Jour de l'Action de Grâce, Thanksgiving

My favourite holiday of the year le Jour de l'Action de Grâce, Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October in Canada. It is a Liturgical Festival and comes to us from our ancestors in France and England celebrating the Harvest.

Les citrouilles harvest 2012

The actual holiday is Monday but most of us Canadians will celebrate on the Sunday with a Festive meal amongst friends and family. It is a holiday everyone can celebrate unlike Christmas. It is a holiday to reflect on our good fortune and be thankful, if only for the fact that we live in a peaceful and stable country bordering on the boring. In Canada the origin of this holiday are numerous, the first time the holiday is mentioned is 1604 when Samuel de Champlain and his companions who have settled at the fame l'Habitation, gave thanks for making a safe crossing of the Atlantic from France to Quebec City or Stadacona as it was then known. We know that the native people have for centuries celebrated the Harvest with meals and dances, well before the Europeans arrival. It was common to celebrate with the European settlers and this is where squash and corn came into being a part of the meal. The wild turkey a Mexican import came much later probably in those days venison was the main meat of the meal.

Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving was observed on a Thursday in November, something to do with the Royal Family, then after the First World War the observance was around the 11 November, Armistice Day, thankful for Peace, not to forget that 10% of the population had gone to war in Europe. Finally in 1957, Thanksgiving became a National Statutory Holiday and fixed on the second Monday in October.

Glorious Maple tree colours on our back street.

So today I went to the store to pick up my 5 Kg Turkey, a small bird. I love the smell of roasting turkey it brings back so many memories of family gatherings at my grandparents decades ago. I also will do two vegetables, some potatoes and a mixture of celery, pearl onions and peas. One guest will bring an appetizer and the other guest dessert. I have champagne and over 100 bottles of wines to choose from, plus several excellent single malt scotch, gin and vodka for apéritif. So we should be OK so to speak.

A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 Our street in Ottawa.

On China

Just finished reading the 2011 book by Henry Kissinger, titled On China. Since I lived in China I wanted to read it to see what he had to say. Kissinger is a great believer in China and has many friends in the leadership of China. Whenever he travels there he gets the Head of State treatment with all that it entails. Kissinger had a great deal of influence many years ago in the original opening of the USA to the People's Republic of China. First secret meeting between himself and Premier Zhou En Lai in 1971, followed by the Official visit of President Nixon in 1973. Formal recognition did not come before 1979 for various reasons of internal USA politics and because of the War with Vietnam and the official recognition the USA government had granted Taiwan back in 1949.

Kissinger gives a lot of details on the personalities and character of each person he met, Mao Tse Tung, Zhou En Lai, Deng Xiao Ping and others. Mao the philosopher king, Zhou the cultured Mandarin and skilled diplomat and administrator, Deng the rough pragmatist. He described how the meetings went and how they were received and many more details on how the entire relationship evolved. For history all these details are important as a first person account. Kissinger stresses how the Chinese are master of the detail and are fully prepared with great seriousness for each encounter, nothing is left to chance or haphazard. He does not say it but the reader guess that the other side is not as well prepared and this is the Chinese advantage in any encounter.

Kissinger also looks at historical precedent in China and how Confucius influences the way of thinking of the Chinese leadership through the ages, he does spend some time in his book guiding the reader through the various phases of thinking which guide Chinese reaction to events. He also goes into what were the expectations and fears of the USA in the first meetings in the context of domestic American politics of the late 1960's. Past events like the victory of the Communist in China in 1949 against the Nationalist, the Korean war, the toll of the Vietnam war on the American public opinion, the Cold War and the difficult relations with the USSR. Though Kissinger never criticize past US Administrations he served and treats his Chinese counterparts with much courtesy in his book,  he does point out several times how many American thinkers made mistakes in their evaluation of China and its leadership, in the process delaying or impeding the relation between the USA and the PRC.  Kissinger gives the impression that he had to fight several battles with an entrenched bureaucracy at the State Department correcting what he considered wrong evaluations based on misunderstandings of history and events. What he considered to be too many assumptions, confusing Communism in general as an ideology and then believing that the way it was practiced in the USSR was the same in the PRC or that the new giants worked hand in hand against the West.

Kissinger also explains the concerns of the Chinese Leadership and their own problems with the USSR in border disputes which went back centuries to the time of the Emperors in both China and Russia. Of the rivalry between Stalin and Mao and then successive Soviet leaders who often failed to understand that the Chinese did not want to be dominated by them or even guided. The reader understand how the USA came to play a balancing act between the two great Communist powers in the world.

Then Kissinger guides us through the post-Mao period and the great changes brought about by Deng Xiao Ping. The internal fights within the Chinese leadership with two camps, one, the gang of four, for continuing the Mao doctrine and Deng's approach to go down a different path. It is clear that China today remains a Communist dictatorship and a police State but has a commercial, capitalistic components important to improve the material conditions of the people if the Communist party is to survive in power. Kissinger points out the great realizations under Deng, such as the eradication of hunger for the first time in China. Providing for basic health care, schooling and housing for all and most important quadrupling in a matter of a just a few years the wealth of individual Chinese who could see a net benefit under Communist rule.

In the last paragraph and epilogue, the books meanders as if Kissinger was at a lost on how to conclude his book and that part is less interesting, probably because the writer himself is retired and does not travel as much now as he did in the past.

A good read.

The remains of the day.

Have you seen this movie, The remains of the day, it's about a butler in a grand English home before the Second World War and what happens before and then after the war. This 1993 film is based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, it features Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

Today I attended the Annual General Meeting of my professional Association as Election Returning Officer. The meeting was held at the Foreign Ministry known in Ottawa as the Lester B. Pearson Building named after our Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Prime Minister who helped resolve the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956 and proposed the creation of the famous UN Peace Keeper Corps.

the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson, P.C., M.P. (Prime Minister of Canada 1963-68)

It is in all likely hood my last meeting, I have been active with my professional association all my working life, so I was happy to do this little thing for them.  I arrived a bit early and went to the Cadieux auditorium. The lobby known as the O.D. Skelton room has been repainted and the furniture recovered, it had not been done since 1973 when the building first opened. It is a funny looking building it is shaped like a Sphinx in memory of the Suez Canal Crisis and the man who helped solve the crisis.  The renovations look cheap and everything was done quickly, no money and budget cuts. It use to be such an elegant room. The rooms are named after famous Canadian diplomats who started their careers in academe and then became advisors to Prime Ministers. But all this was a very long time ago in an other era, such people do not exist anymore.

I sat in the auditorium and we went through the agenda, I did my part, half way through I started to feel tired and thought to myself how all this did not relate to me anymore. I remember a time when I would have been happy and excited about being with colleagues who worked as I did on important dossiers and in our Embassies around the world. Today I really had the impression that I was living the remains of the day, no regrets really, simply that all this was now in the past. It is a very strange feeling all together, I feel no connection really. I spoke with a few colleagues, learned that two persons who were scheduled to leave this summer on posting were diagnosed with very serious illnesses. I was working with them just a few weeks ago, I had no idea. One colleague who is also retiring said to me, we were lucky you know, we served during the best of time. I agree because now the future for my younger colleagues is very clouded and uncertain. There was a small reception after the meeting but I did not stay, did not feel like mingling, would not have known what to say. I had that feeling like when you are about to take the train and it is time to board, you do not want to linger.

I do not know if I will ever go back to the Lester B. Pearson building but when I left today the late afternoon sun was  bright and I did not look back. However of my career as a diplomat I remain true to my motto, Non Sibi Sed Patriae. (Not for me but for my country)

    A small sprig of flowers on a Roman Spring day on Peter and Joe's balcony on Via Tronto.

Autumn 2012

Here are some pictures of Autumn delights.

Such exuberance is pure pleasure.

the children of Cerberus enjoying the morning sunshine, a daily tradition in our house.

our little street in colour.

Conference at the National Gallery of Canada

I was invited to attend a conference today in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada organized by the Director of the NGC and the French Embassy. The theme of this conference was entitled ''Visions: Art Museums in the 21 Century'' a discussion on the transformation and challenges facing museums today and the role of directors.

Invited guests where Xavier Dectot, Director of the new Louvre-Lens (pronounce Lance) in the small city of Lens (pop 36,000) in the Nord du Pas de Calais, which is near the Belgian border, an old coal mining area.
This new museum will open on 4 December 2012 designed by a team of Japanese architects, it is enormous and sits on 22 hectares of land formerly known as Pit no.9. It is an all glass building, each single pane of glass measures an impressive 6.80 meters or 22 feet in length.
The other guest speaker was Laurent Salomé, Chief Curator at the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais in Paris. who spoke on what they were doing to bring more people to the museums.

Paul Lang, Chief Curator of the NGC was hosting and Marc Mayer, Director of the NGC was present as was the French Ambassador and his spouse. There was probably about 150 museum members present. The conference was in French with English simultaneous translation.

It was interesting to hear both guests who painted a difficult picture of the realities of Art Museums today, the average French Citizens goes only once per year to any museum. Only 50% of the population of France actually goes to visit a museum. Most people who visit museums are women over 50, usually retired with some money and a University diploma. The challenge for the director in attracting visitors to the New Louvre-Lens is as follows; the new museum is situated in an economically depressed area, the coal mines all shut down in the 1970's, largely a young population, poorly educated with high levels of unemployment. Lens in its description reminded me of those mining company towns in novels like Germinal by Emile Zola. The construction of the new Louvre-Lens follows the democratization and decentralization of museums, a movement which is popular in Canada and now being copied in France. So what will be on show at the Louvre-Lens will be borrowed for 5 years from le Grand Louvre in Paris. It will also feature temporary exhibits and contemporary artworks.

Canada and France have numerous collaborative efforts in the organizations of exhibitions and studies. This brings about a sharing of exhibits touring cities around the world, to save money and to generate revenues for each museum. Our guests bemoaned the fact that in France the budgets for Culture have been slashed severely. We were told that we should be thankful our Canadian Government which reduced the budgets of all National Museums has not been more drastic in comparison.

Reliance on private donors and private funding for exhibits is now the game and multinational companies are being courted assiduously, they are taking up where national governments have left off. In the last 15 years major exhibits have been funded almost 100% by private enterprise in Canada but also now in France and probably elsewhere in the world. Though our French guests admitted that there was still a big debate in France between generations of Curators on the merit of having private companies finance Art exhibits, many see that as cheapening the process.

Attendance is also down in Museums and I can vouch for that, I can see it at the NGC in Ottawa but also at the other National Museums like Civilizations and the National War Museum how very few people visit everyday.  Xavier Dectot was saying that if you took out only 3 famous art work at the Louvre, people would probably stay away, he mentioned the Venus of Milo, the Mona Lisa and the Victory of Samothrace. Entire galleries like the one devoted to the 17th century painter Nicolas Poussin are deserted. We saw that in Italy where people went to a museum to see one art work and ignore the rest, comes to mind the David by Michelangelo in Firenze.

The French are promoting now something we have been doing in Canadian Museums for a long time which is to make use of technology to promote museums, sending docents out to schools to promote art works and interest in the arts in general. Offer school teachers free programs to help them with their class curriculum. I was pleased to hear our guests compliment Canada and the NGC for our modern approach in trying to attract the public back to our museums.

I was relieved to see that our problems in Canada are the same elsewhere, a factor of a changing world and interest and falling educational standard. They are not insurmountable but a major challenge for any  museum director.

I also learned that a major retrospective of the work of Marie-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun will be held at the NGC in 2014. She is said to be the most important female painter of the 18th century in France. She was the official painter of Marie-Antoinette. She also worked in Italy, Russia at the Court of Catherine II, in Switzerland and in England. There has never been a retrospective of her work.

Marie Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842)







  

Autumn Farmer's Markets

Well my favourite time of year as arrived and my favourite holiday of the year is just around the corner, Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday 7 October. Today my friend C.P. and I went to the farmers market in Blackburn Hamlet area and then to the Orleans Fruit Farm which use to belong to the Oblat Fathers it is now part of the National Capital Commission Green Belt around the Capital. Lots of pumpkins and squash and apples and other root vegetables. Also bought some lamb from the Albé Farm in Alfred and from the farmers from Cumberland, all little agricultural villages around the Capital region. The biological, organic and other labels on natural feed for animals with no hormones or chemicals is the big sale point. There is a great demand for natural products and also now Gluten Free breads and other pastry items. I bought a bread made this morning, it was still cooling made from Chickpea flour. I also found a Puglia bread which is the sort of bread I use to buy in Rome, nice crunchy crust and good tasting. I got some white and purple carrots and purple potatoes. I also found a greyish blue or Prussian blue Pumpkin, I have never seen anything like it and the farmer also had white pumpkins.  All these farming areas East of Ottawa are mostly French speaking families, Franco-Ontarians who have lived there for centuries. You also get a lot of recipes from them if you are not sure about cooking certain items.  I also bought Turkey and cranberry sausage, Duck sausage, Lamb Tourtière and Lamb paté.
Lovely weather sunny and blue skies at 15 C. It was chilly this morning at 2 C. almost freezing point.

Today's pumpkins

the children of Cerberus guarding the wine.

A momentous day

Well today I handed in my resignation letter from the Canadian Foreign Service at 4:16 pm effective on 28 December 2012. I spoke with the Director of Personnel, an old colleague of mine and with my assignment officer, we reminisced about the past years, so many years and so many postings at different Canadian Embassies around the world. It all seems to me like a movie, another world, another time. When I joined the Foreign Service, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in Britain, Ronald Reagan was President, in Canada Joe Clark was Prime Minister, a man I always like for his honest straightforward approach to things. My postings were in order: Mexico City, Cairo Egypt with accreditation to Khartoum, The Sudan, Chicago USA, Amman Jordan with accreditation to Iraq and Palestine, Warsaw Poland with accreditation to Belarus and Lithuania,in 2004 to Beijing PRC, finally in 2007 to Rome Italy with accreditation to Greece, Malta and Albania. I also served on temporary duty at the United Nations, General Assembly, Social Affairs Committee in the Fall of 1985, then in 2001 in Lagos Nigeria and  Ankara Turkey. I also organized the first Protocol Office for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and served as first Head of Protocol and Official Visits.

I was in Mexico City on the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake of September 1985 and in Egypt during the first Gulf War when Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. I was in Khartoum on the night of the defeat of Iraq and came face to face with Tareq Aziz the Prime Minister of Iraq in the lobby of the Khartoum Hilton whose distinction was that the hotel was built at the point where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile, an impressive sight. I was stunned to meet Tareq Aziz in the lobby, a coincidence an accident really, he noticed by diplomatic passport and all he said to me was that he really like Canada and hoped to come one day to Canada. I will never forget his eyes, they were those of a man who had seen too much. They had no expression in them a bit like the eyes of a dead person, the flicker had gone out. He was as always courteous and polite, the human face of the awful Saddam Hussein Regime of Iraq. I remember in the Sudan how everything was paid for with cases of Johnnie Walker Scotch despite the fact this was suppose to be an Islamic Regime.

In Egypt I received death threats from some disgruntled person, the regime provided me with body guards and I never had a parking problem in Cairo for the next 3 years. In Jordan, His Majesty King Hussein, a charismatic and wonderful man, one of the great leaders of the XXth century, sent me a photo of himself in a silver frame with a dedication, to my friend Mr. Laurent Beaulieu with my best wishes. I was so surprised even my ambassador was a little jealous. His brother Prince Hassan followed up a few days later with a similar gift, apparently I had done something, I do not know what, that had attracted their attention. I remember on a return flight from Egypt to Jordan, I discovered that I was seated next to Sharifa Dina Abdul Hamed, the first wife of the King and we spoke of her horses, those white Arabian stallions, she was delightful and charming.

In Chicago, the great rival of New York, but with the polish and culture the big Apple lacks. Great City with wonderful architecture and cuisine. The USA from the mid-western point of view.
In Poland, Warsaw another great city, reborn after the darkness of Nazism and Communism, the rapidity of changes in the economy and life in general were dazzling. A country of culture, opera and the arts, a people with an interesting history. Warsaw a city of beautiful parks and palaces torn between Germany and Russia, a Slavic people with a Western European accent, very unlike their Russian neighbours often described by the Poles as too Asiatic.

Then China, a country which still clings to its Imperial past and the notion of the Middle Kingdom despite its 60 years of Communism. I discovered real Chinese cuisine and a very different perspective on China which is not apparent from home. Finally my postings to Rome and Athens, to end a career one cannot ask for anything better. What an incredible opportunity to be able to live and work in what is the cradle of Western civilization. Despite the fact that we have returned from Europe one year ago, we still often think of Italy and Greece, if not daily as you can tell from my posts on this blog.

All in all not a bad career and a charmed life. So it all comes to an end, like any thing else in life.
As I said to my colleagues today, One has to know when to leave the party. It was wonderful and now let's move on.

During my career I received many honours for my work but one I truly cherish, on the occasion of my 30 years of service as a member of Canada's Foreign Service a tree was planted in Sudbury, Ontario to honour me. I did not know of this in advance nor expected it and it means the most to me as it is a permanent symbol of my years of service. This tree is part of a vast project of rejuvenation for the City and it will certainly do a lot of good.

This view of Parliament in Ottawa just down the street from where we live in Ottawa. The buildings were built in 1864 and are the symbol of Canada representing our National goal of Peace, Order and Good Government.