FRIDAY MUSIC: Ex Africam # 2, by JD

The Proms on BBC4 at the weekend featured Angélique Kidjo and I found this review from the Evening Standard:
https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/proms-2019-angelique-kidjo-review-a4202121.html

The review gives special mention to the percussionist but I thought the drummer was even better and special guest Roberto Fonseca was excellent, as usual.

Watching the show I was reminded that we need a further helping of music 'out of Africa'.
Part one was here -
https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2017/03/friday-night-is-music-night-ex-africam.html

....and we continue, belatedly, with more of the same and it is easy to see how the Blues and the S.American rhythms were derived from Africa's musical traditions.

Parliament's Conundrum

Brexit: Legal bid to prevent Boris Johnson shutting down parliament

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49251511

Parliament voted to repeal ECA 1972.

Parliament voted to trigger Article 50.

Parliament rejected the dWA a record 3 times in the same session (a breach of established protocol that we can only hope will never be repeated.)

If the EU fails to offer an acceptable revised deal, how can there be anything more to say?

Fake News and Misleading Adjudicators

People look for quick answers, for someone to tell them whether a claim is true or false.

But the judges themselves may not always tell the full story when putting their stamp on it.

Zero Hedge, 28 December 2018: "Angela Merkel: Nation States Must "Give Up Sovereignty" To New World Order"
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-27/angela-merkel-nation-states-must-give-sovereignty-new-world-order

This is labelled "Fake News" by Maarten Schenk on leadstories.com: "Nowhere does she mention the "New World Order" and there is no place where she says "sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty".
https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3470035-fake-news-angela-merkel-nation-states-must-give-up-sovereignty-to-new-world-order.html

I reply:

"Some misquoting, perhaps - but the essential point is correct, if you read the original KAS press release (https://www.kas.de/veranstaltungsberichte/detail/-/content/-das-herz-der-demokratie-). 

You will know from that, that the conference was about the tension between national sovereignty and globalisation; and that Frau Merkel is in favour of the latter, merely using parliaments as the instrument to surrender sovereignty. 

This ignores the tension between parliamentary representatives and the people they claim to represent, as has been clearly instanced in the UK. 

So, not quite fake news after all. Do you think you yourself have been slightly misleading here?"

Who shall guard the guardians?

Simon Reeve on why we should have completely open borders

Hopping channels, we got a few seconds of this: "Mediterranean", with Simon Reeve.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bqn4g1/mediterranean-with-simon-reeve-series-1-episode-4

He's just been spending a bit of time with lads on the North African coast who are trying to get into Europe illegally. And here's what he says, now on board ship and looking over the Strait of Gibraltar at 17:30 minutes in:

"Across the Mediterranean, from Africa to Europe, from Morocco to Spain, it feels that under the watchful eye of those lads in the forest who look at these big ships carrying their hopes and their dreams across to southern Spain. And I just get to do it thanks to this (gets out his passport) little thing: my passport (chagrined grimace); an accident of birth."

Yes, indeed. It's hard not to feel sympathy with people who want a better life.

But if you're going to play on our emotions in this way, there should also be a cool head to go with that warm heart.

There are three options:

a.) Let anyone and everyone into Europe, anytime.
b.) Let nobody in, ever.
c.) Let some people in.

Since (a) and (b) are obviously lunatic, it must be (c). And if (c), then we need a system.

It really doesn't help the political discourse to have TV presenters and celebs indulge in obiter dicta without considering the implications of what they say.

Getting past eco-guilt

There's some element of psychological sado-masochism at work in the Great Plastic Rubbish Crisis. It's almost as though the real driver is the need to make (other) people feel bad about themselves, which mostly they do anyway.

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/ 

If you're going to whip the world you'll need a long lash, and in this case there's plenty of thong. We've all seen the animal pictures, and then there's the five great ocean garbage patches to remind us what a messy, throwaway lot we are.

Like the WW2 British tearing down park railings on tne pretext that they were needed to make into tanks and aircraft - which they weren't, so I understand, it was just to keep the populace aware that There Is A War On And We Must All Make Sacrifices (geez Louise, as though we didn't know) - we've had the Plastic Shopping Bag Guilts foisted on us.

The 5p charge has indeed been effective at reducing waste, and that's a good thing:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/plastic-bag-charge-supermarkets-figures-reduction-a9029996.html

- because it is always good not to be wasteful.

But then there's the link between that and Killing Sea Turtles (etc.):

http://www.planetexperts.com/meet-the-famous-turtle-with-a-serious-plastic-problem/

By and large, it's not me. I live 100 miles inland and what my Local Authority doesn't recycle it burns - creating atmospheric particulate pollution that may be more of a health hazard than Deadly Diesel (the fuel that the Government wanted us all to switch to, then very much not).

So the Mail boasts of how it has successfully influenced our consumer behaviour, yet only last year ran a story explaining that most of the seaborne plastic garbage comes from rivers in far-off continents:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5910011/Plastic-bag-ban-criticised-90-cent-plastic-waste-comes-rivers-Asia-Africa.html

- a story based on a German scientific news item from the year before:

https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=36336&webc_pm=34%2F2017

We may be indirectly responsible, in that until recently we sent a lot of garbage to China to be processed, but China is calling a halt to much of that:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html (sodding paywall)
But you can read this follow-up:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-our-trash/584131/

It seem the real answer to 90% of the problem is to get faraway foreign countries to stop throwing the stuff into the rivers - a perfectly practicable, political issue.

And then maybe a cleanup of the floating ocean crap - initial cost estimate c. £1 billion:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-plastic-waste-alliance/plastics-consumer-goods-makers-in-1-5-billion-pledge-to-rein-in-waste-idUSKCN1PA2AS

- though likely to be far more:

https://gcaptain.com/big-plastics-1-billion-pledge-to-end-plastic-waste-just-a-drop-in-the-polluted-ocean/

- yet even then, still a tiny fraction of the cost of building an aircraft carrier, for example.

Meantime, I wish the new prophets would get out of my head with their arrogant Save The World stuff.

9/11 Conspiracy Theory Gets Legal and Scientific Teeth

24 July 2019: The Fire Commissioners of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire District outside of Queens, New York have passed a resolution calling for a formal enquiry into allegations that explosives were planted in the Trade Centre buildings prior to the airplane suicide attacks -
NY Fire Commissioners Demand New 9/11 Probe, Citing "Overwhelming Evidence of Pre-Planted Explosives"

This comes after a petition to the New York Southern District Attorney's office by victims' families on 10 April last year, stating “The Lawyers’ Committee has reviewed the relevant available evidence . . . and has reached a consensus that there is not just substantial or persuasive evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted crimes related to the use of pre-planted explosives and/or incendiaries . . . on 9/11, but there is actually conclusive evidence that such federal crimes were committed.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/911-inquiry-lawyers-and-victims-families-file-petition-for-federal-grand-jury-investigation/5635854

That Grand Jury Petition made on 10 April 2019 can be read here:
https://www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/lc-doj-grand-jury-petition/

FRIDAY MUSIC: Al Andaluz Project, by JD

...tip of the hat to Mr Sackerson for this https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-music.html which popped up in his sidebar of random selections from the archive. I haven't yet checked out "Marko Markovitch's tremendously vibrant jazz band" but I did look for the Al Andaluz Project and they were very interesting.

They are a collaboration between a German group called Estampie and L'Ham de Foc from Valencia.

This from their web page -

"The encounter of the three "leading" cultures of the Middle-Ages - Muslim, Jewish and Christian - a topic as fascinating and controversal as ever - is reflected in the Al Andaluz Project by the origin of the involved musicians. Just recently violent-prone fundamentalist movements, whether religious or not, have taken centre stage of public debate. Unfortunately, the necessary basic knowledge of the matter is often fragmentary, this being due to a general ignorance of the historical context. And this in view of the incredible abundance of musical literature. In some regions this music has never ceased to be living tradition until today. Especially in the realm of music, the peaceful co-existence of the three great cultures lasted for centuries - a shining example for a mutually enriching and inspiring social life."

"Al-Ándalus is the name chosen by the Ummayad conquerors for the Iberian Peninsula. Moorish-governed Spain was not only famous for its tolerance and scholarship, but for prosperity, trade and flourishing arts as well. For many centuries, people with different religions - Muslim, Jewish and Christian - lived together in peace and inspired each other. Philosophers, poets, artists and musicians were most welcome at the courts of occidental rulers like Alfonso X "the Wise" of Castile, and made their artistic contribution to a unique merging of cultures."
https://www.last.fm/music/Al+Andaluz+Project/+wiki

The music is not all from Andalucia, the first video below is Portuguese/Galician* but it fits the style and the mood of all they do.

















_______________________________________
*Sackerson asks:

"Can you describe for our readers the technical differences between Portuguese/Galician music and Andalusian?"

JD replies:

Well I can try :)

This is a traditional version of the Portuguese/Galician song -



As you can tell the AlAndaluz Project adapted it to their Arabic/Sephardic rhythms and tunings but the melody is identifiably the same.

Their style of music is nothing like the popular image of Andalucian music, i.e. flamenco which has roots in the north African 'tarab' as I showed in my previous post -

https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-legacy-of-moors-in-europe.html

The Al Andaluz Project web page mentions the influence of the Umayyad caliphate which had its origins in Damascus and they were one of the more enlightened sects of Islam in contrast to the Abbasids who drove them out of Damascus prompting their migration to Al Andalus. The link I had in the references helps to explain things - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sumay/hd_sumay.htm

I think there is a lot of guesswork goes into reconstructing history and as I have pointed out elsewhere historians only tell us about the 'gangsters' who, animal like, fight each other for power. They tell us little or nothing about how people lived and even less about their traditions and their arts and music but if we open our eyes and our ears we can get glimpses of the influences from one tradition to another.