I was an impressed and puzzled 14 year old in 1963, when reading in the newspaper that the writer Jean Cocteau (about whom I knew nothing) had died of sorrow a few hours after hearing of the death of Edith Piaf (whom I had often heard on radio and liked for her passionate cutting-blade voice). Over the last days of last year, I came to remember those two, as I read about the death of Cesaria Evora, who was followed after one day by Vaclav Havel. In this case, there is no connection, at least I don’t know of any intersection in their lives. But they had a lot in common with Piaf and Cocteau apart from being respectively singer and playwright: All four were immensely successful, and all four did what was right.
Cocteau would be the outsider in this quartet. He was privileged from birth to grave and seemed to manage everything in life with artistry, lightness and - honesty. Havel was also born in a wealthy family, but it was bad time and place for such a background. He could have used his creativity and intelligence in the service of the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, or have become an accomplished émigré, but he chose to stay home and fight the imprisonment of his country and his people. That, remember, was at a time, when it seemed unlikely that the communist dictatorship would come to an end in Havel’s lifetime. I confess that I have not read or seen any of Havel’s plays, and I am not sure, whether I will. His autobiography I have read; “To the Castle” gives a portrait of a humble, serious and humorous man in the middle of a revolution. If at times he seems too infatuated with the United States, one can also understand why, given his perspective. Cesaria Evora had a lot in common with Edith Piaf, coming from poverty, preferring themes of suffering, and receiving late and deserved acclaim. My favourite from her repertoire is Sodade. That is the Capeverdian (Criollo) version of the Portuguese Saudade, which means Longing – the kind that is laced with salt water and wine (or longing for those elements) and never ends. It is the song of a slave. Singing it, Evora lent her voice to all those who have lost something - irrevocably.
Let us raise a glass and perhaps take a puff from some lethal smoke in admiration and gratitude to this nicotinized liberating foursome!
Of course, the next big shot to leave us in 2011 was Kim Jong-Il, the most perfect antithesis to Havel and the other three above-mentioned one could imagine. I have been privileged to be able to download his son, the Supreme Commander. Inspired by Mr Knud Hansen, the bragging and travelling Danish cheese business man, who in the 1960s always carried with him a portrait of Denmark’s social democrat prime minister to be able to curb any impending saudade for his homeland, I now regularly contemplate Kim Jong-un, and any blues dissipates, as I congratulate myself for not living in DPRK.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Solid~ao e sodade
Yesterday died Cesaria Evora and today Vaclav Havel.
They had smoked too much, but they were right.
Hundreds of peopkle were killed by floods in Mindanao, because they were poor.
The world seems lonelier, much lonelier.
They had smoked too much, but they were right.
Hundreds of peopkle were killed by floods in Mindanao, because they were poor.
The world seems lonelier, much lonelier.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
The Debased Roman Catholic Church of The Philippines
According to The Inquirer, on May 23, 2011
ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Oscar Cruz said on Sunday that President Aquino’s support for population control programs was an official admission of his administration’s inability to undertake socioeconomic programs to ease poverty.
“His government’s simplistic option and blatant decision is lessen [the number of] Filipinos to have a better Philippines,” Cruz said in a strongly worded statement issued in the midst of an escalating conflict between Malacañang and the Catholic Church as Congress debates a reproductive health (RH) bill.
“Forgotten is the once proud and loud shout ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ (If there’s no corruption, there’s no poverty). Now the maxim sounds ‘Kung walang ipapanganak, walang mahirap’ (If no child is born, there’s no poverty),” he said.
Instead of thinking of ways to produce more food and houses for people, the government had subscribed to this idea that “the less people eat, the more food there is … the fewer people are housed, the more houses there are,” he added.
“Let there be a dedicated, not a laid-back national leadership. Let there be a wise, not a dull national government,” Cruz said.
In its blind rage against the intention of the Government and Legislature of the Philippines to allow people the same access to family planning as they have in the great majority of nations around the world, the senior clergy the Philippines is now resorting to demagogy. Even a child knows that there is no single solution to poverty. Even Canada, one of the richest and most egalitarian countries, is still struggling with the fact that around 1 million children there live below the poverty line.
The misdemeanour of the Catholic Church is serious and dangerous. For all the bad things one can say about it (I am prepared to say a few), this Church has so far been respected for its honesty and integrity. As much as one could disagree with its teachings, you could normally assume that it would promote them by teaching, not by spewing out slander much in the manner of “traditional politicians”. You could rely on it to arbitrate conflicts and to denounce abuses by the powerful without ulterior motive, without any other guiding principle than as Pope John Paul II used to put it “Peace and Justice”. No more, unfortunately
What has for decades been the most trusted pillar of the society that is The Philippines is now destroying itself.
Let there be a truthful, sincere and wise church….
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
José Saramago died on 18 June 2010
and most of the necrologues tell mainly about his political statements, which, as I have noted in this blog in 2008, could sometimes be too emotional, in addition to often being too dogmatic, even bordering on a certain kind of blindness.
But these observations should not be allowed to detract from what is far more important. It is a gross understatement, in my view, to label Saramago, as the greatest of Portuguese writers. His courage, passion, imagination and uncompromising will to examine human existence to its most painful depths make him one of the greatest writers of all time. Here is one of his blog entries, which it is as easy to agree with as some of what Camus would have entered, had he been able to blog:
Aceitemos então que estamos sozinhos e, a partir daí, façamos a nova descoberta de que estamos acompanhados – uns pelos outros. Quando pusermos os olhos no céu estrelado, com a furiosa vontade de lá chegar, mesmo que seja para encontrar o que não é para nós, mesmo que tenhamos de resignar-nos à humilde certeza de que, em muitos casos, uma vida não bastará para fazer a viagem – quando pusermos os olhos no céu, repito, não esqueçamos que os pés assentam na terra e que é sobre esta terra que o destino do homem (esse nó misterioso que queremos desatar) tem de cumprir-se. Por uma simples questão de humanidade.
So let us accept that we are alone and from there, let us make the new discovery that we are accompanied - by each other. When we lift our eyes to the starry sky, desperately wanting to get there, even if it is to meet that which is not for us, even if we have to resign to the humble certainty that in many cases a life does not suffice for that journey, when we lift our eyes to the sky, I repeat, then let us not forget that our feet are on the earth and that it is on this earth that the destiny of man (this mysterious knot that we want to untie) must be accomplished. For a simple question of humanity.
- and here is a quote from the book, which I would like to make compulsory reading in high schools around the world "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ", something which Camus could not and Dostoievsky - for all the affinities - would not have written , and for which Saramago is (is or was?) hated by some people, who refuse to see:
"...The slaves live to serve us, perhaps we should open them to know if they carry slaves inside, and after that open a king to see if he has another king in the stomach, and look, if we met the Devil and he allowed us to open him, perhaps we would have the surprise to see God jump out from the inside. Before, we talked about the clashes of ideas and convictions between Jesus and Shepherd (Pastor), and this is an example. But Jesus had learnt, over time, that the best response was not to be caught by the provocations, even if they were brutal, like this one, and here he was even lucky, it could have been much worse, imagine the scandal, if Shepherd had gotten the idea of opening God to see if the Devil was inside..."
This is just meant as a morsel.
There is much more in that book, not least one of the finest hymns to love between woman and man (Maria and Jesus in Magdala, of course), I have ever known.
But these observations should not be allowed to detract from what is far more important. It is a gross understatement, in my view, to label Saramago, as the greatest of Portuguese writers. His courage, passion, imagination and uncompromising will to examine human existence to its most painful depths make him one of the greatest writers of all time. Here is one of his blog entries, which it is as easy to agree with as some of what Camus would have entered, had he been able to blog:
Aceitemos então que estamos sozinhos e, a partir daí, façamos a nova descoberta de que estamos acompanhados – uns pelos outros. Quando pusermos os olhos no céu estrelado, com a furiosa vontade de lá chegar, mesmo que seja para encontrar o que não é para nós, mesmo que tenhamos de resignar-nos à humilde certeza de que, em muitos casos, uma vida não bastará para fazer a viagem – quando pusermos os olhos no céu, repito, não esqueçamos que os pés assentam na terra e que é sobre esta terra que o destino do homem (esse nó misterioso que queremos desatar) tem de cumprir-se. Por uma simples questão de humanidade.
So let us accept that we are alone and from there, let us make the new discovery that we are accompanied - by each other. When we lift our eyes to the starry sky, desperately wanting to get there, even if it is to meet that which is not for us, even if we have to resign to the humble certainty that in many cases a life does not suffice for that journey, when we lift our eyes to the sky, I repeat, then let us not forget that our feet are on the earth and that it is on this earth that the destiny of man (this mysterious knot that we want to untie) must be accomplished. For a simple question of humanity.
- and here is a quote from the book, which I would like to make compulsory reading in high schools around the world "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ", something which Camus could not and Dostoievsky - for all the affinities - would not have written , and for which Saramago is (is or was?) hated by some people, who refuse to see:
"...The slaves live to serve us, perhaps we should open them to know if they carry slaves inside, and after that open a king to see if he has another king in the stomach, and look, if we met the Devil and he allowed us to open him, perhaps we would have the surprise to see God jump out from the inside. Before, we talked about the clashes of ideas and convictions between Jesus and Shepherd (Pastor), and this is an example. But Jesus had learnt, over time, that the best response was not to be caught by the provocations, even if they were brutal, like this one, and here he was even lucky, it could have been much worse, imagine the scandal, if Shepherd had gotten the idea of opening God to see if the Devil was inside..."
This is just meant as a morsel.
There is much more in that book, not least one of the finest hymns to love between woman and man (Maria and Jesus in Magdala, of course), I have ever known.
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Bacalhau
With the Vatican and the Israeli right wing still reeling from my latest denouncements and obscurantist clerics of all denominations trembling for what may be in store, I have decided to take a short break, so as to give unto the world one of the food recipes, for which I am justly famous - though among a group that is still too limited.
It is of course my variant of Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.
Bacalhau is dried and salted cod, a product traditionally sold by countries in northernmost Europe to Roman Catholic Iberians to ensure that whatever the season or weather, they have fish available for Friday evenings. In northern Europe, this food, called klipfisk or stokfisk, is despised, which is understandable, if you have tried it the way my mother prepared it in my early childhood (being both rational and kind-hearted, she stopped the practice). In Spain and especially Portugal it was discovered that dried cod and olive oil make a superb combination; it is difficult to describe how and why, but even people, who don't usually like fish are often convinced by an Iberian bacalhau dish. One of the most famous of the over 100 Portuguese recipes is the one invented in Porto in the 19th century by Sr Gomes de Sá. There is, however, room for improvement. The Portuguese have a number of fine traditional dishes, but are often stuck with certain fixtures such as sprinkling eggs in places, where they may add a nice visual touch, but at the cost of a negative influence on the flavour. And why they are so reluctant to use wine in cooking, escapes me.
So here we go:
1 kg bacalhaus (salted and dried cod)
1 kg medium size potatoes
4 - 5 medium-size onions
1 small whole garlic, peeled and chopped
As many black olives as you like
1 generous cup olive oil
Parsley chopped
1 bottle of white wine
Soak the cod in cold water for 12 to 24 hours,changing the water 2-4 times. This is the critical part of the preparation. If you soak for too long or change too many times, you lose too much of the prized dry cod flavour; if you do too little, it will be too salty. This of course also depends on how thick the pieces are.
Boil the fish in fresh water for 15-20 minutes depending on the shape of the pieces. Pour off the water and set aside to cool.
At the same time boil the cleaned but not peeled potatoes for 10 minutes, using the last change of water from the cod (dilute if you think it is too salty).
With your bare hands, split the cod into gross flakes, remove skin and bones (use a knife if needed).
Slice the half-boiled potatoes as well as the onions.
Heat 3/4 of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions to light golden. Add the potatoes, most olives and all fish and stir gently to avoid crushing the potato pieces too much. Add some herbes de provence, if you feel like it. Mix in the garlic (which loses too much flavour if thoroughly fried).
Place it all in a large oven-proof dish, place some olives on top for visual effect, pour 3/4 of the wine over it and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 oC for 30 minutes. Allow the top surface to become golden and a little crusty, but check a couple of times and if it looks too dry, add more olive oil and wine. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Best results are obtained by preparing in the morning or day before, allowing to cool and heating thoroughly just before serving. The longer the ingredients interact, the better.
Which wine? Any good heavy duty white wine will do. I would not use a chablis and certainly not a vinho verde. Most local Portuguese wines would be OK, but the ideal might be a sauvignon blanc, or a Riesling for fruitiness. I haven't tried with red wine, but hope that somebody will be adventurous enough to do so. In contrast, we have often accompanied this dish with red Alentejo, Côte du Rhône or other substantive stuff.
Bon ap'!
It is of course my variant of Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.
Bacalhau is dried and salted cod, a product traditionally sold by countries in northernmost Europe to Roman Catholic Iberians to ensure that whatever the season or weather, they have fish available for Friday evenings. In northern Europe, this food, called klipfisk or stokfisk, is despised, which is understandable, if you have tried it the way my mother prepared it in my early childhood (being both rational and kind-hearted, she stopped the practice). In Spain and especially Portugal it was discovered that dried cod and olive oil make a superb combination; it is difficult to describe how and why, but even people, who don't usually like fish are often convinced by an Iberian bacalhau dish. One of the most famous of the over 100 Portuguese recipes is the one invented in Porto in the 19th century by Sr Gomes de Sá. There is, however, room for improvement. The Portuguese have a number of fine traditional dishes, but are often stuck with certain fixtures such as sprinkling eggs in places, where they may add a nice visual touch, but at the cost of a negative influence on the flavour. And why they are so reluctant to use wine in cooking, escapes me.
So here we go:
1 kg bacalhaus (salted and dried cod)
1 kg medium size potatoes
4 - 5 medium-size onions
1 small whole garlic, peeled and chopped
As many black olives as you like
1 generous cup olive oil
Parsley chopped
1 bottle of white wine
Soak the cod in cold water for 12 to 24 hours,changing the water 2-4 times. This is the critical part of the preparation. If you soak for too long or change too many times, you lose too much of the prized dry cod flavour; if you do too little, it will be too salty. This of course also depends on how thick the pieces are.
Boil the fish in fresh water for 15-20 minutes depending on the shape of the pieces. Pour off the water and set aside to cool.
At the same time boil the cleaned but not peeled potatoes for 10 minutes, using the last change of water from the cod (dilute if you think it is too salty).
With your bare hands, split the cod into gross flakes, remove skin and bones (use a knife if needed).
Slice the half-boiled potatoes as well as the onions.
Heat 3/4 of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions to light golden. Add the potatoes, most olives and all fish and stir gently to avoid crushing the potato pieces too much. Add some herbes de provence, if you feel like it. Mix in the garlic (which loses too much flavour if thoroughly fried).
Place it all in a large oven-proof dish, place some olives on top for visual effect, pour 3/4 of the wine over it and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 oC for 30 minutes. Allow the top surface to become golden and a little crusty, but check a couple of times and if it looks too dry, add more olive oil and wine. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Best results are obtained by preparing in the morning or day before, allowing to cool and heating thoroughly just before serving. The longer the ingredients interact, the better.
Which wine? Any good heavy duty white wine will do. I would not use a chablis and certainly not a vinho verde. Most local Portuguese wines would be OK, but the ideal might be a sauvignon blanc, or a Riesling for fruitiness. I haven't tried with red wine, but hope that somebody will be adventurous enough to do so. In contrast, we have often accompanied this dish with red Alentejo, Côte du Rhône or other substantive stuff.
Bon ap'!
Monday, 31 August 2009
REPLY FROM ITAMAR SHAPIRA TO ALLAN SCHAPIRA
by email on 30 August 2009
I don't perceive Yad Vashem as a place that should give you details and facts about the holocaust, nor does Yad Vashem perceive itself as such and therefore within Yad Vashem I guided "educational groups": schools, yeshivas, "Birthright" and others. Yad Vashem declaratively has educational weeks, sessions, to the IDF (army), youth movements, high schools and with bringing up questions of humanity, moral, remembrance, nationality, social justice. Yad Vashem plays a roll in fighting anti-semitism, holocaust denials, and genocides around the world. Moreover, Yad Vashem directed me to speak about the "independence war" which battle-fields lie in front of the exit of the museum; about Israel as a possible refuge for the Jews after the holocaust; about how do Israelis perceive the holocaust and about the well-implemented axis: "from Holocaust to Revival (the state of Israel).
To speak about these things without sparing a few sentences about the Palestinian/Arab point of view - is leaving the "educated" student incapable of understanding the complexity of the situation which the area is in these days, leaving him one option - a blaming finger to the Arabs (that didn't accept us in the region), Palestinian (for not saying "oh good that you came. we kept the place for you for 2000 years. We take our stuff and leave this place. You deserve it - you had the holocaust") and the "free world" that didn't do anything to stop it on time.
This the education that is stuffed into the brains of youngsters in Israel, from generations that grew into this victimhood and wars - disabling a whole society from seeing simple facts around them (like the occupation that we tend to forget or think we do it out of "SECURITY")and becoming crueller and crueller.
Jews around the world and in Israel support massive killing in Gaza while accusing the German society for not kicking Hitler out in the 30's. By racist laws, discrimination and violence against Palestinians within us - we are beyond Nazi Germany before the war (only we don't have a one-strong-leader).
If Yad Vashem puts the quotation of Martin Niemöller - a German pastor: "When they came to take the Communists, I did not protest because I was not a Communist; When they came to take the Jews, I did not protest because I was not a Jew; When they........When they came to take me - there was no-one to protest" - high in the museum - it means that Yad Vashem motivates activist-thoughts about what should people do when they see injustice, growing hatred on basis of race, ethnos etc. The fact that they can only blame the "world" and never look inside - is because they are a full part of the brainwash system that sent me and hundreds of thousands to kill, control, demolish and bring a sacrifice to the gods of arm-trade.
Hope that pictures in a way my thoughts about the subject. Maybe it is worth adding that a professor from the academic board of Yad Vashem tried to raise the subject to be discussed with the other professors of Yad Vashem - she was ingnored a whole month and then answered: "no". No will of anyone in Yad Vashem - nor the academic board neither the administration - to discuss a matter of the borders of politics in Yad Vashem, freedom of speech, formal attitude of the institution, borders of education and also not what I had exactly said in that specific tour - shows only fear and cover for something sensitive.
It is time to see the reality around us - professors are being fired for saying things in classes, researchers being threatened by the secret police when until not long ago they would touch only Arabs. And so on.
It is coming at us and can blow the whistle to a new war.
Yours, Itamar
I don't perceive Yad Vashem as a place that should give you details and facts about the holocaust, nor does Yad Vashem perceive itself as such and therefore within Yad Vashem I guided "educational groups": schools, yeshivas, "Birthright" and others. Yad Vashem declaratively has educational weeks, sessions, to the IDF (army), youth movements, high schools and with bringing up questions of humanity, moral, remembrance, nationality, social justice. Yad Vashem plays a roll in fighting anti-semitism, holocaust denials, and genocides around the world. Moreover, Yad Vashem directed me to speak about the "independence war" which battle-fields lie in front of the exit of the museum; about Israel as a possible refuge for the Jews after the holocaust; about how do Israelis perceive the holocaust and about the well-implemented axis: "from Holocaust to Revival (the state of Israel).
To speak about these things without sparing a few sentences about the Palestinian/Arab point of view - is leaving the "educated" student incapable of understanding the complexity of the situation which the area is in these days, leaving him one option - a blaming finger to the Arabs (that didn't accept us in the region), Palestinian (for not saying "oh good that you came. we kept the place for you for 2000 years. We take our stuff and leave this place. You deserve it - you had the holocaust") and the "free world" that didn't do anything to stop it on time.
This the education that is stuffed into the brains of youngsters in Israel, from generations that grew into this victimhood and wars - disabling a whole society from seeing simple facts around them (like the occupation that we tend to forget or think we do it out of "SECURITY")and becoming crueller and crueller.
Jews around the world and in Israel support massive killing in Gaza while accusing the German society for not kicking Hitler out in the 30's. By racist laws, discrimination and violence against Palestinians within us - we are beyond Nazi Germany before the war (only we don't have a one-strong-leader).
If Yad Vashem puts the quotation of Martin Niemöller - a German pastor: "When they came to take the Communists, I did not protest because I was not a Communist; When they came to take the Jews, I did not protest because I was not a Jew; When they........When they came to take me - there was no-one to protest" - high in the museum - it means that Yad Vashem motivates activist-thoughts about what should people do when they see injustice, growing hatred on basis of race, ethnos etc. The fact that they can only blame the "world" and never look inside - is because they are a full part of the brainwash system that sent me and hundreds of thousands to kill, control, demolish and bring a sacrifice to the gods of arm-trade.
Hope that pictures in a way my thoughts about the subject. Maybe it is worth adding that a professor from the academic board of Yad Vashem tried to raise the subject to be discussed with the other professors of Yad Vashem - she was ingnored a whole month and then answered: "no". No will of anyone in Yad Vashem - nor the academic board neither the administration - to discuss a matter of the borders of politics in Yad Vashem, freedom of speech, formal attitude of the institution, borders of education and also not what I had exactly said in that specific tour - shows only fear and cover for something sensitive.
It is time to see the reality around us - professors are being fired for saying things in classes, researchers being threatened by the secret police when until not long ago they would touch only Arabs. And so on.
It is coming at us and can blow the whistle to a new war.
Yours, Itamar
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Father Jekyll and Monsignore Hyde
Go to a village. No, I mean go to a village in a catholic country, and look for its centre. If it is a rich country like Italy or Spain, it may be a shopping centre, a restaurant, a memorial. If the place is poor, it is the church and you will most likely find that this is not because of its more or less ancient stones, but because the Pater behaves as a father. Around the world, there must be hundreds of thousands of these people, who channel spirit and courage to their communities, console them, care for them, knows their concerns, learns from them, channel philanthropy in an honest and efficient way and creatively promote appropriate agricultural development. Many of them have the courage to listen to their parishioners and their own conscience before they listen to their superiors and in so doing they may act as humans and Christians rather than as the cogs in a wheel that some of their learned bishops may wish for. And so it happens that within the framework of the catholic church, it is possible for example for prostitutes to be advised on avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, for ordinary women to be helped to access family planning and for homosexuals to be told that there is not something wrong with them.
If you go to Rome or any city in a catholic country, you may, if you wish, meet a high-ranking representative of the Roman catholic church such as a Monsignore. He shall explain to you, why it is good to inspire guilt in those who came into the world with sexual desires, which are not like the majority's (but in all fairness often like his own, though that will not be intimated), that it is God's justice, if the ignorant prostitute dies from AIDS (though in all fairness he or she may have a chance beyond), and that it is sinful to use a contraceptive rather than begetting a child, who is, given the prevailing poverty, likely to advance from starving street-child to prostitution and an early death.
The catholic church has these two sides. Other churches and denominations also, but not in such startling contrast.
If you go to Rome or any city in a catholic country, you may, if you wish, meet a high-ranking representative of the Roman catholic church such as a Monsignore. He shall explain to you, why it is good to inspire guilt in those who came into the world with sexual desires, which are not like the majority's (but in all fairness often like his own, though that will not be intimated), that it is God's justice, if the ignorant prostitute dies from AIDS (though in all fairness he or she may have a chance beyond), and that it is sinful to use a contraceptive rather than begetting a child, who is, given the prevailing poverty, likely to advance from starving street-child to prostitution and an early death.
The catholic church has these two sides. Other churches and denominations also, but not in such startling contrast.
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