Halifax, N.S.

Tags

Canada, Halifax NS, mail, Moose, Royalty, Tim Horton, winter

I travelled to Bedford a suburb of Halifax to retrieve my 7 oriental prayer rugs at the cleaners. They need special cleaning and this is the only location in the Maritimes, East of Montreal. When I left Charlottetown on Tuesday morning, we were having our first wet snow storm of the Winter, a non event except that there was fog and slush all over and getting sprayed by long haul trucks on the highway happened every couple of minutes. The road to the bridge to cross to the mainland was not busy, never is and then once on the mainland I was in an area called Mouse Alley, on either side of the road is swampy ground and woodland, where Mouse roam, so you have to have your eyes open until you reach the roundabout on the highway about 26km from the bridge exit.

Yes I stopped for a donut and a coffee at Tim’s, that is the only outlet on the highway. I know my friend in Phoenix will be happy, I believe he is a share holder.

Then you make a left and on your way East towards Amherst, Truro and Halifax. The wet snow persisted until Truro when it became sunny, as if I had crossed a curtain. Truro is about 45 minutes from Halifax. I did not drive fast not knowing how slippery the road would be. After 3 hours of driving and stopping twice for coffee and stretch I arrived at the shop and picked up my rugs and continued to the hotel in downtown Halifax just below the old Citadel. The city of Halifax is a sea port and an important strategic naval base for the Royal Canadian Navy. The citadel well above the city dominates and the city has a lot of history attached to it, going back to 1749 by Edward Cornwallis, who previously in his military career played an important role in suppressing the Jacobite rising of 1745. After fighting with the victorious British soldiers at the Battle of Culloden, he led a regiment of 320 men north for the pacification (wholesale massacre) and clearing of the Scottish Highlands. He chose the location of Halifax (Chebucto) because it is an ice free natural sea port all year round. He will be for many years governor of Nova Scotia and will finish his career as Governor of Gibraltar. First named Chebucto, it was renamed Halifax in honour of George Dunk, Earl of Halifax and Chief Lord of Trade and Plantations, who masterminded its settlement.

The capital has many good restaurants, lots of historical places to visit, beautiful scenic area and has an international airport. The weather for my visit was cold but sunny. It is a pleasant change from PEI, more cosmopolitan and has a more big city feel.

Each time I am in Halifax I love to have dinner with friends in one of the many restaurants, this time it was at a new Italian restaurant called aMano in Bishop’s Landing. The food was very good, great atmosphere, good wine list.

The clock tower of the Citadel built in 1800 on the orders of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and father of Victoria, the fortress itself is hidden behind the hill. This is Winter in Halifax, breezy cold but no snow.

The drive back was under sunny sky and pleasant and it always appear shorter though it is not. I did stop in Masstown and at the Buttery near Amherst, it is a big grocery store on the highway serving the area and their produce is outstanding quality, everyone raves about it. They also have a shop of wines produce in Nova Scotia, and great deli and meat counter, offering freshly made quiche and meat pies. The Buttery across the street is all about fresh bread and an enormous selection of cheeses, impressive selection. So it is a good place to stop if you want to relax from the drive.

Got home to learn that King Constantine II of Greece had died, he was a nephew of Prince Philip and cousin to the late Queen Elizabeth. He was forced from office by the coup in 1967 of the Colonels who instituted a dictatorship. His son Prince Paul is now the new pretender to the Kingdom of Greece and the Greek Government will not give him a State Funeral but will offer all the usual niceties associated with the death of a former head of State. His wife the Queen Anne-Marie is the sister of Queen Margaret of Denmark. Constantine’s sister is Queen Dowager Sophia of Spain. He was also godfather to Prince William. He will be buried in the Royal Cemetery of Tatoi near Athens.

In Bulgaria, King Simeon II another cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, won a second court victory to have his properties restored to him after a 14 year trial, the Supreme Court in Sofia declared in 2018 that the hunting lodge at Tsarska Bistritsa was his property and had been illegally confiscated by the Communist in 1946. Today the Royal Palace at Vrana just outside the capital Sofia was also returned to him and his family. Simeon was forced as a child into exile with this family in the communist takeover of 1946. They lived in Egypt and then Spain. Returning to Bulgaria in 2001 and then he was elected Prime Minister and governed until 2005.

Today in Charlottetown we had what I call Moose Weather, it snowed, it rained, it was cold and now it is warm at 10C. Slush all over, very unpleasant and high winds which now are drying the streets and sidewalk. It is suppose to rain tomorrow, again no snow, it all melted. Many now are waking up to the fact that this is what Climate change looks like, humans are funny it takes death and disaster to make people wake up to reality.

We are schedule to have the Canada Winter Games in February however the way things are going with no snow, will they cancel? The activities are outdoors, only the artificial ice surface will be ready as for the rest, who knows.

Another very strange thing happened this morning, we got a message from Amazon about an impending delivery of a package at 09:30am. So we waited and by 11:20am no package but a new notice that they could not deliver given no one was at home. We were at home and we were waiting. Suddenly a friend of ours who lives on Prince street about 2 blocks away from us, sends us a message to say he has a package for us from Amazon? He did not understand how he got our package. We do not understand either, how can a package clearly marked for us end up on someone else doorstep at random? Lucky us this is a friend of ours who got our package. I would say Amazon goofed on this one. Tried to call Amazon all day, they take no calls, you cannot complain.

Tonight I got a notice from Post Canada formerly known as the Royal Mail, that a package has arrived and can I go and pick it up at the Post Office. I know this package is from my sister in NYC.

Misconceptions

Tags

Enlightment, facts, France, history, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Royalty

I have studied history almost all my life, I enjoy reading on specific topics, I am not one for generalities in history or the facile comment or anecdotes to explain an event. I think that it is worth knowing exactly what happened or what was said from reliable sources who did their own research. I also love archeology and spent a lot of time studying ancient ruins to discover their secrets.

Last year a new book on Emperor Nero was published by Professor John F. Drinkwater, in his 457 page book he presents a very different picture of Nero who was Emperor of Rome for 14 years. He took every myth about Nero and goes about deconstructing it and presenting a narrative that throws doubt on what we have been told. It is fascinating reading,

Drinkwater shows that after the death of Nero who had fled Rome taking Via Nomentana, a street I know well since I lived just off it, he failed to kill himself and ask his servant to please help him out as the pretorian guards were closing in. Nera was the last of the Julio-Claudian line who were the first emperors of Rome the dynasty that succeeded him, the Flavians had good reasons to paint a black picture of him and went to great lenghts to do so, thus the awful dark image we have. To make things worse the Christian Church decided for propaganda purposes to make him out as the devil personified despite the fact that he did not persecute Christians as it as always been claimed.

Knowing historical facts is important to help us understand the world we live in and how we got here. There are numerous other events and historical figures who have suffered at the hands of popular history.

One woman who suffered to this day, is in fact a Hollywood favourite in movies and several movies have been made of her in the last 20 years. I speak of Queen Marie-Antoinette born Imperial Princess of Austria and who at the age of 14 was engaged to marry the Dauphin of France, Louis.

When she arrives in Versailles in 1770 after having travelled from Vienna in a great escort befitting her rank with many stops on the way, she had left behind her mother Empress Maria-Theresa and her family, she comes from a relatively relaxed Imperial Court to the most archaic and stultifying strict and arcane protocol laden Court of France. She is 14 years old, she is naive but also bold and thinks nothing of asking for what she wants to the horror of the Minister of King Louis XV, grandfather of the future Louis XVI.

At the Palace of Versailles she is given a room, her entire apartment is ONE ROOM which can be seen today after years of meticulously correct restoration. The room is a State Bedchamber and it is also the room where every morning all the ladies of the Court will gather to wake her up and dress her up following a complicated protocol she is quite unfamiliar with.

The decor of Versailles and her room, (she only has one room to live in), is the same since 1715 some 60 years previously and is faded and old reminiscent of the era of the Sun King Louis XIV. Being a precocious 14 year old she did not hesitate to ask the superintendant du Palais to redecorate and modernize her room. The royal architect was brought in and what followed was a lot of effort to try to twart her plans. The women around her who were ladies in waiting where much older than her and many were ancient, they had no patience with the young women, she was constantly criticized for not accepting French ways at Court. Her life was extremely boring and her fiancé Louis was not really interested in her and more in study of sciences and in build locks of all kinds. Their marriage would be for political alliance and military reasons. Madame du Barry the mistress of King Louis XV did not like her and she had her group around her who opposed the new alliance of France with Austria. However Marie-Antoinette was very popular with the common people.

Marie Antoinette portrait of 1771, age 15, said to be the favourite of her Mother Empress Maria-Theresa.

In May 1774 King Louis XV dies suddenly and she becomes Queen and with her accession to the throne she receives the Petit Trianon in the Park at Versailles from her husband King Louis XVI, where she will spend most of her time. The period 1774 to 1778 is problematic since this is the period of the greatest extravagance and spending on hundreds of dresses, jewels, etc all at enormous expense to the Treasury. Her husband doubles her annual budget to 280,000 French Pounds (Livres) which is a great sum. But all this stops suddenly in 1778 when she becomes a mother with the birth of her first child Marie-Therese Charlotte known as Madame Royale (1778-1851). Even her taste for dresses change into a new fashion from London, she also abandons jewellery and becomes a doting mother. She will have one other daughter Princesse Sophie who dies in 1787 and the ill-fated Louis XVII who will die under mysterious circumstances and disappear at age 10 in a dark jail cell in 1795. He had another brother Louis-Joseph who dies as an infant just before the revolution in June 1789.

However despite all the crisis leading to the revolution the biggest problem was one of the Kingdom’s budget and the ballooning deficit caused by 2 wars which ruined the French treasury and bad harvests causing famine. The first war with a deficit of 2.5 million pounds was the Seven year war between France/Austria against England/Prussia 1756-1763 and then the American War of Independence 1776-1783 creating another deficit of 1.7 million pounds for France, though this war was wildly popular in France and Lafayette was a National Hero. If these deficits did not exist many political problems would have been avoided.

Probably the greatest cause of the unpopularity of Marie-Antoinette was her resistance to any idea of change or political modernization proposed by the leaders of the various parties at the time. Since she had been brought up in a system of Absolute Monarchy, she could not imagine any other system of government, despite was she saw in America and in England with the Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliament. She also adopted the same strict religious Catholic attitude of the religious bigots at Court. This did not help her at all and her glacial austere attitude towards the revolutionaries made her a marked woman.

In the end her name was blackened by the revolutionaries who really had no case against her, the trial was a farce with trumped up charges. After the death of her husband in January 1793 the revolution had achieved their goal. So a case had to be made and political events in Europe with foreign armies massing on the French border from Prussia, Austria and England was enough to convince the population that she was the author of their misery. However on the day of her execution instead of taking her directly to her place of execution, the revolutionaries thought they could parade her around in the street to rouse public anger. They soon realize this was a big mistake politically speaking, the people in the street were silent, many kneeling in prayer for the Queen and men taking their hats off. For the people she was a mother and public opinion was not in favour of killing a woman who had children. She died age 37.

Marie-Antoinette lived in the age of Enlightenment, in England Queen Charlotte was a close personal friend. In Prussia, Frederick II the Great ruled, in Russia Catherine the Great was Tsarina. The age of Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau. Napoleon Bonaparte was still an unknown Corsican.

Here is some music composed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Le devin du Village which would have been familiar to Queen Marie-Antoinette, she may have seen a production of this operette.royal

So many things to talk about

Tags

Archie, Canada., Jean Vanier, Maud Lewis, Meghan and Harry, Montreal, Politics, Royalty

There are so many things to blog about I feel like I should start one of the YouTube channels and talk endlessly about this and that, like so many people do. I have noticed though that they tend to attract the vacuous crowd who have angst about everything and nothing. It is also a way to make a lot of money easily. SO NO I won’t do that to you world wide readers.

In the last week we have had the demi-mondaine saga of Harry and Meghan, their lives remind me of La Traviata by Verdi.  They have been milking the baby story for all it’s worth. Can they now receed into the shadows and invent a life that has meaning. How about Harry going back to being a soldier and Meghan doing sit-com or reality shows. The whole affair about the baby was beyond ridiculous and now the name Archie? Really? First thing I thought was Archie Bunker or Archie and Jughead, as for Harrison ok, it’s Star Wars and Harrison Ford, was he not a boyfriend of Meghan at one point? No title for the kid but will he be on the family payroll? I also found showing off the baby in the Great Hall of Windsor castle a trifle dramatic, a bit Downton Abbey like and Meghan saying she had just bumped into Prince Philip as if… I wondered why not meet the Press at their little servants cottage at Frogmore, more genuine if you want to play how simple and down to earth you are. The two of them, phoney baloney.

A book I have been reading is the life of Maud Lewis the folk art painter. Not really a biography as much as a chronicle of a very sad life and an even sadder married life with a parasite of a husband who exploited here and barely noticed her existence. Her own brother Charles cut off all ties after her unwed pregnancy and she in turn living in shame denied the existence of her own daughter. Severely handicapped she led the life of a recluse. In spite of it all was able to produce those incredible paintings. The author of the book is a relative, Lance Woolaver, he paints a picture of Nova Scotia and the Digby area, not pretty,  a lot of grinding poverty, ignorance, lack of social services, isolation, racism, bigotry, the place appears pleasant to Summer tourists who have money and travel around, but that is a mirage, all very third world. Nova Scotia today still has deep pockets of poverty and scenic beauty and a rich history. It only makes her work even more wonderful when all these elements are taken in.

In Canada politically speaking the Government of Justin Trudeau is seen by pollsters of all stripes to be sinking and we could be headed in October for a Conservative majority with Andrew Scheer as PM. God help us, this is a man who has made lying his main political plank, has no policies on anything, he is a multi-millionaire, money all made from his political activities. Copies word for word Trump’s ideology, associates himself with hate groups and neo-nazis calling for the Prime Minister to be killed. Is a religious zealot and of course attracts basically the white supremacist vote. The popularity of his party right now stems from the political troubles of PM Trudeau. Conservative Senators in our Canadian Senate have been blocking through procedures crucial votes on bills knowing that the Parliamentary clock is ticking down to the end of the Session in June.

The Green Party in Canada is hoping for big gains, which is quite possible, but will not be able to form a government. Trudeau may still get re-elected simply because of the loathing Scheer inspires but if Scheer and his cronies get elected we will be in big trouble like Ontario is with former dope peddler Doug Ford (FordNation). Populism in Canada is making big strides, there is an evil wind blowing.

 

And on another topic all together and quite different.

Yesterday Jean Vanier died in Paris at the age of 90, he was a doctor of Philosophy and an Canadian Navy Officer who horrified by the Holocaust and the Atomic Bomb decided to dedicate his life to Peace. He is known as the founder of L’Arche which is a world wide organization which as Vanier described it as establishing the unique value of the intellectually disabled. The principle he established is very simple, he said; ”The most important thing is not to do things for people who are poor and in distress, but to enter into relationship with them, to be with them and help them find confidence in themselves and discover their own gifts.”

Jean Vanier (1928-2019) was the son of eminent Canadians, his father was General Georges Vanier, a Canadian World War One hero, a diplomat and Governor General of Canada. His mother Pauline Archer Vanier of Montreal, a lady of great distinction who came from a celebrated family in the history of Canada. Both his parents were nominated for Beatification in the Roman Catholic Church for their Piety, Faith and humanitarian work.

Jean Vanier had siblings and they too distinguished themselves in their respected fields.

I had the opportunity to meet him in 1996 in Amman, Jordan, he came to visit his cousin who was my Ambassador at the time and a little get together was organized at the Residence. I was immensely impressed with his quiet dignity and is words which gave another look at what the world could be like. What he proposed was not utopia, he proved it by the success of L’Arche around the world and the legacy he leaves. The World today needs more like Jean Vanier, we lost a great humanitarian.

“The fundamental principle of peace is a belief that each person is important. Do you believe you are important? Do you believe that we can do something to make this world a better place?”

– Jean Vanier –