THE OSCARS
There is something awful about the Oscar awards ceremony. Despite being almost 100% actors, everybody seems so wooden, reading or remembering cheesy lines. The applause is even more canned than normal. The thank-you speeches are terrible (don't you think the nominees would rehearse one, in case they won?), as are some of the frocks. Having well-known actors give pre-result eulogies to the nominees for best actor and actress is a particularly toe-curling idea.
It was good this year that Avatar did badly (I am one of the few people on the planet that hasn't seen it, but my 15-year old daughter says it is crap). Good that small-budget films did rather well. And good that a woman, Katherine Bigelow, finally got the best director award.
Apart from that, good that it won't come round again for almost a year!
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 8 March 2010
Sunday, 7 March 2010
GOLDEN WEDDING (2)
A postscript to yesterday's blog on the golden wedding.
The inn where the party was held is owned and run by a married couple. Nothing unusual in that, except that he is 90 and she is 89! He still makes all of the food, and she still runs the front of house, just as they have been doing since 1947.
In an age, where youth and early success are given increasing priority, they are an inspiration to us all.
Walter Blotscher
A postscript to yesterday's blog on the golden wedding.
The inn where the party was held is owned and run by a married couple. Nothing unusual in that, except that he is 90 and she is 89! He still makes all of the food, and she still runs the front of house, just as they have been doing since 1947.
In an age, where youth and early success are given increasing priority, they are an inspiration to us all.
Walter Blotscher
Saturday, 6 March 2010
GOLDEN WEDDING
Yesterday I went to my first ever golden wedding anniversary, that of my wife's aunt and uncle.
In rural Denmark this is a big deal. It is always held on the date itself, in this case a Friday. The day before, family, friends and neighbours build a "gate of honour" out of flowers and branches, and this is put up at the entrance to the couple's driveway at sunset. On the morning of the anniversary, which was a brilliant spring day, more people - around 30-40 in number - gather outside the house. A few traditional songs are sung, until the couple emerge; and then, at precisely 8.00am, the flag is raised on their flagpole. Everybody is invited in afterwards for coffee and something to eat, washed down by one or more "little ones", a bitter drink that tastes a bit like alcoholic cough medicine.
After going home for a midday nap - doesn't anybody have to work? - everyone reconvened at 5.00pm for the formal party at the local inn, where there was another gate of honour. A three-course dinner was interspersed with singing, speeches, crying, and lots more alcohol. Then there was dancing and more alcohol, before the whole thing finished around 2.00am with "night" food, and a walk home in the newly fallen snow.
I was already pretty sloshed at 10.00am after six or seven little ones (my neighbour was particularly insistent). So I woke up this morning with quite a hangover. Still, the event is quite possibly the only golden wedding I will go to in my whole life. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Walter Blotscher
Yesterday I went to my first ever golden wedding anniversary, that of my wife's aunt and uncle.
In rural Denmark this is a big deal. It is always held on the date itself, in this case a Friday. The day before, family, friends and neighbours build a "gate of honour" out of flowers and branches, and this is put up at the entrance to the couple's driveway at sunset. On the morning of the anniversary, which was a brilliant spring day, more people - around 30-40 in number - gather outside the house. A few traditional songs are sung, until the couple emerge; and then, at precisely 8.00am, the flag is raised on their flagpole. Everybody is invited in afterwards for coffee and something to eat, washed down by one or more "little ones", a bitter drink that tastes a bit like alcoholic cough medicine.
After going home for a midday nap - doesn't anybody have to work? - everyone reconvened at 5.00pm for the formal party at the local inn, where there was another gate of honour. A three-course dinner was interspersed with singing, speeches, crying, and lots more alcohol. Then there was dancing and more alcohol, before the whole thing finished around 2.00am with "night" food, and a walk home in the newly fallen snow.
I was already pretty sloshed at 10.00am after six or seven little ones (my neighbour was particularly insistent). So I woke up this morning with quite a hangover. Still, the event is quite possibly the only golden wedding I will go to in my whole life. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Walter Blotscher
Thursday, 4 March 2010
MICHAEL FOOT
Michael Foot was a decent and principled man. But he was a hopeless political leader. After the Winter of Discontent and the subsequent electoral defeat by Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the British Labour Party rather lost its way. By electing Michael Foot instead of the much more able Denis Healey, it paved the way for 18 unbroken years of Conservative Government. Only after Tony Blair had taken control of the party and ditched a lot of the collectivist ideals championed by Mr. Foot, could it hope to be reelected.
Mr Foot was often - and again is - called a "great parliamentarian". In my view, that is a label attached to people who spend a long time in Parliament, but who do not succeed in Government. Michael Foot wanted to run the country. It was a good thing he never got the chance.
Walter Blotscher
Michael Foot was a decent and principled man. But he was a hopeless political leader. After the Winter of Discontent and the subsequent electoral defeat by Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the British Labour Party rather lost its way. By electing Michael Foot instead of the much more able Denis Healey, it paved the way for 18 unbroken years of Conservative Government. Only after Tony Blair had taken control of the party and ditched a lot of the collectivist ideals championed by Mr. Foot, could it hope to be reelected.
Mr Foot was often - and again is - called a "great parliamentarian". In my view, that is a label attached to people who spend a long time in Parliament, but who do not succeed in Government. Michael Foot wanted to run the country. It was a good thing he never got the chance.
Walter Blotscher
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
LAST WORD FROM VANCOUVER
The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. I don't know whether they were the best games ever or the worst games ever - both epithets have been used - but I enjoyed them. I think the time zone helped, since it meant you could watch things live in the evening. They certainly cheered up an otherwise chilly European winter.
A look at the final medals table is interesting. Canada, with home field advantage, won, followed by Germany and the U.S.A. No surprises there. They came mainly on the negative side, with Austria failing to get a single men's alpine skiing medal, and Russia posting their worst result ever, with just three gold medals. With the next games due to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014, rumours abound that current Russian sports officials are for the chop.
Some countries are good at only one thing. The Netherlands got 7 of their 8 medals in long-track speed skating, but are crap at the short-track variety. The masters of that, on the other hand, are South Korea, with 8 of their 14 medals in the sport.
But the most perplexing result of all is that of Norway, a small country of less than 5 million people, that got the fourth largest medal haul. Yes, it is a cold, northern land, but how come they always do so much better than their neighbours Sweden or Finland? Norway have in fact the best overall record at the Winter Olympics, well ahead of the U.S. and twice as good as Canada. It must be something in the diet.
Finally, hats off to some great individual performances. Simon Ammann of Switzerland doing the double in ski-jumping to match his double in Salt Lake City in 2002; Marit Bjoergen of Norway winning 3 golds, a silver and a bronze in cross-country skiing; Andre Lange of Germany taking gold in the 2-man bob for the third time in a row; Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. winning the women's downhill under intense pressure; and finally the great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway winning his sixth Olympic gold medal in the biathlon at the age of 36.
Walter Blotscher
The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. I don't know whether they were the best games ever or the worst games ever - both epithets have been used - but I enjoyed them. I think the time zone helped, since it meant you could watch things live in the evening. They certainly cheered up an otherwise chilly European winter.
A look at the final medals table is interesting. Canada, with home field advantage, won, followed by Germany and the U.S.A. No surprises there. They came mainly on the negative side, with Austria failing to get a single men's alpine skiing medal, and Russia posting their worst result ever, with just three gold medals. With the next games due to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014, rumours abound that current Russian sports officials are for the chop.
Some countries are good at only one thing. The Netherlands got 7 of their 8 medals in long-track speed skating, but are crap at the short-track variety. The masters of that, on the other hand, are South Korea, with 8 of their 14 medals in the sport.
But the most perplexing result of all is that of Norway, a small country of less than 5 million people, that got the fourth largest medal haul. Yes, it is a cold, northern land, but how come they always do so much better than their neighbours Sweden or Finland? Norway have in fact the best overall record at the Winter Olympics, well ahead of the U.S. and twice as good as Canada. It must be something in the diet.
Finally, hats off to some great individual performances. Simon Ammann of Switzerland doing the double in ski-jumping to match his double in Salt Lake City in 2002; Marit Bjoergen of Norway winning 3 golds, a silver and a bronze in cross-country skiing; Andre Lange of Germany taking gold in the 2-man bob for the third time in a row; Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. winning the women's downhill under intense pressure; and finally the great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway winning his sixth Olympic gold medal in the biathlon at the age of 36.
Walter Blotscher
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
PUBLIC APOLOGIES
Everybody seems to be saying sorry these days. Politicians are particularly keen on apologising for historical failures, such as slavery. But the range of subjects is much wider than that.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is good that people own up to their mistakes. But I sometimes have a problem either with the selective choice of those mistakes or the fact that the owning up takes place in public. Blanket coverage of the inappropriate devalues the meaning of the appropriate. The latter would include the Australian Government's apologies over its past treatment of aborigines and orphaned children. It could have included an apology by Tony Blair for the civilian costs of the Iraq War. But when asked by the Inquiry whether he had any regrets, he appeared not to have any.
Three different apologies have been on view in recent weeks, one bad, one good and one in between. The bad one was Tiger Woods' "press conference" (to a selected audience of friends, colleagues and sponsors, who were not allowed to ask questions) apologising to the world for having had extra-marital sex. Mr. Woods is a brilliant golfer, quite possibly the best ever; but the issue of where he puts his club off the course has nothing to do with any of us except him, the women concerned and - most of all - his wife. The revelations may well affect his value as a wholesome family man in the eye of his sponsors; again, though, that is a matter between him and them, not us.
The in-between one was the apology by the President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, to the company's customers for the faults in its cars. Toyota, the world's largest car company, is currently in the middle of a recall of millions of its vehicles to fix problems associated with its accelerator pedals and brakes, problems that have led to a number of horrific accidents. In principle, a public apology was the right thing to do; it is, after all, difficult to communicate quickly with millions of people in any other way. However, the apology was tarnished by two things. First, the fact that it had taken Toyota so long to admit to the problems. Secondly, minute scrutiny of the depth of Mr. Toyoda's bow, bowing being the normal Japanese way of apologising. What could have been an honest "mea culpa" by the company ended up as a bit of a boomerang.
The good apology was that by the quality Danish newspaper Politiken. In a joint press release together with organisations representing almost 100,000 of the prophet's direct descendants, the newspaper apologised for any offence caused to Muslims (and others) by its reprinting of the (in)famous Mohammed cartoon by Kurt Westergaard originally published in Jyllandsposten. It was hoped that the apology would lead to greater understanding between Denmark and the Muslim world.
I support what they did. In the same way as you apologise if you have been rude to another person, so Politiken apologised to the many people who felt that it had been rude to them. The newspaper was careful to stress that it had the right to be rude, since freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Danish constitution. That distinction, between a right and the exercise of that right (together with judgement about when to exercise it), was originally highlighted by the thoughtful former Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who supported Politiken's decision. Regrettably, however, his is a rather lone voice in Danish politics. It is not at all surprising that Politiken was instantly condemned by the anti-Muslim Danish People's Party, which has kept the minority right-wing Government in power since 2001, but it was disappointing to hear their views echoed by the left-wing opposition. Competition for votes, it seems, trumps decent behaviour.
Walter Blotscher
Everybody seems to be saying sorry these days. Politicians are particularly keen on apologising for historical failures, such as slavery. But the range of subjects is much wider than that.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is good that people own up to their mistakes. But I sometimes have a problem either with the selective choice of those mistakes or the fact that the owning up takes place in public. Blanket coverage of the inappropriate devalues the meaning of the appropriate. The latter would include the Australian Government's apologies over its past treatment of aborigines and orphaned children. It could have included an apology by Tony Blair for the civilian costs of the Iraq War. But when asked by the Inquiry whether he had any regrets, he appeared not to have any.
Three different apologies have been on view in recent weeks, one bad, one good and one in between. The bad one was Tiger Woods' "press conference" (to a selected audience of friends, colleagues and sponsors, who were not allowed to ask questions) apologising to the world for having had extra-marital sex. Mr. Woods is a brilliant golfer, quite possibly the best ever; but the issue of where he puts his club off the course has nothing to do with any of us except him, the women concerned and - most of all - his wife. The revelations may well affect his value as a wholesome family man in the eye of his sponsors; again, though, that is a matter between him and them, not us.
The in-between one was the apology by the President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, to the company's customers for the faults in its cars. Toyota, the world's largest car company, is currently in the middle of a recall of millions of its vehicles to fix problems associated with its accelerator pedals and brakes, problems that have led to a number of horrific accidents. In principle, a public apology was the right thing to do; it is, after all, difficult to communicate quickly with millions of people in any other way. However, the apology was tarnished by two things. First, the fact that it had taken Toyota so long to admit to the problems. Secondly, minute scrutiny of the depth of Mr. Toyoda's bow, bowing being the normal Japanese way of apologising. What could have been an honest "mea culpa" by the company ended up as a bit of a boomerang.
The good apology was that by the quality Danish newspaper Politiken. In a joint press release together with organisations representing almost 100,000 of the prophet's direct descendants, the newspaper apologised for any offence caused to Muslims (and others) by its reprinting of the (in)famous Mohammed cartoon by Kurt Westergaard originally published in Jyllandsposten. It was hoped that the apology would lead to greater understanding between Denmark and the Muslim world.
I support what they did. In the same way as you apologise if you have been rude to another person, so Politiken apologised to the many people who felt that it had been rude to them. The newspaper was careful to stress that it had the right to be rude, since freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Danish constitution. That distinction, between a right and the exercise of that right (together with judgement about when to exercise it), was originally highlighted by the thoughtful former Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who supported Politiken's decision. Regrettably, however, his is a rather lone voice in Danish politics. It is not at all surprising that Politiken was instantly condemned by the anti-Muslim Danish People's Party, which has kept the minority right-wing Government in power since 2001, but it was disappointing to hear their views echoed by the left-wing opposition. Competition for votes, it seems, trumps decent behaviour.
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 1 March 2010
OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY (2)
What a (re-)match! Canada start well and go 2-0 up. The U.S. fight back in the second period and score a goal. Canada begin the third period by hitting the post twice, and having a number of great chances, but are again thwarted by Ryan Miller. The U.S. claw their way into it, take their goalie out with just over a minute to play, use the extra man to create enormous pressure, and equalise with 25 seconds left! You would think that the momentum had swung to the U.S., but in sudden-death overtime it is mainly Canada, and Sid "the Kid" Crosbie enhances his youthful "legend" aura by scoring the winner ...
That was a great tournament. I suspect Canada has a collective hangover this morning.
Walter Blotscher
What a (re-)match! Canada start well and go 2-0 up. The U.S. fight back in the second period and score a goal. Canada begin the third period by hitting the post twice, and having a number of great chances, but are again thwarted by Ryan Miller. The U.S. claw their way into it, take their goalie out with just over a minute to play, use the extra man to create enormous pressure, and equalise with 25 seconds left! You would think that the momentum had swung to the U.S., but in sudden-death overtime it is mainly Canada, and Sid "the Kid" Crosbie enhances his youthful "legend" aura by scoring the winner ...
That was a great tournament. I suspect Canada has a collective hangover this morning.
Walter Blotscher
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