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Do you know what "hikifakcava" means? That's a Lebanese way to tell someone, Hi, how are you?
This one simple sentence (or shall I say a mutant-word), consisting of 3 different words, in 3 different languages - Hi (English), kifak (how are you/Arabic), ca va (French), fully expresses the lingvo-cultural diversity in Lebanon.
This tiny land is a mix of all confessions, cultural and ethnic groups otherwise scattered throughout the Middle East. Christian Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Melkite and Protestants, Muslim Sunnis, Alawites, Ismailis, progressive Muslims and Druze. Add to this work immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and all over Africa.
When you ask a simple question to a random passer by, he first answers you in Arabic (they say I look like a local), and when you say your Arabic is very limited, they ask "Engish? French?". And when they know I'm Armenian, they'll always find a word or two in my native language to say :)
Sometimes, though, these utterly nice, hospitable, kind people make wars. And they kill each other because of religion, ethnicity, and anything else they can think of. The last civil war in Lebanon lasted from 1975 to 1990, and took lives of around 250,000 people. All Lebanese.
Now, to the positive side.
They call Beirut "The Paris of Middle East". It's been continuously inhabited for more than 5000 years now. It still bears traces of French colonization, not only in language, but also in architecture. Beirut is unlike any other Middle Eastern capital in being very liberal and culturally progressive. More than anything, Beirut is about arts, expressing one's ideas through street paintings, graffiti and music. We came across these stairs on a random street, while having a walk. We then spotted few more, with different patterns and colors.
Before we traveled to Beirut from Amman, a colleague told me, "Everyone loves Amman until they visit Beirut". And "You'll either hate it, or love it forever".
I love Beirut.
Thanks for your visit and have a great day!
From Dollar Lake looking south, immediately, our decision to continue on our trek was questioned.
"Aaaaaah, it's just a little shower"
Prise de vue :
Leica M3, Summarit 5cm f/1.5.
Kodak : Trix 400@800 Asa.
Développement :
Kodak : D76 1+1 (11 mn) @ 20°.
Scanner :
Epson 1650.
#AbFav_SIGNS_of_SPRING_🐝
On my last visit to Belgium, I met up with a friend, a lady who is also a keen 'free-style' gardener like me, so it was inevitable that we talk plants and flowers...
I asked her the 'impossible' question, what is YOUR favourite flower???
After some humming and aahhing, her answer was WALLFLOWER!!!!!!
For all its stunning colours, no two are ever the same.
One of the few flowers that I had not photographed in the studio yet...
The weather was lovely, a late Easter Sunday, we wandered through her garden and I saw the wallflowers!
She got involved with a plant and that was my opportunity to take the shots!
Here they are, the fragrant multi-coloured wallflowers.
Lead and enjoy a good life, do and say things that enrich... and do not forget to tell the people close to you, how much you love them!
With love to you and thank you for ALL your faves and comments, M, (* _ *)
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Wall-flower, Cheiranthus, center, petals, stamens, yellow, russet, orange, flower, Spring, natural, green, macro, colour, single, square, NikoD7000, "Magda indigo"
Is it big? Is it small?
Minigolf de Plage, Franceville, FR, 2020
Arkliukas, pin 0,2 mm, Kodak Portra 400
Il. Title- ( - sang sur mains - ) Mike Mullen having a nice steak dinner with a 'clear conscience' ... ( On top of dead Afghani civilians & dead soldiers.. Egomaniac.. ) Yes Wikileaks shared this piece inspired by them & their work: twitter.com/wikileaks/status/21824111844 it & the entire Wikileaks series is not- for sale.
At some point there may be an exhibition with funds going towards WL & Bradley Manning.
But for now none of the pieces in the series are commercially available or for sale to private individuals.
They do have free use by Wikileaks however.
More work to be posted soon.
Dimensions: 18" x 24.5" acid free paper, acrylics, gouache & ebony pencil
"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," Mullen said."
www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/29/pentagon-wikileaks-bl...
MMm no- Mullen..How can we end these wars ASAP- & STOP you from getting any MORE blood on YOUR hands..
( News from Wikileaks Twitter feed, 8 - 19 - 2012: "In fact, being from another planet, he might even have picked up on something that most Americans would be unlikely to notice -- that, with only slight alterations, Mullen’s blistering comment about Assange could be applied remarkably well to Mullen himself. “Chairman Mullen,” that Martian might have responded, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he is doing, but the truth is he already has on his hands the blood of some young soldiers and that of many Afghan families.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml )
War Diary - wardiary.wikileaks.org/ Timeline: wartimeline.haineault.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mullen#2007_Senate_testimon...
& from the Pentagon- "“We want whatever they have returned to us and we want whatever copies they have expunged… We demand that they do the right thing. If doing the right thing is not good enough for them, then we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing." mashable.com/2010/08/05/pentagon-wikileaks-demand/
The NERVE.. -
Wikileaks - "What we didn't hear from the Pentagon last week: "killing all those innocent people is bad. Sorry. We will stop that" Thursday, August 05, 2010
YES.
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"Thousands of children and adults had been killed and the US could have announced a broad inquiry into these killings, "but he decided to treat these issues with contempt''.
He said: "This behaviour is unacceptable. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."" - www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/us-military-wikileak...
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( From Wikileaks twitter- Aug 19 2010 _ ) -
Wikileaks vs the Pentagon: Phony Fingerpointing
Tom Engelhardt:: Who Really Has Blood On Their Hands?
"Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site. "Mr. Assange,” Mullen commented, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”
Now, if you were the proverbial fair-minded visitor from Mars (who in school civics texts of my childhood always seemed to land on Main Street, U.S.A., to survey the wonders of our American system), you might be a bit taken aback by Mullen’s statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands.
The British Guardian was one of three publications given early access to the leaked archive, and it began its main article this way: “A huge cache of secret U.S. military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. They range from the shootings of individual innocents to the often massive loss of life from air strikes...” Or as the paper added in a piece headlined “Secret CIA paramilitaries’ role in civilian deaths”: “Behind the military jargon, the war logs are littered with accounts of civilian tragedies.
The 144 entries in the logs recording some of these so-called ‘blue on white’ events, cover a wide spectrum of day-by-day assaults on Afghans, with hundreds of casualties.” Or as it also reported, when exploring documents related to Task Force 373, an “undisclosed ‘black’ unit” of U.S. special operations forces focused on assassinating Taliban and al-Qaeda “senior officials”: “The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women, and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.”
Admittedly, the events recorded in the Wikileaks archive took place between 2004 and the end of 2009, and so don’t cover the last six months of the Obama administration’s across-the-board surge in Afghanistan. Then again, Admiral Mullen became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October 2007, and so has been at the helm of the American war machine for more than two of the years in question.
He was, for example, chairman in July 2008, when an American plane or planes took out an Afghan bridal party -- 70 to 90 strong and made up mostly of women -- on a road near the Pakistani border. They were "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates." The bride, whose name we don’t know, died, as did at least 27 other members of the party, including children. Mullen was similarly chairman in August 2008 when a memorial service for a tribal leader in the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan’s Herat Province was hit by repeated U.S. air strikes that killed at least 90 civilians, including perhaps 15 women and up to 60 children. Among the dead were 76 members of one extended family, headed by Reza Khan, a "wealthy businessman with construction and security contracts with the nearby American base at Shindand airport."
Mullen was still chairman in April 2009 when members of the family of Awal Khan, an Afghan army artillery commander on duty elsewhere, were killed in a U.S.-led raid in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. Among them were his "schoolteacher wife, a 17-year-old daughter named Nadia, a 15-year-old son, Aimal, and his brother, employed by a government department.” Another daughter was wounded and the pregnant wife of Khan's cousin was shot five times in the abdomen.
Mullen remained chairman when, in November 2009, two relatives of Majidullah Qarar, the spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture, were shot down in cold blood in Ghazni City in a Special Operations night raid; as he was -- and here we move beyond the Wikileaks time frame -- when, in February 2010, U.S. Special Forces troops in helicopters struck a convoy of mini-buses, killing up to 27 civilians, including women and children; as he also was when, in that same month, in a special operations night raid, two pregnant women and a teenage girl, as well as a police officer and his brother, were shot to death in their home in a village near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. After which, the soldiers reportedly dug the bullets out of the bodies, washed the wounds with alcohol, and tried to cover the incident up. He was no less chairman late last month when residents of a small town in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan claimed that a NATO missile attack had killed 52 civilians, an incident that, like just about every other one mentioned above and so many more, was initially denied by U.S. and NATO spokespeople and is now being “investigated.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml
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"What is interesting is who is responsible for the killings.
Of the 1,325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan human rights group, 23 per cent were attributed to Nato or Afghan government forces. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 68 per cent of the deaths.
The UN study claimed the civilian death toll was slightly lower at 1,271 with anti-government forces blamed for 76 per cent of the casualties.
Chronicling precise figures is extremely difficult because most parts of the country are inaccessible.
Crucially, both studies suggested that the proportion of deaths attributed to Nato and Afghan government forces were down compared to last year because of fewer air strikes.
This is important because clumsy air strikes on innocent villages and unfair raids on their houses has been driving a lot of Afghans to pick up arms on behalf of insurgents."
by, Hamida Ghafour
More: www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100811/OP...
& -
"My countrymen called me a prostitute
(Filed: 26/10/2004)
Fourteen months ago, Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover her native countrys postwar reconstruction for this newspaper. But, as a westernised Afghan, her homecoming wasnt as welcoming as she had hoped"
www.afghanistan.org/news_detail.asp?17220
I am skeptical about agendas.. It can be confusing, this is why for better or worse one must have THE FACTS - it would have been better if we had them from the START.
Without facts no one cares what we do- or who we kill, because we simply don't have ANY concept of how a decade long war is going..
“The government is engaging in selective prosecution to ensure that employees keep their mouths shut,” says Stephen Khon, a lawyer specializing in whistleblowing cases. “All of a sudden the whistleblower becomes public enemy number one. There is no proportionality.” www.alternet.org/world/147778/how_the_military_destroys_t...
This- - you MUST watch-- It's of Afghani's asking for peace & for us to leave- "Wikileaks Assange, stand freely for love & we in Afg will stand with you.." From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9E_nXiPj9g
US war crimes: soldiers speak out. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6s1V0Dpuw
From Wikileaks Twitter- "UNAMA Human Rights Unit issued recommendations in the report including:
• The Taliban should withdraw all orders and statements calling for the killing of civilians; and, the Taliban and other AGEs should end the use of IEDs and suicide attacks, comply with international humanitarian law, cease acts of intimidation and killing including assassination, execution and abduction, fully respect citizens’ freedom of movement and stop using civilians as human shields.
• International military forces should make more transparent their investigation and reporting on civilian casualties including on accountability; maintain and strengthen directives restricting aerial attacks and the use of night raids; coordinate investigation and reporting of civilian casualties with the Afghan Government to improve protection and accountability; improve compensation processes; and, improve transparency around any harm to civilians caused by Special Forces operations.
• The Afghan Government should create a public body to lead its response to major civilian casualty incidents and its interaction with international military forces and other key actors, ensure investigations include forensic components, ensure transparent and timely compensation to victims; and, improve accountability including discipline or prosecution for any Afghan National Security Forces personnel who unlawfully cause death or injury to civilians or otherwise violate the rights of Afghan citizens."
unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Deta...
From Wikileaks Twitter- CBC
"A bomb is found tucked into a school typewriter. Insurgents dressed in military uniforms attack an education chief. School guards are tied up while the building is bombed to smithereens. Teachers and students at an all-girls high school are poisoned through the drinking water."
"School attacks
Year Number of attacks against schools
2005 98
2006 220
2007 236
2008 348
2009 610
Source: UNICEF. Data for 2008 and 2009 are from the UN Country Task Force on Children, and previous years are from the Ministry of Education."
"Education for children up in Afghanistan since 2002- .
"Nine years ago, about 100,000 students were enrolled in schools. The figure now stands at more than seven million students, one-third of whom are girls, according to the Afghanistan Ministry of Education.
"It's one of those sectors where we've seen radical and dramatic progress since 2002," notes Rowell.
"No one knows where the country is going … but education is a beacon of success."
Read more: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/06/f-afghanistan-education...
& www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/database-afghan-war-logs/
""
"New Petition Gains Prominent Signatures: “Defend WikiLeaks – End the Secret Wars” - Sign: seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/64042
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Jung.
Treating Soldier Stress: www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2008931_2172992,00...
"Afghan War Diary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Afghan War Diary (also called The War Logs) is a collection of internal U.S. military logs of the War in Afghanistan published by Wikileaks on 25 July 2010.
The logs consist of 91,731 documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. Most of the documents were classified as "secret", which The New York Times called "a relatively low level of classification".
As of 28 July 2010, only 75,000 of the documents have been released to the public, a move which Wikileaks says is "part of a harm minimization process demanded by [the] source". Prior to releasing the initial 75,000 documents, Wikileaks made the logs available to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel in its German and English on-line edition which published reports per previous agreement on that same day, July 25, 2010."
&
"In June 2010, Guardian journalist Nick Davies and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange established that the US army had built a huge database with six years of sensitive military intelligence material, to which many thousands of US soldiers had access and some of them had been able to download copies, and WikiLeaks had one copy which it proposed to publish online, via a series of uncensorable global servers.
Wikileaks describes itself as "a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public."
In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that "we have a stated commitment to a particular kind of process and objective, and that commitment is to get censored material out and never to take it down." He contrasted the group with other media outlets by saying that "other journalists try to verify sources. We don't do that, we verify documents. We don't care where it came from." He denied that the group has an inherent bias against the Afghanistan War, saying that "We don't have a view about whether the war should continue or stop – we do have a view that it should be prosecuted as humanely as possible." However, he also said that he believes the leaked information will turn world public opinion to think more negatively of the war."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary
"War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford." -
Hannah Arendt
"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...
"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...
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology )
"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-...
"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...
"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...
"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...
"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 is a large study/drawing, Assange/Wikileakers of the organization Wikileaks ( wikileaks.org ) uses 'matches from sources' to disclose US gov secrecy ( behind large black curtains ) & to also finally bring some much needed attention & closure to some of these revelations ( set ablaze ).
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
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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
---
-
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. "
Albert Einstein
IMAGINE THE HAPPINESS & GREAT WORK AHEAD OF US WE COULD HAVE AT THE END OF THE WARS!!!!!!!!!
www.goear.com/listen/48d6016/hora-de-la-mehedinti-romania...
NO MORE WAR & FREEDOM FOR ALL WAR NATIONS!!!!!!!!!
Peace.
You read that right, this is the 3 year anniversary of my first post on Flickr.
What a ride it has been thus far. Many ups, many downs, many laughs, many tears... I can't thank this site enough for the experiences it's brought me, both good and bad. It's shaped me into who I am now and who I am in the process of becoming.
And I want to thank all 178 of you for sticking with and supporting me. I know to some this site is dead, but in my eyes it is invincible, and I shan't leave until I'm forced to.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, I will be holding a Q&A in the comment section. Ask whatever you please (unless the question is offensive and/or inappropriate, in-which case I'll delete your comment)
~Madam Web
ce goéland a l'air d'avoir les plumes qui prennent l'eau quelqu'un sait-il pourquoi ?
This one looks like soaked , anyone knowing why ?
in the geometry
of my
body
lies a
soul.....
my mind in command position....
different and inherent parts of me....
sometimes I try to define
others to understand......
It should be simple.....
tricky
isnt it?
how this supposed to be
free
soul
can be attached to anything?????
and if my body is mine
and my soul is free
how is my mind so confused.....???
Ela mora no mar
Ela brinca na areia
No balanço das ondas
A paz, ela semeia .·´¯(_♪
:)
Obrigada Claudio.!!
in the mathematics of perfect roundness.
instruments can be resetted by the wonderful curvature of you
all souls are free. All just need a key to to be captured
from Wayne...
I've been wanting to make the joker batman for a while now and I only have one batman cowl left. I was going to use it for another bat figure that I started a while ago, but now I really want to make the joker batman. Should I just do it??
Model: Lilith Etch. Shot with Lilith inside the Lastolite Hilite. Questions, comments and critique welcome.
Instagram ≈ Youpic ≈ flickr ≈ 500px ≈ tumblr
© Copyright 2022 Barrie Spence. All rights reserved and moral rights asserted. Theses images are not in the public domain and may not be used without licence.
Comments are very welcome and very much appreciated, but any with linked/embedded images will be removed.
Found this very fresh Question mark in Juniata county 14July2021. I just love all the deep red/brown with the purples!
s'il vous plaît, je demande qu'aucun montréalais ni québécois ne réponde à cette question, à quoi sert ce poteau jaune.
It was an unusually cooler day with low humidity. I started out my day with a pleasant morning run when I saw these swans grooming near the shore of the Huron River
"How do you know when it's time for you to go
How can you stop when you don't know how to start
How can you go back when you don't know why you're here
How can you see when your eyes begin to fade
How will you hear when you've heard it all before
How do you do all the things you want to do
How much can you take when you've taken all you can
Hoe can you act when you've never seen the script
How can you choose when you don't know which is right
How far can you go if you've been there before
How can you shine if you've never seen the sun
How does a child become a man without a child
How can you heal someone that doesn't want to heal"
From the great and underrated INXS album Welcome to wherever you are: youtu.be/Us3p7SsrxvM
Last shot I would get of 513 on its way back to Atlantic before a State Trooper would question me about my interest in 513.
There were many unanswered questions in this house: such as why these shoes were left behind. I confess I put them on the window sill where I could photograph them better.
In questa composizione essenziale, la silhouette dei volatili si staglia su un fondo immacolato, trasformando un momento naturale in un gesto quasi grafico. L’assenza totale di dettagli e di contesto amplifica la forza del contrasto, lasciando che la purezza delle forme parli da sé. Le figure, distribuite nello spazio con un ritmo misurato, evocano un senso di movimento corale, come se ciascun soggetto partecipasse a una coreografia segreta e armoniosa.
La fotografia diventa così un esercizio di sottrazione, in cui il superfluo svanisce e rimane solo l’essenza del volo: libertà, direzione, tensione verso l’altrove. Il vuoto circostante non è assenza, ma respiro; un campo visivo che permette allo sguardo di seguire ogni sagoma senza distrazioni. L’insieme suggerisce un equilibrio tra ordine e spontaneità, tra natura e astrazione, invitando l’osservatore a contemplare la poesia che nasce quando il reale viene ridotto al suo profilo più puro.
In this essential composition, the silhouettes of the birds stand out against an immaculate background, transforming a natural moment into an almost graphic gesture. The total absence of detail and context amplifies the power of contrast, allowing the purity of the forms to speak for itself. The figures, arranged in space with a measured rhythm, evoke a sense of collective movement, as if each subject were taking part in a secret, harmonious choreography.
The photograph thus becomes an exercise in subtraction, in which the superfluous fades away and only the essence of flight remains: freedom, direction, a tension toward elsewhere. The surrounding void is not an absence but a breath—an expanse that allows the eye to follow each silhouette without distraction. The whole suggests a balance between order and spontaneity, between nature and abstraction, inviting the viewer to contemplate the poetry that emerges when reality is reduced to its purest outline.
Beneath a sky fractured by shifting clouds, Lofoten’s peaks rise in jagged defiance, their edges etched against the dimming light like the script of an ancient, undeciphered language. Golden beams, sharp and fleeting, lance through the mist, not to illuminate but to sculpt—carving lines of impermanence into the rugged stone, as if the universe were writing an ode to its own imperfection.
The mountains do not stand; they loom, timeless yet restless, their forms whispering of upheaval and stillness in the same breath. Mist coils through the valleys, not as concealment, but as something alive, something uncertain—an interlude between revelation and obscurity. The scene feels less like a landscape and more like a question suspended in the air, unanswered and unanswerable, vibrating with quiet intensity.
This is no harmony, no serene moment of balance; it is a collision—a struggle between light and shadow, permanence and decay. The peaks are not guardians or monuments; they are the earth’s raw truth laid bare, fractured, unyielding, yet strangely vulnerable beneath the weight of the sky’s indifferent gaze. The light does not caress them—it strikes, refracts, vanishes, leaving no promise of return.
In this tableau, the boundaries of self dissolve. To behold it is to teeter on the edge of comprehension, caught between the transient and the eternal. The mountains seem less a part of the earth and more a rupture in it, a place where the world has torn itself open to reveal something both terrifying and profound: a reminder that existence is neither fixed nor fleeting but an ongoing act of becoming, always at the mercy of forces beyond understanding.
* * *
Find out more beautiful landscapes of Norway and Lofoten's untouched wilderness in my photos, stories and films on the website www.coronaviking.com
I’m sorry guys for not having been around lately and replying all your kind comments and questions on my previous builds, I’ve been very busy making this one, hope you guys like it :)
It’s my final build for this Iron Builder round…fiuhhh…what a relieve! I'm so tired and exhausted!...hahahaha
I never play Warhammer before and I’m not quite sure the exact world of Warhammer, and this build is inspired by my friend Dennis Qiu who’s a fan of Warhammer 40K. This is my take on the world of Warhammer Space Marine which I know this slightly different from the real Warhammer 40K, the shape, name, logo, etc. Therefore I call it Warhammer 50K, a reimagined from the world of Warhammer 40K.
For the building process itself, I look mostly for references on Google, Warhammer Wikia, and Warhammer Model Kit.
Other Lego builder references which inspired this build are:
▪ For references on Warhammer made with Lego I look on Jerac’s build which is very awesome and true with the original design of Warhammer, and Gary Rocks works with his awesome LDD design of Warhammer using heavily custom part color.
▪ For the castle ruins on the background, I use Derfel Cadarn tutorial technique and wall texture style.
▪ For the shot/bullet effect is inspired by the exploration works by Grantmasters.
I would also like to thank my friends who letting me buy and or borrow their Dark Blue parts and Minifigs: Andry Gosal, Felix Wilson, Dody Bachtiar, and Dede Kurniawan :)
Based from all that references and the limitation of part choices in Dark Blue and what I have, I have to modified shape and design from the original Warhammer design.
This build also mark my first use of using water slide decal (for the helmet face), and this build also took the longest time to plan and build, and most difficult to build and taking the photo by far from my other entry for this IB round.
▪ The Model build, here.
▪ The Patrol scene, here.
▪ The Missile Launcher Tank: Front, Side, Rear.
▪ The Canon Tank: Front, Side, Rear.
▪ The Sword Mech, here.
▪ The Axe Mech, here.
▪ The Missile Launcher Mech, here.
▪ The Flamethrower Mech, here.
▪ The Gattling Gun Mech, here.
▪ The Machine Gun Mech, here.
▪ The Heroes - Space Marine, here.
▪ The Villain - Orcs, here.
▪ The Castle Gate Ruins, here.
▪ The Castle Tower Ruins, here.
▪ Photo Album of The Warhammer 50K, here.
It’s my 24th entry for Iron Builder competition vs. Gilcelio Chagas. The secret ingredient for this round is 2 x 2 Domes in Dark Blue.
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Poke me at:
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Featured on:
▪ BacemMOC
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Model: Natalie Smith.. Window light - French doors on the left, white v-flat on the right. Questions, comments, discussion and critique always welcome.
© Copyright 2020 Barrie Spence. All rights reserved and moral rights asserted. Theses images are not in the public domain and may not be used without licence.
Comments are very welcome and very much appreciated, but any with linked/embedded images will be removed.
I have never used anything but Google Picasa since I have been into photography. Google has discontinued it an no longer supports it. I have searched many options and have found nothing that compares. I want something to store,organize, edit and e-mail pictures from. What do you use ?
This curious and colourful little fella, contemplating life's big questions. Taken from the archive.
Oeuvre de DAN FLAVIN - Sans titre -1971-
Art minimal américain exposé actuellement au Centre Pompidou de Metz.
What is she thinking about?
I have a dozen versions coming up in my mind.
While uploading the photo, I was thinking about giving you some context, but I'd rather leave it up to you.
Thanks for visiting! Most photos are of Mei, my wife and muse.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
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