Onlangs is berig dat die SABC weier om 'n advertensie van Taste Holdings se Fish and Chips Company, "Dinner time at Nkandla", uit te saai. Dit het my aan Heidi Holland (6.10.1947-11.08.2012) se boek, Dinner with Mugabe (2008), laat dink. Sedert Afrika in politieke opsig genormaliseer is, is luukse etes en verblyf nie onbekend by politici nie. Hierdie seëninge het egter nog nie deurgesyfer na die armste van die armes nie, wie se belange glo deur dieselfde politici op die hart gedra word.
Die voorliefde vir luukshede ten koste van die belastingbetaler kan seker die Tina Joemat-Pettersson-sindroom genoem word. Daar is egter baie ander politici wat sterk op so 'n benaming aanspraak kon maak. Ek wil hierdie wanpraktyk nie aanmoedig nie. Wat ek veel eerder in hierdie skrywe gaan doen, is om aan te toon hoe amptelike etes op staatskoste deur politici tot voordeel van die belastingbetaler kan wees. Die vorm wat onthale dikwels plaaslik aanneem, naamlik om die politikus en sy familie en vriende te bevoordeel, is 'n wantoepassing van 'n potensieel goeie praktyk wat in die buiteland dikwels tot groot voordeel van die samelewing aangewend is.
Ek het onlangs oor Winston Churchill (1874-1965) geskryf (SêNet, 15 deser). Ter aanvulling daarvan verwys ek hierdie keer na Cita Stelzer se Dinner with Churchill: Policy-Making at the Dinner Table (London: Short Books, 2012, 332p). Die teks handel veral oor kos, drank en sigare. Al drie weerspieël Churchill se "appetite for life" (p xi). Oor al drie het Churchill om gesondheidsredes waarskuwings van medici ontvang; raad wat hy in die wind geslaan het. Hy het amptelike onthale funksioneel benut, dus om politieke oogmerke te bereik. "Churchill used mealtimes ... primarily dinners ... as political weapons" (p xii).
Vergaderings vind aan die hand van agendas plaas en daarna word notules geskryf. Gesprekke aan die etenstafel het die voordeel dat daar nie amptelik rekord oor hulle gehou word nie. Enigiets kan deur enigeen te berde gebring word. Churchill "would turn mealtimes into information-exchange seminars, international summits, intelligence-gathering operations ..." (p xv). "Churchill sought to convey information as well as to receive it" (p 7). "He felt more comfortable with someone with whom he had broken bread" (p 8). Die rol wat onthale in Churchill se "dinner table diplomacy" (p 4, 62) gespeel het, word soos volg deur Leon Kass verwoord: "The shared meal itself grounds our being together" (p 11). Christopher Meyer het gesê: "Food in diplomacy can be a lubricant" (p 15).
Churchill "was blessed with an excellent digestion and a lively regard for the pleasures and benefits of good food and wine" (p 174). "Churchill never allowed his preferences for food and wine to interfere with the main purpose of his dinner gatherings, or with the conviviality of the occasion. People and conversation were always the indispensable items on his menus" (p 183).
In die boek word in besonderhede verwys na "the Big Three dinners in Teheran [1943], Yalta [1945] and Potsdam [1945]" (p 31, 100) tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlog, asook die Churchill-etes in Bermuda (1953) en Washington (1954) (p 38). "The Big Three" verwys na die staatshoofde, Roosevelt (later Truman), Stalin en Churchill. Daar was ook "the Little Three," onderskeidelik Hopkins, Molotov en Eden (p 103). Churchill was by sulke geleenthede in sy element. President Franklin Roosevelt het in 1942 aan Churchill gesê: "It is fun to be in the same century with you" (p 41).
Tydens 'n besoek aan die Withuis in 1941 het 'n waarnemer van Churchill gesê: "He reminded me of a big English bulldog who had been taught to give his paw" (p 66). Die woord "paw" kom meermale in die Churchill-literatuur voor. Sy skryfwerk met die hand het Churchill "in his own paw" genoem (SêNet, 15 deser). Wanneer goeie etes voorgesit is, is gesê: "Our paws are well buttered here" (p 114).
Toe die Britte tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlog kwaai gerantsoeneer is, het die Roosevelts "ham, cheese, cigars, etc" aan die Churchills gestuur (p 42-43). Van Joseph Stalin is kaviaar ontvang. Churchill: "It was very good to have such caviar, even though it meant fighting alongside the Soviets to get it" (p 45). By 'n ander geleentheid het Churchill na Stalin as "this hardboiled egg of a man" verwys (p 92).
Die etenstafel is voor 'n onthaal tot in die fynste besonderhede deur Churchill beplan. Die vorm van die tafel (bv rond of langwerpig) is oorweeg, asook die stoele: "One does not want the Dining Room chair spreading itself, or its legs, or its arms as if it were a plant" (p 28). Churchill het die lys van die genooide gaste opgestel en besluit waar elkeen moet sit en wat op die spyskaart sou wees. Kommunikasie voor en na ete was ook belangrik. Hy het nie van musiek by onthale gehou nie, want dit "interfered with the main purpose of the dinner - conversation" (p 147).
In die boek is baie van die spyskaarte afgedruk en daar is foto's van die onthale. Churchill het helder sop (bv hoender, p 122) verkies en verroomde sop verpes. Hy het voorkeur aan "good plain fare" as geregte gegee (p 151); "fine, well prepared meals, consisting of plain food" (p 171). "The PM doesn't like his chicken 'messed about'" (p 176). Hy was lief vir ham, veral Callaway ham: "This pig has reached the highest state of evolution" (p 158). "Churchill preferred his Irish stew with 'plenty of small onions and not much broth'" (p 177). Stilton-kaas was 'n gunsteling (p 173). "Churchill preferred Stilton to sweet desserts, 'but he could easily be persuaded to take both'" (p 181). Vir nagereg het Churchill voorkeur aan roomys gegee (p 98). Oor sy gesinslewe tuis het hy geskryf: "We live very simply ... hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy" (p 172).
Na een van die etes "'Churchill spent a blissful two hours demonstrating with decanters and wine glasses how the Battle of Jutland [1916] was fought. It was a thrilling experience. He got worked up like a schoolboy, making barking noises in imitation of gunfire and blowing cigar smoke across the battle scene in imitation of gun smoke' ... One biographer noted that Churchill 'using salt shakers, cutlery, and brandy goblets ... can re-enact any battle in that war'" (p 20).
Maar: "Churchill was interested in dining not in cooking" (p 26). "Churchill had definite views on sandwiches, insisting that 'the bread must be wafer-thin, nothing more than a vehicle to convey the filling to the stomach'" (p 11). Op 'n vlug van Rusland na Engeland was Churchill se piekniekmandjie "full of caviar and champagne. This more than made up for the ruckus on the flight into Moscow when Churchill demanded mustard for the ham sandwiches prepared for the flight by the British in Teheran. None was found and Churchill declared '... no gentleman eats ham sandwiches without mustard'" (p 94).
Churchill het daaraan geglo dat "breakfast should be had in bed alone" (p 72). By 'n ander geleentheid, toe Churchill siek was, "he had dinner in bed like a sulky little boy" (p 101). Averell Harriman vertel van 'n ete wat hy en Churchill gehad het: "They served us scotch whisky and cold lobster for breakfast. Churchill seemed to thrive on it. I thought it a little rough" (p 73).
Oor drank is daar die volgende mededeling: "By tradition, all US Navy ships are dry. British ships are not. This made British ships the popular place for meetings" (p 53). Met verwysings na die Britse kosrantsoenering gedurende en na die Tweede Wêreldoorlog is gesê: "The American Navy visits the British Navy in order to get drink, and the British Navy visits the American Navy in order to get something to eat" (p 53).
Oor Churchill se drinkgewoontes vertel Alonzo Fields, die Withuis se hoofbediende/butler, van die opdrag wat hy van Churchill ontvang het: "I must have a tumbler of sherry in my room before breakfast, a couple of glasses of scotch and soda before lunch and French Champagne and 90 year old brandy before I go to sleep at night" (p 68). Churchill het ook aan Fields gesê: "In years hence when someone says was Winston Churchill a teetotaler, I want you to come to may defense." Fields: "Mr Prime Minister, I will defend you to the last drop" (p 68).
Fields het waarskynlik oordryf, maar dit word algemeen erken dat Churchill baie drank kon absorbeer sonder om beheer te verloor. Hy was dikwels gedrink, of goed geolie, maar selde, indien ooit, dronk. John Peck: "I never saw him the worse for drink" (p 187). Maar Bessie Braddock het by geleentheid vir hom gesê: "Winston, you are drunk," waarop hy geantwoord het: "Bessie, you are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober" (p 191). Oor die Yalta-spitsberaad is geskryf: "The PM seems well, though drinking buckets of Causian champagne which would undermine the health of any ordinary man" (p 127, 201).
Mackenzie King het in sy dagboek geskryf: "He took a good deal of wine to drink at dinner. It did not seem to effect him beyond quickening his intellect and intensifying his facility of expression" (p 187). Churchill: "I have never shrunk ... from the main basic standing refreshment of the white officer in the East" (p 185). "Churchill combined caution with a capacity, developed over a lifetime, to hold his alcohol" (p 129). "Churchill's consumption of alcohol ... was a lifetime habit, not a temporary response to the pressure and tension of wartime leadership" (p 190). "He never allowed drink to impair his judgment" (p 205).
Oor Stalin se keuse van Yalta in die Krimskiereiland as die plek vir daardie belangrike 1945-spitsberaad was Churchill sinies: "'If we had spent ten years on research we could not have found a worse place' ... He described the place as a 'Riviera of Hades' and intended to survive 'by bringing an adequate supply of whisky good for typhus and deadly on lice'" (p 117). Russiese onthale is gekenmerk deur die groot getal heildronke wat ingestel is: "The pop of champagne bottles went on all the time like machine-gun fire" (p 120).
Churchill het nie van mengeldrankies ("cocktails") gehou nie: "If you want to get drunk, do get drunk on something decent" (p 193). Hy het geen water by brandewyn gevoeg nie, want "that is a great crime" (p 201). Hy was versot op sjampanje, veral Pol Roger, afkomstig van "44 Avenue de Champagne, Epernay ... the world's most drinkable address" (p 196). Churchill: "A single glass of champagne imparts a feeling of exhilaration. The nerves are braced: the imagination is agreeably stirred; the wits become more nimble" (p 196). "Lady Halifax's memoires describe Churchill at one dinner as 'grumpy and remote ... But mellowed by champagne and good food he became a different man, and a delightful and amusing companion'" (p 196). Churchill het een van sy resiesperde Pol Roger genoem (p 199). "Today the only champagne served at receptions at Churchill College, Cambridge, is Pol Roger" (p 201).
Om sigare te rook, was "one of his great pleasures. But it served two other purposes: prolonging the after dinner discussions at which he shone, and serving as his political symbol" (p 206). Hy het sowat nege sigare per dag gerook. "Lord Beaverbrook rolled up his treasured white rugs ... when Churchill came to dinner so that the cigar ash 'should not be spilled on them'" (p 215). Tuis Churchill "habitually left about half in the ashtray, and ordered that all those half-smoked cigars be turned over to his gardener for use as pipe tobacco" (p 209). "Boxes of cigars [were] the gift of choice to Churchill from admirers throughout the war" (p 78).
Die mate waarin 'n sigaar vir Churchill 'n politieke simbool of handelsmerk geword het, blyk uit die volgende gebeurtenis. Op 8 Mei 1945 is "Victory in Europe Day" gevier. Churchill het die nasie uit sy ampswoning te Downingstraat 10 oor die radio toegespreek. Daarna het hy deur die skare van derduisende in 'n oop motor na die parlementsgebou gery. "Just as he was about to leave Westminster to drive to the Palace he sent his detective scurrying back to Downing Street to get him a cigar. He did not wish to smoke it, he said, but he must have one - 'They expect it'" (Lovell, SêNet, 15 deser, p 483).
Nadat Churchill in 1945 as eerste minister deur Clement Attlee vervang is, is hulle sekretaresse, Marian Holmes, gevra hoe die twee here verskil. Sy het gesê die verskil is "as the difference between champagne and water" (Stelzer, p 260). 'n Mens kan dus seker met Stelzer saamstem dat Churchill "had taken more out of alcohol than it had taken out of him" (p 205).
Johannes Comestor
Kommentaar
Baie interessant Johannes.