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Category Archives: 2015 Trip
Une Année Sans Lumiere: Encounters before Suez Canal
7 February 2015 15.00 Last night I was invited by the Filipino crew members to one of the crew members’ birthday party. He is an engine -fitter and he will be turning 40 tomorrow. The crew recreation room unsurprisingly had … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, labour, Middle East, militaries, the sea, Travels
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Peace Frog: Conquest by infrastructure
6 February 2015 I have to admit that I prefer Braudel’s longue durée over his histoire événtmentielle: Perhaps his influence runs through all the great historical accounts written since 1949, where explanations and theoretical framings are comfortably married to historiographic … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, infrastructure, logistics, militaries, readings, war
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Marsaxlokk-Jabal-Ali: Besotted with the sea
6 February 2015 “For a ship is a bit of terra firma cut off from the main; it is a state in itself; and the captain is its king.” (Melville, White-Jacket – did Conrad plagiarise Melville as I often think … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, Allan Sekula, capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, literature, logistics, Melville, ports, readings, the sea
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Areia de Salamanca: The Razzia in the 16th century
5 February 2015 I borrowed Braudel’s discussion of the presidios on the North African coast yesterday to reflect on logistics… But as I read on, there was also the counterinsurgency element against the colonials (about which Braudel seems remarkably sanguine; … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, empire, imperialism & colonialism, militaries, ports, readings, the sea, war
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Grace: Departing Marsaxlokk
Marsaxlokk-Jabal Ali: At last at sea 5 February 2015 11.00 Occasionally in the night, the ship bumps against the berth and that is when one remembers that one is not on solid ground. I can’t wait for our ship to … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, labour, political economy, ports, readings, shipping conditions, transport, Travels
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On Battleship Hill
Marsaxlokk-Jabal Ali; On Military Logistics in the Age of Philip II 4 February 2015 What becomes clear in reading Braudel’s vol II about war-making is the extent to which your martial power really depends on your economic ability to supply … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, militaries, political economy, readings, war
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Es Mejor Vivir Asir: Still in Marsaxlokk
Marsaxlokk-Jabal Ali; First impressions 4 February 2015; 10.00 Malta time After what seemed like an interminable wait for the transport to take us (myself and three Croatian officers) from the hotel to the port, I am onboard the ship. I … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, logistics, shipping conditions, transport, Travels
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Marsaxlokk-Jabal Ali: Surmises
How will I ever be able to return to life, “circumspect life” in Melville’s words, after that, the “delirious throb” of this research adventure? In his gorgeous opening to Moby Dick, Melville writes, “whenever it is a damp, drizzly November … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, Allan Sekula, logistics, Melville, political economy, the sea, transport, Travels
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Maritime Marriages
I have had the pleasure of reading Fernand Braudel’s The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (Vol. II) while in Malta. When I first searched for Malta in the index, I was so pleased to see … Continue reading
Wake Up Your Saints
Travelling between worlds. First in London, when my Thameslink train from St Pancras is cancelled and I have to jump in a last minute taxi for Victoria Station and Gatwick express. Driving through half-empty streets of London before 5 am … Continue reading
The Gamming 