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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: nationhood

A Short Post

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Orientalism, Sharing, The Ottoman Empire

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

art, Bellini Carpets, Gentile Bellini, motifs, nationhood, The Ottoman Empire

Safavid Courtiers Leading Georgian Captives

Safavid Courtiers Leading Georgian Captives

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451092
mille-fleurs motif
Safavid dynasty

I have erased the beginning of this post. It contained information on an event of extreme cruelty that led to severe losses and still causes episodes of disabling fatigue and life-threatening anxiety. During such episodes, I cannot write or look after myself properly. My blog suffers. It’s a short post.

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A Seated Scribe by Gentile Bellini, (Isabella Stewart Gardner Collection)

6223

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/browse?filter=artist:3157

However, I have done more investigative work on Muslims, Armenians and the concept of nationhood. Religion is a factor in nationhood, but it is not as significant as the use of a common language. Even in the Islamic world, countries accepted plurality. The millet system is a proof of religious tolerance. For instance, in the case of the genocide of Armenians, the Ottomans feared Armenians would enter into an alliance with Christian Russia.

Nationhood is rooted in several factors, but langage overrides faith. State and speech is a product of the Renaissance and a result of Johannes Gutenberg‘s invention, in 1439, of the movable type printing press. Constantinople was defeated in 1453 and its Greek scholars fled to Italy carrying books. The printing press had just been invented when Byzantine scholars inaugurated the Renaissance. Literacy spread, creating a middle class, and it brought the validation of the vernacular, and the writing of songs in the mother tongue, or madrigals, but polyphonic, mixing voices. This is a subject we have covered, but not in the context of nationhood and nationalism.

A colleague told me about the Bellini knot, so I looked at the Metropolitan’s collection and found four Bellini rugs. I also found a Safavid dynasty tapestry or rug featuring the mille-fleurs motif. Keeping fabrics in good condition is difficult. Flanders may therefore have influenced the East. The Franco-Flemish lands were the cultural hub of ‘Europe’ before the Renaissance, in music especially, but tapestries and rugs were made in Flanders, as well as the illuminations of Books of Hours and other illuminated manuscripts. There were exchanges.

bellini-2-carpet

Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797: Bellini carpets

Particularly interesting is the position of Venice. It was very close to the Ottoman Empire. Trading led to use the of a lingua franca. A simplified Italian was the lingua franca when Bellini travelled to Constantinople. In 2007, the Metropolitan had an exhibition on Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797.

I will close here, but this discussion will be continued.

Love to everyone. ♥

Aram Khachaturian
David Oïstrakh plays Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto, mvt 1

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© Micheline Walker
5 October 2016
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Looking Backwards…

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

looking backwards, Mitt Romney, nationhood, President Obama's achievements, robots among Republicans, smart Republicans

Janus (Vatican)

According to Sir Winston Churhill, “[t]he further backwards you look, the further forward you can see” (quoted by Christopher Andrew).

Well, my last three blogs were devoted to a group of poets, three poets, who felt that the French language had come of age and proved it had. However, they watched helplessly and mournfully religious wars which, in sixteenth-century France, pitted brother against brother. In the sixteenth century, France witnessed not just violence, but violence in the name of religion?

* * *

Our three poets had been schooled in the wisdom of Greece where Plato and Aristotle had taught moderation. When Henri de Navarre became King of France, as Henri IV, he converted to catholicism saying that “Paris [the kingship of France]was well worth a Mass.” (Paris vaut bien une messe.)[i]

Was he a hypocrite? I doubt it. I should think he wanted to put an end to the “miseries of these times” (Pierre de Ronsard (11 September 1524 – December 1585). After Henri IV became king, in 1589, he worked at reconciliation and, in 1598, he enacted the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed a degree of tolerance towards French Calvinist Protestants, the Huguenots. The Edict of Nantes was revoked in October 1685 by Louis XIV.

The Hanging Tree or Les misères de la guerre, by Jacques Callot

(please click on the picture to enlarge)

Moving forward, why would an Obama or a Romney seek the Presidency of the United States? Being President of the United States is a great honour, but it is also a heavy burden. I know that President Obama did not seek the Presidency because he craved power. Morever, not once has he spoken against his predecessor. President Obama is President of the United States because he wanted to serve his people, which he has done tirelessly.

As for Mr Romney, no true conservative would raise him to the leadership of the Republican party. It would appear, however, that there is an enlightened element in the Republican party, people who also think Mr Romney would not seek the presidency simply to gain power. I may be wrong, but I believe that he too is aware of the “miseries of these times,” the present time. He seems the better candidate, but I have not observed him long enough.

* * *

Look back. With the notable exceptions of Abraham Lincoln, tell me whether any Republican President has done the nation, the US, any genuine good?

“Good?” Allow me to be more precise. A good president thinks first and foremost about the welfare of his nation. Under a good president Washington builds social programs that take away poverty and ensures that people look after their health. It means paying taxes, but taxes commensurate with one’s income, i.e. taxes that do not impoverish anyone. If the returns justify the means, paying taxes, a small amount, is not a great evil.

I should think the US also requires comprehensive social programs, universal medicare in particular, better schools, so its electorate knows what it is doing when it casts a ballot. It also needs more reasonable defence expenses. In this respect, I should think the US does not need an arsenal the size the of Texas, particularly when Americans are basically fighting against one another.

Moreover, I should also think the United States also needs regulations, yes regulations. Why are the wealthy getting wealthier by shipping too many jobs outside the US, making US citizens irrelevant while they also refuse to pay their fair share of taxes? There is nothing wrong with paying taxes if doing so ensures a degree of comfort and stability to all Americans. People need jobs to put food on the table and be suitably and affordably housed. As for Washington, it needs money to ensure the well-being of the nation.

Religious Tolerance

Besides, the US needs a measure of religious tolerance. Will Americans use the fact that he is a Mormom to throw darts at Mr Romney? There are far too many nations where people turn themselves into explosives to destroy those whose religion is different from theirs. In another words, if a person’s creed does not cause his neighbour harm, why use that person’s creed to keep him or her out of the way. That is bigotry, and it isn’t acceptable.

And will Americans again seek to impeach a president because of a minor sexual indiscretion yet allow his successor to impoverish the nation and nations with whom the US has financial ties. If you only knew what harm has been done to my pension plan. Just yesterday, it occurred to me that Canadians might have to make assisted-suicide legal to save from the pain of poverty people who have been the victims of needlessly fluctuating markets and Republicans who kept the world waiting when the debt-limit had to be raised, knowing they would raise it.

The last ignominy was the refusal on the part of Congress to extend the payroll tax cut. And they did so as Christmas dinner was being prepared.  Thankfully, President Obama went to the nation to oppose a senseless and again impoverishing act.  And, thankfully, smart Republicans got on the telephone and ran to their computers to talk or write some sense into the head of the robots in Congress. As I have written in other blogs, robots do not think. Robots are programmed. As a result, they are likely to cut their own nose to spite their face.

Dear Americans, you have the best of Presidents, a dream come true, yet you have been sabotaging his effort to help you. Shame of those of you who had any part in this kerfuffle.

A few days ago, just before Republicans voted in Iowa, I heard candidates say: “The first thing we will do when we are in office is kill ‘Obamacare.’ ” Just what is Obama care and just what is Romney care? Beware of insurance companies. They may realize that life itself is a “pre-existing condition.” It kills every one.

And then I heard the expected: “Obama-has-not-delivered-on any-of-his-promises.” Look back. President Obama prevented another depression, he instituted a health-care programme and he has brought the soldiers home. He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made America safer than it has ever been by listening to other leaders and refraining from meddling in the affairs of other countries.

As a teacher, I had to tell students about the Religious Wars and the Crusades. I showed them prints by Jacques Callot (The Miseries of War), and pictures of Huguenots being burned or boiled to death. They would exclaim that we were lucky to live in the present age. I would say: wait a minute. What about the six million Jews Hitler sent to the gas chamber and used for barbaric medical experiments?

“The further backwards you look, the further forward you can see.”  This is true, but the misery of the sixteenth century, “the miseries of these times,” are the “miseries of our times.” Think of the young veterans.  They were put on anti-depressants when they were in Iraq and Afghanistan and now many are committing suicide. They know about the “miseries of our times.”

Good leaders go to school, they think everything out at great length before they are elected into office, they do not defame their predecessors, they travel a middle-course and they look after their people, be they white, black, somewhere in between, rich or poor.

The French should take back to Statue of Liberty.  Their national motto is:  “Liberté, égalité, fraternité.”  

Sainte-Colombe: Les Pleurs – Savall, Coin

(please click on Les Pleurs [tears] to hear music)


[i] In 1610, the “bon roi Henri,” was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic.

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The Art of Destructiveness

06 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on The Art of Destructiveness

Tags

anti-tax extremism, commonality, democracy, G. K. Chesterton, nationhood, obstructionism, social programs, The Tea Party, US Economy, WordPress

Occasionally, WordPress suggests topics to blog about.  Destructiveness, or something to that effect, is one of these topics.

What I am seeing at the moment is a nation, namely the US, who has a fine administration, but where Tea Party members and hardline Republicans are putting obstacles in the path of this administration in the naïve expectation that getting rid of the Democrats will magically eliminate America’s economic woes.

First, the current administration had nothing to do with the debt.  That debt was incurred by a former administration (who had inherited a surplus by the way) and it would still be there the morning after a Republican administration might, to the consternation of most of the rest of the world, be voted into office.

It appears to most observers that the world would prefer not to deal with a parochial and intellectually weak Republican administration.

So pay the debt and support President Obama’s stimulus package.  Republicans messed up America and should be charged to pay for the clean-up.

But, don’t expect miracles.  Given the size of the problem; given also anti-tax extremism, the problem will not be fixed overnight.

Second, Tea Party members and hardline Republicans don’t really care about the people, and, by extension, about their country.  They only care about the rich citizens who fund their election campaigns. If they cared for the nation, anti-tax extremism would disappear.  If they cared, the US would have a comprehensive social program.  If they cared, these elected officials would repair the harm caused by natural disasters and rebuild New Orleans.  If they cared, there would be food on every table.  If they cared, at least certain jobs would be repatriated and many more would be created.  If they cared, veterans would be employed and suitably housed.  If they cared, they would respect the duly-elected President of the United States and work with his administration at improving the lot of the common man instead of making the rich richer. Finally, if they really cared, America might actually be a genuine democracy.

G.  K. Chesterton (1874-1936) writes that in a democracy, first, “the things common to all men are more important than the things peculiar to any men.”  Second, in a democracy “the political instinct or desire is one of these things which they hold in common.” [1]

But they don’t care.  Obstructionism is a game and, given what is at stake, the survival of America and the health of global markets, it’s an unacceptable game.

Where could I find a better example to shed light upon destructiveness?

*   *   *

October 6, 2011


[1] Gilbert K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elflandˮ (New York:  Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943), pp. 82-83.

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First things first: President Obama’s address

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on First things first: President Obama’s address

Tags

nationhood, President Obama, Republicans, US Economy

In last night’s address to his nation and to the world, President Obama made it perfectly clear that the US could not default on its financial obligations.  One has to pay one’s debt and, in the case of America’s current debt, not raising the President’s debt ceiling might bring disaster.  Kindly remember the Great Depression.  Well, it could be that it will seem a mere dress rehearsal compared to the harm generated by defaulting on the country’s immediate financial responsiblities.

There can be no doubt that the US needs to make changes to its spending priorities.  Moreover, it must tax the affluent.  However, first things first.  The US cannot default on its debt.  We are looking at an impending economic crisis of such magnitude that it leaves little room, if any, for politicking.  The time has come for several Republicans to rethink the concept of nationhood.  If they fail to do so, let them leave Washington and suffer at leisure the consequences of their own ill-considered actions.

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