Remember Darfur?

Sometimes I feel guilty for going on with my daily life when a genocide rages in the middle of Africa. I think what it must have been like for people in New York in 1915 when my ancestors were being killed, raped, beaten or forced into exile during the Armenian Genocide in a corner of Western consciousness as remote then as Sudan is today.

I don’t know what the solution is and I can’t admit to knowing all the details of the human rights catastrophe that is Darfur but I know that I am not doing enough.

I learned today that February 26, 2003 is to the Darfur genocide, what April 24, 1915 is to the Armenian genocide. It is reassuring to know that the UN chief says Darfur is a top priority, though considering this is the same man that allowed a Rwandan genocide exhibition to be censured of a quote that mentioned the Armenian Genocide (at the request of Turkish officials), I’m not holding my breath. Today, BBC reports that”Sudan ‘resumes bombing in Darfur’“–awful.

When I came across these images (one is pictured above) today by journalist Levon Sevunts from his time in Sudan in 2004 I wanted to share them since they offer a glimpse into a tragedy that continues (complete set of photographs)…

Here are some truths (courtesy the Washington Post) about Darfur that you may not know:

1. Nearly everyone involved is Muslim
2. Everyone is black
3. It’s all about politics
4. This conflict is international
5. The “genocide” label made it worse

For those that want to learn more, these are useful:

• Save Darfur website
• Wikipedia’s history of the Darfur conflict
• Genocide Intervention Network
• Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop
• Other riveting images of the Darfur crisis here at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website
• BBC’s easy to follow facts about the conflict

Mapping the Blogosphere – Brooklyn Ranks 23rd

The world’s 30 most active blogging cities, according to BusinessWeek and FeedBurner:

• Most active: NY, LA, London, Chicago, Rome, Madrid, Toronto, Houston, Washington, Atlanta
• 11-20: Paris, Seattle, San Diego, Austin, Minneapolis, Denver, SF, Portland, Dallas, Singapore
• 21-30: St Louis, Jakarta, Brooklyn (NY), Philadelphia, Mexico City, Montreal, Beijing, Moscow, Mumbai, Columbus

{Hat tip to Lunch Over IP}

Trekking Central Asia

Occasionally I fumble upon a blog that I quickly become addicted to…well, my latest fix is Joshua Kocera’s blog “Istanbul-Beijing,” which does a beautiful job of documenting his travels from…wait for it…Istanbul to Beijing.

I first found Josh when he was wandering Georgia, poised to enter Armenia. His take on Armenia–which I’ve been to three times–pointed out stuff people never seem to notice and proved to me his perspective was fresh and new.

Nowadays, Josh (a veteran blogger from Iraqi Kurdistan–and a journalist with articles in The Nation & Jane’s Defence Weekly) is touring Azerbaijan and each post is getting better and better:

…I went to the service at a Wahabbi/Salafist mosque, and found people exceedingly welcoming. I had never attended an actual Friday service before, much less a Wahabbi one, and they let me sit in front as long as I faced forward, toward Mecca…The sermon was in Azeri so I didn’t understand a bit. But the imam was genial and conversational and made people laugh several times. After the sermon I asked my ad hoc translator what it was about. “He told us how to be good Muslims, and what not to do,” he said. “Like what?” I asked. “Like not to be suicide bombers,” he replied. I found people there very concerned about making it clear that they were not terrorists. “Did he really specifically mention suicide bombers?” I asked. “No, but we understand that he means it,” was the reply. Then I interviewed the imam who was very friendly (except that he didn’t like gays, Armenians or women who wear pants). (source)

No wonder Josh is a bit bored in Azeri-land, no chess players, drag queens, business women in power suits, sounds pretty dull to me.

Though, is it just me or isn’t it a little scary that Wahabbism (or Wahhabism) is flourishing in Azerbaijan? For those that don’t know, that’s the virulent strain of fundamental Islam that shies away from images, pop music or practically anything western…hmmm…another Muslim-dominated republic stumbling to insanity…

I suggest checking out Josh’s travelogue, it’s chocked full of great tidbits about Azerbaijan:

• the cult of Aliyev
• historic fire temples
• sex for hire at a Ganja hotel

…and, of course, Armenia:

• the changing image of Arm. women
• the po-mo architecture of Gyumri
• fastfood joints in Yerevan
• Armo mega-churches

If you want to know what he looks like, I tracked a pic of him at Mediabistro (I love the internet!) and posted it above…good luck Josh, I’m staying tuned.

Missing News Headlines in 2007

Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country’s major national news media.

Here are the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007, I’ve bolded some that are truly shocking. The surprising thing is that many were first reported on some rather high-visibility sites like London’s Independent newspaper and they still never broke through into the mainstream media:

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

Defining McReality

Seems like some companies prefer to change definitions rather than work to improve reality. In the latest and strangest glimpse into the world of corporate PR, McDonalds is whining to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that the inclusion of the word McJob is “insulting” and “out of touch.”

The OED defines McJob as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector.” Sounds right to me!

Websters Unabridged (my personal favorite) agrees by defining the word as “a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement.”

And even Wikipedia (which the geniuses at McDonald’s could change for free and with no media attention) says “McJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement. Such jobs are also known as contingent work.” (source)

Maybe it’s time McDonald’s starts offering its employees some mobility and not fight the reality of the world. Seems like in 2003 Ronald McDonald’s evangelists tried to pressure Websters Dictionary to do the same but to no avail (source).

So, why is this an issue again? Who knows but as the writer at The Register suggested, “All the more reason, we think for Ronald McDonald to start his own weblog.” (source)

Gabriela Galván is Simply Playful

I have a confession, uber-serious artists bore me. Not because they are humorless, but because life is simply to short. My patience for them is short but then there are artists like Gabriela Galván which are a joy to behold because of their playfulness.

Galván’s recent show, “Simple Magic“, at Chelsea’s Haedee Rovirosa Gallery is supposedly inspired by “the transitory and ephemeral nature of her surroundings.” (source)

Regardless of the conceptual framework, Galván’s show (which closed last week) made me smile.

Here are some Spanish-language press articles about her show (reviews).

Armenia Poll Round-Up, What the Blogs Say

One of the beauties of the Armenian Blogosphere is that first-hand accounts of current events are being covered more extensively, more quickly and (sometimes) more accurately than conventional news sources.

The recent election in Armenia is a great case in point. While conventional media like Armenian National Public Radio tell us that the turnout at the polls were an unenthusiastic 57% (source) and Euriasnet is reporting that it is the best election in Armenian history (source). You can refer to blogs like, Notes from Hairenik for the election results, Armenian Blog Review for an election summary here, mentioning:

Unlike other major events taking place in Armenia, bloggers were surprisingly passive on the election day: Kornelij Glas, Echannel Blogs and Tirami su…were the first to break the silence.

and Cilicia.com’s Nareg writes about being an election observer in Armenia:

…there was absolutely nothing fraudulent going on at my polling station…We finally ended at eight exactly, having received 1016 votes for the day…we had to count, count each and every single piece of ballot paper, in the presence of twenty people, one by one, bit by bit…First we had to count the party votes – the proportional list – and then the chaps running individually…it got irritating. I mean the people were very nice, but the relentless tide of counting, add to that the smoke from the inevitable cigarettes, the crankiness from lack of sleep…Suffice to say, well before six in the morning, which is when I finally got home, I was thinking, “There HAS TO BE a better way of doing this”. What, nobody’s heard of computers around here?…(source)

Nareg reflects the day after and adds:

There was a rally at the Opera Square just now, with representatives of a few political parties and a relatively big crowd of upset citizens. It wasn’t terribly huge, but what the politicians had to say got me thinking, got me confused…I was more or less pleased with my experience yesterday, and I feel reassured, as I said, that we can really and truly hold free and fair elections in this country…(source)

Life Around Me also has some first-hand observations (link).

For those interested in the vote-counting process, there is a YouTube video illustrating how the Armenians counted votes this weekend (video) and even how the inmates at one prison did it(video).

As a veteran observer of Armenia’s elections, Cilicia.com’s Raffi K.adds his own useful post-election run-down:

…I know a bunch of the observers, and, well, it seems things have improved… though they are still far from what I would consider acceptable. It seems the primary method of cheating this year was through buying votes. This was done on a massive scale by the governing Republican party and by Dodi Gago’s “Prosperous Armenia” party…The OSCE declared the elections something like pretty good…(source)

I guess the biggest concern people have is the continued reliance on vote buying in Armenia. Martuni or Bust!’s Ara M. has posted an article by RFE/RL Armenia Report on the vote buying practice:

`According to our information, the Prosperous Armenia Party is handing out 25,000-dram bribes in some places, while the Republican Party is handing out 15,000 drams ($42) all over the country,’ claimed [Aram] Karapetian [the leader of a radical opposition party, Nor Zhamanakner]. (source)

Also, Onnik Krikorian’s OneWorld Multimedia has a short post (with great pic) on the election tally here.

Coincidentally, it’s important to note that the gender-quota law that was passed in 2005 are pushing political parties to include more women on the ballot–the last Armenian parliament had only 7 women out of 131 parliamentarians (article on WeNews).

Photos via TIRAMI SU.

Calder Sculpture’s at City Hall

City Hall Park in downtown Manhattan is one of the city’s secret jewels. Fortunately, I pass by the park a few times a month because of my gym and have the pleasure of enjoying the sculpture exhibitions by some of the world’s greatest sculptors.

This year, Alexander Calder’s elegant forms touched down in the midst of winter to an aesthetic thaw that made the typically miserable cold tolerable.

While Calder’s mobiles usually garner the public attention (like this one in DC’s Nat’l Gallery of Art), his floor anchored sculptures (called “stabiles“) have long played second fiddle but are, in fact, more monumental and less whimsical than their more popular relatives.

Nestled in the manicured trees and bushes, the natural setting amplifies the organic forms in the art works. While Calder’s mobiles often seem extraterrestrial, the stabiles are grounded in everyday forms. It is a shame that his stabiles are often confined to the sterile white box spaces of galleries, since they seem more at home in a city park rather than a city museum.

This video is an experiment in art criticism, part of an evolving exploration of image & text and meaning.

Pirate Chicago TV Broadcast in 1987

During a broadcast of the Dr. Who episode “Horror of Fang Rock” on WTTW Chicago Channel 11, on Sunday November 22, 1987, at around 11:15pm, a video “pirate” wearing a Max Headroom mask broke into the signal and transmitted one of the weirdest, unauthorized things ever to hit the Chicago airwaves.

Earlier in the evening on the same day, during the Nine O’Clock News on Channel 9 (a completely different channel) the Max Headroom Pirate also broke in – although it was for a much shorter time and there was no audio.

Needless to say, the sports reporter was a bit flustered during the broadcast—the pirate was never caught.

What is he saying? Check it out:

“He’s a freaky nerd!”
“This guy’s better than Chuck Swirsky.” [another WGN sportscaster at the time]
“Oh Jesus!”
“Catch the wave…” [reference to a Coke commercial at the time of which Max Headroom was a spokesperson]
“Your love is fading…”
“I stole CBS.”
“Oh, I just made a giant masterpiece printed all over the greatest world newspaper nerds.” [??]
“My brother [mother?] is wearing the other one.”
“It’s dirty…”
“They’re coming to get me…”

Chatting with Gracie Kendal about Second Life art

Email interview (March 16, 2007)

1 – How did you become involved in Second (SL) art?

Well, I am an artist in real life (rl). I first started second life after my rl aunt and uncle read about it in “Spin magazine”. They came in, and saw what an incredible world it was. So I came in and fell in love with this virtual world. Started going to live music events, and going to the art galleries. And I realized this is a great venue for getting my art out there and seen by so many more people. I started to upload my art into SL, and rented a gallery space and from there, people started to see my art and I got invited to show at other galleries, and It has been wonderful ever since.

2 – Are you a professional artist, art student, or something else in your terrestrial list?

I have been painting for about 10 years now. I didnt want to be a starving artist, so I decided to get my degree in Art History. I am currently finishing my Masters in Art History and teaching part time at a Junior College. This gives me a great opportunity of being surrounded by art, one of the things I love the most, everyday of my life. I am currently having a website made and hope to start promoting myself much more in real life so that dream will come true.