Category Archives: Rock on-Peace Out

′Being ethical is worth it′ | News | DW.DE | 25.04.2015

When asked about his good relationship with Germany, the former Auschwitz prisoner said: “If someone had told me in 1941, while I was standing on the parade ground in Auschwitz, that I would have German friends one day, I would have called him mad.” But several decades later, Bartoszewski was considered in Germany as one of the people who had worked hardest for this friendship.

As if by miracle, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski survived Auschwitz, then joined the underground Polish Home Army, fought in the Warsaw Uprising and helped to rescue thousands of Jews. After the war, he worked as a freelance journalist and was frequently arrested by the communists. He supported the Catholic opposition and the trade union movement Solidarność. After 1989, he was twice made foreign minister. Despite his advanced age, he was active right to the end, most recently as an adviser to Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and government coordinator for German-Polish relations.

via ′Being ethical is worth it′ | News | DW.DE | 25.04.2015.

▶ Buffy Sainte Marie – “I’m Going Home” – YouTube

Heaven isn’t so far away as people say

I got a home high in my heart

Heaven is right where I come from; I never throw it away

I know the place and I’m going home

I’m going home

I’m going home

See up there, it’s not the same

They know your name

And I’m not ashamed to need it I’m going home

I’m going home

I’m going home

You keep on knocking but

I’m not coming out of this state I’m in

I’m travellin’ right, I’m gonna get there soon

I’m standing up praying, I’m singing

Saying Heyo ha ha heyo ha hey ya

I know the way and I’m going home.

I’m going home

I’m going home

That’s where the heart can rest

The best is there

And only a fool would leave it. I’m going home

I’m going home

I’m going home

I’m going home

I been around, I been to town

Hey, where you think I learned right from wrong

And I’m going home

I’m going home

via ▶ Buffy Sainte Marie – “I’m Going Home” – YouTube.

6 Things You Don’t Know About Björk | Dame Magazine

It’s a big year for Björk. Last month New York’s MoMA launched a retrospective of the Icelandic multi-hyphenate’s career, in June she will resume her Vulnicura world tour, and in November she turns 50. It seems like just yesterday we were ruing the breakup of her band, the Sugarcubes, and emulating her head of hair knots. We consider ourselves pretty well-versed in all things Björk, but here are a few tidbits even we were surprised to learn, not least of which is that we’ve been pronouncing her name incorrectly for more than two decades.

via 6 Things You Don’t Know About Björk | Dame Magazine.

I Am Voting With My Vagina: Hillary Clinton For President | Dame Magazine

This is not an essay about how you should vote in the next presidential election.

I believe you should vote in a way that reflects your own personal blend of what you value and what you can stomach in a presidential candidate. If that comes down to registering your support for someone who has no real chance, writing in your ideal candidate, or even staying home on election day, I respect that. Your vote is yours, and you don’t owe anyone an explanation, let alone justification, of how you decide to use it.

Me, I intend to vote with my vagina. Unapologetically. Enthusiastically. (Metaphorically, for those concerned about ending up in line behind me.) And I intend to talk about it.

**

During the 2008 Democratic primaries, I supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for two main reasons:

 

She was older, which mattered to me a small amount in terms of experience, and a large amount in terms of the difference eight years would make. President Obama is younger than two of my siblings. If he ran today, at 53, he’d still be younger than most of his opponents. Hillary Clinton is now 67—in apparently great health, and willing to go through all this bullshit again, so more power to her! But now, in addition to the usual sexism coming her way, we’re about to endure 18 months of hearing what a shriveled old crone she is—and wouldn’t she be better off staying home and dandling wee Charlotte on her wrinkled knee? I was really hoping to avoid that.

She’s a woman, and President Obama is a man.

via I Am Voting With My Vagina: Hillary Clinton For President | Dame Magazine.

“Woody Allen is a genius. Woody Allen is a predator”: Why Mariel Hemingway’s new revelation matters – Salon.com

She nails Allen and the delusion many have lived with!

Woody Allen is a genius. Woody Allen is a predator. He put those two sides of himself together, hand in hand, and dared us to applaud. And we did — over and over. We all have our blind spots, but after a while, we also have to admit what we have deliberately refused to see.

via “Woody Allen is a genius. Woody Allen is a predator”: Why Mariel Hemingway’s new revelation matters – Salon.com.

IRIN Africa | Cameroon soldiers defy Boko Haram in polio battle | Cameroon | Nigeria | Children | Education | Health & Nutrition | Refugees/IDPs

How do you vaccinate women and children against polio in remote areas prone to attack from Boko Haram militants? Arm the soldiers with vaccine.

This is exactly what has happened with great success in northern Cameroon.

Following a series of abductions last year by Boko Haram groups, military escorts have been joining vaccination drives in Cameroon’s Far North Region to protect both local and international humanitarian workers.

In addition to acting as a security presence, officers, who normally patrol the frontlines and at-risk border communities, are also trained to administer polio vaccines – a tactic UNICEF says has been key to the successful campaign.

via IRIN Africa | Cameroon soldiers defy Boko Haram in polio battle | Cameroon | Nigeria | Children | Education | Health & Nutrition | Refugees/IDPs.

Creative Hell-Raising Pledge — May My Work Be So Damn Real. | Rebelle Society

“May my work be so damn real that they cannot un-see it;

So sense-numbingly beautiful that they cannot unfeel it;

So achingly naked that they’ll never, no matter how they try, be able to return to the world unchanged.

via Creative Hell-Raising Pledge — May My Work Be So Damn Real. | Rebelle Society.

The Tiger by Ellen Wiles, including an interview with Win Tin – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

I was tortured a lot at the beginning of my time in jail. I was interrogated and refused to answer questions and then I was beaten. They put their foot on my head so I could not see who was beating me. I lost all my teeth in the upper jaw right at the start, and without any teeth I had to eat prison rice—which was so hard and old—for eight years. Eight years with no dentures. Such beatings could happen any time, simply because they don’t like your manners or if they feel you are not very obliging to them.

I was kept in solitary all the time I was in prison. I never lived with other people, and I was locked up alone all day. I was never permitted to meet anyone else.

We only got prison meals twice a day. In the morning we got rice and beans or vegetable soup, and a little fish paste, and in the evening we got the same thing. Once a week we got some egg or meat as well—one portion only, which was two ounces. We were not allowed to get any meals from outside. Only at the family visits could we get things like fried fish and fried chicken.

via The Tiger by Ellen Wiles, including an interview with Win Tin – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.