View allAll Photos Tagged DEMOCRATIZE
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
POLITICAL PROTESTOR, VANDAL, OR THIEF?
It was quite interesting to watch a protest of frustrated citizens transition to wanton destruction of property, and then to see some of those some protesters transform into looters, and to see law abiding bystanders turn in to thieves.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
Future Ventures will be on stage at Abundance 350, the visioneering conference by X-Prize's Peter Diamandis.
Some video nuggets:
• Moonshot Mindset: "When you are shooting for 10x vs. 10% growth, there is a perspective change, and you approach the problem in a radically different fashion. The perspective shift of moonshot thining is actually cheaper than trying to be smarter than everyone around you"
• Abundance Mindset: Transcending the evolutionary perspective...
• Exponential Mindset: "Technology is dematerializing, demonetizing & democratizing products & services"
* Longevity Mindset: How our thinking can extend our lives
(more pictures you can see by using the link at the end of page passively!)
Trier - Romans, vines and Karl Marx
Trier was founded by the Romans in 16 BC. Thus, the Rhineland Palatinate town at the river Mosel is the oldest city of Germany. Roman history, thus, one meets in Trier at every turn. The Basilica, the Imperial Baths, the Amphitheater and of course the famous Porta Nigra are relics from that period. But not only because of their architecture, the Roman occupiers made themselves unforgettable. They also operated the cultivation of wine on a high standard and laid in Trier the foundation for its today's importance as a wine capital. Besides Romans and vines, the city but much more has to offer.
A city view of Trier in the early evening. In the foreground, the Roman Porta Nigra. In the sky, dark storm clouds come in.
The Porta Nigra - Trier's landmark from Roman times
From Celtic settlement to Roman metropolis
Trier is located at an altitude of 124 meters and extends to the left and right of the Mosel. The city is surrounded by hills that belong in the north to the Eifel, in the south to the Hunsrück. Already 3000 years before Christ, founded the Neolithic people first settlements on present-day city area. Several centuries before the Romans came, the Treverians settled on the present city area of Trier. This Celtic tribe is also the namesake of the city. When the Romans on their advance during the Gallic Wars subjugated the Celtic tribe and occupied the area, they called the in 16 BC newly founded city in honor of reigning Emperor Augustus "Augusta Treverorum".
Towering ruined remnants of the facade of the Roman Imperial Baths. In the of red bricks built walls round window arches are to be seen. The ancient backdrop is lit by the summer evening sun. Roman luxury life in the Imperial Baths.
The Roman town was developed into metropolis of the province of Gallia Belgica and fortified. The rampart system should protect the Roman city from attack of enemy Germans. That Trier yet then but was far more than just a military camp is evidenced by the many archaeological finds of civil buildings. Trier was a military base, but also mart. Over the Mosel troops and goods were shipped. Above all, it was the wine which the Romans in and around Trier brought wealth.
Trier Cathedral from the front side. In front of the cathedral are city tourists contemplating the building. Right next to the Cathedral is the added Church of Our Lady to see. The Cathedral of Trier with adjoining Church of Our Lady
The end of Roman splendor
To the great importance of Trier also contributed that the city already in Roman times became the center of Christianity and Episcopal see. Although Trier was destroyed by the invasion of the Alemanni for the most part in 275, but it was by the Roman Emperor Constantine - his reign lasted from 306 to 337 - rebuilt. From his era stem many magnificent buildings, which are still partly preserved.
A witness of the Roman luxury life is the huge area of the Imperial Baths. Although from the formerly fashionable bathing temple only stand ruins, but on the basis of surface and underground ruins you can guess how the Roman occupiers were able to have a good time with a sophisticated hot air system. More remnants of Roman architecture are the famous Porta Nigra, the Roman Bridge, which crosses the Moselle, and the huge basilica, which is today used as a Protestant church.
In the years 367-392 AD, Trier with more than 80,000 inhabitants was the largest city north of the Alps and capital of the Western Roman Empire. When the Romans during the Great Migration and the advancing Germans had to withdraw, brought this along, as for many other former Roman cities, for Trier too the decline. The rest of destruction did the invading Franks, Huns and in 882 the Vikings.
An engraving shows the city of Trier in the panorama around 1740. Outstanding of the sea of houses the many church towers are recognisable. In the background you can see the hilly landscape surrounding the city. In the foreground the Mosel flows past Trier. In the front center of the engraving, wine barrel and bishop insignia symbolize important fundamentals of city history. An engraving shows Trier around 1740.
From the Dark Ages to modern times
How much Trier in the early Middle Ages became less important, is especially evident from the fact that the city was then only half as large as in the Roman period. Only gradually under the influence of the ecclesiastical princes who resided here it grew up again into a metropolis. In the reconstruction of Trier Archbishop Henry I in the year 958 relocated the market area from the Roman bridge in front of the so-called cathedral city and thus in his immediate control section. As a visible sign of his power, but also as a symbol of the will to seek again a role as major trading town, the Archbishop on the new marketplace had built a magnificent market cross, which still stands in its place today.
The symbol showed the desired effect: from medieval deterioration, Trier gradually rose again into an important trade and power center. Secular and clerical magnificent buildings emerged. The marketplace now is one of the most beautiful ones in Germany and with its magnificent buildings bears witness to the richness of that time. Another important milestone in the city's history is the year 1473. At that time the University of Trier was founded, at which today approximately 15,000 students are enrolled.
View from the pedestrian zone to the Porta Nigra. On the street play children and stroll pedestrians. On a bench sit people. Pedestrian zone and Porta Nigra
The French are coming
After a long period of economic prosperity, Trier, inter alia, in the wake of the Thirty Years' War (1616-1648) came in the maelstrom of political and military conflicts. Occupation, destruction and oppression were the result. The population and many buildings, including religious structures were affected. During the Revolutionary War, French troops occupied in 1794 again the town at the Mosel. 1801 the citizens of Trier officially French citizenship was imposed. In the course of secularization, churches and monasteries were closed and converted, partially even demolished.
For the strictly Catholic people of Trier bad 20 years were dawning. But as in many other cities the Napoleonic period also entailed the progress. The administration was modernized, the jurisprudence by the Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch, the Civil Code, democratized. Napoleon also prompted to clear off the Porta Nigra of the added church building, whose integral part the old Roman gate in the Middle Ages had become. In this way, the French emperor the people of Trier gave a landmark, which still exists today.
When the French after the wars of liberation in 1814 left Trier, the citizens of the Moselle town, in their view, came from bad to worse. At the Congress of Vienna it was decided to place Trier under Prussian-Protestant administration.
Framed by two more modern homes is the birthplace of Karl Marx. The house is painted white, the roof covered with slate. In the facade a memorial plaque is embedded. Before the house an information board indicates the sight of the city. The house consists of ground floor, first floor and an attic with window dormers. The birthplace of Karl Marx.
Romance, Marx and Capitalism
The end of the Napoleonic and Liberation wars, causing a high death toll and privations, in addition to the desired peace a new attitude to life had in tow: Romanticism. The travelling and wanderlust emerged. As a result of the romantic idea, Trier and the picturesque Mosel region with its many ruins were very popular.
After the romantic wave Trier in the second half of the 19th century experienced the transition into a new era. The industrialization also took possession of the old Mosel town. About the new economic order of capitalism revolted soon a world-famous child of Trier: Karl Marx.
The author, journalist and social philosopher, who with his critical work "The Capital" caused international sensation, saw in 1818 in Trier Bridge road the light of day. A circumstance which to this day attracts streams of visitors from communist countries. Especially for many visitors from China, the native town of Marx Trier has become a veritable Mecca.
A look at beautiful summer weather from castle grounds to the magnificent rococo facade of the Electoral Palace. On your left, adjacent the Basilica from the Roman period. In the foreground, a statue and a flower bed. Castle Park, Electoral Palace and Basilica
Economic boom, with vines and Romans
After the First World War in 1918, the French as part of the victorious powers moved into the Mosel town. Their time of occupation lasted until 1930, but also in another point history should repeat. Had the old Roman city in the past yet often been victim of distructions, big parts of the city in the 20th century again fell in ruins and ashes. Artillery shells and bombs afflicted Trier in the last years of the Second World War. Many people back then died in the rubble.
That many historic buildings have survived the war, however, was not far away from a miracle and probably provided the rapid resurgence of Trier to a major city that today knows how to market its rich history perfectly. Trier with nine monuments stands on the UNESCO World Heritage list and therefore occupies the top position in Germany, though. In addition to the relics from Roman times but also attracts the wine, which is grown in Trier and the surrounding area, many visitors. From the yield of the vines, from tourism and gastronomy, today are living directly and indirectly many of the more than 100,000 inhabitants.
www.planet-wissen.de/natur_technik/fluesse_und_seen/mosel ...
FACES OF BOTH SIDES OF THE PROTEST.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
Photography democratizes the process of identity building. Through it, we cement and convey messages about how we perceive ourselves and how we expect to be perceived by others. These works are part of a project that involves the decontextualization of images found on Grindr and other gay dating apps. By eliminating everything but the body, I put the focus on the semiotics of self-objectification. My aim is to incite conversation around the dichotomies of hegemonic values: femininity and masculinity; private and public; gay and straight; real and virtual.
Attributed to Anton Ambros Egermann, 1863.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Artwork type: goblet
Object numberBK-2002-1
Dimensions
diameter 18.4 cm, height 61.8 cm x diameter 19.5 cm
----------------------------------------
A lavishly enameled goblet like this one, commemorating a Carrousel of 1863, may seem garish to modern eyes—its gleaming green glass, heraldic arms, and florid ornament calling more attention to itself than good taste might allow. Yet this ornate vessel opens a portal into a vanished world: the courtly, hierarchical society of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its German aristocratic satellites in the mid-19th century.
Each name and coat of arms represents a princely house or noble lineage whose members took part in a ceremonial equestrian pageant—part chivalric revival, part dynastic theater. In its exuberance and specificity, the goblet stands as a glittering fossil of the old order in the final decades before modernity, nationalism, and war swept much of it away.
🏇 What Is a Carrousel?
A carrousel—from the Italian carosello and French carrousel—was a ceremonial equestrian pageant popular in European aristocratic courts from the late Renaissance through the 18th century. It was not a children's amusement ride (that meaning came later), but rather a choreographed, stylized spectacle of horsemanship, aristocratic display, and courtly symbolism.
At its height, the carrousel functioned as a theatrical expression of chivalry: an elaborately staged event where noblemen (and sometimes women) performed mounted exercises in formation, often in costume, complete with heraldic regalia, allegorical themes, and richly decorated horses.
📅 Heyday and Historical Context
The carrousel reached its peak during the 17th and early 18th centuries, especially in the courts of:
Louis XIV of France, who staged the Grand Carrousel of 1662 in Paris to display Bourbon prestige
The Habsburg courts in Vienna and Prague
Italian and German principalities where court culture remained theatrical and ceremonial
These events often commemorated:
Dynastic marriages
Births of heirs
Victories or peace treaties
Coronations or major jubilees
Unlike the jousts of the medieval tournament, carrousels emphasized pageantry over combat.
Though riders might perform mock battles with lances or swords, the emphasis was on precision riding, symbolic tableaux, and visual splendor.
️ Typical Features of a Carrousel
Knights in costume, divided into teams or "quadrilles," often themed (e.g., Greeks vs. Romans, Sun vs. Moon)
Banners and coats of arms on riders and horses
Musical accompaniment, often specially composed
Choreographed figures, such as circles, crosses, or spirals executed on horseback
Mock combat or tilting at rings, but usually bloodless
An audience of courtiers, diplomats, and sometimes the public, watching from raised platforms
⚰️ Decline and Afterlife
By the mid-19th century, the carrousel had become an anachronistic nostalgia act: part romantic revival, part dynastic theater.
The Carrousel of 1863 commemorated on the goblet you’re studying belongs to this late phase—a last brilliant flourish of aristocratic display before the upheavals of nationalism, democratization, and war dismantled much of the courtly infrastructure that had sustained such events.
Yet even in its twilight, the carrousel retained its function: rehearsing a world of inherited rank, martial honor, and visual grandeur, even as that world quietly faded into the past.
In the early 1860s, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria–Este—not to be confused with his more famous nephew whose assassination sparked World War I—emerged as the likely prime mover behind the revival of the aristocratic carrousel commemorated by the goblet dated 1863.
A scion of the Habsburg dynasty and a figure of great ceremonial influence, Franz Ferdinand was known for his devotion to court ritual, imperial pageantry, and dynastic pride. In an age increasingly dominated by industrial progress, liberal reforms, and middle-class assertiveness, the Archduke saw the carrousel not as a quaint reenactment but as a deliberate reaffirmation of aristocratic identity and values.
By organizing a carrousel—complete with heraldic blazonry, equestrian quadrilles, and the active participation of Europe’s highest nobility—Franz Ferdinand staged a living tableau of Habsburg continuity and chivalric order.
The 1863 event coincided with a moment of growing instability within the empire: nationalist unrest in its Slavic territories, tensions with Prussia, and anxiety over the very legitimacy of a sprawling, multiethnic monarchy. In this context, the carrousel served both as spectacle and as symbolic resistance—a gesture that looked backward, not because it was blind to modernity, but because it sought to reaffirm the old order’s claim to permanence, elegance, and authority.
Here is a list of the individuals named on the 1863 Carrousel goblet, along with their titles, associated noble houses, the century each house originated, and whether the house is extant today:
1. Archduke Albrecht of Austria (Albrecht Erzherzog von Österreich)
Title: Archduke of Austria
House: Habsburg-Lorraine
Origin Century: 13th century
Extant Today: Yes
2. Princess Auersperg-Colloredo (Fürstin Auersperg Colloredo)
Title: Princess
House: Auersperg (originated in the 12th century) and Colloredo (originated in the 14th century)
Extant Today: Yes
3. Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (Ludwig Viktor Erzherzog von Österreich)
Title: Archduke of Austria
House: Habsburg-Lorraine
Origin Century: 13th century
Extant Today: Yes
4. Countess Buquoy von Oettingen-Wallerstein (Gräfin Buquoy von Oettingen-Wallerstein)
Title: Countess
House: Buquoy (originated in the 13th century) and Oettingen-Wallerstein (originated in the 12th century)
Extant Today: Yes
5. Archduke Wilhelm of Austria (Wilhelm Erzherzog von Österreich)
Title: Archduke of Austria
House: Habsburg-Lorraine
Origin Century: 13th century
Extant Today: Yes
6. Princess Hohenlohe-Trautmansdorff (Prinzessin Hohenlohe Trautmansdorff)
Title: Princess
House: Hohenlohe (originated in the 12th century) and Trautmansdorff (originated in the 14th century)
Extant Today: Yes
7. Archduke Leopold of Austria (Leopold Erzherzog von Österreich)
Title: Archduke of Austria
House: Habsburg-Lorraine
Origin Century: 13th century
Extant Today: Yes
8. Baroness Stauffenberg-Lobkowicz (Baronin Stauffenberg Lobkowicz)
Title: Baroness
House: Stauffenberg (originated in the 13th century) and Lobkowicz (originated in the 14th century)
Extant Today: Yes
9. Prince Kinsky (Fürst Kinsky)
Title: Prince
House: Kinsky (originated in the 13th century)
Extant Today: Yes
10. Countess Claudine Hohenstein (Gräfin Claudine Hohenstein)
Title: Countess
House: Hohenstein (originated in the 13th century)
Extant Today: No
11. Prince Vincenz Auersperg (Fürst Vincenz Auersperg)
Title: Prince
House: Auersperg (originated in the 12th century)
Extant Today: Yes
12. Countess Amalie Hohenstein (Gräfin Amalie Hohenstein)
Title: Countess
House: Hohenstein (originated in the 13th century)
Extant Today: No
13. Prince Lamoral Thurn und Taxis (Prinz Lamoral Thurn und Taxis)
Title: Prince
House: Thurn und Taxis (originated in the 12th century)
Extant Today: Yes
14. Princess Eleonore Schwarzenberg-Liechtenstein (Fürstin Eleonore Schwarzenberg Liechtenstein)
Title: Princess
House: Schwarzenberg (originated in the 12th century) and Liechtenstein (originated in the 12th century)
Extant Today: Yes
These individuals represent some of the most prominent noble families of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its German counterparts in the mid-19th century.
Their participation in the 1863 Carrousel reflects the enduring significance of aristocratic traditions and the display of heraldic lineage during a period of societal transformation.
Several of the noble families whose coats of arms adorn the 1863 Carrousel Goblet continue to exist today, maintaining varying degrees of public presence, titles, and heritage management roles. Most prominent among them is the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, once the ruling dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its current head is Karl von Habsburg (b. 1961), grandson of Emperor Charles I, the last sovereign of the empire before its dissolution in 1918. Karl is active in cultural heritage protection and European affairs, continuing his family’s tradition of transnational leadership—albeit in a different key.
The House of Auersperg, an ancient Slovenian-Austrian princely family dating to the 12th century, is also still extant. It is presently headed by Prince Franz Josef von Auersperg, and retains historic titles and cultural visibility. The House of Colloredo-Mannsfeld, with roots in the Italian nobility and a significant presence in Bohemia since the 17th century, is led today by Prince Hieronymus von Colloredo-Mannsfeld (b. 1949), known for stewarding his family’s Czech estates and supporting public cultural initiatives.
Likewise, the House of Oettingen-Wallerstein, which originated in Swabia in the Middle Ages, still maintains its status. Its current head, Prince Carl-Eugen, represents one of the few noble families in Germany to have retained substantial cultural holdings. The House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, which dates to the 12th century, is led today by Prince Philipp (b. 1970), a descendant of Queen Victoria who represents a blend of German aristocracy and British royal connection.
The House of Stauffenberg, made famous by Claus von Stauffenberg and the failed 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, continues under Count Franz Schenk von Stauffenberg. Though not princely, the family remains symbolically potent and engaged in public discourse. The House of Lobkowicz, one of Bohemia’s most storied dynasties, is now represented by William Lobkowicz, an American-born descendant who repatriated to the Czech Republic after the fall of Communism and actively manages several palaces and a world-class art collection.
Other families represented on the goblet include the House of Kinsky, still present in Austria and the Czech Republic, and the House of Schwarzenberg, whose current head Karl von Schwarzenberg (b. 1937) served as Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and was a 2013 presidential candidate. The House of Liechtenstein, uniquely among them, remains a reigning dynasty: Hans-Adam II is the sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, with his son, Hereditary Prince Alois, serving as regent since 2004.
Finally, the House of Thurn und Taxis, famed for its control of early European postal services, is led by Prince Albert II (b. 1983), a media-shy but active manager of the family's Bavarian holdings and cultural legacy.
Together, these surviving houses offer a glimpse into the long continuity of Europe’s hereditary elites—many of whom, though dethroned politically, continue to shape cultural memory, manage historical properties, and maintain symbolic importance in the post-monarchical world. The Carrousel Goblet thus not only commemorates a moment of 19th-century aristocratic pageantry but also serves as a heraldic echo chamber for dynasties that, in surprising ways, are still with us.
The 1863 Carrousel goblet, attributed to Anton Ambros Egermann of Haida (now Nový Bor, Czech Republic), is a striking example of Bohemian glass artistry.
Standing at 61.8 cm tall, this green glass goblet is adorned with multicolored enamel-painted coats of arms representing noble families from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, commemorating a ceremonial equestrian event known as a carrousel.
🏭 Maker and Place of Origin
Anton Ambros Egermann (1814–1888) was the son of Friedrich Egermann, a renowned glass technologist who pioneered techniques such as red staining and lithyalin glass. Operating in Haida, a prominent center for glass production in Bohemia, Anton continued his father's legacy, producing high-quality enamelled glassware.
Bohemia emerged as a major center of glass production by the 17th century, and its prominence only grew in the centuries that followed. Several factors explain this ascendancy. The region's abundant natural resources were key: forests provided wood to fire glass furnaces, while nearby deposits of quartz, silica, and potash furnished the essential materials for high-quality glassmaking. This ready access to materials allowed for the establishment of numerous glassworks in remote areas, especially in the mountainous northern districts.
Equally important was the tradition of skilled craftsmanship and innovation that took root in Bohemia. Unlike the closely guarded secrets of Venetian glassmakers, Bohemian artisans developed and shared a wide range of decorative techniques—engraving, enameling, staining, and cutting—that made their work highly sought after across Europe. Egermann himself was central to this culture of innovation, introducing new methods such as red staining and lithyalin, which gave Bohemian glass a distinctive identity apart from its Italian and French competitors.
Bohemia's inclusion in the Habsburg Empire also played a crucial role. Imperial patronage and access to elite courts gave Bohemian glassmakers a ready market, while the empire’s internal trade networks helped distribute their products widely. By the 19th century, towns such as Haida (now Nový Bor) had become synonymous with fine glass, and manufacturers there proved especially adept at responding to changing fashions. They produced everything from ornate luxury wares to more affordable items for the rising bourgeoisie, cementing Bohemia’s status as a glassmaking powerhouse—a legacy that endures in Czech glassmaking today.
️ Materials and Techniques
The goblet was crafted from green glass and decorated using vitreous enamel—a technique involving the application of finely ground colored glass mixed with a binder onto the glass surface.
After painting, the piece was fired at a temperature sufficient to fuse the enamel to the glass without deforming the vessel. This method allowed for vibrant, durable, and intricate multicolored designs, showcasing the technical prowess of Bohemian glassmakers.
This type of object falls under the category of "carrousel goblets," ceremonial glassware produced to commemorate aristocratic equestrian events. Such goblets were typically owned by the nobility and high-ranking individuals who participated in or were associated with these events, serving both as souvenirs and symbols of status within the courtly culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In summary, the 1863 Carrousel goblet exemplifies the intersection of artistry, tradition, and social hierarchy, reflecting the opulence and ceremonial customs of 19th-century European nobility.
The exact number of surviving 1863 Carrousel goblets attributed to Anton Ambros Egermann is not definitively documented.
However, given their commemorative nature and the prominence of the event they celebrate, it's plausible that multiple examples were produced and distributed among the participating nobility.
These goblets, adorned with enamel-painted coats of arms of noble families from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, served both as souvenirs and symbols of status within the courtly culture of the time.
While specific counts are unavailable, such pieces occasionally appear in museum collections and auctions, indicating that several have been preserved over time.
Postscript: Color Origins in the Carrousel Goblet
The rich green hue of the goblet’s glass body is most likely the result of adding iron oxide to the glass mixture. In low concentrations, iron oxide produces pale blue-green tints; in higher concentrations or under reducing (low-oxygen) conditions in the furnace, it yields a deeper, bottle-green color. This was a traditional and widely used method in Central European glassmaking. Occasionally, small amounts of chromium oxide could be added for more vivid or stable greens, though this was less common before the late 19th century.
The vibrant enamel colors painted onto the surface of the goblet were created by mixing finely ground colored glass (called frit) with metal oxides and a binding medium. These enamels were applied cold and then fired at relatively low temperatures to fuse them to the glass without melting the base vessel. The specific hues were produced using different metal oxides:
Cobalt oxide → deep blue
Copper oxide → green to turquoise
Iron oxide → browns, yellows, and warm reds
Antimony or tin oxide → white (as an opacifier)
Lead-tin yellow → bright yellow
Gold chloride → ruby red (rare and costly)
Manganese dioxide → purples or amethyst tints
The resulting palette could be remarkably bright and durable, allowing artisans to depict complex heraldic imagery and courtly finery in lasting detail. These enamel pigments were a testament to the technical sophistication of Bohemian glassmakers and their ability to merge artistry with chemistry.
An enameled glass goblet differs significantly from stained glass in both technique and purpose, despite both involving the coloration of glass.
Enameled glass is created by painting the surface of a finished glass object with finely ground colored glass powders—called enamels—mixed with a liquid binder. This decorative layer is then fired at a relatively low temperature, allowing the enamel to fuse onto the glass without melting the vessel itself. The result is a vividly colored, often opaque or semi-opaque design that sits on the surface of the glass. This technique was especially popular in luxury tableware and presentation objects, such as the Carrousel goblet, where coats of arms and pictorial scenes could be rendered in precise detail.
In contrast, stained glass refers to colored glass made by adding metallic oxides directly into the molten glass during its formation. Each color is inherent to a separate piece of glass, which is later cut into shapes and assembled into a panel using strips of lead called cames. Artists could add painted details—such as facial features or folds of fabric—using grisaille or silver stain, and these were then kiln-fired to fix the design. Stained glass was primarily used for architectural purposes, especially in the windows of churches and palaces, and was designed to be viewed with light shining through it. The resulting effect is luminous and atmospheric, often narrative in content.
The two techniques also differ in how they interact with light and wear over time. Enameled glass is meant to be viewed by reflected light, and because the decoration sits on the surface, it can wear away with use or abrasion. Stained glass, on the other hand, is inherently colored throughout the material and is typically far more stable over centuries, provided it is protected from environmental damage.
In essence, enameled glass was meant for personal use and close inspection, often as an object of aristocratic display, while stained glass served a more public and spiritual function, casting colored light and visual storytelling into sacred or grand secular spaces.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT
inviernosurveranonorte ISBN 978-1-4457-9262-0
(ñ)
¿Si las redes sociales encarnan la huella del objeto actual, es el actual desencanto el desencanto de las redes sociales?
Un paisaje iconográfico como una reunión de ex-compañeros en presente continuo. ¿Qué le cuento a aquel que no conozco? ¿Qué comparto? ¿Para qué?
¿Pasa el reciclaje del encanto por la necesidad de no dejar huella o de dejar una otra huella aunque no sea la de nuestros zapatos?
Entre la inmediatez y el vértigo, el hastío y la redundancia, ¿ocupan tal vez las redes sociales una grieta de identidades que claman por ser, por ser algo, aunque más no sea una efemérides preocupantemente menos vacía? ¿Es la escandalosa carencia de memoria y de pasado una huída hacia el futuro? ¿Qué futuro? ¿El de los eventos que un software nos recuerda cada vez que iniciamos sesión, sin criterio ni jerarquías, en este club de amigos sin DNI ni ADN?
Nuestra ansia por la sonrisa y desesperación por el masaje ¿son una terapia de todo-a-cien, una ilusión fellinesca que se empeña en clamar por el megáfono: sí, tú también puedes ser protagonista?
¿Pueden nuestros reclamos reinvindicarse con la política del “Me gusta”? ¿Hasta dónde es válido lo que se valida?
¿Es la ilusión democratizadora del poder del ratón, o del mouse ya que estamos, un plato apetitoso en las fauces de los omnipresentes ingenieros de márketing?
¿Qué hay detrás, sobre, entre el ejercicio narcisista de publicar, publicar lo que sea? ¿Es el medio una alternativa?
Tomárselo con calma, como si fuera una bebida espirituosa, un sedante o una caja de Pandora que pide ser reencantada para seguir con el juego.
# # #
(e)
If social networks embody the trace of the current object, is the current disenchantment the disenchantment of social networks?
An iconographic landscape as an ex-classmate meet-up in present continuous. What do I tell those I don’t know? What do I share? What for?
Does the recycling of enchantment go through the need to not leave a trace or to leave some other trace even if it’s not that of our own shoes?
Between immediacy and vertigo, weariness and redundancy, do social networks perhaps fill a crack of identities claiming to be, to be something, even if it’s just an ephemeris worryingly less empty? Is the scandalous lack of memory and past an escape towards the future? What future? That of the events some software reminds us of each time we log in, without criteria or hierarchies, in this club of friends without ID or DNA?
Our craving for the smile and despair for massage, are they a dollar-store therapy, a fellinian illusion that insists in claiming on the megaphone: yes, you can also play the leading role?Can our demands be claimed with the “I like” policy? To what extent what’s validated is valid?The democratizing illusion of the power of the mouse, is it a mouthwatering dish on the jaws of the ubiquitous marketing engineers?
What’s behind, on, within the narcissist exercise to publish, publish whatever? Are the means an alternative?
Take it slowly, as if it was a spirituous drink, a sedative or a Pandora’s box asking to be reenchanted to keep up with the game.
# # #
(ç)
Les réseaux sociaux assimilent leurs acteurs, mais le désenchantement social engendre-t-il pour autant le désenchantement des réseaux sociaux ?
Tel des paysages iconographiques d’ex-camarades de classes qui se retrouvent désormais non-stop. Qu’y dire à ceux qu’on ne connait pas ? Qu’y partager ? Qu’y faire ?
Recycler l’enchantement passe-t-il par la nécessité de ne pas laisser de trace, ou de laisser d’autres traces qui ne seraient pas celles de nos propres pas ?
Entre l’immédiateté et le vertige, entre la fatigue et la redondance, les réseaux sociaux ne viennent-ils pas colmater les fissures d’identités auto-proclamées singulières, quand ce ne sont que d’affligeantes éphémérides moins vide ?
L’absence scandaleuse de mémoire et de passé est-elle une fuite en avant vers le futur ? Et quel futur ? Est-ce celui jalonné des événements que des logiciels nous annoncent à chaque login, sans critère ni hiérarchie, au sein de ces club d’amis sans identité ni ADN ?
Notre désir insatiable de sourire et notre besoin désespéré de message, sont-ils des thérapies de dollar-stores ? Une illusion felliniènne beuglant dans un mégaphone: “Oui, vous pouvez vous aussi jouer les premiers rôles ?
”Comment revendiquer une politique du “moi aussi” ? Ce qui est valable est-il vrai ? L’illusion démocratique du pouvoir de la souris, souris que nous sommes, n’est-elle qu’un plat savoureux dans la gueule des ingénieurs omnipotents du marketing ?
Que se cache-t-il derrière, ou sur, ou sous cet exercice narcissique de la publication ? En quoi cette médiatisation est-elle alternative ?
Pour peu que vous désiriez vous émerveiller de rester dans le jeu, allez-y tout doux ; comme d’un spiritueux, d’un sédatif ou d’une boîte de Pandore.
###
edit(ing), direct(ing) & complements
art direct(ing) & design(ing)
colacao & late-assistance
biotranslat(ing) & looking glass
(h)original music
(h)original video
front cover(ing) nino: manuel diumenjó
in-between outer demons & encoded: ezook
open(ing) identities: leonie polah
in-between nets: miguel ruibal
back(c)over(ing) i(mg): fernando prats
from
roman aixendri lucie bourassa brancolina mara carrión sebastián de cheshire hernán dardes manuel diumenjó carolyn doucette wilma eras oriol espinal ezook j. jesús fez thomas hagström john kosmopoulos françoise lucas graciela oses leonie polah alicia pallas fernando prats miguel ruibal jef safi martín trebino uu, dou_ble_you susan wolff
from...
a coruña
amsterdam
antwerp
barcelona
berlin
buenos aires
campredó
düsseldorf
grenoble
london
mar del plata
nijmegen
puerto madryn
san rafael
seattles
trängnäs
tarragona
terrassa
toronto
úbeda
# # #
# # #
# # #
Also @ Vimeo, YouTube, Hi5, Tumblr & more.
Blacktop
Copyright 2005 Ron Diorio
Three shows: London and New York (2x)
October 7-30 I will be one of five artists in a group show.
Positive Focus Gallery: Soul Witness
(selections from Anytown)
111 Front Street
Gallery #215
DUMBO, Brooklyn
positivefocus.org/Shows/soul_witness/diorio/index.html
I will be at the Gallery Oct 14-16 and Oct 23 showing additional work as part of the Art under the bridge Festival and Open Studio weekends.
Extended through October 17th!
Anytown (Solo show)
The Economist Tower
26 St. James's Street
London SW1A 1HG
Download the Anytown PDF
I will be participating in:
BLOGS: An exhibition of photoblogs
NYC Exposition, Puerto Rico Sun, and East Harlem.
October 14 – November 26, 2005
Viewing: Tuesday – Saturday, 3PM – 7PM
The contributor's were asked to answer some questions......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me a little bit about you.
Ron Diorio (av_producer) in Manhattan for life.
Why do you enjoy photography?
My old Nikon FM collects dust on my dresser becuase the digital darkroom transformed what I had come to know as photography. It moved me from picture taking to image making. Now the only real "photographic" moment is the end stage of the manufacturing process when a Digital C-print is pulled. For me it has been important to have the "photographic" in the making of the object while disregarding the "photographic" in the image making process. So in a traditional sense, for me, there's not much photography to enjoy.
What I do enjoy is where image making intersects with storytelling - you frame the world - frame a point of view. In some ways "view finder" better describes what it is. The really emancipating thing has been to find/seek/uncover the authentic - the essence of the emotional connection in the image without the "view" being my truth or something close to me. I'm always chasing that both in my own work and when I'm looking at other's work.
What's your photo style, technique...?
When I first posted on Fotolog in June 2003, I called my page "A photographic imagination". I had just read Sontag's On Photography and I wanted to put a marker down that these images should not be viewed as documents - they were manipulated and as such the images were not representative but representational.
I was also beginning to undestand how pixel based display was a great democratizer - all these screen images were made of the same substance. A Picasso painting, a DaVinci drawing, a deep space image form the Hubble Telescope or an Ansel Adams photograph were certainly different objects in the real world but on the screen they were just a collection of pixels. The playing field was leveled, the image content would be judged on it's own aesthetic and against every other image that could be displayed. The eye would decide.
From the start I wanted to give people something to think about - but not as a message or a lesson or a meaning. I think I lacked the confidence to articulate that early on. But it is there like the manipulation is as part of my whole apporach. I want the viewer active to "look into the image" rather than just looking at the image.
What camera do you use?
I am not an equipment geek. If the device captures images without a flash, has a memory card I can read and a charged battery I'd probably use it. I don't need a perfect capture, I want to make a capture perfect.
Why do you share you photoblog on flickr?
I use Flickr to publish my images because Fotolog crapped out so many times it wasn't worth the aggravation anymore. Both Flickr and Fotolog are distribution points and provide a publication platform and an audience. I want an audience. Of course this serves two masters because I can move easliy from presenter to an audience to being part of the audience.
What about it do you like?
At the point where I was searching for a way of working - first Fotolog and then Flickr gave me a daily production and publishing structure and a format to see a body of work developing.
It allows me to be prolific without purpose and organically find threads in the work. The dark side is that there is such a need to get the next image - almost an obligation. I realize this is a product of my own need for immediate gratification. I tend to ration the published images to one per day. The sheer volume of images posted on both of these services is a stark reminder of how insignificant any single image can be. It is quite intimidating.
I am always surprised by what people connect to in an individual image, what they are moved by. I am starting to sense a bond. It is not just that I said something nice about their picture or made them a contact so they'll say something nice about mine. There is something we have in common, something they know and I know.
Why did you want to take part in the NYC Exposition?
I read Dylan's Chronicles earlier in the year and just saw Scorcese's "Don't look back" yesterday and "California Dreaming" earlier this week. Aside from their specific topics of Dylan and the Mammas and the Pappas they documented the NY Folk scene in the early 60's. The creativity and mutual influences that so many of those artists had on each other strikes a similar chord to those of us who have watched each other's work over the last two years on Fotolog and Flickr. I see this as a festival of those visual efforts and would feel I missed something important if I weren't participating. Also with some of my favorites already participating I feel fortunate to have the honor of our work sitting together.
Coming off three traditional exhibitions of my "Anytown" series, I look forward to presenting some work from a new collection in its original digital format.
Anymore about you that I didn't ask.
This essay was published recently about "Anytown" and may be of interest.
Photography democratizes the process of identity building. Through it, we cement and convey messages about how we perceive ourselves and how we expect to be perceived by others. These works are part of a project that involves the decontextualization of images found on Grindr and other gay dating apps. By eliminating everything but the body, I put the focus on the semiotics of self-objectification. My aim is to incite conversation around the dichotomies of hegemonic values: femininity and masculinity; private and public; gay and straight; real and virtual.
The riot police and police auxiliary finally showed up to clear out the protesters who were destroying property.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
(Under the ownership of anti-war activist, musician & actor Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band. In the same group of combined art works & literature- they also own Robin Cracknell's 'JOY' & Michael Stevens' first edition of The Road to Interzone - Reading William Burroughs Reading..: www.flickr.com/photos/denesamy/4501519283/in/photostream )
IV. - Title - Why Does The Unknown Soldier, Remain Forever- The Unknown Soldier ? { la douleur d'être réel } NO MORE WAR -
18" x 24.5" acid free paper, ebony pencil, black ink, white acrylic & white charcoal.
"For these cultures, getting rid of the pain without addressing the deeper cause would be like shutting off a fire alarm while the fire's still going." -
David Foster Wallace
( Obama's War: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/view/#morelink )
"The report, released Thursday at the Pentagon, found that it was not only the stress of repeated deployments over nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that has driven the Army suicide rate above the civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War. Significantly, the report said that 79 percent of the soldiers who committed suicide had had only one deployment, or had not deployed at all. "
- www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/us/30suicide.html?src=mv
Treating Soldier Stress: www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2008931_2172992,00...
British war dead in Afghanistan- www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/582734...
British war dead in Iraq- www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/439875...
"Women always disproportionately suffer the effects of war, and to think that women's rights can be won with bullets and bloodshed is a position dangerous in its naïveté." www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/30/is-the-war-in-afghanist...
Samantha Power - Development and Democracy - "Samantha Power discusses the political challenges facing democracy promotion and the practical needs of effective democratization." www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUUOO5cCNVg
"The facts revealed by WikiLeaks are indeed shocking: wide-scale killing of civilians by US and NATO forces; torture of prisoners handed over to the Communist-dominated Afghan secret police; American death squads; endemic corruption and theft; double-dealing and demoralization of Western occupation forces facing ever fiercer Taliban resistance. " - "Politicians are petrified to oppose this nine-year war lest they be accused of being anti-patriotic, the kiss of death in hyperpatriotic America where flag-wavers root for foreign wars so long as their kids don't have to serve and they don't have to pay taxes to finance them. "
www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-margolis/wikigate---the-truth...
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology )
"I still feel sick to my stomach when I think of my friends who died in Vietnam and whose families are still suffering from their pointless deaths." - www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/terrible-consequenc...
"JA: We have to be careful there. Remember, this is a civil war. Everyone says Taliban, but in fact, the Taliban are Afghans. This is a civil war that is going on. And Taliban are a part of the will of the Afghan people. They are also part, probably, of the Pakistani secret intelligence service, and maybe, of course, part of the will of Saudi Arabia, who is giving some money to this. But in terms of the bodies on the ground, people are actually doing their work. The Taliban is part of the will of the Afghan people. And the United States and the allied forces need to recognize and understand that it’s part of the Afghan people and if you are shooting Taliban, you are shooting the Afghan people.
That does not mean they do not have blood on their hands.
This material does not paint the behaviors of any military groups in a nice light – there is blood on all sides."
rt.com/Politics/2010-08-01/taliban-wikileaks-afghan-assan...
"This is but one isolated example, but it is a symptom of the main reason these leaks are important: in order to form an opinion on the war, we need to be able to trust the official information coming from the field. The leaks suggest that we cannot always do so. This in turn erodes populations' trust in what their military establishments tell them. "
www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/dont-let-anyone-fool...
"the aim of those who had created these techniques was not to liberate people but to control them" From: The Century of Self, by Adam Curtis part 4: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036#
“To a personal injury plaintiffs lawyer, those are all potential clients in a tort suit against a contractor,” she said.
”So, for the ambulance chasers of the battlefield, the WikiLeaks database is a goldmine.” blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/07/lawyer_wikileaks...
( & - www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/vietnam_35_years_later.... )
Noam Chomsky's recorded address to the United National Peace Conference, 7/24/2010 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcIVNzcMucU
Innocence Lost: Ethan McCord recounts aftermath of Iraqi civilian massacre | UNPC 7/24/2010 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihPGtcHjNk
"Afghan life, like Iraqi life, must be almost invisible, like raindrops compared to ours."- www.americablog.com/2010/07/ellsberg-obama-has-indicted-m...
"War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford." -
Hannah Arendt
"Instead, many eyes will now pore over this data from many different directions, looking for patterns and attempting to eliminate the noise, disinformation and fog of war.
Many will look to it to criticise and condemn the US presence in Afghanistan, but if those on the other side – those who support such military incursions – have any sense, they too will use it to understand better the war in which they find themselves and adapt their counsel to fit more accurately the facts on the ground.
That’s the benefit, usually, of an open society. We get to triangulate on the truth by gathering facts in the public space, then providing them to all sides to chew over. We use this against our own illusions and those of more closed societies who can only view the world through one narrow perspective.": www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0730/1224275801...
-
"Capable, generous men do not create victims, they nurture them." - Julian Assange, editor & founder of Wikileaks
"WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the 'War Logs- ; ''I Enjoy Crushing Bastards" www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708518,00.html
- ( !! Yessssssssssssss.. Enough of bastards... )
-
"Wikileaks confirmed: A plan to kill American geologist with poison beer
The Wikileaks documents contain a claim that Pakistan and Afghanistan insurgents were working to poison alcoholic drinks in Afghanistan. While that's unproven, one US adviser in Afghanistan tells the Monitor he was almost poisoned that way in 2007." : www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0728/Wiki...
"We journalists should be delighted that WikiLeaks exists because our central task has always been one of disclosure, of revealing public interest material that others believe wish to be kept secret.The website deserves our praise and needs to be defended against the reactionary forces that seek to avoid exposure."
edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/29/wikileaks.roy.greensla...
"The leak of tens of thousands of Afghanistan war-related documents tells us more than the sum total of many official communiqués about the war. On balance, more disclosure is a good thing, but the leaking of raw military intelligence is a special case that requires a careful, rather than a cavalier, approach.
There is not enough information about the war, and much official information is misleading. In Canada, the federal government's quarterly reports contain a few updates based on its goals in Kandahar, but little else that informs. The government has already shown itself to be an unreliable source on issues relating to Afghan detainees.
The situation is now too dangerous for the most trustworthy chroniclers – journalists, UN personnel – to go outside NATO-protected areas.
So reliable, independent information is lacking. The circumstances in this war make such information even more necessary."
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/we-neede...
"The first phase was chilling, in part because the banter of the soldiers was so far beyond the boundaries of civilian discourse. “Just fuckin’, once you get on ’em, just open ’em up,” one of them said. The crew members of the Apache came upon about a dozen men ambling down a street, a block or so from American troops, and reported that five or six of the men were armed with AK-47s; as the Apache maneuvered into position to fire at them, the crew saw one of the Reuters journalists, who were mixed in among the other men, and mistook a long-lensed camera for an RPG. The Apaches fired on the men for twenty-five seconds, killing nearly all of them instantly."
Read more www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khat...
"With the release of the WikiLeaks documents, Arab media may finally feel vindicated, as Western media finally start to give greater prominence to civilian casualties." newamericamedia.org/2010/07/wikileaks-documents-validate-...
"How to read the Afghanistan war logs: video tutorial
David Leigh, the Guardian's investigations editor, explains the online tools we have created to help you understand the secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan": www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/video/2010/jul/25/afgha...
"Jonathan Foreman, writing for the right of center National Review's Corner blog, hopes the documents will force America to deal with the possible deceptions being made by ally Pakistan. "It is possible that the publication of documents that provide actual evidence — rather than rumors — of the role of ISI personnel in Taliban planning, logistics, and strategy will give the West greater leverage in dealing with Islamabad and might force Pakistan’s political elite to confront the reality of the ISI’s secret activities. If so, that would be a silver lining to what is otherwise a military disaster abetted by the U.S. and British media."
www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/NATL-The-Importance-o...
"This is duplicitous only if you close your eyes to the Pakistani reality, which the Americans never did. There was ample evidence, as the WikiLeaks show, of covert ISI ties to the Taliban. The Americans knew they couldn't break those ties. They settled for what support Pakistan could give them while constantly pressing them harder and harder until genuine fears in Washington emerged that Pakistan could destabilize altogether. Since a stable Pakistan is more important to the United States than a victory in Afghanistan—which it wasn't going to get anyway—the United States released pressure and increased aid. If Pakistan collapsed, then India would be the sole regional power, not something the United States wants."
www.billoreilly.com/site/rd?satype=13&said=12&url...
"The real significance of the Afghan war diaries lies in what Wikileaks represents as a movement, as an evolution in journalism. One analyst has called it the emergence of open source journalism. Julian Assange makes it possible for anybody anywhere in the world to submit secret documents for publication." www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Sevanti_Ninan/article541...
A War Without End: www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html
"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, explains why he decided to publish thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan Afghanistan war logs expose truth of occupation": www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jul/25/julian-assange...
The history of US leaks: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10769495
Freedom of Information Act: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_...
"A long-delayed Afghanistan war funding bill, stripped of billions for teachers and black farmers, is back before the House and walking now into the storm over the Internet leak of battlefield reports stirring old doubts about U.S. policy and relations with Pakistan.": www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40254.html & www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40251.html
This ongoing series is dedicated to everyone who has needlessly had their lives destroyed, been injured or die in this almost past decade of war. For the sources, journalists & average citizens who risk their lives to inform us.
Reuters reporters Namir Eldeen, Saeed Chmagh & the good samaritan ( father ) who died trying to save them & of course his two surviving small children who will forever be impacted by the brutality of war for decades to come.
Please help Private Bradley Manning- www.bradleymanning.org/
"One surprising consequence of the war in Iraq is the surrender of postmodernism to a victorious modernism. This has been largely overlooked in North America.
In reaction to the U.S. intervention in Iraq, Jacques Derrida, a famous postmodernist, signed on as co-author of an article drafted by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, previously an opponent of his, in an unmistakable endorsement of modernist Enlightenment principles. Derrida, the apostle of deconstructionism, is now advocating some decidedly constructive and Eurocentric activism.
The article appeared simultaneously in two newspapers on May 31, in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "After the War: The Rebirth of Europe," and in French in Libération, less triumphantly, as "A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy: The demonstrations of Feb. 15 against the war in Iraq designed a new European public space."
Other famous intellectuals joined in with supportive newspaper articles of their own: Umberto Eco (of The Name of the Rose) and Gianni Vattimo in Italy and an American philosopher, Richard Rorty. This provoked much discussion in Europe, but only a few comments so far in North America, the Boston Globe and the Village Voice being rare exceptions.
This week in Montreal, there was an anti-globalization riot in which windows were broken in protest against a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting. But the Habermas-Derrida declaration praises the WTO and even the International Monetary Fund as part of Weltinnenpolitik: maddeningly hard to translate, but something like "global domestic policy" or "external internal policy."
Yet it is not much of a stretch to claim the young anti-globalists as disciples of postmodernism and Derrida, who has hitherto been a foe of "logocentrism" (putting reason at the centre), "phallologocentrism" (reason is an erect male organ and, as such, damnably central) and Eurocentrism (the old, old West is the homeland of all of the above).
Derrida added a note to the article, observing most people would recognize Habermas's style and thinking in the piece, and that he hadn't had time to write a separate piece. But notwithstanding his "past confrontations" with Habermas (Derrida had objected to being called a "Judaistic mystic," for one thing), he agreed with the article he had signed, which calls for new European responsibilities "beyond all Eurocentrism" and the strengthening of international law and international institutions."
More: www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
"In early 2003, both Habermas and Derrida were very active in opposing the coming Iraq War, and called for in a manifesto that later became the book Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe for a tighter union of the states of the European Union in order to provide a power capable of opposing American foreign policy. Derrida wrote a foreword expressing his unqualified subscription to Habermas's declaration of February 2003, "February 15, or, What Binds Europeans Together: Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in Core Europe,” in Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe which was a reaction to the Bush administration demands upon European nations for support for the coming Iraq War[25]. Habermas has offered further context for this declaration in an interview."
More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%c3%bcrgen_Habermas#Habermas_and_D...
Habermas: ”The asymmetry between the concentrated destructive power of the electronically controlled clusters of elegant and versatile missiles in the air and the archaic ferocity of the swarms of bearded warriors outfitted with Kalashnikovs on the ground remains a morally obscene sight
I consider Bush' s decision to call for a "war against terrorism" a serious mistake, both normatively and pragmatically. Normatively, he is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies; and pragmatically, one cannot lead a war against a "network" if the term "war" is to retain any definite meaning.”
Derrida: “To say it all too quickly and in passing, to amplify and clarify just a bit what I said earlier about an absolute threat whose origin is anonymous and not related to any state, such "terrorist" attacks already no longer need planes, bombs, or kamikazes: it is enough to infiltrate a strategically important computer system and introduce a virus or some other disruptive element to paralyze the economic, military, and political resources of an entire country or continent. And this can be attempted from just about anywhere on earth, at very little expense and with minimal means. The relationship between earth, terra territory, and terror has changed, and it is necessary to know that this is because of knowledge, that is, because of technoscience.
It is technoscience that blurs the distinction between war and terrorism. In this regard, when compared to the possibilities for destruction and chaotic disorder that are in reserve, for the future, in the computerized networks of the world, "September 11" is still part of the archaic theater of violence aimed at striking the imagination. One will be able to do even worse tomorrow, invisibly, in silence, more quickly and without any bloodshed, by attacking the computer and informational networks on which the entire life (social, economic, military, and so on) of a "great nation," of the greatest power on earth, depends.”
www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
I am incredibly- delighted at all the vital discussions about the war & US gov that are FINALLY taking place- & on a mass scale- as a result of this leak .. Simply miraculous..
FREEDOM & PEACE ( transparency, diplomacy & the evolution of such ) FOR ALL WAR NATIONS.
-
( WARNING - links ( after excerpt ) are NOT for sensitive viewers- ) "Wikileaks have released over 150 supressed images. This is the tip of the iceberg, keep looking, keep publishing.In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”The transparency group’s move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau’s carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people’s recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet."
fortuzero.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/tibet-western-media-sa...
file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/index.html
FREE TIBET!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also other dire & serious issues ( out of countless ) - that expose corruption by corporations & gov's:
"A documentary about intensive pig farming due to be screened at the Guardian Hay festival on Sunday is facing a legal threat from one of the companies it investigates. Pig Business criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories."
www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/29/pig-business-document...
"In an investigation broadcast on BBC Radio 5 on November 14, 2004,[79] it was reported that the site is still contaminated with 'thousands' of metric tons of toxic chemicals, including benzene hexachloride and mercury, held in open containers or loose on the ground. A sample of drinking water from a well near the site had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization.[80]
In 2009, a day before the 25th anniversary of the disaster, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi based pollution monitoring lab, released latest tests from a study showing that groundwater in areas even three km from the factory up to 38.6 times more pesticides than Indian standards."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
-
The Blue Mask - Lou Reed - www.goear.com/listen/9960779/the-blue-mask-lou-reed ( & O Superman ) www.goear.com/listen/02cf55d/o-superman-(for-massenet)-la...
Lou Reed The Blue Mask
Lyrics:
They tied his arms behind
his back to teach him how to
swim They put
blood in his coffee and milk
in his gin They stood over the
soldier in
the midst of the squalor
There was war in his body and
it caused his
brain to holler
Make the sacrifice
mutilate my face
If you need someone to kill
I'm a man without a will
Wash the razor in the rain
Let me luxuriate in pain
Please don't set me free
Death means a lot to me
The pain was lean and it made
him scream he knew he was alive
They put a
pin through the nipples on his chest
He thought he was a saint
I've made love to my mother,
killed my father and my brother
What am I
to do
When a sin goes too far, it's
like a runaway car It cannot
be controlled
Spit upon his face and scream
There's no Oedipus today
This is no play you're thinking you
are in What will you say
Take the blue mask down from my face and
look me in the eye I get a
thrill from punishment
I've always been that way
I loathe and despise repentance
You are permanently stained
Your weakness buys indifference
and indiscretion in the streets
Dirty's what you are and clean is what
you're not You deserve to be
soundly beat
Make the sacrifice
Take it all the way
There's no won't high enough
To stop this desperate day
Don't take death away
Cut the finger at the joint
Cut the stallion at his mount
And stuff it in his mouth
---
-
"It looks like you can write a minimalist piece without much bleeding. And you can. But not a good one.
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most "familiarity" is meditated and delusive.
Nuclear weapons and TV have simply intensified the consequences of our tendencies, upped the stakes.
One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.
Pleasure becomes a value, a teleological end in itself. It's probably more Western than U.S. per se. "
"And I'm not saying that television is vulgar and dumb because the people who compose the Audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar.. in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." - All by David Foster Wallace
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-oq-u2rKM
STOP CENSORSHIP IN THAILAND! - ( & Egypt, China, Australia- & in the US- etc & etc!! )
GUM (Russian: ГУМ, pronounced [gum], an abbreviation of Russian: Главный универсальный магазин, romanized: Glavnyy universalnyy magazin, lit. 'Main Universal Store') is the main department store in many cities of the former Soviet Union, known as State Department Store (Russian: Государственный универсальный магазин, romanized: Gosudarstvennyy universalnyy magazin) during the Soviet era (until 1991). Similarly named stores operated in some Soviet republics and in post-Soviet states.
The most famous GUM is the large store facing Red Square in the Kitai-gorod area – itself traditionally a mall of Moscow. Originally, and today again, the building functions as a shopping mall. During most of the Soviet period it was essentially a department store as there was one vendor: the Soviet State. Before the 1920s the location was known as the Upper Trading Rows (Russian: Верхние торговые ряды, romanized: Verkhniye Torgovyye Ryady).
As of 2021, GUM carries over 100 different brands,[1] and has cafes and restaurants inside the mall.
Moscow GUM
Design and structure
With the façade extending for 242 m (794 ft) along the eastern side of Red Square, the Upper Trading Rows were built between 1890 and 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev (responsible for architecture) and Vladimir Shukhov (responsible for engineering). The trapezoidal building features a combination of elements of Russian medieval architecture and a steel framework and glass roof, a similar style to the great 19th-century railway stations of London. William Craft Brumfield described the GUM building as "a tribute both to Shukhov's design and to the technical proficiency of Russian architecture toward the end of the 19th century".
The glass-roofed design made the building unique at the time of construction. The roof, the diameter of which is 14 m (46 ft), looks light, but it is a firm construction made of more than 50,000 metal pods (about 743 t (819 short tons)), capable of supporting snowfall accumulation. Illumination is provided by huge arched skylights of iron and glass, each weighing some 740 t (820 short tons) and containing in excess of 20,000 panes of glass. The facade is divided into several horizontal tiers, lined with red Finnish granite, Tarusa marble, and limestone. Each arcade is on three levels, linked by walkways of reinforced concrete.
History
Catherine II of Russia commissioned Giacomo Quarenghi, a Neoclassical architect from Italy, to design a huge trade area along the east side of Red Square. However, that building was lost to the 1812 Fire of Moscow and replaced by trading rows designed by Joseph Bove. In turn, the current structure opened in 1894, replacing Bove's.
By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores. After the Revolution, GUM was nationalized. During the NEP period (1921–28), however, GUM as a State Department Store operated as a model retail enterprise for consumers throughout Russia regardless of class, gender, and ethnicity. GUM's stores were used to further Bolshevik goals of rebuilding private enterprise along socialist lines and "democratizing consumption for workers and peasants nationwide". In the end, GUM's efforts to build communism through consumerism were unsuccessful and arguably "only succeeded in alienating consumers from state stores and instituting a culture of complaint and entitlement".
GUM continued to be used as a department store until Joseph Stalin converted it into office space in 1928 for the committee in charge of his first Five Year Plan.[4] After the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadezhda in 1932, the GUM was used briefly to display her body.
After reopening as a department store in 1953, GUM became one of the few stores in the Soviet Union that did not have shortages of consumer goods, and the queues of shoppers were long, often extending entirely across Red Square.
Several times during the 1960s and 1970s, the Second Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Suslov, who hated having a department store facing Lenin's Mausoleum, tried to convert GUM into an exhibition hall and museum showcasing the achievements of the Soviet Union and Communism, without the knowledge of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Each time, however, Brezhnev was tipped off and put a stop to such plans.
At the end of the Soviet era, GUM was partially, then fully, privatized, and it had a number of owners before it ended up being owned by the supermarket company Perekrestok. In May 2005, a 50.25% interest was sold to Bosco di Ciliegi, a Russian luxury goods distributor and boutique operator. As a private shopping mall, it was renamed in such a fashion that it could maintain its old acronym. The first word Gosudarstvennyi ("state") has been replaced with Glavnyi ("main"), so that GUM is now an abbreviation for "Main Universal Store".
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), Untitled, 2008. Chromogenic print, with frame, sheet: 63 3/4 × 57 1/4 in.
This untitled work is one of a suite of large-scale photographs in which Cindy Sherman masquerades as an assortment of dowagers and aging socialites. The bejeweled and heavily made-up subject poses in front of the Belvedere Steps in Central Park as if about to ascend the staircase to attend a party or charity event. Her world-weary expression reveals the years that her makeup, strapless gown, and dyed hair attempt to mask. Like all of Sherman’s photographs that feature the artist in various guises, this work critically examines the conditions under which contemporary femininity is constructed, represented, and perceived.
"Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection offers new perspectives on one of art’s oldest genres. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s holdings, the more than two hundred works in the exhibition show changing approaches to portraiture from the early 1900s until today. Bringing iconic works together with lesser-known examples and recent acquisitions in a range of mediums, the exhibition unfolds in eleven thematic sections on the sixth and seventh floors. Some of these groupings concentrate on focused periods of time, while others span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to forge links between the past and the present. This sense of connection is one of portraiture’s most important aims, whether memorializing famous individuals long gone or calling to mind loved ones near at hand.
Portraits are one of the richest veins of the Whitney’s collection, a result of the Museum’s longstanding commitment to the figurative tradition, which was championed by its founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Yet the works included in this exhibition propose diverse and often unconventional ways of representing an individual. Many artists reconsider the pursuit of external likeness—portraiture’s usual objective—within formal or conceptual explorations or reject it altogether. Some revel in the genre’s glamorous allure, while others critique its elitist associations and instead call attention to the banal or even the grotesque.
Once a rarefied luxury good, portraits are now ubiquitous. Readily reproducible and ever-more accessible, photography has played a particularly vital role in the democratization of portraiture. Most recently, the proliferation of smartphones and the rise of social media have unleashed an unprecedented stream of portraits in the form of snapshots and selfies. Many contemporary artists confront this situation, stressing the fluidity of identity in a world where technology and the mass media are omnipresent. Through their varied takes on the portrait, the artists represented in Human Interest raise provocative questions about who we are and how we perceive and commemorate others.
Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection is curated by Dana Miller, Richard DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Permanent Collection and Scott Rothkopf, Deputy Director for Programs and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator with Mia Curran, Curatorial Assistant; Jennie Goldstein, Assistant Curator; and Sasha Nicholas, consulting curator."
FACES OF BOTH SIDES OF THE PROTEST.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
I noticed this very calm woman in the middle the chaos of the riot, and really liked her face. As I was admiring how calm she was, she suddenly started yelling out the same slogans as the younger members of the rioters. Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take pictures. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their face. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
The Old Warden Airfield Military Pageant had all sorts in the vehicle parade . I must admit that this is the first time I have seen a Model T Ford without 202 wide tyres , a 400 plus cubic inch engine and a leary paint job . The Model T was always a favourite with the hot rodders and customisers but the Model T has it's place in history .
The Model T, also known as the “Tin Lizzie,” changed the way Americans live, work and travel. Henry Ford’s revolutionary advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. For the first time car ownership became a reality for average American workers, not just the wealthy. More than 15 million Model Ts were built in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe.
The Model T was an automobile built by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 until 1927. Conceived by Henry Ford as practical, affordable transportation for the common man, it quickly became prized for its low cost, durability, versatility, and ease of maintenance. Assembly-line production allowed the price of the touring car version to be lowered from $850 in 1908 to less than $300 in 1925. At such prices the Model T at times comprised as much as 40 percent of all cars sold in the United States. Even before it lost favour to larger, more powerful, and more luxurious cars, the Model T, known popularly as the “Tin Lizzie” or the “flivver,” had become an American folkloric symbol, essentially realizing Ford’s goal to “democratize the automobile.”
The Model T was offered in several body styles, including a five-seat touring car, a two-seat runabout, and a seven-seat town car. All bodies were mounted on a uniform 100-inch-wheelbase chassis. A choice of colors was originally available, but from 1913 to 1925 the car was mass-produced in only one color—black. The engine was simple and efficient, with all four cylinders cast in a single block and the cylinder head detachable for easy access and repair. The engine generated 20 horsepower and propelled the car to modest top speeds of 40–45 miles per hour (65–70 km/h). In most models the engine was started by a hand crank, which activated a magneto connected to the flywheel, but after 1920 some models were equipped with battery-powered starters. The transmission, consisting of two forward gears and one reverse, was of the planetary type, controlled by foot pedals rather than the more common hand lever used in sliding-gear transmissions. Spark and throttle were controlled by a hand lever on the steering column. The 10-gallon fuel tank was located under the front seat. Because gasoline was fed to the engine only by gravity, and also because the reverse gear offered more power than the forward gears, the Model T frequently had to be driven up a steep hill backward. Such deficiencies, along with its homely appearance, less-than-comfortable ride at top speeds, and incessant rattling, made the Model T the butt of much affectionate humour in innumerable jokes, songs, poems, and stories.
In this case you can see members of the Air Training Corps being driven in the parade .
Tirana was founded in 1614 by the Ottomans, centered on the Old Mosque. The site has been inhabited since the Iron Age and was likely the core of the Illyrian Kingdom of the Taulantii. Following the Illyrian Wars, it was annexed by Rome. With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, most of Albania came under the control of the eastern Byzantine Empire. Tirana remained small and insignificant for a long time until it was designated the capital of Albania at the Congress of Lushnja in 1920. A place with just a few thousand inhabitants became the largest and most important city in the country. King Zogu had a palace built here and, with Italian help, ministries and a boulevard were constructed.
At the beginning of WWII Albania was occupied by the Italian fascists. In 1941 the Communist Party of Albania was established and under Enver Hoxha it became the center of the Albanian communists. The city was liberated in November 1944, after a heavy battle lasting several days between the partisans and the Wehrmacht, in which numerous historical buildings were destroyed. A few days later Hoxha proclaimed Albania's independence in Tirana.
During the communist rule the city was redesigned, with a number of buildings demolished. Tirana's former Old Bazaar and the Orthodox Cathedral were razed to the ground in order to build the Soviet-styled Palace of Culture. Because private car ownership was banned, mass transportation consisted mainly of bicycles, trucks and buses.
After democratization, Tirana slipped into a period of anarchy as necessary laws just did not exist at that time. Illegal buildings were built everywhere. From 1999 onwards, the illegal buildings in the city centre were demolished and the green spaces restored.
In the 21st century, Tirana experienced an economic boom. Numerous modern high-rise buildings were built.
The historic main cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Albania was demolished in the late 1950s. The new Albanian Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was opened in 2012. It is considered one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the Balkans.
The construction of the main building is modelled on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
Orlando Bravo, Founder and Managing Partner, Thoma Bravo
Jean Case, CEO, Case Impact Network; Chairman, National Geographic Society
Matt Brown, Founder and CEO, CAIS
Jonathan Sokoloff, Managing Partner, Leonard Green & Partners, L.P.
Jeffrey M. Solomon, Chairman and CEO, Cowen
Catherine Wood, EO and Chief Investment Officer, Ark Invest
STATUES AND SCULPTURES DEFACED IN THE UNREST. THIS SCULPTURE IS DOLOR (PAIN) 1892 BY CLEMENTE ISLAS ALLENDE ESCULTOR; NOTICE THE BURNT MOTORCYCLE PROTESTERS BURNED BEHIND THE SCULPTURE.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
FACES OF BOTH SIDES OF THE PROTEST. PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURING THE ACTION.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
I'm kind of aware of the fact that I don't post as frequently on Flickr as I used to. One of the reasons is that I had several albums, with dozens and dozens of photos, and I made the posting of those albums into projects that consumed a fair amount of time. I have several other albums, but there's only one that is both full of photos and full of photos of a high-quality and/or contains lots of photos with highly-interesting content. When the time comes to post that one album, I hope I remember to do it.
Meanwhile, here's a little morsel, an album I've had for a while. I don't, in fact, remember where I bought it, but it was pre-Iowa, which means either South Carolina, Florida, or the Missouri triangle as the source of purchase. For some reason, I have the state of Maryland attached to my memory of where these photos might have been taken, and where the school might be. Don't know why I have that memory, as there is no intrinsic evidence to support that association.
Most of these kids are smiling. This photographer had The Knack, and, to be honest, I worry about the kids who aren't smiling. My most haunting memory of going into the Arkansas Public Schools, K through 12 (I participated in a program called "Poets in the Schools," (though, of course, I was never a poet), until I got fired for being a bad boy (and my indiscretion does not even make for a very good story), oh yeah, my most haunting memory, is how in kindergarten, just about all the kids, rich and poor, black and white, were boiling over with irrepressible enthusiasm, and by the time they were sophomores and juniors and seniors, they had been sorted out, and the kids who as kindergartners were no less able, no less inventive, no less alive, were now, after the democratizing socialization process, shunted aside, deemed lesser, slotted to change tires down at the Firestone store, or put on an apron and primp the lettuce at the local grocery. And that was before Wal-Mart had done the worst of its work. Even the teachers, at least some, if not most of them, participated in the process. They would point out the troublemakers for you, and speak sneeringly of them. The experience was uplifting, and terribly disheartening, which is how I feel about my wonderful, dastardly country.
Submission for the Tallinn Architectural Biennale 'Street 2020' Competition, unawarded. (flickr seems to have altered colors) Jury reported: "The proposal is thorough and professionally executed, yet rather absurd. Several questions remain unanswered, for example why bring a forest in a city, where does the street lead to and where does it start from? Furthermore, the design proposal is overly based on four- lane road design standards."
The Digital Forest creates a passageway, an edge, and a destination. Calling on Estonia’s cultural heritage and its recent economic dynamism, the forest provides a grounded connection to place (earthly) and a technical connection to the wider digital world (ephemeral). The layering of a series of simple strategies creates a complex solution. The street responds to contemporary patterns of living and working and encourages numerous modes of transportation both within the center city and to and from the outlining districts beyond. The scheme addresses street movement in two ways; splitting the proposal into a central spine running adjacent to the center city, port, and old town and connected extensions where it reaches out to Viimsi, Pirita, and Lasnamäe in its first configuration and to Mustamäe and Nõmme in future expansions. The central spine provides Tallinn with a city-scaled urban space.
At the central spine private car traffic is placed underground and a forest of native species establishes an edge to the city and connection to the sea. The forest is simultaneously a cultural landscape and an ecosystem restoration effort. Along the city side of the spine there are several opportunities for new buildings, a gracious sidewalk, a high-frequency streetcar line, and a limited-access service street for deliveries and taxis. By placing automobile traffic underground along the central spine, much of the right-of-way is liberated for the forest. This avoids introducing significant traffic infrastructure along the waterfront severing the city from the water. The high frequency trolleys allow for fluid movement along the spine and facilitate easy transfer between modes and scales of transit.
Three key crossings connect the city to the port. The crossings are strategic points that allow for easy movement across the central spine and provide opportunities for the scheme to extend south into the center city, connecting to citizens’ daily lives and reaching the existing bus and tram lines. Framed views of the forest from along these feeder streets announce its presence to the city dweller.
The forest is place of urban respite traversed by walking/skiing and biking paths. It widens where it meets underutilized port sites, reaching from the city to the sea. With opportunities for playgrounds, garden allotments, picnic areas, beaches, and habitat creation, the forest is a place where residents and visitors can inhabit a landscape reminiscent of the glacially formed beauty found along much of the Estonian coast. This earthly garden speaks to the Estonian national identity. Accordingly, the forest can be used as a processional pathway for choirs as they walk from the old town to the song grounds for the Estonian Song Festival or Laulupidu. Glass boxes in the forest house a variety of functions, ranging from commercial kiosks, to warming shelters, to a municipal greenhouse that reaches out into the bay and compositionally balances the Linnahall and becomes an iconic feature of the city for visitors arriving by boat. These glass boxes shift seasons and allow access to the earthly forest throughout the harsh winter months. The municipal greenhouse is also the anchor of a proposed system of greenhouses to encourage urban gardening and local food production.
Plazas carved from the forest emphase significant buildings like the Museum of Estonian Architecture (rotermanni salt storage),the historic Linnahall and the forthcoming City Hall by BIG architects. Though seen as terminating at Pirita Tee on the east and the City Hall / Linnahall plaza on the west, future growth of the central spine into Kalamaja is envisioned. This addition will catalyze the redevelopment of Patarei Prison and the thinshell hydroplane hangars for cultural or residential uses.
A free municipal high speed internet service underpins the entire central spine, democratizing information and, through hand held devices, providing a technologically augmented reality that overlays sounds and images of the city’s geology, ecology, history, and culture on the forest landscape. This ephemeral forest encourages exploration, commerce, and communication. As the walls of the workplace, social spaces, and educational institutions dematerialize with the growth of digital means, the forest offers a civic space that boosts online interaction while bringing people together. At night users can choose to have smart lighting track their movements illuminating a nearby perimeter; a strategy that improves visibility, enhances energy efficiency, preserves the night sky and provides poetic effect. During the summer atomizing nozzles fill the forest with a soft mist. Juxtaposing the earthly and the ephemeral creates a hybrid urban space appropriate to Tallinn’s increasing stature in the European community.
Attached to the central spine, extensions connect the center city to outlying areas. Here all traffic is brought to the surface and the cross section of the road is divided efficiently between multiple modes of transit - private automobiles, trams/buses, bicycles, and designated spaces for pedestrians to walk, run or ski.
Project Team: Ted Shelton, Tricia Stuth, Emily Dent, Kate Armstrong, Luke Murphree, Phil Zawarus, Maudy Budipradigdo, Ken McCown
See the "Performing Martha Graham at Eugene Lang College" video
Performing Martha Graham at Eugene Lang CollegeIn 2006, a group of Lang students were given a remarkable opportunity: to dance under the direction of Yuriko Kikuchi, former soloist and rehearsal director for Martha Graham. In this rehearsal, Yuriko helps students understand the emotions as well as the complex choreography of Steps in the Street, an excerpt from Martha Grahams work Chronicle, which premiered in 1936. In addition to rehearsing with Yuriko, students studied the Martha Graham technique and influences on Grahams work with Ellen Graff, director of programs at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Steps in the Street was performed in the 2006 Lang Spring Dance Concert.Will the Real Spacemonkey Please Stand Up? A film by Eric Hopper, Media StudiesIn your dreams, you are a rocketboy in search of your errant spacemonkey. You wake to find him right next to you in bed, so your mission is accomplished. Or is it? Eric Hopper, a media studies alu
mnus who directed the film, enlisted his son Jack as both narrator and protagonist of this animated short, a creepy dream-versus-reality vignette set against the backdrop of outer space, complete with NASA countdown overdubs and spliced vintage footage of space launches. In the sequel, Nobodys Monkey, the story is retold from the monkeys point of view. He complains that he is just an object, something the rocketboy likes to jerk around, not his real friend. He wants to be left alone, he wants to be free. But still the monkey asks: Is this real, or am I dreaming?The Image Maker: A Life Devoted to What Looks Good. A film by Helen Pearson, Media StudiesDecades ago, Connie De Nave, a no-nonsense Brooklyn native, was a press agent who helped package the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for a mass audience, creating the signature look of tousled glamour made famous in photo spreads and on album covers. The company she founded, the Image Makers, secured privileged spots for her
acts in the annals of rock. This 2005 film by Helen Pearson, a media studies alumna, is an engaging portrait of this intriguing woman in more recent years. Connie became a costume and antique jewelry sellera jewel diva living a quieter but still rocking life.A Stickball Game Grows in Brooklyn. A film by Media Studies alumniIn South Park Slope, stickball is a cherished tradition. This neighborhood which is slowly being gentrified is home to men who have gone to bat on the same block12th Street and Third Avenuefor decades. This captivating black-and-white film, shot in late summer 2006 by media studies alumni Ted Fisher, Iris Lee, and Maya Mumma, offers an intimate portrait of the game and the unique brotherhood it forges among the players.Together We Win: The Fight to Organize StarbucksLabor organizers have always used rallying cries to mobilize workers and win support for union campaigns. Think of the AFL-CIO's slogan from the people who brought you the weekend.
Starbucks organizers, whose efforts are sympathetically chronicled by media studies alumna Diane Krauthamer in this 2006 film, have updated the slogan to from the people who brought you better pay and more hours. Several baristas from New York City describe their fight against mandatory part-time schedules, workplace discrimination, poverty wages, and inadequate healthcare coverage, a battle they ultimately won.The New Face of ParsonsTake a virtual tour of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, designed by Lyn Rice Architects, which is set to open in 2008. Funded in part by a $7 million donation from philanthropist and New School trustee Sheila C. Johnson, the 25,000-square-foot complex will create a new public face for the school at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street. The center will house an innovative urban quad, state-of-the-art galleries, lecture and meeting spaces, a design store, and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives, an important collection d
ocumenting 20th-century design.A Conversation with Bob Kerrey, Part 1New School President Bob Kerrey talks to three students from different departments of the university about their academic interests and discusses prospects for collaboration between departments. Nada Abshir studied at the graduate program in International Affairs and wrote her thesis on the use of hip-hop by youth in urban Africa as a tool to promote urban development. Kate Emerman studied voice in the Bachelor of Music program at Mannes and is currently pursuing her masters degree in vocal performance there. Lee Clayton studied product design and design technology at Parsons The New School for Design.A Conversation with Bob Kerrey, Part 2President Kerrey continues his discussion of the challenges and possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration at The New School with three students from different departments. Nicole Pontes studied sociology in the PhD program at The New School for Social Research. G
ordon Burke studied in the Science, Technology, and Society and Urban Studies programs at Lang, and did research on Type II diabetes in New York City. Carolina Cruz Santiago studied documentary film in the Media Studies department; the first film she directed, Aloha New York, debuted at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big ImpactMilano The New School for Management and Urban Planning hosts its second panel discussion on philanthropy, Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big Impact: A Conversation with Today's Philanthropists. The panel features Agnes Gund, founder of the Studio in a School Association and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art; George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management; Evelyn Lauder, senior corporate vice president of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. and founder and chairman of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation; and Alphonse Buddy Fletcher, Jr., chairman and CEO of Fletcher Asset Management, Inc. The four panelists, representing an arra
y of philanthropic endeavors, discuss the motivation for giving and accountability in nonprofit organizations.The Constitution in CrisisIn the third lecture of a four-part series, Elaine Scarry, Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, speaks on the U.S. Constitution in relation to war and the social contract. The series, The Constitution in Crisis, is moderated by Sam Haselby, visiting professor, and cosponsored by the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Program, The New School Writing Program, and Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, is designed to deepen public understanding of this charter document of the United States. Three of the country's leading scholars of law, history, and literature and an outstanding human rights activist will address the topic.Jazz MattersJazz Matters is a series hosted by The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and moderated by Howard Mandel (Down Beat, Na
tional Public Radio, New York University). Here a panel consisting of pianist Robert Glasper, Revive Da Live producer Meghan Stabile, and author, journalist, and guitarist Greg Tate discuss the interplay between hip-hop, jazz, and Black rock.Illustration TodayIllustration today is at a crossroads: Traditional forms of editorial illustration are being reinvented or giving way to new modes of expression. In this symposium, presented by Parsons The New School for Design and the Department of Illustration, more than two- dozen leading practitioners engage in spirited discussions on a range of topics. Steven Guarnaccia, Parsons Illustration Department Chair and former New York Times art director, and Dan Nadel, Parsons Illustration Department assistant professor and publisher of The Ganzfeld, moderate.Freedom Next Time: An Evening with John Pilger and Amy GoodmanAward-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, author of Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire, and Amy Goodman,
host of the Pacifica radio show Democracy Now! and author of Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back, discuss peoples struggles for freedom in such places as Iraq, Palestine, South Africa, and Diego Garcia, where the dream of independence has yet to be realized.Democratization and the Networked Public SphereOver the past ten years, participatory Web-based technologies have transformed the public sphere. As part of its series The Public Domain, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School presents a panel discussion on the democratizing potential of the Internet. The speakers examine the growth in political participation spurred by weblogs and wikis, which enable anyone with access to a computer to post news and commentary; the use of Web-based platforms for artistic expression; and mobile wireless devices as tools to facilitate political organizing. The discussion is moderated by media artist Trebor Scholz, and features p
anelists Danah Boyd, PhD candidate at the School of Information at the University of California in Berkeley and graduate fellow, Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California; and Ethan Zuckerman, research fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School.An Evening with Choreographer, Director, and Artist Ralph LemonChoreographer, director, and multimedia artist Ralph Lemon, visiting artist at Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts, discusses his creative process and recent interdisciplinary work, including Practice of Form, his series of student workshops at Lang. He also discusses his first solo exhibition (the efflorescence of) Walter, a series of drawings, paintings, and video works that explore the themes of memory and transcendence.An Evening with Playwright John Patrick ShanleyJohn Patrick Shanley, author of the plays Doubt and Four Dogs and a Bone and the screenplay for Moonstruck, speaks with New School for Drama
director Robert LuPone about his development as a playwright and his experience directing his own work. Shanley received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play for Doubt, and was the distinguished artist in residence at The New School for Drama for the 2006-07 school year.Sustainability and Environmental JusticeMajora Carter, executive director and founder of Sustainable South Bronx (SSB) and MacArthur Fellow, discusses sustainability and environmental justice at the annual Michael Kalil Lecture on Natural and Technological Systems, sponsored by The Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design in the Department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting at Parsons The New School for Design, and the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School.This video was originally shared on blip.tv by thenew_school with a No license
(All rights reserved) license.
© All Rights Reserved - Please don't copy and/or use without authorization. Flickrmail is there for this kind of situation (I read it quite often), so is my e-mail, available at the profile
Sao Paulo, 24.oct.22 - Crowd attend the Act for Democracy, called by the Catholic University of São Paulo, in its seventh edition, this Monday (25). The candidate for the presidency of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended together with his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, his wife Janja, the candidate for the state government of SP, Fernando Haddad, as well as the former Minister of the Environment Marina Silva and his rival in the first round Simone Tebet, who was warmly applauded. One week before the second round of the most tense elections since the re-democratization of the country, Lula is still ahead in the polls and took the opportunity to criticize the latest scandal involving an ally of his rival Jair Bolsonaro: Roberto Jefferson, a supporter of the current president, received police officers who were serving an arrest warrant against him with rifle and grenade fire. Two policemen were wounded, one of them seriously
Hurricane Season (1999(
Art Rosenbaum (American 1938 - 2022)
artrosenbaum.org/v2/portfolio/hurricane-season-triptych/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqoSgUmaQjw
Sept. 14, 2022
ATLANTA — Art Rosenbaum, a painter and folk musician acclaimed for a half-century of field recordings of American vernacular music, including old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes and ritual music imported from Africa by enslaved people, died on Sept. 4 at a hospital in Athens, Ga., his adopted hometown. He was 83.
His son, Neil Rosenbaum, said the cause was complications of cancer.
Art Rosenbaum’s passion for documenting a broad range of American musical traditions as they were passed down and performed at work camps, church gatherings and rural living rooms expanded upon the famous field recording work of the ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. An important inspiration was Pete Seeger, another high-profile 20th-century champion of folk music. Mr. Rosenbaum wrote that Mr. Seeger had once told him, “Don’t learn from me, learn from the folks I learned from.”
Mr. Rosenbaum called it “good advice, and the kick in the rear that got me going.”
In 2007, the Atlanta-based label Dust-to-Digital released the first of two box sets of compilations from Mr. Rosenbaum’s trove, “Art of Field Recording Volume I: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum,” which won a Grammy Award for best historical album.
The pop music website Pitchfork called the release “revelatory” and “an indispensable counterpoint to Harry Smith’s ‘Anthology of American Folk Music,’” a reference to the 1952 song compilation that remains a canonical touchstone for folk musicians.
Like Mr. Smith, the bohemian polymath who compiled the “Anthology,” Mr. Rosenbaum was an accomplished visual artist. As an art teacher, he spent the bulk of his career at the University of Georgia, in Athens, where his energetic paintings, often depicting the musicians he recorded, and his ideas about the democratization of culture had an influence that resonated far beyond the classroom.
Michael Stipe, the visual artist and singer with the Athens rock band R.E.M., who was a student of Mr. Rosenbaum’s in the early 1980s, said Mr. Rosenbaum’s goal “was to blur the lines between what is outsider and insider, and to bring together this untrained music and art with trained music and art, and acknowledge that each have immense power, and that they’re not that far apart.”
Arthur Spark Rosenbaum was born on Dec. 6, 1938, in Ogdensburg, N.Y., in St. Lawrence County. His mother, Della Spark Rosenbaum, was a medical illustrator who encouraged her children’s artistic inclinations. His father, David Rosenbaum, was an Army pathologist who sometimes sang what his son described as “Northern street songs.” Arthur later recorded one of these songs, his father’s a cappella version of the ribald 18th-century Child ballad “Our Goodman,” and included it in the 2007 box set.
The family eventually moved to Indianapolis, where Mr. Rosenbaum, entranced by traditional music, absorbed the Harry Smith anthology and the contemporary folk stars of the day. In high school he won an art contest at the Indiana State Fair and spent the $25 prize money on a five-string banjo. He went on to become a pre-eminent expert on traditional banjo playing and tunings and to record several albums.
In the mid-1950s Mr. Rosenbaum moved to New York City, then the epicenter of the burgeoning folk revival, earning an undergraduate degree in art history and a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University. In the summers he worked at a resort hotel on Lake Michigan, where he began making recordings of nearby field workers from Mexico and the American South.
In 1958, Mr. Rosenbaum tracked down and recorded in Indianapolis a musician named Scrapper Blackwell, whom he described as “one of the best and most influential blues guitarists of the 1920s and ’30s.” Back in New York, as Mr. Rosenbaum was fond of recalling, a fellow roots music obsessive named Bob Dylan would pester him for any details he could muster about Mr. Blackwell’s life and playing style.
It was in New York that Mr. Rosenbaum met the artist Margo Newmark, who became his wife and lifelong collaborator. She survives him.
In addition to her and his son, Neil, a filmmaker and musician, he is survived by a sister, Jenny Rosenbaum, a writer; and a brother, Victor Rosenbaum, a concert pianist.
After eight years of teaching studio art at the University of Iowa, Mr. Rosenbaum in 1976 took a similar job at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. With Athens as a home base, he and Ms. Newmark Rosenbaum continued making field recordings, many of them in and around Georgia, and giving the musicians they met opportunities to play before new audiences.
“As these traditional musicians were identified and then brought out,” said Judith McWillie, an emerita art professor at the university, “and as there were more festivals and opportunities for them to play, people began to envision an identity for Georgia that was somewhat different from the one that it had. This was the 1970s, and coming off some extremely difficult times in the South.”
Folk music, she said, revealed a shared cultural history: “The musicians Art brought out were Black and white.”
In 1984, Mr. Rosenbaum recorded an album of stories and songs by Howard Finster, the self-taught artist, preacher and self-proclaimed “man of visions” whose work has become indelibly associated with 20th-century Georgia after its use on album covers by R.E.M. and the band Talking Heads.
He also recorded the McIntosh County Shouters, an African American group from coastal Georgia who performed the “ring shout,” which Mr. Rosenbaum described as “an impressive fusion of call-and-response singing, polyrhythmic percussion and expressive and formalized dancelike movements.” The ring shout, he asserted, was “the oldest African American performance tradition on the North American continent.”
Brenton Jordan, a member of the group, said of the Rosenbaums, “It’s their legwork that actually kind of introduced the McIntosh County Shouters to the world.” He noted that the ring shout, once on the verge of extinction, has in recent years been performed by his group in Washington at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Rosenbaums published a book on the ring shout in 1998. With drawings of the performers by Mr. Rosenbaum and photos of them by Ms. Newmark Rosenbaum, it depicts a place and a culture that seems beguilingly out of phase with modern life.
Many of Mr. Rosenbaum’s other paintings and drawings are loose allegorical works in which the old and the new clash and cohabitate, with traditional musicians sharing space on the canvas with modern-day hipsters, skateboarders and documentarians (often Mr. Rosenbaum himself).
As a painter, he was inspired by Cezanne and Max Beckmann, the German Expressionist. At times his work recalls the painting of Thomas Hart Benton, the American regionalist. Some of Mr. Rosenbaum’s works are large murals on historical themes.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Athens saw an explosion of forward-thinking rock musicians, many of whom, like Mr. Stipe, had ties to the Georgia art school. Mr. Rosenbaum’s passions always ran to traditional music, but he remained an inspiration for contemporary musicians.
Lance Ledbetter, the founder and co-director of the Dust-to-Digital label, recalled Vic Chesnutt, the brilliant, idiosyncratic Athens-based songwriter who died in 2009, speaking of Mr. Rosenbaum, quoting him as saying:
“When you move to Athens, and you hear about this guy who plays banjo and knows all of these songs, you just follow him around like a puppy dog. And I’m not the only one who did that.”
www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/us/art-rosenbaum-dead.html
_______________________________________________
The Georgia Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Georgia, in Athens, is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent collection consists of American paintings, primarily 19th- and 20th-century; American, European and Asian works on paper; the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance paintings; and growing collections of southern decorative arts and Asian art.
From the time it was opened to the public in 1948 in the basement of the old library on the university’s historic North Campus, the museum has grown consistently both in the size of its collection and in the size of its facilities. Today the museum occupies a contemporary building in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the university’s burgeoning east campus. There, 79,000 square feet house nearly 17,000 objects in the museum’s permanent collection—a dramatic leap from the core of 100 paintings donated by the museum’s founder, Alfred Heber Holbrook.
Much of the museum’s collection of American paintings was donated by Holbrook in memory of his first wife, Eva Underhill Holbrook. Included in this collection are works by such luminaries as Frank Weston Benson, William Merritt Chase, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Jacob Lawrence and Theodore Robinson.
In 2011, the museum opened an expanded contemporary building, with additions and renovations designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects, in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the university’s burgeoning East Campus. New galleries house the permanent collection, and visitors enjoy an outdoor sculpture garden and expanded lobby. In 2012, Brenda and Larry Thompson donated 100 works of art by African American artists to the collection, mirroring Holbrook’s original gift. They also established an endowment to fund the position of Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. The Thompsons have continued to give to the museum (their gifts can be found in the collections database), and their gift has had a transformative effect, strongly privileging an expansion of the traditional art historical canon. They received the Patron of the Year award from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries in 2019.
The museum continues to balance its dual designation as an academic museum with its role as the official state art museum of Georgia. Its schedule is a reflection of the academic study of the history of art and a broader array of popular exhibitions that appeal to all audiences. From the time Alfred Holbrook first loaded works from his art collection in the trunk of his car to share with Georgia’s schoolchildren until today, when the museum staff crisscrosses the state of Georgia to present a variety of educational programs, the Georgia Museum of Art has made the state a richer and more culturally viable place to live.
....
[Canon EOS 5D Mark II | Canon 50mm 1.4 | Canon 580EX II @ 105mm, camera left, Stofen diffuser, 1/2 CTO gel
First, some housekeeping. Mac users: The default color space for the internet is sRBG. That is not the default color space for Macs for some inexplicable reason. To view the photos on my stream (and on the internet in general) with their proper colors, please go to System Preferences => Displays => Color => sRBG.
As you may have noticed, The People of Detroit has been on a bit of a hiatus. Those who follow my flickr stream [http://flickr.com/noahstephen], may have a hint as to why, but let me clue in the non-Flickr followers…
I've been busy. Around the end of January, I was up around 3 a.m. one morning (as is my habit), when I got an email with this subject line:
"Would you Shoot In China?"
My first thought was, "Sure. But when did China move to Nigeria, you no-good African tricksters!"
I played along. Within minutes of the initial contact, I was Skyping with a woman in China.
It seems the Nigerians had scammed DARPA out of captured intergalactic alien technology that allows a person to transmogrify their Skype image and project it to the viewer as a pleasant-looking, female Chinese advertising creative director.
Well, turns out that pleasant-looking Chinese creative director was real after all. She saw The People of Detroit on Flickr and hired me to shoot an advertising campaign in Shanghai for McDonald's China.
I was there for three weeks between late-January and mid-February. It was a transformative experience. For this experience, I have to give all praise to the Almighty…
...Internet for giving a humble photographer in Detroit the ability to share his work with people on the other side of the world. Technology has democratized the marketplace for art. There is no better time than now to be a person with a photo, idea, or thought to share.
I am also eternally grateful to the non-Nigerian, Chinese creative director who trusted a humble photographer in Detroit, Michigan to photograph an ad campaign for her multinational corporate client. You are the best, Hweebeng.
But wait, there's more…
While I was in China, I received an email from the Discovery Channel. They wanted to feature The People of Detroit in a series they were producing about Detroit.
All Praise the Almighty Internet.
That email from the Discovery Channel is what led to the photo you see above. The network is profiling Detroiters who embody the promise of a better future.
Since I'm doing the same thing with The People of Detroit, the convergence of the two projects only seemed natural.
Well, nature took its course on Saturday, February 19th, 2011 when I had the pleasure to photograph a young man named Jacob while the Discovery Channel filmed him and the interaction between he and I.
Jacob is a student at a public high school in Detroit. While most kids in America were aimlessly wandering the branded halls of a shopping mall (not that I have a problem with brands. "Ba da ba ba ba!"), Jacob and a couple two three dozen other students from public high schools across the city were at the University of Michigan's Detroit Center for the Michigan Engineering Zone program.
MEZ is an engineering mentorship program that provides Detroit high school students free access to a metal shop. In the shop, they are mentored by U of M engineering students and engineering professionals. Those mentors help the high schoolers build robots for competition against other high school teams from across America in the annual FIRST Robotics program.
The MEZ program is an excellent supplement to an education system in Detroit that is by any measure of things troubled.
Detroit has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country (though the district announced recently that graduation rates are at a four-year high of 62% - up from 58% in 2007).
Public discourse on this problem imagines schools as production factories and well-educated students as the product. With this analogy in mind, pundits seem to suggest that better top-down management from school administrators and better performance from teachers can produce better students.
This conception has one critical flaw: kids are not widgets.
Widgets are immune to peer pressure. Widgets don't smoke weed in a disused hallway instead of going to American History. Widgets don't play Grand Theft Auto all night instead of doing their geometry homework.
Ultimately, a well-educated student is the end result of a collaborative effort between teachers, the educational infrastructure and the student herself. If a student is disinterested in learning, it doesn't matter how good a teacher is, or whether or not the school has the most recent edition of a textbook.
You can't educate children who are absent - literally or intellectually.
Which is what makes young men like Jacob worthy of a Discovery Channel program.
Amid a culture where education is undervalued, Jacob is intellectually engaged. He is taking positive steps toward improving himself intellectual and toward improving his chances for success. Which is all you can do, really.
When I started doing The People of Detroit less than a year ago, I didn't know if it would be a success or not. I don't do anything with the idea in mind that it deserves to be successful just because it has merit and I worked hard at it.
I'm observant enough to know that many people work hard and never yield any success for their effort.
I know many public school kids probably come from difficult situations where they may have seen a parent work hard and never realize success. I know that may dissuade them from trying at all.
I look at it like this: what's your other option? Not trying?
F that. All you can do is try. If you at least try, you give yourself a chance, and if you give yourself a chance, who knows, you may get an email from China … or from the Discovery Channel.
[View the ongoing project and meet more of: The People of Detroit ]
© All Rights Reserved - Please don't copy and/or use without authorization. Flickrmail is there for this kind of situation (I read it quite often), so is my e-mail, available at the profile
Sao Paulo, 24.oct.22 - Crowd attend the Act for Democracy, called by the Catholic University of São Paulo, in its seventh edition, this Monday (25). The candidate for the presidency of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended together with his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, his wife Janja, the candidate for the state government of SP, Fernando Haddad, as well as the former Minister of the Environment Marina Silva and his rival in the first round Simone Tebet, who was warmly applauded. One week before the second round of the most tense elections since the re-democratization of the country, Lula is still ahead in the polls and took the opportunity to criticize the latest scandal involving an ally of his rival Jair Bolsonaro: Roberto Jefferson, a supporter of the current president, received police officers who were serving an arrest warrant against him with rifle and grenade fire. Two policemen were wounded, one of them seriously. Pictured: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Fernando Haddad and Geraldo Alckmin
© All Rights Reserved - Please don't copy and/or use without authorization. Flickrmail is there for this kind of situation (I read it quite often), so is my e-mail, available at the profile
Sao Paulo, 24.oct.22 - Crowd attend the Act for Democracy, called by the Catholic University of São Paulo, in its seventh edition, this Monday (25). The candidate for the presidency of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended together with his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, his wife Janja, the candidate for the state government of SP, Fernando Haddad, as well as the former Minister of the Environment Marina Silva and his rival in the first round Simone Tebet, who was warmly applauded. One week before the second round of the most tense elections since the re-democratization of the country, Lula is still ahead in the polls and took the opportunity to criticize the latest scandal involving an ally of his rival Jair Bolsonaro: Roberto Jefferson, a supporter of the current president, received police officers who were serving an arrest warrant against him with rifle and grenade fire. Two policemen were wounded, one of them seriously
POLITICAL PROTESTOR, VANDAL, OR THIEF?
It was quite interesting to watch a protest of frustrated citizens transition to wanton destruction of property, and then to see some of those some protesters transform into looters, and to see law abiding bystanders turn in to thieves.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
Hoffman believes it is possible to identify some key characteristics of terrorism. He proposes that:
The Baghdad bus station was the scene of a triple car bombing in August 2005 that killed 43 people.
By distinguishing terrorists from other types of criminals and terrorism from other forms of crime, we come to appreciate that terrorism is :
ineluctably political in aims and motives
violent – or, equally important, threatens violence
designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target
conducted by an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspiratorial cell structure (whose members wear no uniform or identifying insignia) and
perpetrated by a subnational group or non-state entity.[27]
A definition proposed by Carsten Bockstette at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies, underlines the psychological and tactical aspects of terrorism:
Terrorism is defined as political violence in an asymmetrical conflict that is designed to induce terror and psychic fear (sometimes indiscriminate) through the violent victimization and destruction of noncombatant targets (sometimes iconic symbols). Such acts are meant to send a message from an illicit clandestine organization. The purpose of terrorism is to exploit the media in order to achieve maximum attainable publicity as an amplifying force multiplier in order to influence the targeted audience(s) in order to reach short- and midterm political goals and/or desired long-term end states.[28]
Oslo, Norway immediately after the 2011 terrorist attack in Norway perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik.
Eco-terrorism has described property destruction by the Earth Liberation Front[29] and Animal Liberation Front[30] as violence and terrorism and terrorist attacks are usually carried out in such a way as to maximize the severity and length of the psychological impact.[31] Each act of terrorism is a "performance" devised to have an impact on many large audiences. Terrorists also attack national symbols,[32] to show power and to attempt to shake the foundation of the country or society they are opposed to. This may negatively affect a government, while increasing the prestige of the given terrorist organization and/or ideology behind a terrorist act.[33]
Terrorist acts frequently have a political purpose.[34] This is often where the inter-relationship between terrorism and religion occurs. When a political struggle is integrated into the framework of a religious or "cosmic"[35] struggle, such as over the control of an ancestral homeland or holy site such as Israel and Jerusalem, failing in the political goal (nationalism) becomes equated with spiritual failure, which, for the highly committed, is worse than their own death or the deaths of innocent civilians.[36]
Their suffering accomplishes the terrorists' goals of instilling fear, getting their message out to an audience or otherwise satisfying the demands of their often radical religious and political agendas.[37]
A collection of photographs of those killed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Some official, governmental definitions of terrorism use the criterion of the illegitimacy or unlawfulness of the act.[38][better source needed] to distinguish between actions authorized by a government (and thus "lawful") and those of other actors, including individuals and small groups. For example, firebombing a city, which is designed to affect civilian support for a cause, would not be considered terrorism if it were authorized by a government.[original research?] This criterion is inherently problematic and is not universally accepted,[attribution needed] because: it denies the existence of state terrorism;[39] the same act may or may not be classed as terrorism depending on whether its sponsorship is traced to a "legitimate" government; "legitimacy" and "lawfulness" are subjective, depending on the perspective of one government or another; and it diverges from the historically accepted meaning and origin of the term.[15][40][41][42]
According to Ali Khan, the distinction lies ultimately in a political judgment.[43]
An associated, and arguably more easily definable, but not equivalent term is violent non-state actor.[44] The semantic scope of this term includes not only "terrorists", but while excluding some individuals or groups who have previously been described as "terrorists", and also explicitly excludes state terrorism.
Barack Obama, commenting on the Boston Marathon bombings of April 2013, declared "Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."[45] Various commentators have pointed out the distinction between "act of terror" and "terrorism", particularly when used by the White House.[46][47][48]
Pejorative use[edit]
The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" (someone who engages in terrorism) carry strong negative connotations.[49] These terms are often used as political labels, to condemn violence or the threat of violence by certain actors as immoral, indiscriminate, unjustified or to condemn an entire segment of a population.[50] Those labeled "terrorists" by their opponents rarely identify themselves as such, and typically use other terms or terms specific to their situation, such as separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerrilla, rebel, patriot, or any similar-meaning word in other languages and cultures. Jihadi, mujaheddin, and fedayeen are similar Arabic words that have entered the English lexicon. It is common for both parties in a conflict to describe each other as terrorists.[51]
On the question of whether particular terrorist acts, such as killing civilians, can be justified as the lesser evil in a particular circumstance, philosophers have expressed different views: while, according to David Rodin, utilitarian philosophers can (in theory) conceive of cases in which the evil of terrorism is outweighed by the good that could not be achieved in a less morally costly way, in practice the "harmful effects of undermining the convention of non-combatant immunity is thought to outweigh the goods that may be achieved by particular acts of terrorism".[52] Among the non-utilitarian philosophers, Michael Walzer argued that terrorism can be morally justified in only one specific case: when "a nation or community faces the extreme threat of complete destruction and the only way it can preserve itself is by intentionally targeting non-combatants, then it is morally entitled to do so".[52][53]
In his book Inside Terrorism Bruce Hoffman offered an explanation of why the term terrorism becomes distorted:
On one point, at least, everyone agrees: terrorism is a pejorative term. It is a word with intrinsically negative connotations that is generally applied to one's enemies and opponents, or to those with whom one disagrees and would otherwise prefer to ignore. 'What is called terrorism,' Brian Jenkins has written, 'thus seems to depend on one's point of view. Use of the term implies a moral judgment; and if one party can successfully attach the label terrorist to its opponent, then it has indirectly persuaded others to adopt its moral viewpoint.' Hence the decision to call someone or label some organization terrorist becomes almost unavoidably subjective, depending largely on whether one sympathizes with or opposes the person/group/cause concerned. If one identifies with the victim of the violence, for example, then the act is terrorism. If, however, one identifies with the perpetrator, the violent act is regarded in a more sympathetic, if not positive (or, at the worst, an ambivalent) light; and it is not terrorism.[54][55][56]
President Reagan meeting with Afghan Mujahideen leaders in the Oval Office in 1983
The pejorative connotations of the word can be summed up in the aphorism, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter".[51] This is exemplified when a group using irregular military methods is an ally of a state against a mutual enemy, but later falls out with the state and starts to use those methods against its former ally. During World War II, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army was allied with the British, but during the Malayan Emergency, members of its successor (the Malayan Races Liberation Army), were branded "terrorists" by the British.[57][58] More recently, Ronald Reagan and others in the American administration frequently called the Afghan Mujahideen "freedom fighters" during their war against the Soviet Union,[59] yet twenty years later, when a new generation of Afghan men are fighting against what they perceive to be a regime installed by foreign powers, their attacks were labelled "terrorism" by George W. Bush.[60][61][62] Groups accused of terrorism understandably prefer terms reflecting legitimate military or ideological action.[63][64][65] Leading terrorism researcher Professor Martin Rudner, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Ottawa's Carleton University, defines "terrorist acts" as attacks against civilians for political or other ideological goals, and said:
There is the famous statement: 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' But that is grossly misleading. It assesses the validity of the cause when terrorism is an act. One can have a perfectly beautiful cause and yet if one commits terrorist acts, it is terrorism regardless.[66]
Some groups, when involved in a "liberation" struggle, have been called "terrorists" by the Western governments or media. Later, these same persons, as leaders of the liberated nations, are called "statesmen" by similar organizations. Two examples of this phenomenon are the Nobel Peace Prize laureates Menachem Begin and Nelson Mandela.[67][68][69][70][71][72] WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has been called a "terrorist" by Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.[73][74]
Sometimes, states that are close allies, for reasons of history, culture and politics, can disagree over whether or not members of a certain organization are terrorists. For instance, for many years, some branches of the United States government refused to label members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) as terrorists while the IRA was using methods against one of the United States' closest allies (the United Kingdom) that the UK branded as terrorism. This was highlighted by the Quinn v. Robinson case.[75][76]
For these and other reasons, media outlets wishing to preserve a reputation for impartiality try to be careful in their use of the term.[77][78]
Types[edit]
Depending on the country, the political system, and the time in history, the types of terrorism is varying.
Number of failed, foiled or successful terrorist attacks by year and type within the European Union. Source: Europol.[79][80][81] 1 person died in terrorist attacks from separatist groups in 2010.[79]
King David Hotel after being bombed by the Zionist terrorist group Irgun, July 1946
A view of damages to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut caused by a terrorist bomb attack, April 1983
Sbarro pizza restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, in which 15 Israeli civilians were killed and 130 were wounded by a Hamas suicide bomber.
In early 1975, the Law Enforcement Assistant Administration in the United States formed the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals. One of the five volumes that the committee wrote was titled Disorders and Terrorism, produced by the Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism under the direction of H. H. A. Cooper, Director of the Task Force staff.[82] The Task Force classified terrorism into six categories.
Civil disorder – A form of collective violence interfering with the peace, security, and normal functioning of the community.
Political terrorism – Violent criminal behaviour designed primarily to generate fear in the community, or substantial segment of it, for political purposes.
Limited political terrorism – Genuine political terrorism is characterized by a revolutionary approach; limited political terrorism refers to "acts of terrorism which are committed for ideological or political motives but which are not part of a concerted campaign to capture control of the state.
Official or state terrorism – "referring to nations whose rule is based upon fear and oppression that reach similar to terrorism or such proportions". It may also be referred to as Structural Terrorism defined broadly as terrorist acts carried out by governments in pursuit of political objectives, often as part of their foreign policy.
Passive Terrorism - (Passive + Terrorism) is an, inert or quiescent behavior towards terrorism; an inaction, non-reaction, non-participation, non-involvement in countering terrorism. Passive terrorism describes a behavior of general public or government which silently allows the spread or promotion of terrorism by turning a blind eye or tolerating terrorism. Passive terrorism prevails when there is no deliberate effort or decision to either counter it or raise voice against it.
The term hasn’t been widely defined or discussed openly as yet and has just been recently emerging in the wake of recent ongoing terrorism activities against or in the countries like Pakistan. The word “Passive” has its origin from 1350 – 1400; Middle English Latin passīvus literally means submissive or to submit. “Terrorism” originated in 1795 from French terrorisme, from Latin terror; used as government intimidation during the reign of terror in France in 1795. Professor Daniel L Byman, in his article "Passive Sponsorship of Terrorism," (published in Journal "Survival" 2005), in the MIT Security Studies Seminar in 2004 defined the term "Passive Sponsorship of Terrorism" as the individuals assistance of terrorists without their permission. A regime is guilty of passive sponsorship if it knowingly allows a terrorist group to raise money, enjoy a sanctuary, recruit, or otherwise flourish but does not directly aid the group itself. Professor Byman define the following characteristics of Passive support of terrorism:
The regime in question itself does not provide assistance but knowingly allows other actors in the country to aid a terrorist group; The regime has the capacity to stop this assistance or has chosen not to develop this capacity, and Often passive support is given by political parties, wealthy merchants, or other actors in society that have no formal affiliation with the government.
Several sources[83][84][85] have further defined the typology of terrorism:
Political terrorism
Sub-state terrorism
Social revolutionary terrorism
Nationalist-separatist terrorism
Religious extremist terrorism
Religious fundamentalist Terrorism
New religions terrorism
Right-wing terrorism
Left-wing terrorism
Single-issue terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism
Regime or state terrorism
Criminal terrorism
Pathological terrorism
Russia in the Stalin Era[edit]
Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) was the base of putting people in Russian Gulags. It contained terms like:
Damage of transport, communication, water supply, warehouses and other buildings or state and communal property
Terrorist acts against representatives of Soviet power or of workers and peasants organisations
Counter-revolutionary sabotage
Counter-revolutionary action is any action aimed at overthrowing, undermining or weakening of the power of workers' and peasants' Soviets
Armed uprising or intervention with the goal to seize the power
Undermining of state industry, transport, monetary circulation or credit system, as well as of cooperative societies and organizations
Motivation of terrorists[edit]
Attacks on 'collaborators' are used to intimidate people from cooperating with the state in order to undermine state control. This strategy was used in Ireland, in Kenya, in Algeria and in Cyprus during their independence struggles.
Attacks on high profile symbolic targets are used to incite counter-terrorism by the state to polarize the population. This strategy was used by Al Qaeda in its attacks on the United States in September 2001. These attacks are also used to draw international attention to struggles that are otherwise unreported, such as the Palestinian airplane hijackings in 1970 and the South Moluccan hostage crisis in the Netherlands in 1975.
Abrahm suggests that terrorist organizations do not select terrorism for its political effectiveness.[86] Individual terrorists tend to be motivated more by a desire for social solidarity with other members of their organization than by political platforms or strategic objectives, which are often murky and undefined.[86]
Some terrorists like Timothy McVeigh were motivated by revenge against a state for its actions.
Democracy and domestic terrorism[edit]
Demonstration in Madrid against ETA, January 2000. Roughly a million people met there.
The relationship between domestic terrorism and democracy is very complex. Terrorism is most common in nations with intermediate political freedom, and is least common in the most democratic nations.[87][88][89][90] However, one study suggests that suicide terrorism may be an exception to this general rule. Evidence regarding this particular method of terrorism reveals that every modern suicide campaign has targeted a democracy–a state with a considerable degree of political freedom.[91] The study suggests that concessions awarded to terrorists during the 1980s and 1990s for suicide attacks increased their frequency.[92]
Some examples of "terrorism" in non-democracies include ETA in Spain under Francisco Franco (although the group's terrorist activities increased sharply after Franco's death),[93] the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in pre-war Poland,[94] the Shining Path in Peru under Alberto Fujimori,[95] the Kurdistan Workers Party when Turkey was ruled by military leaders and the ANC in South Africa.[96] Democracies, such as the United Kingdom, United States, Israel, Indonesia, India, Spain and the Philippines, have also experienced domestic terrorism.
While a democratic nation espousing civil liberties may claim a sense of higher moral ground than other regimes, an act of terrorism within such a state may cause a dilemma: whether to maintain its civil liberties and thus risk being perceived as ineffective in dealing with the problem; or alternatively to restrict its civil liberties and thus risk delegitimizing its claim of supporting civil liberties.[97] For this reason, homegrown terrorism has started to be seen as a greater threat, as stated by former CIA Director Michael Hayden.[98] This dilemma, some social theorists would conclude, may very well play into the initial plans of the acting terrorist(s); namely, to delegitimize the state.[99]
Religious terrorism[edit]
Main article: Religious terrorism
Civilians trapped in a London Underground train after a bomb exploded further down the train at Russell Square Tube station on 7th July 2005
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing. Some 35,000 Pakistanis have died from terrorist attacks in recent years.[100]
Religious terrorism is terrorism performed by groups or individuals, the motivation of which is typically rooted in faith-based tenets. Terrorist acts throughout the centuries have been performed on religious grounds with the hope to either spread or enforce a system of belief, viewpoint or opinion.[101] Religious terrorism does not in itself necessarily define a specific religious standpoint or view, but instead usually defines an individual or a group view or interpretation of that belief system's teachings.
Intimate terrorism[edit]
Main article: Intimate partner violence
Intimate terrorism (IT) may also involve emotional and psychological abuse. Intimate terrorism is one element in a general pattern of control by one partner over the other. Intimate terrorism is more likely to escalate over time, not as likely to be mutual, and more likely to involve serious injury.[102] IT batterers include two types: "Generally-violent-antisocial" and "dysphoric-borderline". The first type includes people with general psychopathic and violent tendencies. The second type are people who are emotionally dependent on the relationship.[103] Violence by a person against their intimate partner is often done as a way for controlling their partner, even if this kind of violence is not the most frequent.[104][105] Support for this typology has been found in subsequent evaluations.[106][107]
Perpetrators[edit]
The perpetrators of acts of terrorism can be individuals, groups, or states. According to some definitions, clandestine or semi-clandestine state actors may also carry out terrorist acts outside the framework of a state of war. However, the most common image of terrorism is that it is carried out by small and secretive cells, highly motivated to serve a particular cause and many of the most deadly operations in recent times, such as the September 11 attacks, the London underground bombing, 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2002 Bali bombing were planned and carried out by a close clique, composed of close friends, family members and other strong social networks. These groups benefited from the free flow of information and efficient telecommunications to succeed where others had failed.[108]
Over the years, many people have attempted to come up with a terrorist profile to attempt to explain these individuals' actions through their psychology and social circumstances. Others, like Roderick Hindery, have sought to discern profiles in the propaganda tactics used by terrorists. Some security organizations designate these groups as violent non-state actors.[109] A 2007 study by economist Alan B. Krueger found that terrorists were less likely to come from an impoverished background (28% vs. 33%) and more likely to have at least a high-school education (47% vs. 38%). Another analysis found only 16% of terrorists came from impoverished families, vs. 30% of male Palestinians, and over 60% had gone beyond high school, vs. 15% of the populace.[110]
To avoid detection, a terrorist will look, dress, and behave normally until executing the assigned mission. Some claim that attempts to profile terrorists based on personality, physical, or sociological traits are not useful.[111] The physical and behavioral description of the terrorist could describe almost any normal person.[112] However, the majority of terrorist attacks are carried out by military age men, aged 16–40.[112]
Non-state groups[edit]
Picture of the front of an addressed envelope to Senator Daschle.
There is speculation that anthrax mailed inside letters to U.S. politicians was the work of a lone wolf.
Main articles: List of designated terrorist organizations and Lone wolf (terrorism)
Groups not part of the state apparatus of in opposition to the state are most commonly referred to as a "terrorist" in the media.
State sponsors[edit]
Main article: State-sponsored terrorism
A state can sponsor terrorism by funding or harboring a terrorist organization. Opinions as to which acts of violence by states consist of state-sponsored terrorism vary widely. When states provide funding for groups considered by some to be terrorist, they rarely acknowledge them as such.
State terrorism[edit]
Main article: State terrorism
Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.
—Derrick Jensen[113]
Infant crying in Shanghai's South Station after the Japanese bombing, August 28, 1937.
As with "terrorism" the concept of "state terrorism" is controversial.[114] The Chairman of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee has stated that the Committee was conscious of 12 international Conventions on the subject, and none of them referred to State terrorism, which was not an international legal concept. If States abused their power, they should be judged against international conventions dealing with war crimes, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law.[115] Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that it is "time to set aside debates on so-called 'state terrorism'. The use of force by states is already thoroughly regulated under international law".[116] However, he also made clear that, "regardless of the differences between governments on the question of definition of terrorism, what is clear and what we can all agree on is any deliberate attack on innocent civilians, regardless of one's cause, is unacceptable and fits into the definition of terrorism."[117]
USS Arizona (BB-39) burning during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
State terrorism has been used to refer to terrorist acts by governmental agents or forces. This involves the use of state resources employed by a state's foreign policies, such as using its military to directly perform acts of terrorism. Professor of Political Science Michael Stohl cites the examples that include the German bombing of London, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the British firebombing of Dresden, and the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. He argues that "the use of terror tactics is common in international relations and the state has been and remains a more likely employer of terrorism within the international system than insurgents." They also cite the First strike option as an example of the "terror of coercive diplomacy" as a form of this, which holds the world hostage with the implied threat of using nuclear weapons in "crisis management". They argue that the institutionalized form of terrorism has occurred as a result of changes that took place following World War II. In this analysis, state terrorism exhibited as a form of foreign policy was shaped by the presence and use of weapons of mass destruction, and that the legitimizing of such violent behavior led to an increasingly accepted form of this state behavior.[118][119][119]
St Paul's Cathedral after the German bombing of London, c. 1940.
State terrorism has also been used to describe peacetime actions by governmental agents such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.[120] Charles Stewart Parnell described William Ewart Gladstone's Irish Coercion Act as terrorism in his "no-Rent manifesto" in 1881, during the Irish Land War.[121] The concept is also used to describe political repressions by governments against their own civilian population with the purpose to incite fear. For example, taking and executing civilian hostages or extrajudicial elimination campaigns are commonly considered "terror" or terrorism, for example during the Red Terror or Great Terror.[122] Such actions are often also described as democide or genocide, which has been argued to be equivalent to state terrorism.[123] Empirical studies on this have found that democracies have little democide.[124][125]
Funding[edit]
Main article: Terrorist financing
State sponsors have constituted a major form of funding; for example, Palestine Liberation Organization, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and some other terrorist groups were funded by the Soviet Union.[126][127] The Stern Gang received funding from Italian Fascist officers in Beirut to undermine the British Mandate for Palestine.[128] Pakistan has created and nurtured terrorist groups as policy for achieving tactical objectives against its neighbours, especially India.[129]
"Revolutionary tax" is another major form of funding, and essentially a euphemism for "protection money".[126] Revolutionary taxes are typically extorted from businesses (including farms cultivating illicit drugs (such as Papaver somniferum)[130] and they also "play a secondary role as one other means of intimidating the target population".[126]
Other major sources of funding include kidnapping for ransoms, smuggling (including wildlife smuggling),[131] fraud, and robbery.[126] The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant received funding "via private donations from the Gulf states".[132]
The Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body whose mandate, since October 2001, has included combatting terrorist financing.[133]
Tactics[edit]
Main article: Tactics of terrorism
The Wall Street bombing at noon on September 16, 1920 killed thirty-eight people and injured several hundred. The perpetrators were never caught.
Terrorism is a form of asymmetric warfare, and is more common when direct conventional warfare will not be effective because forces vary greatly in power.[134]
The context in which terrorist tactics are used is often a large-scale, unresolved political conflict. The type of conflict varies widely; historical examples include:
Secession of a territory to form a new sovereign state or become part of a different state
Dominance of territory or resources by various ethnic groups
Imposition of a particular form of government
Economic deprivation of a population
Opposition to a domestic government or occupying army
Religious fanaticism
Terrorist attacks are often targeted to maximize fear and publicity, usually using explosives or poison.[135] There is concern about terrorist attacks employing weapons of mass destruction. Terrorist organizations usually methodically plan attacks in advance, and may train participants, plant undercover agents, and raise money from supporters or through organized crime. Communications occur through modern telecommunications, or through old-fashioned methods such as couriers.
Responses[edit]
X-ray backscatter technology (AIT) machine used by the TSA to screen passengers. According to the TSA, this is what the remote TSA agent would see on their screen.
Responses to terrorism are broad in scope. They can include re-alignments of the political spectrum and reassessments of fundamental values.
Specific types of responses include:
Targeted laws, criminal procedures, deportations, and enhanced police powers
Target hardening, such as locking doors or adding traffic barriers
Preemptive or reactive military action
Increased intelligence and surveillance activities
Preemptive humanitarian activities
More permissive interrogation and detention policies
The term "counter-terrorism" has a narrower connotation, implying that it is directed at terrorist actors.
According to a report by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin in The Washington Post, "Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States."[136]
America's thinking on how to defeat radical Islamists is split along two very different schools of thought. Republicans, typically follow what is known as the Bush Doctrine, advocate the military model of taking the fight to the enemy and seeking to democratize the Middle East. Democrats, by contrast, generally propose the law enforcement model of better cooperation with nations and more security at home.[137] In the introduction of the U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Sarah Sewall states the need for "U.S. forces to make securing the civilian, rather than destroying the enemy, their top priority. The civilian population is the center of gravity—the deciding factor in the struggle.... Civilian deaths create an extended family of enemies—new insurgent recruits or informants––and erode support of the host nation." Sewall sums up the book’s key points on how to win this battle: "Sometimes, the more you protect your force, the less secure you may be.... Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is.... The more successful the counterinsurgency is, the less force can be used and the more risk must be accepted.... Sometimes, doing nothing is the best reaction."[138] This strategy, often termed "courageous restraint," has certainly led to some success on the Middle East battlefield, yet it fails to address the central truth: the terrorists we face are mostly homegrown.[137]
Mass media[edit]
La Terroriste, a 1910 poster depicting a female member of the Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party throwing a bomb at a Russian official's car.
Mass media exposure may be a primary goal of those carrying out terrorism, to expose issues that would otherwise be ignored by the media. Some consider this to be manipulation and exploitation of the media.[139]
The Internet has created a new channel for groups to spread their messages. This has created a cycle of measures and counter measures by groups in support of and in opposition to terrorist movements. The United Nations has created its own online counter-terrorism resource.[140]
The mass media will, on occasion, censor organizations involved in terrorism (through self-restraint or regulation) to discourage further terrorism. However, this may encourage organizations to perform more extreme acts of terrorism to be shown in the mass media. Conversely James F. Pastor explains the significant relationship between terrorism and the media, and the underlying benefit each receives from the other.[141]
There is always a point at which the terrorist ceases to manipulate the media gestalt. A point at which the violence may well escalate, but beyond which the terrorist has become symptomatic of the media gestalt itself. Terrorism as we ordinarily understand it is innately media-related.
—Novelist William Gibson[142]
History[edit]
Main article: History of terrorism
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was one of the earliest organizations to use modern terrorist techniques. Pictured, "The Fenian Guy Fawkes" by John Tenniel (1867).
The history of terrorism goes back to the Sicarii Zealots, a Jewish extremist group active in Judaea Province at the beginning of the 1st century AD. After Zealotry rebellion in the 1st century AD, when some prominent collaborators with Roman rule were killed,[143][144] according to contemporary historian Josephus, in 6 AD Judas of Galilee formed a small and more extreme offshoot of the Zealots, the Sicarii.[145] Their terror also was directed against Jewish "collaborators", including temple priests, Sadducees, Herodians, and other wealthy elites.[146]
The term "terrorism" itself was originally used to describe the actions of the Jacobin Club during the "Reign of Terror" in the French Revolution. "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible," said Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre. In 1795, Edmund Burke denounced the Jacobins for letting "thousands of those hell-hounds called Terrorists ... loose on the people" of France.[147]
In January 1858, Italian patriot Felice Orsini threw three bombs in an attempt to assassinate French Emperor Napoleon III.[148] Eight bystanders were killed and 142 injured.[148] The incident played a crucial role as an inspiration for the development of the early terrorist groups.[148]
Arguably the first organization to utilize modern terrorist techniques was the Irish Republican Brotherhood,[149] founded in 1858 as a revolutionary Irish nationalist group[150] that carried out attacks in England.[151] The group initiated the Fenian dynamite campaign in 1881, one of the first modern terror campaigns.[152] Instead of earlier forms of terrorism based on political assassination, this campaign used modern, timed explosives with the express aim of sowing fear in the very heart of metropolitan Britain, in order to achieve political gains.[153]
Another early terrorist organisation was Narodnaya Volya, founded in Russia in 1878 as a revolutionary anarchist group inspired by Sergei Nechayev and "propaganda by the deed" theorist Pisacane.[154][155] The group developed ideas—such as targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression'—that were to become the hallmark of subsequent violence by small non-state groups, and they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age—such as the invention of dynamite, which they were the first anarchist group to make widespread use of[156]—enabled them to strike directly and with discrimination.[157] Modern terrorism had largely taken shape by the turn of the 20th century.
Databases[edit]
The following terrorism databases are or were made publicly available for research purposes, and track specific acts of terrorism:
MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
Worldwide Incidents Tracking System
Tocsearch (dynamic database)
The following publicly available resource indexes electronic and bibliographic resources on the subject of terrorism:
Human Security Gateway
The following terrorism databases are maintained in secrecy by the United State Government for intelligence and counter-terrorism purposes:
Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment
Full Video.
Forbes opening: "When I arrived at a Stanford University auditorium Tuesday night for what I thought would be a pretty nerdy panel on deep learning, a fast-growing branch of artificial intelligence, I figured I must be in the wrong place–maybe a different event for all the new Stanford students and their parents visiting the campus. Nope. Despite the highly technical nature of deep learning, some 600 people had shown up for the sold-out AI event.
The turnout was a stark sign of the rising popularity of deep learning, an approach to AI that tries to mimic the activity of the brain in so-called neural networks. In just the last couple of years, deep learning software from giants like Google, Facebook, and China’s Baidu as well as a raft of startups, has led to big advances in image and speech recognition, medical diagnostics, stock trading, and more. “There’s quite a bit of excitement in this area,” panel moderator Steve Jurvetson, a partner with the venture firm DFJ, said with uncustomary understatement."
Protector of the Universe, Quasar
And other Cosmic-recruits from Terra, plus another band bro
Wendell Vaughn gets the Legends treatment, and they go with another Walgreens exclusive... But they democratized it this time, putting it online!
Thank you Ryan Ting and team!
I don’t hate the older look for the character, but most of my exposure to this guy in comics comes from the early ‘90s where he’s much younger, so it is a foreign look to me.
Overall a great look for the figure, the paint apps are excellent, and they even went with a paint app for the inner cape. But could you imagine if the cape was made out of a similar material to Genis-Vell’s sparkly dark transparent plastic?!
Cape is cumbersome on head movement and a bit awkward at times, but his large floppy feet keep this figure balanced without the cape touching ground.
Very cool addition to the Cosmic shelf! Hopefully Walgreens keeps up the online release of new Legends
#Quasar #Hasbro #LegendsQuasar #Darkhawk #NovaForce #QuantumBands
#HasbroPulse #ACBA #LegendsNova #LegendsDarkhawk #CosmicLegends #CosmicLevelThreat #marvel #marvelComics #MarvelLegends #MarvelLegends2022 #MarvelCosmic #actionFigures #CounterEarth #marvelhasbro #HasbroLegends #figurecollection #MakeMineMarvel #PosingActionFigures #toyPhotography #PlasticPhotography #TrueBeliever #WendellVaughn
EVEN DURING CIVIL UNREST, THERE IS ALWAYS TIME TO TEXT YOUR WIFE AND TELL HER THAT YOU WILL BE HOME LATE FROM WORK.
The riot police and police auxiliary finally showed up to clear out the protesters who were destroying property.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
FACES OF BOTH SIDES OF THE PROTEST.
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). While a friend and I were walking near where the inauguration was taking place, a small riot broke out around us; my friend being smarter than me immediately returned to the hotel while I stayed to take picture. A lot of young people showed up with bandanas covering much of their faces. The protesters were upset by the election of Pena Nieto, and believed election fraud had taken place. Several of the “rioters” identified themselves as belonging to Yo Soy 132.
Yo Soy 132 is an ongoing Mexican protest movement centered around the democratization of the country and its media. It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election. The name Yo Soy 132, Spanish for "I Am 132", originated in an expression of solidarity with the protest's initiators.
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
GUM (Russian: ГУМ, pronounced [gum], an abbreviation of Russian: Главный универсальный магазин, romanized: Glavnyy universalnyy magazin, lit. 'Main Universal Store') is the main department store in many cities of the former Soviet Union, known as State Department Store (Russian: Государственный универсальный магазин, romanized: Gosudarstvennyy universalnyy magazin) during the Soviet era (until 1991). Similarly named stores operated in some Soviet republics and in post-Soviet states.
The most famous GUM is the large store facing Red Square in the Kitai-gorod area – itself traditionally a mall of Moscow. Originally, and today again, the building functions as a shopping mall. During most of the Soviet period it was essentially a department store as there was one vendor: the Soviet State. Before the 1920s the location was known as the Upper Trading Rows (Russian: Верхние торговые ряды, romanized: Verkhniye Torgovyye Ryady).
As of 2021, GUM carries over 100 different brands,[1] and has cafes and restaurants inside the mall.
Moscow GUM
Design and structure
With the façade extending for 242 m (794 ft) along the eastern side of Red Square, the Upper Trading Rows were built between 1890 and 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev (responsible for architecture) and Vladimir Shukhov (responsible for engineering). The trapezoidal building features a combination of elements of Russian medieval architecture and a steel framework and glass roof, a similar style to the great 19th-century railway stations of London. William Craft Brumfield described the GUM building as "a tribute both to Shukhov's design and to the technical proficiency of Russian architecture toward the end of the 19th century".
The glass-roofed design made the building unique at the time of construction. The roof, the diameter of which is 14 m (46 ft), looks light, but it is a firm construction made of more than 50,000 metal pods (about 743 t (819 short tons)), capable of supporting snowfall accumulation. Illumination is provided by huge arched skylights of iron and glass, each weighing some 740 t (820 short tons) and containing in excess of 20,000 panes of glass. The facade is divided into several horizontal tiers, lined with red Finnish granite, Tarusa marble, and limestone. Each arcade is on three levels, linked by walkways of reinforced concrete.
History
Catherine II of Russia commissioned Giacomo Quarenghi, a Neoclassical architect from Italy, to design a huge trade area along the east side of Red Square. However, that building was lost to the 1812 Fire of Moscow and replaced by trading rows designed by Joseph Bove. In turn, the current structure opened in 1894, replacing Bove's.
By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores. After the Revolution, GUM was nationalized. During the NEP period (1921–28), however, GUM as a State Department Store operated as a model retail enterprise for consumers throughout Russia regardless of class, gender, and ethnicity. GUM's stores were used to further Bolshevik goals of rebuilding private enterprise along socialist lines and "democratizing consumption for workers and peasants nationwide". In the end, GUM's efforts to build communism through consumerism were unsuccessful and arguably "only succeeded in alienating consumers from state stores and instituting a culture of complaint and entitlement".
GUM continued to be used as a department store until Joseph Stalin converted it into office space in 1928 for the committee in charge of his first Five Year Plan.[4] After the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadezhda in 1932, the GUM was used briefly to display her body.
After reopening as a department store in 1953, GUM became one of the few stores in the Soviet Union that did not have shortages of consumer goods, and the queues of shoppers were long, often extending entirely across Red Square.
Several times during the 1960s and 1970s, the Second Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Suslov, who hated having a department store facing Lenin's Mausoleum, tried to convert GUM into an exhibition hall and museum showcasing the achievements of the Soviet Union and Communism, without the knowledge of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Each time, however, Brezhnev was tipped off and put a stop to such plans.
At the end of the Soviet era, GUM was partially, then fully, privatized, and it had a number of owners before it ended up being owned by the supermarket company Perekrestok. In May 2005, a 50.25% interest was sold to Bosco di Ciliegi, a Russian luxury goods distributor and boutique operator. As a private shopping mall, it was renamed in such a fashion that it could maintain its old acronym. The first word Gosudarstvennyi ("state") has been replaced with Glavnyi ("main"), so that GUM is now an abbreviation for "Main Universal Store".
Red Square (Russian: Красная площадь, romanized: Krasnaya ploshchad', IPA: [ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ]) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, in the eastern walls of the Kremlin. It is the city's most prominent landmark, with famous buildings such as Saint Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum and the GUM department store. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. Red Square has been the scene of executions, demonstrations, riots, parades, and speeches. Almost 800,000 square feet (73,000 square metres), it lies directly east of the Kremlin and north of the Moskva River. A moat that separated the square from the Kremlin was paved over in 1812.
Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million residents within the city limits, over 18.8 million residents in the urban area, and over 21.5 million residents in the metropolitan area. The city covers an area of 2,511 square kilometers (970 sq mi), while the urban area covers 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 sq mi), and the metropolitan area covers over 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 sq mi). Moscow is among the world's largest cities, being the most populous city entirely in Europe, the largest urban and metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent.
First documented in 1147, Moscow grew to become a prosperous and powerful city that served as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. When the Tsardom of Russia was proclaimed, Moscow remained the political and economic center for most of its history. Under the reign of Peter the Great, the Russian capital was moved to the newly founded city of Saint Petersburg in 1712, diminishing Moscow's influence. Following the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Russian SFSR, the capital was moved back to Moscow in 1918, where it later became the political center of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Moscow remained the capital city of the newly established Russian Federation.
The northernmost and coldest megacity in the world, Moscow is governed as a federal city, where it serves as the political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe. As an alpha world city, Moscow has one of the world's largest urban economies. The city is one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in the world, and is one of Europe's most visited cities. Moscow is home to the sixth-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. The Moscow International Business Center is one of the largest financial centers in Europe and the world, and features the majority of Europe's tallest skyscrapers. Moscow was the host city of the 1980 Summer Olympics, and one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
As the historic core of Russia, Moscow serves as the home of numerous Russian artists, scientists, and sports figures due to the presence of its various museums, academic and political institutions, and theaters. The city is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is well known for its display of Russian architecture, particularly its historic Red Square, and buildings such as the Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Moscow Kremlin, of which the latter serves as the seat of power of the Government of Russia. Moscow is home to many Russian companies in numerous industries and is served by a comprehensive transit network, which includes four international airports, ten railway terminals, a tram system, a monorail system, and most notably the Moscow Metro, the busiest metro system in Europe, and one of the largest rapid transit systems in the world. The city has over 40 percent of its territory covered by greenery, making it one of the greenest cities in the world.
Russia (Russian: Россия, romanized: Rossiya), or the Russian Federation,[b] is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world by area, extending across eleven time zones. It shares land boundaries with fourteen countries.[c] It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country. The country's capital as well as its largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and cultural capital. Other major urban areas in the country include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don.
The East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics, within which it was the largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s and later played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for global ideological influence. The Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space.
In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the independent Russian Federation. A new constitution was adopted, which established a federal semi-presidential system. Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, under whom the country has experienced democratic backsliding and a shift towards authoritarianism. Russia has been militarily involved in a number of conflicts in former Soviet states and other countries, including its war with Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014 from neighbouring Ukraine, followed by the further annexation of four other regions in 2022 during an ongoing invasion.
Internationally, Russia ranks among the lowest in measurements of democracy, human rights and freedom of the press; the country also has high levels of perceived corruption. The Russian economy ranks 11th by nominal GDP, relying heavily on its abundant natural resources, and 68th by GDP per capita. Its mineral and energy sources are the world's largest, and its figures for oil production and natural gas production rank highly globally. Russia possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and has the third-highest military expenditure. The country is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; a member state of the G20, SCO, BRICS, APEC, OSCE, and WTO; and the leading member state of post-Soviet organisations such as CIS, CSTO, and EAEU/EEU. Russia is home to 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, compassion without wisdom is folly -- Fred Kofman
"After having worked at Yahoo for seven years and making the decision to leave, I started to think a lot about what I wanted to do next. I've long been interested in education reform, and specifically the democratization of knowledge, which was one of the primary dynamics that drew me to the consumer web, digital media and search specifically. Consistent with this passion, I drafted a personal vision statement: To expand the world's collective wisdom.
A few weeks after developing that vision, I found myself at dinner one night with my friend Fred Kofman, founder of Axialent, author of "Conscious Business", and one of the most enlightened people I've met throughout my career. After sharing my objective with him, he said, "That's very powerful, but bear in mind, wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, and compassion without wisdom is folly." The line stopped me cold in my tracks. After some additional back and forth, I said I was amending my initial vision to read "To expand the world's collective wisdom and compassion" and that objective has influenced every aspect of my work ever since."
-Jeff Weiner
Linkedin CEO
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue