Une insulte de mon cru

Vous connaissez sans doute la récente controverse entourant le Ministre de l'Éducation Yves Bolduc, qui a pris des patients alors qu'il était député de l'opposition, ce qui a mis en colère Claude Castonguay, le père de l'Assurance-Santé, assez pour qu'il réclame la démission de Bolduc. Moi, ce qui m'a frappé, c'est l'attitude et les propos (surtout les propos) de gros matamore teigneux du Ministre de la Santé et docteur Gaétan Barrette, attitude de gros matamore teigneux qui est toujours la sienne face à quiconque qui ne s'aplatit pas comme une carpe devant lui. Oui, j'y vais avec les métaphores et les allusions peu subtiles sur son poids. Mais c'est ce qu'il est, en dépit de tous les titres qu'on peut lui donner pour flatter sa vanité. Alors ça m'a fait dire ceci sur Facebook: "Si on donnait un lavement au docteur Barrette, il tiendrait dans une boîte à gants." J'ai paraphrasé Christopher Hitchens, je l'avoue. Mais avouez que je manie bien l'art de l'insulte. Et que c'est une de mes meilleures pointes.

Hitchens' Decalogue

Fellow blogger Prof Solitaire reminded me that Christopher Hitchens would have been 65 yesterday. As Easter is coming, I thought I would upload a video from this incredible mind, controversist extraordinaire and overall merciless, admirable intellectual, about the Decalogue, aka the Ten Commandments. The Commandments are maybe the most overrated, absurd, often amoral "moral" injunctions ever written and Hitchens deconstructs them beautifully, then makes his own, which are far better. Anyway, as the movie of the same name is probably playing everywhere around Easter and that I disliked that movie even when I was a good Catholic boy, I thought I would upload Hitchens' Decalogue. So enjoy. Hitchens is always enjoyable, especially now.

George Orwell's birthday

Something I remembered today, thanks to my many Facebook likes: George Orwell was born today, the 25th of June, 1903. The great George Orwell, who, as Christopher Hitchens said, "spoke the truth". I recently read Down and Out in Paris and London, which made me rediscover his genius. Yesterday I was in London, which I saw with new eyes. Of course, when I see London, a part of me sees it through the eyes of Winston Smith, from his most famous novel. Modern day London is very different than the nightmarish one of Orwell's cautionary take, still, you can indulge in a bit of projection. His name and his words have sadly been used in vain numerously and are still used now gratuitously. Many speak of Orwell, not many really read him, or understood him. Christopher Hitchens did and so did Anthony Burgess in the essay part of 1985. I would strongly recommend that people would come back to Orwell's writing, not only 1984 and Animal Farm, but also his other works. I have only recently discovered them, but I intend to preach by example.

And what beautiful light it gave

It is not because something is expected that it is not sad. Christopher Hitchens died yesterday. Cancer sucks. I never read his books, but I did follow his work, watched countless videos of him, read his articles. I blogged about him before. I have decided to use the same title as then, as in an age when the forces of obscurantism are rampant, he gave us a beautiful light. This light was sharp, merciless, unapologetic, iconoclastic. As light should be. I didn't agree with everything he said (on the Iraq war for instance), but on the most I have to say he was spot on. He was a brilliant debater with a sharp mind and flawless logic. I think his critics, still virulent after his death (here is a sample), could never forgive him for being smart and logical, that he was everything they often failed to be. Well, we still have his aphorisms. And the homage of his friends. He died yesterday, but unlike many fellow primates, he certainly lived. Excessively, but can we have too much life?

Born in a different country?

I finally watched this interview with Christopher Hitchens. I was waiting for inspiration for another post and he gave it to me. There was a mention in this interview that he once said that he was born in the wrong country. He was of course refering to the United States of America, Hitchens having always been drawn to it.

I do not think for a minute that I was born in the wrong country. I am completely, utterly, desperately Quebecker, even as an expat, maybe moreso as an expat. But I do wonder sometimes where I could have been born, given my temperament and sensibilities. I once blogged about where I could live and once about absorbing cultures. This post is much more speculative and pretty much cultural daydream. Still, it is interesting to muse about this.

Of course, being an immigrant in England and having lived in this country on and off for more than ten years. I would have grown up as a pretty good Englishman: proud of a literature that I love (big and small), of the acting world that I admire and envy, drinking real ales, being a tea drinker from a much younger age, grumpy about the lousy weather, etc. I may not have been bilingual had I been born here, but I would still have become a republican, something that I would have gained at late teenage, alongside my atheism. I can more comfortably imagine myself being born English than say Irish or Italian because of my atheism: England is a more fertile soil for it and a more welcoming place. That said, I feel very strong connections to Italy. I have difficulties imagining myself as a born Italian, but in my life I came very close to be an adopted one. At some point, the only thing lacking was the language. I even had been Christened with an Italian name by my Italian friends (one day I might blog about this). During my first year in England, I discovered more Italian culture than British one and felt so comfortable in it that one of the Italian students I was hanging around with once called me "the most Italian of all Canadians". It was quite a compliment. But born in Italy, I wonder if I would have become who I am. I am a Northerner to the core, except when I try to be Italian. And it is difficult to imagine myself growing up in sunny mediterranean south of Italy. But maybe my inclination towards this country was done through absorbtion, it was not inherent to my nature.

Hitchens on cancer

I blogged about Christopher Hitchens and his cancer before. He recently gave an interview to Jeremy Paxman. Like I said then, I don't like to blog about serious topics like cancer, but I am an admirer of Hitchens (who, even ill can still demolish the pretentious Tony Blair in a debate) and what he said about the disease that will most likely kill him has always been of a great lucidity. So I am planning to watch the interview on Newsnight on Monday.

And what beautiful light it gave

I saw yesterday the recent interview Christopher Hitchens gave to Anderson Cooper about his cancer. I got so fascinated by that I watched it twice in a row. I haven't read Hitchens much, apart from some articles here and there, but I watched him a fair deal on TV. I admire the man, his great culture, his profound intelligence and his merciless lucidity.

I don't really want to blog about serious subjects like cancer. I want this blog to be as much as possible about pleasant topics. However, I have a personal dislike for cancer (for reasons I might blog about one day) and what Hitchens says about the disease and what lead him to have it is both very thoughtful and poignant. He admits that he burns the candle by both ends and then says "what beautiful light it gave". Witty, funny and remorseless. I hope to be able to say such at the end of my life.