OLD AGE IN SPRING

“To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.” - Henri Amiel

Old age is something that we have to come to terms with if we survive long enough. Sickness is one of its attendant misfortunes and for some of us, these two ills will cause much pain and sorrow. What is the best season to die for an old sick man? Spring I think, for to die in such a glorious time of the year surrounded by the blooming flowers, birdsong, the warming sun and the promise of so much life bursting forth after the dead winter surely is a promise of a victory of life over death, of joy over despair, of healing over sickness?

Here is Edvard Grieg’s “Våren” or “Last Spring”. It rejoices in spring, but it is to be a last spring, for the poet knows that he will see no other. Between 1877 and 1880, Grieg produced a set of songs as his Op. 33 on texts by the so-called “peasant-poet” of Norway, Aasmund Vinje (1818-1870). The composer had been greatly inspired by the then-late poet’s verses, so much so that after completing the set, he decided to arrange two of its songs for string orchestra, this one The Last Spring and The Wounded Heart. The last Spring is a hauntingly beautiful and sad piece of music, but are not our sweetest songs, the saddest also?

The singer is the Norwegian singing sensation Sissel, who sings this song in a disarmingly simple and straightforward manner without a trace of sentimentality. Enjoy it!

A HALAL LUNCH

“We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.” - William Osler

I had a very busy day today, spent with some fellow academics who were visiting our College from Malaysia. The meeting was very successful and we ended up signing a memorandum of understanding that will allow our two organisations to co-operate in our educational goals. I took them out to lunch, mindful of their religious dietary restrictions as they were Muslim. We have a plethora of restaurants very close to our College in the City and these can cater to a wide variety of tastes and dietary demands: Australian, Asian, European, American, African cuisines are all well represented in their endless varieties, but also there are vegan, vegetarian, classic, new, experimental cuisines, etc.

We ended up going to Chillipadi, a contemporary Asian restaurant which has the added benefit of being 100% certified Halal. This means that Moslem people can eat freely as the meal is prepared according to the religious restrictions placed on diet by Islam. “Halal” in Arabic means “lawful” or “legal” and as it applies to food, it means that certain foods or components of food are forbidden, while what is allowed has to be prepared in prescribed ways. “Halal” is the opposite of “Haraam” meaning “Harmful” and hence forbidden.

The Quran specifies the forbidden (Haraam) substances and foods as:
•    Pork (flesh of pig, swine)
•    Blood
•    Animals slaughtered in the name of any other god except Allah.
•    All that has been dedicated or offered to an idolatrous altar, or saint or divine being
•    Carrion
•    An animal strangled, beaten to death, killed by a fall, savaged by a beast of prey (except that which has been slaughtered subsequently, while still being alive)
•    Food over which Allah’s name is not pronounced
•    Alcohol and other intoxicating substances.

Any allowed meat which is to be consumed has to be killed by ritual slaughter called “Dhabiha”. This consists of a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries on both sides of the neck, but leaving the spinal cord intact. This method is believed by Muslims to kill instantly and painlessly, thus humanely, for the animal. Fish and most sea-life are excluded from the Dhabiha rule.

For lunch at Chillipadi we ordered several plates which had placed in the centre of the table and we then shared around. We had tea and iced water to drink. We ate the following:
•    Laksa noodles with seafood
•    Penang prawn noodles
•    Curry chicken rice
•    Thai beef salad
•    Vegetarian Mee Goreng with eggs
•    Vegetarian Nasi Goreng with eggs

The food was quite nice and my Malaysian guests were very complimentary and enjoyed it very much.

In the afternoon I had a three hour meeting, which left me quite exhausted. Just as well the weekend is looming ahead, I’m looking forward to the break!

I JUST WISH I WERE A DOG...

“We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults.  Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.” - George Eliot

I read the news with great dismay and my faith in the human species greatly diminishes each day. What monsters we humans are! What new horrors are we yet to commit, what terrible deeds to shock and terrify each other? What new ways to kill and maim, torture and humiliate shall we discover?

In Kingston, Jamaica, Garsha Wilson a taxi driver is accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, then strangling her. After thinking she was dead, he buried her in a shallow grave and covered it with rocks. Unfortunately for him and luckily for the girl, she was indeed alive, only unconscious, and she was able to dig herself out of her grave and raise the alarm.

In Russia, two men are being tried for killing, then chopping up a 16-year-old girl, cooking and serving her flesh with potatoes for dinner. Maxim Golovatskikh and his friend Yuri Mozhnov, both 20-year-olds, drowned and then butchered the hapless girl. Their excuse was that they were “hungry and drunk”. One of the jurors at the trial became ill after looking at the graphic photographs provided by the police. Remains of the girl were disposed of in a rubbish skip.

Brian Jones, a 63-year-old jilted husband in Britain stabbed his ex-wife to death as she was preparing to celebrate the end of their 10-year marriage with a “divorce party”. A lover was involved and the husband who was visiting a friend of his next door to the matrimonial home “snapped” when he saw a banner up with the inscription “The Party’s Here” and a picture of himself with the message “Pin the Tail on the X”.

Yet more bombs have ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad, while another bomb exploded in a market, killing 50 people and injuring more than 160. Al-Qaida insurgents have been blamed by officials as the country struggles to come to terms with an unresolved election result. It was the fourth set of attacks with multiple casualties across Iraq in five days…

In Kyrgysztan, about 50 people died yesterday in riots in the capital while nationwide the death toll may be higher than 100 people. The dead had multiple gunshot wounds, the police being the ones suspected for the slayings. More than 500 people are also thought to be injured. Opponents of the president Kurmanbek Bakiyev took control of the country after the day of violence, which ended with Bakiyev fleeing the capital.

And then a ray of sunshine amongst the gloom… A guide dog helped his blind master David Quarmby, a British man 61 years old, to reach home (after a journey of nearly 200 km) before it collapsed and died of a cancer. The man had no idea his dog was dying of a malignant spleen tumour. The man had no idea the dog was sick, the only indication that something was wrong being its refusal to gobble up its usual doggy treat. When they got home and the dog was taken to the vet after it collapsed, the malignancy was found. I’m afraid the news is bad. The dog died as it was given anaesthetic to prepare it for surgery and its master is inconsolable.

Sometimes, I just wish I were a dog…

ABOUT LOST DREAMS

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” – Oscar Wilde

I was reading a friend’s blog today and she mentioned in one of her posts how she was considered by people around her as “old” while she herself never thought of herself as “old”. I am getting to the stage now where I think of myself as beginning the down hill ride to where old age resides. And how quickly one may tumble down that hill, especially as one nears the final few stretches to the bottom. The greatest surprise of all perhaps is all the while one is growing old, one is still feeling young. What a shock that can be if one is buoyant and bursting with youthful enthusiasm and verve, if one is laughing and thinking young and then, wham! One inadvertently gazes into a mirror and who on earth is that …old person staring back?

Perhaps the most disheartening part of growing old is the loss of one’s youthful dreams. The loss of the illusions, the fantasies, the ideals of youth is a shocking realisation. Whether this loss has occurred despite ourselves, whether it has occurred as consequence of our life’s vicissitudes, or whether we have done it voluntarily, it hardly matters. What matters is the hopelessness of that awareness, which truly ushers in a very rapid senescence.

This poem I wrote several years ago when I discovered that a good school friend had “progressed” in the world and had “fallen into” a very good position in the public service, had “married well” into a family of influence and “enjoyed the good life”… When I met him after many years I could hardly recognise him but unfortunately we had nothing to talk about as we had no longer anything in common.

The Ballad of the Grand Bureaucrat

And so I got tired of talking of the moon,
The flowers, the flying birds, the blue skies above.
Princes on white chargers live only in fairy tales,
Together with Beauty, the elves and trolls.

The years have passed by and I no longer fantasise,
No more accept my mind’s creations without thought.
I grew older, and all my boyhood dreams died,
While my tender heart was still young…

Now everything I see, with cool logic I view,
Before I speak I think all things through.
The world’s a liar, a relentless, cruel, unjust master
Who will crush you if you don’t think as he does.

I exchanged my innocent childish hopes
With facts, inhuman numbers, hard calculations.
A marriage by proxy, the bride’s dowry rich,
As a result, all at the office call me “Sir”…

And if sometimes the tie chokes me,
I rarely remember my childhood fables,
And in the realm of my office, I quickly forget
All babyish nonsense and the make-believe.

I reign, I order, I command, I’m the man in charge
Everyone trembles when I raise my voice.
A public servant and bureaucrat though I be,
The public is ill-served by me.

The rules and protocol, laws, regulations I know off by heart,
And only if one oils my wheels will I do what I should…
The whole world’s a sinking ship with rotting timbers,
Who am I to start stopping the hulk’s holes?

It’s only in the darkness of my bed in blackest night
That I often wake in fright –
My childhood’s lovely pastel-coloured dreams haunt me
But now torture me as nightmares unrelenting…

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday. Visit her blog for more poetry!

MINE DISASTERS

“Who can hope to be safe? who sufficiently cautious? Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush.” - Horace

News of the coalmine disaster in West Virginia has landed on my computer screen. This is right after the dramatic rescue of miners in Shanxi, China after spending nine days in a flooded mine a few days ago. China has a long history of mining accidents and many miners have unfortunately perished, as the safety standards are not as high as they are in most other parts of the world. The rescue effort yesterday and the miraculous return of 115 miners to the surface surprised everyone not least the Chinese themselves who are used to many a fatal mining accident on a regular basis.

Five bodies have been recovered now, and those were the unlucky ones… Unfortunately 33 more miners are still missing, also suspected dead. The Chinese miners accused their bosses of ignoring warning signs of danger as water was noticed leaking into the pit days before the latest disaster. Unfortunately the workers’ pleas were unheeded and when disaster struck, everyone expected the worse. I can only imagine the terror of those trapped workers in the wet darkness as they ate pine tree bark from construction wood poles and drank cold water to stay alive for the eight days and nights they were underground... In any case most survived!

Which tragically is not the same for the American miners. Although safety standards and better working conditions are the case in the USA, the accident yesterday confirms the fact that mining is a dangerous occupation in any country of the world. At least 25 miners are dead and four are still missing. I think of this and the thought of these innocent lives lost while trying to earn a living for their families haunts me. Each of them left their families the previous day and went into the mine, the thought of death far from their mind. Each spouse, child, relative and friend waited to see them back after work but instead this tragic piece of news that interrupted so many lives by putting an end to some of them.

There will always be mines and there will always be accidents. However, it is up to us as a society to demand safe working environments for everyone who works for a living. It is up to us to ensure that mines are safe and that full precautions are taken to make this occupation as safe as possible. That is the only way to reduce the number of accidents and reduce the number of deaths. We must reaffirm our commitment to the prevention of accidents, injuries, illnesses and death in the workplace. We must demand prevention programs and the stringent enforcement of health and safety laws.

AND THE BAND PLAYED...

“What is tolerance?  It is the consequence of humanity.  We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.” -Voltaire

As all good things come to an end, so did this brief holiday over the Easter weekend. It was a beautiful, restful few days with friends, family, good food and beautiful weather. It is such pleasant, short and relaxing breaks that help us to restore our energy and assist us to find the courage to continue with our daily grind.

We watched an interesting movie from Israel today. It was Eran Kolirin’s 2007 “The Band’s Visit”, a film which he both wrote and directed. The plot is deceptively simple and pace is relaxed and gentle, with some remarkably good performances by Sasson Gabai and Ronit Elkabetz as the two leads, Tawfiq (the Egyptian band leader) and Dina (the Israeli shopkeeper).

The story concerns an Egyptian police band from Alexandria who goes to Israel for a concert to celebrate the opening of an Arab culture centre. The band arrives, but unfortunately due to a mix-up nobody is waiting for them at the airport and they decide to catch a bus and get to the town where they are expected to play on their own. They get hopelessly lost due to misunderstanding caused by a mispronunciation. They are marooned in a small town with nowhere to sleep and with little Israeli money. The kindness of the locals, headed by the outspoken Dina does a lot to highlight the commonality of human experience between the Arab and the Jew, the Egyptian and the Israeli, the man and the woman.

This is film that is made with consummate skill and is never forced. The story develops effortlessly and the interactions of the characters are natural and one can see that the tension between the two cultures and the two peoples dictate the initial awkwardness, suspicion and prejudice. The intimacy that develops between Tewfiq and Dina is a delight to watch and the help and advice one of the band members gives to a romantically challenged young Jewish boy is classic!

There is wisdom, gentle humour, earthiness and a delightful affirmation of humanity in this film. As a bonus, the music is very good and the song at the end of the film is worth waiting for as the credits roll through. Get your hands on it and watch it. It is an unexpectedly offbeat and delightful movie.

EASTER DAY AND RENOIR

“It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.” - P.D. James

Happy Easter! We have had a lovely day, relaxing at home, enjoying the company of family and friends. The weather was perfect, an autumn day full of mild sunshine, and we spent a great deal of it in the garden. The jasmine perfumed the air and the zinnias were blooming wildly in the background. There was soft music playing and we broke our fast with a delicious lamb roast whilst sipping some delightful shiraz.

What better way to celebrate this glorious Easter Sunday than with a Renoir? His “Le déjeuner des canotiers” (Luncheon of the Boating Party) remains the best-known and most popular work of art at The Phillips Collection, in Washington DC, just as Duncan Phillips imagined it would be when he bought it in 1923. Each character in the painting has been identified. The woman playing with a dog is Aline Charigot (who would become the wife of Renoir); the painter Gustave Caillebotte is sitting in front of her; the man with a top hat is Charles Ephrussi (the editor of the Gazette des Beaux Arts) etc.

The painting captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir’s friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou. Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night. The painting also reflects the changing character of French society in the mid- to late 19th century. The restaurant welcomed customers of many classes, including businessmen, society women, artists, actresses, writers, critics, seamstresses, and shop girls. This diverse group embodied a new, modern, egalitarian Parisian society.

Renoir seems to have composed this complicated scene without advance studies or under-drawing. He also spent months making many changes to the canvas, painting the individual figures when his models were available, and adding the striped awning along the top edge. Nonetheless, Renoir retained the freshness of his vision, even as he revised, rearranged, and created a beautiful work of art.

HOLY SATURDAY 2010

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” - Mahatma Gandhi

On this Holy Saturday, I am featuring a Greek hymn singer who has brought the chants of the Orthodox faith closer not only to many of the faithful, but also to many who were not aware of the glory of Byzantine hymnology. It is Petros Gaïtanos who is singing some of the Holy Week Byzantine hymns. This piece is encomium “E Zoé en Táfo” (Η Ζωή εν Τάφω – “Life in the Sepulchre”) that is chanted on Good Friday and laments the death of Jesus.



Christ, you, who are Life itself,
were placed in a sepulchre,
and legions of angels were astonished
by your condenscendence.

How is it possible for you who is Life itself to die?
To abide in a grave?
You, who has dissolved the rule of Death
and resurrects Hades’ dead?

The ruler of all is beheld dead;
and in a new sepulchre is placed
he who has emptied all sepulchres of their dead.

Christ, you, who are Life itself,
were placed in a sepulchre,
and through your death you conquered Death
and sprung forth life into the world.

Strangest of paradoxes, and of inexplicable things!
the provider of my breath is carried breathless
by Joseph for burial.

Christ, you, who are Life itself,
were placed in a sepulchre,
and legions of angels were astonished
by your condenscendence.

Have a Peaceful Easter!

FASTING BEFORE EASTER

“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

As it is Good Friday today, I thought I’d blog about fasting, which is a traditional way of eating in many of the Southern Mediterranean countries, like Greece, Italy and Spain.  The fasting is cyclical and reflects the traditions and proscriptions of the religious calendar, closely associated with seasonal cycles and the availability of certain produce. It is also closely tied to the life of the countryside, where farming activities often dictate what food is available when. With fasting of course, comes feasting to celebrate various holy days and feast days.

In the Orthodox faith, there are there are four major fasts during the year:
1) The Great Lent, which begins on a Monday, seven weeks before Easter. This Monday, called Katharí Dheftéra (Καθαρή Δευτέρα), translates as Clean Monday. Fasting restrictions are eased on weekends (not abandoned), and Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday (the weekend before Easter).
2) Fast of the Apostles, which lasts from one to six weeks, begins on a Monday, eight days after Pentecost, and ends on June 28th, the day before the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. 

3) Fast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, from August 1st to 14th. 

4) Christmas Fast (Little Lent), from November 15th to December 24th.

Individual Fast Days
•    January 5th - eve of the Epiphany,
•    August 29th - the Beheading of St. John the Baptist,
•    September 14th - the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, and
•    Wednesdays and Fridays.

Similarly, there are certain days when fasting is not permitted:
•    between Christmas (25th December) and the Epiphany (January 6th),
•    the 10th week before Easter,
•    the week after Easter, and,
•    the week after Pentecost (50 days after Easter).

The fasting that is necessitated by Greek Orthodox Church tradition is essentially one of vegan fare and the permissible dishes do not include any dairy products, meats, and fish. This may sound very Spartan, but there are many wonderful traditional dishes that are both nutritious and delicious. For example:

•    Artichoke hearts with vegetables in a light lemon-dill sauce that is a Greek classic.
•    Beans with capers, which is an easy dish that uses black-eyed peas with the tastes of onions, capers, and dill. Because it is often served chilled or at room temperature, it is called a salad, but it makes a good warm main dish too.
•    Broad beans and artichoke hearts are a delightful taste combination and a favorite main dish during the Lenten season. It can also be served as a side dish.
•    Lentils and rice is a vegan recipe for lentils cooked with rice, herbs, and spices and meets the most stringent Greek Orthodox guidelines for periods of fasting and the Great Lent. It also happens to be frugal, healthy, and delicious as a main dish.
•    Tomato and pasta soup is made with fresh tomatoes, vegetables, and pasta, which is a hearty soup and a cold-weather delight.
•    Legumes are an important part of the Greek diet, and lentil soup is a perennial favorite as well as a Lenten dish consumed during fasting periods in the Greek Orthodox faith.
•    Fresh French beans with tomato stew is a simple recipe but tastes delicious. Fresh green beans, tomatoes, herbs and spices are simmered together long enough for the tastes to meld. Served in larger portions, it is a main dish.
•    The national food dish of Greece is Fassoladha, is a hearty bean soup. It is a delicious dish that represents the best of Greek cooking: vegetables, herbs, and olive oil. There are many variations of this wonderful dish, and this recipe can be made with tomatoes or with lemon.
•    Chickpea soup is a warming and filling thick soup that isn't as appealing to the eye as it is to the tastebuds. It's easy to make, vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, with only a few ingredients.
•    “Spanakorizo” or spinach risotto is made with fresh spinach, and is a quick dish that is a meal both delicious and healthy.
•    Stuffed cabbage leaves is a very nice dish where blanched cabbage is stuffed with a mixture of rice and herbs. They are made into small rolls and make for an elegant Lenten dish.
•    Stuffed vine leaves with a filling of rice, dill, parlsey, spring onion, tomato, with a light sauce of lemon juice.
•    Stuffed vegetables (tomato, capsicum, zucchini, eggplant, potato – as illustrated above) can be made into a vegetarian version where the minced meat is omitted. Οne may also stuff zucchini flowers, when they are in season.
•    Salads are a very common fasting dish and a great variety of them exist in Greece. The term “Greek Salad” is perhaps misleading as there are an almost infinite variety of fresh, healthy, zesty Greek salads!

Remember, we eat to live, not live to eat!

Have a Happy Easter!

RELIGION

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

Another long day at work today, but now I am looking forward to a break with four days of holiday. Easter is always a time of rest and relaxation here in Australia, as most people take the opportunity to go away and spend some time away from home, enjoying the autumnal weather. The religious aspect of the holiday is very much underplayed and if people go to church it is usually only for the Easter Sunday mass or service.

Greek Australians still maintain the traditions of the “old country” and the whole of Holy Week before Easter is devoted to religious activities and traditions surrounding the Passion and Resurrection. The Greek Orthodox church has often been referred to as the “Church of the Resurrection”, as its greatest holy day is Easter. Most Western churches place greater emphasis on Christmas, prompting the remark that Western Christianity is still in its infancy whereas Orthodoxy is mature. The criticism is unfounded and perceived degrees of importance assigned to different holy days cannot be used as a yardstick for the philosophical slant that one church may have compared to another, however, the Eastern church emphasises Easter as the “Feast of Feasts”.

Holy Week in the Eastern Orthodox Church encasulates the sanctity of the whole calendar year of the Church. Its centre of commemorations and inspiration is Easter, where the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. Every Sunday is dedicated in the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Resurrection. One hundred days also are also directly dedicated to Easter, 50 before it for preparation, and another 50 after it for commemorating the glorification of Jesus Christ.

St John Chrysostom’s mass is the culmination of the resurrection liturgy, in which the congregation is enjoined to: “Take part in this fair and radiant festival. Let no one be fearful of death, for the death of the Saviour has set us free...O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is Thy victory? Christ is Risen and Thou art overthrown. To Him be glory and power from all ages to all ages.”

religion |riˈlijən| noun
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods: Ideas about the relationship between science and religion.
• Details of belief as taught or discussed: When the school first opened they taught only religion, Italian, and mathematics.
• A particular system of faith and worship: The world's great religions.
• A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance: Consumerism is the new religion.
PHRASES
Get religion informal be converted to religious belief and practices.
DERIVATIVES
Religionless adjective
ORIGIN Middle English (originally in the sense [life under monastic vows]): from Old French, or from Latin religio(n-) ‘obligation, bond, reverence,’ perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind.’

WILLIAM BLAKE

“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” - Charles Darwin

I had a very busy day at work today, working uninterruptedly from 7:00 am until past five in the afternoon. I got an almighty headache afterwards and had to rush out. The afternoon was warm and sunny, beautifully autumnal. The train was packed and once again I thought of the poor people in the Moscow Metro bomb blast. Do we prepare ourselves every day, every moment to meet our death? We should…

William Blake for Poetry Wednesday today:

 HOLY THURSDAY

 Is this a holy thing to see
   In a rich and fruitful land, -
 Babes reduced to misery,
   Fed with cold and usurous hand?

 Is that trembling cry a song?
   Can it be a song of joy?
 And so many children poor?
   It is a land of poverty!

 And their sun does never shine,
   And their fields are bleak and bare,
 And their ways are filled with thorns:
   It is eternal winter there.

 For where'er the sun does shine,
   And where'er the rain does fall,
 Babes should never hunger there,
   Nor poverty the mind appall.

Aptly for Holy Week, today Blake’s observations on society and the inequality between rich and poor come to the fore in this poem written as a comment on the charity distributed to the poor around Eastertime. Blake thought charity to be evil, and that it was an easy way for the rich to make themselves feel better. He abhors the social system that allows the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer. Usury (action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest) is a word we seldom hear nowadays, though it is so widespread. Dante in his hell reserves delicious tortures for the usurers. Even in these bleak days of the “financial crisis”, the greedy banks and loan companies still continue to practice the state-sanctioned usury while the bankers grow fatter on their obscene salaries.

The poet bemoans the fact that even though these poverty-stricken children live in a rich land, they are dependent on charity to survive. If poverty were to be wiped out, one wouldn’t need charity nor pity. The hymns sung by the poor children to praise the glory of God cannot be heard by Blake and make him rejoice as all he hears are wails of despair, coming from children who protest their endless wintry lives.

William Blake (28 November 1757– 12 August 1827) was a complex man. He was a poet, illustrator, engraver, draughtsman, but his efforts, due to the unorthodox nature of his work, were highly unappreciated during his lifetime. Working as an engraver he learned many things, things that helped him to surround one of his poems with his own hand-coloured illustrations. Among his most important works are the “Illustrations of the Book of Job” (1825), and the hundred watercolours to Dante's “Divine Comedy”. A mystical and deeply religious man, Blake claimed he had visionary experiences. His social and political conscience railed against the prevailing academic painting of the eighteenth century.

TERROR, YET AGAIN...

“True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.” - Alfred North Whitehead

The atrocious terrorist attack in the Moscow Metro yesterday has once again made me wince with consternation and distress. The reality of terrorism in our days is something that we are not permitted to forget as daily events around the world draw attention to desperate and extreme acts performed by minorities that attempt to draw attention to their cause. These are cowardly acts of blackmail and instead of support and sympathy (for whatever cause) they attempt to garner, all they do is to succeed in gaining the revulsion and opposition of any person with a shred of humanity within them.

I was not interested to learn more about which organisation or group was behind this latest mass slaughter in Moscow, or the reasons for this madness. All I want is that the perpetrators be found and punished as befits criminals and murderers of the worse kind. Sympathy with their cause or interest in their point of view is the thing most distant in my mind at this point. The image of masses of innocent commuters packed into trains making their way to work that were killed is with me as I get into my train every morning. These ordinary people like you and me, are the victims of terrorists not of liberation fighters, of assassins not of idealists, of fanatics not of visionaries.

One of the most distasteful aspects of the attack is that the suicide bombers were women. Even if these women had lost husbands and children, how could they sink into the same quagmire of hate and violence that destroyed their own families? Does killing several tens of innocent civilians compensate them for their loss? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is a barbarity that is propounded by violent and uncivilised brutes whose motivation is the same as that of the criminal they are intent on punishing.

The atrocity was preceded by yet another terrorist attack, this time in Athens, late on Sunday night. A 15-year-old Afghani boy was killed and his mother and his 10-year-old sister wounded when a home-made pipe bomb exploded. The boy was looking in a bag in a rubbish bin containing the bomb, when the blast occurred. The girl was taken to a children’s hospital with burns to her face and hands, as well as bruising. Her mother, who was in a state of shock, was also injured and taken to a different hospital. No group has claimed responsibility and the terrorist attack has blighted the streets of a residential area of another European city whose inhabitants are living a hard enough life already.

The bomb exploded outside the offices of the Hellenic Management Association, a non-profit organisation. Since a teenager was shot dead by a policeman in Athens in December 2008, there have been frequent attacks on public buildings. Most of these blasts have been blamed on far-left and anarchist groups, but typically these explosions have been minor and caused no injuries. Last week, three bombings targetted the offices of an ultra right wing party, a police immigration centre and a Pakistani immigrant leader’s home. The “Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire” group claimed responsibility for those bombings and said they were intended to highlight racism in Greece.

The father of the killed boy visited the site of his son’s death today. He and his family migrated to Greece for a better life. He couldn’t speak Greek or English but his sorrow was immediately and palpably intelligible as it needed no words to convey the immense sense of loss and devastation he felt. He knelt and wept at the steps where his son lost his life. He sobbed and bewailed his fate. He escaped terror in his own country, searching for a better life in a distant land and all he found was death and endless misery from now on. What sort of society are we becoming? The savage beasts of the jungle are less terrible and less brutal than we humans are. We take cut the thread of human life as easily as if we were chopping the stalk of a lettuce.

Dare we call ourselves civilised? Can such a civilisation survive? Hw can we end this chain of violence and terror we have become trapped by?

FACING WINDOWS

“Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren't even there before.” - Mignon McLaughlin

Yesterday we watched a rather surprising film from Italy.  Surprising, as we had never heard anything of it and the only reason we got it to watch was the sleeve notes and the rather beautiful actress on the front cover. OK, I know, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or a DVD by its sleeve, but call it a whim, we suspected that it was going to be a good movie and we were glad that we did. Apparently the movie has won several awards in several festivals, including best actress, best actor, best script, best film.

The film is Ferzan Ozpetek’s 2003 “Facing Windows” or to give it its Italian title, “La Finestra di Fronte”. It starred Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Giovanna, a young woman, married to Filippo (Filippo Nigro), living in a small, contemporary, suburban Rome apartment with their two young children. Across the road, is an apartment where a young, handsome man lives on his own, Lorenzo (Raoul Bova). The two of them see each other daily and a fascination develops into love. This is a love that is improper and condemned by society, so Giovanna tries to stifle her feelings for Lorenzo and instead takes out her frustrations on her husband who tries his best for the family by working night shifts and looking after his children.

The story is overlaid on another “improper” love affair, which took place in Rome in 1943. The connection is Simone (Massimo Girroti), who is an elderly man who has lost his memory and is “rescued” from the streets by Giovanna and Filippo. As Simone almost becomes part of the family (much to Giovanna’s initial consternation and annoyance), we learn of his story and his memories are revealed piecemeal and the strange parallelism between his improper love and Giovanna’s is slowly brought to the fore. Other commonalities also emerge, including Giovanna’s passion of pastry-cooking and Simone’s seeming expertise in this art.

The film is well-crafted, with an engaging story that keeps one immersed in the world portrayed in the screen. It explores the themes of racism, prejudice, intolerance, duty, responsibility and of course the different meaning that we give to the word “love”. It is an adult (though not R-rated) movie, and I am loath to call it a chick flick, although it was described like that by the video store guy. The cinematography is great, the music fantastic and the performances very good. We enjoyed it very much and recommend it most highly. Get your hands on it and watch it!

ART SUNDAY - THEA PROCTOR

“And she was fair as is the rose in May.” – Geoffrey Chaucer

Had a very relaxing Sunday today with no work being done at all! We went out for a drive in the morning, visited a Sunday Market and then came back home, had lunch and watched a movie. In the afternoon, I played some music and then we went out to dinner.

For Art Sunday today, and Australian artist, Thea Proctor (1879-1966) or to give her full name, Alethea Mary Proctor. She was born in NSW and studied under Julian Ashton in Sydney, and in London. Her work is notable for its great fluidity of line and the delicate colouration of her watercolour paintings along with black-and-white and hand-coloured prints. She specialised in relief prints and designs and her influence brought public attention to the linocut and woodcut.

Although Proctor's work was comparatively conservative, in Australia it was considered “dangerously modern”. In 1932 Art in Australia devoted an issue to her work. She taught design at Ashton’s Sydney Art School and privately, introducing many young artists to linocut printing, and in the 1940s taught drawing for the Society of Arts and Crafts.

Considered an arbiter of taste and always elegantly dressed, Thea Proctor wrote on fashion, flower arranging, colours for cars and interior decoration. She organized artists’ balls in the 1920s, designed the fashionably modern Lacquer Room restaurant (1932) for Farmer & Co. Ltd and produced theatre décor in the 1940s. In her latter years she continued to encourage young and innovative artists and to paint, in a looser, sensuous manner, carried out portrait commissions, exhibited regularly with the Macquarie Galleries and promoted the neglected work of her relation John Peter Russell. She commented: “I am not the sort of person who could sit at home and knit socks”. Unmarried, Thea Proctor died at Potts Point on 29 July 1966 and was cremated with Anglican rites.

The work illustrated here is in the Gallery of New South Wales and is entitled “The Rose” (ca1928). It is a woodcut, printed in black ink, from one block and subsequently hand-coloured. Such works explored form and colour in ways previously not attempted, and reflect the challenging thinking of the time and leadership demonstrated by Thea Proctor. In her works, she highlighted a modernist aesthetic link that Australia had not seen before.

BACH & GOULD

“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.” - Edward Elgar

For Music Saturday today some Bach played by the incomparable Glenn Gould. This is the first movement from the Concerto in G Minor for Clavier (BWV 1058). Pseudopurists may wince, but I think the artistry of the performer and the wonderful arrangement would have pleased Bach greatly. Bach was always one for arranging and rearranging both his music and others’. The music flows like a tumbling stream down a mountainside and the conversation between soloist and ensemble is beautiful.

Much was said of Gould and his playing not the least of which his habit of vocalizing the music as he was playing it. All I see is a consummate artist who immerses himself in the music, body and soul. He was born in Toronto in 1932, and enjoyed a privileged, sheltered upbringing in the quiet Beach neighborhood. His musical gifts became apparent in infancy, and though his parents never pushed him to become a star prodigy, he became a professional concert pianist at age fifteen, and soon gained a national reputation. By his early twenties, he was also earning recognition through radio and television broadcasts, recordings, writings, lectures and compositions. Shortly after his fiftieth birthday, Gould died suddenly of a stroke in 1982.

A FORMAL DINNER

“I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” - Groucho Marx

The Athenaeum Club in Melbourne, situated in the Paris-end of Collins Street, has been a City institution since 1868. It is an exclusive “Gentlemen’s Club” (yes, women are excluded from membership), which was founded to provide a venue for Melbourne’s civic, business, academic and political leaders. It is considered to be one of Australia’s oldest and finest clubs, although for several years there have been numerous debates and controversy as the Club continued to firmly exclude women from its membership. Despite a spirited fight, the ban on women members remains even to this day!

(Male) members and guests (who can be female) “can relax in the reading rooms, play billiards or snooker, enjoy a work out, stay overnight or dine in one of several distinctive venues, and always be assured of good company. The Club is complex with an ever-growing program of social, sporting and cultural functions for the entertainment and edification of Members. The Athenaeum Club’s location, service, facilities and first-class dining support its well-deserved international reputation.” says the club blurb.

Whether I agree with its rules or not, I enjoy being a guest of members of the club and last Wednesday evening I was invited to a dinner party in one of the private dining rooms in the club. This was a function catering for 24 guests and the evening was one of civilised and refined dining, pleasant conversation and unashamed luxury. It is very pleasant once in a while to splurge on such decadent pleasures, especially if the company is delightful and the repartee witty.

We were met by our host in the anteroom of the dining room where we enjoyed our pre-dinner champagne and got introduced to our fellow guests. We were then ushered into the dining room where we sat down and immediately were attended by waiters who made sure we were comfortable and help us settle. The dinner then started and was punctuated by some brief speeches and much pleasant conversation. The menu is listed below:

MENU

Entrée
BBQ Jumbo Tiger Prawn Tails with mango, broad bean, cherry tomato and avocado salad rouille.


Main Course
Roast Rack of Lamb with tomato, pumpkin, potato and basil tart with asparagus and rosemary sauce, mint jelly on the side.


Dessert
Caramelised Lemon and Blueberry Tart with double cream, raspberry and Cointreau coulis.


Cheese platter with biscuits


Coffee or tea with Chocolates


Beverages
2009 Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough NZ
2008 O’Leary Walker Cabernet Sauvignon, Clare Valley SA
2007 Brown Brothers, Muscat Dessert Wine, Rutherglen Vic

The dinner was quite delightful and the opportunity to celebrate with my host and his other friends was a privilege and an honour.

LILIES FOR OUR LADY OF GREECE...

“In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.” - George Santayana

The Madonna lily, Lilium candidum, is this day’s birthday flower.  It is a bloom that is closely associated with the Virgin Mary, the white petals symbolising her body and the yellow anthers her soul.  Doubting Thomas caused the Virgin’s tomb to be opened up after the Assumption as he doubted that she had been lifted to heaven, and it was found to contain nothing but beautiful  roses and lilies.  Traditionally, the plant is said to bloom from the Feast of the Visitation to St Swithin’s day:
    From Visitation to St Swithin’s showers,
    The lilie white reigns, queen of flowers.

Other Christian legends attribute the sprouting of the white lily from the tears of the repentant Eve as she was ousted from Paradise.  In Greek legend, the flower was sacred to Hera, wife of Zeus and symbolised motherhood and marriage.   The origin of the flower is related to the ruse played upon Hera by Zeus so that he might allow his illegitimate son by Alkmene, Herakles, to suckle upon Hera’s breast. Zeus told Hypnos, the god of sleep to visit Hera that she may sleep. Zeus then placed the baby Herakles upon her breast, who then voraciously suckled the milk of immortality from Hera.  Drops of milk scattering to the earth sprouted the lily, while drops of milk squirting up into the sky generated the Milky Way (galaxias = milky in Greek). The flower symbolises purity and if a man trampled on lilies in a garden, it meant that one of the daughters of the household would be shamed.  Many blooms in a season indicated that bread would be cheaper and smelling a lily caused freckles to appear (no doubt related to the traces of pollen left behind on the nose!).  The lily is symbolic of the Annunciation, Easter, sinlessness, heavenly bliss, beatitude and charity.  Astrologically, it belongs to the moon.

Lady Day is the day when the church commemorates the feast of the Annunciation. It was on this day that the archangel Gabriel proclaimed to the Virgin that she would conceive and bear a son nine months later. His name would be Emmanuel.
    Ave Maria, gratia plena
    Dominus tecum:
    Benedicta tu in mulieribus.

Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with you:
Blessed are you amongst women.
                                        Luke I:28

This is the fulfilment of the prophet Isaiah’s prophecy:
    Ecce, virgo concipiet,
    Et pariet filium
    Et vocabitur nome ejus Emmanuel.
    Butyrum et mel comedet,
    Ut sciat reprobare malum,
    Et eligere bonum.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
And bear a son
And he shall be called Emmanuel.
Fed on butter and honey,
He will grow to the age of refusing what is bad
Choosing what is good.
                                    Isaiah VII:14-15

Today is also the National Day of Greece, which commemorates the day the Greek War of Independence against the Turks began in 1821. This was to finally liberate the country after 400 years of Turkish occupation. Greece is a Southern European country surrounded by seas, the Aegean to the East, the Ionian to the West and the Cretan to the South.  It gained its independence from Turkey in 1821 and has had a history of political upheavals since then. It is a country of islands and mountains, hot dry summers and cool to mild winters.  The fertile plains are few, most of the land being poorly watered and drained, and too rocky or mountainous for farming.  Greece, nevertheless is one of the world’s largest producers of olives and olive oil with other agricultural produce also being exported to the rest of Europe.  It has an area of about 132,000 square km and a population of about 11 million.  Athens is the capital city with other major centres being Thessaloniki, Patras, Volos, Larissa, Iraklion and Kavalla.  Tourism is a major economic boost but the clothing and footwear industries also contribute.

Greece, like many other European countries, presently finds itself in dire economic and financial straits with its public purse at least 50 billion Euros in the red. This is giving rise to immense hardship for the majority of the population and is the cause of great uncertainty for the immediate future. It is not only a European problem as the deteriorating economic situation there would have immense consequences in Europe and then by extension, around the world. It is calculated that given the present birth rate, each Greek baby that is born, is born with a $30,000 Euro debt on its head. Whether the European Union and/or the International Monetary Fund will “rescue” Greece or not, still remains to be decided. However, at the moment the government is desperately trying to cut expenditure and increase taxes in a last ditch attempt to try to save the economy and convince Europe that it is “worthy” of being rescued. In the background are opportunists that will step in to lend the money that is needed at exorbitant interest rates, which will harm more rather than help.

What caused Greece to end up in this financial black hole? Well, years of reckless spending, corruption, graft, tax-evasion, crime, illegal immigration and “black money”, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. The politicians have been exposed with their hands in the public purse in numerous scandals, while even the ordinary persons in the street have been living beyond their means and have enormous debts on credit cards and personal loans. Greece embraced with gusto the “modern” Western consumerist lifestyle, which it could ill-afford. Productivity decreased as imports increased and exports decreased. Urbanisation made deserts of the rural areas and farming has been relegated to serfs (usually illegal immigrants) who are usually taken advantage of. Greeks have been spending money they do not have and have been celebrating with gusto their decadence. Surely such a situation is not tenable…

AGATHIAS

“This is one of the disadvantages of wine:  it makes a man mistake words for thought.” - Samuel Johnson

I have had a very long day today. It started at 5:30 a.m. when I woke up and I was in at work at 7:00 a.m. It was full of meetings, staff consultations, answering emails, reporting to my manager, the CEO, organizing several important regulatory compliance issues and then going home briefly to change to evening clothes to go to a work-related dinner. This was a very useful networking exercise with quite a lot of “behind-the-scenes” deals being made and connections established for future collaborations. I must say that I am rather naïve when it comes to this sort of thing and rather innocently believe that if one is accomplished and merits advancement, then one will get ahead. However, tonight’s dinner proved me wrong. What surprised me was that I rook to it very readily and before the night was over had made three important connections and will follow up over the next few days with meetings and hopefully mutually advantageous articulations…

A bonus tonight was an excellent dinner and wines (more of that on Friday) and delightfully civilised conversation and repartee. The wine especially was very good and I certainly enjoyed my fill. As a consequence, I go back to the ancient Greek poets who could epigrammatically summarise the human condition so pithily:

A Kiss Within the Cup

I am no wine-bibber;
But if thou wilt make me drunk,
Taste thou first and bring it me, and I take it.
For if thou wilt touch it with thy lips,
No longer is it easy to keep sober
Or to escape the sweet cup- bearer;
For the cup ferries me over a kiss from thee,
And tells me of the grace that it had.
                                                                  Agathias

Agathias of Myrina (536 AD
- 582 AD), was a Greek poet and historian. He studied law at Alexandria, completed his training at Constantinople and practised as an advocate (scholasticus) in the courts. Literature, however, was his favorite pursuit. He wrote a number of short love poems in epic metre, called Daphniaca. He next put together a kind of anthology, containing epigrams by earlier and contemporary poets and himself, under the title of a Cycle of New Epigrams. About a hundred epigrams by Agathias have been preserved in the Greek Anthology ahd show considerable taste and elegance. After the death of Justinian (565), some of Agathias's friends persuaded him to write the history of his own times. This work, in five books, begins where Procopius ends, and is the chief authority for the period 552-558. It deals chiefly with the struggles of the Byzantine army, under the command of the eunuch Narses, against the Goths, Vandals; Franks and Persians. The author prides himself on his honesty and impartiality, but he is lacking in judgment and knowledge of facts; the work, however, is valuable from the importance of the events of which it treats. Edward Gibbon contrasts Agathias as "a poet and rhetorician" with Procopius "a statesman and soldier."

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY 2010

“It is best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain.” - Mark Twain

Today, the United Nations observes World Meteorological Day. This is annually held on March 23 to commemorate the official establishment of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on this date in 1950. Many different activities and events are organised worldwide for this occasion.

The International Meteorological Organisation was established at the first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1873. The organisation aimed to establish meteorological station networks. These networks were linked by telegraph and improved weather forecasts. This contributed to the safety and efficiency of shipping services around the globe. The International Meteorological Organisation became the WMO on March 23, 1950. It became the UN’s specialised agency for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences in 1951. The WMO plays a crucial role in contributing to people’s safety and welfare. Its work is important in providing food security, water resources and transport.

Each year, on 23 March, the WMO, its 189 members and the worldwide meteorological community celebrate World Meteorological Day around a chosen theme. In 2010, the theme is “60 years of service for your safety and well-being”. The meteorological community worldwide is to be commended as it works together continuously beyond national, political, religious and social borders, to save and protect people, their homes and their livelihoods. Many volunteers also support the WMO with generosity and dedication.

The WMO is becoming increasingly important nowadays as we are subjected to immense climatological change that will wreak havoc with our weather and be responsible for major disasters in the decades ahead. Meteorologists will be even more relevant in serving humanity in the near future.

During the last 2 billion years the Earth's climate has alternated between a “fridge”, like the last Ice Age (which ended about 10,000 years ago) and a hothouse, like for example, the Age of the Dinosaurs. Since the end of the last Ice Age, the earth’s climate has been warming. Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth’s temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. In the last 100 years, global temperatures have increased by about one degree on average. This may not seem like much, but 100 years is a very short time geologically speaking and one degree is a lot. At the peak of the last ice age (18,000 years ago), the temperature was on average only seven degrees colder than it is today, and glaciers covered much of North America and Europe!

A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities. Climate change has become a controversial topic lately as there have been many claims that the reports of scientists and their research is spurious. Scientists counterclaim that the interests of large multinational corporations that deal in fossil fuels (and have a business interest in how much petrol is sold and consumed) are attempting to protect their profitable business interests and are trying to discredit scientific findings, which indubitably show that human activity and human-mediated environmental change is affecting our climate.

Climate change whether it is primarily caused by humans or whether it is part of the normal earth climate cycles is a big problem as the population of the earth has increased dramatically over the last couple of centuries and the world’s population will suffer dramatic effects due to climate change over the next few decades. Can we humans do something to subvert the changing climate? Once again, opinion is divided, but there are many little things we can do to make an environmental difference, and perhaps limit the contribution we humans have on the environment and climate change. If we try, most of us can do our part to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we put into the atmosphere.

Think globally, act locally!

Use fewer resources:
Conserve water
Lower your thermostat in winter and raise it in the summer by three degrees
Use energy-conserving compact fluorescent lightbulbs
Turn off the lights and appliances when you don’t need them
Buy appliances with the Energy Star symbol

Drive less, and more efficiently:
Establish car pooling
Walk, bike, or use public transport
Buy a hybrid car (powered by both petrol and electricity)

Reduce waste at home:
Take your own reusable bags with you to the supermarket
Recycle plastic and glass containers and newspapers, magazines, and other paper
Buy post-consumer recycled goods
Get your name off of junk mail lists

When buying food and goods, choose responsibly:
Buy environmentally produced coffee
Avoid eating threatened species (e.g. some fish species)
Avoid buying products that cause the damage or destruction of important habitats.

MOVIE MONDAY - GRAN TORINO

“To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.” - William Faulkner

Clint Eastwood has developed in his career from an “action hero” who played in spaghetti Westerns and bad cop movies to well-rounded artist who directs and acts in some of the best films to come out of Hollywood in the last few years. Yesterday we watched his 2008 movie “Gran Torino”, which he directed and starred in. It was an excellent film – gruelling and challenging to watch, but at the same time significant in its message. It made a serious comment on contemporary American society without overstatement, no trace of disingenuousness and with an honesty that one usually does not associate with Hollywood films. The screenplay by Nick Schenck is based on a story by Dave Johansson and it hits hard on all the right spots.

By way of contrast, the previous day we had watched Kevin Kostner’s 1997 sickly saccharine, patriotic extravaganza “The Postman”. This was a film that had good intentions, and as an idea it was great, but it is weighed down by so much sentimental schmaltz that it is hard to take it seriously. It was a contemporary Western in its scope and it had touches of pap that ensured the acceptance and endorsement of the patriots. It was such a predictable and emotionally manipulative film that it was offensive. What a difference from the gutsy and genuine “Gran Torino”.

“Gran Torino” is about prejudice and racism, primarily, but it also has as its theme cultural values of contemporary America, changing definitions of families, the blight of gangs and the vulnerability of youth. It is also about courage and about making decision that redeem our lives. Religion is also touched upon. Although I abhor violence in films, the violence in this movie was an integral part of the action (essential to the story, I would say), but it was not overt and excessive. The implicit violence was much more horrible and justly obscene.

The story concerns a recently widowed old man, Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), who is embittered and grumpy and dissatisfied with his neighbourhood, in which he seems to be the only white American. He doesn’t get on with his sons or his grandchildren and his only consolation is his 1972 “Gran Torino” Ford car, which he keeps in mint condition. His next door neighbours are Hmong, whom he regards with suspicion, distrust and contempt, this view coloured by his experiences in the Korean war, for which he was decorated with a medal. Thao (Bee Vang) is the teenager son of the Hmong family who is being harassed by a local gang that his cousin leads. He attempts to steal Walt’s Gran Torino as part of his initiation into the gang, which he grudgingly agrees to as he was coerced and intimidated into joining the gang. Walt nearly kills Thao when he catches him, but slowly a special relationship develops between the two of them and Walt begins to realise that he may have more in common with the Hmong family next door than he does with his own family…

The movie develops into a terrifying climax in which the innocent pay a high price in return for justice and a chance of living the American dream. “Gran Torino” is a patriotic film, but it is gritty and hard-hitting and strikes at the root of the problem that prevents the America of today  from becoming the world leader that it was in earlier times. The United States is a country that was built by migrants. Walt himself is a “polack” and his best friend is a “wop”. He has worked all his life in a Ford factory making cars, and he himself was the one who built his Gran Torino on the conveyor belt. He has had a good wife, had a family, paid his taxes and has built a house, which he maintains in manicured condition. He sees his American Dream crumbling around him and he is willing to do something to fix it, as if it were a crack in the wall or a blown gasket in his car.

This is a great movie! Go out of your way to find it and watch it. Challenging and grim, but nevertheless full of hope and courage.