London needs Mrs Jack

Regretfully it seems UK chickens have come home to roost. It seems our young molly coddled children have run amuck. They are just not afraid of authority. It is no good having riot shields and batons and water canon if the rioters/children know you are not going to use them. I am not an advocate of the Spare the rod, spoil the child brigade but sadly it does look as if they were right!

Everyone needs a dose of authority! To live in our society one must have rules and one must behave even if one doesn't want to. Although I am loathe to admit it in the last resort a God who punishes the unruly with eternal damnation might be a good thing when all else fails.

So what to do? My recipe for success would be to bring back Mrs Jack.

Who?

Mrs Jack was the headmistress of my ballet school, Arts Educational, in Upper Berkley Street London in the late 1950s. She was a formidable woman and one who by character alone held all the pupils and staff in fear and dread. If one put so much as a toe out of line the result was the threat of immediate discipline of the first order. She gave the impression that the results of any digression from the rules would result in immediate expulsion. This worked. The school was terrified and the apocalypse never materialized.

Her presence as she walked into morning assembly was enough to give the whole school the jitters. Her eye for the school uniform code was like an eagle. Wrong shoes meant trouble. She insisted that we curtsey to her every time she passed. Her staff knew that the threat of being sent to Mrs Jack was enough to quell the bravest offender.

Consequently we learned to do what we were told without question. Ballet companies need dancers who do what they are told as one cannot have individuals in the corps of Swan Lake! If I am in any production I do what the director or conductor wants regardless of what I think personally.

Mrs Jack was strikingly beautiful but scary. She was superb at teaching English and although she never got me to spell I can parse my way through anything. This is not fashionable these days. I can be extremely cheeky on occasions and spent many hours outside the classroom door which was unfortunately right next to her office. This was dangerous as I could have been in great trouble but fortunately the loo was next door so if I saw her coming I would pretend that that was where I was going to avoid the unthinkable consequences.

Being of light complexion my mother used to get her rouge & powder out every morning and give me the once over as she thought I looked so pale and ill. Mrs Jack's eye caught the offending make up and all hell let loose! I was terrified and said "My mother did it!". The explosion that followed as my excuse was given has stayed with me to this day. A phone call to my mother followed. I was never made up again but I escaped with my life.

One does have to fear some authority if the group is to survive. Lets hope the politicians are up to it. No cell phones for under 17's might help.

Capitalism and Croquet don't work!

It struck me this morning after the financial and political travails of the past weeks that Capitalism is like a game of Association Croquet, both are outdated, both don't work in today's circumstances, both are brilliant if you are a winner and disastrous if you are a loser, both need absolute selfish dedication and adherence to the rules. No quater is ever given. No change is ever contemplated and all opposition must be quashed.

Croquet and Capitalism are horrible games played by horrible people. You have to be a totally without empathy to succeed  and able to live with a total lack of sympathy with your opponent. If you have these traits Capitalism and Association Croquet are the games for you but if like me you have some sympathy with your opponent and would like to give them a fair go you a destined to be a failure.

I think is it fair today to say that Capitalism as it has been played in that past no longer works. The free for all of buying up every company in site, sacking the workers and selling the assets and taking no responsibility for their fate is no longer acceptable. It is the same with Association Croquet. It needs hours and hours to play a game and if you hit someone just slightly better than you you can expect hours and hours of sitting in a deck chair with no chance of actually hitting a ball more than once. You will never get 'in' and your opponent doesn't give a stuff.  'That's the game' you are told and 'no we do not bend the rules. You'll just have to put up with it!'

The Croquet Association could change the rules  but the old players like the system as it works for them so to hell with everyone else. Consequently the game of Association Croquet is dying on its feet. Few new players and a huge fall off as potential players learn that they are just there to pay the club fees and watch the old codgers 'go around'.

People who are denied an opportunity to join in cannot fend for themselves. Eventually people will get angry if they are kept sitting on the sidelines for too long without a living salary, education and health care and demand changes. It is happening all over the world as the young realize that the system and politicians now in charge are only interested in themselves and not in their citizens. The young have youth on their side. Old clerics of any faith beware!

If you have winners you will have losers and it is up to the winners to look after the losers but our politicians don't seem to get this and neither does the Croquet Association. If the game is too unpleasant people eventually rebel and won't play. Rulers have to learn to look after the 'have nots' or be thrown to the lions as Marbarak in Egypt. Thirty years of selfishness and corruption and ends up behind bars. Bush and Obama are both guilty. You cannot get elected president of the USA with out bankers and corporations backing and that means offensive, in your face capitalism.

Association Croquet could be great game but needs a few changes  to the rules to let opponents have a bit of a hit every time the game is played. Capitalism is the best going as long as it is regulated and the rules of trade are fair to all. Greedy bankers unscrupulous speculators and corrupt politicians have to be kept in hand.

Anyway it looks as if time is up for both systems. What it needs is a Napoleon with a whiff of grapeshot to say 'stop this nonsense' and sort this out. I only wish I was younger!

Misogynists and me!

Janette Miller Greece

Why is it that the three men who at one time or another saw something in me enough to love me, to help me and become an important part of my and their life were all misogynists? In spite of themselves all three of them who were confirmed women dislikers, 'haters' would be too strong a word, found to their astonishment and I suspect much against their will that I was in fact 'rather nice' and en par with their male colleagues and peers and yet? All three were brilliant men at the top of their professions so I must have been quite something to attract their attention in my own right.

All three went out of their way for me and yet I feel I was almost an embarrassment. One even went so far as to marry me! This came as a shock to all his friends and family as he was 44 a confirmed bachelor and had a boarding house full of men at the time! I was something of a novelty. Oxford Educated Dr. Miles Heffernan was something of a 'catch'! It took 8 years and a 'kick' from  a mutual friend Noel 'Cupid' Tovey to make Miles propose.

The other two misogynists kept me very much in the background. The composer Britten who had many boy friends first met me as a 'necessity'. He was desperate for a young Flora found that I was brilliant musically at the age of 15 and watched me grow into a very attractive 19 year old English rose. I feel sure much  to his astonishment he enjoyed my company. I think I may have been the only 19 year old female Britten ever took home alone in this sports car after rehearsals having turfed out Peter Pears. It is a bit sad when I think about it now. I could have been a bit nicer. I was around for nearly 5 years. You did not stay around Britten if he did not like you! But you will not find me in any biography. It is as if I do not exist. Am I that embarrassing? But I do exist!

The last misogynist was the late Peter Goodwin who was a Master Bookbinder. I met him at my philatelic & bookbinding clubs and he would never talk to me. In fact for three years he never said one word. It was so bad I even complained but because the club bindery was shut much to my annoyance the offer was made that if ever I needed to use the equipment I could use Peter's. "You wouldn't complain if you could use a real bindery". He said smugly!  This offer was made because he never thought I should take it up! I did.

A brush with the hospital super bug Clostridium Difficele had left my nervous system in tatters. All I could do was Photoshop and book bind and I needed an embosser. I took Peter up, he saw I needed a helping hand  and I went to work for him. For three months I was an apprentice to a master craftsman. I soon discovered Peter was a Free Mason and his brothers came first. A bad marriage had left him bitter and he really did not like women but he too enjoyed my company and for nine years we met each week. I filmed him for posterity on DVD. Each festival Christmas, Easter, his birthday's he would spend with me and my small family and I went to the Masonic 'dos' when he needed a partner.

However all three men compartmentalized their relationships. For two of them I was a 'secret' my husband had no choice but to acknowledge me as I was not the 'living together' sort. It was only at Peter's funeral that I discovered how much of a 'secret' I was.  There was no room in the chapel for me as it was filled to the brim with over 300 of his brothers who had never heard of me. I refused to watch his funeral  outside on the TV but I did feel that the man being buried was not the man I knew. I was airbrushed out of his life as if I had never existed.

I had bought a posy of camillas which he loved. I took them often to the bindery. I wanted to place them on the coffin as it was laid in earth but again it was his 300 brothers who were invited to place an acacia twig on the coffin. I felt almost redundant. Fortunately a mason noticed and told me to push forward and place my flowers. He must have had a word with the vicar as I was then invited to do so but it was a close run thing. I wonder how many of his brothers will visit his grave and why none had invited him for Xmas dinner?

It was not their fault that 'my men' distrusted women. They were born in an age where women were definitely second class citizens who were uneducated and could be dispensed with and it says much that they rebelled or at least relaxed to allow me into their personal circle. The  secret world of the all male club where membership relies on having a penis is slightly unpleasant today but is still alive and kicking. I can vouch for that.

For Peter and Miles I have given them their posterity. Peter on DVD, Miles on YouTube. Britten has given me mine. All three have airbrushed me out of their official lives. I do not exist but I do and I live to tell the tale!

Is Wagner's Ring too long?

Is Wagner's Ring too long? Not according to my late husband who relished every note and knew what Wagner had for breakfast but for me who stood through my first Ring in the old gallery at Covent Garden when I was 15 (Hans Hotter was Wotan so it was a long time ago) some of the monologues were definitely a bit long on first hearing and I had to sit down!

Wagner knew that his audience would possibly only hear his operas once and that it takes the average music audience and least three repetitions of a theme to appreciate the musical line. Also he had a lot of plot to explain and there was no knowing if the audience had been in the previous evening so again a lot of repetition was necessary.

This is not necessary today. What Wagner needed was an editor and it seems now he has got one and in Bayreuth the very home of The Ring. Richard Wagner fur Kinder - Der Ring of des Nibelungen which is edited down from three operas and an introductory evening to just two hours!

I should have loved to have done this 30 years ago in Auckland where I ran a small progressive opera/ballet company against all odds and no grants. We managed Schoenberg, Ravel, Bartok but I did come to grief with excerpts from Tristan and Isolde. King Mark's monologue was too much for the audience and critics and on the third night I had to cut it. The King Mark in question was so miffed he almost threw me into Lake Pupuke and has never spoken to me again.

Auckland wasn't ready for Wagner's Ring and still isn't I suspect. Might get away with the early works and perhaps a Meistersinger but Auckland might like a shortened version to get them going though even this is doubtful without a large grant from the government.

I congratulate Bayreuth for having the guts to do this. Nobody else except me. if I had the cash and health would have dared. It is long over due and will introduce many to the most some marvelous music ever written.

The Grand Duchess Anastasia

May I introduce you to HRH the Grand Duchess Anastasia. She was born/made in 1921 in Monte Carlo and now she is sitting on my sofa in Auckland New Zealand and it is freezing!

Anastasia is not amused. She was so 'not amused' that I found my real Russian fur hat for her to wear. She looked so lonely that I suggested Fred my trusty turkey try to cheer her up.

What is a Grand Duchess doing sitting in my drawing room in Auckland New Zealand? I am not sure Anastasia knows. She certainly looks very bored. When it ones to looking down one's nose at the hoi poloi Anastasia has got what it takes. Her look can kill!

In 1921 my Miller grand parents were rich. My grandfather Hugh Miller had escaped the slums of Glasgow by inventing the multi colored golf umbrella and for a few years held the patent pending. He made a fortune and was able to holiday in Monte Carlo where my grandmother discovered and bought Anastasia.

Anastasia was made by a Grand Duchess. The Russian Revolution had meant many a Grand Duchess escaped to the South of France with out the proverbial ruble and consequently scratched a living making the most beautiful dolls. Anastasia reeks class. She is no ordinary doll she is a royal doll.

My grandparents travelled all over the world. Anastasia has emigrated to Canada in the 1930's, not a success, lived through the Blitz in London, become poor again as my grand father's business collapsed, golf clubs are not much good in a war and eventually emigrated to New Zealand twice as my mother loathed the place and took her back to Bournemouth.  Anastasia was not amused. Now Anastasia is back again with me.

She reigns over my drawing room. She can look very dismissive even though she has some ravishing objects to look at such as a claret jug from Napoleon III's table and a Jane Austin piano but she hankers for the Winter Palace and the old good old days and all she gets is a turkey. I mean!!!

Nevertheless spring is on its way and hopefully Anastasia will feel better.

World's Financial Madness vs My Mother

My mother was right! It pains me to say this but on one economic topic my mother  was right. 'Never mess about with people's jobs' she said.  'It is very easy to sack people and close organizations but almost impossible to start them up again' and she was right. Why don't politicians know this? They have enough evidence. Making people unemployed is stupid.

If you shut down a ballet company or an orchestra you lose all the trained personel and it would cost a  half the gold in Fort Knox to start one up again from scratch even if you could.  Ballet dancers and musicians take decades to train. This is my filed of interest but it is the same for virtually anything else.

How does HBSC improve the economy by sacking 30,0000 employees. It is good for the bank as it lowers the wages bill, allows them to sell off premises  and make their profits look better for shareholders but just where do they think that 30,000 unwanted clerical workers are going to go?

The governments too are great at shedding employees. In NZ 1,500 armed forces personel are being 'let go' from the payroll  where they could do something useful like rebuild Christchurch onto the unemployment benefit. How does that benefit anyone?

The only people who benefit from this madness are the bankers who do nothing to help the real economy. Their money is made from shuffling numbers in a giant ponze scheme. They shut down manufacturing companies, sack the employees and sell the assets in the name of free trade.

The Romans had the answer. They had this problem too but they made jobs. All Roman soldiers had to build roads viaducts and walls when not fighting. Hadrian's Wall comes to mind and for the rest there was 'bread and circuces'. Entertain the masses and feed the rest. In NZ at the moment we have the Rugby World Cup which is costing the NZ taxpayer 39 million but it does keep the unemployed youth happy for a couple of months.

Germany is doing well because through all this mayhem it has maintained its manufacturing base. UK & NZ have shed all theirs. How could the UK let Cadburys Chocolate, the most British of British organization be sold to Kraft and sent to Poland! In NZ we lost Fisher & Paykle  to China!

Still this won't go on forever. Oil will run out and then it will be uneconomic to have goods transported  from the other side of the world.

So once again I have to admit my mother was right.

The Voyage that Shook the World and me!

Last night I watched by accident the film above on Sky TV in New Zealand. I missed the introduction so must have joined in about a third of the way through and being a great fan of Darwin I sat back to enjoy the rest of the programme.

It was beautifully made with great production values and must have cost a fortune and I wondered why I had not seen it before as there was a lot of interest created for Darwin's double centenary two years ago in 2009.

There were lots of experts with great credentials but it was only when mentioning that Darwins finches could have evolved like breeding pigeons and the flash floods could have caused the geological strata that I began to feel uncomfortable with what I was seeing and started to smell at rat.

When it started on the purpose Darwin's theory really being against religion and there were doubts as to it validity that I knew something was seriously wrong with this documentary. A search for the title, I had to find the Sky magazine and a quick Wiki showed that in fact it was a covert Creationist production set up to entice scientists who otherwise would not have taken part.

I have no gripe with alternative presentations but I do have a gripe with sneaky documentaries like this that have a hidden agenda ment to fool. For anyone not scientifically educated this documentary gives the firm impression that The Modern Scientific Theory of Evolution is still only a theory!

For me DNA sequence says it all. DNA, of course, was never mentioned. Darwin far from being displeased I feel sure would have been delighted with DNA as it proves everything he said.

However the film is worth a watch as an example of what can be achieved by propaganda and money in an attempt to deceive. Why didn't they just say Darwin is wrong and this is why!