Wu Wei

Overheard during the move

Young mover:    Where are you moving to then?

Me:                   Lithuania

Young mover:    Why are you moving there?

Me:                   Because I like it there and it's easier for my work

YM: Where do you work then?

Me: For the EU

YM What's that then?

Me The European Union

YM: Never heard of it. 

Well you can bemoan the state of British civic education.  Or you can be thankful that he can't hate what he isn't aware of.  Otherwise he would probably be voting for the British National Party.

New

Just got a technology update: macpro and iPod Touch for bee. Had to rush out to get one myself. Was debating about iPhone but it's a problem going from country to country when you can't change simcards. This seems like a better solution relying on wifi. Or it will be when I get my email working. Too many settings in places I can't find.
Posting this from the iPhone app. Categories feature doesn't seem to work.

More Divine than Human

This was the rather pretentious title of a concert I went to in Oxford, last time I was home.  It was  held in Christ Church Cathedral, featuring the choir of the same Cathedral.

             

I thought it  best to make the most of the choral music while I could, since it is one of the specially English things I like and haven't really found it done anywhere else.  I also like early music* and the programme promised Music from the Eton Choirbook with two works from the 15th century, so I was even organised enough to book a ticket in advance.  Unfortunately the seat I got did not have a very view (hey it's music, what does that matter).  Nevertheless, between the pillars I got an amusing view of the choristers in their red surplices,  because the only two I could really see, were such a contrast: one, tall with blonde hair, old enough for his voice to be breaking soon, and the other, clearly half his size, Japanese, with a shock of black spiky hair; both of them singing soprano.  Yet more cultural diversity.

The conductor's introductory  remarks were also interesting.  Mark Stevenson had himself been a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral  and contrasted his own experience with complex modern music when he was young an, the more simple music he now preferred,  with the complexity of the period just before Henry VIII came to the throne (when the music for the concert had been written) with the simplicity that came to church music with the Reformation.

Certainly the music was fabulous, in that rich polyphonic style also famous in Georgia (though I haven't heard any church music, only ordinary people singing traditional songs).  In the interval I rushed out to get the CD.

I was more sceptical about the second half which promised to be modern.  It was Howard Goodall's Eternal Light - A Requiem. At first, I was not impressed.  The explanation that it was a combination of choral music and dance confused me.  The Latin and English muddled me. But then I got drawn in:  the single voice singing:

I have to believe
That you still exist
Somewhere,
That you still watch me
Sometimes,
That you still love me
Somehow.

I have to believe
That life has meaning
Somehow,
That I am useful here
Sometimes
That I make small differences
Somewhere.

I have to believe
That I need to stay here
For some time,
That all this teaches me
Something.
So that I can meet you again
Somewhere.

was just so beautiful in the church.  Even apart from the religious meaning, there are so many other meanings as well: parents, work, lost lovers.  I found the humility in "sometimes I make small differences somewhere" so moving.  

The music continued with an arrangement of Lead Kindly Light which took me back to my hymn singing days as a child: my grandfather, a churchwarden, frequently sang hymns in our house and we children were all sent to church and Sunday school.

It followed with a Lachrymosa

Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there - I did not die. 

And near the end, another single voice:

Drop, drop, slow tears
....
Drown all my faults and fears
Nor let his eye
See sin, but through my tears.

I was so moved I forgot to buy the CD.  But then I'm not sure church music works well away from the church environment.  Listening on an iPod in an aeroplane does not have the quiet still atmosphere of a church.

*While working in Kiev I discovered that early music there began with Purcell, who was unknown apparently. It was a bit disappointing to someone brought up thinking Purcell was, well not exactly modern, but certainly not meriting the title "early", when I was expecting something from maybe the 14th century.

Where to stay in Podgorica

Well all the guidebooks advise you not to stay at all, so the prospect of 2 weeks work there was not something to get excited about.  I had spent one day there, a couple of years ago, just to tick the box.  Three of us wandered round at lunchtime to find somewhere to eat and managed to miss the main street with the restaurants on it.  This time I hoped I would do better.

My daily routine settled into:

• breakfast on the hotel terrace by the river
• taxi to the EU Delegation
• morning reading tender documents
• lunch with colleagues from the EU at a nice restaurant by the river
• afternoon reading tender documents
• walk home and collapse from heat
• sit on hotel terrace in evening and have drink
• listen to singer on terrace and watch fountain

There were slight variations, like I went to the town museum in a gap in the work; or I walked to find this famous street of restaurants (a few cafes serving the usual balkan food); or I had a beer instead of wine in the evening. I also sat in the terrace of Hotel Podgorica, an unreconstructed hotel from the early Yugoslav style.  I made the mistake of visiting the toilets, which in a state hardly seen outside the Ukrainian countryside.

The main problem was it was hot, I knew nobody, and the hotel was quite comfortable.  So I can recommend Hotel Ambasador, for the very friendly service and comfort.  I had an "apartment", a big L shaped room overlooking the river, with one part of the room set up as bedroom and the other as sitting room with desk.  The hotel internet didn't work, but I quickly piggybacked onto another wireless connection so I didn't bother to complain.

The room wasn't specially cheap, but I got a discount for staying (just under) two weeks, so it was reasonable. 

Luckily I was spared working at the weekend and went off by bus (a spectacular ride) to Kotor on the coast.  The regular thunderstorms spoiled the beach part, but I managed to find good food in the Old Town, which is a bigger version of Piran with well preserved walls and narrow streets.  So now i can say I have seen Montenegro's Wild Beauty.

At the end of the two weeks work, the Man from the Ministry got instructions to sabotage our work, as the result was not to his minister's liking.  So my two weeks were wasted, not to mention at least six months of EU work.  

Nevertheless after two weeks I could sing along to Montenegrin pop songs with the singer on the hotel terrace, as his routine did not vary at all from night to night.

What's wrong with Georgia?

An interesting take here from Open Democracy. 

Entitled Georgia's pluralistic feudalism, the Greek author, Ilia Roubanis, points out that Georgian politics is dominated by personalities and that change is expected to come with a change of personality, not by change of policy.  All kings are threatened by the barons who wish to become kings in their turn.

Which brings me back to my post here on  the need for a Georgian Magna Carta.

August war again?

Latest from Yulia Latynina in the Moscow Times here:

The Kremlin's behavior is driven by both rational and irrational motives. An irrational motive is Putin's stated desire to hang Saakashvili by the balls. A rational motive is the desire to convince the world that Saakashvili has already hanged himself by the balls.

"Caucasus 2009" is strikingly similar to the Russian exercises that preceded the August 2008 war with Georgia. The smell of war is once again in the air. Counterterrorism operations have been instituted in the Prielbrusiye region on the Russian-Georgian border, many people have been evacuated from the region and Russia has beefed up its forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Like deja vu, the Kremlin is again accusing Georgia of aggression, and yet it is Moscow that has insisted that all observers from the United Nations and Europe leave the region to remove unnecessary witnesses to Russia's planned aggression. It would be difficult to label these moves as simply blackmail. Russia is mobilizing for war.

The Kremlin's foreign policy is driven by one basic principle: It will pursue an aggressive, hostile policy as long as it believes it can get away with it.

Joe Biden is coming to Tbilisi  between July 22 and 24.  After that there's a clear run for Putin unless Sarkozy has any plans to visit as well.

The Year of No Money in Tokyo by Wayne Lionel Aponte

I got this book free as one of LibraryThing's early reviewer scheme.  They hold a monthly lottery of books given away by their publishers with the condition that you provide a review.

I imagined this book as a sort of modern day "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell, or something like Patrick Leigh Fermor's books walking across Europe in the 30s to Istanbul.  Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.

First of all, there's not really no money, as when he loses his job, he bums the money for his rent off the Japanese girl he is sleeping with, finds another girl to sleep with in exchange for food....  You get the picture.

Then  it isn't really a year of no money, since the loss of old job (selling English language courses) and "finding himself" as an English language teacher are all done with in the period of a year.  

A better summary might be "black stud screws his way out of poverty and learns to live with himself afterwards".  It's not at first obvious that the American author is black, but eventually his attitude to women brings to mind obvious unpleasant stereotypes of black men.  

He considers his new profession as teacher (which he previously despised) as the best thing that happened to him, and provides us with a list of 11 key points which now guide his life including:

• the error of defining success by work and possessions
• the benefits of reinventing yourself
• the advantages of delayed gratification
• the disadvantages of unemotional and unintimate (sic) sex
• the value of monogamous relationships
• the power of pep talks.

There are some interesting views of Japanese life, but it's  hard to know how accurate or insightful they are when the rest is so crass.

I didn't like the book and I didn't like the author, even in his newly invented self.

New book widget

Finally got round to using LibraryThing's new feature of collections to divide the books I have tagged "to read" (some of which have been there for a couple of years, either not started or put down and never finished) from those I am carrying around at the moment and intending to read soon.

So you can see my new "currently reading" widget on the left.  Looks impressive for summer reading doesn't it?  But what do I find in my suitcase, but a book I have already read, a book I have read but need to review and the Ivan Bunin, which I am saving for Cyprus.  So will have to find a bookshop in Podgorica and search for something to read as even my sudoku book won't last that long.

Or perhaps I can order some more summer reading for Bee to bring to Cyprus along with the winter boots and manicure sets that I have ordered on instructions from friends.

The best cup of coffee in the Balkans ....

After complaining about the office coffee, a Bulgarian colleague working in the EU here in Podgorica announced:

    The best cup of coffee in the Balkans  is in.....

I held my breath wondering what he was going to say.  I know where I think the best cup of coffee is, but it's not always worthwhile to start an argument.

But it seemed that we both agreed that it was in Pristina.

Cue for reminiscing about coffee and Italian meals at Il Passatore, usually known as Antonella's (which figures top in my list of 5 best restaurants here).  The Montenegrans were rather surprised.

Even in the Kosovo Ministry, the coffee was better than most cafes you might think of as competition.

More gloom

From here

So now everyone awaits Obamas mission to Moscow on the 6th of july. Most analysts think that his performance would mean the difference of "invade" or "not invade" Georgia. I really hope Obama will be firm, and won't proceed with the naïve "reset" project. Russia needs US as an enemy in order to keep the current cleptocracy at the power, thus persuing the "reset" project will only serve to project US as weak, and confirm the image Putin want's to create.

The rest of the discussion and comments suggest that Russia has enough conflict in the North Caucasus to want to have more in the South.

On the other hand, in the 19th century, Russia conquered the North Caucasus only when it had conquered and created a stable peace in Georgia and control of its southern border.  So trouble erupting on its southern border would need to be sorted out first, with this line of thinking.