Month: July 2005

POEM OF THE DAY

“London pride has been handed down to us,
London pride is a flower that’s free.
London pride means our own dear town to us,
And our pride it forever will be.
Grey city
Stubbornly implanted,
Taken so for granted
For a thousand years.
Stay, city,
Smokily enchanted,
Cradle of our memories and hopes and fears.
Every Blitz
Your resistance
Toughening,
From the Ritz
To the Anchor and Crown,
Nothing ever could override
The pride of London Town.”

– Noel Coward, “London Pride.”

FAILURE

The Economist makes a good point today:

What the attacks also show, however, is that well co-ordinated though the four explosions were, they were not terribly effective. Chance plays a big role in such attacks. The bombs in Madrid last year which killed 191 people might have killed many more had the station roof collapsed. The September 11th hijackings might have killed fewer than the eventual 2,752 had the twin towers of the World Trade Centre not melted down and collapsed. As The Economist went to press, the toll in the four London bombs was not clear, but the estimate of at least 33 deaths was thankfully far smaller than in Madrid. By the terrible calculus of terrorism, the attacks should thus be counted as a failure – sign of weakness, not strength.

And no WMDs. For that, relief.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “You are right to point out the British stoicism in the face of the attacks; it’s quite admirable. However, your expat Brit emailer from London stretches his comparison too far. Perhaps if Westminister Abbey had a plane rammed into its side and over 3,000 people died, the sports commentators might feel the need to make a mention of it. It’s wonderful the Brits are going on with their lives as normal and the Americans might indeed do well to take note, but spare us comparisons between the attacks, because they aren’t at all comparable.” Point taken. I should add that celebrating British stoicism does not imply that somehow the American response is inferior. It isn’t. Americans see a problem and want to fix it; Brits sometimes endure it. Some synthesis of these two approaches may be helpful in dealing with Islamo-fascist terror. I don’t see either as somehow better than the other – just different.

WHY CRICKET MATTERS TODAY

An emailer reminds me of another Englishman’s commentary on seeking pleasure and diversion even in wartime, perhaps especially in wartime:

“I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun… The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different. They propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the latest new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache: it is our nature.”

C.S. Lewis, of course, in a 1939 sermon at St Mary the Virgin in Oxford. Yes, England beat Australia today – by nine wickets.