August in Belgium?

Louvain is where many books were burned by an advancing army some almost hundred years ago.  Books of the day then are / were like the computers of today in a way:  single storehouses of literature, lists and informations of any kind in compact form, and many were extremely carefully published, even pamphlets of the day.  Destruction of spirit in the old days meant at least in part the destruction of literature, prose, poetry, current events news, criticism and analysis, whatever.  At least look at these pictures of Leuven which are very simple, but confirm that the town would not recover as intended from the destruction of the Great War, from virually any perspective, in those August days.  Leuven is in Belgium, and it is a small town today, insignificant in the scheme of high - technology information processing and the great scale of today as well as the other activities of the world, and let its story be a lesson to us all who harbor thoughts of harm and destruction in view of prejudices, an appetite for conflict, even brutality.  Voyons.

... And the Premier League

Tottenham's Stadium Pitch (courtesy desso.com)

Deutsche fussball

You Can Find This in "The Wall Street Journal" (Fedor, ...)

An economic policy that seems to be working, at least with regard to expectations the U.S. economy will recover sooner rather than later, was spelled out in the Federal Reserve Chairman's testimony before Congress about three weeks ago.  Regardless of all the statistics and formulas, theorising and prognostications, the 2010 financial reform bill will asssure some things in the future:  That the abuses of private bankers do not end up being paid for by the state, and through other rules that they not be allowed to string their financial wagons together (another abuse as shown by the 2008 crisis.)  Other provsions of the new rules call for federal oversight and approval of some aspects of daily banking operations, but these items should not take away from the ordinarily streamlined running of the financial system, given its reliance on powerful information systems.

There are indications as well in the overall economy, apart from the financial sector, including expectations for continued price stability and indicators as provided from analysis of treasury rates that the Federal Reserve Chairman deserves credit for, insofar as these measures are prominent in recovery conditions.  Not the least to mention is consumers will not any longer, at least not for the foreseeable future, be able to pay off the mortgage with gains, and policies will principally discourage the type of highly - leveraged mortgage underwriting characterised by the last housing and related real estate finance boom.  Economic values as they are preached now might entirely have gone back to the virtues of saving and socking away cash apart from fancy investment vehicles as promoted through the local money store. 

Perhaps The Most Important Thing to Remember about This ...

...  is Hiroshima was the first.

Hiroshima - August 6, 2010 - morning.

... and yet, today in South Africa

F.W. de Klerk & Nelson Mandela  - May 1990 (courtesy U.K. Guardian)

Not only is the country of South Africa important in the scheme of the human rights issues in mind with everyone today, but turning the recent history of that country over and over brings to mind some certainly unresolved items of which the following:  a.  The South African transition to majority rule has gone quite smoothly compared, for example, to what is happening in Zimbabwe or even Mozambique; b.  In what ways does the new regime there continue to defeat the argument of the Afrikaans assuming for so long the "white man's burden," and then relinquishing it to the blacks.  Due to these two items and more, and their international political and cultural influences, is South Africa a safe place today where one might travel and even stay for a while or emigrate?  People like me have a hard time posing this question as the only ideas we have about Africa are from literary dogma and the press.

It is also interesting to note that the Afrikaans continue to have a role in South African society, even though many of the native peoples just wanted them out.  There are and have been things wrong with colonialism for a long time, and this is why it is not any longer practised by anyone.  Some western powers still have control of island nations and so forth, but the actual colonial period entered into its sunset when water transport became motorized and when some other things happened (like WWI.)  One might note here the Afrikaans, again, were not colonial really in that they believed in the eventuality of the blacks ruling their own territories without the kind of oriental chaos they had experienced when settling that land.  It becomes clear upon any study of Africa the blacks knew of other lands, not mystical to them, but as those of subjugators; and they only really had an interest in maintaining the status quo of a very organic society that dated back many years.  The institutional introduction of Occidental institutions and polity at the time of the colonial empires was a huge shock to the native South African population and they staged a long - standing revolt.  That westerners were the first to really settle in Africa engendered future contemptibility and when the communists began propagandizing the native peoples there during the period after WWII, the political climate was rife with vulnerabilities that were exacerbated and exist to this day.  Part of the credence of the ANC and its merits was the future promise to make the country productive and to preserve its institutions that were not overwhelmingly racist.  This led to the beginning of better prospects for African nations as far as foreign aid and international legitimacy were concerned among other things.  All this due to the relationships between personalities like F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela; see your Cambridge history.