Echoes of history
THERE seem to be echoes of history in the Libyan conflict as British and French aircraft take the lead in enforcing the no-fly zone and the US hangs back.
In the Suez crisis of 1956, British and French forces invaded the Canal Zone after Nasser nationalised it (previously it had been an international waterway) but the US opposed the action (it had not been told in advance of the Anglo-French intervention) and eventually forced a humiliating withdrawal.
The flight of Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kuta to Britain recalls the flight of Nazi deputy leader Rudolf Hess to Scotland during World War II. The big difference this time is that Kuta is not being locked up and ignored. But will he avoid the Spandau Prison fate if it turns out he was indeed complicit in the Lockerbie atrocity?
And has the Anglo-American special relationship been superceded by the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale? These are interesting times.
Old Roses
LAST year this column traced the identity of a mystery photographer who had taken some splendid shots of South African troops in the Western Desert and Italy during World War II and whose developed spools turned up in a second-hand shop in Howick. He turned out to be Dr Koffie Reznek, who served with the Royal Natal Carbineers as medical officer during the war.
The series roused a lot of interest. All kinds of people recognised relatives and friends in the photographs published, which were of exceptional quality. Reznek, who died a few years ago at an advanced age, was not just a gifted amateur photographer, he went on to make award-winning films .
Among those affected was his concert pianist daughter Renee – now based in London – who says the series was almost as if her father had revisited. She will be in Durban next Tuesday to put on a recital in the Howard Theatre, University of KwaZulu-Natal, a high point of which will be her playing of Old Roses, a piece written by South African pianist and composer David Earl in memory of her parents (her mother was named Rose).
As Earl himself explains: "Rose's name happens also to be the name of a favourite flower of the Rezneks, and so I was drawn to the opportunity of expressing musically the aura of roses, particularly the ancient varieties, with their luminous titles (often as beautiful and memorable as their scent, colour and shape). The piece has three main sections which intertwine, bloom and fade. They depict an ongoing valediction to love given and taken, as well as a meditation on the mystery of life's impermanence."
Stand by for a performance charged with true emotion.
Osprey romance
WILL she or won't she? Lady, an osprey (fish eagle) in Scotland, has returned from her 21st annual winter migration to The Gambia, in West Africa (3 000 miles each way). British birdwatchers are now in an agony of suspense over whether she will find a mate and add to her record of rearing 48 chicks over the years.
Several ospreys have been seen in the vicinity of her nest – which has by now grown to the size of a double bed – but all have flown off again. Lady, who has lived to about three times the normal age of an osprey in the wild, has contributed substantially to the bird's being rescued from extinction in Britain. Scotland now has about 200 breeding pairs.
Lady needs to find a mate within the next few weeks. After that the breeding season will be over. The Brits keep close tabs on the love lives of their ospreys. There's no such thing as privacy. Those birders are worse than the tabloid newspapers.
Tailpiece
A CELLPHONE rings in the golf club change-room. One of the fellows picks it up.
"Hi, darling," says the caller. "I'm at the shops. I've seen a lovely top for R600. Can I have it?"
"Sure."
"There's also a fantastic coat for R3 000. Can I get that too?"
"Okay."
A pause. "The car showroom next door has just what I need for R200 000. Can I have that?"
"Put it on the card."
He switches off and holds up the phone. "Anyone know who this belongs to?"
Last word
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
GRAHAM LINSCOTT
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