The possession of originals like artefacts and paintings is an obsession with many people and the source of a lot of friction between nations. Can’t see the point of much of this generally. Let’s look at a few:
Egypt understandably would like the Rosetta Stone out of the British Museum. Let them have it, I say, for we could make a perfectly acceptable copy. Enormous quantities of Egyptian artefacts were taken abroad over the years and they don’t moan too much about most of them. Maybe that’s because they have plenty left. Nonetheless, I’d return the bust of Nefertiti from Berlin.
I am far less sympathetic to Greece’s request for the return of the Elgin Marbles but that is born of the fact that they have just bloody well moaned for years and are a pain in the arse. Melina Mercouri made it an obsession and that only increased my resolve to tell her to piss off. As an actress turned to politics, I suspect she made this a cause to further her political profile. The Greeks have a wondrous history but I see little that they have done to promote it. I mean it took the Brits to kick off the project to create an ancient trireme.
Iran wants to borrow the cylinder of Cyrus the Great, arguably the world’s first declaration of human rights. Well, first they do some pretty fine full size replicas for sale in Iran so why do they want the original, even if as they say, they only wish to borrow it? Usual reason, we want the original, it’s ours, it’s part of our history and so on. The British Museum is behaving as though it does not trust Iran to return it; can’t say I blame them. Well we could swap the original with one of those tourist replicas and surely that would be good enough for the researchers who say they wish to study it more. Let Iran have it and if they destroy it with a car bomb, what the heck?
Now to the arts like painting and sculpture. Well they are easily reproducible and have been, so what’s the fuss? This is where I compare the museums with the airports on which I wrote earlier – testosterone. All a bit like kids really – ‘I’ve got the original Guernica, so go suck,’ ‘I’ve got the Mona Lisa, so bugger you.’ I have but 3 original paintings in this house plus a silk embroidery: they are lovely. If they were copies, it would not bother me a bit.
And then there is the value of the originals. Those in the public domain are generally worth nothing because the very museums and galleries that hold them are unlikely to sell them. Maybe we should rethink this – like ‘Hi Egypt, we’ve racked up a lot of debt, how much for the Rosetta Stone, in gold, of course?’ Trouble here is that the sellers are often richer than the prospective buyers and that’s certainly true of Greece right now with an economy that is truly buggered.
Private ownership is another issue entirely. Private ownership is a matter for the individual and you could argue that it is based on the sin of coveting not that that is particularly relevant. The beauty of private ownership is that if you keep it secret, no other bugger knows and therefore won’t make a claim.
I have some rare stamps. I have no unique ones but I have 2 examples of which there are only 3 others in the world and no photocopy would satisfy me. No one out there is clamouring for mine.
Finally you get the mixed private/public ownership such as the Koh-I-Noor diamond in the Crown Jewels – privately owned but we all know about it. Bhutto (Ali not Benazir) of Pakistan once asked for it back which is a bloody cheek since it was found in SW India. I guess you might make a replica of it in cubic zirconia but it wouldn’t be the same.
So where has this ramble led me? Nowhere really. Guess I’d hand back the really crucial artefacts (except to Greece) that could be copied and keep the rest.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Michael Foot
Michael Foot died this week at the ripe old age of 96 – a Labour politician and one time leader of the party who led them to a disastrous election defeat in 1984. That would not have been difficult given that Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party were riding on the crest of the wave following the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands. However I have to ask myself if he would have done any better if the Falklands dispute had never happened: I doubt it.
Tributes have poured in since the man’s death from people of all political persuasions:
Passionate
Intellectual
Honest
Kindly
Brilliant orator
Idealist
You name it, he’s done it or so they say, but did he? I don’t believe so for his impact on this world was bugger all. I did not know him personally but I have seen him speak many times and read some of the things he had written. So let us look at just a few things.
Brilliant orator? Oh for sure he could speak well and at length. His speeches were quite fluid and dotted with a gentle humour that would make anyone smile. However, they were hardly captivating or inspiring. Sure they got his supporters clapping but would they have got them or me out of bed early on a frosty morning? No.
Leadership? He showed no signs of leadership whatsoever, only rising to be the Leader of the Labour Party in order to fill a vacuum. No visible evidence of an ability to get people to do that little bit extra. And how could you possibly campaign for unilateral disarmament at a time when the USA and USSR had enough missiles to destroy the planet. If the West has disarmed, the tanks of Russia would have been rolling across the north German plains the very next day. MAD may have seemed daft but it kept the peace.
Some have commented on the fact that he did not enlist for WWII, preferring to spend his time in his London flat reading and writing. Others have said that he may have been a ‘conscientious objector’; it is possible. He may have been unfit to enlist but we have never had any details. I don’t know the facts here but I do know that my grandfather managed to enlist with lousy lungs and only got thrown out when they found he had understated his age.
Note however the words, ‘London flat,’ and the fact that he is reported to have died in his ‘Hampstead villa.’ Now even a box room in Hampstead would cost a small fortune so that tells you that he was well off. Hardly surprising since him and his equally left wing brothers were the children of a well heeled solicitor from Plymouth. So, he’s just one of many middle class socialists that have never experienced the hardship of the working class but pretend to empathise with it.
I won’t miss him and I doubt if many will given a week.
Tributes have poured in since the man’s death from people of all political persuasions:
Passionate
Intellectual
Honest
Kindly
Brilliant orator
Idealist
You name it, he’s done it or so they say, but did he? I don’t believe so for his impact on this world was bugger all. I did not know him personally but I have seen him speak many times and read some of the things he had written. So let us look at just a few things.
Brilliant orator? Oh for sure he could speak well and at length. His speeches were quite fluid and dotted with a gentle humour that would make anyone smile. However, they were hardly captivating or inspiring. Sure they got his supporters clapping but would they have got them or me out of bed early on a frosty morning? No.
Leadership? He showed no signs of leadership whatsoever, only rising to be the Leader of the Labour Party in order to fill a vacuum. No visible evidence of an ability to get people to do that little bit extra. And how could you possibly campaign for unilateral disarmament at a time when the USA and USSR had enough missiles to destroy the planet. If the West has disarmed, the tanks of Russia would have been rolling across the north German plains the very next day. MAD may have seemed daft but it kept the peace.
Some have commented on the fact that he did not enlist for WWII, preferring to spend his time in his London flat reading and writing. Others have said that he may have been a ‘conscientious objector’; it is possible. He may have been unfit to enlist but we have never had any details. I don’t know the facts here but I do know that my grandfather managed to enlist with lousy lungs and only got thrown out when they found he had understated his age.
Note however the words, ‘London flat,’ and the fact that he is reported to have died in his ‘Hampstead villa.’ Now even a box room in Hampstead would cost a small fortune so that tells you that he was well off. Hardly surprising since him and his equally left wing brothers were the children of a well heeled solicitor from Plymouth. So, he’s just one of many middle class socialists that have never experienced the hardship of the working class but pretend to empathise with it.
I won’t miss him and I doubt if many will given a week.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Becket and compliance
Henry II made Thomas Becket, his friend, Archbishop of Canterbury, hoping no doubt that Becket would follow Henry’s will. Becket did not.
Neil made me CEO of AB Automotive in 1996 expecting me to carry on as he did. I did not. In many ways, I did not follow Neil’s way but set my own course, did things differently and this led to months and months of conflict. He gave me a very poor assessment after 6 months. There was a box in which I was allowed to make my own comments. I just said, ‘Mr Rodgers has not judged my effectiveness objectively. He has simply judged me according to whether or not I did it his way.’
I just carried on in my way and eventually it worked out and we are friends. Henry and Becket did not and Becket was murdered. Unlike me though, Becket was later canonised.
Simple lesson here. However much you love and admire your successor, never ever expect them to do it your way for by virtue of the very quality of the abilities you admired in them, they will do it their way. Accept it.
Neil made me CEO of AB Automotive in 1996 expecting me to carry on as he did. I did not. In many ways, I did not follow Neil’s way but set my own course, did things differently and this led to months and months of conflict. He gave me a very poor assessment after 6 months. There was a box in which I was allowed to make my own comments. I just said, ‘Mr Rodgers has not judged my effectiveness objectively. He has simply judged me according to whether or not I did it his way.’
I just carried on in my way and eventually it worked out and we are friends. Henry and Becket did not and Becket was murdered. Unlike me though, Becket was later canonised.
Simple lesson here. However much you love and admire your successor, never ever expect them to do it your way for by virtue of the very quality of the abilities you admired in them, they will do it their way. Accept it.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Cock on fire
Once and only once in my life did I go to the toilet to urinate after I had been chopping chillies and not washing my hands beforehand.
An unforgettable experience.
An unforgettable experience.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Bells
If you have never rung them, big bells I mean, then you will never understand. They are quite simply glorious. Unlike other musical instruments, ringing bells make their sound on the move and that gives their sound a special quality not found in static instruments. Add to the fact that they do not generate a single note but several.
In ringing bells, you get many notes of differing intensity, the key ones being:
Strike – that’s the main note generated from the clapper striking the sound bow.
Hum – that’s an octave below the strike
Tierce – minor third above the strike
Nominal – 4 notes above the strike although some would argue that it is an octave above the strike
Quince – 5 notes above the strike
Older bells were not tuned to give all these notes by skimming metal off the bell. In the latter part of the 19th century, a Canon by the name of Simpson came up with this idea. People still argue about the idea, some saying it’s fine, others saying that only the strike counts.
High speed photography will show a bell contracting and expanding in different parts after the strike. I don’t care; I always think a well tuned bell sounds lovely.
And of course, they have to be made of 80% copper and 20% tin. Muck around with that proportion much and it will be disastrous.
In ringing bells, you get many notes of differing intensity, the key ones being:
Strike – that’s the main note generated from the clapper striking the sound bow.
Hum – that’s an octave below the strike
Tierce – minor third above the strike
Nominal – 4 notes above the strike although some would argue that it is an octave above the strike
Quince – 5 notes above the strike
Older bells were not tuned to give all these notes by skimming metal off the bell. In the latter part of the 19th century, a Canon by the name of Simpson came up with this idea. People still argue about the idea, some saying it’s fine, others saying that only the strike counts.
High speed photography will show a bell contracting and expanding in different parts after the strike. I don’t care; I always think a well tuned bell sounds lovely.
And of course, they have to be made of 80% copper and 20% tin. Muck around with that proportion much and it will be disastrous.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Frozen Planet
In 2011, the BBC will launch a nature series called Frozen Planet, understandably a documentary about the Arctic and the Antarctic. It has been 4 years in the making. Look out for it for I am sure it will capture the most beautiful places on this Earth. And then perhaps you will understand why I went and in the case of Antarctica, twice.
Guild Gazette
This was the student newspaper at Liverpool University and it came out once a fortnight. I joined it in my final year, first as the pop music correspondent and eventually as Assistant Editor. We were lucky in two respects.
Firstly, we were subject to censorship in that all copy had to be submitted to the Vice-Chancellor prior to publication. I don’t recall him interfering much, if not at all. However we were registered as a newspaper so we could legitimately claim to be Britain’s only censored newspaper. This we exploited with a banner across the top of the front page proclaiming ‘Britain’s only censored newspaper.’ So we had a campaign to flaunt.
Secondly, we were very fortunate to have an editor who had previously worked on a proper newspaper, the Huddersfield Advertiser. Paul brought in professionalism to writing and editing and we all learned a lot from him. He changed the layout to a tabloid and modelled it on the Daily Mirror. Many looked down on the Mirror in the early 60’s: many still do. But then as he pointed out, the Mirror was the newspaper of the working classes and had to get its message home simply but with a punch. Think we did that.
He also brought colour, just orange, on the front and back pages. That meant two passes through the printing machine but it also meant that we could charge a little more for coloured adverts on the back page and that covered the costs. Our advertisers never realised that since we were using orange on the front page then orange on the back page had no on-cost.
Since the paper came out fortnightly and there were no PC’s in those days and we all had lectures to attend, we were very busy. This meant that we had to get the copy written, the photographs collected and all down to the printers very quickly. Then we had to collect the galley prints and proof read them as quickly as possible in order to meet the final print deadline.
It was all worth it for in 1965, we won ‘The Best Student Newspaper of the Year’ award and the Vice-Chancellor removed his censorship.
Maybe, if I had paid more attention to my studies, then I would have got a better degree. But then, I would probably have had a different career path and I doubt that that would have been as much fun as the one I have had. And anyway, Guild Gazette was an experience.
(Our Student's Union had a capacity of around 2 to 3,000 for Saturday night dances so that meant we could hire pretty much anyone to play there. As pop music correspondent, my job was to interview them in the bar during the interval. I even had an expense allowance to buy them a pint each. How else do you get to have the likes of the Hollies and the Animals to yourself?)
Firstly, we were subject to censorship in that all copy had to be submitted to the Vice-Chancellor prior to publication. I don’t recall him interfering much, if not at all. However we were registered as a newspaper so we could legitimately claim to be Britain’s only censored newspaper. This we exploited with a banner across the top of the front page proclaiming ‘Britain’s only censored newspaper.’ So we had a campaign to flaunt.
Secondly, we were very fortunate to have an editor who had previously worked on a proper newspaper, the Huddersfield Advertiser. Paul brought in professionalism to writing and editing and we all learned a lot from him. He changed the layout to a tabloid and modelled it on the Daily Mirror. Many looked down on the Mirror in the early 60’s: many still do. But then as he pointed out, the Mirror was the newspaper of the working classes and had to get its message home simply but with a punch. Think we did that.
He also brought colour, just orange, on the front and back pages. That meant two passes through the printing machine but it also meant that we could charge a little more for coloured adverts on the back page and that covered the costs. Our advertisers never realised that since we were using orange on the front page then orange on the back page had no on-cost.
Since the paper came out fortnightly and there were no PC’s in those days and we all had lectures to attend, we were very busy. This meant that we had to get the copy written, the photographs collected and all down to the printers very quickly. Then we had to collect the galley prints and proof read them as quickly as possible in order to meet the final print deadline.
It was all worth it for in 1965, we won ‘The Best Student Newspaper of the Year’ award and the Vice-Chancellor removed his censorship.
Maybe, if I had paid more attention to my studies, then I would have got a better degree. But then, I would probably have had a different career path and I doubt that that would have been as much fun as the one I have had. And anyway, Guild Gazette was an experience.
(Our Student's Union had a capacity of around 2 to 3,000 for Saturday night dances so that meant we could hire pretty much anyone to play there. As pop music correspondent, my job was to interview them in the bar during the interval. I even had an expense allowance to buy them a pint each. How else do you get to have the likes of the Hollies and the Animals to yourself?)
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