Saturday, July 08, 2006
Lisbon, voice of the West
Way back in the '60s, before I got lost in hippiedom, I was active in ham radio and shortwave listening. In those days, the only way to get alternate versions or opinions on world events was via shortwave. You could count on the Voice of America to slant the Vietnam War and other matters toward LBJ's view, and you could count on Radio Moscow and Radio Havana for the exact opposite. But if you wanted a broader pro-Western viewpoint, without American provincial concerns, the gold standard was Lisbon. Radio Lisbon called itself "The Voice of the West", and indeed it was exactly that.
Lisbon's interval signal was the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th, which had acquired the meaning of 'Victory for the West' during WW2. Why the 5th? It's a double pun. The rhythm is identical to the Morse letter V (which Polistra is sending repeatedly for reference) and V also equals 5 in Roman numerals.
I don't know if R. Lisbon is still carrying the ball; it doesn't have much of a website, and I can't receive European shortwave signals in Spokane. But (perhaps unsurprisingly) Portuguese bloggers have taken over the Westward-pointing torch.
Check out Observatorio da Jihad for a good example, and for a good set of links to other Portuguese and Brazilian defenders of Western Civilization.
What is it about Portugal that makes it so sure of its compass bearings, yet so steadily non-belligerent? I wish I knew. Whatever that quality might be, it needs to be 'bottled and sold' to the rest of the world. ¶ 2:55 PM
Way back in the '60s, before I got lost in hippiedom, I was active in ham radio and shortwave listening. In those days, the only way to get alternate versions or opinions on world events was via shortwave. You could count on the Voice of America to slant the Vietnam War and other matters toward LBJ's view, and you could count on Radio Moscow and Radio Havana for the exact opposite. But if you wanted a broader pro-Western viewpoint, without American provincial concerns, the gold standard was Lisbon. Radio Lisbon called itself "The Voice of the West", and indeed it was exactly that.
Lisbon's interval signal was the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th, which had acquired the meaning of 'Victory for the West' during WW2. Why the 5th? It's a double pun. The rhythm is identical to the Morse letter V (which Polistra is sending repeatedly for reference) and V also equals 5 in Roman numerals.
I don't know if R. Lisbon is still carrying the ball; it doesn't have much of a website, and I can't receive European shortwave signals in Spokane. But (perhaps unsurprisingly) Portuguese bloggers have taken over the Westward-pointing torch.
Check out Observatorio da Jihad for a good example, and for a good set of links to other Portuguese and Brazilian defenders of Western Civilization.
What is it about Portugal that makes it so sure of its compass bearings, yet so steadily non-belligerent? I wish I knew. Whatever that quality might be, it needs to be 'bottled and sold' to the rest of the world. ¶ 2:55 PM
