Thoughts from the Edge

Flat Out

2008-12-27T08:57:00.003Z

One fortunately does not celebrate Christmas.

I got a twinge the last time I was at the computer and by the time I got down the stairs I could barely walk - back trouble.

I am one of those who has had congenital back trouble ever since my early 20.s - and it decided to floor me for the Christmas period, which is possibly a good thing.

It did mean I could not go and get some results from the hospital, and id did mean that when it snowed here in Timisoara to give us a white Christmas I didn't need to go and walk in the damn stuff - so clouds and silver lining what?

I also think it might have contributed to a reduction in the swelling of the hernia (did I mention the hernia - number three on my body is trying to tell me something chart?)

Not that other things are not swollen - grapefruit size scrotal sack making feel like an over endowed ram.

But enough, I must try to keep this thing tasteful.

Too much information ...

2008-12-24T08:20:00.003Z

I must warn you not to read on if you have a delicate stomach or sensitive nature.

Part of the problem of this tumour thing is the fact that it sticks out like a sore thumb - and that there seem to be associated side effects.

One of the most intriguing is the look - there has been a degree of swelling under the skin and the result is very reminiscent of the nose of a Bull Elephant seal.

The distortion is not discomforting, most of the time (although other swelling does lead to a need for careful walking) .

It does force a degree of readjustment.

The sheer physicality of it and the ability of the body to stretch and swell is becoming a fascination - and one looks down at oneself in the bath with a distance - one inspects and examines as if it were not the self, but an independent body one were looking at.

Not quite all there ...

2008-12-22T10:02:00.002Z

or too much of a good thing?

There is an extension on my implement of masculinity which has sent several doctors scurrying. Scalpels and anesthesia are now brandished with aplomb.

I tend to move at a more restrained pace. Something to do with the extension.

A triple whammy of heart, hernia and tumor have certainly coloured the festive season with regards to your humble servant - although I have to admit to a sharpening of my wit.

The difficulty is in breaking the news to others - I couldn't give a damn (Quite frankly, my dear) and see in it an inevitable - of family genetics, if not of mortality itself.

I hope to keep posting - although it is very difficult to get to the computer - and I am off to the UK for the cruelest cut of all (I am most likely going to earn my qualifications for working in the Imperial Chinese Bureaucracy - or supervising the Harem of some over cautious Pasha) so sporadic, barren posts only in the near future.

Fantasy Football

2008-11-24T08:09:00.004Z

... Romania!

Iancu (BBLB) on the tv - administrative difficulties shouldn't affect the football team ... erm, like not paying them?

Can you imagine anyone not being paid and being expected to go out and give their all? Well, some charity workers for a good cause, but Iancu is not a good cause!

And idiot Petrescu ... "we gave them a lesson in how to play football" - I thought the idea was to score goals - and what was the score, oh yes, a 1-1 draw. Strange lesson.

But what is really frightening is the way the sports press are allowing these people to get away wit it ... still no reporting of the financial mismanagement, the failure to pay wages, the interference in the team by a man who is supposed to be suspended.

Fat Man Singing

2008-11-21T08:33:00.003Z

... and the show is not over 'til!

Let me tell you the plot of a soap opera, not too far from reality ...

There is a certain Big Bellied, Little Brained Football-Club "owner" (Romanian) who seems to think the rest of the world is as stupid as he! I suspect Bass but could be an aging tenor.

He is apparently out of money - he is known to owe large amounts to various 'friends' so his personal probity is somewhat suspect.

He tried to recover his loses by selling the club he 'owns' (after loosing 6 points for the season by his idiotic actions) - but doesn't seem to have been successful.

Whilst he was quiet and not involved, the team flourished - 10 national games without a loss. Team spirit goes up, the fans sing a chorus of praise.

The Big Belly's deals fall through and he tries to take over control. Dark strings in the background of celebrations.

First thing he thinks of is the selling of low level players he's purchased after bad advice from the ever accompanying toadies and brown tonguers (got to be tenors with a whine and bass singing falsetto).

To do this he wants them to play in the first team. He sends a list of to be included to the heroic team manager/coach (lyric tenor of a baritone) who refuses to change the team.

Mysteriously, against the odds, the next game is lost ... and there is the suspicion certain players have sold out to the Big Belly! Even more suspicious is the public vilification Big Belly launches against the coach.

The chorus mutters but is too intoxicated to really respond - disaster looms if it doesn't act, but will it see through Big Belly in time?

Team spirit is starting to be rocked - fear of the none payment of wages, the removal of an effective, winning coach, inefficient and poor support staff starts to run an undercurrent of sharps and discordant noise in the newly forged harmonies.

Disaster - a threat from Big Belly, just before an important match - teams spirit is further eroded ... but with an heroic effort the team manage to salvage a draw ...

Big Belly strikes again - wages are not paid ... footballers, who had been giving their all are not given wages, the coach is not paid ... and the press stay quiet! Distracted by Big Belly and his talk of the future, they fail to see through the lies and deceptions ...

What will the final act bring ?

The Russians came ....

2008-10-14T07:57:00.002Z

Great time at the Ballet last night - a gala with proper dancers. Amazing how quickly things go when you are having fun.

Mind you, I still am not over fond of 19th Century Ballet.

The child behind had a most appropriate reaction to the small male who came on wearing what looked like a pleated, tartan school-girl's uniform - give it a chocolate.

All that was required to make the evening perfect was to shoot the penguin who gave a speech at the start.

Romanians do like talking.

Palin goes Tybalt

2008-10-05T08:43:00.003Z

Skynews this morning gave the lovely headline:

Palin claims Obama consorts with terrorists.

Which instantly got the Shakespeare antenna twitching.

Tybalt, when he was searching for an insult, used the word consort ... ah, I said, maybe the woman (or her speech writer) has a classic education after all!

But no, it was only the editors at the British based news service who seem to have had an education.

Doesn't take away the Tybaltian nature of the insult though - and, as we all know, Tybalt was a rat.

Hell awful!

2008-10-01T09:18:00.003Z

It was the sort of production that gives Opera a bad name.

Timisoara Opera, like much of the theatre in Romania, luxuriates on a cloud of conceit – there is no better example than the current production of Gounod’s Faust, endured by my good self and a colleague last evening.

Let me start by excluding the innocent.

The orchestra and conductor did a competent job – what came out of the pit was OK, if a little slow some of the time and too direct at others.

So too with the chorus. Provincial Opera Choruses are never going to equal in either size or youth their metropolitan equivalent, but the Timisoara crowd sang well.

I can see why both groups are being used abroad in international co-operations and as support in festivals in Austria.

I can also see why such festivals bring along their own soloists.

Maguerite managed to go mad nicely after a difficult beginning. Earlier on the ‘role’ – as directed - taxed the acting skills of the singer - with one unforgettable and unforgivable moment of ‘beached whale’ stupidity. A woman of her stature should never have been asked to roll on the ground – unless it was to flatten a particularly lumpy cricket square.

Faust had a pleasant, resonant lower range but had to resort to full volume athletic leaps to hit the higher notes which produced a thin, acid sound – very reminiscent, I thought at the time, of the awful, weak, sun-deprived home-brew wines you have to taste when visiting people’s relations in the countryside.

Mephistopheles was well past his sell by date … which is a shame because hiding inside the now discarded banana-skin of a performer was a once great devil. Again, the singer had little chance to exploit either the role or his experience as the stultifyingly awful direction effectively left the man standing around posing in a weak imitation of a Bela Lugosi studio advertising photograph.

Which brings me to the real source of the problem – the totally inept stage direction and equally incompetent stage design (the choreography was just hilariously incongruous).

There is a tendency in Romania for theatre and opera directors to be a bit 1960s – abstract and ideas driven, symbolism rather than narrative. It worked in the 1960s – it falls flat on its face nowadays.

This production had two or three ‘ideas’ – or, rather, visual set pieces – and no overall unifying conception. It totally failed to get the ‘plot’ across – my partner at the slaughter made that point in the first interval – if she hadn’t read the story, she wouldn’t know what was happening. In Act IV it looked like Maguerite had died early (which wouldn’t have surprised me – possibly of embarrassment) whereas when she did die at the end it looked like she hadn’t and, for some reason. her night-dress had gone floating off into the sky (possibly a passing hurricane).

There was a little girl too. What she was doing there I dread to think – possibly the daughter of someone important in the theatre who wanted to get his child on the books and earn some money through child exploitation. The poor thing had to sit through the final act on a wooden staircase in her ‘nighty’, endure the soprano at full volume and madness and then help the hurricane take away the spare clothing.

There was a lot of spare clothing – or not, in the case of the ballet.

The costuming looked driven by whatever could be found to fit (or cut holes in, in the case of the ballet) in the wardrobe department’s store. At the ‘village’ fete in Act II the chorus appeared on stage in full sophisticated salon evening dress – possibly as seen in La Traviata, during the party, possibly from the ball scene in Die Fledermaus. They stayed in the same clothes right through the production – including when the men are supposed to be soldiers returning from war in Act IV. That was particularly silly – although the director’s ‘disposition’ of the men on the stage competed for the gold medal in idiocy.

Funds are limited, I realise that (although with a ticket price equal to that paid on a recent visit to the West End of London, not the fault of the punters whose bums were numbed in the dreadfully uncomfortable seats), but the two-flats-on-wheels scenery solution seemed a little on the excessively cheap side: Especially as it necessitated the frequent use of monk-dressed stage hands to push the damn things around. Monty Python Spanish Inquisition, I thought – frequently.

I take it the lighting designer died before work started on the production and the show was under the control of an enthusiastic 8 year old trainee technician.

I’d use the word amateur if it wasn’t an insult to some very good amateur productions I have enjoyed.

Gounod’s Opera is not exactly rocket science and, despite its cornucopia of good tunes, has its structural weaknesses – which is why it needs strong, coherent direction. It didn’t get it, resulting in one of the worst things I have ever seen in the professional theatre. If I had directed a school production this badly, I hang my head in shame and burn every play text I possessed whilst vowing never to set foot on stage again.

I think the choreographer has done just that and tried to replace the ballet with a ‘man with the hairiest chest’ competition.

Thank goodness for the music.

There is absolutely no excuse for this degree of dreadfulness. Timisoara Opera has given me some very enjoyable evenings in the past. It’s production of Traviata ten years ago was stunning – the best I think I have seen on stage live. The Boehma and Fledermaus were enjoyable and repeatedly watchable. There were singers on stage last night I know could have given far more, in the right production.

A Palin in the Butt!

2008-09-30T08:34:00.002Z

Couldn't resist this one ... The Guardian (link) quoting Simon Scharma on Ms Palin:

"she makes George Bush look like Karl Marx"

(and he's not over pleasant with the Other side either).

Nose - Face - Blood on the floor

2008-09-30T05:15:00.003Z

Now, I know the average American politician has the intellectual processing powers of a beer fed slug, but yesterday's antics surely reach a new level of inebriate stupidity?

In order to 'save' money they wiped over a trillion dollars off the stock exchange ... erm, good maths at work there.

Mind you, I knew a head of an International American School who refused to employ American Maths teachers on the grounds that they couldn't do the maths they were supposed to be teaching. Seems the Republican (and sizable Democratic chunk) were taught by the international rejects.

The 'communist-threat' rhetoric too - goodness, which millennium are these people living in?

To actually hear a supposedly serious politician refer to the proposals of George (Der...) Bush as reflective of the actions of the Russian politicians in 1917 is tragic ... almost as tragic as the belief in the words held by the man's constituants back in the 'heartland' of the US of A.

But what can you expect of a bunch if ill educated hics - most of whom are creationists and are waiting for divine intervention anyway.

(Just thought I better confirm my liberal credentials by resorting to abuse.)

Pleased to see how both Obama and the old guy restrained themselves and didn't try to exploit the situation.

What I am not sure about is the reaction over the other side Pacific ... the markets fell, but not as much as expected. Then all was explained by a nice CNN reporter who pointed out that the Asian investors presumed that the American politicians would come back after the holiday (Happy New Year by the Way), do their calculations again and get it right this time.

Sorry - not the American way with mathematics.

Another thing I learnt in international schools - American children just say they are no good at math, their parent was no good at math so there is no point in trying.

Asian children (and mixed Europeans) just say I'll do it 'til I get it right ... and do.

HO HUm, what a world!

Annoyed in Romania

2008-09-29T07:08:00.004Z

A double bus journey - there and back with a resulting boiling of the blood!

The article to the left is a pale reflection of attitudes here in Romania.

On the bus going, I overheard a conversation between a young child - only just speaking and indulging in a stream of consciousness. We went passed a 'Gypsy' House - much like the one in the picture. The stream of racism which came out of the child's mouth was unbelievable - obviously reflecting the indoctrination of the adults ... dirty gypsy, thieves, black ... etc.

Coming back, an umbrella had been left at the bus stop and a man getting on the bus picked it up and, as soon as he got on the bus asked aloud whose it was.

An older, dark skinned woman said it was hers - he instantly sneered at her and called her a liar - he'd seen her ethnic origins and classed her as someone who would steal and lie. It was a knee jerk reaction - he didn't even think. I looked around at the faces on the bus. Several people were smiling and one actually laughed.

A recent survey revealed the extent of racism in the country -not that a Romanian would recognise their attitudes a racist - "they just reflect the facts".

Another incident on the Television which horrified me (a lot on Romanian Television horrifies me) was a recent pair of raids on prostitution - one here in Timisoara, another in a different part of the country.

In the more civilised sections of the European Union, prostitutes are seen to be as much victims as criminals - it is the gang leaders and the bosses who are the targets. Not so here.

The tv was full of images of arrested prostitutes - film taken inside the police station! They were portrayed as cause and the source of 'the problem'. No mention was made of the pimps or the people behind the scene (possibly heavy bribes in the right place ensured that).

Not at all happy with Romania at the moment.

Romanian Heads in the Sand

2008-09-16T05:34:00.003Z

Romanian Education

Today (Monday) school starts again in Romania – all over the country, schoolchildren will go to school, listen to uplifting, inspiring, vacuous speeches and do nothing … in many schools they will actually do nothing for several weeks as the timetable is ‘finalised’ or the school is repaired – you’d be amazed at the poverty the school buildings exhibit.

Ask a Romanian though how good their education system is and they will tell you it is one of the best in the world.

One sure fire sign of communism and vestigial communist thinking is the belief that the system is OK it is individuals who are at fault.

I heard the sentiment expressed on national television this morning – a man, one of the ‘experts’ came out with the thought almost word for word. It wasn’t an old man either – it was someone who must have completed the higher stages of his education in post-revolution Romania.

The system of education in Romania is good – the problem is the teachers (to paraphrase).

Let me tell you, as someone who has worked within not only the Romanian system but state and private education systems across the world, the Romanian system stinks …the teachers are the way they are because of the system. Of the teachers I know, I can say there is a mix – some remarkable dedicated individuals, many effective at delivering the system, some big hearted and useless, some only in it because they couldn’t think of anything to do with their real-world useless university qualifications: All disgracefully underpaid.

Money is partly responsible for the malaise – there is none: The physical fabric of the buildings, the wages of the teachers, the spending on resources – all are woefully lacking. Seriously greater expenditure would certainly help – at least some children could actually go to school instead of waiting at home ‘til the school building can fit them in.

However, on its own money is not sufficient.

A whole mind set – the communist mindset – that education has locked into for generations (nearly all the teachers, administrators, politicians are a product of that system) has to be shifted.

Romanian Education is poor – it is based on theories of pedagogy dropped in the economically successful countries decades ago.

It is based on assessment procedures that encourage conformity and corruption: the debate over the national baccalaureate this summer, if followed in Europe, will be sending shivers of horror through the institutions which will be responsible for quality control – the real world of business will just refuse to accept a Romanian qualification.

It is based on the decades of lies and assurances about a none existent world beating quality which people are reluctant to accept – after all, it is not nice to know you are not the genius you thought you were but only an average to poorly educated dupe of a system economically and politically corrupt.

There is nothing more symptomatic of the depths and delusions the system takes Romania’s population than the current graduates.

I recently gave a course which included a number of young graduates – their assumption was that they already knew everything about the subject (they had, after all, just graduated from an excellent education system), that they only needed a few ‘tips’ and that they didn’t need to work at incorporating any of the material, or even to seriously think about it.

Setting aside the normal self assurance of youth, they were arrogant in the extreme – subject arrogant. And ignorant – many of them knew nothing of the European Framework for languages (despite graduating with languages as part of their degree), nor of the Cambridge ESL examination system (despite the examinations being commonly taken in the city they studied and both accepted and sometimes requested by international companies employing people here).

Needless to say, most of them are heading for a fall (a serious economic one – their jobs could actually be on the line): It does not matter – they can always get another (better) job – where the pay is higher … or so they think.

Fortunately not everyone thinks that way.

I will be saying goodbye to another graduate this week who, after completing his degree here in Romania has seen the light – and is going to do two more years as an undergraduate in the UK in order to give a bit of weight and meaning to the piece of paper being issued here – he also actually wants to be able to earn a living using the knowledge gained in his studies.

Two younger students have asked for help getting in to the UK and an other European country to start their degrees – cutting out higher education in Romania altogether – with the blessing of their parents – who have seen the failings here at first hand.

There are teachers who know there are other ways of teaching and other aspects of learning … but the system stops them from developing the interests they show.

It really is time Romania and Romanians bit the bullet – your education system is bad … stop trying to change individuals and details, a complete overhaul is needed, from the bottom to the top.

Coda:

One of the tv channels noted last night that in a recent survey of 45 countries, Romania came 37th - for the ability of 16 year olds to read and understand a passage in their own language. The response of the spokeswoman for the education department was revealing - it is the fault of the parents if their 16 year old cannot read ... QED

Lipstick on a Pig...

2008-09-13T13:39:00.003Z

One wonders if Mr Obama had someone in mind with the comment - does McPain qualify as Kermit and is the Muppet Show returning with a White House Race special?

Black Futures

2008-09-11T07:03:00.003Z

I refuse to get 'upperty' about the degree of ignorance exposed in the world over the black hole issue - what I will say is 'so much for Science education!'

Romanians (I am sure) are no worse than other nations (although the refusal to recognise their backwardness in things educational is spectacular - one teacher in a 'respectable' secondary school not far from where I am typing openly taught a class of 17-18 year olds that the dinosaurs died out because they didn't go into Noah's Arc and dinosaurs and people lived at the same time!), but the emotional outpouring of fear over the CERN experiment is amazing to behold. The strongest reason given so far for such fear and belief in the inevitable end of the world is Nostradamus and his 'predictions - so much for the quality of education.

Thank goodness the Romanian National football team is doing so badly - it is providing a much needed distraction. The headline "major" victory for a 1-0 defeat of the Faeroe Island team I suspect is a little over the top. In case anyone here needs reminding - the population of the islands is less than 50,000!

Mind you, the glorious victory of the English over the Croatians, if population is a factor, doesn't quite hold up to too much inspection.

But Walcott got 3 so I don't care.

In Memoriam

2008-09-10T05:40:00.000Z

Joe Farrar

1913 – Sept 9^th, 1968

As befitted, my father died at the time of night most streets are empty. He’d driven past Withington hospital (an old workhouse), parked his car at the side of the road, just outside a pub, and dropped dead of a coronary thrombosis.

I was thirteen at the time, and just starting my second year at secondary school. If he had lived I am sure I would have had a very different life – but the combination of late nights, alcohol, cigarette smoke (although he never smoked himself, he spent a lot of time in pubs playing darts – the doctor had told him to give up smoking only a few weeks before – he had been amused at the suggestion he give up something he didn’t do) had worn through the tubes already weakened by a hard war and did for him.

Although I can’t remember his birthday, I remember his death day … this year it is the 40^th anniversary.

We had a good funeral – my brother, mother and I sitting in the car which followed the coffin – having a good laugh at the thought of the old man sitting on the coffin, childhood-rickets bowed legs (wide enough to let a pig through) dangling over the edge, contemptuous of all the fuss and desperate for a pint.

The body was cremated and although his name (not, as it turned out, his baptismal ‘official’ name – all his life though, he’d been called Joe) was entered in the ‘roll of honour’ no memorial marks where his ashes were scattered. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the place – and someone else, a brother-in-law I think, did the same office, in the same place, for my mother when she died 30 years after.

There are fewer and fewer memories now – like the final ripples on a river after a fish has jumped and sunk back in to the deep flowing stream.

Know the enemy ...

2008-09-07T07:41:00.002Z

Bad night – strange dreams.

Too hot to do anything during the day – including eat … !!!!

Not even in the mood to drink: A half hearted attempt to sink a couple of beers in the form of shandy failed miserably.

Not as miserably as the Romanian football team – which appears to have taken the example of the English team and gone down the drain. So too the Scots – not a nation I have an over fondness for at the moment (although they are doing great things for Romanian education). Pleased to see their precious national team hasn’t got a chance and that the sensible thing would be to field a British team in football … whoops, forbidden territory.

That unshaved, ugly traitor Mad Murray is unfortunately doing too well in his beloved USA (you can have him – give him States citizenship, please) at the expense of a real player (Mr Nadal) – but it’s taken a hurricane to help him out of the inevitable slaughter which was about to ensue as the clean shaved and respectable looking Spaniard recovered form.

Whilst we are over in the states it is worth mentioning that the Palin woman (real Republican Candidate for president) is accused of book banning ….

…. anyone shocked?

Mind you – as a schoolchild I was pleased the Catholic Church had their ‘index’ – a book with a list of books that they had banned. It was a great place to go for a quick smutty read in the library – it not only told you what was banned but why … so the fertile teenage imagination could fantasize about countless bestial and worse activities under the guise of ‘explanation’. I have to say I suspect anyone wanting to ban a book is more frightened of the power the words are having over them than over others. What happened to ‘know thine enemy’?

There is a seriously odd television channel here in Timisoara which perpetrates all sort of Christian nonsense (which I am quite happy with – no banning needed, just a quality state education) and provides regular moments of poor quality ‘healthy’ programming … pity the child exposed to that alone.

Bad Day in Timisoara

2008-09-05T07:20:00.001Z

There are days and there are – ‘one of those days’!

Yesterday was a distinctly – ONE OF THOSE DAYS!!!!

I should have realised it was gong to be bad when I woke with a headache – never a good sign.

Downloading from the internet site I buy my music from was slow – and a couple of tracks needed reloading. I wrote a great Shakespeare blog – and had trouble posting it.

The walk and sit by the river, on what turned out to be a very hot and uncomfortable afternoon produced nothing but the briefest flash of Kingfisher and a wag of wagtail. Coupled with that was a meeting with one of those people I know – but I’ll be damned if I know who it was or why I knew them (although a name is floating around in the background).

I tried the park and that was no better – too many ambulances and police sirens, heat annoyed drivers and irritating children.

The news was bad – Poli Timisoara no longer exists (that’s the local football team) it has been stripped not only of its name (a noble name) but also of its colours – which I think no bad thing as they are the most awful clash of tastelessness I’ve ever encountered on 22 legs. They have also lost 6 points – which smacks somewhat of insult on top of injury and is distinctly political.

However, the locals have got revolting – and when the Timisoarian get revolting, governments and systems fall … remember 1989? (If you don’t, it was the start of the Romanian Revolution – the only one where the former communist leaders actually got shot). The afternoon sirens were partly responding to the taking to the streets and throwing things at the police that was going on around the stadium.

When I get home – my computer has collapsed – it refuses to start up and rebooting is not working …

I am now on my old, un-connectible to anything and don’t breath too hard or it’ll stop working and anything you do write will have to be transferred using a memory stick if you are lucky – floppy disc if you are not - laptop bought last millennium.

So – no internet – no nothing: All the work, all the downloads, all the documents and … well, everything, looks lost. That includes all the music I downloaded over the last couple of months too.

Blood is flowing. I’ve been seriously sucked by several insects … a join the dots pattern on my upper arm, bites on the feet, on the hands and one really irritating one in the middle of my back. As I type there is one of those females just waiting on the wall. I’m out of spay.

Other blood has been flowing too.

Around 9pm there was an almighty racket as the mob moved from the stadium and marched – I went out and followed them through to Opera Square – there were several hundreds of them and very well behaved too – mind you, they were being shepherded by riot police (two truck loads if the empty trucks are anything to go by) in full gear. They were also being followed by a large number of horn honking cars. Impressive.

And nothing happened – the local TV stations tried to incite some reaction – hanging flags from the Opera House balcony (where the fans could not get so how did the flags and banners get there without the media assisting?).

There was some mighty fine chanting, for 15 minutes. Then things petered out and quickly everyone drifted away.

When I got home the sports channels were talking – talking – talking: A sure sign that nothing will happen, the Romanians are great talkers.

Then I tried going to bed.

It didn’t work.

Gone two am and heading for three – and I’m messing around here, sipping a second cup of tea, fighting off the female dinners on my red-stuff waiting for some sort of resolution to a really bad ‘one of those days’.

Obama vs ... the women

2008-09-04T08:07:00.001Z

He had to do it against Hillary and now he's got to do it against that other woman (what is her name?).

Is anyone in any doubt MacPain is a dead duck ... and this Monty Python woman is the real runner for president?

A word of warning - Anglo-Saxon society is much more matriarchal than people realise (remember Iron Knickers) and a right wing woman is the sort of dominatrix your average 'naughty-boy' redneck would love to tell him what to do!

Listen to rhetoric and you'll hear an awful lot about firmness and love - iron fists and how, just doing the ordinary makes you extra-ordinary in the world of politics ...

There was a fish and chip shop woman in Australia, just the same, fortunately that ex colony had enough insight to see through the shallowness of the rhetoric ... not convinced the Americans are educated enough to see it!

Obama, Republicans, Thatcher, Women

On a pregnancy

2008-09-02T09:31:00.001Z

... I don't know the girl, it's none of my business, the girl should not be exposed to the press attention she is going to get ...

she's getting the attention because her mother has accepted the nomination for vice president ...

her mother must have known the daughter was going to get the attention and has deliberately sacrificed her daughter (and the unborn child) because of her political ambitions ...

ermmmmm

Morality?

And what of John McCain? Did he know and also tacitly accept the public sacrifice of the child?

US Elections, Palin, Republican, John McCain

A thankful disappointment

2008-09-02T05:02:00.001Z

I just caught myself being disappointed that the latest hurricane wasn't a bit more destructive - wasn't the promised, 'Storm of the Century'.

A strange thought ... why would I be delighted in greater destruction? What is it that has dragged me into this urge for seeing a violent and ultimately tragic outcome?

Part of the answer I think is from the impulse humans have to tell stories ... we like a good story.

We are driven by a pattern of narrative which leads us to expect outcomes and if those outcomes are not reached there is a disappointment.

The British and the US media have been leading us to expect a 'certain' outcome ... it hasn't (thankfully) arrived ... so - not a good storm!

Odd the way narrative guides us through life.

Disaster, Hurricane, Narrative, USA

Self Promotion

2008-08-31T06:36:00.003Z

For those interested in the mix of Shakespeare, Olympics and American politics, I have just blogged over on Shakespeare Experience a good one!

What is fascinating is the way in which so much of the actual violence of war and national competition seems to have been distilled into sport ... not that sport doesn't get violent.

Republican choice ...

2008-08-30T07:28:00.001Z

I have serious doubts about the mental health of the average American ... no, it's not the beer they drink or the fact that they think apple juice is cider, nor is it the inability to understand the rules of rugby (or Geneva Convention) ... it's McCain and the republicans.

The fact that the man is a war hero is automatic grounds for disqualification ... have they not watched Rambo? But it is not the geriatric leader we are interested in ... its his choice of 'running mate': And I'd run if he tried to mate with anyone in public.

The Alaskan Governor (notice, she's so well known no one would recognise her name). Sarah Palin - as in Monty Python Palin?

It is either a brilliant move (so brilliant I'm blinded to it) or an act of such obvious idiocy only a nation of morons would fall for it ...

We need to steal the women's vote off Obama ... he blew it with Hilary .. so find me a woman - er one like that British bint - the Iron knickers one.

And she needs to carry a gun and kill small furry things dead at a 100 feet. That'll get us the murderous-guns-are-right wing vote.

Oh, and sound like the sort of mama would paddle the rump of any upstart teenager black and blue... the sort of mama all patriotic kids need. Morality in the home.

Bit like the old Women of the West - you know, Calamity what's her face - the one who snag whipcrack that way and was played by Doris someone or other ..

A pioneer we can tap in to the WASP mythology ofa oure white improvement in the Mid-West.

The trouble, of course, with that, is the reality:

"Old-timers always claimed Calamity Jane Cannary had a big heart when
she was not drinking, but unfortunately that was not very often. She
was a bullwhacker, a harlot, a scout, an occasional actress and an
accomplished liar. Jane traveled (mostly bumming her way) throughout
the West. There are numerous versions as to how she got her name. One
story says that any cowboy who bought her services was in for a
calamity, meaning they were going to be spending quality time with a
doctor in the near future."

Thanks to The Regulators: Women of the Wild West for the information.

Now that's the sort of woman that'll swing a lot of votes.

(Trouble is, it just might.)

Republican choice, Vice President, Sarah Palin, McCain

A six year old's birthday party ...

2008-08-29T04:21:00.001Z

One not so serious English commentator (well, part of a topical news skit programme - the Daly show) came up with a great one ...

"If you take democracy to its natural conclusion, it is just like a 6 year old's birthday party - all balloons and streamers ..."

You know - he had a point.

American Politics, Obama, Excessive

On this day ...

2008-08-25T09:13:00.001Z

Seeing as the Beeb is being violent and uncivilized in its choice, my own:

1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrates his telescope to the Venetians
1768: James Cook begins his first voyage
1918: Leonard Bernstein born

Now, why pick violence over that lot? Nothing in the BBC choice takes precedence over any one of those dates.

Galileo, of course, was cheating ... as all good scientists in search of grants have to do. He hadn't actually invented the telescope - although what he did with it was earth-moving (literally - it was used to shatter the crystal spheres and put the sun firmly at the centre of our little part of the universe).

Cook was almost cheating ... off to discover a continent the Dutch had already been to - but, hey, we won the publicity race!

After all where else could we send all our future criminals (and, if you think about it - most of them would have otherwise been executed - so transportation was a good thing).

Pity the Australians developed such an awful attitude to sport (they actually try to win and get upset when they don't) and never developed a decent accent. Mind you, we did get Kyle out of the place so most other things can be forgiven.

As for Leonard Bernstein - where to start? Nutty as a fruit cake - talented and totally charismatic. Whether he was conducting Mahler or writing West Side Story or talking on a talk show, entertainment guaranteed.

I can't see why the BBC insist on picking out the war related and its like ... there is plenty to choose otherwise and much of it celebrates (as does Bernstein's conducting) the tremendous spirit which can infect all humans.

Technorati Tags: Captain Cook, Galileo, Bernstein, BBC, 25 August

On this day ...

2008-08-24T06:09:00.001Z

79: Mount Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples erupts, burying the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Something spectacular wouldn't you say? The sort of thing guaranteed to attract attention - but simply ignored with a "It'll never happen here," or a, "We'll deal with it when it happens," attitude.

The trouble with that is the consequences ...

Bodies in the streets.

Nobody seems to think of the bodies 'til after ... or rather, the army does and so gets the body bags ready, but the politicians and the ordinary public seem to have an, "I'm immune" view of the world which unfortunately doesn't reflect the truth.

The BBC have another Roman linked 'On this day' for today:

410: Rome is sacked by Alaric the Goth, the first hostile occupation of the city since the fourth century BC.

... which would suggest the, "It couldn't happen here," mind set to me. Alaric was a Goth and has a lot to answer for ... not least the silly clothes and 'style' so beloved of hormone driven teenagers with more conformism than brains.

Alaric ultimately failed to get what he wanted ... but managed to upset rather a lot of people on the way.

Invasions seem to do that.

I could mention Iraq ... or the great Afghanistan (graveyard of so many invaders) ... but the Beeb has managed to provide another lovely focus in its 'On this Day' ...

1949: Nato comes into existence to counter the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe.

and, 'surprise surprise', I'll finally come to Georgia.

Nato is supposed to be protecting against the 'soviets' ... and nice and secure they make us feel ... unless you happen to live in one of the countries actually 'threatened' by Russia - or to use politic-speak, "In the Russian sphere of influence."

Symbolic the round table - and very typical of the 'Camelot' mentality ... Why does no one remember the end of the myth?

Camelot failed. For one brief shining moment, there was a spot ... but it was brief, it was destroyed ... and the barbarians had their way.

Technorati Tags: Ancient Rome, Nato, Goths, Alaric, Nato, Georgia, Russia

Things you see in the river ...

2008-08-18T17:34:00.000Z

Now, I wouldn't be sure it was exactly one of these:

but it certainly looked like it! It's a Stone Crayfish ... used to be popular with the monks (like Carp) for eating.

Actually there were three or four of them in various sizes.

Over the years I've seen quite a variety of things in the Bega in the centre of Timisoara - from snakes (which decided to do a mating dance on my feet) to freshwater turtles.

No one ever believes me - but I know they are there.

All you need to do is sit and wait - all comes along in time.

Technorati Tags: Bega, Timisoara, Romania, Stone Crayfish

Hoycules ?

2008-08-17T06:04:00.001Z

"I actually said we had nine chances of gold and would probably get five, but the rest of the world has stepped back and we've stepped up. Chris Hoy is being called "Hoycules" in the camp. There is a different philosophy about them."

Chris Boardman talking about Britain's cycling dominance (on the Beeb)

What's really fascinating is the way that providing the right facilities and finance can raise the 'game' so much.

Every one of the cyclists has put it down to the creation of the National Cycling Centre (link) in Manchester and the proper financing of it.

What a shame Manchester never got the Olympics ...

However, I don't think it is only the money and the support.

How do you account for Phelps?

I'm not going to get into any arguments over is he/isn't he the greatest ... the golds speak for him - no one else has either won so may events (yes that was WON) or won so many in one games (with a little help from his friends)

Not only that he's shaved the 'Spitzian' moustache which makes him more Greek God than Viking thug.

Undoubtedly Phelps has had the support - but that doesn't make an athlete who can win more medals than most of the world's countries!

He gave part of the answer in an interview ...

Nothing is impossible.
With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that's something I learned and something that helped me.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, Michael Phelps, British Cycling, Manchester

An Olympian Task

2008-08-14T16:53:00.000Z

Imagine an Olympic record which has stood for 100 years and is still unbroken - well, Emil Voigt, a native Mancunian, holds that record. Admittedly, the event (the 5 mile race) has never been in the Olympics again, but it is still something of a distinction.

I point to the story just to remind people that despite the accountant mentality of the media, there are more things to being up there with the Olympians than records.

There is deserved accolade for anyone who wins (without cheating) a gold in any event: I would go so far as to say there is a deserved distinction for anyone who competes in any event at the Olympics.

Take a closer look at Mr Voigt - he almost didn't compete - he was on the point of giving up competitive athletics as he was getting too old (@ 25); in training his 'arch' collapsed - so a plaster cast was stuck in the shoe before he ran; he was the only vegetarian at the games (I'd like that one checked out myself).

Such is the stuff of heroes.

Few know of the man now - although he moved to New Zealand and trained many athletes there.

It is one of the many tales that remind us one point of the Olympics is for ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things - have their 15 minutes of glory, then fade into the background again.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, Olympic Hero, London 1908, Emil Voigt

Genetic Throwback

2008-08-14T10:20:00.000Z

Watching the Hungarian TV channel Olympic coverage (not repeats of the pool - come on eurosport, there are other events) and I saw the nose. You could measure a mile along that - stright as they come.
Andrea Minguzzi, a Greco-Roman if ever I saw one, was in the fight for the Gold - he won. All 84 kg of him.

When I saw him I thought - that's a gladiator if ever there was one. he just looked the part.

Fitting an Italian win a Greco-ROMAN wouldn't you say?

Big Boy's Toy ...

2008-08-11T04:59:00.000Z

I notice on the inestimably violent BBC 'On this Day' a decidedly milder anniversary.

Link to a steaming train.

That is Oliver Cromwell - the last Steam engine to pull a passenger train on the British Rail network in the time of real trains.

It was all of too many years ago - I was just celebrating leaving junior school and didn't notice a thing.

My question is what is it that makes the damn things not lie down and rust respectably?

Harry Potter has to have one - and romances in the Rail Buffet are not the same thing since clean machines have failed to mist-up the platform.

Mind you, if you are going to have trains with names - all that huffing and puffing, steam and smoke does at least give a bit of personality. Can't stand the silly names of boats.

And it (restoring the things) does preserve the great English eccentric without killing too many harmless species on the way.

Technorati Tags: On this Day, Steam Trains, Oliver Cromwell

Open ses'me

2008-08-10T07:42:00.001Z

Things seem to have moved on a little since the first Olympic Opening Ceremony:

Mind you, it is noticeable that they did take the time to take a photo - suggesting even back then that they were aware of the importance of the media and of the need to promote ... but what were they promoting?

Whatever it was, it doesn't look too much like sport - or at least, not sport alone. There are important people in the forefront.

Why the 2008 Olympics should be expected to be anything other than an inheritor of this tradition is beyond me.

And it has to be said, the Chinese did do it a lot better than the rather naive originators who seem to think, if you go by the picture, they don't have to work too hard to get the world's attention.

Whatever else you think of the Chinese - they are workers and one of the things that seems to be missing from all the commentary about the opening has been the sheer effort that has gone into the ceremony. Forget the cost (not so much if you split it between the population of China - and even less if you think of the world audience for it) look at the human time and organisation.

There were 2008 drummers to open, coordinated better than any marching army or Broadway musical I've ever seen.

This very strong statement reminded me, as did several other sights during the ceremony of the terracotta army: It was not just the mass of participants, it was the expectation of order under pressure, of the assurance of pre-planning and the human resources available.

If the original opening ceremony was nod in the direction of the world that the Olympics were back - look at the shape of the building they are in, very Ancient Greek - then this ceremony says - China is back too - Ancient China, Not so Ancient China, Recent Past China and China Future!

Perhaps most disturbing for the Western Liberals amongst us ( and that does include me) was the military presence. Nice looking young men in uniform is one thing - but did they have to goose step?

It would be impossible for the Chinese military not to have participated (indeed, I suspect they really were a very strong element in the success - both for the logistical support and the provision of people) but to the world outside the strong statement of military significance might just seem a little inappropriate.

What China did get over to the world in this ceremony was what brilliant film makers they are - because that is what you were watching - a one shoot only film.

I am certain the viewers of screens around the world got a much better view than anyone in the Stadium - maybe not quite the atmosphere. For the person who took the decision to make a film director take control knew how to choose people.

One thing I was a little uncertain of was the inclusion of Sarah Brightman. I'd never noticed before how 'Chinese' her voice was - maybe that is one reason I don't rate her as a Western Singer. Here, she worked brilliantly - as did her 'pop' partner ... Liu Huan.

As befits an opening ceremony, the torch did a Kitsch lighting - at least it was the actual flame that lit the big one (unlike in the famous USA case of the arrow not actually lighting the torch).

How much a flying Chinese Hero is really representative of Sport is debatable, it is certainly representative of popular culture.

And that I think is indicative of how far China has come - we did not need this ceremony to establish the position of China as a cultural entity- it was already there. What it did was state loud and clear - We are here.

Technorati Tags: Olympics 2008, Opening Ceremony, China

What a night

2008-08-09T05:29:00.001Z

... raising the Flag (2) ...

It was the first time I have been able to sit through an opening ceremony. Whether that is a sign of ill health and age or there really was something special about the shenanigans I'll leave to others to decide.

As expected, the 'spontaneous' roar as Yao Ming entered with the flag was spectacular; less expected and possibly more spontaneous, was the one for Roger Federer - whose birthday it was - when the camera focused on him and the crowd realised he was carrying the flag ...

Maybe the second proudest man in the Stadium.

There was a lot of focus on the tennis stars by the cameras..

Nadal was one of the first individuals to be picked out by the Chinese director (we got what the Chinese got, no choose your own in this event) and later, when the athletes were finally free to move, there was an interesting

sequence of Federer, Nadal, Murray (proving he needs a wash and shave) - then a flash to various other athletes, including Britain's youngest, Tom Daley, who attracted several shots. For someone who isn't really expected to get too far (realistically) he is attracting a lot of media attention.

But then, children seemed to be a major theme of the ceremony - notice Yao Ming's partner (Lin Hao) with the flag.

Whether the child was there to remind the world of the Earthquake, or to reduce the chance of the Yao Ming cult growing at the expense of the communist leaders I wouldn't dare to say, but despite the roar and despite the attention given to other flags and flag carriers the director didn't spend too long on Mr Ming and did spend a lot of time flitting between various communist leaders.

One flag that did get it's fair share of attention was the Union flag. It is only at times like this and in parades like this one that you actually notice just how many countries have it as part of their own.

Not only the obvious ones - like New Zealand, but several others too ... all very emotion stirring and all very told you we ruled the world!

One of the nice things about the parade of athletes was to see so many women carrying the flag ... difficult to find an image though - maybe it is time for the media to catch up with the athletes.

I'll have things to say about the ceremony itself latter today ... when I might just mention Georgia.

Technorati Tags: Olympics 2008, Flags, Opening Ceremony, China, Press prejudice

Proudest Human on Earth?

2008-08-08T06:10:00.001Z

...or Carrying the Flag (1) ...

I've known about Yao Ming since I lived in China (before he hit America) and he truly is a popular hero.

It is in the nature (or at least culture) of China to be intensely nationalistic and so you can forget all the hype about carrying the torch - there is only one thing today that will mark down a human as representative of all that a country holds proud: The flag.

He's done it before - at the last Olympics, but that cannot compare to carrying it today, in China.

When he was asked by an interviewer earlier in the week if he was going to be the person lighting the flame, he said wait and see - there was a gleam in his eyes and the slightest of smiles on his face ...unsurprising really, he had a greater task to perform than the trivial Nazi-created sports symbolism of torch bearing: In his hands will be the focus of by far the majority of the Chinese people and the stadium better be well built because the roar that will explode around the world will possibly be registering on the seismometers in America.

Technorati Tags: Yao Ming, Olympics, China, Nationalism

Three Splashes, a flash and then an e-mail

2008-08-05T05:17:00.001Z

Down on the Bega yesterday and heard a splash - looked over and saw ripples. Too big for a fish, I looked expecting to see kids throwing either themselves or things in the river - nope, so maybe a fish?

A couple of minutes later, another one - must be a big fish hunting - although how it has survived all the men with hooks I don't know (not real fishermen, I've got one in the family and they don't do what the hook men do).

Walked on - over the bridge back along the Bega and bugger me if the damn splash didn't happen again - in exactly the same place.

I think to myself - time to waddle along and investigate, so waddle along I do - and investigate.

You only get the briefest of flashes with a Kingfisher - especially if you are stupid enough to go waddling along in their direction. They are a magnificent bird - quite small, which is a suprise to people when they first see them - all the telephoto shots filling the tv screens have lead to a false expectation as too the importance of size.

And the splash was not quite so big as I'd heard either - the effect I guess of the smooth water and calm day - they are much better at fishing than the local hookers!

Not only that, my dreams were full of colourful imaginative birds - one of which I'd even named and in my dreams searched for on the net.

And this morning? Well, just before going out to sit on the opposite side of the river in the shade and waiting (I want more than a flas this time) I turn on my computer to recharge the mp3 player, check my email and low and behold - a letter:

I write to ask whether you would be willing to include a link to (or even write a blog entry about) the WINGS tour “Birds and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” conducted each June by Rich Hoyer and Bryan Bland. This imaginative combination of birding and culture follows in the tradition of our popular “Birds and Music” and “Birds and Art” tours of Europe. After a delightful morning of birding that includes famously delicious picnic breakfasts and lunches in stunningly gorgeous surroundings, we return in time for a daily performance in the theaters just a block from our hotel.

I am thinking about this and toddle along to their blog and what should great me - a kingfisher. So, yes I'll give you the link with pleasure (and I'd even join the tour if I were in the USA - and had the money).

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, WINGS. birds, Romania, Bega

An evening out

2008-08-04T05:31:00.002Z

Went out a 6pm for a quick drink and ended up staying 'til the fireworks. Ex-student paid which was even better. Got to hear rather than see the concert - recognised the voice and he did sing the song I wanted to hear so I know it was really him up there at the other side of the crowd.
Even an early downpour didn't dampen the atmospher.
Bit hazy this morning though.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Romania

Hot Day

2008-08-03T12:14:00.001Z

Later on today the beautiful Baroque Square in the centre of Timisoara is going to be going Reggae! Alistair Ian Campbell (yep, Scottish ancestry) is going to be entertaining the crowds for free.

I suspect it is going to be one well worth going to.

Mind you, he did pop on to the TV yesterday to give an interview with a truly dreadful Romanian interviewer (most are) and he did look, in the immortal words of Punch, a little 'tired and emotional' - but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume after popping around Europe he had just cause.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Romania,

..flies to wanton boys ...

2008-07-30T16:22:00.000Z

I was on something of a high earlier - Igor has emerged from the ether! Those in the know will know how much that means for me - Russia has many connections and people I am fond of, Igor and his family more than most.

But hubris I'm afraid - the Gloucester effect kicked in: Blood shall have blood.

Good Day

2008-07-30T11:02:00.001Z

1935: Penguin paperbacks are launched to make books affordable to all, creating a revolution in publishing.
1948: The British Nationality Act is passed, giving Commonwealth nationals the right to British citizenship.
1966: England, the host nation, wins the football World Cup with a 4-2 defeat of West Germany at Wembley.

Thank you BBC!

Oh course - paperbacks have cost me a fortune and even been responsible for educating the masses - not sure how good a thing that is.

Some people would question the advisability of extending British Nationality - but hey, look what an improvement to English Food resulted!

And the English cheated in order to win the world Cup.

So, good day!

Suffer the little children

2008-07-25T05:52:00.002Z

The BBC seem to have been theming their 'On This Day' today:

1939: Nazi Germany begins the systematic 'euthanasia' of disabled children, killing many thousands.
1968: All forms of artificial contraception are condemned by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical 'Humanae Vitae'.
1978: Britain's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born at Oldham General Hospital in Lancashire.

Children are central.

The first reminds us that the Holocaust was not only targeted at one group but all humanity - narrower definitions of the term exist, but its origins in the Ancient Greek, ὁλόκαυστον, meaning an offering to the gods which has been completely burnt indicate the modern usage has roots far beyond the modern world.
It was an English atrocity in the 12th Century which gave us its first usage in the modern sense and its first connection with one religious group (quite a long connection too) - although the word was used before the Second World War to describe the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks in the previous world conflict.
It should not be confused with genocide - the targeting of one specific group - for fear of forgetting the mass of humanity affected -

John Donne got it right in his meditation XVII - No man is an island -

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume

Which brings us to the second abuse - one I cannot get my head around at all. How a supposedly benign institution can condemn anything which prevents the birth of unwanted children and forces extra population onto the world is just mind-boggling. Idiocy (like something else in the toilet) rising to the top. Religion at its worst.

Number three though is great (and Happy 30th to the lady concerned) - science at its best.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Holocaust, test tube baby, Catholicism

Cris the Fish!

2008-07-23T04:53:00.001Z

Being in separate cities or even countries it is difficult to celebrate those passing moments.
Cris, the Fish, makes it through to the final year of his second decade today - I'd love to just sit and have a glass of wine with him (and associated), but it will not be.
You don't need to be physically with people though - when a relationship has secured, it is enough to know you are thought of, (even though it feels better to be with).
My thoughts ... well, need I say more?

Big day:

2008-07-16T04:07:00.001Z

622: The Muslim era begins from the first day of the lunar year of Mohammed's flight from Mecca ('hegira').
1918: Tzar Nicholas II of Russia and his family are killed by a Bolshevik firing squad at Ekaterinburg, Siberia.
1945: The world's first atomic weapon is tested by the US at Alamogordo Air Base in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Now that is a series of events which can truly be said to have consequences.

Not sure which I'd pick out as the most significant - but each and every one has had an impact on the world I live in now.

Technorati Tags: BBC

Furious Storms

2008-07-15T10:24:00.001Z

Hail the size of cricket balls! Roof tiles smashed, trees down, rivers flooding - all, if happening in the UK would be international news - because it's here in Romania and only of 'local' interest, no reports on the BBC or CNN!

On this Day

2008-07-14T03:55:00.001Z

As the BBC are pleased to tell us all:

1789: The French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille prison during a popular uprising in Paris.

And pretty revolting the French have been since.

Technorati Tags: French Revolution, French BBC

Wrong about the Williams

2008-07-06T05:01:00.001Z

Good job I'm not a betting man - I'd have picked the wrong Williams for the title.
What a game - despite all the pundits saying it would be lack-lustre.
And what a pair of players - not only did they hammer it out hell for leather over every point, they took a quick interval then went out and won their third doubles.

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Williams wins Wimbledon!

2008-07-04T05:06:00.001Z

Isn't it just wonderful that you can say that a day before the final?

One of them will win again - my money is on Serena; but who would have bet on this combination to be in the final in the first place?

I was humming and ahhring over whether I'd bother to watch the ladies, now I know I shall. As I said last year, there is something about a Williams that makes you sit up and watch.

Fascinating too how Wimbledon messes-up the form cards.

On a different note, July the 4th is of course the day the silly colonials lost their final grip on reality and separated from the English throne - It's their own fault - every shot dead child since is a consequence of the 'militia's right to fight and own guns' that argy-bargy spawned - and the stupidity of keeping such a law beggars belief.

Today is a day Poland should hang its head in shame - July 4th, 1946 - the worst post war progrom where 42 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were killed in Kielce. My own, brief, experience of living in Krakow was stained by the current generation of Poles expressing deep seated anti-semitic sentiments: Some things never change.

Technorati Tags: Tennis, Wimbledon, Guns, Poland, America, anti-semitism

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BeeB'd

2008-06-29T13:34:00.001Z

That's beeb with a d.

Just listened to a request of mine played on Radio 3 Requests programme!

Not only did it sound good - my name was on the lips of Emma Kirkby!

I can die happy.

Dame of the British Empire, voice of unrivalled clarity and singer on so much of the music in my possession she is almost an obsession.

Mrs K. even got the ultimate accolade - a South Bank Show about her.

Not bad for someone who started out as a schoolteacher just singing for pleasure.

And greatest thing of all - she's never sung Verdi!

Today is also:

•1613: London's Globe Theatre burns down when a theatrical canon is fired during the play 'All Is True'.

which I could say reflects another 'burning obsession' of mine, Shakespeare!

Fortunately the modern Globe hasn't burnt down - its touring company is going to make an appearance in Timisoara on July 10th with Romeo and Juliet and then in August I am off to see The Merry Wives of Windsor, done alla Soap Opera, at the rebuilt Globe in London.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Romania, BBC, Radio 3, Shakespeare, Emma Kirkby

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Rain

2008-06-28T08:45:00.001Z

Went to get a couple of essentials from 'THE MALL' - a bottle of wine, refill for the anti-mosquito machine and bread. When I got there it became apparant that it had rained in the night - more than rained if the amount of mopping-up, closed shops and dripping ceilings were anything to go by.
Strange, how, in the modern world, a nice new shopping centre is built with a level below ground level and still can't keep out the water.
Well, maybe not - it is Romania and despite the epidemic of floods the country seems to be experiencing, no one seems to think before hand about the likelihood of flooding in any particular place.
Mind you - it must have been wet. I have a vague memory of getting up and closing a window at some stage - and of seeing flashing lights: But I was dead to the world. No international news headlines mind you - but, hey, it is Romania and no one would notice.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Flooding, Romania

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Not so shock-horror

2008-06-27T06:24:00.003Z

(or animal magic)

Wimbledon again - although I found it hard to concentrate on anything yesterday (encountered Margarita whilst watching the Germans' luck dump the Turks and she had an effect).

Was trying to think what animal Nadal reminded me of - he certainly prowls and walks the line like some caged animal - was thinking of a lion or tiger - but he showed a sense of humour yesterday which 1) He should do more often and 2) I don't associate with cats.

He's big and has ripply muscles - tigerish ... but the personality - tart. sharp, explosive - but 'naughty-boy going to get away with anything eyes'.

Too intelligent to be Don? Got the power though - and the sense fun.

Anyway - he powered through.

Not so Sharapova. I have to say I am not a great fan of the Russian miss ... too:

if you know what I mean.

(Not distracting from her tennis - she has been good and hope she returns to form - just, well, personality.)

Sadder was Roddick going - but what a dreadful performance - over-tired?

Not quite as old as that one hopes - and back to rut next year!

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The Screen's Green

2008-06-23T12:45:00.002Z

... Wimbledon has started.

Not that this picture gives any indication of the intenseness of the green - the contrasting white of the players and the lines, or the sheer lift knowing summer has at last arrived and all is well with the world.

Bring on the strawberries and champagne (well, strawberry ice cream and fizzy plonk).

I'm watching Federer playing with (as in cat with mouse) Hrbaty at the moment - pictures delayed as Romanian TV, for some inexplicable reason, thought a local girl getting trounced out in the first round was more important.

Technorati Tags: Summer, Tennis, Wimbledon. Romania

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Babel, Kosovo, Orwell and Kadare

2008-06-20T05:55:00.002Z

On This Day

1389: Ottoman sultan Murad I defeats the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo, a key event in Serbian national history.

The BBC.

Strange the banging together of ideas and thoughts - and lessons.

I was doing a 'conversation' session on Wednesday - based (at the request of one of the participants) on a set of programmes from the BBC Learning English programme, Talk about English.

The series (excellent) is called, 'Who on Earth are we?' - and has a basis in the idea of culture and how it affects communication.

We started to examine the idea of stereotypes and got on to the question of what stereotypes people thought there were about Romanians. Our discussion moved into the topic of religion, never very safe at the best of times.

Life got a little warm, but not too heated - the biggest issue being over the peaceful nature of the Orthodox religion in Romania.

I decline, at this point, to address that.

After the discussion, I thought about posting a few comments on the effects of religion on the 'cultural identity' of people.

However, seeing as I regard statements in the English classroom as more confessional than those delivered to your average psychiatrist (at least you are concious of what you are saying on the couch, and in some control of the language you are using) I decided against it - and preserved the integrity of Babel, once again.

However, the issue has been simmering - and when, today, the Beeb pop up with the Kosovo Battle - it spills over.

Take a look at this choice piece of writing:

On June 28, 1389, a mighty battle was fought at Kosovo Polje. It pitted the Serbian defenders of Christ's holy cross against the invading Ottoman Empire (Turkey) adherents of the Muslim crescent moon.

This is from a piece from 'Truthmedia' - welcome to 1984 'newspeak' in reality.

I think the idea of combining crude nationalism and divisive religious views can find no better expression (I also guess the writers of this 'truth' wouldn't even notice they'd done it).

I've blogged before on nationalism and patriotism - on the difference between loving the state and loving the land.

Unfortunately, religion has been dragged in on the side of the state - and that leads to an intensification of conflict.

It doesn't have to be - the English (after beating each other to death and burning a few people) finally settled to a religion which, at its best, fitted the land: Anglicanism is a now dated celebration of getting on with the farming and not messing around with the harvest.

It's whole principle is the reduction of religion to being servant of the people, not the other way round - and if the sate is going to be involved (and, boy, is it involved in the Anglican Church!) it is only to make sure the religion stays firmly in it's place - Sunday morning, and a couple of rites of passage.

God and you are friends on personal terms - you don't need a man in silly clothes to interfere between you - and the buildings are nice too.

Not so I'm afraid with other nations - they take their gods far too seriously - look at the state America gets in!

And don't forget, that is a place which believes in the separation of religion from the state!

Newspeak!

If there was to be a 'new-speak' in Orwell's totalitarian world, there must have been an 'Oldspeak'.

Fortunately, Kosovo has managed to produce an adherant to Oldspeak as well as countless adherents to the destruction of words.

Ismail Kadare

You may, or may not have heard of the Albanian author - he has something of a reputation.

For the purposes of this little excursion, he wrote perhaps the sanest book on the events in Kosovo over 600 years ago:

Three Elegies for Kosovo.

(Amazon uk)

Technorati Tags: BBC, Kosovo, religion, Timisoara, Romania, Babel, USA

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Murray Moan

2008-06-19T09:17:00.001Z

You know, some people just don't get it do they?

Murray (Brit - meaning not English) - plays tennis (sometimes), and moans a lot.

Pulled out of Queens - thumb hurting - disappointing on clay (disappointing all over) but upset the mandarins at Wimbledon don't rate him higher.

Whoops - they've ranked him way above where I place him in the game.

Watching Queens last week you notice there are the winners and the players you like watching - some do both (Federer) - others do one (Nadal) and others do the other (Gasquet).

In fact, 'the frog' is well up on my list of young players I'd prefer to watch in preference to the moaning Scot! Tennis stops being a sport and starts to become grace, art, dance when some players play.

So much for nationalism!

The other favourite to watch in the male game is Roddick - American. But that's because he's a gentleman.

Murray would not notice one of them even if it bit him.

Technorati Tags: Tennis, Wimbledon, Gasquet, Murray, Roddick

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Regrets

2008-06-17T03:55:00.001Z

Shakespeare didn't play cricket.

Mind you - he does seem to know a thing or two about Women's Hockey:

But the RSC Stratford Residents don't seem to have noticed.

Technorati Tags: Cricket, Shakespeare

I just want to point out:

2008-06-12T17:06:00.001Z

Romania has a hamster:

Not everyone believes me when I tell them this - but check it out for yourself: Wiki; ITIS; and something European.

Interestingly enough - range is not known, but there are a pair living in my attic in the village.

Technorati Tags: Romania, Hamster, wildlife, ROMANIAN HAMSTER

On This Day ...

2008-06-09T04:28:00.001Z

1549: The Protestant 'Book of Common Prayer' is introduced, sparking a Catholic peasant rebellion
Not the most interesting of thngs, you might say - and a pity the Beeb had to turn it into something violent - but have you any idea of the significance of the thing?
The very language you are reading, the language I speak, Shakespeare and all that ... all have at least one root in the Book of Common Prayer.

For starters - it was in Latin. Henry was breaking from Rome not from religion - although it didn't stay in Latin for long .. 2 or 3 years: Then the book got seriously important.

The book is basically a handbook - a how to run a religion/church program.

It also says how to get born married and dead the right way.

It is the words which accompany all the seriously serious events of life -

DEARE beloved, forasmuche as all men bee conceyved and borne in sinne, and that no manne borne in synne, can entre into the kingdom of God (except he be regenerate, and borne anewe of water, and the holy ghost) I beseche you to call upon God the father through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteouse mercy he wil graunt to these children that thing, which by nature they cannot have, that is to saye, they may be baptised with the holy ghost, and receyved into Christes holy Church, and be made lyvely membres of the same.

Look at that for a sentence! And listen to the words ... doesn't it echo - forget Big Ben - hear tiny baptism!

The sin - you are born in sin! Fortunately, the little screaming bundle, whose welcoming words these are, couldn't understand - but that is only a temporary thing ... this is in English, it would soon be able to understand - and religion decends to the people.

Or how about this one:

DEERELY beloved frendes, we are gathered together here in the syght of God, and in the face of his congregacion, to joyne together this man and this woman in holy matrimonie, which is an honorable estate instituted of God in paradise, in the time of mannes innocencie, signifying unto us the misticall union that is betwixte Christe and his Churche: whiche holy estate, Christe adorned and beutified with his presence, and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galile, and is commended of Sainct Paule to be honourable emong all men; and therefore is not to bee enterprised, nor taken in hande unadvisedlye, lightelye, or wantonly, to satisfie mens carnal lustes and appetites, like brute beastes that have no understanding: but reverentely, discretely, advisedly, soberly, and in the feare of God.

Big breath needed ... and words I know, not exactly in the text above - but close enough.

And a final one - really final:

I COMMENDE thy soule to God the father almighty, and thy body to the grounde, earth to earth, asshes to asshes, dust to dust, in sure and certayne hope of resurreccion to eternall lyfe, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall chaunge our vile body, that it may be lyke to his glorious body, accordyng to the myghtie workyng wherby he is hable to subdue all thynges to himselfe.

Important book that one.

Technorati Tags: Religion, BBC, Book of Common Prayer

Reith 1

2008-06-06T12:52:00.001Z

This year's Reith Lectures on China are called:

Chinese Vistas

and it's a good title.

When I think of the fantastic 'rolls' of art - Vista is gooooood!

Professor Jonathan Spence - the gentleman with the un-enviable task of talking about what must be one of the most contentious issues the Lectures have ever dealt with, did good, in my eyes.

20 mins of quick Confucian Ways - not an attempt to look at the philosophy so much as to put Confucian thought into the context of Chinese History (and world history too).

It was clear.

Original Confucius; developed Confucius; rejected Confucius; and resurgent Confucius!

Pity the BBC revealed a degree of suspicious political posturing in its choice of questioners - and sheer daftness with the Left footer contribution (at least the 'Proddy Dog' asked relevant).

A great sense of wit in the answers though.

Technorati Tags: Reith Lectures, BBC, Jonathan Spence, China, Confucius

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Rieth is back!

2008-06-03T14:31:00.001Z

For those who love intelligent talk:

R4Choice: The Reith Lectures 2008 - Chinese Vistas 03 Jun 08

the 2008 Reith lectures - subject, China.

There is also this on Tibet:

Tibet, the story of a Feud

Both downloadable for a limited time.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Reith Lecture, China, Tibet

On This Day

2008-06-03T05:23:00.001Z

1098: The First Crusade captures the strategically important city of Antioch after an eight month siege.

1940: The last ship of 'Operation Dynamo' leaves Dunkirk, completing the evacuation of 338,226 Allied troops.

Both from BBC.

The first:

The siege of Antioch, as part of the Crusade has a lasting consequence in present day attitudes on both sides of the Muslim/Christian divide.
We continue to play out the battle and the siege and the war and countless lives still get spent.
Celebration of the victory (even in an apparently innocuous 'On this day ..) can do nothing but fuel the bloodshed and hatred.
Why not find an example of good relationships between the Muslim and Christian world?
What was happening on Sicily at this time?
Well, one thing was a fusion of culture a live-and-let-live policy which led to a massive outpouring of building and other cultural activity which serves as a model for latter generations to follow.
There are countless examples of good relations between the two 'cultures' (although, as Sicily shows - that itself is something of a challengable statement - not the good relations, the TWO: Orthodox christians and Catholic christians certainly don't seem to live in the same world - and divisions in Islam show too).
The renaissance is very much a product of the interaction of merchants and traders, princes and clerics from both sides of the divide - and the wonders of Southern Spain under the Muslim world were never really repeated under its christian conquerors.
You doubt this - ask the Jews whose oppression got far worse under the Spanish christians.

If the events of Antioch are distant and apparently minor to my world (although attitudes to Muslims in Romania and misunderstanding of Islam make me hesitant to make so bold a claim), Dunkirk is different.

The first thing to understand is a deep emotional commitment I feel to the events - my father was at Dunkirk - if the evacuation hadn't happened, the chances of me being here at all would be very limited.
In books like 'Atonement' I experience a connection with those characters who experience Dunkirk which is difficult to describe and impossible to explain - this is not history - it is my life.
But for the purpose of this post, that is not the issue.
Relations with Germany are: Why have the British and the Germans managed to go through two World Wars banging away at each other and still come out (comparative) friends?
I think part of it is acceptance of an essential common humanity - acknowledgement of and focus on what is the same, and common economic progress.
(The American film industry certainly thinks there is no difference if the number of British English accents given to Germans in their WWII films is anything to go by).
Russia however seems hell bent on the 'crusader path' - constant showing on the t.v. of WWII films with evil Germans and heroic Russian children who inevitably get slaughtered by the wicked Nazi. Commemoration of victory over the evil German is enshrined in the national calender - Victory Day.

A time to let go ...?

Technorati Tags: Islam, Antioc, Russia, Germany, England, Romania, BBC

Today ...

2008-06-01T12:42:00.001Z

On This Day

1879: Eugene Napoleon, the last heir to Napoleon's dynasty, is killed fighting for Britain in the Zulu Wars.

Anyone else out there find this one fascinating?

Mr Nappy was French - not only that, a Bonaparte - and fighting FOR England (would say Britain, but get real, Celts of the world just love subservience - their natural position).

Apparently he got a spear in the thigh and another in the left shoulder.

Great stories and conspiracy theories instantly jumped to birth - not much changes does it?

Not only did the poor chap get disembowelled (all that garlic must have been a nasty shock to the Zulu) but he gets the final British indignity of burial in Chislehurst! Now that is really 'suburban' - but very bourgeois I suppose - and one does associate the tacky Bonapartes with jumped-up shop keepers.

Considering the relationship between the English and the French - and what must be one of the deepest seated antipathies in history - what the blazes was the man doing in the armed forces of Her Britannic Majesty?

Mind you - it was bumping off a few natives so maybe it counted as a hunting trip?

Technorati Tags: France, England, Zulu

Early Summer

2008-05-31T09:32:00.001Z

Just before bed last night I got the full effects of what the English call the Lime Tree: The sweet, heavy smell, almost intoxicating, certainly oddly refreshing, but suggestive of excess - edging towards cloying.

Linden it is known as in other parts of the world - the Romanians call it Tae (or Tee, or Tei or some such unspellablity) - but letting you know, in an unsympathetic to nature, practical way exactly what they do with it.

There is a sort of poet from Romania called Eminescu (bad late Romantic) who wrote:

Pătrunză talanga

Al serii rece vânt,

Deasupră-mi teiul sfânt

Să-şi scuture creanga.

While softly rings

The evening's cool wind

Above me the holy lime

Shakes its branch. (translation: M.G.Jiva) on Wiki

No accounting for taste.

Technorati Tags: Romania, Tilia, Timisoara, Lime Tree

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Bad day ...

2008-05-31T05:10:00.004Z

Looking for something to rabbit on about, searched 'This Day in History - not a lot ... then I came across this ... a couple of times:

May 31, 1678 in History
Event: Lady Godiva rode naked through Coventry in a protest of taxes

Distincly odd I thought ... could have sworn the woman doing that was a bit older. So searched - and, yep, as Wiki will inform you, Anglo Saxon (feisty women in those times).

Seems there was a bit of a revival in 1678 - and for some reason it has been a popular subject since:

The BBC manages to give a linked event:

1076: The execution of Waltheof of Northumbria ends the 'Revolt of the Earls' against William the Conqueror.

Not too many people seemed happy with William the Bastard and the consequences of his take over. Nice to see the BBC getting it right.

Does the mis-date really matter?

What has me ranting is the inaccuracy being promoted - the misinformation! A big danger of the web - as I said, several sites blindly quote the 'FACT' of Gidiva's ride on this date.

Another, more serious as far as I am concerned, is this ...

May 31, 1859
Big Ben goes into operation in London
The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen's Tower, rings out over the Houses of...

and that is from the History.Com who you'd think would know better!

Big Ben is a bell!

Technorati Tags: Lady Godiva, BBC, Big Ben, History

Knife Crime

2008-05-30T04:30:00.002Z

1593: Leading Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe is stabbed to death in a pub brawl in Deptford.

Tragic for the English Stage, not much fun, I imagine, for Mr Marlowe himself.

This is supposedly an 'unusual event': A cover-up story for re-branding Marlowe as Shakespeare; for removing a distinctly colourful young man with extreme views on a number of sensitive issues (religion, politics and sex) and turning him to a quiet, gentle scribe.

I think events in the UK at the moment might give a clue as to the very usualness of the events.

If the newspapers are to be believed (Independent, Economist, Guardian), violent crime in the UK is actually going down. What is rising is the number of young men being killed or seriously wounded through knife attacks.

Taking a knife, to a pub, and getting into an argument when you are drunk can easily cut off a very promising career.

That was as true for the first Elizabethans as it is for the second, modern generation.

Technorati Tags: Marlowe, Knife Crime, Stabbing, Deptford

55 today

2008-05-29T09:19:00.002Z

1953: Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary become the first people to climb Everest, the world’s highest mountain.

There are some achievements which are just plain 'Great' - I think this was one. I believe both of the men involved are now dead - but deat is not going to take away the determination and guts they showed in getting to the top.

I wish a few of my students showed the same determination, forethought and planning in their ascent up the English Language.

Technorati Tags: English, Mt Everest, Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary

In Black and White ...

2008-05-24T05:28:00.001Z

Meet Mr Nasty:

That thing is a Magpie, Pica pica to his friends - if it has any.

There was a bit of scuffling going on in one of the trees just outside the kitchen window last week, which turned into a full scale screaming match: Two Magpies were being attacked by a couple of ring necked doves. 'Something up,' I thought at the time. The Doves were vigorous, but ultimately unsuccessful.

I've noticed this week that two of doves come and eat at the breakfast table (my window sill - where I drop seed in the morning for them).

Strange - there'd only been one, and I wondered what had happened to the other - then the penny dropped (too much Agatha Christie?) - one had been sitting on the nest all the time - and the Magpies had attacked, and killed the chicks.

There are two again because the youngsters are dead.

It's good to see them back - but 'Raw in Tooth and Nail' as someone said.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Nature, Death

Shakespeare, Fishing and Crap

2008-05-22T07:48:00.001Z

I suppose I ought to be interested:

A food joint in Mexico I believe ...

but named after ? Could it be this:

Which just happens to be a fishing rod called 'Crappy Hunter'

Made by, you've guessed it:

Untangle that lot if you can!

Shakespeare

Technorati Tags: Crap, Fishing, Shakespeare

Lizards, thunder and an insect bite

2008-05-21T03:23:00.002Z

Why I love Romania:

You know the summer is on its way when the weather turns muggy and noisy, the first insects start to bite and there is a scuttle across the path in front of you where you just manage to catch the impression of a four legs and a tail.

The lizard, a small one, shot in front of me yesterday as I took my mid-day constitutional beside the Bega, in between the heavy strained storms which manage an intense rainfall for a short time but really don't contribute much to the soil.

The insect bite has been there irritating away for a couple of days - on the hand in a lovely position - really scratchable. It has a less accessible sister on the back, above the left shoulder blade.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara. Romania, Animals, Insects

Even More Crap!

2008-05-17T16:32:00.001Z

Look at this for a lot of Crap:

That is the biggest recorded catch - from Thailand.

I was reminded of crap when I was listening to this weeks episode of In our Time
which deals with the Library at Nineveh.

Apparently, the priestly fashion around that time (Nineveh) was to dress up as a big fish.

now - I thought the English were a bit over the top with regard to fishing, but that is ridiculous.
Could be where we get the name Ninny I suppose. - or why the were called ASSyrians.

Technorati Tags: Fish Priest, Carp, Crap, Assyrian, BBC

Gigi the Baptist!

2008-05-08T14:58:00.001Z

For those of you wondering if Romania will ever escape corruption - this is a story to follow:

Did he didn't he?

Gigi the GaGa is a nasty piece of work if only half of what is written about him is true - check out his Wiki entry.

Not knowing the man personally, I couldn't say - but the president of the country seems very friendly with him.

Technorati Tags: Romania, Corruption, Football

Big Fish

2008-05-06T17:19:00.001Z

Some things are just irresistible:

Cris, having made the ultimate confusion - was talking a lot of crap!

Why, of all the words to mix up, do the English call the fish Carp - and nearly everyone else in Europe, Crap?

Big fish = lot of Crap!

Funny.

Technorati Tags: Fishing, Crap, Carp, Danube

Remains of the day ...

2008-05-01T19:27:00.001Z

So small one could hardly see it: Yet, enough to fester. In the thumb of the left hand - a splinter from of teasal I think - possibly a briar. This morning, swollen and black headed. When I squeezed, puss - and the smallest of black splints topping the mixed red and grey. Even, although this could have been imagination, the smell of rottenness.
Even a day in heaven has its remains.

Aches and pains

2008-05-01T08:39:00.001Z

... after doing the lightest work back at the farm.

A great day yesterday - Cris, Oana and Lucas (Cris's brother) dragged me back to 'Wild Pig Forest' to clean up - which they did whilst I pottered and pretended.

Place hasn't looked too good recently - what with break-ins, weather and resident spiders.

Now liveable again.

But the real kick was just being there - cuckoo in full annoyance, nettles raising their heads and bumps, road rendered prat-fallable after the slightest of showers.

And being with people I love doing something with a visible result - the cleaned and cleared black-current bushes say more than a thousand rich gifts.

A much too rich, rather fine white wine helped, of course.

Technorati Tags: Romania, Sistarovat, akf

BBC again:

2008-04-29T05:45:00.002Z

DEBATE: Should the UN impose sanctions on Zimbabwe?

Hitler - 'peace with honour' (and holocaust);
Cambodia - 'killing fields';

It's 'their' problem.

Trouble is, sanctions sounds too much like do nothing but appease our consciences - whatever sanctions are applied will have next to no effect in a country already bankrupt.

No man is an island - and no nation either.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Zimbabwe, opinions

Basic Instinct

2008-04-26T12:55:00.002Z

An inevitable consequence of exile, self-imposed or otherwise, is the occasional twitch of what I think is best to describe as 'pro-patria-ism'.

In my case it manifests as, 'it's nice, but it's better in England.'

Which is odd - because there isn't an ounce of serious nationalism in my bones (maybe it's hidden in the blood?).

But then - musing further, I am aware of a distinction between patriotism and Nationalism ... but, until today, I wouldn't like to distinguish between the two - even though I knew the difference - one I had, one I didn't.

Today I have had a gleam.

I was sat by the Bega (doing a lot of that recently) sunning myself and listening to a string quartet - by Bliss. It was English. I could never in a month of Sundays tell you why - but that piece of music could not be anything other than the product of someone breed in England (birth is not a pre-requisite). Around the same time, a bird 'gave-it-gip' - and that was English too.

The doves on my window-sill billing and cooing in the morning are nice - but distinctly not (my) English - the bloody blackbird who dawn-choruses at some unearthly hour, is; the sparrows here are not quite urban enough to be English: The Scots pine in the park is - the oak, not quite - it's not English oak, its leaf is not quite right (it is actually a Turkish oak), its acorn perverse in shape.

Around this time it dawned - patriotism is about place - it is the place where you grew, the place which supported; the resources and riches; the shelters and the exposures: Patria is the environment your brain processes and patterns in the same way (and at the same time) as it processes and patterns your home language.

You have as much chance of escaping your patriotism as you have your mother tongue.

Shakespeare tapped in to this in Richard II - The John of Gaunt speech ... he lists the physical. Maybe my performance of this earlier this week at the British Library lay dormant 'til the combined forces of birdsong and music released it; maybe the poem itself has added the glue which cements the connections.

And it's to Shakespeare I first turn for the second half of the 'understanding': Henry V.

As it was St George's Day, and as I was in the mood for fireworks, I included both the 'patriotic' speeches Henry gives - but they are not, I now realise, patriotic - they are Nationalistic.

They are 'band of brother', all together now, we're a special 'breed' speeches - they appeal to the unity of men (and it is a masculine thing). It is an appeal to work together, to hunt, to co-operate; the team spirit. The nation as social unit.

As such, I suspect it has its roots far less deep in our psyche - maybe less deep, but still remarkably powerful.

There is a strong element of attack and challenge in it - of beat down the other. It is an instinct which you find both on the football pitch, and in the crowd watching the game - and in the pubs on the Costa del ... whatever.

It is a transferable instinct though - you can change allegiance: A necessary thing I suspect when groups of hunter-gatherers had to split and separate, to move for mating purposes, to join for the big hunt, but stick to a smaller family group in winter with resources scarce.

I can't avoid my patriotism - the sight of a cloud's shadow passing a patch of green is going to spark memories of the moors of the Peak District - and the chill that goes with it, or the sky lark high above; a sparkle on the Bega will re-awaken smells and sounds of a much dirtier, industrial Manchester ship canal; a glass of cold beer cannot but result in a dull ache - a longing for a firm hand around a cool glass of Boddington's.

I can transfer my football team allegiance - Poli-Timisoara's results are far more important to me than any English team (although 'the blues' do retain an allegiance - but that I suspect is linked to the Manchester-patriotic in me).

Technorati Tags: England, Patriotism, Nationalism, Shakespeare, Timisoara

Shakespeare's 444

2008-04-24T15:31:00.002Z

And a photo I've posted before on Shakespeare Experience (another of my blogs). This is my first public performance in a Shakespeare role - and it's responsible for the infection I've never really recovered from.
Strange the consequence of exposure at just the right moment.
I remember this production so well - and the ease with which I approached Shakespeare's work after having this exposure is hard to explain - not ease in understanding - ease in expectation: Faith in myself and an ability to connect with great literature in a way which was personally significant, if not original or profound to a wider audience.
There are also a number of people in the photo i will never think of as anything other than good humans - no matter what time or necessity has forced them to do.
Shakespeare's birth/death day has nailed to it for me - and I suspect others who have encountered Shakespeare's works through a school performance - a little bit of magic.

A kiss

2008-04-24T05:58:00.001Z

and a cuddle (for the secret Miss Terious in Moscow).
Green sprouting things, goose poo, burnt offerings and sweet red dictator's.

Hi Ho; Hi hooo

2008-04-21T05:28:00.001Z

(It's back to work we go).

One more week than Easter (yep - Orthodox here).

Romanians, of course, are a penny short of a pound (slightly mad): They follow the Roman date for Christmas and the Greek date for Easter - meaning a really long gap between.

Which is why the thoughts of a needed holiday seep in.

Yesterday was the equivalent of 'Palm Sunday' - lots of people attacked the willows by the side of the Bega and carried them off to sell by the doors of the churches. Inside the broken fingers and limbs of the poor trees were blessed and then taken home: The cracked willow (?) duly shed tears in the form of fluffy snow seeds.

As the fluff accumulated it took on the look of powdered frog spawn - a central core with the surrounding jelly space - but totally without the heaviness.

The frogs'll be croaking soon.

Technorati Tags: Romania, Timisoara, Spring, Religion

God hookers ...

2008-04-20T11:48:00.001Z

and God's prostitutes.

It's the sort of thing you'd expect clean shaven, short haired, All-American youth to be doing.

As I innocently sat listening to my mp3 player, basking in the sun (no comparison to beached elephant walruses allowed) on one of the red park benches by the side of the Bega, two elderly gentlemen approached - I'd noticed them as I arrived and had them dismissed as innocents out for the air in their gentle decline to '... sans everything .'

Then I spotted the leaflets - secretly rolled, but ominously healthy apple green, curled, serpent-like, in a liver-spot-speckled hand. The owner of the claw looked to the other man who quickly started on the subject of the glorious sun ...

For those unused to being pounced on in this fashion, the sun is a sure give away - in whatever training camp for God-pushers these two had trained, they'd obviously taken the short course ... 'Start with the Sun - everyone likes the sun ...'.

But they'd misjudged their Eve!

"Sorry," - innocence itself said - "I don't speak Romanian ..."

Training camp came to the fore, ... he continued .. 'glorious day', 'wonderful sun' ...

I gave the puzzled look of the well practised foreigner, "?"

Mr Claw, cracked - "He's speaking foreign .."

Silence.

They looked at each other, hesitated - training camp I am sure had said don't give in so easy, but nationalism and a deep ethnic insecurity bites deeper - they toddled off, side by side, upstream to search for a more reliable punter.

On a normal day, I'd have not smiled (almost chuckled) at the discomfort of the elderly - but it really was a glorious day . and the soundtrack to this 'God-experience' foreplay was Dunstable ... Quam Pulcara es.

I am, in case you haven't guessed, as deep-dyed-in-the-wool an atheist as it is possible to get: I have the 'spirituality' of a stone and the only sole I posses is under my feet. But if anything would hook me to the smallest smidgeon of belief in deity, it would be the music of the Mediaeval cathedrals and monasteries.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, God, Hookers, Early Music, Romania

Truely awful customer service

2008-04-18T05:11:00.001Z

When I think of bad customer service I usually think of Romania 10 year's ago - but it hasn't disappeared:

curturesti

For those lucky people who don't know this bookshop - don't go there!
I've tried several times to get books from the place - and, despite the very nice people behind the counter (always polite) nothing gets done. I've wanted two books which I am assured are in Romania - and are being sent from the Cluj shop, via the Bucharest shop to the Timisoara shop.
Week after week - no sign.
I was in this week - talked to the nice man behind the counter - said I really need the books soon (I need them for work) and he said he'd told head office the books were important - but they "didn't care" - I could cancel the order and buy elsewhere.
Now, if there was anything hard about the task, or the books were difficult to get - or obscure I might understand - but they are the set texts for the CAE examination (The Pelican Brief and Lucky Jim) and, one would have thought, fairly standard - indeed, with half an ounce of intelligence, one would expect the bookshop to be ordering several copies in order to satisfy the heavy demand expected for the books before the December examination .... but no,

"they don't care!"

Remember folks:

carturesti

The Bookshop that Doesn't Care:
About Profit, Customers or even it's Reputation!

Technorati Tags: Romania, Timisoara, Bad Service

They flee from me ...

2008-04-18T04:55:00.001Z

who sometime did me seek.

(Link)

Felt a bit like that this week:

Was at the tram stop and saw someone from the university who once was very friendly - she wanted something then - this time she saw me, turned and hid behind her umbrella (in such an obvious panic there was no discretion at all) - then, to cap it, she walked the friend she was with along to the far end of the stop.

Now, apart from the fact I had seen her already, and, at most, being English would have nodded hello,it was not the subtlest of actions and reflects badly on the earlier friendliness.
It also caused me to think of Wyatt's poem - for which I thank her.
It is a good poem.
The trouble is - the poem then made me think of all the other people in the town who seem to be avoiding me.
Or is it paranoia?

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Me, akfarrar, Wyatt

One swallow ...

2008-04-14T16:24:00.002Z

might not make a Spring - but TWO DO!

Walking home from work (a little bit of aggrandisement there) I sat by the river for a few minutes listening to some music and summoning the strength to walk .. when I saw the two swallows dog-fighting over the Bega.

Lifted the spirits no end.

Timisoara in a normal spring is a beautiful place - there are few cities to compare, and the sight of the swallows was all I needed to spot more and more of the emerging green power.

Well, not just green (although there are few greens like the green of willow weeping into the flowing river) - this year purple and its shades seem to batter the eye.

The Magnolia is generally over - but last year the authorities added a lot of new bushes to the riverside park and they are just emerging in wax-like flames. The flowering cherry too - bright purple pink.

Blood of the sacrificed Winter King.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Spring, Swallows, Romania

Black Dog

2008-04-11T19:00:00.002Z

Just watched an episode of 'A Picture of Britain' and came across something I didn't know - Churchill went through serious periods of depression - he called them, 'Black Dog'.

He used art and painting as a way out (not that the art was any good - although a certain patriotic rump will want to lynch me for that).

Interesting to think bad art from Churchill saved Britain from another artist!

Also interesting to think he was able to control his depression using his 'muse'.

Technorati Tags: Churchill, art, depression

Should the Saudi arms probe be reopened?

2008-04-11T12:16:00.001Z

It should never have been closed.

As long as 'national interest' is used as an excuse for corruption there is no moral high ground on which to stand.

The racist "it's the way these people do business" is only slightly less offensive than a British Prime Minister objecting to corrupt practices outside the UK.

Hypocrisy smiling all the way to the Bank of England.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Corruption, Saudi Arabia, UK

Another BBC reject ...

2008-04-11T12:08:00.001Z

So, China wanted the Olympics purely for "sporting" reasons - nothing to do with self promotion and super-power status.
The torch relay was invented for the 'Nazi' 1936 Olympic Games - as a way of promoting German 'ideals'. And this time it tours the world for purely sporting reasons?
The Athletes (at least the western ones) are not going to make a fortune out of sponsorship when they get a Gold?
Get real please.

Technorati Tags: bbc, china, olympics

A little bird ...

2008-04-10T13:21:00.001Z

told me!

The match between my local football team and another across the other side of the country had one of those Romanian Football ref.s - you know the sort - corrupt, deeply, deeply corrupt.
What is horrifying is everyone knows it - and no one does anything about it:
Count the yellow cards, count the distribution - look at the video: Clear as Day.
He'll be ref. for another match this weekend.

Romania has no chance until the people in power do something about this sort of behaviour.

Forget the politicians - we know they are corrupt - but if sport at this level is so overtly bad, what chance society?

Technorati Tags: Romania, football, corruption

Ostritch?

2008-04-10T06:54:00.001Z

Or just wanna-be RICH?

I suddenly remembered me of a fairly well known English athlete who I saw on the TV during the 'torch relay' through London saying - "Keep the politics out of the Olympics."
OK, I thought at the time - but you really are stupid ... then, yesterday, I overheard a discussion on CNN - about why China has a great many 'western' countries by the 'short and curlies' ... economically.
And almost side by side, in it popped - Money: Of course, all these 'doing it for the sport', 'for the honour', 'for the glory' athletes are really in it for the money (not so for many events in the Olympics - but they never get to speak on the TV).
So Paula - keep you hypocritical views to yourself.
When the Chinese government spokesman openly redeclares war on any protester in China - and basically threatens them with extinction, I loose all of the great sympathy I have for China and its people.
When a rich athlete tries to stick my head in the sand and pretend this relay and the holding of the games in China is not a political event, I say - I hope you sprain an ankle and loose lots, and lots, and lots of sponsorship.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, CNN, Economics

Frisco Fiasco

2008-04-10T04:52:00.001Z

Good to see the Mighty Olympic Cttee with knotted Knickers!

The torch relay was a propaganda tool of the Nazi government - they got it right: China has really messed up.

Who said history repeats itself?

Technorati Tags: Olympics, China, Nazi Germany

BBC e-mails!

2008-04-09T05:17:00.001Z

Cor bli'me!
Send off an email to the bbc radio 3 programme, Through the night (to the address on their website) and get a barrage of email back - all automatically generated.
The first was a piece of insurance saying the bbc didn't get the mail!
The rest were repeats saying they got sooooooo much mail they couldn't answer it all so don't be disappointed (especially when they didn't get it in the first place!).
And if you want to complain, this is the address you complain to .....
(I just bet they send a mail saying they didn't get that either.)

By their Library, you shall ...

2008-04-09T05:06:00.002Z

..know them.

Thank you to Shakespeare Geek for the link.

How typical of the Telegraph and it's readership is this?
(Rhetorical)
Very - bit of standard, bit of soppy romanticism and bit of nonsense.
Noticeable not a single Shakespeare play.
But I don't think there are any plays on the list.

Technorati Tags: Books, Newspapers, Shakespeare

Funny old day

2008-04-06T20:18:00.001Z

Just back from the ballet - 'Stars of the Bolshoi' the advert said - and it was right (OK, maybe upcoming and fading in equal proportions - but stars who glittered none the less).
I haven't enjoyed a Swan Lake as much as tonight's since being in Moscow.
What exactly they were doing in Timisoara I won't even try to guess - and the stage only just contained them - but they danced well, there was a professionalism about them which should surprise the locals and they didn't insist on the curtain-calls.
Still, from London Street fighting, through a really good (sporting) football match to the ballet - all in one day: Am I having final flash before mortality?

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Ballet, Bolshoi

Proud to be English!

2008-04-06T12:45:00.004Z

I can't often admit that - but today, as I watch the Olympic torch fight its way through the streets of London, I shout it from the Roof-tops!

It's a beautiful example of the British being 'Mad as March Hares' - Snow this morning, so the weather didn't help - and protesters 'alla the suffragettes' throwing themselves in front of the horses running the flame.

A few idiots went too far - fire-extinguishers could have been dangerous - but the photo-opportunities, the world-wide TV coverage, the chattering commentators swarming around the event can do nothing but highlight the human-rights issues China refuses to budge on.

Interesting no one is mentioning the first time the flame was carried - For the Nazi Games of 1936.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, China, Human Rights

The Admirable Roddick!

2008-04-05T12:51:00.002Z

I cannot but be pleased - my smile is almost as broad - if not as deserved or deeply felt. Whenever Mr Roddick wins I feel a victory for sportsmanship and effort, for hard-work and journeymanship has been achieved.
He is the schoolboy hero lost to modern schoolboys (through their own fault I must admit).
Someone should deify him before the shine tarnishes.

Technorati Tags: Tennis, Roddick, hero

Spring Cleaning

2008-04-05T09:26:00.003Z

Been fiddling with my other blogs.

Bit like Spring cleaning I think - a good scub over and sort out the look. Nice and fresh for a new year.

One I am pleased with is my Book Review blog: Books Reflected.

I soon realised I actually ended up using one of the templates I had been using on one of these other blogs - and had brushed away in a previous cleaning session.

Strange how things go around isn't it?

Also managed to add to it a new bit of "interconnectivity" (a word the dictionary just does not like). There is now a very attractive 'From my Library' box for people to click away at.

All Jolly good fun.

Spring is in full flow outside too - there is a big difference this year from last.

Despite the colder winter (or maybe because of it) a lot more of the trees have flowered - and the smells are distinctly primeval!

I especially like the blast of yellow we are being hit with at the moment - daff.s amongst the lower growing things, forsythia higher up and a wonderful firework of a bush with pom-poms of yellow about the size of an old half-crown.

Technorati Tags: Timisoara, Spring, Blogs, Library Thing, Internet

Connect

2008-04-04T09:04:00.003Z

Bit of a windy day.

Been shopping.

Strange how one sorts one's thoughts as one walks - and I was thinking, amongst other things, of the way the internet is being used to communicate; Far from isolating people, as had been suggested in some places, connections are being forged all the time.

Take the Shakespeare community - we've started responding and 'thinking' together in a way that is rapid and enhancing.

The shortness of the blogs is good too - a quick thought to stimulate - a bit like the way I do a Sudoku in the morning to get the intellectual juices flowing.

Not that things are necessarily instant - ideas pop up several weeks latter sometimes.

And now there is the blog to ling blogs and 'Carnival' - thanks to the Shakespeareans for this one!

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare, internet, community, connect

Eurovision

2008-04-04T05:15:00.002Z

I have a habit of starting the day with music.

Next to the pillow, apart from the book I'll have been reading before going to sleep, and the glasses I no longer can see close distances with, is a portable disc player (and nowadays, an mp3 player too).

This morning I put the earplugs in of the portable - and pressed the 'go' button.

I'd forgotten what was in the machine - I've been using the mp3 exclusively recently.

It turned out to be Charpentier's 'Te Deum': Good loud and distinctly irreligious.

Being half asleep, a strange thing happened - i had visions of the screen of an old Black-and-White TV screen with the Eurovision logo.

The 'Prelude' from the piece was the music used to introduce all Eurovision broadcasts (still is I think).

And there was a distinct feel a pyjamas and warmth and sitting on the settee.

It was a fleeting feeling - the screen being predominant.

That space - when the mind is totally free to wander - between waking and sleeping, had thrown up something from deep in my past - the feeling as much as anything else.

Now, I wonder why I like that tune so much?

Blogger is easier

2008-04-03T20:01:00.001Z

to use than the other free Blogs.

I've been experimenting with this 'add-on' and it is difficult to set up connections with some of the other blogs - and I have several scattered around hyper-space.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Micro-soft: Nothing new there. No way the thing seems to want to let me connect.

I like the way i can add tags and things without too much trouble.

Technorati Tags: Technology, Blogs

Oh Brave New World (2)

2008-04-03T18:23:00.002Z

What I don't believe is that I am blogging away here on a new download which enables me to drop a comment any time I want - just with a click on the bottom of the page.

Scribefire! - a Firefox add-on.

Something I wanted to mention but hadn't got around to doing so was my finally getting to transfer the images from my mobile phone to the computer.

Seems the system can't handle the photo though!

Added it after -

a lovely picture of my hand just after the operation.

Barking!

2008-03-28T06:09:00.004Z

Etymology:: Middle English berken, from Old English beorcan; akin to Old Norse berkja to bark, Lithuanian burgėti to growl

And more growl than bark I must admit: Babel to berken.

Delivered a booster unit to some B1 students and ended up growling and barking at them. Now, Craig over in the comments of Shakespeare Experience suggests I will go mad if .... sorry old bean, too late, milk spilt, cat licked it and now had kittens.

I wonder sometimes at my antics in the classroom - and M&M still pay me.

But, to be colloquial, "Bugger that!"

Doctored again :- re-scanned and the waters are receding, but have not yet de-parted. More weeks on Ibuprofen.
However, my poor weak frame has decided to whimper a little. Bit of poor drumming on behalf of the 'old ticker' (isn't English a colourful language?).

Been Beta-blockered!

Ah HA! Real illness at last - says my vanity (and all is).

'Half a tablet of the lowest dose purchasable,' declares the doctor from Bran (talk about ego demolition jobs).

My mother's chastity is in question - did she milk the milkman and bastardise me? Am I not a true Farrar? Is it any wonder i go rabid in front of the jetsam and flotsam washed into the classrooms I prowl?

Only a Game

2008-03-22T06:10:00.004Z

What, with the strange sleeping patterns induced by excess of leisure, I happened to be 'watching the football' - odd language, English.

Romanian (football, and language) I'm afraid (shows how bad the TV choice is over here).

The referee was hit on the head by a flying object in around the 70th minute: There is no doubt of that - several (thousand) repeated showings highlight the fact.

Response of the man who owns the club (Rapid) - a set up.

The repeated showing also show a number of items on the pitch - being moved off by his own players and his own players (well, the foreign ones) waving and shouting at the fans (Rapid) responsible.

“No – NO! a set up” – spies and second-columnist Steaua (opposing team) supporters amongst our loyal fans – the referee was paid to throw the match.

The referee is clearly ‘hit’ – no doubt: Not a single official of the Rapid team has apologised; instead, without exception it seems, they are pleased.

This is Romanian football.

Also telling is the two day storm still blowing – as the owners of the clubs vie for position on the TV – show after show with a range of Rapid owners and others ‘slagging-off’ the referees.

Does no one here see?

So, the referee stopped the game – not straight away, after he goes to start it again and more things are thrown onto the pitch.

Rapid, and its fans are, hopefully, going to loose not only the match, but also the right to a live audience.

The Rapid players, and management and owners physically attacked the referee as he tried to leave the field –

But the referee is to blame.

Interesting to note, over in the UK, managers (including that of the national team) are setting up the conditions for disciplining any player who shows decent!

Sometimes I wonder if I am living on the same planet.

Anyone who Had a Heart!

2008-03-17T05:57:00.006Z

Thud-ub ... thud-ub .... thud - u...b

No - not quite gone 60s ga-ga: Just had 'one of those weeks'! (and I'll allow myself that exclamation mark - I am on an exclamation mark diet - noticed a tendency to exclaim a lot - so restrictions apply.)

First the medical bits - did a run around on Thursday and Friday after several weeks of really under-performing - dizziness, low energy and breath shortage.

Went to the Doc - she twiddled a bit, sent me to the Doc next door, a heart specialist - beauty of being with a clinic - he twiddled a bit and sent me off to another, bigger specialist - and she charged me a lot of money to put a sonic thingamajig (technical English for something or other) on me, after making me lie on my LEFT side - seems sort of ritualistic to me.

Pretty pictures made - just like having a baby I suppose - and the result (apart from sclerosis of the aorterial (?) valve - nothing to worry about - and the expected, considering I'm English and have that awful English breakfast at least three times a day - talk about stereotyping! (allowed) fatty deposits on the tubes - how is your cholesterol level by the way?) ... is Pericarditis - instant reference to every medical source on line.

Not going to die today. Might in a week or two if the damn thing doesn't go away - so, what is the fantastic treatment - nurofen.

I ask you (deleted !)

Nurofen (Another deleted two !)

For those who don't realise, nurofen is the sort of thing you take for a headache the morning after. How degrading - I've a hangover of an illness.

Not impressed either with my body, or with the Doctor's obvious lack of theatrical sense - how can a Farrar only have nurofen?

She did throw in a need for an x-ray (in case of TB) but that was poor compensation for the damage done with such a piddling treatment.

And, NO, I didn't even show anything wrong with the x-ray.

Overall, a most unsatisfactory encounter - to be repeated in two weeks when this Daughter of Dracula extracts another wapping great fee to see if the waters have departed.

(Actually she was brilliant but that is nowhere near good copy.)

Shortly before the Doc I met up with Sebastian - who is a modern man and has changed his totally unreasonable Romanian surname into a really, really, totally unreasonable Romanian surname by adding his wife's to his own.

He's also got a baby - and talks about it.

And sends pictures over the internet - of the baby.

(Notice - not an exclamation mark in sight! - damn, delete that.)

Anyway, he paid for the strong coffee I had just before going off to have my heart examined (one has to help along the diagnosis some how).

He also mentioned his wife had been chatting away to Tudor Cretu - an old Shakespearian (as in former pupil of Shakespeare High School, Timisoara). His wife does something in television. Tudor Cretu?

Why? - Tall kid, went to be a teacher (deserved all he got in that line) bit 'head in the clouds' - journalist?).

OOOOhhhhhh - apparently he's turned poet and novelist! (! allowed.)

Instantly I remembered what a sensitive and civilised child he was - and then readjusted and re-remembered I'd have kicked him quite happily on several occasions.

If the child is father to the man - he has just the right personality to make a good novelist - it's never the really nice ones who make it - you need to have been a bit of a pain in the first place.

Good luck to him - especially if he can write.

(And he mentions me in his television interview - so can't be all bad, can he?)

Un-British

2008-03-12T08:45:00.001Z

Improve your Britishness by doing something very un-British?

I've lived and worked in several countries where they do this sort of thing - mostly former Eastern-Block and former communist - and can assure you, as a Brit, it really is the last thing to do.

The casual assurance of one's Englishness (in my case) and commitment to 'standards', could never have developed through formal means - you need bread in sausages, Ice Cream made from hydrogenated pig fat and bitter to do that.

(More BBC)

And one they've not published:

What is China's game?

But surely - the Olympics is totally unpolitical which is why the athletes are asked to give up their right to free speech in order to not upset the hosts?

Why does any country participate and spend a lot of money on training competitors etc but for the love of sport and individual triumph?

And surely London bid for the Olympics purely for humanitarian reasons - the chance for those poor athletes to see a free and beautiful city?

China is just participating in the 'norm'..

Sporting Madness

2008-03-09T11:50:00.002Z

I have to say – I am, by no means, ‘Sporty’.

Picture my surprise then at the time I spent watching the damn thing yesterday – a large chunk of a tennis match; almost the whole of one football match and several serious chunks of a second.

Andy Roddick is one of those people you are free to admire – he is not squeaky clean, he needs a shave now and then, and he perspires: He is, however, the perfect ‘English’ gentleman – something he denies occasionally.

Roddick goes out to win, happily demolishing any opponent mercilessly: But you just know he won’t cheat. I can’t think of a single other tennis player I would be so sure of saying such a thing about (although I suspect one or two others might fit the charge).

He won in Dubai yesterday through effort, coming back from a set down, with a steely determination and a glint of charm in his eye. You just want to shake his hand and say, “Well done.”

Not so with the football.

I watched parts of two English cup matches and, although the results were glorious in there unexpectedness, I really can’t say I enjoyed the victories.

The Man Utd game was a disgrace – I didn’t want United to win, but I didn’t want them to loose through such atrocious, unfair refereeing. A hollow victory for Portsmouth. The ‘game’ stops being a game when the rules are abused in such a blatant way – it’s one reason why most Romanian football matches are unwatchable.

Barnsley won – and that is magnificent! The underdogs break through, again; the fairy tale continues.

Saddening is the reaction I feel – more delight in Chelsea loosing than in Barnsley winning.

What a state of affairs when such a spirited and uncompromising effort as the Yorkshire teams takes second place to the defeat of the southerners.