Langkawi trip

I just came back from my four days trip to Langkawi. I love the island so much that I visit it every year. Will blog more on it soon!

Blómadagur

Someone told me that it's Blómadagur, or Flower Day, again on Skólavörðurstígur, though I'll have to
go wandering about myself to find out how reputable my source is since I can't find anything on the interwebs to confirm it.

In the meantime, here's a reposting of a classic Iceland Eyes photo from June 2006. The original text read:

The Saturday before last was Flower Day in Reykjavik. I went for a stroll with Óðinn in his belly pack and noticed that just about every woman I passed on Skólavörðurstígur (the street leading up to the big church) held a rose in her hand. Valentína, who was holding a tombóla with Marsibil at the top of Skólavörðurstígur told me when I went to visit their enterprise (they made over $25 each that day!) that someone was handing out flowers to women downtown, though she didn't know who. I didn't make it far enough on my walk to find out, but I did see this charming group of people with their watering cans. It must have been an acting troupe....they were very cute and kind of pranced about watering things like parking meters and garbage cans. We definitely more of this type of urban attraction here in our little city!

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Ain't No Homos Gonna Make it to Heaven

A couple of days ago a child, identified as a four year old, was invited up to the pulpit in the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle Church in Greensburg, Indiana.  There he sang the following passage three times:

The Bible's right, somebody's wrong.
The Bible's right, somebody's wrong.
Romans one, twenty six and twenty seven;
Ain't no homos gonna make it to Heaven.

Leaving aside the grotesque crimes of the double-negative and the verb-noun agreement, the Christian congregation burst into cheers and cries of support, effectively rewarding the child for spouting forth this hatred.  The video can be watched here.

It is quite clear that the child is a victim in this.  Just like children in the 3rd Reich, indoctrinated to revile the mythical Jew figure, he presumably has no understanding of what a "homo" has.  He and other children will grow up hating them, whoever and whatever they come to represent to him, his family and the community of his church.  Pity him if at 13 or 14 he discovers he is one himself.  Pity any other gay person he ever comes into contact with, including possible family members, later in life.

Apostolic Truth Tabernacle: if this is truth, God help us

The anti-gay hatred that is being whipped up across the United States currently is following the political movement to give same sex marriage equality.  The struggle follows closely the pattern of the civil rights movement in the 1960s: states on the East and West coasts pressing on with equality whilst large swathes of the middle of the country resist.

The epicentres of hate are once more small rural Christian communities.  Substitute "n****r" for "homo" and we are right back there again.  Racism was justified on the basis of scripture for centuries.  The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa claimed political apartheid was part of God's commandment until the early 90s.  Christian preachers in segregated communities lectured on the evils of "black" music such as jazz and rock and resolutely supported the oppression of a minority based on Jesus' word.  Of course the perversion of - at least what I understand as - actual Christian teachings is breathtaking.

As I have quoted before on this blog, in the short history of the civil rights movement there is one recurrent truth; the group fighting for equal rights, sooner or later, wins.  Legal battles in Washington will determine the outcome here once again, but the damage being done is immense.

The debate on marriage equality has been (for the large part) conducted here with much more British reserve.  Those at the vanguard of opposing it have, of course, been Christians, but there has always been a sugar coating that people like the Archbishop of York put on it.  This, yesterday on Twitter, was a rare slipping of the mask:

(Tweet since deleted by the author)

Those against marriage equality in this country, like it or not and deny it or not, are aligning themselves with the likes of people at the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle.  They are seeking to discriminate against a group of people on no other basis than "we have it, so you can't."  I perceive attempts to stop same-sex marriage as a direct homophobic attack on me, my friends, and on my community.  To deny us this is to say we are different, second class, deserving of less - however you dress it up.  You may politely  say "You know, I fear this may in time undermine the basis of a long standing institution" over a nice cup of tea, or you may stand up in church and shout and cheer to "Ain't no homos gonna make it to heaven".  You are saying the same thing.

The language of hate is vicious, it affects people in unknown ways and it sends long lasting ripples around the world.  It is 2012, not 1964 or 1933.  This has to stop.

If you have not already done so, please visit the C4EM website and fill out the government consultation on same-sex marriage.  It only takes a moment and there is just over a week left.

The Sins of our Fathers

Troubled Descendents

A little while ago the BBC ran a startling article about the "troubled descendents" of various Nazis.  It is a heart-breaking description of the way that having a relative involved in the Nazi regime continues to affect people born long after the event.  Bettina Göring's story in particular had me in tears: she and her brother had had themselves sterilised to bring the genetic line to an end.  It wasn't their father who was Hermann Göring, but their great-uncle.

Katrin Himmler, Heinrich's Great Niece

Similarly I remember years back reading Katrin Himmler's book "The Himmler Brothers".  Her grandfather was Heinrich Himmler's younger brother.  She herself was born in 1967 and married an Israeli.  Her book is an incredibly admirable, honest work, but you can't help seeing the weight of personal guilt and pain throughout.

Growing up Half German

I am half German and grew up there pretty much the first 12 years of my life (we had two years in Hong Kong in the middle).  I love the fact I was brought up speaking German with my Mutti, and English with my father.  I love the fact that I have two countries to call home: I go there a good ten times a year most years and feel as home in Hamburg or Munich as I do in London.  My dual nation perspective allows me both an outsider's and an insider's view on the strengths and weaknesses of both countries.

Bonus: Get to dress up in Lederhosen!

The "weight" of growing up connected to Germany is something I know well about, perhaps more than Germans do.  There were various utter twats at school when we returned to Hampshire who me gave Nazi salutes (in the 80s) and told me I'd killed their grandfather.  I blogged last Remembrance Sunday about what I consider to be need of some British to grow up and get over this: it doesn't bother me, so much as make me feel genuinely a bit sorry for them being caught in this time warp.

The BBC story did affect me though.  I don't have any big hidden revelations about my family's role in the war.  My Grandfather was excused military service until late, because he was an essential worker, an inspector on the Reichsbahn.  He then fought as a private on the Russian Front in the last months of the war and spent 6 months in a Siberian prisoner of war camp.  The family were ordinary, reasonably well off farmers miles from anywhere in provincial West Prussia (as far east of Berlin as the Dutch border is west).  They were undoubtedly Nazi and loyal to the regime (I'd love you to read their story during the war if you are interested: this was my first ever blog, written after my Omi died.)  They were just caught up in events as tens of millions of others were across Europe.

Kurt Hermann Wittulski, my Opa

I do still remember my Omi telling me when I was about 11 that Hitler was a very bad man.  When I asked why, she told me they had lost everything because of him - even as a child I remember thinking "not because he murdered all those Jews?"  I try not to judge her, or other elderly members of my family.  I grew up loving them dearly.  I understand that times were very different, that their educational standards were poor, that they were "fed" hatred dressed up in the most perverse way by the regime.  I know them as kind, basically good people.  I have heard far worse racist utterings from English relatives than from them, and I admire their attempts to talk honestly about the period.

I suppose I know, most importantly, that if these attitudes have persisted that is the individual responsibility of the relative involved, not mine.  I am linked to them by DNA, not in my opinions and outlook.  I will try to challenge them on it gently, but I won't "own" the thought.

My Personal Guilt

On this point, we come back to Bettina Göring.  It was a core philosophy of Nazi criminal theory that repeat offenders ("Berufsverbrecher") were congenitally predisposed to crime, because of their genes and "blood".  Involuntary sterilisation was one way of "dealing" with them (this particularly applied to Gypsies).  Whole families were punished after the failed Hitler assassination attempt of 20 July 1944 because of guilt through genetic association.  There is a cruel irony that clearly on some level, these theories seem to have persisted for two siblings, so repulsed at the actions of their great-uncle, to have undergone voluntary sterilisation.

I first went to Israel when I was 18.  I take groups of High School students to the concentration and death camps.  I have visited 10 of them myself privately, or with groups I am leading.  I do wonder whether this is motivated on some level by "guilt" at being half German.  I can't really judge by sub-conscious, but a) don't think it is; and b) don't care if it is.  I think that there is a massive lesson to be learned from these places, and it isn't an abstract one about something the Germans did 70 years ago.  It is an enquiry into the nature of prejudice, tolerance and it is about learning about how to lead our lives today.

My British grandfather was born in 1880.  He ran away from his home in the New Forest and lied about his age to join Queen Victoria's army.  He served in the Boer War, in which 26,000 South African women and children perished in the new British invention, the "concentration camp".  He rose to rank of Sergeant Major and spent over 15 years in India, before returning to fight against the Germans in the World War One trenches.

My grandfather Douglas, front row, centre left

Some terrible events occurred during the British Empire.  There were also good aspects: as with most historical questions there are many shades of grey and it is way too simplistic to be black or white about a long, complicated period that had so many aspects and so many effects.  As regards the (undoubted many) crimes, do I feel personal guilt about my Grandfather's involvement in this?  Truly I don't.  I am me: I am responsible for my views and my behaviour, not for those of someone who died in 1954 long before I was born.

When I was in South Africa I did go out of my way to visit Mafeking, but I did the same thing at Vicksburg, yet have have absolutely no connection with the American Civil War.  I'm just interested in history.  Mafeking did have a slightly difference resonance, because I knew my Grandfather had been there, but that is the extent of it.

People and Governments

Given the above, it's no great surprise to hear that I really do not feel that Germans today should feel guilt at what happened from 1933-45 - even if they are related to the perpetrators.  The same applies to the British for the crimes that occurred during our Empire, to the Americans for what they did to the Native American population, for Australians and their treatment of the Aboriginals, for Catholics regarding South America during the Inquisition etc, etc.  Because the Third Reich was so off the scale terrible in the extent of its crimes, I know every thinking German will have been through this question much more deeply than any other nation, however.

This, however, is in my view a different question entirely how a government deals today with episodes from its past.  (West-) Germany has for the most part taken an extraordinary position of responsibility and openness regarding the Third Reich.  Germany has a very special responsibility, as the country of the perpetrators, to teach, to learn, to using its resources as part of this, and to own up to the crimes committed by its former government.  This is critically different to individuals sterilising themselves.

Munich's Main Synagogue. I just love this building right in the City Centre

Jewish life is again flourishing across Germany: it has the world's fastest growing Jewish population and Munich's Jewish population is back to 1933 levels, for example.  Every time I am there and see people attending the magnificent new main synagogue, I can't help feeling complete glee and thinking "the bastards didn't win".  The fact that Jews feel safe and secure in bringing up their families in Germany, of all places, is down in no small part to government actions - the process of "Wiedergutmachung" (making good again).  About that I think Germans in 2012, members of the society that are creating this atmosphere today, can actually feel real pride and achievement.

What Bettina Göring's story just brings home to me how desperately hard we can make lives for ourselves if we choose to.  If we do not to "forgive" ourselves for an accident of birth, the sins of our fathers will continue to cause crushing pain.  They really do not deserve this.  Keep alive the memories and learn from them as societies: but do not make their legacy your personal present.



BBC Story: Nazi legacy: the troubled descendents

Color

If you've been following Iceland Eyes for a while, you'll know that seeing our island macro-style is one of my passions. Here's some wonderful color to help you start your new June week

Beauty often displays in hidden places...
 

It's amazing what the inside of a classic tulip has to offer ~.~

How to get rid of a bird- the costume

HAHAAHAHAHHAHAAAA

My sis, my mum and I came back home after a long day out and lol behold, a bird was in our laundry area. We dont know how it got in since all the windows were closed.

We took so long to brainstorm how to get rid of the bird. One idea was to just leave it till the next morning when it will (hopefully) fly out of the house. But A BIRD IN THE HOUSE!!! How to sleep peacefully!!! We then decided to cover part of the house with bedsheet so that it wouldnt fly to other parts of the house. But in the end we just found a better idea!

A basket on the head and we wrapped with blanket. Then i crawled in our 'costume' into the laundry area and woosh the bird flew out the front door instead zzzz

Mum was laughing crazily when she saw our costume... Lol

At least we now know what to wear when we wanna get rid of birds.

What an adventure!

Monarchy

It's the Diamond Jubilee weekend... Huzzah, or a big pile of crap?  Well, many people in my Twitter timeline (lefty, liberal types) are republicans - either mildly or quite outspokenly so.  Below is the reworking of a blog I did for another site at the time of the Royal Wedding in April, which sets out some of my thoughts.

The Jubilee Weekend

Just as with the Royal Wedding (which I didn't watch), I personally genuinely couldn't care too much about the Jubilee.  I've nothing planned.  I am aware of the historic significance: I still see Diamond Jubilee plaques etc from 1897: this is a big event in terms of our country - I've put bunting up on my cottage more for a more of camp fun than anything else.

£1 from the cheapo store in Diss: bargain!

I am amazed, though, how many people (off Twitter) did love the Royal Wedding and how many people look like they will be celebrating this weekend.  Good for them.  Many irrational things in life give us pleasure: some people enjoy the environmental disaster that is Formula 1: I couldn't think of anything more boring.  If Eurovision is a reason to bring your friends together and have a massive once a year celebration listening to people singing utter trash, enjoy it.  I don't begrudge people having street parties or whatever else they're doing for the Jubilee: have fun.

The Hereditary Principle is Offensive

 
‘Argh!’ scream the ranks of republicans, however: the Monarchy isn't harmless.  It's illogical. It's patriarchal. It's about privilege.  It is based on the hereditary principle, and worse still, it derives from the Divine Right. It has no place in a modern democracy.  Yes.  I agree on all of these except the first.  No one would sit down and come up with this system.  There is little to defend it from a modern, rational, purely democratic viewpoint.  It is a product of evolution, accident and history - as are most things in our world. 

In a country that does not have 100% inheritance tax, a far from properly progressive income tax system, and private education, there is no question that people are born into positions of power, opportunity and privilege that will be reinforced during their childhoods.  The Royals are the most obvious high-profile example of this, but they are by no means the only "offenders".   There are plenty of undeserving people who inherit privilege and give an awful lot less back to society than (at least the core of) the Royal family with their public and charitable duties. 

We are all the products, to some extent, of the accident of our births.  This can be very unfair and I believe in society working towards reducing the effects of this.  Do I believe, however, that "getting rid of the Windsors" would in any way make a meaningful, practical difference to social mobility and opportunity in this country?  Absolutely not.  It would be highly symbolic, but I really cannot see how anyone could argue that the population is more socially mobile in two comparable countries such as Finland and Sweden, just because one is a republic and one is a monarchy.  It would not rid us of our class system, and do nothing to improve social opportunity, other than giving one person out of 60 million the opportunity to be voted in as president for one of more terms.

Prince Carl Philip: royally keeping Sweden's gays in eye candy

This is of course brings us to the uncomfortable point, for Republicans, that some of the most successful countries in the world in human development terms are monarchies.  Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are modern social democracies with Kings or Queens (7 of the top 10 "most developed nations" are in fact monarchies).  I would infinitely rather live in them, than countless republics I could name (Russia, Brazil, China, Democratic Republic of Congo etc...).  

Being a republic does not cure all ills, nor of course does being a monarchy solve them (Bahrain is a particularly vile example of a monarchy: there are others).  The reality is that there are numerous other factors: the constitutional arrangements regarding who is head of state frequently has absolutely no bearing on matters whatsoever.

A Dignified Figurehead

There are of course very real practical advantages to a having someone such as our Queen as head of state, over an elected or appointed president.  I believe that the Queen has, in the past 60 years, provided this country with a dignified figurehead, who has shown herself to be completely above party politics.  The monarchy provides stability, continuum, a focus.  The Queen (and indeed the Prince of Wales) are respected around the world and represent our country phenomenally well. Ask people whom they associate with the United Kingdom and the Queen will be pretty high up the list.  

Even when the President of the US greets the Queen, you know he is a passing figure: she will remain. She represents us powerfully and with dignity: no president of a country of 60 million could pack the punch that she does.

The 11th US President during her reign: she has personally met 10

There are few people I would want to see in practical terms as our Head of State.  What are the alternatives: an elected president with political power: a President Sarkozy or President Cameron? An ex-politician such as a President Major or Blair?  Or a grey figurehead president (no matter how worthy) that no one has heard of abroad: a Joachim Gauck or Micheline Calmy-Rey? Who? Exactly.

A Costly Institution

I'm not too sure that people are aware of the fact that George III entered into a rather bad deal (for the monarchy) upon his accession.  He surrendered income from the Crown Estates to parliament in return for a payment known as the "civil list".  This has proven to be a phenomenally good deal for "us" in the 250 years since then.  We, the tax payers, support the monarchy and in return the state controls a property portfolio of over £7 billion, with an annual profit of around £250 million.  

The latest figures I can find suggest the monarchy as a whole cost us £38.2 million in 2009/10 (click for link).  The cost of the UK monarchy was therefore around 63p, per person, per year.  This is a literally a drop in the ocean in terms of state expenditure.  When you consider the deal with the £250 million profit from the Crown Estates, another, even more positive picture emerges.

Don’t of course pretend presidents do not cost money too: perhaps not as much if they are symbolic figureheads with a lesser public profile, but they are still far from free to the taxpayer.  The "costly institution" argument of Republicans seems to hold little water from what I can tell.

Tourism

The tourism argument goes both ways.  Monarchists claim the Queen brings people to Britain.  Republicans point out that just as many people visit Paris as London.  I don't know if there's proper research on this, but it seems to me quite obvious that people will visit wherever they want, regardless of whether there is a monarch there or not.  I don't avoid Rome because they got rid of the Savoys, and I don't visit Copenhagen expecting to bump into Queen Margrethe. 

The last Emperor and Empress of Austria

What I will say, though, is that when you visit somewhere like the Hofburg in Vienna you visit an empty, soulless, uninhabited place.  On a purely emotional level the whole magic has gone.  This was the home of the most powerful family in Europe for centuries: the seat of the Holy Roman Emperors.  No, of course they shouldn't be exercising political power in 2012, but there is something sad, crushing and depressing about the tacky "Empress Sisi" chocolates and Made in China souvenir watches on sale in the palace and the millions of visitors filing through.  

The grandson of the last Emperor, HIRH Karl, Archduke of Austria, worked as a TV game show host during the 1980s (incidentally at the same time Nazi officer Kurt Waldheim, with his alleged SS connections, was President of the Austrian Republic).  Is this something Austrians as a nation are proud of?  I wouldn't be.

The Harm Test

I've accepted few people would devise a system of monarchy in 2012.  Like many things in life, however, no matter how flawed it might be in theory, it really does work in practice.  

There is an obvious trap in mixing up the personality of any of them with the way the institution functions: you might of course not like any of the Windsors as individuals, but that is not a convincing an argument for making a long-lasting change to the whole 1500 year old institution.  

Given the British Monarchy has been around for so long, I would suggest we really do need to apply a "does it cause actual harm" test in considering removing it, as well as the obvious "how to replace it" question.  I genuinely cannot see the practical argument for instituting massive, fundamental constitutional change and abolishing the Monarchy.  With its almost total absence of practical political power, it harms no one in practice.  Nor can I see a good alternative.  

There really are many, many changes I would like to see take place in our society.  I think they deserve our efforts far more than what I see as a sixth-form style dogmatic position of "attacking" the Monarchy from a purely theoretical stance.  

Magical, beautiful - and completely soulless, empty Schönbrunn

It's Only When It's Gone

I frequently visit the empty palaces of Versailles, Schönbrunn and Potsdam because of my part time job leading educational tours around Europe.  I grew up in the Federal Republic of Germany.  Having grown up with direct experience of both countries, I can really say it's sometimes only when you’ve lost something that you truly appreciate its worth.  

I think I'm what you would term a "Lazy Monarchist" - I'm not all rah, rah, rah about it... but I do support it, and I do wish you a Happy Diamond Jubilee if you are celebrating it.  

If however you're a strident Republican and are going to sit around and be all miserable all weekend, here's a thought to cheer you up >  It's only ten years until the Platinum Jubilee....  Just *think* how big that one is going to be :-)