DØRUMSGAARDSEMINAR in Polytechnic Society - Autumn program available now!

Polytechnic Society/Culture and Media Group: This autumn we will remember and study Arne Dørumsgaard's works, e.g. how he interpreted poems from China, Japan and Korea.

Arne Dørumsgaard was a Norwegian multi-artist who lived in Marzio, Northern Italy. He was a singer, a composer, and collector. Thanks to his large collection of early recordings, we can now listen to all recordings made by Edward Grieg in Paris 1903. Eventually he gave his whole music collection to Stavanger city, thus contributing to the birth of Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound (courtesy for the photo, imported from REC's website).

Polytechnic Society Autumn 2008. We've just finished hectic preparation of the autumn program in Polytechnic Society of Norway, and a number of interesting meetings and seminars are offered. For example, in our group Culture and Media, we are coarranging five meetings, including two particular book-related meetings (cf. authors Galtung and Dørumsgaard), one theatre performance backstage talk (Riksteatrets new Zivil play), and one visit to the new house for Dance in Oslo.

Here I like to point to the planned day seminar at Litteraturhuset in Oslo to present and discuss the works of Arne Dørumsgaard - especially his book series on Eastern poems and societies. More info on this artist's works and life in links below.

Note the respective dates for arrangements of the Culture and Media group:
- 29 Sept 18.30 Meeting with Galtung and others
- 14 Oct 18.00-20.00 Vulkan, Dansens Hus
- 6 Nov 18.30 Zivil performance with backstage talk, Riksteatret (discount for PF members)
- 18 Nov 10.00-15.00 Dørumsgaard-seminar

Most welcome, see details and terms in our folder (soon to be distributed) or on Polytechnic society's website:
See more in pdf file on http://www.polyteknisk.no/

For info on Dørumsgaard, see e.g.,

- in Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jun/06/guardianobituaries

- info from REC: http://www.recordedsound.no/collections/arne_dorumsgaard.htm

- From A&B publishers, we learn about the 25 issues book series (in Norwegian):http://www.abforlag.no/

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: "The way we measure performance is often wrong."

Joseph E. Stiglitz, courtesy for photo and text excerpts to http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/bio.cfm

Joseph E. Stiglitz visited Oslo today and talked about the social responsibilities when making investments: "You can do well by doing good."
Investments in responsible manners for private companies as well as public institutions "can be good for returns" as well as for society, was the overall message. This "doing-well-by-doing-good" may happen "especially when social responsibility anticipates broader social movements, or when social responsibility contributes to better corporate governance."
Stiglitz did not say anything entirely new. Yet as Nobel prize laurate in Economics his voice can be heard. In Oslo he was heartily welcomed by Kristin Halvorsen, Norway's current minister of finance. At 10 o'clock a Monday morning the meeting room was full and a lot of journalists were also eager to make interviews afterwards e.g. TV2 was interviewing him after his presentation.

In Oslo this morning. Stiglitz started his speech in the Departmental building by outlining how "efforts of theft" in fact can supersede efforts of doing good. Innovation can thus become negative in its consequences. He further elaborated how firms tend to oppose a lot of legislations, thus influencing what is actually "legal." Firm's behaviour may also become geared toward "how to cheat the government" or even using the same procedures to cheat multiple stakeholders. This happens in private sector investments, more often than one believes, he explained, which has led to the scandals of Enron and so forth. Stiglitz opposed the narrow moral of self-interest going back in economics to Adam Smith he said (though Smith may have been somewhat misinterpreted, I've heard from other sources, such as UiO prof Kalle Moene.)
Anyway, what is interesting is that Stiglitz firmly claimed that "the way we measure performance is wrong." He called for a broader view beyond monetary measurements, such as including what he called "social returns." He added that "the social returns may be more difficult to quantify" or measure. But with "longer time horizons" and the idea of (investing also for) social returns, this opens up for the possibility of firms that might be doing well by doing good. Stiglitz explained that this seems to be a paradox, because according to standard economics, if you constrain investment, you have a smaller set. One would thus expect to do worse...instead one may rather do well, which is a puzzle according to standard economics, he reflected. Stiglitz also called for more attention towards spillover effects or what in economics are called externalities (external effects; can be positive and negative).
Birgit

PS Stiglitz also got some questions regarding Milton Friedman's contribution, and he responded by distinguishing between M. Friedman the politician and the economist, adding that "most of his ideas (political ones) have been rejected" and through an example (Chile and Pinochet) he showed how they had led to debt and failures.
For EXTRA info on Stiglitz: see e.g. his official website (linked above), a few facts: Stiglitz was born in Gary, Indiana in 1943. A graduate of Amherst College, he received his PHD from MIT in 1967. He is now University Professor at Columbia University in New York and Chair of Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought. He is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. And he was a lead author of the 1995 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Stiglitz was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993-95, during the Clinton administration, and served as CEA chairman from 1995-97. He then became Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank from 1997-2000. In 2008, he was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to chair a Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Economic Progress, and he serves on numerous boards, including Amherst College's Board of Trustees and Resources for the Future.

It is worth noting...
- that Stiglitz helped create a new branch of economics, "The Economics of Information," exploring the consequences of information asymmetries and pioneering such pivotal concepts as adverse selection and moral hazard, which have now become standard tools not only of theorists, but of policy analysts.
According to his website, he has also made major contributions to macro-economics and monetary theory, to development economics and trade theory, to public and corporate finance, to the theories of industrial organization and rural organization, and to the theories of welfare economics and of income and wealth distribution. In the 1980s, he helped revive interest in the economics of R&D.

Oscarsborg Opera with eminent Tosca 23.8.2008

Magnificent Tosca at the old Oscarsborg in Oslo fjord Saturday 23 August 2008 - the weather Gods were pleased too!
In full-light Scandinavian evening sunshine, Norwegian broadcast orchestra KORK (Kringkastingsorkesteret) played Puccini's Tosca conducted by Terje Boye Hansen. Director was the eminent Stein Winge who had contributed both colour and drama to what he saw as a crime story.
In the three main roles we experienced the soprano Victoria Nava as Flora Tosca and the tenor Tor Inge Falch as the painter Cavaradossi, both performed and sang excellently. And the barytone Espen Fegran gestalted a really excellent and gruesome Scarpa!
I found the Oscarborg very suitable and attractive for outdoor opera performances, we experienced it in its best weather conditions Yesterday. With simple stage arrangements the Oscarsborg yard was actually transformed to a very enjoyable and moving music art experience (only restrooms for women could be improved, though...)
We also had a pleasant boat trip with Rigmor from Sandvika to Oscarsborg in full sunshine and in in the star-lighten night we sailed home from Oscarsborg.
Let me add: This fairly new annual summer opera event in convenient distance from Oslo should get public funding with its excellent casts and staging, it has shown that it deserves it!
Birgit

How was West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra co-created?

Curious about the originating of the West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra that we just heard in Oslo (20.8.2008, see blog entry 21 Aug), I visited the co-founder and conductor's own website, and want to share this story with you (courtesy to www.barenboim.com, accessed 24.8.2008, my excerpts and headlines):
-- A Chance Meeting:
"In the early 1990s, a chance meeting between Mr. Barenboim and the late Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University professor Edward Said in a London hotel lobby led to an intensive friendship that has had both political and musical repercussions. These two men, who should have been poles apart politically, discovered in that first meeting, which lasted for hours, that they had similar visions of Israeli/Palestinian possible future cooperation. They decided to continue their dialogue and to collaborate on musical events to further their shared vision of peaceful co-existence in the Middle East. This led to Mr. Barenboim's first concert on the West Bank, a piano recital at the Palestinian Birzeit University in February 1999, and to a workshop for young musicians from the Middle East that took place in Weimar, Germany, in August 1999."

-- Furthermore, we learn:
"The West-Eastern Divan Workshop took two years to organize and involved talented young musicians between the ages of 14 and 25 from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel. The idea was that they would come together to make music on neutral ground with the guidance of some of the world's best musicians. Weimar was chosen as the site for the workshop because of its rich cultural tradition of writers, poets, musicians and creative artists and because it was the 1999 European cultural capital. Mr. Barenboim wisely chose two concertmasters for the orchestra, an Israeli and a Lebanese. There were some tense moments among the young players at first but, coached by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Staatskapelle Berlin, and following master classes with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and nightly cultural discussions with Mr. Said and Mr. Barenboim, the young musicians worked and played in increasing harmony.
The West-Eastern Divan Workshop was held again in Weimar in the summer of 2000 and in Chicago in the summer of 2001. It has since found a permanent home in Seville, Spain, where it has been based since 2002."
-- On performances:
"Each summer, following their workshop, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra gives public concerts; to date they have performed in Europe and North and South America, including at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh, Lucerne and Salzburg festivals. In 2004, they performed a historic concert in Ramallah, the Orchestra's first concert in an Arab country. In December 2006, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went to the U.S.A., performing at Carnegie Hall and ending the tour with a farewell concert at the United Nations for outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2007, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was invited to be in residence at the Salzburg Festival."
....and we may add, in 2008 they have among several places performed with great success in Scandinavia including Oslo.
Birgit, 24.8.2008
PS Interestingly, also the excellently improvising cellist Yo Yo Ma has immersed himself in crosscultural efforts, see the SILK ROAD PROJECT: www.silkroadproject.org
And Daniel Barenboim has accepted several citizenships including Palestinian, see his website (link in the headline of this blog entry). For more background on Barenboim from other sources, see e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Barenboim

40 years since invation in "Czecho"

The night between 20 and 21 August, Czechoslovakia (Československo) was invaded by other Warzawa pact countries. As outlined on UK Wikipedia: "In 1968, in response to a brief period of liberalization, five Eastern Bloc countries invaded Czechoslovakia."

My thoughts go to my sister-in-law dear Liba (Libuce) who was among the arrested that very August... for opposing this invation as a student leader and civilian.

The Maciavelli student society of University in Oslo,
with prof Bernt Hagtvedt and others, arranged a lunch meeting Yesterday, and ingress in Norwegian is:

"Natten til 21. august ble Tsjekkoslovakia invadert av Sovjetunionen med store styrker fra fem Warszawapaktland (16 sovjetiske, tre polske, to østtyske, to ungarske og en bulgarsk divisjon), uten at tsjekkoslovakene hadde mulighet til å sette seg til motverge. Invasjonen ble mottatt med forferdelse og fordømmelse i den vestlige verden.

Midt opp i det hele befant to journalister fra Dagbladet, Gudleiv Forr (bildet) og Arne Finborud. Sammen med den tsjekkiske forfatteren Michael Konupek kommer de til "Lunsj med Bernt", onsdag 20.august, klokken 12.15."

See more on http://foreninger.uio.no/dms/program/frokost-med-bernt/2008-2/2008-08-20-tsjekkoslovakia.html

"An independent music republic": West Eastern Divan Orchestra

Noa Chorin, Cellist for the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, photographed on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Antonio Olmos Courtesy also The Guardian, 13.6.2008.

The West Eastern Divan Orchestra performed in Oslo Yesterday 20 August 2008.
- We can play because we are a mixed group of people... We enhance each other! Said Daniel Barenboim, the conductor, to the audience after receiving recurrent applauding in the Oslo new opera (a white marble space with wooden interiors, designed by Snøhetta - a good place for such music and human events).
Co-founders of this orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (born in Buenos Aires 1942, Russian-Jewish parents) and Edward Said (Palestine-American author) took the name from a series of late poems by Goethe during his study of Arabic and Persian verse, Divan meaning 'the other', according to reporter Ed Vulliamy (see link below).
The orchestra when in Oslo played German music - from W. A. Mozart's concerts (Concert for three grand pianos, The "Lodron") and even R. Wagner (1 part of Valkürien), the latter with three excellent singers, Waltraud Meier, Simon O’Neill and John Tomlinson. - Though in the beginning I missed Rene Pape... who was originally scheduled (he was expected to rehearse also for Carlos: Pape is singing in this autumn's big opera event in Oslo, Verdi's Don Carlos, in late September (and he is also coming in early October). Yet, the singers who did perform Yesterday "sang each other up" as we say in Norwegian. It became very moving.
Nonetheless, even more interesting for me Yesterday was to listen to the vital interplays of the young musicians in this highly special orchestra encompassing musicians from Palestine and Israel to Egypt and other nations in the Middle East. "Each of these musicians are courages persons just to come here", explained the conductor vividly to us (the audience).

"They meet in Sevilla each summer" to rehearse, which fits this realworld story: Daniel Barenboim explicitly pointed to the old (but later destroyed) civic tradition in Andalucia - of allowing Jews, Arabs and other people to live and work in the same place(s) in Southern Spain (for more elaboration, see "Abraham's children", an essay by prof Trond Berg Eriksen, UiO, in Morgenbladet, 2007).

I guess it is also attractive for the young very good musicians to meet and work with Daniel Barenboim as well as other excellent music artists. Barenboim was recommended by the conductor legend Wilhelm Furtwängler already as an 11-year-old. Now Barenboim is recreating magic with the new generations of musicians from the Middle East and audiences worldwide.
Thanks for coming to Oslo!
Birgit

Ps let me add some extras,
- LINKS in English:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jul/13/classicalmusicandopera.israelandthepalestinians
and www.danielbarenboim.com.
- LINKS in Norwegian:
1. "an independent, musical republic..." (Courtesy to Press news of the Norwegian opera and ballet):
"- For meg er dette en suveren, uavhengig republikk. I vårt orkester spiller israelere, palestinere, andre arabere og kristne i full likeverdighet. Musikken er vår store sjanse. Ordene tilhører den argentinsk-israelske dirigenten Daniel Barenboim som i morgen leder sitt West-Eastern Divan Orchestra på Hovedscenen i Operaen. Orkesteret ble grunnlagt av Barenboim og den palestinske forfatteren, aktivisten og professoren Edward Saïd etter at de to møttes tilfeldig i London i begynnelsen av 1990-tallet. Med bakgrunn i hver sin side av den palestinsk-israelske konflikten, fant de fram til en felles visjon for kunstnerisk samarbeid på tvers av politiske og religiøse skillelinjer.
Siden 1999 har det anerkjente orkesteret fungert som en musikalsk og politisk brobygger, de har flere cd-innspillinger bak seg og har spilt i konserthus over hele verden. Etter at Edward Saïd døde i 2003, drives orkesteret videre av hans enke Mariam Saïd foruten Barenboim."

2. For a field research reportage, see this article (courtesy to Morgenbladet, Oslo):
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8280192458170847866&postID=39684069094936102

3. For more on Intercultural dialogue, see a seminar 13 Sept 2007 in Oslo by UNESCO and Polytechnic Society: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8280192458170847866&postID=39684069094936102

Languages, School Books+Net, daring new combinations

Again there is a problem of managing to get books ready for school start up. Why can't texts be published on the internet in combination with books on paper? I know it can be done, cf. Zoom, a new project I just read about in a newspaper: http://www.aftenposten.no/kul_und/article2594648.ece

In Norway we have 2-3 languages but two are the official ones every pupil has to learn. It takes time to translate a whole book in "bookish" Norwegian into socalled New Norwegian. (New norwegian is actually the most original one constructed from various dialects and would enrich the books I guess).

Why can't we have a mix of language texts in the same book, that is, some written in the one and some written in the other of the two different Norwegian languages - and why not also pockets of Swedish and Danish texts as well to get familiar with other closely related Scandinavian languages in the same book? The newspaper Bergens Tidende does have a practice of mixing the same issue with articles in either of the two Norwegian languages, they have had it for years without any protest as far as I know. Since this newspaper is a regional one on the Western coast, the Oslo people have perhaps not noticed this good mixture?

Ellypropelly's world

Artist and dear friend Elly Prestegård is currently exhibiting in Oslo, Norske Grafikere, Tollbugt. 24. Opening was 9 August and I was there with other friends as well.

Congratulations Elly!

See more on Elly's world here: 

ttp://www.ellyp.com/

Zhang Yimou

Congratulations to Zhang Yimou, the cultural teams and thousands of contributors!

I enjoyed the magic opening ceremony 8.8.2008 from OL Beijing directed by Zhang Yimou.

He happens to be one of my favourite moviemakers for some years as well - since I saw Red Sorghum. - Earlier this year I also saw several other movies directed by him, e.g. more realistic ones such as The story of Qui Ju. Luckily I came over a dvd collection when in South China in November 2007, a great find!

Now back to OL 2008 in Beijng. The Olympic opening was spectacular, epic, and also had interesting ingredients that perhaps sharp observers noticed.

When can I see this opening again on NRK?

and when can I get the movie mentioned on DVD, I wonder?

Lorca

                                                F. G. Lorca (Photo: Courtesy to Wikipeda)

Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was born 1898, and tonight - already 19 August in Norway - it is terrible to think about how he was brutally shot by National militsia in Granada 19 August 1936 (i.e. after Civil war broke out in Spain).  

Better to dwell on Lorca's creations that have inspired many - including Leonard Cohen. 

I have not read much of Lorca but I really enjoyed listening to a 1957 NRK theatre edition of Dona Rosita the spinster, or in Norwegian Frøken Rosita, a play that was broadcasted again this summer. I liked especially well the role play part when the women are comforting each other by playing the various flowers actually speaking to each other... 

Thanks NRK!

For more on this play, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do%C3%B1a_Rosita_la_soltera