United We Fell

Knotted Gun by Fredrik Reuterswärd in front the UNHQ is ironically metaphorical towards the state of affairs that happen inside the building.

In a trouble-beset century, the greatest challenges for the United Nation ironically comes from the inside.  – by Archibald S. Hone. 

“The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference,” said John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Although I usually find myself vehemently disagreeing with Mr. Bolton’s agenda and political views, his quote directly reflects the painful truth and the frustrating bureaucracy that lie at the very foundations of the United Nations.

Now the United Nations is a 64 year old whose 401(k) has shrank to nothingness. It is a leviathan that has outlived its usefulness and has no bright future. It is a badly managed classroom–a hierarchy with an unruly, undemocratic Security Council presided by a wavering Secretary General at the top. Yet, it is not a relic of the Cold War, it is the last species of an era even more distant. It is the modern pale imitation of the age of the Great Statesman—the age where the fate of the world is decided in the cigar-smoke filled antechambers in the Chancelleries of Europe. When the United Nations (and its crippled predecessor, the League of Nation) was founded, that world still existed. In 1945, two colonial powers (the Great Britain and France) still controlled a third of the world, and the Soviet hegemon collectively and coercively spoke for ‘the united socialist workers of the world’.

Within a few years, that world is descended into history books. Empires fell; China embraced—or to be precise, was forced to embrace—Communism. The Russians boycotted the Security Council after the latter refused to sit the Communist government of China. Meanwhile, the United Nations sat forlornly as countries after countries plunged into civil wars and genocides. Hungarian Uprising, Vietnam War and Prague Spring are just three examples of this collective failure.

However, the institution’s honor was upheld by the events that started unilaterally and that are out of its control. The UN intervention in Korea was made possible by the Russian boycott in the UNSC (see above). The Suez Crisis was solved because of the American pressure. The UN’s role in South American development only followed the US and CIA’s efforts to stage coup d’etats. Even its intervention in Rwanda came only after the French threatened to deploy its military forces. It would also take an affronted world to mandate the UN actions in Kuwait, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.  

Yet, there are high points too—the humanitarian missions that build a social infrastructure would be impossible without an organization as universal as the United Nations. However, the high point of those missions came only in the 1990s (refer to the UN charts) when the Soviet Union isn’t on the UNSC anymore to effectively block interventions.

It will take a Messiah to save the UN.

Now with Russia and China back as the global hegemons, it is time to once again say our goodbyes to that unipolar world into which we grew up. The UN Resolutions from Zimbabwe to North Korea, from Venezuela to Iran are being thwarted by the vetoes of that two resurgent powers, while any attempts of reform the undemocratic vetoing powers in the UNSC are not favorably looked upon by any veto-carrying members.

Last year, during the presidential campaign, Sen. McCain put forward an idea called “League of Democracies”. It is not perfect nor 100% altruistic, but the plan is to create a expansion of NATO that will curb the Russian interests in Central Asia and the Caucasus and to take ‘War on Terror’ to a new level. The plan’s genius is that we will be able to unite the nations that are divided by geography but are united by the ideology—a democratic ideology, that is.

America totally disregarded the UN with Iraq; Russia did in Georgia. In Middle East, nations have been disregarding the UN for years. So why are we still relying on the United Nations while simultenously outsourcing the important agenda to NATO, EU, Six-Party Talks, Davos, etc. The problem is that the UN has become its own Detroit: it is just too big to fail. It is a bad PR for any member nation to admit that nothing is being done at that 38-storied behemoth. So when we are talking about the reforms to the United Nation, we should probably look beyond a top-down approach to embrace bottom-up approach to create a new international organization, whose membership should be as exclusive as that to the EU. Through highly exclusive, highly selective cartel of the international states, we can relocate governments that are not representative of their people into the dustbin of history, i.e, the General Assembly and the Security Council. The bottomline is now more than ever, we need responsible international governance. It is time either to revamp the UN or just trade it in for a newer model. 

Although he quoted two Republicans, Archibald S. Hone is not a conservative, but just a cynic. This is his first article for the new column, “Pillory”, where he will try to crucify pretty much everything, from French wine growers to Jane Austen. 

12 Most Exclusive and Influential Societies

1. Freemasonry

Possibly the most easiest to gain access to in the groups on this page, Freemasonry allegedly extends its roots back to the Biblical times, linking the society with the building of the Temple of Solomon. Its members call it “The Craft”  and the society is split into various subgroups and orders, all of which consider God as the Grand Architect of the Universe no matter what their religious afflictions are. The Masons have various greeting gestures “Modes of Recognition”, which renders the society cultish; its square and compass logo is famous for being on the Cadillacs. Entire treatises were written about their secret handshakes and passwords. Its members are easily recognizable by their signature rings; originally more secretive, the membership is now open for everyone who is over 21 and who has the recommendation of a member. [Above: Insignia of The Regular Grand Lodge of England]

2. Bilderberg Group

Originally formed in Arnhem, the Netherlands in 1954 (and taking its name from the name of the hotel where the first meeting was held, Bilderberg Group still retains its headquarters in Leiden, the Netherlands. The Bilderberg Group annually meets for an invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in the fields of politics, business and banking. As Jonathan Duffy for BBC reports, “No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted… In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg.”

3. The Bohemian Club

Named for the bohemian life longed by many of its journalist founders, the Bohemian Club (estb. 1872) is a prominent private club in San Francisco, California, USA. The original group of artistic talent was soon replaced by those with major financial resources. Every year the club hosts an annual three week camp at Bohemian Grove, which is notable for its illustrious guest list and its eclectic Cremation of Care ceremony involving human sacrifice imagery at the base of a forty-foot stone owl. In addition to that ritual, there are also two outdoor performances, often with elaborate set design and orchestral accompaniment. The more elaborate of the two is called High Jinks, the more ribald is called Low Jinks. Members have included many Republican politicians, and CEOs of financial institutions, military and oil companies. Some prominent figures are given honorary membership, for instance, Richard Nixon and William Randolph Hearst.

4. Club of Rome

 

Originally comprised of only six member, this greatest of all independent political think tanks was formed in 1968 by an Italian industrialist and a Scottish scientist. The original small group met at a villa in Rome, Italy, hence the name. Its website states that the Club of Rome is composed of “scientists, economists, businessmen, international high civil servants, heads of state and former heads of state from all five continents who are convinced that the future of humankind is not determined once and for all and that each human being can contribute to the improvement of our societies.” However, it is frequently criticized for its strongly elite membership. [Above, the founders of Club of Rome in a rare photo: Peccei, King. Thiemann and Okita, from L. to R.]

5. Council on Foreign Relations

From its daunting limestone headquarters at 58 East 68th Street (at Park Avenue) in New York City [above], the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the most powerful private organization to influence United States foreign policy. Formed as a working fellowship to brief Woodrow Wilson, the group has expended its scope and aims largely under the endowments of J.P.Morgan and J.D.Rockefeller. The membership is available only to US citizens, but very selective. Expensive corporate memberships exists as well, and many distinguished speakers, ranging from foreign leaders to American businessmen speak and share their views in the Council’s frequent luncheons.

6. Chatham House

The CFR is modeled on Chatham House (now called the Royal Institute of International Affairs) an English think-tank, founded in 1920. Its well-known headquarters are at 10 St. James’s Square, London (once home to three British Prime Ministers). Although anyone can apply to be a member, the House has a range of different types of membership, which differs greatly in access to the House and its exclusive seminars. To maintain the confidentiality of those seminars, the House promulgated now famous rule known as the Chatham House Rule, which provides that members attending a seminar may discuss the results of the seminar in the outside world, but may not discuss who attended or identify what a specific individual said. The Rule facilitates frank and honest discussion on controversial or unpopular issues by speakers who may not have otherwise had the appropriate forum to speak freely. [Above: Reagan speaks to Chantam House]

7. The Round Table/Society of the Elect

The Round Table movement was founded in 1909 through a large endowment from Cecil Rhodes to promote closer union between Britain and her colonies. It was affiliated with major lobbying groups in every major capital city of the world coordinated by a headquarters in London. Some believe that the Round Table Groups were connected to a society called the Society of the Elect, whose existence itself is doubtful. Although Rhodes planned the Round Table as the Association of Helpers for the inner sanctum, ‘Society of the Elect’, and much of the hierarchical structure of the organization wasn’t carried out. Instead, Rhodes abandoned the idea for creation of a scholarship program to Oxford, which still bears his name.

8. Trilateral Commission

Founded by the members of Bilderberg Group and the CFR, the Trilateral Commission is established to foster closer cooperation between United States, Europe and Japan. Founded in July 1973, at the initiative of David Rockefeller, the Commission received much attention and criticism when it became known that President Jimmy Carter (a former Trilateral member) appointed 26 former Commission members to senior positions in his Administration: 107 Americans, 150 Europeans and 85 Japanese members. Although the membership included corporate CEOs, politicians, distinguished academics, university presidents, union leaders and philanthropist, it is stipulated that members who gain a position in their respective country’s government must resign from the Commission. [The first Trilateral meeting was at Rockefeller's Pocantico compound in New York's Hudson Valley, above.]

9. The Immortals

Unlike their English counterpart, the Royal Academy, the Académie française in France, and Real Academia Española in Spain has limited number of seats. (Forty in the former and forty six in the latter.) In the Académie française, each seat is assigned a separate number, while in the Spanish one, each academician holds a seat labeled with a letter from the Spanish alphabet; upper- and lower case letters are separate seats. Because of the extreme prestige of the seats and imminence of the holders, the members of two academies are known as the Immortals—the inspiration being Cardinal Richelieu’s quote, À l’immortalité (“To immortality”). Candidatures are made to a seat, not to the Académie: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. When elected, the new member must have an eulogy to the previous holder of the seat, an event sometimes controversial in the past.

10. The Rand Corporation

In 1970, a rumor was spread that Richard Nixon had commissioned RAND to study the feasibility of canceling the 1972 election. Thus, the RAND Corporation (Research ANd Development)–the think tank originally formed by the U.S. Military in 1946—was thrust into spotlight. Accused as militarist, RAND works with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations to recommendation military policy through quantitative analyses. Over the last 60 years, more than 30 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the RAND Corporation. [Above: its HQs in Santa Monica]

11. The Sacred College of Cardinals

Although they are the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church serving the Pope and has no actual ruling power, the College of Cardinals plays two prominent roles in the church by participating in papal elections and the Pope in a consistory. The cardinals are elevated by the Pope from the bishops and the archbishops all over the world to make up the upper echelons of this Catholic hierarchy. The rules of the Conclave state that the Pope need not be chosen from among the ranks of the Cardinals (any unmarried Catholic male may be elected Pope), this has been the consistent practice since the election of Pope Urban VI in 1378. Now, many cardinals take on lead roles in tackling global problems and engage in diplomacy.

12. The Alfalfa Club

The Alfalfa Club is an exclusive Washington D.C. social organization, that exists only to hold an annual banquet on the last Saturday of January–the group’s name is a reference to the plant’s supposed willingness to do anything for a drink. The Alfalfa Club was started by four Southerners in Washington’s Willard Hotel in 1913 to celebrate the birthday of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Its sole purpose was an annual night out for the boys, but it didn’t admit blacks until the 1970s, and women until 1994. The club’s membership, which numbers about 200, is composed primarily of American politicians and influential members of the business community, and has included several U.S. Presidents. 

12 Evil Fictional Characters

This is inspired by this list: 50 Greatest Villains in Literature. Since I don’t agree with some of their choices, this list was born. Here are the twelve notable flagrant omission on the Telegraph’s list:

1. Uriah Heep

One of the more vivid and polarizing characters in Dickens’ David Copperfield, obsequious, greedy and insincere Uriah Heep was physically modeled upon Hans Christian Anderson. Cloyingly humane and humble, Mr. Heep works as Wickfield’s law clerk, teaches himself law at night, and by blackmailing Mr. Wickfield, gains control over his business eventually. However, his biggest ambition is to marry Agnes, Wickfield’s daughter, and to obtain her fortune. Like most of Dicken’s villians, greed is his main motivation. Eventually unmasked by Mr. Micawber, he ends up in a prison, where he tries to put forward himself as a model prisoner. [Above: Roland Young as Uriah Heep and Freddie Bartholomew as the child David Copperfield in the 1937 film]

2. Injun Joe

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the villain of the piece was Injun Joe, someone with whom the reader cannot identify or sympathize at all. The saddest part of Injun Joe’s depiction in the novel is that he was cast as a relic of a bygone era, an era when vengeful American Indians still roam the prairies. His evil nature was depicted as natural among the Indians, while he displays the culture of violence attributed to the Native Americans: ”When you get revenge on a woman you don’t kill her–bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils–you notch her ears, like a sow’s!” When Judge Thatcher closes the mouth of the cave to fatally asphyxiate Injun Joe, it is as if he metaphorically ended a chapter of American history. 

3. Fu Manchu

Envisioned during the Yellow Peril era, Dr. Fu Manchu (created by Sax Rohmer) encompasses all signs of an evil genius: height, gauntness, feline-agility, a Satanic face, high intellect and even mind-reading abilities. However, his signature mustache, only for which he is now known, didn’t appeared in any of the novels–it was a creation of the movie industry. He uses arcane methods (he disdains guns or explosives) ranging from dacoits and Thuggees to exotic animals, plants and chemicals for world-domination, and the restoration of the Imperial China. Although he was virtually un-defeatable because of his strength and life-extending elixir, his plans are thwarted and the society is saved by the diligent efforts of Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie, the Holmes and Watson of the series. [Above, he is played by Christopher Lee]

4. Dr. Nikola

A master of disguise and a mesmerist like Dr. Fu Manchu, Dr. Antonio Nikola (created by Guy Boothby) is another of those evil geniuses who populated Victorian, Gothic and Pulp fiction. Handsome yet puritanical, Nikola is always accompanied by a cat. His goal in life has also been the hunt for immortality, which, he believed, could be obtained from a mysterious sect of Tibetan monks. To aid him in this quest, he used many people whose loved ones they had a hold over (through blackmail or kidnapping) and various mutants he created through his own mad research. Nikola was hunted by Hatteras, a Mongolian assassin missing half of one ear before he finally  a fatal victim of his final experiment. 

5. Napoleon the Pig

Based on Stalin, Orwell’s hero pig in Animal Farm is also an allegorical figure of all dictators who have ever walked on this world. A common farm pig, Napoleon fights to free the Manor Farm from human control, but eventually becomes the tyrant of Animal Farm. Although his villainous activities (drinking milk the animals had gathered, taking others’ puppies for himself, teaching animals to use firearms, taking advantage of his comrade Snowball, historical revisionism) may seen trivial when compared to those of others on the list, Napoleon stands as a humiliating testament to human gullibility and shortcomings even outside the confines of the book. 

6. Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter

In Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, Cardinal Richelieu attempts to undermine Queen Anne (mother of Louis XIV) who was having an affair with an Englishman. However, Richelieu is action out of his own lust for power. The cardinal employed Milady de Winter–a woman with an evil (albeit tragic) past–as his chief secret agent to discredit the Queen and the English. The Cardinal and Milady plot to kill the English general (and the Queen’s lover) Buckingham. Although she was arrested, she seduces her jailer and asks him to assassinate Buckingham. Although both battled the musketeers, Richelieu and Milady de Winter both respected them, especially d’Artagnan. Yet, it didn’t stop Milday from murdering d’Artagnan’s lover, Constance. In the emotional last scenes of the novel, she was beheaded, but the ghost of Milady came back to haunt the musketeers in the sequel Twenty Years After with her son, Mordaunt. 

7. Lady Macbeth 

A mother. An antimother. A witch. A femme fatale. Lady Macbeth is one of the most marginalized and discussed figures in the literature. Starting from the point when she receives a letter from her husband saying three witches have prophecized his future as King, she plotted a regicide to the last detail. A real mastermind behind Macbeth (who is merely an instrument), she convinces to him that he first broached the matter and belittles his courage and manhood to coerce him into killing King Duncan. In her last appearance, she sleepwalks in a powerful and profound scene where she is tormented by horrific recollections of her past. She dies off-stage, with suicide being suggested as its cause. [Above, Lady Macbeth, by George Cattermole]

8. Elmer Gantry 

In Sinclair Lewis’ 1927 satire, Elmer Gantry, the eponymous hero is “a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who, upon realizing the power, prestige, and easy money that being a Christian fundamentalist evangelist can bring, pursues his “religious” ambitions with relish, contributing to the downfall, even death, of key people around him as the years pass. Gantry continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, yet he is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and reaching ever greater heights of social standing”, wikipedia quote succinctly. Although denounced by various religious groups, Elmer Gantry and Lewis were proven to be correct by a bizarre life-imitating-art events in the 70s and the 80s, when an array of Christian evangelists becomes entrapped in sex scandals.  [Burt Lancester played Elmer Gantry above]

9. The Queen of Hearts

“The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said,” wrote Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland. Foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, blind fury, the Queen of Hearts is the ruler and tyrant of all the lands in the story. Although she is not the villain of the storybook, all creatures in Wonderland fear the Queen, and her tyrannical tendencies (sentence before verdict!) makes her a proud entrant of this list. [Above, two Queens of Hearts: Carroll's characterization changed the loveliest card in the playing deck into a menacing threat by the time Mrs. Iselin arrives in The Manchurian Candidate.] 

10. Sunday

In G.K.Chesterton’s surreal novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, a poet Gabriel Syme is recruited by the Scotland Yard to be part of a secret anti-anarchist taskforce. Syme is later elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists, which consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name. Syme becomes ‘Thursday’, but he also discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives. They are fighting each other and not real anarchists, in a cleverly concocted plan by the colossal evil genius Sunday. In a dizzying and surreal chase scene (which involves a cab, an elephant and a hot-air ballon), the six chases disturbing, whimsical and almost inhumanely big Sunday, the man who calls himself “The Peace of God”. The Council of Days may not just be a dream–but it sure is a surreal nightmare.

11. Madam Sara 

Madam Sara in The Sorceress of the Strand (1903) created by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace is on this list because she defies the most basic rule of detective fiction: good triumphs over evil, and the detective always captures the criminal. Madame Sara is a versatile and cunning criminal whose machinations thwart the attempts of sleuths Dixon Druce and Eric Vandeleur to bring her to justice for “blackmail, murder, and other crimes presumably too fiendish for the texts to explicate fully”. Female and foreign (she is half-Indian and half-Italian), she may not be a PC arch-villain, but as Ellery Queen put it, she “made [traditional] rogues like Colonel Clay and Raffles look like sissies.” 

12. Big Brother

It was not even a match let alone an even match. The nemesis in George Orwell’s 1984 is this enigmatic entity, the invisible dictator of Oceania, but it wasn’t even clear whether he exists or he is merely a propaganda tool created by the ruling elite of the Party. In Orwellian society, everyone under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens, a fact that is constantly being reminded by the phrase “Big Brother is watching you”. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith finally succumbed to the “love” (the most awful euphemism if there is one) to Big Brother, who apparently demands sacrifices as if he were an Aztec god. Unlike many villains in other novels, Big Brother wasn’t defeated in the book. People like Alan Moore in V for Vendatta tried to show the collapse of such an Orwellian society, but in fact, it took a society to overcome this omniscient, omnipresent entity. 

 

Dishonorable Mention:

Javert

Inspector Javert who hunts down the protagonist of the novel, Les Misérables (written by Victor Hugo), Jean Valjean, is frequently voted as a villain although he isn’t one in the book. A devotee of the Law, he closely pursues Valjean, but when he finally sees Valjean’s brave and kind acts, he has an epiphany: Javert can be justified neither in letting Valjean go nor in arresting him. Faced with a choice between the Law and his morals–a conundrum that imploded his sanity–Javert drowns himself in the river Seine.

Literature’s Most Touching Love Triangles

My Tribute to Valentine Day

Rhett Butler & Scarlett O’ Hara & Ashley Wilkes

It was the greatest love story that never was. In 1937 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell tells the story of young and adventurous Scarlett O’Hara during and after the Civil War. Scarlett believes she loves Ashley Wilkes, her aristocratic neighbour. She disdained the disreputable war profiteer Captain Rhett Butler although they had much in common. When Wilkes married another girl, Scarlett married one Charles Hamilton out of spite. Someone who repeatedly challenges gender roles of her time, Scarlett also embodies the general lifestyle of the Civil War South in her mixed feelings for the Southern gentleman Ashley and her attraction to the sardonic, opportunistic Rhett Butler. After much misfortune, Scarlett finally realizes she really loved Rhett, who by then had grown tired of waiting for her affection. The novel ends on an ambiguous note, with Scarlett vowing to find away to win Rhett back. 

Fitzwilliam Darcy-Elizabeth Bennet-George Wickham

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the readers see the unfolding plot through the eyes of Elizabeth Bennet, the intelligent, lively and attractive daughter of the Bennet family. At her village ball, she met Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is apparently bored with the ball, and who snubs her at a public dance. Her gullibility and her tendency to judge on first impressions separated her and Mr. Darcy at first. She instead favored George Wickham who made up a story defaming Darcy. Elizabeth’s initial refusal of his proposal for marriage and Darcy’s subsequent letter that defends his wounded honour and denounces Wickham defined and changed the novel’s course. When Elizabeth finally realizes that her feelings for Darcy have come full circle, she accepts Darcy’s second proposal. Thus ended the novel, and began a thousand sequels.

Jane Eyre-Edward Rochester-St. John Rivers

“Reader, I married him.” opens the last chapter of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The novel goes through five distinct stages: her orphaned childhood, her education, her time as the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her employer, Edward Rochester, her time with the Rivers family, and her reunion with Rochester. After her first meeting with Rochester, she nearly married him, an ugly, moody yet Byronic gentleman before a lawyer announced that Rochester is still married to a madwoman whom he keeps imprisoned in the attic. Jane left Rochester, only to reunite with him after the mad wife set fire to Thornfield Manor (killing herself, and causing Rochester to lose a hand and eyesight). Rochester fears that she will refuse to marry a blind cripple, but Jane accepts him without hesitation. 

The Karenins and Alyosha Vronsky

A married woman, Anna Karenina come to Moscow to salvage the marriage of her brother, Stiva. Upon her arrival in Moscow, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an “evil omen.” Count Alyosha Vronsky soon falls in love with Anna after he meets her at the station and later dances the mazurka with her at a ball. Although Anna initially tries to reject him, she eventually succumbs to his courting, and confesses to her husband. The difficulties in her getting a divorce from her husband, a potentially bitter custody battle and Anna’s childbirth distanced two lovers eventually. In a jealous rage, Anna threw herself under a train like the railway worker in the first part of the novel. Vronsky finally realizes his guilt at Anna’s death and faces a life made more tragic than death by his own shortcomings

Le Chevalier Des Grieux, Manon Lescaut and Synnelet 

In the short novel Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost, ennobled and rich le Chevalier Des Grieux forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of his father by running away with Manon. In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while Des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon’s taste for luxury. Manon usually leaves him for a richer man but the two younger lovers were always reunited by their mutual affection. They finally settle down in New Orleans, where the Governor’s nephew, Synnelet sets his sights on Manon. In the duel that ensued, Des Grieux knocks the nephew unconscious, and thinking he had killed the man, the couple flee New Orleans. In the wilderness of Louisiana, Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion. Des Grieux returns to France to become a cleric after burying his beloved. 

Jay Gatsby and the Buchanans

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, James Gatz fell in love with Daisy Fay before the war, but he lost Daisy due to their different social standings. After the war, Gatz became a millionaire after being involved with the bootleggers. He reinvents himself changing his name to Jay Gatsby, get a mansion near where Daisy (now Mrs. Buchanan) lives, and hosts parties in the hope that she will visit. With the help of the novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, two rekindles their love. However, a hit-and-run incident in Gatsby’s car (driven by Daisy at that moment) complicates the matters. The victim’s husband finds Gatsby floating in his pool and kills him before committing suicide nearby, thus ending Gatsby’s American Dream and Fitzgerald’s ambitious novel. 

Werther, Lotte and Albert

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe is written as an epistolary novel from the point of a young artist Werther, who retreat to a small village of Wahlheim to flee from an unwanted romantic entanglement. Thus, it was especially ironic when he meets and falls in love with Charlotte (or Lotte), a beautiful young girl who is taking care of her siblings. She is engaged to a man 11 years her senior named Albert. Werther cultivates a close friendship with both of them to be near to Lotte, but his letters become more and more incoherent after Charlotte and Albert marries. Out of pity for her friend and respect for her husband, Lotte convinces Werther not to visit her. After his last visit, and memorable and torrid recitation of “Ossian”, Werther shoots himself in the head. He doesn’t expire until 12 hours later. 

Humbert Humbert, Dolores Haze and Clare Quilty 

Recounted by the narrator who chose to be called by his pseudonym Humbert Humbert, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most marginalized novels of our time. Humbert lodges with a widow Charlotte Haze and later marries her just to be near to her daughter, Dolores (Lolita). When Charlotte discovers it, she is horrified; she bolts from the house but is struck and killed by a passing motorist. Humbert picks Lolita up from camp and intends to use sleeping pills on Lolita, but instead, she seduces Humbert. Driving Lolita around the country, Humbert falls genuinely in love with her. Their strange situation is further complicated by the presence of Clare Quilty, himself a pedophile and pornographer, with whom Lolita finally absconds. Humbert finally learnt that Lolita married an old, deaf war vetern after being abandoned by Quilty. Humbert confronts and murders Quilty and is arrested for murder. Lolita herslef dies during childbirth. 

Tess Durbeyfield, Alex D’Urberville and Angel Clare

In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the impoverish Durbeyfields send their daughter Tess to work with the aristocratic D’Urbervilles after learning that they are closely related. There, Tess is seduced and raped by Alec d’Urberville. In her next job as a milkmaid, she falls in love with a travelling farmer’s apprentice, Angel Clare. She tries to tell Angel her indiscretions, but the letter she sent gets lost under a rug. When Angel learns the truth, Angel leaves her to go to Brazil. Meanwhile, Tess started living with Alec D’Urberville again. However, when Angel returns, Tess confronts Alec and stabs Alec through the heart with a carving knife, killing him. Tess flees with Angel but their sojourn ends with a romantic night at Stonehenge, when the police arrest Tess and she was executed. 

Lord and Lady Chatterley and Oliver Mellor

D. H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” is about Lady Constance Chatterly’s unhappy marriage to wealthy mine owner Sir Clifford Chatterly. His war wounds made him paralyzed and impotent and she begins to explore her sexual feelings else where–namely with Sir Clifford’s game keeper, Oliver Mellor’s. Although Mellors initially shuns her due to the class distance between them, they meet by chance at a hut in the forest and have sex. Many torrid meetings later, she becomes pregnant, and she seeks a divorce from Sir Clifford. He refuses to give her a divorce and this leaves Lady Chatterly and Oliver waiting only in the hope that Sir Clifford may die. When Connie returns from her vacation in Venice, she finds Mellors’ old wife has returned, causing a scandal. The novel ends the couple waiting for their respective divorces, with the hope that, in the end, they will be together.

The 10 Most Exclusive College Societies

The Seven Society, University of Virginia

The Seven Society, founded in 1905, is the most secretive of all university collegiate societies. Members’ names are only revealed after their death, when a wreath of black magnolias in the shape of a “7″ is placed at the gravesite, and the bell tower of the University Chapel chimes seven times at seven-second intervals on the seventh dissonant chord when it is seven past the hour. Nothing much is known about the society, and legends note that of eight men who planned to meet for a card game, only seven showed up,[4] and they formed the society. How the members are chosen are of an equal mystery. The only known method to contact the Seven Society is to place a letter at the Thomas Jefferson statue inside the University’s historic Rotunda, but one visible sign of society–the number 7 logo surrounded by the signs for alpha, omega, and infinity and several stars—adorn many buildings on the grounds of the University.

The Flat Hat Club, William & Mary

The oldest student club founded in the United States is the Flat Hat Club, founded in 1750 at the College of William and Mary, which proudly counted Thomas Jefferson as one of its members. The initials of the F.H.C. Society doesn’t stand for Flat Hat Club, but for Latin, “Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio” (“brotherhood, humaneness, and knowledge”). The founding fathers of the modern fraternity traditions, the “brothers” of the F.H.C. devised and employed a secret handshake, wore a silver membership medal, issued certificates of membership, and met regularly for discussion and fellowship. The society ceased to exist during the American Revolution and WWII, and fully revived only in 1972. [The Flat Hat refers to a graduation cap.]

The Corps Hannovera Göttingen, Georg August University

One of the oldest German Student Corps (Studentenverbindung), the Corps Hannovera Göttingen was founded in 1809 at the Georg August University of Göttingen. The name was chosen because the founders called the Kingdom of Hanover their home. It is a founder member of the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband (KSCV), the oldest governing body of student associations in Germany and Austria. A fencing society, Hannovera is a stringent follower of the blue principle—the promotion of gentlemanly conduct and social behaviour, as well as the common principles of tolerance and democracy. Its members wear cap and tricoloured sash, and its motto is Nunquam retrorsum, fortes adiuvat fortuna! (Never backward, fortune favours the bold). Corps Hannovera’s parties in their club house (Corpshaus) are the best parties in the town.

The Philomathean Society, University of Pennsylvania

The oldest continuously-existing literary society in the United States, the Philomathean Society took its name from the Greek word for “a lover of learning.”The Society emphasizes the arts of rhetoric, oratory, and writing and its three-step membership process reflects this. Governed by a Cabinet of eight officers (Moderator, First Censor, Second Censor, Scriba, Recorder, Treasurer, Librarian, Archivist), the society meets eight times per semester on the top floor of College Hall, and has regular afternoon teas with professors and sponsors. The Society publishes several books and anthologies every year, and was the publisher of the first complete English translation of the Rosetta Stone—a translation done by three undergraduates. The motto is sic itur ad astra (“thus we proceed to the stars”).

Final Clubs of Harvard

Increasingly stigmatized by their elitism, sexism and racism are the final clubs of Harvard. There are eight all-male clubs, whose reputations are marred by the frequent charges of sexual assaults and five all-female clubs, and most clubs have historical traditions that make them more of a reflection of Harvard’s predominantly white, trust-fund wealthy, Protestant past. The societies differ greatly in their exclusivity, wikipedia notes, “the clubs have an undergraduate membership of around sixty a piece, amounting to nearly 20% of the eligible male undergraduates and 5% of eligible female undergraduates. Some final clubs often hold parties and open their doors to women and male guests of members. Others, like the A.D., have only in recent history opened their doors to female guests of members and still do not allow male guests. Porcellian never allows non-members past “the bicycle room” in the building’s foyer, while the Delphic permits its guests access only to its basement by a separate entrance.

St. A’s. Columbia

Although the chapters of the Society of Saint Anthony (or commonly St. Anthony Hall) now exists all over the United States, the society still retains its secrecy, exclusivity and gravitas. The national chapters are known variously as social fraternities, clubs, secret societies, or literary clubs, but Columbia’s original society is known for its members’ extraordinary wealth. Founded in 1847, St. A’s at Columbia is usually at the center of controversy because of the alleged discrimination practiced by the young men and women of the society. Although Baird’s Manual referred it in 1897 as “the most secret of all the college societies,” and many novelists, some as prestigious as F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote slantingly about it, the society’s mystic as a secret society slowly withered as it expended its chapters.

Quills and Daggers, Cornell

First of the Ivy League Honors societies to open its membership to women, Quill and Dagger society, founded in 1893, recognizes exemplary undergraduates at Cornell University. Many professors, deans, trustees and administrators themselves are the alumnae of the prestigious society, and so are many famous American businessmen and CEOs. The society also has been responsible for starting numerous campus traditions. The meetings and proceedings of Quill and Dagger are closed, and the society’s activities on campus are typically concealed. The public is not admitted to the society’s sanctuary on the top floor of Lyon Tower.

Skull and Bones, Yale

The most secretive of all societies on this page is Yale’s Skull and Bones, which was formed in 1832. Alternately referred to as The Brotherhood of Death or Eulogia, the society’s macabre emblem is a skull with crossed bones, over a mysterious number “322″. The Skull & Bones Hall is known as “Tomb”, and members meet in the “tomb” on Thursday and Sunday evenings of each week over the course of their senior year. Some accuse Bonesmen of involving in Satanic practices in the tomb or conspiracy theories. Every year, fifteen seniors on the society “tap” fifteen new junior members to replace them. Although this is the highest honor a Yale undergraduate can receive, historically many members has been drawn from the same great American families. Members are assigned nicknames, chosen from literature. The society also owns an island retreat in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York named Deer Island. Another equally secretive group, Scroll and Key exists on the Yale campus.

Cambridge Apostles, Cambridge

Many don’t fail to notice that many energetic people who participated in Cambridge Union (the university’s debating society) ends up in the British Parliament. However, even more exclusive than the Union is the other debating society, the Cambridge Conversazione Society, known commonly as the Cambridge Apostles. Founded in 1820, the society takes its name from the idea that its members are the 12 cleverest students at Cambridge. The members were traditionally chosen from King’s and Trinity Colleges [Great court of Trinity College, above] (though this is no longer the case). Once a week, on Saturday evenings, a debate and discussion is held while the members eat sardines on toast, called “whales”. The Apostles retain a leather diary of their membership stretching back to its founder (George Tomlinson, who went on to become the Bishop of Gibraltar), which includes handwritten notes about the topics each member has spoken on. Former members are called “angels” and undergraduates being considered for membership are called “embryos.” Becoming an Apostle involves taking an oath of secrecy and listening to the reading of a curse, originally written by Apostle Fenton Hort, the theologian in 1851. The Apostles became known outside Cambridge because of the infamous Cambridge spy ring, in which two “angels” were found to have passed information to the KGB.

Bullington Club, Oxford

Satirized again and again inside the British High Society and inside the House of Lords and Commons for its excessive rowdiness and destructive binges, the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University is a club that England loves to hate. The New York Times informed, it is “the acme of exclusiveness at Oxford; it is the club of the sons of nobility, the sons of great wealth; its membership represents the ‘young bloods’ of the university”. Founded around 1780 as a hunting and cricket club, the club slowly evolved into a dining club at towards the end of the 19th century. Extreme drunkenness and destruction of private property (usually windows, glasses) usually couple the club meets, which led to the club being banned for long periods of time from the University. The membership is only by invitation, and membership elections are held twice a year, when successful new members are visited in their rooms, which are then ‘trashed’ as a symbol of their election. [In above photo, current opposition leader David Cameron is in the back row on the left.]

Unknown people….famous deeds

Forgotten censor causes the Russian Revolution

In 1867, Karl Marx published Das Kapital, a monumental work of 25 years, most of which he spent researching in the Reading Room of the British Museum. The first translation of his biting critique of the capitalism was into Russian. In early April 1872, the book was released in St. Petersburg. Giving his imprimatur to the book, the censor of Das Kapital noted: “Few people in Russia will read it, and still fewer will understand it.” The censor, whose name was Skuratov (sadly, this is the only thing we know about him) was wrong. The edition of three thousand sold out quickly—the feat that alarmed the Romanovs so much that they banned the second edition. However, they were too late. In 1880, Marx wrote: “Our success is still greater in Russia, where Kapital is read and appreciated more than anywhere else.” A revolution 37 years proved him correct.

 

Unknown native kills Magellan

The world today remembers Ferdinand Magellan as the man who circumnavigated the globe. Well, he didn’t. Of the 237 men who set out on the five ships, only 18 completed the circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan was not one of them. In 1519, Magellan proposed his plan to circumnavigate the world to King Charles V of Spain, who put five ships Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria, and Santiago under his command to achieve this feat. However, the circumnavigation almost never happened. Spanish authorities distrusted Portuguese-born Magellan, and agreed to let him sail away with the ships only after he switched his crew from Portuguese men to Spaniards. On the course of his voyage, Magellan became the first European to enter the Pacific from the strait now called the Strait of Magellan, and the first European to reach the Philippines. In the Philippines, during a fight, Magellan was killed by a poison arrow shot from a native from a group which he was trying to Christianize. His body was never recovered.

 

Unknown kid kills Richard the Lion-hearted

Richard the Lionheart (1157 – 1199) was one of England’s greatest kings. He started commending his own army at 16, and gloriously fought against Saladin during the Third Crusade. However, his latter years were far from glorious. On his return from the Holy Land, Richard was captured by his personal enemy, Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and had to be ransomed. In March 1199, Richard was in the Limousin suppressing a revolt by a viscount. He besieged an unarmed castle of Chalus-Chabrol, which capitulated quickly. Richard was admiring the last defender of the castle, a teenager with a crossbow who was using a frying pan as a shield. The teenager shot two arrow at the king, who was without his chainmail. Richard died from gangrene of the wound. Although Richard forgave his slainer (who was confusingly recorded as John, Brandon, Harold, Dudo and Bertrand), the boy was later skinned and killed by Richard’s soldiers.

 

Unknown prostitute indirectly causes the Holocaust

In Mein Kampf, volume 1, Adolf Hitler wrote extensively on syphilis and prostitution. Fourteen paged litany on what he called a “Jewish disease” caused some historians to speculate whether Hitler himself had the disease. Hitler reportedly had sex with a Jewish prostitute in Vienna in 1908. His possible discovery later that year that he had the disease may have been responsible for his demeanor; while his life course may have been influenced by his anger at being a syphilitic, as well as his belief that he had acquired the disease from undesirable societal elements which he intended to eliminate. A psychiatry team studied diary entries made by Hitler’s personal doctor, Theo Morrell, and concluded that there is “ample circumstantial evidence” for the theory. (Some, however, dispute that Dr Morrell deliberately poisoned his patient).

 

Unknown sniper kills Lord Nelson

Horatio Nelson was one of the most iconic and heroic Englishmen. His strategy and (unconventional) tactics produced a number of decisive victories and doomed the French hopes of conquering the British fleet. He was wounded several times in combat, he lost most of one arm and the sight in one eye. However, on 21^st October 1805, Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar, gained his eternal place in the Pantheon of British heroes and lost his life. Although fanciful Victorian retellings of the story noted Nelson was killed by a cannon fire from a ship that had already surrendered, what exactly happened during the Battle of Trafalgar is a mystery. Nelson’s flagship the Victory came under fire from three French ships Bucentaure, Redoutable, and Santísima Trinidad. A sniper from the enemy ships fired onto Victory’s deck as Nelson was walking on there. Nelson, who died shortly afterwards from wounds to his backbone, was given a state funeral and the subsequent interment in the St. Paul’s Cathedral. A sniper was never identified—Nelson’s deputy claimed that they killed the sniper, while a French fuselier, Robert Guillemard later claimed he fatally shot Nelson. This hidden identity was the plot device behind Dumas’ Le Chevalier de Saint Hermine.

 

Anonymous letter brings down a government

Many famous British political criticisms are anonymously authored, and so were the Federalist Papers. However, the most famous and damaging political missive in English history came in 1922. In September 1922, the British and French troops guarding the Dardanelles neutral zone near Chanak were threatened by Turkish troops. The British cabinet led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George issued a communiqué threatening Turkey with a declaration of war. The public, however, was alarmed by the possibility of going to war again. After the Commonwealth prime ministers explicitly stated that they didn’t want to go to war either, an anonymous letter appeared in “The Times” by “A Colonial” supporting the government but stating that Britain could not “act as the policeman for the world”. Beleaguered at home and aboard, Lloyd George resigned. The identity of this “Colonial” was never discovered by many believed he was Andrew Bonar Law (above) who succeeded Lloyd George as the Prime Minister.

 

Unknown Solider lights the first match to WWI

 

WWI started with the high-profile assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Serbia, but WWII’s first shots were fired by an unknown solider in Manchuria. Tensions between the Empire of Japan and China had been inflamed since the Invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In June 1937, Japanese troops were carrying out military training at the western end of the Marco Polo Bridge using the cover of the night. One night, the local Chinese, thinking an attack was underway, fired a few ineffectual rifle shots which resulted in a Japanese soldier being missing in action. Although the missing Japanese soldier—whose identity remains a mystery—had turned up unharmed afterwards, the border security on the both sides was tightened after the incident. Shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan began a full invasion of China.

 

Unknown Serial Killer reforms London

His victims were women earning income as casual prostitutes. Their throats were cut, their cadavers mutilated. His murders were carried out in a public or semi-public places. In the second half of 1888, the person known only by the pseudonym ‘Jack the Ripper’ became active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London. The name is taken from a letter to the Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer. Although many theories have been advanced, Jack the Ripper’s identity was never determined. While not the first serial killer, Jack the Ripper was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy around his killings. Mass-circulation newspapers of late Victoria era helped his publicity. On the flipside, the nature of the killings exposed the dark underbelly of London. For centuries, the poor of the East End had long been ignored by the affluent society. Jack the Ripper unintentionally drew attention to these wretched living conditions, and exposed the fact that the poor couldn’t be ignored much longer.

 

Unknown Father of Music Theory

Anonymous IV is the name given to the writer of an important treatise of medieval music theory. We know him as an English student studying at Notre Dame University in Paris in the 1270s or 1280s. Nothing else is known about his life, not even his name. His writings, which survive in two partial copies from Bury St Edmunds, are extremely important to the development of polyphony. The anonymous author also recorded the works of Léonin and Pérotin, the earliest European composers, and recorded Pérotin’s the four-part organa quadrupla Viderunt and Sederunt, and music-theorist Franco of Cologne’s treatises. His lasting legacy, however, is in his thorough descriptions of the musical instruments, rhythmic modes, musical notation, and genres of his day.

 

The Most Dangerous Unknowns

CrimethInc. (Ex-Workers Collective) is an underground anarchist group, which has published numerous articles and magazines widely read within and without the anarchist movement. First formed in the mid-1990s, CrimethInc. mainstreamed the American anarchist movement by publishing books, releasing records and organizing large-scale national campaigns against globalization and representative democracy, as well as by taking traditional controversial actions like arson and hacking. CrimethInc.’s activities and its philosophies are controversial even among the anarchists. CrimethInc. also has a long association with the North American anarcho-punk scene.

 

 

The Proverbial Unknown Soldier

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier At the Westminster Abbey 

….Things that Never Were

A Tudor who Never Was

In 1931, Anthony Hall (1898-1947), a former Shropshire police inspector wrote a letter to Britain’s King George V., saying he had a better claim to the throne than King George V., since, he wrote, he claimed his ancestry back to Thomas Hall, a “bastard son” of Henry VIII. Tall, polite and always impeccably dressed, Anthony Hall charmed the working class. His populist ideas, such as plans to scrap taxes, pay off the national debt, build thousands of police stations and set up a Ministry of Pleasure to “revive the ancient merry times” drew up to 800 people, united under a banner: “A New King, A New Country”. His other (more ridiculous) promises include plans to rebuild Tudor style homes and to popularize portrait painting. Buckingham Palace unsuccessfully tried to declare him insane. Later, he was shortly arrested for using “quarrelsome and scandalous language”. Hall died in 1947 leaving no male heirs, thus effectively ending the ‘Tudor dynasty’.

 

An Emperor who Never Was

Hall tried to claim the English throne, but an English Jew named Joshua Abraham Norton went a step further and claimed the non-existent throne of the United States. Unhinged by financial ruin, Joshua Norton turned up in California with an ill-fitting naval uniform with tarnished gold braid and a sabre. Storming into the California Legislature, he proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States, and later, Protector of Mexico. ‘The Emperor’ made a point of appearing at all public functions, where he was received with honor. The best restaurants dined him and his dogs for free. He attended in a front row seat all sessions of the Legislature at Sacramento. Banks cashed his modest, worthless checks and people took his imperial banknotes bearing 7% interest, which he promised to redeem in 1880. That year Norton I died. Ten thousand San Franciscans attended his funeral. In 1934, he was reburied under a tombstone that vaunted: NORTON I, EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTOR OF MEXICO

 

The Land that Never Was

In 1817, a Scottish man Gregor MacGregor, captured Amelia Island, Florida from the Spanish and began his crusade against Spain in the Caribbeans. Returning to London as a hero, MacGregor published a guidebook supposedly written by one Captain Thomas Strangeways. In the book was a description of the Territory of Poyais, a tiny nation on the Bay of Honduras, fertile with untapped resources of gold and silver. In 1822, MacGregor raised a loan with the total of £200,000 in behalf of the Poyais government and also started selling land rights. When wanna-be settlers arrived in South America, they only found an untouched jungle. Under the harsh conditions, 180 of the 250 settlers perished. However, survivors refused to believe that noble-looking MacGregor (now self-styled Sir Gregor) was the main culprit. They blamed Sir Gregor’s advisers and publicists for spreading the false information, and the ‘colonists’ at Poyais for abandoning the colony. Meanwhile, MacGregor had absconded for Paris where he published a new constitution of Poyais declaring himself as the head of state. The French were less gullible and they publicly denounced him. A lonely broken man, “Poyais humbug” failed to reclaim his earlier successes and died unlamented in Venezuela in 1845.

 

The Man who Never Was

At 4:30 in the morning of April 30th 1943, the corpse of ‘Major Martin’ began his only battle. Secretly buried at sea from the British submarine Seraph, Martin was the strangest hero of W.W. II—a principle actor in a plan named Operation Mincemeat to convince the Germans that the Allied attack on Europe would take place on Sardinia, not Sicily. Major Martin never existed–British Intelligence officials, faced with the problem of finding a suitable corpse, selected a soldier who had died from pneumonia, for an autopsy would reveal water in the lungs and seem to prove that the victim had drowned. On his body were a bank overdraft of pound 80, a photograph of his supposed fiancee, a £53 bill for an engagement ring, and torn tickets for a London show. Because the corpse looked “too hopelessly dead,” another “double” was photographed for the identity card. Most importantly of all, Martin carried a letter personally signed by Lord Mountbatten which ended with a simple pun designed to trick the Germans into believing the Allied assault would be on Sardinia: “Let me have him [Martin] back, please, as soon as the assault is over. He might bring some sardines with him–they are on points here!” The Germans discovered the body and sent the letter to Hitler himself. Days later British Intelligence learned that the Germans had begun sending large reinforcements to Sardinia. When the Allies invaded Sicily, Field Marshal Rommel said that the failure of the German defenses was “a result of a diplomatic courier’s body being washed up off Spain.”

 

The Donation that Never Was

A ninth-century manuscript residing in Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, named “Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris” is better known as the Donation of Constantine. It was believed to have been issued by the fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine I, granting the Popes of the Roman Catholic Church dominion over lands in Judea, Greece, Asia, Thrace, Africa, as well as the city of Rome, with Italy and the entire Western Roman Empire. The text claims that the Donation was Constantine’s gift to Sylvester for instructing him in the Christian faith, baptizing him and miraculously curing him of leprosy. The document is now believed to be a forgery made by Pope Stephen II to persuade Carolingian King Pepin the Short to donate his lands in Italy. The impact of this fictitious document was undeniable—these lands would become the Papal States and would become the basis of the Papacy’s secular power for the next eleven centuries.

 

The Sale that Never Was

One of the greatest con men in history, Victor Lustig (above rightmost, seen leaving prison) had his finest hour in trying to sell the Eiffel Tower. It was 1925. France was recovering from the First World War. In a Parisian newspaper, Lustig saw an article discussing the problems the city was encountering in maintaining the Eiffel Tower. Posing as an anonymous government official high up in the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, Lustig summoned six important scrap metal merchants to a meeting at one of the top hotels in Paris, where he explained that the city could not afford to maintain the Eiffel Tower and so wanted to sell it for scrap – although everything had to be kept utterly secret to avoid a public outcry. Lustig even gave the merchants a full tour of the Tower, enabling them to see it all at first hand, before inviting their secret bids the following day. He even took bribes from Andre Poisson, who ‘won’ the bid. Embarrassed, Poisson could never bring himself to go to the police. Lustig returned to the city a month later and attempted the same trick with six more scrap metal merchants. This time, however, the police were informed. Eventually, Lustig was arrested in the US for counterfeiting and died in jail in 1947.

 

The Fortune that Never Was

In 1881, Therese Humbert received a letter from an American millionaire Robert Henry Crawford, whose life she saved two years ago. The letter stated that Crawford had died and made her a beneficiary in his will. The will said that Therese was to look after the family fortune, which was locked in a safe, until her younger sister, Marie, was old enough to marry one of Crawford’s two nephews. In fact, there were no American millionaire named Crawford and Therese created the entire hoax. The story of the inheritance enabled Therese and her husband to obtain loans and improve their lifestyle. The larger loans were raised to cover the interest on the original loans and for 20 years, the Humberts were lived in luxury atop their pyramid scheme. By 1902, financiers realized that the amount of the inheritance would not be enough to cover all the loans. Calls were made for the safe to be opened. When it was opened, the authorities found a brick and an English halfpenny, but by this time the Humberts had disappeared. They were arrested in Madrid in December, 1902. Infamous trial (above) ensued. Therese was jailed for five years and her two brothers, who had played the fictitious nephews of the non-existent Robert Crawford, were sentenced to two and three years each.

 

The War that Never Was

Berwick was historically a royal burgh on the Scottish border. Traditionally, it was regarded as a special, separate entity, and some proclamations referred to “England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed”. It was claimed that in the Declaration of the War against Russia in 1853, Queen Victoria supposedly signed as “Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions”. However, when the Treaty of Paris (1856) was signed to conclude the war, “Berwick-upon-Tweed” was left out. This meant that one of Britain’s smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world’s mightiest powers for over a century. An investigation in 1970 disputed the story: although Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, it was not mentioned in the declaration of war either. However, only four years earlier, in 1966, a Soviet official waited upon the Mayor of Berwick and town councillors to sign a peace treaty. The mayor quipped: “Please tell the Russian people that they can sleep peacefully in their beds.”

 

The Country that Never Was

The killing of many thousands of Ibo tribesman in Northern Nigeria in 1966 plunged the country into the civil war. Home to around 8,500 Ibos, South Eastern region of Biafra declared itself to be independent (and it remained independent for three years). Biafra’s ‘President’, Oxford-educated Lieut. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, then 34, tapped a medical officer Albert Nwazu Okonkwo to lead the province of Benin. As Nigerian forces were to retake the province, Okonkwo declared the independence of the Republic of Benin at 07:00 on 19 September 1967. The republic lasted a little more than a day. On 20 September 1967, it was terminated as Nigerian forces recaptured the province. It was not recognised, not even by its “parent” country, Biafra, mainly because of the brevity of its existence.

 

The Book that never was

English explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton was a man who never shied away from sex and sexuality. He translated The Book of One Thousand and One Nights and the Kama Sutra into English. He frequented brothels on his expeditions. Burton also translated The Perfumed Garden, a seminal work of erotic literature, but his translation was incomplete, apparently because the latter chapters concerned homosexuality and pederasty. When Burton died towards the end of 1890, he was working on a new translation of the original manuscript, which included the exised chapter. This translation was never published as Burton’s religious wife Isabel burned the manuscript soon after his death—despite being offered six thousand guineas for it. She regarded the burned manuscript as his “magnum opus,” and she said she was acting to protect her husband’s reputation, and imagined she was instructed to burn the manuscript by his spirit.