Collapse of a Continent

I have mentioned Perry Anderson several times on this blog. Although his reputation is based on his work as an historian and political philosopher (“specialist in intellectual history” is how Wikipedia puts it), he has in the past 5 years or so focused his energies on penning detailed and gripping portraits of contemporary countries. I know of no other writer who has his encyclopedic grasp of cultural, political and historical aspects of a country (based on reading of original sources) combined with elegance of writing.

His detailed dissections of France, Germany, Italy, Turkey (and the EU) collected in the book The New Old World are simply the first thing anyone who wants to understand contemporary Europe should read.   

No less a writer than Chris Hitchens claimed in an article that Anderson was “the most profound essayist wielding a pen” - if "on the wrong side of history."

He is 75 years old – and an exceptional example of a generation which was genuinely multicultural (not in the current PC sense of the word). His grasp of several European languages, his interdisciplinary and prolific reading (he apparently devours books) means that he moves in an intellectual world now known to few people. And then he returns from that world to give us amazing insights.

The book review which is mentioned gives a quite exceptional overview and pays appropriate tribute to the man -

Ambitious interdisciplinary essay writing and  the ability to sustain a complex multidimensional argument beyond about ten pages, is dying, if not dead. Atypical in his career, footloose across continents, Anderson has never had to worry about his citation index or his impact factor. He is "old school" in the good sense: as reliable and perennially cool as a pair of old adidas.

This week’s London Review of Books offers another of his long essays which paints juicy portraits of the way the EU and Italy have dealt with the financial and political crisis overwhelming the continent. I have still not finished the article – but need to share the incisiveness of following excerpts    

Commonplace in a Union that presents itself as a moral tutor to the world, the pollution of power by money and fraud follows from the leaching of substance or involvement in democracy. Elites freed from either real division above, or significant accountability below, can afford to enrich themselves without distraction or retribution. Exposure ceases to matter very much, as impunity becomes the rule. Like bankers, leading politicians do not go to prison. Of the fauna above, only an elderly Greek has ever suffered that indignity. But corruption is not just a function of the decline of the political order. It is also, of course, a symptom of the economic regime that has taken hold of Europe since the 1980s. In a neoliberal universe, where markets are the gauge of value, money becomes, more straightforwardly than ever before, the measure of all things. If hospitals, schools and prisons can be privatised as enterprises for profit, why not political office too?.......................... 

By the summer 2011, emboldened by increasing flattery of himself in the media as the rock of the Republic, and with the encouragement of Berlin, Brussels and Frankfurt, the Italian President, Napolitano, had decided to dispose of Berlusconi. The key to removing him smoothly was finding a replacement to satisfy these decisive partners, and the business establishment in Italy. Happily, the ideal figure was to hand: Mario Monti, the former EU commissioner, member of the Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission, senior adviser to Goldman Sachs and now president of Bocconi University. Monti had for some time been looking forward to just the situation which now presented itself. ‘Italian governments can take tough decisions,’ he confided to the Economist in 2005, ‘only if two conditions are met: there must be both a visible emergency and strong pressure from outside.’ At the time, he lamented, ‘such a moment of truth is lacking.’ Now it had come. As early as June or July, in complete secrecy,

Napolitano readied Monti to take over the government. In the same period, he commissioned the head of Italy’s largest banking group, Corrado Passera, to produce a confidential economic plan for the country. Passera was a former aide to Berlusconi’s arch political enemy and business rival Carlo De Benedetti, owner of La Repubblica and L’Espresso, who was privy to Napolitano’s moves. In urgent italics, Passera’s 196-page document proposed shock therapy: €100 billion worth of privatisations, housing tax, capital levies, a hike in VAT. Napolitano, on the phone to Merkel and no doubt Draghi, now had the man and the plan to eject Berlusconi ready. Monti had never run for election, and though a seat in Parliament was not required for investiture as prime minister, it would help to have one.On 9 November, plucking him from Bocconi, Napolitano appointed Monti a senator for life, to the applause of the world’s financial press. Under threat of destruction by the bond markets should he resist, Berlusconi capitulated, and within a week Monti was sworn in as the country’s new ruler, at the head of an unelected cabinet of bankers, businessmen and technocrats.

 The operation that had installed him is an expressive illustration of what democratic procedures and the rule of law can mean in today’s Europe. It was entirely unconstitutional. The Italian president is supposed to be the impartial guardian of a parliamentary order, who does not interfere with its decisions save where they breach the constitution – as this one had signally failed to do. He is not empowered to conspire, behind the back of an elected premier, with individuals of his choice, not even in Parliament, to form a government to his liking.

The corruption of business, bureaucracy and politics in Italy was now compounded by corruption of the constitution. In 2011 the crisis gripping Italy and the Eurozone had been triggered by a massive wave of financial speculation and derivative manipulation on both sides of the Atlantic. No operator was more notorious for its part in these than the very company on whose payroll both Monti and Draghi had figured. Goldman Sachs, amply earning its sobriquet in America of the ‘vampire squid’, had seconded the falsification of Greek public accounts, and been charged with fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, paying half a billion dollars to settle the case out of court. 

Giving Credit to the politicians with backbone

People moan about the declining standards of politicians - who do seem to have reached the bottom in the “reputation” league tables.

But do we understand why? What can we do about it? And do we properly recognize the minority of politicians who buck the trend and have in fact some moral fibre?

Labour politician Austin Mitchell was in the headlines last week with an attack on drug companies. He is a one of the very few Labour politicians I have had any time for …..He was an academic before being elected in the late 1970s for a fishing town after the tragic death of the sitting MP - Labour’s Foreign Secretary of the time Anthony Crosland. 
Anyone making the “Case for Labour” in a Penguin Special in 1983 (as Mitchell then proceeded to do) when the party was tearing itself apart had to be very special. The state it was then in was the major factor dissuading me from fighting the parliamentary seat in my home town when it was then offered to me (it didn’t stop Gordon Brown or Tony Blair, however, both of whom took their seats in the General Election of that year)

Mitchell went on serve Parliament and constituency well (at one stage actually changing his name to Fillett as part of a campaign to save the fishing industry) and to write several books. One of these – How to succeed in politics without being Really Trying - is reviewed here by one of the other “originals” left on the Labour benches - Paul Flynn

Mitchell was bright and articulate – and party bosses don’t like that – so he never saw Ministerial office. Last month Mitchell announced his intention to stand down from Parliament after 40 years’ of service. His maverick style led too many to dismiss him. But it is such originality, energy and commitment that Parliaments everywhere need!

People like Austin Mitchell threaten the bosses who groom candidates for office – on the basis either of their family or other connections.

I became and remained a successful candidate for office simply because I cultivated my constituents – the people who lived in my area……

And, in my lifetime, I have seen the power shift into the hands of the political bosses – particularly in Britain where the generally unassailable position of Prime Minister gives dangerous power of patronage.

But it is more than just the power of the political parties – generally with their state funding. The media are also responsible – for giving coverage only to the leaders of parties – as are their readers who encourage the triviality with which politics is dealt these days.

So forgive me for celebrating some of those who, in their day, gave us reason to proud to be democrats – and with persevering with the question of how we might retrieve the situation.

I wrote recently about John McIntosh who was my tutor in the early 60s – a time I was picked out to visit the home of Hugh Gaitskell, Leader of the Labour opposition until his tragically early death. In 1970 I was election agent for left-wing Norman Buchan – who was a real treasure – never really surrendering his quiet schoolmaster style.

Through Norman and my growing status in the Scottish Labour movement I met quite a few MPs in the 1970s…. including Willie Ross, Donald Dewar - both Leaders of the Scottish Labour Party at different times – as well as John Smith, Leader of the British Labour Party, until his tragically early death in the 1990s.

Donald Dewar – who was a great Labour Whip - also died when he had just attained the office of First Minister of the newly established Scottish Parliament. 

So many brilliant and committed people cut off in the prime of their lives (also John McIntosh and Robin Cook) – compared with such useless dross which survives into their dotage….

Jo Grimond – the Leader in the 1970s of the Liberal Party – was also a Scottish MP with whom I had close contact for a few years by virtue of his support for a community project with which I was associated. And then, of course, Tony Benn who died in January at the grand age of 88….

All were greats……People such as Tam Dalyell and Dennis Healey (in their 80s and 90s), Tony Wright, Chris Mullin (in their 60s) are all retired now.

These are the MPs I respected……. Healey, of course, was one of the greatest – the other 3 in that list had decided at an early stage that they did not “have what it took” to achieve major Ministerial office (that being, variously flattery; stupidity; ambition) and decided to concentrate on other (generally better) aspects of parliamentary life…

So amongst all the cynicism and whinging - let us pay proper tribute - and do more to ensure that these are the sort who get credit......

Remembering

It was remiss of me not to have mentioned the exhibition of Otto Dix graphics now in its last few weeks at the Bucharest National Gallery (the side entrance near the English bookshop).

Dix is not a favourite painter of mine – but his graphics about the First World War are quite stunning.

I’ve also included – by way of comparison – one of the many sketches of Ilya Petrov I bought earlier this year in Sofia….

I was reminded because of opening a new book about Anglo-German Relations called ‘Noble Endeavours, the Life of Two Countries, England and Germany, in Many Stories’ which starts with a profile of one, Herbert Sulzbach whose life is described by the author in the following terms -

Herbert Sulzbach fought for Germany in the First World War and for Britain in the Second. His most challenging war began later. On November 11 1945, this quietly charming and slightly-built man succeeded in persuading the 4,000 Nazi PoWs with whom he had spent the past 11 months to stand alongside him, on Armistice Day, and pledge themselves to return home as good Europeans, “to take part in the reconciliation of all people and the maintenance of peace.”

Subsequently, working among the high-ranking SS officers imprisoned at Featherstone Park in Northumbria, Sulzbach ensured that these more hardened candidates also returned home with a clear understanding of how a liberal democracy should work.Sulzbach’s persuasive method — he made a point of imposing no form of censorship — proved remarkably effective. The 3,000 ex-prisoners who later wrote to thank him for his endeavours had little to gain at that point from their gratitude. One reformed PoW, Willi Brundert, went on to become a celebrated mayor of Frankfurt. Twenty-five of Sulzbach’s Nazi pupils would freely form a European branch of Featherstone. It was still going strong when Sulzbach died in 1985……. In 1948, Herbert Sulzbach publicly described the PoWs returning home as the best of envoys for future peace and understanding between Germany and England. Nearly 40 years later, he warned that “first, the old distrust must disappear”.The time has surely come to pay heed to Sulzbach’s words. Writing my book, Noble Endeavours, I was greatly struck by the spirit of forgiveness I encountered among people who had come to England as Kindertransport children. Born in Germany and now profoundly attached to England, all of them echoed Sulzbach’s wish for an end to the old distrust.
On the eve of a year of remembering the horrors that began in 1914, I hope that recalling the past won’t allow us to undo, or to neglect, the task of reconciliation for which so much was done by two heroic Jews. 

I'm glad to do my little bit in remembering not so much the two World Wars - but the few good people who have tried to do something positive with their lives................

Entitlement

How dependent many of us have become on high-speed internet connections!! Yesterday was the day Vodafone graciously gave me my new month’s 4 GB capacity with which to hit the internet. How good I felt at the ease with which I could suddenly access sites. But I have to resist Youtube’s temptations – and rely on Yahoo mail and my google website for up-and down-loading text and a few pics……

And then I realized both how lucky and pathetic I am – living as I do in a village whose techniques and skills haven’t changed in more than 100 years…..

But, then, I am a pathetic “symbolic analyst” or scribbler to whom a power saw (let alone my wood-burning central heating system) is a major engineering test – which, needless to say, I abysmally fail. And don’t even ask me to milk the cow which gives me its milk from my neighbour’s and (in summer my own) field!

It sent me back to Michael Foley – whose Age of Absurdity (2010) graces the shelves of my various living quarters…..

Drawing on philosophy, religion, history, psychology and neuroscience, his exploration of the things that modern culture is either rejecting or driving us away from cuts to the essence and I should probably post it above my desk!!·      Responsibility – we are entitled to succeed and be happy, so someone/thing else must be to blame when we are not
·      Difficulty – we believe we deserve an easy life, and worship the effortless and anything that avoids struggle (as Foley points out, this extends even to eating oranges: sales are falling as peeling them is now seen as too demanding and just so, you know, yesterday …)
·      Detachment – we benefit from concentration, autonomy and privacy, but life demands immersion, distraction, collaboration and company; by confusing self-esteem (essentially external and concerned with our image to others) with self-respect (essentially internal and concerned with our self-image), we further fuel our sense of entitlement – and our depression, frustration and rage when we don’t get what we ‘deserve’
·      Experience – captivated by the heightened colour, speed, and drama of an edited on-screen life, our attention span is falling and ‘attention’ (at least in the West) is something we pay passively rather than actively and mindfully.

It was significant, Foley says, that when Americans and Japanese were asked to study an underwater environment for twenty seconds and then describe what they had seen, the Americans said things like ‘big blue fish’, and the Japanese ‘flowing water, rocks, plants and fish’. The Eastern reality was wider, fuller and richer.”

Bulgaria - it's our oil!

I may be in the (very misty) Carpathian mountains at the moment but have to keep an eye on the other parts of the Balkan configuration….My German contacts tells me that Bulgaria's close energy ties to Russia are causing concern among European officials

They worry Moscow will use Sofia as a beachhead for its interests and drive a wedge between EU member states.…..Bulgaria is an easy target for the Kremlin because the country is almost entirely dependent on energy imports from Russia to survive. One third of its economic output is either directly or indirectly controlled by Moscow, the German reports indicate. Bulgaria's governing coalition -- of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, which represents the country's Turkish minority -- is considered closely aligned with Moscow. It includes an illustrious group of former Communist Party members, intelligence service workers and Bulgarian oligarchs who do business with Russian President Vladimir Putin's minions.

One of the country's most influential business magnates is banker Tzvetan Vassilev -- whose KTB bank handles much of the money flowing from Moscow into state-controlled Bulgarian industry, particularly the energy sector.

Last week, various media reported the contents of a secret letter from Russian energy giant Gazprom to the Economics Ministry in Sofia. In the letter, the Russian state-owned company allegedly provided ministry officials with draft formulations for a law relating to the South Stream pipeline, a project that will carry Russian gas through Bulgaria to Austria. Much to the chagrin of the European Commission, the multibillion euro project is being led by Gazprom.

The government in Sofia has snubbed Brussels with the draft law because it redefines the Bulgarian part of the pipeline as a simple "gas grid interconnection" rather than a full-fledged pipeline in an effort to circumvent EU competition regulations….. The European Commission has been highly critical of the South Stream project, noting among other things that it violates EU energy market rules -- anti-monopoly regulations passed in 2009 aim to prevent producers from owning pipelines. In another alleged violation of EU policy, Bulgaria is also moving to exclude third-party suppliers from using the pipeline. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a fellow Social Democrat, is kept fully abreast of the Kremlin's strategy by his staff. He met this month with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, an independent politician who is fighting openly with his government because he wants to keep Bulgaria on a course toward the West.Plevneliev warned of dangerous developments across the entire region. He fears Putin could destabilize Bulgaria and the Balkans and seek to bring it under its sphere of influence.

Gerhard Schröder is currently employed by a Gazprom subsidiary and made a trip to Sofia this week to provide support for the Bulgarian Socialists in the European election.

I only asked!

Revenons aux moutons ecossais!! Back to Scotland - and the September referendum. My favourite Scottish reading - the Scottish Review - expressed it so well today -

What possible reason could anyone have for not being prepared to say they intended to vote No in the referendum?
I suspect the answer lies in what may be seen as the success of the Yes campaign. Every observer and commentator agrees that the Yes campaigners have monopolised almost all the energy, enthusiasm, excitement and commitment that the independence referendum has created.
So far at least it has proved difficult to make people feel passionate about the reasonable idea of Better Together.
More importantly still, the Yes campaign has successfully created an atmosphere in which a largely unspoken assumption has emerged that an intention to vote No may be seen as somehow anti-Scottish or unpatriotic. 

In his poem 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel', our writer (Sir) Walter Scott famously asked:
'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead/
Who never to himself hath said/
This is my own, my native land!'

 If there is, the poet tells us, such a man

'shall go down/

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,/

Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung'. 

It would be absurd to suggest that intending No voters consign themselves to the poet's second category, but there is no denying that the Yes campaign has been very successful in implying that anyone who is really positive about Scotland's future, who thinks progressively, and who rejects Thatcherism and its legacy, is bound to favour independence. 

Westminster made a huge mistake in accepting the Electoral Commission's recommended wording of the referendum question: 'Should Scotland be an independent country?' Mr Salmond and the SNP must have found it hard to believe their luck. Vote Yes for independence – with all the positive gloss and power and appeal that word enjoys.

How many countries are there that are not independent? And in any event, with its guaranteed independent religious, legal and educational systems, plus a parliament in Edinburgh, isn't Scotland already more or less an independent country? Vote No for what? Nothing positive. No hint of preserving a 300-year union. Just Yes for, or No against, independence.

After all what’s the alternative? Subordination? Subservience? Dependency? Even subjugation and enslavement?
 Is it really so surprising that No voters may prefer to remain tight-lipped about how they intend to mark their ballot?

Smart and slow Books?

I’ve begun to realise that the little Guide or briefing which I’ve been working on for the past few days (called, for the moment, "Encountering Romania") is rather unique with its various distinctive features -

• It focuses on the aspects of a country you normally find pushed to a few back pages of the conventional travel guides – literature, art and history
• It includes blogsites – 16 of them – with the hyperlinks and some excerpts    
• It gives a lot of hyperlinks to material about Romanian society and culture – for example 20 travelogues from the last couple of decades (that’s one a year); to lists of several hundred novels; to sites which will give data and examples of a couple of hundred Romanian painters; and to several photographic sites

The "Blue Guides" and Pallas Guides do offer cultural feasts - but don’t have the hyperlinks..  

A year or so ago I picked up in one of the second-hand bookshops in Bucharest some volumes of a 1960s "Collection Literaire" - French schoolbook texts by Lagarde and Michard. They cover most cultural forms and include excerpts and photos. Quite exquisite....but is there a modern equivalent?   

They used to be called Reference books. But in even their traditional (ie non web-based) form they were generally available only in the local language ie not for foreigners - or at least only for that minority of visitors who spoke the language fairly fluently.......

And what does one call this new format – with its “embedded hyperlinks”? 
“EBook with embedded links” is a bit of a mouthful! Also sounds a bit warlike! 

My first idea was “smart” book - but that seems to be a technical device like a tablet….

and this EC initiative doesn’t actually tell me very much.

I blogged a few months back about “slow books” – perhaps I should patent a product called “slow, smart books”????