An empty flat
Today the last of my flatmates went home.
Yesterday was a thematic day. You know those days which seem to hold together subcontiously by a common thread. Unfortunately the common thread happened to be Genocide.
I started the day slowly, relaxed. I eventually made my war to the Imperial War museum. The museum itself is quite something, it's pretty huge. I started with the main floor and looked around at all the war machines; tanks, subs, planes, rockets, missiles, and such, then went down stairs to the main exhibit. It was quite the aray of minor exhibits spanning every involvement of Britian in modern war. Now that I think about it, it seems that they really could have had more on the early periods of war, but really I doubt they would have room. I waltzed through the boer war, tangoed the First World war, and kept dancing up through the first Iraqi war and it hit me more that the museum might have been better titled 'Museum of The Fall of The British Empire.' It's a museum of blood for the glory of the british interest. I couldn't help but compaire it to what I know of Canadian War History and part of me(probably the niave part) seems to think that our history is more just. Even though most of the wars that we held our hands in were many of the same that as Brits they were not ones of aggretion, not trying to hold on to the last fading memories of the past. The for most of our wars we were barely a country and were more or less thrown in due our conections with Britian, or even just in defence. Mind you we are a product of the British and French ultimately... I don't know exactly where I was going with this but I was rather amazed at the number of wars that the Brits have had. My professors were right, the British people are a people of war.
An interesting thing I noticed perhaps it's just a maturation that I'm seeing or maybe it's just a change of view was a change in myself. Really I hadn't been that interested to go to the museum in the first place which should have been my first tip-off. Do you remember(at least the males in the audience, I can't quite speak for the women) when a trip to the war museum was an exciting event, to see guns and swords, shells and bullets, tanks and airplanes, was extacy? I can, and it wasn't really that long ago(then again I'm not much more beyond childhood). As I walked the exhibits there were families with children, just as I had mentioned gawking wide-eyed at the Soldiers and weapons, and even grown men with eyes not less wide than those children. As I walked among these squawking children with fathers misinforming them, I began to feel ill. The professional soldiers represented should not be role models. The child doesn't know the reality of things, neither do their parents, and certainly the five line blurb of how Sargent X got that medal doesn't tell you the realities or war. They had a mock great war trench for us to walk through but unless you knew what you were looking for you were still only seduced by the romance of the affair. Though perhaps that's all it can be. What if there is no real way of presenting the violent underbelly of humanity that we so quickly want to turn away from, in a manner that won't merely confirm what you already believe but point you in the direction that is closer to truth. This definitely isn't the opinion when it comes to pointing out the wars of the present.
After a walk through the British wars I continued up. I checked out the art gallery it was all PoW art, mostly from WW2 on the japanese side it was interesting though I've always seen a sort of short sightedness in military artists, it's hard to explain. I think it might come from a desire to show what was there and in that you're left with something that is possibly too life like or that doesn't say more than what you see. I skipped the T. E. Lawrence exhibit(it was 3 pounds). I continued on through the Holocaust exhibit, it was nothing you haven't seen before but not less powerful or disgusting. On the final Floor I found the Genocide exhibit which consisted of a thirty minute video. Everything that was left out of from the previous exhibits was then shown. Only it was shown being done by the hands of Serbians, Germans, and Africans. Maybe it's too our credit that we have some paintings in our war museum depicting the actions of the airborn in Bosnia, I don't know. I returned home rather drained after 3 hours.
I went to a movie that night with my flat mate. We were originally hoping to see the constant gardner but the last seats were in the front row. We decided on Lord of Wars. Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer. The movie itself wasn't very good. It lacked motion, and was too predictable at times, but the content was incredible. It's based on actual events. I'm sure that they're not all the same person but an amalgomation of a number of people. The main client for the character played by Nicholas Cage was Africa. What goes on in africa that people need weapons for you ask? Genocide. That was my yesterday. By the way never go see a movie at the Odeon Mezzanine at Leicester Square it's definitely not worth the 8.50 admitance. (that's right $17 canadian to see a film and there isn't much cheaper around)
Today was less interesting. I hung around with my flat mate for a while. Then I went to see two Bach Cantatas performed for advent vespers at a Lutherin Church. The performance was played live on BBC and you can find it on the web on BBC radio 3. It was a lovely performance, it seems that BBC radio 3 is playing nothing but Bach until 5pm Christmas day. I then came home with a short stop at the grocery store where I found Hot Dogs that didn't come in a can. I then had mashed potatoes, hotdogs, and beans for dinner. I over ate. Now I'm just burning time until I can go to sleep.
Yesterday was a thematic day. You know those days which seem to hold together subcontiously by a common thread. Unfortunately the common thread happened to be Genocide.
I started the day slowly, relaxed. I eventually made my war to the Imperial War museum. The museum itself is quite something, it's pretty huge. I started with the main floor and looked around at all the war machines; tanks, subs, planes, rockets, missiles, and such, then went down stairs to the main exhibit. It was quite the aray of minor exhibits spanning every involvement of Britian in modern war. Now that I think about it, it seems that they really could have had more on the early periods of war, but really I doubt they would have room. I waltzed through the boer war, tangoed the First World war, and kept dancing up through the first Iraqi war and it hit me more that the museum might have been better titled 'Museum of The Fall of The British Empire.' It's a museum of blood for the glory of the british interest. I couldn't help but compaire it to what I know of Canadian War History and part of me(probably the niave part) seems to think that our history is more just. Even though most of the wars that we held our hands in were many of the same that as Brits they were not ones of aggretion, not trying to hold on to the last fading memories of the past. The for most of our wars we were barely a country and were more or less thrown in due our conections with Britian, or even just in defence. Mind you we are a product of the British and French ultimately... I don't know exactly where I was going with this but I was rather amazed at the number of wars that the Brits have had. My professors were right, the British people are a people of war.
An interesting thing I noticed perhaps it's just a maturation that I'm seeing or maybe it's just a change of view was a change in myself. Really I hadn't been that interested to go to the museum in the first place which should have been my first tip-off. Do you remember(at least the males in the audience, I can't quite speak for the women) when a trip to the war museum was an exciting event, to see guns and swords, shells and bullets, tanks and airplanes, was extacy? I can, and it wasn't really that long ago(then again I'm not much more beyond childhood). As I walked the exhibits there were families with children, just as I had mentioned gawking wide-eyed at the Soldiers and weapons, and even grown men with eyes not less wide than those children. As I walked among these squawking children with fathers misinforming them, I began to feel ill. The professional soldiers represented should not be role models. The child doesn't know the reality of things, neither do their parents, and certainly the five line blurb of how Sargent X got that medal doesn't tell you the realities or war. They had a mock great war trench for us to walk through but unless you knew what you were looking for you were still only seduced by the romance of the affair. Though perhaps that's all it can be. What if there is no real way of presenting the violent underbelly of humanity that we so quickly want to turn away from, in a manner that won't merely confirm what you already believe but point you in the direction that is closer to truth. This definitely isn't the opinion when it comes to pointing out the wars of the present.
After a walk through the British wars I continued up. I checked out the art gallery it was all PoW art, mostly from WW2 on the japanese side it was interesting though I've always seen a sort of short sightedness in military artists, it's hard to explain. I think it might come from a desire to show what was there and in that you're left with something that is possibly too life like or that doesn't say more than what you see. I skipped the T. E. Lawrence exhibit(it was 3 pounds). I continued on through the Holocaust exhibit, it was nothing you haven't seen before but not less powerful or disgusting. On the final Floor I found the Genocide exhibit which consisted of a thirty minute video. Everything that was left out of from the previous exhibits was then shown. Only it was shown being done by the hands of Serbians, Germans, and Africans. Maybe it's too our credit that we have some paintings in our war museum depicting the actions of the airborn in Bosnia, I don't know. I returned home rather drained after 3 hours.
I went to a movie that night with my flat mate. We were originally hoping to see the constant gardner but the last seats were in the front row. We decided on Lord of Wars. Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer. The movie itself wasn't very good. It lacked motion, and was too predictable at times, but the content was incredible. It's based on actual events. I'm sure that they're not all the same person but an amalgomation of a number of people. The main client for the character played by Nicholas Cage was Africa. What goes on in africa that people need weapons for you ask? Genocide. That was my yesterday. By the way never go see a movie at the Odeon Mezzanine at Leicester Square it's definitely not worth the 8.50 admitance. (that's right $17 canadian to see a film and there isn't much cheaper around)
Today was less interesting. I hung around with my flat mate for a while. Then I went to see two Bach Cantatas performed for advent vespers at a Lutherin Church. The performance was played live on BBC and you can find it on the web on BBC radio 3. It was a lovely performance, it seems that BBC radio 3 is playing nothing but Bach until 5pm Christmas day. I then came home with a short stop at the grocery store where I found Hot Dogs that didn't come in a can. I then had mashed potatoes, hotdogs, and beans for dinner. I over ate. Now I'm just burning time until I can go to sleep.
posted by Brett at 8:54 p.m.
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