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Showing posts from February, 2016

A Winter on Fire Oscar ?

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It is hard for me to imagine the mood on the Kiev Metro on Monday morning, if the Nomination for Best Documentary Movie brings an Oscar award into the History of their Nation, I wish I could be there, I am sure there may be a few late, late night Oscar Parties somewhere today/tonight, it would be something like 6 in the morning if it's a winner, and just in time for the morning news feed. I had a nice chat with Evgeny Afineevsky, one to one the other week, he has some stiff competition, http://oscar.go.com/nominees/documentary-feature/winter-on-fire-ukraines-fight-for-freedom The Amy Winehouse movie and the Nina Simone movie will tend to split the art vote, while Winter on Fire is on the bottom right of the list of the five featured films nominated, It may be a serious contender. As much as I know some of the people who vote into this category, all I can say is the votes were in on the 23rd, and all results are kept in a maximum security, the odds makers in Las Vegas have

Walls or Bridges ?

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What is the equivalent in history, what could be the equivalent as today in Ukraine ? Russia invading it's traditionally friendly neighbor, World War 2 style clashes of between Right wing Orthodox CHRISTIAN Ukrainian Nationalists, and Right Wing Orthodox Christian Russians (and Chechens , Ossetians, Serbians ) , 10,000 people dead 25,000 badly wounded havoc and destruction of the economically most productive region of the Nation, 1.5 million refugees ? yes , it all seems rather Orwellian , particularly with Steve Rosenberg's latest post from Novosibirsk, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35668596 it's rather hilarious in a chilling way, he takes some chances getting material these days . roughly akin to  something like : Assignment: Or on the Observing of the Observer of Observers written by Friedrich Durrenmatt, http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-394-56010-6 Maybe there is some equivalent with Japan invading China in WW2 ? Lots of atrocities, Putin has m

FInding Neverland

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Ah the mood on the metro, Thursday going to into Friday : I guess it depends on who you are, do you live in Kiev, your folks have a place that's" paid for" ? Are you a refugee, paying rent to live in dingy, substandard situations ? Wondering if the x-box controller and all your stuff isn't looted from your fixed up and spiffy  family flat in Donetsk ? Are you an out of town person, just come in for some errands and then back to home?.. Are you thinking about a friend, Loved one gone off to the front line of the war or about a most dear friend no longer alive, caught in the line of fire ?. It is coming up to the sad anniversary of the killings of protesters that tilted the reality, caused Yanukovych to flee, taking his bags of jewelry, whatever loot he could carry off, his bit coin vault: flying off like Nixon did, yet without a salute for the camera, he left in the dark taking the multi million $ helicopters that belong to the people of Ukraine eventually

They did win ! (sort of ??)

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Can't we just end this war in Ukraine ?  what's left to do ? Formalizing the deals set forth in Minsk, giving Ukraine control of it's Border, and of course,  some sort of Quid pro quo deal , at least for some interim period,  about Crimea : I tend to agree with the Tatars, I do agree with their stance on the issue (s) , they have been there  so very long, they carry the blood of the very most early people in that region in their hearts.  Is the left hand of darkness amusing itself somehow ?  I can not envision the mood of the Metro riders, the people crammed into trams clunking along from Lviv to Dnepropetrovsk , I guess those arduously slow trams that roll out from Simferopol to the Yalta Pass (or wherever they go to get you to the beaches) are all still rolling along: As news of continued cease fire violations permeates the edges of media consciousness, and front/ center for the daily news cycle in Ukraine, I'd guess the Metro mood is "we are getting tir