Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Bottom of the Stack

Today I found in my e-mailbox at the bottom of the stack an e-mail I forgot. Remember the letter I wrote about Hiram Bingham's "discovery" of Machu Picchu? Not? Here it is ;)

Two months ago I wrote an e-mail to Roger Balm asking him for details about the pictures Bingham took on July 24th, 1911. On this day Bingham immediately set about taking a series of 28-30 photographs. Listing and naming each shot carefully.

Roger wrote in 2004 in 'Focus on Geography' his article 'The Expeditionary Eye: Reconstructing the First Photographs of Machu Picchu'. I asked him if I could find Bingham's 28-30 pictures somewhere online? Answer: No! These rare and fascinating documents are only accessible offline in the archives of the anthropology museum at Yale. I asked him also if he had a copy of the notes/ diary Bingham made on July 24, 1911 and how he got the total number of photos taken by Bingham. Answer: "Bingham was an accurate note taker and he identified and numbered each photograph in his field notebook so I got that total from the notebooks archived at mail. Unfortunately, the pages for July 24 are missing from the archive. A book you may find useful is "Portrait of an Explorer" by Hiram's grandson, Alfred. It is well illustrated with old photographs.

Remember that we have to visit the Yale archives and check out these boxes:
I want to check out if there are pictures of the three families (Richarte, Alvarez and ?) that lived on Machu Picchu when Bingham "found" this site in 1911. I would love to see Richarte's and Alvarez's pictures. Their families. Their gardens. In the middle of Machu Picchu. Why? I guess it's something romantic: #first #paradise #garden #indians

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

His Words. Word for Word

Yesterday evening I read Breivik's statement he made on the second day of his trial (April 17, 2012). Word for word. A statement of 13 pages (source). As far as I can tell from his statement, he is not nuts. From his point of view he is a defender of "the Norwegian culture and my people".  He made a preventive attack for the sake of "our ethnic group, our culture, our Christianity, our identity".  His enemies? Liberals, (kultur) marxists, immigrants and colonization. His real enemy: muslims, who use 'deception' as a weapon and in the end want autonomy and self-government with sharia in his Norwege and Europe.


His Words:
"I stand here today as representative of the Norwegian and European resistance movement. When I speak, I speak on behalf of the many Norwegians who do not want our indigenous rights will be taken from us.
(…)
Norway and other countries in Western Europe are democratic countries and have not been democratic since the interwar period.
Liberals and kulturmarxistene has 2 World War II, worked together to keep (…) from power, as their ultimate fear is that new Hitlers should pop up. What today is called a democracy, is in fact a kulturmarxistisk dictatorship.
(…)
It is equally ignorant to call me cruel, as to call the U.S. military leaders during World War II vicious. Those who decided that 3.2 million Japanese civilians were killed. They did so not because they were evil, but because they calculated that a violent reaction would save millions of lives.
These were good intentions and motives, even if the methods they used were brutal. I and other nationalists are using exactly the same logic. If we could force Labor to change immigration policy and prevent colonization.
If we can force them to change direction by executing 70 people, then the obvious contribute to that we will not lose our ethnic group, our Christianity and our culture.
(…)
When a great civil war will be averted. We do not have the luxury that we can expect more of confrontation. Because if we wait 20,30, 40 years, the ethnic Norwegians and Europeans to be in the minority. We have therefore not able to wait long. The designs are based on our goodness and not evil.

If there is someone who is evil, it’s Social Democrats, who not only engaged in systematic ethnic deconstruction, it is also made tens of thousands of threats that the consequences will be very bloody.
(…)
Today’s most successful nations are Japan and South Korea, which has used ethnic protectionism.
This model is currently the most perfect of all political models. In Europe, the alliance between Marxists and liberals after World War II, in principle, destroyed Europe.
(…)
This is the most precious and most reliable. Our ethnic group is the heart of our own culture. Our culture can not survive without a strong heart. To maintain this ethnic group, our culture, is what our ancestors dedicated their lives to it hundreds of thousands have fought for.
Our ethnic group, our culture, our Christianity, our identity … It is the framework for the defense, and I take the interests of families and the victims.
(…)
The second is that all Muslims are practicing deception as the Prophet Muhammad recommended to use. One can not rely on such secular Muslims, because it may be that they implement a so-called deception.
(…)
Many Muslims do not want to be integrated. They disdain the sexual revolution and the moral decay that characterizes not only Norway, but Europe. They want sharia. (…) They want autonomy and self-government with sharia. 
(…)
We are no more terrorists against the native Britons who fought against those who fasciliterte the Roman invasion. Norway has an indigenous population. Are Norway’s indigenous ethnic Norwegians?
Did the indigenous people lived here over the past 12,000 years?
The answer is yes, Norway has an indigenous and ethnic Norwegians are Norway’s indigenous people.
(…)
The attacks were preventatives attacks in defense of the Norwegian culture and my people. I acted with the principle of necessity on behalf of my people, my religion, my ethnicity, my city and my country.
I therefore demand that I be acquitted of these charges."

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Sunshine in Bern

Days are passing by. Como as nuvens no céu. I hardly have time to write to you.

Yesterday evening I checked out Wikipedia for Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). Read a couple of reviews. She looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf. I'm not impressed by Marlene. And I never read anything - if I remember well - of Virginia Woolf. So this is hardly a recommendation for me. I checked Clarice out because many of my Brazilian friends keep on quoting her. She died more than 30 years ago! So I'm curious about her writing.
Clarice was born as 'Chaya' in Ukraine. Her family suffered terribly in the pogroms during the Russian Civil War. In 1922 her family managed to flee to Brazil. Her parents both died young. She married a diplomat. And lived for more than ten years in Europe and in the USA.

I put these three books on my reading-list:
  • 'Family ties' (1960). Original written in Portuguese 'Lacos de Familia'. "Best book of stories ever written in Brazil".
  • 'The passion according to G.H.' (1964). Original written in Portuguese 'A Paixão Segundo G.H.'. "Great" mystic novel.
  • 'The stream of life' (1973). Original written in Portuguese 'Água Viva'. Many consider this as Clarice "best" book.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Ancient Pine

"Sit down by this high-foliaged voiceful pine that rustles her branches beneath the western breezes, and beside my chattering waters Pan's pipe shall bring drowsiness down on your enchanted eyelids."
Come my love
Sit down next to me under these pine trees near the sea 
Let's enjoy the view, eat a little, drink a litte 
Write poems together 
Kiss a little
Let's get
enchanted 
by
our
love
-
what
else

P.S. This epigram of ancient Greece - more than 2,300 years old - is of doubtful authenticity. Some claim it's from Plato [source].