the darkerside to rants

I spent Friday afternoon / evening at the annual Hopscotch Festival in Vancouver. It is essentially a “hangout” for people who like all things liquor.

The great start came with the annual “Great Whiskey Smoke” a precursor event to the actual access to the tasting hall. You get there at around 2:30 in the afternoon then have around three hours to socialise, eat food and drink before you get access to the tasting hall itself which has more liquor and food.

The event isn’t cheap / free of course, the Whiskey Smoke ticket is ~$120 and then you have to pay for the samples that you can get there, but what it does is put a pretty amazing amount of different booze and food into a tiny space that allows you to sample quite a variety for less than it would cost to sample the same amount in a restaurant or bar.

I have a photoset here from the event.

As with every year, the country has whipped itself into a “frenzy”, “remembering those who served our country”. By putting fake poppies on their lapels, and as a new fashion statement, onto their avatars on Twitter and Facebook et. al. Tomorrow they will be forgotten and people will continue the way they did before.

Otto Dix: Invalids

Well, not quite, those who went to war and fought in it are remembered.

Cities all over the country will have parades where soldiers march in lockstep with music and you can admire more than one “cool toy” (incidentally yesterday they released a new game: Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 which has lots of cool toys as well, but I will write about that at a different time).

Proponents of Remembrance Day are quick to point out that they don’t really (no really) support war, just that they are thankful for those who sacrificed themselves “for the country”.

So here is my question: Where are the days that remember the Firefighters, Police Officers, Paramedics etc.? Why don’t we have ambulances parade down the street with orchestras playing?

Oh, I am sure somewhere in the calendar someone put a “Paramedics Day” in there, but that will have as much resonance with the average person as “SysAdmin Day”. None.

Regardless on how people want to spin it, Remembrance Day is not about “honoring those who served” it is a marketing show that tells people that when we go to war it is for a just cause, and don’t you forget it, oh, and sign up here please.

Oh really?

Let’s take a quick stroll down history lane and see where Canada got involved and if it really was such a noble cause:

World War I:

Otto Dix Painting

As modern lore has it (there was even a movie about it last year), World War I was where Canada “was made”. I say modern lore here on purpose because having looked through some older newspapers / textbooks the interpretation that Canada was “made at Vimy Ridge” seems to be a rather new interpretation that is less than a decade old.

Let’s face it: as much as the modern Stereotype is that Austria-Hungary and the German Empire were the culprits in WWI the reality was not quite that black and white. But of course if you want to justify to have gone to war it must be “we are good, they are bad”, mix in some bravery and “birthplace of the nation” and you have created yourself a tale worthy of the Ring Cycle.

There are ample stories of people on both sides brokering a seize fire over the Winter Holidays and even exchanging gifts, so if the soldiers in the trenches could have a “good time” with the “evil enemy” then what exactly is left of the claimed nobility of WWI? Nothing.

People died on both sides, usually a horrible death, gassed, shot, crushed by tanks or torn to shreds by explosions or succumbing to infections due to trench foot and other ailments that were part of the daily “life” in the trenches on both sides.

World War II

Otto Dix: Flanders

Ah yes, in the Western World this is being billed as the fight of Good vs. Evil. Anybody who has read anything beyond the overall war (Nazi Germany Evil, Western Allies Good, and oh my God the Holocaust), would quickly realize that this was, once again, far from Black & White. WWII was about global politics, not about “defeating the evil Nazi Germany” or “saving the Jews”.

Two examples to illustrate this

A couple of people tried to flee Nazi Germany, they charter a ship, the SS St. Louis, it set sail from Hamburg to initially go to Cuba where the refugee’s wanted to wait until they could enter the United States.

When the St. Louis arrived in Cuba they were refused entry, so the ship turned north, trying to land in New York, again being refused entry the ship tried Halifax, where the Canadian Government refused entry for the ship and it’s refugees.

The situation in the end got so bad that the captain decided to run the ship aground and force the Canadian Government to take in the Refugees.

You can read the entire story of the St. Louis here.

The second example is about the Allies decision to not bomb the rail lines that were moving prisoners into concentration and death camps. The Resistance and their own intelligence network had made the Allied High Command aware of what was going on, they knew what the trains were being used for, but the decision was made that it wasn’t of “strategic importance” to prevent more people moved to slaughter.

You can read more about this here.

Lastly, there is of course the question as to what really lay behind WWII, much like WWI the answers aren’t as black and white, but I leave it up to you, if you are interested, to read through the historic documents of the time and come to your own conclusion.

But so much is pretty clear: It wasn’t about the death camps, the jews, the political opponents or the mentally disabled. It was, much like WWI, about who got to rule the world.

Korea

In that context Canada soldiered on and went into Korea, this was somewhat a bit different that it was a “UN Mission”, either way the war was as bloody and as useless as the other two engagements. It was once again not about “good vs. evil” but about “us vs. them” and them happened to be the Soviets and their man in Pyongyan.

After intense fighting the country ended up split in two parts, up to this day I might add, with a guy in power who got drunk on having stubbed the US and the West in the nose.

After Korea, Canada seemed to have smarted up a bit, under Pearson Canada came up with the role of “Peacekeeping” and for close to 40 years dedicated it’s military predominantly to that role. Just how “noble” even peacekeeping can be could be seen in the early nineties in Rwanda, where politics, not “nobility” or “humanity” won out.

I think the US ambassador to the UN made the most striking statement about the failure in Rwanda: “We have isolated reports of Genocide”, that was of course long after it had swept across the country. The cynicism and disregard for human life that the UN was supposed to protect is pretty staggering.

The reason why the US especially was trying so hard not to use the G word for so long was because the moment the UN recognizes a genocide the Security Council has to act. Not just by writing a stern note to the country that commits the genocide but by actively intervening. You know, the “noble war” thing. Of course this was shortly after the Somali mission that went tits up and the US didn’t want to get involved. So they avoided the issue for as long as they could, meanwhile hundreds of thousands were butchered in “isolated cases of genocide”.

And then there is Afghanistan. Canada (and Germany for the first time since WWII) are heavily involved on foreign soil. This isn’t a peacekeeping mission, this isn’t about “making things better”. Anybody who knows a little bit about the history of Afghanistan could have told you that the intervention would pretty much end up the way it did. Yet many countries, under the shock of 9/11, decided to commit troops to a cause that once again was sold to the populace as “noble” and “necessary”.

Of course if it really would have been about the terrorists who committed 9/11 Pakistan and Saudi Arabia would have been the targets they should have gone after, not a country that mainly existed in name and was essentially a loose collection of tribes that worked together when it furthered their need and who were at each others throat when it didn’t.

And in conclusion

Let’s be clear about one thing. War is not noble. Nobody ever died a noble death. There is no honor or nobility in death, regardless of what generals or politicians are trying to tell you.

Though there IS a need by the people in power and those who run the military to indoctrinate people to think that they are fighting the good fight and that it is a noble undertaking to put yourself in harms way for the “greater good”.

It is all Bullshit. War at times may be a necessity (in defense) but it is never a “noble cause” nor is it something we should admire or hold at high regard.

World politics was always made by old men and paid for in blood by the young. As long as we have had tribes we have sent (mostly) sons into harms way and rationalized it away with a noble cause or a necessity of some kind (if we don’t kill them, they will kill us).

No war ever started because of noble intentions, it started because the other group had something we wanted. Since WWI though we have perfected the ideal of the soldier who puts his or her life at risk to “serve his or her country” and elevated that service to a noble cause.

If people really want to remember those who we have sent into war to kill and be killed we should ask hard questions of those we have tasked administrating our country. We should make sure that we can defend ourselves if need be but do lack the ability to fight and offensive war and even then the military should be the option of “last resort” not the first one that comes to mind when a disagreement arises.

Remember that, next time you are in awe of large military machinery, play a military game, put a fake poppy on your lapel to “show your support” or shout of the top of your lungs that one “needs to support the troops”. The best way to remember the dead and support the troops is by not putting them into a situation where they have to kill or be killed.

Paintings are by Otto Dix.

This is a photo that “made itself” so to speak. After I posted the shot on flickr a few people commented that they had “seen it” but apparently nobody had taken it. Funny how that goes eh?

The interesting thing for me in the shot was the light as well as the way the modern architecture of the building I was in (a Chapters) contrasted with the Hotel Vancouver (to the left) and the Vancouver Art Gallery (to the center right).

This photo proofs again that you need to be at the right time at the right place with the right light to make a photo really work.

Last night I had a wonderful example on how limiting online communication can be.

The whole thing started out when I noticed that Raincoaster had a poppy on her Twitter Avatar. I sent her a (private) direct message on twitter saying (in my mind at least mockingly) that I was surprised she actually did show a poppy.

The reply that came back was essentially: “There are many things you don’t know about me.” Which is fine, I don’t. I continued in a (to me) sarcastic tone and replied:

Shocking, Raincoaster giving in to peer pressure AND promoting Groupthink.

And this is where things took a turn to the utterly bizarre.

If you ever read or talk to / with her you realize very quickly that she is, how shall we call it, sarcastic and outspoken. Things that show up on her radar that she does not approve off she relentlessly mocks.

So imagine my surprise when the next reply was not a private message but a public one, and not only was it a snarky one but she also proceeded to retweet some of my replies (My tweets are private). Next thing I know some of her “friends” decided to kick me in the shins too, that even though they pretty much only knew (and retweeted) her tweets to me. So at best someone got only half the story.

The main accusation around this was that I didn’t bother to ask her as to WHY she was showing it, which is funny, because in the entire two preceding messages there was really no intend to seriously discuss this. In turn I could also say that she never asked what my problem with the poppy might be.

Now clearly, my remark seems to have hit some kind of nerve with her, which is fine; you don’t always know how people react to things you say, and if she would have indicated what she thought about my remark we could have easily cleared it up. Instead though she chose to make me a target for her “friends” and put words and opinions into my mouth that I don’t have (if you want to read my opinion on what I think of Remembrance Day and similar holidays, you can read it here).

The end result for me was a simple one. I ended up closing down the lines of communications this morning after sleeping over it. I removed her from my networks and I blocked her.

No, this is not about me being miffed that she shows a poppy or that she felt hurt or insulted by my remarks, it’s about the simple fact that she decided to take a private matter into the public domain in order to… Well, whatever it was / is that she decided to make out of it.

A few minutes ago, before I started writing this, she decided to kick after me yet once again. It is “funny” how she decided to make a big deal out of it that I am German and thus my opinion doesn’t count and any criticism of Remembrance Day by default should automatically be disregarded. If someone reduces me to my place of birth, how could I ever deal with that? Racism in reverse, but I am sure she’d disagree and would say it’s nothing like that. Let me channel my female here for a second: Whatever.

It is also interesting that her second argument was essentially: “Because you work for a large multinational, you have absolutely no right to criticize anybody in the DTES, many of whom who have served.” I love these kinds of “holier than thou” attitudes, but having been involved with some people in the DTES poverty industryThe Georgia Straight has a piece that echos many of my thoughts on the subject of the military.

It’s all about the timing and the light….

I am a bit disappointed in as far as the noise in the scan goes, the negative clearly looks much better than the scan, I had a similar issue with another film recently that I just could not scan decently.

Anyway: Agfa Vista looks really really nice.

It is always hard to fill someone elses shoes. In the case of Douglas Adams I guess we can safely assume that it is almost an impossibility. Yet, Adams’ wife gave permission to Eoin Colfer to write the sixth book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. The book was published in early October 2010 and it is… Well, we’ll get to that in a moment.

Firstly I have to say that I have not read any other of Colfer’s books, though I have been told that the Artemis Fowl books are actually quite good, I guess this was why he was given permission to write the sixth book.

On second thought though, high book sales numbers do not necessarily equate with a talent in writing, I am looking at you Dan Brown.

“And another thing…” picks up more or less where the last book left off and tries to bring the story to an end. I am saying here tries because the end is still somewhat open and it would be conceivable that someone else could be tasked with a third trilogy… But let’s hope not.

The problem with Colfer’s book is not so much his writing. He is a fine wordsmith in his own right, but he cannot escape the comparison to Adams’ writing wit and his unique style. This is exactly where Colfer’s book falls short. The way Adams saw and the way he described it was unique to him and Colfer’s attempts at cpying them are, to me, cringe inducing.

This isn’t necessarily Colfer’s fault. As I said, he can write well and if this wouldn’t be the sixth book in a series that was established by a different writer over the course of almost 30 years it would come off as a rather decent, at times even funny book.

The problem though is that the book is based on a series of five books that has been around for close to 30 years and that people are very well aquatinted it with it. It is hard to conceive anybody would start the series by reading “And another thing…” first.

The book reads and feels more like a homage to Adams and “The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy” than a continuation. It is a bit like the new Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams, the movie did not bring anything new to the Start Trek franchise, instead it rehashed the tired and old story elements, put some new shine on it and added some explosions for excitement. It was for all intents and purposes a fan movie with a mega budget.

“And another thing…” is the book version of this fan movie approach, but it lacks the shiny images and the explosions. Instead it is just a somewhat half-hearted retelling of former elements of the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and, unfortunately later on of the Dirk Gently world but it never really reaches the level of either of them.

I know this is probably unfair towards Eoin Colfer, but the book is really one that should not have been written. it is not funny if you know the previous books and there isn’t enough of a “Oh, I remember that” moments in the book that would make it amusing for the fans of the series. All it did for me was asking myself “Why?” and feeling the urge to go back and re-reading the original books (which I briefly did after I was done reading and I had more laughs in the first two chapters than I did in pretty much all of Colfer’s book).

If you like Adams work I suggest that you re-read him and avoid this last (latest?) book in the trilogy, the book should have never been written, much less been published.

Yesterday I got my last two rolls of Kodachrome back. It will be posted on my flickr over time.

Sad…. I wish I could have gotten more.