Warning: Another long piece :-) - but the issue merits it - and, like Gore, I have adopted a "kaizen" approach (see below), and given the bits on design, I've tried to include lots of relevant images - so it's taken a long time. I hope you get to the end - and that, in the end, we all survive!
We went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Mercury Cinema (echoes of Orson Welles?) in Nice, which was followed by a discussion organised by a Cafe Cine group.
In the title of my diary on Stone's film "Wall Street" I said that greed was glamourous and deadly. In this case we come to the truly deadly consequences of greed.
Diary rescue by Migeru
[editor's note, by Migeru] Picture resized and moved to the margin and fold inserted here for the front page.
A while ago I thought the streets I lived in were telling me something ( my "Haunted by Philosophers" diary), now it seems as if I'm getting messages from the media. Don't worry - I think I'm OK. :-) Recently I bought the DVD of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and showed it to Montserrat, who was mildly interested. I still found it quite powerful. I thought I might write about it, linking it to the current crisis brought on by the "greed is good" credo. A few days later "Wall Street" was shown on French TV - surely it's a sign! :-) Then the media were full of stories about Merrill Lynch's problems, a current film review spoke about the dangers of glamourising villains - finally I'm writing it, before the gods punish me for ignoring their encouragement.
The script by Stone and Stanley Wieser is excellent and Gekko is given a lot of good lines. As one critic put it:
If it's possible to have dialogue that's too stunning for the film's own good, that's the case with "Wall Street."
Whenever Oliver Stone's drama about powermongering in the stock market starts to sink into a theme, out pounces Michael Douglas with another audacious line to sock you sideways.
As Gordon Gekko, a reptilian fiend with an Empire State Building-sized chip on his Versace shoulder pads, Douglas leads a hostile takeover of your attention in a role that won him a best-actor Oscar. So alive is his character, you half expect him to jump out of the film and bite you.
Part of what makes Douglas so great in the film is ...
"You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place."
Dang, I lost my train of thought. That's how it works in the film. Whenever you think you know the score, Gekko spits out another dose of venom. He's more than a match for his co-lead, fledgling stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), who seeks out Gekko's tutelage in order to make a better . . .
The "greed is good" slogan was an improvement on Ivan Boesky's "Greed is all right, by the way."
Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937, in Detroit) was notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s.
...
By 1986, Ivan Boesky had become an arbitrageur who had amassed a fortune of about US$200 million by betting on corporate takeovers. He was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for making investments based on tips received from corporate insiders. These stock acquisitions were sometimes brazen, with massive purchases occurring only a few days before a corporation announced a takeover.
...
The character of Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street is based at least in part on Boesky, especially regarding a famous speech he delivered on the positive aspects of greed at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, where he said in part "I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself".
One of the things I especially like about DVDs is the fact that you can get so many extras with them; documentaries on the making of the film, and the commentaries, especially by the director - often a little film school in itself. In the "Wall Street" commentary, Stone is at pains to explain that all they took from Boesky, in the "greed is good" speech was his "greed is all right". All the rest was original.
Despite this some critics, who make it clear that they have listened to Stones's subsequent DVD commentary (or so they say) repeat the allegation which irritates him, e.g.:
(Parts of Gekko's famous "Greed is good" speech are freely paraphrased from comments Boesky made in 1985.)
Stone also points out that the speech is more complex than it's often taken to be, and that he agrees with much of it.
He was objecting to criticism like this, by Rita Kempley:
Stone has an agenda that's all too easily read. And yet, it was his political ambiguity that proved the strength of "Platoon," a universality that let us all live through the Vietnam war.
But Stone puts us above it all in "Wall Street." Though we are meant to descend with the camera as it dives from the skyscrapers, we sit with Stone in judgment, castigating the one-dimensional money-grubbers ...
In fact there is ambivalence throughout the film; while Stone is clearly rather appalled by people like Gekko, he is also clearly fascinated by him, and it's no surprise that this glamourous villain earned Michael Douglas a best actor Oscar. Stone is on the side of Martin Sheen, who plays the union leader and father to Bud, played by Martin Sheen's real-life son, Charlie. But Gekko gets most of the best lines.
However Stone wasn't too happy with the way Douglas was delivering them at the beginning of shooting and had a few hard words with him. He also made him do many retakes until he got angry, which clearly had the desired effect - Douglas got his Oscar. But, in becoming more dynamic and charismatic, Douglas/Gekko adds complexity and ambivalence to the general moral thrust of the film.
The glamour of bad guys is a constant problem for film-makers who are supposed to be condemning them, cf. this review of current release "American Gangster":
Like many moviemakers (and watchers), Mr. Scott loves his bad guy too much. And by turning Lucas into a figure who seduces instead of repels, an object of directorial fetishism and a token of black resistance, however hollow, he encourages us to submit as well. Part of this is structural and economic: blood and nihilism are always better sells than misery and hopelessness.
Stone did not want it to be a simple condemnation of Wall Street, after all his father had worked on Wall Street for decades. But that was another era and Stone says that while there was some corruption, there were still some principles involved and it was more of a gentlemen's club. The mentor to Bud, Lou Mannheim, played by Hal Holbrook, was based on Stone's father. Stone recorded the commentary years after making the film (in 1987), and, understandably, he used the opportunity to answer some of his critics. Thus some had complained that the Holbrook character spoke in an unrealistically aphoristic way, e.g.:
"Stick to the fundamentals, that's how IBM and Hilton were built...good things sometimes take time."
"The main thing about money, Bud, is that it makes you do things you don't want to do."
However, (apart from the fact that this is fiction not journalism) Stone maintains that this was the way his father used to speak. In fact his father used to write a newsletter about Wall Street which was translated into many languages. Sadly Stone's father died while the film was being made and Stone dedicated it to his memory. Bud, like the character played by Charlie Sheen in Stone's earlier film "Platoon", is torn between two father figures, in this case his own (in the film and real life) and Gekko.
Ironically Gekko has become a hero for young Wall Street traders as depicted in the more recent film "The Boiler Room":
"Greed is good... greed works," Gekko intones famously in Wall Street, and it was meant to be a shocking pronouncement at the time. That's the attitude that feels old-fashioned now. That greed is good is a given today, when suburban ladies' investment clubs are pulling down 20 percent returns and dotcom IPOs make twenty-somethings millionaires overnight, and heroes for it. Even Boiler Room's hero starts with that assumption, and isn't punished for it. Gekko himself feels like a charming antique compared to Boiler Room's snakes. Though J.T. Marlin's brokers idolize Gekko - in one scene, they watch Wall Street and recite Gekko's dialogue like a prayer - they haven't a clue how to emulate his sense of style.
... Boiler Room may show us the fruits of what the likes of Gekko wrought, but Bud, back there in the 80s, still has a chance to escape.
... Greed, Wall Street wants us to know in the end, isn't good. Boiler Room, on the other hand, accepts the reality of greed with resignation and assigns it a neutral value - it's what we do with our sense of greed that makes it good or bad.
Again this over-simplifies "Wall Street" somewhat, as Stone wouldn't really disagree with that conclusion.
Even more recently British City traders have been the subject of a study by a young artist and again there are very conscious echoes of "Wall Street":
The Hogarth of hedge funds offers a glimpse into a hidden world
Artist spends six months documenting the mysterious lives of the wizards of finance
Charlotte Higgins, arts correspondent, Saturday November 3, 2007, The Guardian
... Adam Dant was commissioned, appropriately enough, by Spear's Wealth Management Survey (a quarterly magazine aimed at that special breed of humans known as high-net-worths) to document the professional lives of the mysterious creatures who, behind closed doors in Mayfair and St James's, engage in abstruse activities such as short-selling and leverage.
... He saw the hedgies disport themselves at Annabel's nightclub and private gambling establishments such as Crockford's in Curzon Street and the nearby Aspinall's, founded by John Aspinall, perhaps most famous as a chum of Lord Lucan. He saw them quaff cocktails at Harry's Bar on Mount Street, and buy up art at Sotheby's, Christie's and the best contemporary art galleries.
... The walls are adorned with samurai swords and a shark's head. "It's always very aggressive, male stuff," said Dant. "And they really do regard the Art of War as their bible." He is referring to the 2,500-year-old Chinese manual on military strategy by Sun Tzu. [Quoted in "Wall Street"]
...
Over the fire is a bust of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, from the 1987 film Wall Street.
... one of the unexpected side effects of Wall Street: the cult of personality attached to Gordon Gekko. Douglas says he's still stunned by the number of people who tell him that his Oscar-winning role was the reason they went to work on Wall Street. "It's so depressing and sad," Douglas says.
... "I recall looking at that film and saying, 'That's what I want to be,' " recounts the late hedge-fund manager Seth Tobias in one of the Wall Street DVD featurettes. Somehow, an oleaginous villain meant to embody the worst excesses of his era became a folk hero and highly persuasive career counselor.
But now we are seeing once again the results of the "greed is good" ideology, with no redeeming principles to channel it and when there is inadequate regulation, and they are quite frightening:
On the way home, I sat with a very engaging and smart retired Austrian arts dealer who told me he believes that the economic system is on the edge of collapse but says he wonders why Americans are in denial about these problems. He thinks there is a lag between the news reports we are reading now and when most Americans will be inpacted by the crisis. He says the most Americans will face the reality in 2008 - which, of course, just happens to be an election year.
... The Financial Times published in London, went further in editorial titled "CREDIT SQUEEZE-THE DISASTER MOVIE."
...
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) Merrill Lynch, the nation's largest broker, on Tuesday reported its first loss in about six years, saying bad judgment and weak risk management strategies forced it to write down almost $8 billion of mortgage and related assets, well above its own previous estimate.
Merrill shares fell almost 8% to a near two-year low of $62" . Note: Merrill did another write down a week later of $4.5 billion. The Financial Times commented: "The sense that valuation is still matter of 'pick a number and divide by the chief trader's golf handicap' seems to be pervasive." Can you believe this? Even Hollywood couldn't make up something as flip as that.
But even when they screw up, the greedy make obscene amounts:
Mr. O'Neal [CEO of Merrill Lynch] would be entitled to a payout worth more than $274 million if he left after a deal, according to a pay analysis by James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm, using yesterday's closing price.
... Just last year, the board paid Mr. O'Neal $48 million, making him one of Wall Street's highest paid chief executives.
But then it's not hard to achieve that if you choose the people who decide how much you get:
Like the Morgan Stanley board, Mr. O'Neal's board is largely handpicked. He has recruited people like John D. Finnegan, the chief executive of Chubb and a friend for more than 20 years. The two men worked together in the General Motors treasury department. Mr. O'Neal is also close to another director, Alberto Cribiore, a private equity executive who runs his own firm, Brera Capital.
Ibid.
As Stone emphasised, there was much he agreed with in Gekko's "Greed is good" speech, e.g. Gekko condemned this kind of rapacious cronyism:
You own Teldar Paper, the stockholders, and you are being royally screwed over by these bureaucrats with their steak lunches, golf and hunting trips, corporate jets, and golden parachutes! Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over $200,000 a year. I spent two months analyzing what these guys did and I still can't figure it out.
Gekko also pointed out the general economic problems facing the US - which have got worse since the 80s and after Bush's disastrous regime:
...well ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasies, but in political and economic reality. America has become a second rate power. Our trade deficit and fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions.
Ibid
There are plans to do an update, but without Stone as director:
... Douglas's Gekko is the brand in his own right - and one that is likely to sell more these days with business enjoying a wider audience than 20 years ago. Schiff says: "The first film was a moderate hit at the time [it took about $60m at the box office and cost $16m], but Gekko became a household name."
Pressman [producer of "Wall Street"] denies that Money Never Sleeps [another of Gekko's lines] is an attempt to cash in, but the marketing potential is impossible to ignore. "It will be fun to do a film about this and it is an area certainly worth exploring," he says.
Pressman and Schiff talk convincingly about their determination to maintain the standards of the original and not just churn out an imitation to clean up at the box office, probably in 2009.
But with the current dire warnings about the global economy, perhaps this will not be the time to bring out another film glorifying greed.
Seven years ago, the bursting of the dot-com bubble triggered a collapse in business capital spending that took the US and global economy into a mild recession. This time, post-bubble adjustments seem likely to hit US consumption, which at 72% of GDP, is more than five times the share the capital spending sector was seven years ago. This is a much bigger problem - one that could have grave consequences for the US and the rest of the world.
Why write a diary when you can use striking writers to do it ? :-) I have added some bits from the links supplied on their site.
Heard on the Picket Line
Let's lead with this lovely report from Peter Leftcourt:
"This morning, I picketed with an 86 year writer, who wrote for 'Mr. Ed.' He said, 'It pisses me off that that fucking horse wound up speaking Italian, Polish and Rumanian, and I never made more than a nickel.'"
PARAMOUNT 2: This Guy Gets It, Why Can't the AMPTP?
On Wednesday this man [with "Jesus saves" banner] was holding his own, rather loud, protest. Then, he stopped shouting and asked what we picketers were protesting about. After hearing about the strike, he started a new chant: "Moses was a writer! Moses was a writer!"
from Mike Colton
CHELSEA PIERS, NYC: All Jacked Up
"One guy from our group got hassled by some stockbroker-looking dude who was screaming 'Get back to work! I don't want 24 to be cancelled!' He was serious."
-Dyna Moe
...
UNIVERSAL: Well, in a Nutshell...
"Every day after picketing, I come home and work on my long, elegant essay articulating why we're on strike. It's meant for the general public and attempts to summarize the issues. But today, I overheard something that took care of my essay in one fell swoop.
Guy (into cell phone): The writers are on strike out here.
[PAUSE]
Guy (into cell phone): Because the corporations are dicks.
I don't need to finish my essay. Instead, I can rest up for picketing tomorrow.
-Irving Belateche
Posted by John Aboud
Links
This is only a small sampling of what you've been emailing to us. Keep it coming. We'll figure out a way to read it all.
- Greg Daniels, showrunner of "The Office," makes our case on E! Online.
Anyway, The Office is in a very interesting and poignant position in this Writers Guild fight. We chatted up executive producer Greg Daniels to get the reason why, plus scoop on storylines and why he shut the show down earlier than most others...
Where does The Office stand in regard to the strike?
The Office is a perfect example of a show that has a vested interest in the issues on the table. We're one of the highest downloads on iTunes. We made a lot of money there, and the creative people didn't see any of it. And this is the future of the television business. People are going to sit in front of a box that has computer guts inside and watch their shows, and just because it's not called a TV, it doesn't apply to our contract. All we're saying is that it's the same thing. We're watching the same show from our couch or from our chair on a screen, and just 'cause it's delivered through the Internet, we're not [being compensated for it].
Today, we're surrounded by the people that run the shows and the majority of them are doing very fine, and it's not about money for us. It's about middle-class writers and actors--our staffs are made up of those people, and they should get [what they're due].
So, if the strike lasts for 22 weeks or however long, you're not going to be worrying about paying your mortgage and your livelihood?
Well, I think what I'm most worried about is the next 20 years, when all the stuff that I've done goes on the Internet, whether or not my writers and I will get any money from that. That is what I'm more worried about. I think the writers have been kicking themselves for 20 years that we only get four cents for every $20 DVD that's sold.
- An op-ed by The Daily Show's Steve Bodow in the NY Daily News.
'Daily Show' writer: Why I went from punch lines to the picket line
By STEVE BODOW
Thursday, November 8th 2007, 4:48 PM
As you may have heard, Hollywood writers (including about 2,400 of us in New York) are on strike. Yep, all of us: the serious ones, the funny ones, the soap opera ones with whose help Todd Manning discovered that not only had his biological son survived, but he was living as Marcie and Michael McBain's adopted boy Tommy.
We've stopped working because our contract with the big studios ended last week, and though we've been negotiating in good faith with them, we're having a pretty fundamental disagreement about how we should make our livings in the years ahead.
It's all about the Internet. Maybe you've heard of it. We think we should get paid for when our work appears or is sold online - just like we do when it's on the tube or in theaters. We're up against conglomerates such as CBS, Disney and Fox, which have, after much searching in their souls (sic), determined they'd prefer not to pay us.
... Is it absurd to see writers picketing? Perhaps. We realize things could be worse. We could be lawyers, and this could be Pakistan, and then we'd have to get dressed up in those black suits and throw rocks. But picketing writers are less absurd than writers not getting a cent for their work.
We create something people value. It is our livelihood. We take it seriously. It's being threatened. And we're going to fight until we get what we need.
Normally I'd end with a joke, but sorry - I'm on strike.
Bodow is head writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
It helps if you start your day in Nice - blue skies yet again and the September sun is getting less fierce and more friendly.
L'art de bien vivre
Healthy !
But not even a coffee to start the day - I was to have another medical check-up. The specialist was a big, jovial guy and we got talking about beer and wine and putting on weight when you stay in Normandy with rain for most of two weeks. Everything OK, he said - a good start. I went with Montserrat to do some shopping and then for a coffee on a terrasse, very pleasant - the weather in Nice now down to comfortable warmth for me. After 45 mins we went back to get the images and report. All very efficient, easy to arrange and reasonable - but I don't have to pay anyway (well a very reasonable top-up insurance).
Sicko
By coincidence M had noticed that Michael Moore's Sicko had just opened at the Rialto in VO, i.e. English for me and French sub-titles for her - and it was on this afternoon at about 2pm. So we had time to stroll back in the sun, have a lunch in the apartment, and then walk over to the Rialto for the film. It was almost a private showing - there was ONE guy when we arrived ! (I'm sure they get better audiences in the evenings). It's not that I'm a misanthrope (really ) but I usually seem to get loud munchers or seat pushers near me.
What a film ! I'll write a review of it - but it WILL have you laughing and crying - outraged, informed.and amused. It should be shown on major TV channels in the US every week; the making of profits from keeping people ill and killing them through denial of treatment is an outrageous scandal - some very rich people should be locked up for a very long time.
We laughed at the Guantanomo bit, and were tearful over the treatment of those who worked at the 9/11 site in a Cuban hospital. As the lights came up we both wiped our eyes - and smiled. What an experience - if only more people made films like this. Of course one can nit-pick and the US right have done their best to discredit it.- but there is no denying the main and shocking facts. Even the credits are laced with humourous touches and at the end there's "Do something". He's certainly shown what a difference one determined individual can make, now aided by quite a team. It demonstrates powerfully what's wrong with the US version of capitalism and its terrible effects on so many Americans. Moore's Canadian cousins wouldn't even risk one day in the US without medical insurance.
Serendipity on the beach
We emerged into the sunshine and strolled the few meters to the Promenade des Anglais, SO glad to live in France - which gets very favourable treatment in the film. Then down to the nearest beach cafe - the Neptune - sun for M and some shade for me - with a view of the very blue sea.
While M was away with her makeup bag, a couple passed by and sat at the other end of the cafe, almost facing me. Could it be ... surely not; it must be just some other guy who looks like him. M. returned and I asked her - yes, she confirmed, it WAS - my latest hero, the philosopher Michel Onfray !
The son of a manual agricultural laborer and a cleaning woman, Onfray was a professor of philosophy for two decades, until he resigned from the national education system in 2002 to establish a tuition-free Université Populaire (People's University) at Caen, at which Onfray and a handful of dedicated colleagues teach philosophy and other weighty subjects to working-class and ghetto youth who are not supposed to be interested in such intellectual refinements.
In an earlier coincidence, it turned out that M's sister lives near Caen, not far away from Agentan where Onfray lives and we had stayed in her house for a couple of weeks recently. I had spoken to M about trying to arrange to see him while we were there, but never got around to doing anything about it. Now here he was, not just in Nice, but (to paraphrase Bogart in Casablanca) of all the beach cafes in the world, he walks into this one.
It was too good an opportunity to miss, his female companion had also left for a while, and M. urged me to do it. So I went over, and, in my stumbling French, confirmed that he really was Onfray, explained that I too had studied philosophy, had been a lecturer and was left-wing. I said I had read his his encounter with Sarkozy and his commentary on it in his blog. I apologised when the woman returned for disturbing them, but she waved it away. I asked if it would be possible to talk some more another time, but they were leaving that day. I explained that M's sister had a place not far from him and that maybe if we visited her we could meet. He said yes and gave me his mobile phone number.
I returned to M. who was very pleased for me, to hear that it had gone well, that I had been able to say what I wanted to and that I felt more motivated to improve my French. A while later they left, but he stepped over to say goodbye and hello to M. She told him I was a great fan and I added that so was she - though she's now a bit to the right of us. He patted me on the shoulder, smiled and left. I was in a happy daze and ordered another glass of champagne for M and another beer for me - despite our intention to cut down - this was already a very special day.
Champagne socialist - L'Effervescence
M. thought we might start walking back home, but I said we spent many evenings at home and who knows what the rest of the evening had in store for us - perhaps Chomsky was taking a vacation for once :-) We walked east, the warm, late afternoon sun on our backs and headed for the old town. I had heard about a new champagne bar - just the thing for M - I remembered the location and found it easily.
We looked at the prices and thought it a bit expensive, 3 euros a glass more for the cheapest than the price in a beach cafe. But the young proprietor came out and started talking to us, so we decided to give it a try. The bar wasn't very inviting, small and rather bare, but he led us donstairs - another world, with a curved ceiling and rough walls and very low, red lights.
M immediately gained his respect by clearly knowing about champagne (luckily, since a visit to England last year, she prefers beer most days) and has a relative who produces it. He explained that he had only started up a few months ago and did just about everything, serving, cooking, and said that with the drinks (I had a glass of red wine) we'd get some tapas-type amuse-bouche. I expected to be ejected when M let it be known that I tend to prefer Australian reds - but he told us that his brother lived in Australia and that he appreciated Australian wines, though he thought they were less complex in structure than French wines - ah yes, my thoughts exactly :-)
He had worked in restaurants in New York for two years. I told him that we had just seen Sicko and urged him to see it if he had an afternoon free (well, Moore said, "Do something" - and I'm recommending you Eurotribbbers to see it too, and if you have already, go again and take some friends who haven't seen it). The little appetizers were delicious, even M was impressed and he was gratified by our praise and offered some more - so I ordered another round of drinks. We now have a new friend, Julien, the patron.
For any single young guys visiting Nice, this would seem to be the place to go, there were two groups of young women and no guys. Perhaps, even for French guys, champagne bars aren't their thing. Also, a delight for me, as it's a basement there's no smoking, so the first group of three young French women, who were, of course, all smokers, left their bags and went upstairs for some cancer sticks.
We thanked Julien and said we'd be back, then ambled down to Cours Saleya, the long open area packed with restaurants and sat outside in a temperature that was just OK for M with a cardigan on. Again I remarked on what a great day it had been. Sadly the day then rapidly fell from perfection into an argument - but I'm not Barbara, so I'll skip that and stay positive :-) We got over it.
But it was very close to perfect: good news about my health, a great film with no irritations in the cinema, an amazingly coincidental and cordial encounter with someone I admire and had really wanted to meet, drinks by the Med under the usual intense blue sky with the lovely M, a new bar discovery, a meal in the open at night in the old town - what more could you ask of one day ?
So, have YOU had a perfect/almost perfect day recently - what made it so for you ? If not, what would be your perfect day ?
Recently we took a trip back in time, we went to the Fete Medievale in Cagnes sur Mer. In the afternoon there was a tournament, with jousting and hand-to-hand fights:
The kids in the audience loved it - was this encouraging aggression and sadism? Oh well, I played cowboys and Indians as a kid and I hate wars. However, this bit of escapism, into the era of chivalry and rescued damsels, has unfortunate connections with the current disaster in Iraq:
Medieval militarism and European expansionism
Chivalric orders first appeared with military activities against non-Christian states. During the Middle Ages, Western Europe aggressively sought to expand its area of control. The first orders of chivalry were very similar to the monastic orders of the era. Both sought the sanctification of their members through combat against "infidels"..."
After the tournament we strolled round the site which had examples of medieval crafts and products for sale -but also a fight school for kids, of both sexes:
They were instructed to stay down once "killed", but some couldn't resist peeking as the last two standing battled it out:
Some of the people strolling around were themselves in medieval costume, ready for the feast at Haut Cagnes, the medieval village above Cagnes sur Mer later:
But of course the crafts included making weapons:
Then it was time to catch the bus up to Haut Cagnes (while giving a young French woman a lesson in queuing etiquette, approved by a French guy) for the feast:
It had period entertainment - at least this could be enjoyed without too many unfortunate associations:
This is fun:
Fire dance:
But later, as I explored some medieval connections on the internet, I discover that re-enacting medieval fighting involves a million people around the world, many of them are Americans - who do it in what one might call a "shock and awe" style - or "full force" as they describe it.
The Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is a sport where participants fight with foam padded safety equipment made to reflect medieval weaponry. The sport's combat is hard hitting and fast-paced, requiring a level of skill and aggression that challenges its participants to be physically fit.
Belegarth.com is a social networking website for people interested in Belegarth and medieval combat. Belegarth.com has existed as a location for our local sports organizations to communicate and discuss combat and other activities surrounding the sport of Belegarth and medieval combat since 2001.
One of the things I enjoy doing is historical middle ages fighting with a group called the SCA (society for creative anachronism).
This group is approx a million strong with members everywhere from New York to New Guinea. our goal is to recreate historical middle ages life through education, study , and practice. No there are no wizards or elves or any fantasy things.
The fighting is full force , I have a real set of steel armor, and of course we use UNPADDED wood. If we used steel I would not be alive to tell you of the group. it can be dangerous of course, people have been seriously hurt doing this, but it is a extremely rare situation that something does happen because everyone is really a brother even if they are your enemy.
We practice how we know/think that soldiers trained and learned back in the middle ages.
The group I belong to is run by a bunch of marines, our leader is actually over in Iraq right now unfortunently.
Notice the all-American sporting background.
Ibid.
It's no surprise that such "full-force" fighting should be popular in the US; there is a lot of money to be made from encouraging an obsession with competitive sports, and some die on the sports field because of it:
So powerful is the culture of sports in America that young men eagerly, even fanatically, mortgage their physical futures for a moment's football success. The payments are high.
"Players are much bigger than ever, much more muscular," Curry says. "It's year-around conditioning with no rest for the body. Some players are enormous, and they'll do anything to gain or lose weight. What's the cumulative effect of all that? We don't have the slightest idea."
...
Two weeks ago, the Broncos' defensive back celebrated over the body [he wasn't killed - luckily] of Antonio Freeman, a Packers receiver. Brown had rendered Freeman unconscious. He did it with a helmet-to-face-mask hit as the sprinting Freeman stretched up toward a thrown football.
For the illegal hit, Brown was suspended a game and fined a week's pay, almost $25,000.
After the sort of violent assault that has paralyzed defenseless men, Eric Brown danced around the fallen body, laughing, hopping, his own body made electric with savage thrill.
It made no sense.
"But it does make sense," Bill Curry says. "It's what all of us in the business want. Listen to us. `Headhunters,' `kill shots,' `blind shots, `clothesline.' We have to look at our whole culture, even the game's language."
Words reveal who we are. When Jerry Glanville coached the Falcons, he so loved one linebacker's attitude that he thought to praise the young man. So he called him "a borderline trained assassin." Heaven help us.
[Eric Brown]"You've got to play with emotion. You get a chance to make a hit, you can't think about how you're going to hit him. You've got to go out and hit him. There are consequences afterward, I guess." [!]
Freeman has taken his share of vicious blows in the past, including one from former Minnesota Vikings cornerback Corey Fuller in the 1996 finale at Lambeau Field in front of the Green Bay bench. He missed four games with a broken arm in 1996 and one game in 1998 with a broken jaw.
It's not surprising that this powerful "culture of sports" affects other areas of society:
Women have long been underrepresented in financial services, where a macho culture and long hours meant women faced prejudice and the need to sacrifice the time they could spend with children.
... "When you really look at the people working in hedge funds, it is almost like the extreme sport of the financial industry,"
...
Gur's research using magnetic resonance imagery found that in women, the size of the orbital frontal lobe, the part of the brain that assesses the context of risk, is larger in proportion to the amygdala, the primitive animal brain that responds to threats, than it is in men. For example, Gur said, at a party, "when someone says something nasty, the amygdala reacts and says, 'Kill him.' By contrast, when the stimulus is sent to the front of the brain, it may say: 'He is a drunken fool; don't bother with him.' "
To Sargent, their heightened capacity to evaluate context means that women "are more methodical, better at weighing all sides, and they often ask: 'What is my downside?' "
Of course it's not just a question of biology, certain abilties or tendencies can be encouraged or discouraged in a culture. Thus, though it may have been quite macho for some time, the culture of financial services like hedge funds has changed recently to become even more macho:
In his recent book "Hedgehogging," Barton Biggs, a longtime Morgan Stanley investment strategist who started up his own fund, writes of a hedge fund manager who complains that "our nice old game is being played at faster and faster speeds by bigger and rougher guys, so it's getting tougher and more dangerous all the time. Everybody is on steroids. The violence level is soaring. It's like the NFL [National Football League]."
Ibid
We have just seen the latest example of the results of such a culture in the current financial crisis, where people were encouraged to take absurd risks in a highly competitive context. We need to move to a culture where people ask not only: "What's MY downside?" But also: "What's our collective downside - of this sort of culture/ideology?" After Iraq, New Orleans, the Minneapolis bridge and the financial crisis, perhaps even sports-crazed Americans weilding medieval maces for a fun weekend are going to demand more attention to the downside and provision for a better upside.
The French, and especially their fonctionnaires, are often unfairly criticized. It's another one of those cultural myths, unfortunate memes. In general I have found that, surprise, surprise, they are quite reasonable and often pleasant and helpful - and so are some in business - even a lawyer! :-).
Yesterday we visited the dept which deals with international applicants for inclusion in the French health system. Fortunately M is organising this and so, instead of going to an office about three streets away - but where my documents would only be sent on to this specialised office some time later - we went up into the hills behind Nice to deliver the documents in person. It was a long way up, and a very nice, quiet environment.
We were received very cordially by the woman in the office. Actually I think she might well have been happy to have visitors for a change (they usually just do admin rather than deal directly with people and I can't imagine many foreigners finding their way out to there). She quickly checked the documents, consulted a colleague in another office, carefully explained the process involved, and said that I'd be issued with a temporary number within a few days, entitling me to reclaim some medical expenses. Very helpful and reassuring.
Unfortunately the more exasperating side of the French was on display as we left the building - about half a dozen young people were smoking - outside this L'assurance maladie building !
I still find it hard to believe just how prevalent smoking is here. But, then again, these bureaucratic buildings had names, not any old names but: Cezanne, Chagall, Cheret, Matisse, Picasso !
The French do appreciate culture and celebrate it in all kinds of ways. One area of Nice is known as Musiciens , the streets named after Berloiz, Paganini, Verdi, etc.
A few years ago I got to know a French estate agent (yes, we know their reputation - especially in the UK) who turned out to be a very friendly guy, even after he realised that I would be unlikely to buy anything soon. He even insisted on paying for a meal. He'd actually told a guy who was quite ready to pay the asking price for a house that it was over-valued and he shouldn't pay that much ! When I met him a couple of years later, he was changing jobs and was doing up houses, something which he enjoyed a lot more, including some of the physical work. He had mentioned a local agency which was American-owned and didn't approve at all of the way it was run - they weren't even allowed enough time for a proper French lunch ! :-)
A Nice lawyer
Even more impressive was our recent visit to a lawyer here in Nice. They don't have a very good reputation, especially in the US, from where these jokes emanate:
What do lawyers and sperm have in common?
One in 50,000,000 has a chance of becoming a human being.
Why does the American Bar Association prohibit sex between attorneys and their clients?
To prevent the client for being billed twice for what is essentially the same service.
Why do they bury lawyers 27 feet under?
'Cuz deep, deep down, they're good people!
What's the difference between a Catfish and a lawyer?
One is a scum sucking bottom dweller, and the other is a fish.
Why does California have the most lawyers and New Jersey the most toxic waste dumps?
New Jersey had first pick.
How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?
Their lips move.
What's the difference between a lawyer and a duck?
Occasionally a duck will stick its bill up its ass.
How very different this lawyer was from the usual stereotype. We wanted advice on two issues, which she gave us, very fully, in French at a speed I could just about keep up with. But in addition to that we got the story of her life (she is half Italian,and fitted that stereotype, warm, expressive, etc .), some medical advice, her views about male/female differences in parental attitudes, etc., etc. She also typed out for me a form letter, indicating what I needed to include and telling me what was irrelevant. Then she refused any payment for this almost overwhelming torrent of advice and wisdom - AND told us that we didn't really need any further help from a notaire!
So later I wrote her a note, my French corrected by M, and bought her a plant. I thanked her for all her help and wrote that one of the things I really like about French culture is that even in professional affairs there is still room for a humanity now often lacking in the Anglo-Saxon business world. I read somewhere about a French woman working in a bank who used to get a lot of satisfaction from her job, feeling that she had given customers good advice. But then it had been taken over by a company run in a more Anglo-Saxon way; targets for sales of their products were set and there were unpleasant interviews with managers if one didn't meet these targets.
Let's hope that model doesn't take over in France. Arguably it would be better, even in a business sense (but not only that), if it didn't:
European business model
Which economic system will be more successful over the long-term - European diversity or the US world power approach?
Dutch author Donald Kalff expresses a clear opinion.
When Donald Kalff talks about the business world, it's not possible to overlook his vast experience. Kalff was a top manager at several international companies. These included companies such as Royal Dutch/Shell and the Dutch Airline KLM, where he served on the management board. It's therefore somewhat surprising when the former executive and professor at Leiden University proclaims that "the American shareholder value approach is flawed."
The concept has been basically misappropriated by investors and shareholders, managing without any foresight. Instead, they are more interested in squeezing the greatest possible amount of profit out of a company in the shortest amount of time.
...
Successful European companies are geared toward long-term value. They believe that value is found in people and their cooperation, not technical or financial resources...
The author provides new visions on the strengths of Europe's economy. He addresses the possibility of creating a sustainable form of capitalism with a distinct European character.
Donald Kalff is CEO of the Immpact biotech company. He is associated with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Guest Professor at Leiden University School of Management. His book, "An UnAmerican Business: The Rise of the New European Enterprise Model," is published by Kogan Page, ISBN: 0749444908.
Maybe this has been referred to here already - anyway:
Fox Attacks Bloggers! You Can Fight Back
By MediaChannel.
Don't miss this youtube vid:
Comment on the vid:
Oh it just figures... They don't say anything about the Right Wing Blogosphere. I guess since they are in "lock-step" with the daily dictates of Fox Noise then they are exonerated from all accusations of being dishonest or mean spirited or hateful. But mostly, what I notice is that because there is a media that is in fact watch-dogging what Republicans and Conservatives are doing then that must be torn apart as soon and as badly as possible.
I also noticed that quotes taken from DailyKos were grossly de-contextualized and either O'Reilly is as stupid as we think, or he's not really a Catholic because yes, in fact, the Pope has been called the Primate off an on for centuries. But then, big surprise, O'Reily misquoted someone for his own purposes.
Thursday evening we went to see "The Good Shepherd".
The title itself suggests the resistance to the usual commercial norms of the film (the French title is "Raisons d'Etat"), it is also nearly three hours long, has a complex time structure - jumping backwards and forwards), an intelligent script - so even I, who already knows quite a bit about the CIA, Cold War, etc., was grateful to Wikipedia afterwards for clearing up some points in its plot summary.
A woman and her fidgety son left the cinema halfway through (to my relief) - it's not your usual Hollywood, action-and special effects packed product. So it is very welcome; as a number of actors and film critics have noted, there aren't very many intelligent films being made these days and it's significant that it was directed by an actor, Robert De Niro.
The reaction to it amongst critics was very mixed, about 56% being negative (www.rottentomatoes.com); but significantly the audience reaction (admittedly a self-selected group, but over 15,000 of them), was 70% positive. As Chomsky would point out, this tends to reflect the fact that the general US population, despite the usual propaganda, tend to be to the Left of the supposedly "liberal media".
Public reaction was more positive, with members of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), giving the movie an average score of 7.0 out of 10 from 15,318 ratings.
By contrast one gets this kind of patronising put-down from the Salon:
You can hear the movie's impending themes thundering through the forest before their massive heads even start poking through the trees, chief among them the idea that duplicitousness in the name of duty - particularly when you're working for the U.S. government - can poison not just your heart but your whole family. This is a somber, weighty, gray picture, one that pays clear tribute to the "Godfather" movies as it tries to scale some very rocky moral territory. But it's so unsatisfying to watch that even its biggest, most meditative right-and-wrong quandaries come to seem puny.
A Salon reader helps put this in context and reveals her anti-liberal bias:
Do what I've done, and look back over the long list of highly accclaimed movies with a strong social or political message component and try to find one strong positive review from Ms. Zacharek. Particularly when the movie has a liberal bent to it. Most particularly there.
She near uniformly takes the same track in all of them; angles like-- nice try, or cute message, or boring, or badly constructed-- jeese, she hated American Beauty AND Jarhead, LOVED "Charlies Angels", loved Anapolis, hated Syrinia (too complicated)-- and so on. Get the picture? She usually doesn't.
But, to avoid generalizing about the mainstream media, there were also very positive reviews, e.g. from the Los Angeles Times:
It's taken a dozen years for Eric Roth's smart, thoughtful, psychologically complicated script to reach the screen under Robert De Niro's careful and methodical direction, and it is easy to see why.
When Hollywood thinks spies, it thinks "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," it doesn't want to deal with an intricate, deliberately paced 2-hour and 37-minute work that not only quietly presents this quicksand world but also makes us feel what it would be like to live in it.
At the heart of this drama is Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), whose life in and out of the agency we follow for more than 35 years. He is the spymaster's spymaster, in the espionage business from the earliest World War II days of the Office of Strategic Services, the organization that gave birth to the CIA.
... Damon, in his second major role of the year (after "The Departed") once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on.
An argument could be made, in fact, that De Niro himself, famously undemonstrative in interview situations, was in part able to direct this role and this picture so well because he perhaps saw something of himself in its protagonist.
Because of the great regard his fellow performers have for him, De Niro was able to attract an impressive cast of costars.
I think they also wanted to be involved because it was an intelligent script and involved some serious acting rather than a set of stunts (significantly a number of stars have taken time out from films to play stage roles for a tiny fraction of their usual fees).
I found the scene with the Soviet defector (who claims to be the real thing and the one the Americans have been using is a double-agent masquerading as him) to be very powerful. It reminded one of the revelations about Abu Ghraib and the hair-splitting of US gov legal apologists about the distinction between torture and inhumane treatment of captives. They beat him up in an attempt to get him to retract his claim about his identity, and when that doesn't work, wrap a cloth round his head and pour water on it till he is choking. They then try using LSD on him as a "truth drug".
But during his "trip" he does come out with the truth but not the one they wanted; he says that the USSR is not a great power, that it has major systemic weaknesses and that the US only pretends it is a real threat in order to justify its military-industrial complex and imperial ambitions.
While I found the film interesting and only occasionally "ponderous" (cf the otherwise positive review by Philip French in the Observer) and I welcome such thoughtful films about major political issues, it was a pity that, as usual with a Hollywood drama, the focus was so much on the individual. Thus it concludes with a shot of the protagonist (Matt Damon, in another almost non-speaking part) entering the new CIA, having lost his wife and (it's implied) having killed his son's fiance and his own grandson.
But what is obviously more important is what the creation of organisations like the CIA, did, not only to those who worked in them, but to others around the globe and thus to Americans through "blowback". Though, to be fair to the CIA (OK, maybe this is taking fairness too far :-) ), they have given accurate, pessimistic assessments (apparently this was the case with Iraq as well as Vietnam) only to have these ignored by crazies like Bush, Cheney, et al.
While I haven't yet seen Michael Moore's "Sicko" I'm very pleased to read about its success, even though being so overtly political. But then it's easier to do that in a documentary, and Moore's big achievement is to make popular documentaries, which also get people talking and stir things up. The Democrats are currently pushing for a better medical system; I think the timing is no coincidence, cf:
Michael Moore's new film, "Sicko," is a communal experience that begins the moment you stand in line to get tickets and continues through the laughter and moans you hear during the film to the tears and outrage you see expressed as you exit the theater. This is more than a movie, it's an experience to share with others.
Michael Moore has done it again. He has sparked a hot conversation that has the potential to start a raging fire under our national politicians to actually do something about something that everyone admits is a problem.
Moore is a politico-comic genius, here's his latest idea, which is bound to get yet more TV coverage;
You now have the opportunity to print and carry your very own "'SiCKO' Health Care Card." Playing the 'SiCKO' card has worked for a family in DeBary, Florida, whose daughter suffered profound hearing loss and was denied a cochlear implant. Her father sent a letter to Cigna asking, "has your CEO ever been in a film before?" Before he knew it, his daughter's denial was overturned. It also worked for a family in Flint, Michigan who was stuck with a $66,000 medical bill until they posted their healthcare horror story on YouTube ...
Arguably Moore's success has helped the cause of other documentary makers; docs aren't now seen as inherently rather boring.
Richard Schickel thinks "No End In Sight" is likely to be the most important film you'll see this year, and, despite the largely "talking heads" material, it is by no means boring:
No End in Sight: Iraq in Harsh Light
TIME magazine Friday, Jul. 27, 2007 By RICHARD SCHICKEL
Ambassador Paul Bremer and General Jay Garner from No End in Sight, directed by Charles Ferguson.
Basically, it is just a talking-heads documentary, interleaved with some routinely dismaying shots of deadly carnage in a far-away place. Moreover, what those heads are talking about is a failed political policy -- not, on the face of it, the most riveting of cinematic subjects.
That said, prepare to be riveted: No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson's first film, is without question the most important movie you are likely to see this year. It is not a film that simply massages your pre-existing attitudes about the war in Iraq. Rather it is a work that tells you things you almost certainly did not know about that disaster or things that have been lost to sight as chaos, anarchy and our feelings of helplessness have grown over the years since the invasion of 2003.
...
It can be argued that this film is largely addressing mistakes and grievances that are now beyond redress. But that's not strictly true. The kinds of errors it examines are entirely duplicable. And it is important to have this grand compilation of serious, sometimes anguished, testimony to remind us that big talk is always cheap and essentially dreamy. Who knew that a bunch of medium shots of well-spoken, nicely dressed men and women could transcend mere journalism and bring us very close to the authentic tragedy lurking behind the Green Zone's concrete walls.
After the Eurotrib Paris meetup we went to M's relatives, first to her parents who live close to the Marne river:
It's a lovely, tranquil place - now:
Miracle of the Marne
But, as with so much of France, it has seen its fair share of horrors. In fact it's where the Germans lost the First World War, in the first weeks of the first year - but the war dragged bloodily on for four years - slaughter on an industrial scale.
Dead soldiers remain on the battlefield after the battle of the Marne in September 1914. After this battle, the opposing armies in World War I began digging defensive trenches across from each other. This defensive strategy, known as trench warfare, characterized the rest of the war. AP
The First Battle of the Marne (also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a World War I battle fought from September 5 to September 12, 1914. It was a Franco-British victory against the German army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger.
By the end of August 1914, the whole Allied army on the Western Front had been forced into a general retreat back towards Paris. Meanwhile the two main German armies continued through France. It seemed that Paris would be taken as both the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force fell back towards the Marne River.
...As the German First and Second Armies approached Paris, they began to swerve to the southeast away from Paris, exposing their right flank to the allies. By September 3, Joffre recognized the German armies' tactical error, and quickly made plans to halt the French and British withdrawal and attack the Germans all along the front.
... By September 9, it looked as though the German First and Second Armies would be totally encircled and destroyed. General von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing of the danger.
... The German retreat between September 9 and September 13 marked the abandonment of the Schlieffen Plan [i.e. as the Germans estimated that it would take the Ruusians weeks to mobilise, the plan was to quickly attack and defeat France, then move the bulk of the German armies to the East to confront the Russians].
Moltke is said to have reported to the Kaiser: "Your Majesty, we have lost the war." In the aftermath of the battle, both sides dug in and four years of stalemate ensued.
The First Battle of the Marne is best remembered for the approximately six hundred Parisian taxicabs, mainly Renault AG's, commandeered by French authorities and used to transport six thousand French reserve infantry troops to the battle. Their arrival has traditionally been described as critical in stopping a possible German breakthrough against the 6th Army. Today, some historians question their real impact. Their impact on morale, however, is undeniable: the taxis de la Marne were perceived as a manifestation of the union sacrée of the French civilian population and its soldiers at the front, reminiscent of the people in arms who had saved the French Republic in 1794.
The La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial is a World War I memorial in France, located on the south bank of the River Marne ... Also known as the Memorial to the Missing of the Marne, it commemorates over 3,700 British soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle in this area in August, September and early October 1914.
Then to Normandy to meet M's sister and family - a very French welcome:
The dog is clearly French:
Unfortunately the weather (which had been very good earlier in the year) was rather depressing, but we made the effort to get out and took advantage of the few breaks in the clouds.
But, if you have some knowledge of history, you can't help thinking of who else has been on these beaches.
Once more unto the beach
Laurence Olivier in "Henry V"
It was somewhere near here that Henry V waded ashore with his army. Of course in England he is generally thought of as the great hero of Shakespeare's play, memorably played by Laurence Olivier in his excellent film version, and more recently by Kenneth Branagh.
So it comes as a bit of shock, even for a Lefty like me, to read the last sentence of this:
Those who admire Shakespeare's Henry V and Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation, and who are curious about the real King Henry, will find this book to be a good read [Henry V As Warlord by Desmond Seward] fluently and clearly written, neither too short nor too long. Henry was a sort of monster; he was also a great man. The human race naturally admires such men, and for that reason one should not fault Shakespeare for creating a great national hero out of a ruthless military genius. What is remarkable is that so much of the real Harry comes through in the play. Even so, the disasters of war inflicted on the French are appalling to read about in this book. The Nazi occupation was mild in comparison.
And when one reads the quotation below one is tempted to say cynically: "Tout ca change, tout ca reste la meme chose":
Most historians agree that Henry's goal of conquering France was far beyond English resources. Thus, although Henry's premature death at the height of his success assured personal glory, his short-sighted ambitions left his son's administration burdens heavy enough to make civil strife inevitable.
The cost of the war later bankrupted the Lancastrian government, and territories were permanently lost which had been held securely for over 400 years.
But Olivier's film version was made during WWII and was powerful propaganda (though unfortunate that our allies, the French, were the enemy). 500 years after Henry's brutal attack, we returned with the Americans and troops from the colonies to liberate France. This is the usual focus of Hollywood and British films, largely ignoring the far greater struggle in the Soviet Union, which really determined the final outcome of WWII. But on both fronts the suffering was appalling:
The gates of hell:
An American soldier wrote at the time:
Death & wreckage and I don't want to be a hero. Shells and mines exploding all around.
7-21-44 Finally got news all other boats but 3 were sunk. About 10 of my personal friends were on them. They drifted in the night to Island of Guernsey. No ammunition or nothing it was German occupied. They had no chance Just like clay pidgeons (sic). We had no maps or course when we started out some one really fucked up. 12 boats left out of 36. it sure is hell. Will I ever be the same again...
I made my way forward as best I could. My rifle jammed, so I picked up a carbine and got off a couple of rounds. We were shooting at something that seemed inconsequential. There was no way I was going to knock out a German concrete emplacement with a .30-caliber rifle. I was hit again, once in the left thigh, which broke my hip bone, and a couple of times in my pack, and then my chin strap on my helmet was severed by a bullet. I worked my way up onto the beach, and staggered up against a wall, and collapsed there. The bodies of the other guys washed ashore, and I was one live body amongst many of my friends who were dead and, in many cases, blown to pieces.
A later reflection on that awful time; it's not the most sophisticated poetry but has deeply felt memories of that "hell on earth":
A Quiet Place
It's quiet here ... so quiet
Standing on this hill
But if I stand here too much longer
My eyes with tears will fill
Looking down ... I'm there again
On that beach ... just down below
Far different ... to that morning
That I remember so
That beach ... it was a hell on earth
Where no man ... should ever go
I remember
I was down there
I should know
Don't cry now ... dear old soldier
That was many years ago
Honfleur is now a quaint place full of tourists and it has the very nice Eugene Boudin museum (I don't recommend the trendily confusing Erik Satie Museum, though some might like it):
It's full of images of happier times in the area:
Eugene Boudin, Beach scene, Trouville, 1864
"When will they ever learn ..."
A break in the clouds, Ouistreham (Sword Beach), Normandy 2007
A celebration of what we are trying to preserve with energy policies which will help avoid climate change:
Nice has a lovely museum of Asiatic Art in beautiful grounds with pool close to Phoenix Parc. It is an excellent example of what state/local taxes can provide. Sadly there were very few people there, though the beaches of Nice are packed at the moment.
"Le plan de ce musée posé sur un lac artificiel parcouru d'oiseaux aquatiques, repose sur deux formes géométriques fondamentales en Asie: le carré, symbole de la terre et le cercle, symbole du ciel."
Then time for a meal: "OK, so you have the healthier dish - but you need it more than me."
Then we went to the nearby Parc Phoenix.
What a delight.
Beautiful, precious water.
The tropical house.
Inside.
Some flowers are gorgeous but quite obscene.
"If you're going to San Fransisco, better wear some flowers in your hair ..."
Worth protecting.
Climate change a blooming threat
JAMES REYNOLDS ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT
SPRING flowers are blooming earlier in Scotland due to climate change and this could ultimately alter their natural distribution, according to a new report from Scottish Natural Heritage.
...
Professor Fred Last, one of the co-authors of the report, said: "This study shows a rapid trend in temperature rise which has caused marked responses for some species. Species that have responded by flowering one day earlier per year are likely to be adversely affected in coming years because this magnitude of response cannot continue.
"It is a biological impossibility, as it means that the plant does not get the rest it needs over winter."
July 14th is a very appropriate day here in France to try to conclude some thoughts about the military (that was a bit optimistic and, as usual, it's grown).
It also coincides with the publication in the US of an edition of the magazine The Nation which has interviews with 50 Americans who have served in Iraq. The image which emerges hardly matches the usual official line:
It is an axiom of American political life that the actions of the US military are beyond criticism. Democrats and Republicans praise the men and women in uniform at every turn. Apart from the odd bad apple at Abu Ghraib, the US military in Iraq is deemed to be doing a heroic job under trying circumstances.
That perception will take a severe knock today with the publication in The Nation magazine of a series of in-depth interviews with 50 combat veterans of the Iraq war from across the US. In the interviews, veterans have described acts of violence in which US forces have abused or killed Iraqi men, women and children with impunity.
The report steers clear of widely reported atrocities, such as the massacre in Haditha in 2005, but instead unearths a pattern of human rights abuses. "It's not individual atrocity," Specialist Garett Reppenhagen, a sniper from the 263rd Armour Battalion, said. "It's the fact that the entire war is an atrocity."
Of course there have probably been atrocities in all wars, and wars begin in the earliest records of history. However it seems that there is a natural reluctance to kill members of our own species, even when one's own life is at risk:
THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS
... In World War II, when U.S. soldiers got a clear shot at the enemy, only about 1 in 5 actually fired, according to sensational and controversial research by Army historian Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall. It wasn't that they were cowards: On the contrary, they performed other perilous feats, including running onto the battlefield to rescue fellow soldiers, and sometimes they even placed themselves in greater personal danger by refusing to fire. And yet at the moment of truth, they just couldn't kill.
... The reality is that the brains of human beings - unless they fall within the demographic sliver we call psychopaths - are hardwired not to kill other humans. Like rattlesnakes that fatally bite other species but fight fellow rattlers by wrestling them, humans overwhelmingly recoil from homicide.
That's usually a good thing, because it prevents society from disintegrating into bloodthirsty anarchy.
THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS, Vicki Haddock, Insight Staff Writer, Sunday, August 13, 2006
But for the military this is a problem, and since WWII and Marshall's study, they have tried to turn the majority into something more like "the demographic sliver we call psychopaths" - with considerable success:
The Pentagon improved firing rates. Research suggests that 55 percent of U.S. soldiers fired on the enemy in the Korean War. By Vietnam that rate had climbed to more than 90 percent.
Ibid.
Revolutionary heroes
Reminders of an earlier, often more chivalrous age surround one in Nice; just up the road from us is Rue Général Hoche. So who was this general, I wondered?
Wikipedia (largely borrowing from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition) had the answer, which took me back to the Revolutionary era again, and to this autodidact-soldier:
Louis Lazare Hoche (June 24, 1768 - September 19, 1797) was a French soldier who rose to be general of the Revolutionary army. Born of poor parents near Versailles, he enlisted at sixteen as a private soldier in the Gardes Francaises. He spent his entire leisure in earning extra pay by civil work, his object being to provide himself with books, and this love of study, which was combined with a strong sense of duty and personal courage, soon led to his promotion. ... he defeated the Austrians at Neuwied (April 1797) ...
Later in 1797 he was minister of war for a short period ... he died at Wetzlar on 19 September 1797 of consumption. ...He was buried by the side of his friend Marceau in a fort on the Rhine, mourned by his army and by all France."
Reading this I had a small Aha! moment; so it was THAT Marceau that the street just south of us was named after ! After so many reminders of philosophers living in the same streets I've lived in recently, now I'm surrounded by soldiers. Marceau's story takes us back to more chivalrous times and he was involved in the storming of the Bastille on that first July 14th:
Francois Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers (born March 1, 1769 Died September 21, 1796) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. ...
Desgraviers was born at Chartres. His father served as a legal officer, and Marceau received an education for a legal career, but at the age of sixteen he enlisted in the regiment of Savoy-Carignan.
Whilst on furlough in Paris, Marceau joined in the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
... In 1796, Jourdan and Jean Victor Moreau's invasion of Germany ended in disaster and Marceau's men covered Jourdan's retreat over the Rhine. Marceau fought in the desperate actions on the Lahn (16-18 September 1796) until at Altenkirchen on September 19, he received a mortal wound. He died two days later, aged only twenty-seven.
[But note the following chivalrous act by his enemies]
The Austrians competed with Marceau's own countrymen to honour to the dead general. His body was burned and the ashes placed under a pyramid in Koblenz designed by Kléber.
Can you imagine the Americans erecting a monument to an Iraqi general, or vice-versa?
Chivalry in WWII
This kind of chivalrous behaviour was even to be found in the German military under Hitler:
Chivalry was far from dead in WWII, even if it was relegated mainly to combat pilots. Galland [one of the most successful German pilots] was a passionate believer in fair play. When Goering felt him out in 1941 regarding a hypothetical order to shoot at parachuting enemy pilots, Galland exploded with indignation.
"I should regard such an order as murder," he told Goering, "and I would do everything in my power to disobey such an order."
Happily, the order never came. Unfortunately, the same assurances cannot be given concerning American fighter pilots, who actually were ordered to do so in the case of parachuting [German] Me-262 pilots.
"Galland typified to a degree the chivalry which existed between combatants in the air and was a popular figure at the air force reunions of his old adversaries. He was, for example, a welcome figure at the thanksgiving service for the life of the legless RAF ace Sir Douglas Bader in St. Clement Danes Church in the strand, in 1982.
An American WWII pilot demonstrates a very different attitude (which seems to have been given official recognition in the order referred to above):
He quickly abandoned any idea of "chivalry" in combat.
"I don't believe in chivalry," said Schimanski. "I believe in killing them. They're trying to kill me.
Hey, I was in 16 actual combat encounters (either by himself or as a wingman for another plane), and I'll tell you, none of those 16 (enemy) pilots are alive."
Another German pilot was as successful, chivalrousl and brave in telling the German leadership exactly what he thought as his colleague Galland:
Johannes Steinhoff was truly one of the most charmed fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe. His exploits became legendary ...
... Pilots such as Steinhoff, Hannes Trautloft, Adolf Galland and many others fought not only Allied aviators but also their own corrupt leadership, which was willing to sacrifice Germany's best and bravest to further personal and political agendas. In both arenas, they fought a war of survival.
Aces like Steinhoff risked death every day to defend their nation and, by voicing their opposition to the unbelievable decisions of the Third Reich high command, risked their careers and even their lives.
He even told Hitler to his face that he thought the attack on the Soviet Union was doomed:
I first met Hitler around September 3, 1942, when he awarded me the Oak Leaves [to the Knight's Cross]. He asked those of us present about the war, which we were supposed to be winning, and what we thought about the new territory being incorporated into the Reich in the east. I mentioned something to the effect that "I hope the Führer will not become too attached to it, because I don't think we will be taking up long-term residence." He looked at me as if he was going to suffer a stroke. When he asked me to clarify my statement, I simply told him that since the United States had entered the war, and they, along with Britain, were supplying Russia, and we had no method of attacking their industry beyond the Urals, I did not think we would keep making great gains. He sat silent for a moment, then said something like, "We will finish Russia soon, and turn our attentions to the West once again. They will see that supporting Bolshevism is not to their benefit." And then we were dismissed.
I met with him again outside Stalingrad a few weeks later when he toured the front. He told me: "Now I have Russia, now I have the Caucasus. I am going to penetrate the River Volga; then after that the rest of Russia will be mine." I remember looking at the others around us and thinking that this guy was nuts.
... It was very depressing to know that our country was in the hands of this madman and the lunatics around him.
In Italy in 1944 a captured American pilot made a chivalrous promise to Steinhoff not to try to escape - but also offered a more pragmatic reason:
WWII [magazine]: Please describe your humorous encounter with a Lockheed P-38 pilot named Widen in Italy in 1944.
Steinhoff: This is a good story. I was test-flying an Me-109 with my aide near our base at Foggia. This was before I had been exiled from Germany, during my first tour as Kommodore of JG.77. Well, we were attacked at low level by a flight of P-38 Lightnings, about 100 American fighters in all, but the two of us figured, why not attack? We turned into them, and I flew through their formation going in the opposite direction, getting good strikes on a couple of them. I poured a good burst into this P-38 and the pilot rolled over, and I saw him bail out. I had this on gun camera also.
Well, he was picked up and made a POW, and I invited him to my tent for a drink and dinner, as well as to spend the night. We drank some of the local wine... and drank and drank. I thought to myself, "What am I going to do with this guy?" Well, it was long after midnight, so I lay down in my tent and stretched my legs so I could reach his head. He woke up and said, "Don't worry, I won't run away, you have my word as an officer and a gentleman. Besides, you got me too drunk." We slept, and he kept his word, and I never placed a guard on him.
WWII: So you subdued your opponent with alcohol?
Steinhoff: Yes, that's right, and it worked very well, you know. He was a very likable man, and I was very pleased to have the victory, but as I told him, I was even more pleased to see him uninjured and safe.
From Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" which provides a vivid image of US military training.
Part of the reason for the modern military's success in increasing killing rates is in deliberately dehumanizing the enemy during training:
Such bloodthirsty language helps "desensitize them to the suffering of an 'enemy' at the same time they are being indoctrinated in the most explicit fashion, as previous generations of soldiers were not, with the notion that their purpose is not just to be brave and to fight well; it is to kill people," observes military historian Gwynne Dyer in his book "War: The Lethal Custom."
Another technique is to create physical and emotional distance between the killer and the target by fostering a sense of us versus them. While physical distance is achieved with bombs, rocket launchers and even night-vision goggles, which reduce humans to ghostly green silhouettes, emotional distance often is achieved by categorizing targets as different because of their race, ethnicity or religion.
"A lot of guys really supported that whole concept that if they don't speak English and they have darker skin, they're not as human as us, so we can do what we want."
Specialist Josh Middleton, 23, of New York City, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. Four-month tour in Baghdad and Mosul beginning December 2004
The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness, by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian, appears in the 30 July issue of The Nation
The military does whatever it can to deny the fellow humanity of enemy soldiers and is loath to repeat the spectacle of Christmas Day in 1914, when German and British soldiers crawled out of their trenches to share cigarettes, candy and soccer.
A more pervasive risk, however, is that soldiers and cops who kill pay a steep psychological price for not only using the new skills they acquire but also for acquiring the skills in the first place. The Pentagon is waging an unprecedented campaign to deal with the mental and emotional scars of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Turning human beings into killers is a tricky business.
"I guess while I was there, the general attitude was, 'A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi... You know, so what?'... [Only when we got home] in... meeting other veterans, it seems like the guilt really takes place, takes root, then."
Turning soldiers into psychotic killers is not what Hoche and Marceau fought for. Galland and Steinhoff resisted it, even in a regime like that of the Nazis. Like Steinhoff, Galland sopke out to Hitler at an awards ceremony, and asked him to stop criticizing the Royal Air Force in his radio broadcasts (Galland respected the RAF). This was a very brave thing to do; Hitler was incensed. Such men deserve to be remembered.
But we should not rely on a few brave men; after all, as in most armies, the vast majority of Germans simply followed orders, and were most ruthless when they were encouraged to see the enemy, not as respected rivals, but as inferior, a sub-species. Even Steinhoff admits things were very different in the war against the Soviet Union:
WWII: From what I understand, all chivalry and sportsmanship was absent from the war in Russia; is that correct?
Steinhoff: Absolutely correct. In fighting the Soviets, we fought an apparatus, not a human being--that was the difference. There was no flexibility in their tactical orientation, no individual freedom of action, and in that way they were a little stupid. If we shot down the leader in a Soviet fighter group, the rest were simply sitting ducks, waiting to be taken out.
... the hardest thing about the Russian Front was the weather, that damned cold. The second thing, and probably the most important, was the knowledge that if you were shot down or wounded and became a prisoner of war--that is, if they did not kill you first--you would have it very bad. There was no mutual respect. You were safe only on your side of the lines. The Soviets did not treat our men very well after they were captured, but then again as we have learned, the Soviets we captured did not always fare well either [to put it mildly], which was unfortunate. At least in fighting against the Americans and British, we understood that there was a similar culture, a professional respect. But with the Soviets, this was unheard of. It was a totally different war.
We need many more of us to prevent the "lunatics" (as Steinhoff described the people round Hitler) taking over in the first place. It's easy to slip into pessimism, but one thing is certain, if nobody tries to bring about change it won't happen.
Reviving hope
Few people could be more critical of the current system than Chomsky, but he refuses to give in to cynicism and apathy.
Cf.:
In the past, the US could prevent unwelcome developments such as independence in Latin America, by violence; supporting military coups, subversion, invasion and so on. That doesn't work so well any more. The last time they tried in 2002 in Venezuela, the US had to back down because of enormous protests from Latin America, and of course the coup was overthrown from within. That's very new.
... Furthermore, there is South-South integration going on, so Brazil, and South Africa and India are establishing relations.
And again, the forces below the surface in pressing all of this are international popular organizations of a kind that never existed before; the ones that meet annually in the world social forums. By now several world social forums have spawned lots of regional ones; there's one right here in Boston and many other places. These are very powerful mass movements of a kind without any precedent in history: the first real internationals. Everyone's always talked about internationals on the left but there's never been one. This is the beginning of one.
Forums like Eurotrib, and many others like them on the internet, also provide some grounds for hope; many people want change, and are getting together (from all kinds of countries and cultures), in all kinds of ways, to inform each other, provide mutual support and to try to change things. After all, co-operation comes much more naturally to us than killing.
I got to the RV at Les Abbesses late, but Len and Helen were still there and we joined the rest of the group at Bateau Lavoir. Afew was lamenting the lack of interest in the cultural history of the area in favour of keeping up the bohemian tradition and rapidly getting something alcoholic rather than artistic or historic.
Lilianne, Bob, Dasmonde, Metavision, nanne, Afew (amused rather than bitching),
Fran, Someone, Metatone, the Dear Leader (just visible behind the lamppost), Helen, Bruno-ken.
The way up from the Bateau Lavoir - a very nice Parisian square:
Len (illuminated) enjoying fond memories of his two years in the area:
I listened as Afew gave some background of Dalida's house:
"... Her ex-husband Lucien Morisse took his own life sometime after her attempt at suicide in the wake of Tenco's death, and Haden-Guest compared her to Judy Garland, though musically she was closer to Astrud Gilberto. Dalida's later involvement marriage to a man identified as the Count of St. Germain, who turned out not to be a count and also to prefer male companionship, only added to the picture of a personal life in turmoil and seemed to make her that much more alluring to her admirers. In the midst of this, she won the Oscar Mondial du Disque (World Oscar of Recording), a French award, to be sure, for her "Gigi L'Amoroso," beating out competitors that included Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," and recorded a peace song, "Salma ya Salama," in Arabic, on the occasion of Egyptian president Sadat's peace summit with Israel. Dalida's career in the 1980s had slowed somewhat as she entered her fifties, looking at least a decade younger but no longer doing 200 engagements a year as she had in her prime.
In 1986, she returned to her native Egypt to make a film, The Sixth Day, with director Youssef Chahine, an old friend from her early career, in which she gave what the critics felt was a superb acting performance. She continued to make Paris her home, where she remained a huge concert draw during her final decade. On May 3, 1987, Dalida was found dead of an overdose of barbiturates, an apparent suicide at the age of 54.
Bruno-ken: "So I grabbed this nuclear power supporter by the throat ..."
My Montserrat:
A somewhat happier Ted than in the photos already up:
"Memories of Montmartre"
Art student in Paris
The recent ET get-together in Paris was nostalgic for me. Montmartre in particular brings back lots of memories. My first trip abroad, at 18, was hitch-hiking with a friend to Paris from London. I was a student at Camberwell School of Art at the time. We didn't have a lot of luck hitching in France, but, just as we were contemplating a cold, damp night in a field, I saw a shooting star. I'm not superstitious, but said to myself: "I wish we could get to Paris tonight." About 30 secs later a car pulled up, asked where we were going and, when we said Paris, they told us to jump in.
Les flics
A couple of hours later they dropped us off by the Seine, just across from Notre Dame. We found a piece of open ground and began to unroll our sleeping bags. A police car screeched to a halt beside us and two plainclothes police jumped out and searched us and our bags. When one discovered a pen-knife I had in my bag he got a bit excited, and said: "Qu'est que c'est - c'est pour couper la tete n'est ce pas?" (or something like that) and apparently someone had been stabbed not far away! Despite my four years of French at grammar school, I pretended not to understand: "Don't speak French, mate." I think they decided we were pretty harmless English tourists and couldn't be bothered with getting someone to translate. One said something like: "Si vous etes Francais vous etes en prison;" We looked blankly at them and they got back in the car and, to our great relief, drove off.
It had been a long day so we slept quite well, but we were quite far apart in the morning and each complained about the other coughing noisily in the night - till we realised that some sick tramp had come and slept between us!
The next night we found a nice spot in some bushes by the Champs Elysee, but again cops arrived, in uniform this time, looked at our passports and told us that they'd let us sleep there for tonight, but we should find a cheap hotel. As poor students we didn't want to waste money on that and spent a lot of time looking for somewhere else to sleep, but couldn't find anywhere better (the grounds of the Sacre Coeur were too creepy) so we decided to risk going back to the same place. My friend sleeps more easily than I do and was soon asleep. After a while I saw the same two cops approaching, so shut my eyes and pretended to sleep. They looked in and then one said, in a resigned sort of way and with what I imagined must have been a Gallic shrug: "Oh - les Anglais" - and they wandered off.
The curious American
Being a student painter and full of the Romantic myth of the artist, I dragged my friend up to the Place du Tertre and did a little painting in the nearby Rue Rustique (with the top of the Sacre Coeur just visible at the end).
There I had my first encounter with an American, a tubby guy with a cigar, with a group of other American tourists. As he got to me, to my amazement, he grabbed the painting, saying: "What have you got there boy? Oh, you haven't finished." Thrusting it back at speechless me, he passed on.
A better encounter was with an old English lady who lived in the house beside which I was painting and who came out when she heard us speaking English. She told us she'd lived there for about forty years, and had met her French military officer husband when he was stationed in Woolwich, in south-east London, which, by coincidence, was where I had lived for my first ten years.
La vie boheme
My painting was in the typical Camberwell, rather dreary realist style of that period. A painter who sold his stuff in Place du Tertre, suggested that I brightened up the colours and added a few people - a suggestion I scorned as selling out. In retrospect I tend to agree with him; why not give people stuff that makes them feel happy; it wasn't as if I was making any particularly profound point with my dull little painting.
We stayed on in the Place du Tertre, after the tourists had left. Some of the young Spanish guys, who drew tourists during the day, got out bottles of wine, guitars and sang. So we spent several evenings there - ah THIS was the bohemian life!
"We'll always have Paris"
Years later, as a lecturer (history and theory of the media) I returned with a girl-friend. I took her to Rue Rustique and told her about my experiences there during the first trip. It was an autumn day, leaves blew in little circles round our feet, we kissed and she said: "We'll always remember this". I still do - but she died, tragically young, years ago.
New Year sadness
Later still I went to a New Year's Eve party organised by one of my ex-students (she is French and was doing very well managing a design group in a large media company). It was in a small Montmartre restaurant, but the atmosphere was a bit awkward as she and her photographer husband (who wasn't doing so well) were in the process of splitting up. Later we all walked up to Place du Tertre and then round the corner, where there was a café with heaters and seats for a group of us - as there were this time, with the ET group - now another, happier, Montmartre memory.
ET meeting
On the way up, Len had told us about his memories of living in the area for a couple of lucky years, while Afew was a bit disappointed that most ETers weren't very interested in the history of the area - but in keeping up the tradition of many of its artists by finding somewhere to get some drinks. After several bottles of wine, beer, etc. and some good conversation we moved on as a shower died away and helpful Helen suggested photo-opportunities to me, one of which worked out very well. Then it was time to descend the vertiginous steps and leave the top of Montmartre with more memories, and, I hope, more to come.
Warning - it can get addictive - we are social animals and relationships are very important (cf BBC series on Happiness) and getting respect is very important - from being a "made man" in the Mafia, to getting an honorary doctorate, or becoming a member of the French Academy. So once one gets some recommendations for one's diary, one starts to want more. But then, if one gets, say nine, when later one gets ONLY 5 recommendations one starts to think: "What was wrong with THAT one? After all it had politics, history, nice photos, battles and terrible suffering - like Maximus in "Gladiator" one is tempted to demand: "Are you not entertained! Are you not entertained! Is this not why you are here!"" But, hey, 5 recommendations is not to be sneezed at :-)
But then one sees one's precious diary gradually slip down the list of recommended diaries, then sink down in the recent diaries list - to disappear into oblivion - who looks back at old diaries? Well, there are those like those by Jerome which are about issues central to the nature of the site and which form part of a related, useful set, which will get resurrected when he or someone else does an update on a major issue and includes a set of links to previous diaries on the subject.
This is a continuation of my diary "Writing diaries", which grew so long (see that diary for a discussion of the process) that I decided to divide it in two pretty self-contained parts. In the other part I touched on the negative aspects of an excessive concern with form and style in modern literature - as contrasted with a work like Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities". Significantly he is a novelist and a journalist.
BBC "Imagination" as hagiography
I have defended the BBC against some criticisms in www.eurotrib.com, but I'm by no means an uncritical consumer of it. For example on Sunday night there was a particularly odious programme in the "Imagination" series. I can't criticise the whole series, not having seen it. I've ticked off someone for criticising a BBC programme after only watching a snippet, so I did, of course, watch all of this programme; though it soon became pretty clear that it was unlikely to get any better. But, gritting my teeth, I watched till the bitter and farcical end. It was the programme on the painter Howard Hodgkin. You can see some examples of his work here
But, while Hodgkin says that the subjects and hence the titles of his paintings are important, the BBC selection omits the titles - quite appropriately I think. However they are there in the labels of the web images, so this:
is "Undertones of War" - well of course!
My low opinion of his work (the colour is sometimes quite nice) isn't just ignorance and philistinism on my part; I taught art for years and know lots about the various Art theories of recent years (as well as much earlier ones). Years ago, I was an art student at Camberwell School of Art, London (where Hodgkin had studied some years earlier as it happens). I attended a lecture by a follower of the Greenberg school of art theory (see quotation on "The Painted Word" above) and the head of the painting department asked me what I thought. I said that if the flatness of the picture is SO important, why not just put up blank canvases. I'm sure someone has done this and there are Ad Reinhardt's paintings, cf.:
"Reinhardt is best known for his so-called "black" paintings of the 1960s, which appear at first glance to be simply canvanses painted black but are actually composed of black and nearly black shades. Among many other suggestions, these paintings ask if there can be such a thing as an absolute, even in black, which some viewers may not consider a color at all;"
But, decades before, Malevich had done a black painting (and a white one, etc.), and, when criticised, he responded with statement which sums up the Aesthetic approach and his contempt for the world and other people:
"Malevich responded that art can advance and develop for art's sake alone, regardless of its pleasure: art does not need us, and it never needed us since stars first shone in the sky."
Here's a really exciting one, with a black circle in it - seems a bit of an over-complicated compromise with popularity for him!
Despite the inflated theories, I find a lot of recent art rather boring and unimpressive (thank heavens for the bizarre and fascinating theories of physicists and astronomers, cosmologists), and the general public tends to agree. Of course many of the middle-classes go to galleries and try to look interested, or as if they've understood something deep; it's the new thing to do on Sunday afternoons.
The "Imagination" programme claimed that Hodgkin was the most popular British painter - oh really - with whom? - and since when did popularity count with the Art elite ?
Here's another Hodgkin - guess the subject:
It's: "After Corot" - ah!
Like most people, I'd prefer a Vetriano to a Hodgkin any day e.g.
"Painter whose work tops sales charts lashes out at snobbish elite
David Smith, arts and media correspondent
Sunday January 11, 2004, The Observer
He is Britain's most popular artist, outselling Dali, Monet and Van Gogh. A month ago, he rubbed shoulders with David Beckham at Buckingham Palace as both collected OBEs.
Yet while even the Queen has embraced the phenomenon of Jack Vettriano, the art establishment stands accused of blackballing him and 'running scared' of public opinion.
Vettriano's images of beaches, butlers and lovers have come to adorn everything from posters and cards to mugs and umbrellas, but the nation's major galleries have never displayed a single example of the real thing.
...
In a rare interview, Vettriano said: 'The art world is not a lot to do with art; it's to do with money and power and position. Annually the national galleries are given a budget of taxpayers' money and they should spend it on behalf of the people of Great Britain, but I feel they don't.
... I would rather my paintings sold to ordinary people, rather than being stacked in a store house at the National Gallery.'
Vettriano, 52, has sold more than three million poster reproductions around the world and earns an estimated £500,000 a year from the royalties. The works themselves disappear from public view into the hands of private collectors, with buyers including Hollywood star Jack Nicholson, composer Sir Tim Rice and British actor Robbie Coltrane."
Nicholson and Coltrane seem to be quite smart, independent guys and NOT the type to let elite opinion determine what they like enough to buy. It's no accident that Melvyn Bragg, himself from a poor, northern background, gave TV time to Vetriano - as he and his team have to many other popular artists/performers, ones often scorned by elite arbiters of taste:
"Bob Bee, who has directed and produced Jack Vettriano: The People's Painter for Melvyn Bragg's The South Bank Show, to be broadcast on ITV1 on 21 March, said: 'We wanted to ask Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, the criteria by which acquisitions are selected and whether he would consider buying a Vettriano. We were told he was busy curating his next exhibition.
'We wanted to ask Sir Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries of Scotland, why none of the Scottish galleries will show Scot land and the UK's favourite painter. We were told he was travelling in India and couldn't comment."
Significantly Serota found time to appear in the BBC's Imagination programme to say very complimentary things about Hodgkin, and perhaps Clifford was visiting Hodgkin, who spends a lot of time in India, partly to collect miniatures - often beautiful works, done with superb craftmanship.
"Sir Terence Conran [British design and restaurant entrepreneur], who commissioned Vettriano to paint a series of oils now hanging in his Bluebird restaurant complex in London, joined the criticism: 'They turn their backs on him because his work has been reproduced on posters, which I think is incredibly elitist and snobbish. In Scotland the art establishment has sneered at him because he is self-taught.
'He's not a Young British Artist, he's doing something different, but just as the American artist Edward Hopper is revered [ recent major exhibition at Tate Modern], I hope some of that could rub off on Vettriano.'
The Tate Gallery (run by Serota, see above) has a very different attitude to Hopper, who is also popular with the general public, and now with the Art elite; once he tended to be dismissed as an illustrator. Now he's become accepted as one of the OK artists by the elite, and the price of his works has increased greatly as a result:
"Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is considered to be one of America's greatest modern painters. This retrospective exhibition is the first major Hopper show to take place in the UK for over twenty years and presents many of his most iconic images.
Hopper's enduring popularity stems from his ability to stage scenes from everyday life in a way which also addresses universal concerns.
"For there are weak paintings, even in a tremendous show like this. When the buildings become flimsy, for example, or the colour is ostentatiously over-keyed. When the woman turns into a glib dollybird, when the figures get clumsier and more caricatural in later years. When he repeats himself: all those people gazing off-stage, into another world, another life. When even the light houses face off into the distance, eyes averted. Hopper can be just too plangent."
The same kind of thing could be said of Vetriano, but for most of the Art elite none of his is really Art:
"Hewlett, owner of the Portland Gallery in London, which will exhibit Vettriano's latest works in June, said: ...'There are two art worlds: the popular one which anyone can understand, and the academic one controlled by relatively few people. The latter has a very different approach and tries to be sensational for the sake of it.
'People understand less an unmade bed or a pickled pig's head. There are no emperor's new clothes around Vettriano's paintings.'"
Now of course one can argue that popularity isn't the same as quality/greatness, etc. - I leave that aside. The BBC "Imagination" programme used - inaccurately - the criterion of popularity. But what really annoyed me about the programme was that it was just hagiography; there was not a critical voice in it - I longed for a few terse comments from someone like Robert Hughes. But it was just unquestioning admiration and justification, from people like Serota, who, having organised a major retrospective and bought paintings for the Tate, has a vested interest, and from friends of Hodgkin. Where was the famous BBC "balance", or even hint that perhaps not everyone agreed? But Alan Yentob, the presenter, hardly questioned anything Hodgkin said, in that confident, arrogant manner which is rather typical of many ex Public (i.e. private in the UK) school types (he went to Bryanston).
The farcically uncritical programme was epitomised by its conclusion, which I would have thought was a send-up if it hadn't been for the rest of the proramme. Alan Yentob tells us that towards the end of filming something extraordinary happened, although Hodgkin had said he wouldn't do it, he actually paints for the camera - two red brush strokes - taking all of a second - awesome ! Then puts the little "painting" away to apply more of his genius to it later - away from the camera.
After all someone might start making unfortunate comparisons with Picasso's extraordinary improvisations and transformations before the camera, for many hours, in the "The Picasso Mystery" (which, as it happened wasn't popular):
"Released shortly after Luciano Emmer's documentary Picasso, H. G. Clouzot's Le Mystère Picasso was an unmitigated commercial disaster - all the more tragic when one considers the groundbreaking nature of its content. Like Emmer before him, Clouzot offers rare and precious glimpses of Pablo Picasso at work. The film watches Picasso draw or paint 15 different works, often via tightly-compressed, time-lapse cinematography. All of the featured masterpieces were intentionally destroyed following production, meaning that they exist only in the cinematic realm. With this documentary, Clouzot comes as close as humanly possible to defining the genius of Picasso within the parameters of the camera lens."
Perhaps part of the explanation for the uncriticaml nature of the programme is to be found here:
Imagination
Sponsorship opportunities on BBC World's arts strand Imagination with programmes examining music, dance, opera, art and sculpture.
E-BULLETIN
BBC World distributes a weekly e-bulletin to send to BBC World viewers featuring the week's upcoming lifestyle programming
Sent to over 80,000 upscale individuals worldwide
PROGRAMME PAGE ON BBCWORLD.COM
BBC World will create a special programme page for the Imagination strand
Sponsorship: Client buyout of advertising sites on the page (skyscraper, banner and button)
What sponsor would want their "upscale" viewers' contentment disturbed by any nasty notes of criticism? And this is the BBC !
Montserrat insisted that I leave the computer and that we get out early (well, just after 11) - so we walked down to the old town and looked round the Palais Lascaris:
In the 17th century, the baroque look and feel of the Old Town came into being. If you look above the doorways, many buildings have their year of construction inscribed into the stone. The Lascaris Palace Museum in the heart of Old Nice, 15 rue Droite, is a Genovan-style palace that shows the grandeur of this burgeoning time for Nice.
I wonder how many peasants had to work how long at back-breaking tasks in baking fields to help pay for all this. It reminds me of a line from a BBC radio series based on Ronald Blythe’s excellent book on the village of Akenfield. An old agricultural worker (and I can still hear his strong accent in my head) said: “We was worked to death” and this explained why some young men were so willing to sign up for “the Great War”.
It was agricultural workers like these who provided the wealth for many of the English aristocrats who escaped the miserable climate to winter in Nice and who helped make it a fashionable resort in the 19 th century - hence Promenade des Anglais, etc. Some them had such vast wealth that they could build even bigger palaces and not even use them, such as:
” … the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith, which is well called the Folie d'un Anglais—the "craze of an Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a promontory, and with its lofty towers and domes closes in the view. It is perhaps the most curious residence in the world, being built on a barren rock, and its apartments literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed ... This is the great saloon, and leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined with polished marble and furnished with Eastern magnificence. Externally, there is no trace of these chambers visible. They are, as I have said, excavated, like Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain.
The proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits this fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel, spending thousands annually in adding embellishments to his astonishing castle, where, notwithstanding its magnificent suites of apartments, no human being has ever slept a night or eaten a meal.”
This Genoese-style palace was built in the middle of the 17th century for the Lascaris de Vintimille (a small Italian town near Nice); it was their family home until 1802. Tucked away in a narrow street, the richly coloured and decorated façade of this palace is flanked by old red and ochre buildings so typical of Nice's old quarter. The interior is sumptuous baroque with vaulted ceilings decorated with frescoes and huge sweeping staircases.
A little bit of classical lasciviousness for the lucky guests.
Then we returned to the brilliant light in Place Rossetti:
The square is mercifully free from the traffic and one can hear the soothing sound of the fountain:
We had a slow meal and too much to drink. Then a slow look round a bookshop on the way back. We bought Chomsky's "Failed States" for one of M's friends and Fisk's "Liban, Nation Martyre" for a relative from Lebanon. These were my suggestions of course, well it seemed more interesting than bottles of wine as gifts - (for our Paris trip) and one of the guys doesn't drink - (yes, he is French! - and is an intellectual, so Chomky in English will be OK).
The books are reminders of how lucky we are, e.g. in not being too directly affected by US foreign policy.
The Fisk has just come out in French, is a best-seller in English, despite being a big, slow read:
"Le reporter de guerre de « l'Independent », Robert Fisk, sort en France « Liban, Nation Martyre » son livre bestseller dans lequel il revient en détail sur les trente dernières années de l'histoire tragique de ce pays. L'occasion pour le Magazine.info d'interroger ce témoin clé du Moyen-Orient sur la situation toujours tendue de cette région."
"It examines how the United States is beginning to resemble a failed state that cannot protect its citizens from violence and has a government that regards itself as beyond the reach of domestic or international law.
In the book, Professor Noam Chomsky presents a series of solutions to help rescue the nation from turning into a failed state.
They include: Accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the World Court; Sign the Kyoto protocols on global warming; Let the United Nations take the lead in international crises; Rely on diplomatic and economic measures rather than military ones in confronting terror; and Sharply reduce military spending and sharply increase social spending."
What an optimist he is, despite all the incredibly informed, gloomy analysis of current realities.
But then history shows how radically things can change; sometimes getting better, sometimes far worse.
A little research on the net brings up a fascinating article about the history of Nice from an old magazine (see above on the Englishman’s folly in Nice)
Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88
Nice has suffered due to "failed ststes" and terrible things have happened here in these prosperous, peaceful streets; some due to the treaty-breaking French and the selfish obstinacy of the governer of the time, the marquis de Caraglio - things that make even today's Baghdad seem like a holiday camp:
"... Nice has sustained at least a dozen sieges of more or less severity. That of 1706 was perhaps one of the most shocking on record. The city, by the treaty of Turin of 1696, had once more passed under the protectorate of the dukes of Savoy, but the French, who have always had a longing eye for the "Department of the Maritime Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over the frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the country. Nice was then governed by the marquis de Caraglio, who, although entreated by the enemy to allow the women and children to leave the city's gates, positively refused to do so. The consequence was that during the siege, which lasted six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for food, and women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell in various parts of the town, and the castle, cathedral and many churches were entirely destroyed."
Hard to imagine, as lines of tourists stroll by bars and restaurants in the warm afternoon - we live in fortunate times - and the traffic isn't THAT bad. The article on Nice itself concludes:
Perhaps, it is owing in part to the brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that soon after his arrival the health of the invalid often revives as if by enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years, who knows every nook and corner of the place, and who has cultivated a garden in its environs as celebrated throughout the world as his own sparkling pen, says well:
"Who is there so downhearted as to resist the glorious heat of the sun, the beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of the varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the ever-changing hues of the mountains of Nizza la bella?" R. DAVEY
Well, it's not quite so belle as it was then, there's a lot less vegetation and a lot more buildings, but it's certainly no Beirut - though that used to be "the extraordinarily fashionable 1960s Mediterranean hotspot", before it too became the victim of "failed states" - Fisk:
"I came to Lebanon in 1976 when I was just 29 years old, and because I have lived here ever since - because I have been doing the same job ever since, chronicling the betrayals and treachery and deceit of Middle East history for all those years - I felt I was always 29.
...
I was here on [Beirut] the very last day of the civil war, following the Syrian tanks under shellfire up to Baabda. In conflict, you never believe a war will end. Yet it finished, amid corpses and one last massacre - but it ended, and I was free of fear for the first time in 14 years.
And then I watched it all reborn. The muck along the Corniche below my balcony was cleared and flower beds and new palm trees planted. The Dresden-like ruins were slowly torn down or restored and I could dine out in safety along the old front line in fine Italian restaurants, take coffee by the Roman ruins, buy Belgian chocolates, French shirts, English books. Slowly, my own life, I now realise, was being rebuilt. Not only did I love life - I could expect to enjoy it for years to come.
Until, of course, that Valentine’s Day morning on the Corniche just down from my home when the crack of a fearful explosion sent fingers of dark brown smoke sprouting into the sky only a few hundred metres from me. And that was the moment, I think, when the beautiful dream ended, as it did for tens of thousands of Lebanese. And I no longer feel 29."
The other day I teased Jerome about being so productive and warned about "burnout". I'm retired, but still don't seem to have much time. I was up till 1am doing some Eurotrib and blog stuff on Sat. Sunday. morning I researched and wrote the diary entry "NYT has more `Sicko' news". After lunch I walked down to the Promenade des Anglais and sat in one of the beach cafes. Of course - having had a protestant ethic background - I had a couple of books with me.
But I couldn't read - my brain needed a rest and it had enough sense to tell me that, being lucky enough to live here in Nice, I ought - let me rephrase that - it would be very pleasurable - to just sit and enjoy the experience a bit more, rather than continually being elsewhere in my mind.
It was just great to sit in the shade (my skin is a bit fair for this climate) and take in the blue sky and the sea. So I just spent a couple of hours like that - DOING nothing, but BEING there. I moved on to the Cours Saleya and the early evening was so nice I had another beer and do-nothing session in the now weaker sun.
Today I browsed some Washington Post articles and came across this:
Breaking Free of Suburbia's Stranglehold
Jennifer McNelley: No Tears
McNelley knew she needed to change her life. Why else would she be crying all the time?
"I just can't wait anymore," she said. "I need to take a leap of faith and say, 'Screw it all,' and do what I have to do."
When her church, CrossCurrent Ministries, did the "Death by Suburb" series this year, she recognized herself in it, knowing she, too, was slowly drowning in the "toxins" of the suburbs -- the quest for more, the perfectly scheduled diagrams of days.
Her pastor ... counseled his flock to slow down, schedule time to contemplate, put off their latest Circuit City purchase (he was avoiding buying a digital camera), even consider pulling the kids out of sports for a semester.
Americans giving up sports?! Things must be serious. But then Jerome has been telling us that it is serious, yet bankers don't act on what they know, but on what the rest of the herd is doing. But the bubble might burst:
""Middle-class families are caught between low income growth, a high debt burden, and rising interest rates - and for the moment, these ingredients are here to stay. The most recent third-quarter delinquency, default, and bankruptcy figures show that the dangers to middle-class economic security are not theoretical concepts. They are a harsh reality for a growing share of middle-class families."
But some realise that the problem is in going along with the herd and that one's life needn't be consumed by working in order to buy more; one can take more pleasure in basic consumption in a responsible way:
The Slow Food Manifesto
The Slow Food international movement officially began when delegates from 15 countries endorsed this manifesto, written by founding member Folco Portinari, on November 9, 1989.
Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.
We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.
To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.
A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.
May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.
Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food.
Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.
Cittaslow, (literally Slow City in English) is a movement founded in Italy in October of 1999. The inspiration of Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization; Cittaslow's goals include improving quality of life in towns while resisting the homogenization and Americanization of cities, where standardized franchise stores dominate. Celebrating and supporting diversity of culture and the specialities of a town and its hinterland are core Cittaslow values.
Cittaslow is part of a cultural trend known as the Slow movement.
However, don't take the title too literally; enjoying a fast car, as in BBC's "Top Gear", could still be a form of "slow":
Contrary to assumptions associated with the term "slow", advocates of the Slow movement stress activity, rather than passivity. The focus, therefore, is on being selective in our activity, and fully appreciating how we spend our time.
So it's OK for me to write this as quickly as I can (not very fast, I like the research bit) - there are replies to comments to reply to too.
The Slow Movement has led to some interesting reflections on the most profound questions.
Arise !
"I'm talking about how to get out of bed. Most of us manage to get out of bed, eventually. Employers expect as much.
...
In the seventeenth century, the philosopher René Descartes spent a lot of time mulling over the problem of whether he existed or not. He famously said, "I think therefore I am." He thought he did exist. So he must have tackled the am-I-awake-or-not question.
If you are aware you are lying in bed, then the mind will eventually pose another profound question: "Should I get up?"
Great minds have thought deeply about this question. In 1650 Blaise Pascal turned away from his studies in mathematics to contemplate the "greatness and the misery of man." He decided, "Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room." It only follows then that lying in bed must be a virtue.
Marcel Proust stayed in bed for almost a decade due to real or imagined aliments. His bed became his workplace. You probably had to be ill in bed to read Marcel Proust's one-and-a-quarter-million-word novel, In Search of Lost Time. But Proust was a genius because he knew how to slow down. He took seventeen pages to describe a man trying to get back to sleep in his bed.
But a documentary on French TV a few days ago brought out the really serious side of stress, caused by the kind of management techniques imported from the US; causing some employees to be unable to sleep and, in some cases, unable to go on living. From an earlier report in the Guardian - Money section:
Heading for a breakdown
French workers used to be envied, but after suicides at car-maker Renault, unions are blaming US-style methods for shattering the harmony. Kim Willsher reports from Paris
Saturday March 10, 2007 The Guardian
...
Now, the harsh world of globalisation, competition and sharp employment practice has hit France hard. For workers such as those at Renault's state-of-the-art design and development Technocentre, near Versailles, this new economic reality has come as a shock, both professionally and personally. It has also brought tragic consequences.
In January, 800 Renault employees joined a silent march in tribute to two colleagues who had committed suicide. Even as they snaked past the ultramodern plant, known as the Beehive for its honeycomb design, their heads bowed, another was reaching the end of his tether.
Just over a fortnight later a 38-year-old employee, whose wife and five-year-old son were on holiday, returned home from the Technocentre and took his own life. His was the third suicide at the centre in four months.
His widow told Le Parisien that her normally "poised and calm" husband was stressed by work. He was so exhausted he was beyond sleep, she says. "He suffered from enormous pressure bringing files home and waking in the middle of the night to work."
But I don't want to leave you with this depressing news - people are resisting, downsizing and going SLOW - they want to live more happily.
Scientists have finally got round to studying that very important thing - happiness - and the BBC has made a series about it:
"... it's thought that we tend to see our life as judged against other people.
We compare our lot against others [that herd thing again]. Richer people do get happier when they compare themselves against poorer people, but poorer people are less happy if they compare up.
The good news is that we can choose how much and who we compare ourselves with and about what, and researchers suggest we adapt less quickly to more meaningful things such as friendship and life goals.
What makes us happy?
According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital.
First, family and friends are crucial - the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the better."
Michael Moore's "Sicko" opened at Cannes recently. In this interview with Bill Maher, Moore says he's still recovering from praise from Fox News and condemns the "health" and drug corporations in the US. He says it's not only that millions of Americans have no health insurance, but also that the health insurance corporations try to maximise profits by avoiding making payments, a situation made worse by the high costs of many drugs from pharmaceutical corporations:
Here are some videos from YouTube which illustrate the reality of the US media-politics scene (with CNN attacking Fox for attacking Obama) that Obama has to function in, and some idea of his views in a quite sympathetic interview
Here's a quick intro - Bill Maher on Obama - then being typically non-PC about Islam (Maher lost his popular TV show for making the obvious point that you could call the 9/11 attackers many things, but not "cowards"). Maher's reference to Obama's name reflects the attacks in Fox news, etc. in the following video:
But here's the Murdoch/Moloch empire's attack on Obama in all it's sick malevalence, including two main lies a) that as a child he went to a Muslim madrassa, b) that rival Deocrats leaked this "fact"
But before we get too cynical about the US media, here is CNN refuting these lies (they are a bit self-congratulatory, but it is a good piece):
And here is the man himself - who doesn't seem quite the ruthless, militaristic chauvinist as portayed in Jerome's "opinion" of Obama's Foreign Affairs article (note also that the interviewer is pretty good - i.e; critical of US gov. policy - another reminder that even the US media aren't monolithic):
Sarkozy is the first French president who was not alive during WWII, so, while making a visit to Germany, now an important political and trading partner, he made clear his respect for the French Resistance:
"... the new head of state did not wait long to depart from past protocol. On his way to the airport for his flight to Berlin, his motorcade made a highly symbolic stop at a monument commemorating the death of 35 young French resistance fighters who were shot by Nazi occupiers in August 1944."
But he quickly reassured his German hosts that this wasn't an attempt to open old wounds:
" 'The Franco-German reconciliation was a sort of miracle and nothing must ever lead us to sacrifice the friendship that after so many difficulties now links the French and the German people,' Sarkozy said after a high school student read out a letter by a 17-year-old resistance fighter, Guy Môquet, who was executed by German officers in 1941. 'To end the eternal cycle of hatred and vengeance we had to build Europe.'"
In Fact Sarkozy has ordered the letter to be read in Lycées at the beginning of the academic year:
"Nicolas Sarkozy annonce que sa « première décision » de président sera de faire lire dans toutes les classes du pays en début d'année scolaire, la lettre à ses parents du jeune résistant Guy Môquet avant son exécution."
Some have objected to what they see as Sarkozy's exploitation or recuperation of the words of this young communist for Sarkozy's right-wing ideology, which they feel young communists of Môquet's generation fought against:
"Aujourd'hui le même Sarko prend les idées de celui qui véhicule les mêmes idéologies que ceux qui ont posé une chape de plomb pendant 5 ans sur la France ;en les reprenant à son compte(- ce qui change de 1940 c'est que l'émigré a remplacé le juif -)non seulement il les banalise mais en plus il donne de la puissance a cette doctrine ,dont les jeunes de 40 avaient donné leur vie préçisément pour la combattre.
Vraiment monsieur Sarkozy vous me donnez envie de vomir."
In fact not only can Môquet's communism be seen as something of an embarrassment for Sarkozy, but the manner of his capture and selection for execution is not something that many in France care to remember. He was arrested, aged only 16, by French police rounding up communists for their new Nazi masters, and beaten up to try to get the names of his father's communist friends:
"Guy Môquet était lycéen au lycée Carnot et fervent militant des jeunesses communistes. Après l'occupation de Paris par les Allemands et l'instauration du gouvernement de Vichy, Guy déploie une grande ardeur militante pour coller des papillons dans son quartier dénonçant le nouveau gouvernement et demandant la libération des internés. Il est arrêté à 16 ans le 13 octobre 1940 au métro Gare de l'Est par des policiers français qui recherchaient les militants communistes. Les policiers le passent à tabac pour qu'il révèle les noms des amis de son père."
He might have survived the war in prison, or even been released early, like Sartre, had it not been for the assassination of a Nazi officer by three young communists. The Nazis demanded that 50 French prisoners be executed in reprisal, and Pierre Pucheu, the Minister of the Interior in the Petain government selected 50 communists "to avoid letting 50 good Frenchmen be shot."
Emprisonné à Fresnes, puis à Clairvaux, il est ensuite transféré au camp de Châteaubriant (Loire-Atlantique), où étaient détenus d'autres militants communistes.
Le 20 octobre 1941, Karl Hotz, commandant des troupes d'occupation de la Loire-inférieure, est exécuté à Nantes par trois jeunes communistes. Le ministre de l'Intérieur du gouvernement Pétain, Pierre Pucheu, sélectionne des otages communistes « pour éviter de laisser fusiller 50 bons Français »
But there is another aspect of the history of WWII which has also long been ignored, suppressed, forgotten; i.e. the fact that not all German soldiers were Nazi monsters and that many of them were idealistic young men like Guy Môquet.
By a striking coincidence, one of them has written one of the most powerful accounts of the experience of ordinary soldiers in WWII and was also only 16 when he became active in the war and was also named Guy. In fact he was also half French, but took his German mother's maiden name - Sajer - when he decided to join the German army (despite having at first believed the post WWI propaganda about German soldiers):
"... It was there in June 1940 when his family was stranded on the road as refugees that young Sajer first encountered the soldiers of the Wehrmacht who had only a few days before completed their conquest of France. In the interview Sajer related how in line with World War I propaganda he had feared that the Germans would cut off his hands. To his surprise instead of cutting off his hands the German Landsers handed him food and something to drink.
... While serving in labor service camps in Strasbourg and at Kehl right across the Rhine Sajer admitted envying his youthful German counterparts who seemed so self-confident and eager to serve their country. He remembers his own feelings of inadequacy watching them volunteering for combat. At the time combat seemed a great adventure but it was a privilege extended only to pure Germans. Finally in 1942 when German manpower shortages began to worsen and he turned sixteen Sajer was allowed to volunteer for military service. From July 1942 to May 1945 he served in a variety of German Army units on the Russian Front most notably the elite Grossdeutschland Division and took part in many of the critical defensive battles that eventually decided the fate of Germany in the East."
Its authenticity has been questioned by some military historians, overly pedantic about details of where badges were worn, etc. Sajer is scornful of such criticism:
... 'I succeeded in having this horror story from the Second World War published in a country hostile to me [France] against my own best interests and with all of the problems in describing the well-merited compassion I still feel for my German soldier comrades ... all of them. I conveyed the difficulty of these moments ... the anguish and the horror. I [publicly] acknowledged the courage and good will of German Landsers in a climate where one was not permitted to talk about them. I depicted their faithfulness and self-sacrifice ... I moved the hearts of millions. I have proudly glorified the honor of all German soldiers at a time in history when they were slandered and reviled. In my opinion this was my duty and I asked for nothing in return.' "
... "I've known guys in the army who fought in Vietnam who didn't know which sleeve their overseas stripes were sewn ...
Also, many people tend to discount the importance of the state of maturity of Sajer at the time - he turned 17 years old in January 1943 and volunteered for the GD's Feld-Ers.Btl. in April, 3 months later. So he was still a juvenile at the time and he admits himself that he was very immature. How many 17-year olds today can remember what the heck they did a week ago, much less something much further in the past? When Sajer initially drafted his manuscript in the late 1950s, the war had been over at least 10 years and many of the details of what took place in the past had been forgotten or mis-remembered ...
... Of course, Sajer could be a fake, that's always possible, but writing a book extoling the glories of the Wehrmacht and having it published in France in 1968 was considered at the time a very risky thing to do - if nothing else, Sajer was a brave man."
Fortunately the odious Pucheu who sent Môquet to his execution met the same fate:
"... No one personified the Vichy regime better than Pucheu. In 1941 he became Darlan's industry minister and then interior minister. He had served as a fundraiser for the fascist French People's Party . He also championed economic collaboration with Germany and anti-communist repression, working on behalf of the Nazi occupation (including selecting communist prisoners executed in 1941 in retaliation for the assassin ation of German officers, and establishing special sections - anti-communist tribunals).
Spurned by Giraud, Pucheu was imprisoned in May 1943 and sentenced to death; he was executed in Algiers in March 1944."
In this article Annie Lacroix-Riz reveals another bit of largely forgotten history, despite its contemporary relevance. Contrary to the usual myths, the US wasn't just the altruistic liberator, eager to restore democracy to France:
"The US was concerned that France, although weakened by its 1940 defeat, might reject the plan, especially if its presidency went to De Gaulle, who had vowed to restore French sovereignty. It feared France might use its nuisance capacity as it had when it opposed pro-German US policies after the first world war. France would not have wanted to relinquish its empire, rich in raw materials and strategic bases. The US had long called for an open door policy for goods and investments in all colonial empires (2). The US relied on twin strategies: ignoring De Gaulle, and dealing with Pétain's regime with a combin ation of accommodation and toughness. It realised that Vichy, like the Latin American regimes dear to its heart, was more malleable than a government with broad popular support.
... The US depicted De Gaulle as a rightwing dictator and a puppet of French communists and the USSR... On 10 December 1944 France signed a treaty of alliance and mutual security with Moscow, to offset US power. De Gaulle described it in glowing terms.
Excluded from the Yalta conference in 1945 and dependent on the US, France became a key part of the US sphere of influence. But only vigorous resistance, internal and external, had saved it from becoming a US protectorate."
Some right-wing Americans see Sarkozy, not so much as the first French president who has no experience of WWII, but as finally marking the end of Gaullism the idea of Europe as a counter-balance to the US:
"Charles Kupchan, chercher au Council On Foreign Relations, le resumé ainsi:'Il brise le moule classique du leader de centre droit; il représente la fin du gaullisme traditionnel. Avec lui, vous n'entendrez plus le vieux refrain: "Il est temps que l'Europe émerge comme contre-poids à l'Amerique." ' "
Marianne, 28 Avril, 2007, p.18
But the US is not having much success as the dominant world power under Bush; Iraq is a disaster (despite Blair's absurd claim that the problem is the media are not reporting on all the progress there - even as the UK base in Basra was being mortared).
From US military propagandist to AL Jazeera journalist
Also one is encouraged to see that there are young American soldiers who see through the lies the war was based on, even one who at first believed them and whose job was to convince journalists (some of whom did their "journalism" by asking him: "What message would you like to get out today?"!).
I was impressed by Lt. Josh Rushing when I saw him in the documentary about Al Jazeera, "The Control room", which showed his obvious difficulty in believing the official line in the face of his actual experience in Iraq and his discussions with Al Jazeera journalists:
"[The Control Room] invites dissenting voices to comment on the station's work, including US Marine Corps press officer Lt. Josh Rushing (tellingly, he has a sudden epiphany halfway through the film, realising that Al Jazeera is simply the inverse of the pro-American Fox News)."
He has now left the US army and is working for the English-language version of Al Jazeera (like one of my ex-students, who tells me he is far more free from editorial control than he had felt with UK TV).
But of course the Right in the US tried to depict him as a "traitor"
"Amid the sudden publicity, Rushing ran afoul of the Pentagon. After defending Al Jazeera in an interview with the Village Voice, in which he suggested that the network showed a more realistic image of the war than the American media ('In America war isn't hell--we don't see blood, we don't see suffering. All we see is patriotism'), he was ordered to stop talking to the press. That didn't sit well with him. 'It's a weird place to be in when there's a national dialogue about you and you can't take part in it,' he says. 'When I came back from the war, I was frustrated by what I'd seen. I felt that what America thought it knew about Al Jazeera was wrong, and the way that America was engaging or not engaging with Al Jazeera was not only wrong but dangerous.'
...
When he joined the [Al Jazeera] network almost a year ago, he saw himself as a cultural emissary who could help the rest of the world understand the America he loves. Now, "more and more I see myself as a journalist," he says. "It's taking a long time to let go of that spokesperson side of me who wants to control the message and to embrace the side that's about letting the message be whatever you find. There's a real value to this journalism thing."
He has now made a documentary showing the same pattern of lies used to justify each of the US attacks on other countries, from Vietnam, through Panama, to Iraq.
"Spin: The art of selling war"
It was made with the help of Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy":
"If you don't have fun reading Norman Solomon's War Made Easy, you don't know how to have a good time. This exceptional book will drive our bonkers leaders and their mouthpieces in the US press crazier than they are already. Read one passage each night to your children to protect them from the brain-snatchers and dummy-fication zombies of America's news media of the living dead."
Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
That is, there is not a lot of "real value to this journalism thing" as currently practised by the corporate media - see also Bill Moyers' PBS documentary: "Buying the war":
At least the Al Jazeera documentary is available on YouTube (most US TV channels won't carry Al Jazeera- English version). The documentary and the book make it clear that De Gaulle was right and a "contre-poids" to the US (as run by people like Bush) is very necessary and that it wasn't arrogance, as Sarkozy put it during this visit to the US, when the French refused to buy the nonsense Bush and co were trying to sell the UN about Iraq. If that was French arrogance, I echo Bush: "Bring it on!"
Warning: Another long piece :-) - but the issue merits it - and, like Gore, I have adopted a "kaizen" approach (see below), and given the bits on design, I've tried to include lots of relevant images - so it's taken a long time. I hope you get to the end - and that, in the end, we all survive!
