Lockdown And History

 

If You Don’t Learn From History YouAre Doomed To Repeat It

There’s a tenable historical thesis that the «barbarians» (not the rugby side) always win. Brute force and inferior understanding always defeat more knowledge and understanding. The «barbarians» are not necessarily malevolent, nor necessarily savage nor ill-intended, quite possible benevolent, often good nd useful citizens. But they constitute an underclass in any society, an underprivileged class, less able to reason but also the majority. Their only power is collective.

If people in general were asked about the origins of civilisation/democracy/modern society, many would opt with apparent justification for the Greeks, pre-dating the Romans, who were at the time more «barbaric» than the Greeks.And the Roman civilisation was followed by what are commonly called the Dark Ages; the «barbarians» won again. But the Greeks in turn achieved their dominance by overcoming the Phoenicians, whose knowledge and civilisation were superior at the time. So the Greeks in this case were the «barbarians», overcoming superior knowledge by brute force. We know that this has happened many times in the past because we know that great civilisations existed millennia ago but that they were somehow enfeebled and that much of their knowledge was subsequently lost. In every case the «barbarians» won.

How does this relate to current affairs? Must the periodic historical dominance of the «barbarians» continue? Or can it be countered so that society in general progresses continuously. Must society always at some time take a step back? Nowadays we are not (hopefully) talking about brute force. Brute force on a global scale now means nuclear weapons and liely the end of human civilisation as we know it. Nowadays we are talking about economic force and the «barbarian» majority. Two brute force world wars were backward steps, can economic force now gain the support of this majority in order to rule? Since reason will not do it the obvious inference surely is that this majority must be fed with emotional messages that it is receptive to, that won’t be examined by reason. The appeal has to be purely emotional. So by an appeal to emotion the «barbarians» can still apparently win and so history can repeat itself. The society concerned takes a step back. Progressive civilisation is reversed, as it apparently always has been in the past. Does this have to be the future?

Lockdown

Travel is supposed to broaden the mind and may indeed do so but that is not;necessarily the case; people can remain effectively confined in their own cultures. At the time of the EU referendum I assumed that because so many Brits took holidaysabroad, quite apart from those who worked abroad, the British would have a positive appreciation of foreign cultures. Yet xenophobia was clearly a factor in the referendum result and, anecdotally, appears to be evident in the UK today,encouraged by some popular media and even the government. So my assumptionwas wrong. Physical masks, perhaps worn reuctantly, may filter out viral droplets but virtual masks worn voluntarily can filter out anything foreign. It seems that many free people freely create their own prisons/confinement of a sort

Autumn

Autumn

Autumn has definitely settled in now, evidenced by the weather, the countryside and the clocks. We’ve had a few weeks of decent rainfall and the river Ouveze in front is now looking much less like an apology for a stream. The pots and garden have all benefited as also have I in having to water only those under the balcony. Weather at the moment is similar to classic April weather in England. There is still a fair amount of colour out front from pansies, fuchsias, busy lizzies and the argyranthemum by my front door (photo). There is colour too in the countryside, not spectacular but muted yellows, browns and greens enlivened by the occasional drift of vines turning dark red. My plants will have fewer blooms with fewer hours of sunshine as we advance towards winter but most will continue until the first severe frosts, some time in December. 

 

New COVID-related restrictions, specifically a 9.00pm to 8.00am curfew, mean that eating with friends will have to be at lunchtime for a while. I have no problem with that except that I find if I have a solid meal at lunchtime I can kiss goodbye to doing anything very active in the afternoon. France is experiencing a similar rise in infections to that in the UK and the government measures here are no more popular than they are in the UK. At least most people seem sensible in their attitude to them and at least the government here is not overtly corrupt.

Fewer daylight hours mean less outside activity but I have books and DVDs aplenty and there is a lot of football onTV to keep me happy. My attention turns particularly to cooking, especially as salads and light meals no longer seem appropriate to outside conditions. Last week I made a Provencale casserole, similar to any beef casserole but with olives and bacon included and this week I’m making a rabbit, chicken and bacon pie (with lots of sage) fromleft over bits; stews, casseroles and curries will no doubt feature throughout the coming months, as also will pies. The French don’t seem to do meat pies and I miss them. I generally cook only one main dish a week, occasionally two, as there is usually enough left over for another meal for me and then I’m invited out in return a couple of times. In between I experiment with Asian stir-fries or do something simple.

It’s mushroom season with many varieties in the shops and markets that I’ve never seen in England. Apart from the ubiquitous button mushroom there are cèpes, chanterelles, pieds de mouton, lactaires, girolles and trompettes de la mort (the last sound deadly but aren’t). I’ve included them from time to time in dishes in a minor rôle but never found any way to really do them justice other than in a risotto. I’ll have to search more recipe sites. I’ll also make some English sausages. French sasages can be very good but they are intrinsically different and I also miss English sausages. I have the skins from a local butcher and a mincer but the mincer motor is not powerful enough to force the meat mixture into the skins. So my daughter bought me a «sausage stuffer» for my birthday and now I’m ready to go.

I feel that the reduced hours of daylight together with the COVID sitution do need something to enliven them and cooking is one way I do that. Fortunately, the fish and cuts of meat I like are reasonably priced and vegetables are cheap. Let’s cook!

 

Checks And Balances

Checks And Balances

Checks and balances play a latge part in life on any scale, be it personal or national. My last post was about all that I love here and why I love being here but I have to admit that I wouldn’t have liked being here when I was in my early 20s at all. Why? Because when I was in my early 20s I thought the world was my oyster and I wanted above all to explore it, to explore all the possibilities. Here the life can be idyllic but the possibilities are very, very limited. Worse, because the possimilities are so limited, the temptation is to enjoy what is here and not seriously consider other possibilities: the death of all wider exploration and ambition. That is fine for me now but wouldn’t have been when I was much younger

How do others achieve appropraite checks and balances, suitable compromises? One way that is very evident here is that people who have grown up in the village have left to further their goals in life but returned to retire here. There are numerous cases of this that I know of. What happens to those others who remain? Essentially they seem to become artisans of one sort or another who find a consistent demand for their services or they lose their way and become, in gnereal parlance, locus eaters. On a oersonal level It’s a question of finding the appropriate checks and balances for a specific period in one’s life. On a wider national or international level……..?

Pragmatism Vs Dogma 

On a national level, a case that comes to my mind is the NHS in the UK. Dogma says it should be free at the point of delivery and not privatised, although it already significantly is. Proponents for privatisation can point to France where the French equivalent is entirely privatised in terms of delivery and superficially looks like the American system. . But……..the French equivalent is very significantly controlled by the government, which says what it will pay for any drug or treatment and reimburses a percenatge, large or small, dependent on the case; it’s called a «concention». It is not a free market, as it might appear, because any service or drug provider who steps out of the government «convention» stands to lose around 80% or more ;of its potential market, so most clinics and hospitals stay within the convention. Checks and balances, pragmatism rather than dogma. The most important question is not a dogmatic healthcare should/shouldn’t be privatised but what are the practical effects, how healthcare is made affordable in the general case.

Rain 

It rained last night, which wouldn’t be news if it weren’t that it hasn’t done so for almost ten weeks now. It didn’t rain heavily but enough for me to forgo watering today, a welcome relief. The temperature today also dropped by around 10 degrees, which meant I could comfortably play boules in the afternoon. Evenings are becoming darker sooner also, so signs of autumn approaching are all around and, frankly, welcome. There was also a large fire last night, about 8km from the village, which was not that surprising considering that the countryside around is dry as tinder. Firefighters from 60km away were called upon to join up with local forces as were 5-6 planes to drop water on the blaze. There were no causalties but around 150 hectares of farmland and woods were destroyed. My friend Steve likes to say that the temperature drops by10 degrees at the end of August, the younger tourists all leave and the wrinkly tourists arrive. That happened a couple of weeks early last year and appears to have done so this year too.

Lucky Me

Lucky Me

My son, Carl, returned to England last Friday, taking with him one of the masks provided to me by the village authorities. I have to hope he will use it and be sensible about contact in the UK. In many ways it was good having him here but 4 months is quite a long time, he doesn’t speak French, my friends are much older than him (and mostly French) and he was missing his friends in England. It has been a question of choosing an appropriate time for his return to that madhouse of a country and last Friday seemed to be it. I hope that was a good decision.

This evening, having played (and won!) three games of boules I sat out in the Cafe des Sports and thought how lucky I am to be here. The evening mercifully lowered the temperature (it has been very hot and dry here for a month now – August weather and we are not in August yet) so I had a couple of beers with friends before coming home to attack the watering necessary front and back to keep plants alive. I feel I have everything I want, everything I could reasonably ask for, here and now I also have my house back to myself. Carl did a few jobs that would have been difficult for me while he was here so the house and outside are in better shape than they would otherwise have been.

One thing that lockdown did was to focus my mind (and Carl’s then) on cooking; what else, other than gardening was there to do? Hopefully my friends invited to eat will reap the benefits. I use a lot of herbs and spices in cooking and have a herb patch outside my front door with mint, parsley, oregano, winter savory and sage in it. The parsley has run to seed but is easily obtainable all year round in shops and the same goes for the mint. But the hot weather has allowed me to dry a lot of sage and winter savory for later use. Rosemary is perennial and ubiquitous here and so are bay trees so that sees me set up for winter cooking. Fresh coriander can be a problem but Algerians and Moroccans in the markets in Buis and Vaison normally have a plentiful supply for just a few cents a bunch. Most dry spices, other than esoteric Indian and Indonesian ones, are available in both markets so I’m very adequately supplied.

Given that my life here consists mostly of socialising with friends, gardening, playing boules (and whatever else is buzzing through my puzzled mind) I think that I am very lucky. I don’t lead (can’t afford) a very luxurious life but don’t feel the need for one, love what I have and find it affordable. Lucky me.

Jasmine

Jasmine

As the lockdown eases the jasmine seems to progress. It’s all over the front of the house and covers a large part of the wall on the back terrace. The perfume is everywhere. I had thought that one of the jasmine plants in a pot on the balcony wasn’t doing much until, looking left rather than straight ahead outside my bedroom window, 

I saw it happiky climbing over the TV dish and antenna next to the roof. I had to get my son to risk life and limb climbing out of my bedroom window, three storeys up, to untangle it. The result is that neighbours have vases full of jasmine and TV coverage is secured. Carl and I have also plastered the interior of the wall fountain on the terrace at the back with mastic to repair a leak so that is another useful job done.

Thanks to the lockdown easing we were able to have a pain au chocolat and coffee on the terrace of the Bar du Pont and bask in the sun on Friday morning and now look forward to a pizza in the same place on Monday evening. Summer is coming and hopefully there are good times ahead.

Lockdown Easing

Lockdown Easing

Lockdown has been eased for just over a week now and I have to admit it has made a huge difference to my life, so I very much hope that the anticipated spike in infections is low. The gardening that I enjoy hasn’t been affected by lockdown except to the extent that my plants have probably never had more attention. However, two other pleasurable aspects of my life, boules and socialising, most certainly have and lockdown easing has made both possible again. I have had friends to eat here, have been invited by friends to eat with them and hope that that part of my life can thrive again. On all such occasions we have observed reasonable distancing and the classic French «bise» (kiss on the cheeks) has been all but outlawed. However, social intercourse is back and is a great boon. So far I have played boules only twice but the public spaces are now open and social distancing is not difficult while playing. So I look forward to more of that.

The front of the house is looking good and the climbing roses at the back are in full bloom, as also is the dwarf blue campanula that I have plugged into the terrace wall wherever I could. The balcony has been running through its repertoire of scents, startiing with the lilac briefly followed by the honeysuckle which is now just going over while the jasline has started to bloom. It makes sitting out on the balcony in the evenings a real olfactory pleasure. The weather is doing its best to get the good feelings going with plenty of sunshine and warmth and the frogs in the river are in full song.

In the shops asparagus and strawberries are in full flood, melons are plentiful and the first peaches and nectarines are beginning to appear. Cherries will be next and I will have my fruit heaven. Life feels good again.

Speculation On The Future

How To Use Up The Time: Speculation On The Future

About the only people with no spare time on their hands now are those still working, especially those working from home and simultaneously looking after small children. For the rest of us there is the small problem of how to use up the spare time. There’s obviously reading, watching films, and listening to music. F acebook offers the opportunity for challenges such as posting photos, posting favourite songs, books, memories, etc. For me, apart from the first three, the preferred past-time is writing and speculation. So I want now to speculate on the future in the UK, as I have friends and family there.

For me all the big questions are about politics, the media and how the government governs over the next 9 months. There are some inferences that can be drawn from the last 3 months, I think, but above all innumerable questions for which answers are needed. Below are thoughts on some of the major issues.

Relaxation Of Lockdown

Johnson has been correct, I think, in emphasising the dangers of relaxing lockdown too much and too soon. Nonetheless, lockdown will have to be eased at some point. The advice from WHO and just about everywhere else is that pre-requisites are a defined structure and strategy, a staged process that allows for fallback, universal testing and tracing andPPE for everyone. The UK currently falls well short on testing, tracing and PPE. The Scottish and Welsh Assemblies have produced tentative proposals for easing lockdown but the UK government currently refuses to reveal either plans or the issues and priorities being considered. Why? Will other political parties and important representative groups be allowed input into the discussions? Will the government attempt to synchronise actions in England and Northern Ireland with Scotland and Wales?

Leadership

The crisis has made it clear that whatever Johnson is he is not a leader. Leaders are pro-active, decisive, prepared to take bold measures if required and generally follow a well thought out plan. Whatever the eventual outcome of the UK strategy it has thus far been characterised by complacency, prevarication, delay, indecision and necessary measures taken too late. If anyone is leading the government at the moment it would appear to be Dominic Cummings.

Support For Commerce

All affected countries have taken measures of various sorts to support commercial enterprises, large and small. The UK’s support for small enterprises seems to have been stymied thus far by the banks, through which the support was channelled. Could this problem not have been foreseen? Just now the government has decided to pay the interest on loans for a year, a useful measure but an afterthought and an oversight.

Loans have been made to large businesses but the government declines to disclose both the amounts and the recipients. Why? Which businesses have applied and which have been refused and why?For instance, if any media groups have received loans, which ones are they? Control over media coverage of government actions seems to be high on the governnent agenda.

Denmark, Poland and France have excluded all companies based in offshore tax havens from government support. This seems reasonable; if companies avoid taxes in a country why should they get financial support from it. (Perhaps Virgin could be refunded all the UK corporation tax it has paid over the past few years). I expect some other EU countries to do the same but not the UK.

Immigration (And Racism)

There can be little doubt that immigration is a major issue in the UK or that it was a significant factor in the EU referendum result. The number of race-related assaults recorded in the two years after the referendum result reportedly rose by 20-40%, dependent on area. However the high profile of immigrant NHS and care staff in combating the virus would appear to have defused the issue considerably. The advent of plane loads of Romanians to work in UK agriculture has further served to underline the UK’s economic dependency on immigration, previously stated in various economic studies. Will the government ever be honest enough to acknowledge this?

The Future Economy

The UK economy, like those in almost all countries, is taking a huge hit from the impact of the virus. This impact is likely to be followed by another in the UK if Johnson gets the no-agreement Brexit he appears to want (every economic commentator has said Brexit will harm the UK economy). Whatever the case, it is clear that commerce will require government support for some time to come. It seems unlikely that any government can support all of commerce so the support will have to be selective; but on what basis? It would be unreasonable to ask for an answer to that question now but the eventual answer, if we are ever allowed to know it, will be very important.

Given the hit on the public purse imposed by the virus, public finances will be stretched to the limit. So what will be the response of the government to public services? The UK government’s record on this is evident: to cut expenditures to the bone. The most likely outcome in the UK must be more austerity, with the virus as the obvious excuse (conveniently hiding the impact of Brexit). The NHS could be a particular problem here, with its current high positive profile. However an ostensibly high increase in its budget, even if inadequate to compensate for the cuts over the last decade and offset by higher costs generally, should do the trick. That should also serve to excuse cuts elsewhere. If Hancock’s offer of a badge for life-risking care workers for which they had to pay is any indication of government thinking, the means to recreate the NHS as it was a decade ago won’t even be sought. A more «socialist» approach from the current government seems very unlikely.

Managing natiional econolies after the pandemic but while its effects are still evident will be a lmajor challenge for all nations and will require genius economists and sensitive politicians to resolve it if major public unrest is to be avoided. Any signs of such in the UK?

Unemployment

Unemployment numbers are a statistician’s political game; it all depends on how you want to count them. Officially in the UK they were around 4.8% before the virus crisis, which is actually close to full employment, although a calculation in the FT put the figure at probably three times higher. Whatever the case, unemployment in the UK later in the year is likely to be very high. How will the government react to this? Even the government probably doesn’t know the answer to this problem yet but, given the general economic outlook, a large pool of low paid labour is likely to persist, which bodes ill for the economy. A large pool of low-paid labour encourages inefficiency locally and uncompetitiveness internationally.

Brexit

Brexit and EU relations are a backcloth to the virus crisis. The UK government has yet to state in any credible way why help offered by the EU in the virus crisis has been ignored (as well as help from some UK companies; why?). Brexit negotiations are reportedly fraught and a no-agreement Brexit seems the most probable outcome. In the interim some notable Leave campaigners have made very significant gains from the virus crisis. Will that be a trend over the rest of the year? Pecunia non olet but it has fingerprints.

The Media

Many of the media are in acute financial difficulties, which is why it would be relevant to know if any had received government financial support. The government lap-dogs posing as journalists in the Sun, Mail, Express and Telegraph have simply followed the government line in their coverage of the crisis, with very minor exceptions. The Sunday Times has been provoked into a return to journalism. Genuinely independent journalism, sometimes with a slight but discernible political slant, persists in such as The Independent, the «i», the Metro, The Guardian and the Belfast Telegraph. Helpfully it also persists in coverage of the UK by some of the foreign press such as the New York Times and Washington Post.

In UK TV the BBC and ITV have at least avoided any subservience to the government and Channel 4 has shown its teeth. If these can ignore any government threats to their licences, there is hope, because the UK and its democracy badly needs independent judgements and critical appraisals. However, it also needs access to the relevant information.

Openness, Scrutiny, Accounatbility

In his first speech from Downing Street after recovering from the virus Johnson made a pledge to openness and scrutiny. I think this is key to any democracy. However, if Johnson’s recovery from illness has not been an epiphany moment then this is simply a government ploy, much loved by masters of deception (dare I mention Goebbels?). Claim to do what others are criticising you for not doing but deliver only anodyne information, the trappings not the substance.

Before the virus crisis Johnson was being pressured to publish the report on Russian interference in the UK EU referendum which might, some claimed, contain information that would invalidate the referendum result. It would be easy to prove or disprove the claim, so why not publish the report? That, obviously, is very much on the back-burner now, although it would take only a minute to give the go-ahead to publish.

Before the crisis the government sought to exclude critical journalists from government briefings and has now reportedly barred Sunday Times journalists from asking questions at them. The government also threatened the licences of the BBC and Channel 4 for criticism of its policies. One of the first laws the government passed was to prevent Parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals. Why? Since then Johnson has lied over meeting corona virus patients, the government has lied over the provision of PPE and lied over testing. After any national crisis it is normal to have an independent enquiry into what happened yet the government refuses to commit to one. Why? A dependent enquiry maybe…….? If the government really does commit to openness it will truly have been an epiphany moment. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. There are many questions in this posting; the proof will be if we get answers to them.