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[photo at left of the Palm at the End of the Mind by author]
I've been in love with the Caribbean since visiting Saint Lucia in 1990. In the years that followed I've been to Cozumel, Key West, Saint Martin, Saint Thomas, Grand Cayman, the Bahamas -- as well as Bermuda (an island that floats in the Atlantic, but similar in many ways to those farther south). Perhaps there is just something about islands that draws me: I proposed to my wife atop the crumbling fortress on George's Island, in Boston Harbor; the first extensive trip we took together, a year into our marriage, was to Kauai and Oahu (that was as far as our frequent flier points would carry us); and of course I give over much of my life to thinking about Britain. As Mary Kate is frequently arguing here at ITM, place suffuses meditation, often in surprising ways.
It's the end of the semester: classes to conclude! meetings to attend! papers to grade! exams to compose! deadlines to miss! All of us academics are nearing exhaustion. I invite you, dear readers, to mix yourself a rum drink, turn the heat way up and switch on a fan, find some internet radio station that streams steel drums all day -- or skip all the fantasies of island life and read this piece on George Odlum, or this great book by Richard Price -- and then skim the following, some excerpts from previously published work that suggests how the Caribbean might transform the medieval. [For some insight on how the medieval did in fact transform the Caribbean, on the other hand, you can't do better than Kofi Omoniyi Sylvanus Campbell: read his book, or read his talk at GW].
I opened The Postcolonial Middle Ages with this quotation from Antonio Benítez-Rojo: "Where time unfolds irregularly and resists being captured by the cycles of clock and calendar..." (The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective, 2nd ed., trans. James E. Maraniss). Benítez-Rojo describes the Caribbean as a "meta-archipelago," a figuration I found especially useful in struggling toward a language in which to collect an entity as big as "the Middle Ages" even while insisting on the violence generalization performs. In Medieval Identity Machines, I finished the thought, so to speak, offering this account of how Antonio Benítez-Rojo's model might provide a useful figuration for time as well as space.
Islands and Middles
How does one encounter the past as an anteriority that continually introduces an otherness or alterity into the present?
-- Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture
Unlike Hamlet's description of unknown futures, time is probably less an "undiscover'd country" than a postcolonial expanse. Medieval studies has long known that its lands, peoples, texts are nearly always indelibly marked by long histories of colonization, resistance, assimilation, coexistence. This section explores some recent scholarship on another hybrid geography, the Caribbean, to suggest the ways in which a particularly deleuzian strain of thought in postcolonial theory might be useful to medievalists interested in rethinking the relations among space, time and cultural admixture in their discipline, as well as to theorists of the contemporary postcolonial who might want to account with greater temporal depth for the complexities of colonialism's histories.
A vastness of islands scattered over a confluence of troubled seas, the Caribbean is difficult to totalize. Produced over centuries through multiple colonizations (five European tongues have mingled with numerous aboriginal and African languages, catalyzing hundreds of dialects, creoles, pidgins), Caribbean space is diverse, a place of category-defying syncretism, symbiosis, fusion. Collective designation, moreover, runs the risk of simply repeating the colonialist demand that the heterogeneity of the islands be reduced into some neatly describable territory in order to better dominate its supposed disorder with Western technologies of government and industry. In his attempt to articulate the "discontinuous conjunction" of this wide expanse, Antonio Benítez-Rojo deploys a conceptual construct which he labels la isla que se repite, the "repeating island" or "meta-archipelago." Because a chain of islands consists of a territorial harmony, a geographic unity plotted across the still space of a map, Benítez-Rojo insists that such a domineering view can never capture the fullness of Caribbean reality. Possessed of neither center nor absolute limits, indifferent to any precision of green spots fixed with individuating latitudes and longitudes in an ocean of blue, the meta-archipelago which he describes is not a collection of islands but an amalgam of "processes, dynamics and rhythms" conjoining familiar repetitions of history to unexpected eruptions of the new. The Caribbean meta-archipelago does not enchain but gathers into loose alliance a heterogeneous mixture of phenomena not amenable to easy synthesis: "unstable condensations, turbulences, whirlpools, clumps of bubbles, frayed seaweed, sunken galleons, crashing breakers, flying fish, seagull squawks, downpours, nighttime phosphorescences, eddies and pools, uncertain voyages of signification" (The Repeating Island, 2-3). This sensuous mélange assembles into animated conjunction the geographic, the topological, the natural, the human, the mythic, the material, covering "the map of world history's contingencies, through the great changes in economic discourse to the vast collisions of races and cultures that humankind has seen" (5). Lands, waters and histories exist in a dispersed togetherness that never congeals into finite unity. In an essay which Benítez-Rojo does not cite, Gilles Deleuze similarly envisions a conceptual archipelago which could also be described as anti-universalist, conjugative, perspectivist, "an affirmation of a world in process":
Not even a puzzle, whose pieces when fitted together would constitute a whole, but rather a wall of loose, uncemented stones, where every element has its value in itself but also in relation to others: isolated and floating relations, islands and straits, immobile points and sinuous lines … an infinite patchwork with multiple joinings.
Within remarkably similar poetics of fluidity and movement, Deleuze and Benítez-Rojo independently transform the quotidian archipelago into an aqueous assemblage which has less to do with actual islands than with a multiply connected meshwork of scattered "middles" which might decenter the world, but does not necessitate the abandonment of speaking about that world's shared immensity. The meta-archipelago, Benítez-Rojo writes in summary, is a restless machine of uncertain borders composed of unceasing flux (5).
Postcolonial theory directed toward the study of the Americas has a tendency to describe western Europe as a community of nations with a shared set of values, especially in the outward thrust of their imperial zeal. Even within national boundaries, European countries are imagined to be homogeneous: the French, the English, the Spanish and so on are supposed to have discrete identities intimately tied to the stable and apparently natural boundaries of their homelands. Europe is thus composed of coherent corporate entities with a tendency to act uniformly, even when in competition with each other. In describing the exploitation machine erected by Columbus as a kind of "medieval vacuum cleaner" which sucked resources from the New World for deposit on distant shores, Benítez-Rojo can therefore assume that Europe acted as a singular agent in perfecting a structure which was initially rather inept, augmenting its Columbian bricolage with la flota (the machine formed of ships, ports, and flows of raw material and wealth), missionaries deployed to effect religious transformation, plantations with their adaptable structures for quick implementation and lasting domination, "an entire huge assemblage of machines" (8) whose conjunction enabled efficient colonization and maximum profit.
Medievalists who study the European west are unlikely, however, to recognize the singular geographical actor at the receiving end of this impressive apparatus. Strangely enough, it is the culture of the meta-archipelago and the dynamic Caribbean machine which reverberate as possible figurations for the psychical and cultural complexity of the occidental Middle Ages. Recent work in medieval studies has undercut the possibility of assuming a transhistorical, corporate identity for Europe, arguing that the term organizes into an imaginary totality communities which did not necessarily perceive themselves as part of any such grand collective.
Linguistically and culturally diverse, connected by shifting alliance and multiple affiliation, medieval Europa was a machine animated as much by conquest, alliance and shared history (consolidating or integrative movements) as violent counterstruggle and ultimate inassimilability (eruption, assertion, sedimentation of difference). Benítez-Rojo is writing of a specific time and place in their relation to constitutive histories and topographies, of a geotemporality of which the Middle Ages knew nothing and which -- "medieval vacuum cleaners" aside -- had in turn little knowledge of the European medium aevum.
Yet his "polyrhythmic" conceptual figurations are useful in struggling toward a language in which to collect an entity as big as the western Middle Ages even while insisting upon the inherent inadequacy and potential violence which all such generalization performs. What if like the Caribbean space described by Benítez-Rojo the western Middle Ages consist of islands of difference made contiguous through the shared embrace of turbulent, confluential seas? Bede, after all, described the flow of time (lapsus temporum) as both "churning" (volubilis) and "wave-tossed" (fluctivagus). Why not extend Bede's oceanic metaphors to include the possibility of more solid spaces within the temporal flux? Some of these islands might, like the barren outcroppings sought by early Irish eremites, stand in relative isolation. Most, however, would be more like monkish Iona. The loneliness of this island in the outer Hebrides dissipates the moment we recall that Saint Columba assembled there a polyglot community drawn from many nations; that the monastery which he founded was visited with some regularity by merchants from Gaul; that flows of books and boats and pilgrims traversed its shores; that little Iona's history is inseparable from epic battles waged in Ireland and Scotland, from the consolidation of a Christian Northumbria by Oswald, from the missionary effort to convert those Pictish kingdoms now lost to history.
Adomnán, Columba's eventual successor and composer of his vita, even entertained at the monastery a storm-tossed pilgrim returning from the Holy Land. The Life of Saint Columba is a weirdly heterogeneous text, as likely to narrate a relentlessly local anecdote about a demon dwelling in the bottom of a milk pail or the saint's predicting an imminent spilled inkpot as to provide a sweeping evocation of how this "island at the edge of the ocean" disseminates miracles known beyond "the three corners of Spain and Gaul and Italy beyond the Alps." Iona in the Life is not ultimately much of an island. Even when Columba resides on its rocky shores his spirit wanders, participating in distant martial clashes, communing with angelic visitors, scattering his selfhood across the wide world. The Life of Saint Columba textually performs this sacred fluidity, resolutely refusing linear chronology or recognizable biography. Names and events recur irregularly; sometimes Columba is dead and sometimes he is alive; the action often unfolds in Iona, but sometimes we are in Ireland, or among the Picts, or watching the Loch Ness monster attack. We are constantly transported across marine expanses without transitional signals, taken back to Iona without warning, in movements that draw together distant geotemporalities without synthesizing them into a homogeneous whole.
The western Middle Ages as expanse of diverse conceptual isles means existence in intimate, unexpected connection through the swirl of manifold currents, through swiftly changing movements which rapidly commix flows of peoples, goods, ideas, armies, languages, architectures, books, genes, religions, affects, animals, technologies. Scatterings of lands gathered in their mutual relations, gathered with the currents that animate but do not totalize them, a medieval meta-archipelago would lack fixed boundaries and contain multiple centers. European cultures, communities, nations become relational and provisional imaginings rather than ontological, self-possessed wholes. Think, for example, of Custance in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, inscribing a colonial trajectory at once provincially English and transnationally Christian upon a world that includes Syria, Rome, Northumberland.
A meta-archipelago requires that this cosmos be seen not only through that imperial gaze which frames the narrative, but also through the eyes of the Sultaness, the Northumbrians, Custance herself as a woman caught in a gendered game of cultural, religious, mercantile, bodily exchange. David Nirenberg has demonstrated that violence not only established medieval communities of diversity, but was integral to sustaining them (Communities of Violence). As the Man of Law's Tale also indicates, violence plays an important role in the instigation and maintenance of the flows that forcibly bind one conceptual island in the medieval archipelago to another.
Yet, in a kind of decolonization, the meta-archipelago enables the supposed margins of Europe to lose their status as peripheral geographies, so that Wales, Ireland, Brittany, Iceland, the Midi, Catalonia become centers in their own right, dynamic points of reception and dispersal in an open meshwork of transverse, transformative differences. No circumscribing map could capture the proliferating fullness of such islands, for every time the borders of a homogenous Britannia seem to have been securely delineated, another story begins to circulate of some interior, underground civilization where the people speak a long dead language, have green skin, or give other marks of their fairy alterity, of their inassimilable difference to an island that will never achieve its ambition of becoming a well ordered self-same.
These "figures of secret and unknown origin" (as Gervase of Tilbury called them) inhabited the interiors of mountains and ruled submarinal demesnes. Even the skies were populated by alien navigators of inscrutable intent. In the Otia imperiala, Gervase describes how a congregation leaving church beholds an anchor falling from the sky. In the distant clouds sailors can be heard struggling to pull the device back aboard their ship. Soon one of these mariners shimmies down the rope, hand over hand. He is immediately seized by the crowd, struggles for his life, and drowns because the "moistness of our denser air" is intolerable to his ether-adapted lungs. When "our" previously invisible air becomes weighty enough to function as someone else's sea, then "our" skies become the currents by which the medieval archipelago exuberantly connects difference to sameness in unanticipated ways. In mentioning such fantastic peoples living below the earth, under the waters, and in the clouds along with the real denizens of places like Wales and Ireland -- people who were themselves sometimes represented in just such "magical" and dehumanizing ways in order to exaggerate the challenge which they posed to English hegemony -- my intention is not to take any measure of concrete, lived reality away from any denizen of the medieval archipelago but rather, in sympathy with a medieval impulse, to populate its land, seas, and air with as much life as possible, to restore to this world its vastness, its vitalism, its irreducible heterogeneity.
As David Wallace observes in his General Preface to The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, the Middle Ages have been badly treated by scholars who desired find in them a "future that comes to early" -- who wanted to discover the same delineations of nation and imperial power which they unproblematically celebrate in their own present. Wallace's succinct, insightful reading of The Cambridge History of the British Empire (first volume published 1929) and Cambridge History of English Literature (first volume 1907) emphasizes the awkwardness which such teleological rhetoric engenders. Because medieval England with its "plurality of languages" was "a culture more colonized than colonizing," no "secure point of origin for imperial history" exists, mandating that the Middle Ages be commemorated in order to be quickly forgotten (xii-xiii). In contrast, Wallace's own edited volume ambitiously aims for and largely achieves a "dizzying complexity" of cultures, languages, and material realities (xiv). In envisioning a British Isles resistant to harmonization rather than a unified and premature England, The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature attains something like the archipelago-like spread articulated by Benítez-Rojo. In the dazzling series of chapters labeled "Writing in the British Isles" (179-309), sections on Wales, Scotland, and Ireland are allowed to "write their histories, so to speak, from the inside out (with the English sometimes visible, sometimes not)" (179). In decentering the island into a scattered multiplicity, the volume's project is admirable, even awesome.
It therefore feels almost criminal to critique its achievement, especially because Wallace's editorial restructuring of how insular history gets narrated will be felt in the field for a long time, catalyzing further decolonizations of the "English" Middle Ages. Yet one might object that within the large geographic and collective structures which the volume keeps in place, communities of difference (what Anne McClintock calls the "internally colonized") are left out, are rendered ineligible to write their histories. The preface to this bulky and inclusive book argues that the chapter on London in the "Writing in the British Isles" section "must stand in, methodologically, for accounts of other places that have yet to be written, cannot yet be written, or have found no space for inclusion here." Among these excluded narratives are "the writings and public inscriptions of the Jews" (xvi). One cannot say that such a Jewish account cannot be written; see, for example, the documentary narration of exactly this history in Joseph Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England, published in 1893. That such an account has simply "found no space for inclusion here" is not a reassuring explanation for why a volume notable for its capacious embrace of cultural difference nonetheless presents an unselfconsciously Christian -- and therefore an ultimately singular and reduced -- Middle Ages.
A reconsideration of geographical emplacement is as vital to the future of the Middle Ages as it is to the analysis of Caribbean and other postcolonial spaces. Just as importantly, as Wallace has already implied, within these places of shared histories conjoined to disparate experience and expression, time likewise loses its smooth universality, its exteriority, its rigidity. While contemporary critical theory has developed a sophisticated vocabulary for dealing with that which is unheimlich ("uncanny" "un-home-ly" "out of place"), a problem just now being explored is that posed by the untimely. Without much further elaboration, Antonio Benítez-Rojo observes that inside the fluid and sinuous Caribbean machine, time "unfolds irregularly and resists being captured by the cycles of clock and calendar" (11). Benítez-Rojo's throwaway observation can be usefully extended using recent work by other postcolonial theorists. The Caribbean, the medieval west, English India, and any other geography produced through colonizations are likewise composed of multiple, hybridized temporalities, of what Sara Suleri has called disparate, thick, "colonial intimacies" in which time unfolds differently at different vantage points, according to divergent "logics of origin."
The adjective "postcolonial" has been accommodated comfortably enough into the contemporary critical lexicon for the hyphen that used to divide its constituent parts to vanish. This disappearing punctuation, like all ghosts, tells an interesting story about time. "Post-colonial" suggests straightforwardly enough that a historical period exists which is after colonialism. "Postcolonial," the hyphen digested but its constituent elements bumping against each other without synthesis, has come to signify a temporal contiguity to rather than an evolutionary difference from the noun that forms its linguistic base. The postcolonial can be said to originate "from the very first moment of colonial contact," as a "discourse of oppositionality which colonialism brings into being." Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge describe the postcolonial as "a splinter in the side of the colonial itself," leading Michelle R. Warren to conclude that postcolonial theory opens a window "into any time or place where one social group dominates an other." Just as there was never a time before colony, there has never yet been a time when the colonial has been outgrown, left behind. For this reason Gayatri Spivak has suggested replacing "postcolonial" with "neocolonial," but for accuracy's sake it would make more sense to speak of the "midcolonial": the time of "always-already," an intermediacy that no narrative can pin to a single moment of history in its origin or end.
Anne McClintock has cautioned that the term "postcolonial" is nonetheless haunted by a "commitment to linear time and the idea of 'development'" ("The Angel of Progress" 85). One could go farther and argue that postcolonial theory in practice has neglected the study of the "distant" past, positing instead of interrogating the anteriority against which modern regimes of power have supposedly arisen. This exclusionary model of temporality denies the possibility that traumas, exclusions, violence enacted centuries ago might still linger in contemporary identity formations. It also closes off the possibility that this past could be multiple and valuable enough to contain (and be contained within) alternative presents and futures.
No definition of postcolonial theory has gained the same citational weight as that by Homi Bhabha: "Postcolonial criticism bears witness to the unequal and uneven forces of cultural representation involved in the contest for political and social authority within the modern world order." Postcolonial interventions into the "discourses of modernity" fragment the clean and easy identity narratives which cultures tell themselves, offering "critical revisions" which stress difference, conflict, and (to cite Bhabha citing Habermas) "widely scattered historical contingencies" (171). "Bearing witness" would seem to be an activity one does in the present in order to address a recent past -- thus the haunting of Bhabha's definition by the modern. Yet there is nothing especially recent about the "differential, often disadvantaged, histories of nations, races," social antagonism, and irreducible difference he describes. Indeed, the temporal boundaries that Bhabha draws seem especially arbitrary in that an important challenge offered by this essay and by his work in general is a rethinking of temporality itself from a postcolonial perspective.
The progress narratives of that traditional history which has left its traces in the names assigned to the major epochs of the West declare that the Middle Ages began in darkness and ended at a rebirth which rendered them obsolete. As the possible alliance between the contemporary Caribbean, English India, and the medieval West suggests, however, a progressive or teleological history in which time is conceived as mere seriality and flat chronology is inadequate to the task of thinking the meanings and trauma of the past, its embeddedness in place, its active relation to the future. Once homogeneity and hierarchizing, developmental, or overarching models are denied history, time becomes an active component within the open structure of alliance which both Benítez-Rojo and Deleuze call a machine, an assemblage "of diverse elements … which generates new structures without homogenizing the components … the emergence of a form, a form in which the materials themselves have a say."
An advantage, moreover, of conceptualizing temporality as multiply centered movements among unstable isles rather than as a unidirectional river is that distance in space no longer implies distance in time. Too often that which is geographically far from some ideological center is represented as primitive, undeveloped, Other, so that travel toward the periphery is coded as travel back in time. Because it possesses no margins per se, the medieval archipelago resists such easy conflation. Dublin and St David's c. 1300 are no more nor less backward than London c. 1300 or Washington DC c. 2001. Creation of a nonspatialized, shared, coeval time allows the possibility of what the anthropologist Johannes Fabian calls "the radical contemporaneity of mankind," the opening up of a world without temporalized violence against that which is different and distant. In arguing that temporalities separated by centuries may also in a sense be coeval, I am taking Fabian's argument further than he intended, since for him coevalness applies to cultures contemporary to each other but geographically removed.
Once progressivist narratives of chronology have been abandoned, can movement in time ever be "back," with all the negative connotations which anterior temporality (as undeveloped, as primitive) carries? The possibility of coevalness across time, it must be noted, does not imply a radical moral relativism, but simply carries an insistence that "advanced" civilizations cannot claim an innate ethical superiority over those at their temporal or geographical margins. Coevalness requires as well an acknowledgement that the achievement of a tolerant or non-persecuting society is at best a fragile and temporary gain rather than the irreversible attainment of some higher stage of societal evolution, some permanent state of enlightenment. A constant vigilance is by implication absolutely necessary to maintain these moments as tenuous as they are rare.
The Middle Ages have been too often characterized as a field of undifferentiated otherness against which modernity emerged, an exclusionary model of temporalization at least as old as the construction of the "Renaissance" as an epoch of classical rebirth. By establishing a continuity between the pre- and post-medieval, this periodization precipitated the Middle Ages as middle while at the same time banishing them from any kind of center. The medieval thus constructed becomes, in Louise O. A. Fradenburg's words, unchanging, inert, "lost to us by its very pastness." Alterity removes the Middle Ages from temporality altogether, rendering it inviolate. Conceptualizing this same temporal expanse as a middle space of scattered islands collected via ceaseless currents produces a rather unmedieval Middle Ages. The medieval as meta-archipelago -- as interminable, difficult middle -- stresses not simple difference (the past as past) or predictable similarity (the past as present) but temporal interlacement, the impossibility of choosing alterity or continuity (the past which opens up the present to a multitude of futures).
This resolutely medium aevum therefore lacks both a Genesis-like in principio at which to locate a destiny-laden foundation and a Day of Judgment to organize manifold circulations into a linear temporal movement. If this Borromean knot which entwines disparate temporalities, supplanting the teleological chronology of more traditional history, seems uncannily similar to the theoretical displacement of linear history within postcolonial studies, that is no coincidence, since the "middle" of the Middle Ages is already forging a productive alliance with the nontemporal "post" of postcolonial theory. It makes sense, then, to explore the complex ways in which the medieval touches the "midcolonial," making both more familiar and more strange. The past need not function as a field of simple origin, as a time of mythic wholeness which underwrites contemporary fantasies of ethnic, national, or even epistemological homogeneity. Janus-faced, biformis, the Middle Ages performs a double work, so that the alliance of postcolonial theory and medieval studies might open up the present to multiplicity, newness, difficult similarity conjoined to complex difference.
A conceptualization of time as unbounded middle is not simply the recent invention of critical temporal studies and postcolonial theory, but is evident even in medieval authors, including one of the most canonical writers, Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales are best known for a temporal opposition between the still and confident eternity of which the indestructible bodies of saints partake (incorruptable Cecilia in the Second Nun's Tale, the murdered but uncannily animate "litel clergeon" of the Prioress) and the hurried measurement of days and hours which obsess Harry Bailey and the Canon's Yeoman ("capital time," a figuration of temporality which has much in common with the transmutational fixations of alchemy and humoral theory). Yet this same collection of heterogeneous narratives also produces a meta-archipelago of its own. Like Salvation History itself, The Canterbury Tales are possessed of a beginning (the General Prologue, the departure from Southwark, the instigations of Fragment I) and a definitive end (the approach at sunset into Canterbury, the Parson's sober recitation, the contrite Retraction), but this unfinished assemblage is actually all middle. The Tales combine politics, religion, art, commerce, social critique into an unsynthesized amalgam of romance, hagiography, history, fabliaux, fantasy, sermons, exemplary narratives, poetry, prose. They produce a motley assortment of persons who often overstep the boundaries of their textuality and begin to act as if alive.
Deleuze and Guattari label such works transversal or rhizomatic, lacking an exterior unity and composed not of a "system of units" but of "directions in motion." As nonhierarchical and acentered as a meta-archipelago, rhizomatic books do not argue a point or mirror a world, but create an assemblage which "operates by variation, expansion, conquest, capture, offshoots" (A Thousand Plateaus 21). Chaucer appears to have finished the concluding section of his opus fairly early in the project, and so we know, therefore, that the Canterbury Tales were supposed to culminate at the tomb of the "holy, blissful martyr" Thomas à Becket, where in the sacred space of a cathedral the quotidian pilgrimage is transubstantiated into the soul's journey to celestial eternity. Yet, having written that orthodox ending in the face of which there would seem to be nothing more to say, Chaucer sabotaged at every point the possibility of everlasting resolution.
Not only did he continually rework the General Prologue, energizing its wide-ranging fellowship by adding an inspired assortment of new characters (including himself), he also seems to have been constantly revising the overall plan for the tale-telling. Derek Pearsall has argued that Chaucer's original plan was for each pilgrim to provide one story on the way to Canterbury. Chaucer later modified the tale-telling frame to allow two or more narratives by each figure before arrival at the final destination, then at a later date opened up the possibility of multiple tales by each pilgrim on the journey to the cathedral as well as during the return trip to London. It is perhaps shocking enough to think that the Canterbury which the Parson transfigures into Jerusalem Celestial allows a return. Yet Chaucer also decided to introduce the possibility of expansion for the company via chance encounters along the road, such as the alchemist and yeoman who explosively overtake the narrative, rendering the Canterbury company less pilgrims defined by their destination than simple compagnons de route, fellow travelers.
The Canterbury Tales project could not be finished by Chaucer because it aspires to no totality. Bernard of Clairvaux described the body as the tabernaculum (tent) "in which we wander as pilgrims," a vivid image which Bruce Holsinger glosses as a body which "is not a permanent home or native residence, but … an ever-present but mobile reminder of humanity's displacement from the true Holy Land above" ("The Color of Salvation" 172-73). Chaucer likewise intricated pilgrimage with bodies, but without reading the peregrinations of these pilgrim corpora back from what for Bernard is their overarching goal. Infinitely dilating, framed but in no way contained by the artificial book-ends of London and Canterbury, The Canterbury Tales construct a middle space that is all motion, containing a vision of pilgrimage that does not end at the bones of a long dead martyr. In this world between worlds, Egeus declares in his inept but unexpectedly insightful way, "we been pilgrymes, passing to and fro" (Knight's Tale 2848): an extraordinary pilgrimage that is simultaneously towards and from, a journey without telos or simple origin, a journey of pure movement, pure encounter, pure becoming.
Chaucer's rhizomatic drift has allowed me to wax utopian, but in the end it is necessary to pull back and make one final observation about such assemblages of proliferation. Despite Benítez-Rojo's frequent claim that the meta-archipelago that he describes structurally excludes the possibility of violence, the history of the Caribbean would suggest otherwise. In the same way, even the extraordinary middle space that Chaucer envisions has its imperialistic movements of colonization, reclamation, and control. The action unfolds in distant geographies, but is always ultimately quite English. Although marked by occasional eruptions of Latin, French (the urbane friar of the Summoner's Tale, with his "je vous dy sanz doute") and Flemish (the proverbial quotation of the Cook's Tale, "sooth pley, quaad pley"), as well as regional English dialect (the "northernisms" of John and Aleyn in the Reeve's Tale), as a whole the Canterbury Tales are linguistically reductive, promulgating London English as the only possible literary language for the nation. The Canterbury Tales even contains a narrative which takes great joy in purging itself of non-Christian presence, reducing a ghetto which affronts Christian integrity with its resistant difference to a heap of mutilated and eternally silenced bodies (Prioress's Tale). The Jews suffer a doubled temporal death. Not only do they represent an anachronism for Christianity, since they refuse to believe that Christ is the messiah and therefore consign themselves to perpetual inhabitation of an outmoded Old Law, these Chaucerian corpses are a reminder of a specifically English history, the anti-Semitic violence of the twelfth and thirteenth century which culminated in the Expulsion of 1290. English national identity is sutured around the figure of the absent Jew, a body out of time which reminds not only of the violent limits of the British Isles as a medieval archipelago, but more generally of the centrality of bodies to any thinking about time.


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Zagorskaya PSPP
Project Description
Zagorskaya PSPP is a(n) hydro-based power plant. It is owned by PJSC "RusHydro". Its estimated electrical generating capacity is 1200.0 megawatts.
Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. 2018. Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; http://resourcewatch.org/; https://earthengine.google.com/; https://datasets.wri.org/dataset/globalpowerplantdatabase

subset: commoncrawl


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The Winter Olympic Games open in Sochi this Friday, but any expectation that there would by now be a rising tide of enthusiasm for the splendour of the opening ceremony or the thrill of the sports on show has been dashed. Instead we only read about the likelihood of a Chechen terrorist attack, the possible effect on athletes and spectators of recently enacted anti-gay Russian legislation and the appalling prospect that some Western journalists might find their hotel bedrooms are unfinished.
Of these, the terrorist threat occupies most press attention. Reports of a Russian military 'ring of steel' around the Sochi area to keep potential terrorists at bay cut little ice with seasoned analysts; after all these Winter Games have cost the Russian authorities an estimated $30 - $50 billion, and the need to recoup this money from tourism, plus wanting to avoid the embarrassment of half empty stadiums, means that even though the terrorist threat has been so well publicised visitors will be flocking to Sochi – perhaps as many as 100,000. It is difficult to see how any ring of steel can operate with that size of human invasion. The well-worn truism applies here – even if the security authorities get it right 99,999 times, if they get it wrong only once the result will be tragic.
Some scrutiny needs to be applied to the International Olympic Committee. Why in 2007 did they choose this venue over the other contenders (Austria and South Korea)? It is not as if the Russian/Chechen conflict is a contemporary surprise. The dispute, part religious (Chechen Islamists versus Russian Orthodox), part territorial and part revenge-oriented has been on the go for at least 200 years. There was an attempt at a negotiated settlement in the 1990s, but it failed within a few years, after Chechen forces invaded Russian Dagestan. Subsequent to that, atrocities committed by Chechen rebels, including the Moscow apartment bombs, the Moscow theatre hostage crisis, and most horrifically the Beslan school massacre in 2004 might have alerted the Olympic Committee to the possibility of trouble ahead. Apparently not. And subsequent terrorist attacks by Chechens, most recently at the Boston Marathon race and in Volgagrad in 2013 don't lead us to have any more confidence.
In situations such as this, and there are many more around the world, where conflict appears to be deep rooted and endemic, is there any hope of resolution? Should the parties at war even try to negotiate a resolution? History suggests that where there is a victory by one side over the other it is usually short lived, and that when negotiations are tried they almost always fail (speculate about how badly John Kerry is getting on with the Palestinian/Israeli peace plan and the Syrian civil war, about the unlikelihood that the Tamil separatists have accepted their fate and that long term peace will reign in Sri Lanka, about the continuing resistance by Tibetans to their domination by China).
The alternative is the achievement of some sort of power balance, where there is no settlement but that each side recognises that the continuation of the status quo is better for them than fighting for change. Successful leaders in many Arab countries recognised this throughout the 20th century; the way to stability was not through democracy; it was better to dictate, but to dictate benignly. That way the disaffected minority couldn't be bothered to rise up against their masters – life wasn't perfect, but it wasn't so bad either. The Arab Spring changed all that, with the disastrous consequences we have seen in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria (and maybe in due course Turkey?)
Perhaps the most interesting idea is that even power-balance status quo situations need to be negotiated. In all the successful examples, there is constant dialogue between the factions, usually privately and behind closed doors. That way the minority parties feel they are being involved, and if issues arise there is a process to discuss and resolve them. Behind closed doors.
The problem is there are no closed doors in the blaze of publicity which is a global sporting event. So the Russians and the Chechens don't talk, and the danger for Sochi is heightened.
Let's hope that peace holds, and that the headlines we read over the next 2 weeks reflect world records being broken, rather than innocent people's lives.
Stephen White


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MSNBC Anchor Uses Dirty Word to Describe Anthony Weiner Texting Pal (NSFW)
So much for journalists being impartial.
MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts caused a stir Wednesday when he called Sydney Leathers, the woman at the center of Anthony Weiner's latest sex scandal, 'bats***.'
Roberts made his comment after playing part of Leathers' interview with Howard Stern, although he did catch himself just as he said it. Still, the damage was done.
Kind of like what this whole embarrassing matter has done to Weiner's chances of becoming mayor of New York City.


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The mission of the company is to make the best of healthcare available at the most affordable rates and to offer a host of premium value added products.To bring the latest development in the pharmaceuticals industry within the reach of the common man.
Quality, being our utmost priority, it is maintained at all the times through various quality assurance test conducted by our team of quality controllers. For this, we procure the offered range from trusted vendors of the industry, who hold expertise in their area of work. By appointing a team of quality controllers, we ensure to provide our customers with highly effective range of pharmaceutical products. In order to enhance their quality testing skills, our quality controllers are provided with regular training sessions.
To be an innovative and vibrant pharmaceutical company in Indian. healthcare arena. To bring the latest development in the pharmaceuticals industry within the reach of the common man, the company is making a real difference in the lives of patients.
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Designed & Developed By PCD PHARMA EXPRESS


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A Birthday Tribute To Influential Cartoonist Vaughn Bodé
Vaughn Bodé is one of the few comics creators whose work transcends genre and style – his art can't be compared to anything but itself, and can really only be described and categorized as "Vaughn Bodé style". In his brief career, he redefined the very idea of what a cartoonist could be, pioneering a drawing style that inspired and confounded, blending and distorting fantasy tropes with every pen stroke. His stories were filled with spaced-out hallucinations and a direct, earthy sensuality, and established him as a guru of graphic storytelling and the first proper rock star of the comics field.
To mark the occasion of his birthday, ComicsAlliance reached out to a handful of our favorite modern-day artists to offer their takes on Bodé – his characters, his style, his feeling, and his inspiration.


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- This event has passed.
Reading and Writing through James Schuyler's Collected Poems: A Poetry Workshop
May 4, 2014, 12:00 AM EDT
In this workshop (which runs every Sunday from January 5th to May 4th, 2014), participants in person and online will study the work of James Schuyler, engaging his Collected Poems. This book of poetry will generate conversation and strategies for the writing we enact.
Learn more here.


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In addition, we currently organise three events: Tea & Coffee World Cup; Asia CanTech and Euro CanTech.
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Slaughter (Zabíjačka)
On of the annual (or semi-annual) traditions in Slovakia is something called zabíjačka or slaughter. It's the closest thing we have to the American Thanksgiving. The difference is that instead of killing a turkey, we eat a pig.
The whole ritual starts in late March, when people living in a village buy a pig (prasa). The small 30lb piglet is then fattened all summer long, and finally slaughtered once it gets to a respectable 200lbs. Of course, nowadays many folks do not have the yard (nor the patience) to raise a pig. As such, it is quite common to purchase an already pre-fattened pig. And if the family is small, to purchase just a half or a quarter of the porker.
Cleaning the Pig
Unlike with the case of Thanksgiving, there is no set "slaughter" date. However, there are two main slaughter seasons: in November (about a month before Christmas) and then again before Easter. On the day of slaughter (or the delivery of the pig), the whole family, friends and neighbors get together. The dead pig is placed on a wooden board, and a heat lamp is used to burn off all the hair. Then hot water is poured all over the pig to wash it. Finally, the head is chopped off and the belly is cut open.
The internal organs are then removed, including the intestines (črevá). Typically one woman would wash the intestines while another went about preparing lunch. The intestines have to be washed thoroughly, since they are to be used later as casings for sausages and hurky. They are rinsed off some 20 times, and then left to soak in water containing dissolved lemon, chopped onions and black pepper. The internal organs are cooked up into a soup (polievka or vývar) that is served for lunch. Small kidney dumplings (pečeňové halušky, dumplings made out of kidney meat mixed with flour) are mixed into it. And for the main course, there is baked meat (pečené mäso).
Making Sausages
The real fun started after lunch: making of sausages. Men cut up the meat, grind it up, mix it with the various spices and filled the intestines. Meat from the lunch soup is used to make jaternica (rice sausage) and tlačenka (meaning "pressed meat" but known as head cheese). Other pig parts (including the feet and the tail) are turned into studenina and huspenina, dishes I have no desire to learn the recipe for. Finished sausages are left hanging from a stick overnight and then put in the smokehouse the following morning. Of course, all this involved plenty of drinking and merry good time. Dinner typically consisted of the sauerkraut soup (kapustnica) and more baked meat.
Smoking Meat
The smokehouse (udiareň) was a little wooden shed with a metal roof. It contained several horizontal sticks from which the meat could be hung. Several cinder blocks or bricks were placed on the bottom, and fire was started between them. A metal sheet with multiple holes punctured in it was placed over the bricks. The purpose of this sheet was to evenly distribute the smoke coming from the fire. Various types of wood were used, but my grandma used the plum (slivka) tree. The fire was kept low to produce a lot of smoke. The sausages were left in the udiareň for about 4 days.
While the sausages were smoking, the other meat was covered with salt and left to marinate in a wooden tub (korýtko). The juices that the meat let out were periodically poured again over the meat. Bacon (slanina) was treated the same way. It was also often seasoned with caraway. Meats were then smoked for some 5 or 6 days, until the bacon got yellow and the meat got golden. Smoked meat (údené mäso) was stored in a dark pantry (komora) where it would keep all winter long.


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In the midst of 400 year-old live oaks draped in Spanish moss are 77 homesites that are a sanctuary for the wildlife and residents that live here. Lowcountry architecture graces the land and sets the tone for what's to come.
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README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X
This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X.
The latest Perl release (5.8.8 as of this writing) builds without changes under Mac OS X. Under 10.3 ``Panther'' and newer OS versions, all self-tests pass, and all standard features are supported.
Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 ``Jaguar'' and older) did not include a completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also, earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests are known to fail on those releases.
The default installation location for this release uses the traditional UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules undisturbed.
Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored on a file server and used by many Macs.
First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment:
export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk
Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags' config variables:
./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ -Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ -de
To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK:
export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags for creating a universal binary:
./Configure -Accflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ -Aldflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ -de
Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The system libraries that Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries may need to be re-installed as universal binaries.
Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed for pre-binding.
You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish (Configure ... -Duseshrlib), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's pre-bound dynamic library.
With 10.4 ``Tiger'' and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance penalty for non-prebound libraries.
In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts can just as easily begin with ``#!/usr/local/bin/perl'' as with ``#!/usr/bin/perl''. Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple.
If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are present when an application that links against libperl is built, ld will link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you need to replace Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need to be sure to delete the older dynamic library after you've installed the update.
If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink (in other words, you have libraries under /sw/lib), or libdlcompat to /usr/local/lib, you may need to be extra careful when running Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries to use. Being confused will show up for example as ``dyld'' errors about symbol problems, for example during ``make test''. The safest bet is to run Configure as
Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib
to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth:
Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib'
The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl
Configure ... -Duseshrplib
but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above ``libperl and Prebinding'').
Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for
the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain). In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in
failures in the lib/locale
test. These failures have been supressed
in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale.
If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support.
Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for ``Classic MacOS'' - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different, etc.
From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions.
MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use Mac OS X's newer ``Carbon'' toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the ``Mac::Carbon'' module.
There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects.
An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/.
Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to really, REALLY, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following instructions should do it. Please think twice before following these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to yourself. Without anesthesia. We will not come to fix your system if you do this.
First, get rid of the libperl.dylib:
# cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE # rm libperl.dylib
Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders:
/System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl
You can find them for example by
# find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print
After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media
(you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl),
or rebuild Perl from the source code with Configure -Dprefix=/usr
NOTE: the -Dprefix=/usr
to replace the system Perl
works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the
settings were not quite right.
``Pacifist'' from CharlesSoft (http://www.charlessoft.com/) is a nice way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to reinstall the entire OS.
This README was written by Sherm Pendley <firstname.lastname@example.com>, and subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop <email@example.com>. The ``Starting From Scratch'' recipe was contributed by John Montbriand <email@example.com>.
Last modified 2005-11-07.


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Through auditing and training, Scientologists have come to understand that much in our modern world is transitory and impermanent and based on things not surviving or on things that are in fact being destroyed. They know that Scientology can rehabilitate people to their full potentials and that these gains can last forever, bringing them to a realization of their own immortality and to a condition in which they can provide the most effective help to others.
Caught on an economic treadmill, hit at every side with the materialism of our age, it is hard for many to grasp that higher states could even exist.
But they do exist.
The practice of Scientology is concerned with a better state for Man and opens the way with a certain and sure bridge into a future. The way has been dreamed of in ages past. For Man it never existed until now.


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When using the SQLCMD mode withing SSMS (not from the commandline), is there a way to assign the current server and instance to a variable? This is different and distinct from assigning ordinary TSQL variables.
Problem definition
I want to use the power of SQLCMD's variable expansion to substitute environment specific values in our deploy scripts instead of the existing tsql string building mash I've walked into. With the one exception of current environment, the use of SQLCMD to handle deploys has gone extremely well.
-- define 2 sqlcmd variables that will be expanded in scripts
:setvar dbServer "DEVA2\DEV2"
:setvar dbNotServer @@servername
'$(dbServer)' AS hard_coded_value
, @@servername AS [servername]
, '$(dbNotServer)' AS dbNotServer
And that generates the following results.
hard_coded_value servername dbNotServer
DEVA2\DEV2 DEVA2\DEV2 @@servername
Meat Loaf says 2 out of 3 ain't bad, but I'd rather have a 3 out of 3 solution. When that script gets deployed the test server, I don't want to trust the deployment folks with editing the script.
If the only solution to using SQLCMD is to invoke scripts completely from the command line, I can accept that but wanted to throw this out here as I'm green to using SQLCMD.
Desired output
:setvar dbNotServer @@servername
SELECT '$(dbNotServer)' AS worked
Fruitless pursuits
The first BOL link showed promise, all I had to do was use the SQLCMDSERVER but to no avail. Run within the context of SSMS in SQLCMD mode, it will throw a fatal scripting error
-- A fatal scripting error occurred.
-- Variable SQLCMDSERVER is not defined.
SELECT '$(SQLCMDSERVER)' AS [FatalScriptingError]
Tumbleweed update
2011-08-12 In an attempt to reduct my problem to the simplest form, based on the answers, I oversimplified my queries (my apologies). A portion of the query I used is below. The two reponders are correct in their answers that identify wrapping @@servername in tick marks results in the literal value and to get the expanded value, I'd need to unwrap it from the quotes. My desire was to use sqlcmd variable substitution rather than string building which unwrap would entail.
, ConfiguredValue
, PackagePath
, ConfiguredValueType
, Application
, Category
, Subcategory
, Comment
'Default.Accounting' AS ConfigurationFilter
, 'Data Source=$(dbServer);Initial Catalog=Accounting;Provider=SQLNCLI10.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Packet Size=32767;' AS ConfiguredValue
, '\Package.Connections[Accounting].Properties[ConnectionString]' AS PackagePath
, 'String' AS ConfiguredValueType
, 'Defaults' AS Application
, 'Connection' AS Category
, 'Database' AS Subcategory
, 'Default connection string' AS Comment
'Default.$(sqlVersion).CorporateReporting' AS ConfigurationFilter
, 'Data Source=$(dwServer);Initial Catalog=CRDS;Provider=SQLNCLI10.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Packet Size=32767;' AS ConfiguredValue
, '\Package.Connections[CorporateReporting].Properties[ConnectionString]' AS PackagePath
, 'String' AS ConfiguredValueType
, 'Defaults' AS Application
, 'Connection' AS Category
, 'Database' AS Subcategory
, 'Default connection string' AS Comment
Command line invocation works (as expected)
C:\>sqlcmd -E -d master -S DEVA2\DEV2 -Q "SELECT '$(SQLCMDSERVER)' AS [servername]"
I've tried and discarded other permutations of the :setvar x @@servername in an attempt to get the evaluated value of the database variable stored into the SQLCMD variable. At this point, I'm fairly certain the sqlcmd variables are susbstituted in queries prior to query compiliation but would love to be proven wrong.


text:
French appliance manufacturer Groupe SEB and Danish brewer Carlsberg sell in vastly different industries, but they both had similar experiences trying to get ahead in the treasure chest that is China. In 2002, Groupe SEB was inching forward—growing by, at most, 0.2% a year—and it was the 32nd ranked company in its segment in China. Carlsberg also was at the bottom of the pack, a small player with less than 1% market share, with no clear path to a sustainable position. Then both companies got serious. In 2006, Groupe SEB started buying shares in China's leading appliance manufacturer, Supor, a move that steadily and dramatically increased its market share. The company leapfrogged to fifth place by 2010. For its part, Carlsberg started acquiring or partnering with Chinese local breweries. The brewer has watched inorganic volume grow by a compounded rate of 43% and achieved organic growth of 31% from 2002 to 2011, when it became China's 10th-ranked brewer, according to Euromonitor, with a focus on Western China, where it is the market leader.
China is as challenging to global companies as it is important. Even when the economy cools down, it is creating opportunities for scale that are unmatched anywhere. Already it is the No. 1 market in a host of industries, including automobiles, home appliances and mobile phones. It also is emerging as a leading profitable growth engine for multinational companies (MNCs). In a recent American Chamber of Commerce in China survey, 68% of MNCs are reaping margins in China that are comparable or higher with worldwide margins (see Figure 1).
But as Groupe SEB, Carlsberg and countless other companies have learned, winning by going it alone is not easy. The competition has never been tougher as a new generation of domestic companies—local champions—is quickly setting the standard for low-cost and good-enough products. MNCs need to measure up or they'll fall behind. And with so much competitive pressure, they need to do it fast.
Chinese players are showing how easy it is to outpace MNCs. In consumer goods, local player Hosa overcame Italy's Arena to become the No. 1 seller of swimwear by targeting the mass market. In healthcare, domestic ultrasound manufacturer Mindray became the No. 1 player by using technology that was reliable but less advanced and offering 30% to 40% lower prices than similar models from MNCs.
M&As and joint ventures (JVs) have always been options for success in China, and in restricted industries like banking or insurance, there is still no alternative. In those cases, deals not only allow the company to operate in China but also may give the MNC access to important government contracts. But the pace of deals has dramatically intensified outside of restricted industries. Every week seems to bring with it announcements of new joint ventures or merger deals. Only around 25% of Fortune 200 companies are relying on organic growth in China.
Increasingly, the deals are becoming transformative for the companies involved, providing upstream activities, R&D, intellectual property (IP) contributions, core capabilities sharing and other means of advancing in China. In addition to the original intention of gaining regulatory access, MNCs are turning to inorganic growth to lower costs for both domestic production and exports, fill portfolio gaps and strengthen their go-to-market capabilities—all areas in which domestic players typically have the edge.
A staggering difference in costs
Let's start with cost levels. It's no secret that local players benefit from less stringent specs, cheaper raw materials lower labor costs and lower back-office overhead costs. The difference in production costs in China is sometimes staggering. In both swimwear and carpets, for example, analysis shows that one local company's unit costs for local production are 40% less than that of a leading MNC competitor's production in China. In medical devices and cell phones, comparisons between a local player and an MNC show that costs are 20% less for the domestic company. It's virtually impossible to replicate a Chinese company's cost structure. That's one of the major reasons why Japan's Hitachi Ltd. has entered no fewer than 36 joint ventures, M&As or partnerships in China to piggyback off the low-cost manufacturing of partners like Haier and Shanghai Electric.
And consider Chinese companies' go-to-market approaches. Unlike their multinational counterparts, domestic players typically have extensive built-in distribution networks, and they often focus their efforts on non-top-tier cities, where much of the growth is taking place. Of the 10 toothpaste brands with the most penetration in Tier-2 cities, seven are local—and for each of them, penetration is 30% or more.
The local company may have a 5,000-member on-the-ground salesforce in high-growth Tier-2 to Tier-5 cities, something that would take years for an MNC to replicate. Buying a Chinese company gives an MNC access to key channels and large accounts—increasingly critical for success in China. In addition, Chinese companies often have a low-cost distribution network, which is particularly important for good-enough or mid-market products, where distribution has a higher share of the total costs.
And when it comes to filling portfolio gaps, MNCs can use a domestic player's strong local brand to address a broader customer base—adding different price segments or adjacent product segments. US-based medical device maker Medtronic is using M&A in large part to expand into new segments in China. Medtronic ventured into M&A in 2008 when it set up a joint venture with Shandong Weigao Group, a major medical equipment company in China, to develop and market Medtronic's vertebral and joint products. In 2012, Medtronic announced an acquisition of local Chinese orthopedics company Kanghui for more than $700 million.
As MNCs look for the best deals to help them gain these and other capabilities that can enable them to grow fast, they're finding what works and what doesn't. A well-devised system for joint ventures or acquisitions can be the single biggest contributor to a company's growth in China and a key enabler of building leading market position. A less-diligent approach can derail expansion. From our experience with clients in a range of industries in China, we've determined approaches that boost the odds of inorganic growth success.
Why are we doing this deal?
In China as elsewhere, one of the keys to a deal's success is to start out by knowing exactly what you hope to gain. Begin with a growth strategy that clarifies how M&A will enable growth, and then develop a prioritized target list—keeping in mind that in China deals may arise opportunistically. A deal thesis spells out the reasons for a deal—generally no more than five or six key arguments for why a transaction makes compelling business sense. According to a Bain & Company survey of nearly 250 global executives, an acquirer's management team had developed a clear investment thesis early on in 90% of successful deals (see Figure 2). A deal thesis articulates on one page the business fit, strategic importance, acceptable valuation range, key risks and potential integration issues.
In China, few companies have been as systematic in the use of a deal thesis as China Resources Snow Breweries (CRB), the SABMiller and China Resources Enterprise joint venture. Since joining forces in 1994 (SABMiller owns 49%, China Resources controls 51%), the joint venture has completed dozens of regional brewery acquisitions in China, integrating brands and operations. Drawing on more than 115 years of brewing experience and more than 200 brands across 75 countries, SABMiller brought its significant brewing expertise and low-cost experience to the table, as well as its ability to quickly integrate and consolidate new acquisitions to create scale. China Resources brought its local market knowledge and key relationships. When the joint venture looks for acquisitions, it evaluates whether— and how—SABMiller's and China Resources' strengths can be used to make the deal a success. SABMiller offers M&A capability, a systematic approach to managing post-merger integration complexity and experts who maintain stringent quality control via lab tests and factory visits. China Resources contributes a local network that serves as a source for promising deals and strong government relationships that ease approval processes.
Consider how the joint venture built Snow beer into a single national brand. Acquired brewers' production capacity was converted to Snow beer, which is now produced across 22 provinces. Snow is the best-selling beer in 10 provinces and cities. The joint venture enhances local brewing operations with new equipment, imports CRB's best practice management systems and centralizes functions to achieve the benefits of scale. For example, 90% of procurement costs are centralized.
Using its proven M&A approach—which always starts with a deal thesis—China Resources Snow has outgrown the competition to become the clear market leader, with 21% share of China's beer market. It is now the world's No. 1 beer brand by volume.
How are we doing this deal?
Once a company understands why it's doing a deal, the next big decision involves whether to embark on a joint venture or acquire majority ownership through an M&A. Both have been successful paths to growth for companies in China.
Bain & Company has developed a framework for helping companies decide which of the two options is most appropriate based on two factors: the potential value the deal can bring and the MNC's need for control (see Figures 3 and 4). Companies ask and answer a series of questions designed to help them clearly understand the potential engagement value and level of control required.
For example, determining the potential value means looking into the breadth of the capability required, depth of collaboration, scope of cooperation and length of the partnership. Assessing the need for control requires determining the value the new entity will create, the chances of success if the MNC advances on its own, the possibility of losing core assets such as IP—a serious consideration for foreign companies operating in China—and the willingness to take the full investment risk. The higher the value and need for control, the more likely that M&A is the best option. When the engagement value and need for control are relatively low, it's wise to consider JVs.
Whichever path a company takes, its odds of winning improve greatly by taking a rigorous, replicable approach to succeed and mitigate risks.
When a joint venture is the answer
In dozens of sectors ranging from healthcare to finance, government restrictions make JVs the only feasible option. And some have been highly profitable. But when many MNCs in unrestricted industries consider venturing with Chinese players, they often stop cold when they spell out the potential challenges. The list is long: misaligned agendas between the global and local players, poor governance or organizational control among the players, contract noncompliance, technology infringement and the risk that the partner may become an eventual competitor in the same market. That's why the approach needs to be tailored to China's unique opportunities and risks. JVs require careful screening of potential candidates, addressing the tricky issues early as part of contract negotiations and joint business planning, and agreement on key business drivers and ongoing management and monitoring.
That was the approach taken by a European manufacturer of heavy industrial equipment. The company knew it had to win in China—it was essential to winning globally—but faced strong competition from Chinese players with good-enough products. It decided to set up a joint venture to improve its cost competitiveness and local reach. To protect itself against the loss of IP, it focused most of its efforts on products with low IP sensitivity. The company maintained its portfolio of high-end products, but used the joint venture to help it control costs to the point that it could achieve its desired margins.
One of the reasons players have resisted joint ventures in the past has been the fear that such deals take a long time to close—and that results are slow to be achieved. In our experience, when done right, joint ventures deliver successful outcomes relatively quickly. The European heavy industrial equipment company set up its JV with a Chinese company in less than a year after signing a letter of intent. Key to the success of any deal is to clearly understand what each party brings to the table, and to ensure the joint venture will accommodate the unique needs of each party. The European company used a five-step approach to build a solid foundation for the joint venture:
1. Create a differentiated setup for different strategic product types. For commoditized products, the joint venture operates along the entire value chain under its IP license. But for high-end products, the joint venture acts as an original equipment manufacturer, with the company maintaining strict control over R&D, sales and after-sales service.
2. Provide partner-desired assets and capabilities. For example, the European company will provide technology transfer to the JV on commoditized products, enabling the JV to compete in good-enough, high-volume market segments.
3. Pressure-test assumptions and look for potential operational hurdles that could affect the JV's success. The European company and Chinese partner collaboratively considered everything from land-site value to the capacity to support joint venture sales targets.
4. Agree on the important details. Both companies invested significant time reaching agreement on many details that would be critical to the JV's success. This spans everything from appointment of the chairman, board of directors, CEO and leadership team to pricing issues to the valuation of in-kind contributions.
5. Build an implementation plan and lay out critical steps for the joint venture setup and full operation. A steering committee is charged with making organization design and other key decisions, while the program management office is responsible for implementing those decisions and facilitating the transition to the joint venture structure. Among the most important factors to get right: dispute resolution and exit mechanisms in case the joint venture veers off course.
When M&A is the answer
The challenges for companies pursuing M&A in China are well known. Among the biggest obstacles: It's a market in which good target companies are hard to find. About 75% of deal activities are sourced from proprietary networks or brokers, and the success rate for closing deals is low. It's less than half the rate of closing in the US. Due diligence poses thorny problems due to the lack of transparency and established accounting and financial reporting processes, and it's also a lengthy process. Valuations are high, and post-acquisition improvements are hard to achieve, as cultural differences create integration challenges and the top management drain hurts target value and employee morale. Meanwhile, approaches that work in other regions—to simply adopt the acquirer's best practices and expertise, for example—often don't work in China.
Again, companies that succeed begin with a clear strategy and investment thesis. They also have an integration thesis and process that is designed to capture the key elements of the deal thesis while simultaneously managing the risks. They know what they're looking for and how it will fit with their strategy. They know how they plan to integrate it, if at all. They carry out systematic screening. Only then are they positioned to make a disciplined investment decision.
Consider the case of a multinational spirits company that saw M&A as its only chance to gain scale in China, where there was relatively little demand for its high-end and premium brands. The company thoroughly screened adjacent sectors to assess and prioritize opportunities, looking at companies in different price segments, psychographic segments and demographic segments, among others. With 1,400 companies in selected sectors, it first screened candidates by size, only evaluating the top 50 players in selected segments. The company then screened for regional market position and price segments (it looked at high-growth segments where they could potentially shift to premium offerings). Finally, it considered availability, narrowing its list further to include only companies with no equity investment from other strategic investors. After making field visits, it then short-listed companies based on business fit, willingness and business attractiveness.
But finding the right acquisition candidate is one thing. The process of planning and executing integration can make or break a deal. Companies need to design an explicit, pragmatic integration blueprint and targets to unlock value.
In our experience, companies that get M&A right benefit from an institutional M&A capability. They build a dedicated core M&A team with the right transactional experience. They involve product line staff early on and make them accountable for long-term results. They set clear M&A policy and target assessment criteria, and they know when to walk away from a deal—they determine the price at which a deal will be killed. They use an incentive system to drive the right deals, not just any deal.
This approach is the reason Dutch chemicals and life sciences group Royal DSM is now on a winning path in China. The company relies on a team with deal and frontline experience. Separate teams are responsible for medium to large M&A deals like the 2005 acquisition of Roche (Shanghai) Vitamins; early-stage and expansion deals like the 2008 equity investment in Tianjin Green Bio-Science; and IP-based transactions like licensing agreements.
Teams repeatedly execute M&A deals, carefully following an institutionalized process as they carry out well-defined responsibilities. For example, in larger deals, the China business development team is responsible for identifying synergies and integration costs and risks, while the China strategy and acquisition team arranges deal structuring and finance.
Institutionalizing its M&A capability has allowed Royal DSM to make acquisitions the driving force behind its growth strategy in China. Before embarking on its acquisition strategy, China represented only 4% of the company's total revenues. By 2010 China had grown to contribute 10% of its global total, according to data from Capital IQ. Knowing it couldn't capture the China potential on its own was the company's first big step. Now that it has perfected the M&A process, the opportunities ahead for Royal DSM are as vast as China itself.
Phil Leung, Weiwen Han and Raymond Tsang are partners in Bain & Company's Shanghai office and members of the Mergers & Acquisitions practice.


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- Posted by John on April 5, 2017
The results are in! Announcing the Winners of the Overleaf #CampusChallenge 2017
The second Overleaf Campus Challenge is now over! The results have been checked and verified, and we're delighted to announce the winners of the Overleaf Campus Challenge 2017!
The winning institutions are:
- 1st Place Overall Winner: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL)
- 2nd Place Overall Winner: Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)
- Regional Winners:
- Americas: Universidade de São Paulo (USP)*
- Europe: Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE)**
- Asia: National University of Singapore (NUS)
- Africa: University of Pretoria (UP)
- Oceania: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
*As UNAL won overall, the Americas regional prize is awarded to Universidade de São Paulo (who placed 2nd in Americas).
**As TU Delft won 2nd overall, the European regional prize is awarded to Eindhoven University of Technology (who placed 2nd in Europe).Congratulations to everyone who took part, and to Universidad Nacional de Colombia who have taken the title for the second year in a row! Members of all the universities listed above can now claim their free Pro accounts by clicking the link to the appropriate institutional portal on Overleaf.
The Final Standings
You can see the final leaderboard standings here, with the top ten highlighted below:
The top ten institutions in the 2017 Overleaf Campus Challenge. See the full final leaderboard here.
Get ready for the Overleaf Campus Challenge 2018 when we offer another chance to win a free year of Pro for your whole institution! If you can't wait that long, head to our Overleaf for Institutions page to find out how you can get a license for your university:


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