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Monday 4 January 2010
Massive Attack - Paradise Circus (NSFW)
Massive Attack recently released their new video for “Paradise Circus” (ft. Hope Sandoval) off Heligoland. In what runs more like a documentary than a music video, the Toby Dye directed piece features former porn star, Georgina Spelvin, and her candid look on filming the infamous adult film, 'The Devil in Miss Jones'. Original shots of the ‘73 hit are interlaced with Spelvin’s honest take on her physical and emotional state during the production of the film nearly forty years ago. An interesting and entertaining concept, but definitely (NSFW)
A World of Megabeats and Megabytes
My 21st century started in 1998, when I got a new toy. It was the Diamond Rio PMP300, a flimsy plastic gadget the size of a cigarette pack. PMP stood for Portable Music Player. It had a headphone jack, and it played a recently invented digital file format: MPEG-1 Audio Layer Three, or MP3.
The Rio’s 32 megabytes of storage held a dozen songs at passable fidelity. Its sound was clearly inferior to a portable CD player; its capacity was comparable to a cassette or two. But the beauty of it was that it didn’t need any CD or cassette inserted, just digital files — copies of songs — loaded from a computer, to be changed at whim. They might come from albums people owned or borrowed; they might come, even back then, from strangers online. The Recording Industry Association of America sued to have the PMP300 taken off the market and failed — the prelude to a decade of lawsuits trying to corral online music.
It was already too late. For those who were willing to be geeky — learning new software, slowly downloading via dial-up — music had forever escaped its plastic containers to travel the Web. The old distribution system was on its way to becoming irrelevant. “You really think you’re in control? Well, I think you’re crazy,” Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley sang in 2006.
Because songs are small chunks of information that many people want, music was the canary in the digital coal mine, presaging what would happen to other art forms as Internet connections spread and sped up. For the old recording business everything went wrong. Sales of CDs have dropped by nearly half since 2000, while digital sales of individual songs haven’t come close to compensating. Movies and television (and journalism too) are now scrambling not to become the next victims of an omnivorous but tight-fisted Internet.
By now, in 2010, we’re all geeks, conversant with file formats and software players. Our cellphone/camera/music player/Web browser gadgets fit in a pocket, with their little LCD screens beckoning. Their tiny memory chips hold collections of music equivalent to backpacks full of CDs. The 2000s were the broadband decade, the disintermediation decade, the file-sharing decade, the digital recording (and image) decade, the iPod decade, the long-tail decade, the blog decade, the user-generated decade, the on-demand decade, the all-access decade. Inaugurating the new millennium, the Internet swallowed culture whole and delivered it back — cheaper, faster and smaller — to everyone who can get online...
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Otis Ferry: What I think of anti-hunting ‘idiots’
Otis Ferry with his hounds near Shrewsbury He is the son of rock star Bryan Ferry and works as an amateur whipper-in for the Middleton hunt in Yorkshire.
'Remember Naught' by Devilstower
I was nice about it. I didn't make any demands on 2000. I didn't fuss that we were nowhere near launching that manned mission to Jupiter's moons, that we hadn't broken regolith on the lunar base, or that Pan Am's service to the orbital hotel was very far behind schedule. I did not even demand that most basic right of every American -- my own flying car.
Now that it's 2010, I don't think I can be quite so generous. After all, I went into the decade a relatively young man with parents, grandparents, a series of novels on the shelves, and even a television show about to appear on (not then quite so ubiquitous) basic cable. I came out the other side with a cubicle job, an AARP card, and a lot of "out of print" citations on Amazon. Not exactly a tragedy, but it does leave me feeling that I'm entitled to a least a Nexus 3 to help out around the house. So be warned, 21st century teen decade, I have high expectations for you.
Now that the decade we still don't know how to name is in rear view (even if the "Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Seem" label is still very visible), there's been something of a movement to forget the last ten years. There are web sites, pundits, and television shows pushing the idea that we should just put the decade of zeros out of our minds, write it off as a lost period, and move on.
Of course, many people remember nothing about the naughts but moments of unmatched horror. To understand why, here's a simple experiment (animal lovers turn away now) involving rats and a tank of water. Rats can swim, but that doesn't mean they like it and a rat in the water is generally a rat in panic. Scientists tossed rats into a small tank of water in which a block of clear plastic had been suspended. Everywhere else in the tank it was so deep that the rat had to keep on paddling, but if the rat reached the plastic block it could climb up, rest, and shiver in relief. The scientists let the rats catch their breath, took them out... then tossed them back in again. It may seem cruel, but there's a point to it. On repeat visits into the tub, rats remembered where the plastic platform was and scrambled over to it much more quickly. But here's the kicker: rats given a compound that blocked the action of adrenalin on their first visit had a much harder time locating the platform on their return trips. In other words, they remembered better when they were terrified.
The same rules apply to us. If you think you remember the worst days more clearly, it's because you do. There's a good reason for this. For a primate making it's living back in the savanna, every moment of every day wasn't worth recording in the big book of memories. But the time you went down to the water hole and a leopard nearly jumped you? That one gets a page all it's own -- one with flashy stickers and a bright red border.
As tempting as it is to forget the bad times, the reason there's a whole friggin' biological system built around the idea of burning these events irrevocably into your cerebellum in 18pt type is so you don't do it again.
Here's the thing about the naughts: there was nothing magic about the numbers. It wasn't because of a double-zero in the middle of the dates that we launched an invasion that's cost the lives of thousands of Americans, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and a trillion dollars plus out of the pocketbooks of taxpayers. We launched into that still unresolved idiocy because of bad policy based on the conservative philosophy of smash things first, think never. We went there because of a extreme version of American exceptionalism, one that views America as above the the rules of law and exempt from questions of morality. A view that says not only if the president does it, it's not a crime, but that if America does it, it can't be wrong.
It wasn't the decade that caused the economy to come down in tatters. It was a conservative approach to the marketplace that views government as the enemy, greed as the only acceptable motivation, and the only solution for disasters brought on by a lack of regulation as still less regulation.
It wasn't the calendar that brought down the banks, or American manufacturing, or American's influence around the world. It wasn't the date that did in our reputation or erased the budget surplus.
Don't forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial. You want less taxes? You got less taxes. You want less regulation? You got less regulation. Open markets? Wide open. An illusuion of security in place of rights? Hey, presto. You want unlimited power given to military contractors so they can kick butt and take names? Man, we handed out boots and pencils by the thousands. Everything, everything, that ever showed up on a drooled-over right wing wish list got implemented -- with a side order of Freedom Fries.
They will try to disown it, and God knows if I was responsible for this mess I'd be disowning it, too. But the truth is that the conservatives got everything they wanted in the decade just past
, everything that they've claimed for forty years would make America "great again". They didn't fart around with any "red dog Republicans." They rolled over their moderates and implemented a conservative dream.
, everything that they've claimed for forty years would make America "great again". They didn't fart around with any "red dog Republicans." They rolled over their moderates and implemented a conservative dream.
What did we get for it? We got an economy in ruins, a government in massive debt, unending war, and the repudiation of the world. There's no doubt that Republicans want you to forget the last decade, because if you remember... if you remember when you went down to the water hole and were jumped by every lunacy that ever emerged from the wet dreams of Grover Norquist and Dick Cheney, well, it's not likely that you'd give them a chance to do it again.
Because they will. Given half a chance -- less than half -- they'll do it again, only worse. Because that's the way conservatism works. Remember when the only answer to every economic problem was "cut taxes?" We have a surplus. Good, let's cut taxes. We have a deficit. Hey, cut taxes even more! That little motto was unchanging even when was clear that the tax cuts were increasing the burden on everyone but a wealthy few. That's just a subset of the great conservative battle whine which is now and forever "we didn't go far enough." If deregulation led to a crash, it's because we didn't deregulate enough. If the wars aren't won, it's because we haven't started enough wars. If there are people still clinging to their rights, it's because we haven't done enough to make them afraid.
Forget the naughts, and you'll forget that conservatives had another chance to prove all their ideas, and that their ideas utterly and completely failed. Again.
The point of remembering bad events is to stop them from repeating. So remember, and remind others if they start to forget. Because really, this is one trip to the water hole we can't afford to repeat.
Sunday 3 January 2010
The editorial team here @ 'Exile'...
...hard at work thinking what our next 8 posts will be which will take us to the 3,500th post since we started this blog 14 months ago!
Fernando Torres will become the world's most expensive footballer if he leaves Liverpool in the summer.
Manchester City and Chelsea have made Torres their number one target but would have to splash out more than £140m in transfer fees and wages to land the Spanish superstar. Not only has Torres' value eclipsed the £80m Real Madrid paid for Cristiano Ronaldo, he can anticipate a salary offer of around £15m a year given the current inflated levels for the most wanted players.
It would require the biggest financial package in football history to secure a deal
City offered Brazilian Kaka a staggering £280k a week in their ill-fated bid a year ago, and Torres would comfortably match that.
Liverpool have made it clear they won't listen to any offers for their star striker and manager Rafa Benitez recently insisted he'd resign if the player was sold against his will.
But Liverpool also know matters will be out of their hands unless the club attracts investment and finish in the top four.
After years fighting against the financial troubles caused by the American ownership, the next six months will finally bring matters to a head at Anfield one way or the other.
If Liverpool don't sort themselves out off the pitch, their rivals intend to capitalise and are now openly targeting their most prized assets.
New City boss Roberto Mancini was appointed partly because his Arab owners believe he can assist in luring the top names to Eastlands.They didn't believe Mark Hughes had the same clout when it came to attracting a player of Torres' calibre.
They think the Italian has the aura required to tempt such a player, but realise only by ousting Liverpool from the top four will they have any hope of doing business.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has also been pursing Torres for the last two seasons and believes Liverpool will be more vulnerable than ever unless Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr get out of the Merseyside club.
Torres became the quickest Liverpool player to reach 50 goals earlier this week as he kick-started his club's bid to retain its Champions League status.
Sport of the World revealed last weekend how the striker's ongoing commitment to the Merseyside giants is conditional on the club proving it can continue to match his ambitions.
Kop fans have been reassured by the Spaniard's determination to help Liverpool recover their position and make interest in him irrelevant.
But the only way they can do that longer-term is by securing massive investment to ensure next season the target is winning the Premier League rather than 'managing the debt,' as Benitez recently suggested.
Benitez has 'guaranteed' Liverpool will finish in the top four. His confidence is geared at reassuring his star striker that this season's onfield problems are a one-off and warning Manchester City and Chelsea to keep their hands in their pockets.
@'News of the Screws'
(And I am going to be his manager!!!)
140 million quid and an annual wage of 15 million quid.
Me and the Spacebubs are gonna be out practicing footie ALL day tomorrow!(And I am going to be his manager!!!)
Three of Scientology's elite parishioners keep faith, but leave the church
Mary Jo Leavitt
They advanced to the Church of Scientology's highest spiritual level, to "Operating Thetan VIII," a vaunted realm said to endow extraordinary powers of perception and force of will.But Geir Isene of Norway and Americans Mary Jo Leavitt and Sherry Katz recently announced they were leaving the church, citing strong disagreements with its management practices.
Isene left first, a decision that emboldened Leavitt, who inspired Katz. Such departures are rare among the church's elite group of OT VIIIs, who are held up as role models in Scientology. The three each told the St. Petersburg Times that they had spent decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach the church's spiritual pinnacle.
All three stressed their ongoing belief in Scientology and say they remain grateful for how it helped them. Yet they took to the Internet — an act strongly discouraged by church leaders, who decry public airing of problems — to share their reasons for leaving. They said they hoped it would resonate within the Scientology community...
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Rap producer Shawty Redd charged with murder
Well the new year just started and the drama is already unfolding in the Hip-Hop community. Widely popular Atlanta producer Shawty Redd has turned himself in for murder, according to reports. Apparently, Redd got into an argument of sorts with an unknown male at his home on New Years Day. Things got escalated and the unknown male threatened the producer. Redd then proceeded to draw his firearm and shoot the male to death. Right after the shooting took place, Redd turn himself over to the Henry County Police.
UPDATE:
Music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart, known as Shawty Redd, is being held in a suburban Atlanta jail on a murder charge.
Henry County Police Capt. Jason Bolton says Stewart was arrested Friday morning.
Stewart is accused of shooting 35-year-old Damon A. Martin of Detroit in an argument at Stewart's home in Hampton, about 30 miles southeast of Atlanta.
The 28-year-old Stewart is charged with murder and was being held without bond in the Henry County jail Saturday. His first court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 12. Police didn't know whether Stewart has a lawyer.
Stewart has worked with Young Jeezy & Snoop Dogg.
Iran's younger, smarter revolution
The latest wave of protests won't be the last. Iran scholar Hamid Dabashi on a civil-rights movement centuries in the making—led by a generation that knows how to fight with brains.
The paramount question these days, six months into the making of the Green Movement, is will the Islamic republic fall? Is this yet another revolution in the making, like the one we saw in 1979? Or will the military apparatus of the Islamic republic crash through the streets of Tehran and other cities like a fully charged armadillo and turn Iran into a theocratic dictatorship, ruled by a military junta like Pakistan, clad in an ideological fanaticism borrowed and expanded from Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban?
The new generation of Iranians has now poured into the streets not with our habitual chants of “where is my gun,” but with their strange but beautiful incantation of “where is my vote?”
For the last six months and since Day One of this uprising, lovingly code-named the Green Movement (Jonbesh-e Sabz), I have consistently called and continue to call it a civil-rights movement. This does not mean I am blind to its revolutionary potentials, violent dimensions, or destructive forces. It does not mean that the Islamic republic may not, or should not, fall. I keep calling it a civil-rights movement because I believe that the underlying social changes that have caused and continue to condition this movement are hidden behind a political smoke screen. As our attention is distracted by the politics of the moment, I have kept my ears to the ground listening to the subterranean sounds and tremors of an earth holding some 200 years of an anti-colonial modernity in it sinuous silences.
Beyond the pale and patience of politics, and the attention span of a Twitter phrase, I have called this a civil-rights movement because I see something in that polyclonal green that defies augury. That color green is a sign that signals and means many things to many people, and no one is entirely in charge to legislate or regulate or incarcerate exactly what.
For 30 years—not just over the last six months—the Islamic republic has systematically distorted a cosmopolitan and multifaceted political culture and, by hook or by crook, shoved it down the narrow and suffocating chimney of a militant Islamism that is, of course, integral to that culture, but has never been definitive to it. From anti-colonial nationalism to Third World socialism (all with an enduring feminist underpinning) many things have been equally, if not more, definitive to that political culture. The Islamic republic, as we know it today, is not a state apparatus—it is the penultimate result of successive scenarios of a crisis of mismanagement: from the American hostage crisis of 1979-1981 to the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, from the mass executions of dissidents in 1988 to the Salman Rushdie affair of 1989, and from then on the successive Gulf Wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and then, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Afghan and Iraq debacles. From one trouble spot to another, the Islamic republic has managed to keep itself afloat over a sea of troubles. But it has never, over the last three decades, been in a position of permanence or uncontested legitimacy, so it could not suddenly lose it over the last six months.
As the Islamic republic managed its successive crises, a belligerent generation of oppositional figures and forces—now famously summarized in Pahlavi monarchists and mujahideen militarists—followed suit, not carefully choosing its enemies and effectively transmuted into them: undemocratic, dogmatic, cultic, frozen in a time zone beyond human reach. The Green Movement happened beyond the borders of banality and boredom that separate the Islamic republic and its opposition, hovering in a third space that gives life, liberty, and hope to those, the massive millions of them, beyond the reach of the closed society and its enemies.
This generation breaks all the rules. If you want to understand what is happening in the Green Movement, listen to the thunderous and defiant lyrics of the greatest Iranian rapper alive: Shahin Najafi. Look him up! Google him. He has two Facebook pages. If Iranian cinema of the 1990s was the vision and vista of Khatami’s Reform Movement, Shahin Najafi’s lyrics and music are the elegiac voice and loving fury of the Green Movement.
With the contorted character of the Islamic republic's constitution, and particularly the undemocratic obscenity of its office of the supreme leader, my generation of Iranians hit a cul de sac. We had nowhere to go. The new generation of Iranians has now poured into the streets not with our habitual chants of “where is my gun,” but with their strange but beautiful incantation of “where is my vote?” You may hear this generation chant, “I will kill, I will kill, he who killed my brother,” but watch carefully for the instant a basiji militiaman drops his helmet and finds himself in the middle of a chaotic embrace of streets and their claimants, men and women are rushed to have and hold him, pour water over his head to cool him off, kiss and cuddle him as the brother that he is, as they put a green scarf around his neck to make him one of their own. The color green: It means you are a descendent of the prophet of Islam; and it means the poetry of Forough Farrokhzad, the poet laureate of our most cherished moments of solace and solitude:
I plant my hands in the small garden—
I will grow green—
I know
I know
I know
And sparrows will nest and egg
In the grooves
In between my inky fingers.
I will grow green—
I know
I know
I know
And sparrows will nest and egg
In the grooves
In between my inky fingers.
These children you see roaming the streets of Iran with song and dance, they have all been hatched in those inky eggs our sister Forough planted in between her fingers inside that little garden. That’s why they are all so green and beautiful.
Began and continued as a civil-rights movement, its color symbolism running ahead of its politics, this uprising has seen phases of civil disobedience and shades of civil unrest—but its skeletal vertebrae is a nonviolent drive toward democratic institutions that the current republic will either accommodate and survive, or else resist and be washed aside. The evident similarities between what we are witnessing now and what we did some 30 years ago should be carefully assayed—there are similarities, but not everything round is a walnut, as we say in Persian.
To the persistence of this civil-rights movement, the collapse of the Islamic republic is almost irrelevant. The regime is collapsing from under the pressure of its own feeble constitution—a massive military-industrial complex on one side and a simulacrum of republicanism on the other. The course of the civil-rights movement is almost independent of that state apparatus. There is no possible scenario that will divert it from its main objective—of reaching the goal of liberty, the rule of law, democratic republicanism, civil liberties, civil rights, women’s rights, rights of the religious and ethnic minorities.
Adapting to this movement and its unfolding demands means one of three scenarios for the Islamic republic—in order of the desperation it faces: (1) dismantling the office of the supreme leader (Velayat Faqih) altogether but keeping the rest of the constitution intact, (2) reconvening a constitutional assembly to rewire a whole new constitution and put it to national vote; or else (3) discarding the very idea of an Islamic republic altogether and putting the next form of the government to a plebiscite.
Against this inevitability, a number of scenarios might also be tempted to impose themselves: the most immediate is an open military coup by the Pasdaran; the second is a combination of U.S./Israel-instigated economic embargo and military attack; the third is the internal implosion of the Islamic republic followed by a militant takeover and hijacking of the uprising by such militant opposition forces as the mujahideen or (with the help of U.S. and Israel military intervention) the monarchists, or a combination of both. All such possible scenarios have only one factor in common. They will categorically fail if they fail to recognize the nature of this movement as a inherently victorious, nonviolent, civil-rights movement that will demand and exact civil liberties—freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom to form political parties, freedom to choose a democratic government.
The color green will remain the uncertain solace of this movement—no one will ever know what it exactly means—and that is a good thing. For it always means something contrarian, something contrary to what the people in a position of power thought it meant. It doesn’t. It never does.
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He has written 20 books, edited four, and contributed chapters to many more. He is the author of over 100 essays, articles and book reviews in major scholarly and peer reviewed journals on subjects ranging from Iranian Studies, medieval and modern Islam, comparative literature, world cinema, and the philosophy of art.
The Beach Boys - Studio arguement with Murry Wilson while recording 'Help Me Rhonda' (8th January 1965)
Murry Wilson"Syncopate a little..."
"Loosen up sweetie..."
"Sing from your heart..."
"Happy! That's all we need..."
"Quit screaming and start singing from the heart..."
"You're flat!"
"So you're big stars..."
"When you guys get too much money you start thinking you are going to make everything a hit..."
"Brian! I'm a genius too!"
"Loosen up sweetie..."
"Sing from your heart..."
"Happy! That's all we need..."
"Quit screaming and start singing from the heart..."
"You're flat!"
"So you're big stars..."
"When you guys get too much money you start thinking you are going to make everything a hit..."
"Brian! I'm a genius too!"
The Beach BoysA drunken Murry Wilson (Father of Brian, Dennis and Carl) turns up at the recording studio while The Beach Boys are recording 'Help Me Rhonda' at the invitation of Brian.
Brian & Murry Wilson Studio Argument
(24 minutes VBR)
These four tracks are taken from an album called 'Journals - Vol. 2'
PS: I downloaded this quite a while back from somewhere that I have forgotten and I couldn't find again while preparing this post.
My apologies and thanks to the original uploader.
We hear him scat singing and castigating the boys for singing flat and generally just meddling.
You can see why the boys installed a fake recording console so that he could twiddle knobs to his hearts content!
Bear in mind that it was due to a blow from his father that resulted in Brian being deaf in one ear and considering that he was 22 at the time this tape was made, when you listen to it you will be amazed how much self control Brian shows.
In the end they went back into the studio to record 'Help Me Rhonda' without Murry's interferance, and this version was eventually released as 'Help Me Ronda' on 'The Beach Boys Today'.
Brian & Murry Wilson Studio Argument
(24 minutes VBR)
These four tracks are taken from an album called 'Journals - Vol. 2'
PS: I downloaded this quite a while back from somewhere that I have forgotten and I couldn't find again while preparing this post.
My apologies and thanks to the original uploader.
NB
'Taqwacore' trailer
When he was 17, Michael Knight left his mother's home in Rochester to study Islam at a Pakistani madrassa. It was his first act of rebellion - against his abusive, schizophrenic, white-supremacist father. Years later, burned out on the demands of religious dogma, Mike rebelled once more - by penning a Muslim Punk manifesto called The Taqwacores. His work of fiction struck a chord with young Muslims around the world and before long, real-life Taqwacore bands were creating a scene. This film follows Michael and his band of Muslim punks as they journey across the U.S. and Pakistan, transforming their worlds, their religion and themselves through the spirit of Taqwacore.
Afghan MPs reject most Karzai cabinet nominees
The Afghan parliament has turned down 17 out of President Hamid Karzai's 24 nominees for his new Cabinet.
Energy minister nominee Ismail Khan, a former warlord, was among the rejected. Nominees for justice, health, commerce, economy and women's affairs were among others rejected, but Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak was re-appointed.
The BBC's Kabul correspondent says the results complicate Mr Karzai's efforts to repay political favours with Cabinet posts without offending parliament.
He also needs to satisfy international donors who have threatened to withhold funding for any ministry run by a corrupt politician, the BBC's Peter Greste adds.
Western officials have repeatedly emphasised that tackling corruption is key to stabilising the country, following the president's controversial re-election last year.
 |  I think, unfortunately, that the criteria [for Cabinet posts] were either ethnicity or bribery or money  Fawzia Kufi Afghan MP |
Many nominees were criticised as having been picked for reasons other than their competency.
"I think, unfortunately, that the criteria were either ethnicity or bribery or money," MP Fawzia Kufi said, in remarks quoted by AP news agency.
'Slap'
Women's Affairs Minister Husn Bano Ghazanfar - the only female in the Cabinet - was among those who failed to win approval in Saturday's secret ballot of more than 200 MPs.
| OUT OF OFFICE Ismail Khan, Energy and Water Minister Husn Bano Ghazanfar, Women's Minister General Khodaidad, Anti-narcotics Minister Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimi, Health Minister Mohammad Sarwar Danish, Justice Minister Wahidullah Shahrani, Commerce Minister Amir Zai Sangeen, Telecommunications Minister |
Accused of human rights abuses and corruption, he is also unpopular with some because of his role as a warlord in western Herat province during Afghanistan's civil war.
No-one has been nominated foreign minister, and the post is not expected to be filled until an international conference on Afghanistan in London later this month.
Analysts say Mr Karzai presented his Cabinet to parliament two weeks ago, hoping to finalise his team before the conference.
But only seven posts were confirmed. They include - along with defence - that of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar.
Our correspondent says few had anticipated a slap of this scale for the president.
US President Barack Obama announced last month he would send 30,000 new US troops to Afghanistan, with a view to beating the Taliban.
Nato countries have followed up by pledging another 7,000 troops so far.
Mr Obama said he wants to begin handing over to Afghan security forces by mid-2011.
President Karzai was returned for a second five-year term after last August's election, despite investigators discovering more than a quarter of votes were fraudulent.
Saturday 2 January 2010
Terrence Parker
Terrence Parker has established himself as a producer, remixer and DJ of the classic sound of House Music, and is known as a pioneer of the Inspirational / Gospel House movement! Terrence Parker has performed as a DJ in more than 150 cities throughout the world. Since 1988, he has released more than 100 recordings, and had top 20 hits with his songs "Love's Got Me High", "The Question" and albums like "Detroit After Dark" in the U.K
Podcast Mix #97
(Thanx Don!)
Mousavi's "5 Stages to Resolution" (01/01/10)
Adapted from the Facebook site supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi:
"In the name of God the Compassionate and the Merciful
It was constantly said to me and [my] friends that if we don’t issue any statements, people would not take to the streets and would quit their protests and demands, and peace would return to the country. I, as one of those accompanying the great Green movement of the people, was not in favour of this idea and believed that things would not go back to normal unless the necessary reforms based on the clear principles of the constitution were carried out.
For the commemoration of Ashura, despite several requests, neither ]Mehdi] Karroubi, [Mohammad] Khatami, me, nor any other friend issued any statement. Yet people spontaneously came to the scene and showed that the extensive social networks formed spontaneously during and after the election would not wait for statements and announcements. While people neither had any accompanying or encouraging newspaper nor had the benefit of the state-run television and radio….all the nations and people of the world witnessed that in the middle of a storm of threats, propaganda, insults, and Godless callings, the mourners of Imam Hossein [Prophet Mohammad’s grandson] on this holy day, while calling on Hossein, peacefully and without chanting any radical slogans, took to the streets and squares which they had chosen themselves, and this time they again faced provocative actions. Unbelievable brutalities like running people over by cars, shooting at people by the plainclothes militia whose identity is not hidden from anyone…, creating a disaster whose consequences will not leave the political scene of our country anytime soon.
Watching the shocking footage of Ashura shows that if sometimes slogans and actions moved toward unacceptable radicalism, it is because of throwing innocent people off bridges and heights, shooting them, running them over by cars and assassinations. It is interesting that in some of this footage, people were seeing their [religious] brothers behind the faces of the oppressive police and Basij forces, and in that critical situation and on that deafening and hateful day they were trying to protect them from any harm. If the state-run television and radio had the slightest bit of fairness,to calm the atmosphere and bring people closer together, it would have shown a little of these scenes. But no way! The progress of events after Ashura and the extent of arrests and other Government actions show that the authorities are repeating the same past mistakes this time in a greater scale and think that the policy of terror is their only solution.
Watching the shocking footage of Ashura shows that if sometimes slogans and actions moved toward unacceptable radicalism, it is because of throwing innocent people off bridges and heights, shooting them, running them over by cars and assassinations. It is interesting that in some of this footage, people were seeing their [religious] brothers behind the faces of the oppressive police and Basij forces, and in that critical situation and on that deafening and hateful day they were trying to protect them from any harm. If the state-run television and radio had the slightest bit of fairness,to calm the atmosphere and bring people closer together, it would have shown a little of these scenes. But no way! The progress of events after Ashura and the extent of arrests and other Government actions show that the authorities are repeating the same past mistakes this time in a greater scale and think that the policy of terror is their only solution.
Assume that, with all the arrests, brutalities, threats, and shutting the mouths of newspapers and media, you can silence people for a few days. How do you solve the change in people’s view of the establishment? How do you rectify the lack of legitimacy? How do you change the stunned and blaming views of all people of the world over all this brutality of a government against its own people? What do you do with the problems of the country’s economy and living conditions that are getting worse because of extreme weakness of the administration? With what backing of expertise, national unity and effective foreign policy, can you alleviate the shadow of more UN resolutions and international attempts to win more points against our country and our nation?
They think that by pushing back the intellectuals, scholars, academia, and political activists, they can return to the day before the election without going back to the roots of today’s problems of the country. But those who have studied the history and know a little about the complicated nature of sociology know that this idea is the result of an illusion to escape from reality and seek refuge to shallow and deceiving actions.
I clearly and bluntly say that the order of execution, murder, or imprisonment of Karroubi, Mousavi and figures like us will not solve the problem. The announcements made this Wednesday in Enghelab Square [central Tehran] and, before that, during the last Friday prayer by some figures affiliated with the establishment will make the consequence of any terrorist act the direct liability of the establishment and will make the problem of the current crisis unsolvable. Calling a major portion of the society a bunch of insignificant cows and goats and calling them dirt and straws and declaring the murder of Imam Hossein’s mourners Mobah [religiously allowed] are disasters that are currently caused by a known group and the state-run television and radio. What kind of speech is this, that from a government’s podium invites people to fight with each other and calls a group the party of God and the other the party of Devil? They announce several times in a short speech to the people that it is a war! Are these remarks a call for civil war and riots? Considering the use of religious language and the references to the Qu’ran’s verses and the teaching of the Prophet, the knowledgeable Marja [senior clerics] and clergymen can say what should be done to these kinds of people.
As a small member of society, these remarks in the past few days remind me of the words of Imam Khomeini (peace be upon him), “Kill us and we will get stronger.” I have no worries of becoming one the martyrs who lose their lives in the quest for their religiously and nationally legitimate demands since the election. My blood is no redder than those martyred.
I bluntly say that, unless the existence of a serious crisis in the country is recognized, no solution to the problems and issues can be found. Not recognizing the crisis will become the justification for continuation of oppressive solutions. Recognizing the current crisis can find the solution not in confrontation but rather in national unity. Accusing people of Godlessness and collaborating with foreign imperialistic powers and infamous people and appalling movements such as MKO [Mujahedin-e-Khalq "terrorist" movement] with the hope that it could lead to the physical elimination of some the devotees of Islam and the people is the consequence of closing eyes over the nature of the country’s problems. I, as a devotee, say that MKO with their betrayals and crimes are dead [in the eyes of Iranians]; don’t revive them because of hatred and for partisan gain.
Before I offer my solution for getting out of the crisis, I find it necessary to emphasize on the Islamic and national (rather than foreign-dominated), and loyal to the Constitution nature of us and the Green movement. We are followers of Imam Hossein. We are infatuated with the freedom of which the innocent Imam was the harbinger. We are followers of the one [Imam Ali] who would not tolerate the theft of a jewel from the foot of a Jewish woman in the vast Islamic land. We believe in a Godly interpretation of Islam that considers all human the same and of equal value in creation. [We have] a view that believes in the innate dignity of humanity and does not accept that the attacker receives a different food from what his victim is given or is [punished with] torture and similar retributions.
I and my dear friends, many of whom are jailed in prisons, are serious devotees of the country’s independence and suffer when our Islamic market is turned into a deceitful market of foreign goods. We are strongly opposed to the present corruption that is the result of wrong policies and lack of insight. We say that a large and influential organization like the Islamic Republic Guard Coprs cannot defend the country and national interests if it wants to calculate everyday how much the stock market has gone up or down; it will corrupt both itself and the country. We say and are prepared to participate in discussions to show that, today, wages and the benefits of the poor, workers, clerks, and other groups in the nation are sinking in vast corruption. The Green movement is opposed to lies as a home-wrecking pest in the country, and therefore we consider the [Government’s] lies in politics, security, economy, culture, and other areas a great danger.
We want a truthful, kind, and peaceful administration and Government, based on people’s votes, that looks at difference in people’s views and opinions as an opportunity not a threat. We see [a current Government] looking into the private lives of people, conducting an inquisition, spying, closing down newspapers and limiting media against our prosperous and empowering religion and against the Constitution raised from this religion. We consider wasting the public’s money for achieving personal and partisan goals sinful, and we announce that the national 20-year plot that has been approved by all levels of the establishment today has turned into a worthless piece of paper. We warn that significant competitors in the region with two-digit economic growth are emerging and every day get stronger while unfortunately our Government is incapable of establishing the yearly budget, keeping tabs on the country’s accounts, safeguarding people’s savings, and being responsive in front of the Supreme Audit Court and the Parliament.
We are neither affiliated with Americans nor British. We have neither sent greeting cards for the leaders of any powerful countries nor are hoping for their assistance. We know that in international affairs every country is after its interests, and we hate those who don’t respect the culture and religious and national beliefs of their nations. It is ludicrous to accuse us of insulting the Qu’ran and Imam Hossein’s Ashura and of tearing apart the picture of Imam Khomeini. Obviously if there has been any disrespect on the day of Ashura, we don’t approve this, but we consider that the worst kind of disrespect is the murders of innocent people and mourners on the day of Ashura and in a month [Muharram] in which killing is banned by Islam.
I think that the solution to the current problems and the present crisis is as follows. Today the situation of the country is like an immense roaring river where massive floods and various events have led to its rising and then caused it to become silted. The solution to calm down this great river and clear its water is not possible in a quick and swift action. Thinking of these kinds of solutions that some should repent and some should make deals and there should be some give-and-take to solve this great problem is in practice going off the track.
I consider letting streams and springs of fresh clear water into this river to be the solution that will slowly and gradually improve the water and the river. I also believe that it is still not too late and our establishment has the power to accomplish this important task, should it have insight and a respectful and kind view toward all of the nation and its layers. I describe some of the solutions that, like streams and springs of clear water, can influence the national atmosphere and improve the situation:
1. The administration should be held liable in front of the people, the parliament and the judiciary system so that there would be no unusual support for the Administration in response to its incompetence and ineffectiveness. The administration should be held accountable for all the problems it created for the country. Undoubtedly, if the administration is competent and right, it will be able to respond to the people and the parliament, and if it is incompetent and inept, the Parliament and the judiciary system would confront it based on the Constitution.
2. The legislation of new and clear election laws in a way that will restore people’s trust in free and fair elections without meddling and interference. This law should ensure the participation of all the people, despite their differences in opinions and views, and should prohibit the biased and partisan interference of the authorities at all levels. The primary parties in the early days of the Revolution can be considered as a model.
3. The release of all political prisoners and restoration of their dignity and honour. I am sure that this move would be interpreted as a strong point for the establishment rather than a weakness….
4. One of the necessities of improvement is the revocation of the ban on press and media and letting closed newspapers publish again. The fear of free media should be eliminated. International experience in this matter should be considered: the expansion of the satellite channels and their growing importance and the decisive influence of this media clearly show the inadequacy of the traditional methods and limitations of national TV and radio channels. Signal jamming and Internet censorship can only be effective for a short time. The only solution is having various free and informed media inside the country. Isn’t it time to turn our eyes back from beyond our borders to domestic political, cultural and social prosperity, a courageous act based on trusting the intellectual and innovative forces of the society?
5. Recognition of people’s rights for having legal demonstrations and forming parties and groups, abiding by the 27th principle of the Constitution. Acting in this matter, ith the wisdom and collaboration of all of the country’s enthusiasts, can replace the battle between the Basij and security forces and the people with an atmosphere of friendship and national affection.
More items can be added to the above list. In my opinion, even a clear small rivulet at this time can be helpful. It is not necessary that all these items be started simultaneously. Witnessing determination in this attempt will help to clear the horizon. And the last word is that all these suggestions can be executed with wisdom, insight, and goodwill, and without the need for treaties, negotiations, and political deals."
Mir Hossein Mousavi
Keef said:
Keith Richards never regrets taking heroin even though he describes it as "a cheeky, cheeky, cheeky little drug" that robbed him of his senses.
He told Esquire magazine, "Smack is the big deal... That one can get you right by the tail before you know it, man. It's a real leveller.
"I'm a fuckking superstar, but when I want the stuff, baby, I'm down on the ground with the rest of them.
"Your whole lifestyle becomes just waiting for the man and talking to junkies about whether the shit's good or not... and guys pulling shooters on you.
"You just become a wreck, which is kind of disgusting in a way, but, at the same time, I can't say I regret going there."
Richards admits that being a member of The Rolling Stones for the past 40 years has afforded him the very best drugs on the market.
He adds, "When I was doing drugs, it would be the finest stuff you can get. If I was doing opium, it would be good Thai opium. When I did smack, it would be pure, pure heroin - no street shit.
"I wasn't undiscerning, except when I got desperate."
Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang - Oh Yaar
Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang at his Kabul Afghanistan Concert pleasing the crowd with a few folk and ghazal songs. With Ustad Asef on Tabla, Ustad Eltaf Hussain his son on Tampura, Ustad Sharif Ghazal on the Right, Farid Ghazal and Ustad Sakhi Ahmad Khatam not shown
Ustad Sarahang seemed weak and ill upon his return to Afghanistan, but he continued to write and teach music. In 1983, Ustad Sarahang suffered yet another heart attack that hospitalized him. Growing ever weaker, Ustad Sarahang passed away on a clear Saturday morning in April of that year.
Ustad Sarahang seemed weak and ill upon his return to Afghanistan, but he continued to write and teach music. In 1983, Ustad Sarahang suffered yet another heart attack that hospitalized him. Growing ever weaker, Ustad Sarahang passed away on a clear Saturday morning in April of that year.
Sonja Sohn: Rewired for Change
Fans of The Wire on ABC 2 will be familiar with the work of Sonja Sohn who plays Detective Kima Greggs in the show. But you may not be as familiar with some of her off screen work – which is equally impressive.
Sonja has set up Rewired for Change – a non profit organisation that focuses on helping disadvantaged youth in Baltimore steer clear of the violent life that features so prominently in The Wire.
As Sonja puts it, these young people in Baltimore, literally, live in war zones -where they’re witnessing shootings and murders on a regular basis. As a result these kids live in fear - and many of them believe they need to be armed or in a gang to walk the streets in safety.
One of the ways Rewired for Change helps these young people is through drawing on scenarios that feature in episodes of The Wire.
Sonja Sohn spoke with Steve Cannane presenting Summer Drive on ABC Local Radio.
She also says if this age group is not embraced and nurtured and assisted toward personal transformation, then those who come behind them will continue to be eaten alive by the culture of gun violence.
If you want to find out more about rewired for change or donate some money to the cause the website is rewiredforchange.com
Pretty Dyana - A Roma recycling saga
An intimate look at Roma refugees in a Belgrade suburb who make a living by transfoming Citroen's classic 2cv and Dyana cars into Mad Max-like recycling vehicles, with which they collect cardoard, bottles and scrap metal. These modern horses are much more efficient than the cart-pushing competition, but more important - they also mean freedom, hope and style for their crafty owners. Even the car batteries are used as power generators in order to get some light, watch tv and recharge mobiles! Almost an alchemist's dream come true! But the police don't always find these strange vehicles funny...
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