Poppies Blowing in the Wind
Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
— Abraham Flexner —
Remembrance Day
On the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month. We take a moment to remember those who have been killed in Wars, with the words…
We Will Never Forget
The 20th Century was the most brutal in human history – especially in the context of globalisation through modern weapon systems.
If one includes civilian casualties of war the death toll for 20th Century wars is a staggering 241 million people.
1886-1908: Belgium-Congo Free State (8 million)
1898: USA-Spain & Philippines (220,000)
1899-02: British-Boer war (100,000)
1899-03: Colombian civil war (120,000)
1899-02: Philippines vs USA (20,000)
1900-01: Boxer rebels against Russia, Britain, France, Japan, USA against rebels (35,000)
1903: Ottomans vs Macedonian rebels (20,000)
1904: Germany vs Namibia (65,000)
1904-05: Japan vs Russia (150,000)
1910-20: Mexican revolution (250,000)
1911: Chinese Revolution (2.4 million)
1911-12: Italian-Ottoman war (20,000) 1912-13: Balkan wars (150,000)
1915: the Ottoman empire slaughters Armenians (1.2 million)
1915-20: the Ottoman empire slaughters 500,000 Assyrians
1916-23: the Ottoman empire slaughters 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks
1914-18: World War I (20 million)
1916: Kyrgyz revolt against Russia (120,000)
1917-21: Soviet revolution (5 million)
1917-19: Greece vs Turkey (45,000)
1919-21: Poland vs Soviet Union (27,000)
1928-37: Chinese civil war (2 million)
1931: Japanese Manchurian War (1.1 million)
1932-33: Soviet Union vs Ukraine (10 million)
1932: “La Matanza” in El Salvador (30,000)
1932-35: “Guerra del Chaco” between Bolivia and Paraguay (117.500)
1934: Mao’s Long March (170,000)
1936: Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia (200,000)
1936-37: Stalin’s purges (13 million)
1936-39: Spanish civil war (600,000)
1937-45: Japanese invasion of China (500,000)
1939-45: World War II (55 million) including holocaust and Chinese revolution
1946-49: Chinese civil war (1.2 million)
1946-49: Greek civil war (50,000)
1946-54: France-Vietnam war (600,000)
1947: Partition of India and Pakistan (1 million)
1947: Taiwan’s uprising against the Kuomintang (30,000)
1948-1958: Colombian civil war (250,000)
1948-1973: Arab-Israeli wars (70,000)
1949-: Indian Muslims vs Hindus (20,000)
1949-50: Mainland China vs Tibet (1,200,000)
1950-53: Korean war (3 million)
1952-59: Kenya’s Mau Mau insurrection (20,000)
1954-62: French-Algerian war (368,000)
1958-61: Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” (38 million)
1960-90: South Africa vs Africa National Congress (?)
1960-96: Guatemala’s civil war (200,000)
1961-98: Indonesia vs West Papua/Irian (100,000)
1961-2003: Kurds vs Iraq (180,000)
1962-75: Mozambique Frelimo vs Portugal (10,000)
1962-75: Angolan FNLA & MPLA vs Portugal (50,000)
1964-73: USA-Vietnam war (3 million)
1965: second India-Pakistan war over Kashmir
1965-66: Indonesian civil war (250,000)
1966-69: Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” (11 million)
1966-: Colombia’s civil war (31,000)
1967-70: Nigeria-Biafra civil war (800,000)
1968-80: Rhodesia’s civil war (?)
1969-: Philippines vs the communist Bagong Hukbong Bayan/ New People’s Army (40,000)
1969-79: Idi Amin, Uganda (300,000)
1969-02: IRA – Norther Ireland’s civil war (2,000)
1969-79: Francisco Macias Nguema, Equatorial Guinea (50,000)
1971: Pakistan-Bangladesh civil war (500,000)
1972-: Philippines vs Muslim separatists (Moro Islamic Liberation Front, etc) (150,000)
1972: Burundi’s civil war (300,000)
1972-79: Rhodesia/Zimbabwe’s civil war (30,000)
1974-91: Ethiopian civil war (1,000,000)
1975-78: Menghitsu, Ethiopia (1.5 million)
1975-79: Khmer Rouge, Cambodia (1.7 million)
1975-89: Boat people, Vietnam (250,000)
1975-87: civil war in Lebanon (130,000)
1975-87: Laos’ civil war (184,000)
1975-2002: Angolan civil war (500,000)
1976-83: Argentina’s military regime (20,000)
1976-93: Mozambique’s civil war (900,000)
1976-98: Indonesia-East Timor civil war (600,000)
1976-2005: Indonesia-Aceh (GAM) civil war (12,000)
1977-92: El Salvador’s civil war (75,000)
1979: Vietnam-China war (30,000)
1979-88: the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan (1.3 million)
1980-88: Iraq-Iran war (435,000)
1980-92: Sendero Luminoso – Peru’s civil war (69,000)
1984-: Kurds vs Turkey (35,000)
1981-90: Nicaragua vs Contras (60,000)
1982-90: Hissene Habre, Chad (40,000)
1983-: Sri Lanka’s civil war (70,000)
1983-2002: Sudanese civil war (2 million)
1986-: Indian Kashmir’s civil war (60,000)
1987-: Palestinian Intifada (4,500)
1988-2001: Afghanistan civil war (400,000)
1988-2004: Somalia’s civil war (550,000)
1989-: Liberian civil war (220,000)
1989-: Uganda vs Lord’s Resistance Army (30,000)
1991: Gulf War – large coalition against Iraq to liberate Kuwait (85,000)
1991-97: Congo’s civil war (800,000)
1991-2000: Sierra Leone’s civil war (200,000)
1991-2009: Russia-Chechnya civil war (200,000)
1991-94: Armenia-Azerbaijan war (35,000)
1992-96: Tajikstan’s civil war war (50,000)
1992-96: Yugoslavian wars (260,000)
1992-99: Algerian civil war (150,000)
1993-97: Congo Brazzaville’s civil war (100,000)
1993-2005: Burundi’s civil war (200,000)
1994: Rwanda’s civil war (900,000)
1995-: Pakistani Sunnis vs Shiites (1,300)
1995-: Maoist rebellion in Nepal (12,000)
1998-: Congo/Zaire’s war – Rwanda and Uganda vs Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia (3.8 million)
1998-2000: Ethiopia-Eritrea war (75,000)
1999: Kosovo’s liberation war – NATO vs Serbia (2,000)
2001-: Afghanistan’s liberation war – USA & UK vs Taliban (40,000)
2002-: Cote d’Ivoire’s civil war (1,000)
2003-11: Second Iraq-USA war – USA, UK and Australia vs Saddam Hussein and subsequent civil war (160,000)
2003-09: Sudan vs JEM/Darfur (300,000)
2004-: Sudan vs SPLM & Eritrea (?)
2004-: Yemen vs Shiite Muslims (?)
2004-: Thailand vs Muslim separatists (3,700)
2007-: Pakistan vs PAkistani Taliban (38,000)
2012-: Iraq’s civil war after the withdrawal of the USA (?)
2012-: Syria’s civil war (?)
Blowing in the Wind
Bob Dylan – 1962
How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove fly, before she sleeps in the sand?
And how many times must a cannon ball fly, before they’re forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind. How many years can a mountain exist, before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist, before they’re allowed to be free? And how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.
How many times must a man look up, before he sees the sky? And how many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry ? And how many deaths will it take till we know, that too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.
Rare Prints on Sale
Posters have always been sources of inspiration for me and they have been a powerful means of conveying ideas over time. An email arrived in my inbox notifying me of a sale of rare prints and some of the images are old favourites of mine, so I took a look.
It can be interesting and often enlightening to see what value an item has at a particular time, and looking through the lots reminded me of how valuable prints can become.
These are a few of the items offered for sale:
Suggested Bid: $4,800
Artist: PRIVAT LIVEMONT (1861-1936) Size: 37 1/4 x 50 3/8 in./94.5 x 127.8 cm Imp. J. Barreau, Paris “In 1902 and 1903, Livemont created several posters for the Automobile Club of France and its shows, personifying the organization with his delicate Art-Nouveau women. Here, the figure is seated on a throne in front of the Grand Palais exhibition hall, drenched in roses and hints of an international throng come to admire progress. As was Livemont’s custom, he gives the auto goddess a white outline, this time adding a halo resembling an automotive flywheel” (Gold, p. 56).
Estimated Price: $6,000 – $7,000
Suggested Bid: $3,200
Artist: JEAN DROIT (1884-1961) Size: 30 3/4 x 44 7/8 in./78 x 113.9 cm Imp. Hachard, Paris More than 3,000 participants from forty-four countries descended on Paris during the late spring of 1924 for the VIIIth Olympiad. From the 150 sketches submitted in the poster competition, the French Olympic Committee selected two — this one and another by Orsi (see PAI-XXVIII, 465).
“The revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 had been one manifestation of the late-nineteenth century preoccupation with physical culture and ancient Greek ideals of physical beauty; by the early twentieth century an awareness of the healthy body and an enthusiasm for sports and physical prowess had developed yet further.
It found particular expression in modernism, in which an emphasis on the active and perfectible body, and on individual and collective fitness, was crucial to the movements social agenda. The espousal of mass physical culture became a source of national pride and strength, as perfectly exemplified in Jean Droit’s image: the group of male athletes, right arms raised in a demonstration of unity and heroic endeavor, is pictured amid laurels of victory, the red, the white and the blue of the Tricolour and the Paris coat of arms” (Olympic Posters, p. 35).
Cycles Gladiator ca. 1895
Estimated Price: $4,000 – $5,000
Suggested Bid: $20,000
Artist: ANONYMOUS Size: 54 3/4 x 39 5/8 in./139 x 100 cm Imp. G. Massias, Paris Arguably the most famous of all bicycle posters, this image of a redheaded sylph being propelled through the sky by the unparalleled speed of her Gladiator cycle appears on everything in contemporary culture from wine labels to our company’s blog. And yet the design itself remains uncredited, despite the presence of the faint initials L.W. in the lower right corner. A lithographic masterpiece.
Estimated Price: $25,000 – $30,000
