UPDATE: alas, too good to last! It was the BBC's 2016 production of "Peter Pan Goes Wrong."
Absolutely magnificent:
A reprise of the 2016 production; unbeatable!
Saturday, January 06, 2018
Twelfth Night
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| Image source |
Shine out, fair Sun, with all your heat,
Show all your thousand-coloured light!
Black Winter freezes to his seat;
The grey wolf howls, he does so bite;
Crookt Age on three knees creeps the street;
The boneless fish close quaking lies
And eats for cold his aching feet;
The stars in icicles arise:
Shine out, and make this winter night
Our beauty's Spring, our Prince of Light!
by George Chapman
from "The Masque of the Twelve Months", first performed on Twelfth Night 1619
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| Image source |
Friday, January 05, 2018
FRIDAY MUSIC: An Orthodox Christmas, by JD
As we come to the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Orthodox Churches prepare to celebrate their Christmas Day it seems appropriate to join them with some of their traditional Christmas music -
On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas
JD adds:
It is a tradition in Spain to have a procession on the evening of 5th January of the arrival of the three wise men, the Cabalgate de los Reyes Magos:
https://www.enforex.com/culture/reyes-magos.html
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Potholes: a lesson never learned
Potholes are a popular item for discussion
around this time of the year: the first hard frosts and persistent rain bring about
an explosion of these obstacles on our roads with a regularity that is now an
acceptable fact of life.
A twenty mile journey on a local A road that
I had to make in pretty awful conditions highlighted the true state of potholes
in this area and I suspect everywhere else. Constant neglect of our road system
and the temporary repair ideology that all councils adopt in the name of cut
backs has left the road I traveled on looking in large parts like a cross
between the Nairobi – Mombasa highway - anyone who has traveled on that will
know what I mean - and no-man's-land in the Somme. The endlessly refilled potholes had as one
succumbed to the cold and wet and scattered their collective innards all over
the highway leaving an assortment of craters to be avoided.
This annual farce forced upon the populace
by hand-wringing local government officials as an inevitable consequence of “cuts” is, as has been pointed out by those
who really know about such things, nothing more than money down the drain, as the
temporary repairs last for ever shorter spans. We have one
at a small road junction nearby that has been filled three times this year
alone, showing the cost of the short-sighted approach to this and all the other
infrastructure defects in this country.
A good resurfacing will last without further maintenance for a predictable time if the work has been properly carried out, and so the costs can be reliably approximated. Continually employing people to fill ever more potholes is a
waste of taxpayers' money as eventually the road will have to be resurfaced at
greater cost than originally due to excess damage, and the refilling money has
to be added to that.
Anybody coming back from a continental trip
can see the disparity between our road infrastructure and that
abroad and the gap in the quality is growing apace, year by year .
I suspect the government is fully aware of
the problem but successive governments
have failed to do anything meaningful about it and now the cost has
reached a prohibitive level, such is the problem unless toll roads are introduced (and they are not coming anytime soon, but will come as necessity demands.) No political party wants to be
“unpopular”- which is rather funny considering none of them are popular - and they will kick the can down the road as long as possible, until perhaps another
party has to deal with it as they do with everything else.
In Africa you get enterprising men who stand
by the badly potholed roads with a large pile of gravel, and if you give them a
small amount of cash they will fill a few holes; perhaps a cottage industry on
those lines could be started up here !
If the trend in neglect continues will we
all have to fit monster truck tyres to our family cars in order to navigate the
ever increasing number and size of these craters? Will the I-Spy books make a
come back with "I-Spy the biggest pothole"? Will they become part of our
national heritage and demand national treasure status, perhaps even an AA * star
grading? All is possible, for certainly they are not going away.
_________________________________________
Sackerson comments:
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
The art of Rita Loureiro
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| "Boi vento" (Ox wind), by Rita Loureiro Image source: http://animaelibri.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arte-rita-loureiro.html |
There is a mysterious illustration on the cover of the 1984 English translation of Mário de Andrade's book "Macunaíma" (1928):
 |
Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1099648.Macuna_ma |
The artwork is by Rita Loureiro (not to be confused with the Brazilian actress of the same name).
What struck me is the alien feeling of it. It does not look to me like what a European artist might do, and one senses some informed, intuitive connection with the weird subject.
It's not easy to find much about Loureiro on the Web, at least not in English, but this site gives a few biographical details: http://animaelibri.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arte-rita-loureiro.html.
According to this, she was born in 1952 in the old rubber plantation town of Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest (Amazonas Region). [Manaus may ring a bell with you: it's where an Irish fortune-seeker carried a steamship over the mountains, as in the film "Fitzcarraldo."] Loureiro moved to Rio de Janeiro to begin her career as an artist but (if I understand correctly) returned to the rainforest region to develop her art and understanding of the aboriginals/first peoples.
It seems she produced a number of illustrations for "Macunaíma", which don't appear in the English translation and as yet I haven't established exactly which edition (this limited edition from 1984? or this?) of this seminal Brazilian work does contain them, though here are a couple:
 |
| Image source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/119978777556191067/ |
 |
| http://nabc.org.br/arquivo/nabcIII63/loureiro.jpg |
There is more of her work to be found here, at the Itaú Cultural centre in São Paulo:
http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa1387/rita-loureiro
 |
| Desfoliante Naranja (1983) [Orange defoliant] Image citation |
 |
| Boi Floresta (1982) [Ox Forest] Image citation |
 |
| A Dança da Morte (1989) [The dance of Death] Image citation |
 |
| Carta Pras Icamabias (1981) [Letter to the Amazons - illustration for "Macunaíma"] Image citation |
To me, it seems that an overarching theme or approach is seeing humans in a context full of meaning, whether social, natural or cultural-religious-magical, a turning away from the modern "homeless mind" and entirely in keeping with Andrade's disgusted view of São Paulo as seen through Macunaíma's forest-bred eyes.
This photo of Pinacoteca do Estado is courtesy of TripAdvisor
See reviews (2015 - 2017) of the gallery in Manaus here:
That's not to make the savages into hygienised Walt Disney characters; one of Andrade's chapters describes a macumba rite involving nudity, unbridled sex and uninhibited violence against a female temporarily possessed by a demon so that Macunaíma can by proxy inflict his revenge on a rival. Macumba is an umbrella term for a group of religious-magical syntheses - local, African and Christian - see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macumba.
The Galeria do Largo in her home town of Manaus has a web page on her from her 2006 exhibition there, which also lists some of her previous shows. One of these was "Boi Tema" (Ox Theme) in 1984 and after, turned into a book in 1987. The ox is celebrated in various ways across Brazil, in death-and-rebirth rituals known as the Bumba-meu-boi. A 2004 guide to Barcelona says that in Brazil, the celebration has its roots in nineteenth century cattle farming there, though of course the ox has ritual significance in many other places in the world; but the same guide refers to a Bantu festival centred around an ox named Geroa; I had thought that the Bantu were in South or South-West Africa but it seems they originated in the angle of west Africa by modern day Nigeria/Cameroon; so quite possibly one of the roots of Bumba-meu-boi springs from the cultural complex transmitted to South America via the West African slave trade.
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| O Boi, a Morte do Verde e a Represa (1984) [The ox, the death of the green land, and the dam] Image citation |
Like Andrade, then, Rita Loureiro's art is a transmission of the old world's voice to the new and rootless incomers.
Monday, January 01, 2018
Did China just send the USA a coded military message?
Last night there was a display of mini-drones in formation over Guangzhou, ostensibly to celebrate the New Year.
But clearly coordinating over 1,000 drones so perfectly is unlikely to be a job for an army of fallible humans.
Imagine a battlefield where instead of dumping 500-pound smart-guided bombs out of circling jet fighters with only a short "playtime" to kill a handful of insurgents, a swarm of computer-controlled heat-seeking/visually guided dronelets seek out and kill individuals precisely and cheaply, with a few ounces of explosive each.
The potential has been discussed online within the last two years, e.g. here:
https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/Air-Force-Seeks-Swarms-of-Attack-Mini-Drones-101454682
Was China saying, we're there now and woe betide etc.?
But clearly coordinating over 1,000 drones so perfectly is unlikely to be a job for an army of fallible humans.
Imagine a battlefield where instead of dumping 500-pound smart-guided bombs out of circling jet fighters with only a short "playtime" to kill a handful of insurgents, a swarm of computer-controlled heat-seeking/visually guided dronelets seek out and kill individuals precisely and cheaply, with a few ounces of explosive each.
The potential has been discussed online within the last two years, e.g. here:
https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/Air-Force-Seeks-Swarms-of-Attack-Mini-Drones-101454682
Was China saying, we're there now and woe betide etc.?
NYE: East meets West
In Australia, New Year's Eve fireworks really go with a bang:
... while in Guangzhou, the night has a thousandeyes drones...
(htp: RT.com)
... while in Guangzhou, the night has a thousand
(htp: RT.com)
Hogmanay revels continue
A guid New Year to ane an` a` and mony may ye see!
While New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world, the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with this event - and we have our own name for it, Hogmanay.
There are many theories about the derivation of the word "Hogmanay". The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) "hoog min dag" means "great love day". Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French. "Homme est né" or "Man is born" while in France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was "aguillaneuf" while in Normandy presents given at that time were "hoguignetes". Take your pick!
In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was recorded, rather disapprovingly, by the Church. "It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane." Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.
Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. (I think it became a public holiday round about 1960.) The reason for Christmas not being celebrated has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children. There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight. (I wonder how many people still try to clear their debts!)
An integral part of the Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.
"First footing" (that is, the "first foot" in the house after midnight) is not as common as it used to be in Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the first foot should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent and very welcome they are!.
And of course it has become traditional to overindulge and wake up the following day with a 'sair heid'. -
Sunday, December 31, 2017
JD presents Hogmanay!
A guid New Year to ane an` a` and mony may ye see!
While New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world, the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with this event - and we have our own name for it, Hogmanay.
There are many theories about the derivation of the word "Hogmanay". The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) "hoog min dag" means "great love day". Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French. "Homme est né" or "Man is born" while in France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was "aguillaneuf" while in Normandy presents given at that time were "hoguignetes". Take your pick!
In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was recorded, rather disapprovingly, by the Church. "It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane." Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.
Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. (I think it became a public holiday round about 1960.) The reason for Christmas not being celebrated has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children. There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight. (I wonder how many people still try to clear their debts!)
An integral part of the Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.
"First footing" (that is, the "first foot" in the house after midnight) is not as common as it used to be in Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the first foot should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent and very welcome they are!.
And of course it has become traditional to overindulge and wake up the following day with a 'sair heid'. -
My New Year's Resolution
... is never to open the pages of the MoS' "You" magazine:
It's so easy to deconstruct, isn't it? A manufacturer's freebie, or something bought on expenses in a hurried cabbed trawl through West End shops, or even worse, a sponsorship.
Just don't tell us that "we" paid for it out of her own pocket or intends to continue using it, especially at that you-really-are-silly-aren't-you price.
A touchstone for the whole bloated, false-valued paper. If it wasn't for Peter Hitchens I shouldn't bother at all.
Just don't tell us that "we" paid for it out of her own pocket or intends to continue using it, especially at that you-really-are-silly-aren't-you price.
A touchstone for the whole bloated, false-valued paper. If it wasn't for Peter Hitchens I shouldn't bother at all.
A German NYE tradition - divining the future by molten lead
We used to do this in Germany. The lead came formed into the shape of common objects, a bit like the old Monopoly player pieces. The result was always a frazzled lump in the bottom of the washing up bowl.
Started in Greece with tin-smelting, they say - so maybe dates back to the Bronze Age?
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdomancy.
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Earliest (photographed) snowman was Welsh!
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| "Earliest known photograph of a snowman. Wales, circa 1853" Htp: Tumblr here |
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowman#History
Friday, December 29, 2017
FRIDAY MUSIC: Merry Claudemas! - by JD
It's that time of year, after the joy of Christmas and before the great joy of Hogmanay, a time to wind down and look for some calming tranquility. What better way to relax than with the music of Debussy. The third video is very fitting as we are currently 'enjoying' the latest episode in the global warming saga.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Thought For The Day: Bitcoin
Is Bitcoin really better than money, or is it just a Dunning-Krugerrand?
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
On The First Day Of Christmas
- that chimes with the family's-home theme, but JD suggests this alternative:
Monday, December 25, 2017
Sunday, December 24, 2017
MUSIC: JD's Third Christmas Collection
Nollaig Chridheil gu h-uile agus Dia a 'beannachadh
sìth air an talamh agus deagh rùn dha na fir uile *
* A wonderful Christmas and God bless you
Peace on earth and goodwill for all men
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Friday, December 22, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Thought for the day: inequality
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http://uk.businessinsider.com/economist-intelligence-unit-downgrades-united-states-to-flawed-democracy-2017-1?r=US&IR=T |
"Scheidel’s book* shows that historically, the only way high inequality has been flattened has been through catastrophe: disease, famine, world war, societal collapse or communist revolution."
- Quoted in "Evonomics": http://evonomics.com/inequality-predicts-homicide-rates-better-variable/
Is there another way?.
_______________________________
*Walter Scheidel, "The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century", Princeton, January 2017
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10921.html
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (428)
Wiggiatlarge in the comments at Broad Oak Magazine:
"The author of this has been on a mission to implement LVT as the prefered method of tax, he is entitled to his view, but no tax is perfect and many far more qualified than myself have taken apart aspects of LVT on his site, the author also rather spoils his pitch by using phraese like "homies" as a derogatory term for all home owners (1) and feels for some strange reason that anyone who has a garden (2) should bear the sins of mankind (3), all rather strange."
1. That's a deliberate misinterpretation of what the term means. As I have pointed out many a time, "Home-Owner-Ist" does not mean owner-occupier. Not all owner-occupiers are Home-Owner-Ists; indeed not all Home-Owner-Ists are owner-occupiers.
I am an owner-occupier and I guess most Land Value Taxers are. "Home-Owner-Ist" is my catch-all term for:
- people who celebrate high and rising house prices;
- NIMBYs;
- people who think that "land and buildings" is synonymous with "property";
- people who say that income tax or poll tax is fairer than LVT without realising that they are two extremes and that LVT combines the best aspects of those taxes without their worst aspects;
- people who cheerfully say that the value of land is dictated by its location, location, location while denying the existence of the concept of 'community generated land value';
- people who genuinely believe the 2008 recession was caused by Labour government deficit spending and not by the land price/credit bubble bursting
- etc.
2. Anybody who thinks that Land Value Tax is a 'garden tax' has no grasp of reality. It is a charge based on the value of a location. Anybody can look this up for themselves - in the UK, the average value of a flat is approximately equal to the average value of a semi-detached house with a garden. So clearly, the size of your garden barely matters, it all depends where your garden (or home) is.
3. Who said anything about 'bearing all the sins of mankind'? Does he think that people who go to work (and pay income tax) should 'bear all the sins of mankind'?
The value of any bit of land is down to the extra advantages you can enjoy by occupying that location, location, location. There are thousands of factors, but a major one is being within easy commute distance of a decent job or having lots of potential workers and customers within easy commute distance of your business. And what you are paying for is the right to exclude all others from doing your job or taking your workers/customers; so you are placing a burden on them equal and opposite to the value you are enjoying. Sure, people can commute in from further away and do a similar job, but that extra commute time is a burden for the other person; similarly, there are people who live closer to your place of work than you do; they are placing a burden on you.
Therefore, it seems fair and reasonable to me for people to pay compensation (i.e. LVT) accordingly, and for everybody to receive an equal share of the compensation paid by all other land owners (whether that is in terms of public services or a straight cash payout).
There's no point bleating that "I paid for it and it's my land and therefore shouldn't have to pay further compensation", you are still placing a burden on others. What if I move in next door to you and listen to music at top volume all night long? I'm clearly placing a burden on you, and you wouldn't be too happy if I argue that "I've paid for my sound system and CDs and have no duty to minimise or mitigate the burden I place on you".
"The author of this has been on a mission to implement LVT as the prefered method of tax, he is entitled to his view, but no tax is perfect and many far more qualified than myself have taken apart aspects of LVT on his site, the author also rather spoils his pitch by using phraese like "homies" as a derogatory term for all home owners (1) and feels for some strange reason that anyone who has a garden (2) should bear the sins of mankind (3), all rather strange."
1. That's a deliberate misinterpretation of what the term means. As I have pointed out many a time, "Home-Owner-Ist" does not mean owner-occupier. Not all owner-occupiers are Home-Owner-Ists; indeed not all Home-Owner-Ists are owner-occupiers.
I am an owner-occupier and I guess most Land Value Taxers are. "Home-Owner-Ist" is my catch-all term for:
- people who celebrate high and rising house prices;
- NIMBYs;
- people who think that "land and buildings" is synonymous with "property";
- people who say that income tax or poll tax is fairer than LVT without realising that they are two extremes and that LVT combines the best aspects of those taxes without their worst aspects;
- people who cheerfully say that the value of land is dictated by its location, location, location while denying the existence of the concept of 'community generated land value';
- people who genuinely believe the 2008 recession was caused by Labour government deficit spending and not by the land price/credit bubble bursting
- etc.
2. Anybody who thinks that Land Value Tax is a 'garden tax' has no grasp of reality. It is a charge based on the value of a location. Anybody can look this up for themselves - in the UK, the average value of a flat is approximately equal to the average value of a semi-detached house with a garden. So clearly, the size of your garden barely matters, it all depends where your garden (or home) is.
3. Who said anything about 'bearing all the sins of mankind'? Does he think that people who go to work (and pay income tax) should 'bear all the sins of mankind'?
The value of any bit of land is down to the extra advantages you can enjoy by occupying that location, location, location. There are thousands of factors, but a major one is being within easy commute distance of a decent job or having lots of potential workers and customers within easy commute distance of your business. And what you are paying for is the right to exclude all others from doing your job or taking your workers/customers; so you are placing a burden on them equal and opposite to the value you are enjoying. Sure, people can commute in from further away and do a similar job, but that extra commute time is a burden for the other person; similarly, there are people who live closer to your place of work than you do; they are placing a burden on you.
Therefore, it seems fair and reasonable to me for people to pay compensation (i.e. LVT) accordingly, and for everybody to receive an equal share of the compensation paid by all other land owners (whether that is in terms of public services or a straight cash payout).
There's no point bleating that "I paid for it and it's my land and therefore shouldn't have to pay further compensation", you are still placing a burden on others. What if I move in next door to you and listen to music at top volume all night long? I'm clearly placing a burden on you, and you wouldn't be too happy if I argue that "I've paid for my sound system and CDs and have no duty to minimise or mitigate the burden I place on you".
Friday, December 15, 2017
FRIDAY MUSIC: Nina Simone, by JD
"She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone."
"When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic “I Loves You Porgy,” to “A Single Woman,” the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that binds the two together – it is that approach to every piece of work that became Nina’s uncompromising musical trademark."
- http://www.ninasimone.com/
"When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic “I Loves You Porgy,” to “A Single Woman,” the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that binds the two together – it is that approach to every piece of work that became Nina’s uncompromising musical trademark."
- http://www.ninasimone.com/
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
CATALONIA: Art repatriated, Puigdemont loses his marbles, by JD
News from Spain includes a story about the removal of art works from a museum in Lerida and returning them to Huesca in Aragon.*
Background of the story is towards the end of this Wiki entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Of course Puigdemont is 'outraged' and this was his tweet yesterday-
Carles Puigdemont✔@KRLS
Amb nocturnitat i utilitzant una policia militaritzada, com sempre, tot aprofitant un cop d'estat per espoliar Catalunya amb absoluta impunitat. Aquest és el model de país que defensen Ciudadanos, PSC i PP.
Background of the story is towards the end of this Wiki entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Of course Puigdemont is 'outraged' and this was his tweet yesterday-
Carles Puigdemont✔@KRLS
Amb nocturnitat i utilitzant una policia militaritzada, com sempre, tot aprofitant un cop d'estat per espoliar Catalunya amb absoluta impunitat. Aquest és el model de país que defensen Ciudadanos, PSC i PP.
As you can see he is still accusing the Government of a "coup d'etat" against Catalonia. I recall very well a genuine attempt at a "coup d'etat" on 23rd February 1981 which was ended by King Juan Carlos when he appeared on TV, dressed in his army uniform, and ordered the rebels to surrender. This was just four years after the Atocha Massacre and with the end of that 1981 coup attempt the ghost of Franco was well and truly exorcised from Spanish life.
Puigdemont's constant hyperbole diminishes his case and he is too stupid to see it.
I mentioned Puigdemont's name last night in a phone call to a friend in Spain; it is now a name which produces a furious reaction, a mixture of scorn and contempt; not least because he is still hiding in Brussels frightened to come back despite the fact that his Euro Arrest warrant has now been withdrawn.
_______________________________________________________________
*Following a court order a month ago:
http://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/aragon-judge-orders-return-of-disputed-artworks-from-catalan-museum
- but JD has these observations to make about this link to Catalan News:
The link you added is from Catalan News and is not exactly impartial. The court first ordered the return of the artefacts in 2015 and again in 2016. The suggestion that the Monastery was 'sacked' by Anarchists is disingenuous because they were fighting on the Republican side. The wholesale slaughter of priests and nuns by the Republicans is well documented.
http://www.academia.edu/
And then there were the 'checas' which were basically Soviet run torture chambers. There is very little information on this in English but this is the background to it -
In Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, the detention and torture centers operated by the Communists were named "checas" after the Soviet organization.[42] Alfonso Laurencic was their promoter, ideologist and builder.[43]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I am not defending or endorsing Franco. He was the lesser of two evils in that conflict. As I have mentioned previously, I visited the abandoned village of Belchite while I was working in Zaragoza. It is a reminder of the stupidity of both sides but, unfortunately, there remain too many stupid politicians who wallow in the false glory of past conflicts and wish to renew them.
"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori."
- but JD has these observations to make about this link to Catalan News:
The link you added is from Catalan News and is not exactly impartial. The court first ordered the return of the artefacts in 2015 and again in 2016. The suggestion that the Monastery was 'sacked' by Anarchists is disingenuous because they were fighting on the Republican side. The wholesale slaughter of priests and nuns by the Republicans is well documented.
http://www.academia.edu/
And then there were the 'checas' which were basically Soviet run torture chambers. There is very little information on this in English but this is the background to it -
In Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, the detention and torture centers operated by the Communists were named "checas" after the Soviet organization.[42] Alfonso Laurencic was their promoter, ideologist and builder.[43]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I am not defending or endorsing Franco. He was the lesser of two evils in that conflict. As I have mentioned previously, I visited the abandoned village of Belchite while I was working in Zaragoza. It is a reminder of the stupidity of both sides but, unfortunately, there remain too many stupid politicians who wallow in the false glory of past conflicts and wish to renew them.
"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori."
Intolerance
London, during the Blitz: Monty Modlyn, Jewish son of a West End tailor, sees misfortune come to a Nazi sympathiser:
"One shopkeeper who lived near us was a supporter of Moseley and an admirer of Hitler. He always hated Churchill. They never interned him, I don't know why. He had a little sweet-shop just over the way.
"At that time there used to be a gigantic soap and candle factory called Field's round the corner, and when it caught fire all the wax in it flowed out in a great river of molten wax down the side of the arches at Waterloo station. This burning river flowed right into his shop and burnt it to pieces, and we said, "That was a blooming good job your mate Hitler did!""
"Pardon My Cheek", Hutchinson (1973), pp. 44-45
So, as the capital city was being bombed by day and night, nobody had put the shopkeeper's windows through, nobody had read a Facebook instruction sheet on "How To Punch A Nazi" and put it into effect, nobody no-platformed him, nobody set the police and courts on him.
And that sort of British tolerance was not new. During the French Revolution (pre-Robespierre), the poet William Blake openly wore a Phrygian cap around London to show his support for the revolutionaries, and was not troubled for doing it.
What a stupid, febrile, mean-spirited people we have become.
By the way, I have the greatest admiration for Monty Modlyn, a man with balls of steel who interviewed Idi Amin shortly after the coup in Uganda and asked questions so frank that his cameraman cringed fearfully in his corner. And came back to Uganda a little while later, when sentiment had turned against the British. And visited Amin's HQ in the dictator's absence, showing photos of himself with Amin to gain admission - at a time when fellow journalists like Sandy Gall were sweating in a Ugandan jail with every prospect of being killed. What a man!
"One shopkeeper who lived near us was a supporter of Moseley and an admirer of Hitler. He always hated Churchill. They never interned him, I don't know why. He had a little sweet-shop just over the way.
"At that time there used to be a gigantic soap and candle factory called Field's round the corner, and when it caught fire all the wax in it flowed out in a great river of molten wax down the side of the arches at Waterloo station. This burning river flowed right into his shop and burnt it to pieces, and we said, "That was a blooming good job your mate Hitler did!""
"Pardon My Cheek", Hutchinson (1973), pp. 44-45
So, as the capital city was being bombed by day and night, nobody had put the shopkeeper's windows through, nobody had read a Facebook instruction sheet on "How To Punch A Nazi" and put it into effect, nobody no-platformed him, nobody set the police and courts on him.
And that sort of British tolerance was not new. During the French Revolution (pre-Robespierre), the poet William Blake openly wore a Phrygian cap around London to show his support for the revolutionaries, and was not troubled for doing it.
What a stupid, febrile, mean-spirited people we have become.
By the way, I have the greatest admiration for Monty Modlyn, a man with balls of steel who interviewed Idi Amin shortly after the coup in Uganda and asked questions so frank that his cameraman cringed fearfully in his corner. And came back to Uganda a little while later, when sentiment had turned against the British. And visited Amin's HQ in the dictator's absence, showing photos of himself with Amin to gain admission - at a time when fellow journalists like Sandy Gall were sweating in a Ugandan jail with every prospect of being killed. What a man!
Monday, December 11, 2017
Catalunacy! - by JD
We are less than two weeks away from the regional elections in Cataluña, to be held on 21st December. Time for a further review of the 'crisis' and some clarification of the deep rooted reasons behind the persistent demand for 'independence'.
I have pointed out earlier that the idea of Catalan Nationalism was invented by 'the generation of 98' at the end of the 19th century. This is confirmed in greater detail by Fernando del Pino Calvo-Sotelo:
http://www.fpcs.es/en/2017/10/
Further confirmation comes in the following video by the historian Jordi Canal, who is a Catalan, examining and deconstructing a propaganda video by the 'independentistas.' He says quite clearly that it is a mixture of manipulated facts, mythology and outright lies. Everyone in Spain (apart from the Catalans) will tell you that there has never been a Catalan nation. The various fiefdoms within the region were all absorbed into the Kingdom of Aragon in 1137. One of the main reasons for that was to put an end to the 'war lords' fighting each other within the region. Canal says that the current idea that Cataluña is or ought to be a 'nation' is a 19th century invention. This confirms the view of Ortega y Gassett that the idea was promulgated by the 'generation of 98' (as mentioned above) In Canal's words, "There existed neither a Catalan nation nor a democracy - that is for sure."
In a 25 September 2017 letter to The Times, Sir John Elliot, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford and probably the foremost Hispanist in the Anglo-Saxon world, reacted to letters which had been published in previous days which had called Spain ‘repressive’, ‘intolerant’ and ‘authoritarian’, amongst many other things. He declared that:
“The supporters of independence make much of repressive measures alleged to have been taken by Madrid, but those sympathetic to the holding of a referendum may not be aware of the degree to which the Catalan government has itself for many years been attempting to impose its radical agenda on Catalan society.
“Through its control of the educational system, influence over the media, manipulation of Catalan history for its own purposes, and in some instances, intimidation, it has sought to impress on the population at large its depiction of Catalonia as the victim of malign outside forces.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/
Elliott continues that theme in this article (in Spanish) in the newspaper El Mundo:
http://www.elmundo.es/espana/
I have known about the subversion of the education system for a long time but now know that teaching of all subjects is almost 100% in the Catalan 'language' and it has spread to the Balearic Isles and partially into Valencia.
One of the main tactics employed by the 'separatists' is to continue to suggest that they are somehow the victims of 'repression' by Madrid.
“Having an enemy is important, not just to define our own identity but also to provide us with an obstacle against which to measure our own system of values and, in seeking to overcome it, to demonstrate our own worth, so when there is no enemy, we have to invent one.”
- Umberto Eco, 'Inventing The Enemy':
https://www.goodreads.com/
Underlying all of the above is something far more sinister.
On 14th March 1899, the mayor of Barcelona, Dr Bartolomé Robert gave a conference to an expectant audience in Barcelona. The subject of his talk was “The Catalan Race."
"Surrounded by huge sketches of skulls, Robert began to lay out “the solid proof of the cephalic index of the various races, following their path across Spain,” according to an article that appeared the following day in La Vanguardia newspaper.
Standing by a colored map of the country, the doctor declared that those from Valencia had a more oval shaped skull while in Asturias and Galicia there was a prevalence of rounder craniums similar to those of the “primitive inhabitants” coming to the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa.
In Catalonia, meanwhile, the shape of the skull fell somewhere between these two types, according to Robert, who described as “notable” the skulls of Aragon, “where the anthropological difference appears to be more distinct on both sides of the border.” The article added that Dr Robert would be leaving the characteristics of the Catalan race to another conference to be held at a later date."
The inference is clear: Catalans are a different and superior 'race' as compared to the 'Africans' who lived elsewhere in Spain.
Dr Robert's theory was immediately condemned by his former colleague, neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who spent five years as a professor at Barcelona University’s medical faculty.
In his writings, Ramón y Cajal suggests that some of the Catalan population were later “poisoned” by prominent figures peddling pseudoscientific lies. “The rise of Catalan [separatist] politics was also reflected in attempts to establish the particularity of the Catalan physique,” writes Lluís Calvo in the Anthropological History of Catalonia, published in 1997.
The idea of Catalan racial superiority was promoted by others and is related in a book called "La Raza Catalana" by Francisco Caja (see references below). Many of the separatists firmly believe this theory, among them Oriol Junqueras, leader of the ERC (he is currently on remand awaiting trial for sedition among other things)
Whatever happens in the forthcoming election, nothing will change: if the separatists win they will continue to fight among themselves while Cataluña slides into chaos with SEAT adding a big blow to their hopes by relocating elsewhere. Another huge blow to the economic future of the region is the decision by the European Medicines Agency to relocate in a city other than Barcelona after the agency leaves London-
https://elpais.com/elpais/
If the 'union' wins the rentamob will take over and continue there favourite pastime of blaming Madrid for all their misfortune. But long term, because of the brainwashing in schools and colleges, there will be a festering resentment against Spain and who knows how that will play out.......
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
__________________________________________________________________
References:
Fernando del Pino Calvo-sotelo
http://www.fpcs.es/en/acerca-
Dr Robert's theory and Ramón y Cajal
https://elpais.com/elpais/
Racism at the root of catalan nationalism-
http://www.agonfilosofia.es/
Political prisoners? Read the thoughts of a genuine political prisoner from the era of Franco-
https://elpais.com/elpais/
"The horrifying repression in Catalonia" during the referendum of 1st October.
Oh really? Read about the Atocha Massacre in 1977 in Madrid and think again-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I have pointed out earlier that the idea of Catalan Nationalism was invented by 'the generation of 98' at the end of the 19th century. This is confirmed in greater detail by Fernando del Pino Calvo-Sotelo:
http://www.fpcs.es/en/2017/10/
Further confirmation comes in the following video by the historian Jordi Canal, who is a Catalan, examining and deconstructing a propaganda video by the 'independentistas.' He says quite clearly that it is a mixture of manipulated facts, mythology and outright lies. Everyone in Spain (apart from the Catalans) will tell you that there has never been a Catalan nation. The various fiefdoms within the region were all absorbed into the Kingdom of Aragon in 1137. One of the main reasons for that was to put an end to the 'war lords' fighting each other within the region. Canal says that the current idea that Cataluña is or ought to be a 'nation' is a 19th century invention. This confirms the view of Ortega y Gassett that the idea was promulgated by the 'generation of 98' (as mentioned above) In Canal's words, "There existed neither a Catalan nation nor a democracy - that is for sure."
In a 25 September 2017 letter to The Times, Sir John Elliot, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford and probably the foremost Hispanist in the Anglo-Saxon world, reacted to letters which had been published in previous days which had called Spain ‘repressive’, ‘intolerant’ and ‘authoritarian’, amongst many other things. He declared that:
“The supporters of independence make much of repressive measures alleged to have been taken by Madrid, but those sympathetic to the holding of a referendum may not be aware of the degree to which the Catalan government has itself for many years been attempting to impose its radical agenda on Catalan society.
“Through its control of the educational system, influence over the media, manipulation of Catalan history for its own purposes, and in some instances, intimidation, it has sought to impress on the population at large its depiction of Catalonia as the victim of malign outside forces.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/
Elliott continues that theme in this article (in Spanish) in the newspaper El Mundo:
http://www.elmundo.es/espana/
I have known about the subversion of the education system for a long time but now know that teaching of all subjects is almost 100% in the Catalan 'language' and it has spread to the Balearic Isles and partially into Valencia.
One of the main tactics employed by the 'separatists' is to continue to suggest that they are somehow the victims of 'repression' by Madrid.
“Having an enemy is important, not just to define our own identity but also to provide us with an obstacle against which to measure our own system of values and, in seeking to overcome it, to demonstrate our own worth, so when there is no enemy, we have to invent one.”
- Umberto Eco, 'Inventing The Enemy':
https://www.goodreads.com/
Underlying all of the above is something far more sinister.
On 14th March 1899, the mayor of Barcelona, Dr Bartolomé Robert gave a conference to an expectant audience in Barcelona. The subject of his talk was “The Catalan Race."
"Surrounded by huge sketches of skulls, Robert began to lay out “the solid proof of the cephalic index of the various races, following their path across Spain,” according to an article that appeared the following day in La Vanguardia newspaper.
Standing by a colored map of the country, the doctor declared that those from Valencia had a more oval shaped skull while in Asturias and Galicia there was a prevalence of rounder craniums similar to those of the “primitive inhabitants” coming to the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa.
In Catalonia, meanwhile, the shape of the skull fell somewhere between these two types, according to Robert, who described as “notable” the skulls of Aragon, “where the anthropological difference appears to be more distinct on both sides of the border.” The article added that Dr Robert would be leaving the characteristics of the Catalan race to another conference to be held at a later date."
The inference is clear: Catalans are a different and superior 'race' as compared to the 'Africans' who lived elsewhere in Spain.
Dr Robert's theory was immediately condemned by his former colleague, neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who spent five years as a professor at Barcelona University’s medical faculty.
In his writings, Ramón y Cajal suggests that some of the Catalan population were later “poisoned” by prominent figures peddling pseudoscientific lies. “The rise of Catalan [separatist] politics was also reflected in attempts to establish the particularity of the Catalan physique,” writes Lluís Calvo in the Anthropological History of Catalonia, published in 1997.
The idea of Catalan racial superiority was promoted by others and is related in a book called "La Raza Catalana" by Francisco Caja (see references below). Many of the separatists firmly believe this theory, among them Oriol Junqueras, leader of the ERC (he is currently on remand awaiting trial for sedition among other things)
Whatever happens in the forthcoming election, nothing will change: if the separatists win they will continue to fight among themselves while Cataluña slides into chaos with SEAT adding a big blow to their hopes by relocating elsewhere. Another huge blow to the economic future of the region is the decision by the European Medicines Agency to relocate in a city other than Barcelona after the agency leaves London-
https://elpais.com/elpais/
If the 'union' wins the rentamob will take over and continue there favourite pastime of blaming Madrid for all their misfortune. But long term, because of the brainwashing in schools and colleges, there will be a festering resentment against Spain and who knows how that will play out.......
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
__________________________________________________________________
References:
Fernando del Pino Calvo-sotelo
http://www.fpcs.es/en/acerca-
Dr Robert's theory and Ramón y Cajal
https://elpais.com/elpais/
Racism at the root of catalan nationalism-
http://www.agonfilosofia.es/
Political prisoners? Read the thoughts of a genuine political prisoner from the era of Franco-
https://elpais.com/elpais/
"The horrifying repression in Catalonia" during the referendum of 1st October.
Oh really? Read about the Atocha Massacre in 1977 in Madrid and think again-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Post-Literacy: A Realisation Of Modern Times, by Wiggia
I am in the process of having a declutter
as we just might be moving, a previous piece* deals with all the horrors of that
separately.
My biggest task was/is a large collection
of books, I love books and am loath to part with them yet the truth is apart
from a few most have served their purpose and one section especially falls into
this category.
Books on gardening, there are coffee table
books, history of books, plant guides, single genus specialist books,
landscaping books, water garden books, soil management books, design manuals,
specialist design books, manuals on costings, material usage books, plant and
tree sourcing books and on and on.
Most of these come from my time designing
and creating gardens, though some are purely for pleasure and some have a
sentimental value, being tomes from people I have known and revered.
The fact remains that apart from endless
trade catalogs and fact sheets that have been disposed of the books remain or
the bulk of them do, well over a hundred remain on my shelves with no obvious
purpose left for them.
The knowledge gleaned from the reams of
writings has been used and what I need now in life is stored in the old gray
cells; the books apart from a select few are redundant.
So what to do, the specialist and “rare”
books I decided I would put on eBay, that is until I saw that there are
countless same volumes already on there that simply don’t sell whatever the
price, so that wasjunked as an avenue
of disposal.
What about charity shops? On principle I
will not give to the enormous charities that pay executives huge salaries
whilst the staff work for nothing, so that leaves the small ones and they when
approached said they have too many books and no thank you.
I then thought that local gardening
clubs/associations was a good route to explore; from those that bothered to
answer the result was negative, one explained that they have a members' library
yet only two books had been borrowed in twelve months, so again they politely
declined my offer.
The sad truth is people simply do not read
anymore, or certainly not as in years past, all information can be obtained on
the internet. There is no need for hefty tomes to invade your ever-smaller
living space: you have a problem then seconds later you have the answer in
front of you - all the sections I mention above can be extracted from the web.
Is it the end of books apart from those
posh coffee table adornments? To a large degree I have to agree and say yes.
The same can be said for my map collection. I had endless maps of various parts of the country, Europe and the world, most
out of date and virtually all never to be used again. The sat nav and mobile
phone apps have seen the end of maps apart from the basic back up variety so with no one wanting them either, into the recycle bin they went.
I have always believed books have a special
place in one's life: we learn from them, we are entertained by them and many are
reminders of times gone by, by association or time placement, so what to do? I
am adverse to dumping them so will in the end take them with me, no doubt to
claim a corner of my study until I pop off and someone else has the sad duty to
put them in the skip along with much else that will be available at that
juncture. The unloved, unwanted book, not words I thought I would ever say.
The printed word has been with us an
awfully long time, it has been the mainstay of our education system, yet along
with the newspaper appears to be in terminal decline.
________________________________
* http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/moving-house-by-wiggia.html
________________________________
* http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/moving-house-by-wiggia.html
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