27 August 2008

rough skin

Photo in an add for a cream against rough and cracked heels
(podexine by vichy). Buy this or lignify..

















Reminds me of our old native nabour on our holiday in Andalucia. He could gather and peel prickly pear cactus fruits with his bare hands, because the skin of his hands was rough and numb all over.

24 August 2008

Premature anti-fascist

In the US volunteers who fought for the republic in the Spanish civil war (1936-1939) were labeled as "premature anti-fascists" by the FBI. It was the trigger to assign them to non-combat units or inactive fronts in the second world war (1940) and deny them promotion.

21 August 2008

In praise of Mussolini

  • Churchill (1927): If I had been an Italian I am sure that I should have been whole-heartedly with Signor Mussolini from the start to finish in his triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism.
  • Ghandi: he is the saviour of Italy
  • Mussolini came out second (afther Edison) in a poll for "greatest man of our time" in Algemeen Handelsblad in 1927.
Now Italy, cradle of fascism, is rallying behind Berlusconi.

20 August 2008

Rise of the bolsheviks

In 1917, Lenin, leader of the Russian bolsjeviks (majority, opposite of mensjeviks=minority) lived in exile in Switzerland. His secret political address book only contained ten active members in Russia.
After the Russian revolution in february the Germans let Lenin go to Russia and in april he arrives in Moskou.
With loads of German money allowing them to print the Pravda newspaper in huge numbers, the party swells to 200.000 members by august 1917.
In october the bolsjeviks take over and repression and civil war begin.

It is dazzling how radical actions by individuals can change history.

Before the second world war an initially small fraction like the nazi's will again take control over the masses, using terror.