Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Lebanese Tragedy: The Devaluation of a Life

The 20 who already died cared before – now they don’t but everyone who loved them is mourning. The dozens injured really care, as do their loved ones. It is not cool or brave or anything smart to say “who cares?”

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Who gives a fuck? was the first thing I heard today when we were made aware of another Beirut explosion. It was just a bomb all over again. And people were dead, as usual, all over again. Typical and warranted was what I had heard.

On the other side of the room, a frantic woman was calling her parents to see if they were okay. If their house was intact. If she still had a roof to return to. Then she drew a sigh of relief. And I was relieved for her. But I was also disgusted.

There I was in a room of supposedly intellectuals with two drastically different reactions to an event that should have, at least, gotten everyone to feel sorry and disgusted and horrified. Pity the nation that was more upset at a cat being microwaved or a concert being canceled than at its own children…

View original post 608 more words

The Muslim Brotherhood’s new initiative. Many motives; one dead end.

Nervana

Over the course of a few days, the Muslim Brotherhood has released two very different statements. One is defiant and was issued by their imprisoned leader, ex-president Morsi, who warns that, “Egypt will not recover from its crisis until the coup that removed him from power has been reversed.” Later on Saturday, his supporters, the national pro-legitimacy coalition, issued a very different statement during a press conference, attended by Mohamed Ali Bishr, the leading Brotherhood member, stating that it was ready to seek dialogue to end Egypt’s bloody political crisis, and interestingly, it did not call for the reinstatement of Morsi, although still several other preconditions for the proposed dialogue were set out by the coalition.

Several other initiatives have attempted to bridge the gap with the Muslim Brotherhood. These include those from the EU’s Catherine Ashton, Deputy PM Ziad Bahaa Eddin, Ex-PM Hicham Qandil, Kamal Abul Magd

View original post 992 more words

Love in the river #haiku #photography #Ezrapound

penned in moon dust

It is our objective at Carpe Diem to distill Ezra Pound’s sorrowful poem: ”The River-Merchant’s Wife” which is a translation of a poem by Li Po (an ancient Chinese poet)

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the lookout?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling…

View original post 119 more words

Sigh – but soon gasp for oxygen!

DESERTIFICATION

Read at :

http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/18/amazon-deforestation-increases-in-one-year/

Amazon Deforestation Increases 28 Percent in One Year

Greenpeace

By Daniela Montalto

Last week, the Brazilian government released annual figures for deforestation in the Amazon and the news is not good. A total of 5,843 square kilometres are estimated lost between August 2012 and July 2013, an increase in deforestation of 28 percent compared to the previous year.

Last year’s massive weakening of the Forest Code in the Brazilian Congress lead to a massive increase in deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

This sharp increase in deforestation in the Amazon is no surprise—all deforestation estimates released over the last year have shown we were headed in this direction. Last year, the government passed a new Forest Code, dramatically changing the environmental law that governs forest use in Brazil, including the Amazon.

A strong agribusiness influence in the Brazilian Congress lead to a massive weakening of the…

View original post 228 more words

Sturgis Winery Set for Spring 2014 Opening

I guess Harley riders can be wine enthusiasts too but sort of doubt it – good luck to them though!

Wine enthusiasts searching for bubbly made fresh in the Mount Rushmore state will soon be in luck.

The first champagne house in South Dakota is coming to Sturgis, courtesy of Belle Joli Winery.

Blasting has started to prepare for construction of the new winery and vineyard that will feature a tasting room with indoor and outdoor seating.

It\’s owned by Jackson Vineyard proprietors Matthew Jackson, his wife Choi, and Dr. John and Patty Jackson.

via Sturgis Winery Set for Spring 2014 Opening.

WELCOME TO FLOW ON STAGE

Flow on Stage

In 2009, the Board of Directors from CODARTS, the University for the Arts in Rotterdam invited Frank Heckman to research the phenomena of excellence in performance. Heckman called it Sustainable Performance, looking at the ability to perform at your best, again and again, as an evolving process.

The sustainable performance website states: ‘Enter the Journey, the Stage is Yours!’

I would like to say the same here. For what you are about to enter here is not an ordinairy book, it is more the collective experience of a journey. We present it in an open, successive –chapter by chapter-, and multi medial way –filmclips, apps, text.

It is a journey undertaken by your peers, ranging from students to teachers, artists from the classical, pop, jazz, worldmusic, music theatre, modern dance, dance therapy, dance education and circus arts. But also several staff members from the health department, dean’s office and communication…

View original post 336 more words

Boris Johnson to paint his arse blue in effort to reduce cycling deaths

Red would be better or maybe dayglow lime and orange

Pride's Purge

(satire?)

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced he is to paint his arse blue in an effort to reduce the amount of cyclists who are being killed on London’s roads.

The move comes not long after several studies revealed that changing the colour of the Mayor’s backside will have about just as much affect on the safety of cyclists using London’s roads as painting blue lines on them.

The announcement is part of Mr Johnson’s long-term drive to improve congestion in the capital by removing the large numbers of dead cyclists who are at present littering London’s major highways and junctions as well as preventing cyclists who insist on throwing themselves under the wheels of heavy goods vehicles and buses from slowing down traffic.

Boris Johnson’s adviser Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who became the London mayor’s cycling commissioner in January, said in an interview yesterday he did not want the high possibility of cyclists…

View original post 43 more words