words are important

Great frustration – my windows system won’t open and I have lost the recent material I hadn’t saved on hard disc. Fortunately I noticed some warning signals and had copied individually most of the hundreds of websites I have. And, equally fortunately, we have a spare notebook.
Interesting discussion triggered off by "transparency" - another bit of technical jargon which serves wider political purposes which the foreward to Tony Judt's Reappraisals touches on namely the amnesia which overwhelms current society.
The Compassionate Mind (which I'm struggling through)suggests that, as individuals at any rate, we don't live enough in the present. But, arguably, as a society we live too much in the present and don't try to lean the lessons of the past. "Transparency" covers the issues once covered by participation (1960s); consultation (1970s) and open government (1990s). Why do we need a new word? Partly to pretend that we've just discovered a new issue; to cover up the fact that previous efforts failed; and to make sure that the new efforts will also run into the sand. Here is an example of collusion between elite interests and those of the academic scribblers and technocrats whose specialisations are a form of product differentiation to secure their incomes.

appreciative inquiry

The World Bank is actually beginning to produce readable documents! Some time ago, they started a newssheet called People, Spaces, Deliberation which is sent out bi-weekly. It aims to explore the link between public opinion and governance issues – and its publications look in detail at the communications process. Most often it is outsider practitioners who contribute. Today’s issue has a piece on appreciative inquiry on which I had downloaded recently a couple of google books – but to which I had not paid proper attention. I found a good short summary of the AI approach in this paper -
I hadn’t appreciated that it rejects the “problem-orientation” approach – choosing to identify and work on the positives of an organisation. This took me back to discussions we had in the late 1970s when those of who developed Strathclyde Regions’s deprivation strategy anguished that our selection of areas of multiple deprivation could compound the negative forces at work.
Google scholar actually gave me a 300 page book Locating the energy for change – an introduction to appreciative inquiry; Charles Elliott (1999). Incidentally you can sign on to the WB newssheet by writing to commgap@worldbank.org

I've chosen this photo of one of our sessions in 2006 in Atbashi, north Kyrgyzstan - partly as a homage to those who are suffering in that country at the moment and partly as an illustration of the process of dialogue and change.

weather for reading

gloomy mist all around the house at my 1,300 metre level. At 07.00 the light is so poor that I need the lamp to read Andrew Robert's The Story of war - a new history of the second world war. I'm also dipping into one of the early Le Carre novels - and staring Tony Judt's Reappraisals. An earlier blog referred to historian Judt's latest book (Ill fares the Land). This one is a collection of the trenchant essays he has written on various European figures such as Albert Camus, Hannah Arendt, Eric Hobsbawm, Kennedy, Kissinger, Arthur Koestler and Edward Said. His theme is the role of ideas - and our forgetfulness....A wonderful writer - and his Post-war Europe remains not only one of the few treatments of this subject which includes central europe (Garton Ash is the only other historian who has done central europe justice) but the most eloquent and passionate.
So far this morning, the find has been a prolific EU Think Tank which focusses on the neglected field of the EU's democracy programme. Ive downloaded interesting papers on its strategy in Central Asia, for exampe.

obituaries, catalogues and stocktaking

Its a sign of my advancing years that every day seems to bring sad news of the death of a writer who has been significant for me. Yesterday brought news of Norman McCrae's demise. He had long been associated with The Economist journal - and wrote prescient essays on debureaucratisation and the end of communism in the early/mid 1980s - see here for a good obituary. The weather continues damp and overcast - a good excuse for sitting at the desk with the excellent Romanian classic music channel in the background and catching up with my internet. Trying to do a quick-save of the hundred of favourite website and blogs as recommended on yahoo answers gives me less than half the sites I have - so I decide to go through each and save manually. Its a ueful stocktaking - particuarly of the blogs.
Trying to track down some Slovak painters of the mid 20th century made me realise what a good buy the Bulgarian painters of that period are. I see that I missed a Victoria auction at Sofia's Serdica Hotel on 1 June (see their site in the list of my favourites) and must try to get down to the next one.

The picture is one of the sketches I bought in Sofia of Marco Behar's.
Found yesterday a rare example of commentary (in English) on Bulgarian painting -
And have just ordered from Amazon (amongst other delights such as a collection of Updike essays) the 4th volume (400 pages) of an early 20th century history of European painting (by country) by one Richard Muther.
I showed the French artist the 2 volumes (covering the letter P) I have of the Romanian national gallery's Catalogue - he was fascinated and asked if my job involved painting! I have the Belgian and Bulgarian Catalogues. They are a delightful thing to collect!

Murder in the mediterranean and Osh

With the travel and visits in the past 2 months, and only fleeting access to the internet, I have not been able to make any comments about what’s happening in the world – particularly in the waters off Gaza and in southern Kyrgyzstan. On the murders of Turk humanitarians by SAS people, all I can say in response to the pathetic rationalisation of the murderers is how do the Israelis expect people to behave when they launch an attack on a defenceless ship? A few days later I read of how the Nazis had treated the residents of a village whose men-folk had dared defend themselves against their attack in the early 1940s. They massacred the women and children – just like the Israelis. How quickly do the victims become the perpetrators!
We all knew in Bishkek in 2005 just how many guns there were in the Osh area – but horrifying how quickly they have been used to institute ethnic killings on a Yugoslav scale. And Putin’s Russia just stands by and watches – as they did on the edge of Warsaw in 1945. When will we ever learn? For the human aspects of the situation there read this Spiegel piece-


And I was stunned to learn of the death of Fred Halliday who wrote so eloquently about the middle east.Open Democracy has a tribute which gives a good sense of what we have lost see -

through Romania

People complain about the Romanian road system - and I used to be defensive since I do know some good parts. But, as I tried - for he first time for a deacde- to descend from the North West to my house in the carpathians (near Brasov) I realised what they meant.
Monday dawned misty – I wanted to avoid the Monday morning traffic through Cluj and took a detour which promised Turda (definitely the ugliest town!) and contemplated writing a complaint to the Prefect as I tried to avoid being forced off the appalling and winding forest mountain road by great trucks. Eventually, however, I found myself bypassing Cluj and on a spectacular new motorway which took me to Turda over the mountains. The complicated access system, however, seemed typically Romanian.
I assumed that the Sibiu-Brasov section is not yet complete and therefore chose to go via Tirgu Mures – which required me to go through Turda and the very long village which borders it. Very frustrating. But then the road to Sighosoara was very scenic –although a detour almost broke my suspension!
Stopped at the various fortified churches I encountered – all were locked with no indication of who held the keys (at Busteni I was told the house which had them but it too was locked!). And why don’t they put a notice on the door indicating who has the keys?
Eventually I arrived home at 15.30. They too had suffered from torential rain - and therefore no question of my being able to use the muddy track at the bottom of my garden to ease the emptying of my overloaded car. I made at least 5 journeys up the hill before calling it a day - and talked with the French artist who had arrived just behind me. Marcel Moulin had used the Hachard Guide (like others) to locate the guesthouse - and had travelled alone from his place near Mont St Michel in Normandy.
It was lovely to be back in my house - Maritsa fed me with one of her soups and I prepared at home pork and the rice I had bought in France. Two amazon packages were waitingfor me. After some internet posts to bed

Slovakia to Romania

Left Moymirovce just after 06.00 on Sunday and was soon coasting along what must be one of the most wonderful motorways in Europe. Made a mistake, however, in deciding to try the middle route East (not, that is, the one which goes via Poprad to the Tatras and not the one which skirts the border with Hungary) – since a car rally forced me into detour with an execrable mountain road. Dagmar had recommended the town her father had been a priest in – Betlar – since it boasts Slovakia’s best Kastiel. It is clearly very popular. From there, the best connection to Miskolc pointed me backwards. The pic is of Lupcianski Hrad (thanks to Miroslav Blaho)
At the border I had an argument about the vignette which is compulsory – and almost double the price of the Slovak one. In fact it is a real cheat since the road system had hardly changed in a deacde for the section I was travelling. Hungary was never my favourite country and I crawled through it as what seemed a snail’s pace - already missing the Slovak countryside and friendship.
I made my entry to Romania at my old crossing point of Satu Mare – and started to look for some accommodation. I thought Zalau (one of the ugliest towns) might offer something but none which offered the security for the car I needed with its contents on the back seat so visible – let alone the bike on top. At last, at 20.30, on the downward section of the steep hill which leads to Cluj-Napolca I found what I needed – although the accommodation was a bit communist (no hot water and a leaking shower system). I had missed Slovakia’s second match – played in the afternoon – which they lost 3-0 and watched on the floor another forgettable one on the tiny TV set.

time in Nitra

Friday was wet again – but only after I had cycled to and from the morning swim. Thunder rumbled in the distance all the gloomy afternoon. Eastern Slovakia was badly hit with floods in recent weeks.
Still looking for decent art books on Slovak painters. Bought Dagmar, my hostess, two things her well-endowed house seems short of - 6 good-sized wine glasses and an apron! And browsed in a large book-store. Reading Zeldin’s The French. The Nitra wines are disappointing – Mojmirovce ones are vastly superior but not available in shops.
Thursday I visited Tesco’s in Nitra and picked up a selection of Nitra wines to taste and hopefully find some I could take back in bulk. Also a pair of comfortable German shoes; a tent (in a sale for 20 euros) and a pillow (ditto for 5 euros). It was a warm and sunny day – so I strolled the back street where I used to have a bank account and had left some cash – only to find that a new bank was in its place. Nothing daunted, I went in with my passport and was told that customers of the previous bank were customers of the new one. After some difficulty, my file was duly produced and a figure of several thousand euros duly appeared on the screen. I was stupid enough to ask whether this was DM or euro (since my account in 1996 had been in German marks). I could barely believe my luck as the money was counted out in euros! I shared some of my good fortune with Tatiana and Edit – who certainly need a break. Cooked the meal for Edit and family who had been working hard on their house – mildly marinated pork and basmati rice – with my exotic side dishes of banana and yoghourt and orange and onion.
In evening met up with Stefan – whose father-in-law has taken a bad tumble.