Monthly Archives: June 2006

History Politics

A colonialist relic must go

June 17, 2006 – 9:26 am

A case for boycotting the Trooping of the Colour:

The Army confirmed yesterday it would continue to buy between 50 and 100 bearskins a year after it declared a trial to replace the distinctive headwear with hats fashioned from synthetic fur had failed because they got ” waterlogged” on rainy days.

To make those hats, in the past five years alone, 494 of the pelts of wild Canadian bears have been sold at a cost of £321,000. And apparently it is female bears with young that have the most prized pelts; when they’re shot, presumably their young starve.

If it is truly impossible to get an artificial fur to do the job (which seems odd), well stuff the history. Give them a good modern military helmet and get on with it.

But a bit of history can be nice – today if you see a flock of sheep being driven through the streets of London, you aren’t seeing things. Their shelpher is merely making use of the historic droving rights of the Freemen of the City of London. And if you miss the actual drive, they’ll be at the St Bartholomew Fair for the weekend.

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Feminism

‘Honour’ equals horror

June 17, 2006 – 9:12 am

Yet another horrific “honour” killing sees a young women horrifically murdered by a male relative, in this case a brother. The pain and anguish of her last minutes is almost unbearable to contemplate.

Miss Nazir, 25, had rejected suitors lined up to meet her in Pakistan and had been summoned to the family home in Southall, Middlesex.
The father, also called Azhar, Nazir and the youth launched the attack and at one point dragged her by her hair back into the property.
Miss Nazir, a businesswoman described as “strong-willed”, was heard to shout at her mother, Irshad Begum: “You are not my mother any more.” She was then held down as a scarf was tied around her neck and her throat was cut in three places.

But it gets even worse – for the murderer’s two daughters – aged TWO and FOUR – were made to watch the killing, and were splattered in the blood of their cousin.

This can only be described as terrorism – those girls will no doubt be horribly emotionally scarred for the rest of their life. And while this is no doubt an extreme, it suggests that many more small, vulnerable, children must be being terrorised within families.

Is enough being done to warn girls and women at risk? (And to prevent girls being terrorised just with the threat of it?) I doubt it – of course warning someone “be careful, your parents might kill you” is not an easy message, but should more be done?

Certainly the government’s cowardice in dropping proposed legislation against forced marriage won’t help.

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Friday Femmes Fatales

Friday Femmes Fatales No 60

June 16, 2006 – 5:30 pm

Ten great posts from 10 new (to me) women bloggers. It is here every Friday (more or less ..)

A veritable feast for the senses this week …

If you can’t just pop into your little corner bistro with checked tableclothes, then Anniina on Mischievous Muse does it for you with a mouthwatering account of dinner in Montpellier, in the Roman baths. (Although I don’t think they were full…)

Moving from the taste buds to the olfactory organs, Scentzilla! is a site that consists entirely of perfume reviews. Now as someone who has almost no sense of smell, I’m the wrong person to be pointing you this way, but
“Spicy leather, dying embers, approaching storms”, combined with a picture, certainly seemed evocative.

Sticking with things of which I know little, Katiedid on Seldom Nice Nowadays has some sharp thoughts on music. But I think she should really say what she thinks, not hold back.

Then, a cautionary tale for parents: Surly Girl on D-Flat Chime Bar encounters the doctor’s accusing glance, while the author of Mother Hen’s Place faces a career dilemma – the old parenting-and-career problem. To separate, or to combine?

On History is Elementary, meanwhile, the teacher reflects on childhood summers past and present.

Turning more overtly political, on The Adventures of Dr Diana, Diana Blayne has a revelation about the ‘sick’ ideas of body image being presented to children.

Then on The (liberal) Girl Next Door, an impassioned statement on how Christians are destroying the US, while Alicia on Last Left Turn Before Hooterville sets out some grahic economic facts about income distribution in the country.

Finally, mixing history and politics, Jennie W on the American Presidents Blog asks: Who was Woodrow Wilson’s Vice President? And does it matter…?

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If you missed last week’s edition, it is here. (If you’d like to see all of them as a list, click on the category “Friday Femmes Fatales” in the righthand sidebar. That will take you to a collection of 600 (and counting) women bloggers.)

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Please: In the next week if you read, or write, a post by a woman blogger and think “that deserves a wider audience” (particularly someone who doesn’t yet get many hits), drop a comment. It really does make my life easier.

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Science

It wasn’t a chicken or an egg, it was a duck

June 16, 2006 – 9:14 am

I reported recently that scientists claimed to have found a definitive conclusion to the “chicken or egg” conundrum, but it seems neither was in fact first – it was a duck.

Five beautifully preserved headless fossil skeletons discovered in China suggest modern birds evolved from aquatic duck-like ancestors. The creatures, which shared the planet with dinosaurs 110m years ago, are the oldest modern bird fossils ever found.

The story doesn’t, however, explain where the heads went – so perhaps before the ducks there was a fox?

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Arts

What is art?

June 16, 2006 – 9:10 am

The critics were perhaps asking this question some 27,000 years ago in a cave in France, when an artistic individual produced what the experts are convinced is the oldest known image of a human face:

The eye is a bold horizontal slash that connects to a downward diagonal apparently signifying a nose; below is a thinner line suggesting a mouth. These features are drawn in black on a face-shaped rocky mass in a cave near Angoul̻me in western France; discovered in February, the image has only now been made public after scientific testing by French archaeologists that has apparently convinced them of its authenticity and age Рthey claim the drawings in it were done 27,000 years ago, which makes the Vilhonneur grotto one of the oldest sites of rock art in the world.

As I’ve written before, after reading the brilliant The Mind in the Cave, while our cultures may be very, very different, what we do share with these cave-visitors is our brains – in fact they are biologically exactly the same, so at an unconscious, and probably sub-conscious, level (where most reaction to the best art occurs) we might be surprisingly alike.

So the critics from back then might appreciate the latest art-world spat in London, over a plinth being mistaken for an artwork. (The head intended to be attached to it became accidentally detached during packing.)

Mark Lawson concludes:

The head part of the artwork is fairly familiar, heavily reminiscent of the laughing heads in the work of the great Spanish artist Juan Muñoz. But the vast slate slab supporting its fragment of skeleton has a peculiarity and spookiness that makes it unusual; dismissable as art only by those who believe that good art necessarily requires heavy effort.

The style of the ancient image suggests those paleolithic critics might agree.

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Politics

Think before you visit the Maldives…

June 16, 2006 – 8:57 am

Yes, it is a tropical paradise (if a very artificial one), and you might not have long given the rising ocean levels accompanying global warming, but you might like to note that Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the President, has kept on being re-elected since 1978 (making him Asia’s longest-serving leader). Indeed, at most recent election he won with more than 90 per cent of the vote. You might call it a miracle of political achievement … or, a triumph for the secret police.

As a Telegraph correspondent reports, even a simple, peaceful demonstration for democracy doesn’t last long:

The demonstrators, numbering no more than two hundred, occupied a main street in Male under a banner that said: “We believe in freedom for everyone, not just one man” – referring, of course, to President Gayoom.
By their actions, the protesters, including two opposition MPs, were breaking Maldivian law which prohibits more than three people gathering in a public place without prior permission. …
It didn’t take long before the Star Force boys in their blue, paramilitary uniforms moved in to ‘capture’ the demonstrators’ banners and cart the two MP’s, including woman member Maria Didi, away in their van.
The one man to capture the arrest on video was chased down an alley way and pinned to the ground by six police who took away his camera. He was then frogmarched away in handcuffs. I tried to get a picture of him but a policeman blocked the lens.

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