Sunday, 15 May 2011
Saturday, 14 May 2011
I BELIEVE I THINK IS BETTER
I have been occupied elsewhere for a time and have missed a few eventful days blogging.
There are still so many prejudices out there today. It is difficult to know how to cope. Fifty years ago today on the 14th May 1961, the first Freedom Riders bus was fire bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protester were beaten by an angry mob. This clip contains an account of a witness to that event, who was 12 years old a the time it happened. It gives one some hope that despite the miasma of race hatred in the atmosphere, some children are seemingly unaffected by it.
There is not much else to add to this. Thinking is a lot better than belief without basis. Thinking requires thoughts and ideas with which we can examine beliefs. To believe without thought is to believe without basis which is the definition of prejudice.
Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, wrote: " Thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas” and "All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again."
KEEP THINKING
Sunday, 8 May 2011
BIRTHDAYS AND REVOLUTION
Today the 8th May is the birthday of actor Ian Price a great friend and very talented man. Herewith is a very short clip from a Poirot episode, The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, something we all want. Heaps of salutations to Ian.
How indeed does one get out of that one?
It was also on the 8th of May in the year that Ian was born, that Estonian school girls Aili Jõrgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier in Tallin. Aili Jõgi an Estonian nationalist on the night of 8 May, together with her school friend Ageeda Paavel, blew up a Soviet War reburial monument (a wooden memorial topped with a star): the preceding monument to the Bronze Soldier in Tallin.
After the liberation of Estonia in 1944, the Soviet authorities began systematically destroying the war memorials to the fallen in the Estonian War of Independence, which had survived the war. On 15 April 1945 a monument by Amandus Adamson, erected to 87 persons who had fallen in the Estonian War of Independence, was blown up in Pärnu with explosives. Also between 1944 to 1946 the gravestones of the Tallinn Military Cemetary were destroyed by the Soviet authorities and the Estonian graveyard was reused by Red Army.
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| Aili Jõrgi |
Aili Jõgi has described why the two schoolgirls blew up a monument they considered a symbol of occupation and repression:
"How long should we watch this red star, a memorial for Russian looters. At the time when all our statues are being destroyed. We just couldn't get our heads around it. We decided that if such robbers are raging in Estonia, they should see how one of their memorials gets blown up. We could have just doused the wooden thing with gasoline and set fire to it, but we wanted it to go with a bang!"
That is just how Ian's birthday should be celebrated, with a big bang.
That is just how Ian's birthday should be celebrated, with a big bang.
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
IAN
Saturday, 7 May 2011
ENDINGS
The 7th May seem to have been a day of endings. In 1945 on the 7th May General Jodl, on behalf of Germany, singed unconditional surrender terms at Allied Headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its participation in World War II.
On the 7th May 1954, 9 years later, the Batlle of Dien Bien Phu ended with the Vietnamese forces overrunning French colonial forces.
President Gerald R. Ford announced on 7th May, 1975 that the Vietnam Era had ended.Vietnam Era is a term used by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs to classify veterans of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Era is a considered to have begun in 1964 and ended in 1975. The U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs elected to designate those years as such to accord special privileges to all persons who served the country's armed forces during that time. Similar designations have been made for other periods of war.
Because the beginning and end of the Vietnam War was rather ill defined, given its characteristics, it was necessary for the Federal government to set forth exact years of the conflict. The years contained in the Vietnam Era therefore do not necessarily coincide with the dates of any historical events prior to or after the war. However, for a number of reasons it was necessary to declare dates for that era. Military personnel who served during that period are said to have been on active duty during the Vietnam Era no matter where they may have been stationed around the world.
Various departments of federal, state and local governments as well as private employers often give Vietnam war era and other veterans special consideration regarding employment and sometimes assign extra qualifying points to veterans.
Friday, 6 May 2011
EXPEDITIONS AND ENGINEERING
DISCOVERY, DISASTER AND DISPLAY ALL ON THE 6TH OF MAY
On the 6th May 1835 the first issue of the New York Herald was published by James Grodon Bennett, Sr. It is from his son James Gordon Bennett, Jr. who was born on the 10th May 1841, that the exclamation “Gordon Bennett” derives. In 1866, the 25 year old Bennett took over the running of the Herald and in 1869 he provided the financial backing for the expedition by Henry Morton Stanley (also born 1841) into Africa to find Dr. David Livingston, I presume. (Coincidentally Stanley died on the 10th May 1904) According to Stanley's account, he asked Gordon Bennett how much he could spend. The reply was "Draw £1,000 now, and when you have gone through that, draw another £1,000, and when that is spent, draw another £1,000, and when you have finished that, draw another £1,000, and so on — BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE!" In actuality, Stanley had lobbied his employer for several years to mount this expedition.
On the 6th May 1835 the first issue of the New York Herald was published by James Grodon Bennett, Sr. It is from his son James Gordon Bennett, Jr. who was born on the 10th May 1841, that the exclamation “Gordon Bennett” derives. In 1866, the 25 year old Bennett took over the running of the Herald and in 1869 he provided the financial backing for the expedition by Henry Morton Stanley (also born 1841) into Africa to find Dr. David Livingston, I presume. (Coincidentally Stanley died on the 10th May 1904) According to Stanley's account, he asked Gordon Bennett how much he could spend. The reply was "Draw £1,000 now, and when you have gone through that, draw another £1,000, and when that is spent, draw another £1,000, and when you have finished that, draw another £1,000, and so on — BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE!" In actuality, Stanley had lobbied his employer for several years to mount this expedition. |
| Stanley |
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| Bennett |
There is a 1939 film Stanley and Livingston with Spencer Tracey as Stanley and Henry Hull as Gordon Bennett. Hull was ten years older than Tracy, and looked it. Why, as they were the same age (Stanley was only four months older), could this not have been reflected in the film is beyond me, but Hollywood seems never to get things right.
Still, it makes a good story.It was also on the 6th May 1937 that the Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129, Hindenburg burned and crashed on arrival at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States.
Here are a few scenes from a docudrama made in 2007 about the Hindenburg featuring Celia Bannerman and Michael Praed as survivors of the crash, Margaret Mather and Nelson Morris.
And on the 6th May 1994 The Channel Tunnel was officially opened by Elizabeth II and François Mitterrand. The Channel Tunnel ( Le tunnel sous la Manche), (also referred to as the Chunnel) is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in England with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is 75 metres (250 ft) deep.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
PAPAL GREETINGS AND A HEAT WAVE
On the 5th May 2001, President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad (who had only assumed office in July 2000, after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad) made a speech to welcome His Holiness John Paul II on his arrival in Damascus on that day. John Paul II was the first Pope to visit Syria. President Assad asked for the Pope’s support against Israel. He said:
On behalf of the Syrian Arab people, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, I warmly welcome Your Holiness ...As Heads of the Holy See in Rome, Your Holiness embody the summit of responsibility for maintaining those values, especially that there are those who invariably attempt to subject all people once and again to the journey of ailments and agony. Therefore, our brethren in Palestine are being murdered and tortured, justice is being violated, and as a result territories in Lebanon, the Golan and Palestine have been occupied by those who even killed the principle of equality when they claimed that God created a people distinguished above all other peoples. We notice them aggressing against Moslem and Christian Holy Sites in Palestine, violating the sanctity of the Holy Mosque (Al-Aqsa), of the church of Sepulchre in Jerusalem and of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. They try to kill all the principles of divine faiths with the same mentality of betraying Jesus Christ and torturing Him, and in the same way that they tried to commit treachery against Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon Him)…Your Holiness, we highly appreciate your efforts for the benefit of humanity, and for spreading love among people, as well as your efforts in defence of the victims of injustice. We feel that in your prayers when you recall the agony of Jesus Christ you will remember the peoples of Lebanon, the Golan and Palestine who are tormented and they suffer from suppression and persecution. We expect Your Holiness to be on their side in their endeavour to regain what was unjustly usurped from them.
This coming from a man of whom human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have detailed how his regime and secret police routinely torture, imprison, and kill political opponents, and those who speak out against the regime. Since 2006 it expanded the use of travel bans against dissidents, a practice that is illegal under international law. Syria is the worst offender among Arab states.
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A sign over a burned car says: "Caution! You are in Baniyas, not in Israel". Another says: "Down with the regime". |
There is of course the added problem of the treatment meted out by the Israeli Government against the Palestinian people. This does not help the situation and whilst events in the Arab countries are encouraging for the advancement of democratic freedoms, the plight of the Palestinians should not be set aside.
On a lighter note the 5th May is a birthday shared by two of Hollywood's greats, Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, who starred together in three pictures in 1937, 1938 and 1939. The first was In Old Chicago:
The second was Alexander's Ragtime Band, in which, you will note, Ethel Merman sang the song Heat Wave:
Ethel Merman later starred in a picture called There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) which had Marilyn Monroe's version of Heat Wave which is contained in this next sequence:
On a lighter note the 5th May is a birthday shared by two of Hollywood's greats, Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, who starred together in three pictures in 1937, 1938 and 1939. The first was In Old Chicago:
The second was Alexander's Ragtime Band, in which, you will note, Ethel Merman sang the song Heat Wave:
Ethel Merman later starred in a picture called There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) which had Marilyn Monroe's version of Heat Wave which is contained in this next sequence:
But let's not forget it's Alice Faye's birthday:
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
LES ÉVÉNEMENTS
CHINA - FRANCE - USA AND THE MONTH OF MAY
May 1968 is a month that shook up the French as well as a number of other people all over the world; however, political demonstrations in May have quite a history. It would seem that on the morning of the 4th May, 1919, student representatives from thirteen different local universities met in Beijing and drafted five resolutions:
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| Protestors dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles for China |
2. to draw awareness of China's precarious position to the masses in China.
3. to recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing.
4. to promote the creation of a Beijing student union.
5. to hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
On the afternoon of the 4th May over 3,000 students of Peking University and other schools gathered together in front of Tiananmen and held a demonstration. The general opinion was that the Chinese government was "spineless". They voiced their anger at the Allied betrayal of China and the government's inability to secure Chinese interests in the conference. A boycott of Japanese products during this period was advocated, which boosted the domestic Chinese industry slightly. Throughout the streets of China, students packed the streets to protest China's concession to Japanese demands. During these demonstrations, students also insisted on the resignation of three Chinese officials involved in these proceedings. After burning the residence of one of the three despised officials, student protesters were arrested and severely assaulted. They shouted out such slogans as "Struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "Do away with the 'Twenty-One Demands'", "Don't sign the Versailles Treaty".
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| Car barricades in the streets of Paris. 3 May 1968. |
Back to 1968: Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university on 2 May 1968. Students at the Sorbonne University in Paris met on 3 May to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. On Monday, 6 May, the national student union, the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF) — still the largest student union in France today — and the union of university teachers called a march to protest against the police invasion of Sorbonne. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. Hundreds more students were arrested.
High school student unions spoke in support of the riots on 6 May. The next day, they joined the students, teachers and increasing numbers of young workers who gathered at the Arc de Triomphe to demand that:
1. all criminal charges against arrested students be dropped,
2. the police leave the university, and
3. the authorities reopen Nanterre and Sorbonne.
Negotiations broke down, and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor.
On Friday, 10 May, another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche. When the riot police again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd again threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2:15 in the morning after negotiations once again foundered. The confrontation, which produced hundreds of arrests and injuries, lasted until dawn of the following day. The events were broadcast on radio as they occurred and the aftermath was shown on television the following day. Allegations were made that the police had participated, through agent provocateur, in the riots, by burning cars and throwing Molotov Cocktails.
The government's heavy-handed reaction brought on a wave of sympathy for the strikers. Many of the nation's more mainstream singers and poets joined after the heavy-handed police brutality came to light. American artists also began voicing support of the strikers. The PCF reluctantly supported the students, whom it regarded as adventurers and anarchists, and the major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO), called a one-day general strike and demonstration for Monday, 13 May.
Well over a million people marched through Paris on that day; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister George Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters got even more active.
And so it did throughout the Month.
Two years later, in the United States on the 4th May 1970, at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard opened fire at an Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations killing four unarmed students, protesting the expansion of the war by the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
These events are now 'history', though some of us remember them as clearly as ever. Students on todays campuses in high schools and universities make documentaries about the events leading up to the 4th May 1970, as well as other events from the 1960's. Yesterday's witness is today's source of footnotes, and perhaps a not very reliable one at that. I wonder if some young student at Damascus University in Syria or at the University of Garyounis in Benghazi, Libya, will be making documentaries about todays events in 2050. At Garyounis, according to their website, between the years 1981 and 2005, in the Mass Media Studies of the Faculty of Arts Department, 24 students (15 men, 9 women) were awarded Masters or PhD degrees. That's less than one student per year in those 26 years. One hopes the outcome of the current unrest will result in an increase in the numbers of University students in Benghazi.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
DUE PROCESS
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| Judge Brinkema |
In keeping with the news of bin Laden's death it is perhaps important to note that; on the 3rd May 2006 the jury reached a verdict in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui: that Moussaoui be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Moussaoui was sentenced to six consecutive life terms on May 4, as trial Judge Leonie M. Brinkema expressed her belief that the sentence was an appropriate one, inasmuch as it would deprive Moussaoui of "martyrdom in a great big bang of glory" and of the "chance to speak again", after Moussaoui entered the courtroom proclaiming his victory and asserting that the United States would "never get Osama bin Laden". As he was leaving the courtroom he said, "America, you lost and I won." And he clapped his hands twice.
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| Zacarias Moossaoui |
On December 11, 2001, Moussaoui had been indicted by a federal grand jury in United States District Cour for the Eastern District of Virginia on six felony charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to murder United States employees, and conspiracy to destroy property. The indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui named as unindicted co-conspirators Ramzi Bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, among others, for their role in the attack "to murder thousands of innocent people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania"
Despite the impassioned pleas by the prosecution and horrific recordings of people facing imminent death, the jury did not return with a verdict for the death penalty. It may have only been one of two jurors who held out against capital punishment, but that is what the rule of law is about. There are higher civilised principles that override vengeance. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensures that "…Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. Article 10 states that
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. It is the failure to implement these rights that can lead some to believe that as a last resort they are rebelling against tyranny and oppression. By ensuring that the rebellious are granted those rights, their allegations of tyranny will fall on deaf ears.
On May 23, 2006, an audio recording attributed to Osama bin Laden said in translation that Moussaoui "had no connection at all with September 11... I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission... Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning to fly, he wasn't number 20 in the group, as your government claimed". The voice alleged to be bin Laden also suggested that Moussaoui's confession was "void" as it was a result of pressures applied during his incarceration. We can assume that 'voice' has now been silenced.
Monday, 2 May 2011
OBAMA ON OSAMA
Various world statesmen have commented on the announcement that Osama Bin Laden has been killed in an operation conducted by American military forces under the Central Intelligence Agency. Most, if reports are correct, seem to be pleased. The latest Wikipedia entry reads as follows:
On May 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. (corresponding to May 2 in Pakistan), U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by "a small team of Americans" acting under Obama's direct orders, in a covert operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 100 km. (about 62 miles) north of Islamabad, affirming earlier confirmation by U.S. officials to the media. According to U.S. officials a team of 20-25 US Navy SEALs under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the CIA stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden and those with him were killed during a firefight in which U.S. forces experienced no injuries or casualties. According to one US official the attack was carried out without the knowledge or consent of the Pakistani authorities. In Pakistan some people were reported to be shocked at the illegal incursion by US armed forces. The site is a few miles from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kabul. In his broadcast announcement President Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties." Details soon emerged that three men and a woman were killed along with Bin Laden, the woman being killed when she was “used as a shield by a male combatant”. DNA from bin Laden's body, compared with DNA samples on record from his dead sister, confirmed bin Laden's identity. The body was recovered by the US military and was in its custody until, according to one US official, his body was buried at sea according to Islamic traditions. One U.S. official stated that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult." U.S State Department issued a "Worldwide caution" for Americans following Bin Laden's death and U.S Diplomatic facilities everywhere were placed on high alert, a senior U.S official said.
It is not surprising that people were shocked by the illegal incursion into Pakistan by the US Military. It is even more surprising that his body seems to have been spirited away and "buried at sea according to Islamic Traditions" ??? There are too many questions left without answers. It is not that one requires gruesome pictures, but something more than a statement presumably supplied by the CIA, not the most reliable and trustworthy organisation when it comes to truthful information. The fact that the current President of the United States has made the announcement, does not in itself give credence to the statement, as he, one assumes, has been given the information by the CIA. There is something about the business that I find unsettling and unsavoury; the lack of due process in particular. Execution without trial is never a satisfactory conclusion. It smacks of the vigilante, the rule of the mob rather than the rule of law. Despite those who claim 'Justice has been done' it most certainly has not; but then, those who claim it have their own guilt to justify. Not satisfactory at all. The mystery death is always difficult and the possibilities of martyrdom abound. I fear there are too many out there willing to stand up and shout "I'm Bin Laden" just as Stanley Kubrick's slave army did for Kirk Douglas. I hope I am wrong.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
IAN FLEMINGS SUGGESTION 28
THE ART OF DECEPTION
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| HMS Seraph 1944 |
Several months before, Flight Lt. Charles Cholmondeley RAF of Section B1(a) of MI5, suggested dropping a dead man attached to a badly-opened parachute in France with a radio set for the Germans to find. The idea was for the Germans to think that the Allies did not know the set was captured, and pretend to be Allied agents operating it, thus allowing the Allies to feed them misinformation. This was dismissed as unworkable; however the idea was taken up later by the Twenty Committee, the small inter-service, inter-departmental intelligence team in charge of double agents. Cholmondeley was on the Twenty Committee, as was Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu, a Royal Navy intelligence officer.
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| Cholmondeley (left) and Montagu |
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| Fleming |
Cholmondeley got the idea from a 1939 memo written by Ian Fleming, later author of the James Bond novels. Fleming himself reportedly got the idea from a 1930s detective novel by Basil Thompson.
Montagu and Cholmondeley developed Cholmondeley's idea into a workable plan, using documents instead of a radio.
The actual body used was Glyndwr Michael (4 January 1909 - 24 January 1943) was an illiterate homeless man, born in Aberbargoed in Wales. His father, a coal miner, died when Michael was fifteen years old. His mother later died when he was thirty-one. Michael, homeless, friendless and with no money, drifted to London, where he lived on the streets. He died three years after his mother, when he was found in an abandoned warehouse close to King's Cross, after committing suicide by eating rat poison. Little is known of his life, save that he is buried in Huelva, Spain. The gravestone now reads:
"Glyndwr Michael; Served as Major William Martin, RM; Dulce et Decorum est pro Patria Mori.”
The Latin phrase translates as "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country."
I wonder.
As
Thursday, 28 April 2011
MUTINY RESISTANCE AND EXPEDITIONS
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| William Bligh 1814 |
The 28th April seems to be a day crowded with incident. On this day in 1789 whilst in the Pacific Ocean, some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on HMS Bounty. From all accounts, Fletcher Christian and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked, awakened him, and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet. When Bligh entreated Christian to be reasonable, Christian would only reply, "I am in hell, I am in hell!" Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 18 joined the mutiny, two were passive, and 22 remained loyal to Bligh.
The mutineers ordered Bligh, the ship's master, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward) and the ship's clerk into Bounty's launch. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remaining aboard, as they knew that those who remained on board would be considered de jure mutineers under the Articles of War.
Fletcher Christian, Aged 24 years, 5ft 9 inches high, Dark Swarthy complexion - Complexion - Dark and very swarthy Hair blackish or very dark brown - Make-strong- Marks -? Tattoo on the left breast... His knees stand a little out and may be called a little bow legged. He is subject to violent perspirations and particularly his hands, that he soils anything he handles.
Bligh was still only 34 himself, with the rank of Lieutenant Commanding. After being placed in the launch, Bligh, with a crew of 18, navigated the 23-foot (7 m) open launch on a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies. Equipped with a quadrant and a pocket watch and with no charts or compass, he recorded the distance as 3,618 nautical miles (6,710 km). Quite a remarkable bit of seamanship. Of the mutineers who did finally returned to England, it transpires that 3 were tried and eventually hanged on HMS Brunswick on 29th October 1792.
In Italy on the 28th April, 1945, Benito Mussolini and his companion Clara Petacci were shot by members of the Italian Resistance Movement. He was discovered and captured on the 27th April, in a truck that was part of a convoy of retreating German troops making for the Swiss border. There had apparently been an arrangement with the Partisans, of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade, that the convoy would be given safe passage providing no Italians were being concealed among the German soldiers. Mussolini and Clara Petacci were found out by Urban Lazzaro. The official version is that Mussolini and Petacci were killed on the 28th April at 4:10 pm a the gates of a villa at Giulino de Mezzegra, overlooking the lake. Lazzaro has stated they were killed the same day the 27th at 12.30pm when Petacci tried to grab a gun from one of the resistance fighters who were escorting them to Milan for a public execution. Shots were fired and Mussolini was hit "they finished him off on the spot and then shot Clara Petacci for causing the accident". There bodies were later hung in the square.
Just two years after the Italian Partisans revolted against their fascist leadership and 158 years after the Bounty expedition to the South Pacific, another expedition (which did not result in mutiny, revolt or hanging) set off to the same waters in April of 1947, Kon-Tiki was a raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. The trip began on 28 April, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
ZITA'S FEAST
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Miracle of Saint Zita by Bernardo Strozzi |
Today 27th April is Saint Zita's Feast Day. She is the patron saint of maids and domestic servants and she is appealed to in order to find lost keys. She went into service at the age of twelve and by all accounts led the life of a Cinderella before the ball. She spent her entire life in the house of the Fratinelli family in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca in Tuscany. She was canonised in 1696. Her body is appearently on display for public veneration in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca.
She was chief cook and bottle washer for the Fratinelli. An anecdote relates that whilst she was out doing good works, the Fratenelli checked in the kitchen and found angels doing her chores and baking bread for her. To this day she is honoured by people baking the odd loaf on her behalf.
There is even a recipe from The Cook's Blessings, The by Demetria Taylor.
St. Zita's Bread
Best not to depend on angels to bake your bread, as with St. Zita, but meet the challenge yourself, and bake a loaf in honor of the "Little Cook" on April 27.
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups boiling water
6 Tablespoons soft shortening
1-1/2 cup honey
1 Tablespoon salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105-115°)
2 eggs
1 cup wheat germ
5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
Combine boiling water, shortening, honey, and salt; stir until shortening melts. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add yeast, eggs, wheat germ, and half the flour to lukewarm mixture. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed with electric mixer or 300 vigorous strokes with a spoon. Blend in remaining flour with a spoon. Dough will be sticky. Spread dough evenly in 2 well-greased loaf pans, 9 x 5 x 3 inches. Smooth tops by flouring hand and patting into shape. Let rise in warm place until 1 inch from top of pans. Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Crust will be dark brown. Remove from pans at once; brush tops with melted butter or margarine; cool on racks before cutting. Makes 2 loaves.
It was also on the 27th April 1992 that the House of Commons elected a woman to the post of Speaker for the first time in its 700 year history, which began around 1272 when Saint Zita died (27th April 1272) and Edward I came to the throne. It was during his reign that the role of Parliament began to rise. The servants of the Crown had finally found a voice. Could that have been one of Zita's parting miracles? So perhaps Betty Boothroyd might do a bit a baking in honour of Saint Zita.Tuesday, 26 April 2011
POLIARTICS AND LANGUAGE GAMES
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| Guernica |
On the 26th April, 1937, the German Airforce (then under the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler) and a section of the Italian Airforce raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It was the first use of the blitzkrieg style attack by the Luftwaffe. A practice run, not only for the Luftwaffe's 'Condor Legion' but also for Mussolini's Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria. It was coded Operation Rügen. Many civilians were killed. The bombing, at the time viewed as one of the first raids in the history of modern military aviation on a defenceless civilian population, was denounced as a terrorist act. The town was devastated. Pablo Picasso took a view of the event,
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| Picasso's view |
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Francisco Goya, Spain
The Shootings of May 3rd in Madrid, 1814 |
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| Edouard Manet, France Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, 1868 |
There was another political event which occurred on the 26th April 1998, the massacre of a single individual, Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi was bludgeoned to death in the garage of his home in Guatemala City. His assailants used a concrete slab, disfiguring him to the extent that his face was unrecognisable and identification of the corpse was made by means of his episcopal ring. In 1988 the Conference of Bishops assigned Gerardi and another to serve on the National Reconciliation Commission. This later led to the creation of the Office of Human Rights of the Archbishopric (Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado, ODHA), which to date provides assistance for the victims of human rights violation. In that context work began on the Recovery of Historical Memory (REMHI) project. On April 24, 1998, REMHI presented the results of its work in the report Guatemala: Nunca Más.This report carried statements from thousands of witnesses and victims of repression during the Civil War and placed the blame for the vast majority of the violations on the government and the army. The U.N. Truth Commission Report comes to very similar conclusions. The task of historical recovery that Gerardi and his team pursued was fundamental in the subsequent work of the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission (CEH), set up within the framework of the 1996 peace process.
Two days after the publication of REMHI's report, on the 26th of April, 1998, Bishop Gerardi was bludgeoned to death. The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed Bishop Gerardi?
by Francisco Goldman is an account of the battle to bring the bishop's murderers to justice. It is told from the inside, working with those in the archdiocesan human rights office who have made it their business to nail the culprits. It reads (and is categorised by its publishers) as "true crime", but in the hands of a subtle and fired-up author, this is a book that exposes the corrupt, brutal and ruthless political climate that the US has spent so many decades and so many millions of dollars maintaining in Central America.
Finally in 2006, the country's highest court upheld guilty verdicts against two military officers, a father and son, for the bishop's murder. As Goldman makes clear, there were many more who should have faced a court. The murder had been carefully planned and meticulously covered up. The fight for justice goes on.
It was also on the 26th April 1889 that Ludwig Wittgenstein was born. He left us with his Tractatus Logoco-Philosophicus (1921) and language games. He wrote to Bertrand Russell on 19th August of 1919:
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| Wittgenstein |
"The main point is the theory of what can be expressed by prop[osition]s-i.e. by language-(and which comes to the same thing, what can be thought) and what can not be expressed by prop[osition]s, but only shown; which, I believe, is the cardinal problem of philosophy"
Jean-Francois Lyotard explicitly drew upon Wittgenstein's concept of language-games in developing his own notion of metanarratives. He said:
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| Lyotard |
“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.. This incredulity is undoubtedly a product of progress in the sciences: but that progress in turn presupposes it. To the obsolescence of the metanarrative apparatus of legitimation corresponds, most notably, the crisis of metaphysical philosophy and of the university institution which in the past relied on it. The narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. It is being dispersed in clouds of narrative language elements--narrative, but also denotative, prescriptive, descriptive, and so on [...] Where, after the metanarratives, can legitimacy reside?”
A very good question indeed. I leave you today, after the language games with two politically inspired views by the artist Andy Thomas:
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| Republican Presidents playing poker |
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| Democrats doing the same |
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