Filed under: Fiction, Imagination, Movies, Musings, Posted by TA | Tags: 1940, 1950, A Dangerous Method, anima sana in corpore sano, Berlin, Billy Elliott, Black September, Bridesmaids, Carl Jung, CIA, Clint Eastwood, Daniel Craig, Denmark, Europe, fiction, films, Friends, George Lucas, Germany, Goodbye Lenin, Gran Torino, Israel, James Bond, Japan, Jason Bourne, Jedi, KGB, Leonard Nimoy, Leonidas, life, Master, Matt Damon, Michael Fassbender, Mission Impossible, Movies, Munich, reality, Ross Geller, Saving Private Ryan, Sparta, Spock, Star Trek, Star Wars, Sweden, Switzerland, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, UK, United Kingdom, What to do in case of fire, Yoda
… who would I be? Where would I live? What would I do? Thinking about a different life is a fun exercise. Instead of looking at movie stars’ personal lives, I’d much rather concentrate my thoughts on the characters they play. Let’s get started. And remember “all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”
Personality: This would be a very wild mix between Daniel Craig’s James Bond, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, Gerard Butler’s King Leonidas, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in Star Trek, David Schwimmer’s Ross Geller in Friends (forgive the TV reference here) and Star Wars’ Jedi Master Yoda. How do they connect? Well, I’ve always been fond of characters involved in mystery and internal emotional turmoil. It also would be great if my personality allowed me to talk as little as possible and be a master in everything a human being can possibly do (like the tricks Bourne and Bond operate). But being Bond or Bourne, reporting to other people and receiving orders without questioning are not exactly a picture perfect scenario for me. I’d like to be in a commanding position like the fearless Spartan leader. He was respected, a great decision make who knew exactly what he wanted to die for. And people would follow him. The capacity to lead and be heard is what I like about Yoda. He’s a Master who solves everything with a sentence, usually in reverse order, but he’s also a fighter. Perfect combination of anima sana in corpore sano (or “healthy mind in a healthy body” if you’re not familiar with the expression). He also personifies that wisdom and knowledge come with time and a lot of effort. He didn’t achieve that rank by chance or accident. In fact, George Lucas should go back in time and tell Yoda’s story in a whole new trilogy. Similar to Yoda is Spock. He is the master of wisdom, shaped to be the most knowledgeable being out there. But most of all, what attracts me to Spock is his ability to control feelings and show no expression. He goes way beyond the poker face term. Even better, his entire Vulcan culture is based on science and knowledge, and not passion and emotion. Wouldn’t that be great? From Ross Geller I only wanted his PhD title. From all the traits and tasks above mentioned, that might actually be the easiest one to achieve during my lifetime.
Origins: Personality explained and based on my own self-knowledge journeys, I’m sure I would have been born in Germany or Japan. If I had to tell a story about my origins, this is what it would be: my father was a Swiss university professor (like Michael Fassbender’s Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method) living in Munich at the time of the Black September attack against the Israeli delegation. He’s so disgusted about the act that he decides to “defect” and move to East Berlin, where he meets my mother, an anarchist disguised as a KGB agent operating in the DDR. They meet, nine months later I come to this world only to realize that my father turned to the dark side of the force and got arrested by the CIA. He’s never seen again. My mother decides to cool her jets and change her way of life, but KGB doesn’t accept it, so she runs away to Canada and raise me in Halifax.
Time: If my life was a movie, growing up in the 1940’s or 1950’s would be my ideal scenario.
Place: I would definitely live somewhere in Europe, definitely, but with lots of traveling involved. Anywhere in Germany (Berlin, like the characters from Goodbye, Lenin or What to do in case of Fire), Denmark, Sweden or northern England like Billy Elliott.
Occupation: a spy like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, a soldier who dies for his country like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, a grumpy veteran like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino or any other sort of really critical occupation like Meghan in Bridesmaids (she takes care of the nuke codes).
I better get back to reality now…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Allen Funt, Brazil, Canada, Candid Camera, China, diplomacy, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Palestinians, Reuters, Russia, Security Council, State Department, Susan Rice, UN, UNESCO, United States, Victoria Nuland
What really appalled me were the commentaries from US diplomats immediately after the announcement they were cutting 22% of UNESCO’s budget.
Fair enough that the American system has its laws and the Palestinian move created certain conflicts of interests that will block funds for UNESCO. But all the rest is pure diplomatic baloney. “The United States … remains strongly committed to robust, multilateral engagement across the U.N. system” , said Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman with the State Department. “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”.
How long will the international community pretend that kind of speech corresponds to reality? As far as everybody knows, the US and other permanent Security Council members blocked new member sign ups. Among the contenders, India and Brazil, emerging countries. Mrs. Nuland continued her series of unfortunate and unrealistic remarks by adding that the vote was “regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East” (my bold and underline).
What is the true American perspective on ” lasting peace”? Has it ever been one in the past 2,000 years? Is it even just to punish a people that is looking for nothing but the right to have a voice? Diplomacy has now been officially rewritten to mean lobby, corporatism and other bad things we all know. And I won’t even start talking about Jewish groups in the background. I’m a big admirer of Israel and her people, traditions and survival history, but this personal feud went too far.
An American “ambassador” to the UN said the situation is “no substitute for negotiations, but it is deeply damaging to UNESCO.” And all I do is to regret another great opportunity the US had to make good. Shame on the administration. It sends out a message that it doesn’t matter how democrat or republican someone is, the repugnant feeling of a government to a few lingers. Go Occupy the UN. Or better, just put yourself aside from these matters. There will be no hope anyhow. Allen Funt would have been a great American diplomat. At least his jokes made sense.
Filed under: Posted by Angel | Tags: German Reich, Germany, Hitler, ICJ, International Court of Justice, international law, Italy, Nazis, the Hague, the Holocaust, Tom Cruise, Valkyrie, war, World War II
There seems to be a resurgence of interest in World War II, especially in Nazi and Holocaust related themes. This past holiday season, there were at least six films centring on Word War II stories. I saw one of them, Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise-starrer which featured the last documented attempt by German officers to assassinate Hitler (this attempt was one of 15 recorded attempts by those within the Germany army to topple Hitler’s regime).
There have been other wars and conflicts since World War II and yet, there is no doubt there is something about this period in history that still evokes visceral reaction. That probably explains why movie makers keep coming back to explore new storylines revolving around this era. But truth be told, these movies don’t seem to hold much value; they don’t do much more than entertain. There are no attempts to explore the complexities of this period in time.
After seeing Valkyrie, I don’t remember feeling much of anything. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie but there was something missing. I didn’t feel in any way moved by the stories of the officers and the sacrifices that they made. Yes, I was aware that what they did was valorous and admirable but the movie lacked something. I think what it lacked what the complexity I alluded to earlier.
The story in Valkyrie appeared to be very linear; there weren’t any nuances present to grip the audience (to grab me) and make you feel the taut tension that was surely constant amongst these men; there was no urgency, no in-depth exploration of the burden these men must have borne, knowing they had to remain true to their beliefs while betraying their country. The movie was nothing more than a vehicle for getting from point A to point B and I’m not giving anything away by saying they did not succeed in their mission; obviously, history has already informed us about that part of the story. Simply put, Valkyrie did not spur anything in me that stayed alive beyond the theatre walls. There was no apparent connection to today.
The stories evolving from World War II are far from over. The consequences of all the deeds during that time period are still reverberating through the twenty-first century and are still producing concrete and real problems. And how are these consequences being dealt with? Well, mostly through the courts.
The most recent case was actually just filed on 22 December 2008 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. Germany has brought suit against Italy claiming that Italy, in awarding damages to victims of Nazi war crimes in its domestic courts, has been violating Germany’s jurisdictional immunity. Essentially, Germany is asking the ICJ to find that “ ‘all steps [are taken] to ensure that in the future Italian courts do not entertain legal actions against Germany’ by allowing civil claims based on violations of international humanitarian law by the German Reich during World War II”.
How’s that for a bombshell lawsuit? Now, this is not necessarily an exercise in callousness; it’s more complex than that. Both sides acknowledge each other’s positions in this matter. Italy had already issued a statement in November 2008 stating that it “respected Germany’s decision to apply to the ICJ” and hoped the ICJ ruling would shed some light on the thorny issue of State immunity. Germany claims that it is filing this suit primarily because it has already paid reparations according to previous international agreements with Italy.
But of course, the main reason this case is compelling is because the ICJ ruling is going to directly affect the types of relief that is offered to victims of World War II atrocities. I am interested in seeing how the ICJ will handle this matter. Although the ruling will have to be based on law, I hope the decision will be nuanced and reflect some recognition that the ruling will affect more than just state immunity.
The full text of Germany’s application to the ICJ can be found here.
Filed under: Culture, Entertainment, Travel | Tags: Alcatraz, Arc de Triomphe, Barcelona, Beijing, China, Eiffel Tower, Europe, France, Germany, Ghirardelli, Hadrian's Wall, Institute, New York, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nobel, Norway, Notre Dame, Nuremberg, Oslo, Paris, Quai d'Orsay, Sagrada Familia, Saint Patrick, San Francisco, Travel, trials, US
At least once in your life, you’ve probably felt a great excitement to go somewhere new. If you’re a good tourist, it won’t be hard to do some study about the places you’re about to visit. I always research historical places, monuments, landmarks in general so I can go there and take pictures. Well, for a number of reasons you can just skip great places. See some of them below.
Paris, France. Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Quai d’Orsay, Hôtel des Invalides, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe. These are all great French monuments, right? Partly. These are also all the places I couldn’t take pictures from. My digital camera was almost brand new and I forgot to recharge it before travelling. The result was tragic. Just before both monuments I couldn’t take pictures because my battery was dead.
Underneath the tower
This is all I have from the Eiffel Tower
San Francisco, US. A very nice city by the Pacific Ocean. Full of entertainment, attractions, sunshine etc. There’s a very popular and delicious local chocolate called Ghirardelli whose factory is located in a big, super busy fisherman’s wharf by the bay of Alcatraz. They even give you free bars after your visit. I went there one night unaware of the factory. Worse, I decided not to take my camera because I thought there would be nothing interesting to see. Lost a sweet opportunity to visit a nice place. Literally.
The Presidio area, not too far from the Ghirardelli factory
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Newcastle’s been there for almost 2,000 years. In the outskirts there’s a beautiful Roman construction named after Emperor Hadrian (Hadrian’s Wall), a massive fortification built to contain the “barbaric” Scots. That was the final frontier of the Roman Empire. Living for almost 1 year in Newcastle, I didn’t go there. What a miss!
Haymarket, downtown
Newcastle
Nuremberg, Germany. A medieval city in the centre-north of Bavaria full of restored monuments. Legend says that Allied bombings in WWII destroyed up to 91% of the city’s buildings. Talking about war, one of my itinerary plans was to go to the buildings where the famous Nuremberg trials were held. On the map it looked really far. It happened to be a 20-minute walk from my hostel.
Leaving the Central Station in Nuremberg
Beijing, China. I was there a year before the Olympics. The Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) was on my map and, again, looked far. It was less than 10 minutes on a cab from where I was that would probably cost me 3 dollars. I chose not to go.
Downtown Beijing
Oslo, Norway. Walking downtown Oslo I saw a very simple museum with a bust of Alfred Nobel (yes, that one). Incredibly I thought it was some sort of a bogus place. The Nobel Institute couldn’t be that small. I took picture and left without visiting the building.
The “small” Nobel Institute
New York, US. It was a beautiful spring Sunday in New York. I was hungry, but still enjoying the sunshine and mild temperature downtown Manhattan when I saw a cathedral very similar to La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It was Saint Patrick. I looked at the towers, a lot of people moving around and decided to eat instead of visiting it. 20 minutes later I had changed a ticket toSaint Patrick for the greasiest pizza of my life at Sbarro’s.
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Filed under: Democracy, History, Politics, Society | Tags: Angela Merkel, Athens, Berlin Wall, Cold War, DDR, Democracy, democratic state, East Germany, France, Germany, Greeks, Helmut Köhl, historians, Middle Age, Nazis, Prussia, Reich, reunification, UK, US, USSR
The other day my mother was working on a book’s revision and found the following sentence (free translation): “It is known that the Germans have a great participation in the consolidation of the German democratic State after the collapse of the Nazi regime”. She asked me if I agreed with such statement. The answer was a sound “no until the 90s”. Historians and Germans, you’re invited to contribute. I’ll give you my point of view with everything I know about German’s history (not much, really).
Germans first organized themselves into tribes. These were not democratic. Well, not at least as I understand the word or even close to what the Greeks used to do at the apex of the Athenian society. Great. Let’s move on. Then came the German kingdoms during the Middle Age. Do you really call a kingdom democracy? If you do, contact me, we have similar ideas of democratic centralism and dictatorial aspirations. That situation lasted for a millennium until Bismarck “unified” the German states with Prussia in the centre of it. The German Empire (Reich) had just been born. Again, when has an empire become synonym with democracy? But wait, we’re just about to enter the period that really matters to answer the original question: the Nazism era and its aftermath. After WWI the Republic of Weimar was installed. As far as I know there were elections and the whole democratic apparatus. Elections were fraudulent in some cases or at least subject to a recount due to intimidation, political assassinations and whatnot. However, Hitler officially came to power as a people’s representative. Now if you dare to call the Nazi regime (1933-1945) as democratic I’ll definitely have to ask you to contact me.
So, we finally hit the day and years after the fall of the Nazis. Germany was divided into 4 zones of influence, one to each of the main allies, US, UK, USSR and France. In practice, the two big spheres of domain were the USSR and the US, the Cold War has just started. Honestly I’m not very familiar with West Germany’s political system and history, but I’m sure there was a strong feeling of US manipulation in different levels. Now if you try to convince me elections in East Germany (or the infamous DDR) I will definitely ask you to leave the room.
I told my mom that I wasn’t sure if Helmuth Köhl, the ruling German chancellor after the collapse of the USSR and reunification of Germany, had ascended to power democratically. Gerhard Schröder and most recently Angela Merkel have. Can you now understand my point of view?
Angel and Tiggs 