The last week

Tags

2015, 2016, Altemps, Balenciaga, end of year, fashion, museum, Rome, style

This new photo header of a lady dressed in a beautiful Balenciaga ball gown on the balcony of one of the old palaces in Rome, she symbolize to me elegance and style which must always remain in our lives.

I believe this is Palazzo Altemps which is part of the Italian National Museums, formerly a Residence of Cardinal Mark Sittich Von Hohenems, an interesting man, who had a military career in various wars against the Ottoman Turks, a politician, a governor of several Italian Cities, a Bishop and Cardinal who had a son, Roberto. He was from the Italian-Austrian border area. He latinized his name to Marcus Siticus Altemps to blend into Roman society. He was also the nephew of Pope Pius IV and participated in the election of several Popes during his life time, 1533-1595. He purchased the abandoned Riario palace, re-named it, renovated it completely and housed his own collection of antique statues. Today you can see many other famous collections like the Ludovisi-Buoncompagni collection, all in the old centre of Rome.

The Altemps Palace is one of the most interesting examples of Renaissance architecture in Rome. The building was started by Girolamo Riario in 1477, the nephew of Pope Sixtus, in an area that in antiquity was dedicated to the administration of imported marbles for Temples and Roman Public buildings.

Speaking of the passage of time, here we are again, into the last week of 2015 and as we are told, once it expires it will never come again, it will enter the world of memories. I suppose this is true of every day and every week, time moves on and waits for no one. I prefer to move along too and not dwell on the past since we cannot do anything about it. My life has been about change, cities, continent, houses, cultures, people.

2015 has been a year of passings, for me and for many of my friends. We are now at an age when elderly relatives, parents, those who came before us are entering immortality, I am thinking of all those who have left this year. My father on 12 July suddenly and other family members, parents of friends, acquaintances, for whatever reason death often comes as a surprise to me, like the visitor you are not expecting but will not be put off. We also buried the ashes of my Mother with all of her relatives in the family cemetery, as was her wish on a crisp but sunny day.

But 2015 was also a good year in so many respects, Fate is still smiling on us, we can only say thank you to Fortuna. We went to PEI and discovered wonderful things, we really enjoyed ourselves on the Island. We had the visit of our friends from far away Arizona, who had never been to Ottawa, such intrepid travellers.

It was not a terribly eventful year, despite the change in National government in Canada bringing about a new era after years of despair. I was busy at the two National Museums and at City Hall on the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. But otherwise we went about our daily lives.

I know that 2016 will bring change, at least in our domicile, since we have to move. That is another story which will unfold and as they say, stay tuned for developments.

 

 

 

Advent 2015

Tags

2015, Advent, Christmas, Hope, Peace, World

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2: 13-14

Simple words really from St-Luke but as 2015 comes to an end a reminder that Peace is wished for now more than ever.

 

#elxn42

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2015, Canada., Change, corruption, Democracy, Election, Harper, Liberal, NDP, October 19, Vote

On Monday 19 October, a week after Thanksgiving, we will elect the 42 Parliament of Canada since 1867. On Twitter #elxn42 (election 42) is the hashtag used.

Canadians are encouraged to vote this Thanksgiving weekend, voting by anticipation this time is seen as a good thing and it is to prevent a repeat of the last Election in 2011 when 40% of eligible voters or 9 million people chose not to vote.

This is one of the longest campaigns ever, Prime Minister Harper chose to call this election early, we are currently at day 64 of a campaign dominate by consultants imported from the USA and Australia. All work for the Reform Alliance called the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), all have strong connections to FOX News, Tea Party, Koch Brothers, GOP, and other extreme right wing groups, like the KKK, Neo-Nazis and Evangelicals.

Harper has decided that since he does not want to talk about the current Recession in Canada, the unemployment figures, the low dollar at 0.71 cents, failing infrastructure, how he has failed the poor, the elderly, Veterans, and how his foreign policy has had disastrous consequences, his non-existent environmental agenda, his belittling the black guy in the White House, his constant lecturing other World leaders, his chronic underfunding of the Health System by 36 billion dollars as of 2016 and the list goes on.

Harper has picked a piece of cloth to attack a small minority in Canada. The Niqab that piece of cloth covering the face of some Muslim women has become the rallying cry of bigots and racists in Canada. Make people fearful of the ”other” is the campaign strategy of Harper. What is shocking is the number of intolerant and hateful people we actually have in this country. Just look at Twitter or Facebook to see people being proud of exposing their hateful views, their ignorance and xenophobia for all to see and turning that into a badge of honour and patriotism.

Unfortunately the Media in general has been too happy to beat the drum and spin the stories of Muslim women being attacked on the streets, the Harper base cheers. Some Conservative Candidates have said in public ”well they deserved it” PM Harper himself continues his campaign of hateful speeches without nuance and certainly he knows that by promoting mediocrity, the lowest common denominator, he can but win votes. How many Muslims do we have in Canada, they are 1% of the population, a very small group indeed. Harper has labelled them enemies of Israel, terrorists all, Islamicists, so they are fair game. On Twitter and Facebook many talk of an invasion, they must be stopped, what is being advocated to stop them is extreme. Reason and balanced views are not welcome in any such chat lines.

There are lots of extremely naive and poorly educated Canadians out there. People can be excused for not understanding complex economic formulas and monetary issues or even issues on foreign policy if you do not have a background in this field. But on a matter of morality and having the moral courage to stand up to bullies like Harper and pointing out that what he is advocating are not policies that a person wanting to be the Prime Minister should ever consider or even be proud of. This is where a lot of Canadians are moral cowards. As one commentator on Twitter point out ”I am only stating my opinion so I cannot be a racist”.

Harper has made it quite clear that he despises minority, just look at his campaign speeches, any one of them. He firmly believes that the majority can oppress and dictate to a minority, any one who is not White and Christian is an inferior being.

The Canadian Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights protect us from Harper’s abuses and the Courts have pointed out to him time and again that he is quite wrong in his biased interpretation of the Law. He has wasted some $750 million dollars on such challenges in Court. There have been close to 20 judgements so far in the last 2 years against bills he forced through Parliament, all struck down, one by one. He hates the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and has openly criticized her. Again Harper publicly rejects the idea that the Judiciary is a Pillar of our Government.  It serves him well to do so, there are about 35% of the population who cheer him up loudly for doing so, mostly men and women with less than 12 years of education who are in the Middle to lower Middle Class.

We are in a deep morass in Canada right now. It is impossible to have any kind of intelligent conversation or debate with arguments and facts. Canada is certainly not the same country it was just 10 years ago. It has become a place of nasty, unpleasant people, bigots and xenophobes. We can only hope that October 19 will bring change.

The election is so close at the moment with only 12 days to go it looks like we will have a minority government. A coalition of the Liberals and the NDP would save us from Harper. I can’t wait for the suspense to end. I may just go and vote on Friday at least I will feel I have done my bit.