ST BARBARA'S DAY

“All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven his own way.” - Frederick the Great

December 4th is St Barbara’s Feast Day. When I was young I used to really like our religious instruction classes as we were taught the lives of the saints. I used to especially enjoy those saints’ lives where a great deal of torture and adversity featured prominently, and the saint always used to come shining through like some superhero, foiling the torturers’ plans of wicked malfeasance. It was like a religious Batman and Joker episode. I used to retell these stories adding my own “sauce”, making the trials and tribulations of the saint more varied and lurid, the stories more adventurous, and the rescues more phantasmagorical through the intervention of angels, other saints and occasionally quite impressive acts of God where the almighty came in and through magnificent acts of deus ex machina saved the tortured saint. Really good boy’s own adventure stuff!

Well, here is the story of St Barbara, without any of my added sauces. St Barbara was a beautiful young princess who was imprisoned in a high tower by her father, so that her many suitors were discouraged from pursuing her (some authors inject a dash of incestuous jealousy on the father’s part). One of Barbara’s handmaidens smuggled in some Christian books to her and she embraced the Christian faith with much fervour.  When her pagan father learned of her conversion he handed her over to be tortured as she would not renounce her new faith. No matter what the torturers devised, St Barbara could not be harmed and her faith preserved her body. In the end, her father, became so incensed that he beheaded her himself, upon which he was instantly struck dead by lightning.  Therefore, St Barbara is invoked against tempests and storms and she is the patron saint of artillery men and gunners, makers of fireworks and explosives.

In Greece, on St Barbara’s feast it is a fast day (the Lesser Lent before Christmas) and a special sweetmeat is made, which is suitable for the fasting Feast Day. It is called “Várvarra” after the name of the saint, which is “Varvárra” in Greek. Here is the recipe and it is of very ancient (pre-Christian) provenance:

GREEK VÁRVARRA DESSERT
Ingredients
500 gr whole wheat grains
500 gr sugar (may be substituted by honey)
2 pinches salt
2 cups of sultanas
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 cup plain flour, sifted
250 gr chopped dried figs
250 gr chopped dried apricots
250 gr chopped walnuts
1 pomegranate
Icing sugar for dusting

Method
Soak the wheat grains overnight and the next morning, rinse them and boil them in much water until the grains are fully cooked and split open. Add the sugar (or honey) and salt and continue to heat, being careful to add some more water if needed, to maintain the consistency of gruel. Add the sultanas when the mixture is fairly viscous and allow them to heat right through. Remove from the heat and allow to become lukewarm.
Heat a pan and add the flour and spices and stir until it becomes golden brown. Remove from the heat and add the flour mixture to the wheat mixture slowly, stirring all the while until it all has been incorporated. Heat the mixture over low heat, until it becomes fairly viscous (no too much as it will become firmer when it cools – if it is too viscous add some hot water to the mixture). Add the chopped figs and apricots and stir through.
Put in a large serving bowl and allow to cool. To serve, prepare the topping by separating the pomegranate seeds, mixing them with the walnuts and spreading all over the top of the dessert. Spoon into dessert bowls and just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

SECRET WOMEN'S BUSINESS

“Feast, n: A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness.” - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

The Roman Calendar specifies today’s date as III Nones December and on this day the ancient Romans celebrated the festival of the Bona Dea. The Bona Dea was a very ancient and holy Roman goddess of women, fertility, virginity, fruitfulness and healing, and was worshipped exclusively by women. Her true name was sometimes said to be Fauna, which means “She Who Wishes Well”. Fauna was considered her secret name, not to be spoken (especially by men). Bona Dea means the “Good Goddess”. Bona, in Latin, has overtones of meaning implying worthiness, nobility, honesty, bravery, health, and rectitude, as well as connections to wealth (a “bonus”, even now, means an extra gift, of money or other good things). Rites in her honour were celebrated annually and the Vestal Virgins officiated. The festival was strictly off limits to men and was attended only by women. Another festival in honour of the Bona Dea was celebrated on the Kalends of May (May 1st).

The festival was celebrated in May in a specially dedicated temple, or in December in the house of the Pontifex Maximus (chief magistrate), in which his wife and respectable matrons of the city played a key role in the very exclusive ceremony. These ceremonies were very secret and males were excluded not only from participating but also from knowing what precisely the rites involved. The presence of a male in the ceremony was a gross sacrilege and great pains were taken to ensure that it was a “women only” affair.

On December 3rd, in the year 62 BC, the celebration honouring the Bona Dea was held in the home of Julius Caesar, then praetor and Pontifex Maximus of Rome. His wife Pompeia and his mother, Aurelia, were in charge. A rash young politician called Publius Clodius, dressed up as a woman and tricked Caesar’s wife into allowing him in the vicinity of the ceremony. He was caught by Caesar's mother and unceremoniously kicked out of the house! The ceremony had to be performed anew after suitable purifications. A great scandal arose when this sacrilege became public knowledge. Caesar immediately divorced his wife, who was innocent and only duped. Caesar’s excuse for this rather harsh treatment was the comment that: “Not only must Caesar’s wife be innocent, she must also be above suspicion of guilt.”

Publius Clodius was sued and at his trial Cicero demonstrated Publius’ guilt by proving his alibi was not genuine. The two men became mortal enemies over the affair. The rites of the Bona Dea seemed to have fallen into disrepute over the events, and by the early empire, Juvenal suggested that the festival of the Bona Dea was nothing but a drunken orgy for girls.

bonus |ˈbōnəs| noun
A payment or gift added to what is usual or expected, in particular.
• An amount of money added to wages on a seasonal basis, esp. as a reward for good performance: The staff were all expecting big Christmas bonuses this year.
• Something welcome and often unexpected that accompanies and enhances something that is itself good: Good weather is an added bonus but the real appeal is the landscape.
• Basketball An extra free throw awarded to a fouled player when the opposing team has exceeded the number of team fouls allowed during a period.
• Brit. An extra dividend or issue paid to the shareholders of a company.
• Brit. A distribution of profits to holders of an insurance policy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent. (probably originally London stock-exchange slang): From Latin bonus (masculine) ‘good,’ used in place of bonum (neuter) ‘good, good thing.’

DAY AGAINST SLAVERY

“Freedom is never given; it is won.” - A. Philip Randolph

The United Nations has established December 2nd as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The resolution was passed in 1949 to recognise ongoing efforts worldwide to abolish all forms of slavery. We seem to think that slavery is something that was common in ancient Greece and Rome and died out with the emancipation of the black slaves in America, however, the stark reality is that are more people living as slaves today than at any other time in history. A shocking realisation for most people who first find out about this. The other startling and distressing part of this realisation is that most of the estimated 27 million victims of slavery around the world are women and children.

Surprised? Surely this can’t be right, not nowadays when virtually every nation on earth has condemned and outlawed slavery? Unfortunately it is true. Why? Because it is underground, because it goes by names less distasteful than “slavery” and because enormous financial interests are involved. Of the estimated 27 million people in some form of slavery or other, the vast majority (as many as 20 million perhaps) are Indians who work as “bonded labourers.”  This is an illegal system throughout India, but unfortunately is widely practiced. Most bonded workers spend their lives working to pay off debts that were incurred generations ago, according to a report by Human Rights Watch published in 1999. These people work under slave-like conditions breaking rocks, in building, working in fields or factories, for less than a dollar a day.

In today’s globalised economic market and the multinational economic concerns, labour has become a commodity that can be bought and sold. If there is a plentiful supply of cheap labour throughout the world, individuals are increasingly treated as “disposable” to be used, abused, and replaced at will. Complicating the issue is that organised crime control most of this slavery, buying, selling and transporting victims in illegal networks that span national borders.
Even in Western, first world nations, the enforcement of existing anti-slavery laws is erratic and poorly enforced. In developing nations, corruption is widespread with police and law enforcement officials being actively involved in the slave trade. Even if public officials are honest, they may not be able to act as they are “neutralised” as soon as they begin to investigate the slavery networks. The slaves of the 21st century are a diverse group made up of people of diverse backgrounds, ethnic identities and income levels. As a result, slavery can exist unnoticed even in advanced post-industrial societies like Australia, the USA, UK and Japan.

Unfortunately, even if we are becoming increasingly aware of it, slavery is not likely to be ever completely eradicated. It has been an integral part of humanity from the earliest times, and will exist as long as humans seek to exploit or dominate one another. It seem that we humans hide within us such sentiments. We may possess a fine mind, have on our exterior the veneer of civilisation and the sentiments of equality, liberty and fraternity. Given half an opportunity, the devil that lurks within will spring out and dominate, exploit and enslave others…

Hail, Homo sapiens sapiens!

The human is the wickedest animal
(If we can do to animals this injustice
By such an unfair comparison).
A human to another human
Will mete out such horrors
That no self-respecting animal
Will ever do to others of its kind.

The human mind is the most intricate,
Capable of such wonders,
Such sheer marvels!
And yet its shrewdest cleverness
Is used to wreak much evil,
That to be an idiot seems
A heavenly blessing.

The human is the peak of all creation,
Or apex of evolution,
(Depending on your credos);
Compassion, pity, love, affection, tenderness,
Can fill a heart with angelic sentiments.
And yet in most of us
A devil lurks and will often out, given half a chance…

You, human, I salute, all hail!
Murder most foul, exploitation,
Prostitution, lying, deception,
War, extortion, slavery, injustice,
Betrayal, duplicity, evil, immorality,
Are but some of your works!
Hail, Homo sapiens sapiens!

 Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2009

“It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.” - Elizabeth Taylor

The World Health Organisation has declared December 1st as the World AIDS Day. This year it is perhaps appropriate to spend some time bringing the disease to the forefront as worldwide there has been an alarming jump in new infection rates in the past few years. In Australia, there has been a 40% increase in infections since 2005. Last year, there were 995 new cases of HIV infection in Australia, which according to world standards may translate as a low rate, however, it represents an unacceptably high rate by Australian standards.

The reasons given for this increase in new infections is that there is a lack of publicity campaigns about the disease and its consequences, similar to the ones that were initially launched when AIDS first appeared. The younger generation are inadequately educated about the disease and the message of “safer sex” is not getting through to the Y generation. Better treatments for the disease (at least in developed countries) have meant that the disease is not seen as the death sentence that is was in the past. The optimism and the feeling of invulnerability of the young coupled with non-awareness of what life-long treatment with a cocktail of drugs can mean, have led to irresponsible sexual activity and a high infection rate with the virus.

Increased tolerance to “alternative” lifestyles and increased acceptance of homosexuality have also been blamed for the resurgence of cases of AIDS. However, it is often the young, heterosexual and drug users who seem to be most at risk of infection. Educational programmes, public awareness campaigns, advertisements on TV, radio, newspapers and internet are the way that we can hope to spread the message about HIV and what a terrible price to pay for a “free lifestyle” AIDS is.

What is counterproductive and extremely dangerous is what has occurred in Uganda’s parliament today. A bill for introducing the death penalty for homosexuals was put before it today. The Anti-homosexuality Bill will not only apply to Ugandans who live in the country, but also to Ugandans living abroad who commit such offences, even if homosexuality is legal in the country of their residence. The law proposes death by hanging for serial offenders or those who commit same-sex acts while being HIV-positive. The law further proposes that “touching another person with intent to have homosexual relations” is punishable by a life sentence in gaol. And even more outrageous is the fact that membership of gay organisations, funding them, advocacy of gay rights, provision of condoms or safer sex advice to gays will result in a seven-year gaol term for promoting homosexuality…

Africa continues to have the biggest problem in the world in terms of HIV infection and AIDS. In some countries more than 60% of the population is HIV positive. It is those same countries that have no means of effectively fighting the infection, drugs being expensive or simply unavailable, with the disease spread by poor hygiene (especially in a health care setting where disposable, one-use medical equipment is serially re-used). Lack of knowledge about HIV or downright wrong and fanciful preventative and curative strategies (like the infection being cured if a man has sex with virgins) also continues to increase the prevalence of the infection. In many parts of Africa, anal sex in heterosexual couples is a routine birth control measure. Unprotected anal sex still continues to be the highest risk sexual activity in spreading the virus. Even with Uganda’s draconian legislation against homosexuals, the problem of AIDS will remain in the country, especially if safer sex practices and education about the disease is actively discouraged by the obscurantist government.

Perhaps the greatest victims of the disease are babies borne by HIV-positive mothers. In this case, the congenital AIDS that develops in about a third will lead to a short and painful existence for the majority of them if they are born in a developing country. The sight of congenital AIDS in an infant is one of the most heart-rending and pathetic one can witness. The plight of these young children is enough for everyone of us to be active in AIDS awareness and participation in community education programs. Safer sex practices is a given of course, as is the provision of good health services that promote safe, reliable medical treatment and good hygiene practices. The WHO and Doctors Without Borders do some excellent work in providing health care in developing countries. Many volunteers and missionaries who work with these organisations also do their bit to fight against AIDS.

World AIDS Day is a timely reminder to us about the devastating effects of this disease on any person’s life. The virus causing AIDS, HIV, does not discriminate. Any person may be infected and the statistics are sobering. It does not matter if one is heterosexual or homosexual, male, female or transgender, young or old. What matters is being aware of the risks that one takes if engaging in unsafe sex practices (especially if one has many partners), the risks of sharing syringes when using drugs, unsafe medical practices, unsafe body piercing and tattooing practices, and of course, knowing the risks of having a baby if female and HIV-positive.

MOVIE MONDAY - LIES, LIES, LIES...

“A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.” - William Blake

At the weekend we watched an old film about which I had heard nothing until I saw it at our video shop. Quite intrigued, I picked it out to watch and we were surprised by the subject matter and the way the topic was handled, considering when it was made. The William Wyler film is his 1961, “The Children’s Hour”. It is based on a play by Lillian Hellman, who also collaborated on the screenplay. To a certain extent, the movie’s stage origins can be discerned in the film, as is the case with many such screen adaptations of stage plays. However, the story is powerful enough to survive the transit from stage to screen.

There are two main themes explored in the film with a number of tangential topics that are touched upon. The major theme is the vitriolic nature of a lie and what tragic consequences it can have. The second theme relates to prejudice and the way that society ostracises its “black sheep”, mindless of what may befall upon them. A third topic that is laid before the viewer is the “innocence” of childhood and how mistaken we can be if we presume this as a given in our interactions with children. Several other matters that are examined are the constancy of friendship, the doubt that may sow itself as a noxious weed in the garden of love and the price we have to pay for justice. Heavy? Yes it was…

The plot concerns itself with Karen (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha (Shirley MacLaine), who are the headmistresses of an exclusive school for girls. They have been friends since their College days and the school they have started together represents all that they possess as they have poured into it their savings and all of their dreams and hopes. Dr Joe Cardin (James Garner) is Karen’s “chronic” boyfriend, who has been needling her to marry him for a long time, but the school has always taken priority. When Karen and Martha discipline a malicious little girl, the vindictive child twists an overheard comment into slander and accuses her teachers of questionable and “unnatural” behaviour. The scandalous gossip immediately engulfs the school community with repercussions that are swift, crushing and tragic.

The movie is quite harrowing and even though it is a little dated, its basic premises are still relevant and quite topical even today, when we would like to think that we are a little more tolerant and view homosexuality as slightly less scandalous – or do we? I am sure that there still many parts of the world where such behaviour is punishable by death and even in the “enlightened” West, in many parts where Christian fundamentalism is still strong, this “crime against nature” will still raise the wrath of the community and the church.

Because of the supposed innocence of childhood, the inherent maliciousness and cruelty of children is something that will often be ignored in cases where “unnatural” acts are suspected. Better safe than sorry. How many of us would take action to remove a homosexual teacher from the school where our children go – just in case, to be on the safe side? If they are homosexual, surely they could be paedophiles as well? In the case of the supposedly lesbian headmistresses of the film, the community judged and delivered its verdict. An overwhelming “guilty” based on a single lie told by a spoilt little girl ruined the lives of three people.

Another subplot and theme concerns itself with Martha’s freeloading ex-actress aunt, Mrs Lily Mortar. She is responsible to a certain extent for the rumour that starts and the lie that is told by little Mary, but even more than that she is responsible for the consequences of that lie. She shirks her responsibilities and when summoned to testify in the defence of her niece, she chooses not to attend because “she was touring” and because she did not want her “good name besmirched”. Loyalty, family affections, selfishness, irresponsibility, and sheer callousness are played out to their limits and they counterpoise the main themes.

This film, I believe is a forgotten classic and is well worth hunting out to have a look at. It also makes us squirm a little as we question what our reactions would have been. A tragic figure, I found to be Mary’s elderly grandmother who is hasty to draw conclusions based on what her precious little granddaughter ahs told her, but once she recognises the vile slander for what it is, her crushing regret and remorse is quite pathetic. The way that she is brushed off by Karen when she comes to apologise and offer reparation is quite a blow that one feels will have consequences of its own. We found ourselves challenged by this movie and we discussed it at length afterwards. It raises so many very difficult issues and there are no easy solutions…

PARIS STREET ART

“An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

As I was doing some cleaning up of my study today, I came across some French postcards which I had bought in Paris. They are the inspiration for today’s Art Sunday as the art of the street scenes of Paris by Antoine Blanchard, 
(1910-1988) characterise the city artistically, socially as well as architecturally. Antoine Blanchard was often introduced to collectors that visited Paris with a view to acquiring some art, as the foremost artist of Parisian street scenes of his day. Like his predecessors, the French masters Cortes, Loir and Utrillo, Blanchard has made quite an impact on contemporary art.

He was born in 1910 in a small village near Blois in the Loire Valley. Blanchard was encouraged at a young age to follow an artistic career. His parents first sent him as a young boy to an art school in Blois, and then relocated the entire family to Rennes in Brittany so that young Antoine could study there at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts. Three years later, in 1932, the young artist moved to Paris in order to Study at its world famous Ècole des Beaux-Arts. Upon completion of his studies, Blanchard was awarded the Prix de Rome, an honour rarely given to an artist so young.

He spent quite a few years in Paris recording scenes of the city’s bustling streets characterised by glowing street lamps, flower vendors pushing carts full of brilliantly-coloured flowers and pedestrians crowding the sidewalks and showing off their fashionable clothes. His works were an immediate success, and critics have compared his works to the traditional Paris street scenes painted in the late 1800s and early 1900s in both style and subject matter. It is, however, important to note that Blanchard’s pieces are more delicate in brushwork, more generous in colour and capture more movement than those of his predecessors.

Combining his years of classical training with innovative techniques of the 20th century, Blanchard was a trendsetter. The artist’s works executed throughout his fifty year long career are witness to his gradual development in technique, moving from heavy and dark tones similar to those of the old masters, to a new style using numerous strokes of colour lightly applied to the canvas. With immense imagination, profound understanding of colour and light and accuracy in architectural detail, Blanchard has continually delighted the art world with his compositions.

In 1979, his large canvas “Le Café de la Paix” won the Premier Grand Prix at the first art competition held in Paris’ famed Café de la Paix on the bustling Boulevard des Capucines. That work is now part of a major collection in Salt Lake City, Utah. Spanning five decades of ceaseless hours spent in front of the easel, Blanchard’s career was fired by a pressing goal to continually excel. This strict discipline did not, however, harden his work – it proved only to refine it. Along with Utrillo, Loir, Guys, Galien-Laloue and Cortes, Antoine Blanchard is one of the great impressionists of modern times.

Looking at his art, I am struck by the nostalgically dated look of his paintings. It is a contrived style that, yes, does pander to the tourist tastes, but at the same time it captures the essence of Paris. Not contemporary Paris perhaps, with its race riots, its traffic problems and pollution, its crime and bomb scares, but the Paris that most people have in their mind: A romantic city of art and music, good food and fashion, fun and frolic.

The painting above is “Le Café de la Paix”, which charactarises both the style and subject matter of Blanchard.

Have a good week!

A LOVELY EVENING

 

“A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.” - Latin Proverb

A Saturday devoted to relaxation and quietude. One must stop every now and then to take stock and discharge all the tension, all the pent up static. Then this evening, a lovely special time shared, and enjoyed precisely because it was shared…

Here is a song that is appropriate, sung by the great Lara Fabian:
“JE T’ AIME”




Love is like a rose: Its beauty makes us forget its thorns...

CHRISTMAS IS FAST APPROACHING!

“At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year” - Thomas Tusser

This year has flown by and it is hard to believe that in less than four weeks it will be Christmas. The older we get the faster time seems to go by and the years seem like the months of childhood existence. Time is such a relative quantity and its elasticity never seems to surprise me, especially the older I get. Still, I am grateful for many special moments when I can concentrate on the passage of time and as I drink in each second, I am consciously aware of it, savouring its passing, bottling it like a preserve, so I can revel in its sweetness not only in the present but also in the future, when it has become a long-past memory.

Seeing Christmas is approaching fast, this weekend is pretty much the last chance to make your Christmas cake, giving you enough time to let it mature and be ritually soaked in brandy at appropriate intervals until Christmas! Here is a favourite recipe:

CHRISTMAS CAKE
Ingredients Cake
500 g sultanas
500 g currants
500 g raisins
250 g pitted dessert prunes
250 g pitted dates
125 g glacé figs
125 g glacé ginger
125 g candied peel
500 g butter
2 cups of brown sugar firmly packed
10 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup brandy

Brandy caramel
2 tablespoons white sugar
30 g butter (molten and hot)
1/2 cup brandy (warmed)

Fondant icing
1 egg white
500 g icing sugar
60 g liquid glucose
Desired favouring and colouring

Marzipan paste and apricot jam

Method
Have butter and eggs at room temperature. Place sultanas, currants and peel in a very large basin or plastic dish. Chop raisins, prunes, dates, figs and ginger the same size as the sultanas and add to the basin. Stir in the brandy caramel mixture. In another basin, beat the butter until soft, add the sifted sugar, beat only until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating each egg into mixture well before adding the next one. Add this butter/sugar/egg mixture to the fruits, mixing well with the hand to break up large clumps of fruit. Mix in the sifted flours well.

Line a deep 25 cm square or 28 cm round cake tin with one sheet of brown paper and then three sheets of greaseproof paper, bringing paper 5 cm above the edge of the tin. Bake in a slow oven (175˚C) for 2 hours and then at 150˚C for 3 hours, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

When cooked, remove from the oven, brush the brandy over the top cover securely with aluminium foil and leave to cool completely. Remove cake from tin, leaving the paper intact around it.. Wrap the cake tightly in cling food wrap and store in an airtight tin. The cake will keep for three months if stored correctly. It may need a little brandy brushed over the top periodically.

When ready to serve, brush the cake all round with warmed apricot jam, ensuring all sides are covered well. Roll the marzipan to about 3 mm thickness and cover the cake completely, neatening up joins so that it presents a smooth, flawless surface. Beat some egg white and cover the almond paste brushing all surfaces well. Make the fondant icing by mixing all ingredients well and rolling out to 5 mm thickness. Cover the cake, neatening up the joints once again by coating the hand with icing sugar and smoothing the surfaces.

Decorate as desired.

ON BEING THANKFUL...

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” – Johannes A. Gaertner

Today is a very special day, an annual national holiday in the United States, which I think more countries around the world should imitate. A day that celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year in a family environment, where there is time to stop, reflect and be truly thankful for all the good things that we enjoy in our life often without a second thought, is a great opportunity to exercise some gratitude. We have forgotten being grateful in our everyday lives and we don’t say “thank you” and really mean it, often enough. A family sitting around a table and enjoying a meal together, enjoying each other’s company and thanking God, providence, each other and life for all the benefits they enjoy on a daily basis is a wonderful thing.

Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modelled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism. Plymouth's Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as served the company almost a week.” They were then surprised by about 90 Wampanoag Indians who appeared at the settlement's gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialised without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl the Pilgrims had caught as well as fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Indians lost their lives.

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgivings,” days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. After 1798, the new U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the states; with some objecting to the national government's involvement in a religious observance, especially Southerners. Thanksgiving Day did not become an official holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. In the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine “Godey's Lady's Book”, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of President Abraham Lincoln. On Oct. 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter, and the date chosen, with few exceptions, was the last Thursday in November. After a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November (which is not always the last Thursday) as Thanksgiving Day. As the country became more urban and family members began to live farther apart, Thanksgiving became a time to gather together. The holiday associated with Pilgrims and Native Americans has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America's opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.

In the colonial period, days of thanksgiving were also celebrated in Canada. They arose from the same European traditions, in gratitude for successfully completed journeys, attainment of peace, and plentiful harvests. The earliest celebration was held in 1578, when Martin Frobisher held a ceremony in present-day Newfoundland to give thanks for a safe arrival in the New World. In 1879 Parliament established a national Thanksgiving Day on November 6; the date has varied over the years. Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends. Be truly grateful for all good things in your life. There is plenty to be thankful for!

gratitude |ˈgratəˌt(y)oōd| noun
The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness: She expressed her gratitude to the committee for their support.
ORIGIN: Late Middle English: From Old French, or from medieval Latin gratitudo, from Latin gratus ‘pleasing, thankful.’

 

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: Either she's a feminist or a masochist.” 
- Gloria Steinem

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. By resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 25th of November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organisations and non-government organisations to schedule activities designated to raise public awareness of this widespread problem on this day. Women's activists have marked the 25th of November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

Violence against women and girls is a worldwide problem of enormous proportions. Based on what country data that is available, up to 70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime. Unfortunately, the majority of this violence comes from husbands, intimate partners or someone else they know. Among 15–44 year-old women, acts of violence cause more death and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, violence against women devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development. It takes many forms and occurs in many places — domestic violence in the home, sexual abuse of girls in schools, sexual harassment at work, rape by husbands or strangers, in refugee camps or as a tactic of war.

The statistics are frightening:
• In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by intimate partners.
• In South Africa, a woman is killed every 6 hours by an intimate partner.
• In India, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders in 2007.
• In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.
• Women and girls constitute 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually, with the majority (79 percent) trafficked for sexual exploitation.
• Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting, with more than 3 million girls in Africa annually at risk of the practice.
• More than 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18, primarily in South Asia (31.1 million) and sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 million).
• An estimated 150 million girls under 18 suffered some form of sexual violence in 2002 alone.
• As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical and/or sexual violence during pregnancy, which increases the likelihood of having a miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion. Up to 53 percent of women physically abused by their intimate partners are being kicked or punched in the abdomen.
• In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.
• In Ecuador, adolescent girls reporting sexual violence in school identified teachers as the
perpetrators in 37 percent of cases.
• Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
• In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence, mostly involving women and girls, have been documented since 1996, though the actual numbers are considered to be much higher.
• Domestic violence alone cost approximately US$1.16 billion in Canada19 and US$5.8 billion in the United States.
In Australia, violence against women and children costs an estimated US$11.38 billion per year.
• Between 40 and 50 percent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace.
• In the United States, 83 percent of girls aged 12–16 experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools.

This is the 21st century and we have attained a level of civilisation unprecedented in human history. Yet in some areas of our existence we are as backward as the half-animal ancestral hominids of the cartoons, where the male of the species subdues the female by violence and drags her to his dark cave by the hair. Violence of any form is the sign of a weak and stupid person. Violence against women, especially by men, is cowardly and demeaning, a sign of an unmanly man. My poem today takes its theme from the day and was inspired by a photograph of a victim of domestic violence on a poster I saw at the train station this morning…

Fairy Tale

She’ll cry herself to sleep again tonight,
While nursing bruises and her broken heart.
She lies huddled in her bed and sobs,
While picking up small fragments of her ego.

He snores beside her and her pain ignores,
His rage all spent, his violence a convenient outlet
For his little mind, his macho cowardice,
His puny job, his wilting manhood.

She would run away if she could, so far away!
She’d take her children and she’d go;
If she could save enough – courage and money –
If she had a job, a friend, some family…

He banks on her weakness, her dependence,
Her once-upon-a-time love, her once warm kisses.
He takes advantage and he blackmails,
He has the power, although the weaker of the two.

She wipes the drops of blood that trickle from her nose;
It could be broken, but no more than her dreams.
The pain in her body less than the pain in her soul,
Her patience exhausted, her love betrayed.

He’ll drink and hit again tomorrow,
He’ll laugh and shout and make her bleed.
She’ll sharpen the bread knife one of these days,
This fairy tale has no happy ending.

In Australia, we commemorate this day as White Ribbon Day. More details can be found here.

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday.

ON WORKING MORE THAN YOU OUGHT TO...

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.” - Marian Wright Edelman

I’ve had a really long day at work today, getting in at about 7:00 am and coming back home about 6:00 pm. Although this is not a typical day for me, it is usual for me on all days to work long hours and often my work comes home with me at weekends. I have much to do and many people depend on my activities, so things must be ready on time, ever time. Add to that the invariable crises that I need to deal with and that explains why I have to work so many hours. This is an expectation that most Australians have to live with in their place of employment. The Australia Institute has done a study on the work habits of Australians and they have published the results of surveys they have conducted, with some amazing (though not surprising) results.

On average, the typical Australian full-time worker does 70 minutes of unpaid overtime per day, Translating this to a yearly figure gives us 33 eight-hour days (over six weeks!). This is enough to nullify annual leave entitlements. Who is to blame? The Institute maintains it’s the workers themselves, who take pride in their work and do whatever they need to do to get the job done. What about the managers and bosses? They are often victims themselves, but some who work normal hours may not realise that their staff are overworked and putting so much time in the interests of the company. Peer pressure is to blame as well, and people who leave right on the dot are often frowned upon by the more “conscientious” workers.

Overtime is something that in some jobs is acknowledged and rewarded, but in other situations, unacknowledged and unrewarded overtime is part of the job. The eight-hour work-day that was won with such difficulty all of those decades ago is nowadays being eroded rather insidiously. The result of all this is of course an increased risk of health problems, relationship breakdown, alienation of family and friends. Someone who works nine and ten hour days with work brought home at the weekend will not be someone who is relaxing adequately and contributing to family life, nor able to be an active member in leisure and relationship-building activities.

Tomorrow has been declared as National Australian “Go Home on Time Day”. The Australia Institute is encouraging people to log on in their site and leave their email contact details there. You nominate the time you wish to be sent an email reminder with an attached skip of paper that tells you (and your boss!) that it is time to go home on time!

In terms of peer pressure, it is perhaps a good idea to start and educational program that gets people to be more efficient and be better time managers. Although many people are spending more time working, are they doing it as effectively as they can? Perhaps we may need to inculcate our workers with a culture of working to capacity and efficiently within the bounds of the eight-hour work day, and training them to frown on people who do unpaid overtime as inefficient, or as victims of a boss who takes advantage of them…

Tomorrow at least, if not every day from now on, GO HOME ON TIME!

BLACK COMEDY FOR MOVIE MONDAY

“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.” - George Bernard Shaw

Do vile, abominable, contract killers who are responsible for heinous murders committed in cold blood have feelings? Does someone who is used to destroying life have a conscience? Is there difference between killing an adult and a child? Is there a difference between killing a stranger and an acquaintance? If you are a killer can you have friends? Can a contract killer repent, reform, move on? These are questions that the film we watched at the weekend raised. It was a challenging and difficult film to watch although it was advertised as a comedy. A black comedy, but nevertheless a comedy, and there are a few chuckles in there. However, most of the film I found disturbing and deeply thought-provoking.

It was Martin McDonagh’s 2008 film, “In Bruges”. Firstly, as the title suggests, the locations of the film are absolutely breathtaking. It is all shot in the Belgian city of Bruges (Brugge), the best preserved medieval town in northern Europe with a population of about 200,000. Famous buildings in the city that are showcased in the movie include the old Market Hall (13th–15th century), with a famous 47-bell carillon in the belfry, and the Town Hall (1376–1420). The Chapel of the Holy Blood (14th–16th century), which contains the Chapel of St. Basil (1150) and a gold casket that is reputed to hold a few drops of Christ’s blood brought from the Holy Land in 1150. Other notable churches include the Cathedral of St. Salvator (12th–16th century); the Church of Notre Dame, containing the tombs of Mary of Burgundy and her father, Charles the Bold; and the Church of Jerusalem (1428), a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Notable among numerous museums with collections of Flemish art and history are the Memling Museum in the 12th-century Hospital of St. John, the Groeninge Museum, and the 15th-century Gruuthuse mansion. The béguinage (a retreat for secular nuns; 1245) is one of the finest in Belgium (ah, wonderful memories of our visit in Bruges!).

The cinematography is beautiful and shows off the naturally photogenic city in its best light, gruesome plot notwithstanding! This is a characteristic feature of the film – contrasts. Beauty is counterpoised against extreme horror, violence against tenderness, hate against love and affection, conscience against immorality. Yes, there is blood and there is foul language, but this is a movie about killers, remember? There is drug use and horrible murders, people who have no scruples whatsoever, or do they? The result is very complex, challenging and confronting film, which manages despite its subject matter and unlikely characters to draw us in so that we consider the moral questions that I asked at the beginning of the blog.

The plot, very briefly and without giving too much away, concerns two contract killers, Ken and Ray, the former older and very experienced, the other young and just having carried out his first (and very botched!) first job. They are sent by Harry, their boss, to Bruges for a couple of weeks until “things settle down” back home across the channel. Harry, however, has other plans for Ray and charges Ken to carry out his wishes. “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” suits what happens next to a tee, and the situation forces Harry to come to Bruges to put things “right”. Things keep on going wrong, very wrong! Add to everything a seductive, local, young woman who is a drug dealer, an ex-boyfriend, some Canadian tourists, a dwarf and the plot thickens quite considerably and comes to a terrifyingly tense climax…

Colin Farrell as Ray does a great job as the antihero torn between an attack of conscience and duty. Brendan Gleeson as Ken is a fine supporting role and Ralph Fiennes is very convincing as the horribly vicious Harry. Clémence Poésy is a fresh-faced beauty who plays the local girl and the dwarf is well-played by Jordan Prentice. The direction is tight and well-handled by Martin McDonagh, who also wrote the script. This was a film that went against convention in many ways, arousing in the viewer conflicting feelings. It was hard to come to terms with feeling sympathy towards contract killers, but the film is after all about redemption so the revulsion one initially, feels turns to pity, turns to sympathy, turns to revulsion in quick succession.

I recommend the film most highly, but be warned, this is a violent and confronting movie. The accents are quite thick and it took us quite a bit of time to get used to them. There were no subtitles or captions on the Bluray disc we watched and we felt quite miffed! Felt short-changed and cheated, in fact! We come to expect the subtitles now and wonder how we did without them for so long in the old days of the VHS tape!

ART SUNDAY - CAILLEBOTTE

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint’, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

The illustration for yesterday’s blog is by today’s artist whose work and life I am showcasing for today’s Art Sunday offering. He is Gustave Caillebotte, born August 19th, 1848, died February 21st, 1894. He was a French painter and a generous patron of the impressionists, whose own works, until recently, were neglected. He was an engineer by profession, but also attended the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He met Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1874 and helped organise the first impressionist exhibition in Paris that same year.

He participated in later shows and painted some 500 works in a more realistic style than that of his friends. Caillebotte's most intriguing paintings are those of the broad, new Parisian boulevards. The boulevards were painted from high vantage points and were populated with elegantly clad figures strolling with the expressionless intensity of somnambulists, as in Boulevard Vu d'en Haut (1880; private collection, Paris). Caillebotte's superb collection of impressionist paintings was left to the French government on his death. With considerable reluctance the government accepted part of the collection…

In 1881 Caillebotte acquired a property on the banks of the Seine near Argenteuil, and moved there permanently in 1888. He stopped exhibiting his work at age 34 and devoted himself to gardening and to building and racing yachts. He was able to see his frieds and family at his property, and engaged in lively discussions on art, politics, literature, and philosophy. Although he never married, he had a serious relationship with Charlotte Berthier, a woman eleven years his junior and of the lower class, to whom he left a sizable annuity on his death.

In the early 1890s, Caillebotte stopped painting large canvases because of poor health. He died of pulmonary congestion while working in his garden at Petit-Gennevilliers in 1894 at age 45. After his death, Caillebotte's reputation as a painter was superseded by his reputation as a supporter of the arts, however, seventy years after his death, art historians began to re-evaluate his artistic contributions  and he is now regarded as a significant painter in his own right.

Above is his painting “Rue Halevy Seen from the Sixth Floor”, painted in 1878. It shows a favourite theme of his, an architectural extravaganza of a Paris boulevard, seen from above and with a highly characteristic perspective that is used in many of his paintings. I particularly like the violets and yellows in this painting that are set off by the more neutral creams and greys. It is more impressionistic than some of his other more realistic works, such as the “Paris Street, Rainy Day”, of 1877 that I featured in yesterday’s blog.

Have a good week!

RAINY SATURDAY

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” - Langston Hughes

After a spell of hot weather we have had some welcome coolness and rain today. As I write this I can hear the blessed rain falling outside and I can almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief. Today was a nice quiet day with some shopping, a trip to the library and then a quiet afternoon before going out to dinner.

We went to the Dalmatino Restaurant in Port Melbourne (http://www.dalmatino.com.au/), which is a Croatian eatery on Bay St, right in the centre of the prime retail strip. The food was fine and the service good, although the range of tastes on offer not particularly “chic” or “sophisticated” as is claimed on the website. Nevertheless the company is what makes a good dinner for me and the food is of secondary importance.

Seeing the rain is falling, how about some rainy Chopin for Song Saturday? Here is the “Raindrop” Prélude in D Flat.



Enjoy your weekend!

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.” - Rabindranath Tagore

Today is Universal Children’s Day, as deemed by UNICEF and the General Assembly of the UN. By resolution 836(IX) of the 14th of December 1954, the General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children’s Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. It recommended that the Day was to be observed also as a day of various activities devoted to promoting the ideals and objectives of the Charter and to promote the welfare of children of the world. The Assembly suggested to governments that the Day be observed on the date and in the way which each considers appropriate. The date of 20th November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, in 1989.

While it may seem impossible to us nowadays not to recognise those years of youth when one was free to play with friends, be mischievous without any real adult culpability, and eat sweets and drink soft drinks until we became sick, the concept of childhood is relatively new. Before the 17th century, there was no real concept of childhood as such. Children were regarded as “little versions of adults” and were at the very bottom of the social pecking order (and therefore were unworthy of consideration). As the concept of childhood emerged, children developed distinctive dress, music, games and entertainment, slang, and behaviours. Today some believe that the boundaries of childhood culture have once again become blurred. Neil Postman, for example, argues in “The Disappearance of Childhood” that the media has broken down most of the distinctions between children and adults. This may to a certain extent be true, but we have not regressed to the point of sending children back down mine shafts because they are small and nimble, nor do we consider children as the lowest of the low in the social scale.

Seeing that it is Universal Children’s Day today but also Food Friday, what better choice of topic than confectionery? Confectionery is a processed food based on a sweetener (typically sugar or honey), to which are added other ingredients such as flavourings and spices, nuts, fruits, fats and oils, gelatine, emulsifiers, colourings, eggs, milk products, and chocolate or cocoa. Confectionery, usually called candy in the U.S., or sweets in Great Britain, can be divided into two kinds according to their preparation and based on the fact that sugar, when boiled, goes through different stages from soft to hard in the crystallisation process. Typical of soft (that is, crystalline candy) is a smooth, creamy, and easily chewed texture, examples of which are fondants (the basis of chocolate creams) and fudge. Typical of the hard, non-crystalline candies are toffees and caramels. Other favourite confections include nougats, marshmallows, the various forms of chocolate (bars or moulded pieces, sometimes filled), pastes and marzipan, fairy floss (spun sugar, cotton candy), sugar-coated popcorn, liquorice, and chewing gum.

Sugar cane and sugar probably originated in India and the first sugar-based sweets developed in that country. Sugar as a sweetener spread to the West via the Middle East and Arabia. The Arabic word for confectionery was qandi, from qand, a lump of cane sugar. It came down to us, virtually intact, through successive European languages: Old Italian (zucchero candi), Old French (sucre candi), Middle English (sugre candi). In the 1800s, Americans called it “sugar candy”. Now, it’s just candy, completing the journey back to its linguistic origins…

History tells us that confectionery was always considered a delectable food item, worthy enough to be used as an offering to the gods of ancient Egypt. Ancient Greeks had a sweet tooth and good honey being readily available, was widely used in making all sorts of confections. Honey remained as the only readily available sweetener in Europe until the introduction of sugar in medieval times. Among the oldest types of candies are liquorice and ginger from the Far East and marzipan from Europe. Candy-making did not begin on a large scale until the early 19th century, when with the development of special confectionery machinery it became a British specialty. In the U.S. the candy industry began to grow rapidly during the mid-19th century with the invention of improved machinery and a cheaper process for powdering sugar. In 1911 the first candy bars were sold in baseball parks; by 1960 candy bars made up almost half of U.S. confectionery production. By the 1980s annual world production of confectionery totalled many millions of kilograms.

Confectionery in general is deemed children’s food par excellence, just as toys in general are labelled for child’s play. However, adults lead the way in candy consumption, according to the National Confectioners Association, adults over age 18 consume 65 percent of all candy produced and marketed (it should be noted that considerable proportion of adults play children’s games too!). Candy, nevertheless, spans a wide variety of sugary, gooey, fruity, chewy, crystalline, and chocolaty confections, and different categories and types of candy are more suited for, and prone to either adult or childhood consumption. Obviously, there is common ground also and some confections are equally enjoyed by children and adults.

I am reading an excellent book by Tim Richardson called “Sweets – A History of Temptation”, which is great reading if you are interested in confectionery and how it developed from a ancient times to the present day. And to round the blog off, here is a recipe for some candy:

NO-COOKING FONDANT CHOCOLATES
Ingredients

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
8 cups of pure icing sugar
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
A few drops of different flavourings (e.g. cherry, orange, apricot, coconut, etc)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Various nuts, coconut, glacé cherries, candied peel, dried apricots, etc
Food colouring
Enough dark cooking chocolate to cover the fondants (about 800 g)

Method
Line a couple of baking trays with waxed paper.
Combine the butter with 4 cups of sugar and the milk in a large bowl. Mix well, adding the vanilla extract and the salt.
Add the remaining sugar gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon and eventually kneading until the mixture is well blended.
Divide the mixture into as many parts as flavour you wish to have and mix into each batch a little of the appropriate colour, flavour and additive (e.g. red food colouring, cherry flavour and glacé cherries in the cherry fondants).
With clean, buttered hands form the mixture into small balls and place on the prepared baking tray. Allow to set for several hours (you may place in the refrigerator to hasten the process).
Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie. Using a dipping spoon, dip the prepared balls in the chocolate and allow to set at room temperature on the baking trays.
Enjoy!

ROBOT RAPE

“A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. [The Zeroth Law of Robotics]”
“A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. [The First Law of Robotics]”
“A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. [The Second Law of Robotics]”
“A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. [The Third Law of Robotics]” – Isaac Asimov

The pace at which technology is advancing is phenomenal. If I think of the latest developments in the last thirty years, it is quite mind-boggling when  consider what has been developed. Think about it: CDs, DVDs, LCD TVs, mobile phones, smart phones, portable computers, biotechnology, molecular biology, the human genome project, advances in cancer therapy, leaps forward in immunology, optical fibre technology, nanotechnology, robotics, advances in solar energy, the emergence of the internet, virtual reality, telemedicine, digital cameras, laser eye surgery, GPS, digital media, cloning of mammals, IVF, WiFi, iPods, the large hadron collider, commercial space flights, etc, etc, etc…

It appears that the pace of technological and scientific development is ever-increasing. In ten years time the number of new developments will have greatly surpassed all that was developed in the past 50 years. New technology gives us the technology to advance even further into the realms of what we now consider science fiction.

The subject of robots has fascinated humans from ancient times. The ancient Greeks had many myths and legends about robots, one of the most famous being that of the guardian robot of Crete, Talos. Talos was a giant, bronze automaton made by the divine smith Hephaistos. Zeus the king of the gods, presented Talos to his lover Europa, as her personal protector, after delivering her to the island of Crete. Talos was given the task of patrolling the island, circling it three times in a day, and driving pirates from the shore with volleys of rocks or a fiery death-embrace. He was eventually destroyed by the Dioskouroi with the aid of the magic of the witch Medea, when he tried to prevent the Argonauts from the landing on the island. Indian mythology also refers to robots, as do other cultures around the world.

We already have robots that we use in our factories and the toy stores offer our children very sophisticated little machines that seem almost sentient. In the next ten years robotic technology will become so advanced and humanoid that we shall soon have them walking amongst us, looking so very life-life that we may have difficulty in distinguishing them from biological organisms. Cyborgs or electronically and mechanically enhanced humans may also be within the realm of the rapidly achievable.

While we may think that this technology will liberate humans and make our lives easier, it may also create a host of other issues. We may be grateful for an uncomplaining robot at our beck and call doing those all those tiresome, boring chores and coping with the endless drudgery without complaint. We may become dependent on the robot who looks after an elderly or sick relative with the knowledge and care of an accomplished doctor. We may even see robots that are manufactured to specification so that we find in them the ideal sexual partner who will satisfy our every desire and whim. An army of robots slaves to serve humanity…

However, as robots become more sophisticated and the circuitry that controls their actions and behaviour becomes increasingly complex through the use of neural networks and “learning” self-correcting circuits, we may see the development of robots that can “think” and “feel”. The concept of a robot that is indistinguishable from humans, then begs the question, does this robot have human rights? Especially so if the robot has developed consciousness and may be in a position to demand human rights!

Anna Russel at the University of San Diego has considered this topic and writes in an article titled “Blurring the love lines”: “While this humanoid is a giant leap forward technologically, if a self-aware, super-intelligent, thinking, feeling humanoid is developed, the legal system will be hard-pressed to distinguish this creature legally from human actors on grounds not stemming from a religious or moral prejudice.”

Once again, in the very near future we shall be faced with huge moral and ethical dilemma. We are still struggling to come to terms with unresolved issues surrounding IVF technology, the fate of human fertilised ova and embryos, human cloning, and we are still ambivalent over issues such as abortion, many human rights questions and unresolved issues over race, religion and sexuality. We are now poised to add to this burden another potential mine-field, about to open another ethical, moral and legal can of worms…

You’d better watch out, your sex robot could sue you for rape, represent themselves faultlessly in court and win the case, throwing you in gaol and taking all your property in damages!

robot |ˈrōˌbät; ˈrōbət| noun
A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.
• (Especially in science fiction) a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically.
• Used to refer to a person who behaves in a mechanical or unemotional manner: Terminally bored tour guides chattering like robots.
ORIGIN from Czech, from robota ‘forced labor.’ The term was coined in K. Čapek's play R.U.R. ‘Rossum's Universal Robots’ (1920).

THE SWEETNESS OF HONEY, AND THE STING OF BEES

“At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.” – Plato

For Poetry Wednesday I continue Sunday’s theme of Eros, the ancient Greek god of love (the Cupid of the Romans) and his misadventures. Theocritus (born ca 300, Syracuse, Sicily - died 260 BC) the Greek poet supplies us today’s poem, it being his 19th Idyll. Little is known of his life and his surviving poems consist of bucolics and mimes, set in the country, and epics, lyrics, and epigrams, set in towns. The bucolics, his most characteristic and influential works, introduced the pastoral convention into poetry and were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much Renaissance poetry and drama. Theocritus’s best-known idylls include “Thyrsis”, a lament for Daphnis, the shepherd poet of mythology, and “Thalysia” (Harvest Festival), which presents the poet's friends and rivals in the guise of rustics.

The 19th Idyll below is a charming vignette that looks at love and the pain it causes, but introduces the contrasting theme of the sweetness of honey. Love as both the sweetness of honey and the sting of the bee is an image well-beloved of the poets.

The Honey Thief
(Theocritus - 19th Idyll)

A wicked bee once filching Eros stung,
As from hive unto hive the sly god flew.
Looting the flower-sweet honeycombs among;
With finger-tips all pierced he cried and blew

His hand, and stamped upon the ground with pain,
And vaulted in the air; to Aphrodite
Sadly he came commencing to complain,
“Although the bee is small his wound is mighty.”

Then said his mother smiling, “Are you not
A creature small just like the bee, I pray?
But ne'ertheless it must not be forgot—
The cruel wounds you deal—how great are they!”

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday

O TEMPORA, O MORES!

“Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.” The Bible, Matthew, 19:13-15.

I am becoming increasingly appalled by the stories from all around the world that relate to little children being abused, mistreated, abducted, killed or otherwise going missing. What is happening to us as a society when we are allowing all of this to happen, where we read about such horrors with increasing complacency and inaction? Have we become so rotten to the core that we allow such things to occur? What we do is not enough, what laws we have in place are not deterring the offenders and the families into which these children are born are in many cases incapable of raising children, do not deserve to have children. We need a licence to own a dog, but any idiot can have a child…

The last outrageous incident that is currently in the media involves Shaniya, a 5-year-old girl in the USA who was sold by her 25-year-old mother for sex. The girl was found dead off a heavily wooded road in North Carolina by police, although it was not obvious how the girl had died. The horrors that the little girl endured in her last hours can only be conjectured and it makes me sick to even think about it. The police charged the girl’s mother with human trafficking and felony child abuse as it has become clear that little Shaniya was sold for prostitution.

The father of the little girl, who had raised her for several years, had decided to allow her to spend some time with her mother. This turn of events where the mother becomes worse than Medea, is shocking and horrifying. Medea killed her beloved children to exact her terrible revenge on the children’s father, the faithless Jason. This modern mother has committed a crime more terrible than killing her child. To sell her own child into prostitution is a crime more heinous than Medea’s.

We have become more tolerant of all manner of behaviour that in the past were considered crimes. Homosexuality is a case in point. Infidelity is another. Drug use is illicit but many a blind eye is turned on it, and how many countries around the world have discovered their police force or politicians trafficking drugs? White collar crime is more widespread and through special “deals” its perpetrators come off remarkably lightly. However, surely some things are non-negotiable! Cold-blooded extortion, blackmail, murder, slavery, child abuse, are things that every human being must naturally abhor, aren’t they? Is our society becoming remiss in its watchfulness over such crimes is our morality becoming more elastic? Are “human rights” being misinterpreted to such an extent that we are looking after the interests of the perpetrators of the crimes more so than those of the victims?

What can we do? What must we do? Harsher penalties have been suggested, and some people have even advocated that the death penalty be reintroduced. Evidence suggests that these more stringent measures are not effective deterrents. The change has to be more radical and involve society and the way that we live, the way that we are educated, the way that we are brought up. Values, morals and the ethic fabric of our society are said to have deteriorated to such an extent that the damage done to them is irreparable. A complete overhaul of the way that we live with each other, what are priorities are and what we believe in, seems to be in order.

The extreme fundamentalist religious groups, of course, will speak up and exclaim that this is what they have been clamouring about for decades now. Whether a Christian or a Moslem, a fundamentalist will find solutions to all problems in the Bible or in the Koran. God or Allah will solve all issues. However, it is often forgotten that many social problems stem from radical fundamentalism. Gross intolerance of other faiths, discrimination against other ways of life, persecution of the minorities, are all responsible for many social crimes. Needless to also remind people that in many cases, the criminal we wish to pursue, hides behind the mask of religiosity. How many born-again evangelists brimming with piety and goodwill have been revealed to be paedophiles and are thoroughly depraved? How many imams and proclaimers of Islam are guilty of crimes against women and children?

Most religions in their essence are similar in what they teach their adherents. Whether Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hinduist, Zoroastrian or Baha’i, the basic message is the same: Respect other people; treat them the way you want them to treat you; make this world a better place not only for yourself, but for your fellow human beings; show compassion, mercy and charity. Surely, if we live according to what our religion recommends, then society would be a better place. But this is not the only answer. It is said that “God helps those who help themselves”. It is this maxim that we have to turn to in order to resolve our social problems.

The root of the evil is deeper than we think. When one speaks of the mores of a society, then one needs to look at the whole way in which a society functions, the way it views justice, morality, what it values and what it proscribes. How a society deals with the law and the law-breakers. What and how it rewards what it regards as meritorious, what a society regards as worthy and unworthy. What can be bought for money and what is priceless. Who it elevates to positions of power and influence, who its role models are, who its children aspire to imitate. What it values as worth preserving for posterity, what it regards as emblems of civilisation. What it views as “good” and what as “bad”, what as “ethical” and what “unethical”, what as “legal” and what as “illegal”, what as “moral” and what as “immoral”. What is an individual’s right and what is his obligation. Where the limits of liberty are and where the good of the whole has to become more important than the good of any individual component of the whole.

We have lost track of what is “good” and what is “bad”. As a society we have degenerated and we have misplaced our values. Is it a wonder that we are observing an increase in crimes against children, the most vulnerable and the most innocent in our midst?

What do you think?

WHAT A DISASTER!

“He who doesn't fear death dies only once.” - Giovanni Falcone

When I was young I used to draw pictures of townscapes with skyscrapers, intricate buildings, freeways, cars, people everywhere. Then as I was drawing I would make a comet appear in the sky, or a bomb, or fiery rain and I would start destroying the city. I drew bright orange flames that licked the buildings, great billows of black smoke that went up to the sky and then ensured that everything on the page was quite obliterated. All of this was accompanied by the appropriate sound effects that only a five-year-old can produce. I grew out of that phase fairly quickly, but I still remember the fun I used to have wreaking havoc in my worlds that I drew and destroyed – creator and destroyer at the same time.

We humans are a strange sort of animal. We can make something out of nothing, build enduring works of architecture, create works of art, plant gardens in the deserts. In the twinkling of an eye we can destroy all of that by pushing a button that drops a bomb, slash and burn in an act of vindictive vandalism or annihilate all in a spiteful act of rage or envy. Our dual nature exalts our spirit to heaven or damns it to eternal hellfire. What has taken our fellow human beings hundreds of years to raise up, we can unflinchingly obliterate within the blinking of an eye…

Destruction fascinates us, demolition may send waves of pleasure down our spine, extirpation may scare us, annihilation awes us. It is no surprise then that Hollywood panders to this side of our nature and regularly produces disaster movies that have as their theme death and destruction, the more massive the scale, the better. And I start listing some of the more famous ones (in no particular order, I’m just remembering some):
“On the Beach” (1959)
“The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1961)
“The Apocalypse” (2007)
“Tornado” (2004)
“Volcano” (1997)
“Earthquake” (1974)
“Magma: Volcanic Disaster” (2006)
“10.5 Apocalypse” (2006)
“10.5 Apocalypse” (2004)
“Supernova” (2005)
“When Worlds Collide” (1951)
“Supervolcano” (2005)
“Earthstorm” (2006)
“The Day the Sky Exploded’ (1958)
“The Towering Inferno” (1974)
“The Poseidon Adventure” (1972)
“Virus” (1980)
“Testament” (1983)
“Airport” (1970) and all its numerous sequels!
“The Day After” (1983)
“Avalanche” (2004)
“Aftershock: Earthquake in New York” (1999)
“Pandemic” (2007)
“The Quiet Earth” (1985)
“Night of the Comet” (1984)
“28 Days Later” (2002)
“28 Weeks Later” (2007)
“The Mist” (2007)
“Disaster Movie” (2008)
“Armageddon” (1998)
“Doomsday” (2008)… etc, etc, etc…

I think I have made my point. All I can say is that there must have been an awful lot of kids out there drawing cities and then blowing them up when they were five. What made me remember all of this is a film we saw at the weekend and one which was just released and which we haven’t seen yet.

We watched Alex Proyas’ 2009 “Knowing” yesterday and this is a death and destruction disaster movie where the earth ends. It stars Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, and Lara Robinson, who do a fairly good job in a film that has a better first half than second half (strange thing to happen in a disaster movie where all the fireworks happen in the end). In this respect one may say that “Knowing” is a little atypical as far as disaster movies go, with a great deal of time spent in setting the scene, exploring the characters and making a moral point. The weakness of the second part relates to the explanations of why the destruction is occurring and in the “deus-ex-machina” (literally) solution to the survival of the human race.

It was enjoyable in a Sunday matinee type of way and for all the moralistic and philosophical pretensions of the film, it is a disaster movie in the final reckoning and is rather deficient in its catastrophic sequences in the end. One somehow expects more fireworks in a disaster movie, but what fireworks there were, were good enough.

The other film of course that everyone is talking about now is the 2009 Roland Emmerich move, “2012”. This sounds like a turkey of immense proportions, but I admit that I haven’t even seen the trailer. A lot of people were curious enough o go and see it, with a $65 million box-office bang in the USA, as per estimates, beating projections and the weekend competition.

It all goes to prove that as humans we love death and destruction. We are overwhelmed and awed by it and from the horrific news stories of real-life disasters to unlikely scenarios made into ridiculous movies, we watch…

What’s your favourite disaster movie?

ANACREON AND GEROME

When Love beholds my beard that flows
White as the ocean's snowy spray,
He flies me swift as the eagle's flight
On rustling wings of golden light,
And seems to murmur as he goes,
" Old fellow, you have had your day."
Anacreon

For Art Sunday today, a painting by Frenchman Jean-Léon Gérôme (May 11, 1824 – January 10, 1904).  He painted and sculpted in the style now known as Academicism. The range of themes in his art included historical painting, Greek mythology, oriental subjects, portraits and various others. Gérôme was very influential in his heyday and brought Academicism to an artistic climax. Here is his painting Anacreon (one of three he painted of the famous ancient Greek poet). The theme here is “Eros takes flight”.

Anacreon lived in the sixth century B.C. His poems are about wine, love and getting old. They are easy to read thanks to his humour, vivid expressions and originality. For hundreds of years after the death of Anacreon there were many anonymous imitators who wrote poems called the “Anacreontea”. They also had a lot of success in their time, which was about 400 years after Anacreon lived.

One of the best poems from the Anacreontea tells how one night, when a storm raged outside, Eros knocks at the door of Anacreon, saying he's only a poor child lost in the tempest. Anacreon who feels pity for Eros, lets him in. They sit down at the fireplace. After a while Eros feels better again, takes his bow, saying he wants to check it, and shoots an arrow in the heart of Anacreon. Eros laughs and says: “Have courage! My bow is fine but I fear you will be in love again soon!”

Here is the poem in its entirety:

Eros Benighted

'Twas on the midnight dreary,
When north stars faintly peep,
And man with toil grown weary
Seeks the soft breast of sleep—
The god of love surprising
Me, knocked at my barred door.

" Who is it ?" said I, rising,
" That lets me dream no more ?"
But Eros says, "I only
Am a belated child,
I have wandered cold and lonely
In moonless night and wild."

Hearing these words, with pity
My heart beat for his woes;
I ope the door—a pretty
Winged boy my lamplight shows.
Cold shiver after shiver
Ran through his body fair;

A tiny bow and quiver
The little fellow bare.
I soothed him with caresses,
Him by the fire I placed;
The water from his tresses
I wrung; his hands embraced.

But when he had grown warm, he
Says, "I will try my bow;
I fear by weather stormy
The string is injured now."
He bends it then and through my
Liver a shaft he wings,
He little cares although my
Wound like a gadfly stings.

Up leaps he laughing loudly,
A mocking laugh laughs he,
And flushed with triumph proudly
Says, "Host, wish joy to me !
My bow indeed intact is:
Good-by, for we must part;
But as for you the fact is
You'll feel pain in your heart."