Mandela lecture: Five things Barack Obama said

Barack Obama has used his first high-profile speech since stepping down as US president to take swipes at “strongman politics” and politicians’ disregard for the facts. His comments are seen as thinly veiled criticism of the current US administration’s use of what has been described as “alternative facts”.
Here are five key points from his Nelson Mandela lecture, made to the world’s media and an audience of some 15,000 people in South Africa’s main city, Johannesburg.

Mandela Day is about taking action to change the world for the better. In these young people, I see Madiba’s example of persistence and hope. They are poised to make this world more peaceful, more prosperous, and more just.

4. Viva democracy!

Politicians using “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment” were rising “at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago,” Barack Obama warned.

Democracy is messy, he said, “but the efficiency of an autocrat is a false promise”.

“It is time for us to stop paying all of our attention to the world’s capitals… and focus on the world’s grassroots. That is where democracy comes from,” he added.

Warning against creeping populism and “strongman politics”, he made the case for liberal democracy, saying that he believed it offered the better future for humanity.

“I believe in Nelson Mandela’s vision” for the world’s future, he said, “I believe that a world governed by such principles is possible”.

“It can achieve more peace and more cooperation in pursuit of a common good,” he added.

“I believe we have no choice but to move forward… I believe it is based on hard evidence. The fact that the world’s most prosperous and successful societies happen to be those which have most closely approximated the liberal progressive ideal that we talk about.”

Things may go backwards for a while, but – ultimately – right makes might,” Mr Obama said. “Not the other way around.”


Full Text

Sammary by BBC

Top Pageへ

 
11/11(月)未明、Nobel Academy のサイトで授賞式の模様を食い入るように見ていた。
Kazuo Ishiguroさんは、身体とたたずまいは日本人、言語と身体の動きはHalf British/Half Japanese のような感じで、穏やかでにこやかな表情で、楽しそうに嬉しそうに賞を受けた。喜ばしい瞬間だった。
 
でも、その前に平和賞を受賞した ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) のベアトリス事務局長(Beatrice Fihn)のスピーチが超過激、直截的・感動的で驚きだった。日本人被爆者Thurlow節子さんのスピーチも力強く、会場に感動を広げた。世界に声を拡げるものだったと思う(拍手) スピーチ原稿(こちら)


The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2017 Richard H. Thaler
Richard H. ThalerさんPhoto: University of Chicago/Anne Ryan
もう一つ、おかしみとともに感動したのは、経済学賞を受けた米国の受章者が舞台で思わず見せた涙。正直そうで可愛らしく、VTRを戻して何度も見てしまった。どの受章者も人生をかけた挑戦を長年たゆみなく続けた人で、それだけで十分人を感動させるのだと思った。

 


こちらは、受賞後の夕食会でのIshiguroさんのすばらしいスピーチ:

Kazuo Ishiguro – Banquet Speech

Read More →


海外の作家でこの頃一番読んだ(読んでいる)のは、カズオ・イシグロさん。その人がノーベル文学賞受賞者となった。すばらしい。

読んだのは(途中までのも多いけど);
・遠い山なみの光(1982年) 英・王立文学協会賞  A Pale View of Hills
・日の名残(なご)り(1989年) 英・ブッカー賞  (映画を観ただけ)
・わたしたちが孤児だったころ(2000年)      When We were Orphans
・わたしを離さないで(2005年)                                       NEVER LET ME GO
・忘れられた巨人(2015年)                                               A Bruied Giant

ノーベル文学賞にカズオ・イシグロ氏 英国の小説家

下司佳代子=ストックホルム、編集委員・吉村千彰
2017年10月5日20時29分
 スウェーデン・アカデミーは5日、2017年のノーベル文学賞を長崎出身の英国の小説家、カズオ・イシグロさん(62)に授与すると発表した。賞金は900万スウェーデンクローナ(約1億2500万円)。授賞式は12月10日にストックホルムである。
 発表の瞬間、会場の報道陣から驚きの声が漏れ、拍手が続いた。授賞理由は「人と世界のつながりという幻想の下に口を開けた暗い深淵(しんえん)を、感情豊かにうったえる作品群で暴いてきた」とされた。アカデミーのサラ・ダニウス事務局長は「ジェーン・オースティンとフランツ・カフカをまぜるとカズオ・イシグロになる。そこにマルセル・プルーストを少し加えなければいけない。彼は非常に誠実な作家で、彼自身の美学の宇宙を作り上げた」とたたえた。
“This is a very weird time in the world, we’ve sort of lost faith in our political system, we’ve lost faith in our leaders, we’re not quite sure of our values, and I just hope that my winning the Nobel prize contributes something that engenders good will and peace,” he said. “ It reminds us of how international the world is, and we all have to contribute things from our different corners of the world.Read More →

あまり詳しくは書けないけど、ときどきお話をする大切な知人、仏国のGh先生。今回は3回目の面白い(中身の濃い、私の知らない、目からうろこの話。筋のとおった、深い教養に裏打ちされた話。世界情勢からLGBT, 食、言語、社交・生活様式、教育、音楽・芸術まで何でもありの)会話が楽しめる夕食会。
誘ってもらえることがもったいなくも嬉しく、「私が入ってもいいのかな?」と気にしつつ参加している。私はいつも真っ正直に自分の言葉で意見を言うようにしている(それしかできないけど)。その私の話を面白く思ってくれるのならとても喜ばしいことだ。だから仕事はやめられない!!かな?

“Kimuchi Gathering” at YCU

Top Pageへ

50年ぐらい前、混声の定期演奏会で、指揮者だった武島先生が舞台でソロで歌われた時の美しい声とさわやかな歩き方の印象。今度英語の歌を歌うときがあったら挑戦したいな・・・。

アフトン川の流れ
Flow Gently Sweet Afton

静かに眠るメアリー アフトンよ 彼女の夢を妨げたもうな
『アフトン川の流れ Flow Gently Sweet Afton』は、スコットランドの国民的詩人ロバート・バーンズの詩が用いられた19世紀アメリカの歌曲。なお、メロディにスコットランド民謡が用いられているかは不明。
発音が聞き取りやすい。でもアメリカンイングリッシュだ。

歌詞の一例

1.
Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise;
My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
Thou stock-dove, whose echo resounds thro’ the glen,
Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,
Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear,
I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.
2.
How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills,
Far mark’d with the courses of clear winding rills;
There daily I wander as noon rises high,
My flocks and my Mary’s sweet cot in my eye.
How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,
Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;
There oft, as mild Ev’ning leaps over the lea,
The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.
3.
Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,
And winds by the cot where my Mary resides,
How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,
As gathering sweet flowrets she stems thy clear wave.
Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays;
My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream
Burns Robert
Miscellaneous
Flow Gently Sweet Afton

 

Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes

A Quick Bio of Robbie Burns
Robert Burns was born 25 January 1759 in the village of Alloway in Scotland. His poetry has been recognized to represent His poetic impulses were Alexander Pope, Henry Mackenzie, and Laurence Stern. He holds that title of Scotland’s national poet. His first poem was Handsome Nell written for a lady named Nellie Kitpatrick. As Robbie Burns progressed throughout his career, it became clear that he increasingly turned his attention to the passions of nature, alcohol, and women to inspire his writing. He fathered a total of 12 children by four different women.
www.youtube.com/watch?=N8g_NCIdeRE/
Analysis
Sweet Afton is a poem and song that was written in 1791 for Mrs. General Stewart of Slair and was featured in the Scots Musical Museum in 1972. Robbie Burns poems are often refereed to with more then one name. for example, Sweet Afton is also called River Afton and Afton Water. The song could have been referring to Mary Campbell, one of the many women whom inspired Robert Burn’s work. Sweet Afton however is more so about nature at the afton river in Ayeshire. When I read this poem, I think the tone is soothing, quiet, tranquility, safe, stillness and warmth. The poem is written in a rhymed scheme. The poem is a couplet: AA, BB. The first two verses in a stanza rhyme and the next two rhyme with each other as well. The rhythm scheme is closed which means that there is a fixed pattern clearly seen throughout the poem. Verse one and verse six are the exact same. Sweet Afton, disturb not her dream uses personification because Afton (a river) is being talked about as if it has feelings. There are four verses in each paragraph and it is written in 1st person. There is visual imagery such as, “Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes.” There is Auditory imagery such as, “Thou stockdove whose echo resounds thro’ the glen, Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den, and Thou green-crested lapwing thy screaming forbear.” An example of olfactory used in the poem is, “The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.”
古いスコットランド民謡から取っているので、少々歌いにくいし、長すぎる!かな?

3月は1回休みだったGTTのOuting。今日は連休初日のみなとみらいへ出かけました。
練習船日本丸の総帆展帆。建造1930年, 帆は29枚、すべて手作業。女性もいました。開始から約40分、力の入る作業のようでした。
桜木町駅方面からの美しい姿
大桟橋のDiamond Princess号!   Yokohama Green Fair
GTT Index Page Topへ

こんなことが放っておかれていいのだろうか。FaceBookでコロンビア人の友人が警告する。正面から向き合い闘う人もいるが、多数は気づかない、または気づかないふりをする。または、忘れてしまう。
ワシントンポストの記事より April 11, 2017
 Our world produces enough food to feed all its inhabitants. When one region is suffering severe hunger, global humanitarian institutions, though often cash-strapped, are theoretically capable of transporting food and averting catastrophe.
But this year, South Sudan slipped into famine, and Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen are each on the verge of their own. Famine now threatens 20 million people — more than at any time since World War II. As defined by the United Nations, famine occurs when a region’s daily hunger-related death rate exceeds 2 per 10,000 people.
The persistence of such severe hunger, even in inhospitable climates, would be almost unthinkable without war.
Each of these four countries is in a protracted conflict. While humanitarian assistance can save lives in the immediate term, none of the food crises can be solved in the long term without a semblance of peace. The threat of violence can limit or prohibit aid workers’ access to affected regions, and in some cases, starvation may be a deliberate war tactic.
Entire generations are at risk of lasting damage stemming from the vicious cycle of greed, hate, hunger and violence that produces these famines. Children are always the most affected, as even those who survive may be mentally and physically stunted for life. And while this article focuses on the four countries most immediately at risk, ongoing conflicts in Congo, the Central African Republic, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan has left millions hungry in those places, too.
By and Laris Karklis

 

 

南スーダンのキャンプ
Rageh Omarレポートの記事
Top Pageへ