THE WOMEN APPEAR AS AURORA BOREALIS
One night in the Arctic, the villages saw the “flashing elements
of female souls.” The women kept indoors, women whose windows
had been painted black, who dressed in head-to-toe black.
They floated out of their houses through the cracks to the Arctic
where they could be seen without the burka.
Luminous beauty. Their long black hair, slender bodies from so
much weeping, shadows under their eyes like the dark of the moon.
“Look, Mother, with your shadowed eyes.”
Soon the aurora of mirth will appear. First their bodies in the sky.
Brilliant ice maidens! Then the laughing of the heavens.
Then the laughing of the women themselves who prefer the cold,
the seals, the walrus, the ice floes, the dangerous polar bear, to
the death of the heart. “My mother prefers death to leaving him.”
They are laughing in the cold, and we villagers are making ice candles.
See us come out on our dogsleds. Hundreds of ice candles lead the
way to the Yypnik village. These women, a gift from the gods.
“My father saw her as no gift but his.”
Look how beautiful they are. Northern dancers, we call them.
They are not aurora flowers that open and die in a single hour.
They become aurora snakes to protect themselves from those men.
“Poison him.”
The women are gorgeous feather boas across the night sky.
Everything is called aurora in honor of the gods.
The aurora of mirth. Hear these women laughing?
You have never heard them laugh before.
They fled the harsh husband who caged them without light.
“Mother, you could be all light. It’s not too late to seep from the
crack he forgot in the east wall.”
~ Margaret Szumowski, The Night of the Lunar Eclipse, 2005
Oriana:
Originally the poet may have been inspired by the Norse myth of the Valkyries. The opposite of oppressed wives, these are the warrior maidens (“brilliant ice maidens”) who take the souls of slain heroes to Valhalla. The flashing of their shields as they ride the skies is supposed to produce the Northern Lights. What Margaret Szumowski takes from the myth is the joyful dance of the lights (auroras of mirth), and the power of those feminine spirits that are seen as a “gift from the gods.”
This is a poem imagining the escape of all oppressed women, not just the Muslim women forced to dress in black head to toe, with only a slit for the eyes (one Islamic scholar suggested that it would be more pious to leave an opening for only one eye). The poem is strange, surreal, and extremely moving. I can’t read it without feeling my eyes moisten. The address to “Mother” moves me – it gives the poem its intimacy. But mainly I feel its power as poetry because it takes me to the Otherworld – that place in the imagination where we can find refuge, almost no matter how oppressive the reality.
And yet it’s more than just some vague “place in the imagination.” This poem makes us imagine sheer beauty: the undulating lights in the Arctic sky: “Look how beautiful they are. Northern dancers, we call them.” It’s a summons – mostly doomed, we know that – to all oppressed women to connect with their strength and beauty. A political poem, yes, but a poem that does not sacrifice the strangeness and indirectness of poetry.
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THE RUSSIAN CULT OF TOUGHNESS (Dima Vorobyev)
~ Is Russia a tough place to grow up in?
It’s very touch and go.
Much depends on on who your parents are, what is your neighborhood and which generation you belong to. But one thing is absolutely certain: the Russian civilization is there to shape you up into a very tough human being.
Krútost
During the last two decades, the notion of krutóy (“tough”, “hard nut”, “smart”) became very central for our definition of success. But even though the meaning is new (krutóy means originally “steep” or “hard-boiled”), the concept is centuries-long. In it, you can find something in common with the religious search for purity, or the American obsession with self-help and self-improvement. But the starting point is different.
It’s the eternal Russian admiration of power. Our universe is choke full with predators—some benign, but many not—cruising and looking for prey in competition with each other. It’s about where in the food chain you want to place yourself.
Topping from bottom
No one insists on depredation. But this world is not for the fragile. Even if your meek predisposition or your charitable ethics command you to linger on the very bottom, it pays to be krutóy. You can duck, you can run, you can hide, you can talk your way out of trouble—the better you do it, the longer you last.
We have an essential Russian folk tale about this. As a Russian, this is a quest nothing can exonerate you from. Ever wondered why spoken Russian sounds so tough, our ladies look so gorgeous, and our men act so macho in online forums? Here’s your answer.
Perfectionism à la russe
If in doubt, just look at the epic success story that Russian/Soviet Jews have become in the US and Israel. This is the long-lasting effect of our exacting requirements for being krutóy, amplified with the Ashkenazi flair for education and the ferocious helicopter parenting on the part of Jewish mothers. (A joke from Odessa: if you see in the street a small Jewish boy with his mom, and he has no violin case in hand, it means he plays piano).
No one knows what kind of riches waits for us at the end of this quest. Yet, if you one day find yourself reincarnated somewhere in Russia, expect everyone telling you in a zillion ways to pull up your britches and beating your ego into shape.
In the photo below, Moscow, my city. This is the capital of tough men and of women in high heels, as krúto as it gets.
Here’s the punchline for anyone who wants it right between their eyes: in Russia, even if you’re blessed with a safe home and good parents, someone always makes their mission to make life tough for you. ~ Quora
Anand:
Russian civilization is there to shape you up into a very tough human being….. Very true. lol. Both male and female.
Rune Nordehaf:
Russian actually does sounds quite melodious when you look it up on youtube and hear normal average Russian youth speaking it but I think the reason people get the impression it is rough is because the majority of times people are exposed to them it is usually either a politician speaking or some street thugs both who have reason to act more masculine than others which I think then combines with some of characteristics in Russian itself when it comes to tone to make Russian sound more masculine.
Also it may also be a result of the opposite for some where when Russians switch to English they still have the tonal characteristics of Russian which though it sounds melodious in Russian can sound similar in tone to how many people trying to be over-masculine and tone focused do, even if it is not on purpose by the Russian speaker, and so an association builds.
Alisher Orynbeg
One of Pelevin’s characters, when asked by no other than Tzar about what he thinks is the cosmic purpose of the Russian state says that is to transform solar energy into people’s suffering.
[Pelevin is a popular fiction writer]
Greg Stephens:
Parts of the US were rougher. I grew up in Eastern Kentucky during the 60’s and 70’s. I think three of the guys I went to high school with are still alive.
Of course nothing compares to places like the Philippines, were I was stationed briefly.
I have always thought there was a “toughness correlation to the number of prostitutes per capita and the amount of extreme religious groups present to determine the relative toughness of a population.
Lots of hookers and crazy cults mean you should travel in groups and stay relatively sober.
Dima:
Gotcha. But ghetto culture lacks the “escape-through-otherness” dimension of the Russian civilization. Imagine a community of rednecks where everyone sees everyone else as rednecks, but never one themselves.
Greg Stephens:
I found mountain rednecks and rural Russians to have many eerie similarities and cultural touchpoints.
Ken Opalach:
I have a Russian fiancée. She is a wonderful example of femininity, but she is most definitely hard boiled. When the truth hurts she does not soften it. This certainly can make things quite difficult through a layer of translation, but it would be next to impossible without an understanding of her upbringing and her country. She was not quite a teenager when the Soviet Union broke up and her family suffered quite a bit.
Christian He:
‘Krutoi’ is simply the Russian version of ‘dog-eat-dog’…not very progressive culture! But the result of typical capitalist rule and behavior, whether in Moscow, Chicago, Manila or Beijing….bullies rule the world. You seem impressed by such primitive concept of civil society. I know it well from the US, but it’s low, repulsive stuff. Dima Hvorostovski showed that it’s possible even for a Russian male to be smart yet gentle! Grow up, bullies! Russian, American, and worldwide.
Piet Martens:
And what is all this toughness good for?
Plamen Sabev
For holding 1/6th of the Earth land area?
Egor Zimin:
Moscow and other big cities like San Petersburg are much easier to grow up and shape as a person. Rural parts are actually one of the hardest places to grow in. It's not about the money or possibilities to growth, it's more about mentality there. I think everyone heard about The Crab Bucket Paradox, where no one crab can go out of the bucket because no one can and if one tries everyone will be stopping him. Same thing in rural Russia.Your relatives, friends and sometimes government will do everything to make you stay where you are and cut your possibilities to grow.
Eugene Windchy:
Machismo is the pride of Russia and Latin America. Machismo is overrated.
Tarja Vento:
It’s not very cool to have deformed feet by the age of thirty, like so many women in Moscow have. Tough women take care of themselves and their legs. In the West, these ladies would be considered airheads, not tough.
Tony Dot:
Does just sound largely like the classic savagery and desperation (the painted ladies in high heels aren’t some glorious rediscovery of true femininity any more than the tediously macho men are a model for masculinity) found in any dog-eat-dog, poor society. Russia though does always seem destined to revel in the proletarian and so is resistant to the softening aspects of civilization that much of the rest of the world would see as desirable.
Noone:
That’s the Russia I know. I don’t know WHY it is like that and I wish it weren’t but Dima describes it very well. In a way Russia is Klingon, if you know what I mean.
Lev Borisov:
“the Russian civilization is there to shape you up into a very tough human being.”
This is not dissimilar to US urban ghettos or just about anywhere in the developing world.
Imran Imrab:
It definitely is tough place to grow up.
One of the countries where being hateful is a normal state.
Andrey Eliseyev:
Compared to western countries the level of aggression everywhere in Russia is much higher. That’s really noticeable for any Russian who lives some time in Western country and then return to the motherland. That level of aggression makes people to be tough — whether you like it or not. However, I doubt it’s something unique, probably many poor countries have this.
Oriana:
The root of “krutoy” is “krut” — in Polish the immediate association if “okrutny,” cruel. And I don’t like the idea that you become “tough” by enduring cruelty. There are other ways to grow resilient — in fact life teaches us that all the time.
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HOW THE RUSSIAN ELITES LIVE (Misha Firer)
Unlike many current residents, Soloviev actually grew up here. His mother was an art critic and his father a lecturer of Marxism-Leninism in university. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went to elite public school nearby.
These guys are offspring of the priestly caste that preached communist religion to millions around the world.
Joseph Stalin turned Peredelkino village into a dacha compound for Soviet artistic elites — writers, poets, painters and the likes — in order to spy and keep an eye on this liberal bunch.
Right outside the fence there’s a spring with drinking water. This is the only source of ground water in Moscow region that’s authorized as good for drinking without prior purification.
A creek runs parallel to Soloviev’s backyard where he and his wife used to take dips in summers but for security reasons they don’t do it anymore.
Soloviev, like his father, has been a KGB operative all his adult life. When it was in vogue to be liberal and critical (lightly)of Vladimir Putin, Soloviev did in his TV talk shows.
With the new times, Soloviev, a talented artist, acquired a new role and image from his KGB handlers. He plays a tough, no-nonsense authoritarian figure who doesn’t let his opponents speak and demands unquestioning obedience to Kremlin’s diktat.
These days , children of the Peredelkino elites attend British School that follows British curriculum where teachers and students speak only English. This is the new nobility prepared in the best Pax Britannia traditions to lord over monolingual peasants. However, if there’s a revolution and overthrow of the regime, they’ll all flee to Europe. It’s a Russian tradition.
From his programs in the early and mid 2000s, Soloviev learned that a charismatic spokesperson can outshine him putting his job into jeopardy. This happened when Soloviev invited obnoxious politician and founder of the liberal-democratic political party Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
With his force of personality and perfect command of the Russian language and by being plain smarter and worldlier, Zhirinovsky outshone and outtalked Soloviev time and again making him look like a student who has just flunked an exam to his professor.
In the current reincarnation as a host of a pro-war talk show , Soloviev invites only beta male guests who either agree with everything he says but mostly just let him wag his tongue, stare into the floor in shame, and do not dare to interrupt.
As a result , the show looks like a bully who’s been given blank check to say and abuse anyone he likes for the duration of the program and nobody can stand up to him and anyone who can is not allowed into the studio.
Soloviev wants to project himself as strong but it’s clear as day that he’s fake authoritarian whose wife eloped with a girlfriend, his kids are US-born, and son is a non-binary supermodel in London.
However, if we’re willing to see through KGB’s smoke and mirrors, this KGB operative is a total fraud like his boss Putin. ~ Quora
Elena Gold:
In 2008, Vladimir Solovyov said that “only a criminal can start a war with Ukraine” … “such a war would be the most horrible crime” — and did a parody of what he turned into today, describing how Russia is trying to “make people love it.”
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WHAT’S IN FASHION IN RUSSIA?
~ Right now Russians are into tactical gear.
Men who are not in the army, are wearing military uniform. Men who are in the army, wear their khakis even when they go out with their wives, hoping for extra perks or special respect.
Deputy Minister of Construction Valery Leonov arrived in occupied Luhansk, dressed fashionably tactical.
Leonov was in Rubezhnoye. Locals say, nothing is being built there, officials are just stealing the money. Kadyrov’s ‘Akhmat’ cleared the buildings from local residents, so Russian occupiers seem to feel safe there.
During his previous visit, Leonov, who is not in the army, also dressed like he was.
Decorating themselves with Zvastikas and V-chevrons is patriotic, because the use of English letters shows you are fighting Anglo-Saxons.
Since 2018, when Russia staged a show during the soccer World Cup that Putin spent millions in bribes to bring to Russia (the goal was to demonstrate to foreigners how modern and advanced Russia is – even Russian policemen were ordered to drop their usual steel facial expression and smile), old folk headdress called “kokoshnik” became suddenly popular as a patriotic symbol.
*
You have probably seen Russian ”Ushanka” fur hats in movies before.
But these hats are available in Russia not only in the standard grey color – like this type that Korean chieftain Kim Jong-Un got as a present during his recent visit.
And let’s not forget about the famous Russian symbol and pride, ballet.
This is how it looks when the fashionable military flair is added to the mix.
This piece is meant to be entertaining, but it’s also terrifying
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THE SOAP OPERA THAT EXPLAINS HOW RUSSIA SEES AMERICA (Misha Iossel)
Санта Барбара Форева! — Santa Barbara Forevah! — was stenciled boldly in tall purple-chalk lettering on the side of my parents’ apartment building in the southwestern part of St. Petersburg, Russia, when I returned to the re-renamed city of my childhood and youth — Leningrad, USSR — in 1993. It was the first time I’d been back since immigrating to the United States seven years earlier.
There were other signs of Santa Barbara’s presence in the city — improvised tributes to the American soap opera in the historic downtown area: a hole-in-the-wall café called Santa Barbara here, a Santa Barbara strip joint there. On several occasions I was asked, typically by women, whether I’d been to Santa Barbara myself and, if so, what it was like. I hadn’t, unfortunately.
“You should go. That’d be the first place I would go if I could ever make it to America,” a middle-aged salesclerk at the grocery store said to me with mild reproach.
Santa Barbara certainly sounded nice.
In Santa Barbara, people had manners. They had their self-respect about them. The men didn’t urinate in hallways or write obscene words on the walls of elevator cabins. They didn’t smash lightbulbs in entryways or drink cheap eau de Cologne first thing in the morning. They didn’t occupy the only toilet in the communal apartment for a good half-hour or keep their dirty combat boots and homemade barrels of pickled mushrooms in the communal kitchen.
And they certainly did not, out of pure malice, slip slivers of tar soap in other people’s pans with soup boiling on communal kitchen stoves. Nor did they come home dead drunk past midnight and plop down on the couch face first with their shoes on and immediately start snoring.
In Santa Barbara, men were men, real men, handsome and gallant, even if they were not necessarily very good people in all other respects. They didn’t go through their entire lives without saying “I love you” once to their women, especially to their wives — on whom, admittedly, they cheated mercilessly nonstop, but … well, men would be men, wouldn’t they? In Santa Barbara, men didn’t die of cirrhosis of the liver barely past their mid-50s, and there did not appear to be millions more women than men there, in Santa Barbara, or in America on the whole.
Early 1990s in Russia. It’s a tough slog out there. The world has gone topsy-turvy, completely. The eternally indestructible, matchlessly mighty Soviet Union is no more. It’s Russia once again, unimaginably enough, for the first time in more than seven decades, and to say that it is falling apart would be the understatement of the century. If you are an ordinary citizen whose time on Earth is closer to its end than to its beginning, strong chances are your lifetime savings have been wiped out completely overnight as a result of the so-called “shock therapy” implemented by Boris Yeltsin’s government on the advice of several renowned American economists, and the stealthy, lightning-quick monetary reform was one of its main components. You are, to put it bluntly, destitute, and you are thoroughly disoriented. What happened here? What’s happening with you and your country? What’s going to happen tomorrow?
The food store shelves are emptier now than they have ever been before, even at the lowest points of Leonid Brezhnev’s stagnation. “Goodbye, America, oh / where I’ve never been,” Vyacheslav Butusov, the charismatic lead singer of the popular rock band Nautilus Pompilius, croons periodically on the radio. America, my foot. What’s it really like? No one has much of an idea. Hopefully, those brilliant, internationally renowned American economists will show us right here, in Russia, what life in America is like. Because everyone knows that life in America is unimaginably good. It’s drafty and cold in your room — central heating defunct again. Outside, in the streets and squares of your city, glum-looking people with a dangerous glint to their slitted eyes are sitting on their haunches around makeshift bonfires in the dark.
You feel as if you are suspended in midair above a roiling ocean of dark entropy. (Do you know the word entropy? That’s not the point.) There are precious few certainties in your life anymore. Santa Barbara is one of them, and it is the prettiest and most optimistic of all. ~ Misha Iossel
An unfinished luxury home sits idle in a gated community in the Santa Barbara neighborhood of Kaliningrad, Russia. Arches similar to this one are a favorite architectural flourish from the show recreated in neighborhoods like this. The original Santa Barbara site in Kaliningrad expanded beyond the early plans for the development. Now there are three side-by-side neighborhoods — all called Santa Barbara.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/24/american-soap-opera-explains-how-russia-feels-about-everything-santa-barbara-trump-putin/
Misha, commenting on this piece: “Some dark, ominous premonitions of the catastrophe to come already were quite discernible therein, I think.”
*
POST-PUTIN RUSSIA
~ I remember the end of Brezhnev’s reign and the end of the USSR.
I think the end of Putin’s reign will be similar.
When Brezhnev died, it wasn’t unexpected. He was looking unwell for years and barely able to pronounce words at the end.
Brezhnev died during the night of November 9–10, 1982. His death was announced only the next day, November 11 in the morning.
Brezhnev was 75 and he died in his sleep at his state residence near Moscow.
State mourning was announced for November 12–15.
My friends and I were walking and laughing in the street, and an older woman literally ran to us and chastised us, “It’s mourning!” We were taken aback but obeyed; walked away 100 meters and started chatting again. I didn’t even watch the funerals on TV.
Mostly, people in Yekaterinburg where I lived with my parents, didn’t care. They had no doubts that things would go just as they were before.
We knew there was Politburo that made decisions. They picked someone else from that Politburo: chief of KGB Yuri Andropov.
He was 8 years younger than Brezhnev, but surprisingly, he didn’t last long: only 15 months. He died on 9 February 1984.
Rumors were, Andropov was helped to depart: some people were deeply unhappy with his policies: most notably, his anti-alcohol “sobering” campaign, as well as raids to catch slackers who entertained during work hours. How dare he attack Russian national staples — drinking and slacking? Obviously, this simply couldn’t be allowed to continue. Some things are sacred.
It took Politburo 2 months to appoint another leader: Konstantin Chernenko.
I suppose, Andropov’s fate sobered out Politburo members and they decided to play safe.
Chernenko was 73, much older than any other Soviet leader when he was handed the top job. To me, he looked ancient.
His reign wasn’t notable. His biggest achievement was quietly cancelling the anti-alcohol measures. But the genie was out of the bottle: production of bootleg alcohol was already set on the industrial scale. Chernenko didn’t last even a year and died in March 1985.
Politburo gathered again, and produced another chief. Mikhail Gorbachev. He just turned 54, which, by standards of Politburo, was very young.
Gorbachev brought about reforms, obviously with approval of Politburo, which broke the back of the USSR (and then allowed a no-entity like Putin become the president in 2000).
But who could guess in 1987, when Gorbachev announced reforms, that Perestroika (rebuilding), Glasnost (freedom of speech) and Uskorenie (acceleration) will kill the USSR itself — in just 4 years?
The USSR sped up so much, it smashed into a stone wall and broke into pieces.
A group of old-timers, terrified with the speed of changes, tried to turn back towards the swamp, but their attempt to grab the wheel only caused everyone else wishing to jump off — which they did in December 1991. The USSR was dissolved.
In August 1991, “State Emergency Committee” tried to turn the USSR back to its pre-1982 course.
People were terrified when there was the coup attempt in August 1991 and they stood to protect their newfound freedom. But when the news about the dissolution of the USSR was published by newspapers 4 months later (December 1991), no one went to the streets to protest. People didn’t care, just as they didn’t care about the death of Brezhnev, 9 years prior to that.
By trying to turn the country back, the coup instigators made everyone realize that they liked the new life more than the swamp of the USSR. This is why no one cared when the USSR got officially canceled.
No one was celebrating either. People just continued living.
We think that when Putin is gone (dead or removed), it will be something big. But probably it will be big news for just a few days, like when Prigozhin’s plane crashed.
It was less than a month ago.
Scary, right?
There will be colossal changes after Putin is gone, but for most of us not much will change.
One thing that will change: Russian troops will be pulled out of Ukraine and the unfair, horrible, deadly war will end.
Which everyone will be happy about. ~ Elena Gold, Quora
Geoffrey Anderson:
I can’t think of a tyrant who is more hated than Putin. Kim Jung Un is seen as more a buffoon even though he might be sadistic and ruthless. Putin fooled too many people myself included and it is this duplicity that people find antagonizing. Prigizhin was cruel and I dare say ruthless but his was a Case of what you see is what you get.
Hale Geospatial:
But the extractive kleptocracy will remain?
Felipe Clayton:
Hi Elena, very interesting. Do you know how Putin was chosen?
Elena:
Yeltsin’s family (daughter, her husband and their “new rich” friends) appointed Putin because he was happy to guarantee them safety of their stolen billions.
Byron Alexander:
Autocracy and populism have been in the ascendency for the past decade or two. Bulgaria, Brazil, Turkye, and others (looking at you, Israel), have had Putin as a spiritual leader. When Putin meets his end will Xi step into the role? It appears that China may be circling the drain. Putin’s death might differ by ushering some changes around the globe.
Rico F. Berg:
Apart from Gorby, the USSR has always been mismanaged by a bunch of reactionary senile geezers.
Rule of the proletariat, progressive, leftist revolutionaries, my arse.
Edward Brink:
It's interesting how Brezhnev really didn’t leave any sort of legacy in the western consciousness even though he was premier for so long.
A lot of people can name Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin and you see memes, movies and shows about them but that whole 20 year period of Brezhnev didn’t really do anything for us.
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IF RUSSIA COLLAPSES . . .
There’s a pushback against anyone who has an alternative point of view on war in Ukraine the likes of which I think this country hasn’t experienced since WW2.
I can only explain it that the ruling elites fear for their own lives and they’ve taken seriously the threat broadcast in foreign media that Russia might break apart.
If Russia collapses they all obviously lose their power and will face economic and social chaos like in the 1990s.
Intelligence services especially loathe interference with their indoctrination at school.
Vasilya VershininaRussian language school teacher from Kamchatka, Vasilya Vershinina, was taken from the classroom by three men in plainclothes.
They introduced themselves as police officers of Department Eh (anti-extremism). She was taken to unknown location under the charges of “discrimination of the Russian Armed Forces.”
Vershinina was allowed to make one phone call like in Hollywood movies. Like in Hollywood movies, she called her lawyer. I won’t be surprised if they soon rename the country to United States of Russian Democracy and chop off one head of the double-headed eagle on the national coat of arms to make him look like Americansky bald Eagle.
One would think that with such tight control and omnipotent propaganda, citizens of Russia would be happy to call themselves Russians and swear allegiance to KGB.
According to a new poll, almost every other migrant does not want to live according to Russian laws.
About 43% of work migrants in Russia said they would like to live in Russia according to Sharia law — the rules established in the Koran.
Another 44% of work migrants responded that they want to ignore established social norms and live according to the rules established in their homeland.
One quarter of them are ready to participate in protests and street actions in order to achieve the right to live according to Sharia law in Russia.
KGB loses the fight for hearts and minds of the populace and their grip on power is slipping, and lack of legitimacy doesn’t help.
Is this the way to live one’s life though ? To run one’s country? Are there alternative ways to spend your precious days on earth in a more dignified and fulfilling manner?
Businessman Oleg Tinkoff is the founder of the online bank Tinkoff. He’s a crook and faced jail time in the US for tax evasion (thought it’s as easy to dodge paying taxes in America as in Russia) but at least he built a company unlike Putin’s cronies who know only how to steal.
After he spoke against war in Ukraine, he was forced to sell his bank. Within days, his wealth fell from 8 billion dollars to less than a billion that he was paid as consolation prize.
Tinkoff has leukemia. Three years ago he had a stem sell transplant in the same hospital in Berlin that treated Alexey Navalny after he was poisoned.
Tinkoff lives in Italy and like many rich Russians who’re into active lifestyle bikes in the mountains. He recorded an interview addressed to siloviki at the top of a mountain overlooking a lake.
“What feelings do you experience when you look around?”
“Feelings? What a beautiful country! Nobody is going to war. Nobody wants to prove anything to anyone. People are enjoying themselves. Doing sports. Someone walks. Someone bikes.
Beautiful. Grass is cut. Roads are in good condition. Unfortunately in our motherland someone’s doing bullshit instead of making their country like this one. And it’s possible to do it! Kamchatka alone is worth this much with Baikal and Altai. I have thoughts that overwhelm me. Overall, life is good. It’s good to live. Thank you God. God, save me. Thank you that I’m still alive after the surgery.”
Oleg Tinkoff got onto his knees, crossed himself and looked above into the sky. We’ll all be there and answer for our sins, our lies, our greed, our crimes. ~ Misha Firer, Quora
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OLEG TINKOFF RENOUNCES RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP IN PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR
Mr Tinkov founded the online Tinkoff Bank, one of Russia's largest lenders, with about 20 million customers.
In an Instagram post, he said: "I can't and won't be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbor."
Few Russian tycoons have criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine in public.
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MISHA IOSSEL ON THE NEED FOR AID TO UKRAINE:
Just
5% of the US defense budget already helped destroy 50% of Putin's army,
with not a single pair of US boots on the ground. What argument against
the US military aid to Ukraine could be nearly as potent? From the
broader geopolitical perspective, it makes abundant sense also, as it
weakens China and North Korea. Both US political parties should be in
agreement on this matter.
*
CAN RUSSIA BECOME MORE WESTERN? (Dima Vorobiev)
~ Absolutely. It doesn’t even need to “become.” It always has been “Western-leaning.”
President Putin’s war in Ukraine is just a belated attempt to distance Russia from our origins as an eastern offshoot of the European civilization. He’s busily building a cocoon that will protect the new generation of Russians from the torrent of evil influences like the rotation of power, accountability of the government, the rule of law, and other Western depravity.
It remains to be seen if this works. I’m a bit skeptical. For all his might and splendor, our beloved President is fighting against the force of gravity.
The early drift toward the West
Russia has been increasingly “Western-leaning” ever since Ivan the Terrible made friends with the English and even mulled marrying Queen Elisabeth I.
In the 17th century, we joined the European fray of worldwide colonization. While our Western white brothers were busy appropriating Southern and Eastern Asia, Africa, and the Americas, we did our bit in northern Asia and the Turkic prairies.
Westernization, full-throttle
Peter the Great simply mandated that Muscovy become a Western country in everything but the alphabet. He even decided that Greek Orthodoxy wasn’t European enough, and abolished our Patriarchy altogether. During the entire Imperial era, the House of Romanovs was an equal member of the exclusive club of Western powers—the privilege President Putin has been so sorely missing ever since his arrival at the Kremlin in the late 1990s.
Marxist project
The pinnacle of our Westernization was the Soviet era. It was inspired by a German leftist ideology called Marxism. The Soviet Union prided itself on its “scientific,” progressivist, industrial agenda—the typical features of Western political thought.
The military-industrial complex that made the USSR a world superpower was built in the 1920s-1930s thanks to Western loans, by Western engineers using Western blueprints. We participated in WW2 in the company of Western powers, first supporting Germany, and later joining the Anglo-Saxon coalition.
Globalization
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, we adopted Western Capitalism, joined IMF and the Council of Europe. Our political system was modeled after the presidential republics in France and the US.
The economic policies of President Putin are clearly inspired by Western faith in human self-interest and by 19th-century European mercantilism. The profits of our oligarchs have been steadily flowing to Western offshores for safekeeping. A second, third, or fourth citizenship of some Western country is considered a mark of belonging to the top elite in Moscow, as is ownership of property in the West.
The West everywhere
The newsfeed in our media is totally dominated by news from the West. When our elite send their scions to study abroad, they pick Western boarding schools and universities. The nest eggs they lay for their families and their own sunset years are typically located in Europe and North America. They drive expensive Western cars, relax on Western-built yachts, are clothed in Italian suits, and wear Swiss watches. On weekends, they fly for shopping in Western cities, aboard Western-built private jets. No sanctions seem to be able to stop them in this.
Masters in the East
The epic pivot to China that we have seen under Putin changed little of this. Behind political declarations and increasing dependency on China, there’s little appetite among the movers and shakers to make Russia an “eastern” backwater as was the pre-imperial Muscovy.
Russia’s greatness has forever been pinned on its being “Western.” For our political class, getting in the fold of our Chinese comrades the way the Eurasianists suggest, faintly smacks of our inglorious past as a part of the Golden Horde.
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Below, President Putin in the company of leather-clad one-percenters. These men fuse the raw romanticism of American outlaw biker gangs with veneration of our Derzháva (“the mighty State”). All their patriotism notwithstanding, they prefer riding Western bikes. You also can see their affinity for baseball caps, as well as military-style boots and pants popularized in Russia by Americans during the first Gulf War.
Putin poses with a motorcycle gang
Also, see that colored ribbon painted on the German beast that looks like the Russian tricolor? That’s the BMW-M signature.
Also, don’t forget that our flag was originally the Dutch one, with the color strips rearranged by Peter the Great.
Richard Meister:
For me the photo above and the Church of the Armed Forces outside of Moscow are the quintessence of Putinism. It's disgusting. These people destroy the real Russia. They let rot away the achievements which were made during Soviet times but took what was bad back then: Propaganda, secret police. Likewise they adopted mostly the bad things from the West but not the good things.
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HOW RUSSIANS PERCEIVE THEIR COUNTRY
Russians — even the most liberal-minded of them, who oppose Putin’s regime — think that Russia is a great country, with great and deep culture, which is superior to others.
They are proud of Russia, the largest country on Earth.
At the same time, all Russians complain of corrupt officials, bribery, nepotism, lawlessness, inefficiency. But Russia is still great, regardless!
Those who support Putin, believe that Putin is taking Russia in the right direction and will be able to make it even better.
Those who are against Putin, believe that another leader (the one they like) will take Russia in the right direction and will be able to make it better.
Very rarely Russians see a problem with their country being an empire that forcibly conquered other nations and took over their lands, Russified them and imposed the superiority of the Russian language and culture over them. They don’t even recognize this fact.
The more “enlightened” Russians consider themselves cosmopolitan and don’t realize that their imperial chauvinism is deeply rooted, affecting their world views.
In a way, Russians suffer from both inferiority and superiority complex at the same time.
They believe that each of them is a victim of circumstances and cannot change anything in the country, and at the same time that Russia is superior to other countries and the Russian culture is superior and more valuable than others – especially cultures of other nations that live in Russia or ex-USSR republics, and this is why Russia has the right to dictate other nations how to live their lives.
Meanwhile, only 35 millions of Russians out of 140 million live in large cities, in conditions where at least the city center looks like it’s the 21 century.
The rest of Russia looks like it looked in 1985, when Gorbachev was elected as the USSR leader – only worse for wear.
This is the city of Murmansk, population 260,000 people. It’s a center of a region.
25% of Russians use outhouses, no plumbing in their homes.
It’s from the less fortunate who live in substandard conditions that Putin’s army recruits their soldiers to fight in Ukraine. The poor are tempted by the chance to get out of poverty and buy a nicer apartment, a car. For them, it’s not a moral burden to destroy other people’s homes and take their lives – just because Ukrainians don’t want to live in the “Great Russia”, but want to live in their own country, Ukraine – the Russian army contractors only think about their own gains.
Russians as a nation are delusional. Their superiority-inferiority complex doesn’t allow them to see their country for what it truly is: The world’s largest mental asylum, which does not have enough qualified psychiatrists to deal with the problem. ~ Elena Gold
A PS from Elena:
Most oppositional figures from Russia still see Russia as great and superior — they don’t like what it became under Putin, but still don’t want “the Great Russia” to break into pieces (let nations of Russia to choose whether they want to continue to be ruled by Moscow), don’t want to lose nuclear weapons.
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MEANWHILE IN NIGERIA . . . WHY NIGERIANS KEEP HAVING LARGE FAMILIES IN SPITE OF HARDSHIP
~ In Nigeria, the question, "How is your family?" is more than a casual conversation starter—it's a litmus test of your societal worth.
If you can't entertain others with stories of your spouse and offspring, some will regard you as an unimportant bit player in life's grand drama.
You may be wondering why, despite staggering economic hardship, Nigerian families seem to be in a perpetual state of expansion, particularly in rural areas. The answer is intricate, rooted in a web of cultural, religious, and societal factors.
Many Nigerians are either oblivious to the existence of contraceptives or too unnerved by horror stories about their side effects to use them.
Then there's the colossal influence of religious conviction. For many, children aren't just a blessing but a divine destiny, gifts from a Higher Power who will, of course, steer their future.
But I've lived long enough to see how flawed this thinking is.
This spiritual gamble has led to a population explosion that has outstripped even the most audacious forecasts.
The principle is applied especially vigorously in villages, where after a day's labor on the farm, couples often see procreation as the most meaningful way to pass the evening which also secures their long-term investment by way of returns from offspring in old age.
Combine this with cultural and sometimes, religious norms that encourage polygamy and the incredible fertility of Nigerian women, and you've got the formula for a booming populace.
Here is my story. At 31, I stand wifeless and childless, a status that relegates me to the outskirts of societal approval. My mother prays ceaselessly for my marital prospects, and I'm a no-show at certain family gatherings due to my perceived immaturity—in my culture, a man without a family of his own is always a child. You're considered to be oblivious of life's predicaments.
But let's puncture that perception for a moment. I'm the guy who built my once-homeless parents a spacious modern house with my first earnings years ago.
I pay some of their bills, support my younger siblings and cousins' education, and assume the role of a provider in ways that extend far beyond procreation.
If I were to focus on myself, I would have settled down years ago, and the people I'm supporting are most times the ones who're reminding me of my old age—at 31 I am to them a grandpa.
Here is my reason for holding off this long, I grew up steeped in poverty so abject that I swore never to subject my children to it. I resolved that I'd have a family only when I could offer them more than a makeshift life teetering on the brink of survival. And I've stuck to that pledge.
Nigeria is rife with an ignorance epidemic. Despite my early resolve, even before Western ideologies influenced me, many Nigerians still believe it's okay to bring kids into a world where they can't even guarantee their next meal.
To put this in perspective, 57 of the next 1000 babies in the world will be born in Nigeria. That adds up to an increase of five million new souls to a nation already grappling with a lower-than-average life expectancy and the dubious title of the "poverty capital of the world."
The challenge, just like the numerous problems Nigeria is dealing with today, is a labyrinthine tangle of complications, but the heart of it is a mindset—a way of thinking that needs a revolution of its own.
Because at the end of the day, each child brought into this world should be a well-thought-out chapter in a family's story, not a roll of the dice in a game nobody wins. ~ Victor Dirikebamor, Quora
Stephen Niven:
I worked in Sierra Leone in the 90’s, and 20 years later went back for another brief job again.
What was scary is that on the second visit, most of the people I knew and worked with were dead, and most of the countries population hadn't been born when I was first there.
I was considered “old” (mid 30s) when I first was there and ancient the second time.
To them I was like a time traveler or an immortal.
If I went back now I would be like a ghost reappearing to the grandchildren.
Aaron Anye Shu:
You are absolutely right. Life expectancy is very low due to ill health, poor standard of living, poverty and lack of good hospitals. You find a man at 30 he looks older than his age. Very sad and that's typical of most African countries especially in west, east and Central Africa.
traffic in Lagos, Nigeria
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GOLDA (THE MOVIE)
~ Utilizing a script by Nicholas Martin, Nattiv tells a tension-filled tale – one that was unknown until about 10 years ago when Top Secret government documents were declassified and 75 year-old Golda Meir’s suppressed anguish, deciding on a plan of action during that pivotal moment in history, was revealed.
Accompanied by her personal assistant, Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin), chain-smoking Meir was undergoing painful cobalt treatments for cancer while stoically conducting strategic meetings with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger), Mossad leader Zvi Zamir (Rotem Keinan), Military Chief-of-Staff Dado Elazar (Lior Ashkenazi), Intelligence director Eli Zeira (Dvir Benedek) and Ariel Sharon (Ohad Kollner) as war was being waged on two fronts: the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Having spent 3½ hours in the make-up chair each day, Helen Mirren’s meticulous physical transformation is astounding, along with her voice. Matching Mirren in resolute validity, Liev Schreiber is riveting as U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who dispatched jets as reinforcement when the harrowing 19-day conflict seemed lost and arrived in Tel Aviv to negotiate a fragile peace treaty with Meir over a bowl of borsht in her kitchen.
“I am first an American, second a Secretary-of-State and third a Jew,” guarded Kissinger notes diplomatically. “In this country, we read from right to left,” indomitable Meir counters, demonstrating her wryly defiant wit.
At its conclusion, there’s actual newsreel footage of the real Golda Meir engaging with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter at the Peace Accord, accompanied by Leonard Cohen’s song “Who by Fire,” based on a Jewish High Holiday prayer.
https://www.susangranger.com/?p=14750
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~ If you were to Google “Golda Meir”, there’s a good chance that an image of the Israeli politician holding a cigarette would pop up. She reportedly smoked up to five packs a day. There are only a few scenes in “Golda” where Mirren isn’t holding a cigarette. It’s a bit distracting but drives home the point that the 75-year-old head of state was a tough old bird who refused to give up nicotine even though she was receiving radiotherapy to battle lymphoma which eventually took her life.
Meir was born in Kyiv when it was still under the Russian Republic. Her family emigrated to the United States, and she was a schoolteacher in Wisconsin before becoming Israel’s first and only female head of state. Her life would make a fascinating biopic, and it’s a shame we don’t get to see what makes her tick. Apart from brief moments in Nattiv’s film where Meir discusses the horrors of her childhood in Ukraine [“They’d beat Jews to death, just for the fun of it”], there’s no backstory to give the audience insight into the fabled leader nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her willingness to wage war in defense of Israel.
Since “Golda” is focused on a small chapter of Meir’s life, granted, one of the most important ones, the film opens with footage of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (known as The Six-Day War). Quickly the timeline moves forward as Meir meets with Nixon at The White House in 1969 as Israel’s new Premier, to the film’s present day, 1973, just before a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur.
Mirren’s first glance as Meir begins with a closeup of the actress under heavy makeup and prosthetics. The thick eyebrows, wrinkled face, and grey hair hide any signs of the glamorous actress we’ve come to know. Dascha Dauenhauer’s ominous score sets the tone as Meir walks past protesters into a hearing set up to investigate how Israel’s Defense Forces misread all the signs that war was imminent. The committee’s findings led to Meir’s resignation in 1974.
The film jumps back to the start of the Yom Kippur War as Meir is greeted at the Tel Aviv airport by Mossad leader Zvi Zamir (Rotem Keinan) who warns her that according to his spy war is imminent. When Meir asks Zamir why he trusts the spy, he answers, “He knows everything, and he says war is coming.” Still, she remains skeptical and asks for concrete evidence.
Camille Cottin plays Meir’s personal assistant Lou Kaddar who is always at the Prime Minister’s side, especially during Meir’s 12-year battle with cancer. At the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where Meir receives covert radiation treatments, her physician Dr. Rosenfeld warns, “The cigarettes and the black coffee are making my job harder” after sharing somewhat good news that the treatments are working. Still, the defiant Iron Lady lights up another cigarette while lying on the table waiting for the radiotherapy.
In another scene later in the film, Meir coughs up blood as her health deteriorates, which is still not enough to convince her to kick the habit.
Divided by chapters broken down by the number of days in the 18-day war, the film shows how badly Meir’s cabinet misread all the signs including a major buildup of tanks, artillery equipment, and thousands of men. In the room with Meir, her advisors, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger), Head of Military Intelligence Eli Zeira (Dvir Benedek), Commander of the Air Force Benny Peled (Ed Stoppard), and Dado Elazar (Lior Ashkenazi), the Military Chief of Staff.
Nattiv uses actual black-and-white war footage to represent the escalation. Short clips take the place of battle sequences that could have been shot for the film. That of course would have meant an increase in the budget and there are many indications that the filmmaker was working with limited resources. He also uses footage of the real Meir interspersed in the film which is a bit jarring since Mirren’s Prime Minister doesn’t look like the actual Meir. I would have preferred more “Forrest Gump” style effects with Mirren inserted into the actual historical footage.
There are several moments of audio from the battlefield that also represent the war as we watch Meir listen to the Israeli forces overrun by the Arab coalition. The scenes demonstrate the ugliness of war yet do little to create tension. In another scene, Dayan in a helicopter, flies over the battle zone witnessing explosions as bombs hit, illuminating the night sky. It’s enough to cause the Defense Minister to get nauseated, but not enough for the audience to feel emotion. It falls flat.
“Golda” hinges on Mirren’s performance. The transformation is impressive, and Mirren is very good. Yet, there are times that Meir resembles a grandmother preparing for bingo night instead of the powerful leader known as the “Iron Lady.” Yes, her health was deteriorating, and she was under tremendous stress, but those strong leadership qualities just come and go giving the audience just a taste of what made her a leader and the first female head of government in the Middle East.
When Liev Schreiber shows up as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger the film is elevated as Meir and Kissinger, old friends, sit down and discuss a resolution to the conflict. Schreiber has Kissinger’s voice and mannerisms down as he reminds Meir, “I think it’s important that you remember that first I am an American, second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.”
Meir responds, “You forget in Israel we read from right to left.”
The performances in “Golda” are the strong points. Mirren, Schreiber, and the cast make up for the lack of tension. We get a sense of who Gold Meir was, but not how she became a world leader. Her passion for the people and her commitment to the establishment of an Israeli state was relentless and it comes through in Nattiv’s film. Meir made some miscalculations but for the most part, it was her cabinet that failed the Madame Prime Minister who hoped she would live long enough to see peace in the Middle East. She was a fighter all the way to the end. ~
Young Golda Meir
https://fortworthreport.org/2023/08/30/golda-review-an-unrecognizable-helen-mirren-plays-the-fourth-prime-minister-of-israel-in-the-historical-drama-that-focuses-on-the-yom-kippur-war/
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~ Disguised beyond recognition under a mélange of wrinkles, gray hair, and prosthetics, Mirren plays Golda Meir in a film that offers no pertinent insights into the woman behind the history.
Dame Helen Mirren is a distinguished, resplendent, versatile and deservedly revered British star whose relentless courage and self-assurance have obviously convinced her she can play any role she so desires. True, she can play a lot of them. Aging, dowdy Israeli prime minister Golda Meir is not one of them.
Sure, she goes through the paces, but with her beauty disguised beyond recognition under a mélange of lines, wrinkles, gray hair, prosthetics and orthopedic shoes, one is constantly reminded we are watching a show-off acting experiment—the kind that should remain in a closed-door acting class. The narrative chronicles the activities of the late (and only female) Israeli prime minister during the tense 19 days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but the film itself is too languidly paced to evoke much tension, even when Dame Helen is negotiating the future of Israel, especially with nothing but the offscreen cries of soldiers in combat to remind us there’s a war going on. The history that went down on paper is only verbalized on film, not dramatized.
Without the aid of any actual battle scenes, the action takes place in the war room, which takes advantage of Mirren’s intense, impenetrable stares but robs the film of any badly needed energy. And though how Golda Meir saved her country from Egypt’s total annihilation is hardly the basis for amusement, the humorless script by Nicholas Martin and Guy Nattiv’s somber direction are so stripped of any possible lightness of tone that it’s an ordeal to get through it.
You get the impossible odds, the general skepticism of the cabinet ministers, and Nattiv hurdles in Golda’s unbalanced relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (played with equally grave solemnity by famously dour Liev Schreiber) and you end up desperate for a smile or two. Aside from the factual dynamics, the film offers no pertinent insights into the woman behind the headlines. She’s sad to learn of the mounting atrocities. She doesn’t suffer fools easily.
But who was she outside of the business meetings with top military advisors? A notorious chain smoker, she fills ashtrays with endless piles of cigarette butts, even in the hospital undergoing treatments for the aggressive lymphoma that eventually killed her. But the incessant smoking grows irritating and so does the lack of personal character revelation. I liked the occasional tenderness she extends to her female aides, especially the loyal assistant who washes the prime minister’s hair in the tub and pulls out handfuls of hair by the roots, thanks to her cancer treatments. But such intimacies are rare. Mostly we get maps and technical strategies that are hard to decipher.
The most touching moment in Golda comes in the final shots—black and white images on a television screen depicting the real Golda Meir warts and all, side by side with her arch adversary, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. Here at last is a flash of the grandmotherly charm that hints at a hidden sense of humor. The movie needs more of that charisma and fewer cigarette butts to make Golda a woman as memorable on the screen as she was in real life.
https://observer.com/2023/08/golda-review-helen-mirren-in-a-show-off-acting-experiment/
~ If you close your eyes and listen closely to Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Golda Meir, every once in a while, you will hear the faintest British accent begin and then end with a personification of the late Golda Meir. Even with stiff make-up, body padding and holding a continuously-lit cigarette, there is no Golda Meir in the room. What is given to the audience in this film is what happens to Golda behind the scenes – her personal health, for example – and then the war room as Israel goes through the Yom Kippur War of 1973. One of many, many wars fought in the Middle East through the centuries, and will continue, as countries claim, lose and reclaim territory. This time is of importance, as Israel has a lady Prime Minister who has to prove herself time and time again that she is as tough at the guys.
“Golda” begins with headlines from 1947 and what is called a “news-print war.” Fast forward to 1967 when Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger) is head of the Israeli state, and then 1969 when Golda Meir becomes the first Lady Prime Minister. Then, we are in 1974 with a Board of Inquiry about the past Yom Kippur War of 1973, at which Golda Meir is questioned about war decisions that were made and troops that were lost.
The film concerns the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria and Egypt, with Russia on the sidelines. The war began with a surprise attack from Syria and Egypt on the morning of Yom Kippur, a major Jewish holiday. This covers a great part of the film, with scenes against a dark background that are hard to see and sometimes, hard to hear. This is a bunker from which the war is fought. You can always find Golda Meir from the constantly lit cigarette she always carries. We meet the top officials a Prime Minister deals with such as Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber) or Moshe Dayan.
The audience learns what makes a Golda Meir and that she has a secret she keeps from the rest of the world. As far as acting is concerned, Helen Mirren is always precise in her characterizations, and seems to delve into heads of state (Queen Elizabeth 2 and Golda Meir) with ease. What works against her here is the amount of make-up used to act as Golda Meir and it becomes obvious as times. Her diction is fine and her tough attitude in place as a female Prime Minister in a decidedly male land when decisions to be made meant life or death.
Others of note are Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger who deals with Meir in war matters between the United States and Israel. Also, Rami Heuberger, expressive as Moshe Dayan, and Camille Cottin as Lou Kaddar, Meir’s longtime personal assistant, who is with her in wartime and health matters.
“Golda” is really a biopic that goes from one scene to another like going through a photo album. There is very little expression shown, though it is wartime, this is also work. The make-up on Helen Mirren is overly done. This is a slow-paced film that shows the Yom Kippur War to be 18 days long before a cease fire. It starts, it continues, it ends. Director Guy Nattiv gives the audience a lesson in Middle East history. Unfortunately, there may be more wars yet to come. ~
https://tollbooth.org/index.php/current-issue/movie-reviews/2832-golda
“For all the cigarettes that Golda Meir smokes, the movie rarely catches fire.” ~ Robert Denerstein
Oriana:
Many years ago I admired Ingrid Bergman’s performance as Golda — without heavy make-up and prosthetics, just a great actress making Golda seem very human and extraordinary at the same time. I am afraid that performance spoiled me. I had trouble accepting Helen Mirren as Golda. I was acutely aware of her as an actress, and could not fully sink into the movie. It was painful just looking at Mirren. But as I said, I may be biased because I remember Bergman’s brilliant and convincing performance.
In addition, I had the kind of grandmother who, if she happened to be an actress, would be a natural for playing Golda, without needing the repulsive make-up and prosthetic nose.
In the movie, Moshe Dayan was also a disappointment. The real Dayan had to be a very resilient man, not someone who admits defeat early on. “It’s Masada,” he says about Israel’s chances of survival early on in the movie — and somehow that line eclipses all the rest he says or does. (Dayan had the eyepatch really going for him. It was an awesome visual effect.)
The real Dayan was supposed to be brilliant and charismatic. In the movie, that simply doesn’t come across. But that’s perhaps inevitable, given the relentless focus on Golda.
I must say, however, that I didn’t know that Golda was undergoing difficult cancer treatments while under the stress of this unnerving war that at least at first seemed to threaten to erase Israel — the country to which Golda dedicated her whole life. That she managed to cope with both of these horrors is a testament to her great spirit.
Another thing that I loved about the movie was the devotion of her personal assistant, who went beyond “being like a daughter.” A mother-daughter relationship is usually fraught with tension, the love ambivalent and laden with resentment, with grudges going back to preschool; Lou Kaddar, though acting like a daughter, transcended that tension and was Golda’s guardian angel. She exuded such pure tenderness that I loved every scene with Lou (played by Camille Cottin) in it.
I’m glad I saw the movie because I learned some history from it. But that’s about it (not that it’s unimportant). Perhaps because of lack of battle scenes, the movie feels like an empty corridor.
On the other hand, telling us about the Yom Kippur War IS a lot, given how ignorant Western audiences (I include myself) are about the history of Israel.
A handful of Golda quotations:
Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil! ~ at a dinner honoring West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, as reported in The New York Times, 1973
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Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
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It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it. ~ My Life (1975), p. 459
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“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” ~ Golda Meir
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We owe a responsibility not only to those who are in Israel but also to those generations that are no more, to those millions who have died within our lifetime, to Jews all over the world, and to generations of Jews to come. We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in Israel. ~ quoted in As Good as Golda : The Warmth and Wisdom of Israel's Prime Minister (1970) edited by Israel Shenker and Mary Shenker, p. 28
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A story once went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as 'the only man' in his cabinet. What amused me about is that he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government! Yadid, Judd (2015-05-03). Israel’s Iron Lady unfiltered: 17 Golda Meir quotes on her 117th birthday Haaretz
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I thought that a Jewish state would be free of the evils afflicting other societies: theft, murder, prostitution... But now we have them all. And that’s a thing that cuts to the heart … (interview with Oriana Fallaci, 1973)
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Golda Meir was asked that question: "We hear you don't mind getting older?" And she said, "That's true, but I never said it was a pleasure.” 1995 interview in Conversations with Grace Paley (1997)
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WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE IN PRISON
~ Some people cannot understand how it feels to spend one night in prison, let alone years or even decades. I wish I was one such soul, but my life took a different direction at a young age that landed me directly into prison for an extended period.
Prison is a lonely place. I wake up every day knowing that there is no person there for me to lean on, no one to share my secrets with, no one I can completely trust. Part of me knows this is because of my own making, but part of me knows this is the prison experience. I must pay for my sins, and apparently part of that is ex-communication from the world.
Prison becomes about monotony if you let it. You wake up for years in the same position on a tiny mattress, at the same time, knowing what is for breakfast because it is the same menu from week to week. If you’re lucky you may be in a place that offers some freedom of movement so you can at least go outside and walk in a circle. I have known guys who can tell you how many cracks there are on the track, or how many lines are painted from one end of the yard to the other. Often, your mind will wander when you have been incarcerated for extended periods.
The wandering of the mind can be a blessing because you achieve some measure of freedom. You are no longer trapped in the little cage you live in. You can go anywhere, be anyone, for a time at least. I sometimes see the guys who live in a fantasy world and I take pity on them. I hope I am released before I get there.
As I said, prison is lonely. You are surrounded by hundreds of people daily, but you are the only one serving your sentence. Some people are able to establish and maintain relationships with partners on the outside. But it takes a special kind of person who is able to make the sacrifice it requires to be with a person who is in prison. If you are lucky enough to find someone like this you will probably love that person more than life. You will find so much value in that person. At least that was how it was for me the one time it happened to me. When it ended, I was hurt more than I had ever been hurt before, because I lost my best friend on top of everything.
Despite all the loneliness and deprivation you might get something from prison. The time in exile is time to think. Think on who you are and what brought you to this place. The years worked their magic on me. I became remorseful. I gained valuable insights into my life and character.
I took these insights and applied them to the people and the world around me. These are things that I doubt the confused kid I was that stepped into this mess would have been able to do in the fast-paced world of society. These insights allowed me to see what I did not like about the young man that I was, which led me in search of a better me.
I began to seek every opportunity I could to educate myself. Through education my whole world began to transform. If you are lucky you will find this opportunity, and if you are smart you will take it. This is another lesson prison taught me: if you want something you must seize upon it when the opportunity presents itself. I will never be a passive spectator in life again. If I need something I will become proactive in acquiring it, and if it still isn't possible to get my hands on it I will create it. The deprivation teaches you to create.
Serving a life sentence is nothing but serving time itself when you get right down to it. You can either make time work for you or against you. It is your choice in the end. I have been guilty of both in my life. I have fallen prey to the loneliness of time in prison and I have worked to understand myself in this time. I believe the loneliness of my life is the pivotal story of my existence, but it is how I choose to deal with that loneliness which will define me. I have learned this from serving a life sentence in prison. ~
~ Tommy Winfrey, Quora
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“I wanted to be back in prison where I thrived”
I served 18 years straight. I'd say somewhere around the 7 or 8 year mark my view of the situation changed. It was no longer prison, it was just my life. Nothing ever changed. Every day was the same. You get in a never changing routine and before you know it 5 years go by. Then 10, then 15. The real world becomes a fantasy. Something you see on TV, or pictures in magazine, but it's no longer real. One day you look in the mirror and your hair is receding, and it's turning gray, in your mind you are socially stunted and in a lot of ways child like, but you're old. I went in at 18 and came out a 37 year old man who didn't know how to do anything.
I'd never used a cell phone or computer. I'd never driven a car or filed my taxes. The world was too big, too loud, too fast. My second day out my sister took me to Walmart and I had a panic attack and had to go outside and sit in the car by myself. I could make a tattoo gun out of an electric razor, boil water with an extension cord, and sits for months on end by myself in a room with a sink, concrete bunk and metal toilet without breaking a sweat. But I couldn't hold a job, operate any electronics without help, or go to Walmart without freaking the fuck out. I didn't know how to cook, or how to pay a bill. I sat home by myself for months, afraid to go anywhere or talk to people. A big part of me wanted to be back in prison where things made sense, where I thrived.
I've been out for over 5 years now, and while I've learned to do a lot of things, it's still not easy. I dream a lot of being in prison. Where's it's easy. No responsibility. And believe it or not, less stress and anxiety. I've been in institutions my whole life, since I was a little kid. Foster homes, group homes, treatment centers, juvenile detentions. It's what I know. It's where I'm comfortable. I don't know if that will ever change. ~ “Ant,” Quora
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THE BIGGEST SHOCK AFTER A LONG PRISON SENTENCE
Everything. Remember inmates are told or provided what to wear, when and what to eat, when to shower, when to go to the gym, when they can go outside, what they can and can’t have in their cell, how much stuff they can have. They never have to turn on or off a light. Many haven’t used a computer or a cell phone. Their families have lived without them and have grown into people they don’t know.
They don’t understand the usual common courtesies—in prison almost no one says excuse me, thank you, please, or I’m sorry. They stand too close to people, always want their backs to the wall, don’t trust anyone, and want to protect the few things they do have. They will speak too loudly and be very demanding because that worked in prison. Their culture is different in countless ways. The things that spark them to anger is different. They will overreact because action speaks louder than words in prison. Their sense of entitlement is high because they have had to demand attention while incarcerated.
There is no way for a never incarcerated person to fully understand the mindset of an incarcerated individual, especially someone who has been incarcerated a long time. Even though I worked with incarcerated men and my office was in a residential dorm I still can’t understand everything about the culture because I got to leave when I wanted, to go to a home where I made my own decisions, where I was safe and could trust the people I lived with, and was not in danger of physical, mental, emotional, or sexual assault. ~ Quora
Oriana:
Having given several poetry workshops for prison inmates (at Folsom and Susanville), I can certainly relate to the statement that prison is brutalizing, dehumanizing. It seemed to mean a lot to the men in my class that they were treated with the same courtesy I would extend to my college students. A friend in charge of the project told me that it means so much to the inmates that someone from the outside is willing to shake hands with them — and I eagerly shook all the hands extended to me, and saw smiles blossom.
I also remember the strange urge I felt to say to one man, as all were leaving, “God bless you.” He didn’t turn around, but I knew he’d heard me — his body tensed as if a shock wave through it. I still don’t know why I had that urge. Perhaps it was that I sensed no one had ever said this to him.
I was told that the guards treat them like trash — and also that they are jealous that the inmates get those special classes, including art and creative writing workshops. They — the guards — often come from a harsh background, without much care, guidance, or access to better education. That too should be remedied somehow.
(Here I remember Louise Hay’s motto: “We are the victims of victims.” Those who were abused in childhood are much more likely to become abusers themselves.)
At the same time I was particularly interested in the post by Ant, who described thriving in prison and being overwhelmed by the life outside — the big and small chores and stresses that drain our life away. Having to shop and cook and clean and attend to a gazillion practical details steals time from more enjoyable activities. I often wish that those “practicalia” (as I call them) would simply disappear, and life would be simpler — as it was in during the time when our parents took care of all that pesky stuff. And as it is for those whose spouse takes care of the practicalia, freeing their time for more fulfilling work.
But of course there is always a price to pay, and ultimately I am very grateful for the privilege of being able to make my own decisions and enjoy the bliss of privacy and solitude. For me it feels best to be independent, but I understand people for whom all that responsibility seems nearly unbearable. What a reminder that nothing is all good or all bad. One way or another, there is a price. That’s why the practice of gratitude is so essential to mental health. It’s much too easy to concentrate on the negative.
I still remember the clang of what seemed like endless metal gates closing behind me as I was walking toward the prison classroom. I could sense how terrible it would feel to hear that repeated clang of closure and exclusion if I happened to be a prisoner.
Yet in spite of all this, I can understand the need for something like half-way houses — places where you are not locked up, but where some ex-inmates can thrive again because of the built-in structure and safe places where to acquire skills, including the very important social skills and manners that underlie success in society at large.
Nor should one have to be an ex-prisoner to have access to more structured living conditions, if that's what makes a person thrive.
Ant at least had a sister. Some long-term inmates have no one when they are released. They badly need social support. That would be the kind of “respect” that they craved all their lives.
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HOW DIAMONDS SURFACE FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH
Rare volcanic blasts of kimberlites happen about 25 million years after continental plates tear apart, researchers find.
diamond-bearing rock kimberlite
Powerful volcanic eruptions that blast diamonds high into the sky and scatter the precious stones across the Earth’s surface have long mystified researchers. But now, scientists have worked out what unfolds more than 100 miles underground to propel the crystals upwards with such spectacular force.
The work sheds light on the enigmatic processes that cause the rare eruptions and where diamond-rich deposits are most likely to be found.
“There’s a sweetspot in the interior of continents where diamonds form,” said Prof Tom Gernon, a geologist at the University of Southampton who led the latest study. “The question is why on earth do they shoot up from the deep after spending potentially billions of years sitting there?”
To solve the mystery, the international team analyzed historical data on continental plates, the vast, slow-moving slabs of Earth’s crust, and kimberlites, the diamond-bearing rocks ejected by the eruptions. They found that over the past billion years, most kimberlite eruptions happened about 25m years after continental plates tore apart.
On closer inspection, the researchers noticed that the first kimberlite eruptions to happen after the breakup of continental plates were near to the plate edges, with later eruptions taking place increasingly towards the middle of the plate.
Continental plates tear apart and come together over immense timescales. About 300m years ago, North and South America were connected to Africa and Europe as part of a single supercontinent called Pangea, but the vast landmass began to break apart about 175m years ago.
Drawing on computer models of rock and magma, the scientists pieced together the chain of events that appear to drive diamond-rich eruptions. The process starts when continental plates are stretched as they begin to tear apart. This rifting causes the rock to become thinner and disrupts the normal flow of material in Earth’s mantle, the layer directly beneath.
The disruption in the mantle is powerful enough to break chunks of rock off the base of the continental plate. These rocks are under such immense pressure that over hundreds of millions of years, carbon deposits can change structure to form diamond.
As the chunks of rock sink down in to the mantle, they drive even more disruptive flows that spread outwards, stripping layers of rock tens of miles thick from the bottom of the plate above. The domino effect brings together all the necessary ingredients to produce diamond-bearing kimberlite magma, the scientists report in Nature. When enough melt has formed, it rises fast and blasts through the crust as a powerful eruption.
The most recent kimberlite eruption is thought to have happened 11,000 years ago at Igwisi Hills in Tanzania, but most took place in the Cretaceous period 146m to 66m years ago. Unlike normal volcanic eruptions, kimberlite eruptions leave vertical pipe-like holes in the ground that form the basis of many diamond mines.
“We know where, when and why kimberlites are forming and that’s really useful for exploration,” said Gernon. “We know the events needed to trigger this domino effect, and by joining the dots, we can target those areas that hold the most promise for diamonds to be there in the first place.”
“These eruptions are quite rare in Earth’s history because they require this perfect storm of conditions and events to generate them,” he added. “The dinosaurs would have been walking around in some of these areas, watching these events, and they would have been quite perplexed. They are extremely rapid events and they probably wouldn’t be expecting them.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/26/why-do-diamonds-erupt-earth-depths-scientists-have-answer
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H.G. WELLS ON CHRISTIANITY
“Indeed Christianity passes. Passes—it has gone! It has littered the beaches of life with churches, cathedrals, shrines and crucifixes, prejudices and intolerances, like the sea urchin and starfish and empty shells and lumps of stinging jelly upon the sands here after a tide. A tidal wave out of Egypt. And it has left a multitude of little wriggling theologians and confessors and apologists hopping and burrowing in the warm nutritious sand. But in the hearts of living men, what remains of it now? Doubtful scraps of Arianism. Phrases. Sentiments. Habits.” ~ H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography, 1934, cited by Ira D. Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion, 1945
I don't completely agree with everything here — I enjoy cathedrals as architecture, and old churches in general — but it's interesting to see what H.G. Wells thought. (By "Arianism" he means Unitarianism.)
HG WELLS ON “HIS” KIND OF GOD
Wells describes his aim as to state “as forcibly and exactly as possible the religious belief of the writer.” He distinguishes his religious beliefs from Christianity, and warns readers that he is "particularly uncompromising" on the doctrine of the Trinity, which he blames on "the violent ultimate crystallization of Nicaea. He pleads for a "modern religion" or "renascent religion" that has "no revelation and no founder.”
Wells rejects any belief related to God as Nature or the Creator, confining himself to the "finite" God of the human heart. He devotes a chapter to misconceptions about God that are due to mistaken "mental elaboration" as opposed to "heresies of speculation," and says that the God in which he believes has nothing to do with magic, providence, quietism, punishment, the threatening of children, or sexual ethics. Positively, in a chapter entitled "The Likeness of God," he states his belief that God is courage, a person, youth (i.e. forward- rather than backward-looking), and love.
Wells finds in scientific atheists like Metchnikoff beliefs that are equivalent to what he regards as "the fundamental proposition of religion translated into terms of materialistic science, the proposition that damnation is really over-individuation and that salvation is escape from self into the larger being of life.”
In God the Invisible King, Wells regards belief in God as welling up from within the individual: "if you do not feel God then there is no persuading you of him; we cannot win over the incredulous.” The book argues that God seeks "the conquest of death," through a struggle to "transform the world into a theocracy" that he regards as "more and more manifestly the real future of mankind," not through suffering or non-resistance. Sin is seen not as bad conduct but as the product of disharmonies of "the inner being" that "snatch us away from our devotion to God's service" and such weaknesses "cannot damn a man once he has found God.”
A final seventh chapter rejects the idea that "the new religion" can or should be organized into a church: "Whatever religious congregations men may form henceforth in the name of the true God must be for their own sakes and not to take charge of religion." In a section titled "The State Is God's Instrument," Wells speaks of a coming "theocracy" and argues that in the probably not too distant future "Religion which is free, speaking freely through whom it will, subject to a perpetual unlimited criticism, will be the life and driving power of the whole organized world. So that if you prefer not to say that there will be no church, if you choose rather to declare that the world-state is God's church, you may have it so if you will.”
In an "envoy," Wells invokes "my friend and master, that very great American, the late William James," as one who shared his conception of God. He asserts that "modern religion" is "a process of truth, guided by the divinity in men. It needs no other guidance, and no protection. It needs nothing but freedom, free speech, and honest statement.”
Biographers (including Wells himself) agree in regarding this foray into theology, which is also remarkable in the novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916), as the result of the trauma of World War I.
God the Invisible King "was so different from what Wells normally wrote that most people did not know how to handle it." The book led to Wells having lunch with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and provoked a number of works controverting his statement of his beliefs.
Wells later repudiated the God of God the Invisible King as "no God at all." "What we have here is really a falling back of the mind towards immaturity under the stress of dismay and anxiety. . . . I thought it was pitiful that [men looking for some lodestar for their loyalty] should pin their minds to 'King and Country' and suchlike claptrap, when they might live and die for greater ends, and I did my utmost to personify and animate a greater, remoter objective in God the Invisible King. So by a sort of coup d'état I turned my New Republic for a time into a divine monarchy." "In What Are We to Do with Our Lives? (1932) I make the most explicit renunciation and apology for this phase of terminological disingenuousness.” ~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_the_Invisible_King
HG Wells reminds me of DC Fields
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A BIT MORE FROM H.G. WELLS ON RELIGION
~ I do not believe I have any immortality. The greatest evil in the world today is the Christian religion. [Wells died in 1946, well before the rise of militant Islam.]
There was a time when I believed in the story and the scheme of salvation, so far as I could understand it, as I believed there was a Devil. Suddenly the light broke through to me and I believed this God was a lie . . . For indeed it is a silly story and each generation nowadays swallows it with greater difficulty.
All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.
Few people realize the immensity of the vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims.
Religions are such stuff as dreams are made of. ~
Mary: PARADISE ON EARTH: THE ONLY PARADISE POSSIBLE AT ALL; NOT GODHOOD, BUT ADULTHOOD
The problem with Wells on religion, is that he wants to preserve the idea of "divinity." He simply moves it out of the sky and into the human heart, so "god" is "in us," something we can discover and realize/create in our lives here on earth. The idea of the "eternal, " of immortality, remains. I think it is very reasonable to see this kind of thinking as a response to the horrors of WWI. It is a desperate return to the comfort and solace that religion may have once offered, humanizing god, deifying the human, getting rid of the whole apparatus of sin and punishment, blame and redemption. Man creates the divine within himself and could make his own paradise on earth...the only paradise possible at all.
Here the creative and redemptive burden lies with the human, it is not and never will be supernatural. It's also quite a tall order, particularly considering the hell on earth we create in wars, and in all our systems of injustice and oppression. The onus is on us to do better. There will be no rescue, no final divine resolution in some afterlife. This is not an easy responsibility to shoulder — we'd much rather think some divine father has it all in hand, and in the end, will defeat all evil and reward the blessed...hoping we'll make it into that side of the scale in some way, usually one dictated by a formal set of religious instructions, like the Ten Commandments, or even Sharia law.
It seems Wells moved away from these ideas later, stating he knew he was mortal, as we all are. Religion exists in these conceptions: "divinity," and “immortality.” Both are fantasies of an infant or child dependent on the love and care, the knowledge and protection of his parents. If we are to be, not our own god, but fully adult, we will find these fantasies no longer convincing, and no longer necessary. To take all the power and responsibility for creating how we live our lives on ourselves will be to grow up at last, and maybe, work to make a better world.
Looking at our government, our divided and angry society, the hate and violence that we take each day as our daily bread, it is hard to believe we can grow up soon — or ever. Even something like the fact that supporting Ukraine at so little cost to us can deliver such benefits as the weakening of our once great enemy without the loss or deployment of a single US soldier, can't be seen by some supposed to govern. It makes me almost despair for our future.
Oriana:
I don’t know if we can ever completely transcend our yearning for a benevolent Parent in the Sky that has endowed us with an immortal soul. We know better, and even suspect that the supposed bliss of heaven, if made to last forever, would drive us insane — but still we wouldn’t mind to see this for ourselves. This reminds me of a joke: a woman says that she knows “money can’t buy happiness,” but she wouldn’t mind testing this hypothesis herself.
Under stressful circumstances — you point out WWI — if given a choice between being a rational adult versus an adored child, most of us would choose to be loved — even if it means giving up some rationality, e.g. we idealize our love object to the point that everyone else finds ridiculous while we remain blind. The need to be both the loving parent and the loved child, the lover and the beloved can be very intense, eclipsing by far any pious praises of an invisible god (who also sends us suffering, but that’s because suffering is supposedly good for us).
But life is so unreliable in providing us with that imaginary person that some people try to compensate by returning to their childhood religion. Why grow up if that means more responsibility and less love? We thought that being adult was about having fun, and then reality hits . . . and depression, even despair. And when people are miserable, religion may look like a fine option — certainly better than turning to alcohol.
Wells was not raised as a Catholic — his mother in fact detested Catholicism — so while ultimately he ended up condemning Christianity, at first he tried to modify it to suit his emotional needs — a very Protestant thing to do, in my opinion, as opposed to the blind obedience required by the Catholic Church, with its threats of hell if you dare to think for yourself, i.e. are a heretic.
I agree that religion will never die completely, and that’s probably the reason: religion makes attractive promises. Unhappy? No big deal — you’ll be in paradise after you die. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, it’s paradise yesterday and paradise tomorrow, but never paradise today.
But there’s a snag, and among poets only Czeslaw Milosz seems to have pointed it out: religion relies on sufficient amount of misery and pain in this life. Technology, Milosz points out, and this includes modern medicine, has made life much easier and less miserable than in the past. The closer we get to paradise on earth — be it a very imperfect paradise — the lesser the need for an imaginary paradise in the hereafter. According to Pew, only 46% of the Millennials identify as religious. This percentage will keep going down with each generation. It may never reach zero, but if it stabilizes at, say, 10% of the population, that will still be the opposite of “the ages of faith.”
Another significant factor: it was during those ages of faith that child upbringing was the most abusive, which almost guarantees the perpetuation of misery into adulthood. The parents who were abused as children often become victims-turned-into-perpetrators, particularly (but not exclusively) if they are male. Parenthood is then a chance for revenge.
But these are pathologies. Religion thrives on pathology. But there is always the sheer elemental joy of simply existing. I agree with Jack Gilbert’s statement which he presented as the title of one of his poems: “We have already lived in the real paradise.”
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BEST TIME OF DAY TO EXERCISE FOR WEIGHT LOSS
~ If your main fitness goal is weight loss, you may want to consider the time of day you’re exercising. A new study offers clues that could help maximize your efforts.
Exercising between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. has been associated with having a lower waist circumference and body mass index than people who work out during midday or evening, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Obesity.
“This is exciting new research that is consistent with a common tip for meeting exercise goals — that is, schedule exercise in the morning before emails, phone calls or meetings that might distract you,” said Rebecca Krukowski, a clinical psychologist with expertise in behavioral weight management who wasn’t involved in the study, in a news release.
Positive links between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and weight loss have been previously reported by other researchers. However, findings regarding the best time to exercise to shed pounds have been mixed, so the authors of the latest study looked into what influence doing activity at different hours might have on the relationship between exercise and obesity.
The authors studied health and activity data from 5,285 people who had participated in the 2003 to 2006 cycles of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. (The researchers chose those specific years because that was when accelerometers, or activity trackers, were first used in the survey.)
After participants had their BMI and waist circumference recorded, they wore activity trackers on their right hip during waking hours for 10 hours or more each day for four to seven days.
Those who exercised in the morning — between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. — had an average BMI of 27.5, compared with midday and evening exercisers, who had a 28.3 BMI on average. Midday was defined as 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and evening 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The average waist circumference, adjusted for diet quality and calorie intake, was 96 centimeters (37.7 inches), 97.8 centimeters (38.5 inches) and 97.5 centimeters (38.4 inches), respectively.
These findings held true regardless of sex, ethnicity, education, tobacco use, alcohol consumption or sedentary behavior. Additionally, even among people who all met the physical activity guidelines — at least 150 minutes per week — achieving this goal in the morning was associated with the lowest BMI and waist size.
“This research added valuable evidence that is based on a national sample of US (participants), which has not been done before on the topic of timing of exercise and weight loss,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Tongyu Ma, a research assistant professor of rehabilitation sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, via email.
However, participants’ BMI and waist size were measured before the activity tracking period, and they weren’t measured again afterward — so the authors weren’t able to prove that exercising in the morning directly impacted either measurement.
Ma is planning on doing more studies to confirm the findings and whether there is a causal relationship between exercising in the morning and having a smaller BMI and waist size, he said.
WHY THE TIME MIGHT MATTER
The reasons behind the findings may have to do with both physiology and lifestyle habits, experts said.
Because of the study design, “it is not known whether people who exercise consistently in the morning may be systematically different from those who exercise at other times, in ways that were not measured in this study,” said Krukowski, a professor of public health sciences and codirector of the Community-Based Health Equity Center at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine.
“People who exercise regularly in the morning could have more predictable schedules, such as being less likely to be shift workers or less likely to have caregiving responsibilities that impede morning exercise,” she added. “Predictable schedules could have other advantageous effects on weight that were not measured in this study, such as with sleep length (or) quality and stress levels.”
Additionally, morning people may be biologically different from night owls, experts said.
Based on previous studies, the authors noted, morning exercisers have been more likely to have a lower daily caloric intake and passively expend more energy when they’re not exercising. That may sound contradictory, but this tendency likely occurs because working out in a fasted state in the morning means your body is relying on stored fat for energy rather than stored glucose from food. This may mean early birds’ bodies are better equipped for increasing fat oxidation, or burning, both during the exercise and over the following day, even if they’re sedentary post-workout.
In the latest study, morning exercisers were the most sedentary even though they had the lowest BMI and waist circumference.
“I personally like this because it tells me that as long as I work out in the morning, it’s okay to sit in my office and focus on work for the rest of the day without worrying about weight gain,” Ma said via email.
Greater weight loss can also result from doing exercise that’s more concentrated or structured, the authors said — another pattern they found among the morning group.
If you can fit it in, “early morning aerobic exercise — such as biking, running or even brisk walking to start with — is a promising tool for weight loss,” Ma said. “Most people actually are more likely to stick to a morning workout routine than that in midday or evening.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/19/health/best-time-to-exercise-for-weight-loss-wellness/index.html
Exercise in the morning — before breakfast — makes good physiological sense. The body is then forced to use stored calories. The caveat here is that exercise alone rarely leads to weight loss. Humans are one of many species that respond to increased activity with increased appetite. While tea is a diet-friendly beverage because it’s an appetite suppressant, exercise, alas, is an appetite stimulant. If you burn calories, the body’s first priorities is to replace those calories.
Exercise has numerous benefits, but weight loss isn’t one of them. On the other hand, if you manage to lose pounds through diet, regular exercise can help sustain the new lower weight. (Still, in my observation, people who enjoy exercise and are good at it generally don’t become overweight to start with. Those with a serious weight problem tend to hate exercise. “Perhaps you could extend your daily walk by 10 minutes,” I once suggested to a plus-size woman. “That would be torture,” she replied.
Still, the unpleasant truth is that we may badly want to be slender, but our bodies were designed to hang on to every bit of fat as if it were a treasure on which our life depends. And in the remote past, with periodic famines, it did. We evolved as a species in a different world, one of food scarcity, not the world of food abundance (even food excess — check out any supermarket and see how much food ends up being thrown out) in which we now live.
There was a time when scarcity of food threatened our survival; ironically, we survived those hungry old days, only to be faced with the new threat: an overabundance of food. “Most people dig their grave with their knife and fork,” someone once said. But if you make it past eighty, the number of your taste buds is significantly diminished — a process that starts decades sooner. With the sense of smell diminished in parallel, food becomes less satisfying, and doesn’t tempt us as much.
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GINGER MAY HELP PREVENT AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS
~ As a natural supplement, ginger might be beneficial in addressing inflammation and symptoms for people with various autoimmune disorders.
In this new study, published in JCI Insight, researchers describe how ginger affects neutrophils, a type of white blood cell.
The primary focus was on the process of NETosis, or the formation of structures known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).
NETosis is a process where specific immune cells (neutrophils) produce NETs. These NETs are composed of DNA material combined with proteins that can destroy bacteria.
Various triggers, such as infections, immune responses, and certain cellular signals, can activate this NET-forming process.
The findings of this research suggest that when healthy people consume ginger, it makes their neutrophils less prone to NETosis.
This discovery is significant since NETs, resembling microscopic webs, can boost inflammation and clotting, factors linked to various autoimmune conditions like lupus, antiphospholipid syndrome (ANS — a clotting disorder), and rheumatoid arthritis.
HOW GINGER MAKES NEUTROPHILS LESS SUBJECT TO NETOSIS
During a clinical trial, researchers observed that when healthy participants took a ginger supplement daily for a week (20 mg of gingerols/day), there was an increase in a chemical called cAMP within the neutrophil.
Elevated levels of cAMP subsequently hindered NETosis when exposed to triggers associated with certain diseases.
The researchers say that many people with inflammatory conditions are likely to ask their health care providers whether natural supplements could be helpful for them or they already take supplements, like ginger, to help manage symptoms.
Senior co-author Dr. Kristen Demoruelle, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, spoke to Medical News Today, saying, “We found a specific pathway by which ginger supplements can have an anti-inflammatory effect.”
“Previous studies looked at gingerols impact on mice and on in vitro human cells. Now, we have even more preliminary research that shows how impactful ginger can be on neutrophils activity to dampen the immune response that worsens auto immune conditions,” Megan Hilbert, a registered dietician, said.
Hilbert pointed out that this study is impactful as “we now have better data on what dosage of ginger for oral administration may be effective (20mg).”
“What we still need to understand is how this impacts those with autoimmune conditions in particular, and if these findings can also be recreated in these populations since the qualifications of this study specified healthy adults,” Hilbert said.
“These preliminary findings can help pave the way for future research in this area. In future studies, I would like to see a larger and more diverse population studied, as well as testing ginger on populations with autoimmune conditions. I would also like to see a longer study on these populations, as this study only followed participants for 7 days,” Hilbert noted.
“‘Food as medicine’ is a topic that has been around for quite some time, and thankfully now we see more and more research that backs up what many anecdotally have noticed; and that is certain foods, particularly plant foods with high concentrations of polyphenols like ginger, can have profound impacts on our health,” she said.
Because overactive neutrophils are involved in the inflammation seen in a range of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, antiphospholipid syndrome, lupus and even covid-19, our findings provide scientific rationale to support that the use of ginger supplements in people with these diseases may be beneficial to lower inflammation. ~
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ginger-supplements-may-be-helpful-in-treating-autoimmune-diseases
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CERTAIN TYPES OF CHEMOTHERAPY MAY REACTIVATE DORMANT CANCER CELLS
~ A study published in the journal PLOS Biology looked at the underlying pathways involved in breast cancer recurrence.
Researchers reported that a common chemotherapy treatment encouraged connective tissue cells to produce cytokines that helped reawaken dormant cancer cells.
The researchers say the results offer possible direction on adding other therapies to chemotherapy treatment to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence.
Specialists may use a combination of several treatment approaches when treating breast cancer, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy treatment. One area of concern after treatment is whether the cancer will return.
Generally, early-stage cancers have lower recurrence rates compared to more advanced stages. According to some studies, the 5-year recurrence rate for early-stage breast cancer can be as low as 2 to 5 percent, but this number can be significantly higher for more advanced cases. Some types of breast cancer, such as inflammatory breast cancer or triple-negative breast cancer, are also more likely to recur than others.
Sometimes, cancer cells can enter a state of dormancy where they are not growing or are inactive.
Researchers of the current study wanted to understand more about what promotes the reawakening of dormant cancer cells.
This study involved cell models and mouse models.
For their research, they used a model of breast cancer dormancy. For this in vitro model, they had both tumor cells and stromal cells, or non-cancerous connective tissue cells.
Researchers found that the chemotherapy ultimately led to the cancer cells coming out of their dormant state. It did this by damaging the stromal cells.
In turn, the stromal cells released specific cytokines that encouraged the outgrowth of dormant cancer cells.
Researchers found similar results from their analysis of a mouse model.
“Taxanes are a type of chemotherapy used for breast cancer treatment. We find that such treatment can unintentionally harm cells surrounding the cancer (so-called stromal cells), causing them to release two substances: IL-6 and G-CSF. These substances can awaken dormant cancer cells (ones that are not growing), encouraging them to grow and spread.
In other words, while the chemotherapy may be working to destroy some of the cancer cells, it might also be waking up cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy and that are not growing that can later cause the disease to return.
The good news is that the study shows that by targeting IL-6, G-CSF, or disrupting their signals using drugs that currently exist, this unwanted effect of awakening dormant cancer cells can be prevented.”
“The study shows that docetaxel, a commonly used taxane drug, can trigger the release of pro-tumor cytokines from the injured stromal cells, which then stimulate the dormant cancer cells to re-enter the cell cycle and grow. This mechanism could explain why some breast cancer patients experience recurrence months or years after completing chemotherapy… Given that taxane-based chemotherapy could potentially awaken dormant cancer cells, there may be a need to re-evaluate its use, especially in specific types of breast cancer where dormancy is common.”
Dr. Parvin Peddi, a medical oncologist and director of Breast Medical Oncology for the Margie Petersen Breast Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center and an associate professor of medical oncology at Saint John’s Cancer Institute in California who was not involved in the study, offered the following words of caution about the study’s results:
“We know from clinical trials done on thousands of women treated with taxane-based therapy that survival is improved when these agents are used. This study is a very preliminary result in cell culture and its relevance in clinical practice is unclear at this time. When cancer cells are not dormant, chemotherapy is actually more effective as it better targets dividing cell[s] rather than dormant cells. This study needs to be repeated in other labs and in animal models before postulating about potential implications in humans.”
Regardless, the results indicate that taking certain precautions may help mitigate dormant cancer cells’ reawakening. By using additional treatments that target the substances waking up the dormant cells or blocking their signals, we might be able to make chemotherapy more effective and reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Drugs for this purpose already exist and are FDA approved for non-cancer use. ~
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/chemotherapy-may-sometimes-reactivate-dormant-cancer-cells#Research-limitations-and-continued-study
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A WORD ABOUT PREVENTION: CABBAGE, CABBAGE, CABBAGE
ALSO: BROCCOLI, KALE, CAULIFLOWER AND OTHER CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES
Numerous studies investigating the association of cruciferous vegetables intake with risk of breast cancer have reported that consumption of cruciferous vegetables has a protective effect in breast cancer, largely attributed to sulforaphane and Indole-3-carbinol.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6689356/
and
“There is sufficient evidence from in vitro, animal and epidemiological human studies that certain vitamins, such as vitamin D3, folate, vitamin B6, and beta carotene as well as dietary micronutrients, such as curcumin, piperine, sulforaphane, indole-3-carbinol, quercetin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), display an antitumoral activity against breast cancer and have the potential to offer a natural strategy for breast cancer chemoprevention and reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6689356/
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ending on beauty:
And though I know now that Heaven may be
and seem not to be our own, I like to believe
or would have loved, had we known them.
~ Deborah Digges
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