Everything is animated
"Eager'' (video still from stop-motion, clay animation video with sound), by ALLISON SCHULNIK, in the "Allison Schulnik/Matrix 168'' show at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, through May 4.
Moment of truth for the West
At the Museum of Russian Icons, in Clinton, Mass., in the show "The Tsars' Cabinet,'' which highlights 200 years of decorative arts under the Romanov dynasty. Russian oligarchs around Vladimir Putin also love to collect these items.
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In September 1938, at the Munich Conference, Adolf Hitler promised French and British leaders, who felt compelled to appease him, that Czechoslovakia’s mostly German-speaking Sudetenland region would be ”my last territorial demand in Europe.’’ Within a few months, of course, the Nazis occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia and then invaded Poland.
Vladimir Putin is a power-mad political mobster of extreme cynicism and considerable paranoia, albeit not the world-historical sociopath that Hitler was. I have little doubt that the Russian dictator plans to try to seize more land in eastern Europe, perhaps part of Moldova and all of Ukraine and not just the eastern part, where, he and his associates like to say, they might need to “rescue’’ Russian speakers from virtually nonexistent “mistreatment’’. In the same way, Hitler often cited the need to “rescue’’ German speakers who lived in countries that Hitler wanted to seize in the pursuit of his “Thousand Year Reich’’.
Putin, like Hitler, seems obsessed with “encirclement’’ by perceived foes. Of course, most people in neighboring nations, who see close-up what goes on in Putin’s kleptocratic police state, would certainly not want to be absorbed by it. Meanwhile, why don’t more journalists and others note that Russia is far and away the largest country by square mileage. Without the powerful vector of Russian imperialism (which includes Soviet imperialism), it might seem passing strange that Russia would want/need to get even bigger.
But for a thug, no power or money or acreage is enough. Thus former KGB official Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century.’’ He’s talking about a regime that murdered tens of millions of people and that for a couple of years was a Nazi ally.
But a regime as nasty as Putin’s is not exactly good for business investment, and so Russia, for all its size, remains remarkably weak, if aggressive. Of course, the Chinese regime is also corrupt and brutal, but China has an entrepreneurial and disciplined people who have made the country an economic powerhouse anyway. The Russians, burdened by bad government and the associated alcoholism, despair and fatalism, and thus without a vibrant, diversified entrepreneurial culture, don’t have it. Without copious supplies of oil and gas, they would hardly have an economy at all.
Those fossil fuels give Russia a lot of power to get temporizing Europeans to tolerate Russian imperialism. It’s yet another reason to move faster to home-grown renewable energy – and gas exports from the U.S. What will it take to get the Germans, etc., to accept some short-term pain in return for the long-term security that would come from the demise of Putin’s dictatorship? That short-term European pain could include a cutoff of Russian gas supplies in response to sanctions on the Putin regime.
Many of Putin’s cronies and maybe the dictator himself have Riviera real estate, bank accounts, money-laundering operations and other assets in the West. Indeed, something that the West has going for it now that it didn’t have in Soviet days is that the Russian regime and the former Soviet functionaries who stole state assets under the drunken Boris Yeltsin have so much property abroad. And Russian oligarchs like to travel in and indeed live in the West. They should be squeezed very hard.
The Russians have far more to fear from tough Western sanctions than the West has to fear from the Putin regime. The question is whether the West has gone too soft and complacent to act firmly.
The sanctions by the Obama administration to squeeze some of Putin’s fellow mobsters are a start but far from enough. And the Europeans have not yet shown much backbone. Rhetoric is cheap. Western security demands that everything possible be done to weaken Putin’s regime. Now.
When George W. Bush did little when the Russians invaded tiny Georgia, a democracy, and stole some of its land, it emboldened Putin, who, like most bullies, is quick to sense weakness. He probably laughed his cynical laugh when Bush said early in his presidency that he had “looked into his {Putin’s} soul’’ and saw a man he could trust.
NATO must step up its military assistance to members Poland and the Baltic Republics and provide arms, air-defense technology, military intelligence and other defensive military support to Ukraine to make Putin think twice before marching on Kiev.
In 1956, President Eisenhower did virtually nothing when the Russians moved in to quash the Hungarian Revolution, killing tens of thousands of people. In 1968, President Johnson did nothing when the Russians quashed Czech attempts to wrest themselves from Soviet/Russian dictatorship. In 2008 President G.W. Bush did virtually nothing when the Russians invaded Georgia and stole some of that democracy's land. But these days, we do have potent weapons to discourage further Russian expansionism. But they require our will and patience.
Meanwhile, many Ukrainian leaders must profoundly regret that their nation gave up its nuclear arms in 1994 in return for security guarantees from the U.S., Britain and Russia. The hope then was that Russia would not go back to its traditional oriental despotism. One of Russia’s fellow tyrannies, Iran, which is hurrying to make nuclear bombs, will take a lesson from the Ukrainian crisis.
Robert Whitcomb (rwhitcomb51@gmail.com) is a former editor of these pages and a Providence-based editor and writer. He runs the www.newenglanddiary.com site. He is a former editor at the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal.
What we are looking for
"Vision with Green'' (oil on canvas), by ESTEBAN VICENTE, at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, Conn.
Harbor in waiting
"A Saturday in March: Chatham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts,'' by BOBBY BAKER (copyright Bobby Baker Photography).
You must like gray and brown in these weeks just before the spring greening.
'New Englanders of the Year'
The New England Council, the country’s oldest regional business organization, will present its prestigious “New Englander of the Year” awards at its 2014 Annual Dinner at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center in Boston on Thursday, October 9, 2014. This year’s recipients are Peter Frates, who inspired the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge; Gary L. Gottlieb, M.D., President & CEO of Partners HealthCare; Alan S. McKim, Chairman & CEO of Clean Harbors Environmental Services; and George Stephanopoulos, Chief Anchor at ABC News. Over 1,400 New England Council members representing businesses large and small across a wide range of industries throughout New England will be in attendance. The “New Englander of the Year” awards are presented each year by the New England Council and honor residents or natives of the New England states for their commitment and contributions in their fields of work, as well as their leadership and impact on the New England region’s quality of life and economy. First presented in 1964, over the years the award has been presented to Senators Ted Kennedy, Jack Reed, Jean Shaheen, Kelly Ayotte, Susan Collins and John Kerry; Congressmen Richard Neal, Ed Markey, John Larson, and Barney Frank; and business leaders Abigail Johnson of Fidelity Investments, Robert Reynolds of Putnam Investments, Anne Finucane of Bank of America and many other respected government, business, and non-profit leaders.
“Each of our 2014 honorees has made remarkable contributions to our economy and our communities, both here in New England and beyond,” said James T. Brett, President and CEO of the New England Council. “Through thoughtful leadership, innovative thinking, and dedication to their community, these individuals truly embody all that is great about New England. We’re delighted to be celebrating their accomplishments with hundreds of our members at this year’s Annual Dinner.”
The New England Council’s Board of Directors selected this year’s honorees based on their commitment to the community, distinguished careers and countless contributions to the region:
Peter Frates Peter Frates is a native of Beverly, MA, and a graduate of Boston College, where he was the captain of the Eagles baseball team. In 2012, Peter was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” Since his diagnosis, Peter and his family have dedicated much of their time and energy to raising awareness of ALS and raising funds to support research for a cure. Peter is the inspiration for the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” which “went viral” and became a global phenomenon during the summer of 2014. Around the world, millions of people, from politicians, to celebrities, to countless private citizens, took the challenge and donated to the ALS Association, resulting in over $140 million raised to support research for a cure.
Gary L. Gottlieb, M.D. – President and CEO, Partners HealthCare Gary L. Gottlieb, M.D., is the President and CEO of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Partners HealthCare, one of the largest employers in New England, and one of the world’s largest academic biomedical research enterprises, also includes community and specialty hospitals, a managed care organization, community health centers, a physician network, home health and long-term care services, and other health-related entities. Dr. Gottlieb is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He has served in a variety of leadership posts at some of the nation’s top hospitals, including President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. A recognized community leader in the region, Dr. Gottlieb also focuses his attention on workforce development issues, serving as the Chair of Boston’s Private Industry Council. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Medical College of Union University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Alan S. McKim – Founder and CEO, Clean Harbors, Inc. Alan S. McKim founded Clean Harbors in 1980, and today serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Under McKim’s leadership, Norwell, MA-based Clean Harbors has grown from a four-person tank cleaning business to the leading environmental, energy and industrial service provider in North America, with revenues over $3.5 billion in 2013. Clean Harbors has led clean-up efforts following natural disasters, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as environmental incidents, including the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Clean Harbors also provides leading edge technologies and services to prevent the release of contaminants to the environment and its wide range of sustainability and recycling capabilities include the world’s largest oil re-refining facility. McKim serves as a Trustee of Northeastern University, where the University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business was named in honor of Mr. McKim and a fellow classmate in recognition of their significant business achievements and substantial contributions to the university. He holds an MBA from Northeastern University and an Honorary Doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. George Stephanopoulos – Chief Anchor, ABC News George Stephanopoulos was named Chief Anchor of ABC News in June 2014, leading the network’s coverage of special events and breaking news. The Fall River, MA, native currently serves as the anchor of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”, and as the anchor of “Good Morning America”, which he has helped propel to the number one spot in the competitive national morning news market. Prior to joining ABC News in 1997, Stephanopoulos served as a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton. He is also the author of the New York Times number one best seller, “All Too Human”. Stephanopoulos is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
The New England Council’s 2014 Annual Dinner will be held on Thursday, October 9, 2014, at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center in Boston. The reception will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a dinner program and award presentation beginning at 6:00 p.m. This year’s Annual Dinner is being chaired by New England Council board member Patricia Jacobs, New England President of AT&T.
The New England Council, the country’s oldest regional business organization, is an alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions, and public and private organizations throughout New England formed to promote economic growth and a high quality of life in the region. The Council is dedicated to identifying and supporting federal public policies and articulating the voice of its membership regionally and nationally on important issues facing New England. The NEC is also committed to working with public and private sector leaders across the region and in Washington through educational programs and forums for information exchange. For more information, please visit: www.newenglandcouncil.com.
The rich in russet
"Back Bay'' (oil on panel), by JAN McELHINNY, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.
Tough flowers; facing Putin's fascist mobocracy
March 22, 2014 rwhitcomb51@gmail.com
The ground is mostly open, if brown, except for some old clumps of dirty snow. Last year's oak leaves crinkle in the big old ugly trees, waiting to be pushed out by the new crop. Anyway, if we get two days of 60 degrees, the greenery on the ground will explode. The stuff higher up will take longer, of course.
It never ceases to amaze me that even with it below freezing at night, the green shoots of bulb flowers keep pushing up. On a south-facing slope two weeks ago, I saw crocuses starting to bloom even though it had been 10 above a couple of nights before.
The older I get, the more I like walking in the very early morning, not long after dawn. It's so quiet and unpeopled that the direction of one's life and even the world in general suddenly becomes clearer.
I think about geo-politics, and these days about how the Cold War never really went away (not that I thought it did) -- and that some countries, such as Russia, are run by gangsters who make plans with the assumption that nations that should be their forthright foes will put off a strong response to the gangsters with the always doomed hope that they can be satisfied. For gangster leaders, no quantity of power and money is ever enough.
More attention should have been paid to Putin's statement a few years back that the collapse of the Soviet Union "was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century.'' The Soviet Union was responsible for killing tens of millions of people. But then, there's little indication that former KGB man Putin has anything against killing, whatever the retention of power requires.
With Putin's promises not to invade more countries, I think of Hitler's vow at Munich in September 1938, as the British and French were giving him Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland -- "This is my last territorial demand in Europe.'' He marched into the rest of Czechoslovakia a few months later and invaded Poland in September 1939.
Of course, as with Putin "rescuing Russians'' who didn't previously seem to need rescuing by the mobster Russian regime, Hitler had to "rescue'' the German speakers in the Sudetenland and put them under the "protection'' of his psychopathic regime. Putin is eyeing the rest of the Ukraine and the Baltic Republics for similar rescues.
Because of his vast narcissism, cynicism and power drive, Eastern Europe has much cause to be worried unless the soft European Union shows some backbone. But there is one thing that the current Kremlin has much more to fear from than the Soviet regime did. The Russian government and the billionaire oligarchs (but I repeat myself!) have far more investments in the West than the Soviets had. And despite the oligarchs' claims of being Russian (or at least Putin) patriots (claims necessary to avoid being brought down, or even dumped in the river, by Putin's boys) they'd much rather have their money in the vibrant West than under the current cold Russian fascist dictatorship where policies are set by the whim of Putin and his associates. Russian businessmen and pols (and they are often the same thing) can be squeezed hard if the West has the will to do so.
I also think that the Russian aggression should help pull European heads out of the sand on renewable energy. The Europeans import far too much gas and oil from Russia, which is so corrupt and inefficient, and so lacking in the rule of law, that extractive industry comprises most of the profits in its economy. It is less and less an attractive place to do business. Loyalty to Putin, not creativity, is what counts.
So the more Western and Central European renewable energy the weaker the mobsters in Moscow.
In his brown study
"Under the Chandelier'' (gouache on paper), by KARL ZERBE, at the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Mass.
The island of the Unitarians
"Trap Dike, Star Island'' (oil on canvas) , by CHRIS VOLPE, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.
Star Island is one of those tiny bodies of land off New Hampshire that comprise the Isles of Shoals. It has long been a summer retreat for Unitarians, that quintessentially New England denomination that mostly evolved from such Transcendentalists as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Just before the greening
"Plum Island" (acrylic on panel), by CARA GONIER, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.
Those overrated old mills; defending fraternities
Some can be renovated for artists’ lofts and small businesses and their owners can make a profit — often with special tax breaks. The mass of taxpayers must make up the lost tax revenue. And some owners are big tax deadbeats. Consider the owners of Hope Artiste Village, in Pawtucket, who owe the city $124,690 for the current tax year, or those of The Thread Factory, on the Pawtucket-Central Falls line, who owe Pawtucket $366,306 and Central Falls $410,000. There may be similar examples around the state.
It is hard to quantify how much Rhode Island has gained or lost from trying to preserve old mills because people think that they’re quaint. Many can never be retrofitted to make a fair (without tax breaks) profit. Preservationists (not a few of whom are financially secure and don’t have to worry too much about finding a job in the sluggish Rhode Island economy) fiercely fight to save as many of these mills as possible, once built for economically logical reasons that disappeared decades ago. Indeed, the Ocean State has not exactly become a boom town during all these years of trying to keep old factory buildings that don’t make anything anymore except the occasional arsonist.
Then there’s that Art Deco tower the Industrial Bank Building, which, because of its stepped-back structure and location in not exactly thriving Providence, has little chance of being a full-scale office building again. Maybe it would work for residential — but again with tax breaks to be paid for by people not benefiting from its redevelopment.
A rather similar stepped-back famous Art Deco skyscraper is the gold-roofed United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building, at 140 Federal St. in downtown Boston, which for many years was New England’s tallest building. It had been slated for demolition in 1981, after “Shoe,” as the once huge company was long called, disappeared. But Boston was/is a major financial center. The quantity of local money and tax breaks made retrofitting it attractive, and the building is now filled with Class A offices.
Providence doesn’t have that critical mass. Other than nostalgia, there’s little to justify taxing the public to maintain the now remarkably inefficient “Superman Building.” Anyway, Providence had its heyday before it was built and could have another after it’s gone. And even Chartres Cathedral will one day disappear. As Ira Gershwin wrote, “In time the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble ... ”
The South Bronx, the famously poor and crime-ridden section of New York given up for lost 30-40 years ago, has enjoyed a revival in part because so many of the old buildings were torn down (often after arson) and new buildings put up in the newly available acreage. Perhaps Rhode Island should move away from its love affair with old factories that do nothing (or worse) for the macro-economy. New buildings can be beautiful too. Are old mills over-rated?
***
The cover story in this month’s Atlantic is titled “The Fraternity Problem: It’s Worse Than You Think.” The article, surprisingly, spends a lot of ink on a nasty fraternity at very liberal/PC/“Little Ivy” Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Conn., where various outrages involving booze, sexual assault and so on have taken place. (Harvard also has fraternities, called “Final Clubs,” where, as a guest, I have witnessed grotesque behavior fueled by alcohol and other drugs.)
Busybodies and other social engineers cry out for closing all fraternities, though legally that would be impossible.
Speaking as a past member of a fraternity, I object. At most of these clubs, while drinking goes on sometimes, as it does at many social organizations, activities are much tamer than the “Animal House” cliché. And they play the healthy role of providing a closer sense of community than can the wider and anomie-ridden college or university community. Indeed, fraternities are frequently the venue for the start of lifelong friendships. Many college administrations should monitor these organizations with more rigor and call in the police (the town cops, not the campus cops) when necessary, of course, but, still, fraternities all in all do more good than harm. And without a modicum of freedom of association, society would be very dreary indeed.
I recently got a note from a group that was in the fraternity house I was in in the late 1960s. They’re planning a reunion for next October. As I saw the names, the years peeled back. Dozens are coming, out of (mostly lapsed) friendship and even morbid curiosity.
Robert Whitcomb (rwhitcomb51@gmail.com), a former editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal and a former finance editor of the International Herald Tribune, is a Providence-based writer and editor and a director of Cambridge Management Group (www.cmg625.com)., a health-care-industry consultancy.
Our polarities with other animals
"Nothin for You Here" (acrylic on canvas), by JANE O'HARA, in the "Beasts of Burden'' sh0w at Harvard Allston Educational Portal through May 5.
Artscope reports: "Both the individual and collaborative efforts within the exhibition speak to the polarities of the human-{other}animal relationship, covering every length of the spectrum from deep love and respect to a palpable sense of anxiety, guilt and even outrage regarding crimes perpetrated against the defenseless species.
Putin's energy lesson for Europe; new green media empire
The Russian seizure of the Crimea is an example of how reliance on fossil fuel makes people captive of dictators. At this point, other than spouting mostly empty rhetoric, it appears that the Europeans can/will do little or nothing to halt Putin's expansionism, which will not stop with Crimea. The main reason is that they're afraid that he will cut off their gas.
The more that the Europeans and others have their own locally created renewable energy, the less their policies will be captive of such dictators as Putin.
Meanwhile, I note that Peter Arpin, Edward Catucci and their colleague at Renewable Now have created a nifty multi-media operation devoted to sustainability and renewable energy.
Ike, LBJ and GWB also didn't act
March 7, 2014
Milder today, with even a touch of the sweet melancholy of spring. I think that when spring (that you can feel) really arrives, maybe next month, there will be an usually exuberant explosion of green. And maybe a particularly hot summer. The meteos predict much warmer weather starting later this year as El Nino gets cooking. Good, this year's heating bill have just about bankrupted us.
First, a reminder that Eisenhower did not do a thing when the Russians invaded Hungary in 1956 and killed about 30,000 people; Johnson didn't do anything when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, and George W. Bush didn't do anything when Russia invaded and stole part of Georgia.
Fascist Russian dictator Putin still occupies Crimea and it looks at this point that not much will be done about it, at least in the short term. The Europeans fear that Putin will turn off their gas supplies; they have also essentially disarmed. This shows yet again how being dependent on fossil fuel from dictators is a dangerous thing. The more local, renewable energy you can get, the safer you are.
Will Obama continue to look and act weak in the face of this thug? Or now that he has learned that sweet talk doesn't work with tyrants, maybe all of a sudden get tough, as happened when the scales feel from Jimmy Carter's eyes about the Soviets in 1979, when they invaded Afghanistan (helping to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980)?
Obama's retaliation so far is a joke -- suspending some visas and freezing some assets of people who weren't really in charge of the invasion of Crimea. In fact, this was all done at the order of Putin. It is the assets of Putin and the people around him, including the economic oligarchs of the astonishingly corrupt current version of the Russian Empire, that need to be frozen.
By the way, one reason that Putin decided to seize Crimea is that the Soviet/Russian port there has been used to constantly resupply with armaments his fellow dictator Bashar Assad and other thugs around the world.
But reminder in all this: Eisenhower did not do a thing when the Russians invaded Hungary in 1956 and killed about 30,000 people and Johnson didn't do anything when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.
rwhitcomb51@gmail.com
We'll stick with hate then
"A Love Like This" (archival inkjet print), by CORINNE SPENCER, at Samson gallery, Boston, through August. She says "the artist forces the viewer to feel uncomfortable as she imposes bodily distress upon herself.''
Interesting business model.
Memento mori, et al.
"Enduring Ephemera Series: Installation #2'' (detail, mixed media, plant/animal material, hair), by ERICA WESSMANN, in her "Memento'' show at Fountain Street Fine Art, Framingham, Mass., through March 30.
Prepare for industrial agriculture in maple-syrup business
The big story in The Boston Globe today is:
"Experiments at the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center show that maple sap — the raw material that sugar makers boil into syrup — can be efficiently vacuumed from the decapitated trunks of saplings, sharply increasing syrup production. That’s a radical departure from the centuries-old practice of inserting a small tap a few feet above the base of a mature tree, relying on the force of gravity and internal pressure to draw off the sap.''
There's goes the romance of March-thaw maple-sugaring, albeit there will be a windfall for industrial agriculture in the North Country. The baby maples would be grown in tight rows, like corn or Christmas trees.
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On my mother's trail
"Satellite From the Afterlife (detail from acrylic on canvas), by DAVID KINSEY, in his show "In Loving Memory of My Mother, Kathy Wooden Kinsey,'' which presents "an epic trail'' of "moments of time that occur in one's life.'' The show will be at Bromfield Gallery, Boston, March 5-3o.
rwhitcomb51@gmail.com