ARTICHOKES FOR FOOD FRIDAY

“Life is like eating artichokes, you have got to go through so much to get so little.” - Thomas Aloysius Dorgan

Another busy day at work today with a couple of meetings, some staff interviews, lots of paperwork and of course the usual emails, telephone calls and I even popped out at lunchtime to pay some bills. Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Although the weather started out wet and cool in the morning, it fined up by lunchtime so it was quite good to walk out into the sunshine for a little while. A good weekend is predicted with temperatures climbing to the high teens and some welcome spring sunshine.

Artichokes have started to appear in the greengrocers and despite the fuss needed to prepare them they are a wonderful vegetable, whether eaten raw in salads or cooked in a variety of ways. A native of the Mediterranean, the artichoke can be grown as a perennial or annual crop. It is a member of the thistle tribe of the daisy family (Compositae). In full growth, the plant spreads to cover an area about 1.5 metres in diameter and reaches a height of 1.5 metres. It has long, arching, deeply serrated leaves that give the plant a highly decorative appearance. The wild artichoke can be very spiny, with thorny leaves and buds. It produces artichokes that are smaller, but tastier than the cultivated variety.

The 'vegetable' that we eat is the plant’s flower bud. If these buds are allowed to open, the blossoms can measure up to 15 centimetres in diameter and are a beautiful violet-blue color. The size of the bud depends upon where it is located on the plant. The largest are the terminal buds produced at the end of the long central stems. These are the ones you are most likely to see if you go past an artichoke field. The lateral buds are smaller and lower on the stem.

The artichoke is not suited to people wanting fast food or a quick meal! Some preparation is required, but it is well worth it. Artichokes have a unique, nutty flavour as well as having great health benefits. One medium-sized artichoke is a good source of vitamin C, folate, dietary fibre, magnesium and potassium. It’s low in sodium, fat-free and a dieter’s delight at only 25 calories each. New studies have shown that artichokes contain an unusual amount of antioxidants and in a study done by the United States Department of Agriculture, artichokes rank as the number one vegetable in antioxidant count. Among the most powerful phytonutrients in artichokes are cynarin and silymarin, which have strong protective effects on the liver.

Most people cook the whole artichoke, then serve it in a dish with some dressing on the side. The artichoke is grasped with the fingers, each petal is stripped off, dipped in dressing and then its bottom fleshy part is bitten and the petal drawn through the teeth, trapping the flesh in the mouth. Eventually one reaches the more substantial and delectable heart, which is also eaten with the dressing. Lightly cooked and dressed artichokes also make excellent additions to stir-fries, pizzas, antipasto and pasta dishes.

The way that we have always prepared artichokes at home is to buy many of them when in season, usually in large cartons of 30-40 pieces. They are cheaper that way and one can then prepare them to keep for several months. This way, one has to clean them raw. It is great fun getting a few people together and having an artichoke cleaning lunch! First one needs a large bowl of ice-cold water in which several lemons have been juiced. Then the fun starts. The outer petals are discarded and then one peels off a petal and nibbles on the fleshy bottom, discarding the rest. This continues until one gets to the young and tender petals at the heart, The stem is peeled and trimmed to about two centimetres and the artichoke heart is quartered lengthwise parallel to the stem. The central ‘choke’ part is scraped out and discarded. One then has neat, clean quarters of artichoke heart with attached small piece of stem that must be placed in the water quickly to prevent them going black. This is continued until all the artichokes have been prepared. One feels rather full after this, as nibbling on the flesh on each petal adds up quite considerably!

The artichoke quarters can be eaten raw in salads, after chopping them up. A good combination is chopped lettuce hearts, artichokes, spring onions, chopped dill and chopped hard-boiled eggs. A simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper completes the dish. If the artichokes are not to be consumed raw, they must be blanched. Not cooked thoroughly, just parboiled. They are then drained thoroughly and can be frozen laid flat in plastic bags in convenient meal-size portions. They last for several months in the freezer. Another way of preserving them is to drain them well after parboiling, place them in sterilised glass jars and cover them with olive oil.

If one wishes to use the parboiled artichoke hearts one can add them to all sorts of recipes. For example, one may chop them up, sauté them in butter and make a delicious omelette with them. They can be used in quiches, pizzas and pasta (especially with creamy sauces). A traditional Greek dish is a spicy stewed lamb ragout to which artichokes are added in the final stages of cooking. Another dish is roast chicken stuffed with a mixture of sautéed artichoke heart pieces, chopped sweet yellow capsicums and field mushroom pieces.

A YOUNG LIFE CUT SHORT

“Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals love them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.” - Edwin Way Teale

We heard a rather distressing news item this morning on the news. A four-year-old girl was fatally mauled by a pit bull terrier, which rushed into her house and killed her while she was clinging to her mother’s leg. This happened on St Albans, one of Melbourne’s Western Suburbs, which are traditionally denoted as “working class” and “disadvantaged”. This may seem to be beside the point, but these suburbs often are bad-mouthed (and sometimes even by people who should know better, like politicians!) and all sorts of social ills are supposedly incubating in these locales.

In any eventuality, the sad case of Ayen Chol in one that is independent of location and class. A small child had her life cut tragically short and her death was horrible, with her last minutes in agony as the dog lunged at her. The animal, which belonged to a neighbour, wandered into the Chols’ house at about 8 o’clock yesterday evening, attacking the child and her cousin aged 5 years. The mother of the girl and Daniel Atem, a cousin aged 30 years, tried to get the dog away from the 5-year-old child, which was attacked first. They managed to save this older child, but the dog then lunged at Ayen who clung to her mother’s leg.

The dog tore the girl away from the mother, mauled her and caused her to die. The dog then slunk away and its owner came and took it away. The child’s father was overseas, working in the Sudan. The scene discovered by the police must have been horrific. The mother of the girl would have been inconsolable as she looked at her dead girl’s mutilated and bloody body and knowing that she had been there and unable to save her daughter’s life.

The State Government was motivated by this latest attack to announce that it would end an amnesty on dangerous dog owners and would allow Council staff to enter properties and destroy the animals. State government records of attacks show that between January and March a total of 721 people were attacked - meaning bitten, chased or harassed. Debate in parliament is expected to centre on whether the Crimes Act should be amended so that owners of killer dogs should face consequences similar to culpable drivers who can be put in gaol of up to 20 years.

The name “pit bull” for these dogs comes from fighting in pits. They are thrown in a pit with another dog and the two of them fight to the death. They are bred for fighting and their killer instincts tend to be preserved, even if cross-bred. If these killer dogs see something like another dog or a cat or a small child, move quickly they attack it with an instinct to kill. That some people choose to not only keep these dogs but also encourage these killer instincts in them is a sad fact of the human psyche. Animals are animals and they rely on instinct to motivate their actions. Humans have a brain and can think, they know right form wrong, they have intellect, emotions, a moral sense. That they can counter all of these and function in an inhuman way is perverse, criminal and amoral.

The dog in this case is acting as animal acts, and should not be blamed. It is an animal that acts out its animal instincts on which its survival hinges. The owner of the dog is the one to blame and if the lawmakers do the right thing, he should be the one to pay the price that justice should exact for the death of a little angel.

maul |môl| verb [ with obj. ]
(Of an animal) Wound (a person or animal) by scratching and tearing: The herdsmen were mauled by lions.
• Treat (someone or something) roughly.
noun
A tool with a heavy head and a handle, used for tasks such as ramming, crushing, and driving wedges; a beetle.
DERIVATIVES
mauler noun
ORIGIN: Middle English (in the sense ‘hammer or wooden club,’ also ‘strike with a heavy weapon’): From Old French mail, from Latin malleus ‘hammer.’

POETRY WEDNESDAY - RENOVATIONS

“The heart is the only broken instrument that works.” - T.E. Kalem

The creative writing group hosted by Magpie Tales has set a challenge based on the image above, which is very home improvement-like today: Paint, brushes, rollers, paint trays… One can almost smell the distinctive odour of fresh paint and one can see the swatches of colour and the tentative areas of newly-applied patches of paint to see how it really looks in situ. It’s a great opportunity for renewal and re-invention and a new paint job will refresh walls, hide stubborn marks and dispose of cracks, holes and other defects. The new colour schemes will give us opportunity to start afresh and our environment will be revived – hopefully so will our disposition!

I am not a handyman (and I would rather apply paint to canvas than to walls), however, I have renovated and painted and renewed, and have done it often, both literally and figuratively, as the poem illustrates for the latter case…

Closed for Renovations

My heart is closed for renovations:
Your residence therein
Was somewhat indelicate,
And much needed be done
To make it habitable once again.

I’ve left my heart vacant, for now:
Following your eviction,
The cracks in its walls will be repaired,
Fresh coats of paint applied
And a new colour scheme chosen.

It is a barren place, my heart:
Since you left, you left it empty –
Save for your rubbish, cast-offs,
And your unwanted lumbering baggage
That none would want, not even me, now.

It’s worse for wear and tear, my heart:
But I’ll mend it and renew it,
Recondition and repair it.
And this time around, I’ll be more careful,
I won’t give it away for free…

My freshly painted, remodelled heart,
Is now for sale; not for rent, nor to be given away –
Sold, as paint jobs are expensive and renovations costly.
My heart is more precious now,
An old thing broken and repaired
Is more beautiful than a thing brand new.

BELATED MOVIE MONDAY - THE GOONIES

“The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remaining over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves” - Kahlil Gibran

At the weekend we saw Richard Donner’s 1998 film “The Goonies” based on a story by Steven Spielberg. This is a classic children’s movie, which although dated and looks very 80s, is a fun adventure. There are bad guys, pirate treasure, underground tunnels, booby traps, boys vs girls, some adolescent romance (very jejune!) and of course the triumph of good over evil. There are some funny scenes, but don’t expect depth and polish. It’s all good fun, perfect for kids that love to go on treasure hunts and imagine themselves starring in swashbuckling adventures.

The film revolves around a group of children and adolescents who live in the poorer, less trendy part of Astoria, Oregon. Every member of this band of “Goonies” as they call themselves, is given a strong characterisation, which helps to move the story along. Teenage Brand is obsessed with his body image and wants to build up his muscles, while his younger brother Mikey is asthmatic and bookish, but is the more imaginative of the two. The chubby little Jewish boy, Chunk, is quite disarming with his weaknesses and manages to deliver quite few good one liners, as well as perform the “Truffle Shuffle”. ‘Data’, the bright Chinese kid with the gadgets, as well as ‘Mouth’ with his hilarious translation of the house-cleaning instructions are all characters that are simple and stock comedic ones, perhaps, but quite appealing for the children who watch the movie and for some adults who remember nostalgically their own childhood.

The two teenage girls who join the boys a little late on in the film are weak, but they are there to add teenage appeal and provide the romantic interest for Brand (played by the way by Josh Brolin, James Brolin’s son). Mikey is played by Sean Astin who played Sam Gamgee in ‘Lord of the Rings’. Both of these child actors did quite well in Hollywood later in their life, compared to other child actors (and Shirley Temple does spring to mind, rather unconnectedly!).

The bad guys in the movie are the Fratelli Brothers and their mother played in broad slapstick strokes by Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano and Anne Ramsay. They bumble along and create ludicrous tensions, only to have them resolved by their expected downfall and many gags. John Matuszak who plays the severely disfigured ‘Sloth’ Fratelli teaches an important lesson about beauty only being skin deep. The film works as a children’s film as it is ridiculous, unassuming, full of silly children’s gags and a simple rollicking adventure that all children have imagined themselves involved in. The characters are shallow but believable because of their simplicity and stock characterisation. The film was made to be a fun, feel-good movie, not one to win prizes at art-film festivals. To this end it is a successful one.

It is interesting watching films intended for children and compare them over a few decades. One can observe the increasing sophistication as one comes to the more recent ones and also how the children’s films have crossed over into the adult genres. Indeed many of the contemporary children’s films have a firm adult following with many of the die-hard fans being well advanced in years! One only needs to think about the Harry Potter series and the number of adults that became engrossed in all of these movies, and one can see that children are becoming more and more like miniature adults, and adults are regressing into a dark and complex children’s world, which they have helped to create.

‘The Goonies’ will please the young and the young at heart. It is the kind of movie that adults will find endearing because it has the power of nostalgia, while even children nowadays will watch with interest and amusement because it offers them childhood pure and simple, with no grown-up plots and evil nasties, or lots of psychological depths. Its premise is uncomplicated and the moral lessons it teaches are obvious and its significance glaring. Fluff, but amusing fluff, especially for the children of today who have been robbed somewhat of their childhood.

AN eBOOK FROM SYDNEY

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.” - Carl Sagan

I was in Sydney for work today and spent a very busy day on our new campus. We had a Higher Education Panel come in and interview us for all sorts of regulatory requirements, and fortunately it all went well and our campus and course delivery on this new campus were approved. The progress that has been made on the fit-out and equipping of the campus has been astounding and it was great to see students already in classrooms being instructed as part of our VET programs. The regulatory visit was in relation to our Higher Education degrees, and now that this has been successfully negotiated we can concentrate on the exciting prospect of all sorts of educational initiatives being started and further developed.

Another interesting thing that happened while in Sydney was that we had a presentation by one of the major bioscience publishers on a new platform for accessing e-texts and e-resources. It was quite amazing to see what is now being done in terms of making textbooks available on electronic platforms with some added, media-rich resources that bring the content to life. This of course will mean that in the near future the physical printed textbook will become redundant, as interactive and custom-designed learning resources are made available to students.

This is especially important in tertiary education where new research and developments make the physical printed textbook out of date almost as soon as it is published. An e-Book has the advantage of being easily updated and revised, with the latest material being immediately added to the electronic edition, which is in use. The other advantage is that the material can be brought to life with animations, sound files, videos, interactive formative assessments, access to hyperlinked material on the web, wikis, blogs, etc, etc.

Another bonus is that that these e-Books are not as “rigid” as a printed text. An instructor can be quite creative when putting together learning resources for use in class. For example if I as an instructor wish to use Chapters 1, 3, 5 and 6 from one textbook, Chapter 2 and 3 from another and Chapters 11, 13 and 14 from yet another, I can construct my own recommended reading text through this anthologising process, so that my students get the learning text resources that correspond best to the specific curricular needs of any given subject area.

As we move towards more flexible and more engaging educational resources, it is important to consider the collaborative learning opportunities that can be used effectively in a classroom and personal learning space environment. The instructor becomes a facilitator of learning and provides opportunities for the class and individual students so that they construct their own tailor-made environment in which learning can occur. The use of wikis is one such example of collaborative learning opportunities, but also self-selection of the learning resources that each student can personally make allows each learner to individualise their own personal library of resources that best help them as an individual to learn from.

The physical book of course will not disappear completely as there will always be bibliophiles amongst us that revel in the book and its physical presence in our hands. Whatever technology may come, there will always be books, less of them maybe, but one would hope that they will represent the best of what is available in terms of publishing and careful, beautiful and well-prepared editions.

ART SUNDAY - JOAQUÍN SOROLLA

“What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” – Eugene Delacroix

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, (born February 27, 1863, Valencia, Spain—died August 10, 1923, Cercedilla), was a Spanish painter whose style was a variant of Impressionism and whose best works, painted in the open air, vividly portray the sunny seacoast of Valencia. Sorolla was from a poor family and was orphaned at age two. He displayed an early talent and was admitted to the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia at age 15. After further studies in Rome and Paris, he returned to Valencia.

Initially, he painted historical and social realist works, one of which, “Otra Margarita” (1892), was his earliest success. He received the greatest recognition, however, for his genre paintings and landscapes. Using heavily impastoed pigments, he combined an Impressionist manner with narrative and anecdotal themes. Summer, the sea and the life of fishermen are themes that figure prominently in his oeuvre.

In 1909 he made a successful debut in the USA in a solo exhibition at the Hispanic Society in New York City. The resulting critical acclaim won him a commission to paint President William Howard Taft in 1909. Upon his return to Spain, he purchased a beach house in Valencia, on the Mediterranean shore. For the rest of his career, he drew his inspiration from the dazzling light on the waters by his home, and his beach scenes are marked by sharp contrasts of light and shade, brilliant colours, and vigorous brushstrokes.

The painting above is characteristic of his work and is his 1910 “Girl on the Beach”. The scene is a dazzling summer’s day with transparent light with the beautiful azures and greens of the sea portrayed with bold strokes of colour. The girl is painted tenderly, yet with deft, rapid brushstrokes that give the painting a freshness and immediate appeal. The noon light is rendered beautifully with reflected sunlight on the girl’s sunburnt face, illuminating it as though with a spotlight. Her delicately rendered left hand is captured in an eloquent gesture, while the right one is almost in silhouette and lacking detail. The dress captures all the subtleties of light and its flapping mirrors the hair, which is also blown back. Counterbalancing the figure is a boat in which a fisherman is fussing over his nets. The reds in this background image are balanced by a mauve-brown shadow on the lower right, and the girl’s figure is the fulcrum on which the whole composition hinges. It is a beautiful painting full of summer sunshine, the saltiness of the sea and the brisk breeze of the seaside. The careless barefoot steps of childhood are contrasted with the toil of adulthood and the painting has a beautiful nostalgic air that is quite captivating.

BEETHOVEN FOR RELAXATION

“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” - François de La Rochefoucauld

Another busy day, but on the home front today. Lots to do, many chores to complete, shopping and then I got a headache that wouldn’t go away. I don’t often get headaches, and if I do, an analgesic tablet will be enough to deal with them. Not so today. It lingered for hours and the analgesics didn’t touch it. It is quite a nuisance and I can understand how disruptive it must be for people who get them often.

Nevertheless it was good to be enjoying a dinner for two tonight, with some wine, nice food, music and then watch some TV. It relaxed me and even if the headache is still there, I battled it and hope that a good night’s sleep will finally cure it. I usually find that some soothing music is good for my headaches.

Here is a wonderful such relaxing piece, the second movement from Beethoven’s Septet in E flat op. 20 – Adagio Cantabile, played by The Gaudier Ensemble. It was first performed in 1800 and published in 1802. It is scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and contrabass. It is in six movements and resembles a serenade. Beautiful!

YELL FOR CADEL AND SCREAM FOR SUSHI

“Sport is a preserver of health.” – Hippocrates

I had a very busy day today, with both desk work as well as a couple of appointments off-campus. One of the bonuses was that I was in the vicinity of Federation Square at lunchtime, when Cadel Evans was being feted for his Tour de France win. In today’s celebration, Evans rode along St Kilda Rd from the National Gallery of Victoria to Federation Square, where he took to the stage to address the populace. Tens of thousands of people lined the route to honour Evans’ achievement and give him a reception usually reserved for AFL footballers and Olympic Games heroes. The feeling was upbeat and euphoric and it was good to see Evans being very friendly with the crowd and showing humility and good-humoured amusement by the massive reception reserved for him.

There were several politicians present, including our Lord Mayor and the Victorian Premier, this being a prime PR opportunity for them, rubbing shoulders with the hero of the moment. Cadel is Australia’s first Tour de France winner, and at 34 years is the oldest rider to win the Tour de France since 1923. It was quite fortuitous to be there and take part in this event, one of several anonymous thousands united in a celebratory moment and celebrating a historic sporting victory.

My mind turned to the other type of crowd rioting in England. Or should I say the throng? In both cases, they were large masses of people joining together with more or less a common purpose or goal. In the one case, they were orderly, celebratory, respectful of each other and the only destructive effect they had was perhaps a few items of rubbish left behind after they dispersed. In the other case, there was a violent rabble that was motivated by anger, barbarism, misplaced angst, greed and hate. In their wake they left fire, destruction and death. We are still lucky here in Australia that we can gather together and behave as civilised human beings do. Even in sporting events, crowds in other countries riot and people kill and maim each other with the excuse of supporting different football sides.

On the way back I stopped and bought some sushi for lunch. Sushi is of course nowadays well-known and popular around the world. It is a Japanese delicacy consisting of cooked rice with vinegar (shari) combined with a variety of other ingredients (neta). Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari. The most common neta is seafood. However, its popularity in many countries and its adaptability and ensured that all sorts of exotic fillings are available.

Sushi originated in the 4th century BC in Southeast Asia. Salted fish, fermented with rice, was an important source of protein and could be preserved without spoiling for a relatively long time. The cleaned and gutted fish were kept in rice so that the natural fermentation of the rice helped preserve the fish. This type of sushi is called nare-zushi, and was taken out of storage after a couple of months of fermentation, and then only the fish was consumed while the rice was discarded.

Over time, this preserved dish spread throughout China, and later, around the 8th century AD, in the Heian period, it was introduced into Japan. Since Japanese preferred to eat rice together with fish, the sushi, called seisei-zushi, became popular at the end of Muromachi period. This type of sushi was consumed while the fish was still partly raw and the rice had not lost its flavour. In this way, sushi became more of a way of preparing food rather than a way to preserve food.

Later in Edo era, Japanese began making haya-zushi, which was created as a way to eat both rice and fish; this dish was unique to Japanese culture. Instead of being only used for fermentation, rice was mixed with vinegar and combined not only with fish but also with various vegetables and dried preserved foods. Today, each region of Japan still preserves its own unique taste by utilising local products in making different kinds of sushi that have been passed on for generations.

At the beginning of the 19th century, when Tokyo was still called Edo, the food service industry was mostly dominated by mobile food stalls, from which nigiri-zushi originated. Edomae, which literally means “in front of Tokyo bay”, was where the fresh fish and tasty seaweed for the nigiri-zushi were obtained. As a result, it was also called edomae-zushi, and it became popular among the people in Edo after Yohei Hanaya, a creative sushi chief, improved it to a simple but delicious food. Then, after the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, nigiri-zushi spread throughout Japan as the skilled edomae-zushi chefs from Edo, who had lost their jobs, moved all over Japan.

The important seasonings served with sushi are soy sauce, and wasabi (Japanese hot horseradish sauce). Soy sauce is used as a dipping sauce. Wasabi is put in nigiri-zushi or is mixed with soy sauce for dipping. The most important side ingredient of sushi is ginger. Pickled ginger is called gari and is served with sushi. Gari is eaten between bites of sushi to refresh the mouth for each new taste.

In the 1980s, in the wake of increased health consciousness, sushi, one of the healthiest meals around, has got more attention; consequently, sushi bars have opened throughout the Western world. With the introduction of sushi machines, which combine the mass production of sushi with the delicate skills used by sushi chefs, making and selling sushi has become more accessible to countries all over the world.

I like most kinds of sushi, but particularly so the smoked salmon and fish roe, the teriyaki chicken, the vegetarian variety featuring avocado, and of course the widely popular California roll. Although I find wasabi much too hot for me, I do enjoy the soy sauce and preserved ginger. It is a healthful and tasty meal and perfect for lunch.

THE UK RIOTS

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

riot |ˈrīət| noun
1 A violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd: Riots broke out in the capital | [as modifier ]: Riot police.
• An uproar: The film's sex scenes caused a riot in Cannes.
• An outburst of uncontrolled feelings: Α riot of emotions raged through Frances.
• archaic Uncontrolled revelry; rowdy behavior.
2 [ in sing. ] an impressively large or varied display of something: The garden was a riot of colour.
3 [ in sing. ] informal A highly amusing or entertaining person or thing: Everyone thought she was a riot.
verb [ no obj. ]
Take part in a violent public disturbance: Students rioted in Paris | (as noun rioting) : A night of rioting.
• Behave in an unrestrained way: Another set of emotions rioted through him.
• archaic Act in a dissipated way: An unrepentant prodigal son, rioting off to far countries.
PHRASES
run riot Behave in a violent and unrestrained way. • (of a mental faculty or emotion) function or be expressed without restraint: Her imagination ran riot. • proliferate or spread uncontrollably: Traditional prejudices were allowed to run riot.
DERIVATIVES
rioter noun
ORIGIN Middle English (originally in the sense ‘dissolute living’): From Old French riote ‘debate,’ from rioter ‘to quarrel,’ of unknown ultimate origin.

After that introduction it is not totally unexpected that today I shall write of the UK riots. As was the case with the whole world, we too watched in shock as the violence erupted on August 7th and left death, injury, senseless destruction, arson, horror, looting, chaos and lawlessness in their wake. Two nights of rioting in London’s Tottenham neighbourhood erupted following protests over the shooting death by police of a local man, Mark Duggan. Police were arresting him when the shooting occurred. Over 170 people were arrested over the two nights of rioting, and fires gutted several stores, buildings, and cars. The disorder spread to other neighbourhoods as well, and then to other cities around the nation.

In the face of unending rioting that has spread to other cities, London deployed 16,000 police in the largest show of force in the city’s history. British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a holiday in Italy to return home to deal with the widening crisis. Army units are standing by to help restore order. Hundreds of people have been arrested, and over 100 police officers have been injured. What may have begun as a protest over the death of a civilian quickly became a massive show of violence and brutality with looting, destruction of property, rioting for the sake of vandalism and the joy of annihilation.

Anthony Daniels, a retired British prison doctor and psychiatrist, has characterised British youths as “the most unpleasant and potentially violent young people in the world.” Families are terrorised by their own knife-wielding, arrogant and irascible children. The youth of Britain seem to have a sense of entitlement, the only difference between the rich and the poor being that the rich can buy whatever they want, while the poor need to “wheedle, cajole, swindle and steal it.” This seems to be at the core of the disturbances and the looting that was carried out on a large scale.

Rioting and looting are two different things: A riot results from a sense of indignation and an overwhelming feeling of injustice that in many people arouses an intense violent response. Looting is based on envy, greed, consumerism gone awry and a sense that society owes you something that you are unable to afford or couldn’t be bothered working for. Looters are opportunists and will leap at any chance that allows them to act in a manner that advantages their perverted sense of “equality”.

In both cases, crowds breed unrest and both looting and rioting seem to find perfect conditions in which to occur whenever there is crowding together of rabble. The passions are inflamed and the courage that one coward is deficient in is topped up by the traces of courage of many. It is with this borrowed bravado and the shared blind fury that violent acts are committed, with the rush of hormones that accompanies shed blood and the smell of burning that kindles more hostility.

Add to that our culture of rank consumerism and the equation of money with success and status and one has a perfect motive for looting. The have-nots will hanker after what the haves enjoy on a daily basis and they will do their utmost to obtain it by fair means or foul. The glorification of violence in our TV shows, movies, video games and literature provides a perfect education for our young people who have as their role models gangsters, murderers and action heroes involved in violent acts. The success of criminals and their fabulous lifestyles supported by the proceeds of crime and impunity from the legal system and justice is another incitement to crime and violence.

At courthouses in the UK, chaotic scenes have been enacted with several courts sitting through the night to process scores of alleged looters and vandals, including an 11-year-old boy. The defendants included Natasha Reid, a 24-year-old university graduate who admitted stealing a TV from a looted electronics store in north London. Her lawyer said she had turned herself in because she could not sleep because of guilt. Also due to appear in court were several people charged with using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to incite violence. Technology to the aid of terror, not the first time we have seen that happen…

Numerous questions arise about our society, our values, our youth, our education system. We need to re-examine the way we entertain ourselves, the way that we worship our idols. Is the loss of our spirituality to be partly blamed? The disruption of family life? The dilution of our morals and the deterioration of our ethical standards? The lack of the rigour of the military life as there is no compulsory national service? All of these? I don’t know what the answers are, but it seems we are heading towards disaster…

POETRY WEDNESDAY - REFUSAL

“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.” – Boethius

The creative writing group hosted by Magpie Tales has set a challenge based on the image above, which is Edward Hopper’s “Summer Evening, 1947”. Edward Hopper is one of the USA’s best-loved artists. Hopper was born in Nyack, New York, in 1882. He studied at the New York School of Illustrating, and at the more prestigious New York School of Art. Here he studied under American realist Robert Henri. After his studies at the NY School of Art, Edward Hopper went on to study in Paris. This was 1906, at a key time in the development of modern art. It took a long time for Hopper to experience commercial success. He struggled for years, surviving as an illustrator. His first success as a painter came in 1924 when he sold out a show at the Rehn Gallery in New York. This is the year he painted “The House by the Railroad”, one of his most famous works. He died in 1967, his studio near Washington Square in New York City, having achieved recognition and great financial success.

In this painting a young couple in summer dress are conversing on a porch under the harsh artificial light of an incandescent bulb. There is tension in the scene and despite the fairly neutral body language what is being discussed looks as though it is not too pleasant. The image is unsettling with its grouping of figures on the right against the darkness of the late night and the bright light with its stern shadows. The house looks dark and deserted and the drawn curtains on the door are somehow forbidding, even though the window is less hostile. My first impression when I first saw the painting was: “They’re breaking up”. The second thought was: “She’s pregnant and he won’t like it when he hears it…” Yet another thought in quick succession was more optimistic: “He’s about to propose. Casually, perhaps, but that’s the way they are…”

The poem below goes with none of these first thoughts.

Refusal

“I can’t, I really can’t, I tell you,”
He says quietly yet with great feeling.
She’s insulted, and looks away sullenly –
A woman scorned has a hellish disposition.

“You mean you don’t like me, don’t you?”
Her voice cold, her eyes, sharp cut glass.
“You never said you didn’t like me…”
She’s angry, but stares vacuously, controlling it.

“No, heck, no! I do like you, but…”
He stammers, blushes and his words stick
Deep in his throat, his breath shallow,
While his hands fidget ineptly.

“It’s Debbie, isn’t it?” She asks.
“I know it’s her, I’ve seen you two,
Laughing, whispering, you two, together.”
Her ire white-hot, warming even more the summer air.

“Patty, please, no it’s not what you think…”
His eyes are downcast, his feet shift uneasily,
He half sits on the balustrade, his left hand raised
To quieten his racing heart, an ineffectual gesture.

“Don’t lie to me, I hate liars, you know I do.”
She straightens her arms, behind her,
And her breasts jut out, provocatively.
“I am not pretty enough, not good enough…”

“Oh shucks, no! You’re beautiful, Patty,
You know you are, and Debbie and I are just friends,”
His eyes are moist and pleading now,
“You know that I’m not lying!”

“You’re hiding the truth and that’s worse.”
She says and looks down sourly.
“You’re a pretender, that’s who you are,
A teller of stories and a deceiver…”

He lowers his eyes and wipes a tear.
“You don’t know, you don’t understand.”
He looks away and manages to stammer:
“Patty, your brother Joe and I, we two, we’re…”

But the words are glutinous and stick to his tongue;
He looks at her terrified and with a quick movement
Runs away, disappearing into the night,
Leaving her bewildered, frozen in the ice of his refusal.

CLIMBING LADDERS AT WORK

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

I’ve had another very full and tiring day in Sydney for work again today. However, at the end of it there was a great deal of satisfaction as much had been achieved. It was good to watch the dynamic of the team once again today and I was satisfied to have contributed in a positive manner to the business of the day. Many things come about in a way that is unexpected, and quite a lot of unplanned activities can contribute greatly to a fortuitous result. So it was today and after an impromptu group discussion that I contributed to, it was gratifying to be told by a few people that what I had talked about was inspiring. It is good to be able to do that and not really plan it. But I guess that is my job, to lead and inspire people.

One of the activities that we had to engage in today was to do some succession planning. This was part of risk-minimisation strategy where we had to think about the people in our organisation and consider possible successors to each of our roles. This of course gets harder the closer one gets to the top of the ladder. One has to consider all sorts of variables, the benefits of internal versus external appointments, performance management and training, as well as grooming of the most promising candidates. One has to give opportunities to people and provide pathways for training, further education, and the chance to get some practice at tasks that are a level above them.

In the academic field the hierarchy is fairly well defined and an able person, beginning at the bottom may gradually work their way up. Over the years, as such a person picks up experience, more knowledge and skills, ability to deal effectively with difficult situations and people, he or she is able to climb the hierarchical ladder. Its lowermost rungs are close to each other and easy to climb. The closer one gets to the top, however, the further apart the rungs become and when one is about to go for the topmost rung, it is well out of reach. There is only one way to attain this topmost position and that is to grow wings and fly to it. A good work environment provides the opportunities for the employees to sprout those wings and attain the topmost position in the hierarchy.

It is always difficult to deal with situations where a good internal candidate applies for a promotion to higher level and one also has to consider some good external applicants. My preference has always been to encourage and give chances to the internal candidates, preferring their appointment over an external applicant who is equivalent in skills and experience to them. When one has an external candidate who is better than the internal one, and one makes that external appointment, a situation could develop that is quite messy and can lead to some people management issues. One has to be assured that the human resources department is able to counsel, manage and support the unsuccessful internal candidates…

Our new campus is just opposite the Central Railway Station in Sydney so it is so easy to reach with the airport train. One avoids the traffic, pays about a third of the fare of a taxi ride and is at the airport in about 12 minutes. It is such a pity that Melbourne Airport does not have a train service. Both Sydney and Brisbane are served admirably by their airport trains. There is great efficiency and sustainability in solutions like this, which not only are beneficial for air travellers, but also reduce the road traffic considerably.

POSTCARD FROM SYDNEY

“Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.” – Socrates

I am in Sydney for two days for work. It has been a very intensive first day with a high-powered Executive Team meeting where we’ve had a pow-wow on our new campus in the centre of Sydney. It has been an interesting and highly-charged day with talks, presentations, team-building exercises and a general bonding session. Although we’ve spent all day locked up in a room, the hours just rushed by and there wasn’t much of a chance to feel bored or distracted. The day was a great success and we now all feel more comfortable with one another and there’s a very positive team feeling.

We’ve had a great dinner out and then four of us went out to a bar for a night cap. This was another chance for building a good relationship amongst us and having a relaxed time where we could discuss a few things off the record and in a “safe” environment without any holds barred. We drank, we talked, we laughed, we had a good time.  A couple of strangers approached us and sat with us, exchanged pleasantries, socialised. Alcohol, the great social leveller ensured that conversation flowed freely and uninhibitedly, jokes were shared and no expectations were put on the table. We all got up and went back to our hotel with some rest and relaxation scheduled before tomorrow’s session.

In the morning we are starting off the day with a working breakfast, only to proceed to another full of formal proceedings with more presentation, discussion and tossing around of new ideas. This will conclude our get-together and then a return home in the evening.

ART SUNDAY - FREDERICK McCUBBIN

“Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Frederick McCubbin is one of Australia’s most famous and significant painters. He was born in Melbourne, 25 February 1855 and died in Melbourne, 20 December 1917. McCubbin was a baker’s son, who soon joined the family business and drove a baker’s cart before being apprenticed to a coach-painter. He started his training in art and design from 1869 at the local Artisans’ School of Design in Carlton, and by 1872 entered the School of Design, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. It was not until the Munich-trained George Folingsby (1828–91) was appointed master of the Gallery Art School in 1882 that McCubbin received a thorough academic training in figure painting.

Folingsby evoked McCubbin’s interest in large-scale history pieces with a pronounced national flavour. From the colonial artist and Swiss émigré Abram-Louis Buvelot, McCubbin absorbed a more intimate, Barbizon-style vision of the Australian landscape. Julian Ashton directed his attention to subjects from contemporary life and introduced him to plein-air painting. In the mid-1880s McCubbin’s growing adherence to plein-air Realism was strengthened by the influence of Portuguese-born Arthur Loureiro (1853–1912) and, more dramatically, by the impact of Tom Roberts, recently returned from Europe in 1885.

With Roberts and Arthur Streeton he founded the painting camp at Box Hill, in the suburbs of Melbourne, that became known as the Heidelberg School. The Realists’ concern with the integrity and significance of the subject shaped McCubbin’s fundamental attitudes to art. Unlike Roberts and Charles Conder (a fellow Heidelberg painter), McCubbin was only marginally influenced by the Aesthetic Movement, and he exhibited a token five works at the famous 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition in Melbourne in 1889.

As one of the founders of the Heidelberg school, McCubbin was a significant figure in the development of the Australian school of landscape and subject painting that emerged at the close of the nineteenth century. His work was directly influenced by the earlier traditions of Australian colonial art, late-Victorian subject pictures of a high moral tone. In later years McCubbin turned increasingly to landscape painting, portraying the lyrical and intimate beauty of the bush. The early influence of Corot gave way to that of J. M. W. Turner, as he turned from the quiet poetry of the shaded bush to the brilliant impressionistic effects of light and colour of his final manner.

McCubbin was a warm and gregarious personality and a gentle and intuitive teacher, who contributed greatly to the art world in Melbourne by his activities in various societies, through the conviviality of the McCubbin house which was always a focus for artists and students, and as a teacher of several generations of artists. He was a member of the Savage Club.

His 1887 painting “The Morning Train” above is a good example of McCubbin’s Heidelberg “Impressionistic” style. There is a painterly quality to the painting, with its layers of colour, scumbling of paint, light and dark, impasto and wash. The light and dark contrasts and the harsh morning light point out the difference between nature and machine, the bucolic and the metropolitan. McCubbin paints the train as it emerges between the cows and the farm sheds, its smoke blending with the clouds in the sky above, technology and progress overtaking and vanquishing nature. The colours are Australian and the landscape although recognisably that of a Downunder farm, still owes much to the French impressionists that the Heidelberg School was so influenced by.

A FEW RAINDROPS

“Into each life some rain must fall.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A full day again, although dull, cold, gray and wet. Did quite a few chores, but also managed to watch a movie in the afternoon and went out to dinner as well.

In keeping with the return of the Winter weather and the rain, here is Valentina Igoshina playing beautifully Frédéric Chopin’s ‘Raindrop’ Prelude in D Flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15.

This piece is replete with Chopin’s inner conflict and contemplation of his inner self. The composition was borne of the mind of Chopin in 1858 during his stay at the Valldemossa monastery. Amantine Dupin commented: “It casts the soul into a terrible dejection. Maurice and I had left [Chopin] in good health one morning to go shopping in Palma for things we needed at our ‘encampment’. The rain came in overflowing torrents. We made three leagues in six hours, only to return in the middle of a flood. We got back in absolute dark, shoeless, having been abandoned by our driver to cross unheard of perils. We hurried, knowing how our sick friend would worry. Indeed he had, but now was as though congealed in a kind of quiet desperation, and, weeping, he was playing his wonderful prelude. Seeing us come in, he got up with a cry, then said with a bewildered air and a strange tone, ‘Ah, I was sure that you were dead.’

When he recovered his spirits and saw the state we were in, he was ill, picturing the dangers we had been through, but he confessed to me that while waiting for us he had seen it all in a dream, and no longer distinguishing the dream from reality, he became calm and drowsy. While playing the piano, persuaded that he was dead himself, he saw himself drown in a lake. Heavy drops of icy water fell in a regular rhythm on his breast, and when I made him listen to the sound of the drops of water indeed falling in rhythm on the roof, he denied having heard it. He was even angry that I should interpret this in terms of imitative sounds. He protested with all his might—and he was right to—against the childishness of such aural imitations. His genius was filled with the mysterious sounds of nature, but transformed into sublime equivalents in musical thought, and not through slavish imitation of the actual external sounds. His composition of that night was surely filled with raindrops, resounding clearly on the tiles of the Charterhouse, but it had been transformed in his imagination and in his song into tears falling upon his heart from the sky.”

HAPPY EATING

“The reason fat people are happy is that their nerves are well protected.” - Luciano Pavarotti

Well, that was the end of our unseasonal Spring weather! This evening after a spectacular sunset through curtains of rain and shifting clouds we welcomed back Winter, which is here to give us a cold and wet weekend. All the more timely then is some research that seems to point out that comfort food seems to improve our mood. Apparently, we get an emotional high when we consume fatty foods…

Belgian researchers in the University of Leuven, led by Dr. Lukas Van Oudenhove have recently shown that fatty foods help eaters to cope with unpleasant and depressing events in their lives by decreasing the degree of sadness that the consumers of these foods felt. The results of this study were published online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.  In this series of experiments, the researchers recruited 12 healthy non-obese people and performed functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, before and during the infusion of a fat preparation or alternatively a weakly salty solution into their stomachs (without telling the subjects which solution they were receiving). In addition, the participants were asked to listen to sad or neutral music or view pictures of sad or neutral faces.

Hearing sad music or looking at people with glum faces lowers the mood across the board. Before and during the imaging of the brain, the participants were asked to rate their hunger and mood. The researchers found that the participants that had received the fat were less than half as sad as the participants that received the saline infusion. The authors stated:

“We demonstrated, for what we believe to be the first time in humans, that a purely interoceptive, subliminal appetitive stimulus (intragastric fatty acid infusion in the fasted state) interacts with an exteroceptively generated negative emotional state, at both the behavioral and neural level. More specifically, fatty acid infusion attenuated both the behavioral and neural responses to sad emotion induction”.

That is, eating fat seems to make us less vulnerable to sad emotions, even if we don’t know that we are eating fatty foods. This is quite amazing, because it is not the actual pleasant taste and texture of the fatty food that seems to have this beneficial effect on our brain and emotions, but rather the chemical effect of the fat molecules themselves when they enter the stomach (and then via the blood, into the brain). The gut “talks” to the brain, or so it seems!

The exact mechanism of these results is not known but they do suggest that there is a normal, physiological response that regulates food intake, hunger, and our emotional state.  Future studies are planned, which will focus on working out the exact mechanism and may help in the treatment of obesity, eating disorders and even depression.

Now, some other research conducted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York has been looking at the brains of dieters. Apparently, if you starve yourself the brain cells are forced to atrophy away and be cannibalised by surviving brain cells. This is a last ditch effort to survive and use body parts as a source of energy to ward off the effects of starvation.

Results published in the journal “Cell Metabolism”, show that the body responds to starvation by producing fatty acids, which, in turn, ramp up the hunger response in the brain increasing our impulse to eat. Experiments conducted on mice found that by blocking this mechanism of autophagy or self-cannibalisation, it was possible to prevent the feelings of hunger. Dr Rajat Singh, the lead researcher, said that:

“A pathway that is really important for every cell to turn over components in a kind of housekeeping process is also required to regulate appetite. Treatments aimed at the pathway might make you less hungry and burn more fat, a good way to maintain energy balance in a world where calories are cheap and plentiful.”

The moral of the story is eat what you enjoy and eat a balanced diet, but do not overeat. There is a place for fat in our diet, as there is a place for sugar and dairy, for fruits, vegetables, pulses, and cereals, for seafood and meat. However, quantity is the key to success. As my grandfather used to say:

“When you are sitting down at table to eat your meal, you should feel hungry. Then, eat only as much as will only just satisfy your hunger, no more. If you left the table and you were invited to eat again, there should be space enough in your stomach to eat again, but of course you should not do that, because you’re no longer hungry!”

(photo courtesy of @drummeler)

AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND

“And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” – King James Bible, Deuteronomy 19:21

In the news earlier this week was the case of Ameneh Bahrami, an Iranian woman who was blinded in both eyes and disfigured after having acid hurled in her face by Majid Movahedi, a university classmate after she repeatedly spurned his offer of marriage. The event occurred in 2004 and a protracted court case began as an Iranian court considered the evidence and deliberated on the punishment according to the Sharia (Islamic Law) system of Qisas (“eye for an eye” retribution). Iran’s judiciary had finally given the green light to the meting out of retributive punishment for Mohavedi through the pouring of acid into his eyes last Sunday. This would have been the first blinding of a convict in the country, but human rights groups across the world called on Bahrami, who had asked for “eye for an eye” justice in court, to pardon him.

Majid Movahedi, now 30 years old, had been taken to Tehran’s judiciary hospital to be blinded with acid after being rendered unconscious, but his victim spared him at the last minute. The 34-year-old Bahrami decided to pardon him as Sharia law not only allows for qisas, it also advises for clemency to be considered, especially before and during the holy month of Ramadan, which started on Monday in Iran. The woman was quoted as saying that she felt good about showing the perpetrator mercy, but asked for financial compensation instead of blinding Movahedi, an option she had previously refused to consider.

Bahrami conceded that the international focus on the case was a factor she considered in pardoning her attacker. This ensued after the highly publicised case decision in November 2008, when a criminal court in Tehran ordered retribution on Movahedi after he admitted throwing acid at Bahrami, and entitled her to blind him with acid. In the final chapter of this horrific story, Bahrami has said: “It is best to pardon when you are in a position of power.” The perpetrator sobbed when he heard the news of his pardon and said Bahrami was “very generous”.

In reaction to the news, Amnesty International, which had urged Bahrami to pardon Movahedi, called on Iran to review its penal code. Amnesty representatives said: “…Deliberate blinding inflicted by a medical expert is a cruel punishment which amounts to torture, which is prohibited under international law. The Iranian authorities should review the penal code as a matter of urgency to ensure those who cause intentional serious physical harm, like acid attacks, receive an appropriate punishment – but that must never be a penalty which in itself constitutes torture.”

Bahrami has an electronics degree and worked in a medical engineering company before the attack. She moved to Spain with the help of the Iranian government where she has undergone a series of unsuccessful operations. She briefly recovered half the vision in her right eye in 2007 but an infection blinded her again. Bahrami has recently published a book in Germany, “Eye for an Eye”, based on her personal life and her suffering since she was blinded.

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said Mohavedi would remain in gaol until a court decided on the alternative punishment or settle on compensation. The unfortunate thing is that there have been several other acid attacks on women in Iran. Last week in a copy-cat attack, a young woman died after a man poured acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal. The attacker remains free.

retribution |ˌretrəˈbyo͞oSHən| noun
Punishment that is considered to be morally right and fully deserved: Settlers drove the Navajo out of Arizona in retribution for their raids.
DERIVATIVES
retributive |riˈtribyətiv|adjective,
retributory |riˈtribyəˌtôrē|adjective
ORIGIN: Late Middle English (also in the sense ‘recompense for merit or a service’): From late Latin retributio(n-), from retribut- ‘assigned again,’ from the verb retribuere, from re- ‘back’ + tribuere ‘assign.’

POETRY WEDNESDAY - THE IRON SUNFLOWER

“Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I have recently become aware of a creative writing group hosted by Magpie Tales. I read a couple of poems that blogfriends have written and which have been inspired by a striking photograph by Skip Hunt. The photograph is of an old mill, which has fallen down from its lofty mount and decommissioned. I have tampered with the photograph somewhat (apologies to Skip!) and was inspired to write this:

The Iron Sunflower

The sun bakes the red earth
And sky above is blue as blue bottles can be
With light streaming through them.

Drought, and the only noise of midsummer noon,
Is the hum of the machine and the smell of diesel
As water is pumped from deep secret caverns, below.

The bluebottle fly buzzes lazily, imitating the pump,
Sated on her feast of rotten thirsty carcass,
With her eggs safely secreted therein.

The listless children drone in the schoolhouse,
Overcome by heat, repeating by rote the lesson in chorus
Reminiscent of a dirge of Greek tragedy.

The precious water, hard-won by efforts of man and machine
Is stored, as treasured things are, safely locked up,
In corrugated iron tank, not to be wasted on useless things – like flowers.

The head of one of past seasons’ large sunflowers
With a few black, shiny seeds hangs up deep in the dark recesses of the shed,
Strung up high, safe from rodents and birds, a sad souvenir of old times.

The sun bakes the earth and cracks it, breaks its spirit:
No touch of green, no sunflowers this year,
And the wind blows, only to lift great clouds of red dust.

Fallen by the wayside an old mill-head rusts away mirroring the dusty soil.
Its sails are petals of an iron sunflower – the only flower this year.
As the monotony of the pump numbs the ear,
And the stench of petrol deadens the nose,
The rusting iron flower is a reminder of gentler times,
When machines were driven by wind, and their creaks were musical
And the air carried only the faint smell of fresh sunflowers –
Water could be spared then for useless things…

SOCRATES ON BEING EDUCATED

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.” - Socrates

To be well educated is a goal that many people aspire to, but especially so if they are parents and they wish to provide what is best for their children. It is quite interesting that most people when asked what a good education is, generally respond with answers that can be summed up as “the collection of a great number of facts in one’s head”… Learning seems to be equated with memorisation of bits and pieces of information. A “smart” person is one that people see as rattling off hundreds of facts (often trivial) and “factoids”. Which needless to say is rather sad!

Others may equate “education” with some lofty activity confined in an ivory tower and engaged in by gowned academics who invariably are balding and wear glasses (amazing also how many people equate wearing glasses with being “brainy”, but that’s another matter…). These university types are far removed from the real world and engage in research and teaching, commonly are absent-minded and disengaged from everyday cares and concerns. They are a fount of knowledge and ostensibly “well-educated”.

My dictionary defines the word “educate” as:
educate |ˈejəˌkāt| verb [ with obj. ]
Give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, especially a child), typically at a school or university: She was educated at a boarding school.
• Provide or pay for instruction for (one’s child), especially at a school.
• Give (someone) training in or information on a particular field: The need to educate people to conserve water | A plan to educate the young on the dangers of drug-taking.
ORIGIN: Late Middle English: From Latin educat- ‘led out,’ from the verb educare, related to educere ‘lead out’.

Many of us that work in education reflect frequently on the above definition and try to understand our role in the system whereby we provide the context within our students can learn. As an educator I have tried to limit my teaching role and rather provide an environment in which students can learn in a manner that is best suited for them personally. Frequently I find that I am learning as much as they are, while facilitating their learning. Education is an exercise in clear thinking and an enabling of the learners to do the right thing. Good teaching is a facilitation of learning and the best learning comes from self-discovery of one’s own ignorance, the more one learns.

I have often thought of education, teaching and learning through the analogy of a banquet. I as the educator am the cook and host. I provide on the banquet table a selection of healthful, fresh, nutritious and attractive dishes. I ensure that they are served at their best so as to tempt my guests. It is up to them to come in, look at the feast and fill their plate with a balanced, nutritious and well-serving meal…

It may be worthy to consider what Socrates answered when he was asked what a good education was. His response didn’t mention at all the accumulation of facts, but rather it hinged on behaviour. He regarded “well-educated people” as those who:
•    Actively control difficult situations rather than being controlled by them
•    Deal with and face all events with logic and courage
•    Are honest and fair in all of their dealings with other people
•    Face difficult situations, and interact with unpleasant people, in a well-intentioned and pleasant manner
•    Keep a check on their personal desires and control their self-indulgences
•    Are not overcome by their defeats and ill-luck; and finally (and perhaps most importantly),
•    Have not been spoilt by their successes and fame.

Greek philosopher Socrates was tried, convicted, and executed in Athens, Greece, in 399 B.C. In the case of Socrates, the legal proceedings began when Meletus, a poet, delivered an oral summons to Socrates in the presence of witnesses. The summons required Socrates to appear before the legal magistrate, King Archon to answer charges of impiety and corrupting the youth

The preliminary hearing before the magistrate at the Royal Stoa began with the reading of the written charge by Meletus. Socrates answered the charge. The magistrate questioned both Meletus and Socrates, then gave both the accuser and defendant an opportunity to question each other. Having found merit in the accusation against Socrates, the magistrate drew up formal charges.

The document containing the charges against Socrates survived until at least the second century C.E. Diogenes Laertius reports the charges as recorded in the now-lost document: “This indictment and affidavit is sworn by Meletus, the son of Meletus of Pitthos, against Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus of Alopece: Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognise the gods recognized by the state, and of introducing new divinities. He is also guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty demanded is death.”

Socrates spent his final hours in a cell in the Athens gaol. The ruins of the gaol remain today.  The hemlock that ended his life did not do so quickly or painlessly, but rather by producing a gradual paralysis of the central nervous system. The trial of Socrates, produced the first martyr for free speech. As I. F. Stone observed, just as Jesus Christ needed the cross to fulfil his mission, Socrates needed his hemlock to fulfil his (image above is “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David - 1787).

I have blogged about this today as I had an interesting discussion yesterday with a fellow academic and his views differed from my own, and from Socrates’. He did have a bit of a swollen head and his self-importance prevented him from acknowledging something that was obvious to some observers of the conversation. What do you think? Do you agree with Socrates’ views of a well-educated person?

MOVIE MONDAY - SALT

“For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy.” - Neil Jordan

Yesterday we enjoyed our Sunday very much as it was a beautiful day, fine and sunny, spring-like in its freshness and gentle warmth. We got lots done in the garden, went to the market and in the afternoon walked to the Parklands where it was a pleasure to see the wattles in bloom, enjoy the flowering plum-trees, the masses of violets and the blossoming natives. We got home three hours later, not having realised how quickly time passed. At home we washed up and then went out to an early dinner at our local pub. Then, back at home, we watched a movie on DVD. Unfortunately, this put a dampener on the day as it was quite a dud!

The movie was Phillip Noyce’s 2010 potboiler “Salt”, starring Angelina Jolie. There was such brouhaha when the movie first came out that we ignored it quite completely (as it turns out, wisely). However, once again we succumbed to the specials bin at our DVD store and decided to see what all the fuss was about. The plot was standard spy thriller guff and the scriptwriter followed just about every convention in order to make an “exciting” movie. Typical dick-flick with Angelina pouting away in order to drive home this point.

In short, the story revolves around Evelyn Salt who is a successful CIA agent respected by all, especially her boss, Ted Winter. She is married to a German arachnologist, the two being much in love. One day a Russian spy comes into the cover offices of the CIA and says he is a defector. He asks for Evelyn Salt and tells all that the President of Russia will be assassinated during his forthcoming visit to New York City to attend the funeral of the recently deceased USA Vice President. He further reveals that the name of the assassin is Evelyn Salt. Salt tries to contact her husband, but as she cannot do so, decides to go on the run and doesn’t stay to defend herself against the accusations. Her boss does not accept that she is a mole or a double agent, however, her subsequent actions shake his faith in her innocence. What follows is a conventional spy movie with lots of violence, attempts at twists and turns in the plot and some spectacular special effects.

Unfortunately, the movie is illogical, much too stereotypical and completely unbelievable. Jolie in the title role is fine enough, but somehow she does not convince the viewer. Admittedly she has a tough job making her character believable as it is too much of a cardboard cutout. There is scene after scene of action and murder, violence and car chases, thrills and spills. I kept thinking that the film was like a computer game. The plots and twists were annoying and unsatisfying and one could easily get lost in what we were meant to believe in terms of whose side Salt was on. Being neither Russian nor American we could almost not care, as neither side appeared to be worth belonging to…

Even the ending of the film was unsatisfying as it was too much of a set-up for a sequel. The whole thing was too formulaic and predictable, but at the same time annoying as it tried to pretend to be something else. Nothing worse than a potboiler trying to convince you it’s high art. We could see after watching the movie why it was so controversial. Those who watched it purely for its thrills and spills, the mindless violence and the stereotypical “us and them” cold war primary school mentality plot would enjoy it. The rest of us who want some depth, some motivation, some characterisation, some clever plot development, think this is a terrible film. Watch at your own risk.

ART SUNDAY - MARGARET OLLEY

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” - Henry Ward Beecher

The Australian painter Margaret Olley died last Tuesday, 26th July 2011. She is noted for her colourful still life paintings and intimate interiors.  She was a traditional painter, oblivious to changing fashions and movements of the art world. Olley chose to paint her surroundings, immersing herself in everyday subjects that reflected her interest in the personal and the intimate. Her love for painting is explicitly shown in every one of her works and her own personality and inner beauty is exemplified by her choice of subject and the way she depicted it.

Margaret Hannah Olley was born on 24th June 1923 in Lismore, New South Wales. After spending some of her childhood in remote Upper Tully, south of Cairns, Queensland, her family moved to Lower Tully where her sister Elaine and brother Ken were subsequently born. Living in a small country town, gave her rich experiences, like riding a pony to school. This helped o give her a sense of adventure and independence, which the young artist was able to use in the future. It was not until she attended Somerville House, a Brisbane girl’s boarding school, in 1935, that her talent for painting and drawing started receiving encouragement.  Olley’s art teacher at Somerville House persuaded Olley’s parents to send Margaret to art school.

In 1941, she started at Brisbane Central Technical College. The next year Olley moved to Sydney and enrolled at East Sydney Technical College, where her boarding school friend and fellow artist Margaret Cilento also attended. Olley graduated in 1945 with A-class honours. After graduating, Olley quickly became involved in the post-war Sydney art scene. In the late 1940s, she and Donald Friend became some of the first artists to spend time painting in the Hill End area of New South Wales.

William Dobell painted an Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Olley in 1948. This was also the year Olley had her first solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries.  In 1949, Olley took her first international trip. She stayed in France and travelled extensively to parts of Spain, Brittany, Venice, Lisbon and London. When her father died in 1953, Olley returned to Brisbane where she designed sets for the Twelfth Night Theatre. 

Olley travelled through north Queensland with Donald Friend in the early 1950s, and following this trip she went to Papua New Guinea. She held an exhibition of her paintings of this period in the Macquarie Galleries in 1955 to mixed critical acclaim.  After the 1955 exhibition, Olley returned her focus to drawing. In 1959 she gave up alcohol, which marked the beginning of a decade of success with collectors. The colour in her work became more confident, and underpinned by stronger compositional design, although over the years a concern for the flat picture plane would become progressively supplanted by one for the form and weight of objects set within three-dimensional space.

Olley is also known for her friendships with important Australian artists including William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend and Jeffrey Smart. Olley is regarded as a generous benefactor having donated many works to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Olley’s generosity to the gallery was celebrated in its “Great Gifts, Great Patrons” exhibition in 1994. She donated works of Donald Friend, Arthur Boyd, Walter Sickert, Edgar Degas, Duncan Grant and Matthew Smith for this exhibition.

Margaret Olley held honorary doctorates from Macquarie, Sydney, Queensland and Newcastle universities. In 1991, Olley was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service as an artist and for the promotion of art. In 2006, she was awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order, for service as one of Australia’s most distinguished artists, for philanthropy to the arts and for encouragement of young and emerging artists.

The painting above is titled “Pears and Clivias” and exemplifies Olley’s style admirably. Joyous colour, naturalistic style, a detailed canvas laden as though it were a Victorian drawing room. Exuberant colour and shapes fill the eyes with richness and above all it is a satisfying, highly decorative painting that refreshes and calms the viewer. Olley, who preferred to be known as a painter rather than an artist, saw beauty in humble items, reflecting this in her still life works such as this, of fruit bowls and flowers. NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon said of Olley: “We often talked about colour and what was her favourite colour. Her answer was swift and straightforward: ‘Green’, she would say ‘it’s the colour of rebirth’.”

Vale, Margaret Olley!