Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore shares the Peace Nobel Prize with UN's pannel on climate change. How strange a choice! I am not sure that I agree with the judgement of the Norwegian academy. Gore is already so famous so he does not need more publicity, and on top of everything he only made a movie, and a movie that can be criticized from many points of view! But I guess it's a way to bring to world's attention the importance of climate change and its relevance for peace. It may though thin out the meaningfullness of the Peace prize.
Nevertheless, this decision is in agreement with some recent studies on the impact of environmental damage and resource scarcity on conflict levels. Clearly when a region decays environmentally both migration to other, livable, places and strong competition for remaining resources occur. Migration may lead to conflicts between the local and the refugee populations, and the resource competition may grow into war.
Therefore I see the argument in favor of ICCC and Gore, but at the same time cannot help but deplore that it is just the Peace prize that must draw attention to climate. Maybe there were some other, better, choices this year, including a 97 year old Polish woman who saved the lives of Jewish children during WWII. Or maybe I am too traditionalist in my definition of peace.

Political leaders

In her third volume of memoirs[1], Simone de Beauvoir writes about the war in Algeria and about the referendum held to allow General de Gaulle to return temporarily to power in order to restore French domination in Maghreb. When she discusses the results of the popular consultation (around 80% in favor of the general), she says: The heart of the matter is that they [the people] don’t want to be governed by their equals; they have too low an opinion of them, because they have too low an opinion of themselves and of their next-door neighbors. It’s ‘human’ to like money and watch out for one’s own interests. But if one is human like everybody else, then one is not capable of governing everyone else. So people demand the non human, the superhuman, the Great Man who will be ‘honest’ because he’s ‘above that sort of thing’. (p. 171)

This speaks millions about the attraction of populism and of the amazing opportunities that providential leaders can exploit to take themselves in the vicinity of absolute power, carried on the shoulders of a cheering crowd. Just watch what is going on right now in Venezuela – Chavez is to be admired for his audacity and for his brazen use of people’s feelings (incl. government by television, a new expression!) to justify his take-over of the country’s government.

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[1] Simone de Beauvoir ([1963] 1992). Hard Times. Force of Circumstance, II 1952 – 1962. With a new introduction by Toril Moi. New York: Paragon House

Splashes of color

I am not sure why, but I blame the grey and sad summer we had this year for my strong thirst for color. As the days remained darker, I dreamed only of sun, of happy colorful places, of blues with tropical intensity. The only refuge from the fog and rain came to me in the shape of flowers - I have managed to gather more than a 100 pictures of various species, mostly taken from that typical Swedish landscape marker, the kolonilott: a place for gardenless apartment inhabitants to grow their own (anything from flowers to apple trees to grape vines).
Here are some splashes of color that made summer standable.

Short trip to Paris

It seems this blog turns more and more into a travel documentary rather than into a day-to-day account of life local. This may have something to do with the lack of dedication and complete laziness of the blog owner, I suspect (insert shameful mine here...).
No matter how lazy though, it is impossible to not write some quick lines about our short trip to Paris this past long weekend. We have the privilege of knowing good friends in the city, and we were lucky to meet all of them this time - there is nothing like catching up with the latest news and preoccupations over wine and cheese, in the good French tradition!
Besides enjoying wonderful culinary experiences (undocumented picturally here, to avoid making the potential reader extremely hungry and perhaps envious of the Parisian gastronomical diversity we enjoyed), we also took the chance to walk leisurely around town and, on Sunday, to drive out and discover the palace of Versailles, or more precisely its French gardens. It was the first time and a good time, because of the perfect weather and then because of the very styled art pieces that were the bosquets. Not to mention the fountains! It was easy to imagine the royality and aristocracy taking an evening walk, or having a romantic or diplomatic meeting along these alleys!
Here are some pictures, to give a taste of how it was; it has been a very tough job to decide which pics to show here, there are so many good views! I may even add some more images later on...)

The Sacre Coeur on a foggy morning, before the turist invasion (and when you think that Magali and Cyril can observe the Sacre Coeur in ALL its variations without leaving their apartment!)

A little boulangerie, closed during the month of August, like many other establishments in Paris

And the greatest most delicious mouthwatering macarons in the whole of Paris, from Ladurée (and we got the chance to eat some of them, not only to admire the window display - thank you Jean-Luc and Fiona!)

An accent of color, in front of one of our favorite cafés at the foot of Montmartre

A waterfountain built in 1872, near Rue Linné

There are numerous variations on this type of table display, I think it is quite pretty

And another green face, this time a grafitti on a small street close to Magali's place

The Versailles - Poseidon and behind him the main building of the palace, with the ballroom of mirrors at the center

At 15:30 the Versailles fountains (here Neptune) came alive with water splashing to the sound of baroque music

And a final view of the palace with a statue gifted by the founders guild to king Louis XIV

Rainy days

This summer has been not much in terms of warmth or sunny skies. I am getting impatient with the weather and dream of tropical heatwaves (I know that a lot of friends complain about being exposed to too much heat, so I would suggest swapping places, what do you say Viki?). To be fair, there were a couple of days when the sun shone, and those moments were truly cherished. Which makes me think about these yummy fruits, which Martin picked (oh ye tall ones, you have lots of advantages in the picking of fruits, that's for sure) and I ate!

London trip

After half a year or more of blogging absence, here I come with a wee bit of information about our latest excursion, to the UK, or more precisely to London and Cambridge. We stayed with friends, and that was great, and then we traveled around the city with the (in)famous tube. One of my best moments, besides the obvious ones, was to find a very nice South Indian restaurant and to eat a huge Masala Dosa, something I have longed for since I left India three (!!!) years ago. It was the real thing, with coconut chutney and dhal, delicious! Also in terms of food, right in the middle of the city, in the Covent Garden area, we stumbled upon a Romanian sweets shop, loaded with some of my favorites. The decision was hard to make, but eventually I picked one, a chocolate-filled amandine!
Cambridge also blew me away, despite the massive amount of tourists. Charming old town, and ideal colleges. Some cozy and nice, some imperial in proportions - King's College by far at the top of the scale. Nowhere was the English obsession with the perfect grass carpet more evident than at King's, as I hope you will notice in the pictures below. King's College, built by Henry VIII at the height of his power, also displays a magnificent cathedral where we had the chance to listen to an organ concert which filled me literally with good vibrations. Final point on Cambridge, punting on the river Cam. When you see the pros, you think they are as graceful as the gondoliers of Venice, but when you see the novices, you cannot help but laugh until you drop at their acrobatics. We also observed some very interesting traffic jams and small accidents which cruelly amused us :-) !

Punting Chaos on the River Cam

More Punting, with spectators watching from the Magdalene Bridge

Greenwich time ball, on the zero meridian

A typical London view, rows of identical houses (here, Highgate)

Now Cambridge, where lots of colleges are closed on weekends to avoid tourist invasion

King's College was open though - here is the marvel called English grass carpet

King's College majestic cathedral

The delicious Amandina mentioned above

The angel (or Eros?) of Picadilly Square

In some cases, old unused churches are desacralized and used as apartment buildings

Besides its collections, I really likes the hall of the British Museum

The Rose and Crown, one of the many Elisabethan pubs spread around town (this one in Greenwich)

A surprising appearance

Yes, I thought I should begin the new year with a little surprise: take a look at this picture!

















Indeed, this is Martin! I can hardly believe it myself... Sometimes I pass by and I think: who is this man in my kitchen? New year, new look :) !

Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe it, but 2006 is over and a new year already installed itself in our calenders (I still write the wrong date...). I hope this year will be a good and happy one for all of us!

Over the holidays we took off to spend some time with the family and to relax somewhere closer to nature. Christmas was spent, as usual, at Martin's older sister's, and it was a traditional one, in the sense that it was joyous, abundant and totally merry. Here are some pics capturing the atmosphere...






















New Year's and the surrounding days were spend in the vacation cottage of the family, located in Värmland close to the southernmost ski resort of Sweden (this means only about 800 km from Lund). It was quiet, dark and unfortunately mostly snowless (which is a total shock in a place where normally at this time of the year there is at least half a meter of snow and -29 degrees). We slept a lot, and had a relaxing time, necessary before the hustle and bustle of real life resumes... Here are some Värmland pictures:



















































Even in the absence of real snow, we had some artificial snow around (in those days when the abnornal heat did not just melt it all away) and so I had the chance to try for the first time cross-country skiing - I really liked it!!!!! I wish that there will be more snow in general and more snow here in Skåne in particular (this part of Sweden where I live is not known for its skiing facilities of any kind).

Views from Pristina

As some of you may know, I have been traveling for 6 days to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, in order to gather more data for my thesis (yes, the thesis is still in the making...).

I really liked the atmosphere of the place, and I was impressed with the huge amount of optimism the locals display, in spite of the relative poverty and uncertainty that surrounds them. There are lots of young people on the streets (more than half of Kosovo's population is under 25) and one of their most favorite activities is to sit at the table of one of the numerous cafés and drink coffee (everything goes by the name macchiato).

Here come some snapshots of Pristina, not sure if they can convey the real feel of the place...





















This is the symbolic center of the city, a cummulation of markers: most obvious is the statue of Gjergj Kastrioti aka Skanderbeg, a 15th century prince who fought and was victorious against the Turks. He is the most famous of the Albanian rulers and the national hero par excellence. The original of this statues is the center of Tirana, the capital of Albania. Besides the statue is a small plaque marking the kilometer 0, the beginning of all roads in Kosovo. And behind Skanderbeg the new government building of the soon- to- be indepenendent Kosovo.



This is a more recent hero, the founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerilla group that opposed the Serbian forces on their way to remove the Albanian population from Kosovo in the late 1990s.



And another local contemporary hero, Adem Jashari (about whom my friend Zhiva told me so very much), whose larger-than-life poster dominates the Sports Complex. Adem was also a fighter against the Serbs, who ended up dead together with his entire extended family in a legendary battle in March 1998.



But Pristina is not just about men with guns. Those are the signs of the brutal recent past of this place. This is on the contrary a place of peace and spiritual meetings, one of the oldest mosques in town. Notice the three men wearing the typical Kosovo Albanian white (and egg-shaped, I should say) hat, called plis.



This is another example of an older architecture style, characteristic of the region, but rare to find in Pristina whose defining features (at least in the downtown area) date mostly from the communist period.



But there are some modern buildings, for example this high-rise which hosts the headquarters of the OSCE mission in Kosovo. In the distance you can see the residential neighborhoods located on the soft hills surrounding the city, where there are mostly smaller houses and villas.



Yes, what IS this building, you may ask? This strange construction hosts the university library and is build by a Croatian architect some time in the 1980s (if I get my years right). The coupoles are said to be an abstract representation inspired either by the human brain (!) or by the typical white Albanian hat (see mosque picture above).


Does this giant peace sign really mean the end of violence here? I would certainly say so.

Busy summer

If you are wondering why I don't seem to manage to write any personal messages, any accounts of adventures past and present, any impressions about the world of politics and literature, it is because I have a very busy summer.
I was course coordinator for this course targeted at students from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, which kept me busy during the last two weeks of July.
Now I am organizing and also teaching this other course, more directly reflecting the current interests of my research: the impact on the European Union of the new members and the new neighbors coming from what was known as Eastern Europe.
I hope this is enough justification for a silent month...

From music to the silence of the sea