Fooled you!
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Friday, April 01, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
An extraordinary light painting
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An artwork by photographer Darren Pearson |
Pearson's website is http://www.dariustwin.com/.
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All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
VANUATU: Trouble in Babel
Reposted from The Polynesian Times:
"Florence Lengkon led a march through town and up to Parliament in which nearly a thousand people demonstrated their desire to see an end to violence against women," reported the Vanuatu Daily Post yesterday.
The trigger for this was an abduction and beating Lengkon received at the hands of bus and taxi drivers nearly a fortnight ago, following critical remarks she had posted on a community page on Facebook. She had called them arrogant and unprofessional for the way they had squabbled among themselves when trying to get business from visiting tourists (and for stoning a tour bus). Lengkon herself runs a helicopter business in Port Vila.
There are many facets to this story: risks in social media discussions, attitudes to women, the poverty that tempts men to misbehave when the chance to make some money presents itself, the great disparity between them and rich Westerners passing by in their floating castle, tourism itself in the form of a brief condescending gawp at other cultures, the question of how small Pacific nations should develop and sustain themselves, what will happen to them if there is a long global recession, etc.
For those who aren't involved, one aspect of the story that pops out is the fact that Lengkon's comments were written in Bislama, one of the three official languages of the Republic.
Bislama is a kind of pidgin English widely used there because the country has over 100 different languages and dialects: "Vanuatu is considered to be the country with the highest density of languages per capita in the world, with an average of about 2,000 speakers for each indigenous language; only Papua New Guinea comes close," says Wikipedia.
There is probably a connection to PNG: Vanuatu may have been colonised by Autronesian speakers as early as 4,000 - 6,000 years ago in the eastward expansion from what is now Papua, which itself saw the arrival of humans some 60,000 years ago, together with other movement into Australia.
Many languages of small communities are considered "endangered" - there was a UNESCO conference about this in 2008. But perhaps preserving them is a futile, Canute-like attempt.
Not to worry; in the far future, when our current energy-rich civilisations are forgotten, there will be isolation and cultural-linguistic variation again, just as island wildlife mutates to take advantage of local niche opportunities.
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All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
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| Map: Google |
The trigger for this was an abduction and beating Lengkon received at the hands of bus and taxi drivers nearly a fortnight ago, following critical remarks she had posted on a community page on Facebook. She had called them arrogant and unprofessional for the way they had squabbled among themselves when trying to get business from visiting tourists (and for stoning a tour bus). Lengkon herself runs a helicopter business in Port Vila.
There are many facets to this story: risks in social media discussions, attitudes to women, the poverty that tempts men to misbehave when the chance to make some money presents itself, the great disparity between them and rich Westerners passing by in their floating castle, tourism itself in the form of a brief condescending gawp at other cultures, the question of how small Pacific nations should develop and sustain themselves, what will happen to them if there is a long global recession, etc.
For those who aren't involved, one aspect of the story that pops out is the fact that Lengkon's comments were written in Bislama, one of the three official languages of the Republic.
Bislama is a kind of pidgin English widely used there because the country has over 100 different languages and dialects: "Vanuatu is considered to be the country with the highest density of languages per capita in the world, with an average of about 2,000 speakers for each indigenous language; only Papua New Guinea comes close," says Wikipedia.
There is probably a connection to PNG: Vanuatu may have been colonised by Autronesian speakers as early as 4,000 - 6,000 years ago in the eastward expansion from what is now Papua, which itself saw the arrival of humans some 60,000 years ago, together with other movement into Australia.
Many languages of small communities are considered "endangered" - there was a UNESCO conference about this in 2008. But perhaps preserving them is a futile, Canute-like attempt.
Not to worry; in the far future, when our current energy-rich civilisations are forgotten, there will be isolation and cultural-linguistic variation again, just as island wildlife mutates to take advantage of local niche opportunities.
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
Friday, March 25, 2016
VANUATU: Lavatory humour
Reposted from The Polynesian Times:
Humour sells. Vanuatu and a church ministry from near Melbourne, Australia have launched a project with multiple purposes: sanitation, fresh water collection, tourism and economic development.
So, a loo with its own website. Any good toilet-themed jokes or headlines?
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All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
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http://bestpublictoilet.org/cause/best-public-toilet-in-all-south-pacific/ |
Humour sells. Vanuatu and a church ministry from near Melbourne, Australia have launched a project with multiple purposes: sanitation, fresh water collection, tourism and economic development.
So, a loo with its own website. Any good toilet-themed jokes or headlines?
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
What would you have?
What would you have? The government has freed us from the dependence of serfdom--and many thanks to it! but the habits of slavery are too deeply ingrained in us; we cannot easily be rid of them. We want a master in everything and everywhere; as a rule this master is a living person, sometimes it is some so-called tendency which gains authority over us.... At present, for instance, we are all the bondslaves of natural science.... Why, owing to what causes, we take this bondage upon us, that is a matter difficult to see into; but such seemingly is our nature. But the great thing is, that we should have a master.
Ivan Turgenev – Smoke (1867)
Turgenev made the point almost a century and a half ago but it still stands today. Many people appear to be uninterested in political independence as long as they are free to consume. It has become painfully obvious that the global drift towards total government is no accident, no quirk of political circumstance.
Neither does it feel like a planned assault on our political freedoms because we are freely giving those away. Here in the UK we are handing them over to the EU and a complex web of global agencies most voters seem barely aware of. In the US, voters seem likely to be faced with a choice between Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump for their next president. Neither seems likely to halt the slow American slide towards total government.
By 2020 UK voters may be faced with a grisly choice between Conservatives led by David Cameron and Labour led by Jeremy Corbyn. Of course it is possible that neither man will weather the events between now and then, but is any other choice likely to be more appealing?
What would you have?
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All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
JD: Human rights or human rites?
JD always tells me something I didn't know; here, more than one:
"In the light of what happened this morning I was unsure whether this was the right time to deliver a post. I wrote it this morning and I have read through it again and this morning changes nothing. I will be accused of defending IS. The Wahhabi/Da'esh version is but one of a myriad of sects within Islam and most of them, I suspect, pre-date Islam. The Sufi are definitely older than Islam, for example. So here it is..."
====================================================================
You will have seen this, no doubt:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html
Stupid question in the Mail's headline: oil is the answer, of course.
I remember a while back there was a photo purporting to show a woman buried up to her waist before being stoned to death. That photo turned out to be a 'still' from a film in production. So I will not comment on these photos but I can confirm that the Saudis do indeed execute people every Friday in 'chop square' in Riyadh and other cities. I have managed to avoid working in Saudi but I know a lot of people who have worked there so whatever I say here is second hand.
One friend told me that in his first week in the country he thought he and his wife would walk and have a look around on their Friday day off. They were spotted by the Muttawah, the Religious Police, and were 'invited' to see one of the wonders of that splendid country. I think the exact words were "Come, come and see. You don't have this in your country."
There was no indication of what that 'wonder' might be until they reached Deera Square and were ushered to the front of the crowd. My friend and his wife then witnessed two beheadings. Very swift - chop! and that was it. Afterwards the bodies were carted away and water bowsers arrived to hose down the square and life returned to 'normal' with no sign that anything untoward had happened. Needless to say my friend left Saudi as quickly as he could. I do not doubt his story because there is too much evidence to support it. It is now known as chop chop square for some reason.
Inflation? Or is it bloodier than it used to be? Just Google it and you will find out. If you have the stomach for it you will find it on YouTube.
Before anyone declares that this is the reality of Islam, it is but one part of it and began with an alliance in 1744 between Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud which eventually grew into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and thus spawned a puritanical sect of Islam now known as Wahhabiism. I have lived and worked in Dubai, Qatar and Iran as well as visiting/working in Cairo. Those four Islamic cultures are as different from each other as they are from Saudi Arabia.
It is worth remembering that the English Kings were rather fond of chopping people's heads off. The first Papal Crusade was not against Islam but was against the Cathars in France who were the 'wrong' type of Christians. "Kill em all, let God sort them out!" was the rallying cry at the Siege of at Béziers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedite_eos._Novit_enim_Dominus_qui_sunt_eius.
Secularists were not exempt from such madness. The Age of Reason produced a lot of unreason in the Pace de la Concorde in 1789. And if you were to read the Old Testament you will find within it a long list of Kings of Israel who were nothing more than bloodthirsty tyrants.
So why is it that humanity is so insane when it comes to enforcing and defending its chosen belief system? Wiser heads than mine can provide some of the answers. Charles Fort in "The Book of the Damned" (1919) wrote that "Every faith and theory in every field is only upheld by 'exclusions'" i.e. by ignoring or suppressing the evidence that tells against it. "We substitute acceptance for belief."
John Michell in 2007, commenting on Fort's words, wrote in The Oldie magazine, "The nature of the world is largely a matter of choice, and it is an important choice because it determines your whole experience of life. It is quite permissible to see this earth as a type of divine paradise, and if you accept that view, rewards will follow. Otherwise you can visualise a world of pain and pointlessness, inducing a state of mind whose logical conclusion is suicide. The choice between these two perspectives seems rather obvious."
Unfortunately the world's elected and unelected leaders, since time immemorial, have chosen suicide and appear to be dedicated to the destruction of life. And another wiser head than mine has expressed it thus- "on TV, expressions of physical love are far more dangerous than expressions of physical hatred. We are a culture dedicated to the destruction of life."
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
"In the light of what happened this morning I was unsure whether this was the right time to deliver a post. I wrote it this morning and I have read through it again and this morning changes nothing. I will be accused of defending IS. The Wahhabi/Da'esh version is but one of a myriad of sects within Islam and most of them, I suspect, pre-date Islam. The Sufi are definitely older than Islam, for example. So here it is..."
====================================================================
You will have seen this, no doubt:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html
Stupid question in the Mail's headline: oil is the answer, of course.
I remember a while back there was a photo purporting to show a woman buried up to her waist before being stoned to death. That photo turned out to be a 'still' from a film in production. So I will not comment on these photos but I can confirm that the Saudis do indeed execute people every Friday in 'chop square' in Riyadh and other cities. I have managed to avoid working in Saudi but I know a lot of people who have worked there so whatever I say here is second hand.
One friend told me that in his first week in the country he thought he and his wife would walk and have a look around on their Friday day off. They were spotted by the Muttawah, the Religious Police, and were 'invited' to see one of the wonders of that splendid country. I think the exact words were "Come, come and see. You don't have this in your country."
There was no indication of what that 'wonder' might be until they reached Deera Square and were ushered to the front of the crowd. My friend and his wife then witnessed two beheadings. Very swift - chop! and that was it. Afterwards the bodies were carted away and water bowsers arrived to hose down the square and life returned to 'normal' with no sign that anything untoward had happened. Needless to say my friend left Saudi as quickly as he could. I do not doubt his story because there is too much evidence to support it. It is now known as chop chop square for some reason.
Inflation? Or is it bloodier than it used to be? Just Google it and you will find out. If you have the stomach for it you will find it on YouTube.
Before anyone declares that this is the reality of Islam, it is but one part of it and began with an alliance in 1744 between Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud which eventually grew into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and thus spawned a puritanical sect of Islam now known as Wahhabiism. I have lived and worked in Dubai, Qatar and Iran as well as visiting/working in Cairo. Those four Islamic cultures are as different from each other as they are from Saudi Arabia.
It is worth remembering that the English Kings were rather fond of chopping people's heads off. The first Papal Crusade was not against Islam but was against the Cathars in France who were the 'wrong' type of Christians. "Kill em all, let God sort them out!" was the rallying cry at the Siege of at Béziers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedite_eos._Novit_enim_Dominus_qui_sunt_eius.
Secularists were not exempt from such madness. The Age of Reason produced a lot of unreason in the Pace de la Concorde in 1789. And if you were to read the Old Testament you will find within it a long list of Kings of Israel who were nothing more than bloodthirsty tyrants.
So why is it that humanity is so insane when it comes to enforcing and defending its chosen belief system? Wiser heads than mine can provide some of the answers. Charles Fort in "The Book of the Damned" (1919) wrote that "Every faith and theory in every field is only upheld by 'exclusions'" i.e. by ignoring or suppressing the evidence that tells against it. "We substitute acceptance for belief."
John Michell in 2007, commenting on Fort's words, wrote in The Oldie magazine, "The nature of the world is largely a matter of choice, and it is an important choice because it determines your whole experience of life. It is quite permissible to see this earth as a type of divine paradise, and if you accept that view, rewards will follow. Otherwise you can visualise a world of pain and pointlessness, inducing a state of mind whose logical conclusion is suicide. The choice between these two perspectives seems rather obvious."
Unfortunately the world's elected and unelected leaders, since time immemorial, have chosen suicide and appear to be dedicated to the destruction of life. And another wiser head than mine has expressed it thus- "on TV, expressions of physical love are far more dangerous than expressions of physical hatred. We are a culture dedicated to the destruction of life."
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
AUSTRALIA: "First Film Made of Arnhem Land Natives"
Reposted from The Polynesian Times:
"Table manners may seem crude but it is not very long ago that the people of Britain were eating with their hands."
This film, "Primitive Peoples Part 1" by G. B. [Gaumont British] Instructional Ltd is careful not to condescend (1). Actor Peter Finch, already famous in Australia for his radio work, assisted with shooting as well as narrating (2).
The people shown are said to be of the "Miwai", though their territory as described is that of the Yolngu and one or two of the sub-groups named are recognisably in the Yolngu list in Wikipedia (3). The press article from the Melbourne Argus (23 August 1947) names the tribe as "Wongurris" and says they were paid with around a ton of food supplies (4).
The film crew's guide and liaison officer was Edward "Ted" Evans of the Native Affairs Branch in Darwin - he terms the tribe Wangurri in his 1990 memoir of Arnhem Land. Evans had become familiar with the area and its people at the end of World war 2, when the Royal Australian Air Force Base on Gove Peninsula was decommissioned and for some reason he and writer Bill Harney were left there for five months after they had finished stocktaking. "To me the whole 1946 Gove Peninsula experience was a revelation of the richness of the Aboriginal world, of the fascinating variety of wildlife on our doorstep and particularly of the depth of understanding and mutual respect that existed between Bill Harney and the Aboriginal people." (5)
So far I have not found Parts 2 and 3 of the film - according to Evans, the only copy in Australia was held by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies.
Evans concludes, "In 1972, I acquired for the first time copies of the Gaumont British film made in 1947.1 took it out to Yirrkala, but as twenty-five years had elapsed and therefore some of those appearing had since died, I showed it first only to the elders to get their reaction before running it before the general community. Their reaction was one of wistful sorrow, followed by a request that I not show it publicly - not because of any taboo content of which there is none. but because'of the sadness they felt personally on observing the living activities of persons now dead. Of course, I complied with their request.
"I retired in 1976 almost thirty years after my first arrival at Melville Bay with Bill Harney. In that time I developed a strong feeling for Arnhem Land and a high regard for its people. particularly those of Yirrkala. This esteem still continues and I value the contacts I am able to make occasionally thereby maintaining a nostalgic link with a crowded, but fading past. I look back on my involvement with some pride and I trust that my humble efforts may have helped the people to face and cope with the dramatic, complex and fast-moving changes that were brought upon them over that span of years. Rarely in the history of mankind has a people, within the span of one generation, been required to make adjustments to their lifestyle which have impacted upon almost every vital element of their traditional world."
_____________________________
(1) http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b87a9557a - The film is dated 1950 but the press coverage (see 4 below) is from 1947
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_Peoples
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolngu
(4) http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22438457
(5) http://www.artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/114958/occpaper12.pdf
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
"Table manners may seem crude but it is not very long ago that the people of Britain were eating with their hands."
This film, "Primitive Peoples Part 1" by G. B. [Gaumont British] Instructional Ltd is careful not to condescend (1). Actor Peter Finch, already famous in Australia for his radio work, assisted with shooting as well as narrating (2).
The people shown are said to be of the "Miwai", though their territory as described is that of the Yolngu and one or two of the sub-groups named are recognisably in the Yolngu list in Wikipedia (3). The press article from the Melbourne Argus (23 August 1947) names the tribe as "Wongurris" and says they were paid with around a ton of food supplies (4).
The film crew's guide and liaison officer was Edward "Ted" Evans of the Native Affairs Branch in Darwin - he terms the tribe Wangurri in his 1990 memoir of Arnhem Land. Evans had become familiar with the area and its people at the end of World war 2, when the Royal Australian Air Force Base on Gove Peninsula was decommissioned and for some reason he and writer Bill Harney were left there for five months after they had finished stocktaking. "To me the whole 1946 Gove Peninsula experience was a revelation of the richness of the Aboriginal world, of the fascinating variety of wildlife on our doorstep and particularly of the depth of understanding and mutual respect that existed between Bill Harney and the Aboriginal people." (5)
So far I have not found Parts 2 and 3 of the film - according to Evans, the only copy in Australia was held by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies.
Evans concludes, "In 1972, I acquired for the first time copies of the Gaumont British film made in 1947.1 took it out to Yirrkala, but as twenty-five years had elapsed and therefore some of those appearing had since died, I showed it first only to the elders to get their reaction before running it before the general community. Their reaction was one of wistful sorrow, followed by a request that I not show it publicly - not because of any taboo content of which there is none. but because'of the sadness they felt personally on observing the living activities of persons now dead. Of course, I complied with their request.
"I retired in 1976 almost thirty years after my first arrival at Melville Bay with Bill Harney. In that time I developed a strong feeling for Arnhem Land and a high regard for its people. particularly those of Yirrkala. This esteem still continues and I value the contacts I am able to make occasionally thereby maintaining a nostalgic link with a crowded, but fading past. I look back on my involvement with some pride and I trust that my humble efforts may have helped the people to face and cope with the dramatic, complex and fast-moving changes that were brought upon them over that span of years. Rarely in the history of mankind has a people, within the span of one generation, been required to make adjustments to their lifestyle which have impacted upon almost every vital element of their traditional world."
_____________________________
(1) http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b87a9557a - The film is dated 1950 but the press coverage (see 4 below) is from 1947
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_Peoples
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolngu
(4) http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22438457
(5) http://www.artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/114958/occpaper12.pdf
READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
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