Mick Hartley

Humanitarian Needs

The UN is concerned:

North Korea is heading for a 'chronic' new food crisis with drought and floods in different parts of the country exacerbated by cuts in international aid, the United Nations said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed concern 'that the acute humanitarian needs' of at least 3.5 million women and children in North Korea would worsen because of food shortages....

North Korea suffered famine like conditions in the 1990s in which several hundred thousand people died, according to aid groups. There are worries now as the North heads into its notoriously long and biting winter.

There has been a shortage of rainfall in some parts of the country but in August torrential downpours caused floods in the north, near the Chinese border.

The UN predicted that the cereal yield would be nearly a fifth lower than in 2009....

But some people are suffering less than other people:

It has been revealed that North Korea purchased 600 bottles of top quality wine from French producer Maison Michel Picard in July this year, just the latest in a long list of luxury food and wine purchases by the Kim regime dating back to the March of Tribulation.

The daughter of company owner Michel Picard, Francine Picard revealed the news in a presentation for journalists at Seoul Finance Center today, saying, “On average, we do approximately one transaction with North Korea per year, and while the quantity is small, we maintain a good relationship with them.”

“This July too, a North Korean government representative bought 600 bottles of high end wine including Chassagne-Montrachet and Échezeaux Grand Cru,” Picard explained, adding, “These wines sell for between 310,000 and 400,000 won in Europe.”  [...]

However, it is unclear whether the French government is aware of the export of luxury wines to North Korea, a trade that is in probable violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly forbids the export of “luxury goods” by any UN member state to North Korea.

 

Short Intermission

This site will be under wraps for a few days.

 

Back Saturday (the 23rd).

The Blue Revolution

That collapse of the Kim dynasty we're all waiting for? It's coming!

Foreign pornography is spreading in North Korean market, Radio Free Asia in the U.S. reported Friday.

Quoting a North Korean source, the radio station said the regime is trying to clamp down by distributing players that will only play North Korean-made DVDs and replacing parts of foreign players to stop them from being compatible, but an increasing number of people are looking for foreign videos.

The bestsellers in the market are pornography from Japan, a resident in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, said. And many of the customers are teenagers.

A Disappearing Nation

Portraits of the Mari people from the small republic of Mari El, some 400 miles east of Moscow, at English Russia:

 

This is 85-year-old Tikhonova Marzij Nikolaevna, from the village of Mari Karshi.

The Mari language is a member of the Finno-Ugric family, but it's dying out along with their culture, as  - in that old familiar story - the young people leave for the cities to find work.

The Mari - Europe's last surviving pagans - also complain of ethnic persecution.

The subjects, we are informed, dressed up in national attire specially for the photo shoot.

Keef on Iraq

The revelation that Keith Richards wrote to Tony Blair on the subject of Iraq - "I wrote him a letter telling him he had to stick to his guns. I got a letter back, saying, ‘Thanks for the support.’” (Times interview, behind pay wall) - has naturally ruffled a few feathers. At CiF, Guardian music critic Dorian Lynskey tells it like it is: the Stones are Rock's fake rebels. Yeah! All that stuff about revolution and that...they're really just in it for the money! "We shouldn't be surprised by Richards' reactionary words", he sagely concludes. 

Yes I know - shocking stuff.

The thought never occurs, of course, that in a context where virtually the whole cultural establishment, in a display of deadening conformity, went out of their way to voice their opposition to the Iraq war, Richards' support was in fact a nice display of that rebellious iconoclastic streak that makes him such an appealing figure. And the notion that it's reactionary to advocate the removal of a genocidal tyrant also goes unexamined, as being too obvious to require further explanation.

Some good comments - for instance:

Richards is a working class lad from Dartford - amongst other things, he was probably rebelling against being patronised by men called Dorian.

Moniker

On Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch:

 

Let's adore and endure each other? Ooh I don't think so. And no, I never made it to the Moniker Art Fair.

Next door:

 

[That's above the Child of the Jago clothes shop I mentioned last week.]

Round the corner:

 

Next door the other way:

 

 

Enigma Variations

As the hearing into the Fort Hood massacre gets underway, there are, according to the NYT, few clues. The motives of the killer remain bewilderingly obscure:

No emotion or hint of the defendant’s thoughts flickered across his pale features, as more than two dozen other soldiers and civilians spoke under oath about their struggle to survive in the terrifying minutes after he yelled “Allahu akbar!” — “God is great” in Arabic — and started shooting. He sank low in his wheelchair — he is paralyzed from the waist down after the police shot him to end his shooting attack on Nov. 5 — and stared intensely at the witnesses. At times he made small, precise notes on a legal pad, but he said nothing to his lawyers.

A parade of prosecution witnesses — many of them still struggling with their wounds — provided a gripping, almost cinematic account of the attack in which 13 people died and dozens were wounded.

Yet the gunman and his motive remain an enigma. And there were few clues about what sort of defense Major Hasan, a 40-year-old Army psychiatrist, would mount in the face of such overwhelming evidence.

An enigma indeed. What could possibly have motivated this mild-mannered Muslim into such unparalleled acts of violence. Why the shouts of “Allahu akbar!”? Was he mentally disturbed? Under stress? Will we ever learn the truth?

Charity, Bournemouth

From Paul Russell:

 
[Photo © Paul Russell 2010]

As seen in the recently published Street Photography Now.

Philadelphia 1900

Delaware Avenue, foot of Market Street:

 
[Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Publishing Co. - detail]

Before cars took over. Full size here.

Sunflower Seeds

A new installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei now covers the floor at the far end of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern:

 

Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. 

Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. 

Dynastic struggles

After stories about elder son Kim Jong-nam disapproving of the idea of dynastic succession - and having been passed over in favour of his younger half-brother, you might well think that he would say that - comes this rather strange tale:

The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met his father in Beijing in late August this year and protested against his younger brother Kim Jong-un's orchestration of an attack against the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, KBS reported Thursday.

The broadcaster cited a close associate of Kim Jong-nam's in China as saying when Kim Jong-il visited China, Kim Jong-nam went to his hotel room and told him Jong-un was behind the Cheonan incident to make up for a botched currency reform late last year he had also pushed. "Why are you condoning this when nobody even knows who Jong-un is?" the associate quoted Kim Jong-nam as saying.

He said Kim Jong-nam told his father to stop condoning Jong-un's behavior and warned if the 27-year-old heir apparent keeps misbehaving, then Jong-nam would go his own way too. He added the mysterious delay of an extraordinary Workers Party congress in September was due to Kim Jong-nam's protest. "There are many supporters of Kim Jong-nam in China and North Korea," the associate said.

The associate also claimed that Kim Jong-il worries about a brewing feud between the two sons. Kim Jong-un tried to assassinate Kim Jong-nam in Macau but failed when Chinese authorities found out. "Later, Kim Jong-il personally asked Chinese President Hu Jintao to ensure Jong-nam's safety and got the promise," he said.

KBS did not reveal the identity of the associate.

A senior government official said, "We've heard similar rumors before, but none of them have been confirmed."

Hmm. All hearsay, of course, but whether Kim Jong-nam himself is involved in spreading these stories, or it's being done without his say-so, it does rather suggest that someone or other has an interest in keeping alive the dynastic struggle angle. Could it even be the Chinese themselves, keeping the pot simmering with rumours of an alternative to Kim Jong-un? If No. 2 Fat Boy turns out to be a problem, he can be gently reminded that No. 1 Fat Boy will always be there in the wings waiting.

In which case there'd be an intriguing parallel with Tibet and the pantomime over the various Beijing-approved Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas . But perhaps I'm getting carried away with the speculation here.

It's interesting, meanwhile, to see how worried the NK authorities are about the notable lack of enthusiasm for No. 2 Fat Boy:

As part of efforts to crack down on negativity about the third generation succession, the North Korean authorities are spreading the notion that “groundless” rumors about Kim Jong Eun are being spread by South Korea.

North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) cited an inside source today as saying that several cadres in Hoiryeong have been taken into custody for speaking negatively about the succession of Kim Jong Eun....

According to the NKIS source, the North Korea people are now widely aware that bad things can happen with “a slip of the tongue,” so now even cadres are careful not to speak out of turn.

Workers and farmers remain resolutely disinterested in the fact that Kim Jong Eun has become the successor, according to sources. Criticisms of the Kim Jong Eun succession are spread mainly by cadres and intellectuals.

The source noted, however, “Following special distribution for the October 10th holiday, the authorities have also handed out a decree ordering distribution of six months of corn to the people right after the harvest.” But, he added, “Once the corn is released, people may be happy for a while, however, what will they give us next year? It is hard to garner the trust of the people with this kind of quick fix.” 

Travis Picking

"Tell you what I'd like to do. I'd like to try a little Country guitar playin' on a little tune called Cannonball Rag, so...stay with me will you please? This is the way she goes":

If you get the sense that Merle wasn't quite at ease with that aw shucks good ol' boy stuff - compared, say, to more polished performers like colleague/rival/disciple Chet Atkins - well, he wasn't:

A heavy drinker and at times desperately insecure despite his multitude of talents (including prose writing, taxidermy, cartooning and watch repair), he was involved in various violent incidents in California, and he married several times in the course of his life. He suffered from serious stage fright, though amazed fellow performers added that once onstage, he was an effective and even charismatic performer.

That self-deprecating "little guitar playin'": he really meant it. Hell of a picker though. Good songwriter too.

A Gaddafi Apology

I would have thought that nothing Libya's eccentric and absurd leader said or did was capable of surprising me any more; but, yes, I'm surprised. On Al-Jazeera TV last Sunday:

On behalf of the Arabs, I'd like to condemn, apologize, and express deep sorrow for the conduct of some Arabs – especially the wealthy among them – towards their African brothers. The wealthy Arabs treated their African brothers in a disgraceful way in the past. They bought children and took them to North Africa, to the Arabian Peninsula, and to the other Arab regions. They subjugated them and traded in them. They engaged in slavery and human trafficking in a most abominable fashion, to tell you the truth. We are ashamed, along with our African brothers, when we recall this.

We are ashamed of those who behaved in this manner, and especially the wealthy Arabs, who viewed their African brothers as inferior slaves. This is no different from the way the West – America and Europe – behaved towards the Africans. They would hunt them like animals, treat them like slaves, and act like colonialists. They engaged in colonialism and exploited them, and this continues to this day. We extend our apology and express our sorrow for these acts.

The Owner of the Local Mosque

The Telegraph had the story last week....now picked up here:

A woman of Pakistani origins has been killed, and her daughter gravely injured in Italy following a family row over an arranged marriage earlier this month.

The incident sparked a wave of outrage among Italian politicians, including Isabella Bertolini, a member of Italy’s main conservative party who said that the deceased woman, Beghm Shnez, was:

A martyr for freedom, a victim of obscurantism and Islamic fundamentalism.

The daughter, 20-year-old Nosheen Butt, was hospitalised with head injuries and a broken arm after her 19-year-old brother beat her with a stick in the courtyard of their building in Novi, near the northern city of Modena.

According to Modena prosecutors’ initial findings, the father Ahmad Khan Butt, a 53-year-old construction worker, threw his wife to the ground and beat her with a brick while the brother Umair attacked his sister. The father had been in Italy less that 10 years and was the owner of the local mosque.

A Chile response

Oh dear. The Guardian's Zoe Williams was glued to her TV, watching the rescue of the Chilean miners, and she felt a most unusual emotion: she felt....happy.

One's instinct is to distrust an emotional response like this....

Well absolutely. Otherwise one wouldn't be writing for the Guardian, would one?

What of the Indie?

They’re not heroes, they just got stuck.

They do the inspirational stuff so well, don't they, these people?