By Dmitry Badiarov, independent contributor to the Diplomat magazine One of Rastrelli Cello Quartet reporters once wrote, “to say that their performance was breathtaking is an understatement…” This was my impression after their performance in The Hague on November 24 last year and after their recent performance at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on the 29th of July. “They are men on a mission. The Rastrelli Cello Quartet, four Russians living in Germany, is out to cross all genres” wrote the Strings magazine and each concert shows they are steady on their route. Picture yourself a mufficking crowd in a concert. This is not necessarily a rock concert! It is the Rastrelli’s at Concertgebouw.    The cellists entered and started playing at once, without tuning – even before the welcoming applause ended – with David Popper’s fiery Tarantella, in which the quartet displayed their extraordinarily rich range of dynamics, including their hallmark barely audible but incredibly present pianissimo drawing everyone’s full attention and sensitivity towards the following pieces, each of which expressing completely different emotions. The Popper was followed by the elegiac Le cygne by Camile Saint-Saens, the quirky variations on Paganini’s 24th capriccio by the Quartet’s arranger-cellist Sergey Drabkin, the outpouring of Russian soul in Tchaikovsky’s Andante from the 1st string quartet in D, the virtual journey to Georgia in Sulkhan Zinzadze’s Folk Suite, and Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk. First cellist Kira Kravtzoff explained that even if this last piece was written 5000 km away from Georgia, it mirrored the spirit of Zinzadze’s music. The second part of the concert was dedicated to jazz, to the works of Euday Bowman, Hoagy Carmichael, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astor Piazzola, Leroy Anderson, Jimmy Forrest and Paul Desmond, all masterfully arranged by Sergey Drabkin whom the audience gave a well-deserved special applause. The pieces we heard that evening in the Concertgebouw sounded completely different from those we had heard in the previous concert in The Hague because Drabkin frequently re-writes the Quartet’s repertoire. However, there is another composer present in the Quartet – such luxury! – Misha Degtjarev, whose Lullaby was also delighted the audience in the second half of the program. A singularly unique ensemble, the Rastrelli Cello Quartet has been thrilling audiences with their renderings of non-traditional programming since 2002. Kira Kravtsov, founder and artistic director, Kirill Timofejev, Misha Degtjarev and Sergey Drabkin formed the ensemble with a mission to play music “between the genres”. The Rastrelli have performed in many of Europe’s main concert halls, including the Gasteig in Munich, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall, the Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Leiszhall in Hamburg and the Mariinsky Theater in St.-Petersburg.  In addition to concert tours in Europe, the USA and Russia, the Rastrelli performs at Summer festivals such as the Beethoven Festival Bonn, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Darmstadter Festspiele, the Branderburgische Sommerkonzerte, the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer, the Hohenlohe Kultursommer, the Rheingau Musikfestival, the Ohridsko Leto (Macedonia) and the Meadowlark Music Festival USA, and have cooperated with Giora Feidman, David Geringas and Gilles Apap. http://www.rastrelli.de

The War Prayer by Mark Twain – Introduction by Dario Poli.

There is considerable visual evidence shown by the international media of wars large and small taking place around the world, and threats of new wars being openly discussed by professional pundits, politician, legal experts and business elites, most of whom have never been in a real conflict or faced personal danger and injury.

  We the ordinary public going about our everyday business, are bombarded daily in the media outlets by the word ‘war’; the war on want, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on carbon, war on disease, war on crime, war on illiteracy, war against injustice, war of aggression, war of words, war against racism, war against intolerance and the war on terror. Painful consequences It appears that mankind is in a state of external war against its own social problems, the class war and now cyberwars, but with no solutions in sight. We are told that war is the ‘price of freedom’. However from an historical perspective, in reality it usually results in the ‘loss of freedom’ when we engage in war. The subtile infiltration of the word ‘war’ into our subconcious is constant and needs to be understood as the ramifications can be very serious. Any war enterprise however well prepared, is a hazardous, unpredictable undertaking, resulting in horrific experiences for those who fight them, as well as for the civilians, the animal life, the waste and contamination of our natural environment, not to mention the physiological and unending psychological trauma and problems of the victims. All suffer the painful consequences, including the enormous destruction of property, infrastructure and the irreplaceable loss of priceless art, culture and civilization. Double speak All this barbarity because of the deliberate intentions and actions, of those so few in number, using laws for war, created by the few for this purpose, who lead us the majority, into these risky adventures and horrendous conflicts, that in final analysis, come to an abrupt end usually due to immense material and human destruction, the high financial losses and the sheer exhaustion of the populations involved. Conflicts always have to be resolved by some form of dialogue and peaceful agreements, despite who is the winner and loser. All wars by their very nature are vile, nasty and destructive, as the finest of our youth at the orders of the oldest, perish or are permanently disfigured in conflict. War heavily sustained by a suffocating blanket of misinformation and double speak, is death, murder, rape, torture, incarceration and ruin. War always destroys wealth and liberty and it can eradicate civilizations. According to George Orwell, ‘all the war propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.’

Apocalypse, painting Dario Poli.

The beating of the war drums Amazingly despite all the above knowledge of war and its consequences, this peace normally holds until the next war breaks out and then the whole grizzly business begins again with renewed vigour, each side forcefully proclaiming their just cause, ingeniously holstered unto the trusting simplicity of the enthousiastically stimulated tribal patriotism of the majority of the populations of those involved, who still obediently follow the instructions and orders of the few, as if nothing had been learned from the previous tragedy, as they march meekly into the open doors of the house of carnage, to be savagely minced in the unmerciful war machine. Their cries of pity and fear vanishing unheeded into the universal ether, together with millions of tears washed away into a river of their precious blood. Arthur Koestler observed ‘The most persistent sound which reverberates through men’s history is the beating of war drums.’ ‘I confess without shame that I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded, who cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is Hell.’ – Civil War Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. Never a good war Humans daily face thousands of ways of dying from accidents and a myriad of diseases waiting to take our lives, but this appears not to be sufficient danger for us to face. Instead we deliberately increase our own peril and survival by skillfully, often ingeniously and effectively increasing the levels of killings by wars. What an incredible waste of energy, time and resources. Wars need to end as there are no victories, and as Benjamin Franklin noted ‘there was never a good war or a bad peace’. Mark Twain’s powerful The War Prayer is a reminder of the absurdity and stupidity of war, especially for those who have to fight them and is a timely warning to us all.  Dario Poli. The War Prayer, by Mark Twain It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burnt the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks  the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpooring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. The church filled It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. Sunday morning came – next day the battalions would leave for the front, the church was filled, the volunteers were there, their faces alight with material dreams – visions of a stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabres, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! – then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden sees of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbours and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation – ‘God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!’ An aged stranger Then came the ‘long’ prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory. An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main isle, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preachers’s side and stood there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconcious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, ‘Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!’ Is it one prayer? The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside – which the startled minister did – and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said ‘I come from the Throne – bearing a message from the Almighty God!’The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. ‘He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd and grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import – that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of – except he pause and think. ‘God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two – one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this – keep it in mind. If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! Lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it. The unspoken part ‘You have heard your servant’s prayer – the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it – that part which the pastor, and also you in your hearts, fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen! ‘O Lord our Father, our Young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, inploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen After a pause ‘Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits. It was believed afterwards that the man was lunatic; because there was no sense in what he said.

Twain wrote The War Prayer during the U.S. war on the Philippines. Submitted it for publication, but on March 22, 1905, it was rejected as unsuitable by Harpers’s Bazaar. Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, ‘I don’t think the prayer will be publisehd in my time. None of the dead are permitted to tell the truth.’ ‘The War Prayer’ remained unpublisehd until 1923. 

http://marbellamarbella.es/2014-08-11/the-war-prayer-by-mark-twain-introduction-by-dario-poli/  

By Roy Lie A Tjam. After 11 days, on August 3 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games came to an end in Glasgow, Scotland with a dazzling closing spectacle. The Commonwealth Games were officially opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II on 23 July 2014. Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 of the 53 member states in the Commonwealth of Nations. She is also Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. England, one of the home nations, topped the table but the Caribbean nations, notably Jamaica, did well. Despite some rain and chilly wind, the Jamaican team won ten gold medals at the games, part of an impressive tally of 22 medals won. Trinidad & Tobago’s Chef de mission of the 2014 team, Dr Ian Hypolite, expects the Glasgow experience to hold his country in good stead for the road to Rio 2016: ‘My expectation is that we would have benefitted immensely. It was a natural stepping stone for many teams. Prior to  the Rio Olympics, Caribbean Nations have the 2014 CAC (Central American and Caribbean) Games in Vera Cruz, Mexico, the Pan Am Games 2015 in Toronto, the Beijing 2015 IAAF World Championships for track and field – clear stepping stones to Rio. Experience will do us well as we progress along the way’Hypolite stated. Trinidad & Tobago ended the Games with three silver medals and five bronze. Olympic men’s javelin champion Keshorn Walcott, 400 meters hurdles world champion Jehue Gordon and shotputter Cleopatra Borel were the silver medalists. ‘The Games have made us all very proud and truly brought our family together’, said HRH Prince Imran, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), during the closing ceremony.        

By Arvind Rattan. Prior to the start of the academic year, first years have had the opportunity to take part in the Freshers’ Week organised in various student cities in the Netherlands. In this week, with dates varying in each city, the newly enrolled students are introduced to their universities and hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), to their new cities, to student societies and student associations, to a diversity of student practices, and most importantly to their peers. Traditionally, the Freshers’ week is accompanied with the consumption of alcohol, and is regarded as holidays by the first years and other students since it takes place in August. The Freshers’ Week 2014 was very extraordinary compared to previous years of the Freshers’ Week. There are numerous reasons which have made this Freshers’ Week so different. The biggest elephant in the room was clearly the weather. The Freshers’ Week consists of many outdoor activities. Some of these activities have been completely ruined by rain. Despite the very stormy and rainy weather brought to the Netherlands by remnants of the infamous hurricane Bertha, many first years have thoroughly enjoyed their Freshers’ Week. In Eindhoven, however, the rain became too much for the first years, or to put it more accurately, for their accommodation. The Freshers’ Week of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, which was attended by approximately 2,600 first years had to be cancelled, after their campsite was completely flooded. Another big factor which has contributed to the distinct Freshers’ Week 2014 was the big change in alcohol policy. In January 2014, a new law came into effect, which effectively prevents the consumption of alcohol by minors, i.e. those below the age of 18. Not only are the bars, older friends and others subject to fines if they get caught giving alcohol to first years younger than 18 years, those first years will be fined too – a 90 euro fine. As stated previously, the Freshers’ Week in the Netherlands is traditionally accompanied with the consumption of alcohol. The organising committees of the Freshers’ Week have anticipated this change. The committees had taken colourful precautions to distinguish the first years by age. The first years had to wear coloured wristbands which precisely indicated their age. Not only was the application and enforcement of this policy successful, this policy imposed on the first years by the organising committees had the fortunate side effect that uninvited guests to first years’ activities were spotted easily among the invited. Finally, in the aftermath of the Dutch national disaster MH17, the first years of Tilburg University have paid their respects to their former dean of Liberal Arts and senator, professor Willem Witteveen.      

One humble man able to describe the beauty, the pain, the colors and the emotions of a land of fantasy  became one of the most famous writers in the word and first Colombia’s Nobel Price. The Colombian novelist,  short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist creator of  One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Autumn of the Patriarch, No one writes to the Colonel, Of Love and Other Demons, The Fragrance of Guava and so many more was celebrated in a special tribute organized by the Embassy of Colombia at the Hague’s Public Library on September 25. Colombian Ambassador  Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez invited as guest speakers  Frenk van der Linden, Jaime Garcia Marquez and Gerald Martin. The Studio B of The Hague Library was received many guests admiring the memoires of “Gabo”.