorder to kill football fans, as it was thernsame weekend as a Cup Final played atrnStamford Bridge, Chelsea’s footballrnground.rnAlthough there can be no comparisonrnbetween these small nuisances and thernBlitz, the same world-weary but goodhumoredrnEnglish attitude is visible inrnthe public reaction to both campaigns.rn”London can take it!” or “Open for businessrnas usual” was the Londoner’s defiantrnreply to Goering’s bombers, chalkedrnup on walls or written on crudely letteredrnsigns over shattered shops. The typicalrnreaction to today’s bombings is a goodnaturedrnacceptance of the attendant minorrninconveniences, combined with thernquiet puzzlement felt by normal peoplernfor fanatics, and by Anglo-Saxons forrnCelts. Well has it been said that thernBritish are at their best in adversity. Althoughrnfull of ill-import for Ulster, thernreport of these bombs has had no effectrnat all on Londoners, who care nothingrnabout the troubles of Ireland at all. It isrnall just a faint, disquieting echo of an intractablernworld somewhere out there, arnmere rumor of war from the westernrnmarches.rnDerrick Turner is the editor of RightrnNow!rnLetter From Chilernby Tom JenneyrnThe Naked FrontierrnIn order to do research for a novel, I spentrnJanuary and February of this year inrnChile, thereby avoiding a particularlyrnbitter winter in Washington, D.C. Myrnintention was to pass most of my time inrnSantiago and spend only a couple ofrnweeks touring the South. After about arnweek in the capital, I met up with a Californianrnnamed Jeff who was goingrn”trekking” (the hip term for “backpacking”)rnin the Torres del Paine nationalrnpark in Patagonia. Like most of the foreignrn”ecotourists,” he was lingering inrnSantiago only for as long as necessary torncoordinate travel plans to the South. Hernneeded a Spanish-speaking travel companion,rnand I needed a tent, so wernteamed up and flew down to Punta Arenas.rnI finally returned to Santiago a monthrnlater, having been sidetracked at everyrnturn by the natural attractions of thisrnlongitudinal land. In retrospect, thernjourney proved to be an indispensablernpart of my cultural survey of the country:rnin few other places is the connection betweenrngeography and cultural destinyrnmore consistently tangible than in therncase of Chile.rnThe central fact of this geography is,rnnaturally, the Andean cordillera, the imposingrnand omnipresent wall of rock andrnice that has served to isolate the countryrnin a remote corner of the New Worid forrnmost of its history. The Andes serve as arnconstant symbol of Chile’s frontierishrnsituation—ecologically, culturally, economically,rnand politically—vis-a-vis thernmodern world. Even though Santiago isrnnow as accessible as any other largerncapital city in the world, the vast andrnsparsely populated hinterlands of therncountry remain in another age.rnOn the ecological frontier, the country’srnattempts to balance the interests ofrneconomic development and conservationrnare being shaped in a large way byrnthe demands of the million-plus ecotouristsrnwho come to Chile each year torntrek across the glaciers of Patagonia,rnclimb to the tops of 20,000-foot peaksrnand smoking volcanoes, and kayak andrnriver-raft down the country’s 40 majorrnrivers. This year, many of the rafters andrnkayakers had come specifically to take onrnthe Bio-Bio River, one of the world’srnmost outstanding collections of Class 5rnrapids, in the last summer season beforernit is to be dammed up for a hydroelectricrnproject. Although the project has causedrnan outcry among First Worid river-riders,rnthey will probably keep coming back torndo the other 39. Much of the time, thisrnCalifornia-style invasion did not seemrnout of place. From the brown coastalrnfoothills to the semigreen central valleyrnto the steep rise of the eastern sierra, therntemperate latitudes of the country lookrnstartlingly like the Golden State. I wasrnnot even surprised to run into a couple ofrnarchetypal Santa Barbara surfers whornwere spending part of their endless summerrnon a large section of the country’srn2,600 miles of coastline. Still, the extentrnof this movement was impressive. In thernresort town of Pucon, I stayed at a hostelrnrun by Eeole, one of several Americanrnfoundations that have purchased sectionsrnof native forest for conservationrnpurposes. The hostel, which covers itsrncosts by taking guests on nature-educationrnhikes, was a surgically transplantedrnslice of Humboldt County, completernwith a vegetarian menu and GratefulrnDead music on the stereo.rnOne of the prime movers in the green-rn36/CHRONICLESrnrnrn