JACK BERNARD'S TRAVELS

For twenty-eight years the Berlin Wall divided the Western side of the city from the East. Twenty-five years ago today the wall came down. Today I’m remembering the turbulent days in November of 1989, the fall of the Wall, and Germany’s reunification.

For 41 years the divided city, situated inside East Germany (Deutsche Demokratishe Republik), was an island. There were only three ways in and out – train, auto corridor, or commercial airline. The four power agreement following WWII (officially the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany) divided air traffic to and from the city between Air France, British Airways, Pan Am and Aeroflot. For 10 years I flew passengers in and out of Tegel Airport, first on the 727 and later on the 737. I left the city in 1986 but returned on October 3, 1990 to celebrate the reunification of the two Germanys.

It was astonishingly emotional on October 3, 1990 to walk freely through the Brandenburg Gate after having lived inside the wall for so long. Everyone was in tears. Two days later Abby and I put our bikes on the U-Bahn (one of two Berlin subways) and rode to the end of the line near the Polish border. We rode back to West Berlin through roughly cobbled streets and as the day stretched toward sundown single bare bulbs dangling from drooping wires cast a pale yellow light in small circles on the street corners. It was eerily like scenes from The Third Man.

Today Berlin is the most exciting city in Europe with a huge influx of young people, a thriving art and music scene, and a mixture of renovated pre-WWII landmarks side by side with state of the art contemporary architecture. It is a thoroughly modern city and once again the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. This sign is the first thing M and I saw as we rode our bikes through the Brandenburg Gate in 2008. Seattle’s finest in the heart of the Old World.

In May of this year (2014) we visited friends in Southern Germany. On a tour of his office building our host proudly showed us two pieces of The Wall that he purchased and placed in the courtyard of the company’s headquarters as a reminder of obstacles overcome and the transition to a new Germany.

Returning to Berlin for the Reunification was a memorable and emotional benchmark in my adult life. I’m confident that I will never be part of a public demonstration of unity and happiness anything like it again. I was privileged to have lived there for 10 years and to have lived to see it reunited successfully.

Happy Anniversary – Berlin

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MI-5 is the British domestic intelligence agency. It is also the American title of an immensely popular British TV series (Spooks) that ran for ten seasons from 2002 through 2011. The series gives the viewer an inside look at the Brit agency and is likely the inspiration for two American series – Homeland and Scandal. Both American series have women in the leading roles. Homeland’s bipolar Carrie Mathison takes us on harrowing adventures as an international CIA’s operative and Scandal’s Olivia Pope, is the Washington “fixer” and conflicted daughter of Command, the leader of a fictional, shadowy agency (B613) charged with the clandestine protection of “the Republic.” All three series give us putative looks at the intrigue within the various spy agencies. Charged with our protection from nefarious external agents, they often reveal the inherent temptations of using evil to fight evil.

This year the three TV dramas were upstaged by the tense real life melodrama of Edward Snowden and his revelations of America’s worldwide surveillance apparatus as well as his Bourne-like escape from Hawaii to Hong Kong and eventually to sanctuary in Russia.

Citizenfour is Laura Poitras’ feature length film documenting Snowden’s journey, intellectual and physical, from relatively minor technical analyst at the CIA to his elevation as a lead technologist for the National Security Administration’s information sharing office, his subsequent disillusionment and decision to leak information on the surveillance and his belief that the agency’s program exceeded its legal authority and was therefore unconstitutional.

I’ve struggled to decide whether Snowden is a traitor or a hero, but there is no question that he is a genius. He outwitted, out maneuvered, and out played the CIA, NSA, and FBI in executing his plan to collect and disseminate information on the overreaching extent of NSA spying on US and world citizens while managing to escape detection and capture – or death – at the hands of the agencies involved.

Citizenfour claims that Snowden tried to alert co-workers and superiors to the dangers and violations of the NSA programs but was discouraged from pursuing it and warned about the danger to himself if he did. I agree that he would have been in mortal danger if he had gone further. Had he been regarded as a threat to the programs or agencies involved he would likely have met with lethal consequences. In fact, he was so meticulous and secretive in the planning and in selecting Poitras and Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian as his conduits they had no idea who he was until they met in a Hong Kong hotel room. Had the CIA discovered him prior to that actual moment no one would have known his identity or intention and I am sure he would have met with a fatal accident. The Marine officer in me regards his leaks and revelations as traitorous, but the Berkeley-trained lawyer admires his courage and perseverance as an example of selfless citizenship.

The jury is still out on this question, but watching the film it is hard not to admire Snowden. He willingly sacrificed his own comfort and future to bring this information to the world. I don’t see an upside for him. He was clear, as it was unfolding, that he did not want the story to get derailed and become about him. It was about the information he was sharing through his chosen journalists that was of primary importance.

Even his escape from Hong Kong was a masterpiece of spycraft. With the world focused on him and his revelations he managed to escape detection, spend over a month in Hong Kong, set up a diversionary ticket to South America, negotiate some sort of safe passage arrangement, and slip out of town on a commercial flight to Moscow – all after the US had canceled his passport.

It’s difficult to imagine that life as an exile, in Russia, is what Mr. Snowden wants. He is only 31 years old and though his longtime girlfriend, Lindsey Mills, has joined him there (the film shows them through the window of their hideaway) it must be stifling to be Putin’s pawn and prisoner with no plausible escape lanes. I have a lot of admiration for Snowden, not the least of which is because he was able to use Julian Assange to move his exile status forward without becoming an instrument of Assanges’ media machine.

MI-5 is my favorite TV series of all time. It is tense, compelling, believable, and well acted. Snowden’s story would have fit perfectly within its outline. MI-5’s TV run is over, but Snowden’s journey is not. I for one will be watching and hoping that he does not meet with an untimely accident as a result of his actions.

Citizenfour is a must see look at the Snowden affair. Protecting the country from terrorists is tricky business. It requires constant vigilance and sometimes it’s difficult to tell the good guys from the bad, but the constitution protects us as well.  Citizenfour offers one perspective on Edward Snowden.  Hero or traitor? Maybe he’s both. See the film and come to your own conclusion.

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Poor Don Jose’. What a sap. Steady job in the army. Steady girlfriend. Mother who loves him (maybe a little too much?). What’s up? Why would he chuck it all: desert the army, desert the girlfriend, leave his mother and run away with a slutty little gypsy named Carmen who works in a cigarette factory, runs with a bunch of crooks, and spreads her legs for anyone who might be useful? But then again… It’s not that uncommon is it?

The little tramp wasn’t even good looking – at least that was true yesterday. Yesterday’s Carmen (HD performance from the Metropolitan Opera) was a chubby, unattractive Georgian temptless who seduces a schlubby wooden Latvian Don Jose’. I’m not alone in this opinion. The New York Times’ Zachery Woolfe had the same complaint.

I may not be an opera critic but I know that in addition to Bizet’s music, Carmen’s immense popularity is due to the spitfire beauty of its title character and her gullible handsome Don Jose’. The music is so well known that even ordinary people can hum the score – so the two main characters need to make us believe in the story.

Opera purists probably wouldn’t agree with me but my favorite Carmen is Francesco Rosi’s 1984 film with Julia Migenes as Carmen, Placido Domingo as Don Jose’ and Lorin Maazel conducting. It’s outdoor settings are a little distracting, but she is riveting and he is quite believable as the chump who gives up everything to follow her into the mountains.

I don’t want to be a scold; it’s always a treat to see a Met production and yesterday was no exception. HD in a theater, with close ups and backstage interviews is a different experience than sitting in an opera house. Seeing sweat run down the tenor’s cheek doesn’t do much for me, but the HD close ups do draw the audience into the action in a way that Row ZZ in the second balcony doesn’t. It’s a little like watching a baseball game – it’s really better on TV.

There’s a lot to love about living in the information age. Yesterday M and I came home to check out Carmen on YouTube and were able to listen to several versions of the Habanera aria – including one by Maria Callas although Callas never actually performed the role on the stage. They are all different and interesting. It’s such a treat to be able to see more than one.

It’s also amazing to have the Internet to revisit experiences. The most fun M and I ever had at a Carmen performance was when we sat on a hill at the Boston Common on a summer night in 2002 and listened to the Boston Lyric Opera perform outdoors. We sat on our blanket looking alternately at the stars, the stage, and the jumbo screen behind it.

I always find Opera exhausting, so yesterday, on the way home, we stopped at the market and bought the makings for some relaxing chocolate chunk cookies. Yummmmm… I went straight to the kitchen with eggs, flour, baking soda, vanilla extract, brown sugar, white sugar, two sticks of butter, a cup of walnuts and a bag of Nestle’s chocolate chunks, and 30 minutes later I had a Kitchen Aid bowl full of cookie dough.

Yes, indeed, cookie dough. I love it. I love it more than the finished cookies themselves. So, while the oven was pre-heating to 350°,  I ate about 1/3 of the dough and washed it down with a big glass of milk. There is nothing better than a bowl full of freshly made chocolate chunk cookie dough. Once in Berlin I ate so much of the batter that I only had enough left to make two pans of 6 cookies.

Fortunately, I don’t cave in to the urge often, but there is something very satisfying in eating all you want of a favorite food. I’m sated now. It doesn’t even sound good but I know it will again. Next time I’ll probably do the oatmeal chocolate chip variety. It’s a bit chewier. Probably healthier too. Don’t you think?

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