Dougall Stewart

An Introduction to Dougall Stewart

aka (Bwian)

Hi all

My name is Dougall and I am a BSc.(Hons) (biological sciences) Post Graduate Cert. Ed. in London UK.

I am the founder of UK Discus, UK Discus Association and the UK Discus Club I am also the current President and Judging Standards Director of the UK Discus Club.

It has been my honour to judge discus in Malaysia, Holland, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Due to my partner Brenda being totally sane and intelligent she has restricted my current activities to a couple of 70 gallon tanks, a nano reef, a microscope and propagation area at home. I seem to remember here saying to me one day after forgetting the water was running that its supposed to be a house not a lab or fish room - sorry B :)

I have been keeping fish since the early eighties and in 1998 returned to discus.

By the way I am completely insane.

OK, now for my other persona - Bwian

My name is Bwian

I am from a little hamlet called Nazareth which is near London in the UK

I love all things fishy and anyone with a good sense of humour that have the ability to chuckle at themselves

For those that don't know Bwian, please read on . . .

I recently have had several queries into the persona of Bwian – I think it is time that an explanation be given to those that may not understand the chap nor his purpose in life.

Whilst posting across many forums, and also in my personal meetings with people, I have found it all to easy to get wrapped up in the passions of keeping discus. Many people have spent a lifetime studying, researching and keeping discus (and other fish) – and for those people of course I respect your achievements.

However, I have seen on many occasions (and have been guilty of it myself, on too many times to remember, that we can take ourselves a tad too seriously and end up in vicious arguments– often simply because we love our hobby so much

Bwian is a direct 'tongue in cheek' response to that; and to those, that for a minute or two, fall into the trap of believing their/our own publicity – including me!!!! LOL .

He reminds me (and others that have e-mailed me) that they’re are NO ‘DISCUS GODS’. There are people to respect – YES – but not to bow down to and worship IMO.

If people like Fred, Walter, Ivan, etc, walked into my room - I would put kettle on, make coffee, and listen with awe re their tales and experiences – that’s me!

If Wattley, Heiko, Einstein, Degen walked into my room - they get same coffee, same cup, same biscuits . . . . . . . .(o, ok, maybe a beer too) but you know what I mean – I still listen with the same awe and the same wonder – I do not rush out and buy silver plates.  Though I will say it has been a real pleasure to share a full English breakfast with Mr. Degen and to listen to Mr. Bleher's tales on the Amazon. I am not into illusions of grandeur – so Bwian reminds me/us that life can and is fun – even when we are talking bout Discus.

I have had a mixed response re Bwian – some have been upset, a few more confused, and many have joined in the fun. There is not an ounce of malicious intent with Bwian – and all I wanted to do is to bring a smile to peoples faces in the process of remaining human – that I hope I have done for some . . .

Why Bwian

OK I will keep this part shortish

• Brian/Bwian is a character from Monty Python film ‘Life of Brian’ - no less.
• Born at the same time and place as Jesus of Nazareth.
• He is nobody in particular – just a good ol soul.In one part of the film as Brian/Bwian is trying to escape the Romans/Wwomans, he jumps on a soap box and pretends to preach to the crowd.
• He preaches a load of twaddle – BUT – the crowd listen – and hey what do ya know they mistake him for the messiah – and hence he is pursued, worshiped . . . as one
• He did not claim to be the messiah, he does not want to be the messiah, he is just a person, he even tells people that they don’t have to be sheep, they can all think for themselves – do people listen –NO of course not.
• Every event in Bwian’s life turns into a sign from GOD, a rule to be obeyed and followed. He loses a shoe and people see it as a sign – worship the shoe . . .
• In one scene, Bwian screams painfully to the pursuing crowd – ‘I am not the messiah’ even then the crowd respond with ‘Only a true messiah would deny his divinity’ – He respond ‘Ok – I am the messiah’ the crowd respond ‘See he is the messiah’ – I won’t repeat Bwian’s final response – but lets just say he tells them to go away.

The same happens in the discus world – or any other, for that matter. Someone says something revealing, the crowd think WOW and worship – it gets to the stage that even if the ‘crowd-anointed one’ body burps - people say 'hey lets all body burp' and 'follow the body burpers' . . . .

Finally , I , like others, spend many many hours being serious – Bwian is a pressure release valve to warn me/others what can happen – It does not mean I don’t respect any of you, far from it – The people at DPH, and all the other forums provide/d me with education, insight and share/d their humour and their life with me – I love reading their posts.

I try to keep Bwian out of ‘requests for help’ posts - tho even then - when you aim to assist someone, some carefully chosen humour can ease stress –JMO – people have done it to me on many occasion - thanks Davis, Fred, Rob Charite – which was great – fish got healed and I got to smile.

The intent of this summary is to share my thoughts – no more – no less.

Kind regards and respect to all of you

Dougall Stewart

P.S. Bwian says SMILE – and always look on the bright side of life – la la, lah lah lah lah lah la . . . .