Gheorghe Zamfir va actiona in judecata ...

Saptamana trecuta, regele naiului Gheorghe Zamfir s–a aflat la Chisinau, la invitatia poetului Grigore Vieru. Cu acest prilej Gheorghe Zamfir a mers sa–si vada terenul de 1100 de metri, din centrul capitalei, al carui proprietar este din 1990. Locul destinat constructiei unei scoli de nai pentru copiii superdotati, al carui fondator urma sa devina Zamfir, a fost vandut in 2004, fara a fi intrebat detinatorul legitim al terenului. Maestrul ne–a declarat ca va actiona in judecata Primaria Chisinau, iar daca nu va obtine castig de cauza, va apela la CEDO si la ONU.

— Maestre, din anii '70, inceputul exilului Dvs., Franta v–a fost la picioare, dupa cele 45 de reprezentatii la Teatrul Montparnasse. Cu milioane de discuri vandute, cu elogii din partea tuturor statelor lumii, ce va face sa va consumati atat de mult in chestiunea Basarabiei?

— Intotdeauna cand sunt chemat in Basarabia, vin la apel. In 1990, cand am venit din exilul meu teribil de 30 de ani, am ajuns prin Moscova. Era prima data cand aterizam la Chisinau. Nu stiu daca sefii de state au fost primiti aici asa ca mine. De la avion erau numai cosuri de flori... De atunci a inceput epopeea zamfiriana in Basarabia. In timpul celor cinci concerte la Chisinau s–a produs ceva inimaginabil. Plangeam eu, plangea sala. Spectatorii refuzau sa plece din sala. Concertele se terminau dupa orele 24.00. Era iarna, iar lumea pleca pe jos acasa. A fost magnific. N–am trait asemenea momente in toata gloria mea terestra. Atunci am inteles si eu sensul gandirii basarabene si sufleteste m–am atasat mult de acest loc, incat am sentimentul ca m–am nascut aici. Am fost onorat cu diverse titluri: Profesor de onoare la Conservator, Cetatean de onoare al orasului. Am fost decorat cu Ordinul Eminescu. Am fost numit Membru de onoare al Uniunii Compozitorilor, ceea ce, in Romania, nu s–a intamplat decat acum doi ani.

— Inca din anul 1990 intentionati sa fondati o scoala de nai pentru copiii superdotati din Moldova. La ce etapa e acest proiect?

— Nu am sa renunt niciodata la ideea fondarii la Chisinau a unei institutii de nai de care sa beneficieze copiii superdotati din Basarabia. Pe cand primar de Chisinau era dl Dobre, la initiativa Ministerului Culturii, cu dl Ion Ungureanu ministru, mi s–a oferit un teren de 1100 de metri patrati pe str. V. Micle 11, in vecinatatea Teatrului "M. Eminescu". Dupa ce am devenit cetatean de onoare al acestui municipiu, CMC a votat unanim sa–mi fie acordat acel teren. Decizia a fost luata in baza principiului universal, potrivit caruia, in toata lumea, cetatenii de onoare au dreptul la o casa in orasele respective. Pe acel loc, cand as fi avut banii necesari, urma sa fie construita scoala de nai pentru cei mai talentati copii. Preotii au sfintit locul destinat. S–a cantat, s–au ars lumanari pe acel fundament, ca in aceste zile sa gasesc acolo o cladire a companiei ‚Moldcell". Am aflat ca, in 2004, autoritatile locale, fara a studia istoria locului si fara a–mi cere acordul, au vandut terenul companiei respective. In curand voi actiona in judecata Primaria, eventual, voi apela la CEDO sau la ONU.

— De ce in mediul artistic se discuta despre o tragedie a lui Zamfir, neinteles si chiar marginalizat?

— Am suferit ca un martir, pentru ca am spus adevarul de ordin social, politic, cultural in toate perioadele. Am spus ca Iliescu a fost cea mai mare calamitate pentru Romania din ultimii 50 de ani, avand trei mandate consecutive. Gratie acestui succes absolut, a pus tot arsenalul securist si de spionaj kgb–ist in slujba lui. M–au lichidat la toate nivelurile. Sunt un om cu care se poate discuta si coopera. Au scos asupra mea tot felul de barfe si calomnii, inimaginabile: ca as fi nebun, ca as fi imprevizibil sau capabil de orice, ca ratez concerte, ca nu ma achit de obligatiile artistice, ca nu mai pot sa cant. Daca Dumnezeu ma va tine pana la 90 de ani, si atunci am sa suflu in nai, am sa scriu si am sa compun.

— Banuiesc ca s–a mai schimbat situatia in ultimul timp...

— In ultimul an s–au mai produs niste schimbari, dar nu atat de notabile in ceea ce priveste situatia mea. Pentru mine, anii 1990 au fost o perioada naucitoare. Ma simteam exilat in propria tara. Telefoanele mele au fost ascultate din 1967. Se fac 40 de ani de cand sunt urmarit si pus pe tusa. Ceausescu nu m–a pus pe tusa, eu fiind atunci un tanar cu atitudine. Desi stabilit in Franta, veneam deseori in Romania, cu exceptia celor 8 ani teribili de exil, care m–au marcat enorm: 1982–1990. Cand m–am intors, speram ca, in sfarsit, Romania s–a eliberat. Am crezut cu toata forta mea. Acasa, m–am pus de unul singur impotriva tuturor. Nu am avut nici o sustinere din partea artistilor. Am sperat ca voi gasi ecouri in sufletele unor oameni. M–am inselat enorm, crezand ca un artist nu poate sa insele.

— De ce mesajele Dvs. v–au lasat indiferenti colegii, iar factorii decizionali reactionand atat de agresiv?

— Am avut un mesaj de armonie, de pace, de salvare a tarii. Astfel, m–am pus impotriva lor, crezand ca venind cu un bagaj recunoscut in Romania ca fiind unul de glorie, de mit si de legenda, voi fi respectat, cel putin. Dupa ce am invins de unul singur, in 30 de ani, eram convins ca Romania va merge spre o Europa democratica din care veneam. Aparusem in tara mea cu o democratie franceza in cap, sperand ca aceasta se va instaura treptat si la noi. Or, Constitutia franceza este una dintre cele mai democratice din Europa. Dupa modelul ei, in 1923, ne–am elaborat propria constitutie. Acasa, insa, am gasit toata cacealmaua si minciuna odioasa, pusa pe taraba impotriva poporului si a tot ce era democratic de catre Iliescu. Mi–a parut enorm de rau ca am revenit.

— Afirmati ca nu mai exista o voce civica a artistilor?

— Care voce? Noi traim prin impresia colapsului romanesc, care poate fi salvat de mirajul american si occidental. Aceasta idee este una utopica.

— Afirmati ca ar persista o criza a simtirii romanesti in tara si in diaspora?

— Aceasta nu este o criza, ci o cadere absoluta. Cand cazi intr–o agonie de moarte, nu mai e criza. Nu vedem decat filme cu agresiuni, mitraliere, sex si droguri. Romania stia ce–i drogul intre anii `70 — `90? Traim intr–o lume nebuna care spune ca Zamfir e nebun.

— Nu putem nega existenta artei veritabile in Romania, a politicilor culturale menite sa sprijine institutiile culturale, artistii...

— Exista, pentru ca aceasta este arta de sapte milenii. Tot ce a fost realizat in sapte milenii, nu poate fi ras in 15 ani. Nu vedeti ce emisiuni se dau la televiziune, in care muzica romaneasca este comparata cu folclorul? O muzica care este de 50 de ani sau de 70 de ani, cum poti s–o compari cu un folclor de 7000 de ani? Vin fetite cu minijupe — locomotive nationale. Traim caderea vertiginoasa a traditiilor noastre. Tinerii se iubesc pe la discoteci cu sticla de votca in buzunar. Daca satul cade, folclorul cade.

— De ce credeti ca Romania postdecembrista a deraiat de la cursul sperat al democratiei?

— Romania este pusa intr–un colimator mondial. Este pusa pe o schema anumita de schimbare totala, pentru ca, se stie, Romania este infinit de bogata spiritual si ca poate face multe in ceea ce priveste salvarea Europei in plan spiritual.

— Mult discutata integrare in UE, mai poate fi pusa la indoiala ?

— Este un lucru formal. Romania a fost in Europa din toate timpurile. Romania a fost Europa, in primul rand. Pe timpul lui Burebista si Decebal, eram cea mai mare intindere de pamant in Europa. Integrarea in institutiile europene este pozitiva prin faptul ca vom primi ajutoare materiale, pe care altfel nu trebuia sa le primim. Cu aceste fonduri externe se doreste remedierea situatiei precare a satului romanesc. La ce nivel? Satul romanesc mai exista doar prin voia lui Dumnezeu. Taranul, de fapt, este o fantoma. Am plans vara trecuta cand am traversat in Teleorman o zona rurala. Exista un sat acolo, parasit de tarani. Casele sunt goale, caini nu mai exista si oamenii umbla bezmetici pe la baruri. Nici un fel de opinie... Cum sa nu castige Iliescu?

— Totusi, in Occident, ansamblul drepturilor omului se respecta intr–o masura incomparabil mai mare decat in statele noastre...

— Care drepturile omului? Liberte, egalite, fraternite? Cand ies din bloc, zilnic vad un aurolac caruia ii dau de pomana, ceea ce inseamna ca el are un salariu asigurat numai din ceea ce–i dau eu. El este egal cu mine sau eu sunt egal cu el, din moment ce el asteapta bucatica de la mine? In tarile europene este camuflat totul. Tragedia este in interior. Credeti ca europenii sunt fericiti? Introducerea monedei euro a fost o cacealma. In Franta, kilogramul de cirese care–l cumparai cu trei franci, acum 5–10 ani, il cumperi cu 7 euro. Este mai scump de doua–trei ori decat inainte.

Si in plan spiritual e saracie. Bisericile sunt goale in Occident. Numai la noi oamenii mai vin la biserica, caci singura speranta este credinta. In ultimii 15 ani, in Romania s–au construit 2000 de biserici, ceea ce nu s–a intamplat in nici o tara de pe glob.

— Ce faceti in prezent ca sa mai scapati de regrete?

— Imi pare rau ca am revenit, dar unde sa ma duc? Nu mai sunt profesor la Universitatea de Muzica din Bucuresti. Nu au mai vrut sa fiu. Am fost inlocuit cu niste tineri fara scoala de nai. Clasa de nai, organizata de mine, a fost desfiintata. Din cauza numeroaselor memorii, adresate functionarilor, am fost pedepsit. Acum sunt somer. Alte mijloace de existenta nu am. Instrumentele mele muzicale sunt pastrate de prieteni. De 7–8 ani nu–mi mai ating pianele, pentru ca nu am unde sa le tin. In apartamentul infernal din zona Garii de Nord, nu am unde sa ma misc.

— E o situatie paradoxala: de trei ori ati fost invitatul de onoare al Papei Ioan Paul al II–lea si al imparatesei Japoniei, iar acasa sunteti un mare singuratic...

— In Japonia sunt tratat ca un superstar. Pozele mele in Tokio erau inalte cat patru etaje, alaturi — Alain Delon, Paul Moria, o vedeta franceza, care facea concerte magnifice cu orchestre uriase. Important este ce se intampla acum cu mine in Romania. Sper ca ultima solutie sa nu fie cantatul prin restaurante si pe la nunti.

— Cum regasiti R. Moldova?

— Cu aceeasi dragoste infinita care v–o port. Gasiti in mine acelasi luptator, acelasi partizan, inarmat cu toate armele posibile de reusita in unirea cu tara. Aceasta va fi forta unica a Romaniei — sa aiba Basarabia si Bucovina, caci sunt parti ale tarii. Europenii au nevoie de noi, nu noi de Europa. Nu noi avem nevoie de banii lor si de bogatia lor, ei au nevoie de bogatia noastra spirituala, de pamantul nostru roditor, de piata noastra de desfacere.

— Cum apreciati eforturile privind schimburile culturale intre tarile noastre?

— Ma bucura nivelul de cultura al basarabenilor, mentinut in toti anii bolsevismului, comunismului si dupa anii `90. Moldova si–a pastrat traditiile. Exista acea nostalgie a patriei intregi. Aceasta nostalgie dupa o tara bogata care exista si nu exista in realitate.

— Muntii nostri aur poarta, noi cersim din poarta–n poarta…

— Exact asa se intampla. Cred in puterea spirituala a Basarabiei. Cea mai mare forta a unei natiuni este forta spirituala. Cand a venit dl Basescu la putere, primul juramant este sa respecte valorile spirituale ale poporului. Am multa speranta. M–am bucurat enorm la Chisinau sa–l revad pe Grigore Vieru si fastul cu care i–a fost sarbatorita aniversarea. Cred ca este cel mai mare poet, dupa Eminescu, deoarece ca si Eminescu a stat pe baricade, contribuind la proclamarea limbii romane ca limba nationala definitiva. Vieru ramane un luptator si un aparator al limbii si al natiunii care trece prin momente grele. Il admir pe marele naist Vasile Iovu, unul dintre oamenii mari si puri. Am fost fericit sa stiu ca aici exista o catedra de instrumente populare la Academia Nationala de Muzica si ca nimeni nu s–a atins de acest sacru al nostru care este folclorul instrumental si vocal. Nu voi renunta niciodata la ideea infiintarii la Chisinau a unei scoli de nai.

Interviu realizat de Angelina OLARU

Acuzat de antisemitism, Gheorghe Zamfir nu a putut intra in Israel

Acuzat de antisemitism, Gheorghe Zamfir nu a putut intra in Israel

BUCURESTI - Cunoscutul artist roman Gheorghe Zamfir nu a putut intra in Israel, joi 21 noiembrie, si a fost nevoit sa isi anuleze concertele pentru ca nu avea permis de munca, a anuntat purtatorul de cuvint al Ministerului de Interne israelian, citat de publicatia Jerusalem Post. Naistul roman a fost intors din drum pentru ca nu avea permis de munca, a spus Tova Ellison, care a adaugat ca evreii romani din Israel au facut lobby puternic impotriva lui Zamfir din cauza unor asa-zise declaratii antisemite si a negarii Holocaustului in Romania. Totusi, Israelul sustine ca nu acest lobby a determinat intoarcerea naistului roman din drum. "Gheorghe Zamfir nu a cerut nici un permis de munca, prin urmare acuzatiile ce i s-au adus nu au fost verificate de autoritatile israeliene si nu au nimic de a face cu incidentul de joi", a spus Tova Ellison. In timp ce purtatorul de cuvint israelian sustine ca Zamfir va cere permis de munca si "se pare ca il va primi", reprezentantul agentiei romane de impresariat care se ocupa de artist spune ca initiativa unor concerte in Israel a fost anulata. "De vina este agentia din Israel, care trebuia sa faca toate demersurile pe linga autoritati pentru ca artistii sa sustina concertele. Era vorba de zece concerte, apoi de cinci si, in fine, au ramas trei. De o luna Israelul a introdus acte suplimentare, inclusiv un asa-zis permis de munca, iar agentia trebuia sa le obtina. Noi vom inceta colaborarea si ne-am hotarit sa cerem daune morale", a declarat Gabi Stancu. "Din grupul care ar fi trebuit sa intre in Israel joi, singura persoana careia autoritatile i-ar fi permis intrarea era sotia evreica a lui Gheorghe Zamfir", scrie Jerusalem Post. Organizatorul concertelor din Israel, Nanssi Brandes, a sustinut ca situatia din Tel Aviv a avut la baza o incercare de santaj. Brandes a declarat ca Zeev Schvartz, presedintele Asociatiei Israelienilor Originari din Romania (HOR), l-a contactat propunindu-i un tirg: sa i se dea cite un dolar din fiecare bilet vindut si nu vor mai exista probleme pentru Zamfir. Memorialul Holocaustului l-a acuzat pe Gheroghe Zamfir de atitudine antisemita.
Pe de alta parte, Organizatia Invalizilor de pe Urma Holocaustului a amenintat ca va inainta apel la Tribunalul Suprem si ca va face demonstratii in salile de spectacol daca vor avea loc concertele lui Zamfir, care s-a facut cunoscut nu numai ca artist, ci si prin declaratiile sale antisemite si negarea Holocaustului. Gheorghe Zamfir a anuntat pe 27 noiembrie ca va depune un protest oficial la Ministerul Afacerilor Externe al Romaniei cu privire la ce i s-a intimplat la sfirsitul saptamanii trecute. (DIVERS)

Fragment

......Din pacate, cadrul in care sperati sa va intoarceti nu exista. Revolutia a venit, dar a fost sugrumata. Daca v-ati intoarce, ar trebui va acomodati cu aceeași conducatori de care a-ti fugit. Convertiti la capitalism. Securi Comunistii domina tara ferm si controlează trecerea proprietății colective in propriile buzunare. Restul e diversiune. Justitia, Televiziunea, Administrația etc sint tot atitea brate ale acestei caracatite. Securitatea (indiferent de noile costume) se ocupa cu "subsolul" (manipularea opiniei publice, torpilarea opoziției, santajarea multilateral dezvoltată etc). Ve-ti gasi doar un plus notabil de libertate de expresie ( acceptată datorită disproporției de forte între soldații Rețelei si adversarii lor). Bastionul televiziunii -crucial- va va apare însă in lumina unei funeste continuității. Veti gasi o "opozitie" captiva in neputincioasa perplexitate la care o condamna loviturile puterii, reacția populatiei si propriile slabiciuni (provocate de agenți strecurati dar si de racilele de caracter ale "liderilor" care s-au aburcat generos in fruntea ei). Plina de energie doar in fata alegerilor (cand "luptătorii" se sfisie pentru un loc mai in fata pe lista si se dedau la penibile tirguri care te fac sa înțelegi de ce sint atitea partide ). Foarte anemica- in rest. In acest timp, pe margine, intr-o perpetua "stare critica", intr-o sterila "atitudine civica", într-un păgubos "politism apartinic" ve-ti gasi -esuati- multi români de valoare. Veti gasi pe obsedatii de demnitate mai umiliți de suprimarea viselor lor prin manipulare "democratica" decit prin teroarea deschisa de odinioara. Ve-ti gasi vechi luptători pentru adevăr și justiție începând sa regrete ca au "fugit după vînt" in timp ce românii "mai practici" s-au aruncat in salbatica (si diazgratioasa) competiție pentru capatuiala. Incepand sa se indoiasca de rostul scrupulelor morale si intelectuale si chiar de rostul unor trecute acte de generozitate... Ii veti gasi disperati, buimaciti de o demonstratie atit de persistenta, de viguroasa, de elocventă - a eficacitatii raului consecvent si lipsei de scrupule. Ii veti gasi rataciti. Veti gasi o aparenta "debandada" - in care nimeni nu mai intelege nimic - absolut necesara pentru acoperirea marilor lovituri (operatii) prin care se înalță Tovarășii Patroni si pentru inecarea in zgomot a vocilor incomode. Si nici măcar nu veti mai gasi multi romani constienti de contribuția informatorilor-agitatori-provocatori la aceasta aparent haotică gălăgie.. Veti gasi vechi tortionari si vatafi bine infipti in noua onorabilitate si manevrind torta... patriotismului românesc. Le veti gasi fiii, verii si nepotii in plina "intreprindere", extrem de emancipati si destinsi, adevărate focare de modernitate, incercand sa trezească din inapoiata lor amortire pe "marlanii leneși" care compun restul populatiei. Acestia miriie retrograd, neintelegand imperativul sărăcirii lor absolute, necesare pentru acumularea rapida a averilor celor aleși sa castige etapa de tranziție de care depinde relansarea economiei.... Veti gasi o populatie-victima, care a avut ocazia să-și etaleze dizgrațios malformatiile produse de cura de formare a omului nou. Care a acceptat ca păstori pe fostii gardieni numai ca sa scape de spectrul vechilor rezistenți. Caci acestia provocau amintiri (dureroase, rusinoase, incomode) de care "omul nou" nu are nevoie. El, care uraste mai mult pe colegul care nu cedează silurii (si a carui demnitate suspecta il insulta ) decit pe opresor (cu care sfarseste prin a simți o paradoxală intimitate). Domesticita, victima se ferește de o schimbare ce-i pune in pericol tainul. Indiferență sa dobandita fata de demnitate si justitie deschide calea oricăror targuri din care poate "pica ceva". Veți innota in oceanul "oamenilor practici", eliberați de scrupule contraproductive și admirandu-si prietenile proprii, in timp ce le acuza (invidios) pe ale celorlalti. Si peste tot veti da de deridere. Veti gasi mormintele celor care au cazut in 1989. Stafiile celor care au crezut și încercat in 1990. Dezamăgirile celor care au așteptat. Disponibilitatea sfâșietoare a celor ce mai așteaptă încă. Ve-ti gasi furia si incrincenarile dureroase ale celor care nu pot locui in faptul monstruos împlinit. Ve-ti gasi cadavrele speranțelor celor care au plecat... Dar IN CIUDA si IN MIJLOCUL tuturor acestora ve-ti gasi liniștea celor care se salvează prin credinta, zambetul celor care supraviețuiesc prin umor, solemnitatea celor care înving prin înțelepciune. Si mugurii primăverii care irumpe... in orice conditii !!

Dacia

Pentru lichidarea unui popor se începe prin a-i altera, a-i șterge memoria: îi distrugi cărţile, cultura, religia, istoria si apoi altcineva îi va scrie alte cărţi, îi va da altă religie, altă cultură, îi va inventa o altă istorie (de origine latină ori slavică, după momentul politic). Între timp, poporul începe să uite ceea ce este sau ceea ce a fost, iar cei din jur vor uita si mai repede; limba nu va mai fi decât un simplu element de folclor care, mai devreme sau mai târziu, va muri de moarte naturală. Noile forme “istorice” vor aduce elemente si simboluri noi de adoraţie care le vor îndepărta pe cele vechi. Din vechiul start spiritual vor rămâne, undeva la un etaj inferior al cunoașterii, numai câteva cuvinte, expresii, tradiţii, impresii, fragmente, nume de localităţi, munţi si ape, fără un înţeles aparent. Formele vechi care cândva au ocupat valenţa transcedentalului vor fi deplasate de formele noi care vor dicta componenţa șI funcţiile “noului popor” așa cum s-a întâmplat cu noi!

Dr. Napoleon Săvescu

S'aude clopotul la schit

REVOLT AGAINST THE MODERN WORLD

REVOLT AGAINST THE MODERN WORLD
A thinking person must come to the conclusion to reject the current
system in its entirety. This national crisis makes a total change
necessary. The European and worldwide crisis can only be resolvable
through a radical political transformation.
What the world needs is in some ways a revival of the past. This past
may be called "mythical" in the sense that it is not the past of
official history but what the myths tell us of former ages. We
emphasize the revision of conventional history to create a true view
of the past, which has been destroyed by various developments under
the name of progess.
The nations of the modern world are largely governed by political
parties. A study of this fact will reveal that a political party is,
by definition, a body which represents part of the nation, rather than
the whole of the nation. Thus, in a typical "democracy" we have
parties which represent different interests. The party principal
promotes the division within the population to the detriment of the
National Interest, the common good and the freedom of the individual.
To the idea of division based upon class, religion or status, we
counterpoise the idea of national unity. An unity based upon the need
to seek the temporal and spiritual welfare of every citizen; upon the
notion that true unity is a consequence of an all embracing justice;
upon the recognition of a nation as a community of communities. A
political party necessarily promotes conflict and hatred; we reject
these nihilistic tendencies and seek the promotion of co-operation,
love of family and community and a sense of honour, tradition and
common cause.
Basically, one can say it is best to avoid dramatic social and
political change but the current situation and the revolutions Europe
has gone through call for a new revolution in reverse. Our aim must
not not be creating a new society and not attempting to create
revolutionary new modern state. It is necessary to restore a
traditional one. We are conservative in the sense that we try to
restore the past and in the sense that we do not belive in liberal
democracy. We reject such doctrines as liberalism, individualism,
materialism, and communism. The revolt means a struggle against
modernism, Capitalism, American-Zionist imperialism, against the decay
of the West in all its expressions: in a word, against Globalism and
Mondialism, the project of homologation of peoples and continents to
the totalitarian one-way thinking of the America-centred New World
Order.
The Wesern nations need to regain the heroic spirit of this lost past
through radical social, cultural and moral transformations. The
necessary changes cannot be brought about by tinkering within the
System, or by relying on the System's own institutions. They can only
spring from a Counter-Revolution. This revolution must begin in the
hearts and minds of individuals, then spread by example to involve
whole communities in alternative structures. Once we cease to depend
on the old State, it can be swept aside. This means to create a new
type of total culture in which values, politics, art, social norms,
and economic activity are all part of a single organic national
community. This changes must attempt to transform society in order to
overcome perceived sources of national weakness. There is hardly one
healthy part of the nation's existing political and social life to be
retained. Since a change cannot be made by evolutionary development,
we therefore try to bring about revolutionary change. In this way and
in this sense we are revolutionary and opposed to conservatism as the
strive to maintain the present state and avoid dramatic social and
political change. The decadence of our society is such that we can
only be a revolutionary movement with its objective nothing but a
total and complete transformation of our society and its life
principal.
Modern liberal-capitalist society cannot be "reformed". Between the
soul destroying materialism of this system, with its attendant curses
of mass unemployment, drug addiction, sexual deviancy, and spiritual
and cultural degeneration, and the New Social Order sought for the
good of our People, there is an unbridgeable gap. The crisis will end
and a new age will begin that restores the people to a sense of
belonging, purpose, and greatness. We need to take drastic action
against our nation's "inner" enemies. The end result of this
conservative revolution will be the emergence of a new man and new
woman. This new man and new woman will be fully developed human
beings, uncontaminated by selfish desires for individual rights and
self-expression and devoted only to an existence as part of the
renewed nation's destiny. The worst Age, the current Age of Iron would
then necessarily be followed by a new Golden Age. Though for the time
being one cannot hope to bring about the dawn of a New Golden Age he
still has the choice to fight the demons in himself and within society
to form distinguished individuals and a state of order. "I don't
believe that philosophy taken in its narrow theoretical meaning, is
able to influence politics. It has to be turned into ideology or
universal vision of the world. Such an example was given by
Enlightenment, Marxist dialectic materialism and by certain
philosophical ideas, which were included in the concept of German
national socialism." (Julius Evola, excerpt from an interview)
The "differentiated person" feels like an outsider in this society and
feels no moral obligation toward society's request that he joins what
he regards as an absurd system. Such a person can understand not only
those who live outside society's parameters, but even those who are
set against such (a) society, or better, this society. (Julius Evola,
Cavalcare la tigre, p. 179.)
"Again, we can see that the various facets of the contemporary social
and political chaos are interrelated and that it is impossible to
effectively contrast them other than by returning to the origins. To
go back to the origins means, plain and simple, to reject everything
that, in every domain, whether social, political and economic, is
connected to the "immortal principles" of 1789 in the guise of
libertarian, individualistic and egalitarian thought, and to oppose to
it a hierarchical view. It is only in the context of such a view that
the value and freedom of man as a person are not mere words or
pretexts for a work of destruction and subversion." (Julius Evola, Gli
uomini e le rovine, Rome: Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, 1990, p. 64.)

"The actual western «civilization» is awaiting for a substantial
revolution without which it is destined, sooner or later, to collapse.
It has realized the most complete perversion of every rational order
of things. Kingdom of subjects, gold, car, number, in it there no way
to breath any more, neither liberty, nor light. The West has lost the
meaning of command and obey. It has lost the meaning of the action and
Contemplation. It has lost the meaning of hierarchy, of spiritual
power, of man-gods. It doesn't know the nature anymore. This not for
the western man, a living body made of symbols, of Gods and rituals, a
splendid cosmos, in which man moves freely, as «a kingdom in a
kingdom». It has decayed in an opaque and fatal appearance, of which
the profane sciences try to ignore the mystery with small laws and
small hypotheses instead. The west doesn't know the Wisdom anymore: it
doesn't know the stately silence of the dominators of itself anymore,
the calm illuminated of the Clairvoyants, the superb «solar» reality
of those people in which the Idea made himself blood, life and power.
To the Wisdom have taken over the rhetoric of the «philosophy» and of
the «culture», the teachers' kingdom, the journalists', the
sportsmen', the scheme, the programs, the proclamation. To it have
taken over the sentimental contamination, religious, humanitarian, and
the race of the "speakers" who get excited and run, intoxicated, while
exalting the «to become» and the «practice», because the silence and
the contemplation frighten them. The west doesn't know the meaning of
State anymore. The state-value, 1'Imperium as synthesis of
spirituality and royalty as street to the «upper-world», as it was
known to the great ancient civilizations, from China to Egypt, from
Persia to Rome and to the Sacred Roman Empire of the German Nation,
has been submerged in the bourgeois poverty of a trust of slaves and
merchants. What the war is, the one war wanted in oneself as a
superior value both to win and to lose as that sacred way of spiritual
realization for which the celestial centre of Wotan, the Walhalla, is
privilege of the fallen heroes on the battleground; for this reason in
Islam the «holy war», jihad, is synonymous of «God's way»; for this
reason in Aryan India the warrior appears beside the ascetics and in
the classical ancient world the "mors triumphalis" is interpreted as
victory on the death. What such a war is, they don't know, these
formidable «activists» of Europe, that don't know more warriors but
only soldiers, and that a little war has been enough to terrorize them
and make them revert in the rhetoric of the humanitarianism, of the
pacifism and of the sentimentalism. Europe has lost simplicity, has
lost the centrality, Europe has lost life. The democratic evil and the
Semitic poison corrode it in all of its roots, even in the right, even
in the sciences, even in the speculation. Leaders, human beings that
stare out not because of violence, not because of greed for profit,
not because of ability of exploiters of slaves, but instead for
irreducible and transcendent qualities of life there aren't any.
Europe is a great headless body, possessed and shaken by an anguish
that nobody dares to express, that has gold for blood, cars and
factories for meat, newspapers for brain. A shapeless body that turns
on itself in anguish, pushed by dark and unpredictable forces, that
implacably crush anyone who attempts to oppose to it or even just to
escape the mechanism. All of this was the famous western
«civilization» able to do.
This and the claimed result of the superstition of the «Progress»,
away from the imperial power of Rome, from the Doric Hellas, from all
the other exemplary forms of the great primordial Aryan civilizations.
And the circle closes more and more around the few that are still able
to feel the great disgust and the great revolt." (JULIUS EVOLA, Pagan
Imperialism, Lipsia 1933)
It is true to say that people cannot stage a revolution without
leadership, just as the leadership cannot fulfill a revolution without
the people's forces. The leadership and the people are in fact, two
sides of the same coin.
"Our momentary situation takes the form of a great battle--a battle
which may take more than one war to resolve it, or which may be
resolved by a sudden cataclysmic happening, entirely unforeseeable to
us now. On the surface of history it is the unforeseen that happens.
The most human beings can do is to be prepared inwardly." (Francis
Parker Yockey )

ESCHATOLOGY, DAJJAL AND IMAM MAHDI
The signs are unmistakable on the not too distant horizon of the
apocalyptic events summarized by the name of the "Antichrist" (Dajjal)
and the appearance of the Savior (Jesus [a.s.], Imam Mahdi [a.s.],
Kalki, Maitreya). We must recognize the times in which we are living.
It does not follow that we know the hour of judgment, for no one can
know that. On the contrary, there are also indications of the
possibility of a "global Intifada" which would shake off the
approaching menace and thus delay the hour for several decades, or
centuries. Now, what is the Dajjal, the Antichrist? In one sense,
certainly, he will be a man, the highest ruler of the
counter-hierarchy, a negative Chakravartin, who will rule the new
world order of Mammon in person. But primarily he is nothing other
than the resistance of the ego, of materialistic cravings, against the
new irruption of eternity into time which will end this dark age and
begin a new cycle.
Obviously the preparation for the Antichrist has been helped along by
the fact that a majority of mankind is concerned only with material
things and with an ever-increasing quantity with the loss of all
quality, and furthermore, deflected from any inwardness through the
demon of the mass-media, pornography, and drug consumption. In this
spiritually poisoned atmosphere, a vague need for salvation and
liberation is felt: the "New Age" points in that direction, with
Satanism and parts of Theosophy as its conscious aspect, and a great
number of adherents of the great religions (charismatics, ecumenists,
etc.) as its unconscious. The "Antichrist" will appear in the guise of
a savior and preach one of these current parodies of the traditional
teachings. His appearance presumes several things: a globalized
civilization with the capacity for direct technical communication,
which has clearly been present for several years; an almost complete
disappearance of past moral assumptions, the so-called "change of
values" or, better, "collapse of values"; the dulling of the heart
through the incessant flooding with violent and sexual images, which
no one can escape even when rejecting this perversion. The latter
blocks any "intelligence of the heart," which alone allows one to
distinguish the Antichrist from the true Savior, as both apparently
promise the same for the masses. This applies outside the Islamic
lands, since Russia and China, too, have been infected for a decade
with the Western consumer civilization. The significance does not lie
in a sum-total of "sins" like a record incurring punishment, as those
unfortunate "Christian fundamentalists" imagine it, but in the
blinding of the inner organ of sight through dulling it and
encapsulating it in the ego.
The decision must be made today to slay the Antichrist in the great
Jihad in one's own breast, so as to be able to face him in the outer
world. The first is the spiritual duty and the legitimate initiation,
which is to be accomplished today, and not an aesthetic gathering of
the fairest spiritual blossoms that former ages have brought forth.
And last of all is the "political" task that remains: not to quarrel
about ruling systems or over Left and Right, but to oppose the "great
Satan"! The coming of the personified Dajjal can be stopped, if one
can succeed in breaking the grip of mankind's enemy on the globe. An
economic collapse at the "right" moment may be part of the plan of the
New World Order, but the world-usurer's system could also collapse at
the "wrong" moment, bringing the mega-machine to a halt. But this does
not lie in our hands. Other uncertainties include natural
catastrophes, not least a pole-shift, which is always connected with
the restitution of the Golden Age and the primordial, Hyperborean
Tradition, and which strangely enough is even predicted for the not
too distant future by materialistic science.
We are not very optimistic that the course of events will change much,
in view of the principle that the world of outer appearances is merely
the projected soul-condition of mankind. The concrete deserts are
inside us; unbridled desires preconditioned the deluge of advertising;
long before the dissolution of states, the soul-hierarchy was
destroyed within us. What appears as an obstacle may in the last
resort bring about the intended result (but also vice versa). He who
thinks that, given the depressing state of the world, he can only save
his own soul will certainly not save it, because he obviously clings
so much to his ego that he will die with it. As approaching the hour
of death, the life of the beyond already enters the dying person, so
that a happiness, inexplicable in medical terms, often comes shortly
before the final crisis, the conscious witnesses of the last hours are
blessed with the reflection of the new Golden Age of the next human
cycle. Evola speaks of this, when he closes his Revolt against the
Modern World with these reassuring words: "although the Kali Yuga is
an age of great destruction, those who live during it and manage to
remain standing may achieve fruits that were not easily achieved by
men living in other ages."

CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION
"If God does not exist, everything is permitted." (Fedor Dostoevsky)

The famous critical diagnosis of Friedrich Nietzsche that "God is
dead" and his concomitant insight into the devaluation of all values
in the name of enlightenment reason together with the experiences of
the first world war have especially led german intellectuals to
question and challenge the political heritage of the French Revolution
and the intellectual heritage of a self-destructive enlightenment
reason, as they perceived it. Against these two mutually reinforcing
paradigms of political and cultural modernity these intellectuals then
tried to reestablish a way of thinking that is premised on regaining
firm ground for social, cultural and political development in
transsubjective and transhistorical powers such as God, tradition or a
mythological notion of nature.
It is necessary to be clear as to the significance of these
ideological traditions. They embrace in fact some of the most
significant theorists of European politics: Oswald Spengler, Carl
Schmitt, Ernst Junger, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, Ernst Niekisch,
Friedrich Hielscher and Otto Strasser of Germany and a veritable host
of publicists of inter-war Europe.
These thinkers have been categorized by the German New Right theorist
Armin Mohler as part of the broad 'Conservative Revolution' in 1920's/1930's
Germany. This non-Nazi German system was examined for qualities which
supported an 'anti-American'/anti-consumer capitalist /anti-liberal,
politics. Certainly, the 'revival' of the principles of the
Conservative Revolution, lie at the basis of much of the present
activism of the Euro-nationalist forces. The neo-conservative current
in the GermanWeimarRepublic babtised "Coservative Revolution" by
Mohler movement was an elitist political enterprise that sought to
restore Germany to her original spiritual and worldly standing as
leader of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
Constituted of such intellectuals as Oswald Spengler, Arthur Moeller
van den Bruck, and Edgar Julius Jung, the neo-conservatives aimed at
destroying the foreign socio-political ethos of the
LiberalWeimarRepublic which had been forced on Germany by her foes.
In the context of Germany-before-Hitler, these theorists offered an
alternative to the disaster for any idea of European Revolution, which
Hitler symbolised, and ultimately - became. For Spengler, the issue
was not German revanchism and eastern expansion, but the international
position of the "white world"; this leader of the 'Conservative
Revolution' school desired the moulding of a new state of
'Prussian-Socialism', the inter-linked union of the classes. For
Schmitt, a new European political idea would overcome the old
narrowness of the nations; this Conservative Revolutionary saw each
state, supreme over the former divisions of class and party,
individualism and liberal weakness, perfecting a cooperative European
commonwealth. For Jünger, a new state must perfect the total
mobilization of the people towards modernization and the creation of
real social wealth; this leader of the 'National Revolution' school
saw a new 'Worker' of brain and brawn, utilizing technology to conquer
the future. For Moeller van den Bruck, the 'young peoples' of Germany
and Russia were in revolt against the Western capitalist path; this
thinker who spanned the three schools called upon youth to reject
materialism and capitalist atomism and seek a higher mission. For
Niekisch, there was the call of a new 'barbarism' against capitalist
rationalism; this prominent 'National Bolshevik' urged a revolutionary
alliance with communist Russia (he predicted it would soon become
'national'), to overturn the burgeoning international capitalism and
argued for a union within Germany of all revolutionary anti-liberal
forces against the status quo. His fellow 'National Bolshevik',
Hielscher, recognized in the various oppressed nationalities of the
earth, potential allies not enemies in a massive program to strangle
the false-international order of capitalism. For Strasser, the man who
quit the Nazi party for his principles, there was a blending of the
schools in his 'Black Front' party, a plan to revitalize Europe in a
commonweath, neither capitalist nor Marxist, based upon organic social
classes and a genuine division of wealth and responsibility.
This line of thought has not only inspired a great number of German
intellectuals in the post-war era, including famous authors such as
Oswald Spengler, Thomas Mann and Carl Schmitt, but also strongly
influenced for example the work of Ernst Forsthoff, Arnold Gehlen and
Helmut Schelsky.
__________________

Not one time will be found in our writings the word Spaniard
referring exclusively to the non Portuguese inhabitant of the
(Iberian) Peninsula. Whilst Castille was separated from Aragon, and
only later united with León, etc; we and the other nations of Las
Españas (The Spains), Aragonese, Granadinos, Castilian, Portuguese,
and all others, were by strangers and by ourselves called Spaniards;
as well as still today we call German indistinctly to Prussians,
Saxons, Hanoverians or Austrians, and as the Neapolitans, the
Milanese, the Venetians and the Piedmontese, indistinctly receive the
name of Italians. But Spaniards we are and as Spaniards we must take
pride in all of us who inhabit this Peninsula.
~ Almeida Garrett

--

Alistair Sim

"I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I
know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and
women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless
terrors of which they dare not speak."

They seek him here
They seek him there.
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?
Or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel!

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

The little things are infinitely more important."

"I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for
trifles."

The Ultimate Revolution

"And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing … a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods."

-- Aldous Huxley, 1959

Worm

BEIJING Aug 16 -- A worm targeting newly announced flaws in
Microsoft's Windows operating system is circulating on the Internet, an
anti-virus software maker has said.

Trend Micro Inc. said the Zotob virus exploits security holes in
Windows 95, 98, ME, NE, 2000 and XP platforms and can give hackers
remote access to affected systems, according to Reuters.

The worm drops a copy of itself into the Windows system folder as
BOTZOR.EXE and modifies the system's host file in the infected machine
to prevent the user from getting online help from anti-virus Web sites,
Trend Micro said.

The virus can also connect to a specific Internet relay chat server
and give attackers remote control over affected systems, which can be
used to infect other unpatched computers in a network.

While early reports suggested Zotob was spreading rapidly, its
impact has actually been limited because it targets Windows 2000, an
older version of the software, Microsoft said. It poses no threat to
computers running the newer Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the
company added.

Microsoft warned of three "critical" security flaws in its software
last week, including one that could allow attackers to comandeer a
computer.

Computer users should update their anti-virus pattern files and
apply the latest Microsoft patches to fix the security flaws, Trend
Micro said. Enditem

FOURTEEN SIGNPOSTS TO SLAVERY

1.) Restrictions on taking money out of the country and on the establishment or retention of a foreign bank account by an American Citizen. (Hmmm, being done folks already)

2.) Abolition of private ownership of hand guns. (Sure trying hard to get this done, in Canada it is already done!)

3.) Detention of individuals without judicial process. (DITTO, being done here now too)

4.) Requirements that private financial transactions be keyed to social security numbers or other government identification so that government records of these transactions can be fed into a computer. (Gee, this is being done now too!)

5.) Use of compulsory education laws to forbid attendance at presently existing private schools.

6.) Compulsory non-military service. (Gee, how many posts have you seen on this topic recently?)

7.) Compulsory psychological treatment for non-governmental workers or public school children. (Hmmm, in some places already a fact, others working hard on it)

8.) An official declaration that anti-Communist organizations are subversive and subsequnt legal actions taken to suppress them. (Gee, this is happening too!)

9.) Laws limiting the number of people allowed to meet in a private home.. (not aware of this yet, but in some home ownership agrements this is law, and in public places this is law in some places, and only a certain ZONe for protestors now too, usually BLOCKS waway fromt hose intended to see or witness protests!)

10.) Any significant change in passport regulations to make passports more difficult to obtain or use. (Hmm... changes, yes, harder to get... hmmm... not yet I think!)

11.) Wage and price controls, especially in a non-wartime situation. ( Not yet, but has been done in the past)

12.) Any kind of compulsory registrations with the government of where individuals work. (They already know!)

13.) Any attempt to restrict the movement of people within the United States. (Hmmm. I can say this is being done, and will be done soon, by proxy, or de facto, hassles at airports etc, make people NOT WANT to go anywhere. The first oil crisis was an experiment in controlling the movement of people within the USa, the mortgage debacle soon coming will the method they succeed in controlling your movements)

14.) Any attempt to make a major law by decree, (that is, actually put into effect, not merely authorized as by the exisiting executive orders). (GEE, This is being done also!)"

North Atlantic Water

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) -

Ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic hit an all-time high last year, raising concerns about the effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive ecosystems in the world.

Sea ice off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador was below normal for the tenth consecutive year and the water temperature outside St. John's Harbor was the highest on record in 2004, according to a report released Wednesday by the federal Fisheries Department.

The ocean surface off St. John's averaged almost two degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the highest in the 59 years the department has been compiling records.

And bottom temperatures were also one degree higher than normal, according the report.

"A two-degree temperature anomaly on the Grand Banks is pretty significant in the bottom areas, where temperatures only range a couple of degrees throughout the year," said Eugene Colbourne, an oceanographer with the Fisheries Department.

Water temperatures were above normal right across the North Atlantic last year, from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and Norway.

The Newfoundland data is another wake-up call on climate change, say environmentalists.

Anchorage, Alaska, has seen annual snowfall shrink in the past decade, high river temperatures are killing off millions of spawning salmon in British Columbia and northern climates around the world have noticed warming.

Meanwhile, ocean temperatures have risen around the globe, and species are already dying, said Bill Wareham, acting director of marine conservation for the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation.

"I don't think there's a question about whether these changes are happening," Wareham said.

But "everyone's quite shocked at the speed at which these things are changing."

Air temperatures in the Newfoundland region were also higher than normal, but Colbourne said the results are not conclusive.

Water temperatures in the cold Labrador current were actually below normal levels. And while the other temperatures were record highs, a similar warming trend occurred in the 1960s, Colbourne said.

"We really can't say for sure if what we're seeing in Newfoundland waters is a consequence of global warming, when we've only got 50 years of data or so," Colbourne said.

"It may be related to global warming but, then again, it may be just the natural cycle that we see in this area of the world."

What is the truest definition of Globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana's death.

Question: How come?

Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines!

And this is sent to you by a Greek, who lives in Canada, using American technology, and you're probably reading this on one of the IBM clones, that use Taiwanese made chips, and a Korean made monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by trucks driven by Indians, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, trucked by Mexican illegals, and finally sold to you by Jews.

That, my friend, is Globalization!!!

Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil

Contributed by Norman Church
Friday, 01 April 2005

also see the article titled "Eating Fossil Fuel"

"Concentrate on what cannot lie. The evidence..." -- Gil Grissom

INTRODUCTION

Eating Oil was the title of a book which was published in 1978 following the first oil crisis in 1973 (1). The aim of the book was to investigate the extent to which food supply in industrialised countries relied on fossil fuels. In the summer of 2000 the degree of dependence on oil in the UK food system was demonstrated once again when protestors blockaded oil refineries and fuel distribution depots. The fuel crises disrupted the distribution of food and industry leaders warned that their stores would be out of food within days. The lessons of 1973 have not been heeded.

Today the food system is even more reliant on cheap crude oil. Virtually all of the processes in the modern food system are now dependent upon this finite resource, which is nearing its depletion phase.

Moreover, at a time when we should be making massive cuts in the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in order to reduce the threat posed by climate change, the food system is lengthening its supply chains and increasing emissions to the point where it is a significant contributor to global warming. http://i.am/jah/envird.htm

The organic sector could be leading the development of a sustainable food system. Direct environmental and ecological impacts of agriculture on the farm are certainly reduced in organic systems. However, global trade and distribution of organic products fritter away those benefits and undermine its leadership role.

Not only is the contemporary food system inherently unsustainable, increasingly, it is damaging the environment.

The systems that produce the world's food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production: from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging. In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases.

Ironically, the food industry is at serious risk from global warming caused by these greenhouse gases, through the disruption of the predictable climactic cycles on which agriculture depends. But global warming can have the more pronounced and immediate effect of exacerbating existing environmental threats to agriculture, many of which are caused by industrial agriculture itself. Environmental degradation, water shortages, salination, soil erosion, pests, disease and desertification all pose serious threats to our food supply, and are made worse by climate change. But many of the conventional ways used to overcome these environmental problems further increase the consumption of finite oil and gas reserves. Thus the cycle of oil dependence and environmental degradation continues.

Industrial agriculture and the systems of food supply are also responsible for the erosion of communities throughout the world. This social degradation is compounded by trade rules and policies, by the profit driven mindset of the industry, and by the lack of knowledge of the faults of the current systems and the possibilities of alternatives. But the globalisation and corporate control that seriously threaten society and the stability of our environment are only possible because cheap energy is used to replace labour and allows the distance between producer and consumer to be extended.

However, this is set to change. Oil output is expected to peak in the next few years and steadily decline thereafter. We have a very poor understanding of how the extreme fluctuations in the availability and cost of both oil and natural gas will affect the global food supply systems, and how they will be able to adapt to the decreasing availability of energy. In the near future, environmental threats will combine with energy scarcity to cause significant food shortages and sharp increases in prices - at the very least. We are about to enter an era where we will have to once again feed the world with limited use of fossil fuels. But do we have enough time, knowledge, money, energy and political power to make this massive transformation to our food systems when they are already threatened by significant environmental stresses and increasing corporate control?

The modern, commercial agricultural miracle that feeds all of us, and much of the rest of the world, is completely dependent on the flow, processing and distribution of oil, and technology is critical to maintaining that flow.

Oil refined for gasoline and diesel is critical to run the tractors, combines and other farm vehicles and equipment that plant, spray the herbicides and pesticides, and harvest/transport food and seed

Food processors rely on the just-in-time (gasoline-based) delivery of fresh or refrigerated food

Food processors rely on the production and delivery of food additives, including vitamins and minerals, emulsifiers, preservatives, colouring agents, etc.

Many are oil-based.

Delivery is oil-based

Food processors rely on the production and delivery of boxes, metal cans, printed paper labels, plastic trays, cellophane for microwave/convenience foods, glass jars, plastic and metal lids with sealing compounds.

Many of these are essentially oil-based

Delivery of finished food products to distribution centres in refrigerated trucks. Oil-based, daily, just-in-time shipment of food to grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, schools, etc., all oil-based; customer drives to grocery store to shop for supplies, often several times a week

ENERGY, TRANSPORT AND THE FOOD SYSTEM

Our food system is energy inefficient...

One indicator of the unsustainability of the contemporary food system is the ratio of energy outputs - the energy content of a food product (calories) - to the energy inputs.

The latter is all the energy consumed in producing, processing, packaging and distributing that product. The energy ratio (energy out/energy in) in agriculture has decreased from being close to 100 for traditional pre-industrial societies to less than 1 in most cases in the present food system, as energy inputs, mainly in the form of fossil fuels, have gradually increased.

However, transport energy consumption is also significant, and if included in these ratios would mean that the ratio would decrease further. For example, when iceberg lettuce is imported to the UK from the USA by plane, the energy ratio is only 0.00786. In other words 127 calories of energy (aviation fuel) are needed to transport 1 calorie of lettuce across the Atlantic. If the energy consumed during lettuce cultivation, packaging, refrigeration, distribution in the UK and shopping by car was included, the energy needed would be even higher. Similarly, 97 calories of transport energy are needed to import 1 calorie of asparagus by plane from Chile, and 66 units of energy are consumed when flying 1 unit of carrot energy from South Africa.

Just how energy inefficient the food system is can be seen in the crazy case of the Swedish tomato ketchup. Researchers at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology analysed the production of tomato ketchup (2). The study considered the production of inputs to agriculture, tomato cultivation and conversion to tomato paste (in Italy), the processing and packaging of the paste and other ingredients into tomato ketchup in Sweden and the retail and storage of the final product. All this involved more than 52 transport and process stages.

The aseptic bags used to package the tomato paste were produced in the Netherlands and transported to Italy to be filled, placed in steel barrels, and then moved to Sweden. The five layered, red bottles were either produced in the UK or Sweden with materials form Japan, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Denmark. The polypropylene (PP) screw-cap of the bottle and plug, made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), was produced in Denmark and transported to Sweden. Additionally, LDPE shrink-film and corrugated cardboard were used to distribute the final product. Labels, glue and ink were not included in the analysis.

This example demonstrates the extent to which the food system is now dependent on national and international freight transport. However, there are many other steps involved in the production of this everyday product. These include the transportation associated with: the production and supply of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium fertilisers; pesticides; processing equipment; and farm machinery. It is likely that other ingredients such as sugar, vinegar, spices and salt were also imported. Most of the processes listed above will also depend on derivatives of fossil fuels. This product is also likely to be purchased in a shopping trip by car.

...is dependent on oil...

One study has estimated that UK imports of food products and animal feed involved transportation by sea, air and road amounting to over 83 billion tonne-kilometres (3). This required 1.6 billion litres of fuel and, based on a conservative figure of 50 grams of carbon dioxide per tonne-kilometre resulted in 4.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (4). Within the UK, the amount of food transported increased by 16% and the distances travelled by 50% between 1978 and 1999.

It has been estimated that the CO2 emissions attributable to producing, processing, packaging and distributing the food consumed by a family of four is about 8 tonnes a year (5)

..and is unnecessarily contributing to carbon emissions.

It is not that this transportation is critical or necessary. In many cases countries import and export similar quantities of the same food products (6). A recent report has highlighted the instances in which countries import and export large quantities of particular foodstuffs (6). For example, in 1997, 126 million litres of liquid milk was imported into the UK and, at the same time, 270 million litres of milk was exported from the UK. 23,000 tonnes of milk powder was imported into the UK and 153,000 tonnes exported (7). UK milk imports have doubled over the last 20 years, but there has been a four-fold increase in UK milk exports over the last 30

years (1495db14.jpg .

Britain imports 61,400 tonnes of poultry meat a year from the Netherlands and exports 33,100 tonnes to the Netherlands. We import 240,000 tonnes of pork and 125,000 tonnes of lamb while exporting 195,000 tonnes of pork and 102,000 tonnes of lamb (6).

This system is unsustainable, illogical, and bizarre and can only exist as long as inexpensive fossil fuels are available and we do not take significant action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

GLOBAL-WARMING AND FINITE OIL

The threat of global warming and the need to reduce carbon emissions

The nearness of the depletion stage of oil supplies

Discovery of oil and gas peaked in the 1960s. Production is set to peak too, with five Middle Eastern countries regaining control of world supply (9). Almost two-thirds of the world's total reserves of crude oil are located in the Middle East, notably in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq (10). An assessment of future world oil supply and its depletion pattern shows that between 1980 and 1998 there was an 11.2 per cent increase in world crude oil production, from 59.6 to 66.9 million barrels of oil per day (10). Current world production rates are about 25 Gb (billion barrels) per year. A simple calculation shows that if consumption levels remain constant, world crude oil reserves, at approximately 1 trillion barrels, could be exhausted around 2040 (11).

The oil crises of the 1970s when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) states reined in their production have passed into folk memory. However, they were accompanied by massive disruption and global economic recession. The same happened in 1980 and 1991 (12).

Colin J. Campbell, a pre-eminent oil industry analyst, believes that future crises will be much worse. The oil shocks of the 1970s were short-lived because there were then plenty of new oil and gas finds to bring on stream.

This time there are virtually no new prolific basins to yield a crop of giant fields sufficient to have a global impact. The growing Middle East control of the market is likely to lead to a radical and permanent increase in the price of oil, before physical shortages begin to appear within the first decade of the 21st century. The world's economy has been driven by an abundant supply of cheap oil-based energy for the best part of this century. The coming oil crisis will accordingly be an economic and political discontinuity of historic proportions, as the world adjusts to a new energy environment(9).

The three main purposes for which oil is used worldwide are food, transport and heating. In the near future the competition for oil for these three activities will be raw and real. An energy famine is likely to affect poorer countries first, when increases in the cost of paraffin, used for cooking, place it beyond their reach. Following the peak in production, food supplies all over the world will begin to be disrupted, not only because of price increases but because the oil will no longer be there.

IS ORGANIC ANY DIFFERENT?

The organic system is more energy efficient to the farm gate...

One of the benefits of organic production is that energy consumption and, therefore, fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, are less than that in conventional systems.

The energy used in food production is separated into direct and indirect inputs. Indirect inputs include the manufacture and supply of pesticides, feedstuffs and fertilisers while direct energy inputs are those on the farm, such as machinery. One measure of the energy efficiency of food production that allows a comparison between different farming practices is the energy consumed per unit output, often expressed as the energy consumed per tonne of food produced (MJ/tonne) or the energy consumed per kilogram of food (MJ/kg).

A study comparing organic and conventional livestock, dairy, vegetable and arable systems in the UK found that, with average yields, the energy saving with organic production ranged from 0.14 MJ/kg to 1.79 MJ/kg, with the average being 0.68 MJ/kg or 42 per cent (13). The improved energy efficiency in organic systems is largely due to lower (or zero) fertiliser and pesticide inputs, which account for half of the energy input in conventional potato and winter wheat production and up to 80 per cent of the energy consumed in some vegetable crops.

In conventional upland livestock production, the largest energy input is again indirect in the form of concentrated and cereal feeds. When reared organically, a greater proportion of the feed for dairy cattle, beef and hill sheep is derived from grass. In the case of milk production, it has been found that organic systems are almost five times more energy efficient on a per animal basis and three and a half times more energy efficient in terms of unit output (the energy required to produce a litre of milk) (13).

...but not when it goes global.

So far so good - but once past the farm-gate, things begin to go wrong. Britain imports over three-quarters of its organic produce, and despite consumer demand, only two per cent of its land is organically farmed (14). As the market has grown it has been met by imports.

A study looking at the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions when importing organic food products to the UK by plane (15) found that carbon dioxide emissions range from 1.6 kilograms to 10.7 kilograms. Air transport of food is the worst environmental option, but road transport, especially unnecessary journeys, is also bad. For example 5kg of Sicilian potatoes travelling 2448 miles emits 771 grams of carbon dioxide.

The problem is that, overall, human beings have developed a tendency to deal with problems on an ad hoc basis - i.e., to deal with 'problems of the moment'. This does not foster an attitude of seeing a problem embedded in the context of another problem.

Globalisation makes it impossible for modern societies to collapse in isolation. Any society in turmoil today, no matter how remote, can cause problems for prosperous societies on other continents, and is also subject to their influence (whether helpful or destabilising).

For the first time in history, we face the risk of a global decline.

Shocks to the system

As already stated, the three main purposes for which oil is used worldwide are food, transport and heating. Agriculture is almost entirely dependent on reliable supplies of oil for cultivation and for pumping water, and on gas for its fertilisers; in addition, for every calorie of energy used by agriculture itself, five more are used for processing, storage and distribution.

Since farming and the food industry are not famous for spending money unnecessarily, there must be a presumption that there is very little short-term 'slack' which would allow its demand for energy to be reduced at short notice without disruptions in food prices. In the case of transport and heating fuel, there is more scope for saving energy at short notice; cutting leisure journeys, for instance, wearing extra pullovers and, in the slightly longer term, driving smaller cars have a role to play while, in the longer term, there is a totally different low-energy paradigm waiting to be developed. But it is the short term that has to be survived first and, in that short term, the competition for oil for food, transport and heating will be real and raw.

Through its dependence on oil, contemporary farming is exposed to the whole question of the sustainability of our use of fossil fuels. It took 500 million years to produce these hydrocarbon deposits and we are using them at a rate in excess of 1 million times their natural rate of production. On the time scale of centuries, we certainly cannot expect to continue using oil as freely and ubiquitously as we do today. Something is going to have to change.

The same applies more widely to every natural resource on which industrial civilisation relies. Furthermore, one might think that there is a compounded problem. Not only are there more people consuming these resources, but their per capita consumption also increases in line with the elaboration of technology. We seem to be facing a problem of diminishing returns, indeed of running out of the vital raw materials needed to support our economic growth.

Almost every current human endeavour from transportation, to manufacturing, to electricity to plastics, and especially food production is inextricably intertwined with oil and natural gas supplies.

Commercial food production is oil powered. Most pesticides are petroleum- (oil) based, and all commercial fertilisers are ammonia-based. Ammonia is produced from natural gas. Oil based agriculture is primarily responsible for the world's population exploding from 1 billion at the middle of the 19th century to 6.3 billion at the turn of the 21st. Oil allowed for farming implements such as tractors, food storage systems such as refrigerators, and food transport systems such as trucks. As oil production went up, so did food production. As food production went up, so did the population. As the population went up, the demand for food went up, which increased the demand for oil. Here we go round the Mulberry Bush.

Oil is also largely responsible for the advances in medicine that have been made in the last 150 years. Oil allowed for the mass production of pharmaceutical drugs, and the development of health care infrastructure such as hospitals, ambulances, roads, etc. We are now at a point where the demand for food/oil continues to rise, while our ability to produce it in an affordable fashion is about to drop.

Within a few years of Peak Oil occurring, the price of food will skyrocket because the cost of fertiliser will soar. The cost of storing (electricity) and transporting (gasoline) the food that is produced will also soar.

Oil is required for a lot more than just food, medicine, and transportation. It is also required for nearly every consumer item, water supply pumping, sewage disposal, garbage disposal, street/park maintenance, hospitals and health systems, police, fire services and national defence.

Additionally, as you are probably already aware, wars are often fought over oil.

Bottom line?

If we think we are food secure here in the UK and other industrialised countries simply because we have gas in the car, frankly, we are delusional. Despite the appearance of an endless bounty of food, it is a fragile bounty, dependent upon the integrity of the global oil production, refining and delivery system. That system is entirely dependent on the thread of technology. Modern, technology-based agriculture produces both food, and seeds for next year's food, on a just-in-time basis. There are precious little reserves of either food or seeds to sustain any protracted interruption.

Technology and the incredibly rich tapestry it has made possible has created a false sense of security for so many of us. The thread is flawed; the tapestry is now fragile; famines are possible. We must take that seriously. . .

Our food supply, and our economic survival as a whole, depends on the steady availability of reasonably priced oil. Is oil our Achilles heel?

This means our food supply is:

Vulnerable:

The oil supplies that fuel the food system could be exhausted by 2040 (19).

In many regions oil production has peaked and most reserves lie in the Middle East. Food security is also threatened: for example, even if all UK fruit production was consumed in the UK, of every 100 fruit products purchased, only 5 will now have been grown in the UK.

Inefficient:

For every calorie of carrot, flown in from South Africa, we use 66 calories of fuel. The huge fuel use in the food system means more carbon dioxide emissions, which means climate change, which means more damage to food supplies, as well as other major health and social problems. http://i.am/jah/heal.htm

Unsustainable:

Even organic supplies are becoming hugely damaging as imports fill our shelves (17). One shopping basket of 26 imported organic products could have travelled 241,000 kilometres and released as much CO2 into the atmosphere as an average four bedroom household does through cooking meals over eight months (11495db1f.jpg .

Other problems highlighted include loss of nutrients in food, increased incidence and spread of diseases such as Foot & Mouth and other major animal welfare problems. Poor countries producing food for distant markets are not necessarily seeing benefits through increased and often intensive production for export. The report reveals how such trends could be reversed through industry, government and public action.

In other words, we won't have to run completely out of oil to be rudely awakened. The panic starts once the world needs more oil than it gets.

To understand why, you've got to fathom how totally addicted to oil we have become. We know that petroleum is drawn from deep wells and distilled into gasoline, jet fuel, and countless other products that form the lifeblood of industry and the adrenaline of military might. Its less well known that the world's food is now nourished by oil; petroleum and natural gas are crucial at every step of modern agriculture, from forming fertiliser to shipping crops. The implications are grim. For millions, the difference between an energy famine and a biblical famine could well be academic.

Independent policy analyst David Fleming writes in the British magazine Prospect (Nov. 2000),

With a global oil crisis looming like the Doomsday Rock, why do so few political leaders seem to care? Many experts refuse to take the problem seriously because it "falls outside the mind-set of market economics." Thanks to the triumph of global capitalism, the free-market model now reigns almost everywhere. The trouble is, its principles "tend to break down when applied to natural resources like oil." The result is both potentially catastrophic and all too human. Our high priests the market Economists are blind to a reality that in their cosmology cannot exist.

Fleming offers several examples of this broken logic at work. Many cling to a belief that higher oil prices will spur more oil discoveries, but they ignore what earth scientists have been saying for years: there aren't any more big discoveries to make. Most of the oil reserves we tap today were actually identified by the mid-1960s. There's a lot of oil left in the ground perhaps more than half of the total recoverable supply. Fleming says that that is not the issue. The real concern is the point beyond which demand cannot be met. And with demand destined to grow by as much as 3 percent a year, the missing barrels will add up quickly. Once the pain becomes real, the Darwinian impulse kicks in and the orderly market gives way to chaos.

Some insist that industrial societies are growing less dependent on oil. Fleming says they're kidding themselves. They're talking about oil use as a percentage of total energy use, not the actual amount of oil burned. Measured by the barrel, we're burning more and more. In Britain, for instance, transportation needs have doubled in volume since 1973 and still rely almost entirely on oil. Transportation is the weak link in any modern economy; choke off the oil and a country quickly seizes.

This wouldn't matter much, Fleming laments, "If the world had spent the last 25 years urgently preparing alternative energies, conservation technologies, and patterns of land use with a much lower dependence on transport." (He figures 25 years to be the time it will take a country like Britain to break its habit.) Instead, "the long-expected shock finds us unprepared."

SOME UK FOOD STATISTICS

UK food supply chain

UK food retailing market was worth £103,800 million in 2001

Food manufacturing is the single-largest manufacturing industry in the UK

Food supply chain employs 12.5% of the entire workforce in the UK

Food supply chain contributes 8% to the UK economy

Food and drink accounts for 21% of weekly household expenditure

Food supply chain and unsustainability

Food supply chain is the largest energy user in the UK

Food production and distribution contributes up to 22% of the UK's total greenhouse emissions

Food travels further than any other product - 129 km compared to the average product travel of 94 km

Wages in the food industry are notoriously low compared to other sectors

Nearly 30% of household waste is food waste

CONCLUSIONS

Proximity and localisation of food system would be beneficial.

The contemporary food system is inherently unsustainable.

Indicators of social, environmental and economic performance, such as food security, greenhouse gas emissions, food miles, farm income and biodiversity highlight this fact. This process could be reversed by re-establishing local and regional food supply systems and substituting near for far in production and distribution systems. This would reduce both the demand for, and the environmental burdens associated with, transportation.

The proximity principle is a straightforward concept in Eating Oil, where production processes are located as near to the consumer as possible. When applied to food supply, local food systems in the form of home-delivery box schemes, farmers' markets and shops selling local produce would replace imported and centrally distributed foodstuffs.

Taking UK food supply and trade at present, there is great potential to apply the proximity principle, in the form of import substitution. Apart from products such as bananas, coffee and tea, many of the foodstuffs that are imported at present could be produced in Britain. Many meat products, cereals, dairy products and cooking oils are - or could be - available here throughout the year. So could fruit and vegetables, perhaps the most seasonal of food groups, through a combination of cultivating different varieties and traditional and modern storage and preservation techniques.

The land currently used to produce food that is exported could be used to increase our self-sufficiency.

There is growing evidence of environmental benefits of local sourcing of food in terms of reduced transport-related environmental impact. In the case of organic produce, a survey of retailers compared local and global sourcing of produce marketed in different outlets between June and August 2001. Products were chosen that were available in the UK during these months but are at present imported by the multiple retailers. These included spring onions imported by plane from Mexico, potatoes imported by road from Sicily, onions imported by ship from New Zealand. It was found that local sourcing through a farmers market, for example, would therefore reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with distribution by a factor of 650 in the case of a farmers' market and more for box schemes and farm shop sales (16).

The value of UK food, feed and drink imports in 1999 was over £17 billion. It is clear that a reduction in food imports through import substitution would not only be of benefit to the UK economy as a whole but could also be a major driver in rural regeneration as farm incomes would increase substantially. Local food systems also have great potential to reduce the damaging environmental effects of the current food supply system.

A sustainable food system cannot rely, almost completely, on one finite energy source; an energy source which causes enormous levels of pollution during its production, distribution and use. Although food supplies in wealthy countries such as the UK appear to be secure and choice, in terms of thousands of food products being available at supermarkets, seems limitless, this is an illusion.

The vulnerability of our food system to sudden changes was demonstrated during the fuel crisis in 2001. A sharp increase in the price of oil or a reduction in oil supplies could present a far more serious threat to food security and is likely to as oil enters its depletion phase. Food production and distribution, as they are organised today, would not be able to function. Moreover, the alternatives, in the form of sustainable agriculture and local food supplies, which minimise the use of crude oil, are currently unable to respond to increased demand due to low investment and capacity.

The food system is now a significant contributor to climate change. Reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from food production, processing and distribution by minimising the distance between producer and consumer should be a critical part of any strategy to mitigate global warming.

There are many benefits to organic farming, including reduced fossil fuel energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, these are often overshadowed by the environmental damage of long distance transport. Organic products that are transported long distances, particularly when distribution is by plane, are almost as damaging as their conventional air freighted counterparts. Highly processed and packaged organic foodstuffs have an added adverse environmental impact.

The priority must be the development of local and regional food systems, preferably organically based, in which a large percentage of demand is met within the locality or region. This approach, combined with fair trade, will ensure secure food supplies, minimise fossil fuel consumption and reduce the vulnerability associated with a dependency on food exports (as well as imports). Localising the food system will require significant diversification, research, investment and support that have, so far, not been forthcoming. But it is achievable and we have little choice.

REFERENCES

1 Green, B. M., 1978. Eating Oil - Energy Use in Food Production. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. 1978.

2 Andersson, K. Ohlsson, P and Olsson, P. 1996, Life Cycle Assessment of Tomato Ketchup. The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Gothenburg.

3 Cowell, S., and R. Clift., 1996. Farming for the future: an environmental perspective. Paper presented at the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth, July 1996,CES, University of Surrey.

4. Data for shipping and airfreight from Guidelines for company reporting on greenhouse gas emissions. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions: London, March 2001. Data for trucks is based on Whitelegg, J., 1993. Transport for a sustainable future: the case for Europe. Belhaven Press, London; and Gover, M. P., 1994. UK petrol and diesel demand: energy and emission effects of a switch to diesel. Report for the Department of Trade and Industry, HMSO, London.

5. BRE, 1998. Building a sustainable future. General information report 53, energy efficiency best practice programme, Building Research Establishment, Garston, UK.

6. Caroline Lucas, 2001. Stopping the Great Food Swap - Relocalising Europe’s food supply. Green Party, 2001.

7. 21 Lobstein, T, and Hoskins, R, The Perfect Pinta. Food Facts No. 2. The SAFE Alliance, 1998.

8. FAO, 2001. Food Balance Database. 2001. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome at www.fao.org

9 Colin J. Campbell, 1997. The Coming Oil Crisis. Multi- Science Publishing Co. Ltd

10 Green Party USA, 2001. World crude oil reserves – Statistical information. Based on data from the Oil and Gas Journal and the Energy Information Agency. At http://environment.about.com/library/weekly/aa092700.htm

11 Medea: European Agency for International Information, 2001. Oil Reserves. at - http://www.medea.be/en/ 11 David Fleming, 2001. The Great Oil Denial. Submission to the UK Energy Review. At

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/innovation/2001/energy/submissions/Fleming

12 EIA, 2001. World Oil Market and Oil Price Chronologies: 1970 – 2000. Department of Energy’s Office of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Analysis Division, Energy Information Administration, Department of the Environment, USA, at www.eia.doe.gov

13 Energy use in organic farming systems ADAS Consulting for MAFF, Project OF0182, DEFRA, London, 2001.

14 Natasha Walter, 2001. When will we get the revolution. The Independent 19th July 2001.

15 Based on data on sourcing from UKROFS and a survey of supermarket stores during June – August 2001; distance tables for air miles at www.indo.com/cgi-bin/dist and the environmental impact of airfreight in Guidelines for company reporting on greenhouse gas emissions. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London, March 2001.

16 Data for shipping and airfreight from Guidelines for company reporting on greenhouse gas emissions. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions: London, March 2001. Data for trucks is based on Whitelegg, J., 1993. Transport for a sustainable future: the case for Europe. Belhaven Press, London; and Gover, M. P., 1994. UK petrol and diesel demand: energy and emission effects of a switch to diesel. Report for the Department of Trade and Industry, HMSO, London. Data for cars from the Vehicle Certification Agency at www.vca.gov.uk; Whitelegg, J., 1993. Transport for a sustainable future: the case for Europe. Belhaven Press, London; and Gover, M. P., 1994. UK petrol and diesel demand: energy and emission effects of a switch to diesel. Report for the Department of Trade and Industry, HMSO, London.

17 RCEP, 2000. Energy – The Changing Climate. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Twenty-second Report, June 2000, HMSO, London.

18 DETR, 2001. The draft UK climate change programme. DETR, 2001. HMSO, London.

19 USDOE, 2001.World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-1999. US Department of the Environment at http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1.xls

Compiled by Norman Church

IMPARATEASA TUTUROR ROMANILOR

Un text putin cunoscut semnat de Regina Maria Una dintre inimile care au batut pentru realizarea visului de aur al poporului nostru - Romania Mare - a fost, fara indoiala, cea a Reginei Maria. Daruirea ei pe altarul acestei cauze a intrat in legenda. Textul de mai jos l-am gasit in Arhivele Hoover, din California. Dosarul unui... reprezentant rus, care s-a luptat la Conferinta de Pace de la Paris sa nu piarda Basarabia. Cum a ajuns la el fila originala a Reginei Maria este greu de spus. Cert este ca splendida insemnare a Reginei, de pe frontul din Moldova, nu face parte din volumul de amintiri aparut dupa 1989. Editura "Democratia" se va stradui sa faca din el o carte
pentru copii. Oricum, il recomand pentru manualele scolare ca pe o stralucita pagina de istorie.
Eugen Florescu

Trenuri trec, trec. Si povara lor pe care o duc departe, e tineretea tarii noastre, speranta caminurilor. Sunt gramaditi cu miile pe acoperisurile vagoanelor, spanzurati pe margini, atarnati in chip primejdios, dar sunt veseli cu totii. Rad in drum, canta, striga si trenuri trec, trec inainte in fiecare zi. Cu inima grea, cu mainile pline de flori plecam la gara. Am dori sa le spunem cuvinte de care sa-si aduca aminte, sa le spunem tot ce simtim in aceste clipe, dar glasurile lor care se ridica in cor le inabusesc pe ale noastre. Un strigat li se desprinde de pe buze cand ma vad: - ne ducem, plecam cu bucurie, ne ducem la biruinta, ca Tu sa te faci Imparateasa, Imparateasa tuturor Romanilor… Acesta e strigatul inimii lor, urarea care o trimit, urarea care o cred, si eu le zambesc imbiindu-i cu flori pe care le strange bratul lor viu. …Si trec… trec inainte…

Intr-o seara, cand soarele se inclina in slava lui luminoasa, poleind cu aur tot ce-i cadea in cale, ajunsei mai tarziu la gara, retinuta cum eram de alte datorii, si trenul, a carui plecare voiam s-o salut, se pusese in miscare. Tinerii soldati se ingramadeau cu veselia lor zgomotoasa in compartimente, avand la chipiu si la tunica flori pe care li le impartisem mai inainte. Chiar si tunurile si caii erau impodobiti de margarete, de flori liliachii de toate nuantele si stralucirea bogata a apusului le sporea frumusetea. Parea ca insusi cerul se incearca sa binecuvanteze plecarea acestor baieti care se duceau atat de bucurosi la moarte. Mahnita de a fi ajuns cu intarziere, ma indreptai grabnic spre vagoanele in miscare. Un strigat izbucni atunci din toate piepturile, fiindca ma recunoscura, si o ploaie de flori cazu la picioarele mele.
Ei si le desprindeau de la tunica, si le smulgeau din capela, de pe tun, aceste flori ce le pastrau ca sa acopere cu ele pe Regina lor, in vreme ce aceeasi urare urca spre cer:
- Dumnezeu sa-Ti ajute s-ajungi Imparateasa, Imparateasa tuturor Romanilor…
Si florile imi cadeau in brate, imi cadeau pe mainile care abia le mai puteau tine, se imprastiau pe pamantul ce se acoperea cu purpur. Multa vreme statui nemiscata dupa ce trenul disparuse; o dunga de fum pierduta in zarea portocalie si florile care mi se ofileau la picioare imi mai lamureau doar aceasta plecare. Ma uitam , ca in fata unui mister, la cele doua sine aruncate spre infinit, in departare imbinandu-si drumul lor despartit, si ma intrebam spre ce soarta oare se imbulzeste aceasta tinerete, ma intrebam daca se va izbandi visul lor, daca multi dintr-insii se vor mai intoarce?…
Soarele coborase, fumul se risipise, cantecul soldatilor era o amintire numai… Incetisor m-am pornit spre casa…

II.
Fiecare zi ma duceam intre raniti, treceam din sala in sala. Toti ma voiau intre dansii, fiecare soldat dorea sa vada pe Regina. Niciodata n-am lasat o chemare fara raspuns si cutreieram pretutindeni fara sa ma descurajeze vreo privire, vreo oboseala, vreun drum cat de lung.
Cate odata mi se pare insa ca ratacesc printr-un vis fara sfarsit. Ii vad culcati pat langa pat, ochii lor ma intalnesc, ma urmaresc, ma sorb… N-am stiut niciodata pana astazi ce inseamna sa fii
prada acestor ochi. S-ar parea ca privirile lor imi smulg inima din piept, le simt ca o povara pe care abia mai pot s-o indur. Ma aplec spre fata lor trudita, le strang mainile intinse, mi-asez
degetele pe fruntile arzatoare, le scrutez privirile ce se sting, ascult cuvintele soptite…
Si pretutindeni ma urmareste aceeasi urare:
- Dumnezeu sa-Ti ajute sa te faci Imparateasa, Imparateasa tuturor Romanilor… Buze inclestate mi-o spun, glasuri pline de nadejde mi-o striga: Ce inseamna suferinta noastra, daca Tu te faci Imparateasa, Imparateasa tuturor Romanilor? Sunt atat de miscatoare aceste cuvinte, cand pornesc de la patul ranitilor care vad in mine implinirea visului pentru care isi dau viata.

Ma simt asa de mica, asa de umilita in fata rabdarii lor stoice, ochii mi se umplu de lacrimi si imi dau seama ca trebuie sa multumesc lui Dumnezeu pentru maretia acestei credinte. De ce sa fiu eu cea aleasa ca sa infatiseze un ideal, de ce sa fiu eu acest simbol? Ce drept am oare sa stau deasupra lor si sa dobandesc slava cu pretul sangelui? Si astfel trec inainte, cu mai multa duiosie de la un pat la altul…

*
Aceasta intr-o vreme cand speranta canta in fiecare suflet, cand entuziasmul dintai facea sa bata inimile la fel, cand credinta biruintelor glorioase ne insenina zilele. Mult mai tarziu insa, in imprejurari cu totul schimbate, in alta parte, mi-au fost rostite aceleasi cuvinte de catre un om care nu putea sa-mi vada fata in dimineata aceea cand, dupa ce suferise o trepanatie, zacea cu capul infasurat in panze insangerate. Cineva ii spusese ca Regina e alaturi, ca venise sa-l vada, sa intrebe de rana lui, sa incerce sa-i ajute de era nevoie. El intinse mana, o mana pe care am apucat-o intr-a mea, soptindu-i cuvinte de mangaiere, aplecata asupra buzelor care murmurau ceva ce nu intelegeam. Omul nu avea nici fata, nici privire, acoperit cum era de panzele patate de sange. Atunci, ca foarte de departe, venira cuvintele, aceleasi cuvinte:
Dumnezeu sa Te apere si sa Te tie, ca sa ajungi Imparateasa, Imparateasa tuturor Romanilor…
Mi s-a parut in aceasta clipa ca ceva minunat coborase deodata in inima mea zdrobita, ceva sfant si grozav, ceva care era mai mult decat puteam indura… In vremurile de nadejde, urarea aceasta era fara indoiala atingatoare, dar acum imi parea mare si sfanta, caci se rostea intr-o clipa cand cel mai intunecos dezastru ne coplesise tara, cand armatele noastre se retrageau pas cu pas in fata suvoiului dusmanilor nostri…

Si acolo, in odaia suferintei, gura aceasta pe moarte spunea nadejdea de care toti se agatau, visul, visul de aur pe care cu toate jertfele, mizeria si moartea, totusi, intr-o zi, trebuie sa-l izbandim. Nu era decat unul dintre cei multi, un glas din necunoscut, un martir fara nume, dar vorbele lui gasira drumul inimii mele. Si aplecata asupra-i, punandu-mi lin mana pe legaturile inrosite, m-
am rugat lui Dumnezeu sa-i asculte dorinta, m-am rugat ca sangele atator umili eroi sa nu se risipeasca in zadar, m-am rugat ca in ziua ori ceasul cand izbavirea cea mare va veni, un ecou al cantecelor de biruinta sa ajunga si pana la acest anonim, dincolo de marea Umbra in care se cufunda, sa ajunga, pentru ca dincolo de groapa, sa ia parte la o glorie pe care ochii lui, inca vii, nu mai puteau s-o vada...

publicat cu bunavoinata d-lui Vessa Bolduro