Who turned the page?

[terefere]

Who turned the page? When I went out
Last night, his Life was left wide-open,
Half-way through, in lamplight on my desk:
The Middle years.
Now look at him. Who turned the page?
Ian Hamilton


Memento mori of contemporary man

[terefere]

I love this poem (and Waiting for the Barbarians) - this is the creme de la creme.
Speaking of the Odyssey, Sarah Walker, of BBC Radio 3, spoke with JB about music so seductive voice, like The Sirens from the myth of Odysseus. And this same persuasively. Maybe she would be able to persuade Very Important People from this Radio to make available podcast from these extremely interesting conversations for the longer time (the same as the Royal Society of Literature).
As for the singers (Havanaise performed by Cecilia Bartoli is beautiful), I like to listen to Cathy Berberian (eg, Folk songs, especially the Azerbaijan love song)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRgEFotRxM&feature=share&list=PL335M-WEwCf7u2KTAmj3qBjtOfs9bJ2h1

[manosd]

Europe looks like a dissonant world (in the musical sense) where there is no conductor for the orchestra and where everyone wants to play his own musical score… But even globally no one seems to be really in charge of handling affairs. Indeed the international system is a jigsaw puzzle of states, where transnational markets and rating agencies determine their reputation, stability or even future sovereignty. Therefore, what does it to be a sovereignty today, in an interdependent and dissonant world?

It’s a circle where the balance of power changes and new centers join the fray. Borders are still the most sensitive issue for all states. Many borders (e.g. Switzerland) are closed; many more (e.g. Italy and Greece) are crossed illegally and others are the subject of dispute (e.g. Ukraine) . So obviously we could talk about a broad range of borders, from fully open to fully closed… From today and till Sunday, all Europeans would be asked to answer whether they like the ‘world’ as it is now; they would be asked to revise their mental maps and examine whether interdependence works.

Jacques Le Goff, a great historian and a charismatic writer ,who died last month, urged a fuller understanding of Europe’s future through a fearless investigation of its past. He described Charlemagne as one of the most despotic ‘Anti-European’ personalities who almost destroyed the unity of Europe and he gave us different descriptions of Europe throughout History (‘a Europe of corpses’, ‘a Europe of portraits’, ‘a Europe that expelled its Jews’ and ‘a Europe of time’). Le Goff quoted Hippocrates saying that “the Europeans were courageous but aggressive and bellicose, while the Asia tics were wise and cultivated but peace-loving to the point of lacking initiative. Europeans were committed to liberty, for which they were prepared to fight and even die, while the Asia tics were content with servitude in exchange for prosperity and tranquility.”

With life becoming increasingly global and borderless, the fundamental questions of identity are becoming increasingly pervasive and frustrating , and it could at least partially explain the appeal of radical Islamism to young people of Muslim origin,born and raised in European countries… Do I need to remind you the Huntington’s theory in the 90s about a clash of civilizations, according to which the primary reason for conflict in the future would not be ideologies or economic interests but rather cultural and religious contradictions.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNicJRcUqs

On Monday, 26th of May 2014, the Europeans would have written, their message in the ‘History of Europe' and would have turned the page….
The question is where the page would lead us!!?? FORWARD? OR BACKWARDS??

[Binah]

                                          “ I am constantly amazed by man’s inhumanity to man”

                                                                                                                 Primo Levi

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/01/first-world-war-still-played-out-ukraine-syria-legacy-1914
How many books after books, decade after decade, have been written about the Nazi Germany and the Holocaust? What more could be written that we do not already know? Well, Martin Amis, after failing to convince us about the ‘State of England’, returns to ‘deal’ with the Nazi ‘state’. He returns to re-examine a theme that he dealt more than 20 years ago in the ‘Time’s Arrow’; he returns with narrators that remind us more or less John Self or Lionel Asbo and with ‘action’ taking place in the ‘Zone of the House of Meetings’. The narrators are 3:
1) Paul Doll, nickname ‘Old Boozer’, who is the lazy, self –pitying, brutal and misogynist Commandant.


2) “Golo” is the ‘writing table perpetrator, a renowned ‘cocksman’ who, however, could be romantic(“I was no stranger to the cloudburst and then the sunshine and the rainbow”) and philosophical (“you felt you were living in the grounds of a vast yet bursting mad house”) because he is in lust with Doll’s wife, Hannah(“ a big fuck, a BIG FUCK”). 

3) And finally, after Ford Madox Ford’s Dowell and his saddest story in the ‘Good Soldier’, Martin Amis creates SZMUL ,“the saddest man in the history of the world”. Szmul is just an accessory, one of the Jews working in the gas chambers and scurrying over dead Jews for valuables.

For me, all that Martin Amis does is retelling us a part of Primo Levi’s personal story. There is no plot, no twists and the characters are swallow stereotypes (e.g.“ I am the vulgar Nazi and I enjoy kiling people”). Martin Amis could have done so many different things, like creating a Hannah who falls helplessly in love with the Jew Szmul and a Szmul who is a victim dreaming of becoming the perpetrator for his torturers one day. Therefore, we could have followed the stories of one marriage and 2 love triangles with a bit of Woody Allen’s touch!! Martin Amis could have taken a step further than writing just another cliché story and create complicated characters with moral or immoral dilemnas. But ,somehow and after 20 years Martin Amis has managed to create a BLACK COMEDY ,a PARODY. How? By using the right language (e.g.“ gruesome whelks beneath his brows”, “the Little Brown Bower”) and the German phraseology.


With this book,Martin Amis, proves that he is NO LESS than ZERO. With this book, Martin Amis, proves that he is a BIT MORE than ZERO. With this book, Martin Amis, proves that he could finally get an erection (at 66!) and after 20 years!? But he can’t keep the bloody thing up for a long time… Martin Amis needs help,inspiration,the national ‘VIAGRAS’, the local pub,the Premier League,the slang,the English weather,the irony,his alter ego...He needs to remember that he is a www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNY8eYmzdH4
Martin Amis also needs to realize that WOMEN are neither DOLLS/FUCKS nor just ‘Titten’ and ‘Arsch’. Girls play with dolls until they become WOMEN and start ‘playing’with FUCKED UP idiots like,Martin Amis. And if the ‘Titten’ and ‘Arsch’are the Work of a Male God,then a woman’s FACE is a Work of Fiction. Kingsley Amis let down two wives and a daughter. How many women has Martin Amis let down? At least he should try NOT to let down his daughters. Old Little Keith needs to realize that WOMEN have a long time now scorned his ‘rig’ brain and he needs to do A LOT to regain their TRUST.


Now,we are in 2014 with a flamimg Gaza. There is a great difference between political and intellectual behaviour. The intellectual’s role is to speak the truth,as directly and as honestly as possible. Does Martin Amis believe that the Jews still suffer from “Great Depression” and they are entitled to be called the  Greatest Victims in the History of the World?

Primo Levi said that “those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it”. It seems that some JEWS have forgotten the past and are ready to create a different version of it?! What happened to words like peace talks,dialogue, logic,ethos,human rights? They have turned into arrogance, abuse of power, condescension (from the USA), killings and shame. ISRAEL is an embarassement and the Jews can no longer use facts like the Holocaust, ‘to continue or initiate the dispossession of another people that bear no responsibility for either of those prior facts’. The history of anti-Semitism should no longer be used as a fence to exempt Israel from sanctions against it for its behaviour towards the Palestinians, sanctions that were used against other repressive governments such as that of South Africa.
Peace should be for everyone and no intellectual must shy away from the responsibility to speak out and call for justice as these honourable people did www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28916761

And here is a different ‘risky’ satire about the Holocaust from  mrs TOVA REICH www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/review/Margolick-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 wife of mr.elliott.gwu.edu/reich-w

[ELECTRA]

I'll start with my favourite  TIMOTHY GARTON ASH www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/scotland.devolution1
and state that Great Britain would NOT be as great  after SCOTLAND'S INDEPENDENCE,but London would still have a POUND, the 'CITY' and EUROPE. What would Scotland have? 
Well,Scotland would have ALEX SALMOND. I find Alex Salmond dangerous,because I think that he is nothing more than a mixture of TONY BLAIR and DAVID CAMERON. He does not care about the Scottish; he cares about concetrating POWER to HIMSELF. And I speak honestly and openly because I am an outsider. I am a proud SPARTAN ,but I am above ALL GREEK. My best friend Anna comes from CRETE and is maried to Scottish Andy- they live in Glasgow and they regard themselves EUROPEANS firstly and then CITIZENS OF THE WORLD.....
What is Mr. Salmond's PLAN? To turn SCOTLAND into another Liechtenstein?
Or turn SCOTLAND into another CYPRUS? Cyprus is a member of the EU and it was there that  CYPRUS turned when needed HELP...and to Russia and Greece!!!! What about SCOTLAND?? More taxes?And an unstable future??

For many Greeks and Cypriots who study, live and work and are married with SCOTTISH people,  Scotland stands PROUD both HISTORICALLY and ETHICALLY and we urge our Scottish friends to say NO with their hearts,their heads and their hands...
Please SCOTLAND  LISTEN TO Amy MCDONALD andwww.youtube.com/watch?v=oL4iDuzOCUM

[manosd]

JOE COCKER DIED YESTERDAY FROM LUNG CANCER,AGED 70. HE WAS A GREAT STAR!! I CANNOT FIND THE RIGHT WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT WHEN WE HEARD...HE WILL BE MISSED FROM ALL HIS FANS HERE IN GREECE,BUT HE WILL JOIN OTHER STARS UP THERE,INCLUDING IAN HAMILTON!!

www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/22/joe-cocker[/a
THERE ARE SO MANY SONGS WE LOVE,BUT LIA SUGGESTED THAT THIS IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE FOR TODAY,
23 DECEMBER 2014:
JOE COCKER ,YOU ARE UP WHERE YOU BELONG.... :www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpYxZ-1PnlA

I FORGOT TO SAY THAT IN THE DISCUSSION WE HAD LAST NIGHT ABOUT THE DEATHS FROM CANCER,JOHN WHO IS A DOCTOR WAS TELLING US THAT THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO SMOKE HAVE RISEN IN GREECE(ANXIETY),BUT THE CANCER RATES HAVE DROPPED EVEN MORE...
THIS IS WHAT I FOUND:
www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jan/24/worldwide-cancer-rates-uk-rate-drops

[ΚΥΝΙΚΟΙ ΘΥΤΑΙ]

- Alexis is driving the bus and he has to change the tire at the same time.

- I am jumping off.

- Do you want to hurt yourself?

- I’d rather hurt myself than kill myself. Tell me what are the chances?

- To fix the problem and lead us safely to our destination? Not many!!

- Then why is he keep smiling?

- Well, one is smiling for two reasons: either out of confidence or out of stupidity.

- If Alexis is stupid, then what is Angela? It takes two to form a union, it takes two to break that union.

- Europe has always been a BIG idea.

- Are you referring to Charlemagne’s and Napoleon’s idea on Europe? Because Europe now is a club with many contradictory ideas and no flexibility.

- Who could have predicted that 2015 would be the year that the European Union would cease to be a Union?

- Well, this could be an opportunity to reflect on the past and learn from it. But unfortunately, those taking the decisions in Brussels are less likely to be concerned with the Socratic maxim that the unexamined life is not worth living. You see the decisions that take do not affect their lives but the lives of other people, people that they do not give a shit about.

- Why do you say that? Juncker made it clear that he does not care about the Greek government but he deeply cares about the Greek people.

- The same way he cared as a finance minister and later as a prime minister about the companies who benefited from the secret tax deals with the Grand Duchy? The same way he cares to ask from the Greek government that all the MPs should cut their salaries and bonuses into half? The same way he cares to demand that all the Greek MPs should pay the same taxes with the Greek people? The same way he cares to investigate where the Greek MPs keep their money and whether they have paid any taxes for exporting it? Someone should tell JUNCKER that the Greek people are NOT in search of a GODFATHER of his type.

- Humiliation for me is NOT defaulting, but staying in a club where too few members want you as a member. My parents, after working for 35 years, have paid the price through their pension cuts. We have paid the price through the increased taxes, but we deny to inherit this price to our kids. We work to build their future and not to pay our country’s debt to the European Central Bank or the World Bank. Enough is enough!

- I think that WE would witness Europe’s collapse if the Europeans leaders do not realize that their austerity policy is undermining the foundations of the society, since “ the worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal” and Europe needs different kind of reforms. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev decided to tear down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago. Could this month or later this year Angela Merkel, Jean Claude Juncker and Francois Hollande decide to tear down the Eurozone?

- So what if Greece leaves the Eurozone? Everything will stay in place.

- Corpses always stay in place! And curiously enough, when it comes to anniversaries, those who commemorate terrible events seem easier to remember than those that mark happier moments. So, if the death of the EU becomes reality, then this date would come unwelcomely to mind for many more years than the date of its creation.

- Europe might survive without Greece, but Greece would emerge through her ashes, like she has done many times in the past.

- Emerge like what? A Living Dead? A Zombie? A Ghost? or Dracula?

- In times of desperation you need to pray; and when you pray, you need to call the angels…

- Call the angels?

Is it worth the waiting for? 

If we live for twenty four 

All we ever get is gruel! 

Every day we say our prayer 

Will they change the bill or the fare? 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly7PONiKGUs

- No, no. I mean call IRVINE WEALTH, a walking angel. He is a retired boxer champion, a postcode sociologist and manager,a towering intellectual with profound wit, a political commentator, a novelist, a screenwriter, a D.J. and poet but most important he is the owner of the successful Shoplifting Productions.

- Blimey!! He sounds more like God to me,than a simple angel. And is this angel going to teach us how we are going to shoplift?

- No, silly, this angel buys and sells real estate and turns the profit into the film-making industry with smash hits, like ‘Filth’ and ‘Acid House’, while his intelligent wife, Elizabeth, invests in stocks and horses.
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/11653606/Irvine-Welsh-I-was-a-heroin-addict-then-I-found-buy-to-let.html
- How could you tell?

- What?

- That she is intelligent?

- Well, she married him and He trusts her?! So she must be intelligent. But we need to decide now. Are we going to stay

Dependent Civilized European Citizens?  

or turn ourselves into

Free Fallen Creatures? 

Do we prefer Jean Juncker, the Godfather? or 

Irvine Wealth, the Shoplifting Angel? 

- “What are you waiting for, assembled in the forum?”

- “The barbarians are due here today.





Why isn’t anything happening in the senate?

Why do the senators sit there without legislating?



Because the barbarians are coming today.

What laws can the senators make now?

Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.





Why did our emperor get up so early,

and why is he sitting at the city’s main gate

on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?



Because the barbarians are coming today

and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.

He has even prepared a scroll to give him,

replete with titles, with imposing names.





Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today

wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?

Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,

and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?

Why are they carrying elegant canes

beautifully worked in silver and gold?



Because the barbarians are coming today
....C.P.CAVAFIS