Day To Day Activities As Cultural Signifiers

"...everyday activities can take on symbolic meanings representing underlying beliefs, distinctions. and hierarchies within a society." - Moira Vincintelli in Reflections on a Kabyle Pot: Algerian Women and the Decorative Tradition, Journal of Design History , Vol. 2, No. 2/3 (1989), pp. 123-138, Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1315802.

Photo : A Kabylie oil lamp from the Victoria & Albert Collection.

The Rameseum of El-Kurneh

Francis Frith: The Rameseum of El-Kurneh, Thebes, albumen silver print from glass negative, 379×477 mm, 1857 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Anonymous Gifts, by exchange, 2005, Accession ID: 2005.100.633)

No real reason for this, I was just doing a search exercise on how to use art databases.

"the awareness of American college students is NOT a necessary condition for conflict resolution in Africa". -  BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding responding to the Kony 2012 campaign. 

Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.

Stop/Kill Joseph Kony

By joining the Kony 2012 campaign I accept that I am pressing for a military solution to end the appalling problem of Kony and the LRA. I accept that people will be killed in the attempt to 'arrest' Kony and that many of these people, due to the nature of the LRA, will be children.

I am not donating any money to the pressure group Invisible Children. There seems to be an amount of controversy over the group's finances "Last year, the organisation spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services, with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production.”

This figure compares very favourably to the charity ONE set up by multi-millionaire Bono "The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 front man received almost £9.6million in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent). The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1million went towards paying salaries." - Daily Mail 23 Sept 2010.

Stop Kony - yes, arrest Kony - if we can but its more likely he'll go down fighting in a bloody slaughter. Even Bob Geldof once said that the only solution to Kony was probably to have him killed.

The Humanities Whistle Stop Tour; Benin to Greece

Along with my fellow students, I am now at the halfway point of the AA100 module, and the whistle stop tour of all points of humanities continues.  In the next few weeks we will be studying...

A Benin bronze plaque

Cultural Encounters : Changing relations between Europe and Africa and the art of Benin

Cultural exemptions and the Musqueam people of Canada

World short stories

The transmission of medical knowledge from Greece to Europe via the Middle East

Seamus Heaney's translation of Sophocles' Antigone : The Burial At Thebes

Everything is going well so far.  Although our tutor had told us it is not compulsory to hand in every essay, I feel I am getting better value from the course and building my skills better by doing all the work possible.  So far with four essays handed in and marked I'm just a fraction off a Distinction grade.

There are two essays from this section of the module, on the art of Benin and cultural encounters, then either cultural exemptions and the Musqueam people or the contribution of the chorus in The Burial At Thebes.  So far when we have had a choice of essays I have tried to go for what seems the harder of the two choices.  My thinking here is that this is only a level one module so it would be good practise the mentally stretch myself whenever possible.

One aspect of student life that makes learning today so easy is the huge wealth of information via the internet, I kid you not, Melvyn Bragg and the In Our Time guests on Radio 4 are helping me enormously.  Having a group of renowned academics discussing the topic you are composing an essay on is a fantastic help.  Other great sources for research are Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg with their vast collections of texts, audio and picture files. The Open University also gives us access to its vast online library system, so big that sometimes it feels like diving into an ocean of information to find a single pearl of knowledge. It is quite possible to get hopelessly lost / bogged down when searching the seemingly endless OU databases for something you hope to be relevant.

The Benin section is fascinating, and I am very much enjoying the way that the chapters are now drawing the various disciplines of humanities together.  In the the two chapters on cultural encounters and Benin we start with straight history, then combine it with the history of art and a hint of religious studies, then mix in a bit of philosophy at the end.

This section of the course feels like real university work, I had little idea what was meant by the phrase 'cultural exemptions' before this and if asked to describe the philosophical mindset behind 'difference-blind liberalism' a blank and uncomprehending look may well have ensued.  It is all good stuff though, I'm still loving the work.  Onwards and upwards as my tutor says.

Hommage Miljan Miljanic : World Cup 1974 Yugoslavia Zaire

Group Stage
18 June 1974
Parkstadion,
Gelsenkirchen
Referee Omar Delgado
Attendance 20,000

 Miljan Miljanic, ancien sélectionneur de la Yougoslavie et entraîneur de l'Etoile rouge Belgrade et du Real Madrid, est décédé en Serbie à l'âge de 81 ans, ont rapporté vendredi les médias locaux. 

Après une brève carrière de joueur à l'Etoile rouge Belgrade au poste de défenseur, Miljanic avait entraîné cette équipe de la capitale yougoslave à l'époque, aujourd'hui la capitale de Serbie, en remportant dix fois le championnat national. Il avait néanmoins réalisé ses plus grand succès avec le Real Madrid qu'il avait entraîné de 1974 à 1977. Il fut le premier entraîneur à avoir remporté le championnat espagnol et la coupe nationale en une saison (1974/75). Miljanic avait également entraîné la formation de Valence pendant la saison 1982/83. Il avait été aussi sélectionneur de la formation nationale yougoslave avant l'éclatement de la fédération de Yougoslavie en 1991, qu'il avait conduit à deux reprises en Coupe de Monde, en 1974 et en 1982. Il coacha notamment ce fameux Yougoslavie Zaire...

La cote des Yougoslaves de Miljanic n'avait cessé de monter à Francfort, entre le match d'appui qui les avait vus arracher de belle manienre la qualification aux Espagnols, et le match d'ouverture face aux Brésiliens. Il faut reconnaître que Petkovic et ses camarades justifièrent amplement tout au long du premier tour cet « afflux » de confiance, au point que la Yougoslavie fut fréquemment citée dans le tiercé final au moment des sondages entre les deux tours. Hélas, autant les Yougoslaves s'étaient montrés à leur avantage durant les trois premiers matches, offrant l'image d'une équipe soudée, bien équilibrée. difficilement vulnérable en défense et richt de virtuosité en attaque, autant ils allaient totalement rater la seconde partie de leur parcours, concédant des défaites tour à tour à l'Allemagne, à la Pologne et môme à la Suède.

Que s'était-il donc passé ? Il est probable, en premier lieu, que les Yougoslaves, qui avaient dû livrer des matches très durs, épuisants physiquement et nerveusement, aux Brésiliens et aux Ecossais, se trouvèrent à court de ressources au moment le plus important de la compétition. Ce fléchissement n'aurait peut-être pas eu des conséquences si lourdes, si le climat et le moral de l'équipe de Miljanic n'avaient été alors, passablement, altérés par des problèmes internes consécutifs à de sordides questions de prîmes qui valurent à Petkovic, à Bajevic et à Bogicevic, les plus contestataires de la bande, de se retrouver sur la touche lors de la capitale rencontre avec l'Allemagne de l'Ouest. La Yougoslavie, ce jour-là, fit le désespoir de ses plus fidèles supporters, par un comportement négatif de bout en bout. Le ressort était cassé et une louable tentative de réhabilitation — avec la réincorporation des trois « proscrits » — se brisa sur une équipe polonaise qui avait le vent en poupe et qui fut en outre servie par une certaine réussite. La Yougoslavie, une fois de plus, n'avait pas tenu jusqu'au bout, elle était retombée dans ses travers habituels... et dans d'autres dont elle se serait fort bien passée ! Ces Yougoslaves si doués, si visiblement faits pour figurer parmi les meilleurs, ne changeront-ils donc jamais ?

L'équipe du Zaïre a cruellement mesuré en Allemagne la distance qui sépare les meilleures formations européennes du meilleur football africain. Malgré une préparation aussi sérieuse que possible, les joueurs de Vidinic ont perdu nettement leurs trois rencontres, encaissant 14 buts sans en rendre un seul et terminant 16e et dernier au classement officieux de la 10' Coupe du Monde. Cette performance est donc, dans les chiffres, inférieure à celle du Maroc qui, en 1970, avait magnifiquement résisté à l'Allemagne (2-1) et réalisé un match nul avec la Bulgarie (1-1). Pourtant, tout n'a pas été négatif dans le comportement des Zaïrois. On peut même affirmer, sans paradoxe, qu'ils ont fait étalage de qualités et de personnalité que les footballeurs marocains n'avaient pas manifesté au Mexique. C'est ainsi que, face à l'Ecosse, le premier jour, l'équipe africaine, quoique battue 2-0, étonna tout le monde par le brio de ses attaquants et l'expression d'un football vivant, généreux, adroit et spectaculaire. Malheureusement, devant les Yougoslaves, le Zaïre accentua ses défauts (fragilité défensive, naïveté tactique, inconstance) et oublia ses qualités, subissant le plus fort « carton » du tournoi (9-0). Face au Brésil, il s'en tira mieux (3-0), mais au prix d'un durcissement défensif sans horizon. Malgré l'avalanche subie par les Zaïrois, il est curieux de constater que ce sont leurs défenseurs Bwanga, Lobilo et même Kazadi, le gardien, qui se mirent le plus en évidence, avec le petit demi Mana. Les attaquants, Kakoko et Mayanga en tête, perdirent peu à peu tous leurs moyens, en des combats trop inégaux.

Yougoslavia : Marie - BuIJan, Katalinskl, Bogicevic, Hadzlabdlc - Acimovic, Oblak - Petkovic, Bajevic, Surjak, Dzajic.
Zaire : Kazadi puis Tubllandu (23e) - Mwe-pu, Bwanga, Lobilo, Mukombo - Mana, Kilasu -N'daye, Kembo, Kidumu, Kakoko puis Mayanga (46°).

Codec H264, Mkv
Bitrate 1200
Sound 128 kbps
Japanese Comments
Pass :  twb22.blogspot.com
Full Game

 

First Half
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9G2P6XR2

Second Half
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QFR2JMCW


Goals
 8'  1-0  Dusan Bajevic (assist - Dragan Dzajic)
 14'  2-0  Dragan Dzajic
 18'  3-0  Ivica Surjak (assist - Jovan Acimovic)
 22'  4-0  Josip Katalinski (assist - Ivan Buljan)
 30'  5-0  Dusan Bajevic (assist - Ilija Petkovic)
 35'  6-0  Vladislav Bogicevic (assist - Josip Katalinski)
 61'  7-0  Branko Oblak (free-kick)
 65'  8-0  Ilija Petkovic
 81'  9-0  Dusan Bajevic (assist - Jovan Acimovic)


http://rapidshare.com/files/964251535/Wld.Cp.1974.Youg.Zai.twb22.blogspot.com.1Hlf.mkv
http://rapidshare.com/files/3285514356/Wld.Cp.1974.Youg.Zai.twb22.blogspot.com.2Hlf.mkv
 

Miljan Miljanic

Player
1951-1952 Red Star Belgrade
Coach
1965–1966 Yugoslavia
1966–1974 Red Star Belgrade
1973–1974 Yugoslavia
1974–1977 Real Madrid
1979–1982 Yugoslavia
1982–1983  Valencia CF

http://www.elcomercio.es/v/20120114/deportes/futbol/adios-miljan-miljanic-20120114.html

http://sport.t-online.de/real-madrids-ex-trainer-miljan-miljanic-erliegt-krebsleiden/id_53156478/index?news

http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satellite/en/1202735874751/noticia/Noticia/1974_75.html

http://worldsportsholic.blogspot.com/2012/01/miljan-miljanic-died.html

http://footballfanaticos.blogspot.com/2009/12/greatest-world-cup-matches-yugoslavia.html
http://www.planetworldcup.com/CUPS/1974/groupb_yug_v_zai.html
http://thevintagefootballclub.blogspot.com/2012/01/zaire-1974.html

Somalia, Norway, the Sudan and Football. Weiner's Boners, Charlie's Rants and Lindsay's Drinks. What is Your News?

Do not view this post if you have a weak heart. You are warned.

I am spoiled.

It is hot, 105 today.

I saw a man walking on the sweltering campus today

wearing breezy shorts and a t-shirt;

his wife was wrapped up

in many layers of a dark blue canvas burka.

I fell into a vicarious heat swoon

but resisted violence.

There is a famine

of such intensity that women stagger many many miles

through africa's heat

with their children to find something, anything to eat or drink-

while men with weapons ride around shooting and assaulting people.

i thought congo was the last straw.  I thought Sudan Child Soldiers broke my heart all the way. 



Could YOU DO THIS?

african famine summary

and current video watch HERE

or is there a Non-Interference Clause?

Y'Know, survival of the fittest and all that?

well, is it true or not?

If there was a “theory of evolution” which was really pure math, pure numbers, pure physics, pure random, random bits of flotsam and jetsam floating, churning about, evolving into ever-more complex astounding collections of moving- parts-machines, like Data on Startrek

propagation of the genes -Dude,  hitler a total genius the lodestar of evolution?

that is, no spirit no soul no personality no consciousness of the self, no rightwrong No Thing is of value except the passing of material and the length of time it takes to change and the improbability of random chance that This long neck of the giraffe which reaches for plants also does not kill it when it drinks, head down, in the pond; then,

When does the self become the self? there would be no self.

I   I    I I  I'm

too sexy to wear socks

hold on here's my good side

american men's olympic skater

grammy winner

choose to fail

elected servant

vanity

getting away with it:

His   and   Hers

when animals attack

YAY football is gonna be OK!

celebrity

yeah burkas for advertising.

Think about it?

Oh Michael Vick

more on gypsy HERE

when

 is it time to help?

when time to step up?

when is it too late?

do not proceed.

what do we do with Beauty?

do not proceed.

those are knives
 stuck in the animal on purpose.

Oh Yeah.
FAMINE.

"A well nourished Sudanese man steals maize from a starving child during a food distribution at the Medecins Sans Frontieres feeding centre in Ajiep, southern Sudan. from Tom Stoddart's iWitness Gallery"

from http://zojojojo.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/dear-tv-watchers/

(and if famine is not enough, how about the

UTTER corruption of leaders;

beatings, murder, and destruction of the land

 all at the expense of the people.

for example, POV--Zimbabwe, mugabe, and the

brutal idi amin

Rule of Law: watch the Mike Campbell case

which premiered tonight http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/2011/07/critics_mugabe_and_the_white_african.php

Famine.

HERE i found this pic:

how to jar myself from my complacency?

HOW TO JAR MYSELF FROM MY COMPLACENCY??

modern slavery

noninterference  clause?

this sudanese girl was crawling to a feeding station

what does it mean to have nothing?

what if it is my brother there?

this tiny child is featured in the film linked at top of post.

 death camps and nazi twin studies

There are many knds of famine

human compassion?

what if my mother had no help?

what if there were no clothes or food or water for ME?

Children desperate for water, for food...

time passes

What is it about Jesus?

The Associated Press Sunday, July 31, 2011
Somali women fleeing famine preyed on by rapists


"Refugee Barwago Mohamud huddles silently beneath a few blankets stretched over sticks at night, fearing for her life after a neighbor was raped, and a naked woman who had been kidnapped and gang-raped for three days in front of her terrified children was delivered to the medical tent next door.
Only a few hundred feet away stands a newly built camp with a police station, toilet blocks and schools. Neat thornbush fences in the camp separate residential areas for families to move into. But all the facilities are empty. The Kenyan government is refusing to open the new Ifo 2 facility as part of the world's biggest refugee camp, Dadaab, saying the desperate Somali refugees flowing into the country are a security risk.

But for the women and children who fled war and famine and are now forced to build their shelters farther and farther away from the center of the camps, the extension would be a refuge from the armed men who prowl the bush at night. Some may be deserters from Somali forces across the border; others are Kenyan bandits who rob and gang-rape the stream of refugees fleeing the famine in Somalia.
The contrast between the squalid, insecure outskirts of the sprawling camp and the empty, silent facilities shows how regional politics can interfere with aid efforts, causing millions of dollars to be wasted and leaving women and children vulnerable to attack.

"What can we do?" Mohamud asked. "Our neighbors have been raped at night. We are afraid. Some boys are helping watch at night in case of trouble but they also work during the day."

Mohamud and eight other women and girls share their rickety shelter on the outskirts of Dadaab, a camp designed for 90,000 people which now houses around 440,000 refugees. Almost all are from war-ravaged Somalia. Some have been here for more than 20 years, when the country first collapsed into anarchy. But now more than 1,000 are arriving daily, fleeing fighting or hunger.
The U.N. said this month that at least two regions in Somalia are suffering from famine and 11.3 million people in the Horn of Africa need aid.

To help ease the overcrowding, international donors including the U.S. and European Union spent $16 million building the Ifo 2 extension, which could house 40,000 people. But it is still unclear when or if the Kenyan government will open it.
Research shows that women are often attacked when they leave their families to go to the bathroom or gather firewood. When Mohamud's three young daughters need to relieve themselves, she insists on going with them, and takes the only torch the nine women share between them. She has no shoes, so she walks barefoot over the thorny ground.

"Women express a lot of fear about going to the bush. They say there are men with guns there," said Sinead Murray, an aid worker with the International Rescue Committee. Her organization has recorded a spike in rapes and attempted rape. Since the beginning of June, they have had double the number of attacks reported from January-May.
"More and more women are coming forward who have been raped," said Murray, who said consultations with communities show the vast majority of rapes go unreported. Women may not know where to seek help, or fear ostracism by their community.
They are women like Sahan, who was on a bus coming over from Somalia when four gunmen stopped the vehicle. The women were ordered off and raped in the bush for three hours. She has not reported the rape because she was living far away from any medical services on the outskirts of the camp and did not want to leave her family. She asked her last name not be used to protect her privacy.

A reporter for The Associated Press drove around the newly constructed area in Dadaab and found rows of new toilet blocks standing amid the rows of empty lots, where women could more safely go to the bathroom and easily walk to police or medical services if they were attacked.

The Ifo 2 camp also houses a freshly painted primary and secondary school, police station, and headquarters for aid organizations ranging from Handicap International to the Norwegian Refugee Council padlocked shut. A medical facility for Doctors Without Borders lay half-built after aid workers said they were told to stop building early this year. The group now treats people in nearby tents instead.

More than two weeks ago, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited Dadaab and said the Ifo 2 extension would open in 10 days. On Saturday, Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said that no decision had yet been reached.
Kenyan officials have said that they consider the influx of Somalis a security risk because part of the country is held by al-Qaida linked rebels. They also fear that if they provide the schools and medical care lacking in Somalia, families will simply move to Kenya to get better services. The Kenyans want aid agencies to deliver food in Somalia instead but charities face attack by bandits and harassment by Kenyan officials at the border.
But Somalis say they have no other choice than to flee their homes because they will be killed by gunmen or starve to death if they stay at home.
In the meantime, the refugees keep coming as the hunger crisis worsens but there is nowhere for them to go. The camps are full to bursting, and medical staff are setting up tents to treat new arrivals. Women and their children are being forced farther out, away from services and security. Aid agencies are appealing for more donations, unable to use the facilities they built. And Mohamud, whose door is only a blanket draped on a stick, keeps her daughters close and dreads each sunset.
"We are afraid," she said again, as her 13-year-old daughter played in the dirt in front of her. "Maybe they will come back. But we have nowhere else to go."