Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op.44 II

Jon Krakauer, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

“”The story of Pat Tillman, the professional football player killed in Afghanistan in 2004, was simultaneously appalling and inspiring — which helped explain, perhaps, the mesmerizing grip it had on the United States. It showed America at its best and worst, at a time when the country was engaged in a deeply polarizing war. At the least, it had all the ingredients of a very good book.”" The Good Soldier, New York Times

The Iron Curtain Diaries

AVAILABLE ON THE WEB FOR 3 DAYS – from 9 to 11 november 2009

IN OCCASION OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERLIN WALL, THE WEBSITE OF THE IRON CURTAIN DIARIES WILL BE AVAILABLE ON CLEAR

from 00:01 of 9 november to 23:59 of 11 november 2009

THE PROJECT

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall two photographers together with two journalists, a director and a cartoonist travelled along the Iron Curtain, the 6.300 km long border that used to split Europe in two blocks from the end of World War II to 1989.
As a result of this experience, The Iron Curtain Diaries 1989-2009 project was born. Two teams provided by videocamera, photocamera, audio recorder and drawing paper have left from Berlin toward two directions: the first heads to the north has travelled along Germany, Polland, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia; while the second heads to the south has touched Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

They come back to the headquarter with dozen of interviews to writers, politicians, musicians, sport people, photographers, dissidents and ordinary people. whose lives have changed after the Berlin Wall fallen down. These stories create a big fresco, a celebration of the ideals, but also speak about the collapse of the dreams of a new western lifestyle.
The Iron Curtain Diaries 1989-2009 is a coproduction of Peacereporter, On/Off, prospekt fotografi, BeccoGiallo.

play over your stereo equipment! ¡loud!

© Jeff Widener

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre (referred to in Chinese as the June 4 Incident, to avoid confusion with two other Tiananmen Square protests) were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) beginning on April 14. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.
The protests were sparked by the death of pro-market, pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu’s funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square. The protests lacked a unified cause or leadership; participants included disillusioned Communist Party members and Trotskyists as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the government’s authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change [1][2] and democratic reform[2] within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful throughout the protests.

Tiananmen Square China 1989

Mark Danner: Bush Lied About Torture of Prisoners

from minute 28min:

US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites, By Mark Danner

Saw the film yesterday the first time: a must see!

Bowling for Columbine

“I actually did something other than watch NBA TV the other night. I took my bride, Lori, to the movies to see Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine.” It’s powerfully brilliant. Never forget that sacred cows make the best hamburger. Then driving away from Sacramento, I heard Moore interviewed on “60 Minutes” over the radio. I am often criticized for doing too much. But like every time I speak with coach Wooden, I realize, as I did last night, that I’m not doing nearly enough.”

Basketball Great, Bill Walton

“Bowling for Columbine” is riveting and scary, and its vision of a society racked by fear, riven by inequality and armed to the teeth is neither comforting nor easily wished away.
–A. O. Scott, The New York Times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine German

“Torturing Democracy”, we had this theme several times, but still…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4aq1rXBwCs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqhtnx6spIw&feature=related

…..

until number 6, you find them there.

those who didn’t play 120min, shouldn´t cry after… ;)

http://brokenlives.info/

in German:

Broken Laws, Broken Lives

Rest in peace: Chinghiz_Aitmatov he wrote some wonderful books.

“”Editor’s Note: Testimony at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan shed light on the chaotic violence American soldiers and Iraqi civilians face on a daily basis. Today, our coverage focuses on the rules of engagement: guidelines that are supposed to manage the use of deadly force in what is an inherently unmanageable situation. I interviewed former National Guard medic Jason Hurd, and Maya Schenwar wrote a report about the breakdown of the “rules” of war. We have also included the complete testimony of seven of the Winter Soldier testifiers. Their testimony includes graphic descriptions and pictures of dead Iraqi civilians and some include strong language. mr/TO”"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/B032608E.shtml

fear campain, creating fear. hillary croft will help you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt6W3rVTLhw&eurl=

http://www.freebilal.org/

The woman behind the camera at Abu Ghraib

Video-Interview with Janis Karpinski

The book makes me speechless and sad.

The 10 theses from Jürgen Tödenhöfer’s book

Crackdown in Tibet away from the eye of the media in new violation of Olympics pledge.

Why do you kill Zaid?

“”The Book: Jürgen Todenhöfer’s book is an attempt to shed light on the other side of the story. It reports on how Iraqi people talk about the war, when there are no heavily-armed GIs in the vicinity. When neither helicopters nor humvees have been “cleansing” and securing the area for hours beforehand, for politicians and press convoys. “Why do you kill, Zaid?” gives a voice to those whom Pentagon press officers never take their visitor delegations to see – members of the Iraqi resistance. The book attempts to explain why this resistance is not only fighting against American troops, but also against Al Qaeda terrorists and the foreign-backed private militias of Iraqi politicians. It aims to clarify the fundamental differences betwen resistance fighters and terrorists.

The author attempts to give a voice to those who are truly fighting for justice and freedom. The “damned of this earth”, as Frantz Fanon once called them – de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon. And just as in Algeria in the 1960s, and in Afghanistan in the 1980s, these were and are – in Iraq in the year 2008 – not the occupying troops, but the resistance fighters.”"