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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Daily Archives: May 14, 2012

A Little More on Current Events

14 Monday May 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Baptiste Lake, Blaise Pascal, Canada, France, J. Casson, Montreal, Montreal Metro, Pascal, Pauline Marois, Pensées, Project Gutenberg, Quebec, Tuition payments

 
Baptiste Lake, by A. J. Casson (Group of Seven)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

****************************************************************************

 A. J. Casson (May 17, 1898 – February 20, 1992)
http://www.artcountrycanada.com/group-of-seven-casson2.htm 
 
As my readers probably noticed, the three vignettes presented in an earlier May 14, 2012 post, were related. 
  • People seek comfort in times of turmoil.  The fine arts and music are refuges.  So is literature, but in a less immediate manner. 
  • As for Pascal, he knew that all was not well in seventeenth-century France, but he advocated remedial measures that would not cause a bloodshed.  So he calls peace a « souverain bien », or sovereign good.  Pascal’s Pensées, were published posthumeously from liasses: little bundles of paper neatly tied up.  So there are different classifications: Léon Brunschvicg, Louis Lafuma, Philippe Sellier (probably the most accurate).  They have been translated into English and they can be read online: a Project Gutenberg achievement.  Click on Blaise Pascal.  To read the Pensées in French, click on Blaise Pascal Pensées
  • Finally, the news report tells part of the story that generated my first two vignettes and it trivializes the demands of Quebec students who are mere pawns in these events.  Obviously, the indépendantistes have little to criticize, not to mention that they are the ones who have created the current difficulties in order to rule and secede from the rest of Canada.  

The Cost of Duplicating Services

In Quebec, citizens pay higher taxes: 15% of their taxable income.  Outside Quebec, citizens pay 10% of their taxable income.  The reason for this discrepancy is the duplication of services offered by the Government of Canada.  This, I cannot understand.

Students have been on strike because of a small increase in tuition fees, which shows that someone is behind all this, Pauline Marois.  This I know and so do others.  She is the leader of the indépendantiste movement.  Further negotiations will take place, but a small raise in tuition fees is not central to what is happening and it does not justify releasing harmful fumes into the Montreal subway system.  Some students have been slightly injured. 

I went to Pauline Marois‘s Facebook site.  One woman reported that she had seen policemen entering a subway station with dogs.  She used this as an example of police brutality.  To my knowledge, it is customary to use dogs to tell the origin of a fire, but in this case, they were sniffing to determine where the fumes were released.  This is normal police procedure.  Dogs are the experts in such cases.  I just hope the police is not pushed into brutal acts. 

The indépendantistes are saying that they want to be masters in their own home, « maîtres chez nous, » where they would be a French-speaking majority and, at the moment, they are using the students.  But many students, including anglophone students, think that they are opposing a raise in tuition fees.  They cannot see that they are being used by a political party, the indépendantistes.

* * *      

So, we will continue to examine the history of this country, but I also need to write posts about artists and thinkers who have left a permanent legacy.  The internet is a good tool for diffusing knowledge. 

Updates on the three-month old strike are available if you click on the links.  The government is still negotiating with the students so figures keep changing.

CTV News
CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) 

10 Track 10 Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Barenboim (piano)

Battle of Saint-Eustache (1837-38)

   Micheline Walker©
   May 14, 2012
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   (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 
 
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Three Vignettes & an Approaching Storm

14 Monday May 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blaise Pascal, Fronde, Hague School, Louis, Pascal, Pensées, Willem Roelofs

 
                                                                                                    

In ‘t Gein bij Abcoude (1870)

Willem Roelofs (March 10, 1822, Amsterdam – May 12, 1897, Berchem)

Today, all I can do is post a beautiful picture, quote Pascal and report that the students are indeed being used by the indépendantistes.

Art: Willem Roelofs 

The artist, Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, was Mesdag’s teacher, but he joined members of the Hague School.  Very fine paintings were produced by members of the Hague School. 

Blaise Pascal

Civil War: “the greatest of evils”

In his Pensées, French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662), noted that we were mere reeds but thinking reeds (le roseau pensant), which gave us nobility.  Pascal also discussed society pointing out, especially, that humans were easily fooled by appearances and he stated that « Le plus grand des maux est les guerres civiles » or “Civil wars are the greatest of evils.”

Pascal, had witnessed the Fronde (1648 – 1653) which was a twofold revolt.  On the one hand, we had the people who wanted a parliament, la Fronde  parlementaire.  But, on the other hand, the highest of aristocrats: dukes and princes, hungered for power they were denied.  This was called la Fronde des princes (1651 – 1653).

This rebellion, the Fronde, occurred when Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) was a child.  Louis XIV was five when Louis XIII died (1643).  Louis XIV ascended the throne in 1661, when Mazarin died.  Mazarin (1602 – 1661), was Richelieu‘s (1585 – 1642) successor.  Both were chief ministers who, in fact, ruled France. 

At any rate, Pascal had seen social unrest and it had been a painful experience. 

So yesterday, when I wrote disapprovingly about fumes being released into Montreal’s subway system,  I thought of Pascal and reflected that it would be lovely if people pursued a common purpose: creating a peaceful world where everyone would be treated with dignity.

iRREsPONSIBLE POLITICIANS using students 

According to a CTV news report, tuition fees would be increased by $325.00 a year over the next five years.  At the moment, in Quebec, full-time students pay $2,415.00 a year.  Five years from now, in 2017, they will pay $3,793.00 if the premier, Monsieur Jean Charest, succeeds in increasing university tuition fees which, even if he succeeds, would still be the lowest in Canada.  In Antigonish, Nova Scotia, at the university where I taught, StFX, tuition fees are currently $6,205.12 a year.  It would seem that indépendantiste leader Pauline Marois needs martyrs and that they are difficult to find. 

So these are my three little vignettes for the day.  

Landscape with approaching storm (1850)

13 Track 13
Lieder ohne Worte, Mendelssohn, Barenboim (piano)
(please click on Track 13 to hear the music and on the picture to enlarge it)
 
©Micheline Walker 
May 13, 2012
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