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Picasso, Gernika, and Mariupol: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Francisco Franco

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  The tapestry version of Picasso's " Guernica " that hangs in the United Nations headquarters in New York On November 18 of this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Spain to discuss more military aid for Ukraine in its fight to fend off the Russian aggressor and remain an independent, democratically governed people.  He and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid to view Pablo Picasso ’s famous painting, “Guernica”.  Zelenskyy noted how the work portrays so well the horrors of war, especially the bombing of civilians, such as that which Russia is currently inflicting on the cities of Ukraine.  It was not the first time Zelenskyy had made the connexion.  In April of 2022, on a video call with Sánchez, he noted the relevance of the famous painting for Ukrainians.  The months of both of those times Zelenskyy connected with Spanish authorities and referred to this painting—April and November—are s...
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Friends of History Beware: This is a Preposterous Map

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    The above map is preposterous.  I came across it online.  I do not know its author, but it is clearly problematic, giving people some very wrong ideas.   It presents us with a Europe of current borders and proposes to give the year for the founding of each country. While some of the years are reasonable in the literal sense of the founding a modern state ( Ireland 1916 ), others are pure nonsense, such as the suggestion that Greece was founded in 330 , the year Constantine I established the new capital of the Roman Empire at Constantinople .  The modern state of Greece was founded in 1821 and has been notable for distancing itself from its Byzantine past and leaning on the heritage of Athens.  Much of the preposterousness of the map arises from the inconsistent application of “rules of thumb.”  Germany (1871) and Italy (1861) are based on the official founding of the modern state, while Ukraine (1119) and Russia...
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The Problem with Germany

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  I find myself being frustrated by the heel dragging and ambivalence in German politics and among the populace when it comes to stepping up to fill the void being left by a self-absenting United States.  Russia is on the march.  Germany’s eastern and northern neighbours see the imminent danger and are responding.  The UK and France are sounding the alarm.  With the largest economy in Europe, and the largest population in the EU, Germany needs to be the new lynch pin, the new keystone in the security framework of Europe.  While some are saying the right words, and while there is some movement in the right direction, people like Friedrich Merz face enormous headwinds.  So, as in all things, it is helpful to understand how we got here.     Rebuilding After the Collapse In 1945, Germany lay in ruins.  Total defeat.  It had been the second time that France, Britain, the United States, and Russia...
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The American Myth of Bailing Out Europe

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      On the Term, “Myth”   In this essay, I will be using the term “myth” in the technical sense of, “a meaning giving story,” and not in the sense of something that is not true.  Every country has its national myths that help to give a sense of identity and purpose.  Empires, especially, need grand myths to explain or justify their expansionist or imperial endeavours to their population and to their adversaries.  For the Spanish Empire, it was saving the souls of the peoples they conquered.  For the French and British Empires, it was “the white man’s burden” of “civilising savages.”  For the Soviet Union, it was liberating the peasants and workers of the world from the counter-revolutionary forces of capitalism and creating a global proletarian paradise.  For the United States of America, it was the “manifest destiny” given by God to be a light to the nations and to shield the new republics in the America’...
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