It’s Bike Friday again. This time we offered a bio breakfast to our faithful pedallers in our Belliard 68 building. I can sense that these and other associated initiatives are having a steady effect in changing habits. Last week the European Voice carried an article entitled ‘driving cars out of the Commission’. The article stated that the Commission had been ‘outflanked’ by the European Economic and Social Committee, since we have had a subsidy programme for public transport in place for almost one year now. Well, when I introduced the measure it wasn’t with any intention of outflanking other institutions. The article goes on to quote me as saying that the scheme had been a success – and that is the important thing: ‘We have managed to change a lot of people’s habits, and it is good for them, for the institution and also for the environment,’ he said. Indeed I did.

Temple, good nick, one previous owner

To La Monnaie this evening to see a ‘controversial’ production of Handel’s Semele, directed by Shanghai artist Zhang Huan. The undoubted star of the show is a 450 year-old Chinese wooden ancestral temple, bought by the artist from the widow of an executed man in Quzhou, and reconstructed, piece by piece, in the theatre. The production is preceded by a short film of eyewitness accounts from Quzhou, as the temple was dismantled and carried away. This film is touching (the widow sold it, reluctantly, so that she could buy her son a flat) and an almost complete distraction – the first of many in the production, as it transpired. A positive first: the ‘Les Talens Lyriques’ orchestra, under the baton of Christophe Rousset, was excellent and did Handel justice. Alas, some of the voices simply did not carry. And then there were those distractions. Perhaps the biggest was the east meets west aspect of the production, with Semele and June being Asian, if not Chinese, in origin and the characters all dressed in splendid Chinese costumes. In the programme notes Zhang Huan writes about the ‘transmigration’ of east and west, but if we were supposed to be being told something profound this particular punter didn’t get it. We also get one huge mirror, one pair of naked breasts, one pair of sumo wrestlers (Sumo? Isn’t that Japanese, Zhang?), some flying singers, one gigantic fake horse penis, one group of Mongolian singers and musicians, a paper dragon (but no firecrackers) and a gratuitous sex scene performed stoically and not very convincingly by various members of the chorus (one of them with dubious taste in the underwear department). Mmm….  Worse, the poor widow who had to sell the temple turns up as a humble member of the cast, sweeping the stage. What all of this gimmickry smacks of to me is lack of confidence and, indeed, Huan admits as much in the programme notes: ‘In all honesty, I don’t understand opera, but I like to do things out of the ordinary.’ It’s a shame that he didn’t let his set do the talking. Less distractions, more subtle lighting, more suggestion and less graphic depiction, would all have made this a more attractive (as opposed to distractive) production.

One of the reasons I came back from Joensuu was to preside over a working lunch composed of representatives of the administrations of the European Commission and of the EESC. In particular, I was happy to be able to welcome Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, the Director in the Commission’s Secretariat General with responsibility, among other matters, for relations with the European Economic and Social Committee. In general, we enjoy excellent relations with the Commission. A framework for those relations is provided by a cooperation agreement between the two institutions. Whilst both sides are agreed that we are not yet exploiting the full potential of the agreement, we are happy to note the considerable progress that has been made. Such short-but-sweet occasions also give us an opportunity to fine tune (on programming, for example) and to swap political intelligence.

On the flight back from Joensuu I finished Charles Webb’s The Graduate (published 1963). I’d seen the film, of course (who hasn’t?) and can whistle the Simon and Garfunkel tune, but I was encouraged to read the book by Penguin’s decision to re-issue it (I read what will doubtless be the foreward to the new edition, penned by Hanif Kureishi and ‘pre-published’ in the Guardian). If there were an annual prize for funniest first chapter in a book, Charles Webb would have won it in 1963, and it’s all done with dialogue (which is maybe why it translated so well to the big screen). But who has heard of Charles Webb? I have a theory that America turned out so many excellent novelists in the first decades after the second world war that there simply wasn’t space enough for them all in the public consciousness. One of my all-time favourite novels, for example, is Leave Me Alone, by David Karp (1957). David Who, you ask? Look him up and read him. You won’t be disappointed.

Over lunch I chatted with, among others, one of our Estonian members, Meelis Joost (Various Interests Group), about the conflicts this region has known. Joensuu is a sort of Finnish Strasbourg. It was, after all, founded by Czar Nicolas I of Russia. The region of Karelia was one of the major theatres of conflict during Finland’s Winter War. Much of its territory was ceded to Russia when the two sued for peace in 1940. Only some of this was regained when war between the two broke out again in 1941. (Joensuu, incidentally, lost many of its old wooden buildings to bombardments during those conflicts.) That whole period was simply horrible for Finland, a plucky nation stuck between two lumbering elephants. But consider this. Only three European capitals were not occupied during the 1939-45 conflict; London, Moscow and Helsinki. Melis has lived under Russian/Soviet rule, and so certainly knows better than me the sort of arrangements that have to be made when the choice is, to put it brutally, between being crushed or being squeezed. He told me of a rich irony. Under Soviet rule, Estonians had to do their military service. If they were unlucky in the lottery, they could end up in Afghanistan. Now, young Estonians must still do national military service and they could still end up in Afghanistan. The difference is that you have to volunteer to go, but Estonia is still there…

The Joensuu conference was a great success. There was a strong Finnish turnout, including the mayors of Joensuu and of the Northern Karelia region, two ministers and an MEP, Ms Riikka Manner. But there were also a large number of forestry representatives from other parts of the European Union and also from other organisations, including the FAO. The discussions were learned and not for the first time I found myself wishing that I could follow such issues on a more permanent basis. My speech, for what it’s worth, is below. Whilst I was reading up for it I discovered that Finland is one of the few countries in the world whose surface area is still expanding. You live and learn! Continue reading

I got up early this morning and was taken on a privileged guided tour of the Metla House, the Joensuu base of the Finnish Forest Research Institute. The tour was kindly given to me by the Institute’s Director, Jari Parviainen. The House, completed in 2004, was the first large wooden, timber-framed, three-storey office building in Finland. Over the past five years the House has become an important reference point for timber construction and has received over 25,000 visitors, many of them architects. The building is an eloquent aesthetic statement of the fact that you can build big with wood – and when you build with wood, you also trap carbon and create a nice working environment.

Joensuu

This morning I spoke at a conference organised by the Committee’s Section on Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment on the theme of ‘Facing the Challenge – change in forests and the forestry sector.’ The conference is taking place in Joensuu, the capital of Northern Karelia, and sometimes known as the forest capital of Europe. This spot is the easternmost point of continental Europe. (Mother Russia is very close.) This morning we heard from the city mayor and the regional mayor and two ministers, followed by a number of experts and stakeholders. Speaker after speaker pointed to the advantages of wood and forestry. Forests provide renewable raw materials, they protect biodiversity, they are carbon sinks, they create employment and they provide enjoyment and leisure. Yet the EU’s forestry industry faces all sorts of challenges – not the least of them being to convince people that forestry is a vital industry. I’ll do a separate post on the conference’s content, but I could not help but think that we would do well also to address the cultural and educational aspects of the forestry sector. If you think of our poetry and literature, of our fables and children’s tales, it is clear that the forest is an integral part of our cultural identity. Leaving aside Finland (a special case), the problem in most EU member states is that an urbanised majority know all about forests but nothing about forestry. Most European forests had long sinced being wilderness and almost all of them were managed, yet we have forgotten that forests are not just an optional aesthetic but an economic and environmental necessity.

This evening I flew from Brussels to Helsinki and from there to Joensuu, in eastern Finland. The flight to Joensuu was one of the most enchanting I have ever been on. The turboprop plane flew most of the way just at the top of a cloud layer. This made things a bit bumpy, but it also gave the impression of sailing on a cloud lake, with an occasional fluffy bit splashing up. There was also a meteorological/optical phenomenon whereby I could see a small silhouette of the plane scurrying along on the cloud alongside us, surrounded by a rainbow halo. No need for magic mushrooms on that flight!

Today, I have a guest. Fellow writer Jeannette Cook has graciously allowed me to reproduce here the exercise she read out at the writers’ group yesterday evening. Marvellous stuff!

Recipe for today

1 shower
1 large coffee
2 children (woken up, teeth brushed, hair combed, faces washed, breakfasted, suitably dressed for the weather, with backpacks)
1 trip to supermarket
20 minutes of yoga
10 minutes of frustrated searching for item of your choice: keys, agenda, mobile phone, clean shirt blouse
5 hours of day job
10-15 minutes of worry when one or other of children does not phone you on their way home from school
1 round-trip commute
1 phone call to cello teacher
1 phone call to change hour of horseriding lessons
1 hour catching up on email
1 dinner to make
1 cake to make
1 overdue dentist appointment to schedule, but ignore that for now
30 minutes x 2 of instrument practice
60 minutes x 2 of homework
2 baths
4 wet towels
More coffee,
Or wine, if it is after 7
Either very good book or very bad television

Mix together till your arms fall off.