The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier.1957 348pg

12/7/25

The novel opens in Le Mans where our narrator, John, an English academic, is on holiday. his new friend is a French count, Jean de Gué. taking all of John’s clothes and possessions with him and leaving his own in their place. Jean’s chauffeur Gaston arrives, ready to drive him home to his château. de Gué.

 The glassworks is facing financial ruin. John says he had years of training in French and spoke the language and had studied the history. John had told Jean that his life was empty, Jean had lent me his name, his possessions, his identity.

When Jean gets back to his chateau his wife Francois and sister Blanche had thought he was not coming back from Paris as he had not phoned them. They do mention that his hands are cleaner and he smells different.  Marie Noel the daughter is worried that she may have measles that could cause harm to the unborn baby. Now we learn that Jean and Francois had married soon after liberation. The relationship with his sister Blanche is difficult.

Jean insists on them opening the presents he brought from Paris  at the table but this is an error as one to his brother in law is an elixir against impotence and in Blanches is a message for Bele his mistress. Marie Noel was very happy with her gift a  book The Little Flower  1897 about St. Theresa the making of a saint. Part of this family were devout Catholics.

Jeans mother tells him that her late husband was always in a better mode after he returned from his mistress and so encourages him to keep a mistress.

First he tell them he got a good agreement from Carvelet and then phones Paris and discovers that the only contract he can get they results in  producing at a loss. He knows Blanche heard the conversation on her phone extension.

He goes to the bank to learn about the family assets which are in minus but has  seen the family papers in the bank safe. That If Florence produces a son the Inheritance comes to the family head and if Florence dies the same. The verrerie(glassware factory) was important for the status of the family and the jobs of the workers.

1952 They mention rabbits dying with the plague of myxomatosis this was caused by a French physician, Paul-Félix Armand-Delille, released infected rabbits on his estate as a form of pest control, causing massive decline of rabbit numbers in Europe.

This is 15 years after the German occupation. Jean goes into the master house at the verrerie and sees it just left frozen in time after the death of Maurice Duval. the almanac is showing 1941 and furniture and boxes of books. Duval was taken in the middle of the night and shot by his own country' men, cut to pieces and thrown in the well. Julie tells him that she was accused of being a collaborator as she helped a young German boy soldier launder his uniform so he would not get into trouble about a stain on it. Jean de Gue had been an officer in the underground but left people like Julia to cope with the Nazi's.

His watch strap broke and he threw it into the fire and retrieved it suddenly and  burned his hand so that he could avoid taking part in the hunt the next day. The hunt is led by his brother and amongst other thing Jean is there and has no control of Cesar who ran into the forest and sent the birds up prematurely, wrecking the hunt and then  it rains and not many come to the gathering afterwards.

 Marie Noel had  disappeared and gone down the well but Cesar had stayed with her and one of the workmen saw the dog and realized to bring the sleeping child up with little glass articles she found.

Florence his wife died falling over the balcony and it was considered suicide but the daughter Marie Noel hung over the balcony to retrieve the locket that Jean had given Florence so it was  an accident. At the hospital the doctor told Jean he would have had a son. The countess appears to be pleased at the death of her daughter in law. The Countess had become an opium addict. Jean tells her that she must stop the opium as he need her to  take over running the house. She immediately get stuck in to inviting guest to the funeral. 

Bela had bandaged his burned hand and now Blanche also. He saw the old photos of themselves as children and Maurice Duval was a finer person than Jean. Maurice was killed through jealousy not because he was a collaborator with the Germans as many decent  French were collaborators to stay alive.  With the armistice murder of him was seen as heroic. Papa had given Maurice the position of master of the verrerie and Blanche was attracted to him.    Blanche he tells to move to the masters house and take over running the foundry she is the  capable one. She can be artistically innovative and open it to tourists instead of delivering scent bottles at a loss to Carvalet.

 Paul and Renee can go and live their lives. Paul had taken over the foundry as he felt responsibility to the family business.  Even  Marie Noel says that now that Mamam died everyone is getting what they want.  

" I haven't been saddled with a baby brother and have you to myself. "

A phone call from Jean de Gué who saw the death of Florence in the press. Only a week has passed since Jean left John drugged asleep in the hotel bedroom. John meets Jean at the masters house at the foundry, John says he loved Jeans family. Jean says unlike England their country was invaded by the enemy.   John and Jean change clothes. John gets his car back.  He visits Bele who tells him she realized he had changed.                                                           Jean explains that John hasn’t been whistling to César in the correct way and this is why he hasn’t been obeying his commands.

 What if John and Jean weren’t doubles after all?

 Jean tells John that he has emptied John’s bank account, sold his flat and furniture in London and resigned John’s position as university lecturer – in other words, destroyed John altogether, because John never really existed and is no longer necessary.

The fall of Roman Britain and why we speak English 2022 176pg

 1812/25 

Rome's conquest of Britain started in 77CE with Emperor Claudius and departed in 410 CE . Thus 333 years.

410CE under ineffective Emperor Honorius  of Western Roman Empire was sacked by the Visigoths under Alaric1

The Anglo-Saxon language seems to have been introduced onto the island after the fall from the Roman Empire. Romans conquered territories for glory, not for economic reasons and never really pacified it.

 

Julius  49 to 44 BCE   Vespacius   69  CE  

Augustus 27BCE        Titus  79 CE

Tiberius  14CE           Domician   81 CE

Caligula 37CE          

Claudius 41 CE           410 CE  Rome sacked       

Nero  54  CE               by  Aleric King of the Visigoths.

Galba 68 CE

Otho  69 CE

Aurilus Vitalus 69 CE

Britain is the largest island in Europe. Seas can be both a barrier and a highway. In warmer periods the sea is higher and the last land bridge between the continent and Britain was 8000 years ago. Migration by boat was limited to  carrying one family with essential property children and farmstock. Single raiding vessels could reach the right areas and flee back with the loot. This is different from organizing a fleet. Manufacture of ships requires infrastructure location, materials and technology. The best known invasion is of Julius Caesar in 55BCE. He had 80 invasion ships. Ships were made entirely of oak. Fleets were scattered in storms. They ran out of  food and the ships were damaged.

43ACE Claudian invasion with 40 thousand men and 3,000 tons of grain, but this only was be navigable the right season of the year.

We have evidence that women moved more than me as the "married out." Farming population stayed put. The Mediterranean migrants were fitter as they had better farming technology and could support bigger farming population. 

Cicero quote-To  understand Latin is a mark of Roman Citizen but in England by 700 Latin was  a dead language. Christian liturgy would reinforce Latin. The use of Vulgar Latin had been widespread in some regions like Bath. The presents of 50thousand militia added to the province importance.

The Old English (Anglo Saxon)spoken in post Roman England is a west Germanic language with grammar more like modern German. Anglo Saxon must have been introduced after the Romans left. Vulgar Latin was only spoken by an elite who disappeared. The Roman army constructed 9,000km of roads in Britain. The embarked on a ambitious building program of  a military nature , like forts at key river crossings, legion bases, ports, lighthouses. Towns grew around the bases.  no great officer of state, or high ranking bureaucrat  can be traced back to British origin. There was an indifference of the Roman authorities to the welfare of their British subjects as Romans still regarded the Britains as semi-barbarians. Later Norman French did not replace English although did influence it. The Roman elite did not accept British born Romans as equals. The indigenous people reciprocated with hostility.

In Rome successful politician were usually also generals. Newly elected consuls were awarded a province and a army. Conquests led to loot and personal glory and hence political power and influence. Slave traders notoriously followed the Roman armies. A Triumph with a Roman street parade was the ultimate acknowledgment of military prowess. The modern word emperor comes from the roman world conqueror. In conquest the importance of glory outweighed economic and  strategic advantages.

It took 37 years and 9 commanders to thoroughly conquer Britain compared of Caesar's conquest of Gaul in 8 years.

It needed a garrison of 55,000men or 12% of the Imperial army all for a province that had 4% of the Empires land. Britain resisted incorporation into the Empire and the sense of Romanization failed.

60/61 BCE Boudiccan Revolt at the  time of burning Londonium it had a population of  10,000 and was a booming mercantile centre.  125 to 130 ACE Londonium was burned down again during Hadrian's reign. Valuables seem to have been stripped before the fire spread but also looters would steal.

 Insurrection came primary from the Roman system itself, there were examples that Legions had mutinied before. Records were not left of the fate of the 9th Legion damnacio memoriae - officialdom erasing problematic people or events. In Rome this practice usually applied to traitors , criminals, religious or political offences. The 9th Legion had been in Britain for almost a century and many men  probably had roots in the province and unofficial wives and dependents and they expected to retire in Britain on grants of land. Marching them south may have caused rumours that they were being taken off the island and caused the mutiny between108CE and 120CE The rebelled attacked London and were put down by loyal forces. Mutineers and runaway slaves attend to attack symbols of authority.

Military engineers may build a wall for a military function but also to demonstrate status like monumental gateways. Greater London was full of high status  buildings. London walls were more than 3 km long and the largest Roman constructions were in London. There were multiple coastal defenses but they have been eroded by the sea. These provided protected anchorages and defense against pirates. They also had strongpoints to tax unofficial ship -borne trade. The army had to be fed and soldiers paid irrespectively. The army in Britain proved to be ill-disciplined and were kept expending their surplus energy building walls.

209 The tried invading Scotland  but the scattered tribes offered no strategic target  so they had a grinding guerilla war.

The Empire never solved the problem of succession and in the 3rd Century was under short reigning warlords. It now had to evolve into something new or cease to exist. It had no constitutional  way of removing incompetent leaders.

Technically the Senate paid soldiers salaries in the name of the Roman people but over time the soldiers relied more on loot. Buying land is an end in itself to enhance dignitas not an investment. The Empire had the habit of press ganging barbarians into the Roman army. With the general collapse of the Empire trade with Britain and the continent declines. 

With the disappearance of Classis Britannica . This was a fleet that protected both sides of the channel.  Rome lost control of the channel and pirates and Saxon sea raiders started.

Climate change at this time also put the Empire into stress. Warm climate was favorable and cold was unfavorable. High precipitation was good, however low precipitation that resulted in decreasing agricultural output caused migration from badly hit regions, bringing , spreading war and disease. Pre-industrial Empires grew in agricultural rich regions. Migration resulted in " barbarians from the fringes moving into the civilized "imperial centres. They lacked the capacity to store food, and moving food to places needed was difficult. 

When at the end of the 3rd Century the rainfall and temperature recovered we see the Roman Republic had a period of expansion

 

 Few Emperors died of old age so they were  inevitably paranoiac. The Empire had been founded on exploitative conquest. Rome attacked Britain for all the wrong reasons, as other was not strategic or economic benefits to be gained, but personal status and loot. The Claudian invasion in 43 CE and battle of Medway succeeded.

London went up in flames twice in the First Century. The first by tribal worriers the second by mutineers. The Romans shut the British elites out of important imperial or provincial positions. Postings to Britain received less enthusiasm as chasing bands gangs of bandits and insurrectionist around Britain would never bring fame glory loot and advancement. Britain became a territory of exploitation of metals and agricultural produce.

350CE  After this disintegration is shown from archeology.  By the 4th Century most soldiers were recruited locally married locally and had children and aged parents .Desertion was common amongst unpaid soldiers and were a source of bandits.

Lenin quote - every society is 3 meals away from collapse. People buried valuables but never returned to reclaim them. Long distance trade collapses and with depopulation and mass migration. The whole monetary and economic cycle existed to serve the army.  With the taxation system collapsing the Romans would settle mercenaries on land with local wives. 406 the Barbarian invasion of Gaul created a crises in Britain.

 541CE Justinian plague, was bubonic plague that started  when he was Emperor.

Ascent to Power by David L Roll 2024, 446pg

How Truman emerged from Roosevelt's shadow and remade the world.  11/12/25

Born 1884 in Lamar, Missouri his grandfather was a slave owner they were Presbyterians.. They moved to Independence Missouri. He acted as a Shabbos goy for Jewish Neighbors. Graduating at  school he worked at a bank as he had no money to go to collage. When  his father died he ran the  farm for a decade.  Aged 33 he went to reenlist  in 1917 leading his Missouri National Guard where he earned respect with the Irish and German Catholic soldiers he led into combat till Armistice day. Returned home and joined Eddie Jacobson in the haberdashery business which failed and he took on himself to pay of the debt. He started his political career as a county judge then got into the senate.

FDR doctor warned him to make a good choice for  Vice President and he would not survive a 4th term. FDR wanted to remain head of the Army to the end he lasted 82 days after the election. He chose Harry Truman as Harry had a reputation in the New Deal where he had dealt with Harry Hopkins and he set up a committee to check that the armaments companies were not overcharging the government and saved the fortune. Harry was 60 when he became the 33rd  President with  no planning for the role. He had been reluctant to accept the position  of  Vice President.

Truman, before Pearl Harbour attack had set up the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program and had saved the taxpayer 10 to 15 billion in military spending. Look magazine called him one of ten most valuable civilians to help the war effort. In FDR forth election campaign he was against Dewey and could not take a chance. The 4th FDR term was with the smallest crowd as it would be an austere no frills affair. Despite FDR  health he went to Yalta at a time when Zhukov was only 50 miles from Berlin. 

On the way FDR met Ibn Saud who told him that the Arabs would never allow a Jewish State however he was the first head of state to form a close relationship with the king and Britain would not control Saudi Oil. 

 1945 April 12,,Truman was inaugurated. He sent the car to fetch his wife and daughter to be present. It would take another 6 month to beat Germany and still a year and a half to beat Japan? This was  the consensus of the army Chiefs. They were already planning Operation Downfall to invade Japan.  The war would only end with Unconditional Surrender.

Harry Hopkins was the best person who could tutor Truman on the situation. They knew each other from the New Deal years in 1933 when Hopkins was in Missouri directing laborer's to Public Works jobs. Truman had told the FDR  staff that he was keeping them all on.  Hopkins advised him he must slowly appoint his own people and so the first change he made  was secretary of labour Francis Perkins was replaced by  Clinton Anderson. Truman did not want a women in the cabinet. She had held this post for 12 years and had established Social Security.

The first speech that Truman gave at a join session of Congress and on the radio he scored a triumph despite not having FDRs skills. With Molotov in the Oval office he said the US could not agree to an unelected Polish government, so already there was a postwar divergence between the US and Soviets. Through the Red Cross, Himmler had proposed a surrender on the Western side but to keep fighting the Russians. But Truman, Churchill agreed it has to be a complete surrender.

1945 April 30, Hitters death followed by May 8th V-E day end of war in Europe. Truman gave a solemn speech that day and that the war against Japan has to be completed. The day ended with a birthday party for Truman with some of his pals and the Whitehouse cook presented him with a birthday cake. ~Afterwards Truman went into the kitchen that thank both the black and white staff. The old staff observed this was the first time since Herbert Hoover and it gave them the feeling that he really understood them.

Henry Morgenthau had plans to not rehabilitate Germany's economy and turn them into an agricultural country.

When Truman went to Potsdam he had an afternoon to wander around bombed out Berlin and its stench and saw processions of hundred of old men, women and children wondering aimlessly along the autobahn and the depths of despair. The meeting took place in the Cecilienhof Palace build by Wilhelm II for his son. A council of foreign minister would negotiate the peace treaties. The Soviets realized that they had to speed up making the Atomic bomb as Leo Szilard had warned on Nuclear Proliferation. The Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs had handed over all the information needed on Atomic research. Truman said that they would not recognize of Eastern Europe unless that were  reorganized under democratic lines. Harry Hopkins was sent to Moscow and reported back that it was all window dressing as the Society would never allow free elections in Poland. Truman allowed Poland to take a large swath of Germany as compensation for Soviet land taken from Poland and Germany would permanently be spit in and never unified.

Douglas Mac Author was appointed commander of all Allied forces, ground , sea and air. This he would command Operation Downfall, by FDR over 5 Star General Admiral Nimitz and Truman just accepted this.

Before the atomic bomb was dropped it was discussed if they should warn the Japanese where it would land but were worried that POWs would be brought to that spot. They had to plan 2 bombs to be convincing the the bomb was not a one time thing but there were lots more, even though it would be more than a week for the 3rd one. Truman considered that the saving a quarter of a million young American soldiers was worth Japans loss of a couple of cities. Stimson also warned Truman that they should be wary of the Soviets in the far  east and especially Korea. The same Polish Question of the Far East.  The  Soviets planned to occupy Manchuria, North Korea and the Sakhalin and Kerile Islands. 

1945 August 28 US occupation of Japan began at Atsugi, where a Airforce base was later set up. MacArthur set up  as Viceroy over the 80 million Japanese. In Korea north of parallel were ordered to surrender to the Soviets and south to the Americans. North Vietnam to surrender to the Nationalist Chinese and south to France.

The Reforms that were brought to Japan were amazing and Japan had no way of resisting them breaking up the conglomerates and oligarchs political reforms that would play well in America. The idea was to build Japan into an anti Communist economic powerhouse and later we saw the "Japanese Miracle" 

Back home Truman had to deal with returning to peace time production and demobilizing 12.2 million  active soldiers by the end of 1945. Also 1.8 million workers lost their war time jobs. This was urgent as it had been predicted the war would last another year, even though the conversion to peace  plans were ready. There had been price controls and they could not be eased to quickly. Because of war time wage controls companies had made big profits and unions would press for wage increases. There was a post war demand for consumer products and big war time savings thus inflation could be expected.

The Marshal Plan amongst other things resulted in American products being sold to Europe and forced Europe to cooperate laid the groundwork for economic integration. It created economic stability with democracy. It helped the rebuilding of factories and made communism less attractive.

1944 June The GI bill had been signed by FDR. Truman appointed Bradley revitalized  the Veteran Administration  between 1945 and 1947 before he replaced Eisenhower as chief of Staff. However he did nothing to improve the benefits of African Americans and female Veterans. Vets could get guaranteed loans for farms and businesses, but black veterans had to struggle for the GI rights. The GI bill changed many lives and democratized the country this is what made The Greatest Generation, but it would take another year before Truman addressed civil rights.

Truman wanted Eleonor Roosevelt on his team as she had great influence with Negro voters. She was put on  the US delegation for the first UN conference in London.

Because Congress failed to deal with labour relations and preferred Truman to deal with it through executive orders it resulted in massive work stoppages, inflation and product shortages and Truman approval rating dropped.

Steel was important to the health of the US economy and all the steel mills workers went on strike. An increase in the price of steel was authorized and this solved the problem..

Ernest Bevin the British foreign minister confronted the Soviets especially about their occupation of Azerbaijan in norther Persia. The US realized that it needed sufficient force ready to use and the concept of Soviet Containment started a idea by George Kennan. Churchill said that Russia does not want a war but wants the fruits of war and indefinite expansion. Negotiations should be conducted with strength backing up the west.

Truman had to deal with a coal strike and also a strike of railway workers. Clifford Clark  wrote a speech for Truman where he said this was not a contest between the government and Labour but between Labour and the management of Whitney and Johnson. The result is that thousand will not be able to get back to their loved ones and people will die. He announced that as Commander in Chief he would get Congress to order the army to operate the trains. The strike ended the next day. The Union of mineworkers negotiations between the Union and Operators got nowhere  so Truman ordered the Federal government to get involved. This gave mineworkers federal  safety rules, better wages and health funds and  retirement packages. Thus the union could claim a victory.

By executive order Truman establish in 1946 The Presidential  Committee on Civil Rights. 1947 At Lincoln Memorial, Washington was the first time the US president had addressed a NAACP  platform, next to its leader Walter White, and Eleonor Roosevelt. This event had been coordinated with the White House and Truman promised to deliver a major declaration of government policy in front of thousands of spectators and over numerous radio stations 

 In 1948 he signed an executive order integrating the army, and banned discrimination in Federal hiring.

George Marshall was put in charge of Americas foreign policy because of his stature, judgement and ability. 1947 Marshall arrived in Moscow after stops in Paris and Berlin where he had seen the winter of 1946/1947was the coldest since 1880 with coal shortages in England and throughout the continent, with unheated home , frozen pipes and deaths of exposure. Germanies capacity to produce coal, steel and machinery was the key to Europe's recovery and would provide a market for German goods. The Soviets wanted Western Europe to slide into ruin and chaos rendering it ripe for Soviet influence and domination.  The US had to finance so they could get the supplies to sustain life and stop disintegration. In the end a total of 93 billion worth of surplus good over a period of 3 years was supplied. This was supposed to be the Truman Concept  but Truman said that the worst Republican can vote for it if it is named after the General. The plan was offered to Eastern Europe and Soviet who did not want western influence Molotov rejected it and Stalin forces 6 Soviet satellites not to take it.  At the same time George Kennan in Japan said this same  plan has to stabilize and revitalize Japans economy.

In a speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, Truman for the first time called out that the Soviets were the villain of the Cold War.

1947 The Rio Pact, officially the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), was a  collective security agreement for the Americas, Organized by Marshall and Truman delivered a speech. This mentioned Article 5 that later became part of NATO.

1947 To secure these  rights was a long awaited document and became the basis of Civil Rights after that it  that catapulted   civil rights to the forefront and was a political bombshell that spilt the Democratic Party. Even FDR with all his political skills would not have risked alienating the Southern Democrats.

Berlin Crises. to be added 1948/49

 Election of  Truman 

The polls pundits and media were predicting  for of the Republican Thomas Dewey , Governor of NY to win an overwhelming victory so it was not easy to raise money for Truman. The leaders of the Black Americans decided that Truman was really serious when he talked about civil Rights and knew he would not be getting support from Southern Democrats and called for a collection to support him.. Knowing that more women would be voting in the election than ever before and women were worried about rising food prices " Housewives for Truman" was organized. In his whistle stop campaigns Truman accused the "Wall Street big business and glutens of privilege " which was a code name for Tom Dewey. In farming areas he warned the the previous Republican Administration of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover were "do nothing" governments. When their were bumper grain harvest the farmers were forces to sell it immediately at whatever price was offered because the government had not build storage bins. He took part in the Iowa ploughing competition to show he was once a dirt farmer like them. While Dewey knew nothing about growing wheat, corn and soybeans.

In Hollywood Ronald Reagan the president of the Screen Actors guild introduced him. The Berlin Wall Crises was on and Truman claimed that he was the best to deal with Soviet aggression. Dewey also campaigned on trains but only stopped at big cities. The Day after the election the Chicago Daily Tribune came out with headlines Dewey beats Truman. Once Truman won he no longer felt he was under the shadow of Roosevelt. His inauguration speech was meant to be on domestic issues. However his advisors told him he had to talk about  foreign policy for the next 4 years. The setting up of the United Nations,  Marshall Plan and the defense of Europe and by setting up NATO. To contain the Soviets a 4 point plan was set up to improve growth of underdeveloped nation by taking the them technical  assistance, since more than half the population lived in poverty and misery, This was a forerunner for AID and the Peace Corps.

In Japan Mac Arthurs Deconstruction Law where he  wanted reform and  purge the Industrial leaders who had supported the war. However Truman gave instructions must raise production to get the economy going. Joseph Dodge a Detroit banker who had been successful in Germany was sent to  Japan. Truman had supported MacArthur's reforms in Japan between 1945 to 1947 giving women the  vote, free elections , land reform, private property protection and constitutional rights.

Truman now had another reason to recognize Israeli it had taken all Jews from displaced peoples camps in occupied Germany. Now there were Jews and others in these camps who had fled from Eastern Europe. Truman's executive order was to open a  consulate near the camps to allow them to get US visas. Thousand of exiled Polish Army veterans as well as Greek, and German expellees as well as people who had fled from the Far East. Truman had fought hard to help refugees despite the 1924 quota system.

Epilogue-- By winning the 1948 election Truman no longer felt under the shadow of FDR and could make his own decisions. He had been frustrated by Roosevelt dereliction of duty in not informing him of both foreign and domestic affairs before he died. Roosevelt was always to be careful that nobody else took credit for any accomplishment.

Roosevelt was the first President who had a library opened in his name.  Truman had served 8 years minus 82 days.

In 1952 when Eisenhower was elected Truman immediately sent for him to help pass on the office in an organized way.

1965 Lyndon Johnson came to  the Truman Library in Independence Missouri where he sighed the Medicare Bill in Truman's presence. Both Truman and his wife were buried at his Library.

Note: This book  ends with Truman's only election to the Presidency   The transition of power from FDR to Truman was a remarkable success. The term from 1948 to 1952 is not covered.

Daughter of the Bamboo Grove : by Barbra Dermich 2025 300pg

 From China to America a true story of Abduction, Adoption and separation of twins. The harm of the one child policy has done to  China 3/12/25

In September 2000 a woman gave birth to twins in Hunan province, Geofeng village, Fangfang and Shuangjie, notorious one-child policy the rise of international adoption.

2017 The author was a journalist in NY for the Los Angeles Times, but had spent 7 years in Beijing. The story slowly unfolded that's 160,000 Chinese mostly girls had been adopted all over the world.1979 the Communist Party had a mystical belief that population control was the key to jump starting the economy. Slogan on the wall said The economy rises as the population falls and  Later, longer and fewer was another slogan. This was a policy simply not in the Chinese tradition and would only be lifted in 2015. Till mid 20 C 1 in 5 babies died before the age of a year.

Moa Zedong was a  from Hunan  the largest rice producing province in China,  born 1893 in Shoashan. 1927 he joined the Socialist youth league. The diversion of the workforce away from agriculture caused famine. 45 Million died in the Great Leap Forward. Then in the decade long Cultural Revolution caused the death of up to 2 million and displaced and damaged the economy ,only ended with the death of Moa in 1976

2000 In Geofeng village. Till 1960s there were still tigers in the mountains. Zanhau the oldest daughter born 1995 attended school but had to take care of her brothers so dropped out after and never mastered literacy. Second daughter born 1997 According to the law Zehau were supposed to wait 5 years before the second birth. Abortions were a common and inexpensive way of birth control. 

Need for a son A rural women could only be buried next to her husband in the Zengs cemetery only if she had a son. The status of the family in the village suffered by failure to produce a son, and this was a common cause of  a woman committing suicide. Sons were the ones who took over the farm and supported the parents Like with Fangfang she lived under a false name and fabricated age.  Goafeng had a bank a  bus station, cluster of government offices including the Family Planning one, a wet market where the floor was covered with the mess of newly slaughter animal, open 5 days a week for farmers to sell their produce as well as counterfeit Nike athletic shoes. 

1979 Deng visited the US. He embraced socialism with Chinese characteristics all about making money. lifted controls on domestic travel, so you could move outside of the place you were registered. Migrants are expected home for the Lunar New Year and all industry closes for 15 days. Daughters move to the husbands family.

2000 was the year of the Dragon and people born that year would be strong, independent and destined to success and wealth. Citrus grew well and the family had fat quality pomelos, a source of cash. She gave birth to identical twins. Nobody in the family had, had twins. Identical twins comes from a single fertilized egg that splits, often the second child is a breech birth.

Heroes of the revolution were celebrated in the 50s purged in the 60s and rehabilitated in the 1970s

720 to 645 BCE Guaan Zhong and ancient Chinese philosopher boasted of his big nation, with vast territory and strong military forces to attain Supremacy. 1953 China briefly banned the import of contraceptives. The Party did not want to admit that the failed policy caused famine. They saw the booming population not as a miracle but as a nightmare. Thomas Malthus 1768 in Essay of principle of Population said the perpetual cycle of poverty as  population always outpaced food supply. The 1969 UN Population Fund aim was curbing population growth.

One Child Policy 

1968 Population Bomb by Paul Elhrich joined the chorus of doom. Sterilization of millions of men in India was unpopular, that in 1977 Indira Gandhi's Congress Party was booted out of office.

China's was poorer that many African countries at the time. China's GDP was $164 as against Taiwan $1,917 and the US of  $11,164 Reducing the population was considered easier that increasing the countries output. and in 1979 China's population just passed the billion mark. Family planning morphed into a monstrous organization and by 1990s it was estimated that eight three million Chinese worked at least part time for Family Planning. After giving birth to the first  child women were required to have a IUD inserted that could not easily be removed without the medical profession.  A second child received a fine and a civil servant could lose their job. It could result in punishment of their house being set on fire or pigs, chickens and oxen being confiscated. their tractor could be taken - you violate the policy your family could be destroyed. Forced abortions, and planning officers had quotas to meet. 

People were exhorted to exterminate class enemies that is anybody less poor or better educated. Rural china were not among the people clamoring for democracy in 1989 at Tlemamen Square. A pregnancy without a marriage certificate could be terminated and a fine had to be paid. $314 Billion was collected in fines and many rural jurisdictions were dependent on those fines for their budgets like small American town who set up speed traps to raise revenues. Legal marriage age was also raised in 1980 the wife had to be 20 and husband 22. In Hunan Province the law allowed for a second child if both parents were farmers.

If a child was not registered it could not receive an ID card to receive medical insurance open a bank account or even buy a railroad ticket. These were "black children" till 2015 when the One Child Policy was lifted and 30 million people belatedly received them. With parents getting jobs in cities 61 million children were left behind in villages.

Migrant women made up to 60% of the workforce, since they were not as useful for work on the farm, could be sent to earn cash for the family.

Female infanticide  was noted way back and was more common in times of famine as families did not want to pay a dowry or for the foot binding at the time. Sometimes things backfired as folktales tell of angry ghosts returning to kill sons. Under the Communist Party, Marriage law in 1950 explicitly banned killing newborns, prohibited polygamy, concubinage or forced marriage. However with the One child policy killing newborns returned. After 1991 China opened  up to International adoption. In some provinces there were 140 boys to 100 girls, thus 60 million girls were missing. No quite as large numbers of girls were hidden and not registered until 2015. Mothers were aunts, aunts were mothers, as people became adept to circumventing the rules.

Note 19C Europe up to 40% of babies were abandoned. The philosopher Rousseau disclosed that he had dumped 3 babies at a foundling home likely most died.

Enforcement of one child policy took place where the family was registered. Trafficking's was a long standing plague in China with thousand being kidnapped. In 2008 the year of the Beijing Olympics China boasted double digit growth. Family planning had taken  pigs and tractors now it was taking children. The issue  started when in 2005 when they dared to take a boy, and the parent was a well off person who stood up. The boy was returned malnourished covered with sores, but this opened up the floodgates. Families started to talk and organize. Their next miscalculation was when a girl was taken from a farmer who had married a young women  who was pregnant. He had been an early member of the party. he had kept the obligatory poster of Mao on his war long since. A big group brought a petition and there was an office in Beijing accepting petitions. A great rage against the local officials and challenged the system. There was a suspicion that the children had been trafficked for their organs.

2005 Kidnapping on a tip stopped a van with 12 sedated  babies which were taken to a hospital and the suspects arrested. Later 27 a total suspects were arrested mostly belonging to the same family. The suspects claimed they were selling to welfare institutions that were run by the government thus legitimate. 1991 China enacted a Adoption Law as children were piling up in orphanages. Most babies headed to the US. Like the Panda diplomacy where they supplied foreign zoos so this was a friendship building program. By 2005 the number explorted  was  7,906 babies the top country to adopt out, US ,Spain, Canada , France, UK, Dutch  and Australian were also destinations. The families wanted girls not boys and 95% of the babies were girls offered from China. Initially singles could adopt that opened the way to gay couples to adopt, and most came from the countryside where women tended not to drink or smoke, so were children of choice. 

At this stage young women leaving the countryside to work in industry were earning nearly as much as men and sending home the money. Finally the policymaker began to grasp the demographic catastrophe and even before 2015 stopped enforcement and fewer babies were abandoned. But there was big money in adoption. By 2006 the secrets of the adoption business spilled out into the public. Orphanages were required to look for birth parents for 60 days before putting them up for adoption and found a way of laundering these trafficked babies. The government temporary suspended adoptions from the Hunan Province while they investigated.

1997 Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule, but still enjoyed self rule.

The family got their first TV in 2007 and soon after that the 3 wheeled motorized cart that families used as it was cheap and could take produce to market. Most Chinese adults at this stage had cellphones. A fortune teller told them Fanfang was  alive would have a good future and one day they would see her. In adult life at 20 or 30 these women would want to know where they came from and how they got there.

The writer moved to Beijing and was the China correspondent she was a career women who put off having children till after 30. In 1979 the US normalized relation with China and news organization opened offices there. During the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics journalist had freedom to travel around the country. She interviewed people with AIDS caused by unnecessary blood transfusions. On one assignment she reported on lead poisoning in Hunan province.

1949 The Communist Party standardized Chinese but local dialects persists. In rural China the further up the mountain you go, the scarcer the facilities and shabbier the houses and  smaller the agricultural plots. Fangfang had a identical twin sister a look alike and perhaps she would succeed in finding her. By 2024 when China ended her international adoption over 160,000 had been sent out. Fangfang would have been 2 and a half a full year older than most adoptees.

1968 The Population Bomb by Paul Enrlich failed to materialize, the Chinese economic miracle caused hungry migrants to leave the countryside. In 2011 China's working population plateaued at 900 million. There were 7 males to 5 females. Sexually frustrated people are not conducive to social stability. Educated women , many chose to remain single. The one Child policy of 1979 was a billed as a temporary measure. In 2008 the Sichuan Province earthquake killed 69,000 people and thousands of children in shoddily build schools leaving rural families childless. People forced to get sterilized now mobilized a campaign to reverse vasectomies'. Fertility treatment was offered to menopausal mothers to get "replacement babies." In other disaster where parents were separated from babies and searching for them some ended up being kidnapped.

Urbanization had been more effective in keeping down birthrates than coercion. Thousands trashed Family Planning offices. In 2012 Mo Yan won the Nobel prize for the book Red Sorghum. A portrayal of rural China and its history, the same year that Xi Jinping became head of the CCP.

2013 couples were allowed to have a second child if one of the parents was an only child, finally they pulled the plug in 2015 as an active response to the aging population.

In Romania Nicolae Ceausescu had banned abortion and contraception believing that a high birth rate would lead to economic growth. After he was shot in 1989 by firing squad it was discovered that orphanages had  more than 170,000 children. As a religious Christian she felt a mission to adopt babies.

Till WW2 international adoption was rare, Noble Prize 1938 writer Pearl Buck who wrote  The Good Earth adopted 7 children in 1920s and advocated transracial international adoption. Italy sent 3000 children to the US as war orphans. In reality they were babies taken from unwed mothers by the Catholic Church. The largest program was from the Korean War1950 to 1953 under the help of an Evangelicals couple who sent abroad 200,000 Korean children half to the US. many of these children had been fathered by US soldiers. As the Vietnam war was winding down Operation Babylift brought 3,000 babies to the US. 

In the Post War baby boom pregnant young women in the US without husbands were  forced by maternity homes to sign away  at least 2.7million babies, between 1944 and 1975. In 1970 sex education in schools started and birth control became widely available. Single motherhood gained respectability. 1973 Roe v Wade. legalized abortion nation wide in the US. Less children became available at a time when there was a queue to adopt due to infertility and same sex marriage. 2002 Angelina Jolly adopted from Cambodia , Ethiopia and Vietnam and Madonna adopted 4 of her 6 children from Malawi.

Marsha. Families adopting in China would be in a group with a bus and a guide and she adopting parents receive a certificate of parental rights through abandonment and the birth parents have no legal claim on the child . When Marsha  saw an article in the press about a kidnapped twin she realized where Ester came from and shut down the Website. It was when Esther reached 16 that she was ready to meet her twin and in 2017, 8 years after the author had contacted Marsha that they returned the call and were ready to deal with the situation. Marsha was shocked that she had been an unwitting participant in a system tainted with corruption, a large money making venture. In the US adoptees are allowed to obtain the original birth certificate.2 a half year old Esther. The orphanage gave a story of the child's origin many were not true, everything she had been told about Esther was a lie. Marsha with her son Sam and his wife set  up a nonprofit Adopt a Child with a website. Also the Christian Alliance for  the Child, leading adoption agencies were started by missionaries, Evangelists and Baptists.  

The author organizes for them to visit the family and the all go to China to the village meet the family and the other twin. We learn a lot about China for example from 1949 Mao made China all stay on 1 time line. It is UCT 08.00 which is the Beijing area instead of 5 time zones. Births of fraternal twins are 3 times more frequent than identical twins where the zygote spits. Fraternal twins have 2 eggs and 2 sperms.  Identical twins have the identical DNA. Esther was told she was an early speaker and spoke Chinese which she could not remember at all. They had to visit on the 15 day holiday of the Lunar New year when the whole of China return to their villages to be with family and they travelled in 2019. Meeting her twin sister and finding out she had been loved and not abandoned also she felt she did not look like an American but could not speak Chinese. The Zeng family had the land they farmed even though the communist system did not give them outright ownership. They had no mortgage and no car. They remembered people dying of starvation. Moa death led to an end of collectivization and they were able to eat. Economic liberalization of the 1980s enabled new freedoms, the right to cultivate your own fields and to travel out of the village. Girls married out but boys stayed in the same village. younger Chinese had been forced to learn English at school but nervous of using it. When they visited an orphanage most of the children appeared to be disabled. It appeared that most people build big houses in the village but work in the cities and use them once a year. It is not uncommon for 1 identical twin to be gay and 1 strait. People were earning more than their parents and living longer. With internet is has become very easy to find people across the globe and DNA testing  confirms relationships. However not everybody wants to be found. Many return to China to discover their heritage and learn the language.

DNA is the best means of trying to trace birth parents and siblings. In 2009 the Chinese police set up a DNA system to stop child trafficking. Some adoptees want to be found other don't. Some were worried about the financial expectation of the birth family.

Twins: There is an entire study by academics across the disciplines on twins. Some countries have special register on birth of twins for future research. Twinsburg , Ohio hosts an annual summer gather of twins. The study most liked is of identical twins especially those separated in infancy something rare. Checking the difference of nature and nurture. Jewish twins born in 1933 in Nazi Germany separated when their parents divorces . One brought up in Nazi youth and the other on a kibbutz in Israel. Joseph Mengele experimented on 3000 mostly Jewish twins. Twins raised together will consciously want to be different. Twins raised apart grow more similar with age. No unusual for one of the identical twins to be gay. The challenge of being brought up with people of a different race.

Covid: Trump called this the China disease. China at first seemed to contain it and Xi's rhetoric was of the advancing East adn declining West. However China refused the foreign vaccine in favor of its own and was still in lockdown after 2021 when the rest of the world opened up. When China opened up because of the protests 1.4 million people died in 5 weeks. Covid started in Wuhan China in 2019. Covid Lockdown in US from March 2020 till  May 2023.. Nearly the entire US press core was expelled from China for reporting on Covid . China spurned the MRNA vaccines in favour of its own a product that proved ineffective. It was estimated that 1.4 million died in the 5 weeks after the lockdown ended in China. by 2022 there are more deaths than births. There are not enough women in China today, as many as 20 million bachelors.

Demographics: in 2022 there were more deaths than births in China. The same Family planning officers got a whiplash from the change to now encourage more births. So many girls are missing that there are not enough childbearing age women today. Children left in villages while there parents were working in cities did not have a happy childhood.

The ruling  Communist Party today considers the One Child Policy as one of the unspeakable blunders like the Great Leap forward adn Cultural Revolution. The Zengs congratulated themselves on flouting the one child policy. In the 35 years  it shattered marriages caused countless suicides of parents. Everyone was a victim or perpetrator. Sons know they were the cause of the sacrifice of their older sisters, leaving more than 20 million bachelors.

2023 China's economy can be described as stagflation or a malaise. Xi Jinping cracked down on private education as it promotes inequality. The political climate in China and Donald Trump in the US discourages travel between them.

 Time Line of this books

1921Sun Yat-sen tried to bring a modern democracy

1922 Chiang Kai-shek generalissimo  in 1949 became leader of Taiwan.

• 1949 Mao Zedong   Born 1893
  
• 1958 -1962 Moa's great leap forward resulting in between 30 to 45 mullion excess deaths.  
• 1966- 1976 Cultural Revolution. about 1.8 million of the most skilled people died in this.
• 1968 Population Bomb by Paul Elhrich 
• 1972 Nixon visited Mao in China
• 1973 Roe v. Wade,  US Supreme Court allows abortion. Less babies available for adoption.
• 1976 Hua Guofeng cautiously opened to the world and rehabilitated those purged from the cultural revolution
•  1978 Deng Xiaoping  introducing capitalist practices like Special Economic Zones (SEZs)  decollectivizing  agriculture. Free movement outside of registered place from 1985.
• 1979 Hong Kong reverts to China.  On country 2 systems supposed  to be for 50 years.
• 1979 -2015 One child policy 
• 1989 Tiananmen square massacre 
• 1991 China opened to international adoption
• 1993 Jiang Zemin. Expanded trade to every continent.
• 2000 Twins  Fangfang and Shuangjie, born.
• 2003 Hu Jintao.   Period of freer press, open economy, economic power, and development. 
• 2008 Beijing Olympics with promise of allowing   foreign reporters greater freedom. 
• 2009 Frog by Mo Yan a novel by a social critic. He won the Nobel literature prize in  2012.
• 2013 Xi Jinping current President. Priority Communist party not to lose control.
• 2013 The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the new Gospel of Adoption by Katheryn Joyce
• 2017 Went to take Ester to see her twin sister in Goefeng Hunan, China.
• 2020Jan Covid Lockdown till May 2023
• 2024 China stopped all international adoptions.
• 
  
• Israel had Covid from March 2020 till April 2022. Because Israel's a small country's with health system has been computerized for 30 years and the country would act  as a resource for the inoculation company who were given open access to all Israel information. Israel was the first country to get the vaccination.
• Barbara Demick is an American journalist .born 1959 She spent 7 years in Beijing  and then in Seoul as a reporter. Working for the NY Times and LA Times. Also wrote a book on Life in North Korea, as well as in Sarajevo during the war of 1992 to 1996. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

A Modest Harmony : Seven summers in a Scottish Glen by Sheila Gordon. 1982, 277 pg.

21/11/25 

The story is of Sheila and Harl Gordon and their 3 children David, Phillipa and Neil. Sheila was my late father's sister so these children are my first cousins. I read the book at the time it came out but now many years later I can appreciate it better. I knew the children as small kids in Johannesburg but later the left South Africa and Harl had done his medical internship in Edinburgh. They later  settled in New York. This book documents this area in the 1970s

She mentioned that they had received and inheritance from an old aunt who died, we knew the aunt Minka Rivkin who left her estate to 3 nieces just to show she was a feminist even in those days. Helen and Bob Hunter were good friends and they mentioned they might be keen to buy a home in a Glen  for their summer vacations. This house was where the Waterman lived who looked after the Lochs of the area but it was no longer used and the Waterboard put it up for sale on auction and Bob managed to get it for £5,000 for them.  The address was Glenauchen Cottage in Glencorrie by Glenogle in the county of Perthshire. The other attachment that Sheila had to Scotland was that they as babies had Scots nannies  as kids. Girls who came out to S. Africa  after WW1, there was a shortage of men and would usually marry Gold miners in Johannesburg.

Nearby the cottage is Loch Leven and it has a castle on an island where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned after she had Darnley strangled and had the cheek to marry Bothwell.  Glen is the Scots for valley and burn is a stream. A hour drive away was the coastal town of Largo from where Alexander Selkirk the original Robinson Crusoe came from.

Because they had colonial British accents and thee children American accents, the locals were not able to class categorize them , they were classless and they had no problem cutting over class barriers. It was also rumored in the glen that they intended to retire there. They had neighbors who sold them fresh eggs. Many of the pets were Jack Russell terriers raised for hunting hare and rabbit. In summer caravanning was a working class holiday  in these parts. The local library had plenty of books and they decided they wanted a break from TV and radio, while they read all the classis English writers. Neighbors wanted an explanation on the US president who in 1982 was Ronald Reagan.

A glebe is a piece of land attached to the clergyman house for him to graze  a cow or sheep. In Tudor time wood was cut down to build ships and houses and fuel. When fuel became short coal started being used as in Roman times. The lochs of Scotland are glacial. All  over the Highland are abandoned but and ben cottages from the days of the Clearances of the Crofter's by landlords  late 18C to mid 19C. These landless people went to Canada and Australia. Crofts or smallholding kept sheep inside in winter. Black Faced |Linton breeds were introduced who with the thick coated sheep could flourish outside in winter, as well as the Cheviot breed. The introduction of turnips as fodder and potatoes improved the lot of the poor. Sheep were so profitable that it was found to have sheep instead  of men on the land. Mid 11C Scotland was ruled by Malcolm 3rd who slew Macbeth. In 1314 at Bannockburn near Sterling. Robert the Bruce with a small force that defeated the larger cavalry of Edward 3rd. In the 18C Scotland developed a secularism against the religious furies Capitalism existed before Calvinism but people had to be frugal and economic to survive the  harsh environmental conditions. 

At  the end of summer they did not want to leave the house empty so rented it out to farm girls who works as accountants for the farms in the area. They were able to access the value of the farms and if the farmer had an eligible son would marry them and become good housekeeper. After that a young single couple moved in and they were worried that the glen would object to people there living in sin so it was left for the neighbors to assume the were married. Mr. Monroe an engineer in England  and English wife  visited and told them he    his grandfather  was the first Waterman in 1870 and his father took over the job and he was born in the house. He went to school in a one room school house with kids of all ages. Today kids are bussed  to schools in the nearest town, and a family lives in the old schoolhouse. The Scots have a greater respect for education and the working class is better educated than the Sassenach (English ) The famous Geddes Academy is in the town of Douleur. Patrick Geddes and son in law were a known architects and town planner and designed the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1919  and also worked with Meir Dizingoff in Tel Aviv.

Drove road are where cattle were driven along to England and toll gates took 2 pence per head of cattle, the Scots evaded tax by crossing away from border post.1603 James I, United the Kingdoms  brought about free trade  with Scotland. Under the land tenure system at the start of winter surplus cattle stock had to be sold off. Walter Scot wrote about this in the Two Drovers and Rob Roy  A drove could be up to 300 beasts better off drovers may have had ponies. Sunday Droving was prohibited when the church had great political power. When the steam engine came it replaced the droves. They heard that there was a Roman camp in the area and they found an Englishman at the Ardoch encampment who said he was following the route of Julius Agricola who had been on a campaign to subdue the Scots during the Antonine period.( Antonius Pius, Nerva, Trajan , Hadrian and Commodus 139-193 a period of 5 Emperors) There is evidence of lifted stone granaries and the invaders forced grain levies on the population. Julius Agricola was executed by Caligula for declining to do some work for him. Caesar first invaded Britain in 55BCE and Claudius in CE 43 and this was followed by 400 years of Roman dominion. There was a lot of intermarriage between Romans and the local women and Roman dress and Latin language and Roman Law developed here. 83CE the Romans  could not subdue the Scots tribes under Calgacus and so Hadrian's wall was build. Hadrian came personally in 122 CE and it took 6 years to build the wall. Scotland was made up of  4 people Picts , Scots, Britons and Angles formed Scotland and Christianity was introduced in 400 CE, After the Romans left the Scotti arrived from Ulster and the Angels from Northumbria, England.

Harl had grown up on a farm as a boy and knew hunting and after the Glorious Twelfth (August) hunting starts in Scotland and many come to do hunting. They were given a gift of a brace of grouse, cooked it had a flowery bouquet from the heather. "Long may your lum reek" There was the smell of woodsmoke and this is a Scots blessing as it means you have fuel to keep a fire going and your hearth warm.

Sheila found a strange smell in the barn one morning and again the next, a neighbour with a shotgun was looking for a fox that had got into his chickens killed a few and taken one. Now the chickens were in a sleister and stopped laying and the had no eggs to sell that week. Apparently only women can smell a fox and the men could not. They were busy clipping the sheep with electric clipper, once this had been a communal occasion with the whole glen coming together as you need lots of help and then lots of food was cooked to feed the crowd. Along the coast there is a heavy haar (fog) and the farmers had to wait till it lifted till they could harvest. One neighbor describes that he had so many siblings and hungry mouths to feed that aged 14 he started working on a farm for a few shilling a week and ended up head shepherd to the estate.

At the entrance of the Cottage were rowan trees planted to keep away the witches. A rod of a Rowan tree was used by a dairy maid to drive the cattle out to pasture. In the dairy if butter did not come it was presumed bewitched and stirring with a rowan stick solved the problem. 1443 someone was executed for witchcraft. In 1563 under Mary Queen of Scots is a statute against witches. In 1559 the Authority of the Pope was abolished following the Reformation and Catholic mass was outlawed.

At this stage they were aware of surveyors to measure for the Water Board to construct a bigger dam, to provide more water  to the  cities. Britain's economy was in the doldrums and the relationship to rich yanks was not so comfortable. David was  working on Bobs farm harvesting over summer and was taking a gap year to stay and was the only one of the family  who would see the other 3 seasons of and rowan blossoms and berries. The children had different interest where they wanted to spend their summer vacation. They put Glenauchen Cottage up for sale but asked Mr. Munroe if he wanted to buy his childhood home, but his life kept him in England. A Scottish couple with a child and expecting a baby bought the house. The furniture left behind was cleared out by Helen, Bob and David and bough back by Mr. Menzies again.