Weather, Laptops And Brexit

This And That

I feel that another post is due but there is not a lot that has happened since my last post. The weather changed momentarily and we had two days of heavy rain, which has saved me a lot of time watering. The warm autumn sun has returned now. I've redone the hanging baskets out front with cyclamen which, with luck, should provide some colour through to the spring. There is colour also from some yellow daisy-flowered plants (chrysanthemum family but not chrysanthemums as you think of them) I bought in the summer which have sulked until now but finally decided to do their thing. There are also michaelmas daisies, two plumbago, a solanum and a fuchsia in bloom. So the front doesn't look too bad.

My favourite laptop developed hardware faults so I'm having to look for a new one and have finally decided I'll just have to get accustomed to using an AZERTY keyboard. The difficulties in acquiring a new laptop with a QWERTY keyboard are just too restrictive and complicated. So be it, although I really don't understand why suppliers who offer all kinds of options on other elements of a PC seem to get rigid when it comes to keyboards. Global markets??????

I went to BELL (Beaumont English Language Library) to hear Stanislas Yassukavich talk about a book, two lives, he has written on his and his father's life in banking, which he didn't actually talk about, saying that was all in the book (so buy the book!). He expounded on his trials and tribulations in finding and dealing with a publisher, which simply confirmed my opinions on the point. Publishers today are simply glorified printing and distribution organisations and understand little or nothing of the markets they supposedly serve. His experience was even worse; his publishing house didn't even have useful proof-reading or indexing expertise. Admittedly my own experience was helped by not having to seek a publisher, since my three books were all commissioned, but in all cases I was asked by the publisher how it could sell the book and, indeed, had to agree to a short lecture tour for one of them.

Stanislas did however provide some useful answers to questions. Friend Steve asked him about the impact of Brexit on the London financial services market and he thought there would be little impact since the supposed services «passport» doesn't really exist. Individual countries within the EU don't have to recognise the qualifications of service providers in other countries and generally don't, to protect their own practitioners and markets. The euro zone could, presumably, and presumably would, exclude euro-linked services but the issue was otherwise irrelevant. I asked him for his opinion on the survival of the euro and he was adamant in saying that it couldn't survive. According to him, total financial integration within the EU would be required, implying a financial authority above national banks such as the Bankof France, Italy, Germany etc, and few if any EU countries would accept that. The eventual break-up of the euro zone, he added, could be very messy.

Incidentally, I read a couple of articles in the responsible press today about Brexit. One stated that Parliament now understands that constitutionally the result of the EU could only be advisory; though why it didn't understand this from the outset defeats me. The second was that MPs of all parties accept the referendum result as a mandate but want to insist on debating the proposed terms of Brexit. I can understand the latter: Parliament should debate the terms. But I can't understand the former; if the referendum result was only advisory, how can it be a mandate? To substantiate this, The Independent newspaper commissioned a survey which now shows, of people regretting and wishing to change their vote, a sufficient swing to provide a majority favouring retention of EU membership. What can only be termed near-hysteria in such popular newspapers as the Mail and Express tends to confirm the suspicion that they know they are backed by only a minority. So what is the « mandate » now?

Politics

Politics Are Screwed

I've had a lot of conversations with French friends recently about Brexit and politics more generally. I've explained that, in my view, politics in the UK has never been in a worse state in my lifetime. It's not just the lack of politicians of discernible stature, which I've commented on before, but the state of the major political parties at a time when we needed them all to be strong. The Labour party has just re-elected a leader who seems firmly intent on a Marxist agenda that the electorate at large will never accept and who lacks any credibility in Parliamentary debates. For that very reason he has split the party in two. The conservative party is also split in two, between those who want a °hard° Brexit, with no trade agreement with the EU, and those who want some kind of compromise. In effect; it's a split between the extreme right and the middle-right of the party The Liberal democrats, who normally occupy the middle ground, are barely visible and seem not to want it. It's a very bleak picture for anybody but the rich.

My French friends recount a similar tale. The current President, Hollande, is universally reviled. However, none of moderate persuasion wants either Sarkozy or Le Penn; and nobody can see any viable alternatives. Immigration is a major issue here as elsewhere and, if it came to a straight fight, Sarkozy would probably be voted in to keep Marie Le Penn out. Nobody wants that but nobody can see an alternative. Italy, Germany, Hungary and other European countries are in a similar state.

In the USA Trump, who is seen anywhere but in the USA as a dangerous clown, is not that far off being elected. None of the Americans I know can see Trump winning but then nobody in the UK seriously thought the UK would leave the EU. And none of the Americans I know really want Hilary Clinton, they just see no alternative.

All this is at a time when the conflict in Syria could trigger a global conflagration and when Putin in Russia, who has said the former USSR should never ave been broken up, is acting like a testosterone fuelled adolescent and seems to want to recreate it. Pitt the Younger, on his deathbed, lamented the state he left his country in. Anybody now might lament the same of the world.

Languages And Autumn

Learning A Language

Filters of all kind are used on the internet nowadays to discover who you are and what you may want and I've definitely been identified as an English ex-pat. One consequence is that I'm constantly being made offers to place my private pension abroad (already done) and to learn languages. As it happens I already speak reasonable French but some of the offers make me laugh. This man learned a language in a week, I'm told, and this other man speaks 11 languages; learn his secrets! It's of interest to me because friend Steve and I are about to restart our English conversation classes here in Mollans.

Fortunately I know enough (more than enough) not to pursue any of these offers. Having studied French to university level, taught in French for a year at a French secondary school and now lived full-time in France for 10 years, I find I am still learning the language. And I don't think I'm a particularly unintelligent student. So how do these apparent geniuses manage it?

The answer, of course, is that they don't; they can't possibly do so. What is possible after a week? Being able to say hello, goodbye, the weather is fine, my name is…..not much more. Which poses the question: what does being able to speak a language really mean?

If we are talking about anywhere near perfection then the majority of native speakers of the language would fail so we can rule that one out. Given the last few decades of teaching, we can also rule out understanding and use of grammar. Spelling? The most obvious howlers abound on the internet and even in supposedly reputable journals. So what are we left with?

I think it is the ability to communicate, with a reasonable degree of subtlety, what we think, want, or mean to say for most, but by no means all, practical purposes. That much, given considerable immertion in the language, should be achievable within a year, maybe a bit less. But……...the problem with communication is that it is necessarily two-way; you may be able to communicate to someone else but can you understand what comes back? Here we're into accents, dialects, idioms and Heaven knows what else. Learning that in a week? Learning that for eleven languages? I simply don't believe it is possible. I think it probably takes best part of a lifetime for even one language.

Autumn

Autumn is definitely here now. The very hot and dry summer weather continued until a week ago but a couple of storms have put paid to it and at the moment we have much more comfortable temperatures and skies varyng between overcast and sunny. The change shows in the shops and markets and in activities around the village. Much of the fruit I love has now disappeared. The last strawberries went about a month ago and apricots have followed them. There are still peaches, nectarines and melons to be found though and figs have made an appearance; I'm making the most of them until they disappear too, probably around the end of the month. Around the village grape harvesters and trailers are everywhere as the grapes are stripped from the vines for what should be a bumper year, given the amount of sunshine we have had. The next stage will be several varieties of mushrooms in the shops and invitations to wineries to celebrate the new vintages. Autumn here can be great as the village gets back to normal after the hordes of summer visitors, welcome as they are, return from whence they came. So there is still much to enjoy.

Education, Don't Knows And Burkinis

Conundrums And The Truth

Everybody at some time or another wants to know the truth, the trouble being that nobody really knows it. Everybody also forms judgements, probably several times every day, and most want these judgements to be reasonably well informed. And, of course, these two are closely connected. So how can we best go about them?

When my mind wanders into conundrums like these and the weather is as warm, as it is now, I commonly take to my balcony late in the evening with a glass of calvados to hand, contemplate the darkening scenery across the river and think. The balcony is actually a no-go area at the moment due to a colony of hornets feeding on the grapes above but evening contemplation and calvados remain.

We live in an age when information has never been more immediate or in such plentiful supply and yet, perhaps, never so useless. The printed press, the internet, TV and radio deluge us with information 24 hours per day but always, it seems, either with a strong political bias or bland acceptance of what participants are saying in their own interest. At root is the apparently wilful failure to distinguish between what is actually said and done and comment on it. We need our dubito as never before.

The only answer I can see to this problem is to teach people to think, really think deeply, for themselves. Unfortunately, educational systems quite generally seem hell-bent on the opposite. I have just viewed a French cartoon of a teacher with a diary almost filled with holidays and days of strike. Teachers in France, as those in the UK that I know, are all pissed off. It takes determined mismanagement to piss off people dedicated to doing what they are supposed to be doing. An advert for teachers in the UK that has been running in the on TV says “work with the most creative and innovative people around: children”. True. What it doesn't say is “turn them into box ticking robots” or “and learn to become a first-class administrative clerk”. But that would be far nearer the truth. Education has become a political football that never gets near its true goal.

“Don't Knows” Win At Last

Before any election anywhere in the democratic world there are always polls suggesting how people will vote, with always a percentage of “don't knows”. The “don't knows” never win an election but seem to have won the UK EU referendum. It's probably a worldwide first. The UK population voted, apparently, for Brexit means Brexit, but nobody knows what that means. The government that has inherited this mandate has been asked if that means a trade deal with the EU and it has said that it doesn't know. It has been asked what curbs this might mean on immigration and it has said that it doesn't know. It has been asked what this means for the rights of EU citizens in the UK or in the EU and it has said that it doesn't know. Asked if it knows today's date it might just know but that is about as far as it goes. So the “don't knows” who won are now being governed by the government which doesn't know. There's a kind of logic to that but, to be frank, even Alice in Wonderland made more sense to me than that.

Burkinis Again

The French government has got its knickers in a twist over Burkinis. The ban imposed in some municipalities has been overruled by a high court. It turns out that this garb was designed by an Australian to actually liberate muslim women rather than confine them, in line witn France's well-known liberty, equality and fraternity principles. However, amusing comparisons with wet suits, diving gear and other comparable clothing aside, it does apparently conflict with France's principle of not allowing open public display of religious affiliation. But…….nuns and priests in traditional clothing, on view just about everywhere in France?

As ever this looks to be a case of France having strict principles and rules that get overlooked when they prove inconvenient. This, in reality, is the real principle in France: something is always true except when it isn't. I have a limited acquaintance with political animals but those I have known have a clear understanding of “no go” areas. They know that anything to do with human relationships is something that government is bad at and a potential minefield: don't go there, prevaricate. Clothing is something similar. I remember the dictatorship that briefly took over Greece in the 1960s banned mini-skirts only to be confronted with the fact that they were part of the uniform of the national guard. But that was a case of generals rather than politicians making the ruling. Politicians should know better than to get involved in such matters. It seems that French politicians have fallen for this sucker punch and they really should know better.

Brexit And Burkinis

Brexit

The Huffingon Post, a rare example of a reasonable and responsible press publication in the UK, even if online only, recently published an article on the best response to Brexit for the UK. As a criterion it took the words of Jeremy Bentham, an 18^th century philosopher and social reformer who said that the best distinction between what was morally right and wrong was the test of what brought the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. It applied this test to Brexit and measured known voter preferences and found, essentially, that a “hard” Brexit (absolute control of borders and no trade agreement with EU) would please only a minority of the population, a “soft” Brexit (minor control of borders and an EU trade agreement) would please virtually no one and that the status quo, no Brexit, would please all but a small majority and would make of PM Theresa May the most popular PM in decades. So what is the UK going to do? Probably the first of these, according to PM Theresa May herself. So, economic suicide, political suicide (and don't ask about the morality); a death wish or what?

As a footnote, Jeremy Bentham advocated (in the 18^th century) individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce and decriminalisation of homosexual acts. He called for the abolition of slavery, the abolition of the death penalty and the abolition of physical punishment, including that of children. He has also become known in recent years as an early advocate of animal rights.

Burkinis Etc

There has been a recent brouhaha in the press in France over the fact that various notable holiday resorts alomg the Mediterranean riviera and Corsica have banned on beaches the so-called burkini, a garb that covers most of the body.  Personally I don't care what, if anything, people wear when on beaches but, being male, am all in favour of attractive exposure of female form. But that is incidental and purely a personal preference. The French justification for the ban has been overt public display of religious affiliation, which is against French law, and thereby justified. But, the argument rages, is it anti-Islamic? It turns out that the Burkini is also banned, in public swimming pools, in no less an anti-Islamic(?) state as Morocco, for hygienic reasons, and bikinis are specifically allowed. I think that if you want to argue on what is anti- this or that religion you can argue forever and will probably never arrive at any point on which most people agree. If that is the death of political correctness, I'm all in favour.

On a humourous note I caught some footage on the Internet of purported coverage of the Olympics on strict Islamic TV channels. I've no idea whether the images were in fact taken from some nations official TV channels or not but the results were hilarious. Since sight of most of the female form is banned, womens' races consisted of black blobs with hands and feet flaying rushing in a line; and how anyone made sense of the gymnastics I'm at a loss to know. How can one black blob be seen as more precise, elegant or artistic than another identical black blob? It was hilarious viewing if true but I have a strong suspicion that any channel operating under such constraints would simply not broadcast these events at all. That in turn raises an interesting point: if these events are not broadcast in some countries, does this mean that for citizens of those countries such events don't exist? What happens if one of the country's participants wins a medal….? Alice in Wonderland territory.

As a further footnote, an Islamic extremist in the UK has now been convicted of inciting terrorism, with the incriminating evidence accumulating over many years. The Islamic hierarchy in the UK has reacted to this by saying they have been arguing for this conviction for a decade. So why did it take so long for the UK authorities to act? Political correctness again.

Tests And Racism

Test Results

I was reminded of something I did when teaching at Summerhill by a post by friend Roy Terry on Facebook. Roy's post was a warning against testing children too early. He was quite right, I thought, but with reservations. The problem I see is not so much in the tests themselves, provided there aren't too many of them, but in the treatment of the results.

At Summerhill, wanting to know how much of what I had been teaching the kids had actually been understood, I told them I would give them a test. Consternation all round! We don't have tests at Summerhill, I was told. So I explained why I wanted to give them a test and said they needn't take it if they didn't want to. In the event, all the classs did take it and I corrected their papers and returned them. More consternation! I hadn't given them any scores and they wanted to know who had come first, last, etc. I said I didn't know and wasn't interested; I'd found out what I wanted to know, which was what they had understood and what they hadn't. They hadn't wanted to take the test because they had been afraid of being ranked low but, having taken the test, wanted to know how they were ranked. The test taught me that kids had learned to expect test results to rank them and, possibly, show they had succeeded or failed. But I see no reason why that should be so. In the general education system it is so only because the authorities want league tables and tick boxes which, in my view, have very little to do with education (or anything at all come to that, except tick boxes and meaningless numbers).

Racism In The UK

Post Brexit there has been a measurable and worrying increase in the UK of race-related hate crimes. That disturbs me and tends to confirm my suspicion that the referendum result was basically decided by at best xenophobia and at worst outright racism. Many Leave voters have said that it was not immigration but taking back control that was the key issue for them; but taking back control of what? Theresa May seems clear that the message was to take back control of the borders; and what does that mean? It means keeping out foreigners.

Most of the popular press in the UK which campaigned for a Leave vote is now engaged in what I can only describe as incitement to race hatred. Positive stories on immigrants are simply not reported and any negative stories, however singular, are given headlines with implications that such stories are widespread. This has an exact analogy with Germany in the 1930s and the rise of Hitler and I think any decent lawyer could make a good case for a complaint to IPSO, the Press Complaints body, for inciting race hatred. There are laws in the UK against that so why has no complaint (to my knowledge) been made? There's no prima facie case, the popular press is too clever for that, but I can't see how the cumulative body of evidence could lead to any other conclusion. Maybe it's a question of who has the will and the courage.

As an ironic footnote, recent figures show that the UK has more emigrants in Europe than any other European country. In other words, the UK has more immigrants in other European countries than other European countries have elsewhere. So who exactly is against immigration?

Muslims, The Press And Summer

Muslims And The Press

I have been struck by a couple of recent newspaper articles, or perhaps rather the absence of them. In London recently there was a demonstration by thousands of muslims against the violence of Daesh. However, you could easily have missed that fact if you weren't there. It wasn't reported in most of the UK press; anyone who reads the Mail, Express, Star, or Sun remember reading about it? Here in France a large number of muslims have attended a Catholic service at the church in Normany where the Catholic priest was murdered, to show sympathy and solidarity with the congregation. Any chance of that being reported in the Mail, Express, Star or Sun, as the murder of the priest of course was?

In my youth I remember being shocked when no lesser a paper than The Times (a reputable newspaper at the time, incidentally) was hauled before the Press Council, the UK body then responsible for press ethics, and found guilty of distorting the truth by not reporting a signifcant event: the Sharpeville massacre somehow escaped its attention. In fact, I believe that that was only the second time that The Times had been found guilty by the Press Council, the earlier time being for the same offence and, I think, something to do with Hitler; it might have been Crystal Night that was somehow overlooked. I note this only to make the point that omission, failure to report an event, can be as much a distortion as misrepresenting whatever has happened. However, I believe the Press Council had jurisdiction over newspapers only, not comics and I'm not sure about the current body or whether it is able to distinguish between the two.

Summer Rolls On

We've had a few days of storms and some rain but the excessive heat is still with us; 38 degrees in the shade this afternoon. So I've been watering frantically to keep plants alive. The formal village festivities are already over for this year and its grandchildren time for the older residents. I seem to have acquired a pet masonry wasp, the type with a thin thorax and bulges at both ends. It has been buzzing around my head as I sit at my PC for a couple of weeks now and goes into the book shelf beside me, presumably building the little masonry pots in which it stores an egg and a paralysed spider. It must go out at night because every morning when I open the door onto the balcony it comes buzzing in to continue its work. The end result is rather gruesome. When the egg hatches the grub eats the spider, turns into a wasp, breaks the pot and flies off. But that's nature. When I go to my books I'll try not to disturb the pots until they are empty.