Death of a Master

Maurice André  V

My favourite trumpeter in classical music, Maurice André, has died last night in Bayonne. His recordings with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonics of Haydn, Hummel, Mozart (Leopold), Vivaldi, Bach, Albinoni, etc ... are the best trumpet music ever produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5zpaKJDnY8

He single-handedly led me to Baroque music. I did what I could to show my support for him whilst he was alive, and attended a number of concerts, and owning a string of classical recordings of him. I am thankful for the world of music he opened up for me to enjoy for the rest of my life. And I am glad he had a rich and fulfilled life with music that he so generously shared with the world. RIP

Chez-Sois

http://www.france24.com/en/20120224-cinema-paris-godard-karina-costa-gavras-en-culture

The last we'll see and remember of Whitney Houston

What would we do without the rainbow press, eh? Well, we couldn't see the very, very, very, last and final picture of nicely tanned Whitney Houston. But here it is: —

After the Fox

Everyone has - or should have - a political home base, a political grouping or party that best reflects one's own beliefs and convictions. In the 1980s that was the Republican Party (which was relatively easy with a moderate President, Ronald Reagan, as its leader). That has changed as my geographical gravity shifted from Washington to London. Work for the front bench team around John Major, IDS, William Hague and Michael Howard satisfied my curiosity and intrigue enough to become Party member in 1993, and to remain one ever since.

This close affiliation was rocked last year with the resignation of Dr Liam Fox as Minister of Defence. Previously I had supported Mr Fox' campaign to become Tory leader in 2005, a race which he narrowly lost to David Cameron. BUT, it's good to see Mr Fox return to the political fray.

Peculiar vote in Germany; again

A splinter party (FDP), which runs currently near 3.5 percent in the polls, has forced a weakened government of CDU/CSU to accept an obscure and semi-senile private individual to become the country's third president within two years.

The showdown with this peculiar result rings in the end of the Merkel era, maybe the only welcome side effect of the otherwise disgraceful boiler room acclamation of a champion of the SPD and the chaotic Green Party, behind closed doors and hidden from Germany's public. Germany has embarked on a dangerous path now, with a huge vacuum left for extremist parties to fill to represent conservative voters.

 

If Mr Gauck were the civil rights advocate some try to portray him as, he would himself object to the way he was picked. He dismisses the real vote of 2 years ago in which he had lost, and finds no word to the permanent undermining of democratic values in the European Union.

Sarkozy: wrong man, wrong time, wrong place

[From my professional blogsite]

GETTING RID OF THE BUFFOON IN THE ELYSEE

The degree of public self adulation from French president Nicholas Sarkozy is as ridiculous as it is misplaced and outright awkward. This past weekend the man in the Élysée Palace at last dared to come out of his cocoon and announced his reelection effort in front of a few hundred less than enthusiastic followers.

The muted response from his own support group, coming just 8 weeks ahead of the election, did not irritate the miniature Napoleon (same size, half the empire), as he ranted on about his socialist rival (and leader in the polls) François Hollande - "he's lying from dusk to dawn" - and praising himself as the savior of the nation, the man who brought France back from the brink.

Unfortunately for the little man, his renditions of self described and self prescribed glamour did not escape the attention of outside spectators (like myself), nor the scrutiny of France's intelligentsia in the media. His record cannot be reconciled with how Sarkozy portrays himself, and his swipe at Monsieur Hollande - the part of "lying from dusk to dawn" - can easily be applied to the president himself.

For, the man with some sixty days left in office has ushered in an era clearly the opposite of an image of a Grande Nation: his first term commenced with riots and mayhem on the streets of Paris and all other major cities (alone in the capital nearly 4,000 cars and hundreds of businesses went up in flames), isolation in global affairs, subordination to what the French consider the arch rival, a perception just a whisker away from the neighbourly arch enemy of the past to stalemate in the permanent and acute crisis of the eurozone. In diplomatic circles this bonmot makes its rounds and is beginning to gain traction with the common folks as well: "If you got a friend like Germany, who needs an enemy?"

Mr Sarkozy's approval rating is the worst of any sitting president since Charles de Gaulle a month before the famous plebiscite which ousted him. The public gaffes of Mr Sarkozy, both in words and in gestures, are innumerous, and have filled the pages of publications like Le Canard, and the comics pages of reputable dailies such as Le Figaro and Le Monde. His private life is the domain for clownery and caricatures.

The man, who demeaned and emasculated French virtues like no other leader before him since WW2, is rife for retirement, and his anachronistical public sermons cannot gloss over the stale, hollow and uninspiring message he conveys. The awkwardly animated man, like a kid who overdosed on sugar, should be the butt of Saturday night comical jokes, not a resident of the Élysée Palace.

Booked

The next trip abroad has been booked:
22 Mar 2012 : 51st ACI Financial Markets World Congress 2012,
United Arab Emirates, Dubai

I am scheduled to be in Dubai March 21-24

EUROZONE: A Continental Divide

THE EUROZONE CRISIS &

A CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

Supposedly, if one ventures far enough to accept Germanic manifestations of the past 20 years, the project "euro" was designed to bring to the glum and until then irrelevant continent everlasting peace and wealth at home, and unprecedented greatness and potency outside. However, ten years after the introduction of the common currency, the ageing continent is rocked by huge tectonic rifts. The continent is profoundly divided by the gap between North and South, the rich and the have-not, between creditors and debtors.

Increasingly the EU evolves into a catalyst for deeply rooted conflicts, political skirmish, stupor and further economical inequalities that threaten to plunge the region into even armed conflict. Greece and Portugal appear to provide the fuse that might spark the fiery implosion of the eurozone: German and EU flags are already being burned in Athens and other Greek cities, foreign-owned or affiliated banks and enterprises looted and set ablaze. From hereupon, even graver attacks on foreigners and tourists are entirely thinkable; in fact it seems only a matter of time when foreigners become victims of violence which the EU architects can only blame themselves for.

Emily

Emily is back in the recording studio these days (today is the eighth day of scheduled eleven days of recording the new CD). It's her fourth album and much anticipated as you can imagine.

The strains are visible (and audible), and we try to keep it quiet at home. We also look forward to visit her sister in 10 days, down in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Leaving Saturday, 11 February at noon, returning Monday, 13 February at midnight.
Saturday in Reims, Sunday and Monday in Luxembourg

Emily

Unearthing the ghost of the past

Invoking the Nazi past with relevant diatribes is not limited to Austrian parliamentarians. A French Socialist MP caused an uproar in the French parliament yesterday, and an exodus of the ruling party UMP and the cabinet of Premier Fillon.

Video:
http://www.france24.com/en/20120207-ruling-ump-party-deputies-storm-out-parliament-over-nazi-remark-guent-fillon-france

On Saturday Interior Minister Claude Guent made this indisputably factual statement:"Contrary to what the left's relativist ideology says, for us all civilizations are not of equal value: Those which defend liberty, equality and fraternity seem to us superior to those which accept tyranny, the subservience of women, social and ethnic hatred."

Austrian Sovereign Debt Update

In Search of the right religion? A guide

US Vote 2012: My prediction (and endorsement)

PREDICTION AND ENDORSEMENT FOR THE RIGHT PRESIDENT

This is probably the first prediction for the November election winner you'll see. The global state of affairs and the domestic situation in the US make the choice surprisingly easy, despite - or because - of the silly hoopla of a persiflage of Primaries to crown a Republican presidential candidate and the near-panic stalemate of Democrats in Congress, painfully laboring not to upset or undermine their man in the White House.

The world is vastly different into the fourth year of President Obama, just as his predecessor saw fundamental change and upheaval - wars included - during his 8-year term. At the end, President George Bush left a US weakened abroad, and on the brink at home. Decades of progress to evolve America into a balanced, peaceful and encompassing society were shattered, and as a result incumbent Obama inherited a country deeply divided and agonized.

Wikipedia Black-Out

In agreement and solidarity with Wikipedia, this site will be blacked-out until Thursday, 19 January, 10am GMT.

Scottish Independence?

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE? NOT SO FAST!

When Scottish First Minister Alexander Salmond thought aloud of a referendum to gain independence for Scotland ten days ago, the British Government called his bluff: Prime Minister Cameron demanded a referendum "as soon as possible," with only one question asked, "independence - yes or no." Grudgingly, Salmond set a date for the referendum in autumn 2014.

 

The consequences for Scotland, in case of a YES vote, will be grave and significant. But as latest polls show, the majority of Scots want to remain in the UK, while a clear majority in England, plagued by high and unfair subsidies for Scotland, favour Scotland to leave the UK. Alexander Salmond will have to do a lot of convincing ahead of the treacherous plebiscite.

 

In the past few weeks the Scottish "government" sounded out with the UK Chancellory whether Scotland will keep a monetary union with England and can retain the British Pound as its currency. At the time I was part of a 65-men group advising George Osborne in a feasibility study of monetary consequences if the UK splits up. The result pours more cold water on Scottish aspirations: it would either severely undermine Scottish independence in fiscal matters - more so than it does today! - or, more likely, lead to an end of the British pound as legal tender in Scotland. A Scottish pound would immediately devalue by 20-30 per cent, and any desire of Scotland to adopt the euro would be blocked by London.

 

A classical case of being caught between a rock and a hard place, I'd say...

London Weekend

It was a brilliant evening at the Princess Alexandra Hall in London SW1A 1LR; I received warm applause and compliments that I, as a foreign born member, demonstrated such thorough insight and constructive ideas about how to go forward, towards a Scottish referendum and beyond. Picking up on the breaking news yesterday of mass-downgrades within the eurozone, which membership the Scottish National Party of First Minister Salmond flirts with, I pointed out that Scottish independence would lead to an immediate downgrade by 4 notches to the level of Ireland, and cost of 10-year 'government' bonds from Edinburgh would be currently at 4.8%, nearly 3 per cent above the UK level.

I also reminded the small number of Scots in the room that Scottish membership with the EU, and the eurozone, are subject to London's agreement (or veto, as is the more likely case, if peripheral negotiations should hit a snag).

 The event was supposedly followed by a 30-45 minute Q&A, which in fact lasted nearly 2 hours. We finally parted at 10:45 last night, and I took Emily then to Trader Vic's at the London Hilton. We stayed until 2am ... lol

Eurostar-ing

We will eurostar (used like a Verb) at noon to London, where I will appeal at a Tory club function to scrap the economic aid to Scotland with immediate effect. The estimated £26 billion of transfers due to Scotland until September 2014 should be kept in escrow and only released to Edinburgh if the planned referendum ends with a pledge to remain part of the UK. Also on the agenda is to prevent a Scottish grab of North Sea oil reserves and to recoup from a future Scottish nation all investments into the oil exploration of the past 40 years.

Otherwise, the London trip is reserved for undiluted fun and entertainment. It is also meant as a fact-finding mission whether Britain has still running water, hot water and electricity; nothing can be taken for granted in Europe's most antiquated country.

Oh so gay

HOW GAY: Fred Karger, a 61-year old gay activist, is running for the office of US President. His program for the march into the Rose Garden is based on a rather dull and narrow platform: gay rights, gay & lesbian issues and to change the Republican Party are the mainstay. About 9% of American voters are gay or lesbian, and he seems to speculate to collect all of their votes.

The candidacy of a gay person is rather normal and a non-event, until one makes it a showcase and runs a one-dimensional campaign that ignores the other 91% of voters. Mr Karger will get a lot of deserving ridicule and in the long run will damage gay interests far more than he does good.

Decimation of Iranian thugs

Another nuclear collaborator of Iran's atomic bomb program has been shredded today in a rather clever fashion. It's the sixth known nuclear weapons expert of the Revolutionary Guards who was desposed of.

Whoever is behind the campaign to liquidate such threats to world peace deserves admiration and full support.

Doomsday clock

DOOMSDAY CLOCK: maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, today at 7PM CET the clock will be updated. Since January 2010 the hands show six minutes to 12 (for the eurozone the clock is 1 minute before 12)

The hands were moved closer to 12: it is 5 to 12!

Office Blues

'twas a nice surprise this morning on our (executive) floor, when a six-member band from New Orleans brought to life the staff of around 100 with a cool mix of Blue Grass and Dixie. It made for a welcome change of dull morning meetings dealing with economic growth (or, in the case of the eurozone, shrinking) and how to play catching-up with America.

Yet another French/German summit gone by

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Finternational%2Feurope%2F0%2C1518%2C808039%2C00.html&h=vAQEvozsnAQEYqL-wtxrxtCMKLzliDr0HRA7afvethoRPvg
"Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have once again shown a common front in the euro crisis, insisting that the euro zone is well on track to agreeing on binding debt rules, and papering over differences on the financial transaction tax..."

Which provoked my reaction:
Chelsea Dagger ‎"on track"??? Sarky & Murky manage to perpetuate unproductive and redundant summits in a desperate, but ultimately feeble attempt to gain time. They lambast the rating agencies, yet quote verbatim the demands of these independent judges of economic mayhem how to resolve the crisis. Ignorance is bliss, and the head-in-the-sand posturing of the Little Man in Paris has become the source of penultimate entertainment. What's next? How about a tax that will further diminish economic activity in the eurozone and shift capital and jobs towards other, more liberated centers.

Moonpic

Jardin du Luxembourg, at 5:48PM