[H&F] “The Lions of Ethiopia”

My co-blogger Jussi Jalonen at History and Futility writes about Finland’s support for Ethiopia in the 1935 Italian invasion, with military volunteers and the Red Cross and all.

The international solidarity which emerged during the Abyssinian War did eventually spark a modest international volunteer movement. The Pan-African sentiments of the time are well-known, and one of the foreign military men who ended up serving in Haile Selassie’s ranks was the former Ottoman general Wehib Pasha. The potential Finnish recruits were regretfully given no opportunity to satisfy their desire to fight against Mussolini. According to Jarl Ahrenberg, the consul of Abyssinia in Helsinki, the number of these Finnish volunteers eventually reached four hundred – many of whom were willing to pay for their travel expenses – but the Abyssinian visa ban, issued after the outbreak of the crisis, made it impossible to organize any recruitment, even if Ahrenberg had been interested in such an undertaking.

Although the Finnish volunteer movement failed to materialize, the small Nordic country did support the distant Empire in East Africa on a more official basis. A fundraising campaign organized in November 1935 yielded over 150 000 Finnish Marks, and the Finnish Red Cross also equipped an ambulance unit to provide humanitarian aid for the Ethiopians, following the example of Sweden and Norway. This was a high-profile undertaking, and the initiative came directly from no less a person than marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim, who was, at the time, the chairman of the Finnish Red Cross. The ambulance was headed by the internationally-renowned surgeon Richard Faltin, Mannerheim’s very old friend, whose profile is engraved in the memorial medal portrayed below. Faltin was already 68 years old, and his former feats as a practicing physician had involved an attempt to save the life of Russian Governor-General Bobrikov thirty years before. The close friendship between Mannerheim and Faltin was demonstrated as the marshal cordially informed driver Birger Lundström that he would be “directly answerable for professor’s security on this expedition”.

Go, read.

[FORUM] Is it worth writing if it’s only preaching to the converted?

This could as well be titled as a [META] post, too; it’s tagged as such, anyway.

Many of you may have noticed that my posting frequency, particularly text posts, has dropped off of late. It’s because I’ve come to a crisis: if people are confirmed in their political beliefs (by and large), making political commentary or criticisms largely irrelevant, is there any point in writing said texts apart from preaching to the converted?

I’m not going to abandon writing, here and elsewhere, fear not. I’d just be writing things that don’t deal with politics.

What should I do? I solicit suggestions and criticisms of all kinds.

[PHOTO] Graffiti’d shed, The Annex

Graffiti’d shed, The Annex, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

[FORUM] Is it worth writing if it’s only preaching to the converted?

This could as well be titled as a [META] post, too; it’s tagged as such, anyway.

Many of you may have noticed that my posting frequency, particularly text posts, has dropped off of late. It’s because I’ve come to a crisis: if people are confirmed in their political beliefs (by and large), making political commentary or criticisms largely irrelevant, is there any point in writing said texts apart from preaching to the converted?

I’m not going to abandon writing, here and elsewhere, fear not. I’d just be writing things that don’t deal with politics.

What should I do? I solicit suggestions and criticisms of all kinds.

[PHOTO] Graffiti’d shed, The Annex

[PHOTO] A pleasantly crowded porch

A pleasantly crowded porch, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

The five different hanging planters (five that I can count), the assorted flower pots on the patio and stairs crowding out both spaces, the glass-paneled doors that cuts the porch off from the street next to the exposed space of the porch proper, all contained against the brick wall of the house and underneath a tiled edge–I love it all. The crowdedness feels peculiarly intimate.

[PHOTO] A pleasantly crowded porch

The five different hanging planters (five that I can count), the assorted flower pots on the patio and stairs crowding out both spaces, the glass-paneled doors that cuts the porch off from the street next to the exposed space of the porch proper, all contained against the brick wall of the house and underneath a tiled edge–I love it all. The crowdedness feels peculiarly intimate.

[PHOTO] Flow on the street

Flow on the street, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

Something about the scene that passed below my waist as I walked–the grey-painted metal fence and its heart-shaped ornamentation, the slight incline of the rain spout before it descended before the window to connect to the house’s sewerage system–made me descend to one knee and snap this picture. It all seemed to flow.

[PHOTO] Flow on the street

Something about the scene that passed below my waist as I walked–the grey-painted metal fence and its heart-shaped ornamentation, the slight incline of the rain spout before it descended before the window to connect to the house’s sewerage system–made me descend to one knee and snap this picture. It all seemed to flow.

[PHOTO] CTV in the Village

CTV in the Village, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

Here, looking at two locked bikes on the sidewalk opposite the Village Rainbow at Church and Wellesley as a CTV van passes.