Thursday 24 July 2014

BORNHOLM

Tomorrow we are going off on a family holiday to Bornholm, so no blogging for 10 days or so.

Bornholm is an island in the Baltic belonging to Denmark, even though it is actually much closer to Sweden, and the inhabitants speak a dialect which sounds more Swedish (i.e. sing-song like) than Danish. The southern part of Sweden (Skåne) was Danish for at least six hundred years, and one of the four parts of the realm (the others being Jutland, Fünen and Zealand). Lund was the ecclesiastical capital (a bit like Canterbury in England) and the launchpad for missionary work in the rest of Sweden and Finland. Furthermore, by controlling both sides of the Øresund, which gave access to the Baltic and its abundance of herring, the Danish king could levy tolls, and make himself a rich man.

However, if you had to sum up the history of Scandinavia during the Middle Ages in one sentence, it would be a dogged refusal on the part of the Swedes to accept the overlordship of the king of Denmark-Norway. By 1530 Sweden was a separate kingdom, though much weaker. The Thirty Years War changed the balance of power in the Baltic, with the rise of Sweden and the fall of Denmark. In the subsequent wars between the two, Sweden won, and bagged Skåne as a prize in 1658; it has remained Swedish ever since. Bornholm naturally followed.

But the local population did not accept the change and rebelled later that year. Two years later, a new peace treaty returned Bornholm to Denmark.

Being so far from the rest of the country, and an island to boot, Bornholm has always been a bit different. It's the sort of place that Danish schoolchildren visit on a class holiday; safely Danish, but still a bit exotic. My wife went there as a child, and so did two of my children. I have never been.

My wife has always wanted to go back, so this was her idea for a family holiday. My brother-in-law comes from the island, so we are renting his parents' summer house. I was initially a bit iffy about the idea, thinking it might be cold and wet. However, this year's summer has been very hot - almost too hot - so a cooling breeze in the Baltic might be just the ticket. Anyway, I am really looking forward to it.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 23 July 2014

MY SON'S BIRTHDAY

My second son is 23 today, so congratulations to him.

He had invited the family round for a barbecue at his new penthouse flat in Odense. I went round earlier, watched the mountain stage of the Tour de France with him on his TV, had a nap during one of the downhill sections, and then enjoyed beer and nice food thereafter when the others turned up.

It's good when children grow up and can do things for their parents!

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 22 July 2014

THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

This summer is full of remembrance for the outbreak of the First World War 100 years ago. But it's also worth remembering how it ended.

The traditional way of ending wars was unchanged for centuries. Kings and nobles decided to have some sport by invading their neighbour's territory. There was lots of rape and pillage, not so many decisive pitched battles (Hastings and Agincourt were exceptions), and death for the soldiers was more likely to come from disease than fighting. At the end of the campaigning season, everybody withdrew and a treaty was signed, swearing eternal friendship. If there had been an obvious loser, then they had to pay in terms of territory or money or both. The treaty was often supported by a dynastic marriage.

The first major change to this system came with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, ending the Thirty Years War. Instead of kings negotiating with kings, and princes with princes, states negotiated with states. It's widely seen as the formal start of international relations. However, losers were still expected to pay and/or there were adjustments to territory. France paid after the defeat of Napoleon, and again in 1871, when it had been beaten by Prussia/Germany and lost Alsace-Lorraine.

The First World War settlement, thrashed out mainly in Paris in the spring and summer of 1919, was different from the standard model in a number of crucial, and interrelated, respects. First, a number of the states that had gone into the war in 1914 no longer existed. The Russian Empire had collapsed into revolution in 1917, and had signed a traditional treaty with Germany (reparations, loss of territory) in 1918. Austria-Hungary collapsed in the autumn of 1918 into bits and pieces, and the Ottoman Empire was tottering.

Secondly, and one of the causes of the first, there was a new principle in the air, that of self-determination. Expounded most eloquently by the American President Wilson, it said that nations should live in their own states. The polyglot Habsburg Empire was the obvious case for implementation of this new idea. But there were others, and a bewildering number of new states came into being in the immediate aftermath of the war, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Armenia, Azerbaijan. The principle seemed sensible, and was backed up by plebiscites in certain areas, but the victorious allied powers were by no means consistent. Germany was not allowed to merge with (the now 100% German) Austria, France got Alsace-Lorraine back, even though a plebiscite there would probably have opted for continued union with Germany, Italy got the German-speaking South Tyrol, the Kurds were denied a homeland, the former German concessions in China were given to Japan, Hungary lost so much territory, that it went from a Magyar country with substantial minorities to having 3 million Magyars living in Romania, Slovakia and Yugoslavia. And so on.

Thirdly, the main defeated party (Germany) had not been defeated. This was not in fact true; the Allied offensive in the summer of 1918 had been so successful that it was the Germans who begged for an armistice. However, because of the time lag between the end of hostilities in November 1918 and the signing of the peace treaty at the end of June 1919, coupled with the fact that none of the fighting on the Western front had taken place on German soil, allowed the myth to develop that Germany had not been defeated, but betrayed by its generals and ruling class. The loss of territory (mainly to the newly revived country of Poland) and the obligation to pay reparations thus came to be seen as unjust punishment.

Fourthly, on the question of reparations, it was impossible to come to an agreement. The destruction of men, equipment, and other assets had been unlike anything in history. However the sums were totted up, it was clear that the total was beyond the power of any one country to pay. With the demise of Austria-Hungary, that country could only be Germany.

Each of these reasons became the basis for resentment and dissatisfaction, which ultimately led to renewed fighting 20 years later (for the non-European states, some of those resentments - eg Palestine and the Kurds - remain to this day). The second war was not inevitable; the terms of the peace did not guarantee a return to conflict. However, they allowed unscrupulous, megalomaniac people to argue that war was the only way to get rid of their unjustified burden. Unfortunately, during the inter-war years, there were plenty of such people, and even more who were prepared to listen to them.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 21 July 2014

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

Is it just me who is heartily fed up with the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians? I don't mean fed up in the sense of being bored; but fed up of watching politicians of all stripes apportioning blame and guilt to the other side for this or that atrocity that they have themselves committed.

Lest we forget, this conflict has been going on for at least the whole of my life (and I am 55). There's only one solution, namely two states living side by side. Yes, I know the devil is in the details; but bombing and killing the other side doesn't make those details any easier, in my humble opinion.

I don't know who has leverage over the parties; America certainly, but I am not sure who on the other side. However, whoever it is needs to start banging some heads together, not in terms of imposing a solution, but in making the two sides sit down and start talking seriously to each other. If they don't, then this tit for tat low-level violence could go on for another 55 years, and I'll get really fed up.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 20 July 2014

A VERY LARGE AWARD

A U.S. court has awarded punitive damages of US$23.6 billion to the widow of a man who died from lung cancer after smoking all his life. The award is against RJ Reynolds, the country's second biggest cigarette company.

The above is not a typo; I really did mean to write billion and not million. The compensatory damages were US$16.8 million, which does not compensate for death, but is still a fairly sizeable amount.

This sort of thing merely brings the justice system into contempt, in my view. Negligence claims, both guilt and amount, used to be decided by a jury in all common law jurisdictions. In England and Wales, the rules were changed so that these things are decided by a judge, precisely in order to stop such idiocies. In America, the old system lingers on.

Cigarette companies have undoubtedly been cavalier about the risks of smoking, but not to such an extent that an individual (and their lawyers) should be able to get their hands on what represents the GDP of a small country. Thankfully, many of these ridiculous tort awards get reduced in the U.S. on appeal. I suspect that this one will be as well, and rightly so.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 19 July 2014

HOLIDAY BUILDING

The hot weather is a good backdrop for doing building work. Mortar and cement dries very quickly, as does paint. So today my wife painted the barn wall, while I made the foundation inside the barn for our new oil tank. With Danish labour rates, we saved a lot of money.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 18 July 2014

A PLUM TREE (2)

Some three years ago, I found a plum tree hidden in the garden. This summer I have found some more. I don't know if it's because of the long spell of hot weather, but they are covered in plums, thousands of them. Like the apple trees I inherited, much of the fruit is too high up to be picked, and will go to waste; but there is still a lot to be had by my greedy fingers.

My wife says that there is a limit to the amount of plums that can go into my tummy. I am not so sure.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 17 July 2014

REPORTING DEATH

It's sunny in Denmark, hot and dry, the Tour de France is on the television, I am on holiday, and all is well with the world. Yet out in that world, all is not well, as page 8 and 9 of yesterday's newspaper clearly demonstrates. Page 8 discusses the latest twists in the endless conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, with 180 deaths in the last week. Page 9 had small paragraphs on Afghanistan (89 killed by a car bomb), Moscow (21 killed in a metro accident), Ukraine (6 soldiers killed), and Malaysia (18 missing, presumed dead, after a boat capsized).

What is interesting about this is not the statistics themselves, depressing though they are, but the fact that they are relegated to a mere mention on an inside page. Put simply, we are no longer outraged or concerned about death in faraway places. Seeing it up close on television and/or the internet makes us familiar with it. Ultimately, it bores us, which is a sad comment on modern humanity.

So what was the subject of the front page of my newspaper on a random Wednesday in July? Not death; but the need to be on our guard against internet recommendations (of restaurants, books or whatever) that turn out to be false or made up. Now that really is important.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 16 July 2014

FRENCH CYCLING

You have to go all the way back to 1997 to find a French cyclist on the podium of the Tour de France (i.e. in the top 3) and that was Richard Virenque. The days in the 1970's and 1980's when the Tour was dominated by the likes of Thevenet, Hinault and Fignon are a distant memory. However, the French press are very excited at the moment, since there are currently four French riders in the top 10. And with the absence of Froome, Contador, and Schleck (all out after crashes), and Quintana and Evans (who targeted the Giro), expectations are high for French honours.

I don't share them. The high mountains start on Friday, and I fully expect the French riders to start going backwards shortly thereafter. Which in turn will prompt more French navel-gazing as to why they can no longer produce people who can propel a two-wheeled machine forward faster than others.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 15 July 2014

INTERPRETING (2)

I did a small interpreting job this morning, translating African French into Danish and back again. As mental exercises go, this was quite tricky, though I managed to get through it to the satisfaction of both parties.

I warmed up for my task by watching the French film Nikita on television last night. As ever, they subsequently made an American remake (and a TV series); but the original is best.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 14 July 2014

ALBERTO CONTADOR (2)

After returning to competitive cycling after his ban and winning the 2012 Vuelta, Alberto Contador had, by his high standards, an indifferent 2013. Banking everything on winning the Tour de France again, he found himself continually thwarted by Sky's Chris Froome, who won both the lead-up races during the spring and the Tour itself, in what was a miracle season. However, rather than making him quit or choose alternative races, it sent Contador back to the drawing board. With a new trainer, who focussed on more training at altitude, he came into this year's Tour in much better shape, having won a number of stage races and more than held his own with Froome in the Dauphine, the final warm-up race. When Froome then crashed out of the Tour on the wet and treacherous pave stage last Wednesday, the race seemed Contador's for the taking.

True, Contador had lost more than two minutes on the same stage to a brilliant Vincenzo Nibali. However, Contador has had Nibali's number in the past; and on the first of the three stages in the Vosges on Saturday, his team put the hammer down, distancing rivals and putting Nibali on the limit. The stage was set for today's fireworks, seven categorised climbs over 160km, ending uphill with two brutal category 1's. I was ensconced on the sofa, ready to watch the first real mano a mano of this year's race.

Fireworks there were, but not those I expected. Hurtling down from the second climb on a narrow road, Contador crashed badly. He carried on for a while; but it was clear that something was badly wrong, and after the next climb, he had to abandon the race. It later emerged that he had broken his right fibia, and needs an operation. The fact that he managed to cycle up a category 1 climb with a broken leg (7.1 km at an average gradient of 8.4%) shows how tough these top cyclists are.

Nibali went on to win the stage, beating his other rivals, and now has a lead of 2.5 minutes to his nearest competitor and much more to everybody else. Does that mean that he will win the Tour? Well, under normal circumstances, yes. He's an experienced stage racer who has won both the Giro and the Vuelta, and he showed today that he is the best man in the mountains of those left. Having said that, as Froome's and Contador's experience shows, one small slip or lapse of concentration and it could all be over. Contador was apparently eating when he lost control of his bike; Froome skidded on a wet corner and broke his hand on the pavement. There are still a lot of kilometres to go, and anything can happen. That's probably the only thing keeping Nibali's rivals optimistic.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 13 July 2014

ALSACE-LORRAINE

The Tour de France has hit the Vosges mountains, and the Danish commentators are always going on about the fact that most of the town names seem to sound German rather than French. A look at history would show why that should be the case.

Lorraine is Lothringen in German, meaning "belonging to Lothair". It was part of the middle kingdom of Lotharingia, created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, when the three surviving grandsons of Charlemagne split his empire between them. As the eldest of the three, Lothair took the imperial title and what were then the richest parts, namely the lands along the Rhine, plus Italy. Competition between the three successor states was compounded by defeats by the Vikings, an inability to hold the Italian lands, and a lack of legitimate male heirs to rule the remainder. However, in broad terms, the middle and eastern kingdoms eventually merged to become the Holy Roman Empire, while the western one eventually became France. Language reflected this division; the dialects along the western bank of the Rhine (including Swiss, Alsace, and Luxemburgisch) are all Germanic rather than derived from Latin.

The western kingdom became France, but was originally much smaller than the modern day country, lacking Brittany (Celtic), much of the south (Provence) and those lands west of the Rhine. However, as the power of the French kings gradually increased during the Middle Ages, the idea developed that France had "natural" borders; the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Rhine. From the fifteenth century onwards, the latter idea coincided with the dynastic rivalry between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs, the perennially elected Holy Roman emperors. Habsburg control over the lands of the Empire that were not their hereditary properties was not as absolute as that in France, and successive French kings and ministers spied an opportunity for expansion.

Their big break came during the Thirty Years War. France entered the war in 1635 as an ally of Sweden and against the Empire, despite the fact that it and the Habsburgs were staunchly Catholic and Sweden Protestant. At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that ended the war, France was awarded the bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, plus rights over ten imperial cities in Alsace. During the reign of Louis XIV, France used the foothold granted by the latter to extend power over the whole of Alsace. Subsequently, in the mid-eighteenth century, when the then Duke of Lorraine Francis Stephen was betrothed to Maria Theresa of Austria, France under Louis XV cut a deal whereby it got Lorraine in return for recognising Maria Theresa's inheritance to the Habsburg lands (not straightforward, since she was a woman) and supporting Francis Stephen as Emperor (who had to be a man; Francis Stephen got Tuscany as his personal property in recompense for Lorraine). By the time of the French revolution, Alsace-Lorraine was firmly part of France.  

In 1871 it was annexed by the new German Empire following the Franco-Prussian war; the use of the French language was forbidden, and large numbers of Germans came in as "colonists". France returned the favour when it got the provinces back at the end of the First World War. French became obligatory, German was banned, and a number of those colonists expelled. The pendulum swung back in 1940, when the Nazis conquered France. Alsace-Lorraine then reverted to France in November 1944, as the Allies approached Germany itself. It has remained there ever since.

Because Germany as a country didn't exist before 1871, Alsace-Lorraine is often thought of as being historically French. However, if you go back further in time, it has a much longer history of being, not German as such, but Germanic. That's why most of those place names tend to sound German, they have been there a long time.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 12 July 2014

MY ROSE BED (2)

My roses are doing well again this year. They have flowered just as much as last year; but after some consultancy from my mother-in-law, I cut them down in the spring so that they are both thicker and more evenly distributed. See below.



Walter Blotscher

Friday 11 July 2014

KOLLEKTIVER

Kollektiver ("collectives") are Danish housing arrangements, where individuals or families live together and share chores such as cooking and cleaning. Originally designed for university students and oddball hippy types at the end of the 1960's, they have proved surprisingly resilient. Today, almost 200,000 people live in them, between 3-4% of the population.

Indeed, the numbers are rising, up from 170,000 just four years ago. Apart from students, the main group of people using them are families with small children. Stitching together a busy daily life, in which both parents work and commuting is getting ever longer, is easier if those parents can take it in turns with others to fetch children, cook the evening meal and/or do other things. While ownership, the great fad of the noughties, has lost some of its appeal, particularly if it is associated with debt.

Researchers believe that numbers will keep on rising in the future. Some kollektiver are also likely to become more luxurious, with someone employed to maintain central facilities/look after security etc, a bit like a janitor in a New York apartment building. As with many other things, what started 50 years ago as a rebellion is now becoming mainstream.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 10 July 2014

TWO SEMI-FINALS

"The semi-finals of major football championships are always dull, tense affairs, with few goals," I confidently said to my bridge partner on Tuesday evening, "so it won't matter that we only get to see the second half of Brazil v. Germany". Arriving back around 11.00 pm, I was startled to find the score 5-0 to Germany. And we weren't finished; three more goals arrived in what was both a 7-1 thrashing and the biggest ever semi-final score.

Would Holland-Argentina be the same last night? Unfortunately, it was one of the most boring football games ever. At the end of normal time, with the score 0-0, Holland had not had one shot on target. I thought about watching extra time, but I couldn't keep my eyes open, and had to go to bed. It ended 0-0 and went to penalties (won by Argentina), but I was beyond caring.

Football without goals is very dull. Germany deserve to win the tournament, and I hope they do so on Sunday.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 9 July 2014

A TALE OF TWO CHERRY TREES (2)

One of the two cherry trees planted in 2011 survived (good); the other one died (bad).

This summer, the surviving tree has given fruit for the first time (good); unfortunately, the number of cherries on the tree is a miserly two (bad).

Still, big trees from little acorns grow, as they say in English.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 8 July 2014

BOXER SHORTS

My underwear choices seem to go in phases. At boarding school it was briefs, regulation white, four pairs. As a young man, I switched to boxer shorts. Since arriving in Denmark in 2000, it has been back to briefs.

Until recently, when I bought three pairs of boxer shorts in (of all places) Dubai Airport during a stopover on the way back from Singapore. Wearing them this past month, I realised how much I had missed them. Out went the old briefs, in came more boxer shorts (the birthday present from my in-laws).

I can already tell that this phase will last the rest of my life.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 7 July 2014

A VISIT TO AN ISLAND (2)

It was my birthday this weekend, and my wife's present to me was a weekend on Ærø, the small-ish island to the south of where we live.

Someone had the bright idea of establishing a long-distance footpath (the "island sea path") along the southern coast of Fünen. Well-established in other countries such a the U.K., long-distance footpaths are still relatively rare here in Denmark, presumably because of the different rules regarding land ownership. From our base in Ærøskøbing, it was 20km in one direction to Søby on Saturday and 16km in the other to Marstal on Sunday. In both cases, we caught the (free) bus back.

For an island, Ærø has a very diversified landscape. There were small hills, dykes, a wood or two, even a walk along the beach. And very few people. Wandering along a farm track between ancient hedgerows, I kept on thinking of Thomas Hardy, a rural life dominated by the seasons and collective tasks that disappeared long ago. Poorer undoubtedly, but probably more interesting.

Because the downside of economic development has been a marked loosening of the bonds that tie people together. Farms have consolidated and become mechanised; the institutions that held villages together (church, school, smithy, village hall, post office, store) have either closed or fallen into disuse; homeowners keep to themselves. Without cash income, it becomes increasingly difficult to live. Since, post-crisis, there is less income to go around, everything on Ærø looked a little bit more deserted than when I was last there four years ago.

Still, that thought was for the pondering. The weather was fantastic, hot with a slight breeze. When the sun is on your face, and you are walking in a wood on your own, life can seem surprisingly good.  

Walter Blotscher

Friday 4 July 2014

SELF-REGULATION

John McEnroe, one of the great tennis players of the late 1970's and 1980's, a 7-time Grand Slam champion, and a surprisingly good commentator, has come up with an interesting idea. Why not get rid of tennis umpires and let the players themselves decide who has won the points, just as lesser mortals do in the local park. Unlike in the park, however, any disputes could be resolved by resorting to Hawkeye.

Why not? Given Hawkeye and the system of challenges, the umpire's role has already been reduced to not much more than calling the score in a serious voice and regulating injury time-outs. Yes, it would be revolutionary. But Hawkeye was considered revolutionary when it first arrived (no less a player than Roger Federer was against it), yet it is now accepted.

I suspect that Mr. McEnroe's idea will be rejected. However, he has sown a seed which may well bloom in a few years' time.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 3 July 2014

KONETUR AND OLDERMANDSGILDE (2)

I have just come back from the annual oldermandsgilde. If you want to know what that is, then read the post from two years ago.

This year's theme was "Spanish and beer". Tapas (mussels, chorizo sausages and cheese), spicy meatballs, and beer ice cream. All washed down by lots of beer, home brewed by a guy in the village, a tropical house zookeeper who also made the food.

Both the food and beer were excellent. And, picking up where I left off two years ago, I learned a lot more about bees. At this rate, I will be building my own hive in 10 years' time.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 2 July 2014

AN UNNECESSARY INVESTMENT (4)

Every cloud has a silver lining. The unnecessary investment - connecting the 16 or so houses in our very rural neighbourhood to the public sewage system - has now after six months finished, the big machines have gone elsewhere, the grass is again growing on top of the soil.

And in the post this morning was a cheque for some £1,500. Compensation from the local authority for digging up our meadow, laying a pipe, and then covering it up again.

If that is the deal, then they can come and dig up our meadow as much and as often as they like.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 1 July 2014

ISLAMIC VEILS

Does a state ban on full-face veils breach a citizen's human rights, if the person concerned wishes to wear such a veil for religious reasons? That was the question before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in a case brought by a 24-year old French woman. Under French law, nobody can wear clothing (a veil or anything else) in a public place, if it is intended to conceal the face. Although France is fiercely secular, the ban had nothing to do with religion, but was introduced in 2010 because of security concerns. Similar bans have since been introduced in Belgium, and in some towns in Spain and Italy.

The case was an important one, not least because France has the largest Muslim minority population in Western Europe, at around 5 million. That's a lot of people. However, there are many forms of the hijab, the Arabic headscarf worn by Muslim women, and only a very small minority, perhaps a couple of thousand, wear either the niqab (which leaves just the eyes clear) or the burka (which covers the face completely). Still, one of the points of human rights is to protect minority views, so the numbers involved are not really the point.

This week the judges sided with France. They found that although the ban affected veils worn for religious purposes, it was introduced solely to prevent concealment of the face (albeit with exceptions, such as motorbike helmets). That was a genuine societal aim, which included both potential security risks and a desire for openness in interpersonal relationships; and the ban was a proportional response to that aim.
 
Devout Muslims will be disappointed with the ruling, from which there is no appeal. However, it is yet another example of a human rights case, which is less a matter of one person's rights and more a balance of rights. In this instance, the balance between religion and security in a modern society.

Walter Blotscher