EASTER JOTTINGS

 

EASTER JOTTINGS

                         (With grateful acknowledgements to the old Telegraph Peter Simple Column)

 

To my doctor, village handyman, deck-chair attendant and barber-surgeon Jamie Perks, who diagnosed my ailment as Incorrigible Mortification of the Tripes. He prescribed bleeding with leeches @ 2p per leech. I was much improved. Spoke casually to my NHS doctor who rushed me by ambulance to the local Aneurin Bevan Superama Hospital and insisted I took a scan in their 2m GBP ultra-sound suite. Clearly bamboozled, there were many oohs and aaghs from the nursing staff as my results came slowly through. The consultant Dr Acula looked at my leeches with intense interest and stroked his rather scraggly beard. “We are all guilty” intoned resident psychiatrist Dr Heinz Kiosk irrelevantly.

There is not much that is funny ha-ha about Vladimir Putin, but plenty that is funny-peculiar. My sources tell me he has a secure deluxe padded-cell at the Lavrenti Beria Rest Home for Retired KGB Torturers in Omsk (or is it Tomsk?). The Home boasts an extensive lake and upon it, Putin, self-promoted to Admiral, commands a scaled down replica of the good ship Moskva. His “associates” have doctored the volatile ammunition magazines of this craft, MI5 ensures he has a generous helping of poisoned borscht awaiting his disembarkment, on a clear day lethal Turkish drones can be seen hovering in the skies, and his sweet tooth will be more than satisfied by the bombe surprise concocted by the kitchens of Mossad. Expect a big bang soon!

“Vile capitalist exploitation!” yells Tureen Trotsky, Nadirco Professor of World Literature at Kent Bottom University, as the Lesbian, one-legged, Palestinian academic calls for the “cancellation” of all the works of Dickens, Austen, Thackeray and especially Thomas Hardy, whose evocations of a green, rural England “fly in the face of slaving working people and promote racial discrimination”. Professor Trotsky substitutes historic pornography from the Olympia Press in Paris and from the Svengali Institute in Pskov. The wheels of Justice grind slowly but some will be content to learn she has at last been served with a writ by the Home Office and given a one-way ticket to Rwanda.

Is Boris a Tory? The question is asked with penetrating repetition throughout the land. How can one with, admittedly remote, Turkish antecedents possibly qualify? And he does not appear to be a member of the Carlton Club, let alone an honorary Warden of my Feudal and Reactionary League. His sexual dalliances label him a Liberal and his love of Northern grittiness echo many a scurvy Socialist. His flag-waving endears him to the stoutest Ulster Unionist. Yet in this moment of peril, we will rally to him as a shock-haired Joan of Arc, scattering his sinister enemies in the plush House of Lords and even on his own green back-benches. The Bringer of Brexit wins and deserves a dukedom and national adulation!

 

SMD

18.4.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

 

THE GREEK MIRACLE

I sit here in our comfortable family house in suburban Athens, situated on the foothills of Mount Hymettus, whose modest sugar-loaf bulk protects us from wind and tempest. I ponder the history of this place and the contribution Greece has made to human development. I am a proud Scot and a patriotic Briton too, but I have to concede that the Greeks are an extraordinary star-turn by most measures and I wish to pay this grateful tribute to them.

The greatness of Greece emanates first from the poetic sagas of Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad is the story of the siege of Troy, when the Greeks under Agamemnon of Mycenae unite to free lovely Helen, the wife of Spartan king Menelaus, who has been kidnapped by the Trojan prince Paris, son of King Priam.  The epic poem was attributed to Homer (some say there were 3 separate poets) who flourished in about 750 BC, probably in Ionia. The events in Troy, if there is a kernel of truth in them, were dated much earlier, probably in the 12^th or 13^th century BC, according to archaeologists excavating in Mycenae and Troy. A Bronze Age Trojan war is being described by an Iron Age poet, Homer.

We are talking about pre-History here, with no written records. The Greeks had no alphabet or script in those days and these epic poems were transmitted orally and transcribed much later.    

        Homer, father of Greek poetry

Declaimed in sonorous iambic pentameters, Homer’s epic world is one of Olympian gods interfering with the actions of Greek and Trojan heroes and their women, of furious rivalries between warriors and of all the qualities and vices of mankind. His Odyssey describing the adventures of Odysseus (in Latin, Ulysses) is wholly imaginative as he wrestles with monsters and evil spirits on his way home to his wife Penelope on his Aegean-island kingdom of Ithaca. Homer inspired the great Latin epic, the Aeneid by Virgil, praising the founding of Rome by the Trojan hero Aeneas.

To sum up matters Homeric, the brilliant but careless archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a Bronze age death-mask in Mycenae and like the great show-man he was, telegrammed the King of Greece, with precious little scientific evidence: I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon! The public believed him and loved it though later experts dated the mask a century before any Agamemnon.

             Schliemann’s Famed Mask of Agamemnon

Fast forward to the 5^th century BC and the Golden Age of Athens, when that city-state enjoyed a remarkable flowering mainly under the auspices of populist statesman Pericles. That flowering was led by philosophers like Socrates, who taught Plato, whose pupil was Aristotle. The works of these great minds, in ethics and politics, are still endlessly debated today, (or certainly were in my Oxford days 60 years ago).

The Golden Age also saw the theatre flourish, a religious as well as a dramatic feast in those times. The works of the great dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides thrilled the ancient audiences and modern ones too. In 1960, as a short-term student in Paris, I read all Sophocles’ plays (no great feat, there are only 7). I have attended various classical performances, often at Herodes Atticus, the Roman theatre beneath the Acropolis in Athens. Last time I was there the blinding of a character was graphically enacted. This proved too much for a lady spectator who fell into a noisy swoon and had to be carried out amid much hubbub. An authentic touch, for sure!

The timeless buildings on the Acropolis are also Pericles’ legacy, although he ruthlessly looted the treasure belonging to the Delian League to pay for them.

            The Acropolis today

The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and other temples beautify modern Athens. The finest theatres in Greece architecturally are elsewhere. There is an evocative, but steep, theatre at the wonderful site of Delphi, which was altered to accommodate a visit, and no doubt a bardic performance, by the Emperor Nero. Most people’s favourite is the vast Theatre at Epidaurus in the Peloponnese.

                           

                                                     The acoustically perfect theatre at Epidaurus

On one of several visits years ago, I tested the vaunted acoustics by declaiming the famous speech from Marlowe’s Dr Faustus:

Is this the Face that launched a Thousand Ships

And burnt the topless Towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a Kiss…

My long-suffering wife, seated on high, heard me with bell-like clarity. I did not however achieve immortality!

A Renaissance Raphael fresco in the Vatican depicts the richness of the Academy of Athens:

A copy from the V&A of Raphael’s Academy

I am no scholar but it is possible to identify the historians Thucydides and Herodotus, the mathematicians Pythagoras and Euclid and the sculptor Praxiteles in addition to the usual suspects. Sadly, Pericles and his successors lost the Peloponnesian War against authoritarian Sparta and the spark of the glory of Athens was greatly diminished.

Classical Greece gave way to the dominance of Macedonian Alexander the Great and soon enough to the Romans. Hellenistic culture continued to flourish, Greek was also the language of the New Testament and of the Eastern Mediterranean generally. Although geographical Greece was a mere province, the Byzantine Empire, successor to the Roman, spread her culture very widely. Exquisite churches like Daphni, near Athens, or Hosias Loukas on the road to Delphi testify to that beauty.

      Christ the All-judging in mosaic from Daphni

The Byzantine Empire ended with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and Greece suffered as second-class infidels under the Muslim yoke. In 1821 the Greeks revolted and achieved liberation in 1830. I am proud that my fellow Scot and alumni in childhood at Aberdeen Grammar School, the poet Lord Byron, played a leading role in rallying European opinion on the Greek side.

I dreamed that Greece might still be free

Modern Greece has had many moments of turmoil but her unique spirit, typified by her brave Resistance to Nazi occupation in WW2, is unquenched and many will join me in proclaiming:

 – Thank you Greece for ushering in Western civilization, all strength to the Hellenic genius, long live Greece!

 

SMD

15.04.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

THE LIMITS OF POWER

It is becoming clear that a handicap afflicting the great Powers of today, the USA, Russia, China and The European Union, is an inability to recognize the limits of their strength and authority. Recent older Powers like the UK and France learnt this lesson the hard way and Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was celebrated in Recessional with Kipling’s wry lines:

Far-called our navies melt away;
  On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
  Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The world craves equilibrium, what the 19^th century called “the balance of power”. No one Power can become dominant, while their collective need basically to cooperate with each other creates a stability helpful to all the other nations in the world. This idealised state of affairs has recently come unstuck and the different reasons for this are worth exploring.

The USA was created under her unique 1776 Constitution which conferred equality to every citizen and powerful rights to every state in the Union. An attempt to secede from the Union by a group of Southern states in 1861 precipitated a ferocious Civil War. Over the years the Federal central authority has strengthened but States Rights remains a populist rallying cry. Notions of Manifest Destiny and The American Dream are rather passé these days, and despite decisive contributions to both World Wars, the old cohesion of the (white) US population weakens in the face of unsuccessful wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, acute racial tensions and the divisive rhetoric of politicians like Donald Trump.

                                 US divisions still apparent after 157 years

We Brits mostly believe that the US is a vital power for good and are dismayed by the poor leadership shown by ga-ga Joe Biden. He has blundered on Ukraine and we can only hope his successor is fit for the job. Acting as the world’s policeman is a thankless task and a broadly supportive home electorate is an important pre-requisite. The military might of nuclear USA is unrivalled and it must not fall under the influence of diehard generals or a “woke” Leftist Congress.

America’s only rival in firepower is Russia. After many convulsions, Putin brought some stability and relative prosperity to his country bolstered by her enviable natural resources. Yet Putin has chosen a highly assertive foreign policy and he chafes at what he sees as a humiliation imposed by the West involving the break-up of the Stalinist USSR or traditional Tsarist Empire. His complaints are fanciful as the old Russian autocracies had lost the consent of the Russian and her subject peoples.

In launching her wild, unprovoked assault on Ukraine Putin has condemned Russia to global condemnation. It is so retrograde a measure that Russia’s reputation will take generations to recover. The conduct of the Russian forces and their bestial treatment of civilians puts their country beyond the Pale of civilised inter-reaction. Quite contrary to Putin’s expectations it has united Europe against him, provoked a drastic programme of sanctions and stimulated Ukrainians to an effective and heroic defence. What insane impulse has propelled Putin into this calamitous course of action?  Putin’s War is a throwback to the 17^th century, when, as Samuel Butler tells us, the leaders:

Decide all Controversies by
Infallible Artillery;

Thankfully we have come a long way since then and surely Russia’s leaders will face capital criminal charges when the dust has settled, as we see the appalling carnage and suffering they have unleashed.

                

       How Russia treats her neighbours

Putin’s attack on Ukraine simply underlines the truth of Lord Acton’s dictum:

All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Even more of an enigma to the Western mind is the position of China. By weight of population ancient China deserves to be a leading Power but failed to compete from the 19^th century onwards. Communist ideology, as propounded by Mao Zedong, held back China until the regimes dominated by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s opened up to the world with a policy of “market socialism”. Modern China is now immensely prosperous and a key manufacturer. Her huge investments in resources in Africa and elsewhere make her an indispensable partner for the West. More ominously, her investment in Western educational establishments, including Oxbridge colleges, gives her real influence.

China remains a communist dictatorship, with dissidents suppressed and persecuted. The territory of China is widely recognised but there are flashpoints. China claims Taiwan, currently independent and democratically governed but once, from 1949 to 1975, the bolt-hole of deposed Chinese autocrat Chiang Kai Shek. Before that it was part of the Japanese Empire from 1895 to 1945. Taiwan has many economic friends in East Asia and the USA. Any attempt by China to seize and occupy Taiwan would be fiercely resisted – and events in Ukraine may give China pause. A military operation would be perilous and a diplomatic solution would be the sensible way through. Similarly, China has aggressively claimed much of the South China Sea, building bases, clashing with the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia who also have interests there. No doubt some agreement could be cobbled up, but China plays a long game. China made many promises about the autonomy of Hong Kong when it was handed back by the UK in 1997, but these promises have been broken with the suppression of anti-Chinese opposition on the territory. Whether China would ever properly abide by a treaty on Taiwan or the South China Sea is a moot point.

               
   President Xi Jinping runs an unpredictable nation

China was once the junior partner in the Sino-Soviet relationship. With China’s economic strength and Russia’s rapid demographic decline, the roles are reversed. The Tsarist nightmare of a takeover by “The Yellow Horde” may be realized in years to come. And yet…..some commentators believe China is a “paper tiger”, far less dangerous and single-minded than its propaganda claims and that its military might is quite unproven. Most of us prefer not to test that theory and to let sleeping dogs lie.

The 4th power bloc is the European Union comprising 27 nations, most with a long and distinguished history. The 6 EEC founder-members who signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957 pledged to move towards political integration, but that was fanciful for many years. Later however it became clear that an expanded EU needed more centralised and efficient powers and independent sovereignty became eroded. Britain, a member since 1973, did not like the direction of travel and left the EU in 2020 after a narrow referendum vote in 2016.

France, Germany, Italy and Spain are the dominant members, with a secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. Generally, the EU has been economically successful although recent crises have slowed growth. It is protectionist by instinct and its approach to problems is legalistic and “rules-based” – not much scope for dynamic originality. It is fair to say that getting 27 nations to agree on substantial matters is a huge burden and sometimes the EU sounds like a dissonant Tower of Babel. The cultural division between the original founding 6, the Scandinavians, the Baltics, the Slav Central and Eastern Europeans and the Eastern Mediterranean states is very apparent. Amazingly the 27 have managed to speak with one voice in the face of the Russian war on Ukraine, but the exposed position of dissident Poland and the luke-warm adherence of Hungary means that reform of its constitution is necessary. One size does not fit all! Movement on such matters is very laboured and the EU could easily do too little too late. The EU’s lack of its own army is a long-term problem and some say the UK missed an historic opportunity in leaving rather than leading the EU. I disagree – the gulf between the UK’s and the EU’s mentality and world-view was simply too wide.

Kenneth Clark helped us to recognize “Civilisation” when we saw it

Creating world security cannot depend on the United Nations where Russia and China have an over-arching veto. Statesmen of a new generation have to institute political change to light and cherish the torches of democracy and civilisation and protect mankind.

 

SMD

6.04.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022