High Life

14 March 2009

Takeover time

Wars nowadays are fought by the poor in order to make Halliburton stockholders richer. Arms dealers have replaced hedge-fund honchos as the new elite. This is the bad news. The good is that the Russians are not coming to Gstaad after all. They’ve been trapped back home by the collapsing economy just as surely as Paulus’s gallant Sixth Army was back in ’43. Not that I’m exactly crying over the news. Revelling in schadenfreude is a mug’s game, but once in a while, and only in exceptional circumstances, it can be fun. The idea that these brutes with their megayachts, private jets, expensive hookers and garish properties in England and the South of France managed to change the way people perceive wealth, is reason enough to smile, however wintry the smile may be. These people were and are simply awful. And those who ran behind them flunkey-like trying to pick up loose change even worse. The port of St Tropez was always full to those of us with classic, beautiful sailboats in order to accommodate nouveaux riche slobs.

Yes, it’s schadenfreude time in more ways than one. David Campbell, head of Everyman Books, was telling me how his business is up 25 per cent. This is the best news I’ve had since you know what happened in May 1940 around a place called France. More books being sold and fewer oligarchs around is as good as it gets. Now if we could have another Saddam go down and give some order to those who finance Islamists like Lashkar e-Taiba — the Saudi ruling family — it would get even better. Politics have been in my mind of late, as my friend Stanley Weiss had a chalet full of people who’d rather read than bulls**t. Stanley and I met 45 years ago. He made a fortune in Mexico prospecting manganese, and, to show you the type of fellow he is, he included the taxi driver who told him where to look while shooting the breeze. I always thought Stanley a big-time CIA man because I don’t know if manganese is found in places such as Laos, Vietnam, Brussels, Tehran, London, Beirut, Cairo, even Pyongyang, places he visits rather regularly. He had that wonderful writer couple Jung Chang and Jon Halliday staying, David (Everyman) Campbell and Nick Spencer, the only man over 70 to climb more than 23,000 feet. We had lotsa fun, lots to drink, and some incredible skiing as the white stuff keeps coming down like never before.

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Anon

March 12th, 2009 10:22am Report this comment

'This is the best news I’ve had since you know what happened in May 1940 around a place called France'

A child could write better prose than Taki. What hold does Taki have over the Speccie?

David Short

March 12th, 2009 5:22pm Report this comment

Anon, he has never cashed a Spectator cheque and I have a feeling the new management feel 'privileged' to go to the Savoy with him...

M. Hristov

March 13th, 2009 4:31pm Report this comment

I suppose Taki likes to see comments about his sympathies being trotted out. When you are that rich who cares about a few dead people. Who cares about history. Who cares about morality. He must feel above all that. He must laugh at the idea that it might affect him.

Taki, I remind you that we are all mortal. Something that you would have found out if you had decided to criticise the arrivistes of the 1940s, the murderous Nazis. Instead you can make do with the children of a few elite ex-soviet 'communists' who were able to take advantage of extreme capitalist views, foisted on them by the neo-cons, to make serious money.

Now they've gone you have to attack the Saudis. Petty, petty, petty.

No more Anti-Semitism, please. It is not only morally indefensible but vulgar, vulgar, vulgar. Not to mention extreme bad manners.

Christian W

March 13th, 2009 9:40pm Report this comment

I for one like the mix of high life, critizism of noveau riche and non-PC comments.
Though I wouldn't mind a little less antisemitism and skip stuff like calling the invasion of France a good thing.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

Morgan Kane

March 15th, 2009 1:05pm Report this comment

All the money, yachts and Anderson & Sheppard blazers in the world can't deodorize the stench of an ex-con with the Weltanschauung of an SA street thug and the face of a greasy waiter.

ALKAN KIZILDEL

March 15th, 2009 5:18pm Report this comment

Taki,self-styled arbiter of fashion and a member of the highest(!) ranks of European Aristocracy is ranting about uncultered Arabs as usual.
He should do well to remember that his ship owner compatriots used to lick the a... of the Saudies. I also wonder how his compatriots looked when they first arrived at Ellis Island in early 1900s ? Taki should also remember the immortal lines of another Greek albeit one from a very different mould than Taki,Constantine Kavafy:
“ And now, what’s going to happen to us without the barbarians ? They were, those people, a kind of solution “
(Waiting for the Barbarians)

ALKAN KIZILDEL

March 15th, 2009 5:34pm Report this comment

Taki,self-styled arbiter of fashion and member of the non- existing Greek aristocracy, is as usual ranting about uncultured Arabs and Russians...
"Paulus's gallant sixth Army" makes me laugh: in reality a horde of murderers...“ Taki would do well to remember the immortal lines of Constantin Kavafy, a Greek fom a very different mould than Taki: " And now, what’s going to happen to us without the barbarians ? They were, those people, a kind of solution “