With a deep sense of concern for those of the era said to be going the way of all flesh at an alarming rate, including three of the warriors shown here, it is becoming, without maudlin intent, to speak words of thanks to all our allies without exception. There is no need to boast who won the Second World War, saved civilisation, stormed the beaches, flew the last sortie, fired the last shot. It might all be long ago, but neither is it ever forgot. Without need for mawkish words and phrases, we of that generation and our children and children’s children, the beneficiaries of American generosity, goodwill and munificence will ever keep gratitude alive in appreciating the liberality and recognizing the bounty that flowed from America. And when it was over there came the Marshall Plan without which the world would have been plunged into the deepest of post-war depressions. Those who need to know how we lived and loved and survived during that perilous time let them read ‘Lay Gently on the Coals’, which says it all. [This also responds to the complaint of those that this blog has too few images!]
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We of that bygone era
Monday, February 6th, 2012A pause for reflection
Monday, February 6th, 2012Heading this piece ‘Give me a break’ would be less elegant than the label I chose. As I neither wish to be coarse or appear uncouth I’ll stick with this heading. Still, the reason for my concern and need to reflect is the excessive number of comments flooding into my website voluminous enough to daunt Noah. What does one do with such a deluge? How are they to be handled? The questions are rhetorical, so please don’t hazard an answer. Being a neophyte at the business of blogging, I did what many a novice might do, which is to clear the lot by trashing them by the block. Yet wiser counsel said, ‘No! That really is ill-mannered. Many of the comments are genuine expressions of satisfaction and appreciation’ which of course is true. And so, to all who wrote words of enjoyment and pleasure I extend my apologies. Some writers ask questions it is not possible to answer because I do not know. Other questions and comments are so trite and superficial they obviously come from a substrata of correspondents who haven’t a clue how to string a simple sentence together or, if they do, offer thoughts too convoluted to make sense. It is then a tedious task sorting out the wheat from the chaff. Furthermore, in the few cases I have answered a question by e-mail the result has been return of ‘mail delivery failure’ notices, indicating that correspondents have entered bogus addresses. Very funny! The laugh is on me. Even so, I have made an effort to answer questions and queries on my blog and trust they will find those who asked them. In short, the answer to the not very original question, ‘How to you eat an elephant?’ is ‘One bite at a time.’ Meanwhile, I have other work to do and must get back to it, so this blog might be blank for a few days. Sorry, folks, but that’s how it will have to be.
Better than a roller coaster ride
Sunday, February 5th, 2012The most skilled and accomplished pilots are without doubt those remarkable aviators to who fly commercial aircraft, but mostly for the TAN Airline, in and out of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, for the airport sits in a valley with steep and forbidding mountains at both ends of the runway. Flying into the airport, the aircraft hugs the mountain like a toboggan on an endless run. For what seems an unending descent, the mountain side remains forty to fifty feet below the aircraft until, at the last moment, the undercarriage drops and the aircraft lands safely onto the tarmac. Leaving Tegucigalpa is an equally hair-raising experience. The aircraft lifts off – and one always wills it to achieve this happy event – and claws its way up the mountain on the opposite side with the mountain as perilously close to the aircraft as descending, which is to say a mere fifty feet below. When at last it clears the mountain top, it soars majestically and freely into the air like an eagle on the wing. There is nothing special in this description, no lesson, no lecture, no moral or warning; simply a sigh of relief when landing and when one’s business is done in taking off again for Miami. Still, it’s one hell of an outing for those who enjoy the thrill of riding on a roller coaster.
On the outside looking in
Sunday, February 5th, 2012Those like me who are on the outside looking in on the politics of the United States can only admire the passion, fervour and argument preceding the presidential election that takes place every four years. We watched and listened with avid attention to the jockeying for position that preceded the contests in Ohio, Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and now moved farther afield. The proceedings are far more engaging than anything to be found in the democratic institutions: of France, Germany, and countries of the British Commonwealth. Money, too, flows like the flood of Noah (if that ever was). It takes a fertile imagination to reconcile the countless millions raised for tv advertising with the appalling level of poverty in that greatest nation on earth, which is not said with tongue in cheek. The high rate of unemployment, a housing market in the doldrums, the genuine want that exists from one side of the continent to the other. It’s not the place of outsiders to make suggestions or to interfere in any way. So I for one say go to it. Have a slugfest. It’s fascinating to witness extreme fighting on a national scale and to stand by while Gwen Ifell weekly moderates the ‘Week in review’ programme on Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
Yet another word on language
Saturday, February 4th, 2012It is impractical to post the flood of incoming comments, mostly from U.S. readers (articulate though they are). Many are of opinion that my words are misspelled, probably because they do not recognize English-English spelling as opposed to American-English spelling. Sorry about that, but I have to stick to what I know and cannot satisfy everyone. Besides, the way we write and the way we speak on either side of the Atlantic is not yet so far apart that we fail to understand one another. An excessive number ask for further words on this ‘…off of…’ business (see my previous blog on that topic). I’ve written all there is to say on the subject. There’s nothing further to add; either you get it or you don’t. However, another faux pas of language has cropped up and we might with profit scotch it here and now. I refer to the oft-spoken phrase ‘under the circumstances’. As those learned in Latin know, the root of the word circumstance is the Latin word ‘circum’, which means ‘all around’ or ‘that which surrounds’. It is not logical to be under ‘that which surrounds’, but entirely logical to in it. That is, it is more accurate to say ‘in the circumstances’ than ‘under the circumstances’. Here endeth the lesson – and please don’t flood me with reminders about my lousy spelling (my reference source is the Oxford English Dictionary, not Webster’s although I have the highest regard for him; Webster was a really decent bloke).
White elephant heading this way
Saturday, February 4th, 2012Cobourg (this modest Ontario town) now has a sports complex, a recreation-cum-leisure-cum-play-cum-exercise hub in which to flex its muscles and exercise its limbs. (There is a YWCA, but I guess it now must play second fiddle.) These places are called community centres or, to be up-to-date with the lingo, community complexes. This one cost $25 million for the building, car park and landscaping. To say that everyone is thrilled understates the case. The entire town is wildly happy, ecstatic with joy and rapture is unconfined. That is, of course, with the exception of the odd reactionary such as me who, with abacas at hand (not yet having graduated to an electronic calculator, let alone a slide rule) figures out that given its population of 18,500 the cost works out at $14,500 a head. Now we are told that a further $750,000 expected from the Federal Government to pay for the furnishings is not now forthcoming. (That’s near enough $400 a head.) The money will have to come out of the Town coffers. Considering the annual maintenance and operating costs of about $200,000 odd for this new community complex, municipal taxes will be going up another couple of notches. Whacko! Of little interest to outsiders, perhaps, but anyone who pays Cobourg Town taxes had better watch out.
Solving the problem of existence
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012In his book ‘Across Trackless Labrador’ (1913) the English explorer J. Hesketh Prichard, practically unknown in North American, wrote, ‘The problem of existence is solved by successful destruction.’ This prophetic statement has been the condition of mankind through the ages. Wolves kill a deer and solve the problem of their existence. Man tears at the land to get at iron ore, gold, minerals and so helps solve the problem of his own existence. The Alberta oil sands produce so-called‘dirty oil’ and blame is dished out by the environmentalists for destruction of the landscape; likewise those who extract iron ore in Labrador, those who clear cut the forests of the Maritimes, British Columbia and Oregon, too. They’re all castigated for making a mess of the environment. Yet they’re only doing their bit to help solve the problem of our existence. Without their efforts to satisfy our wants – if not our needs – where would we be? In short, we have our iPods, radios, tvs, aircraft, pleasure ships, cars, food, shelters ad nausea, so let us have less complaining.
Lightweights taking on heavyweights
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), who wrote ‘God is not great’, had a no contest public debate with former Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair, who came like a lamb to the slaughter. There was some was sympathy for the poor fellow, but not much. To his credit, though, he tried hard and at least earned a good purse for his effort. Next, one Tom Harpur, another champion of monotheism with numerous books to his credit, steps into the ring. Harpur had little to say in defence of any argument against atheism although he used an excess of words to say it. It was a heck of a lot of gobbledygook, which ended with, ‘…When I consider the amount of confidence in sheer coincidence required by atheism in the face of the latest scientific findings about the origin and nature of the universe, I realize I simply don’t have and never will have the amount of faith such a leap demands.’ (Clearly this man of faith has insufficient to make big leaps.) If he wrote in plain English the less educated of us might be able to understand what he says. Meanwhile, he might easily have referred us to that wonderful book by the Peter Hitchens, ‘The Rage against God’, which is a first-rate counterpoint to his brother Christopher Hitchens’ book ‘God is not Great’. Enough said.
Oh, the gall of it all
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty visited the Middle East this week – or what is left of it. They assure the Israelis that Israel has no greater friend than Canada (Bit cheeky this. What will the U.S. think?) Baird then chastises Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Maliki and says that Canada views the Palestinian initiative (to have their territory recognized as a state by the United Nations) as profoundly wrong. (Really!) Unilateral action such as this is shocking and beyond reasonable, he said. Palestine must go back to the negotiating table without preconditions, but for what compelling reason? Hasn’t Canada enough problems of its own without sticking its oar in elsewhere? What about their failure to accommodate their own First Nations, to settle their differences with Quebec, with building more prisons for declining crime, spending billions on fighter aircraft to protect Canadian borders, which have yet to be attacked except by the States (besides, the U.S. is doing that for them, but against what?), rescinding a registry of long guns, telling the Canadian public what a marvellous job their doing? Who’s going to get the Israelis to the table without preconditions? They must love this international attention. Anyway, they’re too busy getting ready to thump Iran for running a nuclear programme. Oh yes, the very gall of it all seems beyond belief.
The art of communication
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012‘Could you let me have twenty dollars?’ she asks. ‘Certainly not. You earn more as a server in a week than I get for pocket money in a month,’ is his prompt reply. ‘That’s the trouble with us. We don’t know how to communicate anymore,’ says she. ‘Communicate? Communicate? What the hell are you talking about? What are they teaching you at school these days? Communicate? Whatever happened to talk as in talk to one another, speak, chat, tell, converse? What in God’s name is our education system coming too? You speak like a bureaucrat, a politician, a police constable who always proceeds and has forgotten how to go, who doesn’t know the meaning of person but to whom everyone is an individual or those politicians who initiate initiatives and prioritize priorities and God whatever other rubbish issues out of their mouths. What in heaven’s name is the world coming to? I despair.’ Having listened with commendable patience to this spiel, she says, ‘I still need that twenty dollars, honestly I do’ and he, grudgingly says, ‘Here! Take it and be damned’ and she says, ‘Thanks, Dad. Now we’re communicating.’