Reading: Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth [Kindle Edition]

This book is from 1818. I was unaware of that. Of course, AMAZON does not give that information only the publication year of the Kindle version. Except that in this case not even Kindle year is mentioned.

This book is like reading ten memoirs at the same time. It is very comprehensive. It is in depth. It is not at all an memoirs that gives you a feeling of how it would be to be in the Elizabethan court. It tells the lives of many of her courtiers at the same time as it tries to show all that happened during the reign of Elizabeth I. And it also is very much a portrait of the monarch herself.

It is littered with long quotes of letters and memoirs. There are no literature list in the end. One would have to create that oneself since the quoted literature is there after the quotations. At the same time as one reads chronological the events concerning Elizabeth I and English history suddenly a biography of a gentleman and his family often 3 generations. The biography bits are annoying, not because they are not interesting but because they often starts with no mention of the name of the person in the beginning and before you can understand who it is the regular history has begun again.

Every chapter starts a short overview, unfortunately the formatting with --and it starts just there --so if you need to see what a word means in the dictionary in Kindle, those 2 --hinders that.

I have seldom read a book that made me think about editing it. It needs editing. May the reader in the 19th century did not need it but the modern reader would surely have enjoyed the book better had it been better structured by an editor.

This book is two volumes in one. The language is readable enough. It contains a lot of information. But is not easily digestible. Still thumbs up!!!

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Thinking: What is the job of diplomats, anyway?

"Norwegian diplomats working hard to evict Ethiopians in church asylum"

If only it meant working hard to ensure the security of these persons if returned to Ethiopia. But I believe it not.

Norwegian politician' speech to fellow party members using the plight of the Ethiopians and calling they being in a church claiming, hoping for asylum an abuse to thunderous applause. The speech was an abuse. Claiming church asylum abuse is a historical right. The same politician evaded the question of whether she saw the church room as holy.

Norway, my beloved country, why?

Norway boats of its ratification UN Children's right and Women's right. Yet when children and women come to Norway all "we" do is think of ways to evict them. Diplomats may talk to the government of countries that regularly puts people in prison and that often tortures and kills prisons, and when the diplomats get the nod the persons will be safe, they believe. How many has Norway sent out to be put in prison and tortured? And all the time Norway is "surprised". The need of each individual child or woman is not looked upon. If that was done more people would be allowed to stay and the cowardly politicians fears that so much that fair and just process is something to forget. Men's claim of being of a party that is prosecuted is often heard and accepted as grounds for asylums. To claim reasons of homophobia, belonging to the wrong religion or race, the death threat of criminal gangs etc is strangely not often accepted. In some countries it is considered treason to leave the country to find another country, coming back is often deadly. But people are sent back. Children is on their own, their special needs of safety is not taken properly care of. Often children go missing from the asylums houses. They are probably trafficked. But we want to evict them.

But the truth is we, the people, is not all that callous. But our politicians are, they are playing politics with the lives of people.

Norway should afford to be just and fair and always seeking the truth. Even if it meant letting people stay in this country. The country of Fridtjof Nansen is disgracing itself by the severity we cause our fellow people who come in hope of a future. There is a solution that we should think of to give all our undocuments immigrants and asylum seekers. It is called the Nansen Passport. In our digital age the Nansen passport would be an even better tool to give home to the seekers of new light and control the countries.



For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

In a white dress with a red rose amidst all the vegetables

Andrea Chenier (Salvatore Licitra) wanders into a party of aristocrats. His blue colors are earthbound and as such he is aware of the conditions of the rest of the people in France lives in. The aristocrats dressed in fruity colors are as aware of the conditions as the average vegetable. But I don't want to slander fine vegetables and fruits. When Andrea Chenier sees Maddalena di Coigny (Maria Guleghina) in her white dress with a single red dress attached he sees in her a person with compassion. But as the evening progresses one understand that her compassion is just youth and curiosity but she cares mostly about her self, her dresses, her beauty and love. She has a certain compassion for Bersi (Julia Benzinger) but seem to find it natural that a servant does everything for her.

Everybody loves Maddalena. Even Carlo Gerard (Seng Hyoun Ko). He is the servant of the Coigny family as his father but he is revolutionary and meeting Andrea Chenier hearing the poem he improvises makes Gerard into a real revolutionary that invites poverty into the palace. Naturally he can no longer work there. And then the earth is toppled by the poor people and the aristocrats is fed to the guiliotine.



For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com