A review of the new film “Bridget Jones’s Baby”
September 18th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In the beginning (1996), there was the novel by Helen Fielding [my review here]. Then, in 2001, we had the first film “Bridget Jones’s Diary” [my review here] followed, quite quickly in 2004, by “Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason” [my review here].
Twelve years later, the London singleton is back with “Bridget’s Jones’s Baby” which was released in the UK the weekend. I enjoyed it very much and think it might be the best movie of the three. You can read my review here.
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A review of the Italian novel “The Story Of A New Name”
September 16th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
My summer reading project is to complete as much as possible of the four works that make up the ‘Neapolitan Novels’, an acclaimed series by the Italian author Elena Ferrante.
This is a saga of the 60-year friendship between two girls from a poor neighbourhood of Naples after the Second World War: the narrator Elena Greco, known as Lenu, whose father is a porter and Raffaella Cerullo, known as Lila, whose father is a shoemaker.
The first novel in the series is called “My Brilliant Friend” and I reviewed it here. I’ve now finished the second novel which is titled “The Story Of A New Name” and you can read my review here.
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What was it like in Aleppo before the civil war?
September 15th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
There is currently a fragile ceasefire in Syria where the civil war has been raging for five long and bitter years and some 400,000 have died. The ceasefire has had a particular impact on the commercial capital of the country Aleppo where the regime holds the west and the rebels occupy the east.
But Aleppo – one of the oldest cities in the world – is a mere shadow of what it once was. A couple of weeks before the civil war began, I was on holiday in Syria and our organised tour included Aleppo. You can read what it was like there and then here.
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The hottest September day since 1949 (now since 1911)
September 13th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Here in London, the weather has been incredible today for mid September. The peak temperature – towards 2 pm – was an amazing 32C (of oldies, like me, that’s 90F). Fortunately I had no meetings today, so I did not need to endure the London underground to travel into the city centre. Instead I ate prawn salad for lunch while sitting outdoors on the terrace with the awning extended.
According to the news report on the BBC website, the hottest temperature in the country today was 32.8C at Heathrow Airport quite close to where I live in north-west London. This makes it the hottest September day for 67 years – that is, as far back as 1949. There is a particular explanation for this week’s weather – something to do with Hurricane Hermine – but one can’t help seeing this as a further manifestation of the growing impact global warming.
Footnote: Since I wrote this post, another record has been broken. We now find that today has been the warmest September day since 1911 – this has been recorded in Gravesend, Kent, where it reached 34.4C (93.9F). Whew!
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The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (3): a review of the new film “Anthropoid”
September 11th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The 1942 killing of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague has now been the subject of five films. Earlier this week, I wrote about the 1975 work “Operation: Daybreak” [my review here]. This weekend, a new version of these dramatic events was released and I have now seen “Anthropoid” – the best cinematic version of this piece of history – which I have reviewed here.
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Professor Yehuda Bauer and anti-Semitism
September 10th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this week, I went along to the London School of Economics for a session with Professor Yehuda Bauer who made some introductory remarks on anti-Semitism and then took questions. Born in what was then Czechoslovakia and partially educated in Cardiff, Bauer is a distinguished Israeli academic and historian. This amazing guy is now 90 and spoke with great fluency and erudition, and even some humour, as he presented his liberal and humanistic views and analysis.
He began by arguing that “Anti-Semtism is ancient but the term is wrong … The term is misleading.” because “There is no Semitism against which you can be anti.” He pointed out that “The term was coined by a racist.”
He was clear that “The origin of the hatred of Jews is theological.” He argued that anti-Semitism essentially exists in monotheistic (Christian and Muslim) societies where Jews are believed to be worshipping the wrong god and insisted that really there is no established anti-Semitism in China or India where the god of the Jews is just another just another god).
He proclaimed that “The history of the Jews is not the history of anti-semitism. In most places in most times, Jews were not persecuted.” As well as China and India which comprise about a third of the world’s population, he instanced countries like Morrocco, Georgia, Tunisia & Holland where Jews have long lived without persecution .
In the Q & A session, Professor Bauer was asked about the distinction between criticism of the Israeli Government and anti-Semitism. As a strong and public critic of many of the policies of the current government in Israel, he was clear that one can criticise a government without denigrating a religion or ethnicity. Indeed he pointed out that, in the democracy that is Israel, most Israeli academics are critical of the Israeli Government’s policies and that, even in the Israeli Parliament, there is only a majority of six in support of the government.
On the other hand, he insisted that the actions of the Israeli Defence Force in the occupied territories and Gaza are not as bad as the actions of military forces in many other countries, so to focus exclusively or predominately on the actions IDF can be anti-Semitic.
In Israel itself, he acknowledged that “There is discrimination against Arabs in Israel but it is getting less” and he suggested that, in areas like health and law, there have been advances by Arabs in Israel but Arabs are still not equal.
Bauer denied that there is anything like apartheid in Israel or anything like colonialism by Israel. But he recognised abuses in the occupied territories which he saw as motivated by nationalism. On the other side of the conflict, he was sure that, even if there was no conflict in the Middle East, there will be anti-Semitism.
As he answered various questions, he took a global view and instanced the situation in many different countries. He referred to alleged anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party, the populism of Donald Trump in the USA, India, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Poland, Hungary, Burma, and what he called “the Muddle East”.
He asserted that liberalism is under attack worldwide and characterised China as a modern capitalist, imperialist, illiberal society. He was clear that “Radical Islam is a danger to the whole world” and insisted that ultimately only moderate Muslims can defeat radical Islam.
Professor Yehuda Bauer is a truly impressive figure – just the kind of person I would love to have at a dinner party.
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The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (2): a review of the film “Operation: Daybreak”
September 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, “Anthropoid” – a film about the 1942 assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich – has been released and I intend to see it. But first I wanted to revisit an earlier (1975) film on the same subject: “Operation: Daybreak”. You can read my review here.
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The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (1): two book reviews
September 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This weekend sees the release in Britain of the film “Anthropoid” which tells the true story of the assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in Czechoslovakia in 1942. I’ll certainly been going to see it. But first I want to revisit an earlier film on the same subject: it was called “Operation: Daybreak” and issued in 1975.
On several occasions, I have visited the church in Prague where the parachutists who carried out the assassination were besieged by the Germans. Also I have read quite a lot about the operation, especially in the books “The Killing Of SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich” by Callum MacDonald [my review here] and “HHhH” by Laurent Binet [my review here].
If you’re interested in the assassination and its consequences and especially if you think you might see the new film, you might like to read my book reviews.
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Consumer empowerment in the digital economy
September 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The German government has committed to using their presidency of the G20 in 2017 to address the issue of consumer empowerment in the digital economy. Consumers International, the international federation of consumer organisations, and its German Member organisation (VZBV) are leading partners in the initiative.
One of the key activities that the German government is funding is a piece of research and polling that will form a major input into the G20 discussions. This research will be instrumental in helping shape the focus and approach of the G20 initiative.
The research will consist of two parts:
– An indicator study that highlights the key areas where governments can take action to support consumers in the digital age. This will be based on desk research and interviews with CI members and other stakeholders.
– International polling in six G20 countries to understand consumers’ perspectives on issues of consumer empowerment and protection (the proposed countries are Argentina, China, Germany, France, South Africa and the United States).
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Remembering the Prague Uprising of 1945
September 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a visit – my 27th in almost three decades – to Prague. The occasion this time was a wedding of some dear young friends and but, on the last day, I took the opportunity to go on a two-hour walking tour with a World War Two theme.
A major part of the tour was an account of the Prague Uprising of 5-8 May 1945. Hitler’s Germany was almost totally defeated but the Czech capital was still under German control. The Soviet army was a short way to the east but halted when the Czechs rose up against their occupiers because Stalin did not want to support a rising by democrats (the same thing happened in Warsaw in 1944). The American army in the west was even closer and Patton wanted to liberate Prague but Eisenhower insisted that the Allied powers had agreed that the Soviets would take the city.
So, for four days, local Czech forces – poorly armed – battled against some crack German forces. On 9 May, the Soviet Army formally liberated the city but, for all practical purposes, the Czechs has done the job themselves. Over the four days of fighting, some 1,500 Czechs lost their lives, while around 700 Germans were killed. The headquarters of the uprising was in the Old Town Hall which was 80% destroyed by German shelling and our tour concluded in the tunnels under the remainer of the building.
Incidentally the military leader of the uprising was General Karel Kuttelwascher who was a distant relative of Vee’s father of the same name.
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