Gran Torino

The Celtic Sage has long complained about the endless popcorn movies emanating from the US of A and the stranglehold on movie distribution in the UK which means non-mainstream offerings find it impossible to find a screen. So our wide choice multiplexes fill up with derivative offerings designed by committees of cynical marketing wallahs. Therefore Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” is proof that America can still make great movies which have something to say, and the fact that the 78 year old leading actor is also the Director and turns in a wonderful performance is a bonus. Say what you like but at 78 Clint is still the Man!

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed by, produced by and starring Clint Eastwood. The film marks Eastwood's return to a lead acting role after four years - his last leading role being Million Dollar Baby. The film features a predominantly Hmong cast, as well as Eastwood's younger son, Scott Eastwood. Eastwood's older son, Kyle Eastwood, provided the score.

Considering that Clint Eastwood's most iconic roles have been serious ones, it's easy to forget that he can be funny — that he possesses terrific timing with his sly sense of humour. He grumbles and growls his way through his most entertaining performance in years in Gran Torino as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran and lifelong auto worker who's disgusted with the changes in his blue-collar, suburban Detroit neighbourhood. There are unshakable shades of Dirty Harry here, as well as Frankie Dunn, the curmudgeonly character he played in 2004's Million Dollar Baby, his most recent screen appearance. At 78, Eastwood combines both the tough and playful sides of his personality — in front of and behind the camera as star and director — with "Gran Torino," which begins in broadly entertaining fashion but ultimately reveals that it has weightier matters on its mind.


The Man!

Having just buried his saintly wife, all the retired Walt wants to do is be left alone with his dog, his guns and his beer — a seemingly never-ending supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which he drinks with an old-school earnestness rather than a kitschy, hip way. The film opens at her funeral service in the local church, and we immediately see that Walt has little patience for other human beings, even those in his own family. He literally snarls at anyone who pisses him off...which is pretty much everyone. He's mad at two people whispering and smiling during the service; he's mad at the way his granddaughter dresses for the event; he's mad at the young priest (Christopher Carley) who was friendly with Walt's wife and who promised her before she died that he'd check in on Walt to make sure the crotchety bastard was doing alright. Every offer for help, every attempt by his grown kids to move Walt out of the terrible neighbourhood where he lives (he is apparently the only white guy still living in the crime-ridden area) is met with something that goes beyond resistance. Walt hates the world and the world responds in kind.

As a sharp-tongued bigot, he certainly doesn't want to be bothered by the growing Asian population all around him, and especially not the Hmong family living next door. Despite hurling every imaginable epithet at these people - Nick Schenk's script is unabashed in its political incorrectness - Walt can't seem to avoid them.

First, he catches shy teenage son Thao (Bee Vang) trying to steal his mint-condition 1972 Ford Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation he's forced into by his thug cousin. Then, cultural tradition dictates that Thao must make up for the transgression by working for Walt for free. (This is basically an excuse for Walt to force the boy, whom he nicknames "Toad," into doing chores around the house in some of the movie's more amusing scenes.)

But the old man also finds an unexpected connection with Thao's older sister Sue (Ahney Her), who shares his blunt-talking attitude. And when he orders a group of gang members at gunpoint to "Get off my lawn" - with echoes of Eastwood's classic "Go ahead, make my day," - he's perceived as a vigilante hero among the Hmong community.


Get off my lawn!

Sure, the premise is predictable. You know from the beginning that Walt's contact with his neighbour’s will soften him. And maybe the performances are a bit stiff from his young actors, all untrained first-timers. But "Gran Torino" becomes more intriguing as the journey its takes us on evolves and grows darker, albeit with Eastwood's trademark, no-nonsense aesthetic.

In the early 1990s, Schenk discovered the history and culture of the Hmong while working in a factory in Minnesota. He also learned how they had sided with the South Vietnamese authorities and its U.S. allies in the Vietnam War, only to wind up in refugee camps, at the mercy of communist forces, when American troops pulled out and the government forces were defeated. Years later, he was deciding how to develop a story involving a widowed Korean War veteran trying to handle the changes in his neighbourhood when he decided to place a Hmong family next door and create a culture clash.

In the 60’s and 70’s Detroit was a wealthy city as the world capital of the automobile industry and its subsequent decline has been dramatic, even Motown Records left the Motor City for LA. The “Gran Torino” is a metaphor for this decline in the manufacturing rust belt areas of America. The name is in itself strange because it was the “muscle car” development of the Ford Fairlane but GT is an abbreviation for “Gran Turismo” or Grand Tourer. However the marketing men at Ford created the name Gran Torino with the latter word referring to Turin, the centre of the Italian auto industry.

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bella-torino.html )


1972 Ford Gran Torino

Furthermore, the 1972 model, which is Walt Kowalski’s pride and joy as an ex-Ford worker, heralded the sad end of the muscle-car era, and of Detroit's unquestioned dominance of the automotive market. Motown's high-horsepower big-block beasts were suddenly a dying breed, thanks to new emissions regulations, spiralling insurance costs, and a changing social climate. The '72 Gran Torino's highest-horsepower engine option was a lukewarm 248-horsepower 351 V8 - a far cry from the 370 horsepower-plus big blocks of just two years prior. And the road ahead for Detroit held depressing developments like 5-mph bumpers that wreaked havoc on sleek styling, an OPEC oil embargo, and sinking quality control standards. Foreign car manufacturers gained a foothold in the U.S. as American buyers began moving to import cars in larger numbers. Clearly, the makers of Gran Torino didn't just happen upon this car... they chose it very carefully for its symbolic value. Both Walt and his car are products of another time--they don't make 'em like that anymore.

The setting for the movie is not Detroit but its suburb (and separate city) of Highland Park. Henry Ford and his collaborators, the Dodge Brothers, created the modern world and with their mass production methods both unleashed the most strident era of wealth creation and technical innovation in history and changed the lives of millions. Detroit’s very name betrays the French influence as this was an important trading post on Lake St. Clair where the Great Lakes and rivers led into the interior of the continent. The French history can be heard in the names of the cars from here; Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, de Ville, Chevrolet, Sedan, Limousine, Pontiac.


Henry Ford poses on his 78th birthday,in a suit made from soybeans


Rising on a bank of the Rouge River in Dearborn is Henry Ford's Fairlane Mansion

What is less well known is that Henry Ford never built a single car in Detroit itself but started off in Dearborn before moving his factory to Highland Park. He lived in a Mansion on Lake St. Clair named, like the precursor to the Grand Torino, after the Fair Lane in Cork City, Ireland where his parents lived before they emigrated to America to escape grinding poverty. The Henry Ford Fairlane Estate in Dearborn, MI. sits on 1300 acres. In addition to the residence and its powerhouse, the estate included a summer house, man-made lake, staff cottages, gatehouse, pony barn, skating house, greenhouse, root cellar, vegetable garden, thousand-plant peony garden, ten thousand plant rose garden, a "Santa's Workshop" for Christmas celebrations, maple sugar shack, working farm for the Ford grandchildren built to their scale, agricultural research facilities, and five hundred birdhouses to satisfy Mr. Ford's interest in ornithology. Henry Ford was an interesting person of strong opinions including disgraceful racist and ant-Semitic views and an evangelical belief in the health giving properties of Soybeans! It is ironic given how much the motor car have contributed to the destruction of rural life that he saw his Model-T as helping to preserve rural America and its way of life.

While Gran Torino is entirely of a piece with Eastwood's other work, it also stands apart from his artful films of the past six years in its completely straightforward, unstudied style. There are underlying themes and understated points of view, most fundamentally about the need to get beyond racial and ethnic prejudice, the changing face of the nation and the future resting in the hands of today's immigrants. In a way that clearly could not have been intended, Eastwood could be said to have inadvertently made the first film of the Obama era.

Eastwood has dealt very intelligently and matter-of-factly with race throughout his career -- in Bird, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, among others - and in this respect, the key scene here is one in which Kowalski takes Thao to an Italian barber and, with the intention of making him “man up," teaches him the relevant ethnic insults, which, in his world, everyone should be able to withstand and humorously throw back at the perpetrator. For the two older adults, it's a game - a rite of passage that incorporates a healthy, if superficially abrasive, acknowledgment of their differences.

So here we have a movie which speaks of important issues in America. The decline of neighbourhood and traditional industries in a town where a car is today worth more than a house. It deals with an aging America and the alienation of youth, with immigration and racism, with gang culture and gun crime (“Hmong girls go to college, Hmong boys go to prison.”). And how does the American movie industry respond to this movie which deals with themes important to contemporary society?

Well the film was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the 81st Academy Awards, and thus was not nominated for a single Oscar, leading to heated criticism from critics and moviegoers alike. Take this as an inverse endorsement and strike a blow against popcorn dross by seeing “Gran Torino” and The Man for yourself!

For St. George and England?

Engerland - where that?



The 23rd of April is St. Georges’s Day and a campaign is afoot to have it celebrated as a National Holiday in England in the words of the Stgeorgesday.com “A site for England":

“As you may know, other countries all over the world celebrate their patron saint or have other days, the closest to us and probably the most well known is Saint Patrick's Day for Ireland! This day is celebrated all over the UK and also widely in the USA, what about Burns night for Scotland, for a well celebrated Scottish poet where the toasting of his words culminates in the eating of haggis, why then can we not have our own patron saint's day?”

In tandem with this the Government quango, English Heritage has launched a campaign to dispel the apathy surrounding St George's Day and encourage more people to celebrate the country's patron saint. A survey by the government agency revealed that fewer than one in five people mark St George's Day on April 23rd, suggesting that the English feel less national pride than the Welsh, Irish and Scottish. In an attempt to rectify the situation, English Heritage has produced a St George's Day Guide, which suggests recipes and traditional games with a St George and the Dragon theme. For those of you unfamiliar with English Heritage it is the Quango which took over historic public properties and sites from the Board of Works and by pretending to be separate from Government now charges to go into these sites which we already paid for and own as taxpayers. Nice work if you can get it!



Lady Godiva didn't need all this gear!

Now, those of you who have read The Paddy’s Day Blog(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/st-paddys-day-blog.html) will know that I compare unfavourably the very real connection St. Patrick has with Ireland with the situation of George of Cappadocia who may or may not be the St. George of England, who didn’t even know England existed and who was foisted on England by Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet who spent less than six months in England during his reign. Or St. Andrew, crucified on a saltire in Patras and whose bones are now in Patras and the Duomo in Amalfi who had absolutely no connection with Scotland, unless you believe a cock and bull storey about his bones (he must have had a lot of bones as they also claim to have his arm in Kephalonia!) being brought under “divine guidance” to St. Andrews in Scotland!





What can be said with certainty about George is that he is a very busy saint. St. George's Day is celebrated by several nations of which Saint George is the patron saint, including Catalonia (Spain), England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia. For England, St. George's Day also marks its National Day. Most countries who observe St. George's Day celebrate it on 23rd. April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in 303 AD. St. George's Day is a provincial government holiday in Newfoundland, Canada. All very well and all very busy but none of this answers the question of what does he mean to England and how can you identify with a saint who didn’t really care about you because he never knew you even existed? St. George's Day is not celebrated as much in England as other National Days are around the world. The celebration of St. George's Day was once a major feast in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century. However, this tradition had waned by the end of the 18th century. On the other hand, there have also been calls to replace St. George as patron saint of England, on the grounds that he was an obscure figure who had no direct connection with the country. However there is no obvious consensus as to whom to replace him with, though names suggested include St. Edmund, St. Cuthbert, or St. Alban, with the latter having topped a BBC Radio 4 poll on the subject.


St. George attacking Ali Baba?

There is very little known in reality about Saint George. He's popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry - but actually he wasn't English at all. Pope Gelasius said that George is one of the saints "whose names are rightly reverenced among us, but whose actions are known only to God." The little we do know is from accounts written well after the fact. What we believe to be the truth is that George was born in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey in the 3rd century; that his parents were Christians; and that when his father died, George's mother returned to her native Palestine, taking George with her. George became a soldier in the Roman army and rose to the rank of Tribune. The Emperor of the day, Diocletian (245-313 AD), began a campaign against Christians at the very beginning of the 4th century. In about 303 AD George is said to have objected to this persecution and resigned his military post in protest. George tore up the Emperor's order against Christians. This infuriated Diocletian, and George was imprisoned and tortured - but he refused to deny his faith. Eventually he was dragged through the streets of Diospolis (now Lydda) in Palestine and beheaded.



As was common there were many fanciful accounts of Saints and their wonderful deeds and a whole cult of veneration of their relics. After (with a gap) the Emperor Diocletian, Constantine the Great became Emperor and the position of Christianity was transformed when it became the state religion of the empire. It is possible the tale of St. George was played up to cast Diocletian in an evil light and draw a contrast between his vigorous persecutions of Christians and Constantine’s endorsement of Christianity. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-of-byzantium.html) What is clear is that Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet, who actually spoke English badly and spent less than six months in England as King endorsed St. George as Patron Saint because the Crusaders identified with his being martyred in land which they held as part of The Kingdom of Jerusalem and then of Acre in the 13th Century. George's reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance, when it was claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to Saint George. The Council of Oxford in 1222 named 23rd April as Saint George's Day.


Of course I'm a Dragon!

The story of Saint George and the Dragon only achieved mass circulation when it was printed in 1483 by Caxton in a book called The Golden Legend. This was a translation of a book by Jacques de Voragine, a French bishop, which incorporated fantastic details of Saints' lives.





Part of the efforts to promote St. George’s Day is to promote a concept of Englishness and the difficulty and confusion can be seen in the statement from Gordon Brown’s office announcing that Downing Street would be flying the flag of St. George on the day; "The Prime Minister's view is that of course we should celebrate our Britishness, but celebrating our Britishness does not mean we cannot also celebrate our Englishness, Scottishness, Welshness or Northern Irishness." Well leaving aside the last one there are more Ness’s there than in the highlands of Scotland!

It is time to face up to two important facts: St George has nothing to do with England and there are and never were creatures called Dragons. Oh, and while I’m at it there are probably no fairies at the end of the garden.

Having said that, have a happy St. Georges Day!


St. George's Day in Ye Olde Luton Towne

The Naked Taoiseach

The real Brian Cowen?


Since he took over as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland in May 2008 Brian Cowen has looked even more hapless than, well, his hapless predecessor, Bertie Ahern.
( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/bertie-ahern-and-poverty-in-ireland.html ) This is in itself quiet a considerable achievement for the politician from Clara, Co. Offaly (where my mother’s family hail from) but the Celtic Tiger is now looking like a very sick Celtic Pussycat as the economy spirals downwards, tax receipts go though the floor, public spending is out of control and unemployment heads inexorably towards 15%. On top of that Ireland has shot itself in the foot by nationalising Anglo-Irish Bank with its toxic debt mainly on overvalued (or in some cases non-existent) property assets abroad owned in many instances by speculators linked to Brian Cowen’s Fianna Fail political party. As stories of waste, extravagance and corruption abound the public perception of Irish Politicians has hit an all time low and none has looked more impotent and naked in the face of the economic maelstrom than Brian Cowen.

Well one talented artist has taken this perception further and hung (sic) two naked portraits of the Naked Taoiseach unnoticed in empty spaces in art galleries. Two unorthodox portraits — one in the National Gallery showing the Taoiseach on the toilet, and another in the Royal Hibernian Gallery showing him holding his Y-fronts — appeared mysteriously in Dublin among paintings of the country’s other famous citizens in more decorous poses. So just who did hang the unflattering paintings of a naked Brian Cowen, the Irish Prime Minister, in the country’s most prestigious art galleries?



The Irish media speculated that the prankster had created the artworks in an attempt to lift the nation’s spirits at a time of deep economic gloom. Judging by the chuckles of visitors and comments inundating the blogosphere, the stunt worked.

“Biffo on the bog”, was one gleeful response, referring to the Taoiseach by his nickname, which stands for “Big Ignorant F***er from Offaly”. The artist reportedly walked calmly into the National Gallery carrying a shoulder bag. He then affixed a prepared caption for the picture to a free space among portraits of Michael Collins, William Butler Yeats and Bono, before hanging his canvas, undisturbed by security.

The caption read: “Brian Cowen, Politician 1960-2008. This portrait, acquired uncommissioned by the National Gallery, celebrates one of the finest politicians produced by Ireland since the foundation of the state. Following a spell at the helm of the Department of Finance during a period of unprecedented prosperity, Brian Cowen inherited the office of Taoiseach in 2008. Balancing a public image that ranges from fantastically intelligent analytical thinker to Big Ignorant F***er from Offaly, the Taoiseach proves to be a challenging subject to represent.”



One woman who saw the National Gallery portrait of the Taoiseach, pictured gripping a toilet roll in one hand, commented: “Well at least that is one mess he has been able to clear up.” The Sunday Tribune reported that the portrait of Mr Cowen wearing nothing but his glasses hung for more than an hour, with hundreds of patrons believing it to be a genuine part of the collection. After security guards removed it, police were called to examine the portrait and CCTV evidence.

The guerrilla artist, emboldened by his success, went on to hang a second portrait of the Taoiseach in the Royal Hibernian Gallery. The second naked portrait depicted a portly Mr Cowen, still in his glasses, holding a pair of blue and white pants in his left hand. One woman who saw the work was impressed enough to make an offer.

Dublin is rife with rumour about the identity of the artist. Ian Whyte, of Whyte’s Gallery, said: “It was certainly a professional job; the two paintings were both very well executed. They are actually better than the work of a few artists I thought it might be. Everyone will be talking about it until the identity is revealed.




National Gallery of Ireland

“No crime was committed; whoever it was didn’t take anything. In fact, he donated something.”

The real news however is not that this picture was hung, but the censorship afterwards. After a story was ran about it on RTE, the Irish state broadcaster, Prime Minister Cowen and his political party rang the TV Station and demanded the story be removed from the RTE website, and it was, demanded the clip of the news item be removed, and demanded an apology, which they got on air! This is a display of blatant censorship, the Irish government putting political pressure on a television station to avoid embarrassment.


A happy Irish Voter

Consider the weasel words of this verbatim report from today’s Irish Independent;

Last night, it broadcast an apology for its story about the illegal (sic)hanging of hoax nude portraits of Mr Cowen in the National Gallery and the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin.

"RTE News would like to apologise for any personal offence caused to Mr Cowen or his family for any disrespect shown to the office of the Taoiseach," it said. A spokesman for Mr Cowen confirmed that he had made a complaint about the story, which he said "went beyond the news values of RTE". The report described how Police were investigating who was responsible for leaving the nude paintings of Mr Cowen in the two galleries. Last night, Fianna Fail Dublin-North TD Michael Kennedy called on RTE director general Cathal Goan to "consider his position".

What a wonderful description which confirms that Ireland is still a Nation of Master Debaters; “"went beyond the news values of RTE" and showed “disrespect for the Office of Taoiseach”. This is of course the Office which Brian Cowen’s predecessor resigned from after revelations of receiving “brown envelopes” of money in pubs because his friends felt “sorry for him”, where another Fianna Fail Taoiseach Charles Haughey received £8.5 m in untaxed “gifts” which we know about. This is a country which has had 21 “tax amnesties” in 30 years and where the planning system has been shown to be systemically corrupt with back handers the order of the day. Where there are open gang shootouts most weeks with the hapless Police force reduced to bystanders and which maintains 832 free spending Quangos which squander public funds without accountability for a country with the population of say, Greater Manchester.

Never have a Taoiseach and a discredited political party looked more hapless than when engaging in this sad attempt to control the state owned News Media in a way which is more redolent of Ceausescu’s Romania towards the end. All praise indeed to the Hero Artist who has wonderfully exposed not just this blundering Taoiseach but that the entire self serving Irish Political and Economic elite are former emperors who have been exposed as wearing no clothes!


The happy Irish electorate

Grand Slam

Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara celebrate after Ireland's Grand Slam win over Wales yesterday

The Celtic Sage is not the best person to comment on Ireland’s historic victory yesterday in Rugby Footballs Six Nations Trophy. For one thing, despite enjoying many wonderful rugby weekends in Dublin, he has never gone to a rugby match! A combination of an aversion to field sports when marched off to GAA pitches when at school and then in his early teens having a friend end up as a quadriplegic after he broke his neck in a rugby match saw to that. Indeed I was a member of Railway Union Rugby and Cricket Club in Dublin but strictly a “Pavillion” member enjoying the late night social facilities and alternative banking facility it offered. I even worked with the person who became the late and legendary Irish Rugby coach Mick Doyle’s sister-in-law and could have obtained top match tickets but was not interested!



However even to a Rugger Agnostic like myself yesterday was a momentous occasion. A squad of men from north and south showed a resolution and unity of will that cannot but inspire yesterday in Cardiff, Wales. The triumph of this all-Ireland team was proof how much can be achieved if Irish people put aside petty differences and sectional squabbles and pull together. However, a new year has entered Irish sporting folklore - 2009. This is the year that Ireland proved the doubters wrong and won the Triple Crown, Six Nations Championship and the Grand Slam, a clean sweep of the Rugby Union football trophies.


An Irish supporter

Irish rugby fans are still celebrating the dramatic 17-15 win over Wales yesterday which captured a Six Nations first Grand Slam for 61 years in a victory which united the nation and revived flagging public spirits. Many people in Ireland are waking up not just with a huge hangover but a genuine feeling of shock. It has been a depressing time north and south of the border in recent weeks, and when Wales were awarded a last-minute penalty in the Six Nations decider in Cardiff, the mood was one of resignation.


Brian O'Driscoll in action

So much so that when the kick fell short, there was a moment of stunned disbelief before the euphoria broke out. The joy was then felt in bars and living rooms from Lisburn to Limerick, from Coleraine to Cork.

Thousands of people turned out today (Sunday) in Dublin to greet Ireland's rugby squad after their Six Nations win in which they clinched their first Grand Slam in 61 years. The team, which completed a clean sweep after beating Wales 17-15, were given a rapturous welcome at the Mansion House in Dublin. Captain Brian O'Driscoll, who scored Ireland's first try, said it was a "fantastic feeling. You're not as sore as you would have been if you had lost," he said.


Mansion House reception, Dublin

A little background for my overseas Blogistas on Rugby Union football and the “Six Nations” championship. Played annually, the format of the Championship is simple: each team plays every other team once, with home field advantage alternating from one year to the next. Two points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. Unlike most other rugby union competitions the bonus point system is not used. Victory in every game results in a 'Grand Slam'. Victory by any Home Nation over the other three Home Nations is a 'Triple Crown'. The “Six Nations” taking part in the trophy are England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (collectively referred to as the “Home nations”) France and Italy. Rugby union is a competitive outdoor contact sport, played with an oval ball, by two teams of 15 players. It is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby league.


Ireland receiving the trophy from Prince William and President Mary Mc Aleese

Polish Recipes

With the influx over the last few years of Poles into the UK and Ireland Polish food has made it onto the displays at the major supermarkets and is not just confined to specialist retailers. This is a good development because the cuisine provides nutritious no nonsense comfort food which belies the stereotypes by being highly tasty and rewarding.




Daquise

In the past in London I’ve patronised two Eastern European establishments. Daquise in Thurloe Place around the corner from South Kensington Underground Station is the oldest Polish restaurant in London (established 1947), the place where the Polish government-in-exile would meet to plan campaigns against the Communist regime. It was refurbished after a fire and reopened looking just the same as before in 2006! Upstairs there is a cosy restaurant which is happy to serve you Polish staples like pirogi (ravioli-like dumplings stuffed with mushrooms or cheese), golabki (cabbage rolls), platski (potato pancakes) and bigos (meat and cabbage hunter's stew), all of which just happen to feature on Daquise's special Polish platter. Or they are equally happy to serve you good coffee and excellent dark chocolate cake. Downstairs the deal is the same with a small bar serving 15 vodkas! I It is an oasis of comfort food, sensible prices and continuity in an area not noted for these qualities. There are certainly Polish cafes with better food but you will enjoy the Polish beer and the Polish vodka, the small prices, the kasha, the sense of history and continuity, and the no-nonsense-but-with-a-heart-of-gold waitresses.


Borshtch N'tears

Borshtch N'tears not far away in Beauchamp Street is in fact Russian (or more accurately from over the border in Ukraine, but some of this was Polish until WW11, it’s complicated!) but enjoys a far less sedate reputation for it was once a good, if somewhat rowdy, place to go for a drink late at night. This place sells Russian food as it should be. The borscht tastes exactly as it should, the piroski are soft & tasty. They sell salo, holodec and shuba. The plmeni and shashlik are authentic, the food is plentiful, Ukrainian size portions and their selections of vodkas are the real deal. Oh, and more importantly, the atmosphere is exactly as it should be, free & boisterous. The musicians play great Russian music, really creating an unbeatable atmosphere.

So I was looking forward to sampling Polish cuisine on its home turf and because Poland had its “special friends” from Russian there until 1989 there is also a selection of Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Georgian and Armenian restaurants in Kraków. So these days there is plenty of variety even if first time visitors might get the impression that the Polish National dish is something called a “Kebabsky” with a “Chessburgy” a close second! Ignoring such delights when I was in Kraków a few days ago I enjoyed spending time reading at Massolit, drinking warm beer (alarmingly good!) at Alchemia, wandering through Kazimierz and staving off the cold by drinking cups of Grzaniec Galicyjski (Galicia is the old name for Southern Poland) - a mulled wine served from street stands in Rynek Glowny.


A Kraków cafe forever in Mittel Europa

Going through the seat of the Polish Kings, Wavel Castle overlooking Kraków, on a cold day we appreciated the high standard in the spotless visitor’s restaurant where we refuelled and warmed up with two staples, bowls of Borshtch served with potato croquettes and White Borshtch with sausage. They were both accompanied with very good bread and a pottery mug of traditional Polish mulled wine. More than enough to reinvigorate the body and soul before setting forth to explore the fascinating spiritual, cultural and educational capital of Free Poland and the actual capital and seat of the Polish Kings for over 400 years. Here are the recipes for a typical Polish winter warmer experience.


Wavel Castle




White Borshtch with sausage

Makes 5/6 generous portions of this guaranteed winter warmer.

Ingredients:

450 g. Polish sausage
1 litre buttermilk
1 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons flour
Salt to taste
Boiled potatoes, optional
Hard boiled egg, optional
Prepared horseradish, optional

Method:

Place .75 litres of water in a large pan. Add sausage and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low-simmer and cook, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove sausage, reserving cooking liquid, and set sausage aside to cool.

Add buttermilk to cooking liquid and return to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer.

In a medium bowl, combine milk and egg. Gradually whisk in flour and stir until smooth. Add 3 tablespoons of the simmering soup base to the milk-egg mixture and stir to combine (this tempers the egg so it doesn't curdle when added to the soup base). Slowly drizzle milk-egg mixture into the simmering soup, whisking continuously until all has been added, continue to simmer until soup has thickened. Add salt to taste.

Serve with reserved Polish sausage. This may also be served with boiled potatoes, slices of hard boiled egg and a dollop of prepared horseradish.

Borshtch (Beetroot Soup)


Borshtch with potato croquettes

Makes approximately 6 servings.

Ingredients:

1 large onion
450 g. beetroot
450 g. potatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp oil
1 litre vegetable stock or beetroot cooking liquid (you can get this from canned or bottled beetroot)
Salt and Pepper
2 tbsp lemon Juice
Pinch of chopped chives
0.175 litre thick plain yoghurt or soured cream

Method:

Cook the beetroot in a saucepan of salted water, bring to the boil and then simmer until tender. Allow to cool, peel and chop.

Peel and chop the onion and potatoes and sauté in the oil, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.

Crush the garlic cloves and add to the sautéed onions and potatoes and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable stock, chopped beetroot, lemon juice and salt and pepper, bring back to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and then put through a liquidiser until smooth. Reheat before serving, pour into bowls and garnish with a swirl of the yoghurt or sour cream and the chopped chives.

This is normally accompanied by cylindrical potato croquettes. Croquettes in Poland are basically made from a thin rolled pancake stuffed with potato, mushrooms, meat, cabbage, sauerkraut or combinations of those ingredients. They are then covered in breadcrumbs, fried in a pan and usually served usually with the clear soup. If you use mashed potato made the day before it improves the taste.


Grzaniec Galicyjski

GRZANIEC – Polish mulled wine

In pot combine 1 litre dry red wine, 5-6 Teaspoons of sugar, a grating of nutmeg and a pinch or two of cinnamon and ground cloves and heat to boiling. You can also use a sweet red wine, in which case omit or decrease the amount of sugar.

St. Paddy's Day Blog

Round Tower, Glendalough

The St. Patrick's Festival is Ireland's official celebration for its national holiday - St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday 17th March 2009. St. Patrick and St. Bridgid are the patron saints of Ireland but the former is better known due to the world wide Paddy Whackery which takes place on his feast day and indeed over a number of days. In my hometown of Dublin the festival now lasts 4 days – a far cry from many years ago when I used to stand with my Scout Group as part of the “Guard of Honour” in front of the reviewing stand at the GPO in Dublin's main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, and watch a succession of commercial floats, Irish Dancing schools and over excitable American majorettes go by in a parade of dismal banality.


Ist Dublin (LHO) Scout Group Guard of Honour G.P.O. Dublin

However, behind the drinks industry sponsored excesses and politicians climbing on the original Green bandwagon there is a serious argument in favour of St. Patrick on a number of counts – firstly he actually visited and has a real connection with Ireland and secondly he left a body of work which gives us a lot of information and understanding about him. Contrast that with the situation of George of Cappodacia who may or may not be the St. George of England, who didn’t even know England existed and who was foisted on England by Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet who spent less than six months in England during his reign.
( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/for-st-george-and-england.html )

Or St. Andrew, crucified on a saltire in Patras and whose bones are now in Patras and the Duomo in Amalfi who had absolutely no connection with Scotland, unless you believe a cock and bull storey about his bones (he must have had a lot of bones as they also claim to have his arm in Kephalonia!) being brought under “divine guidance” to St. Andrews in Scotland! ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/02/amalfi-coast.html ) Compared to these Patrick is real in body, thought and most importantly, connection to Ireland.




Statue of St.Patrick



Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 A.D. to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ. Saint Patrick is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a "most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God."

In his Confessio he describes how he came to Ireland:

“I, Patrick, a sinner, am a most uncultivated man, and the least of all the faithful, and I am greatly despised by many.

My father was the deacon Calpornius, son of the late Potitus, a priest of the town of Banna Venta Berniae (probably near Carlisle) He had a small estate nearby, where I was taken captive. I was barely sixteen. I had neglected the true God, and when I was carried off into captivity in Ireland, along with a great number of people, it was well deserved. For we cut ourselves off from God and did not keep his commandments, and we disobeyed our bishops who were reminding us of our salvation. God revealed himself to us through his wrath: He scattered us among foreign peoples, even to the end of the earth, where, appropriately, I have my own small existence among strangers.”

The Sage in an Ancient St. Patrick Day's Parade, Dublin




St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dublin

Saint Patrick is best known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptising them and thousands of their subjects in the "Holy Wells" that still bear this name.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/hill-of-tara.html


The Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day

The association with Ireland’s symbol the Shamrock come from him using this 3 leaved plant to explain the Christian concept formulated by the Council of Nicea of the Trinity, of there being one God but having three manifestations, The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. It has to be said that despite the Shamrock this is not a concept recognised by many Rabbis, Imans or indeed some other Christians such as the Coptic Church.

There are several accounts of Saint Patrick's death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the "evil eye." Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York, Dublin and my own favourite, Bridgetown, Barbados.


St. Patrick's Grave,Downpatrick

At his putative burial place in Downpatrick, near Armagh in Ulster there is now an excellent St. Patrick’s Centre with an informative website:

www.saintpatrickcentre.com


Pilgramage to Croagh Patrick

However to my mind there is far more fun to be had with the saint forever associated with the hauntingly beautiful valley of Glendalough (“Valley of the two lakes”) in Co. Wicklow and its monastic settlement of which many remains can be seen still today including a Round Tower where the monastery’s treasures were kept to protect them from marauders. St Kevin is celebrated not just for his piety but also for his misogyny being celebrated in a famous ballad by the Irish folk group The Dubliner’s for killing a woman who tried to lead him astray!

Glendalough from a postcard c. 1890




Glendalough

He was Abbot of Glendalough, Ireland, born about 498 A.D., the date being very obscure and died on 3rd. June, 618 A.D; son of Coemlog and Coemell. His name signifies fair-begotten. He was baptized by St. Cronan and educated by St. Petroc, a Briton. From his twelfth year he studied under monks, and eventually embraced the monastic state. Subsequently he founded the famous monastery of Glendalough the parent of several other monastic foundations. After visiting Sts. Columba, Comgall, and Canice at Usneach (Usny Hill) in Westmeath, he proceeded to Clonmacnoise, where St. Cieran had died three days before, in 544 A.D. Having firmly established his community, he retired into solitude for four years, and only returned to Glendalough at the earnest entreaty of his monks. He belonged to the second order of Irish saints and probably was never a bishop. So numerous were his followers that Glendalough became a veritable monastic city. Glendalough became an episcopal see, but is now incorporated with Dublin. St. Kevin's house and St. Kevin's bed of rock are still to be seen: and the Seven Churches of Glendalough have for centuries been visited by tourists and antiquarians. The misogyny points to the fact that the monastic tradition in the Irish Church owed more to the Eastern Church and it was only early in the 19th Century with Catholic Emancipation that Rome brought the Irish church back into the fold in more ways than one. So here is the Dubliner’s lyrical commemoration of the “old saint”.

In Glendalough lived an old saint,
Renowned for his learning and piety.
His manners were curious and quaint,
And he looked upon girls with disparity.

But as he was fishin' one day,
A-catchin' some kind of trout, sir,
Young Kathleen was walkin' that way
Just to see what the saint was about, sir.

'You're a mighty fine fisher, says Kate,
'Tis yourself is the boy that can hook them,
But when you have caught them so nate,
Don't you want some young woman to cook them?

"Be gone out of that", said the saint,
"For I am a man of great piety,
Me character I wouldn't taint,
By keeping such class of society.

But Kathleen wasn't goin' to give in,
For when he got home to his rockery,
He found her sitting therein,
A-polishing all of his crockery.

He gave the poor creature a shake,
Oh, I wish that the peelers had caught him:
He threw her right into the lake,
And of course she sank down to the bottom.

It is rumoured from that very day,
Kathleen's ghost can be seen on the river;
And the saint never raised up his hand,
For he died of the right kind of fever.

Until the rest of the world agrees with me that St. Kevin, with his outstanding record and enlightened attitude to women, is far more worthy of our national affections on Tuesday next wish your friends and colleagues a Happy St. Patrick’s Day in Gaelic:

“Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!”

Free Tibet

His Holiness,The Dalai Lama of Tibet

The Dalai Lama has launched a fierce attack on Chinese rule in his Tibetan homeland, saying his people had experienced "hell on Earth". Five decades of Chinese rule had caused "untold suffering", Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said, accusing Beijing of creating a climate of fear.

He also repeated his demand for Tibet's "legitimate and meaningful autonomy". His words came on the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese troops which led to his exile. It is 50 years today that the Tibetans rose up against Chinese rule causing the Dalai Lama to flee his homeland and campaign peacefully for over 50 years for autonomy for Tibet.



With China’s (let us remind ourselves, still a repressive Communist dictatorship with no credible claim to democracy or the rule of law) attempts to rewrite history and continue to tell the “Big Lie” let us remind ourselves what actually happened in 1959 which was nine years after the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet in 1950. First let us hear what the Tibetan Government’s spokesman, Thubten Samphel, says about China’s claim that Tibet is part of China.

“It is beyond dispute at various periods of its long history that Tibet came under differing degrees of foreign influence: the Mongols, the Ghurkhas of Nepal, the Manchu emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts. At other periods in the plateau's history, it was Tibet which exercised power and influence over its neighbours - including China.

It would be hard to find any state in the world today that has not been subjected to foreign domination or influence at some era in its history. In Tibet's case the degree and duration of foreign influence and interference was relatively limited.”


The Potala Palace, Lhasa

Here is what the United Nations resolution (which I’m proud to say was sponsored by Malaya and Ireland) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations after the Chinese repression in 1959 actually says;

United Nations General Assembly - Resolution 1353 (XIV)

New York, 1959
The General Assembly,

Recalling the principles regarding fundamental human rights and freedoms set out in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948,

Considering that the fundamental human rights and freedoms to which the Tibetan people, like all others, are entitled include the right to civil and religious liberty for all without distinction,

Mindful also of the distinctive cultural and religious heritage of the people fo Tibet and of the autonomy which they have traditionally enjoyed,

Gravely concerned at reports, including the official statements of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to the effect that the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the people of Tibet have been forcibly denied them,

Deploring the effect of these events in increasing international tension and embittering the relations between peoples at a time when earnest and positive efforts are being made by responsible leaders to reduce tension and improve international relations,

1) Affirms its belief that respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is essential for the evolution of a peaceful world order based on the rule of law;

2) Calls for respect for the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people and for their distinctive cultural and religious life.


Flag of Tibet

Speaking to thousands of supporters, the Tibetan spiritual leader said Chinese martial law, and hard-line policies such as the Cultural Revolution, had devastated the Himalayan region.

"These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth," he said in the Indian hill town of Dharmsala, where he and the self-proclaimed government-in-exile have been based since shortly after fleeing their homeland. "The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans."

Tibetan culture and identity are "nearing extinction", he told about 2,000 people, including Buddhist monks, Tibetan schoolchildren and a handful of foreign supporters. The group gathered in a courtyard that separates the Dalai Lama's home from the town's main temple, and monks blowing enormous conch shells and long brass horns heralded his arrival. "Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them," the Dalai Lama said.

While his comments were unusually strong for a man known for his deeply pacifist beliefs, he also urged that any change come peacefully and reiterated his support for the "Middle Way," which calls for significant Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule. "I have no doubt that the justice of Tibetan cause will prevail if we continue to tread a path of truth and non-violence," he said. After his speech, thousands of young Tibetans took to the streets of Dharmsala chanting "China Out!" and "Tibet belongs to Tibetans!"


Dharmsala

While Beijing claims Tibet has been part of Chinese territory for centuries, Tibet was a deeply isolated theocracy until 1951, when Chinese troops invaded Lhasa, the regional capital. Today's anniversary marked 10th March 1959 riots inside Tibet against Chinese rule which led to a crackdown and, later that month, the Dalai Lama's flight across the Himalayas and into exile.

Last year, a peaceful commemoration of the 1959 uprising by monks in Lhasa erupted into anti-Chinese rioting four days later and spread to surrounding provinces - the most sustained and violent demonstrations by Tibetans in decades. This year, China has largely sealed off Tibet to the outside world.

Visitors to Lhasa have described armed police posted on rooftops. Local governments in Tibetan areas have ordered tourists out, and foreign journalists have been detained and told to leave.

In March 1959, as Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled into India. Then a young man in his mid-20s, the future must have seemed bleak. With few countries prepared to respond to China's actions, he faced a difficult task to protect Tibetans and their traditions.


Monk Lhasa

Yet despite 50 years in exile, the reach of Tibet's spiritual leader has extended far beyond his community and he is now recognised as one of the world's leading religious figures. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his consistent opposition to the use of violence in his quest for Tibetan self-rule. But Beijing continues to view him as a "splittist", although he has repeatedly stated that his goal is for Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.

Just weeks before the 50th anniversary of his flight from Lhasa, the Dalai Lama appealed to people in Tibet not to respond to the "provocations of the Chinese authorities", referring to a heavy Chinese military presence across Tibet. And he restated his life-long commitment to a peaceful resolution to the Tibetan issue. "It goes without saying how much admiration I have for the enthusiasm, determination, and sacrifice of the Tibetans in Tibet. However, it is difficult to achieve a meaningful outcome by sacrificing lives. The path of non-violence is our irrevocable commitment and it is important that there be no departure at all from this path."

In this age of disinformation and the Chinese NEWSPEAK here is what the highly respected International Commission of Jurists actually reported in 1959. Since then Tibet has suffered 50 years of Chinese Imperialist repression, Han colonisation of the Tibetan Plateau and destruction of its unique Buddhist culture.


Temple Scene

ICJ Report on Tibet 1959


International Commission of Jurists Report on:
The Question of Tibet
The rule of Law
Geneva, 1959
(EXCERPT)


Introduction to the evidence on Chinese activities in Tibet
The allegations against the People's Republic of China can be fitted into three broad legal categories:


1) Systematic disregard for the obligations under the Seventeen-Point Agreement of 1951;

2) Systematic violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of Tibet;

3) Wanton killing of Tibetans and other acts capable of leading to the extinction of the Tibetans as a national and religious group, to the extent that it becomes necessary to consider the question of Genocide.



There is some inevitable overlap between these categories, for example, in the case of respect for religious belief, where there is this obligation under the Seventeen-Point Agreement [Article 7] and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [Article 18].

The significance of these three legal categories may be briefly explained. Violation of the 1951 Agreement by China can be regarded as a release of the Tibetan Government from its obligations, with the result that Tibet regained the sovereignty which she surrendered under the Agreement. This question is discussed in the part of this report entitled "The Position of Tibet in International Law." For this reason the violations of the Agreement by China amount to more than a matter of domestic concern between Tibet and China. What is at stake is the very existence of Tibet as a member of the family of nations, and this matter concerns the whole family of nations. Evidence showing the systematic violation by China of the obligations under the Agreement is therefore printed in extenso.

Any systematic violation of human rights in any part of the world should, it is submitted, be a matter for discussion by the United Nations. For this reason the evidence which indicates violation on a systematic scale of the rights of the Tibetan people as human beings is printed in extenso. Most people will agree that in the sphere of human rights, some rights are fundamental. The rights of the Tibetans which appear to have been ruthlessly violated are of the most fundamental - even that of life itself. With violations of this gravity it is not a question of human rights being modified to meet the requirements of local conditions. It is a question of conduct which shocks the civilized world and does not even need to be fitted into a legal category. The evidence points to a systematic design to eradicate the separate national, cultural and religious life of Tibet.

Genocide is the gravest crime known to the law of nations. No allegation of Genocide should be made without the most careful consideration of evidence that killings, or other acts prohibited by the Genocide Convention, however extensive, are directed towards the destruction in whole or in part of a particular group which constitutes a race, a nation or a religion. The facts, as far as they are known are set out in extenso. It is submitted, with a full appreciation of the gravity of this accusation that the evidence points at least to a prima facie case of Genocide against the People's Republic of China. This case merits full investigation by the United Nations.


Lhasa Square

The evidence submitted against China is printed verbatim in this report. Statements made by the official press and radio of the Chinese People's Republic are reproduced at perhaps inordinate length, and even so amount to no more than specimens of the Chinese account of the recent history of Tibet. Space does not permit a fuller inclusion, but it is considered that the selection is at least typical of the official Chinese accounts. The accounts given by Tibetan leaders in exile and refugees on the one hand, and Chinese spokesmen and Tibetan collaborators on the other are reproduced with a minimum of editing and running commentary. By and large the accounts given by Tibetans are self-evidently linked to the specific legal category under which they are cited; accounts from Chinese sources are by and large self-evidently inconsistent, though in this case there is a certain amount of running commentary.

At the beginning of each section of evidence presented is a summary of contents, an assessment of the effect of the evidence and, in some cases, a critical discussion of the Chinese accounts. Finally, a summary of conclusions is offered. A note on the leading personalities involved precedes the general body of evidence, together with a list of abbreviations used in the extracts and in the commentary.

From the whole tangled mass of propaganda, allegation and counter-allegations made by the principal protagonists in the Tibetan situation, one statement stands out. The Dalai Lama in his statement at Mussoorie, India, on June 20th, 1959 said:

"I wish to make it clear that I have made these assertions against Chinese officials in Tibet in full knowledge of their gravity because I know them to be true. Perhaps the Beijing Government are not fully aware of the facts of the situation but if they are not prepared to accept these statements let them agree to an investigation on the point by an international commission. On our part I and my Government will readily agree to abide by the verdict of such an impartial body."

The issue on the evidence submitted in this report is to a large extent who is telling the truth. On this issue this proposal by the Dalai Lama is of the utmost importance. The International Commission of Jurists is setting up its Legal Inquiry Committee, but it is not known whether this Committee will be allowed to enter Tibet. Nor is it certain that a United Nations Commission, if one is formed, will be able to make on the spot inquiries in Tibet. But if entry is refused it will be by the Government of the People's Republic of China. That Government has not so far accepted the Dalai Lama's proposal. On the question of credibility the obvious inference is there to be drawn.

The Question of Genocide

Genocide is defined in the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, 9th December 1948, which was agreed in pursuance of the resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations(1) that Genocide is a crime against the law of nations. The contracting parties undertook to prevent and punish Genocide. There is therefore an obligations upon each and every one of the States who were party to the Convention to take action if a case of Genocide comes to light.

The Convention defines both the mens rea(2) and the actus reus(3) of Genocide in specific terms. The actus reus is committed in one or more of several ways as defined in Article 2:

a) killing;

b) causing serious bodily or mental harm;

c) subjection to living conditions leading to the total or partial destruction of the group;

d) measures intended to prevent the birth of children within the group;

e) forcible transfer of children of the group to another.

Conspiracy to commit Genocide, incitement to commit Genocide, attempted Genocide and aiding and abetting Genocide are all declared punishable by Article 3. The mens rea of Genocide is defined as the intention to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such.(4)
It cannot be overemphasized that one must deliberate carefully before making an allegation of Genocide. It is probably the gravest crime known to the law of nations. For this reason, the evidence must be very carefully considered, and all inferences from the evidence must be logically supportable.

Evidence of the actus reus of Genocide:

(i) Religious groups: The evidence that there has been widespread killing of Buddhist monks and lamas in Tibet is clear and explicit. One need only refer to the evidence in this category under Section A (II). If this evidence is to be believed, there has been a destruction by killing of a part of a religious group. The International Commission of Jurists believes that this evidence raises at the very least a case which requires thorough and careful investigation.

(ii) National groups: The account of wanton killings in Tibet points to killings on a wider scale than that of religious groups. Particular attention should be paid to the evidence of indiscriminate air attacks, and of deliberate shooting of Tibetans who were in no way engaged in hostilities. Evidence of such killings is given in Section B. It should also be stressed that the alleged deportation of 20,000 Tibetan children is directly contrary to Article 2 (e).(5) It is of the utmost importance that this report be fully investigated.


Fraternal Chinese activities

The Memorandum contains important evidence on the forcible removal of children to China:


"Above all they have made thousands of homes unhappy by forcing young boys and girls to go to China for de-nationalization, thus getting them indoctrinated to revolt against our own culture, traditions and religion. To this end they have sent more than five thousand boys and girls up to now to China proper."

Here is clear prima facie evidence of a violation of Article 2(e) of the Genocide Convention.

Evidence of the mens rea of Genocide:

It is very rarely in criminal trials that direct evidence of mens rea is available. The fact that there is no official Chinese policy statement directed towards the destruction of the Tibetans is no ground for withholding an accusation of Genocide if an inference of the requisite intention can properly be drawn. For this purpose it is permissible to take into account acts which point to the extinction of a national or religious group whether or not such acts are in themselves acts of Genocide. For if a systematic intention to destroy a nation or religion can be shown by acts which are not declared criminal by the Genocide Convention, the acts on which these inferences are based can properly be adduced as evidence of general intention. If in addition there are acts which are capable in law of amounting to Genocide, and such acts are part of a consistent pattern of destroying a nation or religion, the inference of intent in non-genocidal acts is equally valid in respect of acts which are within those prohibited by the Genocide Convention.

For this reason, the overall assessment of the evidence in Sections A and B is relevant and important. If such evidence points to an intention to destroy religion in Tibet, and to assimilate the Tibetan way of life to the Chinese, there is evidence of the required intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national or religious group. It has been argued that the activities of the Chinese in Tibet point to the conclusion that this was the intention behind the Chinese acts in the fields described in Sections A and B. The ruthless efficiency is otherwise difficult to explain. The evidence in these two sections should be carefully studied.


A Tibetan Women

This interference has been drawn from these and other facts by Tibetans from the Dalai Lama downwards. The Tibetan opinions on the Chinese intentions are as follows:

Statement of the Dalai Lama in Mussoorie, June 20, 1959:

In the course of his press conference the Dalai Lama stated:

"The ultimate Chinese aim with regard to Tibet, as far as I can make out, seems to attempt the extermination of religion and culture and even the absorption of the Tibetan race. . .Besides the civilian and military personnel already in Tibet, five million Chinese settlers have arrived in eastern and north-eastern Tso, in addition to which four million Chinese settlers are planned to be sent to U and Sung provinces of Central Tibet. Many Tibetans have been deported, thereby resulting in the complete absorption of these Tibetans as a race, which is being undertaken by the Chinese."

Memorandum:
The statement already quoted from the Memorandum on the actus reus of Genocide also contains the inference by the authors of the document that the aim was to get the children to "revolt against their own culture, traditions and religion."

Statement of Chaghoe Namgyal Dorje:


"... My experience of four years' work with the Chinese convinced me that their propaganda was false and that their real intention was to exterminate us as a race and destroy our religion and culture.
"Communists are enemies not only to Buddhism but to all religion. It has been told to me that more than 2,000 Lamas had been killed by the Chinese. I have personal knowledge of such attacks on 17 Lamas.



"Even if no help is coming we shall fight to death. We fight not because we hope to win but that we cannot live under Communism. We prefer death.

We are fighting not for a class or sect. We are fighting for our religion, our country, our race. If these cannot be preserved we will die a thousand deaths than surrender these to the Chinese."

These inferences were drawn by people who know as no one outside Tibet can know the full extent of Chinese brutality in Tibet. They are in a better position than any outsider to assess the motives behind the Chinese oppression, including the slaughter, the deportations and the less crude methods, of all of which there is abundant evidence.

It is therefore the considered view of the International Commission of Jurists that the evidence points to:

(a) a prima facie case of acts contrary to Article 2(a) and (e) of the Genocide Convention of 1948.

(b) a prima facie case of a systematic intention by such acts and other acts to destroy in whole or in part the Tibetans as a separate nation and the Buddhist religion in Tibet.

Accordingly, the Commission will recommend to its Legal Inquiry Committee that existing evidence of Genocide be fully checked, that further evidence, if available, be investigated, that unconfirmed be investigated and checked. But the final responsibility for this task rests with the formal organ of world authority and opinion. The Commission therefore earnestly hopes that this matter will be taken up by the United Nations. For what at the moment appears to be attempted Genocide may become the full act of Genocide unless prompt and adequate action is taken. The life of Tibet and the lives of Tibetans may be at stake, and somewhere there must be sufficient moral strength left in the world to seek the truth through the world's highest international organ.
Footnotes

1) Resolution 96(1) of December 11, 1946.
2) mens rea, a term form the criminal law, means the state of mind necessary to make criminal the conduct which is prohibited.
3) Actus reus means the conduct which the law prohibits.
4) Article 2.
5) The report was contained in an article in the London "Daily Mail" on January 1st, 1959. Whilst a newspaper report cannot without evidence more be regarded as an authentic primary source, the statement of a competent and reputable journalist (Mr. Noel Barker) raises at least a case for investigation



Everest

Barack Obama: We cannot afford to waste money on things we don't need

"This is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do. I'm confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after." - President Barack Obama



From the day I took office, I knew that solving this crisis would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight. And we will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. But I also believe that we will get through this – that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before.

Of course, like every family going through hard times, our country must make tough choices. In order to pay for the things we need, we cannot waste money on the things we don't.

My administration inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we've inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable. For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibility, Washington did, too. These kinds of irresponsible budgets – and inexcusable practices – are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.

It's also a budget that begins to make the hard choices that we've avoided for far too long – a strategy that cuts where we must and invests where we need. That's why it includes $2trn in deficit reduction while making historic investments in America's future. That's why it reduces discretionary spending for non-defense programs as a share of the economy by more than 10 per cent over the next decade - to the lowest level since they began keeping these records nearly half a century ago. And that's why on Wednesday I signed a presidential memorandum to end unnecessary no-bid contracts and to dramatically reform the way contracts are awarded – reforms that will save the American people up to $40bn each year.
Finally, because we cannot bring our deficit down or grow our economy without tackling the skyrocketing cost of health care, I held a health care summit on Thursday to begin the long-overdue process of reform.

Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, but our goal must be the same: quality, affordable health care for every American that no longer overwhelms the budgets of families, businesses and of our government.

Taken from the US President Barack Obama's weekly address to the nation
- 7th March 2009

Jack Keyes T/A Hugh Leonard

Hugh Leonard

Jack Keyes trading as Hugh Leonard was the title on the VAT file which crossed my desk many years ago when I was an Irish Civil servant. For Ireland’s foremost playwright used the nom de plume of Hugh Leonard originally to hide his writing from his Civil Service bosses but he was born John Keyes Byrne on November 9, 1926. He died in Dublin recently on February 12, 2009, aged 82. The accountant’s firm handling his VAT affairs was Russell Murphy & Co. who had many high profile artists and writers on their books. They were (and still are) covered by a “creative writing “exemption in the Irish Income Tax code which meant their royalties from creative writing were tax free. Russell Murphy wrongly advised his clients who benefited from this generous exemption that they were also exempt from VAT and such were his high level connections that the Irish Tax Authorities disgracefully on “a concessional basis” wrote off over four years VAT just from his clients.

For Russell Murphy was well connected being a Governor of the Bank of Ireland and on the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He was a patron of the arts and his artistic clients revelled in his eccentricity including wearing a cloak with a red silk lining and on occasion being greeted by the sight of him hiding under his desk when they went into his office. The full extent of his eccentricity was exposed when he committed suicide a couple of years later in 1986 and it was found many of these high profile clients had invested money with him which had disappeared, Hugh Leonard lost over a million pounds and the broadcaster Gay Byrne a similar amount. They both took a High Court case against the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants but, such is the quality of professional supervision in Ireland, they never received any compensation. This is the same Institute which didn’t feel the need to expel another high profile member, former Prime Minister and Chartered Accountant, Charles Haughey, even though he hadn’t paid a subscription for 22 years and had financed his millionaire lifestyle with over £8.5 million pounds of undeclared backhanders on which he hadn’t paid tax.

Hugh Leonard rose from humble beginnings as an adopted child to become one of Ireland’s foremost dramatists, a writer who discovered his talent for biting wit during the drudgery of clerking for the Land Commission, and, helped by television and film earnings, graduated from an Aston Martin to a Rolls-Royce and a boat on the Shannon.




Da

His most successful play, which earned him a reputed £500,000, was the autobiographical Da, a triumph in Dublin and New York, and later made into a film. But — and this was to be a constant theme in Leonard’s career — it made little impact in London. He pretended indifference to being snubbed by Shaftesbury Avenue, resigning himself to the British perception of Irish plays: “Our image is trouble, and who wants to pay good money for that?” His first West End venture, Stephen D, an adaptation of James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist, had a success he was never to repeat. This brilliantly stage worthy rendering told how Joyce escaped from the ties of religion and country to call his soul his own, hammering out in words of iron his sense of identity and direction. Leonard was to achieve a similar escape.

The West End debut of his farce The Patrick Pearse Motel in 1971 nailed his strengths and weaknesses. He peopled his Feydeau-like rendezvous not with the cut-out dudes, oafs and termagants of farce, but with sharply observed contemporaries, such as the couple who patched up a cracking marriage by loading their house with costly gadgets. But in interrupting the rat-tat-tat of disaster upon disaster in order to develop character, he forgot the farceur’s obligation to be a sharpshooter. So in London the play failed, whereas in Dublin it had delighted a less impatient audience.

Born John Keyes Byrne in Dublin in 1926, and always known as Jack, he was brought up by foster-parents in a tense, bullying, guilt-ridden household where he learnt that “love upside-down is love for all that.” In his book, Home Before Dark, he described growing up in the Dublin of the 1930s as the adopted son of the gentle day-labourer Da portrayed in his play, a sweet old nobody exasperatingly contented with his lot who fought a fiercely proud wife with enough foolish stratagems to drive a saint to drink.



By way of scholarship and a religious schooling at Presentation College, Dun Laoghaire, Leonard wheedled himself into the Irish civil service, having meanwhile indulged his love of cinema by appearing as an extra in Laurence Olivier’s Henry V, which was filmed in Ireland. During his stint as a civil servant he began writing plays for amateurs and in 1956 The Big Birthday was his first work to be staged at the Abbey Theatre.

Further plays and a version of The Archers for commercial radio (geared to advertise Cadbury’s) enabled him to leave the civil service and become a full-time writer. In 1961 he joined Granada Television in Manchester as a script editor but he preferred writing for himself and soon moved to London as a freelance. He lived in England for some years until tax concessions drew him back to Ireland and his roots.
His expertise as an adaptor, confirmed by Stephen D, also served him well in television for which he produced skilful versions of Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son, The Moonstone and Wuthering Heights as well as tackling Irish subjects in James Plunkett’s Strumpet City (1980) and The Irish RM (1983) from the stories of Somerville and Ross.


Home before Night

He also adapted Chesterton’s Father Brown stories and Norman Collins’s London Belongs to Me, wrote comedy material for Ronnie Barker and created a deliciously quirky situation comedy, Me Mammy (1968-71), which starred Milo O’Shea as an Irishman in London, successful in business but still a bachelor and under the thumb of his fiercely traditional Roman Catholic mother. For the cinema he adapted Shaw’s Great Catherine (1968), with Jeanne Moreau and Peter O’Toole and his own Da (1988).
But despite this prolific output for the small and big sceen he never abandoned the theatre and during 1976-77 he served as the Abbey’s literary manager. Notable Dublin productions included the comedies Summer and Time Was and in 1978 Da went to Broadway, where it won a Tony award. Two other plays, The Au Pair Man and A Life were nominated for Tonys and it was with the latter that Leonard wrote his masterpiece. The ingeniously structured play switched back and forth in time to show four young hopefuls in their 20s and the life-worn but mettlesome folk they matured into.

The comic hassles and bitter misunderstandings between the tough older folk were seen as the outcome of the foolish passions of themselves when young. The play also contrasted the stiff pedant the giddy girl had rejected — at whose funeral, he admits, “the only mourners will be a group of unsplit infinitives” — and the warm-hearted chump she preferred, a lusty incorrigible who sees the world through a Guinness darkly but sees it whole.

He was a notable dramatist and a very successful television scriptwriter, but he always saw himself as an outsider among his peers and was quick to take offence at perceived slights from critics or fellow playwrights. Indeed, in his long-running 'Sunday Independent' column (and before that in 'Hibernia' magazine), he was adept both at settling old scores and in making new enemies.

"A literary movement in Ireland," he once quipped, "is two writers on speaking terms with each other." He chuckled as he said it, though he was keenly aware of the personal truth behind the jibe, given that he always felt distant from, and wary of, most of his writing contemporaries. Indeed, although his plays brought him considerable popular and commercial success, he was never granted the esteem that was routinely enjoyed by Brian Friel and Tom Murphy.


Dalkey Main Street

In his later years Leonard lived contentedly in Dalkey, continued to write plays for the Dublin Festival, hob-nobbing at night over a jar with folk he had known all his life. The hack work behind him, his writing became informed with a canny awareness of the sad complexities of life and the warmth that came from his ability to enjoy people of every kind for what they were. With his quick dry wit he contributed a weekly satirical column to the Sunday Independent and had his own regular Saturday morning radio show.

The violence, the fecklessness, the charm and that peculiar Irish blend of arrogance and sweetness in his countrymen were studied by Leonard with a humanity which ranks his later work with the best of his time. Mischievously, Leonard would sometimes exploit the naivety and ignorance of his people, spinning tall yarns and building up mad aunts and fiery schoolmasters and priests into entertaining but incredible grotesques. But his best work is alive with delectable Dublin characters as well as domestic horrors. He took delight in debunking the mealy-mouthed primness and excessive religiosity of a country quick to put respectability before humanity. Paule Jacquet, his wife of 45 years, died in 2000. He is survived by Kathy Hayes, his second wife, and by his daughter from his first marriage.

I will remember Jack Keyes t/a Hugh Leonard above all not for the quality of his vitriol but for his honesty and integrity. That is not to discount the quality of his vitriol for as Brian Behan once remarked “he was a man without enemies, it is his friends who hate him!” Brian had been upset by Leonard describing his brother, the playwright Brendan Behan, as a second rate talent rescued by Joan Littlewood’s editing. But in an Ireland where there was tacit support for violent republicanism only Conor Cruise O’Brien and Hugh Leonard consistently spoke out against the crypto-fascism of the Provos when such sentiments were far from mainstream. Indeed Hugh Leonard’s vitriol against Charles Haughey was a persistent theme of his Sunday Independent column and for his New Year Awards each year Haughey invariably was awarded the “Gobshite of the Year” award. The only exception was the year Haughey nearly drowned when his trawler Yacht went aground on the south coast of Ireland. That year Haughey was awarded the “Sailor of the Year” award and the “Gobshite of the Year” went to God for not taking his chance when he had it! An honest voice who no doubt at this very moment is causing an argument in heaven.


Dalkey

Le Rayon vert

Once again the local six screen multiplex offers a REDUCED choice as it is full of kid’s popcorn movies. There really needs to be an enquiry in the UK on how the two big chains, Odeon and UCI, have a stranglehold on distribution as the Odeons in particular seem to have the same movies running in all their outlets, stiffling diversity. So we found ourselves on a Saturday night celebrating the credit crunch in the warmth of our modest home with a M&S Meal for Two (Main course, side dish, desert and bottle of wine for £10.00) and watching a DVD of “Le Rayon vert” which was free with the Independent newspaper – cheap or what!

The Green Ray (French: Le Rayon vert) is a 1986 film by Éric Rohmer. It is released as “Summer” in North America. The film stars Marie Rivière, Rosette, Béatrice Romand, Carita and Vincent Gauthier. It is named for the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. It was shot in France on 16mm film and much of the dialogue is improvised. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Lion at the 1986 Venice Film Festival.

Delphine, a young secretary who lives in Paris, has her holiday plans upset when her fiancé and then her friend dump her. Half-heartedly, she agrees to accompany another friend to Cherbourg, but upset, she soon heads back to Paris. After an equally fruitless trip to the Alps, she heads for Biarritz, where she overhears the tale of the Green Ray. Lonely and unsure what to do, she tries to fill time, little thinking that the Green Ray will soon change her life.


Delphine

I have had a great weakness for Éric Rohmer’s work since seeing Claire’s Knee in the Irish Film Theatre in Dublin’s Earlsfort Terrace in the 70s. Then it was about the only place in Ireland to see alternative cinema (in the days before video and the internet). Like most of Eric Rohmer's work, you either enjoy the laid-back atmosphere and chatty characters in Claire's Knee, or find it all incredibly boring. I happen to love them. It's rare to find movies that don't want to be sensationalistic and violent, but would rather present universal questions and then investigate them throughout the course of the movie.

I would recommend Love in the Afternoon as an entry into Rohmer however, as it is a little pacier for those unfamiliar with his style. And so it was wonderful after all these years to rediscover Rohmer with “Le Rayon vert” which is not entirely commercial in the spirit of Hollywood and the popcorn movies which monopolise our local cinema as its subject matter is boredom!

Shot in 16mm and with much of the dialogue improvised this technique at times gives the film an awkward feel which of course echoes the sense of dislocation of the central character, Delphine, played by Rohmer favourite Marie Rivière who wrote and improvised much of her own dialogue. Éric Rohmer's films have few characters, usually concentrating on a single human drama dissected in minute detail. But all the introspection is very human, it brings out the anguish, there is nothing cerebral about his films. His highly intelligent dialogue enables actors to submerge themselves in their characters bringing them intensely alive. Rohmer maintains visual interest with fine street and café locations, and eschews background music.
Delphine (Marie Rivière) is a young woman who doesn’t know exactly what she wants in life, and who is unable to relate well to others. In her own words, "I'm not very operational in life".



That characteristic is especially easy to see when, due to unforeseen circumstances, she goes on holidays alone. She visits many places, but there is always a problem: her. Delphine feels she needs someone to be complete, and gets depressed because she doesn't seem to attract the opposite sex. On the other hand, when young men get near her she rejects them, as they are not what she is looking for. Will that change? And what does the green ray has to do with Delphine's quest for love?

Arguably the most visually poetic of Rohmer’s films in his series of Comédies et Proverbes, Le Rayon vert is an engaging, wistful tale which easily evokes the sense of yearning and isolation which marks many of Rohmer’s better films. The central character, Delphine, appears to be locked into a hopeless situation where she has no choices to improve her situation. With its allusions to fortune reading and supernatural influences, Le Rayon vert is much more about chance than individual choice. The cinematographic style takes precedence over the narrative, although this film appears to be more directionless than most of his films. Whilst this creates a sense of frustration at times, the mesmerising effect of Rohmer’s approach, with its emphasis on capturing life as it really is, reinforced with strong natural sounds, maintains the viewer’s attention.



The film’s beautiful resolution makes this both a memorable and immensely satisfying work of cinema. When her fiancé and then her friend dump her the shock focuses Delphine's mind on her loneliness and the film follows her gradually disintegration into depression. This is superbly acted and directed and psychologically accurate. The driver behind the story line of Delphine having to holiday alone is a metaphor for the alienation and rejection we all have to cope with on numerous levels in life. The film visually might not be all that remarkable but rather it's more like a good book whose central idea stays with you for a long time after you have finished reading it.

The title “The Green Ray” refers to the Jules Verne novel The Green Ray and provides both the fixation in the story line that will convince Delphine that her life and love is back in the right place after the alienation she has suffered and it provides the coup de theatre for the film’s denouement. Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. The reason for a green flash lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth.


Jules Verne novel The Green Ray

Rupert Brooke and “The Chilterns”

Rupert Brooke

Regular blogistas who follow the Sage know our enthusiasm for the Vale of Aylesbury and the Chiltern Hills as the Sage’s Castle is about 2 miles from Chequers, the Prime Ministers country home. Buckinghamshire is one of the loveliest of the Home Counties - some say the loveliest - and its Chiltern Hills and beech woods, beautiful River Thames and the rolling acres of Aylesbury Vale make it a place for visitors to enjoy. Country walks run between picturesque villages with a host of welcoming pubs. We are overlooked by the Chiltern Escarpment whose edge marks the southern border of the Midlands of England which continue to Wolverhampton and the Quantock Hills. The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beech woods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams.

One of the most typical hilltop villages remaining is Dunsmore. This is a hamlet in the parish of Ellesborough, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the hilltop of one of the Chiltern Hills, about 2 miles south of Wendover. It is one of the remotest places in the whole of Buckinghamshire, accessible only by two steep, single-track hillside lanes. The place name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means literally Dunna's moor.


Track to Dunsmore

Today the village is extremely picturesque as it is surrounded by mostly National Trust owned woodland. However due to its location it is occasionally cut off because of bad weather or bad road conditions, and retains its small community atmosphere. Central features of the hamlet are the village pond, the village hall and the Church of the Resurrection, Dunsmore. There were two public houses, the Fox and the Black Horse, but these have closed and been converted into residential dwellings in recent years.


The Duck Pond, Dunsmore

Another fan of the Chilterns was the war poet, Rupert Brooke. He was a promising English poet who died young in World War I. Brooke ( 3 August 1887 - 23 April 1915 ), was a popular English poet, famed for his idealistic War Sonnets that he wrote during the First World War. Works such as "The Soldier", "The Old Vicarage" and "The Great Lover" are much loved throughout the world.

Poets have always glorified war, and Brooke did his best to continue the tradition, and sacrifice himself in this effort. His death made him the hero of the first phase of the war and a canonised symbol of all the gifted young people destroyed by the conflict. However, Brooke's poetry with its patriotic mood and naive enthusiasm went out of fashion as the realities of warfare were fully understood.


Ellesborough

Rupert Chawner Brooke was a British war poet, somewhat idealistic and known for his looks. W.B. Years once described him as “the handsomest young man in England.” Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, he attended Rugby School where his father was a schoolmaster. He later attended King’s College, Cambridge, where he became one of the ‘Cambridge Apostles’, and made friends with members of the Bloomsbury group. Brooke struggled somewhat with his sexuality, which often led to a frustrated and unhappy romantic life.


Princes Risborough

Before WWI he walked regularly in the Chilterns, sometimes with friends. He used to visit the Pink and Lily pub, at Parslow’s Hillock above Princes Risborough, and loved to walk there from Wendover station. Legend has it that the Pink and Lily pub came into being in 1800 when Mr Pink, a butler from nearby Hampden House, and Miss Lillie, a chambermaid from the same house, fell in love and turned a private house at Parslow’s Hillock into the Pink and Lily hostelry. He also wrote a short cheerful ditty about a particularly merry lunch at the Pink and Lily with his friend Jacques Raverat.

When WWI began Brooke joined the Royal Naval Division. The early months of the war inspired him to write some idealistic war sonnets. Later, his tone became more realistic when he wrote Soon to Die.


Pink and Lily pub

Brooke’s visits to the Chilterns inspired him to write the poem called The Chilterns which includes these evocative verses:


The Chilterns


Your hands, my dear, adorable,
Your lips of tenderness
--Oh, I've loved you faithfully and well,
Three years, or a bit less.
It wasn't a success.

Thank God, that's done! and I'll take the road,
Quit of my youth and you,
The Roman road to Wendover
By Tring and Lilley Hoo,
As a free man may do.

For youth goes over, the joys that fly,
The tears that follow fast;
And the dirtiest things we do must lie
Forgotten at the last;
Even love goes past.

What's left behind I shall not find,
The splendor and the pain;
The splash of sun, the shouting wind,
And the brave sting of rain,
I may not meet again.

But the years, that take the best away,
Give something in the end;
And a better friend than love have they,
For none to mar or mend,
That have themselves to friend.

I shall desire and I shall find
The best of my desires;
The autumn road, the mellow wind
That soothes the darkening shires.
And laughter, and inn-fires.

White mist about the black hedgerows,
The slumbering Midland plain,
The silence where the clover grows,
And the dead leaves in the lane,
Certainly, these remain.

And I shall find some girl perhaps,
And a better one than you,
With eyes as wise, but kindlier,
With lips as soft, but true.
And I daresay she will do.

Rupert Brooke (1887 – 1915)


Chiltern Hills

During the First World War, Rupert Brooke was commissioned into the Navy, just after his twenty-seventh birthday, and took part in the Royal Navy Division’s Antwerp expedition. He died on April 23rd, 1915 off the island of Lemnos, in the Aegean, on his way to battle at Gallipoli after contracting pneumonia from an infected mosquito bite. His body is buried on the island of Skyros, Greece.

During the First World War, Brooke was stationed off Tris Boukes Bay, located to the south west of Skyros. Brooke, and the rest of the platoon arrived on the 17th April 1915, and they were waiting for clearance to head off to the island of Lemnos. The following days after their arrival were spent doing a variety of exercises. On the evening of Tuesday 20th April, Brooke became very ill. He has a swelling on his upper lip, caused by an inflammation of a mosquito bite. During the subsequent hours, this inflammation spread, which was later identified as a diplococcal infection - blood poisoning, in simple terms.

On Thursday 22 April, Brooke was moved to a neighbouring French medical ship. He was actually the only patient on board as the ship was actually waiting to pick up injured personal from Gallipoli. On Friday 23rd April, Brooke's temperature rose and lost consciousness. He died in the late afternoon. A little later in the evening, three fellow officers took a digging party to Skyros, and headed to an olive grove that Brooke and a few others had rested at a few days earlier. Brooke was buried just before midnight.


Rupert Brooke statue, Skyros

Because Brooke's party were due to set sail the following morning at 6am, the ceremony was very simple. A wooden cross, which was inscribed in Greek, was placed at his grave. The inscription of the cross stated ... "Here lies the servant of God, Sub-lieutenant in the English Navy, who died for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks". The grave of Rupert Brooke is often visited by travellers to Skyros. The tomb you see here today is not the original grave but one made after the First World War commissioned by his mother. The grave has an inscription of Brooke's most famous poem, "The Soldier", which was written during the last months of 1914.

Rupert Brooke is a very celebrated figure in Skyros. As well as his grave in the south, you will also visit the Brooke Square, which is located close to the capital town of Chora. Here you will find the impressive statue, in memory of Rupert Brooke. From this square, you can admire the beautiful panoramic views that stretch out over the coastal towns of Magazia and Molos.

For more on the Chilterns see;

Wendover, Buckinghamshire

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/wendover-buckinghamshire.html

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html

West Wycombe Park

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/west-wycombe-park.html

And for our own journey towards The Somme and coming to terms with the cathartic schism which occurred in Ireland from 1914 to 1918, the years of the “Great War” see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html


Skyros

Blackfriars closes for over two years

The New Blackfriars Station

A London Underground station on the Circle Line closes from tomorrow (Monday 2nd March 2009) for more than two years for engineering works. Blackfriars will shut until late 2011 as part of the £5.5bn Thameslink upgrade project. The work will improve the station with step-free access, increased capacity and enhancement to interchange facilities with the over ground station.

The shutdown for two and a half years in one of the longest closures of a central London station. Rail chiefs said the Square Mile station would shut in March and not reopen until late in 2011. More than 44,000 daily users of the station face long delays getting to and from work and will be forced to use other stations, lines or the bus.


Blackfriars Underground station

Underground and rail bosses have decided there is no way to do the work except to close the Tube section, and users will have to alight or board at Mansion House or Temple stations - both 10 to 15 minutes walk away.

The mainline rail section of Blackfriars will remain open, but Thameslink and Southeastern commuters wishing to change to the Tube will have to use Farringdon, Elephant & Castle or London Bridge stations instead. It is promised the first phase of the Thameslink programme, which will virtually treble passenger capacity from the current 4,500 an hour to 12,000, will be completed for the 2012 Olympics.


Thameslink System

Network Rail said Blackfriars mainline station will remain open during the course of the work. District and Circle line services will not stop at the station during the engineering work and passengers are advised to use nearby Temple and Mansion House stations. Improvements to the Tube station will also include an enlarged ticket hall and refurbished platforms. The work is part of a £350m project that will see Blackfriars become the first station to span the River Thames. As such it will be a welcome replacement for the current gloomy and awkward Blackfriars Mainline station which was rebuilt cheaply and badly after being bombed during the Second World War.
The Thameslink upgrade will see peak-time trains increase from eight an hour to as many as 24, using 12-carriage services instead of eight. There will also be major improvements to the nearby London Bridge and Farringdon stations. As the Thameslink project was originally called “Thameslink 2000” the more observant blogistas will deduce that these trains have been slightly delayed!


Blackfriars, Thameslink Trains

Thameslink is one of the more interesting transport links in London being the only cross London rail link (contrast this with the 5 RER lines in Paris) and uses the Snow Hill tunnel which was originally opened on 1st January 1866 and intended to link with a future channel tunnel. The Thameslink rail network was created by joining the electrified network south of the Thames with the recently electrified line between Bedford and St. Pancras to the north via the long disused Snow Hill tunnel. It was fully inaugurated in May 1990, two years after services began. Thameslink is the only National Rail service that crosses the centre of London. This reduces the need to use the Underground for cross-London journeys. As a direct result of its inception, journeys between destinations in north and south London that were served by Thameslink services quadrupled after the first year of operation.
A consequent unusual feature of its history is that all through services need to be operated by dual-voltage trains since the original lines south of the river are electrified using a 750 volt third rail and those to the north by the more modern 25kV overhead system. All plans for development as well as day-to-day operation of the line are constrained by this.

For more information on Blackfriars and all the London Circle Line Stations see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html


Blackfriars Station & rail bridge over the Thames today