New Year's Eve quotations

“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”
Rainer Maria Rilke in a letter

"It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company." George Washington. I wish we had hanged him but he was right about this.

The world is in great danger, from America

 

I keep meaning to print and paste absurd and or terrifying headlines in the Daily Telegraph. 

There are so many. 

This one reminds us that the world is in very great danger - from Americans (and from Benyamin Netanyahu who wants the Americans to go to war with Iran as he urged them to go to war with Iraq, Syria and Libya). 

Bolton is an outlier being plainly mad but people like him (think John McCain) are part of the secret network that rules the West to which the Labour leader and probably next British PM Starmer is fully signed up. People in the British Labour party who express sympathy with the people of Gaza are in danger of being expelled from the party.

Quotations

"God is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.” 

Hermes Trismegistus, “thrice-great Hermes”, Book of the 24 Philosophers. Pascal and Voltaire also said it and it has been attributed to St Augustine.

"In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found. Yet she shall be known and I never." 

Aleister Crowley, the Satanist 

"The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men. In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us."

G. K. Chesterton 

“Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once
discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)


"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article
on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the
article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues.
Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.


"In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page,
and forget what you know.


"That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper.”

Michael Crichton

Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong is a brave opponent of Chinese Communism and was ignored by the Pope when he visited Rome. Summorum Pontificum is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI encouraging the traditional Latin Mass to be said where the laity request it, without the permission of a bishop.

Aruba

"In the afternoon they came unto a land

In which it seeméd always afternoon."   

I expected Aruba to be much less interesting than Ramsgate, which does at least have a Pugin monastery, but in fact a sense of utter relaxation immediately descended on me.

A glimpse of Cartagena and Panama City

Before the pandemic I had intended to spend two weeks in Colombia, which would not have been nearly enough. Instead I just spent one week there and want to return soon. 

Bogota is wonderful and not spoilt by tourism. 

Bogota

I have no idea why I am going on a Caribbean cruise and before that to Colombia, and it doesn't matter, but I am.

I probably supposed that Colombia the most interesting place in the Americas apart from Cuba, which I have already visited.

Bogota cathedral shortly after I arrived.






Acute sleep deprivation but I love my groovy hotel, the Selina Candelaria. I decided to avoid expensive hotels which are boring and stay in hotels that are also hostels,  where you make friends without trying, as I did.




In Colombia everyone lights a candle on the Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Mine is the one on the far left of the box.





In any case I am so glad I chose Colombia. I love her.


How can a country so close to the USA be so un-American, so traditional, so conservative? Whichever Mexican politician said 'Poor Mexico, so far from heaven so close to the United States' could have been speaking about Colombia too.  

Tragicomedy

Talking about someone's problems a moment ago, I used a quotation I once loved but which I have not remembered since my teens. 'This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.'

Horace Walpole said it, as far as I ever knew, though it sounds too good for him. The internet says Racine, whom I do not think of as a wit.

Every life is at both comic and tragic. I said this to someone who asked me what I meant and I decided he was not a deep thinker.

Ukraine Peace Negotiation proposal by Professors Peter Brandt, Horst Teltschik and Hajo Funke and General Harald Kujat

The proposal is here. I quote from it.

"The war could have been prevented, had the West accepted a neutral status for Ukraine – which Zelensky was initially quite willing to do – renounced NATO membership and enforced the Minsk II agreement on minority rights for the Russian-speaking population. The war could have ended in early April 2022 if the West had allowed the Istanbul negotiations to be concluded. It is now once again, and possibly for the last time, the responsibility of the “collective West” and especially the USA to set a course towards a ceasefire and peace negotiations." 

Retired German General Kujat predicted the Afghan occupation had failed and that the Taliban would return to power back in 2011. In 2016 he praised Russia for enabling peace to come to Syria. 

He is a lot more prescient than Mrs Victoria Nuland. 

I heard of this in this interesting discussion with Colonel Douglas MacGregor at 14.5 minutes. 

I don't listen often to Colonel MacGregor but should do so. He and Alistair Crooke seem the most interesting people discussing the war in Gaza. Colonel MacGregor is also often good on Ukraine though he thinks too kindly of Putin and has no evidence for the huge estimate he makes of Ukrainian casualties.

Ireland is in grave trouble

Ireland is in a disastrous situation. Tim Stanley says today in the Daily Telegraph that Irish President Michael Higgins suggested climate change played a role in the massacre by Boko Haram of 40 Nigerians attending Mass on June 5th last year. More than 126 people were injured.

The n-word

Free speech in the UK has been more and restricted since 1965 (before the Race Relations Act 1965 the country had as much free speech as the USA) but the misuse of the word 'antisemitic' by conservatives, who have suddenly become leading advocates of cancel culture, is remarkable.

It now covers all sorts of criticisms of Israeli government actions that are not anti-Jewish, let alone, of course, anti-Semite. 

Quotations

“It is not the slumber of reason that engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality”

Gilles Deleuze

Everyone burns his life and suffers for the desire for the future, for the disgust of the present. But the one who exploits every hour for himself, who manages every day as a life, does not want tomorrow nor fears it. No time can bring a new kind of pleasure. Everything is already known, everything is enjoyed to the fullest. After all, fate decides as it pleases: life is already safe. You can add them, not subtract them, and add them like food to an already satiated and full person, who no longer wants it but still has the capacity to. There is therefore no reason to believe that one has lived long because he has white hair or wrinkles: he didn’t live long, but he was in the world for a long time. How can you believe that it sailed a lot who caught the storm at the exit of the port by taking it here and there in a turbine of opposite winds and making it spin in a circle within the same space. He didn’t sail much, but he rose a lot.”

Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae.

Empire

It's strange that Americans owe their country's existence to colonialism but are so prejudiced against it. Other people's colonialism, that is. They have their own colonial empire.

AJP Taylor, the greatest 20th century British historian, said: 

“If the Germans had succeeded in exterminating their Slav neighbors as the Anglo-Saxons in North America succeeded in exterminating the Indians, the effect would have been what it has been on the Americans: the Germans would have become advocates of brotherly love and international reconciliation."

R.I.P. Nick Brind

'You know you've been in Romania too long when you can tell someone's star sign from their date of birth and talk animatedly about it.'

Nick Brind, one of the funniest and wisest men I ever knew, said that. He died on Thursday, I think, and will be very much missed. His was the best firm of architects in Romania for many years. He had previously worked in Africa and been manager of Steeleye Span.

The rules based order that America champions

From the Pakistani English language newspaper Dawn, May 5, 2008.

The United States had threatened to use force against Saudi Arabia in 1973 after King Faisal and other Arab and Muslim leaders imposed an embargo on oil shipments to western countries which supported Israel during the October War, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, said in an interview with the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

In the interview that appeared ahead of a seminar on King Faisal, Prince Turki, son of the former Saudi king, shed light on important events that took place during his father’s rule.

Prince Turki, who was an adviser at the Royal Court in 1973 when King Faisal took the oil embargo decision, said the king was not shaken by the US threat and stood firm.

He added that the embargo was instrumental in encouraging the US to find a quick and just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. “King Faisal and other Arab leaders were forced to take the decision as a result of America’s unprecedented support for Israel during the (1973 Arab-Israel) war,” the prince said. The embargo resulted in almost quadrupling of the world oil prices in what is termed the ‘first oil shock.’

In Praise of Stupidity

William Butler Yeats wrote in “The Second Coming” (1920),

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst 

Are full of passionate intensity.”

That was true in Ireland and elsewhere then and now. It was quoted by Roy Jenkins when he left the Labour Party and is the cry of the centrists.

On the other hand, this famous remark of Bertrand Russell’s, from his 1933 essay “The Triumph of Stupidity", seems to me not true at all.

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

I would say now the opposite is much more often true. 

Stupidity is close to common sense, cleverness to silliness. 

The stupid by not thinking for themselves embody the wisdom of ancient peoples, while the cocksure intellectuals ignore them.

I am the exception to my rules, naturally.

This cannot go on

From the Sunday Telegraph. 

America bestrides the world, but so did Europe in 1939 yet it was cankered. By 1945 it was in ruins and ruled by America and Bolshevik Russia. 

Now America is in very grave trouble and Biden is given the task of handling two wars in which America's standing, but not her real interests, is at stake.  

 

From Catholic daily newspaper La Croix international - this has been ignored by the English language press

 

The press is hopelessly unreliable on the Middle East, pretty unreliable on Ukraine and worst of all on the papacy, because the Catholic and non-Catholic press likes the Pope. In the cases of Grassi, Barros, Zanchetta, Rupnik and Gisana Pope Francis is accused of failing to help alleged victims of wrong doing but protecting the alleged wrongdoers. You wouldn't know this from the press. I know it from following Damian Thompson on Twitter.

I love Vovan and Lexus

I absolutely love Vovan and Lexus, the Russian pranksters of whom pompous people disapprove.

One of them called Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni claiming to be “an African politician” and asking her about the war in Ukraine. The whole conversation is very well worth listening to.

“There is a lot of tiredness on all sides,” she said. “The moment is approaching when everyone will understand that we need a way out. Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not going as expected … It has not changed the fate of the conflict, and everyone understands that it could last many years if we don’t find a solution. The Ukrainians are doing what they have to do and we are trying to help them.”

The problem, she said, was “finding a way out that is acceptable for both sides without destroying international law. I have some ideas on how to manage this situation, but I’m waiting for the right moment to put them on the table.”

It's encouraging that she is thinking like this. Of course, a ceasefire that hardens into a permanent division of Ukraine is the solution. Foolish people clutch for smelling salts at this idea.

The last time I heard of the pair one called Kissinger pretending to be Zelensky and asking him who he thought had destroyed the Nord Stream pipeline. A very long pause ensued, then "I thought you did".

In 2022 they talked to the British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace and the British Home Secretary Priti Patel. After this prank, the British Ministry of Defence had YouTube remove all videos of calls by the pair. 

They are solemnly accused of being pro-Russian which is hardly surprising as they are Russian. They are now on Rumble.

More power to their elbows.

Time magazine is telling us Ukraine has lost?

Time Magazine reports that a top Ukrainian presidential advisor warns that "people are stealing like there's no tomorrow".


People who live in Eastern Europe take that for granted but in my experience (in real life) American Democrats get angry if Ukrainian misuse of US funds is suggested.


Corruption remains widespread in Ukraine despite Zelensky firing numerous people including the Defence Minister.


Zelensky's close advisor warns that “He deludes himself. We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.” His attitude is heroic, necessary for a war leader, but what will be the result?

'In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”'

Men are dragged off trains and buses and sent to the front. The average age of a Ukrainian soldier has risen to around 43.

Why are Time Magazine and mainstream US media starting to throw Ukraine and Zelensky under the bus?

A pro-Russian journalist whom I know says 'More than anything else this was MI6's war' and is angry that UK sent HMS Defender to the coast of Crimea to scupper, as he thinks, talks in Geneva in 2021 between Biden and Putin. 

I have no idea about whether this was what happened but the Anglo-Americans pursued entirely the wrong strategy for years, after Obama left office and Trump (to prove he was not being blackmailed by the Kremlin?) started to arm Ukraine with lethal weapons. 

The Russiagate hoax and the law of unintended consequences.. though Boris Johnson's admiration for Churchill is also to blame

Very interesting tweet about American carpet bombing

I imagine when ISIS was defeated equally cruel things happened or worse - but they were not filmed and put on Twitter.

Ląwrence

@IMesopotamia0

I was in Iraq in 2003 - Just an 8 years old kid The American troops destroying the city was similar to the Mongols sacking Baghdad in 1258 AD. The absence of social media spared you scenes 10 times worse than what's happening in Gaza now. You can read about some of those heinous crimes in Julian Assange's leaks.