Colturi de continent

Totttenham Hotspurs – Qarabag FK 3-1 (Son '28 '30, Lamela '86 – Almeida pen. '6), UEFA Europa League 2016, Grupa J, Joi 18-09-2015, 20:05 GMT, White Hart Lane, Londra

Victorie de rutina pentru Spurs in ciuda unui oponent ambitios si a unei sperieturi initiale

Imi va fi iertat sper faptul ca pana de curand nu auzisem de Qarabag FK. O privire sumara asupra istoriei clubului releva o poveste cu suisuri si coborasuri. Qarabag FK isi joaca meciurile de acasa in Baku, capitala Azerbaijanului, desi echipa este originara din Agdam, un oras de 40.000 de locuitori, complet nimicit de conflictul din Nagorno-Karabakh. Nu prea ramane loc pentru sport in locurile in care razboiul isi face casa. In Agdam, n-a mai ramas loc nici pentru oameni. Dar iata ca, la 20 de ani dupa conflict si la 250 de kilometri de casa, Qarabag a reusit sa inchege o echipa solida cu care domina competitia interna si cu care a speriat in ultimii doi ani nume cu rezonanta in Europa, ca Inter Milano, care n-au reusit sa-i invinga in Baku, sau Celtic Glasgow, care i-a scos la limita, 1-0 in dubla mansa, din calificarile pentru Champions League sezonul asta.

De partea cealalta, Mauricio Pochettino i-a primit pe azeri cu o echipa tanara din care au lipsit piese grele: Ericksen, Bentaleb sau Chadli, in timp ce Harry Kane a fost doar rezerva.

Tottenham incep meciul relaxati, prea relaxati poate, iar oaspetii vor sa demonstreze ca nu se sperie de numele adversarilor lor. Asa ca primul sut pe poarta apartine azerilor, iar Lloris trebuie sa se intinda serios pentru a preveni un gol dupa doar doua minute de joc. Primul gol va veni insa repede, 5 minute mai tarziu, cand Richard Alemida transforma o lovitura de pedeapsa acordata in urma unui fault al lui Wimmer.

Chiar si conducand, azerii continua sa joace pozitiv si desi cedeaza posesia, se apara exact si contrataca rapid, reusind un al doilea sut pe poarta in minutul 20, inainte ca Spurs sa-l solicite in vreun fel pe portarul Sehic. Dar cand il vor solicita, va fi doar sa scoata mingea din plasa, pentru ca apararea lui Qarabag nu stie cum sa raspunda unei presiuni crescande a gazdelor. Sud coreeanul Son, recent achizitionat de la Leverkusen, profita de doua mari greseli defensive pentru a-si trece in cont o dubla in mai putin de 3 minute.

La 2-1 gazdele revin la carma jocului si intetesc presiunea la poarta lui Sehic, dar Alli rateaza din pozitie de 1 la 1 cu portarul sansa de a inchide meciul. Qarabag reuseste doua contraatacuri periculoase, dar scorul ramane neschimbat pana la pauza.

Tottenham iese de la cabine mult mai proaspata iar in repriza a doua azerii vor fi complet dominati fizic si sunt norocosi ca nici una din ocaziile lui Spurs din debutul reprizei nu se concretizeaza. Lamela in special e teribil de ghinionist sa nu inscrie in minutul 52, cand sutul lui il depaseste pe portar, dar loveste bara si iese in afara terenului. Francezul va trebui sa astepte pana cu 5 minute inainte de final pentru a-si trece numele pe tabela.

In minutul 86, dupa o pasa a lui Harry Kane, introdus in minutul 67 in locul lui Son, Lamela il lobeaza pe Sehic si duce scorul la 3-1, rezultat ce se mentine pana la final.

Victorie meritata a gazdelor, dar fotbalistii lui Qarabag trebuie felicitati pentru fotbalul pozitiv practicat si pentru increderea cu care joaca in fata unor adversari mult mai bine cotati. Doar naivitatea, lipsa de experienta si conditia fizica superioara a englezilor le-au adus in final o victorie comfortabila. Dar rezultatul nu spune toata povestea, a fost un meci frumos si ambele echipe au contribuit cu ocazii si faze de poarta. Daca isi mentin filozofia de joc, e foarte probabil ca azerii sa incurce socotelile calificarii in aceasta grupa complicata, din care mai fac parte Anderlecht si Monaco.

Secera si ciocanarii

West Ham United – Astra Giurgiu 2-2 (Valencia '23, Zarate '51 – Boldrin '71, Ogbonna '82 og), UEFA Europa League 2016, Turul 3 preliminar, prima mansa, Joi 30-07-2015, 7:45 GMT, Boleyn Ground Londra, Spectatori: 33.858

O ocazie importanta pentru doua echipe ce se intalnesc rar cu cupele europene, jucata intr-o atmosfera de presezon

Vedere de la masa presei

Cadorisita de UEFA cu un loc in Europa League datorita castigarii titlului de cea mai fair-play echipa din Anglia sezonul trecut, West Ham United este, cel putin la nivel declarativ, un club nerabdator sa-si rasplateasca suporterii cu un parcurs european bun in ultimul sezon petrecut pe Boleyn Ground. Realitatea este insa putin diferita intrucat ciocanarii au trecut cu greu in turul doi al calificarilor de modesta echipa malteza FC Birkirkara, avand nevoie de prelungiri si lovituri de departajare, iar in meciul din aceasta seara au aratat ca o echipa neinchegata, nerodata si nepregatita pentru noul sezon care deja a inceput.

De celalta parte, Astra Giurgiu – un club fara multa experienta europeana, in ciuda unui parcurs decent in sezonul trecut – nu avea decat de castigat din aceasta excursie la Londra, un meci impotriva unei din Premier League insemnand mult pentru elevii lui Marius Sumudica.

Ciocanarii plecau asadar ca favoriti, si au inceput meciul onorandu-si statutul, cu o asezare mai buna in teren si mult mai multa siguranta in posesia mingii. Desi fara sa fie excesiv de spectaculoasa, prima parte a meciului a apartinut gazdelor, care s-au multumit sa preseze steril, sa-si impinga adversarii pe linia de 16 si sa inabuse rapid orice contraatac. Planul a parut sa functioneze, in parte si datorita unui inceput timorat al oaspetilor. Marius Sumudica avea de altfel sa recunoasca dupa meci ca elevii lui au jucat cu frica initial, cedand posesia si multumindu-se sa absoarba atacurile londonezilor.

Perioada de presiune a gazdelor a dat roade dupa 20 de minute de joc, iar Enner Valencia a deschis scorul in urma unei serii de cornere in succesiune rapida acordate de Astra in partea dreapta a apararii. West Ham au avut astfel ocazia sa puna in practica schemele exersate la antrenament pana cand au gasit formula castigatoare: pasa scurta in lateral, o minge aruncata inalt in careul Astrei pe care Valencia, inaltat cu un cap peste marcatorul lui direct, a trimis-o in plasa.

Ciocanarii vor mai avea doua mari ocazii pana la pauza, doar paradele lui Silviu Lung reusind sa mentina scorul la 1-0. Raspunsul echipei noastre a fost timid, primul sut pe poarta al giurgiuvenilor fiind inregistrat in minutele de prelungire ale primei reprize prin Amorim, care a incercat sa-l surprinda pe Adrian de la aproximativ 20 de metri.

Pauza le-a gasit pe gazde cu un avantaj minim, dar Bilic a fost nevoit sa faca doua schimbari in prima repriza, amanunt cu repercusiuni pentru rezultatul final: Valencia, accidentat, a fost inlocuit de Modibo Maiga in minutul 37, la doar 3 minute dupa ce Reece Burke i-a luat locul lui Joey O'Brien in partea dreapta a apararii, acolo unde antrenorul croat a sesizat un potential punct nevralgic.

Repriza a doua a inceput in aceeasi maniera ca si prima, cu gazdele in atac, Zarate reusind sa dubleze avantajul echipei sale dupa doar 5 minute de la reluarea jocului. O tasnire din banda dreapta, trei adversari depasiti si un sut de la marginea careului printre cei doi fundasi centrali ai Astrei au reusit sa-l invinga pe Silviu Lung si sa rasplateasca frumosul efort al argentinianului cu un gol ce parea sa incline balanta calificarii decisiv in favoarea gazdelor.

Astra a parut insa sa se trezeasca usor-usor si sa atace ceva mai curajos, dar doua greseli individuale ale experimentatului fundas James Collins vor fi cele care vor relansa meciul: mai intai Collins primeste cartonas galben pentru un fault de o duritate excesiva asupra lui Budescu pentru ca doar 3 minute mai tarziu acelasi duel sa se repete la o faza la care Budescu ar fi scapat in situatie de unu la unu cu portarul. Collins e nevoit sa faulteze din nou atacandu-l pe jucatorul roman din spate. Chiar daca acceptam opinia lui Bilic cum ca eliminarea e putin cam dura, al doilea cartonas galben e justificat iar Collins nu ar fi trebuit sa se puna intr-o asemenea situatie.

Aflati de odata in fata unui adversar in inferioritate numerica, giurgiuvenii prind brusc curaj si vor avea nevoie de doar 5 minute pentru a crea prima mare ocazie, in minutul 63 Reece Oxford vazandu-se obligat sa respinga mingea de pe linia portii.

Usor-usor Astra pune stapanire pe joc si un sut de la aproximativ 25 de metri al lui Fernando Boldrin va prinde interiorul transversalei, de unde ricoseaza in plasa, facand inutila parada lui Adrian.

Cu un moral complet schimbat dupa 2-1, romanii continua sa atace din ce in ce mai curajos si sa isi creeze o serie de situatii bune. Cel care va inscrie insa va fi un jucator al gazdelor, noua achizitie Ogbonna – fundasul central cumparat de la Juventus pentru 11 milioane de euro – deviind in proprie poarta o centrare a dracilor negri care nu promitea foarte multe.

La 2-2 si cu ceva mai putin de 10 minute de joc ciocanarii reiau atacurile la poarta lui Lung de aceasta data insa fara luciditatea din debutul partidei, ci mai degraba cu o frustrare rezultata din constientizarea faptului ca acest scor da prima sansa de calificare echipei romanesti.

Desi impinsi inspre propria poarta de catre agresivitatea gazdelor, baietii lui Sumudica reusesc sa reziste si chiar vor incerca sa contraatace timid, dar singurele evenimente notabile pana la sfarsitul partidei vor fi cartonasul galben primit de Dimitri Payet pentru proteste si trimiterea in tribuna a antrenorului croat Slaven Bilic de catre centralul partidei.

Desi nimic nu e inca decis, acest 2-2 da prima sansa romanilor, carora un 0-0 la Giurgiu le va fi suficient pentru a trece mai departe.

Marius Sumudica a incercat in conferinta de presa de dupa meci sa discrediteze sansele echipei sale, insistand ca West Ham sunt in continuare favoriti la calificare, accentuand diferenta de valoare de piata si de valoare individuala in favoarea englezilor cat si superioritatea fizica a acestora.

Abordarea managerului lui West Ham a fost insa mult mai pesimista, Slaven Bilic afirmand ca fara Tomkins, Diafra Sakho si Collins (eliminati) si fara Enner Valencia (accidentat), misiunea europeana a baietilor lui este mult mai dificila acum decat inaintea celor 90 de minute de joc. In acelasi timp, antrenorul croat a parut preocupat mai putin de un parcurs european si mai mult de debutul Premier League in care echipa lui ii va primi pe acelasi stadion pe mult mai bine cotatii vecini din nordul Londrei, Arsenal.

Ca o concluzie, meciul din seara aceasta a fost unul destul de spectaculos, cu patru goluri si un nivel de fotbal decent, chiar daca a fost evident ca nici una din cele doua echipe nu e inca pusa complet la punct cu pregatirea pentru noul sezon.

Astra Giurgiu a obtinut un rezultat foarte bun dintr-o deplasare extrem de grea si are acum prima sansa la calificarea dupa aceasta dubla. Elevii lui Sumudica s-au prezentat onorabil si par a constitui un grup suficient de bine inchegat pentru a se reprezenta cu demnitate in Europa.

In acelasi timp, West Ham United nu pare o echipa suficient de inchegata incat sa abordeze noul sezon cu prea mare incredere. Cu o serie de achizitii noi, din care nici una extrem de spectaculoasa, ciocanarii par a avea nevoie de mai mult timp atat pentru a crea relatiile de joc care sa fluidizeze curgerea mingii cat si pentru a se adapta stilului ofensiv si spectaculos pe care Slaven Bilic incearca sa-l impuna, mai ales ca Sam Allardyce, fostul antrenor, este un pragmatic desavarsit, adeptul declarat al rezultatului cu orice pret si al ideii ca scopul este mai important decat metoda. Ar trebui sa fie un sezon istoric pentru ciocanari, care isi vor parasi casa de 100 de ani la vara – legendarul Boleyn Ground – in favoarea stadionului olimpic aflat la aproximativ 3 kilometri distanta si cu o capacitate de peste doua ori mai mare. Aceasta extindere este abil exploatata de o politica de marketing foarte inteligenta si este menita sa creasca veniturile londonezilor si sa-i plaseze in aceeasi categorie cu echipele de top ale Premier League. Dar daca managementul inteligent nu e dublat de rezultate bune in teren, sezonul ciocanarilor risca sa se transforme intr-un fiasco.

Pirates of the Mediterranean

S.J.A. Turney - The Priest's Tale (The Ottoman Cycle Book Two), Victrix Books, 2013

When I started reading The Ottoman Cycle I imagined, in my immense naivety, that the action will take place on the background of the new Istanbul, making the series an immense fresco of the city and the time. While this is certainly true for the first book, The Priest's Tale sees our hero, Skiouros, away from the capital of the empire, on an adventure that starts is Crete and ends... very far away from it. Saying the end is unexpected is an understatement, but I'll try not to give anything away as potential readers might want to discover where it ends for themselves. But the richest of the rewards in this book, like a lot of the times, lays a lot more with the journey than with the destination.

Skiouros goes half-circle around the Mediterranean, by sea and by land, and encounters trouble wherever, without particularly looking for it. The end of the previous book has introduced us to two characters, captain Parmenio and Nicolo, but gave no clue as to how important they will become in the story. Together with a rather mysterious Italian nobleman they will form Skiouros' posse, an adventurous gang of friends that makes the novel smell like bromance at times, another innovation to what was largely an individual story in the first book.

The Mediterranean world in the late 15th century is a very interesting place, a mixture of civilizations that clash, collide, live side by side and influence each other over a flurry of material for the interested historians and anthropologists. And we encounter all of these civilizations here: the Ottoman Turks who took over the ruins of Byzantium, the shrinking Arab world of North Africa, the Berber nomads roaming free across the ruins of the Phoenician empire, the Egypt of Mamluks and the warring Catholic states of Western Europe. And like all Simon's books, real history goes closely along the personal stories, making his books a history lesson delivered in the form of an action novel. Which is the ideal recipe for children books, really, the structure of most books I grew up with.

Religion being the important social element that it is in this era, is an unavoidable aspect as Skiouros' story too. And in this an author cannot but betray his own beliefs, siding automatically and unconsciously with whatever faith is closer to his convictions. There is no secret that Simon's values are mostly secular ones and as such , the more pervasive a certain faith will be, the less virtuous it will be deemed. To that end, the biggest villain in the book is the most fanatical believer: Etci Hassan, the Ottoman pirate, is by far the best villain in any of Simon's books I read so far and an all-round great villain by any measure. It does have an element of Jafar and it does echo of the Islamic fanaticism of which we see far too much today, but this Turkish pirate is a man of his age and it made me understand better how the interest of the Italian city-states at sea have collided with the Ottoman ones and led to the great naval battle of Lepanto.

Speaking of Hassan's vengeful quest, I did wonder at times if his resolve could not have been put to better use, if his chase of a Greek fugitive is not too insignificant a goal for a commander of the Ottoman fleet. And this is one point in which maybe the reader is required to suspend his belief here and there: is Skiouros' quest really worth it? Is his ultimate target really that guilty for the crime he is chased for to be deserving of that much hateful determination? And could his friends not divert him to better causes rather than getting whirled in this personal story of revenge?

And Skiouros does seem to be more and more of a conflicted character and this development does make for a better book, though the inflexibility of his ultimate goals bring some predictability that might not be necessary.

Two great pluses to compensate for this slight drawback: first, this is an action novel. The twists and turns, the fights and chases come thick and fast and I usually found it hard to put the book down as I would want to see which way an action scene is gonna go; only for it to be followed by another action scene and before you know it, the hours have flown by.

The second plus is a gallery of secondary characters, of which I would have liked to see more of: Don Diego de Teba, a Zorro avant-la-lettre, the fighting priest in Tunis, the gypsy traveler, Kemal Reis, the good Muslim and most of all, the Caravan lady, an absolutely delightful character that unfortunately disappears from the story way too quickly for my liking.

I will end my review with a quote that is becoming recurrent, as it appears at least twice in the third book of the cycle as well: "Vengeance is hollow victory, and as oft destroys its perpetrator as its target", Cesare Orsini tells Skiouros, and in the light of this wise words I am very curious to see if and how the young Greek's vengeance will be carried to an end. I am a book and a half away.

Second Rome

S.J.A. Turney - The Thief's Tale (The Ottoman Cycle Book One), Victrix Books, 2013

Having finished reading all the 8 books that have come out so far of the Marius' Mules series, I am now learning how it feels for viewers of box sets to wait for a new season. Or, I imagine, for readers of historical fiction waiting for the next book in a series they enjoy. It's frustrating, specially when Simon's last update on it is: "As well as MM8, I'm on various simultaneous projects: I'm in the final stage of editing a kids' book that's with my agent, I'm in the same stage with the joint work with Gordon, I'm busy writing book 2 with Gordon, I've a short story collection for charity sitting idle, waiting for a foreword to finish it off and now I've been signed up to join in with another project."

So my choice of reading was one of Simon's two finished series: The Ottoman Cycle and Tales of the Empire. Given that I am not a big fan of how 'fantasy' sounds' (too reminiscent of Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings) and I am a new convert of the historical fiction genre, my choice was simple. I was itching to see how Simon portrays the Turks anyway, as the history of the Ottoman Empire is closely related to my country's history, and I'm always curious about that.

This book is almost a case study of how an author is allowed to create his own rules within his own work, as long as they are consistent (unless, of course, he builds inconsistency in as a rule). The book is built on a couple of real historical events and around historical buildings of Istanbul, but the main plot and the main characters are all fictional. Also, so consistently built that a reader can assume the events might as well have taken place. And with this, Simon might give future historians a headache, as once a book that does that reaches classical status it becomes much better at entering the collective memory than a scholastic work. It doesn't even matter that the author himself puts a disclaimer at the end. Some people REALLY believe that Sherlock Holmes REALLY lived at 221b Baker Street and, more important, people like to believe it.

And Skiouros, our hero, is likable enough. He's innocent and mostly open and honest about his intentions, while it's also got plenty of flaws that make it easy for the reader to feel a connection: he's a thief, lowlife, without any ambitions or goals. He's a drifter, basically, though a drifter no older than 24, though likely quite a bit younger than that. And Skiouros story will take him throughout the city of Istanbul where he's spent the last eight years of his life and where, in the space of a week in 1490, the circumstances will take him in close proximity of some of the most powerful men of the day and will transform his life forever. Skiourous' story is fascinating enough, but the way Simon creates situations and twists makes this book a proper thriller, with twists and new developments coming in fast and thick, guaranteed to lose the reader some sleep.

And because Simon is not tied to a real historical narrative, we are completely in the dark, never knowing what's going to happen next. I feared for Skiouros' life quite a few times and the knowledge that the last book of the series is introduced as 'Skiouros returning home' assured me that he'll survive the world-shattering events (in more than one sense) he goes through. Other characters, however, are not that lucky. I was surprised at the sudden brutality with which Simon disposes of some people, it's like he suddenly found his inner George R.R. Martin.

I will throw a spoiler in the mix, so if you're not into that skip this passage entirely. Now, before I get to the next line. Here goes: people are trying to kill the Sultan. Knowing as we do that Bayezid II reigned from 1481 to 1512, we hope we'll be safe in the assumption that the Sultan survives. I did wonder though if, in the virtue of the author creating his own rules principle, Simon might actually pull an Inglorious Basterds on poor Bayezid II. And he's well within his rights to do so, too. Who's to stop him?

I will say this more: the end surprised me quite a bit. This being the Ottoman Cycle, I expected to be introduced to a hero and see life in Istanbul through his eyes over the course of four years. This does not happen and to a reader this unknown course of events and surprising turns are a rich reward. 

If I was to correct anything, I would say Simon is too in love with the historical Istanbul and some pages are going towards talking about that: streets, period colouring, buildings, buildings' interiors, clothing, the looks of food stalls and the like. They're very useful, very educational and provide a sometimes necessary respite, though at times, specially when we know our heroes are in a place of bother, talking about a building's defective staircase is playing on out nerves a bit.

But the one big conclusion to be drawn for this book is that Simon proves he is a multi-faceted writer, able to switch between periods and styles, between the big epic and the individual story while keeping the ingredients that make his books such a good read: the fast-paced action, the suspense, the insane level of documentation.

And sometimes he provides memorable quotes, too. Here's a few samples;

"Haggling with a Greek, they say, is like trying to ride a two-legged donkey: it takes too long and you'll wish you hadn't tried."

"He can see beyond the trappings of their religion to the fact that they are men, and he treats them as such."

"Religious fanatics were dangerous men to work with. They tended toward irrational acts and unpredictable moves."

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for thou knowest not what the day will bring forth" (Judah Ben Sira)

"May God smile upon your ship and your voyages" "And may He look the other way where you're concerned."

Backstage

S.J.A. Turney - Prelude to War (Marius' Mules series), Victrix Books, 2014

I'm guessing this volume is born out of Simon's desire to write about important episodes in the great scheme of the Gallic Wars that could not have possibly fit in Caesar's diaries. It might have been a mistake to have stuck so rigidly with the parity between MM books and Caesar's chapters of De Bello Gallico, as for instance this book gives the impression of being the collateral victim of that policy, while MM7 is a monster of a book and in MM8 Simon will have to struggle with a rather uneventful year in Gaul, when Caesar was probably already preparing a confrontation with Pompey.

The fact that it does not have a number assigned makes it easy to overlook, and skipping it as one sails through the series would be a mistake. First, because it's very well written. Nothing unexpected here when it comes to Simon, as he seems to beat his own very high standards with each new release. Faithful readers of the Marius' Mules series will no doubt revel in getting more of the same, while its size would make this book a perfect taster for any new readers. Because maybe with the exception of the very last page, when Fronto's name pops up rather unexpectedly, the stories can very well stand alone.

The second reason not to skip it is that it contains episodes that are very important, if not essential, for the biographies of some of the supporting cast. And by supporting cast, I mean everyone that is neither Fronto nor Caesar. The series gravitates around them, sure, but they are circled by an array of characters, both historical and fictional, that are no less memorable.

In the first story (The Fire Arrow), Cita the quartermaster takes center stage. While only a minor character so far, making him the lead gives us a better understanding of how the behind the scenes of the gleaming Roman legions work, which I suspect is Simon's main purpose for writing this. Plus, it gives us a memorable sidekick, Bennacos of the Boii, a cunning warrior of great ability and even better morals. For some reason it reminded me of Tom Sizemore's character in Saving Private Ryan. The whole story is actually a tale of great heroism, but saying anything more would be giving stuff away, and I encourage people to read it and see for themselves.

No spoilers in the second story, though: Clodius Pulcher dies. While the death of Pulcher and its details are known historical facts, Simon's mastery of the writing craft is in the way he links it with his series and his characters. And I suspect he was itching to write about it, as it is an event with a huge impact on the civil war to follow.

The third story (Rise of Kings) takes us straight back into the heart of the matter: Gaul is very much rising and, while Fronto is nowhere to be seen, Priscus, along with Fabius and Furius, are very much at it, thus giving the feel of being back to the main narrative.

So this is it. For me, Prelude to War was as enjoyable a read as any from the series, and an integral part of it. The only disappointments I can express are that it does not have a number, belittling it somewhat undeservedly, and that it is too short. Not that good literature is exclusive to a certain size, quite the contrary actually. It is just that I found myself at the end of it too quickly. The mark of good writing, after all, is when you can't get enough of it, is it not?

The Good Within

Wayne Visser - Sustainable Frontiers, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, 2015

Having just been launched at the beginning of the week, I estimate Wayne Visser's latest book, Sustainable Frontiers, will make quite an impact among the professionals of sustainability. As a matter of fact, judging by the testimonials on its website, it already has.

The book attempts a systemic approach at 'unlocking' sustainability via a series of 8 key factors: leadership, enterprise reform, technology, corporate transparency, stakeholder engagement, social responsibility, integrated value and future fitness. Readers will recognize some of the terms, be intrigued or baffled by others and point out that some of them are better known under a different name. And herein lies one of the problems of sustainability/CSR: no set terminology. It might look like a trivial issue, but allow me to progress the case further of why this is important.

As Dr. Visser repeatedly points out, various forms or elements of sustainability have been around for far longer than our first intuition would make us believe. But there has never been – until recently – a systemic concern for reducing, eliminating or reversing our negative impact; neither have there been enterprises that would have this at their very core, rather than a side concern. As such, the tools for these enterprises are still in development and we are still a way away from knowing how they will end up looking. An important aspect of these tools has to be a set terminology, a commonly agreed lexicon without which the passing of information is rendered extremely difficult, if not impossible. 

Ever since coining the concept of CSR 2.0, one of Dr. Visser's favourite mantras has been that 'CSR has failed'. I tend to disagree with it, or reshape it to 'the CSR model that has been in common use throughout the 90s and the first years of this millennium is outdated'. I'm not even sure this is disagreeing. I think that CSR model (CSR 1.0) has had its uses, that generally corporations are now much more aware of their impact than they were 20 years ago and responsibility has been internalized to some degree by both businesses and society. However, we are still nowhere near a definition of 'CSR' or 'sustainability', though we seem to converge on a few of them.

Another tricky side of this systemic approach is that humans lack any sort of capability of systemic understanding. Daniel Goleman points this out in his book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, making the argument that there has never been an evolutionary need for such an understanding. Therefore, putting such an approach in practice is likely out of the grasp of any one individual, though obviously influential individuals can make a stronger push (Muhammad Yunus or Anita Roddick are two examples – both mentioned a number of times as positive influences in sustainability by Dr. Visser).

We are, therefore, caught between over-simplifying what sustainability is (ethical behavior) – this having the disadvantage of raising questions all the time about what exactly is ethical - and this insanely complex approach that throws us into a vast territory over which we have no control. How does a huge corporation know that none of the companies in its supply chain is slipping through the net of ethical business? Is one of the myriads of certifications available out there enough? How do I know that my carefully selected household recyclable waste does not end up in the landfill via some logistical misunderstanding?

The key to this dilemma seems to be collaboration, a set of common goals and growing awareness all across the board on the impact of our own actions. Systems Change is a Multiplayer Game is the title of a sub-chapter in Sustainable Frontiers. The book talks about all of these elements and circumscribes them to CSR 2.0, a new form of acting in both business and society.

As you can very well see, the temptation is – when confronted with some form of theoretical approach to sustainability – to reply to those ideas with my own rather than being able to talk about them. Part of this goes back to the clarity of the lexicon. While it is obvious that most of us, sustainability supporters, are on the same side, ideas need to be clarified before we can fully subscribe to them.

Speaking of sustainability supporters (or superheroes, as Dr. Visser calls them), one of my favourite bits in the book is their classification: experts, facilitators, catalysts and activists. This has been particularly interesting to me as for years I've had an ongoing identity crisis when it comes to sustainability. Not being a professional of the field, but rather a supporter oscillating between elated naivety and fatalistic skepticism, this is helpful in pointing out how you can best serve your goals, whatever angle you approach them from. 

Parts of Sustainable Frontiers have been previously published as newspaper articles. Add to that the fact that the writing style alternates between a corporate report – clear, concise, resorting to facts and figures – and a highly lyrical meditation sprung from the author's own sensibilities – reworded African legends interwoven with meditations on nature and teachings from half-gurus, and it results a book that lacks a certain internal cohesion, that is missing a central narrative. The up side is, we have a very well-structured work, easy to read and to follow and, most importantly, a book whose purpose goes beyond the first lecture, staying as a great companion, guide and ready reference along one's journey through the field of sustainability.

Below are a few quotes that have stood out. Each of them could be the starting point of a separate discussion about what it is and what it would be ideal to be. Those discussions, however, will have to take place some other time.

“If wave after wave of corporate scandals are revealing anything, it is that corporate governance is sometimes not worth the paper it is written on. If the people involved in implementing corporate governance do not have their hearts in the right place and if they are just going through the motions, the process becomes a charade.You can have all the non-executive chairpersons, non-executive directors, board committees and external auditors you like, but things will go hideously wrong if ceremony has replaced substance and cynicism is the order of the day.”

“Impacts that are far away, or in the future, are like smoldering fires in the distance: noteworthy but not action-worthy. People need to feel the heat: directly, personally, here and now. For organisations and leaders, that might mean lighting a few fires.”

“The status quo says that the business of business is to make profits. We have always challenged that. For us, the business of business is to keep the company alive and breathlessly excited, to protect the workforce, to be a force for good in our society and then, after all that, to think of the speculators (shareholders).” (Anita Roddick, The Body Shop)

“Bakan (2004) goes as far as to argue that today's companies are pathological in nature, in the sense that 'the corporation has a legally defined mandate to relentlessly pursue – without exception – its own self interest, regardless of the often harmful consequences it might cause to other' “

“our global economy is so inefficient that less than 1% of all the resources we extract are actually used in products and are still there six months after sale.”

“customers and governments need to give up their compulsive throw-away habits and embrace the take-back economy.”

“Necessity, rather than an unexpected attack of conscience, will be the driving force behind the transition to a circular economy.”

“The problem with the rationalist view of organizing people is that people are not very rational. […] In fact, if our understanding of the current state of psychology is even close to correct, man is the ultimate study in conflict and paradox.”

“The point is that, despite all the evidence and frameworks supporting the notion of the holistic individual, business has yet to respond in a meaningful way. Employees are still regarded by companies as inputs to production and expenses in business rather than creative beings and assets in business. People are still expected to leave their emotions, intuition, dreams, fears, family and community concerns and a myriad other qualities characteristic to being fully human, outside of the workplace. And as workers, they are still expected to be motivated and inspired by monetary incentives, increased productivity and profit making as opposed to personal development, genuine service to others and the search for meaning in their  lives. The time is long overdue for business to begin to serve humans rather than the other way around.”

Inglorious Singularii (Dirty Contubernia)

S.J.A. Turney - Marius' Mules VI: Caesar's Vow, Victrix Books, 2014

I have finished this book a while ago but I hesitated writing about it because... well because I was under the impression there's not much left to say. I have talked in my previous reviews about how brilliant Simon's books are and how much I enjoy them, and this is always the bottom line. I can only imagine how hard must be for Simon to be keeping writing on the series, and I am always surprised by the energy with which he does it. Because with long series like this you always run into a conundrum: your audience will always want to more about the heroes. They get bored by always being fed more of the same, but at the same time you cannot afford to innovate to much without risking to either making the story too unbelievable or changing the characters so much that they become unrecognizable when compared to their previous selves. That's why a lot of TV series have a dip in quality after two or three seasons.

Having said all that, with this sixth book of the series Simon proves to be a masterful innovator, in that the action develops in a surprising way, while the characters stay true to themselves. At the same time, the historical reality of Caesar's diaries is respected as well, as Simon is very intelligently exploiting a gap in the historical timeline, namely what happened to the rebel king Ambiorix of the Eburones. It is clear that Ambiorix's deed of destroying an entire legion and killing two high ranking officers (Sabinus and Cotta) is the biggest failure of Caesar's Gallic campaigns, with probably heavier losses than even the Battle of Alesia. 

After a bit of a rocky and only partial reconciliation with the general, our hero, Fronto, is given a commando and a mission. This is a turn of events as clever as it is surprising, as it frees Simon to take Fronto and his 20-odd men wherever he pleases. Fans of the series should not be worried, as there is plenty of blood and gore, of hacking and stabbing, though sometimes the numbers are smaller. There are two cult movies this book reminded me of, and they're both referenced in the title. Which makes me rather curious if Simon took any of his inspiration from Tarantino's movie in the same manner in which Inglorious Basterds is inspired by the Lee Marvin classic.

There are a few really great moments in the book, of which one got stuck in my mind due to the depth of the psychological drama: when Fabius has to kill the villagers to whom he promised freedom only moments before, thus going against all his ethical convictions. The army does that to you a lot of the time, and it is captured here surprisingly well.

I need to note a slight disappointment when I think about how fascinated I was about the mythological animals Caesar describes as being part of Northern Gaul's regular fauna and about the longest anthropological inquiry the great man makes into the life of this part of the world in his sixth book of De Bello Gallico. I was eagerly waiting to see what Simon has to say about the weird animal with a horn in the middle of its forehead out of which two pairs of antlers grow. Instead, he dismisses all of it under the label of 'fabulations attempting to mask a military failure'. Which, come to think about it, might very well be true.

So rather than being a mere setup for next year's world-shattering events, this sixth book is actually a great standalone, that can very well be read by itself as well as a natural follow-up to the fifth and the adventures of the previous year. Highly recommended.

Having already read The Great Revolt, I can only say I'm looking forward to reading it again. But before that, Prelude to War, a 'gap-filler'. Very curious.