Dear Santa

Volume 2, Issue 50- December 23-29, 2011 

International Tribune

Dear Santa,

Slowly but surely, I am managing through my holiday travels. Thank goodness that there are no public transportation strikes in Paris.  Nor are there any terrorist alert in New York.  My trip went smoothly with no surprise delays.  Christmas is certainly the holiday of perpetual hope. 

Santa strutting in New York City.  Photo by Lynsey Addario/ AP

I am home for Christmas this year.  It has been a long time since I spent the holiday with my family in good ole’ Queens.  The last four years have been spent in France with my in-laws.   As the song goes: “there’s no home like home for the holidays”.   Finally, I can clearly understand all discussions and have good knowledge of the rules of engagement.   Team Miranda will be spending quality time with one another: running around the entire city for last minute shopping; jockeying at the usual Filipino buffet line during our Christmas meal; everyone dodging away from the mountainous pile of dishes after the festivities; and the rest of the family evading the scene once my mom and I start to get into our gleeful mood to sing non-stop karaoke Christmas tunes.  What a special time of the year.     

Santa, the US economy is in deep trouble.  I had to pay five dollars to use a luggage cart when I landed at JFK.  Quel horreur!  Luggage carts are free in Paris – or, for that matter, for the rest of Europe. This is a bad sign.  How else can I easily sneak foie gras and cheese out of customs?   Maybe 3 years from now US airports will charge ten dollars for a single cart.  It is like paying for undeserving road tolls in the tri-state area to cross from one bridge or tunnel after the other.  Speaking about roads, please be careful when you land your sleigh on the ground.  There are so many ‘dangerous’ pot holes in the five boroughs.  In Paris, I watch out for dog poop in the street.  In New York, the pot holes on the road can kill you.  I really wish that the economic recession in America would be over soon.

It is presidential election frenzy in France and in America.  The year 2012 will be a big year for both nations.  It is predicted that France will turn left and America will go perilously right.  Either way, there will be major changes not necessarily, I fear, for the better.   I am just glad that France already rid itself of a perverted presidential hopeful.  However, the US still has several blithering nincompoops who want to beat rock-star Obama.   One of them cannot even remember his own domestic policies.  And the other has been charged with more than one sexual indiscretion that ultimately spelled for all intents and purposes the end of his primary campaign.   What is wrong with this picture?  Santa, I truly hope that you are checking your list twice and sort out who is naughty or nice. 

2012 will be a year of major changes- in both sides of the Atlantic.   I will do my best to keep up with both worlds.  My memo will be more interesting however the tide of events will be.  After all, life is not only about your destination but it is the experience of making you wise upon reaching the terminus of your journey.  I just want to thank you for bringing me the best gifts this year - my wonderful family and faithful friends. 

Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

Michele 

La Prostitution Française

Volume 2, Issue 48, December 9-15, 2011

International Tribune

The latest demonstrations outside the French parliament to fight for their industry’s survival are no longer from groups against corporate greed- but from hookers.  Sex trade workers have surrounded the Assemblée Nationale.  They are angry.  They are vigilant. They are in sheer ugly mood. They are fighting not only for their very economic survival but also for the fundamental freedom of choice.  

Sex trade workers protesting outside the French Parliament. Photo by AF. 

Prostitution, as the saying goes, is the oldest profession in the world.  Next to assuming the role of being a king or a queen, studying to be a priest, or training to be a soldier, being a whore in society is a profession of its own.  Depending on what type of prostitute one aspires to be, and how far the person wants to advance in his/her ambition, there is a formal training given for this trade.  There are historical accounts of highly-trained courtesans and famous geishas.  The bible itself has several chapters that depict stories of famous prostitutes starting with the reformed sinner, Mary Magdalene, to the powerful Whore of Babylon.  Brothels and self-prostitution are probably the only professions that we can trace to women since the dawn of civilization.  Whether it is respected or not, this is an industry that has thrived for hundreds of centuries and it is now fighting for its survival in France.  

Thanks to Dominique Strauss Kahn (a.k.a. as DSK), the sex trade sector - at least here in France -has been the latest victim that has been rattled by his personal indiscretions in the past.  An old news resurfaced that the former head of the IMF and once widely regarded as a front- runner to be the next president of France was caught soliciting "ladies of the night" in Bois de Boulogne (a park in Paris famous for the business).  Apparently, he was caught in 2006 by a local cop but no fine or penalty was imposed against him.  If the police could file charges against DSK, certainly it would have never happened because of his power and pedigree. Moreover, another scandal turned up, DSK has been linked to an upper-class prostitution ring at a high-end hotel in Lille.  

The Palais Royal hosted special evenings for prostitutes and their clients during the early 19th century.  The painting is from an unknown artist and it is part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 

 

Prostitution in France is not illegal.  In the land known for its adherence to human rights and égalité, both the prostitute and the client cannot be prosecuted. There are simply no laws against them.  The authority can only arrest and file charges against facilitators of whorehouses and men who engage in sexual relations with a minor in this country and, for that matter, throughout Western Europe.  

Today, sex trade workers are furious for all the double standards, as they allege.  First, parliamentarians (usually of bourgeoisie class) have suddenly and perhaps conveniently found this particular subject matter to be of an immense moral issue for themselves and for their country.  Second, it is the members of the upper class who have become overly sensitive of the news that has been dug up related to the prostitution ring in the Lille hotel.  If it were not for the latest DSK conundrum that has been extricated from the recent past against one of the most hated men in France, no one would probably pay attention to this issue at all.  Not especially during a time when the entire Euro-zone particularly France is in deep economic trouble.  Clearly, the French have bigger and, therefore, more urgent problems to solve.

There is an estimate of 20,000 sex-trade workers in France.  The country's parliament has proposed legislations to fight prostitution by making sex-for-cash a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.  Under these proposed measures, clients could be jailed for six months or fined nearly $4,000. Guy Geoffroy, an MP from the ruling UMP party who sits on the commission, said “France's political parties had reached a consensus on the issue because it was a matter of ‘republican ethics’.  "From now on prostitution maybe regarded as violence against women and that is unacceptable to everyone," Mr. Geoffroy added.  The commission stated that nine prostitutes out of 10 are victims of human trafficking, but sex workers protesting outside the National Assembly vehemently disagreed.  Some sex workers say the law will penalize them but leave pimps and organized crime networks untouched. "We're not all part of those networks," one sex worker said who wants to remain anonymous.  "Let them tackle the networks efficiently and to the end, but let go of people like me who for years have paid tax, who were recognized as prostitutes and who now have only 417 Euros in pension pay."

Mata Hari.  Photo by Getty Images.

There are many famous prostitutes in history that had certainly advanced themselves in this form of human enterprise.  Let us start with Mata Hari, the pen name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle- a former spy, social climber, or prostitute during World War I.  Some say she is a heroine who spied against France for the Germans.  On the other hand, many claimed that she was simply a whore and rightfully deserved the guillotine (her cause of death).  In the Far East, the Middle Kingdom had Su Xiaoxiao, also known as "Little Su", a famous courtesan and poet from Qiantang city (now Hangzhou) during the Southern Qi Dynasty in 479–502.  She was of rare beauty and talent, there is even a special tomb built for Little Su with her poems.  In the Wild, Wild, West, there was the fearless ‘Calamity Jane’, born as Martha Jane Cannary Burke (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), an American frontierswoman who courageously fought the native Indians alongside with Wild Bill Hickok.  Before that, Calamity Jane worked as a prostitute to fend for herself during her stay at Piedmont, Wyoming.  She had no other choice.  The A-list of ‘who is who’ in the prostitute hall of fame (or shame) goes on and on.  

Not to discount that the sex trade can never be regarded as a true tradecraft, an art form, or maybe even a fun profession.  After all, if one is proud of being a whore, how can one philosophically argue or legislate them out of his/her choice of life style?  We all have the right to choose our career path.  However, I still find it hard for any little girl or boy, for that matter, who will say that one day “when I grow-up, I want to be a whore”.  I just do not see that realistically ever happening.   Do you?   

From Svetlana to Lana

International Tribune, Volume 2, Issue 47, December 2-8, 2011 

Josef Stalin’s youngest daughter Svetlana died as an American in Wisconsin.  She was 85.   

Svetlana was born into this world with a silver spoon.   Or, at least, it was for a good portion of her life.  She was the most adorned little girl who grew up under the arms of one of the most feared men in history.  A privileged life for Svetlana was not easy.  The shadow of her dark past followed her until the day that she died. 

Svetlana also known as the "Little Sparrow" with her father.  Photo by AP.

Life certainly does not promise anyone a bed of roses no matter what family lineage one comes from.  As the only daughter and the youngest child of Josef Stalin from his second wife, Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva lived a life of loneliness, isolation, and fear caused by the "Man of Steel" himself during his long and tumultuous reign in the Kremlin.   Svetlana’s life was beleaguered with numerous personal tragedies, failed romances, and including having to succumb to a realization that perhaps leaving her original world behind could bring justice to her loss and bring some sort of normalcy into her life.   The life of the most privileged daughter of the most powerful man in the Soviet Union defected and abandoned everything she had to start anew in a small town in Wisconsin.  

The Stalin family. From left to right, Vasily Stalin, Andrei, Svetlana, Josef Stalin, Jacob Stalin. Photo by AP.

Tragedy struck the Stalin family one after another.  Svetlana lost almost every member of her family at a very young age.  The death of her mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, was officially ruled as a burst of appendix although other theories came out as the cause of her death.  Many say that she committed suicide and others say that she was shot in sheer cold blood by the nefarious dictator himself.   Svetlana had two brothers, Vasily and Jacob.  Her eldest and half-brother Jacob was captured by the Nazis in 1941.  He could have survived but his father traded his life for the sake of one of his war generals.  Jacob eventually died in a German concentration camp.  On the other hand, Vasily, the middle child, attempted to commit suicide after an argument with his father regarding his Jewish girlfriend.  When the bullet missed his head, Stalin was very upset- and not because of his wrongdoings but because Vasily’s inability to kill himself.  "He can't even shoot straight," said the shameful father.  Vasily lived up to the age of forty and died because of alcohol abuse.

It gets even worse.  One can imagine that having a private life as the daughter of a dictator could be a nightmare.  Svetlana’s first love was a Jewish filmmaker Alexei Kapler. Her father disapproved of the romance and Kepler was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp in Siberia. A year later, when Svetlana was 17, she fell in love with Grigori Morozov a fellow student at Moscow University. They married and had a son Joseph in 1945 but divorced two years later. She married her second husband, Yuri Zhdanov in 1949, the year she graduated from Moscow University. They had a daughter, Ekaterina in 1950 but also divorced afterwards.  

Brajesh Singh.  Photo by BBC News India.

Finally, destiny brought the fate of two lonely hearts; Svetlana met Brajesh Singh in Sochi, the biggest resort city of Russia.  Brajesh had everything to sweep a woman off her feet. He was handsome, suave, of a royal Indian lineage from Kalakanker- and above all a communist. There were many Indian Communists who studied in the Soviet Union during this era.  The two lived for a long time in Sochi even though marriage was out of the question for both.  Brajesh was still married back home and divorce was not very easy during those days.  Their relationship lasted worthy of the time to make Svetlana his common wife.  And so, the unconventional couple lived happily until Brajesh died of emphysema in October 1966.  Because of her true love and devotion to Brajesh, Svetlana traveled to India against all odds to scatter his ashes in the Ganges in accordance with his last will.  Both the Communist Party and the Indian Government made Svetlana’s trip politically impossible.  At the same time, cultural tradition intervened and played an enormous obstacle to the widow of an orthodox Hindu.  In Hindi burial ritual, the wife is expected to follow the dead husband.   Hindus sometimes burned the widow along to the decease’s next life.  Luckily, Svetlana was exempted from this tradition.

India became a nice retreat for the grieving widow- it was a good environment for someone to reflect.  The godless Svetlana started to discover religion.  Because of this, she decided to extend her time in India with Brajesh’s family in their palace at Kalakanker.  Svetlana reinvented herself and found solace in this mystical journey.  According to Svetlana, “It was impossible to exist without God in one’s heart.” Not for long, the Communist Party requested her immediate return to the Soviet Union but Svetlana just could not simply go back in the same limited existence at home.  Svetlana took a chance and changed the course of her destiny.  After India, life will never be the same for the daughter of Stalin. 

Svetlana's press conference in New York City. Time & Life Photo.

The story of the great escape could not have been more dramatic. After her time with Brajesh’s family, she was asked to stay at the Soviet embassy where Ambassador Nikolai Benediktov strongly advised her to return home. The pressure surmounted, it seems like she had no other choice but to go back.  Pretending that she was going out to finalize her travel arrangements and pack, Svetlana called a taxi and drove straight to the American Embassy.  The American Embassy was close when she arrived.  Svetlana begged the security officer in duty to let her in- that she is the daughter of the late Josef Stalin and would like to defect to the United States.  In panic, the duty officer rang up Ambassador Chester Bowles and told him that he must come to his office right away to deal with a matter that could not be discussed on the phone.  Before you know it, Svetlana was escorted by CIA officers to Switzerland, and then to the United States. 

Photo by AP

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva defected and arrived in the United States in April 1967 at the age of forty one.  Upon her arrival, Svetlana gave a press conference denouncing her father's regime and the Soviet government.  In front of millions of viewers in New York City, according to Svetlana, “I have come here to seek the self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia.  I had come to doubt that communism I was taught growing up and believed there weren’t capitalists or communists, just good and bad human beings.”

Lana Peters and William Peters. Photo by Alfred Eisens / Time & Life Pictures

Svetlana wrote two books and became best sellers.  Eventually, she settled in Wisconsin.  As a patron of the arts and intellectual circle, Svetlana met William Wesley Peters, an American architect and an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright.  Svetlana and William were married in 1970 and had a daughter named Olga.  Svetlana was sworn in as a naturalized US citizen and changed her name to Lana Peters.  The marriage only lasted for 3 years.  Shortly after giving birth to Olga, the couple separated.  

Lana and Olga traveled all around the United States and for a couple of years stayed in Great Britain.  Evidently, Lana was unable to maintain a long-term commitment anywhere or with

Lana Peters in one of her rare interviews.

anyone.   It was a plight of a wondering soul trying to permanently put behind the dark shadow from her tumultuous past.  After Britain, Lana decided to return to Tbilisi in 1984 at the age of 58 to introduce her half-American daughter to her relatives.  She was also given her Soviet citizenship once again.  Their stay in Soviet Georgia was unpleasant, thanks to the feuding relatives, Lana and Olga returned to the US in 1986.  And since then, Lana vowed never to return to the Soviet Union ever again.  

During her last years, Lana lived in seclusion until her death.  Lana Peters died on November 22, 2011 in Richland Center, Wisconsin of colon cancer.