{"id":77431,"date":"2023-01-09T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=77431"},"modified":"2023-01-09T07:46:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T20:46:13","slug":"the-14th-madeleine-award-a-table-a-lettuce-and-a-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-14th-madeleine-award-a-table-a-lettuce-and-a-smartphone\/","title":{"rendered":"The 14th Madeleine Award: a table, a lettuce and a smartphone"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge<\/em> table.<\/p>\n

Vladimir imagines power and pomp.<\/p>\n

But the picture the world sees is Putin isolated and unable to hear.<\/p>\n

If the man wasn\u2019t a war criminal brandishing nukes, the image would be risible (think Charlie Chaplin strutting in The great dictator<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

With Putin marooned amid megalomania at his massive table, it\u2019s time for the 14th Madeleine Award for symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest.<\/p>\n

The annual award is inspired by the late Madeleine Albright, the US ambassador to the United Nations (1993 to 1997) and US secretary of state (1997 to 2001) who sent diplomatic messages via her lapel brooches.<\/p>\n

For Albright, it wasn\u2019t \u2018read my lips\u2019 but \u2018read my pins<\/a>\u2019. She wore a golden brooch of a coiled snake to talk to the Iraqis, crabs and turtle brooches to symbolise the slow pace of Middle East talks, a huge wasp to needle Yasser Arafat, and a sun pin to support South Korea\u2019s sunshine policy. Her\u00a0favourite mistake\u00a0<\/a>was wearing a trio of monkey brooches to meet Putin, causing him to go ape.<\/p>\n

The Madeleine Award leans more to whimsy than war, so Putin and his giant table don\u2019t get the top prize. Instead, they get a minor gong, the\u00a0\u2018Diana<\/a>\u2019, marking \u2018the utility and force of photographs<\/a>\u2019. The trophy is named for Diana, Princess of Wales, a princess who understood pics: \u2018As Diana used to say,\u00a0the picture is what counts<\/a>,\u2019 former UK prime minister Tony Blair wrote.<\/p>\n

And that picture of Putin defines him in so many ways the Russian leader doesn\u2019t comprehend. A Karl Marx line comes to mind: \u2018Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please<\/a>.\u2019 What would please Putin about the image is what Marx described as the effort to \u2018conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes\u2019. The picture of Putin posing as czar is as bleak as it is bizarre.<\/p>\n

The next of the minor trophies is the\u00a0OOPS! Award<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0blooper and blunder<\/a>, also known as a \u2018Boris\u2019, saluting a British prime minister who proved that blunders could build a career. When sacked from shadow cabinet, many moons ago, Boris commented: \u2018There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.\u2019 And didn\u2019t he give that philosophy a helluva ride \u2026<\/p>\n

Because he so expressed the spirit of the OOPS!, Boris Johnson won the award for a second time last year, for a zanier-than-usual<\/a> speech\u2014the judges noted the betting that the tow-haired tyro wouldn\u2019t occupy 10 Downing Street much longer, and embraced one last burst of Boris.<\/p>\n

This year, the Boris award stays in London. The OOPS! goes to Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. In the contest between Truss and a lettuce about who\u2019d last longer, the lettuce triumphed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The next honour is the George Orwell prize<\/a>\u00a0for double-think and euphemism. This year\u2019s Orwell goes to the readers of Russia, who have turned anew to Orwell\u2019s novel 1984<\/em>, which describes a dictatorship oppressing its people to wage senseless war.<\/p>\n

Orwell used Stalin as a model for the personality cult of the all-seeing Big Brother. Raging against \u2018thoughtcrime\u2019 and proclaiming \u2018doublethink\u2019, Big Brother preaches that \u2018WAR IS PEACE\u2019, \u2018FREEDOM IS SLAVERY\u2019, \u2018IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH\u2019 and \u20182 + 2 = 5\u2019<\/a>\u00a0(drawn from a Soviet poster about the first five-year plan). With that plot, you can see why Russian downloads of a new translation of 1984 <\/em>made it one of their top novels of 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before announcing the big award, we salute the woman who inspired this annual bit of silly-season whimsy with serious purpose. Madeleine Albright, America\u2019s first female secretary of state, died in March at the age of 84, lauded as \u2018a\u00a0political and feminist icon<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

I launched the Madeleine Award after Albright published her 2009 book\u00a0Read my pins: stories from a diplomat\u2019s jewel box<\/em><\/a>;\u00a0<\/em>I didn\u2019t approach her about the idea (better to ask forgiveness than permission). But during an\u00a0online event with a bunch of Australians in Washington in 2021, Albright was told about the Madeleine Award and responded with customary brio: \u2018I love it!\u2019 Take that as enthusiastic acknowledgement, if not endorsement.<\/p>\n

After Albright\u2019s death, The Interpreter<\/em>\u2019s Daniel Flitton had the perfect Australian tribute, in an interview with Australia\u2019s first female foreign minister, Julie Bishop: \u2018We shared a love of jewellery,\u2019 Bishop said. \u2018She often used her jewellery to make a diplomatic statement<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bishop took inspiration from Albright: \u2018I at times wore a brooch that would hopefully send a message.\u2019 On a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, for instance, Bishop wore a peace dove. \u2018I didn\u2019t do it to the extent of Madeleine Albright. I wore brooches and people could read what they liked into it.\u2019<\/p>\n

My favorite Albright line is from her book Fascism: a warning<\/em><\/a>: \u2018I am an optimist who worries a lot.\u2019 Her life and thoughts make this year\u2019s winner a simple pick: the country of the year, Ukraine, for its heroism, ingenuity, resilience and inspiration<\/a>, and the person of the year<\/a>, Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n

Zelensky is credited with what must be the quote of the year, responding to the US offer to help him escape from Kyiv at the start of the Russian invasion: \u2018The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.\u2019<\/a> This, surely, is a modern-day version of, \u2018I have not yet begun to fight.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in February, when the world feared Russia would be victorious within days, Zelensky went out on the streets of Kyiv and posted a 26-second video<\/a> with this message: \u2018I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country because our weapon is truth.\u2019<\/p>\n

Zelensky and his smartphone were a lot smarter than Putin. Ukraine\u2019s president and his smartphone smarts get the 14th Madeleine Award. Madeleine Albright would surely give her thumbs-up approval.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge table. Vladimir imagines power and pomp. But the picture the world sees is Putin isolated and unable to hear. If the man wasn\u2019t a war criminal brandishing nukes, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":77408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[658,714,744],"class_list":["post-77431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-madeleine-awards","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 14th Madeleine Award: a table, a lettuce and a smartphone | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-14th-madeleine-award-a-table-a-lettuce-and-a-smartphone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 14th Madeleine Award: a table, a lettuce and a smartphone | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge table. 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