Matthias Church and Buda’s Castle. Kajmeister photo.
Our second stop on our grand tour up the German rivers was Budapest, a six-hour bus ride from Prague, spanning four countries and three European capitals. No wonder there has been so much strife as these countries seem to be breathing down each other’s necks: the currencies, languages, and politics change rapidly. But all of them are of pride, different kinds of pride.
Budapest distinguished itself, for me, in the way it has absorbed the many cultures who crossed the Carpathian Plain and in the resilience of the people as each group has, in turn, put themselves in charge. Let’s start with how the horsemen got there, touch on how each new group has put on its stamp, and end thinking on how Budapest has repeatedly rebuilt itself.
That seems to be the prevailing sentiment of everyone who had been there, when we mentioned we were planning a visit. And who looked at my early Facebook photos. And who heard me mention the word.
We are touring bits of Central Europe for the next three weeks–I think of it as Eastern Europe–but Google says otherwise. We start in the Czech Republic, move to Hungary, then up the rivers through Germany to Amsterdam. I should think 3 or 4 blogs ought to cover it, but let’s see. There are lots of tours scheduled, so not sure when I’ll write. But a lady at dinner last night had just done the tour the other direction, and she said, “There a lot of locks.” Stay tuned for pictures of locks.
Aerial view of Fordlândia, photo by the Ford Motor Company, 1934.
Last month when I was writing about Rubber, I learned about Fordlândia, a rubber plantation/utopia that Henry Ford built in the Brazilian jungle. My word count for that post was too high, so I left out the story. But it’s been rattling around in my head ever since, pinballing to the top every time I read another story about this administration’s obsession with Greenland. Plus, that Santayana quote, the mantra of historians, constantly reminds me to study the lessons of the past. Anybody remember maps which referred to the Belgian Congo? Ever hear of Minimata disease?
Corporations and governments–that is, corporations whose security adopts uniforms and carries a flag–often get the bright idea to get resources cheaply from places where the scrutiny is lax. Of course, corporations and governments aren’t entities unto themselves. It’s the leaders who come up with cockamamie schemes of exploration and exploitation, schemes which lead to environmental devastation, mutilations, genocide. Often, costs vastly outweigh the benefits.
I realize that the moral reprehensibility of those first three evils ought to sway the argument against exploitation, but there’s no moral reasoning, sometimes, with corporations, which suddenly become faceless when there is wrongdoing. I was nurtured at a tender age on cost-benefit analysis, and I sometimes find it makes a persuasive argument when other arguments won’t do. In that spirit, I’d like to offer a few examples from history as reason to pause before we start invading and strip-mining Greenland.
