You'd Immediately Jump To One Or Both Of Two Conclusions
Either we are dealing with the British Antarctic Survey and what they dug up from the ice and rashly thawed out, rele - no, sorry, that was 'The Thing', wasn't it? - er - or, gloasting about Ruffian oligarchs having their ill-gotten gains held inert in Western financial institutions.
Well done but wrong, although you're getting warmer with that second conclusion. Art!
You might be forgiven for thinking this is part of Sussex or Provence or Tuscany, what with all the greenery and flowers and farming.
Not so! This is Tunisia in springtime, and I am once again reverting to Alan Moorehead's 'African Trilogy', where he travelled from the port of Londonderry all the way to Algiers, post-Operation Torch and the Allies landing there in force. He arrived just before New Years Day 1943, and did his usual huge amount of travelling about by car, seeking out stories. By springtime blooms as you see above were everywhere, a signature sign of how fecund the land was. Art!
Al describes a landscape awash with flowers, so profuse that they hid even the grass in swathes of poppies, sweet peas, tulips and bluebells. He and his fellow journalists tried to out-cliché each other in describing what they saw, as a diversion from not knowing if they were entering newly-liberated territory or if it was still under Axis control. One of the occupational hazards of being a war correspondent. Art!
This is what Al called the 'Jebel Achkel', which is known as the 'Jebel Ichkuel' in modern Tunisian Arabic. The image above shows one of the significant differences about Tunisia compared to Libya or Egypt: mountains. There was a Teuton garrison on the Achkel, and Al with his war correspondent chums went to view the battle to conquer the peak from what he describes as the slopes of a farm opposite - there are no traces of any such farm over 80 years later so their exact location must remain a mystery.
Their viewing gallery was a 'lavish French homestead', which was the property of Monsieur Louis Roederer, and elderly country gentleman who came out to speak with them in excellent English.
Except not quite. It's difficult to find out more genealogical details about Mr. Roederer, as his family tree has at least two other Louis Roederers present. He was one of the heirs to the Roederer champagne family fortune, and held vineyards and estates in mainland France. He had settled in Tunisia, then established his farm, 'with the cheap native labour' noted Al, a note of silent disapproval in his text. Art!
Mr. Roederer was more worried about damage to his fields and crops than anything else, and the damage caused by South Canadian tanks manoeuvring in his yards and lanes. Al cynically noted that the wine heir was capable of conversing equally well in German and Italian as in English, and had done so with the Teuton General Manteufel, who had made the farm his headquarters.
"The sole consuming interest of their lives was to safeguard their property. They were simply not interested in the war. They were waiting with impatience for the day when they could enter into the full use of their frozen wealth again.".
Ol' Louis was typical of the very wealthy French in Tunisia, self-obsessed to a fault and utterly selfish.
I have been frustratingly unable to find out anything about him, and it's almost as if his history has been expunged from any family records. His female relative, Camille, has plenty of coverage from 1933 to 1975, when she ran the Roederer business empire, but not Louis. Art!
Ol' Louis was old in 1943 and may not have survived to see March 1956, when Tunisia gained independence from France, which caused most of the French 'pied noir' settlers to scuttle back home. Given the seeming lack of agricultural lands in the maps of Jebel Ichkuel, I wonder if his farm was simply abandoned and fell into ruin? Sic transit gloria mundi.
I may have to contact 'African Stalingrad' on Twitter to see if he has any input. He's the chap who visits Tunisia every year to visit battlefields and walk the land.
Technolink Will Be In The Clink
'Clink' as in the Anglo-Saxon slang for prison. For Lo! we are back on the subject of Ruffian firms trying to wriggle out of either contractual obligations or punishment for failing to deliver. Art!
Federal Arbitration Court of Moscow
You see, the businesses that contract with the Ruffian military-industrial complex are guaranteed payment, and lots of it -
As long as they deliver. Non-delivery means very likely making a trip to a penal colony for years.
Thus we have 'Technolink LLC', who were trying to import sanctioned laboratory equipment into Mordorvia via Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Their business partner in Kyrgyzstan was shut down before they could even draw up a contract to supply the Sooper-Dooper Testing Toobes, or whatever. The Turks, already suspicious, closed down bank accounts. The Uzbeks, who were probably looking for a fight anyway, rejected payments on account of the customs commodity codes used. Art!
These are UK customs commodity codes. Either the Ruffians used the proper code for sanctioned equipment and got it rejected, or used a fake code and got it rejected. Either way, REJECTED!
Technolink, unable to produce the required lab equipment, tried to claim that this was 'Force Majeure', i.e. an unpredictable and unique event that could not be foreseen and it's not our fault govnah. Art!
The arbitration judges, perhaps a bit liverish after a bad lunch, declaimed that it most certainly wasn't unpredictable, and that Technolinks ought to have foreseen getting shafted like this. The contract was cancelled, which is probably what will happen to their management, too.
They Keep Baiting Me
The pikers. Art!
It's a film, so it can't be 'Talvisota', which was a television series. Must see if it's available as a DVD with subtitles.
The helmets are the Teuton stahlhelm and they're wearing the rags of what might be winter clothing, so by default it's set on the Eastern Front of the Second Unpleasantness. Probably 'Stalingrad', which is incredibly bleak and depressing and SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER the Teutons lose.
I see it's on Amazon Prime. Do I still have access? May need to check it out, it's been years since I last watched it and may have even been on a VHS. If you even remember what those are. Art!
"The War Illustrated Edition 210 6th July 1945"
Back to the retrospective central page montage, looking at the Normandy beaches a year after D-Day. Art!
This stretch of beach, so pacific in nature, is in fact Omaha Beach, where the South Canadians nearly came unstuck thanks to dismal air and naval preparation, and launching their amphibious tanks from four miles offshore. How tranquil it looks now! Art?
More poignant still, this is Gold Beach at Arromanches, with a memorial service being held by 600 British troops and several thousand French citizens. Unseen here are 11 RAF Mosquitoes that flew over in remembrance, and Royal Marines sounded the last post. Just visible in the upper port corner are the distant blockships sunk to create an artificial harbour, and at upper starboard a caisson from the 'Mulberry' dock can be seen, broken loose.
"Zombieverse" Gets Worse
Your Humble Scribe has officially given up on this, having made it to the end of the 4th episode.
HOWEVER I took lots of screen photographs, so believe me that you're going to get the benefit of same, with my own citric analysis skewering all the plot holes and inconsistencies. Art!
This episode takes place in a supermarket, and the slightly blurred shot above can act as a teaser for you.
Finally -
Hmmm, I see that 'Greenland' is on Amazon Prime. I am tempted. I also have to be up at 07:30 and it's already past midnight. Decisions, decisions.
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