Re: Olli Lounela's tournament report from IGS's early years (1993)

Jeff,

Harry, are you prejudiced?

Not particularly at least I hope not.
There are traits or if you like modes in the use of spoken and
written language that are particular to different countries. Those
two and accents I find myself remarking upon or if you like interest
me.
I'm a Scot (despite the Viking<s> surname) but even in this
small country of some 5 million across the width of which is only a
hop, skip and jump in American dimensions, there are variations in
that spoken trait.
Prejudiced? Now as one of the millions who have been raised on
Hollywood movies and in my case from 6 to 12, the WWII passage, I'd
have to say that most of my life I've been prejudiced in favour of
the US. I'm quite a lot less so inclined now.
I lived and worked in London for a few years, as a young man.
That's at an age when practically any big western city would be good
but expensive fun and you felt you could handle any aggro. I'm
prejudiced against the stacking up of all the wealth down there but
that's nothing to do with the US.
I would like us to get rid of Tony Blair yet I vote Labour.
About as close as it's possible to get to a socialist government and
that's just me paying lip-service to it for not being totally Tory.
So I suppose I'm prejudiced against TB; The Guardian's cartoonist
Steve Bell has him well configured as your President's lap dog.
I've never been to America. If the old black and white movies of
my early adult and even earlier <s> years reflect the way America was
then and if today's crop reflect the way it is now then I'd say there
has been a sea-change in the place. Come back 'The Philadelphia
Story' all is forgiven.
Things like the Savings & Loans thievery; and others such, like
the Enron thing seem to confirm this. Though maybe it's always been
like that and the movies have it all wrong <s>.
Forty one million Americans without any Health Insurance in a
land that is so enormously rich is troubling.
Then again, I have relations from a big family, my father's
mother's brother's, who moved to the US a lot of years ago and are
married and distributed widely from Santa Clarita, California to
Lee, Massachusetts. There are others who are in Canada; British
Columbia. These contributions to the US and Canadian gene pool were
made over a period between 35 and 45 years ago.
Prejudice? It's hard to address. What do I know about America
other than from the movies; well there is or should that now be
'was', the news media - American or British - I don't think I'd want
to take their slant as accurate. These industries seem to be fully
bought and paid for by the buyers and payers-for of everything and I
don't think it likely that the reporting is uninfluenced by this
state of affairs, here or 'over-there'. You'll have seen the movie,
only recently released in the UK, 'Good Night and Good Luck', that
for me reflected a better more aware American time - notwithstanding
the hysteria - and was something that needed to be retold to a
younger generation of Americans. It gave me a lift. Prejudiced,
perhaps if I am so indicted it is simply prejudice of an old wrinkly,
who knows.
The names that flood forward are names like Allende, Guatemala,
North, Mai Lai. Then there are the couple of thousand American men
the US is losing in the Middle East not to mention one or two Iraqis;
and I don't think the US is there for the sand.
Then, there are the good American writers, whites, of the middle
of the last century and more such all the way back to Samuel L
Clemens; the more recent black, African-American, contribution in
that field. The arrangements for black Americans in mid-century and
earlier America left a bit to be desired; though with that thought.
'I Have a Dream' races across the screen on the inside my head - so
many such dreams get shot with high-powered rifles.
Then there is Jazz, now that is American and is great (I'll just
click on 'Harlem Airshaft' now - no, I'll just keep on listening to
Hilary Hahn playing Schoenberg on her goesunda between chats with
Radio 3's Sean Rafferty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/intune/pip/8tusy/
Ah, it seems she has a webpage...
http://www.hilaryhahn.com/
...well, to my untutored ear she really knows how to play that
fiddle.
Yes, I'll plump for 'not particularly'; though it's a big word,
'prejudiced' that is, not, 'particularly'.

Harry.

.

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