London - Oxford - Cambridge - 2019nCoV

After an interesting and joyful trip in the UK, I arrived in Hong Kong. I especially enjoyed the exhibition in the V&A on cars. It was not very big but brought out the main milestones of automotive impact on society. Interestingly it ended with the "Popup" - a modular car, quadrocopter and train compartment project - jointly by Italdesign, Airbus and Audi. I have been using this project in my University teaching and observe its progress carefully. The UK was still an EU member when I came in, and it was not anymore when I left. Interestingly there was no Immigration checkpoint to cross when leaving for Hong Kong at Heathrow Airport. Arriving in Hong Kong then, everything came to a standstill because of the new Coronavirus outbreak centred in Wuhan. After seven months of protests and violent riots, this was not what the city needed. But of course, Mainland China, especially the province Hubei was struck much worse. Some people started hoarding products on the rumours and then of course products ran low in supply very quickly. Amusing to see how bad social media fits into all this. Somebody says online that there may be no noodles anymore as the supply chains may be disrupted due to the closing of the mainland Chinese land border, and some hours later people buy up all the pasta available, even this is mainly shipped from Italy. Surgical masks and hand sanitisers are sold out everywhere, as well as any disinfectant. Stupid people are more dangerous than most viruses. And then there are these people who try to take advantage of these shortages by hiking up the prices. They are the scum of any society. And in an ultra-capitalist environment, there may be a few more of them. But generally, despite the hysteria, I find it very professional how Hong Kong deals with this new challenge.

Stroll over Oxford University

On the Cam-Bridge (Kings College, Cambridge)

Setting the desert on fire

The first time I came across written pieces of T.E. Lawrence, it were the letters he wrote to his mother while he crossed Europe on his bicycle as a teenager. This was written long before he became the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but somehow the letters were so much not a teenager, but a serious young adult that had plans to conquer the world in his own way. Yesterday, chatting with a friend in his hidden campus office, I lost a bet. Which college did T.E. Lawrence go to? I said Keble, he St. John's. We were both wrong. It was Jesus. I was believing for more than two decades that I stayed in the dorm of Lawrence of Arabia at Keble, when visiting there. I guess I was wrong then. Never mind.

Lawrence of Arabia was a central figure in Britain's campaigns in the Middle East during the First World War. He skillfully facilitated the Arab Revolt against the Turks, sieged Medina, participated in the Battles of Fweila and Aba el Lissan. Using his local knowledge and enormous physical endurance he united Arab tribes while crossing the Nefud Desert and took Aquaba. The city was nearly defenseless because artillary pointed to the Red Sea and could not be turned towards the desert, because it was believed nobody can cross it with a significant army. In the years to come he was a central figure in the battles of Talifeh, Deraa and Damascus. He was pulling the strings of Arab tribes terrorizing the Turks in small units, blowing up railways and performing surprise attacks. This was guerilla warware in its early form - some might call it terrorism.

Lawrence translated Homer's Odyssey from ancient Greek into English and his major books were the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Revolt in the Desert. He was a close friend to Charlotte Shaw, the wife of George Bernhard Shaw, who both gave him a Brough Superior SS100 as a present, which was one of the fastest motorcycles at that time. Two months after he left the forces, he had a fatal accident with it. There are a few recent books on T.E. Lawrence, like John E. Mack's The Prince of Our Disorder, or Michael Korda's Hero and collections of his own writings, like Evolution of a Revolt, and Malcom Brown's anthology T.E. Lawrence in War and Peace.

I recently read James Barr's Setting the Desert on Fire, which is easy reading and discribes contexts around the campains of Lawrence of Arabia during the First World War. Also Wilfried Thesinger's Arabian Sands is an interesting record of the world of the Beduins, decades after Lawrence, but still in the same pre-oil money era.

The Middle East kept going through war and peace since the 1916-1918 campaigns. Glory and tragedy are always hand in hand in war. Now there is a fragile peace in some regions and revolts in others. The deeper you dig in the Middle East, the closer you come to the cradles of Europen civilisation. I will carefully listen to the news and watch the map in the next few weeks and stay on the safe side of the line.