loved to have been, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Recently, the new bells were inaugurated at the cathedral, all totally in tune, which is more than could be said for the old bells they replaced.
On Monday of this week came yet another stage of the grand restoration project to mark the 850th anniversary of the great cathedral: its magnificent organ has been wonderfully restored and it was unveiled publicly for the first time.
Apart from hearing the organ, it’s also well worth seeing the temporary structure that’s been put in place for a year on the forecourt of the cathedral. During the Haussmann renovations of central Paris in the 19th century, the medieval street that stood here was razed to make way for the forecourt. The 13 metre high temporary structure is a belfry and it has two splendid stained glass windows, made in
1937 by a renowned glassmaker, Jacques le Chevallier. One window shows Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, while the other shows Saint Marcel, an early bishop in Paris. On the other side of the temporary belfry there’s a wide ramp that leads to a terrace that’s five metres above ground level and from which excellent views can be had of the cathedral.
There’s no music more majestic than that produced by a great church organ. One church that
I know well in Paris is St Clotilde in the 7th. It’s a truly magnificent church, with soaring steeples and interior and on various occasions when we’ve been there while organ recitals were being given, the acoustic occasion has been magnificent. The church has had a long line of celebrated organists, none more so than César Franck (1822-1890), who was also a noted composer, including for his only symphony. Someone else who established a long tradition playing one of the best church organs in Paris was Jean Langlais, who was blind. But from 1945 until 1987 he maintained the organ heritage in this wonderful 19th century church. It’s surrounded by the 19th century high rise apartment blocks and government ministeries of this part of Paris but right in front of the church is a lovely little park, a real splash of green.
Other news, too, from Paris is optimistic this week. The new editor-in-chief of Le Monde was revealed publicly for the first time. Nathalie Nougayrede is not only the first female editorial chief of Le Monde but the first female national newspaper editor in France, a glass ceiling that was broken years ago in Ireland. She’s 46 years old and began her journalistic career as recently as 1991, reporting from Prague for Liberation, Radio France International and the BBC. She succeeds Erick Izrealewicz, himself a highly talented editor-in-chief, who had a heart attack in the offices of Le Monde last November. He died there, despite the best efforts of colleagues who were skilled in resuscitation. He was just 58. His sudden passing was a huge loss for the paper, but the new editor-in-chief looks like an eminently suitable successor.
The national newspaper tradition in France is far less established than it is in other European countries, such as Ireland and the UK. It’s only a couple of years since France Soir expired. In its broadsheet
heyday in the 1950s, it was selling 1.5 million copies a day, yet by the time it finally collapsed, it was down to daily sales of 20,000. Le Monde has long been seen as the pinnacle of French newspaper excellence, but it too was in dire danger of going under. It was rescued two years ago by a group of three well-known businessmen. Since then, all kinds of innovations have been added to the paper and its website and today, it’s making money, which is great news in a beleagured industry.
French newspapers have always been remarkably cosy with the political establishment, so Le Monde set another precedent recently when it published many details of international tax avoidance and in the process, won many new readers to both the paper and its website.
Talking about newspapers, if you want a good belly laugh, Google the photos of the new headquarters in Beijing of the Chinese People’s Daily. The building isn’t finished yet, but the basic structure is in place and it resembles nothing so much as an erect male organ. I pity the bloggers in China; they can’t poke fun at this new edifice. If they were in this part of the world, the bloggers would be having a field day taking the mickey!
Not all the news from France is good, however, especially in your name is Francois Hollande. It’s just a year since he became president and the past year with him at the helm seems an eternity. No French president has fallen so far so quickly in the esteem of the public and his approval ratings are now down to 20 per cent. Figaro magazine published a cover to mark the occasion of his first year in office, with the caption reading “Four more years” as if this means four more years of grinding, groaning penance for the French people. Not only is the French economy falling into a worse and worse
state, with unemployment soaring to record levels, but what was once the mainstay of the European Union, the Franco-German alliance, has virtually collapsed. The ruling Socialist party in France is highly critical of the German approach to austerity, which it claims is only serving to make matters worse throughout Europe.
On the subject of the EU, I’ve just got my new EU driving licence and it’s a fecky little thing that makes a Tesco Clubcard look quite superior. Typical EU! At least, within the past few days, two former leading politicians have spoken a lot of commonsense about the EU. Lord Lawson of
Blaby, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who now lives in France, has declared that Britain’s interests would be best served by quitting the EU. Oskar Lafontaine, who was the German finance minister so enthusiastic about the euro at its conception, has now changed his mind in dramatic fashion. He thinks that the euro should now be scrapped to help the countries of southern Europe (in
this, he includes France) that are now struggling desperately under current EU austerity programmes.
Talking about international affairs, I’ve just been reading an absolutely magnificent book about what Vienna was like in 1913,the year before the outbreak of World War I. The title of the book is Thunder at Twilight Vienna 1913/1914 by Frederic Morton, who himself is of Viennese origin, but long resident in New York. It’s such a realistic account of what life was like in Vienna the year before war broke out that reading it is like being there on the spot, reading about contemporary
life. He explains in elaborate detail why it was inevitable that conflict between the Austro-Hungarian empire and Serbia would inevitably lead to World War I.
On that fateful day, June 28, 1914, when the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by a fanatical Bosnian teenager, Gavrilo Princip, it all happened almost by accident. The entourage with the Archduke and his wife took a wrong turn and while their enormous car was doing a U turn, this gave an unrivalled opportunity to Princip to fire the fatal shots at close quarters. If the driver of the car had kept on the right road, the assassinations probably wouldn’t have happened and the lives of 10 million people killed during World War I could have been saved.
I’d discovered the book when I was reading a story on the BBC website about how in 1913 and in a small area of Vienna, some of the most famous and notorious figures of the 20th century were in residence. They included Freud, Lenin, Trotsky, the man who became Yugoslavia’s head of state, Tito, and another young, very demented man, a certain Adolf Hitler. The website recommended Morton’s classic book and I was delighted to find that even though it was first published in 1989, a more recent paperback edition was readily available through our local and always immensely helpful independent bookstore, Hampton Books in Donnybrook, Dublin. What a joy to be able to get such
a magnificent book so easily through the locally owned bookshop rather than having to use the likes of a tax avoiding online retailer!
The story of the book contains a real lesson for our present times. Could Syria be the new Sarajevo?Many analysts familiar with the Middle East go so far as to say that the next world war has already begun, in Syria. No wonder that years ago, the renowned physicist Albert Einstein said that World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones.
On such topics, I read a fascinating piece posted by Mike Adams, the editor of naturalnews.com in the US. He listed a number of civilisation shaping trends in 2013 that are driving everyone into a social and spiritual crisis.
Number one was the rise of human engineered genetics, playing God with plants, animals and
humans.
Number two is reality escapism, with growing numbers of people escaping life in the real world and preferring to live in the virtual world of social networking, Google Glass and virtual reality
helmets.
Number three is the demonisation of normalcy. Adams says that normalcy is the new closet; if you are normal, you keep quiet about it these days. If you don’t, you’ll be berated by your peers for not giving in to their new wave of freakish ideas.
Number four is the rise of omission journalism Adams says that journalism is becoming more and more a question of what is omitted from the news media rather than what is included. What’s happening in Ireland is indicative of this trend; more and more news outlets are majoring on entertainment and celebrity news, rather than doing investigative journalism. It's much cheaper for the news outlets concerned and it’s an escape from reality for readers.
Number five according to Mike Adams is that smart people are having fewer babies. He says that on the other hands, idiots are procreating in massive numbers, so that society is being filled by people with very low cognitive functions who represent the voting democracy - they carry the day at the ballot box.
Number six is censorship and the criminalisation of knowledge. Anyone who tells the truth is
branded as a whacko, a conspiracy theorist or even worse, as a terrorist.
Number seven is selective dehumanisation, the abandonment of any value for the life of a newborn child or that of an adult who doesn’t hold the same values as yourself.
Number eight is what Adams calls the theaterization of narrative for political gain-government
is becoming a theatre production entity. This helps detach people from reality and makes them more malleable, more amenable to the whims of obedience to the government.
Number nine is the end of privacy, with governments having access to every uttered word, every email, every web page, in fact, all electronic communications.
Number ten is the rewriting of history; all the uncomfortable bits of history are being written out in favour of a bland consensus, so that the real truth and lessons of history are marginalised or obliterated.
This all sounds rather scary but Mike Adams is optimistic that a new wave of consciousness will sweep the world,placing the
emphasis on personal responsibility and compassion.
So on
that cheerful note,I’ll sign off for this week.