So much has happened since I last posted.

We've had a political earthquake in the United States, apparently driven by "demographic blowback" and the desire for change.

And a succession of real earthquakes in New Zealand has shaken the islands like a set of maracas, their dire effects compounded by horrendous storms. (Above is Kaikoura in calmer times.)

By comparison, our little lives in KL seem composed of trivialities.

On the day the US results came in, we went to watch L'exercice de l'etat (known in English as The Minister) at the Alliance Francaise. It turned out to be very apt.

Bertrand Saint-Jean, the minister in question, is "a modern tragic hero", whose "stamina and moral fibre are put to the test by a seemingly unending series of disasters and sly political manoeuvres that slowly whittle away his convictions and diminish him as a human being, until he ends up, as virtually all politicians do, as a mere warped shadow of his former self".

"The state devours those who serve it..."

Even the good, it seems, don't thrive in this environment. And the not so good...?

As that same critic notes, this film depicts "the odyssey of a statesman in a world that is ever more complex and hostile. Speed, power struggles, chaos, economic crisis... Everything connects and collides with everything else. One emergency comes hot on the heels of another... The film is interested less in denouncing small personal ambitions than in projecting the climate of generalized emergency and mutual incomprehension into which France has been plunged by the crisis... Constantly losing influence in face of financial groups, and credibility in the eyes of a large section of public opinion, the state is reduced to an image, an indefinable 'function', a permanent exercise in communication."

The angry aftermath of the 2008 crisis is still very palpable in this movie -- as it is the world over, it seems. All that pent-up rage. And now the dam has been breached.



Later that week, we also watched The Hunt, a Danish movie starring Mads Mikkelsen. It's set in a another of those not always easy to love communities, the kind that, in your nasty moments, you might imagine electing Trump. Yes, there's plenty of camaraderie, but it's mainly of a white, male, drinking, hunting kind. Yes, there's plenty of community spirit -- until you stray across its community-dictated, evidence-immune boundaries.

This is an apparently nice community, but "[t]he self-righteousness of those eager to believe the worst [namely, unfounded allegations of child abuse] is as galling as it is believable. The movie suggests that the solidarity of the village's condemnation is a measure of individual uncertainty. It's a matter of finding safety in numbers."

Hmmm... Self-righteousness and blind responses to uncertainty. What does that remind you of?

Luckily, we also had a concert. Schumann's Piano Concerto, charmingly played by David Fray, and Bruckner's 4th Symphony, erecting a "vast cathedral in sound" through extraordinarily rich orchestral depth and colour.

As you might expect from a symphony subtitled "Romantic", the Bruckner was redolent of the genre that coloured my undergrad years. The programme quotes the composer's description of the opening: "A citadel of the Middle Ages. Daybreak. Reveille sounds from the tower. The gates open. Knights on proud chargers leap forth. The magic of nature surrounds them. Forest murmurs. Bird songs."



Yep. It's all there. All the German Romantic tropes in spades. So beautiful, so evocative.

And so smothering to those who live within their imposed confines, and so very destructive when applied to politics...

Let's change the subject...

In local news, we have a new pedestrian bridge... KL is notoriously hostile to pedestrians, but now and again we see the signs of a more enlightened attitude, and here is one more. It offers great views of the monorail.



This was also the week of a serendipitous durian cendol, picked up on the roadside near Chow Kit market. Why have we never seen this place? The cendol was excellent.

And we checked out two new cafes. The Belgium Taste Chocolate Cafe, in Putra Mall, where we had, appropriately, chocolate pancakes. And Wild Honey, the new Pavilion branch of a Singaporean institution renowned for its all-day breakfasts. I was pretty happy with my spinach and goat's cheese salad and Alfonso tea (black tea with mango), and the menu is extensive and interesting, so I'm guessing we'll be back.



Meanwhile, New Zealand's in the thick of it... We're so hoping it won't be long before that beautiful Kiwi calm and normality are restored.