I am not usually a fan of music videos, but the two from David Bowie's last album, Blackstar, are completely mesmerising and very moving. We will not forget him.
Blackstar, the title track, and Lazarus links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Sunday 10 January 2016
Musings on the Migrants Crisis - Speaking as a Foreigner ....
Just in case you wonder why I am waxing lyrically about scarves, while the world - and especially Germany - is going to Hell in a handcart, let me reassure you that both are very much on my mind. I have in fact composed three posts, which I all deleted before publishing, because it is difficult to write about this subject without being accused of racism and hit over the head with the Nazi-cudgel, and I like a quiet life. But seeing as I am being encouraged to give my opinion on the subject, here it is, including a conspiracy theory.
Allowing millions of people to enter Europe without checking their identity papers and visas, and failing to properly prosecute refugees who break the law, while hushing up the facts and telling the native population to just pay up and shut up, is a recipe for hate crimes, vigilantism and even civil war, and taking the tolerance and patience of Europeans for granted will eventually horribly backfire - am I saying anything yet that is controversial?
Let's consider the strange notion that the host population should adapt to the newcomers, and change their ways - parents near asylum centres being told to dress their daughters modestly to avoid 'misunderstandings', women advised to keep men at arm's length - have the people giving such advice taken leave of their senses? Do they want the native population to hate the new arrivals?
I have lived abroad for 37 years, and never expected - nor received - any sort of preferential treatment. I was never given leaflets printed in German at the doctors, I never got better grades because English wasn't my first language, and there are no quotas that ever discriminated in my favour. No native population ever adapted themselves to my Teutonic ways; on the contrary, I am never allowed to forget for longer than maybe a week that I am a member of the nation that caused two world wars and had better keep a low profile.
If you are a foreigner you should do the adapting. If the natives are willing to accommodate you by listening to your rudimentary attempts to speak their language, if they are kind enough to support you financially, if they allow you to be in their country at all, you should be grateful. It is not your country. Others have worked to create this place which you are now allowed to live in, and their parents and grandparents have set up the institutions from which you now benefit. You are a supplicant, and still have to earn the right to be here, by hard work and by supporting your host country in every way you can.
I can say this, because I have been a foreigner for all my adult life, and I always did what I could to adapt. Indeed, why would I want to live in a foreign country if I didn't like it better than my own, and thus should be pleased to adapt to its ways? Just to benefit financially and sponge off a richer nation? Even then at very least one should acknowledge that one benefits, and in return respect the native customs until one goes back home.
What about immigrants who have acquired citizenship, and second generation immigrants? Surely they have the same rights as the native populations? Of course they do. But whoever depends solely on the law to safeguard their security and future is a fool. It is easy to forget that laws are only effective if the population as a whole stands behind them. Otherwise, when the chips are down, you are on your own. The best protection anyone, and any minority group, has, is the goodwill of the majority.
As mentioned above, as a German abroad no one does you any favours. It is better now, but when I first left Germany in the late 1970s it was so bad I used to tell people my accent - still pretty thick then - was from Iceland. No one could tell an Icelandic accent, and I was sick of having to listen to all that Nazi stuff all the time. But whenever I did something good, like giving money to a beggar or carrying shopping for a little old lady, I said I was from Germany. And you know why? Because every time I do something bad, some other German will get it in the neck eventually. And every time I do something good it will improve the image of Germany, and some other German will be treated better because of my good deed.
When I was on the Paris metro recently a black guy with chains and piercings and other seeming accoutrements of hooliganhood got up and offered me his seat - and all of a sudden I started to look upon others who dressed like him not as potential threats, but as benefactors and potential helpers in a crisis. I could give loads of other examples, but there is no need. We all know that whenever a member of a noticeably different group, however that difference is defined, says or does anything good or bad, we generalise it to other members of that group. We shouldn't, but we do.
Unfortunately for all us do-gooders, brain research shows that we are much better at remembering bad than good things. One good action doesn't nullify one bad action; it is more like twenty good actions nullify one bad one. So as a member of a minority you really have got your work cut out if other members of your group habitually behave disgracefully and anger the majority - those Nazi-Germans cast a long shadow, let me tell you!
Members of a minority will always be more vulnerable than members of the majority. Ask the Jews, ask the Blacks in the US, ask gays - their rights are only worth something if the population as a whole likes and respects them and wants to live together with them. If not, all the laws in the world aren't going to protect them. Study history if you don't believe me. And laws can be changed ....
In light of all this the men who mass-abused those women on New Years Eve have, in addition to the horrific behaviour against their victims, done terrible damage to their fellow foreigners and Muslims, who will have to suffer increased prejudice and backlash because of their actions. Not just those currently residing in Europe, but also those back home in the Middle East. Tourists are already cancelling holidays to Cologne - now that the events in Germany have reminded them of the gang rapes of Tahrir Square, are they going to go to Egypt and other countries where women are routinely molested? And as for Turkey joining the EU - if the EU survives - and thus allowing millions of Muslim Turks to go and live in Europe .... Well, the chances aren't as good as they were before New Years Eve.
Now, a note on social cohesion and the welfare state. I have seen quite a few studies recently about the relationship between generous welfare systems and the homogeneity of a population. In a nutshell, people don't mind paying high taxes to support those who they see as similar to themselves, but they resent doing so for those who they consider to be different. For example, in the US the higher the non-white population in a state the worse the welfare systems - blacks are considered to benefit disproportionately from welfare, and whites don't want to fund them. Apparently this is also the reason why poor whites vote for anti-state Republicans - they are anti-state because they think the state disproportionately benefits non-whites. When you look at the dismantling of social services in Europe, you will notice that they, too, get worse the more immigrants a a country has.
Which brings me to my conspiracy theory. The only credible reason Merkel could have to bring in so many migrants, who could have been helped just as well back in the camps where they lived before she invited them all to come to Germany and live in community halls and tents, is to undermine social cohesion enough to abolish the German welfare system. The migrants are not valuable additions to the labour force (low skills and lack of German), they are not credible asylum seekers (they could have stayed in other countries they passed before they got to Germany), and they certainly aren't an enrichment of German culture (multi-kulti is so passe). But yes, they will undermine the social cohesion and solidarity that has underpinned Germany's economic success since the end of WWII, with the result that the welfare state will disappear. Oh yes, before I forget, the presence of millions of low skilled cheap workers will teach the native labour force to accept ever worsening working conditions and remunerations, turning Germany into a capitalists paradise.
Merkel is the chancellor of the CDU, Germany's equivalent of the Tories and Republicans, and a handmaiden of global capitalism. It all makes sense, no? Welcome culture indeed!
OK I have written my bit. Can I go back to my scarves now?
Allowing millions of people to enter Europe without checking their identity papers and visas, and failing to properly prosecute refugees who break the law, while hushing up the facts and telling the native population to just pay up and shut up, is a recipe for hate crimes, vigilantism and even civil war, and taking the tolerance and patience of Europeans for granted will eventually horribly backfire - am I saying anything yet that is controversial?
Let's consider the strange notion that the host population should adapt to the newcomers, and change their ways - parents near asylum centres being told to dress their daughters modestly to avoid 'misunderstandings', women advised to keep men at arm's length - have the people giving such advice taken leave of their senses? Do they want the native population to hate the new arrivals?
I have lived abroad for 37 years, and never expected - nor received - any sort of preferential treatment. I was never given leaflets printed in German at the doctors, I never got better grades because English wasn't my first language, and there are no quotas that ever discriminated in my favour. No native population ever adapted themselves to my Teutonic ways; on the contrary, I am never allowed to forget for longer than maybe a week that I am a member of the nation that caused two world wars and had better keep a low profile.
If you are a foreigner you should do the adapting. If the natives are willing to accommodate you by listening to your rudimentary attempts to speak their language, if they are kind enough to support you financially, if they allow you to be in their country at all, you should be grateful. It is not your country. Others have worked to create this place which you are now allowed to live in, and their parents and grandparents have set up the institutions from which you now benefit. You are a supplicant, and still have to earn the right to be here, by hard work and by supporting your host country in every way you can.
I can say this, because I have been a foreigner for all my adult life, and I always did what I could to adapt. Indeed, why would I want to live in a foreign country if I didn't like it better than my own, and thus should be pleased to adapt to its ways? Just to benefit financially and sponge off a richer nation? Even then at very least one should acknowledge that one benefits, and in return respect the native customs until one goes back home.
What about immigrants who have acquired citizenship, and second generation immigrants? Surely they have the same rights as the native populations? Of course they do. But whoever depends solely on the law to safeguard their security and future is a fool. It is easy to forget that laws are only effective if the population as a whole stands behind them. Otherwise, when the chips are down, you are on your own. The best protection anyone, and any minority group, has, is the goodwill of the majority.
As mentioned above, as a German abroad no one does you any favours. It is better now, but when I first left Germany in the late 1970s it was so bad I used to tell people my accent - still pretty thick then - was from Iceland. No one could tell an Icelandic accent, and I was sick of having to listen to all that Nazi stuff all the time. But whenever I did something good, like giving money to a beggar or carrying shopping for a little old lady, I said I was from Germany. And you know why? Because every time I do something bad, some other German will get it in the neck eventually. And every time I do something good it will improve the image of Germany, and some other German will be treated better because of my good deed.
When I was on the Paris metro recently a black guy with chains and piercings and other seeming accoutrements of hooliganhood got up and offered me his seat - and all of a sudden I started to look upon others who dressed like him not as potential threats, but as benefactors and potential helpers in a crisis. I could give loads of other examples, but there is no need. We all know that whenever a member of a noticeably different group, however that difference is defined, says or does anything good or bad, we generalise it to other members of that group. We shouldn't, but we do.
Unfortunately for all us do-gooders, brain research shows that we are much better at remembering bad than good things. One good action doesn't nullify one bad action; it is more like twenty good actions nullify one bad one. So as a member of a minority you really have got your work cut out if other members of your group habitually behave disgracefully and anger the majority - those Nazi-Germans cast a long shadow, let me tell you!
Members of a minority will always be more vulnerable than members of the majority. Ask the Jews, ask the Blacks in the US, ask gays - their rights are only worth something if the population as a whole likes and respects them and wants to live together with them. If not, all the laws in the world aren't going to protect them. Study history if you don't believe me. And laws can be changed ....
In light of all this the men who mass-abused those women on New Years Eve have, in addition to the horrific behaviour against their victims, done terrible damage to their fellow foreigners and Muslims, who will have to suffer increased prejudice and backlash because of their actions. Not just those currently residing in Europe, but also those back home in the Middle East. Tourists are already cancelling holidays to Cologne - now that the events in Germany have reminded them of the gang rapes of Tahrir Square, are they going to go to Egypt and other countries where women are routinely molested? And as for Turkey joining the EU - if the EU survives - and thus allowing millions of Muslim Turks to go and live in Europe .... Well, the chances aren't as good as they were before New Years Eve.
Now, a note on social cohesion and the welfare state. I have seen quite a few studies recently about the relationship between generous welfare systems and the homogeneity of a population. In a nutshell, people don't mind paying high taxes to support those who they see as similar to themselves, but they resent doing so for those who they consider to be different. For example, in the US the higher the non-white population in a state the worse the welfare systems - blacks are considered to benefit disproportionately from welfare, and whites don't want to fund them. Apparently this is also the reason why poor whites vote for anti-state Republicans - they are anti-state because they think the state disproportionately benefits non-whites. When you look at the dismantling of social services in Europe, you will notice that they, too, get worse the more immigrants a a country has.
Which brings me to my conspiracy theory. The only credible reason Merkel could have to bring in so many migrants, who could have been helped just as well back in the camps where they lived before she invited them all to come to Germany and live in community halls and tents, is to undermine social cohesion enough to abolish the German welfare system. The migrants are not valuable additions to the labour force (low skills and lack of German), they are not credible asylum seekers (they could have stayed in other countries they passed before they got to Germany), and they certainly aren't an enrichment of German culture (multi-kulti is so passe). But yes, they will undermine the social cohesion and solidarity that has underpinned Germany's economic success since the end of WWII, with the result that the welfare state will disappear. Oh yes, before I forget, the presence of millions of low skilled cheap workers will teach the native labour force to accept ever worsening working conditions and remunerations, turning Germany into a capitalists paradise.
Merkel is the chancellor of the CDU, Germany's equivalent of the Tories and Republicans, and a handmaiden of global capitalism. It all makes sense, no? Welcome culture indeed!
OK I have written my bit. Can I go back to my scarves now?
It's my birthday and I brag if I want to!
Lumieres de Paris by Natsuno Hidaka is possibly my all time favourite Hermes scarf ever. It shows a stained glass window, depicting an angel who holds in his hands the city of Paris. I have this scarf in a number of colours, and love it like Beverley Nichols loved winter aconites - with a deep passionate unreasonable love which will ruin me one day, just like Beverley was almost ruined by a Dutch bulb merchant.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/6540/i-Eranthis-hyemalis-i/Details
Just in case you never heard of Beverley Nichols (a massive and unforgivable ignorance) here is the relevant Wiki link: Beverley_Nichols
Anyway, the scarf came out in 2006/7 and quickly became a 'Grail' amongst scarf fanciers. No collection is complete without it. Photos can't really convey the glow and depth of the colours used in this scarf. This is particularly true of the indigo blue one, which is so beautiful it makes one weep. I rarely wear it, but often take it out to regard. No matter how sad or disturbed by certain events I may be, half an hour with this scarf puts my world to rights again.
This particular scarf has a checkered history - some idiot had had it pleated, and then another one ironed out the pleats, so the scarf is covered in fine lines. It isn't as bad as it sounds, because the lines get lost in the design, which also has lots of lines. It is still a massive crime to have done this to an innocent beautiful scarf like this! 'Course I benefited, because no one else was willing to touch it, so I got it really cheap on Evilbay, with the help of my old mate and best buddy M from Cleveland - ah, the contortions a truly addicted scarfy is prepared to tie herself into to obtain a favoured silk! I recently saw the same scarf sell for £500 and felt really pleased and super smug!
As if having one of these uniquely desirable scarves wasn't enough, I actually amassed a total of five - FIVE! - of them, in different colours. Indeed, if I saw the indigo blue one again for a reasonable price I would shell out for a duplicate, and wear the lined one more often. That's because I am either a complete fool who ought to be sectioned for stupidity, or an unreconstructed sensualist in thrall to coloured perfection, depending on your outlook. I know I am selfish to hoard these scarves, while there are literally millions of people who don't even have a single one, but I don't care - let them buy winter aconites! Just you try to prise one of those beauties away from me!
There is also a light blue version of this scarf, with a chalky background and hints of red - beautiful!
Then there is the sage green one - possibly the most evocative of a church, an old church with Gothic columns and a gloomy atmosphere ...
Like the light blue one, the sage one is a colour-way that suits me very well, but I love the indigo blue one and the two that follow so much more!
Here is the yellow and green one, which I wear the most. It is such a golden gorgeous green, and I have few other scarves with such colours, that it has become a 'go to' scarf for me. I hesitated for a long time before I purchased it, because it was eye-wateringly dear and I ate porridge for a month to pay for it. But once I held it in my hands it was all worth it! By Jove, I sound like I am talking about a baby! But see for yourself - doesn't it look like a spring day on la Banne, with blue skies and golden daffodils and fresh green grass?
The last scarf of this pattern I purchased recently, as a Christmas present. It is bright orange, with reds and greens thrown in, and it one of those 'silky vitamins' that I so adore. I swear, looking at one of those orange scarves for ten minutes is equivalent to eating three large oranges!
And finally, a group shot of my entire collection:
Well, do I have reason to brag or what? Happy scarfing, everyone!
Sunday Afternoon - Preparing for the working week
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| A week's worth of outfits |
On Sunday afternoon I like to prepare for the week ahead. Chief among this is the choosing of what clothes to wear. This isn't because I am insanely organised, but because I like to be properly colour-coordinated. This is difficult to do during the winter months, because it is dark when I leave the house, and dark when I get back - so the only time I can put my outfits together is on the weekends, obviously.
I need to coordinate a dress or skirt, a top, and a cardigan, all pulled together by a scarf. Despite my not inconsiderable collection, this can be tricky, since I have to match all three items, but I usually manage to come up with a credible effort.
I order them by weekday, but sometimes - just to show my inherent revolutionary streak - I wear the Tuesday outfit on a Friday, etc. I am very anarchic that way!
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| Monday - L'Arbre de Vie |
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| Tuesday - Europa |
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| Wednesday - Cuirs du desert |
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| Thursday - Clic Clac |
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| Friday - Carnaval de Venise - one of my all time favourite scarves |
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