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the e-magazine 17th April 2009
the e-magazine 28th April 2009
the e-magazine 20th April 2009
the e-magazine 2nd April 2009 the e-magazine 8th April 2009 the e-magazine 18th April 2009
the e-magazine 9th April 2009 the e-magazine 7th April 2009 the e-magazine 6th April 2009
the e-magazine 21st April 2009
April
2009
Ovi
stands out
from the
crowd
www.ovimagazine.com
April was a month fi lled
with Post-Opus Dei,
multiple modernities,
random probable cause,
evolutionists, Jesus Christ,
Strange Fruit, pirates and
an offer he couldn’t refuse…
oh yes, it was another thirty
days of Ovi Magazine and
it was certainly eclectic, as
always! It was a strange
month with Obama notching
up his 100th day in offi ce,
swine fever scaring the hell
out of the humanity and the
snow almost completely
melting outside - well at
least here in Finland.
Ovi must give kudos to
Alexandra Pereira, who has
been a busy contributor
this month managing to
claim a sixth of the covers
(that’s fi ve to anybody
struggling with the maths).
She began with an essay
about a Post-Opus Dei US,
discussed the Obama’s
Strasbourg speech, cut the
crusts off the EU’s bread,
commemorated Portugal’s
Carnation Revolution
and recalled Kissinger’s
famous question: “Who do
I call when I want to talk to
Europe?”
Alexandra may have been
busy, but she was by no
means alone in her hard
work. Emanuel L. Paparella
received three covers;
one for a piece on multiple
modernities, another for “A
Third Window” and a third
for a new museum in Italy.
Leah Sellers also grabbed
three covers for her
articles on Texas’s random
probable cause, the state’s
discussion over succession
from the Union and took a
slightly different approach to
the swine fl u panic gripping
the world.
Two parts of Jack
Wellman’s three-part
“Evolutionists on Evolution”
feature received covers,
while Louie Parsons’s
Easter article about the
absence of J.C. at Easter
is a problem. Akli Hadid
discussed the hidden
aspects of bilingualism,
Mike Jennett introduced
readers to his planned
cycle trip across the USA
and Ovi observed the
70th anniversary of Billie
Holiday recording the Civil
Rights song “Strange Fruit”.
Catia Coias returned with
more surreal photography,
Patrick McWade’s cartoon
for Passover was rewarded
and Ovi newcomer David
Barger made his Ovi cover
debut with his poem “The
eye of a scorpion”.
Asa stuck with his Best
Picture winners by
reviewing The Godfather
and An American in Paris,
while Thanos had a very
busy month with bloggers,
adoption, Helsinginkatu,
new ideologies, pirates and
the sad shooting in Athens.
Well, as we say, that was
April and now we can only
wait to see what happens in
May - stay healthy!
The Ovi Team
We Cover Every Issue
And that was April ...…
Emanuel L.
Paparella
Alexandra
Pereira
AKLI
HADID
jack
wellman
Leah
Sellers
Cátia
Cóias
Patrick
Mcwade
Louie
Parsons
Mike
Jennett
David
Barger
So you’re dying to learn a
language because it would
be easier for you to get a job.
The better you master that
language, the more likely your
pay will be high and you will
be indispensable? Well guess
again.
I know people who made
a business out of bilingual
education. And people who
invested a fortune to acquire
a second language. Some
people would do anything to get
their children to be bilingual.
Some people pay hundreds of
dollars a month to get a foreign
nanny who will speak a foreign
language to their children.
Others spend thousands of
dollars a year sending their
children to international schools.
Is that effective?
People often forget the cultural
aspects when learning a
language. Say you’re a white
American. You invest thousands
of dollars to learn a language,
for example Chinese. As much
as you may become fl uent,
guess who they will hire for
the job available that requires
someone to speak Chinese?
The Chinese-American, or the
Chinese immigrant.
No matter how fl uently you
may speak a foreign language,
what recruiters don’t say is
that they often look at the
ethnic background before they
hire people. A white American
speaking Chinese is not
credible. Here’s why.
Often people who work in a
language need to interact with
other people who speak the
language. A Mexican client will
not be as comfortable speaking
Spanish to a white American
lawyer than he would be
speaking to a Mexican American
lawyer. An Algerian businessman
will not be as comfortable
dealing with a White French
businessman in Arabic as he
would be with a French-Algerian
in Arabic. Race is not the main
reason, though.
Cultural background is critical
when learning a language, and
unless one has lived in that
cultural background, he can not
master the language perfectly.
And a language not mastered
perfectly is not desirable by any
company. This means that the
speaker of a language must
not only master the language,
but also accept every part of
the subculture and have every
cultural refl ex a native speaker
would have.
I have noticed that Koreans
would rather speak broken
English to white people than
the e-magazine 2nd April 2009
The hidden aspects of bilingualism
By Akli Hadid
speak Korean. When I asked a
Korean friend why, he answered
speaking Korean requires the
person who speaks Korean
to “think differently”. “Thinking
differently” would mean in the
case of Korean knowing when
to switch from polite to intimate
forms of speech, switch from
modest and refi ned speech
to more casual speech when
speaking and knowing in what
situations it would be appropriate
to laugh, to nod and even things
like how to maintain eye contact
and look at the person while
talking. Any infringement of
these cultural laws will make the
native speaker feel very, very
uncomfortable.
This fact applies to every
language. People think
differently in different languages
and act differently according
to situations. Some topics are
acceptable in one language
while they are considered
inappropriate in another. Even
eye contact, physical contact
and body language are different
depending on which language is
being spoken.
The mere fact of speaking a
language with an accent or
having different body language
can cause native speakers to
be very uncomfortable. Within
one language, cultural difference
makes interaction with people
impossible. In the United States,
Asians, Hispanics, African
Americans and White Americans
never mix due to that difference
of sub-culture. In France, people
from Southern France are forced
to change their accent and
attitude to a Northern one when
appearing on television. Imagine
what this means for non-native
speakers.
Companies know that the
better a businessman and their
client communicate, the more
mutual trust there will be. And
the more trust, the more likely
it is to have more transactions.
Language is not the only
barrier to communication, as
culture is also a determining
factor. In cultural and social
communication, there can only
be trust when two people use
the same language.
Does this mean that there is
no such thing as bilingualism?
No. People who grow up in two
cultures long enough (4 to 7
years during key developmental
years according to linguists) can
be considered bilingual. As for
children of immigrants or crosscultural
children, they often tend
to forget the language spoken
at home and use that they learn
in school. And they often have
no other cultural reference than
their parents, which means that
they often don’t know how to
be “culturally appropriate” when
speaking a language.
However, since etiquette and
subculture are not written
rules and codifi ed, it is almost
impossible for one to acquire
the social and cultural aspects
of another language. Imitating
a culture or subculture different
from someone’s original culture
can not be done perfectly,
and trying hard often leads to
personality disorders.
So when you study another
language think again. Are
you studying it to satisfy your
intellectual curiosity and facilitate
contacts with a foreign culture or
are you studying it because you
want to get a better job. If it’s for
the job, well than don’t expect
to be indispensable. Companies
prefer native speakers.
“Are religious issues simply to
be regarded as relics of a premodern
era, or is it the duty
of the more secular citizens to
overcome his or her narrowly
secularist consciousness in
order to engage with religion in
terms of ‘reasonably expected
disagreement’?”
--Jurgen Habermas (“Religion
in the Public Sphere,” Journal of
Philosophy, 2006: 14: pp. 1-25)
As already discussed in a
previous article on Europe’s
secularism vis a vis religion, the
German philosopher Habermas
has challenged some of its taken
for granted assumptions in a
seminal essay which envisions a
post-secular Europe. He poses
the above quoted challenging
question to European culture’s
conception of modernity as seen
through the prism of secularism
and its corollary aversion to
religion’s role in the public agorà
(see here).
Habermas addresses the debate
in terms of John Rawls’s concept
of “public use of reason” and
proposes that secular citizens
in Europe learn to live, and the
sooner the better, in a postsecular
society; in so doing they
will be following the example
of religious citizens, who have
already come to terms with
the ethical expectations of
democratic citizenship. So far
secular citizens have not been
expected to make a similar effort.
He is not alone in that challenge.
In the year 2000 an essay
came out written by Shmuel
Eisenstadt, an Israeli sociologist,
titled “Multiple Modernities (see
Daedalus 129: 1-30) which right
from its outset challenged the
taken for granted assumption
that modernizing societies are
convergent, as well as the notion
that Europe is the lead society
in that converging modernizing
process.
the e-magazine 3rd April 2009
European Culture vis-a-vis
“Multiple Modernities”
By Emanuel L. Paparella
This is what Eisenstadt writes
on the very fi rst page of the
essay: “The notion of ‘multiple
modernities’ denotes a certain
view of the contemporary
world—indeed of the history and
characteristics of the modern
era—that goes against the
views long prevalent in scholarly
ad general discourse. It goes
against the view of the “classical”
theories of modernization and
of the convergence of industrial
societies prevalent in the 1950s,
and indeed against the classical
sociological analysis of Marx,
Durkheim, and (to a large
extent) even of Weber, at least
in one reading his work. They all
assumed, even if only implicitly,
that the cultural program of
modernity as it developed in
modern Europe and the basic
institutional constellations that
emerge there would ultimately
take over in all modernizing
and modern societies; with the
expansion of modernity, they
would prevail throughout the
world.”
In other words, Eisenstadt is
saying that modernity can come
in both secular and religious
versions. This notion, of course,
contradicts the theory that
modernization necessarily implies
secularization and that the United
States is a mere exception
to this rule made safe by the
proverbial separation between
State and Church. Rather, what
Eisenstadt is suggesting is that
the United States and Europe
should be seen as two different
versions of modernity. Which in
turn leads to this crucial question:
is secularization intrinsic or
extrinsic to the modernization
process? More to the point: is
Europe secular because it is
modern or is it secular because
it is European? Depending on
how one answers that question,
one will assign exceptionalism
to either the United States or
Europe. In fact, they are two
different ways of being modern.
The Chinese wish to go one step
further and even prove that one
can be modern without being
democratic. That experiment
bears watching closely because
it would sever the link between
democracy and so called “free
markets” and prove Marx right
by revealing that indeed Western
societies are what many outside
the West believe they are:
decadent materialistic societies
paying lip service to democratic
ideals and human rights but
ultimately interested only in the
selfi sh amassing of wealth and
capital; which is to say, one can
be prosperous without being
democratic.
What the concept of multiple
modernities implies is that
Western (especially European)
modernity is not the only
conceivable one. It can come
with indigenous differences. It
would be enough to consider
India, the largest democracy on
earth which enshrines religion as
part of its heritage and cultural
patrimony. If one takes a careful
look at the world outside the
West one immediately notices
that it is religion which defi nes
the aspiration to an alternate
modernity. That may well surprise
the “enlightened” European mind,
but there is such a thing as a
Russian modernity inspired by
Russian Orthodoxy, an Islamic
modernity, a Hindu modernity,
and what may surprise them
even more, an integrally Catholic
modernity. They are not illusions
as the old classical secularization
theory tended to imply.
Perhaps the greatest surprise
of all might be that, as hinted
above, that in many parts of the
world the West is perceived in a
pejorative way, as propagating a
decadent. hedonistic culture of
irreligious materialism. Such a
perception is reinforced by both
the infl uence of intellectuals,
usually heavily secular, and the
omnipresence of the Western
mass media, much of whose
content can indeed be defi ned
as materialistic and irreligious.
If that be true, it ought to be of
great interest to the practice
of diplomacy of Western
democracies. At the very least,
this crucial question ought
to be asked and discussed:
What are the consequences of
taking seriously the empirical
sociological fact that for the
great majority of the world’s
populations in the 21st century,
it is not only possible, but quite
normal to be both modern and
religious? Might this question
make a difference in the kind
of paradigm that we construct
in the West to understand a
little better the nature of the
modern world, be it European,
American, Asian or African. Is it
really “enlightened,” as the age of
Enlightenment surely supposed
in Europe, to isolate the vast fi eld
of the sociology of religion, or
should it be restored to its rightful
place in the overall global social
agenda? Food for thought!
“Excuse me, offi cer. Can you get
that fl ashlight out of my Eyes? ”
The offi cer did not comply.
In fact, the brazen fl ashlight
appeared to burn brighter. Heat
and unsuspecting Moths sizzling
and smashing into the head of
the unrelenting light are the only
sounds piercing the ominous
Silence.
“Umm, would you mind telling
me why you’ve pulled me over,
offi cer?”
“You’re the fourth vehicle,
ma’am.”
“I’m the fourth vehicle?”
“That’s right, ma’am. The fourth
vehicle.”
“Why is that important, offi cer?”
“There are some new laws in
the state of Texas now, ma’am.
Today, from twelve midnight to
four in the mornin’ we’re settin’
up Check Points on every street
within a ten mile radius. At every
Check Point we’ve been ordered
to stop every fourth vehicle to
ferret out possible drunks or
druggies.”
“What happens if I’m not a drunk
or a druggie?”
“We run your plates and check
your insurance information to see
if you owe any late fi nes or traffi c
tickets, are a wanted criminal or
an illegal. If you check out, we let
you pass while we proceed on to
the next fourth vehicle in the very
long line of vehicles behind you,
ma’am.”
“I’m being stopped without
’probable cause’?”
“By Law, every fourth vehicle is
our ‘probable cause’, ma’am.”
“You know, offi cer, Check Points
similar to these were set up in
Nazi Germany for the general
‘safety’ and ‘well being’ of the
overall public. Eventually, many
people labeled as political
and intellectual dissidents and
Jews were detained at those
very same Check Points, and
then quietly shipped off to
concentration camps and gas
ovens.”
The fl ashlight steadily glared at
the woman. The Moths continued
to be easy victims. The frenzied
creatures spasmodically bumped
and hissed into the hot glass of
the blazing, myopic Cyclops Eye
the e-magazine 4th April 2009
Random Probable Cause
By Leah Sellers
of the offi cer’s offi cial fl ashlight.
“I just got back from Iran, ma’am.
I’m a patriot who decided to join
the police force and continue
to protect folks like you. I
worked Check Points outside of
Baghdad. It’s no big deal, ma’am.
Just a little time out of your day.”
“Iran is a War Zone, offi cer.”
“This is a War on Drugs and
Drunks, ma’am.”
“The streets of Texas are now
considered a War Zone, offi cer?
A War Zone fi lled with Random
Probable Causes?”
“That’s right, ma’am.”
“Just for curiosity’s sake, offi cer,
what happens if you discover
that the person driving a ‘fourth
vehicle’ may be drunk or
drugged?”
“We ask them to take a
breathalizer test. If they refuse,
we’re trained to draw their blood
and haul ‘em in.”
“You draw their blood? You stick
a needle and syringe into them,
and draw their blood,” the woman
asked incredulously?
Suddenly, the intrusive Cyclops
Eye yanked to the left and
then to the right before waving
indiscriminately into the black
abyss outside the woman’s truck
window.
“Alright, Joe. Well it looks as
though you check out, ma’am.”
“You don’t know how glad I am
to hear that, offi cer.”
“You drive safely now.” With
that the offi cer’s footsteps
retreated into the darkness, and
the blinding Cyclops Eye of his
fl ashlight searched out its next
Probable Prey.
All the woman could hear were
the crunching and grinding of the
offi cer’s boots as he approached
the next ‘fourth vehicle’ in line
behind her. The woman was
once again reminded of the
fi lm she had seen displaying
hordes of Nazi soldiers pounding
their Fascist boots into the
cobblestone streets of Europe.
Goose walking themselves,
the German people, and all of
Europe and the World into the
awaiting voracious, inhumane,
blood-sucking jaws of Tyranny
and Injustice.
The young, Texas police offi cer
was a Hunter on the prowl.
Stealthily sniffi ng out and
approaching his next Random
Probable Cause. The Call of
Organized Chaos and the muted
screams of dying Moths followed
him and his Fiery Cyclops Eye.
The odor fi lling the nostrils of
the woman, the Concerned
American Citizen (who had
innocently found herself to be the
‘fourth vehicle’, the next Random
Probable Cause in line that
particular and fateful evening)
was the smoke and ashes of
a Nation. A Nation founded
upon the principles of inherent
individual rights, freedom and
liberty for All. A proud Nation, now
disintegrating into a police state
– a possible Fascist military state
brought to power by American
Fears – American over reactive
needs to ‘be safe, secure and
comfortable’.
The woman’s stomach began
to tighten and to sicken with
the expanding knowledge that
America was beginning to lose
Her Heart and Soul - losing
Her Greatness to short-sighted
pettiness and people’s constant
refusal to learn from the Mistakes
of History.
Perhaps all was not lost.
Perhaps the ever changing
Randomness of Probable
Causes, which are always
defi ned by Whomever is in
Power, would not Win the Day.
There is always Hope! There
is always the Awakening of
Awareness!
The woman quickly popped
her truck’s gear into drive and
purposefully pulled away from
the lengthening line of Random
Probable Causes, and the
offi cer’s Hungry Cyclops Eye on
the hunt behind her.
Be ever watchful, wanderer,
for the eyes that gaze into
yours at the bend of the road
may be those of the goddess
herself. Oracle at Delphi
March 8 is the International Day
of Women and is placed under
the sign of the goddess of the
month of March — Minerva.
Minerva derives her name from
the Latin mens (mind), and so
she has a special relation to
teachers and artists, especially
players of a fl ute. Tradition has it
that Minerva is a transformation
of an earlier Etruscan and
Sabine goddess taken over
when Rome was established.
She has also taken symbols
and meanings from the Greek
Athene, especially the owl as a
sign of seeing in the dark, what
is usually hidden or instinctive.
Minerva is she who brings from
the darkness into the light.
Minerva symbolized Rome as
Athene, Athens. Minerva’s face
was put on Roman coins and as
such she travelled to the Roman
provinces, becoming Britannia
in England. She has come
down through the centuries as
the goddess of learning. In the
US Library of Congress Great
Hall, she holds a scroll on
which are inscribed “Agriculture,
Education, Commerce,
Government, Economic” — all
these are gifts from Wisdom’s
store.
Minerva’s essential gift is
understanding the relation
between mind and matter.
Minerva’s owl, creature of
the night and symbol of the
goddess’s dark and underworld
power which see can see at
night is also related to the
reasonableness of day.
It is this ability to bridge the
dark and the light that is so
frightening to men. They have
in the Middle East and the
the e-magazine 5th April 2009
Adopting something
By Thanos Kalamidas
Westernized world banished
the goddesses to be replaced
by a less multi-form male god.
This is the thesis of Johann
Jakob Bachofen, a 19th century
Swiss scholar from Basle,
working largely alone and
drawing on Greek and Roman
mythology. He held that the
myths showed clearly that there
had been an earlier period of
social organization that was a
matriarchy, a time when society
was founded on family, equality
and peace whose defi ning
characteristic was love of the
mother, and the most heinous
crime was matricide.
Then came patriarchy which
found the earlier system so
intolerable that the memory was
repressed to the subconscious
where, Bachofen thought, the
memories live on in myth and
dreams. See: J.J. Bachofen
Myth, Religion and Mother Right
(London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1967).
C.J. Jung knew of the work of
Bachofen and used some of
Bachofen’s reproductions of
symbols in his own writing on
the feminine — the anima. For
Jung, the life energy takes on a
myriad of feminine forms: now
young, now old, now mother,
now maiden, now a good fairy,
now a witch, now a saint, now a
whore. She draws man into life
with her Maya (power of illusion
in Hinduism), and as Sophia,
she “leads the way to God and
assures immortality. She is the
archetype of life itself.”
It is this ‘saving role’ of the
feminine which makes uneasy
the religions whose prophets
are all men. In the current,
fundamentalist form of Islam,
the woman must be covered,
isolated, accompanied by a
male relative. Women are not
the symbol of learning. In fact,
they should not go to school
at all. These reactions which
can take the extreme forms of
‘honor killings’ and the closing
of schools for women are a
rising tide among the Taliban
and others who share the same
fears.
These fears have deep causes
and are not limited to the Islamic
world. To transform fears into
rational knowledge is not an
easy task, but Minerva in some
early representations, had
thunderbolts in her hand (a
symbol usually associated with
Jove.) Thus transformation will
not come without confl ict. The
aims of the International Day
of Women were well set out
by Bella Abzug, a member of
the US Congress and political
feminist, in her talk to the UN
World Conference on Women
(1995)
“Change is not about simply
mainstreaming women. It’s not
about women joining the polluted
stream. It’s about cleaning the
stream, changing stagnant pools
into fresh, fl owing waters.
Our struggle is about resisting
the slide into a morass of
anarchy, violence, intolerance,
inequality and injustice.
Our struggle is about reversing
the trends of social, economic
and ecological crisis. For women
in the struggle for equality, there
are many paths to the mountain
top. Our struggle is about
creating sustainable lives and
attainable dreams. Our violence
is about creating violence-free
families. And then, violencefree
streets. Then, violence-free
borders.
For us to realize our dreams,
we must keep our heads in
the clouds and our feet on the
ground.”
Exactly how much power Opus
Dei and its members have
had over the United States
political and fi nancial scene and
foreign policies options until just
recently? This is a question no
one dares to ask and even fewer
dare to research or answer. It
is inconvenient, not a propos of
the current optimist and pluralityloving
wave, it is a fractional
question.
Still, perhaps the Bush
administration was useful in the
sense of teaching the American
citizens (and above all their
latest victims) something about
the importance of separating
politics and faith. Obama
seems to know very well how
to keep both things in their right
places, as he showed during
the campaign – the same way
he has shown, after taking
offi ce, that he knows he is the
President of all Hindu, Islamic,
Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, all
Americans of all faiths, and more
importantly: respects them all.
But we should step back some
years and recall that power
is tempting in all its forms, for
certain minds. It is not because
the US Opus Dei offers pseudotransparency
shows in the form
of live online video tours to their
headquarters that their infl uence
over the political and fi nancial
institutions is less harmful
or dangerous for US/world
democracy, or their attempts
to control the governments in
order to fulfi ll particular agendas
become less obvious.
Maybe the US is currently
suffering with all the options and
promiscuity of the past. Bush
was a puppet in the hands of
particular groups of interest.
Nevertheless, some lessons
should be learnt from it all. At
least one would think so. But the
bitter truth is that US citizens
should be warned for the fact
that such groups of interest will
keep trying hard to move their
strings and infl uence whomever
is in power.
the e-magazine 6th April 2009
Essay For a
Post-Opus Dei United States
By Alexandra Pereira
Lately, they have been
recurrently attacking nonreligious
citizens and what they
call “secularist Europe” – which
is, of course, not constructive
for transatlantic relationships,
and undermines all Obama’s
administration efforts. Some
notes on these distorted
prepositions will be helpful and
clarifying.
The assertion according to
which only Europe and nonreligious
people inside Europe
are secularist is deeply wrong.
For a start, secularism was
introduced in the West and
Europe in the place (modern
day Spain) where centuries later
Josemaría Escrivá, the founder
of Opus Dei, was born by
Islamic philosophers, namely the
Almoravid-Almohad Averroes,
or Ibn Rushd, who came from a
family of law scholars who had
collaborated with several caliphs
for generations before that.
And you can ask: but isn’t Islam
the faith of the Sharia? My
answer will be: not really, or not
only. Actually, you understand
very little of Islam and Islamic
faith if you fail to understand
this: Islam is not one, but
multiple – this multiplicity is
the heart and core of Islam.
Needless to say, where there
is multiplicity, there is space
for the Other – this space was
literally emotional and physical
as Catholics, Berbers, Jews and
Muslims lived inside the same
towns and married each other
in parts of Europe, under the
caliphs, many centuries ago.
Second, we should never,
ever forget these observations:
there are plenty of religious
secularists, just the same
way as atheist non-secularist
people exist. This should be a
strong sign indicating that any
tempting Manichaean ideas are
wrong. Finally, secularism can
be simply defi ned as “the belief
that religion and ecclesiastical
affairs should not enter into the
functions or services provided
by the state, or that they should
not have infl uence or determine
a state’s duties and the way it
treats or relates to its citizens”.
Holyoake, a British secularism
pioneer advanced many years
ago that “Secularism is not an
argument against Christianity, it
is one independent of it. It does
not question the pretensions of
Christianity; it advances others.
Secularism does not say there is
no light or guidance elsewhere,
but maintains that there is light
and guidance in secular truth,
whose conditions and sanctions
exist independently, and act
forever.” I can see nothing wrong
with that – but I understand
that particular faith-related
radical and militant interests
can, not only the ones related
with Opus Dei, but with many
other Christian groups which
move interests and hundreds of
millions of dollars in the United
States every year.
Life has a strange habit of
bringing loose threads together
in order to make a pretty
bow. The threads of which I
now speak began to present
themselves a few months ago
when the fi lm magazine Empire
unveiled The Godfather as
the best fi lm of all-time. This
prompted me to consider it as
my next Ovi Best Picture review,
but I didn’t know how to review
a fi lm that has been the subject
of countless books and essays,
been voted to the top of so, so
many polls and has entered the
collective consciousness of our
culture... that was, however, until
last week.
On the same day last week, I
realised Francis Ford Coppola’s
70th birthday would be on April
7th and I received the latest
issue of Empire in which there
was a letter from Seamsu
Mulrenan who wrote: “I am 13
and have been reading your
magazine for about a year. I
thought your Top 500 Films was
a great feature but was a bit
surprised that The Godfather
came fi rst, as it’s a fi lm me and
my friends hadn’t heard of. A few
weeks ago I fi nally got a chance
to watch it and it’s absolutely
brilliant!”
Seamsu’s letter left me shaking
my head in despair and wholeheartedly
agreeing with Empire’s
reply of “Kids today, eh!”
However, the more I thought
about his comment the more the
threads began to loop and knot,
until it was clear that this was
the access point for my review of
The Godfather, with the prefect
timing of the award-winning
director’s landmark birthday of
three score years and ten.
Many of us take it for granted
that fi lms such as The Godfather
are quintessential viewing and
are the infl uence, inspiration
and foundation that so many
fi lms have been built on since.
We forget that there was once
a time that we had never heard
of or seen some of our favourite
fi lms, especially for those of us
born after their initial release.
Unless there was a cinematic
mentor in the family or among
your group of friends you could
easily have missed, or even still
are missing, so many great fi lms
– I remember having a hard time
convincing my dad to watch The
Shawshank Redemption, but
now it is among his favourite
fi lms.
Perhaps it is arrogant to think
that everybody should have
seen, or at least heard of, The
Godfather, but when hundreds
of fi lms are being made year
after year a young newcomer
to cinema, like Seamsu, can
the e-magazine 7th April 2009
Godfather who?
By Asa Butcher
feel overwhelmed and unsure
whether to work their way
through the back catalogue of
Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder,
Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford
Coppola or... well, you get
my point. Seamsu, it is easy:
Watch them all! You are young,
actually you are too young to
be watching the 18-rated The
Godfather, but let’s overlook that
law-breaking aspect!
Like music and art, our taste
in fi lm is personal and is
infl uenced by a number of
variables, among which are
mood, age, experience and even
understanding of the creative
process because when I fi rst
watched The Godfather in my
late-teens I knew it was good,
but when I watched it again for
this review, well I had forgotten
the enormity, the artistic
brilliance and acting tour de
force that assault your senses
for almost three hours. I am
not an art lover. Paintings have
no hold for me, but a fi lm can
set my mind on fi re and it has
always been my escape route
from reality; The Godfather is
one fi lm that I would “hang” on
my wall if it were a painting.
The Godfather has
cinematography that rivals
artwork by some of the Masters
in its construction, with the
now classic silhouettes of
the opening scenes suddenly
contrasted against the vibrant
colour of the wedding. It has a
cast of acting genius that the
word ‘talented’ can only begin
to describe, with Marlon Brando
at the pinnacle of his powers,
Al Pacino’s perfection, James
Caan’s explosive force and
Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton,
John Cazale, Abe Vigoda and
the great Sterling Hayden all
lending even further weight
to this giant. The screenplay
is packed full of dialogue that
some people actually live by
(watch You’ve Got Mail to fully
understand) and scenes that
have been parodied hundreds of
times since – by the way, did you
know that the name of the horse
that loses its head is Khartoum!
Marlon Brando won his second
Best Actor Oscar for his role
as Don Corleone, although he
famously sent the fake Indian girl
to collect it for him, while Francis
Ford Coppola may have lost
out on the Best Director award
to Bob Fosse for Cabaret, but
he did share the Oscar for Best
Writing, Screenplay Based on
Material from Another Medium,
with Mario Puzo, who wrote
the novel on which the fi lm was
famously based.
The Godfather also walked
away with the Best Picture
award, currently holds the
second spot on IMBD’s Top
250, has been selected for
preservation in the United States
National Film Registry, is ranked
as the second greatest fi lm in
the American Film Institute’s
100 Years... 100 Movies list and,
as I mentioned earlier, topped
Empire’s Top 500 fi lms list. Quite
simply Tom Hanks’ sums it up in
You’ve Got Mail:
“The Godfather is the I Ching.
The Godfather is the sum of all
wisdom. The Godfather is the
answer to any question. What
should I pack for my summer
vacation? ‘Leave the gun, take
the cannoli.’ What day of the
week is it? ‘Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Wednesday.’”
For those of you reading
this review today I ask you
to become a fi lm mentor to
somebody close to you. Help
them navigate through the
thousands of titles available on
DVD and teach them about the
beauty of cinema… it certainly
wouldn’t hurt to start with The
Godfather, although make sure
they aren’t at an age where the
sight of a bloody horse’s head
or a man being shot to pieces at
a toll booth will leave them with
nightmares!
By the way, Seamsu, do
you know there are also two
sequels?
Barack Obama went to
Strasbourg to give a speech to
the French and German people
in the audience. A good sign,
since it shows a sincere effort
to engage in a productive and
honest dialogue with Europe.
We have our disagreements,
but this dialogue can be very
fruitful – above all, if you
engage in a dialogue, at least
you can have hope that basic
mutual trust is being restored.
And you are amazed on how
much humbleness this man is
able to show, thanks to the shit
somebody else made in his
place. This alone wins him the
sympathy of the Europeans.
The man impressed me with
how accurate and sensible his
diagnosis and analysis of the
current and recent relationships
between Europe and America
was. I have expressed before my
disgust with blind and growing
European anti-Americanism, but
also with American arrogance
towards Europe. Here’s what
he had to say about this subject
matter: “I’m confi dent that we
can meet any challenge as long
as we are together. It’s easier to
allow resentments to fester than
to forge true partnerships. So we
must be honest with ourselves.
In recent years, we’ve allowed
our alliance to drift.
I know that there have been
honest disagreements over
policy. But we also know that
there’s something more that
has crept into our relationship.
In America, there’s a failure to
appreciate Europe’s leading
role in the world. Instead of
celebrating your dynamic union
and seeking to partner with you
to meet common challenges,
there have been times where
America’s showed arrogance
and been dismissive, even
derisive.
But in Europe, there is an anti-
Americanism that is at once
casual but can also be insidious.
Instead of recognizing the good
that America so often does in
the world, there have been
times where Europeans choose
to blame America for much of
what’s bad. On both sides of
the Atlantic, these attitudes
have become all too common.
They are not wise; they do
not represent the truth. They
threaten to widen the divide
across the Atlantic and leave us
both more isolated.
I’ve come to Europe this week
to renew our partnership – one
in which America listens and
learns from our friends and
allies, but where our friends
and allies bear their share of
the burden. Together, we must
forge common solutions to
our common problems.” And
he ended like this: “So let me
say this as clearly as I can:
America is changing. But it
cannot be America alone that
changes”. Take that Europe,
and digest it. And I’m saying
it sincerely, as a European. If
European leaders are not fools
(something about which we’ve
all been having doubts lately),
they will understand that they
either engage in dialogue with
America now that they have
all the conditions to do so, or
the e-magazine 8th April 2009
The Strasbourg Speech:
Change in Europe
By Alexandra Pereira
the Americans will have other
powerful emerging partners –
like South America or India.
Also, they’ll better engage in
dialogue because Obama is
more popular in Europe than
themselves – they will either
talk with him, or the Europeans
will kick their butts out of the
power seats. That wouldn’t be
bad at all… when you think
about an Union where there
are laws demanding that all the
fridges have to be at the same
distance from the kitchen in all
restaurants from Portugal and
Spain to Estonia or Finland
and all the bread has to have
exactly the same amount of
salt from Greece to Belgium or
the UK, but where our Labor
Ministers can simply give up
from sitting down and decide
common policies to deal with
unemployment, create new jobs
and fi ght the crisis, and no one
seems to care or ask them for
responsibilities on that…
He was absolutely on target
about the current condition of the
relationships between Europe
and the United States. Things
that Europe does not forgive the
US about are the promiscuity
between groups of infl uence
and the State – this is, in the
end, what has been rising many
eyebrows and many suspicions
in Europe about the quality of
the American democracy, so
there should be an effort by the
Obama administration to clarify
how much those intervened in
the past and to assure that they
don’t in the future. A French boy
in the audience rose and asked
Obama what he expected of
France and Europe in the war
against terror.
Here’s part of Obama’s answer:
“Don’t fool yourselves. Do not
think that Al-Qaeda will stop
being a threat just because
we… solve the Middle East
crisis or because we… show
more tolerance and respect
for the Muslim world. Because
that’s just not going to happen”.
The good news are that Barack
Obama might be slightly wrong
in these last sentences, and
Europe knows that. “Just solve
the Middle East crisis”? That
wouldn’t be a “just”, that would
be a miracle!! Can you imagine
what would represent to the
Islamic world to have at least
equal access to and rights over
Jerusalem, just to give a small
example? And showing more
respect for the Muslim world
could be not decisive, but it
would certainly help much…
Here’s why: faithfulness is an
incredibly important value inside
Islam. If you attack a Muslim in
Australia, a Muslim in Iceland
will defend him. If you show
respect for Islamic faith and
those countries’ cultures, and
help to give better life conditions
and opportunities to people in
Afghanistan or Pakistan (not with
the army but with civil servants,
for example), many young boys
and girls will stop being so
easily manipulated by cheap
murderers, because actually
the Prophet urges everybody to
use their own head and not only
to use their own head: to study
(this includes women), as well as
to respect all life on Earth.
So real Islam is on your side, if
you are clever enough - please
understand this. Finally, he
said “We have no interest in
occupying Afghanistan”, still
he should have clearly added:
“But we have true interest in
helping its development and
assist in providing its population
with basic life conditions,
opportunities and dignity”. This
would have been a victory
celebrated not only in Europe,
but by people in all Islamic
countries too. Why? Because
the whole world wants to be sure
and assured that Afghanistan
is not a shameless game of
interests like Iraq was, and that
America respects its citizens’
rights as much as it respects
the rights of American citizens.
That’s the basic premise for
dialogue with Europe. I am sure
it will be fi ne.
Lately I notice in the news
politicians and governments
announcing their efforts to
control the blogs in the internet,
for example in Italy there is
a whole talk about the blogs
and even Facebook with an
MP calling the blogs and the
social network instrument of
the Mafi a and organized crime,
while in Greece the prime
minister Karamanlis said in the
parliament that they’re terrorists.
This is like saying that all Italians
are lazy or that all Greeks are
restaurateurs. Isn’t it worst
when they call it huge because
it is huge, part of the global
population criminals?
I know that the argument is that
even Bin Laden communicates
through internet with his
followers and that pedophiles
have become a dangerous
virus but my question is if
anybody thinks that if there was
not internet at all Bin Laden
would not have found ways to
communicate his poisonous
messages and are pedophiles
an internet creation because the
way they present the issue lately
makes you think that there were
no pedophiles before internet.
The majority of the bloggers
are keeping personal journals
and when we are talking about
bloggers we must remember that
we are talking about millions,
an estimate from 2005 was
talking about 50 million bloggers
worldwide with the number
increasing dramatically day by
day. Personal journals mean
information that would interest
only family and friends and
perhaps entertain a few dozens
more. Of course depending on
how clever and entertaining the
blogger is the blog can have
visits that count to thousands but
this is a rare phenomenon. So I
suppose there is nothing wrong
and illegal about that.
the e-magazine 9th April 2009
Who’s afraid of the bloggers?
By Thanos Kalamidas
Then there is the other group,
the ones who promote their
work as a live portfolio using
a tool that can reach a lot of
people and has the minimum
cost while it gives the chance
of reaction and promotion. I
suppose this is legitimate for
everybody. Then there are
these bloggers that use the
blogs to express themselves
intellectually, politically, culturally
even gossiping and that again
is acceptable and even wanted,
in a free world, in a democracy
the right to express yourself and
have opinion is a right, actually
supreme democratic right and
that’s a prove that a democracy
works.
Then you have those very few
who use the freedom of speech
gives and yes there are hate
sites and blogs and yes Bin
Laden has used blogs and sites
to communicate and yes there
are pedophiles who think that
they can use the anonymity of
the blogs but here there are
some points that obviously
politicians and governments
miss intentionally. First of all
the anonymity of the blogs is
a myth, everybody who knows
about internet knows that every
user leaves a trace that can be
followed and they have done so
the experts of the security forces
all around the world, the only
thing missing is the governments
to help the security forces with
better training and equipment.
The same applies to all kind
of criminals that try to invade
internet including pedophiles.
Actually the bloggers themselves
have organized so well so they
spot and isolate these people
and they are the best allies
for the security forces and the
states.
Criminals were all through
history and they always found
ways to communicate, internet is
just the latest gadget; before that
they even used the classifi ed
adverts in the newspapers
including some of the most
famous ones and internationally
published. And as I pointed
before there are ways to catch
they and the bloggers are the
best allies for that and defi nitely
not the enemies. So what’s the
problem, why the governments
and the politicians are so afraid
of the bloggers. The answers at
least how I see it is information
and whoever controls
information has all the power,
whoever controls information
controls power, controls money,
controls everything.
You see that’s another thing
with the blogs and blogger, they
give information, information
that cannot be controlled and
manipulated, pure information
without side interests or hidden
agendas. People have become
the contemporary journalists
who most of time live in the
center of the events, people who
witness the news and they are
not afraid to report what they
see and hear because as I said
before they have no hidden
agendas and special interests.
It is money because people
have realized the information
power of the blogs and that’s
why the numbers of newspapers
and magazines are constantly
reducing. Because even
reporters and journalists having
realize the power of the blogs
or that it is the time to do freely
their work without having to obey
orders and serve dark interests
of their bosses have turned
into bloggers often revealing
scandals and truths they would
never dare or let to do in the
media they work for. Media has
been the fourth power but they
were because they were allowed
to be, because it worked for the
politicians and the government
to be and because one way
or another they could control
them now there is a new form of
media that cannot be controlled
and that’s what scares them
and that’s exactly why they try
legally to do by doing laws that
violate the basic right of every
democracy, the right of freedom
to speak and express opinion.
That’s what scares Karamanlis,
Sarkozy, Berlusconi and it
makes you wonder what Barack
Obama thinks since before
becoming the President of USA
he was a blogger. If and this is
a huge if, they manage to pass
laws that control the way they
like to, internet and the blogger I
think their next step is to suspect
that everybody who owns a
laptop is a terrorist and start a
new witch-hunt!
If evolution’s “tree of life” is true,
then one of the most absurd
paths that have ever gone down
the theoretical chain is the claim
that birds such as chickens
evolved from dinosaurs such as
the T. Rex. The astounding claim
that dinosaurs live on today
in the form of birds is without
supportive, physical evidence.
One question in sincerity might
be asked here: when comparing
a Tyrannosaurus Rex, weighing
several tons, to a chicken,
weighing three or four pounds,
in what way do they resemble
each other?. It is nothing about
their relative size, weight,
internal structures, or general
appearance that indicates any
relation whatsoever.
New Scientist [25 February
2009] featured the work of Jack
Horner, a man on a mission to
prove this theory. Horner seeks
to build a chickenosaurus by
altering the embryo of a chicken
to develop a long tail. This
hybrid, he believes, will prove
that reptiles such as dinosaurs
evolved into birds. wants to
raise the dead by growing a
dinosaur from a chicken embryo.
While the publisher calls his
idea “astonishing new science
that trumps science fi ction”. Is it
possible? In short, no.
Science holds out some hope
for cloning ancient DNA and
resurrecting the victims of recent
extinctions, from dodos and
moas to mammoths and woolly
rhinos, but as for dinosaurs, it
looks impossible. DNA is far
less stable than protein, so if
the protein was scarce, Horner
sees no chance that enough
DNA survives to clone the extinct
giants. The results were the only
thing that laid an egg.
Whether Aristotle might have
believed in evolution, he was
chiefl y concerned with the
beginning. He cogently argued
that there must be a reality that
causes, but is itself uncaused
(or, a being that moves but is
itself unmoved). Why? Because
if there is an infi nite regression
of causes, then by defi nition
the whole process could never
begin. He seemed to know that
matter, or at least life, was not
eternal.
Richard Dawkins is not the
only one that fails in his task to
explain the origins, because he
seems unable to prevent himself
from argumentative overreach.
For instance, he tells the young
people that evolution “is the
explanation for our existence …
everything we know about life is
explained by it.” Really!? Music,
art, literature, love, beauty
and ethics are all explained by
evolution? Good luck explaining
to a 16-year old girl that the
reason her boyfriend cheated
on her was due to “evolution’s
survival of the fi ttest”. I don’t
believe this would make the
heartbroken girl feel better or
understand that it‘s just “human
evolution at work“.
the e-magazine 11th April 2009
Evolutionists on Evolution 2/3
By Jack Wellman
Richard Dawkins makes
extravagant claims and
sweeping statements.
Even though he states that
evolutionary mechanisms
explain the origin of the
universe, not many cosmologists
currently agree with him. And
since the origin of life itself
remains, to date, a mystery, so
much so that Professor Robert
Shapiro has called Dawkins’
account “fundamentally fl awed”,
then how much more diffi cult
to determine the origin of the
universe (& matter)? Now, I’m
not going to try to fi ll these gaps
with God. Maybe, in due course,
we’ll fi nd out what scientifi c
explanation does lie behind
them, but what Dawkins hurts
the case for evolution with his
claims that it alone provides the
explanation even though there is
no evidence for such claims.
Evolutionists ought to be
constrained to their hemisphere
of the origin of life, since the
origin of matter precedes that
of life. Evolution only tries to
theorize the origin of life, given
the fact that spontaneous
generation (life from non-living
matter) has fallen out of the
scientifi c communities favor as
a theory. And when Dawkins
does stick to that which is the
proper domain of evolutionary
biology – the diversity of life
– he somehow misses his
target. He would have evolution
extending outside of its proper
domain to explain the origins
of matter. This question seems
equally weighty compared to
the origin of life. But evolution
has to depend upon theories
to address the origins of life. It
has no theory for the origin of
matter. Dawkins would be better
suited to highlight the similarities
between the mouse and rat
genomes, since believing that
two rodents are related isn’t
diffi cult. The real problem is
believing that humans and mice
are and so we are theoretically
setting death traps of our near
relatives. Good luck trying
to persuading a High School
Science class of this as fact.
The origins of matter and
the beginning are not beyond
physics, says Steven Weinberg,
a Nobel laureate in Physics,
who has said that at the moment
of this explosion, “the universe
was about a hundred thousand
million degrees Centigrade...and
the universe was fi lled with light.”
The universe has not always
existed. It had a start...what
caused that? Scientists have
no explanation for the sudden
explosion of light and matter, but
a beginning is inferred.
Mr. Weinberg continued saying,
“The greatest scientists have
been struck by how strange this
is. There is no logical necessity
for a universe that obeys rules,
let alone one that abides by
the rules of mathematics. This
astonishment springs from the
recognition that the universe
doesn’t have to behave this way.
It is easy to imagine a universe
in which conditions change
unpredictably from instant to
instant, or even a universe in
which things pop in and out of
existence.”
Richard Feynman, a Nobel
Prize winner for quantum
electrodynamics, said, “Why
nature is mathematical is a
mystery...The fact that there are
rules at all is a kind of miracle.”
What explanation do these
scientists give for the start to our
entire universe, energy, time,
and space? Dawkins attempts to
simply negate the foundational
premise that science rests on:
that everything that begins to
exist must have a cause.
It is ironic that Physicist Victor
Stenger says the universe may
be “uncaused” and may have
“emerged from nothing” even
though this is a logical absurdity,
as Philosopher Bertrand Russell
says. He adopted this position
in a debate on the existence of
God. He said, “The universe is
just here, and that’s all.” It is one
thing to state that something
is eternal, and therefore no
“cause” is necessary. But it is
entirely different to scientifi cally
observe the start of something,
the instantaneous beginning of
something, and then try to say
that it had no cause.
Even David Hume, one
of the most skeptical of all
philosophers, regarded this
position as ridiculous. For all his
skepticism, even Hume never
denied causation. In 1754,
Hume wrote, “I have never
asserted so absurd a proposition
as that anything might arise
without cause.” Cumulative
scientifi c fi ndings continue to
point toward only one general
conclusions: the universe had
a singular start or beginning,
an explosion of matter and
intense light, where everything
we know; the universe, time,
space, scientifi c laws we
observe, all had a beginning.
A special creation event is not
in contradiction with known
scientifi c facts and we are not
done examining the evidence of
such. The universe has left us
an echo (i.e., red shifts,) as well
as many other evidences. This
much we know…and yet there is
more to come.
Easter is upon us once again, a
time for family, chocolate eggs,
and celebration.
But do we really understand the
basis of the celebrations in the
Christian sense.
This is the time of year when
Jesus rose from the dead after
sacrifi cing himself for us, but the
reality is far from what you read
in the modern Bible, all Jesus’
miracles and teachings were
metaphors to be used as the
basis of his teachings.
To begin, the apostles were
not fi shermen as Jesus was
not, they were fi sher of men,
basically olden day door to door
religious men who would come
an speak about this new religion
in effect fi nding new followers
i.e., fi shing for members, again a
metaphor .
Also it was a family business as
Jesus brothers were involved,
his brother James (James
the just) who went on to be
archbishop of Nazareth, the twin
brothers Joseph and Simon, and
this may come as a surprise his
brother Judas, who got a bad
rap in the whole story.
The group referred to
themselves as the living and
those who had not yet found the
light as the dead which is where
we get the story of Jesus rising
from the dead, what he was
saying was he was dead in the
spiritual sense till the teachings
he discovered delivered him
to the living, the same applies
to the story of Jesus raising
Lazarus from the dead, he
basically showed him to a new
way of thinking, therefore raising
him from the dead.
Jesus speaking in the Bible only
adds up to two hours and in that
time he tried to teach peace,
love, humanity, basically a
the e-magazine 12th April 2009
Jesus Christ, where did we go wrong?
By Louie Parsons
modern day hippie and look how
far from that the modern church
and its beliefs have come.
The whole story of Jesus is
taken from a much older story of
Horus from Egyptian mythology,
the same traits are portrayed in
both story, born of a virgin, rose
from the dead.
Which leads us back to Judas,
because Jesus was following a
pattern used by many prophets
the plan had to be followed
to the letter, therefore he had
to be placed in the hands of
the Romans to be crucifi ed to
fi nish the tale, It’s commonly
recognized that Judas was
ordered to inform the Romans
of Jesus whereabouts, so he
wasn’t the Judas as the Bible
presents him today.
This may seem like new age
claptrap an it may be, but
remember when Jesus was
teaching it was also a very new
age way of thinking.
The story is very long and
confusing and here I try just to
show you some basic points in
a very easy way, as it has been
confused purposely to place
control in the hands of those
who run modern religion.
Remember the basics of what
this religion and holiday is all
about, fi nd yourself, love your
life, love those around you, lead
a good life, and do what you feel
is best. Find your path.
Happy Holidays!
When the tragic events in
Helsinki, Finland unveiled and
we all read about the young boy
that shot his classmates and
teachers in the local school I
wrote an article talking about the
identity crisis and the chances
the new generation has to deal
with and how all these effect
them. And the events have no
ending but followed by another
one in Virginia, USA, another
one in Germany and another
one in Finland and now one in
Athens, Greece. It is like a virus.
The characteristics of the
shooters in all cases are similar;
lonely characters, reserved
to themselves, spending a lot
of time reading and with the
internet all of them have an
interest in guns and generally
in weapons. All of them left
videos on YouTube showing
them practicing shooting and all
of them left notes behind them
saying how much they hate life
and the people around them
promising to take with them as
more as they can.
But before we generalize
let’s have a better look in
the background of the boy
that shot his classmates in a
professional orientation school
in Athens. In the fi rst middle
of the 20th century a lot of
Greeks immigrated abroad
for many reasons including
the ones who moved to east
European counties including
Russia for political reasons,
especially during the civil war
1945-50. The majority of those
people were communists or at
least left wing and afraid of the
result of the civil war seen that
their future included jail, exile
and sometimes even death.
Of course they didn’t fi nd the
socialist paradise they dreamed
of and the only thing remained
was the dream for the return and
of course Greece took mythical
portions in their mind and
hearts. If you include to them the
Greeks who lived for centuries in
the shores of the Black Sea then
you have a big number of them
wishing to return.
And when the Berlin Wall
fell they had their chance.
This is when the then Greek
government did a mistake,
a conservative government
though feeling thrilled with
the chance and the end of the
political valiant the foreign offi ce
started giving Greek passports
to anybody who could prove
that they were originally Greeks
and from one day to the other
thousands started packing for
the big return a lot of them not
necessarily Greeks, you see the
local mafi a was started taking
over and thousands return to
their dreamland including the
parents of the young man. Of
course what they found was
far away from paradise and
the e-magazine 13th April 2009
It happened in Athens
By Thanos Kalamidas
the young man grew up seeing
his parents escaping from one
struggle to survive and arriving
to another sometimes even
worst because now they had to
deal with the capitalist reality
where is not the party who’s
using them but their fellow
compatriots.
Then came the immigrants, the
illegal immigrants, the refuges,
the economic immigrants and
sometimes when the Finns
complain about immigration I
feel like laughing, how can you
compare the 180,000 totally
controlled immigration in Finland
with the over 1,5 million at least
of uncontrolled immigration in
Greece a country one sixth the
size of Finland. Uncontrolled
immigration because in a
country literally surrounded
from sea and countries with
citizens that see Greece as the
paradise and the solution to all
their problems since Greece is a
full member of the dreamed EU
illegal immigration is not just a
daily issue but an hourly issue.
And the truth is that this brought
the whole country in a crisis.
Of course the general economic
crisis was what was missing to
make the whole thing a serious
social crisis. Suddenly in a
country that has been victimized
from prejudice and racism, in
a country where there is no
family that hasn’t got a member
immigrated abroad for different
reasons we see prejudice and
racism. Suddenly to call you
…Albanian it became a swear
and the Greeks who returned
from eastern Europe became
second class citizens who
didn’t have only to deal with the
discrimination but antagonized
in jobs level from the other
immigrants and often losing what
they thought rightfully theirs.
That’s exactly where the boy
grew up.
A few months ago Athens
met with the worst nightmare,
riots that left burned houses
and shops in the center of the
capital, riots that expanded in all
the major Greek cities fast with
a catastrophic result. Despite
to what the Greek government
tried to say after following the
older example of the French
governed these people were
not some kind of orchestrated
criminal minds but young people
often in the age of fi fteen and
sixteen that wanted back what
was stolen from them, their right
to the dream and they acted with
the only way they knew violence.
These kids seen that it doesn’t
matter how much and how hard
they are studying the road to the
unemployment is just the same
and it didn’t matter what they
wished or wanted their future
looks really dark were asking
their right and that’s the society
this young man was brought to
live, a second class citizen with
his dreams dismissed before
even starting.
I’m not trying to excuse his
act, I think is terrible what
happened and it is even worst
that he wanted to take with him
others who have no difference
with him just like the other
boys in Finland, in USA and
Germany. What I’m trying to do
is understand what triggered
his hand and perhaps that will
lead to prevail future incidents
something the states have failed
in the worst possible way. That
in Finland you can have legally
license to carry a gun is wrong
and the government will change
that according to all said but is
this enough? It didn’t stop the
boy in Greece who after all was
not a high school student but in
an age that the state considered
him responsible enough to give
him the right to vote.
I have said it before and
I’m going to repeat it here,
our society is in a crisis and
unfortunately the victims are
the young people and what
happened with the young man in
Athens is exactly the same thing
that happened with the young
man in Kauhajoki, with the young
man in Virginia and the young
man in Germany, their anxiety
in front of the social problems
and their desperation regarding
their dark future led them to the
most violent act and they made
it even worst by taking with them
more people. And here comes
the responsibility of the state
that prioritized the wellbeing
of the few often the ones who
hold the money and the power
ignoring the people who actually
constitute the state. They are
the responsible with all their
mistakes that the society is led in
a crisis by separating the people
and I give you a small example
how the state can be responsible
of this separation. What does
it mean illegal immigration?
How somebody executes his
or hers right to life, a better life
can be excluded from his or
her chances called an illegal
immigrant given a status that
from its beginning creates a
prejudice? Why instead of
helping the people the states are
troubled on how they are going
to help the banks?
The violent reaction of all these
boys is like a virus and I’m really
worrying that this is not the end.
More boys and girls that have
seen what happened and feel
the same are going to follow the
example and it doesn’t matter if
I regret what I just wrote or not.
I suppose I gone a bit far but
as I said before understanding
the why and identifying who
holds the responsibility we might
understand how we can come
to a solution and how. At least in
the Athens’s incident there are
not so many killed the victims
are mainly wounded, seriously
but with a lot of hope to survive.
The big question now is if our
society is going to survive more
hits like that and I’m really sorry
to say this is not the end.
I am not saying that we can
multiply them (although we
should), but do we share our
breads inside the EU? Recent
laws imposed strict measures
to ensure that all the bread
inside EU has exactly the same
amount of salt, from the coasts
of Italy and Portugal to Scotland
and from Belgium to Estonia.
You see, they are very worried
about our health, in Brussels.
Of course, some say that breadlovers
will start adding butter
with salt and salted bacon or
salami to the unsalted bread, in
order to be able to taste anything
at all – and that will eventually
increase the number of strokes,
obesity and heart attacks
throughout Europe.
Of course such zeal is not
applicable to far more important
subject matters, like more
affordable and effective health
services, common education
policies and fees, common
social benefi ts and rights while
unemployed or when having
children, or generally balanced
social realities inside the EU.
“Employment ministers seem
to be on the business as usual
mode while workers are on the
emergency mode” said UNI
europa regional secretary “what
could wake them up?” And
I’m really sorry to say but this
unacceptable inaction of our
Ministers harms specially the
southern European unemployed,
as well as the people from
Eastern Europe’s poor countries.
Do we share our breads inside
EU?
What is this? Are we treated like
children, European Union? Are
we blind or stupid? Do we look
like jerks? What if we want to kill
ourselves with salt in our bread?
– even if we’re adults enough to
decide that , perhaps we can’t
anyway, because of not having
a job to help us afford to buy
the bread!!! Am I the only one
showing indignation and concern
with these deep contradictions?
I don’t think so! And you tell me
that NO change is needed in
Europe??
On this subject of change still,
I tried to fi nd a compatriot more
dignifi ed than Barroso, so I
should translate parts of a recent
article by my humorist compatriot
Ricardo A. Pereira1: “The
protocol says no one can touch
the Queen of England (as for
years it was evident, the protocol
the e-magazine 14th April 2009
EU’s Bread
By Alexandra Pereira
does not impose the same rule
on the Princess of Wales), but
Obama’s wife hugged her and
the Queen, instead of censoring
Michelle, hugged her back. Hate
between representatives of
different countries can take our
world to the ruin, but affection
also creates serious diplomatic
incidents. Foreign relations are
politically complex, however they
are even more complex from an
affective viewpoint.
Still about the visit of Barack
Obama to Europe, a last
note about the role played
by Mr. Barroso, which was
none. Nevertheless, I should
confess that I am worried about
Barroso’s health condition. First
of all, because Barroso is losing
his eyebrows. This is no political
metaphor, I’m being literal: at
this moment, Barroso has only
three or four hairs above each
one of his eyes, something
which is reasonably disturbing.
Second, I fear for the back
of our former prime-minister.
Obama came to Europe to regret
the international policy choices
made by Bush and promised a
new route. Barroso, who in the
Azores summit helped Bush
to realize the policy criticized
by Obama, said now that he
was delighted with the change
promised by the new president.
These acrobatic twists and turns
mustn’t be good for one’s back.”
In the same week, 83 year-old
Mário Soares, a Portuguese
EU founding father, criticized
Barroso’s lack of coherence,
said he saw Barroso as “a
person of the past, connected
with the shameful Azores
summit” and declared that he
was “shocked that a man who
was an admirer and sincere
friend of Bush, who supported
him in the war against Iraq,
after just a short period of time
can say he feels the same thing
about Bush’s main antagonist”.
In the same day, Fernando
Nobre, former member of
Médecins Sans Frontières and
president of the Portuguese
AMI – International Medical
Assistance (for humanitarian
aid and medical emergency
missions abroad) and a mandate
holder for the European
Parliament elections criticized
the EU for preparing the
reelection of Barroso as the
President of the Commission,
stating that “he is the only
one from the summit of the
Shame, in Azores, who still
wants to remain active (…) he
is an example of those wizard
apprentice politicians who
want to hold on to power, with
no spine, who think that with
a plastic surgery, everything
can remain the same”. And if
everything remains the same,
Nobre also predicted “social
outbursts in Europe which can
founder our democracies”.
Man accidentally shoots himself
at drive-through
A stop at a fast-food restaurant’s
drive-through on Tuesday
afternoon led to a trip to the
hospital after a man accidentally
shot himself in the leg with a
pistol. The 24-year-old man was
apparently trying to clear the
weapon when it went off and hit
him in the calf.
Police said the man didn’t need
a permit because the gun wasn’t
concealed, so he didn’t break any
laws. His name was not released.
Fast food defi nitely damages
your health!
***********************
Late for work?
A recent survey found out some
interesting facts about employee
punctuality. The survey found
that 20 percent of workers said
they arrive late to work at least
once a week, up from 15 percent
in last year’s survey. One-in-ten
(12 percent) said they are late at
least twice a week.
Actual reasons for coming in late
vary from worker to worker, but
traffi c was the main culprit with
the e-magazine 15th April 2009
How ...bizarre!
By Thanos Kalamidas
one-third (33 percent) of workers
claiming it caused their tardiness.
Nearly a quarter (24 percent) said
lack of sleep, while 10 percent
said getting their kids ready for
school or day care was the main
reason.
Other common reasons included
public transportation, wardrobe
issues or dealing with pets. Hiring
managers provided the following
examples of the most outrageous
excuses employees offered for
arriving late to work:
My heat was shut off so I had
to stay home to keep my snake
warm.
My husband thinks it’s funny to
hide my car keys before he goes
to work.
I walked into a spider web on
the way out the door and couldn’t
fi nd the spider, so I had to go
inside and shower again.
I got locked in my trunk by my
son.
My left turn signal was out so I
had to make all right turns to get
to work.
A gurney fell out of an
ambulance and delayed traffi c.
I was attacked by a raccoon and
had to stop by the hospital to
make sure it wasn’t rabid.
I feel like I’m in everyone’s way if
I show up on time.
My father didn’t wake me up.
A groundhog bit my bike tire and
made it fl at.
My driveway washed away in the
rain last night.
I had to go to bingo.
***********************
Mayor of Hollywood charged
with assault
Hollywood Mayor Tommy Wayne
Allen is facing an assault charge
after he allegedly struck a man
in the face while responding to
a wreck in Hollywood. Allen, 49,
who also serves as a fi re-fi ghter
with the Hollywood Volunteer Fire
Department, was arrested at the
scene of the wreck and charged
with third-degree assault, Doyle
York, chief deputy of the Jackson
County Sheriff’s Department.
York said a department policy on
misdemeanour cases prevents
him from providing any other
details about the case. But
according to a report fi led in
Circuit Court here Monday by
Sheriff’s Deputy Tracy Holman,
Allen hit Jamie Lee Stiles in the
face with his fi st.
Holman said the incident
occurred about 5:30 a.m. at a
wreck on County Road 33 after
Stiles, owner of the wrecked
vehicle, was found nearby by
Hollywood Police Chief Pete
Ledwell and a police offi cer and
returned to the wreck scene. After
arriving at the scene, he said,
Allen told Stiles, “I want you to
see what you did to me” and then
struck him. He said the two men
had to be restrained by offi cers.
Holman does not state in the
report what Allen wanted Stiles
to see and why he allegedly
assaulted him. Allen was taken
to the County Jail in Scottsboro
where he was later released on
bond. The amount of his bond
was not immediately known.
Sheep with different
colours (but all
sheep), a gag (“don’t
do this, don’t do
that”) limiting our
freedom, a body
which is a home
and a home which
is an abandoned
body, other bodies
suspended, jumping
or falling over
vertical grounds, a
dune slide (“they
ride you inside”)
and uncategorized
objects (ufo’s are
so often a good
metaphor for the
strange, the unique,
the foreign and the
new). Catia Coias
returns - More
photos in http://
www.ladonabionica.
blogspot.com - photo
diary.
the e-magazine 16th April 2009
Catia Coias returns
By Catia Caias

The famous inquiry by Kissinger
is still a good question today.
Why does Obama have to call
or visit Barroso, Sarkozy, Brown,
Merkel, Berlusconi, etc. when
he could call or meet a single
person, one directly elected by
all Europeans, and representing
all Europeans? Why can’t the
European parliament hold
Commissioners accountable?
Why can’t it, according to the
Lisbon Treaty, impeach a future
President or a future Foreign
Affairs Minister of the Union?
And why can’t these be directly
elected by the Europeans,
instead of chosen by their
peers? Europeans, the people,
want far more power directly
in their hands. Either the union
is a representative democratic
institution, as it was originally
idealized, or it isn’t.
Eux Blog (1) wrote in the end of
January: “We still live in a divided
union, ruled not by democratic
political visions but by nationalist
sentiments, in a system that lacks
the proper checks and balances
that one would expect in a
democracy. That is what makes
Europe basically powerless on
the world stage. Not the absence
of something like the ‘Lisbon
Treaty.’
To be fair, the individual 27
countries that together create
this European union are real
democracies. Each one of
them can elect a parliament
that can directly hold its
government accountable. But
that’s where democracy stops.
At a European level, there is
no more accountability. There
is involvement, yes, but that’s
a long way short of democratic
accountability. European
politicians can’t be sent home.
(…)
At the European Commission,
the executive body of the
European Union, individual
European Commissioners
have to report regularly to the
European parliament but they
can’t be forced to step down
when they prove incapable of
serving the offi ce they hold.
Only the nuclear option exists
as an option to the parliament:
sacking the entire college of
27 Commissioners. The lack of
individual accountability leaves
room for the incapable, whose
only purpose is to serve a
political agenda. (…)
the e-magazine 17th April 2009
“Who do I call when I
want to talk to Europe?”
By Alexandra Pereira
The Council of the European
Union Council, the Presidents,
Prime Ministers and ministers
of the EU member states
that shape European policies
naturally are accountable only to
their national parliaments. And
these parliaments have national
priorities and national agenda.
The national parliaments,
naturally, are unlikely to make
European interests their fi rst
priority (…)
Anyone taking a quick look
concludes that simply having
a parliament makes Europe a
democracy. But those who take
a better look will notice that the
parliament mostly is the place
where the interests of lobbyists
are represented; a talking shop
for political statements; with very
limited powers. (…) Paul van
Buitenen, the former commission
offi cial who exposed Cresson’s
fraud, has been a member of
the European Parliament for four
years now, repeatedly disclosing
new cases of corruption,
embezzlement and irregularities
at the Commission and the
Parliament. But is anyone
listening? No.
Many journalists fi nd it diffi cult
to sell EU fraud and corruption
stories to their newsroom.
European media play a role in
this debate as well, but that is
an issue to explore at another
time. When it comes down to
it, the European parliament
remains a democratic facade
for a European Union ruled by
a political elite that is afraid of
the people’s voice. Historically,
Europe of course has a problem
with nationalism. That fear now
seems to stand in the way of
turning the European union into a
real democracy.
That at a time when the concept
of nation-states is becoming
increasingly seen as oldfashioned.
Traditional nationstates
have no more roles
to play in a globalized world.
(…) Europe’s desperate plea
for a cease-fi re in Gaza, at a
time that the United States
were essentially headless,
demonstrates Europe’s
incapacity. (…) Europe needs
far more changes if it is to be
infl uential in this internationalized
global world of our 21st century.
(…) Closing Guantanamo Bay?
Some but not all European
countries already signaled they
are willing to take in some of the
prisoners.
More troops to Afghanistan?
NATO’s future? Anti-missile
radar in the Czech Republic and
Poland? Among the 27 member
states of the European Union,
there simply is no consensus
on these thorny issues. The US
will have to continue to deal with
European divisions. There simply
is no European unity. (…) It’s
obvious that Europe could do
with a saviour.(…)
But even if there would be such
a person out there, he, or she,
would never be able to become
‘President of Europe’. Because,
as planned under the Lisbon
Treaty, that’s a job that would be
assigned in back-door meetings
between the EU’s heads-ofstate
and heads-of-government.
They would choose one of their
peers. Former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair is interested.
And French President Nicolas
Sarkozy would love to succeed
him.”
I’m sure that if all Europeans
could vote, they would have
many doubts in electing one or
the other for such position. So
why should they be imposed
to us? I see no advantage
whatsoever in such procedure
– on the contrary, it can enhance
and fasten Europe’s division.
The political elites have to give
up from such dictatorial ways
of selecting people to important
European positions, otherwise
they will lose the support of their
citizens.
The court in Stockholm, Sweden
decided that the founders of
The Pirate Bay are guilty and
convicted them as organized
team to a year sentence and
4.5 million Euros! Hooray and
hip-hip they managed to hit the
bad guys, the internet pirates
and defend the rights of the holy
cooperatives! Let’s all now pray
that the executives of those
cooperates will increase their
profi ts, extra bonuses so they
can buy another Ferrari and even
better they can have another
meeting in a paradise island!
Four or fi ve years ago I wrote
two articles, one having to do
with how little artists and in this
case musicians make after the
record companies take their huge
share that often leaves them
with pennies and another article
with my pirate memories before
internet and all this talking about
downloads but it seems that is
time to talk about these things
again, not in defense of the
founders of The Pirate Bay but
in defense of the people who are
involved in this peculiar carousel.
First of all regarding the artists
in the name of whom all this is
about. Except some, very few
exceptions in a society that
counts thousands if not millions
very few have seen the money,
to quote a fi lm where the actor
was screaming …show me the
money! The cooperatives not
only suck everything from the
artists but often they drawn them
taking every single bit they can
offer and then ruthlessly they
throw them away. The very few
who dared to say anything,
tried to fi nd justice they found
themselves without work and this
includes ever major names like
George Michael who had a long
time fi ght with SONY.
For every penny the
discographic companies they
spend they get it double on the
way from the artists in too many
ways. As I have said in the past
I got a close friend who has
enjoyed fame, gold and platinum
records, gigs and concerts and
he had to pay even the promotion
photos to the cooperative. Even
his agent who was suppose
to defend his interests and
negotiate for him with the
cooperative it was somebody
‘suggested’ by the cooperative
with the addition that there was
no way for them to talk with
anybody else. So much fair the
big cooperatives that look for the
interests of the artists.
My friend was busy making
concerts all around for a whole
year, he had one record that
became platinum the very
same year and when he was
not making concerts he was
promoting the record to televised
shows the cooperative had
arrange for him. Three years after
he had to change career because
the year of his pick his income
was 3,000 Euros! And I’m really
serious about it; I know because I
have seen how much he earned.
His biggest problem was that
nobody believed him and he
actually had to borrow money to
survive.
The cooperatives apart of
that are masters in cheating
not only the artists (there they
have become experts) but the
audiences as well. I suppose
many remember what happened
with Milly Vanilli. Two attractive
young men who were supposedly
composing and singing all their
songs and the cooperatives with
a lot of help with their friends
in the media made them super
group with thousands of sales
all around the world; until one
day we all heard that there was
no group and the two attractive
men were pretending to sing.
When they actually tried to sing
everybody had to fi nd a cover!
They didn’t compose the songs
the e-magazine 18th April 2009
Who’s the pirate?
By Thanos Kalamidas
and they didn’t write the lyrics.
One of them died from drugs and
the other lives between prison
cells. Who is to blame? Of course
the cooperatives! They created
them and they are responsible
for the deception. Did anybody
accused them and sentenced
them? Of course not, who’s
touching the holy cooperatives?
The irony is that despite to what
said at the time that one of the
real singers caused the whole
thing asking for recognition of
her name the truth is that they
used her as much they used the
two young men but in her case
it was a competitive cooperation
that didn’t like all the sudden
success! And how many more
Milly Vanilli exist and we have
no idea. How many singers have
come the last decades make real
success selling thousands of
records and disappearing after
the fi rst record? What happened
to their talent? Even now most
of them are more known for their
social life and scandals than
their work, why most of them
are like shooting stars? How
many Milly Vanilly are around?
Tens, hundreds, thousands?
And how many real talents are
buried in the name of the holy
cooperatives protectors of the
arts?
To get to the second part, when
I was young back in late sixties
and early seventies records were
in analogy the same expensive
as CDs are today, especially
for the young people and the
students; so we had our tape
recorders. Some of you might
remember them, the fl at ones
where a small ‘door’ opened
on the top and you needed to
press hard until you hear the
characteristic sound the buttons.
The same period there were a
lot pirate (again the same word)
radio stations, some might have
already seen the fi lm that came
out lately about the boats with
the pirate radios. So the DJs from
those stations used to play the
whole song and warn us giving
us enough time to get ready
and record it. My fi rst Beatles,
Doors and Jefferson Airplane
records were recorded like that.
Apparently nearly forty years
after I still have as a memory a
couple of those cassettes.
And then there were the luckier
ones like me who had if anybody
still remembers this huge
furniture piece that had inside the
record player, the radio and the
cassette player all of the huge
compared to today’s stereos. So
me and my friends were buying a
record and then one of us would
record it to cassettes for the
rest. I remember my fi rst Camel
record I must recorded over
twenty times for different friends.
Wasn’t that like downloading
and fi le sharing? So the act
they are after was something
it always happened and it will
always happen they like it or not
and they couldn’t stop it in the
past and will not stop it now. The
only difference is that this time
internet is a much easier victim.
Whenever there is something that
guarantees freedom scares them,
scares the cooperatives and they
fi ght it in any way they can even
if that means a witch-hunt.
And fi nally some bitter truths.
Internet has helped artists all
around the world giving them
the chance to present their work
without the ruthless intercession
of the cooperatives and this
thing expands fast damaging
the cooperatives greediness
even with the freeware software.
Artists have found in the internet
a worm ground to expand their
talents and show their work
beyond commercial rules that
profi t only the few. The ones who
have stopped artists of all forms
of art to do something are the
cooperatives and with that I don’t
stop with music but in all kinds of
art.
The second truth is more a
question, if the states are so
bothered about the interests of
the people and against anything
that cheats why do they leave
the cooperatives check the sites I
– I emphasize this I because it is
for every I – visit and then target
me personally with adverts and
make again profi t on my expense
violating my right for privacy! I
didn’t see any court in Stockholm
or anywhere around the world
bother or do something about it!
The past has proved that internet
is like the ancient monster hydra,
they cut one head and two
grow in its place and as far the
cooperatives is an irony when the
thieves call others pirates!
Scientists say that Darwin and
his theory helped to advance
science. Nobel Laureate Ernst
Chain wrote that his discovery
of penicillin (with Howard Florey
and Alexander Fleming) and
the development of bacterial
resistance to that antibiotic and
it owed nothing to Darwin’s
and Alfred Russell Wallace’s
evolutionary theories.
This continued to be the
case in the 20th Century: The
mapping of genomes, research
on medications and drug
reactions; the characterization
of the ribosome, the double
helix structure’s discovery,
the structure of the double
helix, improvements in food
production and sanitation;
even new surgeries, and other
developments.
By the stretch of logic, many
of those same scientists say
that a DNA molecule containing
four billion bytes of perfectly
arranged information did
not come from a source of
intelligence. It just “happened!”
In Charles Ruhla’s The Physics
of Chance (1992), he learns
how to derive the predictions of
quantum theory. The predictions
show that two distant objects
can exert infl uence on one
another, even, “faster than the
speed of light”.
The text begins with rather
simple treatments of probability,
applied to coin tosses and
telephone queues, on to
Boltzmann Statistics, and then
fi nally to quantum theory. So
as your reading through the
the e-magazine 19th April 2009
Evolutionists on Evolution 3/3
By Jack Wellman
chapters in the book, you pick up
the “tools” you need as you go
along, in order to understand the
more diffi cult material later on.
Ruhla’s writing style is engaging,
although aggregately diffi cult to
stay with.
One thing that is evidently
missing in textbooks or any
other serious books about life’s
mathematical possibilities are
the probabilities quotient. Who
in their right mind would ever
believe that a dropped Scrabble
game spelled out exactly, the
Gettysburg Address? Every
designed product in the human
experience points to a designer.
The design argument is literally
as old as the hills. That’s why
it does not matter how loudly
the skeptic shouts “chance.”
The skeptic has not been able
to conquer our counter-intuitive
certainty—that information
assumes a mind. And so the
skeptic, fi lled with contradictions,
ends up giving designed
arguments to argue against
design. How ironic.
Now it is important to note
what is being said here. We are
not just talking about aesthetic
design (time plus matter plus
chance can possibly explain
aesthetic design), what is being
discussed here is intelligent
design. You see friends, If you
were to walk around on Mars
and see stones in a perfect
circle, you could possibly
assume that it all came together
over eons of time by chance.
But if you were to come upon
a plastic Wal-Mart bag, you
would certainly not say, “Look
what the atmospheric pressure
has done here.” Why is that?
Because information assumes
intelligence. And so there is a
fi ne twist to this argument.
It is actually better called
the “argument to design,” the
original information density in
human order. Evolution cannot,
simply cannot explain the
enough information in a single
thread of human DNA to fi ll
600,000 pages of information.
That is specifi ed complexity, not
just aesthetics.
If I were to make an absolute
statement such as, “There is
no gold on the moon,” what is
needed for that statement to
be proven true? I need to have
absolute or total knowledge of
the moon, from its surface to its
core. I need to have information
that there is no gold in any of the
rock, all the way to the core, in
any crevice, even one speck, of
the entire moon. If there is one
fl ake of gold, then my statement
is false and I have no basis for it.
Therefore, by necessity, I need
to have absolute knowledge
before I can make an absolute
statement of that nature. No
human being has all knowledge.
Therefore, none of us is able to
truthfully make this assertion.
One of the greatest scientist
minds who ever lived, Thomas
Edison, said, “We do not know
a millionth of one percent about
anything.” Let me repeat: Let’s
say that you have an incredible
one percent of all the knowledge
in the universe. Would it be
possible, in the ninety-nine
percent of the knowledge that
you haven’t yet come across,
that there might be ample
evidence to prove the existence
of God? If you are reasonable,
you will be forced to admit that
it is possible. Somewhere, in
the knowledge you haven’t
yet discovered, there could be
enough evidence to prove that
God does exist.
One scientist has remarked
that the possibility of the human
enzyme and our chemical
makeup coming together by
accident is one in ten to the
40,000th power. Ten to the
40,000th power is more than all
the atoms in all of the known
galaxies of the universe. Any
mathematician understands
never happen! If there is design,
then there must be a purpose.
Stephen Hawking once wrote
that if we knew the “why” of life,
we would know the mind of God.
Dawkins is perhaps the world’s
most popular science writer
who is extremely gifted science
writer. The Blind Watchmaker
is a brilliant and fascinating
tour de force. However, the
God Delusion contains little
science but mainly emphasizes
philosophy and theology and
enormous portions of social
commentary denigrating religion.
In the middle of the book,
“Why There Almost Certainly
is No God,” Dawkins explains,
philosophically, why there
almost certainly isn’t any such
person as God? Almost certainly
sounds a little like horseshoefaith.
Regardless, he goes on
to say that the existence of God
is monumentally improbable.
Just how improbable? The
astronomer Fred Hoyle
famously claimed that the
probability of life arising on
earth (by purely natural means,
without special divine aid) is
less than the probability that
a fl ight-worthy Boeing 747
should be assembled by a
hurricane roaring through a
junkyard. Dawkins appears
to think the probability of the
existence of God is in that same
neighborhood and to be so small
as to be not be taken seriously.
Why does he think so?
Suppose the evidence of
evolution suggests that all
living creatures have evolved
from some elementary form
of life [although there is no
fossil evidence of such].. My
questions would be: How does
that show that the universe is
without design? If the universe
has not been designed, then
the process of evolution is
unguided, unorchestrated,
by any intelligent being; it is,
as Dawkins suggests, blind.
that evolution is unplanned,
unguided, unorchestrated by any
intelligent being.
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer,
employed by the National
Institutes of Health, in
association with the
Smithsonian Institution, served
as the managing editor of the
Smithsonian-affi liated journal,
Proceedings of the Biological
Society of Washington. In 2004,
Sternberg chose to publish
a tightly argued paper by the
Discovery Institute’s Dr. Stephen
C. Meyer, titled “The Origin of
Biological Information and the
Higher Taxonomic Categories.”
In brief, Meyer contended that
neo-Darwinism has failed to
provide a convincing explanation
for the massive infusion of new
genetic information into the fossil
record a reported 570 million
years ago.
Popularly known as the
Cambrian Explosion, this
relatively brief period of prehistory
witnessed the emergence
of most forms of complex
animal life, seemingly without
any evolutionary trail. To
date, evolutionary biologists
have made little progress in
resolving the mystery of their
origins. Meyer took a stab at it,
arguing deductively that only
“rational agents” have shown the
ability to design and organize
functional, information-rich
systems. “Natural selection lacks
foresight,” Meyer continued.
“What natural selection lacks,
intelligent selection – purposive
or goal-directed design
– provides.”
Before interviewing Dr
Patterson, the author read his
book, Evolution, which he had
written for the British Museum
of Natural History. In it he had
solicited comments from readers
about the book’s contents.
One reader wrote a letter to Dr
Patterson asking why he did
not put a single photograph of a
transitional fossil in his book. On
April 10, 1979, he replied to the
author in a most candid letter as
follows:
“… I fully agree with your
comments on the lack of direct
illustration of evolutionary
transitions in my book. If I
knew of any, fossil or living, I
would certainly have included
them. You suggest that an artist
should be used to visualize
such transformations, but where
would he get the information
from? I could not, honestly,
provide it, and if I were to leave
it to artistic license, would that
not mislead the reader?”
’I wrote the text of my book four
years ago. If I were to write it
now, I think the book would be
rather different. Gradualism is
a concept I believe in, not just
because of Darwin’s authority,
but because my understanding
of genetics seems to demand
it. Yet Gould and the American
Museum people are hard to
contradict when they say there
are no transitional fossils. As a
paleontologist myself, I am much
occupied with the philosophical
problems of identifying ancestral
forms in the fossil record. You
say that I should at least “show
a photo of the fossil from which
each type of organism was
derived.” I will lay it on the line—
there is not one such fossil
for which one could make a
watertight argument.
Author Luther Sunderland in
his book Darwin’s Enigma,
spoke with Dr. Colin Patterson,
a senior paleontologist at the
British Museum of Natural
History, who agreed about
the lack of fossil evidence
connecting man with a lower
primate. In addition, none of
the fi ve museum offi cials whom
Luther Sunderland interviewed
could offer a single example
of a transitional series of
fossilized organisms that would
document the transformation
of one basically different type
to another. Other’s included Dr
Eldredge [curator of invertebrate
paleontology at the American
Museum] who said that the
categories of families and above
could not be connected, while Dr
Raup [curator of geology at the
Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago] said that a dozen
or so large groups could not
be connected with each other.
Dr Patterson spoke most freely
about the absence of transitional
forms.
Constant change is what
evolution is all about, whether
gradual or in gigantic leaps.
The problem for evolution is
that we do not see the “leaps”
or “creeps” in the fossil record.
All fossils are of complete
animals and plants, not works in
progress “under construction”.
If evolution’s continuously
morphing, then almost every
fossil should show a least some
change. There have never been
found any fossils with parts of a
species in a state of change…or
in various stages of completion.
This is well documented in the
Cambrian explosion.
We should expect to see for
every successful change, there
should be many more leading up
to these successful changes in
that species. There is no record
of such. The whole process is
random trial and error, without
direction. Charles Darwin
described the problems with his
theory in great detail writing,
“The number of intermediate
varieties which have formerly
existed on earth must be truly
enormous. Why then is not every
geological formation and every
stratum full of such intermediate
links? Geology assuredly does
not reveal any such fi nely
graduated organic chain; and
this, perhaps, is the most
obvious and gravest objection
which can be urged against my
theory.” If living today, Darwin
would not be able to retract
those words.
“Strange Fruit” is a song performed most famously
by Billie Holiday. It condemned American racism,
particularly the lynching of African Americans that
had occurred chiefl y in the South but also in all
regions of the United States. Holiday’s version of
the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame in 1978. It was also included in the list of
Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of
America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
”Strange Fruit” began as a poem written by Abel
Meeropol, a Jewish high-school teacher from
the Bronx, about the lynching of two black men.
He published under the pen name Lewis Allan.
Meeropol wrote “Strange Fruit” to express his
horror at lynchings after seeing Lawrence Beitler’s
photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and
Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. He published the
poem in 1936 in The New York Teacher, a union
magazine. Though Meeropol/Allan had often asked
others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to
music, he set Strange Fruit to music himself.
Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society
in Greenwich Village, New York’s fi rst integrated
nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie
Holiday. In time it became Holiday’s biggest selling
record. Though the song became a staple of her
live performances, Holiday’s accompanist Bobby
Tucker recalled that Holiday would break down
every time after she sang it.
* * * *
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning fl esh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
the e-magazine 20th April 2009
Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
By The Ovi Team
Should Texas (or any other
American State, for that matter)
secede from the Union of the
United States?
Why ask this question?
During the Texas Tax Tea
Parties this past April 15th,
2009, this question actually
raised its Ugly Head and is still
being discussed, ruminated and
cogitated upon on the airwaves
and high defi nition boob tubes
throughout the Country.
That’s right! Amazing as it
may sound, some Texans
(thank heavens, not All), who
just several months ago were
pledging ThemSelves to be
True Blue American Patriots are
wanting to Rebelliously Secede
- get a D-I-V-O-R-C-E from the
United States of America, and
form another Country (or fi ve)
of Their own - another Family
Entity (perfectly controlled
and with no differences or
dissendents?) of Their own.
These quasi-Successionists All
appear to have had enough! In
a modern technological World in
which anything that makes Us
uncomfortable, ceases to gratify
or pleasurably stimulate Us,
ceases to serve Our immediate
whims, wishes or desires is
apathetically thrown away or
cast aside (like an empty soda
pop can, an old car, twice used
shoes or a suit, an old computer,
iPod, t.v., cell phone...etc.) for
what makes Us feel good - what
makes Us look ’cool’, adds to
Our so-called perceived ’status’
in life or speeds up Our already
fast paced lives even more -
Why Not?! Anything goes!!
the e-magazine 21st April 2009
Why the Angry Procession
Toward Succession?
By Leah Sellers
What has happened to
Words and Ideas like Loyalty,
Perseverance, Steadfastness
or Benefi cial Longevity? What
has happened to Staying With
SomeThing or some Pathway
that is really Important - really
Worthwhile and Far Reaching?
Knowing all the while that
Change, and Our willingness
to Adapt to Change are always
going to be essential and
irrepressible elements of Our
Lives?
No, instead We have developed
a Nation (and a World) full of
Successionists who seek to
’throw out the Baby with the Bath
Water’!
Why should We ’work’ on
Relationships - Relationships
with Our Family - Our Friends -
Our Country - Our World?! Why
is that so Important?!
No, instead, like spoiled and
petulant Children, when the
going gets tough, We ’turn
tail and run for the Hills (the
Successionists Hills). Why
do The Hard? Why put Our
shoulders to the Yoke (not of Our
Choosing, but, nonetheless, of
All of Our Making) and Strive to
make Forward Progress - to Fix
the Things We have participated
in breaking down (no matter how
large or small our part may have
been) and putting into jeopardy!
Seceding, Acting out,
Tantruming, Running Away
won’t Solve anything. It will
only Create more Chaos and
bloat the Corpse of Our (and
Our Nation’s and the World’s)
Problems and Challenges. Is
that the New Texas - the New
Divided States of America - the
New World You want to help
Create? Is that the Role Model
to want to set up for Future
Generations?
When We defi antly throw-up
Our Texican coonskin caps and
pop-off Our long-barrelled rifl es
(and Tea Bags) into the air,
and declare Sacred Words like,
’Independence, and Liberty from
Tyranny’; all We’re really doing
is asking for a DIVORCE. We’re
quitting America (and the World)
just when They Need Us the
Most.
We’re saying, “I don’t Love You
anymore, America, You’re Not
serving my Needs or Wants!
You’re Growing Up, America
into SomeThing, Some Entity
I no longer Understand or
feel Comfortable with! You’re
Changing into a Global Storm
I don’t Comprehend - that
frightens me! You’re breaking
all of the Rules of the Game I’ve
played by for years! I’m picking
up my marbles and going to play
elsewhere! I’m creating my own
playground and Fencing it off!
I don’t care that you (America,
the Beautiful) have Nurtured and
Sustained me and my Family
for Generations and years as a
Great and Bountiful Nation! The
World around me is Changing!
The old ranch hands, cowboys,
horses and wagons, and Ways
of Doing Things are being put
out to pasture for New gadgets,
New business enterprises and
New Ways of Doing Things in
this New Age! Where do I fi t in?
When will things get Better -
become Stabilized and Secure?
When will I stop feeling like I’m
Losing everything I’ve worked so
hard for, and feel like a Winner
again?
Our American Family has
become too dysfunctional for
the Successionists. To Them
America is not Worth the Effort
of Their Adapting to Change -
to the Hard Work and Patience
it takes to Become more Open
and Enlightened Human Beings
Nationally and Globally. They
are Uncomfortable. They just
want out!
Succession, in today’s World,
is an ignoble concept born
within the Hearts and Mouths of
spoiled, selfi sh Quitters.
Buck up, Texans! Buck up,
Americans! Buck up, World!
Change is Inevitable, Perpetual,
ever Dynamic! Change is
Hard! But We have to at least
Try to Participate (in whatever
ways We can or are able to)
in Adapting - in Fixing things.
Blend the Old Ways (Texican,
American and Global) with
the New. We, must learn to
Embrace Transformation -
embrace the Pain, Suffering
and Transmutational Fire
and Water inherent within
the Birth and Life Cycles of
the continuous processes of
Our World’s ever rumblin’ and
grumblin’ New Ages! Stay
Married to One Another! Stay
True to One Another! Remember
that We are all in the Same
Ark (boat) Together as Human
Beings! Communicate, Debate,
and Commiserate amongst
OurSelves in Constructive,
Meaningful, and Empathetic
tones and modalities. Strive
to Be Refl ective, Receptive
Listeners and Innovative
Conceptualizers!
For Better or for Worse,
Texans (and Texicans), for All
of Our innumerable (and at
times seemingly irreconcilable)
Differences, We are Americans.
We are Citizens of a Great
Nation and the of the World.
Disgruntled, Uncomfortable,
Irritable, and Impatient,
Yes! Change (Wanted or
UnWanted) has that Effect/
Affect on EveryOne. But We
are American Citizens and
Patriots, nonetheless. For the
Good of EveryOne, for Better
or for Worse, We should take
Our Vows Seriously - Loyally
- Steadfastly - UnSelfi shly.
“America, Thee We Do Wed”!
And World - that Makes You
Our Relatives - Our In-laws (not
out-laws).
If every Nation (Planetary
Family Member) upon the Face
of Our blue-green gemstone,
Earth, can fi nd it Within
ThemSelves to Do that, We will
All be Greater, more Prosperous
and Fortuitous (in, oh, so many
ways, seen and unforeseen) for
it.
Real-politic it is not, yet I dare
say, that the event I am about
to announce to the international
Ovi readership will eventually
take its rightful place in the
history of European and Italian
culture.
Only a few days ago (on April
18, 2009), in the Italian region
of Puglia, city of Bitonto, a few
miles from Bari, a new museum
opened its doors. It is named
the Galleria Devanna. It bears
the name of its donor, in Italy
known as “mecenate” (a patron
of the arts), Girolamo Devanna,
who donated his personal
art’s collection to the city. The
museum is to be free to the
public. Presently it is the only
State art’s museum in the whole
region of Puglia.
The museum is situated in
the historic center of the town,
a medieval town which is
the largest medieval town in
Puglia possessing a wonderful
cathedral dating back to the 12th
century. I had already had an
opportunity in the past to admire
this exquisite jewel of artistic
collection in the very home of the
donor, across from the cathedral,
given that he happens to be my
cousin on my mother’s side. But
now, the collection has taken
its proper place in a beautiful
Renaissance palace with an
arched courtyard, the so-called
palazzo Silos Calò which has
been restored for the occasion
by the Italian State.
To give the reader a pale idea,
or perhaps a fi rst taste, of the
kind of treasure that has been
generously donated to the lucky
city I am including here at the
end an attachment of eight of its
229 painting. I am also attaching
two links, one a video showing
the entrance to the museum with
a narration and commentary in
Italian, the other including the
most valuable paintings.
There are 229 paintings,
108 drawings, spanning 700
years, from 1300 to today. The
museum consists of seven
rooms (one for each century) full
of masterpieces from famous
painters such as Veronese,
El Greco, Orazio e Artemisia
Gentileschi, Titian, Criscuolo,
Figino, Soens, Corona.
Delacroix, De Nittis, Poussin,
Beatrice Wood and Joseph
Stella, and the list could go on
and on.
the e-magazine 22nd April 2009
The Museum Devanna in Bitonto, Puglia:
A New Jewel in Italy’s Artistic Patrimony
By Emanuel L. Paparella
Who is Girolamo Devanna?
Were I to describe him in
a sentence I would say he
is a passionate collector
of everything beautiful
and ancient. He was born
in Argentina from Italian
immigrant parents but
was raised and educated
in Italy. I have met him
repeatedly in America when
he traveled here to visit
American museums. He
is presently a professor of
American literature (his
major at the University of
Urbino) and humanities at
the University of Urbino,
the same university where
I have repeatedly taken my
American students to study
Italian language, literature
and art. He began as a nine
year old to collect ancient
Roman and Greek coins
which can still be found
in the Puglia region, and
then he started collecting
paintings which became for
him a veritable passion, an
obsession with the beautiful.
From American literature he
passed on to the history of
art and collecting of art as
his principal life occupation.
The donation represents
fi fty years of laborious
collection, jealously cured
and protected by his sister
Rosaria in the residence
across the Bitonto
cathedral.
Bitonto, a city of barely
sixty thousand people has a
magnifi cent cathedral which
attracts visitors from all over
the world. Now it also has
a world-class museum that
will remain there centuries
from now as testament to
the humanistic spirit of Italy
and Europe; that spirit that
if properly understood could
be the cement to unify a
Europe in search of its soul.
Congratulations Girolamo
Devanna, Bitonto, Italy and
Europe.
I’m not in that school that
believes that a strong handshake
shows the man but somehow
Juha’s handshake was not what
I expected. His hand was sweaty
giving you the sense of slimy
and disgusting, I actually had to
wipe my hand on my trousers
after he let my hand free and the
touch was soft but not soft in a
way a woman’s hand often is.
Instinctly my eyes went to the
red ring and it was there and
it was again something I didn’t
expect.
Right, if you remember Risto
had said that the red ring had
something to do with children
things but when you get a middle
age man posing an obviously
plastic ring is just strange,
because that’s exactly what it
was and it was just too obvious,
the red ring was a plastic ring
with a plastic red rock in the
middle. I tried to stop looking at
the ring and look at his face but
he was not looking at me like he
was avoiding my eyes. Leena
was making the introductions
next to him holding his other
hand, “Juha is the love of my
life!” and from the shine in her
eyes I could see that that was
true, she was seriously in love!
“Let’s sit down,” she said
showing me the comfortable
chair I was sitting before and
pulling Juha to the leather sofa
on the other side of the coffee
table, “Coffee everybody?”
she asked and in a nervous
move she stood up and headed
outside of the room, obviously to
the kitchen where I could hear a
coffee machine making bubbling
noises.
“Have you live in Helsinki long?”
I asked just to say something.
“I am from Helsinki!” Juha said
looking at me as I should know
that. Well I think here I need to
say some things. I’m coming
from a country where people are
really proud for their roots and
when you say ‘I’m from Athens’
people look at you with a certain
pity. Of course Athenians feel
that they are the centre of the
world but the same time they
know that not having roots in the
country side they are missing
something very important.
But people who coming from
Helsinki are something else,
they really believe that they are
coming from the centre of the
world and they force this to you
in any chance.
One time when I fi rst came
to the country I found my self
in a party where the host told
me that if you are from or live
anywhere out of the Helsinki
tram line you need passport!
And he was not joking! And
of course they feel proud and
cool with the Helsinki slug.
Here I have to admit a personal
anecdote which made me look
very pathetic. When I fi rst came
to Finland I saw just too often in
signs the name Stadin which I
must admit sounded a bit Arabic
and it made it worst because I
saw it too often in kebab places.
Stereotypes I try to avoid all my
life and having been too often a
victim myself were taking their
the e-magazine 23rd April 2009
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 24
By Thanos Kalamidas
revenge so in the end I had to
ask who the hell was this Stadin
billionaire who owned nearly
everything I could see around
Helsinki and especially most of
the take away places especially
pizzerias and kebab places! I’m
not sure but I think I asked Marc
who seriously explained that in
Helsinki slang, Stadin is Helsinki!
I could see that he was trying
hard to keep a straight face!
Juha didn’t say anything else
and I was numb with his reaction
to ask anything else, I was
defi nitely not welcome from his
side but then again this was not
his house and obviously Leena
wanted somehow to get to know
with the neighbours even if
that meant having a coffee with
a foreigner. And thinking that
Leena returned to the room with
a tray that had the coffee pot,
the cup for me and the heart
decorated mugs obviously for
her and Juha, the bonus was in
the shape of a bottle of cognac!
As I said before I refused
the bonus in my coffee and I
watched them adding generous
portions in their mugs, actually
I wasn’t sure if what they were
drinking was coffee with cognac
or cognac with coffee taste.
“Did Juha tell you that he is an
author?” Leena said sitting next
to Juha and crossing her legs
under her in a way only small
people know how to do. “You
know he has a huge bookcase
with a lot of books!” she added
looking at Juha. A novel? I asked
just to make a conversation; I
had to gibe the man the credit
of doubt! “My life’s manifest!”
Juha said sipping his cognac
with coffee taste and I could
see his eyes getting a blood
colour just like his blood ring.
“He’s explaining through his
experiences his ideas about
art!” Leena said. Oh! Was the
only thing I could say. “Do you
write?” Well I do sometimes,
mainly children’s books and I
have wrote a couple of essays
about my work but is long time I
published anything and defi nitely
not in Finland. “Of course!” he
said in an insulting way! God
I’m really getting tired of these
people.
When I fi rst came to Finland I
had an interview with a major
company and we came to the
part I was talking about my
awards and I’m really proud of
them especially one of them
that is like an Oscar award for
my job. Every time I mention
it becomes the centre of the
conversation that follows since
I am one of the fi rst ones
who took it with people in
the committee who are really
recognized and respected
internationally and everybody
admits that the fi rst one who took
the award had all the glamour
an award like that can give. The
man looked at me for a minute
waiting for me to continue and
see that I was expecting a
reaction he said …but have you
got any Finnish awards? Oh
man, I was shocked from the
reaction and didn’t know what to
say for long, I didn’t know how to
react and I think when I fi nished
the interview I was glad with
the possibility to never see the
man again. He hadn’t insulted
me but him self with the reaction
to something like that and Juha
was treating me exactly the
same way!
The G20 summit is long
over and the last ripples of
the usual police brutality
outside the summit with the
demonstrators that cost the life
of a man but what remain is
the ideological questions the
whole situation raises at least
to me. The G20 or whatever
they like to call themselves
are representing capitalism
in all its forms including the
social democrats who balance
between a hypocritical centre, a
liberal capitalism and a populist
socialism but in the end of
the day they all agree. The
other side is on the streets in
confusion of negative messages
without ideological base and a
solution.
I know well that what I just
wrote is pretty provocative but
it is the bitter situation at least
as I can see it. The opposite
side has as ideological fl ag the
damage control; yes capitalism
is bad and it is especially bad
the way all the neoconservatives
and the neo-liberalists of the
market force ignoring the
people and their needs on the
contrary sacrifi cing the people
for more profi t. Yes the situation
regarding the environment is
dramatic and nobody seems to
do anything enough radical at
least to make the difference. Yes
wars continue and nowadays
they don’t need excuses; oil,
diamonds, water, power and
infl uence were the reasoning,
nowadays they have become in
most raw ways also the excuse,
actually they don’t need excuses
at all as the invasion to Iraq
proved, they can manipulate and
fabricate the excuses. But what
is the alternative?
Have we been trapped in a
negative critic without having
anything else to show? What
is the other side? Did ideology
died with the end of communism
in the end of 80s? Communism
was murdered the most brutal
way twice, once in France with
the Paris Commune that lasted
only two months and inspired
Karl Marx and the second time
in Russia. The second time was
much worst because except
the experiment itself it was
also ideologically twisted in
such a way to often compared
(especially from the former
soviet states) with Nazism.
As a result even a reminder
nowadays of the name of Karl
Marx makes you feel like a
criminal. I suppose ignorance is
the best excuse but the result
is all that counts. Furthermore
the countries that still use the
bureaucratic soviet model like
China and North Korea are
examples of human rights
violations and disrespect of
human life and basic freedoms
like the freedom of speech and
opinion.
Today none of us is able to
present a model even one in
the limits of utopia that can
look as an alternative that can
fulfi l the dreams and the hopes.
You see even representative
parliamentary democracy
has more faults to show than
goods, corruption has become
the e-magazine 24th April 2009
The need of a new ideology
By Thanos Kalamidas
politicians second nature from
all parliamentary sides. And the
new radical left is not so radical
but trying to compromise in the
fear that somebody will call
them communists ending up
in a moderate left too easy to
compromise. The last few years
and in front of the economic
recession the left parties have
taken some unbelievable for
their past positions accepting the
end of the eight hours work in
the name of unemployment and
cutting off their income to help
the banks and industrialists to
keep making profi t.
Marx is dead since 1883,
the “Communist Manifesto”
was written in 1848 and the
“Condition of the working class
in England” was written in 1844.
Karl Marx and his Hegel wrote
all these having in mind the
industrial Germany, England and
France of the late 19th century
and this something we should
always keep in mind as very well
the Italian communist politician
Enrico Berlinguer often pointed
and what happened to the
czarist and later Soviet Russia
has little to do with it since
there was a different historic
and social background. Actually
Enrico Berlinguer was one of
the fi rst to point the semantics
of the ideology and demand the
change starting from his very
own party. But I think that he did
the same mistake, he tried to
balance stubbornly connecting
the past with a doubtful present.
The people as they proved
in the demonstrations that
becoming more and more violent
lately demand and need a new
spirit not only of understanding
but of action and to do so they
need an ideological base that
will be more aware of the social
changes, of the environmental
demands and more importantly
ready to fi ght the private and
state capitalism that shares
the power nowadays since
the governments became
representatives and defenders
of the profi t, the bankers and the
industrialists.
I’m sorry I don’t have anything
to suggest but I can see the
need for that ideological
alternative because this negative
critic and damage control in
the end sounds like a constant
complaining and that must
change and the change must
come soon.
“April is Young, it has a future”.
Although we are waving
goodbye to the month of April
now, and already cheering the
2009 Summer ahead of us, the
slogan still applies today almost
as well as it applied when April
had a wild 18 year-old spirit and
I was just an astonished 12 yearold
newly-arrived passenger to
the teenage land (I don’t know
why, I never forgot the posters
with this particular slogan
spread on the streets that year
of 1992… perhaps because
they represented the promise
of a future and synthesized
many hopes, or maybe because
I could really understand it for
the fi rst time in my life… surely
because they summed up so
well the whole spirit of April).
The fact is that April’s Revolution
utterly represented a very young
generation claiming back their
right to dream, to love and to
have a youth altogether.
Of course I heard all the stories,
read the documents, know the
people involved. But the best
way I found so far to explain
to foreigners what happened
in Portugal on the 25th of April
1974, and above all on the
night of the 24th of April and
the weeks that followed the
25th of April, was through a fi lm
which documents the true facts
(although it looks fi ctional at
times, it shows real facts, people
and stories, was based on very
accurate testimonies of people
alive and present back then, also
on very accurate research) and
a couple of songs I don’t even
need to translate for my friends
– often because they don’t want
me to, they just want to listen
and feel them. That always felt
weird and disappointing me, but
I suppose music often dispenses
translations... The funny thing
is that when I don’t translate
the lyrics right away my friends
feel free to fantasize about the
songs and seem to enjoy those
fantasies so much that if I do
try to translate and explain the
lyrics accurately afterwards,
place them in the right context,
be objective and pragmatic, tell
them about the details and what
they mean, I can’t avoid spoiling
their self-built fi ction about
them and they often feel angry
and bored with useless REAL
historic facts! I can’t understand
it! People seem to prefer their
fantasies to the truth! So I gave
up my translator zeal at some
point. I just face such reaction
as a truly odd phenomenon, and
that’s all.
With all fairness, music played
a central role immediately
before the 1974 coup (particular
songs served as passwords to
go ahead with it, or indicated
that a given strategic place –
such as tv and radio stations,
airports, ministries – had been
occupied by the young military),
after it happened, but also
during the almost 50 years of
painful and murderous gray
dictatorship which preceded the
coup, ruined Portugal and its
people and many parts of Africa
and its people as well, under
Salazar’s horrendous regime.
You can almost imagine, in
the e-magazine 25th April 2009
Carnations Have a Future
By Alexandra Pereira
1974, Mr. Barroso, so different
from who he is nowadays,
leading a Maoist party in
Lisbon’s University – he changes
easily (from extremist left, no
doubt far more left than the
coup’s leaders – many of them
didn’t have a party –, to rightwing
conservative, from Bush
supporter to Obama admirer…
what a political fl exibility!) and
that’s something which certainly
didn’t change in these 35
years… Now for a more dignifi ed
topic, the fi lm by the director
(and actress) Maria de Medeiros
portraits the peaceful revolution
beautifully and truthfully. If
you can fi nd it on the web or
somewhere else, watch it. It’s a
History lesson (a humane one).
All the characters represent real
people, who lived that moment.
And things happened just like
that, although at times they look
surreal (like the photojournalist,
taking photos which exist), comic
(like the love scene inside the
tank) or clumsy (like stopping
the tanks at a red light “on their
way to” a revolution…). That’s
because things really were
surreal, comic and clumsy back
then.
But they were very poetic too.
One can’t quite imagine how it
was for a group of young adults
to take the destiny of a nation in
their hands after playing some
forbidden music tracks on the
national radio stations. They
used inventive code names
– Lisbon’s airport was “New
York”, the national Tv station
was “Monaco”, the Portuguese
Radio Club was called “Mexico”,
the national Radio station was
named “Tokyo”, among others
– and the number of funny
stories associated with the coup
is uncountable. On the night of
the 24th, for instance, imagine
a cafe in the center of Lisbon,
close from a famous highschool
of the capital. The name
of the cafe was “Winker”! The
night was cold and windy (at
least according to the southern
European notions of “cold and
windy”), although it was Spring
already. Almost at midnight, a
group of fi ve customers came
inside the cafe which was about
to close, the chairs already
clean and turned upside down
on top of the tables. They
asked for espressos. One of
them asks a waiter if the cafe
is about to close. “Of course –
the man replies – tomorrow is
a working day too!”. “Maybe it
won’t be – answers the customer
– And, look, in the future it is
even going to be a holiday!”.
The waiter looks surprised by
those late customers with such
an odd sense of humor. If he
had noticed that their jackets
were different, but they were all
wearing similar pants, socks and
shoes, he would have been even
more surprised. The customers
were young (the older one was
30 or so), looked excited and
joyful. Together with some other
boys, they had just been for
three hours closed inside their
cars in Lisbon’s central park,
listening to the radio stations.
They just heard a song titled
“And After The Farewell”, which
provoked their excitement. They
are getting ready to occupy
the Portuguese Radio Club
(“Mexico”) nearby and transform
it into the radio station emitting
all their messages from now on.
They just had to do it because
they were the main victims of
such regime. They didn’t want
to go and fi ght a stupid war they
did not agree with. They didn’t
want to die overseas at age 20.
They didn’t want to kill overseas
at age 20. They didn’t think
overseas were even a legitimate
part of Portugal. They thought
their dreams were worthy, and
the world was better and more
beautiful than that. They didn’t
want their family and friends in
exile, persecuted, in prison or
in… the cemetery. They wanted
their girlfriends to be able to
vote and have equal rights. They
wanted all their dreams back
– at once. They wanted their
children to have a future and
never know how not having any
freedom and living under terror
felt like. They got what they
wanted just because they were
not afraid of dreaming about it.
The way how the red carnations
became their main symbol is
also seen in the fi lm. The white
tissue scene happened just like
that, according to eye witnesses.
All scenes happened for real
35 years ago. Sadly the Serene
Pacifi st Maia left us all (including
his adopted children) the month
of April 1992, a victim of cancer
at age 48, the month when those
posters were spread through all
the streets and walls, when April
was Young and Had a Future It
Was Orphaned Too, and I was
just an astonished child newlyarrived
to the teenager land
who lost a hero that year, when
I had just understood what April
meant. Maia struggled with
cancer for 3 years (as many as
my father would, 12 years later
– he was 5 years younger than
Maia, he was in the army in the
same place, met those people).
“April is Young, it has a future”.
My father loved that slogan
too. Thousands of men from
that generation died (and keep
dying every day) with cancer
because of the toxic medical
“treatments” they were forced
to do, under the dictatorship, in
order to be considered “ready
and strong enough” to be sent
to the foolish and murderous
wars in Africa. At some point,
years after the coup, Maia was
“banished” to the Azores, the
same place where Mr. Barroso
felt free to host the most
shameful summit ever, against
his people’s will, some years
ago – together with Mr. Bush,
Mr. Aznar and Mr. Blair. Maia
refused, year after year until
he died, all important political,
governmental and diplomatic
positions offered to him, by any
party. His country actually never
paid the debt. The whole world
lost an almost-anonymous hero,
and an incredibly humane and
humble man. Now I see why I
remember that year’s posters
slogan so well. My father smiled
at us when he saw the annual
celebration posters, he just loved
the slogan and felt so proud.
“There are several modalities
of State: the socialist states, the
corporative states and the state
this whole thing has reached! So
in this solemn night, we will bring
an end to the state of things we
have all been living in.”
Maia’s speech, early hours of
the 25th of April 1974
Nuclear fusion TEARS the world apart
SAY YES TO PEACE
I’m going to ride my bicycle
across America, from Los
Angeles to Boston.
Again.
You might ask why. You’d not be
alone if you did.
Why would I want to pedal more
than 3,400 miles in all winds
and weathers, when I could
just as easily (a lot more easily,
actually) get a plane?
Why would I risk myself on
a trek that’s fi lled with risk of
everything from simple injury to
death?
Why would I take months from
work and pay to cycle from
the Pacifi c to the Atlantic in 7
weeks?
For sponsorship? To prove
something? To lose weight or to
get fi t?
No.
Because I can.
Did you notice that one single
word – again? Does that indicate
something?
It does. Not content to suffer
once, this chap must be stark
raving mad enough to do it a
second time, perhaps? Well,
no – not a second time. This will
be the third. Same bike, same
route, same cycle company,
different shirt.
After breakfast on Sunday May
10th, over two dozen cyclists
wearing yellow shirts proclaiming
‘Crossroads’, will line up, two
by two outside the Courtyard
Marriott in El Segundo. We will
pedal gently to Manhattan Beach
Pier, sit for some photos and
then ride across the continent to
Revere Beach, Boston. At each
end, we will dip a wheel in the
ocean.
There, easy. Nothing to it. A day
at the seaside, a few pictures
and a bit of riding – what could
be nicer than that?
Except that some won’t make
it, some will suffer nasty injuries
and there’s always the risk of
death. Statistically, about 25%
won’t be there 7 weeks later for
the photos in Boston.
But that’s not the end of it.
When the hangovers have
faded and other riders go home
to brag about their new fi gures
and reunite with lonely spouses,
I shall re-mount my bike. Alone,
I will head another 2,000 miles
south to Fort Myers, then put my
bike on the ferry to Key West.
After a week of living like a
hippie and, if not dead from
truck-squashing, I’ll get back on
the bike for a third time and ride
the last stretch up the Florida
keys, across the Everglades and
home to Tampa. (Unless that
nice Mr. Obama has fi xed things
with Cuba, in which case I’ll
take a week out and fl it over to
Havana for a cigar).
the e-magazine 26th April 2009
Wheels on the bike go round and round:
Introduction
By Mike Jennett
www.wheelsonthebikegoroundandround.blogspot.com
By the time the welcoming
sign of the local pub comes
into view, I expect to have worn
out 8 tyres, patched around 50
punctures and burned off as
much as 40 lbs. My legs and
bum will have climbed more than
150,000 feet and transported my
bike, my gear and myself more
than 6,000 miles, during which I
will have posted about 40 entries
to this blog.
A voice recorder and small
laptop will travel with my bike
and posts will be written as
events occur, colored by mental
state, heat, exhaustion and
isolation, cleaned up later and
uploaded when a wi-fi signal is
available.
Nothing controls the subject
or how I will express it.
My comrades on wheels,
Crossroads staff, the
environment, Americana and
culture, personal history – all
are blog fodder, should by mind
wander in those directions.
I will be sometimes frustrated by
the curious and illogical actions
of my new friends and I expect
to frequently desire the removal
from this earth of many a fool
who drives as though cyclists
are a vermin in need of culling.
Such items may be a familiar
occurrence here.
This blog is not intended as a
travelogue. Amusing tales stem
more often from disasters and
confrontations with stupidity,
not from a smooth, daily journal
like a schoolgirl’s diary, so don’t
expect much about scenery and
blue skies. Perhaps a little – it
would be false to write as though
there’s nothing of interest in the
two deserts and three mountain
ranges through which we will
pedal.
Americans be warned. If you
cringe and insert @#$ to avoid
spelling ‘butt’ or ‘tail’ or substitute
false phrases like n-word or fi nd
offence in religious, racial or
gender slurs, you may want to
read with one eye closed. Words
are meaningless alone, it is the
context that matters and, whilst
my vocabulary is not controlled
by street slang, it is occasionally
appropriate.
Read on; or perhaps that should
be, ride on…..
Mike J.
I made it up.
It was a lie
Found within the twisted
Figment of my imagination.
Wrinkled and carved deep
Like aging lines as men of winter
Who take partial truths,
And warp those revealing jet streams
Cool whip white jagged on sun blue sky.
I did not really have
The eye of a scorpion,
But you were fi xed
On believing it.
No different than believing
Mary waxed virginity eternal
Even though Joseph knew her,
And had several children after
Christ had been born.
After being told this you wept
Like a lover reading a poor horoscope.
How could I
Dash your hopes
When you took the story
And ran with it
Like a youthful child in a playground?
After hearing it again and again
You would light up a cigarette
Because it felt that good to you.
No matter how perplexed
You are, I could not fi nd it
In my heart to kill
Your mangled copper-colored fantasy.
The oneirocritic said to wake up.
the e-magazine 27th April 2009
“The eye of a scorpion”
By David Barger
Imagine
a future in
which cows are
extinct.
Imagine your
children can
only see them in
books.
Imagine you
could have
done something
to save them.
Don’t wait
until it is too
late.
Act now
and protect our
planet.
“Hambone?”
“Yes, Cluckhead?”
“Have you seen that good for
nothin’ Human Being, Tin Can
Lizzy today?”
“Who’re callin’ ‘good for nothin’,
Cluckhead? What have you got
your feathers all ruffl ed over?”
Tin Can Lizzy called out as she
approached her two Barnyard
Friends.
“You heard about the epidemicpandemic,
If Pigs Could Fly
Flu?”
Tin Can Lizzy sighed, and
shaking her head from side to
side replied, “Yes, unfortunately,
I have. It’s the talk of the
Barnyard and the Town. It’s got
everybody in a dither. It appears
to be the Tri-fection of all Flus.
Pigs and Birds are accusing
one another, and their Human
Handlers, of giving the If Pigs
Could Fly Flu to Them. And the
Human Handlers are accusing
one another, and the Pigs and
Birds, of giving the If Pigs Could
Fly Flu to Them. Everybody’s
pointing accusatory Fingers,
Hooves and Tail Feathers at one
another. Screeching, squawking
and squalling about how the If
Pigs Could Fly Flu is gonna kill
off all of the Mammals and Birds
on Earth.”
“I feel a sneeze coming on,”
Hambone sniffl ed.
Cluckhead cackled loudly and
frantically fl ew into the nearest
tree.
Tin Can Lizzy dug into the back
pocket of her jeans and pulled
out a handkerchief. Holding
the limp rag out to Hambone,
she said, “Here, use this. I hear
that this If Pigs Could Fly Flu is
airborne. Coughin’, Sneezin’,
swappin’ spit while Kissin’, or
Shakin’ the Hands, Hooves
or Chicken Feet of whoever’s
infected, and then rubbin’ your
Eyes, touchin’ your Face, or
puttin’ your Hands, Hooves or
Feet into your Mouth, Beak or
Snout are all ways of passing
this dis-ease along.”
Hambone took Tin Can Lizzy’s
hanky gladly, “Thank you, kindly,
Lizzie.” After sloppily snorting
into the rag twice, Hambone
looked up at Cluckhead. “No
wonder they call you a Yellabellied
Chicken!”
Cluckhead fl ew down from the
tree in a fl urry of angry cackles
and scattered feathers. “I’m
not the only one who’s Afraid,
Hambone. Everyone I’ve clucked
to today feels the same way I
do. Some of my relatives from
Mexico fl ew in to stay at Our
Henhouse for a while. They were
worried about making it across
the Texas Border. Everyone’s
talking about shutting down all of
the Border Crossings completely
until this If Pigs Could Fly Flu is
under some kind of control. It’s
got Everybody cluckin’ “’
“Yep, it’s brought up all of the
Border Crossin’ Issues and
the e-magazine 28th April 2009
Managed Coincidence
or Divine Providence?
By Leah Sellers
Fears again,” Tin Cab Lizzy
agreed. “Some people are
callin’ up their local politicians
and tellin’ them to ‘Fence ‘em
out. Keep ‘em out. - Way out’!
They’re telling the politicians to
keep the Mexicans, legal and
illegal, out of America. They’re
claimin’ that the Border Crossers
bring deadly diseases with ‘em,
and take away Their jobs. Yep,
The Fear Monger Boogie is the
dance tune They’re all hoppin’ to
these days. It’s such a shame,
too. Especially since President
Obama just got back from visitin’
all of those Latin American folks
down in Mexico. Extending a
Hand of Friendship and all.”
Hambone shook his hanky
vigorously back and forth
within his right front hoof while
exclaiming, “I heard from
Maybelle Longhorn that the
archaeologist who greeted and
shook hands with President
Obama, at some museum in
Mexico, keeled over dead the
day after from the If Pigs Could
Fly Flu. We’re lucky that the
President is such a healthy
Human Being. The incubation
period for the If Pigs Could
Fly Flu is around 48 hours.
President Obama shook hands
with that poor Human almost
nine days ago and doesn’t
appear to have any of the If Pigs
Could Fly Flu symptoms.”
Cluckhead shuffl ed her scrawny
legs around in the dirt. “Don’t
you fi nd it odd that right after
Obama gets back from his
European and Latin American
trips that Pigs, Birds and Human
Beings start droppin’ like fl ies
with the If Pigs Could Fly Flu?
It’s almost as though someone
wanted to ruin the Seeds of
Good Feelin’s and Good Faith
President Obama’s trip was
trying to Sow.”
Hambone snorted loudly,
“You and your Feather-brained
conspiracy theories, Cluckhead.”
“Well, listen to the news Bacon
Bottom. They’re ponderin’
tellin’ Everyone all over the
World to put off travelin’ to
foreign countries anywhere.
They’re igniting the International
Paranoia and Fear of Others.
Not me,” squawked Cluckhead.
“This epidemic-pandemic could
be just the thing needed to
launch the movement toward
Universal Healthcare in America.
The Timing is uncanny. They’ll
have to take care of rich
and poor alike or risk losin’
Everybody,” Tin Can Lizzy
chimed in.
“You could have a point their
Lizzie,” Cluckhead agreed.
“Why just this morning I
heard President Obama say
on the news that he wants
to emphasize the Sciences
and Math in Education across
the board by spending 3% of
America’s national budget on
makin’ it happen. He says we
need to strengthen and support
Our country’s future strides in
Medical and Other Sciences.”
“Alright, Bird-Brain. What’s two
plus two,” Hambone asked.
“Your two squinty eyes and
your broken down pair of
bifocals, Four Eyes,” Cluckhead
answered sarcastically.
“Ooh, I feel another sneeze
comin’ on,” Hambone wheezed
getting his hanky ready for the
onslaught. “It’s a big one!”
Cluckhead fl ew as fast as her
bouncin’ bottom would carry
her for the same nearby tree
she had sought for safety
beforehand. After she landed
upon her perch, she looked
down at Hambone and awaited
the Dreaded Germ Ridden
Sneeze.
“Ha! Fooled You! See how
easy you Birds are to scare and
panic!” Hambone declared.
“Now, now, Hambone. Everyone
is on the verge of panickin’ over
this If Pigs Could Fly Flu. It could
be that it’s ‘all much to do about
nothin’’ or it could be that this
dis-ease is really somethin’ we
should All be worried about. The
trial is still out on this one. We
need more Data and less drama
and over reaction.” Tin Can
Lizzie interrupted.
“Let’s not forget how
much moolah some of the
pharmaceutical and medical
companies are gonna make
off of the vaccines and other
medications used to fi ght this If
Pigs Could Fly Flu. If you ask
me, it’s time to look into buying
some stock in those Golden
Gooses,” Cluckhead exclaimed.
“And what do you intend to buy
stocks with, Toothpick Toes?
Your runny ‘ole hen’s eggs?”
Hambone snickered.
“Laugh if you want to, but one
creature’s Flying Pig crash
and burn is another creature’s
Flying Pig lift off into fi nancial
prosperity,” Cluckhead retorted.
“Y’all are makin’ mighty light
of the hundreds of people in
Mexico who have died from
this If Pigs Could Fly Flu. And
of the hundreds of Swine and
Birds who have already dropped
dead all over the World from it.
As I recall, some of them were
y’all’s relatives.” Tin Can Lizzy
reminded her Friends.
“You’ve got a point there,
Lizzie,” Hambone admitted.
“I stand on all four hooves,
corrected and humbled.”
“Y’all heard about the schools
in Cibola and Schertz, Texas
closin’? There’s talk in Bexar
County, Texas about lettin’
school out for a week, because
of the two or more students who
got sick with the If Pigs Could
Fly Flu in that area. They’re
even discussing closing all
of the schools nationwide in
Mexico until they get a handle
on this MegaBug,” Cluckhead
announced.
“Next thing you’ll be tellin’
us that someone created this
If Pigs Could Fly Flu in a lab
somewhere, fi lled with evil
scientists in white coats wearing
thick black rimmed eye glasses,”
Hambone snorted.
“Well, as a matter fact, some
people are saying that this
If Pigs Could Fly Flu was
engineered in a lab, and set
loose on us Birds fi rst, a few
years ago. Then given to you
Swine, and then the Humans.
Each time it mutates - each time
it jumps from Bird to Bird, Bird
to Pig, Pig to Pig, Pig to Human
and Human to Human - it gets
stronger and more potent.”
Cluckhead explained.
“Nature does that same thing,”
Hambone argued.
“You two, please, stop
yammerin’ at one another,” Tin
Can Lizzy said exasperatedly.
“Whether this is Managed
Coincidence for Power or Profi t
or Mysterious Divine Providence,
the If Pigs Could Fly Flu is
nothin’ to sneeze at. We need
to Calmly let Everyone we
know hear about it, and about
how to prevent it. The doctors
and vets are recommending
that Everyone frequently Wash
your Hands, Hooves and Wing
Feathers with soap and water.
That Everyone cover your
Mouth, Beak and Snout when
you Cough or Sneeze. That
you limit your travel, fl ying,
wallowing and exposure to large
groups of people, swine or fowl
whenever possible. That if you
have a fever, cough, respiratory
stuffi ness, general aches and
pains, and other symptoms
normally associated with the fl u,
that you stay Home and not go
to work or school And that you
go to your family physician (or
vet) or local clinic instead of the
hospital’s emergency services,
if you feel as though you’ve
contracted the If Pigs Could Fly
Flu.”
Cluckhead suddenly plucked
a worm out of the ground.
“Yummy, just in time for lunch.”
Frowning, she turned to
Hambone and offered him a
portion of her worm. “Does this
Worm taste fi shy to you?”
Smacking and chewing,
Hambone screwed up his hairy
Snout before saying, “Nope,
tastes like Flu infested Chicken
to me! Ha! Ha! Snort! Snort!”
“Will you two ever stop goin’
at one another?” Tin Can Lizzy
asked her two Friends, smiling.
Hambone and Cluckhead
winked at one another and both
declared, “When Pigs Fly!”
How can I play
hide & seek
when
21 children die
every minute?
Who’ll play football
with me when
21 friends die
every minute?
If I close my
eyes and
count to
a 100.
35 children
are dead.
Today, as you are probably
aware, is International Dance
Day. Yesterday, as you are
also probably aware, Ekaterina
Maximova, a famous former
prima ballerina with the Bolshoi
ballet, died at the age of 70.
In order to honour both I have
decided that it is time to take
a very deep breath, summon
up every square inch of
determination and return deep
into Hollywood musical territory...
and I mean deep!
We are rewinding way back into
Hollywood musical past... no
not Chicago, keep going past
Cabaret, don’t stop at West Side
Story, ignore A Star is Born,
start slowing up at Singin’ in the
Rain and fi nally stop in 1951 at
Vincente Minnelli’s Best Picture
winner An American in Paris.
Gut reactions anybody? Have
you seen it or even heard of
it? Is it better than any of the
other musicals we skipped over
on our journey back to 1951?
Did it even deserve to beat A
Streetcar Named Desire for the
Best Picture statuette that year?
Stay with me and some of your
questions shall be answered...
Let’s begin with the comparison
to A Streetcar Named Desire
and simply state that it doesn’t
hold a match to the awesome
power contained in the fi lm
thanks to the intensity of Marlon
Brando’s performance. So how
did An American in Paris win
then? Gene Kelly is the driving
force of the fi lm with a number
of incredibly choreographed
set pieces that show off a huge
range of his dancing abilities,
but many critics believe it is the
17-minute dance number at the
fi lm’s conclusion that swayed
many Academy voters to opt for
Minnelli’s fi lm over Elia Kazan’s.
The end dance sequence took
a month to fi lm and cost halfa-
million-dollars, is one of the
highlights of the fi lm and is
almost worth sitting through
the dozens of other moments
the actors break into song and
dance at every opportunity. As
I hinted in my introduction, I
am not a musical fan and even
during An American in Paris
my eyelids fell shut and the
snoring began on more than
one occasion. In my defence
all I can say is that at least my
determination kept me with the
fi lm until the very end.
Another aspect of the fi lm that
can’t help but make you smile is
that very little is actually fi lmed
in Paris, with MGM keeping the
shoot in their California studios
albeit with some second unit
photography that doesn’t involve
any of the actors. Gene Kelly
objected this decision, but did
manage to have something
French in the form of its leading
lady Leslie Caron, whom he
discovered performing in a ballet
while on holiday in Paris. Leslie
Caron matches Gene Kelly step
for step and is utterly sensational
in her dance sequences,
especially the set-pieces as
her boyfriend Henri Baurel
(Georges Guétary) describes
her personality to Adam Cook
(Oscar Levant).
Begrudgingly I must admit that
often in musicals the dance
numbers are crowbarred in to a
jarring effect, but An American
in Paris managed to slip them
relatively unobtrusively, as if
Gene Kelly had smothered
the e-magazine 29th April 2009
Dancing in France
By Asa Butcher
them with lubricant. As I sit
here thinking about the fi lm it
seems to me as though the fi lm
was more a dance fi lm than a
musical because Gene Kelly is
certainly on his feet more than
the other actors are singing,
although considering that Kelly’s
inspiration was Michael Powell
and Emeric Pressburger’s The
Red Shoes it isn’t surprising.
An American in Paris is a great
example of the skills of MGM’s
producer Arthur Freed, the vision
of director Vincente Minnelli and
the talents of Gene Kelly, but I
would actually suggest you skip
this one and watch Singin’ in the
Rain because it has far more
humour and doesn’t take itself
half as seriously. However, if
you are a student of dance and
want to be blown away by a man
at the top of profession then
you cannot do any worse than
putting this DVD on and paying
close attention, but you will
have to try to ignore the snoring
coming from the sofa!
An intriguing book is just
out challenging the taken for
granted dominant paradigm
through which modern science
sees nature, a paradigm this
structured mainly around
Newtonian and Darwinian
approaches. The title of the book
is A Third Window: Natural Life
beyond Newton and Darwin.
Its author is Robert E.
Ulanowicz, an eminent
theoretical ecologist endowed
with a deep philosophical
understanding lucidly expressed
in his book; a rather rare
phenomenon if truth be told. He
asserts that neither Newtonian
nor Darwinian models are any
longer adequate to explain
how real change (in the
form of creative advance or
emergence) actually takes
place within nature. This is
undoubtedly a compelling and
original alternative to outdated
approaches to the life sciences.
Ulanowicz contends that the
metaphysical foundations
laid by these great thinkers
centuries ago are ill suited to
sustain today’s search for a
comprehensive description
of complex living systems.
Ecosystem dynamics, for
example, violate each and
every one of the Newtonian
presuppositions. Hence,
Ulanowicz offers his titular
“third window”—a new way of
understanding evolution and
other natural processes beyond
the common mechanistic or
materialistic philosophies of
nature.
Drawing on the writings of
Walter Elsasser, Karl Popper,
Gregory Bateson, Robert Rosen,
and Alfred North Whitehead,
as well as his own experience
as a theoretical ecologist,
Ulanowicz offers a new set of
axioms for how nature behaves.
Chance and disarray in natural
processes are shown to be
necessary conditions for real
change. Randomness is shown
to contribute richness and
autonomy to the natural world.
The metaphysical implications
of these new axioms will
undoubtedly lend A Third
Window a wide appeal not
only among scientists, but
also among philosophers,
theologians, and general
readers who follow the
science and religion dialogue
beyond cartoons and shallow
caricatures. Ulanowicz’s fresh
perspective adds a new voice
to the discussion for it presents
a metaphysical basis for living
systems that signifi cantly
mitigates several purported
confl icts between science and
religion, those confl icts so dear
to those who would eliminate
a providential Creator from the
great drama that is cosmology.
For one thing the book and
others of a similar nature,
addresses the ultimate
philosophical questions without
which one is sure to fall into
nihilism and become part of the
problem rather than the solution
to the pressing contemporary
crisis: why is there something
rather than nothing, and what
is the point of it all? Those are
metaphysical questions that
many positivistic scientists have
long considered superseded
but are now again considered
worth of science’s investigation.
Indeed, those questions are
coming back with a vengeance
proving that indeed, as Aquinas
taught us long ago, truth is one,
not to be divided into scientifi c
and philosophical.
the e-magazine 30th April 2009
A Third Window, beyond Materialistic
and Mechanistic Philosophies of Nature
By Emanuel L. Paparella