There is a feeling of familiarity when you sometimes venture out into a new place, a similar feeling to that you get when you enter a secondhand book shop & know that the book you've been looking for for ages will be found here. Allegrezza got none of this with Tabriz.
He'd gone straight to the hotel & sleep when he arrived, decided in the morning to have a look around, pick up the feel for the place, before he started searching for any information about his ancestor.
He played the tourist. Went out to look at the Talkheh Rood, the Bitter River, where it flowed past the north of the city on its way to Orumiyeh Lake, thought of the earliest maps, where the known world was an island around which ran the Adjai-Tchai, also called the Bitter River. He worked his way back into the city, along the Mehran Rood, the Sweet River, now a playground for children & a parking lot for cars because the only flow ever in it was sewerage or industrial waste.
Tabriz used to be a great cultural centre, a major stopping point on the Silk Road, one of several places that had at various times been known as The Dome of Islam. Taken without bloodshed by the Mongols in the 13th century C.E. it had thrived. It was where the Ambassadors from Venice were received. The Blue Mosque – the Jewel of Islam – was built. Several of the greatest religious schools of the period had been established here. Now of the schools only the towers of the Shanb Gazan survive.
Tabriz had come apart during the war between the Safavid Dynasty & the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. The artists & many of the carpetmakers fled to Isfahan, the only poets left were those buried in the Poets' Cemetery. It became a city modified by each successive modern era.
It had been the capital of Persia during the Qajar dynasty. The Constitutional Movement was born here in the 19th century, revitalised again in the first decade of the 20th when it had succeeded in forcing the creation of an elected parliament despite the execution of two of its leaders. The first modern school was founded in Tabriz. The first printing hall, the first theatre, the first periodical, the first municipality, all were established in Tabriz. The first Town Hall in Iran was built here, designed to resemble "an eagle with widespread wings". What was perhaps the major demonstration that led to the exile of the Shah & the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini had taken place here in 1978.
But modification & modernity at a price. The best carpets are no longer to be found here. The market has been reduced to a fraction of its former size & its infinite variety.The Poets' Cemetery has been built over with apartment blocks & shopping malls, the graves replaced with markers & a monument erected in 1976. Only the death of Shahryar, author of the famed "Haydar Babaya Sallam", in 1988 & the subsequent creation of a small park around the monument to celebrate his life & writings have a left a whisper of the former glory.
Allegrezza left a small poem in the visitors' book & returned to his hotel. He knew before he even started looking that his quest would have no joy here. But he would look anyway.
He set out for the University in the morning, to start at the library there & see if it led him anywhere. All he could find in the catalogues on Hassan-i-Sabbah under any of the variant spellings were encyclopaedia entries.
He went across to the librarian, to ask him if there was any more material, was told that what was in the catalogues was probably it, but there were some uncatalogued secular manuscripts in the cupboards on the next floor up & there might be something in those.
It was there that the police found him fifteen minutes later. He was asked to come with them, was informed that the reason for his detainment would be explained at the station. Allegrezza went with them; there seemed little choice.
"Why are you looking for hashish?" he was asked in the interview room.
"I'm not."
"Then are you looking to sell it? To corrupt Iranian youth with your western wickedness?"
"I'm not trying to do either. I'm looking for information on Hassan-i-Sabbah. Surely you must have heard of him?"
The policeman laughed. "So it's the secret gardens of The Old Man of the Mountains that you're looking for."
Allegrezza began to protest but the policeman held up his hand to stop him. "The West seems to have lost its ability to embrace martyrdom. It cannot accept that we Moslems regard it as a holy act but instead now believes that people must be" – he broke off, searching for a word, seemed to find no other than the English term – "'stoned' before they can do it. You have so much to learn.You're probably not a criminal but you are rather foolish. I'm going to let you go, but your name's going into our files immediately. Take this as a warning."
Allegrezza flew out to Tehran that afternoon. Shaken, debating whether to stay in Iran, deciding to have one last shot at finding something. Perhaps there was more chance in the capital.
Next morning he went to the State Library, registered as a researcher, went off to look through the catalogues. Twenty minutes later the police arrived.
"So, the hashish searcher of Tabriz has come to Tehran. Please accompany us."
It was a similar sceptical interrogation to the day before's, but this time Allegrezza was a bit more forthcoming, explaining about his search for information about his ancestor, about the connection with Hassan. He was dismissed after an hour, told to remain at his hotel while they decided what to do.
That evening there was a knock at his door. He opened it to find two men standing there, one a mullah, the other in a dark suit that appeared to be of good Italian manufacture. They produced identity cards. They were members of the Religious Police, what was, essentially, the Secret Police.
The questioning began again, with only the cleric doing the asking. Allegrezza explained his reasons for being in Iran, explained them again, denied looking to buy or sell hashish. Was warned that his behaviour was bordering on the anti-religious, was antisocial, may even be considered criminal. Finally, after his credentials had been examined again, the two men got up to go.
The suit spoke for the first time, told the Mullah to go & get the lift, that he needed to have a piss before he left. Then, when the Mullah had gone, he turned to Allegrezza.
"I will check if there is truth in your story. If there is then I will help you. Otherwise....."
Allegrezza looked at him, puzzled. "How can you check the historical truth?"
The suit smiled, somewhat coldly. "I have access to the original records. I am a follower of Hassan. I am an Assassin. If what you have told me is true I will come for you tomorrow. If not, then you will never know when I am coming."
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Thursday, September 30, 2004
As-best-os or As-worst-os
Mesothelioma is inevitably fatal. It is a disease that takes a long time to develop, 20, 30, 40 years. It is solely attributable to exposure to asbestos. It affects not just the miners of & the workers in asbestos but their partners – through exposure to clothing that carries particles or fibres – those who have lived near mines or asbestos-related industries & those who have been exposed to products such as cement/asbestos building products that have become damaged or have started to break down.
The building products that used it were relatively cheap so its use in schools, other public buildings, for roofs & fences or as insulation in private homes was quite widespread. Its dangers have been known for 70-80 years, but have only been widely publicised in the last two decades as people began to die or, perhaps more precisely, the cause of a number of deaths became known & people began to take legal action against companies that had either lied to them or failed to provide adequate protection for their workers. The similarities with the lies of the tobacco manufacturers are obvious.
James Hardie was an Australian company that both mined & used asbestos in its building products. It created a trust fund in the early 90s, a few hundred million dollars, which it stated would be adequate to meet all future claims against it. But apparently its actuaries knew differently for almost overnight Hardie moved itself offshore to The Netherlands & set up a separate parent company that it believed would protect it from future litigation.
I caught part of a tv documentary last night shown on the ABC (not the U.S. corporation but Australia's public broadcaster) on asbestos in Canada. A news item on the same subject.
A couple of other sites that give some more information:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/594/594p3b.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1204017.htm
http://www.btinternet.com/~ibas/lka_lies_sub_can_asb_pol.htm
The building products that used it were relatively cheap so its use in schools, other public buildings, for roofs & fences or as insulation in private homes was quite widespread. Its dangers have been known for 70-80 years, but have only been widely publicised in the last two decades as people began to die or, perhaps more precisely, the cause of a number of deaths became known & people began to take legal action against companies that had either lied to them or failed to provide adequate protection for their workers. The similarities with the lies of the tobacco manufacturers are obvious.
James Hardie was an Australian company that both mined & used asbestos in its building products. It created a trust fund in the early 90s, a few hundred million dollars, which it stated would be adequate to meet all future claims against it. But apparently its actuaries knew differently for almost overnight Hardie moved itself offshore to The Netherlands & set up a separate parent company that it believed would protect it from future litigation.
Although the dangers of asbestos were known as far back as the 1930s, Hardie continued to manufacture asbestos products until the mid-'80s. While rival manufacturer CSR capitulated to legal and public pressure in the '90s and opted to meet victims' claims as they arose, Hardie pursued a different route.Corporate greed or conscience-lessness or protecting the interests of its shareholders? Or criminal deceit? That it is the subject of an enquiry currently going on. & the liabilities are now estimated to be closer to $2 billion.
In early 2001, it hived off its asbestos liabilities into a foundation, the MRCF. Hardie funded the MRCF with $293 million.
However, in the past three years these asbestos liabilities ballooned by more than $1 billion, leaving the MRCF with a funding shortfall of $800 million.
Meanwhile, James Hardie and its lawyers Allens, through a bewilderingly complex series of corporate transactions, shifted the Hardie head office to the Netherlands and then claimed the company had no lingering exposure to the problem. It bamboozled the media and the stock market in the process.
I caught part of a tv documentary last night shown on the ABC (not the U.S. corporation but Australia's public broadcaster) on asbestos in Canada. A news item on the same subject.
Ottawa, March 25 -- Canada is starting work this summer on a billion dollar project to renovate its parliamentary buildings and cleanse them of asbestos, which has been found to cause cancer.Simply put, commercial interests, with the support & protection of both the Canadian & the Quebec Provincial Legislature, are continuing to export asbestos fibre with minimal hazard warnings knowing it will be used in workplaces where protection is almost non-existant. After all, what are a few deaths in the under-developed countries when it comes to protecting the dubious economic benefits of a few Canadian companies with a disproportionate amount of political clout?
The project will take six years to complete but, in the meantime, Canadian government agents are still pushing exports of the fibre. Canada even has gone so far as to argue a challenge at the World Trade Organization that a proposed French ban on asbestos imports would be an illegal trade practice.
Despite recent warnings that asbestos was the cause of 500,000 cancer victims in western Europe alone, Canadian asbestos producers continue to promote and sell their fibre worldwide - especially to developing nations.
A couple of other sites that give some more information:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/594/594p3b.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1204017.htm
http://www.btinternet.com/~ibas/lka_lies_sub_can_asb_pol.htm
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Ruby Street
Maybe it's the focus of her temporary role as carer / nurse. Maybe it's because it's keeping her at home. Maybe it's the (southern hemisphere) spring thrusting through. Maybe it's just the rain in Sydney. Maybe......
Whatever the maybes, Jill Jones is posting some wonderful stuff at Ruby Street. Including another in her hay(na)ku series series Impermanent Tenses.
Check the site out!!!! Now!
Whatever the maybes, Jill Jones is posting some wonderful stuff at Ruby Street. Including another in her hay(na)ku series series Impermanent Tenses.
Check the site out!!!! Now!
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Monday, September 27, 2004
divine
Divine meaning a prescient reliance on yardstick. Divine meaning I can recognize the infinite even in his Kabuki make-up, even reeling. Moved by terror and by systems that might, at a breath, eliminate them, the hymns rise up to dance in the fish—they dance like the poor. Starved is not the same as poor. Starved cannot ever achieve the requisite disinterest.from Kirsten Kaschock's another.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
The Sunday archive
Poem for a Bohemian Funeral
The women all look like Sarah Bernhardt,
& as for the beautiful young men... Well!
Peter Varley, at James Clarke’s funeral.
They come in sad lines. The
young men whose blond hair cradles
fingered dreams
& the old, the
unmannered fathers, who are
spindle-shanked & grouchy, with
tired mouths. Whispering amongst
themselves - words drift like
stepping stones, slow & ponderous,
heavy with nostalgia.
They come in sad lines & sit
the same way. Forming two bodies,
restless, like lovers who must,
after this, separate.
For this is the end of some
shared gift of life, but only the
young can know it. The old
are dying; one is / already dead
Whom the young worshipped &
fought over
Who provoked poems, songs,
love
Whom the old hated, but have all
come, wondering
Who will take his place.
1962
The women all look like Sarah Bernhardt,
& as for the beautiful young men... Well!
Peter Varley, at James Clarke’s funeral.
They come in sad lines. The
young men whose blond hair cradles
fingered dreams
& the old, the
unmannered fathers, who are
spindle-shanked & grouchy, with
tired mouths. Whispering amongst
themselves - words drift like
stepping stones, slow & ponderous,
heavy with nostalgia.
They come in sad lines & sit
the same way. Forming two bodies,
restless, like lovers who must,
after this, separate.
For this is the end of some
shared gift of life, but only the
young can know it. The old
are dying; one is / already dead
Whom the young worshipped &
fought over
Who provoked poems, songs,
love
Whom the old hated, but have all
come, wondering
Who will take his place.
1962
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Adding
Jim Ryals' The Lawyer Novelist. Also a poet, a self-confessed dinosaur, & an eloquent spokesperson on the difficulties - tempered with joy - of raising children with disabilities.
sumer is icumen in
Even though it is still only September, the smell of bushfires is in the air, the smoke haze creeps up from the horizon like a slowly-closing dome. Some of it comes from backburning, but there are also sure to be those fires started by someone stupid enough to throw a cigarette butt from a car window or by the odd act of arson.
They're not as bad as the fires we experienced in Sydney a couple of years ago, when burnt leaves drifted ten kilometres to fall on our lawn, where around tv news times there would be a procession of helicopters passing overhead on their way to catch their fifteen seconds of flame, where the orange ball of the sun would appear on our floor caused by the extremely thick haze creating some sort of camera obscura.
It hasn't rained for a long time. There is even less water in the lagoons than when I last wrote about it three or so months ago. The small lagoon on the main road just before it leaves the city is totally dried up although the birds remain because people still stop there & feed them. Much of the lagoon in the Botanical Gardens has dried up, although ironically there is now lush green grass that has sprung up in some parts sparked by the moisture that still remains. The Yeppen Yeppen lagoon close to our house still has water, but there are only a couple of pelicans, some ducks & some herons taking advantage of it. Most of the birds seem have to headed for the Woolwash lagoon, a few kilometres south, usually the haunt of the black swans but now they have been joined by several hundred small black shags & a hundred or so pelicans.
So dry. & the land seems to have little slope to it. But if you drive the road that traces a semicircle about five kilometres outside the city there are floodways that are 600 metres wide.
They're not as bad as the fires we experienced in Sydney a couple of years ago, when burnt leaves drifted ten kilometres to fall on our lawn, where around tv news times there would be a procession of helicopters passing overhead on their way to catch their fifteen seconds of flame, where the orange ball of the sun would appear on our floor caused by the extremely thick haze creating some sort of camera obscura.
It hasn't rained for a long time. There is even less water in the lagoons than when I last wrote about it three or so months ago. The small lagoon on the main road just before it leaves the city is totally dried up although the birds remain because people still stop there & feed them. Much of the lagoon in the Botanical Gardens has dried up, although ironically there is now lush green grass that has sprung up in some parts sparked by the moisture that still remains. The Yeppen Yeppen lagoon close to our house still has water, but there are only a couple of pelicans, some ducks & some herons taking advantage of it. Most of the birds seem have to headed for the Woolwash lagoon, a few kilometres south, usually the haunt of the black swans but now they have been joined by several hundred small black shags & a hundred or so pelicans.
So dry. & the land seems to have little slope to it. But if you drive the road that traces a semicircle about five kilometres outside the city there are floodways that are 600 metres wide.
A correction, an apology
In my earlier posting on the European "discovery" of Australia, I had a whimsical caveat that linked the discovery of the Eridea map to the chronology of Jorge Luis Borges. My whimsy, whether deliberately or otherwise, led me to misread the paper The Eridea Map, 1602 & state that the map had been found in the National Library in Buenos Aires. It was, as the paper actually says, found in the National Library at Rio de Janiero.
Noel Peters, author of the paper, has emailed me to point out my error. I apologise for it. All I can say in my defense is that both libraries are branches of The Library of Babel, of which Borges writes "(it) contained all books". &, doubtless, all maps.
Noel Peters, author of the paper, has emailed me to point out my error. I apologise for it. All I can say in my defense is that both libraries are branches of The Library of Babel, of which Borges writes "(it) contained all books". &, doubtless, all maps.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
harry k. stammer, painter
The paintings at harry k. stammer's eponymous blog are well worth a visit. I've seen some of his work before, at As/Is, but they seemed to be compressed there, whereas here they are viewable in their full 4" x 4" glory, with all their painterly qualities coming through.
Harry writes in an email that they're part of a continuing series of road/word paintings that he's been doing over the last ten years. I especially like the one posted on 9/14.
Harry writes in an email that they're part of a continuing series of road/word paintings that he's been doing over the last ten years. I especially like the one posted on 9/14.
Also adding to the sidebar
Nicholas Downing's A New Broom because how could I resist a site that describes itself as having "poems, found poems, cut-ups, thinking outloud, sporadic hay(na)kus."
Electric verses (Säkhöiset säkeet) a contemporary Finnish poetry site with translations.
& a permanent link to Noel H. Peters' paper on the 1602 Eredia map where he puts forward the case that the first Europeans to discover Australia were the Portuguese, not the Dutch. The archival nature of blogs means that I can't keep my original posting about this in your face, but at least the link is there where it can catch the corner of your eye.
Electric verses (Säkhöiset säkeet) a contemporary Finnish poetry site with translations.
& a permanent link to Noel H. Peters' paper on the 1602 Eredia map where he puts forward the case that the first Europeans to discover Australia were the Portuguese, not the Dutch. The archival nature of blogs means that I can't keep my original posting about this in your face, but at least the link is there where it can catch the corner of your eye.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Adding to the sidebar with great pleasure
Word, the new blog of Rachael Kendrick whose words have always delighted me.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
from paul simon's journal: a note on "the boxer"
trawled the blogs this afternoon but none of those who came on to me were pretty enough so i disconnected & watched rocky & garfunkel - oops - bullwinkle instead
Monday, September 20, 2004
Today's language
There is no language like the language of today.& today's language is the most recent posts at Jean Vengua's The Nightjar.
The Allegrezza Ficcione, Part 12
The plane to Istanbul was full of workers returning to Turkey after their temporary visas had expired. The plane to Baku was half full of oil workers returning after some R & R, half full of Azerbaijani returning with duty-free shopping. The plane to Tabriz was almost empty, two Mullahs, & a Belgian ecologist who insisted on sitting next to Allegrezza.
The ecologist was part of a survey team employed by Petrofina but currently working for Total — "They’ll be the one company before too long" — identifying the best route for an oil pipeline from Baku to Tabriz where it could then join the existing pipelines to either the refineries of Tehran or the export port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Iran, he explained, wanted to assert a measure of control over the oilfields of the Caspian.
"The Iranians lay claim to half the floor of the Caspian Sea, but if they progress this claim it will alienate the other littoral countries. So, since the embargo makes it extremely difficult for them to export their oil, what they're trying to do is not only provide a pipeline that is cheaper, & therefore more economically attractive, but by bringing foreign oil into Iran, refining it & using it for local consumption, they can then exchange an equal quantity of Iranian oil back to their neighbours who then re-export it as their own.
"The Americans want to build a pipeline across the floor of the Caspian, but the ecological implications of that are frightening so it'll never get the go-ahead. Just think, caviar in oil, crude oil. & to put a bit of a fright into those who are planning alternative routes, there are elements in Iran who are not above destabilising the regions around. It's Georgia now. Before long it'll be Chechnya, then Ingushetiya, then Ossetia. The Caucasus will be a bloodbath. Iran will look like a haven of stability.
"Ask the Mullahs up there," he said, nodding his head in their direction. "Publicly they will say that it is the light of the Book, the holy Koran, whose wisdom shines most brightly through the accumulated learning of generations of Iranian Shi'a scholars that brings the surrounding countries into Iran's sphere of influence. But when they are away from the mosques & unlikely to be overheard they will admit that the prospect of prosperity also helps. Where the oil flows the mind will follow."
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The ecologist was part of a survey team employed by Petrofina but currently working for Total — "They’ll be the one company before too long" — identifying the best route for an oil pipeline from Baku to Tabriz where it could then join the existing pipelines to either the refineries of Tehran or the export port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Iran, he explained, wanted to assert a measure of control over the oilfields of the Caspian.
"The Iranians lay claim to half the floor of the Caspian Sea, but if they progress this claim it will alienate the other littoral countries. So, since the embargo makes it extremely difficult for them to export their oil, what they're trying to do is not only provide a pipeline that is cheaper, & therefore more economically attractive, but by bringing foreign oil into Iran, refining it & using it for local consumption, they can then exchange an equal quantity of Iranian oil back to their neighbours who then re-export it as their own.
"The Americans want to build a pipeline across the floor of the Caspian, but the ecological implications of that are frightening so it'll never get the go-ahead. Just think, caviar in oil, crude oil. & to put a bit of a fright into those who are planning alternative routes, there are elements in Iran who are not above destabilising the regions around. It's Georgia now. Before long it'll be Chechnya, then Ingushetiya, then Ossetia. The Caucasus will be a bloodbath. Iran will look like a haven of stability.
"Ask the Mullahs up there," he said, nodding his head in their direction. "Publicly they will say that it is the light of the Book, the holy Koran, whose wisdom shines most brightly through the accumulated learning of generations of Iranian Shi'a scholars that brings the surrounding countries into Iran's sphere of influence. But when they are away from the mosques & unlikely to be overheard they will admit that the prospect of prosperity also helps. Where the oil flows the mind will follow."
Previous Part / Next Part
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