HAPPY SINTERKLAAS DAY!

“A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” - Shirley Maclaine

December the 5th is a very special day in Holland (where I lived on and off for a few months). It is the day when the Feast of Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) is celebrated. This is an annual event which has been uniquely Dutch and Flemish for centuries. St. Nicholas' Feast Day, December 6th, is observed in most Roman Catholic and Orthodox countries. But it is only in the Low Countries, especially in the Netherlands, that the eve of his feast day (December 5th) is celebrated nationwide by young and old, Christian and non-Christian, and without any religious overtones.

Sinterklaas is always portrayed in the vestments of the bishop he once was, but his status as a saint has had little to do with the way the Dutch think of him. He is thought of as a benevolent old man, who is intent on been kind to children who have been good all year, by giving them all sorts of goodies as a reward. The eve of his feast day is observed by exchanging gifts and making good-natured fun of each other. Hence the corruption of “Sinterklaas” (= St Nicholas) into Santa Claus.

The legend of St. Nicholas is based on historical fact. Nicholas lived from 271 AD to December 6th, 342 AD (or 343). His 4th century tomb in the town of Myra, in Anatolia in present-day Turkey, has even been dug up by archaeologists. Nicholas was brought up as a devout Christian by his wealthy family. When his parents died in an epidemic, he distributed his wealth among the poor and became a priest. Later he became Archbishop of Myra, and it is from here that the fame of his good deeds began to spread across the Mediterranean.

Sailors especially venerated him, as they believed he had the power to calm the stormy seas. Young children were saved by the saint from the butcher's knife and he dropped dowries into the shoes of penniless maidens. Over time, St. Nicholas became the patron saint of sailors and merchants, but especially of children. After his death, the cult of St. Nicholas spread rapidly via southern Italy throughout the rest of the Mediterranean and eventually to coastal towns along the Atlantic and the North Sea.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Holland built no fewer than 23 churches dedicated to St. Nicholas, many of which are still standing today. Amsterdam adopted St. Nicholas as its patron saint, and Rome decreed that December 6th, the anniversary of his death, should be his official Feast Day. St. Nicholas' strong influence in the Low Countries (heavily engaged in trade and navigation) was primarily due to his role as patron of sailors and merchants.

However, his fame as protector of children eventually became more important in these countries. In the 14th century, choir boys of St. Nicholas’ churches were given a gift of money and the day off on December 6th. Somewhat later, the pupils of convent schools would be rewarded or punished by a monk dressed up as the Good Bishop, with his long white beard, his red mantle and mitre holding his golden crosier just as he is still represented today.

All Dutch children know that Sinterklaas (the name is a corruption of Sint Nikolaas) lives in Spain. Exactly why he lives there, remains a mystery, but that is what all the old songs and nursery rhymes say. He spends most of the year recording the behaviour of all children in a big red book, while his helper, Black Peter ("Zwarte Piet") stocks up on presents for the next December 5th. In the first weeks of November, Sinterklaas gets on his white horse, Peter ("Piet") swings a huge sack full of gifts over his shoulder, and the three of them board a steamship headed for the Netherlands. Around mid-November they arrive in a harbour town (a different one every year) where they are formally greeted by the Mayor and a delegation of citizens. Their parade through town is watched live on television by the whole country and marks the beginning of the "Sinterklaas season".

The Dutch are busy shopping for, or more importantly, making presents. Tradition demands that all packages be camouflaged in some imaginative way, and that every gift be accompanied by a fitting poem. This is the essence of Sinterklaas: Lots of fun on a day when people are not only allowed, but expected, to make fun of each other in a friendly way. Children, parents, teachers, employers and employees, friends and co-workers tease each other and make fun of each others' habits and mannerisms. Another part of the fun is how presents are hidden or disguised. Recipients often have to go on a treasure hunt all over the house, aided by hints, to look for them. They must be prepared to dig their gifts out of the potato bin, to find them in jelly, in a glove filled with wet sand, in some crazy dummy or doll. Working hard for your presents and working even harder to think up other peoples' presents and get them ready is what the fun is all about.

The original poem accompanying each present is another old custom and a particularly challenging one. Here the author has a field day with his subject (the recipient of the gift). Foibles, love interests, embarrassing incidents, funny habits and well-kept secrets are all fair game. The recipient, who is the butt of the joke, has to open his/her package in public and read the poem aloud amid general hilarity. The real giver is supposed to remain anonymous because all presents technically come from Sinterklaas, and recipients say out aloud: “Thank you, Sinterklaas!”, even if they no longer believe in him.

Towards December 5th, St. Nicholas poems pop up everywhere in the Netherlands: In newspapers and magazines, at school, at work and in both Houses of Parliament. On the day of the 5th, most places of business close a bit earlier than normal. The Dutch head home to a table laden with the same traditional sweets and baked goods eaten for St. Nicholas as shown in the 17th-century paintings of the Old Masters. Large chocolate letters (the initial of each person present) serve as place settings. They share the table along with large gingerbread men and women known as "lovers". A basket filled with mysterious packages stands close by and scissors are at hand. Early in the evening sweets are eaten while those gathered take turns unwrapping their gifts and reading their poems out loud so that everyone can enjoy the impact of the surprise. The emphasis is on originality and personal effort rather than the commercial value of the gift, which is one reason why Sinterklaas is such a delightful event for young and old alike.

A Sinterklaas Poem for my 360 Friends

A funny day, a lovely day,
A zany day so full of play!
To friends, with wishes sung
A happy day to old and young.

As Sinterklaas comes by again,
With Zwarte Piet from Spain,
I wish to you his gifts does bring,
A toy, a book, …a golden ring!

We all enjoy the fun, the laughter
And lots of sweets to eat straight after.
There’s cake and chocolate lots of candy,
But as for me, I’d rather drink the brandy!

Seek high and low, go out and in
You’ll find your presents with a grin:
In sawdust smothered, under beds,
In socks, in wardrobes or in bread!

The kindly saint, he smiles and blesses,
The youngsters’ heads bends and caresses.
To all who’ve been good all year,
Old Sinterklass will give good cheer.

Happy Sinterklaas Day to all!

MENTAL NOURISHMENT

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.” - Mark Twain

Do you like lists? Are you a compulsive jotter-downer, lister, organiser? Do you sit there religiously writing out your shopping lists, laundry lists, Christmas card lists, birthdays lists, invitation lists to parties, weddings, funerals? I must confess that I went through such a phase and then I grew out of it. Still, I do catch myself sometimes writing one or another list. Rarely, well not often, anyway!

For our Book Tuesday today, I give you the ultimate book of lists. It is a book of books. A must for the book lover, a perfect Christmas gift for yourself of any other special bibliophile in your life. It is Peter Boxall’s “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die”. Now just a little simple arithmetic will tell you that if you read an average of two books a week, then it will take you 10 years and three-and-a-half days to read 1001 books! There you are, I’ve solved your “I-don’t know-what-to-read-next” problem for the next 10 years!

Dr Peter Boxall is a young English academic who together with his colleagues at the University of Sussex, chose the 1001 books and wrote 300 words about each in this book of “lists”. About 70 per cent of the editors’ choices are from the 20th century, but surprisingly there is also good representation of books written originally in languages other than English. The Australian contingent was rather under-represented with only 6/1001 being by Australians (Grrrrrrrrrr!). Of course any list of “favourites” is quite subjective and it is hard to find within the list all of one’s personal favourites. However, I was delighted by this list book and I was surprised by the gems of information that the editors have crammed into it.

It really is a book for book lovers and serves to give you a brief introduction to classic and cult books and authors, that you may have heard of but know little about. It contains more than 600 photos and book covers and is a good check-list of what you have read and what you are yet to read. Obviously, one would not read all that is recommended, but it really is a piquant menu for your mental nourishment and one delights in making up an elegant reading dinner party for the next month.

The ISBN for the book is 9780733321214 and in Australia it was published in July 2007. It follows the success of “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” by the same author (also a good read!).

MOVIE MONDAY - MARIE ANTOINETTE

"Let Them Eat Cake..." - Misattributed to Marie Antoinette

Last weekend we watched Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” (2006) on DVD. We had heard conflicting reviews about this movie and it was interesting to watch it and compare it with the 1938 MGM classic “Marie Antoinette”. Visually, the Coppola version is sumptuous and stunning. The cinematography, the costumes, the sets, the sweeping landscapes and the brilliant colour bring the decadence of 18th century Versailles to life. It is a beautiful movie in terms of this visual feast. Kirsten Dunst cast as the ill-fated young queen plays well, although she has to deal with a difficult script and dialogue that totters between modern slang and stilted “olde-worlde” period-speak. Good supporting performances by Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Marianne Faithfull and Asia Argento make the film watchable.

However, there are many problems and things that cannot be forgiven. This is definitely a movie where “Hollywood-does-history” in a self-indulgent and ultimately “box-office success” way so as to reassure the producers of a reasonable profit for their investment. The film has been made so as to appeal to a young audience. One reviewer called it “Gidget Goes to Versailles” and it was with good reason, too. The film concentrates much on Marie Antoinette’s life in Versailles on her occasional escapades to Paris, but there is nothing there to place her fairy-tale existence into context, no suggestion of how the final scenes in the film came about. One can expect a young impressionable person with little knowledge of history to see it and go away thinking: “Poor, sweet thing, whatever did she do to deserve a beheading? She was extravagant and owned lots of shoes and clothes and jewels, but she had to, didn’t she? She was a queen after all!”

I was uneasy about the other devices used to attract the young film-viewers. The anachronistic touches were heavy-handed and gimmicky. Putting in a pair of sneakers amongst the period shoes in the closet, for example? Funny? Hmmmmm. The soundtrack where modern rock alternated with 18th century music was particularly grating. It made the scenes where this occurred to look like some modern costume party. Hot pink dresses and pastries were really an eyesore, and in there obviously to appeal to the young irises that need the stimulation so that they do not wander away. I’ve mentioned already the language and slang used – perhaps the most forgivable of the anachronisms.

The other objection we had to the movie was the superficial way in which the politics of the era was handled. In the scenes where Louis XVI is having conferences with his advisors, matters of momentous national and international importance are treated in seconds and are oversimplified, as though the young things that watch the movie couldn’t possibly handle anything except “fun” and “exuberance” and “joie-de-vivre” and “pot-parties” and “love affairs”. That is really pandering to much of the youth of today, but at the same time it is making the mind-rot that has set in even worse.

The film was over-long at two-hours and there was only so much partying and extravagance and wild dancing and court parading that one could take. Contrasting scenes with what the ordinary people were experiencing in the streets of Paris would have made the movie more powerful and more engaging for me.

The earlier version of “Marie Antoinette” even though in black and white (sepia-tone) provided an equally sumptuous recreation of 18th century Versailles, but was balanced by more of the underlying sociopolitical situation in France at the time. Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette does a good job, although there is some melodrama (but it was the 1930s, remember!) and she is complemented by Robert Morley and Tyrone Power as Louis XVI and Count Axel respectively. This version of the film was based on Stefan Zweig’s biography, as opposed to Antonia Fraser’s biography, which was the basis of the Coppola film. There are flaws in this earlier film, also (history according to Hollywood can be very patchy and flaky), but overall, I enjoyed the earlier film more.

Do I recommend seeing Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”? Yes, I do. However, if you have not done so already do read a good history book on the French Revolution first. And watch it at home with lots of popcorn and a few members of the family and friends around so you can amuse one another when the movie starts to drag.

ART SUNDAY - MAURICE UTRILLO 4

La Butte rouge de Monthéus

« Sur c’te butt’-là, y’avait pas d’ gigolettes
Pas de marlous, ni de beaux muscadins ;
Ah ! c’était loin du moulin de la galette…
La Butt’ roug’, c'est son nom
L’ baptêm’ s’fit un matin
Où tous ceux qui montaient
Roulaient dans le ravin
Aujourd’hui, y a des vign’s
Il y pouss’ du raisin
Qui boira ce vin-là
Boira l’ sang des copains »

“La Maison Bernot” – 1924, Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie

ART SUNDAY - MAURICE UTRILLO 3

The finest examples of this are shown throughout his White Period. In his paintings of the White Period, calm and serenity reign, enhanced by the colour white that Utrillo, better than any other painter, could modulate to such poetic effect. During this period, Maurice Utrillo was experiencing one of the happiest times of his life with his marriage to Lucie Valore in 1935 and an established career – he signed his first contract with Paul Pétridès, who was to be his art dealer until the artist’s death in 1955.

“Le Lapin Agile” – 1910 Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou

ART SUNDAY - MAURICE UTRILLO 2

For most of his life, Maurice would be in and out of hospitals and institutions for drunkenness and mental illness due to drinking. His mother, herself an alcoholic, was a great contributor to the problem. For many years they lived together in Montmartre and in Brittany (where they later had a large country house), the elderly Madeleine, Maurice, Suzanne, and her lover and then husband, André Utter. They drank and fought and scrounged for money, living from the sale of a painting here and there. Utter began to act as agent for both Maurice and Suzanne, and gradually they both became respected artists in Montmartre and with this new found success, life became slightly easier for Suzanne and Utter. Maurice, however, would never lead a stable life. He drank and painted, and when it was very bad would ask his friends to lock him up and not let him drink. He would scream until someone let him out or he could escape.

"Windmills of Montmartre" (1949) Collection Dr. and Mrs. Harry Bakwin, N. Y.

ART SUNDAY - MAURICE UTRILLO 1

For Art Sunday, today, a tragic figure who is associated with Paris and Monmartre, more than any other painter, perhaps. It is Maurice Utrillo, born in Paris on December 26, 1883. He was the illegitimate son of Suzanne Valadon, the model and painter. She was only 18 when he was born and even she had very little idea of the father’s identity. It seems that it could have been any one of several artists in Montmartre, though, the strongest evidence seems to point to a young artist/wanderer by the name of Boissy.

Suzanne adored her son, but in his infancy he inconvenienced her lifestyle and so she often neglected him. His maternal grandmother, Madeleine, raised him. She lived with them and took in washing to add to her daughter’s income. At that time, Suzanne was one of the most popular models in Montmartre. Madeleine started giving wine to baby Maurice to put him to sleep, thus forming his future penchant to drink excessively. He was known as a drunk from before the age of thirteen.

Utrillo got his name from Miguel Utrillo, a friend of his mother’s, who agreed to adopt Maurice so that the boy would appear to have a father. Maurice became “Maurice Utrillo” on April 8, 1891. At first, Maurice resented this change terribly and he refused to use the name, adopting it only when he was 27, finally settling on “Maurice Utrillo, V.” Maurice, was untrained as an artist, like his mother, but he had a raw, natural style. He almost always painted Montmartre and often it was from memory. In this, Suzanne did all she could to encourage him, and he gradually developed his own style.

"View of the Sacré-Coeur from the Rue St Rustique"

WORLD AIDS DAY

“Sometimes I have a terrible feeling that I am dying not from the virus, but from being untouchable.” - Amanda Heggs

The first of December is recognised internationally as World AIDS Day. It is the culmination of AIDS Awareness Week, which begins annually on the 24th of November. Both events aim to raise community awareness throughout the world about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), including the need for support for and understanding of people with HIV/AIDS, and the need for ongoing education and prevention initiatives.

The theme for the 2007 Australian World AIDS Day campaign is: ‘HIV/AIDS: Prevention is everybody’s business’. The theme was chosen to remind people that HIV/AIDS remains a serious disease for which there is still no cure, and that awareness and prevention remain the best defences against its spread.

The campaign aims to increase knowledge about the impact of HIV/AIDS on everyone in the community. It is a health issue that affects everyone and therefore prevention is everybody’s responsibility. The World AIDS Day campaign also aims to inform people about the important care and support services that are available for people affected by HIV, and to emphasise that people with HIV/AIDS need encouragement, understanding and acceptance.

Africa remains the country in which AIDS exacts the greatest toll and it still is the place where poverty, warfare, corruption and misinformation make HIV infection difficult to prevent and treat. Many countries are becoming grossly crippled socially and politically by the increasing numbers of AIDS deaths Malawi is one of these. Hundreds of thousands of deaths mean that an equally high number of AIDS orphans are found in the population.

Here is an AIDS orphans musical group singing out in hope, with their spirit soaring high above their poverty and their adversity. Their instruments are discarded gas cans, animals hides and whatever else they can scavenge to produce a tune. But they do make music. Listen to the music of children orphaned by AIDS and visit www.ministryofhope.org

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

“Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.” - Alan Valentine

Just this week, our state Government publicised its decision to legislate that genetically modified (GM) food crops that until now were banned, could be cultivated freely in our State. This was in response to pressure from farmers who maintain that GM crops are more profitable and their deregulation will save their livelihoods. There has been quite an outcry from many groups in the community, first and foremost the environmentalists and following them the more conservative political groups. The first GM crop to be grown is canola, from whose seed much of the vegetable oil used widely in the food industry is extracted.

GM foods are derived from GM organisms, whose genes have been modified using modern biotechnology. This is a process that occurs in research labs and which creates organisms containing an improved genetic make-up, making GM crops more resistant to disease, higher yielding and more robust. This is a process akin to eugenics (the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavour only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis).

Without knowing the exact mechanism, farmers centuries ago made use of various breeding methods to produce farm animals, grain and plants which were bigger, healthier, tastier or easier to raise and grow. This natural process is not objectionable to anyone, but it achieves the same ends as GM processes in laboratories. Nowadays, scientists are identifying and modifying genes controlling specific characteristics in the laboratory, in a process that is much faster and more efficient than the centuries old method of animal husbandry and crop improvement through laborious cross-breeding and trial/error methods.

The question foremost in people’s minds is: Are GM foods safe for human consumption? The short answer to that is, yes. If you have ever eaten corn, corn meal, pop corn, corn flour, you have been eating a GM food. Only, the genetic modification has occurred over many generations by selective breeding. The wild American corn was small, stumpy, with few seeds and not as nutritious nor as tasty as modern corn. Many generations of farmers improved the quality of corn by selective breeding, which in effect genetically modified the corn.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have concluded that the use of modern biotechnology (including genetic modification) does not result in food which is inherently less safe than that produced by conventional techniques. In fact, all GM foods are subjected to rigorous safety assessments by the industry and regulatory agencies of the places of origin before they are put into the market. To date, none of them have been proved as unfit for human consumption.

There have been reports that GM foods available in the market may cause allergy and have health implications. In fact, all GM foods have been subject to stringent safety assessment before they are available in the market. While it is possible to develop foods containing toxins or allergens by both traditional breeding and genetic engineering, the advantage of genetic engineering is that the gene of interest can be well defined and introduced into organisms more precisely. Hence, the possibility of developing a food with toxins and allergens can be better recognised when compared with conventional breeding.

Increasing world population numbers, reduction in arable land, increasingly variable and unsuitable climactic conditions and scarcity of fresh water means that farming of the future will be much different from that which we were used to up till now. In some situations around the planet, the only solution to overcome these problems is to develop GM foods that are better adapted to these new, adverse conditions and they have a higher yield than traditional foods raised by conventional means. I have no problem consuming GM food, my stomach digestive juices will treat it the same way they do conventional food and my body will derive the same nourishment from it. However, I respect the objections that some people may have to the growing of GM food and its consumption. Their reasons for their objections have to be valid, nevertheless, and not some garbled rant about GM foods being bad because they are “unnatural”. We do not live in a “natural” environment and we have ceased to do so for several millennia.

LEXICOGRAPHY

“Cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity.” – Samuel Johnson

I am going to be very busy over the next few months. The reason is that as well as my regular job I am going to be working above and beyond the call of duty on another project that I have just consented to. Some of you may know that in 2005/6 I was involved in a massive project, that being the editing of the first ever, comprehensive Australian Medical Dictionary. It is the “Mosby’s Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions”, a monumental work of over 2100 pages with many tens of thousands of entries. It was a gruelling task, but at the same time extremely satisfying and amazingly interesting. The hard work paid off and currently this dictionary is the most popular in Australasia.

I have just consented to be one of the three editors-in-chief for the second edition of the dictionary that will be published in 2008. That is the way that scientific publications go. With the break-neck speed of innovative developments, evolving new knowledge and practice in medicine and all of the health professions, it is imperative to keep up and constantly correct, amend, update and improve. So for the next few months I shall be doing that as well as working my day job and I’ll definitely try to keep up blogging away as well.

Writing a dictionary is much more difficult than writing a book, even if it is a scientific book that one is considering. For this dictionary, we have 50 specialist consultants, 20 appendix consultants, and 21 reviewers, and they are all under the editorial control of the three editors-in-chief, myself and two other wonderful (if slightly crazy people, as we lexicographers must be to agree to do this type of work!). I am in charge of 20 consultants (in as many general topic areas), and as well as that, I look after the entries in four specialist areas. This implies that I shall define over a couple of thousand terms in the dictionary myself, and have the final say over the definition of several thousand of other terms. This is quite a powerful position to find oneself in, but at the same time it is a position of great responsibility.

So on this Thesaurus Thursday, what better word to give you, than:

lexicographer |ˌleksəˈkägrəfər| noun
A person who compiles dictionaries.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek lexikon (biblion) ‘(book) of words,’ from lexis ‘word,’ from legein ‘speak’ and Greek graphé ‘writing.’

Or if you prefer Samuel Johnson’s (1709-1784) definition from his dictionary (1755) of the English Language:

Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

Wish me luck!

KARYOTAKIS - POETRY WEDNESDAY

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.” – Albert Camus

To An Old, Fellow-University Student

Friend, my heart has grown so old
Now that my life in Athens is over,
The same life, sweet, as when we partied,
And bitter, as when we starved.

It won’t be a homecoming, like it was in this place
In the celebrations of youth,
But rather I’ll be a visitor accompanying my hope,
A traveller with a dream that faded away.

I’ll stand like a pilgrim outside your house,
And they’ll tell me they know not where you’ve gone.
Another man will accompany your Aphrodite,
And strangers will now live in Irene’s house.

I’ll go to the Samian’s tavern
Where we used to drink, and I’ll ask for wine,
It will taste different, as you won’t be there,
But I’ll drink it anyway to get drunk.

I’ll go towards the Zappeion singing,
Staggering, just as we used to do together;
The plaza will be beautiful, the horizon broad,
But my song will be like a dirge.
Kostas Karyotakis (1896-1928)

Σε Παλιό Συμφοιτητή

Φίλε, η καρδιά μου τώρα σα να γέρασε
Τελειώσε η ζωή μου της Αθήνας,
Που όμοια γλυκά και με το γλέντι επέρασε,
Και με την πίκρα κάποτε της πείνας.

Δε θα ‘ρθω πια στον τόπο που πατρίδα μου
Τον έδωκε το γιόρτασμα της νιότης
Παρά περαστικός με την ελπίδα μου,
Με τ’ όνειρο που εσβήστει, ταξιδιώτης.

Προσκυνητής θα πάω κατά το σπίτι σου
Και θα μου πουν δεν ξέρουνε τι εγίνεις.
Μ’ άλλον μαζί θα ειδώ την Αφροδίτη σου
Κι άλλοι το σπίτι θα ‘χουν της Ειρήνης.

Θα πάω προς στην ταβέρνα, του Σαμιώτικου,
Που επίναμε για να ξαναζητήσω.
Θα λείπεις, το κρασί τους θα ΄ναι αλλιώτικο,
Όμως εγώ θα πιω και θα μεθύσω.

Θ΄ανέβω τραγουδώντας και τρεκλίζοντας
Στο Ζάππειο που ετραβούσαμεν αντάμα,
Τριγύρω θα ΄ναι ωραία, πλατύς ορίζοντας
Και θα ΄ναι το τραγούδι μου σαν κλάμα.
Κώστας Καρυωτάκης (1896-1928)

Kostas Karyotakis (1896-1928) is a Greek poet, one of the most important of the 1920s and amongst the first to write in a modernist style in Greece. There are rich images, often surrealistic, but always rich in expression and adorned by a sensitivity to nature and the emotions it arouses. He was not greatly thought of during his life, but after he committed suicide his poems came to the forefront and were critically acclaimed.

He was born in Tripoli but because his father was an engineer the family moved all over Greece, causing the child to become introspective and solitary. He got a law degree from the University of Athens and became a public servant in Thessaloniki. He disliked his work and loathed the very bureaucracy he was forced to uphold. In 1919 he published his first collection of poems, followed by two more collections in 1921 and 1927. Critics ignored or wrote bad reviews of these collections of fine poems.

In June 1928 he was transferred to the provincial town of Preveza. He wrote letters to friends and relatives describing his loneliness and desperation there. On the 20th of July he tried to drown in the sea for ten hours, but failed in his attempt. The following morning he purchased a gun and went to a little café. After a few hours, he went to a nearby beach and there, under a gum tree he shot himself through the heart.

More of his poems may be read here in English translation:




The poem above set to music by Lena Platonos is sung by Savina Yannatou.

ALPHA TO OMEGA

“Thou hadst better eat salt with the Philosophers of Greece, than sugar with the Courtiers of Italy.”
- Benjamin Franklin

For Book Tuesday today, I am considering an extremely interesting book that I have just finished reading. It is “Alpha to Omega: The Life and Times of the Greek Alphabet” by Alexander and Nicholas Humez. The book was re-issued in 2000 after a successful first run a few years back and it is available online. I was fortunate enough to get a used copy of the fine first edition, which is absolutely delicious in typographical quality as well as well as in content, being printed in wonderful creamy, archival, acid-free paper and using a graceful, easy to read font, the layout well designed and set. Books that are produced beautifully and with craftsmanship, as well as having good content are rarer and rarer to get nowadays.

This is the sort of non-fiction book that I love to read as every page has interesting facts, amusing anecdotes, historical trivia, engaging tangents and a solid backbone of linguistic analysis with the flesh of historical and sociological erudition. The authors take the Greek alphabet (from which the Latin and subsequently all Western alphabets are derived) and dissect it. Each chapter is devoted to a letter, beginning with alpha and ending with omega and beyond (beyond as even three disused or little used Greek letters are covered too: Koppa, Digamma and Sampi)!

Each chapter has as its starting point a few Greek words beginning with the letter which is the subject of that chapter, and these words are analysed, examined in a historical context, with the connections to other languages (but especially to English) being highlighted. The style is witty, amusing, light, digressive, but always accurate and involving, and never losing sight of the concept of the book, which is a tribute to Greek thought and civilisation through the letters of the alphabet, and of course its words.

The authors who are extremely learned and must have enjoyed the writing of this book immensely, demonstrate without doubt that “the Greeks had a word for it”; it, being everything! If you enjoy words, word origins, history, Greek myth, culture, languages or simply a good old amusing read, this book is a gem and I cannot recommend it too highly.

HAPPINESS I$...

“The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.” -
Martha Washington

Happiness… What is it? When do we feel happy? When can we truly say we are content with our lot in life and be satisfied, pleased, joyful? For me personally, happiness is health, a comfortable home, a job I enjoy doing and people around me whom I love and who love me. That sort of existence provides me with many moments of delight, instances of enjoyment, long-term satisfaction and pleasure that is additive with each passing day. Much of that state of happiness depends on giving rather than receiving. I am happiest when I can make others happy too. Happiness hinges on our interactions with other people, it is a state that withers if we are living in isolation, relying only on selfish goals to provide us with feelings of well-being.

And money, what about money? I am reminded of the old adage: “Anyone who says you can't buy happiness just doesn't know where to shop.” But a surplus of money will often only allow us to buy luxuries and superfluities. This will make people go into a consumer frenzy because as Marvin J. Ashton says: “You can never get enough of the things you don't need, because the things you don't need can never satisfy.” Imagine being surrounded by every material comfort and all the consumer goods you ever wanted. Imagine being able to have anything you ever dreamed of having. And as soon as you saw something that can be bought you could buy it. Would that make you happy? Bertrand Russell maintains that to be happy we must always be hankering after something: “To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.” With this I tend to agree…

Having prefaced my Movie Monday entry in this way, let me now consider the film that I’ll talk about: Gabriele Muccino’s 2006 film “The Pursuit of Happyness”. This is a film inspired by a true story, that of Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith in one of his better roles. Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s own son) plays Gardner’s young son very well and the movie is a predictable rags to riches story, a glorification of the “American Dream”, a “success-rewards-those-who pursue-it” story.

I must admit, I enjoyed the film; there was poignancy and pathos in it, there was some humour and even though the plot was conventional and unsurprising, the film could be watched with enjoyment. The portrayal of the relationship between father and young son was sensitively done and one could forgive the heavy-handedness of the plot and the repetition of some scenes (how many times can someone lose and find a portable bone scanner in a big city like San Francisco?). One could even forgive the Hollywood sandpaper and veneer job over some of reality’s harder edges. Upon seeing the film ending, one could rejoice in the personal success of Chris Gardner - at least all of this on first viewing.

However, on reflection (and I suspect on second viewing of the film), the sugar coating dissolves somewhat. I thought about the relationship Chris has with his long-suffering wife and her desperation that causes her to abandon him and their son. The scene where the child asks his father “is it my fault that mommy left us?” caused me to ask, which brand of happiness is Chris Gardner pursuing? Is happiness in his case equated with earning a big salary and achieving success as stockbroker (that arch-stalwart of capitalistic vocations!)? What has he sacrificed to achieve that? At what cost, success?

If a family is united, if the parents love one another and their prime goal is the happiness of their children, then surely their first goal is to keep the family together? Chris wants to be a successful salesman selling expensive (and unnecessary) medical equipment. He sacrifices the integrity of his family in order to be a success in this job. He becomes a trainee stockbroker and often puts his son in situations that could prove to be threatening for the child, physically and psychologically. He realises his dream, he succeeds in his quest for status, prestige and all importantly, money. He too can have a private box at the football game now. That is his happiness.

I think on reflection, what I found objectionable about the movie was that it obliterates the middle classes from its vision of the world. Chris Gardner must be either a down-and-outer living in poverty, or alternatively he must be a high-flying executive earning hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars by advising people how to invest and play the stock market. The world is black or white. Black is poverty and misery, white is luxury and happiness. His love for his son is the only middle ground, but even that is secondary to his first priority, which is his personal “success”, whatever that is, at whichever time. Chris Gardner on second consideration is quite selfish. He is someone who knows what skid row is like and will do anything to raise himself up by the scruff of his neck to the upper echelons where money means everything. Is this what the American Dream is all about? Is success on a personal, selfish level more important than anything else? Is to have money the only way we can be successful, worthy of respect, happy?

The bad guys are the needy, the impoverished the people of Gardner’s class (consider how his friend does not give him the $14 he owes him – although he does help him move). The good guys are the rich ones – they give Gardner opportunities, a perfect day at the football in a private box, ultimately a job and his boss who borrows $5 from him even has the integrity to return it! It IS all about money, isn’t it?

The film is quite disturbing the more I think about it and I wonder how I will feel about it on second viewing. On the one hand there is nobility, higher values, love between a father and his son, the just reward of effort, and the success that crowns the struggle of a worthy person. On the other hand there is the undercurrent of overt, implicit and subliminal capitalistic propaganda. “You too can succeed and be happy (provided you make enough money)”…

Going back to what I started out with in this blog, I think Norman MacEwan sums it up pretty well: “Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Maybe I have it wrong. If you have seen this movie, tell me where I misinterpreted what it is all about.

ART SUNDAY - ST CATHERINE'S DAY 3

The rest of the story has Maxentius calling in a squad of philosophers to dispute with St. Catherine and lead her to apostasy, but the saint instead converts them. Maxentius orders her to be starved in prison for 12 days, but a dove brings her food from Heaven. Then the emperor's wife and 200 knights visit her, and she converts them too. In a fury, Maxentius orders that she be tortured on a device featuring four spiked wheels, but angels are sent to destroy it. At last, he has her beheaded.

The Golden Legend has a rather confused account of how the wheeled device operated, and this confusion carries into the images of St. Catherine's passion. Portraits of the saint usually show her with the ruined wheel, the sword used to behead her, and the palm branch of martyrdom, as in the painting by Caravaggio (ca. 1598. Oil on canvas, 173 x 133 cm, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid).

Because the Legend says St. Catherine was a queen, she also usually wears a crown. Indeed, because she was the only queen among the martyrs of Roman times many images rely on just the crown and the palm branch, sometimes with a book. The book presumably refers to St. Catherine's erudition "in the arts liberal, wherein she drank plenteously of the well of wisdom, for she was chosen to be a teacher and informer of everlasting wisdom" (Caxton's translation of the Legend).

ART SUNDAY - ST CATHERINE'S DAY 2

St. Catherine was widely popular from the middle ages through the 17th century, and her images are among the most common in the art of those years. In Voragine's Golden Legend St. Catherine tells the Emperor Maxentius, "I have given myself as his bride to Christ." This suggestion was elaborated both in the art and in later versions of the Legend, which offer a tale of her miraculous visit to Heaven and marriage to Jesus, who gives her a ring, as in this painting by Correggio: 
”The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine” (ca. 1520, Wood, 105 x 102 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris).

ART SUNDAY - ST CATHERINE'S DAY

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret Fuller

It is St Catherine’s Day today and for reasons that shall become obvious, it is also the International Day to object to Violence Against Women. St Catherine was an Alexandrian princess who was baptised a Christian secretly. When her father arranged for her to marry a pagan prince, she refused. She was condemned to be broken on a spiked wheel (the “Catherine Wheel”) in approximately 310 AD.

She is the patron saint of carters, spinners and spinsters. These workers celebrated her day by drinking hot ale and eating pies:
Rise, maidens, rise Bake your Cattern pies Bake enough and bake no waste And let the Bellman have a taste.

Also lacemakers claim her for her own as she was confused with Queen Catherine of Aragon who burned all her lace and ordered new when times were hard, thus supporting the lacemakers. Lacemakers jumped for luck over a lit candle on this day:
Kit be nimble, Kit be quick Kit jump o’er the candlestick.

The flower associated with St Catherine is love-in-a-mist, Nigella damascena. However, An Early Calendar of English Flowers, associates the laurel with this Saint.
Soon the laurel alone is greene When Catherine crownes all learned menne.

Incidentally, a “poet laureate” indicates the old custom of crowning great poets and winners of poetical competitions in ancient times with laurel. A Bachelors degree is derived from this crowning with laurel, also. Bachelor is derived from baccalaureatus i.e. “berry laurelled”, hence “Catherine, crowning all learned men”. Here is a painting by Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni: “Saint Catherine Disputing” ca. 1380 Tempera on wood, gold ground , Metropolitan Museum of Art)

ELECTION DAY WATER

“What luck for rulers, that men do not think.” - Adolf Hitler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler

This morning, bright and early we walked to our local polling station a couple of kilometres from our house and we voted. It is Election Day today and it is predicted that we have a cliffhanger of a poll on our hands. The reigning conservative government is up for election for its fifth term in office and the arrogance of its leaders is overwhelming. I am surprised that the Australian people are mistaking this condescending self-importance for confidence and ebullience. There has been the usual mud-slinging and scare campaigns and our prime minister is hoping to be re-elected, counting on the grey vote.

Some polls are predicting a Labor party victory and most people I have talked to are wanting a change. Steve Rudd who leads the Labor Party is younger, has fresh ideas and some more moderate, progressive policies. His plan to ratify the Kyoto protocol was good news for me, as our present PM has mulishly resisted to ratify it. In any case, I am not holding my breath and I am avoiding watching the reportage from the National Tally Room in Canberra. I’d rather read about it in tomorrow’s paper.

Now, for Music Saturday, I am much in need of something relaxing, classic and soothing. One can’t go past some Water Music by George Friedrich Handel.



Enjoy your weekend!

Well, I did get to watch a bit of the election coverage after a friend rang us to tell us how quickly the electorate’s swing against the government started to manifest itself. It is now official, we have a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and the country is now in the Labor Party’s hands. The Senate votes are still being counted of course, and even in the House of Representatives some seats are still being contested. However, the Liberal Party has been defeated, and to add insult to injury, John Howard has lost his own seat of Bennelong…

Let us hope that all the pretty flowery speeches of the new Prime Minister elect will be converted into meaningful action. It was about time we had change and the new leader brings fresh ideas for the future…

ACCIDENT

“The Orientals have another word for accident; it is ‘kismet’ - fate.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay

I had a car accident today as I was leaving work to go home. Another car went against a red light and hit me. Fortunately neither of us was hurt and as for the rest, it can all be repaired it’s just metal and plastic. However, as the other car was speeding it was quite fortuitous that neither one of us was even injured. Now, a few hours later, sitting here at home and thinking about it, I have quite a lot to be thankful for. I am well and so is the other driver. I can look at the situation and be able to shrug it off. Looking at my mangled car, I can still smile as there was no injury, no fatality, no serious damage.

How ridiculous we humans are, at times thinking of ourselves as immortal, invulnerable, invincible… In the blink of an eye, in a split second our whole world could collapse, we could be injured, become maimed, our life could end. We think that a multitude of silly inconsequential things are vitally significant and the only important thing is our well-being, our health, our physical (and mental!) integrity…

I felt very sorry for the other driver. She was a young probationary driver, 19-years-old or so and she was terrified. She kept apologising to me, as she was shaking and crying. I had quite a job of calming her down. The police arrived shortly after the accident and I must confess that they were quite good and took control of the situation straight away. Fortunately both of us were insured (as it turns out with the same insurance company) and now it is only the inconvenience of having to go through the process of car repairs and the trouble of making arrangements for alternative transportation.



Still, my mind goes back to the other scenario… How many people today must have been in car accidents and they never made it home? How many ended up in intensive care in hospital, how many lost life and limb? A car is indispensable nowadays, especially in large sprawling cities like Melbourne where distances are enormous and to get anywhere by public transport takes hours. However, the roads with their ever-increasing traffic and congestion, the drivers who seem to be inexperienced and/or reckless, the frustrations of our modern society, all make driving more dangerous.

In Australia, we’ve had 1,184 road deaths in 2007 to the end of September. Many thousands of car accidents with serious injuries, many more thousands with minor injuries. I am thankful that I was in this last group. Enjoy your weekend, be careful not only for yourself, but for others too. Living in a society entails responsibility not only for our own safety and welfare but also for the welfare of others.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you’, that would suffice.” - Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving as celebrated in the USA is one of my favourite Public Holidays. It is a pity that we do not have such an equivalent day in Australia, or for that matter a worldwide Thanksgiving Day. People nowadays, especially in the developed nations of the world I believe, do not take enough time to reflect and contemplate all the wonderful things in their lives that they should be thankful for. To formally put aside a day and devote it to catching up with family and friends, to share a meal and join hands together in common gratitude for all the good things in our lives is a good honest tradition. It gives a positive message to young people and there are lessons there to be learnt about ingratitude and greed. Here is a nice short video on the history of Thanksgiving on the History Channel site.

The really important things in our lives are few and are universally held to be fundamental to our living a full and contented existence: Health, some food and shelter, loving and being loved. Not much, you may think but that is so much! How many people around the world will go hungry today? There 850 million chronically hungry people worldwide and 2.2 billion undernourished ones. How many people will not have a safe place to sleep in tonight? An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless. As for the chronically sick, dying and people with inadequate or no medical care, their numbers run in the many billions worldwide.

Loving and being loved, having family and friends around us that we can turn to for support, for appreciation, for company, for sharing of good and bad times? How many people around the world live alone, loveless, friendless, without a person next to them that they can turn to? Alarming numbers of men (as many as 20% between the ages of 20-65), especially, in Western countries are now finding that they are living alone and hating it.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that wealth and its attendant popularity will bring you lasting happiness. Their effect is most likely small and fleeting. It is important to have a reasonable standard of living, but in my travels I have seen some genuinely happy people who possess next to nothing and who live a deeply fulfilling and contented life. The secret is to be happy with what you have.

It is important to develop good relationships with a circle of friends. To invest in and maintain a loving marriage or equivalent long-term relationship. To have work, yes, enjoy your paid employment, but keep in mind also that people who have some voluntary work have been shown to be more happy. Break away from the monster of selfishness. If you look outside yourself you’ll see that there are wonderful people to share your life with as friends, acquaintances and neighbours.

Contemplate the world around you and think deeply about what you believe. Spiritual beliefs and ethical values, hope and purpose are very important for well-being. To live our life in a broader framework than the “me and now”, to extend our activities beyond a cause greater than ourselves is one of the biggest keys to satisfaction in life. To be happy is to be able to go easy on others, to forgive, to offer support, to show gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are, be thankful for what you have and celebrate the contribution others make to your well-being!

BLED

“It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” Albert Einstein

I am in a very strange mood today – to say that I feel flat is an understatement. My indecision is prolonged and my choices are hanging in abeyance – there is still time. I do not wish to hurry and yet I must decide soon. In the meantime, I turn towards people that I believed to be close to me and they listen silently and fail to give me even the slightest of what I ask, which is a trifle. If one gives all the time, people who take from one find it odd that sometimes you ask for something in return too.

Bled

My heart last night was bled
The drops of blood, gout by gout extracted,
Falling like pomegranate grains
On barren soil.

Seeds of precious ruby
On rocky, drought-stricken land were thrown –
Pearls cast before the swine,
Such wasted toil.

My curious exsanguination
Casually observed by silent spectators,
Puzzled by my libations, mindless of the labours of
My midnight oil.

And yet the heart will fill again,
The pallid body will with rose blooms be coloured,
Ready for yet another sacrifice –
Again and yet again,
Until my final breath expires,
Until I shuffle off
This mortal coil

Sans Souci hosts Poetry Wednesday.