The Universe (or The Matrix) is being particularly playful today....! I'm presently reading a book about Greek Goddesses and was just finishing up a chapter on Aphrodite when my radio - tuned to Classic FM - started playing Venus (Aphrodite's Roman name) from the Planet Suite by Holst. If that wasn't enough I have just returned home with a pair of books by Julian Stockwin from my local charity shop. They're Age of Sail historical adventures books 2 & 3 in the series (I *think* I already have the first book). The 2nd books title is Artemis - which just so happens to be the NEXT Goddess in the book I'm reading.... Well played Universe... Well played..... [rotflmao]

Just Finished Reading: Spynest – British and German Espionage From Neutral Holland 1914-1918 by Edwin Ruis (FP: 2012) [239pp] 

Spies are apparently the second oldest profession but the kind of espionage we easily associate with World War Two was very new during the Great War. Part of the problem was, it seemed, that “Gentlemen do not read each other's letters”. So, what is a covert organisation to do? Hire, use or otherwise acquire people who are most definitely NOT gentlemen to do the dirty work for you. In both the case of the Germans and the British, and indeed the Dutch who kept an eye on both parties as they operated in their country, they employed conmen, swindlers, thieves and, when required, prostitutes. Very few of these would be considered ‘professional’ spies in the modern sense. What we now regard as such is a surprisingly modern arrival. 

Needless to say, such people were anything but reliable – either they simply took the money on offer and ran or reported back with completely or partially fabricated ‘information’. They were, as a class, either practically useless or positively harmful. Such activities couldn’t really last and, after much trial and error, a more professional organisation – on all sides began to emerge using military and ex-police as operatives although a thief or professional burglar still had their uses. 

The Dutch position was an interesting one. Unlike in the Second World War Holland remained unoccupied and neutral. They knew that their neutrality was somewhat fragile and made great efforts to neither antagonise the Central Powers or the Triple Entante. They did, however, have their favourite. It was considered that Germany posed the greater threat to their sovereignty despite a sometimes-adversarial history with Great Britain. In both cases they made a simple deal – share your findings with us (the Dutch) and don’t use violence on our streets and you can do as you please (within reason). The British accepted the deal with pleasure, the Germans were much more reluctant and suffered for it. It was over the war period a difficult balancing act – especially as both the British and Germans used Dutch nationals in their endeavours to spy and counter-spy on each other but the alternative was far more dangerous. They had Belgium, their next-door neighbour, as an example of what might happen if their neutrality went up in flames. 

As I knew almost nothing about Great War espionage (or, to be honest, the role of Holland in the war) this was often a most interesting read. A few things surprised me including just how amateur espionage was in the early years of the war. The other thing that really struck me was the number of spies executed in England – by firing squad at the Tower of London no less!  - for often very minor spying activity. What was clear from the outset was that Germany wasn’t very good at the whole spying game and their efforts generally fell flat (as they did by and large in the re-match 20 years later). The Brits, eventually, go their act together although overall espionage didn’t (apparently) account for very much in the end. A fairly quick read and (often) quite the eye-opener. More on this subject – from those involved – to come. Recommended for those interested in early espionage and who like reading around the edges of the World Wars. 

Happy Birthday: Takeshi Kitano (born January 18, 1947), also known as Beat Takeshi in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host.

During his time as a student at Meiji University, he became a comedian at the strip theater France-za in Asakusa, Tokyo. In 1973, he formed a comedy duo called Two Beat with Kiyoshi Kaneko, who later became Beat Kiyoshi. Kitano adopted the stage name Beat Takeshi. Riding the wave of the comedy boom, he gained popularity with satirical and sharp-tongued black humor. In the 1980s, he appeared in TV shows such as Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku which recorded the highest viewership rating of 29.1%, and Takeshi's Castle which recorded 24.7%, becoming explosively popular on television. He gained recognition as an actor in director Nagisa Ōshima's film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1989, he made his directorial debut with the film Violent Cop after Kinji Fukasaku stepped down. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film Hana-bi (1997), becoming the third Japanese director to receive this honor after Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. He is also known internationally for hosting the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1990) and starring in the film Battle Royale (2000).

Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after Johnny Mnemonic in 1995. Although he has expressed his dislike of anime and manga in the past, he accepted the role because "even though this stylish piece of entertainment is totally different from the films I've directed, I thought it was interesting that Aramaki, the role I play, is a character who gives off a peculiar vibe and, in various episodes, is set at the core of the characters' relationships. I'm looking forward to see how the movie turns out."

Just Finished Reading: How to Survive a Crisis – Lessons in Resilience and Avoiding Disaster by David Omand (FP: 2023/2024) [315pp] 

Crisis seems to be THE word of the 21st century, be it economic, environmental or political. Crisis is everywhere and those without direct experience of its effects are becoming quite the rarity. But if crisis is becoming more common, which seems to be the case, what can be done about it? This is the question raised, and largely addressed, in this interesting book. Somewhat disappointingly, however, it doesn’t look at things from the street level as I’d hoped. Instead, the author, who REALLY knows his stuff, looks at crisis survival from the level of governments and business leaders which is understandable given his expertise. 

Despite the disappointment I felt on putting the book down I did find many parts of it quite fascinating. Not only did the author range over a huge landscape of crisis after crisis – from nuclear accidents (and near misses), to various wars (Indo-China, Vietnam, the Falklands, Ukraine, Iraq/Afghanistan), Covid-19, Cyber-attacks, depressions and supply chain failures, Brexit, and much else besides – he was actually ‘in the room’ for some of it actually advising the UK government and other agencies about how they should cope with an emergency (to avoid it becoming a crisis), how to clean up afterwards or how to prepare for things ahead of a crisis.  

As you might imagine a lot of this was high-level and theoretical, calling on real-world events where applicable. The author worked through the ‘arc’ of a crisis pointing out break points, areas of opportunity when an emergency could be prevented from becoming a full-blown crisis and most definitely not a disaster! He looked at ways that organisations and states could increase their resilience to weather the initial shock so enabling them to respond to events in a co-ordinated planned manner. He looked at the difference between a slow-burn crisis and one that arrives completely out of the ‘blue’ and how to monitor the slower burning one so it doesn’t end up sneaking up on you. To drive the points home, at the end of each chapter are ‘takeaways’ to enable the building of plans and strategies to cope with, recover from and (hopefully) avoid any crisis coming our way. 

Although this was more interesting than useful this was still worth the effort of reading. The main themes of watching for the often overlooked slow-burn crisis and the building up of resilience (in practical terms as well as psychologically) are important ones that can be applied even down at ‘our’ level at the individual shallow end. If you’re a member of a larger organisation, and most especially if you’re involved in any kind of support role, there are many lessons that can be taken on board here and applied to your profession. One of the things I did find particularly interesting – with several crisis events ongoing – was regarding media use. Seeing/hearing various organisations using the playbook the author mentioned when using various types of media was instructive especially when hearing the same type of language used by very different organisations dealing with apparently very different circumstances. Recommended for a number of reasons.