At a reception last night I bumped into a former colleague who I hadn’t seen for a while. We compared notes on the recent election, and discovered that for slightly different reasons we had voted the same way. I was tickled by the idea of my friend, who is one of the least socialist people I know, voting for the far left PVDA+, in his case out of disgust at the raving nationalism of the other parties. We spotted the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies on the far side of the room; I dissuaded my friend from going over to ask him why his son, now the leader of the right-wing Liberals, is such an idiot. (It’s a fair question, but the father is probably not the person to ask.)
From the Heart of Europe
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It is a worthy read. Until they actually met the people, like Josiah Henson whose marvelous memoirs inspired Stowe’s more “white” friendly Uncle Tom, people did not believe they were written or even dictated by slaves. Some of the stories were too horrid. I would suggest anyone who thinks they are inspired by Uncle Tom’s cabin read Josiah Henson’s actual memoir however. He is at no point deserves the passive reputation we see in the Uncle Tom story. It is said that Queen Victoria had read both stories and made it a point to have the elderly Mister Henson as a guest when he visited the UK to get support for early human rights for Americans of African ancestry.