-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jan W. Tromp" <jan.tromp@...>
> Hi Yoël,
>
> Let me first say that your writing is to me not offensive.
>
> Who is right and who is wrong is for me impossible to say. All parties use
> propaganda. A sure fact was the killing of a Dutch Cameraman (Stan
> Storimans) by the Russians using a cluster bomb. The Dutch government
> officially investigated this incidence. The Russians deny the facts as
> usual.
> I have not heard any comment by Gergiev on this, though he has been the
> principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for many years
> and there still is an annual festival in Rotterdam that carries his name.

Dear Jan,
I continue to spend my life trying to convince my ISP
that I do indeed have problems. Right now I am writing NOT from my e-client but
from the website of my ISP.
Therefore, I believe, a Cc is going to you and how many copies to the list, I
know not.

I totally understand right now even better your point.
In addition to the fact that all musicians are human beings and members of
ethnic, religious, linguistic, etc.
groups, there is the very specific conflict here that Gergiev is an ethnic
Ossetian and, as you say, principal conductor or the Rotterdam.

Indeed, when I originally read the article about Gergiev in the NY Times, I felt
that he should have expressed a wider perspective: (1) informing the West (which
was lop-sidedly pro-Georgian without recognition of decades of Ossetian
suffering [being divided between Russian and Georgia]) of a historical
perspective and (2) taking specific note of Russian atrocities. Off-topic, I--as
an American--wish that John McCain would have done the same. Instead when Sen.
Obama asked that both sides control themselves, he was attacked as a
semi-traitor and a naive man by the Republicans.

All such matters are very complex. And of course reporters and NGO members, etc.
all get killed in such endless wars (in addition to massive civilian
sufferings).

Best wishes and thanks for the diaeresis,
Yoël