{UAH} FDC CAMPAIGN AGAINST 'TUBONGE' MUSICIANS IS OK BUT NOT THE 'NO-WORK' THINGY

Friends,
While I have big reservations about the FDC defiance campaign of 'No work on Thursdays', because I doubt if many people would endorse that, I support their campaign against 'Tubonge' musicians. There's no doubt that the role models today are the blustery big mouth know it alls on TV, and they've got a role to play in shaping the society. You've got to stand for something Or you will fall for anything. It's never right for a hero to let himself be used to make a bad leader look respectable.

For example, Richard Strauss ended up being isolated after the fall of Hitler because of his association to neo Nazis.The issue, however, is not whether Strauss literally had blood on his hands (the evidence says he did not). The issue is what Strauss thought of the Nazis. He didn't care if the world went to hell, as long as he was treated OK, and as long as he could do his work. All of this is extensively documented and you can find the information in your libraries.

Joseph Mengelberg is also said to have been very pro-Nazi and as a result lost his post at the Consertgebow in Amsterdam. He never made his German sympathies a secret, but they were mostly cultural rather than political. Whatever he thought of the Nazis he didn't use politics to further his career. He also did not mix politics with music and kept the Concertgebow playing music banned in Germany throughout the war - Mahler included.He lost the Concertgebow directorship after the war because the Dutch branded him a collaborator.

Then, there were others such as Furtwangler who apparently tried to keep one foot in each camp, or to try to rise above "politics". He often tried to intervene when musicians were persecuted (because they were Jews, or because their music was considered 'decadent'). I don't who's playing this role in Uganda but its sometimes dangerous.

The list of famous European musicians, other than Jewish musicians, who actively opposed German and Italian Fascism seems to be very short, as membership to Nazism was made compulsory to all musicians at the time.

Yes you have a right to do anything you want within reason,but it's words like 'reason' and 'decent' and 'right' that is always going to be in the eyes of the beholder or listener in this case. My whole POINT, however, is that tastes differ - but not to the degree of accepting manure. Unfortunately while we do not all share taste in politics, we all somehow get screwed up by bad leadership one way or the other.

Oh, well. That is life. This is just my decent opinion.

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*Abbey Kibirige  Semuwemba*

Stalk my blog at: http://semuwemba.com/

"These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about death and the hereafter... I go somewhere to get something and then wonder what I'm here after."

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