What’s the most fearful Christmas that you can imagine?
December 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Something to do with the global pandemic? Perhaps evidence that the newly-discovered Omicron variant is more transmissible, more virulent and more resistant to current vaccines than all previous variants.
Something to do with weather, climate or geology? Perhaps something on the scale of the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 which killed a quarter of a million people in 14 countries.
Let me offer you a different thought which was put to me in a recent conversation. A Russian invasion of Ukraine. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Simultaneously. Over the Christmas holiday when western governments are largely closed down.
Russia regards Ukraine as historically its territory which is highly contestable. China views Taiwan as historically its territory which it undoubtedly was.
The armed forces of the Ukraine could not resist a Russian invasion and there is little evidence that the West would do more than impose tighter sanctions. On the other hand, the Taiwanese would probably fight back against a wartime invasion but would only last a short while unless US bombers were deployed in force.
Biden’s rushed withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan has emboldened both Russian and China in their respective aspirations to regain ‘lost’ territory. If Russia succeeded in Ukraine, it might then turn to thinking of reoccupation of the Baltic States. If China succeeded in Taiwan, it would would then seek dominance of the South China Sea.
I am thoughtful of the remilitarisation of the Rhineland on 7 March 1936, when German military forces entered the region, which directly contravened international treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared for a military response, so they did not act. The rest is history …
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
A review of the new French film “Petite Maman”
December 4th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Just before the first lockdown in the long-running global pandemic, I saw the French-language “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire” which I loved. In spite of covid restrictions, the same team has now managed to produce the low-budget “Petite Maman” which I was quick to see while it was still in cinemas.
Again it is both written and directed by Céline Sciamma with cinematography by Claire Mathon. Again the two leading roles are females who establish a loving relationship. Again almost all the supporting roles are for women too. Truly Sciamma is the master of the female gaze.
What is different this time is that the main characters are eight year old girls with one insisting that she is the daughter of the other. The two actors are twins, Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz, and they are so alike that helpfully Sciamma – who usually does her own costumes – has colour-coded their clothing. So is this fantasy or a dream or just a clever narrative device? Any way the film is enchanting – and, at a mere 73 minutes, a little gem.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
If a substantial sum of money unexpectedly appeared in your bank account, what would you do?
December 4th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This is what happened in August 2020 to Helen Peters [not her real name] when she found that Her Majesty’s Revenues & Customs (HMRC) deposited in her bank account the sum of £774,839.39. She decided to wait and see what would happen but found herself spending almost £20,000 before contacting a newspaper to ask what she should do. It’s in the news today.
A similar thing happened to me in November 1980. At the time, I was banking with Barclays before I withdrew my account in protest at the bank’s involvement in apartheid South Africa. My account suddenly showed a deposit of £324,610.00. I paid it back in days. But it was fun while it lasted.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the film “How I Live Now”
December 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This 2013 film is something of an oddity and I only checked it out (on television) eight years later because I’m a fan of the work of Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (“Hanna”, “Brooklyn”, “Ammonite”). She plays an American teenager with mental health issues who is sent to spend time with a bohemian English family and undergoes a transformation from being surly and self-centred to being brave and resourceful.
The background to this change is some kind of war but it is terribly unclear who is fighting whom and for what reason. Ronan is excellent and the other young actors appealing, while there is some splendid cinematography, but it is too all chaotic and confusing. Perhaps it worked better as the source material: an award-winning young adult novel by Meg Rosoff.
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Ever heard of the Thucydides’ Trap?
December 2nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In foreign policy discussions, this is a deadly trap first identified by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. As he explained, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.”
The term was popularised by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon. According to Allison, the past 500 years have seen 16 cases in which a rising power threatened to displace a ruling one. Twelve of these ended in war.
The thesis has been criticised by some historians but it is a useful way of looking at geo-politics. Currently the most worrying danger of the Thucydides Trap is the rise of Chinese power in opposition to that of the United States.
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
How did Covid variants go from Delta to Omnicon?
November 29th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
At the end of May 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) adopted a new system of naming Covid variants of concern or special interest with letters of the Greek alphabet. It did this to avoid stigmatising countries or regions where such a new variant was first identified.
At the time, there were four variants of this kind and we all remember the Delta variant as the one that soon became dominant worldwide. Since then, there have been eight other variants which have had a Greek letter assigned to them, but most of us missed these because they did not rival the Delta variant in terms of concern or transmissibility.
The thirteenth letter in the Greek alphabet is ‘Nu’ and the WHO decided not to use this letter because it sounds so much like ‘new’. The fourteenth letter is ‘Xi’ and it was decided not to use this because it is a very common family name in China (and, as it happens, the surname of the current president of the country).
The fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet is Omnicon and this is the letter assigned to the variant initially identified in South Africa which it is feared is much more transmissible than any of the previous variants. At this stage, we do not know serious are the symptoms and how effective current vaccines will be against it.
Next up? Inevitably the WHO will name more variants but they will not all make the news. The next letter to be used will be ‘Pi’.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review of the new Disney animation movie “Encanto”
November 28th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
For the third consecutive weekend, I spent part of Saturday taking my two granddaughters (almost 11 and 5) to see a new animated movie. I have to say that, from my adult (73) point of view, this was by far the best.
Set in rural Colombia, the colours are wonderfully vibrant and the visuals are quite inventive. The Madrigal family – each of whom, except one, has a special power conferred by an enchanted candle – are delightful. And the soundtrack from Lin-Manual Miranda of “Hamilton” fame is joyous and catchy.
The point of view is that of Mirabel, the one without any powers, who of course turns out to be the true star. So another Disney animation heroine (think “Frozen” and “Moana’) and another success for the studio.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new bio-pic “King Richard”
November 26th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I was first attracted to this movie by the title because my son is called Richard. When I learned that it was a bio-pic about Richard Williams’ creation of tennis super-stars Venus and Serena, I was sure that a young female tennis-playing friend would want to see this work and it has to be said that Gemma enjoyed it more than me. It is a competent and uplifting production and I was told by my friend that the tennis sections were really well-done. But, as cinema, it is lacking.
If the film is really about Richard, I would liked to have known more about how he himself became such a good tennis player and how he put together the 85-page plan to make his black daughters so successful in the ultra-white world of professional tennis. Venus and Serena were executive producers of the movie and have ensured that his image is well-presented with no real edge to the narrative. If, on the other hand, the film is about Venus and Serena, then it concludes too soon with the former’s first professional matches.
Having said all that, Will Smith is excellent as the eponymous uber-parent in a role which is different from that of most of his career and Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton are appealing as Venus and Serena respectively. It is a truly amazing story but a less than amazing film.
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The latest tragedy to hit the wonderful country of Ethiopia
November 24th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
“… for the tourist who wants something different and is prepared for some challenges, Ethiopia is a great destination. The exotic names of places we visited were themselves magical: Addis Ababa, Axum, Lalibela … But the history was so rich and fascinating, whether it was the skeleton of Lucy, the stelae of Axum, the rock churches of Lalibela, or the castles of Gondar and the terrain was awesome whether it was the mountains of the Simien National Park or the waters of Lake Tana. In fact, four of the locations we viewed are World Heritage Sites.”
“Although … this was probably the most challenging holiday of our lives, we loved it and were inspired by it. We feel sure that Ethiopia has a real future as a tourist destination for the discerning traveller and we were delighted that we had visited before it becomes popular.”
These are extracts from my account of a trip to Ethiopia in February 2015. Now the country is racked by civil war and the capital may be about to fall to anti-government forces. Today the British Government has told all British citizens to leave the country immediately. My heart bleeds for the people of Ethiopia who have suffered so much and for whom the suffering continues.
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Word of the day: uchronia
November 22nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The term uchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time period of our world, in contrast to altogether-fictional lands or worlds. The concept is similar to alternate history, but uchronic times are not easily defined and are placed mainly in some distant or unspecified point before current times.
The term has been applied to Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” [my review here] and Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” [my review here].
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