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NARRATIVE REVERSALS: The Historical Poem as Fiction and The Historical Document as Poetry
I am trying to write a poem and not a history, and therefore have no compunction about tampering with facts.—Robert Penn Warren, prelude to Brother of Dragons
Cursed be the hand that scalps the reputation of the dead.—Quote that begins KOPET, attributed to Chief Joseph.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians, tribal leader from 1871 to his death in 1904, has been made into a legendary figure by the academic and popular presses. Within a few years of his famous surrender speech, "I will fight no more forever," his account of his relations with the U.S. government provoked outrage in the East against the Army from intellectuals not threatened by Indian land claims, and provoked rebuttals and verbal recriminations in the West where the land grab was still continuing, where Indians still stood in the way of what the whites called progress. After a hundred years, we should hope that Chief Joseph's story would be now accessible in a form allowing for a balanced assessment, but it is not geography that still divides us, that still prevents such a balance.
Two recent books dealing with Joseph allow for an investigation of how ideology functions to distort his story and how his story may be allowed to tell itself. The obvious biases that characterized the reception and propagandizing of Joseph's story during the last century are no longer apparent. The Indian is seldom blatantly evoked as a savage, noble or ignorant. What is apparent, however, is that biases still exist though they are more subtle and, consequently, more insidious. These two books, a long poem, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce by Robert Penn Warren, and a historical account, KOPET: a Documentary Narrative of Chief Joseph's Last Years by Mick Gidley are my means to explore and expose how the question of narrative authenticity becomes a question of propaganda disguised as poetry.
I. Wooden Indian as Ventriloquist Dummy: narrative voices
in Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by whitemen .... I am tired of talk that comes to nothing.... There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk.—Chief Joseph, Speech to Congress, 1879
Warren begins his poem this way:
The Land of Winding Waters, Wallowa,
The Land of the Nimipu,
Land sacred to the band of old Joseph,
Their land, the land in the far ages given
By the Chief-in-the-Sky ....
This is certainly talk; the question is whether Warren has any right to talk, whether his words amount to anything, whether they "pay for" the Indians' country. More to the point, do his words amount to poetry? The meter is effaced in a curious way. Remove the articles "the" and Warren's line approaches Longfellow's in Hiawatha: "Land of Winding Waters, Walloa / Land of Nimiu / Land Sacred to band of old Joseph / Their land, land in far ages given...." How he sounds, whether like Longellow or not, is what needs to be investigated if I hope to uncover just why this poem is so unsatisfying. It is Warren's voice, his use of many voices, his appropriating a narrative he has no earned right to, that concerns me because his misuse of these voices is a violation against Indian peoples greater than Longfellow's confusion of scholarship, naming his hero after the Iroquois cultural leader but recounting the exploits of the anishanabe (Ojibway) trickster Manabozho. Warren's expropriation of narrative is a greater crime because Warren lacks Longfellow's (comparatively) innocent historical position. While it is true that Longfellow wrote after the Cherokee removal, The Trail of Tears, he wrote before Sand Creek, before Wounded Knee, before ... before the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887, before Wounded Knee of 1973, before ....
My initial guide through Warren's poem is, as it should be, my ear; and his several voices become my focus. The ear leads to a path exploring these varieties of Warren's translated speech: Indian Talking, Talking Indian, Injun Talk, and Poet Talk.
INDIAN TALKING
Indian speech quoted from the historical record
Warren uses, then, four voices, all, in a sense (not innocence) alien to his own. Warren's poem divides according to these voices into four parts: the first in importance, pages 5 ("I was born at....") through page 28 (sections I-IV), pages 51 & 52, and part of 56, where Warren is speaking as though he is Chief Joseph—I call this TALKING INDIAN; the second, pages 1-5, 29-50, 53-57, where events are related by Warren as narrator but spoken in a distorted Indian speech—INJUN TALK; third, pages 58-64, the last section, where Warren as a character in his own poem talks in his own voice ("To Snake Creek, a century later, I came,")—POET TALK. And there is also another kind of "talk", and it is interspersed throughout the text. It is what I call INDIAN TALKING—quoted historical texts of Indians speaking in their own words, although translated, and part of the historical record.
Since Warren relies so heavily on speech, it is necessary to compare the various voices to see which sound authentic, which are accurate translations, because it is this question of translation that is crucial to just what is the poetry in an historical poem. Warren, outside the body of the poem proper, quotes three Indians: an unnamed "Indian warrior" (26), Yellow Wolf (24, 43), and Joseph (14, 20, 38, 44, 45, 48). Since Warren provides no information about his sources, it is difficult to determine if these are his free translations or are, as implied, from the historical record. One thing though is obvious; none of these examples illustrates "Injun Talk". ("Injun Talk" differs from "Indian Talking" by it being a caricature of speech. While both are translations, "Injun Talk" is a variation of "Ugh, Kemosabe, me injun, you bossman be," characterized by lack of articles, truncated forms, verbs at the end of the sentence, hyphenated word formations, omissions of possessives, etc.).
Some of the historical sources Warren uses can be found without too much effort since Chief Joseph's words were only transcribed and translated a few times. It is instructive to see how Warren then deals with this rather straightforward material. In the two most dramatic of Joseph's statements Warren makes small, but telling, errors in his rendering. In the North American Review article of 1879 which Warren used for much of his information, Joseph wrote (his translator wrote): "I believed General Miles, or, I never would have surrendered." Warren gives: "I believed General Miles or I never would have surrendered." The lack of emphasis by dropping the commas and removing the italics means what? Is this "only" carelessness on the part of the distinguished scholar and poet? It is a minor error. But read his poem and wonder if any of Warren's "errors" are anything but purposeful, and the accumulation of errors is anything but minor.
Understandably, Warren uses a large section of Joseph's famous surrender speech, often titled, "I will fight no more forever." But for what reasons does Warren misquote and distort this speech? For the first nine sentences Warren gives the correct rendition. Then after "It is cold and we have no blankets" he alters the text. Here is how Joseph's speech continued: "The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are— perhaps freezing to death" (Spinden 243).
Warren says "our" for "the" in the first sentence, and then he omits all of the remaining above sentences. Concluding the speech, Warren makes only one more "mistake"—he omits "My" before "heart is sick and sad." Perhaps this, too, is only a minor error; perhaps it illustrates Warren's attempt to make the historical Joseph speak like Warren's Joseph speaks; instead of "Indian Talking" we get a bit of "Injun Talk". Are such errors innocent mistakes? Is a poet justified in changing the facts without even acknowledging the omission of sentences, the changing of words? Why does Warren omit some of the most concrete details in the speech? Is it not, in fact, a kind of linguistic imperialism to subsume the historical voice under the "poetic", to assume Warren's voice has precedence over Joseph's? The children becomes Warren's our children. The accumulation of "mis-speaks" demands we ask, "What does Warren really mean when he says, 'I am trying to write a poem and not a history, and therefore have no compunction about tampering with facts'?"
TALKING INDIAN
Quoted but invented speeches supposedly by Chief Joseph
It is unbearable what knowledge of the past has been allowed to become, what function of human memory has been dribbled out to in the hands of these learned monsters whom people are led to think "know".Charles Olson
This is the most painful aspect of the poem for me to deal with. Obviously Warren can claim "poetic license" and presume to speak for Chief Joseph, pretend to actually speak Joseph's words, presume to crawl into another man's skin; however, Warren stretches the term persona to include the poet as ghoul. Almost half of the poem is Warren's fabricated talk by Chief Joseph; it is his most important statement.
This section of the poem disturbs me for two reasons. The most obvious, again, is the speech sound. We are meant to accept that Joseph would talk with phrases such as: "With gear jangle and horse fart" (16), and that process would turn to noun in the mouth of this (wooden) Indian, "We, who wanted no blood-spill" (16), or that awkward verb placement is an indication of Joseph's oratory style, a style that even impressed his enemies, "for a true chief no self has" (21). This "Talking Indian" section is also painful because of the liberties Warren takes with the truth. He has based this invented speech of Joseph on historical sources, principally the North American Review article, but he continually deviates from the content of that article to undercut the eloquence and power of the indictment Joseph makes against his enemies.
I will present a few examples because they illustrate two different types of distortion Warren makes in the name of poetic license (or his lack of "compunction" in changing the facts). Before the Big Hole Battle of August 9th, the Indians relaxed, confident and trusting that they had attained some kind of peace with the white armies. They had made a treaty of sorts with some white soldiers upon leaving the Bitter Root country. They slowed their pace, and once, says Joseph:
...we saw three white men passing our camp. Thinking that peace had been made, we did not molest them. We could have killed or taken them prisoners, but we did not suspect them of being spies, which they were. That night soldiers surrounded our camp.
Warren's account runs like this: "Toward grass of buffalo, and high sky. / Peace-thinking deceived us. We thought we were free." Warren's "Peace-thinking deceived us" transfers the responsibility of the deception from the whites to the Indians. He turns a reasonable supposition into a character fault.
Look at another example. General Howard ordered Joseph and his people off their land at Wallowa. He gave them thirty days to gather their personal belongings and livestock. This was a near-impossible task which, of course, is why Howard set those terms. [This is the same Howard who Warren quotes approvingly in one of the historical excerpts as saying, "I think it is great mistake to take from Joseph and his band of Nez Perces Indians that valley (Wallowa)." Warren, by omitting the time Howard said this—1875, 2 years before the battles—confuses the readers. Can this be the same Howard who drove the Indians off their land? If Howard felt this way, perhaps the Indians deserved to be driven off? Howard's attitude toward Joseph and all Indians is perhaps best revealed in his own hand in an article he wrote in response to Joseph's in the North American Review. According to Howard, a good Indian is not necessarily a dead one, but a white one: "James Lawyer, the present head chief, is an excellent man; dresses as a white man, and has a good house and farm."] Joseph plainly states his opinion, and that of the other chiefs who hoped to avoid a fight, "If General Howard had given me plenty of time to gather up my stock and treated Too-hool-hool-suit as a man should be treated, there would have been no war." How had Howard treated the Nez Perce chief? Howard: "Toolhoolhoolzote, the cross-grained growler...had the usual long preliminary discussion about the earth being his mother... [Howard] answered: "Let us hear it no more, but come to business at once" (Josephy).
Warren's account runs like this: "Howard understood not. He showed us the rifle....Worse—Thirty days only to leave Wallowa." Here there is no indication that the chiefs reckoned it would have taken six months to move. And no indication of just how it was that Howard provoked the war. Instead the reader is presented with the confusion of the supposedly mixed motives of the apparently essentially good man ("I think it a great mistake, etc.") who is forced to take action against the unreasonable Indians. It is true Howard had learned that to advance in the army bureaucracy he had to not be "soft" on Indians; in that respect, Howard, too, was a victim. But Warren presents none of that complexity either.
One more example. According to Warren, this is Joseph's father's last words to his son. "My father held my hand, and he died. Dying said: 'Think always of your country. / Your father has never sold your country. / Has never touched whiteman money that they / Should say they have bought the land you now stand on. / You must never sell the bones of your fathers— / For selling that, you sell your Heart-Being.' " Joseph's own account:
I took his hand in mine. He said: "My son, my body is returning to my earth mother [Like Howard, Warren has little use for "growling" words about the earth as mother.], and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother."
Aside from the question of which is the more powerful, more concrete, more revealing—more poetic—it is interesting to see how Warren reduces the complexity of the issues. Old Joseph sees the whites' land hunger; he passes on advice about a chief's responsibilities. He reminds young Joseph that he should honor his father and mother. Warren substitutes fathers and eliminates mother altogether, and he further reduces this complex family affair to a father-son "pop" psychology. Even in his opening words Warren attempts to belittle young Joseph by transferring agency, the initiator of the action, from Joseph to his father. Warren states that Old Joseph "held my hand" rather than giving Joseph's account that Joseph "took his hand in mine." Young Joseph is not the passive Indian Warren presents here and throughout the poem; he initiates the action providing for the continuation of the responsibilities of the tribal peace chief. Warren twists the language to undercut the image of the Indians he professes to admire. And instead of the concrete details that Joseph gives ("You must stop your ears..."), Warren offers abstractions such as "Heart-Being".
INJUN TALK
"What the Lone Ranger never knew all those years," explained the medical doctor in a slow deliberate speech, "is that when Tonto called kimo sabe it meant shithead.
"Shithead is right."
"This country needs a good injun tune up."
—Gerald Vizenor, "Blue Moon Ceremonia" in Earthdivers
Warren's distorted syntax, dropping articles and possessive pronouns, placing verbs at the end of the sentence—his "Injun Talk"—characterize the other large section of the poem, pages 15, 29-56, 57. Here 'Joseph" no longer speaks but instead a narrator speaks about him and his exploits. It is obvious that to present historical material before Joseph's time such a narrator would be necessary, but it is not clear why Warren, in the middle of the Nez Perce struggle to reach the (relative) safety of Canada, drops the fake Joseph-voice and adopts a narrator who speaks in similar "Injun Talk". One reason may be that Warren is considerate enough of the real Joseph that he would not dare have him say, as Warren as narrator says, "They slick-fucked a land." [!] Certainly Warren gains a more advantageous perspective by having himself as narrator; he can present material Joseph could never have known about (even though Warren has no compunction about saying things Joseph would never have said, like questioning whether Poker Joe was "authentic" because he was a breed. Warren writes: "But there was one with us, of white and red blood / Together, but red was his heart, Poker Joe,...We trusted ... ." Lean Elk, or Poker Joe, was according to Yellow Wolf a great leader and warrior. It is very doubtful that any of the Nez Perces, let alone a chief such as Joseph, ever questioned that Lean Elk's French blood made him suspect). But, except for the absence of quotation marks that indicated "Joseph" speaking, the voice is very much the same. Sometimes Warren as narrator uses appropriate syntax: "Yes, it would be / An operation brilliant in textbooks, / A nutcracker action... ." rather than "Yes, operation brilliant in textbooks it be," the kind of sentence construction typical of this section. Here are examples on the same page (30): "For spooks, they were," instead of "For they were spooks", and "Where ponies outward had circled and circled", "To hide all trail thence," "Dust rose, swelling slow on the pale pink dawn-shine."
POET TALK
It is not only that Warren is insensitive to translating Indian speech, but he also suffers from the delusion that distorted syntax and omitted articles equal poetry. The verbs at the end, the clipped "poetic" speech cannot mask the poverty of the vision that informs this last section. "To Snake Creek, a century later, I came;" "No sound hear," "In all direction flees," "Where sun lies in wait," "Sky shudders...." etc. It is not that poets have not used such constructions for valid poetic effect; it is that this extension of "Injun talk" and its attending racism and cultural imperialism destroy any integrity the poem attempts to lay claim to. Warren appropriates Joseph's language in an attempt to appropriate Joseph's vision.
Warren reduces the tribal vision of Joseph to the Western, white male (and typically Warren) preoccupation of a son seeking a father's blessing; appropriating the Native American Vision Quest in these last pages of his poem (further illustrating his incomprehension of Indian culture) Warren presents the image of himself merging with that of Joseph. Warren presents this scene: he visits the Snake Creek battlefield; he tours the monuments, markers, maps; then, he has an hallucinatory "vision":
I, / In fanatic imagination, saw— / No, see—the old
weapon /...I see him...eyes were fixed on him, eyes of /
Those fathers that incessantly, with / The accuracy of
that old Winchester, rifled / Through all, through darkness,
distance, Time, / To know if he had proved a man, and being /
A man, would make all those / Who now there slept know /
Their own manhood.
Warren's peculiar vision—a mocking of the Indian's sacred vision quest that is even worse that Kevin Costner's in Dancing With Wolves—reduces the complexities of the warrior, and in Joseph's case a very reluctant warrior, his responsibilities to his tribe, (the Nez Perce did not automatically transmit the chieftainship from father to son as Warren implies) to a popular Freudian interpretation that distorts the culture of the Nez Perce.
Warren's poem continues with a discourse that attempts to take the historical moment out of time to allow the poet to merge with his protagonist. Warren wants to claim credit for rescuing Joseph's manhood, for according to Warren it is his language that redeems Joseph: "But could not know that, after / The end, his own manhood, burnished / Only in the glow of his endless pity, would shine." The poem continues with the words "I saw", placing the whole weight of his poetics on his vision, elevating his seeing into the past over Joseph's conjectured knowing of the future: "Standing there he might well, / Already in such midnight, have foreknown / The end."
The rape of the Nez Perce homeland by miners, cattlemen, the lumber interests, the murder of Nez Perce peoples by government officials, the subjugation and starvation of the Nez Perce on the reservations, all of this Warren distorts into the interplay of fathers and sons, and he undermines the Nez Perce's consciously directed struggle against genocide, especially that of To-hool-hool-suit, into an attempt at proving that "a man's got to do what a man's got to do."
II. Toward a Poetry of Fact
I have argued that Warren has distorted the image of Chief Joseph. Before raising the issue about whether a documentary can be also a poetry, I want to contrast Gidley's image of Joseph with Warren's. It is instructive to look at the table of contents to KOPET:
I. Starting Out form the Meany Papers, an introduction
II. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces, a chronology
III. White Witnesses to Chief Joseph's End, a narrative.
Gidley effectively stays within the bounds of his own story by refusing to speak for Joseph. He says in his preface:
[This book] does not at all attempt, for example, to reconstruct or recreate what Joseph was thinking and feeling... . Rather, it is highly selective and concerns those parts of his life that touched the lives of a number of white men at the turn of the century—and, of course those parts of their lives that touched his. The narrative is unfolded, therefore, largely through a series of documents, mainly letters and photographs produced by these men and newspaper items in which they figured.
Further in the preface, and this is especially relevant when thinking about Warren's attitude toward altering the historical record, Gidley states: "I have not tampered with anything in the quoted material, however, except to indicate omissions by ellipses and my own insertions by brackets."
With Gidley's regard for the facts, and his refusal to speak for and through Joseph, in short for his basic decency and respect for his subject, an image much different from Warren's emerges. Gidley accurately states the result of his approach:
The present book offers rather more in the way of interpretation than information, a rounding out of the received version of Joseph's figure so that he appears more human—if, of necessity, more vulnerable, sometimes stubborn, perhaps even petty at times. Indeed, his mythical status is brought into question somewhat....
The difference between Gidley's and Warren's attitude is obvious. Warren creates a noble savage to elevate the creator while Gidley presents the materials to enlighten the reader.
Through biographical sketches, letters, and other documents, Gidley tells the story of several white residents "at Nespelem on the Colville Reservation in eastern Washington, the place where Chief Joseph's band of Nez Perces were quartered during Joseph's last years (and where many of the band's descendants still remain)." Gidley speaks of the Indians that "still remain"; Warren ends his poem with a graveyard, where the Indians "remain still".
There is drama in Gidley's account, but he does not have to impose it onto the materials. Henry Steele, a conscientious, knowledgeable, and, to the Indians a very sympathetic man, "came home one day and slit his daughter's throat, nearly severing her head from her body and then killed himself." Gidley leaves it to the reader to attempt to uncover the importance of this drama. This basic respect for the reader, this basic respect for the materials, for Joseph, all predispose me to, in turn, respect this man's work.
Gidley's chronology, like Warren's poem, is interspersed with quoted material which adds a certain authenticity to the story. Unlike Warren, Gidley provides us with his sources. Gidley also starts with the time before Joseph, but more accurately begins with the tribe's contact with French trappers (c.1750) rather than with Lewis and Clark (1805), the time Warren suggests history began for the Nez Perces. Gidley brings out several of the factors leading to the expulsion by General Howard of the Nez Perces from Wallowa: the discord with American fur traders; the Spaldings establishing a Protestant mission in Nez Perce territory; the attempt by white officials to establish a single chief over the tribes so that they could be more easily manipulated; increasing American settlements; the surrounding wars by the U.S. with other Indian tribes; discovery of gold on Nez Perce lands; etc. The chronology continues through to 1905, with the reburial of Joseph's body at Nespelem.
Gidley's final section is a narrative of the "Witnesses to Chief Joseph's End." It portrays men of good intention, men petty and possessive, men attempting to honor and to use and abuse Joseph. Their anti-climactic letters effectively mirror the anti-climax of Joseph's last years wasting away on foreign soil far from his beloved Wallowa. This section goes some way toward "being equal to the real itself," a criterion for good poetry that Charles Olson called for, but one basic to any decent historical poem. In short, Gidley presents a portrayal of many of the complexities of what would be considered minor historical figures, yet they are revealed in their humanity and, therefore, made important to us now. It is necessary to keep this elementary principle in mind, for the relationship with Joseph and the remaining Nez Perces that Gidley exposes are very much with us since the Indians of these states are very much with us. For keeping this fact alive to us, Gidley's narrative is valuable.
Throughout Gidley's text are numerous photographs of the Nez Perces and their land. These, too, are valuable; but, it is with Gidley's uncritical approach to many of these photos, especially those of Curtis, that I take some exception. Curtis, like Warren, too often distorts the real Indian to present an idealized noble savage. But again, Gidley does provide some criticism of Curtis, and perhaps this is enough; and, his critique reveals, once again, Gidley's underlying respect for his reader and his belief that the intelligent reader will make his or her own way through the materials and uncover the truth.
III. Time Interlude—1877
May 14 Howard gives the Nez Perces 30 days to get onto the reservation at Lapwai.
June 17 White Bird Battle, Nez Perce truce flag ignored, troops attack and are defeated.
July 1 Attack on Looking Glass' Village, troops loot and destroy peaceful village.
July 2 Defeat of Lt. Rains by Nez Perce.
July 11 Battle of Clearwater, 200 Nez Perces hold of Howard's 560 man army, Howard receives reinforcements and declares a victory.
July 17 Militia sent to Martinsburg, West Virginia to put down railroad strike.
July 18 President Rutherford B. Hayes sends the Second U.S. Artillery to Martinsburg to put down the strike.
July 25 President Hayes order 6 companies of troops to Chicago.
July 26 Reading, Pennsylvania occupied by federal troops.
July 28 Strike in East St. Louis broken by federal troops.
August 9 Big Hole Battle, Poker Joe appointed war leader.
Aug. 20 Camas Meadows Battle, federal armies encircle Nez Perce at Yellowstone.
Sept. 13 Battle of Canyon Creek, Nez Perce escape Yellowstone.
Sept. 30‑ Bear Paws Battle. Nez Perce lose their war
Oct. 15 chiefs: Ollokot, Too-hool-hool-suit, Poker Joe, and Looking Glass. Joseph surrenders. With Joseph are 86 men, 184 women, and 147 children. White Bird, distrustful of the white generals secretly leads 200 Nez Perces to Canada and are protected by Sitting Bull's people.
IV. What Time is it?
In a sense, Joseph and his people occupied a dimension of suspended time, always awaiting the major decision that they be allowed to return to Wallowa Valley and usually awaiting the answers to numerous small inquiries. Meanwhile, the Nespelem of the white men was busily moving along linear time (Gidley 17).
Warren in typical New Critical fashion is fearful of history, anxious to turn the historical into the ironical. He would like Joseph to amuse his time while in exile from his homeland by speculating on the inappropriateness of General Tecumseh Sherman's name (48). He is anxious to leap into a timeless "transcendency" that he must hope is a guarantee that his work will be considered poetry. And by imposing his distrust for the temporal, even while stating that "There is only / Process, which is one name for history", he effectively destroys the Indians' history. Warren has Joseph say, for instance, "But now we breathed the stink of the wind of Time"(p.12) in an attempt to enlist Joseph in a battle against himself who was a victim less of Time than of the "eternal" timeless values of greed, self-hatred, and anti-naturalism of the white conquerors. The negative things that happen to the Nez Perces Warren presents as agentless, outside of time and its responsibilities:
"The horse-soliders stood. The white flag approached,
With the heart's true invitation. But what peace
Can there be when a shot is the only answer?
A man in a white hat, no soldier, fired it.
But how could we know?"
So, an accident causes the battle, a misunderstanding for which none but the mystery man is to blame. (Curious that Joseph could be recalling such an event. Did someone tell him about this mystery man in the white hat?) By denying responsibility for action Warren can subvert the historical record at will. He can place the Indians squarely in the path of an inevitable fated demise, with no one being held responsible. (That Warren refers to Fate as a "flirtatious slut" tells us little about the Indians' view but much about Warren's attitude toward women.) He quotes C.H. Hale, superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington Territory (again, with no date and with no source cited): "...to attempt to restrain miners would be like attempting to restrain the whirl wind." Curious that the federal government could not hold back those miners when it was able to break the strike by railroad workers and their multitude of sympathizers all across the country. By making fate the villain, Warren offers the real villains an easy escape into a mythical wonderland of his own construction. A specific example may illustrate this best. Warren presents General Miles as a possible villain; it is Miles who makes Howard look good by comparison. Then Warren says of Miles that he, too, is not at fault for what happens to the Indians; he, too, was fated to act as he did: "How could they know that Miles, whom they trusted, / Was only a brigadier behind whom / Moved forces, faceless, timeless, dim," (47).
V. To Know Warren's Need and unknot Warren's "Note"
The Ojibwa self is not orientated to a behavioral environment in which a distinction between human beings and supernatural beings is stressed... Impersonal forces are never the causes of events. Somebody is always responsible.—Irving Hallowell, Culture and Experience
The Secretary of the Interior commented in 1872 on killing the buffalo to starve the Indians onto reservations: "A few years of cessation from the chase will tend to unfit them from their former mode of life, and they will be the more readily led into new directions, toward industrial pursuits and peaceful habits."—Edward Curtis, The North American Indian
Instead of an introduction or a forward, Warren presents the reader with the casualness of a "note". Is this apparent casualness meant to disarm the reader? Why should he want to do that? How suspicious need a reader be? To continually question the authenticity of the narrator, question his compunctions to distort history, how much of the history of Indian-White relations does a person need to know?
It has been my contention that Warren's poem is an example of cultural imperialism—an attempt to appropriate the history and the heritage of the Indians while all the time making it seem that he respects and honors that history. Those unconvinced by my attempt will probably remain unconvinced by this analysis of his prose "note"; others may find it revealing to see how consistently Warren's language operates to distort the image of Indian-White relations.
A close look at Warren's word usage, especially his verb use, illuminates how his ambiguity and vagueness serve to functionally mystify those Indian-White relationships. My two main points are that an analysis of Warren's prose demonstrates that his real intent is to show that (1) Indians controlled their own destiny and, hence, deserved their near annihilation by the whiteman; and, (2) whites were powerless to stop the Indians' extermination (even though they were the agents of it). This is, to me, Warren's hidden meaning to his evoking the image of the "noble savage".
I am mainly concerned with Warren's use of the active and passive voice as indicators of ideology. The outstanding characteristic of passive voice constructions is the ease with which the writer can dispense with the agent of action. There are, of course, many perfectly good, ideologically innocent, and appropriate uses for the passive voice in English; I began this essay using it. But in political relationships, especially in one as sensitive as Indian-White relations with the attending racism, imperialism, and intimate connections with the very idea of democracy (specifically Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" and the first fact of U.S. democracy that the property upon which so many democratic values are based is stolen property), agentless action becomes an ideological feature of this language worth looking at closely. But Warren in this "Note" joins the journalists, bureaucrats, critics, and assorted "officials" to whom the agentless passive comes quite effortlessly to give to their statements the ring of authority.
We would expect the Indians' use, and most all the verb use, to be in the active voice; so, perhaps it is not reasonable to assume that active verbs by the Indian speakers signal their responsibility for their own actions and, consequently, the responsibility for their own destruction. But, that every negative action by whites should be presented in the passive voice certainly signals that Warren is hiding the real reasons for the whites' actions behind narrative subterfuge. There is one apparent exception to Warren using passive voice for negative action toward the Indian. He says, "President Grant ... turned to the doomed experiment of trying to divide the region between Indians and whites." This was undoubtedly a negative action as far as the Indians were concerned, and turned is a verb in the active voice. This seems to be an exception to Warren's verb use; it is less of one when you see how this verb is modified by the agentless construction that precedes it, "but, under pressure", which is an attempt to remove from Grant the blame and pass it on to an unnamed, agentless "pressure," presumably Fate.
"Doomed experiment" is also one of those seemingly neutral usages, but in this case it is an attempt to hide the fact that Grant had no right to any kind of experiment on the Indian land. It disguises the fact that the experiment was doomed not because it was fated to be so but because the whites wanted Indian land, and the government was determined to help them get it. And, then there is the other apparently neutral word divide, implying some sort of equal treatment, but disguising the essential fact that the land was all the Indians' in the first place. Warren employs other means to reinforce the ideological position presented by his verb use in addition to the examples cited above. He is especially kind to Lewis and Clark who Warren would have us believe were merely disinterested, scientific explorers not also agents for the fur trade. But it is with his verbs that Warren reveals his true attitudes toward the Indians.
VI. Time, to stop it
As for the rest of Texas, if we don't count the wild
Indians ... there were only 1,000 people.
—Remember the Alamo!, Robert Penn Warren
It is obvious that I have many disagreements with Warren, with his attitude toward the American Indian, toward our history, and with what he considers to be good poetry. There are, in addition, more reasons why I think Warren is simply not capable of writing an historical poem about American Indians. Warren has revealed himself in so many of his other writings to be not able to understand the history of Indian-White relationships that are necessarily so central to any narrative of the life of Chief Joseph.
Only a few years before writing Chief Joseph Warren wrote on the subject of poetry and policy a book called Democracy and Poetry. I want to look at his attitude toward the individual and toward land. Warren states his opinion about what is the characteristic of real poetry:"What poetry most significantly celebrates is the capacity of man to face the deep, dark inwardness of his nature and his fate." With this belief, it is not surprising that Warren turns the reluctant peace chief, Chief Joseph, into a war leader who is preoccupied midst the battles with a Hamlet-like speculation on freedom, necessity, and manhood. Warren creates Joseph in Warren's own image, not to give homage to an admittedly great historical figure, but to ultimately attempt to glorify himself.
The source of Warren's misconception about selfhood comes, I believe, from his refusal or inability to see what this democracy that he claims to value is really based upon. American democracy is founded on land, private property; and, the inescapable fact about this land is that it was (and is) stolen from the Indian. This though is how Warren sees it:
Let us pause and look back. In one perspective our history seems a little short of miraculous. Two hundred years ago a handful of men (sic.) on the Atlantic seaboard with a wild continent at the back (They are facing the ocean?), risked their necks and their sacred (?) honor to found a new kind of nation, and thus unleashed an unprecedented energy (Therefore absolving them of any responsibility, guilt, or the need for reparations?) that succeeded to a power and prosperity beyond their most fantastic dreams.
Who does Warren speak for when he says our forefathers? Does he speak for the Indian who did not consider the continent wild? And how are we to understand his evoking a higher power to justify the conquest of the Indian nations? How can the Indian wars be still considered our sacred task? Must we destroy that part of our collective memory that still remembers that such was the language of Cotton Mather and perhaps Warren's Puritan forefathers? Can we accept Warren speaking for us when we know that his sacred task meant the destruction of numerous Indian nations and the uncompensated labor of millions of Black slaves, Chinese laborers, and immigrant wage-slaves? His is a curious look at history since it was these men, and women who he refuses to acknowledge, whose energy gives us our present prosperity, not some mystical "energy" but stolen excess value. And, according to Warren, his honorable men succeeded because the land was free, and this supposedly free land allowed them to escape the confines of European values which did not provide for the rugged individual. Warren's is an elementary logic and an elementary school logic. And it is entirely fallacious.
Poetry becomes a travesty of human value when Warren attempts to write of a man who was the respected peace chief of a people who had no such conception of land as "free for the taking", who saw the individual preoccupation of self-seeking glorification as an aberration, and who suffered near-annihilation so that Warren's individualism might flourish. By contrast, Gidley's work presents none of these distortions, and it is no poem. But it is the promise of a poetry, a poetry that stays close to the real, that respects the facts and the people who determine those facts, a possible poetry written by a whiteman about an Indian; all of this Gidley offers to us. From this possible poetry an honest poetry can emerge. Warren by contrast hides any such possibilities under the shadow of his destructive ego as assuredly as the Puritans he claims as his forefathers offered to cover the Indians with pox-infected blankets. He gives us instead of poetry only more "talking by men who had no right to talk." Instead of poetry, propaganda.
Verbs and Talking Indian
I divide Warrens verb use into four parts:
A. positive actions done to the Indians by Whites—all indicated by active verbs, showing that the whitemen acted responsibly and meant well;
B. negative actions done to the Indians by Whites—all, indicated by passive verbs, showing that the whites' actions were fated since they were not the agent of these actions;
C. Indian actions—all indicated by active verbs, showing that the Indians were responsible for their own fate, i.e. the loss of their lands and the destruction of their culture; and
D. other verb use, including relational verbs and verbs not otherwise accountable by A, B, or C.
Of the 42 verbs used, 5 are described by A, 10 by B, and 18 by C. 5 are relationals, 1 seems to be an exception to A but is really a disguised case of A, and 2 seem to be exceptions to C but are cases of passives where the agent is easily recoverable.
Here is the beginning of Warren's "Note":
The Nez Perce ... entered [C] history as the friendly hosts to the explorers Lewis and Clark, and took [C] care of their superfluous possessions when the expedition made [other, a "neutral" verb use] the last push to the Pacific. The Nez Perce were [other, but note the implication that they are no longer] a handsome and very vigorous people ... they refused [C] scalping. They moved [C] about with the offerings of the seasons .... for buffalo, which had already disappeared from their land [B, note the implied passive—the buffalo just disappeared. The buffalo had in fact disappeared from their lands many hundreds of years before, but the Nez Perce did hunt buffalo on the plains and return with the hides and meat. But Warren's language here is not unlike present reporting on the "disappeared" in Latin America where the people are kidnapped and murdered by U.S. equipped and trained police forces.].... The Nez Perce, however, were [other] .... The lands where the fathers were buried [other, though passive it stands outside of the categories of my analysis] ,... the fathers kept watch [C] ... truth was spoken [other] ... each showed [C] .... The first treaty, of 1855, guaranteed [A] ...." etc.
Chief Joseph. "An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs." North American Review, 128, 1879, 412‑33.
Curtis, Edward. The North American Indian. New York: 1972.
Gidley, Mick. KOPET: a Documentary Narrative of Chief Joseph's Last Years, Seattle: 1981.
Hallowell, Irving. Culture and Experience. Philadelphia: 1972.
Howard, General O. O. "The True Story of the Wallowa Campaign." North American Review, 129, 1879, 533-64.
Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest, New Haven: 1965.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Hiawatha. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: 1944.
Olson, Charles. "Human Universe",Selected Writings. New York: 1966.
Spinden, Herbert J. "The Nez Perce Indians," Memoirs of the American Anthropological Assosciation, Vol II, part 3, 1907-15.
Vizenor, Gerald. Earthdivers: Tribal Narratives of Mixed Descent. Minneapolis: 1981.
Warren, Robert Penn. Brother to Dragons. New York: 1953.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, New York: 1982.
Democracy and Poetry, Cambridge: 1975.
Remember the Alamo! New York: 1958.
Return to ESSAYS


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Preview Feature: Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema Season Eight
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 27, 2019 - 6:31pm
Alliance Francaise de Chicago
AMC River East 21
APUC
Heritage Museum of Asian Art
Season Eight
Sophia Wong Boccio
Wilmette Theater
CHICAGO – One of the most successful ongoing film festivals is Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC). Facilitated by founder and veteran film programmer Sophia Wong Bocchio, the fest anticipates Season Eight with another amazing line-up of films from Japan, Mongolia, Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Indonesia and South Korea.
The format for the Spring 2019 APUC is going through a change … instead of spreading films out to once a week, there will be multiple films each week, equalling a shorter calendar season. Many of the weeks will focus on one country, and as always there will be opportunities to meet the filmmakers and participate in post screening discussions (Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com is on board to host Q&As March 27th and 28th). And besides the Chicago screenings taking place at AMC River East 21, the Heritage Museum of Asian Art, the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet studio and the suburban Wilmette Theater will also screen films.
APUC Opening Night Film for Season Eight is 'Fly Me to the Saitama'
Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org
The following are Season Eight, Spring 2019 Highlights…
OPENING NIGHT: Fly Me to the Saitama (Japan)
The APUC opener is an adaptation of a 1980s manga about an alternative-universe rebellion by the natives of the capital's much mocked suburb. The film is packed with in-jokes targeting the title location, and the filmmaker also nimbly crosses cultural barriers, this time with hick-versus-city-slicker comedy that anyone who has ever been either can understand. North American Premiere. March 12th (7pm) AMC River East … Q&A with director Hideki Takeuchi.
Funan (Cambodia)
This Chicago Premiere is a co-presentation of APUC and the Festival de la Francophonie 2019. Written and directed by Denis Do, this animated film is set in 1975, during the Khmer Rouge revolution. A young Cambodian mother named Chou is fighting for her own survival and is looking for her 4-year-old son, who was taken away from her by the regime. March 21st (6:30pm) Alliance Francaise de Chicago … Guest speaker is Cambodian-born filmmaker Kai-Doc Luong.
Sen Sen (Taiwan)
When Sen's older brother passes away, he copes with the loss by sifting through what his brother left behind … a mobile phone. Sen discovers that his brother had a unique hobby of following a live stream of an elderly cab driver known simply as Granny. She has three months to live, and she will live by live-streaming those final days. Sen and Granny develop an unexpected online bond as they both face the reality of death. U.S. Premiere! March 27th (7pm) AMC River East … Patrick McDonald will moderate a Q&A with director Bon An and actress Nina Paw Hee-ching (who is being honored by APUC and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in New York City).
APUC Season Eight & Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Honors Actress Nina Paw Hee-ching
Four Springs (China)
Filmed in the remote town of Dushan in southwest China over the course of four years, "Four Springs" captures the flow of life and everyday routines of the director's own parents. We follow the rhythm of their daily chores, hobbies, walks in nature, family and friends visits, reunions and departures. Their optimism, good humor, resilience and acceptance shine through, even in the face of irretrievable loss. Chicago Premiere. April 7th (2pm & 5pm) Heritage Museum of Asian Art … Q&A with director Lu-Qing-yi.
The Pension (South Korea)
Four dramatic and moving stories take place at a hotel called the Pension: parents coping with their daughter's death; a husband and wife hoping to rekindle their marriage; a woman who insists on staying in a particular room; and the substitute manager of the Pension inviting his girlfriend over for the evening. U.S. Premiere! April 16th (7pm) AMC River East … Q&A with director Jeonghuh Deok-jae (who directs the last story).
CLOSING NIGHT FILM: Tracey (Hong Kong)
Tung is a middle-aged married man and father who works in a modest eyewear store he owns. A phone call about an old high-school friend's death triggers Tung to look back on his past, and a painful wish for a different past … that may change his future. Chicago Premiere. April 24th (7pm) AMC River East … Q&A with director Jun Li.
Season Eight of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema opens with "Fly Me to the Saitama." on March 12th, 2019 (7pm), at the AMC River East 21, 322 East Illinois Street, Chicago. Director Hideki Takeuchi will make an appearance on behalf of the film. For a complete overview on Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema Season Eight, click here.
Editor and Film Writer
Film News: Japan's Hot Film 'Fly Me to Saitama' Opens 8th Asian Pop-up Cinema, Mar. 12, 2019
Interview: Season Seven Opening Night Film for Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema is 'Adulthood'
Interview: Chicago's Asian Pop-up Cinema Features 'Out of Paradise' on Mar. 19, 2019
Podtalk: Sophia Wong Boccio on Season Seven for Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema
Preview: First Weekend of 50th Chicago International Film Festival
Interview: Director Huaug Hsin-yao on 'The Great Buddha +' at Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema
Interview: Chicago's Asian Pop-up Cinema Features 'High Flash' on Mar. 28, 2019
Podtalk: Chicago's Asian Pop-up Cinema Features 'A Land Imagined' on Mar. 20, 2019
Film News: Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema Screens 'Walking Past the Future,' Oct. 24th, 2018
Film News: Season 4 of Asian Pop-Up Cinema Begins in Chicago with 'Survival Family' on Mar. 1, 2017
Interview: Director FU Tien Yu of 'My Egg Boy' at Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema on Mar. 29, 2017
Film Feature: The 10 Best Films of 2018, By Patrick McDonald
Film News: HollywoodChicago.com to Host Q&A for 'Wild Honey' on Dec. 12, 2018
Interview: 'The Last Verse,' at Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema on March 28, 2018
Interview: Sophia Wong Boccio on Season 6 of Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


But Lord, You remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation (v.19).
I didn't realise how far I was removed from reality until I read The Hunger Games. It jolted me into doing some research. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates for 2010, there are about 925 million hungry people in the world. That means 13.6 percent of the world population, or almost 1 in 7 people regularly experience hunger.
With so many modern comforts within our grasp, I've been lulled into thinking that the world I live in is how everyone lives. Sadly, that's not true. Hunger, oppression and injustice plague many parts of our planet today.
Reading the book of Lamentations can give us a point of entry into the experience of those who have suffered the death of a nation and the agony of utter despair. In vivid details, Jeremiah describes for us the state of Jerusalem after the Babylonians destroyed it. The Israelites lost not only their land, but also their homes and inheritance (5:2). In every household it was likely that a family member was missing (v.3). Cold, thirst and exhaustion were the new norms (v.4). Hope had flickered out. Fear plagued all—from the women to the princes, young men to the children (vv.11-13). Life was no longer the same (v.14).
Amid the gloom and despair, Jeremiah cried out, "But Lord, You remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation" (v.19).
Read Psalm 33:12-22 for the message of hope that we can share with the destitute.
How do you think the world you live in might be different from other parts of the world? How can you expand your understanding and empathy for those who are struggling beyond your country's borders?
ODB: "If You Are Willing"


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Bryston Middle T Loudspeakers Review
Gaelen Andrews2014-12-22T22:11:13+00:00October 10th, 2014|Reviews, Speakers and Subwoofers|502 Comments
If you aren't already proud to know, Canada produces some of the finest audio components on the planet. Bryston is one such Canadian company who sold their first amp to a studio over 40 years ago, and has since built their reputation by creating excellent sounding gear with bulletproof reliability and a 20 year warranty. And yes, the 20 year warranty applies to their speakers too.
Bryston made their debut into the speaker world in 2013. As a company that previously only made electronic components, their first speaker was obviously met with a bit of skepticism, and a lot of curiosity. Bryston is well respected partly because of a guy named James Tanner – a face of Bryston and their VP. For fun, he decided to build himself a speaker a little while back. This speaker was to be used in his home to assess Bryston's electronic components. It wasn't intended to be a new direction for the company, but as James let people listen to them, they asked, "How much?"
James sought out the help of Axiom Audio to turn his acoustic vision into reality. As a fellow Canadian company, and basically local to James, he was able to access a wealth of knowledge from Axiom's speaker designers, and their expansive testing facility including an anechoic chamber. The original creation was not intended to be for sale, and would have been too expensive if it had. So again, Bryston teamed up with Axiom to produce a consumer line of speakers. This is intended to be a completely transparent relationship. I see it as a win for both companies: Axiom gets to build more speakers, and Bryston is able to offer a speaker that's in line with their sonic character and value proposition.
The flagship Model T's technology has trickled down into a full range of speakers – 15 in total. Only one step down from the top, the Middle T has taken a simpler approach. Compared to the Model T's many drivers, the Middle T's have a more traditional 3-range design. At the rear there are two fluted ports, and bi-wire connecting posts.
All of the speakers in the Model T range have a 1 ½" thick MDF front baffle for maximum rigidity, and strategically placed bracing for sonic neutrality. The speaker cabinet is mostly comprised of ¾" thick MDF which helps in keeping the price down. There is a finishing wrap of vinyl ($4,700), real wood ($5,300), Rosewood ($6,200), or custom finishes. From un-boxing to finally resting on their optional extra-wide spiked feet called "outriggers" ($600), I was impressed with their quality feel and finish.
In terms of aesthetics, I think the Middle T is a good looking speaker, especially in the wood finishes – mine came in a Natural Cherry. The cabinet itself narrows as you move backwards from the faceplate, diffusing the sound waves within the speaker. I am primarily interested in a speakers drivers, and I wouldn't spend extra money on a fancy cabinet unless it was stunningly gorgeous. I think Bryston has hit the cabinet price versus performance versus beauty ratio right on the head.
The Middle T's came with modular magnetic speaker covers with opposing magnets underneath the finishing layer, so there's no unsightly holes when not in use. The grills were never a consideration for me because I think these speakers look sexy naked.
The Middle T sports a three-way design, in a ported enclosure, which houses one 1" titanium dome tweeter, one 5.25" polypropylene midrange and two 8" polypropylene woofers. It has a frequency response rated from 33 Hz – 22 kHz (+/- 3 dB), a nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, and a sensitivity of 88 dB. It is crossed-over at 160 Hz and 2.3 kHz. Bryston recommends pairing it with amplifiers rated at 10 watts to 250 watts RMS. The Middle T has dimensions of 39.5" H x 10.5" W x 16.5" D, and tips the scale at 81 pounds/each.
I connected the Middle T's to my Simaudio Moon i-5 integrated amplifier and used my PC as the music source.
In typical Bryston fashion, the Middle T's play any kind of music well, and were very revealing while remaining neutral. The Middle T's are relaxed and forgiving of recording flaws, which made them fun and easy to listen to. The bass from the Middle T's was particularly hilarious – I'm not ashamed to admit that some heavy bass lines made me giggle.
One of the more surprising things the Middle T's were able to do is present both a very forward, and very laid back soundstage, depending on the recording. On Mumford and Sons "I gave you all", Marcus Mumford starts out singing seemingly very close to the front, then recedes back into the band as the song builds.
The overall coherence of the Middle T's is impressive. The crossover points for the speaker are at 160 Hz, and 2.3 kHz, and the crossovers and drivers seamlessly integrate with each other giving a relaxed tonal balance. The best part is that they did it at all volumes. Partial credit has to be given to the control of my Simaudio Moon i-5 integrated amplifier, but nonetheless these speakers possess the delicacy to quietly express opera, and could easily host a dance party.
I was surprised at the size of the soundstage the Middle T's cast. Closing my eyes, locating the band just using my ears gave a sense of the original recording space, and sometimes gave the illusion my room was larger than it actually is, which is always a neat and slightly bizarre experience. On good recordings, the soundstage extended noticeably beyond my front walls in depth and width, and a couple feet above the top of the speakers. On a few very good recordings, I felt immersed in the soundstage. I have only heard much more expensive speakers do this.
Happily, my review pair of Middle T's came with the new version of the tweeter. I found the highs to be very clean without being harsh. The tweeters are still a 1" titanium design, but compared to the old tweeter, there is a new housing, and new slightly horn shaped aluminum faceplate, which makes the sweet-spot larger. I can attest to the sweet spot being large. The new tweeter is available as an upgrade if you currently own any Bryston speaker.
The highs were a highlight of the Middle T's. I'm a big fan of City and Colour, and on the track "Fragile Bird" I find the cymbals to be a bit glaring, yet I was impressed at how relaxed those symbols sounded through the Middle T's. I'd honestly expected more coldness from Bryston's tweeters, but I find them to be more on the relaxed end of the spectrum. I could wish for more sparkle at lower volumes, but I wouldn't trade it for their overall softness and sweetness.
The midrange driver of the Middle T is a 5-1/4" speaker that sits in an isolated enclosure within the cabinet. Although this small driver looks unassuming next to the beefy bass drivers, its job is very important as our ears are so attuned to the midrange that is has to be correct, and I think the Middle T's midrange is just that. Vocals sounded just as I know they should, and I detected no coloration on any of the artist's voices that I've come to know.
To be critical, I have heard more expressive vocals, and feel that this is the only area that the Middle T's could improve on, but they are relaxed in character and I don't expect more at this price for a full range speaker. I learned that the Middle T's are forgiving of lesser equipment, but certainly reveal better equipment.
While conducting this review, the Canadian-made exaSound e22 DAC (DSD capable) arrived at my place. This gave me a chance to send much higher quality audio from my computer to the Simaudio integrated amplifier, and showed that using a quality source will help the Middle T's really shine. The e22 has so much finesse, it especially helped to open up the midrange, giving vocals a lot more texture. On Nina Simone's "He Needs Me", the low level details were much more palpable as she sings with some light vibrato and soft changes in breath. Look out for an evaluation of the exaSound e22 for the next edition of CANADA HiFi.
It is unwise to judge a speaker by its cover, but one look and you can tell that the Middle T's bass drivers like to party.
For sake of full disclosure, I am a bit of a bass-head. That being said, I am only excited by accurate bass. To put it simply – these bass drivers are the most articulate I've ever heard. It has been revelatory to explore my reference bass songs and hear notes with precisely the weight and speed they were meant to have.
The speed at which bass from the Middle T's can bloom and then disappear is astonishing. This is partly due to the woofers being relatively small, as far as bass drivers go. In designing a speaker, speed is usually balanced with ability to produce the lowest frequencies, yet somehow these 8" drivers hit the lowest octave like they have no sympathy for it. They made me laugh and shake my head in amazement. James Blake's cover of Feist's "Limit To Your Love" is a great example of both the speed and depth of these drivers.
I think Bryston has developed a speaker that aligns with their brand of reliable and transparent audio gear that is long on sound quality and comparatively short on price. I believe that most fans of Bryston electronics will enjoy their speakers, and I suspect their speakers will also attract many new customers.
While doing critical listening, I often got distracted and too lost into the music, which is an important characteristic I look for in audio components. But when I could remain focused on the Middle T's, they impressed me with every song I sent their way.
Bryston Ltd.
www.bryston.com
Bryston Middle T Loudspeakers
Price: $5,300/pair CAD; Black Ash, Natural Cherry, Boston Cherry Wood Veneer, $6,200/pair Rosewood Veneer; $4,700/pair in Vinyl
About the Author: Gaelen Andrews


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Michigan Day by Day
2021 : Dearborn Heights Elects First Muslim & Arab American Mayor
November 2, 2021 all-day
Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi fended off a challenge from Council Chair Denise Malinowski Maxwell to continue being mayor, winning 73% of the vote for a partial term that ends this year and 72% for a full four-year term that follows.
Bazzi, 58, has been mayor since January, when he was appointed by the council.
An immigrant from Lebanon and a Marines veteran, he's the first Muslim and first Arab American to be mayor of Dearborn Heights, where about one-third of the city is Arab American.
Bazzi was one of three Arab American Muslims to be elected mayor Tuesday in cities across metro Detroit, with Hamtramck and Dearborn voters also electing candidates who are Muslim and of Arab descent.
In December, the previous mayor since 2004, Daniel Paletko, died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
After he died, Malinowski-Maxwell, 61 , became interim mayor, according to city charter rules. In January, the city council voted 4-3 to appoint Bazzi as mayor.
Previously, Bazzi served with the U.S. Marines, joining the military branch after he graduated from Fordson High School in Dearborn. Bazzi served globally, helping allies and countering terrorism. He is active with veterans groups, serving as commander of the Dearborn Allied War Veterans Council.
After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, he also worked for Boeing and then Ford Motor Co. as a product development engineer, retiring after he became mayor this year.
Source : Niraj Warikoo, "Bill Bazzi defeats council chair, becomes first Muslim elected mayor in Dearborn Heights", Detroit Free Press, November 3, 2021.
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Michael Baisden says "Why is my door locked"? | America loves Sporks!
Michael Baisden says "Why is my door locked"?
Baisden was syndicated by our friends at Cumulus Media. He is another of the talents inherited from Citadel who inherited him from ABC Radio.
Reportedly his long term contract was for $6 million a year – there is no way Lewis Dickey is paying that kind of money in 2013. The contract was up at month end. Michael has an unexpected week off, not at all unusual in radio, unless you are extremely trusted by the owners to not act up during the final week.
Roughly speaking, he is the afternoon version of Tom Joyner. He's a black man on black radio stations talking only to black people about black topics. He's a microphone for the Democratic Party, providing a regular forum for Barack Obama. We live in two Americas – if there was ever any doubt.
This entry was posted in American Politics, Liberal Talk, Radio Biz, Talk Radio. Bookmark the permalink.
3 Responses to Michael Baisden says "Why is my door locked"?
The Liberals apparently no longer need a radio mouthpiece for Barack Obama. The election is over, and they no longer have to justify or explain anything he does. They're now gearing up for the next President, Hillary Clinton. I think they'll take that campaign mostly to TV, since newstalk radio seems to be dead in the water.
Rush is still doing OK, may have taken a dip in the audience #'s after the election and into the holiday season. He is doing things differently and has matured, again. He no longer claims to be the smartest guy around, or to know everything, which is something women love to hear a man say. The numbers will trend upward as the other talkers fade away.
He must be instructing Snerdly to stack up more women callers who agree with him. He took two call from women in the last hour on Friday. One was a 17 year old, the other was 40 something. These women were smart. They also gushed on and on about how much they loved Rush. Both said they agreed with him, but that he also needed a little help understanding another side to certain issues.
I would also like to hear Rush talk more specifically about JFK, his policies in 1963, and continually make the comparison that current Democrats would be bashing JFK if he were to run for political office in the current political climate. He certainly has a number of different tactics and strategies in play such as his mission to reach the low-information voters. That will be a permanent part of the show. Time will tell if he can grow his audience.
And, I left out the most important tactic he now employs, which was to agree with the 2 women callers and that he did consider their opinion to be right. Obviously Catherine is coaching Rush on how to endear himself to women.


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Kostel svatého Víta stojí při severním okraji návsi obce Mířkov, v nevýrazném svahu klesajícím východním a jižním směrem. Kostel je přístupný o sobotách v 17.30 hodin celý rok, každý týden mše svatá s nedělní platností.

Stavební fáze

Jádrem gotický kostel sv. Víta byl pravděpodobně postaven v první polovině 14. století. Dnešní podoba kostela je z 15. století, po polovině 18. století byl kostel upraven a zbarokizován. Ke kostelu byla dodatečně přistavěna horní polovina věže. V 18. století proběhla výraznější barokní přestavba, při které byla hlavní loď prodloužena a do jejího průčelí byl zasazen původní gotický portál. Dále došlo k úpravě okenních otvorů a byla vystavěna dřevěná kruchta zdobená obrazy světců. K důležitému zásahu došlo v 90. letech minulého století, kdy proběhla oprava krovu a výměna střešní krytiny, taktéž byla zcela obnovena fasáda.

Stavební podoba
Kostel sv. Víta v Mířkově je orientovaná zděná omítaná jednolodní stavba, kterou tvoří obdélná loď s užším presbytářem s polygonálním závěrem bez opěrných pilířů. K jeho severnímu boku přiléhá hranolová věž se sakristií v přízemí. Fasáda stavby je hladká s břízolitovou omítkou.

Odkazy

Reference

Mířkov
Kostely plzeňské diecéze
Kostely v okrese Domažlice
Kulturní památky v okrese Domažlice
Mířkov
Gotické kostely v okrese Domažlice

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


He told me, "If you can build stairs out of wood you can build concrete stairs".
When I was a young carpenter, working on a school project, I was told to build a set of concrete stairs to connect two levels of a sidewalk, not yet in place. I talked to my father who taught me the trade while working on industrial projects in northern Canada, constructing mine buildings and bridges. Somehow I missed the concrete stair session. He told me, "If you can build a wooden set of stairs you can build them out of concrete." He told me two things: the stringers for a concrete stair are on top of the treads and instead of a nosing, the riser is angled to give a wider tread. Armed with my new information, I attempted to build the set of concrete stairs.
To support the stringers, I built the forms on each side of the stairs, braced them properly in order for them to hold the concrete. I built them tall enough to be able to nail the stringers to them. I measured the total rise between the two levels of proposed sidewalk and calculated the individual rise. I used a low rise of 6" for the kids and chose a run of 12" to complement the rise. I learned that in stair building the pairs 6 and 12, 7 and 11 and 8 and 10 went together. I laid out the stringers. I found it tough at first to get my head around the fact that the stringers are above the treads, acting as a support for the risers that are like bulkheads in a form. I canted the riser back 1" on the bottom to allow more room for the foot on the tread. I used 3/4" form ply on the side forms and for the stringers.
Once the side forms were in place and the stringers fastened in position, I could see that the slope of the earth needed a bit of correction. I wanted at least 4" of concrete under my risers. The dirt was removed to form the correct slope and clearance. It was then compacted well using a plate compactor.
Since this was a commercial project and a union job I just stood by and watched the laborer repair the slope. Actually I stood there just long enough to be sure he understood what I wanted. While I was waiting for the preparation of the slope, I continued on my stairs. I ripped my risers to the right heights and the bottoms on a 45 degree. This was another piece of info my father included: "When the cement finisher comes along to finish the treads, if the risers are not ripped to a 45 on the bottom, since they are are on an angle, the bottom will dig into the tread below it". By ripping the riser material on a 45 degree angle, the bottom of the riser comes to a point, allowing the finisher to trowel right up to the inside bottom corner of the tread and riser. Otherwise there will be a depression left of the 2x8 riser along the tread next to the riser.
I returned to the stair site and noticed the foreman had asked the rebar guys to install a mat of rebar to lay on the slope, after the laborer had finished his compacting. I nailed the risers into position. Since the stairs were about 5' wide I tied all the risers together at the center of their span with a 1x4 nailed down the slope attached to the top of the risers. At the bottom of the 1x4, I drove a stake into the ground to prevent them from moving. I also drove stakes at the edge of the side forms to prevent any movement in the same direction. The risers were all attached to the side walls and I could see the force created by the weight of concrete wanting to deflect the 2x8 riser forms. As I was finishing up, I noticed the rebar guy was back and held the mat off the slope by attaching tie wire to it and hanging it off the risers. He formed a loop around the mat and the riser so the cement finisher could cut the wire and pull it out to get it out of his way. He also added a couple of bars running with the risers in each tread.
Concrete was scheduled late in the day so I stood and watched as the laborers poured the concrete. I loved those union jobs. The forms held well. The finisher started to finish my masterpiece. The concrete was setting up quickly in the heat. The finisher wanted to remove the 1x4 tying the risers together. He got me to remove the 1x4. I had to pry it from the risers0 with extreme care to avoid any movement. I learned a valuable lesson: now I always attach this 1x4 into the riser tops with screws to make it easier to remove during the finishing process.
I've formed many concrete stairs since then. The first one was a good learning experience.


text:
January 15, 2013 / 1:04 AM / 7 years ago
Dell in talks to go private, shares surge
Nadia Damouni, Poornima Gupta
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc is in talks with private equity firms on a potential buyout, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, confirming reports that sent shares in the world's No. 3 PC maker soaring 13 percent to nearly a eight-month high.
A man wipes the logo of the Dell IT firm at the CeBIT exhibition centre in Hannover February 28, 2010. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
The firms are now holding discussions on a deal with billionaire Chief Executive and founder Michael Dell, who owns about 14 percent of the company, according to one source with knowledge of the matter.
The Wall Street Journal cited unidentified sources as saying TPG and Silver Lake could team up on an offer, possibly in conjunction with other investors such as pension funds. JPMorgan Chase & Co was also involved in the negotiations, it added.
The first source told Reuters any potential deal could be structured as a management-led buyout with Michael Dell at the helm.
Talks had progressed for two to three months, heating up in late 2012, and a deal could be reached in six weeks, the Journal cited sources as saying.
Dell, which has steadily ceded market share to Hewlett Packard and China's Lenovo, declined to comment on what it called rumors and speculation.
The company has lost 40 percent of its value since last year's peak, and is trying to reinvent itself as a seller of higher-margin services to corporations - an internal overhaul that might be conducted away from public scrutiny.
Some analysts say taking the company private, an idea that has surfaced sporadically in past years, makes sense.
But others pointed to the sheer expense of such a deal, an outsized debt burden of some $4.5 billion and murky prospects as a major player in a PC market that's dwindling with the advent of tablets such as Apple Inc's iPad.
"The market value of Dell has come down so much that a buyout has become something that is plausible. They have about $5 billion in net cash and also free cash flow generation that could sustain payments on debt from a leveraged buyout," said S&P Capital IQ analyst Angelo Zino.
"However, we think it's unlikely, given the sheer size of Dell and where the stock is currently trading at."
A buyout of the $19 billion company would be one of the largest deals since the global recession.
Bloomberg first reported that Dell and private equity firms were discussing a deal.
Before news of the deal emerged, Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi speculated that Dell was worth $12 a share on a sum-of-parts basis, of which the PC business was worth about $4.70. In a report last week, the analyst said Dell could conceivably be split along its PC and enterprises segments, though such an approach would significantly reduce much-needed scale.
Shipments of computers by the company, now reinventing itself as a provider of computers and services to corporations and government agencies, plummeted 21 percent in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. In the third quarter, its profit slid 47 percent.
Overall sales of PCs over the holidays slid for the first time in more than five years, according to industry researcher IDC.
On Monday, another industry research firm, Gartner, estimated that Dell lost 2 percentage points of market share in the fourth quarter, slipping to 10.2 percent from 12.2 percent a year earlier.
Dell's fortunes have waxed and waned. Since Michael Dell founded the company in 1984 out of his college dorm room with $1,000, the company has grown into a global PC powerhouse that pioneered just-in-time inventory management and online sales of custom-built computers.
But when Dell handed the reins of his company to long-time lieutenant Kevin Rollins in 2004, sales and customer service began to slip. With the board's blessing, Michael Dell returned in January 2007 to turn his company around, only to run into the global recession and a shift by consumers toward powerful, mobile devices like tablets.
At a Sanford Bernstein investors' conference in 2010, Dell said he had considered taking the company private. He told investors at the time that a transformation of his company that he had hoped to effect upon his return was "incomplete."
Those comments triggered a round of speculation, but most analysts said buying out such a large company would be difficult because of the massive financing requirements.
Michael Dell now owns 244 million shares in the company, according to Thomson Reuters data, and last year was ranked the 22nd richest American with a fortune of $14.6 billion.
Michael Dell, back in the spotlight once more
Dell's stock soared to an intra-day high of $12.83 in afternoon trade - the highest since May 2012 - after a brief trading suspension. It closed at $12.29.
Its traded bonds also came under pressure over fears of a significant hike in leverage. Its 4.625 percent, 2021 bonds were trading 80 basis points wider at 210 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, while its 2.3 percent, 2015s were about 30 basis points wider at 88 basis points over Treasuries.
"It can be difficult to realize the full value of various corporate assets ... during transition periods, and executing on a long-term transformation as a private company could have advantages," argued ISI analyst Brian Marshall.
Additional reporting by John Balassi at IFR, Alistair Barr and Noel Randewich in San Francisco, and Jessica Toonkel and Kim Soyoung in New York, Writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Bernard Orr and Steve Orlofsky


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text:
Q: do.call a function in R without loading the package I want to do.call an (exported) function from a package and need to specify the package and function in the what argument as a character string (i.e., when the package is not loaded into my environment or there is a potential function name conflict).
The function name is a character string like "lme4::lmer" which specifies both the package and the function.
For example, to conditionally call a function (similar to this question):
FUN = if(TRUE) {
  "lme4::lmer"
} else {
  "nlme::nmle"
}

args.list = list(Reaction ~ Days + (Days | Subject),
                 quote(lme4::sleepstudy))

do.call(what=FUN, args=args.list)
# Error in `lme4::lmer`(Reaction ~ Days + (Days | Subject), lme4::sleepstudy) :
#   could not find function "lme4::lmer"

Other ways work but are not what I need:
# Load the package and use only the function string
library(lme4)
do.call("lmer", ...)

# Or calling the function directly:
lme4::lmer(...)

A: do.call(eval(parse(text="lme4::lmer")), ...)

eval with parse will work!
> tmp <- expand.grid(letters[1:2], 1:3, c("+", "-"))
> do.call(eval(parse(text='stringr::str_c')), c(tmp, sep = ""))

 [1] "a1+" "b1+" "a2+" "b2+" "a3+" "b3+" "a1-" "b1-" "a2-" "b2-" "a3-" "b3-"

Reference: https://www.r-bloggers.com/converting-a-string-to-a-variable-name-on-the-fly-and-vice-versa-in-r/

A: You can't include :: in the string because :: is a function. That string isn't evaluated and parsed. do.call just assumes a function by that name exists. Just like ::, $ is also a function so this doesn't work either
a <- list(f = function(x) x+1)
do.call(a$f, list(4))
# [1] 5
do.call("a$f", list(4))
# Error in do.call("a$f", list(4)) : could not find function "a$f"

If you want to be able to find functions from namespaces, you can write a helper function that parses values when they contain ::
getfun <- function(x) {
    if(length(grep("::", x)) > 0) {
        parts <- strsplit(x, "::")[[1]]
        getExportedValue(parts[1], parts[2])
    } else {
        x
    }
}
getfun("lme4::lmer")

And this should work
do.call(getfun("lme4::lmer"), list(
    Reaction ~ Days + (Days | Subject),
    quote(lme4::sleepstudy)))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Amongst Our Weapons
Amongst Our Weapons, Audio Edition (2022) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Rivers of London)
This is the most recent Rivers of London / Peter Grant book, and now I'm all caught up and have to find something else to listen to.
I sped through this when I read it in the spring, so I there were plenty of things I picked up this time around, since I was listening.
Peter has been training officers to assist Nightingale and the Folly, since Peter is going to be out on paternity leave any minute now.
There is of course Guleed.
(B)efore the PC on the passenger side got a chance to ask Guleed why she was loitering while wearing a hijab in a built-up area, the driver leaned forward to get a look at us and recognized me.
"Is that you, Peter?" she said. "You on a job?"
Her name was, I kid you not, Tiffany Walvoord, and she had been part of the emergency response team that helped extricate me from that unfortunate business in Kew. "Don't worry, Tiff," I said. "Just a notification and statement."
"Promise?" said Tiffany.
"That's it," I said. "If it gets interesting, do you want me to call you?"
"No," said Tiffany. "I want you to wait half an hour until I'm off shift."
Yet they still need other Falcon-capable officers.
Peter desperately wants to close this current case before he goes on maternity leave, but they aren't quite certain what to do about and angel of death.
"It's hardly likely to be an actual biblical angel," he said when I'd finished.
"In a world chock-full of murderous blaspheming bastards," he said, "why would an omnipotent and omniscient deity pick a couple of obscure Brits to do away with in such a public manner."
"Maybe they did something particularly bad?"
"Have you looked at the news recently?" said Postmartin.
In addition to all the Monty Python References (see the title for starters) it is as snarky as ever.
(A) dozen or more kids were playing amongst the ruins.
"God, I hope they've had their tetanus jabs," said Danni as we watched a pair of boys sled down a rubble heap on a piece of rusty corrugated iron.
"Don't be such a mitherer," said Brook. "If you don't bloody your knees when you're a kiddie, what kind of a childhood would that be?"
"One without septicemia?"
And of course there are Monty Python references.
"?' Arise, O God, judge thy own cause.' ?"
"Psalm 73," said Postmartin. "The motto of the Spanish Inquisition."
"Well, fuck me," said Seawoll. "I wasn't expecting them."
There are still comics coming out, but I don't know if there will be more books. I hope so, but I don't want him to write them because he has to, but because he wants to.
Publisher: DAW
Categories: 8.5/10, Audio Book, British, Fantasy, Good Cover, Mystery, Police, Reread, Supernatural
Tags: Ben Aaronovitch, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Peter Grant, Rivers of London
Browse the archives:
4:50 from Paddington » »
« « Miss Vee and the Lecherous Lawyer
XHTML:   <acronym title="">
      <q cite=""> <s>
There Will Be Phlogiston
Legends & Lattes
Masters in This Hall
Lessons for Survivors
The Secret Adversary
KD Edwards on The Last Sun
Michelle on Diamond Fire
Michelle on The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant
So if you click through on one of the book links I might get a half penny or so and eventually be able to buy a new book to read!
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Some of my favorite books.
Books I recommend for kids & teens.
Monomania
Random (but not really)
session_write_close()


text:
Chamber Business Awards 2017: Best of British Business
The very best of British business was celebrated at the British Chamber of Commerce's annual Chamber Business Awards ceremony last night.
The Chamber Business Awards, which is now in its 14th year, is one of the showpiece events in the business calendar, highlighting the role of business in delivering growth and prosperity for the UK and local communities.
Businesses from across the country came together at the gala dinner, hosted by TV presenter Kate Thornton, to mark the outstanding achievements of both UK firms and Chambers of Commerce.
The award winners in full:
Best Use of Technology – AnyJunk, a London based bulk waste collector for business and homes, is using technology to change the productivity and efficiency of the waste disposal industry
Export Business of the Year – Linwoods, a bakers and health food business based in Armagh, has made excellent use of consumer and market research and sells its products to retailers in over 30 countries
High Growth Business of the Year – ICON Aerospace Technology Ltd, a world leader in highly engineered polymer-based products for aerospace and defence applications, has increased turnover by 30% and created 150 jobs in less than two years
Excellence in Customer Service – Stockport Homes, delivers affordable housing and accommodation solutions, and has driven customer satisfaction through the implementation of a Continuous Improvement Framework
Small Business of the Year – DNA Worldwide, providers of DNA, drug and alcohol testing, has used state of the art technology to develop a range of new services, and has ambitious plans to expand
Commitment to People Development – Manchester & Cheshire Construction Co. Ltd, has shown impressive commitment to the training and development of staff, participating in 252 training days last year
Business and Education Partnership – Ahead Partnership, based in Leeds, has worked to address the soft skills gap, and brings together teachers and employers to create bespoke programmes of learning
Best Use of Social Media – JC Social Media Limited, began trading from a spare bedroom in Birmingham in 2011, and use social media to help clients connect with new customers, gaining 28.9m impressions for over a four-month period for a client's event
Health and Wellbeing – Flynn, a building and maintenance business based in Northern Ireland, developed a 'Boost' initiative to improve moral, mental wellbeing and communication
Chamber of the Year – Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, has grown by 11% in the last three years and worked closely with other chambers in the region to share best practice
Excellence in International Trade – Northamptonshire Chamber (incorporating Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce) offers members a wide portfolio of services relating to trade, including International Trade Forums and regular workshops
Most Effective Campaigning – North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, has shown determination and a dedication to the local business community in its campaign for energy exploration in the county
Excellence in Membership Services – Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce has grown by 12% over the last two years, and an impressive 20% of Staffordshire's workforce are in membership
AnyJunk also won the award for Business of the Year, and as a prize will be invited to open the London Stock Exchange on March 1st 2018, the day the Chamber Business Awards 2018 are launched.
Commenting on this year's awards, Francis Martin, President of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
"These awards are the perfect opportunity to celebrate the best of British business. I never cease to be surprised by the innovation and ambition of UK companies, and the contribution firms of every size and sector make to their local communities. I look forward to seeing the finalists and winners of our award continue to blaze the trail and create jobs and opportunities for our nation."
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Chamber Business Awards took place on Thursday 30th November at the Brewery, London, and was supported by Bibby Financial Services, DHL, Legal and General, London Stock Exchange Group, Moneycorp. RADA in Business, Qdos Consulting and Westfield Health.
Chamber Network
BCC launches Chamber Business Awards at London Stock Exchange
The British Chambers today launches the Chamber Business Awards at the London Stock Exchange.
Events Chamber Network
Adam Marshall: transition from education to work 'a national imperative'
Director General, Adam Marshall, opens the BCC's Business and Education Summit by calling for action to improve the transition from the world of education to the workplace.
Events Labour market Chamber Network


"It is true that the biggest chunk of government's revenue is locked up in interest payments and emoluments but at the same time several policies initiated by the government and recent activities show that there will be enough liquidity in the system next year," he told the B&FT in an interview.
With the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the National Insurance Commission (NIC) increasing the minimum capital requirement of banks and insurance companies, not less than GH¢5billion will be injected into the economy, he said.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to increase the stated capital of investment banks and asset management firms from GH¢100,000 to over GH¢3million. Where will all these monies go? Back into the economy to stimulate growth," he noted.
He therefore projected that the economy could see more than GH¢10billion in investments across banking, insurance, oil and gas and the cocoa sectors and most of that cash will be circulated in the system.
"Let me admit that this year we have a bit of a challenge with the scarcity of cash in the system and that should be expected because any time there is an election, the subsequent year sees challenges and spending is limited to statutory obligations, including honouring our debt obligations and emoluments.
But moving forward into next year, I believe that the government has put in policies and measures to stimulate economic growth. The removal of some taxes and the introduction of some incentives should go a long way to support businesses," he said.
Kenneth Thompson of Dalex Finance has, however, argued that with 80percent of government revenue locked up in interest payments and emoluments, he was not sure the scarcity of cash would be cured in 2018.
Nii Kotei Dzani, however, argues that since economies are susceptible to speculation, comments like Ken Thompson's tend to worsen the situation.
"Do not forget that every economy reacts to speculations and so when you begin to speculate about scarcity of cash – do not forget that consumers are rational beings – what happens is that consumers become careful in spending and that has a negative effect on the economy.
In terms of liquidity, I believe a lot of good news is coming through and with the Central Bank determining how much cash or liquidity is in circulation, we are on the right trajectory," he added.


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