Gardens of Remembrance (Poppies for young men)

Poppies field. From http://witchdoctor.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/poppiesfied2.jpg

The flowers that better represent the battles and dead soldiers are  forget-me-not, roses and poppies.

The Flanders poppy is known to be the emblem of two world wars, and long before this, the field of the battle of Neerwinden or Landen (1693) was covered the following year by a scarlet stream of poppies: the soil  had been fertilized with the 20,000 soldiers’ corps.

“ In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields” .

(Author Colonel John McCrae 1872-1918)

Poppies field. From http://witchdoctor.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/poppiesfied2.jpg

In the Autumn of 1919, Newman Flower went out to the battlefields to gather seeds from the wild flowers that were already growing on the stricken fields. He collected poppy seeds from Fricourt and of blue chicory among others, labeled them and brought them home. He sowed his war seeds in his garden, in the spring of 1920. Eventually, an article in a national newspaper appeared telling the story of the garden of remembrance, and since then, he received letters from relatives of men who had died in the war, and to these he sent small packets of seeds, so that Gardens of Remembrance might be started in many parts of the world.

Croisade des enfantes. http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/croisades/big_images/c_croisade_des_enfants1.jpg

Children’s crusade. https://trcs.wikispaces.com/file/view/CHILDRENS_CRUSADA.jpg/30277249/CHILDRENS_CRUSADA.jpg

In 1985 Sting wrote a beautiful song, dedicated to the two groups of children –one from France, the other from Germany- who set off on a crusade to the Holy Land. The event took place after the fourth crusade, in 1212.

In an interview disc from 1985, Sting said: "'Children's Crusade' is a fairly bitter song. The original children's crusade took place in the 11th century and two monks had the great idea of recruiting children from the streets of Europe and telling them that they were going to be an army to fight for Christ in Palestine, and to fight the Saracens. The intention all along was to sell them as slaves in Africa. And that's what they did; they recruited thousands of children and sold them as slaves. It seemed a very wonderful symbol of cynicism and the perversion of youthful idealism. Having thought about this for awhile, I realized this wasn't the only children's crusade in history - there have been many. So I look for examples. And the examples in the song I used are the first World War, where millions of young men, Germans, French, English, were killed for reasons that even today we don't understand. A whole generation was wiped out in a very foolish and cynical manner. And then I looked around today for an example of a children's crusade and I think the heroin industry is a good example, where businessmen are making vast fortunes by selling drugs to people who can't deal with them. …..This too is a children's crusade, and the same people who sold slaves in the 11th century, and the same people who sent young men to their deaths in the first World War are the same people selling these drugs. The song is really wishing them to hell." (from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=8203)

The Flower of England is a metaphor for England's youth, and it is represented with the poppies, which also are the source of Opium.

"Children's Crusade" by Sting
Young men, soldiers, Nineteen Fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a Children's Crusade

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance
Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Midnight in Soho, Nineteen Eighty-four
Fixing in doorways, opium slaves
Poppies for young men, such bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade 

Enjoy the video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6pQ8qKg-Ag&feature=related

Reference.

Lesley Gordon. Green Magic. Flowers Plants and Herbs in Lore and Legend.

Blacks Massive Migration as Shown in the New York Times, june 1879

Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro

Massive migrations produce changes in the city. Most ghost towns are the result of people leaving, due to different issues, as nuclear plants damages, lack of jobs, civil wars, etc. In years, the urban morphology is highly affected.

A few days ago, my post showed some similarities between migrations of black people from Haiti with a fiction story by Ray Bradbury.

http://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2010/01/black-massive-migration-in-words-of-ray.html

Lynchings graph. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lynchings-graph.png

Cotton picking in Mississippi. http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/haley/encyc253.jpg

The Great Migration was the movement of 4.1 million African Americans  out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest,and West from 1910 to 1930. Precise estimates of the number of migrants depend on the time frame. African Americans migrated to escape racism and seek employment  opportunities in industrial cities. Some historians differentiate between the First Great Migration (1910–40), numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and the Second Great Migration, from 1940–70. In the Second Migration, 5 million or more people relocated, with the migrants moving to more new destinations. Many moved from Texas and Lousiana to California  where there were jobs in the defense industry.(From Wikipedia.org).

What I´ve found today is an astonishing description of the current events in Southern USA at the end of SXIX. It is a real publication dated June 9, 1879 in the New York Times, a transcription from the Philadelphia Record May 31, 1879; 31 years before the Great Migration.

The link is below for them who want to read it all, be prepared, it is full of racists hard words. Ray Bradbury wrote his story in 1950. It seems that this is a never ending story. Words are changed in 2010, but they have the same essence.

It seems this particular migration was related to politicians, apparently Republicans were encouraging Black workers against the Democratic representations. The loss of workers was considered worst than having a plague of yellow fever. The paradox, if rebels were killed, they would be heroes.

These are some excerpts from the New York Times publication. The article is ¨Loss of labor to the South. Enumerating some of the serious results to be feared in the southern states. White Planters in danger of ruin.

¨A Philadelphian who has vast interests in Louisiana, and who will therefore be affected by the loss of labor should the negro exodus continue, returned yesterday from an extended trip through the Mississippi Valley. He started from St. Louis and proceeded as far down the Mississippi as NewOrleans, stopping off at many places where there were camps of the colored people.

We in the south, he says, are at a loss to fix exactly where and how this idea of emigrating first came into the colored folks´heads.¨

¨I tell you candidly they could not have struck a more powerful blow at the prosperity of the South¨………If it keeps on it will impoverish the white men.

¨These poor ignorant Negroes have been played upon in the most shameful manner by the men who devised this scheme. They have filled their heads with four things, which the colored people regard as the truth and will not think otherwise: first that they are to be transported free to Kansas or wherever they are to settle; second that the government will give each colored man 160 acres of land; third that the government will give each man two mules; fourth that the government will give them provisions enough to last for one year, or until their crops are harvested next year¨…..¨Even the colored clergymen are imbued with the idea…..the unfortunate people imagine that God has at last named their day of deliverance¨………………

¨Suddenly a planter finds that 30 or 40 of his people ………..have dropped their work and have joined the crowd who expect to go to Kansas¨.

¨If a steamer comes there offering free transportation to the Negroes, she will be fired upon as sure as there is powder and ball in Louisiana and Mississippi ¨.

That´s scary and sad enough to keep on copying………

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E05EEDB1431E53ABC4153DFB0668382669FDE

Caption: The burning of Will Brown's body, Omaha, Nebraska, Sept. 18, 1919

Source: NSHS, RG2281-69 This material is taken from a series of pages on the history of racial tensions in Omaha at the following address-

http:/www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/frameset.html.

From  blackandbluespeople.blogspot.com/

Fractal Dimension and Colors

This is the binary file of the picture below. D=1.6869

Maritza's Fashion. Picture by Camilo J. Vergara

I have selected this picture to show the results of the fractal dimension based on the selection of color channels. Most researchers do not pay attention to the color issue. The original picture is converted into a binary file to apply the box counting method, regardless the colors. In this example, the file is the first picture. D=1.6869 is the result for the fractal dimension.

Let's go further. Maybe I want to emphasize a specific color or disregard any of them. Color is really important in this facade. Now, we'll see how the fractal dimension is affected by the color channel selection:

Maritza. Blue channel D=1.7344

Maritza. Green channel. D=1.6645

Maritza. Red channel. D=1.5947

Needless to say I found a big difference. So, the researcher has to take a decision about which elements of the facade will be considered or not. For instance, see that in the red channel, the sign above the door dissappears. In the blue channel binary file, the white circle on the left is taken as full, maybe this is not convenient. The opening is not correctly shown, while this is an important element for the composition. Both door and letters "Maritza" are taken as empty, it should be reversed. In my opinion, the green channel is the best selection and the result is pretty close to the original one. But more accurate.

The Landscape After The Battle: the story of the war of the roses

This cross commemorates the Battle of Towton in 1461 during the 'War of the Roses.' Said to be the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. The main site of the battle is in the adjacent gridsquare to the south. From http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photo

There is a recorded case of flowers planted after a battle by fellow countrymen in memory of the slain and which are growing still after four hundred years. The battle of Towton in the West Riding of Yorkshire was fought between the Yorkists and Lancastrians on 29 March 1461.

A paper written in July 1846, by Reverend G F Townsend, explained that it was reported that the soldiers were buried in one large mound on the field of battle, and that the Yorkists either in affection or in triumph planted some rose trees on the tombs of their countrymen. The rose is white, and now and then the appearance of a pink spot on the flower traces the blood of Lancaster. (Adapted from Blood. P. 102 of Green Magic. By Lesley Gordon).

The custom of planting roses on graves was observed in Surrey, specially in cases where the deceased was a young man or woman whose lover had preceded him or her to the tomb.

I came across with this old article below, that describes the battle and the legend of these roses. As a plus, the author, in a poetic tone, describes the changes on the landscape, not only for the snow, the rivers are said to be dyed with blood.

Notes and Queries. A medium of intercommunication. For literary men, general readers, etc. Fourth Series. Volume Sixth. July-december 1870. London

http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/s4-VI/131.pdf

Some words could be mistaken, as the print was scanned and I copied it. The author is not mentioned here.

Picture from www.suite101.com

Towton - The Rout by Graham Turner

TOWTON'. FIELD.

A few days ago I set off on foot in order to pay a visit to this place, where the greatest battle in the terrible conflict between the rival houses of York and Lancaster was fought, on Palm Sunday,

March 29, 1461: —

" Palm Sumlay chimes were chiming,

All gladsome thro' the air,

And village men and maidens

Knelt in the church at prayer,

When the Red Rose and the "White Rose

In furious battle rcel'd,

And yeomen fought like barons,'

And barons died ere yield."

Various names have been assigned to the battle, as " Saxton," " Palm Sunday Field," " Sherburn," " Saxtonfeld," and "Tawtoiifeld"; but it is most generally known as the Battle of Towton. Be it observed, that Towton is a hamlet in the parish

of Saxton, and no great distance from the markettown of Tadcaster, which does not seem to have altered very much since those times.

The afternoon was lovely, and the more appreciatedafter the protracted winter and cold spring •which have marked this year: the apple-trees richly laden with blossom; the wild flowers beginning to show themselves; the cuckoo and the thrush singing; the sun shining, without which nothing can be beautiful; and the insect world on the wing: that kind of a day, in the linppy spring-time of the year, when one calls to

mind everything that has been read of the praises of the country in both ancient and modern poets.

Theocritus, Virgil, and happy Horace all loved the country, and found much to interest in the commonest objects of nature; and let me notomit to mention, amongst our own poets, Thomson and Bloomfield, Tennyson and Wordsworth, who have all sung its praises.

The battle-field is easily found, lying about half a mile from the little village of Towton;

and the battle was fought in a large meadow,through which the little river Cock winds. Grass grows in rich luxuriance there; and at this day groups of wild dwarf rose-bushes are seen, traditionally said to have been planted on the mounds

under which the slain were buried: —

" There still wild roses growing—

Frail tokens of the tray ;

And the hedgerow green bears witness

Of Towton Field that day."

The people in the neighbourhood firmly believe that these rose-bushes will alone grow in the "Bloody Meadow," and that attempts to plant them elsewhere have always been unsuccessful.

The Lancastrians drew up their forces southward of the village of Towton, and numbered sixty thousand; whilst the forces of the Yorkists, drawn up opposite, were about forty-eight thousand; and the battle commenced at nine o'clock

in the morning, the cloth-yard arrows flying like hail. A storm of snow and sleet falling, and driven by the wind in the faces of the Lancastrians, hindered their shooting with accuracy. The combat lasted, according to some authors, ten hours; but, according to others, towards three o'clock in the afternoon the Lancastrians began

to give way. They were pursued by their foes,who gave no quarter, and driven through the little river Cock; and such numbers were slain there as to afford a bridge for the survivors to pass over. For several days afterwards the Cock

and the Wharfe, into which it flows, are said to have run with blood. The number of the slain is given at 36,776; but this most likely includes those who fell on both'sides, and not only in the battle but in the pursuit, and in the skirmish at Ferrybridge on the previous day.

The Cock is an insignificant stream, over which one can stride; but those who know how becks, as they are called, can rise in Yorkshire, in winter and spring, may very easily imagine its swelling to a great size from the melting snow. The meadow through which it flows must have been a fine place for the esquire to fly his hawks, as

mentioned by Macaulay. A very singular fact is that, comparatively speaking, very few remains of bodies or implements of -warfare have been discovered, either in the bed of the river or on the battle-field; though there cannot be any doubt concerning a large quantity of both being hidden there; nor, as far as I have been able to ascertain, has any very diligent search ever at any time been made. Perhaps the day may arrive, as Virgil says —

" Scilicet et tempus vcniet, quum fmibus illis

Agricola, incurvo terram molitus arntro,

Exesa inveniet scabra rubiginc pila,

Aut gravibus rnstris galeaj pulsabit inancs,

Grandiaque cffossis mirabitur ossa scpulchris."

Georg. i. 493 et tcq.

No obelisk or memorial stone has been erected to mark the place of the battle, as is the case at Mortimer's Cross and Blore Heath—the scenes of two conflicts in the Wars of the Roses, but neither of them equalling, in importance or in sanguinary

nature, Towton. It may be worth notice, that in 1766, the gallant Admiral Hawke was raised to the peerage by the title of Barou Hawko of Towton.

Reproducción del artículo "Todos los colores transmiten tabúes, códigos y prejuicios"

Pinturas medievales mostrando a la Virgen María con distintos colores de mantos

Luisa Corradini 

Corresponsal en Francia 

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1226281&origen=NLCult

PARIS.? Michel Pastoureau es el único historiador del mundo capaz de contar con lujo de detalles las glorias y los eclipses, las pasiones y las ambigüedades de los colores.

Antropólogo, paleógrafo y medievalista, este francés fuera de lo común, nacido en París en 1947, ha dedicado su vida a estudiar la historia de la simbología occidental. Sus objetos de laboratorio preferidos son la heráldica, los animales y los colores. Está considerado la mayor autoridad mundial en la materia.

Director de cátedra en la Escuela Práctica de Altos Estudios, Pastoureau ha escrito una decena de libros.Azul, historia de un color; Negro, historia de un color, y Diccionario simbólico de los colores denuestro tiempo vendieron decenas de miles de ejemplares y conquistaron a especialistas y neófitos por su originalidad. Para el autor, es fácil de comprender: "Los colores no son anodinos. Cada uno conduce sentidos ocultos, códigos, tabúes, prejuicios a los que obedecemos sin saberlo y que pesan en nuestra vida cotidiana, nuestro lenguaje y hasta nuestra imaginación", precisó a LA NACION en París.

Su aporte se enriquecerá a medida que aparezcan las tres obras que tiene en preparación: una historia del verde, un libro sobre el cuervo y otro sobre el "incolor".

-Usted afirma que el azul es el color preferido de los occidentales.

-Desde que comenzaron las encuestas de opinión, por 1890, el azul es efectivamente el color preferido en Occidente, en todas partes, y sin diferencia de género. Naturalmente, esto no es así en otras culturas: los japoneses, por ejemplo, prefieren el rojo.

-Pero no siempre fue así?

-No. Durante mucho tiempo, el azul fue un color marginado. Está ausente de las pinturas rupestres neolíticas. En la antigüedad ni siquiera era considerado como un color. Sólo el rojo, el blanco y el negro tenían ese estatus.

-¿Por qué ese desamor?

-Una de las razones principales es que el azul es muy difícil de fabricar. Para los romanos era el color de los bárbaros, del extranjero. Los pueblos del Norte, como los germánicos, usaban el azul. Por entonces, los ojos azules en una mujer eran signo de mala vida. Para los hombres era una marca de ridículo. Cuando las lenguas románicas forjaron sus lenguajes sobre los colores, tuvieron que ir a buscarlos al germánico ( blau ) y al árabe ( azraq ). En griego antiguo, las palabras que lo designan son imprecisas: hay confusión entre el gris, el azul y el verde. En la Biblia tampoco existe el azul.

-Siendo que, en la actualidad, para los católicos, el azul es el color de la virgen María.

-Los textos bíblicos en hebreo, arameo y griego antiguo utilizaban pocas palabras para los colores. Hubo que esperar las traducciones en latín para que aparecieran. Donde el hebreo dice "rico", el latín traduce "rojo". Por "sucio", el latín dirá "gris" o "negro". A comienzos de la Edad Media, los textos litúrgicos católicos siguieron ignorando el azul. Todo cambió en el siglo XII porque, justamente, el Dios de los cristianos se transformó en un Dios de la luz. Y la luz es azul. Por primera vez en Occidente los cielos se pintan de azul. Antes eran negros, rojos, blancos o dorados.

-Y en ese momento aparece además el culto marial?

-Así es. Y como la Virgen habita los cielos?A partir del siglo XII se la viste con un manto azul.

-En su libro Azul... , usted afirma que hay además otra razón para ese cambio.

-En esa época, Occidente entró en un frenesí de clasificación. Había que ordenar, jerarquizar, sobre todo a los hombres: darles signos exteriores de identidad, códigos de reconocimiento social.

-¿Ese es el momento en que aparecen los blasones?

-Así es. También aparecieron los apellidos y las insignias de función. Con los tres colores tradicionales (blanco, negro y rojo), las combinaciones eran muy limitadas. Ese el momento en que el azul se transformó en cierto modo en el contrario del rojo. Y poco a poco se volverá el color preferido de Occidente.

-¿Cuál es la razón?

-Es un color consensual.

-¿Por eso todas las organizaciones internacionales lo han escogido para sus emblemas?

-Así es. Naciones Unidas, la Unión Europea? Aunque, en este caso, hay una segunda razón. Los fundadores de la UE -en su gran mayoría católicos- escogieron el color de la bandera como una evocación del manto de María, mientras que las estrellas simbolizan la corona de la Virgen.

-Ya que el azul es el color del consenso, ¿podríamos decir que el rojo es un auténtico color?

-Hablar del "color rojo" es casi un pleonasmo. Incluso en algunos idiomas, como en el español, su nombre significa tanto "rojo" como "coloreado", pero también "bello". En el sistema de simbolismos de la antigüedad, que giraba entre tres ejes, el blanco representaba en "incolor", el negro lo sucio y el rojo era el color, el único digno de ese nombre.

-¿Y por qué?

-Desde la antigüedad, se admiraba el rojo, al que se le confiaban los atributos del poder, es decir, en el terreno de la religión y la guerra. El dios Marte, los centuriones romanos, ciertos sacerdotes, se vestían de rojo. Ese color se impuso porque evoca dos elementos omnipresentes en la historia de la humanidad: la sangre y el fuego.

-La antigüedad siempre tuvo debilidad por el negro.

-Era el color de la fertilidad. Se lo asociaba al negro de la tierra. Incluso, se admiraba a ciertos animales de ese color. Por ejemplo, el cuervo, que en la Roma antigua era utilizado para la adivinación. Aún no existía el nexo entre el negro y la muerte o el pecado. Fue el cristianismo que lo creó.

-Los colores tienen importancia en política: el negro viste a los fascistas y a los anarquistas?

-También en este terreno hay evoluciones. En Francia, el azul fue primero el color de los republicanos, que se oponían al blanco de los monárquicos y al negro del partido clerical. Sin embargo, poco a poco, el azul se fue corriendo hacia el centro, dejándose desbordar a su izquierda por el rojo, que primero fue socialista y, después, comunista.

-En otras palabras, fue empujado hacia la derecha.

-Después de la Primera Guerra Mundial, el azul se volvió conservador. Y todavía lo es.

EL PERSONAJEMICHEL PASTOUREAU
Antrópologo y medievalista

• Origen: nació en París en 1947

• Docencia: es director de cátedra en la Escuela de Altos Estudios de París

• Libros publicados: Diccionario simbólico de los colores de nuestro tiempo ; Azul. Historia de un color; Negro. Historia de un color

Eclipses and Sun, digital paintings

Eclipse

From http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/ASE2010/ASE2010.html

On Friday, 2010 January 15, an annular eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a 300-km-wide track that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's antumbral shadow begins in Africa and passes through Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia. After leaving Africa, the path crosses the Indian Ocean where the maximum duration of annularity reaches 11 min 08 s. The central path then continues into Asia through Bangladesh, India, Burma (Myanmar), and China. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes eastern Europe, most of Africa, Asia, and Indonesia.

Sun

Dark Moon

Sun 1

Big Bang

Eclipse 1

All digital paintings by Myriam Mahiques