Review: Heart of Darkness – by Joseph Conrad

I love Apocalypse Now. It is one of my most favourite films. I learnt that apparently, Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ is the literary work that provides the basic narrative of the film. Apocalypse Now, however is set in war torn Vietnam, with the US Military hunting down an insane, erratic, murderous, rogue officer in the interior, deep in the Vietnamese jungle. Marlon Brando plays Kurtz and it is a totally gripping and disturbing performance. Conrad sets his work in nineteenth century Congo. The narrator, Marlow is sailing a British ship up the Congo river, into the interior, his mission to locate the important ivory trader, Kurtz, who none of the government officials have heard from for a while. This is the peak of Victorian British Imperialism, an Age of Empire, a time when the colonies offered all men a chance to enrich themselves and seek out adventures in wild, untamed, unknown lands. Marlow is on this quest himself. Kurtz has set out and established himself and apparently is making a good name for himself and delivering huge quantities of profitable ivory. The trade of ivory in itself is obviously ethically and environmentally questionable, but this is a different age. Also, when reading the book from a post-colonial politically correct, almost apologetic modern sense, the reader can discover often brutal and quite simply plainly racist terminology which recognises the African as quite a lesser human being than his Caucasian Western counterparts. Racist terminology is throughout the narrative and the value of the lives or the work of Africans, be they pilots of the ship or part of Kurtz’s native crew, is seen in very typical Victorian fashion. Civilisations were of course vastly different. Although the book may seem to contain a lot of prejudice, it does, however, offer an enlightened view of a different, exotic world and the way in which the Other is described in this novel may have had a transformative effect on the views of its contemporary readers. Although elements of an exotic, tropical, vast untouched African interior are well described in the story, on the whole it is the ‘darkness’ element of the ‘dark’ continent which forms the rather moody, melancholic, quite frankly intimidating atmosphere of the journey. We encounter a brutal world where traditional values have evaporated. It is a savage world. Kurtz has embraced the native and is wild and quite frankly, although recognised as very intelligent and does seem to make a lot of sense, he is also, prior to his tragic demise, clearly quite disturbed, even verging on insanity. His ivory jaunts with the natives into the deeper interior from his river Congo base have scarred him and de-Europeanised his ways. When Marlow’s steamer arrives natives greet the boat with a flurry of poisoned arrows, killing his undervalued African ship pilot. On the way, a starving African crew are seen by the Western travellers on board as totally alien and their open confessions to cannibalism is quite frightening. The whole novel is, very much like Apocalypse Now, memorably disturbing and although clues to divine salvation are mentioned the whole nature of the evil of mankind is central to the book’s winding theme. Conrad is originally Polish and although based in London and writing in the English language, he has quite a difficult style. His sentences are extensively long and sometimes a bit confusing and also he peppers the account with quite a wide range of difficult vocabulary not use in common vernacular. It is only a short work but is and, one can tell from its popularity and praise as a classic, a key piece of literature from the Imperial Age.

Review: Class of 88 – Find the Warehouse. Lose the Hitmen. Pump the Beats – by Wayne Anthony

This book is about a promoter’s journey in the beginnings of the Acid House music scene that took over Great Britain back in the late 1980s, cementing a new popular culture that would grip the masses of rebellious youth at the end of a prolonged period of Thatcherism. Genesis is run by Wayne Anthony, the author of this book. In it he incandescently writes an emotional, truthful and honest tale of a rather strange journey that would shock the average person. As a later promoter in the acid house music scene I could relate to many of the experiences one gets when running events and I found the book to be a great memoir of an often overlooked music movement after it was so successfully repressed shortly after its foundation by the 1994 Criminal Justice Bill. Genesis began by breaking into warehouses in East London that were disused. Sound systems would be set up, blissful decor applied top the venue and impromptu bars set up. A top security firm was always necessary for the promoter as vast amounts of cash would be made by Acid House Warehouse parties attracting thousands of clubbers. From the outset Wayne is running a constant battle against the authorities. The police initially are caught a bit unawares and Wayne can hone his blagging skills to great effect with false contracts drawn up and police not no driven to break up the illegal events as they were pretty clueless as to what was happening. As time progressed and the media driven frenzy about the dangers of ecstasy and the wild nature of acid house in the U.K., these police armed with more government powers became more hostile and violent towards organisers. The security firm was mainly ex military and the whole operations of running the early Genesis events by Wayne and his team were arranged with military style precision, from cutting edge party phone numbers, to vast flyer distribution, to electrical engineers, co-ordinating a synchronised arrival of guests to each event and ensuring that trouble and accidents were kept to a minimum. Genesis teamed up with the likes of Biology and also with Fantasy FM and were a major force in the London scene. Wayne is very candid about the drugs involved in acid house and we hear of wild cash excesses at the events leading to mass quantities of cocaine. He eulogises about ecstasy and its life-changing effects and its influence on the culture of the nation yet also, later in the book he does acknowledge that he suffers from most of the major mental health effects of long term ecstasy use that had been foreseen by doctors in the early days. He predicts a future generation of 50 something mental patients whose heads are completely shot! A particular acid experience involving an ex girlfriend going completely off the rails indicates some of the potential dangers of narcotics use. Wayne concludes with advice to youngsters not to make the same mistakes with chemicals and that they can have more productive lives and indeed enjoy dance music culture just as much without all the add-on chemicals. Some of the incidences involving organised crime kidnapping him and also promoters hijacking events by pretending to be Genesis, and also the constant battle against police show some of the darker issues that many promoters are faced with. We see early dance music political activity in demonstrations by the masses to fight for party rights. I loved the tales of DJs and early house music records that I know very well and it was great hearing a real account of the hedonistic days of the ‘Class of 88’ which unfortunately I was a bit too young to experience in the full sense, only coming into the British U.K. music scene properly in the mid 1990s.

Review: Cybersecurity: The Beginner’s Guide – by Dr Erdal Ozkaya

I am just about to embark in an online professional cybersecurity course with Masterschool in Tel Aviv, Israel. I am a relative novice in this field and in order to be as prepared as possible for the new academic venture I bought this introductory text to bring me up to speed with the basic of my new chosen specialisation. Cybersecurity is a new emerging growth technology industry and its history is recent. It is an exciting and growing field full of opportunity and career potential and as our daily lives become more and more dependent on computers and technology cybersecurity is becoming more significant and necessary. There are bad actors out there on the internet be they credit card fraudsters, identity theft criminals, hacker groups with political or non-political motives or rogue nation states such as North Korea, China and Russia. Cybersecurity changes rapidly as silicon chips speed up, computer memory exponentially increases and as the internet of things reaches into every aspect of our daily lives and critical infrastructure. A skilled cybersecurity professional will learn the necessary skills and stay p to date with new tech, in order to protect against the bad actors and to preserve the significant benefits that the modern world experiences from the paradigm shift that is the modern age of computer technology. This book is covers such a vast range of material and is well-compiled by author Erdal Ozkaya, detailing the skills necessary to succeed and whenever possible getting direct input from significant workers and experts in the field. For me, the most relevant and inspiring chapter was Chapter 11 where expert opinions were sought out in interviews to leaders in the field from across the globe in a wide variety of different employment roles. This direct experience of cybersecurity professionals spoke truth and the advice was immeasurable and left one feeling with a sense of awe at the incredible opportunities that studying cybersecurity and becoming a professional could offer. The book, chapter by chapter, covers various specialist skills and niche areas of the whole field of this new discipline. Whereas it is possible for a student to become an overall jack of all trades and general cybersecurity expert, in reality the whole expanse of necessary material means (and this is backed up by experts) should be that a student should seek to focus and specialise in a particular niche market, becoming a true master of that particular cybersecurity subcategory. I was drawn to the exciting nature of penetration testing and digital forensics seems to have a lucrative and growing future also. It would be also a noble career path to somehow work in the wider geopolitical sphere in cyberdefense and cyberwarfare. To be honest I was a bit overwhelmed and baffled by the material in this book. Virtually 90% of it was completely new knowledge to me and I got a bit confused with the various terminologies etc and felt like I definitely had a big mountain to climb sat in front of me as the journey progresses. The good thing is that this book is an excellent and comprehensive starting point and as a reference point I can see it standing on my computer desk for quite some time into the future. There are plenty of links to follow up and research to be done. I am sure that once the Masterschool course is complete that the final section of this book about career paths and interviewing etc will be a most vital source. I’ve added other texts by this author to my amazon wishlist and can highly recommend this accessible and inspiring book to any fellow newcomers to cybersecurity.

Review: Kim – by Rudyard Kipling

‘Kim’ is recognised as the greatest work of famous author Rudyard Kipling. This is a cult novel especially in espionage circles. It is fiction but documents the widely popular Great Game between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia, a clandestine cat and mouse conflict between the two powers fought out on in British India and the border territories which separated the two great powers. Indeed one of the twentieth century’s most famous and notorious spies, the treacherous Kim Philby, who rose to power in British Mi6 whilst in reality working directly for the Soviet Union’s KGB. Philby takes his nickname Kim from Kipling’s protagonist. Kim is a young lad. His parents who are both Irish have left him in an orphan like state and he grows up, streetwise in the slums of Lahore, known to all as ‘Little Friend of the World. Despite his Caucasian European heritage, Kim felt half native and he spoke his English with a sing song native accent and dreamed in Hindi. The 19th century period of the book’s setting was Imperial India at the very apogee of Queen Victoria’s dominance of the sub-continent. The book highlights some of the conflicts of Empire, politically from both sides, native Indian and British overlords. It is clear that the author, Rudyard Kipling, has a deep connection to India and his prose is written in a high style, invoking beautiful descriptions of geographical features and the characters have emotional exotic traits, rarely denoting negative feelings towards the Indian people. Some of the descriptions and flow of the prose are so beautiful and poetic the reader must often stop and wonder at this great master in full flow. Often new native terms, unfamiliar to the lay reader are thrown into the mix, giving us a rich glossary of terms, deepening our understanding of this alien culture. The crux of the book revolves around young Kim’s relationship to the elderly Buddhist lama who is master to Kim, taking him under his wing. As chela, Kim traverses India from cities to alluvial plains to across the great mountain ranges of the Himalayas. The quest is for fulfilment of ‘The Wheel of Life’ and the lama seeks out his mysterious river that will give him enlightenment. The religious other of India, a simple renouncement of materialism, monastic begging and the virtues of Buddhism are explored and influential, although other major subcontinent religions get coverage such as Hindu ideas and Kim is often disguising himself as a Musselman invoking the ideas of Islam. The former regiment of Kim’s dead Irish father chance upon the wandering young boy and forcibly take him in and make him attend school. The lama contributes financially to ensure that Kim gets the best available education and treatment. He could aim to become a powerful Sahib in the service of the British Raj government. Kim has contacts a plenty and often through various merchants or influential friends such as a famous horsetrader, Kim’s adventurous spirit leads him into the adult world setting off on inquisitive and often potentially dangerous missions and adventures. He is inadvertently being sucked into the Great Game and his work as a spy reaches his climax when some foreign indeed Russians who are travelling with the lama and him across the mountains, fall out and, completely taboo in the eyes of natives, actually physically assault the old sage, it is Kim who defends with violence the outrageous attack and the travelling foreigners lose all their possessions including critical maps and documents that will prove useful to the British government of India. We weave through an increasingly more native world deep in the heart of India and the special relationship of old man and boy, the romance of the whole journey, culminates in the lama finding his river and way up deep in the mountains we see a fully-matured adult Kim contemplating future, his world view and philosophy so touchingly formed with spiritual non-material values by his master. It’s a wonderful tale and a unique book that surely must be one of the best cultural products of the British Empire in India.

Review: The Dragons and the Snakes – How The Rest Learned to Fight The West – by David Kilcullen

This is one of the very best books I have ever read. It is up to date material and full of cutting edge military theory and ideas and I believe is critical essential reading for any politician or military personnel, especially those who conduct their employment in the NATO led West. I am no stranger to Australian soldier-scholar David Kilcullen’s work. This is the fourth book of his that I have read. This work surpasses the previous books and it is genuinely a masterpiece. What are the dragons and snakes? The dragons are the main, most powerful nation-state enemies. Russia and China are the main dragons and additionally we have Iran and North Korea who pose significant military threat and who are ideologically opposed to the West. The snakes are state and non-state actors. Less powerful nation states such as Iraq or Afghanistan and terrorist organisations and quasi nation jihadist states and their peripherals such as ISIS. Al Qaeda is a big snake, as is the Taliban as is Hezbollah and it is these snakes that have predominated active warfare measures from the USA and her allies in the post Cold War world. On the whole Kilcullen criticises Western military action in the recent past citing little evidence of genuine success. Traditional warfare and indeed highly technological modern military fighting that reached its zenith in the first Iraqi conflict of 1991 has been made redundant by adaptive enemies who have learnt how to successfully withstand dominance by coalition forces and have adapted techniques and tactics that have in effect neutralised our methods. While the world witnesses this stalemate between snakes and our armies the dragons have been sat watching, taking notes and suitably adapting their own military philosophies to take advantage of the new global environment. The way in which these dragons have re-emerged into active roles demonstrates new confidence and their upward projection into the future looks very daunting a positive to a fading Western democratic dominant imperialism. The main message of this book is that if we do not adjust ourselves and realign our military strategy we will ultimately face defeat and the political and economic collapse of our societies. When analysing the snakes we look in detail at various different organisations. ‘Combat Darwinism’ is an interesting scientific look at the decapitation of the snake that is Al Qaeda. Our strategic focus was to target leadership of this jihadist monster and every time a key leader was successfully culled a new hydra head on the snake was born and the enemy’s success in adaptation, even though its movement may have come close to complete annihilation, meant that natural selection allowed the foe to fight again with even more strength and resurge. Often our own militaries pulled back from the precipice due to economic and political factors, allowing the necessary reformation space for the enemy. This has been a key part of analysis for the War on Terror. After 9/11 We succeeded in killing the likes of Osama Bin Laden and most of the rest of the leadership but ‘The Base’ movement just became a self-perpetuating force unto itself without traditional vanguard leadership and it morphed into other jihadist factions such as AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) and ISIS, producing further problems. The very fact that today, The Taliban are back in government in Afghanistan demonstrates Combat Darwinism in effect and the future of global jihad seems to be a lasting phenomenon that will continue to plague the Western World for the foreseeable future. I found the case study of Hezbollah as it fights against Israel and later in Syria to have been very illuminating. Their adaptation and growth have demonstrated how a tactically weaker military force can survive, grow more powerful and be effective in the face of complicated battle odds. Looking at the snakes we see a new Russia under the autocratic reins of Vladimir Putin who is becoming ever more military active as his increasing hostility and delusion grows especially with the latest invasion of Ukraine. Liminal warfare tactics used by Russia introduce new elements to modern warfare against the West. Operating just below the detectable surface a combination of economic warfare, information warfare and cyberwarfare does just enough damage to Russian enemies without provoking military response. From cyberwarfare attacks in Estonia through to democratic election social media disinformation warfare during Trump election in USA or Brexit in the UK, Russia is undermining the West. Often it is different sides’ different perceptions of what constitutes hostile actions or warfare that our polarised views can fail to distinguish. In the last days of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev received promises that NATO would not expand any further to the East yet Western leaders lied in these reassurances. Putin and the Russian military rightfully are concerned by any move that threatens their territorial integrity. Post communist oligarch capitalism and an easing of traditional espionage has allowed a traditionally focussed long term enemy to rebuild and rekindle its old hostilities to the West. The study of China illustrates again how economic and computer technologies can be used liminally to fight out societies. The Chinese military has slowly been rebuilding and modernising. Its Navy has emerged from nowhere and it has been encroaching on island chains in the South China Sea, building barriers that can be used as both defensive and offensive bases against any future major conflict. I was particularly pleased to see Kilcullen reveal the importance of the military theory work of PLA strategists, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. I have only recently read the ‘Unrestricted Warfare’ book that since its publication at the turn of the millennium, has been a core component of the People’s Liberation Army’s development. Although he sees some of the authors’ ideas as pure paranoia and delusion this also demonstrates how perception on different sides can be very different. China has undoubtedly focussed very heavily on economic warfare and the fact the renminbi now underwrites the whole US economy and the globalisation of Chinese capital investment in key infrastructure such as ports or via tech firms such as Huawei is forecast by Qiao and Wang. The question is asked in that with China being so overexposed economically could mean that direct traditional military conflict could be less likely. The analyses of our enemies is concise and precise and unsettling. What are Kilcullen’s answers to the posed dilemma? He admits that there are no obvious solutions and although it is clear that change has to occur and is likely to come on both sides, The West and the Dragons and Snakes, it is felt that a Byzantine approach to preservation of Empire is the best path forward. Acceptance of our fading power and influence yet also a pragmatic and sustaining approach to preserving and development our military, political and economic futures.

Review: The Motorcycle Diaries – by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara

I’ve read three of Che Guevara’s other books, the theory on guerrilla warfare and the diaries of his campaigning in the revolutions of Cuba and Bolivia. The Motorcycle Diaries precede these other critical works and document Che’s travels across Latin America as a young man, accompanied by his close Argentinian friend, Alberto Granado. The diaries document the adventure as the pair set out on a trusty old motorcycle from home in Córdoba in Argentina heading through the various landscapes of Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Halfway through the journey the bike irreparably breaks down and they continue by means of improvisation, hitching rides, catching buses, boats and hiking. The descriptive emotions of the natural beauty of the continent is felt in Che’s descriptive wonder – the mountains, the rainforest, the rivers, the villages and towns…. all an exotic tapestry of inspiration for the young doctors. They run on a tight budget and rely heavily on the graciousness of hospitality coming from hosts eager to meet and get to know the Argentinian protagonists. Often these hosts are generous beyond all imagination and can ill afford to treat the guests as they are peasants from poorer nations. The rich characters we meet on the journey add to the emotive feeling and from conversations about a range of topics we can see a sense of social justice emerging in the young Che and the perceived injustices anger him and one can sense the development of his future as a key communist leader and revolutionary. The lads use their medical skills to visit a host of leper colonies and most, especially patients in these dismal places are surprised at the young medics’ lack of discrimination, openness and generosity. I especially enjoyed reading about the mystical Inca kingdom of Peru with its ancient capital of Cuzco and the visit to world-renowned tourist site, the ruins of Machu Picchu. I don’t think I’d be brave enough to undertake such a vast adventure on such a low-string budget and to overcome the struggles that evolve. I think this whole experience would have helped shaped Che’s immense resolve and success as a guerrilla fighter, battling the odds in the Sierra Maestra. A romantic revolutionary describing a period and era of time and space where hope and change across Latin America was imminent.

Review: The Last Assassin – The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar – by Peter Stothard

‘Et tu Brute’ – these are the immortal words of Shakespeare, recounting the treacherous death of one of Rome’s greatest Emperors, Julius Caesar. This book, by Peter Stothard, is a historical novel, recounting the last days of Caesar and the Empire of Rome immediately after his death and how, to a man, the assassins were hunted down and killed. The central character of the book is Cassius Parmensis, an obscure poet, who evades the hunters tracking him down for fourteen years after the brutal act of assassination. After Caesar, we see a Rome in turmoil. There is the rise of Caesar’s nephew and adopted son, Octavian (later Augustus). His main competitor for the Caesar title was Mark Anthony. Along with Lepidus, these three formed a triumvirate that ruled in place of Caesar’s dictatorship. We trail through the assassins’ deaths, one by one, often in the midst of the Civil War that thrived during this unsettled political period. We see the signs of the ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire and the Fall of Rome. The geography of the setting takes us across the Roman Empire… The main assassins, Cassius and Brutus die and the cycle of justice continues until we finally reach the seafaring Parmensis who has sought a relatively anonymous last stance and safehaven in Athens. His death brings the conclusion of the story and the end of the political unease of the aftermath of the Emperor Julius Caesar’s murder.

Review: The Power of Babel – A Natural History of Language – by John McWhorter

On Amazon Prime Great Courses Signature Collection I watched author John McWhorter present a course on World Language Families and this drew my attention to this literary work. McWhorter is a very intelligent polyglot and makes the study of global languages an interesting and fun-filled adventure. In this book we look at the vast array of human languages across the world – the 6000 or so tongues that are still in existence. We look at how these languages have evolved, the dialects that they morph into, the differences between language and dialect and also try to reconstruct the original global language of Adam and Eve. The examples of linguistic use are wide-ranging, from global super-tongues such as English, French and German, through to obscure languages such as Marathi, Tok Pisin, Cornish and Somali. Throughout the book McWhorter introduces anecdotes of popular culture to lighten the mood, from South Park to McDonalds adverts. The book has enough detail to satisfy the most learned linguist and equally is general enough to be accessible to a non-specialist lay reader. It stands out as a great work and leaves a lasting memory and for such a vast subject material McWhorter covers it well and also succinctly. I will endeavour to seek out more of the author’s work on world languages and would recommend this book to anyone with the remotest interest in our planet’s communication.