Un coin de Noël



Which could be translated as 'a precious little corner of the world', that everyone should have, especially on Christmas day.
(The fire hasn't yet been lit, but the turkey is in the oven).

Merry christmas, Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale to us all, wherever we may be!

*
Image © Mirino. December, 2012

L'histoire du monde



Avec un tel titre grandiose et une telle image grâce justement à la NASA, vous allez être très déçus, et pour cause, car certains prétendent être le porteur du verbe de la vérité, et même dirait-on, à l'égard de l'histoire de la civilisation.

Le Président français F. Hollande en est un bel exemple. Selon lui 'la vérité doit être dite,' et seul lui, devant la tribune du parlement algérien, cinquante ans après l'indépendance d'Algérie, prétend la détenir.

En somme il s'agissait d'une piètre apologie pour le colonialisme français en Algérie. Mais malgré le fait que F. Hollande a exhorté ce qu'il imaginait sans doute que son audience voulait tant entendre, la réception de sa vérité a été plutôt un geste de politesse qu'une manifestation d'enthusiasme exubérante telle à retentir à travers le pays voire même le monde entier.

Inutile d'ajouter que sa vérité était honteusement unilatérale, qu'il a manifestement choisi d'ignorer les aspirations de certains Algériens convaincus à cette époque que les intérêts du pays correspondaient avec ceux de la France, et ceci à tel point qu'ils étaient prêts à se sacrifier pour défendre cette conviction.
En tous cas cette triste histoire vindicative est bien enregistrée, et avec le minimum d'intelligence intellectuelle on peut l'apprécier de manière objective donc naturellement multilatérale.

Mais ce post n'est pas pour entrer dans les détails racontés par les uns et les autres à propos de cette tragédie de l'histoire; une tragédie qui n'aurait jamais du dorer le blason de Charles de Gaulle.
C'est simplement pour mettre en question la sagesse, la connaissance historique et la profondeur philosophique de F. Hollande. Mais on a l'impression que le Président français ne se soucie pas outre mesure de telles considérations essentielles. C'est un homme trop prétentieux de se croire limité par quoi que ce soit. Il décide donc, ou plutôt il calcule, que la meilleure façon de procéder avec les algériens, en expédiant les choses au plus vite, est d'abord en culpabilisant la France pour mieux pouvoir tourner cette page de l'histoire. Il imagine qu'en acceptant au nom de la France tous les torts, la France (lui) gagnera le respect des Algériens, et le champs sera totalement libre pour faire de belles affaires.

Mais bien entendu il se trompe aussi à cet égard, car naturellement il faut un respect mutuel pour collaborer et travailler ensemble de manière équitable et efficace. Personne ne respecte un quémandeur de pardon. Mais ce n'est pas cette question non plus qui est le point de cet article.

Ceux comme Monsieur Hollande qui remettent en question la colonisation, mettent en question l'histoire entière de la civilisation. Même lui devrait savoir qu'à travers l'histoire les civilisations ont avancé grâce à l'influence des civilisations plus avancées. En principe Hollande nie donc l'Empire Romain, il nie l'Empire Perse, Etrusque, Byzantine. Bien évidemment il met en question le droit d'exister des Etats Unis et de l'Australie. Il nie l'histoire même.

Chaque pays du monde a été envahi voire colonisé à une certaine époque, et ironiquement certains pays qui se sont libérés de leurs soi-disants oppresseurs, sont bien plus malheureux, ou dans un état bien plus sérieux de régression sociale et économique depuis.

Imaginons que pendant le 18 siècle aux Etats Unis il y avait un tel illuminé apologiste qui voulaient faire plaisir aux indigènes pour des raisons socio-idéologiques, sinon commerciales.
Imaginons donc que ce personnage myope avait quand même la donne de persuasion incitant alors tous les colonialistes d'abandonner leurs efforts pour retourner au vieux continent laissant donc les Indiens de continuer leur mode de vie nomade et noble, en se battant entre eux de temps en temps dans ce pays si énorme et si riche.

En conséquence les Etats Unis n'auraient jamais existé, et moi je ne serais pas en train de taper ces mots sur un clavier Mac. Et l'homme n'aurait jamais marché sur la lune. Et il n'y aurait jamais eu aucune Statue de la Liberté (made in France) non plus.

(Et il n y a pas un Indien aujourd'hui aux Etats Unis, n'en déplaise à Monsieur Hollande, qui serait disposé à renoncer à son Iphone, son Ipad, son Macintosh, sa voiture, sa machine à laver la vaisselle, son vidéo, sa maison avec piscine, au Cocacola, aux Howard Johnson's, aux Marco Polo's ni aux Macdonalds, ni à l'Empire State Building, etc., etc., pour régresser en re-adoptant le mode de vie d'antan romantique et légendaire des Indiens.
Mais encore plus ironique, c'est grâce justement aux civilisations modernes que la connaissance de la plupart des cultures véritables des indigènes, comme ceux des Etats Unis et d'Australie, continue à être enrichie et sauvegardée pour la postérité).

 
Si des erreurs de calculs ont été fait par la France en Algérie, (sans parler de celui dernièrement fait par Monsieur Hollande devant le Parlement algérien) ce n'était pas la colonisation de ce pays. Car à la fin du compte historique, la civilisation plus avancée donne beaucoup plus qu'elle ne prenne.
L'histoire du monde le démontre très clairement. Malgré tous les côtés négatifs, c'est un fait incontestable qu'une civilisation avance grâce aux échanges culturels, y compris évidemment la présence, l'influence et le savoir faire technologique et scientifique des civilisations plus avancées. L'Algérie n'est aucunement une exception à la règle.
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Text © Mirino. Satellite image by NASA, with thanks

Augustus



During a certain epoch I worked for a few years in Amsterdam. It was a blossoming period when young illustrators were in demand and there was always plenty of work. There were good art-directors then as well. Advertising agencies came up with creative, aesthetic visual ideas, and the art directors always knew who best to commission to get the required results. The revues and magazines published good stories that were often inspiring.
In fact I still value a lot of the work carried out during those early years.

I particularly remember being commissioned to illustrate Augustus, by Hermann Hesse. I think it was for the monthly magazine, Margriet. I still remember the young Surinamese art directress, but perhaps the magazine no longer exists.

Augustus was to run for two consecutive months, so two illustrations were needed.
I had never read the story before. I remember I had to read it in Dutch. In fact in those days I had learnt to read, write and speak the language reasonably well. Perhaps it still exists somewhere in a corner of my brain that still functions, although I often think that I've forgotten most of it.

But what I do remember was how moved I was after reading this beautiful story.
Well over thirty years have passed since then. Recently I found and ordered a second hand, hard back copy of the English version of The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse, because I knew that Augustus was one of the tales in this anthology.

The book, in excellent condition, arrived only a few days ago, and today, for the first time since having illustrated the story in Amsterdam, so long ago, (but then again, only cosmic instants ago, if time doesn't exist for those who have no conception of it, or for those, like Augustus, who, through the moment of a life-span, eventually succeed in returning to rediscover the precious, timeless dreams of their childhood) I reread it.

And those same, heart-warming emotions also returned, making it all the more magical..


 Text and illustrations © Mirino. December, 2012

The Goose of Toulouse




The fair goose of Toulouse
Will pertly peruse
The eligible ganders of note

With uncommon astuce
The fair goose of Toulouse
 Can conceal the most imprudent gloat.

Fully dressed for the fair
In fine seasonal wear,
A rare gift she would make for a song
 
And this wanton young goose 
Is much loved if deemed loose
 By most ganders that honk in Gascogne.

Well kept in good stead,
Though never force fed
(She loathes those who indulge in foie gras)

If the belle of Toulouse
Still has nothing to lose,
At Christmas time may she go far.
 
*
 
La belle oie de Toulouse
Se colle comme une ventouse
Aux jars éligibles et distingués

Mais avec une fine astuce
Le belle oie de Toulouse
Se maîtrise à le bien cacher.

Habillée pour la foie
En toute sa belle gloire,
Un cadeau rare ferait-elle sans besogne

Et cette libertine oie
Et la plus aimée de loin
Par la plupart des jars de Gascogne.

Bien traitée et parée
Mais non jamais gavée
  (Elle déteste ceux qui mangenet le foie-gras)

Si la belle de Toulouse
N'a plus rien à, perdouse...
A Noël qu'on en fasse bon repas.
__
 
Illustration and doggerel © Mirino (PW) December, 2012

L'argent des autres



J'ai découvert un article de Claude Allègre dans Le Point  N° 2081 du jeudi 2 août, 2012. "La peur du lendemain a remplacé l'esprit d'entreprise".
C'est évident que depuis que cet article de Monsieur Allègre a été publié, non seulement le statu quo sous l'égide noble du gouvernement socialiste continue, mais il semble se transformer de jour en jour même en pire. Ceci à tel point que les européens y compris les français, commencent sérieusement à s'inquiéter.

On a l'impression que le gouvernement a carrément laissé tomber de tels défis primordials comme la compétitivité des entreprises françaises, et ceci malgré les 20 milliards d'euros 'investis' à cette fin, pour se consacrer uniquement aux 'projets de cœur,' plus honnêtement qualifiables comme 'projets de populisme'.

Le PM Ayraut, qui avait l'air blanc de peur ou d'insomnie, a pris laborieusement la peine d'annoncer ses nouvelles mesures 'Contre la Pauvreté et l'Exclusion Sociale.' Parmi d'autres projets pour appauvrir le pays davantage il y aura un contrat d'insertion pour 100,000 'jeunes' non qualifiés. Il y aura 500,000 nouveaux bénéficiaires pour élargir le nombre de ceux qui bénéficient de la couverture maladie universelle complémentaire en plus des 6.6 millions de bénéficiaires enregistrés fin 2011. Et il y aura 150,000 nouveaux logements sociaux.

Pendant ce temps Monsieur Peillon peaufine pour commencer l'insertion de 46,000 nouveaux enseignants. Pendant sa campagne Hollande vantait de 66,000 nouveaux enseignants, son remède miracle pour améliorer l'éducation nationale, donc peut-être on devrait être légèrement mais temporairement soulagé.. On a déjà exprimé quelques opinions à ce sujet.
J'ajoute que je ne crois nullement que la priorité des socialistes est d'améliorer la qualité de l'éducation nationale. Leur objectif par principe idéologique est de faire en sorte que le socialisme règne indéfiniment. Pour y arriver, tous moyens semblent bons, même au détriment de la nation.

C'est péniblement évident que fragiliser davantage les français financièrement, quand la classe moyen est déjà dos au mur, pour venir en aide à ceux qui ne sont ni disposés ni intéressés à faire l'effort nécessaire pour s'en sortir tout seuls, est insensé et incohérent.

L'assistanat a toujours montré ses limites. Même pendant les pires époques comme celle industrielle, l'altruisme à la longue provoque plus de mal que de bien, car il établit une norme d'acceptation habituelle. Il ne soigne pas la maladie, il la perpétue, et pour citer encore Oscar Wilde, il devient même partie de la maladie.

Lorsque ceux sans ambition, sans amour propre, sans aucun exemple à suivre, sans respect pour qui que ce soit, (y compris- et peut-être surtout- ces bons esprits de faux semblants altruistes) savent que ces derniers vont leur donner une bonne somme argent chaque mois pour ne rien faire, (et parfois même plus que certains retraités français ne reçoivent, grâce à leurs propres efforts) pourquoi devraient-ils même prétendre à chercher du travail?

Claude Allègre a aussi fait allusion au gaz de schiste et le manque d'envergure qui règne en France grâce à un mélange de peur et de préjugé concocté par les soi-disant 'verts'. Ceux qui cachent leur vraie couleur, la couleur opposée d'ailleurs, derrière la couleur paisible et fertile de la belle nature.

Pendant que d'autres pays plus sensés continuent à bénéficier économiquement de telles ressources naturelles, et continuent à vérifier la viabilité pour mieux exploiter l'OGM, le gouvernement français vendu aux verts autant qu'aux communistes, continuent à pincer les lèvres en guise d'un solennel et sacro-saint refus.

En principe Claude Allègre est socialiste lui aussi. Mais c'est un homme intègre, un homme de conviction, qui a le courage de les exprimer en leur donnant priorité selon les circonstances, et malgré l'idéologie socialiste, mise à jour quand nécessaire- et avec raison- en fonction de ses opinions.
Un exemple a été sa déclaration qu'il voterait pour N. Sarkozy. Car selon lui c'était évident que la situation économique l'exigeait. Aucun autre commentaire à ce propos est nécessaire.

Comme d'autres exemples, l'hypocrisie ironique du gouvernement socialiste est aussi évidente dans le cas des possibilités des OGM. La continuation de telles études agricoles peuvent aboutir à une solution pour contrer en grande partie la faim dans le monde. Si donc les socialistes (dont la cause idéologique vise l'internationale) sont sincères à l'égard de contrer la Pauvreté et l'Exclusion sociale, pourquoi congédier avec un tel dédain cette possibilité comme si c'était l'œuvre du diable même, quand il n'y a aucune preuve pour justifier un tel rejet?

Pour le gaz de schiste c'est pareil. Le gouvernement 'illuminé' est tellement généreux avec l'argent des autres, gagné autant plus difficilement à cette époque, pour faire leur populisme inopportun, irresponsable et insensé. Mais quand il y a une occasion d'exploiter une ressource naturelle, même en France, il est bien plus concerné par les opinions infondées et préjugées de leurs alliés politiques rouges fanés, que par les intérêts des français et de la France.

C'est un aveu tacite des priorités socialistes. On l'a affirmé auparavant. La charité commence chez-soi, mais dans le cas de ce gouvernement socialiste particulier, la charité commence et finit chez-lui, au moins autant que l'argent des autres va durer.
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Text and caricature de © Mirino (PW) December, 2012

Una lezione italiana



Quando ero giovane ed ingenuo, poco tempo fa.. credevo che ci fosse una soluzione per tutto, ma certi problemi mondiali attuali sembrano quasi irrimediabili. Almeno senza passare per un conflitto pieno di conseguenze terribili.
 


Come suggerito in Débuts et fins, mi sembra che certi paesi del mondo stiano arrivando a un periodo molto critico nella loro storia. Un periodo in cui bisogna scegliere fra la libertà - almeno relativa,  per quale ironicamente avevano combattuto dall'inizio - e il totalitarismo, voluto da quelli (che a volte sono perfino la maggioranza) che sono convinti che non esista una strada migliore di quella dell'Islam fondamentalista. 



Ma forse taluni fra questi ultimi sono capaci di capire che non è necessario sacrificare la libertà e l'individualità per essere fedeli alla loro religione. 
Ansi Dio, o la potenza che ci ha creati, vuole logicamente che diventiamo noi stessi sotto ogni profilo. Non esiste alcun Dio o alcuna forza naturale il cui scopo è impedirci di diventare noi stessi per realizzare così la nostra vita, pienamente e secondo le nostre capacità, aspirazioni e destini. Non c'è alcun Dio che si aspetta che diventiamo schiavi di altri, cioè di coloro che sfruttano la religione per provare a realizzare i loro scopi personali. Abbassarsi così sarebbe stato un insulto verso il creatore e verso la vita stessa. Sfruttare la religione praticando anche il terrore nel nome di Dio per obiettivi personali non è meno che corteggiare e servire il diavolo.



Non c'è alcun Dio che si aspetta che le donne si comportino come schiave degli uomini. Poiché tutti sanno, e soprattutto gli dei, che nessun uomo ha il diritto di chiedere troppo da quelle che già producono il miracolo della vita. Nessun uomo dovrebbe credere o anche fingere di essere superiore ad una donna, perché sarebbe falso.



E perché Dio attraverso la natura ha creato gli uccelli, le farfalle e i pesci di tutti i colori straordinari e di una bellezza favolosa, se non per il piacere degli occhi? Se Dio avesse voluto che la bellezza fosse nascosta, e che tutti fossero velati di nero e tristi come i corvi della morte, l'avrebbe fatto prima Lui Stesso.



Sono soltanto uomini senza fiducia, o uomini gelosi, quelli che vogliono nascondere totalmente la bellezza delle donne. Dio e la natura non creano mai la bellezza per tenerla nascosta, come se si trattasse di qualcosa di vergognoso. Un tale atteggiamento non può essere che l'espressione di un animo povero e di uomini piccoli e limitati. E neanche questo ha qualcosa a che fare con alcuna religione.



Provo a esprimere tali opinioni in italiano non solo perché sto apprendendolo, e non solo perché si tratta di una bella lingua, ma anche perché l'Italia, con la Grecia, è la culla della civiltà europea, e quindi, per estensione, di quella degli Stati Uniti. Ma è anche, almeno in parte, quella del Medio Oriente, poiché furono gli arabi che tradussero le scienze greche, come quella medica. 



Queste civiltà fondate sulle religioni, compresa quella celtica, etrusca, della Grecia antica e quella Romana, poi quella Bizantina ortodossa, poi Cristiana- in tutte le sue interpretazioni diverse. Una religione vivente che si è evoluta costantemente nel corso della storia, perché come la vita stessa o il meccanismo mutevole e meraviglioso dell'universo, deve evolversi come le stelle per sopravvivere. Altrimenti è condannata ad essere una religione legata al passato, all'epoca in cui ebbe ancora un senso, ma che non ha più molto a che vedere col tempo attuale. 



Forse è anche la ragione per cui ci sembra che ci sia attualmente un conflitto di identità religiosa e sociale nel mondo musulmano. Un conflitto fra quelli che vogliono avanzare più liberamente interpretando la propria religione in modo intelligente, moderato ed apolitico, e quelli per cui non c'è che una sola maniera di interpretare l'Islam, quella pura della sorgente nata nel VII secolo. Ma anche le sorgenti evolvono, cambiano la direzione, o si esauriscono. Si esauriranno eventualmente tutti le sorgenti, incluse quelle nere ed infiammabili. 



Quelli come i talibani che pretendono di rappresentare Dio non sono che gli accoliti del male. Usano la religione senza scrupoli. I loro emuli nel nord del Mali (l'ex colonia francese dove i musulmani sono il 90% e i cristiani sono solo il 10%) vogliono imporre la sharia, compresa la lapidazione come punizione per l'adulterio. Stanno obbligando tutte le donne a indossare il burka. A queste ultime è vietato uscire senza essere accompagnate dai mariti, dai figli o dai fratelli maggiori. 
Anche quegli estremisti fingono di aver la benedizione di Dio per violentare, assassinare, o rapire. Tutto è permesso con la benedizione falsa di un Dio totalmente abusato.



In Egitto Morsi vuole imporre un quasi assolutismo. Ora vuole dare l'impressione che sta ascoltando il popolo. Ma è probabile che la maggioranza gli darà ragione. Sarà così poiché Morsi è già eletto. Un nuovo referendum sulla nuova costituzione sarà probabilmente a suo favore. Già l'opposizione ne sembra consapevole e progetta di manifestare contro l'iniziativa. Certamente, se il referendum dovesse passare a favore di Morsi, ciò potrebbe costituire un esempio di come la democrazia può trasformarsi in totalitarismo, grazie innanzitutto a una maggioranza 'illuminata', e in secondo luogo ad un uomo che sembra considerarsi quasi un Dio. Tali assolutisti sono prima fedeli a se stessi. Non si trova mai alcuna umiltà rispettosa e sincera presso di loro. 



Insomma, ciò che è sempre più evidente è che i fondamentalisti religiosi sono tali perché sono molto più interessati ai potere, all'abbassamento delle donne, ai guadagni materiali, finanziale e politici, che a seguire la strada di Dio o del Profeta dando il giusto esempio.
L'arma della religione dell'Islam è molto efficace, poiché è temibile per gli animi semplici, buoni ed umili.

Dovrei aggiungere che ho il mio modo di vedere le cose, anche se non sono credente nel senso classico del termine. Ma come Sir Thomas More, che fu sempre un Cattolico esemplare fino alla sua morte, sono d'accordo con ciò che scisse nella sua 'Utopia', che Dio avrebbe approvato modi diversi per adorarlo.
Ma soprattutto credo che ebbe ragione nel scrivere che nessuno può pretendere che l'universo e il suo meccanismo incredibile (senza considerare la vita stessa) fu creato- 'per caso.' Non è propria questa l'essenza di tutte le religioni nella storia della civiltà? 

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Text and image (from 'Venetian Dreams') © Mirino (PW).  Italian edited by Rob, with thanks. December, 2012

Scottish myths 22

 
 The legend of Sawney Bean
 
Many believe that this legend was invented by the English early in the 18th century, mainly to discredit the Scots. Others say it's based on strange facts of history, and that ghosts, the victims of the Sawney Bean family, still haunt the location, an obscure sea cave deeply gouged (for almost a mile) into the rocks somewhere on the Galloway or Ayshire coast of Scotland. Such tales have even inspired films of horror. Several accounts of Sawney Bean have been written. This is one of them.

Alexandra Sawney Bean, was supposed to have been born in the latter part of the 14th century in Aest Lowden, (East Lothian) near Edinburgh. Although initially he reluctantly followed his father by earning his living as a local hedger, ditcher and odd-job labourer, his laziness and evil nature induced him to take up crime.
It was at this decisive period of his life when he met his pair, a wicked woman known as Black Agnes Douglas. Together they left East Lothian to go to the west coast of Scotland where, without the local's knowledge, they made their secret home in a sea cave.

From there they would venture out on dark evenings and waylay travellers, and even local folk, robbing and murdering them. Rather than buy food with whatever wealth they accumulated from their odious crimes, they took to eating their victims. They even pickled or salted the human flesh. (It goes without saying that without electricity and fridges in those days, this would be the normal procedure to preserve perishables destined to be consumed).

Sawney Bean and Agnes Douglas eventually had children. They too, without question, naturally followed their parents criminal and cannibalistic example. But even worse, the family rapidly grew through the rife practice of incest. It was, after all, a close family.
It's said that the Beans eventually amounted to a happy hoard of almost fifty sons, daughters and grand children.

Naturally such a large family of murderers would eventually cause alarm and panic in the region. Hundreds of people disappeared, never to be seen again.
But the family became over confident. Their evil way of life was so perfectly natural for them, that they were careless enough to cast half-eaten human limbs, and even severed heads into the sea as if it were waste, which for them it was.
Often washed up on beaches further south, these macabre human remains caused considerable consternation amongst the communities.

Wariness and fear grew, and the region where the majority of inhabitants simply disappeared, was avoided as much as possible. The terror lasted for a quarter of a century, and well over a thousand men, women, and even children had fallen victim to the evil family, to finally end up pickled or salted, then consumed.

One day a couple on horseback were returning from a local fair, when suddenly they too were attacked. The husband, roundly drunk, but armed with sword and pistol (the latter must then have been one of the first invented) put up a brave fight. Tragically his wife fell from her horse and was immediately slaughtered. Some of the Bean family, obviously peckish, even started to eat her then and there. More fortunately for her husband, blind with ale and fury, as he continued to wildly ward off his assailants, several other people also returning from the fair that way, took rapid stock of the situation and then proceeded to assist him.

The vexed Bean family ran back to their cave as the survivor bellowed out to the crowd how he and his wife had been savagely attacked.
Sober, he was a man of some standing, and with associates, he lost no time in galloping to Glasgow to report the incident to the authorities. Eminent magistrates then informed King James IV who, as we have already noted, was wont to take a personal interest in alleged witchery and evil cases.

With a well equipped body of men and several bloodhounds, the King proceeded west to organise the hunt. Although there were still traces of the foul deed as indicated by the bombastic survivor, there seemed to be no way of tracking the murderous hoard. The king's men were discouraged, but the hounds remained excited, uneasy and eager to continue towards the coast.
The hounds had scented the smell of death, and followed this to the mouth of the secret cave. The men were horrified by what they saw there. Parts of human bodies hanging like salted hams. Heaps of coins and jewellery robbed for no real purpose.

None of the Bean family tried to escape or make any attempt to attack the well armed men. The whole family was capture, enchained and taken first to the Tollbooth in Edinburgh, then the following day they were taken to Leith to be imprisoned there.

So aghast were the people as well as the authorities, that it was decreed that justice must be exemplary, harsh and even barbaric. It is thus said that the men's limbs were amputated and they were left to bleed to death. But perhaps the women's punishment was even worse. They had to witness the slow, agonising death of the men before they were burnt alive. There's no record of the plight of any children.

But we are informed by a certain John Nicholson that 'they all died without the least sign of repentance, but continued cursing and vending the most dreadful imprecations to the very last gasp of life.'

Such a legend sounds suspiciously like an exaggerated attempt by the British, to denigrate Scotland during the most critical period of the Jacobite rebellion. The few alleged accounts of Scottish cannibalism during the worst times of provoked Highland famine, are all fallacious English tales that wouldn't even have anything to do with haggis.
It's probable that A. S. Bean never existed, but the rugged Ayshire coast line is evocative enough to inspire such macabre stories whenever required.

Nevertheless, a local blacksmith, a certain 'Tom Robinson' who claims to be a psychic investigator, is a firm believer that the legend is based on fact.
He maintains that he has seen ghosts in the Sawney Bean cave. According to him the Bean family weren't sentenced to death in Edinburgh, they were blocked in their cave where they starved to death, after perhaps eating each other. But the ghosts, he continues to affirm, are not those of the incestuous Sawney Bean family, they are those of the family's victims. He describes the sight of a female figure being dragged by twelve strange 'lights' into the cave, and he is convinced that he has heard screams there, and seen ghostly forms of dead bodies on the cave floor, and other figures that fade into the cave's walls.
All this so impressed Mr. Robinson that in 1991 he is supposed to have returned to the cave to exorcise it of evil.  Whether he succeeded or not has never been reported.

One is still inclined to believe that the story is a disparaging invention, although one would think that the Brits would have come up with a name more clannish and evocative of Scotland, in order to try add more credence to the tale. Although Bean is a Pictish-Scottish name, today it evokes more humour than horror in any case, and perhaps the story should be treated in a similar vein. 
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Scottish myths 23
Scottish myths 21

Retelling © Mirino, from various sources. 
Top image (modified)- The Sawney Bean Cave, © rableather, with thanks. December, 2012

Débuts et fins




Si on mérite
Ceux qui nous gouvernent
On est porté donc à croire
Que pour un pays ou un peuple
Il ne reste plus d'espoir

Car si la voie
De la liberté
Nous amène à telle fin
Comment ne pas se persuader
Que l'on s'est trompé de chemin?

Alors si tout
A une naissance
                           Et tout doit trépasser,                         
Peut-être même notre liberté
               Doit un jour succomber                

Quand la majorité
D'une nation
Devient aussi abrutie,
S'agit-il de l'annonce-
La fin de la démocratie?


Se si meritasse
Quelli che ci governano
Si sarebbe portati a pensare,
Che per una nazione o l'umanità
Non c'è nulla da sperare

Se poi la strada
Della libertà
                       Ci conduce proprio qua,                     
Come non persuadersi
  Che si è smarrita la via?

E poi se tutto
Ha una nascita,
Tutto deve morire.
Forse quindi la libertà
 Può anche scomparire.

 Quando la maggioranza
Di una nazione
Dà tali segni di pazzia,

Non si tratta dell'annuncio-
La fine della democrazia?
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A cause d'une idéologie figée, et les objectifs qui ne changent jamais, même pendant une crise économique sans fin, le socialisme se freine de toute possibilité d'évoluer. Ceci à tel point que les projets socialistes sont toujours assez prévisibles.
L'objectif primordial est de faire en sorte que le socialisme se perpétue. Sa longévité, sa cause plutôt européenne voire internationale, est donc plus importante même que les intérêts nationaux. 

La bénédiction sociale programmé du mariage officiel pour tous, avec l'adoption des enfants par la suite, pourrait être considéré comme un coup monté contre l'idéal de la famille, (de laquelle on veut arracher les enfants). C'était alors aussi à prévoir qu'on utilise les sans abris pour miner l'Eglise Catholique. Car le socialisme y compris le laïcisme est quasi une religion en soi. Comme tel il est incompatible avec la religion Chrétienne, surtout la religion Catholique, considérée toujours comme défenseur de féodalisme par ceux qui se bornent à croire que la Révolution Française n'est pas morte.
Pour miner l'Eglise donc, on insinue qu'elle néglige ses devoirs envers les pauvres et les sans abris.
Si jamais l'abbé Pierre était toujours vivant, on se demande si on aurait osé une telle attaque indigne contre l'Eglise.
Par contre ils ne font aucune allusion aux devoirs des autorités musulmanes en ce qui concerne les mosquées, nouvellement érigées et sans aucun besoin de restauration comme tant d'Eglises en France et ailleurs en Europe.

On peut aussi deviner que parmi les sans abris (et les sans papiers) il y a beaucoup- sinon une majorité- de musulmans, ce qui fait que si la religion est un recours pour les pauvres, les autorités musulmanes devraient aussi en principe assumer leurs propres responsabilités à cet égard.

Mais on entend jamais une telle suggestion de la part des socialistes. Si on veut miner l'Eglise Chrétienne, partie fondamentale de la culture et la civilisation nationale et européenne, c'est hors de question de traiter la religion d'Islam de la même manière.

Peut-être les socialistes se persuadent que leurs intérêts se joignent à ceux des musulmans, car si la faiblesse de la démocratie est sa propre tendance de s'étouffer, conséquence fatale de la règle de la majorité, lorsque les musulmans deviennent majoritaires en Europe, il n'est pas trop déraisonné de croire que les socialistes font aussi un pari calculé sur eux. Que ce soit une illusion même dangereuse, ne les préoccupent pas outre mesure.
D'ailleurs F. Hollande était déjà assez pressé de quitter l'Afghanistan. Lorsque c'est péniblement évident que le travail est loin d'être terminé là bas, ne peut on conclure qu'une bonne partie de sa décision de retirer l'armée française d'Afghanistan, repose aussi sur sa volonté de ne pas trop frosser la sensibilité des musulmans de tous bords, possibles votants du socialisme français et européen?
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Text, doggerel and images © Mirino. With thanks to Rob re. final check of Italian version. 
December, 2012

John Ruskin



It's not easy to relate John Ruskin (1819-1900) to the Victorian epoch, simply because most of his observations are timeless.
He was perhaps the greatest art critic (as well as a critic of society) of his epoch, if not one of the greatest art critics of all time. What is less known is that he was also an accomplished artist himself, although he never devoted enough time to develop this obvious talent as much as perhaps he would have liked.
His father, a successful wine-merchant, travelled a great deal, and often took his son with him. For a young boy such experiences are bound to have had a lasting influence. This is also evident in the endearing allusions he makes to his first view, at the age of fourteen, of the Swiss Alps at sunset, in his autobiography. 'The seen walls of lost Eden could not have been more beautiful.'

In spite of his profound love and respect for nature, Ruskin was also very religious, but real respect for nature would determine this in any case. His daily Bible readings were guided by his mother.

His life was spent lecturing, writing a great deal, and travelling.
He had always been deeply interested in art, and was a great admirer of Turner. This already seems proof enough of his high level of appreciation.
He also wrote on architecture, and particularly loved Gothic architecture. But his interest was focused just as much on the architecture as on the kind of society capable of creating it. He was an advocator of freedom. Individual freedom of expression to give free rein to one's imagination and creative ability.

This doesn't mean that Ruskin wanted architects to embellish industrial buildings with gargoyles. He advocated the same freedom for architects as was once enjoyed during the Medieval and Renaissance eras. This would make him visionary, and it's probable that some architecture of the twenty-first century would have pleased him. But it's just as probable that a great deal of 'modern architecture' would have had an adverse effect on him.

Indeed the use of the term 'modern,' applied to art and architecture, has no real bearing, at least in my view. It is either good, mediocre or bad. When it's good it defies time, therefore the term 'modern' could be regarded as superfluous and even degrading.

Ruskin's interest in architecture inevitably led him into the field of economics. Naturally he was against waste, laisser aller and laisser faire.  He would also have liked to have seen greater co-operation and respect between employers and employees, but during his life time his social views were shunned as absurd.

By the decade beginning in 1860, his opinions were well known, but he was discouraged that society seemed to be going in the wrong direction. This began to cause him to suffer from serious depression and mental disorders which lasted from 1870 until the end of his life.
His doctors thought that his problems stemmed from overwork, but as he wrote himself: 'I went mad because nothing came of my work (...) because after I got published, nobody believed a word of them.' (his manuscripts).


But his distress was no doubt also due to his unsatisfactory relations with women. His marriage to Effie Gray (1848) was a complete failure. Later on he fell in love with a very young Irish girl, (Rose La Touche) but the enormous age gap and their differences of religion made it impossible. Tragically she died at the age of twenty five.
He made a moving reference to his apparent loveless fate: 'the men capable of the highest imaginative passion are always tossed on the fiery waves by it.' 

Notwithstanding his health problems and his great sadness over the loss of Rose, he continued to lecture and write for the full remainder of his life. He wrote Fors clavigera (letters to the workmen). He wrote six volumes of art lectures, and his autobiography, Praeterita (1885-89).
A subject he became most preoccupied with was pollution of air and water, which follows his love and respect for nature, and is also another indication of his visionary attributes.

From Modern Painters A Definition of Greatness in Art from Vol. 1, part 1. chap. 2

(...) So that, if I say that the greatest picture is that which conveys to the mind of the spectator the greatest number of the greatest ideas, I have a definition which will include as subjects of comparison every pleasure which art is capable of conveying. If I were to say, on the contrary, that the best picture was that which closely imitated nature, I should assume that art could only please by imitating nature; and I should cast out of the pale of criticism those pars of works of art which are not imitative, that is to say, intrinsic beauties of color and form, and those works of art wholly, which, like the Arabesques of Raffaelle in the Loggias,° are not imitative at all. Now, I want a definition of art wide enough to include all its varieties of aim. I do not say, therefore, that the art is greatest which gives most pleasure, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to teach, and not to please. I do not say that the art is greatest which teaches us most, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to please, and not to teach. I do not say that the art is greatest which imitates best, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to create and not to imitate. But I say that the art is greatest which conveys to the mind of the spectator, by any means whatsoever, the greatest number of the greatest ideas; and I call an idea great in proportion as it is received by a higher faculty of the mind, and as it more fully occupies, and in occupying, exercises and exalts, the faculty by which it is received.
If this, then, be the definition of great art, that of a great artist naturally follows. He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

°The arabesques - Loggia of the Vatican, were frescos designed by Raphael featuring patterns of intertwining leaves, animals and human figures.


From The Slave Ship, Turner

(...) I believe, if I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single work, I should choose this. Its daring conception- ideal in the highest sense of the word- is based on the purest truth, and wrought out with the concentrated knowledge of a life; its color is absolutely perfect, not one false or morbid hue in any part or line, and so modulated that every square inch of canvas is a perfect composition; its drawing as accurate as fearless; the ship buoyant, bending, and full of motion; its tones as true as they are wonderful; and the whole picture dedicated to the most sublime of subjects and impressions- completing thus the perfect system of all truth we have shown to be formed by Turner's works- the power, majesty, and deathfulness of the open, deep, illimitable Sea.                     (1843)
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Intro text © Mirino (PW). Images from top: self-portrait by John Ruskin (1847). Pencil and water-colour portrait of Rose La Touche by John Ruskin (1860/61). The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Images, (Ruskin's modified) with thanks to Wikimedia Commons. Source and excerpts of Ruskin's written works from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume two. With thanks. December, 2012