WHAT MONOPOLY ?

The 31^st December appears to be big company day.

The East India Company (also known as the English East India Company, and, after the Treaty of Union, the British East India Company) was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The Company was granted an English Royal Charter, under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East Indian Companies, the largest of which was the Dutch East India Company. The Company was granted status as a limited liability business.

Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 at the St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin. On 31 December 1759 he signed (up to) a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery. Ten years later on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to Great Britain. By 1914, Guinness was producing 2,652,000 barrels of beer a year, which was more than double that of its nearest competitor Bass, and was supplying more than 10% of the total UK beer market. In the 1930s, Guinness became the seventh largest company in the world.

On the 31^st December 1955 the General Motors Corporation became the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. They’ve been through a few changes since then.

On the 31^st December 1983, the antitrust decision arrived at between the United States Government and AT&T Bell System went into effect. The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT & T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a Monopoly. As a result of the break up on 31^st December, effective from 1^st January 1984, AT&T’s local operations were split into seven independent Regional Holding Companies, also known as Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), or "Baby Bells". Afterwards, AT&T, reduced in value by approximately 70%, continued to operate all of its long-distance services, although in the ensuing years it lost portions of its market share to competitors such as MCI and Sprint.

I wonder how all that works ?

PRIZE WINNERS AND THE SOVIETS

Carol Reed (right) with Orson Wells
on the Third Man set.

There are two birthdays to celebrate today 30^th December. On this day in 1865 Rudyard Kipling was born, and on this day in 1906 Carol Reed was born. Kipling won a Nobel Prize and Carol Reed, although nominated for an Oscar in 1951 for The Third Man (1949), was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture in 1969 for Oliver (1968). Musicals seem to be in the news again and we have had a biography of Lionel Bart, composer of Oliver, being read on Radio 4.

In addition another alliance was signed on the 30^th December 1922. On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1^st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations, Mikhail Kalinin, Mikha Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petyrovsky, and Aleksandr Chervyakov, on 30 December 1922.

Kalinin

Frunze

Petrovsky

Chervyakov

In the late 1980s, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the state with his policies of perestroika and glasnost, but the Soviet Union collapsed and was formally dissolved in December 1991 after the abortive August coup attempt.  The Russian Federation assumed its rights and obligations.

BECKET TEARS AND GENOCIDE

The 29^th December is not a day of glad tidings. There is a rather sad mix of dreadful events, which the passage of time has failed to dissimulate. Perhaps gloss over would be a better term.

The first event goes back to the 12^th century. On the 29^th December 1170, four knights Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton arrived at Canterbury. According to accounts left by the monk Gervase of Canterbury and eyewitness Edward Grim, they placed their weapons under a tree outside the cathedral and hid their mail armour under cloaks before entering to challenge Archbishop Thomas Becket. The knights informed Becket he was to go to Winchester to give an account of his actions, but Becket refused. It was not until Becket refused their demands to submit to the king's will that they retrieved their weapons and rushed back inside for the killing. Becket, meanwhile, proceeded to the main hall for vespers. The four knights, wielding drawn swords, caught up with him in a spot near a door to the monastic cloister, the stairs into the crypt, and the stairs leading up into the quire of the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.

Several contemporary accounts of what happened exist; of particular note is that of Edward Grim, who was himself wounded in the attack. This is part of the account from Edward Grim:

“...The wicked knight leapt suddenly upon him, cutting off the top of the crown which the unction of sacred chrism had dedicated to God. Next he received a second blow on the head, but still he stood firm and immovable. At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living sacrifice, and saying in a low voice, 'For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.' But the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he lay prostrate. By this stroke, the crown of his head was separated from the head in such a way that the blood white with the brain, and the brain no less red from the blood, dyed the floor of the cathedral. The same clerk who had entered with the knights placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to relate, scattered the brains and blood about the pavements, crying to the others, 'Let us away, knights; this fellow will arise no more”

The events leading up to, and following on from, this day in 1170 have been researched and written about for 841 years. The various accounts have depicted human behaviour in all its facets, starting with a simple question, Why? It is usually a matter of whose point of view is being sought, but on the whole there is an attempt to explore the event rather than the personalities. That illumination evolves from the examination of the context of the event itself, through the intrigues and relationships of those perceived to be concerned with the event. Out of this we get a story which runs and runs.

The second event is another of those ridiculous treaties supposedly creating equanimity between an American Indian Nation and the United States. The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on 29^th December, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party] The treaty was amended and ratified by the US Senate in March 1836, despite protests from the Cherokee National Council and its lacking the signature of the Principal Chief John Ross.

The treaty established terms under which the entire Cherokee Nation was expected to cede its territory in the Southeast and move west to the Indian Territory. Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council, it was ratified by the U.S. Senate and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from south-eastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory (eastern sections of the present-day state of Oklahoma). The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease and starvation en route to their destinations. Many died, including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee. Much has been written about these events as well yet the duplicity of various United States Governments never ceases to amaze. Have any apologies been forthcoming? Perhaps in some roundabout way. A number of prominent protesters, at the time, made known their disapproval of government behaviour, usually to no avail.

The third event is an apology. On the 29^th December, 1998, the remaining leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologized for the 1970s genocide. By 1999, most members had surrendered or been captured. In December 1999, Ta Mok and the remaining leaders surrendered, and the Khmer Rouge effectively ceased to exist. Most of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders live in the Pailin area or are hidden in Phnom Penh. Again, much has been written of the killing fields of Cambodia, which claimed over 1 million lives.

There is another event involving the death of a language. On the 29^th December, 2003 Marja Sergina – one of the last fluent native speakers of Akkala Sami – died. Akkala Sami is a Sami language that was spoken in the Sami villages of A´kkel and Ču´kksuâl, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Formerly erroneously regarded as a dialect of Kildin Sami, it has recently become recognized as an independent Sami language that is most closely related to its western neighbor Skolt Sami. Although there exists a description of Akkala Sami phonology and morphology, a few published texts, and archived audio recordings, the Akkala Sami language remains among the most poorly documented Sami languages. Effectively the language is no more. There is little written about this event.

PAVEL PETROVICH POSTYSHEV AND RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON

The 28^th December seemingly embraces the environment. Two particular events were brought about through the auspices of two rather curious politicians each at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

A letter by Pavel Petrovich Postyshev (Па́вел Петро́вич По́стышев) published in Pravda revived the tradition of the New Year Tree. The tradition to install and decorate a Ёлка (pr: Yolka, tr: spruce tree) dates back to the 17th century when Peter the Great imported the tradition from his travels of Europe. However, in the Imperial Russia Yolka were banned since 1916 by Synod as a tradition, originated in Germany (Russian counterpart during World War I). This ban was prolonged in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic SFSR and the Soviet Union until 1935 (New Year tree was seen as a "bourgeois and religious prejudice" until that year). The New Year celebration was not banned, though there was no official holiday for it until 1935. The New Year's tree revived in the USSR after the famous letter by Pavel Petrovich Postyshev, published in Pravda on 28^th December, 1935, where he asked for installing New Year trees in schools, children's homes, Young Pioneer Palaces, children's clubs, children's theatres and cinema theatres. In 1937, a New Year Tree was also installed in the Moscow Palace of Unions. An invitation to the Yolka at the Palace of Unions became a matter of honour for Soviet children.

Pavel Petrovich Postyshev (Па́вел Петро́вич По́стышев) was a Soviet politician. He is considered to be one of the principal architects of the so-called man-made famine of 1932–33, or Holodomor. His role in the famine is part of a much larger history covering the Stalin years. In his role of secretary of the Kharkiv Oblast and city Party committees Postyshev organized the purge of Trotskyists and Ukrainian national-communists as well as industrialisation and collectivisation campaigns in the region.

It is curious that his letter published in Pravda, a newspaper whose founders included Leon Trotsky, one of its first editor, should have had such a performative effect in the USSR. The Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор, 'Морити голодом', literal translation Killing by hunger) was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on 28^th December, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation."

There have been significant improvements as a result of these various Acts of Congress.

Peregrine Falcon (increased from 324 to 1,700 pairs between 1975 and 2000); removed from list.

Grizzly bear (increased from about 271 to over 580 bears in the Yellowstone area between 1975 and 2005); removed from list 22/3/07

California’s Southern Sea Otter (increased from 1,789 in 1976 to 2,735 in 2005)

San Clemente Indian Paintbrush (increased from 500 plants in 1979 to more than 3,500 in 1997)

Red Wolf (increased from 17 in 1980 to 257 in 2003)

And many more…

As to Richard Nixon...

CHRISTMAS AND SEXUAL POLITICS

The 23^rd December instituted a few Christmas perennials (each in their way very performative) including:

Moore

 "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on 23^rd December, 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Clement Clarke Moore, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. Although generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, the claim has also been made that Henry Livingston, Jr wrote it. Only later did Moore acknowledge his authorship, and the poem was included in an 1844 anthology of his works. Moore had written it for his children, and being a scholar and professor, did not wish at first to be connected with the poem, but his children insisted that it be included in the anthology.

According to legend, A Visit was composed by Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas. While Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today, he borrowed other aspects such as the names of the reindeer.

Humperdinck

Wette

Hansel and Gretel (German: Hänsel und Gretel) is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Englebert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper (fairy tale opera). The opera was first performed in Weimar on 23^rd December 1893, conducted by Richard Strauss. It has been associated with Christmas since its earliest performances and today it is still most often performed at Christmas time. The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brother’s fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the "Abendsegen" ("Evening Benediction") from act 2. The idea for the opera was proposed to Humperdinck by his sister, who approached him about writing music for songs that she had written for her children for Christmas based on "Hansel and Gretel". After several revisions, the musical sketches and the songs were turned into a full-scale opera.

The 23rd December also marked the sexual revolution:

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It became law when it received Royal Assent on 23^rd December 1919. The basic purpose of the Act was, as stated in its long title, "... to amend the Law with respect to disqualification on account of sex", which it achieved in four short sections and one schedule. Its broad aim was achieved by section 1, which stated that:

A person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society (whether incorporated by Royal Charter or otherwise), [and a person shall not be exempted by sex or marriage from the liability to serve as a juror].

The King who gave the Royal assent was George V.  So far as kings go he was not a bad sort. He apparently was faithful to his wife and never had a mistress. There are two quotes attributed to him. When it was suggested that the workers involved in the General Strike
 of 1926 were revolutionaries, he remarked, “Try living on their wages before you judge them” and of his son Edward who became Edward VIII for a few months, “After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months”.

J'ACCUSE NUTS

The 22^nd December turns up two rather different matters of military history.

Dreyfuss

One which led to a scandal that ran for some 12 years and has been the subject of a number of films and portrayals. It was known as L’Affair Dreyfus. On the 15^th October 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested for treason. His trial began on the 19^th December1894 at the Cherche-Midi prison, and lasted four days. The court was composed of seven judges, none of them an artilleryman. The president was Conel Maurel. Dreyfus was unanimously pronounced guilty at he last hearing on 22^nd December 1894. He was sentenced to transportation for life to a fortress, preceded by military degradation. 

Zola

From that moment on, the incident developed into a grand scandal. Despite very strong evidence exonerating Dreyfus, his wrongful conviction was not overturned until 1906; however, the initial scandal led to an extraordinary piece of writing by Emile Zola who published an open letter in the newspaper L’Aurore, on the 13 January 1898 which ran it under a banner headline J’Accuse…! 

It was addressed to the then President Félix Faure. It caused quite a stir and led to Zola’s own prosecution for libel and for which he was found guilty on the 23^rd February 1898. He fled to England to avoid imprisonment, as all French ‘rebels’ of note.  In any event it was an extremely effective and performative piece of writing. On July 12, 1906, Dreyfus was officially exonerated by a military commission. The day after his exoneration, he was readmitted into the army with a promotion to the rank of Major ("Chef d'Escadron"). A week later, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

McAuliffe

The other piece of writing, which has moved into the realms of legend, occurred during the German counter offensive in 1944, known as the Battle of the Bulge.  Acting command of the United States 101^st Airborne Division and its attached troops fell to General Anthony Clement  McAuliffe. At Bastogne, the 101st was besieged by a far larger force of Germans under the command of General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz.

On the 22^nd December, 1944, through a party consisting of a major, a lieutenant, and two enlisted men under a flag of truce that entered the American lines southeast of Bastogne (occupied by Company F, 2nd Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry), General von Lüttwitz sent the following ultimatum to Gen. McAuliffe:

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armoured units. More German armoured units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honourable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.

According to various accounts from those present, when McAuliffe was told of the German demand for surrender he said "nuts". At a loss for an official reply, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard suggested that his first remark summed up the situation well, which was agreed to by the others. The official reply was typed and delivered by Colonel Joseph Harper, commanding the 327^th Glider Infantry, and his S-3, Major Alvin Jones, to the German delegation. It was as follows:

To the German Commander,

NUTS!



The American Commander

Suffice it to say, the Germans were perplexed at the short reply. Harper offered an explanation of the meaning of the word to the Germans, telling them that in "plain English" it meant "Go to hell." The word choice came directly from McAuliffe and was typical for him. Vincent Vicari, his personal aide at the time, recalled that "General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language. 'Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary." Another example of how a single word can explode.
A current tour guide tells the story with a little variation.

SCIENCE, TERROR AND HATE

The 21^st December is the beginning of the winter solstice, the shortest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It has a mixed history.

Thomson

Nares

On the 21^st December 1872, HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, set sail from Portsmouth and was known as the Challenger Expedition. The expedition, from1872 to 1876, was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. Prompted by the Scot, Charles Wyville Thomson, of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School—the Royal Society of London obtained the use of Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified the ship for scientific work, equipping her with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry. Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, she travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries".

It was also on the 21^st December 1988 that a bomb exploded aboard Pam Am flight 103 causing the wreckage to fall on the town of Lockerbie in Scotland. Eleven residents of the town were killed along with the 270 passengers on the plane, citizens from twenty-one different nations. Not a good day in world history.

However, on the 21^st December 1965, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). It is A second generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. Controversially, the Convention also requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations. The Convention also includes an individual complaints mechanism, effectively making it enforceable against its parties. This has led to the development of a limited jurisprudence on the interpretation and implementation of the Convention. It entered into force on January 4, 1969 and as of October 2011 it has 86 signatories and 175 parties.

Hate speech is an unacceptable form of performance writing. Hate speech is, outside the law. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group. The law may identify a protected individual or a protected group by race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristic.

Unfortunately there are websites that use hate speech. Most of these sites contain Internet forums and news briefs that emphasize a particular viewpoint. There has been debate over how freedom of speech applies to the Internet. Conferences concerning such sites have been sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also states that "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law". There is an international consensus that hate speech needs to be prohibited by law, and that such prohibitions override or are irrelevant to guarantees of freedom of expression. The United States is perhaps unique among the developed world in that under law hate speech regulation is incompatible with free speech. I would suggest that expressions of hatred are not compatible with freedom of expression. Differences of opinion abound and are quite properly protected by freedom of speech. There is no problem with not liking another individual. The problem is that no one has a right to cause harm. If an expression causes harm, then it is outside of freedom of expression. It is no longer free speech. It is hate speech. Clearly the human race is sufficiently intelligent to make the distinction, except of course those who hate. That implies an element of ignorance, because they are incapable of making the distinction and fraudulently claim the right of free speech. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!!!!