White Slavery & The Dark Continent: Lady Florence Baker, 1841-1916

White Slavery & The Dark Continent: Lady Florence Baker, 1841-1916

A European orphaned at four years old, abducted into an Ottoman harem, and raised to become a concubine, Barbara Maria Szasz stood at a white slave auction in 1859, ordered to turn so that men could look at the turn of her buttocks, the shape of her breasts, the dimple of her cheek, the depth of her eyes. Renamed Florenz, at fourteen she was a fetching prize for the highest bidder, the Pasha of Viddin. She would lead a comfortable life as a toy for his nightly visits until her breasts began to sag and her cheeks wrinkled. After that she would train other maidens to become good concubines, living and dying within the walls of the harem.

That might have happened had Sam Baker, a wealthy English adventurer, not been at the auction. Broken-nosed, bushy-bearded, he had accompanied Duleep Singh. Singh was the maharajah who so desperately wanted Queen Victoria to make him a prince that he gave up the entire Punjab region and and the marvelous Kohinoor diamond for the title. Baker, his minder, had been on a Danube hunting trip with him.

Baker caught her eye, and couldn't turn away. He wanted her, and badly. She was very beautiful and she appeared very angry. He was attracted to her but was also moved by compassion and empathy for her plight. Unwilling or unable to outbid the Pasha, he undertook a very dangerous adventure. He stole her from the auction and smuggled her out of Ottoman territory and into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their chemistry was immediate and they became intimate during the journey, deepening over the years into lasting love. More

Mexico Fought In WWII: 201st Fighter Squadron

Mexico Fought In WWII.

When German U Boats attacked and sank two Mexican ships, Mexico joined the Allies against the Axis in 1942

But, because of inadequate equipment and material, not until 1944 did President Camacho decide to send a Mexican military unit into battle. Under Col. P.A. Antonio Cardenas Rodriguez (1905-1969) the 201st Fighter Squadron was formed.

Squadron 201 was an elite, all-volunteer unit composed of the best military pilots and ground personnel in Mexico, recruited from all branches of the service.

Known as "The Aztec Eagles," the squadron flew P 47 Thunderbolts, powerful and fast, affectionately known by pilots as jugheads, and was assigned to the Pacific Theater. They flew 59 combat missions.

Here are links for information.

Military.com

US Latinos & Latinas in WWII

Misiones: los miembros de la Fuerza Aerea Expedicionaria Mexicana

Home_____Chevy Si, Cuba No

Take 12 Cubans. Give them one 1951 Chevrolet pickup truck. Let them mount it on 55 gallon oil drums and attach a boat propeller to its drive shaft.

Call up the US Coast Guard, which intercepts them 40 miles (65 km) from Florida, over half the distance from Cuba.

Then repatriate them back into Fidel's arms, nine men, two women, and one child.

The pickup was spotted by a US plane and intercepted by the Coast Guard. It had been traveling at eight miles per hour (13 km/hr).

They were sent back under United States law, which requires that passengers must be returned home if on vessels stopped at sea. (This was a vessel? I suppose.)

They were quite resourceful, these Cubans, having driven the truck to the beach, and making it "sea-ready" in six hours. They chose a forecast of calm seas and clear skies.

Perez Gras told the Associated Press that if they had gotten to Key West, they could have driven it onto the sand. (Perhaps, even to Miami, after refueling, of course.)

The Coast Guard stopped it after they had been at sea 31 hours. One Official said that the sailors couldn't believe their eyes.

He explained that the drive shaft had been dropped from the rear axle so that it could reach into the water to turn the propellor.

Several of the men sat atop the green truck and others were apparently under the bright yellow canopy that covered the back of the vehicle.

One of the Cubans expressed disappointment, saying, "We thought that they would let us in because it was so outrageous."

It had suprised the Coast Guardsmen, but not enough. The migrants were sent back to Cuba and the Chevie was sent to the bottom.

The US Coast Guard deemed it "a hazard to navigation."

(Derived from BBC News, 24 July 2003)

Home_____Gunslingers, Eastern Europe Style

In the classic Western, Shane, Alan Ladd rides off into the sunset,wounded, after clearing a valley of its evil men. Little Joey, Brandon de Wilde, runs after him, shouting, "Shane! Come back Shane!" But the honorable gunman has already told the boy a man is what he is and you can't break the mold. He did what any brave man had to do, save good settlers from Ryker, the rancher-baron who would drive them off their land.

In A Polish dictionary Shane yields this definition: a psychologically credible personification of goodness.

In parts of communist-ruled Poland the posters billed the movie as The Man From Nowhere, escaping the censors because nowhere was code for a country overrun by aggressors for hundreds of years; it meant a nation become lost in history.

In High Noon, as Sheriff Will Kane, Gary Cooper can't get any townsmen to stand with him on main street against the guys in black hats. He nervously checks his ammunition, looks at the clock, sees it nears high noon and his rendezvous with fate. In this 1952 classic the stakes are clear, good against evil, honor against dishonor, community against villainy.

In Poland, out of nowhere, a lone electrician rode into town one day, name of Lech Walesa. He wore a white hat and turned his smoking oratory against the bad guys. Unlike Shane, or Sherrif Will Kane, he was a member of a community rather than a lone gun slinger. Solidarity became a mass movement.

The image of Gary Cooper became a metaphor for the many, not the one. He strides courageously forward, ballot in hand, supported by the banner of Solidarity, headed for a showdown with the old regime at high noon.

It was all classic black and white, them against us, good versus evil, the underdog fighting the overdog. After Solidarity, things were never again that clear. Lech Walesa assumed shades of gray and stands in dirtier hues, founding new injustices to replace those he came to remove.

The Western itself has faded into the sunset, and is regarded as a bit corny, too unsophisticated, rather simplistic. It can't sustain itself against a post-modern world of moral compromises, deep ambiguities, and existential uncertainties.

At one time in Poland, Western movie posters were coded emblems of subversive dissent. After 1989, newer and brighter Hollywood tales have made their way into the East, these without the mythic implications of American beliefs and values in their hey day. They reflect a new American myth, of people out for a good time, a good kill, a good snort, a good f**k, but not an America that holds anything truly dear.

Today in Poland and the East, people like Lech Walesa would perhaps have a harder time finding suitable Hollywood counterparts in American movie posters because the posters would reveal both them and Hollywood as morally uncertain as they truly are.

Here Lies The Heart: Mercedes de Acosta and Ramana Maharshi

Descended from the legendary Dukes of Alba, daughter in a wealthy Cuban family, Mercedes de Acosta was born in 1893 in New York, raised near Fifth Avenue, and had a beautiful sister Rita de Acosta who was a model for artists John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini. Married to painter Abram Poole, Mercedes was socialite, poet, playwright, Hollywood set and costume designer as well as script writer. She knew many of the greats of her day: Bessie Marbury, Rodin, Edith Wharton, Stravinsky, Sarah Bernhardt, Elenora Duse, Picasso, Cecil Beaton, Elsa Maxwell, and Krishnamurti. Near the end of her life, she met and befriended Andy Warhol, and introduced him to many of the people who would count in his career.

Consuelo (Hatmaker) Sides, whose husband had been the World War I French flying ace Charles Nungesser, accompanied Mercedes on her passage to India. After arriving, de Acosta met former President Woodrow Wilson's daughter, Margaret, a devotee at Sri Aurobindo's ashram.

In 1960, she published an autobiography, Here Lies The Heart, dedicated to Maharshi, in which she wrote, To Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, the only completely egoless, world-detached, and pure being I have ever known. She spent three days with him and remembered them as the most significant of her life.

At a dinner party she became interested in Maharshi after she met Paul Brunton, an Englishman who had spent time with the sage, and had published A Search in Secret India, chronicling his transformative experiences at Arunachala.

She later read Brunton's book and of it, she wrote that it "had a profound effect on me. . . . It was as though some emanation of this saint was projected out of the book to me. . . . Nothing could distract me from the idea that I must go and meet this saint. . . . . I felt I would meet the Maharshi and that this meeting would be the greatest experience of my life."

As the car neared Maharshi's home she says,"the driver explained he could take me no farther. I turned toward the hill of Arunachala and hurried in the hot sun along the dust-covered road to the abode about two miles from town where the Sage dwelt. As I ran those two miles, deeply within myself I knew that I was running toward the greatest experience of my life."

"When, dazed and filled with emotion, I first entered the hall, I did not quite know what to do. Coming from strong sunlight into the somewhat darkened hall, it was, at first, difficult to see; nevertheless, I perceived Bhagavan at once, sitting in the Buddha posture on his couch in the corner. At the same moment I felt overcome by some strong power in the hall, as if an invisible wind was pushing violently against me. For a moment I felt dizzy."

"Then I recovered myself. To my great surprise I suddenly heard an American voice calling out to me, 'Hello, come in.' It was the voice of an American named Guy Hague*, who originally came from Long Beach, California. . . . " [*Some say Guy Hague is Somerset Maugham's Larry Darrell in The Razor's Edge. The Wanderling says his mentor was Maugham's inspiration.]

After I had been sitting several hours in the hall listening to the mantras of the Indians and the incessant droning of flies, and lost in a sort of inner world, Guy Hague suggested that I go and sit near the Maharshi. . . . I moved near Bhagavan, sitting at his feet and facing him. . . ."

"He moved his head and looked directly down at me, his eyes looking into mine. It would be impossible to describe this moment and I am not going to attempt it. I can only say that at this second I felt my inner being raised to a new level-as if, suddenly, my state of consciousness was lifted to a much higher degree. . . ."

"[I asked Maharshi,] tell me, whom shall I follow--what shall I follow? I have been trying to find this out for years by seeking in religions, in philosophies, in teachings."

"Again there was silence. After a few minutes, which seemed to me a long time, he spoke. 'You are not telling the truth. You are just using words--just talking. You know perfectly well whom to follow. Why do you need me to confirm it?' "

"You mean I should follow my inner self?" I asked.

"I don't know anything about your inner self. You should follow the Self. There is nothing or no one else to follow."

I asked again, "What about religions, teachers, gurus?"

"If they can help in the quest of the Self. But can they help? Can religion, which teaches you to look outside yourself, which promises a heaven and a reward outside yourself, can this help you? It is only by diving deep into the spiritual Heart that one can find the Self."

"He placed his right hand on his right breast and continued,

Here lies the Heart, the dynamic, spiritual Heart. It is called Hridaya and is located on the right side of the chest and is clearly visible to the inner eye of an adept on the spiritual path. Through meditation you can learn to find the Self in the cave of this Heart. . . ."

"Bhagavan pointed out to me that the real Self is timeless. 'But,' he said, 'in spite of ignorance, no man takes seriously the fact of death. He may see death around him, but he still does not believe that he will die. . . .' "

"To write of this experience with Bhagavan, to recapture and record all that he said, or all that his silences implied, is like trying to put the infinite into an egg cup. . . . On me he had, and still has, a profound influence. . . .I definitely saw life differently after I had been in his presence, a presence that just by merely 'being' was sufficient spiritual nourishment for a lifetime. . . ."

"I sat in the hall with Bhagavan three days and three nights. . . . I wanted to stay on there with him but finally he told me that I should go back to America. He said, 'There will be what will be called a "war," but which, in reality, will be a great world revolution. Every country and every person will be touched by it.' You must return to America. Your destiny is not in India at this time.' . . . ."

"Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi died on April 14,1950. He had said, 'I am going away? Where could I go? I am here.' By the word 'here' he did not imply any limitation. He meant rather, that the Self 'is.' There is no going, or coming, or changing in that which is changeless and Universal. . . . millions in India mourned the Maharshi. A long article about his death in the New York Times ended with, 'Here in India, where thousands of so-called holy men claim close tune with the infinite, it is said that the most remarkable thing about Ramana Maharshi was that he never claimed anything remarkable for himself, yet became one of the most loved and respected of all'."

Her meeting with Maharshi was perhaps most remarkable in view of her life that preceded it. Alice B. Toklas once said of her, "you can't dispose of Mercedes lightly, she had the two most important women in US., Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich." Other lovers of Mercedes included the great actresses Alla Nazimova and Eva Le Gallienne and the legendary innovator of dance, Isadora Duncan. "I can get any woman away from any man," she liked to tell her friends. But what de Acosta eventually wanted more than anything was the 1938 interview with Ramana Maharshi. A woman of great appetites, she sought somebody who taught the quenching of appetites.

Mercedes de Acosta moved to a 68th Avenue apartment and died in relative poverty in 1968. In her autobiography she had revealed too many secrets about her friends, who then cut her out of their circles.

Her book, Here Lies The Heart

Home_____Sex Crimes In The Distant Past

In Sex Crimes: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, William Naphy reveals that kinkiness has a long history. In 16th century Geneva, despite the effort of John Calvin to settle a repressive pall over the city, people looked for prurient pleasure wherever they could find it. Drawing on official court reports, Naphy shows the reader that sex crimes took a rather bizarre turn even then.

About 10,000 in population, Geneva had its morality presided over by about a dozen elders and the same number in ministers, always looking for behavior "tending towards fornication." This included somebody singing a bit too bawdily, even if only to themselves. A Genevan could be charged with a sex crime if dancing at a wedding. If an individual smiled too boldly at a stranger, he or she could be brought before the tribunal. Citizens were encouraged to spy on one another and report anything that even seemed like odd behavior. This must have been the hey day of busy bodies and voyeurs. Those who held grudges or were downright malicious also had wonderful opportunities. Court records show many situations in which spite, greed, and unrequited love were the causes of innocent people being charged with sex crimes.

Unmarried pregnant girls often wound up in court. They could not claim they were raped because they had to have an orgasm in order to conceive--so went the thinking. Thus, even if forced, a pregnant girl must have enjoyed it. If she named a long-time lover as the father, both risked probable imprisonment.

Adultery was also taken seriously as it threatened the marriage with a false heir to property. In Calvinist Geneva, money and business matters were taken seriously indeed, so much so that both the woman and her partner were likely to be executed. Given their choice, the condemned usually chose drowning. If a male servant committed adultery with his mistress, he frequently was executed because he had robbed his master of a valuable asset. The effect of economics went far to lessen a crime if the male adulterer was equal in social and economic stature to the cuckolded husband. He would be flogged and banished. (Eventually authorities realized that some people found flogging as sexually exciting, and they stopped it as punishment.)

Homosexuals were officially nonexistent. Acts of sodomy occurred, and were punishable by death. Even though homosexuality was not recognized, defense would take the form of one person pointing out that he had a wife and four children. The prosecution would argue that the offender had habitually committed offenses with other men.

In 1551 Jean Fontanna and Francois Puthod were arraigned before court for "wrestling in the nude." Fontanna explained that their relationship began when he noticed Puthod "had an enormous member." Much younger, Puthod tearfully pleaded that he hadn't realized he did anything wrong. He was banished from the city. Fontanna, with a wife and child, had a long history of nude wrestling and was chained to a large stone for a year and a day.

Despite the stern godliness of John Calvin, 16th century Geneva was no bastion of high morality. Overcrowded quarters meant that children regularly witnessed parents engaged in sex. Single men shared beds. Peasants lived intimately with animals. In 1660 a cowherd told the court he wasn't having sex, but had merely urinated over the cow's behind to rid it of parasites. He was acquitted.

In 17th and 18th century Britain, homosexuality had effeminacy as its characteristic. Fops paraded it and even heterosexuals adopted the pose as entree to certain artistic or thespian cliques. Effeminacy became camp. In the early 18th century Margaret "Mother" Clap became proprietress of a molly house, and she left her name as a lasting sign of those venereal times. In Samuel Stevens' testimony at her trial he stated he saw, "40 and 50 Men making Love to one another, as they call'd it. Sometimes they would sit in one anothers Laps, kissing in a leud Manner, and using their Hand[s] indecently. Then they would get up, Dance and make Curtsies, and mimick the Voices of Women."

Homosexuality had moved into the open, and unlike Geneva, had to be officially recognized. Sodomites were put in stocks and blinded with cow dung.

In our relatively more enlightened times, the public and the authorities still struggle with how to define and legislate such matters.

Sex Crimes by William Naphy at Amazon.co.uk

Home_____It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's Angle Grinder Man

As Andy Warhol Said, Everybody Gets His Fifteen Minutes of Fame. Now It's Angle Grinder Man's Turn.

Some people call him a Clark Kent lookalike. You can tell the difference, however. He has an AGM logo on his chest, not an S. He also helps damsels in distress. He certainly has a sense of humor.

In a 7 October 2003 New York Times article, the masked man gave an interview. Calling himself Angle-Grinder Man, he comes to the rescue of those whose car wheels have been booted by police for illegal parking. The New York Times reporter described him as dressed in cape and gold lamé underpants.

He has become a folk hero of sorts among frustrated South London motorists. He takes his name from an Angle Grinder, a power saw that cuts through wheel boots, Whenever he turns on his loud saw, people know he's around, but he always insures the police are absent. No matter--in less than a minute he can liberate a wheel from the clutches of authority and earn the undying gratitude of drivers who escape their fines.

Just like Superman and The Lone Ranger, he accepts no money for his deeds, as he is merely on the side of the little guy. He hides his identity behind his mask, and the public doesn't know, much as nobody suspected the mild mannered reporter Clark Kent. Like the Lone Ranger, he strides off into the sunset and townsmen turn to one another and ask, Who was that masked man?

A damsel in distress, Petite Tendai, found a boot on her illegally parked car. ("No signs saying `no parking,' " she declared.) She felt the weight of injustice and authority almost bringing her to tears when suddenly Angle-Grinder Man appeared.

Since then, he has become Ms Tendai's hero.

Ms Tendai said of him, "Basically, he jumped out of his car in his outfit and said, `If anyone can, Angle-Grinder Man can,' " She added, "Then he just started sawing it off. It was wicked."

He was brought to his noble duty by a boot clamped onto his own car wheel, and insult was added to injury by a £95 fine (a little over $150) to remove it. He did what any Robin Hood would do, renting a circular saw for about £30. Unemployed, he saved himself a hunk of change.

An extremely sensitive nature

He taped a photograph of the sawed-up clamp to his windshield, along with a note saying, "Please don't clamp me because I've got an extremely sensitive nature."

From that day forward, Angle-Grinder Man had found his calling. "There was so much injustice out there," he said.

A champion of the downtrodden must look the part. He worked hard on his appearance, but finally settled on blue and gold. He bought a fabric roll of gold lamé at a flea market after holding the material around himself to ask the salesgirl how he might look in it.

He spray-painted a pair of cowboy boots gold. The underpants are a pair of bikini briefs covered with the flea-market lamé. The gloves came from a piercing-and-fetish shop. Angle-Grinder Man designed the logo himself, including the letters AGM glued on his costume. "I wanted to have a balance between the political side and the comedy side," he explained.

"I'm a heterosexual superhero," Angle-Grinder Man told the reporter, "although I have no problem being a gay icon."

As he left the interview his gold cape glittered in the afternoon light. Unknowingly he had smitten the heart of another damsel who had been watching him. A sales clerk said she was a great fan of his.

"I think he's extraordinarily attractive," she said. "Especially the golden knickers."