The Kosmo

White Swan Down

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 16:59:00 +0000

By Beatrice Jeschek

With psychological plainness, “Black Swan” (2010) director Aronofsky lifts the curtains to a spinning ballet nightmare, focusing on the inner fight between a delicate White Swan and its deathly black alter ego. The performance of Natalie Portman, however, is overcoming narrative conventions between good and evil.

Inner demons are hard to fight as they rarely show their true faces. Black feathers and demonic red eyes emblematize what appears to be a fragile ballet perfectionist, Nina (Natalie Portman).

After winning the lead role in “Swan Lake” for her delicateness and sweet performance of the White Swan (Princess Odette), Nina pushes herself to get in touch with her inner Black Swan (Odile, daughter of an evil magician). As prima ballerina, she will have to dance both.

And immediately her dark side appears along with a new dancer.

Wild Lily (Mila Kunis) eats greasy burgers, smokes, drinks and plays with her sexuality. Also, she has black wings tattooed on her shoulders. “Live a little”, she seductively aspirates. This sensual girl is not only competition for the role. In her pure passion and guile, Lily is what Nina fantasizes about – the incarnation of the Black Swan, her alter ego, her photo negative.

Centuries of story telling, and Hollywood still clings to mythology of good and evil. Now, however, the horror stands on ballet shoes, dressed in tutu.

White is innocent, black is destructive. It is all over the mise-en-scène. So, is it too simple to be thrilling?

In one word: yes. The movie as a whole is like Nina, too slick to achieve greatness. When the subtext screams at you, it simply becomes vulgar text.

Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” (2000) was different, subtler and yet more shocking. His more recent movie, “The Wrestler” (2008), put human meat and flesh right in front of your eyes, allowing the audience to peer through the peephole of society’s margins.

Actually, it is the Portman’s interpretation breathing new life into Tchaikovsky’s piece on celluloid. Apparently as much as Aronofsky throws all dualities and polarities into the Thaikowsky ballet to up-front the audience (in a “Psychology 101” manner), he stipulates the transcendent performance of his actors on stage. Five Oscar nominations are proof enough. A pregnant Portman already carried her Golden Globe home.

When Portman’s toes stand fully erect and carry her one-year trained and starved body’s weight, this one movement reflects all the inspiring grace and harsh discipline of the art of ballet.

Her close-up captures the anxiety of a child who sleeps among pink teddy bears. Her character is a real virgin on the social playground of adults. Her life is ballet, incarcerated by her obsessive former ballerina mother, falling apart under the pressure.

The stereotypical anorexia and bulimia appear to be her softest enemies. Nina gets blackouts. She awakes with broken nails, and red streams on her back – stigmata. The closer the opening night of the “Swan Lake”, the more brutal becomes her delusion - right up until black pinfeathers suddenly grow from her shoulders.

Skin and nerves are entirely shredded along the transformation of the White into the Dark Swan. As the script does not allow a Grey Swan, Portman carries her character all the way to the abyss and brutally pushes her in.

The fight between dream and madness is in her Bambi eyes from the very first second her face appears on screen.

It is suppressed sexuality, and shy purity bursting into flames, and this right at the 21st century New York City Ballet. Self-destruction is timeless.

With a piece of her mirror image, Nina kills a part of herself. It is finally decided which part is the stronger one – the White Swan kills the Black Swan. So it seems at first. But while stabbing the "Lily" inside herself, she also kills her delicateness, her sweet vulnerability; her innocence. A flash of true awakening – but the show must go on.

The White Swan weakly glimmers and then collapses.

On stage, the perfection burns. The Black Swan takes over. Guile and passion and blood on white tutu. When Nina throws herself down the abyss into the white soft mattress, she escapes the madness.

The dance is over, finally. And Portman can go to the Oscars.

The "Black Swan" (Aronofsky, 2010) trailer tells it all:

Victims of Honour

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:32:00 +0000

By Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt

Victims are global. Victims are not solely women. Honour Killings take place on every continent; despite popular belief, the perpetrators are not limited to a particular nationality. Honour as a justification for crime has failed to be constrained by state borders or countered with national laws. It goes beyond the foggy western picture – it is a matter of ancient religious norms manifested in belief system violating human rights.

Killing in the name of honour is simply a label for various excuses of ancient religious judgments. Actions differ in their nature of justification and realisation. Honour killings are primarily known to be a practice taken on by male relatives who kill female/male relatives in the name of family honour; suspicion of sexual activity before or outside marriage is often the trigger. Even a victim of rape is a target. However, there are other manifestations too: husbands burn their brides when the dowry given by the in-laws is not valuable enough for them; a delayed meal may be reason enough to justify an acid attack. Speaking of acid attacks; the most common cause of this violent act of disfiguring a woman with acid is that she exercised her choice to reject a marriage proposal.

United Nations research findings state that every year 5,000 women are victims of dowry deaths in India alone. Honour killings take place all around the globe: Turkey – 300 per year, Germany – 28 in 2009, Bangladesh – 200 acid attacks in two years, Yemen – 400 honour killings in 1997, Jordan – 23 per year, more than two-thirds of all Gaza strip and West Bank murders are most likely to be cases of unrecorded honour killings. The country with the highest ratio related to inhabitants is Pakistan. These numbers are deafening but do not mirror reality. The estimated number of unreported cases is 100,000 per year. In addition many offenders are under 18, treated as heroes in their community and being under age not prosecutable under state law. Death or disfigurement by honour killing is a cruel fate for many; furthermore community approval means that the victims have a rather marginal chance of escaping the killers’ fanatic embrace.

Ameneh Bahrami after 19 operations

Iran, 2004: a woman falls victim to the acid attack of her admirer; Ameneh Bahrami, a beautiful engineer student working part-time, rejected the marriage proposal of Madschid Mowahedi, a fellow student to whom she had never spoken a word before the proposal. She rejected him because she had promised herself to marry for love and not less. The acid burned and injured her eyes, liver, stomach and digestive system. Today, after 19 operations her right eye socket is sewn up and in her left is a glass eye – she is blind. Her face is scarred but her smile remains as bright as a sunbeam. Ameneh built a new life in Barcelona, Spain. Today she is making plans for the future. Spain gives her the freedom to go to the gym, take computer courses and learn Braille. At home Ameneh is confronted with her relatives, who urge her to accept Madschid’s marriage – an offer that is still on the table. She fought for her life and for justice at first by taking her case to court in Iran. In 2008 her offender was sentenced to be blinded in both eyes with acid. Madschid opted for a death sentence for himself instead, but Ameneh refused his plea.

Ameneh: Questioned about her own strength and ability to execute the court sentence she points out that, “If he dies, others will follow his example and nothing will change. Acid burns are a more substantial deterrent – walking through life as a blind man is a bigger punishment.”

Ahmet Yildiz in San Francisco

In 2008, Ahmet Yildiz, a Turkish physics student, was the first recognised case of gay honour killing. He was shot soon after he represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco – posing bare-chested on a poster. Out of fear of public humiliation, his family in Turkey refused to take on the responsibility of Ahmet’s funeral. The fear of losing honour in public is a major factor that fuels these crimes and leads to their cover-up. For instance, though men have been attacked by extremist armed forces in Iraq and Jordan, no official records can relate them to honour killings. Sadly, many honour crimes are disguised as accidents; the victims are transported abroad to camouflage the malice, or worse are impelled to commit suicide as their solitary escape out of a vicious circle.

Over the last two decades crimes have been documented in Europe. The women rights organisation Terre des Femmes in Germany considers honour homicides as one of its main themes. According to their records, 88 women in the country have been killed or hurt between 1996 and 2009 in the name of honour. 28 women were targeted in Germany in 2009. 25 died and three barely survived their cruel fate.

As the verdict in the Ameneh Bahrami case or the awarding of the death penalty to perpetrators of honour killings by a court in India earlier this year show, crimes like these are being taken seriously. However, the ‘eye for an eye’ approach raises concerns about the victim ending up in a vicious circle of violence and not gaining freedom in the end. Ameneh states that all she wants for the future is the security of money to finance more operations and to buy her parents a house as they sold theirs to pay for the operations in the past six years. Would a blind man make her future brighter?

(Images: Creative Commons/AP)

Metier – fashion, design and social development with Ecuadorian spirit

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:13:00 +0000

By Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt

Three young and ambitious Ecuadorians find their Metier in supporting the threatened/slowly dying traditions of their homeland. Together they have set up an organisation that supports local Andean artisans by selling their produce to the well-informed global consumer. Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt charts their story…

Behind Metier: Hugo Gonzenbach, Alessandro Benincasa, Diana Pazmino

Metier’s story began a few years ago in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest and most industrialised city. Here is where the founders and the brains behind Metier met. Hugo Gonzenbach and Diana Pazmino were colleagues at an environmental consultancy. When Diana returned form a weekend trip with Alessandro Benincasa to the Andes, her newly purchased purse became the object of admiration among the office staff and the seed of the idea was sown.

Hugo, believing in the concept of social, environmental and economic thinking and Diana specialising in conservation and natural resource management realised their ideas and ideals along with Alessandro Benincasa, who had moved to Montechristi from Milan, Italy, as a child. Alessandro, who spent his childhood with the handcraft communities as his neighbours, grew up valuing this heritage; he is determined to support its viability. Finding perfect synergy among their goals, the three decided to set up an organisation that would promote the distinctive Panama hat created by these communities.

1937 The Milwaukee Journal, an article on
Paul Gonzenbach's (grandfather of Metier CEO Hugo)

Yes, the eponymous hat is actually a product of the Ecuadorian Andes. The misleading nomenclature has its roots in the mid 19th century when gold seekers from California crossed south. Travellers by land and by sea and the construction of the Panama Canal drew merchants from the Ecuadorian Andes who saw this as an opportunity to market their produce to the newcomers, who then mistakenly popularised it as the ‘Panama hat’. Currently, Cuenca, a town in the Andes, is the centre of the Panama hat production. In the 1930ies it was Montechristi. Metier CEO Hugo Gonzenbach’s interest also stems from the fact that his great grandfather was a merchant of this famous hat.

Toquilla straw plant plaits after the colouring process

are bundled, waiting to be woven.

By selling the produce from the local communities Metier invests in the community itself: its handcrafts, traditions and unique culture. The Metier product line includes the famous Panama hat as the flagship for now. In the process of design are being developed by Metier designers and associates a range of alpaca-wool shawls, scarfs, and filigree jewellery. Plaited leaves from the toquilla straw plant are used to weave the unique headgear. Four weeks is the production process of a handcrafted Panama hat. The uniqueness derives from the individual design created by the Metier associate Designers and Metier’s design concepts on top of the high quality base material of toquilla straw plant leaves.

In process: weaving the famous Panama hat
in a village in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Communities in the Ecuadorian Andes earn their livelihood from agriculture and handcrafted items. The viability of this livelihood is however, threatened by big conglomerates who are able to capture market share by mass-producing traditional goods. Stripped of their traditional source of earnings, the youth take to migrating to big cities such as Quito and Guayaquil finding search of work.; women are forced to migrate to Spain or USA to earn a living for their families; the children leave to join their mothers; and finally the remaining men close and lock up their homes in an effort to reunite with their relatives. The result: vanished communities and increasing predominance of ghost towns.

Alessandro Benincasa: “No mass tourism touches the small communities’ markets and for that matter diminishes the traditions.”

The purpose of Metier is to stem this cycle of cause and effect. As Alessandro emphasizes, “Metier is not about the profit.” By designing and selling traditional produce from small communities to avoid foreign conglomerates and their mass production the costumer becomes part of the project rather than just a consumer of goods. Consumers all over the globe have different life styles and are in a position to implement unique choices that matter. Many people decide to take a step forward and ensure their consumer choice is based on taking into consideration how the exchange of produce for money can make a difference. When international awareness rises that buying a single high quality handcrafted good from a local merchant can strengthen a whole community the natural decision against mass production is not only an alternative of choice but engages the individual costumer in the process of sustainable development.

Urban style Panama hat by Metier

As a sponsor Metier supports sport and fashion events, e.g. ‘2010 Lightning Class Youth World Championship’ in Salinas, Ecuador. Supporting indigenous sporting events as the mentioned sailing competition that use clean energy as wind power fits into the agenda Metier believes in and pursues.

Diana Pazmino, defining the nature of Metier: “handcrafts, art, talent with the natural ability to do something good.”

For the future their enthusiasm is endless and the agenda is innovative, fresh and promising. In a joint venture with two other Ecuadorian brands - BG Handcraft and Veroguzman - Metier opened the store 'Equatorial Native' on the Ecuadorian island of Galapagos to sell a line of unique apparel and accessories merchandise.

Artisan filigree jewellery line by Metier

The Metier product line available on the web site will be extended towards a jewellery line, Alpaca wool clothing range, purses and bags. For each manufactured good a different local community is involved in the production process. In 2012 a Metier project trip around the globe will initiate to advertise and spread the word further. The Metier site on Facebook has already gathered more than 1,200 fans all around the globe.

(Images: Metier)

Trouble ahead for Kyrgyzstan

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:14:00 +0000

By David Michael Barnwell

Kyrgyzstan is facing major problems after the outbreak of riots and the ousting of president Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier this month. David Michael Barnwell speaks with Dildora Hamidova, a 27-year old Kyrgyzstani, about the outlook of the crisis.

Trouble in Bishkek

On April 7th a series of violent riots broke out in the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan. Armed protestors stormed government buildings and TV stations in the capital of Bishkek, forcing President Kurmanbek Bakiyev out of office and leaving the nation on the brink of civil war.

An interim government has since been installed but many questions remain unanswered. The conflict now points to the difficulties of tying together an immensely diverse nation, tucked into the Central-Asian tundra between giants like Kazakhstan, Russia and China.

The Kosmo spoke with Dildora Hamidova, project coordinator of the Center for Multicultural and Multilingual Education, an NGO based in Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan about the uneasy situation, its background and possible implications.

Hamidova, a 27-year old Uzbek Kyrgyzstani, said that the riots started with growing concerns about the nation’s energy supplies and general dissatisfaction with the state of democracy in the country.

“The first riots started in the northern parts of Kyrgyzstan, in Naryn. They then moved to the Talas oblast and the capital. The mood of protests has since been spreading all over the country. The population is unsatisfied with the high raise of energy, gas, water taxes, low living standards, and mainly the democratic governance of the country” Hamidova stated.

Former President Kurmanbek Bakyiev

A struggling democracy

The democracy in Kyrgyzstan can be described as struggling. Patron-client relationships are common, and political power often runs along the lines of family and tribal ties.

When President Bakiyev took over office in 2005, he promised to rid the nation’s political scene of corruption and nepotism, but he has since failed to live up to his promises.

“The Bakievs administration became very corrupt and marred by nepotism. President Bakayiev’s son, Maksim Bakyiev, was put in charge of a new development agency, which greatly influenced on country’s economy. Bakayiev, his son and his brothers were basically ruling the country on their own” Hamidova said.

The ousted president has since the breakout of the protests sought to mobilize support in his home region in the south of the country, underlining the immense importance of regional and ethnical ties in the unsettled country.

“On 15th of April ex-president Bakyiev came with his brothers to the southern capital of the Republic, Osh, in order to drum up support from the local population. The news that Bakyiev was hiding in his native village [in the south], seeking support of his relatives and kin made the local population panic.”

The tensions between Bakiyev’s friend’s and foes are potentially ethnically fueled, and often determined by close ties to families and tribes. This means that while an interim government have promised to bring back law and order, this might only apply to the Northen regions, where the government stronghold is based. Elsewhere, official influence could be less visible.

“Clan and tribal politics are still very important in Kyrgyzstan, and this has only aggravated the whole situation” Hamidova said.

“It’s an upsetting prognosis, perhaps the start of civil war if Bakiyev’s kin do not tone down their claims for regaining the power”.

Fear of ethnic tensions

With various parts seeking to seize the moment and secure political influence in one way or another, tensions are still high in the many the corners of the truly multicultural Kyrgyzstan.

Meanwhile, the ousted president himself may also still be contemplating a comeback.

“He left to Kazakhstan with Turkey or Pakistan probably being his final destination. There are rumors that he has good ties with extremist groups”.

The outbreak of violence points to an inherent problem within Kyrgyzstan, which hosts as many as 80 ethnic minorities in an area the size of Portugal.

The interim government installed is headed by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva. But whether she or a successor in the presidential seat will manage to fulfill the difficult task of settling the nation’s many interests is still largely unclear:

“There is fear that ethnic tensions will break out. There are no guarantees that the interim government can protect the interests of ethnic groups, for example Uzbeks living in southern parts of the country. Many Russians will certainly leave the country. There is no security for them, no hopes for a better future, no perspectives.” Hamidova said.

A Kyrgyzstani boy poses for the camera

Echos from the past

It is not the first time Kyrgyzstan experiences a faceoff with a corrupt regime. In 2005 former President Akayev was forced out of office in the so-called ‘Tulip Revolution’, which also saw the breakout of violence and looting in especially the capital of Bishkek.

Back then, promises were made and hopes were high for the future of the nation.

With the recent developments and the departure of Bakayiev this early optimism is however long gone. Instead the Kyrgyzstani now again face the difficult task of solving a deepening political crisis which continues to echo the nation's troubled past.

“Unfortunately no lessons were learnt from Akayev’s previous regime. It is very upsetting that people think that everything can be solved by means of corruption, force, violence, riots with lootings and evading the law. There are many concerns. Right now I do not feel that optimistic about it”.

Kyrgyzstan has 5.5 million inhabitants of which the majority are ethnic Kyrgyz. Other groups include Russians, Tatars, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Ukrainians. The country was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876 and gained its final independence from The Soviet Union in 1991.

(Images: Creative Commons)

How to Train Your Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:01:00 +0000

By Beatrice Jeschek

Beatrice Jeschek swings herself on the back of an animated dragon, trained by a smart Viking boy called Hiccup to challenge wrong perceptions.

It can be hard to make your kite fly at the Nordic Sea. Packed in a fleece-lined waterproof jacket with the hood tucked deep into your face, the challenge is to hold tight to the strings that let your big and colourful, paper-folded kite dragon dance in the grey sky. Stormy wind is actually the best condition for flying kites, and fathers just love to see their children succeed in this artwork.

Deeper in the Nordic Sea, Stoick the Vast, chieftain of the brawny Viking tribe in DreamWorks’ most recent 3D-animation “How to Train Your Dragon”, also wishes his son to succeed with flying dragons. The difference is that in his mystical world the dragons are made of flesh and blood and therefore supposed to be killed and not send into the clouds.

If we leave our paper dragons behind on the continent, we discover the stunning adventure of a smart Viking teenager called Hiccup. He is so tiny that his head actually fits in half of his dead mother’s breastplate. It really doesn’t suit the self-esteem of a teenager to be a toothpick for dragons between walking wardrobes of men.

In a thick Scottish accent (spoken by Gerard Butler), the boy’s father Stoik mumbles into his scraggy bush of a beard: “No more of … this” and gestures disappointed to all of Hiccup. The name vividly points to the annoying interruptions the boy causes to the harmonic slaying by the Tribe, made by his piteous efforts to hit a flame-spuming reptile himself. Dragon killing on the small island of Berk in the middle of the Nordic Sea is like having breakfast. The boy describes his isolated home with a dried humour, voiced by a subdued but knowing-of-a-twist-in-plot Jay Baruchel:

“This is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year, and hails the other three. What little food grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here, even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies, or parrots ... we have dragons.”

It is the spirit of Cressida Cowell’s children’s book that might surprise biased professors in comparative literature who will need to clean their glasses when they latch onto their seats and join Hiccup’s ride. It could have been a lame ride, from zero to hero in 98 minutes. But even from our stable continent at the Nordic Sea we can see that this could have only originated from a miscarried two-dimensional perspective on characters and storyboard. Adding depth (literally and figuratively), quite the opposite is true.

At the movie’s core, beating as strong as an enormous dragon heart itself, lays the acceptance of being different. Believing in your unique strengths turns a geek into a genius, and so it happens that the boy not only hits a dragon with his own invented catapult machine but also makes friends with the same, whom he confidently dubs Toothless. When Hiccup reaches out his hand to touch the most dangerous and intelligent dragon species ever, the pitch black Night Fury, we are reminded of one of the most famous scenes between a boy and his pet in Hollywood history: E.T. (1982). Hiccup could have killed the creature when it was lying wounded in its shreds, but he saw into the luminous yellowish eyes filled with “living being” and just couldn’t do it. The Night Fury himself was also too intelligent to simply go for the kill after being freed. So both challenge the tradition of natural enemies – and together they free both species from an even bigger threat.

The popularity that the animated version of the friendship between human and “alien” reaches actually the same high peak as Spielberg’s Oscar winning movie nearly three decades ago. The spark of congeniality is consciously put into every bit of the dragon adventure by the team directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (known from Disney’s Lilio&Stitch with a striking similarity in creating adorable monsters). It surprises how few reviews are out there. None of them truly reflect on the soul of this movie, which might even be Oscar material.

Nine years ago, when the award for Best Animated Feature was established, DreamWorks got the first one. Since then, Pixar the long-lasting rival of Jeffrey Katzenberg (former CEO of the Disney Company and co-founder of DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen) took the stage with its recent blast “Up” (2009) – the only animated film ever next to Beauty and the Beast (1991) to be nominated as Best Picture. Now could be the time for Katzenberg to reap what he sowed in 2001.

For the younger audience (and those longing at the Nordic Sea continent for some real adventure), there is no moral tattooed in the pictures. It is as light-hearted as sending your paper dragon up into the clouds. This might well be the real gift DreamWorks has to offer this time. The dream works, finally.

Video: 'How to Train Your Dragon' official trailer.

(Images: Creative Commons/DreamWorks.)

Malta’s Papal test: Scandalous Devotion?

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:44:00 +0000

By Anthony David Gatt

As soon as the plane’s wheels screeched on the Luqa runway the show was on. Did the Maltese people expose themselves as they really are? Did they hold back their anger towards the engulfing Church abuse scandal in a sign of respect to the Pontiff? Why did the Pope choose the miniscule island nation for his first historic meeting with the victims of sexual abuse by priests? Maltese journalist Anthony David Gatt analyses the islands reaction to the arrival of Peter’s successor on the island of Paul.

1950 years ago St. Paul’s ship which was on its route for the apostles trial in Rome, shipwrecked on the tiny island of Melita. 1950 years after, the successor of St. Peter and head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedicts lands on the same minute island, under a physical treat of Icelandic volcanic ash and a metaphorical black cloud of sexual abuse allegations.

Europe’s Catholic heartland

The Maltese are known around Europe as being fervent exponents of the Catholic Church and its beliefs. It’s one of the only countries in the Western world where both divorce and abortion are illegal.

Until some years ago if a married couple split, with the spouses entering another relationship, an aura of shame would follow them for the rest of their lives. In the same phase of Malta’s social development, conceiving a child out of wedlock would mark the birth of an omnipresent state of shame for the mother and her family. Yet the effects of physical proximity to Italy and a social proximity to Western lay-champions, such as the UK and the US, have changed the small bastion of Catholicism in the middle of the middle-sea forever.

Whilst divorce is still illegal by church and state standards, legal separation has become the order of the day. The phasing-in of unions outside wedlock as an accepted part of the Maltese life has developed a number of legal lacunas. The state still hasn’t amended laws that safeguard the future of these kinds of new familial nuclei. There are no legal rights for partners who lose their other half after long years together; they cannot apply for any financial state help like their married counterparts.

This shows that the ancient omnipresent power that the Church has had on the Maltese society is not as strong as it once was. The Maltese laypersons have surely put themselves at least a couple of notches away from the Church with the capital ‘C’. Yet as the island’s most significant social traditions revolve around a series of religious festivities all Maltese live within staunchly Catholic communities.

These social developments coupled with the latest sexual abuse saga rocking the Church would mean that the arrival of the head of the Church amongst the Maltese community would be a strong test for the island’s religious leaders.

Benedict is coming

In the weeks leading up to the 25-hour visit a number of billboards bearing the image of the German Pope were defaced. Some had a Hitler-like moustache sprayed on whilst others were branded with the Maltese word ‘PEDOFLU’, a direct translation from ‘Pedophile’. Virtual hate-groups were created on social networking sites drawing the support of intellectuals who lash out at the Church’s hierarchical empire, members of the Gay community who see themselves sidelined by the Church and individuals touched by the abuse scandal.

Another hot potato was the official recommendation from Malta’s Church authorities for Members of Parliament whose partners aren’t married to them, to attend the Holy Pontiff’s audience unaccompanied.

Furthermore the curious case of a phallic monument in one of the major squares of Luqa, the locality which hosts the nation’s international airport also took center stage. This as Luqa’s Local Council appealed for a temporal removal of the structure, avoiding a shameful photo-opportunity which would propose the Pope-mobile in the same frame with the suggestive sculpture.

This would not be the first visit of a Pope to the Maltese archipelago; Pope John Paul was in Malta twice, in 1990 and again in 2001. Yet the vigils of these arrivals couldn’t have been more dissimilar.

The Wall is no more

The Kosmo spoke to Vatican specialist and top Maltese political commentator Philip Borg about the differences between the two Pontiff’s receptions in Malta.

“An eminently catholic country, albeit more traditional than factual, was all ecstatic about John Paul II’s two visits over the last two decades. It was an all-time first for an island that cherished close – almost colonial – ties with the Vatican for centuries.

Both visits had rallied one and all for mega events, irrespective of the fact that the majority are simply ‘registered or part-time believers’ as opposed to a smaller but more effective chunk of staunch ‘activists’ who practice their belief via NGO-type lifestyle.

John Paul’s visits seemed to be convenient blanket opportunities for the Maltese people to camouflage everyday’s life with emotional and sentimental gatherings, in a typically Mediterranean fashion. The Polish Pope had the great ability to add that special human spectacle and charisma in his way of addressing the crowds through his characteristic physical gestures, over and above the rigid ritual believers were accustomed to”

But what about Joseph’s Ratzinger visit in Malta at the end of the Church’s 2010 Black April? As expected Philip Borg confirms that the scenario was totally different, but how?

“Benedict’s visit to Malta comes at a time when the whole Church is heavily shelled by the international media. One has to read this also in the light of the super-powerful Western media that was subconsciously grateful to Paul John’s historic intervention to bring down Communism and the symbolic dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The international media has nothing to credit Ratzinger with.

That same powerful media has inspired the underground minorities in Malta to come out and publicly show their revolt against church teachings on hot issues, namely gay issues, sexuality and other ethical challenges and controversies in today’s life. Until John Paul’s time – barely five years ago – it was unheard of that local media carry outspoken anti-Pope and/or anticlerical comments and reports. Fully aware that the eminent visitor happens to be target number one to both peripheral Catholics and non-believers alike, organizers are striving 24/7 to avoid any undesirable but potential manifestations while the world’s eyes are focused on an otherwise popular tourist resort that Malta is!

The Maltese Church’s influential pulpits and media gurus are working hard to encourage people to compensate for such rough waves hitting the church, through their mass participation in enthusiastic manifestations of support. This is a far cry from what these same people actually needed doing when Benedict’s predecessor touched Maltese shores!”

And he’s off

Yet what we have seen happening in the last hours has been a far cry from surprising. The Pope came, the Pope was cheered, the Pope was admired for being more humane than expected, and he was on his way off.

No one dared physically interrupt any of the planned events, the Luqa monument was partially covered by a banner which read the name of a lay religious organization and apparently no protests were held to show opposition to the Pope’s visit.

On the other hand this trip might have served as an initial step in the Church’s master plan to recover the lost ground to the ‘hacks of the international press’. We have seen the Pope phase-out from his tired-troubled self as he walked down the stairs onto the runway, putting on a joyously-relieved facial expression during his meetings with children and youngsters. The ecstatic, vociferous and genuine love shown to him, and indirectly to his Church, by the Maltese managed to do the trick. He saw with his own eyes that even in such a perilous time, there are small groups of his large flock who will stand tall with their Church.

It was possibly this kind of reception and the intimate encapsulated feeling to the visit that made the Church take the first step in healing it’s present open wound. Benedict chose Malta for his first ever meeting with the victims of the pedophilia scandal. He promised he will pray for them. Pray is what Maltese believers have been instructed to do by the Pope himself, prayer and penance.

And as the Pope heads back to Rome, he will leave behind a society which has managed to discuss controversies, but which wasn’t capable of being true to its true realities. Yet, maybe just discussing was already enough.

(Images: Creative Commons/AFP)

The Girl Who Blew Herself Up

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:45:00 +0000

By Gabriel Fraga de Cal

After the last attacks perpetrated in the Moscow subway the debate about female suicide bombers has been reopened. These women and girl bombers are always a hot media topic; what on earth moves a teenager to kill herself and everyone close to her body-bomb? The truth is that the more we gossip about the motives behind female violent behaviour the more women will join terrorist groups.

The female suicide bomber phenomenon is a fairly new one. The first woman to commit a suicide attack was 17 years old Syrian Sana’a Mehaydali. In 1985 Mehaydali blew herself up killing five Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. Since then she has been coined as “the bride of the south” – she was Christian.

In 1991 Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by one the female members of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam approached the Prime Minister while she was campaigning on the streets of Sriperumbudur. When she bent down to greet the Indian Prime Minister Rajaratnam touched her feet an activated a bomb killing Gandhi and many others.

These were the first and most striking attacks perpetrated by women. Unfortunately, and since then, the number of female bombers has increased considerably. In Palestine, Iraq, and Russia – among others – they have become a common figure in the current political-violent scenario. In the case of Russia females have conducted most of the suicide attacks in the last decade. The last one took place two weeks ago and, as stated by Caucasian terrorist leader Doku Umarov, it will not be the last.

Aggression is inherent to men, not to women

Female violence causes a much greater social impact than male aggression. The reason is straightforward: male violence is socially accepted. For instance, if we think of sports it can be easily noticed that violence is, to a large extent, inherent to men. Male icons such as Rambo, Terminator, Mike Tyson, Jack the Ripper and so on and so forth exemplify the fact that violence and men are not only compatible but also sometimes synonyms.

From a social point of view women are not supposed to be violent. Remarkably femininity is somehow socially constructed in opposition to violence. In war cinema and literature women are generally fated to be rescued by men. As a matter of fact, historically and culturally, females are preys rather than predators.

Due to this chauvinist cultural background female violence is incomprehensible for our societies. Culpability keeps falling over men, even when women are the perpetrators of attacks such as the last ones in Moscow. Either by her husband, boyfriend or father she is always pushed to commit violence. Because women are, by nature, hostile to violence

The female suicide bomber vs. the male suicide bomber

Is there any difference between a male and a woman terrorist? Although the answer must be ‘no’ there is a big difference regarding the way we look at each of them. As far as media coverage is concern we can claim that media accounts ‘prefer’ female than male suicide bombers. When the person responsible for the attack is a woman reports tend to focus on her personal background and physical appearance. Some trauma of the past must explain her unnatural behaviour, think journalists.

As US Professor of communication Terri Toles Patkin has claimed media ‘‘appears to actively search for alternative explanations behind women’s participation in terror in a way that does not seem paralleled in the coverage of male suicide bombers, whose official ideological statements appear to be taken at face value’’.

Female suicide bombers are presented as incapable of committing such acts on their own or having any political motivation. When the bomber is a man little attention is paid to the bomber as an individual. Fanaticism is often seen as the reason for having blown himself up. Somehow females are separated from the political and religious realm and usually depicted as emotionally distressed.

Angels of death

Israeli journalist Iva Issacharoff has admitted that in Israel the press is much more considerate when talking about female than male terrorists. The reason cannot be other but the supposition that women do not consciously and willingly chose to commit suicide bombing. Women are seen as perpetrators and victims and the same time.

This double-faced treatment can be easily noticed by looking at the names given to female terrorists. The Army of Roses (Palestine), the Black Widows (Chechnya) or the Freedom Birds (Sri Lanka) are not the names of feminist music bands, but similes to identify female radical groups. Roses are interestingly beautiful flowers linked in literature to blood and death. Women are then like roses, beautiful and deadly at the same time, pure and impure, victim and killer.

Women are historically and culturally seen as particularly skilled to raise children and take care of the family. Although this is an outdated assumption, these old-fashioned stereotypes become especially clear when it comes to gender and violence. The 3rd of April, a couple of days after the attack in Moscow, an article in the New York Times commenced as follows:

"Baby-faced, she looks barely a teenager. But the pistol she is holding in the photograph suggests the violent destiny that she would choose: blowing herself up in a subway station in Moscow during the morning rush on Monday”

Dzhanet Abdullayeva – one of the perpetrators of last attacks in Moscow – was indeed a 17 years old baby-faced suicide bomber. However it should not be forgotten that suicide bombers have no gender, no baby faces, no age. Black, white, Christian, Muslim, man or woman, a suicide bomber is a suicide bomber.

Beyond the faces

Women do not fit within the terrorist stereotype but, in practice, they are more suitable than men for suicide bombing. Firstly, and because they do not fit the stereotype of the suicide bomber, it is easier for them to evade security controls and reach targets. Secondly, they can hide the bomb underneath their dress and pretend they are pregnant. And thirdly, searching female’s bodies can be seen as an offense or socially unaccepted in certain countries.

Our societies must understand that violence is not only men’s business. Women can be as deadly as men – or even more. Besides being victims of manipulation, female suicide bombers might have definitely suffered from unthinkably awful circumstances. However it is difficult to probe that that is not the case for males too.

Regardless the gender of the perpetrator some say that suicide bombing is a coward practice – it targets civilians in crowed public places and it seeks to kill as many as possible. However it might be also said that for some small activist groups it is the only chance they can afford to harm a much superior enemy. Did not David use a stone to kill Goliath?

Violence is always an undesired alternative and suicide bombing is incontestably an intolerable practice. However, as Professor of Political Science Robert A. Pape wrote in the New York Times, “suicide terrorist campaigns are almost always a last resort against foreign military occupation”.

The reason why a girl decides to blow herself up remains unclear, each case may be different and generalizations are undesirable and inaccurate. Hatred and revenge may be common reasons for both man and woman. One way or another it seems unquestionable that after having shaken a beehive you will possibly get stung by the bees.

(Images: Creative Commons)

The City Beautiful: NYC’s Quest to Recapture an Old Movement

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:15:00 +0000

By Stephanie-Viktoria Schmitt

Talking of monuments, reservoirs, sculptures, mosaics and paintings when talking of a Metropolis like New York City is not new - but, did you ever realise you are passing by beautiful art bits and pieces on your way shopping on 5th Avenue? Or while hurrying downtown to work? Or taking the subway on a sunny weekend to Coney Island? If not, open your eyes to subway art culture in NYC.

Otterness, 2000: "Life underground", 14th & 8th Ave.

In September 2009 I was one of many travellers roaming the buzzing streets of New York City. As prelude to my visit, every acquaintance, friend or family member who had been to the Big Apple gave me just one advice: avoid the Metro and discover the city by wandering through its many streets. I took this suggestion very seriously but five days of joyfully walking through the various boroughs, narrow backstreets, backyards and parks from East to West and North to South Manhattan, I had had enough. My feet were screaming revenge – or rather ‘screw the fancy flats’ I was wearing. I gave in and finally turned into the subway station at 14th Street and 8th Avenue. On my way back uptown I stepped onto the platform to catch the A Train back. This was when I spotted the Life Underground metro installation: a sculpture by Tom Otterness, it depicted an alligator in suit, crawling out of a manhole cover, its jaws clamped around a tie-suited figurine with a moneybag head. It was intriguing enough to set me off on a quest of my own!

Vis-à-vis this particular piece, I later found an entry in the New York Times Metropolitan Diary by Joe Rogers in 2003. It describes a 4-year-old engaging with the vicious alligator to free the little moneybag-head figure. The toddler jumped on the head, and when no success was in sight he began to wrestle the figurine out of its deadly embrace. After minutes of struggle, he kicked the alligator, while his foot got stuck on something surprise struck his anxious little face. While running into his mother’s arms, he cried, “Mom, it tried to bite me!” This anecdote, perhaps best describes the life like nature of Otterness’ sculptures and the passion they can evoke.

Tom Otterness is an US-American sculptor, born in Wichita, Kansas in the early 1950ies. His works, best described as cartoonish but invariably containing a hint of sensible political punch, are sprayed all over NYC. Most famous are the figurines that have been watching over Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City since the early 1990ies or the ones that never fail to capture the viewer’s gaze at 14th Street/8th Avenue subway station. Tom Otterness’ metropolitan art is not meant solely for educated art lovers, but attracts and engages just about everyone. His Life Underground installation consists of more than 100 cast-bronze sculptures gracing the platforms and stairways of the A, C, E and L NYC Metro lines.

"For Want of A Nail" 81st (Museum of Natural History)

Otterness’ subway art is part of the program “Arts for Transit” being run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The aim is to revive the essence of The City Beautiful movement that first made its voice hear 106 years ago when the NYC subway was just being made. This nationwide movement, active from 1899 to the start of World War I, attempted to address metropolitan dilemmas by focussing on urban planning, architecture and beautification of cities all over the US. NPR correspondent Margot Adler, in one of her reports, says that the guiding principle behind the movement was the belief that beautiful structures could inspire civic virtue. Many of the architectural sculptures, murals and fountains on public plazas throughout NYC have their origin in this movement’s attempts to bring aesthetic value to urban life. All are inspired by the traditional European combination of architecture and art, but naturally, they also have a touch of American affability. One can literally feel the artists’ passion in creating art that interacts with the daily urban life of the citizens.

"Oculus" Mosaic, Chamber Street/WTC Path

Tom Otterness is not the only artist whose works adorn the NYC subway system. For those interested, the subway web site offers a guide to all the artists involved in the project and the stations benefiting from their creativity. I came across many in the course of my wanderings, but did not realise until I engaged in research for Tom Otterness that some of the pictures I took with my camera, were part of something as big as this movement to enhance the value of metropolitan life. I for one will certainly return to the Big Apple and spare some time to travel the subway art-trail.

Why hasn’t Berlusconi fallen yet?

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:33:00 +0000

By Ignazio Federico Lanzo

The ineptitude of the major opposition party (PD) is the cause of the incredible political success of Silvio Berlusconi. Ignazio Federico Lanzo delivers comments on Italy's controversial leadership and why it it still in need of a serious challenger.

“Did he win?” was the title of the TV show Annozero on channel 2 of RAI after the regional elections of 28-29 of March. Although the election was local, it was seen as a test for Berlusconi’s popularity. Many had expected a debacle of the Prime Minister who, as always, capitalized media attention on himself. After 16 years Silvio Berlusconi can still dictate the Italian political agenda. The low turnout has been the real winner of the elections and the Democratic Party (PD), the main opposition party, missed the chance to open a crisis of government.

People’s detachment from politics

Pierluigi Bersani

Only 64% of voters is quite a low turnout for Italian standards; the figure is almost 8 points less than last regional elections of 2005 and 16% less than last political election in 2008. Berlusconi has never had such a low consensus and yet PD didn’t manage to gather the votes PDL has lost.

The PD is a party where two major trends contrast each others, it was supposed to be the party unity and became the gathering of divisions. Berlusconi is always on the crest of the wave and manages constantly to obscure his major concurrent; wherever he goes and whatever he does. Silvio’s strategy, as pointed out by some, is being in the center of the attention in good and bad; no matter the gaffes, the insults, the attacks and the scandals. He is constantly on TV. On the other side the PD is simply unable to react to this situation; incapable to propose relevant matters to the electorate. How many of you readers know anything about the PD? If you noticed, even news on Italy in foreign papers is full of Berlusconi, Berlusconi, Berlusconi!

The Northern League saved the PDL

“I will never sit at a table with Mr Bossi again and I’ll never do a coalition with Bossi, ever again! Because he is completely untrustworthy!” Berlusconi said once talking about Umberto Bossi, leader of the secessionist and anti-immigration party Northern League.

Today the Northern League is the most faithful allied of Silvio and the best performer of these elections; until few days ago they didn’t govern any regions and now they head two (Piedmont and Veneto). The Northern League has been the only party not losing votes, saving Silvio’s coalition from a possible fall. On newspapers the PD leader Pierluigi Bersani faces critics and refuses to talk of defeat. The left-wing still won in 7 regions, one more than the right-wing; although the score of the previous election was 11 to 2 in favor of the left. Usually mid-term elections penalize the government in force and Berlusconi, aware of that as he is, celebrated the score of his People of Freedom Party (PDL) as a victory; “we have 4 more regions” he declared.

PD and PDL

Now that the ‘phantom’ of elections is passed, the political parties started contracting again. The first reforms on schedule concern the judiciary, the presidential elections (Silvio wants a president directly voted by the people and not by the parliament as it is now) and the adoption of a federal tax system (an old theme of Northern League).

Umberto Bossi

To accomplish those goals the government needs two thirds of the parliament and this means they need the approval of the PD. The accomplishments of those institutional reforms depends much on the bargaining between Northern League and PDL. The PD for now lags behind the other two parties without proposing many other alternatives while the country needs urgent reforms in fields like green energy, research and development, school, employment, economic growth and most of all a new and clean political class.

In these elections the PD had the chance to show its importance; Berlusconi has lost more than 8 points from 2008 but the PD still hasn’t been able to convince that portion of electorate. The Italian press has pictured the PD as a party without identity and without a clearly defined program different from PDL. Why would people vote for them if there is no clear difference? As some pointed out, the only difference between PD and PDL seems to be the “L”.

Tramway to revival

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:55:00 +0000

By Medha

Suffering from a slump in the post-war years, the French city of Bordeaux has only just begun to reclaim its former glory. The introduction of a new tram system has played a crucial role in this transformation. In the city for a conference, Medha discovers how a well integrated public transport system can change the quality of life of an entire city.

“Before the introduction of the tramlines there were no squares like this in Bordeaux. The place was just full of cars,” remarked our guide Yane Castets, on a tour through the historic city. I looked across to the wide boulevard stretching before me: we had just walked through the fifteenth century Porte Cailhau gate, crossed the Place St.-Pierre and were approaching the Place du Parlament. It had rained intermittently the whole day and the sun had almost just begun to peep through. People were out on the streets, taking advantage of the longed for sunlight; café terraces were beginning to fill up; across the square a father was teaching his daughter how to skate; there was a family on a day out, dog in tow; a couple of youngsters sitting on steps enjoying casual conversation; an elderly couple indulging their grandson. The place was full of life; but rewind to only a few years back and the picture you get is one of complete urban decay.

Decades of urban decay

“Cars, cars and cars, that’s all that you could see here,” remembers a student from the University of Bordeaux. A plethora of road signs cluttered up the space, obscuring the grand avenues and the majestic beauty of the historic centre. Time, exposure and pollution all played their part in despoiling the limestone facades of the buildings. With vehicular traffic usurping the place, businesses and shops began moving out and the population began seeping away to peripheral suburbs. It was clear that the capital of France’s vast Aquitaine région and the Gironde départment was in urgent need of renewal.

An answer from the past

Bordeaux, like other French cities, actually had a flourishing tram system since the late nineteenth century. At first, merely carriages set on tracks and pulled along by snorting horses set the scene. Electrification was completed in the ensuing decades and up until the end of the Second World War, the city tramlines were serving nearly 200,000 passengers a day.

After World War II, however, priorities changed. France l ike many other European countries at the time abandoned mass transit trams in favour of a road system developed to accommodate personal cars – the new status symbol in the resurgent post-war economy. President Georges Pompidou’s stated mission was to ‘adapt the city to the car’. Ring roads connecting streets, suburbs and highways became the focal point of traffic management. In terms of public transport, buses were favoured as they were not attached to fixed routes and offered less resistance to motor-cars.

Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Bordeaux’s long serving mayor (1949-1995) was also strongly pro-car and the last of the city’s old tramlines was dismantled in 1958. Soon enough the city’s lanes and roads were virtually strangulated with traffic.

A solution for the traffic woes was impending and in the mid 1980s Chaban-Delmas (still the mayor and still vociferously opposed to trams), proposed an automatic light underground railway (VAL) but the fine sandy nature of the region’s soil prevented its implementation. The city had to wait till 1997 when the decision to re-introduce trams was taken by the newly elected mayor, the rather controversial Alain Juppé. The scheme finally took off in December 2003.

Not without its troubles

A pet project of Alain Juppé and almost universally popular, the implementation of the tram lines has not been trouble free. At the proposal stage, the prospect of overhead contact wires was a source of controversy – for the aesthetically inclined French they were a visual anathema. Accordingly, an innovative ground level power supply system was developed. It consists of the provision of electricity from a third rail placed between the running rails of the tram. The design is such that it does not pose any danger to people or animals and can thus be easily used in pedestrian areas. Reliability, however, is an issue and there have been some instances of trams grounding to a halt owing to loss of power – including embarrassingly during the inauguration.

Teething troubles apart, the trams have been embraced positively by the people. One of the reasons for this popularity lies in the efforts made to involve the city dwellers in the planning stages of the project. Public meetings were held, exhibits were used to inform the residents and a website inviting public comments was set up.

Efforts were also made to streamline the wider transport system and to discourage car use. Entire areas were converted into pedestrian zones; bus lines were restructured around tramlines. A clever p ark and ride scheme allows people to park their car and make their way into the city using the public transport at a minimal cost of 3 Euros (as of now) irrespective of the number of passengers in the vehicle.

An urban renaissance

The focus on mass transit tram system in Bordeaux is part of resurgence in their popularity in France. In the past decade or so trams have enjoyed a comeback in cities such as Nantes, Grenobles, Lille, Lyon and Marseille and many others are in the planning stages. This signals a definite paradigm shift in policy – a move towards creating what French architect and urban planner David Mangin refers to as ‘ville passante’ or busy city in his book Project Urbain. He envisions cities for which cars are only incidental and where the ‘ownership’ has been handed back to the people.

In Bordeaux, the tram system has functioned as a bridge, connecting isolated, run-down suburban enclaves with the centre. Revamping of the downtown area went hand in hand with the laying of the tracks. Incentives were given to owners for the renovation and refurbishment of building facades. Traffic was rerouted. New pedestrian zones and plazas were created. The river-front was spruced up.

Restoration has been so successful that the entire downtown area has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. More significantly, the project to revive the downtown has succeeded: businesses and residents are moving back in. People now just don’t rush through the place on their way to work, but take the time to stop and linger. Cyclists, skaters, strollers, shoppers and sojourners abound. The heart of city is back where it belongs.

(Photos: Medha)

Tim Pencilhands

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:17:00 +0000

By Beatrice Jeschek

Tim Burton draws before he makes movies. Beatrice Jeschek discovers his grotesque fantasy art in the Museum of Modern Arts in NYC.

When you see surreal figures angrily turn their blood-red heads, swollen like a heart, in front of a camera, it is Tim Burton at work for his new 3D-interpretation of “Alice in Wonderland”. For nearly three decades the famous director have had us enjoy rainbow colours exploding on his screen, along the way telling pretty odd fairy tales for grown-ups. To his long list of arts belongs “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999) or “Big Fish” (2003).

And the list is set to grow like the magical beard of a wise man from the mountains, with yet another fairy tale adaption of “Sleeping Beauty” (in dark style manner called “Maleficent” - a production planned for 2013 with Linda Woolverton again as the writer and Angelina Jolie in talks to play the villain). His movies might be controversial, as is his maniac lust to give Disney classics a dark scent. Nevertheless, Burton is art.

“We needed to do Tim Burton”, concluded Ron Magliozzi, the Assistant Curator of the Museum of Modern Art last summer in New York City during a press conference. “A major exhibition is overdue”, Magliozzi said. Burton at the MoMA would be lining up with incredibly talented visualists like Andy Warhol and D.W. Griffith.

"There is no other living filmmaker whose full body of work has been so well hidden from public view" - Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, MoMA

Under his fabulous mountain of movies are countless pieces of fantasy buried that are brought into daylight in this major exhibition in New York, running until the end of this month. Mr. Magliozzi stated: “There is no other living filmmaker possessing Tim Burton’s level of accomplishment and reputation whose full body of work has been so well hidden from public view. Seeing so much that was previously inaccessible in a museum context should serve to fuel renewed appreciation and fresh appraisal of this much-admired artist.”

Some of his work would be hard to imagine on a Disney channel, commented Burton at the press conference to introduce the gallery, and grinned like his own vision of the Cheshire Cat. Not everyone knows it, but Burton actually worked for five years back in the 80s as an animator for the Disney studios. When he speaks about it, he seems grateful. But it also seems that he was unable to fully load his extraordinary capacities.

However, in his recent movie productions he offers Disney a bit of his inspiration back. Skinny arms like pencils, a grim whitish face with a hairy explosion carrying a small crown – this was Burton’s vision of the Red Queen before he gave “Alice in Wonderland” an edgy appearance on 3D screens. Drawings like these trace the current of his visual imagination back to his childhood.

Burton calmly put a wooly curl out of his face when Glenn Lowry, the director of MoMA, called his cinematic handwriting “surreal pop culture” in the purest form. Creatures coming to live from the tip of his pencil are so impressive and otherworldly that they visit us during the night in our dreams and don’t let go again, Lowry said.

"I didn't grow up in a real museum culture. I think the Hollywood Wax Museum was my first museum."

The MoMA visitors in New York can get lost in 700 examples of rarely or never-before-seen paintings, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, costumes, and cinematic ephemera. The exhibition is a ground-deep bow in front of a moody visionary in bright colours, who loves to sink into his self-drawn world. He surrounds himself with his visions for constant inspiration, at home and in his studio in London he said in the following face-to-face interviewing session. "I didn't grow up in a real museum culture" Burton confessed. "I think the Hollywood Wax Museum was my first museum."

Some extroverted reporter in the background of the cozy MoMA cinema asked with a cheeky smile, hidden behind the microphone: “So, Mr. Burton, what would your mum think about the fact that you are being compared to Warhol?” Burton pretended to think about it, and responded with an even bigger smile: “She would ask: ‘Who is Warhol?’”

Major Retrospective on the Artistry of Filmmaker Tim Burton
Exhibiton Dates: 22.11. 2009 – 26.04. 2010.
MoMA, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019

Video: Tim Burton at MoMA, NYC.

My memories of GP Koirala

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:55:00 +0000

By John Narayan Parajuli

The death of Nepal’s four times former prime minister who was instrumental in ending Nepal’s decade old civil war has brought bitter-sweet memories about his failings and successes. Obituary by John Narayan Parajuli.

The death of Nepal’s former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Mar. 20, affectionately known as Girijababu or GP, the patriarch of the Nepali Congress party and a key architect of Nepal’s fragile peace process has left a vacuum in Nepal that will not be easily filled.

Though hated and loved in equal measure, his transformation into a relatively non-partisan statesman began with the signing of 12 point accord with Maoists in 2006 that led to an anti-Gyanendra alliance, against the King of Nepal who had mounted a coup in Feb. 2005. He was not always non-partisan, but he did go far enough to accommodate the Maoists against the liking of his own party men. He was instrumental in bringing the Maoists to the negotiating table and creating an environment that they could trust. In fact, the top Maoists leaders had grown so used to consulting and negotiating with Koirala that even when they disagreed, he was a source of comfort and guidance for the rebels. But he was not always the guardian-figure that he had become towards the end of his life. Though an unrelenting fighter for democracy, he had reduced his party to a personal fiefdom.

Most Nepalis have vivid memories of GP. He had been around as long as one could remember. In his own lifetime, he saw five monarchs come and go. He was an embodiment of eight decades of Nepal’s turbulent history. But his name didn’t always bring pleasant memories. In fact, he presided over a period in the 90’s that is synonymous with degeneration and deviance in Nepali politics. But between April 2006 and April 2008, his stature rose to a dizzying height.

My own experience of observing him first-hand is from November 2007 when I was working as a producer for BBC’s Nepali version of the Question Time, Sajha Sawal. For our first programme, we had confirmed GP, then the prime minister and the interim president as a panelist. He had agreed to face the public in a televised Q&A--provided it was recorded in Biratnagar, his hometown (in the eastern part of Nepal). Keith Beech, the editor of Sajha Sawal then put me in charge of the logistics including bringing in the audience. So I flew three days before the recording date to Biratnagar.

Koirala and the Nepali Press

Koirala’s trip to his hometown had always been marked with anticipation in the Nepali press as he had a habit of making big and controversial announcements from the comfort of his home. He usually kept away from the press in Kathmandu partly because he didn’t trust them, and partly he was very reticent and seldom felt the need to clarify things. But this characterisation was only true in Kathmandu. As soon as he arrived in Biratnagar he spoke freely with the reporters.

The relationship between GP and his hometown press corps was complicated. He treated them like his family members and had dinner and lunches with them whenever he was in town, and they reciprocated. It seemed as if the reporters knew what he meant and what he didn’t, and self-censored his musings. You couldn’t apply the Kathmandu or a more cosmopolitan press corps’ standard in Biratnagar that states ‘unless it is off-the-record, everything is on-the-record’.

Journalists had unrestricted access to his house even while he was the prime minister. Everyone knew everyone, and security officials posted at his residence were least worried about the threat to GP’s life from one of the journalists. But things changed when GP became the acting president. The security at his residence was beefed up, while protocols involving the head of state came into play. Journalists couldn’t wander inside GP’s house anymore, though they were still allowed to enter the premises with ease and without appointment.

I was working with a local BBC stringer, Tanka Khanal, to sort out the logistics of bringing the audience from different villages who would try to hold the prime minister accountable, a rarity in Nepal and definitely a first for GP himself who was famous for putting down the phone during radio interviews if he didn’t like the question. We were worried about the prospect of him leaving the recording 10 minutes into the programme when we had 45 minutes of airtime to fill. The next day, Khanal got a call on his mobile, started his motorcycle and signalled me to tag along.

Hometown Homies

The day was November 7, 2007. Around 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, we arrive at Koirala Niwas. Someone suggested us to go to the airport instead. We hopped on to a jeep parked inside the compound. Within minutes it was full with reporters and cadre. GP was scheduled to arrive at 2:30 pm by a regular Budhha Air flight to rest and spend his Tihar holidays. Four hundred metres away from the airport, our Bolero stopped behind a beeline of vehicles going to the airport. A crowd had descended to receive Koirala, whose aircraft landed 15 minutes later. He just waived off at reporters who were waiting to get sound bites.

The security personnel escorted him to the VIP lounge. “He’s not in the mood,” one journalist said from the crowd. “Now, let’s go to his house,” another said.

In 25 minutes, we were back at Koirala Niwas; the police stopped the press from climbing upstairs to Koirala’s veranda, the usual venue for reporters to tattle with Koirala. “Get out from here,” a Deputy Superintendent of Police yelled at the go-getters. The press, not used to such security hassles, was furious. “Why is he being so rude?” they told each other.

A little later an aide came and told the reporters to come at 8:30 am next day.

Next morning, we arrived at 8. Koirala was meeting regional heads of security bodies. Finally the moment arrived. We climbed to Koirala’s top floor veranda in his two storey house through a narrow staircase. We scrambled to grab a chair each. Koirala came out a few minutes later and sat on a white sofa. He gestured gently, and the reporters started to field questions. He answered their questions one after another for the next 15 minutes. “That’s it for today,” GP then said, “Bring tea for all,” he signalled to his aide.

While the tea was being served, journalists complained to him about not being able to talk to him the previous day and the police behaviour. “I was tired yesterday,” he said, almost defending himself.

Then there is time for some photo-ops. The widow of a Ram Hari Pokhrel, a civil servant who was murdered in the nearby district of Siraha, was brought before Koirala along with her daughter. She wanted her job at the local municipality that government had offered as a compensation to be made permanent. Make it permanent, Koirala told his district aide. "I haven't received anything certifying my late husband as a martyr," she said. You will have it, Koirala assured her.

After a while Koirala gestured; it’s the end of the session. Everyone begins to leave. Then he asks everybody to gather round and drops a cryptic bit. “The upcoming session of the parliament will be a peace session.” Half of the journalists missed it.

The statesman

Two days later, on November 9, 2007, Koirala stunned us by sitting in for a full hour-and-a-half taking questions from ordinary people bussed in from six different villages. We were warned that he would walk out without warning, but he stayed on longer than we had planned. He had to take a 15 minute break for oxygen after he started to look lost and distracted. For an 84-year-old, Koirala looked terrific as he responded to impassioned questions and comments from commoners in his garden. His memory and wit hadn’t betrayed him, and responded to the questions with humility, tact and authority. At the end he appeared bemused by his engagement with commoners at his hometown.

As he aged, Koirala displayed traits that are rare in Nepali politics. He began craving for a legacy. Perhaps it was with the realisation his years were numbered, perhaps he had grown wiser with years, or perhaps he had simply grown senile, there is no telling what changed him. But what is clear is that he was a man of few words, and doggedly stood his ground. But like all men of some stature, he was a bundle of paradox. He was a man of profound conviction and discernible gravitas, but he did also play low to get rid of his opponents within and beyond his party.

He presided over the most difficult transition period in the history of Nepal. He successfully held elections for the Constituent Assembly in April 2008 that saw the Maoists emerge as the largest political party in the parliament. After the Maoists reneged on their promise to make him the new republic’s first elected president, Koirala became bitter and vengeful and that led to break down of politics of consensus that had successfully guided the peace process until then. When he stepped down as the Prime Minister in July 2008 to pave the way for Maoists chairman Prachanda, he began promoting his inept but ambitious daughter to succeed him in his party. His affection for his daughter became his undoing. As Yubaraj Ghimire, the editor of the Rajhani daily in Nepal points out, he could easily have been ‘Nepal’s Nelson Mandela’, but he chose not to.

Koirala, who was 86, was suffering from chronic pulmonary disease. He’s survived by a daughter and a step-son.

(A shorter version of this feature appeared in the Kathmandu Post on March 27, 2010.)

His Grey Eminence: Phillip Knightley's unintended lessons

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:14:00 +0000

By Anthony David Gatt

Coming to know Philip Knightley from his War Propaganda masterpiece "The First Casualty", Anthony David Gatt and others who attended his lecture at City University in London earlier this month were in for a surprise. A 90 minute psuedo-dialogue that revealed more about the state of mind of a star newspaper man than on the state of journalism itself.

Peeping in from the minute square window in the door it looked like an exam room. On the front benches enthusiastic youngsters where scribbling down their thoughts, rushing away in order not to let their next idea fade before they had put pen to paper.

With a plethora of noises we made our way in, fashionably late. Making my way in last, the door screeched as I was hunting for the best seat left. Struggling with a colonnade that blocked the view from any side I would place myself, I finally sat down. Whilst nodding an apology on my way in, he didn’t look disturbed, or angry. His soft monotone voice did not change pitch or emphasis to acknowledge our entry.

And there he was the acclaimed War Propaganda and Espionage writer Philip Knightley. I thought that his lecture at City University earlier this month would be much more of an event. It had its moments of journalistic nostalgia, which would amuse the young students trying to find such anecdotes in their imagined future careers, yet it lacked inspiration, energy and drive.

He sat leisurely for around ninety minutes reading off a printed version of his lecture, verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph. The first couple of pages had already gone past their lifetime as we moved in. Water bottle and long distance specs to his left, glancing at his audience periodically from above his short distance glasses which sat peacefully on his nose, Knightley looked anything but alive. The bald-headed elderly man with a grey-white goatee donning a navy blue jacket with gold buttons complimented with a red handkerchief didn’t stand out. Not even with an unused whiteboard and the light-off projector screen as a background.

His audience was lost in trying to bridge their expectations for the lecture and the real deal. For some it was still the acclaimed journalist who was giving them lessons, they sat on the front rows. The writing of his every word is exactly what journalism is not about. There where the Harry Potter types with the trendy glasses alongside the touched up females who still think that journalism can replace the catwalk. You also had the lecturers, a middle-aged female professor gleamed at his every word, another one leaned in to grasp as many of the soft spoken words as possible, a third unashamedly dozed off.

And while he narrated his main career anecdotes of invented stories that led to arrests for non-existent crimes, misunderstandings from his Australian editors who requested direct quotes form Queen Elizabeth at 3am and t he secrets to Lawrence of Arabia’s lives, we were expecting something deeper. Something that one could discuss after the lecture. Deeper than making your wife call you regularly at the Sunday Times office for the receptionists to learn your name.

This does not mean that he didn’t pass on some usable tips. He even branded them with numbers:

Lesson 1: Publication often revokes information

Lesson 2: No “No” is ever final

Lesson 3: Be prepared to believe the most unlikely story from the most eccentric of people

Lesson 4: Do not expose people that earn less than you

There were other valid remarks especially when he spoke about the need to be proactive in journalism.
“Get a phone and ring around, it’s not true that there are no stories for that spiral notebook to get”. His news-point as chosen by Journalism.co.uk was that “Journalists working in a digital age should not underestimate the importance of 'off-the-street' whistle blowing”. Yet when during question-time a student explained that in the real 24-hour news production cycle that we have to operate in time is limited, he spat out the worst quote of the night: “Is that what the reality is. I don’t know, I haven’t been to a newsroom for a long time now”.

Knightley claimed that he had never put his foot in a door or ran after a minister with a microphone, as he was a newspaper man. His ironic tone would have hurt any respectable TV journalist who strives day in day out to strike a good balance between story and ethics.

With time to spare for some last questions, sweaty hands, my usual press-conference blood-rush and a corrected voice I fired away: “As a young journalist my ever-present dilemma is about citizen journalism... should we as professional journalists stand in our Ivory Castle and disregard the work done by these individuals or should we acknowledge that the scenario has changed once and for all? What are your thoughts about this?”.

It wasn’t the “I want to hear my voice reverberate in the room” question, it was and still is a concept which troubles me: the legitimization of our profession. When in the past I have been confronted with this question I would always find myself in a difficult position. Is it professionalism, is it ethics, is it the journalistic houses whose names we use to get privileged access. What makes us better than citizen journalists or whatever you wish to call them? After all, are we better or are we just different models of the same brand?

He didn’t think extensively about an answer, he resolved what many see as a complex issue by saying that ”They are just witnesses, we are professionally trained, we have professional standards”.

Do you think that such an answer is enough? How can we keep on hanging onto such Eminence Grey characters to motivate our young journalists? How can we base our future journalism on outdated approaches out of touch with the time.

Terminating the talk with an abrupt “Let’s wrap it up” which was followed by an appropriate applause, Knightley rose to his feet. After chit-chat’s with the ‘you know who’ type of students he started to move slowly towards the door. I thanked him too.

Helped by his colleagues to move down the steps of the City University’s Centenary Building on London’s Spencer Street, Knightley looked the same: unmoved, unchangebly solemn and contained. Has his profession wore him out? Or have his recent health problems effected him so strongly that they have seeped into his general mood and approach to life?

Meanwhile as the female professor congratulated him with a polite “Well done Philip, as ever”, my mind could only think about the practicalities of how City University transfers the money to Knightley’s account every time he gives such lectures. I strongly believe that this one should be his last installment.

Sunday bloody Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:21:00 +0000

By Gabriel Fraga de Cal

Bullfighting has once again triggered issues of Spanish divergence. Gabriel Fraga de Cal delivers some insight to one of Spain's cultural hot potatoes.

For many years, animal rights groups around the world have denounced bullfighting in Spain for its supposed cruelty. According to many, the sport is nothing but a prehistoric form of crudely organised assassinations, an unnecessary display of man’s superiority over nature. The protests are these days gaining more ground than ever before, and today the battle between bull and man is becoming a hot topic in ‘The country of the Sun’.

I have never personally attended una corrrida, as the bullfight is phrased in its original tongue, and therefore I cannot tell whether it is a fascinating or horrifying spectacle. To be honest people say that if you go once you will certainly want to repeat the experience.

I am for that reason probably not the most indicated Spaniard to talk about the issue itself. In my region, Galicia in the north, we for example seldom have the opportunity to observe an authentic corrida. Even so I can say that for many Spaniards there is nothing more boring than a Sunday afternoon without bulls.

“El Toro de Lidia”

Let’s first turn our attention to the bulls for a moment. The type of animal that fights "el matador" is a special type of bull called "Toro de Lidia" (in English, ‘fighting bull’).

"El Toro de Lidia" is known for its bravery and for never turning its back on any danger. They are raised very carefully until they reach their maximum physical power. It is then when they are ready for the fight. In Spain the bull is fated to die in front of the spectators, while in some other taurine counties such as Portugal the bull is not killed in the arena. In Spain, when the bull is especially brave, either the bullfighter or the public can grant an amnesty to the animal. Then, this lucky and portentous animal will return to the fields as a stud bull.

This animal is however always born and raised to fight, and essentially, to die in the arena. So if there are no more fights, there will be no more "Toros de Lidia".

According to Red List "More than 16,000 species of the world's mammals, birds, plants and other organisms are at present officially regarded as threatened with extinction to one degree or another".

In an article from the Guardian on the topic, Julien Jowit further writes:

“For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve”

We are moving towards what scientists call “the sixth great extinction” of species. This is driven by several factors, among them “the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predator and disease, and climate change", claims Jowit.

Whether ‘El Toro de Lidia’ is one of them, is a matter of opinion, or perhaps, of definitions.

Cultural dispute

Spain is a very diverse country, so diverse that some regions would like to not be part of it. Different languages, different climates, different food, different music, different characters … In sum, different ideas of what Spain means.

Foreigners usually think that all Spanish people learn to fight a bull when we are young, and sometimes I am even asked to play a flamenco. As a matter of fact the traditional instrument in my region is the bagpipe. As far as I know, southern-Spanish gypsies in Andalucía have not yet incorporated the Celtic instrument in their repertoire of flamenco music.

The truth is that issues like bullfighting – supposedly what characterizes Spain more than anything else to a non-Spaniard - is a highly controversial and often region-dependant issue, and there are voices against as well as voices in favor, outside as well as inside Spain.

Bullfighting, whether it is around the corner or in a distant region, is hence nearly always something that most Spaniards have very different opinions about.

In Catalunya, a region known for its strong sense of autonomy, bullfighting is for example about to be completely prohibited. Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, and here at the heart of the anti-corrida campaign, Catalans do not identify greatly with Spanish traditions.

It might be said that the lack of understanding between Catalunya and the rest of Spain is unfortunately mutual, and in response to Catalunya's attempt to prohibit this Spanish emblem, some other regions have decided to counterattack. In Madrid, Valencia and Murcia, politicians are planning to protect bullfighting and declare it cultural heritage. This seems to be just about regional politics. But the dispute really shows the cultural tensions to be found these days in contemporary Spain.

El Toro de Lidia is for many a synonym of spanishness

A shield of a country

People in Spain can be extremely passionate about bullfighting. After the flag, the bulls are in some areas like the country's shield.

It is true that the animal might suffer, and it is true that there is a lot of blood involved in a bullfighting afternoon. It is true that it might be a matter of a noble animal becoming extinct, and it is also true that we are talking about what to many foreigners is the maximum representation of Spanish culture. Bullfighting is together with red wine and flamenco pillars of the same tradition.

What is more important to realize is however that the current debate over bullfighting is not only about killing bulls – it is not about the spectacle itself. It is about culture and tradition and in a country as diverse as Spain, this is bound to stir firm reactions.

If bullfighting dies, an essential part of Spanish culture will die out with it, no doubt about that. But perhaps the real issue at stake is something much deeper and much more serious – namely that of Spanish diversity and the challenges we often face when it comes to defining what is important to our culture or not.

Video: José Tomás (born in Madrid, 1975) is one of today's most influential bullfighters:

Image rights: Creative Commons

An Artist's Empire

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:42:00 +0000

By David Michael Barnwell

What does Hiroshima, Luis Vuitton and Kanye West all have in common? David Michael Barnwell takes a dip into modern Japanese pop art and discovers one of its most defining and famed icons.

This fall, the beautiful Versailles Palace about 20 minutes drive from Paris will be putting on a true pop art spectacle, sure to draw the attention of art enthusiasts from all of Europe.

The Versailles, formerly the royal château of Louis XIV and famed worldwide for its stunning displays of architectural haute couture, will in the closing months of 2010 welcome none other than Takashi Murakami, Japanese neo-traditional art icon and credited founder of the influential ‘Superflat Theory’.

Murakami, aged 48, has risen to fame over the last decades thanks to his unique take on anime-inspired art forms, and today his works can be found in video games, toys, music videos and even luxury handbags.

The contrast between the Versailles’s legendary Mirror Halls and Murakami’s surreal works might appear almost comical, and managing director of the French castle Jean-Jacques Aillagon is surely in for quite a challenge combining the two into a coherent display.

Given the vast success of Murakami as an established artist and as a brand, visitors are however almost certain to flock around the Versailles this fall, and a closer look at Murakami and his legacy might just reveal why.

The Handbag

To fully understand just how influential Murakami is, one needs first to take look at his enormous portfolio.

Murakami’s works include vinyl figurines, canvasses, tapestry, a series of books (the latest titled “I Love Prints and so I Make Them”), busts, video installations, large scale prints, toys, a complete Kanye West music video and the original print for a Louis Vuitton handbag, originally priced at a whopping $5.000.

Especially the handbag – easily recognized by its bright colour scheme of ‘LV’-logos spread across an atypically white background – bears witness of how great an impact Murakami has had on Western culture.

The New York Times estimated sales of the Murakami inspired piece of French luxury accessory to be in the area of $300 million, a number which of course doesn’t account for the millions of copies to be found worldwide. Add to this that an original Murakami canvas will normally sell for more than $1 million, and the full reach of the Japanese master’s famed pencil strokes suddenly becomes graspable.

An Artist’s Empire

There is a good explanation behind Murakami’s successful conquest of the contemporary art world scene. And the explanation is marketing.

While many of his contemporaries celebrate originality and uniqueness, to Murakami, art is not to be separated from the mainstream. On the contrary.

Like it was the case with Andy Warhol, Murakami’s art is at times mass-produced, often made by carefully selected ‘workers’ rather than the artist himself. Works arrive in pieces with a carefully detailed instruction manual designed by the artist, and the ‘workers’ then set out to complete the masterpiece step by step. And as it is the case with Damien Hirst, Murakami has also long realized the economic possibilities of the international art market, offering these masterpieces at often astronomical prices.

Managing Murakami’s art empire, is the highly efficient in-house promotion agency/studio/art collective, Kaikai Kiki Ltd. The company consists of likeminded artists and workers, who collaborate with collectors and curators on promoting the works produced within the Kaikai Kiki realm.

Apart from managing major exhibitions like the one coming up at the Versailles, Kaikai Kiki and Murakami also handle a large variety of merchandise endeavours, distributing and selling anything from Murakami candy to Murakami teddy bears.

Seemingly, Murakami as an artist also means Murakami as a brand.

According to the company’s website, a bearing principle for the Kaikai Kiki philosophy is exactly the merchandise, the mass production and the projection of originality and creativity onto the canvasses of commerce and profits.

To Murakami and Kaikai Kiki, in contemporary consumerist societies, the boundaries between commerce and art are slowly but surely fading. The production of a deliberately wide range of artist-related merchandise is in this view nothing but a just reflection of this tendency.

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the marketing-inspired take on art as a public and available good brilliantly showcases the inspiring original thought behind Murakami’s bizarre art: The Theory of Superflat.

Murakami on display at MOCA, LA, last year.

The Theory of Superflat

The Theory of Superflat takes Murakami-fans straight to the core of his provocative ideas.

Having originally studied traditional Japanese art at the T okyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Murakami found himself becoming increasingly more frustrated with the prospects of what the work of his ancestors could reveal to him.

Instead he turned his attention to his surroundings, and here he found a society plagued with affection for anime-culture and the otaku - originally an honorary noun in Japanese, but today used as slang for a person obsessed with the addictive world of violent and sexually challenging Japanese cartoons.

What Murakami saw, would however open his eyes and mark the birth of the ‘Superflat’ theory.

In a consumerist society, Murakami believes, the delicate lines between finer culture and mainstream are blurring. What is left is a culture-less, ‘flat’ society like the Japanese, where anime has become the preferred artistic expression for a number of generations.

The explanation for this absence of real artistic expression and surrender to consumerism, Murakami argues further, can be found in the desperate state of post-war Japan.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was left helpless and powerless, only to face a high level of Americanisation and even Disneyfication of the original culture. Alongside ran a distorted infatuation with the atomic apocalypse, which is remarkable and often frightening. It is not without reason that one of the best known, by now neo-classic, pieces of anime is the dystopian ‘Akira’ from 1988. It takes place among mutants and master villains in a dismal version of post-nuclear Tokyo.

The outcome of this atomic age cultural surrender is an emptiness and shallowness, which would later turn Japanese society into its current state, Murakami argues. Here the love for anime is the widest common cultural denominator the population can drum up, and this is a clear and real image of the world which can then be grasped and turned into art.

Takashi Murakami in front of one his works

Join the revolution

‘Superflat’ in the bubblegum-inspired vision of Murakami refers to the flatness of Japanese culture and society, and this is exactly what motivates the plastic prophet to bite back with his iconic pieces of art.

A Mickey-inspired mouse with a devious grin is a main character on Murakami’s palette. So is a set of emoticon flowers, perhaps a bit too happy.

All are brightly coloured, clearly inspired by the world of anime and then appropriated in a brutal yet unique way. Everything is seemingly overdone, then emptied of its original innocent message. In Murakami’s world, happiness and smiles are turned upside down, and efficiently made into a distinct critique.

Through his art, Murakami points his pencil at his audience with an anime-drawn grin, examining us with colourful but freakish eyes. What he demands of us is simple; coming to terms with the flatness of our lives, and accepting the coming of a pop art revolution in which art, entertainment and commercialism is irrevocably merged into one.

The Takashi Murakami exhibition at The Versailles Palace is due to take place over a three-month stretch from September 12 to December 12, 2010. For more info, see The Versailles Palace’s official site.

Video: Interview with Takashi Murakami on Japanorama (YouTube):

Image rights: Creative Commons.

Journalists in Sri Lanka face an uncertain future

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:36:00 +0000

By Aradhana Sharma

"Who is next?" - A painting by Uvindu Kurukulasuriya depicting Lasantha Wikramatunge's funeral on display at an art auction held at the " Royal Institute of Great Britain" in November 2009.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls Sri Lanka one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Aradhana Sharma meets a Sri Lankan journalist who could no longer practice his trade in his country and finds out how his uncertain future is inextricably linked to the future of the profession in his country.

It was a blustery winter day and it was snowing as I stepped out of the Wood Green tube station in North London. As I waited to meet the man who would tell me first-hand what journalists were facing in Sri Lanka, my thoughts drifted to all that I had read about the situation in various reports – how journalists were being threatened, abducted, killed, and some cases forced to flee the country. What was it like to work in such an environment?

Uvindu Kurukulasuriya, was a journalist for 21 years in his country before he fled Sri Lanka last January, after a well known journalist, the Editor of a prominent Colombo newspaper The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wikramatunge, who was a friend of his was gunned down by assailants on motorcycles when he was on his way to work. “Before that it had never struck me that I could be killed”, Uvindu told me later, even though he had received several threats prior to that. “After he was killed I felt insecure, if they could kill him, they could kill anyone”.

It was on the day of his friend’s funeral that he felt people came in a car to abduct him, but he was somehow able to hide and reach home safely. It was the last straw for Unvindu. After that he went into hiding and finally, with the help of a few friends and well wishers, managed to get onto a flight to the United Kingdom.

"No more totalitarian leaders" by Uvindu Kurukulasuriya.

Today, he lives in a small flat in North London in exile which he shares with six others who have also fled from different parts of the world faced with difficult circumstances. The tiny ten feet by ten feet room, that he now calls home, is cramped with books and a small television set. I spot a palette on the table and as I inspect the room when he goes out for a smoke I see a canvas. “It was an old interest of mine and now that I have little else to do in London I have taken it up to keep my sanity”, he says as he finds me looking at it when he enters. In exile, he is not allowed to legally work in the UK.

I go back to my questioning. What was it like to work in Sri Lanka? “They didn’t like us. All those of us who opposed war as a solution to problem in the North and advocated a political solution. People who came under fire were those critical of the government or those like me who had become activists and were advocating Press freedom”, he explained. “When we protested and held demonstrations against the killing of Lasantha, we were accused of violating ‘human rights’, violating the right of people to commute!”

While in Colombo, Uvindu, like many other journalists had learnt to live with danger. There was never any certainly about which form retribution might take. “It could be arrest, abduction or assault and could come at anytime, from anywhere”, he says adding that he had even stopped going out to restaurants and bars in the last three years while he was there. It was just work and home. “I also tried not to drive alone, lest they arrest me on any unwarranted charges.”

So does he feel relaxed and safer now that he is in London? “Not quite” he tells me, after all his family is still back home. “Despite all the pressure when in Sri Lanka I never shied away from speaking out and giving interviews. It was only after coming here that I denied an interview request from Al Jazeera on Lasantha’s death anniversary,” he says downcast. After all, his wife, who is still in Sri Lanka, had only been recently intimidated.

Danger was a constant problem, but what upsets Uvindu more was the attempt to denounce and demonise journalists who did not ‘fall in line’. “There was a hate campaign against us, we were called ‘Sinhala Tigers’, ‘agents of the West’, working for dollars’, ‘traitors’ and accused of dividing the country”, he says pointing out that there was a concerted attempt to generate public opinion against outspoken journalists.

Now that the war has been long ‘declared’ over and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) ‘defeated’, does he think he can safely return to his country? “The war may be over but the Emergency Regulations which were invoked and justified in wartime, have only recently been extended” he says ironically. Under these regulations people were picked up without a warrant or any apparent justification.

After his electoral ‘victory’ in the presidential election in January, many have asked the Sri Lankan President, Mahindra Rajapaksa, to call back journalists who left the country and assure them of safety. But there has been no response, so far.

Video: Sri Lankan Journalism under Threat - Al Jazeera English

(Image courtesy: Uvindu Kurukulasuriya)

Padlocks of Love

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:30:00 +0000

By Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt

A local tradition becomes a global phenomenon: as lovers around the world ‘lock’ their passion on bridges across the world, Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt investigates the roots of this trend and its growing popularity in Germany.

Tradition or Trend

Lovers vowing eternal love and togetherness appear to have found an innovative expression: artfully carved padlocks have begun to spring upon lantern posts, metal ornaments, and most of all bridges – in places as varied as China, Europe and the USA.

The idea of engraving the beloved’s name on a lock, placing it in a public place, the eternal gesture of throwing the key into the swirling river underneath to seal the bond of love is a true romanticists’ dream and is finding resonance across the world. According to Mirko Uhlig of the Rhineland Institute who is quoted in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the bridge carries strong symbolism as it connects two shores separated by a river.

The tradition can be traced back to East European countries such as Ukraine, Latvia and Russia where cotton ribbons tied to bridges served as symbols for newlyweds who were starting their future together. The ribbons were then what the more enduring padlocks appear to be nowadays. Beginning in the early 1990’s the ritual of lovers attaching padlocks and then throwing the key into the river or valley started to establish itself in Italy and China. In recent years Federico Moccia’s bestselling novel Ho voglia di te (I desire you) boosted the trend in Rome as the tradition of Luccetti d’Amore (lovelocks) was emulated by the lead protagonists of the novel by locking their love on Ponte Milvio.

Though the ritual itself is not new in Italy, the novels of Moccia did their bit in pushing the little pedestrian bridge into the spotlight. Every year on Valentine’s Day the city awards the best love oath with the Golden padlock – a major attraction for tourists.

Now these lovelocks can be found in places as varied as bridges in the USA to the Great Wall of China and Japan.

Over the river Rhine

Germany too has not remained untouched by this phenomenon. The past few years have seen more than three hundreds locks appear along the lattice fence of the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne – one of the main bridges in the city center connecting the two sides of the city divided by the Rhine. The gothic Kölner Dom famous for its majestic appearance presides over the locks. Close by is the Railway station. A train passenger beams that he just loves the fact that he passes by his lovelock every day while commuting to work.

Hohenzollern Bridge with the Kölner Dom overlooking the padlocks of Love

Giving further impetus to the trend is German a folklore band’s “Schenk mir Dein Herz” (Give me your Heart). Created for the Carnival season 2009/2010 the song has become the pub-hit of the season. Passengers whistling the tunes on the metro, retailers turning up the volume when the song is on air, mobile ring-tones and most of all the lyrics appearing in Twitter up-dates and Facebook statuses.

The Burden of the Oath

Yet while the trend may be inspiring lovers and artists alike, they’re posing a rather difficult problem for city administrations. The bridges and lantern posts carry heavy the reality of the message whose notion is as light as a sunny spring day. As stated 2007 in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Roman city council considered removing all the padlocks from the Ponte Milvio, as the stability of the lantern posts were in question. In Cologne the German railway officials threatened the removal of lovelocks due to security concerns. An uproar by supporters led by local tabloids caused them to step back but with the caveat that they do not endanger pedestrians, cyclists or the trains passing the Hohenzollern Bridge. The lattice fences in Moscow, Guam, Seoul, Kiev, Paris and Montevideo all carry the love oaths of millions – a heavy duty indeed.

Butterfly-shaped oath of Love

Give me your Heart

So lovers around the world seem to find common ground in this ritual either on their wedding day or whenever they feel the need to vow eternal togetherness. But how do traditions like this travel around? Intensive travelers and the media play their role in spreading the word and create a platform for copycats – is that the answer? Curiously the ritual started in the late 20th century in Italy as well as in China simultaneously according to expert statements in the Sueddeutsche. Academics and researchers at the Rhineland Institute for regional and cultural studies in Bonn have only just begun investigating this phenomenon. The path through which this tradition walked onto the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne - or for that matter any other bridge - is still a mystery.

Video: Cologne Love Locks

(Photos: Stephanie Viktoria Schmitt)

A new Cold War?

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:31:00 +0000

By John Narayan Parajuli

As India and China rise, their traditional rivalry and big power ambition is starting to manifest into an ugly battle for influence in the region. And it is the smaller nations who are facing the brunt.

March ten marks the fifty first anniversary of the Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule. China is keeping an anxious eye over the situation. It has stepped up the pressure on Nepal, forcing Kathmandu to deploy armed border guards along its border with Tibet. The country is also tightening its border with India in the South for possible entry of Tibetan dissidents seeking to protest in Kathmandu or further up in Tibet during the anniversary. Tibetan dissidents have accused the Nepali police of initiating a massive manhunt for possible ‘troublemakers’ in and around the Tibetan refugee camps in Kathmandu.

Though the international community has criticized Nepal for its high-handed approach in dealing with the Tibetan dissidents in recent years—especially during last year’s protest- Nepal’s geopolitical paradox and the country’s inability to resist pressures has not been sufficiently understood.

Bold Beijing

Emboldened by its steep ascendancy to the world power, China is making itself aggressively seen and heard on the global stage. Last year China snubbed the French (while they were holding the European Union presidency) during President Hu Zintao’s Europe visit. It was in response to Paris’ decision to throw a welcome mat for Dalai Lama in the Élysée Palace. In February this year, President Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House amid Beijing’s protestations. Although, the White House itself downplayed the significance of the visit to placate the Chinese, there are already indications from the Chinese foreign ministry that a proposed visit to the States in May by President Hu may now be cancelled or downgraded. America desperately wants the visit. After all, it is the banker’s call.

On other issues, Chinese mandarins are known for their quite diplomacy and hands-off approach, often much to the chagrin of Western countries, who want China to play a role commensurate with its power. But China has remained steadfast to its policy of non-interference in internal matters of other states—and expects a similar gesture from others. This may now be changing.

China’s underbelly

Tibet and Taiwan touch its raw nerve, and perhaps it is the only issue Chinese are belligerently stubborn about. It refuses to tolerate even a slightest accommodation of Tibetan/Taiwanese dissidents anywhere on the world stage, not least in its neighbourhood. Nepal and its northern districts (especially upper Mustang) which border Tibet were used by the Tibetan Khampa rebels as their training and shelter ground during their insurgency in the 60s. The CIA ran bases in the area to provide training and support to the rebels. Ever since its foray into Tibet, Nepal has become a focal point of China’s defence outlook.

Mustang in Nepal was hosting CIA training camps for Tibetan Khampa rebels in the 60s

Back then China was less aggressive about Nepal’s accommodation of Tibetan refugees and dissidents. But since the turn of the century, China has decidedly chosen to pursue a confrontational policy that actively protects its interest even if that means reversing its long cherished policy of non-interference in domestic matters of other states.

It wouldn’t have mattered so much if China was the lone power seeking influence and control in Nepal. In fact the country has become a convergence point for at least four power blocks -India, China, United States and the EU. While the EU and United States have mostly limited themselves to diplomatic manoeuvres, India and China’s interests are more than just diplomatic. In fact the two rising world powers are vying to undermine each other’s influence. China has long been accused of supporting the Pakistanis to fight a proxy war with India. Though Nepal shares no border with Pakistan, the country has long been a battle ground for Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies. In the upper Mustang, the region that borders China’s underbelly, Tibet, India is keeping a close eye—often indulging in extravagant development projects in a district with less than 9,000 inhabitants.

There are two camps within the Chinese establishment: those who seek to stick to the old policy of quietly moving up the ladder of prosperity, and those who want to flex their new found muscle on the international stage. The latter camp seems to be gaining ground. The paradox of a big power is that you can’t keep your hands off other’s affair even if you wanted to. Being a big power is as much a liability, as it is an advantage.

Mutual mistrust

But China’s renewed interest in cultivating and maintaining strategic assets in Nepal does not stem solely from its expanding prowess. It is equally driven by its reading that India and America are collaborating to foment instability inside Tibet by supporting the Tibetan dissident groups. Nepali security officials partially concur with the Chinese view of India’s increasing involvement with the Tibetan cause. It is this game of one-upmanship that is hurting small neighbours like Nepal. It is a tough balancing act for the Nepali officials.

The titans are increasingly view each other with a wary eye, each suspecting the other of trying to destabilize each other’s sensitive regions. India’s insurgency in the North East and Kashmir, and now the Maoists rebellion poses serious security challenges for New Delhi. As the security forces deal with multiple internal challenges, New Delhi does not want to be caught unaware should China make a move along the disputed territories between the two countries— in the North East of India – which had led to a war between the two nations in 1962.

This jostling for influence and control between the two countries is certainly not limited to Nepal. Bangladesh, Maldives, Burma, and other countries in the region have witnessed their fair share of Chinese and Indian hyperactivity in recent years.

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western block may have ended with the fall of Berlin Wall, but a proxy war of diplomatic manoeuvres seems to be beginning among the two upcoming powers – China and India. Its fury may not have spread across the globe, but it is certainly heating up parts of South Asia and to some extent East Asia. As the two countries accelerate their economic growth, their traditional rivalry coupled with the need to secure energy supplies and raw materials for their industries is only likely to intensify the sub-rosa war into a full blown conflict. Their expanding sphere of influence would increasingly put them on a collision course.

(Image rights: John Narayan Parajuli and telegraph.co.uk)

Alice in Burtonland

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:39:00 +0000

By Beatrice Jeschek

Tim Burton takes on the children’s classic “Alice in Wonderland” in his long anticipated newest release. Beatrice Jeschek follows Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in 3D and returns with some thoughts about dreaming for real.

How many times did I fall asleep under my grandma’s noble magnolia tree, when the grass was freshly cut and the light scent of spring gently tickled my nose? I still wish I once had a dream like Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to turn the aching process of growing up into a spectacle of my own mind.

In 1951, the Disney factory blew some colour into the novel’s fantastic figures. A curvy baby blue caterpillar smokes letters of wisdom into a blond girl’s face. A mean and ugly faced Queen of Hearts tyrannizes her most humble husband. A pink and violet-striped Cheshire Cat is going “poof!” before it answers the question of which way the girl ought to go with the legendary “well, that depends on where you want to get to”. The story is deep. Not even animated happiness could destroy this.

Follow the White Rabbit

It was just a matter of time until the eccentric Tim Burton, an exceptionally dark and at the same time “help, my paint-box exploded” director, widened the eyes of loyal Alice in Wonderland fans with his expanded version. He always had an artistic technique in revealing the normal in the mad and the mad in the normal – whether it was in “Edward Scissorhands”, “Beetle Juice” or “Big Fish”.

In 3D optic, as there is no way of escaping the cinema trend towards being a funfair of attraction again, a grown up Alice follows the White Rabbit. The cut is clear. A young woman around 20 years old crosses the line between reality and fiction when she flees her Victorian marriage with a rich but dull Lord right into her childish imagination. Here, she finds herself surrounded by mad but friendly figures and nightmares of grown-ups like the Red Queen and her court.

Things have changed since the last time Walt Disney sent her into this odd fantasy world. Although the landscape is a sweetly coloured and a detail-loving homage to the anarchistic-surreal world of both Disney’s classic and Carroll’s artwork, the typical dark scent of a Burton movie is all-present. For this scent he doesn’t need to have the perfect equipment like 3D-cameras as James Cameron in his “Avatar”. It is enough to indulge into the “green and red” post-layered characters, which seem utterly fitting with their edged flatness from time to time in this specially tailored factory of mad minds.

The Dark Scent

We can smell the dark scent beguiling in the tragedy that a pitiful woman who cannot accept her otherness rules as the Red Queen by adjusting all creatures to her standards of “normality”. Following the White Rabbit deeper into the plot, the Red Queen simply envies her sister, the White Queen’s beauty and way of being loved. Helena Bonham Carter, the woman at Burton’s side and mother of his children, is just a brilliant embodiment of a selfish creature who forgot to love herself, and who blew up her head - literally.

Like Carter, Johnny Depp can be considered as an inspiration for the very complex character of the Mad Hatter. It is a mechanical detail that his eye colour changes throughout his mood swings, but it blends well with his shattered appearance. “Have I gone mad?” he asks Alice who is holding his head between her hands to keep him from losing it. “I’m afraid so,” she answers. “But I'll tell you a secret”, and here it seems as if Burton speaks right through Alice, in a calm and convincing voice: “All the best people are.”

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway as they look in Burton's rabbit hole

“But This is My Dream”

The naturally beautiful Mia Wasikowska gives Alice a new face. We can search big time for the classic Alice in her blue dress and white pinafore, curious but childishly frightened. With a sullen look and flowing blond hair the older Alice is supposed to slay the dragon Jabberwocky in a knight’s armour to end the Red Queen’s reign once and for all. It shall be her path of glory, but Alice in Burtonland has an identity crisis.

“How can I be the wrong Alice when this is my dream”, she asks when the creatures she once visited as a child doubt that she is the “real Alice”. In order to become who she ought to be, Alice needs to resolve adventurous tasks. After some magical shrinking and growing as part of becoming herself, she beheads the Red Queen’s dragon and fulfills her last act in Wonderland.

"Have I gone mad?"
"I am afraid so - but I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are."

An Alternative to LSD and Psychosis

By all means, Alice can fight her inner demons and return to her real life where she continues the triumphal self-discovery. In not marrying the aristocratic ginger head with a clearly missing fantasy (and missing toothbrush), she can make a point for all soon-to-be empowered girls on earth who fight conventions to follow their dreams and make a career. Burton’s Alice even follows her father’s footsteps in business and sails to China for trading.

This feminist swing can be traced back to screenplay writer Linda Woolverton who was part of yet another Disney movie with a female hero, Mulan in 1998.

Moreover it asks the critical question: How can we keep our childish imagination without turning into a child again?

They say that pure creativity goes hand in hand with mind-blowers of any kind (alcohol as the most commonly accepted). However, if we follow our dreams in real life, there is no need for fake companions like envy or drugs. It doesn’t need to be China (the exotic stereotype). It can be a wish that has never been touched, because it was buried under real life experience. But it needs to come from deep within.

Burton spreads his message all over the screen. It sticks on his shots, corny like an overdose of honey, but it is also the shining key to our very own Wonderland. (If that doesn’t help we can practice first and think of as many as six impossible things before breakfast.)

Now, who wants to wake up and use the key?

Trailer: Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton:

(All images: Copyright Disney 2010)

Ryanair, cheap or expensive?

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:03:00 +0000

By Gabriel Fraga de Cal

Does cheap really come at a price when it comes to flying? Gabriel Fraga de Cal delivers some thoughts on Ryanair.

Low cost airlines have changed the way we think of flying. I still remember those free sandwiches and drinks, just for the sake of flying; but that’s a thing of the past. Today you can fly from London to Rome for 4 euro, but don’t even think of asking the flight attendants for a glass of water. Are cheap and expensive two overlapping concepts when flying today?

Back in the past –not that far back actually- we used to purchase plane tickets through a travelling agent. At the present time this job has almost vanished, we book flights at home. The web has played a key role in what some people call 'the travel revolution'. Ryanair is the leading low cost airline in Europe, and sometimes I wonder how they manage to be profitable by selling such cheap tickets. Well, some facts can explain the low cost business; basically it is matter of reducing costs to the extreme.

It might be noted that, when buying a plane ticket at a bargain prize, the taxes applied to it are generally pricier than the ticket itself. According to an article published in The Guardian “… the airline [Ryanair] claims that the card charges when booking flights are not a revenue stream for the company but are spent on its website”. Taking into account that 75% of the costumers buy their tickets online their website must be one the most expensive of the Net.

According to El Mundo, Ryanair, by trying to find new ways to reduce costs, pushes their planes, crew, and flying procedures to the limit. It is said that the Irish company commits many irregularities when it comes to security measures, however, none has proven that travelling with Ryanair is more dangerous than with any other company.

There are different kind of fees costumers should be aware of when buying a ticket with Ryanair. Here we list some of them:

1- Check in taxes: if online 5 euro, by a traveling agency 10.
2- Ticket proceedings taxes: 5 euro.
3- Babies fee (below 2 years old): 20 euro.
4- Boarding priority taxes 4-5 euro.
5- Luggage: maximum allowance of two bags of 15 kilos each. One bag is 15 euro online and 35 by traveling agency. Second bag prize goes up to 35 and 75 euro respectively.
6- Luggage excess surcharges: 20 euro per kilo exceeded. Five more kilos would be then translated into 100 euro.
7- Tax applied if passengers need to issue their boarding pass at the airport counter: 40 euro for a paper sheet.
8- Rebooking: online 25 euro, by agency 55.
9- And last but not least, taxes applied when changing passenger’s name: 100-150 euro.

This is just a summary of Ryanair terms of conditions’ small print. Many criticize the company for all these sudden charges and also for the way passengers are treated in comparison with the non-low cost companies.

“… once I have paid, BA [British Airways] will on the whole treat me as a customer, while Ryanair will be trying to pick my pocket at every turn, even – it is still a possibility – when I am in the toilet” wrote Steve Mann from the Financial Times.

In fact Ryanair has been looking at the possibility to charge costumers for using the toilet during fights. This measure hasn’t been approved yet, but it hasn’t been ruled out either. Rumour has it that they have also considered to extra-charge obese passengers –I guess this borders discrimination. One of the most revolutionary findings of Ryanair 'reducing-costs-intelligence-agency' has been removing the head-pillow. It was seen as an unnecessary luxurious item whose absence happened to be very beneficial to the airline’s budget.

Ryanair has been recently nominated by the Spanish Costumers Defense Asociation, FACUA, as one of the worst firms of the year – Aircomet, Telefónica Movistar, Vodafone and Orange appear to be their partners in crime. This is of course the costumers’ point of view whose anger is 'remarkably' focused on mobile phones and low cost aircraft companies.

Despite all this criticism Ryanair happens to be a very efficient company which is even famous for punctuality. Many people still chose it because it is cheap. However, and as we all know, cheap is sometimes a synonym of expensive. For example, I am flying myself with them this week; it was the cheapest option I found –and I’m not trying to excuse myself. My flight takes off ridiculously early in the morning and only my laptop is coming with me – I don’t want to take the risk of facing any of the levies listed earlier. But in conclusion that is the key question; you need to know who you are flying with and carefully read the small print.

A Jagged Truth

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:27:00 +0000

By Caitlín McCann

Learn how Global Warming could potentially save a sharks population in Australia from becoming extinct. Caitlín McCann takes us for a ride in the fascinating world of one the ocean's most misunderstood apex predators.

Man, Climate Change and the Labrador of the Sea

Sharks have been demonised and mythologised by many cultures for centuries. The erroneous fear that has been past on through generations (in particular over the past 30 years) by literature, television and even cinema, labeling sharks as man-eaters and vicious killers has only, in recent decades, been combated by a global network of researchers whose aim is to stop some of the most remarkable apex predators in our ocean from going extinct. Ironically, the current foe of wild populations globally, namely climate change, has created an advantage for an otherwise quasi-extinct shark population.

The aforementioned population is that of the Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus) found in temperate and sub-tropical coastal waters and currently dwindling off the east coast of Australia. This relatively placid and slow moving shark was once one of the most feared encounters for divers in the Australian waters (but in recent years has earned itself the endearing name of Labrador of the Sea). Owing to its name (‘grey’ is often the number one attribute given in reports of shark attacks) and ferocious appearance the C. taurus had fallen prey to governmental precautionary measures known as shark control programs, such as coastal meshing and baited drumlines in addition to pressures from commercial and recreational fishing.

In 1992 the Queensland’s Nature Conservation act classified the two remaining C. taurus populations in Australia as endangered. The globally recognized IUCN Red List has listed the shark population off the west coast of Australia as vulnerable and the east coast population as critically endangered after the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 listed the species as two separate populations. However measures in place to control other species still have horrific impacts on C. taurus populations in Australia.

Late Bloomers

A conventional assumption about marine species is that they have a high productivity rate and thus their populations are not as severely impacted by large scale mortality events owing to anthropogenic impacts such as commercial fishing and destruction of habitat. However, this is often not the case as species such as the C. taurus have one of the slowest productivity & lowest fecundity rates (produce two pups every two years) of all the elasmobranchs. It takes approximately 6-7 years for males and 9-10 years for female sharks to become sexually mature. This makes the species very vulnerable to overexploitation and extinction.

The eastern Australian population of C. taurus has been currently estimated at 500 individuals. It stands that many of the individuals that die via by-catch of commercial fisheries and entrapment in beach meshing are female sharks that tend to live closer to the coast where they give birth. Of the approximate 500 individuals (figure most likely outdated 2007), scientists believe the effective population, or the number of individuals breeding, could be as little as 50. This means that every casualty could potentially have dreadful effects for the population as a whole.

100,000 years in Isolation

Although anthropogenic impacts have had an enormous effect on reducing the eastern Australian population of C. taurus, Adam Stow and colleagues from the Macquarie University in Sydney have published findings that the ‘critically endangered east Australian C. taurus are characterized by less genetic variation than any other populations’, in Western Australia or South Africa. These finding suggest that dwindling eastern population might also be affected by ‘events that pre-date mankind, a founder effect in the population’. This essentially means a small number of sharks potentially established the eastern colony and became isolated from a larger, genetically more diverse breeding system. This causes susceptibility to inbreeding, genetic drift and an overall loss of genetic diversity. This can lead to inheritable diseases and disorders becoming more common in the populations making for a very ‘unhealthy’ population.

Using various genetic analyses Stow and the team were able to identify the first account of ‘genetic variation and geographical partitioning in C.taurus’. The eastern populations have only 1 mitochondrial haplotype solidifying the theory that the population had a few ‘founding members’.

With this lack in genetic variation in the eastern population and the mortality rates of C. taurus rising, one of the few remedies seen by researchers is a merger of the eastern and western populations, increasing numbers and diversity, and making accidental casualties less significant to the survival of the population. Until recently this was seen as absurd.

Anthropogenic Monster gives “2nd chance”

Associate Professor Corey Bradshaw of the University of Adelaide in Australia commented that even though “this is probably one of those one in a hundred examples where climate change may actually be somewhat beneficial for this particular species”, the potential to save one species is not a balanced return for the cost of global warming around the rest of the world.

After receiving a grant to pursue studies on the extinction risk, threat assessment and priority management actions for the East Coast population of C. taurus in Australia, Prof. Bradshaw commented to ABC News in September 2008 that a major reason for such a succinct separation in the two Australian populations came down to the species sensitivity to colder waters. The two populations have been separated for over 100,000 years; however the increasing temperatures owing to global warming have already seen an increase in water temperatures in the Bass Strait, the body of water that divides the shark populations.

Now with global water temperatures rising, the possibility of the eastern and western grey nurse shark populations meeting is less bizarre. This will not ‘save’ the populations, however, it does give more time to make positive steps towards preserving them by rethinking shark control programs and the use of beach meshing, recreational spear fishing and commercial fishing near the sharks’ habitat.

Future still unknown…

Although rising temperatures in Southern Australian waters will undoubtedly heighten the chances of the two populations eventually meeting, no one knows yet just how the groups will interact. Even if the two populations meet and begin interbreeding, the eastern population is already vastly inbred and human activities (until such an event occurs) are still having drastic effects on the 500 or so individuals that are thought to remain on the east coast from Queensland to New South Wales.

The continuing presence of commercial fishing, recreational spear and game fishing and various shark control activities in Australia will continue to cause the decline of C. taurus numbers even in light of the apparent ‘second chance’ the populations have received by this biggest of man-made monsters, global warming. Various recovery plans, legislative efforts and charity organizations are continuing in the name of endangered marine species across the globe, however, only time will confirm the fate of the so called: Labradors of the Sea.

Comment: Moral Shootings

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:13:00 +0000

By Beatrice Jeschek

What connects Y2K and swine flu? Beatrice Jeschek delivers thoughts about having risk for breakfast and the morality behind reporting it.

Reporting risk is a risk in itself.

There is a fine line between creating panics and delivering solid information. Compared to war journalism the reporting of risks can be very abstract, because it is fuelled with scientific expertise. War creates a picture in everyone’s head. Bleeding wounds, bomb explosions. Anything. The Y2K threat might leave people with a nothing but a question mark.

There might be no war in risk reporting, but there is a shooting behind every risk. I call it the moral shooting in risk reporting.

Let’s go back to the final cut of the 20th century. The so-called Y2K case shows how far new technology already has affected the perception of risks. The link to cute robots like R2D2 is not that far. Only here, at the end of the millennium, the inability of computers to read dates beyond 1999 threatened to turn January the 1st 2000 into a nerd’s nightmare.

Microprocessors were reported to cause aircrafts falling from the skies, nuclear power plant meltdowns, savings and pensions’ blanks, a breakdown in communication leading to shortage of food, again causing riots and – finally, the breakdown of a society who created the risk in the first place.

Denis Dutton, a New Zealand professor of philosophy, explores these apocalyptic themes right at the beginning of another changing decade, now at 2009/10. The International Harald Tribune is his stage. In his view, every risk is unnecessarily packed with end-time horrors. Comments however blame him for mixing factual risks like global warming or swine flu with a technological breakdown that never happened.

True, the quality of risks can differ a lot. It is nevertheless quite astonishing that a computer software problem can lead to religious assumptions about God’s punishment of mankind, who ironically created this risk itself.

Even a technological problem, then, appears to be as much a factual as a moral risk for society.

Yesterday’s Y2K is today’s swine flue.

Risk does not only change its character in reporting. It also reappears on the media stage in different themes. Every year there is a range of risks listed with the same ambiguity of moral and factual specifics.

So, the core of a factual risk appears every time again in its moral twin. It is fed by people’s fear and the elitist evaluation of it. If we want to, we can have our daily risk for breakfast.

In other words, yesterday’s Y2K is today’s swine flu.

Very subtly, risks leave their grounds for factual imminence and turn into a value discussion. How should one behave then becomes the turning question.

Dutton might not divide accurately between the qualities of factual risks. However, he points his academic fingers towards something more important: The heavy entanglement between morality and risk.

An advantage in reporting the present of swine flu (and its vaccine) lies in the possibility to reflect about communicating it. Then, the swine flu scare is not only about the facts behind health care risk. It becomes a question about the structures and fears that lie behind it. Happy moral shooting 2010!

(Photo: 'cdc e-health' via flickr)

Newspapers unite in the face of COP15

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:31:00 +0000

By David Michael Barnwell

In an effort to join forces ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, 56 newspapers from 45 countries tomorrow publish a common editorial, encouraging politicians not to waste what is called an unique opportunity.

The joint editorial, named 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgement on this generation', will be brought simultaneously in all 56 newspapers tomorrow on December 7th, 2009 in more than 20 languages, including Chinese, Arabic, French, Italian and Russian.

The editorial is the first of its kind and was originally drafted by a Guardian team after more than a month's consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved. Unlike regular editorials, tomorrow's call for a united voice on the COP15 will be printed on many of the papers' front pages.

"Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone."

- from 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgement on this generation'

Among the involved papers are several major media players from all over the world, such as La Repubblica, Le Monde, de Volkskrant, El País and the Argentinian Clarín. According to the Guardian, the process of drafting a common editorial on this highly political matter caused some initial problems but after overcoming these early hurdles, the project quickly gained pace, and the result will be read by tomorrow millions of readers worldwide:

"Given that newspapers are inherently rivalrous, proud and disputatious, viewing the world through very different national and political prisms, the prospect of getting a sizeable cross-section of them to sign up to a single text on such a momentous and divisive issue seemed like a long shot. But an early, enthusiastic, conversation with the editor of one of India's biggest dailies offered encouragement. Then in Beijing in September, I met a senior editor from an influential business weekly, the Economic Observer" writes Ian Katz, deputy editor of The Guardian.

"Notwithstanding the shifting boundaries of press freedom in China, he was sure his paper would participate (and another major Chinese daily would subsequently, too). If we could reach a common position with papers from the two developing world giants most commonly identified as obstacles to a global deal, then surely we could crack the rest."

According to Katz, the joint editorial is an indicator of how diversity doesn't need to stand in the way of agreement:

"If the editorial lacks the detail that will have to be cracked over the next 14 days in Copenhagen, it should be a source of encouragement that such a diverse coalition was able to agree about so much - not least the precariousness of our situation, and the need for Copenhagen to deliver a full treaty by summer 2010 at the latest."

The United Nations Climate Change Conference will kick off on December 7th and finish on the 18th in Copenhagen, Denmark. Among the participants from a total of 192 countries will be a broad range of the world's political leaders, including Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, US President Barack Obama and Russia's President Dmitiri Medvedev.

(Images: pol.dk)

Profile: The Primadonna of War

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:57:00 +0000

By Anthony David Gatt

An emblematic TV face, female but not blonde, an Iranian background, an acclaimed body of work, a somewhat exotic accent, esteemed and despised at the same time, head to head with politicians… maybe fitting in their same class, but as she herself sustains, not in the class of “the current crop of opinion, commentary or feelings journalists”. Her name is Christiane Amanpour.

CNN’s Chief International Correspondent is 51 years of age. Born in Iran and educated in the UK and the United States she found herself working for a new cable network that would rapidly become one of the most influential media machines worldwide. Reviewing her work especially the coverage of the 1st Gulf War and the Balkan war helps extrapolate a particular image of Amanpour. She might as well be one of the best broadcast war correspondents in history. The particular mixture of traits and influences in her persona that should make her look contradictory in the eyes of the mainstream, actually strengthen her. Her embodiment of West and East, Christianity and Islam actually works. What throws off a portion of her audience, including myself, is the media world she had to model herself into. In this article I will argue that it’s mainly the effects of this commercial media regime which have ruined Amanpour’s claim to be held as an ultimate journalism role-model.

In an attempt to analyze her body of work I made use of her recent documentary entitled “Scream Bloody Murder”. This two hour documentary broadcasted on CNN in late 2008 analyzing the way genocide is made public and the legal issues inherent with such a proclamation, discloses a series of issues surrounding the philosophy, style and mission of this particular war correspondent. I have also reviewed a number of interviews with Amanpour where she talks at length about her background, motivations and the profession of journalism at large.

The perfect contradictions

As she files her work for CNN, the resultant generalization would be to place Amanpour amongst the breed of puppet journalists willing to push Washington’s Western capitalist agenda. But YouTube videos with promotions to her programme narrating the recent rise of a global Islamist sentiment and entitled “CNN for once is right” shows that at least a portion of the Islamic community approve of her output.

Her mother being Christian and her father a Muslim, not much is disclosed about her own religious convictions. Some might not understand how a person coming from an Islamic background can flourish in a society that embraces different values. Others might mistrust the idea of being tutored about Islamic customs by a Western looking lady which has a Muslim father. Yet that is exactly what Amanpour managed to do with a somewhat dazzling ease. One of her secrets is never framing herself as Iranian, American or British. She says that she is a bit of them all.

Recently in an interview about post election violence in Iran she pinned it down to this: “…nobody knows my biases. Do they think I’m against? Do they think I’m for? They don’t know my biases. They don’t know where I come from in this. I just try very hard to report the facts and to tell the stories as best as I can”.

Being criticized by the two sides is not the optimal situation, yet it might give more credibility than when a journalist is attacked for being biased to one side against the other.

Giving each side a hearing

Amanpour holds another feather in her hat. She talks about journalism and its central societal value with the rigor and passion of a University Journalism professor. She basks in widespread admiration for her approach to give a serious take on a subject from different points of view. Personally, her quote on the nature of objectivity and truth in reporting conflict situations has provided me with the most practical advice yet. It’s not equality that defines objectivity but giving both sides the opportunity of a hearing. Yet if responsible investigation at the war front presents a reality with one side being the clear victim, one shouldn’t refrain from highlighting such facts.

She sustains that “There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.”

Her call for integrity, responsible and professional journalism and the rebuttal of the new media 24/7 scenario is precious especially when coming from such a well respected practitioner.

Reflecting on her experience CNN’s top correspondent said that “…to hold the line against a deluge of anchors and so forth, experts and analysts who have their own theories… I just have to … report what’s actually happening, not what they wish was happening, or that they think was happening”.

But has Amanpour always managed to keep that detachment from this new media establishment based on bombardment of information, opinions all packaged in a commercial business model called 24/7 broadcasting news networks?

Shining like a star

The answer is in the negative. Amanpour today has TV shows bearing nothing but her name. She is a star war reporter. She works in a ‘business’, as she herself dubs it, that revolves around a 24/7 news demand. Her abilities have made her one of the main racing horses of CNN’s stables. She is invited on late night shows. During the tumultuous Balkan war she even managed to appear on a big screen in the hall of a press conference given by President Clinton, hitting hard, live from the far away land.

Reflecting on a recent interview with Amanpour, The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg holds that “Nearly two decades of frontline… have moved Amanpour from the world of working journalist to one more usually occupied by celebrities and public saints. Her interviews are arranged by teams of publicists who flinch when she utters a single swear word“.

In another interview with fellow journalist Lesley Stahl, CNN’s Chief International correspondent has even instructed the Stahl to take care of a full blown media campaign to get her back if Amanpour is ever abducted.

A colleague of hers during the spell of the Balkan war described Amanpour as "superaggressive, all-elbows, out-of-my-way style. She replied that there was no need for her to do that.

Throughout the two hour long “Scream Bloody Murder” we can see her filmed walking along with her interviewees in their troubled stretches of land. The only time we can’t see the journalist on screen with these witnesses is when the particular interview is not carried out by Amanpour herself. All the other times the cameraperson would give her as much attention as the subject… after all ‘she was there’.

In 1996 Amanpour was asked if she really is the hottest property in television. This is the way she answered: "What can I say, `Yes'? Then I'm going to be arrogant. Well…they say I give great war. Is that sexual or what?".

Onto the next front

Amanpour has managed to create around her an exquisitely refined aura of knowledge which reassures a confused, fact-seeking audience… yet in the same spell she manages to put off others who like me will never swallow the jet-set, bullet dodging, cemetery wandering, sunglasses wearing, Forbes listed Christiane Amanpour.

The creation of this media persona has resulted in Amanpour loosing herself in popularity, swaying away from her own mantras of factuality and detachment turning herself into a political animal disguised as a journalist. The angel of truth at the world’s rescue has contaminated herself with the power of the elite she had to check on. The same woman who would never give her opinion uses the exact words “In my opinion” in a promo segment envisaged to promote her latest analysis of Islam. The same detached journalist was ambushed by Iranian journalists during a tour of one of Iran’s nuclear facilities, a technique normally used to deal with politicians, not fellow journalists.

A telling detail is that Amanpour publicly remarks that she doesn’t cover American politics. On the suggestion that she should engage in covering the global economic crisis Amanpour replied that “Somehow I don’ feel it in my gut”. Cleverly enough she has distanced herself from covering the endeavors of the American political class that her husband James Rubin, and herself, fit so well into.

Heading to the next warfront one might consider to travel a bit lighter this time, shedding away a ration of glitz and glamour… packing an extra serving of self-containment.

Feature Article: Dealing with an uncertain future

noreply@blogger.com (The Kosmo Blog) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:32:00 +0000

By Gabriel Fraga de Cal

Humans have been always afraid of nature and its capricious impact over their lives. That is why, through science, we have been relentlessly trying to control and manipulate nature on our behalf. We have become so worried about us that, since the advent of modernity, our biggest concern as human beings has been to protect ourselves from an external and hazardous world. Humans are afraid of the unknown, and the future is for us nothing but a stranger whose actions we cannot foresee.

“The notion of risk becomes central in a society which is taking leave from the past, of traditional ways of doing things, and which is opening itself up to a problematic future” claims the British sociologist Anthony Giddens. In Modern societies the calculation of risk, that is to say the dangers we may or may not have to face in the future, has become a major concern. Everything is apt to be insured against potential risks. Our cars, houses, refrigerators, computers, toasters and, more importantly, ourselves are items likely to be protected from possible upcoming threats.

The welfare state, whose responsibility is to protect citizens in every domain of their lives, is a good example of how the 'perfect' human artificial shelter should be. Modern institutions in modern societies are meant to care for the individuals, and the individuals’ trust towards the system depends on how safe they feel within society. Some states fit more in the welfare category than others. Scandinavian countries are a good example of how the state has successfully taken over almost every domain of life. In fact, Scandinavians seem to be very happy about having delegated most of their duties to the state.

RESPONSIBILITY

We have, as a matter of fact, become extremely successful in having control over the future. So is the case that the sense of culpability has shifted from external actors to us. Good examples of this argument are natural disasters. In the past nature was to blame after the devastation created by a tsunami or an earthquake. These days human beings – what we call experts - are to blame for not having predicted the disaster. We are no longer afraid of what nature can do to us because we have become the designers of our own fate. Therefore we should be also regarded as responsible for the potential damage we are causing on the environment and human life. This is what Giddens calls “the dark side of modernity”, the more we play scientifically and technologically with our future the higher the future risks become. These are considered by Giddens high-consequential risks and they are according to him a product of modernity and the result of globalization:

“such risks are part of the dark side of modernity, and they, or comparable risks factors, will be there so long as modernity endures – so long as the rapidity of social and technological change continues, throwing off unanticipated consequences” .

High-consequence risks do not affect the present time or the human being as an individual, they affect humanity. As Deborah Lupton mentions in her analysis on Giddens’ work, globalization has unified humankind by putting us all under the same threats. Globalization and globalized risk have created a new world scenario in which humans realize they are facing the same problems claims Giddens. This is what is new concerning modernity; since we all confront the same risks the sense of WE as humans becomes more meaningful than ever before.

Nonetheless risk is a very flexible term; I would even say an abstract one. The question that comes to my mind when talking about risk and modernity is the following: do we live in an increasingly risky society or have we become obsessed with the notion of risk? Deborah Lupton claims that Giddens himself does not mean that we live in a more dangerous society or that WE humans have become obsessed with risk. In reality, as the British professor Chas Critcher points out, if we think of the Western world, some of the most dreadful threats for human beings − like famine or disease for instance − have been almost completely eliminated. The reason why modern societies are risk societies is probably because of our awareness concerning the impact we exert over the planet.

THE PERCEPTION OF RISK AND THE RISK MAKERS

I wonder when a risk becomes a risk; what should or should not be consider a risk? Someone has to determine what humanity needs to consider dangerous or safe, but this is not an easy thing to do. Those in charge of determining what is likely to be a threat for us are the so-called, admired and hated experts. Experts are expected to agree with each other in order to let us know which risks we have to be aware of, with dangers we need to get ready for. Nonetheless, experts rarely reach an agreement. As Giddens admits “the consensus of expert opinion – if there is any consensus – may switch even as the changes in lifestyle they called for previously become adopted”.

As a matter of fact, what it was harmless fifteen years ago seems to be highly damaging today. There have been recently many news concerning the damage that meat consumption is exerting on the environment. I was raised in a family where eating meat less than twice a week was thought to be unhealthy. Meat was generally considered a symbol of energy and strength; today is destroying our planet. As Giddens mentions, even tobacco was seen as a relaxant not that long ago. This does not mean medical science is random at all, but its changing nature creates confusion and skepticism in society. “The interpretation of risk for an individual or category of individuals”, claims Giddens, “depends on whether or not lifestyle changes are introduced, and how far these are in fact based on valid presumptions”.

There are in fact many contradictions regarding modern society and risks. Globalization has apparently made humans realize, at last, that we step on the same land and live under the same roof. But curiously we seem to be more worried about what can happen to us – and our future generations - in a hundred years than about the calamities happening right now to some unknown individuals in a remote African country. The fact is that not only experts and their disagreements play a role in the perception of risk by individuals, the media and its agenda also make some risks more visible than others. Not only is global warming a threat for humanity, but famine, also an issue affecting all of us in a globalized world. Prioritizing one or the other is something that is by and large exclusively decided by Western societies. The risk society, as Giddens explains it, make complete sense within the frame of modern and post modern societies.

TRUST IS CONCLUSIVE

The interaction between experts and society has to be based on trust. We have to rely on expert systems, that is to say we need to rely on people we do not know and we will probably never see. As Giddens points out a common characteristic of modern society is the fact that it is shaped by abstract systems. The expert system is one of them, the interaction between WE and THEM ¬− 'the absent experts' – has to be based on trust. We are part of many processes in which we never get to meet or fully understand what is going on. What do we know, as citizens, about science? What we actually get to know is the information made and delivered to us.

It is nonetheless true that nowadays we have access to many different sources and points of view over the same subject. As opposed to pre modern societies, the individual of today becomes a reflexive being and he or she decides who to trust. As professor Critcher claims trust was unconditional for previous generations whereas, at the present time, it is a conditional reality. There are many uncertainties and certainties to believe in. Either by conviction or faith you decide who to trust, you are crucial in order to believe what is truth, what is not. That is why we have become so risk centered, because we are responsible for own mistakes.