#'buy my silence: 20 thousand francs a month'

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

reading phantom of the opera currently, having only seen the 1920′s silent film version, and one really good part (which the movie did not convey) is the weird amiably antagonistic relationship between The Daroga and Erik:

“It's a trick that nearly killed me!" I said. "And it may have been fatal to others! You know what you promised me, Erik? No more murders!"

"Have I really committed murders?" he asked, putting on his most amiable air.

“goddamn it Erik i told you to stop killing people, that was the literal one thing i asked” “who, me, kill people?” what the fuck. that’s so fucking funny.

[magpiefngrl]

Hullo Magpie! If it's not too late, maybe an university AU or a historical AU? I'm not sure how involved you're planning on this being, perhaps just a snippet or something, but perhaps our boys gallivanting across time and the world! Renaissance Drarry perhaps, or Brideshead Revisted Drarry, or even WW1 Drarry! Whatever strikes your fancy :D

Hey, my lovely! You might have forgotten that once upon a time, many, many months ago, you prompted this, but I hadn’t! I’d planned from the beginning that a historical AU would be one of the AUs I’d write, but it took me forever to get to it, partly because the historical genre isn’t my forte, but mainly because I couldn’t settle on a time period. I wrote a few hundred words on the Elizabethan era (Harry being an actor at the Globe and Draco a noblet in the Court), I debated a Rennaissance painter and muse thing, and I thought I’d decided on the 20s where Draco and Harry would be house guests in a wealthy mansion, or they’d go to jazz clubs idk. I wrote a few thousand words, but it didn’t really grab me, and then I had the visual of two patients on a bench in a hospital after WWI, and this story flowed in one morning. 

Much love and gratitude to the wonderful @nerdherderette and @lower-east-side for looking it over

So here it finally is, Historical Muggle AU, WWI era. Hope you enjoy it!

****************

Young and Beautiful (Mature, 3k)

Every afternoon thesame patient sits on the bench by the pond, gazing at the willows. Harry sitsbeside him.

‘Hello.’

The man turns to lookat him. Nods. Turns back to the willows.

The next afternoon,he’s there again. A duck and its ducklings cross the pond, sending ripplesacross the surface. Birdsong fills the air. Spring has sprung in the gardenssurrounding the convalescence hospital. In the fragrant, cool breeze, Harry couldbe mistaken in thinking France was years ago.

It’s not. It’s beenthree months.

‘I’m Harry Potter.’He doesn’t expect a reply – perhaps the fellow can’t speak. He has no visiblewounds; usually those are worse.

It’s peaceful by thepond, but far from still. Kingfishers and ducks and bees flit in and out of thefoliage and the swaying reeds. White butterflies flutter around the bushes.Harry joins the man on the bench every afternoon now, sitting in silence andwatching. The late April rains have given way to sweet sunshine and lightbreezes.

‘I don’t remember myname,’ says the man out of the blue one warm day.

‘What do the nursescall you?’ Harry asks.

‘Soldier. Or “dear”.’

They’re all called“dear” or “love” by the nurses. Come now, dear, take your medicine. Here’syour lunch, love, mind you eat it all. They see in them their husbands andtheir sons, their brothers and their fiancés, volunteering their time andeffort to make their convalescence easier, while praying someone else islooking after their own dears, whether in earth or heaven.

‘Do you remember yourbattalion?’

The man looks away.‘Nothing. I remember nothing.’

 *

‘I was in the Somme,’Harry volunteers one day. The man hasn’t asked, and he probably doesn’t care.They all have stories like that. The Somme, the Marne, Gallipoli…  

‘Is that where youhurt your leg?’

‘I was one of thelucky ones.’ Harry fishes a photograph from the front pocket of his pyjamas.‘That’s a few of us before we left for France. See that man? Ron Weasley, mylieutenant. Took a bullet to the head a week before the Somme. He was a goodman; a good friend.’

The memories chokehim and he points to the other men. ‘Longbottom; the man knew his way around agarden, I can tell you that. McMillan. Thomas. Goyle, that big lad with thecigarette.’ All are dead or wounded, scattered in military hospitals or unnamedgraves. Half his peers gone once the dust had settled.

‘Were you in battle?’he asks the man.

‘I’m not sure.’ The manopens his palms and stares at them as if he’ll be able to divine who he is. ‘Mywounds aren’t on the outside.’

Harry wants to tellhim they all have wounds on the inside.

 *

In the hospital, theymeet coming in and out of the bathroom, in the dining room, in the common room.The man always stays by himself. He’s almost invisible to the others, unnoticedeven by Harry, until he’d spoken to him by the lake. Harry doesn’t approach himin the hospital. He likes the afternoons by the water when it’s just the two ofthem. He wants to have something to look forward to.

But he can’t staysilent when the man exits the bathroom late one night, his shirt unbuttoned.Harry’s gaze falls on the scars crisscrossing his thin chest. He can’t fathomwhat they are. The man pauses, his eyes wary. Harry doesn’t even realise he’sstepped closer. ‘How did this happen?’

‘I don’t remember.’

For the first time,Harry doesn’t believe him. Something in his tone, in his immediate reply, ringsfalse.

Harry’s riveted bythe scars, by how cruel they seem and also how incongruous they are to thebattle wounds he’s used to seeing. He stretches out his hand. ‘May I?’

They’re alone in thecorridor. A single oil lamp is flickering down the hall, casting them in longshadows, The man nods. Harry touches the scars lightly, almost reverently.‘These are not battle wounds. These are…’ They look like the result of torture.Someone carefully and methodically sliced across the man’s chest. Possiblytaking their time to ensure maximum pain.

Emotion overcomesHarry. He splays his fingers across the raised, pink skin, as if he can absorbthe viciousness that’s been inflicted on it.

Gently, but firmly,the man grabs his wrist. He removes Harry’s hand and lowers it slowly.

‘They’ll heal,’ hesays. ‘Don’t pity me. I deserved those.’

It hasn’t escapedHarry’s notice that the man hasn’t let go of his hand. ‘No one deserves those.’

 *

Harry’s coming out ofthe bathroom when he sees the man waiting. He’s holding a razor. Harry gaspsand the man hastens to explain. ‘I’m only going to shave my head.’ Harryexhales with relief; Crabbe’s suicide three weeks ago has shaken him.

‘Will you help me?’the man asks.

‘Why are you doingthis?’ Harry asks ten minutes later, the razor running smooth down the man’sscalp. He’s a little taller than Harry, his body exuding warmth and solidity,but there’s something of the wind in his scent, as if he was born for flight.

‘I felt like it.’ Itsounds as truthful as the insistence of his amnesia.

Harry will miss thealmost-white hair. He’s grown used to seeing it from the distance as he limpsto the pond. He doesn’t say anything, though. The war has gouged them all, andif they want to indulge in a little fancy, who’s to blame them?

‘Done.’ He meets theman’s eyes in the mirror. He looks almost unrecognisable without the halo ofhis hair. His cheekbones and his pointy chin stand in sharper relief  – aknife of a face, sharp enough to make Harry bleed. He holds Harry’s gaze, whofeels hot from his proximity to the man’s body and the smell of his skin, soapand sweat and hospital, that particular smell clinging to them all. Heswallows hard.

‘You look likesomeone else,’ Harry says, and makes to leave.

‘That’s the idea,’the man murmurs, seemingly to himself.

 *

The nurses areflustered. A man of some importance has arrived. He wears a long coat and amustache and shows an ID to the doctors.

Head Nurse Burbage iscalled in the office.

Harry follows herdown the corridor. Nurse Burbage has left the door ajar and Harry pauses,making a show of needing his cane more than he does. Doctor Lupin’s voicedrifts to where Harry is pretending not to eavesdrop.

‘…BritishIntelligence. Draco Malfoy?’

‘We don’t have anyoneby that name,’ Nurse Burbage says.

‘He’s six-foot-one,very blond…’

 *

‘I’ll call you“Bob”.’ Harry sits on the bench beside the man.

‘Bob?’ The man isstartled in laughter. It’s short-lived, as if he’s forgotten how to do it. ‘Idare say, I don’t look like a Bob.’

‘I think “Bob” suitsyou. Bobs have a good life, you know.’

‘I knew a Bob whodied in the war.’

Harry shrugs. ‘Bet hehad a good life before that, though.’

The man smiles. ‘Bobit is, then.’

READ THE REST ON AO3

***************************

Mermaid AU

Dare Dating (8th year)

Pirate AU

Durmstrang!Harry and Beauxbatons!Draco AU

Royalty/Arranged Marriage AU

Musicians AU

Medieval AU

Fae AU

Adventure AU

Firefly/Space AU

Magical Flower Shop (canon universe)

Buy me a kofi 

AU Series on AO3

[warninggraphiccontent]

5 March 2021

Data linkage

Data dichotomies Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden wrote for the FT about the UK's new approach to data outside the EU this week - which managed not to say what this new approach would actually be (especially for GDPR), and prompted comments that the narratives that privacy had dominated discussion and pitted innovation and privacy against one another weren't quite right... ICO baby Though perhaps the next Information Commissioner does need to make a distinction between innovation and privacy, as medConfidential and others have pointed out. Dowden's article kicked off the appointment process for the next Commissioner. (I interviewed the current one in 2019.) Doing so in an article behind a paywall and with no version on GOV.UK isn't a particularly great example of open government...

Open season But then it's not been the best of weeks for open government in the UK, with the news it's been censured by the Open Government Partnership, prompting a letter coordinated by the UK's Open Government Network (on whose steering group I sit). Though there remain some good examples of open government in the UK, and... Open day Tomorrow is Open Data Day, with lots of events planned. Speaking of events... Data Bites We held our seventeenth Data Bites this week, with some rugby-related fun to kick off and some very important budget analysis (which may have contributed to this), before four brilliant presentations. One of those was about better data visualisation, which was also the subject of...

Chart hits and misses This Computer Weekly article looking at good and bad #dataviz during Covid features a quote from me. Speaking of bad #dataviz... Mistake and fail pie My wonderful IfG colleagues are holding me somehow responsible for this particularly bad BBC Wales pie chart, which left me shocked. Another shocking fail which came to mind this week was... Johnson's new department The time when the UK government briefly renamed the business department to something quite unfortunate (though it turned out to be a flop). It wasn't quite the job Alan Johnson expected, but then you don't really get to apply for Cabinet roles...

Odd job Whereas you can apply to work in the Cabinet Office's new Information and Data Exchange, another new unit which there doesn't appear to be much information about. Like a number of recent developments (the Central Digital and Data Office, the integrated data platform) we have to comb press releases, minutes and job ads to find out what's going on (#opengovernment). There's also a deafening silence on... Certifiable The government's (welcome) review into vaccine passports. I wrote something about that for the IfG this week. And if you've not had enough of me... Strategic thinking I'm speaking at a Westminster Forum event next week, on the National Data Strategy. Something that was announced a few months ago, by Oliver Dowden.

Have a good weekend

Gavin

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Graphic content

Vax the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it

New data show that leading covid-19 vaccines have similarly high efficacy* (The Economist)

What Do Vaccine Efficacy Numbers Actually Mean?* (New York Times)

Speed and trust (Reuters)

Oregon, Vermont Lead the Way in Equitable Vaccine Rollout: Covid-19 Tracker* (Bloomberg)

Tempers fray over France’s vaccine strategy* (FT - thread)

COVID-19: Major cities falling well behind in UK's bid to vaccinate its way out of lockdown (Sky News)

COVID-19: Is your area one in England and Scotland where half of adults have received a vaccine? (Sky News)

My, corona

Why Opening Windows Is a Key to Reopening Schools* (New York Times)

Should Your School Be Fully Open? Here’s What the C.D.C. Says* (New York Times)

BATS and the ORIGIN of OUTBREAKS (Reuters)

500,000 LIVES LOST (Reuters)

Boris Johnson defends UK border regime amid hunt for Covid patient* (FT)

Inside ultra-Orthodox Jews’ battle with the virus and the Israeli state* (FT)

NHS faces questions over Covid infections contracted in hospital (The Guardian)

Europe struggles and saves in pandemic as Sweden keeps calm and carries on (Reuters)

Animated data visualisation of covid-19 data in G20 countries, with a focus on USA (Jamie Whyte)

Money, money, money

Economic and fiscal outlook – March 2021 (OBR)

UK Budget: the long road to levelling up* (FT - thread)

Sunak goes big and bold in bid to repair UK public finances* (FT)

Six things we learned from budget 2021 (IfG)

Budget 2021: a preview in charts (IfG)

Spending fast, taxing slow (Resolution Foundation)

Some unprotected departments had their budgets cut by half in the decade from 2009-10, as health spending has growth by almost 20 per cent (Resolution Foundation)

Budget 2021 (IFS)

Rishi Sunak’s Budget has not prevented a surge in unemployment – it just delayed it* (New Statesman)

Mo money, mo problems

How Much Minimum Wage Changed in Each State (Flowing Data)

Remote workers spend more on housing than those who commute* (The Economist)

Costco CEO, Who Pays Median Worker $39,585, Enters Wage Debate* (Bloomberg)

Funding devolution: The Barnett formula in theory and practice (IfG)

More people think benefits are too low* (The Times)

Earth song

The messy business of sand mining explained (Reuters)

In the Atlantic Ocean, Subtle Shifts Hint at Dramatic Dangers* (New York Times)

The Five Hotspots Where Food Prices Are Getting People Worried* (Bloomberg)

In data: what are Britain’s fisheries gaining from Brexit?* (Prospect)

Climate graphic of the week: shipping routes behind Mediterranean oil spill* (FT)

More United Than You’d Think: Public Opinion on the Environment in Towns and Cities in the UK (Centre for Towns)

More than 25m drink from the worst US water systems, with Latinos most exposed (The Guardian)

Politik

So wählten die Gemeinden bei Bundestagswahlen (Berliner Morgenpost)

How Keir Starmer has fallen out of favour with voters* (New Statesman)

How Much Longer Can This Era Of Political Gridlock Last? (FiveThirtyEight)

How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again (FiveThirtyEight)

Which senators have been voting against Biden Cabinet nominees?* (Washington Post)

Myanmar records its deadliest day of pro-democracy protests* (The Economist)

Myanmar’s new wave of detainees (Reuters)

Everything else

Another name change for the business department in the offing? (IfG)

Is the lot of female executives improving?* (The Economist)

Constituency data: broadband coverage and speeds (Commons Library)

And yet... (Giuseppe)

How governments use evidence to make transport policy (IfG)

#dataviz

Covid-19 and the art and science of data visualisation (Computer Weekly)

Trump’s literacy, KPIs and Citizen Data: final lessons from covid-19 charts (Andy Cotgreave)

Presenting data: 5 tips for making your data understandable (Data in government)

a list of my favorite #dataviz tools (Jon Schwabish for @iamscicomm)

How to draw your audience's focus in visuals (Alvin Wendt, Jon Schwabish)

Meta data

Certification uncertainty

Government needs to beware the easy promise of Covid certification (me for IfG)

Establish if vaccination passports will work before tackling ethical issues* (FT - more here)

Some thoughts on the legal and ethical implications of ‘vaccine passports’ (Adam Wagner)

No jab, no job – the moral minefield confronting the UK government (The Guardian)

Is there a way to make vaccine passports ethically acceptable? (The Guardian)

Vaccine passports could save British theatres – why won’t they embrace them?* (Telegraph)

Vaccine passports: Ticket to freedom? (whynow)

Covid-19: How would an NHS vaccine passport app work? (BBC News)

Israel’s “green pass” is an early vision of how we leave lockdown (MIT Technology Review)

Viral content

COVID-19: Test and Trace barely used check-in data from pubs and restaurants - with thousands not warned of infection risk (Sky News)

COVID-19 VACCINE TRANSPARENCY (Transparency International)

The New Necessary: How We Future-Proof for the Next Pandemic (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change)

AI got 'rithm

Ensuring statistical models command public confidence: Learning lessons from the approach to developing models for awarding grades in the UK in 2020 (OSR)

What is an “algorithm”? It depends whom you ask* (MIT Technology Review)

Turing Lecture: How to talk to robots - The road to a people powered, AI-enabled future (Tabitha Goldstaub)

Government response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (DCMS/BEIS)

How UCL’s groundbreaking AI research became entangled in Facebook’s net* (New Statesman)

Building trust in AI systems is essential* (FT)

Final Report (National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence)

Taking on the tech giants: the lawyer fighting the power of algorithmic systems (The Observer)

Big tech

Microsoft's Dream of Decentralized IDs Enters the Real World* (Wired)

New York Times Columnist David Brooks Blogged For Facebook's Corporate Site (BuzzFeed)

Section 230: Big Tech’s favourite law is running out of time* (New Statesman)

Palantir, part 2 (Rowland)

Charting a course towards a more privacy-first web (Google)

Google is done with cookies, but that doesn’t mean it’s done tracking you (Recode)

‘This is bigger than just Timnit’: How Google tried to silence a critic and ignited a movement (Fast Company)

CMA investigates Apple over suspected anti-competitive behaviour (Competition and Markets Authority)

US removes stumbling block to global deal on digital tax* (FT)

Alan Rusbridger says Oversight Board will ask to see Facebook's algorithm (The Guardian)

UK government

New approach to data is a great opportunity for the UK post-Brexit* (FT)

The UK needs an independent privacy regulator (Open Rights Group)

Dr Nicola Byrne has been named as the government’s preferred candidate for the post of National Data Guardian (NDG) for Health and Care (Cabinet Office)

‘Digital big bang’ needed if UK fintech to compete, says review* (FT)

UK taxpayer to take more stakes in tech start-ups* (FT)

Data in the line of duty; PSGA data keeping us safe. (Geospatial Commission)

Goldacre Review

EU too

EU must overhaul flagship data protection laws, says a ‘father’ of policy* (FT)

Data protection: European Commission launches process on personal data flows to UK (European Commission)

ARIA ready?

Bill introduced to create high risk, high reward research agency ARIA (BEIS)

Bill

Explanatory notes

I see the ARIA press release frames FOI as bureaucratic (Peter Wells)

Few thoughts (Alex Parsons)

How government can help make Aria sing (Civil Service World)

Social media

India imposes sweeping new social media rules* (FT)

Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private Data* (Wired)

Open for the best but expecting the worst

UK government censured for a lack of transparency and accountability (Sky News)

UK GOVERNMENT ‘UNDER REVIEW’ SAYS OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP (UK Open Government Network)

Data: sharing is caring (mySociety)

Why Transparency Won’t Save Us (CIGI)

News real and fake

MAPPING CIVIL SOCIETY RESPONSES TO DISINFORMATION: AN INTERNATIONAL FORUM WORKING PAPER (National Endowment for Democracy)

The Unknowable News Audience (Slate)

A Better Way to Think About Conspiracies* (New York Times)

The History of Misinformation (The Full Fact Podcast)

Databases

ICE investigators used a private utility database covering millions to pursue immigration violations* (Washington Post)

A Theranos Database Is Useless. What Happened?* (Wall Street Journal)

Data

Data Bites #17 - watch as live (IfG, edited version will appear here)

Exploring legal mechanisms for data stewardship (Ada Lovelace Institute, AI Council)

Data Is the New Sand* (The Information)

Data's Future: 2020 highlights (ODI)

Supporting ‘levelling up’: the case for more and better data on Post-16 Education and Training (Centre for Cities)

Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid (FT)

Remote learning

Out of office: what the homeworking revolution means for our cities (The Observer)

Stanford researchers identify four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their simple fixes (Stanford)

Face your fears

MyHeritage offers 'creepy' deepfake tool to reanimate dead (BBC News)

The Shoddy Science Behind Emotional Recognition Tech (OneZero)

Everything else

Launch of Rules as Code forum for government officials (OPSI, OECD)

Soft power and technological sovereignty in the 21st century (Matthew Clifford)

How Adam Curtis gets into your head* (Prospect)

How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million (Reuters)

Life & Times of: Audrey Tang (Digital Minister @ Taiwan) (The Taiwan Take - my interview from June 2020)

On the block: Could blockchain aid policing? (Tech Monitor)

Nesta's Strategy to 2030 (Nesta)

The Conundrum of Information Scarcity in a Time of Information Overload (Slate)

Opportunities

EVENT: ADR UK three years in: Harnessing the power of administrative data in the age of Covid-19 (ADR UK)

EVENT: Procurement after Brexit: a keynote speech by Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew (IfG)

JOB: Information Commissioner (DCMS)

JOB: Head of Data Science, INDEX (Cabinet Office)

More (via Owen)

FELLOWSHIP: Future policy for a future internet (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change)

And finally...

Charts, maps and dashboards

One way road to beer

The many chart crimes of *that* Citi bitcoin report* (FT - thread)

Hey Citi, your bitcoin report is embarrassingly bad* (FT)

What language am I reading? (Max Fras, Oystein H. Brekke, Dominik K. Cagara, Aron)

Music Borders (The Pudding)

Everything else

The Australien Government has made an ad about the new media legislation it just passed, and it's surprisingly honest and informative! (theJuiceMedia)

Data... (Dan Hon, via Giuseppe)

Unlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography (Nature Communications)

The Agile Theme Park. Scream when you have to sprint faster. (DESIGN THINKING! Comic)

The best image of Mars was made in 1965 (Thomas van Ryzewyk)

What will it be like when we go back to the office? (Reuters)

[aftaabmagazine]

The Wages

By Hamed Alipoor

Translated from Dari by Farhad Azad

From the January-March 2000 issue of  Afghan Magazine | Lemar-Aftaab

[caption: “Smokey Lights” by Farhad Azad, Place Pigalle, Paris France 2004]

The newly arrived immigrant story and its struggles are painted by Hamed Alipoor’s short story. 

God knows each day, perhaps more than a thousand times I walked through this restaurant. On each trip with an empty bus-tub, I would go to the end of the dining room of the restaurant and pick up dishes with leftovers, coffee cups, glasses of water and alcohol and a hundred other types of drinks. My job at the restaurant was a dishwasher and bus-boy.

It was interesting that I had come from a culture where a man didn't make that much money by cooking and cleaning, but here survival was by cooking and cleaning. Without this work, I would have had nothing.

Not counting the owner of the restaurant, who was there from open to close, seven other people worked in the dining room: Black, White, Chinese, Hispanic, Iranian and Afghan. In the kitchen, where I worked the most, there was a cook, his assistant and I. The noise of pots and pans, the cooking of the soup and the running water of the sink all mixed in the air. In addition to that, no one talked to anyone else. Everyone was busy with his or her work.

The owner of the restaurant was a rich, talkative Iranian man. From time to time, he would drink and in his state of drunkenness, he would give me long lectures about how this wealth was not given to him from the air and was not inherited from his father.

He would say, "Like you, I worked very hard until I got myself here."

I don't know why he would lecture me like this. Was it that he wanted me to work harder and better for him or did he want to support the reality that I faced?

My uncle was the owner's friend. And it was my uncle who after a week of my arrival in America, took me to the restaurant and got me this job. From the first day, I didn't like it. This job was hard to favor for a man who in his entire life had not washed a cup, glass or dish.

This was the first time I had seen the kitchen of a restaurant. I couldn't imagine how this little kitchen could feed all the customers. All the employees were under an ill-humored man who was called a "manager". In working hours, we would work like machines. The only thing we could do was think.

I never would have guessed that in America they had pots like these! These pots reminded me of my brother's wedding in Afghanistan. It reminded me of the cook whom we called Agha Lala. Although he looked like a very cold, dry man, once you got to know him, he was a very kind, wise person.

Here, you could not cook "plauw". In this pot, they cooked something similar to a "shor-ba", and it was called "soup". The soup was enough for hundreds of people and made thousands of dollars for the owner of the restaurant. At the end of the night, it was poor me who had to wash these pots, pans, ladles, and bowls. I didn't discuss my discontent and accepted this with myself.

I heard from many people that their first job in America was at a gas station or a dishwasher like me who worked 60 to 70 hours a week and so forth. Before I could discuss my work with them, I was obligated to listen to their repetitious sad stories. My ears were very full of their talk and my pockets very empty. And this was my reason for keeping this job. Having a wife and child was not a small responsibility. I was not a child who did not feel the condition I was in, but I hated my job.

I felt that America had presented me something bad. After all, I was a writer and poet for many years. I had been in this field and had finished my schooling. But I knew that to boast and talk about myself did not matter here, and discussion on the subject of poetry and arts for many people was laughable or a sign of lunacy. I had once borrowed from a friend the book, "No One Knows in the West", and in three nights finished the book. Now, I knew what it was about.

Nevertheless, this job was better than no job, which equaled to no pay. I was waiting to receive my first paycheck. And with it, I wanted to buy clothes, pencils, and notebooks for my five-year-old son to get him ready for kindergarten and to get my wife money for transportation to go to the city college for language classes. If after all the expenses, there was still some money left, I wanted to buy some things for the home.

I worked seven days a week from two in the afternoon until eleven at night. The owner of the restaurant knew that with my limited English, I couldn't find better work. For this reason, even if I worked harder, he would not give me a raise.

My wife always said, "Mr. Javid, the owner, has found a helpless person to use."

I always agreed with her but didn't say anything.

I didn't own a car, yet. I had told myself that the first car that I would buy would be for my wife. For hours, my wife and I would study the driver's guidebook, although at the time we didn't know the rules of driving.

The restaurant that I worked at was a long way from home. And I couldn't take the bus the whole way. First I had to walk about two miles to the bus stop. I waited 15-20 minutes for the bus, which would take me 45 minutes to the closest stop to the restaurant. When I got off the bus, I would then walk for 20 minutes or more to get to the restaurant.

At any rate, I would leave home at around 12:30 PM and get home at one in the morning or later. I would always tell my wife not to wait up for me and sleep, but she wouldn't listen. She would be half-awake until my arrival. For these reasons, this job at the restaurant was taking my life.

At that time of the night, the bus home was empty. The people I saw on the bus where the same people sitting in the same seats as the night before and their manners never changed from the previous night. I felt that we all had become a part of the bus.

There was a fat Black woman who like me was returning from a hard job; she would fall asleep on the bus. Every time the driver stopped the bus rocked. She would move a little, open her eyes and after a few seconds, she would fall asleep again.

There was a young man, perhaps a student, who always carried a school bag and a book in his hand. He would sit on the first seat and be deep in his studies. His real focus was on his book, and he never looked outside or at the other passengers. I didn't know how he knew the bus arrived at his stop.

Usually, I sat in the middle of the bus and gazed at the stores and streets. I was always thinking of my various problems, which yielded no results.

The rest of the bus didn't change much every night with the exception of a few drunken fools. Some of them slept on the long seats at the back of the bus; they spoke loudly to themselves. Sometimes young girls with babies would get on the bus. Sometimes other women would come in; God only knew what they did.

The bus driver was a friendly, elderly man. From time to time, he would look from his back mirror at the passengers who were being loud. He would look and say, "Control yourselves!"

The noisy people would listen to the driver, but after a few minutes of silence, they would become loud again.

I still am haunted by the memories of that night. It was the night of June 11th, and it was 15 days since the start of my work. I got my first pay, which consisted of one-dollar and five-dollar bills. The owner very slowly counted the money in front of me. I counted the money myself. It was $225.00. I put the money in a wallet that my uncle had given me. I thought about which needs of life I could first embrace with this money.

However, I knew before everything else, I had to take care of the needs of my child who was enrolled in kindergarten. I needed to buy him clothes, a school bag, and some toys.

They had told me many times, and I knew; in America, you should never carry too much cash with you because there was always a chance of being robbed.

But I couldn't help it because the arrangement between the owner was to pay me in cash twice a month. When my work was finished, my appearance was unkempt and shabby. No one could have imagined that I had any money.

When I got off the bus at 12:30 AM and headed for home, I felt very thirsty. It was the first time that I wanted something to drink at this time of the night. I entered the first store that was on my way.

Inside the store, there were a few young men who without any interest were looking at various magazines. When a customer came inside with the ring of the door, they would look at the customer and talk among themselves and laugh. I knew it was best to pretend not to notice these young men. Whenever I found trouble anywhere, I tried to change my path. I tried to do that here by swallowing my pride, saying my prayers and heading my way.

I got my drink, took out my wallet and paid the store owner.

All day long, I was running around at work and was very exhausted. My body was full of sweat. I quickly drank; it felt good.

I wanted to get home quickly. After a few feet, I heard the sound of a car halting. Some young men called out from the car, "He is by himself, he is by himself!"

I looked and was not scared. But this street was known for its high crime rate. However, in the middle of the night, wouldn't you be scared of a group of young men?

They quickly got out of the car. I thought that I had seen one of them a few minutes ago in the store. He seemed very cruel. He had a bottle of liquor in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth. Another one called out with profane language, which I didn't really understand.

He then said to me, "If you want to live, give me your wallet!"

People always warned me of this, and now this was happening to me so soon! I thought for a second, if I got in a fight with these drunk guys, perhaps I could quickly run away. But I realized that in these situations, in my country, physical fights would have already started by now.

I slowly gave my wallet to the young man who had yelled at me. He continued to yell and curse. The only thing that I understood was that they would have beaten the hell out of me. The car quickly drove away. I saw two other people far behind me who had seen the whole incident from a distance, but they had turned into another street.

A few minutes later, I started to head home. At once, my eyes were full of tears. The tears of a man are tears of true pain. My tears were not for the money but for my helplessness. I felt that they had raped me, and I couldn't do anything. They not only stole my wages, but they stole my pride as well. They took away my hopes in this place. I thought about my five-year-old child who was quietly asleep and my wife who was half asleep awaiting my arrival. My tears dried. And I walked home.

This short story was published on Caravan (issue number 61). Permission for translation was granted by Caravan Publications.

[newstfionline]

A Father’s Love: The Story of Charles and Anne

Dr. Samuel Gregg, Catholic World Report, April 26, 2017

When it comes to failed governments in our time, it’s hard to ignore French President François Hollande’s administration. This, however, hasn’t stopped his government from making the type of last-minute defiant gesture beloved of administrations whose days are numbered.

In Hollande’s case, it has taken the form of effectively banning pro-life websites that don’t explicitly identify themselves as pro-life. This follows a 2016 ruling by France’s Conseil d’État endorsing a broadcasting tribunal’s 2014 decision to prohibit a commercial portraying Down Syndrome children as joyful individuals loved by their parents because it might distress those who chose to terminate an unborn disabled child.

Reflecting upon these developments, I couldn’t help thinking how much France owes to one particular Down Syndrome child: a young girl who struggled to speak, needed assistance to walk, and who died of pneumonia at the age of 20 cradled in her father’s arms. Anne de Gaulle’s father, however, was no ordinary man.

Charles de Gaulle was surely the twentieth century’s greatest Frenchman. Yet for all his achievements, the ultimate drama of de Gaulle’s life was his helpless daughter. What Anne gave to him, however, was immeasurable. As de Gaulle confided to a priest at the beginning of his lonely crusade in 1940 to save France’s honor, “for me, this child is a grace, she is my joy, she helps me to look beyond all the failures and honors, and always to look higher.”

Charles de Gaulle was an austere individual, one who consciously cultivated distance from others. 47 years after his death, however, we know much more about the private man. Thanks to the publication of memoirs, especially those of his son Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, the General emerges as a man who, like many French army officers of his background, found solace in his Catholic faith and a closely-knit family.

By the time he reached his mid-30s, de Gaulle had settled into a milieu in which his faith, family and profession provided many of the certainties required for an ambitious man intent upon shaking up a political and military establishment committed to obsolete ideas. All this was shattered on 1 January 1928 when Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle’s third child was born. Within a few months, it became apparent that Anne was severely disabled.

It’s important to remember that this was an era in which disabled children were neither seen nor heard in polite company. Down Syndrome children were referred to as “mongols.” Some even speculated that the condition resulted from alcoholism or some form of impropriety on the parents’ part. It wasn’t until 30 years after Anne de Gaulle’s birth that another devout French Catholic, Professor Jerome Lejeune, and his research team discovered that Down Syndrome was caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

In the 1930s, it was common for French families to place disabled children permanently in hospitals that were woefully ill-equipped to care them. Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle, however, refused to send Anne to live with, as he would say, “strangers.” In de Gaulle’s words, “God has given her to us. We must take responsibility for her, wherever she is and whatever she will be.”

The de Gaulles worked hard to build a place for, to use de Gaulle’s expression, “a child who is not like the others” in their family. From all accounts, Yvonne de Gaulle adopted a matter-of-fact approach. She focused on the practicalities of caring for a disabled child. Charles de Gaulle’s contribution was to envelop Anne in a web of affection. According to his son, de Gaulle wanted to give Anne the assurance that he loved her just as much as her older brother and sister--that her disability meant nothing to him.

The tall army officer infamous for his air of haughty disdain as leader of Free France during World War II and later as French President didn’t hesitate to unbend to play on the floor with Anne. De Gaulle sang to Anne, told her stories, and even allowed her to play with one of his most treasured possessions: his officer’s kepi hat. De Gaulle also said prayers with Anne in the evening. Painstakingly, she would repeat each word after her father. “You see,” de Gaulle proudly informed his relatives, “she knows her prayers!”

When away on army business, de Gaulle constantly inquired about Anne’s well-being. On one occasion, Anne had an operation while he was absent on maneuvers. De Gaulle telephoned incessantly to ask if she was in pain, whether the procedure had succeeded, what the doctors were saying, etc. Anne seems to have been aware of just how much she meant to her father. Her first governess recalled that Anne adored him and would be visibly upset when his responsibilities took de Gaulle away from his family.

Though the de Gaulles valued their privacy, they didn’t view Anne as an embarrassment. There are pictures of her standing awkwardly with members of the de Gaulles’ extended family. Most striking, however, is a photo of Anne taken at a beach in Brittany in 1933. She is sitting on her father’s lap. He, dressed in a homburg hat and three-piece suit, gently holds her hands as the five year-old girl looks intensely into her father’s eyes. It’s an image of unconditional love.

While Anne lived, the de Gaulles took her everywhere with them. That included less-than-hospitable locations such as the French mandate in Syria and Lebanon. De Gaulle was posted there in 1929, partly because some of his superiors wanted to sideline an officer who asked awkward questions about France’s readiness for the next war. There was, however, no question of leaving Anne behind. Instead she went with them, with the de Gaulles hiring a full-time governess to help them care for Anne.

There was, of course, a cost to all this. Though Charles de Gaulle came from a minor aristocratic family and his wife from an upper-middle class background, the de Gaulles were not wealthy. His modest army pay was their main source of income. Hiring full-time help was subsequently an enormous financial liability, but one they didn’t hesitate to assume.

This brings into focus another factor of which Charles de Gaulle was undoubtedly aware: how the National Socialist regime treated the disabled. Eugenics was part and parcel of the Nazi view of the world (and most Western liberal opinion for decades). And, as the Nazis made clear right from the beginning, the disabled had no place in a National Socialist world. They were lebensunwertes leben (life unworthy of life).

Starting in September 1939, the Nazi government began removing Down Syndrome children and infants suffering from other disabilities from their parents. These children were taken to “health facilities” and killed by lethal injection or gas poisoning. In the name of “racial health” and other eugenics nonsense, the regime murdered thousands of disabled children. Among them was a 15 year-old Down Syndrome cousin of the future pope, Joseph Ratzinger.

This would have been Anne de Gaulle’s fate if she had ever fallen into Nazi hands. Although de Gaulle never referenced it specifically, it’s likely that the brutal treatment of the disabled was one of the things he had in mind when referring to the evil of the Nazi regime. When de Gaulle refused to surrender in 1940 and was branded a traitor by France’s political and military elites, it was certainly the act of an intensely patriotic man unwilling to accept his country’s abasement by the Nazis. But de Gaulle’s act of resistance also concerned safeguarding his defenseless daughter from those who viewed her as sub-human.

Like many Down Syndrome children, Anne de Gaulle died at an early age. Her brother Philippe recollects arriving at his parents’ house in 1948 to find the entire residence immersed in silence. No one, he writes, dared to say anything to his grief-stricken father. Anne was subsequently buried in the cemetery at the de Gaulles’ parish church in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. After attending their regular Sunday Mass and always on the anniversary of her death, Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle would visit Anne’s grave. 22 years after she died, her father was laid to rest beside Anne. Her mother joined them in 1979.

That, however, wasn’t the end of the story. Back in October 1945, the de Gaulles raised enough money from private donors to buy the chateau de Vert-Cœur in the department of Yvelines, not far from Paris. They then began creating a home for intellectually disabled girls. A few months after Anne’s death, the Fondation Anne-de-Gaulle opened its doors at the chateau. Staffed by nuns, funded by the considerable royalties generated by de Gaulle’s memoirs, and presided over by Yvonne de Gaulle until her death, the Foundation continues to serve the disabled today.

One of Charles de Gaulle’s biographers, the late Jean Lacouture, records him as once saying, “Without Anne, I could never perhaps have done what I did. She gave me the heart and the inspiration.” In that sense, the man of June 18 and his beloved pauvre petite Anne teach us something which we are tempted to forget--that all of us can find strength in weakness and that nothing is more powerful than self-giving love.

[endeavor-to-blog]

WHAT MAKES A GREAT GENERAL? AND WHO ARE THE 5 MOST FINEST GENERALS OF THE MODERN ERA OF WARFARE?

WHAT MAKES A GENERAL GREAT?

Peace Through Strength! Time tested and proven. Societies that weaken themselves militarily always are victims of outside aggression. But even having a competent military doesn’t always guarantee dominance. Effectiveness on the use of the Military is determined by the very few people who controls the lives of thousands if not millions of soldiers during/not during the times of harm’s way.

My Guidelines of calling a General GREAT are:

A. PATRIOTIC - Firstly they should be entirely patriotic and dedicated to the ideals and peoples of their country. When called to duty they remain single minded to the defense and protection of the country and its people.

B. LEADERSHIP - The ability to harness his military in unison and keep the morale of the men high is imperative. Leadership styles differ and can all produce results, but a General who leads from the front in the battlefield together with his men, earns a greater respect. Inevitably he is a soldier first, before being a General.

C. AWARENESS - To be basic, being familiar with all aspects of the battle, which includes Terrain, Time of engagement, State of troops, Arsenals, etc.

D. STRATEGIST - A good general knows the capabilities of his Military, their strengths and weaknesses etc, but a Great general knows that of his enemy. Strategising a plan and believing it will work, to neutralize the enemy, instills confidence in the troops.

COUNTDOWN TO THE 5 MOST FINEST GENERALS OF THE MODERN ERA OF WARFARE (UNDER MY ASSESSMENT)

There are a lot of notable Generals that made history during the modern era of warfare... I’m talking about the warfare wherein battles are fought by projectile weaponry. But in this blog, I’m going to enumerate only the BEST 5 GENERALS of the Modern Era (Based on my Assessments) With each of the contenders holding their own exemplary resume, the profound judgement of my enumeration were based on levels of Military Thinking and battles from which their thinking is applied and defined their careers.

1. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (1769-1821)

A Great General is not judged through the battles from which he lost. But rather, from the battles that he shouldn’t have won. And from DAY 1 in Power, Napoleon Bonaparte beat the odds. Weighing in at his military career, he was more than just a Great General. He was the embodiment of the French Revolution. The Highlight of his military career first came through with his successful domination over Italy. From the rank of Second Lieutenant, he rose from obscurity and became the Marshall of the French Army at 1799.

Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz is a perfect example of why he's considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time. It's considered his most historic triumph, the obliteration of a larger army consisting of both Russian and Austrian troops. The battle that ended the War of the Third Coalition (of which there were seven in the Napoleonic wars, that's right, seven coalitions formed to end the threat of Republican and later Imperial France) and also dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. This made Napoleon Bonaparte a Nightmare! He defeated Empires that shouldn’t have been defeated.

But even after the greatest victory at Austerlitz and the setback at Battle of Trafalgar, his military victories continued. He brilliantly defeated the Prussians against the Fourth Coalition. But he started to believe in his invincibility and sowed seeds of his fall. His victories convinced him so, but his enemies began to study his victories and started using the same daring and brilliant attacks against him. He still continued to win and didn't realize the limits of his military capabilities (Remember what I said in the previous topic of my blog). The not so militarily strong Spain and Portugal rebelled against him. He thought he could crush them into submission. His marshals did everything to defeat the Spanish, but didn't quite succeed completely. His enemies realized that he can be defeated and grew more audacious.

When the Russians didn't go along with him in the Continental system, he made the first stupid move of deciding to attack the Russians during winter. In fact he didn't intend to fight them during winter, but didn't bother to see that as a possibility. When the Russians denied the outright victory he was seeking, he dig his political grave deeper. He pursued Russian army further and went deeper into strategic trouble.

Here it comes the battle of Waterloo. A do or die battle of his career. He eventually lost, and was captured by a United British and Russian Coalition. The Fifth Coalition of the War. He was then exiled to St. Helena Isaland till his death in 1821.

2. GENERAL ERWIN ROMMEL “DESSERT FOX” (1891-1944)

Perhaps the GREATEST GENERAL ADOLF HITLER EVER HAD. Gen. Rommel is an excellent strategist. He led the Africa Campaign and from that he first grabbed the spotlight. His reputation was so respected even the British and American generals feared his daring tactics and fearsome character throughout the war. At the beginning of his Africa Campaign, He brought series after series of victories for Adolf Hitler. Occupying town after town and annihilating Divisions after Divisions of Allied Forces led by then British General Bernard Montgomery. His victories went infinite until he finally reached the isolated North African town of El Alamein. His original plan was to invade all of the North Africa and pushed through the Turkish country to occupy the oil fields for the Third Reich. But his plan was destroyed during the battle of El Alamein. Where he finally realized that his enemy knew his favorite military tactic: the “Flanking Maneuver”. He then faced a new ground commander - Gen. George S. Patton. To make matters worse, he was so desperate for another victory, he committed almost all of what forces he had for the battle of El Alamein. That battle sealed his fate and eventually he and his forces were overthrowed out of the African continent by 1942.

Although defeated, he had the chance of redemption. Hitler appointed him as the overall commander of Nazi Germany’s western front. Where he excellently master planned a strategy to fortify the coastlines along the Normandy beaches. Despite the insanity to fortify all of the western front’s coasts, he achieved the unachievable. but it doesn’t mean that his plans were invincible. Eventually the Allies landed at the Normandy beaches during June 20 1944. That day was called “D DAY”. Within a few hours, almost all of the Normandy defences were silenced. Putting a major disappointment to his boss - Adolf Hitler. Yet it is to give of utmost importance that Gen. Erwin Rommel held the Allies for months later at the war. Buying Hitler some time to reassess the tide of war during the turning point of World War 2. CONSTANT VICTORIES, GENIUS STRATEGIES, STALLING SCHEMES, BUYING TIME FOR COUNTEROFFENSIVES, STRIKING A FEARSOME REPUTATION to the enemy was INVALUABLE to this man. Placing him at #2 for the TOP 5 GENERALS of the Modern Era of Warfare. Eventually, he was forced to take suicide by Adolf Hitler at the final months of the war.

3. GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON (1885-1945)

The reason I placed Gen. George Patton at the #3 spotlight is because of the fact that he had greater ways of military thinking and military achievement combined with lots of experiences far beyond than that of his superior Generals: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. Douglas McArthur. His military career first rose to spotlight during the US-Mexico War. With victories resulting to the U.S acquiring additional states which are present day, States of: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and Utah.

Going in to the second world war, he is the only Allied General to have the guts to face the enemy at the front lines.notorious for his nickname “Bandit”. Normally this is very rare since Generals typically avoid battles and commonly stays at a SAFE TENT miles away from the front line. This made him legendary and earned much more respect from his soldiers compared to his superiors. Gen Patton personally laid out a strategy to beat Gen. Rommel during the North African Campaign. Nevertheless, he succeeded because the odds were overwhelmingly in favor to him. After that he pioneered the liberation of Italy against dictator Benito Mussolini (Best Friend of Adolf Hitler).

He became controversial when he slapped a soldier at a medical tent for not going to a battle because the soldier he slapped was diagnosed with “War Mental Disorder”. Ironically, the soldier he slapped was assigned to his superior General: Dwight D. Eisenhower. Drawing outrage on his behalf. Furious, Dwight Eisenhower removed Gen. Patton out of active duty.

Later then, the British and American Generals realized that they need Gen. Patton to win the war. His highest promotion later came and made him a 4 star General. The greatest plan he successfully  put up to place was the carrying out of a Normandy diversion “Operation Fortitude”. Which he successfully deceived Adolf Hitler by spreading false news about the Allied landing locations that will trigger the turning point of the war in favor to the Allies.

Deceiving Adolf Hitler, Defeating Benito Mussolini’s Army, Going toe to toe with Gen. Erwin Rommel, and making his superior generals envy of him. Were crucial points of him gaining the credibility for the 3rd place of the Top 5 generals of the Modern Era of Warfare.

4. GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP (1911-2013)

Considering the background he came from, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap was a GENIUS as a STRATEGIST, a MILITARY TACTICIAN AND LOGISTICIAN  who put together very limited resources to defeat much larger and stronger invaders. He is by far and away, the most under-recognized military leader of the 20th century. He developed and implemented the strategy and tactics to prevent an American victory in the Vietnam War. He was successful, as history states. He was quoted in a biography that in 1973, when the US pulled out its last remaining combat units, that North Vietnam only had 14 year-old as draft-ready males, because the rest had been killed in the war. Therefore, Saigon did not fall until 1975.

He trained a civilian army starting from almost nothing, and successfully fought and broke the will of France, and then later, the United States, in Vietnam. He also fought against Japanese forces towards the end of World War II and advised on strategy in fighting off a Chinese invasion in 1979, and was involved in planning the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea in 1978. In all cases, he was able to win not by defeating his enemy invaders outright on the battlefield, but by stretching out the war and making it intolerably long for his enemy invaders.

Not only this, but he fought for more than 40 years!

He is not as well-known and respected in the west because:

He is not western; and fought against two of the great western powers;

Many perceive him as ruthless and not caring for human lives and losses; but having the militarily weaker power, he had to be willing to trade lives for time. I believe that this was the only winning strategy which would have led to the final unification of Vietnam.

He was and is a dedicated member of the Vietnamese Communist party.

I Can't think of any other modern general who accomplished so much with so little and against such odds. He is like a GOD of Strategical Warfare.

5. ADOLF HITLER (1889-1945)

He had no systematically acquired military knowledge, except for his experiences as a private in WW1. Never went to a Military academy unlike the 4 previous Generals. But he was able to conquer Europe through his revolutionary Military tactic at the Time: The “BLITZKRIEG”. Ladies and Gentlemen I present a successful Military Lunatic with a competent army at the time - Adolf Hitler.

Bringing Hitler to my list isn’t an easy decision. FRANKLY, He is a mess. I could’ve replaced him with Gen. Washington, Gen. Cornwallis, Gen. Schwarzkopf, and many more contenders to my list. But what made me brought Hitler here is his charisma. How he rose from power with nothing but the use of Politics. Personally, he should be the perfect example of what politicians should be. Minus the Lunacy and Genocidal thinking.

His spotlight to my list started with the battle for Poland. yet, Poland was easy to run over. The odds were in his favour. The recklessness was more in calling English and French bluffs to intervene. The generals were very sceptical of this. The invasion of France, was an immense success for him, but not at all a foregone conclusion. France was one of the serious military powers. German generals had a lot of respect for her and were not at all happy to take her on. But it worked out and of course catapulted his reputation into new spheres. What you begin to see from these experiences is that he gains moral ground over the advice of his generals. He seems to know better. The attack on the Soviet Union was then another campaign that started with unimaginable successes on an operational level. But strategically it was total craziness. One important decision he made was to hold the line after the battle in front of Moscow and not retreat in 1941, again overruling his generals. The decision arguably was the correct one, because the Germans could hold the line. But it was less informed by military knowledge than by ideology. There are numerous other examples like this. Some of his decisions were wrong too, I am sure, but in the context of great successes, nobody paid attention. So up until, I guess, 1943 his ego and image was confirmed by pretty spectacular victories. When the tide turned, however, it became clear that he couldn't really handle adversity. Fair weather general that he was, he started playing the "I knew it better than you before" card against his generals and made decisions on a local level against the sound advice of his staff, for instance to hold ground when he was emphatically advised to withdraw by the true experts. And increasingly he started to mistrust the generals, who were  (in his mind which grew ever more paranoid) somehow stealing his victory by incompetence or worse: subversion. (Stalin, on the other hand, it has to be noted stopped to interfere on an operational level, when he realised what damage his purges had done.) Was he good as a military strategist? He was a lunatic with a competent army - a bad combination. He had an uncompromising "all or nothing" approach to a subject that lives from flexibility and adaptability. His ways did neither serve himself nor his people and not even his ideology either. The latter is what we should be thankful for.

THAT BRINGS ME TO THE END OF MY MOST LONGEST BLOG AS OF YET.

NO PLAGIARISMS WERE MADE DIGITALLY, GRAPHICALLY, AND MECHANICALLY. THANK YOU FOR READING!

[lorineliem-blog]

March for Our Lives : thousands join anti-gun protests around the world

Hundreds of thousands of students joined the pro-gun control March for Our Lives rallies across the US in one of the largest expressions of popular opposition in the modern era.

Events have been taking place at more than 800 locations around the world – including London, Sydney, Tokyo, Mumbai, plus hundreds of places in the US.

In Washington, as the number of young, diverse and impassioned protesters swelled along Pennsylvania Avenue, many carried signs reading “We are the change”, “No more silence” and “Keep NRA money out of politics”.Organizers said they hoped their protest would be one of the biggest in the capital since the Vietnam era, and it was clear they had been careful to create a diverse, inclusive group of speakers.Along with survivors from the attack in Parkland, Florida, who have galvanized the new push for gun reform, speakers included young victims of gun violence from around America. They sang, they chanted, and they challenged their parents’ generation to be effective in eliminating gun violence from society.Edna Chavez, 17, from Manual Arts high school in Los Angeles, took the stage with a raised fist and spoke powerfully about her brother, who was killed by gun violence. “I have learned to duck from bullets before I learned to read.” She led the crowd to chant his name, “Ricardo! Ricardo!”Trevon Bosley, a high school student from Chicago whose brother was killed, said: “I’m here to speak for those youth who fear they may be shot while going to the gas station, the movies, the bus stop, to church or even to and from school. I’m here to speak for those Chicago youth who feel their voices have been silenced for far too long.”Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King, told the crowd: “I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun-free world, period.”She then asked the crowd to repeat back her words: “Spread the word, have you heard? All across the nation. We are going to be a great generation.”She led the chant three times, encouraging the crowd to repeat her words “so the whole world can hear”.Shortly before the end of the event, Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez – who had been a leading voice immediately after the attack on her school – took to the stage for six minutes and 20 seconds, much of that in silence. She said it was the amount of time it took a school shooter to kill 17 people at her school in Florida last month.As the students gathered, Donald Trump was whisked by motorcade to his West Palm Beach golf club. Trump later tweeted support for “the victims of the horrible attack in France yesterday” but did not mention the rallies on Twitter. A White House statement read: “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their first amendment rights today. Keeping our children safe is a top priority of the president’s, which is why he urged Congress to pass the Fix NICS and STOP School Violence Acts, and signed them into law.”The administration also drew attention to some minor reforms the president has called for, including a move by the justice department on Friday to ban bump stocks, the accessory that allows rifles to mimic the rapid fire of automatic weapons. 'We want our voices to be heard': March for Our Lives protesters in their own words Read moreThe NRA stayed silent on the student gatherings. But outside the FBI headquarters in Washington, about 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of the FBI headquarters, standing quietly with signs such as “Armed victims live longer” and “Stop violating civil rights”.Veteran civil rights leader John Lewis said the protests reminded him of the early days of the civil rights era. “I think it’s amazing,” Lewis said. “They will be the leaders of the 21st century.”In one of the first speeches, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior Delaney Tarr told the crowd of the students’ demands, including background checks and a ban on assault weapons. “When you give us an inch, that bump stocks ban, we will take a mile,” she said. “We are not here for breadcrumbs, we are here to lead.”Earlier, the Guardian spoke to Cassie Pearce, 17, who had ridden in her school bus for 10 hours from Manchester, Vermont, with dozens of her classmates. Clutching a sign that read “I should be writing my college essay, not my will”, Pearce said: “I’m here because enough is enough. We have a right to be heard. We don’t want to be killed in school.”In a meeting with lawmakers in the aftermath of Parkland, the president had signalled support for stronger background checks on gun purchases and raising the minimum age for buying high-powered rifles. But the NRA staunchly opposed these measures and Trump appears to have abandoned the proposals.A group of student journalists from the Stoneman Douglas newspaper, the Eagle Eye, were invited to guest-edit the Guardian’s US website this weekend. Eleven students covered the rally in Washington, interviewing other survivors of gun violence from Stoneman Douglas and elsewhere.Parkland student Jordan Khayyami, 15, said: “I think that legislatures should be aware that the next generation of voters is right in front of them so if they don’t want to promote change then we will vote for change.”The scenes of thousands of students on the streets was overwhelming to many of the victims of gun violence who attended the Washington rally. “I did not expect this. I’m still astounded,” said Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was one of the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012. “To me, it looks like our entire nation is finally on board.”Barden has spent five years pushing for stricter gun control laws, first with the support of Barack Obama’s White House, then continuing when gun control again dropped off the national agenda.While the day was focused on the youth, Sir Paul McCartney stood in solidarity with marchers in New York’s Central Park and referred to John Lennon’s fatal shooting outside his apartment building in 1980. “One of my best friends was killed by gun violence right around here, so it’s important to me not just to march today but to take action tomorrow and to have these people to have their voices heard,” he told CNN.There were, however, a number of counter-protests in some cities. AP reported that in Salt Lake City, Utah, about 500 pro-gun marchers walked to the state capitol building, though they were far outnumbered by an estimated 15,000 gun control marchers there.Thousands attend event at Parkland, FloridaAdvertisementWhile classmates are rallying in Washington, thousands more Stoneman Douglas survivors, their families and supporters were among tens of thousands gathering in Parkland, Florida, the scene of last month’s shooting.More than 20,000 attended to listen to the speeches from the amphitheater at Pine Trails Park before walking the mile south to Stoneman Douglas high school. “Parkland is a family. And when our family is hurting, we all come together,” said Liam Kiernan, a 15-year-old Parkland 10th-grader. “We become stronger because we feel we’re all one person.”Max Schachter, the father of Alex, a 14-year-old Stoneman Douglas marching band musician, broke down in tears as he recalled how his son enjoyed playing basketball with his older brother and teaching his little sister “to become a better trombone player”. Schachter said that on 13 February he was like any other parent, wanting his children to be happy and get good grades. Then the Valentine’s Day shooting happened.“Since the day that changed my life, I will not stop fighting for change,” he said.Additional reporting by staff of the Eagle Eye, Edward Helmore and Richard Luscombe in Parkland, Florida

We have big hope about next generation, we agree with they chooice to make gun illegal. We appreciate what they already do for us, in case no more problem like that happen next time.

[le-reactionnaire-blog]

@colonialism discourse

you know at one point somebody like lawrence durrell could move to alexandria as if it were prague, live a healthy and happy productive enough life there to publish four novels taking place there without any fear?

that many cities upon the nile were thriving cosmopolitan metropolises that even housed many jews that escaped from greece (there aren’t a lot of jews in egypt anymore)

here’s a little excerpt from lucette lagnado on returning to liberated egypt:

As my car pulled into Suleiman Pasha Square in the heart of downtown Cairo, I spotted it immediately -- Groppi's, the patisserie that was really so much more: A palace of pleasure, the hub of elegant European social life, the city at its most vibrant and cosmopolitan. It seemed exactly as I remembered it when I'd last seen it as a little girl more than 40 years earlier, its name in that charming old-fashioned scrawl, the entrance covered by colorful mosaics and, inside, the same cool, high-ceilinged, marble elegance and pale pink walls. Or maybe not the same. The shelves were almost bare. No one stood in line at the ancient cash register. The few trays of pastries, which seemed neither French nor Middle Eastern, looked thoroughly unappetizing. The dining area had dozens of tables and almost no diners. I was only six when my family left Egypt in 1963, among tens of thousands of Jews forced to leave in a modern-day exodus. After we fled, first to Paris then New York, I grew up on a diet of stories about our lost life. Many featured Groppi's: Part pastry-shop, part paradise, a favorite of kings, colonialists and privileged Cairenes. Now, Groppi's was like the rest of Cairo -- a museum to a bygone era.

but what about leopold an the belgian congo? tragedy, you probably know everything there is to know about it

what about the congo for the 52 years after the Free State was abolished?  silence, but here’s a snapshot of it from a TIME magazine article in 1955:

The Congo is King Baudouin's richest, widest realm. It is eighty times the size of the mother country, and half again as populous. Booming Congo exports provide the dollars and pounds that make the Belgian franc one of the world's hardest currencies. Belgians drink Congo coffee, wear shirts made of Congo cotton, wash them with soap made from Congo palm kernels. Without the mighty Congo, little Belgium might go broke; with it, a nation of 9,000,000 still counts as a world empire. To novelist Joseph Conrad, the Congo River was "an immense snake uncoiled" curving through "joyless sunshine into the heart of darkness." There was plenty of darkness in the Congo during the 19th-century "scramble for Africa," when Baudoin's great-granduncle, Leopold II, staked out his monarchical claim to the uncharted Congo Free State. Leopold's rubber gatherers tortured, maimed and slaughtered until at the turn of the century, the conscience of the Western world forced Brussels to call a halt. Today, all has changed. Nowhere in Africa is the Bantu so well fed and housed, so productive and so content as he is in the Belgian Congo. In little more than a generation of intense economic effort, the Belgians have injected 20 centuries of Western mechanical progress into a Stone Age wilderness. The results are staggering: in forests, where 50 years ago there were no roads because the wheel was unknown, no schools because there was no alphabet, no peace because there was neither the will nor the means to enforce it, the sons of cannibals now mine the raw materials of the Atomic Age. Belgian brains and Bantu muscle have thrust back the forest and checked the dread diseases (yaws, sleeping sickness, malaria) which sapped the Bantu's strength. In some areas, the Congo's infant-mortality rate is down to 60 per 1,000—better than Italy's figure. More than 1,000,000 children attend primary and secondary schools—40% of the school-age population (compared with less than 10% in the French empire). The Belgians taught the Bantu to run bulldozers, looms and furnaces, to rivet ships, drive taxis and trucks. Girls with grotesque tribal markings etched into their ebony foreheads sell in shops, teach in schools, nurse in hospitals. Already thousands of natives in the Congo's bustling cities earn $100-$150 a month —more than most workers in Europe, and small fortunes by African standards. They buy sewing machines, phonographs and bicycles in such profusion that Sears, Roebuck has recently put out a special Congo catalogue. The Belgians compare the Congo with the state of Texas, though in fact the Congo is bigger and far richer in its natural resources. The Congo's gross national product has tripled since 1939. Money is plentiful. Belgian investors take more than $50 million a year in dividends alone. Once the Congo depended exclusively on mining and farming; today it manufactures ships, shoes, cigarettes, chemicals, explosives and photographic film. With its immense reserves of hydroelectric power (a fifth of the world's total), the Belgians expect the Congo to become "the processing plant for all Africa." The Congo boom makes its cities grow like well-nourished bamboo shoots. In six years the Negro population of Elisabethville has jumped from 40,000 to 120,000, Costermansville from 7,000 to 25,000, Stanleyville from 25,000 to 48,000. But the pride of the Congo is Leopoldville (pop. 370,000), a bustling, modern metropolis that is spreading along the south bank of Stanley Pool (see map).

obviously, things have improved in the congo today from those dark times, Not.

decolonization was pretty crazy, if you ever take the time to notice, mostly because you see all the genocide that happened between the different ethnic groups in these countries. this is usually blamed on the lines on a map being drawn unrealistically, which i’m sure didn’t help, but its as if the people that carried out these genocides had no moral agency.

haven’t even mentioned mugabe or anything that’s happened in south africa these days.