Flowers

Above:  (screenprint) there was a talk this evening, as part of the Southbank literature season, on the topic of flower arranging.  I wasn't able to go to it, but it made me think about the symbolism of flowers in Western culture and what they mean.  Long dismissed as the harmless pursuit of middle-aged matrons, the tradition of flower arranging has a ritual significance that can tell us “the ecology of an era, its insects, other animal life, plants, seeds, flowers, forests, and even climate”.

Above:  it is impossible to visit a church in the county without immediately becoming aware of the ritual connection between flowers and religion.  This is so ubiquitous that few people stop to question why flowers are found in churches.  Decoration obviously but is there a deeper significance?  The summer months are a time of village festivals, and in particular flower festivals held in churches.  Virtually every church in the country will hold a flower festival at some point.  No-one has studied these festivals, and yet they hold a great deal of information about micro social attitudes among women - symbolic, ritual, expressive, collaborative, competitive, placatory.

Above:  flower arranging is an art which many women (it is almost always women) study.  Among the most popular evening classes are those dealing with "flower arranging".   How far back does this "art" go? (you only have to read Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream to realise that the culture of flowers has an ancient, perhaps even paleobotanical heritage).

Above:  I'm not really sure what I am trying to say with this topic.  Here we see a paper sculpture of life-size "church ladies" arranging flowers.  As a demographic group "church ladies" are likely to be female; aged 45 to 65; social groups A, B, C1; married; high disposable income; influential opinion formers.

Above:  this display at a church flower festival produced mutterings about its "phallic" appearance.  Flowers have an erotic symbolism that has been used by artists and photographers (Mapplethorpe).  Flowers are integral to the rituals of marriage and death.

Above:  dried lavender in a church flower festival.  I think we see in flower festivals the preservation of a far older tradition that marked the seasons of very specific flower "crops" valued for their scent, appearance, medicinal value etc.  Further research may indicate that particular flowers or groups of flowers are associated with specific parishes.

As usual this is rushed through, and incoherent.

With great solemnity - the past week at work

Monday

A new approach to my time management this morning.  Arriving at my desk I immediately made a list of things I wanted to do today.  But as the day advanced I started to relax and put off the ones that could be put off.

Most of the morning was taken up with a Working Group meeting to set up the NGO's membership scheme.  Such a lot of waffle and hidden agendas (not least, I suppose, my own).  At one level it is intriguing to be in at the very beginning of what promises to be a massive fiasco.

Then a meeting with my boss Communications Director Tom D.  Also in this meeting was Research Manager Felix S (we both report to Tom).  Recently Tom D had been criticised by the NGO's board for incompetence and had gone away on leave to "consider his position".  With great solemnity he told us that he had considered his position, and despite the insulting things that had been said to him he had decided to stay at the NGO.  "That's a great relief" I told him with equal solemnity.  The sarcasm registered with Felix, who later hooted with laughter over it.

PR Officer Josie (who reports to me) seemed to be in a cheerful mood, in contrast to the moping attitude she has exhibited recently.  She is having an affair with Operations Director Ryan M, and told me she finds it a relief sometimes when he is away (as he was today).  I suppose constantly living in the realms of romance can be a strain for her.

Tuesday

Big meeting of all the NGO's staff this morning.  The meeting had already begun when I took my team up to the Board Room, and the arrival of the Marketing department (all fifteen of us) caused a small stir.  Operations Director Ryan M was chairing the meeting (about the future of the NGO) and he made gaffes, rambled, became ratty at interruptions.

As I was leaving I felt a tap on my arm and it was Innovation manager Preston suggesting a drink at lunchtime.  When I went to the pub I found quite a crowd from the NGO was there - all the department managers.  We sat in the pub garden discussing the future of the NGO which is about to experience funding cuts (it was an academic discussion for me, since I am not staying at the organisation).

In the afternoon Tom D and myself had a presentation from an ad agency who wanted to pitch various ideas to Tom.  I knew one of the agency team, and asked about a colleague of his.  "He left to become the drummer in a band" he told me.

Wednesday

I was at work an hour early today for a meeting with Ryan M.  It was odd to see the offices so completely empty of staff.  I went up to the Operations department where Ryan M appeared stressed, preparing things for his department while he is on holiday ("...everything done at the last minute - I can't work that way").  We talked through marketing for his department and he praised the work I have done.  He was caustic in his criticism of other managers at the NGO ("...pigeon brains, they're all highly educated but they are blinkered; and me, I'm just some little upstart who wants to get things done").  He described his holiday plans, going to stay with his in-laws in Herefordshire (obviously going with his wife).  Then he asked me to do a favour for him while he was away.  Without much enthusiasm I asked what it was.  He asked me to "look after" Josie S and make sure she was not upset while he was away.

Thursday

A nothing sort of day.  Inconsequential meetings, routine 'phone calls, unimportant discussions.  At the end of the afternoon I was stuck in a meeting that over-ran by forty minutes.  When I came out I found that all of the marketing department had left for the day with the exception of Josie S.  She said she was waiting to say goodbye to Ryan M before he went off on his two week holiday.  As we chatted we heard the doors to the stairs open and heard Ryan M talking to CEO Alec Pressberg (we couldn't see them because of a line of screens).  The two of them left the building and minutes later we saw Ryan M's car driving off.

Friday

Crisis in the Research section as Tom D has brought forward the deadline for an important report, and Felix S and his deputy Carol were in a state of crisis over producing this document.

"This whole exercise has taught me a lot" said Felix.

"You mean it's made you realise what a total bastard Tom is" said Carol.

Scandal has engulfed the Murdoch media empire

The 'phone hacking scandal has engulfed the Murdoch media empire, leading to the sudden closure of the News of the World newspaper.  This is widely regarded as a cynical move to "draw a line" (with plans to set up a Sunday edition of The Sun employing more or less the same staff as the News of the World).  Rebekah Brooks refuses to resign and Rupert Murdoch repeats the ridiculous mantra that he has full confidence in her.

It is extremely unlikely the closure of the News of the World will draw a line under the crisis.  There are three main narratives that are throwing up new revelations all the time - the phone hacking scandal, the police payments and the BSkyB takeover.  Other scandals may emerge.

It is not an exaggeration to say that News International has corrupted British society - directly corrupted the political process by selling support in return for political favours; directly corrupted the Metropolitan police through payments for information; indirectly corrupted society by releasing a torrent of cruelty, cynicism and salacious reporting.

We need to get this sorted out, with gaol sentences for the most senior people involved, not sacking the "little people".

Disappointed that party politics is creeping into this.  It is in the interest of all politicians that the Murdoch hydra is crushed.  Ed Miliband should have used his speech this morning to apologise for the Labour Party's links with the Murdoch empire at the time all these things happened (would News International have behaved so outrageously if they had not been confident that they had friends in the highest places who would protect them?).

The EU is a Marxist state

Interesting article by the Russian think tank the Institute for Democracy and Co-Operation that suggests the EU is a Marxist state:  http://www.idc-europe.org/en/The-European-Union:-a-Marxist-Utopia  Marx, Engels, Goethe, Hegel - the article quotes them all.  It's mischief-making, but sophisticated interesting mischief-making.

Recently I have been following (with interest) an on-line discussion about shaving and the way companies that make shaving products could advertise more effectively.

Above:  2003 advertisement for Gillette - shows the act of shaving and illustrates the Gillette razor (two views of the razor, inexplicably one in pack).  Use of "mach" in the product name is presumably meant to be a subliminal link to "macho" (an abbreviation of machismo).  Most advertising related to shaving is a variation on this theme.

This discussion makes me think about the cultural significance of shaving.  Why do men shave?  What emotional and psychological benefits does shaving deliver?

On an anthropological level shaving seems to be connected with war.  In the ancient past men shaved as a sign that they were preparing (setting themselves apart in a ritual way) for the act of war.  Alexander the Great insisted his army was clean-shaven; Roman men (Rome was in a continual state of mobilisation for most of its history) were clean-shaven; the ancient Germanic tribes only permitted men to shave once they had killed.

Does this have any relevance today?

It is interesting that the modern convention of shaving coincides with the period of "total war" (ie war that involves civil populations as well as armed forces).  Before the First World War beards were common, perhaps even conventional.  After 1914 we enter a period when the majority of men shaved.  Most of the twentieth century people lived in a society that was saturated with war - even in the periods of so-called peace international tensions threatened war (the cold war, the conflict in Northern Ireland, reports of the conflict in South East Asia).  It is interesting to note that since 1997 the United Kingdom has been involved in one war or another almost continually - Gambia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc.  Television has illustrated these wars with a force and impact previous generations did not experience.

Obviously no-one in their right mind wants a real war, so why would shaving as a ritual act of preparing for war have any emotional or psychological relevance for men in 2011?

I think a clue comes from a recent paper published by the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/03/23/0146167211402216.abstract   This report looks at a Chinese study that "suggest a link between the motivation to mate and a man’s interest in, or support for, war".  Analysing the results of four behavioural experiments the researchers suggest “a mating-warring association deep in the male brain, due to the fact successful warriors have traditionally enjoyed greater access to women".

Not perhaps a message that most marketing departments would welcome, but it suggests that creative images related to successfully-aggressive males would sell more shaving products.

Above:  a 2005 promotion in GQ magazine for a "starter pack" of male grooming products.  The ritual aspect of shaving seems to be important, and customers are responding to ever more intricate ways of carrying out what should be an uncomplicated task.  Does this ritual aspect of shaving relate to psychological needs far removed from the simple act of preparing for the day?

1980s architecture

There have been various items in the news recently about 1980s architecture and how it is now eligible for "listing" (a process whereby selected buildings are put on a list that must be preserved for the future).  The Broadgate development has been exciting comment, but there are many other examples that should be considered.  Here are some of my random thoughts (slightly distracted since I am simultaneously watching Newsnight).

Above:  I went to look at Broadgate which was opened by Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s.  I was immediately struck by how it resembles the Colosseum in Rome.  This architecture represents, symbolically, the competitive nature of corporate finance in the 1980s - the office as arena.

Above:  my favourite 1980s building is not in London but in Stevenage.  This is Kings Court, designed by Cullearn and Phillips and put up in 1988.  Cullearn and Phillips did some nice work in the 1980s, especially in Manchester.  Although this is a big utilitarian building the use of classic motifs gives it a human scale.  It also has a sense of luxury, which is unusual in an office block.  The building is well-known because you can see it clearly from the East Coast Main Line (one day I got off at Stevenage, walked about half a mile, and took this picture - but this view does not compare to the impact created by seeing the building from a moving express train, a mirage of the 1980s, shimmering with reflected light).

Above:  I also like this little terrace in a provincial town.  No idea who the architect was - probably put up by a jobbing builder.  The pedimented doors are lovely - the 1980s fetishised home ownership, and here we see the humble flat treated like a temple.

Above:  the use of classic motifs in 1980s architecture makes me wonder whether classicism can be traced in other elements of 1980s culture.  Here you can see a screenshot of a live Duran Duran concert in 1984.  The set design features a Doric propylaeum that could have been designed by Albert Speer.

Above:  a selection of 1980s album designs.  The Spandau Ballet LP features a torso that resembles the ancient Greek statue Discobolus; the Ultravox LP has an illustration of various coloured marbles in the form of an idealised classic building.  The Associates EP includes a photograph of a naked, slightly podgy "Associate" (a very corporate name for a band) lying face-down on a marble floor, in a classic rotunda, while an over-dressed young woman empties a bucket of semi-precious stones over him.

Above:  two 1980s book designs.  The Foodie Handbook (1984) shows food in the shape of a Greek temple.  The 1980s experienced a huge expansion in gourmet dining.  The Jorge Luis Borges collection of short stories is a 1986 edition and features an original illustration by Peter Goodfellow.  It shows a skeleton standing beside a classical table tomb.  Reminiscent of Poussin's Shepherds of Arcady (et in Arcadia ego). 

Above:  selection of 1980s advertisements (actual tear sheets, pulled out of the magazines).  Notice the preference for black and white.  Classic motifs are associated with money and luxury, two cultural themes of the 1980s.

Anyway, I have to stop now.  As usual this post is rushed through and poorly thought out.  Maybe one day I will return to these themes and give them proper consideration.

Nick Boles MP

If you want to understand society you have to look at the political process.  There is no avoiding this, however much you might dislike party politics.  To understand how politics works you have to look at politicians (there is no such thing as party politics there are only politicians to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher).

Above:  Nick Boles is MP for Grantham & Stamford, replacing Quentin Davies (who has "bounced back" as a member of the House of Lords, despite being mired in the expenses scandal).  Nick Boles MP is supposedly an influential figure in the Conservative half of the Coalition government, being founder of the Policy Exchange think tank and currently a member of the Henry Jackson Society.  Recently he published his political thoughts in a book entitled Which Way Is Up?
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Above:  on the whole I thought the book was lightweight.  There were some interesting ideas, but they were not properly developed and the arguments tested from more than one viewpoint.  Slightly too pleased with himself.

Above: (screenshot) a few weeks back I watched Daily Politics on BBC2 and Nick Boles popped up.  This appearance confirmed my view that Nick Boles was a superficial person without depth or gravitas.  I'm afraid I thought "silly public school twit" (this is not to be partisan - I think the same of Tristram Hunt MP, and political dynasties such as the Benns and the Prescotts disgust me more than you can possibly imagine).

Above:  Nick Boles' offices in a small town in the middle of his constituency.  If he genuinely wanted to develop a distinctive political ideology that resonated with the people he is supposed to be representing he should study them more assiduously.  There is no need for fancy think tanks and Notting Hill cabals - everything he needs to know can be found in this small town.

Saints in the Landscape by Dr Graham Jones

Above:  Saints in the Landscape is published by Tempus (appalling cover, as you can see).

I have recently finished reading Saints in the Landscape by Dr Graham Jones, Senior Research Associate at Oxford University.  This is a wonderful book, so full of original insights that I am filled with admiration.  Many people have tried, and failed, to make sense of the pattern of saint-dedications in the British Isles.  Dr Jones is the first person to have developed a coherent theory and backed it up with lots of credible evidence.  Reading the book was a revelation.  I felt that the explanation I had been searching for had suddenly been handed to me, complete and convincing.

"...the origins of many churches may be earlier than is normally assumed, and that deeply ancient ways of seeing the world and calling on supernatural help survived to influence medieval and even modern attitudes...

"...John the Baptist can be associated with upland or woodland pasture...

"Many annual parish outings may well be the linear descendants of an intermediate category of local pilgrimage..."

"...extensive meadows were opened at Lammas of which (St) James' feast a week before was herald.

"(Holy) wells have their own patterns of naming, very different from those of churches.

"Hare Pie Bank is an Iron Age shrine characterised by the ritual deposit in the first century BC of thousands of gold and silver coins and a ceremonial helmet belonging to a high-ranking officer in the Roman army... Note:  I intend to track this helmet down - presumably it is in the British Museum.

"The King's Watch was one of the English processional customs which gave Midsummer its character.

"...the communal landscape and the maintenance of law through an ascending order of rituals, mutual societies, and an attachment to saints of the region and later the realm... symbolised a sense of identity...

"...ancestors were commemorated at the feast of All Souls...

"(St) Swithin's protection was sought by communities farming certain types of soil...

"Ellenmas... the beginning of the dairying season and of the movement of stock to summer pastures...

"Places with Michaelmas livestock fairs represent by their very nature agrarian systems which take us back to a period earlier than the introduction of farming for the sale of surplus crops...

"Peter and Paul appear to be frequent patrons at places in England which were under royal control...

These are just a few examples.  Every page of the book has similar illuminating facts and hypotheses.  Dr Jones has written a book that goes a long way towards explaining why the society in which we live is structured the way it is.

Above:  in Saints in the Landscape Dr Jones reveals that St Nicholas is often associated with locations related to mercantile activity, particularly fairs (invoking the saint in contractual oaths was supposedly a way of enforcing honest dealing).  Whilst reading the book I visited a village in the south west of the county where the church is dedicated to St Nicholas.  I asked the churchwarden, who was showing me round, whether any fairs were held in the village.  He said that until the 1980s there had been an annual fair held in the field next to the church.  In the picture above I am standing in the field where the fair used to be held, with St Nicholas' church in the distance and Church Farm beyond.  It could just be co-incidence, but to me it felt as if the Jones thesis was validated.

A boring working week

I wrote this when I was tired, so didn't remember everything - additional material is in red.

Monday

When I arrived at the offices they seemed strangely empty, so many people away attending the Special Projects launch.  I had not been invited to the launch, which did not surprise me since relations with Special Projects manager Carmel are not good.  Her son Leo works in the Marketing department and has not been performing well recently so I had to give him an official Warning.

Lunchtime I went to The Boot with Preston (Innovations manager) and Kevin (his deputy).  We talked about economics and (inevitably) office politics.  Preston very proud of his two daughters.

In the afternoon Felix (Research manager) bustling about preparing for the arrival of French intern Pascal.  He was late in arriving, and go to the office just before 5 o'clock.  Aged eighteen but so tall he towered over everyone, his English not terribly good ("It's at least as good as Leo's" said my deputy Meryl).

Tuesday

I was at a training course - can't reveal what it was for otherwise this blog would be discovered.  The training involved selected managers and directors of the NGO, and took place in the NGO's seminar room (on the top floor under the roof).  During the banter that characterised this course Special Projects Manager Carmel, and Operations Director Ryan M began talking about sex.  This had been initiated by a snide and unpleasant remark by Carmel about "cradle-snatching".  This comment was not ostensibly directed at anyone in particular but obviously meant for Ryan M who is having an affair with PR Officer Josie S, ten years his junior.  Ryan M retaliated by asking Carmel, with mock friendliness (as if they had been discussing different types of restaurant) about her sexual preferences, especially various forms of fellatio.  Carmel (divorced, aged in her fifties, dried-up face heavily covered in make-up) responded with an aggressive sort of enthusiasm, matching all of Ryan M's anecdotes with obscene observations of her own.  Instead of stopping this exchange the NGO's CEO Alec Pressberg roared with laughter and joined in with frequent quips as a succession of sexual practices were discussed.  The Trainer who was leading the course looked shocked.

Wednesday

Boring meeting over database policy.

The rest of the day spent preparing for the return of my boss Tom D who is back in the office tomorrow.  This meant rushing through all the things that I had not got round to doing while he had been away.  Also highlighting the things that had been done in a special status report.

Thursday

Central London all of the morning, not getting back to the office until mid-afternoon.  Tom D back and seemed in a good mood.  He asked me to join a working group on another of the NGO's initiatives.

I talked to PR Officer Josie about films and she suggested we go to see The Tree Of Life when it comes out (this was a strictly platonic suggestion - she is having an affair with Operations Director Ryan M).

Friday

Although intern Pascal is working for Research he is also carrying out some analysis for Marketing.  Felix and I talked through his Learning Contract with him.  Later I suggested that Meryl offer Leo (who reports to her) a Learning Contract, and to my surprise he was receptive.

On the whole it has been a boring working week.

Latest progress report of the Committee on Climate Change

Yesterday, 30th June, I was at Westminster for the latest progress report of the Committee on Climate Change.  Long queue to get into Portcullis House (police pacing up and down ostentaciously holding automatic weapons as if this was France).  The presentation was held in the Attlee Suite, a long room with seating laid out in horizontal rows.

Cups of over-strong coffee and miniscule chocolate biscuits.  About a hundred and fifty people were there.  The room was too warm.

The launch of the report began at 10.15 with an introduction by Tim Yeo MP (in a voice made for droning): 

"Progress is not fast enough... the government has accepted the fourth carbon budget... policies to decarbonise a whole range of sectors..."

Division bells rang at intervals.

Lord Adair Turner then delivered the main part of the presentation, bowed over the podium as if his head was weighed down by his shock of iron-grey hair:

"At any one time we have a fifteen-year vision... we will need in the mid-2020s an acceleration... we will have to be on the green path [referring to a graph] to avoid playing catch-up...

"We do not believe in the St Augustine approach of emissions control but not yet... we have to look at indicators to make sure we are on the fifteen-year path... electricity market reform will be a key...

"The recession has produced a fundamental shift downwards in the underlying trend of emissions reduction... in public policy there are always lead-times to increase the intensity... we are well-behind on solid wall insulation..."

We considered renewables, new boiler designs and electric car sales.

There was a point when one of the slides had the headings wrong, but Adair Turner spotted this and adroitly talked us through the graphs, giving the impression that he was completely in control of his brief.

The presentation ended with a look ahead to future areas of the Committee's attention - bioenergy, shipping aviation.

Questions followed, including a very interesting question on the "export" of carbon emissions via the import of manufactured goods - Adair Turner said this was an important area but the Committee can only look at areas the government asks it to look at.

The meeting ended.  Some networking in the minutes that followed.  Then to Kings Cross for the lunch at The Driver restaurant.

The Driver restaurant

Lunch at The Driver restaurant today, in Wharfdale Road just off York Way.

Because of the people I was with I thought it best to have the vegetarian risotto.

If everyone in the United Kingdom had one less meat meal per week it would go a long way to help meet the national emissions targets.

Social media in China

Interesting CIM article about social media in China.

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/features/target-china/?utm_source=%20SBN1J2F&utm_medium=email&utm_term=How%20Chinese%20social%20media,%20the%20Japanese%20tsunami%20and%20the%20global%20food%20crisis%20affect%20your%20marketing%20campaign&utm_campaign=MB4309

Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting the United Kingdom

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting the United Kingdom.  I have been looking at some of the PR aspects of the visit.  So far the visual PR has been excellent.



Above:  this photo was in The Times, quite prominent on the page (but well within the newspaper - page 12 I think).  Here Premier Wen visits Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon.  This is a wonderful image.  Happy smiling faces, attractive blonde women, beneficent sunshine.  Surrounded by the monuments of the world's greatest literary shrine, the world leader appears completely at ease, surrounded by friends.  The accompanying text was more nuanced, but it is the picture that tells the story.



















Above:  this image appeared in the Guardian, much smaller than the Times picture.  Despite the smaller size it still has a lot of impact.  MG logo, strong colours, implicit action.

Wim Crouwel exhibition at the Design Museum

Above:  having read a review (here) of the Wim Crouwel exhibition at the Design Museum I felt sufficiently motivated to go and see it, although the Design Museum is not the easiest place to get to.  I entered the exhibition expecting to experience coldness, aloofness, alienation.  And it was all of those things.  But surprisingly this austere astringency was not unpleasant.  The entrance was guarded by a gigantic portrait of Wim Crouwel in a white suit (looking starched and inhuman).  Mostly flat visual displays, white space everywhere, hushed tones from the visitors.  No photography allowed, preserving the uncommercialised integrity of the great man's canon of work.  A section described Wim Crowel's early interest in modern architecture, and I immediately felt I understood him.  His typography is type trying to become three-dimensional buildings. 

While I was in the Design Museum I also had a look at the Designs of the Year exhibition, which was much more accessible. 

Above:  clothes on intimidating-looking mannequins.

Above:  book designs with sensibly narrow blocks of text (the eye gets exhausted if expected to read more than ten words per line).

Above:  design for a "self-build" house.  A first sight very attractive, but that white wouldn't stay clean for very long, and the yellow light that looks so inviting would be irritating after a while.  And I guess that the white exterior and yellow dazzle isn't meant to be real anyway.

Above:  the United Kingdom pavilion at last year's Shanghai Expo.  There was nothing inside the building - was this meant to be symbolic?  The Victorians would have filled their pavilion with manufactured goods, so does the empty interior symbolise our modern dependence on intangible services?

Above:  just as interesting as the exhibits were the people.  What sort of people go to design exhibitions?  Who are they in terms of age, gender, socio-economic group, median income, geographical location, post-graduate education etc?

Above:  when I first saw the sign I thought the exhibition was of British insurance designs of the year (perhaps some of their direct mail).  A bit specialised I thought, but might be worth seeing.  It was only when I got up there that I realised the exhibition was sponsored by British Insurance.

Above:  battered old 1988 anthology that includes a short story by Michael Bracewell.  Called Missing Margate, it is about a jejune modernist architect who decides to destroy his own buildings, one of which is called the Museum of Corporate Finance.  I like to think that somewhere this museum exists, with perhaps an exhibition of British Insurance Designs of the Year.

Midsummer

Above:  one of the most significant days of the ritual year is Midsummer, which is celebrated on St John's Day 24th June (not to be confused with the Longest Day which is on 21st June).  Midsummer is traditionally the day on which "Midsummer Fairs" are held, but as the day fell on a Friday this year the fairs were rescheduled for the weekends either side.  Rather than go to the fair on the 19th I waited until yesterday (25th) and went to a fair in the south-west of the county.

Above:  one of the features of the pastoral landscape as I neared the village was the blood-red appearance of the fields, which were covered in wild poppies (the common corn poppy or Papaver rhoeas).

Above:  the crossroads at the centre of the village was marked by the Crossed Swords Inn, which seemed a martial name for a pub (public houses are often of great antiquity, and often preserve in their names clues as to the past social activity of the village - was this pub the venue for fencing / jousting or a quasi-military club of some kind?).

Above:  the fair was held in the sports ground behind the village hall.  I got there quite late so the sparse appearance of this photo is not a true indication of the attendance.  Dog show, stalls of various kinds, a display of motor cycles.
















Above:  I left the fair and walked up a gentle hill to look at the manor house - stone, like most buildings in the village.  Pevsner says this building is 17th century.  There was a fine dovecote nearby.

Above:  near the manor was the village green with this truncated cross, obviously of great antiquity (often these crosses pre-date the church, so this could be Saxon).

Above:  an embroidery inside the church said that the cross was a "Moot" place where village elders would meet - a sort of miniature witenagemot.

Above:  approaching the church, which was on the summit of the little hill, I noticed that it had a chapel of some kind on the south side - possibly a chantry or a guild chapel.

Above:  looking inside the chapel it was now used as a tea room.  There were no monuments, so presumably it had not been a chantry chapel.  Possibly it was the meeting place for a guild (or guilds).

Above:  in the north wall of the chancel were two crusader gravestones.  This one had been reused in 1730, hence the inscription.  The Listed Buildings website says that both gravestones are thirteenth-century.

Above:  the second gravestone, slightly more worn.  The church was dedicated to St James, so is it fanciful to imagine the village was a recruiting ground for crusaders wanting to go on the crusades to support the Spanish kingdom of Galicia rather than those to the Holy Land?  A guild, meeting in the south chapel, would raise money to recruit, equip and support knights (they would do this by promising indulgences), and the knights before leaving might put on jousts at the crossroads inn to raise additional funds and generate enthusiasm and support from the local community.

All conjecture I know.

Above:  before leaving I went back to the fair to watch the Tug-of-war.  Village sports such as this were originally intended as demonstrations of strength.  Tug of war was also a popular event at medieval tournaments (sorry to keep harping on about this subject, but I found the various connections, slender though they are, to be intriguing).

A tussle over who is to do an interview - the past week at work

Monday

During the morning I ploughed through the paper on my desk, occasionally getting up to go to speak to various people.

Another of the interminable meetings about a guide the NGO is producing.

In the afternoon a meeting in the Innovation department discussing a telemarketing campaign (using an outside agency) to promote one of the Innovation schemes.

Tuesday

Producing a Powerpoint presentation for the Innovation department. 

A tussle over who is to do an interview for regional television.  Operations director Ryan M was insistent that he should do the interview and not CEO Alec Pressberg.  "If necessary I will tell him that" he said (as if I care).

PR Officer Josie S sat in on this meeting but was subdued and didn't say a word (she is having an affair with Ryan M, but her mood of distracted serenity has changed to a sulky sort of depression).

Then a meeting with the all-women ad agency who are producing the next issue of the NGO's magazine.  There has been a lot of criticism over this magazine, especially its vacuous self-publicising content.  This may be the last issue we produce, as the NGO needs to make cuts.

Wednesday

At my desk I looked at the post (including my boss Tom D's post as he is still away), drank some coffee and sent off some urgent e-mails.  Then up to the Board Room for a meeting to discuss income generation for the NGO, since the grant from government is being cut.  I was surprised at the number of good ideas this meeting generated.

As a number of outside guests had been invited to the meeting we all went to lunch at a nearby hotel - wine and sandwiches in a little room off the bar.

In the afternoon office junior Leo had to be told off for truculent and defiant behaviour towards my deputy Meryl (his line manager).

The Marketing department has been doing a lot of work for the Operations department lately, so I told Josie to do a report to remind them how much we have supported them.

Thursday

A discussion on unemployment in the office.  Kate from the Operations department revealed that her first job had been at a "U-bo" (an Unemployment Benefit Office, now called a Job Centre).  "My recurring nightmare is that I have to go back to a U-bo in south London" she said.

Harriet D, one of the NGO's directors, was about the offices - slight trace of a Suffolk accent, grey hair in tight curls, deceptively motherly manner (but actually a ruthless and unpleasant character).  This is only the second time I have seen her all year.  She seems to be on permanent leave, and only comes in to deputise when CEO Alec Pressberg is away. 

Tony in the Operations department is getting married at the weekend (his second marriage) so we all squashed into the Operations office to see Harriet D present him with various gifts.

Friday

The television crew arrived and I took them up to the tea room and asked questions about how they were going to handle the item.  I then briefed Ryan M on what he should say.  The interview went fairly well

"Marks out of ten? Ryan M asked later about the interview.  "Ten out of ten" Josie said.  I said nothing.

Hares

Above:  for some time I have been thinking about the cultural significance of hares (Lepus europaeus).  Every year the media reports the appearance of "Mad March Hares" in a ritual sequence that announces the end of winter and the arrival of spring.  Hares feature regularly in literature - the March Hare in Alice In Wonderland; The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal; Masquerade by Kit Williams etc.

Above:  silver representations of hares in a jeweller's shop in Burlington Arcade.  Hares are traditionally associated with bravery and cunning.  Boudicca queen of the Iceni (a tribe in Iron Age Norfolk) took a hare with her everytime she went into battle.

Above:  sculpture in central London of a leaping hare, crescent moon and bell.  The sculpture dates from 1988 and is by Barry Flanagan.  Hares are associated with the moon.

Above:  a couple of weeks ago I walked through this field in a lonely part of the county and saw dozens of hares running about.  I managed to photograph two of them (you might need to click on the image to enlarge it).  It was a perfect summer evening - warm sun, peaceful atmosphere, and the magical hares running about.

25% of state school pupils are from an ethnic minority

Article in the Guardian today by Jessica Shepherd saying that 25% of state school pupils are from an ethnic minority.

This is a huge change in the composition of the general population, and is likely to be permanent (since as they get older they will form relationships and have children of their own).

It raises some interesting questions about the future nature of British society.  25% is probably too large a number to be integrated into the general population, therefore within ten to twelve years (when the 25% will achieve voting rights) we will start to see changes.  The positive benefits of this diversity are so familiar they hardly need repeating.

But there are some negative aspects that need to be considered.

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that do not have functioning democracies, are they automatically going to value the British parliamentary model?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that do not have trial by jury or the principle of innocent until proven guilty will these legal concepts survive?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies where trade unions are not recognised how are trade unions going to recruit from this segment of the population?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies where corruption is endemic, will that become an increasing feature of British society?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that place no value on animal life, will animal welfare standards start to regress?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that do not value women's rights, will women experience a rise in discrimination?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies where the death penalty is a familiar part of the justice code, will there be pressure to readopt this into the British legal system?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that enforce sexual taboos, will these become a feature of British society?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that do not have a good record on the environment, will that change the nature of the environmental debate?

If the 25% of newcomers are from societies that do not have established consumer behaviour, how is this going to affect the way goods are marketed?

Ten per cent, and you could say they would be integrated (even though there are no official policies for national integration).  Twenty-five per cent is too large a sector to integrate.  Therefore there are going to be changes.

Facebook has reached a tipping point

Interesting article by Mark Prigg in the Evening Standard on Monday about the slowdown in the growth of Facebook. He argues that Facebook has reached a tipping point.  That users are becoming bored with the existing format and are looking for more "boutique" social networks.


Which makes me ask, at an anthropological and psychological level, what is Facebook for?

On a superficial level it allows people to have their own web-page, keep in touch with people and publish short pieces of text.

On a more fundamental level I would suggest that Facebook is a machine for generating self-actualisation (which is at the summit of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs).

Facebook users are able to use the site to invent the person they most want to be, projecting a highly stylised and mediated version of themselves to the "outside world". They are able to edit and reinvent this persona, and even create multiple personas. By doing this they are able to satisfy a deep psychological need.

However Facebook is a very imperfect "self-actualisation machine". It may satisfy students (for which it was designed), but other demographic groups find it limiting. Therefore we can expect to see a kaleidoscope of different self-actualisation machines developing.

Also self-actualisation machines tailored to different societies (China, Russia, Brazil etc).

The Asianization of the Global Economy (世界经济的Asianization)

Yesterday I went to Birkbeck College to hear Professor Andrew Jones talk about The Asianization of the Global Economy.

Professor Jones is Professor of Economic Geography at Birkbeck, and is author of the Dictionary of Globalization as well as several other books on the topic and about thirty-five articles.

The lecture began with a brief review of globalization over the last twenty years and the growing view that globalization was unraveling because of nationalism, protectionism and the fragmenting of the EU. 

This view, although understandable, is not valid.  Far from faltering, globalization is entering a new phase of intensity.  Two examples of relative European decline - the IMF is no longer in the forefront of globalization (for obvious reasons related to the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn); Glaxo Smith Kline are undergoing a global restructuring, and not only closing their production facilities in Europe, but also moving their research to China.

We are witnessing a rebalancing of the world economic activity, especially as over the last five years the global downturn has not really affected the emerging economies.  The West is failing to appreciate what has happened.  We are probably at a tipping point in the shift of the centre of gravity from West to East.

If you put the word "globalization" into the Amazon search box you get tens of thousands of books but the focus is very narrow.  Globalization has been confused with Westernization or Americanization.  Now definitions need to be widened to include political, technological and cultural aspects as well as just economics.

What we are seeing is the growing inter-connectedness of human society.  Times have changed since Peter Dicken wrote the highly-influential book Global Shift.  We are now in a new sort of globalization.

Especially the global economy has become very complex - complicated, uneven, geographically dispersed.

This has masked what is really happening in the world, so that almost unnoticed we have arrived at a tipping point.

Why has this happened?

We need to look back over the last five years at the economies that have been growing and the economies that have been contracting.  This has been a very unusual recession - the rest of the world did not follow the US into recession.  Over the last five years The West has had non-existent or very low growth while all the time China has been booming.

We are now looking at the Asianization of the global economy - a period of far-reaching change with perhaps Asia approaching dominance.

Five factors to consider:

1  In 2010 China leap-frogged over Japan to become the world's second largest economy.  By 2020 China is expected to overtake the US as the largest economy.  Over Asian economies are following so that we are looking at a majority of the top 20 economies to be Asian (Australia is the only Western economy still growing, and this is as a result of growth in Asia).

2  Look at the growing size, number and dominance of Asian corporations:  eg five of the top ten investment banks are Japanese (the Bank of China is number 14); nine of the ten largest steel firms are Asian-based; five of the top ten car manufacturers are Asian-based etc.

3  Be aware of the on-going upskilling and capacity of the Asian economies to do what the West is doing in terms of services.  Consultancy, IT and software companies have mushroomed across Asia.  Also finance and business services - they will not be looking to western consultants for much longer.

4  Consider the rising power of Asian capital.  When George Osborne talks about "the need to appease the markets" he is talking about China.  The largest holder of UK sovereign debt is China.

5  Asian countries are a growing power in the governance of the world economy.  They want voting rights on the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the UN.  The recent challenge by emerging economies to European dominance of the IMF is an indication of how things are likely to develop. 

There will be limits to the Asianization of the global economy, and these will depend on a number of issues - economic, political, cultural, linguistic.  But Western dominance looks ever more fragile.  What will count is the absolute size of economic activity.

In the future Western companies may have to adapt to Asian capitalist norms.

The talk came to an end.  In an adjoining area white wine was available.  When I left the Clore Management Centre it was pouring with rain.

Green smoothies

I got very drunk over the weekend.

All of today I have been drinking just green smoothies and water - no food at all.

It seems to be working..